pedalbike | 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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"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.

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!!