A Cute Angel

Fate/Dark Amazon

Fate/Dark Amazon

"Now, our next guest is here to talk about the show that needs no introduction! Please welcome to the stage, one of Dark Amazon's sales VPs and the producer of Fate/Dark Amazon, Friedrich Betramyniad!"

"Thanks for having me on, Vikas."

"It's an honor, Mr. Betramyni-"

"Ah, just Fred is fine."

"..."

"..."

"...Fred it is, then! So, I'm told the filming for Fate/Dark Amazon's set to start at the end of the week. We've all heard about the nature of the show and read up on those contestant profiles you published, but what I'm aching to know are specifics! For instance, we know what wraiths the contestants have been given, but do they know about each others'?"

"Ahaha, jumping right into it, huh Vikas? I'll have to talk with your producer about proper etiquette on a talk show."

"Oh come on, Fred, humor me."

"Sure, sure. So, while the contestants will know the names, faces, and abilities of their competitors, what they won't know are things like personality quirks, and the wraiths we've given out. Also, the competitors are forbidden from speaking to the outside world during the show, on threat of disqualification and death, so it'll be interesting to see how it develops."

"Sneaking up on someone with no close combat ability, only to find out that they have the knowledge of a black belt from their wraith! Ah, I can't wait! So, what about those supervisors you're placing on the islands? They must be something special if you're trusting them to keep an island of battling magi in check."

"Of course. They're our interns, after all."

"...I'm sorry, I must have misheard you. Did you say-"

"-Interns, yes. Three summer interns who volunteered for the positions, each from a different department. They're all fairly capable, so we have high hopes for them. Besides, this way if an accident winds up happening, they're easy to replace."

"...A-As expected from Dark Amazon, truly corporate ruthlessness at its finest!"

"We'll be releasing their information shortly. As an aside though, if any of you watching have aspirations of one day working for Dark Amazon, don't hesitate to apply for next summer's intern program! Our deadline is next Saturday."

"Well, let's leave the interns behind for now. I'm sure we'll be abuzz with talk of them once their information is released. How about we go back to the contestants, are there any you're particularly keeping an eye out for?"

"Ahaha, you know any word from me will ruin the betting markets, right Vikas? The last thing we want is the CEO catching wind of that and getting upset with the both of us."

"R-Right, right, the last thing we'd want is to upset Sir CEO...a-at any rate, moving on from that..."

Premise

The year is 2021. Earlier this year, Dark Amazon proudly announced the release of the Magus Network, a television network by magi, for magi. Simply by purchasing one of Dark Amazon’s patented Magus Network receivers and plugging your television in, any magus can watch! With hit shows like “Cooking with Chimerae” and “A Magus’s Guide to Technology”, ratings have been off to an amazing start.

To commemorate this momentous event, we at Dark Amazon have prepared what’s called a “reality TV show”. Through interviews with the Clock Tower’s own Lord El-Melloi II, we learned of a now-disassembled ritual in the far East called a Holy Grail War, and have remodeled it for your viewing pleasure!

Originally, this event took place via magi summoning Heroic Spirits as familiars, and fighting to the death to receive a wishgranting device! In the interests of time and scale, we’ve made it more suitable for mass broadcast. Those magi who pass the application process will be given a wraith from our catalogs, and have it possess their bodies, whether through their own will or through the help of a customer service representative! For instance, if you’re provided with the wraith of a fire magus, you’ll acquire their abilities, and the same goes for a martial artist! Be warned, though, as we are not responsible for any personality distortions that occur as a result of this process.

We’ve then prepared a small island that we will release the magi onto, at which point they will begin a dazzling fight to the death! The winner will receive prize money, up to three high-quality Mystic Codes from our catalog, and additional prizes based on their performance and the audience reaction! If you’re a fan favorite, you might even be able to have your “wish” granted!

As an aside, we’re currently in talks with our friends in the non-magus television networks to air a heavily-edited version of the show on their networks. If you have friends who aren’t magi, tell them to look forward to it!

If you’re interested in applying, please fill out the below application detailing your personal information and what sort of wraith you’d like to apply for. We’re looking for a variety of contestants, but will have to ask that anyone over the age of one hundred or above the rank of Pride in the Mage’s Association refrains from application. We also reserve the right to turn away applicants who do not fit this bill if we think they are too “strong” or not a good fit for the show.

The contestants will be announced at the end of the month! Happy watching!

