dramatispersonae | ROLO'S HEART

Entry tags:

~hearts

ROLO'S HEART

Tick, tick, tick, tick.

You fall through space breathlessly, airlessly, your heart skipping a beat. When you land, everything is black for a moment before you rise and see who is with you and where you are...

((Important OOC Note: HOW TEMPERATURE WORKS
Each area of the heart has a temperature applied to it. This "temperature" is essentially a status effect that acts on the emotions. I'll give the details of each emotional status effect in the writeup for that area. Generally I'll give the percentage amount that it's changed, ie, "10-30% (effect)". The reason I'll give a range here is to give you leeway to play with what's comfortable for you while still maintaining the effect. However, a general guide is below:

Warm to hot - Players feel an increased sense of agitation, uncertainty, and general lack of security. All other feelings are normal.
Moderate (normal/default) - No effect. Players feel their emotion as normal.
Cool to cold - Players feel an overall decrease in emotional reaction. Severe lack of affect is in the area.

Players are of course permitted, if you think your character would, to realize their current emotions are under some kind of influence.))

((Please come to #coldclocking on IRC))

Threaded | Flat

You find yourself in a room that appears to be a clock shop. Which is to say, there are clocks everywhere. Wall clocks. Cuckoo clocks. Table clocks. Digital clocks. Windable clocks. Clocks of every size and shape. The grandfather clocks may be particularly interesting, for there are three total, set into three walls (left wall, right wall, and front wall). The grandfather clocks are slightly wide for their size, and their wood paneling is solid, and they have doorknobs with keyholes beneath them inset -- as if someone planted grandfather clocks into doorways instead of the standard doors. (A quick test of any of these three grandfather clock doors finds the two of them on the side walls unlocked, and the one on the front wall locked.)

The noise in here is significant, with all the clocks working at once, but none of them in rhythm with each other.

A set of elevator doors with a standard button (up/down) panel are on the back wall.

There is a window outside (by which is placed a sundial); however, a thick layer of ice on the outside of the glass both prevents the sundial from showing a shadow and prevents you from seeing out.

There is a desk in the center of the room, as if to serve reception for anyone entering this clock shop. Seated on it is an automaton. He is obviously not human, though human-shaped; for one thing, as he lacks clothes, you see that rather than normal human features on his body he has smooth plastic and metal everywhere, gears visible in his joints. There is a large brass plate on his back with two holes, and clockwork winding keys in those holes. He has hair, wavy and short and very obviously Rolo's hairstyle, but his face is completely blank, only a white theatrical mask (or something very like it) in smooth plastic in its place. There is a glass plate in his chest; what looks like a door key can be seen inside. To those who have previously been into Rolo's heart, this is obviously the same automaton who was previously "Deception" -- but with some changes. He is wearing a magician's top hat, with cards inserted into the hatband, and he is shuffling a deck of cards.

There is a gear under his chin, and when he notices you, he lifts his jointed fingers to it and twists it. Gears shift behind his face, turning his mask's blank features into an enigmatic smile, though he just watches you do whatever you like in the room, doesn't start conversation himself.

The temperature in this room is moderate and not particularly notable.

This appears to be a storage room of some kind, for the clock shop nearby. It is poorly-kept and dark and dusty in here. On every wall is clock after clock, maybe around twenty of them, all ticking out different times loudly. They are rather bizarre-looking.

There are two exits: The door you came in, and another door at the end of this long, hall-like room.

The temperature in here is warm, though not hot.

((OOC: The warm temperature increases your irritability, anxiety, uncertainty, and insecurity by about 10-30% (so in other words, your feelings are still 70-90% normal).))

Edited 2012-06-23 18:41 (UTC)

This appears to be a display room of some kind. This room is fairly clear, large and empty, with windows all over, lighting the room brightly.

A clock is embedded into each of the windows, casting strange shadows throughout the bright room. They seem otherwise unremarkable.

There are also a variety of displays, mostly small tables with something featured on a cushion. They have:
- A bottle of what appears to be alcohol.
- A folded knife.
- A square electronic box.
- A gun.
- A handheld electronic... thing? There is a button on the side and two prongs at the front.
- A somewhat amateur-looking cake.
- A clock casing with all the innards removed, about the size of a standard red brick.
- A large anatomical model (this one is hanging, obviously, not on a display cushion)
- A potted plant.

