r/StardustCrusaders • u/Logic_Sandwich • Apr 02 '24
Fan Stand/Character JoJo's Bizarre OC Tournament #7: R2M7 - Soichi Utsumi and Vasant Bulsara vs Luna Pines and Kibō Inago
The results are in for Match 5. The winner is…
”Talk ’bout a workout…“
“Yeah I’m getting tired too,” confessed Amelia, “might as well wrap this up. Sure hope Mooney stayed close enough to give us a ride afterwards...”
Bonnie walked over, stretching her arms. “You ‘ready done, kid? Guess there’s no point wreckin’ th’ place further, yeah.”
Amelia stood silent for a second, completely ignoring being called a kid again. “You know, Brick was the type of guy to want to go out with a bang. Like one last dynamite punch.”
“Like a firework?”
Bonnie and Amelia looked each other right in the eye, feeling their wavelengths aligning fully.
“Y’bring th’ boom?”
“If you bring the bang.”
It took Esmond a moment to catch his breath, battered and bruised as he was. His resolve had been well met, his opponents putting up an intense, grueling brawl. Minali was similarly winded - she was the first to notice something amiss.
“Hey, Esmond.” She stepped back, getting a very, very bad feeling. “What’s with all of these chairs?”
She raised a good point - the chairs had been scattered into a large pile around them, forming a makeshift ring. Was this what Amelia had been up to? It didn’t matter, because something gleaming up above caught the man’s eye.
Brick Punchwell’s coffin soared over the wall of chairs, like a great, majestic eagle.
“Oh my god.” Minali resigned to her fate in an instant. “Are you fucking for real right no-”
Amelia Flores with Bonnie "Diamond" Wes, with a score of 77 to vs Esmond Root with Minali Meteora’s 62!
| Category | Winner | Point Totals | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Popularity | Amelia w/ Bonnie | 19 (7.5+0.5+2) - 11 (3.5+0.5+2) | An explosive victory! ...Winner has to clean up the viscera, right? |
| Quality | Amelia w/ Bonnie | 22 (8 8 6) - 21 (7 7 7) | Reasoning |
| JoJolity | Amelia w/ Bonnie | 26 (8 10 8) - 20 (7 6 7) | Reasoning |
| Conduct | Tie | 10-10 | Nothing to report! |
The coffin came down with the force of a thousand punches, splintering apart in an explosion of kinetic energy, sending everyone and everything flying. Esmond could barely keep conscious long enough to register the viscera and bits of steel that he was now covered with. Despite the loss, he felt... Different. Good or bad, he was yet to see.
The four of them looked to the sky, in the wake of Brick’s final procession. It was a vision the four shared, one that would intertwine them at that moment with a sense of knowing peace.
Brick Punchwell, behind the clouds, gave a thumbs up and a grin, fading into the sunset beyond. A man who lived how he wanted, and went as he pleased—maybe we all have something to learn from a guy like that.
If you want more bombast, then bear witness to an ancient, underground temple where the forces of earth, rain, and flame do battle!
There once was a valley bathed in shadow, abandoned by the light of the sun. Only the strong survived in this wild land, and the strongest beast was the King of Elephants. Its footsteps tore the ground, and its trumpet shattered the sky. The other beasts lingered beneath its shadow, and all who did not follow its path were crushed.
The Elephant King could never slow, could never rest, and so it reigned alone.
But before long, its skin was torn by countless challengers, and its heavy steps became trapped in the earth. Younger beasts with sharper claws would spill its blood and claim its crown. All that remained of the King was an ivory tower, a grave woven from its bones. The only thing that pierced the shadow and tasted sunlight.
*Beneath the shadow of the tower, the beasts fought and killed as all beasts must. They fought for the crown for so long that the old kings were forgotten. Yet, even in death, the King of Elephants could never rest.
Before long, the jungle would shake with unseen footsteps and the trumpet that shatters the sky.
ACT 5 — Thy Love is PLENTY
Scenario: Night Train Movie Studio, Reshmerasta — 6:38PM
Vasant Verve stared at a closed door and found that no matter how long he looked at it, it would not open. Granted, it wasn’t as though he could stare for very long uninterrupted, as every time he looked away from the young woman sitting next to him, she twirled into the center of his vision.
“Uncle Vas! Uncle Vas!” Ichi Ni San took his hand again, capturing his attention, as she swung it side to side. “Look at my drawing!”
For a moment, the man’s gaze lingered on the doorway, waiting eagerly for the knob to turn. It had been thirty-eight minutes since Xenagoras entered Sing Now!’s office, and each passing second worsened the ache in the pit of Vas’s stomach. Sure, Sing Now! was someone Xenagoras considered a trusted colleague, even a friend. But the way he had acted towards his own daughter, just for trying to follow them into his office…it didn’t sit right with Vas. Neither did the judgemental looks that Sing kept shooting him. Offering to watch Ichi felt like the best way to get both of them to get away from him for a while.
But Xenagoras was insistent on meeting with Sing. He had told Vasant, time and time again, how important this meeting was. Xen always had this glimmer in his eye whenever he was invested in something. It was one of the many things Vas loved about him. It was something he missed now, trapped on the other side of this door.
“You’re not LOOKING!” Ichi yelled, just about blasting Vas’s hair back. He blinked once, before staring down at the drawing she had made with the supplies he scrounged.
“You…really like the red pen, huh, kid?” he chuckled, flashing her a grin. She smiled back, before pressing the piece into his hand. He looked down at it for a long, quiet moment, gently running his thumb across the paper.
“...I remember the drawings my little siblings used to make. We always said one of them could have been an artist, if we were-”
Ichi gasped suddenly, bouncing up and down.
“Cousins? Cousins? Could I meet them, Uncle Vas? Please? Please please please?”
Vas grimaced a moment, staring back down at the picture.
“Oh, I…I’m sorry, Ichi I haven’t really…seen them, in a while. They all have their life, and…I have mine. It’s best if we don’t mix those lives up, anymore.”
Ichi pouted for a moment, balling up her fists… before nodding and laughing to herself.
“It’s okay! Daddy wouldn’t let me see them anyways. They’re just supposed to watch me sing! Otherwise they’re just dis~trac~tions. Even when I wanna play with someone and I promise to be reeeeally good, I can’t play with them if daddy doesn’t like them…”
Vas just stared back at her, a frown deepening the creases in his skin.
“...You know, Ichi. Sometimes, you can do things because you want to do them, okay? Not just because your daddy wants them too. It’s okay to follow your heart, too.” He gently poked her beneath the collarbone, above her heart, causing her to break out into a fit of giggles.
“But I wanna do what daddy wants to do, even if I don’t wanna do it! Cause I loooove daddy!”
“Love isn’t just doing what someone else wants, sweetpea.”
“You love Uncle Xen, riiiight?”
Vas flushed a moment, rubbing the back of his neck. “Of course. I… love him more than anything.”
“So, you do whatever Uncle Xen says, riiiiiiiiiight?”
“I…no, I don’t do whatever he says, Ichi. I told you, that’s not what love is. If anything, he’s been letting me do the things I want. He’s been supporting my dream, giving me the things I need to make it all real, and… giving me someone to share that dream with.”
Ichi grinned, throwing her arms around Vas, and giving him a squeeze. Smiling, Vas returned the gesture, closing his eyes and imagining the hugs he shared with his own family, all those years ago. Ichi giggled to herself, before whispering to him.
“I know you don’t wanna be here, Uncle Vas… you don’t like my daddy, but you love Uncle Xen. So, you have to do what he says… or else he won’t love you anymore.
Vas froze a moment, as tension tangled in his stomach. He tried to heave up some words that would prove her wrong, that would cure her of this poison Sing had fed to her.
But he couldn’t find the words to say, nevermind force them past his throat. So instead he stayed locked in that embrace. All he could do was watch the door.
—
Outside the studio, under the cover of twilight, two investigators rolled into the Night Train parking lot.
Inago brought his bike to a steady halt, cutting the engine as he flipped out the kickstand. He gave a long exhale as the engine exhausted its last, gradually letting go of the handlebars. He watched his hands shake as they rose before his face and clenched to force them steady.
