[OPEN] 1/1: Personal Shadow Event

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SHAPESHIFTER

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→ PART ONE: REAL WORLD

On the morning of January 1st, someone wakes up in Akira Kurusu’s bed. It’s not Akira Kurusu. It looks exactly like him, talks with his voice, reads as him at a cellular and spiritual level on any supernatural or mundane tests. But it’s not Akira Kurusu.

During the daytime of the 1st and 2nd, he calls in sick to whatever work obligations he may have that day, and then leaves. On the first day he heads into town, making a point to avoid any other Persona-users he sees. There is definitely some picking fights with villagers who offend him, which is not unusual for Akira as of late, and the NPCs will complain to each other and the Persona-users about that awful boy with the glasses. On the second day, he will instead fuck off willingly into the ice-cold wilderness, looking around the mountains.

Things get worse during Lockdown. Both nights, the Nasty Crimeboy can be found skulking around town during Lockdown instead of in the dungeons like usual. He’s deliberately being stealthy and covering his tracks, even though the only people who are here to see him are a bunch of children who collectively share three brain cells, and Rio. On the first night he breaks into shops and takes their inventory, ostensibly for the purpose of obtaining things he needs that the villagers refuse to sell to him. Seamsters are missing a few winter garments, blacksmiths are down a pair of very high quality daggers and a sword, and the one gun shop in town is missing some of its stock of ammo — some for handguns, but some for other kinds too, so it’s not immediately apparent who took them. If someone checks Akira’s car in the Velvet Room after Lockdown, however, they will find the stolen goods hidden in various spots there.

Sometimes he gets in… other places. On the second night, both the mayor’s house and the police station are broken into. The mayor’s house is almost comedically simple to enter, because he has very little in the way of home security, and what he does have is completely useless during a Lockdown where he’s not physically there. Either way, the Crimeboy mostly takes any cash he can find from the mayor as well as valuables that could be inconspicuously sold to the shady folks who peddle phosphorus.

The station is unfortunately better protected, so eventually the Crimeboy realizes he has little option but brute force — so he locates the police chief’s office from the outside, and uses Mara to smash a hole in that wall. (The crash can be heard by any Persona-using prisoners who happen to be in the station at this time.) The next morning, the chief’s office looks like a tornado came through it. All cash and valuables either stolen or destroyed, all locked drawers or containers picked open, and so on. The chief’s desk has had everything knocked off of it onto the floor, and the word ROTTEN is carved deeply into the top of the wooden desk.

After Lockdown on the morning of January 3rd, the boy is nowhere to be seen or detected. You start to think that maybe something is wrong.

→ PART TWO: METAVERSE

School dungeon, third floor.

The entire floor is still on fire, but now there’s a new reason — lightning bolts. There is no rain; they just come down from the smoking skies. They strike environment, Persona-user, and Shadow alike, and become more and more frequent as you approach the palace. Some of the Shadows and FOEs are now on fire, having been struck by the bolts; their HP is lower, but their Attack is higher, and every hit has a chance of additional Fire damage. Any semblance of order that the FOEs may have had is gone, and they are now running around and attacking indiscriminately.



KOPPA TENGU
Type Shadow	Resists Wind	Weak Dark
These Tengu-based Shadows will flee once they see any sight of danger, including (especially) the lighting bolts. This means they tend to stay at the start of the floor, where the bolts are less common. They will fly high into the air and blow people away by conjuring large gusts of wind with their wings. They don't have a lot of attacks and their defense is low, so they are easy enough to defeat, assuming that they don't fly away first. Curiously enough, none of the other Shadows or F.O.E.s pay them much attention... A Tengu mask and a blank scroll can be collected as loot.





CHIMERA
Type F.O.E.	Null Fire, Light	Weak None
Larger than any other Shadow, these F.O.E.s act as guards of the dungeon. While the Shadows are the disposable troops that wander the area and simply attack whomever they see, the F.O.E.s specifically seek out intruders and attack with the sole purpose of killing them. They lurk throughout the dungeons, using their many eyes and noses to track down Persona users and charge without hesitation when they spot one. Also, they are on fire. Their physical strength is tremendous and a single swipe of their mighty paws or talons will surely knock out anyone who hasn’t been keeping up with their training. They are unaffected by fire or light-based attacks and they have no weaknesses. If a Chimera is on fire, its HP is not reduced at all, but its Attack is still higher and there’s still a chance of burn if it hits you. You might be strong enough to take them on, but these things are no joke…



Even from a distance, it becomes obvious that the palace is also on fire. Lightning strikes this building more than anywhere else. The gates around the palace have transformed, each stake now looking like the ribcage bone of some giant creature curling out from the ground. The gate itself hangs open and unattended.

