December Event: No Rest for the Wicked

[lifeaftr_mods]

DECEMBER EVENT: NO REST FOR THE WICKED

Who: Anyone and everyone
What: Your trials by fire
When: December 15th - 18th
Where: On Maati and Ensō
Warnings: Character deaths and violence are both likely - please mark as you go!

The Trials: Only Then Can We Begin

As noted in the OOC info post, your Trials will all begin on December 15th. As many of you will not be deposited into your trials with food and water (or any items of your own at all, in most cases), the Trials will last only as long as December 18th. If you've failed to complete your Trial by this deadline but have not used up all the deaths allotted to you, you will awaken by Maati's mana pool at the event's conclusion. If you have not failed your Trial by using up all your deaths, this will not count as a character death, and you will not need to submit for a penalty; you simply won't be able to obtain the reward you would get if you had succeeded! When your character wakes in their allotted Trial, they will discover that their starting chamber has been inscribed with the name of the Trial, the names of those participating, and the number of deaths they have remaining - though the latter aren't labeled in any way. You'll simply have to learn it the hard way; every time your character suffers a death, the number will go down by one. If it wasn't obvious what those numbers stood for at first, by the time the dying starts properly, it certainly will be. And you probably don't want to see it go all the way down to zero...

Should you reach the end of your Trial, you will step out onto the rocky cliffs of Maati, exiting from one of the seven doors set into the cliffs at the seven points of the island's star shape. You see, those doors you discovered earlier weren't the entrances to the Trials at all. They were the exits. And set into the towering cliffs...why, those house the winding mazes that comprise the Trials themselves.

There will be a top-level below for each Trial. Remember to plan with your groups and communicate with your thread partners! Whether you choose to do mingle-style threads or lengthier group threads is up to you.

Once you know the outcome of your Trial, success OR failure, please do let us know so that we can ensure your character gets the reward that befits their triumph...or lackthereof.

Remember also to let us know if your character uses up ALL their deaths during this event. While death penalties will not be inflicted during Trial deaths, if you use up all the deaths allotted to you and die for real, your death penalty will NOT be reduced.

The Water: Don't Let Them Get Away

The rest of you have plenty to contend with as well, of course. If you've opted out of this month's event, be advise that the waters creeping across shores of Ensō, along with the rest of the island, aren't going to take evasion kindly. They'll seek you out, spread along every inch of the island if they can, until they can find you. There is a top-level below, if you're intrigued! Though if you end up top-leveling yourself, we may very well reach out and find you anyway...

Event Timeline

[ ♆ ] December 15th: The Trials on Maati begin, and the water begins to rise.
[ ♆ ] December 18th: The Trials reach their end.
[ ♆ ] December 19th: Those who have "perma"-died in their Trials are revived.
[ ♆ ] December 20th: The monthly Storytelling occurs.

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LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

TRIAL OF THE PATIENT

[lifeaftr_mods]

You waited, still, for this opportunity...

Arrival

[thermalwind]

[Free for all for everyone's arrival. Have at. Key details to remember -

The trial's name is listed, along with names and numbers for deaths (but what the number is for isn't said. It counts down with each death).]

[thermalwind]

[He hasn’t been sleeping on hard stone last he checked. Keith opens his eyes and stares at the number under his fingers. He traces it and pushes himself up enough to look at his surroundings. ‘Trial of the patient’ and names are etched into the stone. He lifts his right hand and the bandages fall away from the glowing sign on the back of it.]

So that was the sign, is that it?

[Trials are meant to better a person. Or so it was said and he didn’t see any reason that would be a lie. Keith climbs to his feet and checks himself over. No weapons. He feels weaker and slower than normal. This gets better and better. He turns to get a look at the names. There’s the same number below each name.]

...what could the ten mean?

[bitch4bitch]

Some kind of a rating, maybe? That's... the same for all of us. [A rating of what? Hell if she knows.] Whatever it is, I kinda hate the look of this.

the drifter | ota

[hyperlit]

[The Drifter wakes up.]

[They do not wake in their hammock and they do not wake with their belongings in hand. They do wake with their sprite still hovering at their shoulder, which is considerably more ideal than the alternative in which they do not. They roll to their feet in a brief, spasmodic movement. They are still fully cloaked - they sleep in their gear, ready to depart at a moment's notice.]

[They draw close to the list of names. Pick out the ones they recognize: Lup. Beau. The others are a mystery.]