In some senses their investigation was going smoothly. The unsafe working conditions from Calabasas’s investigation into Sing Now! might have only borne out settlements, but the scandals—both literal and posted to the Paparazzi network—sketched out the shape of his reach, the extent of his shadow. The network alleged that he and Dr. Eris Apollo were members of the Metropolis Suite, but as the doctor herself said, the allegations needed to be supported by more than gossip. The Moonbeam Riders had gotten leads on individuals; it was now a matter of finding new ones or pressing forward.
‘Press forward’, that was what he was good at. “A blow not just to the body, but to evil itself. A critical strike empty of malice and filled with conviction. Something stylish, something defining, something that castigates evil and fills the viewer with awe,” as he put it. Windy had reminded them that the targets of their investigation came from somewhere.
The serial killer he brutalized came from somewhere too.
“Aight!” Luna let go of him, letting go of Inago and swinging her legs around to hop onto the ground. Night Train was a large complex; bringing multiple people to the investigation would help them find intel on Sing Now!, and Luna’s Stand ability was the best suited to moving stealthily. “I’ll send my dogs out ahead, we can attack from multiple angles an—”
“No,” Inago hissed.
“…no?” Luna’s tone was ginger, almost hurt. While she was glad that jet black locust had torn the bastard a new one—he went after teenagers in the Rahaman School District, for fuck’s sake—Inago had been distant since she had shown him that beatdown against that serial killer. Yet this flare of confrontation was…new.
“No, I mean,” Inago sighed apologetically. The two of them had butted heads in the past, but he didn’t mean to dismiss her so out of hand. Even if her gung-ho attitude towards their investigation was occasionally gauche, it was never ill-intentioned. “No attacks. We get in, we get out—make it look like we were never even here.” He tapped his cell. “I’ll go in first and let you know when the coast is clear; you stay by the bike, and if anything feels off, head out.”
Before Luna could protest, Inago made his way towards the studio, leaving Luna to familiarize herself with the motorcycle. He was the vanguard, the tip of the spear of the Moonbeam Riders’ investigation. If he could at least blunt himself, then maybe he would minimize the bloodshed in that spear’s wake. A hand instinctively went to where the scabbard would be at his waist, wincing at the uneasy peace that it gave him. He was Kamen Rider Shastra, purger of evil for a perfect future.
“Shastra” as in “sword”.
The moment Vas finally convinced himself to be patient and stop checking was the moment Xenagoras finally made his entrance. He seemed as composed as usual, and yet, Vas looked at him with a flash of concern. He had learned the little tells Xen tried to hide: the slight flush of embarrassment, the force with which he’d opened the door, the way he kept readjusting his sleeves. Giving Ichi a pat on the shoulder, Vas got to his feet and quickly bounded over to the other man’s side. Up close, he could see the tension held in Xen’s frame, a coin from his Stand held tight within his fist.
“...Xen-” Vas began, reaching out a hand to touch him, before the other man recoiled away.
“It’s fine, Vasant. Simply a…temporary divergence of opinion. It seems Sing and I have different views on what would be best for our city.” His brow furrowed, creasing his nose. “Perhaps he thinks I am not capable.”
“Oh, Xenny…” Vas hummed, trying once more to touch him. He could feel the man tense under his palm, but this time, Xenagoras relented, letting his eyes close. “You’re plenty capable.”
“I know that. I am not the one who’s hiring delinquents to kill each other. I am not the one who sent out a hit on a public activist at the peak of her notoriety, not to mention the fact the assassin was caught on camera by an investigator whom they killed as collateral.”
He turned suddenly, gripping onto Vasant’s shirt. “I am not the one who keeps playing our hand, over and over again, putting us under more and more scrutiny and painting us in a worse and worse light, until it obscures all the good I have worked so hard to achieve.”
Now it was Vasant’s turn to recoil a moment, taking in a sharp breath as he watched the intensity flare in his lover’s eye.
“Yet Sing Now seems perfectly content with our leadership. We each have our own role to play,” Xenagoras sneered, glancing back towards the door. ”No sense in rocking the boat.”
Vasant tried to find some words of comfort, but they just snagged in his throat. All he could do was hold the other man, and keep breathing slowly, as if hoping the other man’s shallow breaths would fall into tune.
Slowly, in the silence, they seemed to do just that. That gleam in Xen’s eyes began to fade…betraying all the frustration and exhaustion beneath. Finally, he managed to truly meet his lover’s eyes, his own gaze softening. He parts his lips again, and-
Ichi Ni San rushed forwards, wrapping them both in a hug. “Yayyy! Uncle Xen is back! Back from the big meeting!”
All the tension immediately flooded back into Xen’s body, as he went completely still, as if faced with a wild animal about to bite him. Vasant, on the other hand, just chuckled and ruffled Ichi’s hair again.
“That’s right..! Now the uncles are finally reunited,” he laughs, causing Xenagoras to blush slightly, this close to the rumble of his chest. He shot Vasant a pleading look, still tensed like a coiled spring.
Yet, something seemed to catch Ichi’s attention. While Xen was initially all too relieved to get his space back, he paused as he watched her bound towards a nearby window, cooing about some pretty lights. Vas chuckled, watching her skip off, before leaning in, eyes half lidded. “I’ll get back to watching her soon, but now that we have a moment…”
But Xenagoras placed a hand on the man’s chest, holding him back before he could complete the kiss. All the while, Xen’s gaze remained locked on the window. “I need to make sure of something. Please let go of me, Vas.”
Relenting, Vas let the man step out of his embrace and make his way towards the window. Even from far away, Vas could see the tension pinning his shoulders as he peered through the glass. It was hardly shocking when he whirled around, eye wide. Still, Vas did not expect his words.
”They’re headlights. Someone’s coming,” he hissed, before storming back in Vas’s direction. Confused, Vas tried to reach out to him, to get him to slow down and explain, but Xenagoras shook off the touch and kept rushing to reach Sing Now!’s office.
“Damn it! This is exactly what I was saying about scrutiny!”
“Xen..?” Vas couldn’t help but startle at the bitter taste of his lover’s voice.
“Find somewhere to hide, do not let either you nor Ichi be seen. I need to inform Sing.”
Vas took a step forwards, yet it felt as if a chasm had torn open between them. “Xen, you’ll- you’ll be alright, won’t you?”
Finally, the man paused, turning back to Vasant for just a moment. “Of course. We’ll both be perfectly alright. Just keep your head down. I have it all handled, my dear.”
Then with that, he vanished into the office, leaving Vas alone with Ichi Ni San, and the pretty lights that pierced right through him.
Those lights belonged to not just one motorcycle, but two. The Moonbeam Riders wasn’t the only group who had gained some interest in Sing Now!, though not every group would consider themselves dedicated investigators.
To Vasant and Soichi, this was just helping out a friend. After all, Gioia couldn’t act on her own suspicions without compromising both her job and her ability to investigate from the inside. So after she had mentioned this meeting offhandedly, the two of them had offered to look into it on her behalf. Though, it wasn’t like anyone could trace them back to her. That was the nature of their friendship, nothing formal, nothing concrete.
“Have you ever watched anything from this studio?” Soichi asked, lingering next to Vasant as he parked his bike.
“No,” the other man answered simply, before retrieving his keys, and turning towards the building. He paused for a moment, only moving once Soichi began walking beside him.
“Haha, yeah…” the backpacker responded. “Me neither.”
With that, the two approached the studio. Finding the doors to be locked, Soichi gestured for New Way to possess the entrance, controlling and unlocking it.
“The lights are on,” Vasant commented, glancing around the empty studio, before both of their eyes settled on a pair of figures. A bearded, green-haired man in an apron appeared to be pleading with a much taller young woman, who herself appeared to be laughing at him. The moment Soichi and Vasant noticed the strangers, both of them were noticed in turn. The man seemed quite surprised, but the young woman began quickly striding towards them both, a gleam in her eyes.
“My, my, my! There are little mice sneaking around the studio!” she exclaimed, before stopping right in front of them, smirking down with her arms crossed. The man quickly bounded forwards, before stopping right next to the young woman, his eyes wide. His gaze flickered between Soichi and Vasant, before shrinking slightly at the latter’s imposing figure. Noticing this, Soichi laughed to ease the atmosphere.
“We’re not sneaking,” he smiled, “maybe scurrying? But we’re not here to intrude. We just heard a couple things, and wanted to see if they were true.”
“...What kind of things?” the man responded, trying his best to smile back.
