Giving Bodies to the Tower, the Third

[greenspaces]

Characters: Jade Harley (AU) and YOU!
Format: Starting in Action, will change if needed.
This log is: OPEN.
Location: The tower in the arena.
Summary: Jade bought a body. We're taking it to the tower. Shenanigans happen.
Warnings: Dead people...? Potentially the threat of a boss battle/violence, I'll update it if it happens.

hi everyone :)
i hope you are having a good week
and that the people in conquest arent feeling too bad
i heard what happened and i really am sorry....
but
i actually had a good reason for making a post today

i bought a body!
a dead one
and i think if we take it to the tower something might happen like last time and the time before
so anyone that is around later today, we should take it there and see what happens
it might be fun
but it could also be really dangerous, so please be careful if you are going to come
we will look after each other :)

i am going to start walking there now
the tower in the arena!!
anyone else who wants to join me, please feel free
i will be carrying the body....
could i have someone help me, though?
its really heavy


[ Jade is walking to the tower, hopefully with some friends to tote along what looks like an unfortunately dead OU Jade, complete with ears and god tier outfit. Jade is trying to simultaneously not grimace and also not smile -- so she really did die. This is confirmation.

Once there, Jade stands outside the tower and waits. ]

[ OOC: I am going to make a thread titled ACTION with various sub-threads, to keep the action parts in order. If you want to reply to Jade's text post, feel free to make a top-level comment! ]

Comments

ACTION

[greenspaces]

Walking to the Tower

[greenspaces]

[ Jade needs some help carrying a body. Also feel free to catch up with her here if you don't know where you're going. ]

[ecthelion]

[Ein missed the network post, but seeing someone carry an unconscious person around was not something he could ignore.]

What happened??

[greenspaces]

[ It occurs to Jade in this moment that perhaps she should have made it clear that she didn't kill anyone before carrying a body across the city.

Well, somewhat dragging really. ]

Oh! I bought her like this. She was already dead, I don't know what happened.

[fracturedsoul]

Did I hear that right? You need help carrying your own corpse?

[ Sup. It's Dirk and Brobot. ]

[frozenmemories]

[Cirno had seen the message online and was flying about, trying to spot Jade. Once she spotted her she flew down and laded with a grin]

Need a hand with that Jade?

Re: Walking to the Tower

[gottakilldaves]

["i need help carrying a dead body!!! :)" yeah okay there was literally no way Jack wasn't going to show up after that post. He arrives only a little concerned and rather confused, but then he sees it's a dead Jade.

What the actual fuck.]

Jesus Christ, what did you do?! [THAT BETTER NOT BE THE JADE FROM CONQUEST]

Re: Walking to the Tower

[secretlyuseful]

[He doesn't use the network but is that girl carrying a... body?

Merlin frowned, and jogged over.] Is everything okay miss? [It was indeed a body...]

[nocathere]

[Cheshire hops up onto the dead Jade.] Get in trouble with the queen?

[knightime]

[This is the face of a teenager who just wants to know why you have a body. Your body. Didn't they go over how bodies of your friends is terrible and you shouldn't have?

Jade.

Please.]

Outside / Into the Tower

[greenspaces]

[ Once they're there, Jade waits outside the Tower in an attempt to let anyone who's going to come along as well catch up with her. Feel free to ask her questions or harass her, whatever you want.

If you want, you can also go inside the Tower. Right now it is still, as the body is still outside. ]

[witchofspace]

Hi, Jade! I hope I'm powerful enough for this, I only have two skills.

[Waves as she walks over!]

Re: Outside / Into the Tower

[justaflowergirl]

[Yuka walks up, looking a bit apprehensive. She has her parasol collapsed and held in a tight grip by her side.]

[To someone familiar with Yuka's mannerisms, this is like shouting "I'm expecting to need to -beat- somebody with this thing."]

Ah...

I still think this is a really horrible idea? But... I don't really have any authority to stop you...

[She looks away.]

So at least I'll come and help when you inevitably cause an Incident doing this!

[fracturedsoul]

[ Since Brobot is carrying the corpse, he and Dirk wait outside with Jade. ]

Got any theories as to what's gonna happen?

Re: Outside / Into the Tower

[sobsprite]

[Jadesprite floats over because she still feels drawn to protect Jade.] I'm not sure this is a great idea... [whine]

[afraid_of_my_shadow]

Uh, h-hi! [Alex waves shyly, smiling,] This i-is s-sorta weird. D-does the tower d-do funny things with b-bodies or s-something? [Alex was avoiding looking at the dead body, but he was curious about the tower. It felt just like a puzzle adventure game!]

TEXT

[gottakilldaves]

what
jade why the fuck did you buy a dead body
and why are you sticking it in a tower

TEXT

[greenspaces]

because the other two we put in the tower might get lonely without more friends :(

[ This is a legitimate reason and Jade will accept nothing else. ]

TEXT

[gottakilldaves]

theres more than one dead body??
jesus christ kid

fine im coming
stay put

TEXT

[justaflowergirl]

oyou are inSANE.

It doesan't sound like you raelly know what happened when you (for -s-aome- reason) daid this before, so youre going to keep giving it powerups until somethinfg happnes?

And htis may sound weird coming ffom a youkai, but trust mae. Creatures that eat corpses do -=not- make gooad neighbors!

TEXT

[greenspaces]

not really
but that is why i wanted to keep trying
even the best scientific experiments get repeated over and over....
and i know that they have some effect on the voices you hear in the tower
and the bodies
um
well they come back alive kind of
i think they might get some sort of soul or consciousness
but when they disappear they do it for good! and i think we should find them
or make more until they come back to us

did you....have a neighbor like that?

