[IC] Lunacy of Love: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

[Temporary]

~ Boiling Point ~

Reactively, in the face of the steel hurricane that suddenly began to swirl around her foe, Thalia swung her blade into the steel. As it struck, she released her explosive energy, and used the blast to fling herself backwards against the building, which she gripped onto, hanging from a ledge as Elroy took the Boulder head on.

However, before she could act further, more dark zones expanded around him, and the other combatants, much to the Kitsune's frustration. How could she fight them if she couldn't even see them?! As she lamented in her head, attempting to figure out what was going on in the darkness, a thought came to her.

Channeling her magic, Thalia quickly enacted her plan. She was of the Beast Specialisation. Body enhancements were a piece of cake. It didn't take long for her to increase the sensitivity and effectiveness of her hearing a considerable amount. If she couldn't see the fight with her eyes, she'd just have to see the fight with her ears.

Except she took too long enhancing herself to realise what was happening. She heard the crack of the rifle and turned her head at its origin, and to where it had fired to. Exactly where Penny was standing, by the sound of the impact. Then she heard the sound of metal being ripped apart, and a bloodcurdling scream resonated within her heightened hearing, mingled with the discharge of a gauss Cannon shot, forcing Thalia to cover her ears and quickly dispel her enhancement.

There was no mistaking who that scream had belonged to. Even though she had never heard her scream, it was so plainly obvious. Suddenly her chest felt like it had begun to suck itself in, and a weight had been hung from her ribs. She felt sick, like she was going to throw up, but the relief would never come. Never before had she felt so violently ill at something that might somewhat have been considered marginally normal within the Magical Girl profession.

With desperation, she forced the feeling out of the way. What replaced it was panic as the true implications of the event set in. That was Penny who had screamed. That... that couldn't have been right. She was so strong... there was no way...

Quickly, Thalia swung herself up onto the ledge, and leapt off high into the air, into the maelstrom of darkness and dust. She re-engaged her enhanced hearing, and navigated her way from the darkness with inhuman speed. She had to get there in time... do something to help... cauterise the wound, maybe... she had to do something..!

Even with her dampened sense of smell, the scent of blood flooded her senses like an unbridled torrent, assaulting her nose, and returning the sickening feeling to her stomach. As she ran up next to her friend, still rooted in the ground, she enhanced her eye sight, in an attempt to see something, even just silhouettes.

What she saw left her stunned, almost unable to move. A spear sat embedded in her arm, and a huge chunk of her body had been ripped from her abdomen. Thalia could feel the heat radiating from the wound even from the distance she was at, and felt her legs weaken beneath her. Her eyes glanced across, the the huge ball and the hulking monster within. She couldn't tell if it was reeling from the blast to its face or not...

Her attention was taken back to Penny as another thought crossed her kind; one that made her feel like doubling over in sickness. With wounds like that... she was losing too much blood, even if she was a Magical Girl... she was going to die if she didn't receive help soon.

She grit her teeth, suddenly overcome with fury. Her legs moved on their own, and she ran in front of the girl, and outstretched her arms, facing head on to Elroy. Any and all reluctance melted away in Thalia's head, and she could feel her emotions reaching a breaking point.

"G-get..." she started, stuttering as she tried to gain control of her dried up throat, "Get awAY FROM HER!" she yelled, her voice devolving more into a roar like that of a wild animal towards the end, and she raised and slammed her foot against the ground. What magical energy she could muster found itself released in a split second, resulting in a massive explosion of fire around her and Penny, somewhat haphazardly aimed towards Elroy. She could feel herself losing control.

@BrokenPromise@Shifter_Master@Flamelord@Majoras End@Hammerman@ShyDot

[PlatinumSkink]

@t2wave@Shifter_Master@BrokenPromise

Mariette

and Deni

At the table Amber arrived at, there was a single hand-mirror standing on a pedistal to rise to face-level, directed so the glass faced where Sue sat earlier. The thing was covered in darkness-magic, hiding it from non-magical girl/mystical being eyes. She had previously opened portals on both sides of the mirror so that one could sit on any side and still see her. However, with Amber's approach she closed the portal closest to Amber's eyes, avoiding having their eyes meet. She then simply listened to their conversation.

Helga. She was one of the girls that had infiltrated her interdimensional apartment on Justine's behalf. Why was Amber wishing for her resurrection? Did they truly believe a girl like her could turn a new leaf? ... Mariette was not about to interfere. While she greatly doubted Helga's "change of heart" it wasn't her business and if she objected she may lose favor with Justine before the time was right if Helga reported on Mariette's objection. So she sat calmly, staring forward unless spoken to.

... Hm, she walked away without adressing her. Suppose that was to be expected. Mariette felt both relieved and a little disappointed. ... Eh, Mariette mentally shrugged. Not her concern.

Meanwhile, Deni was still trying to recover from the curse of giggling where Amber had left her. Yupp.

[Hammerman]

Suwako Makiyoshi

---

"She dodged it," was Suwako's short reply on her attack failing to hit its target. She couldn't see it directly with her eyes but she could sense it from the root she was controlling. She thought she would catch her by surprise to compensate with the less than ideal control of her root, but it seemed to not have worked that well. It did distract her though so Alicia's attack (she assumed it was hers since it was a bunch of arrows made of light) could land.

But now, the monster girl would know that another new girl was targeting her, and there would always be a chance for her to retaliate back.

And indeed she did.

A mortar made out of darkness suddenly appeared in the skies above her. Quickly, she ran away from her hiding spot. She dodged the mortar easily enough, but after it exploded, it unexpectedly covered the entire area in a dome of darkness. Before Suwako could do anything, she was already caught inside of it.

And she immediately felt the effect.

"Ugh!" Suwako groaned. The sudden loss of strength made her turn into a kneeling pose as she tried to hold herself together. She could feel it, the mana going out of her body.

This was a curse. A curse designed to weaken a magic-oriented magical girl.

She had fell for it. Her counterattack had definitely succeeded.

Now she was in precarious spot. She had to retreat as she was extremely vulnerable at this state.

And so she ran towards the edge of the dome, making sure to stay away from the open sky as much as she could. She must not be ambushed by another magical girl now as she wouldn't be able to cast her spells at all.

@BrokenPromise

[ShyDot]

Julia/Jillian

This is getting out of hand. Jillian reported anxiously, quite conscious of how destructive the battle they were approaching was becoming. It was pure chaos, and with so many combatants, there was no way of telling where to even start. It was the sort of situation Julia loved, in a strange way, and the kind that made Jillian quite antsy. It was hard to protect someone in that kind of chaos. Should we-

Julia acted before Jillian could finish.

As far as magical girls went, Julia and Jillian were an extremely slow pair. What they lacked in speed, however, Julia made up for it in reaction time. Her mind was like a net cast across the surface of the area; she could not aggressively venture into or manipulate the minds of beacon girls, but she could ensnare the stray thoughts, the split-second reactions. This allowed her a degree of warning before one could fully carry out an act.

