OCTOBER EVENT PT 2

[citta]

OCTOBER EVENT PT2

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→ 10/28 - 10/30

Two seconds before midnight leading into the 28th, a rumble rolls across town, an earthquake hitting and creating waves that crash against the buildings, lights disappearing to signify the start of Lockdown. At the lake, a whirlpool starts to form, sucking in the floodwaters like a drain with its plug pulled, and entering the dungeon from this point on reveals a first floor that's become twice as deep, water filled with shards of broken glass, and invisible walls to the maze permanently shattered, subsequently quelling the currents that used to run through the entire floor. All the other floors now see constant rainfall: freezing sleet on the second floor, a light rainshower on the third, heavy thunderstorms on the fourth, and a flooded final floor with poisonous water slowly dripping off the ropes.

When Lockdown lifts, those reentering the lake will see that the bottom has collapsed into a rift spanning one side of the lake to the other, with a trench that runs so deep, the entire overflow from the flood pours down into the abyss below. At dawn of the 28th, the rain finally starts to let up, slowing to a drizzle by midday with light grey clouds that have thinned enough to look almost as if glowing, the sunlight behind them trying to shine through but not yet. The storm has passed and eventually the sky will clear; by the end of the day, the streets can be seen again, the entire town covered in muck and grime but enjoying its first sunset in weeks. Once everything settles, the water level of the lake is slightly lower than originally, and for the next seven days, low flames burn constantly across the surface of the lake, unable to be put out by wind or water.

People pour out onto the streets on the 29th and 30th, busy hosing down buildings and sweeping the streets, fixing what damages they can and restocking all the stores so businesses can reopen. The townspeople work hard, glad that the storm is over and life may continue, but calls for help in restoring the town are endless. All the buildings smell like mildew, there's the occasional frog or fish flopping on people's rooftops or rotting on the streets, all the fields have been destroyed, and any food left out during the storm have all spoiled. They have no idea what to do about the lake fire. It may take some time for the town to get back on its feet, but it will.

During these three days, the Velvet Room is quiet. No music plays in people's heads, and on a couch in the corner of the lounge, Minato lies flat on his back, eyes closed, wet hair and clothes sticking to his skin, and the broken hilt of a sword lying on the ground next to him. He has a fever and can't be roused.

→ 10/31

While the townspeople are busy in deep cleaning mode, the children are kept out of the way and occupied by a Halloween event thrown together by the high school student council. Each child gets an index card with eight blank squares, with a hint written in each square telling them which classroom at school to go to: the art room with the bleeding bust, the science room with a broken anatomical model, the music room with the silent piano, etc. There's a student council member or volunteer waiting in each room to hand out candy and stamp the cards, and anybody is allowed to join in, either doing the treasure hunt or volunteering to pass out candy.

Stepping outside on the 31st, Persona users are greeted by bright sunshine and an index card to the face, with crows incessantly dive-bombing with the cards in their talons until they're taken. The index cards are similar to the ones used inside the school, but instead of a set of hints, there is only one word listed in the first of the eight squares: "lake." The flames are still burning on the lake's surface with no indication of dying down, and you can now dive in the lake without being poisoned from the 31st forward, but what you're looking for is not underwater. Searching around the perimeter of the lake reveals a rubber stamp hanging from an old sign post warning people to stay out of the water, which can finally be retired, but there's nobody around to greet you, and there is no candy... Instead, you get to stamp your own card, which spells out the next location in glistening red ink. Each new area has a stamp hidden around it, leading you from place to place all over town, from the warning sign at the lake; to the picture of the school founder in the entrance hall of the school; to the vacant room at the inn that's roped off by police tape; to the entrance to the emergency room of the hospital; to a fox hanging around the occult shop that's still in the middle of cleaning up before reopening; to the base of the torii in the middle of the forest; to the throne inside the castle; and finally, up the steps of the shrine.

With every other stamp pressed down on your card, your Persona feels a surge of power, four times in all with the very last stamp hanging on the front door of a large building behind the shrine. It did not exist here before; there's no way you would miss an ornate mansion painted all black and covered in cobwebs, with white smoke filtering through a slot on the door that's just wide enough to slip the card through. Upon doing so, the door swings open, allowing entry.

→ 10/31 - 11/3

The moment you step inside the mansion, the door shuts behind you and disappears altogether, leaving behind a solid blank wall. Door? What door? The entrance hall is dimly lit by candles sitting on top of low tea tables spaced neatly around the open lobby; there are no chairs. The room ends with two doors on opposite sides, with no indication of what lies beyond either.

