⇨ EDEN

[ringleaders]

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.

Comments

[hippocarnival]

"You can make them smell less... like, if you air them out for a long time." Or using other plants to mask the scent, he's pretty sure, he just can't think of any off the top of his head.

"That doesn't tell me what they are, though. They're not all foxes, right?"

[soft_focus]

"That's not what I meant! I just meant they have different smells!" she insists, peering through the glass now. "So it has to be something with the right smell, if I use it."

She looks rather amusing, through the water like that- her head gets all bubbled up like in a funhouse mirror, and green as well. What's visible behind the flower anyway.

"Um. Definitely not," she adds, blinking. "...This was really fast, so it's not very clear.... Ummm....most of them, they're doing other things, and they have more 'fluff'...."

[hippocarnival]

Yuya leans over to stare through the glass right back at Reira, his brow quirking up.

"What fluff?" She's not giving him a very good picture of her other sculptures, here. Or why the smell matters when she's working with shadows, as long as it's not revolting. "If I can't see them, can you tell me about them?"

[soft_focus]

"The shadows." She looks back, tilting her head a bit before trying to just hop up to the edge to c ling there and look at Yuuya easier. She could probably just have walked around it.

But whatever. "I make the shadows look fluffier. ...Why can't I just show you them when they're done though?"

[hippocarnival]

Yuya shrugs before pushing himself back up. "You can! I was just curious."

He leans over a little as she hangs from the edge, watching that she doesn't actually tumble in. He's got no idea if she can swim like that and it's better not to test it.

"So do you anything you want to take?"

[soft_focus]

Poke. She's at the very least poking the water, to watch it ripple. Seeing how things Work like this is neat, and one of those things is what weird tea flowers look like from above the water.

"Mnh....I don't know yet," she decides after a moment. "...You have lots of things, and I might just take one of the flowers you already used..." She's assuming he doesn't need them after the tea is done after all, right?

[hippocarnival]

It is a lot of things, but it's also all mostly the same things. There's only so much you can put in a flowering tea, let alone when he's just starting out.

"Sure." He won't need the used flowers, anyway. "I haven't been using many of them, though. Just making them."

Sampling tea got to be a lot.

[soft_focus]

Well that seems weird. "...You haven't used them? ...Isn't the bloom part the art too?" she asks, letting her foreclaws sit in the water. This is probably not very sanitary, but whatever, it's nice and warm.

[hippocarnival]

"Well yeah! But I'm still working on the first part... you know, I've never done this before."

He doesn't even have to pretend for that, because he has exactly zero experience in flower teas prior to the flames of inspiration. It's kind of weird to think about, he wonders if he'll remember how to do this later.

"I mean, I've steeped a few to see how they're turning out but I've made way too many of them."

[soft_focus]

No excuse!

Or so the message goes, as conveyed by Reira's frown. "...You need more teapots," she decides, looking back at the water. "Or maybe just jars, or bowls, and things. Or maybe, you could make a BIG bowl, like a bath, and put lots of flowers in, all at the same time, like a tea garden..."

Reira the point is to drink these-

[hippocarnival]

"I... think those are way beyond me right now." They sound like projects that are bigger and require more thought than they're actually going to dedicate to Eden. They're here on a mission after all, and it's not Lilith's.

"I was told to start small, so I'm going to stick to that."

[soft_focus]

"How's it beyond you, you just said you have a whole bunch of flowers you didn't use yet," she remarks, genuinely confused.

[hippocarnival]

"Because then I'd have to worry about arranging them and making them match and stuff? More than a bunch of individual ones." That definitely doesn't sound like a 'just sit and drink the tea' idea.

"Maybe it's a good idea for later... but there's no need to rush, right?"

[spaghettimonster]

"Nyeh heh heh, I hope you're exaggerating! That would be a terrible way to die." If Joker's going to go out, he should at least go out in a cool, flashy, heroic fashion. Not something silly like curiosity.

