??? Explora Session 2: 6PM PST/8PM CST/9PM EST Start

[idolpro]

[ You go, onward and upward.



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THE GATES | THE COURTYARD | THE FOUNTAINS | THE GARDENS

Comments

THE GATES

[idolpro]

[ You reach the top, though perhaps not without injury, to find yourself presented with two gates. The first of the pair is filigreed, pearlescent and raised open, inviting you in.

Beyond it, a second gate is shut. This gate is not the same as the previous—it is latticed, with enough space to put a hand through but with sharp enough edges to caution one from being too hasty in yanking it out afterward. They reach up to the vaulted arches of the ceiling, apparently impassable. ]

Re: THE GATES

[586]

[ as soon as he reaches the top he notices the set of gates and, oh, great. he's THRILLED. trots through the first and stops at the second, NOT APPROACHING, and instead looking around for a key or some sort of stupid ass mechanism, because he's not running head first into them. ]

Re: THE GATES

[we_meet_again]

[He carefully peeks through the lattice to see what's on the other side]

Re: THE GATES

[composeur]

[ fortunately(?) somehow(??) completely uninjured! hops off of pentium's back and wanders towards the gates, hands behind his back (for now) as he leans in for a closer look ]

Oh? Are we finally going to storm the gates of heaven and tear God down from his throne?

Re: THE GATES

[widenessofthesea]

[ ...huh.

well, she's going to cross through the first set of gates without preamble to inspect the second set.

obviously if you find your way to actual heaven you go in, right? ]

Re: THE GATES

[young_atlas]

Well, isn't this welcoming. [Bladed lattice work and all.]

[Looking over the lattice work gate, tapping his chin.]

Re: THE GATES

[justfuckingtryit]

[Heading right up to the second gate to peer through]

Re: THE GATES

[beautifulend]

[ They're walking through the first set, and then stop to scan the second with Achilles Radar. ]

Re: THE GATES

[purrrnicious]

[She takes a moment to look around when she first gets to the top –– she never made it to "Heaven" last time, after all –– then strides to the gate, the obvious place to go.

Peering through, looking for if there's a button or a mechanism or something to open it up.]

Re: THE GATES

[send_noods]

Well, that's great.

[Let's touch it! Raises a hand and raps on the shut gate with his knuckles. knock knock]

Re: THE GATES

[wonderlandgirl]

[Does this look familiar to someone who was there the last time they all found a split in the world and everyone piled through like dumbasses?]

[dumbjockenergy]

[ so that open, welcoming gate is not to be trusted, obviously.

she's going to approach the shut gate to poke around. does it have hinges she can try and edge her baton in?

if so, she's going to do that and kick as hard as she can in an attempt to pry it open. ]

Re: THE GATES

[inspiteful]

[ Well, this is neat.

He tries to pass through the first gate to see if he can peer through the second, and see what's on the other side. ]

Re: THE GATES

[adorabilities]

[hmm. how heavy does that other gate look?

and also, if, say, she wanted to call an aibou... could she call it beyond the gate]

Re: THE GATES

[runawayprince]

Maybe... over the gate?

[He did just use his ability once already. Maybe this will work too?]

Re: THE GATES

[ouji4board]

Why are there so many gates.

[ he's gonna... stand back and watch everyone do their thing ]

THE COURTYARD

[idolpro]

[ You advance into the courtyard and immediately, you're made keenly aware of how silent it is: it might remind you of when Tokyo-F was plastic, if you were around then, for there are no ambient sounds, nothing that would indicate that this place has any life—though unlike Tokyo-F, there are plenty of signs that people were here before.

Trees line the marbled square, stone slabs jutting out from the walls that the previous occupants evidently used as tables, for silver platters sit on the slabs along with trinkets, glistening in the sunlight brightly—perhaps even too brightly. On the platters are various fruits, as well as pitchers; unrelatedly, there are various trinkets too.

The food isn't just localized to the stone tables; cloth is spread on the ground near a few trees with those silver platters as though one were having a picnic before abruptly leaving. Some slabs have what looks like game pieces, markings etched into the stone. There are also, it seems, various sticks and balls and little nets set up, as though this courtyard was for people to play games in.

