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

With Smokey taking a significant blow, Shima has to change targets. There’s no way he can get through all three pillars before he runs out of steam and they’d still have an angry bear to deal with. So might as well try to knock him out and hope that dispels all the shadows. He yells up at Rin.

“Forget the chains! We’re doing that thing ya did at the library! Yamantaka-kun!”

The demon lunges towards the giant bear, reaching up to grapple, grabbing its wrists to try to keep the iron claws out of the way if they aren’t otherwise occupied. They don’t need long, just a moment for Yamantaka to clap his top set of hands, ready to blast him with a burst of flames from the inside the moment Rin is able to join in.

Ow, ow, ow, ow, OW! As much as he wants to, Rin is unable to hold on to the chains -- the pain from the iron cripples his feet and makes him lose his grip. He apologizes to Yugo.

"I'm sorry... We'll think of something else...!"

Then, Shima is calling him, and his crest raises in alarm.

"But... I don't have Kurikara!! It won't be as powerful...!"

However, it was still the best idea they had, for the moment, so Rin wheels upwards, tucking his badly injured feet up against his body and setting himself aflame again. He lands on Yamantaka's horns (ow, ow, owwwww, his feet) and focuses all the power he has into the other demon. Brilliant blue swirls with dramatic black.

"Yamantakaaaa! Take him out!!"

With Ignatius on his way out, Tanyuu darts out of the way of the rubble and redoubles her efforts to grow the support vines up to Gon, Yusei and Yugo. The fight isn't going well, and things need to be finished quickly.

Yamantaka's fire burns bright, and while the lack of sword obviously weakens its impact, it's enough to take hold. Black and blue flames erupt from Bezaliel, causing him to let go of Smoky and rear back, roaring in outrage and pain. The shadow constructs shiver but don't break.

Instead, Bezaliel stumbles backwards, almost falling off of his own pillar. He turns to Samyaza in a moment of panic.

"SAMYAZA, AID ME!" he cries.

Samyaza looks stunned. She clearly doesn't know what to do, drawing back a little in her shock. She looks at Rin and Shima, at the hanging captives, and then back at Bezaliel.

"I didn't ask you to come here!" she yells at him again in frustration.

Jackson, being a tadpole entirely constructed of magic by its masters will, isn't very smart. As her last orders were to take Ignatius away from the conflict, Jackson's just going to keep on doing that ... right up until claws prick into its weird, rubbery skin.

That only has the effect of making Jackson squeal and go faster, hurtling right towards that shadow barrier with its riders in tow, a firm grip on the fae slung across him.

As Tadpole Jackson continues his quick trek towards the shadow barrier, Strange picks possibly the most inopportune time to show up back in the reflection that Herbert's carrying.

"Point it closer towards his face!" Strange orders, further proving that poor Herbert cannot catch a break. Strange is trying his hardest to seem calm and collected and not at all concerned about the fact that Ignatius is super close to fucking dying. That being said, he's failing miserably and looks/sounds worried as hell.

Since he can't really do much besides pep talks and reassurances right now, that's what he's going to do. "Ignatius! It's—it's your wizard, focus on my voice!"

And thus the plan of 'Strange sticks around to tell everybody else what happened at the party' goes right out of the window.

"I'm a cat, you utter fool!" Herbert tries to say, but it comes out a garbled mess because he's still plastered against the tadpole, hanging on for dear life with the plate clenched in his teeth.

So on the upside, nobody can even see Strange fussing like he's Ignatius' 500th mom.

The bear is scared. She can't feel it from here obviously, but no one who isn't scared would shout That.

Reira grins. "...It looks like we'll win anyway- so don't worry. We'll go find our leader," the bat whispers, "And she'll help the ones he had..."

She pauses, considering her options. Leave? Stay hidden? She doesn't want to incriminate the Hare after all, so...

"..Thank you- for trying to help. ...And...for giving me a nice name, like no one ever did," she whispers, ducking her head. "I hope we see you later."

She doesn't leave right away- she waits. Bezaliel is looking to the Hare, and if she moves she'll no doubt be spotted. But once his attention is elsewhere, she runs. Runs for the first sign of cover in the remaining party area, so that she can find an opening to get the heck out of this place.

(Or, maybe just make sure everyone else gets out first. That's kind of important too.)

