In her sepulchre there by the sea

[hellonspectacles]

Who: Palamedes Sextus and his cavalier, Camilla Hect, the rest of the House Heirs, a gaggle of spooky monks, some skeletons, a murderer, and you!
What: Memshare adventures! All memories are open to all.
When: Anytime in March
Where: Canaan House, Earth!
Warnings: Canon-typical blood, violence, and mild body horror
Notes: Below the cut you will find some scene-setting and descriptions/notes for each of the prompts. Prompts themselves are in the comments!

In general, characters will assume that you arrived with the other visitors to Canaan House a few weeks before any of the events described below, but they will have no idea who you are and why you’re there, and will be extremely suspicious of your presence.



Canaan House rises out of the sea like a castle, a tower, a crumbling mausoleum. Outside the small island on which it stands, the ocean stretches as far as the eye can see, sparkling under the bright rays of Dominicus. The building itself is clearly old, crumbling in places, windows cracked and bricks pitted; even on a thanergenic planet, where life must fight for its existence, nature is slowly overtaking one of the last symbols of humanity on the planet all people once called home.

Inside, the sense of grand decay continues. If you squint, you might notice the way it resembles a university building, some wings made up with wood floors and elaborate bannisters, fading paintings and rotting tapestries on the walls, while others are full of large, light-filled spaces, all glass, and steel, and concrete. There is a large courtyard with a dry fountain, broken elevators and flights of stairs that end halfway up, and dozens of doors with numbers above the threshold, each with its own unique lock, each requiring a key to open. Listen closely and you might hear an ambient hum of electricity, or the quiet clatter of bone from the dozens of otherwise-silent skeleton constructs that clean, and cook, and gather food for the planet’s first guests in nearly ten thousand years.

Welcome to the First House. Don’t stay any longer than you have to.

The Wind Came Out of the Cloud By Night
Investigate a murder scene! This is the best chance of meeting lots of other characters or exploring Canaan House more broadly.

The Demons Down Under the Sea
Solve a puzzle, fight a skeleton monster, hang out with Palamedes and Camilla

We Loved With a Love That Was More than Love
Experience Palamedes death! Please note that unless previously discussed, characters will not be able to interact with this memory, only observe.

Comments

The Demons Down Under the Sea

[hellonspectacles]

This rift takes you to a tiny foyer; like the corridor outside, it’s metal-lined and sterile, the only light coming from the struggling fluorescent bulbs. there are hooks on the wall, one of which holds a lab coat, barely recognizable after thousands of years of decay. Beside the open door in front of you is a little card where someone has handwritten #1-2. TRANSFERENCE/WINNOWING. DATACENTER.

Through the door is what might have once been a laboratory or an office. Desks sit in neat rows, and shelves line the walls, all empty and covered in a heavy layer of dust. The opposite wall is windowed all the way across, the room beyond the window empty and featureless. There’s a single door in the window with a control panel, and another door leading to yet another room on the wall to the right.

Two figures in grey robes, their backs to you, stand staring into the empty room beyond. One of them, the shorter figure, crouches down and runs her finger through a little pile of pebbles and dust. “Oss?” she says.

“Yes,” says the other one. This voice you probably recognize. “The Ninth were already here, so that’s no surprise.”

“Warden, I have a question.”

“Mm?”

“If the Ninth have already been here and found the key, why are we here?”

“Scientifically curiosity, Cam,” says Palamedes Sextus. “Obviously.”

“Obviously,” Camilla murmurs under her breath.

[ablativeholopleather]

He's been through a couple of different rifts now, dark and sometimes leading out into starry places, or else pitch black ones. This darkness is...more familiar, in a way. It reminds him of some of the darkened labyrinths he'd traversed in the past and, while this makes him nervous, there is something to be said for making the attempt to conquer this thing that's made him so anxious about being in the dark.

The voices, at least, give Wayne something to move toward, and the creak of his leather boots and jumpsuit barely cut through the otherwise thick silence. He listens hard, and only understands half of what they're saying to one another, but he doesn't make his approach silent or secretive. He's never been good at stealth anyway. Still, he doesn't speak up just yet. He doesn't recognize either voice, having had no chance to meet Palamedes just yet. This just means that later on, at some point, he may have to come to terms with the fact that Wayne just...looks like this.

The shadow he casts from the open doorway that he approaches through is probably unsettling. Sorry, guy.

