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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He nods, "We all did. When you did that, she slithered off into her tunnels. In real life, she's enormous, the size of a small mountain."

He listens, nodding, and putting a clawed finger up to his chin, then raises a brow. "A... 'good bite'. Alright, if you say so. We're trying to decide if we should follow her, or if it's too dangerous," he says, not realizing that part of the team has already gone spelunking, so to speak "Has she lost her mind out here in the barrens, or do you think we can still communicate with her?"

A pause, then an additional question, "What does Lilith look like."

Steven face falls at those questions, and he has to take a moment to think about.

"She... doesn't think like a person, anymore. I think she wants to, but... there's something wrong with her." He trails off, and then something occurs to him. "Tell Peridot she's like the corrupted gems back home, okay? She'll know what that means. She doesn't want to hurt anyone, but she's scared and really wild..."

"Maybe she wouldn't hurt you guys now that you've met? She didn't want to hurt me in the dream. Except... when she bit me, I guess, but it was a really friendly bite, I promise!"

"I don't know if the Lilith she remembers is literal or just a dream thing, but it was... kind of abstract?"

"Like the Corrupted Gems?" Zangetsu says, curiously. There's clearly something he's missing there, but there is an insistent shaking of the ground beneath their feet, like a small earthquake, reminding him he had to be fast. "Never mind. I'll tell her that and she can explain it to me."

'Scared and wild' did not bode well for gathering information. It might be best to seek out other avenues, but they would have to decide that later.

"It looks kind of painful fer a 'friendly bite', but if you insist you're alright." He says, poking one of the floating diamonds. Pretty.

He growls a little at Steven's lacking description of Lilith, "... I guess that makes sense, though. Dreams aren't always helpful for things like that. It was worth a shot."

Another shake, and Zangetsu nearly loses his balance. He seems to be visibly struggling. The cracks have grown wider and parts of the cityscape are starting to crumble.

"Is there anything else? Any animals out here that we CAN talk to?"

Edited 2018-07-16 19:36 (UTC)

"I don't know, but I kind of thought..."

Suddenly, the dried blood around the bite wound starts to glow a gentle pink. Steven looks at it, awestruck, and then looks towards the glass siding of one of the crumbling buildings. His reflection looks back at him, and for a moment he seems transfixed.

"Wait. Wait, I think I feel something..." The imminent destruction of Zangetsu's mindscape draws his attention back to him. "I think I'm connected to someone! I'm going to go look, I'll be back later... Good luck!"

Then, without waiting another moment, Steven dives through the glass and disappears into it, reappearing in the place of his reflection and flying out of sight.

"I'll try and connect again later. But you may have to try and find me awake!" He isn't sure if he'll be able to do this again...

He watches Steven disappear into the glass and vanish from his world. No sooner than he does, all the glass shatters at once and the buildings crumble.

Zangetsu wakes back up in the barrens with a gasp.

Peridot has been staring at him, and jerks back in alarm when he wakes up.

"Well!? Did it work!?" she asks, frantic.

He looks stunned for a moment, then shakes it off and looks at Peridot. "Yeah, it did!" Amazingly. "That feeling that we got, it WAS from Steven, not from the Serpent herself. Oh, and that is the Serpent, the one from the stories. Steven said she's wild, and scared, and doesn't think properly any more. He told me to tell you she's like a 'Corrupted Gem', and that you would know what that means."

He looks at her expectantly, stopping there and dispelling his weapon. He wants an explanation of that before he continues.

She definitely understands the words "corrupted gem", but she doesn't look at all happy to hear them. Any excitement she was feeling over Zangetsu's success gets wiped off her face at that.

"So she's lost her mind and turned into a feral tongue-flapper," is Peridot's quiet, very basic explanation of that. Which, Zan pretty much figured out that much for himself already, but she's not about to elaborate further right this second. She's trying to grapple with the news that this whole expedition was apparently just a gigantic waste of time after all.

The bat turns her back on the group and hops away a few feet before growling: "Why were the animals back in Eden so convinced that the missing animals were hiding out here then!?"

He finds that explanation lacking, but now really isn't the time for it. "He didn't say anything about those other animals, they might not be feral. But I think talkin' to the Serpent ain't in the cards."

A pause, and then he adds; "Oh yeah, I think the Serpent bit Steven in their shared dream. It leaked diamonds. He said it didn't hurt and it was a 'good bite'. Whatever that's supposed to mean."

Peridot turns back and gapes for a second. "...I have absolutely no idea what that's supposed to mean," she admits. Diamonds are generally not great meaning-wise for gem iconography but, she understands so little about Steven's dream powers... She can't really afford to get too deep into the meaning of it all right now.

"Did he seem to think that we should follow the serpent anyway?" Peridot asks cautiously.