TEXT

[justaflowergirl]

ai'm still not conavinced it wals a good idea to try once.

not personally, I jsut know about it from history. Youkai that ate humanse were wiped out a long time ago, in large part beause they were preetty unpleasent to be around even if you werent' on the menu yourself. But i'm told that in soem places the repuattion lingers.

Once the Body is placed into the tower.

[utopiamods]

The body is surrounded by flowing shadows, greedy tendrils billowing from the floor and walls, larger and more numerous than before. Taken quickly, only a quiet gasp is heard before the shadows flatten, pooling across the floor like spreading blood.

There's a pause, a lull, broken only by the whispering of the shadows.

And then everything goes black. In a split second, the darkness explodes outwards, blotting out all light, all sensation. You cannot hear, see, feel or even smell anything. The dark is absolute, powerful - but wait. The smallest point of light appears over your chest, and the shadows chime in response. Shrink, as the light increases, fade, as it strengthens. After an age, the quiet note sounds once more. Modulates into a voice, a harmony; the only shadow remaining is your own. As your weapon emerges from your body, so too does a black replica from the shade's.

It smiles at you.

Battle start.

((OOC Information:

At this point, every person who entered the tower is in a separate instance of the tower, so to speak. They are wielding their own weapon, regardless of their current role in Exaclan. The shadow clones, whilst capable of speech, will only echo the words and noises of their real counterpart. There are exceptions. Currently only Dirk Striders, Jake Englishes or Jade Harleys will have a self-aware shadow capable of independent speech. If you are tagging in after this post goes up, check with a mod whether your character lucked out and got a creepy one.

The event is on-going with no current end - anyone who enters the tower from this point on will find themselves in the 'dark realm'.

The shadows are not particularly difficult to defeat - they have exactly the same level of competence that you do - but for people good at fighting they will present a challenge. They are easy to outwit but difficult to simply overpower, since they have no limits on endurance and no concept of pain.

If defeated, they drain back into your shadow and and drop a memory charm containing a random memory from some universe's version of you. If they win, you suffer an 'exaclan death' as though you had been killed in a dungeon level (ie you will not be classified as 'undead') but it will count towards the score on your horrible anniversary T-shirt.))

Re: Once the Body is placed into the tower.

[sobsprite]

As the whispering of the shadows was excited by the offering of the body, Jadesprite covered her ears and squeezed her eyes shut.

So she wasn't aware of how things had escalated until she felt the sensation of her weapon coming out. She looked down to see Royal Deringer come out. That wasn't hers. She used rifles. Where did this come from? She blinked, and despite the headache, she took the blade in her hand. Jadesprite hovered slightly higher than usual, and moved backward away from the shadow.

Then she darted away from it, toward where she thought the exit was. Nothing. She banged on where the door should be with her sword. Nothing. "No! I don't want to fight! I'm useless here! I don't know anything about fighting!"

Re: Once the Body is placed into the tower.

[justaflowergirl]

Yuka watched placidly as the shadows shifted. She hadn't experienced such phenomena before, but from the stories of past Incidents she'd heard, this pointed to one thing:

A big fight coming up.

Her grip on her parasol relaxed. The leadup to this particular situation had put her on edge, but combat was something comfortable and familiar.

Yuka tossed aside her parasol to take the weapon emerging from her chest. Normally this would be an embarrassing thing to do, but there was no place for modesty in battle. And besides that, wasn't her weapon also her beloved parasol?

Yuka smiled back at her shade. "That's a lovely face. But wouldn't you say we'd look better with a bit more color?"

The only reply she received was a fierce overhand smash. Yuka chuckled, flipping open her parasol with a practiced move and deflecting the strike to one side. She took the opportunity for a quick bash, which threw the shade a little off balance but didn't do much damage.

As the exchange of blows continued, Yuka realized that the shade didn't just match her form or her weapon - it had her skills too. Was that an advantage or a disadvantage?

In the end, what the shade proved to lack was guile. Though it could dodge just as well as she could, it hadn't realized that dodging Yuka's second burst of sunflowers had set it up for a punishing melee attack. It wasn't enough to end the fight, but even though the injury didn't noticeably hinder the shade's abilities, it was never able to reclaim the advantage.

As the shadows flowed away, Yuka heard a jingling noise. It was a memory charm hitting the floor. She regarded it warily, her past experiences making her a little dubious of the things. But it did seem like this one was meant for her... She carefully picked it up by the chain and dropped it in a pocket. She'd see what sort of memory it held later.

Then Yuka realized that, with the end of the battle, her weapon had disappeared, and thus she was exposing herself to the world. She quickly grabbed her parasol and exited the tower.

She looked around, but didn't see any of the other people who had been with the group. Had they run into similar fights to the one she'd had? Were they still fighting, or had they beat their shadows faster and either left or stayed inside the tower?

Thinking to find answers to some of those questions, she turned around and went back inside the tower...

... And the whole lightshow (inverted) happened again.

Interesting.

She'd try something a bit different this time...

[Girls are pummeling each other, please wait warmly...]

Yuka's first thought upon waking up was, "That didn't work."

Her second thought was, "Where's my parasol?!"

It was turning into a rather embarrassing afternoon.

Yuka ran back to the arena tower, going as fast as she could while still trying to avoid people. Sure, she was reasonably proud of her body, but at this rate people were going to start thinking she was an exhibitionist!

As she stepped back into the tower, she saw her parasol, thankfully still right where she left it... and then the shadows came again.

Yuka began laughing, having seen the obvious pattern. Embarrassment was completely forgotten. She'd been getting a little antsy, seeing battles taking place around her that she couldn't participate in. Here, it seemed, she could have all of it that her heart desired!

Although she'd better stow her parasol in her room at some point. It wouldn't do for it to get lost.