[hellonspectacles]

Seconds after Wayne steps through the doorway, a knife flies through the air embeds itself into a metal grate on the wall next to his head.

The woman who threw the knife is standing with her feet planted wide, eyes narrowed, and draws two short swords. More slowly, Palamedes turns around to face Wayne. “Cam,” He waves her back, raising his eyebrows in something like wonder. “My goodness, aren’t you remarkable.”

[ablativeholopleather]

There's an immediate flinch at the sound of the knife hitting the metal so close to his head, a sharp inhale and a grimace lightly contorting his face as he stares at it, then back at the man approaching him. His hands come up on reflex palm-out, trying to de-escalate the situation before it comes down to the possibility of a fight.

"Hey, whoa, hold on-"

But then he processes that there doesn't actually seem to be a fight, even if the woman startled him badly enough to take the initiative. "Uh...hi."

[hellonspectacles]

“Hullo.” Palamedes slowly steps forward, a choice that Camilla clearly isn’t pleased about. She takes another knife from her belt and grips it at her side, rocking up onto the balls of her feet and back down again.

Pal, meanwhile, looks like he has spotted a rare animal or made a scientific discovery. He holds out his own hands in an effort to look as non-threatening as possible. The creature seems fully aware, almost human in his affect and not at all dangerous, but one never knows. “Where did you come from? Do you live down here?”

Teacher had said there were strange monsters in Canaan House’s basement.

[ablativeholopleather]

Wayne attempts to relax a little as the man approaches, though it seems obvious that his companion is ready to strike at the slightest provocation. He's moving right past the immediate feeling that being called remarkable gave him, that if he had the subcutaneous blood supply for it that he might have blushed, because this is not the time nor place.

"No, I, uh. I'm kind of. Lost?" His hands fall back to his sides, only moving some as he tries to explain himself. "I was only trying to explore a little and ended up not knowing where to go. Not the first time it's happened." He sounds, for all intents and purposes, like a normal person, quiet and somewhat monotone as if trying not to disturb their surroundings. "What even is all this?"

[hellonspectacles]

“Lost?” Palamedes almost smiles. “Camilla, do remind me to tell Teacher that he severely mischaracterized what we might find down here.” Cam doesn’t look half so amused, but Pal plunges on, speaking directly to Wayne now. “There is a lot to explore down here, isn’t there? We’ve counted eight distinct laboratories, presumably one for each House, each with its own puzzle that will lead to a unique key.”

Then he turns and gestures at the wide window in front of him. “We aren’t sure what this is yet. The door over there,” he points to the one in the center of the window, “doesn’t seem to open by an obvious means. No buttons, no levers. Unless there’s something I missed?”

He looks almost hopefully at the newcomer. If the monster is going to be so nice about everything, then maybe he can help them figure out what they’re meant to do here.

[ablativeholopleather]

As the woman seems to relax, so too does Wayne, his hands tucking into the pockets of his jumpsuit as he pans around the room, looking to the window- the door. Well, he's not bad at puzzles, he's solved plenty, even in places a bit like this. He wishes it wasn't quite so dark, but he could push down the nerves about that if it meant he could try and explore a little more and maybe even help.

He's quite forgotten that this is supposed to be a memory and that all of this was already done.

"Checked for any depressable tiles in the floor or wall? Sometimes that'll get this stuff started." He's watching the floor underfoot as he shifts his weight, before turning his attention back to the two of them, then looking Palamedes in the face. The man is actually a little bit taller than he himself is, not accounting for the horns that make his head its distinctive crescent shape. "You guys got any kind of hints coming into this or is it all on the fly?" They have a reason for being here, he realizes that, but how much information do they have in the first place?

[hellonspectacles]

“Ah, good suggestion. Cam?” With a nod, Camilla begins to inspect the tiles on the floor, starting near the door in the windowed wall. She’s obvious still more suspicious of Wayne than Palamedes, glancing at him from time to time, one hand never far from the sword at her hip, but she is clearly somewhat mollified by his willingness to help.

Wayne’s question makes Pal huff softly, a sort of wry laugh. “Our hosts are very nonspecific. We—Camilla, myself, and seven additional pairs of necromancers and cavalier—have come to discover the path to becoming Lyctors, something no one has accomplished in thousands of years. We were given one instruction: that we cannot open locked doors without permission. What that means for the secret of this particular laboratory, I have no idea.”

