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

nanban: (05)

Hawks | BNHA | OTA

[personal profile] nanban 2022-01-02 10:43 pm (UTC)(link)
A; ARRIVAL/TEMPLE

All in all, Hawks isn't too thrilled about this one. The last time there was fog, way back when he'd gotten off the boat for the first time, there had been some undead nightmare creatures in it. It makes him wary. But nothing creeps out of the fog here near the temple so that's good, right? Maybe?

Catch Hawks in the kitchen, predictably, always in search of some kind of snack. Endless appetite, this one.

"Man, when do we get some cool futuristic tech island, y'know?" he says to anyone who comes within earshot.

Or maybe he opens with, "I think I preferred the mall to this."

You might also catch him outside as he lands, coming back from a fairly routine flight, feathers wet with drops from the misty air. "Even I'm having a hard time seeing through this," he says.


B; SEANCE TW: mentions of child abuse

Hawks gets the card on his way out of a pub. He's entirely sober, having only gone in there to eat and eavesdrop on the locals' conversation. Is there something they're meant to do here, something to fight?

He doesn't believe in things like seances and whatnot, but what else is he doing? He knows better than to do this. He knows that the islands have their own rules, that things that can't and don't and shouldn't happen can and do and will happen here. He goes anyway.

Mostly it seems like hocus pocus to him, this whole seance affair, but he goes along, acts impressed, whatever he feels is required in the moment as the other patrons have their chats with their dead grannies or whatever. Hawks doesn't have any dead relatives, so he figures he's pretty safe here. There's nothing in his past to dig up, right?

Haha, he thought.

What haunts you?

Hawks acts like nothing is wrong in his past, but he doesn't have a clean slate. That light on his wrist is yellow for a reason, right? But this haunting thing, it has nothing to do with the ScryWatch colour. Instead, the voice he hears, the voice the whole room hears, says his actual name, something he himself sure hasn't said to anyone. That was always part of the condition of saving his mom from the streets, of becoming a hero.

His dad's disgraceful name couldn't be part of it.

"Takami Keigo," the voice says.

Hawks's eyes go wide and his face pales a little. Ah, shit. His name isn't a secret, not really. It's his name, after all. But that family name, Takami, does haunt him. His dad was a piece of shit, after all.

"Did you actually grow up to be useful or are you just playing pretend?" The voice continues. Hawks can't decide if it sounds more like his mom or one of the Hero Commission.

"Cute trick," he says. He's a hero, but save him?


C; THE RIPPER TW: MURDER, BLOOD

Hawks is out later than he ought to be, maybe still shaken up by that stupid seance thing that happened earlier in the month (luckily he isn't being haunted all month, but man, that wasn't a fun time he's looking to repeat ever). Maybe he's just feeling reckless.

He's walking, not flying, since the fog is thick here, and even he can't see through it well enough to risk flying into a building or something stupid like that. When he hears that scream, though, he takes off after it. He's not far off the ground, but he just moves faster if he's flying.

You can catch him at the murder scene.

"Holy shit," he says. It's obviously too late for the victim, bleeding out in the street. Hawks realises he's not alone, that someone else has followed the scream. Hawks knows his own strengths, so he responds immediately.

"See if you can help them," he says. "Call for police or something, I dunno. I'm gonna chase down this bastard." He's fast, so this makes sense.

Your move, temporary hero partner!


D; WILDCARD

[ Got something else in mind? Cool, drop me a starter here or find me on plurk at [plurk.com profile] boywonder and we'll do it! ]
helpdesk_hero: David Alleyne  / Prodigy - From Young Avengers (Default)

A

[personal profile] helpdesk_hero 2022-01-02 11:08 pm (UTC)(link)
At least Hawks isn't alone in being unthrilled. Fog was frustrating, and David associated it with certain dimensions he'd been through, and he didn't like it at all. And add in the creatures and it's too much like Utopia's early days and he'd like to pass, thanks.

