lostcarnival | ⇨ EDEN PT. 4 (FINALE)

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⇨ EDEN PT. 4 (FINALE)

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A mirrored prism hangs suspended over a large, lily-covered pond. Hovering over the water, perched on top of mirror-eyed inky blobs are about ten or so female figures that appear to be completely made out of ... slime? They're tastefully nude, but that's also likely just a consequence of being made out of fluid, more identifying features hard to make out.

Occasionally, one of them will form a tadpole-shaped construct in its hand and toss it in the air, giggling as it explodes loudly and twirling in place.

"I'm so glad I was born a witch!" One sing-songs.

"Destroying things is the best!" Another agrees.

"I hope Lilith destroys everything," One sighs dreamily, blank gaze directed at the conflict raging above them.

They don't seem to be very aware of their surroundings ... but that could change.

Edited 2018-08-16 21:44 (UTC)

Alphys just wants to find someplace safe to hide until this all blows over, is that so much to ask? She's still a rabbit, and even with her electricity magic she's not much of a fighter. She'd rather wait it out than be a hero and probably get stepped on for her troubles.

Instead, though, she finds a pond taken over by slime girls. Any thought that they might be friendly goes out the window as soon as she hears them giggling about being SO HYPED for the destruction of Eden.

"Uhh... don't mind me, I just t-took a wrong turn!" She stammers and makes to scurry off in the opposite direction.

Upon hearing an unfamiliar voice, the heads of the slime clones turn -- and then, with a giggle, one of them peels away and starts following after Alphys. With the giant flying tadpole, catching up to a rabbit isn't too much effort.

"Where are you going?" The clone sing-songs. "Maybe I can help!"

"YIKES!" Alphys yelps as the giant tadpole overtakes her. "I was just- uh- going- away from here!"

"Now why would you want to do that?" The clone coos, driving the tadpole in ever-tightening circles around the rabbit.

"You aren't an enemy of Eden... are you?" The clone lifts her hand, and two tadpole bombs spin and squirm in her grip, glowing with magical light.

Alphys tries to speak, but all that comes out at first is a high pitched, whiny vocalization as she stares at the tadpole bombs.

"Ummm... n-no! O-of course not! I love Eden a l-lot?"

"Hmmm..." The clone's face stretches into a wide, menacing grin.

"Good. You'd better. We all exist for the glory of Lilith."

She shrinks back at the sight of the grin, almost certain that she's going to die before this conversation. "Haha... yeah... wow, you're r-really intense, you know that?"

"Why shouldn't I be? I haven't felt this good in a looong time." The clone stretches its hands over its head, lazily, the bombs free-floating in the air beside her.

The clone's not too bright, really, and it doesn't recognize Alphys. Since she doesn't look totally different, there isn't any immediate sign she's not just another Honorable... so for now, it seems, the clone's soundly fooled.

"A-are those things really necessary, though...?" Alphys eyes the bombs floating above. She really doesn't want to be on the wrong end of those. "I mean, it's k-kinda overkill, don't you think?"

"If she's giving it her all, shouldn't we?"

The clone gestures up at the fight above them. Of course, it's Lilith she's meant to be talking about, and her understanding of the complexities of the situation are incredibly limited, so in some sense she could just as easily be talking about the Ringmaster instead...

A witch, huh? That would explain a few things. Coming from the era that he does his perception is likely vastly wrong.

It's an interesting sight to behold as the wolf turned man makes his way out onto the water. Ripples echo outwards at every step, it noted that he was choosing to touch only the top of the water as if solid, and the lazy strides are slow and methodical. He's announcing his presence by doing so. A beautiful woman made of slime, a tadpole-shaped construct. It's hard not to peg her as his newest fascination, Eruka Frog, and he puts on a cheery smile.

He's bold, at least, the way he heads right towards that prism like he's going to be allowed to do so.

Between the rather abrupt circumstances of her arrival and her lack of means of keeping an eye on the rest of the Carnival, Eruka's never really had a proper introduction to Tyki. hen her clones see the man strolling out on the water, there's no recognition in those clear mirror eyes.

One drifts over to set itself directly in his path, giving him a confident, cocky smirk that stretches too wide across her face.

"And where are you going, handsome?"

His sharp panther ears crane in her direction as one drifts over to greet him, and he can't help but look down at the way she's moving, taking in body language more than anything. It makes his tail flick lazily at his side at the scraggly tip. The only new addition is hidden within his mouth, the rows of canines and teeth against the side sharper and more wild along with the slight indent of his eyes outlined in a thin layer of black much like wolf's. Still, it reflects in his cheerful grin.

"Somewhere over there," he casually replies, finger raising to point towards the prism floating over the water, "Why? You want to join me, my lady?"

The clone's expression doesn't change, though its head cocks curiously.

"Hmm," it pretends to mull it over, considering. "I don't think I can let you do that~"

That's all the warning he gets before it's suddenly holding a part of tadpole bombs which it promptly launches at Tyki's head.

"Why not?" he questions, or at least tries to, her suddenly on the offensive following her words.

A Tease snaps into his hand, forming into a shield with large points, and he raises it up to take most of the explosive damage. His feet plant on the water, shifting to brace himself and he gives a deep seated chuckle, "Feisty. I like that." That's alarming, those tadpoles. Earlier it had just given off light.

Tyki's question never does get answered. The explosion draws the attention of a couple of the other clones, whose rabbit-like ears perk up (with a wet, slick noise), eager to see what's come of the attack. The main one launching the assault's still grinning cockily -- but its expression falters when it sees Tyki still standing. The other clones snicker as it flusters, a second one raising its hands to form a larger, more volatile-looking bomb.

"I'll show you how it's done!" It crows gleefully, manic grin wide. The first clone frowns, pouting and tossing its hair.

