TDM 013: BARING IT ALL

[erkumods]

TDM 013: BARING IT ALL

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. THROW IN A TOWEL? Erku's new arrivals may be encouraged to seek out the Laid Bare Massage & Spa for some specialized attention and relaxation, but they and long-time inhabitants will also be offered a chance to earn credits. Anyone interested in earning robot wages will be tasked with being the resident towel person! You’ll stand inside of the room while the patrons are receiving their massages, hot scrubs, or relaxing in one of the saunas holding towels for them should any be requested. Or you may be asked to help with the regular cleaning of the Spa, wiping down all of the tasteful nude statues to free them of the grime and filth (or… other things) that builds up over time. You might even be asked to help lovingly clean the murals of nude patrons (that is to say, fellow Islanders) all over the Spa. But this is a job that requires a very specific uniform. Robots will provide you with your very own chiton or toga. The chitons happen to be very short, not covering nearly as much as they reveal, but the togas might be entirely too long. They brush or drag along the floor and what with being barely held together with the thinnest and most fanciful of ropes, who knows how often they might be untucked? Take care, please, or else the robots might pull you into being the next model for their latest mural portrait instead. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● II. GRIN AND BARE IT Erku’s resident mental health professional, Dr. D. Love of Healthy Body, Healthy Mind Therapy Center, has taken a keen interest in ensuring that the relationships of you Islanders are progressing in a productive, healthy, and open-minded fashion. And to ensure this, he’s tasked his robot staff to pay close attention to anyone who looks like they are having trouble with relationships with other people on the Island. And after months of so few (none) clients, these robots are very motivated to seek out people in need of their therapeutic assistance! Arguing with a friend? Telling someone to stay out of your life? Being a hermit who refuses to come out of your apartment? Accidentally bump into each other on the street? Make a joke at your friend’s expense? Playfully punch someone in the shoulder? Walk by someone you don’t know and not tell them hello? Well clearly all of you need help in repairing whatever may be damaging your relationships! Before you know it, you’ve been bundled off by the robots right to Dr. D. Love’s office and sat down to talk it all out. The fact that you may not even know the other person the robots think you need to work your troubles out with doesn’t matter. Dr. D. Love is here to make sure everyone goes home happy and satisfied. You may have to play along with this confusing farcical situation, even making up wrongs and slights you claim you have done to one another before finally coming together in reconciliation. The more you deny there is anything wrong, the more the good Doctor will insist you need even more help than they first thought. They might even have to send you into one of their Privacy Rooms and work out your frustrations with each other with their wide array of therapeutic sexual devices and supplies. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● III. BARE NAKED AMUSEMENT TOUR The trolley is making its rounds as usual with announcements echoing from the loudspeakers that it’s Bare It All Week at Six Flagellants Amusement Park and to kick it off there will be a grand concert at the Loudinus Outdoor Amphitheater that lasts all week long! Not sure what that means? Well, come to the concert and enjoy hours and hours of music played by robots who seem to have taken their songs right from the pop rock crazes of old. Whose old? Who knows. The music may not be completely to your taste, but something about it may make you feel energized and overly dressed. You might even feel the need to strip down until you’re not wearing anything at all! But don’t worry, the robots performing on stage will give you new clothes to wear by throwing skimpy, sexy underwear and lingerie right at you! How did they know your size? Don’t ask questions, just give into the urge to put it on while you rock out until it’s time for the trolley to take everyone right to the gates of the amusement park! Anyone dressed in less for this week will receive free entry, rides, and food and might even receive special prizes at various booths of sex toys, candies that act as an aphrodisiac (meant for sharing of course), stuffed animals, or even a free sex doll! Those are super hard to win from the ring toss, so you should really take advantage and enjoy all the perks of baring yourself for everyone’s viewing pleasure. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● N A V I G A T I O N

Comments

[projecter]

If by 'work here' you mean 'was volunteered for service', then yes, I suppose.

[His voice and attitude make it clear exactly how thrilled he is at the prospect.]

I won't pretend to know anything more about this place than what the machines will tell you.

[houseofgildarts]

“Wait, the machines talk??” If that little metal hunk of junk could have answered her questions earlier, Cana was gonna hunt that little beep booping son of a bitch and hit him with a Lucy Kick. And volunteered for service? Her mind started to spiral, thinking about what kind of ‘service’ this place would volunteer you for.

“Oh hell no!’ Cana stood abruptly, one balled fist holding her towel in place and the other raised in indignation. “I will NOT be volunteered for anything.” Her fight or flight responses were moments from kicking in, and she was ready to start pounding these rolling metal garbage tins until she got her answers. She may not have her cards, but Cana was a brawler, and she still had her ace in the hole if things got too dicey. She'd level this temple to titular relaxation if she had to.

[projecter]

Well well, looks like we've got a live wire...

[He says with the sort of shrug that makes it abundantly clear that he couldn't care less what happens to the robots.]

You'll need to find the right ones if you want anything resembling an answer. The service robots only do what they're built for.

Not that I know who or what actually designs and builds these things.

[houseofgildarts]

“Well since I clearly haven’t met anything other than service robots, mind filling me in?” Cana was getting heated. Her ‘go with it’ good will was pretty much exhausted, and while she’d initially been willing to at least enjoy a spa treatment, now she was afraid this was more of a ‘fatten the cow up for slaughter’ type of deal. She felt an almost serene sense of security here, like this was where she was meant to be. Right this second, that was freaking her out even more.

“What is this place? What kind of service are you talking about? Are we being enslaved here?” Cana took a deep breath and steeled herself; if she had to wring the answers out of him she’d do it. “Please, tell me what you know about this place.”

[projecter]

Not enslaved, but certainly entrapped, at least until they send us away again. As for how long that is... Well, that's pretty much anyone's guess.

