lostcarnival | ⇨ EDEN PT. 3

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⇨ EDEN PT. 3

Who: Everyone!
When: End of Day 88, on to Day 89
Where: Eden
What: The carnival breaks into two groups, as one entertains the Architect Samyaza at her festival, and the other assaults the Cathedral through a secret passageway with the intent of claiming the Silver Mirror and liberating those imprisoned.
Warnings: Ritual sacrifices.

IN GOD'S HANDS↴

Only those left in Eden and remaining undetected will be able to come to Samyaza's festival, which is an increasingly small group. It's also a dangerous proposition - there's no way to know what Samyaza has in store for her visitors, only that she apparently wants to interact with them before allowing the other Architects to act. It could work as an excellent distraction, drawing the eyes of the Architects towards the festival instead of towards the Cathedral while the attempt to claim the Mirror is taking place.

For those that arrive in Samyaza's gardens, they are beautiful and well prepared, and music of otherworldly perfection flows through them. Tables are arranged with amazing works of art as their centerpieces, while the trees themselves are made into dazzling displays of color with an effect that seems to turn their leaves into pure light. Samyaza will be presiding, a hare that looks like she's made of something ephemeral, like wind of pure colour. She invites you in kindly, saying that before she speaks, she will honour you with a song...

► THE SET UP: For the first hour or so, the festival will be nothing but celebration. There are other Honorables there, but not as many as usual - the main event are you and the other new arrivals. After the hour mark, Samyaza will perform her song. Until then, threads can be made focusing on the pre-song mingling and planning. Will you listen when she sings?

► THE TWIST: There will be more happening at the festival than Samyaza plans. While she is comfortable waiting to act, other Architects are less patient.

ON HOLY GROUND↴

With carnival members (and Ignatius) in enemy hands, there's no more time for hestitation. Based on the information given to her by various carnies, the Ringmaster will meet with the Furies and declare her intent to attack the Cathedral's underground during Samyaza's festival on the evening of Day 88. The Furies will agree, saying that those they have on the inside will use their influence to ensure there are as few Architects and Scholars are blocking their way as possible, but they must all still expect a fight.

Furies from the base in the barrens will be coming along with this raid group, using what information they have to speed transit through the underground tunnels. They only ask two things - that after the Mirror is collected, it be used to save the lives of Hasma and the other captured Furies, before being used to repair the mind of the Serpent herself.

► THE SET UP: The Ringmaster will lead the way into the secret ruins that Childermass and the other found - the main difference is that she will smash right through the cracked wall defending the depths of the Cathedral, clearing the path entirely with her now serpentine body. Her plan is this - to draw the attention of the Architects to the surface by taking on the appearance if the Serpent, while carnival members and assisting Furies search the tunnels below to find the Mirror and the captives.

► THE TWIST: The people captured by the Twelve and imprisoned in the garden (AKA characters on the TDM) will be found, but the carnival members won't be. At least, not in the same place as the other captives. A megathread will go up for the group that goes to capture the Mirror, but you are free to NPC and thread confrontations will Scholars that are protecting the underground prison and the chambers where the Twelve held their meetings. Please report any Scholars that are killed or seriously harmed to the mods. Lambert will be leading the part of the group heading towards the Mirror, while Sans will head the group searching the tunnels for captives.

Now is the time to let loose and use all your powers. It's probably best to keep your disguise to catch people off guard, but it is no longer necessary. New characters will be directed to post here once accepted.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"It'll be enough if it's shiny," she whispers back- and as Herbert slinks about, she hurriedly hisses-

"There!" As soon as Herbert has her above such a dish, she quietly lets herself down-

And with her razor sharp teeth, slits a small cut on her thumb. It's not dirt, but it's something, and she hurriedly marks her 'code'. One, Two, Three, Four, marks on the dish in a diamond formation. If it's light enough in this place to see their 'sacrifices' across the way, it must be light enough for this to count as a 'mirror', right?

Come, Strange...this is important to see!

"I dunno, dude, I don't think we can run, with this dude's butt in the way," says Amethyst, her ears flicking towards Shima as Belaziel calls forth Yuusei and Ignatius and Yugo and Gon. Her stubby tail is puffed all the way up.