"He said maybe she wouldn't attack us now that she knows who we are? Or somethin' like that. But then my meditation started to destabilize, and Steven got another lead. He bailed about the same time my inner world fell apart."

He shrugs, as much as a shark without real shoulders can, then looks around.

"Where are the others...?"

"They went to track down the snake." Lapis replies, still a little twitchy on the whole considering that she'd really rather not mess with a giant snake, but if Steven said it wouldn't attack them...

Also Lapis has significantly less experience with corrupted Gems other than the already bubbled one Peridot had in the barn, so she has no idea what any of this means other than 'Wild animal' and 'Dangerous'.

"They were investigating the tunnel entrance, really," Peridot clarifies. "Come on. They'll want to hear this too..."

Time to regroup and fill Jasper and Syr in on what they've learned.

"By themselves?! Urgh..." He casts his senses out -- it seemed like they hadn't gone too far.

Zangetsu heads into the tunnel entrance and, once Syr and Jasper are located, he recounts what he learned to them as well.

The corruption comparison immediately puts Jasper on edge, unsurprisingly -- but she's still firmly in favour of pursuing the serpent, even more so than before. If it isn't going to attack them then there's no reason not to.

They haven't dove into the cavern itself yet, at least, though Syr is squinting in.

Either choice could honestly be a waste of time, si since they're already at the caves and Steven thinks it's safe enough they might as well look around. If it doesn't look likr anything more than her home, they'l redirect their efforts.

He's not expecting to communicate with her, but there might be something or someone else there who can give answers.

That logic is sound enough for Peridot. They're running on limited time here; it would be foolish to not at least take a look while we're here.

Before they go anywhere, she's going to warn everyone that if Steven's right, and this serpent is like a corrupted gem, they need to be extremely careful not to look hostile. That means no weapons! She's looking at you especially, Jasper.

She'll ask if Syr can still throw a portal up in front of the entrance (just in case), and then take the first step in. LET'S INVESTIGATE THIS TUNNEL SNAKE.

Edited 2018-07-17 01:10 (UTC)

THAT'S PRETTY RICH COMING FROM SOMEONE WHO IMPALED HER WITH A METAL ROD WHEN SHE WAS CORRUPTED, IN JASPER'S OPINION

Edited 2018-07-17 01:25 (UTC)

Look she hadn't had the character changing lesson episode yet, OK! Geez.

Syrlya can still handle a portal at the entrance, which he'll go ahead and place a little to the side before he heads into the tunnel as well.

The tunnel starts off pretty straightforward, though a bit thinner than you'd expect the serpent to be able to fit down (because snakes), but eventually it diversifies and forks into a few different paths. Still, its relatively easy to navigate, as it's all going in one direction: down.

A bit less than an hour into their travels, they'll start coming across magical pedestals with some kind of magical force emanating from them. They are ostensibly harmless, and have no reaction to the presence of anybody walking past them. They also conveniently cast light that would otherwise be absent down here.

About an hour into their travels, they will start to hear the sounds of things moving in the distance, like paws or hooves on stone. The sounds never actually get much closer, however - that is, right up until things start to get really weird.

The caves smooth, flatten, and eventually become decorated with intricate patterns. The architecture is abstract, with joints built into the stone that seem like they would be able to shift and flex in the right circumstances.

It's while on the border of this odd environment that the movements from before will grow close. There are unseen creatures in the dark, stalking you, and now they are starting to close in around you - leaving the only safe way forward the weird geometric tunnels. You are at the two-hour mark in your journey.

What do you do?

Peridot-- still a bat, at the moment-- lands in front of Lapis and eyes the surrounding animals warily. Her fur is on end, eyeing all the shapes in the dark. Is it just her, or are these guys trying to herd them forward...?

"Um--" She swallows. "Should we try talking to them?" She hisses frantically to her companions.

Syrlya's mostly been silent since their descent. Holding a portal open this long is hard, it's harder for him to focus on what's around him and he's getting a headache. It's becoming hard to feel the other end, and he's largely relying on the guidance of the light and his companions.

"What?" He turns his head up then squints around at the shadows. They're... different, aren't they. "Oh. To establish we aren't a threat?"

Interesting architecture. It seems like the barrens maybe weren't so barren after all -- life had just moved underground.

The darkness holds no secrets for Zangetsu, who senses perhaps a dozen separate souls in the caves.

"We're surrounded, and outnumbered. I can't tell if they're sapient or feral, though. "

Jasper tosses her mane in impatient irritation. "Probably corrupted, or they would have asked what we're doing here," she mutters. Admittedly, the underground structure they've passed into doesn't seem like the work of a creature with the intellect of a corrupted gem, but... Well, perhaps that came later.

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⇨ DIGGING DEEP

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