DarkwolfX37

Digimon: Cyber Beasts

@DarkwolfX37 Your Digimon isn't actually supposed to start as an egg. They started as as Rookie/Child level.

@Double

Shh it's supposed to be dramatic. But I'll change my post to fix that if you want.

Digimon: Cyber Beasts

@Double

Violet sigh. "Sorry, I have no patience for people who don't treat their digimon well." She barely managed to finish talking before the alarm went off. "Meramon? Poor guy. Always portrayed as a villain."

---

Hiding behind a wall, Violet looked around at the scene before shouting at Makoto. "What do you mean 'you two!?' I'm sitting here with an egg so unless we can use cards themselves, I'm sort of stuck as tactician!" Not waiting for a reply, she pulled out her deck and the two cards she'd grabbed from the new set. "Too bad I didn't have more time to look through these..." She looked over her makeshift cover at the battle scene before glancing back at her D-Scanner and deck. "Then again, this shouldn't be enough of a problem to need a partner for..." Violet attempted to use a card, intending to find out. "Card Slash, Frost Field!"

Lunacy of Love: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

Gonna go ahead and wait for that magnitude 6 in what I'm assuming isn't a fault line to hit...

Lunacy of Love: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

Posted, those who get the reference gets a Kyuubey stress doll.

@Majoras End

Assuming it's a Resident Evil one?

Lunacy of Love: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

<Snipped quote by t2wave>

Nobody said you had to give the coin willingly ;)

@Flamelord

It does basically say that you'd have to be dead for it to be taken from you though, which is why I was so excited when I thought up collecting them as motivation for someone. Easy way to sow conflict without just looping back to the main plot.

@DarkwolfX37@Flamelord@Ariamis
<Snipped quote>
I'm just thinking, you wouldn't need to keep the coin out of other people's hands if it couldn't be taken from you.

<Snipped quote>
The description on the drawbacks imply that the Mint has more than just one thing over their magical girls. The plural is used several times and it is what they use to coerce the behavior they want. Otherwise they wouldn't select that person because they would have no influence over them. You get one black coin so they must have something else on you or you're no use to the Mint. Also the Mint will do things to put you in a poor position so you will need their help some way or another and further build debt. I doubt the Mint, given their power and influence, would allow such a simple loophole break their system. They play by their own rules and bend them as necessary. We're not talking about the Beacon here. I suppose if a magical girl has lost their usefulness to them they could alway let it go.

@t2wave

I think that was implying that there's either a limited number of Black Coins that exist or that at least Magical Girls outside the inner workings of the Mint think that there are.

I guess I just don't agree with that conclusion? Giving someone a black coin itself is putting "something else" on you for them. Simply telling someone "that person has a black coin" could cause problems for that person. And yes, the putting someone in a poor position so they need help is part of what I'm including in the "initial debt" of the coin. I also really am just missing where this "simple loophole" is. I tried to explain it in a way that would show that it should be totally impossible to "pay off" a coin, since having one means the Mint is going to be using their tactics to put you in never-ending debt. I tried to imply that the only way to pay off having a coin is if the Mint doesn't know you have one and you build up enough credit and favors with them by working for them without needing their resources that when they find out, you can just call all that in and have them say you're even until you use the coin for power.
I'm sorry if I'm explaining this poorly or if I left out something in the post that didn't make this apparent. I don't see what about it is "easy" or "simple," unless I totally messed up with the post. Either way, sorry for the trouble over this.

Lunacy of Love: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

It also implies that you can't just drop it for anyone else to pick up, you have to deliberately give it away to someone. Which kinda derails the plan you presented in your post because there is no 'in transit' state

@Flamelord

True, but intentionally dropping it versus accidentally dropping it is what I relied on.

Lunacy of Love: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

<Snipped quote by DarkwolfX37>

The solution is basically 'drop and trade coins a couple times, then hold an auction with a single person and the debt is paid off'. Which is a fairly simple thing that somehow only a handful of people know about.

@Flamelord

I mean... yeah, but that takes a second coin that's already payed off. Which is why I didn't think it was easy. It's just that Makoto's now in debt rather than Shion, since she has the coin.

