⇨ 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

RIN CLONES | OTA

[flashover]

The prism holding the blinded Rin, now returned to human form and partially conscious again after exerting himself so much, has found a resting place hidden away in an alley between two buildings at the edge of Eden.

Unlike some of the others, there are only three doppelgangers hanging about, glaring with their mirrored eyes and emoting at one another with their newly acquired secretary bird crest feathers.

The bad news is that, unlike the real Rin, these clones can see just fine. Worse news is that they're all packing Rin's fire powers, regenerative abilities, and super strength. But... at least they don't have swords? So hey, there's at least one bit of good news!

One of the clones has climbed onto the rooftops of the buildings making the alleyway and patrols from high ground. Another patrols around on the ground. The last remains near the prism at all times, maintaining a literal firewall around it.

[sealeopard]

Only by chance does this Honorable come across this location. And though the leopard seal is in fact a Scholar under the Architect Gadreel... Nuri has decided that unlike his patron, he will not stand by and watch.

Instead, he will listen to what his passionate heart tells him to do. Which is to forge his own path, led by his own passion. As long as the divine Lilith still rules over their way of life, they will never taste true freedom to be who their enlightened minds drove them to become.

Nuri does not approach too closely, looking unsure. Hopefully none of those identical... People things can notice him behind the plentiful and thick shrubbery nearby. On his back, the Scholar wear saddlebags packed with large jugs of water.

[hippocarnival]

Yuya does not slip through the shrubbery, instead navigating the city streets with haste, and using as much cover as he can to avoid the notice of hostile Honorables. He's saved Gongenzaka, but there are others, so he's back out to find them.

He stops when he sees the clone patrolling the ground. The distance is too much to catch the mirrored eyes, and Yuya doesn't know who all was actually kidnapped at the party.

Still, after seeing clones of one friend, it makes him a little wary. "Rin...?"

[flashover]

Hey, the only Carnival member named by Gadreel would agree with you, Nuri -- sitting around and standing idly by would get you nothing. And the soul trapped by the prism would have to agree as well.

Unfortunately, that soul -- Rin -- is unable to do anything except groan painfully inside his mirrored prison, totally blinded, while bits of his soul, twisted to Lilith's will, run about all willy nilly.

Thankfully, Lilith's will did not imbue them with any more intelligence or perceptiveness than the normal Rin. They're just as stupid, perhaps even dumber -- but they pull on the boy's impressive well of powers, and at least had the good sense to split up.

The Patrol-clone catches sight of Yuya, and turns to look his way. Its eyes shine like twin mirrors.

"Yu..ya. Hello!" The clone says with empty cheer, "Are you hungry?"

The inflection is so flat and unsettling that it sounds more like a strange threat than an out of place question.

[sealeopard]

Don't mind him guys, Nuri knows neither of you peoples. If it's anatomically possible for a leopard seal to narrow their beasy eyes, he does so. What is this meeting between the two? He can easily observe that they're familiar with one another.

The water in the containers he lugs around frosts over, then some forms into icicles that the seal poises to strike with.

[hippocarnival]

Yuya starts to approach, but the question stopshim in his tracks.

"Uh--" That's definitely not the question Yuya expected to be met with. Sure, Rin helps cook for the carnival, but that's obviously not where they are...

It'd just be confusing if this whole situation wasn't alarming and unsettling. "No, I'm not hungry. This isn't really the time?"

[flashover]

"Mmmhmmm," the clone says, answering a question that wasn't really asked. "I can make some sukiyaki."

Again, with the strange intonation and strange affect.

Except now the mirror-eyed Rin is on fire; blue flames swirl around it, and it holds out its hand toward Yuya, unleashing a torrent upon him without hesitation.

[sealeopard]

That seems to seal the nature of this meeting. Such a hollow voice and empty demeanor is enough proof there's hardly a soul contained in that thing and its doubles.

