WEEKS 9 & 10

[linkupmods]

WEEKS 9 & 10

AS YOUR BONDS DEEPEN...

The charity event and the dreamscapes have come to an end... and the Fashion District seems a little better than it once was. Your efforts are being recognized, acknowledged by the environment and by Braphine herself. There's still work to be done - the thinning fog allows you to venture even further into the Office District, where there are stronger foes lurking around the corner and in dark alleyways.

Speaking of Braphine, she is pleased by your progress as a group thus far, and has given characters a little blessing: If there is something you've always wanted to tell someone – whether it be how you feel about someone else here, someone at home, a secret you've been holding in, or something else entirely – but have lacked the courage to do so, you may find the strength to say it now. While the God of Conflict forced ugly truths out of you, Braphine would like ones that come from a place of willingness without fear. This sensation will last until the end of your stay here.

How nice, isn't it? To feel like you're finally starting to get somewhere with your fellow Chosen.

The God of Conflict, however, thinks otherwise.

A LOOK IN THE MIRROR...

The world around you has seen a few changes. There are the positives, thanks to your efforts in completing commissions and forming connections, both of which aid Braphine.

However…

If you look in any sort of mirror, window, puddle that will give you your reflection, The God of Conflict is there, looking back at you, gazing at you eerily, freezing you and holding you in place.

"Well, well, well. Fancy running into you here, Chosen. Tell me…do you really believe that you're aiding Braphine in her mission? Do you really think any of the bonds that you've made here matter all that much, so much that it'll stop me, in the end? Don't make me laugh. We'll see how much your flimsy little chains hold up in time."

And then, just like that, he's gone…not without another little gift, though. You will be surrounded by 2-3 Nekyia Shadows once he disappears…in the real world. The Shadows, notably, will not attack unless provoked, and the locals will not be able to see them. As always, the only way you can attack them is through using your Personas; as soon as you engage in combat, you will also disappear to the locals like the Shadows.

For those who decide not to fight them, they will simply stare at you as you leave... but they will each briefly flicker into another form: The God of Conflict. But before you can say a word, they’ll disappear.

However, should you choose to engage in battle with them, any harm done to the environment or the locals themselves through the battle will be tangible. If you slam a Jack Frost into a building, it will leave a dent, in other words. The locals will not be able to see the actual fight, but they will notice the weird explosions and damages happening to them and around them. An important thing to note is that, being outside of the Nekyia, you will drain energy faster as you fight them, but you can defeat them with your Personas as usual otherwise.

THE DARKEST BEFORE DAWN.

So, maybe you didn't spawn a Palace, or even create a weird Nekyia environment like Soujuurou and Joshua have. That, however, does not mean you are free of your Shadow selves.

However, you are trapped with them. If you venture into the Nekyia, every so often when you look over your shoulder, they may be there, watching you, taunting you, following you around, even interacting with people (yourself or others) as if they were corporeal-- blink and you may miss them hovering over your shoulder, and turn the corner and you may just see them in the distance.

What follows your Shadow selves even after you return back to the safety of the dorms are the nightmares... which you find yourself having a little more often than normal. If you happen to stumble into a shared dreamscape, it looks... slightly different from when you last saw it. The nightmares always end the same way, though, even if the dreams are different: your Shadow self is staring back at you, haunting you before you wake up.

For anyone who has already confronted their Shadow selves, however, there is a glimmer of hope. In the Shadow's place is the best version of yourself, reminding you that although this is a nightmare, it does not have to continue forever. You have changed thanks to the people around you. Perhaps this is Braphine's reminder to you that she is still here, and despite her quiet, she's still watching.

Speaking of quiet, though…

…Has anyone checked on Mina lately?

And why does a certain brown cat keep on pacing in the dormitory hallways?

( OOC: A few limitations to keep in mind regarding this prompt:
• Shadows can now appear exclusively in nightmares, in the Nekyia, OR BOTH.
• Since the Dream King has not been vanquished yet, those who want to continue the dreamscape prompt as your nightmares are free to do so (this is optional though). Your Shadows are going to be here regardless!
• In this prompt, Shadows are NOT going to possess any characters. They are haunting you in the Nekyia (and may engage with other player characters, should you desire to go that route)!
• On that note, you can let your Shadows manifest however you'd like – they can yap, they can be completely quiet and stand menacingly, they can appear in quick glimpses and jumpscare you or linger for as long as you're in the Nekyia. They can stick to you or talk to others. Either way, everyone will see each other's Shadows.
• At this time, Shadows cannot be defeated outside of Palaces and mod-run mini-events.
• The same limitations apply to those seeing their best selves over their Shadows. )

WEATHER FORECAST

Balmy weather with a light breeze. Weather looks fair and comfortable for the next two weeks but don't forget to wrap up warmly or risk catching a chill! You wouldn't want to fall sick, would you?

