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

unkindled_madness: (irritated)

[personal profile] unkindled_madness 2021-05-08 12:07 am (UTC)(link)
I don't care about the desecration of corpses. [He's not a religious man, and it would be somewhat hypocritical, when he's made so many corpses himself.

But that is just like Hojo, complaining about the opinions of others as obstacles to his great work.]


You say you bring them back to life, yet you don't think of them as human. You consider no error in your method.

Blind arrogance is not great science.
dothelokimotion: (All hail the mighty glow cloud)

[personal profile] dothelokimotion 2021-05-08 12:26 am (UTC)(link)
[ it is very hard to rein himself in. losing thor still feels like a gaping wound. everything that went down with thanos is a gaping wound. he lost it all. his one chance, his one future. it had been so close and loki destroyed him.

"you really are the worst brother." ]


Is that what happened to you? You . . . found someone?
incelligent: (91)

[personal profile] incelligent 2021-05-08 12:45 am (UTC)(link)
Here, you mean?

[Simon has been speaking in terms that specifically relate to himself and Grace, but that question has him turning away and folding his arms.]

Maybe. I dunno.

[There is one person.]

It's just a theory.
dothelokimotion: (Minutes before librarians ate him)

[personal profile] dothelokimotion 2021-05-08 12:49 am (UTC)(link)
It's a start.

And we all start somewhere.
incelligent: (156)

[personal profile] incelligent 2021-05-08 01:01 am (UTC)(link)
[Once again, Simon's fair-haired brows press together. He doesn't want to remember where he started, because he hates the person he used to be. Trusting, gullible, naive-]

Have you ever felt at home with someone you just met?

[Because Simon usually has difficulty trusting strangers. With everything that's happened to him after all, it'd be peculiar if he didn't.]

Like, you stand next to 'em, and things feel like they're finally gonna be okay.

And, even though you know it's probably a bad idea...

[Are they close to the town? He doesn't know.]

You just wanna be around them anyway?
Edited 2021-05-08 01:04 (UTC)
everlastingchains: (Default)

[personal profile] everlastingchains 2021-05-08 01:10 am (UTC)(link)
More questions

If at a later date, a person was to go back to the beach, would the same thing happen? Would the skull still be there? What about bodies of shambling water corpses?

Gross Zombie Questions Time:
If someone were able to capture or fight off/kill a zombie, what might Victor glean off one of the bodies (if they weren't dragged back into the ocean or disappeared)? Average time in the water by state of bloating/decay? Cause of original death? Means of resurrection (he's only really up on Galvanism, so other means would be "just not how I did it")
everlastingchains: (12)

[personal profile] everlastingchains 2021-05-08 01:32 am (UTC)(link)
Victor at least has his facial expressions as only a third his face is covered by the heavy metallic contraption of wires and switches and diodes. The rest of it is pale flesh, with the edges of the metal neatly pressing in until it's hard to tell where flesh stops and metal begins. His expression is one of discomfort bordering on socially anxious. He's been working his way through, trying to avoid having to touch anyone. He's waved off every single drink that comes his way, regardless of the fact that he's actually able to drink in the mask he has.

He honestly doesn't expect to be spoken to. At balls like this, when he does attend, people generally don't speak to him. At him yes, around him, most definitely, but to him, that doesn't happen unless they know him personally. The strangeness of that alone causes him to pause and really pay attention to the speaker.

His jaw tightens as he puzzles out that mask. He's never seen anything like it before. There is nothing in his time that comes anywhere close to such things. He turns from that strange mask towards the couple that had removed their masks.

When he speaks, his accent is distinctly British. "That is what they've been spouting all night. It's a secret. Those words precisely. Perhaps that's part of the mystery to unravel about these blasted things." He places a hand upon the metal of his own mask.
kyley_b: (RL_KB_06)

cw: descriptions of adolescent sexual deviancy, child abuse, csa, child prostitution

[personal profile] kyley_b 2021-05-08 01:42 am (UTC)(link)
Kyle shakes his head vehemently. "No," he says. "That's not true, that's not how it works. He was a adult! And a priest or whatever, someone in authority. You didn't ask for him to like... do stuff to you. No. That's HIS fault. Even if you made him pay or whatever. He did that to you."

Kyle nearly reaches over to take Prior's hand but decides that's overstepping. "You were not at fault."
dothelokimotion: (We were only a series of selves)

[personal profile] dothelokimotion 2021-05-08 01:47 am (UTC)(link)
[ loki frowns. no, he's never had an experience like that. how could he have? where could he have had? it's not that he had friends or family. not anymore, at any rate. and he refuses, refuses to think about thor any longer.

his tone is clipped. ]


No. I can't say I ever have.
everlastingchains: (2)

[personal profile] everlastingchains 2021-05-08 02:05 am (UTC)(link)
[He narrows his eyes. What is there to say to that but the truth of it.] They died. There is nothing after that. [And to Victor, that means that to him, a body is just that. A body. It's parts on a table.

It's, of course, a little different with Lily. He knew her before she died. He killed her after all. And after, he'd ended up falling in love with her. And she...]


She doesn't see herself as human. She sees herself as better. She'll never age. She'll never die again. She'll walk this earth forever. So do not tell me what I think of them. I know what they are.

[Monsters. And none as monstrous as the man who stands here now and defends his work]

You would not do it? If you had the chance to come back? If someone you loved could be returned to you, would you not pay the price?
incelligent: (171)

[personal profile] incelligent 2021-05-08 02:06 am (UTC)(link)
Oh.

