My Villain Academy

The Room

“Serviceable. But ultimately worthless. Rarely will heroes fall for such shallow words in this day and age. Naïve sidekicks or newcomers maybe. But the more unrepentant and wicked you seem the more likely your eventual death at their hands will be certified. But of course that's not likely to happen if you're good at your job. Just don't expect others to flock to you with an attitude like that. False or no.”

Elisabella shrugged lightly. “I find convincing others of your point of view to be a much harder yet more efficient process in the long run. It doesn't even have to be something to believe in. Learn how they tick, and exploit them for your own gain. That's the way to do it. Save the theatrics for when you are undoubtedly certain and then some of your success. I recommend gloating above their cold dead corpse. And do make sure they're cold. And blue. They have a habit of not dying despite reason.”

There was nothing in her voice. Just statements. Not even conviction. It was like listening to some sort of machine rattle off numbers. Or a particularly disinterested worker reading off a list. Stress was incorporated only when grammatically necessary, but every other inflection was replaced with zilch.

Many people here already. Should be interesting at the very least.

“Pain is a good fuel. I knew pain. I don't now. But it was fun while it lasted,” she added as a response to Torin—flicking her head round to his direction so fast it borderline gave her whiplash.

bork

The Room

"Yeah, I guess," said Su. "I mean, I'd only heard of the Monkey King or Journey to the West or whatever a couple weeks after I got here. All I know is that this thing's been in my family for the last several generations and that it lets me do a bunch of crazy shit. Never really used it till' I left the jungle though. I can kick plenty of ass on my own. Guess I figured I needed an edge."

Arakawa Rin, What's A Villain?

Elisabella's words made some sort of sense. "I'll keep that in mind." Rin nodded, although her eyes did not open. She listened to those who listed their reasons for being here. The weird sickly girl was in fact here on similar terms as she was, even if the endgame was different - but then again, Rin's was decided for her. Others talked about their own reasons: the joker that gave a no-answer, the Travers girl seeking vengeance, and the rockman seeking refuse in his endless torment. Three different breeds of a villain, with her and Elisabella being a fourth.

Two more people showed up: one playing up the dramatic appeal of a grand villain, and the other with a much more subdued approach. "Not particularly." She called to Blake, eyes opening again. "Too dramatic with nothing to show for it. Made no sense either." And in the vein of being a strange kindred spirit, Elisabella added her own three cents. Satisfied with this, Rin looked at Torin. "Honesty goes a long way. I appreciate it."

grah

Sage Miller, The Mad Artificer

"They called me mad. I didn't like the medicine they gave me."

Sage's voice cut in suddenly, and she was staring ahead, far away despite being right there. Her hands clenched the magazine she was holding, wrinkling it. Notably, the girl was splotched with burn scars, some here, some there—results of experiments gone awry.

She noticed that she'd nearly crumpled the magazine and snapped out of her trance, hurriedly trying to smooth it out and continue reading the articles.

I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.

Sybil took note of the others' motives. In a sense, she felt a commonality amongst them. She guessed that was a something of a comfort.

   "Hopefully, you will be able to fulfill what you set out to do."   

As for Blake's introduction, she felt like she needed to teach him some manners. After Rin gave her critique, she gave her own.

   "You need to learn subtly. That's how you get them. Also, don't think of this as making friends. Think it more as making allies and preventing potential enemies."    She said, her smile somewhat unnerving.

Just an adorable fan girl and cosplayer ヾ(*・ω・)ノ💝💟

The Room

“She gets it,” Elisabella remarked, pointing towards Sybil appreciatively. “Excellent. Anything else is secondary, correct? Nice to see one with a similar point of view.”

She hummed as she looked them all over again, raising a finger and pointing to each of them one after the other as she made her conclusions. Although half of her listed ‘diagnoses’ barely applied, so it seemed more of a general metaphor than anything else.

“Trauma, sadism, megalomania, trauma, more sadism, more trauma, obligation, trauma, frustration, trauma...”

