Ammokkx

Secundi Lux

---

No matter how many times Chie transforms, she'll never get used to it. Her entire body tingling with the faint trace of magic continually coursing through her vein, the process of surrounding corruption being purified into a more suited form. Instead of the body generating heat from burning the nutrients it absorbs, it's creating an awesome and terrifying substance able to bend the very literal laws of physics around Chie's whims. Yet, for all of the power that it gave her, she couldn't help but freeze just as much as Rivka was. The weather agreed with none of the girls, though the flatwoods monster among them didn't seem to let that dampen her spirits in the slightest.

Chie kept a cool look on her face and said: "The officers said the drones pick up on magic use. It'd take too long to try and find them ourselves."

So, instead, the drones should come to them.

Chie raised up her hand and focused on a point somewhat reasonably far removed from the girls; about as far as she could reach without being cut off by a wall anyway. Nox flowed through Chie's body and she started to channel it, both in the point where she stood as well as where she was aiming to. The point in the distance had the rain starting to fall quicker, strands of water suddenly elongating mid-air and even more violently crashing down onto the street. A bit of a weird sight, really, as if the one location was experiencing some kind of spatial distortion. Above the five girls was Chie's second point of gravity, but instead of having the rain drench them even further, she reversed it and had the forces push the rain aside, creating a circular "barrier" of water around them. Really, though, she just did that second part to temporarily shield the group from the downpour they'd been experiencing.

Chie relaxed for a bit with a small huff, then cocked her head to the side. "This should be enough magic to draw them... so we should get ready to move."

Chie summoned her chakrams, then leaped up and through the curtain of water. She hadn't strayed too far from the pack yet, simply taking cover behind one of the nearby ruins. The plan was to catch at least one drone unaware; provided none of her teammated has other ideas in mind.

Urban Starlight Wonderland: A Magical Girl RP

~~Nico~~

---

"Where are you...?" Nico thought to herself as she (slightly nervously) worked her way to the source of her uneasy feeling. The girl's eyes checked out everybody she passed for any sign of attack or possession. Luckily, or maybe obviously, none of the people walking around on the main streets had anything wrong with them. It wasn't a shade, nor was it anyone possessed- those two things ruled themselves out pretty quickly. So then what was Nico feeling?

She fiddled with one of her hairstyle's tails. The magical girl had not just been searching, but also thinking. It wasn't really a secret she was still pretty green to this whole 'playing the hero' thing. The worst Nico's had to deal with were a few low ranking shades, nothing she couldn't handle by herself. It made her slightly anxious to not know what awaited her. The fairy never mentioned anything like this being able to happen, at the very least. Nico mused about it, mulled it over and stewed on the topic for her entire trek. She was no closer to an answer for all her pondering, but her instincts? Those told a different story. "Found you!" she reaffirmed to herself, looking up at the sky- or more accurately, to the rooftop of the building she'd found herself next to.

Nico lowered her head and looked around. There were still a few passers-by around and, though none were making eye-contact with anything but the floor, Nico still couldn't afford to transform right then and there. There was a small alley next to the building, yes, but transforming there at the wrong moment could lead to her being seen anyway. She didn't have much choice other than to try and make her way up the building without her magical powers. Luckily, it didn't look to be that hard. There was a stairwell around the outside- probably a fire exit or something for maintenance, but whatever the case, it happened to work out. Nico acted like she belonged in the area and began climbing up the stairs. All that was left to do once she reached their top was to step on a vent sticking out the wall- it got Nico enough height to allow the girl to pull herself up just a smidge and get onto the rooftop.

One would be forgiven for thinking that Nico, finally, would have her opportunity to transform. After all, nobody seemed to have called out her Indiana Jonesing the wall, nor do people tend to look up at rooftops to spy for plain looking schoolgirls. Just a quick thought and, whoosh, Nico would become an ally of justice. It really would've been that easy, if a small quirk of the situation hadn't been dictating otherwise. Nico wasn't alone on this rooftop. Back turned to Nico, there was another girl- not much of any older than herself- standing at the opposite edge... dangerously close to stepping over it. All color drained from Nico's face and, in that brief moment, she'd forgotten all about her objective for coming here in the first place.

