idolpro | Flowers of Heaven 2: future is now + ☆ZRAEL

There’s a whirr and a series of quiet bleep-boops; an odd sound like stones grinding together.

Gathering around you all are strange creatures. Wheeling up to future is now are what seem to be friendly robots, almost like roombas, that have been given attachments of long, jointed arms with simple pincers at the ends, and hopping up to ☆ZRAEL are what look like a number of gargoyles, each no more than a few feet high and in the traditional gothic cathedral style—and all animate, their flesh made of living rock.
None of the creatures speak, exactly, but they chitter and nudge at you like they're greeting old friends, and usher you towards a gap that's opened in the thick curtain of kudzu vines and onto a winding path beyond.

Once you cross through, the vines grow rapidly to cover the open space behind you, and the voices of your fellow idols fade from your ears. It seems as if you’re on your own, now.

❀ ❀ ❀

Here, the vines that surround your path have thick, velvety leaves, and the stems of the vines are traced with shifting, fiber-optic lines that cycle through the rainbow.

The little creatures are carrying some things for you—the roombas carry a wreath of vervain, honeysuckle, and oak flowers and leaves, and the gargoyles a wreath of lotus, clematis, and wild rose. As they approach you, the air shifts in a strange way, and suddenly they have one wreath between them—all those flowers woven together into one, which they offer to you. They also have for you a collection of sixteen different flowers, and a small lantern of blue flame.

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[Hahahaaaa ouch.

Oh well. Do people even remember him?

Curse of irrelevance: become a solipsism—people literally struggle to remember you if not reminded; at worst, you might not feel real without them.]

[ Aliza is stalking around looking for -- for someone, she had it just a second ago, she'll know it when she finds them -- and walks right past Causality. ]

[ She keeps looking around, growing more confused. Who was she...? ]

[...Huh.

He won't say anything, just kind of watching curiously.]

[ Finally she notices him, but her expression shifts from irritation to worry. ]

Sorry to bother you in the middle of all this, but I think I've lost someone.

[Interesting.]

Is that so?

[ Nodding slowly. And then looking at him oddly before shaking her head. ]

They were with me before we went through, and now... hm. I'm having trouble remembering. Maybe I got hit after all.

-- Did you get hurt?

A little, but I'll be alright.

You should figure out who to protect next, shouldn't you?

[ She looks horrified ]

No, of course not! I need to find the person I'm looking for! I don't care about this gate.

But if you don't protect anyone, someone else could be lost.

I'll burn both of mine, then.

Destroying yourself doesn't protect others.

I know, but... [ Stubborn and utterly pointless, absolutely, and she wouldn't really do this. It's just that forgetting people important to her is too familiar in the worst way. She turns her face away to try and hide that she's starting to cry. ]

How can I go on without someone who protected me, especially when I don't know what happened to them?

If they protected you once, you don't think they'd want to see you safe for the rest of this?

And I'm just supposed to live with the fact that I couldn't protect them? Knowing they could be trapped or hurt and I just keep moving? I don't know how to do that.

-- this happens every time. I want to be with the people most important to me so I can help, and then in the end I can't help anything.

Re: DISCUSSION

numberedays - 2022-08-07 22:31 (UTC) - Expand

sangreine - 2022-08-07 22:32 (UTC) - Expand

numberedays - 2022-08-07 22:38 (UTC) - Expand

sangreine - 2022-08-07 22:44 (UTC) - Expand

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sangreine - 2022-08-07 22:52 (UTC) - Expand

[ Who's this guy? ]

Did you just get here...?

[ How and when? ]

Hm? No. I've been here the whole time.

[????]

I think I'd remember you if you'd been here the whole time.

Maybe you didn't notice?

In this small a group?

Do you think I snuck up on you?

I'm thinking maybe you're a plant, sent here by the Production.

[He does in fact have wings!]

And what would my job be?

Maybe you have one of those tiny invisible cameras on you so that you can get a close-up of our faces while we suffer.

I don't think that's necessary for them to get close ups...

Maybe not necessary, but they'd love the extra drama of sending in someone to make us trust them only to turn out they'd been here helping them all along.