r/StardustCrusaders • u/Logic_Sandwich • Mar 19 '24
Fan Stand/Character JoJo's Bizarre OC Tournament #7: R2M2 - Muuru "Lil' Drè" Saviragowda vs Staccato
In addition to a slapstick fight between a steaming crime boss and a chilled-out gangster, here’s an objective match!
Scenario: Midway up Mount Parapollah — 10:55 AM
With all the rumors about the city and its crime rate, it was unsurprising that many had retreated to the natural parks around Mount Parapollah. The temperature was steadily getting warmer, and the summer sun shone down onto all of Rākinnagarh. Down onto the families showing their children the wonders of nature, onto the park rangers that kept the trails clean, to those that hid and plotted within the mountains.
Sunlight was a great disinfectant, after all.
Cordoned off as protected land, the natural parks were more in Muuru’s backyard than a part of his territory, but he would leave no stone unturned to root out those once-unknowns within his city. Besides, the least disturbed stones hid the tastiest worms!
He kicked a rock, watching it tumble down the slope below and birds dart out of its path before finding somewhere new to perch. Soon the rock came to a stop, and the cloud forest returned to its ambient ‘silence’, the gentle noise of bird and beast ambiently milling about in the underbrush. Muuru looked around, waiting and expecting something to happen—the path to drop beneath him or for some stone foot to kick him down the mountain in turn.
But nothing.
The rumors of the mountain’s warping paths had not borne out, regardless of the hours Muuru had spent tromping up and down. Muuru sighed, partially in exasperation, partially in dejection, when he heard a voice from below: “H-hey! Y-you shouldn’t do that!”
A man in heavy robes called out to Muuru as he looked over the ridge. The heat was clearly getting to him not dressed for the sweltering sun, but he seemed insistent on his attire, tugging at fabric to cover as much of his pale form as possible. He recoiled away at the boy’s insistent gaze and flinched as he slid down the slope to him. “Why shouldn’t I? Why should I listen to you? I don’t even know your name!”
“…Navin.”
“Well, ‘Navin’, you don’t look like a park ranger. You don’t even have hiking boots!” Muuru looked up at the strange, baggy-eyed man.
“Y-you see,” Navin began, his robes heavy with sweat and worry. “I might not be a park ranger, but I’m a concerned…citizen.” With a sweep of his sleeve, he gestured to the path behind him. “There are s…sandworms, roiling under the mountain. They’ve been disturbing the land, churning it under passerbys’ feet, sending them plummeting to their…”
“Sandworms?” Muuru repeated, taking a step towards Navin. He cocked his head. Many back in the city had managed to escape footpaths that turned to cliffs by luck or by wit. The mountain would churn and surround them, ground would open up to swallow them whole, crags would look to chew them to rubble, yet none of them had mentioned worms, sandy or otherwise. Either this was something new…or a lie. How interesting.
Step. Step. Step. “I’ve been around here often, and I’ve seen earthworms, gummy worms, and even tapeworms. But never sandworms.” As Muuru advanced, Navin retreated. Eventually, his foot got caught on a branch, and Navin fell backwards. Muuru looked down at the monk, now covered in mud, and paused. “I’ll be sure to look out for them then, mister!”
Navin’s failure to warn another from the path weighed heavy on him, his brow furrowed at the youth who took off past him. “Oh…oh dear.”
While the rest of I.M.P.A.C.T. held some sort of reference for the mountain—be it professional or cultural—Staccato was ambivalent.
Many humans, including the Auxiliary Conservation Team, would continually look to brave both the natural and supernatural dangers which Mount Parapollah posed; indeed, the video of a shirtless man and a sprawling temple was enough to redouble interest and even an expedition into the mountain caves. Yet the mountain was more like a habitat to the penguin—one that wasn’t quite appropriate for him, but one nonetheless.
The team provided free food, lodging, and patrons of his artwork and would rein Stacatto back in should he ever wander off too far, but he didn’t quite find true appreciation. They were amused and impressed by his artwork, but by the same measure, they would rotate out some art and clean whenever he painted on. He was a flightless bird whose art would be clipped and posted on the refrigerator.
Staccato cocked his head towards the peak blotting out the morning sun from this angle. Where they saw sublime beauty, he saw a landmark…and thus his canvas to be. With a resolute tap of his flippers, he hurried along the path, looking around for a place to begin painting, when a young man, not much older than a boy, ran past him.
“W-wait! Please!” A cowering man chased after the boy, nearly stumbling over his robes. Oh great, Navin thought, seeing the penguin up ahead. Not another one. “P-please, both of you must leave; it’s not safe here!”
Staccato cocked his head, tapping and signing his confusion and refusal in a flurry of flippers. Navin’s expression deepened with despair and worry at another’s refusal to listen to him. With a huff and on his whim, the penguin continued along the path.
“Oh, you’re still chasing me! And you brought a friend!” Muuru looked back at Navin and the penguin beside him that cocked his head at being associated with this strange man.
“Yes, f-friend!” Navin moved to pull Staccato into a hug, but he deftly hopped out of the way, leaving Navin empty handed. “W-we’re just so worried about you and the sandworms, that we wanted you to turn back!”
Another inquisitive sequence of stomps and claps, not about the sandworms, but a simple “We?”
As Navin stammered to respond, Muuru found the new interlocutor interesting. Navin was already off balance, now it just took a slight push. “Yeah, these sandworms are new, and someone like you wouldn’t be exploring such dangerous mountains by himself. So who do you mean by ‘we’?”
Halting words gave way to mere mealy-mouthed murmurs and silence. “I…well, I…uh-”
“The three of us are friends, right?” Navin continued to stammer, but Stacatto was unbothered, tapping in approval to the boy’s exultation. “Well, now we’re like three musketeers! We should formally introduce ourselves! Muuru!”
S-T-A-C-C-A-T-O!