Characters who journey into the Nekyia when it is getting chilly may find that Shadows in combat may be randomly afflicted with Freeze during combat.

COMMISSIONS

REAL WORLD COMMISSIONS

NO HORSING AROUND

The zoo is looking for volunteers! They need hands available to feed and clean up after the petting zoo animals in particular. You won’t be dealing with lions on this job, but you will be face to face with goat kids with a penchant for headbutting, so do take care while you work!

ONE FOR THE BOOKS

A new writer is in town to promote their book at the library! The problem is... very few people signed up for the meet and greet. Library workers are looking for volunteers or, really, anyone off the street who can be convinced to at least attend the poor author’s reading and fill out the room a little. Those who do end up attending will be treated to a reading of a high fantasy tale with romance, trysts, and a surprising number of werewolves, but those who manage to stay attentive may just notice a suspicious individual slipping in partway through... A disgruntled netizen has decided to make a mess of the author’s first meet and greet, and will get violent unless someone stops them.

DABBLING IN DELINQUENCY

Some of the students on the island have decided not to return to the classroom after all - instead roaming in packs around the city and causing general mischief. Try to turn them back on the path of decency! Especially when the boldest of them decide you’re a prime pickpocketing target...

NEKYIA COMMISSIONS

FANDOM WARS

“Disgusting... Anyone could pick up that slop and read all kinds of depraved things... People who write that stuff should just die.”

It seems someone got a little too into fights online about books - because their gripes about today’s tales has created a Shadow in the form of level 39 Thoth in the Nekyia. Worse yet, those who are inflicted by Rage by this Shadow cannot be cured with a simple spell - instead, those afflicted will find themselves venting out their frustrations for their battle companion to hear. The effect ends once the battle is completed, or they finish getting everything off their chest, whichever comes first.

KILL THE LIGHTS

“Don’t they see? There’s so much money to be made! If we just expanded our influence...”

A crooked politician trying to drum up support for military activity has generated quite the shadow. A level 40 Eligor can be found deep in the Nekyia’s business district, muttering to himself about all the profits to be had with a little conflict. Needless to say, things will get very, very bad if he goes through with it - take him down before he can start anything!

HORSING AROUND

The Nekyia business district is overrun with Unicorns teaming up with Ganesha to make quite the formidable team of a fierce fighter and a powerful support. That said, those who defeat the pair may just find that their foes have dropped quite a useful healing item...

(OOC: Please turn in your threads for this commission on the rewards page to receive a Bead Chain, which fully restores HP to all allies (maximum 4 including the user) and is valid for one time use during any battle. This is only valid for the first turn in of the commission.)

OOC

READ ME!!!!

Welcome to your log for Weeks 9 and 10! Feel free to use this log for any developments that happen during the next two weeks. There will be no log next week.
We're heading into endgame and AC is due 30 September, Monday, at 2359 EST! The boon for this month's AC has been updated as well - please have a look!
For plotting, please feel free to head over to this post on the OOC comm to post your plotting top levels.
For Nekyia commissions, you can assume that the Shadows will respawn until they've been beaten enough times to go back to normal.
Palaces are still going strong - sign ups for Atem (here) and Kirumi's (here) capped palaces are still open, and sign ups for our FFA palace will be going up later today.

ic comm | inboxes | ooc comm | full nav

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Comments

[linkupmods]

[ Aaron and the others can see that the heroine has returned! She has a tussle with one of the clowns that is also trying to eat a Jack Frost, and she grabs the nearest object – a wooden chair – and smashes the vampire clown with it.

One of the chair legs breaks, and the chair leg stabs the vampire clown through the chest. The leg immobilizes it and it cannot move. It is still alive, it just can't move at all, minus its eyes, which are darting around frantically. ]

[imperiosity]

[Okay, while that movie action goes on, does anything happen if he goes pokes at the screen? If it's reacting to them, then maybe they can affect what's happening in the movie...?]

