[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/NgWhiMr.png[/img]

[color=cfff04]”Too many best girls.”[/color]

[color=888888]— Tonya “Mac” Murphy[/color]

[hider=Tonya “Mac” Murphy]
[b]Age: 24/11 | Gender: Female/Female | Illusion, Gravity
Body | Power of Friendship, Regeneration, Third Eye | Moirai
Coercion, Soul Jar, Martial Training, True Sight, Parasite, Gifted, Awareness, Overcity Shift Mystic Artifact

Magical Overload, Paragon, Blessing, Gifted Item | Monster Form, Big Brother, Arrogance, Vendetta
Redirected Magic, Second Specialization | Non-Standard Limbs, Destroyer[/b]

STR: 05 | AGI: 04 |  VIT: 05 | MAG: 03 | LCK: 03

STR: 10 | AGI: 08 |  VIT: 11 | MAG: 17 | LCK: 05

Earnings this post: Zilch

Total: 6 Gold, 111 Silver, 120 Bronze
[/hider][/center]

Mac knew she was going to help take out the litches, but she didn’t know which one she was going to start with. The Moirai never gave her clear instructions on what to do, so in situations like this, she had to rely on her own intuition and wits to lead her to the correct fight.

The litches would ultimately fall in the end, her goal was more to help the magical girls present survive the encounter. To Mac, this was less about dealing with the individual litches themselves and focusing more on the aftermath of their defeat. To that end, dealing with “Mr bulk” seemed like the most sensible option. 

She waited for the litch to arrive, which was when she would commence a most glorious butt kicking. 

[hr]

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/JyqXhSX.png[/img]

[color=#bd71e8]“Just as planned.”[/color]

[color=888888]— Vermilion Veronica[/color][/center]

Veronica stood in a dark library. There was no natural light, nor were there any fixtures to help illuminate her surroundings. The only light she needed was from the books themselves. They had a red glow and were the only thing to see by in this library of darkness. The books were just bright enough to illuminate her Gothic dress, which was red and decorated with roses. When she looked at the books, she would hear sounds. opening these books would reveal images. Sometimes the images were in stunning color, other times it was just well defined shapes.

Veronica was not in a physical place. At least her consciousness wasn’t. She had withdrawn into a nexus between her mind and her specialization magic. The setup was comparable to the internet in the way it operated. All of the Cradle agents minds were on a network that sent “data” through a “server,” which relayed all of the information towards Veronica and sometimes other Cradle agents. Their thoughts, memories, everything was compiled and shifted through an encrypted network of Veronica’s design. This space was called the black library.

Normally a careful construction of algorithms would alert Veronica when there was a particular thought she needed to see, but that only really worked when Veronica wasn’t locked away in a different dimension for several months. Veronica had returned after a very long span of time, and needed to sort through everything she hadn’t been around to catch. Her situation was comparable to coming back to an old discord server and seeing that there were 10,000+ unread messages, and everyone on her friends list had sent her some DMs as well. 

It wasn’t pretty.

In Veronica’s search for answers, she received a transmission. In the black library, incoming transmissions looked like red holograms of the people talking. So it wasn’t hard for Veronica to place who was bothering her. [color=#bd71e8]“Yes, Trixy?”[/color]

[b]”I know you’re busy, but I also think I can help you get caught up to speed! You’ve been in there for an hour or so, and we need you now!”[/b]

[color=#bd71e8]“I’m nearly done, actually.”[/color] The coin broker closed the book in her hand and put it on the shelf. [color=#bd71e8]“From what I’ve gathered, whatever magic was protecting the people of Penrose has since vanished, allowing monsters to come in en mass and cause a chain of cataclysmic events. With most of the defending magical girls trapped in another dimension there was not much to retaliate with. Naturally, the girl scouts called in the Ascendancy to clean up the mess. They did not like how corruption friendly Penrose was, and now we’re here.”[/color]

[b]”B-but!”[/b]