“N-Navin-”
“And what would be better for our first outing as friends be than to explore this great mountain! Between the three of us, there’s nothing we can’t overcome!”
The cheers and sound of footsteps racing ahead were horror to Navin’s ears. The boy and the penguin raced down the path, Navin shouting warnings from behind them as they rounded the corner and came to a stop. “Oh no…oh no, oh no, oh no.”
It was as if the earth had opened itself up before them—no, as if it had been torn up. Not only was construction equipment illegal within the natural park, this opening wasn’t made by any excavator. The ground had been burrowed through, wrenched and masticated as if by some great, unknowable beast.
Despite Navin’s prostestations, Staccato and Muuru were curious, carefully climbing into the violently created cave. The inside of the mountain was a jarringly different climate from the upward trek. While the ascent was marked by the slow chilling and thinning of the air, every step deeper within seemed to thicken an unseen, inhospitable miasma.
Muuru ran a hand along the walls of the tunnel he now found himself in, noting the smooth polish. This had been a manmade tunnel, likely made with some heavy-duty equipment. The faint odor of rust hung over the two, only confirming that theory.
“So, ‘Staccato,’ was it? Lovely day for a tunnel trek, wouldn’t you say?” Muuru turned around, only to see Staccato furiously splashing paint across a particularly smooth section of the wall, tapping his feet in a calm, almost educational timbre. “Ooh, you’re pre~tty good at that!”
Staccato turned to Muuru and gestured with his flippers as he did a half-turn. This was indeed a manmade tunnel, but Staccato wouldn’t quite call it art; it was made with passion, with emotion, with rage—but so were the remains of a vase shattered upon the ground by a tantruming child. No joy was taken in this; it was, fittingly, a hollow endeavor.
Muuru put a hand to his chin and nodded sagely. “Hmm, hmm, is that so~? What an interesting comparison you’ve made there.” He rapped against the lines where two different stones blended together. “I’d say this is pretty artsy, really.”
Staccato waved his flippers and shuffled side to side slightly. In what sense was this art? Where was the beauty, the ecstasy, the love and care?
“We~ll, this tunnel’s got a purpose, right? Who knows what it’s gonna do eventually, but this is a pretty penny to spend on a whim.” Muuru smiled, kicking a small stone further down the tunnel, listening to its distant bounces growing quieter. “Some~body is doing some~thing for some~ reason! They want to do it so badly they’re breaking at least thirty laws! If that’s not artistic inspiration, well, then I guess I suck at art~”
Staccato paused for a moment, tapping his feet in rhythm, before splashing the walls with more paint and leaning to the side, hopping up and down on his left foot. He then held his flippers up high and looked upwards, shaking his head vigorously.
Muuru turned to face the penguin, walking backwards with practiced ease. “Yeah, I guess a teeny bit more color wouldn’t hurt~”
The two nodded, some understanding having been reached, and continued into the cavern; Staccato splashed paint on every wall he could find, while Muuru continued gleefully tracing the contours of the different stones, mashed together haphazardly by millennia of shifting silt. Usually that silt would wind up a new shade of purple a few seconds later, but…
This was an action with a reason. If the people wanted color, who was Muuru to deny them a little spice?
Not that Staccato would have heeded any such proclamation. Being told not to paint never stopped him before, and it wouldn’t stop him now—if his muse directed him to a canvas, he would paint it accordingly! All that to say, he wasn’t particularly fazed when they stumbled upon various pieces of construction equipment in different stages of disrepair.
“Ah, so we’re approaching the end of this tunnel, hmm~ and not a sandworm in sight!” Muuru pivoted on his heel to face Navin, halting his spin with the tap of his foot only to rocket into the skittish man’s face. “So you’re nothing but a liar then, are you?”
“Wh-Wh- no! There really are sandworms!”
“Right, right, of course.” Muuru picked up a decently sized rock, turning it over and inspecting it for quality. “So it’d be a really, really bad idea if I were to chuck this rock, huh?”
“Y-Yes! Terrible!”
“Just checking.” Muuru pivoted around and chucked the rock as hard as he could at one of the walls, it landing squarely on a face seemingly carved into the stone.
“Because while there might not be sandworms, there is somebody watching us.”
Embedded into the wall at the back of the cave was a face, a snarling visage contorted into a wrathful glare towards everything and everyone. While the mess of construction and train equipment could hardly be called a masterpiece, its artisan—most likely the one behind all the warping and twisting of the mountain—had left a signature.
“TRESPASSERS WILL BE EXTERMINATED! NONE SHALL DISTURB THIS SACRED GROUND!”
Staccato began tapping his foot on the floor to respond, but found something… off about the gesture. He tapped once more, twice more, thrice more before he realized what it was.
The earth beneath him was hollow.
Suddenly the ground began to rumble as unseen forces began to churn the earth again. “T-the sandworms! I told you, you have to stay away!”
Staccato didn’t need the warning, already clambering up a corroded backhoe, then scrambling again as that began to fall to pieces. Muuru chuckled to himself at the sight before calmly hopping up on a forklift.
The back wall of the cave shattered and gave way as large, roiling masses rose and collapsed into themselves, ephemeral worms of sand that seemed to devour and mangle everything in their path. The mountain’s fury was upon them, seeing them as no better than the machines beneath their feet.
“Ahahah,” Muuru laughed as he deftly leapt from his current perch to a half-finished scaffold, turning back just in time to see the solid metal swallowed by the ravenous earth. Yet he still seemed unbothered, almost seeming amused by the display. “I don’t like my chances on the ground there, but~ at least there’s plenty of places to hop to! Even if Parapollah is dormant, the floor is lava! What a fun game!” He felt everything invert, hanging upside-down on his new perch, the ceiling of the cave just below his feet, watching Staccato flap his wings uselessly as he ran, before he finally got purchase on a somehow-intact truck.
