??? Explora Session 3: 9AM PST/11AM CST/Noon EST Start

[idolpro]

[ You go, onward and upward.



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THE GATES | THE COURTYARD | THE FOUNTAINS | THE GARDENS

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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. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[firstworldproblem]

[Do not tempt him, Imeeji, with his desire to nap at all times.

He shuffles up to the statue and places his hand on the sculpture. He tries to remember what it used to look like. There was rather memorable game for BARiTONES that started in a garden.]

Re: THE GARDENS

[idolpro]

[ Once you're here, the desire to sleep isn't so strong. Somehow, it's not your place to rest.

And that fountain really is, as far as you can tell, that exact same fountain, with that exact same statue:

It's beautiful... or at least it clearly once was. Its base—the places where is hasn't been shattered, that is—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.

You place your hand against it, and—

It bends to your touch, illusory, disappearing in a bright blue flame—beyond it, the real garden stands before you: a meadow beneath a sky that shimmers with the shifting rainbow of light, with the horizon stretching as far as the eye can see. As the colors merge into that horizon, they form a pure-glowing white. The meadow itself, filled with flowers, reflects the sky in its rainbow. In fact, one might notice that no two flowers are exactly alike in color or breed.

You yourself stand at an entrance: a gate of white metal that gives off its own light.

It feels as though one mystery—the mystery of where you are—is slowly beginning to resolve, but how you got here is still a wonder. It weighs on your mind, in the back of your throat like a lump, but at once, you feel as though the drowsiness still remains, and your eyelids feel heavy.

Some yards away, there is a single tree. Its swaying branches beckon you to rest beneath them, if only for a moment. Unlike moments before, when this place was not really yours, now it is... private. Personal. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[sancrimony]

[ oh

looking around, taking in the area before he goes to the fountain ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[idolpro]

[ Yes... yes you can certainly recognize this place, and that fountain.

But unlike the last time you were here (wherever "here" is), with every step you take, more of the mist peels away. You aren't even all the way to the fountain before the stones beneath your feet almost seem to bend to the touch of your footsteps.

As the mist dissipates, the edges of it flicker vivid blue.

Behind you, the path where you've walked is no longer stone, but a strip of grassy meadow. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[temperedinpride]

[Time to pick some flowers. And then try scooping stagnant water into the too gold pitcher to see if that does anything.]

Re: THE GARDENS

[idolpro]

[ You reach down to pluck the first flower, and—

It bends to your touch, illusory, disappearing in a bright blue flame—beyond it, the real garden stands before you: a meadow beneath a sky that shimmers with the shifting rainbow of light, with the horizon stretching as far as the eye can see. As the colors merge into that horizon, they form a pure-glowing white. The meadow itself, filled with flowers, reflects the sky in its rainbow. In fact, one might notice that no two flowers are exactly alike in color or breed.

You yourself stand at an entrance: a gate of white metal that gives off its own light.

It feels as though one mystery—the mystery of where you are—is slowly beginning to resolve, but how you got here is still a wonder. It weighs on your mind, in the back of your throat like a lump, but at once, you feel as though the drowsiness still remains, and your eyelids feel heavy.

Some yards away, there is a single tree. Its swaying branches beckon you to rest beneath them, if only for a moment. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[nohalation]

[She looks up at the canopy above her for a moment, and then looks around her.]

...Intensity? Duality?

Re: THE GARDENS

[idolpro]

[ They're... not here??

Even the sound of your voice is almost swallowed up by the stillness here, and you can feel it in you as natural as your own heartbeat: there isn't a way to be physically here at all without being alone. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[Taking a closer look at that fountain]

Re: THE GARDENS

[idolpro]

[ Notably, you are now alone.

But yes... yes you can certainly recognize this place, and that fountain:

It's beautiful... or at least it clearly once was. Its base—the places where is hasn't been shattered, that is—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.

But unlike the last time you were here (wherever "here" is), with every step you take, more of the mist peels away. You aren't even all the way to the fountain before the stones beneath your feet almost seem to bend to the touch of your footsteps.

As the mist dissipates, the edges of it flicker vivid blue.

Behind you, the path where you've walked is no longer stone, but a strip of grassy meadow. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[puzzlekeeper]

[ IGNORING THE TIRED ON TOP OF HIS USUAL TIRED, THANK YOU. HE HAS SHIT TO GET DONE.

Which is to say, he carefully picks his way through the overgrowth to the ruined fountain. Does the water here still have any holy power remaining . . .? ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[idolpro]

[ Once you're here, the desire to sleep isn't so strong. Somehow, it's not your place to rest.

