ercookies | TDM 011: I PUT A SMELL ON YOU

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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N A V I G A T I O N

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Two months. That feels impossible.

"Then we are guests for the Augur for as long as it wants us here. Wonderful. I take it others have tried to leave?"

He can't imagine that, in six months, no one has made an attempt. Especially if there is anyone here with a firm grasp on magic. Percy stretches his legs out, tempted to take his boots off, but he doesn't really want to walk anywhere barefoot. And he is very aware that he is being looked at.

"He is... well?" he asks of Vax, allowing himself to test those waters. He has no expectations, and he will not allow himself any hope. But he wants to hear all the same.

"Magic doesn't work against the Augur, remember. We'll all need to band together to destroy it, in the future ..."

He doesn't know when that is but he's optimistic. Staying here isn't an option, comfortable as the situation is sometimes.

"Vax? Oh, shit, yes." He can't hold back a bark of laughter. "Vax is alright, he's made a lot of friends. Do you know Gilmore too?"

"What about black powder?" he asks grimly. If magic won't work, have they tried mundane explosives? But perhaps that is a conversation for another time.

"Yes, I know Gilmore." If he is here, if Vax is truly here and alive, then at least he has not been lonely. He remembers that Vax and Gilmore were close. Percy's jaw tightens for a moment, then relaxes. This is still a lot to take in. He doesn't know if he's ready to be faced with his brother-in-law after losing him like that. It's his fault, in the end. He knows that it's his fault.

Percy rubs a hand over his face, pushing his glasses out of the way and leaving it there for a moment. Then he drops it.

"What do you suggest I do from here?" he asks as he looks at Fjord. "What the hell do we do from here?"

The man's got six months on him, surely he has an idea.

"Uhhhhh ..." Black powder. He's sure they used that in Hupperdook, but he never paid ... attention. "You could ask the Augur for some?"

It's easy to see how beside himself the fellow is so Fjord rests a hand on Percy's shoulder, giving him a bit of a pat. There, there, etc.

"What do I suggest?" Short term so Percy can at least find his feet? "Vax would skin me alive if you didn't stay with us at the house. Well, houses. I think the wizards have more room than we do. I suggest that you come back to the Neinhaus, have a bath, a hot meal, and sleep on the shock of your arrival.

"I know it's a lot, being half-drowned like that. Trust me when I say that the following morning isn't so bad."

"I intend to."

He could make it if he can find all the right ingredients, but that will take time. As reluctant as he may be to engage with this Augur and its demands, if it gets him his tools back faster... he may have to compromise and hope that Vex will forgive him, if he ever sees her again.

Fjord's hand is heavy on his shoulder. At the very least, he can admit that he needs a bath. And time to think. And, perhaps, time to mentally prepare himself to see Vax again.

"The first time was much colder, I think," he says of being half-drowned. For better or worse, he remembers everything this time. "I don't suppose you have anything alcoholic at this house of yours?"

About to ask whether Percy has been drowned before, Fjord is distracted by his own snort. He gives Percy a look that tries not to be amused.

"Vax had a bar installed, there's definitely booze."

"Good man," he says, just a bit strained. He will not have hope. Percival is aware that he's putting himself in Fjord's debt, in his companions' debt, and he has... nothing, right now, save for what washed up with him. He'll figure something out.

Percy looks at his boots for a moment, then nods.

"I need to get this salt out of my hair, if nothing else," he says, though now that there's a chance he can get wasted, he's looking forward to that. If he's going to sleep this off, he doesn't want to do it sober.

He gets to his feet and collects his notebook to put it back in a coat pocket. He doesn't put the coat back on, however. He'll just carry it.

"Of course. We've got a hot tub, you'll love it, and Molly has a hundred bath soaps so help yourself ..."

Fjord takes on the responsibility of giving Vax's friend some solid footing in a world where nothing else is certain. He keeps the questions light on the short walk to the Neinhaus, what Percy might like for supper dominates, until the dual white townhouses come into view: two pristine tall buildings side by side in a less than upstanding street of battered dwellings.

