[X] A fairly hi-tech room with a fancy computer (probably still a step up from Megumi's) and sound equipment, and several paintings up on the wall. Would've cost a lot to build this all up, and now you'd left it all, but it reminded you that you were once dedicated to things other than just, er, surviving. (+Resolve)
[X] Rapid (hits multiple times, low individual damage)
[X] Sniper (high precision and long-distance, little use close up)
[X] The guy's an archer and football star, that means I'll have to stack on Sukukaja if I'm to outspeed him.
So confession time, I'm then type that barely bothers with stat boost spells and stuff in games, so this angle of strategy throws me for somewhat of a loop. Still, our prime asset is switching Personas, so making sure we're fast enough to keep up/react seems like a good priority. Bonus points for Theodora having Sukukaja, so we don't need to spill our additional Personas for the buffing phase and can drag the surprise factor out a bit longer. (Also, I've been waiting to make a bullet time joke ever since we got Santa Muerte. Although if we got enough range that we don't need to worry about him retaliating with physical attacks, Atalanta might be a superior option now. Could be a bit of a gamble once he figures her out though.)
As for the gun option, part of me's tempted to go for one of the heavy variant so we can do gun punching, but that seems counterproductive to actually getting a ranged weapon. Seeing how we should have fairly steady access to piercing/gun through Personas, I think we're saving using the gun option as either a quick side arm or fully commiting to long range through sniping.
Well, it's either that or dodge and observe Eitaro for me, so I'm fine with this.
(full offense makes bringing along Cu a bit pointless for me, magic is pointless since we're looking to exploit QSD's weakness on Guns anyways, and I'm not big on turtle strats so it's a no for me on defense)
[X] A fairly hi-tech room with a fancy computer (probably still a step up from Megumi's) and sound equipment, and several paintings up on the wall. Would've cost a lot to build this all up, and now you'd left it all, but it reminded you that you were once dedicated to things other than just, er, surviving. (+Resolve)
[X] Rapid (hits multiple times, low individual damage)
[X] Sniper (high precision and long-distance, little use close up)
[X] The guy's an archer and football star, that means I'll have to stack on Sukukaja if I'm to outspeed him.
[x] Girly enough that it could pass for Reina's room. Pink everywhere, pictures of cute boys, magazines, large stuffed animals, actually you might take one of them to the apartment with you, there's probably space on your new bed. (+Etiquette)
[x] Rapid
[x] The guy's an archer and football star, that means I'll have to stack on Sukukaja if I'm to outspeed him.
Wanted to say I lowered the points needed to advance in social stats from 20 down to 15, as I figured you should be nearing or up to Rank 2 in one of them by the time you fought the first boss.
The room designs by the way were inspired by the ones you pick at the start of Tokimeki Memorial Girls' Side, which I loosely tried to fit into the four social stats, and I also figured if Haruka had the option to actually decorate her room, it should be something players got to vote on.
Lastly for now, and I guess this is really a question I should be asking a mod, but what do people think is the line after which a Quest or Fic here should be rated Mature? The reason I ask is this Quest has obviously gone some dark places recently, and that may get worse given we've still got Gakuto's and Himawari's Empires to explore, so I was kinda getting cautious.
Lastly for now, and I guess this is really a question I should be asking a mod, but what do people think is the line after which a Quest or Fic here should be rated Mature? The reason I ask is this Quest has obviously gone some dark places recently, and that may get worse given we've still got Gakuto's and Himawari's Empires to explore, so I was kinda getting cautious.
I agree that the question is better suited for a mod, but just speaking from my perception, I feel like the Mature tag should come into play when explicit descriptions do. It depends on how in-depth you want to go with Gakuto and Himiwari's Empires and what they depict; if you're concerned, I'd run them by a mod, see what they say, and possibly be prepared to tone them down somewhat if they say it's too much. Better safe than sorry.
I'll also admit, I considered giving you the option to go to the Gameboard again on Sunday night, but honestly the suspense around Eitaro's upcoming Duel was just killing me, so I forwarded it along. Plus, I was trying to work in a fatigue penalty for your midnight trip on Saturday.
One weird thing I've noticed about the party's Personae that I didn't intend is that, other than the 'Civil War' motif, they also have a theme of being the 'last', or at least effectively the last.
Richard III and Anastasia are pretty obvious here, being the last of York and the Romanovs respectively. Theodora's more of a stretch, but her husband Justinian was the last ruler of a unified Roman Empire, being a Byzantine who managed to take back Rome (albeit briefly). One of Haruka's potential Persona, Cleopatra, would've fit this theme even better.
The Qin Dynasty ended soon after Shi Huang's death, and the House of Lancaster collapsed pretty quickly after Margaret's loss, and the House of Anjou collapsed pretty soon after her too.
Kikuko's planned Persona fits, as they're family was never really heard of afterwards, but Gakuto's planned Persona is probably the hardest fit here, as they're mostly known for being the first rather than last, though to be the first at one thing also meant they were last in the previous position, and they're still associated with the death of a dynasty, if not their own.