But hey, food is always good. Though he wasn't expecting to approach it and hear a familiar voice sharing his own opinions. David had to huff in amusement at that.

"See, I'd expected it in about another two islands, but the whole thing decided to change paths from advancing through Earth history, so no clue. Which frustrates me. At least with a more tech island I might be able to learn some new things for all our sakes by interfacing with the tech."
detectivemiracle: (182)

Chloe Decker | Lucifer | OTA

[personal profile] detectivemiracle 2022-01-03 02:22 am (UTC)(link)
I. The Temple

The era-appropriate dress she feels obligated to put on is much less uncomfortable than she would've anticipated, but that doesn't mean she's not still incredibly awkward in it, and misses her jeans and sensible shoes almost immediately.

"I don't suppose anyone in the city would sell me a pair of pants?" she mutters, almost to herself, as she adjusts the skirts again.

In another part of the temple, she might be found staring almost absently at a beautiful stained glass window. It appears to depict - well, a demon, or devil of some sort. He's red, he's got wings, horns, a tail. Chloe frowns, almost scowling at it, oblivious for the moment to the rest of her surroundings.

II. Seance (cw: grief, trauma)

Even a couple of years ago, Chloe would've said this sort of thing is all bunk. She still mostly thinks that, but that doesn't mean she's not a little bit curious about it. Especially here. After all, in these strange worlds they keep being brought to, just about anything is possible, right?

She was only intending to be a spectator, not a participant. So when a question is addressed to her - what haunts you? - she's somewhat taken aback.

"What? I don't -"

"Mommy, tell me Daddy's going to get better. Tell me he's coming home."

A child's voice rings from the medium's throat, and Chloe looks stricken.

"I'm sorry," she says, her voice shaking. "I'm so sorry."

"He's dead! He's dead and it's your fault!"

III. Ripper (cw: blood/gore)

Chloe isn't really a fan of walking around this city alone, especially at night, but for whatever reason, here she is. It's dark, foggy and creepy, and the streets and alleys are narrow and winding - it's really nothing like LA, and she's starting to get worried she'll get lost when she hears it - something like a scream, cut off abruptly.

"Hello?" she calls, and turns down a dark alley, all alert for any signs of trouble. If she has to, she'll rip her dress up to fight or run. "Hello?"

There's a choking sort of gurgle, and Chloe turns toward it, only seeing the person as she's about to step in the blood trailing from the wound in her neck. "Oh my god -"

A shadowy figure darts down the alley, and she yells, "Hey!" after him, but she doesn't go chasing him. His victim is still alive, if only for a few moments, and even if she's going to die, Chloe would never leave someone to bleed out alone in a dark alley. She kneels, putting her hands over the wound, doing what she can to staunch the bleeding. "Help!" she yells. "Help! I need medical help!"

IV. wildcard

[ Got any other ideas? Toss me a starter or shoot me a plurk at [plurk.com profile] frodabaggins! ]
unkindled_madness: (thinking)

[personal profile] unkindled_madness 2022-01-03 03:01 am (UTC)(link)
1. Do the temple windows also depict non-Earth gods?

2. To what extent can someone else perceive what/who is haunting a character?
nanban: (sigh)

[personal profile] nanban 2022-01-03 07:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Hawks nods his agreement, glad to have some commiseration.

"That's kinda what I was thinkin' too, but we had the jazz age before the carnival thing, so I dunno. You missed that one, I think. But the tech level there was on par with the carnival. So I didn't think we'd go backwards, I guess? I was really hoping after the mall we'd get, I dunno. Computers? At least?"

He sighs, overdramatic just for the sake of it. He's not that put out about it, but he's still definitely not a fan of this whole place just yet.

