TDM 002

[erkumods]

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? ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● N A V I G A T I O N

Comments

[desertdancer]

Osei looks fairly hard to startle, to be fair. Occasionally she'll lift her head when there's a particularly loud cheer from the crowd, but there's no skittishness or urgency to the movement, and she has no issue with returning her attention to Angie and that treat.

"I'm not sure, to be honest. Other desert areas have plenty of wild chocobos, but the Nhaama Desert seemed to be the outlier." Seeing that Osei had no worries, Khaishan was content to just settle in for a chat, watching as the huge red bird immediately lowered her head to make giving those scritches easier, clicking her beak in idle contentment.

"You can tell by how slender they are," Khaishan pointed out as the birds ran by on another lap, noisy in their delight of a good run. "There aren't too many specific breeds, to be fair. These ones here and say, your normal cart birds or riding birds are of the same stock just selected for traits, whether it's being faster, personality, or size, given someone like me would need a bigger bird than you. Some bloodlines will give more reliable results one way or the other, but they're the closest to what you'd find in the wild. There's a country back home that breeds a specific sort- black plumage, with more muscle to their wings. They have an easier time learning flight. Beyond that there's the red birds you find wild in the desert but they can be a bit more aggressive. I'm fairly certain that's the stock most warbirds are bred from, given they share an ability to manipulate aether, but they definitely used draft birds to breed them sturdier, or in some cases large enough to take multiple passengers, like Osei here."