come_sailaway | In her sepulchre there by the sea

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In her sepulchre there by the sea

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He doesn't even look at the Third this time. Palamedes doesn't bother, so engaging with them won't progress the memory to a conclusion. He makes his way to Pal when beckoned, standing a bit off from him and Harrow.

"More like very little," he admits. "If there's a drawn symbol you can destroy it, but I don't know how to do it safely."

According to Ava, the only reason he's in this memory to begin with is that someone sabotaged the sigils keeping the ship together.

Harrow looks unimpressed, but Palamedes offers Natsuno a brief, encouraging smile. "It was worth a shot. You're right about the symbols, but time is of the essence. We can't know running around Canaan House looking for the right ward to destroy when we know Lady Pent and her cavalier are drifting further and further away from us."

He folds his arms, considering their options. "Perhaps we can draw them with some object of significance. If you're not too squeamish," this is directed at Natsuno, "would you mind going through their pockets to see what they might have on them. Reverend Daughter, I'd appreciate your help re-setting the circle."

"This is desecration," hisses Silas Octakiseron. "If the House the Fifth discovers what you've done here, Master Warden--"

"Desecration was killing two of the kindest people I have ever met in cold blood," Palamedes shoots back, coolly calm. "This is an investigation. And one that Abigail Pent, a woman you barely knew, would support and encourage."

Now it's the Eight's turn to be stared at for a moment. A necromancer who's into soul siphoning calls going through a dead person's pockets desecration, really? Palamedes seems so normal compared to the rest of them.

"I'm not squeamish," he says blankly and kneels next to the bodies. There's nothing but cold efficiency in his movements - what's a dead stranger compared to a dear friend's brutalized corpse?

Maybe there is something in their pockets, but Natsuno's attention is caught by a certain scent. He kneels closer to the woman's body, and... huh.

"Master Warden. There's something inside Lady Pent. Made of metal."

Palamedes abruptly stops conversing with Harrowhark and looks at Natsuno with sharp eyes.

“I’m sorry, did you say inside?”

From there, a series of events happen in quick succession. First, Dulcinea Septimus faints into her cavalier’s beefy arms. Palamedes looks sharply towards her, frozen to the spot, torn between investigation and his instinct to protect this woman at all cost. Then, two teenagers, both fifteen at the oldest, come down the ladder; when they see Abigail and Magnus, they gasp and stumble back, and one of them soon begins wailing.

The Eight cuts through the noise. “Enough of this nonsense,” said the necromancer, rolling up his sleeves and stepping closer to decidedly larger cavalier. “Brother Colum,” he said.

“Ready, Brother Silas,” said the larger man.

Silas laid his hand on the other man’s shoulder and closed his eyes. Almost immediately, color seemed to drain from Colum—and soon, from the very world itself.

"Yeah, in her - "

Thump. The sickly-looking woman faints, Pal is distracted, some kids are crying and the pale weirdo is doing - something. It's extremely unpleasant. Right, that must be soul-siphoning.

"So crass," he murmurs, recalling one of the blonde women's comment from earlier.

The world blurs and the lights dim, but Silas seems to glow—and so does the corpse of Abigail Pent. Suddenly and horribly the body shuddered. Still in a swoon, Dulcinea cries out; so does Silas, opening his mouth and letting out a guttural sound like a man who had eaten hot iron.

And that’s when Protesilaus, the large cavalier standing beside the prone Dulcinea, steps forward and punches Silas in the face.

The moment the boy goes down, the lights crackle back to life and the strange feeling of cold nothingness recedes.

This is getting too much. The blur of glow and shadows hurts Natsuno's eyes, the pale boy's howls pound against his eardrums and his limbs feel heavy. He has the life sucked out of him again, not by sharp fangs but by magic and it's still terrifying. The punch to Silas' face comes as a relief...

...for about two seconds. Natsuno sits up and stares at Protesilaus. You could almost think he was protecting the sickly, wailing woman from being siphoned, but the scent -

His eyes narrow. He may not be a necromancer, but some things cannot escape his kind. When he speaks, it'a loud enough to be heard over the commotion.

"Anyone else notice that big guy's a reanimated corpse?"

All at once, everyone is staring at Natsuno. Ianthe cocks her head with interest. Harrow narrows her eyes. The Fourth House teens look at him with wide eyes and tear-stained faces. Even Naberius Tern drops his ‘bored jock with good hair’ act and perks up.

Dulcinea, still on the floor but now being supported by Gideon Nav on one side and Palamedes Sextus on the other, gives a tremulous little cough that breaks the silence. “He’s right. Protesilaus Ebdoma is dead.”

Movement returns to the room. The Third House trio begin to whisper amongst themselves; Silas hisses blasphemy, which makes Naberius snort and say, “You’re one to talk;” with a cry, Jeannmary runs at Protesilaus and punches him in the arm, which swings uselessly at his side.

This time, Harrowhark cuts through the growing chaos. “Explain,” she says, carrying the full weight of the Locked Tomb and its many mysteries in that single word.

