r/whowouldwin • u/LetterSequence • Oct 30 '21
Event Character Scramble 15 Round 0: Go The Distance
IMPORTANT NOTICE! To determine seeding, your Round 0 story will be judged on a scale from 1 to 5 by our judges. Your scores will be averaged, with higher scorers receiving higher seeds once we get into Round 1.
The judges are: /u/LetterSequence, /u/Talvasha, and /u/InverseFlash
When the deadline is reached, a moderator will lock this thread to prevent anyone from posting any further. At that point, judges will give their verdict on what is present. Make sure you finish on time!
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Legends speak of Kingdom Hearts, a holy relic that can grant your most luxurious desires at a whim. While its exact location is unclear, that doesn’t stop your characters though. They’re fully determined to find it, to fulfill their own purposes and goals. The start of the journey is always the hardest, which is why they travel to...
Olympus Coliseum
A world filled with Greek Gods and gladiators. An entire culture founded on strength, and strength alone. Giant monsters roam the planet, titans lurk underground, devils form deals to steal your soul. In this very land, the Coliseum Tournament is being held to “find a true hero.” What entices your characters is the grand prize awarded to the victor. Whatever it is, if your character had it, it’d be easy to travel across the universe in search of Kingdom Hearts.
There’s only one issue. The champion of the arena is an absolute monster. They’ve made it to the finals without so much as a scratch on them, as if no one has been a worthy match for them. It might be impossible for any one member of your team to defeat this master combatant. Luckily, there’s no rules against forming teams at any stage in the tournament. Plus, there’s two more able bodied fighters hanging around in search of the same prize.
Why not combine forces, and take down this chump? It might even be the start of a wonderful friendship...
Scramble Rules
That’s Sora, Donald, and Goofy Too!: Every participant this season received three characters on their team, but many of them might not be a household name. To aid with readability, please give a brief summary of your characters, with enough information so the average reader can get excited for your team before starting.
Let Your Heart Be Your Guiding Key: Your write up will depict a scenario where your team is the victor. Even if your team has a one in a million chance of overcoming the odds, show what they’d need to do to come out on top against the challenge in front of them!
Unlocking Limit Form: Writers are allowed to make changes to their characters in their narrative to fit their story, such as allowing power stealers to gain more powers, teaching martial artists new techniques, or having characters gradually grow in strength between rounds. However, you are not beholden to following what your opponent is doing. When facing another team, you are only required to write their characters as they were submitted. This is to help with ease of research, and make things more fun for both sides.
Round Rules
Guest Starring…: Your Opponent! Standing in your way between the prize and your future journey is the champion of Olympus Coliseum! Ideally they’ll be a formidable fighter, strong enough that no individual member of your team can cleanly win, but if they work together, a 3v1 should be a cinch. Look at the guest pool and decide who your best option is. Do you want to take someone who’s a skilled hand to hand fighter? Someone with a unique power? Someone that’ll just make your team stand out? Someone you think is just so cool they need to be picked? The choice is yours!
Setting: Olympus Coliseum is a small square arena for fighters to test their strength against each other. There are no rules when it comes to combat, aside from winning. While there are seats for a crowd on all sides, whether it is occupied or not depends on the match. There’s no escape from this arena until one side goes down!
Key Points: The main idea of the round is the following. Your three team members work together in an arena under the unified goal of defeating the guest in order to obtain the prize that will allow them to start their journey. Any of the finer details can be customized as you wish.
Post Limit: For this round, writers will be limited to 4 posts, or 40k characters. While it is fine to go a little bit over, anything that far surpasses this limit will be automatically disqualified. This limit does not include intro posts, or analysis of the matchup.
Due Date: Write ups will be due at 10PM EST on November 13th. That’s about two weeks. At that point, the thread will be locked, and seeding will be announced a few days later.
