lostcarnival | ⇨ EDEN

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⇨ EDEN

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 79 - Day 85
Where: Eden
What: Everyone arrives in Eden with their new animals forms - unfortunately, the welcoming party is a bit more intense than expected, with a ritual called 'The Anointment.' Better get this place figured out before anything gets any crazier.
Warnings: Hopefully no ritual sacrifice!

FLAME OF INSPIRATION↴

So it begins. After everyone has been given their new animal form and have had about an hour to readjust to it, the Ringmaster begins the infiltration. You don't see a lot of the specifics of the magic - all you know is that Pru's sword, the Hand of God, is somehow involved. It alone can tear through the wardings of Eden's realm, and once that entrance is made, the teleportation is instant. Everyone will find themselves in an open grassland overlooking a dense forest, with buildings and lights poking up out of the leaves. Behind you, there is a darker place - the barrens, the Ringmaster has explained. It's were the Outcasts are sent after they're banished.

You are scattered across the area as if you've been dropped in with nothing. You've been given specific instructions - act as if you have no memory besides the vague life of being an animal. None of you know each other. You don't know how you got here, you've just been suddenly found yourself enlightened. Hopefully feigning ignorance will be what the residents are expecting, as what information the Ringmaster could find suggests it should be.

Before the beasts of Eden come to claim you, you'll see the Ringmaster once last time, in the form of a giant serpent. With a nod of her head, she slithers away towards the barrens - she'll be in touch.

► THE WELCOMING: It's not long until you're discovered. The first to find you is a pigeon, who seems rather surprised. She'll ask the first few new arrivals she sees a couple questions - 'did you just get here?' 'did you meet the great Lilith?' Regardless of your answers, she'll hurriedly say she's going to go get help, and will fly away back into the forest. A short while later, an entire welcoming party of different animals will have come to greet you, sweeping out to find every straggler and explaining that you are the newest of the chosen. After they are sure that nobody is being left behind, they will invite you into Eden.

► THE GARDEN: Eden is a beautiful place. Every street, every structure, is surrounded by flowers and vibrant plant life - every bit as idyllic as its mythos would imply. The architecture is ambitious and creative, as if the residents have been perfecting the art for thousands of years, which they almost certainly have. There is the sweet smell of perfumes and incense on the other animals are you are led into the city. This is your home now, the locals will explain. You have been chosen by the Creator to serve Her cause. You will become one of the Honorable, one of Her artisans working towards the Divine Clarity. But first, of course, you must be sanctified.

► THE ANOINTMENT: On that first night, everyone is brought to a vast cathedral, covered in unknowable writings in a shining script. You are brought in through several gorgeous hallways lit with shining crystals and blue flame torches, only to emerge in a great hall built around a circular, sparkling pool of water. There are several braziers around its circumference blazing with fire, with sets of tools hanging out of them, like iron pokers. All of the new arrivals are gathered into the grand hall, and scriptures are read in the background that you can't really make out the specifics of.

You will all be made to stand around the outside of the pool, and the local animals will gently explain to you what needs to be done. To become a new Honorable, you must be Anointed with the Flame of Inspiration - that is, they are going to brand you with the metal pokers they have heating up. If you go along with it, they will burn the mark into a highly visible part of your person (they have smaller brands for smaller animals), and then cool it off in the pool of water, where you are encouraged to bask until you are comfortable again.

There are obviously a couple concerns with this. The biggest one is that it's sketchy as hell. The second one is that the brand is definitely made of medium grade iron. While the painful difference it makes won't be super obvious from the outside, long-term veterans and those with superlative fae qualities will find it very uncomfortable, and it will blister for a fair while afterward, which is seen as unusual. If your character refuses, or tries to get around it somehow, please explain in reply to the post down below.

► THE DAYS AFTER: After everyone is branded (or isn't, as the case may be), you'll be given the opportunity to dry off and head back into town. All of the fancy structures here are communal, they will explain, and you can choose wherever you'd like to sleep. There are a few buildings that are mostly empty that newbies seem welcome to hole up in, though the locals assure everyone they will be nearby in case they need help.

In the days that follow, everyone will be welcome to explore Eden and find their bearings, and begin to discover what gifts the Anointment has bestowed on them. Whether or not you were good at a creative pursuit before, you will find yourself filled with inspiration for something - any artistic talent will do. It's like a creative talent will have been born in you overnight, or like an existing talent of yours has been boosted to near perfection. This effect will last as long as the characters are in Eden unless you are told otherwise.

You won't feel the need to eat, but there is breakfast available, if you'd like it. The locals are very courteous, though they seem a bit confused. Something about your entry seems to strike them as different than usual.

