BrokenPromise

High Stakes: Character Death and Injury in Roleplay

So, my question is: how exactly should character injury and death be handled in a roleplay where it is a possibility? Is your only option, without resulting to dice that is, is to hope your players aren't shy of their characters potentially getting hurt?

@Luft

Really depends on how the GM wants to roll with it. I'll explain how I typically do it.

First we need to decide if the RP could use such things. A feel good fantasy setting probably doesn't want to concern itself with things like permanent disfigurement or death. The stakes in those sorts of stories are usually pretty low or superficial, where the plot is more a vehicle to make the players feel powerful. In my own opinion, this is kind of boring and also why I don't participate in those types of RPs. But they do exist, and those that enjoy them would not want their world tarnished with heavy stuff like that.

For the bulk of RPs that are prime for things like bodily harm and death, it's a case by case basis. It should be known that not everything carries the same kind of weight across stories. In realistic settings, death is permanent and non-reversible. Though you have other settings where death is little more than a power nap that a spell can wake them up from. In these more fantastical settings, proper rules for magic need to be put in place to ensure that these powers feel wonderous, but aren't a get out of jail card for everything. This can be done by making more severe wounds heal slower, or resurrection is only possible if you have all parts of someone's corpse.

If I choose to play with character death/harm, I'm up front with the players about it. I also let them know the likelyhood of their characters getting mirked if it's relevant. Most people who join the RP do so because they want to see their characters challenged and even die to something they can't overcome. I typically don't have to watch them too closely, but power gamers arise from time to time.

I should also note that play-by-post and tabletop may both be roleplaying games, but they are entirely different animals. Tabletop is a bit more game, and as such is enforced with many rules and even uses dice for number generation. Play by post is better suited for story telling and gives the players and GM greater freedom over what's happening. When my character has to go fight a dragon, the challenge isn't thinking up a strategy that will increase the outcomes of winning, it's creating a story worth reading. That never happens in stories when the characters are never adequately challenged.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

Pac-a-fist had been enjoying her walk with totally not Elroy before she came to the lodge for a bite.

”Mmmmph!” Pac-a-fist’s face was glowing a bright red as she stuffed her face with more food. ”It reminds me of my mom’s! How about you Elroy?”

Words were not required for Elroy to convey how pleased he was with the feast. The rate in which he packed away food was comparable to Hilaria. No one could surpass the hungry woman, but Elroy at least looked like he could contend.

And that sad looking girl that never talks was also present, but she was eating by herself in the corner.

Of course, that was everyone’s position before all the Keijo stuff. Pac-a-fist was now standing in between Dan and Rachel.

”Well if we’re going to have a tournament, you’re going to need a commentator who can give unbiased feedback and educate the spectators about the sport. Not to toot my own horn, but I think I’d be pretty good at that.”

…

…

…

@Flamelord

Unfortunately, Alicia was unable to slip away unnoticed.
When you’re part of the most hated factions in Penrose, you’re only bound to attract attention that you don’t want. Especially attention that you don’t even know that you have.

”Socks!”

A fairly bodacious dude in swimming pants seemed to fall from the sky and land just a few feet away from Alicia. There was a flame hovering just above his right eye, but it didn’t seem to throw any heat.

”It’s been a while. We should catch up before I return to Pax Septimus.” His eyes darted between her and the rest of the people practicing Keijo. ”Oh? Are you going to join too?”

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

”Let’s catch a harebringer, Emily. In and out, just a five minute trip!”

— Oros

Arkham City is a weird boss model for RP Bosses

If there was a harebringer on this island, Oros was going to find it. 

She had taken a sled out of her hammerspace and was pulling Emily along, as her physical abilities dwarfed hers by a few fold and this allowed the two to move at about the same pace. The fact that Oros could turn into a cute sled dog was also a huge bonus for people who were into cute animals. But that didn’t change the fact that this was probably the strongest sled dog who ever existed, and also the most unruly. Emily was very much along for the ride as Oros ran where she pleased. Snow drifts, ice chasms, there were no obstacles too deadly to traverse If only Oros knew what a harebringer smelled like, finding them would be much easier. As-is, Oros was forced to follow any smell she didn’t recognize. 

After all that, eventually the two of them would come across a clearing ringed with small spot lights. Most of them were off, but there was one lit. It was shining on to a bank of snow, notable for its size, and in between the bank and the spotlight sat seven snowbuns.

Six of them were normal average snowbuns all who were sitting in a loose ring around the seventh. Which was a dark blue, if not outright black. 

It was using its ears, in a surprising show of manual dexterity, to give its fellow buns a shadow puppet show.

Sneaking up on the harebringer was more or less impossible because of the spotlight. As moving closer would cast a shadow, and turning it off would be instantly notable.

But you can bet that if you say something is impossible, especially in narration, you can bet Oros will use what few brain cells she has left to do just that.

“Alright El.” Oros was speaking pretty quietly. Possibly the most quiet that Emily had ever heard her. “So I’m thinkin’, gunna be hard to sneak up on the shadow bunny. However!” Her hands turned into a badger’s digging claws. “I’ll dig my way to him underground. If he tries running, you can nab him. Sound good?”

Emily nodded as she stared with determination at the harebringer. “I’ll do my best,” she told Oros. Using her fire to rocket-boost her way to the rabbit might just succeed in surprising it when combined with Oros’ underground assault. She could feel the warm, fluffy sensation in her hands already!

Or, well, she desperately wanted to. Even with a name that made them out to be some sort of force to be reckoned with, Emily was a girl who enjoyed cute animals just like most others. Emily briefly squeezed the plushy that Mariette had gifted her. It was an adorable opossum! How lucky was she to receive her favorite animal in plushy form! She made a mental note to give Mariette something in return later down the line, and put it away, readying herself to take advantage of the opening Oros would hopefully make after she dug under the bunny.

As Oros prepared to come up under the harebringer, she hit a solid surface. It was snow, but it seemed to be quite dense in that one spot. The immediate area shook, and the harebringer looked around cautiously.

The Harebringer would spin around a bit after Emily started rocketing towards it, but rather than starting to run away. It started hopping towards the fire trailing girl, the six other Snowbuns trailing along after it. The reason for why it chose to approach rather than flee was quickly discovered as well. 

For the dark bun would land on Emily’s shadow and the girl would instantly freeze in place. It didn’t matter how much power she put into her rocket boost she was stuck fast. It would bounce up to level with her face and stick out its tongue at her, before jumping forward to bounce off her head landing back on the mound of snow it had used for its shadow puppet show. It stayed there taunting Emily. And a few seconds later she would suddenly have the ability to move again. Oros, too, found she was able to emerge from the ground seconds after the harebringer left its spot. She had come out of the ground just in time to watch Emily’s shadow get attacked.

“Are we really doing conceptual shadow magic again?” Oros placed a hand on her forehead. “Whatever, You wanna copy an ascendancy member or vamp from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, that’s your thing. Embarrassing me? That’s cool too.” Oros pulled herself out of the ground. “But if you’re gunna pull shit on my friends, the stops come out!” Oros spiced her DNA sequence with that of a jellyfish to give herself bio-luminescent properties. Not only did she not have a shadow now, but she threw off a mild blue light. “Run while you can! The light bringer is here!” Oros bound across the snow with the speed and agility of a jaguar.

“Oh, that’s a nasty trick!” Emily seemed much more cautious of the hare now, but she realized she should’ve suspected a creature called a ‘harebringer’ would be capable of surprising feats. Although Oros would often mention things that were beyond Emily, Metal Gear Solid and its sequels were one of the series of games she had managed to play, even if they weren’t her preferred genre. “I understood that reference!” she proclaimed with a puffed-out chest. It made her feel closer to Oros, if only a little. But, while nice, she needed to focus. 

Emily wasn’t able to borrow features from a jellyfish, but with her fire spec she could certainly create a bright flame to serve the purpose she needed. This time, Emily wouldn’t boost directly at the bunny, but instead, at blinding speed, she would jet past it in order to get on the side opposite of Oros, keeping her flame between the bunny and herself in order to prevent it from stepping on her shadow. Should nothing prevent her from doing that, she would again wait for the rabbit’s reaction to Oros before attempting again to rocket boost at and to pet it. 

When it was only the bio-luminescent girl things weren’t looking good for the Hare, it was dodging out of the way, but not by much, and from the squeeks it was giving it wasn’t doing so easily. Then Emily blazed past and trapped the bun between campfire and a predator.

With one more squeak it would drop away into its own shadow, just as Oros launched at it one more time. Missing the harebringer, but snagging one of the other Snowbuns that had kept trailing it. 

The newly acquired bun would nuzzle into Oros hand, not annoyed at its sudden capture.

The same could not be said about the Harebringer who had narrowly escaped. It glared[read: pouted] at the two girls from a moderate distance away before it jumped into its shadow once more.

It wasn’t hard to keep track of the bun as almost instantly after it jumped one of the spotlights that ringed the place would turn on, it would happen two more times before the harebringer would appear on top of the snowmound in the center. With four of the eight spotlights now on it would be harder to keep from casting a shadow, as even with bioluminescence and open flames the light from the spotlights was too focused from too many directions to erase a shadow.

The Harebringer would stick it’s tongue out at the two of them, daring them to try again.

Oros had come to a stop some distance away. She foiled her arms and looked at her companion. “Are you thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?” She smiled in the harebringer’s direction. “Technical difficulties!”

Guided by deft hands, Oros’s sword (now a candy cane) was swung towards the nearest spotlight. With a quick pounce, the beast woman was over the light. It wouldn’t be long before she cleaved it in two (with any luck) and moved onto the remaining ones.

Emily slightly cringed upon hearing Oros’ plan, if only because vandalism was rude to the host! But she did have to admit that seemed like the best place to start. “Um,” she boosted towards a different spotlight, intending on taking a swing with her gauntlet. “Sorry!”

The Shadow hare would squawk in outrage as the two girls went about destroying its spotlights, but from their perspective didn’t do anything to stop them. When they were done with their demolition detour they would turn back to see that their target bun hadn’t been entirely idle. It had made use of the time and had burrowed out a surprising amount of small pathways in the snow, spanning just about half of the total area, all of which were about half as deep as the bun was tall and equally as wide.

Due to their speed however it was clear to tell that the hare wasn’t fully done, as it’s surprised scramble to get back to the center mound was clear to indicate.

“Whoa there, buddy!” Oros hopped between the hare and the hill it was initially standing on. “I can’t say I’ve figured out what your gig is yet, but you’re running out of options!” If oros was standing off to the side of the trenches, her glow might have filled the shallow pathways with shadow. With her body directly in the center of a pathway however, there were few places for shadows to hide. Save for maybe the harebringer themselves. “Well? Get your sorry ass in gear!” Oros stomped her way towards her target. She was swinging her cane, perhaps in some attempt to hook the fluffy bastard if she got close enough. 