There are two exits: The door you came in, and another door at the end of this long, hall-like corridor.

The temperature in here is cool, a bit chilly.

((OOC: The cool temperature reduces your overall amount of emotion slightly. Your general ability to feel things on the whole is muted by about 10-30% (so in other words, they're still 70-90% normal).))

You take the elevator into the clock tower, via an unlocked trap door at the top of the stairs. It is a large square room with wooden floors. To your right, left, before you, and behind you are large clock faces. All four of them show different times (as much as you are able to determine from inside the room), despite being attached to a central device. Over the central device is a lantern, which probably illuminates the clock faces at night; it is burning hot, heating the room thoroughly and (perhaps) uncomfortably.

One corner of the room is inset slightly and contains a small lift. It does not go down, only up from here. A device is set into the wall that requires a keycard to be swiped.

The floor of the room is fairly bare, though there are a few things around. In one corner, there is a small wooden table. You can tell that there are a jumble of objects on it, but you would have to approach more closely to see further details of the table's contents.

There is an automaton seated in a comfortable chair next to the table. It appears to have been repaired from spare parts, cracks showing along its casing all over the place, its eye mismatched to the other, hands not quite the right size, and so on. t has flushed cheeks and a smile on its mask, permanently fixed into place. A makeshift crown, made out of cardboard, sits on its head. It looks quite comfortable, for all these issues. For those who were previously in Rolo's heart, this is obviously Hope.

The sound of large gears turning from overhead is loud, and with dust and what looks like small pieces of plaster floating down, you're obviously going to look up, so I'm putting the description in here to save you an extra comment. There is an automaton here, too -- stuck to one of the large gears. It is smooth and unclothed, likewise with a mask sculpted into a smile and with rosy cheeks, but unlike Hope it is perfectly well put together and looks solid -- except for its shattered hands and feet, which have nails hammered repeatedly through them to pin it to the gear, and its voice box, which hangs from its smashed throat on a long wire. To those who were here previously, this looks to be Want.

The temperature is quite hot.

((OOC: A hot temperature increases your sense of irritability, uncertainty, neediness -- sort of general anxiety and insecurity -- by 30-50% (in other words, your mood is still 50-70% normal).

You descend the elevator into the basement.

The far right wall was smashed, as if it had previously been the limit but the room has since expanded (which, to those who have been here before, is exactly the case). The room on the other side of the wall seems very similar; a creaky-looking narrow condemned lift also sits against the far back wall of the 'new' part of the room. A slot for a keycard is beside it.

The 'old' section of the room appears to be a workshop -- maintenance for the clocks and clock tower. Large gears wind through the area, filling the air with a noisy grinding sound. There are two long workbenches with tools and gears and other most-likely useful things on them; you would have to examine more closely to see exactly what is on there, due to the clutter all around. In fact, almost every inch of this side of the room is filled with clutter: piles and piles of gears and clock pieces and other mechanical parts.

The 'new' section of the room slopes gently downward. It is dark -- not too dark to see, just dim and dismal, as well as dusty. Broken glass litters the ground. Filling the center of the 'new' section of the room is a pile of broken clockwork Rolo automatons. Even from here you can tell that their torn-apart pieces show devastating damage. The body parts are cracked and broken; the gears and clockwork are bent and scattered. Their blank eyes stare sightlessly; some of them do not have eyes in the socket anymore.

On the crumbled wall between the two sections sits a Rolo automaton, mask completely white but wrinkled oddly, eyes huge, brows creased, lips opened in a scream. He sits listlessly, almost slumped, but is obviously 'alive', face turning to follow your movements around the room, watching with a fixed gaze.

The temperature here is cold and unpleasant, numbing.

((OOC: 'Cold' temperature has a numbing effect on your emotions. Consider them muted by around 30-50% (so in other words, they're still 50-70% normal).))

Once you swipe the keycard in Want's elevator, it opens up and lets you into a small lift. This rises quickly to the penthouse floor and lets you out.

The room you find yourself in is perfectly round and painted a brilliant turquoise. It is made out like a comfortable bedroom: A large, comfortable looking bed -- forget enough room for one, it has room for two or three. A dresser with four large drawers. A chair beside the bed, as if for someone to keep company with whoever sleeps there. There are no windows, but a shaded light on the ceiling fills the room with light regardless.

