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?

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Comments

iv

[mewnifestos]

[ Lucky he is definitely not, but Anders does have a habit of showing up at the most inopportune times. Fortunately, he announces himself just as soon as he appears, so there's really no chance of Sephiroth not noticing him, however lightly or not he's sleeping, at this very moment. ]

You know, you'll ruin your back like that.

[ As if he's one to talk. He hasn't slept in a bed since he arrived - although he tends to choose less obvious places than public libraries, personally. ]

[unkindled_madness]

[Look, you sleep where you're able. It's not like the nonfiction section is especially popular.

Sephiroth doesn't startle, but his eyes open at the sound of Anders' approach, and he sits up straighter. His eyes sweep his surroundings, orienting himself. Library. No visible threats, just... Anders.

What was it he just said?]

...my back is fine.

[mewnifestos]

For now. Another couple of years of that, and you'll be all hobbled and hunched over.

[ Anders skims a book off the shelves and begins idly fanning through the pages. He can already tell it's nothing liable to hold his interest from the title, but why not give it a second look? ]

Are you not sleeping well? It's usually not a good sign to be nodding off in strange places.

[unkindled_madness]

[A wry look at the notion that his poor sleep habits are going to have any real impact on his health. He's dumb arrogant that way.]

I didn't "nod off." I chose to sleep here.

[He stands, though, because it's not like he's going to continue that in someone else's presence.]

[mewnifestos]

Really? Seems like a poor choice of place to sleep, when any oblivious passerby could come prattling along and wake you.

[ Judging by his expression (again, faintly amused), it is him, he is that passerby, and he is entirely aware of it. ]

[unkindled_madness]

[He pushes some stray locks of hair back over his shoulders.]

The natives are not great readers. It hasn't been a problem.

["Until now" is the tacit addition as he regards Anders. He absolutely did not get enough sleep, because he never gets enough sleep.]

[mewnifestos]

Not big readers, eh? Well, I can't say I blame them. This place is a bit of a bore.

[ He's just going to ignore that unsubtle implication, moving right along. ]

Half the books are incomprehensible, and the other half are so mundane I might recommend them as a sleep aid.

[unkindled_madness]

[Sephiroth wouldn't categorize anything he's read so far as the most compelling literature, but to dismiss the entire library?]

...are you quite certain you know how to read?

[mewnifestos]

If I said I wasn't, would you think less of me?

[ He's assuming that isn't possible, of course. ]

Why, what have you found that's so interesting?

[unkindled_madness]

If it were honesty... [A shrug.]

I've found some context, at least, for many of our fellow "Travellers."

[mewnifestos]

Harsh.

[ But he sounds largely unaffected, as he sticks his latest panned book back on the nearest shelf, sideways above another couple volumes. ]

Context? What do you mean? Some of them are actually from - well, obviously not here, but some place like here?

[unkindled_madness]

[...is it really that hard to put the book back where he found it? It's not exactly far.]

Yes. A planet called Earth, which this place seems to draw from-- or the Earth of the 1920s. I've found references to names, places, religious figures that they've mentioned...

It may not be much help in finding an exit, but it isn't useless.

[mewnifestos]

[ Of course it wouldn't be! But why bother doing things the right way when the wrong one is even easier??

And offends the sensibilities of the uptight so easily. ]

You've been keeping track of all that?

[ Honestly, impressive. (In a sort of boring, bookish way, albeit. But his interest is genuine, at least.) ]

I don't suppose you have your own theories on what this is all about? Or what those similarities could mean?

[unkindled_madness]

[Sephiroth blinks, but- it's true, not everyone would bother keeping track, would they?]

...nothing more than speculation.

But, given the disproportionate number of Travellers from Earth, and this location... it may indicate a familiarity on the part of the "Ancient." Perhaps she hails from some version of Earth herself.

[mewnifestos]

[ It's also impressive given half of the apparent nonsense the people spout around here is just plain difficult to remember, really. Like trying to learn a language just by listening - and with little to no context for it.

Anders has done his best to listen, because he really doesn't undervalue information (much as he might try to make it seem the contrary is true). But there's just so much here he doesn't understand. It's impossible. ​]

I hadn't thought of that. If there are as many of them as you say, perhaps it's at least indicative of a fondness for the place. These Earth-types, do they seem like the sort to have veritable gods wandering in their midst?

[unkindled_madness]

[It is a lot, and it could easily be overwhelming-- but it isn't entirely unfamiliar, and at least here there's no reason to pretend that these are things he already knows. The gaps in knowledge are expected, not the sign of an... unconventional upbringing.]

I suppose that depends on how you define a god. We have one of theirs in our midst, but he is as trapped as we are.

[mewnifestos]

Met him, as well, have you?

[ There's an amused flash of recognition, there, though his interest remains genuine. ]

I'm not sure I believe his claims, myself, but he is an interesting fellow. If not as all-knowing and all-powerful as I'd tend to expect a god to be.

[unkindled_madness]

Whatever he is, he has some power. I suppose if he had enough to escape on his own, he'd have little incentive to lend it.

I imagine godhood is a misnomer for the Ancient as well. She simply has... different limitations.

[mewnifestos]

True. But I'm sort of hoping that's not the case.

[ His belief in the basic generosity of random strangers may be largely facetious, but when you have so little to go on... Anders shrugs, casting his gaze across the shelves of books blocking them in again. Not as towering as the Circle library's, either. ]

If only we could suss out what they are. Though I expect we're not slipping out past her guard anytime soon, with these shackles on.

[unkindled_madness]

["Sort of hoping" isn't exactly wild optimism, so Sephiroth will let it lie. Maybe he feels the same, after a fashion. He doesn't yet feel he can rely on anyone here, but he'll need to, so... it would be preferable to have a little more than a basic quid-pro-quo.

He glances at the ScryWatch on his wrist.]

Probably not.

But... I suppose these are closer at hand for inspection.

[mewnifestos]

[ As optimistic as he can be, there's always a touch of realism in the mix. Anders doesn't expect things to work out easily or even necessarily well, here - but that won't stop him from hoping there are answers and a way out, somewhere. He'd rather put his trust in some weirdo than the one doing all the magical kidnapping. ]

I've tried that. But whatever sort of magic it is, I can't get a sense for. Let alone how to get them off.

[unkindled_madness]

Somehow I doubt anyone will volunteer to lose a hand.

[Sephiroth, no. After saying that, you shouldn't look like you're still considering the logistics.

He could manage it with a knife, or probably even with his bare hands, but it really would be cleaner with a sword.]

[mewnifestos]

Not... exactly what I was thinking, but no. Probably not the best angle to explore.

[ Though, who knows? As bizarre as all these other worlds are, perhaps there are some where losing a hand isn't really all that big a deal?

...Not that Anders has any desire to go around trying to convince strangers to start lopping off limbs. As a healer, he might have a conscientious objection or two to that. ]

...On your own or with someone else.

[ He also sees that look. ]

[unkindled_madness]

[Sephiroth gives him a wry look.]

I don't intend to maim anyone, least of all myself.

[...though he won't entirely rule out the possibility of maiming someone else, if some sort of opportunity should arise. Maybe someone will deserve it.]