Entry tags:

[open] there will always be a tomorrow

DUNGEON INTERLUDE

premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation

→ 10/16 Lockdown

As of the lockdown phase on the 16th of October, Terrence Nowell has gone missing. He seems to have vanished without a trace--the trace of the cinnamon smell that he always gives off is nowhere to be found. Something is a little different about this Lockdown period. Despite how it's the middle of the month, a strong and powerful wind will flow towards the residential area, where it leads people to a very dark alleyway that's hard to see through. The wind seems to stop at an open sewer hole that's still draining whatever water that's left around it, but it seems that there's less water here than everywhere else. Was that there before? No, but it's there now, and it'll be there every time Lockdown occurs. Watch your step, lest you fall in... For those who don't like following the wind, they'll find themselves battered in the head with the occasional flying cats. Given enough time during the lockdown, these cats will pretty much infest every corner of Hirajiro with all their incessant meowing and rainbow trails as they fly around. Though, of course, they'll always be gone when Lockdown is lifted.

→ 1st Floor

If you dare to venture into the sewer hole, whether you fell in or took the ladder on the way down, you'll eventually find the floor that is covered in thick smoke. It can't be blown off due to the sheer amount there is. Luckily, the Velvet Room portal is right there at the foot of the ladder for easy access. The sky appears to be blue, but the weather feels strangely stagnant for some reason. The scenery might as well be some rendition of candyland, with lots of sweets everywhere used as building structure, a long path made of taffy over the small hills that doesn't seem to stick onto your shoes, lollipops for trees, cotton candy for bushes... you get the idea. You can try to eat the sweets, but they all taste like dusty metal and don't break off. It seems like a relatively happy place, but once you start looking for the stairwell that leads to the next floor, you can't seem to find it.

Things aren't always what they seem to be...

SOMNIUM
Type SHADOW	Resists NONE	Weak NUCLEAR
In the vast candyland, perhaps you'll be lucky enough to come across a fox-shaped shadow that has a mask over it with the chime of a bell. These are very small, quick, annoying to hit and very evasive. If your Persona's agility can surpass 10 or above, you'll be able to catch it or cast an AoE spell to cover for your lack of speed. It's fairly weak, so it'll most likely be killed in one or two shots. Only one will appear on the entire floor at a time. They respawn 5 minutes after the death of the previous one. More details below. Small yellow bells and black fox masks can be collected as loot.

MORSUS
Type SHADOW	Resists WIND	Weak FIRE, LIGHT
So, those flying cats that you saw? Once you kill a Somnium, the illusion breaks, revealing their true forms as bat-like Shadows. They come to attack in swarms, only casts Life Drain and Spirit Drain, and often perform those two skills all at once to suck the the majority of life and spirit out of a target in one go. Dangerous. They are also easy to kill, but you better have your AoE spells handy or you might get overwhelmed with sudden loss of HP and SP from sheer numbers. However, the above only applies when the illusion is broken. When under the guise of nyancats, they only smack people by running into them. Small clear pouches of sparkling rainbow glitter (as nyancat) or torn bat wings (as bats) can be collected as loot.

Once the illusion is shattered by killing a Somnium, the characters will realize that they had been walking through occasional giant puddles of blood on the ground when the smoke clears from the ground, the sky is red, and all the little structures of candy were wrecked buildings akin to a post-apocalyptic setting. However, the illusion rebuilds itself after five minutes of the fox shadow's death, turning the entire floor into candyland again with flying nyancats in which characters are forced to go hunt for the respawned Somnium again. It's a very vast floor.

During the five-minute window of the broken illusion, characters will be able to find the entrance to the stairwell to the next floor. When the illusion returns after five minutes, the stairwell entrance disappears and reappears in a different location when the illusion is broken again. That's not the only problem with the stairwell...

To get to the next floor, each character has to answer a very personal and guilt tripping question that will make them feel absolutely terrible after. The barrier will come in the form of an invisible wall that cannot be broken until the answer is given. The answer doesn’t necessarily have to be objectively true, but it can’t be a lie. The question will be announced out loud in the nearby characters' heads, but it will be addressed to the character themselves when asking. If in a group, the walls are stacked upon each other and each wall will break after everyone present in the group has answered their own personal questions. If everyone in the group hasn't answered their questions in five minutes, it's back to fox hunting for you guys.

The wall only needs to be broken once by a character. It won’t reform the next time they come back to the dungeon.

→ 2nd Floor

On the next floor, you will be greeted by the red sky, even darker than the previous floor's. You stand on a very sturdy white square pillar, about 20ft x 20ft in size. When you look forward, you can see similar huge square pillars alternating in white and black that have risen from the void, all apart at a set distance away from each other, but it's very clear that you can't make it by jumping. To get to the stairwell to the next floor, you either need to have some method of air transportation to get to there safely, or take the intended method.

