⇨ EDEN PT. 3

[ringleaders]

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.

Comments

[alphudo]

"...those of us who attacked did so out of fear or self-defence," Yuusei speaks up rather quickly despite his slowed tone. "...if lashing out because one feels threatened is considered a sin to you... then after all that you did to those honorables who were displeased with your ruling, after doing that to so many of them... would you be the most filled with sin...?"

[drrdrrdrr]

"Me," snaps Amethyst, exhausted and annoyed. "I'm fulla sin. Check it out."

She slaps her butt.

[amphibiopathic]

Eruka fails to respond on account of being mostly preoccupied not throwing up from being spun and basically centrifuged as a jelly frog.

[dontpokethat]

Ginko's ears flip back against his head. Great. More of this shit, and they didn't even get an answer as to why.

He casts a worried glance at Yuusei, because... besides his condition, he doubts that answer will go over well. But, either way... "I'm guessing this would be by your own standards - so I couldn't say."

[starseedling]

Steven seems less confident about this, but apparently following Amethyst's lead, he nods and folds his arms around his body, looking off to the side.

"Yeah. Me too."

[soft_focus]

Reira, as well, fails to answer. In one sense because she simply doesn't want to. The more everyone talks, the more the emotions closest to her sit upon her back and weigh her down, dread and confusion brewing in her heart as a reply. It doesn't feel like Lilith is asking because she'll do something to each answer any more. It feels like they're just going to get hurt, badly hurt, no matter what.

It leaves her scared.

Because in the second sense she barely knows what 'sin' even means. She had assumed, with what Tanyuu said, that it was a question of who did the most wrong. That was 'easy' when it mattered. Almost all of them had attacked, or done something...and even then, supposedly she was wrong! Yuusei's answer supported that anyway. But to answer who DID do the most wrong?

"...I don't even know, how you'd measure the 'most' of that..." she mutters quietly, more to herself than to the Nephalem before her.

But she knows that she likes everyone here too much to give the answer even if she knew.

[sunflowerfields]

This question at least excludes all the children in her mind. But she also doesn't want to sell anyone out, so let's just stay tight-lipped for now.

[fourthscribe]

Tanyuu braces herself, ears laid tightly to her head and eyes squeezed tight against the dizzy sight of everything spinning around her. The most sin--?

"I fell into the Void's grasp! If you want a darkened soul, take mine!"

[dontpokethat]

Ginko's plan had just been to keep quiet after being a shit, but Tanyuu's reply makes his attention snap to her, alarm clearly written on his face.

Amethyst's and Steven's answers were troubling in their own ways, but they weren't presented as genuine the way this was; what if Lilith sees it the same way? "--Don't!"

[worldlyafflictions]

Makes a displeased noise from his own crystal.

"Um, rude implications there! I'm pretty sure we're all getting punished regardless, isn't that what she said? Is a being who swore off siding with both angels and demons gonna be that interested in morality anyway?"

[bananaspeedrider]

Yugo narrows his eyes.

"Everyone sins anyway! No one's better than everyone else about whatever you think is sin!"

Anyone familiar with the boy might think by now that he sounds... off. "That's the way the world works and my soul was already a part of something that knows how to raze an entire world of it."

And then the teen grins, which combined with the look in his glowing eyes and sharp fangs, something's not right. Reira would be familiar.

[npcarnival]

It's only then, at Shima's words, that Lilith smiles. It's a chilling thing, when you're on the wrong side of it - yet there is genuine appreciation in her look, like maybe he's the only one that understands something.

"You know..." she says, softly. "He's right."

She snaps her fingers, and each of the prisms will go opaque, one after the other, blocking out all sight and sounds of the outside world. Inside, the mirrored walls are illuminated by an ambient brightness, leaving each prisoner alone with their infinite reflections.

[soft_focus]

Oh.

Well. Her first thought is, 'I learned something, then'. Her experience with the definitions of Angels and Demons hadn't been very straight forward before, tied to morals or things. Things make a bit more sense, now.

It feels like they were definitely being toyed with though.

