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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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"Let's go see what pose they want." Chris could always back out if the robots wanted something where one of them was grabbing the other's junk or just basically fucking.
He wasn't exactly comfortable with this but Peter seemed like a decent guy and he wouldn't pressure Chris for anything. He was even willing to walk away right now.
Thank God his cigarettes had washed up with him. Chris definitely wanted a smoke after this. Or a drink but he still didn't feel confident about the bars around this place.
He stood up and gestured for the robots to go ahead of him to lead the way.
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"Try to find our best angle, will ya, Johnny 5?" He jokingly told one of the robots, not really getting a proper answer in return. A pity. Peter was used to far more advanced AIs with a somewhat sense of humor. But he was also used to people not catching his pop culture references, so that wasn't new.
Chris looked at the robots for a moment and then looked over at Peter. The problem was he wanted credits. A supply of money was important in an unknown location. He had earned a handful, but more would be better. He wouldn't have to come back and do this work again for a while.
He raised his eyebrows when another robot walked over them and offered him a decorated bowl filled with oil but took it without a word. They were paid for this, after all. The robot then very enthusiastically told them to start soaking each other in oil.
"Up to a great start. Do you want to do the honors?"
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He looked the bowl and the... dick chickens? decorating it with a skeptical glance. Whoever had designed it had the strangest imagination. Who would find this sexy?
"Yeah, just tell me if you don't like where my hands are going." Chris poured a little oil in his hands and started with Peter's shoulders and arms. The man took care of himself judging from the muscles he could feel under his hands. They didn't look completely for show either.
Peter might be able to do a little damage with them.
"Have you seen the robots do stuff like this before?" he asked to make idle conversation while he oiled up basically a stranger. Goddamn, this island was weird as hell.
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"Will do. Takes a lot to make me uncomfortable, so don't worry." What it might not take long is to make him ticklish. If Chris moved his fingers over Peter's sides or near his belly button, but he didn't add enough pressure, chances were that he could get a surprised laugh in return.
"I'd like to say no, but that would be a lie. " The blond gave Chris an almost apologetic look as he too coated his palms in oil before leaving the bowl on the nearest table. "But sometimes the robots also offer jobs that can be done with your clothes on. They can still be dangerous, one time they had up collect flowers that gave you hallucinations if you touched the sap. It's like there's always a weird catch."
The other man certainly wasn't lacking in the muscle department, Chris's biceps could give Thor a run for his money. The thought alone made Peter grin to himself, and he hummed softly as he slid his hand up the curve of Chris's shoulder. It wasn't long because he started to massage his neck and trapezius, because Chris looked tense and because Peter was pretty damn good at massages.
"If that happens, you get affected by something that makes you feel weird or upset, visiting the public baths can help. The warm pools are kind of magic, they might not get rid of all the effect immediately, but they will help."
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At least Peter was nice about it and threw in a little massage. Chris found himself rolling his neck forward into the touch. After a minute his shoulders relaxed and he forgot a little of how stupid this island was.
"That would've been nice to know. I ended up in bed with a woman because we both got dosed with something." He hadn't been dosed as strongly as her but it still had an effect that was hard to ignore. "I take it they're different from the spa here?"
Chris moved down to Peter's chest and then his abs, yes his touch was light. He didn't want to make things weird and he was pretty surprised when Peter laughed.
"Sorry," he said, pulling his hands back. "Maybe I should let you do that part?"
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Chris didn't seem to mind the massage, more like the opposite, and peter smiled a little to himself, fingers digging into the muscles to work out the knots.
"That might happen, yes. If you are lucky, it won't be too bad and everyone involved could be able to act civil." On Halloween, Peter had been unfortunate enough to eat one of the cakes with a pretty strong aphrodisiac and at first, it had been a nightmare. He was lucky that the person who found him back then was a close friend and lover of his, which made things less awkward the next day.
"They are, I don't know where they come from though..." Peter didn't finish his answer, busy laughing, his finger stilling and the muscles of his chest tensing up. He was still smiling when he managed to form words again. "Oh gods...it's fine, I'm a little ticklish. Just press harder next time, I don't mind a bit of roughing up."
This time Peter couldn't stop himself from winking but as Chris suggested, he slid a hand over his own chest and sides, oiling them up. What a weird sensation. Before he could say anything else, there was the same robot as before by their side, urging them to get ready and start posting already. It even showed them a quick, badly drawn sketch of how it wanted them to pose, that had Peter tilting his head to the side to try and figure out what was he looking at.
"Wow, I sure hope you are a better painter than sketcher." The unimpressed look Peter gave the robot didn't seem to have any effect on it. He looked at the drawing again, then back at Chris. "How do you want to do this? I'm pretty flexible as far as positions go."
And Chris looks like he would prefer being on top of things, literal and figuratively, but he keeps that bit to himself.