There’s smoke pouring out of the palace windows, and the tallest tower has fallen off, lying in a blazing heap in the courtyard below. Investigating this tower will take you to the empty boss room where the Daitengu used to be, but there’s nothing of note there. The front entrance of the palace itself is clearly where you need to go; forget about sneaking in the side, because the front doors have transformed into an accursed portal, the strange obsidian-like material creeping into the stone walls like a virus.

Upon entering, the interior of the palace has changed drastically, and there’s nowhere to go but down. There is only one spiral path apart from a straight drop down the middle; it’s a very long one that leaves you in an indefensible position, and hiding in the darkness, the tobi tengu are all waiting to ambush you from land and air. Sometimes if you look over you can see their eyes staring from within a spinal column.



TOBI TENGU
Type Shadow	Resists Light, Wind	Weak Ice
Although they are solidary creatures, this Shadow is accomplanied by smaller versions of itself. It strays away from the other packs of Shadows and spends its company with a minimum of one to a maximum of three mini-versions, flying around the lower depths of the dungeon. It doesn't attack characters directly. Instead, it uses its mini-versions to cast a wide range of status ailments that either causes team members to fight among themselves or hinders their progress, such as sleep, confusion, charm, or rage. After you are incapacitated, it will rush in with Dark-based attacks, but as soon as you are able to snap out of your afflictions, it will retreat and send its minions to immobilize you and your team once more. A Tengu mask and magical healing leaves can be collected as loot. The masks they wear and drop are different than normal, but Crow’s is by far the most common.



If you can make it past all the birdfolk and ominous skeleton imagery, you’ll reach the bottom, where that awful orange glow comes from. It’s a vague approximation of Tokyo, where the sky is searing orange and all of the buildings are built out of that same black and red-veined obsidian material. There are giant bones sticking out of the ground and snaking through buildings, reaching up into the sky, some of them even taller than the full size skyscrapers around them. Somewhere in this hellhole, if you search for long enough, you’ll find a boy in a long black coat…

→ PART THREE: NOTES

⬥ ICly, this dungeon appears on January 1st, and one way or the other the event will conclude by the 5th, though of course you can backtag and fit things into this span of time.
⬥ There are certain conditions that must be achieved for this event's good ending. Failing to meet these conditions will not result in Akira's ego-death; rather, it will result in Joker becoming a permanent fixture of the game.
⬥ Since Joker and Akira share a body, any damage Joker sustains will of course affect Akira long-term as well. Killing Joker is not recommended.
⬥ The Nasty Crimeboy will be evasive and try to get out of all conversations with others as quickly as possible, but if you would like to speak to him, let me know and we can set up a toplevel.
⬥ Ganba, everyone.

Comments

QUESTIONS

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Please leave questions here, or contact me at skysplitter!

JOKER & AKIRA ENCOUNTER

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On the bottom floor, patrolling the debris, there's a boy in a long black coat. Underneath it, if you know what to look for, you can tell that he is armed to the teeth. For simplicity's sake, you will always be talking to Shadow Joker at the very start of a thread, and the easiest way to tell which is which is that Joker's eyes are always glowing yellow.

Joker and Akira's stats are:

STR: 22 (27 GoD)
MAG: 22 (27 GoD)
END: 18 (23 GoD)
AGI: 26 (31 GoD)

It should go without saying, but the handgun God of Destruction is always equipped.

Please reference the stats page for Persona stats.

1/3

[overstrain]

[ It hasn't been a great night since Lockdown started. Terry started looking and sounding like Kano and it's no stupid illusion. Anyway, the third is when Terry finally realized that Akira has gone missing after hearing about how "he" trashed the police station. He'll save it for later, but lightning strikes have been no problem for him. He doesn't smell like cinnamon anymore, and it doesn't take too long to locate Shadow Joker after getting through the weirdness that the school dungeon has been subjected to. ] Akira. [ He could do it right with Niko, but only because he related so much with her problems despite being nothing alike. He's not sure if he can pull things off with Shadow Joker, but he wants to try and try really hard not to mess it up. It's just him and Shadow Joker right here in the middle of odd buildings under an orange sky. ]

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[When someone calls out, the boy turns around, with a look on his face like he already wants to protest something — and Terry may notice those golden eyes glowing defiantly — but once he gets a look at who's actually speaking, that complaint about names dies quickly. Without the cinnamon cloud, this looks for all the world like Kano... but it can't be Kano, because Kano is dead. And if Shadow Joker had ever made a cognitive construct of Kano, he would definitely know.]

