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TDM 013: BARING IT ALL
| 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 |
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"I don't?" she asks softly. "Jin-gongzi."
There are so many questions that she wants to ask. The ears, the tail, how...why he doesn't wish for her to be so formal.
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"You don't." Zixuan starts to say more, but then glances around them and shakes his head a little, lips pressing together in a hint of a grimace. "We...Will you walk with me?" The crease between his brows hints at just how much he hopes she says yes.
"I am sure you have questions."
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"I have many questions."
But with how informal he seems to wish her to be, there is something that would be far more important.
"Zewu Jun had mentioned to me that we could be taken from any time or any existence," she begins, "the engagement had already been called off. And..."
She stops herself from mentioning the incident in which he threw the soup at her. Her hands fold over themselves as she continues her more formal posture.
"The Sunshot Campaign had just ended. We've taken Nightless City. Wen Ruohan had fallen."
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And he listens to what she tells him, too. Only confirming what Kujaku has suggested. The end of the Sunshot Campaign. So long ago, his expression falls. When he lets his guard down, every last emotion splashes across his face. He knows what she doesn't say.
"I treated you...horribly," he whispers, regret etched in his voice in a way he'd never have allowed in his younger days. "You didn't deserve any of it. I...I was...too embarrassed," he can't bring himself to look at her for this, knowing he'd not be able to finish what he needs to say if he did. "Too aware of appearances and jumped to too many conclusions." As it is, anxiety nearly radiates from him.
She has every right to tell him never to approach her again.
Zixuan takes a breath and stops, turning to face her. "For me, that was over a year ago. I-" his jaw works as he fights with his shyness and the amount of what he wants to tell her. But should he? How best to say it? Kujaku huffs at him and nudges impatiently.
"Your questions!" He blurts out, then flushes, but doesn't let himself leave it at that. "You can ask me anything. I will answer, if I know it."
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Yanli takes a step closer toward him, closer than what is proper for two unmarried people. She hesitates for just a moment before reaching up slowly to scratch behind one fuzzy ear.
"May I?"
They obviously did not have any dogs since a-Xian's arrival. But that didn't mean she didn't dote on a-Cheng's dogs when he still had them.
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Zixuan blinks when she steps closer, but doesn't pull away or shy from that questing hand. His ears twitch, but then, cheeks still pink, he bends his head so she doesn't have to reach quite so far.
"I don't mind." Well. Partially because it's Yanli. And partially because so far no one else had scratched behind his ears! It only makes sense that the first to do so is the woman he loves.
And oh! Those scratching fingers bring bliss! His eyes close as a sigh escapes, his tail lashes happily too - that traitor! Forgive him for leaning into them.
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Oh.
She stops when she's close and looks up at him. Clearly, something had happened and he had chosen her for his affections. She looks up at him from under her lashes and tilts her face up.
"...Zixuan..."
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And so close! He can't help the renewed hope as he searches her face. He wants to kiss her - but manages, barely, to restrain himself. Instead he lifts a hand to cup her face.
"A-Li," he murmurs, reverent. "When I am from...we are married. We have a beautiful little boy."
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She closes her eyes at the affectionate touch. A gasp escapes her when he tells her of what’s to come. She opens her eyes and she searches his face for some indicator that this is some cruel joke.
“Really?”
It’s so soft, it might as well have floated on the wind. Yanli slowly reaches up to cup his cheek as well to guide him down. It must be a happy marriage for him to be acting this way.
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She won't find any hint of a joke on his face.
"Yes."
His reaction to her hand against his cheek is the same as hers - leaning into it as his eyes close. Only to blink open again, reluctant to look away for very long at all. Daring, he tilts his head to rest their foreheads together in a gentle hint of intimacy.
"Can you forgive me?"
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She gasps again when he rests their foreheads together. Yanli leans into the touch, intimate and sweet and lovely, feeling her heart swell. She doesn't trust her voice and nods instead, caressing the side of his face.
Yanli doesn't know what happened or how he came about to having the fuzzy ears and tail but he seems very much like the young man she had been promised, then not promised to. Perhaps more gentle, older, wiser. He's a year or so older than when she had seen him last.
"Are...are we happy?"
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Her mute agreement makes his heart melt all over again and he leans into her gentle hand, turning his head into it after a moment to nuzzle it affectionately. Happy? He actually laughs a little, beaming.
"Yes." He doesn't doubt that at all.
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"I'm glad." She laughs again and steps in to embrace him. "I'm so glad for that."
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Only a month and a half since he'd seen her last. He's gone far longer between seeing her before...but not since they'd married.
He holds his silence for a long few minutes, just soaking up the gentle peace that comes with his beloved. But his brother's words echo in his mind, and it's something he recognizes they should discuss. So he pulls back and reaches for her hands. "A-Li. My brother is here as well, and has told me what is expected of us. Has anything been explained to you?"
Asking also gives him time to try and decide how he feels about her being here too. If it was just himself, he'd be fine. But what if she gets hurt...again? Because of him?
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“Nie-gongzi has explained it a little to me,” she starts. “At least, some of the actions he’s done.”
They hasn’t an opportunity to really go further into it.
“What exactly is expected?”
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"Physical intimacy. Sex." To...put it extremely mildly. But she already knows that - he thinks. "Illusions and hallucinations are some of what is used to encourage people here to...have sex with many people. Not just one." He knows his face is flushed again, but he doesn't let himself shy from this. Even if it has him tense.
"You haven't lived through our marriage. I won't force you to...stay with me." Even if he knows it'll hurt if and when she's not with him. "I-if you don't want to. There's room for you in Koi Tower...with me." He's doing a great job with this! Really! Kujaku is snickering at him again.
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Her heart goes out to him when she sees him tense up. She had heard a little bit from Nie-gongzi but put into this context, it makes her look at it a little more closely. Yanli stays in his arms and doesn’t let go of him.
“I want to stay with you. And if it is necessary for us to..do that with other people…then we should do that. Then return to each other. What matters is that our hearts belong to one another, right?”