⇨ EDEN PT. 4 (FINALE)

[ringleaders]

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 89
Where: Eden
What: The Mirror is taken by the carnival, and several people from the carnival have been taken by Lilith. As Eden's Architects take sides, the battle for Eden's future is set to reach its conclusion.
Warnings: Violence.

INFINITE↴ When the Silver Mirror is taken, the war truly begins. Lilith had seen fit to take her time, gloating over the enemies she perceived as being no challenge to her power - only to sense the moment that the Ringmaster claimed the Silver Mirror and took the skies in challenge. The Ringmaster has taken on her half beast form, black scaled, winged, and horned, and wielding the Silver Mirror as some kind of shield. Only moments ago, she used it to blast a whole clear through the cathedral. Lilith, realizing her mistake, has swept up the darkness created by Bezaliel and begun using it as a weapon against the Ringmaster. She has six silver wings that reflect light like mirrors, as well as strange, geometric horns. Ostensibly, part of the Silver Mirror's magic has been taken into herself, which means that even though the Ringmaster has the Mirror, Lilith still has control over it. She scatters the prisms containing her prisoners across Eden while she counters her foe, drawing on their strength to aid her. Two godlike beings clash in the sky above you. On the ground, a war begins. What do you do? ► FAE VS NEPHALEM: While all of this is going on, the Ringmaster and Lilith are essentially fighting over the Silver Mirror in the sky. It is all very cyclical and unending, and just as outrageous looking as it sounds. They both currently have some degree of hold over the Mirror right now, which means the advantage is wildly vacillating between the two of them. You probably don't want to directly interfere with this, but who knows? Maybe you'd got something really cunning up your sleeve. ► EDEN'S ARCHITECTS: In the aftermath of the Silver Mirror being taken, the Architects of Eden are being forced to choose sides. At first glance, it would appear that Saraqael (wolf), Samyaza (hare), Araqiel (stag), Penemue (raven), and Armaros (spider) have chosen to fight with the Furies of Eden in an attempt to cast Lilith out for good. Bezaliel (bear), Shamshel (tiger), Azazel (crocodile), Chazaqiel (eagle), and Baraqel (stingray) have, alternatively, chosen to defend Lilith, and are attempting to convince as many Honorables to follow in their path as possible. Gadreel (dolphin) and Kakabel (axolotl) seem to be uncomfortably remaining neutral for the moment and seeing how things play out. Not all Honorables or Scholars have followed the choice of their Architect. Many have been pulled one way or the other regardless of their kind, and are generally being accepted into the fight on their claimed side. You can NPC conflicts with random Honorables, but not the Architects. To interact with those guys, you need to do an investigation. ► PRISM BREAK: All of the carnival members that attended Samyaza's garden party (except Herbert) have been captured by Lilith after falling prey to a trap set by Bezaliel. Each of them has been trapped inside mirrored prisms that are now scattered around hard to access areas of Eden, defended by both Honorables supporting their maker and by mirror eyed dopplegangers. The infinite reflections of the characters inside the prisms are being fed on by Lilith, and she is tearing out as many of those reflections as necessary to do her bidding in the meantime. Each reflection is functionally a magical clone with no true will of its own, but will be able to fully mimic the emotions and powers of the characters they're taken from. They serve Lilith above all. Each reflection spawned from a prism take a fraction of their host's spiritual energy with them, meaning the more clones that are spawned, the weaker the real version will become. The more powerful a character is, the more energy each reflection takes to make - so if you have a character with lots of powers, they will probably have something like 1-4 dopplegangers spawned, while characters with few or no powers will be going completely quantity over quality and spawn potentially dozens of mirror clones. Clones shatter and vanish when destroyed, though the prisms will keep spawning new ones until the captive is set free. Captives, it's your job to NPC these clones. Captives will have no idea what's going on outside of their prism besides the abstract idea that these reflections are being harvested from them, and that's bad. The mirror clones will be attempting to protect the source prisms from disruption, as well as generally trying to destroy all enemies. NOTE: all captives will have returned to their natural forms by now (IE are no longer animals) and their clones will reflect this. Those missing "darkness shards" from their chest will also have had those returned. ► EDEN'S FURY: The Furies of Eden are striking back against Lilith at last, and it turns out a lot more of them have lingering rebellious ideas than previously though. Those that take up the cause of the Furies will be fighting on the carnival's side, so you are free to NPC some allied Honorables as well. You can also use the Investigations section to interact with named rebels, if you want, or to get an idea of what they are generally doing. Another potential avenue of investigation is trying to get the Serpent out here, as she'd be undoubtedly a powerful ally if cured of her curse. You might need it. Now that they know of the fae, the Honorables and Lilith-supporting Architects have no qualms using iron again you! They will be utilizing iron in all possible weaponry. ► NEW, CONFUSED, OR BOTH: Did you just get here? Did you fall behind and now you're terribly lost? Don't sweat it - let your character be as confused as you are. Take the opportunity to make top levels asking other characters what's going on in-game, or check out the original setting info post to catch up. The short version is this: the carnival wanted to steal a powerful artifact called the Silver Mirror from Lilith, which was stashed in her realm called Eden. They did just that, and now Lilith is back and she's pissed!

