Payback Time

[thewatchers]

PAYBACK TIME
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The daemon base was large, a massive obsidian skull carved from the base of a black, foreboding mountain within the Outlands and surrounded by a forest of dead trees. This was inevitable, as accompanying faculty could explain. As much as it could influence the human world, the Outland was heavily influenced and shaped by human thought and culture. Weaker daemons, such as those within the base, would find their personality, forms, and even desires inexorably shaped by the thoughts of humanity and what was perceived humans would expect and fear.

The focus of the two main assault groups would be the clearing of the main hall and the lower dungeons. The groups will be divided as follows:

Main Hall:
Ky
Mav
Kanata
Tyzias
Gunvolt
Bumblebee

Main Hall Support:
Toki
Kano

Dungeon:
Valvatorez
Goro Akechi
Ren
Minako
Naoki
Keith

Dungeon Support:
Ekkehardt
James

Control Room Supervisor:
Yang

To get through to the fortress proper, the students will have to make their way through the forest. This is an open log, even for those who didn’t sign up and will consist of clearing a path and fighting off living trees and mimics in the form of any number of objects that would otherwise be expected in forests such as rocks, brambles, bushes, and other foliage..

The Main Hall is lined with massive rooms full of daemons such as the banquet hall, treasure vault, and throne room where the daemon lord resides. The Daemon Lord is the target here, and he’ll be well-guarded. Beware! Many of the rooms are trapped with mimics taking the form of treasure chests, braziers, boxes, barrels, and just about any other item.

The Dungeons are where captured humans are kept and tortured. The objective is to free the humans and defeat the Jailer, a powerful Daemon who runs the chambers. Students should beware, doppelgangers are said to be commonly slipped in amongst prisoners to ferret out rebellion and will be hidden in with those who are to be rescued.

The Control Room is located in the Citadel, with a massive monitor visualizing the area with floor plans and video feeds. All students and faculty will be wearing small cameras that will record live footage, and will be wired with a communication earpiece that will let those in the Control Room communicate freely. Students working in the Control Room will be able to relay data and information, and use the powerful supercomputers to analyze items on the ground in near real-time.

code bases by tricklet

Comments

[yokeye]

[He doesn't believe a word of that, but he's smiling like it's no big deal after all.]

It all worked out in the end~!

[suddenlybees]

[ There it is; Kano would rather see that face smile than genuine worry, so he reaches up and pats Toki on the head. Good boy. Be like that. ]

Good, good~ I'm asking 'cause I was wondering! Would you do it again? A survey mission like this? Think you got the hang of it?

[yokeye]

[Kano's actions further cement the idea that Toki should just always pretend to be happy. That's what people want, that's what they like.]

I don't know~! I think I'd try for the field next time~!

[Because there would be less stress, and he wouldn't be responsible for anyone but himself.]

[suddenlybees]

[ That's exactly how it is; sorry for the reinforcement.

But the field, huh... This time, Toki's voice was limited to just blasting into people's ears, but when he's actually out there and meant to be sneaking around, Kano can see how that'd be difficult. Maybe in an open battleground where everybody's shouting? Sounds dangerous; he doesn't want to be in the thick of things in that case. ]

Would that be more fun... Do you like fighting, Toki? You're pretty strong.

[ He motions towards the top of his head, where Toki had smashed the aquarium tank over it. ]

[yokeye]

[He's aware enough not to intentionally sign up for stealth missions, but straight up melee hasn't been discounted yet. For reasons.]

I'm s- my apologies! For that. Again.

[He waves dismissively at Kano's mention of it. It's the past. It's fine now; completely fine.]

I don't know if I really like fighting, but sometimes I want to?

[Sometimes, when he doesn't know how else to react to something. If it's not a fight he's started, he just gives up pretty quick. Though, Toki has been wondering lately if he can somehow channel the panicky feelings into like rage and beat the shit out of daemons or whatever. He doesn't have any skills per se, but that would just make his fighting style, or lack thereof, unexpected.]

