imeeji_frontstage | Flowers of Heaven II: Star of Bethlehem

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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…? ]

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It's a handy thing to keep around, even if it's not deadly sharp.

[ And touching the wall now, near where the sword was hanging, running his hand along it as he slowly walks. ]

Definitely. It'll be a neat souvenir to have, if nothing else... [ and while gent goes about this the smart way, alala is just going to start swinging the sword at all of the walls like a lunatic - mindful of gent, of course. ]

Edited 2022-08-08 02:59 (UTC)

[ there don't seem to be any secret passages—the walls are a perfect seamless stone, in fact, that looks like it must have just sprung into being rather than being constructed.

the echoing of the sword against stone is... strange, returning to you like you're hearing it through water. where it scratches the walls—well, it's pretty blunt, but you get one good scrape, and—

and, gold leaks from the walls like it's bleeding? ]

[ strange, and something he files into the back of his head... for later. or, uhm, r- right now. he squints, about to stop being a fucken lunatic, but that nets him a bleeding wall, and a gold bleeding wall no less. ]

...ah, that's... not normal. [ he lets the sword fall to his side and he approaches it, setting a hand on the mark. ] Are you alive? Can you feel that? Can you feel this? [ ... ] I'm sorry if I hurt you.

[ Despite that Gent is super alarmed by the bleeding walls, Lala remains adorable. ]

I'm sure it knows you mean no harm. But still, we should be cautious. The golden fruit didn't look healthy. [ And this is reminding him too much of something he obviously can't remember yet. ]

[ But he watches the gold coming from the walls, how it behaves. And very gently puts the tip of his finger in one of the trickling trails of gold. He can risk an injury to this one part. With his other hand he turns his wrist in a counterclockwise circle without being aware that he's doing it.]

[ there's no response, and no movement. the staircase remains just as quiet and still as it seems to have been for ages—that apart from the steady, slow drip of gold down the wall, it might not have been touched at all. ]

...hm. It's real strange, isn't it, ... [ since it hasn't responded he is going to see if he can't... shove his hand into the wound. if he hasn't hurt it, then can he... split it open and kind of tear open a hole? can they make a door of some kind??? ]

[ Gent winces in a barely visible way from behind Lala, but he's curious if anything will happen. Lala brought this on himself, if so. (He'll try to help, of course, but he doesn't save people from their own decisions.) ]

You must really want a secret door to be in this wall. Hopefully if one exists it won't drown us in gold.

[ the stone doesn't give that much; it doesn't feel like a fleshy wound, but a gouge in stone. it doesn't seem to be tearable or able to be carved into—at least not with your instruments.

however, when alala shoves his hand into the gouge, the gold turns, very rapidly, to black sludge. ]

Edited 2022-08-09 02:44 (UTC)

I do! there's got to be something here, right, I mean... why the hell would we be allowed to wander around for no reason... this can't be the game... [ laughs. ] I mean, that would be kind of neat, don't you think? [ he's half kidding. ]

[ sjkghfkhjfgkh. ]

[ going to yank his hand out. ]

I'm going to assume that... I'm some kind of... poison. [ looks at the sword in hand. ] But this is some kind of heavenly weapon, right, so... [ he's going to take it and start swinging at the wall again. ] It did it once, right, so let's do it again! and again!! and again!!!

[ stop don't come back ]

It's not you. The trees and fruit in the courtyard were sick and turned when handled enough. This place is dying, and we speed it up. [ Or something like that. ] Because we've been touched by hell, at least that's my best guess.

But if you want to continue, by all means. [ He'll just be half a step out of range, as one does. ]

[ imagine when alala discovers heartgames: wherein the whole concept is "fuck around and find out"

anyway he can keep hitting things and running around; certainly, he creates more scratches on the wall. but no new revelations are found; in fact, the whole thing starts to take on an encroaching air of... futility. pointlessness. emptiness. ]

[ alala is going to be the first one dead,
and no one is going to be the least bit surprised. ]

[ also there is no castlevania turkey behind this not-so-invisible wall, wtf. ]

[ #jipped ]

[ he is tiring himself out though, so he eventually stops, looking back at gent. ] ...y- yeah, I, ah, I guess that makes sense, since we, uhm, we're in hell and... we're... you know... hell touched and stuff. [ he's going to use the sword as a walking stick and just lean on it. ] I guess there's no secret passage.