The door to the left leads to a brightly lit room filled with full length mirrors that form a maze, except that no matter which way you turn, the hundreds of reflections are always facing you, staring with bright yellow eyes and speaking in your voice. "I'm scared..." one of the voices might say. "I'm going to be all alone in the end..." whispers another. "There's nobody I can trust." "I don't know what's real..." "They're going to die and it's all my fault!" "I can't escape..." "Why me?!" "There's no point in any of this." "I won't let them take me!" "I want to give up..." "I'll destroy anybody who gets in my way." It's like seeing yourself splintered into a hundred shadow selves: the part of you who's bitter, the part of you who's vindictive, who's jealous, who's cruel, a liar, a coward— hundreds of voices overlapping and drawing on your fears, voicing your doubts, crying and pleading and contradicting. All you can do is endure and push forward, find the exit, and leave.

The door to the right leads to a large, empty room, pitch black no matter what source of light you enter with. In contrast to the maze, there's... nothing. It's an empty room, no tangible wall aside from the one with the door you entered through, but even that seems to go on forever on either side. But there must be an end, and this space can't be infinite, so choose a direction and walk. In the darkness, voices start to whisper. Rather than your own, it's the voice of your most loved one, the voice of your closest friend, of the person you despise the most, the one you look up to the most, people you love, people you hate, voices of the people who are closest to you, for better or for worse. "Don't leave me," they plead. "Where are you?" they ask. "Come home." "I miss you..." It starts off easy, pitiful and longing. And then comes the blame, drawing on shame and guilt and giving voice to everything you always feared to hear, from the last people you wanted to hear them from. "It's all your fault." "You should have known better." "This wouldn't have happened if it weren't for you!" "You deserve this!" "Knowing you was a mistake." "It would be better if you didn't exist..." "I hate you." Endure it. Push forward. Find the exit, and leave.

In the end, you have no choice but to run away.

No matter which door you choose, both lead to the same place in the end, joining together in a hallway set in stone, blood seeping through the crevices and pooling across the floor. Either side of the room is lined with tombstones, no dates etched into the faces but some of the names on them may seem familiar:

Wyatt Napoli. Kokichi Ouma. Airi Ban. Margaret Borowski. Killua Zoldyck. RO635. Hibiki Kuze. Red. Enkidu. Neku Sakuraba.
Out of the corner of your eye, you think you see the person in your life that you miss the most, but they disappear the moment you turn around. A slight breeze can be felt coming down the end of the hall, urging you forward, and opening the door at the end leads into a lobby in the exact replica of the one at the entrance to the building, except the furniture is gone, the wallpaper torn and burnt, splashes of blood on the ground dried but still present. Scattered across the floor are a variety of personal objects all in disrepair: a broken pair of glasses, a single bloodied earring, an empty lighter, a smashed compact mirror, a stuffed toy rabbit with its head torn off, a set of earphones stripped to the wire, and, in the corner of the room, kicked aside and forgotten, a torn burlap sack filled with small silk omamoris. All of them are torn and burnt, black crows stitched into the corners barely visible under the stains of blood, listing dozens of names representing every Arcana that exists. And on the top of the pile lies:


MINATO FOOL

SOUJI FOOL

There is no door at the end of this room. There is no escape to the outside world. Those who are trapped inside are left to wander, turning back with no way forward, setting out again because there's nowhere else to go. In the handful of hours inside, three days and nights have passed outside, and on midnight of the 3rd, the door at the entrance reappears to allow everybody out.

It's Lockdown, and the wind is blowing in your face. When you turn around, you stand before the sacred honden of the shrine.

→ MOD NOTES

⬥ Regardless of whether your character would participate in the stamp cards, each character may receive +1 to all stats (strength, magic, endurance, and agility). Please update your info page to reflect this. ICly, characters will receive these stat boosts when they stamp their card at the school, hospital, torii, and shrine, and must visit each location in order.
⬥ Important IC dates are summarized as follows:
‣ 10/28: The rain stops and the flood water recedes into the lake, leaving the streets in town dry by the end of the day.
‣ 10/28 - 10/30: Minato will ICly be unavailable, but can still be found in the Velvet Room.
‣ 10/28 - 11/3: the lake is on fire, but the dungeon is still accessible by diving through the flames.
‣ 10/31: the water from the lake has been purified, and there is no adverse effect of poison for swimming in the lake either during the day or during Lockdown.
‣ 10/31: crows will deliver stamp cards to each character; the haunted mansion will appear only on the 10/31, and once inside, characters will be trapped until 11/3, although only a few hours will pass from their point of view.
‣ 11/3: characters will be able to exit the mansion, and further details after this point will be given OOCly on 11/3 when the November dungeon log will be posted.
⬥ Inside the mansion, Personas may be summoned and electronics still work, but there is no phone contact between those inside and outside, nothing inside the building can be destroyed, and there is no way to escape from the building until 11/3.
⬥ Voices heard in either room will be audible to anybody in the same vicinity, and players may make up what is said, although they must reflect concepts the character is scared or unsettled by (e.g. failure, loneliness, loss of control, etc.). Neither voices or reflections will respond to anything characters say or do.
⬥ Characters are not required to participate in the stamp card game, nor are they required to enter the mansion upon collecting all the stamps. For those who do enter and are trapped, they are not required to go through any of the rooms either, as the exit will reappear at the entrance lobby. They are free to turn around and exit the rooms at any time, and may reenter the rooms as many times as they wish.

