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.

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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]

The Ninth?

[An entire world with only fish, or was she not much travelled in hers? He shakes his head, and steps away from the alligators.]

I can identify the ones I know, if you'd like.

[necrosaint]

The Ninth House, my home. A planet, [ Harrow remembers to add that, because 'House' to most people is either a faction or a house-lowercase, apparently. It adds some more context at least. ]

Many of them are not things I have seen illustrations of, so please do, if it is not too much trouble.

[unkindled_madness]

Hm. The ninth planet in your system then?

[Well, as long as they're near the reptiles... He points out the turtles.]

These I think are related to adamantoises... They aren't native to my country, so I'm uncertain if they're ever so small. An adamantoise's shell can easily be several meters across.

[necrosaint]

Several meters—

[ Fascinated, Harrow leans forward to examine the shell necromantically. And, oh, the turtle shell is indeed made of bone. Her eyes widen. It's the most beautiful thing. ]

They are just little skeleton lizard beasts. There are creatures with several meters' worth of those? Imagine how powerful that would be as a weapon.

[unkindled_madness]

I suppose they can be formidable beasts. [For other people.]

But they primarily act defensively. Their shells make good armor.

[necrosaint]

Oh! Yes. Of course. Perfect.




How do I get some without hurting it?

[ You're supposed to know the answer, Sephiroth. Harrow has decided you are smart and that this means you are always smarter than she is. SORRY. ]

[unkindled_madness]

I wouldn't know. I just killed them.

[Yeah about that. If you're looking for cruelty-free options, Sephiroth is probably not your guy.]

[necrosaint]

These ones are pets. That would be inappropriate.

[ Harrow frowns. ]

I suppose I could ask the shopkeep if they have a dead one.

[unkindled_madness]

[He wasn't really suggesting she kill the pets, though he probably wouldn't stop her either.]

I suppose, but they're rather small yet to be useful, aren't they?

[necrosaint]

I'd just make it bigger. I only need a sample of the bone. That's why I grabbed the ones from off the wall over there. [ Harrow waves a hand at the dog chews. ] I'm not sure what they'll make, but I'm sure they're going to make something.

[unkindled_madness]

[Oh now he's intrigued.]

You can do that with necromancy? Build an entire creature from a fragment of bone?

[necrosaint]

... yes?

[ Duh? says Harrow's tone and expression. ]

I am a bone adept. That is what I do. It would be entirely made of bone, though.

[unkindled_madness]

I did tell you there are no necromancers where I come from. I don't know the extent of your abilities, or their limitations.

[necrosaint]

Right, yes. I apologize.

[ Harrow knows full well that she's rude and that she can be highly disparaging of people — what the Ancients are making her learn are that she's got to not be like that to people who are kind to her, and then they will continue to be kind to her. ]

From bone I can make ... animated bone, and perpetuating bone ash, and essentially anything I like. With bone. Bone constructs have been my constant companions, and it was hard to come here and find no bone on my person at all.

[ It explains her skull face paint, it explains her empty jewelry holes. ]

[unkindled_madness]

[Well, if she's going to explain, then he's taking advantage.]

...how long do they last? Your constructs. They follow your command or do they have some autonomy without you?

[necrosaint]

They're lasting as long as I want them to last; most are permanent. They will follow commands that include being able to make some specific or basic decisions. Most of the constructs I make that I don't shrink down again are farmers. They tend fields. That they can do autonomously.

[ Harrow is trying to learn to be nice. She can answer questions about necromancy all day, too. ]

Essentially they do the task for which they are constructed. Farming, or defending me in battle — the latter will wear on me, though, as they aren't very intelligent so I have to direct them necromantically to some extent.

[unkindled_madness]

Hm. Impressive.

[Sephiroth is not trying to learn to be nice, though it's true he rarely gives genuine compliments.]

But, I suppose they don't know anything of what they once were.

[necrosaint]

No, [ Harrow agrees, with a single curt nod, ] Mine are not ensouled. I do not have souls to put in them, and the souls are long gone from the bone.

I have seen them ensouled, but they needed souls to place there. If you have a spare soul, I might put it in a skeleton, but unless you had both parts it would not be its own.

[unkindled_madness]

A spare soul... [He shakes his head, amused by the concept, before he's back to business:]

I had wondered if there was anything to be learned from the undead on the beach. I assume you encountered them?

[necrosaint]

I didn't exactly stop to chat, I threw a skeletal construct at them since they were bent on attacking other people I was trying to converse with.

[ Now, Harrow smiles proudly. ]

It turns out if you stab them in the head with tusks—apparently the skeleton was called an "elephant," if you know those—they die again.

No souls to speak of there either. I did get a couple of phalanges though.

[unkindled_madness]

No, I'm not familiar with elephants.

[He pauses for a moment, thoughtful.]

Can you discern any difference between the bones of those undead, and those of the inhabitants of this city?

[necrosaint]

I didn't examine that closely, but — no. They seemed to just be people. Who had then become undead, through means which I cannot identify; no necromancer did that.

The water may have, it could have been infectious.

[ Harrow may have no idea where they came from, but it didn't stop her from keeping some of their bones. Just in case! It might be useful someday. And it makes her feel whole again, to have a collection. ]

[unkindled_madness]

Hm.

Or at the least, it was a necromancy unfamiliar to you. None of the magic I've seen here is what I know.

[necrosaint]

[ Harrow bristles a little at the idea there might be necromancy she doesn't know. But that is, at least, not his fault. ]

It seems that 'it takes all kinds' is a truth.

[unkindled_madness]

[Inadvertantly insulting her necromancy skills again!]

...I suppose. The universe is certainly more varied than I imagined.