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 edited Oct 31 '22
21 climbed out of the arena pit. He moved around the right to check the other side of the bloodstained stairs. No bloody shoeprints on this side either.
But then that meant the killer had never left the stairs. Unless they’d somehow figured out how to walk without touching the ground.
“You. Craven underling. Stay where you are.”
21 looked up. Shredder descended the steps from his throne platform. He kicked aside the wreckage of two football Monokumas. The pair of Foot Soldiers who’d disabled them remained standing in his path. Shredder folded his arms expectantly.
“Move”
Both of them took a step towards him.
“Move out of my way you worthless things.” He snapped.
They stepped aside at once. He coldly slashed off their heads off as he pushed past.
“Mechanical wretches.” He muttered. “No initiative.”
He towered over 21. “Show me your blades.” He demanded.
21 showed him his spotless stingers.
“Hmph. As expected. You would not have the initiative.” Shredder said dismissively.
“Let’s see yours then. It’s only fair.” 21 shot back.
“Ingrate. The Shredder owes you nothing.”
“Dude, we need to Scooby Doo the hell up and solve this mystery or we’re all going to be executed by a freaking teddy bear.” 21 told him. “I don’t care if you’re insecure because mine are longer, you’re showing me those claws pal.” He jabbed a finger into the Shredder’s spikey chestplate emphatically.
A blade pressing into his back.
“Unworthy fool. You do not touch Master Shredder.” Karai hissed into his ear.
“Enough Karai. He is right. We have no time for foolishness.”
Shredder raised his claws. They glinted wickedly but bore no sign of blood.
He turned, showing off every blade that jutted from his armour. All were clean.
As he showed his back to 21, he noticed that the armour had a single long seam running down the back. Despite appearing to be made up of individual pieces, it was all one complete suit.
“I trust you are satisfied.” The Shredder told him.
He considered Karai like an annoyance. Whatever this relationship was, it made 21 deeply uncomfortable. Mixing blood and henching seemed like a recipe for worse than just nepotism.
“I notice your own blade is darkened granddaughter.”
Karai quickly sheathed her bloodstained sword.
“Only with Kenway’s blood master.”
Karai bowed and as she did, 21 noticed her belt entirely incidentally and definitely not as a result of staring at her perfectly toned ninja thighs.
A number of tools of the trade dangled from the belt; kunai, shuriken, the head of a grappling hook. One loop was conspicuously empty. On that side of her pants, there was a chalky white stain.
“Hey Karai, this is gonna sound weird but do you bake?” 21 asked.
She gave him a look somewhere between puzzlement and wanting to strangle him.
Just then, Tita came puffing up to the group.
“I’ve checked all the Foot Soldiers like you said Miss Karai! All except these.. two…”
She saw the decapitated Foot Soldiers slumped on the ground beside Shredder.
“Uwahh! Another murder!!”
“I’m not sure those count.” 21 told her gently. “You were saying?”
Tita steadied herself. “Oh. Right. Um, well all of their swords were clean.” She checked the two slain robots’ sheathes. “And these poor little guys are clean too.”
Karai’s brow furrowed. “But if that’s the case…” She shook her head. “Bah. Nevermind.” She looked up at 21. “What are you still standing around here for? Go investigate.”
“You’re the only two who haven’t been…” 21 muttered. But he obliged. If they were too hung up on themselves, then he’d do all the work. Sad to say, but he was used to it.
He thought about asking to check out Shredder’s throne platform but he had a feeling he already knew the answer he’d receive. There was really only one other place to search.
21 approached the hole where Hiruma had blasted his way in. On the other side was a narrow balcony decorated with plants and paving stones which seemed to circle around the entire rooftop. One of the potted bonsai near the hole looked out of place.
He went to pick it up but his grip on the glazed ceramic faltered. The pot tipped, shattering apart. Something sleek and shiny spilled out along with the clumps of soil---a revolver.
Something clicked in the mechanism as it bounced against the paving stone. The gun went off, barely missing 21’s leg.
Everyone’s eyes were on him.
21 sheepishly grabbed the gun off the ground and removed the cylinder. He felt like enough of a klutz as it was. Better not tempt fate and blow off his own dick.
Ding, Dong! Bing, Bong!
Their prison handbooks all chimed again.
”Woah! You guys are supposed to be investigating, not having a shootout. You must be getting pretty antsy. I’ll just start the trial now before we’ve got another body on our hands.”
Hob shot him a dirty look. “Nice going lard ass.”
“Hey, that’s not fair!”
