⏳ 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

[salvageable]

[ This is a familiar position. The amount of times someone's held him down by the neck isn't lost to Dokja, and he really needs to figure something out to prevent this from happening in the future. For now, he tries to rip the hand off, his attempts minimal at best as the doppelganger bears its full weight down on him.

Black starts edging its way into the corners of his vision, and he tries not to panic at the way he can't catch a breath, lungs heaving with the effort. Before it really starts to settle on him that he's losing this battle, the sounds of shots ringing through the air and the sickening tear of flesh come alive from above.

The doppelganger releases Dokja with a pained shriek, its wings bleeding and crippled as the creature writhes in agony for a moment. When it turns to face its attacker, that's all the time Dokja needs.

He gathers lightning in his right hand and brings it forward at an inhuman speed, punching right through the doppelganger's chest without wasting a single second. It's fatal, that much is certain, and Dokja locks his gaze with that of his copy, watching the light fade from the same eyes without an inch of remorse or hesitation at what he's done. In fact, there's a flicker of something, like he's relishing in this moment, a slight manic touch to his eyes before it's gone.

And then the doppelganger crumbles around the arm he has through it, then disappears entirely as a result of its defeat. As for Dokja, he stands there quietly, as if deep in thought. His neck hurts, and blood steadily drips from the slashes on his arm, but he doesn't seem to be paying any mind to that.

Instead, he stares and stares at nothing in particular up until he jerks his head up and seems to remember something. ]

Eustace...

[ He starts making his way back to Eustace's side while kind of trying to staunch the bleeding in his arm. Dokja doesn't seem to really care about his injuries, more concerned with Eustace as his expression gives way to gratitude. ]

You... Damn, you really are a good shot.

[lockedon]

[ The shots prove to be enough of a distraction, pitch black feathers scattering into the air as the doppelganger shrieks - and then convulses once before going still, an arm driven straight through its core without mercy. Eustace doesn't lower his gun the entire time it takes for the thing to die (is that even the right word, when it had only been a reflection in the first place?), only letting his hands drop an inch when the enemy finally dissipates and Dokja - the real one - hobbles his way back onto his feet.

But just because one reflection is dead doesn't mean more won't come, and his head swings this way and that, trying to catch sight of potential enemy number two—though he's momentarily distracted by the compliment (??) sent his way, brows furrowing as he looks back at Dokja. ]

I don't carry this gun around for show.

[ What is he, an American??

His own skills aren't the issue here anyway, his attention already shifting to Dokja's injury. It looks much worse than his own, crimson blood staining Dokja's white coat an ugly red, and without thinking he lowers his gun the rest of the way, reaching out to grasp Dokja's wrist in his fingers so he can get a better look. The importance of proper medical care trumps the need for personal space right now, and whatever relief he might have felt over their victory goes buried under another surge of concern, this time radiating from him. ]

We should get this treated.

[ Does Dokja need CPR??? ]

[salvageable]

[ he does need cpr opens his mouth

This is also fine, though, and he doesn't mind one bit as Eustace takes his wrist to get a closer look. After making out not that long ago, what is personal space between them? Besides, Dokja remains a bit distracted, like he's still reliving the moment when he'd sent his arm right through a version of himself.

It was weirdly cathartic in the way that he'd hoped. ]

Hm? Oh.

[ He's broken out of his thoughts as his brain plays catch up with what Eustace says, and Dokja takes back his arm so that he can inspect the injury as well, grimacing at both the gnarly sight along with the fresh wave of pain that washes over him when he moves his arm at an angle. ]

Anders built a makeshift clinic in the library. We could head there.

[ But instead of making a move, he shifts his weight, looking like he has more to say, his gaze drifting to the mirrors, then Eustace, then down to the ground between them. Hm. It's a good thing that their Aspect can speak for him, the clear signs that he wants to show his appreciation for saving his ass just seconds ago, but words are hard. ]

[lockedon]

[ Bro just spit it out???

The suggestion of heading to the clinic is a good one though, and as soon as it's broached Eustace lets go, already pivoting on one foot in search of the exit once again. Which he still doesn't know the location of, by the way, which is going to make the trip back all the more fun.

Except between Dokja's physical body remaining rooted where it is, along with that cautious psychic curl of expectancy floating in the air, he doesn't get very far (one whole step) before he's turning back again, a look of puzzlement on his face. ]

What?

[ Did a feather not dissipate and land on his head instead....? ]

[salvageable]

[ Stop, this is hard for Dokja who never knows how to ask for or accept help.

And it's like he was waiting to be prompted, his eyes still unable to meet Eustace's gaze even as he turns to follow, pausing for a moment once he's right beside the other man to utter a very quiet, ]

Thanks for helping me.

[ That's it! That's literally it! But it takes so much out of him. He knows Eustace is hurt, too, knows that he didn't have to stick around to aid Dokja, but. Rather than let guilt sink into him for placing them in this position the way he's used to doing, he opts instead to try something different, make an effort.

Too bad he has to deal with the embarrassment as a result, and Dokja awkwardly mumbles a barely audible "let's go" as he heads for the exit (because he's been here before he knows where it is). ]

congrats, you're free of me now

[lockedon]

[ That's it?

Not that Eustace was expecting more; he wasn't expecting anything at all actually, so the gratitude knocks him mometarily off-kilter, eyes blinking once and then twice as he stares at Dokja, even more puzzled. There's no reason for the thanks? Isn't saving someone from being strangled to death a normal thing that normal people do normally? Surely between Han Sooyoung and that weirdo in the all black, Dokja's gotten plenty of help already??

But, well, if saying it will make Dokja feel better then Eustace will silently accept the thanks, nodding once in acknowledgement before he slides his gun back into its holster. And as a reward for his bravery in being able to thank one (1) person for helping out, Dokja gets......a whole squeeze of his (non-injured, non-bloody) hand.

It's not an action born out of any sort of affection - that's the last thing on Eustace's mind right now while they're stuck in this hellscape of a castle. Rather, it's both a silent reminder of his words from before, that there are people willing to offer their help unprompted, and silent thanks for managing to cross the divide and accept that help.

But also, maybe I just wanted to be gay. Now they can go to the library and Dokja can get all patched up. ]