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FEBRUARY EVENT PT 1
FEBRUARY EVENT PT 1
premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation
→ 2/2 Infodump
- Three weeks have passed in the outside world since everybody had first entered the dungeons, and they exit to find themselves back in Hirajiro. It's quiet, late at night, streets dry around both the house and the clubhouse as they all trudge on home. For the rest of the night, everybody is encouraged to sleep, waking up to breakfast and in the late afternoon on the 2nd, an official team meeting is called. This time, there is no enforcement for people to come or stay, and food will be served after the bulk of the discussion is dealt with. Those who care will take things seriously, and those who don't are free to walk away.
To start, each team shares what went on in each respective dungeon.
(click to expand details) From the castle dungeon:
- ⬥ Room 1: The team finds Rio's, Yamato's, and Kido's omamoris that had been returned to the shrine back on New Years, and allows them to burn.
- ⬥ Room 2: In a war between Hirajiro and a neighboring town, Terry kills a hundred of the other town's soldiers with a single arrow and saves Hirajiro.
- ⬥ Room 3: In the aftermath of the war, the townspeople praise the Kotengu for saving them. They say he came to power half a year ago and can strengthen people and bring them back from the dead. In the offertory box in the forest shrine, Cyrus, Sasuke, and Jiro find a scrap of paper.
- ⬥ Room 4: In the aftermath of the war, Terry, Rei, and Yamato fight through a horde of zombies: the townspeople that Terry killed with his arrows who have been brought back to life- but wrong.
- ⬥ Room 5: In the aftermath of the war, Minato, Nero, and Red help out the remains of the town that attacked Hirajiro. These townspeople blame themselves for attacking and underestimating the Kotengu's strength. Red falls into ego death.
- ⬥ Room 6: In a war between the Kotengu and Daitengu, Hirajiro has been destroyed by active earthquakes and rockslides triggered by the Daitengu after the townspeople decide to side with the Kotengu. The team gathers up the remaining townspeople and bring them to safety at the shrine, where the Kotengu spirits everybody away to safety. Cyrus falls into ego death. Sasuke receives a second scrap of paper.
- ⬥ Final Room: In the boss' chamber, the team is met with the ghosts of all their old teammates lost to ego death and permadeath. Minato fully remembers and explains his contract: he and Souji became Attendants to help their Guests defeat the Daitengu and free to Kotengu, after which the Kotengu will use his powers to bring their team back from death. The Kotengu has the ability to bring people back from the dead and has been doing so for the Persona users. The Daitengu have the ability to shatter people's souls, which is the reason why there are Persona users who permadied and did not revive, and will not reincarnate. To restore these souls, the Attendants planned to use the Kotengu's power to access the Sea of Souls. Sasuke receives a third scrap of paper.
(click to expand details) From the shrine dungeon:
- ⬥ Room 1: In the main hub, the team meets the ghost of a young human boy who runs away and seals half the doors. In the first room, everybody meets doppelgangers of each person in the team, but defeat them and find a fourth scrap of paper in Souji's doppelganger's bag.
- ⬥ Room 2: In modern-day Hirajiro, the townspeople turn against the Persona users and burn down the clubhouse. Jiro and Ala fight through the crowd of townspeople who attack them with torches and farming tools and chase the two until they escape into the forest.
- ⬥ Room 3: During the Kotengu's rise in power, the lake is polluted and turned into a dumping ground for scrap metal and other trash, and only a small handful of people remain who argue against industrialization and the destruction of nature. The townspeople attack and drive away 45, Kido, and the few people who dare to disagree with the Kotengu.
- ⬥ Room 4: During the Kotengu's rise in power, students learn about weaponsmithing and war tactics instead of the usual subjects like math and science. Souji and Iris meet the boy from the hub. He introduces himself as Hiroto, and agrees to lower the barrier in the main hub.
- ⬥ Room 5: During the Kotengu's rise in power, the forest around Hirajiro is being cut down to light iron furnaces for smithing weapons. The forest animals are displaced from their homes, and take refuge in the beginnings of the Kotengu's castle, where Akira, Rio, and Wei Wuxian find a fifth scrap of paper.
