{ battle against the story eater }

[dreamposts]

BATTLE AGAINST THE STORY EATER

The Story Eater has arrived.

More details on everything can be found here. We will request any thread submissions for certain prompts during AC and TDM threads will count. For more information, refer to the Game Notes.

Players who made boss submissions, if you are creating a prompt in your toplevel or wish to create a designated prompt for your boss, please comment here which will be used as a directory.

I. ON THE MOON

Those on the moon will at first feel overwhelmed, possibly even forced to the ground by the sheer enormous force of the nightmare energy that continues to pour out where the Story Eater had once stood. It feels as if they had extremely underestimated its power, and those of a weak mind will already feel the effects of the nightmare latching onto their worst fears. However, a cold air brushes over them and the ground beneath warms as it pulses white. In an instant, the oppressive feeling disappears, clarity returning to them.

It's too early to fall now, little dreamers, a sultry voice whispers in their ears with a laugh as another sighs, the softer voice like a melody. Quick, before the blessing loses its effect. The rest is up to you.

A. Tapir Calvary. The tapirs may have been hanging back for a while, but they will pop in, all eager to feast upon the nightmares that appear. Of course… Like anything, too much is dangerous for them as well. While they are able to withstand the seemingly endless amount of nightmare energy as if they are just swimming through flooded waters, after eating too much they start to wobble and complain of their stomachs hurting. This in turn makes them irritable, and instead of stopping to eat, they start eating more. Stop them before they eat themselves sick. Those that start to exude a dark mist and start turning black need to be quickly taken off the moon or sent into a dream. If they are not… They will disappear to somewhere unknown.

B. Slenderman and Cupid. There are two particularly strong foes that will be working with the Story Eater. "Slenderman" will be just like it was when it first appeared by the castle, feasting on nightmare energy and using shadows to its advantage. It will be a tough foe to kill, but explosive wisps and pure dreamotion light will be effective against it. Cupid will be insane and will try to inflict hatred upon any struck by his arrows. He is more unstable and will be more susceptible to those who try to purify it with love and kindness. (Cupid will most likely move to attack the town so he is available for On the Ground prompts.)

C. Wisped Away. With the amount of monsters and damage caused by the Story Eater directly and its creations, deaths are inevitable. Normally for those who have fully integrated into the world, like the fae and the dragons, this would have been permanent. However, perhaps due to the unusual nature of the Story Eater, they will be "graced" the same fate like the dreamers that inhabit Reverein. Their physical body may disappear, but their "soul" turns into condensed dreamotion energy and takes the form of a wisp. (Characters can and will be turned into wisps if they die so these can also apply to them.)

🛑 Because of the high likelihood of the original body suffering a traumatic event, the wisp will be extremely vulnerable and has a high risk of turning into a noctaere. They will flash red and black and the deeper the color, the closer they are to changing. Find and help purify them via dreamotion.
🚦 Escort vulnerable wisps to the portal so they can be taken to a safehouse and calm down.
💣 Some wisps will not feel negative emotions and instead will want to continue to fight. Although they are still vulnerable, because their dreamotion energy is so condensed they have the ability to explode without any harm to themselves to either inflict damage on the creatures OR to help purify those afflicted with pure dreamotion energy. These wisps will be gold in color.

II. ON THE GROUND

As soon as the Story Eater appeared, those of strong magical prowess had attempted to erect a barrier to protect the town and its surroundings from the brunt of the fallout, but it could not keep up forever, especially as those who try to keep it in place begin to quickly fall as their own nightmares take over. Thus while it's still safer than what's going on on the moon, the same afflictions can still be felt and experienced.

A. Support the Barriers. There are two different barriers currently protecting Reverein and the surrounding areas. Not only must they be defended from attacks, they also need help to stay up.

