achates | [DAY 0] TDM.

[DAY 0] TDM.

Error in final launch sequence:
Failed to execute MI command:
target remote localhost: 01633
Error message from debugger back end:
Cannot access memory at address 𝟹͚̽𝚡̰̍̂𝟸̠̯̘ͭͧ𝚌̭͉̺͖ͥ𝟿̳̰̒̇ͅ𝟷̦ͣ̉͌̅𝚋͓͎̈̒̀𝟻ͭ̌͂𝟷ͩ̓𝟾̦
Failed to execute MI command:
target remote localhost: 01633
Error message from debugger back end:
Cannot access memory at address 𝟹̖͇͕̃𝚡͉̹̯͇̻̉̓̂𝟸͚̹͈͓̩͚̲̼͒̾𝚌̱̠͙̝̪͇̈̌̂̃̄ͭ𝟿̱̜̪͓̳̹ͤ̊̈́ͦͥ̑𝟷͖̱̝̀̒̇̂̄̈́̓̇ͅ𝚋̥̯͉̹͛͛̊ͤͦͩ𝟻̬̮̈́̋ͯ͛̉̐𝟷̋ͩ̔̔𝟾̼
Waiting for debugger connection...
Debugger connected
Debugger connection lost.
Waiting for debugger connection...
Debugger connected
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Debugger connection lost.
Shutting down...
Rebooting
Download in Progress:
File download complete
Time elapsed during download operation: 00:12:33.131
Rebooting
Launching Demon Summoning Program. . .

You open your eyes to the end of the world, but you do not see it.

Instead what rouses you is screaming and crying, blood and tears: all around you are signs of life. Inside the overturned train, people begin to awaken, sprawled on the ground as if thrown violently from their seats, broken bones and bleeding wounds struggling to rise from the carpet of shattered glass from the windows at their feet. Emerging from the wreck, characters will find themselves at the edge of a dense forest, a towering stone wall at their backs. Bright eyes peer out from the shadows of the foliage, more and more blinking into view like stars in a darkening sky, but despite being drawn to the scent of blood that hangs heavy in the air, nothing steps out of the forest. Not yet.

None of the passengers can recall what happened, what they were doing on a train, where it was going- there's more they can't remember, but overshadowing the gaps of memory are things they have gained in return. A familiar item that is not theirs. A gemstone that feels lighter than it appears, as if hollow inside. And a device that wraps around their wrist (or rests on their head, or hangs around their neck, or however it presents itself to each character) that starts up on its own the moment the character turns their attention to it, as if waiting. Each character's COMP has a "navigator" selected at default, either "A☆L☆A" in bright neon orange, or "K5" in cool slate blue, although the presiding navigator can be freely switched between them.

Heya, boss! My name's Ala, your new navi!

You wanna know something really funny? Go ahead and touch the map on the corner of the screen to enlarge it. See all those little red dots? Those are demons out to kill you. Haha! You're surrounded!

Heya, boss! You can call me Keigo, your navigational AI.

If you touch the map on the corner of the screen, you can enlarge it and see the positions of all your allies. Looks like some of you are already heading out: see those little blue— oh. That one just disappeared. ... Try to stick together.

Along with providing a map with enemy/ally positions, the navigators will walk characters through the demon interaction, recruitment, and summoning processes, with advice varying between the two navigators (click to expand)

Just beat 'em up and force 'em to join! They can't say no if they're dead!

Nobody is immune to bribery, not even demons. What do you even have, though...? No matter what, don't let them get that life stone.

More demons incoming! Ooh, you're screwed. You'd better run! Don't worry, I won't tell.

Let's hide here. We'll wait here until that demon passes, then move!

Look, a body! Are they still alive? Wonder what's in their pockets...?

It's already too late to help. But better them being demon food than you.

Or, you could stay. There is nothing forcing anybody to leave the relative safety of the train. Those who stay behind will find the conductor's cabin empty, save for a small black cat perched on the headrest of the driver's seat that peers out with bright golden eyes at those who enter. Otherwise, there are no signs of a fight or struggle inside the cabin. Elsewhere, there is unclaimed luggage in the overhead compartments with an abundance of clothing and blankets, although characters will not find any of their own clothing except what they're already wearing. The dining cart is still stocked with enough food and beverage to last each passenger at least two days— maybe longer, if people keep leaving/dying... But at the same time, maybe shorter, considering the pervasive hunger that gnaws at the pits of everybody's stomachs, an emptiness that yearns to be filled by something... more.

