Flowers of Heaven: BARiTONES

[idolpro]

There’s a quiet fluttering from overhead.

Above you are... shifting geometric patterns of red and black. Watching them makes your head swim and your vision blur, but after a few moments they resolve into more coherent forms: owls with deep red eyes and a black-and-white zigzag pattern on their feathers. Swooping around you, they usher you towards an arched doorway that has opened in the thick brambles and leads to a winding path beyond.

Once you cross through, a gate closes behind you, and the voices of your fellow idols fade from your ears. It seems as if you’re on your own, now.

❀ ❀ ❀

Here, the brambles that surround your path have wine red thorns, and wisps of spiced smoke trail through the air.

It seems that the owls are carrying some things for you: a collection of sixteen different flowers, a small lantern of blue flame, and a wreath woven from acacia, aconite, and Star of Bethlehem flowers.

---

Quick Links: Flowers | Status Effects | OOC Rules

Comments

IN-CHARACTER RULES

[idolpro]

Characters will discover a scroll somewhere on their person, which may be unrolled to reveal words written in ornately flourished script in an unfamiliar language. The rules resonate in their minds when they look at them, despite the apparent language barrier.

Included, too, is a list of sixteen flowers, each with an associated meaning.

Look within yourself: you are connected to two Flowers of Heaven. You will find you know what they are.

You must make your way through the Garden, out to Freedom.
However, three Obstacles block your way.

The Blue Flame Pyre can burn past these obstacles, but its fire requires at least three Flowers of Heaven as fuel. A fire given more fuel may burn past more Obstacles, but at far greater cost to your Selves.

Express your collective desire to the Blue Flame Pyre, and it will burn the flowers that are willed. However, be warned: if the three most-desired flowers are unclear, the Pyre will burn all that seem to have been chosen, no matter how many that may be.

Your souls are tied to your personal Flowers; should one of your flowers be destroyed, so too will its nature within you be broken.
To lose both your flowers is to lose your Self.

You are not without protection, though: Your chancelfolk carry with them a symbol of your group’s unity. The one who wears the wreath will find their flowers preserved—for themselves and for any in your group who share them—regardless of how the Pyre burns. But be warned: for each person, the wreath’s protection will work but once.

The energy of Freedom will be powerful enough to heal those teams with the most Flowers remaining to their collective. All others must find their own way to becoming Whole.

THE FIRST OBSTACLE

[idolpro]

As you walk the path through the brambles, you come to a place where the ground becomes rough, rocky, and broken. The brambles that surround you now block your way, growing in a thick mass of branches and thorns as long as your hand; it’s so dense you can’t see through to the other side, much less progress further.

The owls go into a flurry of distressed activity at the sight... and then they drop to you the collection of flowers, the lantern of blue flame, and the wreath.

Make your choices.

DISCUSSION

[idolpro]

Re: DISCUSSION

[intimitation]

Ugggggggggh...

Re: DISCUSSION

[notadrop]

[ ruby's here to grump in the corner.

with one of those square eye patches over their left eye. also, they've been sort of gone since dating game.

don't worry about it. ]

This is stupid. Can we just go set everyone else on fire?

AHEM!!!

[marsascending]

[ CLAP CLAP CLAP pay attention ]

So! Which flowers do we burn? And who should we endeavor to... protect.

[ she looks at Kohime on that last bit. hm. ]

DECISION

[idolpro]

[ A new section appears on the scroll, unfurling into view—a series of ink drawings of twelve vials, each labeled with a unit's name. All of them are currently empty. ]

Re: DECISION

[marsascending]

PALOMA is protecting ACONITE

we vote for MIMULUS, OAK, ALYSSUM

RESULTS

[idolpro]

Re: RESULTS

[idolpro]

[ Regardless of which flowers you placed in the lantern, the following flowers suddenly go up in vivid blue flame:

Acacia

and then

Aconite
Star of Bethlehem
Alyssum

The fire has an unnatural feeling to it; when it leaps to the brambles blocking your path, they aren't so much burned as unmade.
And the path carries on. ]

THE SECOND OBSTACLE

[idolpro]

The path continues, the brilliance of the blue flame dying out with the last of the burnt flowers.

