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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!
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?
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!
You still jamming to that Carcosa playlist?
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.
no subject
I assumed it was for companionship.
Or pest control. [A glance at the hamster that bit him. He's never owned a cat either, but at least he can see the benefits.]
no subject
You got any pets? [She's asking this knowing full well that the answer is likely "hell no."]
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[The answer is definitely a no on pets. However...]
...I owned a chocobo once. Though that isn't really a pet.
no subject
[Then she frowns, tilting her head and repeating the word slowly.] Cho-co-bo. What's that, some kinda snack?
no subject
But his flat look dissolves into incredulity. Of course he knows they come from different planets, but they share a lot of animals and it never occurred to him that chocobos wouldn't be among them. They're so... ubiquitous.
Maybe she's playing a joke on him? He answers cautiously.]
It's a large, flightless bird. They're used for riding and as beasts of burden.
You really don't know what chocobos are?
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Then she squints a little at him, trying to picture a chocobo.] So like...an ostrich? With a cuter name?
Dude, if I know shit I admit to it immediately, I'm already dumb enough. Why would I wanna seem more dumber?
no subject
More dumber? Oh, that's painful. He actually winces slightly.]
...I've never heard of an ostrich. You ride them?
no subject
She shrugs, moving to examine a tank of exotic fish.] Some people do, yeah. Other people eat them. Their eggs and meat and stuff. [In the same breath:] Think they'd notice if I ate one'a these?
no subject
Fish are another matter. Except... these fish? Really, she thinks pet store fish are going to be good eating?]
...possibly not, but why would you want to?
no subject
Case in point: she pulls a woeful pout, leaning to smush her nose against the glass of the fishtank.] Because I'm hungry.
no subject
[There are better places to steal food from, aren't there?]
no subject
I'm surprised you're here. I woulda thought cute fuzzy animals would...implode on impact with your whole... [Saxsice waves a vague hand.] Everything.
no subject
At her other comment, he snorts. Implode?] I am not anathema to "cute fuzzy animals."
I was curious. Besides, there seems to be something less reputable happening in the back of this building.
no subject
Then, in the same breath:] Yeah, some kinda bar. I can smell it.
no subject
[Sephiroth glances towards the back of the building, inhaling quietly-- but he's only picking up the smell of the fish tanks and the nearby animals. Hm.]
A bar with a password?
no subject
Then she follows his gaze, scrunching up her nose thoughtfully.] Yeah, it's the 20's here, right? Alcohol was illegal in a lotta places then, so bars were secret and had passwords. [She might not know much about most other things, but Saxsice does know her liquor history.]
no subject
...I see. [All it is is illegal alcohol?] That's rather less interesting than I was hoping for.
no subject
Isn't my favorite subject either. Puts me right out of a job. [Then she chuckles.] Were you hopin' for, uh...illicit evil experiments?
no subject
He should go on to remind her not to nickname him, but at the suggestion that he might have been looking for experiments, he turns away from her, ostensibly to go look at something besides fish.]
No. Something more rebellious in nature, perhaps.
no subject
[She gives an undignified snort, crouching down to look at a display of lizards.] More rebellious than illegal booze? What kinda excitement are you lookin' for, Seph?
no subject
The kind that opposes the Ancient. [Surely they can't all be so easy with their island being used, can they?]
And I've told you, it's Sephiroth.
no subject
[Both her eyebrows go waaaay up at that, intrigued.] Ohhhh, so like some kinda...underground resistance thing? That's badass, Sephie. [She doesn't even remotely acknowledge the last comment.]
no subject
Sephiroth lets out an irritated sigh. Why does she insist on doing that?]
Would you prefer I called you Cassiopeia? [He's never heard it said aloud, so he may have the emphasis on the wrong syllable.] My name isn't difficult.
no subject
Then Saxsice snorts in amusement, tapping gently on the lizard tank.] Cass-EE-oh-PAY-uh. And I guess, if you wanna? It's a mouthful. [What, like "Saxsice" isn't?]
no subject
But, uh, that didn't go as he hoped or expected.] ...why change it if you don't mind the name?
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