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DECEMBER EVENT PT 2
DECEMBER EVENT PT 2
premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation
→ 12/15 - 12/31 A Persona December...
- The year is now winding down, but it only gets busier throughout town as people hustle about paying off debts, mending relationships, and cleaning the clutter out of their homes to have a fresh start to the new year. The staff at the hospital is especially busy rearranging some of the units, seeing as the foundation to the hospital seems to have cracked a day or two before, the entire building at a slight angle where one side has sunk into the ground, with blame placed on the freezing ice breaking apart the ground below the hospital and deeming parts of it unsafe. Rows and rows of potted plants surround the hospital like a miniature garden, while around the marketplace, small potted plants are placed on either side of each shop entrance ward off evil spirits and keep them from entering. In the neighborhoods, white paper strips tied across straw ropes get hung over each house's front door for the same purpose— for the houses without such traditional New Year's decorations, like the Black Cat house and the neighboring clubhouse, the townspeople offer to help supply and put up the traditional decorations so evil spirits will be kept out of the town, and good tidings will be invited in for all in the new year.
It's too bad they do nothing to ward off the Shadows that crawl out of the dungeons at night, the snow and the ice unable to deter the small black blobs that squeeze under doors and invade the buildings during Lockdown. Perhaps the weather is to blame, getting increasingly colder towards the end of the year, but people start to fall ill until most of the townspeople sport masks over their noses and mouths to prevent catching colds. On the 21st, the public bathhouse celebrates the winter solstice by offering a greatly discounted entrance fee, enticing people to enjoy the customary yuzu baths with cut citrus floating in the hot water to draw in good luck and good health, but even this tradition does little for what might be the worst flu season to have hit the town in years. The symptoms are largely the same: it starts with chills and a fever, then heavy sweating and insomnia that makes it impossible to fall asleep, coupled with the deep aches and pains that seem to seep right down into the bones. People are left weak and tired, and while some are lucky to not get any sicker, others take a turn for the worse and lose consciousness completely, rushed over to the hospital where tests are being done to determine what sort of illness this is and what the most effective treatment may be. There is no effective treatment. The people who get sick aren't recovering. Those Persona users who are already in ego death catch the illness easily and do not have the strength to fight it off, falling unconscious and prompting the townspeople taking care of them to send them to the hospital to be better looked after and supported— the last of their days spent as pain-free as possible.
Christmas Eve comes and goes, largely a couple's holiday spent quietly with loved ones, but it's only quiet due to the number of people who had to be hospitalized. Crispy fried chicken and fluffy Christmas sponge cakes topped with strawberries and cream go on sale on Christmas day, but the shelves remain full with the lack of people well enough to celebrate. Fear and suspicion run rampant, talk circulating around town that the gods are angry and they must be appeased, while a smaller but more vocal number of people begin to speak out about disaster having been striking the town almost every month no matter how much they've been praying to the gods. Traditional decorations get torn down in fits of anger and frustration, spiteful townspeople scorning the gods for doing nothing to protect the town, while others try to pacify them, wanting to keep the peace and warning the hellions that these are the exact actions that cause the gods to forsake the town in the first place. There's talk about how the bad weather and waves of illnesses started in the summer, fingers pointed at the strangers that had moved into town since then, and eyes seem to be on the Persona users as they walk through town: quick, furtive glances at times, blatant staring at others. Children are more brazen, tugging at their parents' hands and pointing out the weirdo standing on the roadside talking to cats, or the girl with the large firearm strapped to her back, or the large orange dragon they saw flying towards town from the mountains. The adults shush the children, telling them it's rude to point and that they shouldn't get involved with foreigners, pulling them away from the people who have been living amongst them all these months, now deemed outsiders.
→ 12/28 Happy birthday, Toki
- On the 28th, an earthquake rolls across town early in the evening, lasting five minutes with aftershocks being felt throughout the night. When it first hits, the quake takes the power down with it, the entire town plunging into darkness for a solid hour, the emergency generator at the hospital trying to kick in but a fuse blows and catches fire, the explosion small but located in the basement that shakes the building hard enough that it starts collapsing even further, the staff rushing all the patients out of the hospital before the entire building crumbles and burns to the ground. For the next hour, the only light that can be seen is the flames engulfing the hospital building until they finally die down come midnight. Right when the clock strikes twelve, an aftershock hits and causes the fissure at the bottom of the lake to widen, the ice cracking and the water level dropping by several meters as mud and rock get shaken loose and turn the crystal clear water a dark, turbid brown. It triggers an avalanche in the mountains, the peaks opposite the castle on the other side of town crumbling and smothering the forest beneath with rock and snow. Electricians work hard through the night to get the power restored, the power finally coming back on with the rising sun at dawn to shine light on the destruction.