...Who are you?

[Because you're not Shuuya Kano. He steels himself, scowling, putting that brave face back on.]

1/4

[reveilation]

[ Kido doesn't get here until the 4th, not even realizing until then that Akira's gone missing and something is horribly wrong— that the "awful boy with the glasses" that the townspeople are spitting over isn't Terry like she originally believed, but Akira, whom she thought she saw around town and so none of this makes sense.

Why is it the people closest to her who she's always blind to? Maybe because they're close. She couldn't do anything for Terry, and she only made things worse for Rei, and Akira is her vice leader and her friend and she lets the guilt eat away at her and the rage consume her as she and Nekogami tear apart the dungeon, shrugging off the Shadows and FOEs to get to the palace. The building is on fire and Kido still balks at the sight of flames, swallowing down bile and fingers curling in her Persona's thick flaming pelt, staring down into this pit which could very well lead to her death.

A leap of faith...

Before she can chicken out, she jumps and plummets and falls for what feels like ages before she hits the ground hard. ] Ugh... Akira! AKIRA, ARE YOU HERE?! [ ...She can't believe Akira's going to make her play hide and seek in a place like this. She can't believe she finally gets to see city life again, and it's like this. ]

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[Holy shit, she just fucking wiped.]

[Joker is watching nearby, hiding underneath the harsh shadow of a spinal column. It's so pitch black and that all can be seen of him are his awful golden eyes. She must have jumped straight down from the top of the dungeon, and for a moment he wonders with some interest if that was actually enough to kill her — but then she stands up, and of course, Nekogami's defense stats are so fucking bloated that there's no way she would die from something like that.]

[ ... ]

[He stands there in the dark and watches.]

1/4

[not_that_sasuke]

[Guess who else was slow on the uptake?

His Persona is thankfully strong enough these days to get him to the Palace without too much problem - between his natural stealthy ways as a ninja and the Headmistress' dark and almighty skills, it's much, much easier to dispatch the shadows on the way. But once he finally comes face to face with Akira, he dismisses the solemn woman.

He doesn't want to fight.]

Akira...

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[Ah, yes, another person who sat around jerking themselves off for two days and then finally decided that maybe they ought to go and find Akira. Sasuke found him first, so Joker just frowns and shoves his hands into his pockets, turning towards the boy.]

That's not my fucking name, first of all.

Call me Joker or don't call me anything.

1/2

[laconism]

[Nice try, Kotengu. Your stupid Akira clone may be convincing enough to fool everyone else, including Akira's own roommate, but Espeon has quite a lot of brain cells, thank you very much.

Between the drastic turn of events in Hirajiro these past couple of weeks, the nearly endless mental arguments with Amarok which recently resulted in him refusing to lend Red his aid in battle anymore, and putting up with both the real and fake Akira's shitty attitude, Red is losing his goddamn mind. He's so exhausted, frustrated, and worried about his friend, but he doesn't know what he can do to try to help anymore.

He would have continued to wallow in his own despair and helplessness, if the Pokémon didn't drag his ass out during Lockdown between the evening of the 1st and the morning of the 2nd, Espeon leading the way towards the school. He should know that Amarok isn't going to fight anymore, so why is he leading the charge on bringing Red out to a dungeon? Is something happening in there? Listening in on Red's thoughts, Espeon nods. It doesn't take him much longer to piece together the situation from there, and by the time they arrive at the school, Red shares their sense of urgency. He can worry about his own problems and insecurities later — right now, they need to get to Akira as soon as possible.

Blastoise and Venusaur are returned to their balls and Charizard is mega evolved into Mega Charizard Y. Red climbs onto his back and secures Pikachu and Espeon underneath him, the psychic cat acting as the GPS as they speedrun the dungeon. Mega Charizard Y is only flying at a small fraction of the speed he can truly accomplish because his passengers wouldn't be able to survive the ride otherwise, but it's more than enough to easily dodge any lightning strikes and outfly every single Shadow in the dungeon to a degree that they don't even bother giving chase. Once they reach the bottom floor and locate Joker, Mega Charizard Y flies down towards him at a much slower speed as a sign of peace. Red won't speak up yet; he wants to gauge Joker's reaction to their approach first.