"Your quirk, uh...power...is by touching stuff, right?" He's still not entirely sure he understands what David's power set is. Much more involved than his own. He just wants tech because he's tired of going without.
helpdesk_hero: David Alleyne  / Prodigy - From Young Avengers (Default)

[personal profile] helpdesk_hero 2022-01-03 08:46 pm (UTC)(link)
"I missed jazz age?" David asked, his voice forlorn at that. HE wished he had known. He loved Jazz so much, and he'd been reaching for what hints of it he could find here and there. TO think there had been an island of that age... Ouch.

But the overdramatic sigh makes him smile. He actually thought it was an appropriate level of reaction.

"Not quite, not inherently. Back home I have only one power, which is the psychomimetry, a telepathic gift. But I've been changed by the adventures I've gone on. So there's the energy projection you saw and then there's the touch stuff. There's my original power, changed to be something like a touch based power and it's way weaker now, and psychometry, which is a whole other thing. And, of course, there's the touch-based technopathy now. Which is why I really want to get to another world."

But he supposed it was about time for them to have less fun.

"Can you imagine what that was like when I lacked control? Here's me, a guy that always expressed affection and support and kindness through touch, and it was at a point where touch itself was a sort of suffering to me, because there was just too much."

IT had been brutal, and heartbreaking at the sort of isolation it served to be.
prodigalmess: (Default)

Malcolm Bright | Prodigal Son

[personal profile] prodigalmess 2022-01-04 01:31 am (UTC)(link)
I. ARRIVAL/TEMPLE
The view from the boat makes it pretty obvious what kind of island this is. As someone who enjoys history, Malcolm's pretty excited to be visiting a version of Victorian London. Or at least he is until the smell hits him. That's the thing about history. A time and place may look one way in a picture, but a picture can't fully express what it's like to be there. The dirt and stench of the docks waft over him as he disembarks. History sure is fun! He only hopes the temple is cleaner.

Fortunately, it is. The soaring gothic architecture belies the simplicity inside. The bed in the room that he picks isn't great, but he's able to attach his restraints to it, so it should work. At least it's a room with a door that he can lock and no roommates. Except for Sunshine, who has been chattering away in her cage. Malcolm sets it down on the small table in the room, glad to have her here with him.

Even though he picked up some suits at The Mall, he's pleased to find a smart Victorian suit in the closet. He's never been so happy to blend in.

After he changes, he leaves his room and locks the door with a clunky metal key. Malcolm smiles and tips his hat to whomever happens to pass him in the hall.


III. THE RIPPER
Malcolm sees the crowds in the early daylight and is drawn to the scene. A few policemen are milling around the area, trying to keep the people back, but Malcolm manages to slip through.

The body of the young woman looks ghostly pale, her throat slashed from ear to ear. A grisly Victorian murder? Malcolm feels an excitement surge through him like he hasn't felt in months. He tries not to let it show too much on his face, otherwise the police will want to question him.

One of the of the policemen has a mop and it takes Malcolm a second to realize what he's doing with it. He's about the mop up the pool of blood around the victim.

"No!" Malcolm cries, jumping forward, one hand out. "No, no, you're contaminating the crime scene."

He looks around, hoping that there's somebody else in the crowd who'll back him up.


IV. RESURRECTION MEN
Malcolm had not intended to become a Victorian cop, but here he is: chasing after body snatchers in a moonlit graveyard. After helping the local police with the murder case, they've allowed him to join as a consultant of sorts. It's similar to his job back home and he's thrilled to be doing it. Grave robbing isn't a major crime in the 21st century, mostly because people are able to donate their bodies to science, so medical students aren't short of having cadavers to practice on. Strange how times and crimes change.

The grave robbers drop the recently unearthed corpse and run away when Malcolm and the person that he's with come upon them. They give chase, but the body snatchers are familiar enough with the graveyard that they're easily able to evade Malcolm and run off into the night.

With a sigh, he returns to the corpse, shining his lantern over it. The body is recently dead, still relatively well-preserved. There's something about it; the blonde hair sprawled over its face gives him pause. Carefully, he reaches down to push off the hair and the corpse opens its eyes and sits up.

What the fuck?

