idolpro | ??? Explora Session 4: 6PM PST/8PM CST/9PM EST Start

[ 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. ]

[ 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. . . ]

[ 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. . . ? ]

[ 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. ]

[ this looks like a DECISION.

hunny isn't making any of those.

looks around to see if there's anyone recognizable to follow ]

[ oh, this is... like what everyone's told her about, isn't it? even though she's still rubbing her hands gingerly a little bit, from initially touching the chain.

she's going to try and squint through the gate, like, what's over there, ]

Wait... they're just... open?

Where's the angels telling us to go away?

[ I MEAN, he's gonna walk right up through the open gates if he can, to check out the second gate. why on earth would anyone ever be cautious about anything. ]

[ Talon spares a glance at the gates, but since the gates are all that's here his attention quickly turns back the way they came to watch for everyone to make it up the chain ]

—Hunny! You're here?

I just got here.

[he will get up to the top eventually, and unload Aradia, THEN--]

Don't know how great an idea it is for everyone to come up here.

[well, time to look between the space of the second gate.

what's the mechanism for opening up.]

This is an impressive event to return to, Hunny.

I'm sure they'll all just leave if we ask.

Oh!

[ running up to him immediately, then chattering rapidly ]

Jason-senpai! You're here! I just got back from being "dee-ell-see"— [ furi: DLC. like for a video game. ] —when the hole in the sky happened.

This is Heaven, I'm pretty sure. But there's no one here to kick us out?

Don't be a smartass about it.

That's my job.

[... approaching the second gate slowly]

Should we just bust it down?

I'm making a grand entrance! A really memorable one!

Doesn't look like it.

Huge lapse in security. Someone should get fired, I think.

[ Through the grated gaps in the gate, you can see beyond: a wide courtyard with winding paths in the distance, some similarly gated. More relevant to your current predicament, there is a winch, visible but out of reach, with silvery chains glimmering as they stretch to reach the wall. The chains are let out right now, not spooled around the winch's center. ]

[ Where indeed! ]

[ decisions are for suckers ]

I guess this is what Heaven is like for this world...? I've heard people talk about it, but...

[Having made it up top, Levity has absolutely no idea what's going on or why. As someone unfamiliar with the concepts of both heaven or hell ~~let's rock~~, despite what little he learned from Hope, he really doesn't know what to expect.

Tentatively, he comes up to the second gate and first tries to knock on it, then squint into the beyond.]

Hello? Is anyone there?

[Hmm... this might actually be a good time to make use of one of his newfound abilities. Levity presses a hand against the gate, trying to see if he can't make the latticework shift so that there is enough space to squeeze through.]

??? Explora Session 4: 6PM PST/8PM CST/9PM EST Start

THE GATES

THE COURTYARD

THE FOUNTAINS

THE GARDENS

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