memewara | 「 TDM 03 」

Entry tags:

* tdm

「 TDM 03 」

i. Arrival

There isn't any strange feeling or sudden blackout to warn someone of what's to come - it simply happens. One moment they're in their own world attending to their own business, and the next they're underwater. Specifically, the dark, cold waters of the Sumida River. With the final days of spring having already given way to the summer heat the water is actually quite refreshing, but the sudden shock leaves new arrivals at risk of drowning.

Luckily, they aren't alone. The crews that constantly patrol the river are quick to fish the newcomers out, dry them off, and explain the situation. Maybe the words and names mean something to said newcomers, and maybe they don't. No matter the case, they're the same for everyone: you're in Yoshiwara, near the city of Tokyo in the country of Japan, and you're here to stay. If your surroundings aren't familiar, that's to be expected; this world isn't the one you know.

New arrivals that feel up to the task are encouraged to help with retrieving other newcomers. Those that don't welcome to sit quietly out of the way until the boats return to docks. Once there everyone is given directions to a nearby dormitory, where they can find temporary housing - and maybe a change of clothes - before their faction assignments are finalized. Those that still feel overwhelmed are permitted to mingle on the docks. There's not much to do but sit around and drip dry, but at least there are friendly locals that are willing to answer any questions for them.

ii. Humidity Is Rising

The onset of summer hasn't just brought high temperatures. The rainy season is in full swing and this week in particular has been plagued with heavy downpours. Hopefully everyone has an umbrella!

But even those that don't aren't out of luck.

Ougai, the old man that runs an oden cart in the west district, has some spare umbrellas, left behind by previous customers. Anyone who happens to pass by and is in need of an umbrella will be given one for free. It's a simple act of kindness, but it's one that inspires a warmth in the heart, and the desire to spread that warmth to others.

Anyone who accepts one of the umbrellas will feel compelled to share it with other people, inviting even strangers into the dry space beneath. It seems that even the shy and antisocial are drawn in by this compulsion. It doesn't stop there, of course. Once two people step beneath the same umbrella to share it, they'll be overcome with romantic feelings for one another. It's not unusual to feel symptoms similar to a school girl with a crush, hearts beating faster, each brush of shoulders causing a rush of ecstasy, the risk of rain bringing the couples closer together with each step. However those feelings might show is up to each individual, of course, but one thing is for certain: this is love.

At least for now, anyway. These feelings certainly seem real, and they can last for up to a few hours after the umbrella has been set aside. They do eventually fade, however, leaving behind nothing but confusion and, perhaps, a faint longing for what was just lost.

iii. No Sun Up In The Sky

Unfortunately, lovey dovey umbrellas aren't the only ones being passed around. On occasion, someone may pick up or be handed an umbrella that's not so nice. Some begin to fight the user, closing over their head while they're walking, pinching fingers, or smacking any passerby to instigate violence. Others sprout legs and take off, leaving you soaking in the rain. Some might even stretch out subtly above you and create holes for the rain to fall through anyway.

These tricky umbrellas love to catch people off guard, so it could be a good while into your stroll before they pull a fast one on you. Hopefully there are some kind souls around to lend you a hand, since sometimes even ditching the umbrella and heading indoors doesn't solve the problem. Some people will find themselves stuck with an unfortunate case of bad luck that can last up to a few hours after leaving (or being abandoned by) the umbrella. Bad luck can manifest in a number of different ways, such as horrible butterfingers (especially when it comes to handling fragile items), tripping over your own feet (and into others, most of the time), and standing under the wrong portion of roof just before it collapses from the rain and pours all over you.

Though the umbrellas look quite normal, something about them may seem distinctly odd or unusual to those that are exceptionally perceptive or sensitive to the supernatural. These individuals have a chance to avoid these pesky umbrellas or even warn other people away from them, provided they're present when said umbrellas are being passed out.

iv. Just Play For The Fun

The heat and the rain are both driving residents inside, which means that certain indoor-only businesses are booming. One of said businesses happens to be an arcade! With big posters advertising a discount on tokens and a special tournament, word gets out fast, and people of all ages are making their way inside for a break from the rain with some fun. Tokens give you access to plenty of games, so try your hand at anything from crane games, side-scrollers, platformers, puzzle games, and rhythm games. It's easy to get pulled in to spending more and more tokens, but with the discounts, what harm is there?

