polylogs | Carcosa, pt. 2

✖ Carcosa

Ⅰ. CARCOSA
You Are Still Here.

Another month, and you’re still in the city of Carcosa! Isn’t that just wonderful?

You still have access to the city’s temple and the High Temple.

The side effects you may have suffered from throughout the month of May are now at an end - if you had a pesky mask glued to your face the whole time it will now fall off. You might need a little moisturizer, but otherwise you’ll be just fine.

You could sit around inside the relative safety of the temples, of course, but why not get out there and explore the city some more? Come on, grumpypants!

Ⅱ. SPEAK EASY
CW: Optional alcohol consumption.

What kind of pet shop is filled with rambunctious yahoos and hot jazz music at 1 AM? That's right - the best damn pet shop in town! Sidle up to the back door of Curly's Pet Shop and a panel will open enough to reveal a pair of eyes. "What's the password?" you'll be asked. Whatever word first comes to your mind, well, that apparently is correct because you're let in at once.

The front of the building definitely does indeed house fish and birds and kittens, but the back room is definitely not a good place to find a new animal companion; you find yourself in a crowded little room with low lighting and a small bar crammed into one corner. There's seats and some tables, and most importantly there's a band playing jazz music across from the bar.

Why not take a seat and have a drink? It's probably not paint thinner. Probably. Maybe you'll spot some of your fellow Travelers and you can sit and have a chat. Make a new friend who can hold your hair back if you party too hard.

And you better hope that the place doesn’t get raided!

Notes:
1. The drinks are all era-appropriate - you’re not getting Redbull with vodka here - and even if your character has non-human physiology they will work the same as they would on a baseline human. That’s right, your magic or your healing-factor or your vampire blood is no match for these Gin Rickeys!

2. If Curly’s does get raided while you’re there, you can run and hide or choose to engage with the police, who are armed and not too shy about opening fire if you go on the offensive. As with the rest of the regular residents of Carcosa, the officers are human and can be killed. Killing them may affect the colour grading of your Scrywatch depending on the situation. (Is it beneficial to personal growth to kill in order to save someone else, for example? You tell me!)

3. Did you want a pet from the front of the building? Well, just remember that baby turtles and alligators might SEEM like a good idea, but they grow up! Also any animal you take will not travel with you to the next island. So sorry.

Ⅲ. EXPRESSIONISM YOURSELF
CW: Optional paranoia, hallucinations.
If you wander the streets at night, you may find yourself getting turned around. You'll find that the streets have lost their many lights, and the beautiful and delicate art deco architecture has given way to something much more stark and heavy. The buildings are block-like, but they curve in exaggerated ways that hurt the eye if looked at too long. All are in blacks and whites and greys. Nothing looks quite real, but you can walk along just fine. Probably better not to go off alone, though.

Periodically you will encounter that pesky sign of some sort painted on the walls. If you follow the sigils, you will eventually be led to a long staircase that winds down and down until it finally terminates in a large white room lit by a few electric lanterns. There's black paint there, with brushes. Maybe you're feeling creative?

Notes:
1. You’re pretty sick of this stupid sigil, aren’t you? In fact, you consider yourself QUITE the detective and have been searching after its meaning! Or maybe you played Call of Cthulhu a lot in college, you nerd!

Painting the sigil on the wall will cause you to feel disoriented and paranoid until you leave the white room. From that point on you can discover a copy of a play entitled The King In Yellow anywhere in the city you choose. Reading the first act of the play has no effect on you, however if you choose to read beyond the first line of the second act you will spend the rest of the month suffering from periodic hallucinations, often of a tall man in a pallid mask.

2. While there is no compulsion to paint, choosing to work out any of your character’s issues through art therapy can be reflected in your Scrywatch colour if it is significant enough.

Ⅳ. AS FAR BACK AS I CAN REMEMBER, I ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A GANGSTER
CW: Optional gun violence, injury.
Art? Theatre? Music? BAH! Boring!

