prank #47 | action for nightmare castle CATCH-ALL FOR HALLOWEEN EVENT

[ghostytrainer]

[Since it's kind of hard to sleep in a castle overrun with monsters that look ever so vaguely like demonic dogs and twisted jesters, John is actually conscious in the early hours of the morning when the loud creak signaled the opening of the second floor. And you better believe he went up there asap to check it out...]

A: Day 2: Sigilquest [CLOSED to Aradia, Dave, and Rose]
[So obviously the smart thing to do would be to split up and look around before coming up with a game plan. And since this is a fairly intelligent group of young teens here, that is of course what they did. An hour's worth of time is enough for them to spread and search and then meet back up in the Orchard, right? Of course it is, how big can this floor be?]

[Probably unsurprisingly, John is not the first one back, however. Actually...with this group, he's probably the last one back, let's be real. Casually fifteen minutes late to the re-group with no Staryubucks, that's our John. This is particularly sad when you consider the fact that he probably did the least amount of traveling too. He'd gone west and found a suspicious, glowing gold door which he could do nothing with (not that that had stopped him from TRYING to do something with it) and a bunch of locked doors and caved-in passageways that he'd also wasted inordinate amounts of time trying to get past, to no avail. A grandmaster lockpick, John is not, clearly.]

Ahaha, sorry about that! Lost track of time, my bad.

B: Evening/Night 2: Armory/Around the Castle
[So the pink door was kind of tricky to find and OF COURSE John's luck meant that even though he only had two Pokémon missing, he'd have to go through all three doors to get them all back. But whatever, he's not complaining too much. The fact that he got them back at all is what's important here. Though the two he has are fairly strong, he still can't help but feel a severe lack of firepower here. But again, not complaining: especially not when there's a well stocked armory up here.]

[Sure, the weapons are dull and kind of shitty, but John isn't the type of fighter who requires a sharp weapon. You can keep your swords, he's just going to go for the heaviest mace he's actually capable of wielding, regardless of how dull the points are. He may not have the godly levels of strength that he did back home, but thanks to regular sparring sessions with Dave, he's still a pretty formidable combatant.]

[Feel free to bother him in the armory as he's going through the weapons or later on that night anywhere in the caste while he's monster-bashing. In both instances, he'll be accompanied by an Umbreon at his heels and an undersized, shiny Whimsicott on his shoulder. You might also notice that the sigil on his left hand is blue, so maybe he'll give you a hand with that whole door thing if you're struggling there.]

C: Night 3: The Dungeon
[Okay so even with a weapon, both his Pokémon back, AND in the company of his friends, John managed to heck up and die. But hey, at least he didn't die the first night. That's a plus, right? Unfortunately, his Pokémon are still up with Dave and Rose which means it's kinda lonely down here in the dungeon.]

[Lonely and also boring. And ever since his three year stint on USS Prospitship with Jade and pals, John doesn't deal well with boredom. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of fun games you can play while shackled to a wall. He very quickly grew tired of "Count All the Bricks on the Ceiling" and "See If You Can Hit The Door With A Loogie" (charming, John. Charming). Similarly, "Futile Struggling Against Chains" lost its appeal in under a minute. So, at some point, if you happen to be in the general vicinity of the dungeon, you might hear somebody inside singing the Ghostbusters theme (complete with sound effects for the instrumental parts). Though the voice is uh...not exactly the best.]

[Dear god somebody save him before he actually starts singing "How Do I Live." Or...at least do in there and give him some company for distraction until the girlfriend and the best friend show up to kick his ass.]

((ooc: basically what it says on the tin: a generic post for anything you might want John for the event for days 2-5. I'm probably going to end up throwing up some more prompts as the week goes on and I have a better idea of what he's doing, so I'm a-okay with multiple threads with the same character. Just put the date and location in the subject line so I can sort of have an idea of general timeline, thanks! As far as sigils go, John is friendly enough that he'll help literally anybody who asks.))

