⇨ 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

[soft_focus]

He should really have figured it wouldn't be so easy. The moment the first group spies him, rocks are being thrown. A number of children rush with the intent to tackle the skeleton...even with tthe walls. Some are pragmatic enough to leap the bears or even each other by way of becoming their own stepping stones- seeking to vault the wall and strike Papyrus that way. More problematically...

The prism ahead glows and shines, and a number of clones already stationed near it throw their arms forward- casting a large, dome like shield to cover the thing as best as they can.

"You're not allowed..!"

[spaghettimonster]

He really should have. But who knew that evil magic Reira clones would be so willing to push through walls of bone, regardless of the pain?

"Urgh... Why are there so many of you!?"

Papyrus slides backwards with a tug of blue magic, toes and tail tip skidding on the ground, to dodge some of the lunging clones. At least two of the children scrape him with those sticks and a few rocks get through the walls, bruising bone with the impacts.

Really, his main fortune here is that, with them being magic constructs - like very big and complicated bullets - they don't have the force of intent a full soul would give them. The siphoned energy is more than enough to hurt, and over time... Well. Be pretty dangerous to any monster.

"It's unfair! So, that means... I get to break one of your rules!"

You know, the one about being allowed to rescue her. He dodges around to the side, trying to run up through where all those leaping clones vacated.

[soft_focus]

They should probably have a talk about that later- it's not inhuman, but it's certainly unusual for a kid to have that much pain tolerance. One interesting thing that Papyrus might notice however is that while they're certainly trying really hard to attack, they...

Don't seem to really act like anything more than hollow copies. He may be in more of the clear than he thinks! (Except not really. It's just someone else's will in there, alas,)

Leaping into where they vacated is easy- easier still due to the fact that since none of them shattered, no more are spawning.

...Yet. The four manning the shields are ever vigilant however, and those in the river are making to charge as well. It's very much become a game of flag football for this poor skeleton.

[spaghettimonster]

Yeah... Kind of like, it's unusual for a kid to be so unfamiliar with receiving gifts, while so familiar with how to use summoned card monsters. And in proper combat scenarios, at that. It seems like Reira had a difficult childhood. Which, it isn't finished, so it can still get better!

But it's tricky to ask someone about their childhood pains when you only remember snippets of your own. How would he really know what's unusual, or what's ideal? Maybe he should ask some parents, like Hinawa, for their insights.

Now's not the time for those thoughts, though. Papyrus moves up towards that prism easy enough, but he hadn't noticed the ones in the river before they emerged, and they blindside him.

"Wait, where did you come from?!"

At quick glance it seems like they're spawning from the river, far away from the prism.

[soft_focus]

There's always later- at the very least, maybe he can help her come to grips with things that are fun in general! Also, asking other parents might just give the parents heart attacks.

Never a good time.

That's later though- This is now, and the clones that had been walled off are coming back as well. "You know we can swim!" some of the water ones huff- both like and unlike their original. The ones still protecting the prism with their shields merely buckle down.

"Just go away..!" they shout. "This is too important!!"

So is not getting fenced in by a literal crowd of seven year old children, actually.

[spaghettimonster]

There is that. His relative distance from it all, and somewhat questionable ideas of what childhood entails... Might help him not-panic at some things.

For now, Reira's clones may be smaller and younger than the other human child he's fought before, but they make up for it in numbers and tenacity. Papyrus glances each way, focuses his blue magic, and waits.

"You're kidnapped and doing bad things! I know how that goes," unfortunately, "but... No, it's not important at all! Freeing you is."

Once the clones get close enough to him that they're swinging or lunging, Papyrus reverses gravity on himself as hard as he can, to shoot himself up in the air while they run into each other.

If he's really lucky, maybe they'll get mad and fight each other? Not likely, but boy oh boy can he hope.

[soft_focus]

The clones naturally have no answer to whether or not they've been kidnapped. They simply keep throwing, and try to focus their attentions on him. For as much as Papyrus has simply jumped Extremely High, the crowd is nothing if not proactive- a few are closing their eyes to focus on something, before others point upward...

And soon there's a number of sharp twigs and stones being launched with alarming accuracy despite any ascent or descent. The four with the shields are moving- standing upon daemons to refocus the efforts into protecting from above and at the side he's moved toward. This is really a pain!!

"Get down here! You're cheating!"

[spaghettimonster]

Their silence on that, if nothing else, really adds to the idea they're just simulacra. Even at his most brainwashed he made conversation, and thought about the nature of his existence.

It's briefly tempting to stay up here and strategize... But he's not going to put all his energy into hovering in the air. Even as he enters the height of his arc, they're still pummeling him with all these sharp bits, and ow they're pretty accurate.

Instead, he lets go of the blue magic that burst him into the air and begins descending, aiming towards the far side of the prism than he'd come from. And he reaches an arm out, summoning a blaster to clear the ground where he'll be landing - hopefully reducing the number of clones rushing at him before he tries hitting the prism itself.

[soft_focus]

The blaster is certainly effective- as is the diversion. Where those who COULD try to reach him were ready to, the blasting force causes most to either scatter or duck behind shields just as the Prism Guards are. They're willing to risk themselves, yes- but they aren't suicidal.

