Week 2

[linkupmods]

WEEK 2

WAKE UP, GET UP, GET OUT THERE.

Saturday rolls around and characters may see that there are notices from Mina, saying that everyone will be taking a trip at noon sharp on Saturday, and to have their weapons. Whether characters pay this heed or not, they will in fact hear a ding from their phones at noon, their screens glowing a sunset red with the word "TRANSFERRING..." the only thing to be seen. And then, just like that –

You all enter.

The new world before you can be described in one word: twisted. It doesn't feel great, but it doesn't feel extremely awful, either, depending on how you look at it – it's a distorted version of the already grim city that you've been brought to, and you are specifically in the shopping district. Everything seems to be darker shades of red, yellow, and purple, if you can see it through the haze ominously floating about.

That feeling of something stirring in your chest seems to grow stronger, more potent, burning with the desire to be let free…

…and you, all of you, are surrounded. Various monsters and demons are threatening to attack you, looking at you like you are their prey. That's because you are…but you don't have to be for long. The moment that you engage in battle with them, no matter who strikes first, is the moment your emancipation begins.

Welcome to your awakening.

You feel a surge of energy rush to your palm – for some, it burns like a fiery blaze. For others, it sparks with electricity; perhaps wind circles around it, or a mysterious frost begins to blanket it. Maybe you have a mysterious pink aura around it, or a bright turquoise light; a dark, sinister glow or a calming light. Whatever the case may be, it drives you to place your hand over your heart.

You latch onto something. It is not your chest, it's not your heart, but it's something deeper than that, something from your being. You pull, you drag it out, and there is no bloodshed or any sort of pain, only a very bright light and some struggle as you unearth what is within. You finally, finally feel free as a new part of you literally stands before you. Say hello to your new friend: Your Persona.

Your new skills feel intuitive, and you feel like you can navigate them well enough to at least try to survive. You don't need to question how or why you understand them just yet; all you need to do is let yourself experience your power, and you'll stand a chance.

And with that, it's time to fight.

(Note: Weapon attacks will always deal Phys damage, but Phys spells will naturally do more than just whacking enemies with your weapons. Go wild, dodge, parry – combat is more freeform here than it is in Persona, so play this out however you'd like.

Furthermore, you'll be able to see everyone's cool Personas! You just won't be able to really interact with them directly.)

???

(Picrew by ~danidoninha!)

After the battle, there's the sound of a whistle. Turn your heads towards the source, and…huh? A cat?

"Alright, newbies, it's time to roll out."

…And it talks???

She says it with a scowl on her face, and soon, she leaps up – poof, and suddenly, there is a cat train in front of you. Weirdly enough, this cat is the one driving it. How did she summon the train…who knows.

"Get in, unless you wanna get your asses kicked!"

And sure enough, she's right, because there seem to be more enemies flocking towards you. She will drag you all in whether you like it or not.

SAFE AREA.

And, after a quick ride on the cat train, you find yourselves back at the dorms! ...Kind of. Much like the rest of this alternate world, it’s distorted in shape, though there’s none of the haze you saw when you first arrived. It seems this area, at least, is safe - characters would be wise to note it as a location to base any Nekyia operations out of in the future.

Mina is also here! She looks, quite frankly, relieved to see everyone show up alive in the train. The train, by the way, is gone, because it seems like your mysterious cat friend is now back to her…first…form? And seems to be on her way out. Back to Mina, though:


“Thank goodness... Okay, um, app hiccups aside...

Welcome to the Nekyia - the world of the unconscious. As you can see, the unconscious version of the city is, um... Very, very messed up. The more commissions you complete, the more connections you forge, the more bonds you repair, and the more Shadows you take out will help return the Nekyia to normal - and with it, the real world!

The people of this world don’t have the power to summon Personas... You’re the only ones who can save this city from the influence now. So please...

Help me fix this city from the inside-out!”

Mina has also set up a folding table set up with divinity cookies and water bottles from “Ambrosial Water Co”, judging by the labels. Characters who partake in these proffered snacks will find them rejuvenating - literally. Using a Persona’s abilities takes spiritual energy, but these snacks replenish one’s energy to full again with a single bite or sip. Any characters who want to try venturing back into the thick of the Nekyia today are free to take some with them, but do take care! Mina is only providing snacks for today, and after this characters will need to monitor their energy levels on their own.

