middaeg | Basement Bonanza Log

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Basement Bonanza Log

BASEMENT BONANZA

The House

The house is much like the rest of the housing around it. Victorian style with some side yards, an outside that's desperately in need of paint, and wild, fancy architecture. Along the side is a fenced yard containing a small kitchen garden, complete with a recently added chicken coop in the back.

The front door leads to a small foyer, whereas the side door by the garden goes straight into the kitchen. In the kitchen, there will be a number of foods available for anyone chipping in to snack on, with options for vegetarians and meat-eaters alike. (No blood, sorry vampires, but if you get peckish you might find someone willing to let you have a bite.) Shinjiro will aggressively shoo away anyone who shows up just to get food without actually contributing. It's for people who help only!!

The interior is weird, as to be expected. They've made it mostly liveable, most of the furniture in the living spaces in new, but there's still Victorian Classics such as too many patterns and portraits of strangers on the wall, and bad wallpaper in surprisingly cozy places. There's even a restroom on the ground floor, complete with fireplace by the tub. People taking a break are welcome to tool around on the ground floor, where things are markedly more normal. Any attempts to go upstairs, where the residents bedrooms are, will be dissuaded.

There's a dog to pet (Koromaru, an incredibly intelligent white shiba inu) or a Petal Wolf (Bela) or, if you want to risk a few fingers, Fie's hyena (Alfin). The hyena occasionally breaks out into mad giggles in other people's voices, occasionally parroting contextless statements in perfect mimicry of the people who live there. Scrounging around somewhere will be Louis's cat, Juniper, and then there's the coop full of chickens outside, a snapping turtle in the pond...

But you people aren't here for the relatively normal living space.

THE BASEMENT.

The air is cooler in the basement, and with that soft scent of wet stone. It's not disgusting or overwhelming, despite how locked up and sealed the area had been, and for who knows how long. More than anything else, it's just dark. They've carried a few magitech lanterns down to the foot of the stairs, at least, in initially scoping it out to try and see what's down there: and even from just stepping off the stairs, it's clear to see that this is some sort of wild magical hoarder situation.

Walls are packed with everything from displays of oddities and curiosities to books and containers of liquids, the labels long since faded and peeled, to even rusted lockboxes, worryingly rectangular and human-lengthed, each with stiff, sturdy locks. In another corner, there's more shelves cluttered and overflowing with wet specimens preserved in jars. Many are completely unidentifiable. Many are absolutely identifiable, and it's unclear which is worse. There's everything from animals to plants to fish to even pieces of monsters or humans/witches alike.

Scattered throughout, there's lumpy sheets covering what can only be assumed to be furniture, as well as household items, baubles, trinkets, books, scrolls, and just general things crammed in any and every nook and cranny that can be found. If there was any sort of organization, it was lost well before the prior owner stopped their collecting.

In one corner, there's an iron spiral staircase that just leads into the ceiling, going nowhere. A few iron Maidens and sarcophagi can be found stored away, some of them haphazardly fallen over.

It's absolute chaos of junk layered on top of junk, pinned down by even more junk. And it's clearly going to take a lot of trips up and down those stone stairs to even begin to unearth some of the wild things stashed away.

Maybe if you're lucky, you'll unearth a friend to help light your way.

The Stuff.

I've gone ahead and written up some examples for people to run wild with-- and for anything else, feel free to either make things up, OR request something in the top thread!

Some of the Major Attractions of the Basement include:

An Iron Maiden. - Unlike many others, there's no spikes visible within. In fact, it looks almost welcoming. There's a faint enchantment to it, gently pulling at the senses of whomever gets too close. It's plush, and soft inside. Doesn't it look warm? The rest of the basement is so musty and damp and cold. Surely taking a rest would be fine.

Once someone steps into it, however, the doors close shut, and the victim is forced to rewatch their most embarrassing memory. When said memory has played out, however, they are released, no worse for the wear, and immune to the Maiden's Seduction for the next several days. Good thing you're the only one who saw that memory..... right??

A helpful (if creepy) teapot. - This teapot has one job, and it will perform it. It will serve you tea. It will not stop until it has served you tea. No, it doesn't even know what tea is. It also doesn't seem to care if you have a container to hold a beverage or not. It. Will. Serve. You. Tea.

...However, who knows what liquid is actually within it. Feel free to use this skittering, crawling friend for anything. It could be as benign as incessantly following your character like an annoying and needy dog. It could be as horrifying as using force and chitinous claws to make your character ingest something. (Which could be delicious tea. Or could be anything else. Up to you!)