Emily took this time to attempt yet again to pincer the harbinger, only this time she was also trying to reduce its means to escape. She would raise the heat in her hands to a high temperature without creating flames and then use them to melt the passages she was nearing in order to cut off the rabbit’s means of escape should it have attempted to turn tail from Oros. 

Surrounded once again, with its trenches being melted and its shadowy escape routes being denied, the Harebringer chose not to try and flee as it had once before. Instead it bound forward towards Oros. With each advancing hop its shadow would grow, but not behind, its shadow would stretch forward into the bioluminescent light being given off.

Oros fret her brow as the shadow encroached on her light. This annoyed Oros for many reasons. For one, it meant that her power was less effective than she initially thought. But second, it was something she hadn’t seen coming. And why would anyone expect something like that? The bunny had been making use of existing shadows this entire time, but now it could suddenly manipulate them? Like, why even set up a light for a shadow puppet show if you don’t need a light source? Were they on the second or third stage of the boss which caused it to magically gain new abilities? If that was the case, Oros felt slightly better about this new power.

The last time Oros tried to surface under the harebringer it had ended poorly for her, likely because the underground was filled with shadow. Remaining in front of the harebringer meant subjecting herself to whatever trickery its shadow could bring. Getting out of the way gave it a chance to escape. Clearly, a third option was in order. Oros had third options in spades.

She reached into her shirt and pulled out an acrylic fish tank. Something so large could only be contained in her hammerspace. The whole thing was made out of transparent plastic, and was pretty durable thanks to the plastic itself being about an inch thick. Oros placed the tank on the snow, open end towards the harebringer, and shoved it towards it. She dove over the shadow in an attempt to not get caught by it.

 “Let me pet you damn it!”

The fishtank proved to be a useful third option to have on hand. As it would run afoul of the Harebringers plot, for despite being made of acrylic the edges would still cast a faint shadow due to the bonding agents keeping the thing together. Thus when the fishtank touched the Harebringers shadow it would come to a dead stop much like Emily did earlier. Leaving Oros safe when she herself crossed over the shadow. 

The Harebringer was caught off guard a bit by the sudden appearance of the fishtank, and even if it wanted to wasn’t fast enough to stop itself from bouncing into the now frozen enclosure. Which wasn’t good for it’s long term goal of remaining unpet. Quickly turning around it knew it wasn’t going to be getting out of here easily, if at all, but as its hunters lunged for it the Harebringer would give them an angry pout before dropping into its own shadow again. Leaving both Oros and Emily holding on to a regular snowbun.

The Harebringer was once again standing on the mound in the center of the clearing, a look of determination upon its features. A moment later the Hare’s shadow would bubble up off the ground in a decent approximation of the Harebringer itself. Though it just had white dots as eyes, instead of the green of the Harebringer’s eyes, and was completely black compared to the dark blue.

No taunting this time, but the hare and it’s shadow were both poised to start moving, with the last three normal snowbuns still trailing behind the Harebringer.

“Screw it, gunna pet all your asses!”

Petting the harebringer itself was absurd. If it was going to keep throwing its minions at them, then Oros was just going to expedite the process and pet the remaining snowbuns herself. Since they were trailing after the harebringer, it shouldn’t have been too difficult. She had another aquarium hoisted over her head as she ran, screaming as she charged after her prey. 

The harebringer and its shadow moved just as soon as Oros let out her warcry, but instead of meeting her head on as they had done before they split up instead. The shadow going to the right with the Hare going to the left, at a glance it was easy to lose track of which was which as in motion they looked identical. But Oros wasn’t exactly aiming for the harebringer themselves right now, so it wasn’t hard to keep them straight due to her actual target of the snowbuns following after it.

Regardless of which one was followed it wasn't hard to see that they were moving to encircle Oros, trying to force her to divide her attention much as they had done to it so many times thus far. The real bun was doing it’s best to stay outside of Oros’ reach, using the small trenches it had dug that hadn’t been melted away to limit the angles of approach. Meanwhile the shadow bun was sneaking around behind Oros waiting for the right time to pounce.

But as the snowbuns would soon discover, trying to overwhelm Oros’s senses was a mistake. They didn’t call her the ultimate predator for nothing. 

Oros’s eyes seemed to slide across her face until they were on the side of her head. Shortly after, his head distorted until it looked like that of a goat. This change was deliberate, as goats have some of the best vision of prey animals. They have elongated irises that give them “panoramic” Vision of their surroundings. Their eyes could also tilt in their eye balls to keep their vision level with their surroundings. The only real flaw here was that her spaced out eyes decreased her depth perception, which was sure to negatively affect her hand eye coordination. 

Tentacles sprung up around the remaining snowbuns, attempting to pin them in place. Oros lunged for the bun furthest from the harebringer to pet it out of the chase.

This prompted Emily to look for an angle of attack. There wasn’t much point in pursuing the same exact target so she singled out another snow bun and used a strong burst of flame to propel herself for an attempt at a quick pet as she passed by the heads of one. 

The change in tactics proved to be effective. Especially since the basic snowbuns didn’t have any special properties to help protect themselves from the rather aggressive petting attempts. Emily would fly past with her target easily being pet as it happily bounced along behind the Harebringer who dove out of the way thinking it was still the primary target.

It would recognize it’s folly quickly enough however, for even as Emily landed on the far side of it with the small snowbun she pet in her hands Oros’ strike would come into play. The lashing tentacles would be successful in trapping one of the snowbuns even as the meta aware girl herself laid hands on the third snowbun.

The Hare bringer would be stunned for a moment as it witnessed its following snowbuns were quickly removed from the hunt. And for a moment it would look genuinely upset before it would nod in understanding. It would bounce over to the trapped bun and pat the small bun on the head once before it fell once more into shadow.

The trapped Bun would relax, for it was apparently quite scared to be trapped by the tentacles at first, and calmly wait for either Emily or Oros to pet it. Once they had the Harebringer and its shadow would appear once more on the mound in the center of the field. Once again they both looked ready to bolt at a moment's notice. But this time The Harebringer was smiling, a happy genuine smile. 

Seems the final round was about to start.

“Again with the damn mound?” There was clear frustration in Oros’s voice. She had lost count of how many times they had chased this rabbit off the same hill it was content to return to. The entire time it had been assessing their abilities and still choosing to reset every time they almost caught up to it. “The hell makes it so special?”

Like Oros had done many times before, she ran for the mound as fast as her legs would allow her. Only this time she planned on opening up the mound itself. Her hands turned into the webbed claws of a badger before she caught up with the harebringer’s favorite place to perch.

In response to her charge the shadow bun would leap out towards her and instead of bounding onward it would splash out on the snow leaving a large swath of shadow between Oros and the snowmound, much more shadow then should be expected for the Harebringer’s own shadow.

The Harebringer would waste no time in conducting the large patch of shadows, guiding it with its ears. The patch of shadow would come to life but it wouldn’t lift off the ground, that didn’t stop it from surging outwards, aiming for Oro’s shadow. Her biolumencine would cause the shadows to fade, but not disperse entirely. Lowering but not limiting their capability.

And if they grabbed hold of her shadow, well they knew the harebringer could freeze people, but not much else at this point.

Fortunately for Oros, she didn’t have a shadow to grab. That was probably the biggest perk of her transformation into a light bulb. When she dove for the mound, she was suspended in the air, so there was no risk of her coming in contact with the shadows yet. But she had committed herself, and made no adjustments to her flight path as she passed underneath the harebringer and plowed into the snow mound. 

And upon doing so Oros would learn that there was actually something under the snow, but before she could examine it closer the mass of shadows she had flown over would converge on her and she would find herself falling out of Emily's shadow. Though her fall wasn’t very fast due to the fact she was a living lightbulb at the moment.

Still her impact to the mound would reveal a large patch of bright yellow fur. And a moment after she was jumped away the rest of the mound would begin shaking apart to reveal a surprisingly large yellow Snowbun who had apparently been sleeping under the snow. It would blearily blink as it yawned and almost went back to sleep before the Harebringer bounced on the newly awakened buns head.

The Harebringer would chitter excitedly at the still sleepy bun, who would let out another yawn seemingly unable to fully wake up despite the circumstances. A moment later the yellow bun would make a sleepy gesture in the direction of both Emily and Oros and a moment later a spotlight would suddenly be thrown onto the two buns. Only the light was coming from a few feet to the side of the hunters,from an orb of light that had appeared suddenly, which was assumedly not what the Harebringer was wanting if the annoyed chittering coming from it was any indication.

The sleepy bun would repeat the process, with its other ear causing the first orb to vanish and a new one to appear, this time behind Oros and Emily causing them to throw a long shadow towards the center of the area, though they were not long enough for the Harebringer to take advantage of just yet.

The light being thrown out was also enough to dissipate the patch of shadow that the Harebringer had thrown out earlier. Which reformed next to the harbinger itself before hopping off to the side to get out of the focused light.

The yellow bun simply covered its eyes with one of its ears and seemed to be trying to get back to sleep. Not very interested in the game apparently.

The Harebringer was bouncing about on top of its friend but didn’t seem like it was going to be bounding away anymore. Ready to fend off its hunters with the light and shadows it now had available. 

Who knew that it had one more phase hidden away?

“Cock sucker!” Oros stomped her foot. “So you wanna play with light and shadow? Fine!” She grabbed Emily by the back of her shirt and stepped backwards so as to not cast her shadow too close to the shadow hare. With her free hand, she pulled a magnifying glass out of her hammer space and held it up to the intense glowing light. The light by itself was warm enough to melt snow, so focusing it into a beam had to make it pretty hot, but over great distances it likely wouldn’t be focused enough to start a fire. Maybe she'd try that later. But right now, she just wanted to see if she could agitate the yellow bunny further. She flashed the light in its eyes in an attempt to get it to do something.

“D-don’t use such vulgar language, Oros!” Emily chided after being pulled away. “Um, they really don’t want to get caught, do they?” she appeared in some awe over the tenacity of the hare, having bitten off more than she imagined she could chew alone. Emily then glanced at the beam Oros was aiming at the poor rabbit’s eye and frowned. “That could blind it…”

The giant hare was irritated by the focused light, even with its ears covering its eyes. Grumbling it would slap at the light with its other ear, causing the beam of light to suddenly turn downward towards the snow starting at a point about halfway between Oros and the Yellow Bun. The area in which all the light was pointing down also seemed to affect shadows as they would vanish upon touching the area.

Other than that the larger bun would resettle and get back to trying to doze, while the smaller bun looked at the odd angled light in curiosity. The hare’s shadow would lean out from behind the larger bun as well since it was no longer in danger of being smote by the light.

“Score!” Oros looked at Emily “I mean, I’m sorry about using such foul language. I’m still working on it. But would you mind being a dear and chasing down that harebringer? I’ll try to keep you relatively shadow free.” Oros sprouted wings out of her back and floated into the air. If Emily was going to go towards the harebringer, Oros would need a higher vantage point to ensure her shadow was little more than a circle under her feet.

“S-sure!” Emily agreed and then directed her eyes at the hare with all the determination she could muster. This had been going on for long enough! Emily chose to boost her way over towards the hare in short bursts, making sure she wouldn’t accidentally create an advantage for the thing as she attempted to grab it. 