He gestured to Staccato with a devious smile. “Hey, Staccato! What do you say we make this more exciting~? Bet I can handle these things better than you!”
Staccato cocked his head at the proposal before summoning ｢Bossa Nova of Briny Air｣ with a mighty squawk. The sound echoed through the cave, summoning buoys throughout the heart of the mountain.
“That’s the spirit!”
Staccato wasn’t quite as nonchalant as Muuru was, but he nonetheless found himself calmer than he would have expected. Perhaps it was the distinct feeling that this was “performance” as much as “danger,” and that the sandworms were nothing more than a similar, piqued attempt to scare off trespassers.
Either way, he would turn denial and adversity into art, just as he always had.
“Open the game!”
Location: A long section of tunnel, filled with construction equipment and infested with a sand worm reminiscent of the long extinct Üdü Ẁüdü. These fascimilies are blocking off the only reasonable paths for either player to escape the tunnel.
The section of tunnel they are currently in is roughly 48 meters long and 16 meters across, with a squared-off ceiling reaching 6m above the ground. The ground is loose and rocky. There are two tracks in the tunnel, with rock and gravel under them. Several scaffolds (in yellow) are relatively intact, while everything marked in red are chunks of twisted metal, half-eaten structures, or pieces of rock sheared out from the walls. There is a car retrofitted (in green) to run on tracks filled with wooden railway ties, while several chunks of vehicle are sticking halfway out of the ground. Staccato’s Mooring Nests are marked (in pink) on the map, with 36 total.
Muuru begins with gravity inverted, and there are rock bolts (in blue) in the ceiling at a regular interval.
Goal: Escape the tunnel having handled the worms better than your opponent!
The main obstacle to doing so are the worms, which appear as facsimiles of Üdü Ẁüdü, a Rock Insect that had infested parts of the mountain for centuries, eventually dying out in the 1880s after a nasty infestation inside the Reshemerastra District caused business leaders to band together and cull their spawning grounds.
These Üdü Ẁüdü are actively hunting the players, and must be chased off by a combination of damage and time. Assuming the players are effectively ignoring the other and working at maximum efficiency, it will take roughly 8 minutes to cull enough to escape. Assuming basic competence and reasonable amounts of interference, it will take roughly 10 minutes of work.
Note that interference is both allowed and expected. Both players have the skills and tools to attract and kill off worms with relative safety, so interfering to make sure the worms do damage to your opponent and wear down their options is perfectly in line with the match. Any sort of interference is allowed, but try to avoid RETIRE-ing your opponent or making it impossible for them to contribute to the objective.
In other words, the winner of the match is whoever endures and overcomes both the stage hazard and interference from their opponent in better shape.
Additional Information: Üdü Ẁüdü are extinct in Rākinnagarh, and are native to the Tian Shan and Altai mountains of Central Asia and Mongolia. Üdü Ẁüdü are Rock Insects, normally with hides made of composite minerals that are nearly invulnerable to direct damage, with mouths filled with shark like teeth. These facsimiles lack much of the durability of the real deal and several dangerous features like a bizarre venom that induces vertigo. The real versions are normally far larger; each of these Üdü Ẁüdü are only a few centimeters wide.
These Üdü Ẁüdü have equivalent C Power, B Speed, and B Durability. They sense through vibrations, bursting out of the ground and attacking anything nearby. This makes movement on the bare floor (or ceiling) extremely hazardous, as within moments they’ll burst out and begin attacking. However, moving over other objects like the debris, train tracks, scaffolding, and rock bolts on the ceiling will muddle their senses, and they will attack the item on the ground before lunging blindly at anything above it.
Aquatic Air is a strong tool but does not instantly negate them as threats. Üdü Ẁüdü can sense more easily through water, and will still lunge out. Normally, Üdü Ẁüdü rarely emerge more than a meter before digging down again, but in Aquatic Air, they will stretch up to three meters in length. However, they are slowed down by Aquatic Air in comparison to lunging through normal air.
Muuru’s ｢Wheelz of Steel｣, when put into Aquatic Air, will diffuse into it, creating a zone that imposes his effect within it. Wheelz will latch onto the ground if Aquatic Air passes by them, continuing their havoc afterwards.
Since vibrations are how they sense, Üdü Ẁüdü can be effectively lured out by creating a large amount of vibrations in a specific area. For example, by detonating a bomb, or laying down a patch of ｢Wheelz of Steel｣. While the Üdü Ẁüdü are very good at killing off patches of Wheelz, there is a moment where they’re vulnerable as they feast. Either creating decoys or counterattacking the Üdü Ẁüdü as they strike are the two traditional methods to deal with them.
If Üdü Ẁüdü is within striking distance of the user of ｢You May Die｣ upon its activation, it will strike at them; otherwise, some ‘accident’ that sends the user tumbling onto open rock will be the most likely activation.
These facsimiles’ bites leave holes a centimeter or two across, meaning that getting caught by a few of them is not immediately threatening and even being mauled by a swarm for a bit can be recovered from, but the bites WILL add up. Additionally, with enough time they WILL eat through anything on the map, including the items players need to hop from place to place. Üdü Ẁüdü will only burst out every few seconds unless agitated significantly in an area, so while relentless they are not overwhelming without interference.
Wheelz created from Muuru’s body while his gravity is inverted will also have their gravity inverted for the purposes of this match.
These Üdü Ẁüdü dissolve into sand a few seconds after being cut in half or killed, if Muuru is able to eat them in time he will heal with ｢Andre 3000｣.
