TCP session

[1011686]

You are in a completely, utterly dark void. For an indeterminate amount of time, you simply drift, ethereal, ephemeral. Then, a tugging sensation, light at first, but becoming stronger. You are caught in something, bunched up, pushed through some membrane into a form that can feel, and smell, and hear. Your voice, your thoughts are one of many, you can hear them all, until they blur together along with yours. Your past memories and thoughts are pushed to one side, making room for a new awareness as a collaborative entity.

You are a collective…
...
...type TCP.

Well, this seems unusual.
After becoming corporeal, your mind feels both almost empty and cluttered with information, as if everything you know is just on the tip of your tongue but you can't quite grasp any of it. You even feel like you know more about your current situation than you're supposed to, somehow.

You take note of your surroundings.It's still dark, but you can now tell that it’s due to a large, warm blanket you appear to be under. It’s quite soft.
You can’t really tell anything else about what's around you, other than that whatever your lying on is comfortable as well. There are some slight sounds of movement from nearby. Maybe you should get up and walk around, see what’s what.
Or you could consider your own existence some more. You're pretty comfy where you are right now after all, no need to rush things.



(I can't really draw, so this is going to be text only. Hopefully my prose will be easy on the eyes.)

[King-Clod]

Let's get up, walk around a bit, and uh...
Dab.
Let's dab.

[AceOfNothing]

Give the blanket a good push into the air then roll out from under it’s fast as we can

[cosmo]

name!! name!! name!! we need a name!!

[TwistBone]

Name: Dabber
It’s the only name that makes sense

[1011686]

With a quick shove, you lift the blanket into the air above your head, then roll your body out from beneath it, revealing to you what appears to be a lightly illuminated room. Before you get much of a look at it though, your momentum carries you off the bed you were on and you fall to the floor, landing on a carpet with a soft thud.

Slowly, you stand up and walk around the room. The floor is filled with… things. Some small and made of many parts, some are long and flat and hang over each other. You feel like you should really know what these things are, but you just, can’t quite recognise any of them. Through some deep sense you feel that maybe you just need a reminder, just need to get closer and fiddle around with them for a bit and it might come to you. One large rectangular thing in particular has a warm yellow light peeking around its edges, and seems to be the source of those sounds you heard a few moments ago.

Before you get to any of that, though, you feel a need to express your existential confusion, your curiosity at the world around you, and the joy of simply being alive through the only gesture that can convey them all at the same time.

You dab. You really put your back into it, too.

And to commemorate your action, you decide it would only be fitting for others to know of you by such an expression as well. Yes, your name will be Dabb-

>NAME: Tables

Your name is Tables. Despite this not being the case a moment before, the name feels intimately familiar to you, as if you’ve been called it for years. You feel a strong association with the word, and the thought of calling yourself something else now feels a little awkward.

“Oh my gosh you’re adorable!”

A voice rings out, not seeming to come from any direction in particular but simply appearing in your head. It sounds excited. And young.

[King-Clod]

"You are too! ...I mean, I can't see you, but you sound like it! Also thank you for the name! I really like it, it suits me."

...wait shoot can we speak yet

[cosmo]

"who are you?????"

[TwistBone]

I should hope we’re adorable, I’ve yet to see an ugly tcp and I’d hate for us to be the first.
Attempt communication, and if we can’t speak we must communicate through interpretive dance, as we are clearly an experienced dancer already.

[1011686]

You feel curious at this voice, and eager to answer its compliment in kind. You’ve never seen a single other living creature, or even really yourself yet for that matter, but you feel like being adorable is a good thing. Forming a response in your head, you....

You…

...You’re pretty sure there’s supposed to be some way to communicate with other people. That voice said something to you, didn’t it? But whatever it is, you can’t quite think of it, can’t quite work out how to convey meaning from your mind into theirs. You feel like it might be related to sound? You’re not sure how though. Whenever you try making a noise, it sounds like an uncountable number of voices speaking simultaneously, some low, some high, some smooth, some rough, all blending into a singular cacophonous symphony. It’s kinda cool, but you can’t seem to make there be any connection between the sounds you produce and the thoughts in your head.

