NOVEMBER MINI-EVENT

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NOVEMBER MINI-EVENT

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→ 11/10 Cetana's Kagepro of November 10th

Despite the success of the enjoyable and mostly free (thanks to a specific someone) morning at the bathhouse, an emergency closure brings a sudden halt to everyone's fun. An unexpected power surge sends the entire building into complete darkness, and the employees walk around with hands cupped around their mouths to announce that the bathhouse is now closed. To apologize for everyone's inconvenience, everyone will be refunded their admission fee and given a small gift bag. All the guests will have to exit out the front entrance, but the Persona users will be stopped and asked to step to the side and receive a different gift bag. The employee pulling them aside, a middle-aged man with very tired eyes and a mask over his mouth, explains that because they got their admission fees waived, they cannot be fully compensated. He coughs into his face mask and says that he hopes that they understand, handing them a simple and small black cloth bag before ushering them out the door. When looking back at him, he simply disappears into the darkness. Perhaps he had more work to do and ran off somewhere.

When opening the bag, there will be a variety of snacks customized to the individual's tastes, from small bags of chips to tiny wrapped candies to fizzy drinks. Each bag comes with a note explaining that the snacks should be consumed by today because, sorry, they expire tomorrow. The bathhouse sure is filled with a bunch of cheapskates, huh? At least the snacks are good and don’t taste out of the ordinary, but within minutes, the characters will feel their eyelids droop and they’ll fall into a deep sleep...

... and when they wake up, they will find the world around them much bigger than they remember.

→ Option 1

Perhaps you're one of the luckier(?) ones who retain your current mind and memories while being trapped in the body of a child. You will find yourself awake in the castle, either alone or alongside others, everybody dressed in clothes properly fitting your new sizes. The gift bag, it’s contents, and any wrappers or empty bottles left over from the snacks have all disappeared and cannot be found anywhere, but if you had your omamori on you while exiting the bathhouse, you’ll still have them here, capable of summoning your Persona to fend off bears and other wild animals while you leave the castle and make your way back to town. Maybe you’ll find answers there, seeing as there is no Velvet Room door behind the throne.

Asking around town, you learn that it’s still the same day, the same year, with only an hour having passed since the power outage at the bathhouse, but none of the townspeople know what you’re talking about when you ask about the blackout. The bathhouse is still up and running. What do you mean it's closed? Goodness, it hasn't lost a single day of business since the 60s. The old man, the owner, would rather cut off his leg than let it close for any reason, they laugh. If you return to the bathhouse, you’ll find that it is indeed still open. None of the employees know or have seen an employee with a face mask; anyone sick is not allowed to come to work and must go home immediately, so they don’t potentially drive away customers. You aren’t able to find any evidence of the gift bags either, with no black cloth gift bags in the gift shop, nor any of the snacks found in the stores.

It appears that all the clues have been wiped out and no one will take you seriously. After all, you're just a cute kid with the most pinchable cheeks. Why don't you forget about this silly story about the bathhouse closing and this mysterious employee and run around like an actual kid? Perhaps you should find the rest of your team you know exited the bathhouse with you.

→ Option 2

Perhaps you're one of the unluckier(?) ones who revert back to a child, both mentally and physically. You find yourself awake in front of the shrine, dressed in appropriate clothing that fits your new size perfectly. Similarly to the people in the castle, you may wake up alone or with others, and if you want to get to town, you’ll have to travel all the way there from the shrine. Luckily, the fox at the shrine is hanging around here, occasionally hopping over to the stairs and glancing back at you as if prompting you to follow it down the stairs and onto the path leading out to town. There are arrows carved into the trees along the open path, and if you get scared, a guardian (your Persona) will come out to protect you if you touch that strange little charm you have on hand.

Once you make it to Hirajiro, you'll be free to do whatever you please, as long as it's within the realm of what children are allowed to do. Some adults occasionally walk up to you and ask if you're all right, if you need any help, etc. and some might even forcefully drag you to the police station to report a lost child, while other adults might just leave you alone, ignoring you as they go about their busy lives. Regardless, you're on your own in this new world. Where do you go? What should you do? Naptime is always a valid option.

→ MOD NOTES

⬥ Timelines are an illusion and this takes place after the bathhouse log that took place on 11/10. Let’s not think about the timeline too much.
⬥ All characters will be turned into children with two possible options: either with their teenage/adult minds and memories, or with the mind of a child, without any memories gained past their child age, and will behave as if they were that age. If the character has canonly never been a child, players are allowed to come up with their own interpretation of how their character would behave as one.
⬥ Characters will revert back to their regular forms at midnight when the Lockdown begins and they will fall unconscious once more, waking up as their older selves again when Lockdown ends.
⬥ Have fun! You all need a break.