Ah well, forging his own path in this fight means attempting to save the other one. As the fire goes up, he launches ice from his hiding place at the clone. They might not stay sharp, but still be large enough to hurt.

[hippocarnival]

It's good that the off behavior and whole setting himself on fire is a clear indicator for Yuya to be on his guard. He leaps to action as the flames come after him, throwing himself sideways in a panicked dodge before throwing his shield up to defend himself. Rin definitely shouldn't just be attacking him out of the blue.

"Rin, were you captured too?!" That makes the most sense, right? Like Gongenzaka, he had copies that attacked them too. He looks around, trying to spot another one, or the prism for confirmation.

THROWS SOME SHADE AT MYSELF

[flashover]

From where Yuya is standing, it might be possible to see the prism -- but it's more likely that he'll see the firewall surrounding it.

Most of Nuri's ice, magically augmented though it may be, melts harmlessly into water and then fizzles to vapor as soon as it comes too close to the sulfuric flames. At least a few of them, though, find their way through and lodge into the clone's chest and abdomen.

Mirror-silver blood leaks from the wounds, and the clone looks down with its empty mirror eyes.

"Ah... wow... That hurts. Did you do that, Yuuuuuuu........go?"

He pulls one of the icicles out and melts it with another burst of flame.

[sealeopard]

Nuri has no way of suspecting this is a reflection of the trapped carnie's ridiculous amount of durability carrying over to the clones versus it merely being natural for the things to lack vital organs.

It seems the tomato-headed one can handle himself for just long enough though. Can the leopard seal see anything besides the two other clones and what's beyond the wall of blue fire if he shifts his position? Despite the risk of being discovered.

[hippocarnival]

That's grotesque. Yuya just stares at first as the clone seems unperturbed, bunkering under his shield. He can't see the prism, but if the clones are trying to protect it like Gon's, the fire is probably the right way to go.

Thete's obviously someone else here, though, and he doesn't know of anyone with ice powers.

While the clone is distracted, Yuya drops the shield and runs around the clone, aiming for the wall. Maybe if he can get his footing up, he'll see a better route to the prism.

[flashover]

Who needs vital organs when you're a mirror? But yes, that would be enough to normally do in anyone, if they weren't copies of the literal antichrist.

There's not much else to see -- the alleyway the prism floats in is fairly narrow. There used to be a wall behind the prism, but since they are in a fairly abandoned part of Eden, it has mostly crumbled and been reclaimed by plants and vines. The buildings making up the alley are in similar disrepair, with some broken windows and crumbling facades. Beyond the alley, there are only more fallen structures, including a fairly large decorative fountain. It's broken, but there's some stagnant water in it.

As for the prism and the firewall -- the prison hovers about ten feet off the ground, and there is a column of flame 15 feet high all around it, but not above it. The clone in charge of the wall does not seem to be paying much attention, as if the firewall is taking all of its attention to maintain.

Ground-chan holds his hand out as Yuya runs around him, "Hey, wait! Don't go."

The rest of the icicles melt away, leaving mirror-bloody holes in the clone, who gives chase toward Yuya.

The roof clone, however, has spotted Nuri.

"HEY! Look! A dolphin!!"

(close, rin clone. so close.)

tbh, beau is a bit out-gunned

[impatientdefense]

After seeing these strange duplicates a few times, and hearing a little bit about them, Beauregard's taken to scouting from high ground. All the greenery on the buildings makes it easier to climb up a floor or two... And getting a good view of the area, without getting crowded, is just plain helpful.

Especially in times like this, when she's not the only one watching from above the streets.

Beau catches sight of the movement on a rooftop a few buildings down, and settles in to watch for a minute. There's no sign of a prism from her position, but she can see there's another person in the street with a similar pattern of movement. And most of the carnival folks and animals - friendly or hostile - look pretty unique.