[color=#bd71e8]“But that says nothing of Crimson Cradle, does it?”[/color] Veronica lowered her arms to her sides, and dozens of books floated off the shelves to circle her. They opened up and bombarded her in light. [color=#bd71e8]“Much like I expected, there was a panic when I disappeared. Some of you thought I was dead, but you eventually rationalized that if the magicoms still worked, I was still alive somewhere. Unfortunately you had no access to the Cradle, nor a means to secure new members. It seems like you personally took charge and adapted a defensive strategy, made potential allies via Glimmr, and stubbornly kept a foothold in Penrose. You also attempted to locate me, but that was one of the less productive things you did.”[/color]

[b]”Well, you can’t fault me for trying, can you?”[/b] Trixy gave her boss a toothy grin.

[color=#bd71e8]“Your greatest achievement was building a new lab in a secure location.”[/color]

[b]”Yea well- Wait, what was great?”[/b]

Veronica placed a hand on her chin. [color=#bd71e8]“I would hardly call the recent events in Penrose advantageous to anyone, but I believe that Cradle made the most out of the situation. Beacon is more divided than ever, and the Mint finally has some competition. It is probably too soon to assess our risk level, but if the big two start fighting each other, we have little to worry about.”[/color] Veronica approached Trixy and chuckled. All of the books flew back onto the shelf [color=#bd71e8]“I’ll need to tell you about my adventures at a later date. For now though, you might as well tell everyone I have returned. It’s not going to be a secret for very long regardless.”[/color] She folded her arms behind her back. [color=#bd71e8]“I will announce my return to the other Cradle agents personally, along with your promotion to [color=#ff0000]T[/color][color=#ff7f00]o[/color][color=#ffff00]p[/color] [color=#00ffff]M[/color][color=#808080]a[/color][color=#ff0000]n[/color][color=#ffb400]a[/color][color=#fbff00]g[/color][color=#31ff00]e[/color][color=#00ffc7]r[/color].”[/color]

[b]”Wait, really? I’m…”[/b] Trixy shook in place. [b]”I’m so excited! It was really lonely for the last few months, but now everything is wonderful again!”[/b] She zipped away. [b]”The only way today would get better is if someone kissed me!”[/b]

Veronica pulled out another book. She knew much, but there was still more to catch up on. [color=#bd71e8]“Cindy, Mariette, and the Djinn Sisters.”[/color] She walked deeper into the library. [color=#bd71e8]“I cannot ignore you any longer, can I?”[/color]

[hr]

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/iHJBY7s.gif[/img][/center]

[table][row][cell][url=www.Nicetrylolz.com][color=red]Cradle.net[/color][/url][/cell][cell]Update # 478[/cell][/row][row][cell]
[center][color=orange]Trix N Traps[/color]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/q7DdNsh.png[/img]
[color=#ff0000]T[/color][color=#ff7f00]o[/color][color=#ffff00]p[/color] [color=#00ffff]M[/color][color=#808080]a[/color][color=#ff0000]n[/color][color=#ffb400]a[/color][color=#fbff00]g[/color][color=#31ff00]e[/color][color=#00ffc7]r[/color]
[color=lime]Online[/color][/center][colour=2E2C2D]BillyKillsMikaBillyKillsMika[/colour][/cell][cell]

Hi Girls! (and boys, we don’t discriminate!)

So something cool happened today. You know how I’ve been talking about someone coming back since FOREVER? Well guess who’s finally back?

Vermilion Veronica herself! 

You know what that means? Crimson Cradle is back in business baby! We’re talking… I mean, we can actually do stuff now. Imagine if your Patron up and disappeared for a few months. No pay, no back up, no cute girl to take orders from! Needless to say we’re all very happy that she’s back. 

I’ve covered why working for Crimson Cradle is great before, but you know I’m not oppose to doing it again! For those of you who don’t want to read a text wall, the short answer is this: She’s one of us. 

Veronica isn’t a puchuu with mysterious motives. She’s not a lesser force who’s only interested in their own ends. She’s not an arrogant god, not a horror, not Beacon, and DEFINETLY  not the Mint either! She’s a magical girl just like you or I who has become fed up with the mint’s shenanigans. If you stand with her, you’re standing against their tyranny. 

