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TDM 019 : ALL THE LEAVES ARE...
| TDM 19 |
Uploading user data to environmental systems. . . please wait.  Augmentations c̴̦͋o̷͓̺̘̓m̸̮̈̾́p̸̻̃l̵̠̱̤̅e̷̢̧̺͐̃̽t̸͈̓ḙ̴͙̓͘. Proceed . . .? Y/N > Y  Your eyes blink open to the blinding glare of overhead lights and the sight of a pair of glassy mechanical eyes boring into your own. The face above yours moves like liquid mercury, forming an approximation of a figure that you recognize and trust implicitly: a friend, a loved one, a caretaker. Perhaps even a god or a goddess. From its lips fall the patterns of a language that is strange and robotic, and yet familiar to you: Welcome to the N̵̩̈́̓ä̶͇́͂͘m̸̠͒e̴̞̻̾ͅl̷̹̄͝ḙ̷̺͗s̵̳͊̀ṣ̵̱̚ͅ ̶̧͒̄Í̴͔s̵̡̛̺̍̓ļ̵̥͖̄͛͌ḁ̸̳̟̒́n̵̻͑́͗d̴̩͕̰̂̊̔ Darkness overtakes you once again. I. Arrival  When you awake, you find you have washed up on the otherworldly pink sands of an impossibly beautiful beach, the tropical scenery spoiled only slightly by your seasickness. New arrivals, waterlogged and covered in sand, 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, all is available for your use. Stake your claim on a place to live in the now, whether an apartment in the City, a shack on the beach, or a bigger space at the House of Worship with friends. Your inventory will be found a day later, wrapped up haphazardly and delivered to each arrival's home. II. FALLING OVER YOU  The fall scenery and change in foliage continues into the new month. Leaves of red, orange, and yellow cover the trees and always seem to be falling, carpeting forests and dirt footpaths with the soft yet crunchy debris. Even the chillier temperatures don't seem to be going anywhere just yet. Maybe you need to head over to the tailor's or another clothing shop to get warmer outerwear. Or try the latest fall flavors at the Steaming Carafe Café. Everyone will get free hot chocolate that tastes like something warm, comforting...almost nostalgically familiar. There is even a shifting in the Island itself, a new area opening for visits. Wetlands with canoes for easy travel shaded by a thick canopy of trees, including dozens, branches an array of colors as they slip into fall themselves. Take one of the canoes from the boathouse or take a seat provided by your friendly robot helpers and you will find yourself on a leisurely ride through the waters. The robots are especially insistent on you not taking the ride alone and will find someone else to ride with you (or more than one someone). As you take the long route through the wetlands, you'll find two paths you can take, both lined with weeping willows to the point light filters through only when the wind blows. While Route A will seem normal and uneventful, taking Route B may find branches touching different parts of your body as you go. And you might even find those parts of your body suddenly begin to tingle with warmth and arousal. You may even move away from the willows to avoid the sensations, but somehow, someway, they reach out and continue to touch you. The more you try to avoid it, the more insistent the willows seem to become. They might even seem to tug at you, as if to try and remove the clothing that blocks them from reaching your skin. And the warmth will spread across your entire body, leaving you all the more aroused and in desperate need of relief. Completing an auspicious act will alleviate the symptoms, but if you resist until you reach the final bend of the ride, you'll find a beautiful waterfall where both routes meet. Touching the waters nearest to the falls soothes some of the heightened arousal, but a skinny dip will remove it all together, if leaving you chilled and in need of a cuddle your ride buddies will hopefully be willing to provide. III. HELLO, PLUMPKIN!  Along with the shifting foliage and cooler temperatures, pumpkins have sprouted all around the island! Some are attached to thick, twisting vines, others are randomly in places one might never expect. How did those pumpkins get on your roof? Or in your hammock? Did you put that pumpkin on your doorstep? A mystery has unfolded... Until the robots request your help in Plumpkin harvesting! No, no, not pumpkins. Plumpkins These odd creatures feline in nature...if cats were fluffy on top and pumpkin on the bottom. They enjoy causing mischief this time of year as they toddle or roll themselves around the island, putting pumpkins in odd places or playing pranks that some people might even first believe are caused by cherub dragons. But while cherub dragons are generally benign and playful, Plumpkins don't care if their pranks cause trouble, injury, or anything else. They are as chaotic as they are adorable. The robots will impress the importance of getting them calmed down and returned to their Plumpkin Patches and offer credits