TDM 011: I PUT A SMELL ON YOU

[erkumods]

TDM 011: I PUT A SMELL ON YOU

00. Arrival 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. If you don’t manage to get away from them quickly enough, they may even usher you toward the Laid Bare Spa, where new arrivals will be offered free massages, a sauna, hairstyling, and their clothing may come up permanently missing. But you will be given a complimentary towel to leave with if needed! Feel free to explore the Island, though there isn’t much to see beyond what arrivals before you have helped to rebuild. 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 place to live in the now, whether a rundown apartment in the City, a tent on the beach, a bed in the barracks, or your own space at the House of Worship. Your inventory will be found a day later, wrapped up haphazardly and delivered to each person's makeshift home. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● I. SEASON OF EGGCELLENCE As the wintery weather has shifted to warmer breezes and the snow has given way to grass and baby blooms, Islanders will find the robots in a flurry as yet another holiday takes hold. The Festival of Renewal, to welcome in the season of new life and awakenings of all those that have slept the winter months away. Spring has come and so has the time where life flourishes on the Nameless Island. Islanders will see decorations set up all over the city signifying the change in seasons (much of which happens to be elaborately decorated eggs...lots and lots of eggs) and robots will gladly ask them of any lively changes they see sprouting up around the Island, from flowers, to baby animals, to animals in the act of making baby animals...there will be quite a bit of that going on for them to catch sight of. Islanders will be encouraged to start their own gardens if they wish, with various booths set up around the city’s center offering free seeds for different plants ready to be sewn into the soil. Each booth will have full grown versions of the flowers and plants they are offering on display. You might even recognize some of them from your own worlds. But other booths will focus on different aspects of Life and Renewal, including booths of artwork painstakingly made in vibrant expression by the robots themselves of animals in the act of enthusiastic copulation! Oh, wait...that isn’t artwork of a deer or sheep. That might just be artwork of you engaging in enthusiastic copulation...and who is that other person in the image with you? Have you met them before? It might just be one of your fellow Islanders or someone you recognize from home. Robots are selling this artwork as first come first serve, but they might make more than one copy… Those aren’t the only booths either, as other booths will offer free swag of flavored lubes, edible underwear, as well as genitalia-shaped gummies! And then there are the gourmet chocolates being sold at the Steaming Carafe cafe in honor of the festival! Ask nicely and they’ll give you a free sample, but be warned the chocolate does have mild aphrodisiac properties, but a couple hours waiting or an Auspicious Act won’t take care of. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● II. CHOCOLATE CURRENCY The robots are also offering credits to anyone who might help them in managing the dozens of Rainbow Rabbits taking the city by storm, colorful animals that can be seen hopping and dashing through the city and the surrounding woods in a flash. Spots of color might catch your attention from the corner of your eye and you turn to see no rabbit there, but follow that and you might find an abandoned nest of leaves, twigs, or grass filled to the brim with colorful, shiny eggs of any design. These eggs happen to look just like the hundreds of egg decorations you’ve seen all over the city... Ask any robot and you’ll be informed that the decorations are made from the shells of these eggs after they’ve been collected and carefully broken open to remove the chocolate inside. That’s right. Chocolate eggs. Just where do you think they got the chocolate for those treats at the cafe? Carefully collect as many eggs as you can without breaking them, and turn them in to the café for your credits. But what robots may forget to warn you about is that if you eat the chocolate straight from the egg, without it being processed first, it will not only taste delicious, but the potent aphrodisiac will be far more extreme and far more addictive. You might not be able to go a day without needing to eat more of it and achieve some carnal release. The more you eat, the shorter the timespan before you are overtaken by the unending craving. An endless cycle of heightened arousal and desire that can only be eased by orgasm...but that orgasm will be powerful, possibly the best one you’ve ever had in your life. Easy to see why they warn you about chocolate being so addictive… Only completing an Auspicious Act or the healing waters in the Bathhouse will remove this effect. Until next time. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● III. SPRING IS IN THE AIR (AMONG OTHER THINGS) Walking the booths during the festival, you might be lured in by a scent in the air. Something soft, or strong, or bitter, or sweet...a scent so familiar that you can’t help but seek out where it came from. The scent will lead you right to one of the booths where robots have bottles and bottles of perfume and cologne lined up. Perfumes they will explain are made entirely unique to each person. That scent that caught your attention? That’s your scent. And now you have to have it. The robots will even give it to you for free. It’s a special tradition of the festival for Islanders to wear their scent and see who else might just be attracted to it. But that scent isn’t just to attract others to you, it’s to show them you’re ready to mate to whoever happens to be lured in by it. The scent will draw out your animal instincts and theirs, pushing them to stake their claim on you. They’ll want to make you theirs and theirs alone and all you will be able to think about is mating with them and being owned by them. And if you’re attracted to their scent in turn? Well, you might feel the need to turn the tables and own them instead. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● N A V I G A T I O N

