Destination: Carcosa

[polymods]

✖ 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

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Jennifer Walters/Hulk | Marvel 616 | OTA

[grayshulk]

THE MAIN TEMPLE

There is something Jennifer will not admit to anyone: being in the main temple makes it easier not to have painful transformations. Something in the atmosphere, for all that she's been taken to a world that is not her own, feels so profoundly safe that things ease up. She can breathe.

So, it's probably no shock that she's going to take some time exploring the labyrinthine structure. There are so many strange hallways and rooms. There has to be a library or something somewhere, right? A place where she can find more information about this place or even who the people behind it are. And if she accidentally stumbles into someone's room, well, stuff happens.


THE MASQUERADE

There is something so pleasantly dreamy about coming to herself in a beautiful dress with a glass of champagne being pressed into her hand while music plays in the background. Jennifer has been drugged and abducted before, but this is weird and pleasant, like the weight of the sheer beaded sheath dress that slides and settles over a silk slip she would never have purchased. The work is too fine and lovely to shred the next time something triggers her. Even thinking about it has her going to take a sip of her champagne only to realize that her mask means that isn't an option.

Oh well. She sets the glass down regretfully, finally noticing the yellow sign on her dress. It's odd, and not very pretty. Kind of a shame given that she suspects the lovely dress won't last long, but then she notices someone else with the same symbol on their chest. "You have one, too." Her words are slightly muffled by her mask, but then so are her thoughts.


LOST CARCOSA

Getting away from the people, from the crowds, from the other Travelers drives Jennifer to the beach. It's difficult to maintain her shape and her skin with all the people and motion, and at least at the edge of this floating island, she can breathe. Until she sees it. A chill runs down her spine because she knows what dark magic looks like and that there are things even a hero avoids without some kind of backup. Her instinct to turn and run is useless. The skull has seen her, and there is so much loss in her. So much mourning.

Her footsteps are slow and staggering until she finds herself on her knees, sinking into the sand and staring at the bejeweled skull in front of her. A flare of anger turns her eyes black and green for a blink before the compulsion sweeps through her again, overwhelming everything but the loss.

"No." The word is so small she will be ashamed when she realizes there are other people on the beach who heard her speak it. She has to try to refuse to acknowledge the loss in her that is consuming everything else. She owes the skull nothing. She owes the dead so much more.


WILDCARD
[Come up with your own option!]

Chugging that Maskerade

[what_fourth_wall]

"Do the Zemo, uhhuh, do the Zemo, alright." Only click the link if seeing Zemo dance for a minute isn't a spoiler to you!

Deadpool, definitely not Baron Zemo, and kind of sort of Ryan Reynolds, dances his way past Jen when he hears her speak in his general direction. Hearing that familiar voice makes this feel even more like he woke up in the orgy again. Nobody's having sex here though, not that he's seen. If they are, then they're venturing into Eyes Wide Shut territory.

"Huh. I guess I do." He fiddles with it. "BUT THAT'S NOT A SECRET." As he shouts the last, his head jerks up as if to ward off anyone who might try to claim he was waiting for him to slip up. He won't be losing this face, oh no.

[grayshulk]

The awkwardness of the dancing in combination with the uncanny valley handsome face should definitely be setting off some warning bells in Jennifer's mind, but whatever they knocked her out with was still working to keep her pleasantly amused rather than upset. When she hears Deadpool's voice coming out of the odd mouth, she can't help but smile a little. Good for Wade.

"Of course it's not a secret." She reaches out and pokes the obvious icon on his chest. "Might as well be your new symbol. Well, that and you wearing a suit. It's not a bad look."

[what_fourth_wall]

"This will absolutely be my new symbol." It won't. That's a lie, and not a secret.

It's worth pausing right here in the narration to note an interesting perception of what secrets are. Deadpool seems to be conflating "secret" with "truth". Ruminate on what that means for a moment. To this man, the truth must be secret. How fucked up is that?

"You know, I've always secretly loved suits." A pause. "WAIT NO, NOT A SECRET. I was quite open about loving my suits." He fidgets with the mask. It's still firmly attached. Good, good. Even if that was a secret, it apparently wasn't juicy enough to cost him his new face.

