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OCTOBER EVENT PT 1

OCTOBER EVENT PT1

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→ 10/3 Rain, rain, go away

As summer draws to a close and the season turns to autumn, the forest gradually starts to warm into golds and reds, starting from the mountains and working inwards towards the town. The first few drops of rain bring with them relief from the heat that had taken hold of the summer months, and the intermittent showers turn into constant downpours by the weekend. For the rest of the month, the rain is unrelenting, the sky cast in heavy grey clouds that refuse to part for the sun for even the briefest of moments, leaving October a month of constant darkness both night and day.

Without an ocean to drain into, the rainwater instead runs down the streets and drags dirt and debris from the forest along with it, ultimately collecting in the lake at the center of town and turning it muddy grey. The children have fun splashing in the puddles, until the worms and snails come crawling out and then there's more terrified shrieking than shouts of laughter, but it's kind of nice sitting by a window with a cup of hot tea while listening to the sound of pattering rain/screaming children outside. Only, the rain doesn't stop, worrying the townspeople enough that they start to talk about preparations for flooding. There really is no higher ground to move to, unless people want to trek all the way up to the mountains, so efforts are instead focused on keeping the water level controlled. Everybody is encouraged to pitch in filling and setting sandbags to build dams around the buildings to keep the water out, to donate non-perishable food and other emergency supplies to make sure there's enough to distribute to those who need them, and to take in what stray cats they're able to care for so that none of them are put in danger of the rushing water outside.

For the duration of the month, both the inn and the school are allowing people to stay in the second floor of the inn and the second story classrooms, free of charge. It's hard to say whether the ghosts in the inn are happy about all the extra company, with the wailing in between the walls getting louder as the month progresses, and some people say they hear giggling at times, which stops the moment they get closer. At the school, there are the Seven School Mysteries to contend with instead. They're all the typical things: the painting of the school founder whose eyes follow you around as you walk down the entrance hall, the bust in the art room that cries blood and stains the stone red, an anatomical model from the science lab that suddenly comes to life and chases people out of the room, the piano in the music room that plays by itself when nobody is in the room, a ghost haunting the bathrooms that locks all the doors when you really have to go, a goat man roaming the halls who chases and knocks anybody out cold if they aren't in a classroom between 4:00-4:05 PM, and ghostly hands that grab your wrists and ankles if you try to enter the gymnasium after sundown.

All these things are real. School's haunted.

→ 10/11-10/12 Paantu Festival

As the lake fills up, more water starts to slosh out of it than what drains in, contaminating the drinking water, causing the townspeople to fall ill, and sapping all the light and the heat from the days. It's never rained this hard and this long before, people are saying. The gods must be angry. Something must have happened or somebody must have done something to curse the town, and now everybody is suffering the consequences of it.

While some people sit around and hope for the best, others decide to take matters in their own hands and revive a forgotten tradition in an effort to save the town: the Paantu Festival. For these two days, several dozen Paantu are seen roaming the streets, humanoid forms covered in branches and leaves stuck onto their bodies with thick, sticky mud, wearing wooden masks over their faces and carrying walking sticks as they chase after anybody still wandering outside. The Paantu scoop mud off the ground and smear them on people's houses, the shops and the school and even the hospital doesn't get spared. It's difficult to get anywhere in town without being ambushed and having a handful of mud thrown at your face, especially with how wet and slippery the streets have become.

As the Paantu are meant to spread good luck and scare away evil spirits, it's ill advised to attack the creatures, although some little kids inadvertently do as they kick and scream and try to get away, and doing so causes a day of bad luck to befall the attacker. When unmasked, some of the Paantu are revealed to be villagers playing the roles, but other times, the Paantu transforms into a cackling demon that jumps out and tries to grab onto your body. These demons cannot be destroyed, but if you're able to remove them, either by force or by persuasion, they'll leave behind a gold coin as thanks for playing with them. Unfortunately, the townspeople aren't able to see the demon Paantu, so if mud hits them on the back of the head and you're the only one standing there, they can only blame one person and that person is you. Better run, punk.

Parents jokingly tell their kids that the Paantu will take them away if they misbehave, but as the last of the Paantu are caught and unmasked, it's found that some people have disappeared in the chaos, old and young alike. Even in the days after the festival, the mud gets washed away, but missing posters go up— including those for the owners of the occult shop so many of you rely on for income, and the shop is temporarily closed. So much for driving out bad luck.

→ 10/13-10/27 No, seriously, please go away

If anything, things just seem to get worse after the festival. With the lake saturated and nowhere else for the water to go, the town starts to flood, two feet by mid-month, with the water level rising exponentially higher until the town is drowning in eight feet of water by the end of the month, rendering all those sandbags useless. Although the water is largely still now instead of rushing towards the center of town, it's still mixed with the toxins from the lake and those who fall in or try to swim in it will eventually become ill, suffering chills and a fever and pressure in their chest that makes it difficult to breathe. Souji and Minato will be glad to have you over for tea any time to get rid of that poison, but unfortunately the tea doesn't help those who aren't Persona users. In order to make a tea that will help the townspeople, you'll have to help the Attendants gather the ingredients for it and fill their request.

