הניאל (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rosetograce) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
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?
[ he keeps his pinky out. ] ...let's promise to meet again some day, Haniel. Whether it'll be under good or bad circumstances neither you nor I can say, but we can both certainly hope for the former, yeah? [ a smile follows. ]
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
...thus it is sworn.
This one will never be faithless again.
[ she says it with the cadence of someone who must ensure it is so, rather than someone who fully believes it. ]
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
I never break my promises. [ said with the utmost conviction. ] We'll make it happen, Haniel, one way or another. [ he's feeling similarly, to be honest. it'll happen, he'll make damn sure of it, somehow, but... it may not end up being as pleasant a reunion as he's hoping. he's got a real sinking feeling about that and he's not so sure he likes it. ]
Tartaglia. Tartaglia is my name. If we're making promises to each other you may as well know my real name. Just don't go telling everybody, alright, it's on a need to know basis. [ wink~ ]
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
[ she makes a bemused sort of expression. ]
But this one is glad to know, and will guard it well. And now...
[ she looks up, to something that perhaps only she can see, and her expression turns bittersweet. ]
The hour is nigh. Go forth... and, good luck.
Re: EXPLORE THE COURTYARD?
Thank you... [ turns and ???? ]
[ looks back at her and smiles. ] Until we meet again, Haniel.
[ thank you for the wonderful thread, carly!!! ]