empatheias_ooc | Descent into Despair: The Set-Up

— DESCENT INTO DESPAIR: THE SET-UP —

All right guys, here are all the nitty gritty details for this event. The event itself is simple, but the set-up and environment has quite a bit to it, so read it all!

» MAZE: STRUCTURE

The maze spans across several acres of land and there are multitudes of paths and routes that everyone will embark on. Let's start with the basic structure.

Special bracelet. First thing to note is that everyone in the maze will receive a fancy new accessory. It's a bracelet with a white crystal hanging from it. It will serve as a kind of "progress" bar and as they succeed, it will get brighter and stronger. Every time they succeed a challenge, they will also get special bonuses from the crystal. If they fail, however, they receive a nasty shock and experience a small bout of despair. The crystal will also darken.
Cloud walls. The walls are unusual in that they are solid clouds and have streaks of lightning coursing through them. The walls are solid to the touch but at the same time will have an airy feel to it. Just be careful not to get shocked. The coloring of the clouds will also indicate the "mood" of the section. To put simply, white is good, black means you're in for some hurt. Finally, these walls CANNOT be broken through. Only thing that will break if you try is your shoulder. Or hand. Or whatever you try to use to break it. Note: The walls from the outside is black all around. It's only the inside of the maze that have different colored clouds. The "impenetrable" quality remains true here as well.
Good or bad? As the characters walk through the maze, the environment will vary. If you're in a light grey to white cloud zone, it will actually be rather pleasant. Beautiful sunlight; fresh flowers; singing birds; delicious fruits and water; music; things that would make one feel relaxed. Dark grey to black cloud zones, however, are the exact opposite. Black, thorny tendrils; pit traps; revolving walls; complete darkness; overabundant light; small harmful creatures; anything to cause mild distress. Although things can be hostile here, they can be easily subdued with a kick or punch, so there isn't anything too life-threatening (thank all the previous hope for that). These sections will appear at random so it's basically up to you guys to determine what section the characters face.
Waiting room. There is ONE central location where the pairs have a chance to meet others and have a small break (ie, the mingle thread). It looks like a lounge with chairs and couches. It is the only neutral zone in the entire maze. This is also a chance for pairs to voluntarily swap partners. This is also where individuals may land if they are "waiting" to be placed with a new partner.
Mini Peromei. A miniature version of Peromei will appear at random throughout their journey. Those aligned with Peromei may also hear her voice. If you wish to see mini Peromei or hear Peromei's voice, comment here. Mini Peromei is not limited to aligned, but the voice is.

Otherwise it's a standard maze. You can even throw in random gimmicks like traps and dead ends in there. You can also include some "mini challenges" or threats that the characters have to face.

» MAZE: CHALLENGES

The number of challenges assigned to each character is random. Some characters may participate in multiple challenges, some might luck out and only do one. That is to say, some might find themselves on a very short path and some might have to go all over the place. OOCly this depends on how many challenges and partners you have. ICly, it's just the luck of the draw.

Here's the lowdown how the challenges work.

Challenges. At various points throughout the maze, the characters will face a variety of challenges that they must get through to progress. These challenges vary in difficulty and scope, and there are categories that you can pick from. You are also free to make up your own challenges. As mentioned earlier, their bracelet will be affected by whether they succeed or fail.
- Success. If they succeed, they will progress onward and receive bonuses, such as healed of any injuries, boost in energy, a weapon if they feel they need one, pretty hopeful sparkles—really you can make up whatever you want so long as it fits the event. Obviously, any tools that could make it easy for them to escape are out.
- Failure. If the pair fails, they will be transported to another room (dropped through the floor, pulled up from the ceiling, flung into a rotating wall, etc.) and must face a harder challenge. Oddly enough, there are no real penalties. Perhaps this is influenced by Peromei's true desire (and hope) for them to succeed.

Once they've completed their allotted challenges, the character is sent to the final room where Peromei lies asleep. The Arehtei will look as if it is switching between fits of despair and basking in hope, but mostly looking like it's having nightmareish fits. The character could try to wake her or soothe her—or cause more harm. (DON'T LET JUNKO GET TO HER FIRST)

There will be a designated post for Peromei made later. We're going to give some time for people to work on their threads before putting it out.

