JANUARY DUNGEON

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→ 1/12 Lockdown: The Final Dungeon

When preparations are complete and the team is ready to tackle the dungeons, both Attendants can be found at the castle, with Minato sitting on the armrest of the throne with a plain short sword balanced on his knees, and Souji standing to the side with several backpacks full of food, water, and blankets at his feet. "Last chance to change your mind and join the Champions of the Just," Minato pipes up from where he's sitting. "They've got trail mix." The team he's heading, incidentally, he named the Legion of the Dead and there is no trail mix or any other supplies provided by Minato, because Souji is a responsible leader who comes prepared, and Minato just doesn't care.

A several day hiking trip up the mountains for the sake of team bonding was considered but ultimately vetoed, so Souji simply opens a portal up from the forest shrine's torii to the mountain shrine's, and from there, it's only a short trek through the drifting snow to reach the honden. At the stroke of midnight, each Attendant places their hand flat on their door, the surface glowing bright blue and turning translucent: a one-way barrier swallowing each person whole as they pass through the portals.

Legion of the Dead

It's a straight ten-foot drop once you step through the ofuda door in the castle, with nothing to break your fall but hard stone— or Minato if you happen to be the next person after him. It's a large stone chamber, with two large indentations on the far wall the size and appearance of doors, but neither open when touched or attacked. The only other thing of note in the room is a pedestal at the center with three omamoris slowing burning in a weak flame, one with Rio's name and arcana, another with Kido's, and the last with Yamato's, the same ones that were thrown away at the forest shrine on New Years as a statement of rejection of the Kotengu and his lent powers. Really, it's just Rio and Yamato's, though, because Kido had two omamoris to start with and doesn't need this second one. But with nothing else in the room, the first choice is a time-limited one: will you save the omamoris from the fire so Rio and Yamato can have it to summon their Personas, or will you respect their decision and allow the omamoris to burn to ashes?

Depending on your choice, one of two doors will open.

Champions of the Just

Entering the honden brings the group to a large stone chamber reminiscent of the forest shrine dungeon: a circular hub with a dozen arches along the perimeter, clearly meant to entice the impatient to spread themselves thin. Instead of multiple Shadow ghosts appearing from the ether to ambush the group, however, there is only one: a semitransparent ghostly form of a young boy huddled against the archway on the opposite side of where everybody had entered. He looks to be around seven, with very little distinguishing features other than pale eyes staring at the group. The moment anybody takes a step closer to him, calls out to him, or tries to attack, he starts in fear and turns to run through the archway— anybody who gives chase is met with a barrier; in fact, every other archway is blocked by the same invisible barrier, cutting their potential routes in half.

The rest of the room is empty. There should be a way to get the barriers to drop in one of the five available passageways... Will you proceed all together, or divide and conquer?

There is no Velvet Room within the dungeons, and using a traesto gem or goho-m will only bring you to the beginning of the dungeon in either main hub, not outside. Falling unconscious within the dungeons doesn't bring you anywhere to be revived either; all it means is that your unconscious body lies there to rot or get eaten by Shadows until somebody hopefully saves you. So look after one another in the dungeons, and don't be afraid to rely on your Attendants. Souji will keep everybody safe.

→ MOD NOTES

⬥ Both dungeons are team-based and require some coordination with other members of their team, with some decisions involving the entire team (e.g. Legion of the Dead's first decision regarding the omamoris). The teams will make their way through several rooms to find the exit, either split up or all together, with each room containing a battle, puzzle, decision, or another obstacle. The team as a whole will bear the consequences of the actions taken, so please give each choice careful consideration. As actions may affect subsequent rooms, new rooms will become available after the previous are cleared, rather than all the information given at one time.
⬥ A toplevel for the boss will go up once a team ICly reaches the boss' chamber, and overall, this deadline is the end of the month to avoid IC consequences.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh- Itsuki!

[ It's hard to tell from behind... but there's no mistaking that Itsuki is just like this and Ala laughs it off without apology. ]

Hehe, you're such a hard worker. The money's going to go back to the school to fund trips and stuff, so I hope we get to go somewhere fancy at the end of the year!

More money means something fancier! Fancy like those grand hotels with an ocean view~ Ah, that would be the best! We can't ride on a dinky little canoe on the lake and call that riding on a boat! We gotta go above and beyond!

[ Despite like... putting no work other than pitching the idea. 45 thinks she can pull off the persuasion at least. Who wouldn't want a big luxury life? ]

Canoes are fun too... But I wonder what it'd be like to ride on a steam boat, like in the books and movies! We could get trapped inside and it starts to leak while we're stranded in the middle of the ocean and everything...!