[The Drifter takes in each of their new companions with a slow, restive flick of beetle-black eyes, one by one.]

[When they address them, it is via text, projected from the object that hovers beside them - roughly the size and shape of a soda can, green and pink and projecting a translucent HUD into the empty air.]

hourglass?

[Referring to the mark the Drifter has been unable to scrub from their hand, though they do not elaborate further.]

[lesbeau]

[Beau does not come to consciousness gracefully. It's very uncommon that she sleeps deeply- she's an alert person from years of training, and that means that when she does, she arrives in a flailing of limbs and a roll on her back until she's standing, fists up, grabbing for a staff that isn't there. Her chest is already moving with breath, feet shifting back and forth as she tries to determine a source of this.

When she sees the Drifter and bodies on the floor, she just drops her arms.]

Dude, what the fuck. Don't tell me you put me here.

Room 1

[thermalwind]

[The first room is made of stone with pressure plates set at intervals. They're too far apart to lay one thing on them. Curiousier yet the number of pressure plates matches the number of people in this trial.

When everyone sits down smooth, casual music like you only ever hear in elevators and at easy listening stations filters in. At the back of the room where the gap lies that no one could cross, a bridge slowly begins to extend across the gap.

If no one moves, it settles on the other side with a loud bing bong! If you move or get up before then, well, back to sitting down and waiting all over again.]

[piercetheheart]

[By the third time they're stuck sitting on these godawful pressure plates Gladio is countering the mind-numbing elevator music by humming something a little more upbeat.

Look he misses the girls..... and if it happens to annoy the fuck out of someone, EVEN BETTER.]

[hyperlit]

[By this point, it is the tenth, the twentieth attempt...it has been many, many tries since the Trial began, and the Drifter settles on their plate without complaint.]

[Exhaustion is a snake coiling tight around their lungs. They can feel a pinprick in their chest, a bright hemorrhage leaking like a fuzz of plague-static across their soul. Blood bubbles up in their throat, behind their cowl. Fatigue is sapping them dry, bit by bit. Their body cannot physically sustain it indefinitely.]

[They sit there, shivering, waiting for the time to elapse.]

[For the first time, they accept the stillness as a welcome respite.]

ota yall

[lesbeau]

[It's been too many times. She's taken her share of falls, failed to stop a few others, and by this point she's just pissed. As soon as she's off the floor again, staring at the pressure plates, she doesn't even take the time to get on them. Instead, she full-frontal punches the wall- even though it does nothing, in her weakened state, other than hurt her hand.]

Fuck this! Fuck everything! We shouldn't have to do this!

Room 2

[thermalwind]

[A very narrow walkway cuts along the edge of the room. Rushing is out of the question. One takes the path carefully or it's down in the pit below.]

[hellawrath]

[They'd been making decent progress, or at least it had seemed like it. So maybe it's taken a couple rounds on the torture plates to figure out each room's gimmick, but they're blazing through em now, pretty much. How many fucking rooms can there even be down here? It's gotta be like, halfway over at least. And, listen, how was Lup to know you can't open the door without all the keys, if she didn't try it? That's just science! That's what you do!

It had started as whispers, something in the walls, almost. Not the weirdest shit down here by far, so it was easy to ignore. But then she could've sworn she'd caught a word here or there, in a familiar cadence, and her steps had hastened. And now, after her stunt with the door and god's worst elevator music, there's no denying it. Her camp fam's ahead of them!

Unfortunately, somebody's ahead of her, in line, on a ledge so narrow it doesn't even fucking deserve the name. Does that stop Lup? Does the sun rise in the morning because Lup almost got her ass killed for it? Duh.]

Hey, scoot over homie, I gotta-- [She places a hand on their shoulder as if she's about to leapfrog this shit.]

Room 3

[thermalwind]

[Room 3 contains a maze and a beast. Whatever description people want to go with for the monster have at, maybe it changes based on who is looking? Anyway, the maze in this room is narrow. The only way to proceed through it is to move in single file.

The catch? Someone has to keep their eyes on the beast. Blink and it comes to life, and-oh shit it's that damn music again. So, stay together and don't blink.]

ota, death probable

[lesbeau]

[Okay. Okay, so this sucks? This sucks harder than Beau expected it to suck. It's one thing to be mocked into waiting and meditating, and another thing entirely to see people killed for not doing it. This is like if the monks finally snapped and really decided she wasn't worth fixing, which isn't something she wants to think about. But she can do this- at least half the people here aren't total idiots, and that's a better ratio than her normal crew. She can worth with it.