to anyone who helps in this round-up. Robots will even provide seeds that some Islanders may remember coming from a certain skull sunflowers. Plumpkins love these seeds and most will gladly follow anyone if a promise of more is there. Unfortunately, the supply is limited so you may just have to find a skull sunflower field and collect more. Do be wary of the potential effects of getting any of that sap on you... IV. GOOD WREATH  The robots continue getting into the seasonal mood, decorating the Island in the colors of fall, even in the areas not affected by the changes. They even invite all Islanders to their Autumn Wreath Craft Show! Wall to wall wreaths are lined up for display before they are taken to decorate the various doors, lampposts and shop windows around the Nameless Island and there are long tables where you can try your hand at making some yourself. There is a variety of supplies you can use, from different types of leaves, small dried fruits and vegetables, especially gourds, flowers (even skull sunflowers!), twines, ropes, and branches. Everything you could possibly need. But you may find that some of the items you pick do more than reflect your taste in wreaths, but also have an influence on you in return.
Load Simulation . . .? Y/N READY: Simulation 1.1 Tenebrae Town  Your consciousness comes to you in the midst of a dense autumn forest. You haven't been asleep. You stand there, fully clothed, but perhaps not in your usual attire - perhaps you're wearing a belted tunic with trousers and leather boots to protect you from the cold ground, or a long and modest dress with an apron and a hood, hand-sewn in natural fabrics. The chill in the air and even the smell of the dirt and the trees are not like those of the Island. This place feels old, a strange energy crackling in the air. Some may recognize it as a very ancient magic. In the distance, colorful lights dance between the trees. Approach closely enough and they look like fairies, but they are always just out of your reach. Are they leading you somewhere? No - if you follow them, as they seem to bid you, they will only lead you deeper into danger: a snarling wolf, a sudden drop into a craggy ravine. They are mischievous, sometimes cruel little things. You'll never escape this forest by yourself. For as long as you are alone, the night is interminable - days long, it seems. Are you the determined sort, willing to choose a direction and continue walking no matter what, or will you give into despair of being hopelessly lost? With any luck, it won't take you long to find out that your only way out is with the help of someone else. Only by agreeing to work together will the dawn finally break, and your path into Tenebrae Town will become clear. Should you refuse, or never cross paths with another Islander? Maybe the wolves will take you in. OOC Notes:To accommodate our smaller community and split-setting environment, TDMs going forward will be open to old and new players for top levels! Please state in your subject line whether you are a TDMing a new character, or top-leveling with a character currently in the game! Voting for Audience Choice Awards for Prompt III will be held in November. Threads should be started by the time you submit your entries, but need not be finished in order to win! Entries will still be valid if they include characters who TDMed but did not apply to the game. ALL participants in the contest may handwave one small Augur reward request equivalent to an incomplete thread reward. N A V I G A T I O N |
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Thinking about it has his clenching his fingers, and he quickly relaxes them before he causes bruises. ]
Daozhang.
[ He doesn't even know what he wants to say here, and at the moment, only a single word comes to mind. Command or plea, he doesn't want to think about which it is. ]
Stay.
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He should pull away and insist on cleaning off, yet he's held in place by something other than Xue Yang's grip. Worse still is that he can only think of the point card after his initial hesitance. At least after he remembers it can he figure what to say in response to the man, letting the act and the business of this being a mere transaction guide him forward.
He could ask why to try and get an answer in his words for why he can't leave him be, but it's easier for now to focus on this moment.]
Surely you cannot want to stay in this boat all day. You'll become sore from sitting there.
[While Xue Yang is still inside him, neither of them are nearly as aroused as before, and now the air feels quite strange around them compared to earlier. Perhaps after all that, feigning utter indifference the same way as before will be less convincing between the both of them...]
