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's hard not to be scared. If they couldn't beat one of her lackeys, how are they supposed to defeat Lilith herself? Steven shakily tries to get up, grabbing onto Amethyst's hand for support as they both struggle to stay upright.

His wounds are bleeding, but they are bleeding deep pink, like his gem. He hazily wipes off some of the blood feeling it wet on his fingers are already starting to grow hard and... sparkly? Like the gems he was bleeding in his dream.

Oh.

"Amethyst," he mumbles warily, looking at her and then up at Lilith as she descends. He doesn't know what to do. He super doesn't know what to-

But then Lilith waves her hand, and something seems to happen to Rin. It startles Steven enough that he raises his shield, bringing up the big floating disk above the two of them and anyone nearby. He stretches it as far as he can manage, but there are limits.

There's a sudden, sharp pain in his eyes -- then, everything is darkness. No, not darkness. Darkness is what he was in before.

This is nothingness.

But he doesn't really have time to even parse what's going on as he slips into blissful unconsciousness.

Ginko tenses at Lilith's motion, and that tension snaps into yet more worry when Rin goes limp. He swears under his breath, then, since he... doesn't have hands and his hooves have been all over the ground, he presses his forehead gently against the worst of his visible injuries and concentrates on his spell.

He doesn't know how much it will help, especially with how much of what's wrong seems to be iron-inflicted, but he might as well try and see if he can at least ease the injuries a little.

As soon as he's done what he can, he lifts his head and catches Tanyuu's gaze for a moment. Then he starts backing toward Steven and Amethyst, his eye locking on Lilith. He doesn't dare say anything.

"Rin!" Hinawa screams and runs to him. Lousy hooves... she can't even pick him up. She can't do anything!

Lilith raises her hand, her wings outstretched. Each shard forming her wings begin to seal together, becoming silvery and more clearly reflective. Her eyes glaze over with mirrors.

She looks at those cowering beneath her without pity, but with clarity. It's in that moment, that Steven's gems will begin to glow more brightly, the blue overwhelming the pink of even his blood shifting pure white.

She pauses, taking in the sight, before another wave of her hand sends shards of silver mirror streaking towards Steven and Amethyst, piercing the shield and shattering it.

"I see," Lilith said, her voice radiating power. In fact, she sees far more than these mortals ever could.

Oozing. Faster. That's all Eruka can really do at the moment, a small puddle of translucent ooze that slithers faster in the direction that the tadpole and its riders departed in.

That, and conceal her soul as much as she can, praying desperately that Lilith's in no state to mind something so inconsequential. Don'tseemedon'tseemedon'tseeme--

Reira sadly doesn't have the option of oozing and hiding her soul like Eruka is; the most she has is curling up and staying as still as she can. As quiet as she can.

Maybe if she tries to feel like what she's meant to feel 'becoming wind'- maybe that will help.

(It absolutely Won't, but she's going to at least focus on being as one with the surroundings as she can at this point)

The glowing catches Amethyst's attention, and she just about has enough time to go, "Uh," before Lilith just obliterates Steven's shield with her mirror shards.

She doesn't think about what she's doing, she just hurls herself in front of him.

Steven falls onto his butt with a little gasp, his wings fluttering. He only manages to get his head together enough to perceive the situation when Amethyst is already in front of him, and it even takes a second after that for it to sink in.

He makes a pained sound of worry and fear, reaching out to her - only to see that the shards have buried themselves in the ground all around them, instead of touching either gem. The fragments of mirror refract light in a circle around them, and he realizes what Amethyst almost did.

And he can feel something familiar but distinct in Lilith's power, something that resembles his own.

Steven stumbles to his feet again, throwing his arms around Amethyst waist and burying his face in her shoulder, his wings circling around to shelter the both of them. If Amethyst had been... he would have... he can't even think about it right now.

"Please don't hurt us," he calls out. "We can't fight you."

"Steven," mumbles Amethyst. She sounds kind of dazed, like she can't believe what just didn't happen either. That's all she has to say, though; she doesn't argue with him.

Tanyuu startles with the sudden onslaught of shards raining down, and the ease with which Steven's shield is shattered only proved how vastly out-classed they all are. As Steven pleads with Lilith Tanyuu edges back closer to Ginko and Hinawa once more.

The mirror shards surrounding Steven and Amethyst pull out of the ground, linking together and combining to form a series of larger triangles. Unfortunately, those triangles then glimmer and move to snap into three dimensional diamond prisms around each of them, lifting them off of the ground and to within easier viewing range.

As the same time, Lilith waves her hand, and other mirrored prisons start forming around the other surrendered carnival members, lifting them up as well. No matter where you are, if you are still in the area, it seems that she sees you, and is trapping you in a prism regardless.

"I accept your surrender," she says, to Steven and Amethyst specifically, as the ones currently floating closest to her. As she speaks, she neatly gathers the three shards of darkness collected from her sacrifices, holding them spinning over her left hand. "But I require something in return. I want to know... what you are."

She brings Steven's prism closer, and his gems and blood react again, just as the mirrors on Lilith's body do in turn.

Annnd now there's a little blob of jelly getting scooped up into a prism with a shrill squawk of pure terror and dismay.

"I'm nothing!" she squawks, somehow speaking despite the fact that she's sloshing around in the prism in a puddle that conforms to the shape of her current container.

