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

[neverwither]

That could be the case. But I also think people see parts of you that you'd rather not acknowledge. Not everything they attribute can be put down to projection.

[unkindled_madness]

And you think, now, that I am failing to acknowledge some part of my nature? If you think it's a lie that I would wish harm on Hojo...

You have never met the man.

[neverwither]

I don't think it's a lie. I just don't think it's all there is to it. Or that you might not want to really acknowledge why you want to harm him so much.

[unkindled_madness]

[Yes, Chloe, that would be extremely accurate.]

...I think it is my right to keep those reasons to myself. If you want to call that some sort of weakness...

[He shakes his head.]

Well, so be it.

[neverwither]

Sephiroth, I think you may misunderstand. However it might seem, I'm really not trying to coax any sort of confession or secret out of you. You're absolutely right - it is your right to keep those reasons to yourself. I'm just not sure if you really do recognise what those reasons are.

[unkindled_madness]

I'm not sure what's given you that impression.

I am the only one who recognizes them.

[neverwither]

It’s just… I don’t know… A feeling, I suppose. Like you’re only willing to go so far before you decide what is and what isn’t.

Though I really do hope you recognise them. And sometimes… an outside perspective can be useful.

[unkindled_madness]

[There are some things about Hojo he will never give voice to, never form the words for, even in his own head. Surely that's fine.]

...an outside perspective will not kill him any sooner.

[Sephiroth no. That's not the point.]

[neverwither]

You’re right. But it might help silence some of those ghosts. Allow you to move forward as your own person. When one ends up fuelled by loathing, disdain and pain… There may only be so far down that path one can travel before it doesn’t end well.

[unkindled_madness]

It will end badly for him, certainly.

But I am moving forward. My life has nothing to do with him.

[He's made progress in a lot of other ways, but... not with this.]

[neverwither]

I know. I don’t mean for it to sound as though I’m diminishing what you’ve done so far, or that he is the be all and end all.

As much as you don’t really like to hear it, I worry for you. That’s all.

[unkindled_madness]

...I don't understand why. It's firmly in the past. There is nothing to worry about.

[Someone really needs to explain mental health and trauma to him like he's four years old.]

[neverwither]

That would be one of the reasons why. You have a tendency to talk about events as though each moment is standalone when then and now… They’re more like threads that weave a continuous tapestry. What came before informs what comes now. None of it exists in a vacuum.

[unkindled_madness]

It informs my perspective. But a man who isn't even here cannot do me any harm.

[Hi, remember your ghost friend? It picks up the fallen shutter from earlier and attempts to smack Sephiroth with it. He catches it with a hand, but, well... Harmless!]

[neverwither]

( Yes. Very harmless. She looks towards where the ghost would be if it were visible, silently agreeing with the point it’s trying to make. )

I honestly don’t think you’re foolish enough to believe that. Stubborn enough, perhaps, but not foolish. If it really were the case… I don’t think you would be here with the rest of us.

[unkindled_madness]

[Wow she's not supposed to side with the ghost.

Sephiroth sets the shutter down against the nearest building.]

Right. Because I am here for personal growth and redemption, which I sorely need.

[neverwither]

( All the apologies Seph, but your spooky pal gets it. )

Well… You did say you were moving forward, didn’t you?

[unkindled_madness]

I could have done that without coming here.

[Don't expect him to give the Ancient any credit.]

[neverwither]

Perhaps so. But really, it’s more that we all have a common link. It seems a little futile to keep denying it, given how long we’ve now been here.

And as we’ve said that you have accomplished things whilst you’ve been here… If there wasn’t a part of you that recognises you need more than the fight, I don’t think you would have made much progress at all.

[unkindled_madness]

I have other desires than fighting. Things that... would not have been permitted. I am aware of that.

[neverwither]

( Chloe finally cracks a little smile. )

We’ll have to get you all the books we can find.

( Probably not what he meant. She’s trying to cut him a tiny bit of slack after all her prodding. )

[unkindled_madness]

[He appreciates that.]

Hm. There may not be as much of a selection here as the previous island, but I'm sure it's better than some.

[neverwither]

Shall we go and have a look together? We might be able to discover something interesting. Or dreadful. Or dreadfully interesting.

( She offers an arm, which she doesn't think he'll take. It's more a gesture to say that while she may have been on the ghost's side for a moment there, she'll continue to be in Sephiroth's corner. )

[unkindled_madness]

[He does not take the arm. He doesn't recognize the gesture, actually, and just kind of looks at it for a second.]

...do you think anything is likely to be open at this hour?

[neverwither]

( Chloe shrugs and smiles to herself. At least there hasn't been any more storming off. All things considered, Operation Stand Up to Sephiroth has gone relatively well. )

Hmm. Perhaps not. Still, we could get a sense of the shops and such that are here. I believe you could call it a little recon?