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Well HIS existing passion is for science, and he's apparently not allowed that. So as far as he knows, it's totally random, what art people feel inspired to do.

Even having been at the Carnival for a while now, he feels like a bit of a fool, following a snake. He nods stiffly in response, though, mouth too full to attempt to add to the lie of being new to clothing, thankfully for the look of it. He doubts anyone's watching them, though. Who would bother? It's just hours of creation, when everyone is busy with their own. He wouldn't want to watch it even if he had the time.

"Nothing...too ostentatious," he says, once he's put down his fabric and sat where directed. "Iiii....have black fur. So I'm...not used to colour." His sentence almost ends in a question but doesn't quite reach it. Carly knows what he wears. Surely she can just pretend her inspiration leads her there. There's no need to make him invent false reasoning.

What a fraught subject. The Ringmaster choosing to allow Ignatius along had better not upset the entire mission. Or at least, it had better upset it in a way that lets them give up on this mirror thing and move on, no harm done. Everyone seems irritable so Herbert stops and has a bit of a cat bath before moving after Rita, back into the city.

It's a fair guess- and Carly simply nods and nods again as she looks the cat over, apparently only now getting a proper look at him. "Naturally..! If I'm right...you can probably see it, but I can't imagine you would have wanted to wear much of it before..." she hums, keeping things vague enough for the perceived backstory to s tick.

"We'll just have to keep it simple then. Perhaps some white? Or a more...textured black? Something that won't just blend in," she adds, nodding her head. After all, that wasn't really a risk before. It's hard to blend into pitch black when you're all peachy pale from working on nothing but reagent all the time.

Yuya can't really just up and talk about how he didn't invent flowering teas, and some of that obviously isn't a problem if they exist and are popular. But he's supposed to be only a recently enlightened fox, not a human who's seen them before.

"You use a glass teapot, it doesn't, and it doesn't clog the spout. It's woven together so it doesn't just fall apart when it gets wet. This is my inspiration." He knows what he's doing, which is honestly the weird part.

Welp. Scout's last contract was for the ability to hide herself, and others, but they're surrounded by talking animals. Drawing attention to yourself is the one best way to break that effect and while she might get away with it, she doesn't really feel like taking the risk, not for this when there's already so much suspicious activity. It hasn't taken the Force for her to pick up that the Honored didn't expect quite this level of general reaction to the branding.

"Right," she says evenly. "Instead - have you thought about art?"

Rita's gaze falls to the shadow cast by the compilation, and her eyes widen slightly. It's... a cat?

"Huh... so that's an art form, too? I've never seen anything like that before... but then again, I've never really cared for art." She shrugs. Sort of. Whatever the cat-equivalent of that gesture is.

"Yeah!" Yeah is...most of her answer, but she'll explain the art form anyway since Rita just said she's never seen it before. "...I don't think most of us liked art before," Reira adds, unintentionally filling in the gaps of an alibi.

"But, um...I just make the piles work until they can make the right kind of shadow. The pile doesn't look like the shadow, but it's better that way, since it shows you're not just copying something then."

Control how the light is cast, control the shadow. "Um...I think it's like feelings, I guess." It seems to be the best way she can come up with ideas anyway, when it comes to feelings and how those feelings come about.

The ears and tail are pretty much the same - the only difference is that they are usually mossy green instead of the warm pinkish tone they are now. Steven is apparently content with being a bit cheeky at the moment, smiling a little, and he lies his head on his paws, stretching out his branded leg to give it some air.

"Yeah, I think most people get kind of surprised when I do that," he says, laughing softly, then sighs. "I wish I could do it to myself right now."

"Everyone's just heading over to the living spaces right now," he says, slowly wandering in that direction himself. "I think the skink guy was the only one who stayed unconscious..."

Which, he thinks that was Ignatius? So, that's worrying.

Yuya follows beside Steven, limping himself. Still, probably not quite as badly, and he's watching Steven out the corner of his eye in case he starts to struggle worse.

Right. Ignatius. "Yeah, but I think they're taking care of him so... that's going to be fine." He hopes it's going to be fine. A few of the carnival members went along, he's pretty sure. "I think that was more of a welcome than we were expecting."

That's an understatement.

"Of course! You know, I want to see things change too." Even if this never ends up effecting his world (and he hopes it doesn't, they have enough bullshit) he'd like to see a better relationship between the Fae and the worlds they visit--or at least for them to stop conquering them all.

"What's your talent, anyway?"

