[open; 11/11 - 11/15] Personal Shadow Event

[reveilation]

WRATH OF BONGOGAMI

premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation

→ Lake dungeon, 2nd floor

No wind from outside blows towards the lake, no other indication that there's any reason to be down here. Sleet falls endlessly from above on the second floor, scattering ice pellets across the frozen ground and sticking to any wet surface from the passage out of the lake, and the sub-zero temperatures seem to have plummeted even lower. The Shadows on this floor seem constantly agitated these days, and several have peeled off from the main group to crowd around a new hole that has opened up in the middle of the area, but will ignore those who simply want to bypass them to get to the next floor.

ONIKUMA
Type Shadow	Resists Ice, Physical	Weak None
Giant Onikuma loom around the hole trying to swat anybody nearby down into it, whether Persona user or Shadow. Strong and durable, these Shadows are difficult to defeat, and their roars cause anybody who hears it to become Enraged, lashing out indiscriminately until calmed down by a status healing spell or item, or are knocked out. Indestructible claws can be collected as loot.

ARCTOS
Type Shadow	Resists Ice	Weak Fire
Packs of Arctos also mill around the hole, hunting in groups with fangs that Charm their foes with the slightest nick, causing them to fight on the Arctos' side while the Arctos attack from behind. Rather than trying to drive people into the hole, they're simply out for blood. Fangs that cause Charm, and small gems that heal any status ailment once can be collected as loot.

It would be advisable to stay away from the Shadows, but if, for whatever reason, you fight your way to the hole they're protecting, you're faced with a pit five feet wide and lined with spikes of stone and ice that protrude from the walls and jut out towards the center. Unlike the ice elsewhere on the floor, these spikes cannot be melted with fire, and the sleet continuously raining down makes them slick and hard to grasp. The hole is only thirty feet deep, but unless you climb down carefully, there's the danger of slipping and being skewered.

→ 2nd floor, ???

Upon reaching the bottom of the pit, you find yourself in a large cavern filled with floating doors, sets of stairs leading up to each one and seemingly infinite from the way the place stretches on without boundary. The area is just as frigid as the space above ground, but is lit by blue-white flames that provide no heat with their light. Touching the flames causes unprotected skin to blister similar to frostbite, and staying too long around them will sap your strength and life energy, but while they float around the cavern and are drawn towards people, they're slow enough to be outrun.

Each door looks exactly the same, some accessible from the stairwells, while some hang in mid-air and must be flown to in order to open them. Each door that is opened, there is nothing but empty space behind it, nothing more than a door frame with false promise of an exit. Because Ichi has great ideas, there is a small chance of opening a door and getting drawn into one of the memory or fear floors like in the shrine dungeon. It doesn't matter which doors are opened, in what order, or if the same one is slammed open and closed multiple times; on the 107th door that's opened on each given night, you can finally see through to the other side, at a pure white and empty room with Nekogami sitting at the center, tail swishing back and forth, the tips of his fur dark grey like soot. At the very back of the room, Shadow Kido is seated upon a throne of ice, staring back with golden eyes.

In your head, you hear her voice, soft and slow: "What would you sacrifice to get her back?"

There is nothing preventing you from walking through the door without another word. But when approaching an Emperor and a cat god, perhaps you should follow tradition and make an offering.

You know what? Fuck it. As of 11/13, the room is covered with copious amounts of blood and there is no barrier to talk to the Shadow and nobody is allowed to sacrifice anything wtf. She's still there on her throne, but she has zombie Rei on her lap and Nekogami on Rei's lap and everything sucks.

