pti | The Parade of Envy

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locke cole: ffvi

The Parade of Envy - Mission Start

“This is Candace Sierra with Wolf News. We’re here again with a special feature on Todd Woodrow Jr. His club, Fight for America, is planning a rally for February 28th right here on the UCLA campus. Todd, what can you tell me about this rally?”

“Thanks Candace. Our rally, Fight to be Right, is our answer to the neo-liberal infection that has taken over college campuses across the country. We conservatives have been silenced and denigrated by the liberal elites for far too long, and we’re here to push back against their narrative of erasure and silencing! We’re going to blow the lid off these safe spaces and remind folks what real America looks like!”

“That’s fantastic! Sounds like it will be quite a gathering.”

“Absolutely! Several groups have already pledged to join our cause, including the Citizens for an Armed America, the Freedom Militia, and Bikers for Jesus. We’re going to show this campus that we will not be silenced any longer!”

The interview, a complete fluff piece, continues for some time but what is most striking is the hollow, malicious smile barely concealed by a veneer of false sincerity painted on Todd’s face.

In the metaverse, the Parade Grounds have accelerated to a fever pitch. The tanks swerve and dive around the pathways as the Shadow of Todd extols his “virtues” on the podium with greater fervor.

[We will commence with the action logs for the February Palace event. Due to this post going live later than anticipated, players will have until March 1st at 11:59 PM EST to resolve their threads. All threads below will be marked with the group that has been selected to take part in it, as well as the opening scenario and who is going to be running it (if anybody). On your first tag, please indicate the Persona you are bringing with you if you have any available through Social Links or Player Plots besides your own. For threads run by Moderators, we will be tagging to advance it once every 24 hours and we recommend players running threads do the same.

Due to the amount of sign-ups and the requirements of completion for the current plot, we are not running a Calling Card plot segment this month, the cards will be considered to have already been sent at a timely manner and will be noted in the current events.

The Palace is ICly assumed to take place over the course of a few nights as the Phantom Thieves are able to congregate and assail it, characters are still free to make IC posts or plots not pertaining to the main Palace during this month.]

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Raincrow can't get out of the way of the attack in time, so she brings up an arm to try to deflect the bite away from anything vital. Crying out in pain, she counters with a close-range Eiha attack in an attempt to blast the beast back so she can keep fighting at range.

Roll feels burns over her body from the flame attack, it hurts very badly but her vicious counterstrike destroys the beast, causing it to explode in black liquid and mist. Likewise, Raincrow's Eiha blasts the monster away, destroying it as well.

The cuts strike true, and Shadow Todd staggers back.

"You... I'LL KILL YOU!"

His body explodes into black liquid, coalescing into a tall, thin creature with stretched, yellowed skin. It's eyes glow a brilliant green and its mouth is an open cavern of staring green eyes. Two long legs protrude from its torso, as well as four long arms. Its body is covered in mouths, and the mouths seem to be feasting on its own flesh, creating an unsettling chewing noise.

Bringing its arms to bear under it, it pushes off on the ground, the arms actually extending as it launches itself in the air, hurtling off the platform and toward the team at frightful speeds.

With his body exploded into a tall creature made out of an H.P. Lovecraft nightmare, Lifegiver glared at the transformed Shadow towering over them. At last, Todd's true colors are shown and with this, the true fight has begun.

"It looks like your true racist self is beginning to show. Raincrow, hold on for a second." Typing onto his holographic keyboard, he lets his Persona casts Dia in an attempt to heal her wounds.

"Master of the Hellish Yard, come forth! Bring forth destruction!"

Naomi had been quiet, keeping her gun on hold, sticking close to Lifegiver, but now is the time for action. And that action is going to be summoning forth her Persona behind her and blasting a Frei to this creature. She promised explosions, after all. So she's delivering.

With the Shadow's destruction, Roll expels a deep breath and relinquishes her hold on Lyra, the strings that bound Orthrus fading from existence along with the Persona. She looks back to center stage just in time to witness their target's grotesque transformation, and takes only a short moment to get her bearings before moving to join up with Frost.

