[center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/aef3087a-5b67-4c7a-b700-3c45c3052f60.png[/img] [color=tomato]"I’m okay."[/color] [color=888888]— Suki Oyama[/color][/center] [color=90ee90]"Interesting play…"[/color] Misoka squared her shoulders as Michi’s show continued. She pressed her knees together and looked at Suki. [color=90ee90]"Tsubomi doesn’t look too comfortable up there."[/color] [color=ff6347]"Nope."[/color] [color=90ee90]"Isn’t that a concern? You guys hang out a lot, right?"[/color] [color=ff6347]"It’s complicated."[/color] Misoka folded her hands in her lap, twiddled her thumbs, and then set her hands on the table between them. [color=90ee90]"Is there a reason why you don’t like me, Suki?"[/color] [color=ff6347]"Eh?"[/color] Suki looked away from the stage. [color=90ee90]"I mean, you’ve hit on every girl in school. At least, a few months ago you had. Everyone but me."[/color] [color=ff6347]"Well, I mean uh, you have a boyfriend, right?"[/color] Suki leaned back in her seat. [color=90ee90]"Yes, but that hasn’t stopped you from asking others."[/color] Misoka looked away. [color=90ee90]"I don’t think it mattered if they were in existing relationships or were openly fantasised about boys. You’d ask them anyway."[/color] [color=ff6347]"Uh, well I’m sitting with you now, right?"[/color] [color=90ee90]"I’m not oblivious to the pranks you try to play on me. Any time there’s a smoking cigarette butt in my locker I know how it got there."[/color] Suki lowered her head. [color=ff6347]"There are other people who smoke."[/color] [color=90ee90]"Yet there are certain things you won’t do to me."[/color] Misoka returned her eyes to Suki. [color=90ee90]"When I was swimming with the swimming team, someone spotted you entering the locker room. When it was time to change back, you had stolen all of the girls underwear. Everyone but mine."[/color] [color=ff6347]"I was uh, I was only collecting the pretty looking ones."[/color] Misoka was sure most of the girls on the swim team had very normal, very unexciting underwear like herself. But it wasn’t a point worth bringing up. [color=90ee90]"Suki, Im, Hmmmm."[/color] She slid her hands together, like she was praying. [color=90ee90]"I’m not trying to call you out or anything. It’s apparent you aren’t feeling yourself. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you picked me out of everyone else because you wanted to punish yourself."[/color] [color=ff6347]"Well-"[/color] The honor student raised her hand. [color=90ee90]"It’s fine, Suki. I did put on the ribbon and held the silver fork like the others. We can talk as long as you like, but we could always do that, be it now or later. If you ask me though, judging by the number of ribbons around here, you probably have other people you need to talk to."[/color] Suki looked back at the theater and sighed. [center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/e39b451c-cbdf-4533-a353-15961e03cd2f.jpg[/img] [color=deeppink]"Get your own chicken and poach it."[/color] [color=888888]— Willow[/color][/center] [color=ff1493]"Who cares?"[/color] Willow’s eyes suddenly looked spaced out and distant. [color=ff1493]"Well, I mean, I do, big sis. And it would mean a lot to me if you did too."[/color] Evil Eye sprinted past the apes in her way. The janitor began hooting and hollering and pointed, at which point more of the apes started to come out of the woodwork. They were invisible to the other students, who continued to watch the play as they hopped from table to table. They weren’t especially fast, and even the weakest magical girls were faster than the swiftest humans. It was not hard for Evil Eye to outpace them. But when she got to the door leading to the hallway, there was a very large ape blocking the way. His head almost scraped the ceiling, and he was dressed like a mall cop without pants. He tipped his head back and folded his arms, white smoke rolled out of his nostrils. Then a nightmare unicorn plowed into him. Riding atop the steed was Willow, who let out a war cry as the doors to the hallway were flung open. [color=ff1493]"I kicked that kid’s ass last time, and I’ll do it again!"[/color] She pointed back at Evil Eye. [color=ff1493]"Don’t even think about stealing my chance to save Rei away from me, you harlot!"[/color] The hallway was teaming with apes, some bigger and smaller than the rest, but the diabolical unicorn was clearing a path. Behind Evil Eye, the janitor was trying to catch up to her. Screeching and stabbing its finger in her direction. It was clear that Willow wanted Evil Eye to stay back, but what Evil Eye had to decide was where she was most needed, or maybe a better question, where would Black Gate want her less? [center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZbAalCnIGs][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019b7079-1cfa-739a-85a1-4bb56f4802a1.webp[/img][/url] [color=9a8c9a]"I’ve made my mind a sunless space."[/color] [color=888888]— Black Gate[/color][/center] [color=9a8c9a]"How many times do I have to say it?"[/color] Michi groaned. [color=9a8c9a]"I’m not trying to hurt you. But when you bring up sensitive information, it’s hard not to comment on why you might have it."