TDM 010: PARTNER UP, PARTNER

[erkumods]

TDM 010: PARTNER UP, PARTNER

00. Arrival This time, you come out of the water, the Nameless Island's own inherent energy drawing people in. It's like being suspended between realities and abruptly pushed from behind through a rift in dimensions. It may make you sick, or that might be the motion of the ocean, lifting you to the surface and carrying you to shore. Waterlogged and covered in sand, new arrivals will be greeted by robots who welcome them with towels and bracelet devices. The A5 card is already loaded up. Feel free to explore the Island, though there isn’t much to see. Most of the buildings are abandoned and in dire need of repair, and beyond the city lingers a thick fog that obscures much of the wilderness from view. Wander too far into this fog, and you will find yourself mysteriously looping back to where you began, your memories of what you were doing and how you got there erased. With that in mind, it may be wise to stake your claim on a rundown apartment, a tent on the beach, or a bed in the “comfortable” barracks. Your inventory will be found a day later, wrapped up haphazardly and delivered to each person's makeshift home. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● I. Laid Bare Basics There is a new addition to the scenery at the beach, and everyone is welcome! Especially new arrivals, who will be ushered to the recently-established Laid Bare Spa, where (provided they don't slip away from the bots' helpful grasp) their uncomfortably wet, sandy clothing will be stripped away and they will be lovingly pampered by the cold metal hands of the resident robots. Long-time Islanders and newbies alike are welcome to enjoy such amenities as hot and cold baths, sauna rooms, scrub-downs, thorough whippings with birch brooms, skin treatments, massage and energy work, and more! All rooms are thoughtfully decorated with tasteful murals of naked and disrobing bodies. Maybe you'll see someone you recognize?! (Maybe you'll see... you?) Islanders who happen to find their clothing mysteriously missing are welcome to borrow a Laid Bare branded towel to cover up with on their way home. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● II. Tattoo to You, Too The Augur understands that sometimes, it's difficult to find a partner to indulge you in those favorite Auspicious Acts - especially for new arrivals, but surely even long-time residents could benefit from a little assistance now and then. That is why ever-benevolent entity has gifted Her precious Islanders with tattoos which feature their most secret, urgent, and/or shameful of desires! (Even if that desire is to simply complete a Bingo.) The tattoo may be a picture or a word, and it can appear anywhere on the body. At first it is pleasantly warm to the touch, like a soft glow of light on your skin. It soon becomes apparent - through either robot advice or a notification on your communication device - that your task is to find a match for your tattoo and complete the depicted act with that person. The longer one goes without completing the act, the more the tattoo seems to heat up, until it feels like it is burning into your skin. Take too long, and the tattoo may become permanent. Otherwise, the tattoo will fade within hours of completing the Auspicious Act. [ For TDMers: feel free to select any favorite kink for this prompt! If you complete a kink that doesn't appear on your card, you may switch one square for the completed kink. For current players: by participating on (tagging into) this TDM, you may switch one kink into your card (it must be the kink in the toplevel prompt you responded to). ] ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● III. Creepy Crawly Caterpillar Crawl Are you on the hunt for credits? Then have the robots got a task for you! The 'bots of the Nameless Island are recruiting Islanders to go bug collecting in the caves, crevices, and hollowed-out logs of the wilderness. The quarry? The (shudder - literally, the robots will shudder) doom-summoning harbinger bug. They describe these creepy creatures as fat, fuzzy, and rainbow-colored, with long, fluffy antennae that look like rabbit's ears. The robots describe these critters as so dangerous that Islanders should only hunt them in pairs. Should your team return successful, you both will be rewarded very handsomely for every caterpillar caught! The bugs are typically very docile and seem to enjoy soft pets, judging by the cooing and squeaking noises they make (especially to scritches behind their "ears"). Poke or disturb them however, and they may bite! Body parts bitten by angry caterpillars will swell up cartoonishly, and can only be treated by having someone else suck the venom out. Good thing you're traveling with a partner! The 'bots strongly recommend against keeping these little buggies as pets, but they're not your dad. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● N A V I G A T I O N

Comments

[tekkadan]

[ He's actually impressed. Just a bit. He would have done the same as she, but he almost didn't expect her to drag him.

With his gun still partly in his grip and his other arm dead weight, he doesn't have a chance to grab for the railing. His hand clips off of it as he makes an attempt, but it slides right past his palm.

He makes no sound as they fall, just a sharp gasp as his body realizes it is plummeting down.

She hits the ground first and he, with his arm curled up near his head to protect it, he shifts his weight so his dead arm is face down, at least, before he lands mostly on top of her.