OOC Premise Explanation

Okay, so, the way this works is everyone apps magi who are mediocre-to-good ones rather than say, Kayneth or Rin-tier. You also specify the sort of wraith you want (“magus with X magecraft” or “X kind of fighter” or something), and Dark Amazon provides your character with a wraith from their catalog. After approval, I’ll specify the abilities of the wraith (and what abilities having them possess your character grants you), as well as what sort of personality distortions will arise from this process. In other words, you get the abilities of your character plus the abilities of the wraith they meld with themselves.

For instance, if you’re a meek little child and you let the wraith of a very loud martial artist possess your character, while your character will stay mostly the same, you should expect some aspects of that martial artist’s personality to bleed over.

Wraiths will generally be those of unnamed individuals, but there will be a list of "special wraiths" that can be selected first-come first-served, such as the wraith of Shinji Matou.

You’re then dropped on an island and made to fight to the death. Customer service reps (interns) from Dark Amazon will be on the island as well, you can think of them like equivalent to the church moderators in “making sure shit doesn’t get too crazy”.

Something else worth noting is the importance of ratings. If your character is a fan favorite, then odds are the customer service reps will provide useful gifts in line with how much they’re helping the ratings. A low-level mystic code, some medicine if they get injured/sick, and so on, so it’s in your character’s best interests to put on a good show for the audience.

FAQ

Q: So what are wraiths?
A: Angry human spirits. The ones that are available from the Dark Amazon catalog are all wraiths formed in the 21st century (ie, the person died in the 21st century) with significant enough strength to have a notable effect when possessing a human. This means no Servant-tier spirits, no nature spirits, no wraiths from several centuries ago, etc. It's also good to keep in mind that if Dark Amazon has the wraith of some bigshot famous person, they probably won't waste it on a random contestant in season 1 of their new reality show.

Q: How strong can my magus be?
A: Think worse than Kayneth or Rin. If you know the Association rankings, around Fes or lower would be ideal, but that's case-by-case. Also, weapons such as guns will be disallowed, as in this context they're a bit cheat-y.

Q: The heck is Dark Amazon?
A: I'll leave this one to Nasu and Takeuchi: "Dark Amazon, the giant organization seeking a monopoly on distribution in the magic world. Even the bigwigs at the Association are beginning feeling a sense of impending crisis at the way they’re gobbling up markets for magical items one after another. And the way they gather so much personal information on magi that shop with them is pretty nasty, too."

Feel free to ask whatever other questions you have!

CS

Name: Their name, preferred nickname to be referred to during the show if any, and titles.

Gender: Self-explanatory.

Age: Don’t try to sneak on set, 500 year old archmages!

Personality: Don’t skimp on this.

Appearance: Either an image or a written description is fine.

Biography: Self-explanatory.

Family History (if applicable): If the character comes from a magus family with a notable history, jot it down here.

Origin: The basis of your existence. Shirou Emiya's Origin of "Sword" and Souren Araya's Origin of "Stillness" are examples.

Elemental Affinity: Dual elements and Average Ones are fine, but rare. If your Elemental Affinity is not one of the Great Five Elements, dual elements are not allowed.

Number of Magic Circuits: E-A. No modifiers. This isn’t as important as it would be in a normal Grail War.

Quality of Magic Circuits: The amount of magical energy each single circuit can sustain. E-A. No modifiers. This isn’t as important as it would be in a normal Grail War.

Od: How much magical energy you can store in your body. E-A. No modifiers.

Magecraft: You can put systems, magecrafts, magecraft-related abilities like High Speed Aria, Magic Crest characteristics, family attributes, and individual spells in here. If something isn't here, it's assumed your magus doesn't know it. Literally everything should go here. The exception is that it is, however, assumed that anyone with a proper magus education (ie the Clock Tower or from a magus family) will know the basics such as fixing glass, locking doors, and so on that we're aware of in canon. Also if you mention things like a family specialty in the family history and it's obvious that your character has inherited that much, you don't need to say it explicitly, but it's still appreciated.

Equipment: Limited to the contents of a Dark Amazon-supplied backpack. High-level Mystic Codes, guns, and the like are disallowed.

Skills: Cooking, stabbing, video games, whatever. If it isn't here and isn't something 99% of the global population can do (eg, breathing), then your character does not know it.

Wraith Request Form

The form used to determine the wraith you will receive from the Dark Amazon catalog. All wraiths are obtained from modern-day humans who have died in this timeline as of 2021. Please note that there might not be a wraith that meets all of your specifications, but we will try to find as close a match as possible!