Quietly, Reira looks around in her prison. There's nothing here. Nothing. But...she looks to her thumb, and awkwardly bites it again. Painting the dots, if she could simply do that much- "...Please," she whispers, sniffing.

"...Please come..."

She wants someone to talk to, at least,

[sunflowerfields]

Suddenly, it's very quiet. Hinawa sees a sheep before her, and a moment later realizes she's staring at her own reflection. A mirror. She's trapped in a mirror. Did Lilith punish them all? Or just her? If the others are safe, then surely it's worth it to be trapped-

No. No, this isn't worth it. She starts to panic and tries to reach out, but a clumsy hoof clinks against the walls of her prison.

"Hello? Anyone? Anyone?"

[alphudo]

Yuusei stares at the carnival members around him, and then he's staring at himself. Many of himself reflected over and over and over again, and while the sounds of nervous murmuring and bubbling water were muffled earlier, they are now absent entirely. His apprehensive swallow feels like a cannon shot in his ears.

"...h-hello...?"

He presses his many hands against the edges, first simply to touch it and then to try to cover the prism's mirrors, but to no avail. There is simply more of him, more showing off what he's turned himself into.

"Reira!" he cries. "Yuugo! Gon!"

He begins to bang against the walls with his hands and even his body when he can manage it, groaning as his iron shackles continue to rub against his raw skin. He scratches with his claws and likely only damages himself in the process. His pulse pounds ever louder in his ears, his blood audibly rushing through every vessel in the damning silence.

"Carly! Carly...!!

"C-Carly....."

[drrdrrdrr]

Amethyst does get it together to bang her fists against the inside her prison this time, and yell, and even cuss a little as it becomes clearer that no sound is getting in from the outside -- but she runs out of steam quickly. It's getting harder and harder to hold onto her damaged physical form, and before too long her prism contains only her gem, reflected infinitely in the mirrored walls.

[amphibiopathic]

Strangely enough, as soon as they’re shut up in those mirrored boxes, it’s a lot easier for Eruka to try and force the panic down and think, her heart pounding loudly in her ears. Calm down. This is obviously some kind of magic prison... but for what purpose?

Is there any chance of breaking through it? After a moment’s hesitating, she draws on her talent, concentrating — and shifts her liquid form so her composition is more like acid than jelly. If she can’t shatter the mirror, she might as well see if she can tarnish it.

[starseedling]

He knew this was coming the whole time - he knew that Lilith wasn't really going to let any of them go. Yet, when he finds himself imprisoned so completely, he finds the emotions rising up and threatening to drown him. The fear. Frustration. Panic.

He scratches at the mirrors with his claws, tears in his eyes as he struggles to react to this rationally. He doesn't know what's coming next, and that kills him. All he can think about is the other times he's been trapped, and what had followed them. He doesn't want it to happen again. Please.

He'll claw and punch himself exhausted, if left to it, bits of diamond blood breaking away from his wounds and floating in the void with him.

to save me from writing like ten billion tags...

[kingsroads]

There's suddenly like fifty more reflections and oh my God, everything has gone to shit. Turns out that they didn't have this as under control as Strange thought! Which really, considering the carnival's history of parties, he shouldn't be surprised.

Everybody who's trapped in a mirrored prism will see Strange pop in one of the reflections in the prism. He'll make eye contact with whoever's in the prison and give them a little nod before he pops out of the reflection. All the while, he's muttering a litany of names under his breath, as he tries to remember exactly who's imprisoned.

There's only three people who he'll actually stop and chat with (and by chat, I mean 'Strange says one sentence, lets them have a sentence to respond, then blips right out of the mirror'). One of them is Eruka, to whom he'll give a quick, "Was that your worm? He's alright, and he did wonderful."

The second person is Steven, to whom he gives a reassuring smile and says, "Don't worry. We'll get you out of here."

The third person he'll actually stop and chat with is the first person he talks to: Reira. Strange pops in her reflection, looks around worried, and then looks towards the girl.

"I can already tell that this is more powerful magic than what I'm used to so we'll need to make this quick. What happened?"

[soft_focus]

It takes a lot to keep herself from crying. He came. He came.