As minutes stretch into hours, it becomes painfully clear that nobody is coming to help. Everybody only has each other, this town, its inhabitants. The forest is dark and unforgiving, near impossible to navigate even with a map. Strange creatures jump out from the shadows, eyes bright, mouths salivating, hungry. Strong hands claw through the dirt underfoot to grab at people's feet, pulling themselves up, mouths wide open, hungry. Sharp talons swoop down from the skies above, snatching characters up into the air, crushing skulls and snapping spines. Hungry. The demons here seem delighted to see such a feast wandering right into their home; those who are stopped for attempted conversation express surprise that characters are able to see them, but ultimately the hunger wins, and hunger does not listen to reason.

Casualties are inevitable. Blood mist permeates the air, and follows even as characters break out of the forest and across town, all the way to the fraying end of the world. Out in the open, however, the sun rays beat down bright and harsh, and those hungry eyes shy away from the sunlight to remain in the shadows, inside husks of buildings and thickets of overgrown fields. Characters will be able to find refuge in the greenhouse and the church, and some of the standing houses are truly vacant (as opposed to "surprise! there's actually a demon inside!" vacant); the only eyes that follow you are those of photographs hung crooked on the walls, of familiar strangers and forgotten friends. Look, there's a picture of you too.

Other locations require more caution to explore:

The sound of crying can be heard from the upper stories of the school building, thin wails echoing up and down the deserted halls, and human-like shadows peer out from the broken, unboarded windows, as if watching. A barricade inside the front doors makes it difficult to enter from the main entrance, and with most of the windows boarded up, the hallways inside remain dark even during the day. The smell of rot is prominent, heavy and cloying, especially in the auditorium-become-mausoleum that is littered with crushed bones, thin and brittle, every last scrap of flesh already nibbled away. A flock of demons crowd around outside principal's office, where a blizzard blows through the entire hallway, rendering visibility near zero and temperatures below that.

The hospital is also deathly cold, breath visible in puffs of mist that sometimes form into screaming faces, and when all is still and quiet, you look up and see yourself. Shadows form into mirror images of the characters who enter the hospital, silently approaching others and attacking once the person's guard is down. If a demon borrowing your face isn't bad enough, Phantoms go a step further and take the form of people who are close to your character: friends, family, foes. Exploring the hospital may or may not be worth the potential backstabbing, considering the fact that the supplies found are maybe not the most sterile, half the equipment is rusted or corroded, and a lot of the medicine is unlabeled tablets and capsules inside unlabeled bottles (essentially, take at your own risk). Moreover, hordes of all sorts of demon ghosts will bar characters' way down to the basement, gathering in massive numbers anytime somebody tries to descend. Electricity bounces around the top of the stairway down, while bright flames lick the bottom of the stairs; particularly unlucky characters may be hit with a confusion spell, liable to throw themselves headfirst down the stairs to be consumed by the waiting demons below.

Hauntingly beautiful music can be heard from within the concert hall, and listening to their song puts you fast asleep— possibly in the middle of the street if you're not careful— while those who manage to make it past the front doors are immediately frozen in a hunk of ice or electrocuted to a crisp before being kicked to the curb. The concert hall appears to be actively guarded, and it's clear that strangers are Not Welcome. Even the other demons keep clear of this building, drawn to the music but lingering far enough to not be overwhelmed. Characters may have an easier time of initiating conversations with demons from around town or inside the houses nearby the concert hall.

The crackle of electricity can be heard from inside the power plant's upper stories despite the blackout, and the entire building shakes from time to time, as if caught in a thunderstorm, or an earthquake. A slow drip... drip... drip... can be heard throughout the building, of amorphous demons clinging to the walls like mold and leaving puddles of caustic acid Everywhere. Anybody who enters the power plant's front entrance is met with a massive agglomerate of black Ooze that has expanded to fill the entire first floor from wall to wall, floor to ceiling, preventing anybody from going upstairs while it remains. Arms and legs poke out of the demon's body in places, desperately clawing and kicking, weaker, weaker. done.

OOC

Welcome to Day 0! What better meet-and-greet is there than everybody being tossed into the fray to fight for their lives? ('': For convenience, here are the game info, locations, and demon compendium pages; please use these as reference for what more can be found in the setting.

