Bang Up To The Elephant

[polymods]

✖ 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.

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!”

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…

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.

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.

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.

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...

Network · Logs · OOC · Memes · Plurk

Comments

[dothelokimotion]

Share one. You must have a favourite.

[unkindled_madness]

...I have several. [Some he likes for... sentimental reasons. Gast read them to him. But those aren't necessarily to his taste, and that's what Loki is asking for.

He takes a moment to settle on one, and then... It's a bit halting, at first. He's never recited a story before.]

There is... the story of the snow witch. Far in the north, there lived a young woman, the oldest of seven sisters. She was tasked one day with looking after them, and she left them playing by the spring while she gathered herbs along the bank.

After a time, she realized their voices had all gone silent, and she hurried back to check on them. Her sisters all lay drowned in the spring, and she caught a glimpse of the retreating culprit. But, the villagers did not believe her; they said that her sisters had died because of her negligence. They drove her out and cursed her to live alone for all the years that had been taken from her sisters.

As time passed, she outlasted the village. It migrated south as the winters grew harsher. They say she has never left. She turns most travellers away, but for anyone who has been to the spring, she sees its water like a bloodstain on their hands, and those she kills in vengeance for the sisters she no longer remembers.

[dothelokimotion]

[ ah. grim. but most fairytales are. ]

Why is this one a favourite?

[unkindled_madness]

...I suppose for the reasons I like the genre. A more modern telling would introduce morality or desert in an attempt to achieve closure. But these are things we impose on the world; they aren't endemic to it.

[Also, he finds the grim stuff more relatable. But let's not get that personal.]

[dothelokimotion]

[ he hums. ]

I hadn't realized morality was so prevalent.

[unkindled_madness]

It may not be overt or even intentional with most authors, but broadly the protagonists are "good" and the antagonists less so, and one succeeds over the other.

[dothelokimotion]

Ah. That, I'm much more familiar with.

[unkindled_madness]

Protagonists and antagonists?

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki lets out a little huff. ]

My brother plays the hero. I usually get chosen for the other side.

[unkindled_madness]

You mean in the stories people tell of you?

[dothelokimotion]

[ he nods. ]

Those are the roles we play.

[unkindled_madness]

I can't imagine you care for that. Being pitted against him.

[dothelokimotion]

[ no. a muscle jumps in his jaw. ]

I did not. But that is how it was.

[unkindled_madness]

Perhaps it's best to ignore them, now.

[dothelokimotion]

That is easy enough. It was a long time ago. It no longer matters.

[ though loki does hoard hurts and grievances the way a dragon hoards gold. he never forgets. ]

[unkindled_madness]

...of course.

[Sephiroth is maybe starting to realize why people find it unconvincing when he says the same.]

All the same, would you have liked to play the hero?

[dothelokimotion]

[ his fingers brush against his throat. the bruises faded long ago, not that anyone would have noticed. he put a glamour around them when he first arrived.

a wan smile. ]

It has never suited me.

[unkindled_madness]

[Sephiroth may never have seen the bruises, but he's seen that gesture before.]

I think it would suit you better than me.

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki blinks, surprised. ]

What makes you say that?

[unkindled_madness]

You enjoy praise.

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki splutters momentarily. ]

That's hardly a mark of heroism!

[unkindled_madness]

I didn't say it was.

I simply think you better suited to its rewards.

[dothelokimotion]

If I could reap the rewards without the work, I would but it is rarely that simple.

[unkindled_madness]

Surely you're powerful enough it wouldn't take much work.

[dothelokimotion]

[ on one hand, that sounds really nice to his ego.

but still. ]

It is always work. And it's not the kind you can get out of.