It was this bare warning that allowed Julia to shove herself and Jillian out of the way of the streaking arrows of light. The pair of them slammed out of the air, abruptly stopping once they were fully behind a building. The ground cratered beneath where they hovered, gripped tightly in Julia's gravitic control. Startled and unnerved, they watched as the light streaked away.

I think... You are right. This has gotten out of hand. Something must be done. She would not admit that the amount of damage being done concerned her on a more personal level, in the spaces where her lord had not twisted her. The parts of her that were still simply a 14 year old girl.

The pair of them settled in their hiding spot, gathering themselves and wordlessly assessing the battlefield with their senses. Julia was hungry for some kind of confrontation, and in a more sinister sense, but neither of them wanted to risk death so recklessly.

@BrokenPromise @Shifter_Master @Flamelord @Majoras End @Hammerman @Vocab

[BrokenPromise]

Origin Story: Amber

It was late, unreasonably so. Amber had to finish some last minute duties, as they were understaffed for the winter business rush. But she was excited about her vacation. The twenty-eight year old woman loved her job, but an adventure was just what the manager needed. Amber couldn't wait to meet the cute guys that were going to chase her across the Bahamas. Of course, she might have to hide in a few bars along the way, maybe even put on some water skis and hitch a ride on a motor boat. Oh yes, this was going to be fun!

The crack of an explosion pulled Amber out of her thoughts. It was hard to make out exactly what was happening, but she could see a huge mass of tentacles fighting a pirate girl. The girl was easy to make out, as she had candles nestled in her long, blue hair. Was this some sort of street performance? But why this late at night?

“”Oh my, a civilian!” The pirate girl shouted. “It's sink or swim time, Shining Scale. Better get 'kraken' on this monster!” The pirate girl lifted her arms into the heavens and a massive keg of TNT appeared in her hands. Before she could throw it at the monster, a tentacle belted her in the stomach, sending her sliding across the ground.

“Gah!” Amber hopped backwards as the pirate girl slid to a stop at her feet. She was just a teenager, maybe a young adult. This had to be a prank. Amber was about to go on vacation, and it almost made sense for the other employees to do this. They must have chosen to do a pirate since it was a beach retreat. But why did Amber feel like she was in so much danger?

“This is a hard one, and it needs to be stopped now.” Shining Scale hopped to her feet. “Welp, I've got good news and bad news.” She thumbed her nose with a smile. “The good news is that I can wipe out this monster with a single blow, the bad news is it'll wipe out one of us too, as I can only shield one person from the blow.” The pirate folded her arms. “Of course, I've never let a civilian get harmed in one of my fights, and I intend to keep it that way.” She winked at Amber. “Good thing I've been thinking about retirement, huh?”

Amber blinked “E-excuse me?”

“One favor though, I've never been kissed by a blond before. So if you don't mind...” She tapped her cheek with her finger.

The situation was so surreal Amber was starting to think it could be a dream. she did oddly believe this girl was looking out for her though. So without thinking, Amber pulled Shining Scale into a hug and kissed her on the cheek. Amber typically reserved body hugging kisses for cute boys, but there was no harm in humoring the pirate, right?

“Ah, I'm glad you didn't skimp out, pretty lady!” Shining Scale looked directly into Amber's eyes. “You're the last person who's going to see me alive. This is it for me. I'm not coming back after this one.” The pirate turned around to face the approaching monster. It was massive, towering over some of the local buildings. “I'm Hanna, Magical Girl Shining Scale. So think of me from time to time, will ya? Captain's last order to her only surviving crew mate.” Shining Scale lifted her hands into the air. “Ultimate Fantastic Flying fortress: Fantasia!” The clouds parted and a brilliant light shined down on the monster. It was too late at night to be the sun, but that was exactly what it reminded Amber of. Within the light there was a beautiful golden pirate ship nosediving towards the monster. The ship acted like a prism, refracting the light into a myriad of colors. Amber closed her eyes and covered her face with her arms, but the sound of the ship crashing to earth stung her ears, and left them ringing long after the impact.

When she looked again, Amber could see the monster's body dissolving into sparks of light. Nothing else in the vicinity had been damaged, but Amber could see the teenager in a pirate costume laying on her back. The store manager was slow to approach the girl. There were no visible wounds, save for some blood oozing out of the corner of her mouth. But when Amber tried to pick her up, it was like lifting a bag of broken glass. Every bone in her torso had to be broken.

“Heh.” Shining scale gurgled. “Dying in someone else's arms. I truly couldn't have asked for anything more, pretty lady.” After forcing those words out of her broken body, Hanna's eyes fluttered shut. They would never open again.

Before Amber had time to let what unfolded in front of her sink in, a creature walked out of the darkness. It looked like a stuffed animal, a dog that stood upright on its trunk like legs. “Oh dear.” Its voice was like that of an old British chap. Not exactly what Amber expected a child's plush to sound like. “I knew this was going to happen. The girl had gone suicidal, trying to take a monster on like that without assistance.”

Amber stood up. “Excuse me?”

“Excuse you indeed.” The dog took a step towards her. “If it wasn't for you, Shining Scale might still be alive.”

“I beg your pardon!?”

“I suppose it doesn't matter.” The creature sighed. “You aren't exactly ideal for this, but neither was she. Let's see if we can make Shining Scale MK II.” Amber didn't have time to protest. Her body was already starting to be twisted and changed under the might of the creature's magic. “A water specialist, not quite the same as the original, but I wasn't expecting gunpowder magic anyway. Still fits the pirate theme. Seems you're going to be as strong as the original too, and a bit more magical to boot. Less durable however, that's a shame. Oh? And no finishing blow? I guess you're going to need to rely on friends more.” The plush continued to assess the woman's powers as the magic reconstructed her being.

“S-stop!” She was finally complete enough to start talking again. But why did she sound like a child now. “Make it stop, Save me!”

Crimson soaked Amber's face. The familiar copper taste of blood was on her tongue. What happened? She was calling for help, and it's body just exploded.

“There. It's done.”

“H-huh?” Amber was more than a little confused. The blond woman dressed like a secret service agent was a pressing matter. But now Amber was a little girl. “M-my boobs!”

“Everyone experiences the transformation differently.” The woman wiped the blood off Amber's face with her hand. It dod mire to smear the blood than wipe it away. “I'm Veronica by the way. Your familiar guided me to you, so I intervened.”

“Familiar? Transformation? What are you going on about!?”

Sue flew up to Amber. “Oh, are you alright?! I was so worried! I thought you were going to die.”

Veronica folded her arms. “It is going to take some time for you to adjust. Fortunately, your familiar should be more than willing to educate you on the ways of this new world you've entered. But you can talk to me too.” Veronica pulled a black coin out of her pocket and placed it in Amber's hand. “After all, We're allies now.”

---

For all the glamour of the restaurant, the bathroom looked like any other cheap public bathroom. Complete with ugly colored tiles and graffiti covered bathroom stalls. It wasn't like the dinner staff wasn't trying. Amber had overheard the managers talking about paint proofing the bathroom stalls, but that usually just lead to people etching the walls with a knife, which was also unsightly. As a former manager herself, she found the best way to control this kind of thing was with surveillance cameras. Few people wanted to take credit for vandalism, especially when authorities were involved.

