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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Outnumbered, the cicada nurse buzzes off -- more than likely to retrieve more formidable backup, but at least that leaves them alone for now.

"Neither of us are soul experts," Lambert points out. Strange's soul could still be pretty fucking broken here, but there's no use harping on that point. "What happened after the Mirror broke? Do you remember?"

"I don't know," Strange admits. "I didn't even know the Mirror was broken until I heard others talking about. Everything went black and the next thing I remember, I was standing in the middle of the forest with the Ringmaster."

This doesn't seem to bother him as much as it should. More than anything, Strange looks tired as he explains this, not particularly horrified or affronted that he doesn't entirely know what happened to his body in between 'being in a Mirror' and 'not being in a Mirror.'

"If you're truly concerned, I'll ask the Ringmaster or Ignatius to read my soul later," said with a little shrug. But not right now, though. Strange really doesn't want to move at the moment and is using Lambert to hold himself up just as much as Lambert is using Strange.

Yeah, that's a little situation they're going to have to fix in a moment -- despite his bravado, Lambert's largely only upright because of periodic shocks of adrenaline to his system that haven't entirely worn off. Mentioning Ignatius makes him tense up briefly, but rather than dwell on that, he'll change the subject!

"Speaking of the Ringmaster ... where is she?"

Strange shrugs—or, at least, shrugs the best he can considering that these two are pretty much holding each other up. "I've no idea. I was barely conscious while she carried me here. I suspect she dropped me off and then went off to do more...Mirror things."

Does Strange know what the Mirror things are? Absolutely not. And his confused little frown tells Lambert that this is just him bullshitting, guessing, and trying to find an answer.

“You could just leave it at ‘I’ve no idea,’ you know,” Lambert points out, just to be shit, but he gains a pinched expression hereafter.

“Childermass got himself ripped open. Iron, as far as I could tell — magic wasn’t healing him.” Says the asshole who got himself ripped open, but obviously, he’s much more worried about the other man’s welfare than he is his own. Witcher’s and faebloods might have different constitutions from the average changeling, but when it comes to iron? One undoubtedly has it worse.

This is Strange: if he gets the chance, of course he's going to be wordy.

He can't help but wince as Lambert mentions Childermass getting ripped open via iron. Well. That's going to be an awkward conversation between them later. "I heard one of the other honorables talking about it, though I haven't seen it myself. What the hell was he doing?"

Despite the judging words, Strange is asking this out of genuine concern. It's not like Childermass is the reckless sort of person to get injured like Lambert and Strange are.

"I don't know." Lambert shakes his head, jaw working as he reins himself in from shouting. Worry and fear, and the lack of a conscious idiot to direct it towards, mean he's bottling a lot of emotion up.

"He was in bad shape when we found him. He'll have a lot of explaining to do when he wakes up."

When, not if. He's not going to tolerate an alternative outcome.

Strange knows just how worried Lambert must be. After all, he remembers having the same type of worry when the thing that he thought was Arabella lay dying in her bed. Very gingerly, Strange pulls back somewhat so he can actually look Lambert in the eye.

"He'll pull through this. Childermass has been in worse scrapes before," that's debatable but that's what Strange is sticking with, "and I suspect the Ringmaster would have already taken his soul if he was in danger of dying."

This is the worst pep talk but there you go.

It is debatable, but arguably, at least he isn't being sacrificed for a ritual or swayed by the call of his blood, so that's something, isn't it?

The witcher shakes his head. Strange might be trying to meet his eyes, but the witcher looks away.

"Iron wounds don't heal easy. Might've been kinder to kill him and let the Ringmaster bring him back. He's got the lives to spare."

"Spoken like someone who hasn't died before," Strange responds. He's trying to keep a little bit of a light tone in his voice and trying to sound like he's joking around, but it's obvious that for all his light-hearted tone, Strange has some firm opinions about the dying and revival process.

"Besides, if he suffers through the pain, then hopefully he won't do it again. Childermass is more sensible than the both of us, he isn't the sort to repeat mistakes."

Strange hopes. He really hopes.

"Spoken like someone who isn't a faeblood who's been torn open with iron," the witcher returns, grimacing. "He isn't like Ignatius. He's only mortal." He can't remember now if Strange had suffered any significant injuries during Hell, but ... dying as a boar sucked, exceptionally. Lambert thinks he could probably send Childermass off with more mercy than that. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking, trying to solve a problem.

Judging from Lambert's pained expression, it's rather tempting to point out that current evidence points to the dubious veracity of that assessment of Childermass's sensibility, but he doesn't have the energy to protest it. Instead, he shakes his head and finally lets Strange go, wobbling slightly.

"Can't decide if we should call this better or worse than getting the Blue Rose was..."

Edited 2018-08-29 19:53 (UTC)

"Better." Strange is saying this like it's completely obvious. He very carefully sits down on a nearby chair as he starts to explain.

"On a numbers note, we only had four people taken by Lilith in comparison to the...what, eight or so taken by the Prince." It's probably more than that, but Strange doesn't remember the exact number off the top of his head. "Iron hurts, but we know how to treat it. Say what you will about West, but I'm confident he can use some nonmagical means to make certain the wounds heal properly. With the Manor, we had to create an entirely new cure. As for those trapped in the prisms, I don't know about their mental or magical state but physically, they seem to be doing well."

It's all said in a very matter of fact tone...and also completely leaves out Mr. Dumbass Trapped In A Mirror from the analysis.

