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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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"Salah ad-Din took the city a few years ago. It remains uncontested, but unarmed pilgrims of all faiths keep getting attacked on their way there. If you are thinking of going, make sure you are with a good caravan. And did you not hear of the siege of Akkā by the Crusaders? Jerusalem looks to Salah ad-Din to protect it from Richard of England and the Franks. They just met in battle at Arsuf, but I do not know who won."
No bells, fantasy or historical, were rung.
"Washing Town," he repeated. Nailed it.
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Altaïr... was probably from the long distant past. That was almost harder to believe than the wizards he had run into. Goddamn, he wished he had a cigarette. And a drink.
He drew a deep breath and let out slowly.
"The English won the battle at Arsuf. That's 1191. Richard's forces gained control of the ports, namely Jaffa." He cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. "I can tell you how the whole Third Crusade ends if you really want to know."
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He almost said yes, like he was in the library catching up with another visiting scholar. Then his eyes widened suddenly. He forgot to hide his fear.
"No. I don't."
Behind closed lips, he clenched his teeth like an addict trying to resist a vice. He was beginning to understand the allure of Al Mualim's ancient artifact. In just one glimpse, he had seen a map of the world, a perfect sphere, showing continents he had never seen before. A similar impossible knowledge now presented itself. The so-called Apple of Eden had brought nothing but trouble and ended countless lives. Altaïr had promised to destroy it... and didn't. Then he turned up here. He still felt raw. He was forced to admit that he didn't fear the knowledge itself, but his own hunger for it.
"At least... let me think about it. I am a man who devotes himself to the pursuit of knowledge, but that is the kind that brings sorrow. If I am truly not dead, and I can find my way home, what would I do with that knowledge? How it would change me.... I do not want it to stop me from doing what is right just to follow history--or avert it."
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"I don't think we're dead," he said, sort of shifting the subject away from that revelation. "I've talked to some people who've been here awhile and it sounds like we were brought here for a purpose. To fix this place."
Through the power of sex which Chris thought wasn't as good as say, construction and rebuilding but he wasn't in charge.
"Just be careful about what you eat and drink. The robots lace 'em with aphrodisiacs. Strong ones." He figured the warning was worth giving out to any stranger.
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"I did not think it was wise to trust them, but lacing the food...." He felt vindicated. Sneaking around the bathhouse and avoiding the robots like a weirdo had been the right move. "The other people told you this?"
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"You don't have to figure this out on your own." He wasn't sure that would mean anything to the guy but it was worth saying.
They'd do better working together than on their own.
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"These 'robots' are too overbearing when it comes to their sex culture." The fingers of his left hand flexed. How overbearing, he would have to look into before he decided to do anything. "Thank you. For someone also newly arrived, you have given me valuable information. Have the other people told you anything else?"
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But he had realized this place would take patience. If he could hunt one target for three years he could handle this island and whatever organization had grabbed them all patiently.
"It also just gets weird here sometimes. Things are going to happen and you may get caught up in it no matter how careful you are." Chris didn't like that and it showed in his tone and expression. He gestured to himself and his 'costume'. "For example..."
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"I will deal with that when it comes," he said pragmatically. He had to come up with some sort of safety plan. Hiding places or caches, maybe.... Strategizing an escape from a surprise orgy had not been on his list of things to do, ever--though Abu'l Nuqoud's party had come close.
"Did they steal your clothes? Do... you need help finding them?"
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The robots might be kinder to someone working for them.
"I appreciate the offer though. That's kind of you." Chris would handle it though. Clothes or no clothes in the locker.
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He did not specify how. He just knew he would find him, because Altaïr was good at finding people.
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Maybe they would cross paths again. He could hope.