Link Up! Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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linkingup2024-08-08 07:00 pm
linkupmods) wrote in linkingup2024-08-08 07:00 pm
Week 2
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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he’s running fast. REALLY fast. he can probably catch up first, but he’d rather if aubrey deals with the talking. ]
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In fact, if they feel around, they’ll find they are now caught with Aubrey and McGillis in some sort of invisible barrier - though they don’t have much time to investigate this new phenomenon, because the barrier quickly begins to fill with a murky haze, exactly like the sort they may have seen in the Nekyia prior. And with it, they can hear a voice echoing in their heads…
”Does she truly believe honesty is the solution to her problems…? Very well, then. Allow me to give the goddess a hand in her… efforts.”
The characters are now trapped - and not only that, but the haze carries with it a horrible feeling, a sense of something prying a horrible truth from them. Something others would find disturbing or disgusting above all.
If all characters share their dreadful truth, the barrier walls and the haze will dissipate on their own. While they may attempt to free themselves instead, the barrier walls seem to be impenetrable from the inside by any human (or brought down to human) means.
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What the-?!
[She's going to attempt slamming on it with her nail bat - the movements getting a bit more desperate as she feels that sensation creeping into her chest, the haze growing darker all the while.]
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McGillis covers his nose and mouth with his sleeve, just in case the haze is poison of some kind. ]
I have a gun, but if the bullet ricochets we're done for.
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after repeating this in a couple different places, he sighs and shrugs his shoulders in defeat. ]
We’ve been trapped. I wonder for what purpose.
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[Aubrey is not keeping her cool particularly well, and it echoes in the panic in her voice.]
What the hell are we supposed to do?!
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Help sabotage Braphine, it seems. You did hear the voice as well, right?
[ Only a few days ago he'd been talking to Ai about how sometimes truth can break things. Well, sucks to have a deity agreeing with them. ]
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[ soujuurou laughs softly, an edge of bitterness in his voice. he doesn't find the suffocating feeling more uncomfortable, simply because he too lives every day with a similar feeling. the only difference was that this felt like something was being pulled out of him.
he looks down, his arm lowering from his face so he can gently touch the bandages on his neck. it's comforting, in a way. ]
Who wants to start?
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[She feels it too, that clawing deep in her chest - raises a hand to grasp at her shirt, as though she could soothe it through touch.]
Who in their right minds would ever...
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[ All week now they've had someone messing with them...
But McGillis isn't exactly volunteering to start here, even if his head keeps screaming at him to please let it out. He killed them, they're dead and he killed them, they loved him and he-- ]
cw mild suicide ideation except not really?
I shouldn't be alive.
[ he says it simply, as if he were commenting on something as mundane as the weather. even though it's painful, none of it comes across soujuurou's face as he admits it-- whether he himself doesn't register the pain or he's simply choosing to ignore it...well, it really doesn't matter. ]
I got cut in half by this witch. And yet my friend did something that was probably terrible in order to bring me back. I think it would have been better if I had stayed dead.
[ not better because of a desire to die-- like any animal, soujuurou deeply fears death. but to come back from the dead? that's simply too unnatural. it's not right. it shouldn't have happened.
but it did, and that's a sin that he has to carry on his shoulders from now until the repercussions catch up to him and aozaki. ]
Next?
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...What?
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You have a good friend.
[ That's clearly the true takeaway here. ]
Cherish that.
[ And don't mind him pushing at the wall to see if maybe one of them confessing was enough... ]
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[ but he does feel bad that he had to impose his own insecurities on other people.
he does give mcgillis a nod, as he also pushes at the wall. ]
You don't have to tell me that. Aozaki and Alice both are incredible. At this point, I think I'm going to owe them for the rest of my life.
[ they're powerful and talented, far more than he could ever be. even if living with them has been nothing short of a bizarre endless hell, at the end of the day he cherishes them both. he wouldn't have done half of what he did that night for them if he didn't think that way. ]
It's still not budging.
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I... h-how does someone just do that? Bring... bring someone back to life.
