November Event Log

[kaisoumods]

November Event Log
Dominant Element: Shadow
Waning Element: Light

Full Moon: Novemver 14th - November 16th

※

The final leaves begin falling off the trees as autumn enters its final month. It's getting colder with each night... and unfortunately, with the Shadow element- the nights are ever longer and darker. The darkness on these months almost seem impenetrable, with street lamps not covering nearly as much area as they used to. There's something almost unnatural about this darkness, and you should take are if you go out at night.

Calm Before the Storm

♪- Lazy Afternoons

As Halloween draws to a close, so do all the spooky festivities. Spirit Halloween quickly closes up shop, vanishing once more into the night. Halloween costumes and candy are put on huge discount, for any sweet tooths looking to stockpile on candy for cheap. Now comes the few weeks before Thanksgiving, where shops seem torn about whether its too early or not to start decorating for Christmas, or if they should acknowledge the turkey holiday. As such, the shops will be decorated in a mix of Christmas and Thanksgiving decorations. Turkeys and pilgrims are front and center, but you can't help but notice the Christmas trees inching closer each day.

Knowing that it won't be long until the winter snows set in, Blue Fish Park decides to have one more outdoor event and holds a skateboard competition over the weekend. Anyone who is familiar with how to skateboard can enter into the various competitions to try to win cash or other prizes, while those who wish to learn the craft will be allowed to take free lessons and play around in the safer skating park area. Might be a fun chance for many of you to break out those pizza skateboards you've been holding onto, right?

Looking for an activity that takes you around town? Well Zodiac's got you covered! Due to the success of the #7StarRex challenge, Zodiac has been encouraged to do another challenge, this time by getting sponsoring from a certain mouse-led company. At various business locations, hidden Michael J. Mouse emblems have been placed in unique spots. If you travel around and take photos of enough of them, you could win a prize! Sure, most of them are gift cards to various business and some cheap merch- but a prize is a prize!

However while the normal side of the city is calm, there's an undeniable tension in Undertown and other parts of town that cater to the paranormal crowd. Many of these people remember the one year time limit that they were given last year, and that the time limit is very close to running out. No one is fully sure what to do, or if they wish to believe it. People are trying to avoid starting a panic, but you'll notice that there's many people subtly trying to prepare for the worst by stocking up on supplies and even conveniently choosing now to get out of town. Comforting.

Meteor shower

♪- Simple and Clean (Planitb Remix)

On the evening of November 3rd, anyone with a view of the sky will be surprised to see the sky light up with a massive meteor shower. There was no meteorological forecast that this would happen, which is surprising considering the sheer scale of it. The sky is full of shooting stars, far too many to count. They zoom across the sky in brilliant streaks of light against the extra darkened sky.

It's a truly beautiful sight, one that could possibly make for a great impromptu date night. The meteor shower will last throughout the night, so there's plenty of time to catch it. However, for those who tend to be more on the cautious side.... you can't shake the feeling of unease that comes with the meteor shower. Was this a surprise gift from the heavens? Or were this considered an omen for bad things to come?

The Heartless

♪- Darkness of the Unknown

The following day is seemingly peaceful. Many people are talking about the meteor shower, but things carry on as normal. People still go to work or school, and carry about their day like there's nothing out of the ordinary. Perhaps you can convince yourself that the meteor shower was just a one off strange oddity. Those kinds of things happen all the time in Kaisou, after all.

It's at night, once the sun has set, that all hell breaks loose.

It'll start in the sky. The Spirit Vein that runs across the sky will begin to crack. The cracks will spread across the sky, as if there's glass being shattered, until it breaks open and the Spirit Vein basically covers the entire night sky. And from the Spirit Vein? Will come more flying objects. But unlike the bright meteors of last night, these shooting stars look dark and menacing, crashing on the ground.

And from the spots they fell? Monsters made of pure shadow with yellow eyes will appear. Some of them look cute, while others look much more terrifying. Both kinds are absolutely dangerous, as they will lunge at any living being that comes across their sight. Their goal? To consume hearts, as many as they can. And if there's anything that's unlucky enough to fall prey to the monsters attack, people will see a shadow monster rise in their place- increasing their numbers.

If that wasn't bad enough? They are immune to normal weapons, only getting affected by magic and enchanted weapons. Light is most effective, though most of the other elements will do. The only one who seems to have barely any effect is Shadow, due to them being made from Shadow. Sorry Shadow element folks.

Within minutes, an emergency alert will be broadcasted on the Libra app.

ALERT: HEARTLESS INVASION IN KAISOU
Dominant Element: Shadow
Danger Level: Extremely High
Designation: Kaisou
Zodiac has received reports that Heartless have penetrated the Spirit Realm barrier en mass. Reports of Heartless are coming in from all over the city. Evacuate any civilians to the designated safe zones of Cathedral Hill and Undertown. And under no circumstances, do NOT let the Heartless gain access to Yggdrasil.

Heartless huh? So that's what they're call. Unfortunately there's not much chance to head to the Zodiac offices to gleam more information, what with everyone dealing with the sudden invasion. Grab your best weapons and set out, it's going to be a long night.

Cathedral Hill & Undertown

♪- Traverse Town

There are two places in the city which seem to be holding up against the Heartless attack - Cathedral Hill and Undertown. Normal and supernatural citizens alike flood to towards the areas, seeking sanctuary against the hoards of Heartless attacking the rest of the city. While the call of battle might be too much for some to ignore, others might find their skills best suited here. After all, these people need food, water, a place to sleep - and the safe zones still need to be protected at their borders, in order to keep them safe. It won't do any good if the Heartless breach them after all.

Cathedral Hill is a slew of makeshift shelters. Some people have been able to cram into the shrines and temples, seeking shelter and bundled up in cots or blankets. Tents are pitched amongst the various shrines in the area, dotted amongst them like colorful spots amongst the stone and metal. The cold November weather is not ideal for sleeping outdoors, but needs must. These folks will need blankets and food, fires - the means to stave off the cold. You have a good view of the rest of the city from here, at least, and can watch the chaos hitting the rest of the streets. Perhaps you might want to throw a prayer to one of the gods represented here, you never know if it might give you some help in these dark times. Keep the base of the hill fortified, and the rest should remain intact.

Undertown is less exposed to the elements as Cathedral Hill, and the more supernatural denizens of Kaisou have fled here. Much like Cathedral Hill, they are bundled together in makeshift shelters, in desperate need of supplies. While things such as food, water and blankets will need to be brought underground, Undertown had plenty of magical supplies. Given how these are all that are truly effective against the Heartless, it means you have a safe area to do a quick supply run to. The residents of Undertown are happy to barter these supplies for things they need to help the refugees from the rest of the city piling in. The entryway to Undertown - the subway steps leading down - will need defending, but at least it's a relatively small bottleneck to keep clear. So long as a few people work in shifts, you should be able to keep this place well stocked and well protected.

Shopping Street & Blue Fish Park

♪- Innocent Times

There are Heartless all along Shopping Street and in Blue Fish Park, though unlike other areas these seem remarkably non-violent. If anything, they seem... bored? Seven large Heartless that resemble flans roam Shopping Street and the park, and if you approach them they'll wiggle and clap and then drag you into a game. If you try to attack them instead, they'll just sink into the ground, leaving their invulnerable fruit crown as the only visible part of them until you leave or agree to play.

On Shopping Street, there's three different games you'll be asked to play. There is Poster Duty, where you will be tasked with running (or flying or riding) around the area and putting up posters in specific spots before a timer runs out. There's Photo Time, where you will be tasked with taking photos of the odd little flan-like Heartless and then judged on how good those photos are. Last but certainly not least, there's Cooking With Rats, where all of the various chef rats of Kaisou have gotten together to whip up food for everyone. You will be asked to slice ingredients, flambé food, grind pepper, and crack eggs by the chefs, and will then be judged on your ability to do these tasks by another flan Heartless. Good luck!

In Blue Fish Park, you'll find the other flan Heartless with their own unique set of odd little games. There a Rumble Racing Course, where participants will be given a hovercraft and told to race each other (or other harmless Heartless) around a magically made track that spans across the park and various parts of town. One of the flans will ask you to Stack the Flans and send you around the skate park on a skateboard to stack a bunch of smaller flan Heartless on your head.

Meanwhile, over near the zoo, there is a flan with several mushroom Heartless in a pen. It will task you with playing Whack-a-Shroom, tossing one of the Heartless up so you can hit it and keep it in the air until a timer goes off. As you go, it might even add a second or third to the game! Finally, for those of you who have a lot of frustration to work out, the final flan will hand you a foam bat and send you into the Struggle arena. Whack your opponent with the bat and get all the blue balls that drop to win! Don't ask where they come from.

Once you manage to succeed at their games, the Flantastic Seven will cheer and hand you a strange card. These cards have pictures of locations that don't seem very familiar to you. Though you may not be sure what they're for, you can tell they're important. It'd be best to hold onto to them.... except, once you pocket them? They will vanish, with no trace to where they could have gone.

Strange.

Harbor District

♪- Flags of Fury

You may be forgiven for believing the waters of the harbor are safe from the attacking heartless. Unfortunately, nothing can be further from the truth. The heartless have invaded the harbor waters with their pirate ships manned by, naturally pirate heartless. The heartless are trying to get to Meropide and as a result they're swarming the harbor to gain entrance. Their ships have cannons, of course, which they will fire at anyone who gets close. You will need to take to the air or to the waters yourself to keep them at bay and stop them from completely swamping the fortress. Luckily there are a couple of ships on the harbor you can use, if you want to engage in a sea battle. Try and lure the ships away from the harbor to lessen the damage by cannon fire to the buildings around it and lessen the flow of heartless into Meropide.

You will also find aquatic heartless lurking beneath the depths. They will attack you from the waves, and if you are not careful, they will drag you into the water with them. These are best tackled with those who are strong swimmers, can breathe underwater, or are aquatic monster types themselves. The entrance to the fortress under the water, near to the Krusty Crab, will need to be protected, as the aquatic heartless make a beeline for it, trying to get inside.

The land around the harbor isn't much better off though, as multitudes of heartless run around it, attacking civilians while making their way to the elevator that'll take them down into the fortress, to meet with the heartless who have manifested themselves down there already. At least these require less specialized skills in taking them down than their aquatic brethren, but they are no less a difficult battle to face- if by the sheer volume of them if nothing else. You will need to fight long and hard to keep them at bay.

Fortress of Meropide

♪- Sinister Shadows

And so you make it to the heartless' true goal: The Fortress of Meropide. More specifically, they need to use Meropide to get to their goal: the sluice gate that leads to Yggdrasil. Suddenly it became very clear what they want- they devour hearts, after all, and what bigger heart than the heart of the world?. Yggdrasil is the best way towards that goal. As a result, Meropide will be the place in the city with the heaviest amount of combat.