🧱 The sand walls erected earlier will stand tall and withstand most physical attacks, but eventually they will begin to crumble and create gaps. They must be quickly patched up and defended as the Story Eater's minions, creations, and those turned into noctaere start to push through.
🔮 The magic barrier is fueled with dreamotion and serves to help keep the effects of the nightmare energy lowered so that most of the people inside can withstand it. However, as those who are trying to keep it up fall, replacements are needed. To help, the moles from before bring up crystals that anyone can help channel and use to help as a power source to empower the barrier.

B. Aid Relief. Those who have been injured and brought back from the moon or from around town will be ushered into designated locations set up for healing. Be it physical or mental, they will be treated and protected by those who remain on defense. However, as the battle goes on and more people are afflicted, supplies and personnel will wear out, so additional aid will be needed. This may even require venturing out to get much needed herbs or supplies unless someone can dreamotion them up.

III. SPECIAL MONSTERS & BOSSES

The Story Eater is using its powers to take on the forms of an individual's worst nightmare or enemy. This could be anything. Below is the full list of special bosses and mob monsters that were submitted by players and can be encountered both on the moon and on the ground. Refer to the original links for more information. Players are still free to create and use anything that is not on the list, especially f their character's worst nightmare is something else. IMPORTANT! While any of these are capable of killing, those marked with the red flag (🚩) indicate that these are more likely to perform kills or destroy the individual to turn them into wisps.

A. Monster Mobs. Typical monster/mob creatures that while numerous are the weakest and easier to defeat. Physical attacks will be enough, but dreamotion or using Aspect abilities will inflict more damage.

🍆 Sinner Demons. They take on any form based on the type of sin they committed. Could take on the form based on the person they face.
😱 Devils. Takes on forms based on the fears of people.
🚨 Garlean K-9 Soldiers and hunting dogs. These soldiers aren't here to help and will be targeting anyone they come across.
👻 Cursed Spirits. Spiritual beings manifested from cursed energy as a result of the negative emotions that flow out of humans. They cause harm to humans and seek humans out to harm them.
💨 Redead. Emits a scream that immobilizes temporarily, moves towards target and jumps on back to deal damage.
🐍 Nagas. Breathe and spew toxic miasma and prolonged exposure to it can cause weaker beings to transform into nagas themselves. Archnaga's venom is corrosive in both liquid and gas forms. Can also swallow large objects. 🚩
🕶 Shadows. Shadow-like blobs and tables and headless dancers and things. Fairly weak.
💎 Zeugles. Aggressive genetically enhanced animals; must destroy the core inside to completely destroy them.
🤺 Sword Retrograde Army. Sword tsukumogami summoned for a cause to change history. Generally stronger than normal humans with some spiritual powers.
👹 Demons. Can hide their horns and wings to appear more human, otherwise their true form is more monstrous. They range from committing harmless silly pranks to more violent and murderous. 🚩
🎭 Four Masks. Drains one's sanity until they go berserk with potential to summon Atman (boss).
🔊 Noise. Affect people with weaker willpower and play on their negative emotions or nightmares.
📰 Xeroms. Monsters capable of attacking, infesting and draining emotions dry leaving the victim an empty husk.

B. Solo Bosses. Some nightmares manifest into one singular entity with greater powers and considered a higher leveled "boss." They do not appear as often or in number as the monster mobs and some may be controlled by players.

