r/whowouldwin • u/OddDirective • Oct 18 '22
Event Character Scramble 16 Round 2: Rockin' Rockin'
Round 2: Rockin’ Rockin’
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DAY 4
The mission the Game Master gives this week is simple and also quite complex. “Topple the ruler of the A-East arena. You have three hours. Fail, and face erasure.” They aren’t being so forthcoming with information on what that means, so that’s a challenge your Players will have to overcome. Another hurdle is actually gaining access; there’s something in the way of getting in the actual arena, be it knowledge on the target or a situation set up by the Game Master preventing access to the arena. This leads into a scramble to get the multiple things needed to resolve this, but with some outside assistance (hint: your Reaper), your team could get past it quicker than others.
(Some examples of obstacles and situations preventing access: Separate clues to the identity of the ruler or what is meant by ‘the arena’, a techie that needs specific items to go on with the scheduled show tonight, a gourmand Support Reaper manning the barrier to the way in that needs ingredients, a Resident Evil-style lock puzzle, a heist-type setup for a specific back entrance, or having to cure certain people of Noise infestation so they can open the doors.)
Whatever way they get through it, the team reaches the inside of the arena to face off against the ruler of the arena- and their target meets them on stage. It’s a battle under the lights, and the amps are turned all the way to 11. It’s time to play!
The enemy team can factor into this in a couple ways- obviously, if a member of the enemy team is the ruler of A-East, that’s one way to do it, but they could be individuals keeping you from obtaining the things you need to get in, or they could be a rival team trying to take down the boss before your team can. Whatever the case, they’re going up against you at some point in this round, so prepare to face off!
Scramble Rules
Let ‘Em Know Who You Are: Every participant this season received four characters on their team, but many of them might not be a household name. To aid with readability, please give a brief introduction and summary of your characters, with enough information so the average reader can get excited for your team before starting.
This World Ends With You: Your writeup will depict a scenario where your team succeeds. 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!
Everybody Has Their Own World: 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
Setting: This round’s original setting is A-East, in particular a music venue or other performance arena, which in the original games is in a more seedy area. The main thrust of the setting is a showy place for a ‘boss fight’, so any location with a stage would work excellently. With regards to getting there, however, there is a possibility your Players would have to search far and wide, in other locations around the city. If you can’t conceive of it another way, think of it like a fetch quest.
Key Points: The main idea of the round is the following. Your Players must enter into an arena of some description or renown, and defeat a single enemy there. That being said, there is a multi-part obstacle keeping them from getting in, which the Players and Reaper have to resolve on the way. After overcoming this, the team enters into the arena and faces off against the enemy or enemies there. The enemy team must oppose them at some point, but it can be during the multi-part obstacle and/or at the arena.
Post Limit: For this round, writers will be limited to 6 posts, or 60k 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: Writeups will be due at 11:59 PM CST on Monday, October 31st. That’s about two weeks. At that point, the thread will be locked, and voting will go up for a few days afterwards.
Flavor Suggestions
peaceful day: Your Players participated in at least one other day before this, though they didn’t run into any trouble in terms of teams opposing them. Or maybe they did! Whatever happened that day is up to you, and you can describe it if you want; just be mindful of the space you’re working with and that you need to complete the round.
The One Star: Your team’s goal is to defeat one specific enemy- in the original game, it was a bat Noise boss fight, and another monster certainly would fit the description. That being said, there is also the option of making it a member of the enemy team, either a Player or their Reaper, which of course seems sensible. There’s also a third option of making it a different character entirely. Who or what the ruler is is totally up to you.
Kill the Itch: While the mission doesn’t specify lethality, this might be the first time your team has fought directly against the enemy team members, and erasure can be introduced by having to erase the other Players on the enemy side. How would your team react to them being the cause of others’ nonexistence- or would they try to take them down nonlethally? Would they not even fight the enemy team, for fear of erasing them? Or, alternatively, would they be a bit too enthusiastic about eliminating the competition?
1
u/Proletlariet Oct 26 '22
Guan Yu kept his distance and thrust for Edward with his longer reach. He struck with prenatural speed, but Edward’s reactions kept him just barely ahead of a deathblow. They carried on exchanging in this manner; each man scored the others’ flesh with mounting glances.
“The enemies of Han thought the same way as you did: to uplift themselves from squalor by plundering their betters. And after they had shattered the tranquillity of the land, how soon rebellion became banditry!”
Guan Yu’s violent assault became a frenzy. He lashed out fiercely as he spoke as though each word conjured a new phantom enemy to smite..