"Mnh-!" Well this certainly sucks. Trying to blend with the surroundings very quickly stops happening once she's stuck in a prism. Briefly, there is a failed attempt to 'protect' herself- creating her moon shield, or at least trying.

But it is only briefly, and very quickly she's given up to simply swallow and curl in the air of her prism. 'What' they are? The question sits in her mind, but she finds herself hesitant to speak.

It feels as though the question wasn't directed at them so much as...the one that Lilith is focused on.

Yet she forces herself to speak anyway, raising her voice as loudly as she dares. "H-Human...Um, some of us I guess, um..." After all, not all of them are human, so... "Umn... C... Changelings," she manages. That's the word right? For someone with a bunch of Fae in them. "...'Changelings'."

Having such an unimaginably powerful being looming over all their heads doesn't stop Yugo still being frustrated at being stuck into a box again. Apparent from how his eyes gleam and small wicks of plasma escape from his mouth.

... Okay this one isn't as bad despite being no less terrifying, but nonetheless he makes a weak slam with his hand at one side of the prism prison- which only aggravates the endless burning of his wrists from the iron cuffs.

"I'm..." Steven starts, his voice cracking so terribly on his first attempt that he has to stop. He's hugging his arms and legs around himself, like he's trying to hide the gem and blood that's giving him away. "I'm a... a changeling, yeah," he manages, taking Reira's suggestion. "And... a gem. And a human."

He's obviously petrified, too.

"And... and there... there was another thing, kind of like the Silver Mirror... it's part of me now, like the Mirror is part of you?"

He's guessing, at that point. He doesn't know if her relationship with the Mirror is more voluntary, or less innate. He doesn't know why she's interested in him, either.

"It's called... the Rose... and I think it and the Mirror are like... family?"

For his part Shima just kind of stays huddled and quiet in his prism. It's not a particularly defiant silence, not a resolve against an enemy he has no hope of fighting, but the idea of struggling desperately in a futile situation, trying to negotiate with a being that only cares for their own interests, is immensely tiring. Shima figures what he is is pretty apparent, so he's just going to mentally retreat unless something catches his attention enough to latch on to.

"A gem?" Lilith asks, that part evidently the only one she doesn't recognize. She narrows her eyes slightly, looking at Steven with an uncomfortable deepness. She flicks her fingers at his prism cage, which forces his arms to move away from their defensive position around his belly. Steven gasps in mild panic at being restrained.

"A diamond," she confirms, seeming to understand more just from looking. "It sustains your form... how rare. Yet, you are also fae. How is one half of three things?"

"Divine Lilith," Bezaliel says, laying low on the pillar beside her, miserable and humiliated. "There was a full fae... we imprisoned him. But he got away before you could arrive. We believe he is their leader, but he has been wounded and bound with iron. Surely he will be no threat to your power..."

Lilith raises a hand to silence him. She keeps her eyes on Steven and the rest of the group.

"You came here to steal from me," she says.

Amethyst pushes herself up against the smooth sides of the prism, withholding the urge to pound her fists against it perhaps only because doing so would take more energy than she can spare right now.

Instead she stays quiet, and listens, anxiously glancing between Lilith and Steven and the others. A diamond? Lilith must just not know much about rocks.

"So what if we did," she says weakly. "You obviously weren't usin' it for anything good."

That feels like a bad thing to say.

Like, a really bad thing to say, and so Reira anxiously chimes in as well- "It-"

"O-Others were already going to take it...they-" She chokes, trembling. "...They'd ruin everything before they got to it, if they could..."

And if there is anything she would rather not happen- anything she'd hope Lilith cares about for that matter, it's Eden, Exploding.

In hindsight she doesn't think she made it any better, but that can't have made it worse right?

Steven is visibly shaking, and pulls back his hands to cover himself the moment they are let go by the force inside his prism. He doesn't get what she means. Diamond?

The first thing that comes to mind is that the Blue Rose somehow changed him. But yet... The Blue Rose wasn't any particular gem. It was just crystal growth, something else completely. It makes his stomach turn a little bit regardless. He doesn't know what that means, but it's forboding.

"I'm... I'm sorry," is all he manages to say. Is it sincere? At the moment, definitely yes.

Lilith pays no attention to their excuses, making gestures that bring all the prisms into an even circle around her. In each one floats one of these captured thieves... but are there more?

"You will be made to pay for your crime," she says, evenly. "But first, tell me... who among you is most innocent of sin? The least complicit in your misdeeds?"

She's asking for a vote.

"Reira."

Tanyuu's answer is instant, voice clear and steady despite the fear that threatens to overwhelm her. Much as she wishes she could argue for the safety of everyone here, or at the very least all the children--Lilith won't care. She tore the very mind out of the Serpent and those Honorables that stood against her, left them to suffer for eternity without a second thought. What hope of mercy would thieves from outside her realm even have?

"Please...spare her. She's done nothing to fight, she's only here because we'd nowhere else to go." Rin, Ginko...I'm so sorry, everyone.

That sure sounds like a question for which there are no good answers. While Eruka’s dithering over an answer, Tanyuu speaks, and that makes the decision for her.

“Tanyuu!” She squeaks, pointing — not as a vote, but out of shock, and she claps her hands over her mouth immediately after. Will Lilith even know them by name — their real ones, not the ones the Architects chose for them?

Steven is trying to think of the right answer, but with a sinking feeling, he realizes he's not sure there is one. He shakes his head, his expression pleading.

"I-I don't know," he says in a small voice.

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