r/whowouldwin • u/TheAsianIsGamin • 23d ago
Event Character Scramble Season 20 Round 1A: Lockdown
This round covers matches 1-3 in the bracket which can be found here. Please check to make sure what round you are in before you start to 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 20 is Scramble Effect. Round prompts will be based on the many worlds, missions, and memorable moments found throughout the Mass Effect series.
Join the Character Scramble Discord!
Round 1A: Lockdown
Smoke rises in great, billowing columns, from ruined farms and a pillaged skyline. It’s the only sign of what, until just now, had been a pitched battle that no one had expected. The immediate threat has been defeated, but your team knows they can’t rest easy.
With greater peril on the horizon, your team sets out to warn their allies and gather their strength. Sounding the alarm, however, is far easier said than done. It appears your enemy has slipped into the shadows—if, your associates point out, they truly exist at all.
While the important people work on verifying your reports, they’d like to invite you for some rest and relaxation. You refuse. They insist, and their intent suddenly becomes clear. Grounding, benching, stonewalling. Whatever you’d call it, and whatever reason they have for it, they don’t want you going back out there.
Round Rules:.
Grounded: A crash landing on a desolate planet, an attack by hostile forces, or good old-fashioned bureaucracy has left your team trapped. If you want to make any progress on your mission, you’ll have to find a way out of here.
More Trouble Than You’re Worth: Unfortunately, the enemy team really doesn’t want you to leave. You’ll need a plan: Fight, evade, or otherwise neutralize them to free yourselves from their clutches.
Just Punch Udina In The Face: We know you want to. Feel free to indulge in whatever scenes or choices you wanna write. There is no Paragon/Renegade choice for this round.
Normal Rules:
Stand Fast, Stand Strong, Stand Together: Nobody can take on a mission like this alone. You’ve got a team of the brightest, toughest, and deadliest allies a Scrambler can find—use them. We’d love to see your characters make full use of their wide-ranging abilities, both on their own and as a team.
We Will Hold The Line: You know what’s at stake. Failure is not an option. Even if your characters have only a small chance of victory, write that small chance happening!
Special Tactics and Reconnaissance: Saving the galaxy will take more than the same old tricks. You are allowed and encouraged to mix and match powers, and to develop your characters in any way you wish, both on the battlefield and off. However, your opponents are not expected to keep track of these in-story changes, and vice-versa.
Every Life Is a Special Story of Its Own: Feel free to give a brief summary to introduce your characters at the start of your post. If you do, you should mention things like powers, personality, history, and anything else that the average reader should know before reading.
Legendary Edition: Sometimes, Spectres have to go a little outside the lines in service of their mission. You’ll have the same latitude—as long as you go with the broad strokes of the prompts and the rules, you'll be fine.
Round 1A will run from Saturday, August 16th to Saturday, September 6th, 11:59pm US Eastern Time.
The character limit for this round 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.
3
u/FluffyKnife 2d ago
The two stand there in the wind.
“Right, sorry about… About everything.” There is a deep sorrow tingeing every word, but also a finality in those eyes.
The dark skies seem to extend forever, filling the void once no one stood before her.
Chapter 1: Rocklandwonderland
It was cloudy. The light of Oriko’s Soul Gem was still quite bright, but the whirling silver encased had dulled somewhat. She was expecting this given how much she exerted keeping herself and Chai up against Ah Gou, but she couldn’t help but sigh anyway. A grunt from the chair across from her had her slip it back into her ring with a practiced motion, and she watched as Chai was offered a spiced bun from an attending medic.
“Wanna split?” he asked casually as he tore it into two, but she shook her head. “I was gonna give the bigger half…”
He rested two-thirds of the bun on the head of 808 sitting in the adjacent seat while popping the last third into his mouth, and he looked towards whom both of them were waiting for. Medi-gel really is a miracle, as Yixuan flicked her eyes open and glanced back at them, then touched completely smooth skin like her chest wasn’t split open and through just an hour earlier. Her left hand is still bandaged, but she’s sure everything underneath is just as fine.
“How are the workers? The officer?” At her first regard after coming to, Oriko smiled.
“The doctor said the workers should make a full recovery tomorrow. The officer…” The young girl pointed out the glass of the door, and the trio made out Officer Keena Quintorus storming down the hall. The turian burst into the room, folding closed the device on her arm.
“You failed to complete the objective.”
“Yeah, and literally everyone, including me and Oriko, would’ve died,” Chai rebutted. “Besides, you vetted the other three so this technically is your problem.”
Keena exhaled, then looked directly at him. “I do apologize for part of what transpired here, but you knew the risks when you agreed to take this mission. And now to my understanding a group of exceptionally dangerous individuals is at large and holding an anomalous artifact with power to make them an even greater threat to the Citadel and the galaxy.”