Yuya tilts his head, curious when she touches his cup, but he obeys her direction and grabs it with both paws only to immediately stop as he's immediately filled with information. He's felt this before, with Rita's book, so the surprise is less that she can do it at all, and more that she kept the ability to.

He smiles, his expression someone twisted with amusement as he looks over at Rita. "You're really smart."

She knows that, but he feels the need to say it anyway. They can keep things completely secret this way. "Does it work in reverse?"

"Art? Oh, gosh, I have no idea on how to do anything with that!" Goku said. "I'm a fighter myself! Though I've been told I've been a good farmer and I can cook!"

That's art, too, Goku.

He laughs tiredly.

"I guess there was no way to know what this would be like without just doing it," he says. "Maybe this was already the worst part."

Like, probably not, based on past experiences. It's a nice thought, though, so he's going to stick with it. Meanwhile, his walking path seems to waver back and forth a bit, but nothing too severe yet.

A - Evening 79 - Anointment

Branding a creature that is mostly feathers is, as it turns out, kind of a pain in the ass, even for people (well, animals) that have been doing it for probably centuries. More than that, in all likelihood. Still, Joker bears with it patiently enough as he's turned this way and that, instructed to lift a wing or tail. It takes just a little bit of deliberation before somewhere along his breast is picked out. With his tail, after all, there's not many other places to put it where it could be seen.

And the tail is obnoxiously rainbow colored, to boot. Birds, really.

Having been in the Carnival for a good few years, Joker carries more than his fair share of fae influence in him now... and yet he doesn't seem alarmed as the iron brand approaches him. Is it because of his excellent poker face? The fact that, once you've been chained up in pure iron and tortured with iron instruments, this is child's play? Or is it because he's a peacock, and there's really no great ability to emote when most of your face is made out of keratin? Either way, he stays stubbornly silent as he's branded, and only takes a moment before he goes into the pool.

Well. As far into the pool as he can manage. Peacocks aren't meant to... swim, exactly. Or float. And yet Joker seems to have a little bit of difficulty keeping any sort of course, and he helplessly flaps his wings a little bit as his tail floats obnoxiously behind him. "F- sh- okay I can't- I think I'm sinkin', can someone just- "

Help him. Please.

B - Night 79 - Check Up

He'll be honest: the branding hurt like a fucker. But the thing Joker seems to have brought with him is fortunately his ability to heal. It's helped him soothe some of the particularly harsh blisters on his brand mark, which he hopes he's managed to keep out of sight of the native animals. Just to be cautious, of course.

But it's night, now, and they've all been allowed to take refuge in this empty building which seems able to fit in all manner of beasts. So don't mind him if he hops from room to room, the sound of his dragging tail a giveaway if anyone is being paranoid. Not that they really need to be. For anyone he peeks in on, if he sees someone awake, he says cheerily, "Today's been quite hectic, hasn't it?"

Listen. It's as good a lead in as anything else. And a good way to gauge who's talkative and who's not.... or who's in particularly bad shape, for that matter.

C - Day 80 - Naming

Outside of the cathedral, and wandering away from it, a certain brightly colored peacock can be seen speaking aloud to himself with a somewhat curious tone.

"Pesagni. Pesagni. Pe....sagni."

Is he... just saying 'his' own name to himself, over and over again? It's... fine. He can brush it off if any of the locals ask pretty easily, he likes to think. Many an animal must have been fascinated by the idea of a name, if they'd never had it before.

D - Days 80/81/82 - Artist and Art

"Pesagni" likes to think he's had a lot of artistic talents in his longer-than-expected life... but juggling or dagger throwing or various other more performance based things are a bit harder to present as art, especially when one has no fingers and talons aren't as dexterous as he'd like for such things. But that's fine. Eden has apparently gifted him with something new all together. The perfect thing to blend in and makes friends.

And that's why he's been spending a lot of time speaking to just about anyone he's been able to see who's been hard at work. This has meant other "Honorables" in some cases, those 'native' to this place... and sometimes this means his fellow carnival members. So don't mind this colorful motherfucker just.... inching his way over to check out what you're doing.

Alternatively.... One can be accosted by him, seemingly out of nowhere, and one can almost sense the beaming aura about him even though he can't smile. "Hey there! Do ya suppose ya can help me out with something?" This might mean being made as a part of art itself, or just being dragged to take a look at what he's made...

And he hasn't picked anyone in particular to pick on! Really. It's just, in order to seem his friendliness, he can't seem to pick favorites between fellow 'newcomers' or the locals themselves. It's all about making, if not a good presence, a seemingly harmless one.