”Normally I’d make you all walk but this time I’ve prepared special transport. Stand by for repositioning.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” 21 asked.
And then the world around him flickered and went dark.
Edward’s vision returned to him abruptly.
He stood before a podium in a marble chamber. The others stood at similar podiums facing inwards as a circle. One stood empty. Behind it was an image of Yoichi Hiruma. A bloody cross had been slashed through the youth’s face.
Monokuma lounged in a high seat above it all, wielding a magistrate’s gavel.
“Everyone combobulated? No brain damage? Oops! Except Edward I mean.”
“What is this bear?” Edward demanded. “Where are we?”
“You’re at the trial silly! I took you here. You oughtta be grateful. Me, your busy warden, taking the time to be your chauffeur.”
Monokuma made a show of clearing his throat.
“Eh-heh-hem! Now then! Let's begin with a basic explanation of the class trial! Your votes will determine the results. If you can figure out ‘whodunnit’ then only they will receive punishment. But if you pick the wrong one... Then I'll punish everyone besides the blackened, and the one that deceived everyone else will go free!”
“Whew!” Monouma sighed. “Been a while since I gave that spiel! My throat feels like cotton.”
Tita raised a nervous hand. “Um.. but.. aren’t you made of cotton?”
“That's why it feels like it, stupid!” Monokuma snapped. “Moving on, since this is your very first trial, let’s start off by going over what happened.”
“I’ll take it from here.” Hob spoke up. “Guan Yu and I made up a timeline of events.”
He passed around a sheet of paper with bullet points blotting out the night.
“Just in case any of you can’t read, let’s go over it. Chime in if you think we’re leavin’ anything out. Guan Yu, you wanna start us off?”
Guan Yu nodded. “This account is my own. Lord Shredder called me into his throneroom to wait at his side for his guest. Karai escorted him in. He was given his blades---”
“Not my blades.” Edward corrected him. “Only borrowed.”
“---before Shredder ordered me to engage him in a duel.”
“What was that about anyway?” 21 asked
“I suppose he intended to crush my spirit.” Edward sighed. “I can’t say he hasn’t succeeded. I still can’t believe…” He cut himself off. It’d be useless to go drowning in lament.
“There is nothing to believe in. Nothing but your own strength.” Shredder rumbled smugly. “The sooner you accept this, the sooner you will find the freedom you seek.”
“Alright, we get it, you wanted him to come to the dark side.” 21 rolled his eyes. “Hob, I’m guessing you’re gonna tell our part?”
“Yeah.” Hob agreed. “We were supposed to wait in the entrance hall. They had little miss goggles with her robot goons watchin’ us.” He jerked a thumb at Tita, who looked down sheepishly at her shoes. “I got tired of waiting. So we fought her robots and snatched their remote offa her.”
21 snorted. “Don’t give yourself so much credit dude. I had to guilt trip you into rescuing Edward.”
Hob shot him a sour look, but Edward could see the guilt there. “By the time we busted into the throneroom, Edward’s gotten his shit kicked in. Guan Yu threw in the towel, Karai picked up where he left off, and 21 saved his ass.”
“I never thanked you for that.” Edward told him. “It’s not my life to lose. Whichever descendant of mine I’ve robbed of their body, they owe you a debt.”
“Your sentimental interjections are useless.” Shredder said. “Continue your narrative Hob.”
“Actually I’ll hand this next part off to Guan Yu.” Hob frowned. “Still ain’t sure what I did and didn’t see.”
“Very Well.” Guan Yu said. “Hiruma made his appearance alongside his minions---”
“Hold it! You mean all those me's, right?” Monokuma interrupted. “‘Cause I’m not taking ‘minion’ sitting down ya know! Mascot, sure! Sidekick, maybe. But definitely nobody’s goon.”
“What’s wrong with being a goon?” 21 asked, insulted.
“As I was saying,” Guan Yu continued, “Hiruma appeared through the wall brandishing a weapon and opened fire. He threatened to expose some secret, but was cut off by a gunshot.”
“S-So someone shot at him?” Tita stammered.
“If they did, then they missed.” Edward mused. “I’m more curious who pulled the trigger. There’s our first mystery.”
“Well who here has a gun?” She asked.
Karai scoffed. “For one truly skilled with a blade, it would be a worthless crutch.”
“It would be no fit weapon for a ninja.” Shredder agreed.
“Guan Yu told me the same thing, which rules him out.” 21 said. “Edward?”
Edward shook his head. “No pistol at my belt, and I’m the worse for it. Might’ve given a better showing in that pit with one.”
Guan Yu scoffed. “Think what you like.”