She pointed to her own skull.

“Nothing.”

And the point was made with a rubbery grin more fitting to be seen on a mannequin than a human being.

“Yes, this will be a trip.”

bork

The Room

The soft elevator style music slowly died down in the room and was replaced by the woman's voice. "Thank you for waiting, your orientation is now about to begin." as if to supplement her words each of the white panels that made up the room flickered for a few moments before, static flying over them as if they were nothing more then television screens. After a few moments of this the picture righted itself to show a figure whose body was cloaked in shadow in such a way that only some features could be made out. Their build was slim and they appeared to be neither short nor tall. The way they sat gave off an aura of confidence.

"It seems that everyone is here now, so it is only right that we begin," the voice that came from the figure was heavily synthesized and layered over itself, giving the impression of multiple voices speaking at the same time. "My name is Broker, those of you who were connected to the darker side of the world no doubt know exactly who am I, and for those that don't simply think of me as your...sponsor." the figure gave a small laugh at that, through given how heavily the voice was changed it sounded quite bizarre.

"By following the instruction you have put yourselves in my care, and I fully intend to provide each and everyone of you the opportunity to achieve whatever desires you hold in your black hearts. But," the figure raised a hand up. "One must never make to hasty an investment. A new weapon might not perform how it was sold, a 'perfect' squad of soldiers might have a glaring weakness. And it might turn out that none of you are worth the vast sum of money I will spend on you," those cruel words were spoken frankly.

During the pause between Broker's words the students would no doubt notice a thin layer of water beginning to slid down from the ceiling high above their heads, and a number of holes opening around the large room they had been put in. "This is a death trap," Broker informed them of such as a number of panels rose out of the ground around them. "If you wish to survive the puzzles atop these panels will need to be solved by some, while the distractions are handled by others."

As if to punctuate his words something crawled out of one of the holes that had opened, landing hard on the now wet floor and slowly pulling itself up. It appeared to be a middle aged man dressed as a clown, a white outfit and colorful hair and too large shoes completed the piece. But when the clown opened its mouth it would reveal rows of sharp teeth, and its hands had been replaced with the snapping claws of a crab. The only sound they made was a long and drawn out 'Hoooonk'

"For those of you with scruples about ending sentient life, rest assured these bioweapons are without higher brain function. That being said they will seek to end your lives." Broker clapped his hands. "Ah yes, you will be graded on your performance as both individual units and as a group. If one of you dies the water will be electrified and your deaths will be a shock. Now then my students, welcome to my Villain Academy. I look forward to seeing your efforts." the screens returned to white as more and more of the clown like abominations dropped out of the opened holes, and the water continued to pour.

Entrance Exam

• Goal: Solve the puzzles while fighting off the Bioclowns.

Mastermind class students should focus on the puzzles while also trying to coordinate a defense against the every increasing hoard of enemies.

Enforcer class students should focus on backing up the Mastermind's and ensuring they have time to focus on solving the various puzzles.

• Environment- Stark white room with various sitting furniture, a fused together Rubiks cube, and some magazines that might hide important information, and the various 'consoles' that rose out of the ground with holographic screens containing the puzzles.

• Bio-clowns- Mindless and animalistic creatures who use their rows of razor sharp teeth and pinching claws to attack foes. Like all clowns they are immune to pain and will only cease moving once their brains are disabled or they suffer enough internal damage. They contain confetti instead of blood, which is toxic if breathed in.

• Sidenote- The exact nature of the puzzles has been left vague, so feel free to tackle them as your characters see fit. While they are all difficult none of them should be treated as impossible by any of the characters. Masterminds are encouraged to actively have their characters communicate with each other, and Enforcers should feel free to back each other up. This will be chaotic and if it ends up not working, I will figure something out with everyone over on the discord. As a reminder if you haven't joined link is here

The Room

“Well that was churlish,” Elisabella tutted, briefly looking down at her bare feet before sighing and hopping up onto the nearest table. The so-called Broker had mentioned that it'd be electrified if they were incapacitated, but she didn't trust it being electrified regardless. So probably best to play it safe. “And to think I was rather enjoying myself. Shame. Real shame. Oh, look. Clowns.”

