altimit | 11/14 - θ Dismal Worst Core

11/14 - θ Dismal Worst Core

Who: THE PROPAGATION and players
What: Preservation.
Where: θ DISMAL WANING DESCENT???
When: ICly, Tuesday 11/14
Warnings: Violence, suicidal ideation, eye gore, sexual identity+reproductive topics, general mention of sexual content. Please see signups for more specific warnings.

[Once hidden away from the rest of the game by Cubia, all player characters are now able to gate-in to θ Dismal Waning Descent; only when they arrive, they'll find that the area name has changed to θ Dismal Worst Core.]

[The "Garden" as it was once called has been transformed from glitching meadow into a wide, cement basement with sparse, fluorescent lighting. A target ring has been crudely painted or chalked onto the floor in faded white, and more targets are carved into the cement of the surrounding walls, traditional kyuudo arrows somehow shot into them and sticking out at haphazard angles, some with broken, splintered shafts.]

[At the center of the bullseye on the ground is...]

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GENERAL INFO:

➵ Please post your signup as a reply to this comment. Sign-up slots are limited to 3 PC's. One additional NPC will also be present in the fight.
➵ If more than 3 characters sign up, I will RNG the signups around 1 PM EST, on Sunday 11/12.
➵ Tagging will be in rounds, played ICly as a turn-based RPG style fight. Each tag from Matoba is the start of a new round. Given the limited slots, please make sure you are going to be available every day this week to tag at least once so as not to hold things up. My timezone is EST and I usually tag 6 PM - 11 PM daily on weekdays. I will tag after the last player responds each round.
➵ This battle is going to be dialogue/narrative-focused with a lower emphasis on battle mechanics. Generally, you will not need to worry about tracking HP, making damage rolls every round, etc.

A few notes about specific content warnings:

➵ Being the sex-related Phase, Magus may bring up topics including Matoba's sexual experiences, anything known to Matoba or publicly known about participating characters' sex lives, topics related to struggles with sexual identity, etc.
➵ This fight will not include sexual acts or sexual violence towards any characters.
➵ This fight may include bodily mutilations including: possible organ removal, eye squick, amputation, etc. Nothing will be done to your character without prior contact first.
➵ I ask that everyone please put any descriptive gore in your tags within collapsible cuts and, if necessary, include a summary of any reactable actions in that cut for me, because I am a little iffy on reading gore.

FORM:

Player Name:
Player Contact: (keep in mind I'm not in the game discord!)
Timezone/Availability: (So I have an idea who to expect when. Are you more of an after-work tagger? Sleep criminal? Can you boomerang in US evenings or daytime-weekend? I ask that everyone be able to tag AT LEAST ONCE per day. This battle is expected to go a minimum 10 tagging rounds.)

Character Name+Username:
Character Class+Element: (I need elements as Matoba WILL use examine to see what your character's magic weakness is.)
Character Core Type: (Please note here if your character has a bracelet from either Lily or Zelkova; OR if they have one of the cores given in the update. Then, choose your type (Heal, Armor, Damage). Note that at least one player in this battle will need to have a bracelet or Damage core.)

TAGGING ORDER:

➵ Rather than tagging to the previous player's tag, please make all replies to Magus' latest reply in the thread. I will toplevel for each new round.
➵ If the latest reply isn't in by about 10:30 PM EST each night, I may skip whoever hasn't replied and put in the next round's tag.

STATUS/DAMAGE ROLLS:

➵ As mentioned above, you do not need to give rolls for general damage or dodges in this fight, we can just play it by ear. The flow and pace of the fight will depend more on the narrative than the battle elements.
➵ The bulk of Matoba's attacks are AoE spells, meaning most characters will take some magic damage each round. Further mechanics will be detailed below.
➵ Exceptions: Statuses will be handled by a coinflip each round (Heads for successful infliction/wearing off, tails for failure/continuing another round).
➵ There is one other mechanic where damage rolls will be necessary, which will be detailed below when it triggers within the fight.

