BrokenPromise

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

"There are too many FUCKING portals! REEEEEEEE!"

— 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!

It didn’t take Ani long to realize that no one was following her. After scanning the area, she noticed the cat door portal, which isn’t to be confused with the portal Mariette opened earlier, or the one Chloe used. Did Chloe use the same portal Mariette used? Either way, it wasn’t the same portal that lead to covington tower, which wasn't to be confused with the black mirror that could act as a portal, and-

Fuck it, this was taken way too many *tokens to figure out. She could overcity shift, she could just place herself in the general vicinity of Covington tower. It was hard, but not impossible to orientate herself near the portal above the dark mirror.

*^{Tokens are units of data processed by AI models. The more complex an operation is, the more tokens it needs to be broken down into in order to be properly understood by the AI.}

As soon as she did, problems started instantly, with a ‘gravity shockwave’ and an assault from some angered spirits.

The mirror may have been Mikayla’s domain, but Penrose belonged to its magical girls. Ani’s hands moved in front of her chest, both palms faced towards each other. No sooner did the gravity attack strike did Ani counter with her own gravity well. The magical girls coming through the cat door portal with her would not shoot up into space, but be gently pulled towards the tower. The use of a gravity well instead of trying to influence everyone’s gravity individually was a conscious calculation, as well as being much less mana intensive. Should the gravity shockwave try to crush everyone into the earth, the lower half of Ani’s gravity well would start pulling in the opposite direction, preventing further harm. As Ani sank, so did the well itself, hopefully bringing everyone to the tower.

But like her unseen opponent, Ani’s spell was twofold. She made everyone coming through the portal invisible and created duplicates that got blasted away by Mikayla’s magic. Penny was not affected by this spell. Not because Ani disliked Penny, because she actually liked her after their brief interaction. If anything, she was annoyed that she was already taken. But her feelings did not come into her choice to exclude her. It was simply that Penny was a capable magical girl and could likely tank anything that came at her.

---

”As a woman, I’m allowed to be indecisive.”

— 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

Chloe loved getting the last word, but she also understood how valuable her time was, and didn’t have a reason to say anything smart to the departing ascendancy girls.

Speaking of, why was she going to waste more of her own time seeing one of her agents? Surely such a thing could wait. The main event was underway, and the bulk of her forces were already with her. If this queen was so dangerous, there was no reason to put off facing her.

“Alright bone heads, let’s give the lightbulbs the backup they so desperately desire.”

There was no cheering or spirit, just mindless obedience from most of her forces. A Gothizard Harvister picked up Chloe and placed her on its head. The rest of her forces surged forwards, swiftly but with a calm only the undead could possess.

---

“Aim for the bushes?”

“Aim for the bushes!”

— Su Fang & Mika Sarraf

Boteg's Scares

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

There was only so much distracting that could be done before the queen got bored, decided to accelerate, or just had her armies move on without her. A fourth possibility that Su hadn’t considered was that another magical girl would show up and attack the queen directly. Su groaned behind her helmet. While she had been okay letting this drag on (gettit? Drag-on?) She had played along with both Mariette and the queen long enough. The longer this was put off, the more people were going to get hurt. They had thwarted Father’s plans, Soth’s too, they didn’t need the queen to defeat Asengav. And if they did, was it worth jeopardizing Penrose and everyone who lived there?

“We should play somewhere else.” Su turned to look at the queen.

”You wanna play with her?” the red knight tipped her head. ”More people means more fun!”

Mother and daughter charged the queen. Su had no intention of trying to hit her. She could just barely hit Mika like this, and doubted the cat girl would fare much better. But maybe while armored like this, they could at least provide a distraction.

Until the pawn was ready to move to the end of the board.

Symphony of Madness: Beach Trip

Oros the Mad says...

Sup bastards!

Since there’s a non zero percent chance espers are going to sling spells during this adventure, let’s pivot from the frying pan wielding nun murderer to the spider furry. Are spider girls considered furries? Are they closer to scalies because of the exoskeleton? I’ll have to ask Rika when I corner her. I feel like insect bros would want their own cringe group for themselves.

Try to stay awake this time, Finn!

1 Week Ago…

"They’re great."

— Iris Silk

Iris

Iris Silk
Max MP: 60 Current MP: 60
Casting: A lot

Gear: Goggles (Inactive) Food (6) Grenade (6) Smoke Bomb (6)

Leveraging: A little

The bottom floor of the Golden Trove was alit with activity. Espers along with Maverick Alternative’s various monsters were going up against the weretiger mafia. The main lobby didn’t offer a lot of cover. Towards the back of the room was the clerk’s desk, and to the front was a golden koi statue. The walls to either side were lined with pillars, but gunfire and spell slinging had destroyed most of them. While the Hand’s most important members were hiding on the upper floors, Big Tony had come all the way down to the bottom floor to meet the entrance team personally. He was no less important than Dragon Fruit or Book Man, but he wasn’t one for hiding.

Due to this, most of the fighting was taking place in little side areas, or they took cover behind pillars to progress. Only Billy and Tony dared to remain in the center of the lobby. The barechested titans were slugging it out while the lobby exploded around them.

Maverick Alternative knew they were only here to draw attention away from the upper floors, but Big Tony was a known member of the hand and the leader of the weretiger mafia. If they could take him out, it would further disorganize the Hand and make the city that much safer. The Mavericks might have been on the side of monsters, but even they knew when their kind pushed too far.

Iris hid behind a pillar with Trixy. While she found the woman’s personality grating at times, there were few people she trusted to support her with covering fire. At a glance, a nymphomaniac with a rocket launcher bigger than her daddy issues was probably the last person you wanted watching your back. But despite her instrument’s lack of finesse, Iris had yet to see Trixy ever hit one of her allies.

"Right!" Trixy turned to Iris. "The sniper retreated upstairs, so our position should be open now. If you get in there, maybe you can help Billy take on that cereal mascot."

While Iris was listening to Trixy, her eyes were scanning for threats. Sure enough, a weretiger with a tommygun had taken interest in their position. She pulled Trixy close and hid behind the disintegrating pillar.

"Oh uh, weird time for a hug Iri-" The bullets ripped through what was left of the pillar and started pelting Trixy’s back, and bruised her skin. "Ow-wow-wow-wow-wow!"

Oros the Mad talks about Monsters and Travelers....

If a well made frying pan is all it takes to cave in an esper’s skull, how can trixy act like a human shield against a tommy gun? If your answer was anything like ‘She must have a special ability that protects her’ or anything dumb like that, you’d be 100% certifiably wrong. It’s because the tommygun was doing chaos damage, which espers are extremely resistant to.

Monsters are incapable of dealing physical damage normally. Their chaotic energies warp anything they touch, causing them to break with ease or become entwined with their own energies. Most monsters usually forgo using this world’s weapons because they can do so much more damage without them. They usually have enhanced capabilities far greater than an esper to do what damage they can, and chaos damage from firearms tends to be weak by comparison.

If chaos damage guns do so little damage to espers, then why use an esper as a human shield? Well, Iris isn’t an esper. She’s something we here in the business call ‘a traveler.’

Travelers as a term doesn’t really exist in this world, monsters are just monsters regardless of where they came from. It's just a meta name for monsters that are in line with esper Patron Champions. They don’t truly have glamors as they don’t have grimoires, but for generation purposes they have all the same attributes and shit. They have a few differences between their esper counterparts, but the two biggest are their resistances and the damage types they have access to. As mentioned before, Monsters and travelers have any physical damage they deal converted to chaos damage. This includes damage from gear they may be carrying around, like shit granted from a P.R.. The second important difference is their resistances. It’s assumed that monsters are tougher than humans on average, but they take greatly reduced physical damage (to the point where most physical attacks won’t do anything), normal chaos damage (Still reduced when compared to a normal human, but more than an esper would take), and arcane damage is even more effective on them.

