Training

[vessel_ken_amada]

[Backdated to an indeterminate number of days ago. Context here.]

After the apparition of the training room and the elaboration of the schedules, all those part of the team to take down the evil Ken Amada are surely spending a lot of time in it. If you are one of those members, the question is... what are you doing in there?

A. Solo training

There are plenty of reasons to train solo. Maybe you are building up stamina so that you can have your Persona summoned at all times. Maybe you are working on your defenses. Maybe you are trying to get one of your Personas to make you fly. One thing is for certain: there is a lot to do!

[Toplevels using this prompt are ideal to invite anyone to join your character, maybe even with their own subprompts so people can walk in on different kinds of training!]

B. Sparring

Combat readiness involves, well, actual combat. It is not surprising to see team members spar with each other to ensure they are in top form.

[You can have open toplevels to invite anyone to spar, or you can lock them to specific characters.]

C. Training with Ken

Everyone on the team has scheduled training sessions with Ken, to be able to see and learn how to face the deadly abilities he shares with his evil counterpart.

[These ones are necessarily closed threads. You can come solo or in small groups of characters, indicate this in the toplevel.]

Comments

[willowandoak]

1. The Amenities

Early in the lifespan of the training room, Ren attaches a corkboard to a wall near the door. In the center of it, he pins two pieces of paper with handwritten messages on them. The first one reads as follows:

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

if i hear from our ally Amada that anyone's been missing too many training sessions, you're off the team unless you have a real good excuse. "I had a cold" won't cut it. "I had pneumonia" maybe or "i got turned into a fish"

on the other hand, don't spend too much time in here. take breaks. do not roll your eyes and ignore this, you fucking know who you are. i'm not concerned with your mental health or whatever, I'm concerned with team members not collapsing on their ass from exhaustion or stress the moment the other Amada presses us. this is too serious for any of us to fuck around and leave weak links in the chain because of the velvet Room mental breakdown of the month. if I think you're becoming a liability instead of an asset, i will kick you off the team just the same as if you're not training enough

Once we've all trained with our amada, the next stage is group training so i can see how people work together and we can make sure we don't get in each other's way. there are almost 20 of us, much more than most of us are used to fighting with

The second sheet reads:

SUPPORT TEAM
Frog (leader)
Briar
Crow
joker
Spades
wild

frog is your leader, he understands what I want from you and how to get you to mesh with offensive combatants. all of you should be able to do all of the following: healing injury, healing ailments, strengthening us (ESPECIALLY defense if you have to choose), weakening Amada

that said, I want the following specialists:
- someone with a group heal that removes ailments with the same skill
- someone with group ailment cure
- TWO people who focus on strengthening us
- one with a focus on weakening amada
- a generalist dedicated to keeping the support team standing, who can split attention to focus on the rest of you wherever you're stationed and heal/strengthen/cure ailments as needed

Decide between yourselves who's best suited for which role

There's a good amount of space left on the board, in case anyone wants to leave notes of their own instead of using the network.

Near the board is a box full of nonperishable snacks that restore health and energy, as well as a cooler of drinks that do the same. The organization of both leaves something to be desired, but they get refilled frequently. Someone has thoughtfully left a few camping chairs and a folding table next to them.

---

2. Leadership Sucks Actually

2a. Work, Work, Work

Ren is in here a decent amount, watching people train or doing training of his own with his new Personas. He also, of course, has to stop by a couple times a day to refill the snack station. You could easily run into him emptying a bag full of snacks into the box, or filling the cooler with fresh ice. Or maybe he's collapsed in one of the chairs, chewing on a pen and glaring down at a small notebook.

2b. Fight, Fight, Fight

It's also not unlikely that you could find him training by himself in his unnerving Black Mask outfit, obliterating the dummy Shadows with Caradoc's devastating attacks or figuring out how one of his new Personas works. He's always interested in a sparring partner, or maybe you just want to talk?

2c. Okay, but Actually, What the Fuck (closed to Ken)

He has training sessions with Amada, just like everyone else. One day, he shows up with his bag, wearing a small frown. "Hi," he says absentmindedly. "Gimme a sec, I need to refill the box."

He dumps some new snacks in the snack box and sweeps the accumulated trash into his bag.

2c

[vessel_ken_amada]

Ken looks... well, first, it probably takes a little time to get used to his new wings, each of them longer than his entire body. But besides that, Ken looks mentally tired. Less tired than he might have looked before the training was setup, as now Raven and Wagtail and Jay and all his friends make sure he takes breaks. But still.

He watches Drake arrive and greets him with a nod. While he's refilling the snack box, Ken says with a soft, quiet voice: "Thank you for everything you're doing."

[willowandoak]

He blinks. He hasn't heard that very often. "Someone has to," he says, but only after a fairly conspicuous moment of stillness. "Better me than Suou. ...Imagine that. Fuck."

