⇨ 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

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya reaches back to gently swat his wing against Jasper's leg. One Fury already isn't talking to her, he doesn't want to piss the rat off more.

"We were hoping you could tell us more about the Silver Mirror--I presume that is what is being used to observe these souls? Such as where it is kept, or who has access to it."

He pauses. "It sounds as if you have already heard of our strange arrival... how easily does information from Eden reach the Furies?"

[periphrasing]

The little bat finally sits up again and shakes her wings out, sighing dramatically and making a side comment to Yefefi. "I suppose I can't really blame you for being confused. We did just spew a whole lot of information and questions at you at once, in a completely disorganized and chaotic manner," she growls, shooting a meaningful scowl at Jasper.

[stompadour]

Jasper huffs and flicks her tail, but shuts up.

[npcarnival]

"Yeah," Yefefi says, looking at Peridot. "I'm not really feeling it, to be honest."

"Usually allies offer something mutually beneficial..." Duma drawls flatly.

[chronosynthesis]

"Of course. As I said, if there's a possibility if making an alliance, then we re open to helping you achieve your goals in exchange for aiding ours. We desire the mirror, and you..."

He gestures to them. "There must be something you need to know, or something you need done."

[npcarnival]

Yefefi groans, and then taps something into the crystal interface that finally lets Zangetsu free.

"How about you start from the beginning. Tell us everything - why you're here, what you want, what you need from us... then we'll talk." They shake a finger at them. "And no more questions until you do! We're not the ones on your doorstep."

"I'm going to tell Agla," Duma sighs, and disappears into another puff of clouds.

[periphrasing]

"Gladly," Peridot breathes, weak with relief. "I'm... Really sorry for the trouble, things have been sort of hectic since we got to this world and then the whole journey out here was really intense..."

Yefefi get's the whole story re-summarized. How they're really changelings of a Wyld Fae here on a mission to investigate the Silver Mirror, and how they were initially trying to get answers back in Eden but kept hitting walls because their arrival was so inherently suspicious. And finally how, once they'd seen evidence that the Furies were still active, Peridot had thought it might be a good idea to try and find them and talk to them, even if they were kind of flinging themselves into the unknown a bit.

"I'm a pretty important rebel myself, back in my home universe," she adds at the end of things, puffing up a bit. "Before we came to this world, we found some old texts that referenced your group, and how you started out standing up to Lilith's abuse. Once we saw you were still around, I guess I thought, 'hey, if those origins are true, I bet we can count on them to give us the honest take on how Eden REALLY works, and then maybe we can help out their cause in exchange!'"

[npcarnival]

Yefefi has been listening patiently as Peridot explains, and waits until the end before speaking up.

"Well, if all of this is true, it sounds like it could be pretty revolutionary for us! We've never had resources coming from the outside before... we don't even know how to leave, really!"

"The Furies know about most things that happen in Eden, because we have inside sources. As far as I know, if we managed to get Lilith out of our fur, we wouldn't even need the Mirror for anything."

[moonfang]

Oh freedom, sweet freedom! Zangetsu swims out and even does a little twirl in the air. He doesn't care if he's still pink, he's not in the box. "Thank you."

And he will keep his mouth shut now.

Though he does have some thoughts. If they got rid of Lilith... would this world disappear? Was Eden reliant on them like the Carnival was on the Ringmaster? He saves it for now; he'll bring it up later if it seems relevant.

[periphrasing]

What Yefefi is saying is extremely encouraging, and Peridot's mood has brightened significantly. There's still a whole boatload of questions that they still need answered, and this whole thing about Eden apparently studying 'Peoples' is concerning in it's own right, but, still. This is progress. She can feel it.

"It'll be a bit difficult for us to promise anything concrete until we can make contact with our boss," Peridot adds, careful to make sure she's being realistic about this and not promising more than they can deliver. "But she's extremely powerful. I'm confident we can come to some sort of mutually beneficial arrangement."

[npcarnival]

It's about this point that Duma returns - and they aren't alone. In comes a familiar looking cat, and a dragonfly as well. They stride over to the group with confidence.

"So these are the 'Peoples'?" what can only be Agla says, her tail swooshing. "The atmosphere seems cordial. Did you find anything out, Yefefi?"

Yefefi goes on to basically ramble everything Peridot just said to Agla, only pausing halfway through and admitting that they'd recorded the whole conversation anyway, so Agla could just watch it for herself.

"An alliance?" Agla will say, looking at the group. She hesitates, an then says: "you should come inside."

She'll lead everything out of the decontamination chamber if they are willing to follow.

[stompadour]

At 'cordial', Jasper snorts, but quietly -- she's frowning throughout but she'll follow if the Responsible members of their party agree to it.

[periphrasing]

Peridot has absolutely no issue with following; she glances back at the rest of the group briefly, and then trails after Agla.

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya definitely recognized them from their posters, but he doesn't say it. Instead, he briefly bows his head before following behind Peridot.

[npcarnival]

They lead everyone through a few gateways, eventually emerging in open coridors lit by glowing crystals. It's in a larger room, with benches and tables, that Agla hops up onto one of the desks and addresses everyone.

She says that the Furies objective is to free Eden from the tyranny of Lilith's mission. Too many have been punished in the past for failing to meet her insane objectives, and the cruelty wrought against other species is unacceptable.

They don't know what will happen to Eden without Lilith, but in the event that it can't be sustained without her, they would want to go somewhere else that would be safe. Of course, the ideal would be to retain Eden, but to assume full control, and allow the residents to pursue whatever goals they wish.

Eden could be so much more than it is right now.