MOVIE CLEARED

[linkupmods]

[ nothing happens when aaron pokes at the screen!





the final heroine still dies at the end of the movie, eaten by one of the clown vampires that whooshes back into outer space on his ufo while cackling maniacally.

sad.

however, once the movie finishes and the credits roll, the movie disappears from the screen with a film burn effect.

characters will find themselves thrown into a memory, witnessing it from the owner's perspective: ]

[The air is hot. Stifling. Dry. The dirt of the ground crunches as it grinds under your shoes, skksh, skksh, back and forth as your legs swing idly, kicking up sandy dust you know you'll have to clean off those shoes later. You're sitting on the banister of the house of a friend, after having just visited her family. After having just risked your lives together on some fool's errand - ostensibly to save her little backwater town. Lives risked for the barest scrap of information. It's pitch black out. There's a haze in the distance where the lights of the city pollute the sky, miles away now, while the stars stretch out endlessly above you, visible in the void.]

Say, Chrys, what did y'all come out here with me for, anyway?

What, to the mine? Sure, it was dangerous, but-

[You kind of hate it out here.]

Well, yeah, that too, but... to my town n'all.

[That's fine, they hate you out here, too. You're not one of them, after all. She'd said as much on the way in.]

Because... we're friends, Wendy? Duh?

[Funny, how she doesn't realize she's in a cult.]

Aw, Chrys, it's awful sweet you think that, but we're not.

What?

...Why would you say that?

[First Ann, now Wendy, insisting to the twins that there's no friendship between you all. Ann... makes sense. She believes friends are dangerous - both for yourself and for the one you call friend. Wendy... has been friendly. Outgoing. Has made overtures of care towards everyone in the little coterie... And now this.]

Hah, don't be silly, it's not like you're family or anything. We're just coworkers an' it's not like Evelyn hired us all to be friends, just to protect Al, so what's the big deal?

[Just coworkers, huh.

The air is stiflingly hot. The wood of the banister under your hands is rough. You feel cold, distant, unsurprised by this turn of events.

Skksh, skksh, skksh.]

We don't have to be in your stupid "family" to be friends, Wendy.

[The girl named Chrys - she's not used to this. This hollow feeling of loss, of imagined closeness being so succinctly rebuffed. It's obvious, it shows in how her ponytail fluffs, how her fingers turn to claws, how her hat is knocked askew...

(You're struck by how the soft little bear ears on her head are too cute for the gravity of the situation.)]

...Careful.

[The girl, Wendy's, eyes go dark at the slightest insult to her stupid little cult. But of course, they're just a tight-knit little town. It's no big deal they don't want outsiders visiting - and six of them just showed up out of the blue tonight!

You've visited the family of a coworker. You risked life and limb. For a coworker. You're sitting on the bannister of the porch of the family of a coworker, who you now know were never actually welcoming at all.

The air is stifling.

You've gone cold.

The fight boils away to nothing as Chrys gives up. You see it in her eyes and ache at the familiarity of it. Hope dashed. Budding friendship lost before it had a chance to bloom, burned away in the Nevada desert heat like the fight that never comes to a head.

You, yourself, resolve to only be a consummate professional towards Wendy from this moment forward, because even kindred, it would seem, are unreachable, and isolation is the only friend to an immortal.

Skksh, skksh, skksh.]

[ when the memory ends, each character will find that they have a sharpened wooden stake suddenly in their possession.

the doors are missing from the cinema hall.

weirdly, so is the screen. but what remains is a a dark void with a pinprick of light in the distance.

looks like there's only one way to go. ]

[imperiosity]

[He can't say he relates much to this particular memory, but the idea of having your expectations about someone betrayed, despite them being someone you felt close to -- that he understands quite well, even if ultimately this and that are two different things. There's no reconciliation with this one situation, too.

In any case, once the memory subsides and he finds himself gripping that stake, he pockets it and looks towards the others.]

We all ready?

[He's expecting a fight because that always seems to be the end result of these things anyway!!]

[metagame]

Yes, I think so.

[The memory... No, he shouldn't dwell.

And he knows exactly what a stake can do to a vampire. He doesn't want it... he looks to see if there's a place he can toss it.]