A tight lipped smile formed on her face as an odd zipping sound emanated from her. Her skin suddenly split apart in multiply points with a disgusting squelch, before simply unravelling with the sound of snapping nerve endings. She didn't flinch as her ribboned flesh reared out around her and exposed her inner musculature to the world; lidless eyeballs bulging and immaculate left teeth grinning uncontrollably as her lips were peeled away from her face.

The stringy ribbons were varied. Some were visible, others barely a sheen in the air. All were thin. All were sharp. All were under her command. With her blood kept inside her body by some unseen force, she let the things lunge for one of the clown creatures—slashing at speeds imperceptible to the human eye and rending its whole body with broad, carefully calculated strokes.

bork

The Room

As the holes opened up and the water and creepy clown started flowing in, Su couldn't help but look up at the holes as a particularly brazen idea started to creep into her brain. As far as she could tell, the room was being flooded. Part of a test or something. But now there was a hole! Which presumably wasn't flooded. Therefore, if she flew through the hole, she'd be safe! She loved it when a plan came together.

Summoning up a white fluffy cloud, she hopped on it and flew right up through the nearest hole. "Fuck yeah!" She headed straight up until she came to a dead end. Her brow furrowed for the briefest of moments before she remembered she was more powerful than a locomotive. "Oh, yeah. Fuck this shit." She then whacked the dead end with her staff, her considerable strength hopefully giving it enough power to make an opening.

Lillian let out a heavy sigh as she removed her hammer from it's hiding place, the alien metal shimmering in the light. "I'm not sure if I'm more disgusted by the pun or the clown" She commented, pitching the guitar case towards the face of another bioclown that had dropped into the room. "I should be able to redirect the electricity, should it come to that, but do try not to die, it'd be inconvenient." She called out to the rest of the room.

The blonde stalked towards her target. "Still, unsightly though they are, take their weapons and they're still only clowns." She pointed out. Then she swung her hammer with both hands toward the bioclown's wrists. "Overweight clowns, at that." She mused aloud.

Edited by guyshane on Feb 26th 2019 at 6:53:54 AM

-dramatic music ensues-

Charlie - Death Trap

"Neat." Charlie nodded at Su's explanation.

Then Broker decided to show his ugly mug (at least, Charlie assumed he was ugly underneath all that shadow and smugness) and welcomed them with a death trap. Made sense. Weed out the thugs from the real villains, something like that.

Charlie cracked his neck as his clothes shifted, jeans and tee shirt warping into blackness that spread across his body. Within seconds, he was covered head to toe in sleek, black, organic armor. "Showtime."

The ground beneath his feet cracked slightly as he charged forward, leaning into an inhumanly fast sprint to meet one of the clowns head-on. Avoiding a claw-swipe, he shoulder checked the clown - and a spike jutted out of his shoulder at that exact moment. Bio-organic... confetti? Spilled onto Charlie, and the cells comprising his armor rapidly consumed it.

To a human it probably would have been highly toxic, but to Apex, who could grow more kidneys or pull neurotoxins out of his own blood on the fly? Might as well have been harmless.

Even as the clown flailed about, tendrils shot out of Charlie's body, entered through the clown's wound, and began to tear him apart from the inside out. That organic matter was broken down into its composite cells and absorbed, Charlie's own cells cannibalizing it down to the (probably modified) DNA.

This entire process took maybe a second after initial impact.

"Whoo, tastes like cotton candy mixed with shrimp. Kinda diggin' it, actually. Who's next?"

As more clowns poured out of nowhere, Charlie's facemask tore itself open in a sharp-toothed grin not unlike the clowns themselves.

Hello all-you-can-eat-buffet.

What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?

“...I don’t like clowns....”

