[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

[reveilation]

It's a part of it, but a large part. I can't have her die, or I will too.

[ It's for all their better interests that the Shadow does this. She also likes living. Kido... doesn't always. ]

You can see why she can't have her way?

[defragment]

Yeah, I sure can.

[ Kido, what the hell. ]

I can see why you're doing this then. But I don't believe that it has to be this way. Extremities in either side are never good. I'm sure you know this too.

Therefore, I'd like to offer my assistance in helping you two form a compromise that doesn't end with her dying.

[reveilation]

It won't be necessary. I'm not letting her die, since that defeats the whole point of this. Besides, what I'm doing isn't extreme.

[ Putting the whole dungeon trial and hiding Kido away thing aside. ]

[defragment]

No, this is pretty extreme.

[ She's going to get fucking called out. ]

You're holding her hostage in order to get your way. This is no way to do things if you're supposed to live in co-existence whether the power levels are imbalanced between you two, so it is necessary. Please let me speak to her.

[reveilation]

I can't. I told you, she's hiding.

[ She's also unconscious and the Shadow isn't convinced by pleases. ]

With humans, there'll always be internal conflict. This will just become part of the background.

[defragment]

[ Thanks, Shadow Kido. She knows. That's wars start, even in the year of 2060 and why she was made in the first place, etc etc ]

So, you'll be turning her inhuman.

[reveilation]

How so?

[ She'll just be like the Shadow! Totally human. ]

I told you, she already accepts me. This is how she wants to be.

[defragment]

But you said that she disagreed with you.

[ What's the truth here, Shadow. ]

[reveilation]

Yeah. This is how she wants to be, but she's just too scared to take the steps to get there. I want to pull her forward, while she wants to stay safely behind. So we're at a disagreement.

[ The truth is that. ]

[defragment]

[ Huh. Okay. Maybe... this can work? She has a feeling the proposition will be rejected, but she has to try. ]

If that's the case, I can take on your role and pull her forward in your stead. Since you're her Shadow, you should know that we're not friends. She won't cling onto me. I also don't need more Persona users to die, so I won't let her. If you're still taking sacrifices, then I'll take it up. I'll force her to move on to go forward and will spend a portion of my life doing so until she has enough strength to stand on her own. If she starts to regress, I'll resume pulling her forward. I'll get it through to her myself, so you won't have to.

[ Her eyes reflect a hint of determination. And it's the truth that she's spouting, despite being so accustomed to lying. ]

[reveilation]

She doesn't trust you.

[ Like she doesn't trust any of the Attendants, for petty reasons but also so I don't have to thread with myself and Kido doesn't need plot clues from Souji either. ]

And I can't trust anybody but myself either. If you were to use the same method as before, she would walk away.

[defragment]

[ She feels like she was so close. There's a lot of things 45 wants to say to that, but she holds herself back. Perhaps at this point, she should have brought a friend. But that gives the dilemma of Kido clinging to people by the very same person who wants to push her forward. It would be nice if she could just cling onto some immortal schtick who'd never die and that Kido wouldn't have to follow them to death or whatever, but 45 decides that she should concede. Even if she did bring one of Kido's friends over that she could trust, her Shadow doesn't trust anyone but herself either.

There's nothing left to do here.

45 straightens her posture. Talking to her Shadow has been a lot easier than Nekogami at least, mostly because they could actually converse back and forth. ]

I wouldn't reuse a method that has failed.

[ Without another word, she summons Malphas beside her so that they can leave and walk out together. She turns her back to Shadow Kido and Nekogami and steps out of the room.

She decides that if her Shadow does take over, she'll just have to shoot Kido herself once she's out of the Dungeon. ]