"Hey Steven," she says quietly. "You thinkin' what I'm thinking? If we're gonna have to fight this guy..."

Steven is completely horrified by what he's seeing - the sight of those four hanging by iron chains is not something he was anticipating, and even though one of them is a former enemy... it's still not something he can stand seeing. The shivers going through him tighten as his face sets into something harder and more determined.

Only so many of them can fight, so they gotta bring their best.

"Yeah," Steven says emphatically, putting out his paw to her.

Scooting forward, teeth bared in that weird way tanuki do it, like he's laughing, but kind of aggressively. He pitches his voice loud, drawing attention as everyone else braces, preparing.

"Whoa whoa wait, ya seriously caught him!" Seriously Strange, how the heck did you lose Ignatius directly to the Architect most raring to torture somebody. "That wasn't the plan at all!"

He had seen so little of anyone the whole while they've been here, and then suddenly, for reasons he still cannot understand, he was whisked away, and now...?

Now he's here in yet another unfamiliar place, suspended before his peers in iron bonds. Yuusei hasn't been around long but the metal stings, burns at his lower body, and truthfully he only has himself to blame for that, what with having deliberately asked the Ringmaster to virtually flood his body with fae magic to turn him into what he is now.

But it's something he can bear, a pain he's felt in other forms even if not for this terribly long, so with a deep-chested growl he thrashes at his restraints, limbs flailing and searing as his shackles rub against him. It's a futile struggle, he knows, but he's certain the lot of them look awfully pathetic up here, and above all else he wants those watching to know he's far from given up.

Yuusei casts a glowering gaze of ire toward the ursine behemoth, snapping his arm against his chains in a final, short act of defiance. "Despicable clod, you..."

Amethyst puts her paw to Steven's and closes her eyes, hoping this will help, and the two of them glow in Belaziel's shadow and reform into Smoky Quartz.

Or... a Smoky Quartz who's made of a combination of Amethyst as a lynx and Steven as a lion. They have little paws and a stubby tail with a tuft on the end and they are built like a barrel. As the light fades, they shake out the scruffy adolescent-lion mane that they have in spite of being about the size of a horse.

"All right." They look back at themselves, and then up at Belaziel and his four captives. "I think I can bite some bear."

Strange has literally all of the reflections to look through. As such, he doesn't spot Reira trying to signal him immediately: it's a little bit before he shows up in the reflection of the metallic dish...and then just instantly goes a bit pale when he spots Ignatius trussed up like that.

He failed him. That's all Strange can think about right now, that he failed Ignatius. And, no matter where the other are, there's no way they can get back to the party in time enough to save everybody.

"Be careful of those chains," Strange murmurs to Reira, still looking a bit sick. He's at an awkward angle where he can't see everything, but he can see it well enough. "They're probably iron."

Herbert huffs quietly through his nose in irritation and leaps carefully onto the table to grab the dish and secure it, propped up inside an art display made of wires on the table.

"I assume you're here to act as witness and not, to dole out more helpful advice like that," he mutters from beside the dish. "There's not much any of us can do: especially not miniscule bats--I believe we'll all also be hostages, shortly. That might be warning enough, for the others."

Reira gives a firm nod- she didn't expect Strange to make it immediately. But he appeared, and that's what they needed. Not far from them the light from Steven and Amethyst fusing into Smoky Quartz arises and then fades... With a slight glance toward the prisoners and Bezaliel, Reira whispers to him.

Herbert has it right, after all. "Don't worry-" Reira starts more optimistically. "We're going to try and get everyone, probably...well..." she adds quietly. "They are..." The ones who can fight, that is. Not. Not them specifically. That would be silly.

Her voice is soft, but she continues. "Samyaza tried. It's not her fault, it's the Bear's- just make sure you can tell everyone what happened, if something bad happens, ok?" She swallows- she's doing a good job at keeping up a bit of hope, and trying not to seem scared, but...

It's hard. It's hard, everyone is so big, so much bigger than her, and it's hard.

"...Bad things always happen because everyone else doesn't know what did happen, so... ...keep an eye on this place, for now. We just need to stop the shadows. If...you know something that can stop those, we can try that too." Shame Strange can't just shine a bright light through all the shiny surfaces or something. That'd be a ticket for sure.