The characters' COMP will turn on only after they notice and focus on it. If they do NOT activate the COMP, they will not be able to see the demons or interact with them in any way other than being killed. Activating the COMP will allow characters to see demons and somewhat understand their language, with an added effect of allowing physical attacks to harm demons, and mitigating the damage taken from demons.

For characters who app and are accepted, please report demon recruitment here. Characters who are just tdming do not have to report. Recruited demons are inclined to listen to their summoner, but are not necessarily friendly at the beginning: if your character shows weakness, the demon may be just as likely to eat them as they are to protect them.

There will be no NPCs in this game other than the two navigators and some key demons. You're on your own for now!

This first event/tdm is open to the public, and can be used for test driving at any time after the game starts. I'll be keeping a pulse on threads for when characters have gotten their bearings and seem to have a general idea of how they want to proceed into the next day, and we'll go from there.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Uh.

[ Oh shit. It's like being caught with a pop quiz he isn't entirely prepared for— he's been fighting Shadows and fusing Personas for how many months, but does he actually know anything about where they came from and what they're all about? ]

Well...

[ He's sure somebody has explained it to him at least once before. they went through all that trouble trying to figure things out, but it wasn't as if the mystery really mattered to him as much as how to use them and how to protect people from them.

... ]

They come from people. From human emotion. [ quick glance at Shun'ya like is he on the right track?? ] Some we fight against. Those are called "Shadows." Some manifest from ourselves. That's a "Persona."

[Shun'ya watches him keenly, absorbing every world with a quiet focus that's pretty similar to being stared down by a tiger in pouncing position. The friendly smile didn't leave his face though which... probably just made the whole thing uncanny, thinking about it.]

Hmm... interesting.

[He says once he's sure Minato had finished. He taps a finger against the hilt of his tanto. Considering.]

Demons do indeed come from human emotion, though that's a gross oversimplification. Demons are born from a myriad of factors, but it all really does boil down to humans in the end, huh...

[He chuckles.]

We're the source of our own misery, really... anyways. "Persona". I'm unfamiliar with that term. Mind elaborating?

[ "Interesting". He can't tell if he failed Persona class or what, but apparently there's a lot more to these things than he knows, so it's strange to him that Shun'ya's the one asking. It's like he's being tested! stop it! Minato is dead now, his school days are behind him... ]

I don't know how official the term is, but... A Persona is a power borne from ourselves, manifesting as a demon ...or hero, or whatever. [ angels. mythological figures. WHATEVER. ] Typically, it's just the one. But I could summon multiple. Pixie is one of them.

[Every day is a school day, chump!]

Damn, you have all sorts in this world, huh? Never heard of anyone doing that before.

[Shun'ya only sounds mildly curious though, rather than surprised or confused about something that was allegedly so foreign to him. Really, he was trying to think if his mentor had mentioned anything like that before, but was coming up blank.

Manifesting a demon from your own soul...? But still remaining human? Maybe?]

Interesting, though. I wonder if it's a unique form of summoning via the soul, bypassing the energy cost of data transfer from the Atziluth which means - oh, maybe that can be mimicked by doing this... that symbol with... hm...

[As Shun'ya, er, mumbles? to himself, he takes out a small notebook and pen and starts scribbling something at lightning speed on a randomly opened page. You've sparked An Idea for him to try out later, once his spelltag privileges were returned. Minato, what have you done.]

[ ? What has he done... He's curious, leaning over and trying to see what Shun'ya is writing down- ]

It's... uh. It does require a summoning medium. Usually. [ his evoker, and also however the hell his fusion spells work ] Something different from this, though.

[ He holds up the music player dangling from the end of his lanyard, its screen glowing Ala orange. ]

How do you do it?

Ah? Hm?

[Shun'ya just needs a moment, knocked out of his rambling groove as he was.]

Oh, hmm, you do need a summoning medium? Damn. Well, the idea still has enough merit to pursue - later.

[He closes his notebook with a small 'snap' and tucks it back away into his pocket.]

I use these. [He taps one of the Kuzunoha tubes strapped to his chest holster.] They're Kuzunoha tubes and they're what contains my demons. They're usually very reliable and impossible to tamper with, so this sealing is... very concerning.

[ "Damn" makes Minato feel like he failed, somehow, for whatever reason. Maybe he should bring up his fusion spells that make him nearly pass out every time, but there's the part of him that knows intrinsically that he won't be able to prove it if he did. ]

Kuzunoha... tubes... [ strange. he's never heard of such a name or such a thing, and he can't see anything inside- not that he should expect to see a miniature demon squashed inside one of those tubes anyways. ]

What do you do with them? Throw them, or...?