Comments

Mod Questions

[citta]

If you have any questions, please leave them here!

[overstrain]

It says that the Personas can be summoned inside the mansion, but will they be at full power, like during lockdown, or nerfed like they are outside of lockdown? Since the mansion has the weird time-space going on, I thought it would be safer to ask.

Re: Mod Questions

[toybombs]

Does anything interesting happen if someone tries to destroy the mirrors?

Also are there any new rumors for Sasuke and Kurou to overhear once the rains stop and people get to work?

Re: Mod Questions

[infiltrationtools]

What would happen if someone tried to remove the bagged omamori (specifically Souji's and Minato's) from the mansion? because if Akira finds them he's... probably definitely going to try and pocket them.

[overstrain]

I - 10/29: handyman part 2

[ After it's confirmed that the storm was finally over for now, Terry can be seen around the Black Cats house, either taking all the boarding off the house or fixing/cleaning whatever needs to be cleaned inside and outside the house. He has to handle the harder manual labor himself, since he's not going to leave that to Rei nor Kido. ]


II - 10/30: helping around town

[ Despite working tirelessly every day ever since he turned back into a human, he doesn't seem very tired at all. He definitely took advantage of the time-space inconsistencies in the Velvet Room to rest up whenever he needed, so he's had adequate rest each and every day. He's carrying piles of heavy objects and carrying them to the junkyard or wherever the trash heap is. He's mostly doing the manual labor, since he might as well use his strength for good things instead of causing property damage this time.

Though at times, the pile of whatever heavy objects he may be carrying might be too much and a part of that might fall on your head, whether that be a box, some rusted nuts and bolts, used up sandbags... take your pick. ]


III - 10/31~11/03: this is a terrible haunted house

[ Terry got here pretty early after dumping shrine water into the lake, since he used his speed to his advantage. He looks like a kid, looking around to be thirteen years of age, around 5' 2" in height, with bright blue eyes. If anyone has seen Jace/Orien around, it's the same shade of blue of his eyes like they were before.

1) The moment you come inside the mansion, you'll hear a loud smack right next to you. Looks like Terry is trying to leave the mansion right when someone comes in, in hopes to go through it himself. It's not working and all he gets out of it is redness in his face because the wall will not let him pass. Everything hurts.

2) If you take the right door and venture inside far enough, you'll feel someone's body when you take the next step while being pelted with all those horrible voices. Is this a corpse? It's warm though. Maybe you tripped over the body too. ]


wildcard

[ Terry will be a kid that falls asleep a lot during his stay in the mansion. You're welcome to comment to the top level multiple times if you want to play out more than one prompt. For any questions, please contact me at celenza ! If you want to play out any lake Dungeon things, feel free to pick the wildcard option and date it to 10/29 or 10/30! ]

ii

[suddenlybees]

[ Like a vulture circling above carrion, Kano is drawn to the trash heap that's started forming beside the lake, in that empty area where the stage is set up during festivals. Dumping in the lake is prohibited, but the lake is central to the town and so I decided it's here.

Junkyards are the best, though, because there's so many useful things in here. He remembers the last time he went to one, when a friend brought him after Ellie had left for Canada and he didn't want Kano to mope. They smashed and destroyed a car that day... good times. Hanging around Terry is also always a good(???) time, or at least a lucrative one, so after seeing Terry make a couple trips, Kano goes to intercept him the next time. ]

Hey, Boss~ D'you have any metal on you? Give them here, I'll take them off your hands!!

[ He holds open his infinite pocket expectantly. And actually, he could probably be a lot of help with that pocket, putting junk in there and taking them out at the lakeside, not having to deal with all the extra weight, but oh well. ]

[suddenlybees]

i. 10/28, midnight
[ While Kano was at the castle at midnight, he could still feel the earthquake all the way there, jumping down from the second floor to the first to peer outside. Unused to earthquakes, he's expecting some sort of monstrous creature— maybe the Herald is here, and he can finally figure out a way to deal with it and go home— but instead, it's the sound of rushing water that reaches his ears. He sends Ala out as a crow to survey the town and she confirms it for him: the flood is receding.

