r/whowouldwin • u/LetterSequence • Mar 04 '22
Event Character Scramble 15 Semifinals: I'm Still Here
This round is now closed for voting! Please vote for the write ups in the form linked here. Voting will close at 10PM on April 12th.
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This round is for matches 37 and 38 on the bracket. Make sure to double check to see if you’re in this one!
Your journey is reaching its end. The location of Kingdom Hearts may be nearly impossible to reach on foot, by land, or by sky. Except there is one way to get there. After all this time traveling, all the information you’ve acquired, all the things you’ve seen, you know the secret. It all involves a door.
“When the door is open, so too will Kingdom Hearts open.”
There’s one door that is spoken of. A door used by a dreaded space captain. This captain stole treasures from all across the universe, and kept them to himself, never to be seen again. This door is a portal that opens to his treasure, and it can also open up to anywhere in the entire universe. It can open the way to Kingdom Hearts.
And that door is located on…
Treasure Planet
So you know where to go. But how do you exactly open this door?
Luckily for you, one brave adventurer holds a map, a spaceship, and the key to this door, and is looking for a crew to help escort them across the cosmos to reach the planet unharmed. That’s when the ideas start to formulate.
Escort or Heist?
Will your team present themselves to this adventurer and offer them aid? In exchange for directions, a split prize, and a companion, this would involve ensuring their safety, providing passage across all of Treasure Planet, fighting off any who would stand in your path, putting your life in harm's way all the while.
Or… will your team simply wait for someone else to take up the offer? If they follow this path, they can stalk the team who joins them instead. By prowling in wait, they can ambush the other team at the vital moment they reach the treasure, and take it all for themselves. However, you’d need to obtain your own means of travel, as losing sight of them means losing the treasure in its entirety.
Space, Land, or Underground?
Traversing an entire planet aimlessly is a good way to get yourselves killed. You’ll need to pick a route that’s safest to get there with the least danger possible.
Do you approach from outer space? Going from above may seem like the route with the least danger, but it comes with plenty of downsides. One wrong move, a stray asteroid, an attack that leaves you stranded from the ship, can leave you floating in the deep reaches of space until you finally perish.
Do you approach from land? It’s the most straightforward and easiest to circumnavigate, but this planet is covered in deep jungles and vegetation, with very little wildlife. Resources may be difficult to manage, the path would be the longest, and an ambush is almost all but guaranteed.
Do you approach from the underground? Beneath the surface is an entire system of passageways, tunnels, and heavy machinery, as if the planet was built by some insane person. It’d get you to the door the fastest if you know where you’re going, but if you don’t… you may be lost under here forever.
The Door
At the pivotal moment when the door is open, what will your team do? It can offer them guidance, lead them anywhere in the universe, and lead them exactly to Kingdom Hearts. But the promise of unlimited riches stands in front of them as well. It is here that what is most important to them will be tested.
All of this being said… this is the final leg of your quest before finally obtaining all you desire. So… what will you do?
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…: Space Adventurers! The guest in this round is someone who has a vested interest in Treasure Planet. Are they the person who holds the key, who needs to be escorted to the door? Are they the leader of the band of misfits who intend on stealing your treasure for themselves, or the group that escorts the client to the door? Are they a lone wanderer, stuck on this planet, who once resided on the crew of the captain who stole all the treasure? However they show up is up to you!
Setting: Treasure Planet, a mysterious and deadly planet said to hold all the treasures in the world at its core. The solar system surrounding it, deep in the cosmos, bathes this world in purple hues, the lights from hundreds of millions of stars. The planet itself is teeming with vegetation. Thick jungles, moss, mildew, and yet curiously, no life at all. Only the remnants of an adventure long since finished. Underneath the surface, this planet functions as a machine. Deep tunnels that lead to secret passageways, lights that illuminate this world, and cogs turning for some reason or another. There are plenty of paths that all lead to the same place. The door that leads to everywhere, and most importantly, to your goal.
Key Points: The key points of this round are as follows. You must obtain the key to open the door that leads into your ultimate goal (Kingdom Hearts). How you obtain this key, reach the door, and what roles the enemy team and guest fill are up to you.
Post Limit: For this round, writers will be limited to 10 posts, or 100k 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. Use your best judgment, if you think your story is too long for the round, it probably is.
Due Date: Write ups will be due at 10PM EST on April 8th. That’s a full month, so you should have plenty of time!
Flavor Suggestions
The Door is Open: Your team is heading for the door that resides somewhere on this planet. This door is essentially a portal that can lead to anywhere in the entire universe. While you ultimately have a destination in mind, does such a prospect tempt anyone on your team? How would they react to such an easy method of transportation? Would they try to keep it for themselves? Visit any places before settling on Kingdom Hearts?
Fool’s Gold: The core of Treasure Planet is roughly one hundred million billion metric tons of gold, jewelry, and riches stolen from various cultures and civilizations. Maybe your team is only in it for the money. So, is there something that’d tempt them even more than this? Some kind of goal that’d make them seek out Kingdom Hearts instead of ending their journey here and just nabbing as much gold as they can get their hands on? Or maybe, they’ll get greedy, and try to do both? Remember, it all depends on what your team would do!
2
u/TheMightyBox72 Apr 01 '22
Levi jumped into open air.
