Entry tags:

OCTOBER EVENT PT 2

OCTOBER EVENT PT2

premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation

→ 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:

⬥ 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ You know what. Terry never cleaned his room after that whole lightning rod mess and he has an entire sackful of coppers and a bunch of other metals and cables. All that good stuff. He tilts the heap that he's carrying to let the bag fall on Kano.

Thanks, Kano. You're the best. (monotone) ]

[ UGH. The Boss sucks, but this is still really good stuff, so Kano takes the hit and lets the bag drop to the floor instead of catching it. The whole thing won't fit in his pocket, so he opens it to stick things inside one by one instead. ]

Ohh! I was running low on copper wire~ Why are people throwing all this stuff out? Only a fool would get rid of stuff like this!!

I'm throwing it out. Those are leftovers from something I made.

[ The lightning rod. He doesn't want to think about that again. He won't question Kano's use of copper wires either, considering he helped make that ring for Vassago. ]

I don't have any use for it, so you can have it all.

[ The fool is Terry, supplying Kano with things to play with. He slaps Terry on the back, not very hard because he doesn't have that arm strength, but not bothering to keep it gentle either, so that if anything else falls, it falls. ]

You're the best, Boss! In return, I'm going to give you something good. Here, hold out your hand! Gimme~

[ Carry everything in one hand if you can, he doesn't care. Paw. Shake. ]

[ Terry doesn't have a problem lifting everything with one hand if it's about weight. However, it's the balance that matters more. It's the normal human equivalent of trying to balance 50 sugar cubes with one hand all stacked in a tower. ]

Orien, can you get that?

[ And so, Jace sticks his tail out from Terry's hoodie pocket to receive whatever Kano is planning to give to Terry. ]

No, he can't! I said I'm giving it to you~

[ He will not allow Terry to accept things by proxy! Besides, if he gives it to the snake, he suspects he'll just get eaten again. ]

I can put it in your pocket and you can look at it later? Is that okay? I'm going to reach into your pocket!

Don't reach into my pocket!

[ IT FEELS WEIRD!! He nearly jumps away when Kano says that he would. Jace withdraws his tail and just resumes resting in the hoodie pocket. Terry just drops everything off at the junkyard and holds out his hand. Ugh. ]

Hey, I gave you a warning, right??

[ Kano was definitely reaching for Terry's front pants pocket too. He digs into his own pants pocket for this, so he doesn't have to go searching through his infinite one, and places a folded up piece of notebook paper on Terry's hand. ]

There we go~

[ Your thanks is a piece of trash... If Terry throws it away without even looking at it, Kano will just give him another one. He's prepared. ]

[ ...

Looking at the folded up notebook paper in his hand reminds him of the time when his Shadow killed Kano in that room after he had slipped a piece of paper past the cage for Terry. He forgot what the word was, because he was way too high strung. He does have it in his pocket somewhere...

...

Somewhere...?

He opens up the paper that Kano just gave him to see if there's anything written on it. ]

[ Just like last time, the piece of paper is blank on both sides. Whatever's there will show up when Kano is 30ft away, Terry pinpoints it, or Terry kills him, whichever comes first. ]

...Haha. Wow, you opened it up right away.

Why wouldn't I?

[ He will not chop Kano's head in order to peek at the possible written contents of the paper. He puts it away into his pocket for later. ]

Are they all going to string a phrase together eventually? Is that why you're giving me these?

[ Good, that's what Kano was hoping for. Most people would read their letters in secret? What if it was a heartfelt confession, Terry, you can't have that open in public??

Anyways, Kano laughs. ]

Why should I tell you? You have a brain, so put it to use! I know you hate doing it, but do it for me, okay!?

[ Auto-rejection!!!

That remark earns a cheek pinch from Terry and he won't let go if Kano tries to get his hand off his face. ]

[ UGH!!! Terry reminds him a lot of Ellie in times like this; neither of them hesitate or pull their punches doing stuff like this. He can't keep up his illusions while in pain and without his numbing magic, so he just sort of pats Terry's hand lightly with his instead of making any effort to trying Terry's hand away. It's just pat pat pat with two hands.

Red ink shows up on the paper, though, not that Terry can tell since he put the paper away and is too busy trying to tear Kano's face apart. ]

[ Chill, Kano. It's just a cheek pinch! Terry squishes and pulls his cheek repeatedly about six times before letting go of his face. ]

You sure are hungry for punishment...