She flies back to perch on his shoulder as he makes his way through the forest. It'll be easier going just to ride on Ala as a dragon, but he has no intention of making himself an obvious target for the Herald/monster/whatever made the earth shake like that. Walking is a mistake, though, because the moment he reaches the edge of town, the moving water knocks him off his feet and he's forced to ride on Ala anyways, moving in towards the lake so he can stare at the whirlpool and whisper "what the fuck" under his breath. ]

ii. 10/31
[ ...Yeah, Kano skipped out on helping out around town in the next few days, BUT!!! he's always here for candy and so he's volunteering at the school to stamp cards and sneak candy into his endless pockets when nobody is looking.

His post is in a classroom on the first floor, near enough to the entrance hall that he also keeps an eye on the picture hanging up on the wall. His index card tucked into his pants pocket only has two stamps on it, but he knows this'll be one of the locations. Anybody who passes by the picture, whether a Persona user or innocent schoolchildren, the eyes in the painting follow them around. Get too close and the figure inside the painting moves, jumping out of the frame at people and more than once, a child scream and drops their bag of candy to run away. Kano's candy now. ]

wc.
[ Kano has no interest going inside weird buildings, so he won't be participating in the mansion part of the event. Instead, he'll hang out at or near the shrine waiting for people to come out, but they never do... It's been three days, guys, come on. Between the 28th and the 31th, he can be found at the castle and wandering around town, although all he does is walk and pretend not to hear any calls for help. ]

ii.

[cicadashell]

[Jiro hasn't been participating in the kids' activities, but he doesn't miss the opportunity to wander around the school and see what else he's dealing with in this place. The screams draw him towards Kano's post; the frightened child running past him in tears. He watches Kano pick up the bag of candy, and when he straightens, Jiro growls a little. The fuck. The hoodie, it's so similar. That hair. But he looks years younger. What is going on? He steps up to Kano shoves his finger in his face.]

Kouga. What the fuck are you doing!? Could have picked a better disguise, you moron. Tell me what happened at the port!

ii

[elliexir]

[ ellie might deny being a kid, but she's definitely not going to turn away free candy. who would?? free food is still free food, so she decides that heck yeah, she's going to take part. she's looking at the hints on her card as she wanders and eventually settles in the classroom. feeling the eyes on her, she looks up at the painting and yeah... that's not creepy at all. she side steps a few times to make sure that the eyes are actually following her and then she makes the mistake to step forward... ]

Uuaaugh--!!

[ it's not a dignified scream at all when the figure jumps at her, but she doesn't drop her bag of candy because heck no, this is hers. ]

What the fuck, man?!

ii everybody loves candy

[overstrain]

[ Terry is a kid today and he's been zooming here and there to collect stamps because crows dropping these off must be important and something to investigate, right? Right. But when he stops by the school to get his stamp from there, he warily looks at the painting because his last experience was eyeballs popping out of the painting and that was no good. He's with a black hoodie sweater that's too big for him, the end hems reaching his knees. The hood is also pretty big, but he's wearing a navy blue hat under it, which hides some of his face anyway. He still has glasses on, and the cinnamon identifier doesn't do much favors in hiding, but he could only find the appropriate size for pants the last time he turned into a kid, so his shirt and hoodie are big on him. It's fine. The floppy sleeves make it fun to smack people anyway if he needs to.

... He might as well eat something while he's here and sugar sounds good to feel revitalized, just a little. He can always eat proper food later, yeah. Just as he thinks that, some kid gets way too close to the painting and screams as they run away as the figure jumps out. That also startles Terry, but he doesn't move. He's not scared of you, painting. He walks to pick up the bag of candy, but oh. He sees another hand to it.

Hi Kano. ]

i

[defragment]

[ And here is 45, with her usual rain gear on and the obnoxious yellow umbrella. It's easy to spot her in all this because she has a bunch of lanterns with her, so she's practically glowing on the rooftop of the nearest building, also watching the whirlpool. ]

I'd back away if I were you, shady kid~ You might get sucked in! And who will rescue you then?

[yokeye]

1. Exploring/Wildcard [10/28]

[Having arrived during the massive flooding, Toki hasn't had any time to actually see the town. It's covered in mud and grime, but to him it's beautiful. He's made peace with his Persona, and he's found his cat, Kuroko, again. Throughout the day, he can be found anywhere in town, wandering and being distracted by things, holding a black cat that doesn't seem to be nearly as interested in exploring.]


2. Town Clean-up [10/29-10/30]

[Toki knows he isn't much of a fighter, so he's relegated himself to more mundane things to help. He spends the daylight hours sweeping the steps and entranceways of buildings, and painting over the worst of the mildew and mold on some of the inside walls. The townspeople are a little wary of him when he approaches a new business or home, because everywhere he goes, dead fish are lifted off the ground and the rooftops and float along behind him. He's let Joroko out to collect them with her many sharp legs, but the residents can't see her.]


3. Stamps [10/31, day]

[He's feeling quite confident, in contrast to when he first arrived. It seems he's capable of a lot more than he thought; successfully feeding some cats on the second try, taking responsibility for the well-being of his pet, and having made at least one friend who seems to like his company. Despite the dungeons and the monsters, Hirajiro is way better than France. It helps that his brain isn't short circuiting every ten minutes and he really hopes he never gets that magic back.

