idolpro | Flowers of Heaven: BARiTONES

Entry tags:

!games,
hadassah

Flowers of Heaven: BARiTONES

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

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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.

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.

[ 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. ]

Edited 2020-04-30 23:17 (UTC)

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.

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%

Edited 2020-05-01 01:42 (UTC)

Ugggggggggh...

So, what, we don't target units, just –– everyone who's got that flower goes down?

Well let's get this show on the road because I'm not interested in losing this one on account of I don't like the sound of those consequences.

I have Aconite and Star of Bethlehem.

Any thoughts...?

...it seems like it. Though, I suppose we could try and protect ourselves by protecting the flowers most associated with our unit character, or something.

Eloquently stated.

I guess so unless we all somehow got the same flowers. Doesn't seem likely though.

Anyone trying to minimize damage will aim for what they think are the rarest traits, probably. Anyone specifically targeting us will probably go for what they think represents us.