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

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)

THUD. Hinawa is still charging at one of the pillars over and over again. She's not leaving until they get the captives down!

Bezaliel isn't falling for that fire trick twice. Instead, a creeping aura of shadow manifests around him, causing the flame to sputter and die before it can ever reach his eyes. He's doing that at about the same time that Smoky Quartz is going for a second swing, roping him in with those yoyo strings.

They very successfully catch him, but he uses that to his advantage. He jerks back against the strings, yanking Smoky forward, and going for them with his claws. The thing that is probably only becoming apparent now? His claws have all been coated in wrought iron. That, and that aura he's generating gives off some intensely bad vibes to be around.

This gives Yamantaka a chance to close distance with Ignatius and to give the chains a yank, but something about the iron seems to sap his otherworldly strength. Shima isn't that fae, but he's fae enough that iron is counteracting his will.

Ignatius groans at having his shackles rattles, coughing and choking up what looks like goopy obsidian, spilling from the side of his mouth like blood. He looks even worse up close, it seems.

At this rate, it's gonna be a bit before most of the captives get down - and Ginko isn't sure that Ignatius in particular is going to last that long. He glances at Hinawa, then turns to charge the pillar, as well, approaching from an angle so that they won't just... end up running into each other. That wouldn't be very productive.

Smoky lets go of the yo-yo cords, which disappear in a sprinkle of light, but not fast enough to stop their own momentum towards Belaziel. They twist in midair with more agility than their size and shape would suggest (or perhaps not -- they are a cat right now), and still get caught across the face with those vicious iron claws, making them yell in gem-deep pain; their form shimmers for a moment, but holds as they tumble through the air, skidding still-solid against the ground at the base of the pillar.

"Oof... you gotta... be kitten me," they grunt, rubbing one of their forepaws over the searing scratch on their nose as they push themselves up with the other two.

They take a quick glance at the rest of this tableau while they try to catch their breath. After a jolt of iron to the face they really aren't jazzed about the prospect of trying to break through the prisoners' chains. No: better to stick with trying to keep Belaziel distracted. Smoky Quartz can make themselves pretty distracting.

They launch themselves up the side of his pillar in a wheel of fur, coming out of the spin dash in time to draw level with his face again for another effort at bonking him in the face with a yo-yo -- this time they're not trying especially hard to hit him, though, so much as just get something in his face so they can land daintily at his feet and make themselves a nuisance.

Find something bigger for him? Strange gives Reira a look that plainly states he thinks that's a stupid idea. She can look for something bigger all she wants, he's going to try and find some other way to help.

So, he vanishes from the plate she's holding. There's a frantic thirty seconds or so where Strange hangs out in the mirror void, trying to find another nearby reflection that's stable enough. Fortunately, he finds one! Unfortunately, he materializes in one of the water areas that surround the gardens, a bit closer to Samyaza than to the rest of the carnival and Bezaliel. He gets a better look at Ignatius, however, which pretty much confirms his theory.

"It's iron!" he yells as loud as he can, hoping at least someone hears him. "Don't touch it for too long and get them out of there!"

Edited 2018-08-09 20:50 (UTC)

Well, that has that taken care of, no need to wander around looking for even larger plates now. Herbert doesn't feel particularly inclined to go and attack a giant shadow bear either, honestly.

He saw the other animals back away from the barrier but potentially that's due to a temperature change, or some superstition, or maybe it's a solid wall and they would have bumped into it. So as nobody else has tried, it seems like a solid plan.

"Iiii'm investigating the barrier," he tells Reira, not bothering to be all too quiet now that there are so many distractions going on, "I'll come back if it proves, insubstantial, you..." His cat brow twitches as he tries to think of an appropriate phrase. "Stay safe...."

And with that, he jumps off the table and runs for the nearest wall of the barrier, keeping low to the ground. He's not going to try and run straight through it, not yet, first he wants to come up on it and swat it with a paw to test.

As Strange disappears, it seems he's gone to find a spot himself. Her ears twitch, but she nods- though before Herbert leaves, she hisses to him-

"I'll be near Her," she says softly. She's not staying here, oh no.

Reira darts down instead, galloping behind art displays and fallen dishware to try and return to where Samyaza and her Honorables still are. There is a distraction on- a massive, impressive distraction of Fire and Light, Taunts and Whips. The others are fighting, and attacking the pillars...

And maybe Herbert's own actions can be a distraction on their own, but for her part she tries to get as close to the true Honorables and Architect as she can.

She'll go until she's stopped, or until she can prod the much larger animal with a foreclaw- and if she's close enough to be heard by that small group, whisper:

"...What will happen to you, if He 'wins'?"