In addition to the average arcade games that can be accessed, there are posters and signs all over announcing a special tournament for some kind of shooting game called LOST CONFLICT: DREADHUNT, the title of which is written in letters that drip blood. The game is played in teams of two, and centers around killing demons that have overrun a resort town. It's over-the-top gory, liberal in its use of nudity, and seems to be something of a classic. To enter, players simply fill out a form at any of the various locations throughout the arcade and wait for the announcements later on in the evening. Characters will be paired off and have the very simple rules explained to them: shoot everything you can, and earn points doing it! The team with the most points advances.

A little friendly competition never hurt anyone, right? Unlike normal tournaments where only one main winner gets a reward, competitors are rewarded with each battle won. Vouchers for food, drinks and prizes within the cafe are handed out to each winner of each round, meaning that it's a tournament focused on getting the most wins. Have fun!

v. Cafe Lazy

But don't think that the rain, arcade games, and umbrella-related mishaps are enough to make Yoshiwara give up on its true nature. The cafe Lazy is running another one of their special promotions, offering a free full serving of an iced (on sunny days) or hot (on rainy days) drink to any passersby who look appropriately warm and sweaty, wet and cold, or just plain unoccupied.

Anyone who accepts will find themselves whisked into the cafe, seated at one of several kotatsu (which are all partitioned off with thick curtains), and presented with a tall glass of the drink of their choice. They won't be alone, either. Everyone is seated with at least one partner and encouraged to make idle chatter while they drink. The socially awkward might find the small book labeled 'conversations starters' helpful, and if that doesn't work there's also a small box of goodies on each table. It sure is a friendly atmosphere.

Perhaps too friendly, which may be familiar to some established residents. It turns out that some, but not all, of the drinks are laced with aphro, a variety that causes both arousal and mild giddiness. The thick, nearly soundproof curtains might make more sense now; they're clearly meant to muffle the sounds of lovemaking from other patrons. Visitors don't have to mingle so extensively, of course. Again, some of the drinks are just regular drinks, and there's no discernable pattern behind which are spiked and which aren't. Still, the 'conversation starters' book goes from fairly innocent prompts (like 'if you could have any one animal as a loyal pet, which would you choose?') to more risque ones ('describe your ideal sexual encounter') in a hurry, and the box's goodies consist of lubricant, sexual position guides, and bullet vibrators. Sex is clearly the intent here.

On the way out customers will be told that the whole process is an advertisement for the cafe's 'couples service', thanked for their participation, and sent on their way with a smile. Maybe it's a good idea to accept Yoshiwara's generosity with caution from now on.

Wildcard

As always, there are plenty of other things to do. Perhaps some newcomers will want to poke around the town's various locations, check out its assorted businesses, or even visit a legitimately haunted house. There's plenty of things to see and very few limitations to exploration, so there's no reason someone has to stay near the docks and temporary dorms if they don't want to.

OOC

Hello, and welcome to the Yoshiwara Nights TDM! Use this post to voice test characters, decide who you want to app, and get a feel for the game and your fellow potential players.

Events of the TDM may be kept as game canon. Once you've been accepted you can submit a thread of your character pulling people out of the river (Arrival) to gain bonus reputation with your starting faction. You can only submit one thread, and it must have five comments from you to qualify. Both new and current characters may submit reputation threads.

Reserves will open on June 3rd (that's tonight)! Our monthly schedule can be found here. If you haven't already please make yourself familiar with our information pages.

Due to this TDM being a last minute change in the schedule and going up so late, we will be allowing 10 comments required for applications to come from as many individual threads as needed. If you’re still unable to reach 10 comments, you may also provide a standalone written sample. This applies to this application round only.

If you have any questions about the TDM prompts please direct them here. You can also follow us on Plurk at

yoshiwara for further updates.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ He wrinkles his nose. Katsuki's pretty sure he'd prefer the aphrodisiacs to emotions-inducing umbrellas, but that's not terribly surprising when he makes a habit of being as emotionally out of touch as humanly possible. He's not thrilled about the aphrodisiacs either, but at least they're pretty much exclusively physical... ]

Just don't trust any food or drink if you're really not sure what's in it. It's like...a thing, here.

[ And if he doesn't know that - ]

You must be new. How the hell could you tell about the umbrella? Q - superpower?

[ He still has to not say "quirk" and it's bullshit. ]

( Ah, yes, a mutual partner in 'let's not feel emotions unless absolutely necessary'. Excellent. )

Spot-on, inspector. ( New-ness, that is. ) Magic umbrellas aren't a great welcoming committee, but I'm guessing you're not the complaints department around here, so I'll file that away as unnecessary. ( Which means he'll try to keep the complaining to a minimum, maybe. Probably?