[X] A fairly hi-tech room with a fancy computer (probably still a step up from Megumi's) and sound equipment, and several paintings up on the wall. Would've cost a lot to build this all up, and now you'd left it all, but it reminded you that you were once dedicated to things other than just, er, surviving. (+Resolve)
[x] Mostly kinda featureless admittedly, but with a fairly large and stuffed bookcase. Now that you remember, you might take an old one back to the apartment with you. (+Education)
[x] Girly enough that it could pass for Reina's room. Pink everywhere, pictures of cute boys, magazines, large stuffed animals, actually you might take one of them to the apartment with you, there's probably space on your new bed. (+Etiquette)
[X] The guy's an archer and football star, that means I'll have to stack on Sukukaja if I'm to outspeed him.
[X] A fairly hi-tech room with a fancy computer (probably still a step up from Megumi's) and sound equipment, and several paintings up on the wall. Would've cost a lot to build this all up, and now you'd left it all, but it reminded you that you were once dedicated to things other than just, er, surviving. (+Resolve)
[X] Rapid (hits multiple times, low individual damage)
"Is that so?" Kikuko muttered, her then saying, "You have put some thought into this, but still, will that alone be enough?" before she headed forwards.
Twitching, you slowly stepped into the vast Colosseum at the Heart of Eitaro's Empire. On the stone seating above were a multitude of masked Shadows, all moving up and down in anticipation of what was to come.
"May I announce to you, the first persona Duel of this school year!" Azuma spoke up above the crowd, "Tsutsuji Eitaro, Ace of Swords," an unearthly cheer rose up from all around, "-versus Jack-of-All, Nakamura Haruka", said cheers died down. "Whoever emerges the victor, it will be... interesting either way".
You could see each spectating All-Ace was up on their own reserved platforms, each having changed into their Regalia. You'd already seen Melissa's, Eitaro's, and Azuma's, but Kikuko, already up on her platform, was wearing what looked like a cross between standard samurai armour and what looked like ship parts and armaments attached onto it. Gakuto meanwhile was in no less than a mech exoskeleton, with a series of cybernetic augmentations inserted into him.
"So, anyone still taking bets?" Gakuto asked the throng of subject Shadows behind him.
Himawari wasn't in the exact Regalia you'd seen her in before, but instead a modified, pastel version of that outfit with the spikes replaced with frills and hearts instead of skulls. She was solemnly singing 'Kimigayo', the national anthem, while Melissa, now dressed in a black-and-yellow cheerleading outfit instead of her usual prom dress Regalia, brought in a boombox and started blaring out dance music.
And there, right across the arena from you, was Eitaro. He scowled, "'Least you made it on time".
"Eitaro, what the Hell does this have to with anything?!" you shouted at him, "How does fighting your own teammates help at all in keeping Shadows under control?"
"Bah, trying to get out of the fight even now, are you?" he snarled, his grasp tightening around his heavy longbow, "Okay, I'll tell what this has to do with that. If the Gameboard is to have a ruler, a Universal Monarch, then that ruler will be one who cannot abide weaklings! You've been dragging everyone else down, Jack, so it falls on me to cut the weak link".
Before you could respond the fight was on, he instantly launched himself up into the air, about to land on you with a flying kick. Calling upon "Theodora!" you willed for her to get you of there. Her casting a green aura around you, you were able to speed to the side to avoid contact with Eitaro's boot, though you were still knocked back a bit by the resulting shockwave.
Grunting, Eitaro dashed right at you, ready to ram into you with his spiked headband. Casting Sukukaja again before he could hit, you quickly slid downward with your tonfas, bowling his feet over. As Eitaro was flipped up into midair though, he cast a Magaru gale all around you, the wind scraping at you and preventing you from running outwards.
"Cuchullainn!" you immediately switched, allowing you to steel yourself and walk out through the conjured tornado.
"That... wasn't Theodora," Eitaro muttered, before he glared at you, "That was your strategy, concealing other Personae from us?! You little sneak... although what does it matter, when a whole flock of Personae will fall to a single, mastered one," he said as he fired five arrows at once, then got Qin Shi Huang to cast a gale directing them all straight at you.
You knew wind would do little harm to Eitaro, but still you had Cuchulainn's blade call forth a Killer Wind to keep the arrows away from you. But that wind wasn't strong enough to hold back Eitaro, who ran in and kicked you right in the chest, the spikes on his boot piercing near your heart.
You lay fallen on the floor, struggling to pick yourself up as you bled. But with no wind and Eitaro standing over you, you gripped one end of your tonfa and flipped a trigger, unloading a rapid round of bullets straight into Eitaro's shins.
"Woohoo, go Eitaro! Er..." Melissa cut off her cheer when she saw the blow Eitaro just took, "Uh, yeah! Whoo! Go... Haruka? Well I did arrange that whole date for you," she hissed.
"Gah!" Eitaro grunted through the pain, but clearly could not get over it so quickly. So he tried another tactic, summoning a gale around him to lift him up right near the imperial seat. He drew more arrows as he spat down at you, having the wind spin them around in a circle that was slowly closing in on you.