On the 14th, the power goes out everywhere except the hospital, which has emergency generators, but those won't last forever either. In the following days, thunder roars in the distance, and lightning begins to flash across the sky, providing the only light now that both the sun and the moon are hidden above the clouds. By some miracle, the lightning never hits the town and electrocutes everybody in it, but it does hit the mountains from time to time, breaking the rock and causing avalanches to fall and smother the forest. At times, little pebbles of hail fall from the sky, and other times, it's frogs and fish that plop down into the water despite there being no ocean in Hirajiro.

Throughout the month, rain continues to fall even during Lockdown. The moon still cannot be seen, but in the area around the lake, faint blue light glows underwater to guide people towards the dungeon, and no Shadows leave this dungeon or the school dungeon to swim through town. For those taking shelter in the school, it still transforms into the previous dungeon during Lockdown, spitting people out onto a random floor and separating those who were together when midnight strikes. In these two dungeons, characters may find some reprieve from the rain, but none of the floors have a sun or a moon to provide light, and it becomes very humid. Yeah. You thought the fourth floor of the lake dungeon was hell already, but now it's 122°F/50°C with 100% humidity.

→ MOD NOTES

⬥ We're doing great, guys. In order to fight the lake dungeon boss, 2 more coin threads must be completed and submitted by 10/14.
⬥ To determine the outcome of the boss battle, a minimum of 10 threads across the entire player base from September's dungeon post is required, with a maximum of 2 threads turned in per player, containing at least 5 comments for each character. These threads may not overlap with coin threads but may be threads started in September or October. The deadline for defeating the boss is 10/31.
⬥ The raining and flooding will continue through the month until 10/27, with part 2 of the event going up on 10/28, but the pouring rain will noticeably lessen once the boss is defeated and the ofuda is returned to the castle. At the worst of the flooding, single story buildings in town will be almost fully submerged, but the water level does not extend as high in the forest and both the castle and shrine will be left untouched by the flood during the month, although they'll still get rained on.
⬥ This month, the full moon (despite not being visible) occurs on 10/12-10/14, and Personas may behave strangely and disobey orders. This is an optional mechanic.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You can weigh ten pounds and still break some of them...

[ Like the copper. They're super brittle. Terry sighs and gestures over to the chair. ]

Just step on that if you want to get in. I'm trying to make a lightning rod.

[ Okaaaayy fine. He steps up onto the chair, but also takes a seat on it— on the backrest with his feet on the seat and leaning forward so he doesn't tip backwards. ]

Why...? If you want to zap someone, you can find somebody with zio.

The power went out in town... The hospital is also running on a generator and I don't know how long the storm will continue. And apparently no one is an electrician in the town, so I have to do everything myself. I'm not an electrician either, but at least I can learn by finding out and stuff...

[ He sighs and looks at the table where he's starting to build the base together. ]

I want it to draw lightning in and maybe...

[ Hm. ]

Minato, can you make something like a powerbank that can hold [ ten billion joules.

...

Layman's terms. ] about 10 lightning strikes worth of energy? If it's anything less, the bank might explode from overload and I don't think I can make anything like that with the stuff in town.

Uh... I dunno. I don't know much about this stuff.

[ Even in layman's terms, Minato doesn't really understand anything about electricity or machinery or anything that isn't Persona bs. ]

Do you need to get the 10 lightning strikes back out after? Making stuff that absorbs electricity is easy, but the energy stops being electricity after that... If it's just something to provide electricity, a Persona is still easier, probably.

Persona attacks aren't that great until the midnight shift happens. I don't think it'll be enough... I just want to use the power from the lightning to use as electricity that can power stuff in town. Lightning is more of a natural occurrence anyway.

[ Terry didn't know anything about it either, until he had to look it up too. And then he thought this would have been the best solution that even the townspeople could maintain as long as he told them what to do. Despite that though, Terry looks down at the base and puts down the bit of copper down on the table. He still feels stuck for some reason. ]

That's because your Personas are weak.

[ Haha... Sorry, but that's how it is. Terry could always ask Minato or Souji for help— Izanagi has zio and the Personas are generally stronger when Minato handles them too- but no, we're going to learn about lightning rods. ]

Hopefully the lightning lasts, then... Does it just have to be a big battery or something...? Mondo might know more about machines and stuff. Why don't you ask him?

... I asked too many things from him already.

[ He looks up and then back down at the table. Then he sighs. ]

I can't possibly ask him for anything else.

[ Minato looks confused, because he's asked Souji for so many unreasonable things and he never thought about it being "too many." Maybe it's because Souji always finds a way to make things happen, and if he really doesn't want to do it, he'll say so. ]

Really...? He could say no, if he doesn't want to do it.

I know...