E - Joker's Wild

[I just bullshitted everything, but if you have any idea in particular, or something comes up another day, let me know, and we can do it. I'm flexible.]

"Yeah, it's--I mean. Eden's supposed to be good for us, right?" It's a little strained in the way that he's trying not to be suspicious, but his faith is falling a little flat after the whole disturbing experience of being branded. "They looked pretty surprised, too. Maybe it's not supposed to be that bad."

He knows exactly why it was that bad, but he can't say it.

Yuya smiles a little before resting his head over his other paw, shifting to get comfortable before closing his eyes. It's really weird, sleeping like this, but as odd as it feels it isn't enough to keep him from being lulled to a sleep kept light only because of the pain on his hip. But that's still better than none.

It's a good thing Rita can't visibly blush in this body, though her fur bristles and her ears flatten at the compliment.

She seems to struggle to find something to say to that, but then he goes on to ask a straightforward question for her to give a straightforward answer to. Shaking her head, she replies, "...No. It's one-way only." She wishes she had a better answer than that, but them's the breaks.

Yeah, no kidding. Is it weird that Steven didn't really find it that shocking, though? Things like this are just starting to seem normal, after some of the stuff that's happened to him.

"I wonder if it means something... that we were different, like that," he says, a little bit more cautiously. If he was really in this situation he'd probably be hoping that being unique that way was good. From this perspective, though, he suspects they'll see it as the opposite.

Cover be damned, Steven is seeking out his closest friends on that first night, because he needs it. By this point, he'll have checked in on a few of them, but it's becoming increasingly clear he needs to rest. That means he has to find the right place to settle down.

A pink lion cub will flop down with you, wherever you are at the moment. He's been trying to find a place where all of you can be together, the best he can without raising flags that they know each other. He really just wants to cuddle, alright.

Being a lion seems to be making those feelings even more intense than usual. Come on over, and get complimentary pain numbing licks on your brand mark!

Tyki was finding it hard to get inspired when he wasn't doing his glass lights for someone else. Putting thought to glass without an outlet to express it only got the basic figurine. It needed more as it always did and yet he found he couldn't put it down. It gave a proper excuse to be out and about looking for 'inspiration.' He'd attend lectures, visit halls and workshops to look at some of the other Honorable's work, and try to find some sort of niche he could grow into.

Yet it always came back to absolutely nothing. In his mind, he knew he wasn't into this for the long run and he had used his art provide cheer and good feeling. It's why when he stumbles into Rita's workshop, he doesn't bother to make a sound. It's half his fault and half hers for her body colliding with his timber wolf body and he'll simply step over her with regained balance to look at her art.

There's a lot of lack of care right now towards any other animal. Normally he'd be the first to offer his paw to help her up, usually over polite and rarely unpleasant, but he was keeping mostly to himself, "Fascinating."

Yuya's ears perk up when her's flatten, which he's pretty sure if a bad reaction. Without seeing the blushing, he can't exactly tell she's flustered and now he's confused why she wouldn't want compliments to feed her ego with.

"Oh." Well, then he'll just have to continue to pick and choose his words. He pauses, wracking his brain for anything else important he's heard that Rita should know.

He leans in closer, lowering his voice. "The branding--uh, the anointment? It wasn't just to put a mark on us. It's the Flames of Inspiration, and that's how all the Honorables get their talents to make things."

So that, at least, isn't with the Serpent anymore. And it doesn't seem to be an Architect, either.

Yuya glances back over his shoulder before lowering his head, closer to Steven's so they can speak a little more softly. "Maybe, but we have to show them we're supposed to be here, right? It's an honor to be an Honorable."

He smirks, trying to lighten the mood a little at least. "It's really pretty here."

His head lowers and the rest of him follows to sit down on the ground and provide his own presence now that she's examining his light. He's bringing himself down onto her level so she has time to inspect him and the glass lantern he has to offer.

There is a hole up top where the flame is allowed to coax and oxygen is allowed to filter in to keep it burning. From there small pieces of glass more polished than the others refract the light through the designs. On the inside towards the center, small carnivals animals are carved at the tiniest of ratios. They aren't perfect but spread wide from the light and shadow, they give way to bigger pictures more situated to be understood as animals themselves.

"Good, I believe one burn is enough already."

Rita's fur bristles when her complaint goes unacknowledged. She glowers at him, then rubs her paw over her ears, straightening her fur out once again.

"What is?" she asks after composing herself a little more. She doesn't look up just yet.

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⇨ EDEN

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Joker - "Pesagni"

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THE FIRST NIGHT (Closed to Cuddle Puddle)

gettin' inspired

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