A speaker of secrets. - A jarringly hideous piece of taxidermy, the ravens screech the secrets of whomever touches it. Sometimes they're wrong, though. It's anyone's guess if they're yelling your deepest secrets, or if they're just making things up. Anyway, here's hoping whoever you're with doesn't just think you're using it as an excuse. (Or, if what they speak is true, hopefully people believe your excuse. Good luck carrying this thing all the way up and through the house.)

Vaguely Insulting Dishware. - What it says on the tin. The text seems to shift and change to insult you, specifically, and often times very passive aggressively.

A beautiful, floral chair - Like a flower in full bloom, this is another object that anyone nearby could find themselves magically drawn towards. It even smells soft and sweet- almost like fresh rain and honeysuckle. It's pristine looking, in comparison to all the objects around it, covered with dust and debris, and looks soft and pillowy and inviting. It's wide enough that someone could crawl onto and drape themselves across it.

At which point the petals will pull closed, enveloping them in a sweet cocoon of which they come out.... different. The effects are, as always, up to the player, as is the duration of them. (Transmutation spells are finite, of course, and the effects aren't strong enough to last more than a few days.)

A giant crystal. - It'll take a team to move this humongous chunk of rock-- Or maybe just a duo of dragon or chimera. The first person to touch it, however, will find that it is not only reflective, but it projects. The light hitting it is projected in prisms, and all take a form based on the person who touches it. This could be a warped, twisted reflection showing how one thinks of themself. It could be a projection of deepest fantasies. It could just be whatever you're thinking at the moment. Or maybe it's a mockery. Play around at your hearts content!

Potions of any and all type! - You're not the type to just drink mysterious liquids in someone's basement (Unless you are, in which case, go for it!) but so many of these are cracked and worn. It's entirely possible some of them work on contact or inhalation. The effects can be almost anything, from Alice in Wonderland style shrinking and growing, to floating or glowing or transmuting. Perhaps one is a mood enhancer! Another could be poison. And a third could make the tips of your fingers grow hair. It's a mixed bag.

Cursed jewelry of any and all types - Same thing as the potions, these can be enchanted to have effects as minor as making your hair always look perfect (though there's a smell of cod liver that won't go away--) to as major as clamping in and biting through the skin, drinking your blood to fuel its dark powers. (Said dark powers could be anything from animatronic taxidermy coming alive to mimic your every move, to a spell to charm everyone around you, to the ability to speak with termites.) Again, go wild! And if you have trouble getting that jewelry off, there's gotta be some bolt cutters somewhere around here.... right?

There is MUCH MUCH ELSE that can be found! If you would like to be assigned a random Thing, feel free to give me the general vibe of what you're wanting, and I'll come up with something crazy for you! If you would like more than one thing, THAT IS FINE TOO!

FINAL OOC NOTES
In a list format because i'm lazy:

--NO EFFECT IN THE BASEMENT CAN BE GAMEBREAKING. Mind control, dreamwalking, and memory alteration are no-go.
--The contents of the unenchanted books in the basement are mostly nonsense or boring, but you can absolutely find some sort of burn book with hot deets on (non-plot) NPCs
--Any effect will eventually wear off. The process can be expedited with a witch. It's your choice how skilled that witch needs to be.
--"But susan someone else in a previous thread already took care of the item i was gonna use!" it's magic there can be two of them. or it can teleport itself repeatedly back into the basement. i'm not going to keep track and time isn't real.
--Mark any explicit content, plzkthx.
--Let me know if your character is enough of a jerk to try going to the second floor of the house. because a witch lives here and nearly all of them are mistrustful as hell so you know that's not gonna work out. (I'll let you know exactly how, if your character would try it.)
--If you're gonna die, talk to the mods about it first. if you're gonna kill anyone then double talk to the mods about it first.
--Go wild like you graduated from crazy go nuts university

And most importantly:

--FEEL FREE TO ASK ME ANY QUESTIONS! I'm available in the top comments here, though you are welcome to PM me, or shoot me a DM on discord (Soozaphone#3966), or shoot me a private plurk (

soozaphone ) if you'd prefer it be top-secret!!

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[Again the static shifts back, the voice isn't Sieg's this time. But it speaks in a calm, almost clinical tone beneath the fuzziness. "Most likely he will live only three years at most."]

Sorry... Should I go? If this isn't something you want to share, I'll go.

It's happened before. [Momo shrugs slightly. He doesn't look happy about it, but he does give something of a consoling smile.] Besides, I should be asking you the same question.

