r/whowouldwin • u/OddDirective • Nov 05 '22
Event Scramble 16 Round 3: Twister
EDIT: Round 3 has concluded! While there are no competitive rounds (and thus, no strict need for a voting form), we have put together a form to vote on your favorite round/who you think will win. Please check it out HERE!
Round 3: Twister
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DAY 5
The mission for today seems oddly easy for your Players. “Enter Tower Records. You have 8 hours. Fail, and face erasure.” They don’t wake up too far from the entrance, and the time limit is very generous. But hey, they’ve been fighting for their lives for a fair bit, so they’re glad to have something of a cakewalk to get to the next day.
That’s not what this is.
The Game Master has decided that the gloves are coming off now. They’ve set a simple task to their Reapers; eliminate every Player you can get your hands on. Not only that, but they’ve set up an ambush right in front of the one way to get to Tower Records, featuring some hand-picked assassins- the enemy team. For whatever reason, your Reaper can’t or doesn’t let your Players know- if they’re the Game Master (or even if not), they might have decided that your team has reached the end of their usefulness, or they could be trying to dodge the Game Master’s suspicion to avoid erasure themselves.
Whatever the case, as your team walks into the trap, they come across a lone Player, one who’s lost the rest of their team. Whether it’s because they’re still fighting, or because Players without a team can’t have gotten this far, your Players are tipped off- just in time for the enemy team to come in. To save their life, your Players form a pact with the solo Player, and prepare to face off in a battle for everyone’s second chance…
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. That includes your adopted character this time, too!
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 Tower Records, an iconic music store that outlived its American main branch, located in the heart of Shibuya with shelves stocked with all the latest music, in CD or vinyl. The important parts of wherever the location is is that it’s recognizable by the members of the team, and it can be set up for an ambush. There’s also more than enough time for your team to mess around and do whatever their heart desires before going into the ambush, so you can include other locations as well.
Key Points: The main idea of the round is the following. The Game Master wants to eliminate a whole load of Players, and so sets up a seemingly-easy mission to keep the Players off guard. This gives your Players time to do things other than the mission, but when they do pursue the mission, they meet a lone Player, with whom they extend their pact to stay as a team. During this, they are ambushed, and have to fight against the enemy team for their lives.
Union X: Adoptions! That’s right, it’s the adoption round. We’ve decided to be pretty open about this; there are two possibilities for who you can adopt. The first is that any Player on a team that has already been eliminated is available to adopt. We have also curated a list of unpicked backups that you can choose from. All available adoptions are HERE, and be sure to look through to find someone you’ll enjoy writing.
Post Limit: For this round, writers will be limited to 8 posts, or 80k 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 EDIT: Sunday, November 27th. That’s about two and a half weeks. At that point, the thread will be locked, and voting will go up for a few days afterwards.
Flavor Suggestions
Incongruous: Your team members might be suspicious of such an easy mission. After all, the people in charge of this don’t really want you to win, do they? Would they see this as a chance to take a break, and do things casually? Alternatively, would they rush headlong into the ambush the Game Master set up?
Dancer In The Street: Whoever you’re adopting, your team is going to be meeting them in a difficult situation, either in combat or just having come from it. But you can’t just sideline them, you’ve gotta make sure they shine! What do they bring to the table in terms of synergies? How do they fight when they’re backed into a corner? And importantly, how would your team react to finding someone on their own?
2
u/7thSonOfSons Nov 25 '22
Girl was asleep, but she did not rest. She squirmed and writhed in Spear’s arms. Her face contorted into a deep unpleasant scowl. Spear held her away from his chest. His eyes swept over her body. She was old for a newborn. Unclothed, as to be expected. Her skin was caked in blood and dirt with a fair few scars. Blonde. Her hair was like wheat. And from that wheat emerged tiny red horns.
Not even that was the most shocking thing to Spear. No, it was the smell. The smell of battle and war and blood and rot and decay. The scent of death. A scent that wholy enveloped Girl.
Blue approached them and looked her over. “Chiss…” He reached out to feel her horns. “... Chiss? Chiss.”
“It’s a demon, Grand Admiral. Or perhaps a troll. What else could it be? Not like Helheim is some diverse ecosystem.” Moustache ran his fingers down his moustache. “Now, big guy, how’s about you set that thing down before it kills us.”
Moustache motioned to Spear. Spreading his arms out. He wanted him… to drop Girl here? Spear looked down at her. She looked ill. Or troubled. She wouldn’t last without him. Would she last any longer with him?
“Hæ, stolti pabbi!” The Giant barked over Spear’s thoughts. “Augu hér uppi, hlutirnir eru orðnir viðbjóðslegir!”
Spear’s attention was yanked away from the girl. He meant to look to The Giant. To see what his warning shout was about. But it was clear at a glance. Spear’s eyes widened. The blood from Girl’s birth ran down the hill like a rapid river. It spread out in every direction. It did not slow. It only got faster. Faster. Further. Farther. Faster. Until everywhere Spear looked was stained like a battlefield.
The sky suffered the same fate. The clouds swelled with blood and the mist tinged red. The smell and the taste of death were everywhere. Everywhere but that great black spire on the horizon.
The tower changed in its own way. A great golden sphere burned at the spire's peak. Its radiance cut through the red mist. It was as the sun. Spear’s gaze locked on the sphere. A pitch black pupil rolled from behind it towards him. The sphere’s gaze locked on Spear.
“Oh no no.” Moustache scrambled to collect himself and put The Giant between himself and the eye. “No, we need to go. Do you hear me? Do you understand me? Dammit, this is why you listen to me! They’re watching us!”