With both of the Hunters heading to the skies in one way or another the harebringer was quick to move into action. The obvious action was regarding its shadow, who lept out from behind the dozing bun and started racing off towards Emily’s shadow. It would dive into the large patch of shadow as soon as it got close to being underneath her.

At the same time the hare would grab hold of the other ear of its large sleeping friend. And began flailing it about. Whatever it was hoping to accomplish is uncertain, but what it did accomplish was readily apparent as the orb of light that was once behind Oros and Emily would start flying wildly around the area. It wouldn’t ever get closer to the center where the buns were located, and the light was always pointing towards where the bun had slapped it into the ground earlier.

“That shadow magic is, eh, forget it. I’m getting redundant.” The light no longer appeared to have any sort of effect on the shadows. Oros tossed the mirror off to the side, causing it to land where the hare seemed to be trying to shine the light. “And you know what else?” Oros pulled a few road flares out of her cleavage. “HNEH!” She struck them across the side of her jaw and hurled them behind the harebringer. Entropy was the only thing Oros had left at her disposal, and she had it in spades.

The tossed Mirror would land in the stream of light and casually start reflecting it skyward, only for the dozing bun’s magic to also affect the reflecting light back into the mirror. Causing the mirror to rather quickly start building up light until it was as bright as a bare spot light casting illumination everywhere.

This had the side effect of saving Emily as the new light would scatter the hare’s shadow that was nearing the girl’s shadow.

The road flares would be smacked away by the blind flailing of the harebringer and would land on either side of the larger bun. The unexpected feedback of smacking them would cause it to stop flailing about in time to notice that its shadow was gone and Emily was nearly upon it.

With a startled eep it would toss aside the ear it had been flailing, the orb of light also coming to a stop off to the side of everything as it did, and the bun would jump forward seeking to tag Emily shadow.

Emily knew this trick and opted to avoid it entirely, strangely creating some distance between her and the rabbit before her shadow could be pounced on. She found herself sighing in obvious irritation. Perhaps as she felt this was dragging on. “Um, Oros, can you keep the bunny occupied?” she asked her friend as she took off into the sky a bit, keeping a cautious eye on the shadow and the bunny’s position. Suddenly, she extended both of her hands down towards the ground and began channeling her energy into a ball of fire that was growing immensely in size, so much so that everyone around could feel the heat.

Oros was doing as Emily instructed. Like Emily, she had wisened up to some of the rabbit’s shadowy tricks. She positioned herself between Emily and the harebringer, and quickly closed the distance between each other. “Open wide ass hole!” Oros had a flair in each hand, and she was waving them around like clubs. The intense light threw her shadow behind herself.

While the growing fireball above was worrying, the Harebringer’s attention was focused on the road flares in front of it and was doing it’s best to hop and skip out of the way of the burning sticks. It was displaying a fairly decent amount of speed in it’s dodging attempts, but was relegated to defense due to the ever shifting location of Oros shadow. 

The road flares were also handy in keeping an eye on the hare’s shadow, which was reforming, and it was about half way back by to full.

The Sleeping bun would begin rolling over to get away from the heat, but not before swiping an ear at Emily and causing all the light coming from her grandfire ball to suddenly be diverted towards the horizon when it got close to the arena. Though this only had a minor effect on the rising heat levels.

And the heat continued to rise, up until the point at which anyone in the surrounding area would feel as though Dan’s dimension had returned to being a hot beach. Naturally, this rise in heat had the strongest effect on the snow, which began to melt at a rapid pace, leaving a leveled, wet playing field. This appeared to be the main intent of Emily’s action, rather than creating a light source itself, although should the bun’s effect on the approaching light diminish, it would surely void the mostly-level field of shadows. 

The melting snow soon turned into water, which was something Oros could freely manipulate. The slush under the harebringer surged towards Oros, who lept at the harebringer. Maybe this time, it wouldn’t slip away.

The rapidly melting snow would ensnare the Harebringer long before the mass fireball melted everything away. As agile as it was on the snow, it lacked much of the same when it came to slush, add in Oros’ ability to turn the water against it as well and there wasn’t a lot that the bunny could do.

Not that it would go gently, it would flail and squeak as much as it could as it was drawn into Oros’ grasp, but the water refracted the light from the road flares all about to the degree that any shadow it could try and grasp at was far too scattered for any real or lasting effects. It was also out of ‘get out of jail free’ buns.

Thus there was nothing to stop Oros from picking up the harebringer and petting it. Which would instantly bring about an attitude adjustment in the hare, switching form an unruly and taunting ball of fuzz trying to bite Oros ineffectually, to a happy and joyous blob of fluff nuzzling into Oros hand as she pet it. In fact even the larger bun was affected by this as well. Suddenly snapping awake, only to start bounding over to Oros to try and flop onto her affectionately. 

“Heh, gottem.” It took a lot to make Oros tired, but between keeping her magical effects up and darting here and there, working with tricky shadow magic, she welcomed the opportunity to just sit down. It might have just been nine pages on a word document, but it was a frantic fiesta that ended just in time. “Alright Em. I think you can pet them now...” She waved her hands around. “Because if I have to endure these fuzzy bastards rubbing up against me any more-!” Oros was cut off when the larger snowbun smothered her face under floof and snow. 

Emily did not linger and immediately stopped channeling her fireball, the temperature in the immediate area cooling down as she did. “Oh, I’m so happy!” she excitedly exclaimed and she boosted straight up to Oros and touched down on the ground, petting the fluffy balls of evasion and shadow magic. Despite how much trouble they caused, she even scratched them under their chins. “They’re so cute when they’re docile~”

…

…

…

After a waining hunt that took over 3 months to finish, Emily got back on the sled so that Oros could drag her back to lodge. She ran over the crest of hills, through evergreen forests, and along cliff edges. It was the same landscape in almost every direction, but Oros’s nose could guide her back to civilization easily enough.

”Thanks for coming with me, Em!” Oros grunted between huffs. ”Had I thought the hunt was going to be that tedious, I wouldn’t have bothered with it..”

“I was surprised too.” Emily sat awkwardly on the sled. “The lengths that rabbit went to to avoid being petted, you would think we were going to hurt him! But I’m sorry it wasn’t as fun as you wanted it to be, maybe things will look up once we get back?”

Oros feet were beating a path through the snow, but her steps slowed once Emily’s question rolled off of her lips. Her arms fell to her side, and Oros’s feet came to a stop. The sled gently bumped into the back of Oros’s ankle. ”Dunno.”

They had stopped on top of a cliff edge. Most of the islands were pretty level in this dimension, but this one had a pretty big hill on it. It provided a pretty good vantage point of the entire event. They could see the lodge, some other harebringers, and wild snowbuns building igloos. There were also the occasional magical girl here and there, most of which were one person’s clone or another. But Oros’s eyes weren’t looking at any of that. She was looking up at the grey sky.

”The joy of the first snow is inversely proportional to someone’s age, you know?.” She folded her arms. ”My parents always hated the snow. Young me loved to play in it, but I didn’t realize what a bitch it was to shovel.” Oros pointed into the sky. ”When it’s overcast like this you can’t see the sun or stars. My father was really into astronomy, so he naturally hated rainy days and the winter.” Oros took a seat on the sled next to Emily. ”Is it just me, or does all of this shit feel surprisingly mundane?” She cast her hand over everything.

Following Oros' hand, Emily found herself taking in the scenery. She absorbed all that she could see and sat on it for a minute in silence. "No," she said. "Well, um, to an extent!" Emily didn't smile as she usually did. She appeared to take the conversation a bit more seriously than before. "I don't really... care about the activities. It's the people I do them with that provide the excitement -- the fun!"

"But..." Emily looked at Oros. "...is it not the same for you, then? I love to spend time with you and the others. It's something I never got to do when I moved away... People didn't like me very much."

”They didn’t? You sure you’re not just being dramatic?” Oros looked back out at the snowy landscape. 

“They did.” Emily firmly replied without a moment of hesitation. “They avoided me, spoke behind my back, and they hated me. All because…” she trailed off as a hand came to her temple as if she were experiencing a headache. “...Well, it doesn’t matter now since I have friends. I just want to do things with them. With you! But if you don’t find things engaging, I won’t make you.” 

”I didn’t mean to make it sound like I wasn’t enjoying myself. I just think it’s interesting how my dad would cream his pants over a shooting star, but I’m participating in a Christmas party in another dimension hosted by a dolphin where a bunch of magical boys and girls are playing games. Ice sculptures are made in seconds, snow men are the size of buildings, even the harebringers bring their own level of spectacle and pizzaz. But I don’t feel amazed when I experience these things, it feels normal to me now. Dull even. Same shit different day.” She shrugged. ”Maybe we’re the same that way. I came here because I wanted to get closer to El, but she seems more concerned with whatever drama the cradle is making for her or some mystery guest. I don’t think she’s really into me.”

Emily sighed. “These sorts of things… Well, they’re really not my forte. I really wish I knew some trick to help out on that front because it saddens me to hear that you feel that way. But I don’t think I’ve ever had that kind of spark in my chest for someone... “ As close as Oros was, she probably heard when Emily almost unconsciously wondered what her sister might do, under her breath. Afterward, she placed a reassuring hand on Oros’ shoulder and mustered a smile. “Maybe she’s just stressed! Or perhaps the oblivious type? I mean, sometimes I get so caught up in reading that I space out and forget to check on the food I’m cooking.” The averted eyes and strained smile let Oros know that Emily’s culinary adventures weren’t always the ones that ended in success. “A-anyway, while that may be a bit of a silly comparison, it’s not like I mean to neglect the food or anything, it’s just that something else borrowed my attention for a bit! So… maybe it’s the same for her and you just need to take the attention back!”

Emily partially deflated after a moment of reflection. “Uh, no… that sounds a bit too much like a manga or something. Sorry, that’s probably just bad advice, don’t listen to me.”

”Yea, but this is an RP run by a bunch of weebs, so maybe doing something manga-like will work!” Oros pumped her fist, as manga girls sometimes do. ”All joking aside, I dunno Em. Just look at them.” she pointed at everyone again. ”Everyone looks like they’re getting along in relative harmony. Harmony isn’t really my style though. I’m not the kind of person who can just form a bond with just anyone, as I’m sure you know.” She reached up to her shoulder and placed a hand on top of Emily’s. With a sigh, Oros turned towards her friend. ”You think I’ve got a chance with El though?” 

Emily locked eyes with Oros and held them for a solid dozen seconds before giving another sigh as she smiled. “I said I wasn’t good with these things…” she shook her head. “Unless it’s Samantha or Hilaria, I couldn’t give you a definite answer. Sam’s taken, I’m pretty sure. And Hilaria is…” A short pause betrayed a realization. “...I don’t think I’ve said hi to her even though she has to be at this party…” Emily appeared a bit upset at this fact, but pushed the feeling back and returned to smiling. “Admittedly, it is hard for me to picture her paying that much attention to another person. So I’d say nothing on that front either. And so my opinion on everyone else would be… um, it wouldn’t hurt to try! I think?”