If it was a regular human shooting at them, Iris would take way less damage from the attack and would be better suited to act as a shield for Trixy.

Iris, while still holding on to Trixy, dropped to one knee before falling onto her back. The stream of bullets continued to fly overhead, narrowly missing the legs she had curled around Trixy.

"He’s still shooting."

"Ya think!?" Trixy rolled off of the spider woman, causing her legs to unfold. "We’re not doing anything over here."

"Hmph." Iris opened her hand, and a thick black strand started to form in her palm. "We need to reposition. Follow my lead and he shouldn’t see you." And with that, Iris became transparent. She dropped one end of the black web on the ground and started to speed crawl. Once she was out from behind the pillar, she stood into a crouching sprint and made her way to the next pillar.

Umbral Web

[Self] 0 + [Trail G (lays 2 foot wide zone wherever she walks)] 0 + [Obfuscate B (Invisible/Silent outside of 45 foot range)] 4 = 4 Mana

"Ohhhhh!" Trixy followed after her and kept her rocket launcher slung over her shoulder. "Nice melody. I didn’t know you could do that."

Iris raised an eyebrow. "Melody?"

"Yea, it’s, uh…" Trixy scratched her head. "I forgot you were a monster for a second, heh! What do you call that magic that you just used?"

"Is now the time to be asking that?" Iris sighed after she responded. After using Trixy to protect herself, the least she could do was answer her question. It wasn’t like anyone would hear them between her magic hiding their presence or all the gunfire. "It’s orbweaver’s magic, specifically umbral web. It allows us to travel undetected."

"Neat!"

Oros the Mad talks about Magic....

Travelers have magic, but it ain’t the same thing as an esper’s melodies. They just use the same system for balance reasons. Many monsters have magical abilities that can’t be easily broken down into notes, so be ready for that. Outside of ‘in story’ lore and shit, travelers use the same casting system. Come to think of it, it’s pretty hard to tell the difference between espers and travelers, given a lot of them are humanoids with similar abilities. Though monster detection abilities will reveal a traveler for what they really are.

That aside, let’s actually talk about magic now. I’m not gunna dig too deep into the individual formula of every melody (or spell, technically) because I feel they’re pretty well explained in the formula itself. I also choose to believe an ape brain like yourself knows the very basics, like that you start with a cast note and then add other notes to get the desired effect. All notes need to be unique and you can’t include a note more than once in your melody or spell.

What might be a little less clear is how we get the grades of the individual notes. Effects scale with POTENCY, and mods scale with EFFICIENCY. It’s also made a little more complicated because while mastered notes can be cast at the grade of an esper’s/traveler’s attributes, proficient notes are cast below it, and basic are two below. Iris has B POTENCY and E EFFICIENCY. Since [Obfuscate] is mastered, it gets cast at B. Trail is basic, so it’s cast two grades below Iris’s EFFICIENCY, making it G grade.

Oh, and just an idea, if you hate navigating the DoCS to find your notes, you could try making a spell book or something. Maybe write the ones you know down somewhere for you to easily reference later. You could even stash them on your CS if you’re feeling particularly conservative.

Iris only had a few seconds left on her spell when she rounded another pillar. "Give me cover from here." Technically Trixy outranked her, but Maverick Alternative was more fast and loose with its leadership structure than GEMINI. A respected individual was one with a high rank, but respect didn’t equate to a mind for strategy. Trixy was far better at rehabilitating monsters and minding her own powers than strategy deploying others in a high risk situation like this. This seemed to be something she understood, as she wordlessly remained behind the pillar.

As the last of the umbral strand left Iris’s hand, she charged across the room. Should the weretiger gunner notice her before she could get to him, she knew she could dive behind the golden koi statue.

Oros the Mad talks about Maps....

A picture’s worth a thousand words, yo.

Some of you have likely wondered how the heck you’re supposed to keep track of a battle that has more than a few espers in it. For particularly outrageous battles, that’s usually when the maps get busted out. It’s a bit overkill for a scene like this. But you can see how it works. There are portraits of all the characters in their current positions. This is usually set up in an editable DoC where the patrons can freely adjust the placement of their espers to better indicate what’s going on between Grand Magistrate P.O.S.T.s.

But this isn’t an excuse to get lazy. These maps are rarely one to one with the described scene. The koi statue was described as sitting across from the clerk’s desk near the entrance to the hotel, but in this image you can see it’s more in the middle with an unidentified object where the koi statue is supposed to be. Other observations would be the clearly japanese/cyberpunk accents for this hotel despite it supposedly being chinese in theme. This ain’t a commissioned piece, and is just a tool to help you make sense of what’s being written. Don’t take the map itself as gospel, but you can approximate everyone’s distance from each other or their general area.

Iris kept running. The koi statue passed her by, and it seemed like she might get to the weretiger before he realized what was going on. He must have thought he had killed the girls, because he was shifting his attention to the fight between Billy and Big Tony. He changed the drum shaped magazine on his Tommy before he noticed the approaching yokai. It only took him a moment to pivot his gun towards Iris and fire.

She did her best to deflect the rounds. Espers and monsters were capable of great feats of agility, but she couldn’t deflect all the bullets. A few rounds managed to enter her torso, enough to crack one of her ribs, and she stumbled to cover in front of the pillar. She placed a hand on her stomach. No time to worry about the pain now. She knew he was going to try and fire at her again, and she needed to be ready. Her nerves rose up to her throat, but she refused to scream. She could see the barrel of the tommygun peak around the corner, but it pulled back when the weretiger roared. He wasn’t roaring at her though, he was roaring at the nutty girl on the other side of the lobby. Her rocket launcher was pointed right at him, and a pillar of annihilation flew out the end of it. The beam looked red at the edges, but the middle was white and left afterglows in all of Iris’s eyes. When it made contact with the weretiger, Iris threw her arm in front of her eyes to avoid getting blinded.

Homesick Angel

[Beam] 1 + [Powerful (Sacrificing speed for total overkill)] 1 + [AoE H (6 foot radius explosion)] 2 + [If Foe (won’t affect Iris)] 1 + [Damage X SSS (this is gunna hurt!)] 6 + [Push SSS (70 foot push distance)] 2 = 13 Mana

It was total overkill. The weretiger was vaporized on the spot, and even his weapon melted into a metallic mist. Miraculously, nothing else was damaged. When Iris lowered her arm, she could see that the pillar and her had been unharmed by the blast. She let go of a breath she didn’t know she was holding and scrambled behind the cylinder. Once she confirmed there were no nearby hostile targets, she looked back across the lobby at Trixy. She was grinning back at the yokai, and gave her a thumbs up. Wearily, Iris returned the gesture before ducking back into cover.

Oros the Mad talks about complex melodies....

When making more complex melodies, it can be really important to put notes in the right order so that the Grand Magistrate understands what sort of harebrained plan you’re trying to hatch. If those notes were arranged in a slightly different order, Iris could have been vaporized along with the werechump.

It’s always good to start with the cast type, followed by any enhancements. Since almost all notes are influenced by POTENCY or EFFICIENCY, it makes sense to put notes like [Powerful] or [Quicken] first. This melody is extra complex because it has effects that we only want to activate when they hit an opponent, so any effects that we want to work no matter what need to come before that. As an example, if we accidentally hit Iris with our shot, we still want [AoE] to go off so that it can catch any potential targets. So you’d place that before [If Foe] so that it activates. Then everything after that is going to pretty much activate at the same time. [Damage X] and [Push] can be placed in any order you like since they all activate instantly. There just wasn’t anything to push.

Oh, and a reminder that all smart notes are usable by everyone, as they don’t need to be in an esper’s lists to access. That includes conditions and logic gates. Multicast technically falls under the smart note umbrella but it does require higher EFFICIENCY to use those notes.

Iris was wounded, but there was no time to heal herself. Not when Billy was still engaged in a fight with Big Tony. Actually, he looked like he could use some treatment too. Billy was strong, but the immortal big cat seemed to recover from any wound that was inflicted on him.