But even if you can’t communicate any specific meanings directly, you can still express your emotions through your body.

You start off slow, just bobbing your knees to a beat only you can hear. Before it gets boring, you start swiveling your arms around and shaking your hands at the end of them, sometimes bringing them together with a clap. You slowly lean backwards, before jumping forward and landing with a spin on one foot. You move your body in a wavelike motion while jumping around, throwing a few more dabs in for good measure, before finishing with a flourish towards the sky, and then falling over.

You hope that did the trick. You hear nothing but silence for a few moments, before what sounds like a slightly muffled high-pitched squeal inside your head. Eventually it cuts off. “Wow you really like moving! You have to meet the others, it’ll be great!”

The room’s door opens, and two figures peek in from beyond. One is brown and short with a prominent nose and pointed ears, their hands pawlike compared to yours, while the other is tall and flat, a circular knob protruding from their midsection. Both of them look at you with curiosity.

[cosmo]

hop! up! and! down!!!!!

[TwistBone]

Dab again just to really get the point across. It’s not like we can really do much else right now but dab so dab away sweet child dab away.

[knux400]

Say "apple".

(read: jump up and down)

[1011686]

The short one moves closer, stooping to all fours for a moment before prancing up to you and placing a friendly arm on your shoulder. It says something to you, or at least you think it does? But unlike the voice in your head, all you can make out are slightly quizzical yips and yaps, devoid of any sense. You illustrate the issue by jumping up and down several times, and also dabbing.

“Oh right sorry! I forgot about that! Sorry, I’m still getting the hang of all this.”

>TEACH:
Talking
Suddenly, a Dialoguethought enters your head, or, well, more Slanglike a collection of thoughts, all bundledChat together. They splitLanguage up and make their way Vocabularyto variousComment parts of your mind, slottingTone in, forming new connections Discussionbetween concepts Whisperand altering the way you feel and act. The act of speechListen becomes familiar to you once more, simple and clear in ways youCommunication couldn’t reach before.


It’s a little overwhelming, but once things stop moving you feel fine again, ready to speak your first words to the friendly folk around you.

“Apple.”

The dog-type looks at you, then looks around, as if expecting to find the fruit in question. They fail to do so, but one appears out of thin air and drops to the floor, no doubt the gift of your unseen observer. The dog-type stares at it for a few moments with a slightly befuddled expression, before turning back to you.

“...Anyway, I was saying my name is Cushion, and the one over there is Window, she’s a bit shy though, but I’m sure she’ll come around on you! Let’s go, I’ll show you around.”

They grip your hand and pull you through the door. Outside the room, you immediately step into a field of grass tall enough to hide your legs. Turning back, you can see that the building was more of a cabin, with not much else other than the single room you were in. Window gives a small “hi” as you pass her, before following you and Cushion at a distance.

Around you are a couple more cabins, a pool of water with a slide, a table with cards scattered on it, a playground with another slide, and several small toys and objects you can’t currently recognise the function of. In the distance, the field of grass comes to an end and what looks like a rocky plain spreads forth. The voice seems silent for now, waiting to see what you think of everything.

[cosmo]

proudly state that our name is tables and this place seems really super nice! (punctuate thought with a dab) ask the others if they can hear the voice too.

[TwistBone]

We should definitely introduce ourselves and tell them our type, not that we know exactly what that means for us in therms if ability. Or even what we look like for that matter.

[1011686]

Cushion stops pulling you for a moment, standing still while they try to decide what to bring you to. Their eye catches the table, and they jump and point at it, as if only just noticing it.

 “Oh, there’s a fun card game I know we can play! I’ll set it up on the table.”

“My name is Tables!” You like hearing the sound of your name. It feels good.

“We know.” says Window softly.

