⏳ THE SCORCHING ISLE: Oracle Event One ⏳

[beleos]

ARRIVAL

All Bearers have heard whispers of them - the Oracles. Mysterious and unknown entities of an abstract nature, they serve as the heart of each faction’s cause - both as a means to an end and a very real stepping stone in achieving their objectives. To claim an Oracle means growing ever closer to victory: to see your homes restored as they were, or to herald in a new one of your making.

So you go.

A Cornerstone has been set up for each faction; one for the Zenith and one for the Meridian in Yima’s manor and Heliopolis, respectively. They warn you that upon transportation, your safety cannot be guaranteed and there is no telling what waits for you beyond - to be prepared. To make sure you have whatever you deem necessary with you before you go, as there is no telling when - or how - you will be coming back. CONTINUED HERE...

NOTES

Upon your arrival, you woke up with an HOURGLASS NECKLACE. Please refer to the Time Mechanics on the OOC Summary and bottom of this post for details on its usage.

The COURTYARD is frozen in time. Player Characters and the Great Tree are the only signs of moving, free life in the courtyard. During the intro, time magic does not work.

Characters are free to investigate but cannot move beyond the courtyard if you choose a prompt during the intro. You may mingle among your fellow Bearers or speak with [MR. TIBBS] if you so choose. (Also? LOOK AT HIM HELP)

Iconoclasts and Stargazers will notice Aspect benefits/detriments now.

All characters will be weak for the 24 hours - think like mild flu - and unable to leave until Mr. Tibbs has dispersed them. This is the time in which any threads with the NPC will be carried out.

The INTRO concludes with said dispersal of PC’s once interactions concluded. They will be sent to a location around the castle of your choosing; they are free to move about freely from here. Your prompts can start with you waking alone or in the presence of others - whatever you’d like!

Your character will innately understand how to use time magic from this point forward. It will come naturally to them, like a skill they were born with.

CASTLE: OVERVIEW (p a s t)

The Scorching Isles is home to the Atirat, a people of sea-dwellers who have the ability to walk on land. (Think mermaids with the ability to shift back and forth between human and mermaid forms.) As such, much of the Scorching Isles is covered in large bodies of blue water and glistening pieces of ice to accommodate their lifestyle.

THE CASTLE, however, is what dominates the landscape and it's where the Shard-Bearers will be spending their time. The white castle with colorful glass windows is obscured by a thick layer of clouds and fog. Nearly every location on the island has a thin layer of fog that rolls through it, which gives the entire Island an inescapable chill. The castle has artfully built rooms with a CAVALCADE OF DECORATIVE ICE, lavish mirrors, and white plants accented with blue decorations. Several portions of the castle are submerged due to the aquatic nature of the native residents.

And everywhere you go, you find them - STATUESQUE BODIES FROZEN mid-movement. They are haunting reminders of the power in your Hourglass - the very real power to decide their fates.

The castle has many winding paths to explore, as castles often do. There are sleeping quarters, HALLWAYS, a wine cellar, and a few large rooms presumably for diplomatic affairs. Players can use these rooms at their own leisure for whatever purposes they see fit. (Exploration, combat, or supply gathering.)

However, many of these rooms will require some strategy to access their full potential! Atirat were much more comfortable being underwater than many Kenosians may be. Therefore, rooms of higher importance may be COMPLETELY SUBMERGED or require swimming through an underwater pathway to reach them. Very minimal supplies will be kept out in the open for all to reach. More desirable supplies - such as warm clothing, small weapons, treasure, and the like - will be located past or within one of these flooded areas.

Players may gather supplies within and preserve their Sand or use their Sand to make other rooms accessible and gather whatever lies within! The larger the asset you attempt to unfreeze, the more Sand it costs - and the more drained/vulnerable you will be as a consequence, so choose your path ahead wisely.