Designation: Magus or non-magus

Magecraft (If magus): Be non-specific here. For instance, “fire magecraft”, “spiritual surgery”, “physical degradation curses”, etc. Stick to one or two things for this section.

Skills: Notable abilities. 1-2 for a magus, 3-4 for a non-magus. This can include knowledge, combat abilities, and the like.

Other: Additional things you would like to request. May or may not be evaluated. If there is a specific wraith you would like to request from the “Special” Wraiths, mention it here and leave the other sections blank.

“Special” Wraiths

While we at Dark Amazon do recommend you allow us to choose your wraith based on the specifications you send to us, we do have a limited list of specific individuals that you can choose from if you are so inclined. Be warned though, these wraiths carry much higher risks than the normal method of assignment, so only select them if you are entirely certain.

They have been ranked in a rough approximation of the risk associated with them. From riskiest to least risky: Crown Phantasm, Last Phantasm, Marble Phantasm, Noble Phantasm, Broken Phantasm.

Remember, higher risk does not necessarily mean higher reward.

Crown Phantasm

Shinji Matou

Last Phantasm

Kojika Kumari
Monji Gatou

Marble Phantasm

Bishop Dilo
Mabel Macintosh
Raiga Fujimura
Martha Mackenzie

Noble Phantasm

Reikan Ryuudou
Fezgram vor Sembren
Risei Kotomine
Tatsumi Kitano

Broken Phantasm

Akira Seo
Lil’ Gordy Musik Yggdmillennia

Fate/Dark Amazon ["Holy Grail War" with a twist]

Alrighty, so between the people who've posted here and the people who've PMed me, we've got enough people to where this can work. I'll make the OOC either this evening or early tomorrow.

Newcomers are still certainly welcome, though~

Fate/Dark Amazon ["Holy Grail War" with a twist]

Character

Name/Title: Autumn Jan 张秋 (alternately Qiu Zhang, but he doesn't like it)
Plundering Grand Warlock 略奪壮絶魔道士

Gender: Male

Age: 22

Personality: Manipulative sociopaths, whoo! He's got a genetic bout of bipolar depression that's mostly under control but makes it hard to anticipate how he'll react to extreme situations. He thinks way too much, by and large about what he can do to keep people happy and doing what he wants them to. Autumn's not a monster, but only trusts himself, so sees maintaining control of everything at all times as the best way to keep everything going good for everyone. The generic "Everyman McNiceguy" act he puts on is convincing, but far from his real character. Traditional Neutral Evil alignment in that his worldview is egocentric and no matter how close a second looking out for others comes, number one always gets taken care of first.

Autum hates women! Goddamn does he hate them. Weak pitiful emotional children who are even more manipulative than him. That's his view of womankind at large. He's capable of working with them and he likes sexing them, but as far as he's concerned a woman that's not in the kitchen or the bedroom is lost and needs to be directed back to one of those two places. Since he's not a one-dimensional villain, he knows that every rule has exceptions, including this one. Females can totally earn his respect. They just have a much harder time of it than men do. The misogyny may or may not be a result of latent homoerotic tendencies.

Appearance: Bearing grey-green eyes that seem gentle and a fake smile almost as convincing as a real one, Autumn is attractive is an ordinary, sort of scruffy sense. He is of above average height but tends to slouch, both diminishing his apparent stature and giving the impression that he is informal and easy to talk to. His chin and jawline have a few whiskers sticking out of them, because try as he might, they're the extent of his ability to grow facial hair. The black hair on his head often goes unbrushed, or at least appears to - in contrast, his clothes are always unwrinkled and clean, so it's safe to say he places some value in his appearance. With skin bearing a light tan and a frame that's moderately toned, it's not difficult to believe he spent the last decade and a half earning his keep on the high seas.
~Reference images:
danbooru.donmai.us/posts/821102
danbooru.donmai.us/posts/1855129
danbooru.donmai.us/posts/1981299
danbooru.donmai.us/posts/1567656
danbooru.donmai.us/posts/945422
danbooru.donmai.us/posts/1083270

Biography: Second-best second place is Autum's lot in life. If he ever gets famous or powerful enough to be summoned as a Servant, his Luck stat will be a solid D. He was born into an illustrious family of Oriental magi but as the bastard child of the family head. His father might have been able to win him the rights of Zhang family successor, except there was already a legitimate heir in his half-sibling. He was a better and brighter student than his brother, but too emotionally unstable to be trusted with family secrets. So close, yet so far, time and time again. And that would have been the end of the story, an unremarkable life dictated by factors outside of his control, if he'd stuck around and filled the role of supporting the true Zhang heir that the family elders wanted him to.