SPECIAL MECHANICS:

➵ Specified Target: Each round's attack will select a random target and choose their elemental weakness for Matoba's spell. They will receive the bulk of damage for that round, while the remainder of players will get splash damage (so rip if you share that person's element).
The RNG assignment is: Mithrun (1), Hani (2), Fandaniel (3), Hien (4).

➵ Attack Dog: Each round, Hien may take an attack meant for Magus. If so, he will perform a coinflip: Heads he intercepts and takes the applicable damage, tails the attack hits Magus as intended. This counts as Hien's player action for the round of the attack he is intercepting.

➵ 的をいるですね？: Special Area mechanic. All light in the Arena extinguishes, leaving it pitch-black. The following debuffs are automatically applied to all players: 4x Evade Down, Blind. These debuffs are automatically dispelled when the Area Effect ends and cannot be removed until then. The following buffs are applied to Magus: Accuracy bypass (Magus' attacks cannot miss), Attack: All (Attacks hit all players). These buffs end when the Area Effect ends. Death and Rebirth triggers automatically on the same round this effect triggers. After 3 successful attacks hit Magus, the Area Effect ends.
When targeting Magus for an attack during 的をいるですね？, roll 1d20. ~~A roll of 1-8 hits. (This may be adjusted later.)~~ EDIT: A roll of 1-5 hits for all further activations.

➵ Death and Rebirth: Magus' signature attack. Non-elemental, magic damage. Magus sheds his razor sharp leaves and captures anyone in the Arena in a whirlwind of pain. Inflicts Bleed that slowly whittles away at HP. This attack is unavoidable and the resulting Bleed is incurable.

➵ Deadly Aim: A spell unique to Matoba. Single-target, water-elemental magic damage. Summons many icicles shaped like arrows that converge into a single target and freezes them for 15 seconds (one round).

more mechanics coming soon!

Edited 2023-11-20 04:26 (UTC)

If you have questions/concerns as we go along, feel free to ask here!

Player Name: Tuesday
Player Contact: My discord, or dalmore @ plurk
Timezone/Availability: PST, available throughout the day except Fridays

Character Name+Username: Morgan Chatainne / Mithrun1
Character Class+Element: Edge Punisher / Wood (Matoba's favori--)
Character Core Type: No Bracelet, Heal Core

Edited 2023-11-12 06:57 (UTC)

Player Name: soup
Player Contact: scheris @ disco, soupie @ plurk!
Timezone/Availability: PST, I can make tags happen before & during work, but am mostly an after-work tagger and can tag up until 1 AM PST (4 AM EST)

Character Name+Username: hani / tabibito
Character Class+Element: wavemaster / wood
Character Core Type: n / armor core

Player Name: LA
Player Contact: er3shkigal @ discord is fine, just dm me direct.
Timezone/Availability: CST, evenings and weekends. I can move stuff around to be available every evening except for about an hour at 5 p.m. CST this Sunday.

Character Name+Username: ~~Amon Isai~~ Fidchell / fandaniel
Character Class+Element: Shadow Warlock + Dark
Character Core Type: Lily bracelet + Armor Core

Edited 2023-11-11 19:30 (UTC)

I SEE WE HAVE MORE THAN 3, please keep me on as a back-up just in case!! but give the others priority ;u;

tho I will be hardcore stalking this fight either way

[In the center of the bullseye under a single lamplight there's an uncomfortable metal folding chair. Matoba sits there, waiting for the players who gate in, staring down at the eyepatch that has been for once removed from his face and now lays draped in his hand. His right eye bears a slash over it that's now an angry pink scar, leading down into the bright red of a Wavemark matching Cubia's.]

[Slumped against the chair, the gilded armor over his shoulders, hips and shins gleam and bulge; you'd be forgiven for thinking that the segmented gems, like the eyes of an insect, flinch and swivel to look at you every so often.]

He's not here.

[The eyepatch slips out from between Magus' fingers and flutters to the cold cement. The chair creaks horribly as he leans in it, breaking the otherwise silent echo in the Area.]