Comments

C is for being chained in the dungeon like a loser

[superordinary]

[ Who has two thumbs and managed to run into a horde of vaguely bear-shaped monsters and white out from sustaining too many attacks? This guy. When he opens his eyes, it doesn't take long for him to realize that he's not in the armory where he was before. It also doesn't take long for him to realize he's in chains and that he's not alone. ]

...Um. Hey.

[ghostytrainer]

[John has lost count on the brick counting game twice already, but damn if he isn't still trying. Or at least he was until Naegi showed up.]

Auughh, dammit! [We'll just never know how many ceiling bricks there are. It will forever be the castle's greatest mystery. John can't really be mad though, once he pulls his gaze down and directs it to his new cellmate instead.]

Oh hey, dude, what's up? Welcome to the Dungeon of Wonders. And by Wonders, I mean Endless Boredom, may as well get comfortable. So what are you in for, my friend?

[superordinary]

Um, I got attacked by bears. They chased me and I tripped and...then I ended up here.

[ He slowly pushes himself up into a sitting position and gives the chains a tug. When they refuse to budge, he frowns. ]

At least I have company.

[ghostytrainer]

Bears, huh? Well that is...certainly a way to go. I was stabbed, myself, but that's nothing new so it's kinda like "pfft, okay, whatever."

[John was not as lucky as Naegi with his chains. Though his feet are free, his hands are unfortunately shackled above his head, tethered to the ceiling and effectively keeping him stuck in a standing position.]

But yes, you do have company and that's good because let me tell you, it's boring as hell down here alone. [Gee, he probably couldn't guess that with as much as you're rambling here, John.] And on another bright side, at least the bears can't get you in here. [A beat.] Or at least, nothing has managed to get in here yet so I'm assuming they can't. Otherwise we might have a bit of a problem.

[Because if this is where you go when you die...what happens if you double die? Can you even double die?]

[superordinary]

You're awfully calm for someone who just got stabbed, Egbert-kun. [ Then again, he's pretty calm himself after getting chased down by bears. All things considered, this isn't anywhere near as bad as murderschool and Detention. ]

I hope you're right. Who knows what would happen if you die in here...

[ghostytrainer]

Hehehe, well after about the second time it happens, you stop freaking about it and kind of start wishing people would find more creative ways to kill you. You know, if they absolutely have to kill you. Not dying is still much preferred.

[Very much so.]

But yeah, that was my thought too...and I'm really not keen to test it.

[superordinary]

...You've been stabbed to death before?

[ghostytrainer]

Twice, actually. Well, twice fatally. All in all, this most recent one makes...fiiiive times total? No wait. Six, if we include the one I wind-Houdini'd my way out of at the last minute. [He pauses for a moment, thinking.]

Call it five and a half. Either way, enough times to make me start wondering if there's some kind of target painted on my chest that I can't see or something.

[superordinary]

F-five times...and here I thought I had bad luck. [ Seriously John what is your life even. ]

How can something like that even happen to someone five times?

[ghostytrainer]

It's...a very long and complicated story so I'm just going to say 'shenanigans' and leave it at that. The world I come from is confusing and weird and when I try to explain things, people usually don't get it or tell me I'm nuts. [A beat.] Sometimes both.

[And sometimes there are things that even he doesn't understand about his own world.]

But under normal circumstances I'm sort of immortal? So that kind of helps with the whole stabbing thing. Or at least the not perma-dying thing.

[superordinary]

[ Does Naegi want to ask about homestuck...? ...Nah. Not now. ]

So you're immortal... that's really cool. I don't have anything like that. No special abilities or immortality or mind reading powers.

[ghostytrainer]

[Never ask.]

Only sort of, there are rules to it. The death has to be heroic or just, otherwise I just come back. But here I'm normal again but uh...since supposedly nobody can die here anyway I sort of got an upgrade in that regard I guess? No more restrictions.