The purple sigils on his black rune portion of of his skin began to fill and glow bright purple, the same with his eyes. His teeth grit as the air around him began to crackle with latent energy which then began to gather in his hands. With a loud roar, he fired a beam of pure eldritch energy from his palm, tearing through any poor unfortunate soul that got in the way.

With that done, he charged forward with a roar, his hand crackling with energy as he went swinging into the group of hideous clown beasts.

Is it selfish that I'm happy as we pass the setting sun?

"Okay, let's see here." As a fancier of fine art herself, The Drake stalked over to one of the magazines, Fine Arts of the Month. She flipped fast, just skimming the pictures without the articles. "The Rubiks Cubes aren't fused together just for us to solve. Try it in a sort of meta way with other theming." She tapped several pages in a row. "Frescoes, frescoes, frescoes. Light and dark. Maybe separate the faces by light and dark. Let me just—" She took a skipping step backwards from one of the clowns and her mouth contorted into a monstrous jaw filled with teeth. "ONE MOMENT PLEASE!" She vomited fire on the water in front of it, sending steam rocketing up to flash-cook the monstrosity and keep the confetti inside it.

Sybil was both annoyed and sighed. It was time to start already. She should have known. This means now she had to unveil herself now and her dress would be ruined by the water. Oh well, it can't be helped now. At least she came prepared. She tore off her tear away dress to reveal her combat costume underneath. She got her stun gun ready.

   "Alright jackasses! Anyone who knows how to solve puzzles come with me! The rest, protect us and don't do anything stupid! Cause if we die, I will yelling at you for all of eternity in hell! Ya got that!?"    She yelled as loud as possible. She went over to the puzzle. As she got to work trying to figure out, she heard the annoying slobbering of the clowns. She shot some stun ammo at them.

   "Someone finish these assholes off for me!"    She was more annoyed than worried.

Just an adorable fan girl and cosplayer ヾ(*・ω・)ノ💝💟

Sage Miller, The Mad Artificer

Sage nonchalantly grabbed a plasma pistol out of her rucksack and shot a clown robot. She analyzed the way the pieces fell to see which parts had the least structural integrity. From the way it had snapped in half, perhaps the back was weak...

As Sage convinced herself of that, it became true.

"Aim for the lower back of where the spine should be."

That was her succinct statement to the Enforcers before snatching up the magazines she had and shouted, "There's ciphers in these articles right here, I'm sure of it! Someone go see if there's things hidden in one of the other Rubik's cubes, I think one was rattlier than the others!"

She rushed over to where Sybil was and began trying to solve the cipher while taking potshots at the clown robots herself. It really wasn't that different from building something while trying to sing pop songs into a toothbrush.

I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.

Arakawa Rin, More Upset About Wet Clothes, Really

The water came flooding in, and Murakumo had to stand up, picking her sword up along the way with a frown. What a pain in the neck. While she had spares of the uniform, it always annoyed her when it got damaged or disturbed in some form. She was supposed to be good enough for that not to come to pass. She watched the monkey girl dash up the hole from where the clowns came from, likely seeking a way out without having to play the game Broker set up for them.

It was worth trying if nothing else. And, with the clown bearing down on her anyway, it wasn't like she wasn't contributing to the team effort. Keeping mind of Sage's advice, Rin frowned at the monster, hand on the hilt... and then the blade was already up at the highest point of its ascension, her pose having changed to accommodate for that. Slowly, she straightened out, making eye contact with the clown that seemed as angry as it was confused before the blade went back to the sheath with a quiet clink.

The monster fell apart in two neat bifurcated halves. It was a picture-perfect execution. Unfortunately, Broker was smarter than that, and made sure the clowns remained troublesome even post-mortem. Rin glowered at the confetti cloud, stepping back and around it as she assessed the damage done to the wall behind the clown - her original target. If she could cut her way out, then that would certainly help with the flooding, if not invalidate the puzzles outright. The shockwave went through the clown easily enough; flesh was barely a speedbump for a slash of this magnitude.

She suspected both her and Su would be disappointed at the end of the day, but it had to be tried.