A history lesson for the new kids: Veronica was a former coin broker who worked for the Mint. It’s shady work, but like most people working for the Mint, it was something she was sucked into rather than willingly signed up for. But she played their game and she played it smart. She worked her way up to become a coin broker and noticed that things only got worse as she moved higher up in the organization. So was so repulsed that Veronica has since left them, now branded for death, but no less willing to take the fight back to them! She’s going to expose their every secret and turn them inside out! She’s going to free their army of enslaved magical girls from the debt trap Mint has them in!

As amazing as Veronica is though, she needs your help. We’re just a small group of magical girls that needs to get bigger to take on a giant like the Mint. We’ve got cool benifits like:

-Access to the Cradle: Virtually anything you could ever think of is within arms reach! Just let Veronica know what you want, and boom! No strings attached! She doesn’t like handing out stuff without some collateral though, so you’ll need to trade something of equal value in. 

-Be connected: Any Cradle agent can talk to any other Cradle agent, anytime, anywhere, at all! I don’t recommend bothering Veronica too much, But I’ll talk to you! I have a lot of interests!

-Cute operator: Chances are you’re going to get most of your missions directly from Veronica. Otherwise, you’ll get them from me. And we’re both pretty cute! And I’m sure you’re cute too!

-Make a difference.

-Change your destiny

Now I’m not going to lie, we’re not for the faint of heart. Not everyone is made out of tough enough stuff to become a Cradle agent. A lot of people want to stop us. Mostly the Mint, and I’m sure Beacon 2.0 isn’t too happy with us being more or less run by a dark magical girl. Also, because Veronica has had so many run-ins with moles and traitors, she’s going to have access to every thought and memory you have. Veronica’s a pretty chill person though. I have some thoughts I’d rather not get banned from Glimmr for sharing, but big V still keeps me employed. In fact, I just got promoted! Does the hard work you put in for your patron pay off? Leave a comment and let’s have a discussion about this!

And as usual, if anyone’s interested in joining, just send me a message! I’ll answer any questions you have![/cell][/row][/table]
[hr]

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/B0lrSlY.png[/img]

[b]“Round 2.”[/b]

[color=888888]— Billy[/color][/center]

[@ERode][@PlatinumSkink]

Most cars cannot fly. But the rusting [url=https://i.imgur.com/aUqOYVO.jpg?1]1959 Eldorado convertible[/url] that Billy was driving certainly could. The unusually tall man wasn’t able to drive it like a normal person. He needed to have the top down, as well as sit in the back since there was no way he would fit in the driver’s seat. The Cadillac knew where to go, and didn’t need Billy to steer or step on the gas. The tail lights emitted a neon glow, which left a trail as the car flew about the sky. The only thing that rivaled the sound of the engine was Billy’s howl of ecstasy.

[hider=Yea, she turns me on][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr9ie2J2690[/youtube][/hider]

It wasn’t long before Mariette came into view. Billy was not one to back down from a challenge, nor was he the type to throw projectiles at people. He raised his sword over his shoulder and prepared to cut Mariette clean in two. She had just enough time to step back into her portal before Billy’s blade smashed the portal’s frame, causing it’s magic to flicker away like static sparks. Before departing, she did attempt to make Billy slash himself with his own attack, but the lich was aware of the portal opening up next to him, and stopped before he decapitated his own head. Moments later, the Eldorado glided to the ground and spun around to face Billy’s pursuers. 

Their battle would take place in an intersection. One with buildings spanning in all directions. This part of Penrose was sparsely populated, but Billy would take all the skins he could find. More cars pulled up behind him. A fire truck, a police car, and an army cargo truck. They were all filled to the brim with cackling ghouls. The fire truck extended its ladder towards a building while the police car took to the skies, sirens blairing as it pursued Mariette. Those ghouls were armed with all manner of firearms from pistols to S.W.A.T. issue assault rifles. The army truck and Billy barreled towards Amaryllis and anyone standing with her. The girls would have to work fast if they wanted to keep the local populace safe.

