Got the morbs.

[polymods]

✖ VICTORIA'S SECRET

Ⅰ. ARRIVAL & THE TEMPLE
You can read all about your character's arrival in the game lore.
The ferry pulls into port in the evening, when shadows are long and gas lamps burn through a veil of mist. Dozens of other ships are docked as well, with men unloading crates and boxes from their holds. Beyond the wet wood and lapping sound of the ocean, a city looms like a charcoal smudge on a purple sky. The air is smoggy and thick, and the river that flows from the sea into the city smells foul. Walk the cobbled streets and you will find that the city is crowded and filthy, but full of merchants, pubs, and theatres. Vast wealth and extreme poverty exist side by side.

In the center of the sprawling city is a temple with towering gothic spires and huge stained glass windows depicting all manner of beings that might be gods or angels or monsters. You could look for hours and still be finding new figures plucked straight from books of myth and religion. Inside, the main chamber has a grand vaulted ceiling, and dozens of pews line the aisle up to the altar, which is oddly anticlimactic compared to the lavish surroundings: just a plain stone table with a lit oil lamp in the centre. Two hallways branch off on either side of the room: one leads to private baths and a communal kitchen, the other to monastic style chambers with thin beds. Not the most comfortable place to stay, but it’ll do in a pinch!

Alternatively you can venture into the city and find yourself some other lodging - every Traveler has been supplied with some pocket money. Just be careful that it isn’t stolen by some street urchin. Travelers can also find an era-appropriate outfit that will fit them perfectly laid in the first sleeping chamber they visit.

Notes:
1. Unless this is your character’s first island, the High Temple and anything you may have stored there is off-limits this month.

2. Please remember to mark threads appropriately with Content Warnings when necessary.

3. The city greatly resembles Victorian London, and the technology and general way of life is all of that era. Feel free to explore the city! These prompts are a jumping off point - how they affect your character and their development is up to you.

4. Most food is safe to eat, and is consumable by non-human entities. Most. Some of it’s going to be pretty gross or cooked improperly, so be careful.

5. The people in the city are normal humans unless otherwise indicated. Killing them is possible and will affect the colour grading of your Scrywatch depending on the situation.

6. Have fun!

---

Ⅱ. SEANCE
CW: grief, past trauma.
Perhaps you overhear talk of it at a pub, or maybe you’re handed a small card as you push your way through the crowded city streets. Maybe you just wander in by accident. However it happens, you find yourself being ushered into the parlour of one Miss Mary Price: Spiritualist.

You and several other people are instructed to sit at a round table in a very dark and musty room. The walls are covered in thick black curtains, and maybe you’re the type to suspect that there’s someone hiding behind them somewhere. Once everyone is seated, Mary Price herself enters the room. The lights are all extinguished save for a single candle.

Mary calls out to the spirits. They communicate through a series of knocks, or the movement of a Ouija board. Someone at the table is put in contact with a deceased aunt who reveals the location of a family heirloom. Someone else is able to say goodbye to a son.

Mary Price looks at you with eyes so dark they look black, and asks, “What haunts you?”

Maybe you answer honestly. Maybe you don’t answer at all, but that doesn’t matter because the spirit tapping around the room is more than happy to narc on you and tell the whole room what or who it is that you cannot forget.

You can deny it all you like, but the spirits don’t have a reason to lie. And if you try to mess up the seance, you will spend a month being hounded by an angry poltergeist.

Notes:
1. The spirit can communicate through knocks, the Ouija, actually vocalising through the medium, or via ectoplasm.

2. What haunts your character does not have to be the memory of a dead person. It can be an event - maybe they’ve never gotten over losing that science fair in grade three. It is the feeling of being haunted that is important.

3. If you choose to trash the seance, the spirit will follow you for the rest of the month. It can range from annoying to actually dangerous.

---

Ⅲ. THE RIPPER
CW: murder, gore, violence.
You’re lost at night. Maybe you were in the pub too late, or maybe you were searching for more illicit fun - weren’t there opium dens around this time? - or maybe you just weren’t keeping an eye on the time. However it happened, you’re on the streets in the dark.

It’s very foggy; you can barely see a foot in front of you. The streetlamps look like dimly burning ghosts and when the odd person passes you they are felt more than seen, just a darker shadow in a world of shifting shades.

Very suddenly you hear a scream - short, and swallowed up quickly by the fog. Still, it’s enough to get you to turn and hurry down a narrow alleyway.

Sprawled on the ground amid a lake of blood is a body. It’s immediately apparent that this person is probably beyond help - their throat has been slashed ear to ear. Your appearance was not expected, however, and you can see that you’ve startled the killer: they’re running down the alley in the opposite direction.

You have a few choices: you can chase the killer and attempt to catch them, you can try to help the victim, you can get the authorities, or you can just walk away.

What will you do?

Notes:
1. The inspiration for this prompt is Jack the Ripper but you do not have to use that case as a basis for your killer.

2. You can get as involved with this as you would like. You can have your character catch the killer in a chase, or form your very own detective squad and hunt them down that way.