He's getting the biggest hug, when this is over. But as he asked, she makes it quick. "The bear summoned Lilith," she explains rapidly. "He took something out of the other three, and left holes there, saying it was their sins- they brought her here, and she could see where all of us were even if we were hiding, and trapped us...she made Rin go blind because he blinded the bear too, and she almost killed Steven and Amethyst with glass until he said we all surrendered, and that was when she caught us in these..."

Deep breath, deep breath. Quick needs to be quick- but it needs to make sense. "...She knows we're after the mirror- but I don't know what she knows outside the party- just that she's going to punish us for trying to take it. ...And I don't know how she'll punish us either..."

Another deep breath, as she forces back a panic attack. It feels like she's surrounded- surrounded, and even though it's the image of the bat it's also the image of Strange, a grown man, and all her mind thinks of is the people stepping steadily toward her masks on their faces and-

"Be careful- I think she's got parts of her mirror in her...so make sure everyone knows! ...She's...scary. She asked 'who has the least sin', 'who has the most sin', it wasn't until Shima said 'you don't care, because you're not an angel or a demon' that she made the walls mirrors. And I don't know what's coming next, s...so... Good luck."

Good luck, and hopefully Strange himself isn't caught in all of this.

[kingsroads]

Strange just looks so thankful that Reira can do coherent cliff notes when the situation calls for it. The bear summoned Lilith, she took the sins out of the remaining captives, Lilith blinded Rin, Lilith played mind games, she knows about the Mirror, Lilith stuck everybody in these odd mirrored prism things.

He nods at her assessment. "I'll tell the rest of our group. Until then, stay strong. You've survived worse things, so you can survive this as well."

It's a shitty pep talk, but it's still a pep talk. Strange gives Reira a small little smile before poofing out of the reflection.

[starseedling]

Steven is obviously pretty freaked out, having clawed up the interior of his prison pretty badly. He's got a long series of gashes going over his belly and across his chest, like bear claws. He's also naked, for reasons that probably aren't too hard to imagine, what with shapeshifting.

He wants to babble at Strange and generally freak out, mostly looking for solace, but he can tell that Strange needs to work fast. He never thought Strange being trapped in that mirror would be a good thing.

"Okay," he says, his voice cracking. He lays his hand on the wall of the cell. "Be... Be careful."

[kingsroads]

As he looks over Steven, Strange makes the executive decision not to tell the other gems just how bad Steven looks. Peridot would already be worried when she hears he's captured, she doesn't need to hear that he's captured, naked, and scratched up to hell and back.

When Steven tells Strange to be careful, Strange places his hand where Steven's is, like it's friggen Tarzan or that scene from Star Trek. He doesn't say something like 'I'm always careful' because that is a goddamn lie and they all know it.

"I'll try to keep all of you safe from out here. You stay strong until we rescue you."

He doesn't really know if Lilith will try and use the Mirror on the captive people. But as long as Strange is stuck inside the damn thing, he'll try and keep her from doing otherwise. He gives Steven one last reassuring smile before resuming muttering his litany of names and poofing out of the reflection.

[amphibiopathic]

Startled by Strange’s appearance, Eruka splashes to the bottom of her mirror prism with a little shriek of alarm before she reforms.

“Jackson’s a tadpole!” She shouts, indignant, even if she’s a little bit relieved to head confirmation he’s all right.

“What happened? Did the tunnel really take you somewhere?!” This is what she gets for heroic impulses, she thinks mournfully. She really should have just cut and run. Jackson must be so scared without her!

[worldlyafflictions]

Meanwhile Shima's mostly got his eyes closed. The infinite mirrors effect is really disorienting. If Strange stops by, he probably misses it.

Mostly he wonders to himself if Lilith asking those questions about sins and things was some kind of lingering morbid fascination with the 'imperfect', like picking at a scab on some metaphysical level. He's not sure if all the time he's spent thinking about good and bad in relation to himself really translates to where Lilith settles on morality but it's weird to feel like he does get it a little. Not that it's particularly comforting, in these circumstances.

He circles his cell, feeling out the size before he risks squinting around at it again, tapping one of the sides.

"They said you were getting bored."

If no one answers he'll just settle down and appreciate that no pain is happening yet.