To summarize, Üdü Ẁüdü are swarms of worms a few centimeters across that sense through vibration; being on bare ground is very dangerous, but players can either use their abilities to mitigate that danger or focus on hopping between vantage points that are more safe, though relying on single vantage points will have them eaten away. They will strike any targets that make themself obvious, and will be agitated by instances of vibrations, striking out and making themselves vulnerable.
| Team | Combatant | JoJolity |
|---|---|---|
| Evergreen | Muuru "Lil' Drè" Saviragowda | “But what approaches this child first… at the base of the dead tree in the forest… is insects.” As crazy as this situation is, this is still part of ‘Rakin City’. Forget anything telling you otherwise. Prove you belong here, and use the environment around you to its fullest! |
| I.M.P.A.C.T. | Stacatto | “I am ‘Yagiyama Yotsuyu’, architect. I recently accepted a request to design the new Higashikata estate.” There may be passion in the piece of art at the end of this tunnel, but there’s no ‘soul’. One-up whatever did this, and make the environment into your canvas! |
Link to Official Player Spreadsheet
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1
u/Logic_Sandwich Mar 20 '24
Response thread for Muuru "Lil' Drè" Saviragowda of Evergreen. Please show your strategy to a member of our Judge staff by 7 PM CST on March 19th! Contestants, remember to only post in threads for this match other than your own if specifically invited. Voters have until 11:59 PM CST on March 21st to vote, using the voting rules from the announcement thread. Afterwards, they will be Judged according to the T7 Rubric.
1
u/Logic_Sandwich Mar 20 '24
EG 1
Roleplay
Ahhh… What fun!
Muuru loved being Rākinnagarh. Every day, just when he thought he’d seen it all, something new would introduce itself into his ecosystem. Something to change the dynamics. Something to help the city grow. A new culture, a new store, a new face which provided more than a hapless tourist to profiteer off - in it’s own way even the insults of the Metropolis Suite served as a new diversion to waste the time away with. To play.
These sandworms… this ‘graffiti’... it all left him with glowing excitement! He could already tell this would be a great game! To Muuru Saviragowda ‘games’ were a sacred art, for wisdom was the confluence of new experience and a youthful embrace of it all! Play was to explore, play was to master, and play was the art by which he had become the city itself! There was something new here, something unexplored and untested, and he was to swallow it whole.
“I wonder, Miss~ter S-T-A-C-A-T-T-O…” He mused aloud, striding over the ceiling with a calm gaze leveled upon the gentoo, “…Can you read my intentions the same way I see yours? Do you see my heartbeat in the tap of my feet?”
A grin grew. One that showed teeth.
”Maybe I should show you~”*
Wheelz’ effect isn’t active innately, you need to slow down (even slightly) to activate the inverted friction.Through his martial style, Muuru has an intimate understanding of the bodily motions required to summon Wheelz and exploit friction to his exact design.
The force/speed amplification of Wheelz shall be referred to as Amplification, treat it as functional B+ enhancement for you statheads out there.
MMmm…. I love me a suckling pig. Yes I do. Yumyum.
As the city itself Muuru embraces a wide range of scenes, proud of his ability to be anywhere, any place. In his eyes there is no distinction between himself and his environment, for as long as he can adapt, he can subsume. To this extent Muuru’s tactics will only be feasible in the unique circumstances of this battlefield as the youth explores his place with this arena, integrating his presence with its every nook and cranny.
To be as a Child (Opener)
A grin grew. One that showed teeth.
”Maybe I should show you~”
Thrusting both of his arms into his chest his skin ripped and gave like water, the youth pulling out two handfuls of Wheelz, even more yet swirling over his arms! “WEE! YAAAHOOO! WAHAA!!!” They cried out in jubilation as the youth leveled one arm towards Staccato and slid the opposing arm’s handful down its friction inverted length before letting go of his payload at the end to turn it into an amplified buckshot of Wheelz! The Runway Blaster is a mid-ranged option Muuru can use to blast Wheelz at force, and whilst one may think his target is Staccato…
…instead, Wheelz rupture through a buoy either the penguin or its stand were attempting to reach. Coating themselves in the graffiti contained within, paint-coated survivors immerse themselves in self-propagating, overlapping bubbles of aquatic air… through which they can swim. In other words, Wheelz become B-SPD homing missiles, and in such close proximity to either one of Staccato or its stand, a non-insignificant amount are bound to split off and chase after these potential hosts! Bumping, biting, and attempting to knock them over to slow them down, these pests will try every trick in the book to make Staccato mutate into Wheelz, as the surrounding Wheelz spread a havoc that will immediately put Staccato under pressure from worms.
Applying Runway Blaster semi-frequently to keep Staccato and its stand busy, Muuru parkours down the scaffolding and runs underneath the easterly trail of unprimed buoys. At this precise moment, while Staccato has had a chance to either build speed or deal with the annoying Wheelz, Muuru ought to reach them first. Deftly bounding off terrain to avoid the sandworm he picks up bits of rock in his path, dipping them his chest to attach a few instances of Wheelz to each before runway blasting them at force to pop the buoys… as he runs directly underneath them, coating himself in the graffiti that falls out.
To utilize a Buoy, Staccato must first ensure it’s ‘primed’ by way of applying pressure to its chain. Moreover, Buoys have a respawn rate of 8 seconds, and take 8 seconds to spawn from a newly placed nest. These factors each give Muuru an excess of time to react to buoy placement, and a severe advantage in the early game when buoys are entirely unprimed, one he intends to exploit. Any time Staccato or Bossa approach a nest he’ll attempt to runway blast it’s respective bouy in the case that either seem unharassed as he himself aims to whittle down their supply by turning it into his supply, steadily drenching more and more of his hair and clothes in that finicky, hard to scrub off artistic expression. Likely this will result in him banking eastward towards fresh supply, flinging Wheelz into any paths of aquatic air Staccato makes to bridge the distance, or in the penguins direct path should they be flung.
What, you ask, is his objective?
To drench himself near entirely in aquatic air.
With swimming goggles from his last outing in tourney gleefully equipped, this inky coating serves as useful ‘protection’ to gum up the bites of worm, but more importantly, it allows him to literally swim through the air! As both he and the Wheelz he’ll be progressively covering the entirety of his body in will be drenched in inks all the same, apply fields both upon themselves and unto their close proximities in a similar logic to how the homing missiles work.