Currently, a pervasive fog is preventing you from wandering beyond the Castle's limits. Should you try to venture past it, your Sand will rapidly be stolen and you will find yourself suffering the same fate as the islanders if you don't move back to safety quickly... However, if you ask Mr. Tibbs what lays beyond the mist - he will tell you about the thriving farmland, the once-bustling village surrounding the castle, and the beautiful coral reefs beneath it. Sadly, they're beyond your reach - but maybe if the Bearers decide to unfreeze them when the week is up...

LIBRARY (s a f e z o n e)

The ROYAL LIBRARY - A treasure trove of knowledge, history, and glimpses of a fractured past scattered throughout. The lower floor of the Library is void of much reading material and contains several intricate-looking art pieces on decorative pedestals.

A spiral staircase dominates the center of the room, with its once delicate structure overtaken by sheets of formidable ice; it leads you toward the upper levels where a sea of books awaits. There are isles and isles of books, most perched on intricately carved shelves. Many books lay in piles or are discarded onto the floor, and scattered papers are common throughout.

Curious Kenosians may pick out books from the shelves and read on various topics, but players may also pass through this room on their way elsewhere. This area will function as a safe haven where violence and the taking of others' Sand is not allowed; do not disturb the books or Mr. Tibbs won’t be happy!

NOTES

Characters who wish to receive a book with lore specific to the island may comment [HERE]. You will be RNGed a book from a pre-written list of topics. The books may give you a deeper look into the island, its inhabitants, and its history! (Only 1 book per player! Please assume all other books they read are about commonly-available topics.)

THE EATING PARLOR (p a s t)

There are no basic amenities on the island. No hot water, no warm beds, and no salacious magazines (that you know of. heh heh). That would make the Eating Parlour a wise stop for anyone. After all, this could be the perfect chance to procure some provisions!

The EATING PARLOUR has all the equipment one would need for meal preparation. Dried plants hang from the ceiling, and the walls are lined with mason jars filled with every strange manner of presumably edible thing (Is that a head over there? Hmm… maybe you should check).

The parlour also comes with a garden under a massive windowed dome so that the inhabitants could have fresh produce at hand. Many plants have withered, but there are some salvageable plants if you know how to look for them. But beware… Some of the plants have a strange blue glow. These plants can spell potential disaster.

If someone should make contact with these glowing plants, they will crumble into glass shards - glass that will quickly burrow its way under the skin and curse that person with Blight. Blight will make all resources within that person's vicinity slowly age and eventually crumble to dust. (Which I relate to on a personal level tbh.) Iconoclasts will be immune to its effects.

NOTES

Please see the "Blight" section below for more information on its effects.

TREASURE ROOM (f u t u r e)

Faint singing can be heard coming from this room. Once you hear the song, it dulls your senses and leaves you in a haze. There is no stopping your feet from guiding you to it through the doors and into the Treasure room. The door slams shut at your back, sealed with a wall of ice and magic.

Players will find themselves lured to an icy chamber bordered by a ring of cold blue fire. There is a deep pond that surrounds the platform you’ve found yourself standing on. Beyond its glassy surface and crystal clear water, one can glimpse all manner of treasures - from crowns, jewels, ornate statues in various statues of repair, scepters, spears, and books that seem impervious to the water's cold chill.

As you come to your senses, you will find yourself frozen in place and at the mercy of a large statuesque being before you. This beautiful and horrifying figure in a perpetual song is the SIREN, the only Atirat you’ve seen in person. She measures nearly 20 feet (6 meters) from her head to the tip of her long-finned tail. She cradles an icy shard in her arms, singing to it as if it were a child.

She sits serenely in front of a large hourglass filled with white sand, which is bordered by a spear and a lance. Emblazoned in faint text at the base of where she sits reads: “The future lies in our hands.”

NOTES

Welcome to the Siren’s Chamber! Players must use their wit, charisma, or some good ol' fashioned elbow grease to escape the room or break the Siren’s magic. The Shard that the Siren holds contains dormant time magic that players may activate by using the Sand within their necklace. Players can access the future in 5-second intervals and use whatever they find in that time period to escape their predicament.

