BrokenPromise

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

”...Oh"

— Suki Oyama

Suki considered understood the value of lies. They were an easy way of shortening long explanations, escaping the consequences of her actions, or maintaining relationships. That last one was something her parents had taught her a long time ago. Despite that, she tended not to lie to her fellow Detention Club if she could help it. If you were going to work with someone it was important that they trust you. One had to be careful when they chose to lie and about something. Different lies had different amounts of risk and reward, and perhaps Haruna had not considered the consequences of hers.

It shouldn’t have been a surprise, really. Lying was something most girls got pretty good at. But super cuties were too innocent to lie like that. Spinning a lie to get into some exclusive club was the sort of selfish behavior Suki would stoop to doing. It turned Haruna from a beacon of light into just a normal girl with a savior complex. Perhaps worse was her magical girl identity. It was okay that Haruna wasn’t some defenseless child, but she could have been a white angel with pink hair. Instead she was that cold metal monstrosity. How gullible Suki had been.

She didn’t know what she wanted out of tonight, but right now she had a desire to just escape. But there was nowhere to run. Tsubomi was sitting in front of her, Kiyo and Haruna flanked her sides, and Nyxia was at her back. As if to block the exit, Roche was standing near the doorway. It would have been nice to avoid Nyxia’s taunts, Roach’s gloating, and any of the other distractions. But to everyone else, Suki just looked a little surprised. She could be a good liar too.

"Ah, well." She cleaned her ear with her pinky. "I don’t think ‘Hizuki’ made much of an effort to be nice to me. But maybe I didn’t notice it while I was getting my arms cut off." With a nervous chuckle, she looked straight ahead. At least she knew what she could call Haruna now. But it was too soon to start using it."Anyway, Nyx, These are all places where the Gems have been spotted. Some of them resulted in attacks, like the one by the theater. They’ve shown up everywhere except directly inside Hibusa town. They’ve gotta be camping out somewhere nearby. They show up too frequently to be going back to the city every morning. Are they home schooled or something?"

With the amount of red string surrounding Hibusa town, it was evident there had been a lot of sightings. The attack near the theater was the only one that happened inside Hibusa itself. With all others being on neighboring territories.

Contrary to what Roche might have thought, Suki wasn’t the least bit interested in analyzing her behavior. She turned away from Haruna and Roche to look at Kiyo. "Oh! Yea, you said something about a monkey attacking your eyes when the giga miseria showed up. What was the deal with that?"

It was strange that Shuuko wasn’t here yet. But given how Roche was grinning, chances were she needed her rest.

Then she appeared, as if to dismiss that accusation.

Or at least that was what Suki had figured, going by the voice. She didn’t turn to look and figured the others could fill her in if she really needed it. Suki was late to class sometimes, but that was because she didn’t want to be here. And, well, normally she didn’t mind being here, but today she wished she had arrived late too. Her eyes flicked over to Tsubomi, then back to Kiyo.

---

”Doin’ what I gotta do since 2007!”

— Willow

Going to the club room to learn all the latest gossip might have been a good idea, but it didn’t serve Willow’s aims. Rei was out here somewhere, which meant they could walk together. But Rei could be strangely elusive when she wanted to be. Frustrated, Willow hovered up and down the streets with a phantom unicorn at her side. She ignored the eyeball floating just behind her head. She ignored the stumpy monkey that lunged for it moments later. She didn’t respond as the unicorn rushed to the eyeballs aid and pushed back the monkey. Willow sighed deeply. It was the perfect time of day for a walk. The sky was orange, but it was shrinking with every second. Did Rei not want to watch the night sky devour the sunset?

Then something caught her attention.

Among the eyeballs, monkeys, and unicorns, it seemed that frogs were also on the list of night time visitors. Willow floated to the ground to examine the frog. It was large and bumpy, which was how she had been able to discover it from so high up. She tried to lift the docile croaker with one hand, but it was much too large. She ended up needing to direct it onto the back of her violin, which she lifted up to her face. Did frogs like this live around here?

She examined the frog briefly, taking in it’s slimy texture, its less than vibrant colors, and those golden eyes it had. But her curiosity hadn't been satisfied until she licked the back of the frog. Her eyes dilated, and it leaped off her instrument to escape down an alleyway.