"I had it under control!" it cries. It's not the smartest of creatures, but where the second clone is preparing a bomb for a much bigger splash, it's trying to make up for the failure of its earlier attack through sheer volume, manifesting as many bombs as it can manage. Of course, all that expenditure of magical effort is slow going, especially with them trying to put some real oomph into them.

His arm lowers slowly, taking in the scene as others notice the explosion. If Strange hadn't told him about her skill set, he might've been caught off guard enough for that to hurt more than his arm does now. The shield takes most the impact even if it is shattered in the process, bits of Tease flitting to the floor, his sleeve somewhat torn. Explosions are instant, and he sneers. Worse than bullets.

Word has already gotten out about these clones, given he keeps in contact with Strange, Zangetsu and a few others. He can't just mass murder. He internally sighs, it was never that easy.

"Now, now, ladies. There's no reason to fight over me," he purrs, his arms snapping sideways, Dark Matter crawling up them to his shoulders, vibrating with energy. Two things happen at once. One, his hand lifts to fire concentrated Dark Matter at that much bigger bomb, hoping to detonate it before it's ready. Two, he snaps his fingers, summoning a pack of Tease that start to charge their own dark matter lazers at their skulled mouths.

The third clone, who isn't so occupied with the bickering, notices Tyki's incoming attack first.

"Watch ou--" it starts to warn, but it's all for naught. The dark matter finds its mark and the clone finds herself blown backwards off her summoned tadpole and into the water with a wet splash. The first clone with the multiple bombs gives a little shriek of alarm of its own, casting interrupted to stare at Tyki with bewilderment and sudden fear.

Which, naturally, only serves to spur another attack.

"Why you -- I'll finish you!" Multiple tadpole bombs launch themselves at Tyki's head while the clone panics, the other coming around on the tadpole and skirting out of the path of those lasers.

His ear snaps sideways in the direction of the third clone. So it seemed at least one of them was paying attention and a 3 v 1 fight was never as engaging with one on the sidelines. He looks towards her, just for a moment, and winks.

He can't help but enjoy the look of fear. It's a primal instinct to feed on it. Alas, she was part of carnival and he shouldn't scare her too badly. Hmm, that's a lot of bombs and his shield can only cover his front. He throws himself to the side, straight for the one on the tadpole and leaps into the air similar to climbing a stair case. He's going straight for her, arms out in greeting. Hope she doesn't mind a flying tackle.

The bombs veer, trying to change direction and charge after Tyki, but they're much too slow and overladen with magical power -- the clone that launched them screeches in frustration, but can't gather any magical power to summon more so quickly.

As Tyki lunges for the clone, sections of slime pop up comically from its head in alarm, the rabbit-like changes the Carnival's magic manifested in its original taking shape. She's too slow to dodge -- but, with a body made of fluid, just how effective can a tackle be? After a moment of panic, the clone concentrates and its form seems to grow a little more transparent as it aims to slide off the tadpole and to the ground, hoping to evade the attack by simply becoming impossible to grab ahold of.

The screech is murder on his ears, them bending back to block out the sound of it behind him. That's interesting to know those bombs can change course, following him like a pack of rabid animals.

He's too impulsive to really think on any sort of plan, using the battlefield and quick wits to play a scene into his hands. If he ever has an advantage, it's because he's gained proper information, and he'll use it once he has it. He grasps nothing but air, his hand slapping down against the tadpole underneath him to vault over it, bracing himself with a push upwards into the air. Hmph, alright then. It's time to use a little violence and he's going to just kick hard at that tadpole in the direction that clone slid. If he can at least pin her momentarily, if not squash her, that'll get one out of the way.

Lilith’s influence had lent the clones a viciousness and eagerness to engage in direct combat Eruka didn’t possess.

It did not, however, lend them any better stamina, intelligence, or additional strength. As such, when Tyki kicks that tadpole down, it’s more or less immediately punted without any ceremony, and it’s summoner reforms underneath to shout in alarm.

“Don’t—” Whatever it had been about to say, it’s cut off by an unconscious giant tadpole smacking into its face. The clones behind Tykk regroup, starting to move to work together instead of cross purposes, but the way to the prism seems clear, for now?

It's all he wanted was a clear shot, even if it meant causing a little destruction. He just didn't feel like hurting a woman if he didn't have to.

His on the moment plan works, glancing down at the tadpole smothering one of them. Instead of waiting to land, he kicks off from the air, his form wavering before disappearing in a burst of speed until it snaps down right in front of that prism. He lets his heels clack on the ground to announce his presence, his hands pressing to the glass to first try to use his power. When it fails, his eyes narrow down at the material but he gives a bright smile to a possibly conscious Eruka, "Good evening, Miss Eruka. I'll have you out in a moment." It's not his first prism so he knows not to unload his Dark Matter on it.

His hand balls into a fist, Dark Matter swirling around it in a concentrated dark tone, "I will ask you to duck though."

Inside the prism, soundless and stretching out into infinite reflections, Eruka hears nothing of what Tyki says. The witch is in slime form, half-collapsed into a pool of fluid that mostly sits at the bottom of her prison, face buried in her hands and sobbing. With the enchantment shed, she wasn't sure what was going on, but she was a witch ... which meant she could particularly feel parts of her soul being drawn out of her. She'd been crying more violently earlier, but now she just doesn't have any energy to do more than sit, and wait out what must be her inevitable doom.

Ugh ... and Tadpole Jackson isn't even here! She sniffles all the harder, though it's barely distinguishable from the rest of the liquid making up her face.

The clones move with greater urgency past their fallen members, rushing for Tyki in a panic.

"Hold it right there--!"

Eruka Frog | OTA

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