"But, I am merciful, and I'll spare you further suspense. I have been dubbed... 'Yehudi'. I think I like it!" They're probably supposed to like them, if the names are reflective of their innermost selves. But it's worth saying.

[spaghettimonster]

With Rita forcing some calm on the situation, and 9S and Sans following her lead, Papyrus manages to calm down a bit in turn. It's enough to pause his pushing manic optimism everywhere, and listen.

It's not good news. After all his care and attention to hiding what he was doing from people around them, he'd thrown that dust right in Sans' face, where he and any watchful spiders could see it. In hindsight, he is super suspect. But their friends...? Reira, at least, said she said hello and asked for paper. That doesn't seem too suspicious.

"W-Well... We can warn them, to be careful," he offers. Using the very mailing list that might be endangering them in the first place might backfire, but they can figure something out. "Do you think... she could hear, too?"

[prazerbutterfly]

One of these days he's really going to show her the art of 'playing along' even if it might feel like lying to her.

His brow raises, or it would, at the way she's tapping her foreclaws together like some child wanting approval and he'll nod at her questioning with ease. "Of course."

[kingsroads]

If Childermass is going to give him shit, Strange is going to give him shit in return. He makes a noise in the back of his throat, like the bird equivalent of laughing, before he shakes his head slightly.

"I thought you wouldn't be interested. But since I might be wrong, would you care to dance with me?"

And it's Strange's turn to do a low little raven bow (more like a nod of his head) before he offers Childermass a wing. Yeah, he's pretty certain that Childermass won't take him up on his offer, but you never know.

[soft_focus]

"...I guess..." She doesn't sound like she believes it. "....I just do what feels like it's right, I suppose..." Normally it ends pretty great for her. She thinks.

Most of her pieces aren't really finished yet, but there's going to be quite a lot once she has the 'final piece' for them all.

".........this is nice and warm, at least," she eventually notes conversationally.

[soft_focus]

She will, predictably, just lie to make 'playing along' more along the lines of what she wants. She's like that after all, she got some random Honorable up here somehow.

The bat does seem rather thrilled about the idea of someone seeing her works however. "Okay..!! I'll tell you right away then!!"

[hippocarnival]

Yuya glances down. "The tea...? You're supposed to drink it." Which doesn't make it less nice and warm, but most people don't feel that way from sticking their finger in it.

[anti_nonsense]

"I was afraid of that..." Rita mutters. "I didn’t give away any specifics, but our conversation this morning probably looked suspicious, especially under scrutiny."

She casts a look around her workshop. It seemed like a nice base for a while, but now? "Maybe I should consider making myself scarce, too..." Stepping lightly, she draws closer to 9S, brushing her tail against his front leg as she turns around and sits at his side. It’s meant as a sort of reassuring gesture. "I'll make another round of reports before I do anything, though. We'd better get word out about this." Particularly to the other supervisors, the militia, and anyone else who ran into Sans today.

[pipers_son]

"Definitely wasn't what I was expecting for a welcome party!" He laughs, trying to hide how much the brand is sore against his chest even with the lowkey healing he's trying to hide by smooshing into Ginko's wet fur. It'd be a lot easier if Ginko were fluffier... and, you know, not soaking wet, mostly.

"I'm interested ta see what else is in store for us!" Mainly so that he can adapt as needed and get everyone safe. Which is apparently his job now and, thanks, he hates it.

[soft_focus]

"I'm not drinking all of this!" she protests immediately. "There's enough water here for three bathtubs!"

Well, bath tubs her size, at least.

[hippocarnival]

Yuya snorts. "I didn't mean you'd have to drink all of it. Give me a minute and I'll find a small cup, okay?"

He turns around, spinning a bit to locate which cabinet might have cups, or something that sufficiently. Ultimately he'll just start poking his nose into random ones.

[soft_focus]

"Umh. Ok..."

She doesn't seem entirely concerned about it however, as she peers into the tea instead. She's practically nose to the water by the time the fox has turned around, wiggling a bit as she takes in the scent.