ercookies | TDM 014: A DAY AT THE FAIR

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TDM 014: A DAY AT THE FAIR

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.

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I. HAY FEVER

A new mode of transportation has made an appearance! From one end of the fairgrounds to the other, and even sometimes off the beaten path and into the wilds, robot-horse-drawn hay wagons shake, rattle, and roll. And, of course, what are hay wagons great for? Anyone fancy a roll in the hay?

Anyone who is taking a hay ride will see their A5 card flash - and they will be given the option to trade one square for the vehicles square. (New players engaging in this prompt can call it a freebie.)

But beware! The wagons roll at all hours of the day and night. At night, the spooks come out to play! Rides will be "haunted" by frightful spooks played by machines and your local Islanders. The 'bots will hire anyone interested to don their favorite slasher costume or ghostly garb. After all, everyone knows that fear and adrenaline are related to attraction, right? Just another thoughtful service provided by your generous benefactors.

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II. Acute Beef Poisoning

How about an eating contest? Multiple competitions are held throughout the fair: hot dogs, hot dogs, pies -- just use your imagination! Of course, there's always the chance that you've been recruited to be "eaten"... So sit back and enjoy the ride.

For those of you with an exhibitionist streak, all contests are held in front of an audience.

Be careful, ye who eat here, because the pies in particular have been known to have the following effects (with a two-hour duration):

Meat - A simple aphro pie; a character finds themselves craving a very different kind of meat.
Apple - Temporary amnesia befalls those who've tried the apple pie. The effects can be as great as forgetting your entire identity or as minor as forgetting what you've had for breakfast.
Cherry - Look upon the very face of innocence! All guile falls away from this character, making it impossible for them to lie.
Strawberry - The compulsion to follow orders may be strong sometimes, but the strawberry pie comes with the compulsion to give orders instead.
Blueberry - Oh no! You're looking a bit... off-color? The blueberry pie turns a character's skin blue for the next two hours.

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III. BRODEO

Last but not least, try the mechanical contraptions of various sizes - equipped with equipment of various sizes as well! The objective of this game is to last as long as you can.

Thirteen Hand Sam is the smallest of the mechanical horses. It has no attachments, but instead vibrates until the rider orgasms.

Mechanic Mike is the second mechanical horse. With a modest six-inch dildo, it bucks its rider around until orgasm.

For those who like a real challenge, the mechanical bull -- the Bonine -- is a two-person contraption that straps each rider in with their own dildo. They sit face-to-face on the thrashing machine, within touching range, able to encourage each other to come (and to lose) more quickly.

Ride like you've never ridden before, or comfort someone in the aftermath of a job well done.

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N A V I G A T I O N

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Free pie really was a great thing.

Whether the food was doctored or not, Demyx didn't really care when he felt like having something and a slice of cherry pie was right up his alley.

Demyx was wearing black jeans, torn strategically, a purple t-shirt, a blue plaid vest and hiking boots, as well as a set of familiar accessories. He wasn't wearing his coat, but that of course, didn't mean he didn't have it.

He wasn't expecting to see someone he knew.

Ienzo was dressed up like a nerd, cravat and all, so he made a bold assumption. "Hey! Zex-er-Ienzo!" He called with a cheerful grin, easy enough to mask his trepidation.

Now, that wasn't a voice that Ienzo was expecting to hear. So far, nothing he'd seen was familiar, even from the volumes of information he'd read on other places that Keyblade masters had traveled to or come from. And without any connection that the Gummiphone had to network - he'd come to the conclusion he was completely cut off from other worlds. Isolated and alone.

It's a relief, with a single voice, to find it's not true. And Demyx might not be Even - but he was very willing to help and surprisingly cooperative to work hard towards a goal. Ienzo always privately speculated it's because Demyx was much more willing to help someone who wasn't an evil, deranged, and long-winded egotistical maniac.

Turning, his smile broadcasted his relief. "Hello, Demyx. I'm glad to see you."

"Really?" He blinked in surprised but chuckled and shrugged it off.

"Yeah, uh, me too I guess. I've been here awhile, month and a half or something. Kind of a weird place. Not the worst though. No way out." He gestured with his hand before taking another bite of pie.

"A month and a half ..." Ienzo thought aloud, tilting his head a little, unknowingly gesturing with his pie as if it was a clipboard, "... and yet I last saw you a week ago."