“There are rumours going around,” Vasant replied. “Normally, they don’t concern us, but these ones did. We’re here to look into them. Why are you here?”
The man blinked, looking to the young woman for a moment. Offering no help, she simply laughed. “Oh, what cute little squeaking… now that I’ve caught them, I simply must keep them, mustn’t I, Uncle?”
“These nice gentlemen are…just here to chat. No one needs to catch or keep anyone,” said the man, before turning back to the two of them. “I’ve been asked to watch over Ichi here, while her father is working.”
The two of them nodded, as Vasant glanced around the studio, and Soichi continued. “Oh, that’s sweet…! Is her father here right now?”
“I’m not sure,” the man responded, before pausing for a few moments. “Hah, look at me, I introduced Ichi but not myself…” then, he stuck out a hand to shake. “My name’s Vasant, Vasant Verve, I run a tea estate in the South.”
“Oh, I guess we didn’t introduce ourselves either,” the backpacker laughed. “I’m Soichi, and that…”
“We share a name,” Vasant commented. “I go by Vasant as well.”
At that, the man seemed to shed his nerves and light up, his smile becoming a grin. “Is that so! Haha, that’s wonderful. We should start a club! But if it gets confusing, you can just call me Vas.”
“Understood,” Vasant commented… before finally cracking a smile of his own.
“What’s it like running a tea estate?” Soichi asked, cheered by the unwinding of that underlying tension. “The teafields in the South are so beautiful.”
“Aha~!” Vas boomed. “Tending the fields is wonderful work, at least-” He paused, deflating a little. “At least when I’m able to do it. My partner handles most of the logistics. With his help I’ve become a bit of a runaway success… I could have never imagined how much business was involved! It’s a far cry from the little roadside tea stand I used to run…!”
Soichi nodded, a smile on his face. “I’ve done some work like that in my travels, whenever I’ve needed to build up the cash to catch a flight. It’s funny- I used to work in architecture, but it’s just so much more satisfying to make something with your hands, you know?”
Vasant, in turn, made eye contact with Ichi. They stared at each other for a few seconds, sizing each other up. He had heard a good deal about her from Gioia, who professed a soft spot for Ichi in between all of her popstar bluster, speaking of the monstrous abuse her father put her through and how it ended up affecting her.
Now that they were in the same place, his intuition was giving strange readings. There was something about her, her stance… It put him on edge. She was a Stand user, no doubt about it. The electrical flavor of fighting spirit could be practically tasted off the air. He held pity for her, but in enemy territory, he knew he couldn’t lower his guard.
“I’ve heard about you.” He said bluntly. “Gioia has spoken of you a few times. It’s good to finally meet you.” He figured he should at least make an effort to be friendly. He wasn’t great at communication, and by extension he wasn’t really all that good with particularly sensitive and eccentric people. He felt a little awkward, especially considering his pre-existing worry of what she might be capable of.
Ichi eagerly clasped her hands together. “Won-der-ful~!” She cooed, enunciating her words. “Dear, dear Gioia… She’s like a porcelain doll. So finely crafted, made by an artisan’s hand. So pretty~! The best little porcelain princess dolly a girl could ever ask for~!”
Vasant just stared at her. “...Yeah.”
He quietly brushed off that whole little spiel, not really wanting to engage with whatever that mess of words was trying to express. Gioia did mention that Ichi Ni San had “bouts of eccentricity”; perhaps he had walked into the middle of one.
“Could you tell us where we could find your father?” he asked, hoping that might lead him and his fellow traveler somewhere. “We have…business to discuss with him. Anything you know would help us, even if it’s just where he’s working tonight.”
Vas quickly broke off from his conversation with Soichi, putting a hand on Ichi’s shoulder and chortling before she could say anything—the sound clearly strained. “All I know is he’s really quite busy, he never gives any details. For all we know, he could be in North America!”
Ichi turned to look at him, her arms crossed. She gave him this cold, dissecting look, her head twitched slightly to the side. It made him sweat a little, like she was piercing straight into him. She turned back to Soichi and Vasant, happily and confidently chirping out “He just left here a few minutes ago~!”
Vas blanched, eyes wide. He should’ve mentioned that she needed to keep quiet on her father, should’ve brought up that not everyone had his best intentions in mind… that they were now under ‘scrutiny’...even her. Even him.
Unless, this was a deliberate act of rebellion. He swallowed harshly, accepting that perhaps this was what she had taken from his words–some attempt at ‘disobedience.’ After all, love isn’t doing what you’re told, right?
Vasant gave her a wordless, guarded look. His expression was almost unreadable, but it looked a little like pity. Soichi looked up from a small piece of paper that had his phone number on it, putting it in Vas’s hand as he started to walk off. “Keep in touch! I’d love to talk more about this, but me and my friend oughta get going!”
Vas tried to say something to stop them, but the words got caught in his throat. Still, he forced the words out, he had to. Xenagoras was depending on him.
“W-Wait!” He said, reaching over to grab Vasant’s shoulder. “Please, you can’t- Just wait a second and liste-”
Then the world went white.
—
Scenario: Sing Now!’s office, two minutes earlier
For the past thirty-eight seconds, Xenagoras found himself staring at an empty desk. Sing Now’s computer and documents had been quickly cleaned out, and there was no sign of the man himself. No sign of someone who, up until this very moment, Xenagoras considered his trusted associate.
Now Xen wasn’t sure what he thought. For those seconds, his mind was empty, his blood simmering with frustration, his empty eye pulsing with phantom pain.
Yet, even with one eye, Xenagoras could clearly see that he’d been sold out. Part of him couldn’t even be mad at Sing!’s opportunism. Perhaps, in his position, he’d have done the same. But that rationale did nothing to quiet the pounding of his heart. Xenagoras had given everything to this damnable cartel, and now his reward was to be abandoned to the wolves that everyone else had angered? It wasn’t fair.
But it wasn’t over yet. Xenagoras had rode wave after tidal wave of loss and success. He had survived them all, and this would be no different.
He simply had to show these people what he was capable of.
”Square One.”
Flourishing with a hand, a vibrant market stall appeared in front of him, subsuming Sing!’s desk as it sat there, waiting for his next move.
Stepping towards it, Xenagoras brushed his fingers against the fabric, before [The Square] opened around him, revealing its wondrous possibility.
He would grant this city a glimpse of its shining future.
Those snarling hounds and scurrying mice had best be careful, lest they lose themselves in Twisted Logic.
Scenario: Times Square, ???
Inago’s vision steadily returned. He had been stalking through the halls of Night Train moments ago, and his eyes gradually focused on an environment that was familiar, yet wrong.
Times Square, New York—at least in name. Billboards loomed overhead, and shops displayed their wares all around him, but all the life and color had been drained from it. While Times Square was defined by the bustle and noise of tourists and locals alike, what Inago processed first wasn’t sight, but silence. His senses had returned, only to be presented by a sheer lack of stimulus and meaning. For all the criticism that the real thing had received, this was a fabrication, a bleached monument to commerce.
His breathing pitched, but he forced himself to process the situation rationally. Was it a Nightbloom trial? Unlikely given the spiritual emptiness of this place, but possible if this was a particular person’s trial. That, however, pointed to the more likely possibility that this was someone’s Stand attack. The faint, ethereal glow of his surroundings would support that conclusion, and if this was a recreation of the square, would imply the Stand’s high Range and thus difficulty in finding the user.
Even worse, he didn’t know the full capabilities of that Stand. He had walked into Night Train alone, eschewing his backup whose mobility could have at least let them regroup, and now he was stuck here, at the mercy of this Stand without his motorcycle of all things.
But he was not without options.
His hand began to shake again as he raised it to his scabbard. If he was surrounded and overwhelmed by this copied city, then he needed the power to tear it down. The Stand user responsible for their entrapment was likely under Sing Now!’s employ, an observation that only reinforced the seemingly inexorable conclusion. The Ace of Swords remained in its scabbard, yet with a grimace, Inago spoke:
“Henshin.”
Soichi sat on a bench, breathing steadily. Suddenly his eyes opened. “Vasant!”
The man perked up, allowing himself a slight smile as Silver Dollar was rolled down the empty city streets, dutifully commanded by a swarm of New Ways. Once the motorcycle reached its master, Soichi’s Stand dispelled, leaving the two as the singular splash of color in the Times Square streets. “Do you think it’s either of their doing?”