Over the next few days, the townspeople work hard cleaning up around town, inspecting buildings for damages, and trying to get a clinic up and running in the small community center for hospital patients in need of treatment. There weren't many patients to begin with, but many are now unconscious, suffering the chills and pains of what now clearly isn't the flu. Groups of townspeople scavenge the ruins of the hospital for medicine and medical equipment they're able to salvage, while others make their way through the forest to scour the mountainside for herbal medicine. While they're careful to avoid the landslide, rumour starts to circulate amongst the elderly townspeople of a shrine up in the mountains from centuries ago, before an earthquake had hit and buried the passage up to the shrine, leaving it abandoned once travel was determined to be too hazardous. Investigating the landslide, it's soon realized that the rock has fallen to reveal the start of a path carved out of the mountainside, the previous blockade having been knocked loose by the recent earthquake. If the boulders are cleared away and the path is made safe enough to travel, it may be possible to reach the shrine and restore it, but efforts cannot be spared at the moment. The town comes first. The lives and safety of the people come first.
Some of the townspeople continue to pray to the gods, while others lose faith and can only rely on themselves, their knowledge and their labour. No matter how hard they work, resources are scarce and no cure to the illness can be found. The first person to fall unconscious closes their eyes and dies on the 29th. Slipping away from ego death, Kokichi Ouma takes his last breath on the 30th. Ryoji Mochizuki passes away on the 31st. Neither of them ever wakes up again, not here, and not at home.
At midnight on the 31st, the deep, rich tone of the bell slowly ringing at the shrine in the forest can be heard all throughout town, welcoming everybody into the new year.
→ 1/1- 1/2 Best wishes in the coming year
- Without a proper shrine in Hirajiro, many of the townspeople visit the town hall on New Year's day, paying respects at a kamidana located inside, standing in front of this private, miniature shrine with bowed heads, thanking the gods for seeing them through another year and praying that the next year will bring good tidings to the town that so desperately needs it. They welcome family members who have travelled all this way in order to visit, all claiming to be from different towns and cities that do not exist in this world where there is only one town, but this time, murmurs in the background voice confusion. Children ask their parents why they never go out to see their family from out of town, or how come they never see airplanes fly overhead or trains run through the mountains, or how do they have seafood if there's no ocean? They are quickly shushed and told not to ask silly questions, but dissatisfaction and resentment build amongst the youth, who are always told to keep their heads down and noses out of people's business, to not talk to strangers and to not play in the woods. Though wary now of the Persona users who frequent the path, several children are seen sneaking into the forest at times, teenagers and young adults soon to follow, and by the second day of the new year, some of the townspeople can be seen staring at the castle, marvelling at its existence, and making their way up the steps to the shrine, all while wondering to themselves how long these places have been here, right under their noses.
The number of people who are aware of the shrine in the forest barely number several dozen out of the hundreds of other townspeople, but they sweep the snow off the steps and clean up the shrine, burning incense and leaving offerings to this new god with no name, asking it to help save the town now that they can no longer trust the old gods to do so. At the center of the shrine grounds, a young man stands by a large metal box, asking people to return their old omamoris to be burnt and to buy a new one for the new year, gesturing to a small table next to him filled with omamoris of different colours, a black crow stitched in each corner and gold embroidery denoting what each charm grants blessings for: good health, wealth, relationships, etc. Alongside the omamoris, another box rests on the same table that contains omikujis, with a small tree standing behind the table for people to tie the paper fortune to if they draw one with bad luck.
Every single paper fortune reads bad luck.
For these two days, Minato and Souji can be seen at the shrine wearing men's kimono, standing off to the side and talking quietly with one another, feeding the crows, greeting the Persona users, and handing them New Year's envelope of money if they haven't stopped by to pick them up yet. Have they made their New Year's resolutions yet? If they're willing to share, both Attendants are curious about hearing them; said out loud, one becomes accountable for such promises, and if they are able to keep their resolutions... well. The first month is always the hardest. The Attendants just give a small tired smile and say that they will revisit the resolutions upon completing the final dungeon. Make them good ones.
→ MOD NOTES
- ⬥ Starting from this point forward, permadeath will be an option for characters dropped from the game, alongside the ego death state. For players with previously dropped characters who would like them to permanently dead, please contact the mods so an official list may be kept on the taken page. Note that characters who undergo permadeath may not be apped back into the game, and ICly will not be sent home. More information about the change in death mechanics will be revealed as the plot progresses.
⬥ The shrine in the mountains will be accessible on 1/3 when the new dungeon log goes up. More information will be given at that time.
⬥ At the shrine in the forest, characters have the option of returning their Persona omamori and purchasing a new one. Please respond to the toplevel below with their decision. Responses are due by 1/3, and more information about the consequences will be given at that time.
