Goro Akechi (Shadow Weapon AU) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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personavelvetroomdr2025-03-21 04:28 pm
gorobo) wrote in personavelvetroomdr2025-03-21 04:28 pm
Entry tags:
Falcon and Wolf TV Dungeon HUB
Scared of himself, of the monster others perceive him as, Wolf fled into the TV, hoping to find refuge in the digital space, only to find himself trapped in a nightmare...
Blinded by his own hate, his own insecurities, Falcon witnessed himself on the TV.
Driven by the fear of what it meant, he went inside to stop it, only to find himself trapped in a nightmare...
Driven by the fear of what it meant, he went inside to stop it, only to find himself trapped in a nightmare...
Welcome to the TV Dungeon hub for Gorobo and Digigoro's TV Dungeons! Here, you can find all relevant information, as well as the toplevels for each 'checkpoint' of the plot. In case you are unable to tag for any reason at all, or threads go past the deadline, please indicate what your character(s) did in the summary check-in below!
SCHEDULE:
15/3/25: Signups open.
21/3/25(Today!): Hub goes up.
22/3/25: Toplevel of Gorobo and Digigoro's appearance on the Midnigh Channel. General catch-all for players to have their character react to the disappearances, and their appearances on the Midnight Channel, as well as to ICly create a team/plan/etc
29/3/25: Toplevels for the dungeons. Characters will discover one dungeon that, when entered, splits into two distinct dungeons. ICly, they will not know what path leads to who, but we will provide info OOCly for players to make a decision.
5/4/25: Toplevels for the confontation with the Shadows.
12/4/25: Resolution toplevels. Characters can speak to Gorobo or Digigoro after the fact, or with one another to discuss what happened.
DUNGEONS:
It appears as one dungeon. On the outside, it is a jungle-covered Tokyo. The main building is a laboratory, which has a staircase going up, and one going down. For Digigoro, take the stairs down. For Gorobo, take the stairs up.
Gorobo dungeon info
Digigoro dungeon info
DUNGEONS:
It appears as one dungeon. On the outside, it is a jungle-covered Tokyo. The main building is a laboratory, which has a staircase going up, and one going down. For Digigoro, take the stairs down. For Gorobo, take the stairs up.
Gorobo dungeon info
Digigoro dungeon info
ANY QUESTIONS?
Please feel more than free to ask them! I'll do my best to answer them.
no subject
The large group certainly doesn’t make traversal easy, but at least it seems to keep the Shadows from attacking for now. Their noises occasionally interrupt the quiet, but just the same, the party cannot quite catch them as they use the mix of urban jungle and real jungle to keep themselves hidden.
Finally, after what feels like far too long, the party arrives at a peculiar building; one that clearly stands out from the rest, its doors busted wide open unlike the rest of the city. Upon closer inspection, it is a laboratory… this must be where at least one, if not all of the Shadows that appeared on the TV reside.
The laboratory, unlike the rest of the buildings, is in pristine condition, its perfectly white walls harsh and blinding under the fluorescent lights flickering above. It lacks any details that would tie it to either Wolf or Falcon… however, the party quickly notices something; the entry hallway lead into a staircase, and it appears that there are two paths to take…
Upstairs or downstairs? Which will you choose?
UPSTAIRS
[OST: Egg of the Universe - DDS2]
Following the stairs up, the party quickly arrives in an open room. It looks bare for the most part… except for the pile of robotic limbs that lays in the corner. It is hard to determine what, or rather, who they belong to, generic and stripped of their identifying features. Should they proceed further down the nearby hallway, they’ll come to find that many corners of the maze have some sort of dismantled piece of technology, and not just any; anyone who’s seen Falcon’s dead body in the Velvet Room can deduce that these are the scrap parts of Shadow Weapons. Circuitry, cables, laid-bare parts of metal and machinery… all thrown haphazardly along the way, a trail of robotic gore.
Before they can proceed, however, an echo of voices rings out through the maze:
”P-Please…” Akechi’s- no, Falcon’s voice stammers, glitchy and more flat than anyone here has likely heard him (outside of, perhaps, that time they removed Shido’s bug from him). Despite the flatness, there’s a spark of desperation in it, fear. It’s quickly followed by the loud sound of a buzzer, like someone or something interrupting an exam, and new voices are heard.
“Akitomo-san!” a man yells, “what the hell do you think you’re doing?! What is the meaning of this?!”
“I’m sorry-” a woman cries out, “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have let them- you shouldn’t have had to-”
“Akitomo-san! Snap out of it! Akitomo-san!”
“I knew we shouldn’t have let you design your own model,” a new voice growls, “you’ve always been too sentimental.”
“But they’re sentient! We can’t-”
“They’re machines, Yumemi! Get it through your skull- they don’t have emotions, they don’t feel, it’s just a simulation!”
“You’re wrong! I’ve seen it, I’ve documented-”
“That’s enough. 024, take her away. We’ll take care of her scrap heap here.”
“No! Leave him alone! 018, you have to- no- NO-!”