I was talking to Maya about weapons! What would be a good choice!? I've ruled out guns and like projectile things!

[suddenlybees]

Whoa, hey, is that how you're going to dodge around the whole "sorry" thing!?!!

[ He caught that, Toki, don't think he didn't! What a complete waste of a wish that was, but it does still count, maybe, begrudgingly. ]

Ugh, whatever. That aside... What's wrong with guns and projectiles? They let you stay back and you won't have to be right in the middle of everything, so it's easier to stay calm and see what's going on.

[yokeye]

Haha, looks like it~! You'll have to be more specific next time~!

[It was such a stupid thing to waste a wish on.]

Yeah, which is why I thought guns would be good initially, but then like what if I have a vision while my finger's on the trigger and it becomes a friendly fire situation?

[suddenlybees]

[ That... is concerning, yeah, he definitely wouldn't want to be on the field with Toki while he's having one of those vision attacks, and the same dangerous would apply no matter what sort of weapon Toki chooses to have unless it's something that can deactivate and disappear into something harmless instead of being shot out accidentally. ]

Hm, hmm, I see what the problem is, that's tough~ How 'bout this? Are you any good and remembering runes? Can you draw them fast and accurate enough? If you get interrupted in the middle of drawing one, nothing will come of it, right?

[yokeye]

[Toki thinks that over; he has had good luck with runes when he draws them accurately.]

I draw them right like half the time, but they work when I do~! And yeah, they're probably not dangerous if I don't finish them! [However...] I won't remember what I was in the middle of drawing, though! [Or maybe not even where he is.] Uhh... You know, probably any mission is a bad idea right now, really... But I have a plan that I'm going to test soon!

[suddenlybees]

[ Half the time isn't stellar, but Toki will only continue to get better the more he practices, so that's not something Kano's too worried about. This "plan" of Toki's is, though, equal parts intrigued and wary. ]

Hm? What's this plan about? Will you let me in on it? I want to know~

[yokeye]

[Toki should be spending more time on runes than he does, as it's the only thing he's been decent at so far in the 'magic' arena. The plan, however, is less of a plan and more of a snap decision based on vague uncertainties.]

It's nothing big or interesting~! I went on that field trip to the orichalcum mine and the metal apparently suppresses magic and whatever, so I brought some back and had the guys at the forge make something for me~!

[He pulls out his phone to retrieve a photo for Kano to look at.]

I'm waiting until after the next time they need to like upload vision remnants to the supercomputer, or whatever they do, but then I'm going to wear it for a few weeks and see if it blocks the visions! Yuya said he'll tell me if I do anything weird, just in case! There shouldn't be any problems~!

[suddenlybees]

Eh... A bracelet that suppresses magic?

[ Kano wants absolutely nothing to do with something like that; he needs his magic to help cover himself up and he's a little wary of being too close to Toki now too. ]

Will you be alright if you don't get visions? In terms of being kicked out of school...

[ Toki without visions means he's just a normal kid, right? Kano understands not wanting the visions and how much pain and trouble it causes him, but realistically— and because Kano doesn't know about the Contract that'd have the school keeping him under watch anyways— the visions are his only asset and if he were a normal Candle, there'd be no reason to keep him enrolled. ]

[yokeye]

[Toki laughs at that. He would be completely fine with being kicked out.]

I don't care about that~! But there's the Contract thing, and I don't know if that's something I have to stay here for even if I'm not using the daemon power! I don't know how that works~!

[He should probably look into that one day. Toki never actually read over the paperwork for enrollment.]

[suddenlybees]

Wait wait wait, a daemon Contract!?? You have a daemon Contract??? Is that why—

[ points at his eyes, points at Toki's ]

What daemon did you Contract to?!?! What did they do to you!?!?!??!?!

[yokeye]

[He's only told Gongenzaka about it, and maybe hinted to Nana. It's just not something he bothers to mention, not that he's been actively hiding it.]

Yeah, that's where the visions came from!

[Oh. Kano's eyes are red. Is that a thing? Toki never considered it, even though it was the only obvious sign he had of the Contract himself.]