🍬 Gumball Waterson. Cartoon character turned creepy due to nightmare energy, but still on the sillier side. Body parts morphing or separating from him, getting into weird places, driving invisible cars, surviving crazy falls; basically whatever might be funny at that moment.
👂 Parrah & Nayo. Twin puppets that are not physically strong, but they're very annoying and are the "like to break people by talking" type of antagonist.
🙍‍♂️ Takaya Sakaki. Charismatic but otherwise a weaker enemy capable of standard Persona based magical and physical attacks and capable of summoning nightmare based Personas.
🐀 Rasputin. Can summon minions, destroy things, conceal nightmares within illusions.
🔥 Firelord Ozai. Can bend/generate fire and lightning, strong physical abilities.
🦋 Valentino. A charismatic moth demon capable of controlling smoke and has pheromones that can attract those to him.
🧝‍♀️ Gaea. Goddess of the Earth. Stronger when tethered to Earth. Powers include geokinesis, chlorokinesis (control of plants), creation of sentient life forms, atmokinesis (weather), control of animals, transformation.
🌱 Omega Flowey. Can grow vines, venus flytraps, plant stems that shoot, lots of plant based attacks.
🍐 Sephiroth. Sword fighting proficiency, shapeshifting, ability to cause hallucinations, telekinesis of medium sized objects, minor manipulation abilities, materia magic. Potential lethal backstabs. (Prompts available within FFVII toplevels). 🚩
⚡ Raiden Shogun. Scary lady with lightning based attacks, illusions, large-range attacks.
🤖 Shouki no Kami. Divine Automaton that uses lightning based attacks.
💃 Stella. Vile woman who thrives off mentally and physically tormenting.
👑 Paimon . Stolas' father, a powerful demon capable of shapeshifting, teleportation, grimoire manipulation, projection.
🧣 Ardyn Izunia. Has thirteen weapons at his disposal; can cast powerful magic such as striking down lightning, summoning blizzards, fiery explosions; has the power to heal; and is resilient to physical pain.
⏳ Kronos. God-like strength, specializes in sword combat, tough to take down. Has several types of kinesis magic.
💀 Nyx. Only has one main ability: cast death. However it's a slow windup so can be beaten beforehand. 🚩
😾 Wakaba Isshiki. Large sphynx with a woman's head. Heavy wind, almighty, and physical attacks. There can be riddles that are pertinent to those who engage it.
👮‍♀️ Makima. A woman who looks normal but is actually a Devil of immense strength, enhanced smell, domination, and can force manipulation that can damage weak targets by simply staring at them.
🖤 Atman. A very creepy giant mask that will disappear but then reappear after being defeated.
🤸‍♂️ Vholran. Fights with a waterblade. Acrobatic swordsman, mastery over water-elemental astral energy and can cast high power artes.
🎨 Creed Graphite. A Will Artist (spellcaster) capable of casting spells and summoning and controlling Xeroms.
🎼 Ganon. Hate and hunger for power in physical form. Can corrupt anything with darkness, will only be able to corrupt non-PCs unless players want to do something with that.
🌋 Calamity Ganon. Capable of creating Malice (poison substance that can cause other monsters or bosses to go aggro) and raising other monsters from the dead. Can be destroyed by any type of sealing dreamotion magic.
💔 Xehanorts (multiple). Control darkness and use darkness as a weapon; controlling people to his will by turning them into versions of himself, otherwise known as getting "norted" where victim gains yellow eyes and is controlled to his whims and the darkness in their heart/they will follow their darker side. Darkness meteorites can also be a thing.
➕ Emperor Demitrius (final boss form). Basically heal himself back up to full mid-fight so it will take a few rounds to defeat him.

C. Megabosses. Extremely powerful entities that may not even be defeated by conventional means and instead have powers that affect everyone instead. High chance of death. 🚩🚩🚩

🤖 Diaspora. Half the size of Dragon Island and up in the sky, it can disassemble dreamotion energy and knock someone out into wisp form without dying with a beam of blue goop. Has high regeneration, but will be vulnerable to prolonged attacks.
🐲 Dragons (Voids). Faces of dragons that coalesce in from the sky when they decide to attack with high concentrations of nightmare energy. Zhaitan will be capable of turning those who turned into wisps into noctaere in the form of Void Risen. Mordremoth will just descend and smash into small areas to inflict damage. Kralkatorrik will fire a giant beam of crystal fire breath that will encase anyone and anything in its path into purple crystal, and they must be freed before they turn into noctaere.

Comments

[lethechained]

[ Part of her wants to ask why he would risk such a Hell as the one between his own ears when she has the power to draw it out-- but the futility of it is plainly visible to Naminé even as the edges of her vision grow increasingly dark. Her frown stubbornly remains, but her eyes follow the motion of his hand. ]

You're already too close.