For example, if they activate the shard by using their time magic, that shard will begin to glow blue. The room around them will shift, and it could change to a point in the future where there is a sword nearby. If you can grab it, now you have a weapon! When the 5 seconds are up and time returns to the present, you will still have that weapon on your person. You may also try verbal communication if you’d like. If your character is someone who would try and talk their way out of a situation diplomatically, they may give it a try!

It is up to player discretion/creativity to think of a scenario you’d like. Each “future" does not have to be the same across player encounters! What one group experiences may be tailored to the player wants (because branching timelines exist). Let your imagination run free!

HALL OF MIRRORS (p r e s e n t)

Should you reach the rightmost wing of the massive castle Library, you will find a door hidden in the very back of one aisle against a wall; it looks as though the door used to be concealed by magicks that have since dissolved.

The stairwell leads down and into darkness. Once you reach the bottom, shimmering light cast from an unknown source beneath sheets of glistening ice will illuminate your new surroundings; you are in a maze of mirror-like ice. This labyrinth is silent save for the quiet creaking of shifting ice that may disquiet you and leave you uneasy regarding the stability of this area… but it holds beneath your feet.

Mr. Tibbs had told you that the “Kaleidoscope” - where your Sand is counted - rests through here, so eventually, you must brave the journey. Is it a trick of the light? Maybe the product of an especially active imagination…?

Did you just see one of your reflections move without you?

NOTES

Please refer to the OOC Summary for details on the Hall of Mirrors!

THE BLIGHT and TIME MECHANICS

BLIGHT

Blight is an infliction that will age supplies and infect people with a creeping disease that steals their Sand. For objects, this includes weapons, food, and items like cloth. It will take a few days to deteriorate things beyond use - so watching your supplies and acting accordingly is in your best interest. Generally, it will make it more difficult for PC's to get by given that their already scarce resources will dwindle and deteriorate - especially since it's 'contagious' through touch.

The Blight will not act quickly enough to severely hamper infected persons, but repeated exposure will cause effects to a person's body - notedly protruding VEINS in the face and extremities, a lower body temperature, and increased agitation. These effects start out mild and grow more severe with each 'dose.'

Characters must touch an object/person that is Blighted to become inflicted with Blight themselves. When that happens, it will become easily identifiable as Blighted from the faint blue, shimmering outline around the infected subject, as well as the WITHERED, FROSTBITTEN or ashy appearance it takes as it progresses.

However, there is one single perk with Blight. (Or is it a perk?) Players will feel reduced impact by the cold surroundings, making the climate around them somewhat more hospitable. Beware of falling victim to a chill you can't feel...

TIME

To use your Sand, each character is granted access to and innate knowledge of a spell they channel from their Shard that automatically manipulates their Hourglass. This allows the remote control of Sand (aka gathering and dispersing), as well as the ability to pull Fragments of time from Shards.

Fragments are literal pieces of you taken from your Shard. They manifest as memories or images displayed on little shards of broken glass (think of the memory being played out in real-time on the mirror's surface), and can be crushed to convert into Sand automatically, either voluntarily or by force. The only stipulation is that the parties must be close to one another, and the Fragment must be exchanged while both Bearers are still. This means someone has to give it to you, or you need to immobilize them before you take it - one way or another.

Once the Fragment is crushed, the memory and associated time of that person's life is lost and your character will suffer amnesia until the Oracle is claimed. How deep this goes is up to you; they could lose a large chunk of time - even all their memories surrounding a person or place for a big payload of Sand, or they could lose very little for a meager net gain.

Sand is automatically gathered or distributed by your Hourglass and added/subtracted to your running total. No need to micromanage. Convenient!

Please note that using Sand to unfreeze anything (resources, a door which can be then opened, etc) is an unpleasant experience. Each time you use Sand in this way, your character will be left feeling weakened and flu-like for an hour or two, which will leave them vulnerable. This effect stacks and scales up to outright KO-ing them for a few hours if they go crazy, so unfreezing too large of an area is off the table!