Comments

ii

[reveilation]

DON'T TOUCH ME! [ Kido flinches and snaps the moment she feels the hand on her shoulder, throwing Terry's arm aside and pushing him away for good measure, tears in her eyes and then fear when she looks up and sees how much bigger Terry is. She wants to run away. She can't, because her legs are shaking, and if she can't run, then she has no other choice, raising her fists up and keeping the scowl on her face. ] Go away. This is your last warning.

[overstrain]

[ It's a bitty Kido.

...

Cute. Terry bends his knees, balancing on his feet while lowering himself. ]

Sorry for scaring you. You don't remember me? It's Terry.

[reveilation]

[ It's bitty Kido who was crying and hugging him the last time he saw her, but apparently Kido never processed the trauma and the result is her lashing out. She used to be a good kid. Not anymore. ] I said, go away! [ Big kid be damned. She steps forward to shove his shoulder so she can topple him over. This is how she got kicked out of daycare once upon a time. ]

[overstrain]

[ He has a foot slightly to the back for easier balancing, so he doesn't fall over even when she shoves his shoulder. But when she gets close, he decides to pick her up instead while hugging her, supporting her legs with his arm under her knees and his other arm around her back. ]

Wow, you're not listening at all... I guess you forgot too.

[reveilation]

[ Kido screams when she's picked up, incoherent enough that they aren't words, but both of Terry's arms are occupied and she can still kick and punch and like all little children, she doesn't hold back, even if it's weak tiny 6-year-old strength. She does her best to murder Terry, but it's hard when she's being constricted in a hug and she can't see anything for the tears in her eyes and running down her face. Some words can barely be made out in the screaming and crying. Things like "Die." and "I'll kill you." ]

[overstrain]

[ Terry takes it all and starts rubbing her back. There, there. It's okay. Calm down. Shhh. ]

[reveilation]

Don't- DON'T TOUCH ME! I SAID LET ME GO!! [ He should be proud, knowing that Kido's more or less gotten over her stutter and the way her voice used to be so small and quiet. She learned how to yell, and that fixed everything. And she's continuing to yell, because Terry is a stranger and he's not listening to her and this is why Shadow stuff happens. ] I'LL CALL THE POLICE! LET GO!! [ Rather than yelling for help... yeah. Let her go and she'll call the police herself, can't trust anybody else to do this. ]

[overstrain]

[ Like he can just ditch his girlfriend as a kid in the middle of a street while she's crying?? Why would he listen to that?! ]

You don't even have a phone. Just calm down. I'm here to help you... Don't just scream things like "I'll kill you" when you don't mean it. That's bad.

[ He pats her head with the hand that was rubbing her back earlier. ]

[reveilation]

[ He can and absolutely should just ditch her. "You don't even have a phone" sounds patronizing to her ears, and so does being told to calm down when she has ever right to not be calm in a situation like this, that even head pats don't help because they're head pats from a stranger and not her sister or mother or somebody she knows. ] I mean it. [ She stops crying, just a little, because she can't sound as threatening when she's sobbing. ] You think I won't kill you? I will. [ Look at her face and say she won't murder Terry the first chance she gets. ]

[overstrain]

You're probably gonna cry when I actually die. You can try, I guess... why would you kill a defenseless person anyway?

[ He'll just keep trying to comfort her regardless and keep patting her head. ]

I'm probably like, 12.

[reveilation]

[ She looks unconvinced, but she will take that permission to try and kill him. It looks like an actual conversation more than "calm the fuck down, child" is making her simmer down, though she keeps trying to get out of Terry's grasp and duck away from the head pats and muttering something about this being assault so it doesn't matter if he's defenseless, it's still in her right to murder. ] Twelve? What, you don't even know your own age? [ She scoffs, because wow. ]

[overstrain]

[ This sure is Murder Kido... ]

Yeah. How old are you then? I bet you don't know either.

[ This is such obvious bait. ]

[reveilation]

[ It sure is. This is why she gets Terry. She's been there. ] Of course I know. I'm six. [ She takes the bait because she's a dumb child, and her pride means a lot more than anything else. ]

[overstrain]

[ A six year old Kido. Hm. Terry doesn't know what to do with this information. Maybe this was after the whole "dad kills everyone in the household" thing. But then again, despite handling some kids, he doesn't know how they actually work, and his own experience are pretty bad to begin with, because this technically isn't even his body. He was never a kid.

Anyway.

There's another kid who's standing behind Terry, who Kido can see easily over his shoulder. He doesn't have much of an expression.

"Who brags about their age..."

