Member
Alix
POOPHEAD189
Festive
Majoraa
Vixere
ZombiesAnHyenas
Sir Lurksalot
Guardian Angel Haruki
Villamvihar
"REDACTED”
— Tonya “Mac” Murphy
Watching people make snowmen was fine. Seeing ice sculptures emerge from ice was amazing. Those were both activities that were more fun to watch than to actively participate in. Probably because it wasn’t a true competition. You were just passively sculpting things out of water, and some dolphin got to decide the winner. On the other hand, a silly downhill race had a quantifiable victor. But that wasn’t going to start for a bit, and her participation would affect who won. That meant that the next best thing would be to join a snowball fight.
What was cool was that Mac pretty much rocked at snow ball fights. There wasn’t even any danger for retaliation because she effectively didn’t exist. If someone got hit in the back of the head by a snowball, who was to say it didn’t come from an unseen enemy? There were no friends in snow fights anyway. The goal was to hit as many people as possible, if you ruined a friendship or two, eh, were they even worth having around? Mac didn’t have any friends to speak of, so that wasn’t an issue.
She had thrown thirty snowballs at thirty different people, and none of them were the wiser. She needed to find more targets though, and had no desire being around MDP or Oros for that little siege.
She wouldn't have to look further. Then again, it was only one ghost watching from the sidelines.
The black-haired spirit had concidered joining the snowball fight, but he saw how chaotic it was escalating and decided to stay out of it. Sure this Oliver was just a clone amongst many who were spread out to tackle multiple activities at once, but even he knew to set limits. So he rested against a nearby tree. Well, one far enough to not get hit by stray snowballs.
AT LEAST THAT WAS WHAT HE THOUGHT!
Mac already had a snowball ready for this guy’s head. She took a moment to examine him It wasn’t someone she was too familiar with. Seemed like there were a lot of new faces at this party. Regardless, she didn’t think there was any reason to be wary of him. She chucked a snowball at his head and watched it tumble through the air. He’d be wearing it any second.
The deadly frosty projectile would hit it's mark, catching Oliver by surprise. He didn't yelp or anything, but he did jolt at the surprise attack. Weird. He was sure he wouldn't get hit from here. With widened eyes, he looked around to see where the snowball would've came from, then dusted the snow on his head off.
Now would probably be a good time to find a new target, but after moving on between thirty of them, Mac was ready for a duel in the snow. If this person was new, they probably didn’t know everyone all that well. Perhaps it was time to create another alternate identity.
The clone would see a teenage girl peak over the top of a snow bank. She was under dressed, but not indecently dressed. Her silver hair wasn’t too long, and curled into itself just above her ears. This gave her an appearance that was reminiscent of a mouse. Her lathe body and short stature further leaned into this idea. The only way she could look more like a mouse was if she had actual mouse features, like whiskers or a tail.
With a deep inhale, she chucked a larger snowball at the clone before ducking for cover.
"Ah crap." The clone turned himself intangible before the next snowball hit. Instead letting it smack against the bark of the tree he sat at. He turned back into a more physical shape and scooped up some snow to retaliate, chucking a couple over the stranger's snowbank before rushing to make more snowballs.
"You thought you could hide out here, huh?” Mac was pretty good at throwing snowballs, but there was no reason to scare him off too soon with her mighty snow ball prowess. For now, she'd just play hard enough to keep their game going. "Well no one escapes the sights of I R O N M O U S E !” His aim wasn't bad. It looked like he had some clones running around though. She probably shoudn't use too much magic either. That was fine, since she was using her mana primarily to keep this illusion going.
Luckily it doesn't seem like the other duplicates are joining them yet. ...Except one or two snuck over to help make snowballs faster. "Hide?? In plain sight?! Now who'd think of a dumb idea like that?!" The main Oliver clone playfully retorted, taking cover behind the tree.
So he was calling for backup? Well, maybe she would have to play a little harder.
Mac hadn’t expected reinforcements to arrive so soon, so Iron mouse had no recourse but to get hit by a few of the snow balls. But if there was something mice could do, it was, uh, burrow! Iron mouse dove into the hill side, deforming the smooth snowbank as she tunneled to the original duplicate’s position and popped out of the ground, scattering snow in all directions.
