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!
3
u/OddDirective Apr 09 '22
The attacks come at us fast, but they’re not targeted. He must be blind with rage. Good. Means he’s not thinkin’ straight. Only problem is, he ain’t the only one we have to worry about.
Chuuya jumps into the fray, throwin' more gravity orbs and tryin' to take Animal Man out of the sky. Animal Man dodges a thread, an orb, and catches the side of another thread. He recovers before he hits the ground, though.
Meanwhile, Lancelot shows back up, like I knew he would, an' swings like he's about to split Chuuya down the middle. He slides around, grabs onto Lancelot's collar and jumps- before turning the gravity on and hammering him down to the ground.
“Well, well, well,” Chuuya says, smug. “Look where we are. It’s almost like I said this exact thing was going to happen!”
“I cannot understand…” Lancelot said, trying to fight back up.
Chuuya stomps him one more time. "Then I’ll repeat it for the class. I’m awfully good at starting things up. The problem is, I can’t finish any of them.”
I’m the one that’s heard this before. But I can’t think of what to say, so I have to just let him continue.
“Doesn’t matter if it’s something I need to finish. Doesn’t matter if I want to finish it, more than anything in the world. Things come up, things get left behind, and hey presto! I have to serve up some garbage! Or worse yet, I have to give up and concede completely, leave what I have for the rest of time. Sure hope that doesn’t happen here!”
“It won’t happen,” I say, planting my feet. “We ain’t gonna let you just drop out.”
“What, am I gonna have to snap some poor side character’s neck to get you to lose hope again?” Chuuya sneered.
Gwen fires an assault rifle at Chuuya, knocking him off his game and forcing his hands up to block the bullets. That lets Lancelot get back up, and it lets me and Animal Man that much closer in. And it’s Animal Man that speaks up. “You can finish stories. You’ve already proven that you can, here and elsewhere.”
That gets Chuuya to grit his teeth, and after swaying away from Lancelot’s strikes, he thrust his hands down and crushed all of us with the same weight.
I’m ready for it, though. I take another step and belt out “Look at us, you see this? The fact thta we’re even here means you’ve gotten things done. And that you can get things done! So stop talking about how you can’t, and start listenin’ about how you can!”
I see Chuuya’s eyes flicker for a second, he breaks eye contact and looks at the ground. Somethin’ in there recognizes where this is going.
Then he gets launched back fifty feet from his teammate’s punch. I stare a hole into him like only a villain can.
“What? I wanted to help,” Hale says.
“Heheh, you did help, Hale. Helped me realize this ain’t even close to dealt with.”
Chuuya gets back up, shaky, but with a smile on his face. All five of us turn to face him, and I’m getting ready for the worst.
“So yeah, I managed to finish up things with you guys, or so you think.” he says. “But look closer at those endings, spot where the cracks begin to show. And that’s just with you. I’ve got a whole closet full of rotting ones, and I’m just talking about writing, here. What should I do with them?”
“Bear with me on this one, guys,” Gwen says under her breath.
We just nod.
“Well, it seems to me like the solution is simple,” Gwen calls out. “You finish what’s ahead of you right now, and then get to those ones you have left when you’ve got the time to get them done.”
Chuuya does a double take. “Nehhhhhhhh?”
Animal Man steps up. “She’s right. Those things can wait, and if you ever feel like you can, you can go back and finish it without pressure.”
“You really think that I can just finish things whenever, even if it’s been years? Come on! That’s not how the world works!” Chuuya shouts in indignation.
Lancelot is the next one up. “There are matters where the actions that one takes to get to an end are much less important than the end itself. Though it is not always the case, it certainly seems to be so here. The amount of time it takes matters not, so long as it is done.”
Chuuya scoffs. “As long as it gets done, huh? You’re crazy.”
Despite what Chuuya said, I see those strings appear coming out of his back. Everyone else sees them too, and now they all know what they mean. The guy in charge realizes too, so he switches the conversation.
And he rushes us.
“You still haven’t dealt with this ‘talent’ I’ve got. And if it’s going to stick around, why should I ever start anything again? After all, I know I’m never going to finish it. Better to let anyone who would’ve wanted to see go be fans of someone else.”