Flavor Suggestions
Eyes on the Prize: The prize gained from defeating the champion will be used to begin your overall journey. So… what is it? A gummi ship that can travel to other planets? An absolute gargantuan amount of money to fund the trip? A map with the exact location of what they’re looking for? Whatever it is, your team needs it to get started on their adventure, so losing isn’t an option!
The Gang’s All Here: For many of you, this could be the first time your characters are meeting. Since they all have a unified goal in sharing the prize, enough that they’d work together for it, what makes them want to work together in the first place? Respect for their strength? Shared ideals? Convenience? Not wanting to let another member out of their sight if they won the prize on their own? How far into the details you wish to go on this is optional.
5
u/Cleverly_Clearly Oct 30 '21 edited Nov 10 '21
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Drinking in the morning on a Saturday was a little perk of the job. So was the bespoke Italian suit with the red vest, and the coat draped so carelessly over his shoulders, a coat your average salaryman was too poor to even look at. So was the handgun in the coat. Everything worked together to complete the ensemble; the clothes made him feel distinguished, the gun made him feel masculine, and the scotch in his gut made him able to tolerate this awful world for a while longer. Yeah. Although he would never say it in those specific words, Chuuya Nakahara looked so good it was criminal.
He had to match his environment, after all. The office of Ougai Mori was a place of much wealth, and much dark dappled wood and much luxurious carpeting and many other signifiers of aristocracy. It wasn't really Chuuya's style, but Mori wasn't content with fine drink and fine clothes like he was. Mori needed a bourgeois habitat, surrounded by learned books never-read and fine art. He was the capo of the Port Mafia in Yokohama, the most prestigious of Japanese criminal empires; Chuuya was one of his executive officers.
"I hope it wasn't too much trouble, this early wake-up call," Mori said. It was, in fact, six-thirty, which was a little early for both wake-up calls and drinking. But it wasn't like Chuuya was an alcoholic or anything. You could not simply speak to the Boss without some liquid courage. Not even Chuuya could do that.
"It wasn't any trouble, Boss." Chuuya was a liar. Six AM was the Devil's hour. The number of the beast.
"Of course it wasn't. You never give me any trouble, not at all. That's why you're my favorite- oh, besides my Elise, of course. It's because you're so professional and all."
Mori smiled. He looked downright vampiric, in this room, in this light. Maybe he wasn't a morning person either. Or maybe he was holding back something very devious, about to spring it on the undeserving Chuuya. That could explain the flattery he was receiving.
"Do you," he said, and he made a brief gesture, "know why there are four people in this room?"
The first person was the Boss. You always counted the Boss first. The second was Chuuya. The third was Elise, Mori's daughter-bride-superpower-manifestation, lying languidly against Mori's desk with a teddy bear in her arms. Counting Elise made Chuuya perhaps a touch uncomfortable, as it always did, but it was certainly not the kind of thing you discussed with your capo, and he couldn't really dwell on it too long because his attention was immediately drawn to the fourth person. Arguably the fifth, sixth, and seventh person, as well. He was the equivalent of many, many people.
This man, or Bigfoot, or whatever word was appropriate to truly capture him, stood at Mori's side and nearly crowded him out of the desk. He was a caricature of masculinity, biceps like barrels, a jaw as broad and flat as an iron, and abdominals that looked fit to pop, loaded bullets in a revolver. The behemoth's clothing was little, some tight cargo shorts and a hat with- what is that in the brim, teeth? God, let it not be teeth- and grubby chest stubble shaved into a strange shape Chuuya could not identify. He put his hands on his hips, looking even more like some bootleg action figure.
"I assume it has to do with me, Boss." Did Mori hire him a stripper? Had Chuuya drank too much, and forgotten it was his birthday today? Surely that couldn't happen twice.
"This is Saxton Hale, CEO of Mann Co. They're a lucrative business partner of the Port Mafia. That is, they put all our fancy toys in our violin cases." That is, he was an arms dealer.