Today, he's challenging himself a little and has volunteered to work with the most anxiety inducing beings - children. He smiles at them, and they look happy just to be participating in something fun after the weeks of rain and upheaval of their daily lives. He hands a little girl a couple pieces of candy, and warns her about some of the dangers of collecting these stamps in the room they'll head for next.]

You really have to be careful in the science lab, okay? There's a ghost inside the mannequin thing with all the bisected organs! Like, I saw it myself and it comes to life and it's bleeding and really scary and its eyeballs fall out!

[The girl starts crying. Which makes the boy behind her start crying too.]


4. Mansion [10/31-11/03] cw: self-harm
Note: Toki's negative emotions are exaggerated during this time until half-way through the day on the 3rd, outside-the-mansion time.

[The door to the left was a mistake. Toki was intent on just walking through it, paying little attention to the mirrors reflecting his image back at him. Until they started speaking, crying, screaming. Panic welling up inside him as they address his innermost terrifying thoughts and feelings.]

"I'm scared!"
"No one likes me!"
"I'll never be good enough!"
"Nothing is real!"
"I'm not alive!"
"I don't exist! This world doesn't exist!"
"Why can't I be like them!?"

[He can't breathe, because he's screaming, but he can't hear himself. It's everything at once, every thought in the back of his mind that he tries to push away, bubbling to the surface at once and confronting him with it. This isn't real. He's not real. Existence as he knows it isn't real. Who is he? Where did he come from? How was he created? He's not part of this physical world, he's not alive, he's not dead.]

Shut up! Shut up!

[He just wants them to stop, but punching the mirrors does nothing, and the reflections just get louder. He attacks the mirror until his knuckles are bleeding. He can't destroy them, he can't get rid of them and their screaming. But it has to stop. It's all in his head, none of it's real, and it has to be stopped. He has to be stopped. Toki claws at himself, his arms, his face, any exposed skin, to try and get beneath it. To see what's there. To see what he is and why he is. But there's just blood and pain and he can't stop crying.]

iii

[suddenlybees]

[ Crying kids is pretty terrible, huh... There's not much Kano can do around Toki when he's forced to keep a certain distance from him and was told not to talk to Toki unless he speaks to Kano first, so this is hard!! It's really hard. He takes his cat form to blend in with all the other cats still wandering around the school, and watches Toki work for a while.

And then he's struck with a bad idea, which is to sneak closer to the doorway, and he create his own anatomical model that lumbers towards the children, just as Toki described, bleeding and hanging eyeballs and everything. ]

4, 11/01

[overstrain]

[ The door to the left sure has been a mistake, and Terry had been looking carefully when he's not falling asleep at any given time. He's a kid now, but it won't stop him from doing things in the mansion that they're trapped in. When he hears Toki yell, he rushes inside the mirror maze and starts hearing everything and looks at Toki clawing himself. ]

Hey!

[ He tries to grab for Toki's hands in an attempt to get him to stop hurting himself. ]

Stop that! Don't--

iii

[defragment]

[ 45 dropped by to visit the school, because they're handing out candy and why not have fun on such a festive day, right? She has a cat ear headband, a simple black dress, and a... is that a tail? Yes. It's a tail and it seems to move naturally. Is it real? Who knows. There's a "ghost" in a white sheet that's following her around. Persona users can just see Malphas's talon feet thing poking out from under the bottom since he's walking, but to everyone else, he's a floating sheet with no feet whatsoever. ]

You shouldn't make kids cry like that, Toki~

[ The kids turn to see 45, who's dressed up normally! Cool! But then they see the floating white sheet and scream about how ghosts are real. ]

[cicadashell]

A. Arrival (late 10/27 - early 10/28)

The fuck is this place?

[It's night, and there's no torii. It's some falling down piece of shit castle that smells like mold. A rumbling underfoot spurs him to run out of the ruins in case they collapse. They don't. Outside the ruins it's just a forest, a stone path visible where water is receding and flowing somewhere. Weird noises come from the woods, squawks and chirping, and some whiny yowling.]

Hello!? Someone tell me where this is!

[No one responds, and there's a violent flutter of wings as birds leave their spots in the tips of nearby trees, put off by Jiro's shouting. It's not the first time animals have been wary of speaking to him, but it's the first time he doesn't get a response at all. Just noise. Fuck this shit. He shouldn't have believed Kouga wanted to help; he probably got tricked into transporting himself somewhere far away from Rago.

He heads back inside the castle ruins after he's sure they're not going to fall down around him. Looking for anything that might give him answers. He yells inside the ruins too, just in case someone, or something, is lurking around.]

Oi! Anyone in here!?