Open was the only way to describe it. The top of the tower extended dozens of stories above any of its neighbors. If he looked straight ahead, all he saw was blue sky out into the infinite.
Gravity pulled him back down regardless, his gaze slid over miles of ocean and miles of concrete until he pointed straight towards the ground below.
3D Maneuver Gear performed most effectively when surrounded by potential anchor points on all sides. That was the exact opposite of the situation Levi currently found himself in. He had one option right now, it was a dangerous proposition, but there really wasn't a way around it.
Levi fired both grapples into the tower below him, and slingshot himself straight down. He became meteoric. It still wasn't fast enough.
Like a skier pushing himself down the slopes, Levi fired both grapples into the side of the building again. And again, spinning in a corkscrew to preserve as much momentum as possible.
Majima came up first. They were fifty stories above the streets now, which meant that Levi had more to work with. More to work with was what he needed, if any of them landed at the speeds either was going, they'd end up little more a red smear on the stone. Velocity itself was the enemy, Levi had to both use it, and fight it.
He shot past Majima, passed him right by. At these speeds, stopping was out of the question, he could slow himself, and he would, but relying on that would only kill time faster. The best course of action was to transfer the momentum somewhere else.
The first thing he did was fire his grapples into a stone wall above and in front of him. The winch started to grind, it wasn't strong enough to jolt him to a stop, and that's not what Levi wanted anyways, but as he swung forward it started to slow him down. Within moments, the pressure became too much, and Levi withdrew the wires before they started to rip him in half.
His next move was to grapple to the building across the street and pull himself that direction. Before hitting he shot back the other way. Then again, and again, he zig-zagged down between the two buildings, with every zig and zag some of his downward speed went into his horizontal speed.
He'd now slowed down enough that Majima caught up with him. As he zagged back, he crossed above him and grabbed him by the back of his jacket. The jolt he took to the side was worse than the jolt upward. Levi grappled to a point in the concrete above his head and began to pull up as he swung above a low-tiered building's roof. The strain was intense, it felt like his hips were being pulled from his body. But, with one toss, one last bit of upward momentum, he sent Majima rolling across the roof at non-lethal speeds.
Levi released the grapples and just let himself coast for a moment.
Then he fired them down into the building below and transitioned his flight into a wide swing that sent him hurtling back down.
Toomes was next, and he was only thirty, maybe even twenty stories above the streets. There wasn't room for complex maneuvers.
He only had a moment to think about it, but he was pretty sure the only thing to do was grab him then do everything he could to cushion the impact when they finally met earth.
Levi fired both grapples and wrapped his arms around Toomes. Toomes, who had up until this point been curled in on himself, jumped at his touch.
Levi latched onto a point high above the two of them now, and across the street. When the winches began to grind, not only did they slow but they swung.
The ground was coming upon them. What seemed so far away as to be an impossibility only a minute ago, from Stark's castle in the sky, was now a very present reality. Sparks flew from where the wire was trying to wind, they had slowed down a significant amount, but it was still, only just barely, not enough.
Levi had one more trick up his sleeve, it was an aspect of the modern civilization of these strange alternate worlds that he'd picked up on pretty early on with Toomes and Majima.
When the wires couldn't do any more to slow him down, he released them from their anchor points and entered free fall. With the right angle, and perfect timing, they crashed down, Levi turned his body to take the brunt of the impact.
The two landed on a truck parked on the side of the road. The metal frame crumpled underneath them, creating the final, hard, incredibly painful cushion to bring them to a stop.
They weren't dead. That was good. Everything on Levi hurt, though. That wasn't.
For a moment, finally, the world was still.
Toomes peeled himself from the wreckage first. He limped to his feet and put a hand on the car to steady himself. His breathing was heavy, despite the fact that he hadn't actually done anything. Levi just wanted to lay in his sharp metal crater for a while.
Majima walked out from the front door of the building they were in front of, with a pipe still plugged into a rough chunk of concrete over his shoulder. Levi hadn't actually realized that was where he dropped him off, right there.
Slowly, he pushed himself off the car and onto the ground. Majima clapped him on the back and nearly sent him off his feet again.
"Nice going, short stuff," he said. "Now, let's get back up there," he pointed to the top of Stark Tower with his pipe. "And get that motherfucker in round two."
"We're not," Toomes growled as he ripped his helmet off. "Going back up there."
Majima frowned. "And why the hell not?"
"Think, for once in your fucking life! I don't have any of my shit, it's all broken! The only thing I have is this!" He shoved the purple gun into Majima's face. "This shit! You saw what this shit did!" Next he gestured to Levi. "And this guy, the guy you're going through all of this to cover for, he fucking dislocated his arm! At least!"
Levi looked down. Had he? It looked a little limp.
"And you're talking about, in this sorry ass state, going back up that tower and fucking with Iron Man. Fucking Iron Man! We're going to fucking die, we almost did right the fuck there, then that shithead's going to go right on ahead with his plan, and it'll be on you."
Majima's face softened, as Toomes breathed the last of his anger out his nose.
"Alright," Majima said. "Fine. You're right. Let's get back and regroup and we can make another run at it later."
"Fuck you." Toomes shoved past him.
Levi gave him a look. It wasn't a look that meant anything, his face was too hardened to show pity and his soul was too dead to give it. It was just the meeting of the eyes between two men who'd failed their mission.