Hale stays still, dumbfounded, and says “Well, how could you do anything, then?”
That means he eats a projectile, and gets locked into place. “Don’t start anything you can’t finish. That’s how the saying goes, doesn’t it?” Chuuya taunts, “Guess you’re right, in a sense.”
He’s movin’ so fast now, I don’t know who he’s gonna hit. Might as well make it me. “That ain’t how life is. You gotta start doin’ something before you know what it’s gonna be like! Before you know if it’s somethin’ you’re even gonna like! Otherwise, you’ll never know what you like and you don’t.”
The heel kick that lands on my temple tells me I’m right on the money. “You’re not getting it. I can’t finish anything. I can’t finish shows, I can’t finish games, and I certainly can’t finish a story.”
He gets away before I can do anything, keepin’ a distance between all four of us. We look between each other, but we know he can outmaneuver us if he’s on top of things. Somebody’s gotta keep him busy.
Lucky us, it seems like Gwen knows how to run her mouth more than anythin’. “You’re worried this ending you’ll make, that it won’t be able to live up to everything that’s come before it, right?”
“Of course,” Chuuya replies, shooting me a glare, “How the hell is something I make here at the end going to live up to the start I made?”
Lancelot lowers his sword. “You’ve got it reversed. The ending is not created to lead from the start. The start is created so it can lead into the ending. And you already know how this will end, do you not?”
“I’ve got a plan for it, but it can’t work the way I want it. Not with this time.”
I look Animal Man in the eye, nod, and speak my mind. “As long as you get that ending you’re lookin’ for, it doesn’t matter if you feel like it’s crap. People don’t see the lives behind the curtain, they see the supervillains makin’ off with a bank vault full of cash. Even if you got gassed going in and the cops had your number the whole way through town, if you got out with cash, that’s gonna be good enough.”
The mafia man got the memo. “Even here? Even now? I’m just putting words down in a panic, how the hell can that be good enough?”
Animal Man takes his shot. He launches forward, flying high in an arc to come down on top of Chuuya. “Because it’s the ending you’ve been building up to!”
Of course, Chuuya scouted it. He takes his hand and slams it into Animal Man, who crumples. But still, Buddy’s got the answer. “You can’t know how well the story will end just from its beginning. Sometimes, the ending is worse. But that means it can also be better! That’s why-”
Gwen comes around from behind, and slashes down with her two swords. “Every ending you make is the good ending!”
The threads get cut to pieces, an’ Chuuya staggers forward once they do. He takes a couple deep breaths… and we all feel the hate comin’ off of him.
The Stitcher yells out in pain, then says, from up above, “This isn’t happening!”
Chuuya sees the Stitcher. Then, without a word, he makes the biggest gravity ball I’ve seen him make yet, and hurls it straight for the bastard.
The Stitcher uses those threads on his back to try an’ run, but the orb follows his movements, so all he can do is make a ball of threads and brace for the impact in 3, 2, 1-
It burns like a meteor into the ground, sending another shockwave and making another crater. And it ain’t aftershocks I’m feeling, I know. He’s not stopping with the crushing weight.
“That guy’s head is absolutely toxic,” Chuuya said, crushing the sphere again. “I’ll keep this guy down, but you better take him out, you hear me?”
Of course, as he says it, a thread fires out from the ball an’ nearly takes his head off. I set him back on his feet as the Stitcher crawls out of his hole, six threads keepin’ him up and his arms folded behind his back.
“How do you like these apples, Mr. ‘I had high hopes’?” Gwen taunts.
“A minor setback.I'm not done yet!” he says.
His four upper threads go on the attack. He’s lookin’ around this time, picking and choosing his targets carefully. I run up and get in the way of the one aimed Chuuya’s way, and it stings like nothing else, but I’ll live.
Lancelot dodges, as does Gwen, while Hale… well, does what he does, an’ takes it across the front of his chest. Two more swings keep the rest of us at bay while also pushin’ Buddy back toward us, keeping him out of the airspace.
Then he pulls back, an’ shouts “Dodge this!”
Gwen spies the guy readying an attack, an’ calls out to us. “Everyone, on my mark, jump!”
“God Thread…