linkingup | Kirumi Tojo's Palace | The Ultimate Maid's Failures

Kirumi Tojo's Palace | The Ultimate Maid's Failures

By now everyone may be used to find themselves in bizarre locations, between going into palaces and visiting Nekyia. It might not come as a surprise that it has happened again.

What might come as a surprise, though...is how empty this place is.

All around you there's nothing more than a large, gray, featureless expanse. In the distance there seem to be bars, curving upwards to gather so, so high above you, possibly hundreds of miles above, so high it’s hard to distinguish.

It’s a cage. So unfathomably large. You could escape, were you to get to the edges of the cage, but...it would take forever. No matter how you look at it, you're trapped. The atmosphere is so...hopeless. Devoid of anything even remotely positive.

Not that you want to hang around for long, do you? After all, this is someone's palace. Not a place to stick around at. What to do, though?

It’s all so...empty. Silent. Featureless. A flat expanse of hard gray tiles.

Gather together, everyone. Gather and choose a direction. North, East, West, South. All directions look completely identical, but could it affect your time in this place, somehow? Probably not. But all treks start with the first step. Perhaps, if you get moving, you'll progress?

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[You're all very kind for keeping Kirumi healed even at a time like this. It doesn't rouse her up, and it might be for the best she doesn't. Kirumi would be, at best, a liability, since her Persona is currently fused with Monokuma. She stays on the ground -- Kirumi has been freed!]

Hey, tin can! Let me gut you like a sardine!

[The Ultimate Maid roars like a bear and attempts to leap onto the Exisal, but even though this is a big hunk of metal, the Ultimate Maid is too large to cling onto it properly. McGillis will be able to maneuver and avoid the grip of its long, sharp claws. (rolled 5) Who in the right mind made Monokuma to have sharp teeth and claws?!

Good news, though: the sight of Yi Sang on the ground, unconscious and on the verge of death, seems to lead to the monster to ignore him. One down, eleven more that need to be killed -- it doesn't bother to give Yi Sang the final push because it wants as many as possible in that state. Lucky Yi Sang!

Being covered with a physical mantle means some will fall onto magical attacks to harm it. Its weakness to fire is already noticed, but wind and ice have decent effectiveness. This creature doesn't resist anything! Crystals of ice from Aubrey's attack gather on its shoulder joints, the threads having a hard time moving over each other when there's ice in the middle. The wind from Aaron's magic scramble some of the enemy, forcing it to gather some energy to coalesce back into its normal shape -- and during that, Monokuma's red jagged eye suddenly becomes visible, near the neck of the monster. Oho!]

Hey, knock that off! [Heat Wave! The Ultimate Maid's arm flails, heated air that somehow is physical damage sweeps the trial room, hitting Aubrey, and missing Sayaka and Aaron, the latter by the skin of his teeth (rolled 8, 14, 10. To Fray, since he has an armor, the creature grabs one of the podiums, intending to use it as a bludgeon against him. Adapt to enemies, is what this thing does! Fortuntely for Fray, the podium misses by quite a bit (rolled 3), pieces of podium blasting nobody nearby such as Argenti. Lucky, all of you! In fact, half of the podium bounces and strikes the Ultimate Maid on its head (rolled 1).

Soujuurou had a terrible time with the reflected physical attack! And the Ultimate Maid is merciless, refusing to give a moment of reprieve. Cackling, it lifts one of the bear claws and brings it down onto Soujuurou, to slam it and him onto the ground! (rolled 14)

Shaking its head, the monster decides to change tactics. The Tetrakarn is gone, deactivated by Yi Sang's attack onto the Ultimate Maid, so it decides it's time to do something new]

A-ha!

[The Ultimate Maid uses Makarakarn, to reflect magical attacks against their users! Not only that, that thing roars, an extremely realistic, irate bear roar that's enough to rattle some people.

Aubrey, Fray, and Argenti have been inflicted with Fear! Attacks won't be impeded, but they'll hesitate and attempt to flee afterwards!

[ McGillis makes an attempt to go and grab Kirumi, but the Ultimate Maid winds up blocking his path, so he is forced to continue circling instead. (7)

In lieu of being able to do something combat-useful here, he at least tosses a Media at Soujuurou, Aubrey, Yi Sang and himself. ]

[ Argenti feels afraid, that sinking feeling in his gut... but he resists (1 = heads), eyes narrowing at the creature.

He has come a long way, he won't stop here, and ...

...

...Argenti's attempt to strike physically is still hampered by Fear, in some way probably, so he misses (8) ]

[ Thanks to Fray, Argenti, Yoon, and McGillis stepping in, Yi Sang can function a little better. He's not at 100%, but he can manage something.

That would be a heal for Soujuurou with Diarama.