Characters with further questions may ask Mina and she will do her best to answer! You can also try to catch the mysterious cat from earlier, too.

To go back to the real world, all characters need to do is press the "RETURN?" button on their phones. Much like the "TRANSFERRING..." message, this is the only thing on their screen.

All phones will now have a Nekyia app that will enable them to come in and out of the Nekyia at will.

OOC

READ ME!!!!

• Welcome to your Week 2 event log!
• Here is your promised Persona debut. Fighting is very flexible, so please just thread the fights in whatever format you'd like.
  
• A reminder for those of you who have gotten their Level 10 skills: These do not unlock ICly until Week 3, starting on 8/17.
  
• As always, please let us know if you have any questions! Enjoy!
  

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Week 3

[vogelfrei]

1. Creature Comforts
[ McGillis has been going through the motions. Despite spending a decent amount of time talking about the fact of his own death, he'd emotionally set it aside in a little box to never be opened. He'd gotten himself back to his feet, and pretended there was still a sense of purpose guiding his steps. But that's just not true - as far as he knows, his original world is lost to him. And even if it wasn't, it'd still be a world in which he'd have to start from zero - worse than zero, truly, as his reputation would not precede him.

His lifelong ambitions are smashed and instead of burning up in the wreckage, he's here. Standing in a Legally Distinct Walmart.

The disconnect is enough to drive anybody insane. Currently the insanity is manifesting as buying four bags of chocolate ladybugs with the gravest expression anybody has ever seen. Maybe he's even in the mood to be a little more Honest about his various miseries - or sugar consumption.

Alternatively, you can find him windowshopping. He's currently eying a cutesy purple floral teaset with a thin smile. ]

... she'd like that one.

[ CW: the tea-set prompt will lead to discussion of child marriage. Nothing untoward has ever happened between McGillis and his child wife, his feelings for her are wholly platonic - but she is only 11 years old and I totally understand if you don't want to thread about that. ]

2. Violent Delights
[ McGillis does return to the Nekiya from time to time. It's not out of a sense of duty towards Braphine, no matter how she raised him from the dead. It's just that the Nekiya is a convenient location for letting out his frustrations and feeling like a person again. Being in Sunset City feels like being confined to stasis, caught up in the sludge of a daily life that does not belong to him. By applying violence, McGillis feels like he can reclaim a sense of momentum even if just for a moment. (And he's aware, far too aware, that this is an illusion caused by adrenaline. That he's just playing into Braphine's hands. But else can he do when he feels like going out of his own skin?)

Visitors to the Nekiya can find McGillis making short work of the demons he encounters. Watching him makes easily apparent that he's a resourceful fighter who is not afraid to make use of every tool available to him, conventional or no. There is a manic quality to the way he moves, and sometimes when Fenrir gets a very good hit in there's a matching grin on his lips, all bared fangs. (Metaphorically. He has normal human teeth.)

You can either approach him mid-fight (he won't appreciate it much) or when he's on his way back to the safe zone, visibly exhausted. ]

1

[ushirono]

[ Fuyu went to the Legally Distinct Walmart for snacks. Inside the plastic bag that he carries, there is a lot of distinctly red packaging. He finds McGillis and just... wow. The overwhelming outward depression even makes Fuyu squint for a moment. ]

Did they run out of your favorites?

[ Because how, dude. The weekly effect has him wanting to strike more conversations. It's just too bad that he's terrible at it. ]

[vogelfrei]

[ Can't a man be depressed in Malwart in peace? Is this not a Japanimerican civil right?

Normally McGillis would shape right up here, but there's a sense of comfort that makes him feel fine with just turning to face Fuyu with his Obvious Depression look still in place. ]

No, quite the opposite.

[ Glancing at the three big bags of chocolates in his bag and then the one he is currently holding... Hm. ]

Maybe this is a few too many to buy in one go.

[ushirono]

I'm sure others would want some.

[ Not him though. He takes out one of the smaller red packaged bags. Apparently, it's a very spicy snack. It seems to be Fuyu's favorite at least, with how easily he munches on it. It's so red... ]

[vogelfrei]

[ There's a bitter exhale at that. ]

A tool for bonding nicely, as is required of us, huh?

