ercookies | TDM 002

TDM 002: IF FOUND PLEASE RETURN TO

( 1 ) Around mid-morning, a message from the Augur appears on bracelets all across the city. "New organisms discovered. Domestication in progress."

The wark of a chocobo rises up from the outskirts of the city. Several more join in, forming a charming chorus. And, strangely, this is when new arrivals begin to show up.

Beamed in one at a time, scanned en masse, they are processed just as the first wave was. There's one major difference: whereas the old guard was given their bracelets and ushered into the City, the new folks are also given... collars.

Buckled, snapped, or otherwise fastened around their necks, a variety of colorful collars with some rather unusual novelty pet tags. (These are just a few suggestions. The typical “If found, please return to ____” is also very much acceptable.)

"You are new organisms. Domestication in progress. Compatible Eros energy will complete domestication."

No matter how hard they try, characters cannot take the collars off by themselves. They need a partner's help - but not just anyone will do. It very well might be the first person they find, or it might take several tries.

The robots grow bolder as the day grows on, targeting characters who aren't new, as well.

"Y̶o̶u̴ ̸a̷r̸e̷ ̵o̵r̵g̶a̴n̷i̷s̶m̸s̶.̶ ̶D̷o̶m̴e̴s̶t̶i̶c̵a̸t̶i̸o̴n̸ ̷i̵n̸ ̴p̸r̶o̵g̷r̵e̷s̵s̷."

Their antics die down by nightfall, but for the next day or two, the occasional malfunctioning 'bot may accost someone in the street, so stay on your toes!

( 2 ) An abandoned racetrack lights up the night. That's right: place your bets, folks, because these birds are about to run around a track while robots sell synthetic, overpriced aphro-popcorn.

...Did you say priced?

That’s right! If you participated in the orgy earlier this month, you'll find you have a stash of credits accessible in your app.

You've fucked money back into the world, so why not waste it?

(Opportunities to earn credits will come up periodically and won't always be sexual in nature, so don't worry if your character wouldn't have any yet.)

And if you don't have credits to bet with, why not get creative?

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N A V I G A T I O N

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

... I'm not.

[Not sorry, that is. If there'd been an orgy, that was a merging of scents, sounds, tastes, and things he's, frankly, glad he missed. Walking into a room after someone had sex was bad enough. Walking into a room several someones had had sex in would just be a nightmare.]

I'm sorry, did you say... different dimensions?

Like I said, we're a long way from any New York. Yours, mine, the rest of them.

[You can almost hear the philosophical shrug in her voice.]

Okay, so I'm not a quantum physicist - or any kind of physicist - but the easiest way to understand multiverse theory is to imagine that you ate cereal for breakfast this morning. Your choice meant that another universe split off - one where you had eggs. In the eggs universe, you left for work and took the subway. If you'd grabbed a taxi, that's another universe. So on and so forth, for an infinite number of universes, until some aren't even recognizable to any of us because the branching multiverse goes all the way back to the Big Bang and all the way into the future.

Of course, then you have the time travellers who say that's totally inaccurate, but time travel gets really fucking weird. I've never been able to wrap my head around it.

Right. Time travel.

[Because that was a thing. Could she hear the sigh he gave? Because he gave a big one, rubbing at his head as an ache started building.]

Let's say any of that is true. How does that apply to this current situation? What Big Bang started a- a- Big Banging City? And how does that have anything to do with any of us?

[Maybe a small part of him felt bad about interrogating a stranger who likely knew just as much as he did, but it was a small part and he'd done worse.]

Hell, I said I wasn't a physicist. All I've got is decades of first-hand experience and some cobbled-together pieces of real scientists' opinions on the nature of the multiverse. My strength is punching things.

[No, really, it is.]

I mean, why we're all here is more of a philosophical question, no matter where we are at any given moment. Yeah, you can blame a glitchy teleport, but if you believe in fate, or God, or a pantheon, might be there's a different reason. I can't say why you're here and your neighbor back home isn't, and probably nobody here can. Sometimes you end up where you're needed, sometimes you don't.

[...yeah, he might mean that a little more literally, Sam.]

[Sam. Sam. That wasn't helpful. And there was another sigh.]

Well, I happen to believe in God, but I also believe that we're the architect of our own destruction. He might have a plan, but as far as I've seen, that plan involves us making our own decisions. Free will, right?

[Hello. Welcome to 'Life with a Catholic'. Would you like to hear about our lord and savior?]

Okay, okay. So you're not the right person to ask, and I'm guessing that means there isn't a right person to ask. So... what does that mean for us?

[She's trying!]

Sometimes you end up where you need to be, but the decisions you make from there are your own. [She laughs wryly.] My daddy was a preacher, and I didn't agree with him. Studied comparative religion and theology till I dropped out of college to join the war. Never did find the right way, but I'm not gonna tell anyone their way's wrong, either.

[Translation: she absolutely does not need to hear about Jesus, Matt.]

Means we're stuck here till we can find a way out. Whether that's someone fixing the teleport or waiting till we luck out and get someone who can make universal portals or something else entirely, hell if I know.

[She's not sure portals are going to be an easy way out. She's already tried her method - like she said, her strength is punching - and it hasn't worked.]

Also means there's a solid chance you might end up fucking, or at least spending some quality time with your hand.

[Sorry not sorry.]

[But Jesus loves you, Sam. Though, that might not be the best thing to say in a place like this. Ew. Now that was in his brain. Thanks.

He adjusted his tie at her last comment, clearing his throat as he felt his cheeks flush. Look, he wasn't some frail innocent virgin or prude. He liked sex. A lot. But speaking so frankly about it from a stranger was, ah... new.]

Sounds incredibly questionable.

[Look, she's a soldier, she can't help being blunt. Or, rather, she can, but this way is infinitely more amusing.]

What, your hand? Because I can't help you with that one.

[Ha, ha. She's hilarious.]

[He chokes on a laugh, clearing his throat again and rubbing at his eyes under his glasses.]

That was not what I meant. I meant in reference to the, ah, partner aspect. If the food's being laced and they're trying to force people to do things...

[It sounds questionable, Sam. Gosh. Golly.]

All I can tell you is that in my experience - and I've only been here for a month - it hasn't been enough that I've been incapable of refusing outright if I wanted to.

[TMI? Of course. But that's the information she has to offer.]

It's absolutely still questionable, don't get me wrong. The whole...'good fortune if you do things on the card' aspect doesn't even make sense. But if you don't want to, you can resist it.

[Probably. Admittedly, she hasn't tried that hard.]

[His frustration was less in concern for himself. He was used to being a shield or a battering ram if needed for the greater good. It was for anyone he happened to come across- or who came across him. Sex wasn't exactly on his list of concerns right now, but he wasn't sure how happy he was going to be having it suddenly become 'an issue' along with rules of consent being questioned when even a yes might not be a yes.

Complications, Sam.]

So far. And if they- if something happens that changes that?

[Although Matt obviously doesn't know it, Sam's more than capable of assault on her end as well. She's questioned the possibility, because it's impossible to be in a situation like this and not worry about the morals at hand. But there's only so much fretting one person can do.]

Then we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it.

[As in, she has no goddamn idea.]

[Sigh.]

I was hoping you wouldn't say that.

[Which, of course, meant that was the only thing she could say. This was his life, after all. Even on another planet.]

Wonder if there's any way to counter it.

TDM 002

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