Of course that's not what went down. How could he be a contestant on Battle Royale(r) With Magecraft(tm) if he was stuck as some caretaker for a guy he was better than? Nah, Autumn discarded his birth name of Qiu Zhang and went out and lived his life. Got a job using his magecraft to protect this superstitious old sailor's oil barge. One thing led to another, and before too long he was training under a pirate captain who moonlighted as a maniac for all things occult. The years go by, Autumn develops as both the commander of a crew and a mage - learning from his adoptive father's library what he couldn't from his own flesh and blood - and eventually he steps up to take the place of the late captain. The crew he inherited wasn't thrilled with this outsider taking over, but feared his supernatural skills, and so the previously dreaded Bloodsticker Pirates quietly disbanded. This left Autumn with a need for a crew and an entire world out there ripe for the plundering.

Family History: The official story Zhang gives is that they can trace their lineage all the way back to Zhang Daoling, founder of the Five Pecks of Rice Taoist sect. Will they let anyone see their family records and other such guarded documents to confirm it? Of course not! There are a few discrepancies with outside historical records, but by and large it appears that there is at least some legitimacy to that claim (or they have a history of rubbing out any who could disprove their heritage. Either or, take your pick). What is certain is that they've been around long enough to have top-rated magic circuit quantity and that they're the world's foremost authorities on the Zheng Yi (Zhenyi) school of teachings.

Inter-family policies, at least those that have become public knowledge, are traditional and conservative. Compared to other Zhenyi practitioners, Zhang magi are more focused on achieving "communion with the spirits" (something not understandable in Western magecraft terms because it falls under the Supreme Ultimate) than the formalized processes required to do so - they care about what is actually done rather than how it's done - which should in theory make them more liberal than most since they're willing to try new methods as long as the results are better, but anything can become status quo if it goes unchallenged for a great enough time. Departures from custom are even more frowned upon than is normal for a mage family, which led to the current family head, Autumn's father, seeking a less oppressive direction. Handing his role off to a child born out of wedlock and of adulterous affair was far too much change to try for at once, though.

Origin: 退散 (Separating one thing from others/breaking away)

Elemental Affinity: Water/Earth

Number of Magic Circuits: A

Quality of Magic Circuits: B

Od: C

Magecraft:
-General ed magecraft

-Water magecraft, in which he is particularly skilled

-Water/earth hybrid magecraft based on liquifying that which is solid

-No magic crest, but he knows how to make a few of the Zhang family's basic talismans;
~resisting evil: physical and spiritual damage delivered with ill intent to the holder are reduced
~warding off hunger: improves the efficiency of nutrition intake, making food and drink last longer
~bringing harmony: emits a constant field of low-level mental interference that suppresses violent instincts
~spiritual perception: the holder becomes capable of seeing spiritual bodies not visible to the unaided eye

Equipment:
-Provided backpack and what's inside it

-Talisman-making materials (ink, brush, specially-prepared paper strips)

-Water bottles, and lots of them. Like... Four whole water bottles. So much.

Skills:
-Multilingual

-Traditional and modern means of navigation

-Sailing

-Hand-to-hand combat basics

-Amateur swordplay

-Swimming

-Basic first aid

-Diplomacy

Wraith request

Designation: Magus

Magecraft: Efficient vs non-magi. Close range. AKA "Make me a muscle wizard"

Skills: Tracking. Trapping.

Other: ICly none. OOCly requesting that it's a female wraith for shits 'n giggles

@Chris Nemo

I'll be holding off on approving/critiquing apps until the OOC is up, but I appreciate the enthusiasm!

Fate/Dark Amazon ["Holy Grail War" with a twist]

Dark Amazon Prime, killing anime with holy grail wars

@Art of Fun

That's actually the job of their subsidiary, Dark Netflix.

Fate/Dark Amazon ["Holy Grail War" with a twist]

Fate/Dark Amazon

The year is 2021. Earlier this year, Dark Amazon proudly announced the release of the Magus Network, a television network by magi, for magi. Simply by purchasing one of Dark Amazon’s patented Magus Network receivers and plugging your television in, any magus can watch! With hit shows like “Cooking with Chimerae” and “A Magus’s Guide to Technology”, ratings have been off to an amazing start.