Her mana weaved itself into a chromatic web that wrapped itself around her blade. Lights shining the full spectrum of the rainbow walked across her face as she steeled herself. With the big cat distracted, she pointed her odachi at the feline’s back, and the glowing web shot forward and slung itself into a multicolored ball of spider silk. As if tethered to the ball by an invisible string, Iris soared after it.

She was moving too fast to be stopped. The ball of web exploded when it struck Tony’s back. Blue threads coiled around his magical enchantments and shattered them. Red threads eroded his flesh like acid. Yellow threads coiled around his wrists and pinned them to his sides. Green threads stuck to Iris and Billy, and the purple and orange spiders that lingered on them crept into their wounds and went to work mending them. As this all happened, Iris’s momentum carried her blade forward and she stabbed Tony through the back.

Spider Jump + Strings of Fate

[Self] 0 + [Pull B (50 foot pull towards Big Tony)] 2 + [Backfeed (Early notes part of separate melody on self)] 1 + [Dynamo G (Melody after Backfeed is a projectile that orbits blade for 2 rounds)] 0 + [Powerful (POTENCY to A, EFFICIENCY to F)] 1 + [AoE H (6 foot radius explosion)] 2 + [If Foe (Big Tony)] 1 + [Damage X A (Not too shabby)] 6 + [Dispel A (break possible enchantments)] 6 + [Restrain A (Attempt to bind Tony’s arms to his sides)] 4 + [Else (Iris, Billy, targets that aren’t Tony)] 1 + [Heal A (Heal a major wound in 6 seconds)] 6 = 30 Mana

Oros the Mad talks more about complex melodies....

Calm the fuck down, Iris. That was half of your mana.

Firstly, yes, the notation suggests that Iris is using a melody, but that’s just because most of the patrons have espers blah blah blah.

The only thing I want to draw attention to is that you can have multiple condition notes. A pretty common setup is a spell like this where you want half of it to affect bad guys and the other to affect good guys. Notes between two condition notes are only concerned with the first one, unless a logic gate is involved. Though situations where logic gates are necessary are pretty niche.

Dynamo might feel kinda random in this melody, but it’s there to get the timing right rather than sell the visuals of the spell. Without it, Iris’s entire spell would go off before she was pulled to Tony’s position. Now it goes off the moment she buries her sword hilt deep in the fuzzy bastard’s back. I bet Tony didn’t think that was great, huh?

Tony was not like most intelligent monsters. He was less an enemy combatant and more a force of nature. Destruction was all he knew. Even the ability to speak was something he had never learned how to do. Surrender wasn’t something he was unwilling to do, it was something he didn’t understand. So he struggled against his bonds, and they gradually began to break. But neither Billy nor Iris planned to let him get free. Billy used his mechromancy to create an axle out of thin air, and proceeded to use it as a club on the feline’s head. Iris never stopped cutting. She twisted the blade before pulling it out of Tony’s back, only to begin hacking away at his shoulders. His body still tried to heal the wounds, even as they inflicted more. But it couldn’t keep up. Until his last breath, the only thing Tony did was howl in rage. Iris’s blade eventually cut through his neck, and his head tumbled across the floor. His ever regenerating body stopped mending itself, and his torso collapsed to the side. There was fighting elsewhere in the Golden Trove, but the Lobby was quiet at last.

"I say, I say, I think he’s finally kicked the bucket!" Billy kicked the massive weretiger’s corpse just to be sure. "I say he kicked the bucket real good!"

Iris didn’t have the stamina to be so celebratory, especially with more hostels on the way. She nearly fell over, and needed her additional legs to support her. "We can’t rest yet."

"Ya gotta relish the little things, Iris! And ya gotta relish the big things too!" He slapped her back, which didn’t help her balance. "Ya did fine, girl. I say ya did damn fine! Morale is gunna be sky high thanks to you."

"We did it together, Billy." She leaned up against a pillar. "I couldn’t have beaten him myself."

"Ya ain’t gotta be so modest! It’s fine to think you’re hot stuff every once in a while!" Billy placed his hands on his hips and turned to look at the stairway leading to the next floor. "I’m tellin’ everyone that ya killed him. Ain’t gunna change my mind either, and doncha dare try to tell anybody else otherwise."

"Mmmph…" Iris watched Billy disappear up the stairs. That guy was in an entirely different league than her. Though she’d be lying if she said it didn’t feel good to have her abilities acknowledged like that. The corners of her lips curled into a smile. They had secured the area, so maybe it wouldn’t hurt to rest for a moment and catch her breath. Her eyelids fluttered closed as she prepared herself for the next round of fights.

She hadn’t fallen asleep, and by her recollection, she couldn’t have been meditating for more than a few minutes before she heard Trixy whispering in her ear. "Heyyyyyyy cuuuuutie!" She followed it up with a giggle.

Iris sighed, opened her eyes, and turned her head. Her vision was filled with Trixy’s toothy grin. "I was meditating." She understood calling Trixy desperate was an understatement, but she had told Trixy previously to mind her personal space. Though after thinking about it, she thought she understood what might have caused her to behave this way. "I was not trying to be affectionate when I hugged you earlier. I knew that you would hold up better to the gunfire than I would. But if you’d like me to heal you, I can do that."

"Oh, I know all that. And thanks for the offer, but I feel fine. However, you’ve gotta answer a question for me!"

Iris sighed. "Okay."

"Well, if you don’t want me oogling you and calling you cutie, then why did you change into a swimsuit for me?"

"I what?" But no matter how long Iris stared at Trixy’s grin, it didn’t stop her eyes from wandering all over her. Her own eyes rolled down to the front of her body and she could see that her outfit had changed quite a bit. She pushed herself away from the pillar and ran her hands and legs all over herself. "What did you do!?"

"What makes you think I had anything to do with this?" She giggled.

"You!" The words caught in Iris’s throat as she pointed at Trixy. "Because you’re also in a swimsuit! And your cannon is a giant squirt gun!"

"Wha?!" Trixy looked at herself, and there was genuine surprise painted on her face. "Wow! I had no idea! I guess I got tunnel vision when I spotted you."

"Um, fellas?" Both girls looked back to the staircase. The giant ten foot tall mechromancer was wearing nothing but his mask and a mankini. "I think we’ve just been put on an indefinite ceasefire."

Oros the Mad talks more about Finn....

The bastard fell asleep again!?

That’s it, I’m done! No more tutorials for you bastards! I’m done!

Today…

"You know nothing, Ashley Avenir."

— Mika Fang, Cerberus

Mika

Mika Fang
Max MP: 30 Current MP: 30
Casting: N/A

Gear: Clip Light (3) Taser (3 shots) Handcuffs (3) Flash Bang (3)

Leveraging: N/A

^@Ponn

"I guess…" Mika stepped away from the mirror. "He’s annoying. I wanna punch him in the nose, and I don’t care if he’s spying on us right now." She was speaking a bit louder, almost like she hoped the shark man could hear her. "Whatever, let’s get out of here."

Mika and Ashley had never been especially close. Though prior to the siege on the Golden Trove she had become a lot more agreeable to Ashley. Prior to very recently, the girl would always be quick to point out her leader’s shortcomings, but that was not happening anymore. It was more than just being cut off from the rest of GEMINI. The good doctor was still her favorite person (if Mika could like people enough to have a favorite) but it was starting to seem like Ashley had finally gotten Mika’s respect.

They left their room and headed towards their destination.

---

"Not the babysitting gig I was expecting."

