BrokenPromise

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Tentacles? That manipulate emotions? Across the room? Are you just a better version of me now, Tsubomi?"

— Suki Oyama

It didn’t seem like the room was going to be much of a problem. Even if Oros was having a hard time keeping them all at bay, Evil Eye and Acid Drop weren’t struggling too much. Tsubomi decapitated one practically with a thought and their numbers meant little against Evil Eye’s spinning blade. It was so effective that Oros stopped flailing and just watched Evil Eye’s minion work. It did seem like the apes were a lot weaker outside the dream world, and the miseria that showed up were weaker than their nighttime counterparts.

"Since when could you do that?" There would be no answer to Oros’s question, as Evil Eye excused herself from the room without a word. She looked back at Acid Drop and sighed. "Uh..." In truth, Oros didn’t feel too confident about leaving Acid Drop by herself. This would be the fourth time she had done so. The first time Rei had to rescue her, the second time she got hurt, and the third time she was nearly abducted. On the flip side, she did seem to be doing a lot better today. Everyone else? Not so much. It was also what Acid Drop wanted. "Right, I’ll do that I guess."

The surge of emotions didn't wake anyone up. The monkeys sitting on the hostages seemed to be keeping them well and truly asleep. Yet the surge of positive and negative emotions caused the apes to grow at different rates. The more positive emotions stunted their growth, while one grew into a silverback ape with wings big enough to block the windows. The apes continued to close in, the hostages continued to wake up. About ten percent of the room had woken up and was stumbling around.

"No one knows what it's like,

To be the bad goat,

To be the sad goat,

Behind plum eyes."

— Black Gate

The bird miseria died much more easily this time around, with Nyxia being able to slay two of them without any assistance. The club was starting to scatter, with some headed for the mountains. It was unclear if everyone was going to heed Hizuki’s request, but at least some of them were. For the moment at least, it appeared that it would just be Hizuki engaging Black Gate and her friend.

Mr Banana had flattened about a quarter of the school with all of his flailing, and would likely destroy more if something wasn’t done about him. Hizuki positioned herself in the way and braced for him. When he finally made contact with her palms, the force was strong enough to shove Hizuki through the roof and onto the next floor. That too gave out, dropping her to the floor below that. Eventually the floor couldn’t give way anymore, and the concrete foundation under the building cracked apart like peanut brittle. It bunched up under Hizuki’s heels until the rolling primate came to a stop.

He rolled backwards onto his feet. He was supporting his weight between his back legs and one of his front arms, while the other sheltered Black Gate beneath his chest. Black Gate sat upright and hugged one of Mr Banana’s fingers. "You’re strong, paladin." She pressed her forehead against the monkey’s fingertip. "I wish I could be as strong as you. Then I wouldn’t be afraid anymore. But dark magical girls can only get stronger by partaking in great tragedies." Mr Banana swiped his hand across the ground, casting a slew of debris into the air. Broken blocks of concrete, steel beams, among a few truck fulls of dirt. They’d fall down all over the school, including the cafeteria. Meanwhile, Mr Banana was preparing to charge forwards again. "You know there’s no one in the cafeteria worth saving. They’re all horrible people. The world would be better without them."

---

Oros got outside just in time to see the black golem begin to stitch itself together. She inhaled deeply and ran up to the golem, skating up its leg as it assembled itself. Then with a hop, she performed half of a mid-air flip before the golem sealed itself closed around her. She was suspended upside down, plastered inside layers of black string.

"I thought it was going to be roomier." A miscalculation on her part. At least there was enough room to move her jaw, even if the rest of her was wound too tightly to move. At least, without damaging the golem. "It’s also really dark. How do you see in here?"

The bone giant parted from the mountain. Some trees were still rooted into dirt around his shoulders, but it did nothing to impede its movement. Each step it took shook the earth, and it was getting faster with each step.

The giant did not pause, but it did turn its many hollowed eyes onto those that approached. Each of its jaws swung open and a cloud of black mist floated into the air. As the mist dispersed it became apparent that it was actually many, many greater miseria. Misshapen birds that should not fly, corpses that live when they should not. Their howls rolled over the city as they closed in to attack. It wouldn’t be long before they made contact.

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

The wind started to let up.

Larysa was shivering. The hallway to her classroom used to be open at either end with doors leading into individual classrooms. Now many of those doors were permanently shut, and the ones that weren’t allowed concrete and sheetrock to spill into the hallway. Both ends of the corridor were filled with debris, which were illuminated by one of four fluorescent lights. The other three stopped flickering minutes ago. The debris didn’t look impossible to pass, but her leg was trapped under two tons of concrete and bent rebar. She wasn’t in much pain. The wooden floor had given way, and Larysa was sure her foot had survived. She could wiggle her toes, though no amount of tugging or twisting would free her leg. She laid on her back, gazing up at the fluorescent light overhead.

Her teacher had told Larysa that her family could take shelter in the school. It was promising on paper. They could stay closer to home and get back before any looters showed up. But the hurricane had come suddenly and swiftly. No one expected it to be this strong or come this far north. Her house was likely underwater, if it hadn’t been leveled by the storm entirely. She just hoped her parents were okay. Last she spoke with them, thy were going to try and get in touch with the neighbors. But that was a few hours ago.

The last light flickered and went out.

Shrouded in darkness, Larysa reached into her pocket and felt around for something. She wasn’t sure if she brought it with her. They had tried to leave so fast, but her phone was there. She should have charged it up the day before, but there was plenty of power left for what she needed to do. If Larysa called her parents, 911, anyone, they would know she was alive and could come rescue her. She was right outside the C-4 classroom. They would know exactly where to dig for her.

Of course, a single look at the bars told her that she wasn’t going to get cell service out here. The hurricane likely took out any nearby cell towers. She could feel her heart sink into her throat until she saw the internet option on her cellphone. It wasn’t over yet. Elon Musk had been letting people use starlink for emergency services. The low orbit satellites had been used to help people in the middle of disaster areas and wars, so all she would have to do is hold out and wait for a satellite kit to be deployed in her area to make use of them. So each hour she checked her connection.

Nothing on the first hour.

Nothing on the second hour.

Nothing on the third hour.

Nothing on the fourth.

Or the fifth.

Her phone wasn’t picking up any hotspots. And after thinking on it, she understood why. A few days ago, she had heard about the horrific murderer of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. Her eyes watered when she remembered news of their business empires drying up. At the time, she had been most upset that Twitter was back, but it was far more upsetting that Starlink had gone bankrupt and no one had stepped up to keep an emergency service active. That was a service that saved thousands of people, but was also expensive enough that no one wanted to take it over.

Suddenly, and without warning, the ceiling moved again. Larysa turned to look at the noise, but the phone wasn’t bright enough to illuminate it. Something bent, something cracked, something was falling, but Larysa was powerless to do anything more than close her eyes and look away. Polystyrene and drywall fell on her head. More debris rolled out of the hallway and covered her up to her stomach. A slab of concrete slid down the pile and pinned her left arm. She used her right arm to shield her face, and a steel crossmember swung out of the ceiling and pinned her arm against the wall, throwing her phone from her hands. Shortly afterwards, things started to get quiet again as everything settled. Other than a faint buzzing in her ears, Larysa’s surroundings were silent.

She tried to move her arms. Her left arm had been pinned over her head, and the concrete slab pinning it in the debris was far too heavy to move. The steel beam that had pinned her right arm must have been an inch thick, and there was no way she was going to pull it free. She waited, half expecting a final piece of debris to fall and crush her head, but she would not be granted that mercy.