Fjord takes Percy upstairs and shows him the modern bathroom, letting him know that fresh clothes will be waiting in the bedroom across the hall once he's done. He doesn't want to overwhelm him with company, so Fjord sets out some of Molly's plainer pants, some socks, and a shirt on their bed, leaving the door ajar.

And then he absconds downstairs to cook Percy something that doesn't taste like seafood.

Seeing the two townhouses in the midst of so many others that are looking quite derelict only gives him more questions.

When Fjord leaves him alone in the bathroom, Percy just stands there for a long moment. He doesn't know if the way his head spins is from everything that's happened since he hit the water, or the growing realization that Vax might be alive, or... some consequence of moving between planes that is just now kicking in. He runs his hand over his face and uses the sink for support. He doesn't know how long he stays like that, eyes closed and brows pinched together. But, eventually, he comes out of it and starts to undress.

As much as he might want to linger, he stays jsut long enough to scrub the salt off his skin and out of his hair, to warm up after his plunge into a still-cold sea. He finds the clothes outside the bathroom door and they fit, for the most part. He gathers up his holster and the belt holding the rapier, slinging both over his shoulder before he heads back down to find Fjord. He follows the sound and smell of cooking.

"You don't need to go through all this trouble."

A bowl of chunky soup awaits Percy with one of the fancy bread rolls from the pastry shop in the City, all set up on the large kitchen table while Fjord washes up at the sink. He glances around at the sound of his guest's voice, hitching a welcoming smile into place as best he can.

"It's no trouble, you need the help. Do you want a beer or something else?"

Something like the fire whiskey bottle he slides out from behind a toaster where it was hidden. Sneaky.

Percy sets his weapons on the table. It's ridiculous to cart them around like this, but he isn't eager to let them go, either. He sinks into the chair that's in front of the bowl and rubs his fingers through his damp hair, pushing it back from his face.

"Something a bit stronger, if you have it."

Now that he's somewhere that feels safe (is it?), Percy can feel the exhaustion creeping in. He's been running on adrenaline.

"How many of you live here?"

A tipple of whiskey it is! And a glass of water nearby, just in case. Soup and spirits don't usually mix. Fjord takes a seat on the edge of the back door, stretching out his legs into the garden. No need to scrutinise a man eating a meal.

"Of the Mighty Nein there's Mollymauk, Caleb, Veth, Beau and Caduceus, then there's our friend Essek, and Vax and Gilmore from Tal'dorei. You're making up the numbers on their side."

Percy moves just a bit to keep Fjord in his line of sight, though whether it's out of an abundance of caution or an attempt to be polite is up to the half orc. He finally eats, though, and it feels good to have something warm in his belly.

Most of the names mean nothing to him, but he doesn't expect them to. His family's connections to Wildemount are mostly in the western part of the continent, and those ties haven't been particularly well nurtured in a while.

"Glad to provide the balance," he says dryly. He still pushes back the very idea of seeing Vax again. One jump at a time. That reminds him, though. Percy slides off the bracelet he was given on the beach to examine it more closely.

He sits back against the door, the fresh sea-breeze from the beach rolling up the hill to their house. The way Percy is closed off and stressed is entirely to be expected and Fjord copies him with his own device, idly scrolling.

"The network is how people on the island communicate, if you want to browse. It's like a magical notepad."

Percy reaches up to touch the earring he's wearing. "I get the idea."

They hadn't exactly had something like this, but they'd had a limited network of sorts to talk to each other as long as anyone involved had a charmed earring and was within range. He suddenly wonders if Vax still has his. Percy won't test that now, but it embeds itself in his mind. He turns his attention back to the technology at hand.

He gets through most of his bowl before the desire for knowledge has him sitting back to toy with the thing. Then he remembers he has a glass of liquor and he plucks that up with his free hand.

"We have to go through the Augur to get everything?" he asks as he lifts his gaze agsin to look at his host.

"You don't, no. While you're staying with us you're free to share in the food and clothing."

Fjord and Molly had nothing, Fjord and Molly and Caleb managed a bit better with the Augur. Everyone else since has had a much easier time of it.

"Is that an invitation or an assumption?"