— Iris Silk

Iris

Iris Silk
Max MP: 60 Current MP: 60
Casting: N/A

Gear: Goggles (Inactive) Food (6) Grenade (6) Smoke Bomb (6)

Leveraging: N/A

^{@Emeth@Nakushita@Ariamis}

Iris’s situation was weird. She didn’t consider herself a senior member of Maverick Alternative, but she might as well have been with so many brand new faces. There hadn’t been any time to integrate everyone in when all the true senior members were here. It shouldn’t have been a problem, but…

"Boss?" Iris was amused with the moniker, even if she didn’t show it outwardly. Nina made a lot of strange noises that she didn’t understand, but she did understand what a thumbs up meant. So long as that was approval, they could work through anything else. Whatever the girl was thinking inwardly, that was none of Iris’s concern.

Scypho was very much a girl locked in her own head. She hadn’t said much since joining, and Iris got the impression she wasn’t even sure if she wanted to be here. When she finally spoke, it was to comment on what the shark man might have done with everyone. "Well, I’m a spider woman, and I haven’t dissolved and devoured anything yet." It was hard not to be a little offended at Scypho’s statement, but Iris chose not to start the morning with a debate about yokai and the creatures they borrowed their powers from. "If Dan was going to eat us, he wouldn’t have to go through this much trouble to do so, I think." That was probably a diplomatic place to leave things.

Nukkelina was even more detached from everything, a puppet without its strings or a girl without her heart. But even without apparent emotions it seemed she opposed the idea of rushing in. Not that anyone voiced they were for that. "Did I give the impression that I was going to treat him poorly? I had planned to be civil and- Did you say charm?" It was hard to hear the word charm and not think of Trixy. She was friendly enough, but tended to go overboard with that friendliness. The idea that Dan might be the same way caused Iris’s head to sink between her shoulders. "I think playing with his emotions like that would be more dangerous than simply asking him directly. Depending on how he responds, we can change our approach."

They’d have time to think about it further before they got there.

---

"Can’t a girl say she’s fun without it coming across as flirting?"

— Bionca Herrmann, Knight of Tonight

Bionca

Bionca Herrmann
Max MP: 30 Current MP: 30
Casting: N/A

Gear: Goggles (Inactive) Kunai (5) Frying Pan (5/5 Durability) Food (5)
Disguises (Inactive) Medical supplies (5) Smoke Bomb (5)

Leveraging: N/A

^{@Yankee@Majoraa}

Bionca’s shoulders squared up as soon as Jack wrapped her arm around her. "Hah! Yea, the disappearances are a little mysterious, but I don’t think I’d worry too much about it. It’s like uh…" She squinted her eyes. "Jack here says, nothing bad can happen to us. Trust me, if someone’s going to go missing on a beach vacation because they did something stupid, it woulda happened to me on day one!" She had heard Jack’s name in passing a few days ago. Bionca worked in the public long enough to develop a pretty good encyclopedia for names and faces. She still remembered all of the regulars at her waitress job when she was a teenager. "I came here for business too, but I don’t think people are doing much business right now. We should be having fun instead!"

She reached for Alice’s waist and pulled her close. The three of them were standing shoulder to shoulder. "Let’s try to get our steps in sync so that we don’t break our butts going down the stairs. Adeup! Adeup! Adeup, tup,trip, four-adeup…!"

Jack senses something from beyond the veil....

Something smells vaguely familiar and… Earthy. Though the further you walk, the less noticeable it is. Once you get outside, you can only smell the salty breeze of the sea.

Alice hears the chattering of the lonely lunatic....

You’re being watched.

Oros the Mad breaks her vow to talk about watcher messages....

Okay so maybe one more tutorial!

Any time a specific character learns about something, it might appear in a stylized box like this or the two above. This is true for info granted by your P.R. but sometimes watchers can impart information to you too. What’s extra cool is that it’s not clear what you’re going to get from them or why, though there are a few extremely vague hints or shit if you care about that kind of stuff.

Now I’m really done so you guys and the sleepy plague doctor robot can go screw yourselves!

---

"Katy Perry has some deep lore in California."

— Book Kidd

Kidd

Book Kidd
Max MP: 50 Current MP: 50
Casting: N/A

Gear: Clip Light (6) Disguise (6) Gift (6 Probiotic Supplements) Grenade (6)
Molotov (6) Smoke Bomb (6) Handcuffs (6)
Leveraging: N/A

^{@Chevaleresse@The World}

"Californian? Like from California?" Kidd rubbed the back of his head. "Well, sorry about that. You just kinda looked like an oriental. Is that a bad word, oriental? I didn’t mean anything by it. B-but Californians are cool too. I mean, you’re probably blond in human form and really good at surfing, so you’re probably set up for these strange times, even with the gas tax being as high as it is. Do you own an EV?" Kidd got so wrapped up in his own ramblings that he seemed to miss Rika’s suggestion. For better or worse, Marrie interjected with her own suggestion, which was more or less an attempt to appease Kidd and get everyone moving to Caesar Beach. "Maybe, but I don’t think so. He turned them this color. It happened when I-"

Kidd can feel the rust moving through his veins....

You are aware of the interlopers.

…

Kidd’s mouth slowly closed.

"Alright, I’ll uh, I guess I gotta calm down a little bit." He nodded and pursed his lips. "Let’s get going, I know a shortcut."

---

"It’s shark week again!"

— Dan Daggernose

Dan waited patiently at Caesar Beach. He was standing on top of a picnic table with his hands on his hips and his chest puffed out. For an anthropomorphic shark man, he was pretty ripped for an AI monstrosity. He remained like that as if he was a statue, and his stomach didn’t even move, which might suggest he wasn’t breathing.

The first group to arrive were the Mavericks. They had all gathered in the lobby before departing. The next to arrive were the freelancers accompanying Bionca. They were only a few seconds behind them, and managed to get down the stairs without tripping once. The third group to arrive were the two GEMINI agents. They had only been a few seconds behind, and had more or less been trailing after the group of freelancers since they departed the Golden Trove. Despite being the closest to the beach, the last group to arrive were the freelancers accompanying Kidd. But despite that, they had also only lagged behind the GEMINI agents by a few seconds. It was almost as if everyone had been carefully told to come to the beach with their travel speed taken into account.

"Hi guys!" Dan waved to the group as he stepped off the picnic table. Dan was far taller than a normal man, and was able to take the step as if he was stepping off of a footstool. "I’ve got all kinds of fun activities planned for you today! For starters, we have… Volleyball!" Dan pointed down the beach, and there were several nets set up. Each net had its own volleyball resting next to it, waiting to be kicked. "And we’ve also got… Beach ball!" Dan pointed in the other direction, and there was a giant plastic crate filled with more beach balls than anyone would ever need. In fact, the sea winds had blown some of the top most beach balls out of the crate, but by luck or magical forces, they never rolled off of the beach entirely. Even the ones that inevitably rolled into the sea were thrown back on a subsequent wave. "And…Sand…Castle…Buckets!" Dan pointed at the sky, and a far smaller crate filled with buckets and plastic trowels fell in front of him. "But if your walk here was enough of a morning workout for you, there’s plenty to eat for breakfast!" The table he had just stepped away from suddenly filled up with plates of food. Grilled fish with a crunch char, Fruits and vegetables that were almost too vibrant to be real, and there were more tropical versions of existing food, like stacked pancakes topped with tropical fruits and whipped cream, and even more classical things, like an egg and cheese sandwich on a crispy croissant.

Mika wandered over to the picnic table. Her eyes scanned everything, but she wasn’t going to eat anything. She never did, but it was evident she was tempted by it. She looked back over her shoulder at Ashley before looking back at the food. This wasn’t the first time Dan had put out a feast like this, and somehow he always managed to put out different items that look equally tasty.

Iris was less phased by the spectacle, and promptly headed towards Dam. "Is this everyone that’s left?"

The smile ran from Dan’s face. "Ah, I think there’s a few people out there that are arriving late."

"But the people who are arriving, there’s less and less of them every day."

Dan hung his head. "Well uh, I guess not everyone likes the event? I’m kind of getting bummed out honestly…"

Iris folded her arms. "It’s impossible to leave here, so where is everyone going?"