"A-Ainsley?!" Malcolm asks in utter shock. His sister wasn't dead back home, or at least she wasn't when he left.

"I killed him," the corpse says in a raspy voice, looking around at the other people there. "Malcolm couldn't kill him, but he helped me get rid of the body."


V. WILDCARD
[ Want something else with Malcolm Bright: Victorian Cop? Send me a PM or message me at [plurk.com profile] sparks_fly. ]
prodigalmess: (shock)

III.

[personal profile] prodigalmess 2022-01-04 01:52 am (UTC)(link)
Malcolm had been having a late evening dinner at a pub and was walking back to the temple when he heard the screams. He runs through the narrow alleys, following the sound of Chloe's voice until he finds her crouched over a woman bleeding out in the street.

"I'll get help!" he tells her before running in the direction of the local hospital. He fires off a quick voice message over the ScryWatch network, just in case any of the Travelers is a doctor. Not having phones is really a disadvantage in a time like this.
detectivemiracle: (294)

[personal profile] detectivemiracle 2022-01-04 03:16 am (UTC)(link)
"Hurry," she manages, the warm blood already making her hands sticky and her dress tacky. The poor woman makes another choking noise and Chloe rips at the cloth of her dress to try and bind the wound, but she's fighting a losing battle.

She's dealt with injured people before, she knows how to keep her cool and call for help, even knows some basic first aid. But the memory of Dan, bleeding out in her arms, is so close, she almost can't distinguish this woman from that mental image.

"Goddammit, stay with me!" she says, feeling her voice suddenly thick with tears. She doesn't know this person - she's a total stranger to her. But all she can see is Dan.
unkindled_madness: (spellcasting)

Sephiroth | OTA

[personal profile] unkindled_madness 2022-01-04 10:19 pm (UTC)(link)
I. The City

[Sephiroth is, at least, no longer carrying around the Masamune everywhere he goes. He doesn't love leaving his sword at the Temple, but there are private rooms and he feels reasonably confident that most of his fellow Travellers know better than to touch his weapon.

Then again, being out of doors is decidedly unpleasant. He doesn't change into the 'era-appropriate' garb, but he does take the extremely unusual measure of braiding his hair and tucking it into his coat. It's an incomplete solution. He's sure he can
feel the soot settling into his hair, slowly turning it a darker grey.

Which is why you may, ultimately, encounter him in the vicinity of a hat shop, considering this serious conundrum. Must he hide the hair completely for the sake of protecting it?]



II. Magic Practice

[Is it sacrilegious to set up empty crates near the altar for the sake of target practice? Oh well. The temple's main chamber is the largest available space for this, and at least he isn't throwing spells at the altar itself.

His focus remains, for now, on elemental magic: fire, ice, lightning, air. Just working on achieving a familiar level of control and speed of casting. A consistency in the basics before he moves on to more advanced spells.

A shame there aren't actual monsters to practice on, though...]



III. Haunted
((CW: potential references to child abuse, human experiments))

[Sephiroth isn't familiar with seances, but given his expanding understanding of the nature of magic, contacting the dead seems far from implausible. He isn't clear on how long it takes a spirit to return to the Lifestream, nor is he ever sure the inhabitants are fully human, so... maybe. Call it a professional curiosity that takes him to Price's home.

The amount of theatre involved quickly rouses his skepticism, and when Price asks
him, his answer is 'no one.' How could anyone be haunting him when he's in an entirely different dimension from the people he's killed? Apparently the 'spirits' aren't satisfied with that. Whoever or whatever is behind it, the Ouija board gets as far as spelling out H-O-J before Sephiroth abruptly stands, knocks the indicator off the table, and storms out of the house.

Maybe you're present to witness this, or maybe you encounter him afterwards, once his ghostly new friend has begun its harrassment. The first couple times random street trash is thrown his way, he attributes it to nearby children, though an outside observer can easily see they had nothing to do with it. But then the poltergeist tugs on his hair, and he knows no one was close enough for that.