And that fountain really does seem like one you may have seen before:

It's beautiful... or at least it clearly once was. Its base—the places where is hasn't been shattered, that is—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.

But unlike the last time you were here (wherever "here" is), with every step you take, more of the mist peels away. You aren't even all the way to the fountain before the stones beneath your feet almost seem to bend to the touch of your footsteps.

As the mist dissipates, the edges of it flicker vivid blue.

Behind you, the path where you've walked is no longer stone, but a strip of grassy meadow. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[deicider]

[Hm.

Cardinal is going to try and warp strike to the top of the dome, and use stability to land on the underside.]

Re: THE GARDENS

[idolpro]

[ You attempt to warpstrike—

But as you place your sword, space bends and parts around it, illusory, disappearing in a bright blue flame—beyond it, the real garden stands before you: a meadow beneath a sky that shimmers with the shifting rainbow of light, with the horizon stretching as far as the eye can see. As the colors merge into that horizon, they form a pure-glowing white. The meadow itself, filled with flowers, reflects the sky in its rainbow. In fact, one might notice that no two flowers are exactly alike in color or breed.

You yourself stand at an entrance: a gate of white metal that gives off its own light.

It feels as though one mystery—the mystery of where you are—is slowly beginning to resolve, but how you got here is still a wonder. It weighs on your mind, in the back of your throat like a lump, but at once, you feel as though the drowsiness still remains, and your eyelids feel heavy.

Some yards away, there is a single tree. Its swaying branches beckon you to rest beneath them, if only for a moment. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[bondsofsuffering]

[Whhhhyyyyyyy is he so heckin sleepy now.

He'll fight the drowsiness to keep looking around, walking towards the fountain. Does this resemble the garden from the flowers game?]

Re: THE GARDENS

[idolpro]

[ It does, in fact—eerily so. It looks just like that garden, although the ground seems to almost bend beneath your feet, like the world is malleable around you. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[tradesecret]

[ BUT MY GRANDPAS!!11

If she's here, she may as well experiment: grabbing a flower and trying to drop it in the stagnant water. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[idolpro]

[ You grab for a flower—

but the stem bends beneath your fingers, illusory, disappearing in a bright blue flame—beyond it, the real garden stands before you: a meadow beneath a sky that shimmers with the shifting rainbow of light, with the horizon stretching as far as the eye can see. As the colors merge into that horizon, they form a pure-glowing white. The meadow itself, filled with flowers, reflects the sky in its rainbow. In fact, one might notice that no two flowers are exactly alike in color or breed.

You yourself stand at an entrance: a gate of white metal that gives off its own light.

It feels as though one mystery—the mystery of where you are—is slowly beginning to resolve, but how you got here is still a wonder. It weighs on your mind, in the back of your throat like a lump, but at once, you feel as though the drowsiness still remains, and your eyelids feel heavy.

Some yards away, there is a single tree. Its swaying branches beckon you to rest beneath them, if only for a moment. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[liarliarliar]

[this is nice but]

C???

[where is my boy!!!!]

Re: THE GARDENS

[neigh_sayer]

[is floating around with float potion, this place seems trippy. continues to sip his milk/honey/wine concoction]

[gonna float over to the trees to pluck some fruit. are they like the fruits in the courtyard?]

Re: THE GARDENS

[420blazeit]

[ oh. oh no. she hates this.
she hates this a lot. ]

[ it reminds her of *that* game. the one she lost her shit in and transformed and her her team and lost her memories and- and- and- her heartrate goes straight through the roof as she clutches her chest and shuts her eyes. she counts back from ten and tries to tell herself it's alright, but she feels like she's about to fucken lose it.

I'm fine. I'm... not alone... [ she's alone. ]

[ she's just going to start picking flowers and adding them to her hair, because that'll help calm her down or something. do the flowers do anything? should she be picking them? ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[crybot]

[He approaches the sculpture and regards it for a moment. It doesn't mean much to him, so he'll leave it be. Instead he'll try to climb one of the trees for now, to get a better look at the area and possibly see what's beyond the canopy above.]

Re: THE GARDENS

[asonoficeandfire]

[looking around with a frown because Intensity and Angel were just here? also this is notably familiar, yes.

heading on over to a fruit tree, looking to see if there are other fruits in here, and if so, he'll grab one of them too before heading over to the fountain to inspect it]

Re: THE GARDENS

[carnivorouscarnival]

Wha&mdash?

[ he glances around, dazed. this isn't where he meant to end up.

. . .

after a disappointed click of his tongue, he goes to check out the fountain, testing the water to see how it feels. ]