[hr]

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/hoaMlSH.png[/img]

[b]“Lich? More like bitch! Lolololz!”[/b]

[color=888888]— Lupa[/color][/center]

Lupa and Mika had been playing in the snow, but Mika had informed her that she saw a friend and wanted to drop in on them. She was being kind of secretive about who it was, but Lupa was fine with Mika keeping secrets. If she wanted to chase down a new girlfriend or just wanted some privacy, Lupa wasn’t one to interfere. 

More than that, Feral had become quite ravenous in her time away from Penrose. Now that Lupa was back, she could feel its presence ten fold. Her Patron was begging her to kill something, anything. Even Mika was not spared as a potential victim. She tried to internalize it as much as possible, but the desire to kill was strong. It had gotten so bad that Lupa couldn’t go a few seconds without thinking about killing something. She needed to do something, and soon.

That was when she got a text from Emily. 

[b]”The timing’s a little awkward.”[/b] Lupa grinned to herself. Or perhaps it was more correct to say Feral was making her grin. She hated that she had to give into such dark urges, but the best way to keep Feral under control was to give into his desires at the best possible times. [b]”I hope there’s a lot of minions.”[/b] Lupa dialed Helga. She could have called Mika, but there was no point bringing her into this. [b]”Hey Helga! There’s a lich or something at the old earthquake sight. I guess its a big deal, so I’m calling in some backup. Don’t leave me hangin’!”[/b]

Lupa didn’t wait for a response. She needed to kill something, and that drive overrode the usual pleasantries she would normally share with Helga. Lupa would have to talk to beacon about Feral again, but for now, she hunted. The wolf girl took off towards the disturbance to join Emily’s side.

[@FamishedPants]

[hr]

[@EnterTheHero][@Rune_Alchemist]

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/SbnCKDQ.png[/img]

[color=75c159]”A bony man who summons other bony men: Boneception.”[/color]

[color=888888]— Tetrad[/color][/center]

Tetrad floated to the ground and placed her hands on her hips. [color=75c159]”Seems there’s already people here waiting for my mark. This is gunna be easy!”[/color] It wasn’t until she looked at her cards that her expression soured. She had no cards to play. Save her “trump” card, which was far too early in the fight to use. Sometimes fights are hard because luck doesn’t agree with you. Other times you just forgets to draw because you’re too busy chasing a lich through a city. [color=75c159]”Whatever, I’ve got a good combination coming up, I can feel it!”[/color] While more cards flew out of her deck, she chucked her knife at one of the zombie’s heads. On contact, it would swiftly return to her hand to be thrown again. Even if Tetrad had superhuman agility, having to wait for her knife to return between shots was a sub optimal way to fight. She had much more firepower when she used her knife in tandem with her cards. 

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/ILCOP2b.png[/img]

[color=tomato]“Once more, with Deja vu.”[/color]

[color=888888]— Mika Sarraf[/color][/center]

Hugging strangers was all fine and good, but Mika had a job to do now. There was a giant skeleton, its minions, and pedestrians that were in dire need of rescuing. Mika knew that now was the time to throw caution to the wind and dive into the enemy ranks. She had so many options available to her, from transforming into a beast to blowing them away with her newly awakened water magic. But she ended up doing neither of those things. She backed away from the fight like a scared animal.  

Even if it happened over two months ago, the weird time warp things meant it only happened a few weeks ago for Mika. This was where she had her fight with the spider lady. She fought skeletons, spiders, and eventually a big evil mommy spider. Her attempt to help just ended up getting Lupa temporarily mind wiped. Had the ghost twins not been there to fix her, Lupa still would have been a vegetable, all because Mika tried to help. Tetrad was here, Rina was here, even this crow boy was here. There was no reason to get involved.

But Mika did know someone who could help. She opened up her cell phone and hit up someone she had on speed dial.

[hr]

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/COlSgMa.png[/img]

[color=PeachPuff]“Back in my day, all we had to play with was sticks.”[/color]

[color=888888]— Su Fang[/color][/center]

Su had planned on talking about possible way to promote the hotel with Helga during their walk. But Helga had bigger plans. She had been swept up by a video of Vi, and wanted to use the party and Vi to elevate awareness of the hotel.