» MAZE: PARTNERS

As you all know, everyone will have a partner for this event. Everyone starts with their first partner. By default, it is assumed that the pairs will remain the same. However, this will not always be the case. After every challenge, there is a high chance that the partners are switched around. Essentially, two people enter through the same door, but one person who exits is completely different.

When this switch happens is completely random. Here is an example. Pair AB start together and completed two challenges together. After the third challenge, B disappears and C appears in their place. B could now be partnered with D or maybe even with E or F.

If B is waiting for E to finish their challenge with their current partner, B could find themselves in the Waiting Room. Once E is finished, B will be transported out to join E.

All of that is just how it works ICly. OOCly you don't have to worry about the process, but some folks might like to know how it works. In short, everyone is being teleported everywhere at random. The characters never know when or if it will happen.

» OUTSIDE THE MAZE

Those fortunate enough to not get caught in the maze will only see its outer walls. But along these walls are screens of water that reflect what the pairs are doing (basically, they're like TV monitors). No one from outside can enter the maze on their own, but there are a couple of ways to do it. But first, let's go into what those on the outside have to deal with.

Shadow Peromei. As the pairs progress through the maze, miniature, shadowy versions of Peromei will emerge from the walls and slowly approach. They will not attack aggressively, but instead emit despair around them. Some are stronger than others. To be rid of them, enough hope must be focused on them to help "cleanse" and "purify" them. Once that is done, they will transform into white and return to the maze. This will actually help those inside and give them a bit of a hopeful boost.
Channel hope. There are other ways for those outside to help. They can directly channel their hope similar to the ritual before Peromei's arrival. This will also help reduce the difficulty of the challenges and help those succeed their challenge.
Lifelines + Swaps. Finally, each person in the maze can make outside contact three times, like a lifeline. Through telepathy, they can contact someone outside the maze and directly receive hope to then use for their challenge, or even just for some emotional boost generally. But another use is to swap themselves out with someone outside. If they do this, they cannot return to the maze, not even as a swap. This should be used for emergency cases only, and can only be done if the other person agrees to it. The person who swapped in can use that same lifeline on someone else with the same rules. So for example, A is in the maze, B is outside. A is desperate and contacts B, asking to swap. B agrees and takes A's place. B is now in the maze, but has the ability to contact anyone not A to swap if it's needed. A must remain outside the maze.

And a quick reminder that all of this is happening only in the maze's location. The city will have some bad weather and fluctuations of hope and despair influence, but is relatively unaffected.

» EMOTION TRACKER

Like the other events, there is an accompanying emotion tracker for this event. All event related emotions should be placed in this designated tracker. Full instructions are on its entry, here.

The emotion tracker is also designed to keep up whether you succeed or fail a challenge, so be sure to check-in once you either actually thread out the challenge or go ahead and comment if you know the result.

It is important that you comment to the tracker. Like past events, we'll be using it to determine the event's outcome. There can be a good or a bad ending.

» LAST MINUTE ADVICE

Some might feel overwhelmed or unsure how to progress their threads. Here is our advice: do not try to keep a linear progression. Because this maze and the events within it are so random, we advise that those with multiple partners to go ahead and make starters for their threads and only focus on the challenges. Do not try to do an entire thread of them slogging through the maze. Time skips, handwaving, and pre-plotting are highly encouraged for this event. It will actually work better if you do. We also advise that you go ahead and pre-determine at least whether your pairs will succeed or fail a challenge. That way you can have a better idea of how to handle your other partners.

The Emotion Tracker is also designed to help you keep track of how well you're doing, so be use it!

Finally, if we need to extend the event another day or two, no problem! We'll keep an eye on things.

----------------------------------------

If you have any questions, comment here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

All questions here.

So with Junko's current apathy condition, how does the despair shock work in regards to that (if it comes up)? Would she just get the shock, or would she get the emotion too?

Junko's despair-shock would be blunted by the apathy-inducing PAS drug, but only to a certain extent. If she's shocked multiple times, however, the despair will begin to accumulate and begin to override the apathy.

Descent into Despair: The Set-Up

QUESTIONS

no subject

no subject