Sephiroth whirls and unleashes a fireball in the direction of the offending spirit... but it fails to affect its intended target. Hopefully you didn't get singed instead.]


((As always, I'm available at [plurk.com profile] yinza if you want to plot anything!)
extrasensory_problems: (dark)

Carter Ghazikhanian| Marvel 616 (adult au) | OTA

[personal profile] extrasensory_problems 2022-01-04 11:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Ⅲ. THE RIPPER:
CW: murder, gore

One of the many annoying things about telepaths is their ability to be vague and cryptic when something bad is about to happen and Carter is no exception.
The streets are already dark and dense with fog and he wants nothing more than to get back to the Temple where it's warm and well light but something makes him stop suddenly, a cold feeling that has nothing to do with the damp weather around him. His eyes become unfocused and he tilts his head to one side, much like a dog listening for its master's voice.

"Something's wrong."

A second later there's a scream, shrill and full of panic and Carter takes off running towards it, easily tracking the source due to the powerful feeling of fear in the air. When he rounds the corner he instantly sees the body on the ground and he dashes over to it, dropping to his knees and immediately going into nurse mode. He pulls out a handkerchief and presses it to the wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding and when he looks up it's only then that he sees the shadowy figure that is making an escape.

"Fuck! HEY! STOP!"

Ⅳ. RESURRECTION MEN:
CW: death, gore, gross body horror

I'm doing this to help fellow medical students...I'm doing this to help fellow medical students...

This is what is going through Carter's mind as he digs down into the earth with his shovel, his face set and determined.
Maybe if he keeps repeating it he'll eventually believe it.

I'm doing this to help fellow medical students...I'm...

His thoughts stop when he finally hits the casket, the top of his shovel making a hollow thunk noise that chills his blood, and he suddenly has second thoughts about this whole thing. But he's started it so he might as well finish it and carefully he takes off the top of the casket and stares.

".......fuck." Carter says in a weak voice because the corpse inside is of one Alex Summers, aka Havoc, superhero and X-man.
The man who he had thought was going to be his father.

"Hey.....little....buddy." It croaks and Carter screams.
gravity_grrl: (neck)

Roxy Spaulding| Gen13 | OTA

[personal profile] gravity_grrl 2022-01-05 12:41 am (UTC)(link)
Ⅲ. THE RIPPER:
CW: murder, gore, violence against women.

There are some things that have just been ingrained into Roxy through years of training and being in the superhero business, so when she hears a scream echo in the night she doesn't think she just reacts. It takes two seconds for her to notice the body and then the figure fleeing the scene and knowing that the poor woman is beyond help she sets her sights on bringing the asshole who killed her down.

However she didn't really take into consideration the trouble she would have running in the era-appropriate garb she put on at the Temple earlier that day and she mentally curses whoever decided that huge skirts and layers was the "in" thing during this era.

"Fuck this." She says and uses her powers to float herself up off the ground and yet the killer still manages to slip around a corner faster than her. She curses and lands, looking around to see which way he could have gone when suddenly someone is grabbing her by her hair and slamming her back against a brick wall. Roxy cries out in pain, her head suddenly filled with stars and when she opens her eyes she sees a shadowy figure looming over her.

One hand locks on her throat while the other one slowly rises into view and she struggles to scream, because in that other hand is a large, wickedly sharp knife.

"Such pretty eyes..." Her attacker whispers to her, bringing the knife up towards her wide violet eyes. "Surely you won't mind...if I keep them as a souvenir?"

Uh...help?

V. WILDCARD:

[Feel free to throw anything else Roxy's way, prose or brackets, whatever is cool with you man.]
unkindled_madness: (curiosity)

A

[personal profile] unkindled_madness 2022-01-05 01:34 am (UTC)(link)
Sephiroth isn't looking to eat just yet, but it's a new location, and he wants to get the lay of the land. Since that includes a local temple this time, he's exploring that first.

