polymods: (Default)
polymods ([personal profile] polymods) wrote in [community profile] polylogs2021-05-01 03:00 pm

Destination: Carcosa

POLYMYTHOS: CARCOSA

Carcosa


Ⅰ. THE TEMPLE
You can read all about your character's arrival in the game lore.
The island's harbour is full of other ships, although not a single one of them seems to actually have a human being aboard. (You could certainly try to steal one, but doing so is an exercise in futility - you will find that even if you set off into the ocean you will wind up right back in the harbour again after spending a few hours lost in the fog.) Beyond the harbour is a glittering city of glass and gold. Curving arches and sharp geometric lines are the hallmarks of the architecture - an art deco paradise that whispers of decadence and hope for the future.

The people who crowd the streets wear suits and hats, drop-waist dresses and furs. Their faces are all blank smiles. It's the roaring twenties, darling, why do you look so concerned?

If it is your first experience of the Endless Isles, you have access to the High Temple. Should you wish, you may also seek out the island's own temple as well, which is located inside the city, in a district mostly forgotten by the residents. Don’t worry - your feet will carry you there.

The building is not large, and it is old and neglected. It has a domed ceiling, with panels of glass crisscrossed with metal painted gold curving upward. Whatever fine pattern may have formed there is lost to time; the glass at the centerpoint of the dome is gone, letting in the smell of the sea.

There are rooms equipped with beds spreading out like a spiderweb from the middle of the building. The temple proper is of course in the exact center, below the broken dome. In the middle of this circular room you will find dead branches gathered together to make a vaguely humanoid shape. This crude figure has been haphazardly painted yellow. A slab of concrete sits in front of it. There is not much to explore here; it is very quiet.

Either temple is a good place to simply rest, or meet some of your fellow Travelers. The High Temple of course has the Temple Chef and its usual Guardians, Flock, and Lantern.

The Island Temple has its own Guardians, which are small, pale humanoids with perfectly blank faces and small antlers like young deer. They will leave you alone unless you try to meddle with the central room. Doing so will result in one of them approaching you, and you will find yourself falling unconscious on the floor.



Ⅱ. THE MASQUERADE
Through happenstance, you find yourself in an enormous ballroom. Low couches are dotted everywhere, and a live band plays somewhere at the end of the massive space. A long bar takes up one side of the room, bottles sparkling under the light cast from the many cut-glass chandeliers hanging overhead. Champagne flows freely, and the scent of gin pervades the air.

All of the attendees are wearing masks.

You're dressed for the occasion, of course - you will find yourself wearing something reminiscent of 1920s America, with a small yellow sigil of some sort pinned to your breast. Ask any of the guests about it and they will tell you, "ah, it's a secret." You too, of course, are wearing a mask. You did not pick this mask, but if you look in the mirror hung over the bar you will find that it nonetheless hints at some aspect of your personality.

Which would be all well and good, except that you can't take the bloody thing off.

Moving around the ballroom, you will discover that a few other people also have the yellow sigil pinned to their clothing. It probably shouldn't surprise you that these people are all other Travelers, equally unable to take their mask off.

No, you can't unmask until you share something with your new-found friend: a secret. A REAL one, the sort you'd never speak aloud.

Of course, you can choose not to share. If you choose that route, however, you'll find that the mask is fusing with your skin. Leave it on past midnight when the cries of "UNMASK! UNMASK!" begin, and it will simply become your new face for the duration of the month.



Ⅲ. THE PLAY
Maybe parties aren't your style. No fear, there's plenty more to do and see in such a wondrous city. There's a theatre - the Meliora Grand as a matter of fact - and perhaps you're just the sort of person who would like to take in the arts.

The theatre has plush seats, and fabulous electric sconces lining the wall. Once you take your seat you'll find yourself looking at the stage, where a blood-red velvet curtain hangs. The theatre doesn't seem to fill up - indeed, it really seems that there's only you and one or two other people there. Curious.


The lights go down and the curtain is drawn open, revealing... well. Not much.

There are two chairs on the stage, a table between them. On the table lays a pallid face: a mask. Just a mask. Why not go on up and take a closer look?

Should you choose to touch the mask, you will feel a deep urge to speak to whoever else is in the theatre. You will, in fact, feel the desire to act out some sort of emotional trauma with them. Perhaps they suddenly look like your mother, your father, a lover who left you. Why don't you tell them how you really feel?

