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

[savedbyasong]

The smell stopped Shion in his tracks, nausea rising even before they entered the chamber. But he made himself step forwards. Made himself continue even as he began to dread what they would find next.

Prompto needed him and they all needed Prompto to survive this. It was a twisted game but Shion knew only too well that the only way to get through such things was to play and hope you won.

Sometimes that wasn't enough. He swallowed and dragged his eyes away from the vat of chocolate. They had time. Time to make sure they weren't all killed. Being killed by chocolate one time in his lifetime had been too many times. He had absolutely no desire to repeat the experience and it was not one a fate he would allow to happen to his friends.

"Maths?" He stepped next to Prompto.

[want_to_belong]

"Yeah."

Prompto had never actually been terrible at math. As a technophile, math was a basic part of little things he did all the time. But that was when he was doing things for fun. When it came to school, he'd never been an above average student, and usually didn't have the attention span for it. Thus, he never really got any particular confidence when it came to math.

Luckily, the chocolate did not distract him quite the way it distracted Shion. It was more confusing than anything else, even if he knew it'd be bad if it fell on them.

"I haven't done any math like this since I graduated..."

[savedbyasong]

“I got kicked out before I could graduate.” He’s babbling and it may not be the most reassuring to Prompto. “But I am sure we can figure it out together.” Looking at it though. He felt like he should be able to solve it but just like the map something... stopped him. Like there was something blocking his mind. He knew how to solve it but the answer wouldn’t come to him.

“You can do it Prompto. We need to factor it and the values for x are always opposite inside the factor so it will be plus three.”

[want_to_belong]

"Okay, ummm..." He leaned in, staring at it closely. But, at least if Shion was talking to him, he could bounce what he was doing off of someone else and feel a little more confident about it.

"Soooo... It's gotta equal zero? But that'd be x times x, right, so that's gotta be positive? Meaning that m has to be positive so that it makes a negative, right?"

He hadn't tried to figure out any numbers yet, but if he could eliminate a few answers...

[savedbyasong]

Shion nodded, hope surging in him. It would be alright. Prompto would be able to figure this out. Shion could help him. No one was going to die. Shion took a deep breath, calming himself slightly. "Yes M needs to be positive. X times X will be positive as well."

-3 times -3 should be an easy sum for him to do, but he cannot think of the answer, cannot make his mind multiply them together. He looks at Prompto, clearly this test was his and he was the one who had to solve it.

[want_to_belong]

Worst pop quiz ever. But, as long as he had someone to reassure him, he would keep trying.

"Okay. The first number has to be 9, then. So the second number will have to be bigger than a negative 9? I think. Cause then you gotta add n, and it would still have to be able to make a 0..."

It was making enough sense.

"So, it can't be the negative numbers, and it can't be 3..."

That left two numbers it could be. He just had to figure out which one was right.

[savedbyasong]

"Can you do the maths for both, here." The floor was pretty dusty, they could probably make out things if they wrote on it, Shion didn't want them to risk touching the stone with the question until they were sure of the answer.

"Do the sum both ways and see which works if you don't know how to factor it."

He should know, but his mind kept slipping away from the solution whenever it tried to get close.

[want_to_belong]

"Yeah, if we just try it both ways..."

He could do that. It was just basic multiplication, addition and subtraction, really. He squatted down and drew on the floor.

"Okay, so if m is 6 and n is 9, then we get... 9 minus 18 plus 9. = 0. Huh. That works. Then is m is 9 and n is 6... 9 minus 27 plus 6. That doesn't really work. So, does that mean m has to be 6...? Hmm. There's only one root, so..."

He started scribbling out some more.
(x+a)^2 = 0
(x-a)^2 = 0
(-3 + a)^2 = 0
(-3 - a)^2 = 0
a = 3, -3

x^2 - 2xa + a^2 = 0
x^2 + 2xa + a^2 = 0

x^2 + 6x + 9 = 0

-3^2 + 6(-3) + 9 = 9 - 18 + 9 = 0

He bit his lip, looking it over. "I think m is 6."

It seemed like it was right, but he didn't feel comfortable being the one doing any math here.

[savedbyasong]

Shion looked over the maths scribbled on the floor. As Prompto wrote it began making sense though it was still difficult to make his mind concentrate.

When Prompto gave the answer Shion nodded and glanced at the clock, eyes widening to see they were in their last minute. "I hope you are right."

He thinks he is right, but he can't say for certain. He should be able to say for certain... All the could do was write it on the slate and hope for the best.

[want_to_belong]

"O-Ok. Don't blame me if it's wrong, okay? I'm not the brain guy."

As much as he'd prefer Iggy did this for him, that wasn't a choice, so all he could do was plead that they forgive him if he made some sort of mistake. Taking a deep breath, he stood up and answered hesitantly, "M is 6."

[savedbyasong]

"I trust you." His voice is quiet and he looks around. He wouldn't blame Prompto if it was wrong, even if it resulted in their death. He just hoped the others wouldn't blame him either. Fear rose in him but he beat it down, they had the answer, it would be fine.

He braced himself as Prompto spoke, there was a whirring sound and the countdown stopped, blinking at 36 seconds. On the other side of the room a door swung open.

Shion let out a breath he had not known he was holding. "Well done, Prompto."

[want_to_belong]

A large breath escaped from him. He never felt confident in his answers and he'd prefer to hide and not have to give them at all, but it was over. Somehow he'd done it.

"Ah... No big deal," he murmured softly in response, not used to this kind of praise. "Guess I kinda got lucky." Anxiety dissipated and a sense of relief washed over him.

Taking in a deep breath, he glanced ahead. "I guess we keep going, then?"

[savedbyasong]

"No." Shion shook his head, "You figured it out, you did really well."

He reached out to squeeze Prompto's hand, a relieved smile. "Let's keep going." Surely there wouldn't be much more of this maze left.

[want_to_belong]

With a small nod and soft smile, he turned his eyes ahead.

"Okay," he sounded almost out of breath. Quiet. Contemplative. He murmured to himself, "R, L, R, L, up up up up circle..."

Staring out at the hallways for a moment, he let his hand slip from Shion's as he moved forward and took the first right.