You're not sure how long you've been walking when you reach the stone doors. They have a heavy, ancient look to them, and are inset into an equally ancient-looking stone wall. At the center of the doors is what is probably a pair of massive handles... but they're densely overgrown with wickedly thorny briar roses which grow up along the stone, reaching even over the top of the wall.

The owls look upon the doors and hoot mournfully, inspecting them for any way to pull away briars, but it seems beyond their ability. Once again, they offer the blue-flame lantern, the collection of flowers, and the wreath: something must be sacrificed.

DISCUSSION

[idolpro]

Re: DISCUSSION

[marsascending]

[ that could have been worse, but

YIKES??? ]

???

[idolpro]

[ Hey,

your cat's gone. Is that supposed to happen? ]

DECISION

[idolpro]

The scroll unfurls further, and this time thirteen drawings appear in the new section; the last vial is labeled, but... illegibly? This time, however, the drawings are partially filled in with bright blue ink to the following degrees:

LiliS: 12.5%
sensitIV: 25%
pep!pep!: 8.33%
BAD END=DEAD END: 0%
Taisho Roman Revolution: 0%
☆ZRAEL: 7.14%
future is now: 8.33%
WILD CITY: 12.50%
Heart Soldier Senshi: 10%
AlcheME!: 12.50%
avante en garde: 16.67%
BARiTONES: 0%
░░░░░░: 50%

RESULTS

[idolpro]

THE THIRD OBSTACLE

[idolpro]

After journeying a while longer—it’s unclear how long, and the way time passes here is… strange—you come upon another wall. Here, the garden seems like it’s starting to wither, like it's dying back for the winter. The leaves are brown and fading, shriveling up.

The doors set into the wall were golden, once, like the trellises you passed earlier on your path, but the doors here stand grimy and unpolished, dripping with that same sort of tarry grime you might recall from the fountain.

Can flame really take care of this…? But it seems at least the creatures accompanying you think so.

DISCUSSION

[idolpro]

DECISION

[idolpro]

The scroll unfurls further, and this time there are once more twelve drawings. As before, they're partially filled in with bright blue ink to the following degrees:

LiliS: 25%
sensitIV: 43.75%
pep!pep!: 33.33%
BAD END=DEAD END: 25%
Taisho Roman Revolution: 25%
☆ZRAEL: 41.67%
future is now: 41.67%
WILD CITY: 37.5%
Heart Soldier Senshi: 70%
AlcheME!: 25%
avante en garde: 57.14%
BARiTONES: 25%

RESULTS

[idolpro]

PRE-ENDGAME

[idolpro]

[ You pass through the golden doors—and find yourself standing before three gates.

To your left is a gate of ivory, polished to a shine so bright that it refracts a brilliant rainbow of chaotic light.
To your right is a gate of twisting black horn, beautiful and unapologetically fierce-looking.
Between them and a bit further back is a gate of pure white flame. Even from here you can feel the searing, purifying heat of it.

Which gate do you take? Each of you may choose separately, if you wish; you feel instinctively that, whatever the significance of this choice, if indeed it means anything at all, it has no bearing on your connection with your unit. ]

Re: PRE-ENDGAME

[syckophant]

[It's a no-brainer. There is only one answer for Eichi; the brilliant ivory is too clinical, too clean, and while fierce, Eichi has never been one for darkness. But the flames are just right. White, pure.... but strong. The burning is inevitable, but what comes out after is better for it, right?

He will wait, to look to his unit, but ultimately the middle door in the back is the one he goes for.]

Re: PRE-ENDGAME

[marsascending]

[ ...interesting, whoever's running this.

black horn gate. let's go. ]

Re: PRE-ENDGAME

[firstworldproblem]

[Normally, he would follow Paloma's lead and take the black horn gate. This moment though, Eichi has the right of it.

Middle door in the back.]

Re: PRE-ENDGAME

[innerdaemons]

[ mister Done with Everything is going on through the black gate, regardless of where other people go. ]