The intended method from getting to pillar to pillar is kicking a can off the corner of the pillar, which makes a transparent skinny bridge to the next pillar that disintegrates very quickly over time. Only one person can cross a bridge at a time, unless you want to risk having people fall into the void. The can respawns at the same corner after the previous bridge fully disintegrates.

Those who fall off the pillars will fall unconscious and wake up in the exit of the dungeon (next to the sewer hole) with 1 HP and 0 SP and inflicted with a Forget debuff that lasts 15 minutes. Players have the choice to make their character forget whatever they want along with their Persona being skill sealed, whether that’s an important body function like breathing or a precious memory, or something trivial like what they ate for dinner last night. They’ll regain whatever they lost 15 minutes after waking up.

BLACK RAVEN
Type Shadow	Resists WIND	Weak ELECTRICITY
Remember me? These pesky Raven Shadows are back, lanterns and all. They mostly move together in huge flocks now instead of being separated. They shoot gusts of winds in an attempt to blow characters off the pillars or stick to their usual divebombing tactic. They sometimes flock around Alt-Vassago. Feathers and lanterns can be collected as loot.

ALT-VASSAGO
Type F.O.E.	Nulls PHYSICAL	Weak LIGHT
This strange demonic being riding a gator are on top of every black pillar. He is the F.O.E. of this dungeon. At first, he will only move to push the characters off the pillars. However, if you attack it, whether it hits or misses, it inflicts a Rage debuff on itself and ferociously attacks you and try to push you off. A single physical hit from it will probably knock you out in one shot if your endurance is 9 and lower. It has a ton of HP, so it's best to avoid the fight entirely and quickly move to the next pillar. However, if you need to buy some time, please take advantage of its messy rage debuff to lure and trick it into falling off the pillar. There will be one minute until the next one respawns on the same pillar, so you better get off the pillar fast. It also has a tendency to repeat "kill them all" in a very creepy voice when under the Rage debuff.

NOCEO
Type SHADOW	Repels LIGHT	Weak DARK, WIND
These smog shadows take on a humanoid shape, but their forms fizzes out often like static. They move slow like aimless zombies and stick together in hordes and respawn very often. They constantly have smog coming out of where their mouths are supposed to be. They're also very weak, but tends to cast Brainwash debuff very often so the characters can fight for them. They also tend to make a hideously loud emergency siren sound when dying or falling off the pillars. They're also bunched up a lot in the last several pillars before the stairwell to the next floor. Maybe flying was a better option after all. A small, black, still-beating heart can be collected as loot.

Just like the first floor, this stairwell has an invisible wall as well. Same things apply here, except you have all the time in the world... too bad you're on the same black pillar with all the Noceos and one Alt-Vassago. Better tell your friends to hurry it up before you get brainwashed or killed.

→ 3rd Floor

Once you finally arrive at the third floor, there is only a blinding, narrow, white room. It feels more accurate to say it might be a slightly wide corridor. It may be difficult to see, because of the absence of color on the walls. However, there is blood everywhere on the floor. The source is a humongous, tipped over blood container off to the side. The room reeks of the smell. Shadow Terry is at the opposite end of the room with his gold eyes and behind him is a low cage where the real Terry is trapped in with his powers sealed. There is no trace of the cinnamon smell whatsoever in this room. There seems to be another door behind where the Shadow is, marred with plain visible scratch marks with little blood here and there.

There's also a familiar melody (0.25x speed) for those who have heard it before that seems to echo, almost as if fading away, but it never quite leaves.

Shadow Terry tends to look slightly different than the Terry everyone knows aside from his eye color. He has a sharper look, but right now, it's hard to see. He's kneeling next to the cage that Terry is trapped in and quietly cries. When Shadow Terry hears you coming in, he turns to you, looking a little desperate from where he is when he sees you for the first time.

"Please help. I want Terrence to accept me."

→ Notes

⬥ There will be a time limit on subduing the Shadow. Terry needs to drink blood to extend his lifespan, which he hasn't done in a while, so characters will only have until the end of the 23rd (IC and OOC, 11:59PM EST) before Terry falls into a pseudo-death coma state. If characters manage to subdue his Shadow before that happens, they'll have a chance to persuade him into accepting the Shadow. There will also be a chance that Terry won't accept it, depending on how the persuasion goes. A new top-level will go up on the 24th if the Shadow hasn't been accepted by then. A note on any late Shadow interactions are here!
⬥ Since Shadow Terry and Dark Vassago are hard to deal with, characters are encouraged to fight, retreat, and try to fight them multiple times.
⬥ Since IC dates are very important, please include them at the start of each thread when posting under the Shadow thread.
⬥ Threads from this dungeon post can serve as Dungeon requirements for AC.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ It's! Christmas!! Kano is here for the glitter shower, but since the pouches are broken and no good for carrying any of it, he's out here with a small glass jar in hand, pressing his palm against the glittery ground and wiping the glitter— and blood and whatever else it got stuck to— against the rim of the jar to get it inside. ]

Hey, hey, be a little more careful, okay?! If the wind blows all this away, it'll be such a waste!!