Edited by FergardStratoavis on Feb 27th 2019 at 12:20:28 PM

grah

The Room

“Hello, friend. Mind if I drop in?”

A clown was sliced to ribbons as a skinless girl showed her deathly face, grinning uncontrollably at Eva for a brief moment before turning so as to cover their position. “Thought I'd do as was actually advised. Do focus on getting us out of here alive if you can. I'd hate to soil my own paws on such a thing.”

She was slaughtering her way through clown thingies as she was saying that, so its effectiveness was somewhat lessened. As strange as it was, Elisabella seemed to have some sense of humour. By no means a particularly good one, but it was there nonetheless.

“Lower spine, correct? I've been hacking away at that bit anyway. Rin, dear—are you planning something? Do tell. I know that face very well, see...” she called out to the others.

For someone who currently had no lips she was enunciating abnormally well.

Edited by Enirboreh on Feb 27th 2019 at 11:24:27 AM

bork

Daniel – The Room

   Of course they were going to be clowns...   , Daniel said, annoyed, as he started looking at the enviroment around him, scanning it and looking for something suspicious.

He decided to check the fused Rubik's cube.

   I'm on it!   , Daniel replied to Sage as he runned towards the Rubik's cube.

However, the path towards the fused cube was filled with bio-clowns. Daniel now was weilding a strange, hi-tech crossbow.

   Hmph...nuisances...   , Daniel started aiming his crossbows at them, and started shooting plasma bullets at them, aiming at their brains.

After getting rid of the clowns who were in the area around the fused Rubik cube, Daniel walked up to it and started solving it (and occasionally shooting the clowns who were going near him).

You might know everything I'm going to do...but that's not going to help you, since I KNOW EVERYTHING YOU'RE GOING TO DO! STRANGE, ISN'T IT?

"Pardon me, lady swordswoman, but I do believe I can help you break through that wall."

Lillian strolled through the room casually batting aside bioclowns as she went. She shot Rin a smile once she arrived. "Now granted, there will almost certainly be a countermeasure deployed against us given the situation we're in. But what is battle without a little bit of a challenge, yes?" The blonde asked, before swinging her hammer against the cut Rin had made in the wall

-dramatic music ensues-

Arakawa Rin, Where More People Try To Game The System

"Finding an alternate way out." She simply replied to Elisabella. It was likely nothing but setting herself up for disappointment - but if she didn't try for the easiest way out first, then it would be nothing short of embarrassing if it turned out to be a correct way to proceed. (well, less "correct" and more "unaccounted for") She even got help in form of the large blonde with a hammer. "It's just "Arakawa". I'm no lady." She grunted in response to Lillian, dispatching another encroaching clown with another draw of her sword, this time horizontally. The monster watched its lower body in horror as the slash made the torso fall off backwards, with the agonizing clown drawing its last breaths.

A hammer certainly would work better against a wall, even if Sensou could cut such barriers with ease.

Edited by FergardStratoavis on Feb 27th 2019 at 6:32:27 PM

grah

Consequences

As the Masterminds went about their work solving the various puzzles the water continued to fall, seemingly moving faster as they got closer and closer to completing the tasks in front of them. By now it would have probably risen to cover the feet of anyone who wasn't using an elevated position. The fallen clowns seemed to be melting into the water once they were dealt a fatal blow, turning the water into a rainbow pattern that was slowly spreading out, carrying their toxin further.

As for those who had sought to free themselves from the death trap by going through the clown holes they would find their attacks on the back walls would cause spider web style cracks that would shatter to reveal a secondary wall, and in front of that a man in white face paint. "I am slapping my face and giving a shocked look!" the odd person narrated the exact action he performed with an overplayed expression. "Now I am reeving up a chainsaw to use to attack you!" the man mimed the action and smoke began to fill the area up. From the other holes the villains in training would hear more voices.

"I am cocking a shotgun!" "I am drawing a katana from its sheath in a slow and threatening manner! I am lighting the fuse on an old fashion black powder bomb!" from the holes three other mimes dropped down to the water, constantly narrating every movement.