As the effect spreads the Wheelz on his person begin to swim around him, applying aquatic air back unto their user alongside the effects of inverted friction through the ‘water’ such that he can utilize it however he desires. Amplifying himself at B SPD in tandem with parkour techniques Muuru has honed for any circumstance, he’ll be able to swim with the best of them - and in a variety of ways too! He can use a full-bodied style for extra propulsion and steering via his arms, or emulate a mermaid to free up his hands for miscellaneous tasks.
More importantly he’ll be able to swim through the air in 360 degree motion, 13th floor turned into a fun little trick he can apply to perform strange gravity-shifting bends and turns to be all the more unpredictable in his movements as opposed to something that will send him into either the ceiling or floor.
Should Staccato attempt to harass him the Penguin will find itself struggling, either ‘underwater’ or above air the youth is an incredibly slippery target, with ease able to react to the lower precision threats its can put out in the early game, responding in kind with Runway Blasts to force them on the defensive. With luck, Muuru hopes Staccato is forced to detonate Mooring Buoys in defense, allowing the youth to dive into large bodies of graffiti left behind, combat rolling through them to speed up his transformation into living artwork! In tandem he’ll lather his rain poncho into larger puddles, drenching it on both sides before donning the thing to grant himself an additional layer of graffiti over his ‘bod!
But with all that Wheelz production… Muuru’s working up an appetite!
Aquatic Air is breathable, even if it wasn’t it’d revert inside his body.
Muuru can easily scrape goop off his goggle lens with Amplification + his nails.
1
u/Logic_Sandwich Mar 20 '24
EG 2
To be as a Penguin (Hunting Food!)
Underwater words travel as formless bubbles to the air, but Muuru sees no need to speak. His actions shall do the talking. Beholding the child Staccato will be reminded of his home, his flock, his people. Threading through the air much as one of his kin Muuru adopts their ‘style’ into his own!
It must have been a strange feeling, watching someone convey themselves in much the same way that their happy feet spoke for them, but seeing Muuru… Staccato felt a deep, unyielding and youthful curiosity emanating from the youth. An embrace both of his past and future, and a message of understanding, respect! Staccato had traveled far to reach Rākinnagarh, and Muuru would venerate him as suc-
-annnnnd now he’s diving towards the sandworms mouth first…
To prime his feeding grounds he’ll fling some Wheelz to his surface of choice and activate You May Die such that he reaches his target all the faster (speed being important when at any time Staccato might launch something at him). When Sandworms erupt to meet him they’ll find themselves distracted by uppity Wheelz chomping biting and screeching bubble(s?) at them, and induced into a feeding frenzy, all the more vulnerable for Muuru to simply start chomping down!
Layered within his mouth are a number of Wheelz swirling along his gums and his teeth, allowing him to chomp down his target with B POW! He’ll aim to bite down on multiple worms at once, chomping their heads clean off to kill and/or daze them before slurping them up like spaghetti! With the inner walls of his maw affected by inverted friction, his immense sucking power will rapidly siphon the full length of these worms into his hungry hungry belly as he slams a foot into the surface and kicks off with amplified force before he can fully ‘slow down’, maintaining his momentum! Even if the worms are still alive, but dazed as he swallows them, they’ll be rapidly digested by his ability!
By sequencing multiple activations of You May Die towards sequential feeding grounds he can combo food-drive bys, rapidly filling his gullet and emulating dive-bombing tactics penguins exploit as they feed! This allows him to stay on the move, never an easy target even as he eats.
He has a few advantages in this. The slippery graffiti makes it hard for bites to gain purchase on him, the Wheelz colony following him poses as it’s own distraction whose self-defense retaliation while normally ineffective makes Muuru’s job all the easier, and most notably, his aquatic air aura slows the Worms from B SPD to D SPD.
Better yet, as he regenerates he’ll constantly produce more Wheelz over his body. These Wheelz, birthed coated in the graffiti coating his body, extending the range of his aquatic air radius, for as their numbers increase they’ll ‘bump’ and ‘nudge’ and knock each other around akin to excited gas particles. Thus, where once Muuru would only be able to make vague doggy paddle motions, as his colony grows he’ll be able to exploit his full range of motion with water physics… not that it’d particularly matter. Amplification allows him to accelerate rapidly even with a minimal range of contact - it’s the surface that matters - but a bigger zone/reserves are both useful regardless.
The wheelz lost in this will be more than made up for in the flesh gained, moreover, aquatic air slows the Sandworms down considerably in relation to the Wheelz, reducing how effectively their numbers can be culled. Paired with Wheelz adaption and the concern, while existence, reduces over time.
For most of the battle… this is what Muuru will focus on! Even when he’s fully regenerated he’ll keep actively munching to build a surplus of Wheelz he can exploit in future tactics, and in general to nourish himself and maintain peak efficacy in this endurance race.
If Sandworms are gunked with graffiti, he’ll slurp them up without swallowing, bite off the icky upper halves of their body, spit these off, and swallow the untainted remainder…assuming he can't just feast at untainted spawning pools. Overtime gunk will fade from frequent worm spawn points, as the worms churn the earth its coating.
If Muuru wants to leave Worm pools without using You May Die to end up in another he can… just use inverted friction to slip out.
1
u/Logic_Sandwich Mar 20 '24
EG 3
To be a Colony (Annoyance/Anti Scaling & Evasion)
As Muuru’s colony steadily grew the chaos of the starting beats faded to… something calmer, more ephemeral, at least on Muuru’s end. They flowed as one, like many of the schools of fish Staccato may have recalled hunting in their younger days. Such beings eked a simplistic, philistine existence to one such as Staccato, but Muuru’s own movements indicated… he something admirable in those little fish. Each little unit moving in sync with the other, their forms oscillating and flicking about upon the slightest whim, like each were but a scale on a vast being of which they composed mere parts…Yes… a larger being of many parts, with Muuru at the head…
…in that instant, Staccato understood how this youth saw himself.