"Atalanta!" you called, switching to the human lioness, as under her protection you were able to have all the arrows before you crumple upon contact. You then called on her to fire back at the perched Eitaro, but it seemed he'd had Qin Shi Huang already set up a wall of wind to deflect any projectiles aimed at him.
"Hoo boy, our little Jack is not so easily going to get out of this one!" Gakuto commentated from above.
So instead, you ran over to the large podium below Eitaro's imperial box, and called upon Atalanta's nigh herculean strength to rapidly and furiously attack the structure. Eitaro, already feeling the stand beneath him was about to break, pulled a lever at the last second before jumping down.
Swapping to Richard III to heal, you then heard the noise of floodgates being opened up all around, sending a deluge of water rushing down into the arena. Thinking quickly, you switched to Anastasia, with whom you froze a circle of water around you, letting you ride this ice floe all the way to the top of the flood, right next to the surrounding seats.
Washing up right by the crowd of Shadows, you looked down to notice, er, that wasn't quite water there. The newly made lake seemed contaminated with, if not entirely, some kind of oozing, liquid metal.
Eitaro meanwhile was now standing atop what looked like a Norse longboat, that must've come out of the floodgates along with all that ooze. His arrows were now coated in that liquid metal, and he stirred up a gale around the boat to have the metal splash upon you.
With all the speed spells you'd cast upon yourself, you were able to run to the side and have Anastasia freeze the waves coming at you. Jumping up to your makeshift frozen bridge, Eitaro kept shooting arrows to break the ice beneath your feet, but you leapt over them with a single jump, firing bullets down upon him as you somersaulted over.
Until one of his arrows did hit you, making you fall down and only be saved from falling into that watery metal by a lucky one-hand cling onto the side of the longboat. Eitaro then walked over to step on your hand, so you raised a tonfa to fire on him again, only for him to anticipate that and hop back.
You quickly strained to pull yourself up before he could try to knock you off again. Standing on the longboat deck looking straight at him, you tried to open fire... but only found you'd run out of bullets.
At least now you'd gotten a general sense of how he fought, so how to react?
[ ] You still have Ranged skills though, this is what you need Atalanta and Santa Muerte for.
[ ] Go all out offence, he can't keep holding out! This is what you need Atalanta and Cuchulainn for.
[ ] You haven't attacked him directly with magic much yet, so he hasn't been using Makanda. You'll need Theodora and Anastasia to blast him with.
[ ] Keep healing as much as you can, once is never enough in a fight like this.
[ ] Write-in.
Er, that was actually because, um, I forgot to write in a reaction for her at the time (Edit: Though I guess you could say that Nightshade thought to just stay back and observe you for now). I also forgot to describe how Fusion looks like here. Whoops.
Also, I've disabled 'Newest votes only' for now, so you can expand your vote in a new post without going back to edit your old one... unless you want to change your vote.
So, that didn't go horrible. Part of me wants to keep going for more ranged attacks, if only because beating the captain of the archery club through long range combat seems like just the thing to give him a hit to his ego, but the wind wall is kind of a bummer there. Then again, his own cheat means that just turtling up isn't really an option anymore and if we get in a hit, it's a hit.
[X] You still have Ranged skills though, this is what you need Atalanta and Santa Muerte for.
Swapping to Richard III to heal, you then heard the noise of floodgates being opened up all around, sending a deluge of water rushing down into the arena.
So much for a fair duel. Figures he isn't confident enough in his own skills to resist milking his homefield advantage for all it's worth. I wonder how bad an idea taunting him would be...
[X] You still have Ranged skills though, this is what you need Atalanta and Santa Muerte for.
His Persona is still weak to Gun; if we can get in a proper hit with Santa Muerte, then that could turn the tide for us. Also, regarding Nightshade's lack of reaction, I honestly just assumed that she had never seen Theodora before; it doesn't seem like the other All-Aces can actually spectate what goes on on the Gameboard from outside (with the exception of Gakuto), so Nightshade would never have seen us battle before and, thusly, would have assumed that Cuchullainn was our Persona. Speaking of Nightshade, her drastic change in Regalia shows that they can be altered, so I'm wondering about the mechanics of that. Is it something we need a certain level of skill to do, or does it require a change on our image of what a ruler is?
Aiyah, this is tense. I suppose it was never going to be easy to duel a skilled Persona-user. Well, when in doubt, go for the elemental weaknesses.
[X] You still have Ranged skills though, this is what you need Atalanta and Santa Muerte for.
Speaking of Nightshade, her drastic change in Regalia shows that they can be altered, so I'm wondering about the mechanics of that. Is it something we need a certain level of skill to do, or does it require a change on our image of what a ruler is?
Being able to alter your Regalia is something I took for granted, since I don't think Persona 5 ever had an in-game explanation for how the Phantom Thieves could have different Metaverse costumes via DLC (maybe there was something in the Thieves' Den?). Except for Melissa, her Regalia-swapping does have a cognitive explanation, in that she believes a style icon would never wear the same outfit too often, plus her Empire is a chain of Malls. Since Himawari is a singer, you could argue there's something similar there.
(Also, no one's gonna comment on Kikuko being part-shipgirl?)