Everything here is bright, and you can almost see the motes of light settling, as if only just stirred. The air itself is palpable, and breathing it in feels sharp—like your throat is dry, or like you're drinking a carbonated beverage. It doesn't last, the pain is hardly mentionable, but the weight clings to your throat, heavy.

From here, there are a number of entrances, though most gates are completely sealed shut. However, there's one gate that's open for you, leading down a hallway.

You may also turn back to the gate, if you really wanted to. . . ]

Re: THE COURTYARD

[overworker]

[One gate is open... so therefore she will investigate, cautiously at least-- peering to see what she might see beyond the open gate.]

Re: THE COURTYARD

[purrrnicious]

. . .

[Well, tossing aside her summoned sword now that they got the gate open.]

Seriously, I don't know how the demons had so much trouble with this place.



[Ttttime to begin her hunt for Holy Water! First she'll head to the tables to check the pitchers –– any kind of magical sparkly pink water or anything in there?]

Re: THE COURTYARD

[we_meet_again]

[Wow, get a load of this place. It's just like he heard it described.

He curiously checks out the game pieces for a moment]

Re: THE COURTYARD

[justfuckingtryit]

[Heading on in after cracking the array, trying to shake off that momentary sense that he didn't belong]

[Suck it, heaven, he can go anywhere he wants]

...it's like a fucking ghost town here.

Re: THE COURTYARD

[586]

[ as soon as he's in he's going to check out the platters of food, because food... and he is curious about the games too, because BOARD GAMES?! he just learned about those. ]

[ can he steal the games and the food? he has a murse satchel. ]

Re: THE COURTYARD

[wonderlandgirl]

Oh--!

[Above all else it feels familiar.

[She's going to go and investigate the tables.]

THE FOUNTAINS

[idolpro]

[ You enter what seems to be another courtyard of sorts, though this one seems to be less for playing and eating; here, there are flower-shaped fountains that depress into the marble like so, only rose-shaped. Each outer petal has a lining of water running through, and every inner petal is another step deeper into the fountain; by the third step, one would be deep enough that they could take a bath in this fountain. All told, there seem to be five of these fountain-baths in this room.

And perhaps bathing is what this place is for; etched into the marble in front of you is some sort of scripture, difficult to read, but if you concentrate you can see the shapes move to become readable:

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.
And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Given where you are, is it wise to take a bath right now. . . ? ]

Re: THE FOUNTAINS

[purrrnicious]

[Oh. Okay.

She actually found it. . .? Kind of boring and plain for what she was expecting of something called "Holy Water", but.

She creeps forward, suddenly nervous, tail snapping behind her and ears flat –– she's a little too anxious to just charge ahead, so she lightly skims her fingertips along the surface of the water first, almost flinching at the contact.]

THE GARDENS

[idolpro]

[ You’re in a garden. It’s lush, beautiful, and almost too wild with growth to quite merit the term "garden." There are fruit trees here, their trunks twisted and knobbled with age, their branches still low enough to easily reach. The ground is carpeted with colorful wildflowers, and flowering vines and wild roses twine around trees and golden trellises alike.

In the center of this roughly circular area is a broken-down stone fountain. The water sits stagnant, and nothing remains of the fountain’s design except a basin and the shattered base of a once-golden sculpture.

The light here is twilit—or just kind of dim, if you want to be less romantic about it. Looking overhead, it’s easy to see why: actually, the sky isn’t visible from this place at all. Instead, there’s a dense canopy of branches forming an almost perfect dome.

Perhaps this place is familiar to you.

Or… perhaps you aren’t truly here at all? Each step you take, the ground beneath your feet seems to shift and then dissipate, like fine mist. ]

[dumbjockenergy]

[ of all the things, she was expecting, this wasn't it.

but the ground unnerves her, and Adora is hurrying across to any tree she can reach that forms into the dome.

if she tries to haul herself up on a branch to start climbing, will it work? ]