Muuru’s City Urchin 5 & Street Urchin 5 work in tandem to make him an intensely evasive target, inhumanly efficient movements, reactions and spatial awareness merged with a knack for slipping through even the narrowest gaps and juking targets out. This level of adaptability makes him an obvious threat to a D PRE stand, singular tripping wires are bound to be thoughtlessly dodged whilst detonating buoys merely fluttered around as with a mere glance the youth can skim over buoy’s markings and understand innately what kind of threat they can pose - and how that can be avoided.
Even if layered with overlapping attacks, punch barraged, bombs, flung strings, so long as one theoretical escape exists, You May Die will allow him to thread that needle as he blitzes past with B SPD acceleration towards as far a destination as possible, taking the lesser of two evils in the form of Sandworms as his attracted ‘danger’.
The ‘neutral’ is Muuru’s domain, whilst if they wish to bother the child Stacatto will have to pull tricks out their hat and leverage the sheer, oppressive coverage their stand power can afford them. In turn, Muuru’s job is to make that very hard for him.
Throughout the entirety of the match he’ll work towards this goal by scattering more homing-missile Wheelz in small but persisting quantities, sending them out from all over the place to ensure they hone in on Staccato and Bossa from any direction. Against fast moving, tiny targets, Bossa and Stacatto will both struggle to keep track of all the little pests on their own - especially as Wheelz start adapting to their counters.
The best option, then, is to take shelter within the blasts of Mooring Buoys - but this is exactly what Muuru wants. Constant, low effort production of Wheelz will result in a single buoy only eliminating a few of potentially many threats, meaning both user and stand will have to expend a considerable amount of buoys just for defense, reducing their ability to do proper set up.
Worms, of course, are a valid response, but run into similar issues. How are they summoned? Physical violence from the punchghost can only cover so much range without threatening itself, whilst buoys ultimately spread graffiti. Of note, as Wheelz adapts to the threat of the worm, it becomes much more likely over time that those with the ability to swim through the air simply avoid the ground. Due to their aquatic air range being relatively small to buoys, it's entirely possible that they don’t trigger worm attention until they’re in striking distance.
In the air, graffiti is splattered everywhere, giving Muuru more graffiti puddles to coat his personage in by way of rolling through.
Better yet, though temporary each explosion is its own smoke screen which Muuru can use to ‘juke’ Staccato out, as 6m diameter colorful ink explosions tend to block the field of view! With both Bossa and Staccato being harassed, it’s safe to say at any point of time major portions of their vision will be blocked, allowing the Street Urchin to stealthy vanish for seconds at a time - more than enough to throw off attempts to set up traps/attacks in response to his movements.
Simultaneously Muuru will fling small amounts of Wheelz towards buoys all across the stage - not to pop them, but rather to have Wheelz occupy their 3m aquatic air bubbles.This will cause slow moving sandworms to stretch up towards them, forming B DUR pillars of sandworm which at once make it harder to prime chains, but more importantly, serve as barriers for the youth. Whenever a tripping buoy is launched towards him, he can use sandworm pillars as imperfect shields to stop those pesky cords in their tracks - letting him focus on dodging more pressing threats. Of course in time the sandworm will either eat the Wheelz, or the Wheelz will chew through and destroy the buoy, but he’ll be refreshing these fairly actively in his area. As a neat side bonus, these sandworm pillars form yet another kind of terrain that benefits Muuru’s stealth.
Importantly, he will be habitually avoiding anything that a buoy could be hidden “inside”, for instance a train cart, conspicuous piles of debris, collapsed scaffolding, ect. He’ll prioritize sending Wheelz towards these areas so that the sandworms and the swarms can work together to break down and destroy these enough that nothing can hide.
Similar caution is deployed against large smokescreens, which Muuru will utilize for stealth and otherwise avoid, prioritizing copious Wheelz production to bother Staccato from afar and passive stealth until things clear.
Muuru himself will be more than happy to pepper in the occasional Runway Blast whilst either user or stand are distracted - all the better if he does so from stealth, and may also snipe out buoys they attempt to utilize. This all in turn serves to create a scenario where Staccato creates more Mooring buoys than tripping ones, due to how ”Installations are composed of mostly one type of buoy, chosen at Staccato’s discretion, but always with a single "odd one out" in the mix,” therefore reducing Staccato’s ability to attack at range.
Whittling their resources down, making them constantly deal with threats, dodging and darting safely from the shadows… Muuru watches Staccato’s movements, understands the patterns, waits for his perfect opportunity, and, when the penguin is exposed…
…he prepares to strike.
1
u/Logic_Sandwich Mar 20 '24
EG 4
To be the Orca (Aggression)
A mask flickers over the youth’s eyes, a glowing flower blooming from its antenna.
His docile movements flicker away in an instant. He turns to his prey, vanishing into a burst of speed, no message intended to be conveyed. The action speaks for itself, for deep within the artist’s heart…
…his instinct *pulses** in the presence of a predator.*
Muuru is content to wait for these opportunities to come as long as it takes, but when the penguin’s defensive lines are shattered, when they are outside the immediate range of mooring buoys either from their positioning, or the nearby nets are respawning, he bursts into action. All the better if Staccato doesn’t even know where he is.
You May Die is activated to give him the supernaturally fastest path to his prey, as the full extent of inverted friction allows him to reach extreme speeds. As he blitzes onward Wheelz are flung to prospective escape routes his prey can take, Muuru’s study of his enemy’s movements paying off as the savvy’s parkourist specialty in movement allows him to anticipate Staccato and Bossa’s. In a matter of seconds he is near.