”Heh.” The corners of Oros’s lips twitched upwards.  ”You know you’re just supposed to shower me with positivity in situations like this.” She let go of Emily’s hand. ”But I appreciate you trying to be realistic. That’s not something I get to experience much anymore.” She spread her arms. ”So um, can I give my little pog champ a hug?”

Emily accepted the hug without any hesitation but a question lingered on her mind as they embraced. “Um… Why am I a ‘Pog Champ’?” she asked innocently. “I don’t think I ever got into that fad.”

”It just means that you’re a special friend.” Oros kept her eyes closed as she patted Emily on the back. ”Anyway, guess I’ll give her another shot.” Oros stood up. ”I’ll go find Eliza, then we can do something fun together. Maybe throw snow balls at each other. If I can get the group together, I’ve got something planned for the stage. It’s gunna be lit!” she looked over her shoulder. ”If you’re ready, I’ll take us back to the lodge. Maybe everyone else will be there..”

“Y-yeah!”

---

”I know the smell of the game. *honks nose*”

— Oros

At this point, being ignored or box blocked by nearly everyone she interacted with was normal. It didn’t even really bother Oros at this point. If anything, she could find amusement in the length others would go to ensure they didn’t have to interact with her. She just chuckled as the proceedings went forward before clapping her hands.

”Nice one Dan! You too Mrs ‘queen of Penrose!’ Even I didn’t see you guys planning to give yourselves a worse chance of keeping this dimension intact. Then again, Dan did give some of roboslut’s girls a vacation home when they could have been rebuilding Sanctuary, so maybe this is payback for robbing her kingdom for all that lost time?” She shrugged. ”You people are way too gullible.” She pointed at herself with her thumb. ”And I’m like Rape Hell, I agreed to fight her and one other person. I’m not going to go through an entire tournament. Do you know how many collabs that would be? Especially when you count the other stuff my Patron’s wrapped up in?”

…

…

…

Not long after Fanfan received the jacket from Rachel, she could hear a whispering sound. ”Pssst.” Under a nearby table cloth was a conspicuous clown with a ticket in her hand. ”I dunno who this Leena person is, but maybe you’d like to trade that cool jacket for a sexy getaway with them?”

---

”I refuse to include Famished’s banners in anything.”

— Aria

For all the attention Aria had been putting towards treasure hunting, she did have other things she wanted to do at the party. More specifically, there was something that she had to do before it was too late. She might have gotten a bit distracted, but it was probably best if she let her mark settle a bit before bothering them.

With everyone heading to the lodge, her mark would be approaching shortly. She just had to wait outside and be ready to intercept her when she showed up. 

Her ‘mark’ would not be among the first to the lodge and instead was one of the last. She appeared to be alone, as most of the group she had been hanging out with up to this point had already arrived. One could presume she either had business to do before going to the lodge or merely took her time. In any case, Aria would notice something quite odd about the girl: namely that she was apparently playing rock, paper, scissors but there didn’t appear to be anyone there. That, however, didn’t stop a hand that clearly wasn’t hers from throwing down with her. The hand threw down a rock to her scissors, winning the round, which clearly frustrated the girl. 

”Rock tends to be the most used move.” Aria approached Silhouette as she spoke. ”It’s one of the reasons why paper is such a great opening move. Though it looks like you’ve been playing that opponent for a bit. By now the game has moved past mere statistics and well into mind games.” Once Sam turned to look at her, she gave the assassin a courteous bow. ”My name is Aria Rizzo, and you are Sam Howard. I would not be surprised if you never heard of me or Monarch Artificing, but I’ve heard a great deal about you.” She lifted her head. ”And I feel like our meeting is long overdue.”

Samantha looked up and at the same time, the hand seemingly evaporated as Sam returned to a neutral expression. "I don't play these games too often, so I appreciate the pointer." The assassin took keen interest in the girl before her as she introduced herself, then shook her head. "I generally prefer it when people don't remember me but they usually don't when they believe they can wrestle a favor from me. I take it you're not that sort, Ms. Rizzo? Or perhaps you really did forget our encounter in the Overcity?"

She shrugged. 

 ”Well.” Aria smiled.  ”I seem to recall you running away from some Ascendancy girls. I would not have been surprised if you didn’t remember our encounter. But it seems you did.”

With narrowed eyes, Sam continued. "Either way, I don't believe we had very much time to speak then, so I am fine with pretending otherwise," she looked past Aria and into the lodge, then returned back to Aria once she had presumably spotted what she was looking for. "Are you here to socialize, or did you want something from me?"

”You’re not too polite, you know that?” Despite her criticism, Aria wasn’t bothered by how gruff Sam was.  ”What I wish to talk about is far too exhilarating to be considered socializing.” Aria looked over her shoulder at the Ascendancy girls in the lodge before taking a few steps towards Sam. ”Anyway! I just wanted to share some words with you. Veronica may not always seem it, but she’s very loyal to her friends. Even the ones that no longer serve her directly.” Aria hopped past Silhouette and spun on her heel. ”There are things that Veronica wanted to tell you about herself, but couldn’t because it would put me in danger. So I’ve come to tell you what she couldn’t: The secret history of Vermillion Veronica.” With a deep breath, Aria placed her hands on her hips. ”I’d rather not have this conversation in earshot of the Ascendancy, if it’s all the same to you.”

Try as she might, Samantha could not hide the fact she was interested and cautious. Giving her away were small things like turning her body to face Aria, crossing her arms, and unlike before, her eyes weren’t wandering around and instead stopped solely on Aria. “And she let you in on these things?” Also clear was the fact Samantha had to stop herself from scoffing at the notion she would be trusted with that sort of confidential information. “Well, fine. I’ll bite, even if I’m a bit skeptical.”

”Of course you are.” Aria reached for the girl’s hand  and took a few steps away from the lodge’s door. Before long, they were on a side of the lodge that had no windows, and the chatter from inside the building was vaguely audible to them. It would be safe to speak here. ”Now you don’t have to mention specifics, but has Veronica told you much about herself?” She looked out at the great expanse of snow that surrounded them. Not too far away was the snowball fight area, which was nothing but ruined snow forts and a frozen lake. At this point. ”If Su warmed up to you, she might have told you a bit about their past.”

"Yes," Sam answered plainly. "Su did inform me of the past she shared with Veronica. But Veronica herself has always been - as I'm sure you don't need me to tell you - rather quiet about her past. I'm pretty much in the dark when it comes to her life before our first encounter." Admitting this seemed to cause Sam some distress.  

”Awww, well as I said, I’m sure what I’m about to tell you is something she sincerely hopes you hear. After all, you’d probably have a stroke or something if that wasn’t the case, right?” With a shrug, she placed her hands together. ”But if we’re going to talk about Veronica the magical girl, we first need to talk about Veronica the alias. She wasn’t the first one to use it.” She giggled. ”The first person to bare the moniker Vermillion Veronica was a girl named Sharr Webber. She was a Beacon hopeful known for her destructive power with her uncanny weapon: The Dunk Master. Maybe you’ve seen it? Regardless, it wasn’t too impressive compared to what the ascendancy girls could do, so she was mostly ignored. Ignored so much in fact that she was able to keep up a relationship with a monster girl named Kate. White dress, golden scales, you’ve met her too, I trust?”

Samantha shrugged. “Sounds familiar at the very least.” Samantha summoned her knife. It currently looked like it was made of foam, but the weight was still there. She effortlessly balanced the blade on the tip of her pointer. “From my understanding, the weapons we wield don’t exactly stick around after we die. So then that would likely mean...” Samantha thought about the space Veronica showed her when they were dealing with Justine. The implication was unpleasant, and she didn’t envy this Sharr girl.  “...I think I know how this story is going to end, but someone close to me chided me last time I vocalized my realization mid-movie, so I’ll keep quiet for now. While Veronica being a moniker isn’t all that surprising to me, I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting it to have been passed down to her.” 

”Well, I’m not the scolding type, so you don’t have to worry about that from me. Though the wise do tend to reserve judgement until they have all the facts, and this story has a twist ending.” 

“I’m taking what you’ve said with a grain of salt, but going along with it for expediency's sake.” Sam clarified. 

Aria tapped her fingers together. ”But yes, Sharr was under quite a bit of pressure. She had to keep up her relationship with a monster girl she fell in love with, risking excommunication or death should someone find out. And Kate had her own problems too. Not only was she hunted by Beacon, but the Mint wanted repayment for the coin she used. So she didn’t have a lot of places to go. As Sharr’s love for this woman grew, she knew she had to do something. And her solution was an amusing one, though foolish and motivated by pure emotion.” The corners of Aria’s lips curled. ”She joined the Mint to pay off Kate’s debt!”

Samantha didn’t seem to find the same amusement as Aria did in Sharr’s choice. “She took on a burden like that, too?” Sam asked rhetorically. “And with the Mint, no less. That’s as far from logically-driven as it could be, I think. So, how did that turn out for her?”

”This is the story of the original Vermilion Veronica, so do I even need to say?” Aria’s smile only grew, but her eyelids squinted a bit.  ”She paid it off and became a powerful coin broker in the end. But Kate was unable to appreciate the gesture. You know how it goes with girl friends, they all want a worker that will sate their every desire, but they also want someone who will spend time with them and hold their hand. Kate decided to repay Sharr’s kindness by aggressively going after the Mint, which put her in their sights as you can imagine. She basically invalidated everything Sharr was trying to do for her. But we’re not here to talk about that particular melodrama. We’re here to talk about the real hero of our story: Scarlet Rose.” Aria giggled. ”Scarlet Rose worked for Boteg, and was conscripted by Sharr to become one of her agents. I don’t think you need a refresher on that part, right? Su told you everything I trust?”

"I was not told what happened to Kate, but Su informed me of the past she shared with 'Scarlet Rose', at least." Samantha nodded, although she appeared uncomfortable calling the woman she respected most by that name. She then continued. "...And how there was pressure to remove if what you said is correct, then-Veronica. Supposedly, she found some other way to deal with the situation but this came at the expense of Boteg's horde."

Aria nodded. ”Sharr had learned her lesson with Kate, but a heart can’t help but want to be hole. But the former and current Veronicas shared a bond of sorts. Something that the word love is both repulsed by but also couldn’t hope to match.” With a sigh, she folded her arms. ”But people don’t get big in the mint without making enemies, and Sharr had several. It wasn’t long before Scarlet Rose was asked to do the deed. It was a monumental task. Coin brokers were made of sturdy stuff, and she’d incur a debt hiring the people she needed for the job. But like the former Veronica, she was no dummy. 
Well, maybe a little bit of one.” Aria chuckled. ”She took in so many gold coins at once it corrupted her, that much you know. But once she had sufficiently upgraded herself, she still had quite a few gold coins left over.” Aria paused, thinking about how to tell the next part of her story. ”Coins are often used to fortify a magical girl, but they can be used to change aspects of themselves. It’s normally not too efficient, but red coins hadn’t been invented yet, and with even part of a dragon’s hoard it’s possible to entirely change a magical girl’s outward appearance.” She tapped the corner of her smile. ”Scarlet Rose’s master would live on, and the current Veronica’s power was so great that no one questioned that she had done the deed. She had more than enough power to kill the old Veronica outright, and was quickly made into a coin broker herself.”

