Bang Up To The Elephant

✖ VICTORIA'S SECRET
Ⅰ. ARRIVAL
You can read all about your character's arrival in the game lore.
The fog that has blanketed the city for a month finally lifts a little - there are days with actual sunshine now! Not many, and the sky is still frequently thick with smog, but every so often light pours through the holes in the clouds. The river that flows from the sea into the city still smells foul, but maybe you’re starting to get used to it.
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!
The High Temple has also reappeared at the edge of the city, with its considerably more comfortable lodgings.
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.
Ⅱ. COME UNDONE
CW: dead bodies, archeological graverobbing.
Somehow, some way, you find yourself with an invitation card:
Lord Trewlaney at Home: the Unwrapping of
THE JEWEL OF THE SEVEN STARS!
Half-past Eight
Unwrapping? How saucy! Or perhaps you have an inkling of exactly what that means.
The invitation gets you entry to a well kept home on the more well-to-do side of the city. There are plenty of servants circulating with food and drink of which you are welcome to partake. Society’s elite chatter and mingle all around you; maybe you fit in, and maybe you don’t.
Regardless, you don’t have to wait very long for the main event. The host of this little soiree - presumably Lord Trewlaney himself, a little man with a weak chin and an impressive mustache - stands at the front of the room and holds his hands aloft.
“Ladies and gentleman,” he says in a clear voice. “BEHOLD! We shall now commence with the unwrapping of this, a fine example of Egyptian mummification, who was once called the Jewel of the Seven Stars!”
A wheeled table is brought forward, covered in a purple velvet cloth. Dramatically, Lord Trewlaney flings it back to reveal a body wrapped in ancient linen bandages. The crowd sighs, and Trewlaney’s eyes scan the crowd.
“Ah, you there!” he cries, pointing at you. Or maybe the person beside you.
“You folk there! Here, come up, my friends! You may have the honour of being a part of history!”
The crowd pushes you and your companion forward with excited murmurs. Soon enough the two of you are beside the mummy, and Trewlaney is handing you a pair of scissors. Up close the body smells of cinnamon and something else, something familiar.
“Reveal its face!” he urges you. And so, you cut.
Much to your surprise what is revealed is not a desiccated corpse, but your own likeness. Before you have time to react the mummy sits up and turns to face the audience, who oohs and ahhs.
The mummy’s lips part and it speaks. What does it say? Something extremely revealing; in plain terms, the mummy reveals something an aspect of yourself that you would rather have kept hidden.
Oh dear! You can shut yourself up, of course, but before you do maybe you ought to consider that interfering with a mummy was considered a surefire way to fall under a curse…
Ⅲ. IMAGINARIUM
The sign above the door simply reads Cabinet of Curiosities. How intriguing! And at the very least you can get out of the chill.
Inside there are dozens of wooden cases with glass fronts, each filled with shelves of all manner of objects. Some look expensive and exotic, while others are almost painfully mundane. There are taxidermied animals, wet specimens, fossils, glass eyes, rocks and crystals, pottery, statuettes… There’s a little of everything.
As you peer amongst the stuffed ducks and fossilized plants, you’ll spot something familiar. It’s an object that you recognise as personally significant whether because it’s from your life back home, or because it’s symbolic. It represents a dream or a hope you have for the future.
If you take the object out of the cabinet for a closer look, you and whoever happens to be standing nearby will instantly be transported to a hazy vision of what that lovely dream is. It won’t last forever - indeed, maybe only a moment. Depending on what that hoped for future is, you might have some explaining to do.
Ⅳ. GARDENS
CW: mind altering substances.
If there’s one spot within the city where you might be able to find some refuge from the dank scent of ocean rot and the sour smell of body odour, then it’s going to be the Gardens. A jewel toward the west side of the city, you will find a greenhouse containing all manner of tropical plants, and a rose garden with over a 100 different types available for you to enjoy.
But why stop there? There are also areas where you can stop and have tea with a friend. They even have those little sandwiches with the crust cut off! They have cucumber, egg, and cream cheese. Each of these has a different effect: cucumber sandwiches will provide a mild sense of euphoria, while the egg will give you a lot of energy (and maybe some gas). Cream cheese will make you very relaxed and prone to oversharing. There are also perfectly regular cakes and biscuits available, as well.

Maybe you’re feeling a bit more somber. In the northeast end of the park there is a secret pet cemetery with over 300 tiny tombstones paying tribute to the tragic losses of many much-loved pets. The area is disused, overgrown with ivy and ferns. Sitting there evokes a sense of peace.
Prefer to see some living wildlife? Fear not, the park seems to attract several different types of songbirds which makes it a hotspot for birdwatching. There are binoculars available to use for that purpose. Or you could use them to peer into the city’s seamy underbelly. Just don’t get isolated and weird about it.
Sometimes I can still hear his voice...
You can read all about your character's arrival in the game lore.
