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Entry tags:
- ! event log,
- a discovery of witches: kit marlowe,
- dc: harley quinn,
- detroit: become human: chloe,
- detroit: become human: connor,
- dragon age: anders,
- final fantasy: sephiroth,
- locked tomb: harrowhark nonagesimus,
- marvel: carter ghazikhanian,
- marvel: jennifer walters,
- marvel: loki odinson,
- marvel: wade wilson,
- my hero academia: takami keigo,
- oc: elenore evans,
- oc: saxsice king,
- penny dreadful: victor frankenstein,
- south park: kyle broflovski,
- uncharted: elena fisher,
- uncharted: nathan drake,
- uncharted: rafe adler,
- uncharted: samuel drake
Destination: 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!
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.
no subject
[ he smiles-- sadly, fondly, a mixture of emotions. he remembers telling selina after she found out he wasn't dead the first time that he would find her again. another promise he wouldn't be able to keep. he wants to tell her he's sorry, but he thinks better. wouldn't be fair to her. ]
You always were smarter. Faster.
no subject
[ after the wedding, villa hermosa, the whole thing with bane and everything that came afterward. things were finally starting to change, they were finally starting to find that little bit of happiness meant just for them. she doesn't feel quite so smart or fast these days carrying around that giant target she's painted on her back.
but none of that is of his concern, of course. ]
I don't know, Bat. I've been making an awful lot of mistakes lately. Might not be dead but I've definitely used up a few of those lives.
no subject
[ she's the one who stays alive, he's the one whose story ends poorly. he wished that maybe it wouldn't, if maybe for her alone, but the chance always remained more in that favor. he takes her hand. ]
Tell me a secret, Cat. Let me see that pretty face of yours.
no subject
y'know, aside from the obvious, of course. bruce knows all of her secrets. ]
This face works just as well as the other one. Better, actually, depending on the situation.
[ her bruce knows all of her secrets. ]
Can't speak for your situation, maybe, but he knows all the deep, dark, twisty parts of my soul. I don't exactly have any I'm Batman-level revelations. This wants something I don't really know how to give.
no subject
[ he puts a hand on her cheek, fingertips touching gently at any of the areas that the mask aren't. they keep dancing, but the eyes of the party around them shift, making them feel watched. ]
Take a leap. I have it on good authority that all bats are good at catching cats when they fall.
no subject
having him stand this close to her, she can't help but try to map out the details of the face so much more familiar to her over the face of this bruce wayne to play spot the differences. he seems so familiar to her and selina can't decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing. it isn't ideal, but they've always worked well together and maybe it's better he's here than not at all. ]
I left. I... I don't know, I got cold feet. [ it takes her a long moment to get something out and this is a box she's more than content to keep closed and pack it away some place where she can ignore it even exists. it's easier to let him think what he wants, isn't it? to just let it be? it's over, now. it's in the past. she came back. once it starts, though, it sort of all comes out so he's just gonna have to shut up for a little bit and let her fucking get her shit out, okay?? ] I came back. I did, I... I couldn't help but come back. It's just that things started to feel too real. We've been on and off and on and off again so many times, but we'd never been that close. We'd never lived together and at this point we'd been living together for about a year and everything just felt so... I could see it. I could see myself living in that great, big house and being apart of this family that he's gathered around him. I could see us doing the holidays with Clark Kent and Lois Lane and it just terrified me. I had something to lose if this all went bad. I didn't just have Bruce to lose, I had this whole life I never thought was possible, and... what if I never change? What if, one day, he realized that I was a lost cause? What if I became an inconvenience? What if I didn't fit in with his little super friends? I mean, my father treated me like a stranger in his home and my own mother struggled to love me, so what's to say there isn't something just fundamentally wrong with me? Maybe I'm just rotten through and through.
I don't know how to trust myself. I don't know how to trust the idea of being happy. I don't even really think I know the first thing about love but somehow, when I look at him... when I look at you... I don't know how to do anything but love you. So. You can see my problem here.
no subject
[ he listens to her speak, smiling softly. it's all of his own concerns coming from her mouth, ones that he's suspected she felt, even though he chased her across the globe demanding answers in his agony at her absence, but he still knew the truth. it's just nice to hear her feel comfortable enough to tell him. he reaches up and easily plucks off her mask, having no doubt that it would come off without restraint. ]
And don't worry, he's terrified of holidays with the Kents, too.
no subject
[ ahhhh, winter time in gotham city when all that wet and gloomy turns into snow. fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, ka-boom.
