lifeaftr | December Event: No Rest for the Wicked

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December Event: No Rest for the Wicked

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.

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Excuse me, good Sir, for not giving you my complete trust. I do hope you can forgive my assumptions."

The passively dangerous voice gives away to something smoother, sweeter in a near-instant. Before he can say anything else, another door stands in their path. Instead of buttons, there are holes. This time, a sign hangs with instructions.

'Reach inside the darkness to find the way forward. If the buttons aren't pressed at the same time, the loser will receive a painful surprise.'

"That's straightforward enough."

A fang toothed smile spreads across Jules' face, and it isn't a pleasant one. The laugh comes next. Slow and low at first, then growing in volume and intensity.

"Ah chizzi, that just tells me you're too trusting. Despite the minsid shit you've been through, and I know some of it, trust me, you're still too naive."

Jules hadn't exactly been suckled at the tit of all evil itself, but that was only because she wouldn't nurse him. The concern isn't killing a partner now. Oh no. That is too easy. Too expected. And really it serves no purpose. The best choice is to use someone first. Then when they reach their expiration and are no longer useful, you kill them. And right when success is presumably achieved too. It's extra brutal that way, and it's what Jules' grandmother would do no question. Lucky for Nezumi, Jules isn't his grandmother.

"All the more reason not to trust it."

Sure, Jules is cynical, but the reality is there could very well be a trap waiting in that darkness. Like something about to bite their hands off.

"Don't act like you know anything. I know mind games when I hear them. You might trick other people with your silver tongue, but I won't buy it so easily."

His eyes never leave the door as he examines the holes. Nezumi sincerely doesn't believe in Jules abilities to get into his head. It's a good thing for both of them that it seems like an informed ability.

"And no one would agree with you about my abundance of trust. Maybe you're right, but I don't trust in you. I trust in human nature. You want to get out as much as I do. If you fail the tests, you're as stuck inside as I would be. "

"Silver tongue? You're the only person in multiple universes who would believe that."

He's certainly never been accused of that before. More the exact opposite.

"Not abundant, but your level of paranoia is barely above the halfway mark on my scale."

The whole time he is speaking he's looking around to try and find something, anything, that he can stick in one of those holes as a test. It's certainly not going to be his arm.

"Aren't we just being firsts for each other? No one has been disappointed that I wasn't paranoid enough. Don't worry too much, I'm paranoid enough to survive.

Are you almost finished? While you seem to have free time, I'd prefer not to waste too much of mine down here. It's only the second door."

"And I'd prefer not to lose a limb by sticking my hand in a hole without investigating it first."

He doesn't particularly want to risk losing his dagger to the hole either, but at the moment he can't find anything better to use. It's going to have to work. A quick poke into the hole reveals nothing has dropped down to cut off his limb yet, but hell, that could change when the button is actually pressed.

Without the same ability as Jules, Nezumi nearly reads his mind.

"If anything happens, it's more likely to happen after the button is pressed."

Bending down, he tries to look into the hole. They have a source of light, but somehow, the space seems abnormally dark.

"Does it curve? It shouldn't be this dark."

"If they hadn't taken my damn sight away it wouldn't be a problem."

Which, really, is probably why they did it. Why make anything easy?

"Guess there aren't really a lot of options. Frigging bastards."

Nothing bit down on the dagger, but as they'd both pointed out, that didn't mean anything. Nezumi didn't trust them, but if he showed his apprehension, it would make him appear weaker than he was. What was he supposed to do? Sit and worry about something he couldn't change.

This entire trap dealt with pairs. Nezumi doubted this was meant to be their last door. He had to have trust in his instincts.

His hand reaches out.

"Be ready. I'm not going to be punished because you hesitated."

Personally Jules figures the "loser" is going to refer to however hesitates and not the other way around. He isn't going to argue that point. It won't get them anywhere, and if anything, it will cause more hesitation.

"Go ahead and jump right in, boyo, but it might be a better idea to actually have some kind of plan for how we're going to time it. So, you know, we might actually have a minsid chance in hell to get it right."

"I'd plan on suggesting a counting system that it doesn't take that much discussion, but if you think we'll need something more intricate, please teach me. I'm ready to learn from someone with so much wisdom and with more caution than myself. I've always been far too trusting in life, after all."

They've barely managed to agree enough to get past a singular door. Nezumi can already see it was going to be an exercise in patience.

"Yes, let's. 9, 27, 41, 3, 10, go."

Jules is fully aware that he's being a sarcastic asshole, but that's the way it works. The sarcasm comes out automatically when someone pisses him off.

"Then let's just hope that our reaction times are identical."

"I'll keep it easier and only do three numbers."

Nezumi responds to sarcasm easily and never with anger. At worse, he'll show annoyance, but his goal is to always remain in control.

"I say three, we press. Do you have a better idea? They're too far apart for only one of us to try."

