r/whowouldwin • u/Proletlariet • May 22 '23
Event Character Scramble Season 17 Round 1A: Crimson Butterfly
Round 1A is finished and the thread is locked! Please use this form to vote. Voting ends 48 hours after it began. You MUST vote if you are competing!
Round 1A includes Matches 1 through 8 on the bracket. Check to see if you're in before you write.
The Character Scramble is a long-running writing prompt tournament in which participants submit characters from fiction to a specified tier and guideline. After the submission period ends, the submitted characters are "scrambled" and randomly distributed to each writer, forming their team for the season. Writers will then be entered into a single-elimination bracket, where they write a story that features their team fighting against their opponent's team. Victors are decided based on reader votes; in other words, if you want people to vote for you, write some good content. The winner by votes of each match-up moves on to the next round. The pattern continues until only one participant remains: the new Character Scramble champion, who gets to choose the theme, tier, and rules of the next Scramble!
The theme of Character Scramble 17 is Silent Hill. Round prompts will be based on scenarios and setpieces from classic survival horror games, which participants’ characters will be forced to endure all the while avoiding the terrifying Slasher characters also submitted this season.
Join the Character Scramble Discord!
Round 1A: Crimson Butterfly
Fleeing from their encounter with their Slasher in R0, your team find themselves in the oldest part of Scramble Hill where the roots of its curse run deepest.
Their presence disturbs more than just the rotting timbers of the old fashioned buildings. The dead of Scramble Hill begin to stir. Their baleful spirits have been consigned to linger there for all eternity by the town’s curse, and over their long years stuck in this purgatory they have grown more and more desperate for an escape.
One of the oldest and most powerful of their number--your opponent’s Slasher--has whipped the restless bunch into a fervour with the promise of a solution; they believe the only way to bring their souls to rest is to reenact a ritual of sacrifice that once kept the curse at bay. Unfortunately for you, they require a living vessel to complete it. And they won’t take no for an answer.
Your team’s Slasher has other ideas. Whether the ritual works or not, they’re not taking any chances. They will stop at nothing to interrupt it before it can be completed. They might even go as far as to protect your Survivors from the restless spirits. Or just as easily decide to preemptively kill the would-be sacrifice themselves.
Round Rules:
Key Points: Your team is being haunted by the ghosts of people who’ve died in Scramble Hill, including your Opponent’s Slasher. They want to force your team to complete a sacrificial ritual to end the town’s curse and put their spirits to rest. Your Slasher doesn’t want the curse to be broken, so they’re dead set on interrupting the ritual. For more details about the setting and circumstances, keep reading.
Beyond the Spirit Gate: The barrier between the human and spirit worlds is blurred in Scramble Hill, but it is still not easily breached. Ghosts are out of step with mortals---you can’t fend them off with fists and bullets. Normal people need a tool just to see and interact with them; a special flashlight lens, an occult symbol, a camera obscura. Ghosts, on the other hand, can touch you just fine. Your team will need to find something to ward them off if they hope to survive.
Crimson Sacrifice: The rite the spirits wish to perform requires two living participants, one of whom is forced to ritually sacrifice the other. The ghosts will possess the living bodies of Survivors (yours, your opponent’s, up to you!) and use them as their pawns to carry out the ritual.
Master of Ceremonies: Your opponent's slasher is the one officiating the Crimson Sacrifice. Who are they? A priest? A cultist? A former victim of the ritual? Are they a ghost themselves, or merely being possessed to do the bidding of one?
Over YOUR Dead Body!: Regardless of if it could truly break the curse, your team’s Slasher won’t allow the ritual to be completed. They’ll do whatever it takes to interrupt it. Whether that means protecting your team members from the restless spirits, or preemptively killing the would-be sacrifice themselves.
Normal Rules:
There was a hole here. It’s gone now: The environment of Scramble Hill is disorientating and hostile: creeping industrial rust, out of place landmarks, stairs and corridors to nowhere. As much as Slashers might pose a threat to your characters, the town itself should feel like an antagonist.
