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
“Um.. I had a gun… It was a really good one too. But he broke it!” Tita pointed accusingly at 21. “Oh! My poor little Vulcan!” She sniffed.
21 seemed taken aback. “Hey, no way, I’m not the bad guy! Why did you even have that? You’re like twelve!”
“I slept with it every night…” Tita bawled.
“So that leaves two people we know were armed.” Hob said. He set his gun on the podium in front of him. “There’s me. And there’s Hiruma himself.”
“Hang on, what about the other gun the big fat butterfly jerk was playing with?” Tita cut in.
“Yeesh. Can we cool it with the weight comments?” 21 complained. “Yeah I found a gun, but it wasn’t mine.” He set an ornate looking weapon on the table. Its barrel was embossed and the handle was fine rosewood.
Hob whistled. “Fancy looking piece, ain’t she? Looks like a European model.”
“It was hidden in a plant pot right next to the hole Hiruma blasted in the wall.” 21 said. “I uh, kinda smashed it by accident. That’s why it went off.”
Karai narrowed her eyes. “Clumsy oaf! You boast about your experience in these matters then go around destroying our things?”
“So then we have three guns.” Edward said. “Even further from discerning who fired.”
“Maybe Hiruma did it himself?” Tita suggested. “He was shooting all over the place when he broke in, right? He could’ve gotten surprised when all the smoke came out and pulled the trigger again.”
“I don’t think so.” 21 mused.
“Well, why not?” Tita huffed.
“Well for starters, everyone’s eyes were on him. We’d have probably noticed
“With all that nasty smoke in our faces?” Tita countered.
“No.” Guan Yu stroked his beard. “Smoke filled the room only after the weapon discharged.”
“I remember it that way as well.” Karai agreed.
“Hmph.” Shredder grunted. “Don’t be too quick granddaughter. Memory lies.” He said. “The events were in quick succession. We need more solid evidence than that.”
“Yeah, I’ll raise you.” Hob grinned. He held up a brass slug between thumb and forefinger.
“I found this at the bottom of the arena stairs facing the entrance. This thing’s a nine millimetre. Handgun stuff. Nothin’ like this’d come outta the massive heater Hiruma used to bust through the damn wall. It’s gotta be the third gun.”
“You were aiming a handgun at Master Shredder.” Karai pointed out. “You could’ve fired the shot while the rest of us were watching Hiruma rant.”
Hob’s grin widened. “Actually, I couldn’t.”
“And why not, curr?” Karai snapped impatiently.
“Keep your ninja panties on. I’ll tell you exactly why.” Hob tapped his forehead. “Ah, wait---sorry. My word ain’t any good, is it? So I’ll let your own man tell you why. Here’s a hint. It’s gotta do with where we were all standing.”
“Oh!” Tita perked up. “I actually made a map of that when I was going around checking all the robots.”
She passed around a drawing of the throne room. Their rough locations were noted along with the locations of several clues.
“Well Guan Yu?” Shredder demanded. “What does he mean.”
“We found the bullet together. It made an indent in the stone face of the bottom step.” Guan Yu said. “That step faces in towards the pit. Which means Hob speaks the truth.”
“There’s no way I could’ve shot that thing from where I was standing.” Hob said triumphantly. “So y’see as much as you’d like me to be guilty, I’m not.”
“Yes,” said Guan Yu, “but just because you did not fire the gun does not mean you did not wield the knife.”
Hob took this in stride. “Hell, I’m the only one who’s got an alibi. Tita took the remote for the Foot Soldiers off of me so she could call them in. She couldn’t have done that if I’d moved from that spot.”
“Oh yeah!” Tita brightened. “But that means I’ve got one too!”
“Sure why not.” Hob shrugged. He seemed to consider something. “Actually, there’s one more person. I saw Shredder sittin’ pretty both before and after the smoke went off.”
“...As did I.” Karai said, sounding reluctant to agree with Hob even on this. “The first thing I did when the gun went off was to check on grandfather. He did so much as flinch.” She beamed proudly at her master.