Coupon Cafeteria

The cafeteria is beset with tiny flying heartless with magical abilities. There are red ones which throw fire at you, blue ones which can cast freezing cold ice blasts at you and yellow ones which cast lightning. There are also black ones which can cast doppelgängers of themselves-shocking you with electricity if you don't hit the real one. Finally green ones are floating nearby, healing their fellow heartless from the wounds inflicted on them. You may need to divide and conquer to battle these particular heartless.

Pankration Arena

In Meropide's fighting arena, you will, indeed, find a fight waiting for you. Enormous heartless patrol this area. While they are fewer in number than their fellows, they make up for in their bulk and strength. They are extremely hard to bring down solo, and can only be attacked from behind. It will likely be a group effort to bring these juggernauts down.

Living Quarters

The living quarters are teeming with regular heartless. These are small and easy enough to defeat alone- but they are in huge numbers. Once you bring one down, it feels like three more take their place. It's easy to become overwhelmed very quickly with them. For some reason, some of the heartless here are dressed up like Christmas presents - those ones are spending a lot of time around Wriothesley's quarters. It's probably nothing to look too deep into.

Production Area

The holding cells of the basement remain, thankfully still guarded, but the rest of the lower levels are being attacked by soldier heartless. These are armored and also come in larger numbers- functioning like an actual battalion- they are smart and seem to have different markings signifying rank, there's definitely one amongst them who seems to be leading the charge. Some even have wings strapped to their backs, allowing them to fly. Thanks to Varian's efforts in working on the factory here, a few guardmeks can join the fight to help. While the factory is nowhere near functioning enough to fight off a whole army, there's enough for two or three of the robots to help out.

Duke's Office

The sluice gate within the office is what leads to Yggdrasil and is what the heartless want As such all heartless types converge into this area. The huge, impressive room is pure chaos and you will have to fight as a team to keep them back from the gate. There's far, far too many to win the battle here. All you can do is hope you can hold them back long enough for the Crystal Tower team to do their thing. It's going to be a long and exhausting battle, to be certain.

The Second Element

♪- Dive into the Heart -Destati- (Third Inception)

No doubt, this fight is a difficult one. Should you find yourself overwhelmed by the heartless, don't lose hope. For some lucky ones, in the moments they're about to fall, time will seem to freeze for them and they'll be pulled into what must be some kind of dream. In this dreamscape, they'll find themselves on a large stained glass pedestal that lights up an endlessly dark area. These color schemes pedestals are fashioned after one of the elements of Kaisou, with motif decorations that reflect whichever element is being represented. In the center of the stained glass portrait, there's one or two central figures. If you find yourself on a pedestal representing Wind, Earth, Water, or Light; the central figure(s) will be Venti, Persephone and Zhongli as a duo, Furina, and a dove respectively. For Fire and Shadow - the central figure is shrouded by their element, unable to be identified.

After you get a moment to take in the scenery, a disembodied voice will speak to you. It'll offer you a power of a new element to save you, but gives an ominous warning that it won't be easy- it'll take a toll on you. Should you agree to take on the power, you'll be bestowed the power of a new element. You'll be walked through the basics of how to use the element- and given some challenges to help you get a handle on it- mostly facing off with some strange looking creatures. After the challenge is done, you'll wake up from the dream, armed with a new power to help you survive this day.

Should you refuse the power or fail the challenges, the stained glass will shatter and you will fall, eventually landing on a much darker stained glass pedestal that has Nito as the central figure. It'll be the last thing you see before your vision goes dark, and the life fades from your body (you die, in other words. Go fill out the death form.).

[OOC Note: Starting now, characters can get a second element! Second elements require 2 points to unlock it, as well as picking some flaws that go along with it. You can learn more information on the Element Regain page.]

Crystal Tower

♪- Disquieting

While everyone is doing their best to fend off the Heartless attack, it's becoming quickly apparent that the Heartless's numbers aren't going to diminish anytime soon, with new Heartless constantly appearing. If Kaisou is to survive this, they need a different solution: a way to restore the barrier that's been broken. Some may recall Wei Wuxian's idea to use the Crystal Tower to create a barrier. Which right now? It's feeling like the best option you got right now.

So when you're ready, it's time to head to the center of town where the Crystal Tower is located. The tower looms large on the landscape as usual, but you can't help but feel like it has an unusual energy radiating from it than normal. When you reach the entrance, just as you're about to open the door, a voice will whisper in you head.

"In this place, to find is to lose and to lose is to find."

There's nothing more reassuring than cryptic voices in your head, right? Well, it's about to get more ominous, as when you step into the tower properly, you'll find that the layout has changed a lot. Gone is the blue crystal halls, instead replaced with hallways of pure white and floating spiraling staircases between each floor. There are heartless roaming the halls, but that's not the biggest worry.

As you make your way up the tower floors, it'll slowly dawn on you that you're forgetting things. It'll start small: the names of acquaintances, what you had for breakfast yesterday, your email password - things that are easy to rationalize as normal to forget. But as you go, your memory will continue to deteriorate. Soon you'll forget more important memories, and even struggle to remember why you came into this place in the first place. All you do know? Is that you need to keep going, you can't turn back.

And if that wasn't difficult enough, for a few of you? Sometimes you will feel like you are starting to remember things, things that you felt you'e long forgotten about and are only remember just now. Many of these memories might cause strife, as you obsess over them. But? Those memories will be false, fabricated by the tower's magic. Not that you have any way of knowing that though.

The Rooms

♪- Sacred Moon

White hallways and architecturally impossible staircases aren't the only features of the tower. As you scale the stairs, eventually you'll come across a blocked door with a card slot. You'll need the card that goes into the slot in order to pass through, but you can't for the life of you remember how to get it.

Luckily, any of your friends participating in the antics in Shopping Street and Blue Fish will have the answer. As the activities get done over there, the cards that vanish will reappear in the tower, either in front of the group or in someone's pocket. Put the card into the card slot, and the door will open up to allow you to the next room.

Inside, will be a very different scenery. You know how your memories have been slowly siphoned in this tower. Well the tower has decided to use some of those memories to create more interesting rooms. The rooms (though some of them do not resemble rooms anymore), will appear as vivid recreations of memories from people's previous life. Sometimes it will stay faithful to the memories, and sometimes it'll take more than a few liberties. Either way, each of these rooms will contain a challenge that must be completed in order to move forward.

Visit Ardyn's room

Visit Byleth's room

Visit Cotton's room

Visit Diarmuid's room

Visit Leon's room

Visit Venti's room

Visit Zhongli's room

Once the challenge of each room is completed, a door on the other end of the room will opening up to another flight of stairs.

The Top of the Tower

♪- Rage Awakened

After you guys have cleared out the previous seven rooms and are finally getting to the near top of the tower, there will be one final special room. When you stand in front of the door, the seven cards will appear in front of the group before spinning together and forming one singular card, with a picture of a wasteland on it.

When you walk through the door, you will in fact be taken to a wasteland. The air is heavy in this place, as if you can feel a sense of sorrow that has long permeated the land. Whatever left this place in such a dismal state? Must've been truly terrible.

There's no one in this room, except for an armored figure that kneels ahead of you, holding onto a strange looking weapon. As you approach the armored figure, it'll move to stand, and as it does so- you realize that it's JUST a suit of armor, with no physical person inside. And yet...

Battle with Lingering Will

After Lingering Will is defeated, you'll be transported out of that wasteland and back into the tower. Except now, the tower is back it's normal crystalline aesthetic. And even better? You find your memories coming back to you. You remember not only your past, but the reason you came to this tower in the first place.

Head up to the roof, where the barrier mechanism is located. Wei Wuxian and his team had done most of the work with the set up, and its had plenty of time to charge, so all you need to do is pull the lever. Though.... hopefully it's the right one, as there's a second identical level that'll open a trap door that drops you to the bottom of the tower (why do we even HAVE that lever?). As it activates, a large honeycomb energy field will form and begin to spread all over the city- encasing it. Those who are able to look at the sky will see the Spirit Vein shrink and return to it's former state, now as it's been reinforced by the barrier. The constant onslaught of arriving Heartless will come to a stop, leaving only the Heartless that were already in the city left.

The Keyhole

♪- Hikari

Now that the tower team has finished their mission, it's time to end this heartless invasion once and for all. Back in the Fortress of Meropide, anyone sensitive to such things will sense a surge of power coming from Yggdrasil. If you had down there, they will see that on the bark of the world tree, a mysterious keyhole has appeared. This is what the Heartless have been after all this time, as this keyhole would lead to the heart of the world itself.

Fortunately, two newer app users will have the means to make sure the Heartless can never reach it. Roxas and Riku, with their keyblades in hand, will use the keyblade's magic to seal the keyhole. When they do so, there will be a locking sound as the keyhole glows then fades away. The heartless, realizing their path to consuming this world is gone, begin to lose focus and instead start wandering about aimlessly. Everyone will still need to clear out the remaining heartless from the city, but between the barrier and the keyhole? The city will be safe from the heartless from now on.

Aftermath

♪- Passion ~After the Battle~

With the barrier up and the keyhole locked, the city is safe from immediate danger. There are still heartless to be found within the city that need to be cleared out, and repairs need to be made to the parts of the city that were damaged- yet you can't help but breath a sigh of relief. You can get some sleep without fearing the world's end, after all.

Though not everything is exactly how it was before. While the barrier does well at covering the city, it falls short on covering things found on the edge of the city- such as Kami State Park and Persephone's cottage. That means these areas of town are fully exposed to the Spirit Realm, and will be more prone to be affected by the oddities it brings (for instance, since when did Kami State Park have a mountain?). Not only that, but people manifesting second elements without help of a past life memories? Is an unheard phenomena in this world. That's something you should probably keep an eye on, moving forward.

But for now, it's time to take a well earned break.

OOC Notes

The dominant element this month is Shadow! Anyone with an affinity to the shadow element will find themselves boosted throughout the month. This could mean a boost to their power, having more energy, feeling more inspired with creativity, having better luck on different attempts -- the boost can manifest in all sorts of different ways. By contrast, anyone with an affinity for Light will be experiencing the opposite. Perhaps their powers will be weaker, they have less energy, they're having a creative block or general worse luck - again it can manifest in all sorts of way and players are free to play with this mechanic as they'd like.

The original OOC plotting post for this event can be found here. There will be a midmonth Zodiac post on the 15th.

Comments

TOWER OBLIVION ROOMS

[kaisoumods]

[This is a space for all the rooms that'll be featured in the tower!]

LEON'S ROOM: WELCOME TO RACCOON CITY

[sg09r]

♪ - Black Impact

Welcome to the Raccoon City Police Department. Once an art museum, it has since been converted into the police station for Raccoon City’s police force, and when you walk inside, you can see the traces of what it used to be in the shine of the marble floors, the fine craftsmanship in the construction, the statue that rises above you in the lobby. What you also see are dead bodies scattered everywhere, all of them in varying states of decay, all of them with blood on their mouths and bits of flesh between their teeth, many of them riddled with bullet holes to the head.