To commemorate this momentous event, we at Dark Amazon have prepared what’s called a “reality TV show”. Through interviews with the Clock Tower’s own Lord El-Melloi II, we learned of a now-disassembled ritual in the far East called a Holy Grail War, and have remodeled it for your viewing pleasure!

Originally, this event took place via magi summoning Heroic Spirits as familiars, and fighting to the death to receive a wishgranting device! In the interests of time and scale, we’ve made it more suitable for mass broadcast. Those magi who pass the application process will be given a wraith from our catalogs, and have it possess their bodies, whether through their own will or through the help of a customer service representative! For instance, if you’re provided with the wraith of a fire magus, you’ll acquire their abilities, and the same goes for a martial artist! Be warned, though, as we are not responsible for any personality distortions that occur as a result of this process.

We’ve then prepared a small island that we will release the magi onto, at which point they will begin a dazzling fight to the death! The winner will receive prize money, up to three high-quality Mystic Codes from our catalog, and additional prizes based on their performance and the audience reaction! If you’re a fan favorite, you might even be able to have your “wish” granted!

As an aside, we’re currently in talks with our friends in the non-magus television networks to air a heavily-edited version of the show on their networks. If you have friends who aren’t magi, tell them to look forward to it!

If you’re interested in applying, please fill out the below application detailing your personal information and what sort of wraith you’d like to apply for. We’re looking for a variety of contestants, but will have to ask that anyone over the age of one hundred or above the rank of Pride in the Mage’s Association refrains from application. We also reserve the right to turn away applicants who do not fit this bill if we think they are too “strong” or not a good fit for the show.

The contestants will be announced at the end of the month! Happy watching!

The Hell Does That Mean?

Okay, so, the way this works is everyone apps magi who are mediocre-to-good ones rather than say, Kayneth or Rin-tier. You also specify the sort of wraith you want (“magus with X magecraft” or “X kind of fighter” or something), and Dark Amazon provides your character with a wraith from their catalog. After approval, I’ll specify the abilities of the wraith (and what abilities having them possess your character grants you), as well as what sort of personality distortions will arise from this process. In other words, you get the abilities of your character plus the abilities of the wraith they meld with themselves.

For instance, if you’re a meek little child and you let the wraith of a very loud martial artist possess your character, while your character will stay mostly the same, you should expect some aspects of that martial artist’s personality to bleed over.

Wraiths will generally be those of unnamed individuals, but there will be a list of "special wraiths" that can be selected first-come first-served, such as the wraith of Shinji Matou.

You’re then dropped on an island and made to fight to the death. Customer service reps from Dark Amazon will be on the island as well, you can think of them like equivalent to the church moderators in “making sure shit doesn’t get too crazy”.

Something else worth noting is the importance of ratings. If your character is a fan favorite, then odds are the customer service reps will provide useful gifts in line with how much they’re helping the ratings. A low-level mystic code, some medicine if they get injured/sick, and so on, so it’s in your character’s best interests to put on a good show for the audience.

FAQ

Q: So what are wraiths?
A: Angry human spirits. The ones that are available from the Dark Amazon catalog are all wraiths formed in the 21st century (ie, the person died in the 21st century) with significant enough strength to have a notable effect when possessing a human. This means no Servant-tier spirits, no nature spirits, no wraiths from several centuries ago, etc. It's also good to keep in mind that if Dark Amazon has the wraith of some bigshot famous person, they probably won't waste it on a random contestant in season 1 of their new reality show.

Q: How strong can my magus be?
A: Think worse than Kayneth or Rin. If you know the Association rankings, around Fes or lower would be ideal, but that's case-by-case. Also, weapons such as guns will be disallowed, as in this context they're a bit cheat-y.

Q: The heck is Dark Amazon?
A: I'll leave this one to Nasu and Takeuchi: "Dark Amazon, the giant organization seeking a monopoly on distribution in the magic world. Even the bigwigs at the Association are beginning feeling a sense of impending crisis at the way they’re gobbling up markets for magical items one after another. And the way they gather so much personal information on magi that shop with them is pretty nasty, too."

Feel free to ask whatever other questions you have!

CS

Name: Their name, preferred nickname to be referred to during the show if any, and titles.