Chuuya did not know much about Mann Co., and knew less about Hale. Mann Co. was the company that patented the "killometer" firearm attachment that counted the number of lives you had taken, and that was enough information to get the gist.
Mori nudged Hale, and Hale offered his sweaty hand to grip. Chuuya took it. Hale shook him like the goal was to rip his arm from his socket, so Chuuya applied a bit of his special Skill to his arm, and Hale soon found that he was not amputating anybody, and simply shaking, and he nodded, placated.
"The name's Hale," said Hale, naming himself. There was some accent in his voice that Chuuya wasn't familiar with. "Nice hat, by the way. I knew I could trust ya right away, on account of the hat. Not as good as mine, though."
Chuuya made a noise of ambiguous agreement. He already hated him. He stank like Axe body spray and stood well near 210 cm, maybe more. Chuuya was 160 cm in thick-soled shoes.
Mori spoke again. "You see, something rather exciting is happening in Yokohama. Yet another police station is opening, and the Prime Minister himself is planning to cut the ribbon. Showing he's pro-law and order, I suppose. Every officer at the department will be in attendance, which means it's the perfect time to introduce yourself and butter them up a bit, before we introduce the Skilled Business Permit."
The Skilled Business Permit was the jewel in the Port Mafia's crown. The conclusion of an incredible web of skullduggery, conspiracy, and illicit deals, resulting in a document that gave them legal carte blanche to circumvent the law. As long as they didn't kick up too much fuss, and they cooperated with the government in certain off-books affairs, they could operate entirely without risk of prosecution. They could even kill. Manifestly this was all hush-hush, so local law enforcement had to be briefed so that they did not arrest anybody they were not supposed to, and also bribed or threatened. But...
"That's more of a diplomatic mission, isn't it?" Shit, he'd forgotten to say Boss. He'd let it slip how confused he was. Chuuya was not a smooth-talker in his own mind, charismatic as he was. He was never the one they sent on these jobs. And he had still not solved the mystery of the Enormous Man.
"Yes. Really, I think you're perfect for the job. In fact, I think you'll do so swimmingly, I invited Mr. Hale to come along and watch you work."
What. "What."
"Morty's right." Saxton slapped his fist into his open palm, knuckles crackling like popcorn. "Mann Co. is the bedrock of society. If your little Mafia is gonna have my blessing for all those Force-A-Natures and Degreasers, I've got to make sure you aren't a brand risk. I wasn't really listening back there, but I did hear the word 'police', one of my top least-favorite words. I think if you could kill four hundred cops, that would be be a real pick-me-up."
Mori covered his mouth as he chuckled. "Ah, no, Mr. Hale, we can't kill all those cops! Don't be silly. Chuuya, you'll keep him happy, won't you?"
Chuuya was not Nostradamus, and certainly not Dazai, but somehow, intuitively, he understood the chain of events leading into this moment as if gazing into a crystal ball. Saxton Hale did not want to go on this diplomatic mission. Saxton Hale wanted a violent field mission, where none were currently available. Saxton Hale needed a babysitter, preferably of Herculean strength, to prevent him from forcibly creating a violent field mission out of a diplomatic one. That babysitter was...?
Oh. Oh, those slugs of scotch in his belly were making him feel queasy now.
"Chuuya." Mori's eyebrows waggled. It was the waggle of a man who could put Chuuya on ice overnight, if he were not so amused by all this. "You'll keep him happy, won't you?"
Chuuya did not want to say yes, but he did wind up saying something to that effect. Mori clapped.
"Wonderful. You'll want to hurry, the commencement should start any minute now, and you'll want to be there when it's over. Oh, and don't worry about any prying eyes. There shouldn't be too many people in attendance, outside of the officers and their families."
That, at least, Chuuya could be grateful for. You would have to be some kind of sick freak to come out and watch a police station getting opened at six-thirty in the morning on a Saturday, for fun.