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

[kyley_b]

Kyle nods. "Yeah, baby turtles and fish and stuff. Although I'm pretty sure I saw a cage marked 'monkey'? It was empty, though."

He leans back a little and gestures at the club. "This is kinda neat, though. Like real prohibition style history."

[extrasensory_problems]

"Yeah it's pretty wild, kind of like being sent back in time." He says and takes a glance around the club, "When I first came in through the pet store I actually got the shit scared out of me. There was a girl in there looking at the rabbits and I didn't see her, she started talking to them and I thought she was like...the voice of a ghost or something."

[kyley_b]

Kyle cackles. "You pussy," he says. "Oooooh, ghost bunnies!"

He says this like it's not entirely possible.

[extrasensory_problems]

He laughs as well, "Yeah yeah I know, I'm a wimp."

"So what password did you have to give to get in here?"

[kyley_b]

Kyle looks at him, confused. "I mean... presumably the same one as everyone else? I just guessed, though. I said guinea pigs. Because, you know, it's a pet store."

He sips his drink. "They can grow REALLY big, did you know that?"

[extrasensory_problems]

"Huhn, weird. I said kumquats."

He snort laughs and raises an eyebrow, "How big is REALLY big? Like the size of a dog?"

[kyley_b]

"Seriously? ...why?"

Kyle shakes his head. "Like car-sized. But I think it's only the ones from Peru."

[extrasensory_problems]

"It was the first thing that popped into my head."

His eyebrow goes up further, "Dude shut up. No way. You are bullshitting me."

[kyley_b]

"Huh. Guess they're not that worried about being raided."

Kyle nods, one hundred percent serious. "Dude, for seriously. They're deadly, but kept at bay by Peruvian flute bands."

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter laughs and gives Kyle a playful shove, "Shut UP! You're such a liar."

[kyley_b]

"I am not!" The thing is, he believes every word he says. There's not an ounce of deception in him.

[extrasensory_problems]

He just laughs and shakes his head, "Okay okay, it's just a bit hard to believe."

He tips his drink back and finishes it in one gulp, savoring the way it warms his throat on the way down. He is about to ask Kyle a question when a woman in a black dress appears and drapes herself across Carter, she smells heavily of gin and some kind of floral perfume.

"Jimmy, there you are!" She says and runs a hand through his hair, "Baby I've been looking all over for you."

[kyley_b]

Kyle raises his not inconsiderable eyebrows.

"Wow, Jimmy," he deadpans, "way to keep a lady waiting."

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter throws Kyle a look and then tries to extract himself politely from the woman, "Uh sorry I'm not Jimmy."

His attempts to detangle himself from her don't work very well as she just slithers into a different spot, giggling and writhing against him.

"Oooooh Jimmy baby, don't tease me! You know I can never forget your face. Now come on through to the back, Eddie wants to talk to you."

Carter shakes his head, "No I'm sorry but-"

"She said come on through to the back." A gruff male voice says behind him, Carter turns to see a very large man frowning at him and Kyle.

"Both of yous. Now"

[kyley_b]

Kyle looks up... and up. If he stands this guy is still going to be taller than him, and that's impressive.

"We don't know an Eddie," Kyle protests.

[extrasensory_problems]

"Everybody knows Eddie." The man growls, opening his blazer so both boys can see that he is indeed armed.

"Back room. Now."

The woman links her arm around Carter's neck and pulls him off his stool, cooing at him to follow her. The large man looms over Kyle until he follows them.

[kyley_b]

Kyle follows, scowling at literally everything.

"What the fuck did you DO, dude?!" Kyle hisses at Carter. "Sleep with somebody's wife?!"

[extrasensory_problems]

"I didn't do anything!" Carter hisses back, casting a wary glance at the huge man following behind them.

"All I've done tonight is play music and drink!"

They are hustled through another door into a tiny room where a group of men in suits are seated around a card table. The woman in the black dress flounces over to the table, fluttering her eyes at a few of the men who grunt in response.

"Here you go Eddie! See, I told ya I saw Jimmy out there." She says to a stout looking man with a pencil mustache.

