lostcarnival | ⇨ EDEN PT. 4 (FINALE)

Entry tags:

⇨ 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

Yuya hesitates before creeping closer to get a better look at the hole as Zangetsu points to it, breaking the silence. He doesn't want to look at it, but he forces his gaze to circle around the shape and take it in regardless.

Slowly, he shakes his head. "I don't know what they did to him. It--it wasn't there before they took him." So this is something caused by the Honorables, isn't it? What did they do?

"It... ain't something about octopi, is it? Those weird fish don't have holes anywhere, do they?"

That's all Zangetsu can think of, besides his fear. After all, if he'd gotten changes from being a shark, wouldn't Gon have gotten some from being an octopus?

He carefully touches the hole and frowns. God, the resemblance is uncanny.

"No." Yuya's no expert in biology, but he spent plenty of time with Gongenzaka before his capture and there definitely weren't any weird black holes in his body.

His hand reaches out at the same time Zan's does, but he can't quite bring himself to actually touch the mark. Instead his hand hovers awkwardly in the air, and Yuya bites his lip. "Did... Doctor West say anything about it?"

Maybe he should have listened a little more closely.

"Mmmmrgh. I was worried about that, but I wanted to make sure."

He doesn't know much about octopi. He knows they have at least one hole, there on the side? But it's... nothing like this. He shakes his head at Yuya's question -- he hadn't been listening to Herbert either.

He rarely listens to Herbert.

A swirl of Gongenzaka's reiatsu, the pressure of his soul, visible as a wisp of icy blue energy, coils around Zangetsu's talon. He examines it, seeming to "stretch" it between his fingers before it dissipates into the air around them.

"... the good news is that aside from bein' incredibly fatigued, the composition of his soul hasn't changed any. So his hole aint like mine."

Yuya's gaze drifts aside to Zangetsu as he pulls on... something that's the exact color of Gongenzaka's soul. He looks wary until Zangetsu confirms it's just the same as before. Yuya hadn't even realized that was a potential danger.

"That's good," he says with a sort of numb distance reserved for a concept beyond him, but he's relieved all the same. He looks back to Gongenzaka and, after a moment, moves to pull the cover higher up to cover the hole. His hands linger, twitching uncertainly before he draws them back to his side.

"We... weren't too late."

"This isn't my world, obviously. But I was... concerned, that whatever caused this hole might be something akin to Hollowfication," he shakes his head, then pulls a stool close so he can sit. Well, more like perch. "But that's not the case. It seems like we were able to get him out in time."

His soul was certainly injured, but it wasn't anything that would not return in time. Gongenzaka had an incredible amount of reiryoku for a human.

Yuya moves, after hesitation, to sit on the edge of the bed when Zangetsu claims the stool--angled to look at both of them, but mostly Gongenzaka. He doesn't want to leave until he wakes up. Absently, he reaches to put his hand over Gongenzaka's, anchoring his presence so he can force himself to look back at Zangetsu.

"You mean what happened to you?" Yuya doesn't know really anything about Zangetsu's world or what he is (besides a 'sword spirit'). But it's hard to miss the big empty hole on his chest, too.

He scratches at his chin with a claw, letting his shark-finned tail dangle behind him and swish aimlessly.

"Mmm, well. Sort of, yes. I was 'born' this way, but that's not the usual way of things at all. Ichigo and I are a very special case. Most Hollows are formed from ghosts who have too many regrets and linger too long in the world of the living... but the process can be forced through artificial means, too."

"Oh. So it's... normally a bad thing?" His brow knits a little, considering it. Being a spirit of a sword and being a corrupted ghost don't sound like terribly similar concepts, special case or no. "Gongenzaka described it like you're really a sword."

"Real bad," Zangetsu waves his hand. "I am a sword. I'm also a Hollow. Ah... It's all real complicated and I could talk yer ear off about it all day. I'm sure you don't want that."

Or maybe he does? Zangetsu is fine with explaining, but most people don't give a damn.

Yuya shrugs a shoulder. "I can't promise I'll understand it, but... I'm not going anywhere right now."

So he'll listen if Zangetsu wants to explain it, although he'll probably need it broken down to the root having no idea how Zangetsu's world even functions. Being the spirit of a sword was simple, but also gave Yuya more the impression of yokai than human souls or the afterlife.