Comments

[blumenthal]

Here's his chance to find out if this really is who he thinks it is. "Vax'ildan. I only realized because of the..." A half-hearted gesture at the now wrapped painting. "...resemblance."

Oh. Nope. Caleb's face sure is red.

"Gods, I should not have said it that way." His voice is sort of fading as he talks and a hand covers his eyes, more than a little mortified. "That is really not what I...scheisse. I'm sorry. I just mean that I know him, and am aware that he has a twin."

[alignmyheart]

His expression doesn't change, much, when his rescuer rambles about the resemblance Vax'ildan has to the woman in the painting. Of course, but how does this person know Vax? Percy waits for the man to collect himself as much as he can.

"How do you know him?"

His attention is briefly interrupted as other people try to get closer to the table. Percival moves, but returns his focus to this man who apparently knows his brother-in-law. And who might pass out if any more blood rushes to his face.

[blumenthal]

Though Caleb is still nearly the color of his hair, he does manage to pull himself together enough to respond, eventually prying his hand away from his face. As Percy moves, he follows, keeping the distance between them short so that their conversation remains private.

"We met here, about two months ago. He has been living with my friends and I."

That sort of understates things, but he isn't about to start telling Vax's brother-in-law about any of that, even if it's sort of implied. "My name is Caleb Widogast. Of the Mighty Nein."

[alignmyheart]

Two months ago. Percy nods a bit, taking that information in and letting it sit a while.

"Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III, of Whitestone," he says after Caleb offers his name. He considers, then sighs, "You can call me Percy."

If this man truly knows Vax'ildan, if Vax is really alive, then there's no point in trying to wield the full weight of his name. What he wouldn't give to here Vax call him Freddy again.

[blumenthal]

Percy. Yes, that's it--though he's definitely committing that ridiculously long name to memory. Caleb cracks a smile at last, still bashful, but with much of his worry alleviated. "Ah, so you are. That is a relief."

Of course, the likelihood that Caleb is going to call him Percival rather than Percy anyway is high, but that's neither here nor there for now.

"You have not encountered him yet? Since washing up on the beach, I mean."

[alignmyheart]

"No. But, you are the second person from Wildemount that I've run into."

And they are rehabilitating his associations with that place. Possibly. Caleb's smile is charming now that he doesn't seem ready to faint. He's aware of the bracelet he has around one wrist, given to him by one of the automatons that met him on the beach. He's been told he can use it to contact people, but he has not been able to bring himself to tinker with it. He doesn't want to try and fail. He isn't sure he is ready to try and succeed.

Percival adjusts the way he's holding the painting, keenly aware that now that his coat is being used to cover it, the fact that he is carrying both a rapier and a firearm is quite apparent to anyone that cares to look.

"I don't suppose you know somewhere I could stash this until I... manage accommodations of some kind."

[blumenthal]

"To my knowledge, my friends and I are the only ones here from Wildemount. You must have met one of them."

And while Caleb wonders idly which it was, he follows the shift of Percy's arms around the painting, taking in the weapons at his sides. The firearm is interesting; Caleb has only seen one or two like it in his life, one of which Veth carries, though it doesn't see nearly as much use as her trusty crossbow.