Possessing a coin means nothing as far as debt given how I read it. It is a gift and can be taken by others not contacted by the Ebon Mint. Using the coin is where the debt comes in.

What do you think @Ariamis?

@t2wave

While I'll obviously go with whatever you and Ariamis decide, I'd like to make my case quickly.

My Case

While the "debt" drawback implies that simply having the coin doesn't put someone in debt, the rest of the information of the Ebon Mint sort of does, even if it's a bit of a stretch to apply it to the coin itself. Specifically this part:
"The black coin is a pseudo-coin. Yes, a package of magic and power, but also likely a conduit back to whatever power is behind the Ebon Mint. You can spend it immediately or hand onto it for later. Unlike the other coins, the Black Coin does not reduce in effect once your transformation ends. It can be held onto indefinitely, a card up your sleeve for the perfect moment. Or maybe you're the self-sacrificing sort - hoping to keep the coin out of the hands of those who are less principled than yourself. Either way, it will remain in your possession until you spend it or give it away."
That highly implies that it can't be stolen, at least not by anyone who doesn't know the secrets of the coin, ie someone directly from the Ebon Mint. Combined with it being a coin at all, currency in the magical world, even if not like a normal one, it can be implied that it has intrinsic value even before being spent. The "Debt" drawback also directly states it's a loan, and the overall "Drawbacks" portion of the Ebon Mint implies that as long as you were chosen to get a coin at all, they're going to consider you in their debt via blackmail and small requests. I just sort of bundled all that together into "the coin puts you in debt that is normally impossible to actually pay off."

Lunacy of Love: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

@DarkwolfX37 WHY ARE YOU LIKING MY OLD POSTS I DONT UNDERSTAND!

@Vocab

BECAUSE THE WERE GOOD POSTS AND I READ THROUGH THE ENTIRE IC IN TWO DAYS

Man,that Ebon Mint post was interesting. Though you have to wonder, if it was that easy to get out of debt to the Mint while still having access to the awesome power then why isn't everyone doing it?

@Flamelord

I... I didn't really think it sounded easy... But to be fair, I might have forgotten to include something since I rewrote it from memory days later. Using the coin is a totally different debt than having the coin, like the CYOA says. I sort of added the idea that having the coin put you in debt since that seemed logical, the coin is a physical manifestation of mana, right? It just made sense to me that even just having it would be worth something in the minds of people like the CYOA describes the Mint as being full of. Plus, what percentage of magical things can go between worlds other than the Overcity anyway, and how many people who payed off a coin would get rid of it?

Lunacy of Love: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

Three months ago

A New Magical Girl is Born

---

The young monster-girl shook off the oil that was all that remained of her horrific opponent. So much for 'making a good pet,' that thing could never be house trained. she thought to herself. At least there was a bounty on the damn thing or her whole capture and contain mission would be for naught. Not that it wasn't already, considering the target was a puddle now. Returning Impact to their resting place within the local time-stream, she focused on the best anchor she could think of for her home world and warped the worlds around her to return.

---

"Why the hell is there a childspike here!?" a young boy shouted at the two small creatures sitting on his shoulders as he ran toward the behemoth ahead of them.
"It likely moved here in response to the strong magical potential to the north," The creature sitting on his left shoulder spoke in a disdainful voice. "Better hurry and save it or that'll be another debt to pay off. The loss of a potential magical girl would only be a drop in your bucket, but it's still a substantial price."
The creature on his right shoulder remained silent but gave him a sympathetic look. The young boy made a sharp right turn into an alleyway, following the giant creature as it shambled along.
"Don't take too long. Remember that we're only here to pick up supplies for the next step. That hotbed of magical activity is a perfect place to throw you into."
The boy spoke into a small earpiece to a matching one on string around the neck of a raven flying above the pitch-black creature. "Morrigan, go ahead and keep it occupied and away from bystanders until I get there." He made another turn into another alleyway. "Time to get off, guys."
The two small creatures jumped off his shoulders as he began chanting, "I am the bone of my sword. Steel is my body and silver is my blood. Through Aurichalcum I'll become a knight to protect the weak!"
The boy was enveloped in a bright light as his magic was brought forth from within him. His body became leaner and taller as his clothes were replaced by an elegant black suit. A few moments later the light faded and the magical boy stood ready to fight. Metallic armor quickly materialized on him and a slab of metal standing to his shoulders appeared in his hands. Throwing it to the ground and stepping on it, he waited for the two Puchuu to get on-board before using his magic to rocket forward and up the alley wall, rushing towards the monster from the rooftop.

