lostcarnival | ⇨ EDEN

Entry tags:

⇨ 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

Even if animals supposedly don't each other in Eden, some instincts die hard. Eruka's not so absorbed in her work that she doesn't notice when someone else comes up behind her. Someone big (though, granted, it doesn't take much to be bigger than her). Remembering orders that they're not supposed to do anything to look out of place, she does her best to look casual when she turns around.

"Hello," she says, chipper as can be. She recognizes him as one of the new animals that came in with her, at least, but she's got no idea who this could be. As for what attracted Tyki in the first place, well, it might have something to do with the particular scent she's working on -- a vial that gives off the unmistakably clear, fresh fragrance of a crisp apple.

Normally Tyki would have a lot more manners but when he takes on a job like this, especially one where they are to blend in, he plays the part of a wolf rather well. Instead of taking a route around her, he practically steps over her just to take a better look and scent at what she's doing. That crisp apple scent is tantalizing and it takes a lot not to drool around her. It's been only a few days since he's had an apple and there is a distinct rumble from his stomach.

He doesn't have to eat but he sure wants to. "That scent is almost on point. Do you have an actual apple in there?" Because he wants it now.

“Erm...” Eruka blinks as the wolf moves so suddenly right up in her space, throat working nervously for a moment or so as her heart rate spikes before she forces herself to calm down and answer the question. She isn’t about to be eaten, not here.

“Not exactly.” Admitting she’s been experimenting with secreting the components for her scents out of her skin isn’t going to sound good no matter how she says it, so she doesn’t. Instead, hearing his stomach rumble strangely, she offers—

“You can have it, if you want.” She gingerly holds it out. “I wasn’t going to keep it.”

There are at least a couple of others that have thought Tyki was going to eat them at some point. One long standing carnival member and two recruits. As a wolf, he's taking up the area like he owns the place.

"Not exactly?" he mimics, his head craning down further to be along side her body. He was to prod at it but he's leaving some air of mystery to the scent. His tail already is starting to sway behind him, betraying his usual excellent poker face with his ears and tails, at the thought of having such a delicious treat. The problem is actually taking the vial and a paw will lift to poke against it between two digits of his toes, "Really? That's rather generous of you."

“It’s my, erm, talent. Making scents, I mean,” Eruka says weakly. “I can always make more.”

Tyki will sadly be disappointed if he attempts to consume the apple scented liquid, since the flavor in no way lives up to the scent, but...

“You got one too, didn’t you? At the branding, I mean.”

He rolls the vial against the digits of his paw. Don't ask him how he's doing that, he's not going to explain his power right now.

No, he has a feeling that ingesting this is likely a bad idea. It was similar to in scent but he has no idea what it is made of. At least he'll step away to the side to give her a little more space, "Yes, but mine isn't anything all that special. It's just glasswork." And light refraction through glass.

“W-well, we’re all special here, aren’t we? In our own ways,” Eruka says, with stilted brightness. She can’t really assure Tyki on the quality of his work when she hasn’t seen it.

“A-anyway! I haven’t introduced myself, have I? I’m Zaapi.” She pats a hand on her chest.

Edited 2018-08-01 12:26 (UTC)

"Some more than others," he responds with a hint of dryness. A lot of animals here were awfully snooty all high and mighty, like the high society he hated so much.

"Baruchi," he echos back to her, fishing out a glass ball with rough edges carved into the inside. He sets a paw down and gives it a tiny spin, causing blue light to wash over the walls almost like water.

There’s something odd about his tone when he answers that, but Eruka doesn’t get much of a chance to question it before she’s caught up in watching the play of light over water.

“You made that?” she asks, trying and failing not to sound surprised. It just seems... really delicate work, for a creature of his size (and apparent lack of opposable thumbs).

His paw hovers over the spinning blue glass ball, letting it dance as much as it wants to until it starts to wobble from the lack of momentum. He's careful about touching it again as not to smack it across the floor.

"I did. It took me a few tries to get it right but I was able to shift the glass back where I wanted to inside." As it stops she might notice most of the carving is on the inside, not the outside, like it was etched somehow from within.

No matter how Eruka looks at it, it still looks pretty solid, which means...

“You etched it from the inside? How?”

"I used my claws," he answers, clearly not giving her the answer he wants. Then with an odd grin he digs into cloth material for another piece of glass and sets it down. His paw passes right through it but his claws touch the inside, leaving behind claw marks. Then with a calm tone, careful not to blend in his usual cheeriness, he speaks again, more serious, "Like this."

Eruka’s eyes about bug out of her head (pretty impressive considering where they already sit in her skull) as she topples back with a squeaky noise of alarm. That’s certainly, well...

