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[open] there will always be a tomorrow

DUNGEON INTERLUDE

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→ 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

[ Kido can't tell very well what happened, aside from 45 taking the lead and then stopping right there. Come on, move your feet. Door's right there. ]

Is something wrong? We need to keep going.

[ 45 sighs and knocks on the invisible wall. It's loud enough to make a sound. ]

It's blocked.

[ As if it's a coincidence, there's a message that resounds in both 45 and Kido's heads: "If you wish to pass, answer me: UMP45, who killed UMP40?"

45 squints at the invisible wall, which is pretty much staring at the stairs that are beyond it. ]

[ Kido's nose scrunches when the voice appears in her head, like the bear back in that forest and the snake from so long ago. ]

What... Is this a quiz? What does "UMP" even mean?

[ To Kido, all that question is is a bunch of miscellaneous numbers and letters with two actual words sandwiched in the middle of it. It doesn't make any sense. ]

[ 45 opens her mouth to speak, but the illusion settles in again. Five minutes is an awfully short time to search for the stairwell and answer the question. Candyland is back and what used to be the stairwell is merely cotton candy bushes now.

... ]

We need to kill the fox to find the stairwell, right? Let's go find it.

[ That question leaves such a bitter taste in her mouth, but she's gotta move on. It's fine. ]

[ The illusion falling all of a sudden takes Kido by surprise and she nearly falls into the cotton candy bushes, forgetting the question immediately because 45 is right: they need to kill that fox again so they can see things properly. ]

You stay here so we'll know where to come back to. Have Malphas come with me to help look for the fox. We'll bring it down again, and come right back here.

[ 45 only nods and gestures with her head to Malphas that he should go follow Kido. Nice working with you again, Kido. Please don't hurt me... But at least he seems willing. Go on. ]

Mhm, I'll keep watch.

[ It's a vast candyland... ]

[ Malphas is a good Persona who doesn't deserve Kido's bullshit.

Kido will have to rely on him to be able to see, telling him to fly above her and focus on the streets, while Kido has the lower vantage points and can more easily see between all the cookies and candy. Don't attack the fox when you see it; come back to find Kido so she can erase both their presences and they can sneak up on it again.

It shouldn't take too long, especially now that they know what to look for. ]

[ Malphas flies low after locating it. He got lucky... He points to the direction where he found the fox and starts leading Kido to it.

When they get there, Somnium is in a little playground set, sliding down a slide made of peppermint candy, climbing back up the candy cane ladder, and sliding back down again. ]

[ Oh no, it's cute. Fuuuuuuuuucck, it's cute ):

Kido sighs, crouches down at the end of the slide, and holds the taser out so that when the fox comes sliding down, it'll taser itself to death. She has to remind herself that it's just a Shadow. Even if it's a cute, defenseless Shadow who's just out here playing around and living its best life. She can't let that deter her from what needs to be done, so it's got to die. ]

[ Even though it's supposed to be ominous, yeah... it's cute. It does cute and mundane things. They never attack, just run away.

...

The surroundings change back to the post-apocalyptic wasteland. Luckily, the stairwell is right next to Kido, right where the playground set was. Malphas seems alarmed with how his body stiffens in surprise. What does he do?? ]

[ ): !!!!! ]

Oh—

[ It takes Kido by surprise too, but she shakes it off, remembering how quickly the door disappeared last time. ]

You go get Itsuki, and I'll try to get the door open and hold it for you two!

[ Malphas nods and flies as fast as he can to get 45 and it takes him about a minute from the time Malphas had left and 45 to arrive to where Kido is. Malphas isn't around anymore. Probably saving energy.

45 was also surprised that the stairwell didn't pop up where she was when the scenery changed. Man, this is annoying. ]

Is there still a wall?

...Yeah.

[ Kido's voice is quiet, and she doesn't turn around to look at 45. She heard her question, and it's not one she wants to answer. Not even in the privacy and silence she had when she was all alone, before 45 showed up.

She steps back and aside, for 45 to walk past her. ]

I couldn't get past it. Why don't you try?

[ 45 wonders if it also asked Kido a rather invasive question, but... she won't pry. She won't have to know. She stands close to the wall, but it doesn't ask 45 anything. In fact, it's still waiting for Kido to answer hers. ]

... It's not saying anything to me.

[ Well. I guess we're at an impasse. ]

I can't hear anything from it either... What if we walk away, and you approach it first this time?