---

Morrigan felt her partner's magic activate just as she reached a young adult, totally unaware of the monster moving towards her. Morrigan flew past her into the nearby trees and transformed to her human self. With a small spark of her partner's magic, she created several small knives and threw them at the childspike, turning its attention to her. "Run away, woman!" she shouted at the passerby. The girl in question looked up from her PDA to see a giant golem, seemingly made of darkness itself, shamble toward her. She could do nothing but stand there in shock as it approached.
"Not so fast!" A male voice rang out from the rooftop to her side. She looked up just in time to see two small... creatures, slide down a growing metal slide that formed next to her. Still in shock, she turned her attention to the blackened monster as it let out a loud roar.

---

Kain felt the thrill of a roller-coaster as he built a ramp facing the childspike. Using his magic to create a track system between it and the metal board he was on, he launched himself high into the air and onto the monster's head. A drill formed on the board's bottom just as he landed on it, piercing the monster and cutting through it. He shifted his weight so the board began sliding down its back, carving through it the whole while. The childspike roared and reached back to strike him, losing its balance and falling backwards as it did. Kain quickly jumped off and rolled to a stop on the ground to the monster's side. He looked towards the puchuu and the stunned woman with them just as Morrigan reached the three.
That girl looks just like... his thought was cut short by the childspike's roar as it stood back up and shot a dark lance at his familiar. He had just enough time to create a strong dome of metal over her, the civilian, and the puchuu before the lance reached them, slightly denting the dome but otherwise bouncing off harmlessly. Kain retaliated with a spear of his own, pinning the monster's foot to the ground.
"Come on, ya bastard! Focus on me!" Kain took out Aurichalcum and formed a sword onto it. The monster roared at him as he swung the sword, the blade detaching and turning into a whip connected to Aurichalcum by chains, turning into a bladed whip that decapitated the creature. It fell to its knees and Kain blinked in surprise. Cutting the head off didn't usually finish off monsters that looked like walking shadows. Sure enough, it stood back up, but more surprisingly the head began forming another childspike. Damn. Kain quickly made several knives connected with metal wire, throwing them at the walls behind the now two monsters. They began to cut through the original childspike until Kain grew them into stronger and less deadly steel cables. There was no point in cutting it to pieces if it would just make more. The monster struggled against them fruitlessly while the second one formed. The additional force would be enough to snap them if given some more time, so Kain prepared his killing blow to take them both out at once.
"Anti-target mode, active." he began as he formed Aurichalcum into a large spear, standing taller than he himself did. The spear-point split and formed five blades in a star shape while the back of the spear began forming itself into a large drill. "Aurichalcum!" The spear swung through the air at his touch until it came to rest at his back. "Gáe-," he swung the spear around several times, building momentum, "Bulg!" Allowing the momentum to carry his spear, Kain threw it at the chest of the first childspike as the second finished standing behind it, facing the opposite direction. As it tore through the first and struck the second it exploded into metallic grain that spun outward as a sphere in seemingly random directions, obliterating everything within before scattering in the wind, falling to the ground. Morrigan had lifted part of the dome around her to watch as soon as she heard the name of her partner's killing blow be spoken. She and the others watched as the metal sand shredded the core of the first childspike hit into nothingness. To her surprise, however, the new monster revealed its core mere inches below the sphere of destruction's range. That... had never happened before.

---

A particular squirrel-girl sat on a rooftop opposite the small metal dome. She observed the entire fight while she snacked on several acorns. Stereotypical, she knew, but they helped. The boy in battle was someone she had dealt with several times before, his pull on the outcomes of events were enough to make them close friends. As soon as his ultimate technique was used, she stood up, unable to believe her eyes. Did he just... miss!? She'd seen that move before, and watched it happen. That attack rewrites the present! she thought, How in the name of space-time did it MISS!?