Blue waved him off as he wiped the blood from his face. The Giant looked down at Moustache and then back up to the tower, and then to Spear and Girl. He shrugged.
The tower’s eye shut. The world dimmed. The light collected and shone off the single emerald tear it shed. It hung unmoving beneath the eye until it opened once more. The tear shot across the sky like a star.
Moustache grabbed The Giant’s arm and tugged as hard as he could. “We have to go! Now, right now! If they know we’re here they’re going to kill us!”
FWOOOOOOOJH
Any further of Moustache’s noises were swallowed up. The tear hit the side of the hill they stood on. The earth quaked. Spear and Fang fought to keep steady. Moustache fell backwards. He was caught by The Giant. Only he and Blue remained steady. Blue walked forward and peered down the slope of the hill.
“... ChissChissChiss, Stockman.”
The rest of their pack moved forward to see what Blue saw. Curled into a crater in the hill was the emerald tear. It was huge. The crash hadn’t broken the ball. It sat there… resting. And then it didn’t.
The ball leaped into the air. Legs shot out from its sides into the bloodied grass. Its front opened up to allow a round head to shoot forward. It looked like a bird. It looked like a monster. It now stood taller than The Giant and wider than Fang. Its eyes lit up, slightly blinding Spear. It tilted its head to one side. Confusion? Or was it sizing them up like prey?
It tilted it’s head the other way. “Heh.” The Giant laughed. “Hræddur við fugl í herklæðum?”
He took one step towards the bird. Its beaming yellow eyes shone a bright red. Its beak fired forward like an arrow. The Giant was nearly bored straight through if he didn’t move. The beak smashed into the ground beyond and launched dirt and grass high into the air. A long black rope at the back of the beak snapped it back to the bird's face.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph…” Moustache took a few steps back. “Thorkell! What was i- hörfa! Hörfa, Thorkell!”
The Giant smiled. He took a low, wide stance. “Þú segir að hlaupa fær mig bara til að vilja berjast meira!”
He lunged at the bird. The bird didn’t even flinch. Two great plumes of smoke puffed from its back. And with them, two nets fired off at The Giant. They carried The Giant back past Fang, past Spear, past the tree, and entangled him. Spear watched as even The Giant struggled to break free.
Another burst of smoke from the bird. Something ker-chunked through the air and hit the Earth near them. A great fireball exploded out of the dirt, barely missing The Giant thanks to his flailing.
“Grenade!”
“Hrrrrrragh!”
Fang screeched out her response. She charged past Spear, and scooped up The Giant between her teeth. Another ker-chunk. Another fireball. This one so close Spear felt the heat on his face.
Spear looked down at Girl. Still she slept. If Spear left her here, she would die. If he left The Giant here, he would die. If they stayed here… they would die. Fang shook her head wildly and freed The Giant from his prison. Blue and Moustache dashed to her. Spear made up his mind. They had to go. All of them.
The bird’s beak slammed into the ground where Spear stood a moment before. He was running. Running to Fang. “Aghhh! Ah Ah Hraaaah!!”
Fang turned and roared at the bird. She lowered her head and snarled. Blue and Moustache had no problem climbing up to her back. Spear was quick to join them. The bird reeled back its beak and fired it again on them. Blue’s weapon blasted it off course. Only a hair away from skewering Fang. Spear tapped his leg against Fang’s side, and they ran.
Fang was fast. She trampled the grass and stone and dirt beneath her claws as she took off. Spear held onto Girl. The way she thrashed about, eyes shut tight, looked painful. When he reached out for her, she bared her teeth at him. A row of sharp fangs. A low instinctual growl. Spear did not reach out to her again.
The bird was after them. Smoke and flames erupted from its sides. It was loud. A roaring running disaster on their heels. But The Giant had an idea. He sat at the front of their lineup, he pointed it out to Fang. A forest of crimson red trees.
“Við munum berjast þar sem við höfum skjól, er það ekki? Ég mun ekki vera hræddur við feitan kjúkling!”
Moustache held onto Spear with as much strength as he could. “Yes, we can lose it in the treeline! That mess you made will help us blend in a lot more than the robot bird!”
Fang’s eyes narrowed. She took off with even greater speeds. Through the treeline. Into the forest, zagging one side to the next around each tree in their way. Crushing fallen dead trunks beneath her. They could hear the bird behind, but it was falling off. Losing them. Eventually, Spear could barely hear it.
“Ghu! Uh, oh ah!” He pressed his legs to Fang’s sides. She slowed down. And came to a stop. Spear, The Giant, and Blue got off her. When she stood tall to look around, Moustache joined them on the ground.
He grumbled something as he got back to his feet. “What are we doing now? Setting up camp? A forest of corpses isn’t exactly my idea of shelter.” He pointed through the canopy, up at the golden eye of the tower. “We. Need. To. Go. There. Understand?”
Spear didn’t understand his grunts and groans. He walked with Girl. Looking for somewhere they could set a trap. A hiding spot to attack the bird when it found them again.
Moustache grabbed his shoulder. Spear looked down at him. “Listen! You keep trying to protect that demon, we are going to die! You are going to get us killed for that thing.”
“Stockman.”
“Stay quiet, Thrawn. I don’t need your input. I know I’m correct. This one just needs to-”
A drop of blood fell from Moustache’s clothing. It splashed against Girl’s forehead. She sniffed. And sniffed again.
“... Hwa?”
Her eyes opened. She stared up at Spear and Moustache and the blood red canopy beyond them. She looked confused.
Then she kicked Spear across the clearing and freed herself from his grip. She took a low stance. Her eyes swept across the group. Her hands were like claws. Her breathing was heavy. Like a cornered animal. She looked to tear them all apart.