"How should I know?"

"Isn’t all of this your doing? The beach vacation?"

"Yea! And it’s a little hard to keep track of everything!" Dan threw up his hands. "You know there are still cultists trying to perform sacrifices on people? I have to personally show up and punish them!"

Iris could sense Dan’s frustration, and remembered what Nukkelina told her earlier. "We are capable of dealing with cultists, Dan. If you need help-"

Kidd immediately placed himself between Iris and Dan. "First of all, sir, there’s been a huge mistake!" He bit his lower lip. "The ritual involving that virgin woman was never going to come to fruition. You see, I was actually going to cut her bindings, so you kind of jumped the gun when you gave all of us ugly swimwear."

Dan shrugged. "I don’t believe you."

"Please, you need to change me back!" His sobbing was cut short when a beach ball bounced off the side of his head. Meanwhile, Bionca had positioned herself at the top of the crate filled with all the beach balls. She was covered up to her waist in them, and was chucking them at the other espers and monsters.

"Mwa-hwa-hwa! Beware my beachy fury!" She chucked another beach ball, but this time it was aimed at Rika’s head.

Dan, like a distracted child, found his gaze drifting towards Bionca. He chuckled to himself as he watched the spectacle play out.

Arena Chat Thread

Not the old crew, but there are people who periodically drop by.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Damn, that was easy."

— Sink Queen

While Oros was apprehensive about handing off Black Gate to a stranger, Nyxia was not. Evil Eye seemed to share Oros’s level of concern, but ultimately wasn’t any more active than her in trying to get the aquatic magical girl to back off. "Aww, do you care about her?" Sink Queen teased Evil Eye. "I’m not going to kill her, if that’s what you’re concerned about. In fact, you may even see her again." It seemed like it was going to come down to the rule keeper to make a final decision, which was to give Sink Queen exactly what she wanted. Though as soon as this final decision came down, Acid Drop surged forward, started to talk, and promptly collapsed. Oros sprinted forward, but she wasn’t fast enough to stop Acid Drop from face planting. "How curious…"

Once Black Gate was in her arms, Earthshaker made a request. This caused her to raise an eyebrow. "She? Who’s she?" Unlike Roche, Sink Queen wasn’t so quiet. Earthshaker must have been making a face, because Sink Queen’s look of faux bewilderment gave way to a large smile. "I’m the one you saved, and I’m not entirely convinced I couldn’t have done it myself." The smile ran from her face "Don’t mistake my gratitude for weakness, mate. As far as I’m concerned, you’ve finally paid me back for the lesson on giga miseria. Lot of good it did you. It’s been nearly half a year and you still look knackered after fighting them in the day." Her smile returned. "Fortunately, I’m interested in keeping you in debt to me."

Sink Queen slung Black gate over her shoulder, and her tentacle coiled around both of their torsos. It almost looked like Black Gate was being carried around in a backpack. "Dark magical girls get stronger when they kill miseria, right? It is that simple most of the time, but not for you. Not when you have someone as powerful as Schrade on your side." She placed a hand on her hip. "Because a miseria doesn’t really care who killed it. It’s absorbed through your powers, but it will always be drawn to the strongest power if it’s close enough. Even when you slay a giga miseria and saturate the area in ambient negative emotions, the strongest dark magical girl will absorb most of it. Which is why even I got stronger when you slew that thing, despite my lack of a contribution." As if to demonstrate, she flexed her other arm. "Not much mind you, as I was untransformed at the time. But when you’re as strong as Schrade is, well, even if you watch over a fight untransformed you’re probably going to inherit all the power." She hopped backwards. "If you want to get stronger lads, you’re going to have to get out from under your boss. Fighting something far outside of Hibusa town would be ideal."

Her eyes pivoted to the side. A giant ball of fire that looked suspiciously similar to Ashbringer blazed its way towards Sink Queen’s position. It even moved as fast as she did (or Schrade).

Sink Queen barely had time to do anything before the ball of fire rolled over her. For those that didn’t blink, they could briefly catch a glimpse of a cyborg draconic magical girl inside the flaming sphere. She caughtSink Queen with her shoulder, and then the next moment the ball of fire shot into the air and soared out of town. The only sign it had even been here was a scorch mark that charred all the grass in the distance that lead to Sink Queen’s position.

From the direction the fireball came were two figures. One was a cat girl with a violin, chattering away while being far out of earshot. And beside her was a familiar green haired girl.

"I hope you guys didn’t do anything stupid."

— Rei Ishiko

Their pace was casual, but it did not take them long to walk into the middle of the school’s debris. Initially, their leader seemed displeased. She ran her hand along a concrete pillar, which used to be standing upright and may have held the ceiling of their club room up. But as she got closer to the group, she shrugged her shoulders and smiled.

"Interesting development, isn’t it?"

Symphony of Madness: Beach Trip

@Ariamis

I'm glad talking to the other players were able to help you along.

Nukkelina Is accepted. You can string her along to the character tab. Just be sure to change "Summon Minion Elite" to "Summon Elite" as the first one isn't a real note/confuses me.

After you're caught up, you can have her arrive in the Golden Trove's lobby with the other Mavericks.

Symphony of Madness: Beach Trip

Oros the Mad says...

Well would you look at that? The Reality Plenum fired up again just when I said it would!

Since those bone heads on the bottom floor couldn't do what Master Chief was able to do (that's "finish the fight" for you uncultured nerds), I think we should take a look and see how all that went down. What's better than reading through a self indulgent flash back sequence before seeing what sort of WHACKY antics everyone's up to? Since some of the Patrons are new here, we could even flavor it as a tutorial. How does that sound?

I don't care about your opinion.

Besides, this Patron Observation Station Transcript, or P.O.S.T. if you prefer, is already up. Don't you know how this shit works? This ain't instant messaging, buddy.

1 Week Ago…

"Break a Leg!"

— Bionca Herrmann, Knight of Tonight

Bionca

Bionca Herrmann
Max MP: 30 Current MP: ???
Casting: Many

Gear: Goggles (Inactive) Kunai (5) Frying Pan (5/5 Durability) Food (5) Disguises (Inactive) Medical supplies (5) Smoke Bomb (5)

Leveraging: A lot

Pax Septimus wasn’t a friendly place. Outwardly, it looked innocent enough. The art deco buildings of the historic district drew a crowd, and many of the fine eateries would happily serve tourists whatever treat their hearts desired. But those with even a modicum of curiosity would scratch the facade and know it was paint thin. Gangs lingered in every street and had their fronts on every street corner. Monsters hid among men, and were only kept in check by a small number of brave souls. But today, if everyone played their cards right, that could change.

The Golden Trove housing complex was a hideout for the remaining masterminds. The Hand, as they called themselves, had decided that this would be where they would have their finest hour. All the big factions were going to start throwing their weight around, and some uneasy alliances were set up. GEMINI and Maverick Alternative had joined forces to try and crush the Hand once and for all. Naturally, freelancers were notified of an important mission but couldn’t be told too much until the day of. But the pay was good, and espers from America and beyond flocked to collect the bounty.

Only Bionca may have overslept a bit.

She was transformed already. The wolf-themed ninja had one hand on the steering wheel and another on a slice of toast. Or at least it would have been toast if she had bothered to toast it. Her orange ponytail flapped in the wind as she sped down the road in a 1996 Volkswagen Transporter. Some of the body panels had been replaced with those from a salvage yard, and it needed to be painted a single color at some point. It had a misfire, but that was probably just plugs. She hoped the white smoke coming out of the exhaust was from the cool autumn weather and not because she had a blown head gasket.

Bionca remembers reading...

A misfire paired with white exhaust is a symptom of a blown head gasket. Coolant from the motor is leaking through the gasket into the cylinder head, which can cause the vehicle to misfire. Then the coolant is expelled through the tailpipe as white smoke. Though this could also indicate the engine block or head could be cracked, which is a far more expensive repair.