[ swallow them? crush them? he's having trouble envisioning why tubes would be any better than a handgun at evoking the fear and acceptance of death. ]

Haha!

[Shun'ya laughs, caught by the mental image of lobbing these tubes like pokeballs or something. That was a surefire way to lose them...]

No, you open them with an incantation. I'd demonstrate but... well.

[He sighs, refusing to think about how he's reduced to relying on the COMP like some sort of pleb, and crosses his arms over his chest, looking up at the statue once more.]

It's a pity, though. The demons I have vastly overpower the weaklings roaming around here. Ah well, these kind of situations exist to keep you humble, eh?

Eh...

[ Hasn't he been humble enough!! he doesn't need these kinds of situations, he never thought so highly of himself, one man army that he is if he has to be. He had the power of Satan itself. Shadows ran from him as he approached, squealing in fear, but no longer. Maybe this is what Shun'ya means. ]

New Game Plus, huh... [ But not really. Just a regular new game. DLC, maybe, where he can't gain stronger demons through fusion, and there aren't new "floors" to climb that potentially house stronger demons (or at least a greater variety of them) than the ones his COMP lists here. What's left? grab himself a metal pipe and level himself up to 99 and hope nobody here blocks/reflects/drains physical attacks? ]

Guess the thing to do first is to find a weapon. [ like Shun'ya's BADASS COMP look at that thing, that looks so cool, wish he had one ]

Ah, yes. You could use your fists, but...

[He doesn't finish. He simply looks at Minato, with his noodly high school boy arms and his equally noodly high school boy legs.]

...well, I doubt even a human would be threatened by your blows. Hah! You may want to find something with a bit more impact, like a baseball bat or something.

[ Hey!!! he isn't wrong, but! hey... ]

A nail bat...!

[ HIS (MY) FAVORITE WEAPON ]

You're right. I'll make that a priority. [ later Shun'ya is going to watch Minato getting saved like a damsel in distress and see that he never did get his hands on a nail bat. like damn, why did so many people go out to try to save this kid. ]

[No one resist Door Jesus.]

Make sure you do. It'd be a pity to scrape your corpse up in the morning because a demon got the best of you, after all.

[He said, with such a bright smile and a warm tone. Who just says those kind of things so nicely...? This weirdo.]

They wouldn't leave a corpse if they did.

[ They're hungry demons!!! he's fully expecting to be swallowed up whole, which would honestly make it easier for all parties involved, only some people thought otherwise and decided to be heroes. ]

That's if they do, though. Who knows, maybe I'll surprise them.

[Shun'ya's gonna think back to this conversation when watching you getting rescued like a damsel on the Shun'ya TV and smile.]

Maybe. You should never judge a book by its very underwhelming cover, after all!

[This man...! So cheeky!]

[ stop! do NOT smile at him. plenty of people fell victim to the concert hall lullaby, it wasn't just him... he is never going to live this down. ]

Yeah. [ ANYWAYS, YEAH. It's fine. He is underwhelming, and he accepts this. ]

You'll be alright, won't you? With your weapons... [ It's the fact that Shun'ya actually has weapons at all, also demon tubes he can smash against someone's face as a last resort, and also fists that, unlike Minato's, are backed by somebody who looks like they can do some real damage with them. ]

Pffft! Yeah, I'll be alright. The weaklings round here won't give me much trouble s'long as I stay smart.

[i.e knowing when to get the hell out of dodge when the going gets tough. There was a saying back home, after all: there were only two types of devil summoners that made the history books, the inhumanly talented ones, or the stupid ones, and Raidou didn't raise no stupid apprentice.]

I've got a pair of legs and I know how to use 'em, is what I mean.

[ He envisions Shun'ya kickboxing demons and nods like yes, I know exactly what you're talking about. ]

Okay. I'll see you around, then. We'll keep in touch?

[ taps a finger to his music player, his COMP ]

[Okay yeah Shun'ya would kickbox a demon to death so Minato is not inaccurate, technically.]

Sure, sure. Try not to die, young man. It'd be a shame, y'know, with so much of your life ahead of you!

[ There's a very long pause before Minato nods again, deciding not to mention his negative amount of life he's got ahead of him. ]

Yeah. I'll try.

[ HE'LL SEE SHUN'YA. TOMORROW. alive, despite the horrors. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[DAY 0] TDM.

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