Faced with the truly revolting form of Shadow Todd, her mouth curls in a clear show of disgust — and contempt. "Just as ugly outside as in, huh..." She looks to her teammates, then back at the monster before them, and says, with a voice full of bravado:

"Alright! You all ready for the main event?"

Of course, in doing so, she casually sidesteps the subject of her own wellbeing, but her ragged breath and the burn marks spread across her body speak louder than any words could. Nonetheless, she wastes no further time summoning her Persona again and with a stroke of its neck, conjuring a single, large Shock Note. The yellow music-note-shaped projectile, easily the size of its creator, flies at Shadow Todd at high speed — and unlike the myriad she used on his guard, this one alone packs a real punch.

"Oh crap!"

Frost leaps out of the way, a little freaked out by all those mouths in all the wrong places. The sound of the Shadow chewing on itself is nauseating, but he keeps his focus. Reaching into a pouch at his waist, he draws out a steel snowflake and flings it at the Shadow, hoping to take out at least one of its many eyes. If it can't see, it won't be able to track them as well... or at least he hopes.

“Ugh, gross!”

Raincrow leaps back after the Orthrus dissolves, just out of range of those slavering jaws. She turns to give a quick nod of thanks in Lifegiver’s direction before readying an attack of her own.

“Why don’t you try chewing on this?”

Reaching into her cloak, she pulls out a hand cannon that certainly shouldn’t have been able to fit in there, taking aim and firing off a round of burst fire. Hopefully that will shut a few of those mouths for good.

The nuclear spell explodes on the creature, singing its flesh and causing the gnawning mouths to wail and gnash their teeth. This continues as the Shock Note strikes true. The Snowflake embeds itself in the eye which gushes blood, causing the shadow to shriek and rage. As the blood sprays onto the ground, more green eyes start opening within the pool itself, staring at the party. Finally, the hand-cannon bursts strike it in the chest, more mouths shrieking in pain as it staggers backwards.

"THAT. HURT."

The bleeding stops as the eye refocuses itself and the snowflake drops away - the team can see it has splintered into 9 smaller eyes all of which are glaring balefully. Two of its arms lash out to attack Naomi and Roll, the fingers grasping at their throats and the mouths on the hands drooling in anticipation while a powerful Eiga attack materializes around Raincrow. To Yuuri, however, two arms swing out moving to enfold and encircle him with rapid speed, the mouths, drooling and chomping in anticipation.

Her reflexes dulled by pain, Roll just barely manages to avoid being seized by the arm, but it still strikes a nasty blow. With a scream that she can no longer do anything to suppress, her legs buckle beneath her, and she falls to her knees, panting heavily. Even still, she doesn't cry for help, only snarl defiantly.

"Hahh... I'm not... done yet..."

With great effort, she reaches behind her to draw her own gun, a hand crossbow. She takes careful aim — at least, as much as she is capable of doing so in her current state — before firing a bolt into Shadow Todd's gaggle of eyeballs.

As the others continued to fight, Lifegiver was still focusing on the holographic screens showing their current stats as he continued to type in his next spell. Upon seeing the spell that Shadow Todd just did, he can confirm that he used Curse spells.

"Be careful everyone! He is immune to Curse and Psy! Which means he may use more that Eiga spells!"

As he said this, he casts another Dia to Roll in an attempt to heal her wounds from the Fire spell earlier.

“Roll!”

Raincrow’s voice rings out in desperation and panic, more concerned about her friend’s predicament than even the extreme pain coursing through her own body after that attack. Holstering her sidearm and pulling out a black steel katana, she bursts forth from the darkness surrounding her to slash at the malformed arm holding her friend by the throat.

“You’re not killing anyone today, or ever again!”

"Themis" stays back, so it's easy enough to dodge to the side--she isn't hurt, but the hands do manage to snag and rip some of the edge of her coat. This is a fight, for sure, and she's relishing it. She's going to fire off another Frei once she stills, poised to move again if she needs it. Getting caught could be a death sentence, so she needs to be careful.

Yuuri knows an attack is coming, but it's way faster than he was expecting. Before he can leap out of the way, those arms entrap him and he feels the mouths chewing at his clothing and the flesh beneath. He shouts in pain, kicking upward with his boot knives at the underside of the limbs binding him, too panicked to use his Persona.