Oros the Mad talks about P.R....

Your P.R. can be used to pick up extra information in an environment. The Grand Magistrate, or GM, will share anything they feel your character is smart/savvy enough to know. Typically your attributes relate to information about Pax Septimus or paranormal shit, but you can use features to get info on other stuff. He still hasn’t put in features yet, has he? Be sure to bother him about it frequently.

It was never a good idea to drive around in your own car while transformed. All a monster has to do is take your license plate, run a few checks, and get your true identity. Fortunately it sounded like the vile monsters at this location had a bit more to worry about than an esper who overslept.

After rounding a corner, she slammed on her brakes. Before the Golden Trove was a slew of parked motorcycles. Clearly Maverick Alternative had gotten here and was already inside. Ahead of the motorcycles were a few espers fighting on the steps of the building. She wasn’t sure who was friend or foe, and didn’t think she could talk them down. It was clear by the look on their faces that they weren’t going to stop fighting. Finding an alternate way in was a must.

Oros the Mad talks even more about P.R....

Just because you have high INFLUENCE doesn’t mean you’re gunna have mind control over these nerds. Unlike BOOK or STREET, INFLUENCE is a modifier for an esper/traveler’s base charisma. When they act commanding, charming, or intimidating, it’s more likely to work. This means that what they say/do is important. If you wanna befriend someone and you treat them like a piece of shit, high INFLUENCE ain’t gunna get you a second date.

After hopping out of her van, Bionca jogged around the side of the building. For such a grandiose place, it was a little underwhelming on the outside. Sure, the opening archway that led in had two gilded chinese dragons, and there were a number of smaller flourishes she didn’t have time to examine, but the rest of the building was a grey slab with windows. Did people really pay a million dollars a month for some of the rooms here? The ultra rich were weird…

But not as weird as a battle between two metallic dragons.

One looked like it had a chrome exoskeleton with a pink flame bleeding out of every orifice, and the other was a golden dragon. While this was another fight Bionca didn’t want to be a part of, they were far enough away from the Golden Trove that she felt like she could get inside. Their battle had knocked down the eastern wall on the lower half of the building, which would make getting inside easier.

But what was that on the third floor? Grey smoke? Bionca reached into her back pack and pulled out a helmet. It was bulky with a howling wolf painted on either side of it, but the most important part was the goggles. When she slipped the helmet over her head, she switched through the modes until she landed on infrared, and looked into the smoke.

Oros the Mad talks about Backup...

You can pretty much access all of your gear at any time, transformed or not. Just make sure you have a free hand to grab stuff with. It’s also worth mentioning if an esper isn't holding onto their instrument(s), or doesn't have them stowed, they’ll leave their esper form shortly. That’s just embarrassing, right, Marrie?

Through her infrared goggles, Bionca could make out the shape of a nun standing with her back to the open wall. She seemed to be occupied with making problems for others that were inside the building. Normally Bionca might suspect the Inquisition was doing something in these parts, but they weren’t part of this mission. News had been making the rounds about some former GEMINI agents that called their squad Black Sabbath. They were darkweb espers that sold their souls and dignity to the highest bidder. They were all chain smokers, and Bionca got just enough clarity out of her goggles to see the nun was using a cigarette as a magic wand. That matched Nova’s description pretty well. This was an enemy, and a particularly nasty one.

It was hard to be stealthy with melodies. They were usually noisy, flashy things. But between the fighting inside and outside the hotel, it was unlikely Nova would notice. Bionca reached out a hand and focused. Light swirled like a cyclone in her palm, and before long a tender chicken leg appeared in her hand. It appeared to be cooked to perfection with a crunchy breaded coating. She pulled back her hand and whipped the drumstick towards her opponent.

Casting

[Projectile] 0 + [Powerful (Potency raised to B, Efficiency lowered to F)] 1 + [Pull C (45 feet)] 2 = 3 Mana

One of the dragons roared, which caused Nova to turn her head, but it was too late. The tasty projectile smacked into her shoulder, at which point a giant wolf head manifested and bit into it. Then with a sharp tug, the wolf head vanished along with the drumstick, and Nova flew out of the building.

Oros the Mad talks about artistic licensing...

Melodies and gear can look like pretty much anything. Pick a theme and stick with it for extra cool points! Some things like push/pull notes need descriptions to function properly, as they can be used to move a target or knock them off balance. Narrate what your melodies do, lazy bones!

Nova didn’t have time to save herself from the fall, but she did fall onto one of the few bushes that hadn’t been flattened by the dragons. It softened her fall, but it was clear she was in some pain. Bionca wasn’t about to give her a chance to recover, so she sprinted towards the nun’s position. Nova sat upright, dazed but alert, and turned to face Bionca. The ninja grimaced when she saw all the piercings the corrupt nun had. This was just a final confirmation she made the right choice and this wasn't a member of the Holy See. The nun pointed her cigarette at Bionca, the tip lit up, but Bionca swung a cast iron pan at the side of her head before anything could happen. With a sickening crunch, the nun was flung onto her side. Her habit covered her face, but there was enough blood to indicate that the attack had been effective. Nova’s body was wreathed in smoke as she reverted back to her original form: a business woman with half of her skull caved in. The only time wounds carried over from an esper to the original body was when they were killed, so Bionca knew she would never hurt anyone ever again. Brutalizing other humans brought her no satisfaction, but she had heard of the beheading of a GEMINI agent that the nuns had carried out. It was hard to feel much empathy for such creatures.

Oros the Mad makes an observation about Style...

RESIST is an important attribute. Just sayin’.

While we’re talking about styles, espers aren’t that much more durable than humans when you come at them with something mundane like a frying pan. They’re more resistant to arcane powers and a lot more resistant to chaotic elements like monsters. Having more RESIST makes an individual take less damage from everything. Having a heavier style lets you sacrifice sexy acrobatics for a higher likelihood that a blow will bounce off your armor. Nova didn’t invest in any of that because she was a pleb.

Normally espers don’t get domed this fast, but if you take someone with low RESIST, pull them backwards out of a building, break both of their legs from the fall, and then clobber them from behind with a frying pan, they’re going to drop pretty fast. Fights are less bouts of roshambo and more like chess where ya gotta force them into a position where they can’t possibly defend themselves. Unless they’re weak, then you can just mow ‘em down.

With the initial threat neutralized, Bionca stepped back and threw another drumstick at the third floor. Just when it was going to hit a wall, it grew a mouth and opened wide to inhale the food. The opening was tall and wide, but had nothing inside it. Bionca would need a moment before she could cast another melody and pass through the portal she was creating.

Casting

[Projectile] 0 [Portal D (8X8ft portal)] 4 = 4 Mana

The smoke was starting to clear out, and a second nun showed up. This one had bunny ears, an eyepatch, and a huge cigar in her mouth. This had to be Bobo, who was another member of Black Sabbath. Her eye scanned the battlefield until it rested on Nova’s corpse. "Someone finally caught you out of position, huh?" As the rest of the smoke cleared out, her weapons of choice became apparent. There was a mace in one hand and a flame thrower in the other. She raised the flame thrower and pointed at Bionca. "The least I can do is build your killer a funeral pyre."

"Guess I won’t need my flint!" Bionca stashed her frying pan.

The tip of the flamethrower sparked, caught fire, and then a stream of burning napalm was fired out. Bionca did her best to evade, but it was tricky. The napalm continued to burn well after it hit the ground, and all the heat was causing her infrared to pick up everything. She immediately turned her goggles off and hopped backwards. Magic swirled around her limbs as she prepared her next melody.

Once she was ready, she leaned down and touched the ground. It immediately grew a mouth and opened wide, taking her inside.

Casting

[Touch] 0 [Portal D (8X8ft portal)] 4 = 4 Mana

Oros the Mad talks about Genre...

