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Eden's neutral expression darkened into apathy. Her expectation revealing herself to the group had been a fight - she had anticipated it since the release of the Psychic spell. She had expected retaliation, interference, a confrontation with The Ascendancy, or their sympathisers, seeking vengeance for their fallen comrades, or simply the chance to subjugate another Monster Girl. But she had not anticipated Hyun Long's descent into aggression; the Psychic magic appeared to have worked, she had remained calm the rest of the night. She had not expected the reliquary to fail after a single use, though perhaps she should have. When did The Mint ever play it straight, she wondered. And she had not expected Sasha to be killed.

The first of Alicia's attacks struck true, the light cutting through the dress itself like paper, and leaving burns at the ends of the magical threads where the heat transformed them to cinder. But the beams barely cut through her skin. To the naked eye, they appeared to simply vanish into her flesh, leaving shallow marks that rapidly sealed up, but to the observant, her skin appeared to shift, and envelop the magic as it made contact. What wounds were made healed quickly, but beyond that, Eden's body seemed to come alive, actively lessening the impact of the force and heat as it occurred. All the while she remained still, looking on at the girl.

Even through the following volley, she made no moves. Streaks of light more intense than before rapidly encroached on her position, and still Eden made no movements to evade, because the attacks missed on their own. Each beam, as it approached her body prepared to skewer her on the radiant spikes, bent around her form, and unadjusted to account for the distortions in trajectory, travelled past their mark entirely. Serenity's daggers much the same, raining from the sky, and despite Eden paying no notice to their presence, twisted around her, to fall and stick into the ground, perfectly avoiding her.

[colour=BlueViolet]"Good to have you join us - Inquisitor Rachel, was it?"[/colour] Eden called out, above the explosions of magic that surrounded her - her voicing seemingly amplified through Psychic magic, to convey the words directly to the two Beacon officiers. Alicia could see through her Third Eye that a field of Gravity magic had surrounded Eden's form, forcing the majority of her attacks out of the way, though she could also see that the heat had an effect. Her pale skin cracked and blistered through the explosive orbs, but Eden seemed not to care. And while one eye remained focused on Alicia, her other drifted, separating from the position of its twin to stare at Rachel. [colour=BlueViolet]"I was just hoping you could tell me where Cindy ended up. No harm, no foul, we can give this all a raincheck, how about it?"[/colour]

As she spoke, Eden raised the hand not clutching the case, and pointed it towards Alicia. An abrupt and rapid build up of Light magic formed within her palm, much the same in form as the lasers that Alicia herself had fired, but larger, more concentrated, and stretched into a single, continuous ray. The accumulation of magic took but a second until she unleashed a beam of piercing, incinerating radiance, aimed to burn a hole clean through the Seraph Paladin, and anything, or anyone, in front or behind her. The beam would only last for a few seconds, though more than enough time to find its mark, and if it did, the damage it would cause would be tremendous. And still the other eye focused on Rachel, awaiting for the Inquisitor's attack.

[center][@Ariamis][@Flamelord][@Crusader Lord]

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Since her usage of the Red Coin, Thalia had been hesitant as to the direction of her future. The Vixen, for a substantial portion of her time as a Magical Girl, had been with her, burrowed deep into the recesses of her fragile mind. It held her together - it kept her safe. All it had ever wanted for the continued safety of itself, and by extension, the body it shared, and the fears it bore had ingrained beyond conditioning. To be without the protection of The Vixen had at a time terrified her. The lead up to using the Red Coin had cemented itself as one of the hardest choices to make that she could remember, not for lack of desire, but a fear of disrupting the equilibrium. What would become of her after? How would her friendship, or lack there of, with Penny, be affected? Would she ever find a safety such as that again? Despite The Vixen's tendencies, and the way it had systematically ruined every person and thing that Thalia had found precious, she feared not its presence, but its absence. Could Penny take that place again, she wondered, or would she have to learn to cope with the lack of an internal mechanism to keep herself safe. Not just becoming different, but becoming less.

And with Penny as she was after the split, she wondered what other uncertainties the future could hold. Despite the warning signs and mounting tensions, Thalia had not expected an attack on the Rave, or rather, she wanted to believe that nothing would happen, and everything could remain the same as it was. She was afraid of change. The continued riots were another thing she could not predict. But more than anything she did not foresee Penny heading out, to take care of something that nobody knew anything about.

So Thalia stayed behind at the Sanctuary. Before leaving, Penny had placed great emphasis on the need to assist in quelling the riots - that Beacon were the ones suffering, not the Ascendancy. But without Cindy or Penny present to guide the incoming and outgoing concerned individuals, and the Corrupted Girls brought back to recover from injuries of their rampant Mental Mutations, the Sanctuary was bound to fall into chaos. Monster Girls by nature were chaotic individuals, forced against the grain by their circumstances, but Thalia was unwilling to let their honourable efforts fall to the wayside.

Some combination of innate desire and Mental Mutation stepped up within Thalia's mind. The end to the disturbances had been something Penny wanted, but beyond that, it gave her the chance to be in control. It was something she could do in the absence of higher figures of authority, and so she wanted it to succeed. She could make a difference, do something beneficial and productive, and be in charge of it all, just for a little while. Her Reverence and Lure bridged the gap between her unfamiliar face and the naturally distrusting girls, and invoking a degree of familiarity with Cindy and Penny both, she took to keeping the rescue efforts unified, and effective.

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Mika was wrong. Christine could tell from Olympia's commentary that she was scarcely the brightest bulb, but in her assessment of her nature, she could not have been further off. The selection of milkshake had not been based in psychology - no Death Note-esque game of wit over flavour had taken place between the two. In reality, it was simply the milkshake Christine had wanted at the time, coupled with a general bias against most flavours of strawberry. She had never truly attended a beach, or lounged in a pool, but as a Magical Girl she had little concern over her figure. What standards typical girls had for social etiquette among others of the same calibre did not apply to her; where one may have been embarrassed to select something higher in calorie, Christine thought nothing of it, not out of trust, but apathy.

[colour=PaleTurquoise]"So this is the Beach Dimension from before, then?"[/colour] she asked rhetorically, pulling the lid from her milkshake to smell the contents. Christine's eyes focused on the surface of the substance, watching it for a second, before raising the straw out and tasting the small amount of fluid left on the end. In reality there was no reason to suspect that a poison had been applied, and should one have been, it likely would have been magical, and undetectable, but she checked regardless. [colour=PaleTurquoise]"Y'know, Beacon could have taken Vi-chan into custody quietly. Plant a few undercover agents, confirm she's present, and take her with a Shift or teleport. The song wouldn't have started, and nobody would have rioted, but instead, they chose to suppress it with deadly force only after they allowed it to become violent. Do you think that's good, Mika? Are Beacon the good guys? Was that a morally justifiable approach to take? The PI doesn't think so, so we're siding with Cindy Ford. If you feel like helping with all that, I'm sure you could save a lot of people."[/colour]

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