Terry looks behind him and. Who's this. He kinda looks familiar...? Yet... who. ]

Yeah, age isn't all that important I guess.

[reveilation]

[ At least she knows her age, unlike Terry's "probably 12." When Terry looks behind him to address the other boy, Kido takes that chance to kick out again so she can fight tooth and nail to get free of Terry's hold. It's a valiant bid for freedom, but she doesn't have anything else but her bare hands and normal sneakers to fight with, nothing stabby in her pockets or anything else besides that omamori. Age isn't important, but she sure wishes she were older and bigger so she can punch the living daylights out of Terry and get away. ]

[overstrain]

[ Terry doesn't let go. Sorry, Kido. However, Jace steps on Terry's foot.

"Stop bullying her." ]

I'm not bullying her--

[ "Your cologne sucks."

...

"What kind of 12-year-old wears cologne? Aren't you trying too hard to be an adult already?"

Terry stares at Jace while ignoring Kido who's still attacking him like "who the fuck is this sassy child". ]

[reveilation]

[ Kido growls, trying to pry Terry's finger off her and maybe break it if she's lucky. ] Yeah, it sucks! Who wears apple pie cologne?! [ Once Jace brings that up, it puts an idea into Kido's head and this sassy child becomes a feral child because she's going to bite down hard on Terry's hand so he can get the hint about letting her go. That's right. She's got to remember she's never without weapons; she always has tooth and nail. ]

[overstrain]

[ Terry finds "apple pie cologne" funny, so he ends up loosening his hold. Jace takes that chance and holds Kido's hand and runs away with her. Suspicious twelve year old is an emotional terrorist. Don't go near him. Jace looks to be around the same age as Kido though. So when they stop at an alleyway, away from Terry's eyes (he'll probably find them later), Jace stops and lets go.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?"

It looks like he has trouble emoting.

also i'm not making new icons for this ]

[reveilation]

[ Suspicious six-year-old is better than a suspicious twelve-year-old, and she's relieved when they stop running and Jace lets go without her having to punch him too to get her hand back. ] Mm, no. He just scared me— [ She shakes her head quickly, as if to erase that from Jace's mind as well as hers. It's not her being scared, it's Terry's fault; everything is his fault. ] I mean, he's scary! He's shady! Who just grabs people like that?! I'm going to report him to the police.

[overstrain]

It looked like he was trying to comfort you though, despite being scary.

[ Good intentions, bad execution. Something like that. Jace is already aware of that kind of thing. ]

... Maybe we should find a better hiding spot. I can hear footsteps. I smell his stupid cologne too.

[reveilation]

[ Kido doesn't need telling twice to start running away, though she doesn't know the town so she just picks a random direction and goes for it. There was no way Terry was trying to comfort her— if he wanted to do that, he would have let her go when she screamed in his face. There was the hug and the head patting, but still... ] That wasn't comforting! It's like offering a kid candy and then kidnapping them! You can't trust people like that! You stay away from him too!

[overstrain]

[ Why you gotta focus on the negatives, Kido... Good thing Jace is following Kido, so that she can't see how dead his expression looks when she says that. ]

He was a kid too, though.

[reveilation]

[ She's just like that. She thought her sister was planning to torture her when Rin was just asking if she wants rice or bread for breakfast, and it's been a learning curve to grow out of that. ] He was a bigger kid... Twelve is almost an adult anyways. It's a two digit age. [ She comes to the street corner and stops, looking left and right but not to watch out for nonexistent cars, but to choose the less crowded street where there aren't as many people and... ...immediately get distracted cat napping on top of a stone wall nearby and she slows to a stop in the middle of the street. She'd seen a number of cats in town already, but this is the closest one. It's asleep too, it won't notice if she walked up to it and pet it... ]

[overstrain]

[ kido........... that sure is a learning curve...

When Kido is distracted by the cat, Jace goes off in the opposite direction and gently picks up a cat in his arms and goes to where Kido is. Jace was and still is a cat fanatic, even if he can eat them as a snake, but as a human, it's so much worse. It's like hearing about the cat island that he always dreamed of going to (6 year old dreams are like that), so Hirajiro and its abundance of cats is what makes this place feel like heaven.

He'll just stay quiet and watch Kido try to pet the cat while he's holding another one in his arms and petting its head. ]

[reveilation]

[ Honestly, same. This is the closest thing to cat island and Kido bites at her bottom lip to keep quiet as she moves towards the cat, quiet as she can be but just before she's able to touch the cat, her hand brushes against one of its whispers and the cat jolts awake, startled and also startling Kido, and then it runs away. ...Kido visibly deflates. Kitty, no... Orien just going ahead and picking up the cat is no fair, but Kido's too busy being ): to turn around and notice. ]