Origin Star Finale: Session 2

[fairwind]

Who: explorers
When: Day 54, noon
Where: The Final Island

[At nearly noon, Thyme's airship returns from the island with the first session's explorers. Everyone receives a chain message:

Time for round two. If you want to go, gather up.

Those who wish to go looking for the second totem can now board the airship. It waits around 20 minutes -- long enough for a quick break for those who are going twice in a row -- but then heads off again with its new crew. Along the way, everyone gets a lecture:]

Okay, for everyone who missed it the last time, here are the rules:

You're not looking for a monster to beat up. You're looking for a totem, that you'll have to deactivate by showing positive emotions. Any creatures you meet on the way can also be beaten with good feelings. Some can be killed, but that's not purifying the soul, so try to avoid it.

[When you arrive, it's at a damp sea cave. The airship hovers over the water, leaving you access to the only viable ground -- a narrow, salt-crusted stairway leading up into a tower.]

Comments

START

[fairwind]

[The airship stays still and Thyme stays on it, as you all unload.]

I'll stay here while you go in. If you need to escape I'll get you out, but we need you to succeed so don't give in too fast. If you fail here, you might all die anyway.

[You can proceed into the first floor. If you need to heal or leave, return here.]

Re: START

[wontforbidtherain]

Is everyone ready to proceed?

[dereban]

. . . well, I'd like to pass on dying for once.

[ you can hear the dry, dry sarcasm to that statement.

hopefully she's not the first one heading in because NO WAY, SHE DOESN'T WANT TO GO FIRST, she is a non-combatant that doesn't fight!!! ]

[overworker]

U-understood... everyone, let's be careful.

Re: START

[daydreamshimmer]

Wow. You're just great an encouragement.

[But she's proceeding to the first floor.]

Re: START

[fairwind]

[You get the biggest HMPH behind you as you go!]

Re: START

[notafruit]

[ Chiharu isn't sure how.... to best go about all this. Her heart is racing and she's a little nervous but she's also determined. They have to do something to help, right? ]

O-okay...! Then I'll head out now! As they say, it's best to just dive in, right?

FLOOR 1

[hot_mess_express]

[As you come up the stairs, you enter an open archway into a room overtaken by flowers. They're a deep red, beautiful and striking against bone-white foliage and black thorns. From them, you hear a faint humming...

The only exit is up.]

[dereban]

[ grimaces a bit ]

. . . Flowers, again? At least they're not higanbana.

[ or she hopes they're not this place's equiavlent. but maybe cautiously checking where that humming is coming from might be a good idea ]

[wontforbidtherain]

Higanbana?

Re: FLOOR 1

[daydreamshimmer]

[Looking around.]

Be careful. The flowers probably aren't safe.

[Can she throw a rock in there to see if they DO anything?]

FLOOR 2

[hot_mess_express]

The next floor is... suspiciously empty. Just a perfect round room of perfectly seamless stone, so shiny you can see your own reflection.

You can go up, but something feels... menacing.]

[dereban]

[ bad ideas:

will attempting to touch-slash-push the stones do anything? ]

Re: FLOOR 2

[daydreamshimmer]

....

[Studying the reflection in the stone with a critical look. Anything amiss?]

Re: FLOOR 2

[notafruit]

There isn't much here, is there...

[ Peering at her reflection in the walls of the room she reaches out to touch it. ]

How is it so polished? It's stone, right?

[yearofthecat]

I don't like this place.

[Just...shivers.]

Re: FLOOR 2

[wontforbidtherain]

[studies her reflection]

You don't have any clues, do you?

[overworker]

[There's just something about it that feels wrong, like they shouldn't just keep going.

So she'll give it an examination as well, touching it with her own two hands.]

Re: FLOOR 2

[bad_crowmance]

[ Trailing just a little bit behind is Crow! Come face-to-face with his own reflection, no less! Which he now winks at. ]

Hey, fancy seeing you here.

[ It's a joke and despite the levity, he's paying attention to both the mirror and everything going on nearby. Listening for something strange, anything. ]

FLOOR 3

[hot_mess_express]

[Now that you are out of Mirror Hell, you climb up a long, long staircase to the third floor.

Up here, there are birds. Several huge, black-feathered vulture-like things, nesting on the floor. A hole in the wall opens to show a view of the sea and a dangerous drop. On the upside, the birds appear to be sleeping, and it's a straight shot through them to the door and one final, external staircase.

On the downside, the floor is full of twigs.]

[dereban]

. . . Let me guess.

The birds are going to try and eat us.

[ just a flat, sarcastic remark on this floor, she's not touching shit though, how about we not do that this time ]

[yearofthecat]

[ It's been an eventful few moments for Kyou, to say the least. Getting dragged into the reflection. Dragging Crow into the reflection with him. Cat girl--Chiharu-- helping to get him out. When she pulled him out, Kyou--for reasons he has no idea about and thinks are related to this entire thing--turned into a cat. She's carrying his clothes for him.

And now...to figure out how to make it through this room. ]

Don't step on the sticks.

Re: FLOOR 3

[daydreamshimmer]

[GOD EVERYTHING.]

[JUST EVERYTHING.]

[Also in human form for the moment because. Reasons. Complicated Mental Crisis Reasons.]

[Looking at the birds. Looking at the twigs.]

[Will move forward, nudging twigs out of the way with her feet if there's not a wide enough place to step, mostly focused on not snapping any twigs.]

ROOF

[hot_mess_express]

[Having made it past the birds, you travel a delicate staircase around the outside of the tower. With a deathly drop below you and no rail, your steps must be careful, as bits of mossy stone crumble at the edges.

Reach the top, and you're on the tower roof. Surrounded in parapets carved with feathers and stars, it seems there was once a fountain and garden up here. Now though there's just a basin, in which grows one single, huge lily.

When you look at it, it tilts its face towards you and screams.]

GO AWAY!

Re: ROOF

[daydreamshimmer]

[She may have just crawled up those stairs on hands and knees because she's not ashamed to do it and it's more stability.]

[And now there's a talking flower.]

....why do you want to be alone?