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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"I'm an innovative sort." He stretches his wings out majestically. At least, they'd be majestic, if not for his current state.

"And I have a beak! I can be a caretakin' type. Do ya think they have that, here?"

Now that Carly has stayed to a spot for more than a second, Joker hops over and coos in interest.

"Oooooh. That could definitely be fun, couldn't it?"

"Th-that's not the point! You didn't know!" Eruka flails at him some more, but when a few moments pass and he doesn't keel over foaming at the mouth or anything like that, the panic abates a little. Look, she just ... knows the Ringmaster's rules on not harming your coworkers are and she really doesn't feel up to testing the limits of whether that covers accidental injury.

She settles down a little (though, wary of further contact, she deliberately remains out of licking range) and coughs, shaking herself off.

"Do you always just lick people you've met for the first time...? It'd be easy for someone to misunderstand that."

"That's the nature of a good gamble. If you were always cautious, would you ever truly indulge in anything?" He's also made a point of keeping his power in check as not to accidentally kill anymore. Death was death in his mind and it was hard not to look past that.

His eyes close, resting there with his tail curling around his hip, and he chuckles deeply, "Only if they want me to. With you, I couldn't help myself. It smelled delicious."

"That's what I was thinking at least~" Carly chirps. "Now I just need to come up with a style....hmmm. There's not too many things to be done for my body type, but I'm sure I can get a bit creative....Something that flares or loops might be nice, don't you think?"

"Could always just ask for a personal demonstration," Childermass answers, immediately followed up by him surging forward to playfully knock Lambert, a much tinier animal, over and, as dogs do, lay on him. Cats don't tend to enjoy dogs roughhousing with them but he figures he can get away with it.

Even if not, claws can only do so much against thick fur like his, so he ain't even worried.

"You may have to say please, though. That may be a bit beyond a cat."

"Huh? Ummm..." Papyrus squints for a minute at the bobbing bird head, before shaking his own. "I don't understand what you're asking? But I'm sure it can work, if it isn't about laughing at terrible wordplay, for too long."

"Ah, well. S'what I get for getting all, ha, philosophical and whatnot." How to explain.... Joker shifts a little bit from leg to leg, anxious and wanting to move. He wishes he still had hands, to gesture with. Wings just don't cut it.

"The fun part about jokes, I've found, is that it involves everyone, happenin' at the same time. I tell the joke, I get ta laugh about it, and ya react in yer own way." Like exasperation, or annoyance. It's all fine either way. "But just a picture or somethin'... I make it, and it's there. My part's done." Another cock of his head.

"That make sense?"

"It should be obvious it's not food," Eruka can't help but grumble, eyeing him warily. He'd seemed pretty dangerous before, but ... is he just an idiot, maybe? Then again, that doesn't preclude him being dangerous at all.

"A-anyway ... it doesn't taste anything like what it smells like, does it?"

"If I thought it was food I would've likely taken your whole hand compared to just having a taste," he speaks honestly, Uneducated? Yes. Idiot? No. Dangerous? Definitely.

"Citrus, like an orange or a tart lemon. It was warm with definitely too much herb to it. Tweak it and maybe you can make it more alcoholic." Implying it was in the long run, just not strong enough for him.

Yeah, uh... majestic, not so much. But it is pretty adorable, frankly. He's just... trying so hard.

"Ha, maybe. I guess healing could be seen as an art, huh?"

He's doing his best with what he has. It's just that, right now, what he has is a lot of wet feathers. It ruins a lot of the effect of having feathers, honestly.

"Well, it's changin' the body, ain't it?" Even if that change is only 'back to how things were'. It's the normal way of healing people instead of, say, sticking a wooden limb onto them to stop bleeding. "And the body can be art. I think that's how it works, at any rate."

"Sounds about right to me." Yeah that works.

Unfortunately, now he's realizing that this is a rare opportunity for flirting that's even obvious enough for him to pick up on. And yet he... can't, unless he can do it subtly enough for those around them not to notice.

"Well, if you can... find a way to help, I won't complain."

Nailed... it???

He wouldn't even need the Ringmaster on his table if he could use this power around her as she usually is. Fae are mysterious, Tyki, and he doesn't get them. Maybe she'll show up as a dragon much later again and he'll luck out.

"No, only animals," Herbert is more than willing to explain. "Fitting, considering my inspiration is anatomically based--I have...ideas. Plans." Tyki's art, though, that's...unexpected. He doesn't know what he was expecting but it wasn't this. He walks a little bit around it to get a slightly different angle. "Very...delicate. Is it. Glassblowing or whatever power you use?"

“As if they’d—”

Lambert ends up making an undignified squeak as Childermass bowls him over and proceeds to very rudely inelegantly flop on him. He’s almost certain he’s doing this because he’s bigger, for once, but there’s no way to call that out in the presence of other Honorables. What he can do, though, is swat him sharply with his paw, claws sheathed ... though he makes sure to land it smartly on that wet doggy nose. No, it won’t harm him, but he can definitely express his displeasure at being used as an impromptu living pillow.

