pedalbike | Fourth TDM: Winter's breath

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Fourth TDM: Winter's breath

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As a quick note: This will be the last TDM and Application Round of the year! Have fun everyone!

Arrival

Not all characters (known as Wickie, singular or Wickies, plural) arrive at the same time, surprisingly enough! That’s life for you. Some Wickies find their way to the island at a pivotal (or very mundane) point in their life, or even after or during their death.

Wickies who were standing or walking often find themselves entering the town South Sister, located on Lighthouse Isle, through an open doorway. Those that were laying down, or sleeping, tend to be found lying prone in beds, bathtubs, showers, couches, and similar places within the cottages on Cottage Row. There’s no rhyme or reason to it all! To Wickies familiar with the era, they will realize that everything looks as if it’s come from the ‘90s.

The house which a Wickie finds themselves within could already be occupied. This includes walking into a fellow Wicke, waking up in the same location, or accidentally scaring a room full of people with their sudden appearance.

Oops.

Start of Winter

Thankfully things have more or less dried out, for the seasons are already changing. Or at least, the weather is, and with it...comes snow.

The grass on the island is covered, various trees lose the last of their leaves, the sand becomes crunchy, and even a portion of the ocean water becomes frozen solid. (Take THAT, water!). And with it, Wickies wake up at their feet (or suddenly in their hands if they don’t sleep) warm clothing and various ways to keep warm- or at least keep the cold from messing with their joints!

And with it, there are snow shovels and boots that are set out neatly by the door. It seems more snowk is expected, and foot protection is more important than ever. While it is possible for some (those who are not infected by the Silence at least) to use the teleporter to get from town to their homes, there are pathways that need to be cleared for everyone.

It might be a good time to offer a helping hand! Especially with some Wickies who are snowed into their homes.

Or it could be a good time to use the shovels to gather snow for snow ball fights, snow forts, and similar winter activities. The nice thing about the winter shovels is that they’ll have them for a few months.

Too bad the ground is nearly frozen solid, and these particular shovels are not good for digging into the ground.

Frosty Protections

While there may be the snow and the quiet that’s coming in, there are other things that are coming into the island too. There are tables that linger day or night, which have tangyuan. Some in the shape of various animals, and some of them that are simply balls of colored dough. They are edible, and thankfully they don’t have a negative consequence to eating them (unlike the mooncakes from before) but there are written instructions, which also proclaim outloud to a Wickie if they linger for awhile:

“For the use of protective talismans! Stick it on your chair, your door, your window!”

Interestingly enough, they do seem to work. Wickies who are Silence infected are repelled by them, feeling uneasy and nauseous around them and touching the tangyuan even with covered hands will cause a burning sensation.

Infected Wickies who eat the treats...they’re in for a rough time. Really rough.

There are also little tables with various drinks, some being fruit juice, sparkling fruit juice, champagne and of similar ilk- but not ever with water. That’s just bad luck after everything.

The inscription for this table, which is again read out loud, “Toast to others health”

Picking up the cups, they will be unable to drop it, and the fluid will refill in the Wickie’s cup until they find someone to toast to- whether it’s in humor or in earnestness.

For the next twelve hours after the toast is made, even if the drink is not drunk after, the Wickie toasted will find they will have better luck in that subject, whether it is in health, love, or friendship, or just in general.

The same applies if Wickies toast together to a group of people as well.

Of hooves and horns

The strangest thing of all isn't the sweet rice balls, nor is it the smell of evergreens heavy in the air. Instead, it's the masks set to everyone, and the ruckus music that thrums through the air, deep into the night.

The masks are of a haggard old woman, well worn and aged, and that of a man with horns and facial hair similar to a goat.

There are different effects when it comes to the masks, both happening at night with the music starts.