Meanwhile, Smoky plummets to the floor at the bottom of the pillar for the second time in not very long at all, and in much worse shape to boot. They land on their back, at least, which is good news for both of their gems, but the iron-tipped injuries from Belaziel have weakened them badly enough that it's a long moment before they can even roll onto their side. They plant two hands on the ground to try to push themselves up, clasping the other one to the gouges across their middle, and grimace in pain. This is quite literally the worst experience they have ever had in their life!

With Tanyuu working to support the captives with her vines, it feels like attacking the base of pillars again would only be detrimental to her efforts-- but in her panicked glancing around, she sees them flicker when Bezaliel's concentration is broken by Yamantaka's flame. Rather than aim for the pillars, Eruka urges the tadpole bombs she's summoned by now to go up, up, until they're eye level with Bezaliel and swarming him and his pillar like a grinning, demonic brood.

It'll be the last thing he sees before Eruka folds her hands together and the bombs explode, this time with all the noise and flash concentrated around the Architect instead of being thrown willy-nilly. The actual damage each individual explosion causes is still relatively minimal -- she focused on volume, not power -- but as fare as a distraction goes, she hopes it's enough.

"Come on, move!" She'll turn her attention to Smoky after that, hopping over towards the gem and tugging at their arm frantically to get them to their feet. Since Smokey is way larger than she is, this is not particularly effective.

Edited 2018-08-10 06:45 (UTC)

During the moment Rin first lands onto Yugo, he flinched. Then he tried to look up... But between his face stuck in a grimace and eyesight being glazed over toward the agony, the secretary bird didn't get much a response out of him besides a vaguely questioning-

"Huh...?"

Just because he definitely has the least chains doesn't mean Yugo's pain tolerance can hold up against the soul-searing burn of pure iron (stupid fae changes). Enough to stay semi-conscious and do his earlier useless wriggling out of desperation, yet not to be totally aware as Rin tries and fails to melt the chains.

So the bird's apology, the shouting, and other chaos wrought in this battle... a lot flies over his head.

Otama Jackson and its riders disappear into the shadow. A volley of tadpole bombs explode all around Bezaliel, lighting up his pillar and sending him stumbling again, still stunned by the effects of black soul fire.

It's in those moments that Bezaliel snaps, his desperation reaching a peak. This turns out to be a bad thing, as animals do desperate things when they're cornered.

The pillars holding the captives begin disintegrating, but not before the shadows shift and reform, enveloping the carnival members chained against them. Bezaliel roars, and everything in the area seems to shift to the negative, as if a filter has been applied over everything you see.

The three pillars of shadow, enveloping Yugo, Yuusei, and Gongenzaka, seem to reach inside of their prisoners and wrench something free from their bodies. It isn't amazingly painful, just cold. Very cold. Of course, no one can totally see what happens in the darkness, until three black shards shoot out of the pillars and up to Bezaliel, circling him around him and his shadowy aura.

"LILITH!" Bezaliel bellows. "I OFFER THEIR SINS TO YOU! YOUR GARDEN OF EDEN IS UNDER SIEGE!"

If anything was going to spur Samyaza to action, it seems it was this. She flies up towards him, her voice cracking with sudden, uncontrollable fear.

"Bezaliel no!" she cries. "Don't!"

"DIVINE LILITH!" He ignores her, raising his massive paws, as a network of geometric patterns form between the three floating shards of darkness. "ANSWER YOUR SERVANT'S PRAYERS!"

Gongenzaka hasn't really been all that 'here', through most of the evening. Being so filled with Fae magic, being shackled in iron and then on top of that exposed to a number of explosives and flames (however 'distant') does that.

But his ears twitch when he hears 'Lilith'. They twitch, and with a weak grunt he opens his eyes, only to see darkness. And it's cold, so cold, immensely cold and-

And he is not the only one here, he remembers. He remembers there were the others here, and that is enough to drive him to try calling out with his heart. Help, he doesn't know how, doesn't know what that force can do, but it's all he can plead from it through the dark and cold.

CREATION, HELP..!

The shadows sweeping over everything are terrifying for more than the immediately obvious--for a moment Tanyuu is back inside the Void, whispers echoing in her ears--

Bezaliel's shout shakes her from the memory, and in a panic she sends all of her magic into the vines at his feet. They don't grow fast, nor will they restrain more than as a nuisance, but she has to try--!

Edited 2018-08-10 15:03 (UTC)

Smoky Quartz held out admirably, but this is the thing that does it. Through all the pain, the darkness sweeps through the area, and Steven's fear spikes uncontrollable. Combined with everything else, he loses hold on the fusion, and iron effect has faded enough that they are able turn to light.