Genre-ly speaking, you can use a single melody in a P.O.S.T.. What’s a little less obvious is that while it does take time to compose a melody, you can do other stuff at the same time. Dodge attacks, block attacks, spit out sick one liners, it doesn’t matter. So long as it doesn’t demand too much focus, you can do it while composing a melody. While Bionca’s low efficiency means she can’t compose notes quickly, she can totally get a melody off if she does the composing while staying alive.

It felt a little weird falling through the portal she had made. Gravity helped her enter the first one, but as soon as she came out of the other one, she was already falling. Bionca managed to stumble into a roll. It was noisy, and Bobo immediately turned to see what was going on. The ninja drew her knives and lunged for the bunny nun, and steel met steel. They exchanged blows, with Bobo using her mace to bat aside Bionca’s knives, who would then counter swing just as she tried to aim her flamethrower at Bionca. But this was just a delay, as both espers swelled with mana.

Oros the Mad talks about Instruments...

Attributes have some pretty interesting implications in fights that might not be immediately apparent. DAMAGE is pretty obvious unless you’re a total dipshit. The assumption might be that SPEED is what determines who has initiative, but you know what happens when you assume, right? It’s RANGE that usually determines who hits first. Generally, all espers have the same reaction times. So if you have a knife that you can swing really fast, it won’t matter if the other guy has a slow gun and you’re approaching them from a mile away. Bionca has good RANGE, her opposition just has naturally large weapons, and better ones too.

Both espers had their magic primed at the same time. Bionca thrust at her opponent’s midsection. Bobo went to block with their mace.

Casting

[Touch] 0 [Push D (40 feet)] 2 = 2 Mana

On impact, Bionca was greeted with a fiery explosion that covered her body, and Bobo was flung from the Golden Trove. Both of them screamed for different reasons, and fell different distances. Bionca rolled back and forth on the floor until the searing flames began to subside. She patted down her outfit where the flames hadn’t quite gone out. The last thing she did was pick up the end of her ponytail to crush out the last flame. She peaked over the edge to see if she had defeated Bobo, but it looked like she had survived the fall, almost entirely unscathed.

"Did you think I’d fall for that?"

"Your friend did." Bionca stood up.

"She was a business acquaintance, it’s not that personal." Bobo stepped backwards towards the portal. This was going to be a little dicey.

Oros the Mad makes an observation about the person she’s talking to...

Penny Jr? Finn!? Did you fall asleep on me? What the hell man! It’s so hard to tell with the doctor mask.…

Well whatever, I’ll finish showing you what happens later.

Today…

"It’s shark week every week when I’m around!"

— Dan Daggernose

Pax Septimus had many attractive vistas. After Dan’s arrival a week ago, there were even more of them. The most notable of which was Caesar Beach. It used to be a sad little place that contained more empty soda cans than sand, but Dan’s beach magic had transformed the place into an otherworldly summer paradise. The grains of sand glistened like pearls, there were a few palm trees despite their inability to grow this far north, and the water was crystal clear. The algae and junk that tended to float ashore was completely gone as well. While every beach in Pax Septimus was like this, Caesar was special in that it was never too crowded and visited exclusively by espers. It was also where Dan Daggernose tended to spend most of his time.

Every esper or monster, wherever they were, would see Dan Daggernose appear on a screen near their position. Maybe it was on a TV in their apartment, maybe it was up on a Jumbotron in the city square, but he would be in view. The anthropomorphic shark man was standing knee deep in ocean water, waving at the screen.

"How’s it going, friends?" He said in a voice that was more befitting of a cartoon mascot. "The water’s fine, and we’ve got breakfast on the grill! So how about you stop by Caesar Beach for your morning workout and a snack?" He placed his hands on his hips. "There’s a lot of interesting people here that would love to meet you. And if you didn’t show up… You could hurt their feelings." His shoulders deflated. "And that wouldn’t be very nice. But you are nice! So you’re going to show up!"

---

"Have you seen this fit?"

— Mika Fang, Cerberus

Mika

Mika Fang
Max MP: 30 Current MP: 30
Casting: N/A

Gear: Clip Light (3) Taser (3 shots) Handcuffs (3) Flash Bang (3)

Leveraging: N/A

^@Ponn

One of the first things that happened when Dan came to Pax was that he fixed up a lot of the damaged buildings. The second weird thing that happened was that he gave all the espers rooms in the Golden Trove. Mika and Ashley had to share a couple’s room, but it was spacious and had two beds, so other than the bathroom they didn’t have to share anything.

Mika was looking in a full body mirror in the bedroom. She had watched a few cartoons, and everyone always looked like they were having a lot of fun on beach episodes. She hadn’t really considered how embarrassing it might be to wear something like a bikini out in a public space. Finn and her had showered in two different stalls once and the chance he might see her in just a towel was a possibility but not one that had bothered her. Perhaps what made it okay was that she felt safe around Finn at the time, and she wasn’t sure if she would feel the same way at a beach party with a bunch of strangers. Especially when most of those strangers were going to be way older than Finn was.

"I don't want to go, but I guess we should." Mika and Ashley had gone, every day, for the past week. The good doctor had said to do so to keep Dan distracted, and now they hadn’t seen either of their superiors for several days. Bird of Paradise had been with them until yesterday, and they also disappeared when they failed to arrive at the party on time. Mika turned away from the mirror and looked at Ashley. "But then we need an idea after the party is over. I don’t like this."

---

"We’re all new here."

— Iris Silk

Iris

Iris Silk
Max MP: 60 Current MP: 60
Casting: N/A

Gear: Goggles (Inactive) Food (6) Grenade (6) Smoke Bomb (6)

Leveraging: N/A

^{@Emeth@Nakushita}

Billy Black, Trixy, and Tetrad. All gone.

The Continental breakfast buffet was usually open now, but if the TV had anything to go by, Dan had shut it down so that everyone would show up to the beach to get fed. In truth, Iris had little issue walking into the kitchen and making food for everyone herself, but it would be unwise to defy the shark man’s whims at this time. At present she was armed with a giant corn dog and little else. Her eyes went down the front of her body. She didn’t feel embarrassed, just exposed. Though she doubted she would feel that much more secure if she had her robes back. Perhaps having a real weapon would grant her the security she sought. With a sigh, she looked at a statue of a giant golden koi by the front entrance.

Nina and Scypho came down stairs just in time to see their temporary leader. A petite woman with black hair, pale skin, a giant corn dog, and a number of spider legs protruding out of her back. She turned around to look at them as they arrived. "Good morning." She hadn’t been around either one of them very much. Trixy had been holding the group together until her disappearance yesterday. "I guess our first order of the day has been decided for us." She lowered her brow. "I entirely plan on confronting that shark. He has to know what happened to the others."

---

"Wew!"

— Bionca Herrmann, Knight of Tonight

Bionca

Bionca Herrmann
Max MP: 30 Current MP: 30
Casting: N/A

Gear: Goggles (Inactive) Kunai (5) Frying Pan (5/5 Durability) Food (5)
Disguises (Inactive) Medical supplies (5) Smoke Bomb (5)

Leveraging: N/A

^{@Yankee@Majoraa}

Bionca was out and about trying to enjoy the morning city scene. She had encountered a few scam artists that were trying to swindle her out of money through rigged parlor games. Fortunately, she was smart and wise and caught onto them instantly. Then she saved a bunch of other espers from losing their savings, and they all admired her, and all wanted to be with her, and then, and then, and then she woke up.

Damn it! She overslept again.

Transforming into her esper form was faster than getting dressed, so she did that. Then she flung open the door and ran straight into the hallway, at which point she realized she had no place she needed to be.

"Why do I do this to myself every morning?"

Maybe she did have a place to be. Dan’s announcement played on a TV screen at the end of a hall. But rather than feeling a sense of foreboding, it further reassured Bionca that she hadn’t overslept. It was weird that random espers kept going missing, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. For all she knew, they just had to go back to doing their job elsewhere. Nothing wrong with that.