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"I guess I'll take the guy on the left," he said with a shrug and yes, it was the mostly on top position. Peter seemed like a real laid back, trustworthy guy but Chris was still more comfortable on top than anywhere else.
He took a moment to stretch his arm over his head and then bend forward to touch his toes. He was pretty flexible himself.
"You two had better focus on painting." He pointed at the two robots as he moved into position. He would be at Peter's back, mostly, with his arms around him. There was, of course, a hand suggestively on Peter's thigh and his other hand on his chest.
"This is not an actual wrestling hold," he said to make conversation with Peter as they basically groped each other. "Neither of us has a chance of pinning the other like this."
But it did look highly sexual which was exactly what the robots wanted.
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He seemed amused at Chris warning the robots, even if it didn't do much to scare them, and then got into position. Yes, it was suggestive, which was no doubt that point of the exercise, but Peter was also playing it casually. The only problem was that the oil was making everything slippery.
"I admit I don't wrestle much like this, but I'm pretty sure grabbing someone's hair isn't allowed either." Following the idea of the sketch they had been showing, Peter had moved left right arm back, hand resting on Chris's nape. He was supposed to be gripping the man's hair, but it was too short to clutch properly, unlike Peters' curls, and probably not something Chris would like him to do out of the blue. His legs shifted to accommodate the other's weight, and he had no trouble keeping his balance until the robots were nagging them to adjust their position because 'it didn't look quite right for what they had envisioned.'
Doing a colossal attempt to not roll his eyes at the obvious ruse, Peter complied and adjusted his legs, leaning forward. Except he slipped, damn the oil, and his free hand shot back to steady himself and don't end face forward into the floor. He ended grabbing onto the closest thing to him, which was Chris's muscular thigh, and pressing his lower body back against him.
"Sssssorry."
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"It's fine," he said with a slight shrug. "Just try and keep still, it'll keep us from slipping."
The robots would probably love that if they ended up falling down on top of each other while being covered in oil.
Peter's hand was a little high up on his thigh but not yet somewhere Chris would consider asking him to move it. It wasn't anything serious. One of his soldiers could grab him there in hand to hand combat. That Peter's touch linger made him very aware of it and the warmth of it.
"And yes, grabbing your opponent's hair is an illegal move in wrestling." Chris had never wrestled competitively but he knew the rules from training.
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He didn't have time to register the movement properly when it happened, focused as he was on not breaking his nose against the floor, but now that they were steady again, the warmth of another body pressed so close to his own made itself obvious. Had Peter been a different kind of man (and one who hadn't spent the last year in a sex island), it would have been awkward.
As it is, he only nodded at the suggestion to stay still and glared briefly at the robots, now painting on their canvas enthusiastically. His hand stopped gripping Chris's thigh so high, but it didn't move an inch. Tilting his head to the side, so he could see the other man from the corner of his eyes, he gave a casual smile.
"Makes sense." He tapped his fingers against Chris's nape, playfully but seemingly without any second intentions, this was awkward enough. Yet, Peter couldn't stop himself from adding. "I quite like it in a different context, though, one with fewer robot spectators."
Not like he had any issue with doing more than light touching in public. But Chris was new here and trying to get by, they were still getting to know each other.
This was Peter's idea of small talk.
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"You mean they don't follow you around to make sure you're meeting your daily quota of fucking?" Chris' tone was dry and sarcastic. He really hoped the robots didn't follow people around. They were bad enough trying to be pushy artists.
"Is there anything to do on this island that doesn't involve sex in some way?" Was there any relief from it? Chris was all for consenting adults enjoying themselves but it being constantly shoved in his face would get annoying. And he wanted some time where he wasn't looking at everything he ate or drank or touched with suspicion.
He would try to find a way home. He had to. There were a lot of people back home counting on him for protection. He had to figure out what the hell the BSAA was doing. There was a lot. He couldn't be here forever.
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"Surprisingly not, but don't be too loud. They might hear you and get ideas." Peter wouldn't put it beyond the robots to take more drastic measures if they felt that some people were slacking on their bed duties. Peter hummed, lost in thought for a second. Honestly, the question was harder than Chris realized. Even the places that were supposed to be sex-free, like the entertainment district with the Gundam Pods, could have unexpected side-effects that made people horny or interested in sex in some way.
"There are the stables? They have giant chickens called Chocobos you can ride and race, also normal horses. Oh, and the Dive! It's a bar, you'll like it. They give you free drinks if you do a karaoke performance, how good are you at singing?"
It went without saying that Peter almost never pays for his drinks at that bar. He would already sing for free and there they even gave him extra drinks, so it was perfect. One of the robots tilted its head and make a Tsk sound as if to scold them for talking so much. Peter pointedly ignored it and actually tried to wave it off.
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"I'm, uh, not a great singer. My sister says I'm tone deaf." Which he was. Chris still sometimes would sing along with songs he liked if no one else was around but he definitely wouldn't sing karaoke. "What kind of music do they have here anyway?"