Dirk leans back into the building he's currently taking shelter under the awning of, hands immediately depositing themselves into his pockets, huffing. Superpowers. Close enough, right? )

Yeah, superpower. Can tell when shit like that is trying to screw with my head. Makes me a fun-killer at parties. ( Not that he ventures to parties. Or participates in them when he is there. )

I'm theoretically a yakuza enforcer. [ Which he like...does. He does the guarding bullshit because he needs a job and he can creatively interpret what needs guarding, usually making it out to be "people in trouble" or "buildings I don't mind loitering around today".

It makes being an unwilling part of a crime syndicate easier to stomach.

Also, they let him blow shit the fuck up, which is nice. ]

And parties are useless, so who cares? [ His friends would disagree, but they're unfortunately all loud extroverts and he Hates It even if he puts up with it... ] Got to say that's not exactly a flashy quirk, but I guess it's a fucking useful one.

( If he wants flashy, Dirk could (in theory) provide, but what sort of douche shows his hand all at once? Especially to someone claiming to be yakuza. Even though Dirk comes from a far reaching future in which people don't really exist anymore, he has ducking eyes and has watched enough movies and read enough news articles to know exactly who this guy is representing.

Still-

That's kinda fuckin' cool, right? Especially when there's mention of a mutual disdain for social functions. )

Bruh, parties are the most asinine shit on the fucking planet. ( Thank god; someone with some actual damn sense. Being surrounded by primarily extroverted friends makes life into a certain misery that Dirk would rather skip. )

So, yakuza, you got something flashier? ( He can roll with referring to it as a quirk. New, seeing as quirks for him are more text-oriented, but word choice kinda doesn't matter at all, ultimately. )

[ He flips his free hand up, and immediately -

The air above it explodes, controlled so as not to do any actual damage to...anything, really. He's more in for usually actually causing mayhem, but he's not about to do rampant property damage just to show off.

There's the scent of burnt toffee and ash in the air now, but smelling sweet comes with the whole sweating nitroglycerin schtick. ]

Bakugou Katsuki. [ He gives it Japanese order, last then first, although the chances of him calling Dirk anything other than "Shades" is pretty fucking slim. ]

( Yo.

Yoooooo. )

Shit, man, that's rad as hell. ( And if they're doing flashy olympics, Bakugou probably has him beat. Like, definitely. Dirk can rip souls out of bodies, but he can't explode things on command and that's far cooler than the whole soul/body ripping thing he's got going on. It's probably why he won't mention it; lack of cool, also probably a little weird to share on a first encounter.

You can cause explosions? Neat-o, I can rip a persons soul out of their body so they stop existing.

Yeah, he'll just, uh. Stick to being impressed. )

Strider. ( Because first names are dumb and at least if Dave is here and even remotely known, giving the name might be a tip off. Or he'll be lone-Strider-ing-it and that's just fuckin' dandy, too. ) So is that standard-issue where you come from? Superpowers or whatever you wanna call 'em?

[ There's no recognition at "Strider", anyway, although Katsuki is kind of bad at bothering to remember names at all...he doesn't really mind answering questions when he's in one of his more neutral-angry moods, though. Resting bitch face and resting actual grumpiness... ]

Eighty percent of the world population has 'em. The rest are Quirkless. [ Until and unless they get a quirk some other way, but that's rare... ] It's a genetic thing. My old lady's quirk is "glycerin", which pretty much just makes her skin smooth. The old man sweats acid. Combine them and you get me.

Huh, no shit? ( That's pretty fucking cool. Has Dirk wondering why some universes let people just be born with innate abilities like that, while in his world you have to die to be on the receiving end. Bullshit, really, but it's definitely pretty rad to hear about it. )

Eighty percent of the world population is dead where I come from. ( More than that. He was one of two humans left on the face of the Earth before the apocalypse went and happened. ) Short end of the shit stick.

[ He just lifts his eyebrows in sort of wordless "huh". It's not like their world was going all that much better before heroes started being a thing...

...although it clearly ended better. ]

What'd you do to be part of the not dead population?

( He contemplates telling the truth or not, debating on making up some bullshit about how he was one of the few survivors. )

I was ectobiologically cloned and landed in the ocean after being essentially teleported there. Floated to shore to one of the last structures standing, lived there alone until I was sixteen, at which point the world officially fucked itself into oblivion. Essentially.

( Is he joking??? Let's hope he's joking. )

[ Honestly he's taking it with a grain of salt but also figuring it could be legit? I, personally, have no idea if he is being bullshat because I know nothing about Homestuck. ]

So...what, you world-hopped?