Gender: Self-explanatory.

Age: Don’t try to sneak on set, 500 year old archmages!

Personality: Don’t skimp on this.

Appearance: Either an image or a written description is fine.

Biography: Self-explanatory.

Family History (if applicable): If the character comes from a magus family with a notable history, jot it down here.

Origin: The basis of your existence. Shirou Emiya's Origin of "Sword" and Souren Araya's Origin of "Stillness" are examples.

Elemental Affinity: Dual elements and Average Ones are fine, but rare. If your Elemental Affinity is not one of the Great Five Elements, dual elements are not allowed.

Number of Magic Circuits: E-A. No modifiers. This isn’t as important as it would be in a normal Grail War.

Quality of Magic Circuits: The amount of magical energy each single circuit can sustain. E-A. No modifiers. This isn’t as important as it would be in a normal Grail War.

Od: How much magical energy you can store in your body. E-A. No modifiers.

Magecraft: You can put systems, magecrafts, magecraft-related abilities like High Speed Aria, Magic Crest characteristics, family attributes, and individual spells in here. If something isn't here, it's assumed your magus doesn't know it. Literally everything should go here. The exception is that it is, however, assumed that anyone with a proper magus education (ie the Clock Tower or from a magus family) will know the basics such as fixing glass, locking doors, and so on that we're aware of in canon. Also if you mention things like a family specialty in the family history and it's obvious that your character has inherited that much, you don't need to say it explicitly, but it's still appreciated.

Equipment: Limited to the contents of a Dark Amazon-supplied backpack. High-level Mystic Codes, guns, and the like are disallowed.

Skills: Cooking, stabbing, video games, whatever. If it isn't here and isn't something 99% of the global population can do (eg, breathing), then your character does not know it.

Wraith Request Form

The form used to determine the wraith you will receive from the Dark Amazon catalog. All wraiths are obtained from modern-day humans who have died in this timeline as of 2021. Please note that there might not be a wraith that meets all of your specifications, but we will try to find as close a match as possible!

Designation: Magus or non-magus

Magecraft (If magus): Be non-specific here. For instance, “fire magecraft”, “spiritual surgery”, “physical degradation curses”, etc. Stick to one or two things for this section.

Skills: Notable abilities. 1-2 for a magus, 3-4 for a non-magus. This can include knowledge, combat abilities, and the like.

Other: Additional things you would like to request. May or may not be evaluated. If there is a specific wraith you would like to request from the “Special” Wraiths, mention it here and leave the other sections blank.

“Special” Wraiths

While we at Dark Amazon do recommend you allow us to choose your wraith based on the specifications you send to us, we do have a limited list of specific individuals that you can choose from if you are so inclined. Be warned though, these wraiths carry much higher risks than the normal method of assignment, so only select them if you are entirely certain.

They have been ranked in a rough approximation of the risk associated with them. From riskiest to least risky: Crown Phantasm, Last Phantasm, Marble Phantasm, Noble Phantasm, Broken Phantasm.

Remember, higher risk does not necessarily mean higher reward.

Crown Phantasm

Shinji Matou

Last Phantasm

Kojika Kumari
Monji Gatou

Marble Phantasm

Bishop Dilo
Mabel Macintosh
Raiga Fujimura
Martha Mackenzie

Noble Phantasm

Reikan Ryuudou
Fezgram vor Sembren
Risei Kotomine
Tatsumi Kitano

Broken Phantasm

Akira Seo
Lil’ Gordy Musik Yggdmillennia

Puella Magi: The Wild Hunt

After that someone will have to round up Mary and her bag, which might help split us up a little more until the next in-game day.

@Antarctic Termite

Don't pull her into your shenanigans. She has arcane organizations to prepare for combat against.

Also homework to do.

Puella Magi: The Wild Hunt

@AtomicNut Literally my only reason for joining. I hate roleplays.

@Lolita Complex

Same honestly

Puella Magi: The Wild Hunt

It's cute how Kei wants Julia-sempai to notice her, and even cuter when Mary's too embarrassed to follow them.

@Ariamis

She's not following them because she's figured out Julia's real identity.

You thought you could fool her, but Mary is always one step ahead.

Puella Magi: The Wild Hunt

MARY BETH

After speaking, Mary, a triumphant smirk etched onto her face for no particular reason, walked off in the direction opposite where the familiar was. There was no point in killing something like that at the current time. There were more important things to deal with, after all.