In the meantime, there's now a giant tadpole hovering in the air, glancing uncertainly around. Tadpole Jackson is about as much of a coward as Eruka is, but she's also perfectly happy to order him around.

"Follow me!" she snaps, hopping towards Ignatius. She saw that giant demon trying for his chains and failing to break them free, and she rifles frantically through her own limited spell abilities as she sizes up the chains. A bomb at that close a range seems a terrible idea but... well, she's got at least one.

Another burst of magic and willpower, and she teleports herself up ... directly onto where Ignatius's wrists are bound. She bites back a scream as she brushes iron, yanking back, although it means resting her weight fully on Ignatius's hand, which probably isn't a fun experience for the fae (although at this point, what's a little more weight?) In any case, ignoring the ache down her side she works quickly, drawing on her newfound talent to coat as much of Ignatius's wrists as she can reach in cooling, numbing slime. Now Ignatius can be in pain and smell vaguely like aloe vera.

She's not sure it can actually help that much with the pain he's in, but hey, it's at least one layer of mucus between him and the iron.

Ignatius is barely holding onto consciousness at this point, murmuring something rueful beneath his breath. His hands and fingers are almost completely blackened with iron poisoning, balled into fists and as cold as a fire elemental ever gets.

He vaguely notices the slime, however, taking a bit of the edge off. Something about the fact that she's helping with pain like that make him kind of upset. He knows what the Ringmaster promised him, but...

He hangs his head, just trying to hold on.

"Can't stop... thinking that... damnit..." Are the only audible words.

Tanyuu looks at all the chaos nervously--there's so little she can do right now, and even helping Ginko and Hinawa wouldn't work very well. She doesn't have the right skull for that, she thinks. She can't do anything to break the chains, all she can do is cushion and--

Wait!

Sending her magic into the plants once more, she encourages the vines to grow up as thickly as she can manage, reaching up to support the prisoners and lessen the pain of hanging by their wrists. She pays special attention to the vines reaching to Ignatius, ready to re-grow and heal them if contact sets them aflame.

With efforts to break the iron chains proving less effective than they hoped, Shima directs Yamantaka to redouble his efforts on the pillars themselves, where the chains are anchored. It won't be as fast for saving multiple targets quickly but Yamantaka focuses his considerable strength on crushing the shadowy substance with his many fists.

Urgh...! Damn cheating bear. With Eruka safely back on the ground, Rin swoops back upwards. In theory, he should be able to break iron chains. Iron wasn't the toughest material! But... he knew it was going to hurt to touch it.

He has to try.

He swoops over to Yugo, who has the fewest chains of all the captives. He lands on his shoulder and chirps and whistles sympathetically.

"Hey, are you still awake? I'm going to try and break these chains...!"

He hesitates, looking at the iron bindings and remembering how much the brand had hurt. But maybe... as long as he was relying on his demon powers, he could do something... right?

With a grimace, he grabs hold of the chain in his powerful talons. The iron burns even the thick scales on the bottoms of his feet, designed to withstand the bites of angry snakes, but he holds on. He cloaks his talons in blue flame, this time aiming to heat up the metal and make it more pliable. He makes sure to do it as far away from Yugo as possible, keeping the heat localized.

Rin goes for the chains, but the burn against his feet seems to render him incapable of enacting much force on them - there's clearly something magical about it, beyond just pain tolerance. Thankfully, Yamantaka's indirect approach seems to be working.

In the same moment that Hinawa and Ginko collide with the base of Ignatius's pillar, Yamantaka fucking unloads on it. The shadow itself shatters and begins to discorporate - therefore meaning there is not much holding Ignatius in the air, as it crumbles away, besides Tanyuu's plants desperately growing below and... Otama Jackson!

With some quick maneuvering, the giant tadpole will be able to catch both Ignatius and Eruka, which is a good thing because Ignatius looks like he's on his last legs. So much so that without support he'll end up sliding right off of Jackson's body and hitting the ground below.

Meanwhile, Bezaliel is growing less patient. Smoky Quartz, in particular, is really getting on his nerves - he lifts his paws and bellows, leaping forward to drive his claws in deep. It may not be an ending blow, but with those iron claws it will almost certainly be a severe wound, his jaw attempting to lock around the big cat as well.

It's only as all this chaos is happening that Samyaza will speak to Reira, staring at the fight up above.

"Nothing," she says, softly. She sounds remorseful and uneasy.