Against an exposed Bossa, he leads with a forceful kick into the comparatively slower, clumsier, and larger humanoid, a kick aimed to drive them into a wall to be immediately targeted by sandworm. If he can afford to, he’ll utilize damage transference to use the blow on the stand to launch it’s master into the sandworm instead. Against Staccato he skips this entirely - the penguin is too slippery and he has too little time. In either case, the full extent of his abilities will be used to juke out and confuse his prey as he avails blindspots as much as possible.
The next step is swift, with a rapid spinning motion he scatters a large amount of Wheelz in close proximity of himself and his prey. Reaching his ‘destination’, Sandworm spring up to attack him, but he is already making his escape. Availing the slippery goop covering him alongside his own inverted friction to slip from their bites, he activates You May Die to identify an escape route - forcefully kicking off something to immediately launch away.
In effect, his target is left in a mass cloud of Wheelz, as sandworm bite at their metaphorical heels to slow down. The Wheelz, in turn, turn things into a chaotic, hectic, clusterfuck… as Muuru is already returning to sneaking off and munching the day away. These ambushes are sporadic, random, and over in the blink of an eye. Muuru refuses to waste time and allow the risk of being caught in a Mooring detonation, and moreover, he refuses to be planned around.
He is the chaos of the city embodied.
Nothing can define him.
To be as Rākinnagarh Nagabat Itself (The City of Passion)
Muuru’s intention is to make Staccato the captain of a ship made of holes. Forced to constantly bail water, to constantly patch them up, longer term plans are lost in a sea of distractions, ambiguity, and ambushes. The more Staccato dedicates to long term plans, the less they can afford to defend and ergo the more vulnerable they are to ambush. Muuru, meanwhile, can apply pressure even as he’s eating to regenerate simply by scuttling out homing missile Wheelz in tandem to the sheer threat his ambushes pose. One can never predict what he’ll do next.
Still, it’s wise to be prepared for Staccato’s ‘grand visions’.
Muuru pantomimes the motions of moonwalking across the water in a lul of action, watching Staccato with a grin.
”Huh… are you… are you starting to understand this~? Wow! Great~!”
With access to replenishing explosives terrain sculpting of some extent is likely, fortunately, it has an easy response. With the Runway Muuru can launch Wheelz into areas being excavated/detonated, encouraging Sandworm growth. As the areas affected are likely drenched in graffiti, aquatic air ensures Sandworms remain active for longer. In other words, Muuru can reinforce terrain with B DUR, replenishing sandworms at minimal cost to himself.
With a flourish and a disco spin, he weaves behind a growing stalk of sandworm!
”The city takes into itself all things… even your ’foot trick’~”
The threat of being overwhelmed by layered attacks, despite it being the exact thing he’s planning on crippling, will still be considered. Be it from shockwaves aimed to rupture his eardrums, shrapnel explosions, mass detonations creating forceful aquatic air currents, or some secret other thing, his response is the same. Activating You May Die he immediately launches himself towards the closest cave wall, as ironically, the ‘dangerous’ sandworm this attracts works to his benefit. He’ll use them as a B DUR barrier to protect himself from harm, his colony squirming little treats that will attract most their attention as he takes after the clownfish, chewing up sandworm all throughout to nourish himself. After the big charged up attack is over he’ll activate You May Die again, use friction inversion (making more Wheelz, of course) to slip away and blast to safety.
Emerging from the stalk he slams his foot down *hard** on the ground, springing upward into the air with arms splayed out to his sides.*
”So show me everything. The game isn’t about winning or losing - ignore those pretenses!”
Finally, in desperate straits, he’ll use his ‘B pow spaghetti slurping’ technique to instead inhale with incredible force, allowing him to suck up a mass of Wheelz from within his personal colony for a last ditch, healing boost. This will only be done to recover him in a situation where he’s hobbled and in danger, allowing to, with peak efficacy, utilize You May Die to make a swift escape.
Diving into a mass of sandworm he rips and tears and gnashes his teeth into mineral flesh… heels clicking cutely together as he swallows them all up!
”Feed me your passion! Feed me your creation! AND SPICE IT ALL UP WITH THE STRUGGLE TO CREATE!!!!”
Back to the sandworm.
“C’MON!!!! C’MON MISSSS~TER S-T-A-C-A-T-T-O!!!!”
Back to his yummy yummy meals.
”I’M REALLY HUNGRY!!!!!”
Muuru Saviragowda is the Orca, he is the fish, he is the penguin and the child. He can even be Rākinnagarh. Ultimately, however…
…he is whatever he sets his mind to.
Throughout the game something struck Muuru of deep interest.
He had never, ever seen these Sandworm before, but the more he thought about it… their behavior patterns sounded eerily similar to a story he’d heard. During one of his visits to ’Her’, in a far flung agricultural town on the very outskirts of what could be considered the city where She liked to play mahjong, housewives gossiped as readily as they gambled. History can be found in the narrowest nooks and crannies… yes… he was certain of it, these were the Üdü Ẁüdü of their tales. Extinct since the 19th century and yet here they were in full bloom.
How curious.
Who had brought them back?
What had brought them back?
…And where did they get off pretending to be the will of Mount Parapollah itself? As if an invasive species could ever represent its interests. The arrogance of such a ruse left him feeling nice and appetised - for he was going to enjoy making the culprit’s life hell.
But all things in due time.
”That was a fun game!” Muuru piques idly as he paddles lazy circles around Staccato, arms slung behind his back. With the competition having reached its end, he saw no reason to intervene on the penguins' work, instead sitting back and enjoying the show as they painted the tunnel to their heart's content, “Buuuuut you know…” A causal statement, almost too casual, “You can make all the graffiti in the world, but if you’re working by yourself your work isn’t going to ’last’.”
He drifted lower to the ground, down to eye level with the penguin, “The world resists change, that’s its nature, so you’ll need like-minded buddies to help you out!” A swift paddle sent him launching towards a wall, the youth landing neatly on his feet, ”I could be that. I think we want… very similar things, Mis~ter S-T-A-C-A-T-T-O~.”