Besides, only an amateur would be foolish enough to deal with something like that. Mary was no amateur; such a thing was impossible, as she was a protagonist.

That naturally meant she was "pro+agonist". As a pro, she could not be an amateur. As an agonist, she was undergoing mental turmoil for the struggle of her identity at every waking moment. The strife caused by her clashing lineage, the basis of her own nature as a contradictory existence. The clash between her maternal grandfather being the 「Demon Lord of the Sixth Mountain and Sea」, but her paternal grandfather the 「Archbishop of the Sacred Goddess」. The 「Reverse Scale」 that was embedded in her soul, the result of a contract with a 「Dragon King」 made with her ancestor a thousand years prior. The trace of 「Chaos God」 that lurked in her bloodline, the result of that ritual her ancient ancestor performed in that damned Akkadian ziggurat...

Mary tore her mind away from the thoughts of her own nature. She could not be delayed by that, not now. That girl, the 「Curse-Woven Impostor」 who had been called "Julia", had declared herself an antagonist to Mary's protagonist. This, of course, meant that like Mary, she was an agonist, but she was also an ant. However, even that declaration was part of the 「Curse-Woven Impostor」's nefarious plan.

The others hadn't noticed. How could they have? The 「Curse-Woven Impostor」 had done an excellent job, concealing her intentions and nature as she had. Even Mary had to admit that, were it not for a fatal mistake the antagonist had made, Mary would not have realized exactly what her opponent was.

Yes, that fatal mistake had lifted the veil that she had so expertly crafted. In a moment of foolishness, she had referred to herself as 「Julia of the Ballerings」.

Ballerings. That word was her downfall, for hidden in it was the Truth just waiting to be rearranged. 「A Bell Rings」.

At that moment, Mary had realized the 「Truth」. She had realized what this "Julia" was. Without question, she was a member of the 「Solemn Order」, the 「Illusory Apostles of the Devourer」. The 「Solemn Order」 was a little-known group that was subordinate to a larger organization, the 「Order of Agkylomitis」. They were an order that aimed to crush all opposition and make their leader, the 「Godslayer of the Golden Sickle」, the dominant power in the 「World」. That phrase, "A Bell Rings", was their sacred creed. The moment it was indirectly spoken, the trick became useless.

"Julia's" vicious dismissal of Mary and attempt to emote was of course a clever trick, designed to make Mary think that Julia couldn't possible by a servant of the 「Order」. Clever trick, for an 「Illusory Apostle」.

Yes, Mary knew now. Her soul, no, the 「World」 itself spoke to her. However...she could not act immediately. After all, a single member of the 「Solemn Order」 was weak, but they had built a godlike force over the millennia, shattering the limits on humankind. If Mary revealed what she knew, revealed that she recognized Julia for what she was, the rest of the order would be roused to action. Consequently, Mary could not let the 「Solemn Order」 realize that she knew their plans yet. She had to act normal, otherwise they would have the opportunity to plan around the plan she was creating, designed to strike down their plan.

No, for now, she would need to make preparations. It was for this reason that she had begun walking in the direction of her home. Plans for dealing with the 「Solemn Order」 would need to be made, preparatory measures would need to be taken. That world-defying organization, the influx of magical girls, that school project she hadn't started on yet that was due next week, all of these things would need to be dealt with immediately.

-With a jolt, Mary stopped walking, as if something had suddenly occurred to her.

This was because something had suddenly occurred to her.

Her sidekick was not following her.

The sidekick she had given her bag.

The bag that had her shit.

What's more, she hadn't made any of the candy with her magic's sugar, because that was cheating. Mary, while many things, was not a cheater. However, while she did not regret that decision even at the current time, she was nonetheless annoyed by it, as she was unable to locate her bag without retracing her steps in the most boring possible manner.

...

...

...

Acting as though she hadn't made that realization, Mary resumed walking.

No, rather, it was not mere acting, it was almost as if she had completely forgotten it. She had not done so, nor was she pretending to have forgotten, but rather her mind was oriented towards the thought of "I want to disregard this". As such, this delusion twisted itself within Mary's mind, until that point of collapse became the point of expansion.

Candyless and cackling, the idiot continued along towards her house.

Puella Magi: The Wild Hunt

<Snipped quote by A Cute Angel>

Th-they weren't arguments. They clearly weren't arguments. They were... I don't even know how to classify them.

@DarkwolfX37

That sort of response just means you can't handle them.