An automaton is here, seated on the end of the bed. Like the others, it lacks clothing, but its doll body is smooth and modelled softly, almost to real skin textures. Half of its head, including hair, looks exactly like Nunnally; the other half exactly like Lelouch. A leather string is tied in a loose bow around its neck; it doesn't look like it should be a necktie at all, mismatched to their image, and it looks like the sort of cord used to bind things together. Whatever it is supposed to bind isn't here, however. The Automaton smiles at you as you enter the room, and rises to greet you courteously. "Visitors? How surprising! Welcome, welcome."

The temperature continues as hot as it was in Want's room.

((OOC: A hot temperature increases your sense of irritability, uncertainty, neediness -- sort of general anxiety and insecurity -- by 30-50% (in other words, your mood is still 50-70% normal).))

You take the elevator down into the sub-basement and enter into an odd room.

For one thing, it's enormous, easily 40' x 30', with 20' ceilings. The other thing is that for a room that large there is basically nothing in it. Well, that's not quite true -- there are no furnitures or fixings or any decorations, but there ARE a bunch of scattered corpses. Women and men in military uniform, showing gunshot wounds and slit throats. Women and men in business suits. Women and men dressed like nobles. They're flung haphazardly around, though given the room size, there's plenty of room to maneuver between them. Blood is spattered across the floor and the walls.

At the other end of the hall is a Rolo automaton. He is completely naked with a neuter doll body just like the others; he has no particular features except that his face shows no expression at all and his eyes are missing. In the dark sockets are two pale violet lights. He holds a knife loosely in one hand. There is something on the ground near his feet, the only thing here that isn't himself or corpses, though it appears to just be a varnished piece of wood, like the shaft for some kind of tool.

"Hello," he says.

The temperature here is cold and unpleasant, numbing.

((OOC: 'Cold' temperature has a numbing effect on your emotions. Consider them muted by around 30-50% (so in other words, they're still 50-70% normal).))

[people are coming back with permissions and information! Reconvene/discuss/etc?]

Because the other threads are huge.

Description of B1 is here.

Description of B2 is here.

Through teamwork and politeness and not having big sobbing breakdowns put the three parts of the ice pick you have acquired together to form AN ACTUAL ICE PICK.

As well, you show off your lovely injuries -- a cheek cut and a lip kiss burn mark -- to Illusion, who obligingly takes the key out of his chest and offers it to you.

When you head out...

Immediately, a cold wind wraps around you, robbing you of your body heat. The wind is roaring. That said, for anyone who has been here before, it actually doesn't seem quite as cold as it did before, and the snow on the ground has the feel of wet snow. Behind you, the clock tower starts chiming as if to call out the hour. The sound echoes forlornly.

To the left and right sheer mountain faces rise. Unless you feel like going mountain-climbing in poor visibility, the only ways to go are back to the clock shop or forward into the wind.

The temperature here is very cold. One way or another you should probably get moving before you freeze to death...

The ground slopes downwards at a moderate angle away from the building. There is what appears to be a faint path...

((OOC: A very cold temperature has a strongly numbing effect on your emotions. It mutes your emotional level by 40-60% (In other words, it's also 40-60% normal now)).

The path continues down relatively steeply; that said, for those that have been here before, the crevasse appears to be gone, replaced by this steep but remarkably less potentially-fatal descent. Soon, the path leads down into an underground cave, where previously the crevasse had terminated...

The cave, once you enter and proceed into it, is completely sheltered, though still cold enough for everything here to be frozen. It may have once been an underground lake; there is a waterfall arched through the air and splashing down on the surface of the ice, covering it in a layer of water; it comes from a small hole in the mountain face at the back of the frozen lake. You can see something in the ice in the middle of the frozen pool, near to the surface... in fact, something is sticking out of the ice.

As the natural thing to do is check this out, I'll save you an extra comment. Once you go out on the ice, you can see what was frozen in the lake: Naturally, it is Rolo. Unlike the other manifestations, this doesn't look like a mannequin or automaton but a normal human being. He could be Rolo from Aather proper, transported here and sleeping. Where before he'd been curled up under about seven feet of ice, now, he is almost at the surface. He's stretched out with his legs pointed down and his head pointed up; his eyes are closed and there are bubbles around his mouth, but one arm sticks straight up over his head, sticking out through the ice to his elbow, hand open and relaxed.

Edited 2012-06-24 03:32 (UTC)

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THE CLOCK SHOP