"No way... I need to stop her!" her mind started to wander, taking a very quick turn to a dark place.

Nico gently stepped forward. "Hey-!" she tried to call out, but couldn't find any words to follow up with. The other girl lazily turned her head back, seemingly undisturbed by Nico being there. The two of them stared at each-other. Nico's nerves were palpable when she spoke up again: "U-um... I don't, I don't really know what's going on. But! Uh, that's..." she awkwardly stumbled over her words. She didn't know what to say when confronted with this situation.

"If... if you need someone to talk to, or a friend, ah... I know we've only just met, but...! I- I'd like to help you in whatever way I can! So... please, step away from the edge?" Nico tried to nudge her, taking another careful step forward. She didn't want to move too suddenly and scare the other girl into doing something reckless.

Urban Starlight Wonderland: A Magical Girl RP

~~Nico~~

---

Shinjuku was bustling- no surprise considering the location- but that lack of surprise didn't help Nico's current situation of barely having any room to breathe in the crowd. It was partially her own fault for heading in the direction of the railway, granted, especially at the hour when people left work. As much as all of these things are the consequences of her own actions, it didn't mean she particularly had to like it. All she could really do was keep her gaze turned slightly downwards, phone in hand. At least it served as a way to make sure she didn't have to make any eye-contact with people in the crowd. She still had the magical girl group chat open, briefly mulling over how to respond to the newest message in it.

[Starry-Eyed]: Ooh, croquettes. Get me one.

Nico came to realize she didn't really... know this person, or any of the other ones beyond having seen a couple in passing. She certainly couldn't place a face to the nicknames- an issue she should've probably thought about before sharing her plans for the day. As much as she didn't really want to spend more money than she needed to, maybe this was actually a good opportunity to get to know someone- anyone, really. So, she replied with:

[Neko-2]: Sure thing! Where are you?

The message was delivered and mere moments after, by some cosmic turn of fate, Nico felt a strange presence. Like a shade, but... not a shade. It was concerning enough to make Nico shift gears, in any case. She kept the chat updated:

[Neko-2]: Maybe not, actually. I think a shade formed near me.
[Neko-2]: Do you want to get some together, later? I'll give you the address:

Having included said address in the next text she'd sent, Nico looked up from her phone to see that... she was in a huge crowd of people. Further away from side-streets than when she started. Near one of the busiest spots in town. It was not exactly the best situation to be in when your intent is to patrol mysterious, magical happenings. Like a nervous habit, Nico brought a thumb to her lips and chewed on it a little, thinking of how to get around this dilemma. She couldn't transform, but couldn't let the lead go either. For now she just had to follow the trail, untransformed, and hope she got a good opportunity to do so en-route. Nico zig-zagged her way through the masses and had then picked up her pace. She had to make it to where the odd sensation came from as fast as she could on foot.

Secundi Lux

---

---

Chie, always the silent yet (not quite so) strong type, kept quiet as Cayman explained the circumstances around his school. Despite his claims to the contrary, it didn't sound that much different to what she and the girls had to go through. If you replaced the drilling with magical practice it almost sounded like a perfect match- though it's to be expected, with the two institutions being sibling schools and all. Her face remained passive for the rest of their time together. Normally this would be a bad thing, and truthfully Cayman might've thought so. In Chie's case it was nevertheless a sign of her growing more comfortable having this dance partner around.

The dance came to an end, they parted on polite terms and Chie gave him a friendly smile to see him off with. Soon as she was out of line of sight, the girl breathed a sigh of relief. The Ars Magi to be couldn't get a read on Cayman at all, both her inexperience with boys and his passive demeanor playing a role in this. It was funny, really- he seemed a little similar to her in that way. One thing he'd mentioned- the part about them working together in future- stuck with her. She wondered if he meant the officer school in general, or him and that other boy.