The screens flared to life for a moment. "Oh, you found the Bio-mimes." the voice of Broker seemed to be actually rather exasperated. "Good luck with that."

• Added Enemies

Bio-Mimes: While not possessing the strength and tenacity of the clowns these Bio-mimes make up for it with higher intelligence (arguable) and the ability to create weapons and objects through the use of mimecraft. Through something went wrong with the cloning process and now they can't not say what they are doing.

Sage Miller, The Mad Artificer

BEEP!

The magazine-cipher puzzle was solved. The terminal lit up.

She shot the more threatening Bio-Mimes as they described what they were doing, especially the ones with ranged weaponry and explosives (after all, if you couldn't see what was being thrown, it was hard to block).

The next puzzle involved computer coding. As she started working on that, she made a few mistakes—however, the terminal didn't do anything odd or threatening. Small sparks of white light flew from Sage's fingertips as she typed.

She made a larger mistake.

No reaction from the terminal.

It lit up, as if all she did was correct.

"That terminal needs a keycard! Maybe it's the thing inside the Rubik's cube?" she shouted as water continued flooding into the room.

I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.

Daniel – The Room

   ...great...   , Daniel deadpanned as the Bio-Mimes started appearing.

Daniel needed to resolve the cube's riddle quickly. The Bio-Mimes, plus the flood of water (that was also tainted by the clowns' toxic confetti blood) were a lethal (if not dealt with properly) menace.

He had also marked the area around him with his venom, so that, if the clowns and mimes decided to step into this area, they would get paralyzed and they would slowly die to his venom. But when the water started rising, he instantly sucked the venom back into his body. It wouldn't be pretty if his Myjtridan venom mixed with already tained water, would it?

   I've finished!   , Daniel exclaimed as managed to solve the puzzle.

The fused Rubik cube started to glow before opening up. There was something inside...

He retrived the object from the cube: it was the keycard.

   ...good   , he muttered to himself as he runned towards the terminal, shooting every clown or mime that was near him with his DPX.

When he arrived, he nodded at Sage.    Here we go...   , he said jovially as he passed the keycard through the terminal.

You might know everything I'm going to do...but that's not going to help you, since I KNOW EVERYTHING YOU'RE GOING TO DO! STRANGE, ISN'T IT?

The Drake realized she should have thought of that sooner: these puzzles absolutely were beneath her! She turned away from the magazine and focused on the rest of the team trying to just brute-force their way out of the room.

"Since when did we apply for a school for law-abiding citizens?" She declared, morphing her hands back into wicked claws. "You're all geniuses, and I respect that a lot. We're breaking out on our own terms." She started her own contribution by stabbing her claws straight in and yanking them backwards to pull chunks free of the wall after the other villains softened it up. "If someone could maybe find a way to handle the toxins though that would be great!"

Arakawa Rin, >:T

Well... that was expected, and yet she couldn't help but feel annoyed, brows furrowing in indignation. Mimes? What kind of mime says anything at all, much less what they're about to do? Well, that did make avoiding their attacks somewhat more manageable. Here was hoping they weren't conditioning them for something much worse.

A little bit of her hair came off as she whirled past the mime with a "chainsaw". The fallen clowns were managing to stay annoying even long past the expiration of the toxic cloud, limiting their space by a fair margin. Carving the chainsaw mime by way of writing down a "falsehood" kanji, Rin scowled harder than she already was. What would happen if they broke the second wall? Would it be the turn for circus acrobats to come to the fold?

"Get out of my way, pissants." Arakawa growled, disposing of the katana mime - that one rankled her the most, honestly - in a neat, geometric fashion (by turning him into a limbless flesh cube). Compared to her earlier disposal of the bio-clown, it was obvious that - although her expression was largely the same - she was quite angry indeed. "Keep striking the wall. They'll run out of circus performers before long." Hopefully before the toxins got to them.

She was grateful her boots were watertight, at least.

grah