"Mmm. Well. If you insist," Zangetsu says, sitting properly on the stool now and crossing his legs. He has to think about where to start...

"So. In my world, there are... basically four kinds of souls. Humans are like you, and Gon, and my sisters, and most everyone else. Sometimes they can perceive the supernatural, but most of the time they can't. When a human dies, their soul goes to Soul Society, where they lose their memories of their old life and purify themselves or something before being reincarnated... Soul Society is basically a holding tank fer souls. Then there's Hollows, who are corrupted human souls -- ghosts that hang out too long in the world of the living. Usually it's cause they have unfinished business of some kind. Their hearts collapse in on themselves, and they have holes instead. They hide their naked emotion with masks, and have beastly forms. They long to fill the emptiness in their hearts, and they do it by consuming other souls... usually their loved ones, to start."

He pauses, then tilts his head. "With me so far?"

Yuya nods once. "I think so. People are supposed to move on to Soul Society when they die, but if they don't they get corrupted and it makes them violent."

It's kind of a weird name for it, he thinks, but he gets the premise. People die, purify their souls, and then try again in a new life. Except that's the natural order of Zangetsu's world, and he's pretty sure it's not for his. He doesn't know, though, he's never seen the afterlife.

"You have human sisters?" Zangetsu's specific origins are just getting more confusing, though.

"Ahaha... the twins. Yuzu and Karin. They're Ichigo's sisters -- so they're my sisters, too. I'm gettin' there, hold on!"

"So, in Soul Society, souls don't get hungry or thirsty, they don't need to eat or anything unless they want to. But some souls are powerful, and they'll feel a need to eat to sustain themselves... they can even starve if they don't. These souls go to a special Academy where they can train to attain a higher state of being. These are the Shinigami. The Shinigamis' task is to rule over the Soul Society, purify Hollows, and maintain the balance. Each Shinigami sequesters part of their power into a sword, called a Zanpakutou. The sword develops a soul and personality of its own, and together the Shinigami and his Zanpakutou can do amazing things. That's me, I'm Ichigo's Zanpakutou. But I'm also a Hollow... when our mom was young, she was attacked and 'infected' by a strange, artificial Hollow. Like a virus, it incorporated itself into her 'spiritual DNA', and she passed it on to her son. That Hollow virus laid dormant in Ichigo until he gained the powers of a Shinigami.... at which point the soul of his sword and the soul of the Hollow became one being.

Me."

He pauses, then laughs a bit with a wry grin.

"Don't worry if you're confused!! There are plenty of people who are FROM my world who don't understand it! I barely understand it myself!"

"Yuzu..." The person that name brings to mind is definitely not Ichigo's sister. It's a fleeting thought before Yuya focuses back on what Zangetsu is saying.

He perks up at the mention of shinigami, because that at least is a familiar word--and it sounds like a pretty similar concept. Gods of death, dealing with the souls of the departed, it's a popular concept in some shows he's watched too...

And then the brief recognition on his face slips completely and he's left looking as confused as he feels.

"So... how much are you like other Hollows, since your part sword?" All sword?? This must be how people feel when he's tried to explain Zarc, which is also just as nonsensical to him.

Grim reapers were a common enough concept in the multiverse that most people understood it. Psychopomps, those that lead the dead... the only difference was the sapient swords.

"I have a lot more self control! I'm not completely ruled by my hunger, though it's certainly distracting... and the hole is incredibly painful. I'm definitely not your run of the mill Hollow! I'm a bit more like an Arrancar... which is something of a hybrid between a Shinigami and a Hollow."

Though, that only leaves three of the four soul types he mentioned accounted for.

So many hybrids. Yuya won't even lead them on that tangent, because it's just rapidly adding more unfamiliar terms he's going to possibly forget.

"So there's human souls, hollows, shinigami, and sword spirits?" He thinks he has them all, separating two that are probably the same concept. "And sometimes hybrids happen, like you, and you're a little different?"

"Ahh, not quite. Sword spirits are like... a subset of Shinigami."

He holds up four fingers.

