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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

[ Terry laughs a little as he lets Rio down so that her feet can touch the ground again. ]

Really? Thanks!

[ He'll just take that as a compliment and switch out the serrated knife with a regular small kitchen knife. Terry is gonna end up bleeding on the bear if Rio doesn't do her requirement-- ]

[Fortunately, she's able to stand without too many shakes, though she's eyeing the knife with some concern.]

What are you...?

[Though hey if he wants to pay the price, she's not arguing.]

[ He's used to bleeding on the bear. It's fine, it's fine. ]

The bear here doesn't let us pass until we do something. I think all of ours are different... Mine is just bleeding on it.

[ No big deal!! Though the bear doesn't look impressed. It's had way too much of Terry's blood by now, yet it still requires it every single time. ]

You're not gonna do yours, right?

[Mmm nope!]

Will you be okay?

Yeah, I'll be fine. I've done this a lot.

[ Terry is quiet as he makes a large cut down the back of his arm and yeah, that's a lot of blood dripping onto the bear and the stone door. But just because he's done this a lot doesn't mean he's actually fine with it. He hates pain...

The bear looks so done with Terry as it scoots over so that it reveals the door in full. He flicks the knife to get the blood off, puts it back in the plastic sheathe, and gets out some fancy gold scissors from his pocket next. He pokes his finger with it, which bleeds for a second, but then heals right back up. The same can be said for the large cut he made earlier. All healed! He'll clean off the blood later. ]

Let's go. It's really hot in the next floor, so let's try to do this as fast as we can.

[ 122F temperature, here we come. ]

[Oh cool, he can heal himself! She didn't even need to make a show of offering a Dia.]

Right!

[Still fairly chipper, but with an air of determination. That temperature's gonna be awful, but she's used to dealing with less than favorable scenarios.

At least it shouldn't be too hard to spot a Wrath...]

[ I honestly don't know how people can even stand staying in temperatures like that with 100% humidity because it's like trying to breathe through a pillow in a sauna... Terry might have demigod level endurance with fire resistance from his Persona, but even that doesn't make him feel like he wants to back aay from the stone door from the heat that's radiating from it. He flings it open, releasing all the hot air, and goes through it first.

Yeah, it's awful. He wants to go back to the second floor already. He knows that the Wraths are pretty sensitive to noises, so he'll just kick a pebble to the storeroom in hopes that they'll attract one.

He gets three. ]

[Welp. Time to do her job.

The blast of heat gets a wince, but she manages to summon her Persona without too much trouble. The little girl gives a cute giggle and waves cheerfully at one of the Wraths, clearly inviting it to follow - if tinged with a Marin Karin spell.

Come on, come on, let's go play together ♪]

[ Oh, that's such a cute Persona... is what Terry thinks when Rio summons her.

One of the Wraths are very enticed by Rio's Persona and looks relatively happy and goes to them with no intended harm. However, the other two are still coming their way and since they absorb physical, Terry's not going to bother stabbing them. Instead, he moves in, grabs one of their legs and flings them very far away. His hand feels like it's burning, but whatever!! ]

We need to be careful on our way back so that the horse doesn't burn anything in the forest on the third floor.

Okay. And I can keep casting it again if it looks like it doesn't want to follow anymore.

[Her Persona stays out for now, for all the world just looking like a cute and innocent child playing with her new flaming horse friend. This is probably fine.]

Sounds good.

[ Terry smiles and goes back out the stone door. Stupid fourth floor. Everything feels gross... ]

Let's try to get there as fast as we can. I can't drag the fire horse and I don't think we can ride it either. Are you up for running?

I can run.

[In fact, she's running better than she has in months thanks to broken bones, some self-inflicted because All According To Keikaku.

She's also quick despite her size. She can't match to Terry of course, but apparently she's quite a bit more fit and athletic than appearances would suggest.]

[ Rio how on earth do you run with broken bones... blade children are so wild. ]

Great! Then let's go.

[ He's not going to go zoom off at top speed like before, but he'll do his best to stay ahead and watching the people in the back every now and then to see if they're still following. ]

[Look, when someone's trying to kill you, you run.

You also run when trying to chase down a person to murder but details.

Anyway, around when they get close to the exit to the second floor, Rio recasts Marin Karin just to be sure. Zashiki Warashi is just skipping along with surprising speed, looking like she doesn't have a single care in the world.]

A-almost there...

[Okay, so maybe there's limits to her running speed. More specifically, she's more of a short bursts type of runner as opposed to a distance one. But she's doing her best!]

[ Rio is doing her best, which motivates Terry even more, as if he wasn't motivated enough already with another attempt at getting the blasted coin out of the ice. They reach the hole that leads to the second floor, but Terry's pretty sure that there are still wolves and bears fighting a lot near it and he doesn't want Rio to get caught in the crossfire.

Hm. ]

Do you think it's a better idea for me to clear the mob first and then you guys come in, or we all just rush through? The first option will take some time and you might need to refresh your charm on the horse.

[She pauses to catch her breath, looking over at the horse before smiling up at Terry.]

We can go all out. He's our "friend," remember?

[Horsie gonna help!]

[ Terry can't help but to let out a laugh at that. ]

Alright. I was hoping to make an opening so we can all get in safely, but I ran out of molotovs...

[ Now that Terry is more calm and not being a roadrunner, his sense of smell picks up-- ]

... Is that gunpowder?

[Innocently:]

Huh?

[What gunpowder? It's not like she has a collection of explosives in her cutesy backpack.

(She definitely has a collection of explosives in her cutesy backpack.)]

[ Terry squints at Rio's backpack. ]

That's... definitely gunpowder.

Uweeeeh...?

[Listen to that cute and innocent sound that cannot possibly come from someone who would carry bombs in her backpack.]

[ ... ]

Rio, I'm not going to judge you for having bombs in your backpack. You just saw me with bombs too. I don't care what you use to fight.

[ He really can't say anything because he used to use coat hangers or whatever else was around at the time. He doesn't want to say he has something like a dog's nose, but this is already wasting time. ]

But alright, fine. I'll take the lead and you can follow right behind me with the horse. Sounds good?

But all I smell is cinnamon...

[She's still playing dumb, it seems.]

I'll be following close, so I'll be in your care. I'm sure my new friend will help, too!

[Against anyone she needs it to, really. And if Terry could tell she's armed, well...

Hopefully he really does stick by his word, because she's not sure how much damage she could do to him if the Wrath fails her.]

[ Yup. The mention of cinnamon just makes Terry steer away from the topic now. Anyway, there he goes, into the second floor and immediately slaughtering everything in sight, even getting several Onikumas to help him too, because his charm knife is useful in situations like these. Good thing Shadows don't bleed!! ]

[Rio follows just as she said she would, the Wrath breathing flames over the Arctos that dare get near. Given it's her ally, it also views Terry as such, so it'll avoid burning him.

As they charge through, she refreshes Marin Karin again just to be sure. She's just got to keep it up long enough...]

Let's make it quick once we get to the ice!

[ After defeating several more Shadows-- ]

The path is clear to the coin location! I'll cover for you. Go!

[ In case there are over Shadows that spontaneously decide to run for them. ]

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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