“You’re crushing me, you lump!”

Edited 2018-08-29 21:50 (UTC)

Herbert takes his nose away from his flank to stare somewhat piercingly at Joker for a moment. If he can do nothing else, he can at least check on the injury from a distance with his newly acquired x-ray vision. He honestly finds it fairly odd: he's noticed the pattern in injury severity and he'd thought Joker was a fairly long term resident of the Carnival.

Nobody was going to be as bad as the pure fae, obviously, but all the same.

"Aren't you?" he asks. "We just had a surprise scarification thrust upon us--you can't have enjoyed that."

"Well, you'll want ta take the shape inta consideration along the feathers." Hopping around, he gets a good idea of the fabric. "It'll have ta be something that, ah, accentuates 'em." The word is said carefully, syllable by syllable. "Do ya plan on havin' 'em stick out, stay on edges...? That should help figure it out."

"Hmmm....I don't know if sticking out all the time is a good idea...maybe while I'm gliding," she mutters, "But not when I'm on the ground, they'd get dirty..."

Hm. "It'll need to fold up on its own somehow...."

Honestly, it would be a really beneficial addition to her file for Herbert to find out what all of her various idiosyncrasies are about. If there's a source. He finds her to be the most tolerable child he's ever met, certainly (however short that list may be) but he isn't unaware that she's not what's considered Normal, in a lot of ways. He obviously doesn't think that's particularly a problem: he, of course, wasn't Normal as a child, which means he can only really see this as a good sign for Reira in the future. But the behaviour intersecting with her specific power as well as what's apparently some variety of currently untestable and possibly previously unexplored neuropathy...

Moderately concerning.

It's fairly inconvenient he's coming to this conclusion whilst he's currently both a cat with no access to any of his supplies in addition to trying to stay undercover. He'll need to keep it in mind for when they're both human again.

"It can be," he murmurs back, trying to stay vague. It's unclear if the locals have some additional method of spying so he's just assuming someone is always watching. What is magic, even. Lifting his head, and then hoisting himself up with slight tree support to get Reira as high up as he can manage. Which isn't very high, being as he is quite a small cat. "We can look into it...later." That's the best he can hint at wanting to do some tests after Eden. He'll come and find her for them if she doesn't pick up on it.

It could be as easy as finding the folder labeled 'bad memories' in her trailer, Herbert. There's enough photographs of the past in there to paint a bit of a scene for extrapolation.

After that though, it's all in the air. Even questioning would simply end in rambles that make half as much sense as ever.

But Reira takes Herbert's word to heart on the matter. If it can, then it can- so that's one step forward...and as he said, something to look into. The bat scrambles a bit to get some grip on the tree, and nods.

For now then... "Mn! Okay. Thank you for helping me up-!" she adds.

"It's all the same time... but so fleeting." His tail flicks back and forth, abrupt and impatient. "A good picture is full of memories! Associations! Telling a story all its own, with more details to take in, every time you see it."

This being Papyrus talking, his favorite painting is of a single bone with no particular secret details. The story is: bones are important, the end.

"Sculptures are even better; you can see them from so many angles! Different every time you look."

She laughs softly and bobs her head, casting an appreciative eye over the colorful array of feathers. Jewelry out of the feathers of so many different types of birds...it will certainly be one of a kind! "True! And your feathers are so lovely besides; they'll make for beautiful accents, I'm sure."

It's probably a good thing that Joker has been given the rather stiff face of a bird, because it means he can't give away the whole act by the way he'd surely grin for now. It's not much of an attempt, but it is an attempt regardless. For that, he can't really be upset. Far from it, in fact.

"Well then, I'll have ta do my best!" He cuddles up against the back of Ginko's head. "I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship, if I do say so myself."

"It~ hurt~ like~ hell~!" Did that response need to be sung out? Probably not. Maybe the artistic nature of this place is getting to him... Or maybe Joker is just like that. It's probably the latter. Coming to a pause a decent distance away, he tries to wink. Mostly, however, he just blinks. Being a whole bird sort of sucks, no matter how colorful he is.

"But we've had ta experience worse, when it comes ta iron. At least, me and a few of the supervisors." Fun story, that, and one he's not particularly keen to keep talking about, so he moves on smoothly. "Besides, I used a little trick ta not make it so bad."

Or else he'd no doubt be turning in on himself in another room, aching from the iron's heat.

"Thought I'd check in on others, see if they needed the help."

Ginko tilts his head back a little - the closest he can get to responding to Joker's affection, for both physical and stealth-based reasons. "I'd have to agree, I think."

It's only after a moment and a realization later that he gives a quiet snort. "...Kind of odd, I guess, given we'd probably never have met if things were a little different, huh."

He can't say he much likes to think about it.

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⇨ EDEN

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sorry this took me so long!

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