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

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.

[vessel_ken_amada]

Finally, the aura stabilizes and stops increasing.

Ken didn't mind the comment, even if he was a little surprised at the outburst. He understands that it must not be easy. It's even a little reassuring, as such liveliness is pretty much the opposite of Apathy Syndrome.

"You're good enough to move to me preparing to attack, or do you need a little time to adjust first?"

[willowandoak]

"I'm good," he says, which is an exaggeration. The aura truly is oppressive, and he's rarely been more aware of the shield his anger forms between him and the world, or of its frailty. But he's functional. He can think and act and take an attack. Good enough.

[vessel_ken_amada]

"Okay then. Let's get started."

Transcendence.

The blue lines on his wings become red. Black energy gathers around him, as sinister halo around his whole body. Power courses through him.

Death Veil.

A shimmering, semi-transparent barrier raises itself around Ken, surrounding him in a sphere and protecting him from harm.

"I'll try to emulate a real scenario," he says, his voice now having a bit of reverb. "I will give you protective spells and give myself debilitating spells. Then I'll strike."

[willowandoak]

For a split second, he thinks about asking if he can try getting hit without those spells, just to see what happens. It's not even a new idea; he was wondering about it before training. But now it sounds too much like the things the fucking aura keeps trying to put in his head, and it pisses him off to even imagine saying it. He keeps his mouth shut and just nods instead.

[vessel_ken_amada]

Debilitate. Debilitate.

He casts debilitating spells on himself - twice, because he also needs to dispel the protective magic his transcendence gave him in the first place.

Heat Riser.

He then empowers Drake with powerful augmenting magic.

Concentrate.

He gathers his magical power, and is now ready to unleash it into a devastating attack.

"We're ready now. Prepare yourself however you want, but don't focus exclusively on guarding. If you have to do that to survive, you'll never be able to attack."

[willowandoak]

He doesn't do much, just shifts his stance so he's more likely to stay on his feet. After a second's thought, he murmurs, "Come, Satan."

His mask disappears, revealing tense eyes and a stubborn, angry jaw. Satan appears in a flash of blue fire, in all his... well, glory is one word for him. "Just testing," says Ren. "Seeing if I can keep him summoned through the attack." Assuming he doesn't just die, obviously. "I'm good to go whenever."

[vessel_ken_amada]

It was time then. His own Persona appears behind him, and using the boost in speed given by his transcendence, he starts the most likely attack sequence his counterpart would use.

Transient Ripple.

It is as if a single drop of water fell and caused a ripple in the fabric of reality itself. When it reaches Drake, it undoes any kind of protective magic cast on him: not only the spells cast by Ken earlier, but also any kind of shield, any kind of regeneration.

Reality Rift.

Space-time itself momentarily breaks within Drake. Fortunately, he is attuned enough with his Persona to have it try to stabilize his existence, and through all his preparations, he's even likely to succeed - barely. This would still put close to death... but "close to death" is not "dead".

[willowandoak]

In the aftermath of the attack, Ren finds himself held up by his Persona, having stumbled sideways and slumped against it. His entire body screams with pain, as though something tried to tear him into shreds tinier than the eye can see.

But he's alive. He fucking did it.

He pushes away from Satan and stands upright, swaying only a little. His face is pale, his eyes wide with shock. "Bleeding, hemmorhaging shit, dude," he says, fumbling with an inner pocket of his outfit. "It didn't hurt anything like that when I was a dumbass thirteen-year-old. Bro, fuck gods. I've had it with these motherfuckers, just showing up like—there you are, you useless piece of shit."

He pulls out a crinkly little packet of food, tearing open the wrapper with his teeth and tipping the contents into his mouth. As soon as he swallows, he starts to look better.

[vessel_ken_amada]

Ken casts a healing spell on Drake for good measure.

"Good job. How are you feeling? Do you need some time?"