Raincrow's katana slices cleanly through the arm, lopping it off and sending it flying. The shadow shrieks in pain and starts hissing slurs as the bolt strikes its eye, causing it to explode into black-red blood as it staggers backwards just in time to take another Frei spell, knocking it from its feet. It's down and vulnerable!

While Yuuri is released, his bleeding wounds rapidly start to blacken and he feels intense naseau overcome him as the poisonous bile from the mouths begins coursing through his body, where it will continue to damage him. The toxins also seem to be affecting his mind, making him unable to recall how to summon forth his Persona.

The support from Lifegiver and the passage of time fortunately calms the burns Roll is experiencing, as she is no longer suffering damage and is healthy enough, should the team wish to attempt an All-Out Attack.

Good, looks like Todd's Shadow is now down. However, there was still a problem regarding Frost after he attacked him. He knew that he was afflicted with several conditions which he noticed that he seemed to be panicking, but with his current power, he can't heal most of it. So just in case, he had Xerneas cast Patra on Frost, which he hopes it may cure his panic.

After that, he turns to the other active thieves and shouts, "He's down! Now's your chance to do an All-Out Attack. I'll try to cure Frost as fast as I can!"

Feeling a new burst of energy thanks to Lifegiver's healing, Roll quickly leaps to her feet. At the sight of the fallen Shadow Todd, she flashes an almost worryingly vicious smirk and draws her melee weapon, gripping the tall mic with both hands.

"Right. Let's finish this creep!"

With that, she lunges at her helpless foe, eager to deliver the first strike in their All-Out Attack.

"Yeah! Let's do it!"

Swinging her katana back around, Raincrow unleashes a rapid-fire series of quick slashes and thrusts.

Frost still feels the poison coursing through his system, but at least he's not freaking out anymore. Though it takes more effort than normal to join the All-Out Attack, he darts in with a cry, stabbing with a rapid-fire string of jabbing kicks, a stronger straight kick, before finally spinning in a roundhouse to slash at it with his other blade. The movements make him nauseated but it's countered somewhat by adrenaline.

"Go down, you creep!"

Edited 2018-02-26 04:46 (UTC)

The creature wails and explodes in red-black ooze, leaving Shadow Todd on his knees before the team.

"No! It wasn't supposed to be like this! I'm not supposed to lose to a bunch of filthy animals like you!"

The danger, at least for now, has passed.

Yuuri glares down at the Shadow, panting hard, and covers the queasiness starting to retreat with the Shadow's vanquishing by folding his arms.

"The only animal here is you, Woodrow. But that doesn't matter, because you're finished."

As the dust on their battle begins to settle, Lifegiver's phone will ring. When he answers it, he will hear a familiar voice over the line.

"Lifegiver? It's Rose." She sounds a little rushed, or possibly distracted. "We've secured the treasure, tell your group to disengage and head for the exit. This place is about to come down on our heads."

With the command given out, all Lifegiver can see was three thieves gone all out to beat up the monstrous Shadow that represents Todd's racism and discrimination. With the Shadow turning back into his human form, all he can do was to glare at the defeated man.

It wasn't until he got a call from Rose that they are already finished with their goal with her team. A sign that signaled the infiltration's completion.

"You were lucky to be spared, Mr. Woodrow. I hope by the time we leave, you will atone your sins against the people you looked down on and the chaos you have spread. Let's go, everyone. Our job's done here."

With that, his Persona vanished as he rushes out of the Palace with the others to avoid getting caught in the destruction.

It's hard for Themis to disengage. But given they have to leave because the place is coming down, she's forced to run for it with the others. She's gritting her teeth angrily, but she's leaving.

Roll has a few more choice words for Todd's Shadow, but given the circumstances, she contents herself with throwing a truly withering glare (for a cute middle school girl, anyway) in the racist's direction before absconding with the others.

"We won because people are stronger together."

That's all Mato's going to say, looking Todd straight in the eye before she leaves.

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The Parade of Envy - Mission Start

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FINALLY... CUTS IN HERE... FIFTEEN MINUTES LATE WITH STARBUCKS... Sorry........

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