He drops his newly trash-laden bag on the floor and turns to face Amada, giving him a critical once-over. The wings are whatever, he's used to them by now, but the fatigue...

"Long day?"

In other words, Are you taking a break soon?

[vessel_ken_amada]

He chuckles a little. "Long... week? Month? Today wasn't that bad, it's just mental fatigue slowly settling over time."

He then sighs. "In any case, you're my last session today, so I suppose I can rest a little afterwards."

[willowandoak]

"Rest a lot." If he has anything like a co-leader in this fucking nightmare of a mission, it's Amada, but you wouldn't know it, listening to his firm, flat tone of voice. "Do something chill. Eat a pizza, watch a movie. Mental fatigue is one way he could get us."

This is breathtakingly hypocritical of him, but never mind that.

"Anyway, here's this." He pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket. His handwriting is... it sure it something. But the words are legible, if only barely.

note: all personas are as powerful as they can get, I try to feed more fodder Personas to them to make them stronger and Igor is just like "sorry, it won't do anything :)"


Caradoc

no damage from bless or lightning spells, heal from curse damage
no flight

powerful almighty attack that hits 4 times
some other less useful stuff (ranged physical, bless, curse)
group spell to help w/ speed/dodging
when active, i can dodge better


Satan

repels ice and curse spells
flying Persona. can carry me around

powerful almighty attack
spell to empower my next magic attack
constant healing and energy restoration when active (only for me)
less vulnerable to ailments
spells take a lot less energy
when active, I get hit way less hard but can't dodge


i'm gonna be doing damage because it's what I'm good at. but I should be able to pick up the slack for anyone who falters if i'm telling them all what to do, so I'm working on a real good support persona currently

I expect to have Satan out most of the time since he can fly and I've been trying to craft him for this specific fight. if he sucks, i'll mess with him some more

[vessel_ken_amada]

Ken squints a little while reading the paper, but to his credit, he doesn't say anything.

"Your Satan has a lot of qualities. Mitigating damage is much more important than dodging, he has some unavoidable attacks. Reducing vulnerability to ailments is good, conserving energy is really good especially in light of his unique ability, and being able to increase magic attacks is also really good. Plus it flies and repels dark... the one area you need to focus on if you can is blocking light too: you don't want your survival to be up to chance. But overall this seems solid."

He then stops looking at the paper and starts looking at Drake himself.

"Want to test if all of that is enough to survive a hit from him?"

[willowandoak]

Ren takes a deep breath and lets it out in a heavy sigh. What a question. Wanna see if you fucking die? And it only has one acceptable answer.

"Yeah, let's go." He rolls his shoulders and steps away from the wall, into the open area where you can actually fight. His Metaverse outfit flickers into being. But he doesn't do anything, just waits for Amada. If he dies, then... well, he dies. The Velvet Room is right outside. And he'll know he has some work to do. He let Akira-senpai seek out information that might have killed him; he can do the same himself.

He hopes he survives, though.

[vessel_ken_amada]

Ken moves too, to stand in front him.

"All right. I will now fully channel my power, which is necessary for us to do this test. As a consequence, this will create an aura of fear, death, and helplessness around me. I will ramp up my power slowly. If at any point you feel like you cannot handle what is going on, please tell me immediately."

He sighs when thinking that Drake may not be honest with him about that, so he looks intently at him around where his eyes should be and stresses the important of an honest answer.

"The worst case scenario if you let things happen without being able to handle them is that you develop Apathy Syndrome. We really want to avoid that as this is a fate worse than death, especially here. So please actually tell me immediately if anything wrong happens and err on the side of caution."

[willowandoak]

Ken has read him right—he already has his mouth open to give an empty agreement when Ken starts talking about Apathy Syndrome. Even after hearing that, he has to think about it for a long moment.

"Sure," he says at last. "No Apathy Syndrome." He even means it, which is why it took him so damn long to say it.

[vessel_ken_amada]

Once he has confirmation from Drake, he nods, and he slowly starts channeling.

At first, the aura isn't too bad. It's similar to the one that was present in the fight against Falcon. A creeping feeling that death is here and you should run. It is by no means trivial, but people used to life-or-death scenarios, like most Persona users, can readily handle it.

But as the aura grows and grows in strength, its nature starts shifting. It starts becoming a very strong you will die right now feeling. It starts being about the terror of certain, inevitable death. There are creeping thoughts in those within the aura's influence that unless they run away in terror right now, they will die. It requires great mental fortitude to recognize these thoughts as foreign and manage to push them aside.

[willowandoak]

Behind his mask, Ren snarls silently. His hands clench into fists, and his posture shifts as his muscles grow rigid with fury. In his mind, he holds onto memories of Goro, during his Palace and just afterwards, refusing to let him crawl away and die in a ditch, no matter how much he tried to insist. Dragging him kicking and screaming back to survival. That journey started more than a year ago, in the belly of Mementos, with Akira-senpai speaking in a low voice as Ren lay on the grimy floor, stared at the ceiling, and realized he'd reached the end of the line. He'd run from his own death as far as he was willing to go.