“Thanks for showing me around so far, this place seems really nice.” You drop a little dab to express the pleasant atmosphere. “I haven’t really introduced myself yet, have I? I’m a collective type tcp, I’m not really sure what exactly that means yet. I’m not even sure what I look like, although I guess you can tell that, by just looking.”

Cushion pauses doing... whatever they’re doing with the cards, to stare at you for a bit. A strange moment of silence passes, during which Cushion’s facial expression changes several times, before they finally shake their head, grin, and continue moving around cards.

 “You really are an odd one, aren’t you?”

“I am?”

 “Fllif says she didn’t expect you to know all that stuff yet, but it's probably because of your… type, right? You’re a bunch of people squashed together or something?” They shrug.  “Whatever. Nice to meet you, Tables!”

“Thanks! Oh also, can you hear that voice too? Is that ‘Fllif’?”

Cushion responds with an enthusiastic  “Yep!”, but Window grunts frustratedly and crosses her arms. Cushion turns back at her before waving their hand in the air.  “Fllif’s pretty great but, mmm, she surprised Window a bit much when teaching stuff. But that’s why I asked her to let me do the talking when it came to you, so you don’t need to worry about that! Anyway, I hope you’re ready to play!”

The cards are laid out in several piles of varying number, with the top card of each pile flipped face up, along with a deck of the remainders. You don’t recognise the game. Or do you?

 “Oh, she does want to know one thing though. Why do you keep doing that two-armed salute, or whatever it is?”

[knux400]

It's called a "dab". We started doing it because of another thing called "bad impulse control" and now we're still doing it because it's turned into something called a "running gag".

Also I'm not 100% sure, but the card game described seems like Solitaire?

[TwistBone]

Dabbing is the ultimate expression of joy and excitement. To dab is to know you are truly alive! Also the card game almost certainly solitaire, unless there’s some obscure game that is set up exactly like solitaire. I wonder why the card game of choice would be a game intended to be played alone? Seems like go-fish or even war would be more appropriate to play with our new acquaintances.

[1011686]

“It's not a salute, it’s called a ‘dab’. It’s the greatest expression of joy and excitement one can make, especially if you have bad impulse control. Which I do.” Cushion stares at their arms in confusion, then slowly raises them and tries to mimic the action you performed earlier, but they have some trouble. One of their arms is behind their back. You’re not sure why. They don’t seem to be either.

 “Like this?”

“No, you need to, you just,-” You try fiddling with Cushion’s arms, but they shake your hands off. You dab again with them carefully paying attention, just to show them how it looks, but they keep struggling with putting all the body parts in the right position at the same time. It’s quite painful to watch.

Eventually, with an exasperated growl Cushion gives up trying to dab. They shake off the frustration and put a grin back on their face, as they take a seat behind the table.

 “Never mind, you can show me later. Let’s play!”

You take your seat, and look at the card game. Even though you’ve never seen it before, it feels oddly familiar. You feel a need to ask a question.

“Isn’t this a single player game?”

 “What? Did Fllif teach you it already?” They murmur something under their breath, almost unconsciously, though you don’t quite catch it.

“No, I just know this game.”

 “Oh. Well, yes, kind of, but I like to watch other people play, and I can give hints if you’re having trouble, so it’s really like we’re both playing. I guess I don’t need to tell you the rules, sooo let’s begin!”

You inspect the board state, and begin making moves, Cushion watching each choice. A few times they shift in their seat with excitement, but you feel familiar enough with the game that you don’t think you need any help. Unfortunately, you end up running out of possible moves. Cushion looks disappointed. You push aside the lost game.

“Why don’t we play something together, like go-fish, or war?”

 “What are those?

“You know, other card games?”

 “Not really…”

Cushion looks vaguely interested, but they also seem to be getting slightly bored of the cards. There’s still the other cabins and playthings you haven’t looked at. Window has pulled up a stool and book from somewhere and appears to be engrossed in some novel, though you can’t see it very well through the tall grass. You also haven’t seen beyond your current vicinity at all.

What do you do?