By the way, he's totally wearing the ugly Pikachu sweater.]

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[Shout out to Espeon, the only competent character in this entire ass game.]

[Joker looks up, way up — past the sky of the fake Tokyo. Up there it's mostly black, so even through the orange light down below, a moving blob is still visible. To be honest, he spent the entire day here wondering what took everyone so long. Terry should have done his daily pinpointing and then sounded the alarm. But it's been over twenty four hours and now Charizard comes barreling through the door. It shouldn't have taken the rest of them this long, and Red was at a bit of a disadvantage because Amarok is gone, so why was he the first one to come a-knocking?]

[Well, it doesn't matter. He's going to come in and demand to take Akira back to that shithole, so he can keep on attempting to put up this façade of being a decent human being, and failing at it.]

[Joker is all ready, ready to stab the fuck out of all of them if it means keeping Akira with him where it's safe, but then he actually gets a good look at what the madlad is wearing.]

—Why the fuck would you wear that in public?!

1/2; Ala > Toki > Joker

[parhellia]

[ With a huge dragon blocking out the orange glow of the sky, it's very likely that Joker spots them long before they spot him, Ala's wings spread wide as she glides down and down, circling the block to find a clear patch on which to land. Hopefully she doesn't get sniped out of the sky because her dragon form's borrowed from Vassago, but this is Toki's show and not hers, so as soon as she's able to land and let him off, she's pointing Joroko in the direction of where she'd last seen Joker. ]

[yokeye]

[It's about this time that Toki realizes he doesn't actually have a plan. He doesn't know what to say, or how to start. He stays near Joroko, but tries to appear more confident than apprehensive.]

Akira~!

[Possibly a too-cheerful greeting, to a possibly empty alleyway. Oh well.]

1/1 DESTINED FOR FAILURE BUT HERE WE GO Rio > Ala > Akira

[toybombs]

[She'd spotted him during one of those brief moments in the light. Were this an old scenario, she would have shot him dead on the spot.

But it's not. So, ducking out of the shadows herself, she gives up that advantage - although her hands remain gripped around the handle of her revolver, finger over the trigger even if it's currently pointed at the ground.]

So is this the result of those fears of yours, then?

[parhellia]

[ Rio, why would you just shoot Akira no questions asked??? If this were that scenario, Ala would have cried. Even this scenario is more hostility than she bargained for, with her first instinct being to run up to Akira and see if his Shadow/Personas are doing okay, but she remains standing a little to the side of Rio, her own hands empty and dangling limp by her sides.

... "Hi, Akira," she sort of mouths silently at Joker, because she always has that urge to say hi first instead of jumping straight into things, but now's not the time and Rio sounds like she has a better grasp on what's really going on. ]

1/2

[astralchain]

[ Yamato had Rei's help in navigating the dungeon. Ordinarily, he would be here to train, but the dungeon has changed too much for him to think everything is normal. Eventually, they reach the deep pit, and Yamato decides he doesn't want to put Rei in anymore danger. He asks her to return, and bring word to others that he's there.

Because Yamato is a protag and prone to bad decisions, he takes the easy way down. Jumping into the pit, he summons his Legion in midair and does a somersault to slow down both their falls. (this defies physics but it's a mechanic in his canon so it works SOMEHOW.) He lands on the black-and-red ground, finding it not at all strange. It's almost like home.

His Legion growls from behind him. He dismisses it, knowing that he can resummon at a moment's notice. He had discarded his omamori, so maybe it's kind of a death wish.

Yamato walks briskly through the ruined landscape. It's strange, having no Shadows here. He spots Akira from behind a building, quickly breaking into a run. ]

Joker?

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[ ... ]

[Joker laughs. Of course, they only ever told Yamato the name Joker. Well, that works well enough, because so far Yamato is the first person not to call him Akira. And because this amuses him so much, he turns around, leaning casually against the side of a great bone. His eyes are still glowing that awful yellow.]

The one and only.

What are you doing here, man? How did you even get this far?

1/5

[toybombs]

[HEY AKIRA GUESS WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT.

Rio's attempting some stealth here but who knows what Kido and Nekogami are doing. She def suggested not just faceplanting down the hole at least.]

[reveilation]

[ Sorry, Rio, but they're faceplanting. It might hurt for Rio, but Nekogami heals her almost immediately so... it's fine. Joker doesn't get to see this time either, because Kido keeps her eye ability activated from the start, from the time she entered the dungeon proper, so she and Rio can go to find Joker without him watching them from the shadows and there's no need to bother with any other stealth methods with Kido around.

