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

When the music cuts short, Reira's mood crumbles with it. From beside Herbert, she had been just about to run. But instead, she hurriedly hisses- "We need something that reflects-!", turning her head to the shadow bear. Being as close to the performance as she could have been, and being as tiny as she is, seeing a Massive bear is utterly terrifying right now.

She rather wishes she could hide behind, or even under, Samyaza right now.

Maybe she'd feel a little safer. For now, she shrinks, huddling and keeping her eyes upon them both.

It really figures that the animal police here are led by an absurdly enormous bear. Herbert supposes that this is where the trap he was expecting closes in. He noses quickly at Reira, trying to get her to climb on for purposes of potential speed. He is somewhat more agile as a cat, after all, and he expects he'll be dodging a good deal of things in the next little while.

Whether or not she gets on, Herbert starts slinking away from the spotlight, from the stage where all the focus is. It won't do him any good to be obvious.

When Belaziel appears, Amethyst's back arches and her fur sticks up on end, and she immediately puts herself between the giant bear and Steven, for all the difference that makes.

She guesses at least this was about what she was expecting to happen. Like, not this specifically? But something along these lines.

"Steven," she mutters. "What was that you were sayin' about a way outta here?"

Edited 2018-08-09 02:27 (UTC)

Tanyuu startles back several steps from Bezaliel's massive form, nostrils flaring in instinctive alarm. There's no more time to plan--all she can do is attempt to sneak her way around the confrontation and try to lead anyone she comes across to the waterfalls.

Where had Ginko gotten to...!

Ginko was already pretty damn tense, and now he takes a startled step back, ears flicking. He knows better than to bolt right away, so-- for the moment his gaze flicks around, checking where everyone is. Tanyuu, Reira-- how far off are they, how close to any exits?

Man he hates parties.

Steven immediately stumbles forward as well, seeming to fight Amethyst's attempt to put herself into shield position. Presumably the Crystal Gems could fight all night about who is gunna protect who, but it's honestly just impulse at this point.

He's the one with the big glowing shield.

He doesn't let go of Amethyst though, looking up at Bezaliel and finding it really hard not to cower. Yet, as he looks around the carnival members here, he knows they don't have a choice. Amethyst and him might be the only fighters around. If it comes down to it... they have to try.

"The shadow's in the way," he says tensely, looking off to the side. "Hoo boy."

Right- Reira won't really cling to Herbert's face however, instead awkwardly allowing herself to roll on and then promptly wrap her wings around his neck from the underside of it. "Find a shiny dish...or something with a drink, and something with food," she whispers to his ear, swallowing nervously. If they can do that, they can call Strange- they need a witness here, no matter what happens!

Edited 2018-08-09 03:12 (UTC)

Rin is shaken from the hold of Samyaza's song when the shadows and the big goddamn bear show up. Shit. They really were in trouble...! But Samyaza was on their side, so that was good!

In a scramble of feathers and blue flame, Rin finds someone he recognizes -- in this case, Tanyuu -- and lands on her back, illuminating as much of the darkness as he can with what blue flame he can muster without his sword.

"What do we do now?!"

Taken by surprise--seeing as he was too wary of Samyaza's song to commit to being open to her message--Shima ends up backed up right into the group right under Bezaliel's gaze. Not very stealthy.

Hissing quietly, though clearly hoping someone will tell answer him otherwise, "Er, so we have ta fight that thing? We're not running?"

Good...he was hoping Reira would get herself somewhere not his actual face. Honestly, he has a white patch just under his chin anyway, so she doesn't make that much of a difference there. Anyway, he follows why she's asking for it--even if he can't believe he's about to purposefully seek out Strange. Better than nothing, he supposes.

"It may not reflect," he points out, almost subvocal, hoping it's clear enough for the bat against his vocal chords, "not in this, shadow." He's backing up to slowly sneak around the tables anyway, peering onto them for any reflective trays or plates, potentially.

The other Honorables seem to have the same idea as Reira - they flock behind Samyaza, looking for protection. Bezaliel, for his part, seems to have arrived alone. He ignores Samyaza's scolding, instead turning his attention towards the frightened carnival members.

"We know you are outsiders," he rumbles. "We have captured several of your own, and have discovered your faerie weaknesses. Surrender yourself to me now, and the other Architects may be convinced to spare your lives."

Samyaza lifts herself into the air, obviously frustrated.

"Bezaliel, stop this!" she shouts. "You're frightening my followers! We don't have to do it like this!"

Bezaliel snaps his fangs at her, and then looks back to the crowd.

"If you still believe you are our match... I can provide a demonstration." He lifts his paw, and the shadows shift, several more pillars of shadow separating from his own. On each one hangs a semi-humanoid form, suspended from their wrists with what appear to be iron shackles. "We have captured one of your leaders, and rendered his powers useless!"

Finally, the figures become clear. The two and the back are Gongenzaka and Yuusei, their large taur bodies supporting by a second set up chains that lock their front legs. Then, there is Yugo, held up by his wrists.

In the center hangs Ignatius. Except, in his case, the shackles are joined by a collar around his neck and another set of shackles around his ankles. The skin beneath the metal has gone black like cold charcoal, with dirty looking veins of it spreading across his skin. There is a soot-bleeding wound that looks amazingly infected in his gut, as well as several other gashes elsewhere, as if from a bear attack.

All four captives are wearing loose white robes, like a sacrifice would wear before getting burned at the stake. Ignatius, at least, is partially conscious - and when Bezaliel says what he says, the fae still manages to laugh hollowly.

"You are about to be incredibly disappointed," he rasps, smirking bitterly.

Whatever Tanyuu would have said is cut off by Bezaliel, and while she worries for all of those hanging in chains she trembles slightly to see the state Ignatius is in. Swallowing hard, Tanyuu murmurs quietly enough that Bezaliel shouldn't hear her.

"We need to get to the waterfalls. Let Strange know what's happening, if we can."

"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.

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