[ 45 sometimes thinks... shady kid should be concerning kid instead. ]

Are you a glitter enthusiast? You can just steal some more from the stationery store.

Aw, but it's right here~ So convenient!!

[ Even though doing it like this is a huge pain!! It's really gross, but he spits on the palm of his hand so the glitter will be able to stick easier. ]

Look, look, it's rainbow, the best color~ Are you shooting down all the cats? It'd be real nice if you could leave those bags of glitter alone! I'll trade you something for them!!

[ Honestly, she was just so annoyed at the nyancats that she let an extra bullet fly, which happened to hit the glitter pouches too, but... well... alright. ]

Do you have anything that can make fire?

Anything... Huh, well~

[ Not a thing, but Ala forms from the black wisps at Kano's feet, taking on her human form because it's the one she can answer in, chipper voice and all. ]

Hi, it's me~! And ahh, it's you!

[ She points at Malphas. Haha! Sorry about last time, with the mud!! ]

I can make fire! Leave it to me~

[ Cute. Also, Malphas is sorry for that one time of poking your hand with the sickle.

Anyway, 45 grabs a passing nyancat and holds it down. ]

Light the flame from under it.

[ They're going to cook a nyancat. ]

[ Aww, poor cat. Ala has absolutely no qualms about toasting cats, so she cups her hands underneath the Shadow and holds an Agi flame in her palms, as bright as she can make it.

Kano just sort of makes this face. ]

So this is how we're going to do it, huh?

[ Alright. He gets his glitter jar back out and holds it under Ala's hands, ready to catch the carnage when the cat explodes or whatever is going to happen here. ]

[ The nyancat still has the same happy look on its face, but it looks like it's sweating out of anxiety. ]

No.

[ There was too much exposure to Agi and the nyancat eventually disintegrates into a clear pouch of glitter. Hope Ala didn't burn that. ]

Edited (I FORGOT SHE CANT TELL THE TRUTH LMAO) 2019-10-15 02:32 (UTC)

[ No, not at all, but it still happens. Cool.

Ala gives a little squeak of surprise when the nyancat melts away, the flame going out but only because of the black gunk covering her hands and the pouch of glitter sitting in her palms. She lets the pouch drop into Kano's waiting jar, but also wipes her hands on his jacket sleeve because ew, gross... But she looks rather proud of herself, because look! She can take down Shadows too! Just like a proper Persona. ]

Easy, easy~ We can toast all the Shadows around here! We'll be able to collect lots and lots of glitter~!

[ No nyancat will be left alive after they ravage the floor. ]

[ She catches another nyancat that tries to smack her head and holds it out to Ala. Work your magic, girl. ]

Have you ever considered having a glitter shower? I heard they're nice.

[ At least this comes out as natural?! ]

Edited 2019-10-15 14:49 (UTC)

He~h... You'd be shiny all the time and nobody would be able to take their eyes off you~ Isn't that nice?

[ Sounds terrible as all heck but Kano has also glitter bombed at least two people in the last half year alone. They were two of his favorite people, and he laughed at how pissed they were and then ran away... Seems like so long ago.

Ala sticks by 45's side to roast nyancats, while Kano hands her the jar and then wanders off a couple paces away, close enough that Ala won't feel the tug but far enough that he doesn't have to watch melting cats. Literally anything else is more interesting than that. ]

Hey, Itsuki, do you think these things are alive?

[ Like... they're monsters, but they also turn to sludge and glitter, so they can't be alive in the same way he's alive. ]

Gimme one so I can stick it in my ice box for later.

[ Glitter showers are just objectively terrible. So 45 says "yeah" as a weak response as she continues to hold the nyancat that Ala is currently roasting and catches another one that's divebombing her. She doesn't even need to take a step. Convenient. ]

They're alive.

[ To which she means, no. They're not alive. But 45 didn't graduate with a Shadow degree, so she doesn't know at all. She also finds it ironic that he's asking her this, who's an android and people don't view them as alive for the most part. But she knows she's alive. It's fine.