As far as service goes, if you've been here five minutes your imagination can fill that much in for you.

[houseofgildarts]

“Like hell, they’re not making me do anything I don’t want to do.” Cana suddenly realized she was entirely too naked for her comfort. “How long have you been here?” She was afraid of the answer. She couldn’t shake this feeling that she didn’t need to be afraid, but she was. The logical side of her mind wouldn’t turn off and she knew that she’d been ripped from her home world to come here. Maybe it was some kind of spell?

[projecter]

I was here before. A few months. I suppose my presence was too irresistible to do without.

[He says in the flattest, most disinterested way possible.]

And good. Don't let them. Don't do anything you're not prepared to do, and certainly don't do anything you'll regret.

[houseofgildarts]

This guy’s nonchalant attitude was motivating her to land a solid punch in the jaw, “You’re awful full of yourself, aren’t you.” Cana realized she needed to get a grip. She was flipping out and it wasn’t helping. She took a deep breath and relaxed her stance, adjusting her towel and deciding she was going to enjoy this pampering after all. She sat back down on the sauna bench, crossed her legs and leaned into the cool tile wall. “Can you give me more than that? Seriously, saying they volunteer you for any service you can imagine sounds like enslavement, but then you say something like ‘don’t do anything you’re not prepared to do’, like it’s a choice. The picture you’re painting here is as twisted as these statues and murals.”

[projecter]

So I've been told, once or twice.

It sounds like you've already got this place not out less figured out, to me.

[He says, but of course he's aware that doesn't actually tell her anything useful.]

I said I was volunteered. I never said I want given the choice. If anything, I'm only doing this because I was given the right to say no.

[houseofgildarts]

Cana feels her face deadpan; this asshole was fucking with her. Fine, so he was useless when it came to anything serious. “That was helpful.” As irritating as he was trying to be, he did basically explain a major point she was concerned about. As long as she had a choice in what happened, and she wasn’t about to be rolled out on a platter with those tentacle monsters, she could roll with it for now.

She took a moment to process as much as she could pull from what little she’d been given. She was done with the 20 questions with the self- assured brick wall. “Since you work here, would you get me a drink. If I have to keep dealing with all this crazy I need some booze.”

[projecter]

I can't give you more information than I have myself. I'm quite sure everyone else here has those same questions.

[He says, waving his hand like it's somebody else's problem.]

My 'job' began and ended with cleaning these carvings. [He says, picking up his cleaning supplies and heading for the exit without another word.]

[...Which would be the end of it, if he didn't return a few moments later, bottle in hand.]

[houseofgildarts]

Cana’s eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas morning. “Ohmygod you’resosweet you shouldn’t have.” She smiled sweetly, “You’re a lifesaver. Well, robot life saver.” Cana subsisted on alcohol, it was pretty much in her bloodstream. That being said, she was almost never drunk, and had a record shattering tolerance for the substance. It was like her ‘good juju juice’.

[projecter]

Thank me after you've actually tried it. I can't guarantee our overlords haven't put anything in it, so it's at your own risk.

[He says, before pouring himself a moderate portion and tossing it down the hatch like it doesn't even matter.]

[houseofgildarts]

Cana felt her excitement drain out a little. Of course the stuff here would be spiked. Why the hell wouldn’t it be. It didn’t take a lot of imagination here to imagine what the side effects would be.

“Mmmm,” She thought for a moment, “Do you mind if I wait to see if it hits you or not? I have enough problems today without adding drugged to the mix.”

[projecter]

I don't mind, but it might not be that helpful. My body isn't entirely the same as a normal human's.

[houseofgildarts]

“What does that mean?” Since she had to wait to enjoy the sweet nectar only an arm’s length away, some conversation would be a great distraction. “What are you?” She knew a demon, how much weirder could it get?

[projecter]

A servant. Nothing more than the echo of a person who was once alive, summoned to be wielded as a weapon by a magus.

[Pause. Frown. He looks at the bottle...]

My apologies; it seems there certainly is something in this bottle.

[houseofgildarts]

“That sounds kind of dark.” Cana remarked, “Sounds like you viewed your life as over from the start. Doesn’t seem like a great way to live.” She cocked an eyebrow, “Oh? Glad I didn't drink it then. You ok?”

[projecter]

I'm fine. The ones that loosen the tongue don't tend to do much more than that. As long as you're not keeping secrets, it might even be what you'd consider 'safe'.

[houseofgildarts]

“Oh… so it’s like a truth serum??” She was so confused. But if that’s all it did, down the hatch with it. She wasted no more time; I mean, it’s not like she had any secrets to keep.

[projecter]

Bingo. Leave it to the machines to leave something like that just laying around.

Depending on your perspective, anything from a minor prank to the worst possible scenario. To think it would even effect me... Another lesson not to lower one's guard around them, I suppose.

[houseofgildarts]

[ Cana at least got the edge taken off thanks to the drink. It did make her feel a little ‘chatty cathy’. ]

So… What’s one of your secrets? [ She asked conversationally. ]

[projecter]

[Of course she comes right at him to divulge something. Well, whatever. He doesn't have a master here; let the mages keep their secrets. It's not his problem.]

Where to even start? I'm from a world where secrets are a matter of course.

[houseofgildarts]

Hmmmm..... [ Cana did an adorable scooch across the bench towards him, ] Start with the most embarrassing secret you have about yourself. [ She smiled almost wickedly, ] This is like truth or dare without the dare and you can't lie! It'll be fun!

[projecter]

Luckily for me, my memories of anything like that are hazy at best.

I can tell you that once, a long time ago, there was a fool of a kid who decided to follow somebody else's wishes to become a superhero, and ended up with nothing but regrets.