[stompadour]

Jasper listens carefully, trying to pick apart what Agla is saying and decide how she feels about all of this. She doesn't like Eden, but this all seems kind of familiar in a way she finds offputting. (On the other hand, Rizo was also familiar in a way she found offputting, so...)

She wants to know what kind of cruelty Agla means, and against what other species.

[npcarnival]

She means the varies species that get hauled into Eden to be picked apart and examine as reference material for the crafting of the perfect soul that Lilith wants. Looking at the souls of various Peoples is meant to help them figure out what needs to be different.

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya asks what exactly goes into crafting a 'soul'? Everything he's seen so far from the Honorables have been more 'arts and crafts', less bringing things to life.

Are they using the mirror for those experiements?

[periphrasing]

1. This research: is it specifically the Twelve who are responsible for performing it, or are other Honorables back in Eden involved as well?

2. Can the Furies confirm they're using the Silver Mirror to perform this research? Because that's what she's assuming, but. You know. Just for clarification's sake.

3. Last but not least: The Furies want to free Eden from Lilith's tyranny. By what methods do they hope to achieve this? By killing Lilith? By some other means entirely?

[npcarnival]

The arts and crafts are just the way Honorables are trained to use their talents, because they need to be skilled in the art of creation. They start off by creating objects and concepts, and eventually become skilled enough to craft life and souls. Most of what the Honorables do is meaningless. The only purpose to it is to discover the most talented among them, to be further trained in creating new reality.

1) Only the Twelve and the chosen Honorables (called Scholars) work with souls or the mirrors. Many Honorables don't know anything about what the Twelve actually do with their time.

2) They use the Mirror to examine and take apart souls, yes. It's also what they use to judge any attempts to creating Perfection.

3) They don't know. They think that if they could shift the interests of the public enough to gain their alliance, that the entirety of Eden could reject her. Especially if they could assure the cooperation of all of the Twelve, as unlikely as that seems.

[periphrasing]

Regarding the third point: Peridot says that's all well and good, but slow and subtle isn't really the carnival's strong suit, and they're working on fairly limited time frame. Unless Agla has any ideas for some way to change a lot of people's minds very quickly, they might have to come up with some other way in which the carnival can be of assistance to the Furies.

1. Do they think that ANY of the twelve are actually likely to change their tune about Lilith? Are some more reasonable than others?

2. On that note, what's up with the Serpent? Before coming here they'd heard that the Twelve had once been Thirteen, and that the Serpent was said to have left out of sympathy for the Furies. Yet the glimpse they'd gotten of her outside the tunnels seemed to indicate that, uh... she's not quite all there anymore, if you catch her drift, says Peridot.

[npcarnival]

1) Some of them already have, so yes.

2) Most of this happened before their time, but the Serpent ostensibly attempted to seize control of the powers that Lilith uses to create and bless the residents of Eden with, so that they could live without her. She also intended to cure the ones that Lilith had driven wild as punishment.

Unfortunately, that resulted in the Serpent being banished as well, and also robbed of her sapience. Yet, she holds onto enough of the power that she had before that she has been able to protect and preserve future generations of Furies.

[periphrasing]

1) Can they say which of the 12 are already questioning Lilith?

2) This is mostly just for curiosity's sake: How is it that the Furies retain their sapience then? The other animals they met in the tunnels coming down here were absolutely out of their minds. Is the Serpent somehow responsible for that?

3) Do the Furies have some way of getting in/out of Eden that doesn't involve a perilous journey back through the wastes? Also, if they're going to work together, it would be helpful to know if there is a way of contacting the Furies from back in the city.

4) So say they do manage to destroy Lilith, and if Eden disappears, there's a safe haven (he's not saying there is). Is it possible that the beasts may all revert to their former, wild selves without Lilith? What would they need to do to prevent that?

5) The Furies haven't had any snakes show up at their doorstep recently, have they? Part of their reason for coming out here was to look for someone, but they've not seen any sign of them so far.

6) Some of the carnival's members haven't been particularly stealthy, and it seems that Bezaliel may be on to them. Would the Furies be amenable to the idea of giving them shelter so that they don't wind up captured and soul-dissected?

7) Jasper want's to know how many people they've got on their side. Like if they did press for an all out attack what would the numbers look like, and what do they think their chances would be.

8) For future reference: Do the Furies have any idea where the Peoples are being kept, or how they can access them?

THAT'S IT I THINK.

[npcarnival]

1) They COULD but they are hesitant to do so, for obvious reasons.

2) The nature of the barrens erodes the power of the Fruit and the Flame over time, but the Serpent's venom still retains the power that she stole. So, they inject themselves with that.

3) They do. They could contact them with one of their inside people, but they don't recommend that Peridot's crew try to return back as if nothing's happened.

4) They don't know. Maybe. But the power of the Fruit and Flame doesn't seem limited to areas of Eden's blessing. At least not the version the Serpent has.

5) Not besides the usual one. Though she has been moving around a lot more than usual, so maybe that's related.

6) They can do that, yes, in exchange for the new arrival's assistance with other things. But, the more of them that disappear, the more likely it is the Twelve will say 'fuck it' and persecute ALL of the newbies.

7) A couple dozen who live out here, and more than are sympathetic within the city. Still, an armed conflict is not the kind of revolution they're hoping for.

8) They have a pretty good idea, yes. It would just be suicidal to go there, as it is.

[periphrasing]

They'll leave it off there. They've already imposed on these guys enough without offering them anything concrete in return, and Peridot doesn't want to keep pushing their luck.

The only thing left to do is to figure out a line of communication between both parties, and then see if their crew can get back into the city. Peridot would like to know what the Furies recommend, in that regard. She says they were pretty darn careful to leave the city without being seen, and were kind of banking on being able to sneak back in before they're missed.