#i'm sooo fucking normal

[kriscentrics]

kicking and screaming as i get dragged back into this

[strialternatives]

bonus:

:inhales and slams hands on the desk: akechi. palace. pitch.

disclaimer: the setting for this is all about vibes and aesthetics, it kinda got away from me when i started hashing out the plot around it two months ago so now we're here. in hell. (i'll probably have to make a secondary post i made wayyy too many concepts,)

yes i made an ost for this idea, here is a youtube playlist of chill european jazz

AU details under the cut-

Akechi Goro's palace is "Ampitheatrum Doloris”.

KEYWORDS: Akechi Goro, Tokyo Highcourt, Amphitheater

Akechi's psyche is a massive collection of locked doors, puzzles, and contradictions. He wants to be seen but not understood—heard but never known, ect. This makes his palace infiltration a waking nightmare (affectionate).

His palace is made up of five main layers. They each mirror a stage of grief:

1) There is the outer layer of with the appearance of a Venice-esque water canal maze, there is a door that must be opened to reach the entrance to infiltrate the second layer underneath the amphitheater. The puzzle's actually pretty sentimental and revolves around Akechi's interest in literature.

(This layer is depression, Goro mourns what he lost and the fact that the choices he made for the sake of revenge ultimately led to nowhere. This is reflected in how desolate/meandering the outer layer feels, it is the largest and most time consuming part of the palace for this reason. It takes weeks to finish. AKA, Akira and Morgana have a terrible, no good, very bad month of May.) 

2) The Labyrinth under the amphitheater; it is full of shadows for the arena champion to use as fodder for the enjoyment of the masses. ‘Loki’ resides here—this layer’s theme loosely plays on the Minotaur myth. 

The only way to escape is through a pulley/elevator mechanism which leads to the surface after shattering the Champion’s chains by force. Loki taunts in Old Norse, but gives Akira (and the party by extension) genuine hints on how to escape.

(This layer is anger, Goro is always angry, about the hand he’s been dealt, the futility of his own actions, and the fact that his life has always been a dead end, written in the stars.)

3) The Audience Stands; full of human cognitions and Akechi’s former clients and fans, despite everything, like Sae, he sees them as ‘people’ and is disgusted by them. Their compliments are shallow and empty, surface level like Goro’s facade. Cognition Sae is delegated to a middle manager-type role, and leads Akira and Co. through puzzles.

Different cognitions from Akechi’s shitshow of a childhood throw riddles based around philosophy and the nature of justice at the party, if the answer is ‘wrong’, there’s a mini-boss fight. Answering everything correctly yields a prize—a key, this process is made difficult by all of Robin’s ‘hints’ (which the Thieves can directly ask for) being lies.

(Bargaining. Goro always thought he could still salvage his revenge despite his enemy being essentially invincible, even now deep down he thinks he can salvage all the effort and sacrifices he put in.)

4) The Stage; Robin Hood appears proper instead of in cameo appearances, this is the lead actor's stage. To earn the right to stand with him, Akira has to have to prove his worth in one-on-one combat while showing the crowd a rousing show. The goal is to use the key obtained in the bargaining layer to unlock the Performer's cuffs.

(Denial, Goro doesn’t believe he needs or deserves saving or a life outside of his revenge, he believes there is no other way forward.)

Hereward and the 'treasure' are in the Imperial box area, which I'll save for part 2 of this I think! The second half of this'll have less focus on the environments and more on general plot and character design.

EDIT: here's part two

[contamination-zone]

Possibly a bit of a vent... oops! more npd Fresh thoughts :-]

[maxdurden]

the raw power of gorgug and kristen synchronized second hand embarrassment is unspeakable

[demonstars]

Dream begging the universe for George to like Florida but when he felt like it didn't happen he was trying his best to let it go

[t4tcomputerfucker]

Me and my wife went to a noodle place today and they had ROBOT SERVERS??? they were so adorable. you can tell those little guys are shy they just slowly carefuly waddle up to your table, I always gave them a little pat on the head when we got our food, make sure they know they did a good job <3 i need to go back there again at some point

[m0rang0z]

It's always sans this... Sans that..