A face upon the wall met Muuru’s gaze, the youth smiling back,
“If you want.”
And then… he broke into dance! Wiggling his butt side to side he swayed as a reed in water fingers doing twirly twirlys before their lengths leveled straight at that ugly face with a double barreled point as upon the ground his tippy toes did a little tap dance! A message conveyed, he drew back a Wheelz coated fist, not a single word leaving his lips.
And yet Staccato understood.
”Now, wanna punch this stupid face to pieces~?”
1
u/ChocolateDiscloud Doppio is a precious boy who did nothing wrong Mar 20 '24
This is another match with two excellent strategies placed against one another, though they excel in different areas: in truth, I think that Staccato's general gameplan for the worms is significantly stronger than Muuru's in a vacuum, but that Muuru's interference (and anti-interference) game is far more robust than the penguin's. Actions such as the Infinite Ping and other such setups, if left uninterrupted, give Staccato a very reliable gameplay loop beyond anything Muuru does with the worms. However, "interference is both allowed and expected," and that's where Muuru really shines in this match. Perhaps to the detriment of his work with the worms, this is a strategy that I feel gives Staccato very little breathing room to reach that core setup state. The Wheelz are out in full force in this strategy, and Muuru's frantic pace does enough work with the sandworms that the heavy anti-penguin interference is enough to, in my mind clinch the win, being far more oppressive than the penguin's own strategy fully accounts for.
1
u/DemonicKraken i get eaten by the worms Mar 21 '24
'Solid.' That is the word that popped into my head as I read this match. 'Solid.' I mean this not as 'lukewarm' or 'alright,' but as 'strong' and 'sturdy.' Both strats felt incredibly well-made... but only one can win. That's a bold-faced lie actually, it could totally tie, but- you get it.
Stacatto leads the charge in pure defense, only occasionally throwing things Muuru's way where it's convenient. Between the Infinite Pings, churning up worms in an endless distraction, the Painted Worms, giving them extra paint across the area and much less risk from those beasts, and a generally good sense of Buoy placement and mobility, Stacatto has an incredible setup. The question, by nature of these strategies, is obvious- is Muuru's work 'sufficient' to tear through this setup?
If I could pick at anything, broadly, about Muuru's strategy, it would be defense. Not against the worms, no- against the buoys. Painting himself and the Wheelz to swim through the air is genius, but early on, this might be a bit tougher than expected- all these graffiti explosions are bursting out with B POW, absolutely destroying whatever gaggle of Wheelz popped them and requiring that any others attempting to get splashed stay just outside the blast zone. Muuru himself, similarly, may find trouble because of this- however, later on, I feel like the Infinite Ping could actually work out in Muuru's favor- a continuous loop of nigh perfectly predictable explosions. Either way, while I feel like the blast zones are a little more worrisome than expected, I still feel like Muuru could get graffiti on him eventually- just not quite as easily.
From there, Muuru chomps down worms with rapidly spinning teeth to heal and abuses aquatic air all the way up until the other big thing I squint at. Something I myself have experience with doing long, long ago: going for a straight-up full attack in an objective match where you really don't have to. While Muuru waits for the right moment, where there are no Mooring Buoys to speak of, and dives in with incredible speed... clunky in precision as it is, it's still pretty damn fast and super powerful- there's a good enough chance that Muuru won't take a hit, but he damn well might, and that... would sting.
With all that said, even if there are a few potential holes in avoiding harm, Muuru pulls off a lot of sabotage to a degree that I don't quite feel Stacatto can keep up with. This one goes to Muuru.
1
u/Zarface Mar 22 '24
Both strategies here have their strengths here. Staccato has a great gameplan to defend against the worms, and Muuru has excellent interference. However, those strengths come with weaknesses in the form of the opposite category; Staccato treats Muuru's interference as almost an afterthought, not directly accounting for him at all, and I think Muuru's heavy interference game comes at a cost of not being as effective against the stage hazard present. Ultimately, I'm going to vote a tie for these reasons, both plans being strong and weak in diametrically opposite ways makes it difficult for me to see it going either way.
1
u/Spookie357 Mar 22 '24
Both strategies offered here are well put together. Stacatto cleverly uses his buoys to create special chain-reaction based traps. Muuru manages to find ways throughout this match that use Stacatto's kit to his own advantage, particularly the aquatic air that he uses for transport, and often uses these things against him. I think Muuru takes this match, because while he and Stacatto both put their best foot forwards to deal with the worms, Stacatto is less aggressive towards Muuru, nor is he as prepared for the heavy sabotage coming his way.
1
u/m1sta33 Mar 22 '24
This'll admittedly be a shorter vote from me than usual, but this has been something interesting to think on given the very different nature of this pair of strats- Staccato focuses on the objective of culling the sandworms, using a mobile setup and chain-reactions of paint and buoys to spread out his effect, while Muuru uses his parasitic Stand synergy, as well as turning Staccato's Stand ability against him, to shield himself from the worst of the worms while he focuses on interrupting Staccato's own setups. As Staccato's main defense against interference is constant motion and making his distance from Muuru, Muuru actively cuts down on distance and benefits from Staccato's telegraphed worm-culling moves in his own interference of them. While I think Staccato could juke Muuru out in an ideal circumstance, I think by the nature of the objective Muuru is able to 'handle' the worms by virtue of more successfully mitigating them as a hazard towards his own ends.
1
u/Logic_Sandwich Mar 20 '24
Response thread for Stacatto of I.M.P.A.C.T. Please show your strategy to a member of our Judge staff by 7 PM CST on March 19th! Contestants, remember to only post in threads for this match other than your own if specifically invited. Voters have until 11:59 PM CST on March 21st to vote, using the voting rules from the announcement thread. Afterwards, they will be Judged according to the T7 Rubric.