He realized, of course, that he was holding a pie instead of data - and took a bite of it instead. Once he'd swallowed his mouthful, "So we might be cut off from anywhere else temporally as well. It's one theory. I'll need to find more information."

Of course, having worked with Demyx before - if one would call the rather closed-off way Zexion had interacted with the Organization 'working with' anyone - he knew exactly what his strengths were. Demyx had been reconnaissance. "You've tried to travel through Darkness and it didn't work, then. Does anyone here have ships that can go off-world?"

"Not that I've heard. Some of them have ships, but they can't get too far away from the city around here." Demyx said, gesturing in that direction.

"Which makes it kinda strange. Yeah, I tried the corridors." Of course he had, did Ienzo think he would just stop travelling all of a sudden?

"I can get around the island, but I can't get off of it."

"Interesting," Ienzo's brows furrowed a little beneath his bangs. Of course Demyx had - he naturally concluded that was the first thing that he'd tried, since he told him there wasn't any way out. "It's a closed loop. We're shut in - and told we have to, well, produce a certain energy for this so-called Augur."

He was slightly blushing, but maybe Demyx wouldn't comment on that. "Is that real? They're actually rebuilding the island with the energy from people doing ... those things?"

"As far as I know, but I can't really prove it." Demyx admitted with a bit of a shrug.

"I don't really know how it works aside from what the robots said which was you get the card and then you fill it. People seem to think it does, but also some people aren't doing it." Demyx hummed.

"And everything that's shown up so far is related to sex and having sex."

"I suppose," Ienzo said with the blush definitely not abating, "the only way to know for certain is to test and see the affects of generating that kind of energy."

In fact, it intensified when Demyx blatantly called out what was going on. He ducked his head slightly to hide his very red cheeks. "Yes. I figured that out. They're not exactly subtle."

Rubbing the back of his neck above his collar and cravat, Ienzo said, "It's none of my business so you don't need to tell me, or get into anything too personal, but, have you ...?"

"I guess. That sounds more like your kind of science thing." Demyx said, absolutely willing to play dumb.

"Everywhere you go is like this." Demyx offered as a piece of advice.

He tilted his head at the question. "I did in this computer simulator dream thing. Oh and I met a guy at a hotel."

Ienzo suspected that Demyx was cleverer than he let on, but he's a little too flustered at the moment to pursue that line of questioning. He only mumbled a little, "This isn't the kind of science I've ever focused on before."

"I figured that out, too," Ienzo sighed. He ... he wasn't about to ask about random hookups at the hotel. Or judge. Really! This place being as it was, well, Ienzo recognized that he would be the outlier here, embarrassed by everything. He cleared his throat, this seemed easier to ask about; "Computer simulators?"

"Yeah, like, it puts you to sleep, and it's a restful sleep and everything, but your dreams are all real and vivid." He blushed now, clearing his throat.

"And uh, can be sexual."

"Of course it is," Ienzo sighed for probably not the last time, and decided to finish off his pie. At least the food was good. They wouldn't end up starving or freezing in the streets here, it sounded like. All in all ... it's not an ideal situation, but it could be a lot worse.

Brushing off his hands a little against his coat, he offered Demyx a sheepish but grateful smile. "Thanks for filling me in. I guess there's a lot more we're going to need to find out, but I am glad you're here."

He'd noticed that flicker of surprise on Demyx's face before, after all, though he hadn't commented on it. Though, maybe he was being presumptuous ... "I'm sorry. Do you mind helping me out? I shouldn't just assume ..."

"Yeah, sure." Demyx said in a lazy tone as he finished his pie too, it was pretty good, he was content.

"I don't mind helping you. What do you want help with?"

"This will all take time," Ienzo began, "but eventually ..."

He began ticking things off his fingers.

"We'll need to do research on what this place is, what the robots are, what the Augur is. How sexual energy makes items appear. Maybe monitor the island to see it while it's created. When things on this island are restored, if there's a draw on the energy produced. Any side effects on people here. If the Augur tries to encourage people, how do they do that? Maybe research into the simulations itself ..."

Realizing how that all might sound, Ienzo blushed again. "I'm not saying ... I don't mean ... it's. You probably don't want to be a guinea pig and - I'm suggesting monitoring other people."

And realized how that sounded and actually waved his hands in a no. "And I don't mean watching random people have sex! I meant remotely, if ..."

Ienzo rubbed a hand over his face.