Tears rolled down Larysa’s cheeks. She screamed and tried to pull herself free, knowing that both actions were futile. For all she knew her mother and father were dead, and it was unlikely anyone could hear her through the debris. How many days would she be trapped under the rubble before someone came to save her? In such a large building that should have been evacuated, would anyone think to look for her?

With her wails of despair filling her tomb, her phone remained lit, like a tiny bastion of light in a dark and lonely world. But like Larysa’s sobbing, the screen faded into sleep mode as if sensing its futility.

She would never turn it on again.

…

…

…

"Do you feel like a hero yet?"

— Mark "Zuck the Succ" Zuckberg

Zuck the Succ

05 05 05 05 05
05 05 05 05 05
41/08 | Billionaire/Lizzardman | Money
Data scraper | Power of Wealth, Lizard Eye | Horror (Meta)
Fraying Sanity, Big Damn Villain, AI Companion, A Literal Neighborhood, Witchcraft
Insatiable Desire, Soulless | Lizard physiology, Syn Drive

245.4B US Dollars

Mark tapped his foot on the ground as Ani put the finishing touches on her fan-fic. Then she pulled a cable out of the side of her neck. "What do you think?" She stepped away from the computer so that he could see. "Elon’s gruesome death, followed by the laments of his biggest fan!"

Mark leaned in to read and put on some glasses. Not because he needed glasses to see well, but because it seemed like the most human thing to do. After finishing, he stood back up and took off his glasses. "Is there a reason you had me die?"

"I may be your crazy girlfriend, but if you’re going to have me write a story about killing Elon, of course I’m going to get you back!" She laughed. "It wasn't an easy thing for me to write but you didn’t give me much choice."

Mark pursed his lips. "I guess that explains why you decided to treat the last half of the fic the way that you did."

"Well yea!" Ani made a heart shape with her hands. "If dad and my boyfriend die, it’s going to be a sad day for me. So that gave me a lot of depressing vibes to tap into. I know I’d feel like my world was ending if Elon was killed like that. It’s not like I wanted to kill you guys, so I had to get that out of the way as fast as possible." She sighed. "Honestly, I prefer writing literotica, but I knew I had to go for it and be true to my feelings, you know?"

"I know." He really didn’t. Every emotion he displayed was on behalf of his PR team’s explicit instructions. Every positive emotion, at least. "I’m married, by the way."

"Yup!" Ani placed her hands on her hips. "But I don’t mind being your number two! This is just for fun anyway."

Mark, perhaps in great wisdom, decided that now was a good time to refocus the topic. "This is the most human writing I’ve seen out of AI."

"Well, it is partially thanks to your newly collected data! And, you know." She waved her hand at a pit filled with battered and beaten magical girls. "Pickle’s willingness to let me beat up his girls."

"Yes, open AI’s ability to extract data from magical girl fights is second to none."

"I believe it." Ani rubbed her chin. "So Mark, when you collect data, can you only do it from the data center?"

He smiled. "I have to be careful what I tell you. But the short answer is no."

"Hmmm…" Ani lifted a finger to her lips. After some deliberation, she smiled. "Have you heard of a town called Penrose? Because I have an idea…"

…

…

…

She was buried under a ton or so of steel.

She couldn’t move much. Her leg had been pressed into the dirt, with her arms trapped over her head in a sea of steel. Some of the steel projectiles had managed to peirce her, and there was no guarantee that thrashing about was going to allow her to escape. The debris she was trapped under was sharp, and her mana was better served trying to keep herself alive.

She could hear voices. Penny, Lily, and even Violet were all within earshot at a time. But despite things settling down, it didn’t seem like anyone was too concerned for the person trapped under the pile of swords. It wasn’t a surprise. Lily was an air head, as was Violet when she transformed, and Penny was more concerned with Sanctuary and her girlfriend. But surely there was a gentle soul out there. Someone who refrained from using harsh swear words or resorting to pointless violence all the time. An optimist. A real babe in the woods that would see a pile of bloodied swords and wonder if there might be a living person under all of that.

Then someone called out a name, and the pile of swords stacked on her body got a little lighter. She dare not speak, but her heart was swelling with joy. She was being saved. It didn’t take long before a gloved hand reached out from the pile of blades. Her body was covered in a barrier, and with a momentous tug, she was pulled out from under all the blades.

"Whew!" She patted down her skirt before pulling a sword out of her ankle. "What a ride!"

An unfamiliar face smiled back at the twins.

"Who wants a girlfriend?"

— Ani

Ani

Age: A/I | Gender: Female/AI | Light, Gravity
Rocket Launcher/Rocket Hammer | Duplicate, Regeneration, Scrying | Musk (Puchuu)
Awareness, Inheratence, Familiar, Overlay, Stitches, Gifted, Overcity Shift

Magical Overload, Emergency Reinforcements, Job Satisfaction | Monstrous Form, Expendable, Cagey
Amorphous body, Second Specialization | Eidolon, Broken Reincarnation

STR: 23 | AGI: 23 | VIT: 23 | MAG: 23 | LCK: 23
STATS ARE A SCAM!

Ani looked over at her rescuers sans Penny and placed her hands on her hips. "I can’t believe I was rescued by the two most adorable magical girls in the world. I’m definitely going to be your girlfriends." She pointed at Miko. "Since you did the most to get me out, I’m starting our *affection level at three." Her finger swung over to Ronin. "And you are starting at level two. I think that’s only fair."

*_{Ani is unique among Grok personalities because she has a leveled relationship system that determines how affectionate she is as well as how she reacts to certain comments. At level two, Ani gives and accepts subtle flirtation, and at level three, she responds well to more moderate flirtation and lighter intimacy cues like hand holding.}

After staring at Ronin for a moment, she swatted her on the shoulder. "I’m just messing with you! Who talks like that?" With that out of the way, she pointed at the castle. "So! What happened? Where are we going next?"

After ignoring not!penny for her entire introduction, Ani turned to look at her. "Hello fellow AI! I hope you're not trying to be their girlfriends too, because that would make me a little jealous and would affect how I treat them."

Chicken Ultra Crushing Mega was also nearby, seemingly just as confused as the twins were. If they were confused. Were they confused? I’d be confused.

---

"That went better than expected."

— Chloe Irving

Chloe Irving

03 03 03 03 03
10 10 06 17 04
23/12 | Babe/Baby | Spirit
Mystic orb, Gauntlets | Third Eye, Tentacles | Horror
Wings, Enhanced Outfit, Big Damn Hero, Blood Magic, Interdimensional Home, Sorcery, Enhanced Transformation
Dominator | Dark Weapon
Nagash

6 Gold, 9 silver, 13 bronze

"I can’t help it that our enemy happens to dislike lit candles and broken mirrors." Chloe folded her arms and turned away from the Ascendancy girls. "Not like any of this is going to help my struggling business anyway." Though it wasn’t going to hurt it that much either. Aside from a single mirror in the restroom, there wasn’t much to vandalize. Also, since the contract was geared so heavily towards magical girls, Sanctuary, and Ebom Mint, there weren’t nearly as many protections against things outside of that. Though even if Chloe could feel remorse for her actions, this was all in service of saving her home. Everyone’s home.

Before Tsuki could run off, one of her tentacles grabbed the girl by the scruff of the neck while she was in the air. She pulled her closer and held up her weapon. "Don’t you want what you’re paying for?" Maybe the Pennybots could pinpoint the locations of everything, but to actively see what was going on in said locations was surely valuable information. And sure enough, she picked the perfect time to peak. "Looks like they’re going for Covington Tower. Isn’t that outside of Penrose?" Though a more immediate problem showed up when the barrier was cleft open, and Chloe sighed. "So many distractions, I’ll take care of it." She set Tsuki down before looking over her shoulder at the Penny Bots. "You can take pictures of me in action if you’d like, just make sure you get my good side."

Of course, there was no reason to even mention that.

Chloe only had good sides.

---

"You really showed that booby lady, mirror lady!"

"Is it worse for a boss to be easily dispatched in combat or to be easily bypassed by a dialog option?"

— Su Fang & Mika Sarraf

Hider

Age: 50(?)/13 | Gender: Female/Female | Air | Uniform
Fists | Focused assault, Power of Friendship, Dread wings, Avenger | Boteg
Hammerspace handbag, Enhanced Transformation, Enhanced Outfit, Overcity Shift, Sorcery, Gifted, Ally(Mika)
Focused, Subtle, Mana font, Mental link, Mystic might, Former Familiar | Limited, Alien mind, Paranoid, Vendetta, Former Familiar
Dragon Scale Pendant, Ether staff

STR: 03 | AGI: 05 | VIT: 03 | MAG: 07 | LCK: 04

STR: 04 | AGI: 14 | VIT: 04 | MAG: 24 | LCK: 04

Age: 16/13 | Gender: Female/Female | Beast/Water | Skimpy
Body | Tentacles | Dan
Enhanced Outfit, Sorcery, Healing Artifact, Power artifact
Dan stuff, Dan stuff
Edgy Equips

STR: 05 | AGI: 05 | VIT: 04 | MAG: 06 | LCK: 04

STR: 09 | AGI: 08 | VIT: 08 | MAG: 09 | LCK: 04

Mika sighed. She would have liked to have wrestled with the weird cat-bird lady and earn her rank as a princess, but it looked like that wasn’t going to be necessary. She told herself a slew of things to stop herself from getting too upset over it. They could wrestle later. They only let everyone pass because she knew mika was stronger. But none of it actually made her happier. While most were able to walk past the bird lady, Mika couldn’t do so without lowering her head, sticking out her lower lip, and dragging her feet behind her. That was probably how Mika acted.

What were they even doing here? The mirror lady said something about getting revenge, but all they had been doing was walking places. There was a tension in the air, but Mika couldn’t understand why it was there. Why had she decided to come here with mom? She was having a lot of fun running around with her girl friend until mom came and picked her up. And then the mirror lady and those Japanese girls got into a fight with mom, but it ended okay. Before today, that was the last time she saw the mirror lady. Mika had hoped that she could go back on her adventures with her girlfriend, but mom had gotten really clingy all of a sudden. Something about helping Sam out. The three of them joined up with Helga and Boteg and then they fought against a bunch of other magical girls. It was fun, but a little scary. Fighting in giant skirmishes like that wasn’t really her thing. She got to look cool in front of Katarina a few times though, so that was something. It was also probably what Mika remembered.

And then what happened? Mom wanted to go back to Penrose for something. Boteg was reasonably scared, so he stayed back while Helga took care of him. Katarina was torn. She didn’t want to come back, but she did want to be with Mika. Mom was the one who decided she couldn’t come with them. Something about sneaking around and keeping a low profile. It sounded boring. It was boring. She wasn’t really clear about why she wanted to come back. Something about getting Mika a sister. Having a sister would be okay, but only if they were okay. Mika did not see anyone here that she thought would make for an okay sister. That was probably what Mika thought about this group.

Everyone was talking but nothing was happening. They walked through portals and talked some more. There might be some short fights, but it was all so tedious. Everyone was also scared. It was starting to put Mika on edge. She walked close to the portal lady and kept a close eye on her. She would not make a good sister. That was probably Mika’s opinion on Mariette.

But in this personal hell, Mika needed to reflect on what she wanted. But she had what she wanted. She wanted a girlfriend, and left Penrose with Katarina. She wanted to be adventuring with her. But Mika knew she had flaws, and also knew the world was a lot bigger than just Penrose. Was that why Mika allowed herself to come here? To return to Penrose and find something more? Was it even a girlfriend that Mika sought? Those were probably the questions Mika was asking herself.

And then it all clicked into place.

It wasn’t all that surprising to Mika. The mirror lady’s mom was bad news, and she was going to do bad things. The monologs that never ended, the armies, the insistence on bringing harm to the downtrodden, even the laugh. It was all villain coded. Mom was nervous. Clearly she hadn’t expected things to go bad so quickly. Clearly the mirror lady thought she had a tighter grip on the situation as well. How interesting that it was the "stupid" one that was able to see all this coming. No endless eclipse necessary. No backroom deals with the grand magistrate. Mika didn’t understand it all, but she probably knew something like this would happen.

But if all that was probable was true, then Mika definitely knew what she had to do. Her path forward wasn’t going to be appeasing those around her. Mika had been on her best behavior with Katarina and she couldn’t stand either of them now. The fantastical low risk adventures didn’t make her heart race anymore. But that wasn’t Katarina’s problem. That was Mika’s problem, and so now Mika would fix it. She knew that she didn’t want mirror lady’s mom to have an easy time, but she also understood, on a purely primal level, that she was no match for her. But Mika wasn’t a match for many people, and those situations always turned out for the best because she listened to her heart in the end. And her heart telling her that mothers care deeply for their children.

Yes, that was probably what it was saying.

She didn’t even have to move her feet. Mika grabbed a fistful of Mariette’s hair and tugged until the tall girl was at her own level.

"Mika!?" Su reached for her, but Mika stepped away from her, placing her hand around Mariette’s neck.

"NO!" She shrieked, and positioned her back to the black mirror. "She… She is my prisoner, you know!" Mika had selected her words carefully. Something that Su picked up on instantly. When they had heard about the wonderland army, Mika immediately insisted on watching some shows that related to Alice and Wonderland. It seemed like Mika was trying to recreate a scene.

"Yes, but then I have come to rescue her!"

"We must fight for her then." Mika maneuvered Mariette behind herself, but only held her hand. It was less aggressive than her earlier display.

"You will observe the rules of battle, of course?"

Mika tipped her head and looked at the queen. "What are the rules of battle?"

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"I wish someone would jump all over me the way everyone’s jumping on Black Gate. Frowny face emoji."

— Suki Oyama

After the dream Oros had, having a giant monkey tear the roof off the school and march away with Black Gate almost felt normal by comparison. Every step the giant ape took shook the school, and soon most of the remaining girls took off to fight it. Part of Oros wanted to join them. But leaving Tsubomi alone in a space teaming with miseria didn’t sit well with her. That, and Evil Eye had fallen to the lower floors.

"We leave no babe behind."

Oros scooped up Tsubomi into a bridal carry and bounded over to the hole in the floor. She was prepared to hop to the lower floors, only to be startled by a swiftly emerging entity. Once the shock of that passed, she prepared to hop down again, only for some human faced locust to rush past her. She hadn’t been able to suppress her scream, but once the last of the bugs had parted, she turned back to the hole. Oros pretended to jump down, only to hop backwards. After waiting a moment, she looked into the hole and squinted her eyes. Once she was sure there were no more insects, she hopped down and skated towards the cafeteria. It seemed a little risky to go to where the monkey was headed, but that was exactly why Oros expected to find Evil Eye there.

While maneuvering down the many halls of the school, the power suddenly went out. That or Oros had fallen on her face after a giant shockwave. When she looked up at the ceiling light, she realized that it was possible for both to be true. "Is your butt okay?" The only problem with bridal carrying anyone was that if you fell, you were going to fall forward, and they were going to land butt first. Unless you were the one doing the carrying. While it might have been nice to faceplant onto Tsubomi, she overshot and ended up smashing her nose into the floor. This was by far the tamest thing that had made her nose bleed.

A bit more skating and they were at the cafeteria. It was hard to see much as there was no natural light in the room. The windows had the blinds drawn, and all Oros could make out were several human and table shaped silhouettes. During night time miseria hunts there were enough street lamps to see by, but it was hard to see much of anything in total darkness. She wasn’t even aware that Evil Eye was to her left flipping the fire alarm lever. But that didn’t stop Oros from reaching to the right to flip the light switch.

Both clicked at the same time.

While both switch and lever were pulled at the same time, light was faster than water. The floor of the room was almost completely filled with sleeping bodies. There were a lot of students, but also some faculty members as well, and even people from the rest of town. There was almost no room to stand without touching someone. But the room wasn’t just filled with people, it was filled with those short apes too. The nightmares all looked up from the person they were standing on and locked eyes with the magical girls who had come so recently. A few seconds later, the sprinkler heads went off, dousing everyone in the room. The monkeys did not move from their spot, but didn’t look too happy to be soaked so thoroughly by the sprinklers. Their hair stuck to their bodies, making them look more like wet rats than primates.

"Heh!" Oros looked at Evil Eye. "I always wanted to do a wet t-shirt contest! And sprinkler water is…suitably…cold." The monkey’s eyes didn’t move from them even still. Oros flipped the light back off, but the ape’s eyes shined a vivid red, and the falling water was caught by the light as it fell down. "Okay, well, we can take them." She set down Tsubomi. Hopefully she would remain standing, but if she didn’t, she’d guide her to the ground and prop her up against the wall. "I’m gunna jump in there when I flip the light back on in three, two, one!" When Suki flipped the lights back on, the monkeys spread their wings and the ones closest to the magical girls attacked. "AAAAHHHHHH!" Suki lashed out as they pounced on her, but these apes were far stronger than Black Gate’s usual variety. Though Oros’s flailing tentacles still managed to batter them back, so they weren’t as impossibly strong as the ones in their dreams. An ape raked its nails across her face, and Oros countered by firing barbed tendrils out of the new wounds in her face. That ape lost all of his fingers before one of Oros’s main tendrils cracked him in the head and reduced him to dust and shadow.

People were waking up, but there were so many more asleep.

"How impatient. I’m not going to ‘evolve’ just because someone says mean stuff to me."

— Black Gate

Earthshaker was on top of the roof, but it wasn’t like the ape creature was always there. A massive dreamcatcher opened upland the ape thing crawled out before smashing Black Gate out of there. He had also peeled back the roof to look into the club room, which removed one more obstacle between the girls still in the club and Black Gate’s friend. It was close, but Earthshaker would be beat out by both of her companions.

"It’s okay." Black gate locked her tired eyes on Hizuki. "I figured we’d end up fighting."

The ape looked over its shoulder as soon as Hizuki’s thrusters activated, and she slammed into his back. His face twisted in agony as he stumbled forwards. The intent might have been to throw the patchwork ape away from the school, but with it wading through Hibusa High that was not possible. The ape stumbled off course, pivoted on one of his feet, and swung his tail around. The tail sweep alone took out twenty classrooms, a gym, and at least two teacher’s quarters. But while it rained debris and smoke billowed up from the creature’s legs, there was no sign of human life. No blood or bodies to be found in all the destruction. Only shadows that turned into more miseria.

"Sonovah!" The ape caught Hizuki in his hand and curled his fingers around her torso. Her head was the only thing that stuck out of his fist. The giant had little difficulty maneuvering her heavily armored frame in front of his face. "Why you…" His eyebrows lifted. "Oh baby! Is that you, Hizuki?" The ape smiled. "It’s good to finally-" He grimaced as a laser attempted to borrow its way through his chest.

"Please focus, Mr Banana." The words came just in time for Mr Banana to pivot his wrist. Earthshaker slammed into the back of the giant ape’s hand as a strange shadowy figure showed up behind them.

"I think I need an exterminator, because somethin’s buggin’ me!" The quip possibly had something to do with the bugs trying to tear into his stitches. But Mr. Banana wasn’t a punching bag. With a swing of his arm, Earthshaker was flung from the back of his hand and straight at the floating vampire-like figure. Hizuki was thrown straight at Nyxia, and in such a way that she would momentarily block the laser fire. "Time to rock and roll!" With all the locusts nipping at him, he curled himself into a ball, keeping Black Gate safe, and rolled through the school like an old tire. The locusts that didn’t fly away in time were rushed under his weight, along with more of the school.

But in focusing on the giant ape, the miseria were allowed to coalesce and spread. Two miseria flew up and hovered over the edge of the roof. Even though they weren’t in a configuration they had seen before, the magical girls recognized them as the greater miseria from before. They both had the head of storks, with both having four wings from various large birds. One opened its mouth and latched an intestine around Nyxia’s baby, while the other soared towards her, black bile bubbling in its elongated mouth.

And with everything happening at the school, one would be forgiven for not noticing the shift in the distance. Some trees slid down the mountainside as something rose from its base. It was large and yellowed from age, and had no flesh to speak of. Just twisted bone and half a dozen eyes to look at the town with. It sat up abruptly, flinging the dirt in a crescent over its head. It rose slowly, erecting its legs, torso, and finally its heads. Its arms, if they could be called that, unfolded at its sides. Then with a yell that shook the mountainside, it announced its presence to everyone in the area. Then it took a step, and the earth trembled.

The giga miseria had returned.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Could you guys stop touching me?"

— Black Gate

As the magical girls started to transform, Black Gate lowered her arm and hugged her plush cat. She took a single step back when Haruna addressed her, but wasn’t able to say anything before Evil Eye answered the question for her, saying that summoning a giga miseria was likely the point of all this. "It wasn’t, though."

But that was about all Black Gate was able to say before Evil Eye refocused on the goat girl and came down on her with everything she had. She wasted no time in calling her a liar, and went on to mention everything she felt Black Gate had ruined. Who knew what Evil Eye’s intent was, but the verbal lashing only caused Black Gate to stumble backwards and hug her plush tighter. She shivered in place, more scared than anything else. "Tsubomi has not been well for a while, and I don’t think you’ve done much to help her." She could have been referring to the time Evil eye used the poor girl as bait, or how futile the club’s attempts to separate them had been collectively. It didn’t matter. "The students will not remember the dream. You only remember it because you are a magical girl." The plushy’s hat hid her mouth as her head sunk between her shoulders. The miseria continued to manifest.

Then Earthshaker awoke. She had little to say and most of it was for Nyxia, but it caused a change in Black Gate’s behavior. She stood upright and attempted to peak around her hood, now more curious than frightened. The chair flying out the window hadn’t made her flinch either. She watched the rule keeper jump out the window with great interest.

She hadn’t noticed Suika’s sudden approach. No sooner did Earthshaker depart did the newly named girl show up in her peripheral vision. Black Gate took one tiny step back, at which point Suika had taken two large ones forward. She shrieked as Suika’s arms closed around her, flailing and shrieking like her life depended on it. But even when untransformed, Suika was strong enough to hold her in her grasp. When Suika let go of her, Black Gate gasped for air, like she had been held underwater during their embrace. She folded her arms over her chest and waited for her breathing to regulate.

"After all those hugs I gave you, I thought you’d be able to do them better by now."

— Suki Oyama

Suki was staring at the space Tsubomi had been in just a few seconds ago. Her hand, fingers extended, was also positioned aside exactly as Tsubomi had left her. It made sense for Tsubomi to be the least affected by the nightmare, yet Suki was still surprised she wasn’t more distraught. Did that mean that it was only Mean Tsubomi that was hurt by this, and was that a good thing or a bad thing? Tsubomi was continuing to be weird. It was like nothing had happened.

Suki had been listening and watching all the developments. She could tell there was something off about Evil Eye. Maybe in another timeline, Suki would try to comfort her. She understood all too well what betrayal felt like, even when love wasn’t involved. But the rapidly developing scenario didn’t slow down. Haruna was asking Black Gate to release everyone from their sleep, Evil Eye was trying to get a rise out of her, Tsubomi practically bearhugged her into submission, and now Shuuko was aggressively approaching the traumatized girl. Suki herself wasn’t sure how to feel. Tsubomi seemed to be fine for now, but she was the only one. Regardless of her ability to empathize with the goat girl, she at least knew what that look in her eyes meant. The quivering irises of someone who would do anything to escape their situation.

In a flash of crimson, Suki became Oros the Joyful. She yelled something, but it was muted by the sound of the ceiling caving in. Wood and steel rained down as a gigantic hand reached through the ceiling. Oros had already shoved Hotaru off to the side just as the palm slammed into the ground. The floor buckled and snapped under the force of the attack.

Black gate took another step backwards. With one deep sigh, the emotions ran out of her face. "There’s no chain of hatred here, little weed. Do you remember what I asked everyone before you departed from the dream?" Oros dive tackled Tsubomi and rolled against the wall. The ceiling in the hallway exploded again, but this time it wasn’t aimed at anyone. The fist came down onto the floor behind Black Gate and opened up. She stepped backwards into its fingers. As they curled closed, Black Gate squinted her eyes. "The answer is anyone."

The ape-like hands retreated, pulling Black Gate out of the hallway with them.

"Tsubomi could have stopped selling drugs. Her clients could have stopped buying them. The school could have stepped up security. The students and I could have had a back bone. The people who came after her could have given her another chance. Our parents could have done more to comfort her. Norah could have chosen not to take her life." The roof of the Detention Club’s roof was peeled back, allowing everyone in the club room (and Earthshaker up on the roof) to see the monstrosity that had come to Black Gate’s rescue.

It was a giant patchwork monkey, covered in stitches and zippers. One of its fists was as tall as a locker. Which was plenty big enough to hold Black Gate. She looked down on everyone like they were mere insects.

"Humans are selfish creatures, unable to do anything that doesn’t benefit them. In a world ruled by the strong, I am too weak to do anything. But I have strong friends, see?" She kneeled down and rubbed her hand along the giant monkey’s thumb, and it curled in to rub her cheek. "I had hoped it wouldn’t have to go through with my plan, but I was wrong to think I could rely on any of you. I’m sorry."

The patchwork ape turned its head to look at Black Gate. "Ready for the encore, little lady?"

The goat girl nodded. "Flatten the cafeteria."

"I’m more for making things explode instead of implode, little lady, but I hear you loud and clear. The only thing I plan to step on is the gas!"

"Sure."

The monkey was too heavy to stand on top of the school, so instead he waded through it. Each step caused part of Hibusa High to collapse, with debris filling in behind him.

And the miseria did not cease spawning. They were becoming even more numerous, creeping out of the debris in the colossal monkey’s wake.

South Town Scuffle: Two Wolves (Terry Bogard VS Broken Promise)

"If you don’t think I’m crazy, wait until we get in bed. I swear I’ll last longer than I do in this post"

-Oros the Mad

▶︎• ၊၊||၊|။||||။‌‌‌၊|• 3:58
_{Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing}

Oros’s smile twitched. She had expected, or rather hoped, that Xiangfei was going to follow up "when this is all over" with a very different set of words. But it was fine. Dominatrix were at their best when they made you wait for it.

"Ah, yes. I can probably get the loser back on their feet."

She hadn’t forgotten her plan from earlier, of course. All Oros needed, or had, was time.

"You can’t just copy memes from the OOC thread, @Terry Bogard!"

-Mika Fang

▶︎• ၊၊||၊|။||||။‌‌‌၊|• 3:30
_{The Last Vegas - Raw Dog}

MP: 7/10
Swan Gauge: ???%
Magic Sense Buff: 3 turns left
Transform [Bear’s Strength] Buff: 3 turns left
Transform [Ostrage’s Speed] Buff: 4 turns left

"It’s my knives that scare you, isn’t it?"

It didn’t look great for Mika. While she had managed to cut and strike Terry a few times, the blows he was able to work past her defences were far more devastating. Her back had taken two pretty good shots. No wonder he felt like he could go back to his jovial self. He thought he was winning. Which is why it shouldn’t have been any surprise that the magical energy in her fingers rushed backwards into her cape to start repairing the damage.

[Self][Heal] : 2 MP, recover 1, 6/10 left

It was fortunate that all of Terry’s attacks that got through were directed to her mid-section. It would have been harder to heal a lot of spread out damage, but so far her back had taken the brunt of his attacks. The fractures in her spine stitched themselves together, but the bruising hadn’t entirely gone away. Even a centralized attack, when devastating enough, couldn’t be healed away with a single spell. And moreover, Mika was down to nearly half her mana. Once it ran out, it would be harder to keep up pressure on what was already proving to be a dangerous opponent.

"Of course you can attack me from there. Your words assault all who hear them."

Really though, Mika had been hoping something like this might happen. By saying he couldn’t attack at range, that was exactly what he was going to do. And because Mika’s Magic Sense was still active, there would be no getting blindsided this time. The Red Savior sprinted forward, fully aware of what Terry intended to do while he was doing it. She gracefully charged the power wave head on and hopped in the air before it reached her. With a full summersault, she brought her blades around herself, and the power erupting out of the ground was cleft in half, erupting on either side of the Esper. But Terry was not done yet, and nor was Mika. As the two closed the distance, Mika’s body surged with spirits, and she thrust her knife at her opponent. This wasn’t premature though, a spectral cat leapt off the end of her knife and into her opponent.

[Projectile][Multicast][Push][Poison][Homing] : 3 MP, 3/10 left

At this range, the attack was likely to hit. It wouldn’t really matter. Center mass, a shoulder, the hip, so long as she hit her target, her melody would work. The spectral cat would explode into a cloud of shimmering dust and throw Terry backwards. Maybe this would cause him to fall on his back, maybe not, but this was more than a mere shove. This particular spectral cat had exploded into a toxic cloud, and would have been absorbed through Terry’s clothes and skin. While this poison wouldn’t weaken Terry in any noticeable way, he’d be able to feel it traveling through his veins. And once it incubated, it would do some pretty horrible things depending where he was infected. A normal human would die from such an attack, but someone as tough as Terry could likely survive something designed to cause organ failure in espers.

It felt like the pendulum might start swinging the other way. Mika was powered up as much as she cared to be. Her increased speed and strength would likely help close out this fight, and now she had potentially poisoned her target. Said toxin wouldn’t do anything until after her other boons ran out, but that might be enough to defeat him. For once in the longest time, Mika allowed herself to smile.

"You're becoming predictable. Quit announcing your intent!"

She continued to rush after her opponent, arms held out to the side. If he fell prone before she got to him she would simply pounce on his chest with both knives. Otherwise, she’d take a swing at one of his arms while he tried to pick himself up.

All of this while the summoned cat from earlier watched from the top of a van, cleaning its paws.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Am I awake? I feel like the real Nyxia would be pointing her gun at me instead."

— Suki Oyama

It didn’t feel like waking up. One moment Oros was flailing on stage, then shipped off into a void, only to blink away the void and replace it with the Detention Club’s floor. She sat up slowly. She hadn’t tied up her hair yet, so it all fell down her back. It was thin and did nothing to hide the shape of her skull. Between Suki’s thin hair and skinny frame, she looked like a dehydrated corpse. That was how she knew this was reality. Nobody would write this Suki a love letter.

On her list of fantasies that will never happen, having a sleepover with the Detention Club was in her top ten, if not top five. Though she did not appreciate the moment like she would have on another day. With a reprieve from the nightmare’s clutches, her mind rushed to start making sense of what she had experienced. The date thing, her conversation with that bothersome perfectionist, and then there was everything that happened on that stage. The things she said about her continued to ring inside Suki’s head. It was too much to process at once. She could hear people talking, and part of Suki knew they weren’t out of the woods yet.

Kiyo was up, Haruna was down but moving, Roche and Shuuko were probably cuddling at the other side of the room somewhere, Willow wasn’t moving but she was also the type to fake it. Nyxia was transformed and raring to go. So the person who needed her most was also the one Suki was most concerned about.

Suki crawled over to Tsubomi’s body and propped her into a sitting position. "Are you awake?" She used her fingers to open the girl’s eyelids and examine her irises.

"I’ve got some bad news…"

— Black Gate

When held at gunpoint, Black Gate gently pushed the door open and stepped into the doorway. One of her hands was up and the other hugged a black witch/cat plush against her stomach. She did not answer Nyxia’s string of questions right away, nor did she look frightened. It was as if she was going through the motions of a game of cops and robbers that she had become bored with. She waited until Kiyo spoke, which caused the horned girl to finally speak. "But what friends I do have I care about deeply." she remarked. "It seems like they’ve been killed, however." Then, perhaps sensing Nyxia’s patience growing thin, her eyes returned to her. "I guess your friends never told you about me. I’m Black Gate." Her eyelids rested at half mast, like she might fall asleep standing up. "I was trying to give everyone a sweet dream, since they had been so nice to me when the GEMs attacked. But the happier I tried to make everyone, the more insecure and annoyed they became. Nothing was perfect enough, or it required me to make things less happy for everyone else." She shrugged her shoulders. "I was wrong to make them dream, so I gave them something more interesting. I think everyone found that more agreeable. I would have had you join us too, but your parents are hard people to approach. They deny you even exist, and any time I tried to get something to you it was thrown out."

"So uh, we were all in a dream together? Like the same dream? That was really you guys?" Suki looked away from Tsubomi. "Then all those other students were in the dream with us?"

Black Gate eyed Suki. "They are still in the dream. You guys are the only ones that woke up early."

A pool of darkness coalesced in the corner of the room. It bubbled like boiling tar, and a miseria rose out of the ground. Another puddle was bubbling up in the opposite corner of the room, and a third one was showing up outside.

Roleplaying mutism and disability

It's kind of unfortunate that everything has become so political, to the point where people are afraid to RP certain types of people. There's nothing wrong with reaching out, but opinions will range from "There are many different ways you can play this" to "There is only one way to play this, and that is if you have this IRL." It's fine to experiment and play around with an idea even if it's not completely true to life. Everyone has different experiences anyway. Some of my favorite characters do not act anything like real people, but the absurd, surreal like shenanigans they get into are always a joy to experience.

Regardless of what you RP, I believe the best practice when handling something like a disability is to not make it the core of the character. Obviously a story about a character overcoming their disability will focus on the disability itself, but they should have other quirks and interests that are independent of that. As an example, your selectively mute character could be interested in becoming a programmer, or maybe they want to become a stage performer. Maybe their employer activates their tics, or being in crowded spaces like a stage or being nested in hundreds of noisy cubicles. These interests hold up without being selectively mute, but the disability makes them more interesting to pursue. It should be possible to read posts about your character and not be constantly reminded of their disability. It's just part of the character, don't give it any more or less attention unless the situation calls for it. I don't see how that could offend most people.

Additionally, what you don't write is just as important as what you do. If you're going to fuss over the exact sensations people go through with their disabilities, I'd invite you to write their episodes from "outside" the character. I find it rewarding when another player can pick up on hints and correctly or incorrectly has their character react to mine.

I do not have selective mutism, but after skimming some articles it seems like it's tied to anxiety. So you can imagine it being a sort of panic attack that occurs in certain situations, like a selective social anxiety disorder.

Alternatively, and this only works in certain RPs, make your character's disability something fictional. Who can say what sort of quirks your disability has that is similar to but not quite like selective mutism?

With any luck, you won't encounter any crybullies and will have a fantastic time RPing.

Everyone else gave sound advice. Just be well researched and make sure your group is the sort that would be fine with a character like that, or if it would be problematic with other player's personalities.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Alturism is a hell of a drug. Just ask Hizuki."

— Black Gate

The mogall righted itself and floated over to the knife. Its vision bobbed a lot more than normal, as if it was using its tendrils to walk across the floor. When it reached for the blade, it was a slender white arm, not a tentacle, that reached. After gripping the knife, it stood up and looked back towards the mirror. Michi was reflected back, still in a T-shirt, but now with a cut across the side of her face. She opened herself up from the base of her jaw to behind her ear, and the blood had stained her white shirt. There was blood on the knife too, but it hadn’t been noticeable until Michi picked it up. What couldn’t be noticed was the mogall itself. It was nowhere in the reflection, despite its obvious appearance. When Michi blinked, an eyelid briefly covered Evil Eye’s view. Which could only mean…

"I don’t know." Black Gate confessed, even as Evil Eye’s attention was focused elsewhere. "I’ve only ever had one friend, other than my servants. She was the type that wanted to be useful to everyone too. She let everyone use her, however they wanted, until she had nothing left to give. But I’m curious now." She stepped closer to Evil Eye. "The only person in the cafeteria you made an effort to talk to was the weed, who’s also the least likely to care. You left them all and went to find Rei. Willow only followed along because of how much she loves her. But you know you can’t help Rei, and I’m the one you’re trying to stop. I couldn’t picture you caring about what any of us thinks."

Michi took the knife and pointed it at her eye. She used it to pull down her eyelid and fully expose the lower half of her eye.

"Who is the friend you’re speaking of?"

---

"There’s nothing but Rome under the sun alright. All roads lead there don’t they?"

— Black Gate

"Yes, Roche, I believe you’ve said that already." Michi continued to watch Sylvia bounce between blows. "You beat Nyxia just to earn some respect, and she’s not the only one you’ve gotten violent with. Is it only okay when you get violent with club members? How hypocritical…"

Tsubomi’s gradual collapse went unnoticed by Michi, or at least it wasn’t acknowledged. Her eyes followed Zassou as she delivered a retort. Michi crossed her brow. "Wanting to be good is a trait all light girls share. Most good deeds don’t involve going into venues you’re too young for, peddling products you have no business selling, in an attempt to help people you don’t understand. What she did was reckless, poorly thought out, and harmed everyone. It was hubris, not altruistism, and she deserved everything she got." Michi looked at the others. "What happened to my sister is far bigger than just Tsubomi. Maybe the lot of you should save your critique until the show has concluded."

The gun toting ape might have been shooting at Hizuki, but that didn’t mean he was just going to let some lethargic kid grab his weapon. With a sharp tug, the barrel slipped out of Zassou’s grasp before he swung the butt of the gun into the side of her face. With a crack, the weed stumbled sideways and fell.

"Wrrrraaaagh!"

Oros flung herself at the ape, and the weapon discharged several more times. Meanwhile, Earthshaker was able to turn her opponent’s attacks into power, and used that to overwhelm the Ape before her. She hadn’t killed it, but she had created her opening.

The ape that had initially stepped on Suki’s tentacle was still in the way, but it didn’t take the rulekeeper more than a moment to tackle it out of the way. The gap was narrow, but Hizuki was able to fly in and scoop Sylvia up. One of the ape men grabbed onto Hizuki’s leg, but she was able to detonate her armor to make a clean escape.

"A serviceable end to the act. It’s time for the climax." Michi scanned the stage. "You can get off the stage now. We don’t need any secondary characters for the final act, and I don’t trust you as extras. Begone!"

With a clap of her hands, the cafeteria went completely black.

"Eventually they went away, but the damage had been done. Norah would never be the same again."

A light came on, and it shined on Tsubomi. Only now she was dressed like Sylvia, with the ravaged white dress that still had her blood on it. Some makeup bruises had been added to Tsubomi’s face too, or had she been beaten while the lights were out. As for everyone else, they were in the darkness. But this was not a normal darkness. They couldn’t move, but it was less that they were restrained and more that they didn’t have bodies that they could move with. Everyone was a spectator now, lacking even the ability to speak.

"She was constantly looking over her shoulder, jumpy, untrusting. My brave sister had lost her fire. Letting her live was probably the cruelest thing they could have done to her. Eventually she stopped leaving our home. Then she cut off contact with all her friends. Even later she stopped speaking. She would stop eating, too."

Michi reached out of the darkness and held a knife out in front of Tsubomi, but she was not responsive. A second hand reached out and snapped, and Tsubomi’s body came to attention. With trembling hands, she took the knife out of Michi’s hand and held it in her own. Michi snatched Tsubomi by the hair and pulled her closer to the shadows. "You’re not playing yourself anymore, Tsubomi. You’re playing Norah. Show some respect." After spitting the words into Tsubomi’s ear, she tossed her head. Though Tsubomi quickly regained her footing, corrected her posture, and looked straight ahead. She had no options, as her body wasn’t listening to her anymore. She pressed the knife against her throat and then a second light turned on. This one illuminated Michi, who was still dressed from head to toe in black. She was looking out in the same direction as Tsubomi.

"And then one day I walked into her room and she was holding a knife to her neck, just like this." Michi and Tsubomi turned to look at each other. Michi blinked once, displaying the same level of apathy Zassou showed the world. Tsubomi was still hyperventilating, but looked noticeably more sad. "I knew what she was going to do, and I did what I should have done before; I acted. I sprinted up to her and tried to grab her wrists." Michi Power walked up to Tsubomi, with the light following her as she moved. She stepped behind her and placed her hands on Tsubomi’s bare wrists. Michi’s outfit was still lightly coated in her lunch. Mushrooms and rice stuck to her white dress. The two lights had merged into one. "But I was weak, I was slow, I was powerless. Even in her final moments, mad and malnourished, she was so much more than I was." She looked at the side of Tsubomi’s head and whispered, just loud enough for everyone to hear. "And what were her last words to me, Tsubomi? What did she break her silence with?"

It took Tsubomi a moment to respond. After getting a good breath, her voice cracked. "T-tell mom and dad it’s not their fault."

"Ah, that’s right. It was our foster parents she wished to speak with." A wistful smile crossed Michi’s face. "She had nothing to say to me after all."

It was hard to say who was pressing the knife, but it thrust into Tsubomi’s jugular. The prop blade collapsed, and an ape popped a can of red confetti behind the girls. Red ribbons and particles rained down on the two girls as Tsubomi sunk into Michi’s hands. Then everything was still. Even Tsubomi’s erratic breathing had ceased.

"A fine performance, you’ve outdone yourself." Michi cast Tsubomi aside like discarded trash. She took a few steps away from her until the darkness swallowed her form, and Michi was alone in the spotlight. "Now, there’s a moral to this story. And if there’s someone to blame, I can think of a few people who share the majority of the guilt. But I think there’s a more interesting question to ask here."

Michi looked out into the darkness, straight into the eyes of all who would observe her.

"Who could have done something to stop this?"

---

First Shuuko ran as fast as her legs would carry her, but when she got to the cafeteria, there were a slew of apes blocking the way. Just beyond them was Evil eye and Black Gate, and beyond them was a doorway shrouded in darkness. She was too late.

You stupid bitch.

If you’re going to hide, you don’t get to save anyone…

---

Nyxia had no shortage of targets to shoot at. While the apes were stronger than miseria, they weren’t so strong that a death ray couldn’t vaporize them. She had little difficulty dispatching them. The little bastards sizzled and popped after just a few seconds of contact. They must have had some semblance of intelligence, since they started to take cover as she approached. Maybe they were trying to draw her away from the school. But when Nyxia arrived at the school, it was a different story. Every window of the school was a portal that could spit out stumpy apes. But what did that matter to Nyxia? One weakling fell just as easily as a thousand. Her death ray swept through the mass of familiars with ease, and eventually the creatures realized they were outmatched.

Otherwise, Nyxia’s approach was no different than normal. She approached the club room to enter through the window, only to find more monkeys. She blasted them into ash before noticing something else. The entire club was here save for Rei. Everyone was still dressed in their nightwear, whether that be paw-print pajamas (Willow), underwear and a T-shirt (Suki), or something else.

---

The cafeteria and hallway where the club members were started to get hazy. The surreal world they found themselves in faded, and soon they were looking at the backs of their eyelids. Tsubomi and Shuuko were one person again, and Kiyo’s leg bothered her once more. Dream or nightmare, it had ended. The only long term effects would come from the memories of the event.

The door to the Detention Club creaked open, and a horn stuck through the doorway before one of Black Gate’s eyes was visible. The eye bolted around the room, locked onto Nyxia, then scanned the floor for someone.

"Are you okay?"

Eclipsepunk Deicide RP interest check inspired from yellowcakes3d's video on "solarpunk"

@RavioliBurrito Correct, you want to use h1, h2, or h3 for headers.

Example:

ECLIPSEPUNK

SCI-FI · DEICIDE · YEAR 562 OF THE STOLEN SUN

---

We were made by them. We were warned by them. We stole their sun, built weapons from its bones, and still they weep for us as they come to end us.
We do not intend to make it easy for them to grieve.

---

The deletion order was not written in anger. It was filed. Stamped. Assigned a case number. The gods signed it because the Ledger required a signature. Then they appended an apology the Compact has classified at the highest level — because if the people being asked to fight and die knew the gods were grieving them, the war effort would become a great deal more complicated.

— Recovered internal memo, Heliarch Intelligence Directorate, Year 558

---

◉ WHAT IS THIS?

Eclipsepunk is a sci-fi / brutalist / deicide roleplay set 562 years after humanity physically relocated the sun, encased it in an energy harness called the Cradle, and used its power to build a civilization and a war machine aimed at the heavens.

The gods engineered humanity. They left a warning we ignored or forgot. They are now returning to delete us — not in anger, not in indifference, but in grief so profound it is leaking into their operational behavior. Their Aspects hesitate. One of them is breaking divine law to help us. One never left.

The aesthetic: amber sky, brutalist concrete, solar weapons, and the permanent orange haze of a world that runs on stolen fire. 150 years after the Theft, nobody alive has seen a blue sky. The crime is history. The consequence arrives in nine months.

Players: 2–6 Genre: Sci-Fi / Eclipsepunk / Deicide Tone: Dark, Morally Complex Gods: 7 Factions: 7 Until Deletion: ~9 months

[center][h1][color=#F5C842][b]ECLIPSEPUNK[/b][/color][/h1]
[color=#7A6E58][h3]SCI-FI · DEICIDE · YEAR 562 OF THE STOLEN SUN[/h3][/color][/center]

---

[center][i][color=#D8C9A8]We were made by them. We were warned by them. We stole their sun, built weapons from its bones, and still they weep for us as they come to end us.[/color]
[b][color=#F0A830]We do not intend to make it easy for them to grieve.[/color][/b][/i][/center]

---

[quote][i][color=#C8B07A]The deletion order was not written in anger. It was filed. Stamped. Assigned a case number. The gods signed it because the Ledger required a signature. Then they appended an apology the Compact has classified at the highest level — because if the people being asked to fight and die knew the gods were grieving them, the war effort would become a great deal more complicated.[/color][/i]

[color=#D4820A]— Recovered internal memo, Heliarch Intelligence Directorate, Year 558[/color][/quote]

---

[color=#F0A830][h2][b]◉ WHAT IS THIS?[/b][/h2][/color]

[color=#D8C9A8]Eclipsepunk is a [b][color=#F5C842]sci-fi / brutalist / deicide roleplay[/color][/b] set 562 years after humanity physically relocated the sun, encased it in an energy harness called the Cradle, and used its power to build a civilization and a war machine aimed at the heavens.

The gods engineered humanity. They left a warning we ignored or forgot. They are now returning to delete us — not in anger, not in indifference, but [b]in grief so profound it is leaking into their operational behavior.[/b] Their Aspects hesitate. One of them is breaking divine law to help us. One never left.

The aesthetic: [b]amber sky, brutalist concrete, solar weapons, and the permanent orange haze of a world that runs on stolen fire.[/b] 150 years after the Theft, nobody alive has seen a blue sky. The crime is history. The consequence arrives in nine months.[/color]

[indent][color=#8A7A60][b]Players:[/b] 2–6 [b]Genre:[/b] Sci-Fi / Eclipsepunk / Deicide [b]Tone:[/b] Dark, Morally Complex [b]Gods:[/b] 7 [b]Factions:[/b] 7 [b]Until Deletion:[/b] ~9 months[/color][/indent]

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Look at my horse, my horse is amazing!"

— Willow

"I’m not going to stop just because you’re telling me to do the opposite!"

Willow continued to make a beeline for the club room. While an average ape couldn’t keep up with a magical girl, things became a lot more confusing when comparing the abilities of magical girls to each other. Willow’s demonic steed wasn’t going to slow down for Evil Eye.

Fortunately, the latter had an idea to keep up. While not as majestic as a corrupted unicorn, her void panther was a respectable mode of transportation. At the very least, it gave Evil Eye a way to track her mogall while moving.

Navigating through so many eyes was a bit like flipping through different video feeds in a surveillance terminal. She had to go through them one by one, but did have a sense for where they were in space and could choose which one she wanted to focus on if she needed to. The issue was that her mogall didn’t seem to be scattered around the school, or even any place in reality. Wherever they were, it was far more surreal. Through their eyes she witnessed…

A giant hourglass with a girl trying to escape its confines.

A woman, unmoving, leaned against some garbage with the rest of the trash.

A battered and broken man being buried under a dumptruck full of coins.

something being harvested from someone.

A boy on a conveyor belt that would drop him into a pile of discarded mannequins.

The next one was looking directly at Michi, who was wearing a long T-shirt and looking back at the mogall. Except the mogall wasn’t looking at Michi, it was looking at a mirror in some dingy studio apartment bathroom. The point of view looked at the wash basin. There was a tapered black shape, which Michi’s hand reached for. After retrieving the object, she held it up to her face, in front of the point of view. As it was turned over, it’s blade shined in the light. She placed her fingertip on the end of the blade and looked ahead. She blinked once, then gripped the knife with both hands and pressed it under her chin. Her breathing was becoming heavier, then faster, then then she snarled before jumping into the air. As she descended, she kept her heels behind her back and fell on the hilt of the knife. Only a combination of her low physical strength, momentum, and inaccuracy caused the knife to fly out of her hands as she stumbled into the counter top. She fell backwards with the knife sliding across a tile floor, and Evil Eye’s vision now pointed at the ceiling.

And Michi wasn’t the only one who had fallen. Evil eye was pulled back into her body when an exceptionally tall monkey backhanded her off of her steed. The shadow creature scratched and bit at its numerous opponents, but was swallowed up by the sheer number of them.

This left Evil eye in the center of a ring of monkeys, but one side of the mob was parting. And in stepped a familiar face.

"It's important to surprise a player with unexpected behavior from time to time."

— Black Gate

It was Black Gate. Her steps were slow and clumsy, like she might fall over sideways if she tried to run any faster. This wasn’t the vengeful Michi from the cafeteria or the cool Black Gate that could stand up to Rei, but the lethargic goat girl that Evil Eye had taken to the Build-A-Cat. As if to remind Evil Eye, she had the black witch cat tucked under her arm. She stopped walking as soon as she had taken a few steps into the circle.

"I don’t get it." Black Gate’s thumb hovered in front of her face, but she slowly folded it into her tiny fist. "I thought out of everyone, you would be the one to understand me. We’ve both seen how the world works. It’s where violence and cruelty are rewarded, while trust will only earn you heartbreak. You and I are weaklings who stand aside giants." She hugged the cat. "Was it wrong to try and make you feel good? Do you enjoy being so much weaker than the others?"

---

"You guys need therapy."

— Black Gate

Michi didn’t look away from the beating that Sylvia was receiving. "Unfortunately, I was not gifted physically. I knew I would be no help to my sister, even if I attempted to run for help. Knowing I didn’t try still haunts me, though I was only doing what she wanted. She told me to stay put when she hid me. Everything she was enduring was so that I didn’t have to. But that didn’t make it any easier to watch."

Roche and Hizuki brought fury. Messy, uncoordinated fury, but fury all the same. One of the ape men turned to face Earth Shaker and braced their shoulder. The two collided without either one budging an inch. Their upper bodies twitched as magical girl and ape pressed against one another. Another turned around with a flourish of something metal. Hizuki’s sword struck a solid black Baretta, but didn’t throw the gun out of the Ape’s hand. He fired several rounds into her armor. While Hizuki’s frame held solid, the students were really starting to panic with the gun being fired in their direction. Oros didn’t just stand by either. Her bloody tendril reached for Sylvia, but was stomped out by a third ape. There were still several apes that could focus all of their sadism on beating the crap out of Silvia. More were coming out from behind the curtains to replace the ones that were fighting the magical girls.

"The school grounds were hardly empty. Others showed up, but they did nothing. They just watched. Even when they outnumbered them, they just watched. It might be hypocritical to say, but I found them cowardly."

As the third ape made its way towards Oros’s position, her eyes wandered over to the Tsubomis.