[ There's an irony here that McGillis does not yet recognize - the truth of his frustration with their purpose spilling out precisely because he's being made to feel so at ease with getting closer. ]

[ushirono]

... Perhaps people good at bonding should just focus on that while the rest of us work on killing monsters in Nekyia. I've only seen one overlap of how good people seem to be regarding those.

[ Argenti.

The irony isn't lost on Fuyu, but he's affected too, so he doesn't dwell on it for too long. ]

[vogelfrei]

A favorable enough set-up, provided you're interested in doing the goddess' bidding.

[ McGillis is definitely on the 'killing monsters' side - his normal combat may be done from inside a giant killing robot, but the presence of his Persona at least somewhat makes up for the departure from comfort zone. ]

[ushirono]

[ McGillis should do all the violence he wants in Nekyia for sure. ]

I'm doing it so that I can return. I have important things to do back there, and I can't waste time here any longer than I have to.

[ So he'll leave bonding to everyone else. But he's right here, leisurely eating snacks from Legally Distinct Walmart because he's aware of how breaks are important. ]

[vogelfrei]

[ Though McGillis is very much aware that the dead are a minority here, it still stings a little. ]

A few weeks ago I might have felt similarly - though I believe I'd have chafed at the manner of our summoning regardless. "Work for me and you get to return home" is not exactly a sweetened deal.

[ushirono]

Then don't work for her.

[ Easy. ]

Or you can negotiate for something else, since she's so "concerned" about us.

2. Violent Delights;

[beautifulknight]

[ Tackling Nekiya is a necessity in order to help them edge ever closer to fulfilling their goals in escaping this place. Though Argenti takes to it with an energy that most might not; or perhaps some would, in different ways.

Whatever the case, he ends up making his way straight through rows and rows upon of monsters before he tires, and ends up in the safe zone. Seeing McGillis he passes him a bright smile. ]

Hello there, my friend!

I see that you have been working quite hard. I assume you are rather accustomed to the rigors of battle?

[vogelfrei]

[ McGillis is visibly exhausted at this point, slowly nursing a sports drink to return at least some of his energy to him. Argenti gets a smile in return, though it is a good bit smaller. ]

In a way, yes. Normally, I'd be engaging in combat within a mechanical body, so this is a change of pace.

[ He's certainly been in a large enough number of physical altercations in his life, but the whole monster-battling business still feels pretty alien. Even so, he has a knife on him now and he's been using it -best to save bullets while he doesn't have any to replenish with. ]

[beautifulknight]

[ Well, Argenti is mostly certain that the man knows his limits, though he takes note of the exhaustion anyway, just in case. ]

A mechanical body...? As in, a robot?

[ It's just a guess, but he has heard of people fighting in "mechanical bodies" before; particularly during his stay on Penacony, and due to running into trouble for a bit because of it, actually. ]

[vogelfrei]

[ Ah good, the term is familiar. With the way things are going here, McGillis never knows what he should assume people know and don't know. He nods. ]

Precisely. 18 meters tall, with a cockpit for a pilot in the chest. They're a standard weapon of war where I am from.

I've also been trained in hand to hand combat as well as fencing, but that sees far less application in my daily life.

[ He hasn't thought about fencing in years. ]

[beautifulknight]

[ Argenti should take pointers on that regard. He's surprised two people already with him suddenly talking about space travel...whoops. ]

Oh my. That sounds larger than most robots that I have heard of! Though the IPC would likely have quite the unfortunate field day if they knew such weaponry existed.

[ He's heard of their machinery, and honestly their whole entire everything, only to be honestly truly unimpressed about it. This, on the other hand, sounds neat. He wonders what it looks like... ]

But, it sounds like you've quite the skillset. Naturally, I already have learned how to wield my spear as well as swordplay due to my training as a Knight of Beauty, but who taught you how to fight?

[vogelfrei]

[ It seems like Argenti's world is a whole lot less medieval than McGillis had expected based on appearances and diction. You truly can't judge a book by its cover. ]

A variety of instructors. I grew up as heir to one of the most powerful families in my world and as such it was expected of me to study combat and enter the military.

[ He specifically decides to word it as 'grew up as' rather than 'am' or 'was born as' - it may be near undetectable, but it reveals a little more truth than strictly necessary. ]

Was your Knighthood a personal choice or similarly built-in?

[beautifulknight]

[ Truly...!!

A military man, huh?

Argenti also felt like the other man had a sort of refined background from the way he spoke, so him being from a wealthy family makes sense to him. ]

My Knighthood was a personal choice, actually!