”Oh yes…” She said as her pupils threatened to consume her irises. ”This is one of those magical frogs!”

Without cleaning the back of her violin, she set it on her shoulder and started to play. The unicorn dropped to the ground and charged after the large frog. The frog might have had a head start, but the few hops it could manage before needing to rest weren’t going to save it from the incoming nightmare. It lowered its gleaming horn as Willow played into a crescendo.

Hello and salutations!

Looks like a slow day for introductions.

Welcome aboard champ! the 1x1 section has been seeing a lot of traffic recently, so you should find something there. Or maybe you'll put up your own check? I dunno. I primarily do group stuff so we'll probably never cross paths again. But what is friendship but a chance encounter?

I'm going to bed. Have fun.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

*Notices your secret identity* OwO "What's this?"

— Suki Oyama

It seemed that Suki's attempt to let Haruna off the hook didn't work again. She had to have next level emotional intelligence or mind reading powers to understand the situation as well as she did. She clarified herself before taking a seat beside Suki. Other than Tsubomi, she couldn't think of a time when someone had willingly taken a seat next to her. Kiyo, maybe? But that one was hard to read and it wasn't as if she hadn't taken the exact same seat since Suki had been coming to Hibusa High. Fewer still had smiled at her without it being sarcastic or menacing.

"Ah, well, you know." Suki averted her gaze and waved her hand dismissively, though her cheeks were getting a little rosy. "My friends are getting attacked. Tsubomi and, I don't know if you've met her yet but Shuuko were both jumped by some students. Apparently one of them had a baseball bat! Fortunately they were able to escape." She pointed at the map. "That happened right over here near the theater."

As soon as Suki pointed it out, Nyxia's sudden appearance made the delinquent nearly jump out of her skin. She managed to avoid shrieking, which was a small victory. The usual insults and insinuations would go unanswered, but she'd adress the one question Nyxia asked. "No! It's a map of..." Suki trailed off as the words caught up with her. "The new girl? Like, the new girl?"

It hadn't occurred to Suki that they might be one and the same. If they were, Haruna had plenty of chances to clarify, but avoided talking about any of it. That sort of made sense earlier. Hizuki had never actually seen Suki turn into Oros, so she wouldn't have known they were the same people. But Haruna should have, absolutely, made it clear that she was a magical girl at some point. At least that seemed like the polite thing to do. And she was a magical girl. If she wasn't, Nyxia's sudden appearance wouldn't have startled her. Suki could have startled her, but she didn't get startled enough to also startle Haruna. Did she know Suki was a magical girl before then? She had no problem doing swing gymnastics like it was nobody's business. Oh come on Suki, why would a new kid try to sign up to the detention club? Only a magical girl would know about the club's significance. She knew Suki was a magical girl before she even transformed. You should have stayed in school, Suki.

"Ah, ahah..." Suki folded her arms. She turned her head to face the person sitting next to her with a nervous smile. "Haruna? Are you the cyborg magical girl from the other night?"

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Quiet? Gurl, you in da wrong club talking to da wrong wo-maaaaaaaan!“

— Suki Oyama

The temptation was to ask Haruna about that secret, but it would be pretty awkward if everyone piled in while she was in the middle of explaining herself. That didn't make it any less frustrating. Frustrating? No, that wasn't the right word. It was like waiting for your birthday, only your parents and maybe a friend bothered to get you something. And there was cake. And people were actually happy to show up. Basically the opposite of a normal Suki birthday.

"A friend that drives them around...“ Suki mentally patted herself on the back for presenting the club's problem in a way a normie like Haruna could understand. That just meant that her suggestions had to pass through the same filter. A friend who drives them around could correspond to someone with portal magic, or maybe they really did get around on the back of giant familiars. "We should keep an eye out for any strange vehicles.“ She reached into a toy bin and pulled out a tiny car. After setting it on the map, she placed a pin beside it.

"School's loud?“ Louder than that music she was listening to when she came in? After thinking about it for a bit, she realized what Haruna was really trying to ask for. Unlike the other day, Suki wasn't going to make her feel bad until she begrudgingly changed her mind. "Well uh, I don't have to talk to do this. Not to sound like a broken record, but it's pretty quiet in the kotatsu too.“ She doubted Haruna was going to try and sleep, but that would make for the best kind of ambient noise. Even if she snored, Suki was sure it would be a pleasant kind of sound. The joys of having a super cutie in the club...