She holds the nyancat out to Kano. ]

[ Kano thinks back to when he first received his special ice bag, and how he was told not to put any living creatures inside of it. But Mav's not here to yell at him and so he sticks the nyancat in his pocket. ]

Don't eat any of the popsicles, okay, cat?

[ But alright, cool. He's got a cat sample, but those are the only monsters in this place. ]

Hey, Ala! C'mere, c'mere~ Want to play a game? We're going to play tag, okay? There's a fox around here, and the first person to catch it wins!!

[ Ala claps her hands in delight, with a gasped "I wonder what kind of glitter it'll give us!" Kano didn't say anything about toasting it, but he's glad Ala gets the idea, anyways. He turns to 45 and Malphas and grins. ]

You guys are gonna play too, right? Look how excited Ala is~ Don't let her down~

[ Instead of saying that she won't, she sends Malphas to get a head start. That should tell Kano the answer. ]

Can I kill it?

[ Ala shouts something about Malphas being a cheater, but she turns into a dragon and takes to the sky so she can look around too. ]

After, after~ I want to get a goooooood look at it first! Just to see up close! Then you can do what you want with it~ You can even donate it to my pocket if you're feeling merciful~

Sure~

[ Yeah, that's definitely a lie that she actually wants to tell. 45 sets off to find the Somnium. As much as she likes sweets, the candyland setting is terrible. She doesn't want to play hide and seek with the fox anymore already after five minutes.

If Kano crosses her traveled path, he'll find a bunch of glitter pouches, untouched, on the floor. The smoke just kinda floats around it. ]

[ Oh. After the first two pouches, Kano catches on and just trails after 45, picking up the glittery carnage. He never had any intention of playing tag in the first place.

The game is for Ala, high up in the sky making lazy figure eights looking for that fox. She isn't very fast and wouldn't be able to catch it by swooping down and grabbing it, but what's faster than the speed of light? Three zios in a row is basically the same as a mazio, and lightning flashes across the sky into the ground when she finally spots the fox.

Kano looks up and "helps" by turning the clouds in the sky to dark, rainless storm clouds. ]

[ Even if speed is Malphas's best stat, he's not quick enough to catch the fox, but he'll go around the place in order to try and outsmart it. However, the fox ends up outsmarting Malphas instead by hopping on his face and jumping off. Poor guy. One of the Zios to end up hitting the fox though, but it's still alive and wobbling on the ground. ]

[ Ala lets out a roar from the sky, something that's supposed to convey that "Hey! I hit it first! It's my win!" even if Malphas physically touched it first. She lands a couple of seconds after, turning back to her human form so she can run up to the Shadow and stare at it. Poor thing.

She scoops it up in her arms and holds it tight in a hug, grinning up at Malphas. ]

Hehe~ We did it! Look, it's so cute!

[ Malphas lowers himself because he's freakishly tall and leans in to poke it (not with a scythe this time), but his bird mask pokes its mask first. Weh.

He seems interested in the thing though... ]

[ Oh no... The fox lets out a little cry of alarm, but the poke isn't enough to kill it, at least.

But, hmm... If Malphas finds it hard to bend down and look at the fox, it's no problem, don't worry! Ala holds the fox out in front of her, up as high as she can so she can bring the fox to Malphas's face, instead of him having to do it the other way around. ]

Cute, right? Can you see better now?

[ Malphas nods just slightly so that his mask doesn't bother anyone. He does appreciate Ala's efforts though.

"cUTe..." ]

[ Ala hums happily, nodding her own head. It sure is cute, huh? Too bad it has to die. ]

Hmm... It'd be bad if we killed it here, huh? 'cause then we'd have no proof to bring back. So come on, let's go back and tell Shuuya and Itsuki that we did it~

[ Yeah! Maybe they'll get a prize too. Maybe Kano has more popsicles in his pocket. Ala skips off toward wherever 45 is, since Kano will be there too, humming tunelessly under her breath. ]

[ Malphas nods and quietly follows Ala while being several inches off the ground as usual. When they arrive, 45 glances over at the two Personas. ]

What a find.

[ Vague. ]

[ It sure is a find. Ala beams at 45, while Kano catches up to them from behind, looking from the fox to his pocket and thinking that it'll probably tear the fabric if he tried to force it inside. ]

Hm, hm~ Good job, Ala, Malphas! You guys got it! Yay~ Congrats~! Now how 'bout you give it to Itsuki so she can kill it?

[ Ala looks down at the fox in her arms, then up at Kano. "Do we get popsicles?" ]

...Yeah, yeah, popsicles for everybody!! What flavor do you guys want? I have orange, red, white, and purple!

premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation

→ 10/16 Lockdown

→ 1st Floor

→ 2nd Floor

→ 3rd Floor

→ Notes

i.10/17

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject