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!

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Her plan is, all things considered, pretty successful, as she leads the majority of the Yuusei clones away from the immediate area to investigate the sudden wall of violet flames. Only three remain unswayed, two of which are posted far away from the prism, scouting for oncoming potential threats. One, however, is still fairly close by, about 30 feet away. It hasn't taken notice of her yet thanks to her sheer elevation.

Thirty feet is enough. With a deep breath, Carly lets the line flare to life with even more fire- blending it with the Hell Flame as well.

She herself dives. She dives and keeps her light dulled as much as she can, spinning a sling formed from her sash as a rock lays nested within it. The closer she gets the more easy it'll be to spot her-

But she's also moving directly downward at a breakneck pace.

When she's close enough, she spins the sling one last time and launches it forward, a human shot-put with a rock at the fore.

The rock comes down and strikes one of the side corners of the prism, and while she may have intended on hitting it closer to the centre, the sheer force with which she comes down is enough to break off the corner entirely, sending additional cracks up along its other faces.

Her distraction isn't enough to stop most of the other clones from hearing that sharp smack against the prism, though, but the majority of the taurs bounding over to stop her are quite a ways away, and even 30 feet is still a fair distance.

Especially when there's a bird-sized hole right beside her.

"Hihh!!" She'll take what she can get. The hummingbird hurriedly darts inside, taking advantage of the prisms' weakness. She then looks around. Tight fit...very tight. But maybe if she turns back while in here, wearing her cloak of demon flame, she can make that initial fragmented area scatter entirely.

Carly takes a deep breath...and shrouds herself before shifting back.

This may hurt.

Spoilers: it will hurt.

The inside of the prism isn't... terribly small. It has to fit a whole taur, after all. Having said that, though, Yuusei takes up a good majority of the space, curled up and occasionally shuddering from the soul-tearing pain caused by his iron shackles. There are thousands of him reflected within these walls, and now thousands of Carly as well. Thousands of her as a hummingbird, and then...

Well, it's a bit hard to see her as a human.

The fact of the matter here is that she simply isn't big enough to have the prism-shattering effect she was likely hoping to. All she ends up doing is being squished against what space there is for the walls, but also squishing heavily against Yuusei, big taur body, spikes, iron shackles and all.

Make what you will of that, Carly.

A good number of things happen in only a few small moments, and none of them work well for Carly. First, despite empowering herself with a fire cloak, nothing happens. Second, and related to that, the lack of anything breaking has her uncomfortably smooshed againsrt Yuusei's form...

Which means contact with the iron.

An earsplitting scream pierces the air from inside the prism, amd frantically Carly jolts back and turns into a bird again. Being Wrought iron she isn't burnt or anything...but that fucking hurt dammit!

With her luck, those things are going to try grabbing her now.

Yuusei admittedly can't see much from how he's positioned, but for as briefly as Carly's cloak of flames engulfs him, it's still enough to consume the rest of his vision and blur his tiny, tiny world together amidst the mirrors with a wave of exhaustion. His Signer mark can't protect him while he's bound in iron, and although her fire doesn't truly burn, it's still terribly sapping, and his head lulls forward.

Hands suddenly claw through the hole Carly created in the prism, grasping around the limited space before ultimately seizing the bird and yanking her out away from Yuusei. The mirror-eyed clones have swarmed the prism again, and as soon as Carly even begins to emerge, they're all but chomping at the bit to tear her apart.

Well, FUCK THAT THEN. Carly immediately turns back into a person again, trying to push out of their grip. She also sets herself quite thoroughly on fire. Worst case, they'll be buffered away by their shields or some nonsense.

Speaking of shields however...

With a snarl, she takes off into the air again, looking toward where there is now a hole in the prism. She probably has one shot at this, but she wants to try it...

So she creates a wall of fire around the prism, tracing a line with her eyes.

Or tries at least.

Some of the clones are buffered back away from the prism by the wall of solid flame, but simultaneously their shields protect them from the fire, and so with enough willpower - if they can even be considered to have a 'will' at all - some push through, remaining close to the prism.

They then begin to clamber up upon one another, claws grasping any and every available surface on which to scale up higher toward the prism; and when they reach it, they continue to climb on top of one another, and soon there are many of them stacked on top of the diamond prison, scarlet bubbles covering the cracks Carly made in its surface. It'll be hard finding a weak spot to strike at now.