- ⬥ Room 6: In modern-day Hirajiro, the team lives out their daily lives believing they are natives to the town, until they pick up on the discrepancies such as the isolation of the town. With brainwashing from the Daitengu, this is the idyllic life they could have, if they choose it over reality.
- ⬥ Final Room: The team meets Miyamoto-no-Yamazaki, who reveals he was originally human and went by the name Hiroto. Daitengu can be born as a Daitengu, as in the case of the previous three Daitengu, or they can be born as a human and turn into one, as in Hiroto's case. In the middle of the discussion, Jiro goes into anaphylactic shock and Hiroto sends everybody out of the dungeon, saying that every time one of them dies and is revived, their soul becomes more and more corrupted. He will reopen the dungeon on the 3rd for the whole team to come back. Jiro falls into ego death.
For the sake of refreshing everybody's memories, Akira and Kido then go over everything they have learned about this world and how it's time to make a decision for how to bring everything to an end.
The Kotengu and Daitengu vied for power in the past, with the Daitengu being guardians of nature and peace and the Kotengu bringing war and advancement. The Kotengu was sealed away but has the power to bring in people from other worlds and make them Persona users. The last group include Minato and Souji, whose entire team was killed except for Minato: he was saved by the Kotengu, and signed a contract promising to lead the new Persona users to kill the Daitengu and free the Kotengu. In return, he and Souji were made into Attendants, and upon completion of the contract, the Kotengu will restore their team's shattered souls and bring them back to life.
Supported by multiple sources, the ofuda door in the castle is their way home. Both teams have been gathering up torn parts of the same ofuda, with five pieces out of six in their possession, and one more piece will complete the last ofuda needed to go home. All the ofudas, complete and incomplete, are given to Akira for safekeeping. As the Kotengu controls the passage, they may be able to open the door and leave without fighting, while the Kotengu is busy fighting the last Daitengu. If they stay and fight the Kotengu as originally planned, however, they must be aware that 1) the Kotengu may be able to seal the omamori he created, and 2) each time somebody is brought back to life by the Kotengu, he corrupts their souls. In the past, Souji and the rest of his team were able to summon their Personas without a medium like Minato's team required, and Souji promises to help figure out the mechanics so they no longer require the omamori. As for the second point... there's already been too many casualties, and it's unclear what corruption means, only that it terrified Hiroto.
Along with whether to kill the Kotengu (somehow) or forge a deal with him, they must decide on what to do with the last Daitengu. If they kill Hiroto, it's hinted that the Daitengu will never truly disappear from the world because humans with high spiritual energy may turn into Daitengu. Souta, the grandson of the occult shop owners, is a prime candidate for this, and the town may never be free of a Daitengu's influence. For those who want to stay in Hirajiro when everything is over, the world may retain its prison system and constantly try to boot any remaining Persona users out unless Hiroto or another Daitengu can rework the system.
And then there's the Sea of Souls, the possibility of bringing everybody back to life— Mondo and Hibiki and Naoya and all the dozens upon dozens of people who were dragged into this war against their will. Shattered souls, corrupted souls, they could all be saved. All this time, ever since they arrived here in the summer, the team battled for their lives and their freedom against the Daitengu and the Kotengu, pledging to kill the fucking birds and forge their own paths. But they need the Kotengu to go home. They need the Daitengu to stay in Hirajiro. It isn't so easy to drop the convictions they've poured so much into already. What shall they do?
Tomorrow, they speak with Hiroto, and make their first decision of whether to work together, or make a stand and fight.
→ 2/3 - 2/29 Around Town
- Outside of the hidden hour, life goes on... Bundled up in coats and scarves, the townspeople flock outside for much of the month, catching up with each other and going shopping together, turning to the Persona users with warm smiles and exclamations that they're glad to see everybody recovered from their illnesses too— they've all been gone for weeks, after all, presumably stuck at home with the sniffles. The patients in the clinic have all started to recover over the past few weeks, with a little garden of medicinal plants started beside the community center now that there is no danger of frost, and construction is already underway to rebuild the hospital building.