B. Lake Dungeon - First Floor (10/29)

[Jiro figured the lake was important, after seeing the water sucked down in a whirlpool yesterday. The flames only made it more obvious there was something going on. Once he's found it, though, he knows he's made a mistake here. The water inside wherever this is is deep, and there's... something down there. He can feel the waves of its movement in the depths.

The water is filled with glass shards, but he doesn't see where any of it could have come from. The thing below moves again, faster, the water getting choppy. He sees a staircase off to the right; there's water trickling down the stairs, but it's not submerged. It's probably the best option.

He doesn't get far swimming for the stairs. The thing breaks through the surface of the water. A giant... eel? With wings? It's a monster. It seems to just float there, like it's not sure what it's looking for. Jiro considers that an opening to gather his power and punch it in the face. Only, he has no power to call forth somehow, and the amemasu sees it coming. He tries to jerk his hand back, but he's not quick enough, slower than he expected to be, and the eel's jaw clamps down on his hand, puncturing his glove and right through the flesh.

It opens its mouth again, presumably to get a bigger bite of prey. Jiro yanks his hand away, and feels something tear in it, dragging along the sharp teeth. It might have gotten a finger, and he doesn't dare look, just starts swimming as fast as possible for the stairs before it eats him.]


C. Foraging (10/30)

[The people in town are pretty nice and friendly, and Jiro's taken to striking up conversations with them because for some reason, the animals here can't speak to him, or it's him who can't talk to them. Something's wrong anyway. He's assuming it's some strong barrier, more powerful then he'd seen before, because it seems to have drained any of Rago's presumed-to-be infinite mononoke demon smoke shit. Which is fine. Jiro didn't want or need that power to begin with, and he hasn't had it long. It was an accident.

What he does care about is Rago himself. But he's not where he's supposed to have ended up, and he can't do anything about that right now. What he can do, is help these people out. After talking to a couple of men about the food spoilage, he offers to head to the mountains and gather some of whatever's around that hadn't been under flood waters for a month. Mushrooms, berries, unfortunate animals who had recently passed. He won't hunt any, and he can't ask for sacrifices if he can't talk to them.

He approaches the nearest person who looks half-way capable of trekking up at least the lower part of the mountain, holding out a large sack for them to take.]

Help me with this, eh? Gonna go forage for mushrooms and whatever the fuck.

[He jerks this thumb towards the mountains.]


D. Torii (10/31)

[The whole scavenger hunt stamp nonsense wasn't his thing to begin with, and it's immediately abandoned when he gets to the torii in the middle of the woods.]

Yes!

[Time to get the fuck out of here. The entrance isn't glowing, but he steps through anyway. It doesn't work. He's still in the forest and nothing changed. It can't be a normal torii way out here for no reason. It does look damaged, but not enough to be nonfunctional. Jiro kicks the side of it.]

Work, you piece of shit!


E. Wildcard (11/01 - 11/03)
Mostly, he'll be wandering around town and the forest, trying to communicate with various animals and beginning to low-key freak out about being unsuccessful. He'll also ask people if they've seen a black cat with a white "sun" symbol on its back.

A, late 10/27

[overstrain]

[ Terry is tired. He's also a tiny pomeranian, just trying to get by in this life by doggy paddling through the high waters. When Jiro yells, Terry barks in return. He's still trying to get to the Velvet Room portal behind the throne, but some help would be absolutely fantastic. ]

10/30

[reveilation]

[ Who knows if Kido's halfway capable or not, but with the confidence she usually carries herself, she's often mistaken for a tough guy anyways, especially with the sharp look she gives him. It's a judging look. ]

"Whatever the fuck," huh?

[ She takes the bag from him, smoothing it out so it's not so lumpy, before slinging it over her shoulder. ]

I sure hope you know what sort of mushrooms are edible, instead of picking whatever the fuck.

B

[defragment]

[ There's a portal to the Velvet Room near the bottom of the lake and strangely, the water doesn't spill in. It lets 45 have a safe view of what people are doing in the lake during Lockdown hours though and when he decides to take a peek, oh. That's not good. Whatever should she do...

...

There doesn't seem to be anyone else around, so she holds a status curing bead in her mouth and leaves the portal to swim in the lake, summoning Malphas to literally nuke the Amemasu, creating blue spheres of contained explosions that blow the body to bits. Then she'll swim in the same direction as Jiro while avoiding the glass shards and lead him to the hole down below that leads to the second floor. If he needs help, she'll help pull him up. ]

A

[infiltrationtools]

[Akira's been trying to build up the will to go into the Velvet Room for days. He doesn't want to do it, and he especially doesn't want to ask Souji for help; that indecision has brought him out here in the castle late at night for several days in a row.]

[This is the first time he's heard screaming, however, and he jumps at the sound.]

Ah!