Wickies wearing the devilish mask find themselves wearing a ragged fur suit, prancing in the streets, ready to whip other Wickies whose behavior has been suspect or bad as of late. Finding the wicked and punishing them is an impulse, neigh impossible to ignore. And, too, there is a sense of wicked glee when they do punish someone with their reeds and whips. Krampus masked Wickies thankfully can be pacified with rum or brandy. They'll need the help of another to pull of the mask. But once it's off, the costume vanishes, and the chagrin of what happened ( or the satisfaction) follows.

Wickies wearing the woman’s mask will find that they’re not trying to scare people, but instead, they find themselves loping in and out of the crowds, searching, scanning, for certain people, all the while wearing ragged clothing, and often a scarf on their now ratty, graying hair.

It’s with a sickening horror that Wickies will realize there is something in the mask that is watching through the mask itself, and is nodding to itself far away and writing their names on a list.

And it’s not Santa Claus.

The Wickie’s wearing the old woman’s mask can be distracted by scattering seeds or threads in front of them- one inducing a true distraction to count and pick up the seeds, and a rage that comes over that of wasted thread.

Seeds make it easier to pull off the mask, and thankfully popcorn counts as a seed! But thread...well, it is a distraction too, but one that can lead to violent consequences. It might mean some rounds of bait and switching until the mask is taken off.

And that’s when the Wickie who had been wearing the mask realizing the list is of ‘bad’ Wickies, But…

how bad could they be?

Confession network

Yet again, the phone goes off. Doesn’t look like it’s anybody in town, but it’s that weird, cheesy app called The Heart Game. And it’s persistent, too: it doesn’t want to be ignored, making a series of beeps and chirps, much like a pet that wants attention.

The message that pops up is as follows:

We’re back! It’s the time for everyone's favorite game- Confession! So beloved users, our question is:

What do you love about winter? Is it the nip on your nose? The hot drinks? Playing in the snow? Tell us!

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While Lina wouldn't hesitate to blast Zel, there has always been something about Zelgadis in a temper, or bad mood, that throws her off. There is a part of her that would rather just blast him, but food.... Maybe she can learn, after all.

"I'm going to let that slide because there's nothing but food surrounding us. And maybe I'll be gracious enough to forget it, because you're probably grouchy and need to eat, too," Lina so magnanimously offers.

"You want any tea to go with this meal?"

"Excuse me, who's the grouchy one here?"

Okay, so maybe he is a little grouchy, but he thinks it probably has more to do with waking up in some weird town with no explanation as to why than it does with being hungry. Either way, he decides that there's no point in arguing about who's grouchy and why. He sighs and just deflates a bit, giving Lina a quick shrug.

"Actually, tea does sound pretty nice right about now." He's not so sure he's call that box of colorful snack cakes that Lina's found a meal, but he'll just keep that to himself.

Edited (O HTML) 2020-12-11 00:07 (UTC)

It's a good thing he thinks there's no point in arguing, because that's exactly what Lina will do, stubbornly, and finish with abuse, if given the chance.

"You're the grouchy one, clearly," Lina says darkly as she looks back, a ball of fire starting to build in her hands.

She's already grabbed pre-popped popcorn and bag of "shrimp chips". She'll grab rotisserie cooked chicken and some fresh fruit and vegetables on the way out, but first, she's going to make sure she's prepared!

"Look? Already made tea," Lina cheerfully tells Zel, like she hadn't been just about to verbally bite his head off (and possibly physically fry him), as she picks up a bottle and shows it to him.

"I think you need some."

Zel is half tempted to counter with a spell of his own, but seeing as Lina is very quickly distracted by something other than setting him ablaze, he'll just let it slide. Talking to Lina is like conversational whiplash sometimes, and one just has to learn to roll with the punches. And fireballs.

"You may be right," Zelgadis says, reaching for the bottle to inspect it closer. The ingredient list catches his eye, and he squints to read the tiny print.

