itsjustabaddream: (Default)
itsjustabaddream ([personal profile] itsjustabaddream) wrote in [community profile] ph_logs2024-05-25 03:33 pm

[ NPC Open ] Hands of time will wring my neck.

Who: Dr. Neil West ([personal profile] itsjustabaddream) & YOU!
What: Ocularum recruiting and meeting, his office, hardware store, research
When: Late May, early June
Where: Oh you know, around
Warning(s): Content warnings will be on specific threads!



Moments pass.

[ The doctor is in. ]

As usual, you can easily find Neil in his makeshift office, reading or writing as he awaits his now more abundant appointments. Maybe you're here for yours, or perhaps you'd like to make one. The door chimes as you enter, and the room is filled with the smell of coffee and pastry. Can one of his little enchanted pots offer you a hot beverage? A teapot and a coffee carafe with dopey faces and tiny legs toddle around on the refreshment table, waiting to serve.

"Hello there! How may I help?"

Shattered glass.

[ Recruiting ]

A flyer hangs on a lamp post outside each trolley station in town.

"Interested in esoteric knowledge, demonology, or wizardry education? Looking to discover the truth behind the barrier? Seeking proactive solutions to the problem, rather than biding your time waiting for the goddesses to act? The Ocularum needs sharp, progressive minds to aid in the effort of deciphering this mystery. Come to Northwest Hollow and look for the open eye."

The symbol of the Ocularum marks each one. Perhaps you catch Neil posting them and can ask him about this. But if not, you can always see him at the meeting...

Hands of time.

[ Ocularum Meeting ]

If you follow the instructions on the flyer at the time and date listed below the main text, and find the open eye symbol above the door to West Dream Analytics, you will find that Neil has gathered his people in his office waiting room. Once everyone has gathered and the appointed time chimes, Neil will lead everyone past the threshold of his catty-cornered desks and open door frame, past his treatment office and living space, down into his basement.

Red wallpaper lines the walls and dark hardwood paves the way. The walls of the room are full of arcane artifacts and scientific or magical equipment, as well as shelves and shelves of books on the occult. In the center of the room, there is a table. Grab a seat, Neil will happily share the Ocularum's objectives--- unobstructed truth. A task force to seek a solution to the barrier that relies on people, research, magic and science, not gods. He hands out pamphlets on local demons and leaflets about the local magic system, offers magic lessons. "And for those interested in more hands-on research, or even providing protection to those performing it, I have a few projects lined up..."

Care to study some paranormal life? Learn some magic? Want to ask him a question? Dr. West is an open book--- to an extent.

Where's that chime?

[ Hardware store ]

It's pretty uncommon for Neil to come all the way into town. He's pretty far out and not always a particularly popular person. Besides, he lives near the farmland, so he's able to buy most of his groceries directly rather than go to the store. But today, he has to go to the store because a teenager broke his window with a rock. Again.

In a rare moment of vulnerability, you can find Neil West at the hardware store trying to purchase some supplies to patch the broken glass until his new window is made, looking incredibly lost. Help.

Close your eyes and you'll leave this dream.

[ Wildcard ]

Attend one of Neil's research projects studying the Paradesium ruins, Brutoks, Lake Sal-Co-Penn, the Tristitia, the Whispering Trees, stardust, ghosts, or anything else. Or throw something at me! I'm open to anything. DM me on Discord!
tisnotthehouse: (Default)

Wildcard -- Research and Therapy

[personal profile] tisnotthehouse 2024-05-28 06:44 am (UTC)(link)
Tarantulas is busy this month raising the money he needs to pay off his debt to the demoness Claunthe, but he considers that more reason to keep up with his magical studies, not less. The more skilled he becomes in Practical Magic, the more he can apply it to mercantile means.

"Not to mention," he absently says to Doctor West as the two of them review a large diagram copied from one of the doctor's books, "One mustn't get so caught up in the minutia of daily survival that they forget the overarching goal. Magic is part of the physics of this universe; I need to understand it, if I'm to have any hope of understanding the things that happen here."
tisnotthehouse: (Default)

[personal profile] tisnotthehouse 2024-06-15 09:31 am (UTC)(link)
"I can pick it up," Tarantulas reports. "But I'm still having trouble with bending it. I'm getting in my own way, I think," he admits ruefully. "I keep thinking about all the atoms in the metal, the mathematics behind the way the magic must be working on them to make them move..." He grins slightly. "The day that I finally scrape together the resources to make an electron microscope will be an exciting day indeed."
tisnotthehouse: (small smile)

[personal profile] tisnotthehouse 2024-06-15 12:58 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh?" Tarantulas suddenly looks more alert, fingers twitching as if looking for a spoon that isn't there so he can try the experiment immediately. "That might work...at the very least, I'd be less distracted. I'm used to just stopping work and switching to another project whenever I feel my focus waiver, but that doesn't really work with magic, does it?"
tisnotthehouse: (scary grin)

[personal profile] tisnotthehouse 2024-06-22 07:45 pm (UTC)(link)
"Then I shall simply have to change my nature, until magic and I can meet halfway." It would hardly be the first time he tried such a thing, after all. "It should be much easier to change a few habits than it was to perform brain surgery on myself, at least."
Edited 2024-06-22 19:47 (UTC)
tisnotthehouse: (Default)

[personal profile] tisnotthehouse 2024-06-27 05:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Tarantulas pauses in his work to cackle cheerfully. "But Neil," he pretends to complain, "What if I should decide I need a few more eyes? Do you know anyone else qualified to install new optic nerves?" It says something about how comfortable he's become with Neil West -- not just that Tarantulas is using his first name, but that he's skipping over several parts of the process (such as growing new optic nerves in the first place) in order to make a joke at his own expense.
tisnotthehouse: (Default)

[personal profile] tisnotthehouse 2024-07-03 11:46 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yes, yes...at least until I get good enough at either magic or surgery to make some changes myself," Tarantulas notes with an absent air, his mind already moving on to the next section in the magical text Neil assigned him to study.
tisnotthehouse: (Default)

[personal profile] tisnotthehouse 2024-07-19 03:57 am (UTC)(link)
Tarantulas looks up again, attention caught and interest piqued by the change in Neil's tone. "You haven't yet told me anything about blood magic," he points out. Could that be about to change?
tisnotthehouse: (scary grin)

[personal profile] tisnotthehouse 2024-07-25 07:21 am (UTC)(link)
"If I'm using it on myself, I don't see how any ethical concerns could apply," Tarantulas points out. His eyes are bright with greed -- he has always, always loved being at the cutting edge of knowledge, possessing secrets and techniques no one else has, 'making the impossible obsolete' as Prowl once complimented him. "How does it work, with regards to shapechanging? Where would I need to begin?"