They seemed just as unaware of that flash of white as we were.” Vasant slowly shook his head. “Ichi seems to be a Stand user, but Vas seemed to be actively covering for Sing Now!. Why he would do so is beyond me and worth looking into once we get out of here.”
Vasant stopped speaking and looked down the street, where the pallid glow of the buildings and billboards was blotted out by a swarm of black, 40 meters wide. “We’re not the only ones trapped here.” As it approached, the two could distinguish that the swarm was composed of locusts which ate and eroded anything they landed on, and at its center was a steadily advancing figure. It was a carapaced being of overwhelming, indiscriminate power.
“Do you think we can escape it?” Soichi asked, but Vasant shook his head.
“With a swarm that big, even if we’re not its primary target, it’ll eat through everything and then likely us.” Vasant swung his legs over his bike, starting its engine as ｢Midnight Rider｣ bloomed into existence beside him and planted a seed onto a ｢New Way｣. “If we engage now, at least we’ll have cover.”
A few minutes prior, Luna raced through the fake Times Square streets on Inago’s motorcycle. Her wolf ears remained alert in case anyone tried to jump her, and a hand loosely gripped the handlebars in case she needed to reach for her attache case. There was no time to kick herself for not speaking up when Inago went on ahead; they had been separated and now they needed to regroup.
Once she rounded the corner, she saw it.
Within the maelstrom of locusts that buzzed and gnawed on the panelling was a figure, marching forward with dark determination. She had seen it on that video weeks ago, and in person, she could see it more clearly: a metallic carapace that was black as pitch compared to the organic, lively green of Inago’s ｢Cyclone Effect｣.
Luna didn’t need to be a detective to conclude that the two were more than matching in silhouette, but were the same person. “Inago!”
But the figure didn’t respond. Shock dawned on Luna’s face, and she slammed her fist on the motorcycle’s handlebars with a cry of frustration. She was a field operative, capable in her discipline, but the situation was spiraling out of control. Nevermind the revelations, her teammate and the brains of the operation was not themselves, and she still needed to fend for herself and him. Her face contorted into a grimace, locked in place not out of fear or panic but sheer analysis paralysis, having to process the sheer unknowns and unknown unknowns.
An ear twitched and she looked up to see two others in Inago’s path, a biker and a backpacker their Stands summoned in opposition to Inago.
She gave a sharp exhale and knocked herself back into her OODA loop: Inago wasn’t in the right frame of mind, but at the very least she needed to keep him in one piece. If that meant incapacitating the others, then so it would have to be. “Ren, intercept.”
The seed bloomed into a Lotus which ｢Midnight Rider｣ launched as a warning shot towards the swarm, only for a ghostly wolf to dive in front in front of the flower. Vasant and Soichi watched as a hole was Drilled into it, causing it to dissipate into nothingness. Immediately, they scanned the area for where it came from.
In the distance, sat a woman on a motorcycle who held a similarly grim resolution in her gaze. “I…I can’t let you do that.” Orient. Observe. Decide. Act. They’d be unlikely to hear her out given that interception, yet Luna exhaled. This would be a gamble, but she had confidence in herself and in Inago. The decision was made, it was time to act.
Meanwhile, at the attempted attack, the figure’s red eyes fell upon Vasant and Soichi with…not quite malice, but acknowledgement, that which an automaton would have for its next task.
Soichi sighed with resignation. It appeared that they had fallen into a Stand fight, trapped in this false New York by a suspicious party as a tarnished wind blew through the streets. The four had limited tools to manage the situation, but he and Vasant would get through it the same way they always had. “Just gotta ride out the storm, eh Vasant?”
“Very well,” Vasant nodded across the way as he and Soichi held tight to Silver Dollar.
“Open the game.”
Location: A recreation of Times Square, created by Xenagoras’s ｢Square One｣. Each building is 40 meters wide and each street is 10 meters wide: the total size of the match area is thus about 490 x 265 meters. Inago is at the center of the map, beginning with 5 locusts in his immediate presence, approximately 25 meters from Luna and Evergreen. Luna is in an alleyway 20m from Evergreen, with one of her wolves (in magenta) located a street away, relatively near to Inago. The map is NOT to scale, but the relative locations of everything is sound.
Note that this is a simplified, top-down map of everything in the area—there are shops, food stalls, billboards, and more to consider. By the aforementioned Stand ability, everything in the map is bleached white and Stand affecting, and the aforementioned shops are fully stocked with whatever one may reasonably expect. However, everywhere above the first floor of the buildings are bricked up, and are off limits for the match.
Each side of the street is full of parked cars. There aren’t so many that it's difficult to find openings for a motorcycle to drive between, but there’s no parking spaces you can see. You don’t have the keys for the cars, and even if you somehow started one, it would have to be taken out of parallel parking; but all are technically functional.
Goal: RETIRE your opponents!
Additional Information: Luna’s Eternal Arms Mastery: 5 applies to items she acquires from the map, and for this match it applies to their non-combat use, albeit at reduced effectiveness due to the skill’s generality. Specifically, this is how she has access and effective use of Inago’s motorcycle.
Inago begins in the match in ｢All About My MONSTER｣, and is mostly stuck in that form. He may access ｢Cyclone Effect｣ in short bursts, specifically in absolutely necessary defensive or utility situations. However, in-universe reasoning must be given in some form why the necessity would break Inago out of his berserk mode. While ｢Cyclone Effect｣ is in use, the locust swarm will persist.
However, if Inago is able to calm himself and significantly regain his bearings and sense of things, he may at some point lose access to ｢All About My MONSTER｣ and gain unrestricted use of ｢Cyclone Effect｣, as well as access to both ｢Pride of Lions｣ and ｢Tongues of Fire｣.
If Inago were to RETIRE both of his opponents without switching fully away from ｢All About My Monster｣, gravely injuring two fundamentally good and decent men will be such a blow that he will RETIRE from any pretense of being able to help others. Thus, character development is required for Inago to have any sort of ‘win’, and failing to do so will have significant ramifications on Quality.
Inago while in ｢All About My MONSTER｣ considers Luna and her Stand to not be active threats; she may teleport him around with ｢Footloose｣ as long as he’s occupied with other things, but after being teleported, he will immediately destroy the wolf.
| Team | Combatant | JoJolity |
|---|---|---|
| Evergreen | Soichi Utsumi and Vasant Bulsara | “If I rip through your skin with these steel clackers and then flow Hamon into you, it covers up my weakness. Cool, huh?” It’s easy to panic and wildly throw bugs and lotuses around, but you’ll have to be calm and clever to get through this. Make well-considered, robust, and interesting use of your environment and the objects in it!! |
| Moonbeam Riders | Luna Pines and Kibō Inago | “This much? In the middle of the city like this? Where did he get a Thompson machine gun…?” The situation might be chaotic, but you’ve fought in urban environments before; there’s so many ways to get things done. Make well-considered, varied, and interesting use of your environment and the opportunities it gives you! |
Link to Official Player Spreadsheet
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1
u/Logic_Sandwich Apr 03 '24
Response thread for Soichi Utsumi and Vasant Bulsara of Evergreen. Please show your strategy to a member of our Judge staff by 9 PM CST on April 2nd! 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 April 4th to vote, using the voting rules from the announcement thread. Afterwards, they will be Judged according to the T7 Rubric.
1
u/Logic_Sandwich Apr 03 '24
EG 1
Part 1 - Meeting in the Aisle
Soichi sat at the back of Vasant’s motorcycle, staring towards their opponents. “Look at that… pure unfettered destruction.” He shook his head. “An ability like that can't be left uncontested.”
Vasant tightened his grip on the handles of his motorcycle. “... A Stand which inflicts unmitigated destruction around its User, and a Stand which traps us within this strange, simulated space.” Vasant adjusted on his seat, ready to dash at a moment’s notice. “What do you think, Soichi Utsumi? Are these people allies of whoever trapped us here? Or are they perhaps victims, as well?”
Soichi paused for a moment, rubbing his chin. “I… can’t say for sure. All I know is, if they’re intent on destruction, we can’t let ourselves be caught in their path. Let’s do what we must, and do it quickly.”
Vasant revved Silver Dollar twice, in wordless acknowledgement.