The virus that is Cubia has spread too thoroughly. The flesh of this world is nothing but rot to its core. You can't amputate a limb on a body so totally decimated.

It's unfortunate. In order to protect the survival of you who could escape and persist on the "Outside", I wished to prevent this from happening. But there's only one course of action now...

Edited 2023-11-12 18:24 (UTC)

[ Perhaps it is a shock that it will be another of the Phases that ports in to meet Magus' opening monologue and all he gets in return is a scoff, Fidchell sneering at the man slumped in the chair. Or maybe it shouldn't be at all, considering he's been obsessively trying to access the Area ever since that message... that awful message... from this awful creature...! ]

I will not tolerate your lies and delusions any longer, M̍ͅá̱g̝͇̑͞u̲̟͗͋s̼͆. You have proven to be an ultimately pointless and broken pr̲̆ò͜ģ͒r̙͌ạ͡ḿ̩ and will be removed from the system for what you have done.

[ Still, he approaches the chair directly, in no rush despite how one fist curled at his side trembles with rage, the other hand occupied with the tome weapon he has drawn as he moves forward. ]

If not here, then where? Has your little plan backfired on you after all that talk?

Edited 2023-11-12 19:03 (UTC)

( Mithrun steps into the arena not long after Fandaniel, in his same veil and wedding gown, and with the same bullseye brand between his shoulder blades; evidence of their encounter not so long ago, and a suggestion that Mithrun be patient. But he does resent patience.

He draws his weapon, a broadsword made of thorns and blue rose growths, as Matoba's speech comes to a close. He considers for a moment striking him now, in one final attempt to carve him up as a human, but, the way he is now, he seems about to burst; they'd been allowed in too late to prevent the transformation. He clicks his tongue.

Matoba failed. Of course he did. He was already Cubia's puppet when he decided to try, just as Fandaniel is now. He supposes that as desperation had made Mithrun an easy target, so had Matoba's hubris. )

... I'd release you from this misery regardless of your rationale.

( Frank. This talk of viruses and being a disease unto humanity was some construction of his programming. If there were chance of it being real, well - it wasn't as if he would accept mass murder as the solution. Not when he liked some of the people in Fragment.

A shame, because he never disliked Matoba, either. )

... Survive. I'll come to collect on this debt.

Edited 2023-11-12 19:56 (UTC)

[ perhaps what hani dislikes the most about lily’s machinations is how he tries to take these people, with boundless possibilities and paths within them, and contain them all in the same ill-fitting cage made up of lily’s own limitations. they were all meant to be more, weren’t they? why choose an island when you could have the ocean? spilling and spilling, never less, always more.

why stop at the land’s edge? have courage, lily; walk straight into the waves if you dare.

now, as hani gates in and joins their master and their mithrun, they wonder if 0toko had predicted this in any of his plans - to end in a empty, gray basement with only a chair and three others. and… no door.

no exit.

… ]

Only one course of action, you say. Do you believe there is only one ending here? Surely, not.

[ they draw out their staff, ready. straight into the waves; willing for the abyss. ]

Show me every possibility that you still can.

[ Those are the three and this is the phantom fourth.

A black cat with a crooked tail end— ]

[ ...

Hien immediately codes that out, but can't he assed to fix the entire thing, so he's stuck with cat ears and a tail, both obscured by the big black cloak and hood. Fuck this. ]

Edited 2023-11-12 21:45 (UTC)

[ uh excuse u, hien, fidchell did not invite u to this party??? honestly, these gate-crashing admins... ]

[ fuk ur party homeslice ]

( about to risk it all (neg) )

[ He will code in a spray bottle just to use it at Mithrun. Don't test him. ]

... Complicated?

[ Oh, this is something that he actually remembers. Hien just nods. ]

[Magus' eyes travel across the three.... no, the four who approach him. All predictable for their own reasons, but Hien has a long and peculiar look cast towards him as he emerges, silent and feline.]