[Akira whips around, one hand already reaching for a knife, to find — a strange person he's never met, standing at the entrance to the castle. The glowing door to the Velvet Room is right there next to the throne, and its ungodly blue light reflects off Akira's glasses.]

What the hell? Don't just scream like that!

[reveilation]

i. 10/29
[ The town looks disgusting, even after the flood has gone and most of the buildings have been hosed down. With Terry busy with the house and Kido not wanting to touch gross wet wood, she looks to the lake fire. There is no reason it should burn on top of the lake, but maybe the floodwater's got some sort of flammable contaminant or something. She summons Nekogami to ice over the entire lake, but all that manages to do is sandwich the fire in between the surface of the water and the bottom of the sheet of ice, even when the ice extends out to seal up the entire lake and prevent any oxygen from getting in. The fire just burns in between and eventually melts the ice.

Weird.

It's warm, at least, right by the lakeside, and it's drier than everywhere else too. Thinking they might as well take advantage of that, Kido asks around for several poles she can hammer into the ground all around the lake, connecting them with clotheslines so larger items like bed sheets can dry by the heat of the fire. It's like a fence spanning the entire perimeter of the lake... which seemed like a good idea at the time, until one post starts falling over when the wet soil gives way, and that post drags down the one next to it and the one next to it, making it difficult to hold up even the one original pole that Kido's trying to keep from toppling. ]

Hey!! Grab that other post— don't let it fall!

[ If it falls, all the sheets will get muddy or catch on fire and neither of those are good options. Nekogami comes out to try and blast the base of the poles with ice to freeze them in place, but the attack just breaks up the soil even more and he decides that's enough helping for today. ]

ii. 10/30
[ Is the daitengu dead yet?? We just don't know. The ofuda hasn't been returned to the castle, at any rate, so Kido goes down to the lake before the month is out, hanging onto her feather charm and squinting down into the abyss below. It isn't very long before she heads to the Velvet Room. The silence is really unsettling. But that's not her problem right now; it's to look for weights, a rope, and a partner. ]

I want to check out where the floor split. Will you come with me?

iii. 10/31, open to one character only
[ So. When enters the mansion for the first time, she immediately regrets stepping into the place. She regrets it even more when she chooses the door leading to the hall of mirrors, screaming as soon as she sees her reflections staring back at her and they don't even have to utter a word before she's running back to the entrance so she can pound on this stupid wall to let her back out, she knows there was a door here, you can't hide it from her!! ]

iv. 10/31
[ Subsequent attempts through the mansion go a little better. They're just voices. What's so scary about that? Nothing, if you're Kido with a hood pulled up to cover her eyes as she stares at the floor and has her earbuds in, music playing so loud, you can hear it from meters away. The voices can't get to her if she can't hear them.

But she sure can bump into mirrors and other people, since she refuses to look where she's going, and she screams in fright every single time. It'll be slow going through this place... The exit had better be on the other side or Kido's going back to trying to tear down walls. ]

wc.
[ Kido is wherever doing whatever. Everything is terrible and she hates this. ]

i.

[yokeye]

[Toki's spent a lot of time in town cleaning up, but he's also come down to the flaming lake to look for fish carcasses on the shore. Joroko's been picking them up before the smell of the rotting gets any worse. Approaching the lake, Kido's weird... clothesline attempt is failing. At her shout, it's Joroko who responds and not Toki. The spider-woman grabs the offending pole and the next one down, righting it, and dropping a few dead fish in the process.]

Hana-chan~! Hello!

[Toki waves excitedly, ignoring the poles problem for the time being. Once he gets a good look at what's going on, he was one very important question.]

Why did you set the lake on fire just to dry your laundry!?

[toybombs]

[10/31 - Stamps]

Kya!

[Wherever you are, whichever stop you were on while collecting stamps - Rio's just faceplanted next to you. Uh. Is this girl okay?]

U-uuu...

[10/31 - Mirrors]

[She peers into the hall of mirrors timidly, although anyone who's seen her fight by now likely won't be fooled for long.]

Uwaaaaah... it's so creepy!

[So naturally she looks over at the person nearest to her with puppy dog eyes. Surely you won't let her go in by herself?]

[Wildcard]

[Pull her into dungeon adventures or whatever! Feel free to plot with me at danidanidanica]

10/31, mirrors

[overstrain]

[ Terry, in all his kid form glory, just stares evenly at Rio. At least he's not a dog anymore?! And that he's still taller than Rio despite shrinking down to 5' 2". He looks 13 though. ]

I mean... yeah, it's creepy, but mirrors are always bad news for a creepy place. Maybe the mirror images will move on their own or something.

[not_that_sasuke]

[10/29]

[Sasuke can be found helping carry supplies back and forth, whether it's for cleaning or simply debris. Kurou's nowhere to be seen, but most assuredly around, if out of sight.