And the red eye; it used to be brown! I didn't think about that, but does that mean you have a Contract too!? There's... a lot of people with red eyes! Yuya has red eyes!

[Toki isn't sure what daemon it was; did people usually know?]

Uh, I don't know which daemon, I mean, he was a guy I thought worked with my sister! His name was Taro Yamada~! [Which should have been clue number one, an obvious placeholder name.] I don't... I don't know what he did besides the red eye; I can't see out of it, but don't they usually take souls or something too? I assume there's something with that!

[He is completely clueless about the terms he agreed to during a period of confusion and grief.]

[suddenlybees]

[ Kano wants to fervently deny his Contract and claim it's just a horrible birth defect but Toki is the best and barrels right along and Kano's saved from having to say anything about himself, though he keeps that hint about Yuya in his back pocket. ]

He~h, how mysterious— and dangerous, isn't it?! Maybe the demon switched eyes with you? You can't see out of it, but it's never done anything weird, right? Never shot laser beams, or cried blood, or anything like that??

[ WHAT DAEMON WAS IT, TOKI. Kano's no expert about daemon contracts, but if one of Michael's stipulations was to be able to see through Kano's eyes, wouldn't it be that Toki's daemon is seeing out of Toki's red eye? Michael is supposedly on their side, but other daemons might not be the same way— this is dangerous, isn't it? Isn't this why the school's so adamant about keeping all the Contracted under lock and key? It's so dangerous. ]

[yokeye]

[Switched eyes? Toki can't remember what color eyes the daemon had. He didn't even know it was a daemon until it was too late, so they can probably look like whatever they want to anyway.]

Do, do you think that's what it did!? Why would it want to switch eyes!? It wouldn't trade its eye if it didn't get anything out of it, right!? It hasn't done anything weird that I know of!

[These were things he should have thought about earlier, wondering what the daemon wanted or had actually taken.]

Oh my god, is it watching us!?

[He covers his left eye with hand, not that it's going to do any good now if the daemon has, in fact, been seeing through for it months.]

[suddenlybees]

[ He doesn't know for sure but it's what he's thinking and it's very very plausible, isn't it?? But ahhhhh, Toki's screaming again and Kano needs him to not do anything drastic like gouge out his own eye, so!! ahhh, what should he do? ]

Maybe not all the time!! Mi— uh, surely daemons are super busy and can't keep watch all the time! So you not being able to see out of that eye this entire time, maybe it's because the daemon hasn't been looking through it!! Just keep that eye closed! We'll get you an eye patch!!!

[yokeye]

[He's not really sure if that would help because...]

If everyone with red eyes has a daemon contract, aren't they all watching?

[suddenlybees]

Eh... Maybe not everybody with red eyes has a daemon contract?

[ Like Kano!!! hahaha...... ]

[yokeye]

[But hadn't Kano pointed to his eyes? Wasn't that what started this? Maybe he hadn't meant what Toki thought he did.]

Uhh, maybe not? There are a lot, so you'd think there'd be guards everywhere if there were so many contracts~!

[suddenlybees]

[ Shh, obviously he meant something different, don't overthink it-- ]

Haha, yeah, huh?

[ Like any good policeman, the guards can be very good at keeping hidden, only to swoop in at the most inconvenient times to put a stop to them. Annoying. ]

It's a coincidence, probably? Like with Yuya, he's a Tamer, not a Contracted!

[yokeye]

Maybe it's just more common in magic people~! That would make a lot more sense!

[He likes when things make sense.]

[suddenlybees]

[ And Kano likes piggybacking off things that make sense. ]

Hm~ Probably, yeah! Yuya says his family's full of Tamers and magic people and stuff, so it's probably like that! A sign of magic in general!

[yokeye]

I'm sure that's it~!

[Toki never knew any magic people previously, so it's a perfectly reasonable explanation to him. And the discussion about it all took his mind off the stressful parts of mission for a while.]

Do you think Maverick's bringing you any mimic parts?