Chie wasn't quite sure which of those options she preferred.

---

Once back in their shared room, Chie didn't have much more energy than Selma had. Unlike her roommate, though, Chie didn't intend to nor cause her bed to nearly split in two by dropping a metric ton's worth of weight on it at high speed. Instead, she just gently sat down on the edge of hers. The party did drain her; dancing with the officers hadn't stopped at just the one. No, the cosmos saw it fit to punish Chie by pushing her to dance with increasingly eccentric partners the whole night. None beside the girl's first partner stuck out in her mind as his embrace was the only gentle one of the whole night. If she knew it'd end up the way it did, Chie might've asked him to stay with her the whole night rather than ending their rendezvous prematurely.

"Say," the voice of her roommate echoed to snap Chie out of her daze. "Whaddya think the like... funniest thing you could do with your Elementum would be?"

"...Huh?" Chie replied, slightly confused. Selma went on to explain; apparently, she was thinking of how to combine the group's power. The topic of the day: hers and Chie's. All Selma could come up with was to increase the center of gravity on a void to make rocks fall and everybody die, but that didn't sound quite right to Chie. She gently let herself fall onto her back, almost mimicking Selma's gestures.

"I wonder...?" she mused for a bit. Without looking back at Selma, she followed it up with: "I think... it might be limiting to just think of it that way. You tried that already and it didn't go so well last time. I'm not really sure what I can do yet, but... instead of dropping the rock harder, couldn't I just make it like a magnet?"

She realized the suggestion sounded a little esoteric the way she worded it, so Chie clarified: "What I mean is, if you increase the gravity on the rock and not the void, wouldn't it act like a kind of black hole? Sticking everything to it, keeping it all in place. You could make maybe anchor that 'black hole' mid-air if you also reversed the gravity of the floor underneath..." she trailed off. It sounded a bit ludicrous when she put it that way; she wasn't even sure if she had enough control of her powers to that extent.

Chie rolled onto her side, looking at Selma opposite to her. "Maybe that's a bit far... you can open a hole in the ground, right?" she said to switch the topic. "If I increased the gravity before you did that, the void would fall really really fast into it. That might be interesting, no?"

The prospective Ars Magi yawned after that last possibility. She couldn't really hide her sleepiness. Chie said: "Rivka and crystal are creative... we should ask them. Aoife, too."

After that, she dragged herself off the bed. The sounds of the neighbors showering made her really hanker for one, too. She told Selma that "I'm going in first," and promptly scooped up her things for a quick rinse. She wasn't sure how much energy Selma had left in her, but hopefully it wasn't too much when Chie returned- tomorrow was going to be very painful if her roommate kept her up all night... again...

Urban Starlight Wonderland: A Magical Girl RP

The orange glow coating Japan would not elude Tokyo, much less the ward of Shinjuku. Unlike most of the rest of its city, though, Shinjuku had something to buffer against the onset of night; giant electric billboards. Commercials playing on loop emitted dull LED lighting that, combined with the now active street lights, made for an illuminated blanket that mad it hard for an ordinary person to loop up and make out any kind of detail in the sky. The rooftops were a prime hiding spot at this hour. It was not only hard to see someone up on them, but even better, whomever chose to reside in the veil of light had a very clear view of everything below. This fact wouldn't go unnoticed by a young girl, precariously balanced on all fours atop a piece of lighting sticking out the side of one building. Her curious eyes darted all over the city, scanning the citizens to make sure were all safe and sound. Seeing that they were, the girl had only one thing to say:

"As I thought, this city is...

...really boring!"

✫✫ Nico ✫✫

---

She'd been at it for way too long already. Jumping rooftop to rooftop, looking down below for any signs of a shade or two and yet, nothing! Sure, the fairies told her slow nights like this could happen, but that didn't stave off the boredom any. The one time Nico doesn't have something to do with a friend or the other, explicitly on that night, nothing showed itself. In an excessive show of athleticism, Nico backflipped off of the lighting pole and back onto the building where she promptly let herself fall onto her back in exasperation.