“Warden.” This is from Camilla, who has reached the door in the side wall. “Come look at this.”

The room on the other side of the door, which slides open automatically when anyone approaches, was small, dusty, and filled with rusting, nondescript machines. At its center was a tall metal pedestal, atop which sat a flat panel of reflective glass. In the dim light, surrounded by so much grey decay, the glass almost seems to glow.

[not_the_last]

She recognizes Palamedes's voice, even before she sees the dim light reflect off his spectacles. She's hoping, gods how she is hoping, that her assessment of him is right and he won't default to suspicion and violence on seeing someone who shouldn't be here.

(And there is no doubt whatsoever in her mind that unauthorized persons should not be here.)

So she lets her foot scrape audibly over the floor even before raising her voice and saying aloud "I do beg your pardon."

[hellonspectacles]

Cassandra is right about Palamedes; the trouble is, Camilla Hect is the sort of person who reacts with suspicion and violence. Her sword is out before Cassandra finishes speaking, and she steps in front of Palamedes protectively.

Palamedes stops her with a hand on her arm, though his expression as he watches Cassandra isn’t exactly friendly. “I would suggest you explain your presence here,” he says quietly. “And quickly.”

[not_the_last]

Cassandra holds both hands up before her chest, palms out, in what she hopes will be understood as a peaceable gesture. "I don't know where here is," she says. "I was brought against my will and I don't know how to leave. Please, I don't mean any harm."

[hellonspectacles]

“Cam,” Pal says softly, and the woman lowers her sword just slightly. Pal’s eyes don’t leave Cassandra. “This is Canaan House. We’re on the First House—a planet that, for what it’s worth, has not been occupied for thousands of years. So you can understand our confusion.” He gestures to one of the desks. “Why don’t you have a seat and tell us your name. Assuming you know that, at least.”

[not_the_last]

"Thank you." She gives a nod to him, a slightly shallower one to the swordswoman (bodyguard, some part of her mind categorizes her), and moves to the indicated seat.

"My name is Cassandra de Rolo. I ... know something of your empire, if it's the one ruled by the," gods what was the phrase Palamedes had used, "Necrolord Prime?"

[hellonspectacles]

“That’s not a House name,” says Palamedes, half to himself. He approaches the desk where Cassandra has seated herself, and he pulls up a chair to sit across from her. Almost at once Camilla is there, just at his shoulder, the grip on her sword as sure and unwavering as ever. Pal takes off his glasses and studies Cassandra with unshielded eyes for a moment or two.

“ ‘Your’ empire. That’s an interesting phrase, Miss de Rolo. If you’re a Blood of Eden spy, then you are doing an awfully bad job of concealing yourself.”

[not_the_last]

"That's not a name I know," she says. "I assure you, if I were attempting any kind of espionage, I would have come prepared with a better cover story. With any cover story at all," she corrects herself, with a sigh.

[hellonspectacles]

Palamedes smiles humorlessly. “I admit, your complete lack of subtlety is one of the few things keeping me from taking drastic measures. Please, take no offense. A respected colleague of mine was murdered in cold blood yesterday, along with her husband, not a hundred feet from where we sit. So I am disinclined to trust anyone who appears out of place.”

He turns his glasses over, narrowing his eyes slightly as he looks her up and down. Then he sighs and puts his glasses back on. “Occam’s razor, Cam.” The woman behind him purses her lips, but doesn’t comment. “Taking you at your word is, bafflingly, the most logical thing I can do at the moment. So let me ask you: who brought you here, and where did you come from?”

[fonomena]

The space is...familiar and yet not, now isn't it? There are the distinctive bones of a long-disused lab about this space, the decaying lone lab coat on its hook hardly the only indicator; Jade is, unsurprisingly, intimately familiar with such facilities even to this day. But there's little reassurance to be had in this knowledge, really, as Jade stands still for a moment or so waiting for his senses orient from yet another impromptu trip through a rift. This one had unexpectedly opened in a passing of the cabin halls back on the ship--incidentally rather closer to Palamedes' cabin than not, as retrospect will note at some point later.

There could be all sorts of reasons this whole area seems to be in thorough disrepair and falling apart. Yet a light source still struggles overhead, and two people in grey robes stand straight ahead. ...The two people being the rather more pressing issue, obviously. They converse between each other, and something in Jade does perk up in recognition at Pal's voice from the taller figure...but better sense restrains him from opening with the sort of familiar greeting that wants to promptly pop out. Jade now holds several memory-forays under his belt whether he likes it or not, after all, and the few constants between them all have started to sink in. Like the fact that all these memories seem to involve passengers on the Serena Eterna...and the additional fact that their past selves are often found here.