Fear of Blood creates Fear for the Flesh: This is a horror themed Scramble. You don’t have to try to scare the reader with your stories, but they should include spooky elements. Scramble Hill is full of things that would make a normal person shudder. How do your characters react when they encounter them?
We're safe... for now: This is the story of your characters’ survival against terrifying forces. This means that however scarred and broken they emerge, they’re going to make it out alive. Even if your characters have only a small chance of victory, write that small chance happening!
If I kept it, I'm not sure what I might do…: Survival Horror is all about scavenging for something, anything you can use to stave off the monsters in the dark. You are absolutely encouraged to write your characters gaining or losing equipment/abilities/injuries/sanity. However, your opponents are not expected to keep track of these in-story changes and vice versa.
The only me is me. Are you sure the only you is you?: Give a brief summary to introduce your characters at the start of your post. Be sure to mention things like powers, personality, history, just stuff that the average reader should know before reading.
R1A Dread Pool
This round, you may draw your opponent's Slasher from either the character they adopted in R0 or one of the following Dread Pool picks:
Zs'Skayr (Ben 10)
Psycho Mantis (Metal Gear Solid)
Liliana Vess (Magic the Gathering)
Scar (FMA)
The Zealot (Fate)
Tak Se'Young (Rooftop Sword Master)
Shishio Makoto (Ruroni Kenshin)
Mortarion (WH40k)
Judge Dredd (2000 AD)
Round 1A will run from Monday May 22nd to Friday June 9th Thursday June 15th and end at 11:59 PM Central Daylight Time on the dot.
In recognition of confusion over previous deadlines, we're switching to a compromise time zone that works better for most Scramblers. For reference, that is 12:59 AM on the 16th EST or 5:59 AM BST.
To make things even easier, check out this site to convert the deadline to your timezone.
The universal code is - 1686286740
Copy this and paste it into the "Epoch to human time" slot.
Character limit is 5 full length Reddit comments, or 50k characters.
While it is fine to go a little bit over, anything that far surpasses this limit will be disqualified. This limit does not include intro posts, or analysis of the matchup.
4
u/7thSonOfSons Jun 03 '23
“Do you like music, Jill? I can turn on the radio. What do you listen to?”
Makima takes a left.
Jill shakes her head.
“Nothing, thanks. It’s fine. We’re almost there anyway.”
Jill keeps her eyes on the road.
Makima’s reflection looks at her.
“This is nice. I’m not used to being in the office this long. Getting out here, being with the team, it reminds me of how things were in Japan.”
Jill looks out the window.
Makima continues to smile.
Makima takes a right.
There’s a checkpoint ahead.
Makima pulls in and holds up her Vought ID.
The officer manning the checkpoint checks his computer.
Makima glances back at Jill.
“Something on your mind?”
“It’s nothing.”
Makima frowns.
“You know, Jill, this is a dangerous job. We’re going into the belly of the beast. It’s your first time, but it could be your last time. Devils are awful things. They can kill in an instant. And I wouldn’t want you to go with things left unsaid. Regrets are the only thing that we take with us after death.”
Jill exhales.
“If this job is so dangerous, why are you so happy to run into it?”
Makima smiles.
The checkpoint operator waves her through.
Makima drives on.
The car approaches a vacant, large parking lot.
“I’m sorry. It must seem strange. Honestly, I don’t have much in my life. All I have are my dogs, and this job. And my job is to keep awful things from happening. To keep people safe. Even if that’s all I have, they both make me happy. They’re important to me.
“Oh! And movies, of course. Movies make me happy.”
Jill looks forward.
She catches Makima’s eye in the mirror.
“... Movies, huh? I guess that explains why you’d come work for Vought.”
Makima winks at Jill.
“Can I tell you a secret?”
“Sure.”
“I actually don’t like superhero movies very much. At least not this era of them. I’m sure the staff and actors are all quite talented, but to me they feel… soulless.”
Jill chuckles.
Makima pulls into a parking spot.
Makima puts the car into park.
“Don’t worry, Makima. I’ll keep your secret safe.”