Samantha rubbed her chin, thinking about something intently. “I wasn’t aware that was possible with gold coins…” Her lips parted as though she meant to say more on the matter but ultimately, she chose not to and instead addressed the other parts of Aria’s explanation. “The Corruption I gained from using the Black Coin has caused me time and again more problems than I can count. Try as I might, the influence simply cannot be ignored. It has irreversibly changed my very core.” The black-headed girl looked at Aria and posed a question. “Since you’re privy to information even I am not, then I presume that Veronica explained to you what sort of person I was? When I was a human?”

”She may have said you used to be an assassin in a passing comment, I can’t really remember. We don’t talk about people’s pasts much. You know how she is, always about the here and now, hatching her next scheme.” The smile ran from Aria’s face. ”Um, if it’s not too much to ask for, can I see it? The Dunk Master?”

It was clear as day to see Samantha wanted to follow up her question with something else, yet Aria's sudden request tripped her up. "You really want to see that?" At first, Sam was both hesitant and confused. However, as she went to summon the basketball-weapon, the evidence of this left her expression and was replaced with realization. 

In her right hand appeared a basketball. One wouldn't look twice at it if merely going by the appearance, but gazing upon it, anyone sensitive to unnatural would guess it was anything but normal. "Huh," Sam seemed mildly surprised. "Since we are in Dan's dimension, I was expecting it to look like a beach ball or something," she confessed. "So?” Samantha spun the ball on the tip of her finger, then suddenly stopped and presented it to Aria. ”Does it look familiar?"

Aria’s mouth opened at the sight of the Dunk Master. ”Oh yes.” she slid closer. ”Familiar, but also different. Like gazing at the face of a childhood friend after years of separation.” she closed her eyes and placed her hand on the ball, only to jerk her hand back shortly after making contact. ”Though this one did not age gracefully. Though that’s to be expected, considering where it was kept.” Aria forced a smile and folded her hands together. ”Thank you, Sam. I guess you did end up doing something for me in the end, didn’t you?” with a nervous chuckle, Aria turned to look at the lodge. ”Seems my timing wasn’t that great. We should go participate in the festivities. It looks like the white elephant is underway.” Aria looked back at Samantha. ”Maybe afterwards, we can talk about Veronica to your heart's content. Sound good?”

“Oh, yes, that…” To her chagrin, Sam appeared to have gotten caught up in the talk. “I’m sure my tardiness is weighing on a certain someone, so yeah, I think anything else can wait for now.” Once again, Samantha spun the ball on her fingertip, only this time it seemingly evaporated and, without further delay she joined the rest inside. 

Aria followed Sam into the lodge. Gifts were already being exchanged, and she wasn’t shy about looking for the one that had been assigned to her. Sure enough, there was a small tin wrapped up and tagged with her name. ”Oh? I wonder what’s inside? Cookies? Sewing tools?” Though once she lifted the lid, she found a small rectangular device that was small enough to fit in the palm of her hand. It was all black with red engravings on its face, like a monolith. There were also strings attached to it with little “buds” attached to the ends of the strings. ”Well that’s rather curious! Is this supposed to be a magical MP3 player?” she giggled to herself before looking at Samantha. ”What did you get?”

Meanwhile, Samantha was sitting down against a wall, staring at quite a few small boxes sprawled about before her. They each had various designs, as well as different letters from different languages on the boxes. She opened one and found some tea leaves, and would find more when she opened another. Looking up to Aria, who had approached her, she closed the lid on one. “Tea, it seems. I’m not sure I am capable of properly appreciating all of this tea - I prefer coffee - but it is a pleasant gift.” Sam said, looking up to Aria's MP3. “What’s magical about it?”

”I don’t know!” Aria giggled. ”But it looks magical. I mean, it’s a pocket monolith, right? Let’s have a listen.”  Aria handed one of the ear buds to Samantha while she held the other one up to the side of her head. Nothing played for a bit, until Rachiel did the things. ”Oh I see now! I thought it was weird how you couldn’t choose the songs.” Aria looked the MP3 player over. ”If I had to guess, I’d say it plays music to suit your mood!” She chuckled. ”It’s pretty neat, but if you don’t like tea we could always trade. I do like to drink tea, if you enjoy listening to musical scores?”

Samanatha liked the idea and expressed as much by nodding. “I do,” she confirmed to Aria. “Particularly when exercising or training, and sometimes sleeping. So if you enjoy tea, then yeah, I have no problem trading.”

Samantha looked around the area and spotted her friend, Emily. With her back turned, Sam couldn’t really grab her attention but she knew that, as eager to meet people as she was, Emily would eventually come over to them, so she remained seated. “Did-” Sam looked at Aria--“you come with someone?”

”Oh my, it’s a throw down!” Aria was only half listening to Samantha at this point. ”Ha! I’m sorry Sam, but the ascendancy is talking about fighting some girls at Keijo to lay claim to both this dimension as well as Mariette’s gift, and Oros says that she wants to fight the winner of that little bout afterwards to lay claim to those prizes herself.” She pulled Samantha closer, grinning at her from ear to ear. ”Are you thinking, what I’m thinking?”

Sam could not help but think of how troublesome Oros was, especially during this Christmas event. If it weren’t for the fact that they were in Dan’s dimension, Sam was almost certain that things would have gotten violent. She did not dislike the idea of a thrilling fight, but she did hate the idea it would’ve been for such a dumb reason. Actually, wait, that’s not even really my Mika, why would I bring myself into that? Sam caught herself wondering. “Judging by the grin on your face,” Sam sighed. “You want in on that? Well, given the prize, I can’t say I don’t understand,” she rubbed her chin. “But Keijo is…” Recalling the fact she wasn’t able to reach the finals last time weighed on her. 

”Since Oros is going to fight the winner, they have effectively reduced the number of matches they need to participate in.” She gestured between the two of them. ”Which means that if we are willing to fight the person who wins in Oros’s match, we could steal her strategy and bolster our own chances of winning, at least according to game theory.” She poked Samantha’s chest ”So you need to declare that you’ll challenge her! Then I can put some buffs on you and we’ll split the winnings fifty-fifty!”

“W-what? Me?” Samantha shook her head fervently. “You’re joking, you have to be. Why would I want to throw myself into that mess? I have been around long enough to know that when the stakes are high, so is the amount of people willing to throw themselves onto it.” She glanced in the direction of the challengers, and could tell there was more to come. “Aside from that, Mariette is sure to do what she can to retrieve that mirror. I would not be surprised in the least if she were to grab her strongest allies and…” Suddenly, Samantha went quiet for a few seconds, placing a finger to her chin and losing herself in thought. Aria could hear her faintly repeat the word ‘strongest’ as she did. “Oh,” she said, returning to the conversation. “...What sort of buffs are we talking about, here?”

”The usual reinforcement specialist’s flair. More durability, more strength, only mine tend to be far stronger and last a shorter duration due to how my magic manifests itself.” At this point, Dan announced his absolutely brilliant plan that He and Penny came up with. ”Now it’s a gauntlet with Rachel at the end of it? That hardly sounds fair, and Dan agreed to such terms? He practically wants to have his home destroyed.” With a sigh, she looked back at Samantha. ”Well, my assistance is still on the table if you want to participate. I’m sure a lot of people are betting on Penny winning this, but you were one of the few people who were able to go toe to toe with her back in the day. Something about a fight on a flying ship?” She shrugged, but her smile only widened. ”Veronica didn’t get into details, but she seemed pleased. I’m willing to put my faith in you certainly. Besides, wouldn’t you like to rub it in Rachiel’s face as some form of catharsis?” She folded her arms. 

“Well,” Sam recalled the memory of the first few posts mission she had to disable Amber’s ship. A brief, yet fun encounter that cost her an arm. “Penny is… well, since we aren’t doing a traditional fight, I’m at a distinct physical disadvantage. Keijo doesn’t allow me to use my weapon, after all. If I were to meet her in this arena… I’ll have to think of something, even with buffs,” Samantha admitted, having heavily pondered the subject. “Penny’s strength is the talk around Penrose, so normally I would be more excited to test myself against that, it’s just… you’re absolutely correct. Even if I can’t kill her right here and now, if I could knock her down a peg, I won’t waste this opportunity to take on Rachel after how she humiliated me. Mariette, her minions, or anyone else attempting to rob me of this be damned!”

”Excellent...” Aria tapped the tips of her fingers together like some extremely cliche dastardly villain. ”Sounds like you don’t need any more convincing.” She surveyed the hall. ”We can discuss strategy later. Seems like we’ll have a moment before the tournament begins in earnest.” She shoved her hands into her pockets. ”Suppose I’ll tend to my devices for the time being. It’s getting a bit noisy here. Besides, you wanted to meet someone, correct?”

“Oh,” she suddenly snapped back to reality. “That is correct, I should spend at least a few minutes with Emily!” Leaving just those words, Samantha got up off the wall, presumably to search for her friend.

---

”I won Christmas, but can I win Keijo?”

— Betty “Biohazard” Barton

”I wonder if one of the other girls in Maura’s group know anything about computers.”

Betty decided to ignore the Keijo tournament for the moment. It would be sad if Dan’s world went away, but there were plenty of magical girls stronger than her that could likely win if needed. It just wasn’t a big deal to Betty. In the end, this world was originally a prison made for them, maybe it was karma that it might be destroyed for good.

But while many people were talking in the small lodge, Betty was tuned in to a few voices. Her allies, sure, but most of all…

”Justine is joining!?!?!?”

So this was her plan all along. Since Betty and friends had expertly dusted Justine in both snowman building and sled racing, she planned to claim the mirror and Dan’s world for herself! Of course she would wish to rejoin with a horror as soon as possible! Of course she would wish to twist this isolated retreat into a dark lair. She could just see Justine standing atop her castle and laughing wickedly as she attempted to rid the world of love a fourth time…

Third time?

Fifth time?

Didn’t matter.

The point was it had to be her to face Justine and beat her. It wasn’t like there was anyone else who had been brainwashed by Justine and needed to take even more vengeance out on her. Though if there was someone like that, she might be able to meet with them and become friends. Unless they were with Beacon. Betty was pretty sure she could never be friends with anyone from Beacon. Mostly because that would involve playing nice with Alicia, which she didn’t see happening.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

Somehow, Tetrad's offer to play a game of Keijo made her merry group of friends totally disband. Which, kind of sucked. She wasn't sure when she was going to see Eliza, Emily or Samantha again, so it was a bit disheartening to see them split after what she imagined must have been a small misunderstanding. 

