DARK ALLIES FINALE LOG

[afterlifer]

WHO: Anyone and everyone!
WHAT: Dark Allies Finale
WHEN: March 22nd-24th
WHERE: Anywhere and everywhere in this afterlife
WARNINGS: Potential violence, loss of sense of self, fighting, cussing. If you have anything else let a mod know to add it!
SUMMARY: The Programmer and Fantoche have increased the number of shadows in order to pursue the NPC, Ai, who has been trying to hide but cannot continue to stand by and do nothing. Meanwhile, many of the afterlife's residents have been turned into NPCs.. is there a way to reason with them or get their memories back? There are 3 parts to this log!

MARCH 22: SHADOWS
Shadows are difficult to deal with, and you've just been surrounded. It seems like the number of shadows have raised up well beyond half of the NPC population. Team up, fight off the shadows, try to follow them to find the NPC first! Ai will be around throughout this log and will reveal her Guard Skill abilities in a comment here. Feel free to attempt to apprehend her.

MARCH 23: THE NORM
A few people have been turned into NPCs. The shadows seem not to bother them-- the shadows ignore them and those turned into NPCs don't even seem to see the shadows. They can see you, even if they can't remember. Try to talk some sense into them or take whatever measures you think are necessary? Try to keep them company or say goodbye because if Ai isn't turned in, there's no known way to turn them back?

MARCH 24: CAPTURED AI
Ai's identity has been revealed since the 22nd, but she's been avoiding capture up until now. Come up with a plan, decide what to do. It might be a good idea to have a meeting and talk to her. She's surprisingly cooperative. The OOC poll revealed that Ai will be kept away from Fantoche and the Programmer, so if any characters have the intent to do otherwise they will not be able to be the ones to find her. Of those who comment, on the 24th the mods will RNG one character to have successfully captured Ai and she will reply to that thread. Other characters or teams may jump in based on what you as the players have decided to do.

Comments

MARCH 22: SHADOWS

[afterlifer]

Ai

[afterlifer]

A. ACTION
[ Multiple times throughout the day, there are huge flashes of light from a Hand Sonic or other Guard Skills and sudden large amounts of shadows being destroyed. At the center? That girl Ai.

Join her in the middle of a fight or wait until she's finished. Either way, she's done trying to hide who she is because of how many shadows have appeared and people have been turned to NPCs. This many shadows on the glitching system for reasons outside of their originally programmed purpose put the system in danger and the number of human individuals the system is suposed to help that are against it clearly indicate to Ai that it's unacceptable. ]

B. TEXT
Those in dire need of assistance, reply to this text with your location. Assistance will arrive ASAP.

A.

[extraordinarily]

[ Haruhi's not the type of person to just sit still while other people do work, even though it's kind of cool and she's certainly impressed. Which is why she's helping out, regardless.

But she's not going to say anything because she took the precaution to, well, wear earplugs just in case so if Ai does end up saying anything... Haruhi's not going to hear her.

Though she will destroy any shadow that's in the area for now. ]

B

[masturbatestoyou]

... Crap.

[Taichi had found himself surrounded in the gym while trying to gather some sporting equipment to use to defend himself and had come across some folding chairs (the ones used long, long ago during the graduation ceremony largely unknown to all but Yuri and Hinata at this point), and as a pro wrestling fan he decided that one of those would make an ideal weapon.

Not that it'd be much use against this many shadows. The gym had been clear before he arrived, but now he was cornered with no safe path to an exit. His phone beeped with a message.]

What's that?

[Still keeping an eye on the shadows, he checked his phone. Assistance, huh? Well, he certainly could use some. He replied with a one word reply "gym", not wanting to spend more time than necessary typing before a shadow lunged at him as he beat it back with his chair.]

A.

[onewayroad]

[Did someone say helping out? Accelerator's got his handgun for taking care of smaller numbers of shadows, but he'll resort to atmospheric attacks (air flow, air pressure, wind, etc) and launching kicks at superhuman speed with superhuman force where he can, easily springing out of reach at each landing. He can only carry so much ammo on him at a time, so conserving bullets is a priority.

He's busy taking care of the smaller half of the swarm of shadows spread out across the area. The rest is all Ai's.]

A

[frequent_flyer]

T-tachibana!?

[From a distance, the resemblance is striking, but then the girl stops and he gets closer and... it's not her. He's seen this girl around before... but all of the sudden, she started to draw his attention.]

You're not- [He cuts himself off mid-thought.] How... are you doing that?