Naturally, you can both just sit in awkward silence instead. You'll be waiting until the morning to be let out, if that's the case.



Ⅳ. LOST CARCOSA
CW: the undead.
You find yourself walking along the beach at night. Along the shore the cloud-waves break, and black stars rise above you.

You can't quite pinpoint when you realise you are no longer alone. Maybe there is only one other person on the beach with you, or perhaps a few; you move as one down the expanse of sand until you realise there is something laying up ahead of you.

There is a heap of yellow cloth there, dry and tattered with age. It smells faintly of spices. Nestled among it is a jewel-encrusted human skull. Its empty sockets compel you to sit down in the cool, bone-white sand, to sit and speak to those around you about loss.

Everyone has lost something important to them. A person, a thing, a place, an aspect of the self. Something that's gone and you're never getting back. The skull grins endlessly, endlessly, encouraging you to speak about something you may not have laid to rest.

You can resist this compulsion. Maybe you were never good at sharing. Refuse the skull's silent request and you may continue down along the beach, or perhaps head back the way you came. As you walk, however, you will notice that there is a fog rolling in. It comes in off the sea/sky, obscuring the beach until you can barely see.

It's a terribly handy cover for the corpses that are shambling out of the surf. Wet, bloated, with eyes that glow a dim gold, they head for you silently. They wish to drag you back with them, into the depths. Better hope you can outrun or outfight them.

Bonus: What's that? You want a Carcosa playlist? You've got it, babes!


Network · Logs · OOC · Memes · Plurk

everlastingchains: (What is life? What's beyond?)

Victor Frankenstein | Penny Dreadful | OTA

[personal profile] everlastingchains 2021-05-02 12:28 am (UTC)(link)
Ⅰ. THE TEMPLE
He stands simply staring at the city before him in the distance. Glass and gold and architecture that comes right from the minds of speculative fiction. He longs to draw it, to make his way to the city and go immediately to where science and engineering abounds and learn all he can. Instead, he takes to wondering, small bag of the important items he has been given held tightly to his side as if it was his medical bag. He longs for the comfort of that as well.

He makes to the temple, stands at the door, peeking inside to see the strange branches done up in human effigy. He finds himself quietly quoting Rossetti. "Unripe harvest there hath none to reap it from the misty gusty place, unripe vineyard there hath none to keep it in unprofitable space."

Ⅱ. THE MASQUERADE
Victor has never had a very good time at these sort of social events. He prefers to not drink, not dance unless he absolutely must, not really talk with strangers. That reluctance is made all the worse by the fact that he's in a style of clothing that feels deeply uncomfortable to him. He feels absolutely overdressed. He's only worn clothing this nice once. The mask just adds another layer to it. It feels like the wires and switches that he would have in his laboratory grafted to part of his face. Not enough to hide how frustrated he's getting the more he tugs at it.

"It's a secret..." He grumbles. It's a puzzle of course and one that's pretty easy to figure out, but he's not certain he wants to tell a stranger his most valuable secrets.

Ⅳ. LOST CARCOSA
[Screeching. There is a loud inhuman wailing coming from the beach. The fog is rolling in at a truly disturbing rate. And right next to the screaming, flat on his rear end in the sand, is Victor.

The skull is at his feet and it screams and screams and doesn't seem to stop. Victor scrambles forward instead of away, trying to desperately stuff it back into the yellow cloth he had found with it and wrapped it in.

All he wanted was to take the skull back to town and examine it!! But now, now the thing is making this absolutely unholy noise that reminds him far too much of the rebirth of his First.

He's so focused on trying to stuff a skull into a makeshift satchel that he hasn't even noticed the fact that the dead have started their way from the sea.]


IV: Wildcard
Victor can also be found via scrywatch or any other scenario you might want. If there's something you'd like to plot out, I'm reachable at [plurk.com profile] darkangel998 or PM.
everlastingchains: (Default)

[personal profile] everlastingchains 2021-05-02 12:28 am (UTC)(link)
thank you very much.
darkdetective: (pic#14867967)

[personal profile] darkdetective 2021-05-02 12:32 am (UTC)(link)
Doesn't really matter.