"Are you leaving out the part where you accidentally got stuck in a miracle for a few days on purpose, or was that all part of your plan?" Lambert asks. There isn't much bite to it, though, just wryness.

"We got careless, like with the vampires." Funny; that whole business feels like a lifetime ago, even if it's only been a few months. "Not all our enemies are going to be fae..." He frowns, briefly lost in thought -- then grimaces as his vision the ache of all his injuries catches up with him and he finds himself leaning against Strange just a little more heavily.

"You would have been even more careless had I not been trapped in the miracle," Strange rebuts. As Lambert leans against him, Strange places more weight in his feet, to try and stable himself—you're heavy, dude! "Everybody present at the party when Lilith arrived was trapped in those prisms. Had I not told you about her arrival, I'd guess that Lilith would make her way over to where the Mirror was and obliterate all of you on the spot. And though I respect her plan, Peridot wasn't sensible enough to bring someone who could communicate over long distances on her exploratory mission."

But then again, it looks like the people who can communicate over long distances are Strange himself and a sleeping Steven. Not exactly the best pool to choose from. Lambert's pretty heavy, so Strange attempts to gently steer him towards one of the beds, so both of them can actually lay down.

"I will admit that we needed a better strategy to find the Mirror. But as a whole, we did a good job."

"None of that needed you to be trapped in the mirror," Lambert points out, letting himself be steered over to one of the cots. "You could already do that anyway." Unfortunately, this is still a facility primarily for animals, and everything's scaled slightly smaller, so... while they can manage to lay down, it'll be unfortunately have to be with their legs dangling off the edge.

"You said..." It wasn't that long ago, but it feels like a million things have happened since then. He sits down, heavily, on the edge of the nearest cot, but doesn't lie down. "Why didn't you tell us as soon as Bezaliel showed up?"

The animal beds are tiny but being on one doesn't involve standing up. Ergo, they are Strange's new best friends.

And ah. As soon as Lambert asks that question, Strange knows he's going to hate the answer. Strange mentally takes a moment to get what he needs to say in order before he starts his explanation. "To start with, everybody fighting Bezaliel was doing a wonderful job. If Lilith didn't show up, I honestly think they might have succeeded at removing him from our problems." Either via killing or knocking unconscious. That's what happens when you've got at least three people vs. the bear in comparison to one dumb bird.

"When Bezaliel showed up, he came with four imprisoned carnival members, all bound with iron. One of them was Ignatius. Thankfully, those present at the scene freed Ignatius from Bezaliel's shadow prison and helped him escape. Considering that he was close to dying, I stayed by Ignatius's side to make certain that he received help."

It's all said in a very matter of fact, yet slightly resigned tone. If Lambert was at the top of his game, Strange knows he'd be yelled at. As it is, he's just waiting for how a beat the hell up Lambert is going to find a way to tell him he's a disappointment.

Of course it was related to Ignatius. That’s all that’s been on Strange’s mind of late, hasn’t it? Lambert’s too tired not to let the flash of irritation show, not that he was very much inclined to hide it to start with, but after a moment or two of mentally working through a dozen false starts, he finally just settles on:

“Right,” wearily. “He’s probably the only one without an egg. The rest of us are expendable, considering.” He grunts, shifting to a more comfortable seat. “Let’s hope the Summer Court doesn’t take accidentally getting one of their own branded with iron as an act of war, considering it happened to all of us.”

Strange weathers Lambert's irritation with a decidedly neutral frown of his own. He's tired, but he's putting most of his focus on keeping his expression neutral and not showing Lambert just how resigned yet sad he is that Lambert's grumpy about the whole Ignatius business.

"You're not expendable," Strange muses, as he shifts his position to stare up at the ceiling. "The Ringmaster knows what a tricky business dying and reforming is. If we were expendable, she'd have offered everyone in the carnival an egg before now."

Says the person out of the two who actually did some dying and reforming. Strange knows just how shitty and odd the process can be.

"As for the Summer Court, I assume the act of war would be against Lilith. And as far as I'm concerned, that bitch should fry."

“I just mean we have a way back and he doesn’t,” Lambert shrugs. “Hell, now I have two. I don’t even know if he would take it if...”

He’d tell Strange Ignatius said he’d be a free man as soon as he got back to the Carnival, but who knows, that would probably just set off Strange yelling again. More importantly—

“... wait,” he says, slowly. Yeah, he wants to talk about Ignatius as little as humanly possible, but it’s the same gross fascination as a child picking a scab— “You reckon the Ringmaster put him in an egg? Is that why he looks like a changeling now? I thought she could only do that if you did that ritual.”

Or maybe that only applies to mortals, or maybe when she swallows someone all bets are off. If any of the rest of them get swallowed, does that mean the same thing could happen to them? Anyway, now Lambert’s ... laughing at the idea, but quietly, because laughing hurts right now.

Edited 2018-09-07 12:17 (UTC)

Strange is in that awkward, dead tired mood where even the stupidest things are funny. As such, the idea of Ignatius hatching from an egg and getting egg gunk all over the place is kind of hilarious. It makes more sense than Strange's original hypothesis of the Ringmaster just puking Ignatius up...but it's still super silly.

He giggles a little and only makes a bare minimum to hide it.

"The only thing he told me was that he was 'unbirthed.'" Which based on Strange's tone of voice, he's got no clue what that word means. "You should ask Childermass about this. After all, he was there when Ignatius was on the moon. Maybe he saw a shell or something?"

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⇨ EDEN PT. 4 (FINALE)

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