As repentance for my sins of shitty bear puns thrown at Tori, bro ain't attacking shit anyways with these aches (1). ]

Edited 2024-10-04 21:50 (UTC)

[ soujuurou is knocked down and he can't even resist when he's being clawed by such a huge thing. he's on the ground gasping, but it's really the bear's roar that makes him freeze in fear despite not being affected any longer by any debuff (7). maybe if he plays dead, the bear will forget about him? ]

[The familiar icy claws of fear tear through him at that sound, even though theoretically he should be fine, as he has fought bears before. He hasn't fought monochrome, people-killing, manipulative, asshole bears before, though, and clearly that is a tremendous difference in this circumstance. It takes a lot to battle through that fear (heads), but Fray manages it and casts another Energy Shower on himself, Argenti, and Aubrey. Fear is only an acceptable emotion when you can control it and turn it into rage, after all.]

[Physical attacks are what she - she herself, Persona or no Persona - excels at, so with Kirumi freed and in the midst of everything else that's going on in the chaos, she darts in to take a hefty vertical sword slash (19) at some of those more brittle spider threads, just narrowly short of the hardest swing she can muster.]

[ Yoon is off the string and unleashed, apparently, because he's going to try to hit that red eye with his hammer (19). This fucking bear, man.

He is so angry. He deems this as an absolutely acceptable time to use violence, so here comes the hammer - the one Monokuma gave him, by the way! ]

Edited 2024-10-04 22:18 (UTC)

[god that rage + tetrakarn combo

Okay, let’s see what he can do here… there’s a Media for Yi Sang, Soujuurou and Aubrey before he moves right back to physical attacks, like a Giant Slice (15) at the newly revealed eye.]

[The Ultimate Maid had been about to knock McGillis over, but the others' attacks distract the creature just in time! The monster is forced to ignore McGillis for the time being, which will enable him to continue his plan. Nice!

Soujuurou being frozen in fear, ironically enough, is pretty effective! This isn't a real bear, but with how the Ultimate Maid is invested in killing people here, when one seems to be on the verge of death it decides to focus on the rest. Seeing Yi Sang standing up again is very frustrating to it, though! The Ultimate Maid tries to ensnare Yi Sang, hooking the threads around Yi Sang and pulling from him, to do the move of slamming Yi Sang against the floor. (rolled 12) Watch out! It'll do that next turn unless Yi Sang or someone helping Yi Sang frees him!

Yoon's attack on the eye makes the Ultimate Maid scream. It's an inhuman scream, synthetic from Monokuma's voice box. There's no trace of Kirumi in that scream even though it comes from something that vaguely resembles Kirumi's uniform. The monster is starting to fray (not to Fray), the attacks starting to take the brunt]

Okay, vermin! I'm starting to get fed up with you all!

[Brandishing one of the podiums, the Ultimate Maid attempts to bludgeon Yoon, Kainé, and Aaron, but it seems Yoon hitting Monokuma's eye near the thing's neck has hurt the Ultimate Maid quite a bit! It's staggering, missing the mark against all three! (rolled 3, 10, 3)

This was a terrible round for the Ultimate Maid!

Makarakarn is still active!]

Edited 2024-10-04 22:26 (UTC)

[ With the other's making good headway on kicking Monokuma's ass, McGillis finally finds an opening to get through to Kirumi. Monokuma may not be focused on hurting her right now, but there is no telling when that will change - after all, the infernal bear knows that saving her is their objective.

So McGillis swoops up Kirumi in the Exisal's arms and then books it as far from the Ultimate Maid as the trial room will let him (14).

He'll join the fight again next round, for now it's time to guard this poor unconscious girl. ]

Enough!

[That monster's going to Fray in a moment when Fray aims a sword slice at that thing's neck, following up on Yoon's effective attack (15)!]

Put an end to it now, while we have the chance!

[ soujuurou does not attack.

instead, he sees yi sang’s situation and moves towards him. with a (4), soujuurou feels that there’s not much that he can do for the other, but that’s no reason to give up. he pulls yi sang out of the strings and shoves him away, uncaring of what happens to him in consequence.

oddly enough, he feels calm. ]

... [ It all happens so very fast, gelling ensnared, then pulled away by a strong arm and shoved away. Is this thanks for healing him? Or something very wrong with Soujuurou. It doesn't matter, he is both grateful for the save and upset. He's had people step in to save him before, when he felt too wrapped up in regrets to do anything to save himself.

He'll do something too, even if it's a bit counterintuitive to that save, sorry Soujuurou. He'll use Maeiha (8 but we're letting it be a fail of thing for fun and profit) to activate Makarakarn's reflect on him, but in doing so remove the shield for the others. Getting hit with Curse damage is fine, he resists it. ]

(no subject)

imperiosity - 2024-10-04 23:31 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

idealitas - 2024-10-04 23:33 (UTC) - Expand

[ Fray may have the same idea as Yoon, and it definitely seemed to work last time. However, he's unsure what the consequence will be, so he preemptively steps in front of Fray to guard him (...1). He will also cast Media on himself, Fray, Soujuurou, and Yi Sang. ]

[It's much easier to fight this thing, in contrast to the poor rolls and AFK debuff that kept even Kainé's most violent attacks from doing much against the earlier stages of this boss battle. There's a tightness in her chest watching everyone leap in to put themselves in someone else's path, and her voice is low from that tightness.]