The question now is... Are those clones communicating with each other? Would the ground guy notice, if she snuck over and fought with the rooftop one? She looks for signs that they're stopping to talk, or looking up at each other, before moving out.

here's a gun, lmk if you don't want him

[reflash]

Yukio, on the other hand, is not getting a good view of the area. He's striding out of an alley, in human (ish) form, a bow in his hand. A quiver of iron-tipped arrows hanging from his side.

He pulls back an arrow and shoots, hitting the clone on the ground in the head with enough force that the arrow goes straight through its skull. He's not here for a drawn out fight, and he (apparently) doesn't have much of a plan.

oh my god this is great

[flashover]

Communicating? Well, there's nothing very complicated to it. When the two clones on the ground cross paths, they smile and wave to one another, miming cheer and brightness. They speak with Rin's voice, but their inflections are strangely hollow.

"See anything yet?"

"Nope!"

"Aaah! I guess we gotta pretty good hiding spot, huh?"

One of the clones cups his hands to his mouth and yells up at the roof.

"HEYYYYY! Roof-chan! See anything?"

'Roof-chan' waves down and calls back, "Nothing!"

Patrol-clone nods and goes back to walking, and Prism-clone plays idly with the firewall.

Then, with a solid sounding "thuck" sound, followed by a thud, the Patrol-clone falls flat on his face, an iron-tipped arrow sticking out of his head.

Oddly enough, the clone does not shatter as if killed, but it does lie there -- bleeding a pool of mirror-silver blood.

"Ah!! Patrol-chan!!" the Roof-clone screams in that empty, emotionally mimicking way, and looks around for the source of the attack.

never gonna be over what a perfect entrance that was

[impatientdefense]

...Okay, the superficial greetings are seriously creepy.

In a way, kind of worse than that huggy protective lady? Those ones at least seemed to be doing it for the benefit of whoever they tried grabbing. This guy - these guys? - there's nobody else here. That they know of. Even the Pumats have more engaging conversations than this.

She starts moving in anyway, edging around the flowering dome on the next building over, and looks closer. Not yet committing to the fight, just scoping things out, making more mental notes on the surroundings, possible paths of approach, all that stuff. From here, she can see a flicker of fire against the side of one of the buildings. Hinting at the presence of a third clone...? Two was already too many, is there just a third or more?

Then she hears the thock of arrow into body, Patrol-chan falling over as she's hanging off the dome by one arm to see into the alley - far enough to be seen, when Roof-chan looks this way.

[reflash]

One down, two to go. Yukio nocks another arrow onto the string and waits for 'Roof-chan' to show himself, but he's not staying hidden, he's walking out in plain sight to confront the clones. It's a gamble, of course, because everything he does is a gamble, but he's betting on the chance that Rin will pull his punches.

[flashover]

Well, Rin is a friendly guy. His clones are also friendly, at least to one another, because that's how they're wired. It's all very empty, though -- despite the cheer on the surface (and, later, the shock of seeing one of their own shot down), there's nothing underneath. Nothing deeper than a paper plate.

Beau remains unnoticed (they are not super perceptive), but Roof-chan spots Yukio as he walks out into the open.

"Bro!! You made it!" the clone's voice laced with that same fake cheer, the shock of seeing the other clone shot down apparently completely gone.

Roof-chan leaps toward Yukio, its claws brought to bare and sheathed in hellfire.

"I need to talk to you...!"

Despite the cheer in its voice and the strangely excited expression on its face, this clone doesn't seem like its going to pull any punches for its brother. Ground-chan is still prone, but the bleeding has staunched for now. Prism-chan maintains its barrier -- whether it even knows what's going on around it is debatable.

[impatientdefense]

This is the kind of thing she likes to see. Not the way the rooftop double lit on fire and ran off with claws out, that's a little alarming when she's just got a staff, a dagger, and her own self to fight with. It's a damned good thing she saw that from a distance, and even better that this 'bro' guy came up and distracted them.

If he's really their brother, yet so obviously taking no prisoners with the creepy doubles, then she kinda likes him already. A little unnerved, too, but it's made such a perfect chance for her to move.