Symphony on High

"I’m gunna see if I can scare the shit out of Marrie.”

— Mika Fang

Mika Stat Block

16 | Female | Gemini | Mad World (lesser)
Nails | Hands | Arcane | Cat Scratch Fever
Eye of the Tiger | Survivor
Spirit Animals | Nature | ANIMAL
[Poison, Transform], MAD WORLD

DAMAGE: C | SPEED: B | SENTINEL: E | 500

PHYSICAL: D | ARCANE: B | CHAOS: C | 500

Even with the cameras showing no movement on the upper floors, Ashley couldn’t be sure that there wasn’t some carefully positioned trap that may have evaded the cameras. Getting tea bagged by a group of weartigers or brainwashed construction workers would be an awful start to an operation.

”I’m not sure if I like the idea of jumping into the building with this portal as our only way out. But at least there will be a brave dragon guarding the exit portal.” Binky turned to look at the “brave dragon” that had lowered its head to the ground. The tip of Boteg’s tail swept across the roof top.

"Not like rushing in has caused a problem in the past.” Mika rolled her shoulders. "Wanna breach with me, Par-a-dice?”

"Yup!"

As soon as Marrie opened the portal, the front line poured into the hallway, followed by the miko twins, Ashley, and finally Marrie. They ran down the hall as fast as they could. The camera had to be picking them up, but it looked like everyone was still headed down to meet the Mavericks. It seemed that they hadn’t gotten wind of what was happening yet.

The door to room 1408 looked innocent enough. Mika jammed her claws into the handle and twisted it off. Raven kicked the door open and both espers ran into the room. They stopped shortly afterwards, and the other espers piled in behind them.

Room 1408 didn’t look like a normal hotel room. It had more in common with a science fiction loading bay than anything else. The ceiling had to be at least ten stories high. There were pillars that looked to be covered in industrial grade steel, and fluorescent ceiling lights lit everything up. There wasn’t much for color either. If it wasn’t grey, which most things were, it was painted a bright safety yellow.

Then, a hole in the wall opened up, and a TV turned on. The screen was all static, but there was a pair of giant cartoon eyes and a grin floating inside all that static.

”Golly gee willikers! If it isn’t the boo crew!” The TV let out a squeaky laugh. ”More like the boob crew, amiright fellas? Seriously, what are you, a lesbian biker gang or something? Though I guess bikers would wear a bit more wouldn’t they?” The eyes flicked up to Binky. ”Hey Binks! Didn’t have enough fun last time? I understand they brainwashed you again. Well, I do appreciate you coming back to doctor XVIII Morning Dragon Fruit! Sadly, they’ve had to update my room a little bit. I prefer Italian maple furniture and afghan rugs, but we were anticipating your arrival. Speaking of, thanks a lot for bleeding all over the old one! Like, rude! But you came back to me, and that’s all I really care about.”

Binky groaned. ”Can someone shoot it already?”

”Babe? I wouldn’t be talking like this if I didn’t have a contingency for that. But we don’t have to fight, right? You guys seem like the sort that could be reasoned with. I know, what if I double your pay, triple your vacation time, and quadruple your christmas bonus?”

---

"Now if you’d flip to page 72B and sign along the dotted line, solid line, and any other line where there’s room for your signature.”

— Bookman

The demon remained quiet as Himiko spoke. He didn’t open his mouth again until after they shook hands. "Your resources will be revealed to you in due time, along with the missions we plan to put you on. We will certainly keep your willingness to off the doctor and anyone else in Gemini in mind. I only mentioned that you wouldn’t have to harm certain individuals because of your apparent fondness for the cat girl. But if that was merely another trick of yours, it was a good one. You even fooled me. Regardless, you may rest assured that we do not plan on putting you on a suicide mission.”