She had to find Veronica. Or perhaps more accurately, she had to walk around until Veronica chose to reveal herself. This usually involved entering a quiet place that was relatively free of people. The woman's restroom seemed like a good place for such an encounter to take place.

Amber had just closed the door behind herself when she got the feeling she was being watched. The pirate knew the person behind her was not a threat, but she was still put off by their presence. Veronica reached around Amber's shoulder and closed her hand around Helga's soul stone. With a quick yank, the pendant flew off of Amber's neck and bubbled away into nothingness.

“H-hey! What are you doing!?”

“Relax.” Veronica stepped out in front of Amber, still wearing a waitress’s gown. “I just sent her into another dimension for a moment. The fewer people that can hear us, the better. Besides, she won't even remember what happened.” The ebon vampire did love her secrets. Who knew what other measures she took to make sure this discussion wasn't heard? “Were there any new developments with Boteg?”

Amber groaned. “Yes and no. I still don't know who or what he's scared of, but I know he came here to slay its champion magical girl.”

“Boteg's motives are not pressing at the moment, but It's good he's starting to trust you more.” Veronica folded her arms and leaned up against the wall. “How goes the monster extermination?”

“I feel like I'm contributing.” Amber nodded. “I've had to flee a few times to chase a magical girl or two away from Boteg, but I've slain at least one or two each day.”

“That's not very many, considering you don't have to pretend you have a normal life. But I suppose that has more to do with your patron than anything else.” Veronica paused for a moment, examining Amber up and down. “Did you find anything that you wanted to share with me?”

The pirate groaned. “Booty has been a little scarce, sadly. The local magical girls aren't particularly well equipped.” Amber adjusted her collar. “And there isn't too much on the information front either.”

“Unfortunate.” Veronica pulled out a clip board. “You still haven't cleared your initial debt, which makes me wonder if you'll ever be able to work off your flying ship.”

“I mean...” Amber looked around sheepishly. “You can have ol' sky bastion back if it helps.”

“It doesn't.” Veronica lowered her shades to the very edge of her nose. This gave Amber a glimps of her red eyes. “I'm sure you've purchased a new vehicle before, so you should know what depreciation is. The longer sky bastion stays in your possession, the less it's worth to us. At this point, I think you're better off holding onto it and using it to work off the rest of your debts.”

Amber growled. “Shiver my timbers!” She folded her arms with a huff. “I can't believe I haven't worked off that 'initial debt' yet. It was so small! I probably could have popped fluffy one if I wanted to.”

Veronica shrugged. “You were scared and confused, we helped you. Now you're helping us.”

“Hmph!” Amber proceeded to stare at Veronica as she pushed her glasses back up onto her nose.

“However, today might be your lucky day.”

“Oh?”

Veronica pulled a manila envelope off of her clip board and handed it to Amber. “This is everything we have on 'Shion' and 'Makoto.' Hunting Ebon Mint girls and damaging Ebon Mint property are just a small sampling of the deplorable things they have done. Since we're both pressed for time, I'll just let you read the report in your spare time. But the important part is this.” Veronica adjusted her sunglasses. “This isn't a request from Ebon Mint, this is a request from me. Which means if you do this, I'll owe you a personal favor.”

Amber raised an eyebrow. “Could you make my debt go away?”

“I could completely remove your initial debt. That would just leave your sky ship.”

“I see.” Amber started to smile, despite being in the presence of someone as terrifying as Veronica. “But they must be tough if you haven't taken them out yet.”

“Consider this a gift for your continued service.” Veronica jotted something down on her clipboard. “Though to be honest, I have a lot on my plate right now. Makoto is by no means weak, but I think you can slay them. Especially with your growing crew.”

“H-hold up now, slay?!”

“Oh yes, we have no need to keep them alive.” She didn't flinch in her delivery. “You are to eliminate them with extreme prejudice. Though Makoto is definitely the more important of the two targets. Shion is definitely not as important, but this is all in the dossier I gave you.”

“Uh, okay...”

"Remember, this is just a side deal, do not forget your real duties." Veronica placed her hand over Amber's, and dropped a blob of tar into it. “Do be more careful with your friends, you don't have very many.” As Veronica walked off, the tar ran off the object in Amber's hand, revealing Helga's soul stone.

“Hmph!” Amber looped the pendant around her neck. “Alright buccaneer, let's get your body back!”

---

Elroy's protective metal barrier had been invaded, and the invader had been struck by at least one of Elroy's improvised spears. Penny had been dealt a blow, but she still had the power to fire off one more Gauss round. The projectile would have struck Elroy square in the face, but Elroy used his power over metal to move the spear that was in Penny's arm. With her feet rooted in place, she bent at the knees as her arm was violently pinned to the ground. The shot flew over Elroy's head and blew a hole in the top of the metal scrap ball. The all encompassing darkness gave way to light, which came in through the recently created skylight. But now Penny was pinned in place, her body weakened by a curse. It would not take much on Elroy's part to end her. He was already charging towards her, and didn't show any signs of slowing down. But that was when an unexpected guest showed up to Elroy's improvised arena. Thaila appeared, shouting at him before launching an attack of her own.

This would be the first time during the battle that Elroy acknowledged the presence of someone other than Penny. Fire was a powerful force, a chaotic energy that burned all it touched. Elroy shielded himself from the flames with his chains, but fire is energy. Every little hole in his defense was a place for the flames to lick his skin. His arms in particular were very difficult to defend from the incoming fires. Elroy howled and stumbled backwards. There was no way he could advance without getting burned worse. Staying still wouldn't be an option for much longer, as the metal ball acted like an oven. Elroy performed another one of his mighty jumps and left the metal sphere through the hole in the ceiling. Once outside the metal ball rolled over Thalia and Penny, so that they were both inside of it. Afterwards, the hollow ball collapsed on itself, entombing the two monster girls in a matrix of twisted steel. While the ball had collapsed on them, it was still locked together into one solid shape. As soon as the monster landed, Elroy reverted back to his former shape: The punk star incubus.

“So as I was saying.” He walked towards Alicia. There was something off about his movements, as if walking a certain way would cause him pain. His arms had some scorch marks on them, and Elroy smelled like burnt hair. Despite this, he was still grinning ear to ear. “I think at present, we won't be having dinner here after all. It's too noisy, and there aren't any tables or picnic mats.” He continued to hobble towards Alicia before stopping a safe distance away. “If you don't have any more questions, I'll be leaving.”

---

Regina exhaled with a grin. She hit her target, and Elroy was able to capitalize on the attack. Regina had won, vengeance was hers. As an added bonus, Alicia demonstrated her ability to shatter her cursed domes with light magic. It took a few seconds, but the barriers were breaking down, one by one. Her domes breaking apart wasn't necessarily a good thing, but it was always good when she was able to learn how her magic could be affected by that of others. Better still was that Alicia seemed like she was done firing arrows into the building Regina was hiding in. The temptation was to launch one more attack, just one more...