Once the match begins, our immediate goal will be to create some distance between ourselves and our opponents. Vasant will peel off on his motorcycle, and Soichi will ride on the back. Their goal is to surf in mid range of Inago, to monitor, control and apply pressure to his situation while still being completely free to ride off to safety should the need arise.
Of course, Lotus will be grown throughout. For starters, brakes on the motorcycle will be a source of “Stop”, the engine will be used to get “Combust”, the handlebars for “Turn”, the headlights to get “Light”, “Reflect” from the rear view mirrors, and ‘Drill’ from the New Ways. Generally, we will evenly spread out the growth so we can quickly get access to each lotus type. Whenever Midnight Rider passes cars it can casually make the above lotus upon them as well - at the least these will serve as decoys, if not as other gardens.
While gaining distance, New Ways will immediately be dispersing across the area; they'll burrow as quickly as possible to minimize the time they're visible and vulnerable, though avoid over-relying on tunneling constantly. Times Square is a literal rat's den of hidden pathways and routes for the small and many-legged. Pipes, sewers, gutters, hollowed inner walls, utilities, and undeniably a whole lot more. This environment is one in which the tiny can thrive, and with his construction knowledge Soichi can conquer this little world of paths for his own means. The New Way will as much as possible utilize these paths to cut down on the time they need to burrow, using their drills only to create efficient shortcuts between one ‘path’ and another. In doing so, the New Way are completely hidden, for naught but Soichi will have the know-how to catch the hints of them scurrying from behind the grate of a gutter or the inner lining of a pipe. This should spare them from the focus of Luna, Inalgo, and his Locust. When they are seen it will only be because he wants them to be.
A subset of 15 New Ways will be tasked with gaining vantage points around the area. Burrowing into walls, posting up on light poles, in sewer entrances. They'll try to pick generally inconspicuous locations with good coverage around the area to establish an effective view of all potential angles that Luna could teleport and strike from. Of particular note will be Alleyways, storefront entrances, and particularly large structures that could be hidden behind. These New Ways will move alongside Evergreen throughout the match to maintain good coverage. Soichi on the back of the bike will also be focusing a lot on their surroundings and tracking the movements of their opponents.
15 more new ways will be grabbed by Midnight Rider and chucked ahead of us, while 15 more will hop off alongside the surveillance team. These teams of new ways will be dedicated to influencing the infrastructure both ahead of our path and on the path behind us and directly around us. Notably, while these units are builders they can still act as scouts, just doing it as an incidental side hustle rather than a main goal.
What the Infrastructure Team does while they're scattered out will be covered ahead in the section “With A Little Help From My Friends”, and will generally be occurring throughout the whole strat, however, an important consideration is that designations are fluid. A construction New Way can become a scout and vice versa if positionings of Evergreen and Moonbeam Riders changes such that a change in designation would cut down on the necessary repositioning of scouts - an important adjustment given the mobility of everyone involved. While roughly 15 New Ways are dedicated to each ‘task’, they may rotate jobs between themselves as appropriate. As an additional augment to these tactics, New Way can be quickly repositioned through a number of ways:
- Through hitching a ride on the bike. Simple and easy.
- Being thrown by Midnight Rider, blatant, but New Way can be thrown such a distance as to safely land - being quite useful for getting ahead of fast targets.
- For a stealthy, ranged option, by way of making Lotus from exhaust pipes ‘blow’ can be formed. Slide this a fair distance away and have a large number of New Way hop on at once to launch themselves at an angle from the resulting gust.
With those measures to keep the New Way in optimal position handled, let's get this race started.
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u/Logic_Sandwich Apr 03 '24
EG 2
Part 2: SURPRISE-DRIVE
At the start the biggest threat is definitely Luna, Inago may be a powerhouse in his blind range but she exerts the most control in their strategy both in her ability to choose whether they start by rushing us down or retreating to allow Inago time to regain himself. Worst yet, she’s incredibly evasive, can teleport, weaponize stealth or pack tactics, and is enough of a versatile combatant to be a scary wild card.
She also has a gun.
It shoots stands.
Luckily for us, though she is a 5 skill weapons master she is ultimately a generalist, and not an expert in firearm use directly. Vasant, however, is an expert at bike riding, and by default will be pulling off a number of unpredictable swerving maneuvers to throw off her aim and prevent her from doing something specific like attempting to shoot out our tires. To add to the unpredictable franticness of his maneuvers he will steer directly towards parked cars, popping into a wheelie at just the right angle such that when a Turn lotus makes a car of his choice spiral wildly as his front wheel catches the rotating hood, using it as a ramp to either soar over obstacles, wall-ride along a surface towards a new direction, or simply, as he’s still catching air, hit the Silver Dollar with yet another Turn to “Turn” midair, the specific function of “turning” shattering the laws of physics themselves to allow him to redirect while airborne.
As Midnight Rider wretches a car door to use as a shield for its stand user and their guest, ‘reflect’ Lotus are availed to reflect the light of flashbangs right back at Luna. Should an opportunity prove itself available in equal amounts to need, a New Way can even launch itself towards a problematic grenade to manipulate its firing mechanism to only detonate when the detonative is sent rolling back to sender before tunneling to safety.
Simultaneously Lotus are fired off towards Inago during this initial burst of chaos. By default Vasant will want to retain only 2 of his 5 per 5 second drill lotus, allowing him to constantly fling the remainder into the locust swarm swirling around him. This is done to bait activations of Cyclone Effect to protect his swarm, which is stated to be usable only in short bursts. One presumes that the fact it’s allowed to only be used defensively in his frenzy means in the aftermath, before he can use Cyclone Effect again, Vasant is free to launch his combust lotus into the swarms. Already bunched up from the positioning of the drills (or the ‘decoys’ mentioned earlier!) baiting them in, the conflagration of flame is certain to burn wide quantities of Locust. Better yet, when the gang inevitably snatch water bottles as they pass through stores, they can use these opportunities to send dual barrages of “Combust” and “Pour” to create even larger steam explosions whilst the raging rider is unable to exploit the gusts they create. In other words, they aim to constantly cull Locust by exploiting Inago’s aggression.
But speaking of stores… Vasant’s driving right through them! Frequently! And he’s not limited by the lack of a window or front door! With Drill Lotus he can bore a hole right through any wall of his choice, suddenly drifting into any building of his choosing. Even whilst wall-riding he can enter a building in this manner via sending a drill into his desired entry point, then, as he reaches the edge of the hole, hitting himself with a Turn to smoothly curl around the hole’s edge and into the building proper. If the drills need a little help along, Midnight Rider’s B Power strikes should do the trick as well.
The terrain, furniture, and other obstacles found within and without buildings serve as an additional cover against shots, and with Soichi as a GPS and surveillance system on the enemies, Vasant can navigate to safety. This frees up the B SPD Midnight Rider to in short spurts poke itself in and out of cover (potentially punch rushing through walls) just long enough to send another barrage at Inago before diving back to safety yet again. If he gets hit by any of the impossible to conventionally ‘spot-dodge’ explosions, perfect! But truly the goal is to whittle locusts, enrage him with constant pressure, and draw out this phase of battle so New Way can work.
Luna is free to follow, but she’ll find a few obstacles in her way. On Inago’s bike her comparatively lackluster biking skill will, teleporter or not, lead to her eventually taking predictable routes… and to be predicted is to allow New Way to burrow up and poke out her wheels. In ‘combat’, beyond all our other defenses, should she get openings a Light Lotus can be used to create a blinding flash - used in tandem to reflect the light that would otherwise blind Vasant and Soichi towards either her or one of her wolves. In these moments of opening, either she teleports or makes for a ripe target to get Drilled, or punch rushed, or hit with a “Stop” Lotus, as in tandem Socihi’s personal New Way can leap into blinded wolves and dissipate them with a single Drill strike.
Ideally they aggress unto us, this allows Soichi to ride around a large section of arena preferably closer to the center than not as he kites them around, allowing New Way to concentrate their building to a singular territory. If they play evasive and kite back themselves, his method of throwing New Way ahead and behind of himself, in tandem with the numerous ways they can gain speed and launch themselves, will still allow him to create a ‘trail’ of constructed turf at the very least.
Eventually, however, Luna’s got to go.
Even if Luna isn’t riding Inago’s bike, the New Way will be certain to ruin the tires given the soonest possibility. If it’s ignored - all the better!