⬥ Characters also have the option of making a New Year's resolution and telling the Attendants by reporting it to the toplevel below. What will the mods do with these? Haha! It's a mystery.
⬥ As of 12/11, the music on the Velvet Room has changed in hopes that the characters stop fucking up in 2020. Ganba, friends.
i. 12/17
She steps in front of Akira to intercept eye contact the next time he's about to get into a staring contest with another townsperson, her eyes bright red under the shadow of her hood and the townsperson not noticing her at all— he blinks in confusion, and isn't able to see Akira either. ]
Don't... Has anybody given you any trouble?
no subject
[Her interception succeeds. The townsperson, probably with no higher opinion of the strange disappearing boy than before, turns away and goes about his business.]
Depends on what you mean by trouble.
[No one's verbally threatened him, but they're all looking at him. Probably talking behind his back, too.]
no subject
Anything more aggressive than this, I guess. At work, or around own...
[ Though a confrontation like that is already very aggressive, just eye contact, considering how the townspeople were before. It's not like they were ever greeted with open arms, but they were accommodating and easygoing and suddenly a switch flipped. ]
I just don't want to make any trouble with them while we're on their turf. Where you headed somewhere? I can make it so they'll completely ignore us, so let me walk with you.
[ It's a bandaid over the problem, but it's good enough for now. ]
no subject
[When he's playing Akemi, anyway. Once he had someone talk about the strange crossdressing men to his own face, because the woman didn't recognize him out of the maid costume.]
So far... people are thinking something, but no one wants to be the one to start something.
[And therefore Akira makes himself the one to start something. What exactly they have grievances about is less clear. Still, he moves close to Kido and makes no attempt to get out of her concealing veil.]
I was going to see if there was anything interesting at the occult shop.
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Are you looking for something specific at the shop? I picked up a job there, but I might end up quitting soon. Not that the owners are giving me a hard time or anything. They're still very nice.
[ Small blessings. She goes to the shop to read, mostly, since the only people that really come by are Persona users and the occasional townsperson, and there's less of a reason to sell things lately. ]
...The Kotengu gave me my father's estate. The actual building. It's not livable, but if we can sell it, you don't have to work either. Most of us are children— we shouldn't be working just to feed ourselves and keep a roof over our heads.
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Mostly I wanted to see if there were any last-minute gifts, or stuff I could turn into tools.
[Her mention of the estate gives him a brief pause. It's not livable, but it's sellable, huh... Akira sounds interested, but not necessarily excited, considering the tone of their meeting up to this point.]
That would be great. We could actually furnish the clubhouse properly.
no subject
[ It's livable, but it's also a site of mass murder, and that's not something she's going to advertise to anybody. ]
But yeah. Nobody's going to have to want for bedding or furniture or any of that. That's not we should be wasting our time worrying about.
[ It's this town and their gods and whatever the hell they all got themselves into. ]
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It's not, but that's how the world is and it's kind of a miracle that we can just... have massive estates drop out of the sky to give us income.
[Doesn't that feel too easy?]
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It's a miracle, but I really don't like the implication of just how powerful the Kotengu can be to make this happen, especially when he's supposed to be locked up and his power is suppresed.
[ It's not the Daitengu; those guys want them dead. They'd drop massive estates on their heads, not neatly slotting them into the neighborhood like this. ]
He can pull people over. He can pull things like this over. He can mess with people's minds. Why does he need us for in the first place? Why are we doing his dirty work?
no subject
[Akira says, knowing full well that he is contributing to making Big Birdman stronger, and knowing also that he's going to continue to do it.]
Which is why we're going to drag him out and kill him.
no subject
I wish I had your confidence, Akira. I'm kind of worried about how we're going to do it... but at least we'll all be there together, and since we have the ofuda, we get to choose the time when we're all prepared.
[ Nothing like stumbling into the dungeon and whoops, here's your boss battle you can't escape from whether you like it or not ]
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We're going to figure something out.
[Even if that something is just brute-forcing the entirety of endgame...]
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She takes a deep breath. ]
You're right. We made it this far already, and we've come a long way— we've come together, as miraculous as that is. We'll find a way.
[ We'll brute-force the entirety of endgame. That's her plan too. ]
no subject
[Kido is still... optimistic, and fragile. It's hard for him to be too honest around her right now, when his honesty — the way he's really feeling — would be very negative and tough to swallow.]
We've already got the ofuda. We can bypass the shrine offerings with the Attendants. All we have to do is prepare, then when the time comes, drag him out and finish it.
[Maybe don't talk about this in public, huh, Akira?]
no subject
You make it sound easy... But, hey, there's the shop just ahead. They get new things every once in a while, so maybe there'll be something interesting. I've been reading the books on the tengus lately, but there's nothing on the specific Daitengus we met.
