??? 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

[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. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[idolpro]

[ The fountain is 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.

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

[carnivorouscarnival]

...?

[ he glances back at the grassy meadow now laid out behind him. anything of note there? ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[idolpro]

[ That grassy path seems... how to put it? It is somehow fundamental and real in a way the rest of your surroundings are not—as if everything else were simply a fading painting. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[carnivorouscarnival]

[ that seems like the way to go, doesn't it? he tries to retrace his steps along the newly appeared path. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[idolpro]

[ All it takes is that extra bit of focus—of intent.

The garden seems to bend around you, warping like refracted light. Then, all at once, it disappears in a flash of bright blue flame.

And now, spreading before you, there is the true garden. Instead of the dim and mournful grove, there is 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

[carnivorouscarnival]

[ the tree catches his attention, but only for a fleeting second. he has things to do, and when has he ever allowed himself such luxuries as rest?

he looks down at the flowers below his feet, examining them. noting what different kinds and colors there are. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[idolpro]

[ There are so many flowers here. There is... every flower here. And they are real—real in a way so intense that your own realness feels almost ambivalent in comparison.

Those nearest to you are close enough to see their perfect forms. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[carnivorouscarnival]

[ he reaches down to run his fingers over the Star of Bethlehem. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[idolpro]

[ Strange, isn't it: this meadow is not the season, or even really the environment, for such a flower to grow. Yet here it is, precious and resplendent in that realness.

And you know, then, that this flower is the part of reality that is something changed forever. It is the experience of experiencing something so profound or heartrending that one is never the same again.

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

Re: THE GARDENS

[carnivorouscarnival]

[ ... just like that game. interesting.

but anyway, he has an angel to find. with a grunt, he stands up and heads for the gates. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[idolpro]

[ Just like that game.
Here, though, it's a more profoundly personal thing. A meditation.

The gates are pure white heat, though it does not burn. And they are open to you, if you wish to leave. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[carnivorouscarnival]

[ he heads through the gates. ]

Re: THE GARDENS

[idolpro]

[ 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 the rose-shaped fountains, with no way to cross back to where you were before. However, that probably doesn't seem quite as significant as the rumbling. ]