But what was this? Regina recognized the ghost twins from the night at the hospital. What were they doing here? Why were they revealing themselves? The situation was the same as the hospital, only now Beacon was fighting Elroy and herself instead of the beacon killers. The only thing Regina could think of was that they must have been in league with whatever group Caroline was with. If that was the case, they were planning on wiping out Elroy and her here and now. Regina didn't need Elroy to be angry anymore. She needed someone who could follow orders, or at least have a higher level of awareness. It was time to call Elroy back. In order to do that, Regina would need to resurrect herself. She lifted a hand to the side of her head and sent a pulse out to Elroy. Like all twin souls, Regina had the power to call Elroy to her side once a day. Feeling this pulse would let Elroy know that she was alive, and cause him to come running to her position... normally. He might be a little sour over the fact that she pretended to be dead, but he deserved that anyway.

Regina dove out the back of the building, away from the battle that was taking place at the garage. She kept her veil of invisibility up, but was still weary of being ambushed by Caroline, rouge Gauss shots, tree roots, or anything else that might find her position. Once she landed, Regina raised her sniper staff into the air and started to summon an array of magical mortars. Hopefully Elroy would leave the vicinity soon. Regina didn't want to launch any more attacks. Well, the part of her that was still human didn't.

@Shifter_Master @Flamelord @Majoras End @Hammerman @Vocab @ShyDot

---

Tonya “Mac” Murphy

Age: 24/11 | Gender: Female/Female | Illusion, Gravity
Body | Power of Friendship, Regeneration | Moirai
Wings, Soul Jar, Martial Training, Familiar, Environmental Sealing, Gifted, Awareness, Mystic Artifact

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

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

STR: 12 | AGI: 08 | VIT: 10 | MAG: 16 | LCK: 05

Earnings this post: Zilch

Total: 0 Gold, 14 Silver, 16 Bronze

Hah.

It was a bit too early to celebrate, but Tonya was pleased with the amount of harm inflicted on Beacon today. Hurt magical girls, hurt property, all over a simple dispute that Penny started. If she could get the Bates out of here before Elroy pissed off the wrong person, This would be a huge win for her.

It was probably worth mentioning that the idea of Beacon wasn't one that Tonya disliked. I mean, she was a monster, so it made sense that she wouldn't like them. But the idea of a bunch of pure magical girls standing together against darkness was not something she felt was wrong. It was just the extreme it had been taken to. Their xenophobia was on another level, and the fact that they allowed Penny to work among them and no other monster was just weird.

Maura's appearance hadn't escaped her notice. It was too early for them to meet, but she was of great interest, as the one who would eventually replace Veronica.

[Flamelord]

Alicia Hayden

The domes began to vanish one after the other, eaten away by Alicia's light magic as she poured her effort into it. This was most likely a reckless move, without knowing who else might drop in on the fight at this point. But she didn't care, and figured it would be worth it when the rest of the beacon reinforcements showed up. They would be along fairly shortly, if she had to guess.

It left her distracted a bit from what else was going on, but it was hard to miss it when Elroy approached her whilst no longer being in monster form. She faced him, bow strung and arrow at the ready even as he acted like nothing had happened, at least in manner even if he didn't look it. Then again she didn't look great either, bruises, some small cuts, and the trail of blood winding its way down her forehead not painting the prettiest of pictures. A glare was directed his way, even if she couldn't help but remember that Penny had shot first.

"Go," she snapped after a moment, nodding over her head. "I'm not responsible if you get attacked by other Beacon girls along the way." If anyone else was headed in heir direction from Beacon, they might not be as considerate as she was.

She waited until he was gone before lowering her bow and hurrying over to the mess of debris and destruction where Penny had been fighting it out with Elroy. Instead she found a metal ball where they should have been, a bunch of twisted debris and junk that had been warped and melted together. "Penny, are you in there?" she called out as she began tentatively working at the debris, trying to go at it in a way that wouldn't injure her further. "We're going to get you out of there."

@BrokenPromise@Vocab@Shifter_master

[Hammerman]

Suwako Makiyoshi

---

Suwako thanked her luck that she managed to recover from being hit from that attack. Now, she was crouching behind a wall, trying to recover from the effect of the curse. She could feel her mana slowly returning, but the rate it returned was too slow for her to use any major spells right away.

Usually, in a situation like this, she would retreat from the fight. However, she could still hear the fight continuing. She couldn't just abandon her Beacon comrade.

At the very least, she could check up on them and see how they were doing versus their opponents.

She stealthily crouch-walked to the nearest root she had manipulated earlier. Little manipulation like this didn't take much of her mana so she could still use it relatively comfortably.

...Hmm? What's this? It seemed the battle had already ended.

Quickly, she headed to where Alicia was, while still being careful for any stray mortars in the sky. Her judgement was correct as soon, she saw another round of darkness mortars being fired off to the sky. However, the mortars just stayed there, ominously threatening the area below them.

Hmm, they must be covering their retreat, Suwako thought.

When she arrived, she saw Alicia digging through what looked like a metal ball made out of messily melted together junk and rubble, calling Penny's name.

"Penny's in there? Hold on a sec," she said to her.

She used the letfover of her mana to create a network of roots inside the rubble. After the roots were in a good position, in a synchronized move, she pulled the debris apart. The force holding them together was unexpectedly strong, and she had to exert herself terribly before the steel junk budged. However, in the end, her plan worked and the metal ball was disassembled, freeing both magical girls inside of it.

"Ha...ha...haa...haa..." Suwako panted, sweat falling down off her forehead. "T-there...."

"W-wait, there's another one inside? O-oh, it's you... from the hospital... I-I suppose I'd have to thank you for aiding Alicia in the fight..."

Even though the Beacon was supposed to be hostile towards monster girls, it was Suwako's belief that a good deed deserved praise and thanks no matter who did it.

@Flamelord@BrokenPromise@Vocab

[Temporary]

~ The Broken Lover ~

Thalia forced the flames outwards from herself with as much force as she could muster, leaving a bubble of safety around her and Penny where the flames couldn't enter. A feeling of panic infiltrated her system, feeding its way through her body like tendrils of dread and fear.

Her fears were answered as the giant ball of scrap that had encased Elroy rolled over to her location, and sculpted itself around the two. Despite any resistance, the Kitsune could do nothing to stop it. She was helpless. The fear inside her built to fever pitch, but it subsided for just a second as she realised that Penny was still in need of care.

Quickly, she scampered over to her injured friend, and hugged her close. The panic returned as she felt the blood, still warm, that dribbled freely from her wounds. She couldn't die... this... this wasn't fair..! Everything about the situation was wrong. It wasn't right! The darkness of the prison they found themselves in twisted and molded around the girl, and she could do naught but back away to the edges of the sphere, slide down into a sitting position, and grip her knees tightly to her chest, face buried in deep as to not look at anything. She was so... powerless...