[extraordinarily]

A. ACTION

[ Haruhi is most certainly annoyed by how the growth of the shadows have increased twofold and she just wants to kick it to the curb and go on a rampage. But she can't, if only because she has to stay strong now that Yuri's an NPC and she's the type of person who never gives up.

Which is why throughout the day, people might be seeing Haruhi shooting some shadows two-handedly if only due to her annoyance. Though she might drop it after a while; she doesn't want to waste too much ammo on these guys after all. ]

B. TEXT

[ Haruhi is also sending a text message everyone's way. It's important to her that everyone who hasn't talked to her earlier last week to talk to her now, especially since the shadow count is rising. ]

If you haven't spoken to me yet, speak to me. And if you're alone, give me your location as soon as possible and I'll come and get you. We need to stick together and come up with a plan soon.

[ And then she sends another text, a private one to anyone who is listed as a member of the SSS, with the exception of Yuri, of course. (Basically, if she's found out that you're an NPC before the 22nd, you won't get this message. Otherwise you will.) ]

Also, SSS members: we need to regroup and plan ahead. Meet me somewhere so we can have a quick meeting and figure out our strategy.

B; text

[tsunball]

is there even anyone else left at this point [ A sign of that shit really is going down? Leon is actually bothering to type out his words just so he can be sure there won't be any dumb miscommunication going on. ]

its like everyone ever is a npc by now

i just want this shit to be over

[ It sounds a little whiny, like a child, but it's just honestly since Leon is feeling really scared. More than he'd like to let on to, but he sucks at hiding it. ]

B!

[likeacrow]

[It's kind of a relief to get a text like this. Normal people seem to be in short supply these days.]

yo, where are you at?

b; text

[knightlyrondo]

this is Miki. where are you

OPEN

[losthersheep]

[ Using a sniper rifle is a lot different than fighting with the rifles she was used to. Mami would usually materialize a dozen percussion-locked rifled and float them in midair, firing at her designated target. But she didn't have her magical powers anymore, she had to make do with what she had. After meeting up with Yuri she was able to get a sniper rifle and a good number of bullets, promising to use them to protect the students.

In reality, she wanted to take her friends and just run away. Grab Sayaka and Kyouko and Madoka and find somewhere safe to hide out. But there was no way she could convince any of them to leave the rest of the students. So all she could do was try to protect them as best she could.

Luckily, her aim with the sniper rifle is as good as she was with her own rifles back home. She just has to find a spot to set up her nest, line up shots, and begin thinning the ranks of shadows with the loud boom of the long bullets traveling down her barrel. ]

[knightlyrondo]

[There's only one person who's that good of a shot. At least, to Sayaka's mind. So she follows the aim of the rifle. It takes a while but she finds the nest quickly enough, taking out every shadow she can with her katana on her way.]

Mami-san?

[She announces her presence before approaching from behind. Just in case.]

OPEN

[suckswithmaps]

[Celica has never been one to be careful, really. Which is why she had decided to dig through the kendo room's closet and find a shinai -- at least something she could use to try and defend herself with against all these shadows. Her main goal is to really find people she knows and to make sure they're alright. By now she knows how her healing magic works around here, so if anyone ends up getting a severe injury... she wants to help out! And potentially find that NPC, maybe.

So she can be found around campus, searching for people while... defending herself horribly, really. Fortunately she hasn't been surrounded by shadows or anything yet, at least. So for now her tactics are just clumsy sword slashing to stall while she flees to another area...]

[extraordinarily]

Celica-chan!

[ Haruhi's coming to the rescue - or at least, she's hoping to - considering that she doesn't seem to be doing much to defeat any of the shadows, and it's a worrisome thing. ]

Are you okay?

OPEN

[swordhandy]

[Well Owain wasn't really sure what was even going on. Sure, he knew there were these... things attacking people, but since coming here, he hasn't really known what was going on. Hell, none of the buildings even looking like anything from back home.

The only thing that was really somewhat familiar was the forest near the school, and even then, he couldn't exactly sit around in there forever...

Which is why he's currently wielding a... uh... tree branch. At least he's somewhat holding his own? But still obviously getting surrounded.]

Ha! Do you think you can best me?! [The answer is... probably. But y'know]

While I don't quite know where I am, I cannot allow you to do what you want! You have to stand up to the greatest defender this realm shall ever know! Owain, with his trusty sword, Splinter Striker, is here!