→ NOTES

⬥ ICly, this dungeon will appear on 11/11 and the event is expected to conclude by 11/15, although the dungeon itself will remain until the end of the month. OOCly there is no deadline for getting Kido to accept her Shadow, but if the Shadow is killed at any time even once, the end result will be ego death. If this happens, Kido will not be able to be revived and will remain a zombie for the rest of the game.
⬥ Character must engage with Nekogami first before he will step aside to allow passage to Kido's Shadow, but there are ways to convince him without fighting depending on 1) who the character is, 2) their first action, and 3) whether and what they choose to "sacrifice."
⬥ The "sacrifice" may be physically offered or spoken out loud, but Nekogami will take whatever is offered, whether it is something tangible or conceptual. Depending on the nature of the sacrifice, Nekogami may be appeased and easier to reason with, or enraged and prompted to begin the fight. Sacrifices may or may not be returned at the end of the battle.
⬥ The toplevel to interact with Shadow Kido will be unscreened after the first time Nekogami is either defeated, or convinced to let a character through. Shadow Kido will only interact with those recognized by Nekogami, either through a thread or otherwise discussed. This is to establish how the interaction with Nekogami will affect the interaction with Shadow Kido.
⬥ Kido will unavailable until her Shadow is either 1) persuaded to let her go and be accepted, or 2) killed, resulting in an ego death.
⬥ This month, the full moon occurs on 11/11 - 11/13, so... haha.

Comments

QUESTIONS

[reveilation]

Please leave questions here, or contact me at birdseed!

You can also use this space to ask what Nekogami will take/do if the sacrifice offered is a concept or otherwise intangible.
(e.g. if your character is stupid enough to say "I would lay down my life for Kido," Nekogami will gladly take that life, and will kill them)

NEKOGAMI ENCOUNTER

[reveilation]

Upon opening the door, Nekogami will simply be sitting in the empty room and waiting for your character to make the first move, whether it's to offer a sacrifice, talk with him, or attack him. If you're Terry, he might shoot some Dream Needles at you first, but will continue to sit and wait after.

NEKOGAMI
Type SHADOW PERSONA	Null POISON	Resists ICE, WIND	Weak FIRE

STATS Strength: 37 Magic: 35 Endurance: 37 Agility: 34 SKILLS Dream Needle Ice Age Dia Growth 3 Null Poison

Nekogami stands guard at the center of the room, preventing passage. He's a well-rounded Persona who strikes hard and fast, dodging or taking hits like it's nothing, who acts as a tank to prevent people from reaching Shadow Kido rather than killing them outright. He typically starts off blasting the entrance with Ice Age, either forcing retreat or prompting people to figure out a way past the ice. Following the initial attack, he works to break up the terrain by filling the walls and floor with spikes of ice, and to immobilize people by Freezing them with Ice Age or stinging people with Dream Needle to put them to Sleep. As a ghost cat, he will sometimes phase through the walls and appear in a different location, so watch your back. Given any lull during battle, he will heal himself, so unless there are multiple people with strong enough Personas to overwhelm him at once, he will be difficult to defeat in direct combat. There are, however, ways to curry his favor and be granted passage without engaging in battle. You'll have to figure that out by yourself.

11/12

[infiltrationtools]

[At first Akira is just surprised that anything is beyond this door at all, because the others had led him to believe it was just an exercise in futility, but he couldn't think of any other way to progress. He'd tried listening for sounds, inspecting the doors and immediate area, gliding around in Arsène's arms. But no. It turns out he just needed to brute force enough doors.]

[Akira gets down onto his own two feet, standing at the entrance of the new room. He's wearing a new jacket. It's long, black, and very slick looking.]

[What would you sacrifice to get her back?]

...Nekogami. Kido. Good evening to you both.

[He nods at both of them in turn, and Arsène dissipates. Then, he gets on his knees without another word, bows to them, and starts pulling things out of his coat.]

[In total, the items he lays on the floor are: five knives, ranging from kitchen knives to daggers to a machete; one loaded handgun; three smoke bombs; a case of spare bullets; a set of lockpicks; healing and status relief items; and five normal explosive bombs. This coat has a lot of secret compartments. If Nekogami is being made into Kido's protector, as Akira believes, then his sacrifice should naturally be everything that could conceivably make him a threat to Kido. –Barring his omamori, however, it's also everything that could conceivably keep him safe.]