Let me rephrase that welcome, then: Welcome to Raccoon City, in the middle of the zombie apocalypse.

The front doors leading out of the department are locked, and should you take a peek outside a window, you’ll find Heartless shambling around outside, remarkably zombie-like. Maybe it’s best if you stay inside, right? Conveniently, there’s a black box full of supplies next to the desk, and a computer that shows still-working security feeds throughout the police station. An inspection of the central statue reveals three empty slots below it, waiting for three circular tokens of some kind. There is also a notepad lying on the floor, conveniently giving away the locations of the three tokens: a lounge on the second floor next to one of the library entrances, a statue on the second floor of the main hall, and a storage room off in the west hall.

If you’re watching the computers, you might see him quickly enough: a great big trenchcoated monster stalking down a corridor. If you’re not, you’ll see him soon enough anyway, because he will punch through the barrier blocking off the east hall as though it’s made of paper and stomp out into the main hall.

He says nothing, but he looks at you as if assessing you as a threat, and starts casually, calmly walking towards you, fists clenched. If you don’t get out of the way in time, he will punch you so hard you fly across the room and hit a pillar. So, you know: run.

Stand and fight, and you might just be able to temporarily stun him, sending him to one knee for the moment. However, it will take far more effort to take this monster head-on than you can spare, and he will get back up and come after you again if you don’t run fast.

The tokens are easy enough to find: some helpful soul has already gone and solved the puzzles for you, so when you get to the marked locations, you find the medallions in their places just waiting for you to pick them up. Except—

—didn’t you leave the Tyrant in a different room far from here? Didn’t you give him the slip in a corridor in the East Wing, or on the third floor? Why is he now rounding the corner in front of you, winding up a punch?

Just keep running, and never mind if your feet step on a body, or in a pool of blood. If he manages to score a hit on you, get back up fast and bolt in the opposite direction. You run like the wind, like the very devil himself is on your heels, before you burst out of a door and find yourself back in the main hall with the Tyrant still hot on your heels. Slide the medallions into the slots below the goddess statue, and the pedestal will shift and change, the floor collapsing into a set of stairs leading down below to an underground passage. But that will take a minute and the Tyrant is still trying to kill you, so do what you can to survive before the door to the passage swings open and you can scramble gratefully inside, slamming the door shut on the monster just in time.

The secret room you’ve found yourself in looks rather like an office. Take a minute to catch your breath and pick up some of the files lying around, and you’ll find they’re notes and diary entries and logs and other bits of ephemera that all detail the last days of Raccoon City and its inhabitants: the descent into chaos, the maddened zombies, the horror of watching your friends and colleagues tear each other apart in front of you. The final note you read has been torn off a page, and only says:

Be glad you aren’t here, rookie.

You look up. Welcome, Leon is strung up from the ceiling, spattered in blood. A key dangles from the string after the last letter, and a little jump and a quick hand will snag it off the string. You turn to a door beside one of the bookshelves, slide the key into the doorknob, and step through when it swings open.

And you’re back in the castle, as though you never left.

COTTON'S ROOM - MINGLE + NPC OPTIONS AVAILABLE

[creamcottonshepherd]

{LANTERN IN THE SNOW - BGM}

Wherever one expects the door to open, it most likely isn't this. It's outside; cold, with gentle snow falling ever constantly from above as one stands beneath the faint white light of the moon. In this small, small space, one can find peace. A tiny cluster of cottages surround a great, massive pine tree, decorated with countless lanterns, and all about is the feeling of comfort, and home.

Though if one is the sort to catch snowflakes on their tongue, they'll notice it- it's sweet. It's sugar. Just as the wood of each log cabin and tree is of some cake-like material. As the needles themselves are some hardened, crystalized concoction. It's all food of some kind, though there is a pervasive sensation that eating all of this would be ridiculous.

No one simply eats snow and pine needles after all.

One can stay in this area as long as they like. As long as they need, perhaps- it is safe here, in this corner of the 'room'. But stay too long, and the sound of coughing begins to meet the air, rough, and exhausted. It leads to one of the houses- to an open door, from which can be felt warm light, and heat.

But there is nothing inside, and the sound of coughing is gone.

It might be best to grab one of the lanterns off the tree- no, it might even be necessary, if one intends to leave the village...and if a glimpse of the shadowed figures in the distant blizzard isn't enough to convince someone, perhaps the need to get out of this place entirely is. Wherever they're going, is the way out.

Wherever they're going, it's dangerous.

Outside after all, it is dark. Out in the snow one can feel the hostility of the elements, and of the world around them. The wind batters against one's body and seems to pierce to the very jam within. Wild animals seeking easy prey watch from the dark of the woods, and growl in warning. Golems of frosted sugar, and hardened pretzel guards roam any empty expanses, blindly lashing at perceived intruders. To say nothing of the things that shouldn't be here- Heartless, bathed in the black of licorice, occasionally dusted with sprinkles of snow sugar and cinnamon. The far They attack without an ounce of mercy-

But one can persevere. One must. Continue traversing the path after the shadows, and whether through sleet or otherwise, all paths will eventually lead to a clear destination.

The Frost Queen's cavern.

It is cold in here, achingly frigid in fact, every inch of the place covered in pristine ice to the point of becoming a house of mirrors. There are no doors to other chambers, and even the throne itself feels like an after thought- like something the queen has taken for a matter of formality rather than anything else. Near to the throne, and one can see it, illuminated faintly by a strange and mystic glow that harmonizes with the light of any lanterns present- a figure matching the taller of two shadows.

(Pay attention, though- did your eyes deceive you? Are there dolls of yarn along this room? Scarves? Hats? Small, crocheted kittens?)

(Perhaps you were seeing things.)

The Queen does not see who has come into her castle. She will not see, until she has reached the second room. Far, far below behind the throne- down a narrow path of ice that leads to a fathomless chamber. A massive orb of ice hovers there, the light within pulsing like a heart.

It is here that the Queen turns. "Foolishness. Utter foolishness, to roam this snowy barren in your state." She does not look with cruelty, but rather pity. Concern, albeit the concern of one doing their best to avoid attachment. "What has brought you here, with your blind eyes?"

There are no wrong answers, in this place. One can speak with the Queen- learn more about the room, the world, perhaps even themselves. It might end...better, in such a scenario. Or, one could simply refuse her; try to fight, and one will be met with an impassible wall of ice. Say nothing, do nothing, and she will stare just as dully back, until finally slamming her staff upon the ground. As if to say-

'Very well. Not all are fit to face such truths.'

And where the heart of another world once stood, are instead a set of double doors, the faint sound of a song lingering behind.

[[OOC - For those addressing the Frost Queen, please indicate such in tags; as well, notify me in advance if intending to address her with a group, so that a tag order can be established. Beyond this, have fun, and if there are any room specific questions, either contact me in the discord via 'Usagisquared', or message this account!]]

VENTI'S ROOM: MONDSTADT

[venti_late]

♪ - La Signora

As you go through the door, it opens up to a small city in the middle of the night. Stars shine brightly from an alien sky above while a full, blue moon makes its nightly journey. Most of the lights are out, but you can clearly see damage done to the windmills and various houses. It looks like a tornado went through here, though miraculously it seems like the city avoided major damage. Despite that, the lack of people makes it feel like it’s been abandoned. Even though it’s nighttime, it seems like it’s early enough that there should at least be life in the taverns. Both of the major taverns, The Cat’s Tail and The Angel’s Share, have the lights on in their windows, but the door is locked tightly and nobody comes when you knock on the door. You can’t even sense any life behind them. It’s more like… set dressing somehow.

You then begin to feel the wind gently yet urgently pushing at your back, as if to guide you somewhere. For those who can sense magic, they will be able to detect a trail of wind-aspected magic that corresponds to the direction the wind is guiding you towards. Well, perhaps it’s less ‘magic’ and more akin to ‘pure elemental essence’ in nature. Regardless, it seems that it’s heading up the stairs and towards the cathedral.

As you make your way up the steps leading towards the cathedral, you feel an immediate drop in temperature. It’s almost as if the blood within your veins freeze, and… are your eyes playing tricks on you or is there snow gently falling? You hear voices up ahead. One sounds like a woman, slow and unhurried yet with an undertone of malice. The other is shockingly clearer, and also very familiar to those who know Venti. He sounds defiant as he taunts her in turn.

You rush to the top as you see the bard at someone’s mercy, his feet frozen in ice that keeps him bound to the stone, and then she abruptly slaps Venti’s cheek. The mysterious woman then flexes her hand before jabbing it into the bard’s chest. A soft sound of pain escapes Venti instinctively, and as she pulls out her hand to let the Anemo Archon fall to his knees, she holds up an object with triumph and joy. Venti seems to be trying to struggle to get back to his feet—or perhaps he’s trying to retaliate in his own way, but the distance makes it hard to tell. Either way, the woman doesn’t hesitate to kick him in the ribs and send him flying a short distance. Venti doesn’t get up again, eyes closed.

You could move towards the clearly injured bard and try to help him (however, healing magic doesn’t work on him), letting the woman known as La Signora escape. Or… you could fight her. If you go at her intending to fight, La Signora won’t bother with words and will instead begin to aggressively fling spells of fire and ice at you. She’s more interested in escaping with her prize, but it’s clear that you’re dealing with a powerful sorceress with seamless control over two opposing elements.

Once La Signora is dealt with or escapes, Venti will gradually awaken. However, he is able to regain enough strength to answer some questions. In the end, when asked for a way forward, Venti will smile and say, “I’ve already asked a friend. Dvalin will be here about...... Mmm, now!”

As if on cue, an enormous blue dragon lands carefully in front of the cathedral. He’s careful to not crush anybody under foot… or talon, rather. Either way, Dvalin will allow everyone to climb onto his back. He takes off into the sky towards a door suspended midair above the cathedral’s tallest tower. With a mighty roar, he barrels with you through the door. Although Dvalin is unable to leave this place and goes right through it as if he’s a ghost rather than something solid, you do make a cool exit out of here!

{OOC: I will be unavailable to NPC for La Signora, so battling her will be left entirely up to everyone participating in the battle. However, if you would like to converse with Venti, just put "VENTI" into your subject line or as a prompt!}

ARDYN'S ROOM - INSOMNIA

[scourgingstars]

♪ Insomnia Ablaze
The door swings open to a sudden wave of heat and smoke, leading to a street in what looks remarkably like Shinjuku–or did, once. Now, structures lie in ruins as fires smolder and flicker, spread far enough to coat the skyline in a red-orange glow. Fortunate, as that seems to be the only light to be found. Overhead, the skies are a strange green-black, with no stars to be seen and only the barest hint of what could be moonlight far above. A terrible cataclysm struck this city– ‘Insomnia’, or so says the occasional fallen and tattered banner that seems to mark some manner of celebration–its streets marked by smoldering craters, wide slashes cut by sword or claw, even what appear to be crashed airships laying strewn in ruins.