"Water, high fructose corn syrup, tea, phosphoric acid, sodium hexa...metaphosphate... What-- what is this stuff? Red 40? What is that? What--"

He is absolutely perplexed by the bottle, don't mind him.

"Dunno...." Lina mutters as she finally looks at the "ingredients" on her own packages. She can't help but check into it now that Zelgadis has started it.

"At least yours says tea. I'm not sure there's any shrimp in these chips, at all."

He's too smart for his own good. They could just be eating garbage food and going about their day, but nooo, Zel had to go and read the big words. Now he's just suspicious of everything in this store.

In the name of science, he's opening this bottle up right now and taking a drink because what does sodium hexametaphosphate taste like, and almost immediately grimaces.

"Gah, this is horrible! It just tastes like sugar! Tea should be the easiest thing in the world to make, it's just water and tea!"

No, fuck this, now he's on a quest. He will find real tea in one of these goddamn bottles if it's the last thing he does. Sorry Lina, he is now grabbing one of each different type of bottled tea and obsessively reading the label.

"They better not make us pay for that," Lina gripes. She's willing to pay for the other stuff, but not the tea Zelgadis taste-tested and decided to leave.

She gets bored pretty quickly of Zel's crusade to obtain just tea and goes around the corner to find...well, a very interesting aisle, indeed.

Lina opens her mouth to shout over at him, and let him know what she has found, but closes it. Nah. She'll tell him in a little bit.

"I'm certainly not paying for this filth," so he says, but he probably will anyway if only to avoid unnecessary conflict. For now, though, he's going to spend the next 20 or so minutes reading bottles. With so many options to choose from, surely at least one of these will actually be ingestible.

Eventually he does find one that he deems acceptable, and brings it over to Lina to show her.

"There, see, this is all tea should be. Water and tea, how hard is it to get that right?" And now Zelgadis is an organic food snob, good times.

She appreciates the twenty minutes she has to herself to turn in her basket for a huge cart and start dumping stuff in it. And when Zel joins her....

"It's not that hard at all," Lina says with an amused smile.

"Considering this entire aisle I found has tons of tea. You just put a bag of it in warm water and make your own." She makes a grand gesture with her hand to the colorful boxes lining the shelves from top to bottom.

Zelgadis stares for a moment, fully regretting every one of his life choices that lead him to this point. He sighs, casually setting the bottle of tea on a shelf next to him and claps Lina on the shoulder.

"I wish you'd told me sooner, but thank you."

Lina is still grinning away.

"I wasn't going to ruin all of your fun of reading every single label over there. Didn't want to bother you, Zel."

It was totally intentional. She turns around to throw more stuff in the cart. And no, she still has no idea how they're paying for this. She plans to try to run the cart through the magically opening front doors.

"Of course, how thoughtful of you."

Why is it that the only times Lina doesn't want to bother Zelgadis is when he's pissing away his time doing something completely unimportant?? SIGH. Whatever, he grabs a box of the most basic looking black tea he can find and tosses it into the cart.

"Are we almost done here? We still need to find someplace to eat this stuff."

By 'we' he means Lina, of course, he's still not planning on ditching her despite how stupid this whole thing is.

"Of course it was thoughtful." And particularly selfish.

At the question, Lina sighs. "Yeah, yeah. We can go now."

Aw - she'd be touched Zel plans to stick by her side, for now, especially since the others aren't there. And especially since, given the right chance, she might ditch him. Not now, not yet. Not when they know nothing about the world they're in, or why they're there, at least.

With the decision made, she makes a beeline for the front doors, only, they don't open, and she's not actually able to leave.

"What is this about?! Open, you stupid doors, like you did earlier, or I'll make you open!"

If they ever get to a point where things make sense, they might just go their separate ways, but for now it makes more sense to stick together. Not that is seems like they'll even be able to get out of here at all, what with these doors not opening.

Since yelling at the doors doesn't seem to be working, Zelgadis tries manually opening them, but despite his freaky chimera strength not even he can get them to budge.