Comments

MIRROR AMETHYSTS | OTA

[drrdrrdrr]

Inside the prism where Lilith has her captive, Amethyst is still inside her gem, trying to recover from the injury Belaziel inflicted on Smoky Quartz -- but outside, there are several Amethysts prowling around, looking for fights.

That's literally prowling, because having spent all this time transfigured into a lynx by fae magic, her natural form has taken on a new leg configuration, which means that these duplicates are stalking around on all fours. They also have mirrors for eyes, and they're grinning like Amethyst would, but given the situation, it doesn't seem quite right. The more pressing concern, of course, is that they'll attack any Carnival member they see...

[alienwear]

Of course Peridot is out looking for Amethyst. Once the heist team had broken out of the Cathedral and decided to split up and enter the fray, finding both Steven and Amethyst has been the only thing on the Engineer's mind, keeping a frantic eye out for the two of them. However, in Amethyst's case? She'd been looking for the lynx OR the gem. She hadn't counted on finding some sort of weird amalgamation of the two forms instead.

She's been running through the streets to conduct her search as opposed togetting a bat's-eye view of the area, since the airspace overhead is a bit hazardous at the moment. This puts her immediately face to face with the mirror constructs as she sprints down Eden's streets, their appearance making her screech to a halt. She's run into a few duplicates already, so the arrangement isn't exactly a shock to her, but still, thanks, she hates it.

"What?! Hey! BRING IT, you POSERS!" Peridot snaps, gnashing her teeth and getting into a battle ready stance.

[drrdrrdrr]

The two Amethysts on this street both swing their heads towards her like panthers, mirror-eyes gleaming. One of them laughs, and then the other one laughs the exact same laugh the first one just did, and then the second one lopes off down the street in the other direction. Apparently they decided one was enough to deal with Peridot.

"Bowacunga," says the remaining duplicate in a hollow voice, and bounds towards her.

[periphrasing]

"Nyeh--?" Peridot starts, preparing to shout at the other Amethyst to get her stupid (hot) cat butt back here, but now the remaining one is charging at her and THANKS, SHE HATES IT!

She's going to try to spring out of the way at the last second and pull her lead pipe out of her gauntlet, winding it up for a counter attack.

[drrdrrdrr]

The duplicate jumps and grabs the pipe in its teeth. It's laughing again.

[periphrasing]

This is so viscerally offputting to listen to that Peridot actually recoils, her ears pinned against the sides of her head.

"Get OFF you cruddy-- FAKETHYST--"

One end of the lead pipe still grasped in her hand, she tugs on that and aims a vicious kick at the duplicate's chest.

[drrdrrdrr]

Peridot's foot catches the mirror Amethyst in the chest -- right in the gem, except it's not really a gem. All the same, though, the duplicate lets go of the pipe and hits the ground, skidding. Then it lifts its head and snarls at her.

[periphrasing]

"Amethyst? AMETHYST!" Peridot hollers in vain, taking the moment that the mirror Amethyst is down to see if she can get some kind of response from the original. When she inevitably gets no answer, she turns back to the replica and snarls right back, before charging at it while brandishing her lead pipe.

[drrdrrdrr]

The mirror Amethyst doesn't even seem to recognise her name. As Peridot charges, though, the duplicate sits back on her hindquarters and summons an echo of Amethyst's whip, which she lashes at Peridot in an attempt to wrap it around the pipe.