"Oh--ja, of course," he replies, hushed and a little hurried, like he's just realizing that he probably should have offered already. "There is plenty of space at our home. We can find a corner where no one will disturb it."

[alignmyheart]

"Thank you." There is no need to be ungrateful. He lets Caleb take the lead and falls in beside him once he's sure of the other man's direction.

"I don't even know what to do with this," he says, somewhat incredulous, but also just--bewildered. Why would this be here? How would they even know about that moment? And how...? Maybe it's better if he not wrack his brain about this in particular. Whatever he does, Percy isn't entirely sure he can bring himself to destroy it. But it isn't exactly the sort of thing would hang in the gallery, is it?

Not in his family, anyway.

As they walk, Percy takes his glasses off and slides them into a pocket. He needs to clean them if they're going to be of any real use, and he will be fine without them for the walk.

[blumenthal]

Caleb could make this walk in his sleep, so it's no trouble to concentrate mostly on Percy as he leads him in the direction of the Neinhaus. It's fairly centrally located, as far as city geography goes, so the trek won't take them too long.

"You could hold onto it, but..." He gives a half-hearted shrug. What would be the point, if its existence would never be acknowledged anyway? "Personally, I am very curious as to how these images were created in the first place. I have long suspected that the Augur is capable of gleaning pertinent information about our lives before our arrival here, and--"

Okay. Deep breaths, Caleb. There are a few things that need to be established first.

"Sorry. Has anyone caught you up on what is happening here?"

[alignmyheart]

Caleb's theories are not comforting, but given what Percy is carrying, he is willing to believe it. No one else was with them, and he would not have committed this particular memory to canvas. He doubts Vex would have, either. So someone here must have learned of it. The Augur is not endearing itself to him.

"Intrepid hostages rebuilding a city is what I know so far. Though the manner of those endeavors is..." Ridiculous. Pointless. Useless. "Unique."

[blumenthal]

There's a flicker of a smile, mostly sardonic. "Then you know the basics."

And he isn't going to expand on them now. He has too many theories from what he has seen and discovered over the last four months, and Percy has only just recently arrived.

"My friends and I share a pair of row homes in the residential part of the city," Caleb explains, shifting the subject slightly as they walk. "Vax'ildan lives with us. I cannot imagine that he would not want you to stay there as well."

[alignmyheart]

"The basics have left me with more questions than answers, but I'm not sure that's a headache I'm willing to take on just yet."

He wonders how much Caleb knows about Vax'ildan, about any of them. He does not ask.

"I appreciate the offer, but I will leave that to his discretion," he says. Percival is unwilling to let himself hope. Perhaps it is Vax'ildan, but he will believe it when he sees him. "How many other people live there?"

Caleb said us, and Percy would rather not be surprised by whatever he's walking into.

[blumenthal]

"There are nine of us in total." He doesn't bother to explain the half snort of laughter that accompanies that realization. Percy will probably get the joke soon enough. "Six of us live in the Neinhaus proper, and three more in the home beside it." So far, it's boiled down to the Nein themselves living in the original house together, with the two transplants from Tal'dorei sharing Essek's abode. Caleb spends plenty of his own time on that side, too.

In an attempt to be at least somewhat reassuring, he adds, "Everyone sticks to their own schedule. Chances are good that most of them will not be home when we get there."

[alignmyheart]

Percy finds himself wondering at the size of the house in question. The last time he lived with that many people, they shared a keep. Or Whitestone.

"I should rather hope so," he admits. Walking into a room full of strangers doesn't bother him, necessarily, but it has been... a very long day. And he would like to hide this painting somewhere without half a dozen people firing questions at him. And he would like a bath, at least, before meeting anyone. Walking in like a drowned rat wouldn't be his worst first impression, but he would like to have some semblance of control.

"Is there much need for a schedule here?"

Maybe it shouldn't surprise him that people find ways to keep themselves busy. He certainly plans to, once he has the means.