I was planning to tag Crimson Flight (not to be confused with Crimson Moon, though I've talked with him too), since he's pretty knowledgeable on both Persona and Kamen Rider with I've been making a few references to, but last time I talked with him he said he was busy with college (same with Crimson Moon too).
[X] You still have Ranged skills though, this is what you need Atalanta and Santa Muerte for.
"Atalanta!" you called forth, but not with the instruction to attack Eitaro. Rather, you ordered her to swiftly strike the deck below you, breaking the boat right in two. With Atalanta's speed and Theodora's enchanting, you were able to run up the dragon's head at one end of the boat, then bracing yourself, leapt with such great strength and speed that you cleared the metallic pool below and landed back on the surrounding seats.
You breathed with relief, thinking Eitaro would have no easy answer to that... but it turned out he did. You saw that, calling a Magaru wind field up from below, he was able to land right on the other side of the seating.
"Haha, oh man, Eitaro just doesn't go down!" Gakuto commented over the action, "Hence why we keep him around".
You felt the shadows around you, his subjects, about to close in and grab you, but Eitaro of all people intervened, firing a warning shot up into the air and shouting across the arena, "Leave her be! I don't need anyone else to take her down for me!" Well, that explained it.
Eitaro instantly fired a string of five arrows at you, but staring coldly, you no sold each one with Atalanta's assistance. You in return called down a whole shower of arrows from above, Atalanta firing them all off in an Arrow Rain. Eitaro, not yet having the chance to re-raise his aero wall, got promptly barraged by them, pinning him to the ground, an extra stock of Medicine on him keeping him fighting.
Standing back up, his eyes pulsing red, gradually picking each arrow out of his body, he bellowed "Qin Shi Huang!" for his Persona to raise a violent Garula burst. Catching the gale, Eitaro sprang right across the oozing metal pool to deliver a high-flying kick coming right your way. In desperation, you called out "Santa Muerte!" and had your skeletal Persona open fire with every gun she had upon Eitaro.
The bullets being able to reach him, the force of both them and the localised tornado he'd conjured sent him rocketing back down. At the same time, you were dodging from side to side to avoid the liquid mercury from crashing up over you, but you soon didn't have you.
All of a sudden, the toxic metal pool was draining back down into the Colosseum. When finally it had all subsided, you hopped back down into the now dry arena, a Garu spell helping to slow your fall. You then saw what had made the mercury levels go down, a giant hole in the surrounding wall that had been created, where you could see as you approached, the prone Eitaro now lying.
"I... mustn't have known my own strength," you gasped, catching your breath, "M-my Persona was strong enough to knock Eitaro into all that ooze and through a wall. Does- does this mean I-I've won?!" you raised your voice, but didn't seem to hear many cheers in return.
"It would appear you have," Azuma spoke, fell back into silence, but then finally smiled, "I cannot deny, you have shown today that we were right to lift you up into our cadre. Good showing, Haruka".
Only at Azuma's command did the surrounding Shadows burst into applause, with strange, confetti-like sparkles raining down from the sky.
Gakuto, having almost fallen out of his chair, then gritted his teeth and tried to feign a smile, "Ah-ha, well you certainly showed us, Haruka. I had a lot of money betted against you though, you know," he then snarled.
"Y-you won, a freakin' Jack of all people... won," Melissa stuttered out, before shaking her head and saying, "Like, have I gone to Crazytown or something? Some loser rat girl just kicked the quarterback's ass, just ob-lit-erated the toughest guy in school!" she nearly exploded.
"Well, at least you can now look forward to that Erimo trip you set up me and Azuma on" you called up to her, before you flinched and thought, Wait, no, I did not just say that in front of everyone!
"Cape Erimo, hmm?' Gakuto immediately took notice as you knew he would, "My my, so you've arranged a little romantic get-away for two, have you Melissa?"
"Oh you stay out of it!" she burst at him, Azuma just shaking his head through all this.
"Er, okay, um anyway, I knew you could do it, Haruka!" Himawari said as she made her way down and gave you a peck on the cheek, "And speaking of arrangements, I still have that little concert to throw you in my own Empire".
"Wait, you were gonna throw her a concert?" Melissa seethed, her eyes locking onto Himawari, "Ahem, and why wasn't I informed about this?!"
Because you would've tried to make the whole thing about yourself, you bitch, you thought.
Then inevitably came Kikuko's reply, "Your technique is still quite rusty, if not for more than a few lucky breaks, you would've been lying dead under a hail of arrows. Still, I admit you did show some strategy and a fair amount of fighting spirit out on the battlefield, and a power no less than having more than one Persona certainly helped rig the Duel in your favour".
"Oh yes, multiple Personae," Gakuto spoke up, adjusting his glasses, "I pride myself on, among other things, being well-informed, but even that I didn't see coming. I didn't think much of you at first Haruka, in fact I still don't, but I can now understand Azuma's interest in you".
"And before Melissa inevitably complains it's unfair," Azuma interjected before the Ace of Coins could fume, "It should be noted this power above even your fellow Persona-users has come at a cost, the inability to manifest your own Empire".