Percy lifts a brow and there is a flicker of amusement. Apparently he's been adopted. Or claimed.

"Do you get to keep who you find on the beach?"

There's a smile hiding at the corner of his mouth and Percival covers it with another sip from his glass.

He looks over, shaking his head with a chastened smile.

"It's safer if we stick together, the Mighty Nein always do. Vax has given me cause to want you around too, if you're dear to him, but ... no, I don't keep or care about everyone that washes up here."

"Do you speak for the rest of the house?"

He understands that what Vax might want is the driving factor here, but Vax is one among many at the moment and Percival is keenly aware of... group dynamics. If he is to feel safe, being with Vax would do it. But, if his brother-in-law is truly here, he has had two months to make up his mind about where he wants to be.

That if hangs in his chest. Percival looks down at the bowl in front of him, but he isn't looking at it. If there is uncertainty there, he knows it's deserved.

"I do not mean to seem ungrateful. Only, I am not comfortable imposing."

He thinks about it visibly for Percy's benefit, sitting back against the door for a long moment before he gets up and brushes off his trousers.

"Vax mentioned you, and I trust Vax." There's a lot of weight there, a hint of the deep regard he has for the halfelf shining through. He stymies it by planting a hand on a hip and offering a ghost of a smile. "If the tables were turned and I arrived with no one but Caleb living in a house full of strangers, I'd want to stay close to him. So, you should stay close to Vax.

"The others will understand that."

Should he? They'll see about that, but he is polite enough not to argue further. Percival finishes his drink.

"Do you have anything to clean weapons here, by any chance?"

He can practically hear the metal corroding after that trip through the ocean and he would like to get ahead of that before it gives him real problems. The quick job he'd done on the bench won't suffice to keep Animus in working order, and it probably didn't do that much for the rapier, either.

And a wild change of subject keeps him from having to meditate on Vax's ultimate feelings regarding his presence.

Edited 2021-03-20 23:06 (UTC)

He takes the hint, humming in thought.

"For blades, yes. For your firearm, perhaps? We have some oil for our swords if that helps. This way." In the living room there's a small trunk with various cleaning supplies for weapons and the house in general which Fjord opens for Percy. "Help yourself."

He never asks much, doesn't push for information on the veritable stranger in his home. It's not Fjord's habit to roast people when they seem exhausted and genuinely good, so he just nods upstairs.

"You'll want to pass out soon, I imagine. I'll grab you some blankets in case you'd like to take a nap down here before Vax gets back."

"I can make it work," he says. Percy gets up to follow Fjord to the trunk. He crouches down to look through it. It's not everything he needs, but it is absolutely better than nothing. He'll just have to be thorough when he can get his hands on everything else and be careful until then. Hopefully he won't have a need to defend himself here, but he isn't going to hold his breath.

As for sleep... Fjord is probably right. And he is probably offering something very sensible that Percy should take him up on. The last thing he needs is to see Vax - if it is truly him - while he's exhausted. But. There is a part of him that is resisting the idea of sleeping somewhere unfamiliar, even if Fjord has been kind. He takes what he thinks he can use out of the trunk, then stands straight.

"I'd like to clean these first, or I'll never sleep. You're welcome to watch."

He'd noticed the attention, particularly the looks Fjord's given Animus.

"Would that be alright? They have some at the arcade, they use them for the games."

He dithers, halfway to the door to fetch blankets, half invested in watching Percy clean his gun now that it's clear he wasn't sneaky at stealing glances and doesn't need to pretend otherwise.

"I'm not going to sleep any time soon." So it doesn't really matter when Fjord gets him blankets.

As if to be a bit more persuasive, Percy starts taking Animus apart, starting with emptying the chambers again. It actually feels good to do something this familiar, this methodical. He almost wishes he had more than one firearm on him so he could keep doing it until his mind feels more clear.

But apparently he's going to have to do some work if he wants anything here, even supplies and material to make things.

00. Arrival

I. SEASON OF EGGCELLENCE

II. CHOCOLATE CURRENCY

III. SPRING IS IN THE AIR (AMONG OTHER THINGS)

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