[kyley_b]

If Kyle knows anything about the 1920s... it's not much. But these gentlemen sure look like what old-timey gangsters in movies look like. And 'Eddie' seems like a mafia name to him.

"I think there's been a misunderstanding," Kyle says, raising both hands in a placating gesture. "Ma'am, have you maybe been drinking a lot tonight?"

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter glances at Kyle and nods, "Yes! A misunderstanding! I'm not Jimmy, I think maybe-" He starts to say but is cut off by the sudden whip crack noise of a fist pounding on the table.
The sound silences the room and the stocky gentleman name Eddie looks up at him.

"Your mouths are moving." He says in a soft voice, "I didn't tell you to talk."

"I'm sorry but-" Carter says and takes a step forward, hoping to plead his case with this man, which turns out to be a mistake because a second later he has been sucker punched in the gut by the huge looming man who brought them back here.

[kyley_b]

Kyle watches this with mounting alarm. He's still not entirely convinced Carter didn't do something stupid to get them into this, but they can argue about blame later.

If there is a later.

"Dude, we're NOT fucking Jimmy! Are you fucking blind?" he shouts. "Like you're going to sit there and tell me you don't know what this guy who... I dunno, owes you money or whatever, you don't know what he looks like?"

One of the 'gentlemen' eyes Kyle suspiciously. "You a Jew?" he asks.

Kyle's eye twitches. "Yes," he says shortly. Vaguely he thinks that if this city is anything like New York - as it certainly seems to be - he'd be right at the tail end of a mass immigration. "You Italian?"

The guy nods slowly. "My sistah married a Jew," he says conversationally.

"Mazel tov," Kyle replies, allowing himself to hope that maybe, MAYBE, this might help them out somehow.

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter coughs and struggles not to vomit out all the booze he just drank out front, he can feel a dull throb of anger starting at his temples but tries to still it with a deep breath. He straightens back up and regards Eddie steadily, who after a long moment of silence finally smiles.

"Good boy." He says and then opens his hands in a warm welcoming gesture, "I have things to do tonight Jimmy, so all I need for you to do is tell me where Mr.Torrio is sending the shipment and then you can go back to enjoying your evening."

"Like I said before," Carter says as evenly as he can. "I don't know because I'm not Jimmy. Someone has made a mistake-"

"Someone has made a mistake all right, but it's not me." Eddie says and stands up, pulling a gun from under his blazer. He aims it at Carter, his eyes angry and his earlier smile twisting up into a grimace.

"Now you be a good boy and you tell me the location. Now."

[kyley_b]

Kyle was not blessed with thex gift of patience. The fact that he might get shot doesn't actually help as much as it should - Kyle's been shot at a LOT.

"Are you DEAF?" he shrieks. "Is the only one who hears me this guy over here?!" He gestures at the guy with the married sister.

"HE'S. NOT. JIMMY. YOU NUMB FUCK."

[extrasensory_problems]

"Shut that little shit head up." Eddie snaps to his giant goon who nods and turns and punches Kyle in the gut. It seems to be this guys one move.

"No!" Carter yells and moves to help, Eddie takes two quick steps and uses the butt of the gun to pistol whip Carter across the face. The pain is sudden and sharp, a burst of small white dots seem to appear across his vision and he can feel a small trickle of blood on his chin.

"Last chance Jimmy."

He turns his head and spits, seeing blood, and then looks back up at Eddie.

"Fuck you."

cw: animal endangerment

[kyley_b]

It's an effective move. Kyle doubles over, trying to catch his breath so he can punch back.

Wheezing, he manages to say, "Carter, I hate you so much." He figures these will probably be his last words as Eddie levels the gun at his friend... But then he sees it. A little chihuahua, just sitting by the big desk. It has a sparkly collar on.

Kyle moves as fast as he can, which is actually pretty quick, albeit with no grace whatsoever. He ducks and snatches the dog up into his arms, dancing backwards with it.

"NOBODY MOVE!" he shouts. "Or the dog gets it! I'll break its fuckin' neck!"