Thankfully, however, she won't have to; after all, the bigger the foe, the harder they fall.

The prism may be well-protected from outside threats, but the weight of all the clones stacked on top of it begins to take its toll, pressing down on the already-existing cracks in the mirror and spreading them further.

Yuusei has had enough, beginning to scratch and pound at the walls, seeing his chance. The iron weakens him, but he refuses to allow it to stop him--

And then the cracks split further until they converge, and a cry filled with many things - frustration, defiance, pain - is punctuated by shattering glass. The air erupts into shards of mirror and silvery light, the horde of clones dissolving like opal sand into nothing while the prism bursts and falls to the ground in infinite pieces.

And among them, at last, is Yuusei. The real one. There appear to be small tinges of blue in his hair, and slathered upon his chest is an enormous chrome pattern resembling a melting brand of Lilith's, but it is definitely, certainly him.

Strangled by iron, but still him.

Carly does not enjoy this. "HIhhhHH!! HHHHAAAAH-!"

Carly does not enjoy it at all. She's very much frightened by this slowly closing in crowd, moving farther and farther into the air as what can best be described as a human tower of taurs starts making their way toward her.

And then comes the 'crack'. The crack, and with it the scattering of light as the clones fade away. On impulse, Carly banishes her fire wall and darts down with a shout. She doesn't know HOW that worked but....well!

"Yuusei!" She shouts, careful not to touch the iron. "Yuusei..! Can you speak..?"

There was a moment, a very brief moment, where the prism collapsed and the clones came down on Yuusei, their combined weights crushing him only for a second. His whole body aches from that, and the iron feels like thousand-ton weights on his limbs for the moment, but beyond that...

He blinks hazily and coughs, squinting at Carly as she approaches.

(And while he himself doesn't see it, Carly will surely notice how, when her luminous form nears him, Yuusei's entire head of hair lights up a shiny chrome blue, not unlike his feathers did as a hummingbird.)

"...nnnghh...... S....Ssssaah.... hah.... thi........"

"Ohhh!!" She resists the urge to flick him. "Don't you force out fake names you fool..!" Carly's voice cracks, and she grimaces as she tries to think of how to even begin carrying the other. She's...she's not strong, not in the slightest, so how...

"The cover is plenty blown alright? The Ringmaster is fighting Lilith as we speak and... Mnhh..." She sniffs. "Y...You...how did you even get in this mess...you were doing so well, better than...than all of us, so..."

He makes an honest attempt at lifting his head, and he laughs something raspy before the back of his skull thuds against the dirt again. Chains clink softly. ".....h..... her'....sy......."

All Yuusei can bring himself to do is laugh. The way the lights in the sky are positioned eclipse Carly's head, making her features hard to see but also blocking out the blinding presence of Lilith.

He laughs until his throat hurts, until they stutter into hiccups and Kaiju-Blue tears claw out of his eyes; and he can't help himself but to grasp Carly's toes with his own on his hind legs because those saddled with iron and all he wants to do is hold her.

It hurts.

It hurts to watch this, and Carly trembles as she holds back tears, shakily bringing a hand to Yuusei's head. "It.... ...It's ok, Yuusei," she whispers, choking. "It's... It's going to be alright..." She couldn't make out what he said but she's realizing it doesn't matter, not when he's like this. So instead with a broken sob she holds his head close.

"...Just rest.. I... ...I can't lose someone else again," she admits, mostly to herself. "I... ...Just rest, and it'll be okay..." She'll get help...she'll get someone who can get this iron off, get...anyone...

"...Just sleep, for now..."

He'd love to sleep, but ever since he was imprisoned, he's had a pretty difficult time doing that through the iron burn. His wrists feel numb at this point, among other things, so that's really cool. Really great there.

There's a nudge against Carly's hand, and then maybe softly against her breast, if the angle of things demands it, as Yuusei reciprocates with as good of a nuzzle as he can manage like this. His hair is... very soft, and shiny now, too, despite everything.

Carly, to him, however, is ever-softer.

"...go...... I c'n...... 'll be fine......."

Carly holds onto him for a few moments more.

Only a few however, before she lays a very gentle kiss upon his head and lets him down. Softly moving back to the air, she nods.

"...I'll find someone to get you," she whispers. "...They'll take you somewhere safe..."

And with that...with one last look to him, she turns into a hummingbird and flies away.

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⇨ EDEN PT. 4 (FINALE)

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