Flowers of Heaven II: Star of Bethlehem

[rosetograce]

Who: lost(?) idols
Where: ???? a mysterious courtyard
When: day 490

[ You awaken to the feeling of cool stone at your back, and a night sky overhead.

All around is a courtyard—a wide circle of marble tile, alternating black and white, interspersed with stone benches and flowerbeds and ornamental trees, all lit by the lambent gleam of strangely vivid starlight.

It is beautiful. And it is decaying. The stone is cracked; the flowers wild and overflowing between the cracked stone; the trees bent and twisted with age, the ground around them littered with fallen fruit. There is a fountain in the center of this space, but it too is broken-down: the water sits stagnant, and nothing remains of the design except a basin and the shattered base of a once-golden sculpture.

—And surrounding it all are not walls, but dense mounds of kudzu, climbing over itself until it towers as high as any watchtower.

How did you get here?
The last thing you vaguely recall is a sudden fit of drowsiness. There’s no sign of any guide or host around, and your powers don’t currently work either. In fact, if you have any corruptions, whether mental or physical, they too are … gone? No, perhaps that's not quite it; you can still feel them—faint, like a phantom limb. Invisible, and unable to affect you.
But there is one notable exception to the rule: all wings, corruption-induced or not, remain in place, as natural as the starlight.

There are other idols around you, all waking up the same way. Is this meant to be some kind of game…? ]

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[rosetograce]

Sign Ups | Flowers | Status Effects | OOC Rules

ROOMS

[rosetograce]

LiliS + Heart Soldier + WILD CITY
sensitIV
pep!pep!
BAD END=DEAD END + Taisho Roman Revolution + BARiTONES
future is now + ☆ZRAEL
AlcheME!
avante en garde

EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[rosetograce]

[ Though there’s no host to talk to, you can look around the immediate area of the courtyard if you want.

There's a strange and pervasive sadness throughout this place, despite its ancient beauty—as well as a signs that, perhaps in better days, this place might have seen beloved use. And, towering kudzu aside, there are a few lower stone walls, with open archways leading deeper within the courtyard itself. ]

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[bondsofsuffering]

[Hm.

Are any of the trees still sturdy enough to climb? Because he's immediately looking for one that looks safe enough.]

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[rosetograce]

[ Good news/bad news, these are all fruit and ornamental trees, so they all have branches that are a nice medium thickness, that dip low and easy to reach, with lots of places to grip. They also don't get particularly tall.

But it shouldn't be hard to find one to climb. ]

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[stoneandstave]

Be careful. A sick tree can sometimes lash out. [ He sure sounds confident about that nonsense. ]

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[crossmyheartandhope]

Hey. You don't think this is...?

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[at_heart]

[ Same hat on that First Idea, but also: hey it's that weird feeling he gets every time he sees a sIV in a creepy game with powers-off. That little burst of oh good followed by ugh, not this time followed by a stab of guilt because that's a shitty way to treat people. ]

—Hey.

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[heavyliesthecrown]

Should you climb that? Do you know how?

[ Worrying over at the bottom of the tree. He seems to... lack all of his corruptions today?? Except for the wings. ]

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[threatmewted]

What the-?!

[????

WHEREMST THE FUCK.]

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[rosetograce]

[ Wheremst indeed.

At first glance, the stones beneath you, which are shattered in places and spiderwebbed with cracks even where they’ve failed to break, look ancient.

But no, that’s not quite right: if you look closer, you'll realize that, despite the damage, they’re otherwise... pristine, made from white and unblemished stone. "Old" isn’t so much the word here as "timeless." Timeless, and yet somehow irreparably damaged. ]

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[rugpull]

Ya alright?

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[rugpull]

[going to climb the highest climbable thing skitter skitter skitter]

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[rosetograce]

[ "Highest" and "climbable" are both relative terms!

Nearby are the various ornamental and fruit trees, which would be easy enough for even a grade schooler to climb, but they don't get that tall.

Further away, there's also the kudzu... ]

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[malumdiscordiae]

[ he's not bothering to wait for anybody and is instead immediately heading for one of the open archways that lead deeper into the courtyard. ]

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[unbr8kable]

[Looking around--she is not alone at least? But first of all, checking out the golden(?) statue]

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[heavyliesthecrown]

[ His corruptions are... gone? His eyes are their regular violet shade, and the ears and tail vanished. The only thing that remains is his wings. He beats them behind him experimentally. ]

This is... strange.

[ He can't help but feel a strange sense of melancholy, either. Cautious he moves over the the fountain, and after a moment, dips his fingers within the still water.]

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[crossmyheartandhope]

[He glances around, uncertain -- pauses and approaches the fountain]

[At a glance, it seems an awfully lot like something he thinks he recognizes]

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[stoneandstave]

[ The sight of the sick trees and broken space makes Gentiana sad. Incredibly sad. He approaches the tree and places a hand on it, as if in comfort. Then he looks at the sky, then walks around the base of the tree, clockwise. ]

This place is... unwell. I wouldn't want to remain here for long.

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[glidinglight]

[ Heading to the open archways to get a better look at the architecture and what lies beyond. ]

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[childeishly]

[ picks up a piece of the fruit... and tries to eat it. ]

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[alchemechanical]

Oya... this is quite the setting.

[ Picking up one of those fruit to examine. ]

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[outofoffice]

[ Stooping to brush his fingers along the petals of one of the wildflowers underfoot ]

How beautiful, in a melancholy sort of way.

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[at_heart]

[ —Right, so, as ever his immediate response to finding himself in a Game is to use Juniper Tree. Pursing his lips a little when nothing happens.

It takes him a few seconds longer to notice the absence of corruptions, but that's — way more unusual and remarkable. Huh.

...Definitely joining the people looking for something they can climb up to get a better view of the surrounding place. Trees? Is the kudzu itself climbable?? ]

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[worldlyafflictions]

[Pink himself doesn't have any corruptions but he's going to clock that everyone else has lost theirs except wings. Definitely looking around specifically with the eye for the familiar. There's only a few encounters where he can think of combinations of mysterious fountains and fruit trees.]