The fog that has blanketed the city for a month finally lifts a little - there are days with actual sunshine now! Not many, and the sky is still frequently thick with smog, but every so often light pours through the holes in the clouds. The river that flows from the sea into the city still smells foul, but maybe you’re starting to get used to it.
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.

The High Temple has also reappeared at the edge of the city, with its considerably more comfortable lodgings.
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. The High Temple and anything you may have stored there is available to all characters 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. COME UNDONE
CW: dead bodies, archeological graverobbing.
Somehow, some way, you find yourself with an invitation card:
Lord Trewlaney at Home: the Unwrapping of
THE JEWEL OF THE SEVEN STARS!
Half-past Eight
Unwrapping? How saucy! Or perhaps you have an inkling of exactly what that means.
The invitation gets you entry to a well kept home on the more well-to-do side of the city. There are plenty of servants circulating with food and drink of which you are welcome to partake. Society’s elite chatter and mingle all around you; maybe you fit in, and maybe you don’t.
Regardless, you don’t have to wait very long for the main event. The host of this little soiree - presumably Lord Trewlaney himself, a little man with a weak chin and an impressive mustache - stands at the front of the room and holds his hands aloft.
“Ladies and gentleman,” he says in a clear voice. “BEHOLD! We shall now commence with the unwrapping of this, a fine example of Egyptian mummification, who was once called the Jewel of the Seven Stars!”

“Ah, you there!” he cries, pointing at you. Or maybe the person beside you.
“You folk there! Here, come up, my friends! You may have the honour of being a part of history!”
The crowd pushes you and your companion forward with excited murmurs. Soon enough the two of you are beside the mummy, and Trewlaney is handing you a pair of scissors. Up close the body smells of cinnamon and something else, something familiar.
“Reveal its face!” he urges you. And so, you cut.
Much to your surprise what is revealed is not a desiccated corpse, but your own likeness. Before you have time to react the mummy sits up and turns to face the audience, who oohs and ahhs.
The mummy’s lips part and it speaks. What does it say? Something extremely revealing; in plain terms, the mummy reveals something an aspect of yourself that you would rather have kept hidden.
Oh dear! You can shut yourself up, of course, but before you do maybe you ought to consider that interfering with a mummy was considered a surefire way to fall under a curse…
Notes:
1. What is revealed can of course be of any degree of seriousness. Murder? Or do you just secretly enjoy RomComs?
2. Shut the mummy up before it has its say and you will suffer the Mummy’s Curse: bad luck that will plague you for the rest of the month!
Ⅲ. IMAGINARIUM
The sign above the door simply reads Cabinet of Curiosities. How intriguing! And at the very least you can get out of the chill.

As you peer amongst the stuffed ducks and fossilized plants, you’ll spot something familiar. It’s an object that you recognise as personally significant whether because it’s from your life back home, or because it’s symbolic. It represents a dream or a hope you have for the future.
If you take the object out of the cabinet for a closer look, you and whoever happens to be standing nearby will instantly be transported to a hazy vision of what that lovely dream is. It won’t last forever - indeed, maybe only a moment. Depending on what that hoped for future is, you might have some explaining to do.
Notes:
1. All futures are something hoped for. They may be completely unrealistic and bittersweet, but they are something wanted and not feared.
Ⅳ. GARDENS
CW: mind altering substances.
If there’s one spot within the city where you might be able to find some refuge from the dank scent of ocean rot and the sour smell of body odour, then it’s going to be the Gardens. A jewel toward the west side of the city, you will find a greenhouse containing all manner of tropical plants, and a rose garden with over a 100 different types available for you to enjoy.
But why stop there? There are also areas where you can stop and have tea with a friend. They even have those little sandwiches with the crust cut off! They have cucumber, egg, and cream cheese. Each of these has a different effect: cucumber sandwiches will provide a mild sense of euphoria, while the egg will give you a lot of energy (and maybe some gas). Cream cheese will make you very relaxed and prone to oversharing. There are also perfectly regular cakes and biscuits available, as well.

Prefer to see some living wildlife? Fear not, the park seems to attract several different types of songbirds which makes it a hotspot for birdwatching. There are binoculars available to use for that purpose. Or you could use them to peer into the city’s seamy underbelly. Just don’t get isolated and weird about it.
Questions, comments, concerns?
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Re: Questions, comments, concerns?
Totally understand if not.
It is a literal 'Oh my God' moment in the making.(no subject)
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Sephiroth | OTA
[Well, he is a curious man. The items in this place--he isn't actually sure if it's a shop or not--they may be improperly catalogued, but not all of them are worthless trinkets. Sephiroth moves away from the wet specimen jars and towards the rocks and statuettes that may be of a more archaeological nature...]
a) Lab (CW: murder, blood)
[Among the items is a pair of round, dark glasses, the lenses cracked. A fitting addition to a future effigy, perhaps. When he picks them up, he finds himself in the Shinra Building.