Joker would know that they're here, the two of them promising to come back to talk to Akira, but this time, Kido will not let him run away.

Where you hiding, Joker? We're coming for you. ]

[parhellia]

1/1 - 1/5, 3rd floor
[ Green... blue... gold... Ala rubs the grime off the gemstones in her hands before slipping them into her hoodie pocket, where they disappear without so much of a clatter, and hops down the stairs to the third floor two steps at a time to open the door and—

scream when a lightning bolt strikes her feet, and Ala reels back into the safety of the stairwell for a second to collect her thoughts. What the hell happened? It's like the lake dungeon all over again where things are getting screwy... This time, when she opens the door, she only peeks out to see what's going on, looking from the Shadows to the stormy skies to the flaming palace that just looks wrong- what happened?

She looks around to see if any other Persona user is here to tell her what's going on, because the only reason she's in the dungeon in the first place is to collect gemstones, making her way through the floors despite being one of the weakest Personas here who can no longer fight because she'd given back her only weapon, a knife, and had let go of all her offensive spells. Which is fine, because she walks into the floor unafraid, sticking close to the Shadows because if lightning strikes, they're so much larger than she is and therefore more likely to get struck first.

And the Shadows? The koppa tengus blow wind at Ala and she feels nothing but a breeze; a Chimera lunges at her and bites down on her arm and she doesn't so much as flinch. She walks forward undeterred, a solemn walk through the fire, lightning strikes flashing and crackling all around her until she stands in front of the palace. ]

wc.
[ Ala will be in the dungeon every night except on the 3rd. She drains fire, wind, psychokinesis, physical, curse/dark, and ice, and also has a charm skill to get past Shadows, so if anybody wants to team up to get through the floor and palace, she's more than willing to play escort.]

wc. 1/2?

[yokeye]

[Everything smells like smoke and indeterminate substances burning. The flames crackle, the lighting making little zaps as it hits the floor or something else. Toki stays close to Joroko, but she herself is not having a good time. She's no longer weak to fire, but she remembers when she was, and she's hesitant to plow right through it; instead observing the floor for a minute and trying to form some sort of plan, because Toki is no help here.]

[parhellia]

[ Fire is inherently very scary, a destructive force that Ala holds her breath running through though all she feels is a comforting warmth like hot breath or sunshine that does not exist in this place during this time. Without any offensive spells to allow her to fight directly, she's been standing back in the healing flame and orchestrating battles on her own, charming other Shadows to fight each other to the death, but it's tiring work and although she's constantly being healed, she can't expend too much magic and that makes the going slow.

So! Any other Persona user being here is a godsend, and Ala runs out from out of the fire she'd been taking refuge in, several flames still clinging to her clothes until they go out in the breeze as she comes up to Toki and Joroko, throwing a glance over her shoulder to make sure the nearest Shadows are still preoccupied with tearing each other's limbs apart. ]

Toki! Joroko! What are you guys doing here? Training?

[ Saving Akira? What's up, guys. ]

1/1

[toybombs]

[She'd been making such good progress in the dungeon thanks to all her tools, too. But the instant lightning appears, she's diving behind Ala, gripping at her sides with shaking hands.

aaaaaaaaaaaa.]

[parhellia]

[ If Rio's not the one screaming out loud, then it's Ala who lets out a short scream— not out of fear of the lightning, but out of surprise at Rio ducking behind her and gripping the clothes on her back and rooting her to the spot so that if lightning does hit, Ala's going to have to play the role of the lightning rod. ]

Wha- what's wrong, Rio? You don't have a weakness to electricity, do you?

[ Like, a Persona weakness, which transfers to Rio even if she can't be summoned. ]

1/1!

[lotusroots]

[ Wei Wuxian still isn't used to dungeons, so lightning inside of them is something he is not prepared for. He's already made it this far by the skin of his teeth, but this is too much.

When Ala looks around for other Persona users, she'll find Wei Wuxian just standing there nearby. ]

...I think I'm going to turn back around.

[parhellia]

[ Okay, so, lightning is new! And it could be so much worse. Ala could have decided to use wolvaan on every single Shadow on the floor to turn them all into dogs and Wei Wuxian wouldn't have even taken the time to announce his departure and would have already hightailed it out of there. But she didn't and he doesn't, so Ala intercepts him and physically blocks the way. ]

Master Wei~! You got so far already, though! Are you out of steam?