“Chai wouldn’t allow to see that many people die when he had the choice to do so, and I agree with that,” followed Oriko. “If we didn’t, you would’ve been trapped in the tunnels too.”
Keena paused, avoiding Oriko’s gaze. “I was prepared to die for this duty. But thank you.”
She tapped her device a bit more, then looked back at the group. “I prepared a transport, sourced from the miners you saved. They wanted to express their gratitude for saving their lives, and you will need it if you wish to pursue Erika Furudo’s group. However…”
A hologram appeared in the middle of the room, and profiles flicked up one by one.
KAISER DE EMPERANA, Beelzebub IV [Designation RYT-CAL-DEP53]
Claimed to be the successor to the Demon King, intent on the annihilation of Earth upon coming of age. An infant of unknown biological origin. Foster guardian required for safety. Acclimation ability unknown.
KAYANO, Kaede [Designation YMA-GLI-SIP44]
Claims to be an Earth student at Kunugigaoka Junior High School, tasked with assassinating an individual threatening the annihilation of Earth despite being under said individual’s tutelage. Unknown biological graft present. Unlikely to present difficulties with acclimation.
OGA, Tatsumi [Designation RYT-CAL-DEP75]
Claims to be an Earth student at Ishiyama High School and foster guardian to Beelzebub. Arrogant and violent, easy to provoke. Has unusual human physiology due to energies shared with Beelzebub. Likely to present difficulties with acclimation.
NIIJIMA, Makoto [Designation KDI-DIA-DEP73]
Claims to be an Earth student at Shujin Academy and keen on fighting injustices where others cannot. Unlikely to present difficulties with acclimation, further study into █████████ ██████████ required.
“Officially you are not allowed to see any of these,” Keena commented as the three of them pored over the information. She caught the nurse looking through the class, then pulled the curtain over it to block out the view. “Consider this a token of my appreciation for saving my life.”
“Wait, three teenagers and a baby?” Chai exclaimed. “What do they have to do with us?”
“They’re abnormalities just like you, and they were found on a star system near the Citadel. Ambassador Udina has taken a liking to their operations, and is attempting to have them recommended as the first human Spectres. Based on some suspicions from Officer Imrik, he told me they were being sent to Eden Prime to retrieve the Prothean beacon and to capture or suppress any other abnormalities they find here.”
Yixuan sat up in her bed to ask next. “‘Suppress’ is quite a choice word. Are they intending to kill us?”
“While it’s not required of them, that’s part of the reason why I wanted to inform your group. If I allowed them to catch you by surprise, to assassinate those who saved my life, it would be hard for me to accept that.”
“Do you have any expectations of when they might arrive?” Yixuan followed.
Keena shook her head. “Officer Imrik said a small ship was sent out, but only Kaede Kayano was on board according to exit documents and I can’t imagine based on what’s on file she could deal with you three alone.”
“What do the designations mean?” Oriko finally commented.
“I’m not fully sure myself,” Keena admitted. “My understanding is that the first two pairs of three characters are the decrypted signal emitted when an abnormality enters this reality. The last five characters denote the nature and level of threat an abnormality poses to the Citadel and the galaxy at large, and while I’m not sure of the letters the numbers are more straightforward. The first digit represents how much force would be required for the Citadel to deal with the abnormality, while the second digit represents the difficulty keeping the abnormality from causing harm.”
Chai scratched his head. “Wait, aren’t those the same thing? Also what are our designations?”
“They are not the same thing, because there are other ways of placating people other than violence, like talking,” Keena groaned. She tapped a bit more on her device and their profiles appeared next to the other four.
“Wait, so we’re good then, right? Yixuan’s an eight, and the best they got is two sevens,” Chai excitedly burst, though he suddenly fell into dejection. “I’m a four? I’m weaker than a baby?”
“I think you missed the part that the baby is the Demon King’s successor,” Oriko sighed.
“And the officer only mentioned the forces the Citadel can offer,” Yixuan followed. “There’s no information of how forces outside of the Citadel’s direct command, like other abnormalities, might fare.”
To that, Keena nodded. “Mister Samura fought evenly with you despite him being rated as six, and Oriko and Chai were able to have Ah Gou flee despite a five and a four challenging an eight.”
But Chai didn’t listen to anything, as he sulked in the corner muttering to himself, “I’m weaker than a baby…” Yixuan went to try and comfort him, while Oriko appeared satisfied by the information.
“When is your transport ready, officer?” Oriko asked.
“The one ship they have equipped with an eezo drive is undergoing repairs, and they expect it to be done by tomorrow. Since you have no way of pursuing Erika’s group, there’s no point in worrying about it now. You should get some rest, you’ll need it.” And with that the meeting felt final, as Keena turned off the holograms and closed her device. She gave one last glance at the group, Oriko did a polite bow and Yixuan nodded while next to a less dejected Chai putting a thumbs up, and the officer left where she came.