The young lady's voice is unfamiliar. Not someone he knows on the ship, Jade's almost certain. So then, that can only mean...

Hm. Going to have to open with something sooner rather than later. Would it be safer to try and conceal himself at this point, or announce his presence before it ends up unpleasantly surprising the two before him first? In the handful of moments listening to their exchange, Jade ultimately goes with his gut, which says:

"Scientific curiosity is always a perfectly justified reason, isn't it? Can't really go wrong when it's in the name of science, after all!" With all the sardonic cheer of somebody that's totally meant to be here, of course. Though Jade doesn't immediately approach them, at least, content to stand with idle ease in the doorway and gauge the reaction he's about to get from at least a moderate amount of distance.

[hellonspectacles]

“My thoughts exactly,” says Palamedes voice filled with a wry cheer that Jade probably recognizes. But when he turns, there is a dangerous sort of glint in his eye. Just behind him, Camilla has drawn her sword, and though the tip is currently pointed downward, everything about her stance says that she would definitely like to be doing something with it.

Both of them had seen the strange man in the uniform at different moments in their time at Canaan House—always out of the corner of their eyes, and never for long enough to call to him. Cam and Pal had discussed it, weighing the possibility of ghosts or Cohort infiltrators. Teacher had claimed to know nothing about the mysterious figure, and they hadn’t even bothered to ask the Second House heir or her cavalier, neither of whom were likely to tell the truth, especially if this was a military intelligence operation of some kind.

“You’ve been the subject of much speculation, you know,” Palamedes says after a few moments of tense silence.

[fonomena]

The wry cheer is familiar, and a heartening thing too. It tells Jade that the chances are at least decent, here...of the Palamedes before him now not being so far off in character from the Palamedes he knows on the Serena Eterna. (Not always the case with many passengers at certain past points in time, after all--as Jade would know, having rather unfortunately exhibited the worst case scenario himself in his own memories...) Even the dangerous glint in his eyes isn't entirely off-putting to behold, and it's met evenly with Jade's own unnaturally red ones; it is sensible, after all, to be wary of a stranger cropping up in a strange place. Jade has a sense that the general environment surrounding them currently is rather more hostile than not...and so there's certainly no fault to place upon the young lady for drawing her sword as she does, either. He doesn't flinch at the sight of it.

"My, have I been indeed? I can only hope it's the flattering kind of speculation, or at the least not anything too embarrassing." His own cheer remains, echoing that wryness in turn; they'd often match such a wavelength quite easily back on the ship. But Jade knows he can't exactly bank too hard upon that previous relation here and now...and that it might be outright unwise to do so. Some prudence would probably be beneficial, here.

He doesn't yet move from where he stands, hands still casually tucked in the pockets of his distinctive uniform. "Either way, though, I'm certainly not half so famous here as yourself. Palamedes Sextus, Heir to the House of the Sixth and Master Warden of the Library--yes?" ...As Pal had introduced himself, once before. It doesn't take any pretending at all, really, for the pleasant smile on Jade's face to take on a genuinely warm bent. Though it's a brief thing, there and gone, since he goes on to offer a slight polite nod to the young lady and her blade beside him. "A pleasure to meet you as well, Miss...?"

[hellonspectacles]

“The most logical theory is that you are a Cohort spy, come to observe us and report on our activities,” Palamedes says conversationally. “Though if that is the case, you must be a particular secret—I believe that even Captain D— is puzzled by your presence.”

If Pal is all casual calm, Cam is the opposite. She remains alert, head erect, eyes narrowed slightly, looking ready to spring at the first opportunity. “Camilla Hect,” she answers.

“Cavalier Primary of the Sixth and Warden’s Hand,” Palamedes adds. “But surely you already knew that.” He arches a brow. “So, who are you, sir? Put those rumors to rest, by all means.”

[fonomena]

Camilla Hect. Jade's attention sharpens upon her for a brief moment, when she answers with this name and Pal attaches the according titles. Just based off the musing conversation they'd been having together before Jade interjected, a vague notion had already begun to form...but the flat confirmation sheds a new light all the same. Upon a certain memory, from countless months ago now--back on the ship. Himself and Palamedes, mutually trying to wind down from a terribly fraught conversation. Certain vulnerabilities they'd offered up to each other as apologies, in that time. 'If Camilla escapes Canaan House alive, and if she can find a spirit adept of enough skill...'