"Yeah," you muttered, you don't need to remind me. "Wait, shouldn't Eitaro have gotten up by now?" you then asked.
None of the Aces giving you a reply anytime soon, you rushed over to where Eitaro lay in a crumpled heap and removed some of the bricks on top of him. His face not waking up and having grown sickly pale, you slowly down to feel his pulse.
Nightshade said:
"Recarm spells and the like only work after attacks done by Shadows, and even then, only when there's a faint scrap of consciousness still in you. We're not miracle workers".
You looked up again to see that the once clear skies had grown stormy, and that the statues and buildings of this Empire, which when you first saw them appeared in top condition, now looked like they'd been decaying for aeons.
You no saw the All-Aces standing right in front of you, which made immediately shiver and collapse on your knees, "No! I- I didn't meant to-" you broke out into tears, "Yeah, he was a jerk, b-but he didn't deserve... to die".
"What you 'meant' won't change what is," Azuma put simply.
"After all, you hit him with a bullet stream he was weak to, down into liquid mercury and through a wall. What did you expect would happen?" Kikuko stated.
"Ohmygawd he's dead?!" Melissa gasped, "B-but he was too hunky to- hmm, actually I can get a pretty good view of his abs with him lying down," she then said.
"Er, Melissa?" Himawari gulped, "Y-you're aware you're checking out a corpse, right? Oh no, please don't get your phone out," she whimpered.
Seeing Melissa was a lost cause, Himawari approached, putting a hand on your shoulder, and said "Look, Haruka, please don't blame yourself! You were acting in self-defence, he challenged you, remember? And you didn't know your own strength, we heard you saw that yourself".
"The important thing right now is not that Haruka killed Eitaro," Gakuto interrupted, gesturing wildly, "The important thing is that, because she killed Eitaro, we're all suspects now! And being one of us All-Aces, he was hardly low-profile, now was he? Oh sure, we could just hide his body out here on the Gameboard, but people are going to start wondering where he is, and then what?!"
You spoke up, "Your friend's dead, and the first thing you can think of is a cover story?"
"I'm doing a favour, Haruka, us all a favour really," Gakuto snarled and crossed his arms, "You don't want to spend the rest of young life, hell the rest of your life, in prison now do you?"
Well, not much different from spending the rest of my young life around you people, you could only think back.
[ ] "We'll say he suffered too many injuries in his obsessive football and archery practicing, yet was too stubborn to get them checked"
[ ] "He was done in by a stray arrow, jealous rival archer"
[ ] "He got into a fight with some yakuza guys, it'd explain why he's riddled with holes"
[ ] "He was suffering from an illness that he kept refusing to tell people about"
[ ] "He committed suicide without a note, felt he was under way too much pressure"
[ ] Write-in
- The Chariot has Journeyed to Rank 3! -
Wait, what the Hell? you thought, How can a Social Link advance, even still be a thing, when the guy's dead?! Yeah, there's Lauryn, but... I don't know anymore.
"Okay, good enough for me," Gakuto said back, before a sinister smile crossed his face, "I suppose it's no surprise Eitaro was first this year to die, with his brawn and his fury, he simply made himself too big a target. Anyway, with him gone, dibs on his Empire!"
"Ugh, you? Nonono, I was closest to him, you're on my turf now!" Melissa shot back at him.
"What do you mean 'closest to him'? He'd kept spurning your advances, as I recall," Gakuto chuckled, to Melissa's rage.
Lauryn's Empire's still around, I guess it makes sense Eitaro's would be, you got to thinking, Azuma did talk about, if you're so great and spectacular, then your will influence will last, even grow, after death.
"You know what?" you then raised your voice, "Maybe I should claim this Empire, yeah, and take responsibility for Eitaro's death!" Since none of you seem to know what that word means.
"I'm afraid it's not that simple," Azuma told you, "You must first have an Empire to claim another".
"What?" you roared, "S-says who?"
"Says the Gameboard," he replied.
"Besides, who gets who's Empire is decided not by mere words," Kikuko snarled, drawing her sword "But by combat!"
"Ahem, and speaking of Empires," Himawari swiftly stepped in front of Kikuko before the latter could act, "How about we all head over to mine right now? I did promise a Haruka a private concert, after all!"
"Much as I don't keep up with your style of music, Himawari," Azuma said, "I do indeed agree we could all use a tension releaser, especially after, ahem, preceding events".
"Wow, I'm probably the only, y'know, killer ever to get a concert thrown for her," you snarked, clutching your head in your hands.
"Hmm, well actually there was the time some Bob Geldof guy performed 'Tell Me Why I Don't Like Mondays' at Live-Aid," Melissa pointed out.
"Hey, I want to stress this is not for killing Eitaro," Himawari said firmly, "This is for you surviving, this is for you still being with us".
Himawari's Empire, well more Nightshade's Empire you supposed, was a ramshackle collection of jagged slums and grungy speakeasies, with cobblestone streets, constant night, rain and mist, and because of that giant, luminescent mushrooms had sprouted up everywhere instead of lampposts.