You may be able to identify your surroundings as some sort of research laboratory. You stand inside an observation deck, glass separating you from the rest of the lab. Beyond are metallic grey walls and low, green-ish lighting.
But you might not look around. Against the control panel is a man in a white lab coat, pinned there by Sephiroth's sword, his eyes already gone vacant behind his glasses. Blood stains his coat and drips from the panel to the floor beneath him.]
b) Portal
[This object fits right in among the fossils. It's a stone fragment bearing some sort of inscription in the language of the Cetra--something Sephiroth can only recognize, not read. But of course he's drawn to it.
This vision is much less grounded in reality. You stand on a hill overlooking a shoreline, and before you rises a stone arch with more of those inscriptions. The Cetra are more commonly called the Ancients, like the Ancient who serves as their captor. So, maybe it would look something like this. A portal to other worlds.
Through the arch a different place is visible. Sephiroth has never been to Earth, but the world beyond might resemble something out of a movie he glimpsed at the mall's electronics store, or a photograph in some encyclopedia. Probably, it isn't accurate. But it isn't Gaea either.]
II. Gardens
[After the poison garden, Sephiroth is cautious of entering the greenhouse. He watches from outside until he's observed others entering and exiting undeterred. He still isn't going to eat any of the food so politely laid out, though.
But it does smell better in here. Flowers aren't really his thing, so ultimately he finds his way over to the pet cemetery. After weeks of being harassed by a ghost, he relishes the quiet. You might come across him here reading a book, or perhaps watching the birds rather intently, as if he can will something to happen by staring at them. One wonders if they find his cat's eyes unsettling.]
((Feel free to hit me up at
( i.a )
I'm shocked by this turn of events.
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1A
She does also look to the slain figure. This isn't real, and so Chloe can remain calm about it. That, and there's almost an inevitably to it. Dark as the path seems to her, Sephiroth may always decide to walk it.
So she quietly asks him: )
...What's it like?
( The act itself? Whatever feelings could be present in the aftermath? The idea of the man being gone? All of the above, really. )
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I.B.
[Darin couldn't be sure if he was a denizen of this city or if he was transplanted like he was, but he watched through the corner of his eye as the man made his way around the shop.]
[Darin was about to go back to his business when he's suddenly standing on a hilltop overlooking a shoreline. He has just enough time to scan his surroundings, to see the archway, before he's shunted back into whatever reality this is.]
[He stumbles, dizzy, almost falling back into a rack of old time pieces. But he manages to stop himself, looking to the tall man.]
What...what the hell was that...?
That kinda looked like my home for a second...except for the weird archway...
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chloe decker | ota
Chloe sees herself as largely an observer here, rather than a participant. Well, apart from that murder she tried to solve a few weeks ago. No, she's more of the quiet audience member, for sure. So when curiosity over the invitation gets the better of her, she tries to keep to the back of the crowd.
Then the mummy is revealed, and she starts feeling a sense of trepidation - especially as she starts being shoved to the front of the crowd.
"I don't think this is very, er... respectful?" she says, glancing around. No one seems to notice or care, and she is wildly outnumbered, even with the big pair of scissors in her hands. Her options: to do what Lord Trelawney is suggesting and (probably) desecrate the corpse of an innocent person, or - defy him, and the entire group of people here, and risk - who knows what. Having to defend herself against a mob? She wouldn't put it past this place.
Sighing, she gives in. As carefully as she can, because she really hates to be so disrespectful to the dead, she snips at the bindings over the face.
When she sees her own face peeking back at her, she drops the scissors in shock.
"I'm terrified of what will happen if Lucifer actually becomes God," the Chloe-shaped mummy says, in her own voice. "What if I never see him again?"
She's not trying to stop the mummy from talking - no, she's simply trying to push her way back through the crowd, away from this spectacle. She really should know better by now!
II. Imaginarium.
Shopping. Shopping should be safe, right? Right. The little shop seems interesting, and Chloe spends quite a while browsing through the various objects on display. And then one object in particular catches her eye: a ring. It's rather distinctive, but not particularly ornate. It's silver, with a large, black square stone set in it. Her eyes go wide at the sight, and she immediately reaches for it.
"How the Hell did this get here?" she asks - and then, the scene shifts.
It's a bright, sunny day, and Chloe is in a floral sun dress, standing outside an auditorium of some sort. She's holding hands with a man - tall, dark, handsome, in an obviously expensive suit. The silver ring with the black stone glints on his hand as he tangles their fingers together.
"I can't believe my little girl is all grown up," Chloe says, happy and a little wistful.
"Yes, it seems only yesterday she barely came up to here," the man says, his British lilt amused as he holds his free hand up to his waist for a moment. "Now, she's almost as beautiful as her mother."
He exchanges a look with Chloe, their expressions clearly that of a couple in love with each other.
"Hey, Mom." The voice behind them breaks their gaze and Chloe turns with a grin, grabbing up the young woman who approaches in a big hug.