Give me a break. This isn't a martyr competition.

[We won't talk about the bowl stuff earlier.

There's a weak opening where the Monokuma eye stares out from the maid uniform, but you know what she's sick of? That fucking yapping. So Kainé's Lunge (17) is directed in the general direction of where sound seems to be coming from the monster.]

[ Well, that just pisses him off, to be honest. ]

The only vermin here is you, you ugly, wretched scum.

[ Argenti's shout is loud as the creature dares to stoop low in ensnaring Yi Sang like that. But, suddenly...people are taking action as he is about to turn his spear upon it, making him hesitate first to see what in name of Idrila is going on with his allies. First there's Soujuurou getting in the way, then there's Yoon...defending Fray?

He will then just use Giant Slice (16) on the enemy in hopes of being able to bring it down first before things get extremely out of hand here. Eat shit, Monokuma! ]

Be extinguished by the light of Beauty!

[ Then he sneaks in a Media on to Soujuurou, Yi Sang, and Yoon. You know, just in case. ]

Edited 2024-10-04 22:54 (UTC)

That’s our line, dickwad!

[That scream is really unpleasant though, and it throws him off enough that his attempt to sever the threads tangled around Yi Sang fails (10).]

[McGillis is taking Kirumi away. The sight of the machine moving away with Kirumi catches its attention, and it decides it's time to fry McGillis]

Now you're--

[Whatever the Ultimate Maid was about to say is interrupted by Kainé pretty much breaking Monokuma's voicebox. Oho, good! That's one bother less! Somehow, the voicebox was near the right side of the spider thread's torso -- very unintuitive spot for that. Monokuma really must have gotten blended with the humanoid shape! But she managed to do it, there's the crunch of metal, and Monokuma shuts up. Nice!

But shutting up doesn't stop the thing from attacking McGillis. With a (rolled 12), stomp of one of its feet, flames erupt underneath the Exisal, intending to heat it up! Fry McGillis like a shrimp!

The Ultimate Maid is struck by Fray's and Argenti's slicing attacks, the threads getting cut enough for half of the monster to collapse. It's losing the shape of Kirumi's uniform. The Ultimate Maid now is a shambling thing, that would be shouting with anger if Kainé hadn't broken its voicebox!

Yi Sang gets hit with his own Maeiha, and he's saved by Soujuurou, who gets dragged away. For a moment Soujuurou is suspended in front of the Ultimate Maid, the monster radiating smugness, before it slams Soujuurou against one of the podiums, with enough strength to bend the metal and wood object! Ouch!

Huge tooth-like cones erupt from the mess, and it lunges towards Fray...but Yoon gets in the way, and the thing bites onto Yoon, chomp! Around Yoon, the threads coalesce into a shape more reminiscent of the damn bear, using Yoon to support its own weight, glaring at everyone with evil intent. You can bet he intends to try to shield itself with Yoon!

While it's on Yoon, the damn bear opens its maw wide, a large blast of Megidolaon ready to hit. It misses everyone, since it impacts the floor, but Argenti, as the closest one to it, gets the brunt of the power that attack exudes (rolled 14). Almighty attacks are no joke!]

Edited 2024-10-04 23:33 (UTC)

[Ugh... shaking off the vestiges of fear and pain, just in time to see Yoon get nabbed.]

-! Let him go!

[While she does try to run up to help him out, she can't quite make it past those sharp cones to get to him (9)]

[ (1)

🧍‍♂️ ]

Yoon!

[Oh my god child, do you know what a tank's job is?? It's to take (tank) damage for the party!!! Do not jump in the way of a tankbuster!!!!!

Fray isn't fast enough to defend Yoon, but he's certainly fast enough (and accurate enough) to swing that massive sword at the damn bear, aiming to hit it in the head but not hurt Yoon to hopefully get it to let go (15)!

Oh right, he's going to toss a Diarama Yoon's way as well, because I keep forgetting we can use heals and act.]

Edited 2024-10-04 23:48 (UTC)

[Shalem attempts to save Yoon, but it's completely useless, he just lunges for the kid and whiffs. (7)]

[It's bad. As good as it feels to dismantle this thing bit by annoying bit, three very bad things happen in succession: McGillis is torched, Soujuurou is flung, and Yoon is snatched.

The 7 means that Kainé's continued physical onslaught comes to an unceremonious end.]

Damn it.. Damn it!

[What can she do? She throws a Rakukaja at Yoon, making this the unexpected second time she uses any kind of utility spell on another person in this palace. If he gets hit, even if it takes some of the damage away from the damn bear...it could be enough to shield him.]

[sweet Aidios now there's two people trapped by the bear

Soujuurou will get a Rakukaja in case the monster decides to slam him again, he assumes someone else will have the healing and/or rescue attempt covered. Immediately after that, Aaron runs over to the other person who is trapped.]

Yoon!

[Too bad he's useless because he's not doing anything with that (6)!!]

Edited 2024-10-04 23:45 (UTC)