The door opens to the third trial, and Beau squints ahead, trying to see what lies within.]

What the fuck is that? Is there somebody in here?

Room 4

[thermalwind]

[Room 4 looks like a mess. Debris is everywhere scattered about and thick enough it's like you're wading in trash. At the far end of the room lies a door with seven keyholes arranged around it.

The goal is simple. Dig through this mess to find seven keys. Their locations change each time you come back to this room.

If one tries the door without all the keys, pop goes the weasel.. That and the floor falls out.]

[piercetheheart]

[The first time they make it this far Gladio gets one step into the room and just groans in annoyance.]

Six, this pit looks like Noct's apartment.

[Except Noct had the Armiger for important shit and this is just... this is awful. Is this like all of the trash from all of the islands?! He's just... nudging a pile with his toe.

Why this.]

Room 5

[thermalwind]

[Welcome to swinging axes. They're all timed to move slightly different than the last one. Go slow and it will be fine. Be careful or - oh, it's time out time again.]

[hyperlit]

[The first time they manage to reach this point, the Drifter is about ready to rend themself apart to put an end to this ordeal prematurely, if need be.]

[Thin musculature tenses up beneath their cloak in preparation to shoot forward, to gamble timing with their own speed.]

[Unless you decide you can stop them, of course.]

Room 6

[thermalwind]

[Room 6 is a deceptively simple looking maze. It looks like you could rush right through it. If you go faster than a walk, congratulations, you just got baited.

The room will convert into conveyer belt hell as they tip further and further towards a pit full of sharp, white (likely not to remain white for long) spikes ready to receive you.]

ota, this one's probs gonna involve death yall

[lesbeau]

[She's starting to get the picture by the time they get here. Sure, it's been a couple of quite literal pitfalls along the way- some worse than others- and she's still a little shaken from her first tumble. But this looks easy. This one finally looks easy.]

Look, okay, I know they've all looked easy, but this one looks actually easy. Come on, heels up, we have places to go.

[She feels like she can hear something-- best not to think about it, for now.]

Room 7

[thermalwind]

[Room 7 starts out with one small platform over a sea of lava. It's hot and miserable. Once everyone is on the platform the next will appear. Now, this alone would suck. It gets worse because, of course, it would. Some of the platforms are false.

Which ones? That's up to the team to figure out. At least one doesn't get the full experience of death by lava.]

Room 8

[thermalwind]

[Room 8's puzzle is a little hard to get at first. Several chains with shackles on either end lie tangled up on the floor. A timer is set in the wall and starts ticking down the moment the first person enters the room.

Just above the chains is a drawing of everyone holding hands and chained together. The solution is to get chained up together and help each other through this wide and colorful world of blocks, cliffs, and other obstacles that require human (and the not quite or not at all human) ladders. There is a catch.

Touch the door without being chained up to the others or before everyone is there and we're lighting up the night. Aka, sit and think about what you did for five minutes.]

[hyperlit]

[The first time they reach this room, it takes them a moment to process it. Then - one look at the shackles, and the Drifter immediately begins to back away, shaking their head.]

no

[By now, their fragility is likely quite obvious to just about everyone. When one has as low a constitution as they, being trapped, being pinned down - that is the worst possible fate. That is the quickest avenue to their death - again.]

Room 9

[thermalwind]

[It looks like it is yet another maze Team 'are we patient or are we just suffering' has to deal with. Yes, actually, they do have to deal with it. At the center of the maze is a large cartoon looking punch glove just hanging there.

If you're mad (and you likely are), passive-aggressive, or feel just frustrated enough you hit the glove...the trial will mess with everyone one more time. The room goes dark then flashes with an angry red light. A horrible siren noise blares and you di-

Get hot pink colored slime dropped on you followed by more glitter than you ever knew existed. The lights will return to normal and you may proceed. Unless someone else loses it.

Thank you for participating in the Trial of the Patient. Please remember to have real patience!]

ota

[lesbeau]

[She might as well be vibrating at this point. This has been one of the worst days of her life, and this is coming from someone who watched a close friend die because of her fuckups. Her-- hah-- rushing in. So despite their screams in her ears, her clenched fists, and the too-harsh breathing, she's doing it. She's fucking doing it.

Until they hit the glove in the middle, and Beau's eyes just widen as she looks, before speaking through gritted teeth.]

I want to hit that more than I've ever wanted to hit anything in my life.