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!

---

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?

Network · Logs · OOC · Memes · Plurk

Comments

[unkindled_madness]

...you have value as an ally.

[Not to mention that wandering around for a short time pretending to search for a man who isn't here doesn't strike him as difficult. ...and, maybe in a small part, he likes feeling as though he has the upper hand here, clear-headed and unafraid.]

Besides, I've little better to do.

[dothelokimotion]

[ that prompts a brief, ugly chuckle. that's always what it boils down to. how useful loki can be until he isn't. then what is the point of him? ]

A strange way to pass the time.

[unkindled_madness]

[Sephiroth eyes him for that laugh. Given some people's reaction to the "god of mischief," perhaps he isn't used to being considered an ally? Surely it's no insult.]

Is it?

I might enjoy a fight. The undead on the beach weren't exactly a challenge.

[dothelokimotion]

No, they were quite weak. Thanos is . . . another creature altogether.

[ his throat aches. he feels parched and tired. the earlier adrenaline seems to waning. surely if thanos were here, he would have killed loki by now? would thanos leave him trapped here?

would thor?

. . . he doesn't know. loki no longer knows anything. ]

[unkindled_madness]

[Loki does seem to be calming, a bit. Will the illusion lose its hold soon?]

...why does he seek your death?

[dothelokimotion]

He already had it. But I have a terrible habit of returning from the dead. He might seek to rectify that.

[ maybe. loki doesn't know for sure. thanos doesn't hold a grudge, but loki knows too much and can use the infinity stones with no cost to himself. a wildcard that thanos would despise leaving alive. ]

[unkindled_madness]

[Hm. No more resurrections.

Let's try this again.]

Does it make sense to you that he would track you to a dimension where you are, for now, trapped, if he believed you to be dead?

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki frowns, shaking his head as if to shake off the paranoia and the illusions. ]

I — I'm not sure.

[unkindled_madness]

And is it like him to play at hide-and-seek? If he is so powerful, would he not have found you by now?

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki hisses. ]

I saw him!

[ didn't he? did he? his mind has always been so fragile. so susceptible. had something overcome his safeguards once more? he clutches his head, trying to shake off the illusions. ]

Something is there. I know it.

[unkindled_madness]

[Is it so hard, for a man who supposedly works illusions himself, to shake this one? Or is it harder because of that? Overconfident and unused to being on the receiving end? It's... pitiable to watch, either way.]

...

I saw a dead man, last month. A trick, brought on by a mask. It wasn't real.

[dothelokimotion]

[ that feels like a tangible fact. loki latches onto it. ]

How did you banish it?

[unkindled_madness]

...I remembered that one can't speak to the dead.

[That might be less helpful here, if this Titan isn't dead. But there must be something.]

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki has to smile at that. because that is true but it also isn't. loki is dead but he's here. he wants to laugh again. the world's best joke. it does jar the impression of hallucinations loose a little. ]

No. I suppose not.

[unkindled_madness]

[A wry twist of his mouth.]

Human deaths tend to be a bit more permanent, I suppose.

But I expect... you aren't about to be killed here.

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki sighs, rubbing his forehead. he can still see a shadow when he blinks, but has finally come to the conclusion that his mind is playing tricks on him. the irony is not lost on him either. ]

I am very tired of dying.

[unkindled_madness]

I never imagined it was pleasant.

[He studies Loki.]

...is it gone?

[dothelokimotion]

No.

[ he manages a faint, wry smile. ]

But I can manage it for now.

[unkindled_madness]

[Sephiroth nods.]

Perhaps with awareness, you could study it.

[dothelokimotion]

[ bemused: ]

Studying my hallucination has potential, but it might be difficult to be objective and have concrete data on it.

[unkindled_madness]

...are you requesting assistance?

[dothelokimotion]

[ he shakes his head. ]

I doubt you can. However, at the very least, I can pass something along.

[ his hands glimmer as loki recreates the illusion that is haunting his mind for sephiroth to see. it's not much, just a tall man in a mask. ]

There it is.

[unkindled_madness]

[Sephiroth blinks, looking over the illusory figure--not just as a recreation of Loki's hallucination, but as a demonstration of his magic.]

Hm. I will let you know if I should see it for myself. I doubt you'll be the only one, given the running theme of this place.

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki rubs his eyes. a flash of white distracts him before he can formulate a proper response. he waves the illusion away. ]

Doubt . . . yes, that seems to be the aim here.

[unkindled_madness]

Don't let it overtake you. It's only another piece of the game we're being forced to play.