~

Falling. It was just like that. She was falling. But not merely falling, say from a great height. No, she was falling into something. Something that shaped and pulsed and coalesced only to part in an undulating mass. It was alive, it was real. It was thick, black, and smothering. She wasn't falling down, she was falling into. A syrupy darkness, that swallowed her open armed, embraced her entirely leaving no room to struggle. Fear, and pain, and anger, and anxiety. They all melted away. This was a calm place. You could enter, let yourself be choked by the rippling, all consuming mass of darkness, and let emotion wash away into tranquility for even just a short while.

~

But light penetrated the blackness, if only a tiny amount. Thalia looked up, hesitantly. Two girls stood there, outside the scrap metal ball which had since been dismantled. She didn't... recognise them. Who... were they..? Should she have known them? They seemed to look upon her with some kind of recognition. All sounds resonated like a dull hum within her head; she couldn't hear what they were saying.

Her eyes instead flicked back over to Penny. The moment she looked upon her, emotion returned. That peace, that tranquility. It shattered into a million pieces in a fraction of a second, replaced by the panic and the fear and the anger she had been rid of just moments ago. In the instant she recognised the girls, if wrongly.

They were here to hurt Penny, just like that Monster before them. They were threats through and through. Thalia couldn't... Thalia wouldn't let anybody hurt her friend again. The emotions that flooded back built and built, constructing themselves haphazardly into a framework of reason.

~

But in the instant it was made it collapsed under its own weight. It fell, crumbling, and was swallowed, by a pitch black void of pulsating nothing. Those emotions that so controlled her melted away into a peaceful tranquility that absorbed the girls being.

~

Thalia's eyes lit up in fury and fear as she looked between Penny, Alicia and Suwako. Inside she felt nothing. Nothing but calm. That was her coping mechanism. Long ago, she had lost control. She had done so multiple times, trying to come to terms with her sudden and abrupt transformation at the hands of her curious, and childish, God.

She would panic at the new and uncomfortable experience. Her body was different, she had new parts to her. Ears, a tail. She could hear creatures of all kinds and understand them, and she could light fires with a single thought. How was she to deal with it? So instead, she would break down and lose control.

Thalia didn't want to hurt people. More so, she... didn't want to hurt her friends, and the people she cared about back when she was human. Nobody would get hurt... if Thalia Alvoy just vanished. So, she excommunicated herself from her old life, and spent her days doing whatever she felt like. A true freedom.

A brilliant blue flame enveloped the girls tail, and sparked from her ears. It lit up into an inferno that encircled her entire body, and crawled out to the scrap metal she found herself curled upon.

The fur of her body blackened, as if it were being burnt, and the flames licked at the ground, encroaching outwards. But, abruptly, they stopped, leaving the Kitsune alone, panting, but smiling.

With a roar, the flames started again. Her voice resonated far around the surroundings, reaching all nearby, and the blue inferno exploded around her, reaching out well beyond Alicia and Suwako. The fire engulfed her, swirling into a hurricane of heat to conceal her transformation.

It lasted for less than 10 seconds before subsiding. But what was left wasn't Thalia any longer. Instead, stood in its place, was what appeared to be a wolf, midnight black, decorated in blue fire, with nine black tails sprouted from its behind. Its eyes were a cruel, brilliant navy blue, and it growled viciously at the girls nearby, before letting out a ferocious cry, signifying the completion of Thalia's Monstrous Metamorphosis.

@BrokenPromise@Shifter_Master@Flamelord@Hammerman@Majoras End@ShyDot

[Majoraa]

---

"Looks like things are dying down.."

Maura was observing how each combatant was fighting as the battle slowly diminished when Penny was struck. Scout was chowing down on her snack as she resisted the urge to go back down and give penny her healing necklace, and Theresa reverted back to an owl. The patron stood up from her seat to temporarily leave. "Ill make sure the coast is clear, stay here." she said before jumping down the roof and into the shadows.

She saw that Elroy had traped Thalia and Penny into a ball of metal. Strong specialization. Should be one to keep an eye on. she thought before the area was covered in a blue flame. The maiden quickly ducked into her shadow before popping out again to find Thalia transfored,

"Tsk, not another one!" Maura said rather spooked. Scout landed next to her patron in synch to pull out her weapon "NOW can we get back to the fight?" she said, Theresa perched on the girl's shoulder. Maura nodded, and Scout grappled a tree root to land near Elroy.

"Mistress, how come you changed sides?" the owl asked as scout took aim at the kitsune. "Honeslty, I couldn't give a crap about who's fighting who now! As long as THIS. FIGHT. ENDS!" Scout activated her ability as she fired rapidly at Thalia, her tree like tentacles grabing every large piece of debri to throw.

---

@Vocab@Flamelord@ShyDot@Hammerman@Shifter_Master@BrokenPromise

[Shifter_Master]

_{From The Darkness}

The moment the metal dome sealed over Penny her energy blades deactivated and she collapsed. From an outside perspective it seemed that she was succumbing to her wounds as she wasn’t breathing.

The truth was closer to the opposite however, as she had collapsed in relief. Being surrounded by her element reminded her of her lair and Elroy was moving away, the fight seemed to be winding down. So seeing as she was safe for the moment, not being concerned with the makeshift prison, she turned her attention inwards.

The wound on her side looked bad, and it did hurt, was the first thing she focused on. Silent arcs of electricity slid across the wound leaving a lattice of thin metal in their wake as deep inside the wound the blood loss was staunched. It still looked like horrific as she was covered in blood, and the lattice wasn’t easily visible, but the wound would heal clean.

Next she focused on her biggest concern the curse that had been placed on her. That took a more effort to figure out, and in truth she didn’t even break it so much as it wore off. Still she noted the bullet that had struck her and molded it in to her chassis, it wouldn’t add any benefit, but she wanted to hold on to the bullet as a memento. She had gotten reckless when fighting, this would serve as a reminder as to why she shouldn’t do so.

Finally she addressed the spear still lodged in her arm. Originally she had intended to tear it free and begin using it against Elroy, but now a different idea had come to her. One that would take a bit amount of time to accomplish, as the magic in the spear wasn’t hers. Methodically she began imprinting herself on the spear, removing Elroy’s magic and putting her own in its place. Normally it would be an impossible feat for her, but with it still stuck in her she could use her own regeneration as an interface and workaround, slowly transforming the metal in to another part of her body. It was also why she only allowed a patch job for her side; she couldn’t heal and imprint at the same time.

Because of her focus on the task of imprinting on the metal in her arm, she was only partial aware of metal sphere being torn open. Still the sudden light got her attention. She rolled on to her slide as she glanced at Alicia and Suwako, her eyes were glazed as she kept working on the imprinting and she was still covered in her own blood.

Penny was about to say something to them when she felt heat coming from Thalia, when she turned to look at her friend she felt her blood go cold when she saw how close they had been. She hadn’t realized Thalia had gotten stuck in the sphere as well. She had assumed that the fox girl had leapt out of the way when it rolled towards them or avoided it as she was skilled at doing.

