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

[unkindled_madness]

...you expect me to apologize to a ghost?

[Ridiculous. He barely apologizes to living people.

Besides, the ghost started it.]

[mewnifestos]

You do want it to stop eventually, don't you?

[ And, like, maybe apologizing won't work. But it's better than getting bricks chucked at your head, right??

Actually, Sephiroth might not think so, Anders realizes, and starts to consider drawing up a glyph to protect himself, should this escalate. ]

[unkindled_madness]

[Sephiroth regards Anders flatly for a moment longer, but he's not quite so stubborn that he isn't willing to try it. A few simple words to rid himself of a pest. He has a glance around and then addresses the air:]

My apologies for interrupting your little spelling game.

[The real problem here is that he's incapable of sounding sincere, and there's a clear air of "now get lost before I burn you" in his tone.

The ghost decides to untie his bootlaces.]

[mewnifestos]

[ Oh, come on. Even children can do better than that! Lying children!! Anders knows, because that is him. He's hardly ever apologized sincerely for anything in his life, and he's very obviously judging Sephiroth's form, here, drunk or not. ]

Well, it was nice knowing you. When this haunting results in your untimely demise, I'll be sure to give a nice eulogy at your funeral.

[unkindled_madness]

I am not going to be done in by a ghost.

[But he will be appropriately wary as he crouches down to tie his boots, lest any more bricks come flying his way.]

[mewnifestos]

Oh, that's going to make a fun epitaph.

[ Because he absolutely will be done in by a ghost, if he keeps on with this. How can he fight what he can't see?? Impossible. ]

[unkindled_madness]

[It's entirely possible, and anyway, if the extent of the ghost's power is untying his shoelaces and throwing things, then how could it possibly murder him? But he's a little annoyed that Anders doesn't see this, so:]

...I'll haunt you, when I'm gone.

[mewnifestos]

[ It's obviously just ramping up. Trying to unsettle him before going in for the kill. Classic haunting, doesn't he ever read any good books?? ]

Oh, please. You can barely tolerate me alive. You wouldn't waste your afterlife.

[unkindled_madness]

[That's fiction, Anders. Ghosts are a real phenomenon and they don't make impressive enemies.

Laces retied, he stands to continue down the street.]

Why would I haunt someone I liked?

[mewnifestos]

[ X ] - Doubt ]

Well, think about it—

[ Anders does not hesitate to follow, despite his apparent misgivings about this whole situation. ]

You're spending all your time with someone, including hanging around while they're asleep and probably a lot of other boring things. Shouldn't you at least care for them a little?

...Or loathe them beyond all reason, but I'm pretty sure I'm not quite there yet, either.

[unkindled_madness]

[Someone he loathed beyond reason... No, he wouldn't want to spend all his time with them. Not any of his time.]

...when you put it that way, I can't think of anyone I would care to haunt so single-mindedly.

[mewnifestos]

Unfortunately, I don't think there's any other kind of haunting. It's either strong feelings or terrible curses; there's really no inbetween.

[ Now he's an expert, of course. But, honestly, what else could bring a soul back from the afterlife? Sephiroth isn't nearly petty enough to make good on anything less. ]

So it's probably a terrible curse, in your case. [ He glances around again as he's talking, watching the dark, cramped alleyways warily as they pass. ]

[unkindled_madness]

Are you suggesting the ghost was cursed, or I was?

[None of this is how Sephiroth believes that ghosts work. They aren't powerful magic or vengeful spirits, they're just fragments of souls that haven't quite found their way to the Lifestream. Probably.

Does this place even have a Lifestream?]

[mewnifestos]

Oh, you, of course.

[ Assuming anything here works as it should is utter fallacy, so Anders feels confident enough in just making it up as he goes along. Though the drink helps, naturally. ]

What did you do at your little seance? Step on someone's toe? Insult their terrible fashion sense?

[unkindled_madness]

I simply left while the ghost was in the middle of communicating something.

[A rooftile comes loose from somewhere above and crashes onto the street in front of them, making Sephiroth stop short a moment.]

[mewnifestos]

...You know, most people would assume that was the problem.

[ Especially given the lack of subtlety here. Anders glances from that broken rooftile to Sephiroth, clearly expectant. ]

[unkindled_madness]

Well, it didn't much care for my apology.

[What more do you want from him?]

[mewnifestos]

And after you put so much effort and sincerity into it, too, I can see why you might be disheartened.

[ Any attempt at all to not be haunted forever?? Anders would be content with just that, really. ]

Clearly your only option is to allow it to pass on whatever message it had that you so rudely interrupted.

[unkindled_madness]

[His expression darkens.]

...I know what the message was, and this thing isn't qualified to speak on the subject.

[mewnifestos]

Wait - so you already know what it wanted?

[ Anders narrows his eyes at Sephiroth, this time, as he considers this new piece of the puzzle. ]

What more could it want out of you, then?

[unkindled_madness]

Precisely. It's nothing but a pest.

[Except that Sephiroth has refused to acknowledge the "message" or allow it to be related to anyone else. Probably the ghost wants him to tell Anders, to reveal another piece of himself against his wishes.

There's another tug on his hair, and Sephiroth growls, pulling his braid forward over his shoulder.]

[mewnifestos]

It seems your hanger-on would beg to differ.

[ Anders remains skeptical, eyebrow quirks as he watches Sephiroth guard his hair. ]

Is whatever it wants to say really so bad you're willing to put up with this?

[unkindled_madness]

It isn't something I discuss.

[So... yes.]

[mewnifestos]

[ Well, obviously — but Anders manages not to actually cut in with that observation, this time. He hasn't exactly known these islands to be so keen on bringing up easy and fun topics, though.

Still, maybe he can try to be considerate about this. As a friendly (friend-ish?) courtesy.

He offers Sephiroth the bottle he's been carrying around in the same spirit, still full to the brim with some bitingly caustic liquor he neglected to ask the name of. ]

If you think I'll go and tell someone, you've insulted me gravely. I'm not some two-bit gossip. [ Well, not when it matters. ]

[unkindled_madness]

[Sephiroth eyes the bottle almost warily, and doesn't take it just yet.]

That isn't the issue. [If he tells Anders, then... he'll have told Anders.]

I prefer the effigies. [No need to discuss how they were wronged.]