[ Her voice, however, is resigned; at this point, what else can she do? Falteringly, unsteadily, she drifts closer, until finally dropping awkwardly onto the farthest end of the log. Her arms wrap more tightly around herself, as if trying to curl every part of her inward, including her power. The illusion around them flickers, like it's starting to shred, but-- reforms just as quickly as she exhales a deep, frustrated sigh. ]

Why won't-- any of you listen?

[lonelysmiles]

[There's so many things he could say. It takes him a moment to put his thoughts in order to be succinct.]

I can't speak for the others, but I do know what it's like to be a monster. Monsters have terribly lonely existences unless they find other monsters they can stand to be around.

[He gives a wry chuckle.]

Selfish of me, I know.

[lethechained]

A monster... hm?

[ Her eyelids are sinking lower and lower, voice growing increasingly weak - the illusion, too, begins to show more signs of fading. The lass's eyes shut a moment, but she's still considering-- ]

Does that mean... that I'm one, too?

[ Whether in her current state or her normal one, when she thinks about it... ]

That's not... so bad... if it's coming from you.

[ Even if it weren't - she already knows it to be true. In any case, it seems he won't have to wait her out much longer; she's a few seconds from passing out right onto their shared seat, by the looks of her. ]

[lonelysmiles]

I don't think you're a monster, but clearly you do. Probably because the people in that castle taught you that.

[lethechained]

Because--

[ Her voice is weak now as the illusion finally begins to break apart from the outside in, the forest around them gradually shattering or fading into nothing in a flicker of golden light. ]

-- they were right. I've tried... for so long...

[ Eyes drooped fully closed, now, the girl slowly crumples in on herself even as she struggles to speak, her words fading into wisps of sound-- ]

But I'm still... just...

[ This bitter thought seems to be her last for the moment, and it's more so than she'd usually permit, but-- there's so much hurt she still holds inside, it seems. ]

... a witch.

[ And there she goes, finally slumping onto the seat as the last of her illusion sparks out of existence. It's not a log anymore at that point, but a bench. Weak as she clearly was, it might be worth checking for a pulse; fortunately, though, it seems she's only fallen unconscious. ]

[lonelysmiles]

[Alastor very carefully reaches out to check her pulse, giving a sigh of relief.]

No, my dear. You're much more than that.

[Slowly, gently, he maneuvers her into his arms and begins carrying her away from this place. His shadow could slip inside and unlock her door, but if she was anything like him, she was likely to be ravenous after expending so much magical energy.]

[Instead, he'll take her back to the treehouse he shares with Angel and tuck her into his barely-used bed. A flick of the wrist and the curtains are closed so that she can have a more restful sleep.]

[In the meantime, he'll fix something that'll be ready for her to eat once she wakes.]

[lethechained]

[ Thoroughly unconscious, Naminé is dead weight - but fortunately she isn't very much of it, tiny thing that she happens to be. She's easy enough to carry (maybe even more so than a girl her size already ought to be) and she remains out cold the entire way back. Fortunately, the negative energy rolling off of her seems to have dissipated, although her expression remains faintly troubled even in her sleep.

It takes a while for her to wake; when she does, it isn't so much because she's had her fill of rest, but rather because she's grown close enough to wakefulness to recognize, at least subconsciously, that she isn't where she usually expects to be when she regains consciousness. Her eyes flutter open, searching urgently through her still-swimming vision, and for a second she's almost afraid--

But no. Although she's not familiar with this particular view of Alastor's home, she still finds she recognizes it after a moment. Perhaps it's the decor, or perhaps it's the scents - but either way, most of the tension ebbs out of her exhausted body once she realizes where she is. It takes a little longer for her to gather the strength to stand after that, yet-- if her host is not immediately visible, eventually she'll pad her way toward the kitchen with those quiet steps of hers in search of him. ]

[lonelysmiles]

[As she takes in the bedroom, she'll notice there's an odd collection of trinkets in the room including a jar of glowing starfish from when it had rained starfish that first summer in Reverein. However, atop the writing desk enclosed in a glass case, dried and perfectly preserved, was the first flower crown Namine had made for Alastor.]