You'd been shown into one of many nightclubs within, though this while tiny at least looked like one of the fancier ones, the whole place decked out with red velvet lounges, plush cushions, and glittering crystalline glasses at the bar. Basically on the exact other end of the spectrum from Darkest Desires, though you thought you could see some... BDSM equipment stashed away in the darkness.
Speaking of the bar, "Woo-hoo!" called out Melissa, her Regalia changed again into a slinky red dress, as she slurped up another round of sake, "Y'know Kikukiko, hic, your unique and exotish culture really, hic, makesh the best booze!"
"You are aware that's cognitive sake, right?" Kikuko said in return, before speaking louder, "You're serious getting drunk off illusionary rice wine!"
"Hey, you aren't my Mom! Hic," Melissa burped again, "B-but you're shtill my friend, r-right Kiko? Oh wait, show'sh starting".
The curtains parted, revealing a banner that read 'Happy Continued Existence, Haruka!' as Himawari, still dressed in her lighter, less obviously Nightshade dress, strode on stage.
"I'd like to dedicate this one to, well, someone very special to me," she went with, before launching into a more chart-friendly tune than Nightshade's fare, you guessed still not wanting to blow her cover, with her own Shadow subjects on keyboards.
Well, Gakuto at least seemed to like it, as did Melissa, but at her point you guessed she would've applauded over anything. Kikuko just, well, she just sat there, but Azuma... you couldn't see anywhere. You figured he must've slipped out, but why? You sure didn't think her singing was bad or anything.
You soon found Azuma in an alleyway outside, then again most of the streets here were alleys. He was talking to, wait, Popo?
"Well met Poe, it's been awhile," Azuma began. Wait, these two knew each other? You guessed that was plausible, Popo did say he was from the Gameboard, not specifically the Velvet Room.
"Azuma sir, I..." the pegasus pony gulped, "I gave that there Qin Shi Huang to Eitaro like I gave all of you Personae, and now he's, he's dead?!" he said. "I-I know all you have arguments and that, b-but what on Earth are these here 'Duels' for? You were 'sposed to support each other, not kill each other!"
"Poe, Eitaro was one of the few closest to me, so I can confidently say this is exactly how he would've wanted it," Azuma stated, "He was... afraid of ever becoming the weak link in the chain, yet it appears he was. He would've wanted then to be removed from the equation".
"Is that really true, Azuma sir?" Popo tried to stand up, "B-because I don't believe anyone's a 'weak link'".
"Your very Gameboard so far seems to have been saying otherwise," Azuma muttered. He then headed back inside, but got asked one last thing.
"Please, Mister Azuma sir, you gotta promise, no more o' these 'Duels'," Popo shouted.
Turning around, Azuma sighed and said, "Oh if it were so easy. It's a nice little fantasy, I'll grant you, but you underestimate just how brightly my fellow All-Aces' emotions can burn. Well, till we meet again".
With Azuma back inside, you headed out to Popo and asked him, "Popo, if you gave them Personae, why don't you just take them back from the All-Aces?"
"M-miss Haruka? Er, 'fraid it ain't that simple, like there's a diff'rence between giving someone a Persona and taking it away. Your Persona's part of you, no, it is you, so it's not gonna come quietly..." the pony whimpered, almost collapsing "Especially when you've got 'em Empires with you".
"Oh you, come inside," you said, picking up and carrying Popo in.
And inside, you could see Melissa had utterly collapsed on the floor in a stupor, Himawari having rushed over to help her up. "Ah, so er, pretty good concert, wouldn't you say? ...Guess we should call it a wrap for the night" she sighed.
- The Fool has Journeyed to Rank 4! -
Heading out of school, having dropped Popo back in the Velvet Room before you left the Gameboard, you were approached by Colette at the gates.
"My, Haruka, you do appear to be troubled," she spoke up, before crossing her arms and saying "Is this over something those All-Aces put you through?!"
"You could say that," you softly muttered.
"Say no more. Well, as your Vice-Rep," a position Colette was suddenly caring about now, "and Occult Club leader, and your soon-to-be-bandmate, it should be my duty to see how you're going". She then fell silent, before gritting her teeth and saying, "I- I would give anything to get you as far away as I could from those All-Aces, but... I acknowledge I'm not in much of a position to seriously do something about them. I'm, I'm sorry".
"Colette, please, don't be," you tried to tell her, "You shouldn't be blaming yourself for anything here, really".
"I suppose you're right," she said, "Only so much use pondering what could've been. Ahem, Haruka, is it... would it be okay if I walked you home?"
"Uh, sure," you said, "I mean, my apartment's not that far, but you're welcome".
"Hmhm, perfect, thank you" Colette smiled and curtseyed, "Now Haruka, perhaps you would be interested in a discussion of the finger qualities of gothic literature-"
Getting back to the block of flats before you knew it, it was there Colette said, "Well, I suppose I must take my leave here. Shame, it was a wonderful discussion we were having. But farewell Haruka, and remember," she took a deep breath before saying, "I am assured, for all their success, there's something special about you that no All-Ace could even dream of. Don't lose hope".
"Th-thank you," you said, bidding Colette goodbye.