[ he is so disappointed YOU HAVE NO IDEA. ]

...let's keep going. You can take the lead. [ he will drag his sorry ass behind and also flip the wall off when he's not looking. ]

[ Glancing over, then starting on ahead. ]

If you're sure. [ He'd have helped Lala walk, but saving face is understandable. As is flipping off the wall even if this is not the wall's fault. ]

If it helps, you look quite dashing with the sword. [ little ego boost for your energy levels? ]

[ they can keep going, down, down the stairs—

the lights gradually seem dimmer, although it's hard to notice exactly when. but it's still easy to see your own feet, and where you're going—easy enough to avoid the shattered pieces of a rusted sword strewn across several steps, the stone beneath spattered with gold. ]

[ as soon as things start to take a turn for the horror alala hurries to move his little pink ass alongside gent instead of behind gent. he's still clutching his own sword... frowning at the broken rusted swords at their feet. he's moving a bit more carefully, because, you know, tetanus, and he's not all about that. ]

Careful. [ the gold... is concerning. he's reminded of the walls and how he originally thought they were bleeding. he kind of thinks that IS the case, again, but like... maybe not so much that the building is bleeding so much as something was killed here... ]

Y- You think, well, I, ah, I was originally on the knight team, avante, so... just call me your knight in shining armor. [ raises the sword, while sobbing internally. ]

[ oh now Lala wants to be careful -- better late than never, though. Gent isn't normally so cautious himself, just this whole thing smells like bad news. ]

I'm being careful. [ Stopping down and trying to see if the gold is coming from the sword as in the sword broke and it spilled out, or coming from the sword as in the pointy bit went into something that spilled gold. Also looking around for any other gold around. ]

[ that's some impressive stammering, Lala. Gent glances over with a little smile. ] Is that all I should call you? [ a pause too long to be accidental, and then ] Since you've changed units, and all.

[ the gold doesn't seem to be coming from the swords—but rather, that perhaps the sword spilled it from something or someone.

after all, doesn't a tower bring to mind fortifications, which in turn bring to mind the possibility of defending from something? ]

[ ohno. something is surely waiting in the depths of this dark hell pit... there hadn't been all that much blood up on the top of the tower, but as they go deeper. alala's mind continues to run rampant, but he continues to make his way down... the sword beginning to slightly tremble in his hands. ]

If we're, uhm, going that route, then you should call me Quetzal, that was my... my avante name. Quetzal the knight. [ he takes a deep breath and grips the sword tighter. he can do this. it wouldn't be the first time he's used a sword. ]

[ In Gent's defense the walls here bleed gold so a sword bleeding gold isn't that farfetched, and also a rusted-ass sword like this isn't exactly ideal for defense. No wonder the thing broke. ]

Quetzal, hm? A lovely creature indeed. [ Go Go Gadget Distraction Attempt! Don't mind that they're going into the bowels of a questionable tower in a possibly dying land. Continuing to look around for gold or anything else really, Gent isn't the least bit uncomfortable. Strange and secret places are interesting. ] Is that why you took the name, aesthetics?

[ even though it seems like something terrible happened here—

there's no other sound but for the two of their footsteps, descending the staircase. there's no sign of life at all. just the encroaching dark, and the way even limbs and thoughts begin to feel sluggish. every action is tinged with a feeling of futility. ]

mHm. I had to pick something as pretty as me. [ he's vain af. ]

...this better not be a dead end too, come on, where the hell is the end! [ he hisses through clenched teeth, slowing down just a little bit, but still pushing his way forward, because he's a stubborn little shit and he's still pissed that he didn't get a wall turkey. fuck you, fort, give him something of value besides DISAPPOINTMENT. ]

Hello! Is anybody down there!!

Obviousl--

[ A bit of an internal wince at the yelling, but at least what answer they get or don't is bound to be informative. (But for real Lala decide whether you're nervous or pissed.) ]

Anything I can do to distract you from this frustrating predicament? [ Ideally without waking the dead or destroying either of their eardrums ]

[ no sounds present themselves other than echoes of their voices—sounding strangely like they're being heard from underwater.

it becomes harder and harder to move forward, like they're both walking through a thick mire up to their shoulders; the air is thick with humidity that feels suffocating.

it becomes even hard to think about their most important convictions... whether relevant to this, or otherwise. it becomes almost night-dark, lit only by the faintest of glow from sconces on the wall. ]

... [ alala is back to using the sword to brace himself, still just kind of ambling down the stairs at this point - focusing on the lights now. ] There's got to be something, right, Gent?

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