NOTES

• An OOC POST will be coming shortly explaining how Sand is going to be tallied and the Oracle claimed.
• Should your character attempt to unfreeze any NPC's, please respond [HERE]. NOTE: unfreezing NPC's may result in physical violence with CW's for severe mental instability/illness and a potential reference to self-harm.
• HAVE FUN!!!

CODING

Comments

ii

[cutlery]

[ Above all else, Sebastian hated feeling weak.

It’s his pride above all certainly, but for a demon, weakness was deadly. It was simply part of their culture (if it could be called such) that if any flicker was shown, it was something to be taken advantage of. So, the weariness that fell upon Stargazers was something he absolutely loathed. He would push himself, and he could do so much more than most, but when it came time to need something like rest… Naturally, he wouldn’t do so in the library.

So, as Ruby slips into a room to hide from someone else, the sound of her entering the room comes with a feeling first. They’re both Stargazers, and therefore both prone to the bond of empathy that unites Aspects. As someone enters the room, there’s first an intense, visceral feeling that’s like hackles raised and fangs bared more than a single emotion. And yet, as Sebastian’s attention snaps up, it’s gone so suddenly that it surely feels abrupt, like a word cut off mid-syllable. ]

Ah— Signora?

[ It’s an uninteresting room that she’s found, a bare room of desks and chairs for meetings of some sort, which is exactly why Sebastian had picked it. He’s sitting against a far wall, rather clearly having been resting. He doesn’t move from his sitting position, but in comparison to that sharp burst of feeling, his expression is now one of polite surprise. He sees her posture as she slips in, and with a slight tilt of his head he asks curiously, but with a softer tone: ]

Is someone coming?

[appeale]

[ that short-lived feeling that crackles through the Stargazer resonance like a spark is matched in kind with immediacy: Ruby, ever sensitive to hostility even without empathic bonds, snaps into the mindset of prey before she registers what is happening. it isn't just the rabbit-quick heartbeat that Sebastian will feel or the instinct to flee; for a moment, there is a blind and terrified certainty, beyond reason, that she is going to die right now.

but that flash of wild, animal fear he feels is only reflected an instant on Rudbeckia's expression. the smile that follows seems to come easily to her, either thoughtlessly sincere or otherwise well-practised. without scrutiny, it would be easy to read it as genuine; under a sharper gaze, her eyes still tremble with fright, and there is a mollifying air about her vacant façade, like a dog bowing its head in submission. ]

Signor Michaelis! [ despite her apparent cheer, she stays rooted at the door. her hand does not leave the doorknob. ] No, I, um... There was someone, but— Sorry, I didn't want to cause any trouble, so I thought it would be best if I just stayed out of the way...

[ for some reason, the more she tries to explain herself, the higher her fear ratchets, that feeling of dread growing more and more. it's always been a point of anxiety for her: no one will listen, no one wants to hear her speak, she should just accept the consequences without a word. so she trails off, and instead deflects— ]

I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you.

[ is it safer to stay in here with a predator, or to go outside and face something unknown? ]

[cutlery]

[ Again, he’s almost immediately reminded of his thought that he’ll never complain of Howl’s strong emotions again now that he has the comparison of Ruby’s. His emotions run preternaturally dull as a simple trait of most demons, and so hers are like a deluge. That fear in all its intensity makes him flinch visibly, but he’s the one to hold up a hand as if in a placating gesture almost immediately. It’s practical, of course. He’d very much like her to relax.

Yet, he’s surprised in equal measure as her face quickly doesn’t match the feeling. It’s small, just as needing of a sharper gaze, but his attention definitely narrows. It’s not suspicion, but more a surprise and curiosity. She’s used to this motion, that much feels clear. ]

No, it is no trouble…

[ His voice is softer than his greeting, both in an attempt to calm her and to keep his voice lower if she’s hiding from someone outside. The dread grows, and with that, he lowers his hand, but still stays seated. He expects that if he does move, she’ll positively bolt. ]

You surprised me admittedly, so I apologize for the— [ …He never knows how to describe what the Aspects do. ] Well, for what you felt when you entered. I am merely taking a rest away from ignoble sorts.