"The fourth group are Quincies. Quincies are kinds of humans descended from the Soul King, which is a whoooooole other can of worms. Their race is at odds with the Shinigami because their abilities don't purify Hollows -- instead, Quincies destroy souls entirely. Anyway. It doesn't really matter too much, except that Ichigo has Quincy blood in him, too. Normally, the four kinds of souls don't get along too well, and a soul that has one or more kinds inside of it will implode. That's why Ichigo and I are so special."

"So... Ichigo is human, and Hollow, and Shinigami, and Quincies?" Sounds like a protagonist.

His face twists a little at the mention of imploding, though. That sounds graphic. "Because you're both... I mean, he's not being hurt by it? He can live normally?"

There might be something else special, like being super powerful and stuff. But it sounds like the real fascination is that he's just not plain dead like that. He's not sure how he feels about just destroying souls, either. If Shinigami can fix them, isn't it better to leave the job to them?

"You got it! He's the perfect hybrid of all four races!" Definitely a protagonist. This is something that Zangetsu has thought about more than once... especially after watching a bunch of anime and reading manga. He even has the weird colored hair.

He nods, "Everything is in balance and harmony," he says, holding his hands out, palms up, like scales, "Human balances out Shinigami, Hollow balances out Quincy... And, amazingly, he can live pretty normally for a goddamn freak'a nature. I s'pose because it was born and raised with him, his body is used to the pressure of hosting such an impressive soul. The only problem is that he has incredibly powerful reiatsu, which is sort of like... the pressure exerted on everything around him by his soul. Hollows are attracted to it like flies on shit."

He kicks back, putting his feet on the edge of Gon's bed.

"But thankfully, he has me, and there ain't a Hollow out there I can't finish off."

And that "destroying souls" reason, Yuya, is why the Shinigami decided to commit genocide against the Quincy race about a thousand years ago, almost completely wiping them out without prejudice. Because Shinigami are kind of extra.

(Actually, Genryuusai Yamamoto is the most extra. Without his draconian extermination of the Quincy race, and everything else that he decided he didn't like, Ichigo might not have to face a god-like omniscient being. But that's a tale for another day.)

"Reiatsu..." He looks back at Gonenzaka as he considers how Zan seemed to pull at... some piece of his soul. If he's a Hollow, is that what it actually was?

"That still sounds really complicated to deal with." As if Yuya himself isn't the definition of complicated.

Indeed it was. But just a sliver, a drop... less than the same amount of blood you would need for a test.

"Mmm..." he says, leaning back a bit and looking away. "I s'pose, from an outside perspective. But I was born into it. It's all I've ever known."

Yuya's expression twists wryly. "Yeah, that makes sense."

Versus growing up normal and having it all dumped onto you at once, when you didn't even realize that level of supernatural activity existed in the first place. Yuya feels a little more grounded in the truth of his existence, but it's still been strange to consider.

"... I'm--going to stay here until he wakes up," Yuya announces suddenly, looking back to Zangetsu. He doesn't know if he's planning the same.

"Of course, for Ichigo, it's different... and his memories are mine, his feelings are mine, so it's not like it's something I'm totally unfamiliar with." But even then, Ichigo had always been able to see spirits. He was never... "normal".

Sensing the conversation winding down, Zangetsu pulls his feets back down and stretches lazily.

"Not me. There's still allies to rescue and mangy beasts to put down," he says with a rather unsettling grin. He hops off the stool and grabs his sword, lying against the wall. The black ribbon-like bandages tied to the end wrap around the blade as he places it on his back, creating a "sheath" of sorts. "Don't worry over him too much. He's strong. He'll recover," he pauses, then gives Yuya a sly, knowing wink.

"But I know, he'll want ta see ya when he wakes up."

"I know, but still..." His hand shifts to grip Gongenzaka's more firmly on impulse. Even if he's strong and he'll recover, Yuya's still going to worry until he sees it with his own eyes. He needs that assurance.

Whatever Zangetsu implies seems to go right over Yuya's head, and he's briefly bewildered by the gesture. But then he smiles at what he says, his expression the calmest it's been since Gon went missing.

"Yeah. Thanks, Zangetsu."

(no subject)

moonfang - 2018-08-23 04:13 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only