Spoken with a yearning for a dear friend. Ah, and this young lady here most certainly must be her. The new context aligns perfectly with the alertness of her bearing, a wary watchfulness at Pal's side.

"...Yes, it is sensible to hear," Jade agrees slowly, to the notion of already knowing who she is. A prompt respect is formed, but shelved. Pal's already going on to ask the rather more relevant question here, and Jade returns his attention to him, his own smile turning wry once more. "I suppose I probably ought to assuage at least a handful of those rumors, it's true. Not a spy of the 'Cohort' at all, I'm afraid. Hm, the best way to probably describe it...is that I don't believe I hold any affiliation to anyone else here whatsoever, at the moment."

Really, it's the tricky thing about these memory ventures--trying to weigh just how far the truth might get anyone, against the shrewdness of a given audience. And Palamedes Sextus is one of the most shrewd audiences one could possibly have, all things considered...which certainly adds an extra layer of difficulty here. With other memories he's dealt with before now, omitting the truth or outright lying has generally worked more or less in his favor. But here, in front of this particular person...yes, in the end, Jade decides the best path might be to dispense the truth in parts. Ideally keep gauge of the reactions as he goes...

"My name is Jade Curtiss. I am a Colonel of the Third Division, within Malkuth's Imperial Forces. ...But I'll be surprised if 'Malkuth' rings with any familiarity to you."

[hellonspectacles]

The empire of the Necrolord Prime isn’t a society that encourages a sense of trust. The House Heirs had arrived on the First with all their suspicions and prejudices intact, all built up over centuries of propaganda that told them that they were the true masters of necromantic arts, the rest of the Houses pretenders at best. They may have more in common with each other than not, but that does nothing to lessen their animosity.

But all of them maintain even less faith in the members of the human race that live beyond the House system. Even Palamedes, who has from time to time voiced his objections to the Empire’s wars of expansion, imagines those faraway people as victims at best, and threats at worst. And the man before him certainly doesn’t seem like a vicim of anything.

“I can’t say I have,” he answers carefully. “What is Malkuth when it’s at home, Colonel?”

[fonomena]

Hmm, as reaction-gauging goes, this is not a positive one. Still not terribly surprising. Palamedes really is far too shrewd a person, to try evading about in a situation like this...

"Malkuth is one of three major nations upon the planet of Auldrant. Which I imagine to be very, very far from this place." This is entirely honest too, and Jade's prompt and firm answer denotes it as such. ...But he does follow the words with a slight and almost conceding tilt of his head.

"To judge by the caution of both your bearings, and the tension of the overall situation here--trust in strangers must be in terribly short supply, and I certainly don't fault either of you that. ...I could say that I'm not here of my own volition. That I have in fact been drawn here by some other force entirely outside my own understanding, and am still trying to find my bearing on these current circumstances. But when it barely sounds believable aloud in my own ears, I'm hardly about to demand that you take my word for it either."

Put himself in Pal's shoes. Clearly trying to solve a pressing issue in an imposing place, only to find a stranger cropping up with stranger answers to rather basic questions. ...Yes, if Jade were confronting a situation like this himself, from the other side...

"So, the real question now is probably how I ought to prove myself here, isn't it? I won't demand that you trust me at my word, but I'd rather not be run through with prejudice by your cavalier either." Here, a slight tilt of his head. "...How receptive might you be to an offer of assistance with the current situation, I wonder? The two of you did seem to be investigating something, before I quite rudely interrupted."

[hellonspectacles]

Both Palamedes and Camilla watch Jade as he talks, neither of them reacting to his outlandish tale. When he offers to help, they look at one another, and a silent conversation seems to take place—a lift of an eyebrow here, a pursing of the lips there, until they seem to come to some kind of agreement.

“Very well,” says Palamedes. “Camilla, would you mind walking him through what we know.”

Cam jerks her head at Jade and walks back to the chamber with its glass wall. “We’re looking for keys,” she says, voice clipped and businesslike. “Presumably, to open one of the many locked doors in the floors above. The door,” he gestures at the door in the window, “doesn’t open by any obvious mechanism.” The she points at the door in the side wall. “We haven’t been through there yet.”