[ If only it were so easy. But if Akira wants to learn something specific, like Jiro looking through the history books, he might be able to find it here. ]
no subject
And any that are about Hirajiro's local history. Old local history.
[Perhaps if there's any more information about exactly how the seal works... where these tengu come from... what kind of magic tengu use... anything. What Akira's looking for is some weakness of the birds he can exploit without having to face them down on their terms. Hell, if there's nothing about the tengu they deal with, maybe one of the birds mentioned is actually the Kotengu and the other four are just constructs.]
no subject
[ She takes Akira to a corner of the bookstore that's strangely predominated by cookbooks, with the handful of history books tucked away at the very bottom of the shelf. Kido's not too sure which ones contain old local history, so she pulls out every single history book there is and splits everything into two stacks, one for her to quickly skim through and the other for Akira to.
It looks like all of them are written from the viewpoint of a normal everyday person who doesn't believe in magic, seeing as there's no mention of such things, though there's mentions of the townspeople worshiping tengus who are the protector of the mountains and forest where they've built the town. None of the tengus are named, but historically, there were four, one said to watch over the area from atop of each of the highest mountain peaks surrounding the town. They were treated at any typical god, with offerings being left at the shrine along with prayers of short winters and bountiful harvests. The townspeople weren't aware of things like Personas and demons and other supernatural powers to begin with, so Kido didn't have high hopes those sorts of things would be written into any book left lying around here. ]
no subject
Kido, did you see a map of Hirajiro in any of these? A map of the landscape, rivers and mountains, not the town.
no subject
[ She reaches over to grab one of the ones she set aside, flipping through the last few pages of one of the books before finding what looks like a simple, hand-drawn topographic map of the town but also the surrounding area, dated several centuries ago while Hirajiro looks a lot smaller than it does today, and there is no lake yet at the center of town either. Looking at the contour lines, the area the town was established looks relatively flat, with nothing distinguishable at the school and lake locations. There's a slight rise as it expands outwards into the forest, flattening out around the castle and then a steep incline once it reaches the shrine that necessitated all those stairs.
With this map, Akira can find the highest mountains that the other text was talking about: using the very center of town as a reference point, it looks like the mountains stand exactly opposite of the castle and shrine. He might realize that this agrees with the tapestry Terry once received from the occult shop owners that's... somewhere, idk where Terry's keeping the tapestry. After the earthquake hits on the 28th, Akira may also realize that those mountain peaks that collapsed in the avalanche are also the same. ]
no subject
[I don't know where that tapestry is either so Akira has probably never seen it. But this is still important information. They're all together, then, the four peaks.]
See, look at this. Let the four mountains represent the Daitengu, right? If the other book is right, then there were four tengu who each lived on one of the peaks and watched over the town. And there's a straight line from them through where the lake would be to the castle and the shrine — which, let that represent the Kotengu. The entire town was constructed to give the birds a clear, high view of him. Even on the geography, they're on opposite sites.
[He draws some lines with his finger.]
We know the shrine and the castle are important. But these mountains, there must be something important in there.
no subject
Red's sometimes out there, isn't he? Terry's flown out there once too, but I don't think he saw anything weird. I know Jiro has been going out to the mountains trying to talk to the Kotengu. Maybe he should try calling the Daitengu instead of the Kotengu, if it's their mountains.
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[They're alone here, right? He's just going to say it.]
Red wanders all over the area around here. He's probably been on those mountains, but without knowing something's there, he might not have searched too hard for it. It's so fucking cold out, everything is buried underneath the snow... but can we afford to wait until the spring to go looking?
no subject
[ They're in the middle of nowhere and maybe the mountains would be slow to thaw even after the season turns. It makes her feel impatient, knowing something important is out there and they just have to find it... somehow. The mountains are huge and it's going to take a long time to get out there, let alone the time spent out there. ]
If either bird is out there just sitting around on the mountains, they're going to kill Jiro or anybody else who gets close before anything can happen, I bet. I talked with him about scouting around and reporting back if we find anything, but he thinks us being there would alert the Kotengu— or Daitengu, or whoever— of our presence and we won't have another chance at a sneak attack or conversation or anything.
[ So what do they do? Bring everybody out there to the mountains to search together. It's not a linear dungeon. It's mountains, and there are four of them, and there is absolutely no way so many people will be able to travel together as a group, or split into four groups, or however they're doing this. ]
What should we do...? We can't wait too long, but we have to prepare for something, if we're going to take this lead.
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[Akira's pretty much decided he's going to take this lead.]
If Charizard can stay outside for that long, and I'm not sure he can, we could search in the air and cover more ground... if not, I guess we can take a Persona.
no subject
[ It's snowing pretty hard up there that visibility is low, but in terms of supernatural presence, Kido can hide that too, even rendering Terry's pinpointing as vague rather than exact locations. ]
(no subject)