futurologists: (Default)
Hathaway. ([personal profile] futurologists) wrote in [community profile] epidemiology2017-10-28 03:25 am

EVENT ★ CRUMBLING WORLD

GO


Are you prepared for the fight of your life? You better be.

The Oska staff and the others who are staying behind gather in the courtyard to wish the recruits luck. It's a much more formal affair than rifting out to missions usually is, with recruits casting spells on each other for luck and for strength, and still others passing around potions and elixirs for healing and stamina.

In addition to Audentes and the guests' teams, there are also a number of ex-convicts from the Asterion Prison ready to rift out as well, and familiar teams like Mariposa, Squirrel Fucker, and Unicorn. The undead catlike humanoid Pomarr stands near a brother and sister recruited from Q-65. A handful of former Zymandis agents look uncomfortable in their new purple uniforms but grimly ready for action, with Mavahari at the head of their team.

And Team Kittypaw, Audentes's big sister team, is of course ready to get their hands (and paws) dirty right alongside everyone else.

A green-skinned alien who works in the Medical Center steps forward and gives a brief statement of hope and a wish for luck. Then the recruits flagged for the rift begin to glow, the world flickers white, and it's time for the crumbling world.

THE LAND AND SKY

When the contingent of ALASTAIR teams rifts in, it's onto a series of unsteady, crumbling stretches of land. Why the land is so unsteady is quickly apparent: they are floating platforms, unused to the sudden weight of so many bodies. The platforms are so wobbly that some unlucky ones may lose their footing and actually go sliding toward the edge. This is not a soft landing by any means.

Once you get your bearings, you'll want to start toward a castle rising in the distance: the Ophiel AI still active inside the ex-Zymandis agents' jewelcomms pinpoints it as the location of the TIMELINE.exe's signal. But don't expect an easy stroll to reach it. The entire landscape is separated into floating, drifting chunks of crumbling earth, with no way to travel between them but to jump.

Making things even more difficult is the steam rolling over the platforms, obscuring the edges and reducing visibility all around. As the planet cracks apart, its surface peels back to let lava heat up the atmosphere, causing the steam and filling the air with oppressive heat and humidity. The lava occasionally burbles up into geysers, so be careful when jumping from platform to platform, and make sure you time it right.

Patrolling some of the larger platforms are Zymandis robot guards. If you avoid the large platforms and take advantage of the camouflage provided by the steam, you might be able to avoid the robots . . . but if the steam clears, look out: they're equipped with laser weapons and can rocket boost short distances to whatever platform you may be hiding on. And not only is their close proximity bad for you, but their extra weight is bad for the already-fragile platforms.

Make it past all these obstacles -- the platforms, the steam, the lava, the robots -- and you'll find the biggest platform where the castle sits, itself a crumbling mass of stone.

THE CASTLE

The castle is made of dark and brittle stone, and is palpably thrumming with magic and electricity, like a dark twin to Oska's own castle. It's situated on a platform floating high above the others, fortuitously far enough from the lava below that there's a respite from the humidity and heat. But this far up in the sky, the opposite appears to be the problem: the wind is cold and biting, threatening to push anyone right off the ledge. Best push on into the castle itself.

Just beyond the massive gated door is the grand hall of the castle, though in its crumbling state, it's objectively not very grand at all. Elaborate stained glass windows once filled the walls and ceiling, most of the panes now on the ground in jagged piles of glass alongside stone rubble. It's probably best not to stand in one place for too long -- you never know when some other structure in the castle will collapse.

Some time may be spent exploring the grand hall before moving on, though there's not much to find. A rusted halberd here, a pile of useless debris there. The Ophiel AI urges everyone to move on to find the TIMELINE.exe, but there's suddenly a noticeable chill in the air and from the staircase descends a trio of white-robed figures.

The figures are spirit wizards, Ophiel quickly explains; they have no physical body but are instead formed by pure spiritual energy. As long as one lives, they will keep reforming as three, so all of them will need to be taken out all at once. Physical attacks won't be very effective against beings without a physical form, Ophiel continues; burn them away with magic and the elements and you might stand a chance.

The spirit wizards can fling people about with wind magic, electrocute with lightning magic, and engulf anything in flames. Lacking a physical form, they can also teleport, so protecting one another is an important strategy to survive the battle.

The other teams are all practiced warriors in one way or another, but with so many people in one place, all fighting the same enemy, some organization is called for before it becomes an all-out catastrophe. The castle, after all, can only withstand so much accidental fire before it's game over.