[ EXITING she thinks it would be exciting, being able to have an adventure outside of this sleepy little town, but it's too fantastical to be anything more than just a dream. They'll be lucky if the school agrees to let them have a camping trip in the woods this year. ]

Sounds like a real exciting adventure.

[ Sounds like sarcasm, but that's just how she is... 45 would gladly watch someone else do it, as par for the course. ]

That's why we gotta rake in the big dough. They'll have to let us go this year. It's my last year!! I gotta make it worthwhile! I always wanted to ride on a plane! Wouldn't it be awesome if a helicopter just came to pick you up? Sounds like a rich guy life.

[ GIRLS BE AMBITIOUS!! ]

[ 45 is right. This is Ala's last year too, and even though there's always the chance to chaperone with Toki's class, it just isn't the same unless it's with her own classmates. ]

We have to make it happen. You're right, it's got to be the best cultural festival anybody has ever seen! We gotta bring in everybody from town, and all the other towns too, and make it happen!

[ Step one: cats ]

I'm gonna go drop these posters off at homeroom, and then I'll find cats on the streets we can borrow— we can keep them in the gym until everybody's gone, and bring them to the classroom after! You go tell sensei it's gotta be a cat cafe!

Yeah, all the other--

[ ...

45 stands there, looking at the cat that she's still holding outward. It doesn't do anything but obediently letting itself be held like this. She starts walking over to the faculty room with the cat in her hands.

Something doesn't add up. ]

[ Ala doesn't come back to school until half an hour later, with a grand total of One cat in her arms: a pretty sizable overweight cat that she only managed to catch because it was too lazy to run away. One down. They shouldn't need more than a dozen cats due to the classroom size, but she'd like to get a couple more... Maybe she can ask Jiro and Kido to borrow their cats.

If 45 isn't in the gym when Ala gets there, she leaves the cat alone with a slab of spam she finds in the storage at the back of the gym, and goes to the faculty office to see if 45 has had any luck changing the cafe at the last minute. ]

[ Apparently, she had a nice long chat with Souji-sensei about it, but it really got her thinking.

Itsuki Shimizu is the middle child of the Shimizu family of blacksmiths. She always wanted more, sarcasm was her second language, and often participated in rather harmless pranks like hanging up signs throughout town saying "tomorrow is Monday ☆" for all the people who hate Mondays.

She's the older twin, and Yotsuba, her older sister, went to study abroad. She never questioned how she left until now. It was likened to being spirited away--how did she even leave? Airplane? Car? There's nothing like that here. It's a small town surrounded by trees and forests and Itsuki has never seen one in person in her entire life.

Even in a supposed idyllic life, 45 has to write off 40 as dead. ]

[ When Ala approaches, she looks up at her. ]

Ala... Where's Yotsuba?

Ummm... Isn't she studying in Ichinomiya? Or did she graduate already and left?

[ She's your family, 45! Ala's not so sure, but there was a lot of talk amongst her friends group and at school when Yotsuba left, because almost nobody ever does. She was just gone one day, and Ala isn't close friends with the older girl, so she isn't surprised she never heard from her ever again. ]

Did something happen?

She's supposed to be studying abroad in a city, but think about it... how would she go...? There are trees and mountains everywhere. We don't have cars or helicopters or...

[ This town is cursed. ]

[ The town is cursed. She could be dead in a cellar somewhere and everybody just thinks she's abroad. ]

Umm... She couldn't have walked...?

[ She could have, but that would take days and days of hiking just to get over the mountains, and who knows how much further she would have to walk to make it to another town. ]

Do you have her number? You'd better call her, Itsuki!

[ And find that the number doesn't go through, naturally. ]

[ Hirajiro is suddenly Hinamizawa. Itsuki looks at Ala and raises an eyebrow. Girl. ]

Yeah, let's get all the belongings and carry everything over to a super far away city through the mountain and the forest--no. That's not happening. Not everyone is as eccentric as you.

I'm not that bad! I would at least take, like, a bicycle?

[ Bicycles probably exist, though they're rare since the town is small enough that most people just leisurely walk to where they need to be. Not that bicycles can get over the mountains either, though. It doesn't work. Ala worries at her bottom lip, thinking how this could be— it's been a long time since Yotsuba left, and Ala never heard anything from her after. People just don't leave; they never had a reason to. ]

You... do have a sister named Yotsuba, right, Itsuki? I've met her before! My memory isn't wrong... But where is she?