[ A world being fucked into oblivion doesn't sound like a place one could stay, after all. ]

( The really unfortunate part is that he is not, in fact, lying about this. Wild. )

Yeah, basically. Three of my friends and I transported ourselves into a real life session of something akin to dungeons and dragons that essentially wrecked everyone's collective shit. ( Honestly that's the least complicated way to explain his world so he's going with it. ) Sounds like your world was better off.

[ Homestuck??? ]

Yeah, I guess. People around the time of quirks appearing probably wouldn't agree with you, but it...evened out.

[ Eventually. ]

( Homestuck: The Biggest Shitpost Ever. )

Beats having the Earth dying in a literal hellfire of bullshit. ( Which is essentially what happened to his, so, y'know. ) Gotta be the better alternative, people pickin' up some superpowers.

Plus, luck as hell that you don't have to do anything to get 'em. You want super powers where I come from and you're gonna have to die first.

( WHAT SORT OF HELLSCAPE ARE YOU FROM, DIRK, JESUS. )

...Wait, you've died?

[ Dirk confirmed he had some kinda super power earlier.

Dirk??? ]

( Whoops. )

Uh. Yeah. ( He just??? Shrugs??? As though it's no big deal, because he sort of figures it isn't at this point. He's seen and experienced death a couple times by now, so- ) Immortal now, though. So kinda got the better end of that, right.

Dunno. What brand of immortality d'you got?

[ He's not convinced any brand is that worthwhile, since Katsuki pretty much wouldn't want to live forever. ]

Pretty sure I can only die of old age at this point. ( Like, maybe? He doesn't even know, really. ) Used to be that only a justified of heroic death could keep me down and out, but these days, probably just an accumulation of years that's going to knock my old man ass to the ground.

I don't think living forever would be all it's cracked up to be, honestly.

[ Like. Even if you could guarantee everyone you ever liked was also immortal, which he finds unlikely. ]

Yeah, man, hard fuckin' pass on that concept. I've seen enough in the last twenty-one years to last me a damn lifetime. I don't need multiples to witness more shit.

( Plus, he saw the result of humanity mostly dying out, and they'll eventually get themselves there again; Dirk doesn't need -- or want -- a front seat on that action, thanks. )

Guessin' this means you're a run of the mill mortal with superpowers, sparky? ( Jesus, Dirk, pick a better nickname for the guy. )

I ain't run of the mill anything, Shades.

[ If he were a cat, his hackles would be raised. ]

But if you're asking about immortality, I don't have it. Just some biological shit that goes with my quirk.

( Ah, yes, his favourite: soft spots in the armor where he gets to poke the bear. )

I mean, you look like a pretty standard-issue human, aside from the exploding thing. ( There's just the barest hint of a smirk there to show that Dirk is definitely just fucking with him. Don't let him bait you, Katsuki!! ) Can't tell me you ain't gonna share with the class about this biological thing. I love weird shit. ( Which is definitely not a lie, Dirk really digs the oddities of people and people-shaped beings. )

I run hot.

[ Sure, half and half's fire side runs hotter, but Katsuki's temperature is higher than average. ]

...and pretty much every damn thing about nitroglycerin applies. Not like I've had much reason to test all the effects besides the most useful one. [ Which means what, exactly? ]

I bet you do. ( DIRK SHUT UP.

Wait-

Wait, what the fuck is the most useful one? Nevermind, he's going to guess, because Dirk enjoys guessing games that he wasn't invited to start. )

Tell me you use it as a propellant to launch your ass in the air using your explosion-on-demand. ( u have no idea how badly he wants that to be true. )

[ Honestly Katsuki doesn't even notice the comment really...he's actually incredibly smart but like. Emotionally a little dumb and hyper focused on his goals?? It takes him a while to notice he's being hit on and to care the other person has to be strong enough to give him a run for his money in a fight.

He just snorts. ]

I've been known to use it to move around, sure. Other less useful shit: I get to smell like burnt sugar and taste somewhere around as sweet, apparently. [ That's dryly said more than anything else. Tasting like candy is not high on his list of desires and he could have lived without it being pointed out ever. ] ...when I sweat, anyway. Pretty sure it ain't a good idea for long term exposure though I'm immune to any contact highs from myself. Kinda like a friend of mine ain't able to hurt herself easy with acid. The medicinal uses of nitroglycerin presumably might apply but who fucking knows. You know what all it's used for?

「 TDM 03 」

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Sorry for the delay, I'm out of town!

No worries!!! I'm always slow af

I'm...back now...

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