OOC NOTES
Welcome to the last mission of the season! This log will ICly last three hours, with the next log picking up immediately afterward. If you have any questions about this log, please direct them to the dossier.

Because this log is going up near the end of the month, you may use threads started in October for November AC, provided you don't use the same thread for October AC as well.

NOTE: November is the last month for AC Bonus Bank! The Bonus Bank will close on December 5th, 23:59 UTC. To celebrate the finale, we are removing the coin cap, meaning you can submit more than 100 coins with no upper limit. Coin balances will not transfer to Season 2.

If you have questions about the game in general, please use the game FAQ.
purrtagonist: has a really low DEX score (I’m pretty sure a planet)

[personal profile] purrtagonist 2017-11-26 10:30 pm (UTC)(link)
[Akira's next response is a voice one, because. . . well. he's managed to make his way up the shelf and duck next to the boulder behind which Fugo hides]

Yeah. Something like that.

[that's the gist of it, anyway]

Personas. The masks one wears when facing society, meant to protect them from the hardships of life. Some people can call upon them to fight with them, but it's not an ability everyone has.

[he peers out from behind the rock with practiced stealthiness, then turns back to Fugo, brows arched. he's still dressed in Joker's gear, by the way. trench coat and all]

That what you mean when you say "Stand?"
unholey: (HOODIE ☠ I'm always dragging)

[personal profile] unholey 2017-11-27 09:10 pm (UTC)(link)
[Fugo glances over his shoulder, unsurprised by Akira's voice given the instructions he left for him. His clothes, on the other hand--]

Wait, when did you-- [His brows pinch together as he immediately thinks back to the moment Akira called up the thing he calls a Persona. There was fire; the same fire that was licking his heels earlier. And even though Fugo's attention was almost entirely focused on the Persona-- when he looked back at Akira, the silhouette of his clothing was different, wasn't it.] Masks, huh.

[He frowns, then looks down at the guard he spotted earlier. It's scanning the area below them; it's not a good time to jump down yet.]

Stands are more... an inner source of strength. A reflection of you that others might not otherwise see. Very few people have the potential to wield one.

[He thinks back to a well-maintained spreadsheet, which was more or less a list of names belonging to desperate people who gave themselves to the arrow. Statistically speaking, very few of those names survived Polpo's test and were initiated into properly into Passione.]

Are Personas always so flashy?

[What with the fire. And the outfit change. That sure is a hell of a Look, Akira.]
purrtagonist: the eyeball again (Would you like to persuade)

[personal profile] purrtagonist 2017-11-28 05:10 am (UTC)(link)
[. . . well, the Stand explanation doesn't sound too far off from Personas, actually. aspects of one's personality. a reflection of their inner strength, not often seen by others. but if Fugo really was a fellow Persona user under a different name, then how the heck had Akira not heard of him before now?]

[. . .]

[he shoves the thought from his mind, but makes a mental note to ask about it later.]


Yep.

[he pops the p as he answers, leaning back so he's hidden behind the rock again. he keeps the sentry in the corners of his vision, waiting for an opportunity to strike]

Don't ask me why. It's always been this way, from the very first time I awakened to my power.
unholey: (THOUGHTFUL ☠ I march further and)

[personal profile] unholey 2017-11-29 06:58 am (UTC)(link)
[Akira, it would seem, is not the only one who's cagey about his spiritual muscle man powers. This is in fact nearly the most open Fugo's been about the subject during his time here-- the exception being, you know, warning a cellmate about his unpredictable and very possibly lethal power. But that's just good manners.]

That's weird. [But trendy? Although Fugo can't quite see the point of the mask, other than continuing the metaphor. It barely covers a third of his face. Anyone who knows Akira would be able to identify him. Is it... some sort of reflection of Akira's dedication to personal aesthetic? God, he's thinking too much about this. They need to junk that robot and move on.] So are wardrobe changes and hitting things with spears the only things it can do? Or do you have a specialty.
purrtagonist: (All this betrayal is making me nervous)

[personal profile] purrtagonist 2017-11-30 03:57 am (UTC)(link)
["specialty." that's funny, considering he's talking to a pure wild card]

My "specialty" is being unpredictable.

[he flexes his hands into fists, tugging at the edges of his gloves. both a nervous motion, and something done to make sure they don't like. fall off, when they ambush the sentry]

I can cover any weak spot in a party on an as-needed basis.