"Mmmph!!” Some of the snow had stuck together, forming a sort of plate, or “snow pie.” Iron Mouse held this pie in one hand and prepared to slap it right in the clone’s face like it was a coconut custard.
And it was a direct hit!
The ringleader of the trio was unable to react in time, and inevitably got a face full of freezing cold. A yelp was muffled, and he collapsed onto the ground.
"Crap, she got Eight!!"
"Forget 'em, he's fodder!"
The remaining two duplicates took that as their cue to scatter, splitting the remaining ammo between them before booking it to better cover.
Man, these guys were intense. It was just a snow ball fight. But this was fine. Magical girls (and boys) were eccentric types, so it was only natural they would take the event too seriously, especially with”Iron Mouse” Giving into chuuni tendencies of her own.
"You’re just going to keep running? Really?”
It wasn’t like Iron Mouse hadn’t proven she could burrow under any defense, largely thanks to the fact that she was an illusion and her “burrow” was created by moving a gravity well along her intended flight path. And since it worked so well last time, why not try it again? Iron Mouse dove back into the earth and burrowed towards another clone. Would they think of something before she arrived?
They'd have to lure her out of the burrow first.
The clone Iron Mouse chased after turned himself intangible and flew up high into a tree he randomly picked. If she lost sight of him by then, he'd wait till she popped her head out to attack.
Of course, Mac saw this happen, but had Iron Mouse? It wasn’t like she had sat down and dreamed up an entire list of abilities for this character she had just made up on the spot. She could just equip her with any abilities that seemed to fit the situation until she was capped off, but that felt unfair. Mac decided that Iron Mouse probably sensed vibrations in the earth to track her opponents, so she would lose track of someone jumping into a tree.
Iron Mouse launched herself out of the snow, carrying a large snow ball in one hand. She couldn’t faze through tree limbs (aparently) so she had to try and weave through them to catch the fleeing clone.
Once he assumed he manage to lose her, the clone circled around and turned tangible again, throwing a couple of snowballs from behind.
Puff
The snow balls were instantly pulled apart by a gravity well struck true, Causing Iron mouse's eyes to bulge a bit as the clones got the better of her. Not long afterwards, she fell to the earth and face planted the snow. It might have looked like she was making a snow angel, but she wasn't moving. Good thing their christmas outfits kept them perfectly insulated from the cold, regardless of how ill suited their clothes were for the job.
She rolled over onto her back and looked up into the heavens. "Ya got me.” Was all she said, not looking too pleased about the outcome.
"...Wait, really?" The clone Oliver hopped down from his vantage point and walked over to the girl. His brows rose as he looked over at her. "Huh. Guess I got too into it."
"I as in we, Six??" The one that fled before asked as he walked by, dragging "Eight" behind him. The clone near Iron Mouse simply gave him an playfully unamused look, before turning his attention back to her.
"Ignore 'em, they're idiots." He said, extending a hand out if she needed help getting up.
She accepted his hand and let the boy pull her upright. She dusted the snow off of her back and shook off her pants. Iron Mouse was still pouting a bit, but otherwise seemed alright. "I didn't catch your name.” She extended her hand, still looking a bit glum. "So yea, I'm Iron Mouse, you are?”
"Oliver Kyle. Juuust not the genuine article, hahah." The clone shook the girl's hand. "He's back relaxing in the cabin while the rest of us do all the heavy lifting, like a total slacker." He joked with a grin, jabbing a thumb over at the building.
"So you think your original is a slacker too?” Mac knew they were joking, but she decided to play Iron Mouse as a relatively straight forward sort. It was interesting though, as most clones seemed to enjoy disrespecting their original. Alexander, Binky, and now Oliver. Though she supposed that if you had enough magical girls and boys in the same spot, there was bound to be some overlap. It wasn’t like magical girls had wildly different powers. There were a handful of traits that you ended up seeing repeated in various forms. Kind of like people’s personalities. There were only so many different emotions and ways to say things that it was inevitable that there was another “you” somewhere. "I gues that’s alright. If he’s just lazier than you guys I don’t need to meet him. I mean you all had no problem ganging up on a poor little mouse girl! It would be one thing if I had brought my sisters along to tan your butts, but six against one is not fair!” She stomped her foot. "How does all this work? You’re like, a leader clone? So the others take orders from you? Did he like, use more mana to make you or something?”