[Kindness, he tells himself. Kindness. Kindness.]

[reveilation]

[ The Shadow doesn't reply, staring levelly across the room at Akira until he starts pulling an armory out of his coat. Damn, boy.

Nekogami also bristles when the first knife is pulled out, but he settles down as he watches Akira empty out his pockets. Every time something is placed on the ground and Akira takes his eyes off it, it disappears from sight. Kido's hiding ability, maybe, but it's just empty space if Akira reaches for the same empty spot.

After all that's done, Nekogami walks back a few paces and lies down instead of sitting, tail swishing back and forth on the ground. He yawns in Akira's face.

... ]

[infiltrationtools]

[ ... ]

[That could mean Nekogami is comfortable and willing to hear him out. Or it could mean it's not enough.]

[Tak.]

[One more item falls on the floor off to Nekogami's left (so he's not directly reaching for the cat) and disappears. It's a small omamori with the words FOOL and JOKER stitched on it. If that doesn't do it, then nothing short of his life will.]

[Only then does he look up at Nekogami. His expression is serious, but calm.]

You just want to keep her safe, don't you?

That's what it seems like to me.

11/11

[overstrain]

[ Terry suffered through six of those fear/memory doors, thinking that Kido was in each and every one of them, but his efforts to scour through them were for naught. All those moments when he failed to save her were shoved at his face--he felt that this entire floor was mocking him. But when he finally opens the door and sees Nekogami, he gets dream needle'd in the face, but he thankfully doesn't get knocked out. He sure is bleeding a lot from the face though. it's fine. He won't die from this, but that fucking hurt.

Vassago is summoned during Terry's downtime of plucking needles out of his face. Terry and Vassago take Nekogami's initial assault as a declaration of war, so Vassago goes in with a God's Hand buffed with Charge. ]

[reveilation]

[ Nekogami sat back and popcorned during all those doors. Knowing that not being able to save Kido and her being dead is one of Terry's worst memories and greatest fears, it just makes him mad.

The moment the door opens and he needles Terry's face, his next attack is to put up a wall of ice between himself and Vassago, knowing there's a chance the God's Hand will break through it before it's completely formed, but it doesn't matter because Nekogami doesn't stay behind the wall. He leaves it up while he slips through the ground and reappears through the wall behind Terry to throw needles at him from behind. ]

[overstrain]

[ Vassago uses Psycho Force to intercept the needles in time for Terry to dodge and it doesn't take long for him to draw an arrow with a longbow in his hands, shooting it at Nekogami with an arrow equivalent to the force of 1000 TNTs exploding in a contained area. Longbows were supposed to used from a distance, but Terry is too used to close combat, that he's used to doing it this way too. ]

11/13

[cicadashell]

[107 was far too many doors, but Jiro eventually makes it to Nekogami. The white room reminds him of the floors in the school he'd seen Kido's memories, but there's no boy with a gun here. Just Nekogami, and Kido. He's not going to answer the weird telepathic sacrifice question right away, nor present any tangible offerings for the moment.]

Hey, ice cat.

[reveilation]

[ At least the 107 can be a group effort... It's somewhat surprising that some people don't get discouraged after having to go through so many, but it can be taken as a sign of general bullheaded stubbornness, not necessarily anything for Kido's sake.

When Jiro enters the room, Nekogami remains sitting, staring up at him and giving him a slow hello blink. In his current ranking of people he knows, Jiro is tied for second. Nekogami remembers how hard he tried to save Kido all those times in her death memories, even though he also failed every time until the last. ]

11/13, terry > rei > bongogami

[overstrain]

[ Looking at those fear and memory doors was so bad that Terry and Rei had to retreat for the night, think of a general game plan, and to come back. Thankfully, the door leading directly to Nekogami is there this time (thanks Jiro), so they don't have to go through it again.

