Carcosa, pt. 2

[polymods]

✖ 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!

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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.

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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?

Network · Logs · OOC · Memes · Plurk

Comments

[unkindled_madness]

[It's been a while since she's apologized for something she's said, so that's something.]

I think it's clear enough I'm not one for faith.

And your friend, did they turn out any different?

[neverwither]

( For a moment or two, Chloe is silent. She doesn’t want to be like this. She isn’t like this. These sorts of thoughts and behaviours are a problem.

Time to recalibrate. To stop wandering down dark paths that shouldn’t exist in the first place. )

I suppose it can be quite freeing to have no faith at all.

[unkindled_madness]

[She didn't even pretend to answer that question, did she? Maybe she has seen one or two less-than-pleasant things.]

I don't know if I'd call it freeing, but I do have less cause for disappointment.

[neverwither]

Yes. I can see how such an outlook could lend itself to more pleasant surprises than an optimistic one. If one expects or hopes for little, it can only really be up from there.

( Ah, there. Finding a silver lining is much more comfortable for her. )

[unkindled_madness]

[Sephiroth shakes his head. She really is determined in this viewpoint of hers, isn't she?]

You don't give up, do you?

[neverwither]

( Her smile, albeit a small one, suggests she takes the comment as being fairly complimentary. )

I'd like to think of it as having the courage of my convictions.

( Oh, wouldn't she just. 'Chloe' and 'courage' don't belong in the same sentence as far as she's concerned. Certainly not when it counts. She can talk all the talk of morality and goodness but when push comes to shove, what does she ever actually do?

Except shrink and fold and kneel. )

[unkindled_madness]

[It might be slightly complimentary. There's some kind of courage in disagreeing with him so persistently, but it is only talk after all.]

I suppose there's something to be said for that.

We'll see how long it lasts you.

[neverwither]

One could say the same for cynicism.

( It's said too gently to be considered sass. If anything, there's a quiet note of concern in there.

Maybe the barest whisper of sass. )

[unkindled_madness]

If I should leave this place in the promised heroic fashion, then perhaps I'll reconsider.

[...but probably not. People have already declared him a great hero, it doesn't mean a whole lot in reality.]

[neverwither]

Perhaps reconsidering is part of leaving here in promised heroic fashion.

( Since personal growth has been touted and all. Chloe isn't attempting to get personal. Oh no. Chloe would never. )

[unkindled_madness]

Kidnapping us to another dimension may not have been the best way to encourage that.

[neverwither]

That's very true, but we don't know their exact reasoning or their perspective. To be able to bring us here would suggest power on a grand scale, and it often seems that such a level of power fosters a sense of authority. Questionable as the methods may be, there may be good intentions.

( That isn't to say Chloe doubts there being mind games and manipulation at play. A means to an end and all. )

[unkindled_madness]

[Sephiroth snorts.]

I doubt it. Those with power are even less likely to work for any "common good."

[neverwither]

Even if it is self-serving for whatever entity brought us here, it doesn't necessarily mean that positive personal growth can't be a by-product.

[unkindled_madness]

One could really say that of any situation.

[neverwither]

( She has to smile at that. )

That doesn’t sound entirely pessimistic.

( Is she teasing? Maybe just a tiny bit. )

[unkindled_madness]

[He opens his mouth, closes it.]

Hm.

Acknowledging something as possible doesn't brand it as likely. I might just as soon learn to fly.

[...yeah, about that.]

[neverwither]

Perhaps not, but acknowledging something is powerful in itself. Recognition of possibility serves as a starting point, don’t you think?

[unkindled_madness]

How much does that really count for if it's a path I have no intention of taking?

[neverwither]

I’d say because it’s still a path that’s open and available. And who knows what other paths may form because that one was possible?

[unkindled_madness]

I can't really stop you from using this place to find some personal fulfillment, but it won't serve you to speculate on my behalf.

[neverwither]

I think this might be a case of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.

( Though it’s not said with weariness or annoyance, and she can still find a smile for him. )

[unkindled_madness]

I suppose that's... apt, in this instance.

[If he sounds doubtful, it's because the saying would paint them as evenly matched. This is clearly inaccurate.]

But less so in any other sort of confrontation.

[neverwither]

( A threat? Or a warning? One that's not necessary, if so. There's nothing about Chloe that screams 'ready for a rumble'. Even her recent zombie killing didn't involve any violence from her, just the luck of having highly flammable liquid running through her artificial veins.

Or maybe he just thinks her dim-witted due to her insistence on optimism. That might not be so inaccurate, either. Chloe doesn't feel blessed with the intelligence she supposedly possesses anymore. )

Oh, I don't doubt it.

[unkindled_madness]

[A correction... and maybe something of an insult. But he sees no reason to threaten her. Even if she's stronger than she looks, someone who's so uncomfortable even discussing death seems an unlikely perpetrator of violence.]

...

Can you even defend yourself?