As Eruka tries to help them, Smoky glows and poofs into two much smaller gems - Amethyst, and an tragically naked Steven, back in his faerie form. Steven, for the moment, can only cower. Left over wounds from Smoky's injuries still streak across his belly and chest.

"Oh no," he says in a tiny voice, ashamed of the fact that he wasn't good enough to fix this.

Edited 2018-08-10 15:13 (UTC)

Amethyst sits up slowly with a groan, just barely holding onto her form after losing Smoky Quartz's. She wants to let go real bad, just retreat into her gem and try to recover, but she knows she can't. Not just yet.

"Thanks, frog girl," she croaks, forcing herself to trembling feet. "C'mon, Steven... we super gotta get outta here."

Yugo chokes on his own scream at the sharp cold gripping onto some metaphysical part of him that he's not in the state of mind to identify.

"St-stop it..."

He wants out, he'll do anything to get out- which is the moment that something else calls to him, whispering gently in his ear before seizing at his heart.

Hinawa just... backs away from the growing darkness as much as she's able to, unable to do anything but watch as all of this unfolds. As Yugo, Yuusei, and Gongenzaka disappear from sight, a terrible feeling grips her.

"He's going to kill them...!"

"And he's calling for Lilith! We can't let him do this!!"

He can feel his strength waning, feel the shadows pulling at his darkest innards, but regardless, Rin lets out a raptorine shriek and dives from Yamantaka's horns, talons outstretched, aiming for the wild bear's eyes.

"LET! THEM!! GO!!!"

It takes less time than you would think.

As Rin dives and strikes at Bezaliel's face, blood spatters across the pillar. One by one, the shadow pillars holding up the three prisoners begin to crumble and fall, releasing those inside them - but they are changed. There are holes in their chests, as if carved out of black stone, leaving a hollow where their heart should be.

The only pillar remaining is that the one that Bezaliel staggers on, the three black shards spinning around him as dark light shoots into the sky. Darkness crowds the sky overhead, only to be cut through with a crack of blinding light, like a breaking mirror.

Lilith descends.

She has six wings, somewhere between those of an angel an demon, but all made of refracting shards that look like broken mirror or glass. Similarly radiant horns curl around her shining hair, while clothing of reflecting crystal covers her body.

Her hands are held out to her sides, statuesque, as she takes in her world for the first time in a millennium. She doesn't look pleased at what she sees.

"Bezaliel," she says. "What is this?" She already knows.

Bezaliel is scrambling through bramble with bloodied eyes, trying to indicate the fae among them despite his ostensible lack of sight.

"Divine Lilith," he says. "The fae have come to take what's yours!"

Well.

Shit.

Reira hopes- hopes very badly, that Lilith's attentions remain on the crowd near the pillars. As she edges toward the shadows from her hiding place, desperately ignoring the horrible sensation rising the nearer she gets. She can remember which direction it was, as dark as it had become. She can remember, and if she can get through...

If she can even reach the barrier she'll try to push through as hard as she can.

But Reira isn't prepared for the shadows of the barrier striking at her as they do, and her mind certainly isn't as prepared for it as those who went on ahead. Left to do nothing but back away, she forces herself to hide again between some piece of fallen art display, trembling and willing herself not to cry.

Staring from around the edge at the radiance that is Lilith.

Edited 2018-08-10 18:16 (UTC)

Well, at least he blinded a bear. With his talons covered in slick blood and his energy sapped by the shadows and by pulling on his fire so much without his Heart, Rin falls from the pillar and lands on the ground in a feathery heap.

He manages to lift his head and glare at the blinding light that is Lilith.

"Lilith... stole... the Mirror....! It doesn't... belong to her!"

Her, they, he, whatever. Rin doesn't care. And he doesn't stay super conscious much longer, either.

"Rin!!"

Tanyuu dashes forward when he falls, attempting to catch him or scoop him up onto her back if she can. She looks up at Lilith with wide eyes and fear clear in every inch of her, but she's reluctant to bolt away just yet. Instead she pulls herself up and stares down the nephilim resolutely.

Ginko stumbles back from the crumbling pillars, his eye wide as he looks from the sickening shadows to Lillith to the-- dead, they must be dead after that-- the captives.

He can barely bring himself to follow Tanyuu, but he does, half-reflexively checking Rin over to see if there's anything at all that he may be able to do.

Looking contemptuously at Rin as he falls, Lilith waves a hand at him as he makes his accusations, effortlessly striking him blind.

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