WEEK 4

[strangerpeople]

WEEK 4

[After the meeting, Lilac gives everyone a small vial of something red. Those who left the meeting receive it from the rats on the crew. She gives instructions as to how to take it. Take in a drink, preferably tea. Drink it slowly. Make sure you can get to your bed once you finish. The headache will come quickly.

Nevertheless, even as everyone slips into sleep, they are visited once more by the Conductor in what must have been a dream. Or was it? It's not clear.

She is quiet as she speaks, looking out the windows, even though the view is obscured by the glass.

"I know you think me as a monster. Maybe I am after all these years. I have no illusions. But I cannot regret the things I've done.

"Nor can I regret the Bazaar...it was so wonderful. It opened my eyes to the truth of things and opened doors I never could have seen on my own. It was the first time I felt true love for another. I wasn't the only one-my daughter, too, passed through the Wicket. Saw the sea more sunless within the Bazaar's body. Learned as I learned. She sought to rival me in symbols, in marking skin."

She closes her eyes.

"She is dead now, of course. Everyone I knew in the Neath-on our Earth-is. Well. Almost everyone. London endures, naturally. But the Echo Bazaar...it's beautiful promise...it's gone. The Seventh City will never fall, and it's Message will forever remain undelivered. Of all the creatures in the universe who might remember it, I am alone in honoring it.

"Perhaps it's noble. Perhaps it's foolish. In any case, maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe it's the thought that's important. As long as I am here, there is yet a possibility that the deed may be finished, somehow.

"Still, I wonder. Maybe you have the answer.

What happens to a Message, when neither the sender and receiver exist anymore?"




As the day dawns, everyone wakes up to the sound of howling winds and darkness. Their head hurts, but they do have a new memory to accompany the ache. They are also at a new port. It is a dark place, teetering on the edge of safe space and the unknown in between void, where those who enter rarely return. Or, so you have to assume, right? Either way, that blackness on the deep horizon doesn't look particularly fun to try to drive through.

There is a legitimate fear in Lilac's expression that betrays her for the first time, as she lets everyone disembark, including the unicorn and the young man, who quickly jump onto another train to get away from this place. She also refuses to leave the train. She does leave you with a fair warning.

The Synod of Carcels is dangerous, in its own way, and everyone can feel it. Everyone can feel something hanging in the air. It's not natural. It's bending reality. It's also not something that started with you or your arrival. Yet it threatens to become that way, to become part of you. You can feel the temptation gnaw at you. You can hear the winds whisper of it. There is a hunger here-and knowledge as well.

The question, of course, is whether the price to uncover those things is worth it-and what will be found here with the price that is paid. But as the Conductor said-a reckoning cannot be postponed. Not forever.


There are eleven strangers left in this place.]

((IMPORTANT OOC NOTE: This week and it's investigations involve major Fallen London spoilers, in particular spoilers regarding Seeking Mr. Eaten's Name and one of it's endings. If you, as a player here, are playing Fallen London and do not wish to be spoiled, let us know, and we will make sure you are not given any ending spoilers to the best of our ability. We will also be marking spoiler-filled comments with tags, and we request that our players do likewise, in consideration for those who might look through this post in the future.

With that said, have fun, and remember-all shall be well.))

Comments

MONDAY

[strangerpeople]

INVESTIGATIONS

[strangerpeople]

HALLUCINATIONS...?

[strangerpeople]

[They say that those who Seek see and hear things that are not there. That never could be, or never will be again.



Even taking that into consideration, something isn't quite right with these.]

TUESDAY

[strangerpeople]

WEDNESDAY

[strangerpeople]

DEEP CUT: A Place You Won't Leave (FALLEN LONDON SPOILERS)

[strangerpeople]

Clue: Seven is the Number.

[No one knows where the congregation came from. From the shadows? Perhaps. But they are here. And so is their priest, smiles and bees buzzing on his char-black face.

It is not a kind smile as those who are here are caught in a circle of prayer.]

The table is set. The Rushlight has died. Let us recite the sacred words and begin anew.

[The gathered begin to speak as the Smiling Priest brings his hand up, as if to bless the Strangers there.]

Now we have the wax, which is the streak beneath our skin
and the wick, which is the faith we have skeined
and the tinder, which is the harm we have done to those who loved us
and the flint, which is the name
the Name, the treasure of music stilled.

Now. It will hurt, we must render ourselves a little
there will be scars, but one more scar, what is that?

THURSDAY

[strangerpeople]

[zackthekiller]

[What kind of hallucinations exist for visitors who have just lost something important and aren't seeking anything philosophical in nature?]

[zackthekiller]

[Going to Moss' Rump because that's the only place in this damned stop that's lit.]

Seven Stations

[otherworldlyking]

[ So with the Seven Stations no light can penetrate? ...But eventually they could be guided by the light of the stations, right so it's probably not impossible right.

Either way he's going to take a stab at entering. If anyone wants to come along feel free. ]

[zackthekiller]

[Zack doesn't wake up this morning.