"The fairy told me to go outside today... but there's nothing here!" she complained some more. Sure, maybe Nico hadn't exactly taken this whole 'magical girl' thing too seriously as of yet, slacking on her duties a little more than she ought to... and sure, maybe she was behind on her quota for shade-slaying... but still! There was nothing! Absolutely nothing! She pushed herself onto her rear-end, gazing forward at the setting sun with a blank expression. "God or Buddha... is this really my fate?" she lamented to herself, all the color draining from her palette. She became a blank, white slate looking out in despair at the horizon.

Then Nico jumped in surprise (and excitement!) as something in her hammerspace pocket buzzed. She hurriedly got out her smartphone but, in her excitement, had it slip out her hands. What followed was a desperate juggling act as the cattish girl tried and failed to get a grip on it, the plastic seemingly made out of rubber for this act of divine comedy. She just barely managed to grab onto it before it could've fell off the edge unto the concrete, or possibly and even worse, some poor sod below. The bullets Nico was sweating made her fearful it wouldn't just slip right out again anyway. Calming down a bit, she breathed a sigh of relief and muttered "Lessee here..." to herself. Nico unlocked her screen, and...

[Magi☆Magic☆Fox]: Minor one on my end. Save me please!
[MagiGal]: If you have time to ask for help, do you really need saving?
[MagiGal]: Whatves, I'll be there in a moment. Need to blow off some steam.
[HoshiKuma]: OMW!

...the deepest despair always hits right after a surge of hope. The image attached to the last message showed how dire the situation truly was- the weakest type of shade, stared down by three girls and another on the way for good measure. If this was not an indication everyone else was as bored as Nico was, nothing ever would be. As tempting as it was to just let the smartphone meet its and the passing stranger below's untimely end, Nico resisted the temptation and instead stared right back at the horizon. "Forgive me, Tokyo... I can no longer be the hero you need."

And, after that little bit of goofing off, Nico rooftop-hopped her way back down to street level, making sure to transform back into her regular self when back on the ground below. The eye-catching pink cat-girl was replaced with a plain, ordinary middle schooler. She brought up her smartphone again and typed in a message of her own:

[Neko-2]: I'm going out for croquette buns.

Appropriate subject material? No, not really, but at least now nobody will ask where she was for the greatest show of excessive force this world had ever seen. Nico's now-passive face stared back out at the street crowd she was about to merge into and, with a sigh, she casually strolled over to become a part of the faceless masses. She knew of a pretty good shop not far from the station, so that was her first order of business.

Urban Starlight Wonderland: A Magical Girl RP

NICO IS DOWN TO 13 NOW

BLAME @FrogRFlowR

Urban Starlight Wonderland: A Magical Girl RP

After asking Vita for the go-ahead in a PM, I knocked down Nico's age from 17 to 14 as I felt it more appropriate. Backstory got a sentence or three edited to match, too, but nothing major.

Urban Starlight Wonderland: A Magical Girl RP

Nico Kaneko

Name
Nico Kaneko

Age
13

Appearance

Hider

(source)

Personality
Nico is, for lack of a better term, plain. She's friendly enough, if a bit standoffish to the people around her. She has a healthy amount of friends, diligently attends class, has average grades and feeds stray animals on the weekends. She sounds a little boring, and in truth she might just be a bit too plain for her own good, but most of it is putting on airs.

Truth is, she wants to be a bit more carefree. Break out of the shell she built around herself, feel the breeze through her hair as she darts around and maybe, hopefully, get a boyfriend some time. Luckily for her, she has another persona with which she can act on these repressed urges (not counting the boyfriend): that of her Magical Girl self.