A once grand city is no more than a ruin over which looms a single large citadel, the only lit building in all the city…and despite all the ruin and rubble covering the ground, it seems there is a single clear yet winding path through the streets straight towards that massive structure. For those able to sense magic, there is a sense of something endlessly malicious and unfathomably terrible–and it is everywhere. Floating in the air, soaked into the ground, coating the very sky itself, an unspeakable darkness scourges the very planet without exception. And from that darkness arises a plague of the only living creatures left in grand Insomnia–daemons. Insectoid ahriman moving in swarms of a half-dozen or so, roving groups of chaos-causing salpinx, or if one is particularly careless, a single massive nagarani all manifest from nothing but ambient shadows as one travels further in, all the only sign of activity in a city abandoned by the living and populated by the dead.

♪ Shadowlord
Upon reaching the Citadel itself, the massive iron gates are pushed open to lead to a wide, expansive courtyard littered by colossal blades stabbed into the ground haphazardly. At the foot of the steps leading to the Citadel, in between the swords and in the center of the courtyard stands a single lone figure…and for a moment, one would be forgiven for mistaking him as Noctis. The man before you now is different, however close the surface resemblance may be–he carries himself rigidly, radiating pride that makes him seem a much larger presence than his relatively short frame would appear. Dressed in archaic clothes of black and deep cobalt, at a gesture a magnificent silver and blue greatsword appears in his hand, a tremendous blade held as though it were weightless.

The Founder King of Lucis speaks, steel blue eyes fixed on only one of your number as he raises his sword to point at his target; in answer, an identical weapon of silver and crimson appears in Ardyn’s hand.

“Return to the darkness whence you came.” His voice is cold, impassive; an unfeeling declaration brought down with as much finality as the sword in his hand surely would be. “The daemons can not be allowed to remain in this world. A sinner can not be allowed to sit the throne.”

Whether you choose to interject or fight, it looks like battle is inevitable all the same–the memory of a man who built a city on his brother’s corpse will not simply step aside, and the brother who was cast from grace clearly has no intention of letting him.

♪ Somnus
Once the fight ends and any parting words (or curses, in Ardyn’s case) are exchanged, the spectral memory steps back with a strange expression on his face–sorrow, or perhaps resignation–as he evaporates into crystalline shards of light that vanish like no more than mist. Overhead, the shadow veiling the blighted skies twists and swirls as if it were all just clouds in a storm, then all in a burst of wind clearing away to reveal the deep blues and purples of an early morning sky…with the first glimpse of sunrise slowly beginning to crest a ruined skyline. If one listens very closely, they might even think the faint trace of a gentle melody is carried on the soft breeze of morning.

Where once stood a younger brother is now nothing but a set of double doors. The plague of Insomnia has been cured, and it’s time to move on.

[there will be an npc for the bossfight, but otherwise feel free to mingle/explore/grind daemon heartless all you like. unfortunately, ardyn is also here.]

DIARMUID'S ROOM - FUYUKI 1994

[twofoldfury]

Section 1
♪ - The Battle is to the Strong

Making your way through the door, you’ll find yourself in a city in the dead of night. You seem to be in between buildings half under construction surrounded by industrial bins, standing within the border of one such emptied building and a construction site. The air is cold like you’ve walked right into the winter months without a coat, but more so than normal so it’s likely you’re not too far from water.

Besides that, however, the air seems… still. On edge. As if in anticipation… or like you’ve entered into something you shouldn’t.

In an instant, that changes.

The ground underfoot seems to shake as sounds of combat in the relatively close distance begin. With that shaking ground, some of the construction bins break and some equipment starts falling. If you’re not careful, it could fall right on top of you. On top of that, there are still continuous spawns of Heartless so you need to be quick on your feet and on alert for them.

Those with keen eyes or who opt to linger more towards the gutted building might spot two people, a severely injured resultingly wheelchair bound blonde man and a dark haired man, making some sort of… Negotiation? Interrogation? Pleading noises can be heard, but it all sounded muffled and difficult to make heads or tails of. What was clear was that the dark haired man was clearly the one with the high ground. For a split second, you may catch the sight of someone familiar kneeling before the blonde man in what seemed like just a few moments prior to this. Diarmuid ua Duibhne, being clearly berated and just staying there kneeling and taking it. It didn’t take long for the current moment to solidify again, but by that point the negotiation seemed to already be complete as they were moving out.

Then from a distance a shot from a sniper rifle is fired off directly at your group. You’re being watched and perceived as threats to be neutralized. Proceed and mind where you take cover as you combat the Heartless on the way to the other side. The fallen construction pieces might be useful to you as cover. Provided they don’t crush you.

OPTIONAL: Witness the Honorable Duel

If you’re a proactive sort who wants to stop the collateral damage at its source, all you can do is find it and watch as “Diarmuid” fights with a young woman with blonde hair as a white haired woman stands watching further away. But the blonde woman seemed to only be using one hand and Diarmuid was missing his golden spear. Despite this, as a whole they seem to be enjoying themselves like they’ve been waiting all their lives for such a bout.

Be mindful of your curiosity, though, as getting close means that the sniper will have an easy shot at you. Will you watch the fight to the end with the risks, or retreat? (Roll to dodge and you must roll above 13 to dodge! Hits won’t be fatal but will be debilitating.)

Regardless of what you do, you cannot change fate. The duel will come to a sudden and horrifying halt… you blink once and suddenly Diarmuid’s own spear is pierced through his heart.

Section 2
♪ - Tragedy and Fate

After not long, the distant combat stopped. Abruptly. The air itself shifts like something wasn’t supposed to happen. Then it became heavy as the voice of Diarmuid ua Duibhne, filled with unbridled rage through choked tears, screamed… something.

OPTIONAL (free if first Optional route was taken): Witness the Wrath of Diarmuid

If you were present to watch the duel, you’ll hear him clear as day. Lamenting that this has happened to him again, laying his curse upon the Holy Grail War. Upon The Grail itself, and everyone present.

No matter what you do, you can’t stop this. And even you feel the weight of his rage.

After this point, the air will become heavy like a deep curse has been woven into every step you take. It will become more difficult to dodge the sniper’s rounds and if you’re hit by one or injured by a heartless, it will be harder to heal until you leave this room. (-1 to all dodge rolls. Healing is less effective, but not ineffective!)

Much like the first lord Diarmuid served did not heal him, or even genuinely try to until it was too late, you’ll feel the same. Thus the first step towards the end of the Knights of Fianna was taken. And every scratch and shot you take will be tinged with that resentment.

As you see the end of the room, looking back you’ll hear a repeated series of sniper shots. And the blonde man from the negotiations earlier taking hit after hit after hit while the dark haired man stood off nonchalantly smoking and the other two women present for the duel looked horrified and disgusted. Something was violated, any shred of honor to be had was violated.

Looking back towards the exit after that violent display, between you and the exit there was a shadowy figure, unfamiliar yet no less triggering a fight or flight response in your heart. His features were barely visible but loosely resembled the man scolding “Diarmuid” earlier.

But again, the sniper shots went out. The figure recoiled at the shots and eventually fell just like the other one. But was not dead quite yet. It’s up to you whether you leave him to succumb to his wounds or put him out of his misery and leave without regarding him more than thrice.

Either way, as you exit the figment of the city and enter the Castle Oblivion again…

You can’t help but ponder on how cruel fate can be. And how a 1% chance of a better ending standing among 99% of tragedy is as good as zero.

Nevertheless, you must move on…

((Notes: Encounter as much or as little Heartless as you want when going around this little piece of Fuyuki! Every four tags or so, I’ll be chiming in with a roll from NPC Maiya Hisau in the distance. She cannot be interacted with, found or even seen. The Shadow Servant Fionn Mac Cumhaill does not need to be fought, but you can kick him a few times. Leaving him or mercy killing him won’t affect anything, it’s just a set piece and he cannot be interacted with beyond that.))

BYLETH'S ROOM: GARREG MACH'S HOLY TOMB

[rupturingheaven]

♪ Dwellings of the Ancient Gods (Rain)
When you enter this room, there's something... stagnant, about the air here, as if the room is deep, deep underground. The room is massive, with numerous caskets, and a throne that stands at the opposite end. There's a certain sort of weight to this room that speaks to something ancient. A woman greets you and she smiles kindly. "Are you surprised? This is the Holy Tomb."

Follow her, and she will lead you through the room, past the caskets, speaking all the while of a goddess who created the world, claiming that she and her children are all laid to rest in this tomb. She comes to a stop at the other end of the room, at the throne wrought from stone. "It is said that our creator, the goddess Sothis, sat upon this very throne. Tell me, do you recognize this throne?"

Regardless of the answer you give, the woman smiles warmly, proudly, like a mother who's proud of her child. "I have waited so very long for this day. Sit upon the throne. I have no doubt you will be gifted a revelation from the goddess."

Once anyone sits on the throne... nothing happens, much to the woman's confusion. "It was supposed to be but a step away. What could possibly be missing?" She doesn't get the time to continue dwelling on the apparently failed ritual, however-- those among you with enhanced or superhuman hearing or the ability to sense presences across great distances will be able to sense it first. Looks like this little party has some uninvited guests.

It's confirmed when two notable figures step into the room from the opposite end, accompanied by a contingent of soldiers in black armor (... Those are soldiers, right?). The man steps forward with a sneer. He orders everyone to not move, claiming that your lives are forfeit if you do. He then proceeds to, rather mockingly, thank you for guiding them to the tomb, and says that everything in the tomb is now property of the Imperial army.

As the man snickers, the woman conducting this entire little ritual goes from shocked to livid. "Imperial soldiers? And the Flame Emperor-- So, you've been in league with the Adrestian Empire this entire time--" She snarls, something not quite human about it, but it's perhaps not terribly noticeable in the heat of the moment. "Insolence! You will atone for the sin of trampling on this holy resting place." She whirls towards you. "Destroy these villainous traitors who dare dishonor our creator!"

As the soldiers flood into the tomb, the woman doesn't throw herself into the fray, not when there's perfectly capable fighters right there. Though, the particularly sharp might notice that she's not nearly as helpless as her disinclination to join the fight might indicate. Not that it matters now. "I will not allow such violence from the Empire! Strike down the rebels and protect the Holy Tomb!"

The two figures who came in with the soldiers shout for the soldiers to steal "Crest Stones" from the caskets, which only serves to anger the woman further. She shouts for you to protect these Crest Stones. There's no time to ask what on earth a Crest Stone even is before things descend into chaos and fighting-- get in there and drive off these invaders!