[She'd easily find Alastor in the kitchen lifting the lid off of a pot of gumbo which he took a deep whiff of. An ear twitches back in her direction as he closes the lid again.]

Good to see you up and around, my dear! How are you feeling?

[lethechained]

[ Naminé's not one to try to be a snoop these days, but it does come naturally. In this case, it's hard for her to avoid noticing such things as the miscellany on display, drooping eyelids unable to prevent her attention from straying toward the familiarity of the sights at the corner of her vision. Looking them over - it takes her a moment to focus, but recollection comes quickly enough as she realizes what's been protected so carefully in that case. Her heart is a little tighter in her chest for it - pleasantly so - as she makes her gradual way onward.

When she draws to a stop in the doorway of the kitchen, it's both because she's become aware of Alastor's attention with that flick of his ear and because she finds she benefits from the support of the doorframe. She tries not to lean against it too heavily, but looking more steady than she feels is a futile effort. And yet the fragile upturn at the corners of her mouth is genuine as she rasps back a soft, ]

Much better. [ Whether she looks or sounds it is a different matter; she's still weak, that much is clear, but there's a sort of palpable relief in her, too. After all, she's finally herself again - or closer to it, anyway. ] I'm sorry that I--....

[ Words are something of a challenge, it seems; she clears her throat, shortens what she'd meant to say - to ask if he carried her all the way, if she caused any trouble she doesn't remember-- it all becomes a faint, ]

That I fell asleep.

[lonelysmiles]

Darling, given the amount of power you were using thanks to that blackguard's influence, I'd have been shocked if you hadn't fallen asleep. I certainly would've ended up on my nose at the end of that! If anything, I'm impressed you managed to get up so quickly!

[He quickly crosses the room with his long-legged strides before gently leading her to the table for her to sit.]

The gumbo isn't quite ready, but I do have a few beignets keeping warm in the oven for you. As much as I'm not the biggest fan of sweets, I do find sugar does help perk one up after a massive magical expenditure. What would you like to drink? Water, tea, milk?

[lethechained]

I guess... I couldn't help but be restless, after everything.

[ Seeing Alastor stepping toward her, Naminé eases herself away from the doorframe in anticipation of his purpose; being the host he is, she imagines he'll usher her somewhere. As it turns out, she's correct to assume as much, and allows him to guide her without fuss - although she does take a moment to offer up a drowsy, grateful smile first.

Sinking into the offered seat with a suppressed sigh, the lass straightens slightly - or as close to it as possible at the moment - at the mention of beignets. That sounds good to her, it seems. ]

Tea, please...! If it's not too much trouble. [ Her hands fold together, polite even in her exhaustion and as her expression falters. ] You've gone to a lot for me already today. I really owe you a thank you...!

[lonelysmiles]

I wouldn't have offered if it was!

[He shakes his head at her attempt at thanks, waving a hand carelessly.]

No need for thanks, darling! Though if it bothers you that much, just consider this a lesson in what to do if someone else ends up in a similar situation. Who knows? I might end up one day overtaxing myself magically and needing a quick pick-me-up, too!

[He heads back into the kitchen before bringing out a plate of beignets. He's levitating a sugar bowl and cream pitcher.]

Water's boiling so the tea should be ready in a few minutes.

[lethechained]

[ He really is a gracious host - a considerate friend - and Naminé can't help but smile, albeit weakly, as he waves away her concern. ]

I'll remember it, [ she promises, both of his kindness and of this purported lesson. Quieter, ] But I'll have to become a better cook by then, if that ever happens. I wouldn't want to disappoint you.

[ The lass's eyes trail after him as he goes and find him again when he returns, her expression still warm with gratitude. She's polite enough to wait for him to set everything out before reaching for a beignet with slightly shaky fingers; a pick-me-up really was a good idea. ]

Thank you. I'm lucky, I think - that you were the one to bring me back.

[ He's certainly far more prepared than she would have expected of anyone else. ]