"That's unusual. It could be some sort of barrier spell? But then why didn't it prevent us from entering...?" Don't mind him, he's just going to try to solve this riddle with logic.

Still seething, Lina looks at the odd box with a readout for numbers on it not far from the exit doors.

Speaking of logic, usually, when taking items from a place, you have to pay, right?

So, logically speaking.... Lina growls out, "I think we have to pay. But I don't see a shop keeper to do business with!"

Zelgadis makes his way over to the cashier counter to investigate closer, maybe he can find some runes for some kinda... anti-stealing food enchantment or something?? He's not entirely sure what he's looking for, and the absence of a shop keeper is really making this difficult.

"Well, whatever this is seems to be meant to keep people from leaving without paying, which leads me to believe that there is no shop keeper. Maybe just try leaving your money over here? The best thing we have to work with now is trial and error."

Well, that was odd. At the same time.... "Thanks, Zel! Not sure what I would do without you," she manages to genuinely say. She knows exactly what she would do, though. Blow through the windows, eat in the store. Whatever it took. The store would be decimated, in the end.

Things just get stranger when she starts to pull what little gold she has only to find a rectangular piece of plastic in there. She ignores the gold to pull it out.

"Hey, Zel. You got anything like this on you? Looks like these creeps went through my stuff while I was out!" And now she's going to fireball someone when she finds out who's responsible, even if they didn't take anything.

"I'm almost certain this place would be on fire if I wasn't here."

It sounds more like light hearted joking than it does a jab at Lina, but he's absolutely serious about it. While he's talking, he busies himself with pulling out his coin bag and rifling through it's contents, also pulling out a small, rectangular piece of plastic which he holds up to investigate.

"Odd. Nothing seems to be missing, but someone's planted one of these on me, too."

He's half tempted to burn it and leave it here just to be safe, but he'll deal with that later. For now he's planning on looking through the rest of his stuff to make sure that nothing else weird is going on, and sets the card aside on top of the cashier counter.

And then the door opens. Having no chill, Zel is a bit startled by this and prepares to draw his sword, don't mind him.

Annoyed, Lina watches as Zelgadis finds a card as well, and is rather intent when the card is placed down and suddenly...the doors are open. Hmmm. She

"Zel! Calm down," Lina says, acting like she's remotely chill, when they both know she's more hot-headed than a volcano.

"I think that card...paid for our stuff."

Ooooh, it's just the door. Feeling a bit ridiculous for overreacting, Zel heaves a sigh and calms down, looking the card over again.

"I don't really get it, but I guess it might be a good idea to hold onto these for now."

Maybe they'll come across someone who can actually tell them what these are, but for now he's just going to stuff the card back into his bag.

"So, where to now? I'm sure you don't want to eat out in the cold."

Lina pulls out her own piece of plastic and stares at it, curiously, as she pushes the cart for a bit. She's about to tell Zel, sweetly, to push it for her, then remembers he's not Gourry and that's likely not going to go over well.

"Yeah, definitely holding onto this."

As for where they're going, Lina frowns and looks around.

"You didn't see an inn?" Yeah, if he's not going to push a cart, he can figure out where the inn is.

He'd throw that cart into a goddamn lake before he'd push it for you, Lina. He'd probably push it for Amelia, though.

"Come to think of it, I don't remember seeing anything that looks like an inn..." he trails off, taking the lead and scanning each building for the telltale signs of an inn. "The architecture here is so unusual, I'm not actually sure what any of these establishments are supposed to be."

And that is why she's not letting him touch that cart. Ever.

"I don't either...." Lina frowns and looks around the town from the spot they're at.

"There's always an inn! We just have to find it!" Maybe it was like the food, and not as they were used to? Just had to find a place with rooms and beds.

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Fourth TDM: Winter's breath

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Probably wind it down from here? But if you ever want to do memes with Zel, lmk, plz!!