"Samyaza said this was part of her plan!" Herbert explains, almost too incredulous to be quiet.

Several thoughts are happening in Eruka’s mind at once while this is going on, gaze darting around in a panic.

The first is this was supposed to be a party.

The second is we’re all going to die.

The third is I’m going to get caught again.

And another, quieter thought under it all: not today.

As the others group up, the instinct to run and hide becomes overwhelming for a second, and then a terrifying calm. Reira, though, gives her an idea. She’s no match for him for power. But if there’s one thing Eruka’s an expert in? It’s loud, flashy explosions.

“I can try—” she starts, then gives up. Cool action lines are for heroes, not witches. There’s a flash of blue light as she uses her newfound teleportation magic. It can’t take her anywhere past her line of sight, but it doesn’t need to: she teleports herself up, up into the air above Bezaliel and the captives, and as she falls she’s already shrieking in terror, instantly regretting this idea.

“—aaaaaahhgo!!” Without much time to power them up, the ugly magic constructs she starts flinging frantically at Bezaliel and at the captives have less explosive power than they should, though they have plenty of flash and bang, detonating as soon as they’re in range. She’s trying to aim for Bezaliel’s head and the base of the pillars, but there’s only so much aim a fast-falling frog girl can be expected to have!

The bombs cause Tanyuu to startle again, and her head jerks up before she bucks to push Rin into flight.

"Go, help the others! Fight him off!"

Then she darts a few paces forward before focusing her magic into the greenery at the base of the pillars. Grasses grow into lush piles, bushes flower and spread with as soft of leaves and vines as she can manage--with those explosions, the chains are likely to shatter, and that fall isn't going to be pleasant without something to break it.

"Gaaah!!" bucked off his safe resting spot. He takes to the air, his feathers still frazzled. "I don't know how much I can do without my sword, but I'll try!!"

He digs down, deep, pulling on his demonic heritage and calling out to his Heart, still within his sword with the Ringmaster. The secretary bird sets himself aflame, looking more like a brilliant blue phoenix. He's focusing on making it as bright as he can, as opposed to powerful.

He swoops over the bear himself, spitting a bright blue flash-bomb of a fireball at his eyes.

No, no, no, not again, is all that's going through Hinawa's mind. This thing was going to capture them and then-!! She didn't want to think about what would happen if they were caught.

Hinawa's not much of a fighter, but she does have a mean set of horns right now. Scraping one hoof against the floor, she lets out a yell and charges headfirst at one of the pillars.

So, people are attacking now? Going into the fusion, Steven had his mind on defense rather than attack, but as Smoky they find the idea of charging in much more intuitive. The horse sized big cat rears up onto their hind legs, summoning a pair of shield-sized yoyos at their sides.

"Guess it's time to walk the cat," they say, setting the yoyos for a spin and launching them into the air at Bezaliel, through the curtain of frog-based explosions. Using that same inertia, Smoky rolls into a ball as well, pulling off a quartz power-roll right alongside them and creating a three pronged cartwheel of death straight into Bezaliel.

"I don't care who's plan it is!" Strange snaps, as he still looks up at Herbert and Reira. The sound of explosions and people setting themselves on fire tells Strange that any sort of attempt at subtlety or sneaking away has gone out the window.

And good. The sooner they rescue Ignatius and the rest, the better.

"I can't do much like this," which he hates to admit it, but there we go. "If people are attacking, you need to tell them about the iron and tell them to use any magic or powers from their own worlds, rather than anything given by the fae."

He doesn't know what the other people captured told the Twelve, if anything. But Penemue thought Strange was fae. If that's the case, better to catch this bear off guard with magic and skills that he wouldn't expect to begin with. Thankfully, people are already doing that, but it's hard to view a kickass battle scene from a shiny plate.

There's a lot going on all at once, and via a lot of methods Bezaliel wasn't necessarily expecting. The bombs are enough of a distraction on their own, but before he can meaningfully dispell them, Rin has thrown a blast of fire in his face.

It blinds him, if only for a moment. In the meantime, that means that Smoky Quartz can go careening right into him, still dwarfed by the bear's size but big enough to count. They knock him back, almost causing him to fall off of the pillar.