She feels liberated in transformation, and makes this known through her boundless energy. Her act as a transformed girl makes her curious, bubbly, maybe a little bit of an airhead even... but most importantly, she's straightforward. If she wants something, she goes for it. If she has something to say, she says it. When transformed, all the mental roadblocks that prevent her from confessing her feelings just seems to vanish.

The true "Nico" is most likely between these two personas: one not as plain as her untransformed self, but also one not as freewheeling as the pink cat-girl menace. Coming to terms with that is still something she has to figure out for herself in her middle school years.

Skills
Nico knows how to take care of small animals and seems to be a natural empath for them, able to get along easily even with stray cats or dogs.

Brief Backstory
As said, Nico is an ordinary girl most of the time. She's an only child, fawned over by loving parents. They're strict with her when they need to be, and may be a small part of the reason she's not allowed to attend anything other than an all-girls school, but they still love her. As long as Nico's grades are okay, which they usually turn out to be, they wouldn't dare make her life (much) harder than it needs to be. Nico was never allowed a pet while she grew up, even though she loved animals from the bottom of her heart, because the owner of the house they rented had a "no-pets" policy. To make up for it, her parents would often take her to a zoo, or cat café, or any other place with a lot of animal friends. She not only got experience handling small animals, but she's grown to really care for them too.

But Nico knew there was more she could do, still, for her animal friends. She also knew that she didn't like putting on airs toward the people around her, despite having no real reason to do so. Nico never had much of a reason to be shy of others, but she just... was. She wished she could be less... that. Less shy, less reclusive, less indecisive. A wish that, in a clumsy manner, would find its way to be indirectly granted.

One night, only three weeks prior to the start of this story, a fairy visited her. It told Nico she had the potential to be so much more than she was now, that she had the power to become a magical girl. Of course it's not like she believed it right away, no normal person would. But when the fairy gave her time to think, and when it asked again later, Nico felt a swelling in her chest. She knew this was a one-time chance and, just maybe, she could do some good. Naïve, sure, but there was more to it: If she could have an alter-ego as this "magical girl", maybe she could learn to be more open with others. That's why she accepted: in this kind of miraculous double-life, she felt like she might grow as a person.

Though... maybe the cat-like powers she got could've been a little less on-the-nose.

Magical Girl Appearance

Hider

(source)
(Not pictured: Long, pink tail sticking out of her uniform. She can control it freely.)

Concept
Cats

Archetype
Cat Sith

Abilities
Nico is slippery, just like a cat. She's extremely light on her feet, able to run on all fours with ease and able to scale most walls with finesse and speed. She has no long-ranged capabilities; Nico relies entirely on pink claws that jut out from between her knuckles... or the edge of her fingertips, whichever strikes her fancy at the time. She naturally gravitates to a hit-and-run style of fighting. She can create a small barrier with her hands to ward off tiny projectiles, but it's not particularly resilient as Nico relies more on speed and dodging rather than blocking the enemy's attacks.

One interesting ability of hers, though, is the ability to create clones. They're not true clones; they're more like a mirage. An animated image, able to move and emote, but which shatters upon the slightest touch. They're also not intelligent; only able to follow simple directives that Nico thinks of at the time, such as running, acting confused or any other manner of things. It's said that a cat has nine lives, and each clone could be counted as one of those- it's probably a coincidence, though, that she can only create nine of them. Any more and it strains her focus far too much, needing too much magic power and concentration to maintain their form.

Urban Starlight Wonderland: A Magical Girl RP

I'm almost certainly going with my old idea, I'm just deciding if I want to go with a less experienced version of her.

@RolePlayerRoxas

Let's just run back the whole thing at this rate, shrine meetup let's go

Urban Starlight Wonderland: A Magical Girl RP

Well in that case... here she is!

Nico Kaneko

Name
Nico Kaneko

Age
17 (Nearly 18!)

Appearance

Hider

(source)

Personality
Nico is, for lack of a better term, plain. She's friendly enough, if a bit standoffish to the people around her. She has a healthy amount of friends, diligently attends class, has average grades and feeds stray animals on the weekends. She sounds a little boring, and in truth she might just be a bit too plain for her own good, but most of it is putting on airs.

