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/TheMightyBox72 Apr 09 '22
Agent Carolina
Agent Carolina began the process of suiting up. Her name was not Carolina, but when she was working she refused any acknowledgement other than this codename. Only Stark got away with anything more, the occassional "miss" or "babe", which even then she tolerated only because he was the only one who knew her real name. It just helped to keep everything separated where it belonged.
The two others were waiting for her. Some of Stark's deadworld deserters. Unlike her, they travelled light, relied on skill and natural abilities rather than armor and tech. Perhaps that was the difference between them that defined the others.
Fall Barros
The girl with golden eyes who had a tendency to get a bit freaky in the heat of things. Despite the fact that she certifiably never shut the fuck up, she didn't talk much about where she came from. Something happened on her world, everyone died except for her, and when Stark arrived with an offer, she jumped at the chance.
Baiken
The one-eyed one-armed samurai who could cut down anything you put in front of her. Despite the fact that she rarely if ever opened her mouth, she was very clear on where she came from. Her world was ravaged by artificial beings called Gears, she survived the initial raid on her version of Japan and had to flee the country, then the Gears came back and killed everyone on Earth. Baiken had taken some convincing, but there was an anger burning inside of her, formless and without target, that drove her to kill for any reason she was given, even on the orders of an oligarch like Stark.
Carolina, she wasn't like these two. She just wanted work, and nobody in the multiverse paid as good as Stark did.
Her helmet clicked into place and hissed one last gasp of air.
As soon as it did, Baiken asked, "Who do we kill?"
Carolina held a hand forward, from her palm lit up the hologram of a man in similar armor to her own.
"Heya, B," said Epsilon. "Good to see you too."
Baiken locked eyes with Carolina past her visor. "You. Just tell us."
"Now that just makes me feel underappreciated," Epsilon said. "I was literally just talking to my friend Jarvis about this, you know some therapy would really do you some good-"
"Epsilon," Carolina cut in. "How about we skip the banter for right now, it's looking to be a long day."
"Fine. No fun allowed." His form shifted, changed into a slowly rotating 3D model of their first target: a lanky man in a snakeskin jacket and eyepatch.
"Goro Majima, a high-ranking member of his world's yakuza."
"Bro, what?" Fall said. "Stark has us chasing common crooks now?"
"Well," Epsilon explained. "On his world 'high-ranking member of the yakuza' means 'badass kung fu master'."
"What are his weapons?" Baiken asked.
"Shit. Whatever he can get his hands on usually."
The image flickered and was replaced with that of a man covered head to toe in aviation gear.
"Adrian Toomes, a tinkerer and scavenger who specializes in cobbling together tech from more advanced universes. Currently mostly unarmed."
"Mostly?" Fall asked.
Epsilon ignored the question. "But, the group is barreling towards an R&D facility. If they make it, and Toomes is able to get his hands on Stark tech. Who knows what'll happen."
"So," Baiken said. "Your information is you don't know and you don't know."
"If you want a fortune teller, bug Stark to upgrade my predictive algorithms."
The image flickered to a shorter guy in a poncho that covered most of his form, save of course for the two boxcutter-like blades poking out from the ridges.
"Levi Ackerman, wields dual swords. His actual skill in traditional fencing is whatever, but he's equipped with 3D Manuever Gear-"
"A 3D printer, what?" Fall asked.
"Do you really want an explanation? Is that- are we going to go into the whole thing?"
"Yeah, fuck it. I wanna hear it, the fuck else are we doing, right?"
"Chasing down our currently fleeing targets," Baiken muttered.
Epsilon sighed. The image of Levi disseminated into a 3D blueprint. "The 3D Manuever Gear is a simple device that can fire a grapple point like a gun then recalls it with a strong winch, plus some other systems that help the grapple stick and release to surfaces. With this, Levi can manuever in any direction in 3D space, which is why it's called that. His skill using this system can't be overstated, he's really fucking good."
Baiken pushed herself to feet with her scabbard. "Is that everything, AI?"