[ The problem is that Mondo will say yes, and Terry doesn't want that. Mondo would probably be really helpful, but this is something he wants to do himself. It's not really a matter of being efficient anymore. Maybe it's something like self-worth. He's not sure anymore.

...

This is so stupid. He sighs. ]

It's fine. It doesn't matter. I can just work on this on my own and this place is great for that, since time passes by really slowly. You can watch... or sleep on the chair. It doesn't matter.

[ He realizes he said that twice and falls quiet for a second, his gaze falling on the base of the lightning rod that's still in progress. He is, by no means, an instant expert. He only follows whatever procedure is given and he puts that to the test. He doesn't know the theory of electricity, let alone physics. Even Sasuke had to tell him how gravity worked in relative to mass. ]

... I need a break. Do you guys have any cold water?

[ It doesn't matter, huh? Yeah, since Minato doesn't know anything about storing electricity, he can't help with any of this and it doesn't matter at all if he's here. He's probably just distracting Terry, actually, getting in the way and distracting him.

He can at least get Terry water, though, and be useful for something. ]

Yeah, there's a pitcher in the fridge. I can bring that, or if you want soda or something instead...

[ He's got those sodas that wipe out all fatigue, but after that wears off, it's all going to slam Terry all at once, so maybe not that. ]

[ Terry likes soda, but he'd rather take water for occasions like this. ]

Water would be good... thanks.

[ There's a small smile of appreciation there, but Terry goes right back to work right after that. He thinks about what would be necessary for this to work, so he tries thinking about what a portable charger would need. Or rather, something that transfers all the energy to the generators...? He looks at the wires.

...

His head feels like it's spinning. Terry's so glad he never went to school for this kind of stuff. He'd wither and die. ]

[ Minato leaves and returns with a glass of water with an ice cube in it that's just one very large chunk of ice that Terry could probably guess was the result of a bufu. He also has a soda for himself, just so he has something to do while he's there too. ]

Here... You know, Souji's pretty smart. And he likes reading, so if you can find a book or something on this stuff, I bet he'll get it and can help.

I dunno... it sounds like a really specific topic.

[ Terry chugs half of the cup, since he was pretty thirsty. The cold water feels refreshing though. ]

I'll ask him when I get the chance though.

[ ...

Hold up. ]

Wait. That's it! Minato, can you make high voltage tasers?!

[ ...........WHAT WAS THE THOUGHT PROCESS FROM SOUJI TO TASERS ]

Uh. Yeah, but it's raining out. People will die.

[ don't ever make me write out Terry's full thought process ]

I won't use it in the rain... tell me what you need! I'll get it right away if there isn't anything in here.

Uh.

[ Wow, Terry sure is desperate. Minato sort of shuffles backwards a little. ]

Tell me who you're going to kill with it first.

I don't plan to kill anyone with it!

[ Which means, well, if it comes down to it, he will, but that won't be its primary use. ]

[ Okay... Minato will trust him, mostly because Terry can probably rip somebody's head off and kill perfectly fine without a taser. But let's see, what does he need to make one? Something related to metal, something related to electricity, things that are easy to get so Terry isn't running around everywhere all month trying to get them. ]

Then... uhh... When the storm ends, and the stores open again, can you buy a coffee machine and learn how to use it? Then you don't have to get anything right now.

A coffee machine? I know how to use one already though.

[ The coffee machines here may be a little low tech compared to back at Jace's house, but it should be fine. ]

But I need one really soon. I was gonna use it with the lightning rod.

I want coffee...

[ Why is he drinking soda when he could have coffee?? preposterous ]

I'll get you the taser when you finish the rod.

[ Oh, so Minato wants to drink coffee here. A cup of freshly brewed hot coffee. Sounds nice. It's really too bad that the stores are closed now. ]

Alright. I'll get you the coffee machine after the storm is over and make you a cup of coffee. Do you like it black?

[ Terry's planning to give Minato the coffee along with the breakfast that he has yet to make, and since that'll be after the storm... well.

:') ]

[ gdi Terry, both Minato and Kano are waiting for their food now. Kano's going to march into Terry's dungeon and when he gets to Terry's Shadow, he'll give him the milkshake order and then leave. ]

Hm... I don't know. Does black coffee smell the nicest?

[ Taste is... sort of iffy for Minato, but he can always appreciate the smell of coffee. It's the best part. ]

I heard Ethiopean coffee smells the best, but that's a bit too special, so... how about dark roast decaf? I think that should be doable.

[ ... He can learn some more. Yeah. ]

I was going to say that I'll trust your judgement, but I don't know anymore. Why decaf...? Why take out the second best part about coffee?

[ What is coffee without caffeine?? Not that the caffeine will do anything for Minato, considering prior experiences, but maybe it'll work someday. Maybe he can get 10 espresso shots and dump them all into a cup and call it coffee.

... ]

Maybe you can make a cup of espresso...?

premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation

→ 10/3 Rain, rain, go away

→ 10/11-10/12 Paantu Festival

→ 10/13-10/27 No, seriously, please go away

→ MOD NOTES

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