[ Maybe Itsuki would have tried to reason with herself, but upon being asked whether Yotsuba exists, it's the final lodge in the crack that destroys Itsuki's perspective.

45 smiles her usual smile--maybe it's sincere, maybe it's mocking. ]

She's dead, Ala. No one leaves Hirajiro and comes back alive.

[ This isn't necessarily true, but it's more for shock value. 45 feels like she wants to laugh. "Idyllic life"... right? Even when Hirajiro was full of chaos, that felt more like home than the fake peace spreading in this hollow existence of a town. ]

It's time to stop playing pretend. I'm going to go look for the exit. This town is as wrong as ever.

Wha- huh? Itsuki!

[ Don't just write off your sister—-

This town is wrong. Ala stops in her tracks and claps her hands over her mouth. She's just playing pretend. What she wanted was this "idyllic life," where she has parents and siblings, a home, friends, somewhere to belong. She got to play every day of her life. She got to be human- the same humans she hates and envies and she feels so so foolish now.

fake fake fakefakefake

a fake sun ]

Itsuki... Itsuki, wait, I'm going too! How many months have we been stuck here?

[ Months? Years? It feels like years. She can't tell. ]

[ She can't have hope that Yotsuba/40 is alive, because that would feel like she's insulting her. She died to let 45 live. She died for someone. No matter how much she wants to see her again, she doesn't want her here.

When Ala calls out to her, 45 stops. ]

I don't know. My memories are all jumbled. We're in a dungeon, right?

[ She hates how she has to second guess herself because she's still human. She doesnt have a memory database she can just look back on. ]

We need to find the others if there are any as soon as possible. If they don't want to come, use force.

Mmhm. The dungeon way up there on the mountains. Jiro and I came up here together, after you guys- we tried to catch up, but I guess we chose the wrong door 'cause none of you were there, and we had to climb up the mountain all over again to get out of it.

[ So. A good place to look for the exit might be that mountain shrine, with the inconvenience that everybody is human and must use their legs. Still, the climb would be much easier than it was for Jiro and Ala's floor, because in this Hirajiro, it's summertime and there is no snow or ice, and there hasn't been a landslide making the path unstable in places. ]

I'll get Jiro, and Toki, and Rei, and Wei Wuxian, and Souji... who else is here?

[ ...Not all those names should even be in this dungeon. Maybe once they remember the world is fake, they'll be jolted out of whatever dream they're having and will wake up wherever they are. ]

... Toki and Rei didn't come with us.

[ Maybe they're trapped here too? 45 doesn't know, but it seems unlikely that the two dungeons would overlap. She'll keep that in mind. ]

There's Akira, Rio, Iris, and Kido too. Maybe if we go to the shrine in the mountains, it'll show us something like an exit or a hint of where it could be. That's our meeting point. Let's go round everyone up.

Huh? Oh.

[ She really doesn't want to leave either Toki or Rei behind, but she supposes they can come with her anyways and if they can't leave through the shrine or whatever exit there is, the two of them can deal with it after. ]

What about—

[ The cultural festival. For the sake of thread continuity, if today is the day before the festival, they can't leave until tomorrow. The whole month sucks and they deserve a nice day-- a half day, whatever. She knows 45 doesn't share the same sentimentality, so she bites her bottom lip and nods. ]

Okay. I'll talk to Jiro, Wei Wuxian, and Souji, and you talk to the others. We'll meet up there when we can. It took Jiro and me a couple days to climb it last time, but it was icy and he was bleeding...

[ For the sake of continuity, I'll just say 45 has a hard time finding everyone, but does eventually. Yeah. The news about Jiro bleeding doesn't really illicit a reaction from 45 as if Ala is just talking about something mundane like the weather. ]

When we all leave here together, you two will probably meet up with us with our supplies. He'll get healed when that happens.

[ Either someone will shove healing leaves into his mouth or cast a healing spell on Jiro, but it's not gonna be 45. ]

Meet you at the shrine then.

It's fine! I made him tea in the Velvet Room and he got all better! But it still took a bit to climb. We camped out and stuff at night~

[ They both took a leisurely pace up the mountains because at that point, they were both sick and tired of the dungeon and couldn't be assed to hurry it up. There were a lot of snack breaks and rest, and it took them two or three days. ]

I'll see you at the shrine later~!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

JANUARY DUNGEON

premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation

→ 1/12 Lockdown: The Final Dungeon

Legion of the Dead

Champions of the Just

→ MOD NOTES

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