♪ Dwellings of the Ancient Gods (Thunder)
The soldiers--Heartless? Soldiers who happen to be Heartless? Heartless that take the form of soldiers?--aren't much of a threat individually. Most will attack first, but some will prioritize going for the caskets throughout the tomb and stealing the Crest Stones from within before attempting to flee, and will only fight back if directly engaged. Some will use conventional weaponry to fight back, like swords, lances, axes, or bows, and some might use magic, but some will definitely use things like claws--especially the ones going after the Crest Stones in the caskets. Odd, but probably not something to dwell on in the immediate moment. More importantly, while these guys aren't much of a threat on their own, the same can't be said for when they work in groups (though they don't seem to do so well...). Don't get ganged up on!

The bigger immediate threats here are the two... what are those, actually? Those may have been enemy soldiers before, but gods only know what they might be now, other than "mindless killing machines" and "bent on destruction". Even worse, they're remarkably tough to bring down, with both tough hides and powerful attacks--these in particular seem to favor a fire breath that saps strength and defensive power. It's inadvisable to take on one of these alone, but surely working in a group to take them down isn't that difficult? ... Right?

Which brings us to the two who started this entire mess. The man is a slippery target, though not impossible to pin down. He strikes swiftly and with deadly precision, wielding a blade coated in poison. He can't stand up to many attacks, though, and seems a bit more vulnerable to magic. The other figure, the one the woman identified as the Flame Emperor, seems to favor heavier strikes with an axe, and is tougher to take down, especially with physical attacks. Their strikes can temporarily sap both strength and magical power, so be careful! That being said, they're not especially light on their feet and are incredibly vulnerable to magic, so perhaps you can take advantage of that as you fight.

Eventually, the soldiers and Heartless are cleared out, the assassin is struck down and the Flame Emperor is soundly defeated. One strike, however, has broken the Flame Emperor's mask to reveal a young woman beneath. The other woman, the one who conducted this ritual and largely stayed out of the battle, is somehow simultaneously shocked, even more furious, and deeply disappointed, saying as much as well as calling the young woman by name--Edelgard. She can't believe that a descendant of House Hresvelg would betray the church, and turns to you to demand Edelgard to be struck down for good.

Of course things can't go that smoothly, with Edelgard announcing that she will retreat and telling you that the next time you and her meet, it will be on the battlefield. Before anyone else can act, she's called someone named Hubert to her side. He's there in the blink of an eye, and just as swiftly, the two have teleported away.

Needless to say, the woman is furious. "To flee is futile, wicked girl. The Church of Seiros will raise its entire army against you, until you have been captured and punished! You have defiled the Holy Tomb, dishonored the goddess, and humiliated your brethren. That crime will never be erased, even if you burn in the eternal flames, and spill all of your blood into the goddess's soil!"

... Which is a totally normal and hinged thing to say, yep.

She motions for you to follow once more--it's time to return and decide upon the next course of action. But as you step through the door you entered from... Well, the woman was correct in saying that it was time to return, but you have something else to do, and it's time to return to that.

Isn't it?

[OOC: I'll be NPCing the Flame Emperor for that specific confrontation, but other than that, feel free to NPC Metodey for the purpose of clowning on him. Rhea will not be available as an NPC here.]

Jill de Rolo | FF16 | OTA

[temperedbyice]

[Jill awakens to the sounds of combat.]

[It's strange to be awake after sleeping for so long. Whatever part of Jill wants to stay asleep is quickly outweighed by the part of her that wants to survive and escape.]

[She quickly grabs the first weapon she can find, and then she starts to run. Anything in her way she'll cut down.]

[Pankration Arena]

[When she first finds proof of life, Jill expects Black Order sentries. Instead, she gets giant monsters.]

[She should probably mind this, but after being put to sleep, Jill has a lot of pent up rage. And killing monsters is a lot easier to stomach than killing actual human beings.]

[Jill engages with the larger beasts, using her ice magic to trap them in place. Unfortunately, she just woke up from the danger nap, and that's all she can do. Anyone want to lend her a hand?]

[Coupon Cafeteria]

[Eventually, Jill manages to find her way out of the arena. The next place she stops is the Coupon Cafeteria.]

[These heartless are much smaller, and much easier for her to deal with. At least, that would be the case if she wasn't outnumbered.]

[Jill is using her ice magic to try to strike the heartless down, prioritizing the red ones. Anyone who comes upon the scene may find Jill floating in midair as she avoids the magic attacks, but surely that is just a trick of the light?]

[Unfortunately, there are too many attacks coming for her to deal with at once. She can shoot all the ice she wishes at the heartless, but each strike only does so much damage, and there are so, so many of them.]

[Help a girl out?]

[OTA]

[If you want to run into Jill elsewhere in the Fortress, feel free! She's a little lost atm.]

coupon cafeteria

[whitestonelives]

[Bang.

Percy's down here mostly to check on Yggdrasil, because as part of the Zodiac team that helped with that whole mess, he feels some responsibility for at least making sure it's fine. So when the Heartless come crashing in, he finds himself right in the thick of it.

Right now he's reloading Animus with a muttered curse, but when he spots someone shooting ice at the monsters—can't tell who it is, their movements are blurry and his glasses are knocked askew—he flicks open a lighter and draws the flame around his hand, before miming a gun with his fingers and "firing" the tiny flame at the nearest Heartless.

It's not much, but it catches their attention, just in time for the actual bullets from Animus to start flying, imbued with flame.]

That's not fair, is it, considering how many there are of you shadowy little beasts?

Eren Jeager | Attack on Titan

[liberios]

OPEN

1. [After arriving in the Fortress Eren decided to prepare some meals for the evening. He knows how to cook from being with the scouts and he has knowledge of survival skills. The meals he’s preparing aren’t anything fancy but they’re warm and filling. He reaches over to cut another potato with his knife in the kitchen. He wore an apron while he cooked and it made him seem like a proper chef. ]

This should be good for the evening. Are you hungry yet?

[It’s almost meal time and the sounds of growling stomachs could be heard.]

2. [It’s a familiar scene. A scene so maddening that it makes him want to scream. Eren grit his teeth and clenched his fist together as he walked down the street. He really hated seeing this sight. People are being attacked by monsters without any mercy. His expression darkens with fiery fury. His breathing becomes tense and his eyes are focused on the situation before him. Eren took a step forward full of determination to set the score straight. He won’t back down from this one. It hasn’t been all that long since Eren arrived in this city but the people were kind. That makes him even more frustrated. Why did things have to turn out like this? ]

[Eren had a bad feeling from earlier when he was told something big would be coming. All of his worst fears came to life in an instant. He takes his blade and draws it without any hesitation. Eren takes a familiar battle stance and strikes at the heartless with his blade. He’s a skilled fighter especially and his movements are quick and decisive. ]

I’ll destroy them!

[The heartless seem to be overwhelming Eren by their sheer numbers. He could use some help!]

Closed to Knuckles and Takame

[Eren just kept rushing ahead without caring about how tired he was. Sweat dripped from his forehead as he ran. Mysterious shadow-like creatures emerged from darkness.
The heartless were dangerous and he had very little experience with magic. The only thing he could rely on was his own intuition. ]

[He looked at the crowd and he could recognize familiar faces. Both Takame and Knuckles were nearby. From what he knew, they were strong. He respected that about them. Eren walked over to them while with a serious expression on his face. ]

Everything went to hell! We should probably stick together before things get worse.

[ feel free to hit me up on springbloom ]

[ampersand_me]

Knuckles' first reaction to the invading horde had, naturally, been to try and fight it. Unfortunately for him, his fists alone weren't up to the job, meaning he was going to have to get creative.

And/or have some backup. Lucky for him it seems backup's nearby, huh?

"These foes are not so easily defeated, yes. Have you found any weakness in them?"

Roxas | Kingdom Hearts | OTA

[thirteenth]

{Recreation: Blue Fish Park; Challenge The Master}

[ Yeah, how was he gonna pass up a skateboarding competition? Roxas will be spending as much time as possible at this park on the day of the competition, both helping people learn as a volunteer and competing in some of (but not all of) the events. Anyone is welcome to come get lessons, or try to beat him! It will probably be talked about that a famous skater is here and giving lessons, anyway.

[ For anyone who wants to watch him skate, they'll find Roxas in his element, so much so that he's in a near-meditative state with it. He's gained the ability to manifest light, and that's just kind of... happening. Sparks of light flutter in the air behind him, bursting in little pops at the peaks of his turns like effects in a video game. It's harmless, and none of the normal people can see it, so... he might as well practice, right? ]

{Recreation: Hidden Michaels; Hobby on Display}

[ In the evening on the 2nd, Roxas can be found casually boarding around the city with his camera around his neck, stopping wherever he can find the hidden symbols and making sure to get the best angle he can on them. He doesn't intend to be the first person to get them all, obviously, with how late into the day he's getting into it, but he does mean to get all of them.

[ Anyone who catches him doing this will find him taking careful care with the pictures; he's not using his phone for this. There is no "snap the pic and move on" with this kid. Someone's got a hobby! ]

{Recreation: Meteor Shower; End of the Day? Pretty Sky}

[ For Roxas, this feels.. different. All of the past week or so has been violently strange for him, learning new abilities and seeing an entire other world overlaid on the one he's always known. That's what he attributes the anxiety around this meteor shower to, but it hasn't stopped him from sitting on the highest part of the jungle gym in a local park to watch it with as little light around him as possible for where he is right now.

[ Not that he needs it; light pollution doesn't seem to bother the sky much these days. But it's still a nice place to be alone, and to take in the beauty of what's happening. It feels ominous, but everything has, lately. He's tired from the skateboarding competition, but he can't pass up this opportunity. Anyone on a late-night walk might catch him sitting and staring at the sky, occasionally raising a camera to the skyline of the buildings nearby to catch the juxtaposition of normal city life and the insanity they live in on top of it. ]

{Battle: The Heartless; Darkness Falls}

[ When the sky breaks, Roxas is walking home. He's one of many on the streets, watching the darkness fall from the sky like ichorous rain. It hits the ground in front of him, and as he's hearing people start to shout, his eyes are fixed on the swirling pool, watching odd shapes form and rise out of it like inky steam.

[ By the time he sees glowing yellow eyes, the first person screams in actual pain. Roxas' head whips to try to see what's happened, and the Soldier that's risen out of the darkness jumps at him. He notices just in time to react, lifting his hand up as if he'll be able to catch the claws of the monster, and as if reacting to the entity in front of him, Oathkeeper appears in his hand, and the claws catch against its blade.

[ After a moment of struggling with force, Roxas is able to push the blade forward, cutting through the Heartless and releasing some kind of little glowing heart into the air. Just then, his phone is going off with the alert from Zodiac. These are Heartless. People need help.

[ And he just cut one clean in half.