There's a bit of resistance to the shadow, but it seems like he can push his way through. Yet, as he does, there is a deep an shaking feeling in his gut, as if all the things he tries to push out of his mind are simultaneously rising to the surface. Does he keep going?

Reira is quiet, and Reira is careful. She continues to speak in whispers, staying as carefully close and hidden as she can. "Why can't you help these ones leave then," she asks, referring to the Honorables with Samyaza, "...If you won't be in trouble?"

She continues. "...They're scared... ...If someone helped them leave, would they get in trouble? If someone broke the shadows for them..." What breaks shadows anyway? She'd ask, but she's more worried about all of the fear she's hiding beside. Those from the Carnival at least, they signed up for this in a way. They know what's coming, know what must be done.

It's not fair, she thinks.

She thinks the Honorables at least should be allowed to run away.

As Strange hears the thud of Ignatius falling the ground and sees him fall out of the corner of his vision, he panics. He can't fully see what's going on and is absolutely terrified and fearing the worst.

"Give him that mirror!" Strange yells vaguely in Reira's direction, not every trying to hide the panic in his voice and forgetting in his panic that technically it's a mirrored plate, not an actual mirror. "I need to see Ignatius, give him that mirror!"

And then Strange returns back to the void of the Silver Mirror itself. He's certain that this is a futile effort. But once again, he tries his hardest to reach out with all his magic and get out of this damn Mirror.

Eruka screams as the shadow beneath them suddenly gives way -- but a bounce and a familiar yelp of distress signal their sudden landing on Otama Jackson, who sad to say is already pretty used to this sort of horribly violent impact.

"Hold on to him!" Eruka cries out, when she starts to feel his body sliding off. The giant tadpole complies, tail curling up to hold Ignatius steady on his back instead of just letting him slide right off to hit the ground. Leaving Eruka perched on a near-unconscious fae on top of a giant floating tadpole, yelling and explosions and all the rest happening around her.

"Get him away from here!" she orders the tadpole, frantically, urging him towards the direction of where she thought she saw the waterfall last before hopping off. As for the others... she looks up at the three remaining on their pillars, two of them more familiar to her than the fae, and makes a hasty decision: chanting frantically, she generates more bombs, though instead of exploding instantly these just float in the air, grinning menacingly.

It's good to know that, at the very least, you can pass through the barrier if you don't mind feeling awful. Herbert doesn't see a particular reason to push his way out and go running alone through a presumably hostile animal city at the moment, so he abstains for the moment.

Additionally, with Reira's talk about the hare Architect being good and on their side despite obviously trying to mesmerise the Carnival party attendees and calling it her 'plan', he really should have expected she'd immediately run over to her. Troubling, but there's not much he can do about that either, at the moment.

So all there is is Strange wanting to talk with the fae he has Stockholm Syndrome for, who is probably unconscious anyway and is on an enormous tadpole beginning to speed in Herbert's direction for some reason. He supposes he ought to take a stab at helping Ignatius anyway, being the Doctor and all.

Running back to the table, he pulls the plate out of the art piece he ruined for that brief purpose, jams it in his mouth (being a cat is really inconvenient) and leaps for the tadpole coming towards him from the table, attempting to land beside Ignatius.

Of course, he undershoots, and lands heavily beside it as it industriously keeps floating along. He should have practised more instead of getting distracted by pointless art! although to give himself credit, he's never had to jump with a heavy metal plate in his mouth before. This is really a lot of effort to be putting into doing his job, he thinks, and Strange really doesn't deserve him making it more difficult for himself to do him a favour.

But fine, he makes another run at the tadpole and leaps again before it's out of his reach....and this time, he manages to latch onto the back with his claws. He can't be absolutely certain where it's going, but he assumes it must be stopping eventually?

He can't see what's happening, he's not only blocked by the tadpole but keeping the plate in his mouth has flipped his chin up flat against it and he's staring up along the slope of its back.

That sure is a lot of Bear, and it's not long enough Smoky's luck runs out. Their attempts to distract make their movements more careless, and in the end that bites them - the cords connecting their weapons give Bezaliel leverage to step on them and move forward, digging his claws into their gut and slashing upwards, barely missing the gems and piercing the light of their body.

Yet, somehow they can't break into parts like they usually would under such force. Their body won't discorporate, which just means that Bezaliel manages to lock them into a deadly bear hug and sink his fangs into their shoulder.

Smoky yelps with pain they haven't actually personally experience in their short time existing, the Ringmaster's enchantment unwinding and revealing their true form. Their wings flap wildly, trying to get away.

Yeah. Maybe this was their bad for thinking they could do something like this in the first place.

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FOR HERBERT

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