He's not dead, he's just sleeping in. You'll find him at the dining car around lunch. He doesn't seem particularly hungry, but he's eating the food he got anyway because people need to do that to live. He also bothered to grab food from the mess for the menagerie of pokemon he's been saddled with. And the giant dog. Where it came from, who can tell, but try not to trip on it.

Later still, only Blaze the pidgey dares follow Zack into the Bazaar. The bird thing's perched on his shoulder as he glances about, taking note of the weirdos running around and the locked door to the church.] What kind of a place is this?

[After he's done investigating, he quickly decides he wants to stay on the train this week too, because this place is creepy as fuck. So he's spending the evening in the lounge, curled up at the edge of a couch snacking on a bowl of what can only be described as cereal drowning in warm soda. He's not particularly interested in conversation, but you can enjoy the random record he put on as it starts to play The Best of Queen--]

... Wait, what?

EVIDENCE

[strangerpeople]

[There is a weird yowling noise that keeps emanating from this place. Soon, as Zack stumbles across the bridge, he will find why.

There is a cat in Mog's Rump. It's thin, sinewy, and its golden eyes stare right at Zack as its tail lashes.]

EVIDENCE - FALLEN LONDON SPOILERS

[strangerpeople]

[The first station is insultingly easy to find. It's literally at the entrance. No one can miss it. No one can miss the candles that flank the tablet.]

STATION OF THE LAIR

There is betrayal above; so it is below. It is through betrayal that the Liberation stains the Wilderness; it is through betrayal that the Courtesy was forcibly born. It is through betrayal the Counsel of Peace was futilely sought.

It is through betrayal that the Drowned Man endures; it is through His faith in the Counsel that He was Himself betrayed. Thus it is through betrayal of grief that the First and Only at last came NORTH, and after her, the betrayal that is called Replacement.

From the bite to the banquet, betrayal is the beginning and the end of all Law. Let betrayal be your cynosure. Let its scent pull you down into the song of dark waters.

[zackthekiller]

[... Uh. Yeah. Blaze is more frightened of the cat than Zack is.

Zack just sees something of himself in it and it's weirding him out.]

Uh... Hello? [He tries calling out to whoever's lurking in the room.] Is this your cat in here?

[strangerpeople]

[The cat licks its lips, before it's mouth opens with a strange hiss.]

The bill is almost due.

Come closer, dear, if you wish to learn my owner.

[zackthekiller]

Wha?

[Uh. He glances around, but it's just the cat. Just the fucking cat.]

Did you- Were you talking to me?

[strangerpeople]

[The cat lets out a yowl as it tilts its head.]

You're a cute little one. Curious one too. Surely you didn't come all this way for...nothing, did you?

CW: Underage drinking in the second prompt & any threads there

[charmingheroine]

[She knows, now, that the woman can probably hear things addressed to her anywhere on the train. So, yes, Charlotte has an answer to the question posed, when she wakes.]

It waits. It can't fulfill its purpose, so it waits, and if it can think it hopes until that starts to hurt.

[She may be talking less about the purple harridan's question than her own existence, but in any case, she doesn't expect an answer. Once dressed (wedding gown and combat boots and a sparkly, somehow ominous diamond ring to match them, today) she's going to head to the fancier bit of the dining car, where she'll pick at breakfast for a while. Company would be welcome.

Later in the day - early in the evening, really - she can be found perched at the bar in the lounge, drinking from a glass that seems to be full of ice and muddled fruit and something suspiciously close to The Forbidden Color, but translucent enough that it isn't quite. She's singing, again, though this time she's ignoring the wristcuff. It's actually sitting below her feet, as though she dropped it and didn't care to pick it up.]

They laid her in the old churchyard, and buried William by her; from William's heart there grew a rose, and Barbara's heart a briar - oh, damn it, those aren't the right words either.

[If there were a piano she'd punctuate that with a discordant swat across several keys, but as it is, all she can do is slump against the bar, discouraged, and pout at whoever it is that witnessed her defeat at the hands of a folk ballad with several hundred variations.]

[zackthekiller]

I...

[What. He clearly doesn't trust this cat, and yet a part of him is curious.]

Wait. I know you're up to something. You want something from me, don'tcha?

[strangerpeople]

[The cat hops off the rock it was perched on, and comes up to Zack. It lets out another yowl as it stares into Zack's eyes and, possibly, his soul as well.]

Feed me.

[zackthekiller]

[Damnit, he knew he shoulda brought his scythe!

Blaze is the first to fly up as Zack quickly backs off.]

Fuck! Geez! You want food, then don't get up in my face! I can bring you a steak or something if you give me a minute!

[otherworldlyking]

[ ...Well then.

Can he just take the tablet with him to pass to the others or something, though so he doesn't have to recite all of that... ]

[strangerpeople]

[He can try, and utterly fail. The thing won't budge no matter what.]

[strangerpeople]

[The cat hisses angrily at this. Clearly, it's not into, uh, non-fresh meat.]

Wrong.

[And that's when it lunges, lodging itself onto Zack's arm with an angry screech. It happens so fast Zack hasn't even the time to blink.]

[otherworldlyking]

[ ...oh well, fine.

Time to walk a little or much further, then. ]