"H-Hey, I was just kidding there! They're all alright, even him." "Six" quickly explained once he saw her reaction. "And uh...Six is just my nickname to differentiate from the other clones. The other two you saw were Four and Eight. Everyone else is probably busy with the other stuff to even join that fight." He shrugged. Once Iron Mouse suggested he was the defacto leader out of all of them, his brows rose.
"I mean, I guess? We never really need a leader type, besides Classic obviously. We work well together regardless of that." Oliver explained further.
"That's fine, I guess.” Her eyes shifted around. "So do you guys have like, lives and stuff? Interests? Am I wasting my time trying to talk to you?”
Well, he was going to answer that, but her last question made him frown a bit. "Well geez, if you wanna go ahead and go, I'm not gonna stop ya." Six softly told Iron Mouse, a hand on his hip.
"You guys are magical constructs, I have no idea if you have feelings or not!” some smoke shot out of her nose, but it might have just been the cold air. "I mean you seem real, but if you've got a job to do or something, I'm not going to waste your host's time and resources! Don't take it personally!”
And with that, the spirit was officially dumbfounded. "...H-How in Beelzebub's lawncare products am I supposed to answer here? Every one of us, even Classic Oliver are MAGICAL UNDEAD. Does everything about us really need an explanation? We're enough of an oddball as is." Six sighed, crossing his arms. "Nah, for how long we've been here, he and his friend have learn a few tricks. Clones like us need little to do so much."
Steam continued to pour out of every orifice on Iron Mouse's face. Her ears, nostrils, and mouth were all billowing with smoke. All while her eyes grew bigger and bigger. "Fine!” She finally shouted. "Whatever! I don’t even really care!” She said, sounding like she cared. "If there’s nothing to explain, I’ll go have fun somewhere else!” She pulled back her arm. "Thanks for resetting my streak, jackass!” And then Iron Mouse, or at least Mac’s magic, dug a hole in the ground and burrowed under the frozen sand. They would not see her resurface anywhere.
"....What even." In resignation, Six flopped back down onto the snow, watching Iron Mouse leave.
"Real smooth, Sixer." Four popped up again, walking up next to him.
"Shaddup Four."
While Oliver’s clones were feeling rather dower, Mac had to stifle a chuckle at the absurd exchange. She could understand why they felt that way, of course. But she felt like she had made Iron Mouse unpleasant enough that they wouldn’t really mind if she got all perturbed and left. More than anything though, while Mac had impressive illusions, she did have to budget her mana if she wanted them to last the party. Maybe they could reunite again later when the genuine article was here to meet them.
Though, now that she thought about it, technically the real Oliver and her were in the same predicament. It wasn’t like those clones got to talk to Mac, they were just talking to some persona. Mac was reminded of a story about two people born with blue skin, but they always kept themselves hidden so they never met. They lived their entire lives believing that they were the only person in the world with blue skin.
What a lonely existence.
Mac left in earnest, satisfied with their interaction.
"Bah, whatever. We should head back before the others start to wonder." With a shake of his head, Six hopped back up, prepared to walk back to the cabin. Four shrugged in response.
"Eight should be fine by now, helped dragged his butt back inside so he'd warm- Hang on, see that?"
The clones stopped in their tracks to see a trail of one's they didn't notice before. If one's from Six, one's from Iron Mouse, Four's was most recent...
Then who else was nearby?
"You...think we should investigate??"
"Hell if I know."
*Keyboard guy intensifies*
— Oros
@FamishedPants
Sure, it would be possible for Oros to finish the harebringer hunt before resuming posting. But the grand magistrate was taking their sweet time responding to that, so it seemed reasonable to assume they could start doing stuff again. The timing for everything was pretty whack anyway.
Nobody saw Oros return to the lodge. That was because she had pulled a sled out of her hammerspace before turning into an Alaskan Malamute. The sled was for taking Emily back with her, as Oros had places to be and didn’t feel like princess carrying her back. That was a lie, of course. We all know she’d have loved to do that. Perhaps it was because she was presently on a date with Elizabeth. Only Oros knew.