His perusal of the kitchen is systematic, but he pauses when Hawks addresses him. He isn't entirely sure where they stand, given neither of them was quite in their right mind when they met.

"...at least the mall was clean," he agrees, experimentally. Not that it was pristine, but it certainly seems that way by comparison.
kyley_b: (RL comfy sweater)

II

[personal profile] kyley_b 2022-01-05 04:21 am (UTC)(link)
Kyle doesn't believe in ghosts. This is a bit odd, considering the fact that he's seen several over the course of his life. But Kyle likes to consider himself a logical skeptic, and so he sat down to the séance with a roll of his eyes. He looks over at Chloe as if to ask, can you believe this shit?

He has a little smirk on his face up until Chloe's reaction to what he thinks is the medium's fake little kid voice.

"Whoa, whoa, hey!" he says, trying to stand. The hands clasping his pull him right back down again, the other people at the table shushing him.

"Hey, dude, this is NOT cool! Chloe, hey, come on, this isn't real!"
kyley_b: (RL hair grab)

IV

[personal profile] kyley_b 2022-01-05 04:33 am (UTC)(link)
Kyle has no such illusions about what they're doing: they are robbing a grave. That said, this is not the first time he's done this. At least this time it's a stranger? Or is that worse than your own grandma? Regardless he's pretty sure stealing bodies for science is still less awful than doing it as a Halloween prank.

"What?" Kyle asks. He's standing on the earth beside the hole they've dug, leaning on his shovel. "What did y--"

Then Carter screams. So Kyle screams. Then he looks into the grave and sees that the body is trying to sit up, so he screams some more.
speed_of_snark: (wine)

Jean-Paul Beaubier/Northstar | Marvel !616 | OTA

[personal profile] speed_of_snark 2022-01-05 05:42 am (UTC)(link)
I: GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Jean-Paul looks good.

He puts on his new Victorian duds, navigating the layers effortlessly, and looks the very picture of a well-to-do gentleman. Cleaner, really, than most of the people on the streets, which just serves to make him look all the better.

"Oscar Wilde would LOVE to suck my--" he says as he admires his own reflection in a shop window. He is cut off by the clatter of a taxi carriage going by and he moves quickly to avoid being splashed with mud. What he hopes is mud. What really isn't just mud.

He looks up and down the street. "What we need," he says, presumably talking to you and not just himself, "is absinthe. Non?"


II: SEANCE

Jean-Paul sits grumpily at the table, visibly rolling his eyes. It's not the sort of thing he'd enjoy under any circumstances, and the fact that the stuffy little room smells of incense and Victorian B.O. is not improving his temperament any.

When Mary Price looks at him, however, something changes.

"What haunts you?"

A: TURN OF THE SCREW
[CW: suggestive language]

Jean-Paul scoffs. "Nothing," he says, irritated. "I don't have any stupid what ifs, and I don't DO regrets."

The medium's mouth falls open and a cheerful voice, distinctly male, issues forth:

"You sure about that, JP? You don't ever think, hey, maaaaayyyybe if I'd pushed a little I coulda touched his dick?"

Jean-Paul freezes and then does something so rare that most people wouldn't believe it possible: he blushes. Not much, but it's unmistakable.

LOST HEARTS
[CW: talk of murder]

Or, when the medium's mouth falls open instead the voice that issues forth is older, softer.

"That's not true, Jean-Paul Martin. There are things you think of nearly every day, and I wish with all my heart you would not."

Jean-Paul jerks as if an unseen blow has been delivered, and his eyes widen. "Non," he murmurs. "It cannot be. I. I don't think of you that often, not anymore."

He looks around the séance table, eyes stricken. "This must be a hoax," he all but pleads.
extrasensory_problems: (ohfuckoff)

cw: gore, death, body horror stuff

[personal profile] extrasensory_problems 2022-01-05 06:14 am (UTC)(link)
Carter scrambles out of the hole they've dug, his eyes wild, panicked and locked on the horrible corpse that is sitting up and reaching for him.

"Jesus fuck!!!" He yells and grabs at Kyle.

"it's so....good to see you...." The corpse croaks at him, a flap of dry skin fluttering on its lips when it speaks. "my how you've grown...."
kyley_b: (gross)

cw: gore, death, body horror stuff

[personal profile] kyley_b 2022-01-05 06:40 am (UTC)(link)
Kyle shrieks like a firebell and hauls Carter up and out of the hole as best he can. Carter outweighs him considerably, but he has the power of panic on his side.

"Zombies!" he yells. As soon as Carter is mostly on solid ground he turns and grabs his shovel again. Kyle stands at the edge of the grave and whacks at the corpse. "Fuck off, zombie douche!"
nanban: (53)

[personal profile] nanban 2022-01-05 06:47 am (UTC)(link)
Hawks is always looking to eat, really, though he's aware that the food can have adverse effects. Maybe it won't this time! The mall was okay as far as food went, right? Anyway, they didn't die, yolo.

Unlike Sephiroth, he's fairly easygoing (or at least he's very convincing at it, which isn't entirely the same thing, but it's close enough). He knows they started out in kind of a weird place back on carnival island. But he's also used to annoying the shit out of a stoic dude all the time, so he's really not bothered if Sephiroth doesn't think highly of him just yet.

He offers a smile, friendly and genuine.

"Yeah, you got me there. This place looks like the hardest place to keep clean we've been to yet. Especially you, man. You're gonna need a real nice bath wherever we go next, huh?"
nanban: (43)

[personal profile] nanban 2022-01-05 07:39 am (UTC)(link)
Hawks can't help chuckle a bit. "You a jazz guy, huh? Well, you also missed beach zombies, so you know. Win some, lose some." Hawks isn't really a jazz guy or a fan of zombies. That wasn't his favourite island, to say the least.

He remembers hearing some about the psychomimetry thing, and that David got other powers the last place he was, but some of this is new information for Hawks, too. He's glad to have it, because he likes to know about his friends, and because despite his kind of lazy dude attitude, Hawks is always paying attention. He keeps tabs on things like this out of habit. He's always hated being a spy, and he's only ever done that because he had to. He's not duplicitous by nature; he hates lying and all of that crap. But he's inquisitive and observant by nature, sure.

"I can't imagine, man. That sounds horrific, actually. But you seen okay with the touch thing now, right?"

Mostly he's just double-checking, largely because he's touched David quite a bit up to now. He'll back off if that's going to cause some terrible feelings somehow.
unkindled_madness: (appraisal)

[personal profile] unkindled_madness 2022-01-05 03:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Eating is an unfortunate necessity is what it is. He'll put it off until he needs to.

The suggestion that Sephiroth in particular will require a bath after this island seems vaguely insulting, but he doesn't think it's meant to be. His hair does require effort.

He nods towards Hawks' wings. "Won't it be difficult for you as well?"
helpdesk_hero: David Alleyne  / Prodigy - From Young Avengers (Default)

[personal profile] helpdesk_hero 2022-01-05 03:57 pm (UTC)(link)
"What can I say, I'm a sucker for smooth stylings and a music that aches for improv and emotion," David answered. "But... Well, I tend not to like zombies any time I run into them, so there is that."

Now that David was thinking about his other powers he definitely was going to use one, generating a glowing orb of psionic energy, knowing it would cast a little light in their circumstances.

"Yeah, pretty okay with it. I got better at control. It used to be I couldn't touch another person without accidentally invading their mind, and if I had more than ten different skin-to-skin touches in an hour, the worst migraines ever. You can imagine how much that would hamper a guy who shows affection through contact's life. Hell, my boyfriend and I, we had a really awkward time being affectionate when we had to be careful with counting."
neverwither: (what in the what)

Chloe | Detroit: Become Human

[personal profile] neverwither 2022-01-05 06:44 pm (UTC)(link)
I. ART DECADE
Impractical as it is, Chloe's quite fond of the mass of pink and white that forms an outfit. The grime of the city leaves something to be desired, but there are sights to explore. If one looks past those certain elements of the era, all it's rather charming.