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[ There's a slight edge to his voice now, something almost frantic, and though he's not necessarily trying to keep himself inside Xiao Xingchen his fingers clench again. His words are slightly halted as he tries to articulate something he hasn't even dared think too much about before right now. ]
You have to stay. Don't... don't go back to the cafe all the time. Stay with me. Come back and stay in that building with me. You have to. You're mine.
[ Despite his attempts to make it sound like he's ordering Xiao Xingchen to obey it rings slightly hollow when taking in all of what spills out, and how he continues to hold him down with clenched fingers. ]
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Yours, to deceive? To play with?
[As strange as it is to have this conversation in this position, tendrils of thoughts he hasn't dared to confront since that day the truth creep out of the place in his mind he pushed them down into. He shouldn't entertain Xue Yang's words.
Still, confronting them directly and pointing out how foolish this is might make Xue Yang give up the pretense.
Memories of other moments that don't make sense in Xue Yang's behavior - pieces of the puzzle that don't really fit anywhere - also resurface in his mind, but those are the ones he shoves back down. If Xue Yang can plan such a long, elaborate play, Xiao Xingchen won't be caught underestimating him again.]
You can do all of that regardless of where I stay.
[If Xue Yang hasn't had enough, he'll have to make due with the places where Xiao Xingchen also has to put on an act. Maybe knowing that Xiao Xingchen isn't fooled and not completely in the palm of his hand doesn't satisfy Xue Yang's fixation, but that's all he can receive.
It's one thing to trick him into a place full of aphrodisiac. Another entirely to try to make him believe something.]
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Funny, because the face would have meant nothing to him.
After a breathless silence, his expression softens. A sense of resignation to something? Not of surrendering. His hand comes up to brush against that face, a deep pain and sorrow in the eyes he shouldn't have.]
I could have done even more than that.
[Under a trembling sigh:]
I could have loved you.
[Maybe that much of a concession will make Xue Yang be the one to laugh instead, and realize just what a fool Xiao Xingchen is. At least he can revel in the damage already done as a consolation prize. Or maybe the strangeness of the very idea will stun Xue Yang into silence, so he won't say words like those anymore.
Not that Xiao Xingchen intends to stay to find out, as his body twists and he reaches for the side of the boat. He puts all of his strength into pushing against Xue Yang's grip, twisting and turning himself to try to reach the water.
Even if he has to run back to the cafe sopping wet and naked, it would be easier than staying here.]
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He almost wants to ask Xiao Xingchen to repeat himself, because he couldn't have heard that right.
"Love"? What the fuck does he mean by "love"? Is Xiao Xingchen a cutsleeve, or has he just been spending too much time in a woman's body? Why would he even be thinking about anything like that? He's one of those stupid, pure cultivators who wouldn't ever--
Xiao Xingchen is already over the side of the boat before Xue Yang recovers enough to react. His immediate thought is to jump into the water after him, but his response was slow enough that Xiao Xingchen has already swum out of reach. ]
Who the fuck said anything about love?!
[ With no better option at the moment, he yells after Xiao Xingchen instead. ]
You're mine, daozhang! You belong with me! Get back here!
no subject
Even more than his current state, the act of running away every time stings his pride. But... what else can he do? Every new thing that Xue Yang says only confuses him—not rejecting the man's demands out of hand only confuses him more.
He doesn't stop running until he's at the beach, and - after a quick glance and moment to listen for anyone nearby - transforms into the half-fish form he used before here. Swimming deep past the surface until he's beyond anyone's line of sight, he catches his breath, already used to the strange feeling of water in his lungs in this body. All he needs is a moment to think again, even if his current form complicates it some more when he remembers just what happened when he first was turned into this strange creature.
If Xue Yang somehow hasn't stooped so low as to pretend what he feels is love to get what he wants... what is it, really? Just a desire for a sense of ownership? But his feelings don't seem to waver, though he's unsure if Xue Yang merely doesn't care about being accidentally killed in general, or...
His heart still hasn't stopped racing, as his back presses against the sand and he looks up at the distorting water's surface.]