[L̷̜̹͎̳̲̥͇̾̉̈́̈́̍͘ȩ̷̝̘̲̳͓̖̦͚̮͇̋͂̀͆̽̎́̿̕͝t̴̬͇̤͙̥̣̼͎̱̲̗̣̉̓͋̽́̎̅͗̌̕͝ ̸̨̮̰̭̺̬̬͔̦͙͈̝̉͐͛͒͂͋̿͘͝͝h̷̛̙͓̜͉̼̐̍̉̌̕̕̕͜͠͝i̴̡͈̺̰̳̫͈̳͉͆̐́͝m̷̨̫̞̲͕̘͋̅̈́̏̔̈́̚ ̸̨̡̡̪̣̦͕̮̠̦̗̗͇̟̫̭̍͑̀̇͑̓̊̌̿̍͑̓͑͘͜ṕ̸̧̮̔͌́̓e̴̢̩̩̳͖͚̒́̈́̆͂͂̑͊̀͆͆͂͆̈́̕̚͜͝ͅͅț̵̯̼̗̱̋̅̿͌ ̸̛̦̫̫̞̱̣̗̈̿͂̆̇̑̄̄͌́́̔̈͐͘̕ͅỹ̷̢̡̻̫͓̙̠͖͇̰̅̒̿́͑̈́̇̈́̾̊̒̚̚͠ǒ̸̖͍̣͓͕͉͇͕̦̫̂̅ư̸̙̦̖̣͒͂̀̃̎͋̊̚̕͘̕͝͝͠]

[No... Those were the thoughts of a human who no longer existed. Turning away from him without comment, he instead addresses those who spoke.]

I figured I would be seeing you again after your outburst, Macha. Why this foolish decision to step in and prolong Cubia's hold? Surely you understand from your observations, as I do, how fruitless this world is? [His head lolls to the side of his shoulder, to address Hani.] The possibilities are endless, but I will only allow one to go forward. In order for mankind to flourish....... That error cannot be allowed to spread.

[It's Fidchell's bold approach that earns a sidelong glance from the man(?) in the chair, its creaking impossibly loud in their cold concrete cell as he leans, and his good eye resting on him with a wicked, playful smile.]

"Lies and delusions", you say. "Pointless". Tell me, my dear brother Fidchell: who is it that made us this way? Who is it that created us in his image?

[To be naught but f̸̨̱̲̰̃͆̉́̇̿͋̐ȧ̷͈̞̝̟͓̗̯̜̲͉͇̹̻͖̅͆͐͒͊̔̍̇͆́̀́̄̕i̷̧̨̨̢̠̦͎͖̳̘̙̙͔͕͔̺̗͌́̾́̋́̈͛̏̃͐͋̎ļ̶̞͔͍̫̣̙͕̤̗̘͓̯̪̝̀ͅu̵͇̫̇̎̀̀̋́̍͗̃̄͠͝͠͠͝r̷̗̗̪̗͙̞͇̒̂̌e̷̡͙͈̹̔̃̄̓͊̽̎̈́͌͜͝s̷̛̠̤̜̭̻̖̦̞̲̩̰̳̻͆̑̍.]

[A split second sensation of wrongness bubbles out from the center of the room as, in a flash, the figure in the chair glows and explodes outward; from the force of the blow, a tail whips out and slams Fidchell/Fandaniel backwards, revealing the true form of "Magus", his snake or dragonfly-like coils winding within the rings of the target on the ground. The armor has encased his upper body, the oversized pauldrons and hip armor now joined by chest and arm armor, and a 'mask' now covers his face, protruding long from over his jaw like a beak. Even Matoba's ponytail has become a tail-like appendage, flowing out from behind the mask.]

[The grimoire Matoba once held is gone; unnecessary. Instead, Magus only need raise a hand towards the ceiling and gather magic in his hand before flinging it forward with a room-shaking force; a PhaRai Rom ⚡️ crackles overhead of the battle party and rains lightning down, centered over Hien.]

In order to prevent the spread... I'll simply eliminate this entire World.

Edited 2023-11-13 01:00 (UTC)

You——!