He hears at least one distinct crunch when he lands, though he's not sure who the crunch came from or how many things had crunched in both of them. He can only smell the blood coming off both of them and feel the pain run through his body, making his stomach turn.

No matter. None of it matters. His good hand is throbbing, but he can move it which matters the most. He starts pushing himself up as quickly as he can to see the state of her. He needs to figure out how alive this woman is and how far he is from erasing her as a threat. ]

[sharpestsword]

[ This may have been a mistake. She groans, turning her head first to see a leg twisted in such a way that at first doesn't register as her own. But she can still close her fingers into fists. She'll kill him. As long as she can still move, even if she can barely breathe with him putting pressure on broken ribs, she'll kill him. She grabs for his throat and claws his face the moment he's within reach. ]

[tekkadan]

[ He grits his teeth as the hand latches to his throat and her nails scratch down his face. The hand is nothing, the blood is nothing. He knows he has an advantage. Even with his own leg screaming, he can tell the hole he put in her is enough to keep her down soon enough. She took the majority of the impact and his weight.

He grabs the hand at her throat by the wrist and, despite his weakened grip, and attempts to yank it off to pin it to the ground.

He doubts she can get up. If he can just get out of reach and onto his feet, he can grab something to crack her head open and finish her off. He starts to get his less pained leg under him and his foot on the ground, slowly lifting his weight up. ]

[sharpestsword]

[ He's not going anywhere if she can help it. With the one arm pinned she'll do as much damage as she can with the other in a desperate effort. It frustrates her to no end that he's still moving after all that. It wasn't enough. He's too strong. Everything hurts so much but begging for mercy doesn't even cross her mind. ]

[tekkadan]

It's over. Stay down, already.

[ If she keeps dragging it on, she'll only suffer and that's not his problem if she does it to herself. Finishing it would be mercy. He's not a torturer by nature. He just wants to eliminate threats. It's something she should understand given her actions, he thinks.

She can keep clawing and grabbing and striking him all she likes. With all the pain in him right now, it barely makes a difference as he slugs his weight onto his feet. He cringes, hearing his ankle crack.

It won't be the first time he's walked on a broken ankle and it won't be the last. He spots a wrench on a workbench not far off. That'll do. She's welcome to keep tripping him over, but he's moving towards that work table with all his energy against the pain that's leaving his foot dragging. ]

[sharpestsword]

[ She won't stay down especially not when he tells her to. Just because it's over doesn't mean she's ready to accept it. ]

Look at me!

[ She can't tell what it is he's doing but his focus is on something else. He can't do that when she's giving everything she has to fight him. Her voice reflects her dwindling strength. She wastes it continuing to grasp at him. ]

[tekkadan]

[ Mika's never been known to care much about his enemy's demands. The moment someone is a threat, they might as well stop being human. On rare occasion, like with the Turbines, enemies can slide into even familial territory, but not in this amount of time.

He stumbles as she nabs but doggedly stays on his feet even with his ankle screaming at him. He grabs for the wrench on the table with his hip leaned against it. He lets out a breath before looking back at her. ]

You tried, but you lost. I'll end it, so stay still.

[sharpestsword]

[ She's more concerned with trying to crush his ankle than protecting herself. There's not much more she can do. Maybe she deserves this. She regrets bringing that gaze upon her. Those eyes cut right through her, leaving whatever else she was going to say caught in her throat. ]

[tekkadan]

[ This isn't satisfying, which he supposes is for the best. It shouldn't be, not when he's protecting himself, and with his body partly decommissioned it's far less fulfilling to get into a knock down brawl.

Of course, this was Gjallarhorn and someone who recognized Barbatos, so the goal was never satisfaction to begin with. If anyone of Tekkadan is here, she can't be. He can handle himself, but he can't leave her as a constant risk for the lot of them.

He needs to end it. That's all it is. It's all it ever will be.

He hisses in pain as he drops down to kneel on one leg, wincing through the pain shooting all the way up to his thigh on his left leg. In his left hand, he grips the wrench, suffering the bitter throbbing in the joint of his wrist as his fist flexes.

With a hard swing of his arm, he brings the wrench down to crack hard into her temple. He smashes it into her skull, 1-2-3 times in lieu of his gun that had been left on the ground a few feet off after the fall. This was better than wasting precious bullets in the end.

He'll only let his breath loose when her startled eyes darken. ]

[sharpestsword]

[ Without intervention she would continue to be a threat. She didn't think it would go this far, or if it did that she'd fail. There's a sound quickly cut off on impact as she loses consciousness and her grip loosens around his ankle. She could have sworn those eyes were glowing. ]