“Do you think yourself different, Edward Kenway? I know of your Nassau. Your ‘Pirate Republic.’ What do you think happened when your king offered gold and pardon to any pirate willing to hunt their own kind?”
“Bastard!” He thought of the faces of Blackbeard. Mary Read. Hornigold. Even that old drunk Calico Jack. “I’ll not hear the names of good men sullied by your mouth!”
“Good men!” Guan Yu roared with laughter.
Edward saw red. As Guan Yu prepared to thrust his spear, Edward ran up the arena wall, planted both feet, and launched himself like a human missile, both knives ready to bite into his flesh..
Guan Yu calmly raised a forearm. Edward’s knives bit deep, but he didn’t even flinch. Instead his hand seized Edward’s collar, and with the knives still embedded in his arm, he reversed Edward’s leaping momentum to slam him violently against the wall. Concrete cracked, crumbled, and gave way.
“Your so-called brotherhood devoured itself at the first sign of coin. Greed. Betrayal. There is no honour among thieves.”
Edwards back was on fire. He doubled over. Found himself unable to rise.
“Your comrades perished at each other's hands or else by the executioner’s rope. The lucky died with infamy. The unlucky in humiliation.”
“No..” He rasped. “How can I believe that?”
“Because it’s true.” The Shredder’s voice boomed from his throne platform. “Your life and his are matters of history written in blood. Accept the truth of this despair or lie down and be crushed.”
The door to the throne room exploded open. 21 raced in followed by Hob with a little girl trailing by his coat.
“What is the meaning of this?” Karai demanded, annoyed. “Tita, why are they in the throne room?”
“I’m sorry ma’am, I tried to stop them.” The girl stammered.
“We’re not gonna sell out Edward to some cheese grater.” 21 said defiantly.
“Even though we kinda already did.” admitted Hob.
Karai glared at them. “So your word means even less than nothing. If you so badly wish to forfeit our deal, then forfeit your lives as well. Guan Yu! End this interruption.”
21’s eyes went wide. He held out his hands together in a ‘T’. “Hang a sec, time out. Guan Yu? Like, the Guan Yu? The one from every Chinese mobile game? But he lived like, two thousand years ago. Wouldn’t he be super dead?”
“I am.” Guan Yu’s sighed. All the fire and fury went out of him. The enormous halberd he’d been swinging around like nothing suddenly seemed to be weighing on his arms. “My body was long ago slain and yet my spirit’s memory lingers, possessing an ancestor through forbidden artifice.”
Hob’s ears flattened against his skull. “You mean genetic memory. Like an Animus.. but not in a simulation.”
“But how’s that possible!?” 21 cried. “You can’t just copy-paste over someone’s entire personality.”
“Ha..” Edward dragged himself up to his feet. “So that’s why Shredder paired us off. Two of a kind living other mens’ lives.”
“So you’ve guessed.” Guan Yu acknowledged.
“Hard not to notice when you’ve got someone else’s face.” Edward said. “If this was my real body, I’d be blonde.”
“Then I will share another common truth.” Guan Yu told him. “I mocked your Nassau for falling to ruin, and yet my own story is no more auspicious. My Oathsworn Brothers and I joined in coalition to restore peace. I gave my life for this cause. Yet no sooner had the rebels been slain did we turn on each other as three warring kingdoms. What was to be a victory for order only plunged the nation into its darkest age of chaos.”
The mighty god of war hung his head and sighed.
“Your tale and mine are familiar to the annals of history. Han and Rebel. Pirate and Redcoat. Templar and Assassin. Order and Freedom. No matter how many times we fight this battle, there is no victor.”
“So none of it mattered?” Edward searched desperately for some refutation. Guan Yu’s words both enranged him and pressed down on him. “No, that can’t be right. The sacrifices we made to live free, if only for the moment---that had to have been worth something.”
“We are standing in a city razed by a madman and turned into a twisted prison.” Guan Yu said. “Do not deceive yourself. Are men any more free? Does the world make any more sense?”
A lump of anguish found its way down Edward’s throat.
“No esteemed deed lasts. No noble thing truly accomplished. All there is is blood. We have fought a thousand thousand times and the world is no better for it. Do you see the hell we live in? No man was meant to live beyond death and witness his legacy rot.”
Everyone he’d ever loved was dead.
The fortune he’d killed and cheated for was dust.
The one cause he had dared to believe in was a fruitless cycle of bloodshed spanning two thousand years at least.
Edward’s bruised and bloodied form was held up only by his will. As Guan Yu’s words found their mark, the resolve drained out of his body. He collapsed.