“Let’s see… it should still be good for parts…”
The voices fade out, and the party is now free to explore the maze.
What will they do?
no subject
Hearing the audio though makes her blood boil.
"Bastards...robots can have feelings too!" Even though she doesn't really know Falcon, already she feels empathy for him. He clearly went through a lot of abuse, even if he had this Akitomo-san for support.
Since she isn't leader, she turns towards the others. "I'm guessing that maze is the only way forward."
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Crow places a hand over his chest, sighing at the scattered parts. "She was forced to fight her sisters, to kill them, all so she could become the ideal Anti-Shadow weapon. As far as the Kirijo Group was concerned, their creations were merely a means to an end."
Breathing slowly, he steps forward. "A maze is an apt way of putting it. While I can't say for certain what awaits us, dungeon progression is less about finding an ideal route to a treasure and more about making your way to the end."
"If we're lucky, that's all it'll be," Hiro finally says. "But for all we know, there'll be a trick or a gimmick, like Naoto-san's dungeon."
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"You've seen plenty of these right, Crow-san?" she asked a little small, but more than enough confident.
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Hound takes in the sights and sounds and smells, and frowns at what she hears.
“So… this is like, memories right? Or stuff related to the rulers lived experience?” Is she using the right words? She’s familiar with palaces rebut it’s got to have some overlap with this dungeon thing right?
But if that was a memory, She really doesn’t like that comment about being good for parts.
It’s practical, but that doesn’t make it right! You shouldn’t do that to a person.
It seems like Crow has the most experience here, so she’s all to happy to follow his lead… or the groups lead really. She can play support. She’d be happy to help!
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Phoenix took his place by Futaba, sword in hand, eyeing one of the scrap piles with a wary expression. "If this is anything like Tartarus, we're looking for stairs, probably. Hopefully there won't be nearly as many levels."
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"But it varies quite a bit," Hiro adds. "Generally, a dungeon will only have so many floors, but we should anticipate resistance by way of Shadows, both lesser and the two belonging to Falcon himself."
Even so, Hiro slowly steps forward. "But we mustn't keep him waiting."
tbf mostly aimed at hiro and crow
But Falcon had been in a place where he couldn't place a finger on him. He doesn't even know if they even got along when they trained together, two shadow weapons fighting the same enemy.
Atleast he knew what was going to happen around the first few years of him subjecting himself into becoming a weapon. Falcon was different.
And the way each time a new leaf showed, Zenkichi couldn't help but scoff at the prospect of not realizing that what they did to Akane should not have been surprising.
Was he guilty?"So uh- all of that does check out with how this cognitive hocus-pocus goes though in our case jails act differently. Involving other people's shadow as well but..."
He sighs as he finally tilts his head to regard Hiro and Crow. "You guys aren't twins are you? I mean, you look the same but-" he blinks incredously- as if trying to piece together a puzzle. Too bad his look of confusion isn't too obvious behind the opaque mask. "You...are a shadow, right? Like those eyes? I am not being antagonistic I just, isn't that worrying...?! Unless you are not a shadow which okay, I didn't know-"
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Wolf's confusion however distracts her. Oh dear, did they rush into this too fast?
"...Should we have waited to give introductions or something before stepping into this dungeon?"
She'll let Crow and Hiro explain.
quick reply
As in, is there a palace festering in Crow's case? A TV dungeon that slipped everyone's radar and didn't really bother to rectify- thinking the distortion wasn't too much?
"To be fair we can hold off on that conversation for later. If it's too distracting."
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"He can shift his appearance, essentially," Crow adds. "This current form is more approachable, so he favors it outside of certain combat situations."
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She doesn’t have an explanation that doesn’t come down to ‘I’m just weird’ she could give Zenkichi if he asked why her eyes are shadow like too.
Maybe he won’t notice, besides Falcon is the priority here!
“So, basically Dungeons are like randomly generated by floor? And it gets more intense the deeper you go?” Sounds like some of the games Alibaba-Chan plays. Sounds fun! She’s itching for a fight!-
And to help falcon Of course.
DOWNSTAIRS
The stairs down, at first, are blocked by a heavily reinforced steel door, wide enough for two trucks to drive through side by side, the metal standing pristine and impenetrable.
Upon being approached by anyone close to Wolf, however, there's a flicker, a strange distortion that pixelates the scenery for the briefest moment- and the door shakes, as something impacts it from the opposite side. Muffled, hidden behind inches of solid steel, something massive bellows with rage and pain, the sound halfway between a scream and a howl. The metal begins to glow, red-hot, a set of three claws piercing it-
And then the distortion vanishes. The entryway is now badly burned- as though a terrible fire had rampaged through it, a notice on the reinforced front door indicating the building has been condemned. Something, a long time ago, melted through several inches of solid steel, marks left behind by claws and fangs of impossible size, clawing and biting at the molten metal, ripping, tearing, wrenching until a hole had been made- just large enough that a human could fit through, with care. Any sign of what made the hole is, now, long gone- and any Navigators can detect no threats.