Bookman turned to his book of contracts, and Himiko’s name was now written on the page of the first contract. "Now to fulfill my part of the bargain. You’ve demonstrated a lot of interesting abilities that most espers do not possess. You have an awareness of things that happen outside of this reality. Not only that, but you’re able to consistently position yourself where you need to be without fail. Reality itself seems to bend to meet your needs. There is a reason you have this power, but to understand it, you need to know what Oros is.” The demon pressed his finger tips together. "The name ‘Oros’ is not that of a person. It is an honorific title bestowed on servants of Aigorost. Oros the Mad, Oros the Wise, Oros the Swift, Oros the Clumsy, and several others. Every realm that horrific entity takes interest in has an Oros within it. Normally, at least. But Oros the Mad is not from here. She came from somewhere else, which means that there is an Oros here as well.” He pointed at Himiko. "You are Oros the Greedy. You may find this hard to believe, but it’s true. Most servants of horrors aren’t aware of the influence their master has on them, which is what necessitates a third party making you aware of the fact. There are two strong indicators that someone is an Oros. At least, ones that normal people can perceive.” He raised his fingers for emphasis. "The first is being a chaos magnet. I could go into details, but I think you know what I mean. The second and strongest indicator is the presence of an ‘Endless Eclipse.’ Every Oros has one, though some have not discovered theirs yet. They are as black as the night sky and offer their wielder special powers. And this brings us to the next contract I’d like you to sign.” He turned the page. "Your Endless Eclipse has manifested. We were watchful and snatched it up before you could get to it. Aigorost has been at odds with us for a long time, and we were not going to let their champion of this world come to complete power. But if you are willing to swear that you will never use your magic to harm the main leaders of the hand, then we would let you have the power that is rightfully yours. Though breaking your oath would be seen as breaking your contract.” He raised a finger as if chiding a child. "Sharing information that you glean from your Endless Eclipse with those that would do us harm counts as using your magic to harm us. Consider who you cooperate with should you accept this deal.” Again, the demon extended his hand.

Battle Toyale — Christmas Rumble!

@Shinny Any word from our eight-legged pickle?

Mahz's Dev Journal

@Mahz I appreciate you explaining things like this to me. I'm kind of dabbling in code but don't fully understand it's implementation on something like a forum.

I've looked into HTML a bit and it does seem like a fairly straight forward code to understand. That said, it feels extremely irresponsible to allow every forum user to write it, at least if you're doing full HTML with CSS support. But if you're just unlocking stuff that can be used strictly for formatting a post then that's okay. I just don't want to have to worry about someone creating a virus in javascript and then deploying it when you look at their RP.

Really, when I think about using any type of coded formatting, 99% of the time it's to make a post read better. If I'm going to do anything spectacular I'll usually boot up my paint software of choice and make it that way. Tables fall into a weird category because they usually display important information and may have additional functionality that a PNG won't have, like clickable links. I also don't want to fire up gimp and hunt through 20-50 layers to find out where I can tweak a name or number. That said, if it's easy to implement and saves everyone time in the long run, I'd be willing to try it out.

Unrelated topic, but have you ever considered taking donations? I'm not sure how much you'd get, but it could help offset the cost of keeping this place up. I wouldn't mind donating and getting one of those "supporter" titles.

Mahz's Dev Journal

Agree with not changing sub/sup tags, they're used for alot of formatting so it'd make alot of older posts weird

@Mae

I agree, but as Mahz explained to me earlier, older posts preserve their code and appearance. So no future updates should affect older posts.

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

@Luluna It is, but now would be a not-so-great time for most to join the RP for reasons mentioned 2-3 posts back. If that doesn't deter you, we can probably make it work.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Waiiiiit a second...“

— Suki Oyama

It felt a bit like a dream.

This space had never been inhabited by people like Haruna. This was a space for Rei's self absorbed acquaintances. This could only mean one of two things. Either Suki had fallen asleep, or Haruna was an official club member now. While looking at Haruna, she pinched her cheek and pulled until it hurt.

"...Alright! I knew they'd take you in!“ She laughed, but not without snorting like a pig. "Right now we're uh, facing some resistance. The Detention Club is sort of the pride of Hibusa High, and we butt heads with... girls from other... schools, sometimes. It's usually pretty tame, but they've been getting a lot more intense recently.“ This was going to be an awkward meeting if she had to continue to not talk about magical girls directly. But it was worth it. By golly, it was worth it. "I'm trying to figure out where they came from, but there's no indication that they have a base of operations anywhere. They've been spotted on every side of town.“ She tapped her chin. "But uh, how you holding up? You look a little tired. If you need to sleep, we have a Kotatsu. I usually nap inside it when it gets colder.“ She pointed over her shoulder with her thumb.