"Hey, Monkey! Congratulations!"
"Wish you'd stop calling me that," the younger woman mutters with a huff. She's wearing a graduation gown and cap.
The tall man also smiles. "Yes, you're putting that devious mind of yours to good use, bravo," he jokes.
The young woman smirks. "Guess I'm not an urchin anymore, huh?" She holds out her hand, as if for him to shake, her smile suggesting this is some kind of inside joke between them.
The tall man's smile almost matches hers, and instead of shaking her hand, he pulls her in for a hug. "Yes, we're all quite proud of you," he murmurs. "Your father, not least of all." That last bit is spoken a little more quietly, a little more somberly, as if for her ears alone. She glances up at him, and nods.
"Thanks, Lucifer."
As the scene fades, Chloe sucks in a breath, clutching the ring tightly in her hand.
III. Wildcard.
[ Find Chloe wandering the garden, or the temple, or doing more shopping in the streets! If you have a particular scenario in mind, hit me up at
II
But Chloe's vision for the future is, to Sephiroth, almost entirely foreign. A loving couple? Loving parents? It's idyllic in a way he couldn't have imagined, even down to the clear and sunny sky. He can't identify the graduation gown either. Some sort of coming of age ceremony?
He does remember that Chloe's daughter is only twelve. Whatever this is, it's years off.
He doesn't know how to feel about all that, so he'll... ask the easy question:]
...what was the accomplishment?
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I
"Are you okay?"
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II
Which is maybe why he asks with zero tact whatsoever, "Holy shit, is that the devil? He's hot!"
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II.
It feels wrong to watch, but Ellie has never seen anything like it. It's like a memory being played out in the very air itself; is this the magic she's heard so much about? And by the time she's broken herself from its spell, the vision is dissipating and Chloe clutching something in her hand.
"...was that real?"
Even if it isn't her intention, Ellie's question - coming from behind Chloe's shoulder a little ways back in the shop - might startle her for breaking the other woman's reverie.
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i.
So when he sees Chloe flee the stage and try to sneak her way through the crowd to the exit, well... He does what any good superhero would do, and weaves his way through the throng of people to her side, helping shield her from the jeering onlookers as the pair of them work towards leaving.
"Alright, out of the way, nothing to see here!"
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chester "ches" fields ☽ original (werewolf)
Arrival
"Omg...Bobby?!" She whispers and then launches herself into his arms, hugging him tightly, a small sob escaping her throat. "OmgBobbyIthoughtI'dneverseeanyofyouagainhowdidyougetherefuckImissedyou!!"
[ooc: First of all, hi welcome!! Second, sorry for Roxy's abrupt greeting but hilariously you use the same actor I use for images of one of her best friends
And Third as a Canadian horror movie fan your title for his arrival made me smile XD ]
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Come Undone
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Come Undone
Gardens.
Chloe | Detroit: Become Human
⭕ III. WE COULD BE HEROES
⭕IV. WHERE THE WILD ROSES GROW
⭕ WILDCARD
[ Want to choose your own adventure? Catch me at
IV f for fluff
But, he's here, enjoying some down time in this city, one that manages to juxtapose astounding riches and abject poverty, sometimes on the same block. New York was like that too sometimes. Maybe not all that much has changed since the 1800s.
Spending time with Chloe is one of Malcolm's favorite things to do. She's a great friend, and he's glad that the revelations about each of their pasts helped bring them closer together rather than drive them apart. He's nibbling on a cucumber sandwich when some cake launches at him, hitting him in the chest.
He looks up at Chloe, one eyebrow raised. "Seriously?" The look on his face is playful though.
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III. WE COULD BE HEROES
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II World Burn
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IV
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Gideon Nav | The Locked Tom | OTA
CW: sexual content
Churches are nothing new. Her childhood home is, more or less, one large religious site. Gideon sat through (and slept through, when she could get away with it) more services than she can remember. Somewhere after 1,000, she'd given up trying. There are been better things to count. Canaan House. The Mithraeum. Gideon has only seen non-religious settings coming here to these islands.
Which is all to say a dreary church with old grime is nothing new. The stained art is more colorful, something the Ninth House would never go for. She stares at it, parsing out different people and stories. A lot of them, most of them, mean almost nothing to her. Someone else's religion. Someone else's saints. Someone else's god.
The tits hinted at do her in. Once she's seen the somewhat abstracted image that reminds her of her dirty magazines, Gideon can't stop returning to it. With eventual utter horror. Gideon wishes Harrow would perform brain surgery on her, except for the fact that it would mean explaining what and why she wants something purged from her mind. It's horrifying to Gideon. It would possibly kill Harrow.
Multiple attempts to press the image out of her eyes with her fists do nothing. The content is suggestive, and sure there's only one lady. That's a moderate problem for her tastes. The shudder-worthy scene is possibly of her—conception isn't quite the right term. Gideon is the result of more of a one-two punch. Something she went from knowing nothing about to excruciating detail. No one sat Gideon down for 'the talk.' She's sure if they did, it wouldn't be to explain that one day God and two of his saints did the horizontal tango.