But Thalia had been in the dark with Penny, and Penny didn’t say anything. She felt terrible, a feeling that only got worse as she finally saw what the wound on her side looked like. She looked back just in time to see Thalia transform completely.

“T-thalia” Penny croaked out as she pushed herself to a stand, fighting past tears and the guilt she felt for the fear she had inflicted on her friend. She took a wobbly step towards the large Kitsune, hoping that she would be able to calm her down despite her horrid appearance.

@Vocab@Hammerman@Flamelord

[BrokenPromise]

@Shifter_Master@Flamelord@Hammerman@Majoras End@ShyDot@Vocab

Elroy responded to Alicia's warning by broadening his smile. “I'll keep that in mind, socks.” He walked towards the alleyway, but before entering he turned around on his heel to watch the beacon girls uncover their friend. He exhaled a long sigh.

---

To say that this brawl served any tactical benefit for the Bates or Beacon would be a lie. The Beacon girls simply discovered a temporary hideout that the Bates would have permanently abandoned after tonight. Had they never shown up the situation would have resolved itself. But they did, and they chose to challenge Regina. Had she won? It was hard to say. Regina simply came here to enjoy a quiet meal with Elroy, of which she only got a mouthful. Her temporary hideout was destroyed, and the two of them were covered in bruises and other wounds. The old Regina would have crawled into a hole and screamed, acknowledging her loss. She would have cried, wishing she had simply left for a different area. But that woman was weak, unlike this Regina. This Regina could appreciate defending her pride. Penny and Alicia were made to suffer, and Elroy learned a thing or two about deviating from her plans. This Regina was quite pleased with how things were unfolding. But the temptation was to take things a little further, to get just a little more vengeance...

Regina left her magic mortars in place and made her way towards Elroy. She had expected him to be somewhat slow in his return, so the fact that she had to go to him wasn't at all unexpected. By the time she had walked up beside him, the pillar of fire had subsided, revealing Thalia's monstrous form. This was excellent. Penny's despair, Thalia giving into her monstrous urges. Only a psychic could fully appreciate the spectacle, and it had her on the verge of euphoria. A childish laugh escaped her lips as she stood there, unable to avert her eyes. Regina wanted to stay. She very badly wanted to see what kind of mayhem was going to erupt next. Regina turned in time to see Scout attempt to side herself with Elroy. Upon seeing this, the succubus realized Scout was just a confused magical girl that wasn't actually sided with Beacon. So Regina broke her cloaking veil, causing her to seemingly fade into existence beside Elroy.

“Monsters are Beacon's responsibility.” She wrapped her arm around his shoulders. “We should leave this to them.” Elroy shook in pain in pain. Regina drove her staff into the ground, and a single black mortar appeared and exploded mid-air. The dark dome only got big enough to cover the Bates before collapsing, leaving nothing behind. This was because Regina was only using the mortar to give herself a shadow to jump into. Elroy and Regina would emerge from a shadow at the other end of the dark ally, completely out of view of those still in the vicinity of the mangled garage. “Well?” Regina let go of Elroy and started to walk deeper into the city. “I thought of another place we could go eat. It'll be a lot safer than here.” The incubus didn't respond . He just walked after Regina while occasionally looking in the direction of the battle.

---

Tonya “Mac” Murphy

Age: 24/11 | Gender: Female/Female | Illusion, Gravity
Body | Power of Friendship, Regeneration | Moirai
Wings, Soul Jar, Martial Training, Familiar, Environmental Sealing, Gifted, Awareness, Mystic Artifact

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

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

STR: 12 | AGI: 08 | VIT: 10 | MAG: 16 | LCK: 05

Earnings this post:
Drove off 4 Monster Girls: 8 Silver, 8 Bronze
Drove off 3 Magical Girls: 3 Silver, 6 Bronze
Upheld Oath (Stood against strong force, Beacon): 3 Silver, 2 Bronze
This post: 14 Silver, 16 Bronze

Total: 0 Gold, 28 Silver, 32 Bronze

Mission accomplished.

It was a little touch and go there for a moment, but nobody was so eager to continue fighting that they would risk lingering here any longer than they had to. With the Bates safely away, she would have to catch up to them later to fulfill her part of the bargain with Veronica. She hoped that she hadn't bitten off more than she could chew with that last one. Knowing the "future" was one thing, but pulling it off wasn't so easy.

She would remain here for now. Making sure that everything was indeed quieting down. though really, this had come to a satisfying conclusion.

[Flamelord]

Alicia Hayden

Alicia's efforts to free Penny were interrupted, only this time it was much more favorable than the previous interruptions today had been. "Thank you," she said to Suwako, who eased the task by using her powers to get leverage on the ball of metal from the inside and ripping it apart that way. It was much easier than trying to pry everything from the outside was.

They were in for an interesting discovery however, as it turned out that Penny was not the only one who had been trapped. Which made sense she supposed, from what she remembered of the company that Penny kept. At least she didn't seem to be that bad off, though Penny looked worse.

"Geez," Alicia said with a wince as she beheld the sight. Spoken too soon of course as flames suddenly erupted from Thalia, causing her to quickly step back as something began to happen. There was an explosion of energy and a cry to go with it, and when both had faded they found themselves confronted with yet another monster, a wolf wielding blue fire.

Quickly she strung her bow, taking aim at the rampant creature. She didn't necessarily want to hurt her, but at this point it didn't seem like they would be getting much of a choice at the moment. "Suwako, get Penny to one of the healers, they'll know what to do," she called out to hr companion. Naturally Beacon had girls who were quite adept in Reinforcement, and thy had dealt with this sort of thing before. It was the best chance that their ally had. "I'll keep her focused on me so you can get away." She didn't strike yet, but was prepared to counter whatever move Thalia made as she faced down the wolf.

@Shifter_Master@Vocab@Hammerman

[ShyDot]

Julia/Jillian

Julia's eyes danced across the surface of a wall as a plan formed in her mind. She didn't have any love for the twins that were present, but she had even less love for Beacon. She had been spotted already, and fired upon quite promptly. It wouldn't do to leave without retaliation in some form. Perhaps a demonstration of power before she made a quick retreat? And this building was empty... Yes, that would do. Property damage was acceptable.

The plan didn't need to be shared verbally. Jillian floated closer to Julia without prompting, watching in silence as Julia's pitch-dark magic staff was pushed against the wall of the building they had been hiding behind. The motions of the staff were quick and expert as a magical circle was carved into the wall with a bit of help from Jillian's own gravity-based abilities. Julia floated backwards once it was complete, dragging her other self with her as her staff aligned itself. Power gathered at its furthest point, growing and growing as the smaller magical girl grit her teeth and focused.

Her huff of effort was drowned out by the thunderous crash as the building was seemingly punched downwards. The circle she had covered dissipated in a flash of light as it was used to channel her power, and the surface it was carved upon was smashed downwards along with the rest of the building. The force of the massive impact- as well as the cloud of dust and debris- was kept away from the two of them via a manipulation on both Jillian and Julia's part, pushing it away as it came close to them. Their clothes did not even flutter in the breeze, due to their ethereal nature.