He doesn't often pause as he runs errands for the townspeople, making his way around the streets with the automatic air of someone who already knows exactly where he is and how to get to his destination, but even he needs a breather every once in a while simply due to declining energy levels.]

Are we ever going to be able to clean this all up?

[It was nearly a month of rainfall... And he's never been a part of a project as big as this before.]

[10/31]

[And after following the stamps, he naturally finds himself at the mansion. He's a little concerned about the torii, but having checked it over, it still seems to be okay, so...

So now he's stuck in a mansion. He does spend some time examining the wall that was formerly a door, running his hands along it to check for seams, but when nothing comes up... he turns to check out the other doors first.

So naturally, he ends up going through the one that leads to complete darkness.]

What the...?

[...Even he's not completely confident he can keep his directions straight with absolutely zero visibility, but... he'll step inside to try it, footsteps slow and cautious.

Or at least, until a voice calls his name, panicked and worried.]

"Sasuke?! Where are you?"

...Fukuta...?

[But how-?]

[Wildcard]

[For dungeon spelunking or other adventures! Feel free to hit me up at danidanidanica to plot something out.]

10/31

[overstrain]

I'm not... Fukuta...

[ In the darkness, there's another voice, belonging to a kid. He sounds as if he just woke up. There's the usual cinnamon smell that helps people tell if Terry is around too. He yawns and tries to get up, but with the darkness, it's difficult to orient himself. ]

Mm... is that you, Sasuke? The voices can get pretty mean, so you shouldn't come here.

[infiltrationtools]

XIX. THE SUN

— i. 10/30

[It feels a little bit like crawling out of an awful dream.]

[The entire town looks like a shithole. Everything is in shambles and reeks of mildew, but the rain has finally fucking gone away. This awful month has almost ended. It takes a lot for Akira to call any October awful, because frankly he's all about that halloweenpunk life, but this month... has been trying.]

[But the best way to move past that is with some good old fashioned manual labor, right?]

[That's why Akira is hauling destroyed furniture and items out of the washed-out shell that used to be the occult shop. For all the time he spent here, he was more than happy to help when the elderly owners asked for a strapping young lad's assistance in clearing out the destroyed material to make room for something new. Whatever that something ends up being.]

[At one point, he drops his latest armful of crap and just... stops moving. He stands over the pile of moldy wood and fabric and rusted metal, and finds himself looking upward at the clear expanse overhead.]

You know what's funny? It almost feels wrong for the sky to be that colour blue.

— ii. 10/31

[Spooky! So spooky!]

[Damn it all, Akira finds himself unable to stop the scavenger hunt, even before Arsène realizes what's going on and tells him in no uncertain terms that they are not going to quit this hunt.]

[At some point, he's probably teamed up with other characters to make the quest a bit easier, because that's what Halloween is supposed to be about, right? You're supposed to do it with your friends! As the hunt goes on, Akira gets more and more animated, uncharacteristically excited about this relatively minor and stupid hunt. He's commenting on the shoddily made decorations around town, and everything. But eventually, the two of you finish! And that's the story of how you wind up in front of the... giant mansion that came out of nowhere. Which is almost enough to kill Akira's buzz. Almost.]

...This is pretty awesome, but it doesn't look like something the town threw together.

[Pause.]

Want to go in?

XVIII. THE MOON

— iii. ???

[By pure dumb luck, Akira has stumbled upon the mirror maze for the first time when you find him. Shadows surround him from all sides, dozens of them, some dressed in a spooky outfit you've never seen before. Akira is walking through the maze with his shoulders squared off, very deliberately trying to ignore the horde, but wherever he goes his reflections are calling back to him. Some are more... aggressive than others, slamming their fists against the mirrors and bellowing with rage.]

Everyone we love is gone.
DON'T LET THEM HURT US AGAIN!
We don't need anyone.
No one cares about us but ourselves.
MAKE THEM PAY!
We can't save them. We can't save us.
We're weak. We're useless.
WE NEED MORE POWER!
This world isn't worth saving.
Who are we?

— iv. ???

[After, uh... that, the bloodied hallway is no better. No matter when you enter this room, Akira is sitting in front of one of three tombstones: Red's, Airi's, or Ouma's. He's not saying anything, he's not moving at all; he's just sitting with his back to the center of the room, both hands wound tightly into his hair. The blood is starting to stain his clothes.]

i.

[suddenlybees]

[ Kano's here to watch people work, not to work himself. He steps back from the pile of junk he was looking through to see if there's anything salvageable he could just pocket since it's all going into the trash anyways, when he catches what Akira's saying.

Something about having become used to grey skies, probably, that happy blue skies feels weird. It feels like that to him too.

Kano glances up at the sky, and then casts an illusion to make the sky look all cloudy overcast grey again, storm clouds moving in from nowhere. ]

That better?