In the meantime, the tadpole bombs are wreaking havoc in the general area. They strike the pillars holding the prisoners, but in a proximity that is dangerously close to exploding the prisoners themselves. They don't yet manage to break through the shadows, but the chaos is enough to allow all these other things to happen.

Completely helpless, Ignatius closes his eyes and tries not to die, his breaths coming in faltering gasps.

Reira, astoundingly, doesn't flinch through all of this. As it is. "You should," she says seriously. "Her words were fake- her song was real. That was how she talked- if we get out, it's because she told us how. So remember she's on our side!" Reira insists, looking around as bits of light comes in.

What to do, what to do... "...Herbert, we should find something bigger for him," she insists, pointing to Strange. "...If you can get his attention, that'll help everyone right?" she adds, looking back to the dish.

Meanwhile across the way at the pillars, Gongenzaka is Also trying not to die. It's very hard what with all the fire and explosion near them.

Oh good lord what. Yuusei is caught about as off-guard as Bezaliel is, although he's certainly far from disappointed. He wants to watch, but after the first few explosions he has to squint his eyes shut and turn his head away in hopes that he'll go unscathed, but it's hard to tell through the chaos if any of them will make it, especially Ignatius (what with him being at the centre).

But more than anything, if Yuusei has to die to save everyone else, because he was caught in the crossfire of those who can help, he'll be content with that. Stay resilient...!

Not dying would definitely be nice for everyone involved stuck on the pillars. Yugo for his part wriggles and struggles at is own chains, but having just as much lack of success in doing anything to the iron as his fellow captives.

Though the act of moving at all is doubly aggravating for his own iron poisoned wound. He just doesn't know when to quit.

Through the chaos, Ginko at least manages to locate Tanyuu - right near the captives. He doesn't waste any more time in running over to join her, casting a glance upward; there's not a lot he can do here, but he can ready his spell for once the captives have fallen.

As soon as the attacks had begun, Shima had started to chant the summoning sutra for Yamantaka, the bull-faced wisdom-king demon that acts as his familiar. Now licks of black flame seep from his fur, wreathing around him more aggressively than usual since he doesn't have his prayer staff with him to channel it elsewhere. Yamantaka forms above him, looming up, his six arms reaching out over the group.

"Alright Yamantaka-kun! Those chains shouldn't be a problem for you, right? Help me out!"

The demon growls and lunges forward, arms reaching out to the prisoners with the goal of snapping their chains. Hopefully being in a world on the angel-demon axis means he's not being effected badly by anything yet.

Bam! Direct hit! Invigorated by his success, Rin lobs another flash-bomb fireball at the bear's face, careful to avoid ... Steven? ... Amethyst? ... Stevethyst. Not that the fireballs are doing much burning anyway. Without his sword, Rin has to choose between being flashy and being destructive, and light is more useful than anything right now.

Something falling in his peripheral vision catches his attention. It's a frog! Not just any frog... a carnival frog! Wheeling away from Bezaliel, Rin goes to catch Eruka in his claws as gently as possible.

"Ah... Got you!"

Meanwhile, Smoky Quartz is bouncing back from their assault against Bezaliel, hovering in the air for a moment as they spin their yoyos like turbine blades. Invigorated by success, they swing the yoyos in wide arcs, attempting to wrap them around Bezaliel and tangle him up.

While doing that, they also summon another yoyo with their spare arm and trying to send it spinning right into Bezaliel's face.

Mid-air, Eruka had been trying to remember how to turn back into her jelly form -- it turns out it's a lot harder to do that when you don't have practice doing it when being flung around -- and being caught is a sudden, welcome relief.

"G-gah... thanks," She croaks, but immediately rights herself and hops out of Rin's grasp, onto the ground. She's not sure Samyaza's offer is still good here, but 'behind the waterfall' is at least a destination they can aim for.

"--we need to get them down!" she yelps, stating the obvious and hopping up and down. Yamantaka's already going for the prisoners, but on the other hand, is anyone about to catch them?! Putting froggy hands together and ribbiting out a rapid-fire chant of her own, Eruka concentrates on summoning forth a much larger magical construct than her bombs.

Edited 2018-08-09 19:45 (UTC)

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