[periphrasing]

Peridot grunts in surprise as the lead pipe is torn out of her hand, eyes widening in shock.

[drrdrrdrr]

She flicks her whip and the pipe clangs to the ground a little way behind her.

"C'mere, nerd," she says, her voice sounding like a recording of the real Amethyst saying the same thing in a completely different situation, and the whip speeds towards Peridot.

This is what she gets for rolling a 3

[periphrasing]

"Ggghhhk--!" Peridot tries to jump out of the way, but the reflection's whip is too quick for her; it wraps itself around her in an instant, pinning her arms to her side. The force of it is so strong that it knocks her off of her feet and flat onto her face.

[drrdrrdrr]

The duplicate yanks her forward and kicks her in the head. It's still grinning.

[periphrasing]

The kick has Peridot seeing stars. If she were in possession of any bones, or blood, that move probably would have broken her nose! Fortunately, she's made of sturdier stuff than that.

She's been avoiding pulling the dragon card because she's been trying to avoid bringing hordes of Lilith's loyals down on her by turning into an ostentatious acid green draconiform, but she hasn't got much choice at the moment. Soon enough the whip isn't enough to contain the change in mass that Peridot undergoes, as she glows and shifts until her wings are bursting through the bindings and spreading wide as she settles into her alternate form.

Then she promptly backhands the duplicate with a meaty forepaw.

[drrdrrdrr]

"Yeesh!" exclaims the duplicate tinnily as it hits the ground and the whip bursts into light. It pushes itself back up, turning its smiling face towards Peridot again. "That's pretty janked, Per," it says, the words clearly borrowed from a much less fraught conversation.

[periphrasing]

Has it already been mentioned that Peridot hates this? Just in case, let it be said again: Peridot really hates this. The duplicate's tone is so dissonant, so out of place here. It makes the hair on the back of her neck stand on end, evokes vivid memories of a dozen conversations between herself and the REAL Amethyst during which she might have said those words. It's just a rude reminder that Amethyst is likely somewhere nearby and in very real danger, and this fight is just further delaying her rescue.

Sparks flying from between her fangs are the only warning the duplicate has before Peridot blasts it with all of her fire power, gouts of flame pouring from her open jaws.

[drrdrrdrr]

Amethyst herself would have made it through that, but this duplicate only has a divided portion of her power; when the smoke clears, it's gone, and it doesn't leave anything behind.

[periphrasing]

Peridot drops back down onto all fours, staring uncomfortably at the spot where the duplicate was mere moments ago and looking vexed. She may have beaten the darn thing, but that really doesn't put her any closer to finding the real Amethyst.

Shifting back out of her dragon guise, Peridot skims her surroundings for any sign of the prism one more time, standing on her tip-toes and shouting: "Amethyst! AMETHYST!"

[drrdrrdrr]

It's around here somewhere, but even if Amethyst had emerged from her gem by now she wouldn't be able to hear Peridot's voice; the prisms are completely soundproof, allowing their inhabitants no clue as to what's going on outside.

If Peridot keeps yelling, though, she might attract some other Amethysts...

[periphrasing]

Unsurprisingly, Peridot does not stop yelling. Honestly, what do you take her for?

[drrdrrdrr]

A voice echoes from around the next corner. "Peridot? Is that you?"

[periphrasing]

Aaaannnd Peridot runs towards the voice without hesitation, because she's just that desperate for any kind of lead she can get. It doesn't even occur to her for a second that it might not be the real deal.

"Amethyst!?" she cries once more, skidding around the corner looking harried.

[drrdrrdrr]

She's immediately tackled to the ground by another duplicate, paw-hands heavy on her chest as it pins her. Its blank mirror eyes stare down at her.

"Peridot?" it says again, with the exact same inflection. "Is that you?"

[periphrasing]

She hits the ground with a grunt, wincing and cracking her eyes open only to find herself staring up at another one of those horrible duplicates. Peridot makes a horrible sound, a groan that starts off quiet and quickly grows into a squawk of anger, like she's Donald Duck or something.

She heats up her claws and tries to slash at the duplicate's underbelly next, hoping to knock it off of her.

[drrdrrdrr]

"Oop," says the Duplicate as it jumps back to avoid those claws. It's already reaching for its whip. "Watch it, Runner Bean."