[Endgame: rise or DROWN]

[warpweft]

[How long have you been exploring Nessa's palace now? You've met her family, viewed her memories, learned how to fight as a witch and tried to find the source of her power and the Treasure of her palace: the Voidheart. And along the way, you've tired your best, with mixed success, to avoid the incarnation of her eldest cousin and the representation of her trauma and fear, the Nightmare of Esmau.]

[Wherever you are in the Palace right now, you feel the ground briefly shake under your feet. Little shakes here and there haven't been out of the ordinary - Esmau is trying to blow the place down to the studs, after all. But that felt different. That felt....worse.]

[Your phone beeps as you receive a message.]

Comments

done

[voidhearts]

[Things...are not good at the top of the hill. There's a big hole in the back of Agnis' house. There's fire and smoke everywhere. The garden has been blown to bits and there's little more than a giant smoking hole where it used to be...

And Agnis, Nessa's older sister, is on the ground in a heap, propped up against her garden's fence. She's doing a little better, thanks to Akira's help, but she clearly has had a bad time. She looks Tsumugi up and down and lets out a small huff.]

You look different.

[cosplayed_out]

I do not look different. I am Mukuro Ikusaba, Ultimate Soldier. I am here to follow orders within the confines of approved techniques.

[Her tone is even, almost meek.]

Sitrep. ...Situational report. Please.

[voidhearts]

...I lost to Esmau.

[She looks down. If you look at the smoke from the staircase, you can see a staircase pointing down.]

You have to stop her....she's almost got her hands on it.

I...you have to go quickly. But. I can give you something that may help, first.

Take my hand.

[She reaches her hand out.]

[cosplayed_out]

[she reaches out a gloved hand.]

[voidhearts]

[She squeezes her hands, weakly. An orange aura builds around her for a few seconds. Her eyes, not covered by her eyepatch or her sunglasses, glow orange, before stopping. She lets out a breath and slumps back against the fence. She's okay, but, she's gonna need some time.]

[Tsumugi meanwhile, will find herself with an orange shard in her hands. The shard seems to shift in her hands, one second looking like a small shard of glass, the next looking like something else. Either way, it can be placed into her Voidhearts.

Name: Ultimate Cosplayer
Description: Thread, needle, brushes, wigs, costumes and, oh yes, the power of a Doppelganger, everything needed to create the perfect cosplay, for you or someone else. CAUTION: RPF is not an approved cosplayer practice, cosplaying as a real person may cause you to break out in a sudden case of Cospox.
Spark: Vulcan
Facet Slots: 3
Effect:
At the start of the round you can select one ally (including yourself) and change their name to one of the following for one round: Junko Enoshima, Ikusaba Muruko, Tsumugi Shirogane, Akira Kurusu, Minato Arisato, Sprezzatura Vaux.
If you change your own name to one of your allies, take 5 damage.]

P...please, hurry.

There's not much time.

[cosplayed_out]

[... a pause.]

You are a civilian. Proper procedure is to evacuate you. Permission?

[voidhearts]

Th...this is my father's house.

I'm not dead yet. And that's the only way I'm leaving it.

Please. Take the stairs. Stop her.

[cosplayed_out]

Then... it's an approved exception to abandon you.

[though her lips twitch after saying it, as if remorseful.]

Farewell.

[she heads toward the garden stairs]

[voidhearts]

[You travel down the stairs...]