polymods: (Default)
polymods ([personal profile] polymods) wrote in [community profile] polylogs2022-01-02 12:44 pm

Got the morbs.

POLYMYTHOS: VICTORIA'S SECRET

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

unkindled_madness: (didn't want to be here)

[personal profile] unkindled_madness 2022-02-01 12:58 am (UTC)(link)
[His expression darkens.]

...I know what the message was, and this thing isn't qualified to speak on the subject.
mewnifestos: (Default)

[personal profile] mewnifestos 2022-02-05 03:10 am (UTC)(link)
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: (irritated)

[personal profile] unkindled_madness 2022-02-05 03:21 am (UTC)(link)
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: (Default)

[personal profile] mewnifestos 2022-02-05 03:58 am (UTC)(link)
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: (arms folded)

[personal profile] unkindled_madness 2022-02-05 04:06 am (UTC)(link)
It isn't something I discuss.

[So... yes.]
mewnifestos: (Default)

[personal profile] mewnifestos 2022-02-05 04:49 am (UTC)(link)
[ 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: (wary)

[personal profile] unkindled_madness 2022-02-05 05:01 am (UTC)(link)
[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.]
mewnifestos: (Default)

[personal profile] mewnifestos 2022-02-05 05:17 am (UTC)(link)
And having shoes thrown at you and your hair pulled?

[ The effigies are simpler, sure, but they can't always get what they want. He shakes the bottle again for emphasis. ]

I suppose if anyone's stubborn enough to put up with weeks or more of that treatment, it's you. But taking up a little of the drink might help.
unkindled_madness: (no one likes HR meetings)

[personal profile] unkindled_madness 2022-02-05 03:28 pm (UTC)(link)
[He's skeptical, but slowly accepts the bottle. He takes an experimental sip. ... This is disgusting, Anders, why are you drinking it?]

...everyone at that seance had someone precious they were unable to forget. And me, I am told... [He is told it's Hojo he can't forget. He grimaces.]

That man isn't inescapable, or inevitable. I won't give him a second thought once he's dead.
mewnifestos: (Default)

[personal profile] mewnifestos 2022-02-07 01:22 am (UTC)(link)
[ Anders scoffs in familiar bitter non-amusement. ]

Sounds like someone I know. Maybe a few someones.
unkindled_madness: (no one likes HR meetings)

[personal profile] unkindled_madness 2022-02-07 01:35 am (UTC)(link)
I'm sure.

[What they have most in common is unfortunate acquaintances. Hence the club.

... The booze does not improve on a second drink. Sephiroth offers the bottle back to Anders.]
mewnifestos: (Default)

[personal profile] mewnifestos 2022-02-07 01:45 am (UTC)(link)
[ Anders accepts it with a shrug, taking a swig, himself. The truth is, it never improves. But two sips won't get him past the point of caring, either. ]

If he matters so little, though, then why let it bother you? Seems a bit like he's winning, if you let yourself be chased around by some miserable bloody poltergeist in his name.
unkindled_madness: (irritated)

[personal profile] unkindled_madness 2022-02-07 02:05 am (UTC)(link)
[Sephiroth has never been drunk. He's not sure how many sips it takes but he's never made it there and sometimes it really doesn't seem worth trying.]

Winning? He isn't here to be doing anything.
mewnifestos: (Default)

[personal profile] mewnifestos 2022-02-07 05:36 am (UTC)(link)
Isn't he? Following you around like some tragic shadow, clinging to your every thought while your emissary of annoyance flings detritus at you from the alleyways?

Wouldn't you rather just have it out and put an end to this whole thing?
unkindled_madness: (arms folded)

[personal profile] unkindled_madness 2022-02-07 02:42 pm (UTC)(link)
What more is there to say?

[He feels he's already admitted enough, even if he hasn't so much as told Anders the man's name. A name won't mean anything to him.

There's an insistent rapping along the wall of the nearest building. The ghost definitely isn't gone. What's the point of talking?]
mewnifestos: (Default)

[personal profile] mewnifestos 2022-02-09 04:39 am (UTC)(link)
Well, I wouldn't have the first clue. But it seems to have some idea.

[ He gestures vaguely toward the sound of that tapping with his bottle, shrugging widely. ]

How was it passing its messages, before? Maybe you ought to try that again.
unkindled_madness: (arms folded)

[personal profile] unkindled_madness 2022-02-09 02:53 pm (UTC)(link)
It can tap all it wants, I am not returning to the medium.

[Anders he only let it spell three letters. Three.]

I don't care to hear anything else it has to say.
mewnifestos: (Default)

[personal profile] mewnifestos 2022-02-09 05:07 pm (UTC)(link)
I can see why you've attracted such a stubborn spirit.

[ It suits him. And if being hounded by it for some indeterminate time does, too, Anders won't press any further. ]
unkindled_madness: (lineface)

[personal profile] unkindled_madness 2022-02-09 05:16 pm (UTC)(link)
[Sephiroth gives him a flat look.]

Thank you.