For Setsubun on the 3rd, little bags of roasted soybeans and samples of ginger sake for the adults are given out in the marketplace, and at the mountain shrine, priests pass out sweets and small toys and envelopes of money to those who make the trek to the peak. Young men wearing nothing but loincloths parade around the lake before plunging into the freezing water for "purification." Tiny daruma with blank eyes are sold to grant wishes— daruma are so weird: you give the doll the gift of sight by painting in just one eye, write your wish down on its back, and then withhold filling in the other eye until the doll grants your wish through some mystical power. The townspeople believe in this sort of stuff, okay. But none of the townspeople seem to be able to see summoned Personas anymore, and when asked or shown anything out of the ordinary, the townspeople laugh and say you're silly, turning their attention back to the festivities. In the evening, a bonfire is raised by the lakefront with a stage set up next to it for musical performances, historical reenactments and dramas, and dancing all through the night until morning comes with the arrival of spring.
And sure enough, by morning, the snow has all melted, the sun shining brightly in a clear blue sky, though the air is crisp and the nights still get cold. Several townspeople have been hard at work building rowboats, which can be rented to paddle out into the lake, the water so clear one can see several meters into the depths where schools of freshwater fish now swim about, and birds can be seen floating on the surface until a boat comes too close and scares them away. At the community center, a soup kitchen has been set up by a group of volunteers, with hot stews and freshly baked bread served in a large room filled wall to wall with tables and benches, the townspeople enjoying lunches and dinners together with donations going towards the hospital and covering the costs of patients so no one needs to worry about affording treatment. The illness has abated and winter has ended, hope alight on each person's face.
→ MOD NOTES
- ⬥ A lot of the information detailed in the infodump has been repeated ad nauseam over the course of the game, but is presented here for summary and completion, and so all characters will fully understand the situation and can make an informed decision about the ending. The team meeting does not have to the played out unless people are interested or have something they want to discuss.
⬥ The encounter with Hiroto on 2/3 will be threaded out in the toplevel below. Whether Hiroto lives or dies will be determined by the characters volunteering to talk to him, and they will receive the last ofuda piece from him regardless of their decision.
⬥ The townspeople have reverted back to their previously oblivious state regarding Personas or anything supernatural.
⬥ This month, the full moon occurs on 2/8 - 2/10, when Personas are stronger but more difficult to control. This is an optional mechanic.
i
[ Yamato comes up to her, straight stoic face and all, and holds out a bag of beans. ]
This is for you.
no subject
Oh...! You got these for me? Thanks, Yamato!
[ She takes the bag into her hands, lightly jostling it so she can listen to them clatter against one another while she beams down at the gift. ]
Do you want to plant them with me? There should be space behind the clubhouse!
[ They are roasted soybeans that will never sprout. ]
no subject
These are for eating. We can plant some fresh ones if you want to plant something.
[ Technically they're for throwing at demons but whatever. One should never waste food. ]
no subject
...They're pretty good! You have some too, Yamato!
[ She holds her bag out for him, which has more than enough for their ages combined if they want to adhere to tradition, and if Ala counts her time alive as being less than a year instead of the hundreds she's existed ever since humankind poured belief into this demon called Ala and gave her purpose and form. ]
Let's buy fresh ones too... It feels weird these are for eating when the humans mean to celebrate spring. Wouldn't you think planting, instead?
[ Eating relates to harvest, to autumn feasts of the last crop before winter settles. Spring is new life, planting crops and nurturing them while the world thaws. ]
no subject
Thanks.
[ Yamato tilts his head, showing her that she's thinking. ]
I guess... maybe the weather needs to be a bit warmer before they can plant things for real. If the ground is still cold and hard, the beans won't grow well.
[ Being raised on the Ark, a bustling metropolis and melting pot of all of Earth's cultures, has made him distant from the centuries-old traditions of the Old World. He's just guessing. ]
no subject
[ She tilts her head up, staring at the sky- at the sun shining bright in the middle of an expanse of clear blue, and she doesn't blink, because it doesn't hurt her eyes. After being inside the dungeon for so long, and most of her time spent not existing in any form, being able to feel the sun's rays rather than just seeing them makes her feel like it's warm enough, especially since she'd first arrived here at the cusp of autumn and winter, so it's been cold as long as she's known the world. ]
...When do you think it'll be warm enough again? Do you think they'll grow if we plant them in the dungeons?
