הניאל ([personal profile] rosetograce) wrote in [community profile] 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…?
]
at_heart: (sigh :: might not be that easy)

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[personal profile] at_heart 2022-08-07 06:30 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Wow he immediately has so many problems with this story. ]

Oh really?

[ Shelving them because hey it might be helpful for the game. ]
bondsofsuffering: ([Think] out of it)

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[personal profile] bondsofsuffering 2022-08-07 06:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Yup. It was the tree of knowledge - can't have humans messing with something like that, after all.

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.]
at_heart: (wry :: is that a fact)

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[personal profile] at_heart 2022-08-07 07:07 pm (UTC)(link)
[ That all sounds unfair and gross. ]

...Yeah, I don't think this place has any knowledge to offer.
bondsofsuffering: ([Smile] forgotten about it; but)

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[personal profile] bondsofsuffering 2022-08-07 07:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Maybe not in the same way, but I think it would be a good idea to take a look around and see what you can find.
at_heart: (wry :: well sometimes)

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[personal profile] at_heart 2022-08-07 07:17 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Doesn't look directly at the spot of gross tar??? on his cloak. ]

I don't think everything's worth touching, for the record.
bondsofsuffering: ([Surprise] all the answеrs)

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[personal profile] bondsofsuffering 2022-08-07 07:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Why, did you?
at_heart: (support :: nice try kiddo)

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[personal profile] at_heart 2022-08-07 07:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Did I touch everything? No. I was looking for something to climb, and noticed the — vine-things are covered in goop.
bondsofsuffering: ([Look] the theory of surrender)

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[personal profile] bondsofsuffering 2022-08-07 07:20 pm (UTC)(link)
What did the goop do?
at_heart: (chatty :: handflippity)

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[personal profile] at_heart 2022-08-07 07:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Felt like loneliness and emptiness. And that was touching it through my cloak.
bondsofsuffering: ([Think] out of it)

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[personal profile] bondsofsuffering 2022-08-08 04:13 pm (UTC)(link)
[Pausing to tilt his head thoughtfully.]

Is that so?