[...Huh. Simon wracks his own brain for answers, as that is a confusing thought. His default state is to look to others for connection, at least one. It's why being here has been so hard.]

Well, I'm sure it'll happen someday.

[He says that with such confidence. Probably the most since the start of this conversation, actually.]

You just need to find your person.
dothelokimotion: (What more is there to say?)

[personal profile] dothelokimotion 2021-05-08 02:20 am (UTC)(link)
How can you be so sure?

[ if his voice is gone a little sharp, it can't be helped. this kind of conversation cuts loki too deeply. too easily. he's wounded and pretending he doesn't have a limp. ]
everlastingchains: (Default)

[personal profile] everlastingchains 2021-05-08 02:24 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you! You are amazing!!
nightschool: (Default)

[personal profile] nightschool 2021-05-08 02:25 am (UTC)(link)
2021 zombies: still dicks. You saw it here first, folks!!

Is it fair to say the sea zombies rise no matter what anyone does, or is it only in the event characters don't do the thing?
everlastingchains: (Default)

[personal profile] everlastingchains 2021-05-08 02:28 am (UTC)(link)
sweet! thanks again
unkindled_madness: (back turned)

[personal profile] unkindled_madness 2021-05-08 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
[If he only knew what he was talking to. But, Sephiroth himself doesn't know. He has his suspicions, but... he pushes them down.

His anger turns cold as the man goes on, but at that last question, he lets out a short bark of a laugh. Someone he loved? Who, exactly, would fit that description? Even if there were someone, the price would be to become the thing he hates most. There's no question.]


No.

And if I were to claw my way back from death, I would have it be by my own will. Not one like yours.
incelligent: (15)

[personal profile] incelligent 2021-05-08 02:35 am (UTC)(link)
[At that, Simon shows a sliver of something that he hardly ever does. Not without rules and etiquette, numbers and scores, and some pompous boasting-]

Because sometimes it just takes a little while.

[But this place is just so different.

There is nothing here, no way to score yourself, except for these infernal colors. And, if that's the name of the game, Simon and Loki are in the same boat.
]

Sometimes it might even require a hop, skip, and a jump to a whole other universe. Maybe it's a magical train with an infinite number of cars and talking animals, or some weird old timey island...

But, we're all here, right?

[He doesn't share the specifics, but for anyone to want so desperately to stay on the train... Simon's childhood couldn't have been good. In fact, there's a likelihood that just like Simon himself, it too was downright despicable.]

I think you just need to be ready for it when the time comes. Whenever that is.
kyley_b: https://mcnuggyy.tumblr.com/ (hey)

[personal profile] kyley_b 2021-05-08 02:43 am (UTC)(link)
The invitation is surprising, and Kyle finds himself smiling. It's not often he's invited to anything. "Okay, yeah. Sure, that would be cool."

"Dangerous," Kyle says firmly. "But you've got a point. You're pretty used to weird shit, too, I guess."
fissure: little-luna @ hollow-art (3)

[personal profile] fissure 2021-05-08 02:44 am (UTC)(link)
The contortions required to see this fellow, even in part, must make Prior look like a fool. Or perhaps a bird. He bobs this way and that to hope for a more complete picture, but it's nearly impossible with the obstructions, unfortunately. He gets part of the mask, part of the face, and when he listens it really requires listening because it's m every bit like he's breathing through his ears.

"I feel as if I'm in the middle of a ritual," he notes, his best response to this man's understandable paranoia. His accent — English — isn't nearly as crisp or neat when he practically has to shout through the thick fabric of the gas mask.

"Do you think any secret will do?"
suckonthis: (definitely lying)

[personal profile] suckonthis 2021-05-08 02:50 am (UTC)(link)
[ He's not dumb to the way Akira keeps him at arm's length but Ryo still hasn't come to terms with it. It is, in his mind, a hurdle to overcome and not the very real brick wall impeding their friendship. The shock of having the other approach him first hasn't worn off by the time Akira finally voices his intentions.

Listen, pals shouldn't have a 'we need to talk' talk. ]


Here I thought you wanted to invite me to dance. [ It's his bad decisions and the frustration of being so far away that pushes him to embarrass himself. Ryo wouldn't know what to do if Akira actually agreed. He raises the fresh glass of water to his lips to give him a moment to shut up and swallow his pride. He glances over his shoulder before returning his attention to Akira. He appears to be making an effort to push away from the bar. ] Did you want to go somewhere more private?
neverrefuse: (pic#14504573)

[personal profile] neverrefuse 2021-05-08 02:55 am (UTC)(link)
"Our fellow travellers," the Doctor repeats in a quiet voice. "Of course. I've been so thick. We're all here for a reason. We're all in this together."

That didn't make the prospect of confessing to a total stranger sound any better, though. She runs a finger along the edge of the mask and thinks, brow furrowed, although it's concealed by the blasted mask. But the cogs are turning and she's trying to think of a secret she can share.

"Oh, just ask me something. Something you've always wondered. Something you've been sure I'd never tell you."
quire: (omg)

[personal profile] quire 2021-05-08 02:56 am (UTC)(link)
"Of course I have a point! I always have a point!," he says flinging his head back dramatically as he waits for a fresh drink.

"Also, powerful is probably a better answer. Apathy is powerful. And powerful things can be, but are not inherently and wholly, dangerous. An important distinction."