Julia stared downwards at the depression in the ground, the radius of which ended at her feet. Sapping tiredness and exhilaration flowed through her in equal measures as she composed herself. For a few silent moments, the magical girl gathered herself until she appeared as calm and pristine as ever. She gestured wordlessly with her staff, creating a funnel through the immense dust cloud. The two of them floated through, hands interlocked and Julia's staff floating beside her free hand.

Humming lowly to herself, the magical girl's eyes darted about, before locking upon the presence which had directed hostility towards her upon her approach. She floated in silence and waited.

@Shifter_Master@Flamelord@Hammerman@Majoras End@Vocab@BrokenPromise

[Hammerman]

Suwako Makiyoshi

---

When her plants broke open the metal cage, Suwako thought their battle was over. And she had a very good reason to think so, as their enemies were retreating away from their location.

And then, this just had to happen.

The girl called Thalia suddenly transformed into her pure monster form, blasting flames all around her as her power erupted. Suwako had to leap back away from the flames to be not swallowed by it, and even then, her hair slightly got singed by it on its end.

"Got it," she answered to Alicia's command. Quickly, she conjured her plants to snatch Penny away from the now enraged Thalia. She didn't have any healing powers but she could conjure some vines as makeshift bandages to help keep Penny's blood inside her body.

Trusting Alicia to face off against the monster girl, she left the scene, Alicia going with her. Her steps were headed towards the nearest Beacon center. If she were lucky, she would meet a healer in the way there.

@Flamelord@Shifter_Master@Vocab

[Temporary]

~ Into the Fire ~

The beast snarled at the other girls, setting itself into a defensive stance, prepared to strike at a moments notice. The only semblance it had Thalia was its Kitsune heritage. Anything else had been lost under a sea of emotional distress. She eyed Elroy, Alicia, and Suwako in turn, waiting for their attack. The creature wasn't something driven purely by emotions. Inside her head was almost silent, static, a tranquility unlike normal monsters. It's tail swished like a metronome, and it took a breath, keeping the enemies within her vision.

The moment Scout fired the first shot, Thalia roared. A bestial, carnal sound, that echoed around the surroundings, reaching even to Julia and Jillian. In this form, her agility was matched by few. A piece of rubble flew past her head, then another, evaded in turn by the dancing wolf. Her claws dug into the ground and she spun in a circle, kicking up rubble and metal into the air as she went. It wasn't much of a smoke screen, but it acted enough as a distraction for her purposes.

Thalia stopped, pointed directly towards Suwako's voice through the dust. She saw the vines dragging away her friend, and in response let out a low growl, a sole announcement of the up and coming attack; one of her tails raised, bent, and pointed its tip towards the Woodland Mahou; then another; then all the remaining ones, in unison, lifted, poised like snakes, preparing to bite at their prey. Nine tails, in a fan around the Kitsune, which then lit up individually in a deep, blue flame. The fire then condensed, until it sat like a will-o-wisp at the tips of each tail.

In a heartbeat, the first fired. The vines it hit ripped apart under the force, turned to ash, and burnt from the heat as they came into contact with the beam. From the tail had been unleashed a thin column of fire, that zipped through the air to its target. The next second all nine came alive as Thalia let lose a barrage of fire upon the girl. These people were to hurt her friend, were they? Lay hands and magic upon her? They'd have to kill her first.

Her eye caught Alicia, prepared to fire. The beast spun to face her, and from the ground kicked up with her paw a piece of scrap, correlated metal from the roof of the shop. The moment it was in the air, she fired her tail cannons into it, propelling the scrap forward like a shield directly at the Bacon archer.

It was only then she noticed that Elroy had vanished. She glanced around the field, spying nothing, and let out a bellow. He was hiding somewhere, obviously... Thalia scampered in front of Penny, growling at Alicia, Suwako, and Scout from into front of her. Nobody would hurt her... nobody would... nobody!

All nine tails once again lit up into a blaze, but this time they didn't fire at a particular target. Instead, they ripped through the air seemingly at random, haphazardly aimed toward any and all shadows that fell upon the field. They had to be somewhere! They would not escape hurting her friend with punishment! They would die before the night was through!

@Shifter_Master@Flamelord@Hammerman@Majoras End@Shydot

[Majoraa]

---

Things were moving too quickly.

Scout's eyes faded back to red as she saw the kitsune fire a scrap of metal at Alicia and a column of blue fire at Suwako. Thinking as fast as she could, she threw a chunk of debri at the scrap to deflect it, and using her free tree root, pulled the Woodland out of the way, but not in time for the vines to avoid being burned.

"Ya know, I never though multi-tasking could be usefu-WOAH?!"

Scout was interupted mid-sentence as she nearly dodged the barage of fire, she quickly dropped the other pieces of debri to create a wall to hide behind for all three of the girls to take cover. "This should give us enough time to think!" she told Alicia and Suwako, ducking incase any fire got through.

As she thought of her next action, she saw the wounded Penny behind Thalia.

Right there and then, she had two choices..

Should she continue attacking the beast till they were fatally wounded or worse? Or should she spare Thalia and heal their friend?

Fight, or mercy...?

Clutching the necklace around her neck, Scout knew what to do. "Hey, I'm gonna do somethin' stupid and potentially deadly, cover me if things go wrong, will ya?" she asked Alicia as she stood up from their hiding spot. Pulling off her necklace, she walked out in front of the Kitsune, and eyes locked to one another, droped her rifle.

"I'm not going to hurt you."

She tried to tell Thalia, hoping that her human side can hear her, somehow. Scout stretched her hand out to reveal her opal necklace.

"I can heal your friend...Please..If you can still understand me..let me help.."

---

@Vocab@Hammerman@Flamelord

[Shifter_Master]

_{Dealing With A Demon}

Events were spinning out of control even faster than when Penny opened fire on Regina and Elroy, not that the mechanical maho could blame anyone since everyone seemed to be under the impression that she needed help.

The quick appearance, and even quicker incineration, of the vines told Penny she would have to act, but the length of metal in her arm hampered what she could do. She waivered for a moment as she struggled with what to do, she could keep the metal to continue her idea or remove it to better deal with her crazed friend and seeing as Thalia was more than willing to attack anything that moved Penny needed to choose fast.

Before she could come to a conclusion Thalia moved to shield her from any attacks that could be incoming, which, seeing as Elroy was still unaccounted for wasn’t a bad idea. It also gave Penny a better idea for dealing with Thalia.

While Thalia was eyeing every shadow that she could see, Penny gently laid a hand on the Kitsune’s shoulder “I’m okay, Thalia, I’m okay” She murmured softly as stepped closer to her friend, slowly moving to give Thalia a one armed hug “It’s fine, I promise” Penny continued quietly as she adjusted her left arm so that the extra metal sticking out of it wouldn’t poke in to Thalia or scrape against anything.