Once they had gotten back to the lodge, Oros turned back into a girl and offered Emily her hand. “Ally-oop!” She said before pulling Emily to her feet. “That was, uh, not at all what I was expecting from a bunny hunt.” She chuckled. “Well uh, thanks for listening to me.” An awkward silence fell over the duo as Oros struggled to figure out what to say next. “Guess I’m gunna see if I can find El. If you can get Silly and Betty maybe we can do something together later. Take care.” Oros was already walking into the lodge before Emily responded. Strange, the door was already open, and it felt like she might have run over someone on her way in. Well it probably didn’t matter.
The lower floor of the lodge had cleared out a bit with everyone racing to do activities that Oros had already finished. That meant it would be a bit easier to pick up on Eliza’s scent. Oros’s nose was moving a mile a minute, filtering the air for her date’s smell. She was guided up the staircase to the balcony, where the scent only got stronger as it went down a hall.
But Oros did not go down the hall.
Someone right up here on the balcony had caught her attention. Why was anyone’s guess. Maybe it was the fact that she did not look like a Penrose local. It could also be that she had one of Oros’s favorite body shapes. Perhaps she looked like she could help Oros. Maybe it was all three, if not something else entirely. Regardless, no force in Dan’s dimension was going to stop Oros from approaching the mad scientist.
“Hey I know you! Brain Science Institute at Viktor Chondria University, one of the lead minds behind project Amadeus, right?” Oros stopped just a few steps outside what most would call their personal space. “A Maho Hiyajo cosplayer! God I loved that game!”
@Ponn
Tetrad appeared to be oblivious to the staring. It wasn’t clear if she was simply use to this kind of attention, or the drinks were making her a bit less observant. ”Ah, a gentleman!” She stepped out of the door. ”There aren’t many of those anymore.”
When Tetrad turned around, she noticed Emily. What she didn’t notice was that Oros, in her haste, had run into the guy that was too busy checking out Tetrad's ass as she walked outside.
”Oh, hey Emily.” Tetrad’s cheeks were just a tiny bit red. ”This kind man behind me offered you a drink before that wild-ling ran off with you. Glad nothing happened to you.” She took another sip from her glass. ”But hey, if you don’t wanna drink it, I’m feeling a little thirsty.” She looked past Emily at the snowball fight. ”Wanna play in the snow? The queen of Keijo isn’t quite ready for the pool. ”
[@Aribaby]@FamishedPants
”Now I know why Oros posts so fast...”
— Betty “Biohazard” Barton
[@FamishedPantsagainlolz]
Unlike the jubilant woman before Betty, she felt anger building up inside her chest. Her entire reason for coming this way was so that she could make a giant snowball, but it seemed that someone had beaten her to it. She wasn’t even sure how this woman even got here! The hill was in her sights the entire time. Had she borrowed underground to avoid detection, or was she here even before Betty had finished hunting? Regardless, if she had made a huge snow ball, there was that much less snow for herself.
”Xanadu!”
Now how was Betty going to make that huge snowbun? That was when she cast her eyes on Mariette’s creation, and realized that her idea was not only her own, but had already been done by someone else.
”Xanadu times two!!”
Then, Betty saw it. The snowman to end all snowmen. A giant monolith to Justine’s selfish pride: a recreation of her castle. Betty had never seen the real thing, but she could feel the despair seeping directly into her soul just by looking at this one. She fell onto her knees, her expression as blank as the snow that surrounded her.
That was when Dan arrived to comment on her “snow man.”
”Dan.” She looked at the tiny snowball in her hand. The only thing she had managed to make so far. A tiny snowball, against a massive castle. ”That’s not my snowman.” She closed her eyes. ”However, you are correct when you say that a mighty fine snowman will be made.” She stood up and turned to Justine, casting her finger in the woman’s direction. ”Of course!” She finally answered her. ”Emotion, power, courage, and skill, I will put all of it to work. But to win, I will need more than that.” Betty kneeled before the woman. ”I need a partner, and a lot of snow.” Betty didn’t feel bad asking someone to help her take down Justine’s evil monolith, especially knowing that it was built with more hands than she presently possessed. She did feel a little bad that she was bringing someone else into a war they probably didn’t want to participate in. ”If you’re willing to work together, I have no doubt we can rise above our adversaries and achieve victory!”