As it is a few clones certainly scatter- shattering like holograms into shards of light. Papyrus has bought land space yes- but he still needs to get more exclusive access to that prism they so protect!

And speaking of that...one of the shields is lowered but briefly, as something glows off the glass. ...As a few clones pop off and land, and prepare to charge.

Because even biting amd kicking is something.

[spaghettimonster]

Papyrus lands safely enough, with just a tiny tug up so he doesn't crash heavily. Then he's already surrounded, and even as he turns to the prism there's glowing and even more clones appearing.

"Stop making more of you, you already outnumber me!" Papyrus exclaims at the sight.

To think, they're complaining that he's cheating when they're doing this. The audacity of it all.

He spreads his arms out, using the motions to help focus energy as bones rise around him in waves to buffet the group away from him, pummeling them back. How strong are these clones, anyway? Do they dispel with a few blows?

hurriedly tags while running out the door-

[soft_focus]

Again, there's no answer to outnumbering or anything like that. Though there is a somewhat audacious claim from those in the front as the energy bones rise.

"We don't want to be Blue today!!" They're not even being Blue! But apparently that's something Reira's personality associates with him, at least. Being Blue. Going bouncy, or floaty, or...

The clones are as strong as any human child- or, well, any human child who while frail also happened to have most of their 'rock patches' on their front. Between that and blocking, he actually does a pretty good job buffeting them back without breaking them!

Unfortunately, there is still that pesky shield group at the Prism itself.

likewise

[spaghettimonster]

Bouncy yet kinda sad - with cool magic, the Papyrus experience.

As much as this isn't a conversation, and he's not taking their requests to heart, they've unwittingly given him an idea. Blue magic.

The two of the shield group at the Prism closest to him ping blue, and he shoves them to either side - rather like the last receding wavelets of bone just pushed the others aside. And at the hint of opening, he's sprinting towards the crystaline shell where the real Reira's trapped.

[soft_focus]

"NO! That's not fun-!" shout the two clones, as if they even know what that would mean. The remaining pair, and indeed anyone remotely near the prism of course try to close the gap-

But Papyrus will get there first.

It's just a matter of what he DOES to the prism, and how fast.

[spaghettimonster]

He's going to summon a big, sturdy bone to hand, and swing it right at the prism. The idea is, break it open to let her out - or pull her out, if she's unconscious - and do his best to run out of here. Faster than the clones can go.

...And thanks to that time in the Hunt, he knows full well that just using a bone as a club is a viable option.

[soft_focus]

Extremely viable. Papyrus has a good arm- really good, and as the bone comes down it cracks along a seam of the prism to send spiderwebbing cracks all along it....

And then simply shatter. The good news? It's broken, and the clones around them are following without a word as they scatter into light.

The bad news...

Is that Reira falls from the shattered prison upon the glass, and she doesn't move, her back to Papyrus.

[spaghettimonster]

He kind of expected it would take more than that; the crystals growing from his bones seem so tough, he's hardly scraped more than a couple of them... But the prism's shattered. And to his astonishment, the clones start dissolving around him. Just like that, they're giving up?

Papyrus loses precious seconds to glancing around at their dissolving forms, wondering what's causing them to disappear, before he notices Reira's fall and stillness.

A cold chill goes down his spine, as he steps forward through the shattered glass and crouches next to her.

"...Reira? Are you awake...?"

`when u flick red dye on the white dog` is the mood, tbh,

[soft_focus]

She is not.

As Papyrus comes to look at her, it will be difficult to tell if she's breathing- she's curled up somewhat still, and with so much of her covered in stone at various angles, what little she wears doesn't quite move with any breath.

There are long dried stains along her arms, and even a bit of her upper lip however- the feathers of the arms show the rusty 'red' best, as do a few shards that had come from the inner mirrors- the occasional fleck of red on them as well.

a very alarming sight, even when things aren't that bad

[spaghettimonster]

It's tricky, dealing with non-monsters, sometimes.

When a monster dies, it's clear: they fall apart into tiny bits of memory, a pile of dust to scatter on the things they loved. Death follows a time of unresponsive, quiet stillness - or comes abruptly from terrible accidents, or terrible actions.

But people can be still and quiet when they're asleep, monsters or no; it's not like every unconscious person seems dead on sight. It's that shock of red that presses him to sudden fear, the way it stands out across her; he's seen enough human media to break out in cold sweat.

"Uhhhhh... Okay, I'm sure you're... worn out, from, being captured, so, I will give you a lift. To... somebody who knows what to do, to help you stop leaking."

He reaches out to scoop her up, and remembers as he gets an arm under her; heartbeats are a thing that only living people have. Hers still happening, right?

ye...

[soft_focus]

Fortunately nothing is still bleeding. Everything is dried. But the trouble with heartbeats is that rocks don't have those, and hers is fairly faint- he needs to get his fingers to a spot that isn't covered by rocks, such as under the arm or similar. It'll be easier to tell there.

But it Is there.

Reira is otherwise absolute dead weight, small and limp in Papyrus' arms.

[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.