[Sieg's end sounds a bit more...personal, almost. When the radio drops out of tune and comes back to Momo's side, it begins with the same unpleasant voice as last time.

"Although, if you have a change of heart and start begging for your life..."
It's hard to tell how separate it might be from the last snatch of conversation until Momo's reply, badly slurred and snarled as if he's extremely drunk, making it clear a bit of time had passed. "Shove it, shithead..."

Momo kind of ignores his own end of things to tilt his head towards Sieg. It's easier to talk about others than himself.] Three years?

[He would've assumed three more years in any other situation, but given where he is he's not going to discount the possibility that it was just three years full stop.]

... How many times before? [He doesn't really mind talking about his past, but there's a difference between talking about it and it being forced out because of magic he had nothing to do with.]

Who's that guy? [It slips out before he can really stop himself, and he frowns to himself.] Of course, you don't need to answer.

My... body wasn't constructed for durability.

Just once, but it wasn't that long ago. [Which implies that it might've happened more times than he knows of. He hasn't been here as long as many of the others here, even if six months feels like a pretty long time.

As for the identity question, Momo lets out a huff as if he's extremely over the person being discussed.] Ryou-san. Used to be a really powerful figure in the industry I work in back home, until my partner and I got him ousted from his position and arrested super recently. [As soon as he's no longer talking about Ryou, his expression settles back to something more neutral.] So you're an artificial person or something? What kind?

[He knows of a lot - he's acted as a few, honestly - so it feels like a reasonable question to him.]

I see... I'm glad he's not in your business anymore.

[This guy seems threatening. He wonders if it's one of those two-faced cases. Where he seems fine in public, but is terrible to the people he employs...]

I'm a homunculus.

["Your body was made solely for the sake of supplying mana to servants." The radio chimes in, that same calm voice once again.]

[Momo's brow furrows a bit like he recognises something when the radio speaks again. It takes a moment for him to place the terminology.]

Servants...you're from the same world as Ozymandias, then? With the Servant and Master and Grail War stuff? [He had a fairly extensive chat with the other man about the Servant and Master mechanics back when this memory business last happened.] Somehow I'm not surprised they'd make someone and then treat them like that considering what I heard.

[As he says that, the radio...tunes in on something, but so quietly it's barely audible, let alone identifiable in voice with Momo talking over it. There's the cadence of a sentence in there, about five words, but the only one audible is the one that comes after Momo actually finishes talking, which is "...replacement." It's so uncharacteristically subdued and quiet that it might be difficult to tell on that single word that it is in fact Momo's voice, and Momo manages to stop himself from reacting to it enough to give it away.]

Kind of. It's not like we've run into each other before, but I was part of a Grail War. [1/10, not recommended. Pretty miserable, honestly. Too much death.] I was originally meant to die for another Servant's creation.

[He says it openly, but he clearly doesn't like the memory. The horrifying realization that the only reason he was made was to die. If he hadn't had a conscious or sentience he wouldn't have struggled so much.

While Sieg strains to hear the radio, he can't tell who that is, or what that's about. So he moves along, even with the questions that are forming.]

... Sorry, is this too heavy for a casual acquaintance?

Seriously? They couldn't do that without making someone specifically to suffer for it in-between? [Momo doesn't sound like he likes it either. He already disdains people who treat others like their playthings they can be as cruel as they like to, so literally making someone to do basically the same sort of thing strikes a bad chord with him.

At Sieg's concern, though, he waves a hand, giving a sober but reassuring smile. The radio warbles slightly again and emits something else barely audible, but Momo starts speaking almost as soon as it does. It tracks just well enough with the conversation to not stand out more than the slight hesitation needed to tell if the radio was about to talk again.] Nah, I get asked for heavy advice all the time. Wasn't quite like this back home, usually, but I'm used to that sort of thing.

For what Caster wanted to do? It was either use a homunculus or use a mage.

[It was going to take a lot of mana and that was the only way he was ever going to supply his golem with enough of it. So it was either sacrifice a man-made creation or sacrifice a mage, and obviously the preference would be the artificial life.]

... As long as it's not too much.

I mean, not for nothing, but it doesn't sound like the sanctity of existing life was much of a thing in those wars, from what Ozymandias told me. I'm glad you get more of a chance to exist here. [Momo doesn't sound derogatory, just...blunt. War is war, and he'd walked in on Ozymandias about to destroy Tokyo as collateral damage if he hadn't been defeated in the memory. He'd understood the man's motivation, but it doesn't mean the whole thing was any less of a giant mess.]

I'd be more worried if it was too much for you to talk about. You don't sound very comfortable with it yourself. [Which isn't surprising, and Momo's tone is sympathetic in pointing it out.]