[color=PeachPuff]“I think-”[/color] Su was cut off by Vi’s voice screaming through the phone. She wasn’t well vised on internet celebrities, so she watched a few videos that Helga had recommended to her. [color=PeachPuff]“I don’t know. She seems very politically charged. I don’t like Beacon any more than you do, but she’s not a typical corrupted girl sympathizer. She’s calling a lot of attention to herself. Having her sponsor the Golden Trove would be dangerous.”[/color] She turned off her phone. [color=PeachPuff]“But we could go to her party. I do like the idea of selecting possible candidates ourselves. Dark magical girls and monster girls aren’t my favorite guests, but we can’t be too picky these days. We should go to the party.”[/color]

[@Card Captor]

When Su opened the door to the shop, she was greeted by Brittany, followed closely by Alexander asking what they were doing here. [color=PeachPuff]“Alexander?”[/color] It had been a long time since Su had seen Alexander. The last time they met was at Justine’s castle, and he didn’t look quite the way he did now. They hadn’t interacted at all over the vacation, so it had been a good month or so since she had spoken with him. Not that she had ever really gotten to know him in the first place. But something else took precedence over catching up. Su walked over to Alexander, looked him up and down, and grabbed one of his tails. [color=PeachPuff]“Are these tails?”[/color] She stroked it between two of her fingers. [color=PeachPuff]“They’re soft, but they also feel strong. Like tentacles.”[/color] Su’s eyes half closed, and her cheeks glowed red. [color=PeachPuff]“Mariette also had strong tentacles.”[/color] She swallowed before pulling her hand back. [color=PeachPuff]“Lily really is lucky to have you.”[/color] It might have been rude to do so, but Su walked away from Alexander to see if there was anything else that could grant a power like that. Her search turned up nothing. [color=PeachPuff]“Oh well, no tentacles for Helga.”[/color] 

Su turned her head and noticed an assortment of arrows. [color=PeachPuff]“There’s a lot of weapons in here. It’s not really what I was expecting.”[/color] She lifted up one of the arrows and examined it. The blessed fairy bolt. It was an unusually shaped arrow. The shaft was pink and it was jagged like a lightening bolt. It didn’t look like it would even fly, but the information written on the tag was worrying. It seemed the arrow was designed to avoid obstacles and wait out barriers before hitting someone between the eyes. It sounded a little extreme, but the price tag was high enough that the claims had to be real. The idea that someone could come in here and use something like this against Mika was troubling. This wasn’t the type of item that you used to protect yourself. It was designed to kill your opponent. Something made less for self defence and more for a war. The temptation was to buy it just to keep it out of the wrong hands, but there would be another one here in time. Not only that, but there were a great deal more arrows beside the one Su was looking at. The next table over was filled with grenades, and beyond that was an assortment of weapons. With a sigh, Su put the arrow away and turned around. [color=PeachPuff]“Penrose really is on the verge of a war, isn’t it?”[/color]

*beep beep*

Su look at her phone. It was Mika. Strange for her to be calling, but it was too soon to panic. [color=PeachPuff]“Mika? Are you alright?”[/color] 

[color=tomato]“No.”[/color] Her voice cracked. [color=tomato]“Remember where the spider monster was? There’s something else there now. A big skeleton is attacking people. I wanna help but-”[/color]

Now might have been a better time to panic. ButSu was done giving into despair. [color=PeachPuff]“I’ll be right there Mika. Just stay safe and tell me if anything strange happens. Stick with Lu-”[/color] Su looked to Helga, and noticed she was talking on her phone as well. She could hear Lupa’s voice. [color=PeachPuff]“Helga, Mika’s in trouble, you look after Lupa!”[/color] Su bolted for the door, not even bothering to acknowledge Alexander. He didn’t owe her anything, and he was probably going to go and make sure Lily was safe. In the end, everyone had to look after their own. As soon as Su got outside, she flew into the sky. It wouldn’t be long before she was with Mika.