When I was younger, I hadn't exactly decided what I was doing with my life. I was, in fact, trying to find something that called to me.

I then heard of the Knights of Beauty, and the fact that they had sworn an oath of chivalry as well as to spread the nature of Beauty across the galaxy, upon which compelled me to join them as soon as possible. I was taught by an elderly member of the Knights when I left home, but let me tell you! His age did not stop him from being skilled, as I learned rather swiftly. He also had quite the tales to tell.

[ Argenti smiles, as he reminisces fondly. It's been years since he had seen his Master, but he remembers it like it was yesterday, yet he feels inclined to mention it even so. ]

What is your military like? Powerful, I assume?

[vogelfrei]

[ So Knights of Beauty really is the official title of his order, huh...? McGillis wonders if Argenti is the only one of the order who is that extreme about its basic concepts or if there really is a whole group of professionally trained Argentis somewhere out there... Either thought comes with its own strange implications. ]

Gjallarhorn is powerful indeed. Founded to save humanity from an existential threat 300 years ago, the organization has been the face of order in the solar system ever since. Rather than serving an individual nation, Gjallarhorn is an extranational peacekeeping force. Its hold on all of mankind is undisputed.

But sadly a 300 year reign in which power is passed down by heritage is also a breeding ground for corruption. Gjallarhorn is now but a shadow of his former self. Ideals of chivalry and so on haven't been anything but lip service in quite some time now.

[beautifulknight]

[ There is, in fact, a whole group of professionally trained Argentis somewhere out there. Fortunately (or unfortunately) they are typically scattered rather than usually being in the same place at one time.

Then again if they all were, it would probably drive people literally insane. But either way, the red head frowns a little. ]

That is most unfortunate. It sounds very much like how the IPC was created to support the Aeon of Preservation, but I have heard less flattering news about their operations, and how many lives they've destroyed instead of protecting them.

Though, the main difference is that it certainly isn't a military and I don't think it was put together because of a particular threat. Even if they have what I'd consider a state of the art force to... "represent their interests".

[ Argenti doesn't typically utilize such lingo, but intergalactic companies are serious business. ]

I hope it is possible to soon bring the light of Beauty back to this military organization that you belong to. After all, it all began on noble ideals. Surely, bringing it back to its former glory should not be impossible...even if it will be difficult.

[vogelfrei]

That is what I have always believed.

[ Though his expression is a little distant as he says it. Having spent a lifetime tirelessly working for the restoration of Gjallarhorn to its true glory, he now has nothing to show for it. His revolution has been crushed underfoot. ]

It is up to others, now.

[ Nobody will take up mantle though, because they are all weak and complacent. ]

[beautifulknight]

[ Argenti frowns hearing that the other man says this, but if this company is anything like the IPC, reformation will not be easy. ]

I imagine for you to say as much your efforts have not amounted to satisfactory results.

At times, I have heard organizations, IPC included, tend not to be appreciative of those working hard for the better. Was it the same with this one? Because of its deterioration that you spoke of?

[ He can't imagine any failure would be because he wasn't trying hard enough, so to speak. Though, those others...he wonders if McGillis might be able to get into contact with them. ]

2

[pointzeropercent]

[By week 3 Sou has taken to hanging out near the entrance and catching anyone who comes back looking injured. Most of his skills are utility, so there's no real point to him going exploring alone; he'll just die quickly. However, if he can help people, he will.

When McGillis comes back looking exhausted, that's when Sou speaks up:]

If you're injured anywhere, I can help.

[vogelfrei]

[ McGillis acts as though he's fine, even if a little shaky on his feet after the exertion. He'd been planning to keep the actual injuries he'd sustained hidden for a bit - bruises are easy to cover up with clothing, anyway.

So when the offer comes in, he's hesitant for a moment. Admitting weakness just annoys him for no real rational reason. Then he nods. ]

I was crashed against a wall pretty nastily earlier. While I have a simple healing skill myself, I afraid I'm out of energy to cast it.

[ It's really annoying that you can't simply force yourself through the exertion when your persona is concerned. ]

[pointzeropercent]

Don't worry, I've got it.

[Technically he has media, but Sou isn't hurt so the healing just helps McGillis here. But hey, the bruises are gone now!]

Are you done for the day? I can go with you if you want to fight more.