Truth is, she wants to be a bit more carefree. Break out of the shell she built around herself, feel the breeze through her hair as she darts around and maybe, hopefully, get a boyfriend some time. Luckily for her, she has another persona with which she can act on these repressed urges (not counting the boyfriend): that of her Magical Girl self.

She feels liberated in transformation, and makes this known through her boundless energy. Her act as a transformed girl makes her curious, bubbly, maybe a little bit of an airhead even... but most importantly, she's straightforward. If she wants something, she goes for it. If she has something to say, she says it. When transformed, all the mental roadblocks that prevent her from confessing her feelings just seems to vanish.

The true "Nico" is most likely between these two personas: one not as plain as her untransformed self, but also one not as freewheeling as the pink cat-girl menace. Coming to terms with that is still something she has to figure out for herself.

Skills
Nico knows how to take care of small animals and seems to be a natural empath for them, able to get along easily even with stray cats or dogs.

Brief Backstory
As said, Nico is an ordinary girl most of the time. She's an only child, fawned over by loving parents. They're strict with her when they need to be, and may be a small part of the reason she's not allowed to attend anything other than an all-girls school, but they still love her. As long as Nico's grades are okay, which they usually turn out to be, they wouldn't dare make her life (much) harder than it needs to be. Nico was never allowed a pet while she grew up, even though she loved animals from the bottom of her heart, because the owner of the house they rented had a "no-pets" policy. To make up for it, her parents would often take her to a zoo, or cat café, or any other place with a lot of animal friends. She got experience handling animals and, because of it, even started a part-time job at a local pet store!

But she knew there was more she could do, still, for her animal friends. She also knew she didn't like putting on airs toward the people around her, despite having no real reason to do so. Nico never had much of a reason to be shy of others, but she just... was. She wished she could be less... that. Less shy, less reclusive, less indecisive. A wish that, in a clumsy manner, would find its way to be indirectly granted.

One night, only three weeks prior to the start of this story, a fairy visited her. It told Nico she had the potential to be so much more than she was now, that she had the power to become a magical girl. Of course it's not like she believed it right away, no normal person would. But when the fairy gave her time to think, and when it asked again later, Nico felt a swelling in her chest. She knew this was a one-time chance and, just maybe, she could do some good. Naïve, sure, but there was more to it: If she could have an alter-ego as this "magical girl", maybe she could learn to be more open with others. That's why she accepted: in this kind of miraculous double-life, she felt like she might grow as a person.

Though... maybe the cat-like powers she got could've been a little less on-the-nose.

Magical Girl Appearance

Hider

(source)
(Not pictured: Long, pink tail sticking out of her uniform. She can control it freely.)

Concept
Cats

Archetype
Cat Sith

Abilities
Nico is slippery, just like a cat. She's extremely light on her feet, able to run on all fours with ease and able to scale most walls with finesse and speed. She has no long-ranged capabilities; Nico relies entirely on pink claws that jut out from between her knuckles... or the edge of her fingertips, whichever strikes her fancy at the time. She naturally gravitates to a hit-and-run style of fighting. She can create a small barrier with her hands to ward off tiny projectiles, but it's not particularly resilient as Nico relies more on speed and dodging rather than blocking the enemy's attacks.

One interesting ability of hers, though, is the ability to create clones. They're not true clones; they're more like a mirage. An animated image, able to move and emote, but which shatters upon the slightest touch. They're also not intelligent; only able to follow simple directives that Nico thinks of at the time, such as running, acting confused or any other manner of things. It's said that a cat has nine lives, and each clone could be counted as one of those- it's probably a coincidence, though, that she can only create nine of them. Any more and it strains her focus far too much, needing too much magic power and concentration to maintain there form.

EDIT: Since a discord was mentioned, I'm fine either way. I think in recent years I've gravitated more to wanting a discord rather than not, but I'm perfectly okay just using the OOC too.