Epsilon reappeared and gave a thumbs up. "Yep! Good luck out there girls!"
Fall's hand went into the air. "Shotgun!"
Baiken paid no heed to the tradition of dibs and took the passenger seat for herself. Carolina was driving. That left Fall on the roof.
The Hellbringers swerved into and around traffic in a black metal armored truck. A siren, stuck to the windshield, blared so people knew to make way. The roof had a seat, that's where Fall was, but more importantly it had a mounted minigun. The only reason Fall was upset to be stuck behind it was because there was nothing to shoot at.
"We got eyes?" Carolina said.
"They're moving," Epsilon said. "But we're moving faster. Oh, turn here."
Carolina jerked the wheel to the side, scraped along the door of a plumber's van, and landed on all four wheels zooming down a smaller side street. Her bumper sticker read 'Driving Reckless? Call 212-10-STARK for reparations.' Fall gave a whoop of excitement from the roof.
"Talk to me Epsilon, are we still going the right way?"
"What am I, your GPS?" The truck hit a pothole and all three women flew for a second. "If you're not going the right way I'll tell you we're going the wrong way!"
He paused for a second.
"Wait, that was your turn."
"E!"
"Here! Turn here!"
Carolina swerved onto a commercial street, and had to zig-zag through some light congestion. Curiously, Baiken jilted with every erratic pull, but stayed continuously upright and didn't move in her relaxed, crossed legs posture, staring glumly out the window.
"Alright," Epsilon said. "Turn up here and... there!"
"There?"
"That's them!"
"Where?"
"There!"
There were still a dozen or so cars on the street in front of them. This wasn't a highway, it was just another commercial avenue.
Up ahead, however, there was a beat up sedan with a smashed window. As Carolina was trying to catch details from inside, the driver helpfully leaned bodily out it. He, unsurprisingly, matched the description of Goro Majima perfectly.
"Fall," Carolina spoke into her earpiece. "You see him?"
"Yeah I see the motherfucker," her tinny voice came back. "Just say when."
Carolina pulled a sidearm smaller than her actual sidearm. It wasn't exactly a gun, more a gadget, given to her by Stark himself for situations like this he said.
She kept the wheel steady and even slowed down for a moment, just long enough to get a clear shot, and squeezed the trigger. What actually came out the other end of the barrel was little more than a laser pointer that briefly tagged the car they were in and just as quickly turned back off.
The moment she tagged the car, however, every other car on the road was shuttered, metal plate came down in a protective coccoon as they automatically pulled off the road. The only exception was the sedan.
"Light 'em up."
The machine gun began to blaze. Instantly holes were peppered across the car's back bumper. Majima ducked back inside. The car began to fishtail, not from a popped tire, more from an attempt to avoid getting one.
Their driving was, in a word, crazed. They sped up, as fast as they could go, but maintained the erratic serpentine manuever to stay out of the path of the bullets. There were several moments where it looked for certain like they were about to crash headlong into something, yet miraculously didn't.
The back window rolled down. Levi Ackerman slipped out and flipped onto the roof. With his small size, he didn't meet much opposition.
Fall directed her aim towards him, being the newest and most open target. As soon as the stream of bullets came close to clipping him, he took running a start from the back end of the car and leaped. Fall gave chase, and here Carolina got to see this 3D Manuever Gear in action.
He might as well have been flying. The machine gun spray continued to follow him, and began to corner him in. Any farther to the side and he'd be in danger of hitting something on the sidewalk. Instead, those grapple wires shot from his hips and latched onto a storefront. He swung, shot the opposite direction then dipped just as he was about to meet metal and flew under. When he reached the other side of the street he switched directions again, just as fluidly, and just like that, he landed on top of the truck. The machine gun fell back in the rearview, in two pieces.
Baiken was already climbing out through the window. When she leaned out she got her sword between her teeth and pulled herself onto the roof. A moment later, Fall swung back in and took her seat.
"When I call shotgun, I get shotgun," she said.