lostcarnival | ⇨ 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

"You are," he begins, yet it isn't the truth. He's just taking the moment to haze her in order to welcome her into Acquisitions. He never got to before all this mess started. "No, I mean your art. It's an interesting perspective."

His own paw slides into a bag tied around his flank and he pulls out a round ball, blown perfectly as if shaped and smoothed by hand. He rolls it along the ground, dancing lights from refracted images shining from within. It's stained blue and the light dancing within along with water tempered inside causes the walls to almost look like they are bathed in water itself, "I'm just pleased to see someone else working with glass."

Rita's ears flatten uncomfortably at his initial comments. "My perspective...?" Her face scrunches up slightly. "I'm not really trying to say anything with it, exactly..."

Is she? The very idea seems almost stupid, so Rita's going to default to no.

Her eyes are drawn to the glass ball and the way it distorts the light, however... and she can't help but give it a long, curious look. "So your inspiration is along similar lines. But..." Rita's picked up a lot of techniques over the past few days, but this...? "How did you make this?" she asks, despite herself.

"Art is usually the expression of oneself despite what may be represented or the original goal intended for the design. It is often from your perspective on how you see things." It didn't matter whether she was trying to say something or not. There's a reoccurring theme here and it is interesting. Then again, he considered her something of a scholar by now.

It's bat back and forth between his paws like a ball, the smooth craftsmanship only distorted by the various etchings within it. While she carved glass from the outside, he focused on painting a picture from the inside. "First I made a ball then I used the power I was given to reach inside of it." That power he is referencing is his Power to Choose as usual. He's just more reluctant to say it as such and making it more upon bending reality, like he did at home.

Rita looks around the room with her ears still slightly bent. What does all of this say about her...?

Ugh. It's not like she cares.

"Right... I see what you mean," Rita muses, drawing a little closer to examine the details of the glass ball's interior. Without looking up from it, she goes on to ask, "How are you settling in here, anyway?" She'll try not to be too direct in asking about what he's found so far.

If Tyki was allowed to express his opinion right now he would muse that she looks at everything from different angles. That her theme of light and dark, fire and ice, and so on often led to her usual means of compiling information. She didn't have a based opinion as much as she gathered every inch of what she could.

Or maybe she just really wanted to compliment opposites. Who knows.

"Eh, it's a little overwhelming," read between the lines, there's a lot of ground to cover. Hardly anything actually overwhelmed a man like Tyki. "Found my own little nook to create in. Been attending lectures and group opportunities. The name is Baruchi, by the way." Not that she asked.

Baruchi, huh. Rita scrunches her face a little at that. She doesn't think it suits him, but then again, neither does her name. "Puri," she tells him.

"I've been spending a lot of my time here, in this workshop," as he can probably guess from the amount of crap she's made, and the fact that her techniques seem to have evolved over the course of only a few days. "There are a lot of materials here, so if you're ever running short, feel free to take some." It's an excuse for Tyki to come here if he wants some information circulated, anyway. As Rita recalls, he's on the mailing list for that delivery service.

It feels too intimate to be on a first name basis with some people of carnival even if that was the only name they had. He respected Rita even if he didn't entirely trust her. To speak to her so plainly felt off to his Victorian manners but he mimics her name in response, "Puri." No Miss Puri. No nicknames or calling her cute. It was different now.

He would mention how much he could guess that but doesn't. That would be teasing and Tyki was maintaining a certain professionalism as a wolf. He settles on, "You've made quite a lot of progress." His ears lift and his tail sways behind him to express his happiness with that even if for a show. He gets what she's suggesting and he'll nod, "Ah, I might come here every day and see what you have if you don't mind."

"Knock yourself out," Rita says flatly, not mustering much of a show of enthusiasm. "If we're both working with glass, then we might as well share what we've learned with each other." Should be a decent enough front for when they're sharing other kinds of information, anyway.

"Speaking of which, learn anything interesting from the lectures and group activities?" Sounds like Tyki's been mingling with the locals. Rita tried that, a little... but socializing with strangers is enough of a pain without having to keep up a fake identity in the process.

"Hmm, good idea. I have been told that we should help each other out when we can." Though it was more of a 'stay out of my way but we are here to help' sort of vibe. No one was really hostile with anyone here and everyone tried to be as helpful as they could other than reaching actual clarity.

"Nothing that really helped me out," he begins with a clear indication that nothing seemed worth investigating, "The biggest groups are always at the cathedral and the group activities are mostly contained to small places out of the way."

"I see..." Rita's tail flicks as she considers that information. "I might as well just keep doing what I'm doing, then. Independent learning has always been more my thing, anyway." And it'll be useful to have a sort of base here, a place where people can come to find Rita if they need her help, or want some information delivered.

"But out of curiosity... what kind of group activities were there, and where?"

Independent learning makes his ears crane back to see if anyone is within range of their conversation. Technically they were newborns but Rita was right. She was that type to secure herself in a corner somewhere. He's kind of glad she's in research because then he can browse her notes without much trouble even if he has to sneak in as a cat. There's a few animals nearby but only those passing by and she seems to have gotten a good secure location at least for mild conversation.

"Well, some of the group activities had people performing their art. No one new. Only those that have been there for a while. The largest groups were at the cathedral or near the main gardens. Otherwise it's pockets of two or three here and there."

⇨ EDEN

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