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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?
[ Reaching out to touch the tree they came from. ]
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
There doesn't seem to be any actual kudzu growing around its base, though—just the mounds around the courtyard's borders. ]
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
[ Going to look at that water and see about scooping some into his hands. ]
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
It’s beautiful... or at least it clearly once was. The fountain’s base, where it isn’t shattered at least, is of pure white stone, cut without blemish, lines perfectly straight. Whatever the sculpture once was, though, is impossible to say. From some angles it looks like it could be the base of a person; from others, it just looks like alien geometry. Weird.
The stagnant water it stands in looks black—too black, you can see, as you lean nearer; almost tarry.
Will you dip your hands in all the same? ]
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
[ Taking off his glove to dip that in. ]
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
It might be far more intense if this stuff touched your skin, though possibly that's an answer you're better off without? ]
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
[ Going to take the soaked glove over to a tree to 'water' it. ]
cw: this is slightly gross
But, uh. All this is probably fine?
The trickier part is actually getting it to "water" the tree without having to squeeze out the liquid with your free hand. Still, a few shakes, and several viscous droplets land at the roots of the tree.
...And where they land, the soil turns black. Rivulets of dark start to seep upward through the soil, wrapping around the base of the tree like diseased veins. Beneath them, the trunk itself starts to... warp, not so much growing as twisting into ropes of kudzu. ]
Re: cw: this is slightly gross
[ oops. ]
[ Going to just. Let the glove drop to the ground and take a generous step back. ]