Luna hadn't been out of Penrose long, but for some reason her interactions with the new magical girls in the northern outpost felt hollow somehow. Normally she loved to meet new people, but that "new" feeling wore off faster with some than others. even mingling along with people at this party didn't fill her with as much joy as she would have liked. Did she drink too much? Had Penrose become more boring in her absence? It seemed like the cliques that existed outside of the party were still in effect here. Cradle primarily interacted with its own members, same for beacon and whatever Penny called her legion of monsters. Even someone as outgoing as Lily had little use for people outside her immediate vicinity of friends, like Alexander and... Justine? Well alright, at least Lily seemed to be treading unfamiliar territory. Not that Tetrad could really judge anyone. She was hoping to see Will again, but it seemed he wasn't here. Catching up with Emily would have been okay if she wasn't trying to Engauge Sakura in a slapping competition. Like the kind critical moist is always going on about.

”Why did I even show up to this? Maybe Trixy made the right call staying behind.”

Of course there was someone at the party that Tetrad had been meaning to meet. She didn't have a ton of memories of them, she had just heard a bit about them from Eliza. She had no idea what the horror's long term goal with all this was, but she didn't really care. It wasn't often you got the chance to talk to someone who died. 

...

...

...

Among all the excitement going on, Cerise seemed to have been obscured into the background. Sure, she hung out with Valerie for awhile. She caught up with North and Evelyn. But for the most part, she seemed content staying in the petting zoo with the snowbuns and harebringers. Unfortunately Dan called everyone back inside for the Feast and White Elephant, the latter she forgot to sign up for. Oh well.

Cerise did join everyone else in the Feast Hall, but with everyone else joining others in groups; Even Valerie went back to Amanda,

 She was alone.

The scarlet medic frowned slightly. Times like this, she wished her sister was still here. She looked around for a seat, and decided to forget about it and just eat-

WUMP

"Eek?!"

A wooden serving platter hit the table like the fist of an angry god. The medic wouldn’t be the only one startled by Tetrad’s sudden arrival, but she was the person she chose to sit in front of. 

”So we get wished into this place, and then after a single conversation we get cast aside like a bad hand.” Tetrad had a sip of eggnog. ”I’m Tetrad by the way, an agent of Cradle.” she extended her hand to shake.

Cerise had jumped at the sudden appearance of Tetrad, just as irritated as she was disappointed. Though her reason for being in the background was different from hers. She tilted her head in confusion. "Uh, sounds bad. But I didn't have any trouble like you did, I just stayed at the petting zoo. she said. When the other girl introduced herself, the medic shook her hand. 

 "Cerise. Though I guess you already know that."
 
”Yea. Like you, I’ve been keeping an eye on the other people around here. Listening in on conversations and and all that junk.” Tetrad winked. ”I’ve heard a bit about you, but I figured I had to see the real deal for myself, and all that.” She propped up her chin with her hand. ”Do you miss your sister? Was she a good one?” 

"Oh. Yeah..." Cerise glanced down to the cup of hot cocoa she grabbed on the way to her seat. "I know we were the same person once upon a time, but I guess that helped us stay in sync. It feels weird, not having your twin around. Kinda lonely..." She said, her voice reduced to a mumble near the last sentence. However she didn't seem sad or anything. Just lost.

”Well as someone without siblings, I can tell you that there are people I’d like to be with too.” With a sigh, Luna looked away from the medic. ”Where would you rather be right now?”
 
The medic looked back up with a shrug. "Dunno. Doesn't look like I'm needed here... Got any ideas?" she asked.

”I didn’t mean like that” Tetrad smiled. ”I mean like, where would you rather be? What place comes to mind? A mall, a bar, stuff like that.”

"Oh. Hm..." Cerise thought for a moment. "First thing that comes to my mind is a movie theatre."

”You like movies, eh?” Tetrad straightened out her posture. ”I typically enjoy more interactive experiences. I remember going to the theater with my parents once, and they kept telling me to ‘shush’ because I was being too noisy. I think that’s why I have a preference for watching them at home. Though it’s always better if you watch them with friends, isn’t it?” She pulled off her hat and set it off to the side. ”You must have a favorite movie then, right?”

With a giggle, there was a small grin on Cerise's face. I- Luciel, really, had a cousin who used to work in theatre. We used to make time to go to the movies together, mostly for horror ones so we can laugh at how stupid the main characters are. Though he had a soft spot for old movies like Grease. Y'heard of it?" She asked.

”Mmmmm, it sounds familiar, but I haven’t watched many classics. What is it about?”

Cerise's eyes widened. There was a moment of silence, before she took a deep breath. "S'basically a musical romantic comedy about a local boy named Danny Zuko, and a vacationing Sandy Olsson who fall in love durin' the summer of 1958..." She'd go on to explain the movie to Tetrad. From scenes like the drive-in movie theatre and the race, to eventually the theory that it was all in a dying Sandy's head, and what went into the making of the movie.

 Soon enough, the medic caught herself amidst her rambling, and looked away in embarrassment. "S-Sorry, I got carried away didn't I?"

”Juuust a bit. But it’s clear that movies mean a lot to you, or at the very least, you enjoyed this Luciel person.” She pulled out her phone. ”Wait one minute, I gotta check something.” And with that, Tetrad stood up and darted out of the lodge.

Roughly fifty-five seconds later, she returned. ”Sorry about that, there’s no internet connection here.” Tetrad sat down again. ”I was kind of curious about that movie, so I googled it. Particularly the fan theory you were talking about.” She showed Cerise a web page she had saved onto her phone. ”It looks like people came to the conclusion that it was a ‘death dream’ because of how strange the ending was. Just with it being so happy and the couple flying through the air in a car. But the director said that was just a throw back to the shop teacher who said ‘If it were in any better condition, it would fly.’ and is just a representation for their happy ending.” She lowered her phone into Cerise’s hands. ”The creator personally denied the theory was true too, though I guess that’s the nice thing about head canon, right?” Tetrad’s grin got wider. ”If you want to believe a movie has a message or meaning, and it works with everything that’s been established, it’s a valid interpretation. I think that’s why you can have polarizing movies that seem to get just as much love as hate.” She tipped her head down. ”Though I’m pretty simple in that regard. I’m down for anything that puts me in a good mood. Kind of like this chance encounter. But I think it can be made even better.” 

 Well, if Tetrad was looking to get a jaw dropped reaction from Cerise, she definitely did. The medic's eyes were lit up in glee as the other girl gave her two cents on the theory. Though there was still something she had to address. "Oh, uh, Luciel's me actually. Or was me. Was me and Cereza- Y-Y'know how twin souls work." She clarified with a grin. "Ya' kinda' sound like my cousin right now. Too bad he disappeared to Timbuktu, would've loved to introduce ya'll to 'em."

 Then Tetrad suggested they'd do something to make their meeting better. Cerise was already in a good mood, so she was willing to hear her out. "'Aight then, shoot."
 
”Let’s make it a surprise, follow me.” 
 
…
 
…
 
…
 
They didn’t have to walk far. As soon as they got outside, tetrad sighed. ”Sorry, the noise everyone was making made it hard to concentrate.” Tetrad folded her arms and bit the corner of her lip. ”There’s someone I think you should meet. But I’m also not really sure how this thing works. Apparently we were summoned here? So I don’t know what’s going to happen if we try to leave.” Tetrad wasn’t sure how much to tell Cerise. She didn’t seem to be aware of her own death, if this was even her in the first place. Tetrad wasn’t that close with Maura’s extended network of agents, so she didn’t know. ”I’m not sure if you’ll be able to come back here if you leave. If that’s okay with you though, I think she would really appreciate it.”

"Huh...Well, we won't know 'till we find out right?" Despite Tetrad's hesitance, Cerise decided to remain optimistic. "Who do I gotta' see?" She asked.

”I could tell you her name, but she’s more someone you need to experience.” 
 
With a snap of Tetrad’s fingers, the two were shifted away from Dan’s snow scape and to an equally cold, if far less inviting area.
 
Despite being the middle of the day, the clouds were so gray it might as well have been the evening. The wind was still, but droves of snowflakes rained from the sky. They were standing on top of a building, but the exact height was impossible to determine. The horizon was out of sight, so they had to be at least a half a dozen stories in the air. There were plenty of skyscrapers on either side of them that reached much higher into the heavens. 
 
Their jolly Santa outfits had vanished, replaced with whatever they wore before coming to the party. 
 
”I miss that warming spell already.” 
 
Not long after their arrival, the newly arrived could hear the sound of high lace boots beating a trail through the snow. ”Is it Betty? Is it Sam?” An eyepatch wearing maid hopped from a nearby roof top onto the roof they were presently standing on. ”Hmmm?” Her only visible eye seemed to expand in her head. ”Wait a moment, I know who this cutie is.”
 
Tetrad stepped off to the side and gestured between them. ”Cerise, this is Trixy. Trixy, Cerise.”
 
Trixy blinked. There might have been sweat on her face, but the snow made it hard to say. ”What’s going on?”
 
”Long story.” Tetrad flipped through her cards. ”I’ll tell you all about it later. For now, just act natural.”
 
Trixy stepped closer to the medic. ”Well um, hey!” She extended her hand. ”You uh, you enjoyed the party? You got a chance to meet up with Eliza and those people?”

"Uhm, yeah!" Cerise shook Trixy's hand. "I know it ain't been that long, but I did meet up with Val and the others. Eliza on the other hand, well, guess she was too busy. The place did get chaotic at times." She chuckled slightly. Though at the moment, there wasn't much to laugh about. "Kinda felt like I wasn't even there to most. Made me wish my sister was still with me... Gah, but enough of that! How've you been?"

”I’m hanging in there.” Trixy forced a smile. ”I’m not surprised a lot of people looked over you. There are a lot of magical girls in penrose and they’re all equally cute. Most are fine just forming a small group of friends, but I don’t ignore anyone, especially if they’re cute!” she chuckled. ”I’d have gone to the party, but I’ve decided I’m going to wait for Sam to come here. I don’t want to jinx it by seeing her early or anything.” after some fidgiting, Trixy looked over her shoulder. ”I’m not having a party, but if you wanna hang around, I’m watching some Mary Poppins. Would that interest you?”

"Oh, I'd love to! Do ya' got any popcorn? Snacks? Maybe some soda??" She asked, hugging herself to stay warm. "Anything beats freezin' my tail off!"

”I think there’s a drink dispenser inside. It’s just cold beverages, but it’s a lot warmer inside.” Trixy led everyone towards the hatch. ”Popcorn will be a bit harder, but I think we’ve got some jiffy pop laying around somewhere. It’s just going to take a moment to prepare.”

”Now this is a party!” Tetrad closed the hatch behind them. The falling slow filled in their footsteps, and soon there was no trace of them. Unless you listened for the sounds of muffled laughter.

…

…

…

How unfortunate that head canon isn’t applicable to role playing games.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

”I’m hated for doing what people expect, and feared for doing what they don’t.”

— Oros

With Oros being excluded from participating in ice skating, she decided to dance on the ice by herself at the snowball fight area.