Heading back up to your place, you only Megumi an exhausted greeting before you slumped down on your bed. I'm alive, Eitaro's dead. By my hand, technically. This is... something I didn't think I ever saw coming, you thought. You only now recalled at that Eitaro had, as an All-Ace, been one of the most popular kids at school, though it was easy to forget that, when you knew the real him. My God, how's everyone gonna react when news of his death finally gets out? Am... am I really gonna be thrown in prison?
QM's Note: Okay, so as I was writing this Quest, it came to my attention that, if I kept the pace I've been going so far, then the whole story would roughly be over within an in-game month, which just feels way too small-scale for a Persona game outside spin-offs, and to have reasonable character development over S. Links. However, if I tried to spread events out but by kept the day-by-day format, then this Quest could end up taking an extremely long time to finish.
So I've come up with a compromise, one that I've run past PA2 before. From here the Quest will be divided into Story Weeks and Skip Weeks (may need a better name). Story Weeks will play out using the day-by-day format found in canon Persona games, so same as usual, whereas Skip Weeks will be time-skips until the next Story Week.
However, you won't be just sitting down doing nothing between Story Weeks, no. Skip Weeks will use the week-by-week format found in games like Tokimeki Memorial, where you'll select one activity to focus on each school week, which can be studying, improving one of your social stats, exploring the Gameboard, and so on, and then an S. Link to hang out with each Sunday.
As you may've guessed, we'll be in Skip Week mode until Golden Week starts on April 29th in-game, giving you three schoolweeks to fill in with activities and two Sundays to hang out with people on. However, there'll still be one more story event before we reach Golden Week, surrounding Eitaro.
Please select three activities to focus on each schoolweek:
[ ] Exploring the Gameboard.
- [ ] Azuma's Empire.
- [ ] Kikuko's Empire.
- [ ] Gakuto's Empire.
- [ ] Melissa's Empire.
- [ ] Himawari's Empire
- [ ] Eitaro's Empire.
- [ ] Lauryn's Empire.
- [ ] No One's Land.
[ ] Studying.
[ ] Class Rep duties.
[ ] Exercising around town.
[ ] Surfing the Internet, now that you brought your better computer back.
[ ] Reading books.
[ ] Watching TV.
[ ] Practicing music for Nightshade.
[ ] Practicing your technique for Tea Ceremony Club.
[ ] Joining and practicing for the Drama Club.
[ ] Doing stuff for Occult Club.
[ ] Write-in.
Please select two Social Links to hang out with on Sundays:
[ ] Reina.
[ ] Ryouko.
[ ] Kikuko.
[ ] Yuya.
[ ] Keiko.
[ ] Hotaru.
[ ] Melissa.
[ ] Megumi.
[ ] Nightshade.
[ ] Mum and Dad.
[ ] Colette.
(Lauryn and Popo not included since their S. links have different conditions to progress.)
......Huh, okay, guess that exploit weakness option equals to "start being lethal". I'm guessing Eitaro's gonna come back later like Lauryn maybe. You know, now I'm really wondering what would've happen had we actually lost and gotten killed. Is it quest over or do we come back and play some other way.
[X] Studying.
[X] Class Rep duties.
[X] Doing stuff for Occult Club.
Studying in case there's exams coming up. The other two I just picked at random
[X] Colette.
[X] Ryouko.
Collette to maybe follow-up on that small tidbit we discovered. Ryouko to move her up to Rank 2.
I do want to start boosting one of our All-Ace Rank other than Himawari after this.
[X] "We'll say he suffered too many injuries in his obsessive football and archery practicing, yet was too stubborn to get them checked"
[X] Class Rep duties.
[X] Practicing music for Nightshade.
[X] Doing stuff for Occult Club.
[X] Reina.
[X] Mum and Dad.
-[X] Invite Colette.
Week planning, probably a good idea for pacing, but man does it ever hit with the desicion paralysis. Anyway, the band and class rep position are duties we just recently took up, so might as well focus on them. Responsibility and all that.
For the sundays, I'd rather loathe to ditch Reina and Colette after the Secret Lives blog stuff. Although, Colette specifically is already fairly integrated into our life, so giving her an entire sunday spot might be a bit overkill time management wise. Instead, I figure we might as well follow up on our parents asking us to introduce some of our new friends.
As for Eitaro, I did not expect a social link to die, so that's a bit of a shock. Well, at least he got to go out with a good fight scene and losing Gakuto money. That's two honors right there.
"And before Melissa inevitably complains it's unfair," Azuma interjected before the Ace of Coins could fume, "It should be noted this power above even your fellow Persona-users has come at a cost, the inability to manifest your own Empire".
Okay, two things here:
1) Given that Rin/Lauryn had an empire, I suppose this means she was a normal Persona user and not a fellow Wild Card. That makes it very likely that Eitaro's going to join her in the Velvet Room. (Which may also be why I don't feel too bad snarking about his death.)
2) Assuming Azuma actually knows what he's talking about here and isn't simply making stuff up on the fly (which is possible to be fair), this would imply he could have figured out about our Wild Card from pretty much the beginning. So that might put a spin on his attitude towards us.