He pauses in his own self absorption to notice that Jen isn't quite as disgusted with him as she usually is. Normally, this would be his dream come true. He's always had the biggest crush on Jen, even if it's only been referenced once in the very very beginning of Gerry Duggan's run. Why did that never come to fruition as a plot point? He'd never know. But...she seemed not herself. And the crush was definitely not something he'd go near referencing because something told him it was just the kind of secret the mask wanted to come off and leave him with exactly the face someone like Jen would never, ever want.

A secret worth sharing to break the mask's power that he didn't want to break. Ironic.

"You okay, Jolly G? You seem like you've been sipping the kool-aid around here. Did you try to smash a Guardian too? Whatever they hit you with for trying that is good stuff. It made me dance like Zemo." It didn't make him dance like Zemo. He did that all on his own.

[grayshulk]

"You're lying. More than normal." Which has her giving him a look with raised eyebrows and narrowed eyes that is largely obscured with her mirrored mask. Jennifer might not be Deadpool's nearest or dearest, but she knows enough to recognize that.

His freak out over the secret helps her out in putting the peices together. She almost mentions him liking the mask out loud, but something bruised in her says leave it alone. There's no harm in letting him be pretty for a while. She understands wanting that. After all, she had wanted to be a green goddess for years.

"I haven't smashed anything here yet," she answers candidly, still buzzed and willing to lean into feeling good. "I don't really want to. The kool aid is kind of nice."

The Main Temple

[outofdenile]

Nile's feet take her there, and then they take her there again. There's something peaceful about the place, something real that's a relief from the relentless blank smiles of the locals. It makes her miss the irate villagers with the goats, to be honest. She and Nicky aren't staying there, but it's worth exploring. She hasn't made her way to the center yet when she sees Jennifer ahead of her. She calls out to avoid startling the other woman, "Uh, hey."

[grayshulk]

The greeting draws Jennifer's attention away from the spiderweb of hallways with a little surprise. She manages a smile that's a bit too worn at the edges to belong to any of the islanders in their endless celebrations.

"Hey." She stumbles for a moment over what to say in the context and decides to keep things basic. "I'm Jennifer."

[outofdenile]

Nile shifts her weight back on her heels and nods with a small smile. "I'm Nile. You're new here too?"

[grayshulk]

"Terribly." It takes about a second of empty air before she finds herself talking quickly. "This place is weird. Like, I'm used to weird? But this is weird, weird. But not terrible?"

lost carcosa

[darkdetective]

'Over all the dismal landscape a canopy of low, lead-colored clouds hung like a visible curse. In all this there was a menace and a portent -- a hint of evil, an intimation of doom.'

[ his voice comes before he does, standing at a distance, holding an unmarked bottle of liquor in his hand. his eyes are on the skull, instead of hers. ]

The dead love secrets. This one especially, I think.

[grayshulk]

[A voice is a thing to hold onto, a point of focus beyond the still bleeding wounds the skull wants to prod. Not enough for her to look up and away from the jeweled dead, but enough for her to answer.]

It wants too much. [That's better. The anger makes her sound a little more like herself.] Whatever it gets from loss is not its to take. [Not when so much else has been taken.]

[darkdetective]

Don't stare too long.

[ his voice is closer now. he sets his free hand on her shoulder and offers a sip of his bottle from the other. ]

This place is strange. Between the temple and the masquerade, everything on this island seems to want something. This one is a little obvious, but I'll take it as a warning anyway.

[grayshulk]

[Looking away seems easier to say than to do until the hand settles on her shoulder. Physical grounding makes it easier to break her eye contact with the empty sockets of the skull and take the bottle. The burn reminds her this is a questionable choice, and she hands it back easily.]

Seems like a heck of a setup. Get pulled into a strange environment. Get told you need to change. Get pushed to open up about loss. Face down literal altars to dangerous things.

( the masquerade )

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki glances down at his jacket absently. ]

A squiggle? Oh yes. It clashes with my mask.

[grayshulk]

It really does, doesn't it? Messes with the medusa lite look.

[She looks down at her dress.] Not that I'm doing much better. I wonder why they bothered?

[dothelokimotion]

Appearance is everything.

[ especially to gods. ]

[grayshulk]

Yeah, sure, so that's why we all got stuffed into retro fashion and they went with the masks.

But that's a beacon when we already stand out. [She holds up her wrist with the scrywatch briefly to make the point.]