[appeale]

[ it's the lack of outright concern, more than Sebastian's deliberate effort to pacify her, that allows Rudbeckia to be somewhat at ease. the worst of this parasitic bond will be from the people who ask, the ones that will try to pry her open with no regard for how it would expose the vulnerable and bleeding parts of her. Sebastian reacts, but doesn't comment on it, and so Ruby can continue the performance without interruption. ]

No, no! [ the sharp, desperate edge of her smile softens, and her laughter is gentle. ] I'm sure you were surprised, so I understand why you had that reaction.

[ Bullshit. I thought you were going to kill me just for waking you up, what the hell kind of insane reaction is that?

her hand slips off the doorknob, despite a sense of reluctance, and she moves further into the room, wary of being overheard by anybody in the hall. if someone does find her, there's no reason to think Sebastian would protect her. ] Have you been having a hard time?

[cutlery]

[ He’s not sure if he trusts her word here, but… Luckily for Ruby wanting to keep things to herself, he also decides that it doesn’t matter. In his logical way of looking at things, playing the role of a delicate and conflict averse maiden is the sort of thing that works very well. Make yourself unassuming and it softens people towards you. It’s why his own act of the butler was something he was fond of.

Of course, while his analysis may be correct, his guess at why she’s doing it is totally wrong. Because clearly, the only reason to do something like that is for similar (shitty) reasons to his, right?

He nods as she steps a bit further into the room (despite that reluctance), and though he hates to admit it, it’s not as if he can hide it from another Stargazer. Plus, she must be feeling worse. ]

A tiring time more than a hard one, I would say… [ Which he’s actually glad for. It seems people weren’t willing to jump into frays just yet, so he’s glad for the peaceable reaction when he’s weakest. ] And you? Have you encountered any difficulties?

[appeale]

I've been fortunate so far... Most everyone has been rather kind to me, so I'm grateful.

[ her heart is completely absent of anything that could be considered gratitude. in truth, things have been... about what she expected; not the worst case scenario, but no better than she would have predicted either. the frozen landscape is eerily fitting when Ruby feels like she's walking around on ice and waiting for it to splinter beneath her.

one of her hands goes to the Hourglass at her neck which, as she fidgets with it, is visibly low on Sand: likely a large part of what is contributing to the exhaustion in her face and the way her steps drag. ]

But it certainly is tiring. [ since she's already decided to share a room with this panther and pretend it won't eat her, she pulls out a chair and takes a seat in it, her movements dainty and well-mannered. she sits with a grace that speaks very much of someone who has had etiquette drilled into her all her life: a straight posture, knees together, hands folded neatly in her lap. ] I think I must have slept more these past several days than I would in a whole week... It's dreadfully cold here, too. Winters in the Vatican were always quite mild.

[cutlery]

[ Sebastian takes in the details as she takes her seat, though it isn’t so obviously sharp-eyed. He notes the dwindling hourglass and thinks to ask on it… But he’s quickly distracted from that by the curiosity of familiarity. Her delicate and well-mannered posture is the sort of thing he had gotten well-used to seeing while serving Ciel, but it felt markedly out of place amongst the Shard-Bearers of Kenos. It marks her to him as a true lady, in the rather old-fashioned sense of the word.

Though his curiosity is sparked as she mentions the Vatican. It’s notable enough to trickle through that bond of Aspects, and it’s earnest. It’s also probably quite the contrast against that rather sharp set of feelings that had started things out. ]

My, the Vatican? As in, the seat of the Holy See?

[ He’s quite familiar, of course. Call it “professional interest”, though it’s probably more like an ironic interest. Though, because of his familiarity, he’s a little surprised. If it’s the sort he knew, then he wasn’t aware women were even allowed to live there… ]

Is that where you lived before Kenos?