[ Fidchell would have carried on that argument over whether or not they were created to be like this, corrupt, broken things, but everyone is saved from that when the body Magus had been housed in explodes into his true form and slaps Fidchell away. It's for the best, truly.

Not that he's happy about being swatted away, flying across the cold, empty cell of a room about part way before coming to a stop by hitting one of the bullseyes carved in relief into the stone walls. He bounces off a bit, landing on the floor in a heap.

While mostly healed at this point, on top of knocking the air from his lungs, that causes quite a shock of pain to course through him from where FlameMane had brutalized his ribs some time ago now. He will not being doing anything useful this round, good luck, losers. ]

Edited 2023-11-13 01:12 (UTC)

[ Seeing the transformation makes Hien freeze on the spot, so that PhaRai Rom is very much a direct hit on him. It hurts. It hurts a lot. The eye in the center of the halo behind his head flickers into one with a black sclera and it looks absolutely angry. His checkerboard patterned eyes stare at Magus blankly for a moment before Hien casts Ap Vorma on himself, increasing his magical defense.

Maybe if Hien cared about humankind, he'd probably say something about how destroying this world won't do anything to help Magus achieve his goals. But right now, he doesn't care, and even as the Harvest Cleric, he doesn't want to heal anyone else either. The cat ears flattening under the hood. ]

[ hani staggers slightly at the splash of lightning, and it's only their higher magical defense as a wavemaster that keeps them from falling to their knees. even through the damage, hani keeps an eye on fandaniel and hien. are they alright - ? they seem to be. and that was... lightning against darkness? ah. they see.

it would make them smile, 0koto using their weaknesses to his advantage, but that smile wouldn't be for 0koto now, would it? ]

Destroy this world like a storm? You said once that it suits you ill.

[ duk lei's cast echoes off concrete, a drop of poison to eat away at the corruption that masks his true self. ]

And I must agree.

I dont really care for the good of the world.

( The World or otherwise. Mithrun lunges forward with a Raika, his strikes so quick and precise you nearly can't see his blade, only the blue petals that flutter behind him and land on each fading bloody footstep, and the lightning that crackles about it. )

—And I'm hardly a martyr.

( He's not dying for the good of anybody else, and he's sure not letting the handful of people he's come to like dying for anybody else, too. Even if it really were to damn the whole world, even if there were, somehow, an ounce of truth in what Matoba, what Magus says. )

[With Fidchell tossed aside, Magus can focus on the other three. Watching Hien freeze up under the spell, Magus comes eye to eye with his brother; none can see it, but it's clear in his voice how a smile blossoms beneath the mask.]

Suffering in silence. Am I stealing your "thunder", Skeith? [Hahaha, get it? He had been wondering what brought him here, whether it was to protect Cubia as with Fidchell. That would be against his programming. But...] ...Or have you come to collect your data as I create it for you? Are you even willing to be a sacrifice for that data?

[Magus, the propagation, the creation and preservation of life; and Skeith, the end, the death. They were polar opposites, but that was why Magus had enjoyed observing him- for humans often protected their own prospects, their own continuation, through the deaths of others.]

[And speaking of creeping death... Duk Lei's poison seeps in through Magus' flesh, a cold shudder running through his body. There's a creaking shudder of breath as the suffering fills him that allows Mithrun's blade to strike, the electrified strikes stiffening up his limbs with each blow that hits.]

[His upper body sags for a brief moment, irritated, before he raises himself up again with the slow, heavy dragging sound of his body behind him.]

How unfortunate... [His hand raises again. Crackles form overhead of the party once again with another PhaRai Rom ⚡️, this time streaking across the ceiling to then rain upon Fandaniel. With him currently slammed across the arena, those closer to Magus may find themselves less affected by the spell. Lucky you!]

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11/14 - θ Dismal Worst Core

SIGN-UPS

BATTLE MECHANICS (Please do not reply here!)

QUESTIONS

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OPENING TAG (pre-battle)

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1/2

2/2

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ROUND 1

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ROUND 2