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…?
]
worldlyafflictions: (ch058pg16p3redraw)

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[personal profile] worldlyafflictions 2022-08-07 09:42 pm (UTC)(link)
[Catching a glance as one of the few Old olds around]
crossmyheartandhope: (Calm)

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[personal profile] crossmyheartandhope 2022-08-07 09:47 pm (UTC)(link)
[...heading over toward him]

This where I think it is?
worldlyafflictions: (ch054pg04p1)

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[personal profile] worldlyafflictions 2022-08-07 09:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Seems pretty similar ta other places we've seen, right? Right style at least.
crossmyheartandhope: (Just the image of our maker?)

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[personal profile] crossmyheartandhope 2022-08-07 10:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah.

That fountain especially. Looks just like one -- well. Y'know.
worldlyafflictions: (ch080pg32p3)

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[personal profile] worldlyafflictions 2022-08-07 10:44 pm (UTC)(link)
I guess I don't understand the interest in it though...
crossmyheartandhope: (Calm)

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[personal profile] crossmyheartandhope 2022-08-07 10:49 pm (UTC)(link)
What, heaven?
worldlyafflictions: (ch080pg24p1)

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[personal profile] worldlyafflictions 2022-08-07 10:51 pm (UTC)(link)
From any side bringin' us here.
crossmyheartandhope: (Just the image of our maker?)

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[personal profile] crossmyheartandhope 2022-08-07 10:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, they've always wanted to find a way in, right?
worldlyafflictions: (ch058pg16p3redraw)

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[personal profile] worldlyafflictions 2022-08-07 11:19 pm (UTC)(link)
[Looks around wondering if there's even anything here]

Dunno, seems like there's not much left for anybody ta find.
crossmyheartandhope: (Just like every other morning before)

Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?

[personal profile] crossmyheartandhope 2022-08-08 12:14 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah.

Looks like it's been falling apart forever.