Palamedes takes a handkerchief out of his pocket and gently wipes Dulcinea’s face. She murmurs a thanks, and then speaks in an impressively strong voice. “I’m afraid to say that poor, sweet Pro was dead even before we left Rhodes. As you might surmise, the rumors are true: the Seventh House has been perfecting the way of the beguiling corpse for years and years and years. It’s just—not entirely allowed.”

She says this with a rueful kind of helplessness. But for a moment, just a moment, she locks eyes with Natsuno, and her gaze says something very different indeed:

Watch your step, or you’ll be next.

Ah. The frail-looking woman locks eyes with him and several things become clear: she's the culprit, she's dear to Palamedes who has no idea about her involvement, and she'll try to kill him if he says the wrong thing.

Natsuno should tread carefully, but will he? Fuck no. This murderer isn't just going to stand there and deceive his friend by swooning and batting her eyelashes.

Not a muscle moves in his poker face as he stares back at Dulcinea.

"Doesn't explain why you made poor sweet Pro punch the pale kid, though. Won't that make him miss Lady Pent's spirit?" He tilts his head, as if remembering something. "Oh yeah, you also fainted when I said there's something inside the body."

Edited 2023-03-26 19:01 (UTC)

“In the big lug’s defense, I’ve wanted to punch Octakiseron since we arrived on this God-forsaken planet,” Ianthe supplies.

Palamedes grimaces. He can’t disagree with that assessment, even if he politic enough not to say it aloud.

Beside him, Dulcinea’s smile could cut glass, though no one else seems to notice the danger of it. “Oh, you’ve got me!” she says with a wry laugh. “I timed my drop in blood pressure to perfectly coincide with—well, with whatever it is you’re claiming to have found.

“Yeah, what was that basement gremlin going on about, anyway?” Naberius chimes in, having clearly attended the same school of charm as his necromancer.

Feeling the room begin to turn—and not particularly pleased with the implications of Natsuno’s observations, either—Palamedes gently helps Dulcinea back to her feet and, once he is sure that she is steady, approaches Natsuno and speaks to him quietly. “The Duchess has been ill for quite a long time. Whatever it might have otherwise accomplished, Octakiseron’s soul siphoning could have killed her.” He looks over his shoulder and says to the room. “There’s a morgue on the third floor. Would one of you be so kind as to transport Lady Pent and Magnus the Fifth there for further examination?”

Natsuno returns Dulcinea's smile with his best unimpressed look. He listens politely to Pal's explanation but says nothing. Right now he's an odd, rude stranger and Dulcinea is someone precious; he can't convince Palamedes down here.

The morgue it is, then. Natsuno lifts Lady Pent's body with strength and ease that don't match his noodle-like build. He has no doubt he can go up the ladder easily even with his dead cargo, but someone still needs to carry the man. The blond trio is annoying, the teen pair is hysterical, the pale soul-vampire is creepy and he sure as hell not going to let Dulcinea and her zombie puppet anywhere near the corpses.

The only options are Pal, his cavalier and the black-clad bone girl, who seems like the closest thing his friend has for an ally.

"I'll carry Lady Pent." How did Pal call the bone girl? Oh yeah: "Reverend Daughter, will you and your cavalier help?"

Once again, everyone stares at Natsuno. Abigail hadn’t been a large woman, but the scrawny stranger lifts her like she weighs nothing at all. Harrow purses her lips, but before can refuse—or, for that matter, issue commands—Gideon comes over and lifts Magnus onto her shoulder.

She isn’t about to be outdone.

They make an odd group as they head up the ladder out of the facility: two necromancers, two cavaliers, two dead bodies, and a vampire. The hatch at the top opens to a large room with much better lighting, but a decidedly more obvious sense of decay. Once they’re on solid ground, Harrow turns to Natsuno with eyes narrowed. “Why do you believe there to be something inside Abigail Pent?”

He wrinkles his nose as they step into the larger room. Peeled, decaying walls, rotten tapestry, the scent of death set so deeply into the foundations Natsuno can barely tell where it's coming from.

"I have a very keen nose. I can smell it, a metal object stuck in her stomach."

Gideon lifts her eyebrows and scrunches up her face, and for a moment it looks like she might say something—that is, until Harrow shoots her a death glare.

“How?” Palamedes sounds truly baffled, and more than a little excited. “I’ve never heard of a necromancer who can employ olfactory glands, and in any case, you’re obviously not a necromancer.” What he means goes without saying: no necromancer, not even Captain Deuteros, could carry a dead weight with so little effort.

“Which means you are undoubtably lying,” Harrow says. “I can’t speak for the Sixth,” here there is the slightest sneer, not so different from the tone Rita takes when discussing Palamedes, “but the only reason you aren’t in chains is that I haven’t figured out why.”

"I'm not a necromancer," he agrees. "I'm a vampire."

A bold admission to be said so casually, but Pal will know what the word means - even if the Earth myths that lasted in his reality involve sexy, possibly sparkling versions of them.

"My 'olfactory glands' are part of my biology. That's also how I knew that big guy was a reanimated corpse.

"I'm not lying, Reverend Daughter. If I wanted to lie I'm come up with something less ridiculous."