The Temple

[spoilers]

River is doing some exploring of her own, a little investigating here, a little scavenging there.

She's paused in one of the many bedrooms, wondering if they're solely kept for others like them. How many have gone before? How many will there be after? How often do they go about ripping people from their lives (and deaths) to send on this journey of self-discovery?

Glancing up as Jennifer enters, she smiles. "Don't worry. You aren't interrupting anything. Just having a look around."

[grayshulk]

"Then we're doing the same thing." Jennifer nods, relieved that she hadn't disturbed someone's sense of safety even if that concern isn't enough to stop her from wanting to look around. Given the opportunity to compare notes and potentially expand her own knowledge base, Jen takes it. "Find anything interesting?"

[spoilers]

Ah. A kindred spirit. River's smile brightens, despite her answer. "Not yet."

That might not be strictly true. She scrunches her nose, tipping her head to the side. "Well...I suppose it depends on your definition of interesting. If you get too curious about the setup in the central room, the odd little beings guarding it pack a hell of a punch." But she doesn't look any worse for wear, and she releases a breath that's half sigh. "You?"

[grayshulk]

"I stayed away from the altar at the little temple. But those silent little guys with the antlers did seem kind of ominous." She pauses, thinking if she has anything equivalent that she can share. "The shadow things here, though, they seem more helpful? Like, I'm pretty sure they started to guide me when the halls were acting a little too much like a fractal."

The Masquerade

[neverwither]

Chloe looks down at herself through the eye holes of her mask as if to check that she’s still sporting the same symbol. Doesn’t seem to be going anywhere yet. “Oh. Yes. It looks like we’re part of the same secret society.” No pun intended.

“I haven’t had much luck in figuring out exactly what it’s supposed to be, though…” Other than the fact that everyone wearing the contraption on their wrist appears to wear the symbol as well. Being marked out in such a way doesn’t exactly sit well with Chloe, but at least there doesn’t seem to be any more rhyme or reason to it than them all being ‘Travelers’.

“How about you? Any thoughts on this pinnacle of high fashion?” Chloe is all warm tones, but there’s a genuine curiosity about whether anything has been discovered or any hypotheses that may have been made. Two heads are better than one, after all.

[grayshulk]

The fact that's Chloe's mask is slightly horrifying is not something that Jen is currently holding against her. It just adds a weird layer to the interaction. "They are obsessed with the 'it's a secret line, aren't they?"

Jennifer fiddles with the watch on her wrist, playing lightly with the weight of the band in a not-yet habit. The physical action gives her something to help manage the anxiety for the time being.

"I think that abstract symbols and ominous secret groups almost always have some underlying plan. Either they want us to join or they want something from us...and it seems really too easy to guess that might be a secret. But also we were taken by a secret power that's judging our personal growth, so why wouldn't a secret give them power?"

[neverwither]

Nodding along with the assessment, there’s already plenty of food for thought. “Exactly. Perhaps this journey of growth is meant for its sake and nothing more, but I suppose it makes you wonder what the one doing the judging might be getting out of it.” As much as Chloe would like to believe it’s a benevolent force that wishes to help those deemed to be in need, that force certainly has a funny way of going about it.

Articulating some of those thoughts out loud, she continues with, “I wonder if perhaps that’s why the masks are the way they are? It doesn’t seem like… Well… They’re particularly comfortable so… If you’re wearing something that lays part of you bare, why not share your secrets also?” Again, it’s an interesting means to an end but she can see how it could be facilitative.

Her head tilts slightly to the side, replacing an apologetic smile that won’t be seen under the mask. “I’m sorry, I’m giving you all my wild theories before I’ve even given you my name. I’m Chloe.”

[grayshulk]

"I appreciate the healthy cyncism." This is said sincerely as she considers that vital question of why and what the power behind gets out of it. "It could just be entertainment or voyeurism, but this is a lot of energy and time for hypothetically just a moral victory for our keeper."

She listens intently as Chloe talks her way through the potential connection to the masks and nodding at certain points. The logic is sound if not definitive. "No need to apologize. We're all trying to feel our way out about this situation, and it's always good to hear what other people are coming up with. It's nice to meet you, though, Chloe. I'm Jennifer."

She offers a hand to shake because why not try for something approaching social?