He lets Rei stay back at first, because he already told Rei that Nekogami doesn't like him. And as expected, those dream needles are flung in his direction, but Terry manages to stay calm this time instead of directly countering an attack with an attack as he firmly holds Rei's hand. When it looks like the coast is clear and no more attacks will come this way, he steps inside the room with Rei. He stays slightly in the front. He'll have to be on the defensive this time. He gave Rei the cat sweater in precaution and since his body temperature is still abnormally high, he has gloves on so that Rei's hand doesn't get uncomfortable while he's holding it. He doesn't say anything in response to the sacrifice question and had advised Rei to do the same... at first. Never give up your life. Don't die. Don't get killed. ]

[flowerclips]

[ ananke still comes out in glitches and moments of invisibility. after what happened with all those doors, rei's psyche has been rattled and it hasn't healed itself even after the lapse of time between their retreat and return. she holds onto terry's hand tightly, almost silent as they make their way to nekogami, and peers around terry's arm. ]

[ remember... don't answer the sacrifice question. she bites onto her lip to prevent any words from escaping and she stays quiet for a few seconds until she speaks up, ignoring the question by giving her own. ]

Nekogami...? Can we talk...?

11/13, before terry and rei

[defragment]

[ Jiro really did do all the work for the doors... 45 takes a look around as she reaches the door with Nekogami inside. She couldn't do anything when Terry's Shadow was here last time, creating corpses in the flood one by one... and from what she knows, Kido is an important person to whoever is left here.

Upon hearing the question, she smiles. ]

My, I don't think she'd appreciate it if I sacrificed anything for her sake other than my time. That creates a cycle of debt that she'd hate, wouldn't it?

[reveilation]

[ I'm imagining everybody sitting back while Jiro opens 107 doors all by himself and then leaves in two minutes, and then they approach the door. It was supposed to be a group effort!! guys!!!!

Nekogami meows in response to the question, which he takes as a rhetorical question and his is a generic answer. Neither a yes or a no. Maybe it's both? Kido never considers it a "sacrifice" but sometimes she asks for unreasonable things... Time is precious too, but Nekogami is paying it back as he sits, watching 45 to see if she just wants to talk or if they're going straight to fighting or what. ]

11/13 - before terry sometime? (time is fake)

[yokeye]

[Toki lucked out for once, and testing things with Joroko led him to the already-opened 107th door. He enters, riding on top of Joroko. He hears Kido's voice in his head before he sees her there in the back.]

Hana-chan?

[He's not sure what's going on here, and maybe it's a test of some sort. He jumps off Joroko and she retreats into his shadow. Toki bows with an elaborate flourish.]

Would that I had such things worthy of sacrifice to the beautiful lady, but alas, I am in possession of so little material goods! My sacrifice instead is my very soul, a companion to her own, so that she will never have to be lonely even in the cold, harsh, and desolate dungeon~!

[reveilation]

[ I said that Nekogami wouldn't kill anybody but maybe I'm wrong. Toki might see Kido's Shadow in the very very back of the room, but it's Nekogami sitting in front of him and if Toki wants to give up his soul, he'll have to die for it.

So.

It's time to die.

A blizzard takes over the entire room in a matter of seconds, and while the ice juts up from the floor to pierce through Toki, Nekogami sends a barrage of needles his way too, so he can be put asleep and not feel the pain of death. ]

SHADOW KIDO ENCOUNTER

[reveilation]

Seated on her throne, Shadow Kido has been watching Nekogami's battles, listening in on the conversations, and appraising those who he's let pass. To even get to this point, characters have been put through a series of trials (and Nekogami is... quiet the trial just on his own) to determine whether they're worth talking to, and like Nekogami, the Shadow waits for your character to make the first move.

As of 11/13, anybody can approach the Shadow without fighting Nekogami. The room is bloody and zombie Rei is with the Shadow and Nekogami is so stressed about everything holy shit

Kido herself is still nowhere to be found. She would cry if she knew what happened.