The Shredder did not return her enthusiasm
“Your concern is as unnecessary as it is insulting Karai.” He said coolly. “It would have been beneath me to rise from my throne for that gnat.”
“So Hob, Tita, and Shredder are accounted for… Which leaves us four in the arena.” Edward realised.
They exchanged silent, nervous glances.
Guan Yu was a terror. Karai wore ruthlessness on her sleeve. Then there was 21.
The nobler part of Edward considered that he owed 21 his trust at least. The man had been a friend even after Hob betrayed him. But he also couldn’t forget the way he talked so dismissively about death. Edward would be lying to himself to say he didn’t believe he was capable of murder.
It wasn’t like any one of them didn’t have a motive. They all wanted out of this madhouse.
“I’ll go ahead and say, you guys can count me out.” 21 broke in. He showed them his gauntlet stingers. “Clean as a whistle. You three are the only ones here who've gotten their weapons dirty.”
“But that was against each other mate, not Hiruma.” Edward protested.
“Blood is blood.” Guan Yu mused. “We would have no way to tell if it came from one person or two.”
“Useless. This brings us no closer to the truth.” Karai said harshly. “We all had the opportunity”
Shredder’s piercing gaze fixed Karai like prey. “And yet some had more opportunity than others, grandaughter.”
Her eyes went wide. “What do you mean Master Shredder?”
He savagely plunged his claws into the wood of the podium. “Do not play with me Karai. Do you forget who taught you to use smoke to disguise assasination?”
Her face fell in a look of such genuine hurt Edward forgot she was half the reason his back still ached long enough to feel sorry for the girl.
“I did not throw that smoke bomb.” Karai protested.
“And yet one is missing from your belt.” Shredder countered.
“Plus, you’ve got that white powder all over you.” 21 pointed out a flour-like stain on her side. “Unless you’ve picked up a coke habit, I’m pretty sure we know where that came from.”
“This is.. This is..” Karia’s face was red with fury. Her hand went reflexively to her sword, clenching and unclenching.
“Sloppy.” Shredder finished for her. “A child’s error. Unbecoming of the Foot.”
In a snap second Karai went from staring daggers into 21 to hanging her head in shame.
Edward studied Karai’s panic stricken face. She seemed more concerned with her grandfather’s disapproval than the murder charges. Was this truly a guilty reaction?
“Hold on a moment.” Edward interjected. “Maybe it was her smoke bomb, but can we be sure she tossed it? I’ve used them myself on not a few occasions. One tends to throw them away from oneself---not close enough to stain your clothes.”
“That.. That’s right!” Karai seized on his words. “It must have been stolen from my belt.” She turned her fierce gaze between each of their faces. She settled on Guan Yu.
She rounded on him. “You! You pretended to bump into me in the smoke. That’s when you took it. You tried to frame me!”
Guan Yu raised his bushy brows. “Me? You are mistaken. You bumped into me.”
“Your words mean nothing you disloyal thug.” Karai sneered. “You might have sworn loyalty to the Foot but you’re not one of us.”
Guan Yu shut his eyes. “If my word is not good enough for you, then listen to reason.” He displayed the broad edge of his halberd. “See my blade; nearly a shovel’s width. Nothing like the wound on the body.”
Edward felt a flare of sympathetic pain in his torn shoulder. If Guan Yu had been the one to stab him, Hiruma might’ve been cut clean in half.
“From experience, I’m inclined to believe him.” Edward said.
“Ditto.” 21 agreed. “It looked more like a knife or a sword.”
“Then he stole a blade from me.” Karai said. “My sword was in my hand but I have many smaller kunai. He could’ve concealed it the same way he hid the gun outside on the balcony. Perhaps he threw it off the building.”
Something struck Edward---why hadn’t the gun been simply tossed off the roof. It seemed like the easiest way to dispose of it. There had to be a reason.