That was real. That, and the years of running beforehand. All of that happened, and it sucked, and no punk-ass kid channeling an edgelord moon god is going to fake it for him. He doesn't speak, but his body language screams defiance.

[vessel_ken_amada]

The pressure increases and increases, but it's far from enough to break Drake.

And then-

It gets very different.

As the power starts to reach its apex, as Ken's wings spread and lines spread on them start to glow blue... The pressure of the aura gets brutal, and completely changes purview. It attacks Drake's very own desire to live.

Why go on? Why bother? Why suffer more? Wouldn't it be better to stop? To surrender now? To forget? To be freed from all the pain?

It is violent, lashing, restlessly attacking. And it is extremely dangerous, as if it manages to delete Drake's will to live, what will be left...?

But it can be resisted. One only has to have a strong reason to live, and to hold onto it.

Or, if one is not able to do that, they can ask Ken to stop before the power reaches its apex and the consequences get irreversible.

[willowandoak]

"Fuck off!" he yells, less at Amada himself and more at the suffocating despair. "I've done all this shit already!" He starts to reach for his mask, to summon his Persona and kick the ass of whoever's trying to drag him back to his Palace, before he remembers—oh, yeah, that's his ally. Fuck.

Memories of Goro burn bright in his mind the whole time, a lodestone.

SECRET DOOR NUMBER 3

[pancakeboy]

We have a situation. Meet me ASAP.

[Fuck you too, Drake. He assumes he doesn't need to (and shouldn't) specify "in the training room".]

[willowandoak]

k

ASAP is very soon indeed. He shows up after just a couple of minutes, his overshirt somewhat rumpled and his expression harried. He meets Magpie's eyes expectantly. He took the message seriously; this had better be good.

[pancakeboy]

Magpie turns to greet him, such as it is. For all his barely-veiled hostility, there's something else there too. Chagrin, almost.

"Thanks for coming." It's cursory politeness. "We have an issue with Falcon. I take it you've been monitoring him."

[willowandoak]

Ren is already sighing as soon as Falcon's name comes up. Since it's Magpie, he doesn't say more than, "Yeah, I have. What's going on?"

[pancakeboy]

Fucking Drake, sighing as if Falcon's some kind of inconvenience. Magpie says nothing. At least, nothing other than....

"He has a dungeon. In the Inaba TV world."

[willowandoak]

...Ren resists the urge to press his hands against his face. The dungeon explains a lot, actually. You'd think it would make Ren more sympathetic, too, given what he went through here, but the extra understanding fails to materialize.

Okay. Okay. This is barely anything, compared to some of the other shit he's had dropped on him over the course of the mission. First question first. "Can he still use his Personas?"

[pancakeboy]

"Oh, he can use them." He might be discussing the weather, if the weather had him really pissed off, and set on not showing it. "In fact, he's doing nothing but use them. He's obsessed with training for this mission. It seems as if he thinks of nothing else."

His mouth twists, despite himself. Who is he to condemn Falcon for how he's reacted? "He's not open to communication. Without wanting to be sentimental, I feel it's—important that he's part of this mission. But if he can't take instruction...."

[willowandoak]

"It's not about sentiment," Ren says restlessly. "If I drop him from the mission, he goes to challenge Amada on his own, maybe blows up the mission, definitely gets himself killed again. It's a huge risk. If I thought he'd just sulk on his own, I might have done it already, but as it stands..." He gestures with one hand. "The risk of keeping him on has to be bigger than that for me to kick him.

"Do you have a reason to think he won't take my instruction? 'cause that's not the same as if you tried to get him to do something."

[pancakeboy]

Frankly, if Magpie couldn't get Falcon to listen to him, he'd like to see Drake fucking try. He can't summon a smile. "If you think you can make him listen, then by all means try. He knows I'm here."

Drake is right, though. Magpie knows what obsession can do. The mission is sustaining Falcon, right now, deafening him to everything else. Removed from the team, he'd be even more of a ... well, call it a loose cannon.

[willowandoak]

"I'll test it," he says. "Not right now. When we do group training. He's more likely to realize it's a test now, if I say something right after you tell him you're talking to me." He is a little annoyed about that, yeah. But he moves on.

"You know him; would it help to have him around people he gets along with when we fight? ...Who even are those people?"

[pancakeboy]

"Myself." Which is why I gave it to him straight, you piece of shit. "Raven. Rose and Lyssi, who aren't involved. And Crow's Shadow. Those are the ones I know of. As to whether it would help..."

He doesn't exactly sag, but something shifts, something that veils his hostility further. "I wouldn't be talking to you if I'd been able to get him to listen to me."

[willowandoak]

"I don't need him to listen, I just need him to remember you exist. Would it hurt, to do that? 'cause if not, I might try it anyway."

Like, why not, at this point? If it doesn't hurt, and it might help?