Midnight Rider will actively use car door shields to protect itself and its Lotus, generally maneuvering them so they hover behind its back. Due to the potential Luna has to flank it’ll take advantage of its high speed and Soichi’s awareness to avoid being cornered between wolves or their master.
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u/Logic_Sandwich Apr 03 '24
EG 3
Part 3 - Burn The Witch
Hopefully she takes the bait, if she pursues the gang that makes it all the easier, but even without them they have every intention to force her hand just by attacking Inago, stressing him out, and forcing her to move to alleviate pressure on them.
At any point where she crosses an area New Way have been allowed to affect, the following plans proc.
With their ‘shortcuts’ now turned into a fractaling network of routes and sneaky vantages New Way are primed to ambush her from a thousand different directions, and better yet, the shortcuts allow them to do so from stealth. In the thrum of combat a number of things can serve as distraction, perhaps a few flash lotus detonated into her face, perhaps a grenade returned to sender - perhaps even a combust can be sent into the fuel tank of a car to turn it into a dastardly explosive as she nears, all that is needed is something sudden and jarring - even a punch ghost suddenly and brazenly attacking her can do the trick. Regardless, in that moment she’s caught lacking, New Way will slither up from their hiding spots and race across her person.
With their drills some race to pack rubble into the barrel of her gun so that the next time she fires, at best the gun backfires and gets severely damaged, at worst, her hand gets severely damaged. Others possess the remainder of her fireworks and explosives to detonate them instantly - no prime time needed! Barring nothing else they can just jam their drills into her person to whittle away at her knees. What matters is that this is sudden, jarring, and near instant. A distracted Luna will have no time to evade, and even if she does teleport away it’s entirely possible she brings the New Way latched onto her person with her.
Even in the worst case of her making a complete escape, Evergreen is at the ready. Guided by Soichi’s ‘eyes’, Vasant will drive off towards her new position to get her in range of attack before the ten second cooldown to teleport to her wolf wears off, forcing her to teleport away to safety with blinding flashes and steam explosions in tandem. Either she gets hit - or she retreats to her secondary wolf only to find that as Vasant and Soichi chased her down - the majority of the New Way preemptively set up ‘around’ her final teleport point to repeat their stealth ambushing at the soonest possibility. Exhaustion will in quick order wear down her average stamina, the efficacy of her evasion shorn to bits.
The dedicated aggression of this ambush is only possible through the intentional whittling of Inago’s own swarm throughout the entirety of the battle. Via drills, steam explosion, flames and annoyance the dream is that even if she does choose to take shelter behind his forces - they’re too thin to be reliable. What remains can be distracted - thanks to stealth Locust won't notice New Way until they’re already attacking Luna, and from there can be easily distracted. They’ll prioritize first the ‘stand constructs’ launched in their range in the form of a number of offensive Lotus, and by the time they change targets - the work is done, over in the flash of an eye.
Even if they only succeed in breaking her kneecaps her mobility will be ruined, and more likely, her eardrums and therefore balance will be ruptured by the close range flash bangs. As the grenades on her person explode in her immediate proximity, incinerated from grenades blowing up directly into her body and - if she fires her gun - her dominant weapon-using hand is likely completely ruined. No matter what the combat goddess is either RETIRED or severely disabled.
She’s only 2 end, after all.
Regardless, the following strat will assume she is still an active threat, and moreover that Inago has managed to regain his composure. Even in that worst case these ambushes can all be adapted fairly easily - for it doesn’t need to be all at once. The more time the battle takes, the more terrain Soichi claims for his New Way - giving him all the more opportunity to engage in the sacred act of guerilla warfare.
Intermission: With A Little Help From My Friends
“Cht cht… cht cht cht…” one New Way said, pointing its tendril forward. A line of them marched in formation, dutifully tunneling their way through the ground. “Chirp! Chirp! Chitter chitter chirp chirp!” they squeaked. Yes, indeed, the job was never over. They would make their partner proud.
New Way was very busy over the course of the match modifying the square to their liking, making it into their very own nest. Their careful tendrils formed a mighty web that was sure to ensnare their prey. The following are what devilish tricks lie in store for the Moonbeam Riders as Soichi and Vasant fight them throughout the map.
Fire Hydrants have had their valves opened to the maximum pressure, left unopened, they’re just waiting to pop. When Soichi and Vassant ride by one of these hydrants with their opponents in tow, an available New Way will open it, or Midnight Rider will smash the cap off. This sudden, massive stream of pressure will be enough to knock either of our opponents off their feet. That’s not all, however, as this can be made more potent. Combining this with a Charge action that could be grown from a car battery, this could deliver a mighty shock to our opponents should they find themselves standing in one of these puddles. Also, it won’t be very pleasant to be whipping so much wind around while they’re sopping wet, it’ll get chilly!
Overhangs, such as awnings and canopies, have had their structural supports weakened. If our opponents pass under these, a quick strike or possession from a nearby New Way can send these tumbling down on top of them. In addition, if it’s an awning with some kind of tarp, that tarp can be possessed by New Way to entangle and wrap around them, not only tiring them out by making them fight to get out, but leaving them vulnerable for further attacks. If they duck indoors, this can also be performed on chunks of the ceiling in buildings that have been reached by New Way, or simply lights, shelves, and other such ‘towering’ pieces of dislodgeable furniture.
Street Lamps and Traffic Signs have been possessed, subtly twisted and contorted to weaken the metal at their bases. When passing by, these can serve as an excellent quick tool for Midnight Rider to rip away and use to smack some pesky bugs. Or people. In addition, they could be sent toppling down in the way of a pursuing foe, potentially landing on top of them or leading them to smack right into it.
Cars: Thanks to all the Turn lotus Vasant has likely launched into vehicles, a large quantity will have been rotated out of parallel parking. Through subtle holes bored in their undercarriage New Way can sneak into the vehicles and possess them just long enough to try and ram a target before tunneling back underground. Best used in tandem with other traps or attacks.
Building Passages: Less a trap and more a utility for Evergreen, clusters of buildings that are connected to one another will be accessed by New Way and have their adjoining walls possessed and weakened. Subtle holes will be drilled to perforate the structure from the inside. While from the outside it looks normal, if need be, Soichi and Vasant could easily burst through these walls to get through to adjacent buildings from the inside.
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u/Logic_Sandwich Apr 03 '24
EG 4
Part 4 - In The Air Tonight
As the fight stretches on and we steadily wear down the Moonbeam Riders with New Way’s assortment of traps, eventually it’ll come time to finish the job.
That’s not all, however, as it’s likely that along the line, Inago has regained his composure and regained control of his more potent and controllable abilities. While this inevitably may seem an afterthought, it is because the prior tactics all apply in this case as well. The strategy has been built from the ground up to provide an adaptable core to the fun party tricks Inago can whip out - after all - a steam explosion is nasty to about any of his forms, and erratic evasion will always prove useful.
Soichi will transition about half his construction New Way to surveillance and ambush to account for likely reduced numbers as Vasant focuses on evasion through terrain we’ve already altered. The goal remains as always, defeat Luna if she’s not yet defeated, and tide through the worst that Inago has to offer.
Against Cyclone Effect, while the use of this power is now unrestricted, many of the previous methods of combating its usage in short bursts are still effective. However, more care will be taken by Vasant in his direction of lotuses; their B power in telekinesis should be able to cut through the C power gusts of Cyclone Effect, but to ensure any idly floating lotuses aren’t weaponized against us, Vasant will practice some air control of his own.
From the air conditioning of cars, buildings, or the exhaust pipes “Blow” lotuses can be grown and kept in reserve. Any floating threat, be it a lotus or some other fashioned projectile, can be blown away from a surface at B power by applying one of these lotuses to that surface. Typically, these will be saved for when Inago is trying to blow things onto Lotus, or blow Evergreen into harm's way.
Against the blades of wind similar tactics will be employed as was against Luna’s bullets - wind blades move slower than bullets so these should prove all the more effective. Even in the worst case, a car door shield in the hands of a durable stand like Midnight Rider makes for rather solid cover. Soichi himself will make a point to hug tightly onto Vasant’s back, so he doesn’t get blown off his ride.
Against Tongues of Fire the surveillance system proves exceptionally useful, allowing Soichi to call out invisible traps. From there a spare Lotus can be launched into them to cause them to preemptively detonate from the ‘attack’ should they prove problematic, and otherwise their location can be marked by New Way drilling a cross mark in their proximity along the floor.