Bionca wasn’t the only one in the hallway though. There were two more people that looked like they were just as ready to party as she was. At least, that was what she suspected.

"Are you guys headed to Caesar Beach? Because I hear it’s a lot of fun, and I’m a lot of fun too."

---

"WHY MEEEEEEEEEEEE?!?!?!?!?"

— Book Kidd

Kidd

Book Kidd
Max MP: 50 Current MP: 50
Casting: N/A

Gear: Clip Light (6) Disguise (6) Gift (6 Probiotic Supplements) Grenade (6)
Molotov (6) Smoke Bomb (6) Handcuffs (6)
Leveraging: N/A

^{@Chevaleresse@The World}

Marrie and Rika, two wandering and confused souls, would find themselves walking around the city early in the morning when Dan’s message came over the jumbotron. The streets were empty, which was strange even for a weekday like this. But Marrie had been around Pax long enough to know this wasn’t normal and had only started after Dan arrived.

The two weren’t alone though, and they hadn’t been together. What joined Marrie and Rika together was a third party. A third party named Book Kidd.

"You there! In the well coordinated outfit" The goat man approached Marrie. "Would you happen to know where I can find some dye? These trunks look absolutely appalling on me! Red is clearly my color and they had the nerve to give me blue ones!" He was also holding a book of questionable reading material, which he promptly hid behind his back. "It’s a gag gift for a friend, I’m just waiting to meet him so that I can hand it to him." His eyes pivoted to Rika. "Oh! You look like you could be Chinese? Korean? Japanese? Either way, you look like someone who can appreciate the ‘wah’ in someone’s outfit. Is this not the most repulsive combo you’ve ever seen?" He pointed at himself. "Please tell me you know where I can buy some dye. No one will come with me to Caesar Beach if I look like this!"

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Aw shit, here we go again!"

— Suki Oyama

Oros wasn’t sure if a slow moving mass of darkness enveloping King Kong was going to make all that big a shockwave. And if he did, maybe she would have gotten hit by such a shockwave and there would be a cute nurse to help fix her up. But in this reality,
She was content to go along with whatever Evil Eye wanted. Her thumb brushed the back of her hand as they soared through the sky.

After some time, Oros was set back on the ground again. Her eyes immediately moved to her hand, which was no longer holding Evil Eye’s. She couldn’t remember the last time she had held someone’s hand that long. She had carried Tsubomi around a few times, but that felt less intimate than holding hands. Hands were so soft and warm, and- Oh, Acid Drop! Where was she?

She scanned the ruined landscape. Aside from the corner of the school where the cafeteria was, everything else was demolished. Broken timber, concrete chunks, and twisted rebar littered the ground. She thought of inspecting the cafeteria, but a sudden chunk of Hizuki’s mecha fell a few inches in front of Oros’s nose. The delinquent looked up to the sky and saw Acid Drop suspended in the air.

"Rainbow!"

She reached out her arms, and the bloody tendrils on her back made a giant trampoline for her to fall on. And Acid drop kept falling, slowly, a few feet per second, as the wings crumbled and guided her to the trampoline. Metal plates bounced harmlessly off of Oros’s trampoline before the wings gently laid Acid drop on top of Oros’s position. With a sigh, Oros folded up her blood trampoline and dumped Acid drop into her arms, and was then placed on the ground.

"Wew! That was a close one…"

It looked like Acid Drop was okay, if a bit burnt out.

Black Gate remained where she laid without moving a muscle. Only her eyes moved, between Nyxia aiming her cannon at her, to Evil Eye who was giving her the evil eye. Their eyes remained locked, but Evil Eye looked away first. Black Gate continued to stare.

Then something would catch Evil Eye’s attention. Some rubble slid off the remaining corner of the school. An impossibly tall human silhouette wandered out of a ruined hallway. Though in time that silhouette stepped into the light and was revealed to be a familiar face. The tentacles that made up her legs, the diving gear she wore above that, it was all in full view.

Back

"Straight’s closed! (For now…)"

— Sink Queen

"Hello lovelies."

Sink Queen did not rush forward. She continued to walk in a dignified manner, with her tentacles behaving as a long dress. Quite different from how a normal octopus would pull itself across land.

"I’m simply chuffed that the lot of you managed to handle that on your own." She lifted a hand to her mouth. "Imagine retiring to your own bed, being besieged by night terrors, only to wake up in an unfamiliar cafeteria." She stopped walking when she was near Black Gate. "If it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll be taking this one with me."

Oros looked side to side. "Uh, I think we have this handled, right?" She looked at the other club members for confirmation. But her attention was brought back to Sink Queen when she started laughing.

"How silly!" She waved her hand at the others. "Have you looked in a mirror? This ankle biter was a little more than you’d bargained for. I appreciate that you’ve subdued the scoundrel, and saved my life, but dealing with brats like this is something I’m suited to dealing with." One of her tentacles inched towards Black Gate and coiled around her legs. Her grip on her plush tightened, but she didn’t move from her spot.

Symphony of Madness: Beach Trip

@Majoraa One of Naku's favorite face claims!

Alright, so a few things about All Ice:

-I'm going to assume you're taking the Lunatic variant of Astoponio. You should note that only because there are 3 of them.

-Watchers aren't really espers. I'm keeping the sheets the same mostly because it makes things easier to manage, but she wouldn't have a true grimoire. It's fine for her to have the bolo. Normally travelers have a disguised and true form (similar to monster's in Ari's CYOA RP) but it's fine for Alice to function like a magical girl with her "true form" being her "transformation." She just isn't a true esper.

-Alice has 15 notes. At A Capacity, she can have 8 of each type or 24 total.

Make those changes and then Alice can traverse the omniverse and land in the character tab.

Symphony of Madness: Beach Trip

With the first GM post just a day or two away, I should probably bring up "proper banner etiquette."

Your banner can be as complex or as simple as you like, but traditionally we've posted a "stat block" under the banner in a hider that keeps track of relevant information that you don't want showing up in the body of a post. Things like your max and current MP, the formula for any melodies you're casting, and things of that nature. In the past there was an attempt to put a condensed version of a character sheet under your banner, but 80% of the information is irrelevant or so condensed I needed to end up looking at the actual character sheet anyway.

For this RP with V2, I just need you to list the following information

-A link to your sheet (It makes navigation easier)
-Max and current MP
-Items from your Backup
-Features relevant to your post (When Implemented)
-Attributes relevant to any actions you may be taking (Purely Optional)

Bionca's Banner Stuff might look like this on a round where she uses a melody to pull a target.

Bionca

Bionca Herrmann
Max MP: 30 Current MP: 18 - 3 = 15
Casting:[Projectile] 0 + [Powerful (Potency raised to B, Efficiency lowered to F)] 1 + [Pull C (45 feet)] 2 = 3 Mana

Gear: Goggles (Night Vision active) Kunai (2) Frying Pan (3/5 Durability) Food (4) Disguises (Inactive) Medical supplies (4) Smoke Bomb (5)

Leveraging: INFLUENCE SS to talk down police officer.

Including the effect of each note isn't mandatory, but it does help communicate what you're doing when melodies get more complex.

Symphony of Madness: Beach Trip

@Yankee

A GUY JOINS THE RP! SORT OF!



Roland can be moved to the Character Tab and get this party started.

In case anyone was wondering, the trick weapon was discussed with me in PMs, and will be possible when the feature system goes live. Normally an esper can't have a transforming weapon or one that does two different damage types.

EDIT: Actually, it was brought to my attention that you have double-cast listed as a note. You do not need to list double-cast to use it, it's simply yours if you meet the requirements. So you can swap that out for something else. Given that you have a few notes that would be good to cast on yourself, might I suggest Backfeed? If they are going to cast a melody on an enemy and then themselves, it's a less expensive option than double cast.