[X] "We'll say he suffered too many injuries in his obsessive football and archery practicing, yet was too stubborn to get them checked"
[X] Class Rep duties.
[X] Practicing music for Nightshade.
[X] Doing stuff for Occult Club.
[X] Reina.
[X] Mum and Dad.
-[X] Invite Colette.
Wow, I honestly was not expecting Eitaro to go out like that, but I suppose Kikuo had a point; we did shower him with bullets and knock him through a wall, and even ignoring his conceptual weakness to Gun, that's pretty hard to walk off. But the Social Link is still progressing, so we may in fact be seeing Eitaro again; it'd be interesting (and a bit disturbing) to have an ever-increasing roster of All-Aces living in the Velvet Room. But Wild Cards can't possess Empires? And Azuma knew this? Maybe there's a reason he's so insistent on inserting himself into our lives and our backstory...
[X] "We'll say he suffered too many injuries in his obsessive football and archery practicing, yet was too stubborn to get them checked"
[X] Class Rep duties.
[X] Practicing music for Nightshade.
[X] Doing stuff for Occult Club.
[X] Reina.
[X] Mum and Dad.
-[X] Invite Colette.
Standing back up, his eyes pulsing red, gradually picking each arrow out of his body, he bellowed "Qin Shi Huang!" for his Persona to raise a violent Garula burst. Catching the gale, Eitaro sprang right across the oozing metal pool to deliver a high-flying kick coming right your way. In desperation, you called out "Santa Muerte!" and had your skeletal Persona open fire with every gun she had upon Eitaro.
The bullets being able to reach him, the force of both them and the localised tornado he'd conjured sent him rocketing back down. At the same time, you were dodging from side to side to avoid the liquid mercury from crashing up over you, but you soon didn't have you.
All of a sudden, the toxic metal pool was draining back down into the Colosseum. When finally it had all subsided, you hopped back down into the now dry arena, a Garu spell helping to slow your fall. You then saw what had made the mercury levels go down, a giant hole in the surrounding wall that had been created, where you could see as you approached, the prone Eitaro now lying.
Gakuto, having almost fallen out of his chair, then gritted his teeth and tried to feign a smile, "Ah-ha, well you certainly showed us, Haruka. I had a lot of money betted against you though, you know" he then snarled.
You looked up again to see that the once clear skies had grown stormy, and that the statues and buildings of this Empire, which when you first saw them appeared in top condition, now looked like they'd been decaying for aeons.
You no saw the All-Aces standing right in front of you, which made immediately shiver and collapse on your knees, "No! I- I didn't meant to-" you broke out into tears, "Yeah, he was a jerk, b-but he didn't deserve... to die".
"What you 'meant' won't change what is" Azuma put simply.
"After all, you hit him with a bullet stream he was weak to, down into liquid mercury and through a wall. What did you expect would happen?" Kikuko stated.
"Ohmygawd he's dead?!" Melissa gasped, "B-but he was too hunky to- hmm, actually I can get a pretty good view of his abs with him lying down" she then said.
...Is anyone else getting the impression that Azuma is kind of a nihilist? Anyway, the black comedy of these people (not) reacting to Eitaro's death is kind of this quest in a nutshell.
"I'm doing a favour, Haruka, us all a favour really," Gakuto snarled and crossed his arms, "You don't want to spend the rest of young life, hell the rest of your life, in prison now do you?".
Well, not much different from spending the rest of my young life around you people, you could only think back.
I really do appreciate the moments where it's made clear that Haruka and the readers are on the same page. In my experience, quests where the voters have knowledge or attitudes significantly diverging from the protagonist are hard to run. I'm not talking about the difficulty of role-playing a protagonist, but of managing the sheer disconnect between a protagonist who trusts Character A and a readerbase who knows A is a traitor (or, in this case, a pack of abusive bullies).
You know what? I was lukewarm on Himawari at first, but I'd now like to award her the "#1 Ace" award, for such heroic achievements as "Comfort Distressed Friend" and "Treat the Dead with Respect".
"Please, Mister Azuma sir, you gotta promise, no more o' these 'Duels'" Popo shouted.
Turning around, Azuma sighed and said, "Oh if it were so easy. It's a nice little fantasy, I'll grant you, but you underestimate just how brightly my fellow All-Aces' emotions can burn. Well, till we meet again".
You might think it's hard, Azuma, but I gotta tell you, I actually made it through four years of high school without assaulting or killing anybody. I know other people who managed it too! So if you really try, I think you can do it!
"Hmhm, perfect, thank you" Colette smiled and curtseyed, "Now Haruka, perhaps you would be interested in a discussion of the finger qualities of gothic literature-".
Getting back to the block of flats before you knew it, it was there Colette said, "Well, I suppose I must take my leave here. Shame, it was a wonderful discussion we were having. But farewell Haruka, and remember," she took a deep breath before saying, "I am assured, for all their success, there's something special about you that no All-Ace could even dream of. Don't lose hope".
Anyway, the band and class rep position are duties we just recently took up, so might as well focus on them. Responsibility and all that.