---

Kain fell to one knee as Aurichalcum reformed in his hand. "Well shit. So much for weaponized luck." He laughed lightly. "What a terrible ending to a story. The hero fell in noble battle against an enemy he'd defeated several times in the past, and all because he rolled a metaphysical double-zero on a D-one trillion." He simply laughed again as he fell backwards. He didn't have enough mana left to fight, a large drawback to using so much when he had only the minimum amount that a magi could have even at his peak. At least I got to see mom one last time. He paused. Man, I hope I'm not confusing someone else for her. That would be embarrassing as hell.
"You remember what to do, right Morrigan?" he asked into his earpiece. The familiar didn't respond. The two had been over the possibility of a total loss many times. Make the final moments look cool, go to the Beacon and wait with them until he reincarnated, make sure to stay alive so she could greet him with a smile when he did. Those were his three demands. She hated it, but she'd do it. The raven woman watched alongside the two puchuu and the young human woman as the remaining childspike reformed. The cables and metal in the area began to disappear as Kain's mana lost its ability to maintain it all. Soon his armor followed and all that was left was a scattering of metal grain on the ground, remainders of what he'd made into permanent creations rather than simple magical constructs. The four watched as the boy stood up and leaned his back against the nearest tree. It was less than a second before the childspike fired another lance at him, missing by several yards. Great. Now is not the time for lucky misses. How am I supposed to be ready to die if my enemy keeps messing up? Another lance tore through the air and once again missed. Another followed, then another, then another. The monster seemed to think Kain was dodging, because it sent several tentacles to pierce the tree and ground around him, restricting his movement. Finally. It can't possibly miss me now. Two more lances of darkness were shot towards Kain. Several feet before reaching him, they careened off course and hit each other, knocking them off target and into the tentacles nearby, severing them. Damnit.
It took several minutes until the monster finally managed to hit him, the lance grazing his cheek. At this point he just felt sorry for the thing. He placed one hand on a tentacle to give it exactly where he was some time ago, yet it still couldn't hit him. At this point he was ready to give up and just try fighting again. He closed his eyes out of exasperation just as the childspike roared, a dark lance finally piercing through Kain's chest and pinning him to the tree behind him. Morrigan watched the spectacle in her natural form and finally flew to him, resting on his shoulder as she watched the last of his life fade.

---

Makoto strained against her own body in efforts to break through her patron's influence. "Let me go! Don't you get it, this is for your sake too! If he dies, do you think he'll be able to reincarnate without anything trying to fuck it up!? You know as well as I do that he's going to be a target for all sorts of things, including Fate! Why are you stopping me!?" All of her instincts tore through her again, all shouting at her to stay where she was. "I'm telling you you're going to regret it if you don't let me go! You're the one who sent me after him when his potential woke up, let me go, CC!"
Her tail bent and smacked her in the face, essentially punching her with the way it moved. "Ow! What the hell!?" Her urges dulled as a new instinct rose up within her. "Whoa! H-hey, keep away from that one! Especially if you want me to stay out of this! Do you have any idea how that works!?" Another instinct took her over, followed quickly by several more. She knew there was a message she should be getting, but Makoto couldn't focus enough to find out what it was. She watched Kain fall backwards. "Seriously, what is wrong with you!?" Her eyes were forced towards the fading dome of metal. "What? What does that have to do with anything!?" Again, her instincts rose and fell within her in quick succession. Makoto forced herself to pay attention this time. Something about affection, and... alright, this made no sense. "What are you on about?" Again, her tail punched her. "Ow!"
Kinship, loss, familial bond, happiness, sadness, run away, stay and fight, don't stop don't stop don't stop don't stop don't stop don't stop, obsess, obsess, obsess, run away, sadness, loss, kinship. What the hell was that supposed to mean? Her eyes were forced back to where the dome had stood, staring right at the civilian her friend was dying to protect. Familiarity, safety, calmness. She did look familiar, somehow. As she regained control of her eyes they shot back to Kain just as he was impaled. Her struggling against herself stopped. She was back in full control of herself and she couldn't hate that fact more.