Maybe your tastes are a little more on the dangerous side? Whatever this island may be, it seems to offer plenty of opportunities to get into the seedy underbelly. Maybe you feel the need to steal a car, rob a bank, transport some illegal hooch for a smiling fellow in a yellow fedora. Grab your tommy guns, kids, it's time to outrun the Feds!

Naturally, you could wind up injured having all of this fun, but surely you could get some help from your fellow Travelers, either directly or by having them haul you to some sort of underground doctor. These doctors do exist, although it might take a while to get referred to one by a local.

You might also find yourself under arrest and stuck in an old-timey jail cell for a month. What fun!

Notes:
1. As was stated in the first prompt, the regular residents of Carcosa are normal humans. Killing them is possible and may affect the colour grading of your Scrywatch depending on the situation. Any weapons you find are era-appropriate.

2. You can break out of jail if you’re resourceful enough.

3. The underground doctors aren’t working in a real hospital for a reason. In fact, some of them might be less doctors and more, well. Vets.

You still jamming to that Carcosa playlist?

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✦ i. speakeasy

[ It's more or less by accident that Benedict stumbles upon Curly's and, subsequently, the bar it hides away. The reason he's out in the first place is an inability to sleep. Generally, it's not so difficult for him to drift off, and certainly the excitement and emotional whiplash of coming to this place would be enough to wear anyone out. Tonight, though, he's restless, as if it's all properly sunken in at last and all he does when he closes his eyes is think about it all.

So he opts for a walk.

Benedict doesn't think much of it. He's never had cause to assume the night was a dangerous time, and even here, while things might be peculiar and shockingly new, nothing's given him reason not to wander at odd hours. Besides, there seem to be others about just the same as him. And that's how it happens, really. He happens to catch a glance of a stranger standing at the back of the shop, only to be let into a door that's shut as promptly as it was opened. Curiosity piqued, Benedict goes to casually investigate, only to find himself saying something in surprise and being let in as well.

The music all about assaults his ears at first, loud and discordant as it accompanies the chatter of the patrons. He pushes his way through the crowd, half on his own accord and half jostled by the people already there as they move around, until he finds himself by the bar. There's a drink with mint in it that's presented to him, so he takes a seat, cautiously sipping the cocktail as he gaze takes in the dimly lit room. Hopefully no one sees the face he pulls when he finally tastes the drink. ]

✦ ii. expressionism yourself

[ Having accidentally found the speakeasy, Benedict takes to more nightly walks. After all, city's are always different during the day, and who knows what else he might discover by chance? He's never considered himself to be a particularly explorative sort, but there's little else to do. He doesn't want to be the odd man out, in any case.

On this night, there's nothing seemingly out of place, not at first. It's not quite as late as he'd been out before, so the streets aren't quite quiet yet. Not that he thinks they're ever completely quiet (especially know that he knows there's at least one place for the late night crowd to go). It takes Benedict a moment to realize, after taking a turn, that the street becomes quite literally deserted. He frowns a moment, and, as he looks back, the street he'd come from seems to be gone entirely. Odd, he thinks. His thoughts must have gotten the better of him and caused him to lose track of his steps.

Just what he needs, to get lost in a strange city.

And truly he must be lost, for this part of Carcosa looks nothing like the rest of it. It's jarringly different and verging on the absurd. Benedict must be more tired than he realized. He rubs his eyes and sees that sigil, the one they'd all worn at the masquerade. Pursing his lips together, Benedict steps towards it, then he sees another, and then another, and just when he realizes he's probably gotten himself even more lost, he finds himself in the stark white room. The sight of the paint makes him look around again, wondering if someone else might be there, or wondering if maybe this is some strange form of a gift.

(Can a city give a gift?)

When Benedict is certain he's not interrupting someone's work, he shrugs off his coat and rolls up his shirt sleeves, then dips a brush into the paint. ]

✦ iii. wildcard

Choose your own adventure! Other locations in the city are fair game, and I'm willing to have him end up in jail if he was with the wrong person at the wrong place at the wrong time. As for painting, Benedict likes to depict landscapes, so feel free to interrupt the artist at work. Feel free to hit me up with any questions~

Carcosa, pt. 2

Benedict Bridgerton ✦ Bridgerton ✦ OTA