Lucky--or not--for Natsuno, Harrowhark Nonagesimus is not a regular consumer of popular culture. She stares at him blankly, eyes still narrowed, clearly deciding whether or not to believe him.

Her taller companion is another matter entirely. Gideon gives up her half-hearted vow of silence and bursts out laughing. "Oooo, do you drink blood? Glow in the dark? Break into ladies' boudoirs and ravish them?"

He rolls his eyes, because this is even worse than Pal's 'vampires are usually sexy,' but still - two out of three isn't bad.

"Yes, I drink blood. No, I don't break into boudoirs or ravish anyone."

And as for the other guess: the whites of Natsuno's eyes go pitch black and the usually purple irises glow an eerie red. His second set of fangs unfolds, visible when he speaks again.

"You tell me if I glow."

"Badass."

Harrow's pinched face somehow manages to become even more pinched, but thankfully, before the Ninth House pair can erupt into a petty squabble, Palamedes clears his throat.

"In the interest of full disclosure, I still don't entirely believe that you are who you say you are," he says. "But I don't have a better explanation. And more importantly, thus far, you have done nothing but help us." He shares a look with Harrow, willing her to agree, or at least not protest. "And if you are lying about Lady Pent's body, we'll know soon enough."

This is hardly a vote of confidence, but probably the best he can hope for in this situation.

"I don't expect you to believe me this easily. I do get how it all sounds." He looks from Pal to Camila, then to the Ninth pair, and adds in a slightly drier tone: "But I appreciate you holding back the violence until after the autopsy."

Whatever the bone girl's decision is, though, Natsuno will carry the corpse to the morgue without complaints.

The corner of Palamedes mouth turns up slightly. “I think we can all agree that it’s best to weigh all the evidence before leaping to any conclusions.”

Harrow doesn’t answer, her expression remaining as pinched as ever, but she also doesn’t send a skeleton army after Natsuno, so that’s probably as close to an agreement as they’re going to get.

Eventually, after snaking through the strange ruins of Canaan House, they arrive at the morgue. Palamedes has to poke around in a few closets before he finds two tables for the bodies, and then he has to find a rag and some ancient-looking cleaning fluid with which to wipe them down. Once they are clean, he gestures vaguely at the tables, indicating they should be set down, and then starts hunting through drawers for a scalpel.

Natsuno lays Abigail's body on the slab. If Palamedes is still looking for a scalpel, he'll offer one out of his pocket - he can take another one from the clinic once he's back to the ship.

When everyone is ready to start, Natsuno points at the corpse's stomach, where the scent is strongest.

Pal looks briefly surprised as Natsuno hands him the scalpel. "Thank you," he says, bemused but certainly not complaining.

As the Ninth pair hangs back, each looking wary in their own way, Palamedes and Camilla approach Abigail's body and take a place at either side of the table. They move with efficency and, funnily enough, politeness as they first cut away the dead woman's shirt and clean her torso of dust and blood. Camilla takes a notebook and a pencil out of her pocket and writes as she begins to speak.

"Autopsy of Lady Abigail Pent, conducted by Master Warden Palamedes Sextus and Warden's Hand Camilla Hect. Cause of death: hypothesized to be a fall of approximately fifty feet. Potential foreign object lodged beneath skin of right abdomen." She offers Pal a nod, and he nods in return before sinking the scalpel into the skin.

Since Abigail is dead, it isn't very bloody, but it isn't pretty, either. Pal cuts an incision just big enough that he is able to slip two fingers and his thumb inside. Almost immediately, he goes still.

"Holy shit." A beat. "Cam, don't write that down."

Obviously, she writes down, Preliminary reaction: Master Warden says, 'Holy shit.'

<

The moment the skin is cut, the metallic scent grows stronger, so Natsuno is hardly surprised by Pal's reaction.

If it was the Palamedes he knows, Natsuno would sass out a told you, but this a different Palamedes, who probably won't be able to tell that the teen is wearing his told you lineface.

"So what it is?"

The object Palamedes pulls out of Abigail’s side is coated in blood and viscera, but its sharpe is unmistakeable: it’s a key.

“What,” says Harrow.

“The fuck,” says Gideon.

Palamedes speaks rapidly as Camilla writes. “One key. Silver and nickel alloy. Found within the stomach with no signs of hydrochloric acid degradation, so likely placed after death.” He presses his lips together so hard they go white, then exhales with a huff and shakes his head. “No, there’s too much interference. I can’t tell who touched it last.”

“Isn’t it obvious.” Harrow almost growls the words. “It was the Third. They’re the flesh magicians.”

Natsuno thinks quickly: Pal is the Sixth, the pale teen's name indicates Eighth and the hysterical kids are probably not suspects. That makes the annoying blond trio the Third House.

They're dicks for sure, but if Natsuno's going to advance this memory to a conclusion it will to the correct one.

"I think Dulcinea Septimus is involved. She's controlling her cavalier's corpse, right?" Which apparently is not allowed. "She could've had it carry her out if it the 'soul siphoning' engendered her, but made it stop the summoning instead."

In her sepulchre there by the sea

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