Mm... that's how mages are. [Most of them. He doesn't recommend associating with many.] An artificial life is theirs do do with as they want. I wasn't really supposed to have sentience to begin with.

[He gives a little shrug of his shoulders.]

It's not easy, but it's still the set of circumstances I was created in.

If they ended up with someone sentient then the least they could've done was take some responsibility, but with a system like that I guess the power gets to people's heads.

[He's seen it before, just not with mages. If most of the power in any one thing goes in one direction, then the people holding it are going to do worse and worse things in pursuit of keeping it.]

If you were given the option between staying here and returning, would you stay, then? [Momo would assume most people in the same position would, but there might be some other circumstances in play.]

The ones I met weren't really concerned about things like that.

[They're a cut-throat crowd. Or at least the ones that Sieg first ran into. He's fully aware he can't speak for all of them.

The question Momo asks him he looks like he's never even considered.]

I need to go back. There's somebody looking for me. [At a certain place, in a certain time, there's a Jeanne d'Arc who's looking for Sieg.

He can't just leave her to wander without being there.]

[Momo raises a brow at that, as if curious.] How do you know? Is it some kind of situation where you can't go to them yourself?

[Sieg's creators sound like assholes, so if he usually lives with them Momo could see escaping being a problem, but he is a bit curious how he'd find out someone was looking for him in that case. He doesn't want to pry, but he is a bit curious how he's so sure of it.]

I haven't met a lot of people who'd actually want to stay here, but there do seem to be a couple, so I figured I'd ask.

Because I believe in her.

[Anyway.]

I'm not dead, but I'm not on earth anymore either. I can't really leave that world, but some people can.

[That mostly just succeeded in confusing Momo even more, because while he got a rundown of the Master/Servant business from Ozy, he doesn't know all that much about the world beyond that.]

...How did you end up there, then? Like, I don't want to dig in to something awkward if talking about it would do that, but my world is really mundane compared to most of the ones here. Even just this world. So you're losing me a bit with these answers.

[He sounds apologetic that he's not following, honestly, but it is a bit hard to get his head around coming from the kind of world he does.]

I don't know exactly how to explain the details. Um... what happened was there was a wish granting object, somebody used it before me, and their wish would've essentially destroyed humanity.

I turned into a dragon and took the object to a place where there were no humans, so the wish could never be completed.

[Sieg knows Fate is a lot to take in.]

[Yeah, that sure is a thing that's outside Momo's realm of experience from his own world. At the very least, he's been here long enough that he mostly just blinks in mild confusion before rolling with it.]

Was it that grail thing or something else? I'm kinda concerned about the idea that there's more than one wish-granting object floating around in your world.

[Things like people wishing to destroy humanity is among the reasons why he finds that concerning.]

[He sure could explain it if it came to that, but he knows how much of a pain it is.]

It's the grail. As far as I know it's the only object that can grant wishes.

[That's at least better than what he was thinking, but it does make him wonder given how Ozymandias described the general gist of grail wars to him.] Okay, that makes more sense. Sounds like that would've had some kinda ripple effect, though, don't people go to war over that thing to get their wish?

[He can't imagine whoever made that wish would've been very pleased to have it nullified, and presumably if they won the war for it they have a lot of power at their disposal.]

[Sieg only knows how it works in his own version of the Grail War. That one was special and weird for all sorts of reasons.]

Yes. The War wasn't completed when he put in his wish. Because of the nature of the War we were fighting, the Grail only needed half of the servants defeated.

... It's kind of complicated...

Huh. Yeah, if the rules change sometimes then that sounds like it throws a wrench into things.

[But he shakes his head. They'll probably be here all day if he starts asking for too many details.] I guess we should be focusing on the here and now, though! Creepy cursed radio or not.

[The radio is still making static noises in the background, as if threatening to tune in again.]

Right.

[The radio clears up just enough to hear a woman shouting "Blasted Tree" like its some sort of final attack.

Sieg freezes for a moment, before going back to cleaning. Maybe he can pretend like it's nothing at all.]

[Unfortunately for him, Momo is very alert to body language and very willing to keep Sieg talking so the radio doesn't have time to focus on anything of Momo's, so he speaks up.]

Something wrong? [His tone says he's less asking that and more asking what the problem is.]

It's... nothing.

[Sieg is not a good liar, because his expression immediately says "that's absolutely not true."]

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yesdoubt - 2020-10-01 13:57 (UTC) - Expand

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Basement Bonanza Log

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i sure thought i tagged this.

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