[ Cheek pinches hurt!! Kano just sits there with his eyes closed and lets Terry do whatever. It would probably be really cute doing this to a cat or dog, but Kano isn't cute. He pulls back the moment he's released, rubbing at his cheeks, but since there's nothing to heal, his own magic can't do anything about the lingering pain. ]

-—And you sure are generous doling it out!!

[ ... ]

You're not a masochist, are you?

[ Terry doesn't think he is? Maybe?! Why else would he keep bothering him like this, fully knowing well that he'll just eat up all the punishments?! ]

Hm? Why? What's up, you want mutual benefit punching 'cause you're a sadist?

[ Because there's no question about that, the fact that Terry looks like he feels a lot better after flinging Kano halfway across the world. But, well, most people are like that when they get the chance to vent their anger, so Kano just takes it. ]

[ He doesn't want this kind of relationship! Nor find out if he's actually a sadist!! God, it's like dealing with Kokichi again where he kept getting framed for blood kinks and shit. ]

No, and I'm not a sadist!

Pft- Haha, yeah, yeah~ Don't worry, your secret's safe with me! Until I feel like divulging it!

[ No worries here, Terry. Kano is a terrible secret keeper, but at least he'll only give out secrets if he can personally gain it, which is rare. ]

I watch you sometimes, you know? Down in the dungeons and stuff~ You sure look like you're enjoying yourself down there sometimes, you know? Not like you're getting off on it or anything— maybe? I dunno, man, you do you. But it's a lot better than being a grump all the time!

[ Terry is a sadist, prove him wrong. ]

[ Terry is internally screaming and reaches over to pinch both of Kano's cheeks this time. He's going to pull super hard as possible without tearing or ripping anything. He's slowly starting to get red in the face. Thanks, Kano. ]

I-- I don't do anything like that!! Why are you watching me anyway?! Stop watching me!!

[ AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaa ]

[ AAAAAAAAAAAA It hurts, but it's still worth it. Kano never had a Kido in his Daybreak AU, so now Terry is his Kido.

He can't talk if Terry doesn't let go of his face!! Maybe that was the plan in the first place. But he just sort of pats Terry on the hand, let him go. But actually, it doesn't matter if he can't talk, right?

He summons Ala.

"Hi, Boss!" Kano can be in pain and it doesn't transfer to her, so everything is great. She smiles sweetly up at him. "I like watching you! There's no reason to be embarrassed by it, unless you're doing something shameful, right?"

Like being a sadist. ]

Not you too!! Don't say anything!! Please!

[ That only makes him pinch Kano's cheeks even harder. It doesn't look like he's going to let go anytime soon... ]

He's just twisting the words all weird!! I mean, I have to kill Shadows anyway, right?! So that's natural! But I'm not doing it for sadistic reasons!

[ His blood pressure hasn't been this high in forty thousand years. Jesus tapdancing christ. ]

[ He's feeling faint. This is the worst. His face feels like it's turned into a full tomato now. ]

So, it's just... just...

[ ... ]

Oh. Haha, I get it... You really want me to throw you out of the town, huh... That's what you're aiming for, right...?

[ He's gonna lose his mind. ]

[ Wow, he sure is getting really red. Kano isn't enjoying any of this, because the more embarrassed Terry gets, the more likely his cheeks are going to get torn off, but Ala just laughs at all of this, Terry's reaction and Kano's situation and everything. This is great. This is exactly why she likes watching him.

"You're silly, Boss~" she says, reaching up to pat him on the head. Pat pat pat like Kano's still doing to Terry's wrist but he's being ignored. "Remember what I said last time about playing the game? You can't forfeit now, Boss!"

Like this is some sort of game Kano's playing... He makes some sort of muffled noise and flaps a hand at Ala, which she stares blankly at for a moment, and then brightens up when she understands. She steps over to Kano's side, and instead of helping him get free, she goes ahead and reaches into his front pants pocket and pulls out Kano's brick phone. Snaps a picture of Terry's face. And slips the phone back in Kano's pocket. ]

premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation

→ 10/28 - 10/30

→ 10/31

→ 10/31 - 11/3

→ MOD NOTES

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

1/2

no subject

no subject