They couldn't have the classics he knew anyway. This was a strange, otherworldly, sex crazy place. He couldn't imagine they had all the songs he liked.
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"Is not about the quality, is about having fun. Don't worry too much." Peter never did, especially while singing. "Older or little sister? I always wanted siblings, but it couldn't be."
Unless you count all the other children Ego murdered while pursuing more power. There's Mantis and Kraglin, though, which might be the closest thing Peter has to an actual siblings.
"Weird music, as expected, the robots don't exactly have good taste in the arts." Peter turns his attention briefly to the partners, eying them critically, then tilts his head back towards Chris. While the position is not extremely uncomfortable, having to stay still it's not something Peter is not used to. It almost goes against his nature.
"But I have a Zune with me, with and all the greatest hit from Earth. Please tell me that your world has David Bowie in it. Otherwise, you're missing out, man."
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They were all the family they had.
"We had Zune. It doesn't exist anymore. Most people listen to music on their phones. And yeah, we've got David Bowie. Queen. Tom Petty." Chris could list off a lot of classic rock and 80's hits. They were his favorite styles of music. The only time he liked modern club music was when he was looking for a one night stand and knew he'd leave the club eventually.
But he still wouldn't sing karaoke. He had earned credits here and could pay for his drinks. He'd leave karaoke to people who could actually sing and had fun with it.
Chris, Peter would probably learn, did not relax well or easily. It took a lot for the Captain to let his guard down.
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"Sisters who can call us out on our bullshit are the best. Sorry about your parents, that must have been really hard." And that was putting it lightly. Peter knew how difficult it was to lose your parents, but he couldn't even imagine how stressful it would have been for Chris to look after his little sibling on his own.
It was also probably not a good thing to talk about when you were clinging to another man, half-naked and covered in oil. Back to the music then.
"What, really? But the Zune can fit so many songs, it's very practical." For all Peter knew about modern alien technology, he was pretty ignorant about the most common uses for phones back in his homeworld. "Tom Petty! You're the first person to mention that name to me in literal decades. Oh man, that's great. I've got Queen on my lists too. You don't know real music until you're heard Bohemian Rhapsody at full volume."
This is probably the most cheerful Chris might have seen Peter, the casual flirting notwithstanding. It was clear that music meant a lot to him, and it probably explained why he was so into karaoke nights. One of the robots hushed them and then motioned to the painting, clearly telling the Guardian to not move so much, and Peter pouted in annoyance.
"I'm tempted to give them the middle finger, but I don't think the robots even understand that gesture. Truly a tragedy."
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"Technology has gotten a lot better. My phone back home holds over ten thousand songs. More with streaming." That was another thing he should work on getting here. His phone from home. He was certain it wouldn't call anywhere but he'd have his music and his photos. He'd like those little reminders of home.
"It's not like you're painting our faces in detail. We're going to keep talking," Chris said to the robot which probably didn't care but it was the truth. The robots cared about their bodies, not their handsome looks.
"Petty's a favorite," he said like that little interruption hadn't happened. "And Queen's really good. I prefer AC/DC or The Who, though. Just something about those bands that I really like."
Chris shrugged and got scolded by a robot again. He glared back trying to intimidate the robot but it didn't seem to work. He wasn't used to that. Most people found him really intimidating.
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"Ten thousand!?" There's an unspoken 'holy shit' still said very clearly in his tone of voice, Peter was officially impressed. If he ever got out of Erku, he needed to make a little trip to earth, collect a phone and download as much music as he could get his hands on, it was decided. "I don't suppose you have your phone here? Because I'd love to have new songs to listen to."
Peter smiled at Chris's reply to the robots, at least someone was trying to put them in their place, even if it didn't work. Besides, the man had a point, the important part of the painting was not going to be their faces.
"I've got some AC/DC songs too. As well as Traffic, Thin Lizzy, and Alice Cooper. Rock music fits you." Peter leaned back a little, pressing his body closer to Chris in the process, and patted his leg after this intimidation attempt was unsuccessful. It was a good try. "Your thoughts on Johnny Cash? Not the most cheerful guy, but his songs had something special. A lot of soul, you know?"
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If he could get it, he would just for the pictures and the music. He hadn't been concerned about the music until now. He'd like to share it with Peter who had probably missed modern music as well which wasn't all great but there were some treasures.
The closer press of Peter's body was a little distracting. He couldn't decide if he should throw him down or press closer himself. Chris kept himself steady instead, trying to make sure he didn't do anything inappropriate with a guy who was basically a stranger. A nice, handsome stranger but Chris didn't want to get too handsy with and piss him off.
"Cash is great. You don't get emotions like that anywhere else." Especially now that he spent twenty plus years fighting the undead Chris really liked Cash and the darker tone of his music. There was a pain there no many people could understand. "I like him a lot. Probably one of my favorites."
At least talking about music kept Chris from thinking about Peter's ass practically wedged against his thigh and hip.