⇨ 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

[spaghettimonster]

Yeah, the rock gives him a scare. A few scares. He's trembling a little by the time he picks her up under the arms, intent to carry her wherever would be a better place than out in the street like this, and finally notices a pulse.

"Oh my god," he exhales in relief, and hugs her to his shoulder. "Y-yeah! You're okay! You'll be okay. It's not my fault."

It's a relief, but not as big a relief as it should be. He's still rattled as he starts traveling the streets toward the temple of healing.

[soft_focus]

She's totally okay! ...Totally.

It's not long after walking at least that Reira starts to stir- there's quiet huff sounds before she finally starts to blink. "...mnh...."

Life! They have Life!

[spaghettimonster]

They walk and talk along the way, Papyrus handling all of the walking and talking. He rambles words directed to Reira, an off-the-cuff and unplanned monologue of various worries that she presumably can't hear, being unconscious.

"--and besides, you were right about passing notes. Communication has been terrible, even with those radios, all of you got caught, none of us were around to help, Sans was too busy to jump in the fray - does anyone else teleport? I don't think so, I should ask around... Not that he should, he... hmm?"

And he notices the slight movement and sounds, as if in response to his talking, and slows to check on her.

"Hey, are you waking up? Phew! I mean, I knew it wouldn't take you long!!" He'd hoped that, at least.

[soft_focus]

If Reira even caught half of what was being said, it takes a bit for her to acknowledge it. For the most part she just blinks blearily, grimacing as she gets used to the light and such around. "W...where 's this.." she mutters, only to furrow her brows. "Mnh... ...made a mirror code for messages 't least..." she sleepily adds, having apparently caught the communication point.

[spaghettimonster]

"Err." He hadn't expected her to hear a thing, honestly, and goes through a dip of surprise and regret for a few seconds before he brightens at the coherence of her comment. "That's true! But Strange was busy, and not timely about being helpful."

Not helpful enough to stop Lilith from appearing... But none of them were, that's not his fault or reflecting badly on him in particular.

"He was helpful eventually," Papyrus admits after a second's delay, not wanting to end any part of this conversation on a negative note. "Now we're... On a street, in Eden, looking for friends."

[soft_focus]

Reira's blink is very slow. "....came when I called 'm so I could tell him about Lilith," she murmurs, before adding- "....'n before that with... ...W' when Bezaliel came..."

She doesn't seem to catch the fact that there may have been a large span of time that he was being useless in there. But anyway.

There is another groaning sort of sound, and she tries to stretch. "...c'n I try walking..?" Otherwise she feels like she might just fall asleep and that seems like a poor idea.

[spaghettimonster]

Not catching that is quite alright, because Papyrus doesn't particularly mean to bash Strange, not even to Strange's face. It's not like all this was his fault. Or even the Ringmaster's, for not giving them radios. The only fair bashing would be to Lilith herself, if he ever meets her, and boy he's not in a hurry for that.

Besides, Strange did tell them about Lilith.

"Would you like to?" He wonders, shifting his grip so he can settle her onto her feet - gripping just enough that she won't fall even if her legs give out. "I didn't see any big injuries... but, pay attention to what your body tells you. It's okay if you try and decide not to! You've been through a lot."

[soft_focus]

There is a slight and almost squeaky yawn, and Reira shakes her head as she tries to properly stand. "Mnh- not moving makes it feel like I should go to sleep again..." she hums, somewhat blandly looking over her new hands. "...I don't want to sleep anymore..."

She's had plenty of that for the last few hours after all, and would like to stay Awake this time.

And... "Mnhhh... ...I guess it's a lot..." It's hard to think of it that way. It all happened so...quickly...

[spaghettimonster]

Her trailing off so much doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence that she's going to keep standing... Papyrus fidgets but gently releases her shoulders, watchful for signs she's going to fall over.

"A lot of sleep? Were you... asleep for everything, just now?" He's hopeful as he asks, because that'd be a lot better than her feeling or remembering any of it.

If Sans felt anything like this after rescuing Papyrus from that nightmare, no wonder he'd seemed such a wreck. Wowie.

[soft_focus]

Reira nods- though...perhaps not quite for the reasons Papyrus suspects. "...There wasn't anything to do after I called for Strange..." she murmurs. "...I tried some magic practice for a little, but it was just empty in there, so I took a nap instead..."

Sleep for the sake of sleep. It was all fine, truly.

(For a moment, it almost sounds like there was an echo off her words- but that couldn't have been anything right?)

[spaghettimonster]

There are times when sleep truly is the lesser evil, so lesser that it loops back around into being a good thing. This is one of these times.

Or, it would be, if she was nodding for the reason he hopes.

Papyrus focuses hard on that hope, too hard to notice the signs she means something else. And while he notices the odd echo... he assumes it's just the result of a large building they're passing by. "For the best! A rejuvenating nap, so now you're ready to walk yourself to safety. Relative safety. I heard the doctor's set up camp in a big building, so that's where we're going."

[soft_focus]

"Mnh." She agrees, albeit rather mutely. "...if Doctor Herbert has a whole building, that's a good sign..."

The echo appears more clearly this time, and she frowns. Pausing, she glances up at Papyrus.

"...Did you hear something..?" Maybe her ears are ringing. Or have reflections in them?? She was just locked in a bunch of mirrors, so maybe sounds are going to be reflecting for a while?

That totally made sense in her head.

[spaghettimonster]

Part of the trouble of checking on Reira is, she lapses into these quiets so often that it's hard to tell if something extra is amiss. But she seems to be standing and walking fine, so that's significant progress from as unconscious as she recently was.

He takes the question seriously, anyway, glancing around like the sound is floating helpfully in the air with closed captioning on it. "I... heard you talking? And maybe distant fighting."

There are those huge shapes whirling around in the sky, but they're pretty darn high up there.

[soft_focus]

And yet, it feels somehow like the biggest worry is on the ground. Whispering sounds gather from behind them, and Reira stops walking immediately.

It's not as though she can feel the other's presence or emotions obviously but...well.

"...Papyrus..?" She swallows. "...I think someone's there..."

[spaghettimonster]

Wanting to get to the relative safety of a building with friendly people, Papyrus goes another further than her before realizing she's stopped.

He stops and turns, asking, "Someone's... where?" And this time, at least, he doesn't glance around. In case she silently points, rather than making words for whatever's going on.

[soft_focus]

Reira doesn't point anywhere. She simply frowns and looks side to side, trying to pin down where she heard whatever there is.

The problem is that once they've addressed the unseen elephant in the room, rustling starts up. From everywhere. But while the sound is around them, the leaves themselves aren't moving from wherever she can see...so...

...Where..??

[spaghettimonster]

"You're not sure?" Papyrus asks, frowning and considering their options. He doesn't have any idea what

Unfortunately, blue magic isn't an efficient way to detect invisible people. Searching the entire sphere of the world around oneself for signs of a soul to ping would take a while, and people can move in the meantime. If it could be efficient, ghosts wouldn't be so spooky...

"Well... what if we keep moving, and whoever you're feeling doesn't follow?" And, really, Reira was just injured in that Prism. Maybe she's... perceiving things that aren't there? "We won't know more than we know now, but we'll be closer to friends."