clouds came and covered the sun

[hairpining]

[You find yourself in a small, quaint little town. The architecture has a notably late-1800s bent to it, in contrast to the clean, crisp air you breathe – combined with a faint, flowery scent – it's almost as though it is not industrialized at all.

Which would be easy enough to believe. After all, there do not seem to be any people out other than you and your fellow spelunkers – in spite of the occasional whisper you might hear. Hushed and impossible to actually make out.

Far in the distance lies a towering building, similar in shape to a fairytale castle.]

(Castle Town | Atelier | Smithy | Castle Town Revisited |
Painting the Roses Red | The Golden Afternoon | Castle Corridor |
The Library of Babel | The Girl Without Hands | The Garden of Paradise | The White Bride and the Black One |
The Princess Sleeping in the Glass Coffin)

((BGM entirely for ~atmospheric~ and ~stylistic~ purposes and personal reference, feel free to listen if you want to!))

Comments

The Garden of Paradise

[hairpining]

[Song of Saya II]

You come up onto what at first appears to be a riverbank at twilight, or perhaps dawn. The sky is red and it colors the river to match, like a mirror. Growing on the shore are more red flowers – spider lilies, this time.

Between you and the flowers are roughly one hundred open, empty graves. The door to the dungeon remains open, but there are two other doors right across the crimson river. One is onyx-black, labeled "Index." The other is marble-white, and labeled “Core.”

What do you do?]

[guardofsteel]

[ And so Elijah immediately goes over to one of the graves and crouches down to take a better look inside and make sure it's really empty. ]

no one saw that

[kalahiki]

[...why.]

Spider-lilies, this time? [Gonna...gonna go make sure that river is actually water.]

[hairpining]

[The graves are all empty! As for the river...

Of course it's blood, who the fuck do you think I am. That said, it is mostly water, with the bulk of the color coming from its reflecting the sky.

As you pass through the flowers to get to the river, though, their color comes off on you. Hope it doesn't make contact with the skin ♥]

[guardofsteel]

[ Hmmm. Nothing interesting there, then. ]

You can uncover your eyes now, Elys.

[ Now onto the river. God damn these flowers, they're ruining a perfectly good pair of black pants. ]

[kalahiki]

Don't touch the flowers, though, I have a bad feeling about them. [Sighing, and staring at the river.] And the river, too.

Can you stand another ride?

[hairpining]

... Okay.

[Elys uncovers her eyes and hops back up onto Elijah's back, then :)]

[guardofsteel]

[ oof! ] Yeah. Sure. [ A bit more warning would have been nice. But sure, he can let the tiny dollchild ride on him again.

Also, backing out of those flowers as quickly as possible. ]

[kalahiki]

[...That wasn't what he meant but it's adorable so. Streeeetching.]

...Any ideas how to get across?

[hairpining]

... Red man, your head monstershark flies, doesn't it?

[guardofsteel]

Yeah, we could ride on that.

[ But then there is a wall. Though it probably can't quite be called a wall since it's horizontal and hovering just an inch over the water. ]

Or we could just use this. [ Elijah gives the Barrier bridge a good stomp, just to prove its stability. Despite the fact that the bridge appears to be made of red glass, it doesn't break. It doesn't even wobble. ]

[kalahiki]

That also works.

[Welp, let's just go across the bridge then!]

[hairpining]

[You get across without incident!

... And Elys actually jumps off Elijah's back at this point.]

Bye-bye.

[provocate]

[Oh pretty... Wanders towards the river, humming idly to himself as he looks around, and pauses on the bank to look into the water... Also going to... pick one of these red flowers and add it to his lapel *3*]

[hairpining]

[The water actually is red -- there's blood in the river, heavily diluted. The remainder of the color comes from its reflection of the sky.

As for the flower, the red comes off on his hands where he touches the petals, revealing white underneath. For some reason, he may feel a tad nauseous.]

[provocate]

[...oh good swimming through blood sounds super great... 8'| Although ew wow suddenly feeling like shit right in the middle of post-sadism euphoria that's cool. Looks at the flower... then the red on his skin... and then tries to rub the rest of the color off on his pants instead?]

[hairpining]

[You do so! The feeling is still there, but it's now much easier to ignore.]

[provocate]

[hhhhhhh... well at least he can ignore it now. Tucks it up against the poppy and then carefully slides down the bank, close enough he can dip a couple fingers into the water. Don't wanna deal with awful nausea while swimming if that's gonna be a thing!!!]

[hairpining]

[There is no such nausea! The river is just a creepy river with blood in it.]

[provocate]

[The best kind of river tbh... But alright cool, then he'll back up a few steps and kick his shoes off, chucking them as hard as he can to the opposite bank... Ponders doing similar with his jacket but... physics would probably be a bitch to him so maybe not]

[Alright............. leaps into the river and heads across!!!]

[hairpining]

[And then you got eaten by a sea monster You swim across without incident.

Your two doors are labeled 'Index' and 'Core!' In a contrast to when you saw it previously, Core now seems to be unlocked.]

[provocate]

[........oh god he has wet socks now he can't put his shoes back on Guh peels his socks off then, tucking them into his shoes and carrying them with him as he goes to the doors...]

[Checks they're both unlocked and then... pushes the Index door open? Just wanna see where it goes ffff]

[hairpining]

[It goes back to the Castle Corridor! AKA Mindfuck Architecture Room.]

[provocate]

[Hm... pokes his head through... takes a squinty look around again........... and then: ]

Boring...~ [Slides back in, shuts that door and heads on over to the Core!!]

[hairpine]

[To the Coooooore!]