3. Naturally, walking away from a potential serial killer might not be great for your Scrywatch grading!

---

Ⅳ. RESURRECTION MEN
CW: dead bodies, grave robbing.
You’re not entirely clear on how you agreed to this. Maybe it was a barroom bet gone wrong. Maybe you’re broke enough that you need money fast. Or maybe you want to help some wannabe medical students. However it happened, you’re in the cemetery.

And you’ve got a shovel.

Time to rob some graves! You’ve convinced yourself somehow that this isn’t morally reprehensible, and so you and your partner are just going to get down to business! What corpse should you unearth? You feel like a kid in a candy store!

The problem comes once you’ve unearthed the body because it seems terribly familiar. Which is… creepy. Creepier still when it starts talking.

Maybe it’s a family member, or an old friend. Maybe an ex partner. Whoever it is, they immediately start telling your fellow grave robber about some incident from your past that you just. Can’t. Let. Go. Of. And even if you whack it with a shovel it won’t stop. Bad corpse! BAD Corpse!

Which of course is exactly what you have to try and do if you want this chatty Cathy of a corpse to shut the hell up.

Notes:
1. If you do NOT let go of this past event, the corpse will follow you the rest of the night singing Henry the Eighth I am, I am.

Sometimes I can still hear his voice...

Network · Logs · OOC · Memes · Plurk

Comments

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter gets up as well and nods towards the way they came, "Agreed. I think if we go back that way there's a busy pub where we should be able to flag some people down to help us more."

[helpdesk_hero]

"Right," David said. "Keep me moving in the right direction if you can."

ANd that's when David takes off. Stupid fog was going to make this all better.

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter follows behind David, trying to keep the woman anchored and calm as well as reaching out and forward with his powers to feel where the biggest area of people are. Now that his shields are down he can almost see the pulse of activity and he calls out to David, "To the right!"

[helpdesk_hero]

Right? David doesn't question, he just moves. He twists them toward the direction indicated and was soon bursting into an area of people. And, there! A marker on the door and David bolts for it. Here, a cutter. This guy should hopefully help.

"Just a little longer," David promised Carter and the woman. Just a little bit."

[extrasensory_problems]

Without even knowing that he is doing it Carter uses his telekinesis to fling open the door for David, probably scaring the hell out of the guy who works there.

"Help us please, she's been hurt." He says and thankfully the man jumps into action, telling David where to lay the poor woman.

[helpdesk_hero]

David was happy to put the woman down and start detailing what was going on and how the woman had been hurt. Meanwhile his hand waved to Carter. He could go if he needed. This had to be traumatic for him.

But if he was going to stay, he'd find David there about half an hour later, trying to breathe and calm himself.

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter leaves the room, not because he doesn't think that he couldn't be useful but because his head is starting to hurt. He waits for David though just outside the man's establishment and when he comes out he looks up.

"Hey. Is she gonna be okay?"

[helpdesk_hero]

When he came out, David took a deep breath. It was nice to be out of that room.

"He thinks she'll make it, thanks to us. Really, thanks to you."

[extrasensory_problems]

He looks a little surprised and then shakes his head, "I didn't do that much. You're the one with the doctor skills that saved her."

[helpdesk_hero]

"You kept her alive," David countered. "You kept the pressure on so she didn't bleed out. And you found her."

So shut up. Carter, you did this.

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter sighs and motions for them to start walking, "We both helped her."

He pauses and runs a hand through his hair, "And now we're both exhausted. Wanna head back to the Temple and sleep for a few hours?"

[helpdesk_hero]

"Yeah," David agrees. "Cuddling?"

[extrasensory_problems]

He gives David a soft smile, "Yes. Please. Absolutely."

[helpdesk_hero]

With a sigh he offered Carter his arm.

"Let's get a nap."

[extrasensory_problems]

He takes the arm as the two of them start to slowly walk through the streets together, "How's your head doing?"

[helpdesk_hero]

Carter is quite a bit of a support, and David leans his head against his friend's shoulder.

"Aching, badly."

[extrasensory_problems]

"Mine too. I've got a big bottle of pain killers in my room back at the Temple, I hate to say it but being at that mall island last month was actually pretty useful..."

[helpdesk_hero]

"It was," David agreed. "But seriously, I'd pay for the next island to be something like, I don't know, a true paradise."

But he doubts they get that kind of break on the regular.

[extrasensory_problems]

"What would be your idea of a true paradise?"

[helpdesk_hero]

"Somewhere that I don't have to worry about people getting murdered. Or zombies. Or violence in general. And maybe more ice."

Please more ice so he can practice skating.

[extrasensory_problems]

"More ice?" Carter asks with a gentle smile, "I'll pass on that one thanks. My butt gets sore just from thinking about the skating lesson Logan gave me."

[helpdesk_hero]

"If I was still good at it, I would happily have taught you," David answered with a shrug.

But they had other things to focus on then, and David couldn't skate enough to teach though.

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter gives him a squeeze, "I know you would have. And I would have landed on my butt just as many times but at least you might have been nice enough to help me ice it after."

[helpdesk_hero]

"i would have," David said, but there was mischief in his tone. "Except, you know, the ice was already there."

[extrasensory_problems]

"Ha ha, funny guy." He says and then stops walking for a second, a spike of pain going through his head and he grimaces.

"ow...yeah I think I have a migraine coming on."