[ he plucks the cowl from his face and tosses it aside. ]

It worked, didn't it?
dothelokimotion: (He had lived for the future)

[personal profile] dothelokimotion 2021-05-02 12:33 am (UTC)(link)
[ loki watches the mask flutter to the ground idly curious. ]

It did, though it feels anti-climatic if no one grasps the import of your secret. Am I right in guessing you're one of those Earth superheroes who run around in spandex?
darkdetective: (Default)

[personal profile] darkdetective 2021-05-02 12:34 am (UTC)(link)
thank you! additionally, are there any consequences to removing the sigil?
everlastingchains: (I've got to know the meaning of life)

[personal profile] everlastingchains 2021-05-02 12:35 am (UTC)(link)
It does.

[He has to agree.] I can't really seem to remember how I got here and I certainly know I didn't put these cloths on. Which means something happened to bring us here. But I've noticed nothing medically wrong in myself that might warrant a sudden loss of consciousness. And. [Sharp blue eyes bore into Bruce again.] At the surface level, without any of my equipment handy, you look in good health.

[Victor scowls a little] Do you think if it stays on I'll end up like them? [Bruce isn't the only one that noticed the way the masks shifted.]
darkdetective: (pic#14867979)

[personal profile] darkdetective 2021-05-02 12:38 am (UTC)(link)
The importance of a secret is usually what necessitates its secrecy, but you're not far off.

[ and now comes bruce's turn to give his mysterious counterpart a once over... ]

You look human enough, but you say 'Earth' like you're not from it. So, what exactly are you, then?
dothelokimotion: (Words are vibrations)

[personal profile] dothelokimotion 2021-05-02 12:41 am (UTC)(link)
[ a cock of his head, almost bird-like before loki responds. ]

I am Asgardian. Though that means little to Earth these days.

[ at least, if he had to guess, not bruce's earth. not all gods return to the shores of midgard. ]
pilferings: (look at us - a couple of cards)

[personal profile] pilferings 2021-05-02 12:42 am (UTC)(link)
hello mods!

a couple of questions:
- firstly, does paper exist in this city? if so, is it possible for an obsessive compulsive record keeper and artiste to find a place that might sell notebooks and pencils?
- secondly, what ... do Travelers do for money/currency? do they receive a kind of stipend at all, or uh. is it possible to maybe pilfer a couple of things when a shopkeeper isn't looking ...
darkdetective: (pic#14867980)

[personal profile] darkdetective 2021-05-02 12:44 am (UTC)(link)
Maybe. Maybe not. But they seem more interested in the price it takes to remove it than they are you keeping it on.

[ he looks down at the pin on his lapel again, wondering if the lighting in the room has always been so yellow before? ]

Secrets. And something tells me they want it to be a good one.
unkindled_madness: (back turned)

Sephiroth | FF7 | OTA

[personal profile] unkindled_madness 2021-05-02 12:47 am (UTC)(link)
I. The City / The Temple
[As always, Sephiroth stands out. At 6'7", he towers over most people, and that long silver hair hangs loose almost to his knees. He doesn't have his usual mode of dress, but the plain robe he's been given is still nothing like the fine clothes of the city dwellers. That part irks him; he doesn't like that someone else dressed him, or that this marks him as one of the so-called 'Travellers.' Later, once he's convinced of this reality, he might look into finding something else. For now, he'll live with it.

He walks the streets with a frown, not entirely convinced yet that any of this is real. It would make more sense for it to be a dream than what he's been told. Some unknown city in another realm? Chosen by the Ancients? Surely it's something his mind invented. He isn't prone to such vivid flights of fancy, but... He doesn't know of anything with the power to transport him between worlds. It's not something ascribed to the Ancients, and they're extinct anyway.

Eventually his wandering brings him to the domed temple in some quiet district. He stands staring for a moment at the crude effigy. It certainly has as much meaning as anything in a dream. Which is to say, none.]



II. The Play
[By now it's been several days. Sephiroth hasn't slept yet--that isn't unusual for him--but since this is no dream and there is no simple way back, then he's going to have to at some point. The temples... he doesn't care for them. He doesn't understand faith, and he doesn't trust the invitation of those empty beds. He has no intention of being so compliant.

Some other public space will have to suffice, though he's surprised admission to this theatre is free. He finds someplace to sit, near the back, out of the way, where he can go unnoticed once the lights dim and the play begins.

Only... the theatre remains largely empty. The lights dim, but there are no actors. He sits up, on alert, his Mako eyes glinting in the dark as he scans the theatre. This isn't normal.]



III. Lost Carcosa
[Everything about this island and its city is unfamiliar, all evidence pointing to the notion that it really isn't any place on his Planet at all, but his mind balks at accepting that. He walks the coastline in hopes of finding... something. The constellations overhead are equally unfamiliar. Even the scent of the sea isn't quite right to him, lacking the Mako pollution of Junon's waters, though it might be something like Wutai's. Either way, there's no sailing away from this place back to a world he knows.