[ It's warmer in there, when time has stopped and most of the floors depict summertime, and in the forest floor of the lake dungeon it's also been drizzling, so they wouldn't have to worry about watering the seeds too.
On the other hand, maybe trying to bring new life into a dead world like the dungeons is just absurd. ]
no subject
I heard, maybe March? So a couple weeks from now.
[ He remembers that from his education about the Old World, at least. ]
We could try. I dunno if we'd grow beans or Shadow beans instead, though. At least we can train using the Shadow beans?
[ Maybe he could figure out how they were connected to the Sea of Souls that way. ]
no subject
[ aka Yamato is buying the beans, because none of the shopkeepers will pay Ala any mind. She can probably just pilfer some loose beans while she's in the market, and is tempted to while she takes Yamato's sleeve and tugs him towards the stall.
Will the beans disappear the next time they go to the dungeon? She hopes not, but at the same time, things "reset" after they leave and come back: all the Shadows return the next day after being wiped out, and any damage to the floor itself gets fixed right back up too. But on the rare occasion that the dungeon doesn't kick you out at the end of lockdown and you end up trapped for another hour, things stay the same. Maybe because of the bean remaining, things will stay the same? There's no way to know until they do it. ]
no subject
[ He's agreeing to this in the spirit of exploration. They'll never find out if they don't try. Now that the residents don't suspect them, it should be okay to walk into one of the grocery stores and buy something.
Can he sprout store bought soybeans? It's a mystery. ]
Do you like a particular bean?
no subject
[ ~*~*for science*~*~
There are different types of beans in general, not just soybeans, so if Yamato has the budget for it, she insists on them buying one of each pea/bean/lentil/whatever in the store for the shopkeeper to have to make up a bulk price because they sell by weight. ]
no subject
[ Yamato saves frugally, so he still has a lot of money left over after not spending it for three weeks. The shopkeeper can look at him weirdly, he doesn't care about that.
Now that they have about a small pinch of each type of bean, they can leave the store. ]
Where to?
no subject
Hmm~ Do you want to go play in the lake? If we're underwater right when midnight hits, maybe we'll get lucky and be able to skip a floor or two in the dungeon! That's what happens at the school, anyways.
[ If they're lucky, they'll land right in the forest floor of the dungeon! But also unlucky, in case they're dumped right into the bushes with the razor sharp leaves. ]
no subject
I can't breathe underwater, though.
[ From what he understands, Ala wants him to dive. She's a Persona and probably won't drown, but he would... ]
no subject
[ For her, it's easy enough just to stay under the water and float around until the time changes, but Yamato could do it too right the right timing. Otherwise-- ]
Oh!
[ She stops where she is and digs into her pocket, pulling out a little silver charm in the shape of a feather. ]
I got this from Shuuya so I'm gonna want it back, but I'll let you borrow it for tonight! It's a magic charm that lets you breathe underwater so you don't have to worry about any of that. Do you want to try it out? We can go swimming right now!
no subject
Phones will get damaged underwater so I need to leave mine behind, I think.
[ The magic charm seems like a good workaround. He nods. ]
We can, but I need to go get changed first.
no subject
[ Either something to make fire or a change of clothes. If they're lucky to go from the lake directly to the third floor in the forest, it'll be raining but not freezing; if they're unlucky, they'll skip to the second floor with the arctic wasteland and Yamato will freeze in three seconds. ]
no subject
Actually, maybe it's better if we go down the conventional way. I can fight, it shouldn't be hard.
[ Dying is a big no-no for him. ]
no subject
[ They can sit in a boat at midnight and we can say they go down the normal way and you can use this thread for dungeon ac Eon it's close enough!!! ]
no subject
[ They can go around and look at the festival stuff for a couple, with Yamato buying things for Ala to try. Then he has to sleep in the evening so he would be fully energized by the time midnight hits. ]