[ Once he's gotten his bearings, he realizes that what he's holding isn't just an annoying key that's overeager to unlock his front door. It's a weapon, and he's going to use it. So anyone in his vicinity is going to find him clumsily but fiercely doing everything he can to fight the Heartless away from any unarmed civilians. ]

{Free For All}

[ Feel free to hit Roxas up for any threads you'd like that fall outside these prompts! His top-level for the keyhole will come later. ]

Battle

[prunedworlds]

Ritsuka was, still, not the best equipped for battle. Certainly she could now summon lightning, or shoot a gandr, but she had no particular talent for actual armed combat.

That didn't stop her from getting into the thick of things, however, with her teleportation letting her help evacuate noncombatants, and lending the skills she did have to other fighters. Such as when she spotted the kid slashing around with his oddly-shaped weapon.

'To your left and behind you!" she called out quickly before returning her attention to her own immediate surroundings. Her focused expression and white uniform-clad form doubtless seemed a far cry from the enthusiastic and cheerful young woman he'd spoken to on the network before.

Varian | Tangled | OTA

[droptheious]

Production Area

[Varian remains in the Fortress of Meropide during the assault. It's his weekend home, after all, and it's where his boyfriend lives- it feels the right place to stay and fortify. He remains on the factory floor, where he's trying to keep the Gardemeks running. He's not got the factory running anywhere near full force, yet- being kidnapped, murdered and having a bit of a breakdown about that for the vast majority of a month really does put a dampener on your extracurriculars, it turns out!

Whenever one of the Gardemeks takes damage, he's programmed it to come to him for repair. He's only got a limited number of them to work with, after all. They can't do a whole lot against the heartless anyway, they're more a distraction to give the magic users here a chance to attack the hartless. He can be found by one of the workstations, feverishly putting together broken robot parts, occasionally sweeping his hand upwards to create a rock force-field around him to protect himself from the heartless onslaught.]

These guys just aren't giving up, are they? How are there so many?

Bad moon rising

[He's been doing relatively okay after the Event Horizon. He really has been. Jun had taken him off to Hyrule and he'd been able to decompress and try to process it all and he'd honestly thought he'd been turning a corner with it. Unfortunately, Varian does tend to try and charge onwards regardless and he might not be as completely okay with everything as he's convinced himself otherwise.

So when one of the heartless manages to get the jump on him from behind, making a grab for the back of his neck, he's suddenly taken right back to the Horizon, with Kni's hands around his throat, ready to twist and snap his neck like a twig. It's just a moment, but it's enough to set off a panic attack. His flight or fight response well and truly activated, he abruptly shifts into his werewolf form, eyes wide and unseeing, snarling at snapping at the heartless on his back, trying to rip it off him. He doesn't seem at all focused on where he is right now, he's just a panicked, cornered wild animal as the heartless get ever closer.]

Wildcard
[ Want something else? Let me know! ]

Production Area

[whiteshroud]

[Being what it is, Jun has been in the thick of the fighting from the moment this started. One-on-one, the heartless aren't difficult for Jun- his powers cut through them easily. What was more troublesome was the sheer volume of them. Every time Jun feels like he's cleared out one area, more heartless fill up another.

And of course, considering after the Event Horizon? Jun is concerned about his boyfriend. Every time he does a sweep of the fortress, he's coming to check on him.

Just like now. The heartless that was trying to get through Varian's forcefield? Gets immediately impaled by a light arrow as Jun approaches]

Var! You alright?

[He'll pull down his hood as he heads over to him. While Jun doesn't have anything more than a few scratches on him, it's clear he's starting to get worn down energy wise. They've been at this for hours.]

Waver Velvet | fate/ servantswap au | ota

[fionnuisce]

[i; hitoshirezu]

[Having worked with Wei Wuxian on setting up the barrier, of course Waver would have come to the Crystal Tower. As a result, he of course came in his full dressphere, taking shots at smaller Heartless as he went.]

[...And the further he traveled, the stranger that felt to him. Since when was he a frontline combatant?]

['So it's true you were part of a Holy Grail War.'
'...I simply witnessed it. I didn't fight at all.']

[A voice he recognized--though he couldn't place it--and a conversation that Waver couldn't say he fully recalled. When had that happened and where? Who...who had he been speaking with? And why did his own words in his head sound so wrong? Of course he'd fought, he'd risked his life with Ri--with Lancer, what on earth was happening here?]

['To find is to lose and to lose is to find'--whatever was happening, there could be no going back. Scowling to himself, Waver dug through his pockets and took out a pen, hastily writing a short few words on the palm of his hand. The smallest failsafe, just in case things got worse.]

[ii; my heart's a battleground]

[But of course, things always got worse before they got better. By the time he'd passed through the room formed of Diarmuid's memories, Waver's own were in utter and conflicting chaos. Logically, he could recognize the academic presence of Second Magic in dozens of events that could not possibly all have taken place.]

[But then...which ones were real? Which ones were his own, and why couldn't he remember any real detail that would give him any clarity as to which Lord El-Melloi II he really was?]

[iii; wildcard]
[aftermath, whatever else we're feeling, i'm good for anything]

i

[centralfiction]

[Kind of a sad day when the most familiar thing to one of the people who came with the Tower storming team was not remembering a thing. A couple of loose things here and there but nothing connected and the more they went up the more even those threads frayed.

Granted, with those fraying threads came less baggage and tendency to ignore his fellow Tower goers. Specifically the one who looked like if you shook him a little he'd snap like a twig.]

Holding out so far. [More of a statement in a subtly impressed tone. But they had a long way to go. But seeing him dig a pen out made him feel a little ridiculous.] Tch, I should've thought of that.

Ragna the Bloodedge (Ragna Mercurisson) | BlazBlue

[centralfiction]

i. assigned family by employment

[Son of a bitch, it was only a matter of time before everything went to shit. And once Ragna realized these Heartless or whatever they’re called (stupid name in his opinion) were headed towards Meropide, of course he was going to chase after them.

For all sorts of reasons, not the least of which there are people living there.

This is why he pacted with Venti. Among other reasons.

So anyone within Meropide will find Ragna in the middle of the fray, keeping the Heartless out of the residential areas primarily.]

ii. assigned friend by memory loss

[Finding out the Heartless can stop spawning if they go up the Tower, Ragna made his way up there too. In between all of these hot messes of rooms, more of what Ragna new started to slip.

Even his name after not long at all. Something was on the tip of his tongue… Edgy? Edgeblood? Tsuki? Where the hell’d the moon come into play? Ru-something?

It didn’t bother him as much as it should be occasionally he’d swear to himself as something that was important was out of his reach that he desperately wanted to grab.]

Goddammit. [Maybe he won’t dismissed if approached without the reasons he kept people away, his memories.]

iii. assigned cousins by bon and fae. voice; un: ragna (closed to wanderer)

[Before Ragna went into the Meropide or the Tower, as soon as the Heartless began to swarm, Kuni will receive a call.]

Where are you? Fucking tell me you’re somewhere safe.

iv. assigned wildcard by i forgor

[[ you know the drill. make him to mini games or something it’ll be funny. ]]

iii

[threebetrayals]

[There is the sound of wind rushing past as Kuni answers.]

Where the fuck is safe, Tsuki?

Ghilley Adair | FFXIV OC | ota!

[tonberrykin]

one; in the Fortress

one.a: text; un: DOINK!!!, open to the Meropide group chat
hey girlies not to alarm anyone but asking for a friend the friend is me can anybody bless my axe
on one hand the axe is doing the best a little chainsaw axe can do
on the other hand magic makes more of a dent in these wiggly little assholes and im not so hot on the spellcasting unless it's powerword: molotov

one.b: action
[ now this? this is familiar.

it's so blessedly familiar that it's easy to push away the Implications of what might happen if the little blobs manage to break the lines of resistance that they're carefully maintaining; failure is always a possibility so it's easy to lock it into its little box and focus on the here and now. the world is the rumble of a magitek motor and weird little fellas paffing off into the whatever the hell they came from while Ghilley chants strange little songs just under his breath as he swings his axe and throws himself about to dodge the magic and claws being swung at him. ]

Should've picked up a shield, should've picked up a shield, think about my uptime, should've picked up a shield~

[ unfortunately Paladins have like, convictions and shit, whereas Warriors just need to be mad enough to make things work--and one of those was easier than the other. so an axe'ing does Ghilley go, a little bit of everywhere in the Fortress as things call for it. ]

two; outside of the Fortress

minigames time

[ any successful siege defense is, of course, done on the strength of one's supplies alone. by hook or crook (and with just a little disregard for his own personal safety), Ghilley will sneak his way out of the Fortress to pick up More Stuff for the people holding the line below.

... and if the weird little Heartless games just happen to be on his way to buying enough protein bars to choke a horse, then so be it.

he's surprisingly deft at Rat Cooking Time; cooking is soothing in a lot of ways and he knows his way around blades of all sorts of shapes and sizes. go heavy on the spice and dial up the fir, babyyyy. ]

If I knew what a julienne was, I'd be dangerous. [ he's probably a little too into the fire portions of the evening.

it's also interesting playing at the other games that the jiggly little... custard babies... have on tap, even if it's a little more menial--he can hang posters with the best of them, though his driving leaves a lot to be desired, and well. if you want to Struggle with him, he'll do it. anybody remember fighting Oddjob in Goldeneye 64, though? asking for a friend. ]

rat cooking time

[greatlydares]

[Belle leaves Eous to watch the oven for a bit—it’ll tell her when the baked mac’s done—and wanders over to Ghilley to watch him work. She taps a finger against the shell of her ear, thinking.]

I can show you how to julienne if you’d like. I’m not a half-bad cook!

Ritsuka Fujimaru | Fate/Grand Order | open!

[prunedworlds]

[I. Shuttle Service]

Having been here a year, Ritsuka was familiar with quite a bit of the city. Being light element, she was able to teleport. Both of which combined meant that, aside from occasional supply runs or simply blinking from one place to another herself, she was keeping an extra eye out for anyone in danger who might be in need of a quick escape. Whether it was someone who'd called for help or that she just happened to look in need of a hand, she didn't hesitate to intervene where she could.

"Over here! I can get us out of here!"

Alternatively, if you were already in one of the safe locations and simply needed to get to another? She'd be more than happy to help there, too!


[II. A Hyrule Interlude]

Of course, if anyone really wanted to get away from the chaos, Ritsuka had another suggestion: why not stay in Hyrule for a bit? She could even make sure one got some of the key shrines registered to come and go between too, at least, and knew of a good out of the way hideaway or two.

"You should be safe from those things here... Just, uh, be extra careful if you go outside at night, you know?"


[III. Tower Oblivion]

Having her memory tampered with--or even wiped completely--wasn't anything new for Ritsuka. Between that and her sheer determination, she wasn't about to let that stop her from continuing to climb and fight her way up the tower.