"Three is good. Lucky number three."

Not that he has a preference. He's just trying to be a pain since it's his default setting. Something is just as likely to go wrong on any other number. He readies himself at the hole and hopes for the best even though he's pretty sure that's hoping for too much.

"I'm glad my plan is pleasing to you."

This is what happens when you get two pains together.

Nezumi holds in his sigh and presses his hand inside. With a look at Jules in case he pulls out while Nezumi can still abort, his readies himself.

"One. Two. Three."

And he presses.

Jules follows suit and presses his button exactly when asked. There is no point being a dick over something like this. As Nezumi said, there would be no way to get out if he was.

Besides, Nezumi isn't someone that Jules couldn't care less about. He does actually care, though he's definitely not going to be showing that in any way, shape, or form. Not hitting that button would risk harming Nezumi just as much as it would Jules, and admitting to Shion that Nezumi was hurt because of him? Yeah, Jules would rather take the pain.

While Nezumi wouldn't believe Jules cared about him, he could believe he cared for Shion, and that Nezumi was an extension of that. It still wouldn't be enough to earn trust, but he and Shion are two different people. Shion did earn affection and love. Nezumi was someone useful in some way or another, someone that others always wanted something from. He didn't mind it, it was what he knew. But he's much more likely to believe anything that fits into that narrative.

Their hands remain intact as the door slides open.

"Congratulations. I could trust you to count after all."

"Ah, except, you will notice, I did no counting."

He just pushed the damn button. Granted it was at the right time, but even that didn't involve counting.

"I'd just be glad my translation skills are tolerable."

Because the common language offered here is not his native one. He speaks a ridiculous number of them too, so sometimes translation can go a little haywire.

"I assumed you were preparing yourself when I hit '2', but I'll be sure to keep it even simpler next time."

The reveal is anticlimactic as it looks like the door only opened to another stark hall.

"I wonder who did the interior decorating?"

Mindful of traps, Nezumi steps into the extended hall.

"I've seen dead men with better tastes."

"Suits me just fine."

It's bland enough not to look like a prison even though that's what it is. The closeness of the walls and the fact that it feels underground make it too similar to the prison he spent more of his youth than he wants to consider trapped in.

Jules gets partway down the hall before he stiffens and stops. His extra senses might be gone, but his gut is screaming at him right now. It feels too much like something is watching him, and it's not Nezumi.

Oddly enough, they find something in common: their past has honed their instincts, given them a third eye that sometimes defies logic for how accurate it can be.

They can swap prison stories later. Nezumi pauses after only a few steps inside. There are no noises to tip them off, but something feels wrong.

"We're not alone."

His eyes slide to Jules. It's rare that Nezumi fights with someone, but if they're temporarily on the same side, they should both be prepared.

"No."

Though he can't figure out where they're being watched from. All he can tell is it's somewhere behind them. At least he thinks. The feeling is vague and nothing else is giving their guest away.

His weight shifts slightly, just enough to leave his left foot free to come off the ground quickly if needed. The dagger there is easily removable.

Nezumi's fast. He isn't superhuman, but he's especially skilled among humans, skilled enough to survive in Earth's own form of hell since he was a child. However, this test isn't about either of them being individually skilled.

Nothing immediately shows itself. Instead, smoke begins to seep from the very walls, despite the fact they seem solid without any nooks or crannies to allow such a release.

"Cover your nose and mouth!"

Nezumi assumes Jules is already doing just that, but he yells it instinctively as he does his own, using the scarf that's always around his body.

Despite that, despite acting immediately, something's wrong. Nezumi coughs but pushes the fabric more tightly against his mouth. However, he can feel it burning his lungs.

It got inside. Damn it.

This is definitely not what Jules is expecting when he had that odd sensation. He'd been expecting something he could beat, not some poisonous gas he couldn't win against no matter how hard he tried. Worse, he has two sets of lungs. Something like this is going to make it near impossible to breathe.

He has no intention of sticking around for this. Of course, he's not leaving Nezumi behind. With absolutely no explanation (that would require opening his mouth and he is not doing that for anything) he grabs Nezumi's arm and starts off down the hallway at the fastest pace he can muster until Nezumi starts cooperating. Once that happens he'll go faster.

The advantage of having two like, if conflicting, minds is that Nezumi understands why he's being pulled along. He stumbles before catching his footing, wanting only to leave the gas behind. However, instead, of an open hall, a closed door awaits them around the next corner.

More worrisome is that it's blurry and dark. The halls, Jules, the closed door; all of it comes at him out of focus. Slowly, the world around him disappears.

Nezumi blinks, as if trying to clear something covering his eyes, but he can feel that there's actually nothing there. Should he admit what's happening? Confess to the inability to see? It would put him at a disadvantage, but how long before Jules notices? It's better to know where he stands.

"I can't see."

As soon as the words are spoken, the door begins to slide open.

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