Surely such a thing should be impossible. Magical Dream Princess magicked away all the damage Oros had wrought with her “Dan the man” cannon, even going as far as making the snow palace even bigger and better than the last one. But Oros only needed to lay siege to it a second time. The DTMC made turning any snow born structure into a puddle fairly easy. The resulting puddle was not the easiest thing to skate on, but it worked for her purposes.

Oros weaved and jumped around the snow fort. She skated around fallen towers, jumped over fallen arches, and just had a grand ol’ time all by herself.

Magical Dream Princess would likely discover the snow fort had been destroyed, and just rebuild it. It was also likely that if this kept up, Dan would side with MDP again and just make the snow fort impossible to destroy, or find some more serious way to punish Oros. Then again, there would come a time when Dan had to return the dimension to it’s warm, sunny state where all the snow would surely melt. Depending on your outlook, the long term destruction of the snow fort was either ensured or impossible. It made doing anything to the snow fort now pointless. Surely Oros must have realized this, but why she chose to do it anyway was something only she knew.

---

”Betty’s 2 for 3! Or something!”

— Betty “Biohazard” Barton

Betty was not a conversationalist, but she did her best to talk with Finn on their way over to the lodge, where she was sure Hilaria and Stien were waiting for her. No, that wasn’t true. They were probably just eating food because there was a feast there. Her arrival didn’t factor into things at all.

”I wonder if Maura is going to be here? Unless she’s patching things up with Silhouette?” Betty surveyed the room. ”There they are! I want you to meet Hilaria and Stien!”

Betty only managed to arrive at the table before Dan appeared, praising their snow dragon before thrusting a silver coin in their hands.

”Again? I won twice?”

”I was pretty sure the grand magistrate would make sure no one got rewarded twice. ”

Betty was too shocked to respond. She really wanted to beat Justine’s castle. That wasn’t something she would have been able to do on her own. But with the help of her new friends, they were able to defeat her. ”Guys…” Betty’s voice cracked a bit before she pulled the two girls into a hug. ”Thank you! I don’t know if I was able to contribute all that much, but we were able to pull off that miracle!”

The celebrating was cut short when the white elephant event started. ”Oh I almost forgot about this!” Betty took a seat at Hilaria’s table and examined her gift. It was a large white box that was sealed with a glittering green ribbon. ”Well, here goes nothing!” She pulled on the ribbon untill it came undone before folding it up and setting it aside. With the box unbound, she pulled back the lid and peered inside. ”Huh?” She pulled a small fan out of the box. It looked like a small fan, with rows of LED lights buried in the frame that housed it. ”Wait, I think I know what this is!” She pulled something else out of the box. It was some sort of “G-FORCE” graphics card. ”These are computer parts! Can I build an entire computer with these? That sounds exciting, but I don’t know if I could build it myself. Maybe someone could help me?”

”What the literal fuck?!” Oros’s gift box layed at her feet in shambles, and all she had to show for it was a card she was holding onto. ”A card that lets me ‘have access to any venue to have a memorable night with someone special?’ This was a proposed item for season 2 and it got shot down, why is it making a cumback now?” Oros groaned. ”How pointless! I can enter any venue I want, All nights with me are memorable, and nobody’s special! Muda muda muda muda muda!”

Then everything changed with the Beacon Patron attacked.

”Seriously?” Betty looked at everyone at her table. ”Isn’t she stepping just a bit outside her jurisdiction?” With a sigh, Betty hugged parts to what might become her future computer if it didn’t get ruined for her somehow. ”Well, it’s none of my business I guess. Seems like Dan has magical girls on hand to deal with this sort of stuff.”

While most of the magical girls felt unnerved by this recent turn of events, Oros was positively glowing. ”Son of a bitch! I could have used a development like this months ago!” Oros laughed. ”Hey, let’s make the stakes a bit higher. In addition to the already presented terms, the loser will also get dom’d in a fanfiction that’s gunna get posted on discord. In the NSFW section no less! Think you can do that for me big guy?”

”Consider it done.”

”You’d better not be lying.” Oros approached the group of magical girls slowly gathering around Rachel. ”Also, I’ll be fighting the winner for rights to both the mirror and this dimension. We’ll worry about the terms of my defeat once I know who my opponent will be.” Oros extended her ticket to Rachel. ”Wanna trade? You look like you need to get laid, and that’s a pretty nice jacket if I do say so myself.”

"All that, for a drop of blood?”

— Tonya “Mac” Murphy

Tonya “Mac” Murphy

Age: 24/11 | Gender: Female/Female | Illusion, Gravity
Body | Power of Friendship, Regeneration, Third Eye | Moirai
Coercion, Soul Jar, Martial Training, True Sight, Parasite, Gifted, Awareness, Overcity Shift, 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
+46
STR: 21 | AGI: 21 | VIT: 21 | MAG: 20 | LCK: 20

Earnings this post: Zilch

Remaining: 7 Gold, 30 Silver, 39 Bronze
Total: 11 Gold, 162 Silver, 183 Bronze

So the coveted Keijo master tourney was going to start. The fight for the mirror, which would inevitably get stolen and end the tourney. All that drama, and for what?

Of course, a gold coin. Even Mac couldn't resist those.

But with Veronica gone, who would play with her? Well, she hadn't talked to Aria yet. She should probably do that before things go much further along.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

”If my demands aren’t met, I’m going to use a gamer word.”

— Oros

Once Oros rolled her way to the bottom of the hill, she started off towards the skating rink. After she did that and the stage thing, she’d have done all the events present minus Keijo. She wasn’t going to wait around to see who the winner was. If she cared that much about the race, there probably would have been a post about it. The appeal of being a clown and rolling down a hill starts and ends with the visuals though. She was tempted to use her beast magic and make herself a new meat bicycle, but that would have been a bit too “borderlands.” Besides, that was probably a little outside what she could do with her magic.

”I really hope Baby isn’t at the ice rink. That might make my arrival awkward.” She chuckled to herself. ”When the hell is my bunny hunting collab going to be done?”

Speaking of collabs, Oros walked into another one.

---

”I feel that bit about collabs, Oros.”

— Aria

Aria had participated in the race. Truly. Though she chose to fly Rupy over everyone’s head. Going by Dan’s count, however, it seemed that she had either been disqualified or simply hadn’t been considered. Maybe she flew just a little too high.

”As long as I get paid, I don’t care!” She clapped her hands together for the winners. Snow buns were cute, but she proffered coins with real monetary value. That wasn’t to say winning wouldn’t have felt good, but a silly prize for winning a silly race felt adequate.

But before she participated in any more games, she had to look for someone. So she promptly disappeared. With any luck, she wouldn’t get abducted again.

---

”Victory for my crimson lady!”

— Betty “Biohazard” Barton

Betty was pretty sure she hadn’t won. Her finish wasn’t exactly glamorous, and her sled didn’t even hold together for the entire trip. She was all ready to show her new friend to her other new friends when Dan called out Finn and her name.
”We won?”

She held the coin in her hand. Despite it’s icy appearance, it was only cool to the touch. It also didn’t feel slippery like she was sure an ice coin would.

The temptation was to use it then and there. She did find snowbuns cute, and having one follow her around was sure to lift her spirit. But she was also aware of a coin tinkerer back home that couldn’t be there with her today. It might be a nice gift for her when the party was over.

”Thank you for being such a generous host!” She wrapped her arms around the dolphin, or at least tried before he vanished in a puff of smoke. ”Oh…” She looked at Finn. ”Knowing my friends, they will likely be eating at the feast. We can walk there together, if you’d like.”

Tips for writing POC, LGBT+, and other minority characters in RP

What are obstacles you have to writing characters who are a different gender/race/sexuality/any other quality as yourself?

Other people.

It seems like everyone has an opinion about how your progressive character should be written, even if they share no traits with said character. Some people seem to believe that how you write one character frames how you view an entire group of people. If you make a Mexican character who can't cook, you're saying all Mexican people can't cook. If one of your villains are gay, you're saying all gay people are evil. Some days it feels like the only way to make a "good" progressive character is to make them flawless and infallible, but that's god modding and never makes for an interesting story.

I'm more going by things I've read and seen elsewhere. I've had no real problems writing characters for this site. most people who are into the hobby of writing have been pretty chill.

Tips for writing POC, LGBT+, and other minority characters in RP

Dagger has already stated that they'd rather not continue down this topic. So I've scrap the response I was writing.

But this does tie back to some of the things I was talking about earlier. You really are better off addressing your character's environment and history rather than their skin color and sexuality. A black dude who grew up in Africa is going to look at the world differently than one that grew up in the Bronx.

Tips for writing POC, LGBT+, and other minority characters in RP

@Mrgrimjaw???

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

And her new pal!

”this is why we don’t trust Meetingwords!”

— Betty “Biohazard” Barton

Betty was starting to enjoy the party of a fashion. Helaria and Stien were odd fellows, but were enjoyable to be around. The situation in cradle hadn’t resolved itself, but it didn’t weigh on her mind too much. The activities in the present were starting to draw her attention away from her thoughts. Though she would keep an eye on Justine from a distance. Just in case.

She had made herself a snowball to sit on. Roll anything dense enough and you can turn it into a seat. That went for snow too. It was fortunate that her outfit was water proof, otherwise her body heat would probably melt the snow and then she’d have a wet butt for the rest of the party. Some might find it strange that anyone would just sit on a snowball when there was so much to do, but Betty wasn’t much for talking to people for long periods of time. It was fun to talk to people outside of Cradle, but she did need to take a break to drink some coco after spending too much time submerged in conversation. Besides, if she was going to beat Justine, she needed to keep her stamina up.

With everyone scattered around the area, it was easy for Finn to go about unnoticed. How long he had been at the party was unclear, but he had remained outside for the most part; acting as a spectator for the events. Even now he was watching the snowflakes fall, a snowbun perched perfectly on his head. A moment of calm he'd make the most of, before heading back to work.

"Hm. Don't think I can smoke out here, can I?" He asked no one in particular, feeling through his sleeves; his hammerspace handbag, for a cigar or something. But then Dan announced the next event. Odd set of rules for a race, but regardless, Finn would walk over to watch.

”A race is starting?!?”

Betty still had her ice skates on from her ice skating she did with Hilaria and Stien, which turned into a hocky game somehow. She kicked off her ice skates and forced her feet into her boots as fast as she could. Fortunately they were slip-ons, so it wasn’t too hard to manage.

But now she needed a ride. That was when she realized she hadn’t made an ice sculpture yet. Well, not one made entirely out of ice.

”Alright Betty, this is going to be kind of silly, but that’s the name of the game, right?” She quickly took to the ice block with a chainsaw and cut a wedge out of the bottom of it to make it sort of resemble a sled. She didn’t have a way to steer it, but her wind magic should be enough for what little maneuvering she needed. Provided the thing didn’t just cave in half. ”Well, it’ll have to work!” She ran over to the start line and set down her sled. While she waited for the race to start, Once she noticed Justine was in attendance, Betty started to make her sled look more like a sled. She used her ice carving tools to give herself a place to put her hands, and made the face of the sled a bit more pointed. With that done, she started to engrave spirals along both side of it. While she was doing this, she noticed a spectator who was looking directly at her. Or at least it seemed like it. Regardless, Betty was looking right back at him.