But that could only go so far, and while she might have seemed plenty focused in combat or danger, outside of that... well. Expect some confused looks and confusing remarks as she grasped for memories that simply weren't there.

"There's really no choice but to keep going though, huh?"


[Wildcard]

Have another idea? Want to do a sidequest or aftermath thread? Feel free to message me in PM or on discord (Altocumulus) to plot, or just throw a tag my way!

III. Tower Oblivion;

[ganymed]

"...There is," Ganymede says simply.

There's a lot not to like about the situation. He isn't going to lie, the whole memory thing starting to frustrate him rather than completely confuse him.

In fact, it makes him more huffy. Far more irritable.

He just wants to be done with this stupidity already. "I can't believe we're having to put up with whatever is happening around here. I don't understand anything at all..."

The reason he came here? Definitely already lost to the wind.

Beredvyn of Nal (Meredith Nelson) | OC | open!

[thewarriorqueen]

[I. Fighting in the City]

For much of the initial part of the invasion, Meredith could be found around the city, fighting off heartless where she found them, and helping out anyone who looked like they might need it. Or even sometimes if they didn't, but an extra blade might get the job done faster.

"Need a hand?"

But the problem with being able to take a lot of hits, however, was that sometimes what was needed against an endless horde was a stronger offense. Which was to say, despite her best efforts, there was always that possibility of getting a bit overwhelmed...

"A little help here??"


[II. Puzzle Time]

And then there were the... challenges? Whatever they were, that the weird nonaggressive heartless were setting up. Meredith, quite frankly, looked rather like she wasn't sure what to make of what she was hearing.

"You've got to be kidding me..."


[III. Warrior Queen]

Sooner or later, though, it became clear that something needed to be done about the tower specifically. And so here she was, doing her part in it. Except that, well, like everyone else, it didn't take long for her memories to become rather fuzzy. And it only got worse the further she went. There was probably no point in turning back, but...

She frowned, looking about. She didn't recognize this place or these people. Some vague sense told her she was here for a reason, that reason having to do with reaching the top of the tower, but beyond that, well. The one thing that was clear to her was that those shadowy monsters (some kind of fay, perhaps?) were a threat that needed to be taken out if anyone was to proceed.

"There may be many of them, but they seem largely mindless. We can dispatch them quickly if we attack together."


[Wildcard]

Have another idea? Want to do a sidequest or aftermath thread? Feel free to message me in PM or on discord (Altocumulus) to plot, or just throw a tag my way!

warrior queen

[illucesco]

A shield glimmers into existence, and Noctis eyes the Heartless warily. If he remembers correctly, and that's not a guarantee in this tower, these aren't like daemons. They won't fall to just a flash of light, they need a lot more effort, a lot more magic. He pulls an ice bomb off his belt.

"Back up a bit, Miss," he says. Once she does, he's going to lob it at the Heartless, and watch as it explodes into frost and snow, catching the Heartless and freezing them down to their core.

Riku Sekido | Kingdom Hearts | OTA!

[fightbydawn]

『When You Wish Upon A Star』

[fightbydawn]

Meteor Shower
[The instant the stars started falling, Riku could feel his stomach start to drop. While he's not one hundred percent why, he can't shake the memory of growing up on another beach in another world, laying in silence on the sand, a warm hand clutched securely in his own, watching the stars begin to blink out of existence in the sky above.

Unsettled, he's found his way to this world's beach, lines of light streaking endlessly through the sky, still caught somewhere between appreciation of the sight and endless anxiety flowing forth from a life half remembered.

In the end, it's all Riku can do to find a secluded section of shoreline near the harbor, tucked away from the other people out and enjoying the strangeness in the sky, in order to let a little friend out of her pokeball.

That night, Riku can be found racing his noibat up and down the shoreline, laughing as the competition begins to drown out the anxiety, laying in the sand as his bat flies back and forth, collecting any interesting bits of sticks, rocks, and sea glass she finds, or sitting and staring out at the stars pouring down and past the horizon line out at sea, his chin resting on a fuzzy head as Komory naps in his lap.

Maybe, just maybe, this isn't the herald of misfortune he thinks it could be.]

Edward Kenway | Assassin's Creed

[jackdawvision]

[gemini network | un: captainkenway]

Need help at the harbor: got ships on the horizon and they're flying flags I don't recognize. The symbols on their sails ain't anything I know either.

I'll be at the Jackdaw's wheel. I've loaded up mortars and cannonballs for my Jackdaw and the Morrigan. Get here now.

[HARBOR FIGHT]

[a. There's something clean about a battle between ships.

All right, there's nothing actually clean about it, but in Edward's view, there's something simple about it. At the heart of it, it's just outmaneuvering your opponent and then firing back, and if you can dodge their mortars and keep out of their cannonballs' range that's an easy enough task. Edward's good at it. He's done it for years.

With the wind filling her sails, the Jackdaw skirts around one of the other pirate ships, now disabled after a round of mortars and cannon shot and a very reckless ramming. Draws closer. Edward calls out:]

I'll bring us up alongside her! Show them no quarter!

[b. In the aftermath of the fighting, the Jackdaw pulls up next to the Morrigan, and Edward finally lets go of the ship's wheel and moves over to the side of the deck. He doesn't jump over to the other ship, although he's more than capable of it, this close. He just leans on the railing.]

Everyone over there doing all right, then? Any injuries? I have some bandages and supplies in my cabin if we're in need of any.

Gemini - text, un: dancediva

[dancedwithplenty]

Ships too?!? NOW?!!?

Shadow-like things are already crawling all over the city. AGAIN D:

afraid idk anything about sailing, tho

Knuckles the Echida | Sonic the Hedgehog (movie-verse) | Open!

[ampersand_me]

[I. Shooting Stars]

If you happen to be passing through the park at the right time on the evening of the meteor shower, you might be able to spot a rare sight indeed: a certain echidna just... sort of sitting there, staring at the sky. Not picking any fights, perhaps not even noticing (yet) that he had company.

Though, was a small cloud of some sort hovering over his head? Maybe it was just a trick of the light, it was pretty dark out, being night and all...


[II. Games Galore]

While the fight was clearly what Knuckles was here for, he was not entirely opposed to other things.

Well, he may have tried to fight the flan heartless a few times anyway before realizing it was a futile endeavor, but.

In any case, since defeating someone at a game was almost as good as doing so in battle if you squinted a little, Knuckles was at least giving a try. With decidedly mixed results, ranging from abysmal with cooking to a surprisingly quick learner with the hovercraft to, well, the fight-y ones simply went without saying. Expect to here irritable griping if he failed or boasting if he won, though.


[III. Fierce Fighting]

And then, of course, was what Knuckles did best: punching problems until they stopped being problems. Seeing as how the heartless were largely unaffected by his bare fists, however, he's had to get a bit more creative, conjuring water to add a bit of an elemental punch to his, well, punches. Sometimes he even froze some of the water to send chunks of ice flying too!

"Ha! Surely you did not think I would be overcome so easily!"

Help him? Get some popcorn and watch the show? The choice is yours.


[Wildcard]

Have another idea? Want to do a sidequest or aftermath thread? Feel free to message me in PM or on discord (Altocumulus) to plot, or just throw a tag my way!

Belle | Zenless Zone Zero

[greatlydares]

[one: calm before the storm]

[Random Play, the one video rental store left in this part of town, is redecorating! Like the rest of her fellow storeowners, Belle's having trouble deciding on whether to start hanging up Christmas stockings and her homemade wreath or to decorate for Thanksgiving first, so anyone stopping by right now might find her pacing the floor as she talks to Eous:]

I mean, obviously Christmas is where the money is, there's way more Christmas movies than Thanksgiving movies that I can name off the top of my head, but Thanksgiving's traditional, you know? Besides that, I'm not gonna lie, it's not even December yet so all the Christmas carols are a little, uh, not well-timed?

[The Bangboo, sitting on a chair, shrugs. Ehn-na-nah, ehn-nah.]

I guess I could put up an autumn-colored wreath and hang little turkey decorations off it.

[It's Eous who spots someone there first, tilting its whole body to the side and lighting right up. Ehn! Ehn-nah! it calls, and Belle spins on her heel to see someone coming through the doors.]

Ah—good morning! Welcome to Random Play, can I help you?

[two: cathedral hill]

[The awful thing about being possessed, Belle's found, is that she can't shirk the contract price. It's not exactly easy for her to fulfill it at the best of times, busy as she is with her business and her sideline as Phaethon, but at a time like this, when the city's infested with monsters? She can barely carve out an hour to do anything in safety.

At least Cathedral Hill's safe. So she can be found, late at night, just...standing in her bare feet in the middle of the grass on Cathedral Hill, looking distinctly annoyed at nothing. Her arms are crossed and she's occasionally checking her watch. Eous, beside her, waves a quick little hello.]

...before you ask, I promise I'm not doing that, uh, grounding thing. Earthing? Whatever they're calling it now.

TWO - gently implies she get's tower'd bc of food delivery like,

[creamcottonshepherd]

[Surprise! Grandma Cotton actually lives up on Cathedral Hill! Or in the few housing zones in that area, at least. She has yet to get herself stuck in a tower that early in the mess, but needless to say as Cotton comes by with all the food she'd hoped to deliver for any people taking refuge, she...does stare a little.

Mostly because she's very old and isn't quite up with all the kid's hip lingo.] Is that a 'thing' the kids are doing now, then..? You'll have to forgive me, I've never heard of such a thing...I was more worried that you might be cold, with your feet like that!

Vergil || Devil May Cry

[kowase]

1. //__ Protecting The Home of Many : || Open to Anyone at/Near the Vogue

[ Having closed up the Auguries and set up barriers around the shop for the week; Vergil's been a pace between the home where his family lived, and the home where his partner's family lived. What with the Yokai swarm that happened last year, he was not taking any chances to see either place ransacked by any demons who may slip through the cracks this time--Yokai were persistent things who held grudges, after all. He wouldn't let his collections be torn apart, or his family get hurt.

He's sitting on the Vogue's roof with a battered old journal in his hand, idling reading hand-written words in scratchy Italian when everything... starts. His hand gripped onto the handle of a mug of coffee as he hears the start of it: the crackling of the sky that makes his hair stand on end, like electricity had suddenly lifted in the air around him.

Catlike eyes hard-focus up toward the sound, and it's a quiet, uncomfortable moment that has him watching how the sky splits apart, like an egg cracking and things starting to... leak through.

He's never put away any personal items quicker in his life. The journal disappearing into his coat, the mug flickering away in a little scattering of gold--his hand is on the sword-ever present at his side as keen eyes watch something starting to fall down. Down, down towards the vogue.

Landing in front of him without a sound--even if it should have a sound. A blob of... darkness? That slowly starts to twitch and morph into a creature.