[/color] She wasn’t being quiet anymore. The people sitting closest to the stage were looking in her direction. [color=9a8c9a]"I don’t hate you, Hizuki. I could never hate someone who reminds me so much of my sister. Yet you upset me greatly, you bother me to no end, but that’s just because you’re so ignorant. My sister also believed in kindness. And-"[/color] The twin comets closed in on Michi, but there were enough monkeys up on stage to intervene. Many of them dove onto Hotaru, who had been on stage and was the most obvious threat to intercept. They couldn’t contain her, but in slamming into her, she was knocked off target and careened directly into Hizuki. The two tumbled through the air. This wouldn’t be the first time Shatterscape had attacked Hizuki, but it was noticeably weaker than last time. Though curiously, there was a lot more blood. It was wrapped around Hotaru’s gauntlet like a great tendril, and another one had coiled around Hizuki’s leg. The two flew around in circles , with Oros the Joyful spinning along with them on the ground. She held them with her bloody lasso and tried to keep them from flying into the crowd while their momentum slowed. But while the blood here was a relief to see, it wasn’t so on stage. After Kiyo’s mad dash and Willow’s subsequent charge, there were no apes in position to stop Sylvia from rushing the stage. Michi turned just in time for Sylvia’s gauntlet to plunge into her stomach. She stumbled backwards a few steps, and her blood sprayed on the girl’s arm. But Michi’s blood wasn’t red. It was black, like a shadow. It had no reflection of any kind. Sylvia’s arm was coated in the stuff and looked like it was fused to Michi. The blood was indistinguishable from the rest of the black on Michi’s body. Her hair, her clothes, her blood. Her face looked like a white mask floating in a sea of darkness. A bead of black tar oozed out of the corner of Michi’s trembling lips. Her pale hand took hold of Sylvia’s arm. Despite suffering a mortal wound, her strength had not left her. Sylvia couldn’t retract her arm even if she wanted to. The golden threads on her fingers had disappeared as well, eaten by the black void before her. That wasn’t the only connection that had been eroded. She couldn’t feel a connection to her other bodies either. There were no links, she was trapped in this place. Michi’s lips pulled back into a smile. Then her mouth seemed to grow as her smile became impossibly large. The corners of her lips went off the side of her face, and her eyes rolled up into her head. A white mask with completely white eyes. Eventually her lips parted to reveal her teeth. Clenched like the grin of a cheshire cat, but coated in that same inky darkness that made up her form. Her teeth parted as her mouth opened. The black void inside her mouth grew like a cancer, pushing her mouth open far wider than it should have been able to move. Eventually her face disappeared in the darkness and the two voids merged. There was no Michi to be seen, only darkness. And looking away didn’t help. All Sylvia could see was darkness. Like when she closed her eyes before the beatings started. [hr] The fashionable succubus was about to depart before the roof dwelling Shuuko stopped her. [b]"Hiding? Here?"[/b] She pursed her lips. [b]"I’m sorry, but they already found you."[/b] And with that, she disappeared in a shower of sparkles. Suddenly, a black fist broke through the roof, gripping a series of multicolored lines in its fist, and with a ruthless twist, snapped all of them simultaneously. [hr] [b][color=ffffff]"Is that part of the play? What the hell is going on!?"[/color][/b] The boy went ignored. Michi was standing on stage with a hand over her chest. To her left was Sylvia, who was locked inside a black gelatinous blob. No amount of struggling would grant her escape. Michi did not address this though, and continued the play. [color=9a8c9a]"Tsubomi justified her actions because they had good outcomes in the short term."[/color] What few remaining monkeys clamored around Roche. [b][color=ffffff]"Aw man, thanks Tsubomi! She’s back to her old self! I never thought she would walk again!"[/color][/b] [color=9a8c9a]"However."[/color] Michi wheezed. [color=9a8c9a]"There was a problem with ‘helping’ people this way. That drug was too potent. It had no adverse side effects on its own, but it made people feel too good. Demand was high, but supply was low, so people used less safe alternatives. It was a true gateway drug, and it turned many people into dysfunctional addicts. And where you have addicts, you’re going to have dealers and gangs. The sorts of people who are addicted to power."[/color] Some apes changed some of the set dressing. The disco ball was pulled out of the way and the backdrop was changed to something resembling a school hallway. It was even cruder than the last backdrop, somehow. [color=9a8c9a]"It was happening so fast that Norah and I hadn’t realized it was already all around us. That Saturday after we had our crepes, we went to school to pick up some of my books. But Norah suspected something was amiss. She hid me in a utility closet and waited."[/color] Some strangely tall, human looking apes gathered around Ember. None of them looked friendly. [color=9a8c9a]"They looked like the most average people in the world. From what I could tell this wasn’t the first time they had asked Norah to come with them. She refused to comply with them, but it didn’t really matter. These animals weren’t looking for her permission this time."[/color] Hizuki, Hotaru, and Oros had slowed to a stop. The bloody tendrils immediately released the magical girls before things got weird. The three were disorientated, but in a position to act. Michi had turned towards Ember, but was looking over her shoulder. Her fingers were pressed together, ready to snap. [color=9a8c9a]"Don’t look away, Hizuki. God knows I didn’t."[/color] [i]*Snap*[/i] Ember and Sylvia had traded places. Only now Sylvia was untransformed and done up in the same over the top fashion as Ember had been. Worse, she found herself unable to transform. Worse still, was that the ape men converged on her. Two grabbed her arms, while a third one drove its fist into her stomach. Before she even had a chance to catch her breath, a fourth one kneed her in the ribs, then a fifth one brought the back of his hand across her face. The beatings continued, and they would not stop. While the cafeteria looked on aghast, Michi watched the spectacle with downcast eyes, as if they were mere insects brutalizing each other.