[ This is how we're wasting five minutes every single time ]

[ The question must have been that bad, huh... by now, 45 thinks she can answer her own question, though it'll still leave her feeling like shit after, but it's whatever. It happened already in the past. She waits a little longer, and the walls still stay silent. This is why the wall at the second floor would suck with all the Noceos and Alt-Vassago trying to bother you at the same time.

The five minutes are up and it's Candyland again. She sighs. She can't blame Kido. ]

Off to fox hunting again. Where do you want to go this time?

[ The second floor really does suck, huh... Let them stew in guilt in peace, god!!

But this floor is the same, annoying and frustrating and every time they have to hunt that fox, she has to kill something cute and defenseless and pretend it doesn't bother her. Nekogami must have destroyed hundreds of Shadows in his time here with her. This is the first time Kido's had to kill something with her own hands. ]

We'll use the same tactic, I guess. If it's going to be somewhere different each time, the three of us will split up. Malphas, you keep an eye on the both of us, and if you see one of us signal to you, go get the other.

[ Malphas reappears and nods. He heard everything, so it's cool. He takes flight and looks over the area and... oh. He sees it's already, but...

Malphas lowers back to the ground before either girl can leave and points up at the sky. Somnium really sticks out on the pink marshmallow clouds up in the sky, but it's pretty low... It's only twenty feet off the ground instead of it actually being in the sky. It's happily(?) hopping on the marshmallow cloud as if it's a trampoline.

... ]

Malphas, go get it.

[ Cute... ):

At least Kido doesn't have to wring its neck with her bare hands this time, focusing on extending her power up towards Malphas so he can chop off the thing's head without being noticed. It'd be really nice if Nekogami would come out, because then he could just dream needle the fox wherever it is and they wouldn't have to run around all the time, but he's just... not.

This place makes her really uneasy, but it's not dangerous. Nekogami is sure they'll be fine without him. ]

[ Malphas flies up and it's cute, but it must die. Goodbye, fox. When the initial scythe strike attempt misses, he uses Mafrei to cover ground so Somnium dies pretty quickly, sending the Candyland into oblivion and out comes the wrecked buildings again.

I rolled RNG and it says that the stairwell is close to them again, so here it is. It's connected to one of the destroyed buildings this time. 45 approaches it first this time, and as expected, there's a wall when she taps it. The knock sounds hollow.

"UMP45, who killed UMP40?"

As usual, it echoes in their heads, but 45 just says it straight out after a second. ]

UMP45 did.

[ A shattering noise is heard, in which the wall breaks, but there's another one since Kido is also around. ]

[ Kido still has no idea what the question meant in the first place, so the answer makes no sense to her either. It doesn't matter, though, because the wall moves along to Kido's question, before she can decide whether to step forward to see if the wall had disappeared, or step back to avoid what she knows is coming. It's a simple question:

"Do you want to live?"

Kido gives her answer just as she did the last time she was asked: ]

Yes.

[ ... ]

No?

[ ...

Kido turns to 45 and gives her a questioning look. ]

It's what I got asked last time too. Doesn't it sound like a taunt you'd get right before triggering a boss fight in a game? It can only be yes or no.

[ ... ... ...

45 thinks. That kind of question would only require a yes or no question, just as Kido says. But wow, what a loaded question. The bitterness from her earlier answer doesn't quite wash away yet with the situation at hand, but she has to wonder. ]

Maybe it's asking you to elaborate like tacking a reason onto it.

What reason do people have for wanting to live? It's just something people want.

[ So why doesn't the door open when she says so? She frowns to herself, a faint nagging thought in the back of her mind that she brushes aside because she doesn't think of it as a personal question, not understanding 45's to be one too. ]

I want to live until I die a natural death. Something like that?

[ She presses her hand against the wall, but it doesn't give. ]

[ Is the wall spouting some philosophical bullshit because 45 doesn't like that either. ]

You want to live... with everyone else.

[ She looks at Kido. Maybe try that?? ]

[ Kido looks back, because what does that even mean? Everybody here? ]

I want to live with everybody else.

[ ...That doesn't do it either. It might have, but she's thinking of the wrong "everybody." ]

Uh. I want to live because... [ she gestures helplessly at nothing ] because I just do. Why does anybody need a reason for that?

[ The wall doesn't answer. ]

premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation

→ 10/16 Lockdown

→ 1st Floor

→ 2nd Floor

→ 3rd Floor

→ Notes

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