Gideon taps her head against a hymnal, but the more she tries to forget what she heard, the more it comes to mind. Not in an abstract imagined sort of way. The kitchen is sans an enormous number of killer wasp corpses the size of people or bigger, but it's in the background, with the dining room (and the dining table, why, why, why, that's where people eat food!) in the foreground. The kissing is really promising a lot more, and Gideon would still believe it was her imagination except that she would never include Ianthe in her imagination of anything. Much less—that.
She focuses on breathing, but even without having ever been very religious, she shudders. After all, one of those men is her dad.
Ⅱ. COME UNDONE
For someone who has seen her own corpse before, this should be less surprising. Gideon's soul gives up, flips the bird, and leaves her body. Leaving her standing there wondering if she's going to see Harrow's stick arms and legs when she looks down. Because that's her right there all right.
Which is how a not-so-mummified Gideon corpse beats her to the punch. "All you have to do is ask," it says, "She'll do anything if you ask her to."
"Will you please shut up?!" Gideon asks. With the questioning tone, inflection going up and everything. The mummy either has nothing else to add or is just as obliging as Gideon. It shuts up.
Feeling the flush on the back of her neck and in her cheeks, Gideon rues the decision, more or less, not to wear face paint. Sunglasses only cover so much. As embarrassing as it is, Gideon starts making her way through the crowd, too large for most people to physically stop. Hopefully no one takes the mummy literally.
Ⅲ. IMAGINARIUM
Gideon stares at the thick solid key. If it were not so deep scarlet, the color of fresh blood, the color of the uniforms in the cohort, the people-sourced ink staining all over Canaan House, it would be nothing special at all. Even if the smaller plain key to the laboratories were on the shelf, Gideon would recognize it. Seeing it out of place confuses Gideon.
Oh, it likely means something. Nothing's come from home that doesn't mean something. The sword she takes with her everywhere means everything. This key's memories are all ruined what happened the last time Gideon went behind its door. What she woke up to.
That's what she expects when she picks it up. Jeannemary staining a ten thousand year old bed previously neat and tidy. Not...
The thing looks like a myriad of constructs all come together to build the construct to rule them all. It is, Gideon knows, a resurrection beast. Yes, it scares her shitless, no matter how many of them they fight. Them. Together. Other lyctors leave their bodies behind, not having a living cavalier in a body of her own. Not Harrowhark Nonagesimus. She and Gideon run/swim/float toward battle. Leaving the physical logical world makes the images lose their sense.
The resurrection beast is its own source of gravity, pulling them every faster toward its spiky clattering skeleton—exoskeleton? Gideon isn't sure—and the simple joy of battle sings in her blood. Harrow does her necromancer thing, like in Response, like fighting Cytherea, and the resurrection beast is made almost entirely of googly lights. It's long hellish work, but working together seamlessly, though cut and bleeding, bruised and smashed in ways not understandable, time stops working. There's only now, this moment, this slash, this block, deconstructing the resurrection beast one piece at a time, until they sink so low the depths swallow it whole.
Harrow takes Gideon's hand, smiling with religious (and something more) ecstacy, and guides them out of the River.
Gideon isn't sure what the key showed her. The future? A future? An idle daydream? But her heart yearns for it, feeling empty and lost back in the shop holding the red key.
Ⅳ. GARDENS
Gideon ate the cotton candy at the carnival. Food isn't always food. Or isn't always only food. So long as it isn't poisoned (and the stuff here in the garden looks better than many of the things she's seen promised as food in the city, sometimes a little sooty if nothing else), how bad could it be?
She grabs a plate (which is so small; how many servings can they have?) and starts loading up. One of everything please.
II
Snaking through the people, Chloe catches up to the woman. "It's alright," she offers with a small smile she intends to be reassuring. "We all know how these places can be."
II
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David Alleyne | Marvel-616 | OTA
David Alleyne was stressed. This often led to one truly singular solution for him, cooking. Others often benefitted from this given he often made more than enough for him to eat. This stress solution often had two stages though. The first of which was the reason for David's travel to the market. The man moved confidently between stalls with a bag over his shoulder, stopping here and there and haggling for bits of produce and seasonings. Was he blowing most of his allowance on this? Yes. Did David care? No. He knew how to get by.
Visually he didn't fit in amid the markets though. The brightly colored vest he wore with a very warmly colored brown suit went far to make him noticable. Which of course had drawn the attention of a pick pocket, intent on what they assumed would be a heavy purse. In fact, that pick pocket was making for David at that moment.
And David? He was cluelessly evaluating a mound of turnips.
Ib. Communal Cooking - High Temple
Food acquired and pocket not picked, David returned to the High Temple for the second stage of plan 'stop stressing out so much'. And that meant cooking. Already he'd taken over a corner of the communal kitchen, busy monitoring a sauce every few moments while also working on chopping vegetables.
Catching sight of motion he called out without checking who it was. The most important part of cooking was having someone to try it out, or so he thought.
"Come here and tell me what you think of this sauce," he called out. Hopefully they would help him figure out if something was missing.
III. Imaginarium
There was something alluring about considering just what people considered weird enough to keep in a place like this. David had visited Scotland once, Edinburugh, and seen an old museum that was a curio collection like this one, and memories of it had compelled David inside to investigate. And so he had moved slowly through the space, looking and considering and even cringing at some of the selections.
What really gave him pause, though, was one cabinet filled with strange pictures. Pictures of ghosts, pictures of 'unnatural' births, pictures of strange phenomenon. And among them all...
"What in the world?" David said, looking at the collection in the cabinet. A picture in black and white, but still less grainy than the others. A picture from his own time, more or less, framed in a lovely silver frame.
A picture he'd seen at the Boneyard before. Of his boss and his boss's husband.
"This doesn't seem physically possible. I mean, I've seen this, at the very least it should be color."
IV. Gardens
Gardens, even ones as dour as this one truly ended up being, reminded David of home. So of course, now that the sun was out a bit, he had made his way to seek one out. There was value to being reminded of Krakoa after all, of the happy things he missed so much. Of Trevor and movie nights and Akihiro welcoming his new friends, and learning from Rachel. It was good to remember home and how it made him feel, when it didn't make him feel bad.
So for a time he walked through the green house, and throuhg hte roses, and through any other place he could. But when someone offered him tea and David found it was affordable, he agreed and was happy to see a little table set for a delightful meal. He could cheat on his diet for an afternoon. The little tea cakes were a delight, and he had one before moving on to select a cream cheese sandwich.
Only then, once he'd downed a mouthful, did he see another person. He smiled and waved them over.
"There is more on this table than I could possibly finish alone. Would you join me?"
III
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1A
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Quentin Quire | Marvel 616 | OTA
I. IMAGINARIUM
i.
And then Peter is sucked up into an entirely different scene, before he has a chance to even see what it is that the guy is holding.
Clubbing has never really been Peter's thing. He's too busy at night swinging around New York stopping crimes to go to a nightclub. But that seems to be where he has found himself, standing on a mezzanine above a throng of dancing people. The mohawk guy is here too, but he's... on fire? Sort of?
This whole thing is so confusing.
And there's an older man there, asking a question. Peter glances between him and the mohawk guy, asking, "Is he talking to you or me?"
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Peter Parker | ota
iii. imaginarium
iv. gardens
v. wildcard
iii
He's browsing the shelves of Cabinet of Curiosities, looking for something that he can take as a souvenir to the next isle, when he hears the man next to him speak. Malcolm glances up at him and notices that he's holding a ring. ]
Do you recognize it?
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Kyle Broflovski | South Park (adult) | OTA
A mummy unwrapping party is so goddamn ghoulish that Kyle thinks it's no surprise whatsoever that the Victorians were into it. "These people have a real death boner," he mutters aloud as the mummy is first revealed. Mourning photographs, spiritualism, grave robbing... yeah. Desecrating an ancient corpse fits right in.
But then he's being shoved toward the front of the room at the insistence of the lord or duke or whatever the hell he is. "Uh, no, no thanks,' Kyle says as he shoved up in front of everyone. "This kind of just reeks of colonialism aaaaaand okay, those are some big scissors."
Kyle is used to just going along with weirdness by now. So he sighs and cuts, revealing a much more wrinkled version of himself.
"Sick, dude!" he cries, taking a step back. He then shrieks a little when the mummy sits up.
"My criminal record includes assault, the use of weapons of mass destruction, academic fraud, many instances of drug abuse, terrorism, arson, performing surgery without a license, and mur--" the mummy says before it is cut off by Kyle forcibly clapping his hands over its mouth with another shriek.
He looks around, eyes wide. "Uhm. Nothing," he says. Yeah, very convincing.
II. ImaaaginaaaAAaaaaaAAAAaaaaaarium...
He sees it tucked in between a poorly taxidermied fox and a wooden leg: a simple menorah, but one that looks exactly like the one his family back home has had his entire life. He reaches for it (the fox fur feels nasty as he brushes his hand past) and takes hold. The second he does, cabinets full of oddities vanishes, replaced instead by what is quite clearly a house in the suburbs.
Kyle looks around, eyes wide. "Uh," he starts, but is interrupted by the laughter of young children. Two of them come barreling into the living room where Kyle and whoever is unfortunate enough to be with him are standing - a boy and a girl, both with deep red hair.
"Daddy, come ON!" one of them cries, and from the kitchen the reply comes, "Hang on, hang on," in what is undeniably Kyle's own voice.
"The fuck?" Kyle exclaims, dropping the menorah. When he does the scene vanishes like smoke, and he's left standing there looking like he's been smacked upside the head.
Wildcard!
Hey, I'll do anything. Will match format.
II. ImaaaginaaaAAaaaaaAAAAaaaaaarium!
Quentin, of course, is instantly curious. First by the idea of speculative time travel and then by the sight of all these ginger children and that familiar but time-tested voice.
"Whoa. The fuck was that?"
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Wildcard baby!
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anders | ota
iv. gardens
iv
...the cat is somewhat distracting, however. He doesn't seem irritated by it, but his eyes flick up to follow its movements whenever it comes near.]
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joel | ota
iv. gardens
( iv )
Is there a reason why you're attacking the flora?
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Darin Altway | Original Character | OPEN TO ALL
[What in the hell was happening?]
[The night before he'd been camping in the ruined city of Uyreka and the next morning he's on a rickety boat with the creepiest ferryman he'd ever seen. There was a band around his wrist, his equipment was gone...]
[And now he's in this strange city. Stranger than any city he'd ever known or read about...]
[He made a beeline to the High Temple; his bright blue hair was making certain that the residents of this fair city were giving him a fair share of suspicious and scrutinizing glances. It was too much. It was one thing if he was familiar with his surroundings but wherever he was...the curious and anxious looks were getting under his skin. And bad things happened when he got too worked up.]
[Fortunately, there were rooms and fresh clothes at the High Temple. He changes into a pair of slacks, a button-down shirt, a tan vest that strains against his muscular frame, and some comfortable boots, then throws a riding cloak about his broad shoulders and pulls up the hood. At least this way he stands out just a little less. From there, Darin makes his way down the steps of the High Temple, unbuttoning the cuffs of his sleeves and rolling them up to the elbows. These clothes were a little too confining for him; he'd have to break them in. But for now, he needed information.]
[He holds up his arm with the band firmly affixed, staring into the reflective disc. It flashes a bright yellow, which seems to pierce the fog...but is that perhaps a hint of orange as it fades? Might be a trick of the light. What little filters through the mist.]
'Blessed,' huh? Yeah right. Tell me another one, why don't you.
[He speaks out loud to himself as much as he does to no one in particular, but that doesn't mean no one can intercede on his grumbling.]
So, now I'm on some sort of quest? As if my hands weren't already full enough. Sick of all of this 'destiny' crap that keeps getting foisted on me...
-Come Undone-
[Darin didn't do well at gatherings like this. Not only did he often butt heads with more 'well-to-do' people, he always felt like he was being watched. Judged. It made him anxious. At the very least, he's dressed up in somewhat nicer clothes than he would normally wear. Which basically means he rolled his sleeves down and put on a decent jacket. A jacket that looks ill-fitting considering the size of his arms. Maybe that's why he's getting bemused looks from those gathered?]
[Needless to say, he's keeping to the outskirts of the party. But if he should find someone else in similar straits or if someone deigns to come up to him, he'll more than happily make small talk.]
[It's when the mummy is brought out that Darin's entire demeanor almost completely changes.]
...Is this guy serious? Oi. Oi! Screwing with the dead is a great way to get yourself cursed, you know! Seriously, what the hell is wrong with—
[It's this outburst that gets Darin and whoever is unfortunate enough to be speaking with him a first class trip to the front where the scissors are thrust into Darin's complaining hands. And after a few moments of quibbling back and forth, it seems Darin's decided to just get it over with.]
[When Darin's own visage appears from behind the bandages, Darin blanches.]
D-Dromas? H-How...?
[The rest of the question falls away as the mummy speaks with Darin's own voice.]
"All of you should fear me! I could destroy your world merely by existing!"
[The room falls silent and more than a few eyes are on Darin.]
...HAHAHAHA! OH MAN!! WOW!! WHAT A GREAT TRICK! THAT SURE IS SPOOKY HOO BOY! HEY, YOU KNOW WHAT WE SHOULD ALL DO? JUST START DRINKING A WHOLE BUNCH.
[Darin immediately seizes two glasses of whatever alcohol is being served by the good helpstaff and while you might make the mistake one glass is for you, Darin proceeds to down them both.]
To Lord Trewlaney! And to this amazing party!
[Many attendees get swept up in the revelry and the party continues. No one's the wiser!]
-Imaginarium-
[A shop of curiosities really was right up Darin's alley and it afforded him a little bit of an escape from the reality of whatever it is his life had become. After all, he still had so many questions to answer and not a lot of ways to answer them. But who knows? Maybe perusing this stores wares might give him a lead.]
You know, we had shops like this back home. You can usually find some pretty interesting things. You never know what people might pawn or what uses it might have for someone else.
[He makes his way through the shelves full of random brick-a-brac and odds and ends, occasionally stopping to admire the rare bone or oddly faceted crystal. But he stops when he sees something displayed in a weapon case and makes a beeline for it.]
No way...! It's my dao! The one my Old Man made for me!
[He retrieves the weapon; a curved dao with a jetblack blade like obsidian and an unreadable inscription embossed in silver along the flat of the blade. He has but a second to admire it when suddenly the world around him fades...to nothing. There's nothing there at all. A void. Blank space. It's...lonely, really. Cold. Quiet. The embodiment of a total lack of...anything, really. But before the 'vision' ends, there's a brief flash. Two images superimposed on one another. One image appears to be a beautiful, peaceful kingdom. There's confetti raining down. A celebration of some kind? A parade? There's the sound of brass horns cutting through the cheers. The other image? That very same kingdom on fire. In ruins. The clarion horns meshing with the ringing of blades and the cacophonous screams of death.]
[And then it's done.]
[Darin clearly witnessed that vision too and almost throws the dao back into the case.]
A-Ah...nevermind. That's not it. It looked kinda similar...but...
I should go.
-Wildcard-
[Got another idea or want to hash something out first? Feel free to message me or hit me up on plurk at
come undone
As the crowd erupts in raucous applause and revelry, Peter leans in and speaks low to his partner, in a voice only he will hear. ]
Do you want to maybe... Get out of here?
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Arrival
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Mary Kelly | OC | New Arrival
It's not the first mummy Mary has seen. During her time in the West End, there was one punter in particular that had an obsession with the Egypt and the supernatural. Before supper and the getting to business, he would drag her all over the city to stare at decaying cadavers with the wide eyed fascination of a child. Mary hadn't asked questions and simply took it as one of the many times she would get to see the culture of the well todo.
Was it nostalgia that brought her to see the exhibit? Perhaps curiosity, if she was forced to admit it. After her arrival and the explanation of where she was and why, she had no interest in staying in the temple. Better to walk the familiar city, now unrestricted and likely far from the men hunting for her. A cheap lodging, a bit of food and gin and she could manage whatever this place was.
So here she was, staring at another mummy and listening to the barker ooze his charm over the crowd. When he cried for someone to come closer, "You there!", it was the person behind Mary. Someone also wearing the weird bracelet and likely someone from the Temple. She flashed a smile before turning back.
The crowd pushed in, not exactly surprising. That's what London (was this London?) crowds do. It was only when she was closest to the front that the barker held out scissors for her, finally casting his attention on her. "History is waiting. Reveal its face."
Fine, she'd play along. It was perhaps the first time in a long, long while attention was paid to her by a crowd. Internally, she still flinched, instinctively scanning the crowd for familiar faces. No, they wouldn't be here. Steeling herself and shaking away the shadows, Mary cut the bandages, slowing unraveling it with delicacy. She seemed to remember her punter saying something about these things crumbling to dust at heavy handedness.
But the moment the linen was off, her round, delicate face was beneath. Blue eyes opened slowly, like one of those fairy stories she had heard. The princess waking from her slumber. Gingerly, the Mummy Mary sat up and swept her eyes over the crowd. Confident, poised and possessing all the bravery Mary lacked.
"Beware the Woman in Red! She is coming!" Her eyes finally settled on Mary. "She is coming for you, Fair Emma."
II. Imaginarium
With shaking hands, Mary opens the cabinet, far less delicately than she would have wished. She knows the shawl folded on the shelf, out of place among all the curios and oddities. It's wool and faded, the edges frayed and stained with years of dried rain and faded mud. There is a brown hair still clinging to the material. Maria's, she thinks. A pity it's not the one she was yearning to see.
Lifting the shawl, letting it unfurl in front of her black dress, so similar to the one from home, Mary lifted it to her nose, searching among the scents of Whitechapel for the woman that might have left some lingering sign of life.
There was no flash, as she might expect with memories returning to her. No haze and no clouds, only a simple image that appeared before her eyes. She might think it a ghost, but no apparition transported her back to Dorset Street and the grime and decay of Whitechapel. Standing under an archway, leading to a courtyard of dilapidated lodging houses was an older woman. Her age was less apparent. While only being in her 40s, Annie's health had left her haggard and pale. Her face was still that thin oval, her eyes still close together. She was hunched, clutching the shawl Mary had taken from Maria and gave to Annie instead.
A sound of pain escaped from Mary as she reached out, certain she could touch her. "Annie."
III. Wildcard
Feel free to suggest another prompt. I'm game for anything. Just give me a PM.
I
He's about to leave when he is suddenly pressed into service alongside a woman who appears to be native to this world. Malcolm has a very uneasy feeling. Having been in the isles long enough, he knows that whatever is under those bandages is probably not good - even beyond the decaying face of a long dead human. The problem is that it will most likely be more than that.
He holds his breath while the woman cuts the bandages, bracing himself for whichever family member of his is about to appear and reveal some horrible truth about him to a room full of people.
The surprise is that the mummy looks like the spitting image of the woman who freed her. Malcolm listens to what the animated corpse says, then leans his head towards the woman, speaking quietly.
"Is this some kind of magic trick?"
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