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

Comments

[kyley_b]

"I don't like robes!"

Kyle rolls his eyes theatrically so that she can see it. "Says the kawaii plague doctor. This shit's not coming off, I'm sure you noticed."

[hostile_encounter]

She scoffs at his outburst dismissively even though she actually understands. It's more fun for him to be irritated.

"I had no idea. I just enjoy existing in a perpetual fog of roses and no vision." She reaches back and unties the ribbons so it's clear that the mask is holding itself on. "Did you hear how we're supposed to take it off?"

[kyley_b]

To be fair, irritated is also sort of Kyle's default state.

He shakes his head. "No. None of the regular guests seem to notice or give a shit, and if you ask them about these funky pins all they say is that it's a secret. I've asked like, seven people and it's always the same response.

"This feels like some sort of escape room puzzle shit."

[hostile_encounter]

She looks around, annoyed again by the fog that obscures the secrets of the room. "Hard to tell if they're drugged or just part of the setting, isn't it?"

One of the things he said just processed. "...Do you think it's as annoying and simple as that? Like, 'it's a secret' is the riddle?"

[kyley_b]

Kyle goggles at her for a moment, and then his shoulders slump.

"That would be so obvious it would be stupid," he says. "So. Yes. Yes, that's probably is EXACTLY it. So we need a secret?"

[hostile_encounter]

She grabs a glass of gin off a tray passing by and tries to figure out how to pour it into her mask, and therefore mouth, somehow. This is awkward and not successful. So she just stops.

"Who's secret?" Says the woman who does not give any of them up if she's given even a fraction of a chance to avoid it.

[kyley_b]

"Try a straw?" he suggests. He's not entirely sure if straws even exist yet.

"Dunno." He looks around, trying to spot someone who looks like they might know something. Nobody appears to be a plant there to help them.

No, the only odd thing is that all the Travelers wear the secret mark.

Kyle's face lights up behind his mask, and then falls. "It's us," he says. "I think it's us. And there's only one way to find out."

Kyle considers himself and sighs. "I once drank three glasses of piss."

[hostile_encounter]

She looks around pointedly as if silent asking him 'where???' before returning to the topic at hand.

"What do you mean that there's-" And there he goes. Saying that aloud. Elenore audibly chokes on air as she starts laughing. Partially because of what he said, but also with an edge because she's aware this is their shot at freedom, and it's coming down to three glasses of urine.

[kyley_b]

Kyle, face blushing scarlet, reaches up to pull at his mask. To his relief, hefeels it slip off and then there it is in his hands. He touches his face, just to make sure it's there, and grins.

"Dude! It works! You just have to tell me a secret!"

[hostile_encounter]

"Dammit." This is said softly enough that Kyle could be forgiven for not hearing her. It also causes her damned mask to fog again and her to make a low aggravated sound.

Her eyes narrow, and she digs through her mental Rolodex of what she can stand to let go. Through gritted teeth, she manages: "I had a crush on Jackie." And then she scrambles to peel the plastic mask off her face, gasping a deep breath.

[kyley_b]

Kyle cackles in triumph as Elenore too removes her mask. "See?! We did it! Now, who's Jackie?"

[hostile_encounter]

She makes a face at Kyle and the mask now that she can actually see it without the fog from the lenses. "A person. Did I ask you about your piss?"

[kyley_b]

"No, but if you tell me who Jackie is I'll tell you about it." Such a negotiator, this one.

[hostile_encounter]

"A person who used to matter to me. The chances you knew them is next to nothing." She takes that glass of gin and a good drink. "Also, who says I want to know about your weird little fetish?"

[kyley_b]

"It's not a fetish!" He looks absolutely horrified by the idea. "It was bately consensual!"

He debates getting a drink for himself. "And if I don't know them why should you care if I know? ...were you little?"

[hostile_encounter]

"Three glasses is a lot of pee." She looks extremely skeptical at him over the glass she is taking deliberately aggressive sips from. "It wasn't a dumb frat thing, was it?"

This is part of why she hates giving people personal details. "I was young, yes. And I don't tend to give parts of my past away."

[kyley_b]

Kyle sighs. "Okay. So. There was this water park, and because everybody pissed in the pool like fucking degenerates the whole thing wound up causing like... a catastrophic tidal wave of piss. And they needed somebody to dive down to this release valve, and I could hold my breath the longest, but to be able to safely travel down into the depths without my body having to endure the effects of fluid pressure? They said I had to drink piss.

"So I drank the fucking piss."

[hostile_encounter]

He's serious. She can tell he's serious because of the expression on his face and the way he's going through the experience. But also? It's a total load of bullshit. The having to drink the piss, anyway. Who the hell knows about the wave of pee at this point? But is it even reasonable to say something about that to the person who clearly has some trauma around it? Not anywhere near as reasonable as downing the rest of her drink.

[kyley_b]

Kyle watches this reaction with utter dismay.

"...you think I'm some kind of piss freak, don't you?" he laments.

[hostile_encounter]

She sets the glass down and gives him a look that is both sympathetic and aggrieved. "I think a creepy fucker took advantage of an ability to spew bullshit that sounded vaguely scientific to make you drink three glasses of pee. Which is different than being a piss freak."

[kyley_b]

"Maybe." He shrugs. "I was pretty young. And it wouldn't be the first time. I'm pretty sure I got tricked into killing a whale once."

He sighs and waves at one of the circling waiters for a drink. Any kind of drink.

[hostile_encounter]

"...Fuck." She sips, buying processing time. "Well, you definitely had a ride before you even got here."

[kyley_b]

Kyle shrugs. "I guess. No more so than anybody else."

[hostile_encounter]

"No. Even if nothing else but what you've mentioned happened? You were on a wild ride." Or hallucinate a lot. Which is also possible. More sips.

[kyley_b]

Kyle looks decidedly uncomfortable at that suggestion. "It's no big deal," he mutters.