I NEED MORE PAPYRUS

[whoslaurapalmer]

the adult horror conversation with yourself of 'i could have tortillas with dinner tonight. i just had tortillas the other day. that's okay. i can, in fact, have tortillas again! i am putting a different filling in them! but if i have these tortillas, i will have a total of six tortillas left in the freezer. eventually i will have to buy more tortillas. by god, girl, you are allowed to eat the things you have in the freezer, instead of feeling like you have to save them for some potential eventuality so you don't run out of them, and like, what situation are you even imagining where the tortillas would be better to have later instead of for this particular dinner??? if you keep feeling like you have to save them for Something you will just not eat the tortillas!! eventually EVERYTHING runs out and you have to buy more of them!! that is the way the world works!! you are allowed to not have things aggressively stockpiled, except for like, tissues, but that was a purchasing incident on mom's card while she was still here, so you just happen to have, a bizarre amount of tissue boxes. AND WHILE YOUR FINANCES ARE STILL BIG RED QUESTION MARKS, YOU CAN, IN FACT, AFFORD TO GO BUY MORE TORTILLAS IF YOU FUCKING WANT TO!!! YOU GET THE STREET TACO SIZE AND THEY'RE LIKE $2.99!!!!! AND WHEN DID YOU EVEN BUY THESE TORTILLAS, HUH???????? YOU DON'T KNOW, DO YOU???? WHICH MEANS YOU HAVE GONE THROUGH THE TORTILLAS AT AN ACCEPTABLE PACE!! WHATEVER THE HELL THAT SENTENCE MEANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'

anyway i'm eating the tortillas. or i mean they're on the counter defrosting while i have some chicken toasting in the toaster oven

[silvercat-the-daydreamer]

*SCREAMS* KANAKO YASAKA I AM GOING TO BOIL YOUR EYES LIKE SPAGHETTI

[reiverreturns]

hey quick question random youtube commenter what movie did you watch because it certainly wasn't top gun maverick

[the-starry-seas]

jango fett is the kind of character that just fucks me up he's perfect truly nobody is in my brain like he is and then to think about BOBA?

jango's outlived everyone and killed for them and his life is vengeance and loss. that's what he remembers when he thinks about his family. when do you stop living with a wound? when the wound is what you become. when the earliest memory you have, any more, is your family dying (loss) and your adopted father asking how you feel about killing the man who killed them (vengeance). the father who stepped in to protect you and you remember everything he did for you but mostly you remember him dying in your arms (loss).

you tell your son about the family you once had (loss) and he asks why they're not with you any more and you have to tell him about how cruel the world can be (loss) and he asks what happened to the people who killed them and you have to tell him what you're capable of (vengeance). he's not afraid of you even though you know he should be. he asks why you're making an army for jedi if you hate them so much and you don't have an answer for that because you don't know if it's hatred or fear and you don't want to live but you haven't killed yourself yet so apparently you also don't want to die.

so you're stuck in the middle and it's so fucking stupid how so many people see the world in black and white when all you've got to work with is greys. you took a job because the alternative was probably going to be getting killed for saying no, but when's the last time you saw someone pointing a blaster at you and thought about getting out of the way?

sure you can trust your armour to take the bolt but maybe this time it won't. your father's armour couldn't stand up to a tank, and maybe enough blaster bolts will start wearing a hole through your shell to the nothing underneath it. maybe that's the legacy you're meant to have. you get shot like your father and you die like your father and you have - what?

you have a son and you want him to be jaster's legacy but maybe you wonder what that legacy is supposed to be exactly. you wonder if leaving your son alone is part of the legacy. if it's the point. the only way to get a legacy is to inherit it and you can only inherit things from murdered fathers. what happens when the story won't stop haunting you? when you know what the end is - because it's the way you want it to end, whenever you're alone long enough to think about it.

what happens when you realise too late that you're part of a cycle and your son is too? when you realise that everyone you love is dead and there's so many people killed in so many ways and you're the only thing they all had in common?

are you proud when he tries to shoot a jedi? is it a good thing that you see yourself in him? is that your legacy, dying in front of the only thing you want to protect? do you see the future? do you see the past? do you realise they're the same thing? do you realise it too late?

[homierotic]

having a tiny moment

[shadowedmagic]

thought about maxlie. Felt things. You may see me on the news as consequence

[jennsmelody]

this bitch raphael😭😭 baby she doesn't want you no more!! you made best friends with her evil tormentor!!!

[coffeeworldsasaki]

There's something really funny about people saying that 100 hours long RPGs are too much while I just finished WOTR after 80 hours and all I'm thinking is that I could have done with another 80 hours and that I can't wait to replay it with all DLCs because they should add at least 50 hours of game more

[lesbiancharliedalton]

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