??? 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

Comments

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

[deicider]

[Cardinal will rest when they're dead.

They try to touch the gate before them.]

Re: THE GARDENS

[idolpro]

[ It doesn't do anything, when you touch it... but it reminds you a little bit of something you've seen before. The white-flame gate, from that game in the garden.

Huh. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[deicider]

[Cardinal is going to warp strike the gate. Because of course they are.]

Re: THE GARDENS

[idolpro]

[ You warpstrike to the gate, and when you hit it there's almost a reverberating chorus in your bones, like a whole hymn just was sung through them. The gate does not bend or break or shatter, but you feel as if you almost did. It feels realer than real. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[deicider]

[Wow that is hugely unpleasant. Cardinal gives the gate a resentful look and thinks better about kicking it. They have to spend a moment just holding themself until the reverberations stop, and then finally they trudge their way over to the tree to sit down.]

Re: THE GARDENS

[idolpro]

[ You sit, and you surely don't mean to nod off, but you find yourself drifting off anyway.

You don't remember what you dream, but you wake up to strange pinpricks—as though your leg had fallen asleep, but across your entire body. . .

Oh, what an embarrassing position for you. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[deicider]

[Cardinal gets up, stretching. They start noticing the flowers more, realizing that no two are alike. They crouch down to examine whatever one is nearest.]

Re: THE GARDENS

[idolpro]

[ The flower nearest to you sprouts in a dense cluster of thorny branches, each covered in little hooded yellow flowers.

...And it is the part of reality that is something held in thrall—those things and people that are, somehow bound, whether in imprisonment or service.

How do you know that? Unclear. You just do; the knowledge feels as natural as breathing. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[deicider]

[If hitting the gate rattled their bones like that, what will picking the flower do?

Cardinal hesitates.

But in the end they don't need a flower in a strange garden that can't possibly have anything to do with them to tell them where their duty is. Or when they can put that duty down. They pluck it.]

edit, actually: last chance to turn back

[idolpro]

[ There's a moment, as you tug, of intense discomfort.

It's a feeling deep within you that seems to say, ah, you should be kind to yourself.

Continue to tug? Y/N ]

[deicider]

[Cardinal bows over the flower, squeezing their eyes shut. Their fingers dig into the dirt under them. Their heart pounds.

If they pull the flower will they leave their old self and its defunct protocols behind for good? Or would there simply be nothing left, without duty and purpose holding them together?

It's not the right way to do it. They know that. They feel ill at the idea of all their destructive power totally unconstrained. Sick that they're tempted, even by curiosity. Exhilarated at the possibilities. They sit there for a moment, trembling.

Just as they thought, they shouldn't be in this garden. They shouldn't have anything to do with it. Then they fling themself into a sprint for the gate.]

[idolpro]

[ There is more to you than that. There is all the garden before you. Be kind to yourself. Be kind...

...But you are running, now. As you pass through the gate, it's as though a heaviness lifts from your chest—some terrible weight that you hadn't realized you'd been carrying. It had felt like terrible anguish, but now you can hardly remember it—it's as though it was a dream.

You find yourself in front of a fountain, with no way to cross back to where you were before. ]