Vergil doesn't need more than a second to react. Flashing forward with Yamato to cut the thing down--he doesn't expect there to be quite as much resistence as there was. Yamato is a devil's arm--an enchanted blade, certainly, but its element was far from Light, and he has to hit the thing a few more times before it scatters into nothingness.

That's when he takes notice that several other shadowlike blobs have landed.
He could waste time and take them all down, but... they're falling. Everywhere.

They have to leave.

Quick as he can, Vergil is dashing through the door to the Vogue's roof, slamming and locking the door behind him as he makes his way downstairs. His voice is always quiet--but he actually shouts today, so all hiding within the walls of the Theatre will hear him. ]

The worst has started. Creatures made of shadow are invading. They are much different than the yokai we faced last year.

Bar the doors. Prepare to fight. ...Or prepare to evacuate. I am uncertain how safe we are here.

2. //__ It'd be less Irritating-- : || Open to All / Blue Fish Park Minigames

[ he'd been helping with the evacuation attempts all over the city. Once it was confirmed that the creatures were dangerous, but not destructive to buildings and structures as the Yokai were last year--but aimed entirely towards people, it made more sense to get people out of the city and their isolated homes to a place where they could be protected in larger numbers.

However, what he doesn't expect is to get ambushed by a heartless that doesn't want smoke and instead has... forced him to do something he's. Admittedly good at--but why the hell would he want to play a game with the damn things?

Vergil can be found swearing roundly at one of the hiding, wiggling, flan--telling it to stop being a coward and come out of hiding. There's a little banana shape by his feet...

Maybe the man needs convincing to just play one of the stupid games to get away from this place.
Even if he looks pretty resistant to the idea of 'fun'. ]

3. //__ A Second Color : || Open to All / Undertown

[ he's tired. It's been days--and he can feel the drain on his usually large degrees of energy. He's made a promise to Zulius not to get himself far too into danger given what happened against the Order some months ago, but he'd figured standing guard outside of Undertown, where a lot of the city are in hiding, would be the easiest use of his power.

The problem is, while he isn't very magically-inclined, and while his weapons are effective enough, they still struggle against the shadowy creatures that come in absolute swarms.
And he can feel himself getting tired. Which isn't a feeling he's used to. Not anymore, not since--he got here, in Kaisou. He's--He's Vittore, just an Ordinary antiques dealer, sure, but there's also that part of him that is inseparably Vergil now, as well. A devil, a son of sparda. A half-monster who'd once torn himself in two to learn that the truest strength is found from ---

From where?

Everything goes still for that moment where he's faced down with a dozen more of those long-fingered shadows, all converging around him to look for a weakness.
A voice follows. Do you desire power?

It feels familiar. Like he knows this voice. He's sure he does. And the answer has always been the same for him: Yes.

He always needs more power.
Without power, you cannot protect anything.

There's a feeling like a dream. Stained glass with the image of a stark white bird. A slow-motion feeling as he finds himself surrounded with a power that he's never thought he--a devil--would be able to use.
And while he knows the voice has warned him of some sacrifice for this new strength--when his Yamato becomes enflamed with holy light; and the next set of strikes he swings out towards the Heartless is one that absolutely tears through them effortlessly?

...He feels absolutely no remorse for listening to that voice, as a small, but sharp smile makes its way up his face. ]

I think we can start to turn things around now.
Come, bring me your weapons. I feel I can share this strength and make this fight easier for all of us.

4. //__ Wildcard : || Open to All

[ anything else? im willing to do other things let's discuss ]

It'd be less Irritating

[bebest]

[ Zulius is very grateful for Vergil not only helping at the Vogue, but also in not taking insane risks (again) and almost getting himself killed (again). That sure does mean a lot! Zulius has spent the vast majority of his time teleporting between the safe zones, making sure everything was as stocked as they could be, while keeping the Vogue running as safe as it can be.

He honestly only came out here because it seemed relatively risk-free, and maybe he honestly needed to get out of the same 3 spaces he's been living in for the past week. He's absolutely regretting it now, of course, there's so much nonsense. ]

Oh my goooooose, this is literally The Worst. Why are they so obnoxious?

Wriothesley || Genshin Impact

[loupmorque]

1. //__ Coupon Cafeteria : || Open to Anyone at Meropide

Get the green ones. They're making all of this harder. [ the one poorly thing about protecting a fortress deep underwater is that you're not at all in a good position to see the sky. Or the giant crack in it. Which means when he first realises something is really wrong with his fortress, the first place he goes is directly outside of his office--where swarms of little birdlike mage creatures have taken over his fucking cafeteria.

What's worse is that he's a boxer, and it's really fucking hard to punch a bird.

He's doing is best to shoot crystals of ice after the things though, trapping some in literal blocks of ice where they now lie, sadly, on the floor in stasis as he tries to focus out which ones to get down first. ]

They keep flying out of my reach. If we can get them down, the others'll follow.

2. //__ Pankration Arena : || Open to Anyone at Meropide

[ He's used to fighting opponents that are bigger than him. While the duke isn't any slouch in terms of size or height--sometimes there's always someone bigger to go against. Be it a giant Fatui man or... whatever the hell these creatures were.

they took nearly no damage when he fought them face-on, and he's bounced off the damn thing at least twice already--but he's starting to get it. He sees the code.

Being in front is key. Not for him, but... ]

I'll keep its attention. If you can get around behind it...

[ he grins a long and pointed smile as he aims another glancing blow off the front of the beast of a creature. ]

Come on, you just going to stand there, or are we going to fight? [ he'll tank, you dps. go. ]

3. //__ The Duke's Office : || Open to Anyone at Meropide

You know, this is backwards. Back home, I'd spent most of my days trying to prevent anything from coming out of that damn sluice gate.

[ in teyvat, that gate didn't lead to the heart of the world--it led to the primordial sea. that was more dangerous if it came out. Having to defend things from getting inside it? now that's a whole different tactic he hadn't prepared for.

For now, there's a set of giant gates that he's forced closed behind him and those who stand with him, defending the oncoming swarm from getting inside. His fists sparkling at his sides with crystalline ice energy.

There's also a huge wall of ice that's sealed up every possible crack of said door so none of the Shadows could simply skitter past them and sneak inside any small opening.

They would have to go through them, first. Or break the ice. ]

This fight may last for a long time. If you've the strength, I'll stay at your side. But we may need to call for aid.

3 i forgor to say which one

[poisontippedcure]

[Wrio was Furina's friend. Wrio was Veldora's friend.]

[And Wrio was Rose's friend.]

[She'd never quite said it, but she was impressed by what he'd managed to make of the fortress. It was heartening, seeing him work so hard for his people, especially considering he hadn't even known these people a year ago.]

[There was no way she was going to leave him to his own devices. If he was here defending it, she would be too.]

Well, I've certainly done stupider. You have my strength as long as you need it.

OTA - MEROPIDE AND THE ROAD TO IT

[standless]

[If anyone actually predicted correctly that Jonathan might have just carried an innate disadvantage to the incoming heartless, it would be wise of them to seek him out at his home. Initially as the first battles began, Jonathan simply geared up as he would any true battle in this place and prepared to set out.

Then of course, came the hordes. In responding to the warning that Yggdrasil would be a target, Jonathan started off for Meropide almost immediately. This meant, even in the air, that...well.

He's a bit of a target. Not the largest thank goodness- he's prioritized speed over battle, though he takes a moment or so to lash out with waves of holy sunlight- but every mob he passes turns a head, and there's no mistaking it.

They want that bat heart.]

Hoh! I see even beasts such as yourselves can recognize a worthy opponent! [comes the bat's shout when Jonathan finally decides the numbers are too great to simply dodge.] Very well then- have at you!

[He might need assistance. In fact, he might need a lot of assistance. It doesn't change once he hit's Meropide either- Advantage, disadvantage, it's not as if they weren't already swarming the place at least, so perhaps him drawing their focus is a boon?]

Blast..! Quite determined, aren't they...

[...Perhaps not. Help!]

OTA REFUGE - MIDTOWN MARKET

[youwouldntdownloada]

[As planned and announced- well in advance even, it's probably not a good thing when one can predict that Something bad will happen with that much sureity (and that little prophetic ability)- Yasuho is among those holding a fort of some kind for people to flee to. For those who can't make it to the various refuges in other locations, there's one more that can easily be seen at Midtown Marketplace.

Securely behind a massive, and hopefully sturdy barrier that Paisley is maintaining through the Pod, Yasuho has a chunk of the store alongside her own teapot all put together!

To enter is easy-]

This way! [She'll shout to anyone she sees, and while she doesn't toss out any magic- huh, wasn't she Light based, shouldn't that be great here..?- she does at least have certain animals there to help. A horse-sized dragon blasts light in Yasuho's absence, batting back any heartless who come too close to an incoming refugee. Yasuho herself reaches a hand out to pull the victim in.] Here! I have the teapot ready, let's go..!

[How heroic?

How...Optimistic? She might be there for the rescue, but it's really other people who are handling stuff like first aid and sharing food around. Yasuho can be tracked down when she's not out watching for people that need help, but she's...pretty isolated from everyone.

...When asked about that, uh.] I was told I was being too depressing...

[...Light element in a Shadow month, ah... With a seasonal affect to boot!]

Leon S. Kennedy | Resident Evil

[sg09r]

[one: light up the sky]

[As the meteor shower begins, Leon and his dog can be found outside in the park, watching it peacefully. Leon occasionally feeds Zero some treats, but mostly he's just lying down next to his dog, eyes fixed on the sky, wings spread out on the ground. He pushes himself up the moment he hears someone nearby, and waves them over.]

Nice night, huh?

[He pauses, then lets out a breath.]

Wasn't expecting a meteor shower this week, though. Do you think it means something's up? [He did hear about what had happened last November. He knows the year's almost up.]

[two: whatever it takes]

[The thing is.

Leon's always been a smartass, sure. But he's also, as long as anyone in the Black Order has known him and as long as he's been in Kaisou, carried some dark and heavy grief deep inside him. Ghosts have always clung to his heels. Even when he started gaining angelic traits, there's always been this darkness in his eyes.

There's none of it now, when you walk into this particular chamber. If you've gone through his room, you might recall that some of the corpses had a badge pinned to their uniforms, one that read Raccoon City Police Department. Now as Leon pops up out of hiding, you'll see he's wearing a badge like it himself. He might've scavenged it from that room, in fact. His eyes are bright, even as he holds a gun that's pointed to the ground.]

Hey! You all right there? It isn't safe in here, there's—I don't know what these things are, but they're pretty dangerous. [God. He even sounds young. This is Leon, before the Black Order took him, before he was recruited to fight the undead in his first life.] You gotta get out of here, it might get pretty bad.

—if you see a girl in a red jacket, red hair, tell her Leon'll meet up with her after all this, I just. I need to find someone first.

[A woman in a trenchcoat, named Ada. That, he remembers.]