Finn tensed up as soon as he noticed someone was looking at him. Oh great. He was staring, wasn't he? Maybe the whole ice sled thing was strange, but he didn't want to be rude! He glanced from side to side, then nervously waved at the girl. "U-Uhm, please don't mind me, I was just a bit curious about your creation there!" Finn explained. "Doooo you need help with it? I don't know how long until the race starts so..."

”Oh!” Betty looked back at her sled. ”No, that’s not necessary. I think I have it under control.” She looked back up at the boy. ”Wait, did you need something to ride on?” Betty looked back at her sledding ice sculpture. ”I think there’s room for you on here. I don’t think you’re heavy enough to break it.”

"Oh- Wait what?" Finn's eyes widened when Betty offered to let him ride with her. As much as he'd want to turn her down, he thought for a moment. "...Are you sure?"

”Well yea!” Betty clenched her hand into a fist. ”The race is going to start shortly, so you might as well hitch a ride with me!” She moved over so that Finn could get on. ”Not like we’re trying to get first here.”

"Well, okay then!" With a subtle grin, Finn walked over to sit down behind Betty. "Guess I should introduce myself first. I'm Finn, Finn Vanhorn!" He held a hand out for his new teammate to shake.

”Betty Barton!” She shook his hand. ”I’ve been out of commission for a while, but I don’t remember hearing anyone talk about a boy with an eye patch. Are you new in Penrose?”

Finn hovered a hand over the festive eyepatch he wore. Sure, his christmas outfit was a bit subtle, but atleast he wasn't in a santa suit. That seemed to be a running theme with the dress-code... "Yes, actually! A friend of mine, Evelyn, invited me. Well, me and my partner, but he's probably busy getting drunk off ale right now." He chuckled, though his expression came off as comical. "Seems like a quiet town, atleast when we arrived. Heard the big-wigs were acting up again like, a month ago, so it's nice to see things calm."

”In my experience, it never stays that way.” Betty had her eyes on Dan’s (clone?) the entire time to make sure they didn’t miss the start. ”But that’s really nice that you have an um, partner. Maybe after the race I can meet them.”

"Er, it's not like that if you're wondering! Finn clarified. "Oliver's just my best friend. Even if we're not working, we sometimes hang out together. I'm...not exactly a people-person, if that isn't obvious. I tend to stick by those I know." He grimaced. "So how's thing for you, Bets? You did mention Penrose doesn't stay calm for long."

”Yea it’s um, chaotic. In case you couldn’t tell by all of the um, construction.” Betty sighed. ”It’s not easy being the good guys. But we manage to stop doomsday from cropping up when it’s going to happen.” She tapped the insignia on her shoulder. ”I doubt that symbol has much meaning outside of Penrose, but most everyone in Crimson Cradle wears it. We’re after real change, when we aren’t busy saving the world anyway.”

Finn stared at the insignia, tilting his head in curiosity. "Crimson Cradle? I haven't heard of an organization like that in a long time. Must be recent. But it'll be nice to have someone actually keeping things in check! What's it like?" Seemed Betty's caught his attention.

”It was excellent. Now it’s-” Betty groaned. ”Now it’s had a change in leadership. The new head is trying her best, but I dunno. I don’t think Maura is bad, but when you’ve grown to love the old boss, the new girl just can’t compare, you know?”

The boy listened closely, nodding along until Maura was mentioned. His eyes (eye?) widened. "Wait. WHAT!?" Finn quickly grabbed the snowbun on his head and gently set it down, the small bun calmly bouncing away. "Did you just say your new boss was Maura?? Maura Natalie???"

Betty recoiled when Finn raised his voice. ”Um, I don't know her last name. She's got really dark hair, red eyes, pale skin, Kind of gothic looking?”

The boy quickly nodded his head. "That's her, that's her!" He groaned, burying his head into his hands. "Does nobody tell me things anymore?? I know I've been a bit of a recluse for the past few centuries, but they can atleast send me a goddamn memo that something's changed!" He mumbled. Feeling like he owed Betty an explanation, he looked back up to her. "Maura's my patron too. Actually, it's more like I was accidentally her first magical kid." Finn scratched the back of his head nervously.

Betty blinked. ”Um, yea! I do kind of vaguely remember her talking about you.” Betty’s eyes shot over to Dan, then the other sleds. ”Gah! The race started!” She launched a burst of wind behind herself, and the sled shot forward. Finn looked like he might fall off the back, so Betty grabbed a hold of his arm and pulled it around her stomach. ”I wasn’t expecting a passenger, so just hold on!”

"Really? I didn't think she'd talk abou- WOAH!!" The wind boost interupted Finn before he could finish his sentence. When Betty advised him to hold on, he quickly wrapped his other arm around her. "Got it! I'll keep an eye on the other racers!"

”Sounds good, just tell me when to-” Betty hadn’t accounded for a second passenger, and it showed in her ice sled design. The wedge she had cut out of the center of the ice block made it possible for the sled to glide over the snow without packing it all at the front. However, her design wasn’t really up to the task of carrying two people. The center of the sled cracked, which was punctuated by a yelp. ”Um.” She parted her legs and tried to put all of the weight on her feet and hands, which were located over the runners. But the crack continued to get bigger. ”What um, what type of magic do you have?”

Finn cursed under his breath once he noticed the forming crack on the sled. "Uh, Beast magic??" He answered Betty. Silently hoping he wasn't the cause, he tried to shift his weight as well.

”Oh really? That kind of cool!”

But it wasn’t as cool as ice magic.

The sled cracked in half. Betty had a formidable level of upper body strength. She could hold either side of the sled level so that the runners did their job. But it was something else she had to focus on while they slid down the hill. ”Hey um, do you think you could act as a rudder or something? I was going to use wind magic to steer, but with the sled cracked the way it is-”

While Betty spoke, a distant tree came closer and closer to the duo.

This just keeps getting worse, doesn't it?

"Rudder? Oh, yeah gimme a moment!" With a bit of beast magic, Finn was able to give himself a pair of dragon wings to help steer, adjusting them accordingly. "It's not much, but atleast we can-" He didn't have enough time to warn Betty about the tree in the road. With a flinch, he grabbed his cane sword from a space in his jacket. (Well, thanks to Dan's magic it was a candy cane, but regardless.) Before they crashed, Finn struck the ground besides them with the weapon, steering the sled away from the tree.

”Gah!” While Finn had managed to steer them out of the way, Betty wasn’t really set up to hold two halves of a splintering ice sled. She ended up shifting her weight onto one half of the sled and releasing her hold on the other side. It veered off, but Betty wasn’t watching that half of the sled right now. She was focusing on their balance. ”Alright, just, um, keep your wings perfectly straight, and I should be able to balance us.”

And Betty did have great balance. While her hands were still placed along what was left of the sled, she was using her legs as levers, holding them off to the side to adjust the weight distribution as they coasted towards the bottom.

Of course with his half of the sled gone, Finn was forced to stand up slightly on whatever surface he had left, only enough to keep balance. One of his arms was wrapped around Betty's shoulders this time, while he held his cane in his free hand. "This is getting a little too cramped for me..." He muttered, turning his attention on keeping his temporary wings straight.

But they were almost at the end of the race, and it seemed like there were some crazy swerves ahead.

”AHHHHH!”

Betty fired a burst of wind into Finn’s right wing, then his left, then his right again. This caused them to fly from side to side, passing through the flagged gates as required. The final stretch of the race was a straight dive, which caused the wind to really soar under his wings.

”Finn!”

They weren’t even sliding anymore. Finn was gliding straight for the finish line while Betty held what was left of their ride.

"Shitshitshitshitshit!!" The poor guy panicked when he lost his grip. Luckily his wings kept him from faceplanting into the snow, but he left Betty behind! With the wind still carying him to the finish, Finn turn around to see was was left of their sled.

"Aw crap. Sorry about your ride, Bets!" He called over with a frown.

Betty had also crossed the finish line, but no amount of athletic ability, however superhuman, could grant her flight. Betty was buried from head to waist in a snow bank with what remained of the ice sled shattered into ice chunks. There was no response.

Once he landed, his beast magic dispated for now, Finn ran over to help Betty out of the snowbank. "I got ya." Digging some snow away, he pulled her out and helped her stand up. "You good?"

Some snow had stuck to Betty’s hair, but with a quick shake of her head, most of it flew away.

”Yea, guess I should have been wearing a helmet. Not that snow is all that dense.” She stepped away from Finn. ”Now where were we? You said you were Maura’s first magical girl, right? What was she like?” Betty walked away from the finish line as she spoke, not too interested in sticking around.

"Er, boy. But we didn't realize that magical boys were a rarity, so eh."

”Oh! I'm sorry! Gosh! I'm just so use to calling us magical girls that- yes! Yes magical boys aren't too common!”

Finn put his cane up, then shoved his hands into his jacket pockets, following Betty. "In order to keep me from dying, she ended up making me into a magical boy. Neither of us knew at that time, so imagine my surprise when I found out I had powers. He chuckled. "At first it was a one-off deal, during that time I began studying the ins and outs of the magical world and the types of denizens. Might as well take advantage of the situation to learn, right? Anyways I ran into her again after a month, after her little spat against her sisters. I guess she wanted to make they haven't tried to kill me yet." He shrugged.

"Anyways, it didn't seem right just having us two against basically the ancestors of magical girls, so I suggested she became a patron for more magicals such as I. About Maura herself, she did come off as introverted at first, such was the nature of her old job. But I bet she became curious about the living, eventually gaining empathy over those souls she was supposed to reap. She sometimes felt some deaths were unnecessary, undeserved. Even going so far as to revive someone like Oliver from his grave. Maura did eventually open up, going as far as bouncing ideas between me and her. She's an understanding person, and pretty good at fighting too, but she tends to be a bit of a mother hen. I don't like seeing her worry too much." Finn then turned his head to look at Betty with furrowed brows.

"Though there's one thing for certain. You never make Maura, make Death pissed off. No one knows the extent of a witch's power, not even I do, but the fact that she has connections to literal demons should give us a hint. Maura might be nice, but even she can only take so much before enough's enough." He shuddered.

”That's kind of a given.” Betty folded her arms. ”Most patrons are pretty scary. Though some work better under pressure.” It was hard to look at Maura as "death" after she had just been hugged and comforted by her not too long ago. She didn't doubt she could be terrifying, but she wasn't sure anyone could match Veronica's mettle. She seemed so strong, perhaps death failing to invoke the same feelings of power was just a testiment to how strong she really was. "I have some friends I'm going to meet up with. Did you wanna come, or do you have other plans?”

"...Eh, sure. Oliver's duplicates are around if anything happens, so I got time." Finn shrugged again.