So she pulls in close to the dome to ready herself, and then runs and leaps to the next building, rolling onto the rooftop of the one overlooking the alley with the flickering lights. And keeps moving, softening her footfalls as best she can, as she gets to the edge and to look down.

The last thing she needs to know is there: besides the obviously-dead one in the street, and the one who's running off to 'talk', there's a third in the alley. And a big freaking crystal, with a shape inside it.

Beau takes a moment to pull out the dagger and carefully aim. If she can pull off a headshot, like that arrow guy did, that'll make this a lot simpler.

[reflash]

He misses the headshot. But hopefully just bring shot with the iron-tipped arrow will be enough to slow the clone down. It's just a demon, just a demon who looks like Rin. He missed because he's using an unfamiliar bow and heavy arrows. That's all.

"I'm not going to talk to you while you're using those flames."

[flashover]

Yukio is completely ruthless. Though it probably helps that he and his twin are not on the best of terms, despite what Rin considers his best efforts. But Yukio is right -- these aren't Rin. They're just foul reflections, wielding his voice and shape and power.

The real Rin hears the voices, and manages to sit up inside his prison. He beats on the walls, yelling as loudly as he can. "HEYYY! I'M IN HERE! SOMEONE! BREAK ME OUT!"

The arrow strikes the roof-clone through the shoulder, making him stumble and miss his mark from the sheer pain of it. Iron hurts! Imagine that! But it doesn't take him down, and he continues swiping with flame-clad claws. And carrying on a stiff conversation.

"Yukio... we're brothers!! Why would you aim that at your brother? Put the bow away, I won't hurt you."

He says, as he's vehemently trying to claw Yukio's face off.

Meanwhile, Beau's dagger finds its mark... but not quite right on center. It's enough to disorient the clone, though, and the firewall wavers.

[impatientdefense]

Beau grumbles under her breath a litany of complaints against that dagger, because her aim was so good but its unfamiliar balance threw her off. If only that jailbreak involved getting her stuff back...

Well, no. She almost never has anything good for throwing. And while she could duck back and look around this rooftop for other throwing things, giving that clone time to figure out where the weapon came from... There's muffled yelling in the alley, like maybe there's somebody else held captive here.

So it's simpler just to swing that staff around and in front of her, then jump off the building heading right for the clone in the alley. No battlecry, because she doesn't want it to have time to move out of the way - a drop kick on him, then a swipe or two of the staff around his head, should put a good dent in him.

[reflash]

Back, back, and he needs his pistols, the bow just isn't made for anything like a close-range encounter, he should have hidden on a rooftop and sniped the copies from where he was.

Too late for that now.

"Like hell you won't!" He shoots back, voice raised and sharp. He's too close to shoot, and Rin-- the copy is closing fast, so he pulls an iron knife from his belt and closes the distance. He doesn't have a talent for hand-to-hand but he has at least a little self-defense training and no choice in the matter at all.

the dice were not in your favor this tag, friends

[flashover]

Beau has the element of surprise, and the disorientation of the clone, what with his head knife and all, in her favor. Her kick connects with a solid crack, as does her first whap with the staff. Unfortunately, the clone gets its bearings enough to grab the staff on the second round. If it's made of something flammable, consider it en fuego, suddenly engulfed in blue flames. The firewalls is, thankfully, very small. It seems each clone can only focus on one thing at once.

Yukio doesn't have any better luck. The demonic reflection rushes too, a flurry of claws and flame. He manages to grab a hold of his wrist, letting his flames run wild and scorching Yukio's skin. "We're brothers!! Please don't hurt me...!"

Nearby, the fallen clone begins to stir, trying (and failing, miserably), to stand up. It fumbles for the arrow in its head but is unable to pull it out, and the iron blocks most of its fire abilities.

Just like the real Rin, though, the reflections are doing nothing to guard their tails, which whip around crazily.