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cetana mods ([personal profile] citta) wrote in [community profile] cetana2019-10-03 08:10 am

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.
infiltrationtools: (UGH ⛓head full of sound)

[personal profile] infiltrationtools 2019-10-25 03:35 am (UTC)(link)
It's like... a world spawned from people's thoughts. And consciousness. Entire landscapes and monsters accidentally made by people's thoughts.

[It's always so weird to explain the Metaverse. He always realizes how insane he sounds.]

It's where the Shadows lived back home.
not_that_sasuke: ([Unsure] legs in that town)

[personal profile] not_that_sasuke 2019-10-25 04:51 am (UTC)(link)
[That... sounds really awful, actually??]

So... is that why you're used to fighting them?
infiltrationtools: (TOKYO ⛓ain't no killer like pride)

[personal profile] infiltrationtools 2019-10-28 03:17 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah.

[For a few moments it seems like that's all Akira's going to say. But then:]

When it disappeared, it was for the greater good, but part of me missed being able to fight Shadows and... the things that came with it.

So I've been trying to spend a lot of time in the dungeons here.
not_that_sasuke: ([Surprise] I listen to them)

[personal profile] not_that_sasuke 2019-10-28 03:58 am (UTC)(link)
Sounds like a long story.

[He's well aware that this must be an extremely condensed version. Needless to say, he believes it all immediately.]

But... you keep going, even though it's dangerous?
infiltrationtools: (RAIN ⛓ i will break you down)

[personal profile] infiltrationtools 2019-10-28 04:04 am (UTC)(link)
Of course I do.

I think that all the information we need to crack this place open is down in the dungeons somewhere.

[...There's also the part where he missed Arsène horribly and was sorta kinda relishing in his ability to beat the shit out of monsters again, but that's too personal to tell to Sasuke.]
not_that_sasuke: ([Neutral] my phone tells me)

[personal profile] not_that_sasuke 2019-10-28 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
[He kind of suspects it anyway, but he's polite enough not to mention it. He and his Persona weren't always on the best of terms, but it's hard not to realize just how useful it is to have one.]

Yeah, but... It's pretty tiring to keep going in, isn't it?

[Hn.]

Mind if I come with you next time?
infiltrationtools: (PLS ⛓because we do it like this)

[personal profile] infiltrationtools 2019-10-29 01:28 am (UTC)(link)
[Akira shrugs.]

No more tiring than any other kind of work. And it's more fun work than running a shop all day.

[He's always up for combination dungeon runs and social outings, though, so he nods at the suggestion.]

You can come along anytime you want. I won't say no to backup.
not_that_sasuke: ([Book] lying on the side)

[personal profile] not_that_sasuke 2019-10-29 03:12 am (UTC)(link)
...Have you run a shop before?

[Akira's a student though, right...?]

-Just let me know when and I can come too.
infiltrationtools: (SIGH ⛓we exist. we exist. we exist.)

[personal profile] infiltrationtools 2019-10-29 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
I've worked in some restaurants. Not run it, but I'm on really good terms with the owners.

[One of those restaurants was a bar run by a drag queen in the red light district but he doesn't say that.]

I haven't been going in as much since the occult shop is... out of commission, but how about two nights from now?
not_that_sasuke: ([Think] is also my friend.)

[personal profile] not_that_sasuke 2019-10-29 03:35 am (UTC)(link)
We couldn't work while going to school.

[But also, his school was in the middle of a forest and cut off from the rest of the world with a barrier, so.]

Yeah, I'll be there. School or lake?
infiltrationtools: (HMM ⛓you know we're going nowhere)

[personal profile] infiltrationtools 2019-10-29 03:40 am (UTC)(link)
Lake. The school will just be full of refugees.

[...Although.]

Part of me wonders how strong those big, bad Shadows from the school are now...
not_that_sasuke: ([Serious] through the trash.)

[personal profile] not_that_sasuke 2019-10-29 04:00 am (UTC)(link)
[...Akira...]

Are you thinking of seeing if we're strong enough to take them now...?
infiltrationtools: (:| ⛓maybe if you hang together)

[personal profile] infiltrationtools 2019-10-29 04:02 am (UTC)(link)
[ ... ]

I'm thinking about it.
not_that_sasuke: ([Unsure] closely and start)

[personal profile] not_that_sasuke 2019-10-29 04:05 am (UTC)(link)
...We can try, but...

If it looks bad, we should just run for it.

[He's died twice this month and he's not looking forward to a third.]
infiltrationtools: (PLS ⛓because we do it like this)

[personal profile] infiltrationtools 2019-10-30 11:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Right. Of course.

[Of course, he says, charging into this with little regard for his wellbeing.]

If you don't want to do it, just say so, and we won't go.
not_that_sasuke: ([Annoyed] This might be)

[personal profile] not_that_sasuke 2019-10-31 01:34 am (UTC)(link)
I don't mind trying, I just...

[How... to put this the least awkwardly.]

I don't want either of us to die.

[That's a normal enough sentiment even without the whole Shadow Terry business.]
infiltrationtools: (TIRED ⛓yeah it's the air we breathe)

[personal profile] infiltrationtools 2019-10-31 01:40 am (UTC)(link)
[ ... ]

[That actually does get a pause out of him. Of course, dying and waking up the next morning alone in your head... it's rough. And even that's with the knowledge that you will wake up the next morning.]


No one's going to die.

If we're outmatched, we run.
not_that_sasuke: ([Neutral] my phone tells me)

[personal profile] not_that_sasuke 2019-11-01 11:47 pm (UTC)(link)
[A nod.]

Alright. See you then.