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

[underachievement]

No.

[ She's audibly relieved to tell him that. Luke, Danny, Trish, Malcolm, she hopes they never end up here. That the bots have got their fill of New Yorkers now. ]

No one we know. I saw someone who looked like the Avenging superspy. [ She has her camera. The days are slow. To fill the time, she sometimes finds a high vantage point and clocks pedestrians through the lens without ever clicking the shutter button. That's intermixed with surveilling the robots that outnumber them. ]

[lawyerbyday]

Which one?

[Weren't they all some flavor of spy? Super or otherwise? And he found it ironic that the spy who liked to snap people at their worst (albeit she got paid for it) was calling out other spies. It made him smile.]

I should, ah... I guess I should go find some place to bunk.

[underachievement]

Redhead.

[ Jess wouldn't disagree that they are all spies but Black Widow is the only super one. Hawkeye is a super sniper, Hulk is a super monster, Stark is a super rich guy, Cap is a super doofus, etc.

She thinks about getting up when he proposes leaving. It's not like there's a latch to shut behind him, though. Emotional exhaustion compounding her fatigue, she might take a stab at a nap, so why move? ]

Before all the choice hovels are gone. [ She smiles at him wanly. Jess holds down the irrational fear that if he leaves, she'll never see him again, and rebuffs the second chance for a real goodbye. She'll see him around or she won't; no words she can say will change that. The ones that can, she already said. ]

[lawyerbyday]

Ah. Her.

[Not that he could tell the difference in hair color. Hell, Jess almost looked like a redhead to him, the way she was outlined with those flaming marks, her body almost melting into the couch. The smile she gave him was soft, and almost sad.

He leans forward to set the glass on the table, then hesitates before he reaches over to rest his hand on her knee. A light tap, a squeeze, his face tilted her way.]

I'll be close by. If- If you need to talk.

[She could use the wrist unit for that, but maybe he didn't want her to think he was leaving her. He'd made her leave him once. He wasn't sure he had it in him to do it again. Not when there wasn't a really good cause. He might have a sense of knowing that he should be alone; Stick's demands echoing at him to cut off all ties, but... he couldn't. Didn't want to. He needed something to care about. His city wasn't here. Fisk wasn't here to stand against. So he'd keep an ear out for whoever needed help here. While he could. If he could.

A last pat, and then he rose to his feet.]

Be careful, Jessica.