Makima unclicks her seatbelt.
Jill follows her lead.
“What about you Jill? Any secrets? This could be our last chance to share.”
Jill glances at her pocket.
She steps out of the car.
“... Yeah, actually.”
Makima looks out the window.
Jill holds up her phone.
Her wallpaper is the album Wildflower by Sheryl Crow.
“I do listen to music. Just… not anything on the radio.”
Makima looks at Jill’s phone.
Makima smiles.
“I’ll have to give it a listen after we fin-
BANG
Blood splattered against the car’s windshield. Makima’s head slumped forward onto the steering wheel, blaring the car horn. Her eyes are wide open. There’s a hole in the centre of her forehead, spraying blood like a fire hose. Bits of brain fell out onto the floorboard.
Jill drew her gun and desperately looked around. Not again. Not again! “What the hell is this!?”
There was no time to worry. No time to mourn. No time to think. She had to go. The bullet hit Makima in the back of the head. The shooter had to have come behind them. As Jill ran towards the source of the gunfire, her instincts proved correct. She barely caught the door to one of the university buildings slamming shut. That became her destination.
Jill crossed the parking lot in seconds. She looked up at the building. ‘Vought Memorial Hall’, the archway read. “What are the odds…”
Jill shoved the doors open. The hallway beyond was dark. She clicked on her flashlight, and caught sight of… something. Moving in the darkness. She stepped deeper into the building. The door shut behind her. She gripped her pistol and started making her way in.
“Hello? Is anyone there? I’m with the Public Safety Team. Come out now, I just want to talk.” She shouted into the darkness, and got back only her echo.
She exhaled. She clicked off her pistol's safety. Slowly, she walks deeper into the building.
The place is dead silent, save for her own footsteps. Jill’s eyes shift side to side. She tries one of the hallway doors. It’s locked. Peering inside, she sees nothing but blackness. She has to hope her target hasn’t taken cover within it.
As she rounds the corner, she sees it. That shape darting out of her flashlight. This time, she does not hesitate. She takes off after it.
“Freeze!” She shouts as she charges forward. “Stop, I just want to talk!”
The thing sprints through a side door. Jill follows after it. Her gun is raised. Her finger rests on the trigger. She searches in the darkness.
Her light finds it. A black cat on the windowsill, licking its paw. It looks up at Jill. It goes back to licking.
Jill sighs. She lowers her gun. “It’s just a cat…”
She looks around the room. It’s some kind of lab. Old, out of use, lots of dust covers everywhere. One of them was moving.
“... Just a cat.”
She walks towards the shuffling dust cover. Too big to be a cat. She yanks the dust cover away.
Hands are on her throat. Her flashlight is blocked by the massive frame of a man. He groans mindlessly. His fingers tighten.
Jill grabs her knife from her belt and jams it into the zombie’s temple. He staggers backwards, and Jill has line of sight.
BANG BANG BANG
Two in the chest. One in the head. The body flops forward onto the floor. Just kept her gun trained on it. Waiting. Waiting.
Footsteps. She heard more footsteps behind her. Panicked, hurried footsteps. She whipped around, both hands at her gun. The light from her flashlight illuminated another body.
Not a zombie. A man. Hardly a man. He couldn’t be older than eighteen. White coat, blue jeans… just a kid. But he had a gun too. And it was pointed at Jill.
Jill’s hands were steady. “What’s going on? Are you the one who shot my partner?”
The boy's hands were shaking. “Partner? She was your partner? Oh, this is bad.”
Jill tightened her focus. “You tell me what’s going on right now, or I-”
“HRRRRRUGHAA!”
BANG BANG
Jill’s eyes widened. She looked down. He’d fired twice. Both missed. She looked behind her. Not missed. She’d been distracted. Both shots struck the zombie behind her. Two to the head. It hit the floor again, and crumbled to dust.
She turned her attention back around, and saw the boy drop his gun. He raised his hands up in surrender. “You have to listen to me, please. My name is Soma Cruz. I am a student at Nagoya University. And I am the Witch Devil.”