[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

[flowerclips]

[ she keeps trying to escape, wiggle herself away from his grip, but she stays exactly in the same spot, and it's not until a few moments after he collapses and cries that she does the same thing. his words finally get through and she sobs into her hands. ]

Why, T-chan--? Why?

[ her voice is muffled with her hands and her cries. ]

Where is neechan? Why isn't she here?

[overstrain]

[ Terry's nonexistent heart hurts. He feels terrible. He thought that the guilt would have washed away in those forty thousand years, but seeing Rei like this, them crying like this, it's enough to burst through the dam of tears and regret. ]

She's here! I'm sure of it! She's definitely here! I just... I can't find her... exactly...

[ He tries to hold back his sobs, but he only clings onto Rei tighter. ]

I'm sorry... I'm so sorry... I didn't want it to be like this...

[flowerclips]

[ she doesn't reply to terry's reassurances. she only continues to sob into her hands without any indication that she'll stop any time soon. it takes her at least a full minute before she can even utter another word from her tear filled hands. ]

W-- Where do we go...?

[ do they keep going? do they pull out? rei isn't strong enough to make this decision for the two of them. ]

[overstrain]

[ They can't continue like this. The minute is long enough for Terry to have calmed down a lot and tries to think rationally about this. ]

... We're going back home. We can't face Kido like this. We'll come back when we're better.

[ And so, he finally stands, still holding Rei close to him as he lifts her up too. ]

[flowerclips]

[ she just nods and takes off her hands, wiping them on her tights, before burying her face into terry's arms. she'll silently let him lead them out of this dungeon and back home. she won't say anything for the entire journey back, only muttering when they're back that she'd be going to be sleeping. she'd then just cry herself to sleep until they get up for their group planning and return back to the dungeon... ]

[ thanks, terry ]