Down the lone staircase lies the mazelike structure of the Lab itself. The air *stinks* of old smoke and decay, the complex having been ravaged some time in the distant past by fire, and since left to rot. Occasional cracks in the ceiling- or else sections that have collapsed entirely- reveal distant, blue skies.
There's another flicker, as the party steps forward, and a man's voice crackles through the air, as though playing a corrupted audio file.
"30th April, 2007. Time… -̶̜̋͂ȩ̸͔͗̍v̶̧͛̏ë̴̹́n̸͔̒-̵̡̎͝f̷̛͔̹s̴̛̾ͅz̵͚͊̍ͅz̵͔̹͂̒t̵͍͇̊̊ three arrived this morning. Twelve in all, in terrible condition, as usual, but I suppose beggars can't be choosers. Before we begin, I've instructed medical to give them a full evaluation and correct any deficiencies as best they can. I'm not going to lose another promising subject becs̸̲̽h̵̞̲̍̈́ḣ̶͕͘ḧ̷̰́͐h̵̰͎͒h̶̫̪́̑ĥ̸̟͓̊7. Time… fourteen-forty-seven. Had to reject two, seven, and nine, but all else seems to be in order. Proceeding with initial testing, based on the refined procedure from generation two. Kurata reckons that the age range of the last batch was the reason it was so inconsistent, and all of gen three is pre-pubescent, but should still be cognitively s̸̲̽h̵̞̲̍̈́ḣ̶͕͘ḧ̷̰́͐h̵̰͎͒h̶̫̪́̑ĥ̸̟͓̊ we'll see.
The voice fades… and leaves only silence, punctuated by the distant drip of water on stone, and the shuffling movements of errant Shadows.
Where to?
no subject
If the whole atmosphere of... everything didn't set Ren on edge already, then that audio file certainly did. Choosing to go downstairs was a gamble, nobody had any idea if it would lead anywhere, but from what they'd just heard... he's fairly certain they'd never refer to Falcon as pre-pubescent. This has to be Wolf's dungeon, then.
He turns to the rest of the group, his Joker mask unable to hide his disgust at the message. It doesn't take a genius to figure out the meaning behind the words.
"... Let's move," he says, "if that audio message was anything to go by, this Pala- Dungeon isn't going to be pleasant, to say the least. I guess we knew that already, though."
Considering that Midnight Channel thing.
no subject
She didn't know Wolf, but she'd met Rookmon and hoped that she could help. Though she also worried for Falcon, it ultimately didn't matter where she was helping, so long as she could do something.
The audio did not instill a lot of confidence, though... experimentation, cruelty, manipulating children... she had to be sure to keep her composure.
"I'm right behind you."
no subject
"It's as if we stepped into a horror movie." Which is funny considering that he is a vampire.
He nods. "Right, let's get going."
He keeps his knife on hand, already on edge.
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But the voice hardly paints a pleasant picture. Drawing a deep breath through his nose, he stiffly steps forward.
"This won't be like a Palace. Dungeons seldom have consistent layouts or structures. We may still be able to operate with stealth, and I highly recommend ambushing Shadows from behind. Just know that whatever Shadows we do encounter are unlikely to behave like those in Mementos or within Palaces..."
Then again, he never tried removing the masks of dungeon Shadows. Perhaps that's why.
no subject
Yes Kaitou's serious and he's intentially saying it so that the others aren't caught off guard. He learned the hard way to warn others of his...habit. Ann didn't deserve that, even if they hadn't expected her to come back into the palace.
no subject
Rookmon, as dangerous as the situation was, could not be compelled to stay away. He drew a shaky breath. "I am prepared. If anyone has questions they require answered, I will answer as best I can, but... if this is what has been weighing on his mind, then it happened before I met him. He doesn't... talk. About this. Not even with me."
everyone would hear her italicized lines. as she's the navi
Gah. Those words felt painful.
Akane, ironically, the same age as Wolf also traversed around as a digital being and who knows? Maybe the Kirijo Group acted the same way.
no subject
He takes a few steps forward, sighing. "But since money is irrelevant here, they're less of a priority. If anything, we should focus on moving through as swiftly as possible and save our energy for the likely clash with his Shadow at the end."
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As nice as yen and treasure are, it doesn't matter as much here, with not needing money. Items might still be useful though so they shouldn't completely ignore any treasure chests they come across.
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Rookmon wore an expression of polite confusion, glancing between her and the others. "Also, if this place is within the confines of Goro's mind, would not taking things out of it mean... taking things from him, somehow? Would harming the Shadows here harm him in some way? I would prefer to avoid that if at all possible."
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"Also, you know that's a really good question. The thing is these shadows or any in particular exists because of well- the pysche of one's mind. They draw power from it so removing them won't harm say the jail owner, or the source of this dungeon's distortion."
The glow of her jewel dulled down a bit. "That said...if we were to attack and bring harm to Wolf's shadow after bringing it to its most vulnerable form- that would lead to dire results."
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