"I'm not really sure how I can help with most of that, aside from keeping my eyes open, which I have been." He just hadn't learned very much. It was possible no one really knew about these things.

"I didn't mind it." Demyx admitted. "The simulation thing. I think they record them too, if you do want to watch someone."

He was just putting that out there.

"Keeping your eyes open is a huge help," Ienzo told him. "You're really observant, and ... if we figure out what sorts of things we need to look for, I think you'd do a better job spotting something than I would."

He knew he tended to get wrapped up in things - he wasn't good at people-watching and blending in like Demyx would.

Ienzo blushed more and blurted out, not really meaning to, "You sound like you're volunteering for me to watch you."

Again flailing slightly, "Which obviously you're not?"

Demyx chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. "I don't really care, I don't think." He admitted.

"It's not that bad. The sex stuff. At least it's kinda fun." Unlike constantly fighting for a weirdo.

"Well." Ienzo felt flustered by it all, and couldn't even say why. Still. "Putting it that way, I suppose ..."

Considering all that they'd both done for the Organization, before Zexion was killed and Ienzo awoke as himself again, well. He could see that. On the balance, all of this was better than manipulating people and destroying worlds and having countless people die or become Heartless or other Nobodies.

... Oh-so-cheerful, that thought. He rubbed the back of his neck again.

"I know compared to anyone who's gotten used to this place, I'm being weird and prudish," Ienzo recognized. "If this is just how things are here, then, I doubt anyone sees it as a big deal. They'd come up to anyone and tell them what they want and need, and the Augur will reward them for it. What have you gotten from them?"

"I really don't think anyone's going to make you if you don't want to." Demyx responded easily, in a manner that might be comforting?

He shook his head. "I don't think you are, I've talked to some people who are kinda uncomfortable about the whole thing. I don't really care." Then again, he didn't have a heart either so whether that contributed, who knew?

"Uhhh, haven't gotten anything yet." Demyx admitted sheepishly. "I haven't turned anything in and asked."

"Thanks," Ienzo could recognize that effort, as casual and simple as it was. "It's not exactly that I'm unwilling, I'm just ... feeling out of my depth."

And Ienzo didn't really want to explain more than that, remembering his awkward, previous attempts in this area as Zexion. If it'd all be like that, he wasn't very certain it would be 'fun'. But he was a different person, then, perhaps the parameters might be different enough? Another kind of experiment, maybe.

Demyx's admission made Ienzo blink. "Why haven't you?"

"I don't know, the whole tech thing is kinda weird so I mean...I don't know. I should figure out how to ask." He admitted.

"Wasn't really a priority, I don't know what to ask for."

Demyx didn't really need anything. He had his sitar and he was good.

"I can help you figure out how to submit your requests," Ienzo easily offered. "I'll need to figure it out for myself, too. If I'm actually going to run experiments about ..."

Oh, he really felt like he had egg on his face now, blushing deeply again. He felt the need to explain himself, "... More personal kinds of experiments. It sounds ridiculous, I know."

The first thing Ienzo could think to ask for was, "Do you have somewhere to live?"

"I guess. You can see it on this bracelet...thing." Demyx held up his wrist. "I always ask the robots to show me, I don't get the whole button thing."

He was really inept at technology, but in his defense, he came from a world that didn't have much of it. Maybe. He didn't remember.

"Uh, I mean, I'm around. There's some run down places that you can sneak into though if you want."

Ienzo told him again, "I can show you next time. You know I'm always willing to help teach people how to use things like this."

In fact, some days, it felt like his entire job was reminding certain people how to use their Gummiphones.

He frowned. "You're just squatting in abandoned places?" Unbidden, he felt an impulse to say, with a bit of stern force, "You need to ask for a home, Demyx. A good one, where you can actually rest, where you'll be safe."

It was like he was ordering him to.

"Yeah, okay, if you want." In his defense, he knew how to use his gummiphone. He could open it up and push the button that said Ienzo to call him.

If Demyx ever got another friend or work contact, he might be in trouble.

"I mean, yeah? I didn't want to stay in a weird church, that was a choice I guess..."

That tone. He barely suppressed a shiver. That tone of voice did things for him, but he was going to avoid mentioning that.

"A home, huh." He shrugged a little bit. He wanted to be flippant and say he wasn't worried about his safety.

When he opened his mouth, what came out instead was, "Nowhere is safe."

00. Arrival

I. HAY FEVER

II. Acute Beef Poisoning

III. BRODEO

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