⏳ 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

[oomfies]

[ Cool. She gives a soft nod, just to show that when he pats the seat next to him she's understood. And is, in fact, putting her butt up there to sidle up beside him. That box in question is placed delicately right in front of them, probably just as finely wrapped as the one Sebastian prepared for the lot of them. ]

..Noowwww that I'm thinking about it it's kind of super inappropriate, but also I thought this was only gonna be like a few days in the wild or something and even saying that out loud I feel kinda silly? And I was like oh okay, why not maybe??

[ She rambles, because he doesn't know, clearly, he is asking about the box but Lottie is too preoccupied feeling nervous for virtually no reason at all. Amos was here surviving and doing things and she's over here, bringing pastries and cakes. The latter, being what's unveiled when she gingerly pulls at the bow and unravels the box. It's gaudy, the slice of pure sugar on the doily beneath it. And maybe providing a complete whiplash, because why is a slice of strawberry shortcake (strawberry and all) so perfectly kept in this dumpster fire of a situation?

(Lottie. Lottie is the reason why..) ]

Sorry, I, um, thought it'd be fun or something to pack this and have you try it so surprise?? And also no pressure? Or I can also just take it back it's really no big deal!

[baltimores]

[ He watches her as she comes on up beside him, his brow creasing a little as she rambles away without actually answering him. Did he do something that'd make her nervous? It's because he was being an asshole before, isn't it? But surely she'd know by now he'd never do anything to hurt her, at least not on purpose—

He tilts his head a little as she gently opens the box, his eyes lighting up as he gets a whiff of what's inside. Actually sees it. There's a deep inhalation on his part, the need to just get that smell in there — replace everything bland he'd been inhaling before — and it takes him a bit to tear his gaze away from the cake and up at her, a smile slowly breaking out across his face. ]

This looks amazing. Smells it, too. [ It is really taking everything he has in him to maintain eye contact, like a civilized human being. ] You make this?

[ An extremely roundabout way of asking no, seriously, is this for him?? Even though it has to be — why else would she be sharing it with him?

Just. Just gotta get that confirmation first, so he doesn't inhale it in one go without even doing so much as to tell Lottie no, no, this is beyond appreciated, thank you. ]

[oomfies]

[ Ah.. That says something about how capable Amos thinks Lottie is that she could even bake something like this. On a good day she could make maybe like, one pretty loaf of bread. And then nothing else for a year. Maybe some scrambled eggs? Maybe??

She blushes nevertheless, flattered, a lot less nervous (and feeling very silly for it, now!) by the time she lets his full smile sink in. ]

Uhhhhh, nooo.. I wish. I picked this up from a bakery down the street from my coffee spot.

[ Also yes, she is deliberately not naming names because if he likes it — and judging from his reaction, which she is very much enjoying vicariously, he does — she wants the opportunity to surprise him like this again. She stares at him, half relieved and half giddy that he's this tickled by her surprise, juust for a moment longer before remembering.. Oh! Right. Right! She digs through one of her many pockets, zipping it open to find: an appropriately fancy fork, wrapped at the base with a handkerchief. ]

So you don't get your hands dirty.. [ She offers it to him, while her other hand slides the cake over the tiniest bit closer towards him. ] Unless that's how you wanna eat it? I don't judge.

[baltimores]

[ Doesn't matter what it looks like, as long as it tastes good. This looks amazing though. Which means it probably tastes amazing.

His smile widens, grows all the more sincere at her blushing. A little teasing, too, like she's the little sister he can tease but still love at the end of the day. (She doesn't even have to bring him cake to elicit that emotion from him.)

Though that teasing aura mostly fades as she presents him with the fork. Damn, it kinda feels like ages since he's eaten with one of those already, even though it can't have been that long. Amos takes it, laying the handkerchief on his lap (is that where it's supposed to go??) as she resumes her light rambling. ]

Honestly think I could shove my face in it and eat it just like that, but then half of it'd probably end up on my face and not in my mouth. [ CLEARLY the worst possible outcome here. ] This is really thoughtful. I'm gonna have to think of some way to return the favour when we get back.

[ And there he goes, using the fork to collect his first bite, and... his eyes slide shut as he hums in pleasure, like it's the best thing he's ever eaten. ]

[oomfies]

[ She palms at a thick section of her hair, runs her fingers through it. ]

Noooo, you don't have to..

[ You have to now. It doesn't matter if you agree with her Amos, now Lottie is fully expecting you to do it. In fact, even if she says 'no', her body language and the excited way her eyes light up say: yes. Yes? Do it. But she knows he's a bit too busy sampling her own gift, so instead of subtly (read: blatantly) telling him the times she's home so he could "surprise her" (read: deliver her coffee, or something equally tasty like cookies? Cake?!), she stays silent and watches.

..And then she feels a little weird staring, the way she does, but she's curious. And that's normal, obviously?? It's after he hums a tune so delightful that she finds the courage to open her mouth and immediately ask: ]

How is it??

[baltimores]

[ Yeah, her tone and her words don't match up at all. When Amos cracks his eyes back open at the sound of her voice he sees the way she's defaulted to play with her hair. Makes a small note of that in the back of his mind, but for right now: cake. Cake,

His eyes slide right back shut again as he resumes finishing off this first bite. They open again when Lottie asks him how it is, when he needs to be able to see to get a second helping... ]

Heavenly. Might be the best I've ever had. I don't mean that in the way that like, where I come from most of the food sucked; I mean this is really, really fucking good.

[ He uses his fork to collect a second bite, but... wait. Pauses. Blinks at her, because as far as he knows there's only the one fork, but she's... right there, still... ]

You sure this is all for me? You didn't want any? [ A beat. ] Don't get me wrong, I'll eat this all on my own right now, but I gotta be sure first.

[ That's friendship, right? Right. ]

[oomfies]

[ She grins wide at that, feeling a stupid amount of pride in this moment. She's feeling it so much that when he pauses, stares at her, it's almost like she doesn't even register what he's doing. Just goes, 'hmm', until she gently clues herself into what's happening. And, aww? That's.. Oddly sweet?! It's not like she didn't expect him to ask, because in all her time knowing Amos he's polite and thoughtful, but still. It's nice to hear, ]

No, no, I'm totally fine. [ And this time she does mean it, even if it's purely because there's dairy in the whip cream and there's no way she's testing out just how lactose she is, right now, in this frozen castle. ] But thanks.

[ She smiles bashfully, ]

It's for you. You can finish it, really.

[baltimores]

[ Amos beams at her before responding by simply shoving his second bite into his mouth.

And, once that's taken care of, ] Thanks. I mean, this is really good.

[ He's already said that. He can just... say it again? But maybe not again again, because he could be using that effort to be eating it, a physical appreciation for what she's brought him. Action over words, and all that. ]

I'm gonna figure out some way to repay you when all this is over with. [ When they're out of this frigid hellhole; when this isn't a little slice of heaven but part of something he can regularly enjoy on his own just by walking down the street or whenever Lottie takes him somewhere he doesn't know about. Just having her in his life has been a massive benefit on its own; he really probably should do something by now. ] I mean it. Might take me a little bit, but I'll do it.

[ Aaaand the third bite he separates from the overall slice is perhaps notably bigger than the previous two... sure, he could spread it out, make it last longer, but where's the fun in that? ]