11/13 (nekogami II: electric bongoloo)

[infiltrationtools]

[Returning to this floor when you can't summon any of your friends to fight for you kinda sucks, as it turns out. Bombs and knives and guns only get you so far. But when he arrived at the dungeon this evening to find Sasuke in a bit of a hurried state, talking about Terrence and Terry and something happening down in the dungeon, all of a sudden it's much easier to blast their way through...]

[...............and then they come in to this.]

[All of Akira's many rehearsed plans, branching trees for how this conversation could go, fall away in an instant.]

God dammit...

[This can't be how it ends, Akira won't let that happen, but... everything suddenly got much harder.]

[not_that_sasuke]

[There's... there's just so much blood. He almost raises a hand to try to cover his nose from the stench, but he suppresses the urge.]

Kido...?

[Shadow or not, it's still her, and they're going to have to contend with that.]

[overstrain]

[ Despite there being no indication, Terry had been paranoid about what has been happening to his friends ever since his original came to Hirajiro for real this time. This is why he's been pinpointing everyone every day to see if they're okay. It's a surprise when he finds out that Kido hasn't been going to the shrine Dungeon, since that's what she'd say she'd do with everyone else.

His own fears have been realized, and that's why he's storming through the lake Dungeon. He doesn't seem to be affected by the freezing temperatures and the raining sleet as much. If anything, there seems to be little steam rising from him instead in contrast to the sheer cold. He is extremely hot to the touch, so if you want an angry, zooming portable space heater, just latch onto him. It doesn't help that the Shadows are extra aggressive towards Terry, but that doesn't matter, because Terry is killing them all. The second floor of the lake Dungeon is covered in flames from half a dozen molotovs that lead to the new hole. ]

GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY!!

[ It's a Shadow slaughter here... ]


wildcard

[ For anything else, hit me up. Terry's body temperature is abnormally high and Shadows will be hyper aggressive to him for three days. ]

[flowerclips]

[ out of all the resistances that rei hsa gotten during her time in hirajiro, ice was not one of them so she's pretty cold while trying to keep up with terry. she doesn't have any winter clothes so she shivers in the midst of trying to stay behind terry and healing him if he ever gets hurt. ]

T-chan, don't push yourself too hard!

[overstrain]

[ Who needs ice resistance when you have hellfire all around you from exploding molotovs and greek fire bombs... The rain of sleet is having hard time extinguishing them too. He quickly snaps out of it from his violent stampede to listen to Rei. He has his own high body temperature and a hoodie, so that's fine, but Rei doesn't have anything. So he takes a quick break and hands her the cat sweater. ]

Wear this. It has freeze protection traits. It should keep you warm.

[ An Arctos comes to crunch onto Terry's head, but he mercilessly kicks it, sending it flying before its fangs can touch anything. ]

OTA | 11/13ish - original 2nd floor

[yokeye]

[This was a mistake. Toki wanted to test Joroko's newfound ability in wind production, and his idea went from "fun" to "terrifying" very quickly. Joroko slowly drifts above the onikuma and arctos Shadows, an intricate spider web splayed out above her with two cords attached to her legs. It's an approximation of a hang-glider, and she hasn't gone too hard on the wind just in case it only works for so long. Toki is currently sitting in a spider web basket, hanging below Joroko like in a hot air balloon, and close to being within reach of an onikuma.]

Go higher!

[It doesn't seem possible. Joroko's web is becoming weighted down with sleet and it takes more power to keep them above the Shadows. The plan is to drop down directly into the hole they've congregated around. Once Toki eventually realizes the pit is full of spikes, it may be a problem.]

[defragment]

[ 45 came to check out what the new change was all about on the second floor, but then she sees a drifting spider...?

...

Oh. Oh no. ]

Malphas, go help them out.

[ The usual half-crow Persona flies over to where Joroko and Toki are tries to slow them down with magic so that they won't drop as fast. ]

Jump on Malphas, Toki! Then dismiss Joroko!

[yokeye]

[Toki jumps out of the web basket just as they're nearing the onikuma. He clings to Malphas, and calls Joroko back. She returns to the shadow, her web basket and glider floating down on top of the bear.]