He comes upon the skull, and stops. Is it his mood that makes it seem to tug at him? Taunt him as though it knows something of past things he's lost? It may bring them to mind, but Sephiroth is well aware of someone else on this beach within earshot, and so he scoffs, moving on without a word.

And, of course, that's when the fog starts to come in.]



IV. Wildcard
((Feel free to hit me up with something else or contact me at [plurk.com profile] yinza if you wanna plot something specific!))
Edited 2021-05-02 01:35 (UTC)
darkdetective: (pic#14867985)

[personal profile] darkdetective 2021-05-02 12:49 am (UTC)(link)
Maybe I'm smarter than I look.

[ bruce narrows his eyes piercingly at him. ]

So, which one are you, then? You don't really look like a Thor, if you don't mind me saying so.
everlastingchains: (it's the witching hour)

[personal profile] everlastingchains 2021-05-02 12:52 am (UTC)(link)
[This has Victor chewing his lip a little, thinking about what secrets he could give that they would consider good enough.]

So your good secret is that your mask is a bat man? That doesn't seem all that important, now does it? Anyone could see that your mask looked like a bat. So, I could say that my secret is that I built this?

[He points to something that looks like a Victorian era breaker switch, but even more slapdash. His mask does look adored with things one would see in a mad scientist's laboratory.]

And it will come off?

[Victor is a bit hesitant about that, but it's not like he has told anyone about any of his work, so...]
dothelokimotion: (With all the fear and respect)

[personal profile] dothelokimotion 2021-05-02 12:56 am (UTC)(link)
[ with a hint of dryness to go with his martini that he surreptitiously sips. ]

Smart people don't usually say that.

[ and his nose scrunches up briefly at the mention of thor while loki studiously ignores the brief twist of pain in his heart. you really are the worst brother.

swallow it down. smile. ]


And what would a Thor look like, pray tell?
darkdetective: (pic#14867982)

[personal profile] darkdetective 2021-05-02 12:59 am (UTC)(link)
Masks are worn as disguises. It's not important that the mask looks like a bat, it's important because I'm underneath it.

[ and then, with a simple shrug. ]

And your guess is as good as mine, but a good secret isn't one you should want to share lightly.
darkdetective: (pic#14867979)

[personal profile] darkdetective 2021-05-02 01:01 am (UTC)(link)
Not you.

[ but he smiles a little, as if loki gave up a tell. that little displeasured expression of his... ]

But you don't seem like a fan. That shortens the list considerably.
pilferings: (oh i want none of this)

[personal profile] pilferings 2021-05-02 01:05 am (UTC)(link)
perfect, thank you!
pilferings: (whaddaya gonna do huh?)

[personal profile] pilferings 2021-05-02 01:10 am (UTC)(link)
👀
everlastingchains: (Crucify! Crucify!)

[personal profile] everlastingchains 2021-05-02 01:10 am (UTC)(link)
[That honestly doesn't make much sense to Victor, but honestly, not much about this place does. But he really doesn't want to wear that heavy thing on his face longer than he needs to. He's not sure admitting to inventing is enough.

So something personal. Something he would hate to admit to.]


I think they thought I hated Mr Chandler because he was everything I could never be. Everyone loved him and only tolerated me for my usefulness. But I didn't hate Ethan. I wanted to be him.

[With that, the mask simply falls off with a very heavy metallic thud, all those gears and wires and switches clattering to the ground. But now Victor can't look at this man when he had been looking so closely just a moment ago.]

That seems to have done it. Thank you, sir.
dothelokimotion: (The curtain is raised a few inches)

[personal profile] dothelokimotion 2021-05-02 01:11 am (UTC)(link)
[ loki huffs, twirling his drink. ]

Loki. God of Mischief.
darkdetective: (pic#14867981)

[personal profile] darkdetective 2021-05-02 01:19 am (UTC)(link)
[ the smile becomes placating in nature, though the wheels are spinning in his head. ]

Of course you are.
darkdetective: (pic#14867993)

[personal profile] darkdetective 2021-05-02 01:21 am (UTC)(link)
Don't worry about it.

[ bruce continues glancing around cautiously, hushing himself when he speaks next. ]

You're wearing the same mark as I am. Don't suppose you have any idea what it means, do you?