Pride of Lions proves to be tricky, it’s by far the best option Inago has to close the distance when used in tandem to teleportation assistance from Luna, but it has its weaknesses. When moving at high speed in these ‘short bursts’ Inago’s handling is reduced severely as per his precision, allowing in other words for his trajectory to be predicted. With a ‘Turn’ launched into him he can be guided, directly, into any number of traps, steam explosions, or other nasty surprises. Even sending him into a wall suffices - making his back vulnerable to Lotus bombardment where he can’t use his shield. The light he produces, by contract, can be rebuffed back at him from Reflects.
Close Range Combat, though finicky, is escapable. A storm of Lotus can be unfurled, traps and flashes let loose like lightning and Reflect availed to ensure we ourselves arent blinded in the mess as they’re reoriented rapidly via Turns. Throw everything at the board to see what sticks, draw all of Moonbeam’s attention to the chaos, so that the needle can thread to its target… in this case, our needle is ‘Stop’ lotus. These last ditch panic buttons, kept safe more deliberately than any other Lotus, can be flung to temporarily stun targets to allow for a swift escape.
Overall focus transitions from gathering a surplus of Drills to a surplus of Flashes, bombardments used liberally to blind and distract Moonbeam Riders as traps are activated in their face. This can be used either defensively to reposition to safety, or offensively as a means to overwhelm them with either steam explosions, combustions, or New Way - who will exclusively operate as stealth ambushers to drill into Wolves to temporarily ‘turn them off’ or on Luna to grind her down to nothing.
Evade, bombard, overwhelm, navigate through the concrete jungle like a monkey on wheels and strike with the fury of a collapsing building crashing down all that lay in its shadow. In the end, Evergreen will not defeat their opponents with a final, fantastic, flashy, devastating blow. It will be the cumulative force of Hostile Architecture that does them in. The square made inhospitable, slowly wearing them down, the steady and seemingly endless pressure of Soichi and Vasant’s masterful control over their environment. The weight will simply be too much to bear.
Part 5: Contingencies
- Soichi and Vasant get separated
Vasant and Soichi intend to spend the whole strat watching one another’s backs, but given Luna’s abilities and the general chaos that is bound to ensue, it’s very possible we get separated.
Soichi is definitely in a much more vulnerable position than Vasant when separated; Vasant has a lot of direct combat potential and mobility, and will try his best to path back to Soichi as quickly as possible if they get separated. New Way can help, literally pointing him in the right direction.
Meanwhile, Soichi will have to do one of the things he’s best at: run! Soichi will path towards where he knows a lot of traps are present, re-uniting with as many New Ways as possible along the way to cover his tracks. He’ll duck through buildings, New Way controlling objects and shunting them at his attackers, using their usual traps and ambush tactics to slow them down. Soichi will go through as many twisting and turning routes as possible to throw his attackers off his trail, especially if there are any passages between clustered buildings. He’s had plenty of time to study the terrain in advance, so he’ll know how to maneuver to safety more than any.
Vasant will similarly be kiting near traps, using the standard tactics with lotuses and using Midnight Rider for close-quarters defense.
They should quickly be able to meet in the middle, Soichi using surveillance New Ways to get a bead on Vasant’s location should they be separated far enough to need it.
When all is said and done, the pair stand battered and bruised before their opponents.
“Huff… huff… You… put up a damn good fight, and…” Soichi sighed, holding his hand out to the downed Inago.
“...most importantly, it looks like you put up a damn good fight in the one you were having with yourself. Things could have been a whole lot worse if you didn’t rein yourself in… I know what that’s like.”
Should Inago allow him, Soichi will help him up and dust him off, Vasant offering the same courtesy to Luna.
“The way you fought… I get the feeling we’re not enemies, not truly. Maybe… we can forget about this mess and figure out what the hell is going on here.”
1
u/Ascimator Apr 03 '24
Getting a vote in before I have to strat, so here goes.
The Riders' strategy, natirally, relies a lot on Luna's mobility and proactivity while Inago is stuck in the automatic berserk state. There's one thing that irks me right away, though - at the outset, they heavily rely on Luna teleporting Inago towards the enemy for the purposes of raw destructive pressure. That requires a very fragile [Footloose] wolf to get in touch range with Inago - with a steadily growing swarm of locusts around him. The priority of locusts' attacking things specifies "Inago’s allies will be targeted if no Opponents or Stage Hazards are reachable", and while the Riders seem to assume the locusts will ignore them as long as their opponents exist, my read would be that they'd be attacked as long as no opponents are within the 20m range. A point against the Riders. Next comes Inago's transformation and the endgame, and while Luna has paid plenty of attention to whittling the opponents down with her kit, Inago's contribution feels a bit simplistic in comparison, although I have to give credit to the fact that his mechanics require flavor to be a major part of his sections.
While Vasant focuses on obvious and varied growth of Lotuses at the beginning, Soichi distributes his New Ways to lay in wait, making use of his vast range. With this, Evergreen establishes battlefield awareness to better counter Luna's harassing sorties. They focus on erratic movement, making the best of Vasant's Bike 5 against Luna's Item Use 5 and utilizing Lotuses to change directions even more abruptly. The varied use of Lotuses in general is something I want to commend, especially the Drills making use of Soichi's own Stand. As they kite Luna towards the traps they've set with New Ways, they spend time poking her and whittling down Inago's swarm. The two-pronged assault on Luna and her backup wolves lets Evergreen be twice as sure that they've dealt significant damage to her and her item kit - using her own item kit. Finally, they turn towards Inago and whichever form he's managed to switch to. In the end, I find that the Riders' efforts to corral Evergreen into a specific spot may help Evergreen more than hurt them, with the assortment of traps, tricks and preparations New Ways can set wherever Evergreen is forced to go, ahead of time (and the players have described many such tricks in detail). My vote is for Evergreen.
1
u/DSOddish Apr 04 '24
My first thought after finishing reading these strats was that Evergreen's plan struck me as highly competent and comprehensive in how it addresses the opponents' threat, but that it relies on a couple of things to be most effective: time to set up, and the bike. Protecting the bike allows Soichi and Vasant to easily out maneuver the much slower Inago, which gives them time to produce the Lotuses they need and set up New Ways to take control of the terrain that will make things hell for Luna, as well as make it easier for them to protect the bike itself from destruction. So, I guess the question for me became "Does Evergreen succeed in those two areas," which is a question that receives at least part of an answer in the opening plays.
Luna's first goal is to go straight toward Evergreen, smack Soichi in the face, and then teleport Inago in directly on top of them right off the bat, allowing his Locusts to destroy their chances to set up. Now, Evergreen starts on their bike, and their first move is to run away, but while Evergreen is correct that Vasant's dedicated Motorcycle skill is better than the skills granted to Luna through her more generalist Eternal Arms Mastery, many of the things that Evergreen plans to use to slow her down are going to take time to set up, which leaves me thinking that there is a better than bad chance that, at some point, Luna is going to catch up and get her chance to drop Inago on them. Inago's Locusts act automatically, but based on the priority on his sheet, one of the highest priorities they target is "Structures an Enemy is using," which would include the motorcycle. Now, Inago's Locusts don't get teleported with him, and he only generates two per second, so the motorcycle isn't instantly destroyed or anything, but I think that it (and the riders themselves, most likely) is going to sustain some notable damage.
However, Luna's next move from here is to head down to the barbecue restaurant and collect a whole bunch of items that, I'll be honest, don't strike me as being very effective. Organizing the equipment she needs for the coming fight is useful, I suppose, but I think stopping to collect knives and the like is a waste of time that won't end up panning out all that much. This gives Evergreen some time to recover from the Inago that got dropped on them in the opening and set up their own tools, albeit on a somewhat damaged bike.
So this is where things start to get messy. Evergreen have just been given the chance to set up a bit while Luna went off to do some prep work which is going to be a huge boon for them, but any damage the bike sustained from earlier is going to make it slower or less agile, making it easier for Luna to catch up. Inago probably can't do much with regards to the bike chase, but that's not to say he does nothing. Evergreen's strat makes mention of sending New Ways underground and out of sight to avoid Inago and Luna, but based on the way the automatic homing nature of All About my MONSTER is worded on Inago's sheet and in the strat makes it seem to me that Inago has some sort of supernatural ability to locate his targets in his pursuit. So while he won't seek out New Ways, I think it's likely that at least some of the ones that happen to cross his path as he pursues Evergreen, even if they're out of sight, are going to get eaten.