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[ soujuurou shrugs his shoulders, as clueless as he usually is. as if they weren't trapped by god knows who to be compelled to tell the truth. ]
As far as I know, death is supposed to be the end. If it weren't, then there would be no value in life. All Alice said was that she "rewound" time to before I died. But that's not natural either, is it?
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...]
Ha.
[It's pushed out in a ragged, unhappy breath.]
Yeah. Of course it isn't natural.
When people die, they're gone for good. ...And maybe, part of you goes with them.
[Ignore the heat in her face, the way tears prick at the edges of her eyes, because - god, what a dream. Imagine, if things were so simple - if they could have just gone back, stopped her from doing what she did. Maybe they'd still be together, then, smiling as brightly as they had in those old photos. Maybe, Aubrey wouldn't have gone and-
...]
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[ therefore, what did happen to the him that died, the one that got cut in half? that ending must still be there for him, waiting somewhere. it's just a matter of time before it springs back on him. he's a walking ghost that doesn't know it's dead just yet.
ah well. ]
Aubrey, did you lose someone?
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Strong. Willful. True to herself. These are all qualities that may have described her once, but they certainly don't match the picture of the girl in front of Soujuurou now.]
I--
[Panicked, realizing that once that single syllable leaves her, the rest is soon to follow whether she wants it or not]
--I used to have a group of friends, but we all split up after Mari died. One of them became just- weird and creepy. He ruined the photos he took of all of us back then, so I started calling him names, and then everyone else joined in, and--
[She doesn't want to say it.
The haze doesn't care.]
I... pushed him into the lake.
...
He can't swim.
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soujuurou... has to take a moment to process that. while the concept of bullying is something that he hasn't experienced, he understands the more important part of the story.
'The truth can hurt so we tell white lies...and sometimes big lies.'
how right she was. there's nothing that soujuurou can feasibly say to this truth that's been pried out of aubrey, but he realizes that his emotions could not be any more unimportant than aubrey's. ]
Did he die?
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[The tears are readily apparent now, streaking down her face.]
Maybe Kel got him, I don't know- I saw him go in, and the next thing I know I'm here!
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[ soujuurou realizes that he could be angry at aubrey for what she's done. deep down, he rationalizes that this is what normal people in the city would do. and in the mountains, people wouldn't even bat an eyelash. the villagers never cared much when the corpse of one of their own appeared at the bottom of a cliff— there was no time to grieve when your own survival was paramount.
and yet, soujuurou finds himself incapable of doing either. he simply nods at the crying girl, a weak expression on his face as he mumbles some words that are of utmost importance to him. ]
Murder is wrong, you know? Nothing is more important than life.
[ he can't hate her. not when she already looks so sad. not when he knows that she'll have to carry that weight with her for the rest of her life, whether or not she actually killed him. ]
But see? You admitted it. Good for you.
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She wonders if the waters of that lake were as cold as the feeling in her chest now.]
I know.
...I really am the worst.
[For all she called him a creep, a freak... it's not like he ever tried to kill anyone.
Maybe the people at Church were right after all. ...There's no place for sinners like her, there.]
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[ he shakes his head. he doesn't know enough about people to properly judge someone, so he'll simply take it as impartially as he can, like the spectator he is. ]
But if you say that you're the worst... then that means you can only improve, right? Since you've hit rock bottom, then all you can do is go up.
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They're going to hate him for what he's about to say, what he has to say or else he'll choke on it. That's fine by McGillis, he doesn't care to be liked by strangers. ]
Rock bottom? You may mean to comfort her, but she's far from it. Let me give you perspective.
[ He shakes his head and lowers his hand, no longer caring as much if the haze is somehow poisonous. ]
I had friends as well, as a child. Two of them, who adored me. I killed them both. I sent Carta to a battle she could not hope to win - a futile struggle for her honor in which she'd die miserably.
And Gaelio... I killed him myself, with my own hands. I wouldn't have handed that privilege to anybody else. He was my only true friend, in the end.
[ Gaelio isn't actually dead but not for lack of trying on McGillis' part. Thus it feels like a useless side note here.
Cherish your friends, indeed. ]
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