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OCTOBER EVENT PT 2

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:

⬥ 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

But sometimes it does! [The words come out sharp.] If everything goes wrong and it can't be solved peacefully anymore...

That's right...
Because we're a dangerous existence.
Because unless we find salvation, there's no hope at all.
We'll just keep killing, killing, killing...

Edited 2019-11-05 06:24 (UTC)

I know.

[ That's why he said "sometimes", but he won't correct Rio. He knows that the mirror images talking to her wouldn't feel that great. ]

Not everything can be solved peacefully.

[ That's why wars happen, etc. Terry leads Rio further inside the mirror maze, because it would be better to get through this ASAP. ]

[That's why wars happen, that's why Blade Children get eliminated, that's why, that's why-

She gives a quick nod, continuing down the path at a quick pace, expression stony. It's the only defense she has as the reflections continue to echo sing-song words around her.]

Maybe we should be eliminated now.
It's getting dangerous, isn't it?
Something might happen...
A switch could be flipped.
Poor, lonely Blade Child.
Poor, wretched Blade Child.

[ The "Blade Child" is such a stigma, but to Terry, the more it's repeated, the less it sounds like real words. Terry picks up the pace with Rio in tow, but he doesn't do that roadrunner thing just yet.

"I was supposed to be the convenient god, yet I played population control."
"If god truly existed, I understand why he wouldn't want to come down."
"You're still powerless, no matter how much time passes." ]

A small town is the perfect stage...
Wiping everyone out would be so easy ♪
There's a low population. They wouldn't even have time to notice before everyone was gone!
We already know all the weak points!
The time for humans has ended.

[Because of course she noticed. Of course she could tell...

She grits her teeth.]

How much further?

[ Terry immediately hugs Rio. He doesn't waste time in trying to lift her over his head and just immediately zooms through the mirror maze, running into several dead ends, but he turns around just as quickly. ]

[There's a sound of surprise as she's grabbed, because naturally, her instinct to unexpected contact is to attack.

Fortunately, she quickly realizes what's happening and holds back, instead using the opportunity to try to plug her ears for the remainder of the maze.]

[ Good, good. Whatever Terry's images say don't bother him as much and the wind can help block out the sounds too. It takes some time... maybe five minutes straight of running here and there for Terry to find the exit. The maze never stays the same, so he needs to make an effort to find the exit every time.

He makes it out of the maze and still holds onto Rio just in case. ]

Rio...? Are you okay? Can you stand?

[It's very possible that during all of this, he may have noticed that her right side is especially squishy. Is she missing a rib? Or even more than one...?

That said, it takes her a moment before she warily lowers her hands, shaking somewhat. She can still hear echoes of the words- though now it's merely a product of her own mind rather than any mirrors.

She takes in a shaky breath.]

...I'll be okay. You can put me down.

[ He would have noticed the squishy, but unfortunately, his mind isn't geared towards a missing rib, but rather the combination of his hoodie sweater and his medical knowledge all geared towards not that really helps Terry not think about it. Rio's rib secret is safe for now. Honestly, he probably won't get it unless someone tells him...

He also gently puts Rio down, but still keeps his hands close in case if she falls over all of a sudden because the floor here is bloody--not as bloody as the dreaded third floor is his own Dungeon, but still pretty damn bloody with puddles here and there.

He figures that saying something like "breathe in, breathe out" will insult Rio, so he gently rubs her back instead. ]

[I guess Rio's rib secret is just safe forever.

She does indeed slow her breathing, deliberately forcing herself to calm. She can feel the slickness of the floor, smell the scent of copper in the air, and it's not particularly helping her wrench her thoughts away from bloodshed.]

...Next time, say what's inside before I go in.

[It's a weak whine, an attempt to get back into something resembling her usual persona.]

Sorry... you seemed so eager to go in. Do you want a clothespin for your nose?

[ Since there's blood everywhere. His sense of smell is strong, but he's just used to the blood now. It's whatever. ]

[She wrinkles her nose at the suggestion.]

I'll be fine.

[And she forces a little more strength into her voice as she says as much, adjusting her posture to be more stable, shaking her head in some attempt to clear it. She's not in the middle of a battleground - she hasn't even had reason to fight at all today.

There's no need for violence. None.

Just give her a moment. She'll be back to sorts soon enough.]

[ Terry stops rubbing her back, but stays next to her. It's his way of waiting and staying by her side until she's ready. ]

[Once she's had enough time to center herself in the present, she releases a long breath.]

...Thanks. I thought I was going to lose it for a moment there.

[A rather light way to refer to losing one's entire sense of self.]

You did good, Rio.

[ He smiles over at her. Terry means it!! Even though he's a kid right now, he means that with all his heart. ]

You ready to go on? Let's take a look around here. I looked at this place already, but I was wondering if you could maybe catch something I couldn't.

[The words are kind enough, but...]

...It feels weird hearing that from a little kid.

[Bold words from the seventeen year old who looks about twelve. But she steadies herself and nods.]

Lead the way.

[ Yeah, seriously. Terry was gonna say something along those lines, but he bites it back. He'll tease her about it when she didn't just come out of an existence changing moment. Terry leads the way to some of the tombstones that are lined up against the walls. ]

The names here are people who pretty much turned into zombies... I can't figure anything else out about it.

[She looks over them carefully, hand reaching up to her face as she thinks it over.]

It's pretty straightforward I think... In a way, they've "died."

[The body lives, even if the mind does not.]

I'd be interested in what is causing these to appear, though.

Gimme a moment.

[ It seems like Terry is intensely concentrating on the tombstones, but it only takes five seconds for him to find out that... ]

... No good, I can't get any info out of these, not even what they're made with.

[ He clicks his tongue in annoyance. This entire mansion is an annoyance!! ]

...? What do you mean, "get any info" out of them?

[ ...

Right. People have privacy they like to protect. Right, right. Uh. He's trying to figure out how to say this-- ]

I can... find stuff out? Though I never used it on you before.

[ His Shadow did though. ]

[This does explain some things the Shadow said, but also:]

How long have you been sitting on a power like that without saying anything?!

[RUDE??!]

I'm sorry?! It's not really 100% reliable anymore ever since I came to Hirajiro and I don't make it a habit to use it on everybody and everything...

[ Like the tombstones. They're blocked off for some reason. ]

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→ 10/31 - 11/3

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