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cetana2020-01-01 12:34 pm
[OPEN] 1/1: Personal Shadow Event
premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation
→ 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
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
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
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.
no subject
Hey, do you remember that fight with the fake Attendants?
I let you die.
no subject
I wasn't strong enough to take the hit. That's it.
[It doesn't bother him that he had to face it alone, that he fell to it. Everyone had enough on their plates just trying to survive.]
So? Other people's Shadows have killed me, too. If I hated everyone for it, I'd never be able to talk to Terry or Rei again.
no subject
Not only was I not a Shadow then, but also, I could have sent someone over at any time to cover your ass. I could have called out. I could have stunned Minato or attacked his Persona.
[That was deliberate. Sasuke didn't offer much of anything to the fight, none of them did, and he wasn't close enough like Jiro was. He was all the way out there in the middle of fucking nowhere, basically.]
I let you die.
no subject
[He gets it. He knows. In that fight, he was much more easily expendable. The only reason he was useful was because "he knows how to talk to people" - but how useful is that really?
It sure as hell didn't stop any of this from happening.]
People who get in the way die. People who are weak are useless. Who do you think taught Yuusuke those things?
[They both learned from the same source.
He knows.]
no subject
[Joker's expression changes a bit. It's less severe. He nods, too, because he also knows these things, and now he knows that Sasuke really does get it.]
Akira hates it, you know. He's still torn up about it, even though logically he knows the truth. If Akira had been the one in control there, he would have tried to save you and all of us would have died. [In the end, Joker decided that Sasuke needed to be sacrificed for them to even have a chance of success, because he and Akira were the only ones capable enough to keep Minato at a stalemate.]
It's so exhausting, to live a life like that. It's exhausting to be a good person. So when it's too much to handle, he calls on me.
That's what I mean by 'picking up the slack'.
no subject
[If anything, recent events were just a reminder how impossible it is.]
no subject
It's more like, when he has to choose to save someone, or forgive someone, or trust someone, he's "Akira".
[It's a matter of what's treated as the baseline and what's treated as an active decision.]
We're not good people, either of us. But the main difference is that Akira wants to pretend to be something he's not. And I don't.
no subject
>Doubt.]
So what are you saying? Everything you did that happened to be "nice" or "good" was just a lie?
no subject
[Joker can understand why Sasuke would immediately come to that conclusion. However, there is a small but important difference. He is not like this to gain favor with others, but because justice and integrity really is what Akira feels is Right.]
But it's hard to keep up when your actual nature is to say fuck you, and you, and especially you.
no subject
It's not like he has to have everything together all the time.
no subject
[This conversation is maybe not the best illustration of it, because somehow Sasuke has once again used his powers of being totally inoffensive to coax Joker into talking.]
The alternative is taking shit out on Terry or Kido or the villagers 'cause he's pissed.
no subject
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[Joker shrugs.]
Villagers who cut off an entire population and look at you like the scum of the earth based on nothing but nasty rumours. Guys in masks who trap you in a cell and force you to murder each other for fun, and send you here when you're promised a way home. Birds who trap you in their endless cycle to use you as pawns, and if you die, they let you die so they can bring in another round and kill those fuckers off too.
But maybe the bird's not here yet, and you can't find the guy in the mask, so that bitch who made a shitty joke about you will serve as a substitute... you see what I mean?
no subject
He gives a small nod, exhaling slowly. Because when you have all that anger and nowhere for it to go, it just builds, and builds, and builds...]
...Yeah. It's not the same, but... I get it.
[He was never actually strong enough to take anything out on anyone, though.]
...Taking it out on other stuff doesn't help?
no subject
What kind of stupid question is that?
[If screaming into pillows and killing Shadows with great prejudice was still enough to keep it under control, they wouldn't be here.]
no subject
Sorry. I don't know what to do about it, either.
[He's not exactly a beacon of being well-adjusted either. The most he could ever get were moments of victorious pettiness in the midst of fights he still lost.]
But... he shouldn't have to rely on his Shadow to deal with things he can't, either.
He shouldn't have to carry the world on his shoulders.
no subject
[Joker huffs. It seems that he doesn't take kindly to being called unneeded.]
There's only one person in Hirajiro who will always have his back, and that's me, so the rest of you can fuck right off! Go back to setting off fireworks while everything goes to shit!
no subject
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I don't give two shits whether you like me or not! The only one whose acceptance matters is Akira's, because you're all the fucking same and your acceptance only holds up 'til you change your mind, or your needs are more important than ours, or we do something you don't like!
[...But if Akira readily accepts this, the part of himself who does not put up pretenses and doesn't act like anything except his very worst self, then why are they here? What's the source of conflict?]
[Joker is reaching into his coat. As of two seconds ago, he's decided that he's tired of this conversation.]
no subject
Sorry, Terry. Sorry, Akira. He's not nearly as good at any of this as you seem to think.]
Does he really accept you if you're here like this? Or... is he dragging you out to fight for him when he can't?
[His omamori remains in hand, but he's still not summoning. He's got a knife, but he can't even beat Yuusuke, much less someone with the height advantage along with a number of other Personae he can call upon.]
no subject
[He's looking at Sasuke for that last line, but who knows if he's actually talking to Sasuke. It's forceful, and loud, and accusatory, because he can already hear in the back of his head that someone's having second thoughts.]
This is how it's going to be, Akira! You agreed to leave this shit behind!
[There's a flash of blue fire behind Sasuke, like a Persona is trying to manifest — but no one comes, and Joker curses, and there's another flash and Mara arrives. A giant dick in a spiked chariot, reaching out with its awful tentacles to take Sasuke's arms and legs. If you're going to do something, do it quick.]
no subject
As Mara moves towards him, he leaps back, his Persona standing before him with one arm draped in kimono outstretched protectively in front of him.]
Akira- you're still conflicted about it, aren't you?
Is this really what you want? Is this really what you're prepared to do?!
no subject
[Sasuke has moved off to the side, so now he, Mara, and Joker form a triangle. But the Headmistress can't protect him on all sides, so Joker hops quickly past him, trapping the two between Shadow and Persona. His gun is out now, pointed at Sasuke's head — or maybe the Headmistress', depending on where she moves.]
You're the one who told Akira not to keep it up! But now when your ass is under the chopping block, suddenly crossing moral lines is a big deal to you again!
[This is what Akira's fighting for? Something so malleable that people will just spin it around to suit their own needs?]
no subject
...Akira's an important friend to me. I don't think I'm suited to talking to anyone at all, but he's the one who encouraged me. That's why I'm here right now. I still think I'm no good at it, but...
I want to try because of him.
[When he looks up at Joker, it's with a steely expression.]
I don't want him to have to live in conflict with himself. I want to try-- to try to be someone he can rely on so he doesn't have to face it all alone. It doesn't matter to me if I'm on the chopping block or not. [Though... he does spare the briefest apologetic glance at his Persona.] ...I'll keep coming back anyway if I have to.
I'm not giving up on you that easily, Akira.
no subject
[Joker doesn't lower the gun. He narrows his eyes at the boy instead, letting him say his piece, letting Akira hear it. After that he's quiet for a few moments, and it seems a little bit like he's thinking, but it could also very well be a conversation and Sasuke wouldn't know. His brows furrow and his lips curl up into something resembling a snarl.]
...Fine.
Because you got it right before, and because Akira wants me to say it. I'll tell you this much.
[Joker straightens his arm.]
He is having second thoughts. If he wasn't, there wouldn't even be anything in this Dungeon, and we'd be already walking up there with the rest of you and you'd have already lost.
He's having second thoughts, but I'm not.
[BANG]
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