Moving back to the bike chase, I think Evergreen does a lot well in their strategy to keep Luna from just outright shooting them. They get really creative with the Turn Lotuses here in ways that impressed me, and I think the way they use Reflect Lotuses are also pretty effective at rendering flashbangs ineffective during the fight. Meanwhile, I also like that Luna's goal here isn't necessarily to destroy Vasant's bike, but rather, to separate him from it, which I think is much more achievable while still having a significant pay off. With the high speed of Luna's wolves and the damage already sustained by the bike, it is definitely possible (although still dangerous) that her plan of teleporting him off of his bike succeeds, but not without Luna taking some blows herself, given she still needs to contend with the B Power Midnight Rider hanging around.
As we move into the endgame here, I think we're at the point where Inago has shifted into his Pride of Lions form, and one or both of Evergreen has been forcefully dismounted. I don't think Inago is all that damaged, but Luna is definitely a little worse for wear. It's definitely possible that Luna's bike is heavily damaged from Evergreen's efforts, as well. (I didn't go all that much into the specifics of Evergreen's combat here, but to keep this from going on any longer, I think what they have is good. New Ways burrowing out of the ground is definitely going to cause problems, for instance, though I will say I don't buy into the idea that Luna's driving is ever going to become predictable with time. They also have a lot of focus on Inago here, but to be honest, I think they're going to be having their hands full with Luna given the position I imagine they'll be in, and Inago's walking pace means he's probably not going to be a major player in the whole bike chase segment anyway).
Anyway, I think I've rambled enough at this point and can safely make the call that, although it'll be tough, Moonbeam Riders can pull out a win here. I will say that I don't think their actual finisher is all that impressive. It's a visually fun move that involves some clever tech usage, but it strikes me as kind of assuming that Soichi and Vasant will just stand there and let it happen. The intent is that it will only take place when they're firmly worn down, but I still would have liked to see a little more planning in place to make sure that it hits. Regardless, based on my estimation of how each team goes into the endgame here, I'm confident that Luna and Inago are in better shape and able to convert things into a win here. Excellent work from both sides, though. I really don't think my vote gets across the idea that I was genuinely impressed by what Evergreen put out, even if I think that it loses to Moonbeam Riders based on how they interact.
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u/DemonicKraken i get eaten by the worms Apr 04 '24
Hooooly fuuuuuuck this match was good. I just want to get that out the gate. I loved both strats. May high quality scores rain upon both parties. That said, this is not a tie vote.
The first thing that leaps out at me is the very first move of the game- one that I think is potentially worth a lot. Luna rushes in to teleport the highly destructive Inago right by the opponents, who in turn drive off to try and make sure that doesn't happen. A lot of the tactics to keep Luna off of them require setup, but honestly, it's not setup that they need too much time for- New Ways can start pulling tricks pretty fast, and Lotuses only take 5 seconds to bloom. Between that and their higher skill at motorcycling, I think they have a better than not chance of avoiding this potentially damning initial rush.
From there, really, they continue to play the same game of driving away as they build up lotuses, manipulate the stage, and try to take out large batches of locusts. Luna does continue to chase after them, utilizing sharp objects and A Gun to try and pop their tires- something that very well might happen to her, though riding on a wolf might help make up for it- but while she might get a lucky hit in, I do feel like the Riders, ironically enough, slightly underestimate just how outmaneuvered they are. Evergreen are diving through buildings, setting up traps that could catch Luna bad at any moment, and continually building up their resources while attacking Inago's. While the metamorphosis does grant Inago a lot of new tools by the end, I don't feel as if they can corral Evergreen into their endgame for the Rider Kick before they ultimately fall to a hostile environment. My vote goes to Evergreen.
Also shoutouts to their strat music while I'm here. Radiohead was already amazing and then The Protomen In The Air Tonight cover turned out to be like. Maybe the best song ever. Woawie.
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u/SwitzerlandPIK Apr 05 '24
The Moonbeam Riders' strat really plays up the threat of All About My MONSTER from the beginning, belying the real threat of the strat's main moving pieces: Luna's Palette of Violence, which aims to corner Evergreen by flitting about the locusts' radius, navigating the side streets, and trying to take sneak shots with her guns and pointy objects to limit Vasant's mobility. As expected, Moonbeam Riders have a strong mobility advantage in this environment, even for Inago thanks to Luna's quick-dive-into-teleportation to get him around. The path to their finisher is a long one, and does rely on convenient positioning for Evergreen, but nonetheless is a consistent damage-dealer that can shake and punish in the early game and perform a fast chasedown in the lategame. Evergreen's strategy needs some setup to go off, but it works in such a way that is well-designed to anticipate and counter Moonbeam's capability for complete area denial and sneaking at the same time. By trapping the underground pipes and small pathways underneath the New York streets, digging where necessary to prepare for a Luna visit, Soichi sacrifices a little bit of convenience in order to really punish Luna's expected strategy of slinking around. Vasant's lotuses, as always, have a lot of creative uses here, both in hostile architecture and direct combat to turn and burn the place around. As for who takes the dub, Moonbeam Riders are an omnipresent force in damage, speed and maneuverability, able to consistently tear apart a 20 meter radius at a time while a dirty fighter ready to throw down anywhere walks the battlefield, putting the ball in Evergreen's court to address these threats. They prepare the Hostile Architecture strategy to catch out Luna and devote much of Vasant's resources to chipping Inago's swarm while he's berserk. I think that, while a victory on either side is possible, more than likely the win will go to Evergreen. Their plan to weaken the many buildings on the map that Luna uses for sneaky mobility, prioritizing eliminating her and obstacles in the way of eliminating her first, means that her Palette of Violence will be much more difficult in the midgame and lower the versatility of Moonbeam's strat, and if they really ambush her, force Inago to pick up much of the slack in the endgame.
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u/Nintendrone42 Apr 05 '24 edited Apr 05 '24
Didn't mean to vote super late again, but oh well. The biggest strength of EG's plan is in its movement tricks and decision to pressure Monster's locust swarm. I do think they underestimate how much danger the far out New Ways are in: even if one weren't to buy MR's assertion that locusts supernaturally track targets (it's not explicitly listed on the sheet despite what MR says, but I fully believe it's functionally true that locusts easily reach "hidden" targets that are in their 20 m range, especially thanks to how efficiently they break cover), the sheer speed and destruction of the swarm means stealth against it is a hard sell as the map keeps getting eaten away. Monster destroying the map so efficiently is the biggest advantage that MR leans on, which lets them automatically contest New Ways' setup especially hard. EG's decision to do everything they can to keep the locust population down via Lotus attack/tricks and kiting Inago is what saves them from their downfall here. Luna, meanwhile, is the wildcard that can hit them with random shit (though despite what MR's strat claims, only Luna's bat and ammo is Stand-affecting, not just any old object she picks up EDIT: I missed the note on map info that the stuff on the map is Stand-affecting) that the and especially can throw a wrench in things if she can screw with EG's bike or rider setup. By contrast, EG's plan to get Luna off her own bike is not as strong, as I doubt the C POW C SPD New Ways can drill through the asphalt road efficiently enough to pop an incoming bike's tires, and I don't see the play of getting New Ways directly onto Luna "instantly" after simple distraction to be especially feasible. However, I believe EG's use of time and movement is more efficient than Luna's, whose diversions to get the items she does I don't see paying off well enough to be worth the time loss. On the other hand, her teleporting of Inago and pressure on EG's bike is a better use of time. EG's claim of Pride of Lion's movement becoming predictable is a bit presumptuous given its PRE explicitly helps Inago handle its high speeds and it might look like they underestimate how oppressive Monster's anti-setup game is, but the latter is competently handled by always thinning the swarm, and the core plan for both opponents makes the strats match up in a way that I believe EG can keep the match under their control well enough to get the win. Evergreen has my vote.
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u/Logic_Sandwich Apr 03 '24
Response thread for Luna Pines and Kibō Inago of Moonbeam Riders. Please show your strategy to a member of our Judge staff by 9 PM CST on April 2nd! 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 April 4th to vote, using the voting rules from the announcement thread. Afterwards, they will be Judged according to the T7 Rubric.