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imeeji_frontstage2022-08-07 12:02 pm
rosetograce) wrote in imeeji_frontstage2022-08-07 12:02 pm
Flowers of Heaven II: Star of Bethlehem
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…? ]
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…? ]
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
Well, I'll just make do with mine.
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
[ Just curious. This place is creepy with a Capital C, but apart from that... ]
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
Say, do you want to hear a story?
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
—Sure.
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
So in my world, the book that a lot of hell seems to draw from has a story about the creation of the world. Well, lots of societies have their own takes on it, but this is the one important to this place.
Basically, God made the world and in it was this amazing garden. He kept the first man and woman there - Adam and Eve. Neither knew anything, but they didn't really have to because the garden provided all the necessities they could need. They could use anything in the garden to their hearts' content... except for a single tree. It was a huge apple tree, and it was full of fresh, tantalizing fruit.
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
Oh really?
[ Shelving them because hey it might be helpful for the game. ]
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
But then one day a serpent came along and made Eve question why they weren't allowed to touch that one tree when everything else was free game. So, she took an apple and ate from it, and suddenly gained knowledge - and shared it with Adam so he gained it too.
God wasn't happy with that, though. So he kicked them out, and since then no one's ever been able to find the garden again.
...Still, that kind of story is supposed to explain why people have free will and thoughts in the first place. So maybe the tradeoff was worth losing paradise over.
[But he'll snag some apples and stuff them in his hoodie pockets before he starts making his way down again.]
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
...Yeah, I don't think this place has any knowledge to offer.
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
I don't think everything's worth touching, for the record.
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
Is that so?