[But uh... he's looking a little worn out. He's actually looking a little worried here. He thought he could take on a few, but this many...]

But do you think you guys could slow down a bit, at least... ? No? [Sigh.] Guess I can't really catch a break here either...

[extraordinarily]

Do you need some help?

[ A gun's in her hand as she smiles, bullets going through each shadow that she manages to find. Of course, she's trying her best to also not shoot anyone who isn't a shadow, just in case. But the fact that he's doing something like this and speaking in such a way only means one thing.

He's new and he just came in at the worst moment. Great. ]

MARCH 23: THE NORM

[afterlifer]

Re: MARCH 23: THE NORM

[tenminutes]

[ The last time you talked to Yuri, it might've ended very abruptly. Or you might've found her. Whatever the case is, she doesn't seem to be of any use to anyone right now.. or even know to care about anyone. She's had a couple of moments where it almost seemed like she was lucid before she snapped back into it, but it seems like she's not coming back.

Right now, she's even walking back to the dorms in the general uniform (not even her thigh highs though, just white knee socks) while energetically chatting with some NPC called Hitomi, who seems to be insisting that the reason she keeps spacing out is because she's lovesick. ]

I'm not lovesick, for the last time! Takanashi or otherwise!

[extraordinarily]

Who's this Takanashi you're talking about?

[ Haruhi's going to butt into her conversation now, don't mind her. She needs a little break every now and again and there's no reason she can't try bringing her back to normal.

Emphasis on try. ]

[violined]

[ It's Kohaku but it's also certainly not Kohaku. The Kohaku you know is always wearing an annoyed expression, always angry at one thing or another. Everything about him radiates bad energy.
This Kohaku isn't like that. His expression is neutral and occasionally you may catch a faint smile on his lips. He seems at peace with the world. For once there is nothing that would make him feel bad or pained. There are no nuisances around and no unpleasant memories inside. He's hollow.

Instead of the SSS uniform, filled up with all his knives and guns, he's wearing the regular school uniform. There is no weaponry to be seen. He's finally become a boy without flaws it seems. Also without much personality.

Currently he's checking the blackboard for clubs. He may be thinking about joining another in the future, who knows. ]

[dereban]

[ Even though Inaba's only been in the afterlife for a few weeks, it was quite difficult to avoid any of the shadows. But now, she doesn't even notice them; if any of them pass by, they simply just ignore her.

In the afternoon, the young girl is sitting in the cafeteria tables with several other NPCs - most of them girls - laughing and chatting energetically and with a cheery voice. They seem to be pointing out several people that may be passing around, regardless of whether they're an NPC or not. ]

How about them?

[ Inaba will point out the next person, not even bothering to look at them in the eye before some of the NPCs give their grades on a one to ten scale on how appealing they look to the eye.

Basically, it's a how handsome or how cute one looks contest.. Though it might escalate further into something a little more interesting in their conversation a little later on. ]

[shinesbrightest]

[Although Shinji hadn't been here long, he'd never been one to attend classes or anything like that. Why bother, you know? It seems like he's had a change of heart at some point, though, because he's currently in the library, sitting next to a few stacks of books, and working rather hard on an essay. If that wasn't strange enough, he appears to be concentrating pretty hard on it, too—like the grade he'll get is actually going to matter, and like this world hasn't been overrun by shadows or something. He totally has his priorities straight.

Either way, it's business as usual. Try not to make too much noise, okay? He's got a deadline to meet...!]

MARCH 24: CAPTURED AI

[afterlifer]

[extraordinarily]

[ Haruhi's managed to regroup quite an amount of people. But now it's time for the finale, and she's not going in alone. Or rather, she didn't want to go alone to begin with. She needs other people to make sure that she doesn't become an NPC and she knows that if she acts hostile, there's no way she's going to get a proper conversation in or perhaps even a negotiation.

Which is why she's planned everything ahead; sending multiple text messages to everyone for regrouping, crafting a plan with the SSS members that aren't NPCs yet, and even preparing other things.

She's got this, hopefully, and all she wants right now is the truth. Haruhi's going with the consensus with the group and she's not planning on harming Ai unless she tries something, anything. But she'll still be very wary, because she's an NPC, and NPCs can become manipulated - or so she thinks, anyway. These are just theories, after all. ]

( ooc: as a note! anybody who's planning on joining haruhi's group, regardless of whether or not they're in the SSS is free to tag here, mingle, threadjack, etc. )

OTHER

[afterlifer]

Have another scenario you want to play out? Feel free to use this space!