[He laughs a little.]

But hey, being normal isn't so bad! I was a normal, fully mortal, no magic powers kid for most of my life too.

[superordinary]

Those are some weird conditions. What counts as a heroic or just death?

[ Naegi shifts, leaning his back against the brick wall behind him and glances in the direction of the door. It's right there and he can't do anything because of the chains. ]

It'd be cool to have a superpower, though... especially in situations like this one.

[ghostytrainer]

I know, aren't they? There's so much grey area in there...but generally speaking, a heroic death happens when you do something for the greater good or the benefit of others and die in the process. Like if you push someone out of the way and take a death hit for them or if you ran a live bomb out of a city so it could explode out in the middle of nowhere. Stuff like that would be heroic and you wouldn't come back for it.

[Which...when you think about it, is really kind of shitty. Thanks for being a nice person and all, now you get to die!]

And a just death would be the exact opposite. Say you're a suitably villainous douchewaffle who like...you know, burns down towns and murders entire families and shit. If a hero takes you down, you stay down. so basically being the ultimate paragon of either end of the good-evil spectrum can get you killed.

But I won't argue with you there. Powers would certainly make it easier to get out of this dungeon. Or at least Pokémon...mine are both still up with Dave and Rose.

[Though...to be honest, he's not sure how an Umbreon and a Whimsicott could really help with chains.]

[superordinary]

Getting killed for doing something good doesn't really sound fair, though... [ Congratulations, death is your reward for being a hero. ]

I don't have my Pokémon with me either. So I guess all we can do is wait until someone gets us out of here.

[ghostytrainer]

Yeah tell me about it. [He gives the best shrug he can with his arms suspended above his head.] I didn't make the rules though, I'm just bound by them.

But yeah. Hopefully somebody comes by soon...

[superordinary]

So, um, what should we do until then? Talk about our lives?

[ghostytrainer]

Sure, why not? This sort of situation isn't really that great for much of anything else. You go first though, I feel like I already kind of babbled about myself a lot.

[superordinary]

All right...Um, I grew up in Tokyo with my family. My life's not really that interesting, though. [ Quick, think of something to tell John that isn't murderschool. ]

I was held hostage on a bus once.

[ghostytrainer]

...you were held hostage on a bus and yet somehow your life "isn't really that interesting?" [I MEAN REALLY NOW.] What happened? Like...how did you get out of that one? Was everybody okay?

[superordinary]

M-most of my life has been pretty average and normal. This is one of the few things that aren't. [ Except for murderschool, that is. ]

I ended up in that situation because I wanted to return a cell phone someone left on a bench but then I tripped and as I did so, I grabbed onto someone's bag and it was torn open. A bunch of stolen jewelry fell out on the floor and the guy decided to take me hostage. He forced the driver out of his seat by threatening to slit my throat if he didn't comply and made me sit down. Then he ordered the other passengers to gather the jewelry.

[ghostytrainer]

[John is silent, listening intently. Because damn, that escalated quickly.]

Then what?

[superordinary]

An old man tackled the thief but then I, um, accidentally shifted the gears and pressed the gas pedal and I was yelled at to stop the bus. I stepped on the brakes but the sudden stop threw the old man off balance and made it possible for the thief to leave the bus 'cause I brushed against the button that opened the door.

Anyway, I was asked to go after him. Everyone in the bus seemed to agree with that for some reason so I had no choice but to go. But when I left the bus, I crashed into a mailman who was wondering what was happening on the bus.

[ He pauses briefly. Wow, what a day that was. ]

We both fell over and the thief managed to steal the mailman's motorcycle. But he didn't get far because it suddenly tipped over and threw him off. The motorcycle hit a streetlamp and basically exploded.

You know what caused the motorcycle to do that? It was a can of juice I bought earlier that day but ended up on the ground when the plastic bag it was in was torn open.