Terrifying.

“How — is that your talent?!” She cuts herself off from saying something more incriminating just in time.

Maybe it is the fact that he's use to this kind of reaction that he makes no real show of emotion when she lets out a squeak. He sits there, his tail curling around his hip with a small lash at the tip at her making a little too much noise for his comfort.

"The glass is. As for how I do it, I suppose I'm just naturally good at bending reality." Because he was. His Power to Choose was simply manipulating the world to his whim. He just had less control overall when it came to places outside of his own world.

Edited 2018-08-06 12:02 (UTC)

“I see...”

It’s all too easy to imagine those claws going into something else. Gulp. She ribbits nervous laughter, self consciously smoothing down goosebumps she can’t actually physically have.

“W-well, that’s a lot handier than being able to make different smells from your skin!” Whoops. She didn’t mean to say that out loud.

Edited 2018-08-06 14:15 (UTC)

Normally he'd lift a brow at such nervous laughter but all it really gets him to do is step forward again at the sudden revelation. He looks over at the vial with a sniff of it. It's such a sweet scent and now he's a little more curious than he should be.

"Wait, what?!" he starts, even if he doesn't seem that bothered by it. It's no different than Steven's spit at this point. He sniffs in her direction, "Then you ought to smell as tasty as an apple, hmm?"

At being the focus of such attention, Eruka can’t help but stumble back again, which is quite the achievement for a frog on all fours.

“It’s ... it’s my talent! I can make anything smell like what I want!” Though, the more analytical part of her brain takes over and she adds— “I think it’s got to do with chemistry... but I’m still experimenting!”

He bends if only to lay down now, making himself more passive and less like a predator. Hazing was fun but when he became interested in something, it was hard to ignore. Fear was a nice interrogating tactic but that's not what he wanted out of someone in his department.

Don't mind him as he sniffs a bit in her direction, "Anything? That, actually sounds rather handy. With everyone here that can sniff out scents, it would be useful to change them."

Eruka doesn't completely relax, but having him at eye-level does help ... it's hard not to be reminded of Free, with this guy's obvious curiosity and knack for being fairly intense, but she shakes it off.

"When I get the hang of it, maybe..." She rubs the back of her neck, and then pulls her hand away -- coated now with a fresh, thin layer of slime that gives off the scent of oranges. "For now, though, I'm just starting with the simple stuff. We've got time--" her gaze flicks around them, nervously, unable to shake the sense they might be being observed. "--to practice."

He'll even relax his paws, sorting them in front of him with a cross at one of the larger digits, and his tail will curl around his hip with a lazily flick and sway. Anything to hopefully be somewhat disarming but who knows. She was rather small.

"Practice makes perfect?" he states suggestively, his nose working again as he breathes in the scent of oranges, his head tilting to the side. She offers her hand, perhaps not intentionally, and curiosity gets the better of him. Normally he'd air kiss that hand graciously, but instead his tongue lolls out over her frog palm to give it a generous lick. It's half her fault, but then it is half of his own and he lets the taste linger before his mouth decides to drool or not if it doesn't taste doesn't agree with him.

Frogs don't have the anatomy to blush, but the squawk Eruka lets out when Tyki licks her is certainly impressive, and she's quick to snatch her band back away from that lolling tongue -- too late for Tyki not to get a solid swipe of frog slime.

"Wh-wh-wh-what are you doing!" Eruka sputters, barely able to get a word out from ribbiting in distress. "That's not food, you know! I could be poisonous! Maybe you've just poisoned yourself!" Which would be a terrible way to start off her first real mission since getting to the Carnival, and she panics at just the thought of it, flailing.

On Tyki's part, though, the experience consists mainly of a warm, numbing feeling on his tongue and the strong flavor of citrus -- not unlike, say, taking a sip of a particularly strong alcohol infused with herbs. Whether it would actually be sufficient to get him drunk, on the other hand, is a different story.

His tongue doesn't stay there much longer given she pulls it back her hand, fingers and all, fully intact. The frog slime lingers on his tongue and he doesn't pull it into his mouth. He's made worse decisions before but this one really hits the mark.

"Could be," he mimics, his mouth starting to drool at the new taste. She's flailing and he focuses on that. It's a strong flavor, warm and numbing on his tongue. He's not sure if he should use his power or not as he mulls over the taste. It takes a lot to get Tyki drunk, given his self regeneration and other Noah factors. Either way, he's glad that he's laying down and his head will lower to set on his paws, "It's not entirely unpleasant." It's a heavy feeling that half messes with his head for the moment, "I might take a nap~"

"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."

"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?"

⇨ EDEN

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