“Let’s go home Thal” Penny was nearly whispering as she spoke to Thalia, Partly so that only the fox could hear her and partly so her voice wouldn’t crack from her emotions. Every transformation Penny had seen always had the same triggering factor; grievous harm of a loved one. That Thalia cared so much for Penny was a balm that Penny didn’t know she needed, but the pain she had inadvertently inflicted on Thalia was just as sharp, if not worse because of that same fact.

Penny moved so she could look in to her friend’s eyes, making sure not to block Thalia’s vision too much as she did. “Please? We can hunt later” She pleaded quietly not fully able to halt the tears in her eyes. Penny didn’t want another fight, not against anyone gathered, and her loss of control from earlier was starting to catch up to her.

If Penny heard Scout’s appeal, she made no reaction to it, just as she didn’t move to talk to Alicia or Suwako, she would talk with the bacon-bits later. Thalia was more important right now.

She just wanted to go home; she wanted to cry, but she wouldn’t, not now, not until they both were safe. She wouldn’t abandon Thalia, not now, not ever.

@Vocab @Majoras End@Hammerman@Flamelord

[Flamelord]

Alicia Hayden

Though the sentiments were not voiced, Alicia would find herself in agreement with Scout. Things were moving too fast. Thalia struck, preventing Suwako from grabbing her friend and then launching multiple attacks. At the same time a building crumbled down, and a quick glance confirmed that it had been a magical show of power and not just accumulated battle damage.

"I don't have time for this," Alicia muttered to herself as she turned to face the girls who had just made that demonstration, who had in turn begun floating towards her. "I'm sorry, I'm a bit busy trying to help a friend right now so if you want to fight can it wait until later?" Even with her oath, the situation was understandably wearing down on her nerves.

Fortunately Scout was there to deflect the incoming projectile, and Alicia gave up the offensive as she dove behind cover while Thalia attacked randomly with reckless abandon. Her mind raced, trying to come up with an option for moving forwards against this opponent without killing her in the process.

But it seemed that the girl was a lot more proactive, though not necessarily in the best way. "Yes, this is a stupid idea," she replied as she held her bow low, ready to act should Thalia decide to respond to this in the manner that it deserved.

@Shifter_Master@Majoras End@Vocab@Hammerman@ShyDot

[PlatinumSkink]

Violet, Sakura, Mariette, Deni and Eli

Wrapping up the dinner evening at the Pit Stop with @Shifter_Master and @t2wave

The evening continued after Amber had left. The Djinn Sisters, Mariette and Deni eventually got to order, and by now it seemed the excitement had waned, so Deni made sure to drag in Eli as well, because it was to be a complete dinner with all friends present. Out of the three in Mariette's group, Deni was obviously the most active individual present, asking the Djinn Sisters about their pasts just because and asking what their plans for the future and such potentially were. Eli sometimes asked if Deni was being a bit nosy and prepare to lecture her sister, but Deni just grinned and continue talking.

Mariette was mostly quiet, but Violet made an effort to try to pull Mariette in to conversations at every opportunity but wasn’t very pushy about it. It was somewhat successful, Mariette spoke if she found she had something to say on the subject, mostly an opinion or a preference. But she wouldn’t speak of her past or current plans, only casual things. Turns out not even Deni or Eli knows her past. Hm.

Where Mariette was silent about herself, however, Deni was more than happy to talk about Deni and Eli’s past before they were Magical Girls, and about various troubles the two had before finally Asengav split them up. That they were two girls in the same body that sometimes switched places. Told about times when the wrong girl became in charge for a current event, seeing how Deni was a socially outgoing and sought out activity while Eli was a shy but talented girl that preferred to keep to herself, mostly, and so they had varying skills that didn’t always show up at the right time.

As for their future plans… “Eh, better you don’t know about them~”, Deni put it with a wide smile.

Deni was totally interested in the weirdest wishes the Djinn Sisters had granted, and if there were any hilarious stories of wishes gone wrong or hilarious in general that they were willing to talk about. Eli was totally interested in that, too, eyes shining a little, but wasn’t as vocal about it. Mariette wasn’t particularly interested, listened.

Violet hit it off with Deni and commented on the similarities between the two pairs of twins. Violet was free with various stories of odd or humors wishes but didn’t reveal any of the stipulations that they face with their wishes outside of the only three per person.

During the evening, Mariette got her milkshake. She became visibly surprised when intaking it, staring at the “milk”, in alarm, before taking more of it. It was… delicious, in a way that Mariette had never consumed. It somewhat overwhelmed her, which was clear for all to see. Deni shared that they mostly ate the sandwiches provided by the fridge in their interdimensional apartment which Asengav had provided to them, as well as the food Joe made them, but Joe was by no means a chef and gave them no sweets. So this was Mariette’s first interaction with actual dessert. “Don’t get her addicted~”

The part about Joe had just slipped out of Deni’s mouth, they weren’t actually supposed to talk about Joe because Joe didn’t want visitors from Mariette’s life. So, “please forget we mentioned him, okay~?” … And Eli was like “You mentioned him, not we” and another such exchange.

Violet teased Mariette lightly about having a sweet tooth while simultaneously planning on spoiling her with sweets at every opportunity. She acknowledged Joe but was willing to not bring him up again.

Mariette didn’t really react to being teased about having a sweet tooth, but after enough sweets she'd encounter another feeling she wasn't too familiar with. The feeling of being absolutely full. She didn't usually eat very much, you know. Then her willingness to eat drastically diminished. All the more for Deni and Eli! ... Oh, and the two of them could EAT, likely way more than the others at the table (devourers).

And then the dinner continued until everyone was full and satisfied and had spoken together plenty as friends do, before Sakura paid for the meal, and then Deni and Eli could say they had a good time. They thanked the one who provided the money and then said they’d see each other again before Mariette and the twins went away through a portal. Deni said the the three owed them one because of paying, and she’d see if they could pay them back sometime. But for now, onto other things.

[Hammerman]

Suwako Makiyoshi

---

Her plan was to leave the scene and retreat with the wounded Penny in tow.

But of course, just like her other plans today, it immediately got derailed, when the enraged monster girl fired off her flames towards her and her vine. She couldn't do anything when her first flame pretty much cut her vine that carried Penny, as the other flames were all aimed towards her. She prepared herself to defend, intending to summon a wall of wood to block the flames, but before she could do that, she was dragged away by another tree root not under her control.

Another magical girl with the capability to manipulate wood? So she must be the unknown presence I detected earlier.

She had no time to think about it much as they were still being assaulted by Thalia's flames. She had to hide herself in the debris the new magical girl had brought with her.

And then, she watched the new girl walking right towards the enraged beast. That fool, she thought. It seemed she intended to calm the beast down.

And Penny herself seemed to have the same idea as well.

Suwako sighed. "I suppose it couldn't be helped..." she said to herself.

For now, she would stay on standby, readying her vines to pull the two girls away from Thalia in case she decided to attack once more.

@Flamelord@Shifter_Master@Majoras End@Vocab