Something that catches her attention is a toy shop. Displayed in the window are toys with moving parts; cogs and cams to create simple movement. They're a far cry from the android peering at them now yet she feels the draw of history, her own history, in them. True, more sophisticated forms of automata existed before the time period the island apes but she hasn't seen those in person. As a being with no family tree to speak of, it's something to be near to that from which she could be said to stem from.

A swift trip back to the Temple and she returns to the same spot armed with her sketchbook. Slightly concerned she might get a telling-off for loitering, she goes ahead with her plan of drawing the toys anyway. Brightly coloured figures that bob up and down at the turn of a handle and chickens that peck at the ground are recreated on the page exactly as they present in reality. She doesn't need to be stood there at all using the window display as a reference, really. She just prefers to.



II. BANG BANG (MY BABY SHOT ME DOWN)
CW: emotional abuse, trauma, gun use
Chloe has never given much thought to ghosts, spiritualism or anything of the sort. By all accounts, it shouldn't exist. But that isn't to say it doesn't, and especially here. She's intrigued enough to venture into the seance. Maybe it's just cold-reading and parlour tricks. Maybe there's something to it. One who never experiences will never know.

Nothing immediately screams trickery. Hmm. Sat around the table, she's drawn into the closure and catharsis others seem to gain from supposed contact with their loved ones. Perhaps tricks or truth don't really matter, if they're getting what they need. It almost makes Chloe feel at ease.

Only those eyes are alarming when they turn to her, as is the question. Without an answer to give, she looks around at the others gathered like they could prompt her. They don't provide anything, but a velvety male voice coming from the medium does.

"What interests me is whether machines are capable of empathy. I call it the Kamski test. It's very simple, you'll see."

Chloe's eyes widen. What in the...? That isn't...

"This really isn't the place for such talk," she says curtly, finishing a thought out loud. "You'll upset these poor people." As if they have any idea of what follows.

Her protest goes unheeded as the voice she knows so well continues.

"Magnificent, isn't it? One of the first intelligent models developed by CyberLife. Young and beautiful forever. A flower that will never wither... But what is it really? A piece of plastic imitating a human? Or a living being with a soul... It's up to you to answer that fascinating question..."

Looking down at her lap, Chloe grips her knees. "No." Her voice is low. "Don't do that. Please." Is she she talking to the medium or the voice itself? Your guess is as good as hers.



III. RED RIGHT HAND
CW: murder, gore, violence
Dark alleys in the night are not somewhere Chloe should be wandering. It's part of the reason she is. So much time doing everything she was told she should and should not and now she has the freedom to do. Her acts of rebellion are small, but they're something. And it's just a little stroll.

She's about to head back to the Temple when the scream pierces the air. Chloe hesitates for a second, then proceeds quickly but cautiously in the direction of the sound. Has someone had an accident? A mugging? Domestic dispute? Possibilities run through her mind.

The sight that greets her was not one of them.

At first she thinks the crumpled body means the poor figure has fallen. Or perhaps that's what she wants to think. The closer she gets and the clearer the scene becomes through the fog, Chloe is brought to a stupefied stop.

Blood. It's all blood. Wet noises and choking noises. And a person running away from and not to it.

A few seconds more and she closes the remaining gap between her and the woman, sinking down to the ground beside her. Cold android logic determines that this woman is about to die. Quickly. There's nothing to be done for such a catastrophic injury.

Scooping the woman into her arms, Chloe holds her for the final seconds. She can't help, can't do anything, no one should have to leave the world alone.

Logic kicks in once again. Practicality. The perpetrator ran, meaning they're still out there. "Police..." she calls weakly. Finding her voice, the cries that follow ring out. "Police! We need help!"


WILDCARD

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