all that comfort she feels standing there with him gives way to a rush of anxiety; it's a lot for selina to open herself up like that and then lose the thing she hides behind, too. she breathes in deep, giving herself a moment before her eyes find his, but it all seems to melt away the second they meet. maybe that shouldn't be surprising -- it's still him, right? him on a different path, different choices made, and dead, apparently. a minor detail. he's here now. ]
None of it really matters right now. [ she reaches up, fingers raking through his hair -- a little more gray, too. she really digs it. ] You look tired, Bat. Not getting much rest here, either, are you?
no subject
[ he closes his eyes for a moment with her intimate touch, imagining for a moment that it was her. his her. it is and it isn't-- he imagines that she's going through the same thing right now. but when he opens his eyes, he won't find the soft smile lines hinting at the edges of her lips when he goes looking for them. ]
Even after I'm dead, it seems.
no subject
[ oh, it's something. probably doesn't really help that she hasn't seen any bruce in a while, because all she wants to do is kiss him again. she settles for pressing the palm of her hand to his cheek for a moment before letting the hand fall away. ]
Sorry. This whole thing is a little weird, isn't it? I've thought about you so much these last few days and now you're here but you're not. I shouldn't be surprised, it's like some kind of metaphor for the entire relationship. The timing's never right.
no subject
[ he smiles, though there's a sadness to it. obviously, fate intervened. ]
I keep wanting to apologize to you for breaking another promise. This time I'm not sure she'll forgive me for it. I wonder, in all the chances in all the multiverse, if you two ever met, maybe you could pass on the message for me.
no subject
Stranger things have happened, but this is where I get to tell you she already does. She knows what she signed up for, Bat. She knows who and what you are. She knows that you'd do everything in your power to get back to her. She's heart broken and that part is unavoidable, but she forgives you completely.
[ her own smile is meant to be reassuring, but she's not sure it's convincing. ]
She only wishes you had more time together.
no subject
[ just because she loves him, forgives him, doesn't mean that he deserves it. not after everything, and especially not after this. ]
Tell me another secret, Cat. Would you... will she move on after this? Find someone else, maybe. Be happy?
no subject
[ she doesn't really know how to answer that in a way that makes him feel better, but bruce has always been better at moving on than she ever has, whatever his reason. like, sure, she almost killed vicki vale that one time, but she's never held it against him. selina's list of romantic interests can be sorted neatly: flings and one-night stands, like ted grant who is as good in bed as he is in the ring but is someone who she could never make something serious of; the people who loved her but whose affections she never quite returned, like slam bradley who is a friend that managed to catch her at a bad time in her life; and then there's bruce wayne, the man she's been probably been in love with since she was 19 years old.
maybe it's not the same for his selina, but if it were her, she's not sure she'd find someone else -- she'd find a new distraction or something to give her a sense of purpose. she'd be close to happy. maybe that's enough. ]
She'll be fine, Bat. Cats always land on their feet and Selina Kyle is remarkably resilient. It'll be hard for a time, then the pain in your chest becomes so familiar that it gets easier to live with, but she'll survive.
no subject
[ he passes her a wry smile, not finding the courage to meet her eyes. talking to bruce wayne about getting used to pain, getting used to loss, and living with it... well, he's never been very good at that. when he finally looks up again, he barely takes her fingertips in his hand and squeezes gently. ]
If I can't tell her, then I'll tell you. If it ever happens... you know... then be happy. Whatever it takes. Steal it if you have to. That's all he really wants.
no subject
another deep breath, in and out. his hand tightening around hers helps ground her. ]
Yeah. [ she nods, lightly, jaw held taut. ] And if she were here with you, instead of me, she'd tell you she hopes you find peace. Wherever this all takes you. After. You deserve it, Bat. You've been carrying the weight of... so much and often times the whole world. They'll all find a way to continue on without you. They'll do exactly as you taught them, exactly who you've inspired them to be -- your family, your friends, her. It's okay. You can let them carry it now.
no subject
[ he sighs, looking up towards the ceiling. past the ceiling. all the way back to his world, somehow... ]
I've never been a very religious person, you know that. But after everything that I've seen, everything we've been through, I have to believe there's something else out there. I know when I go back, I'll be watching, wherever there is. And if any of you-- any of you-- are ever in real trouble... well, I'll find out how to claw my way back. [ because he's still batman. ]
no subject
she tugs at his hand, trying to bring his attention back down towards her. ]
In the meantime, though? Do me a favor? Don't-- If it's not too weird, I just don't want you to be a stranger. I don't want you to feel like you have to keep your distance unless you have to.