---

This was an interesting day. The white and green puchuu felt somewhat conflicted as he watched his employee die. On the one hand, he'd just lost a Rook. On the other, he'd lost it in a trade. Right in front of him was a woman with enough magical potential to make up for the loss. Time to see if he could remember the old speech. "Oh my, isn't it terrible?" he began by asking the woman. "Your little magical protector is dead and it's all your fault. I guess you'll just have to take over for him, won't you? Don't worry, you'll get some benefit out of it."
The woman finally snapped out of her shock when she heard this. "What do you mean it's my fault?"
The puchuu grinned inwardly. "That monster is only here because it was attracted to your potential. If it weren't for that, he wouldn't have had to come here and fight it, which means he wouldn't have just died. It's ironic, don't you think?"
She had no response to that. She was reeling from what had just happened, from just watching someone die in front of her, and now this?
She couldn't think straight enough to counter what the creature had said. "...Fine. How do I do that?"
The small creature simply spoke to its partner, nearly identical if it weren't for the different coloring. "Ko, you know what to do, right? This is a 'death instance.' I'm sure you've learned the correct protocol?"
This "Ko" creature spoke back in a much more feminine voice, "Yes." It turned to the woman and... apologized? "I'm so sorry." was all it said before it used one of its prehensile ears to put several strange coins into her hand and she was engulfed in a bright light.

---

Shion opened her eyes to see herself in a room that seemed to be made out of mirrors. A strange voice echoed around her, "Oh? So they've made another. Under duress, no doubt. Poor thing. You don't have to follow those tiny little meddlers, you know. We could offer you so much more - power that could free you from their little schemes. We can be quite generous. We won't even force you to decide now. Take our gift and use it when you decide you need real power."
A black coin joined the others in her hand before everything went white. She couldn't see anything, but she could feel. She could feel something inside her surging outward. She could no longer feel the coins in her hand, but she could feel what she could only describe as her soul being changed. Power flowed through her, following the path of least resistance, every once in a while suddenly changing course, almost violently. It seemed like days to her, but in only seconds the light around her faded and she stood holding a strange hairpin and a black coin.
The green and white puchuu looked her over. She was shorter, clearly younger and leaner, but otherwise looked the same as she had. That was unusual. He turned back to his brown and pink student. "Give me her profile." he demanded. Ko sighed and complied, a small packet of paper appearing in her tiny hands that he quickly took and read through. Shion looked at herself in the window next to them, seeing herself as she was almost a decade ago and wearing what looked to be the uniform of a school she'd never seen before. She put the remaining coin in her pocket, noticing that she was wearing shorts under her skirt. Convenient.
Shion felt confident, more confident than she'd ever felt. So much so that she took a moment to adjust her hair, putting on the silver and amethyst clip and brushing some behind her ear. She turned to the small creatures again, glancing at them before turning her attention to the monster. She could feel something around her. It was something she couldn't describe.
A sharp tentacle speared towards her. It didn't take any effort for her to move aside and dodge it. Something about her body felt off. Another lance came from the monster and she again dodged with ease.
"Heeeeeeeeeeeeyy!" a female voice sounded out. "Your body's a lot stronger than you think, just pretend you're an Olympic athlete and move like that! Your body will follow through!"
Shion saw another lance fly towards her and jumped to the side. She flew several feet before landing. That's a bit of an understatement. But she's right. If I act like I can do something... She sprinted forwards easily clearing the distance between herself and the monster.
Then I can.

---

The Time Betwixt

Singularities of Prescience

---

"Listen to me! Killing that furball isn't going to bring him back! All it'll do is leave some other girl out there without a patron, and that's not worth the satisfaction!" Makoto shouted at her. "You need to understand. He's dead for real now, but as far as the world is concerned, he died nearly a decade ago. He's already been mourned for and buried. Feeling shitty again isn't going to help anyone. Right now, you need to focus on adapting and learning how to move forward, not on mourning your little brother for a second time, got it? That's the only way you'll be able to stick around long enough to see him when he comes back."

---

"Now that I've got your profile, we can start training you up for real. First thing is to test your mana reserves, so we'll be going to the nearest gym. Did you figure out your phrase yet?"
"My 'phrase'?"
"Yeah, magi have this trigger phrase they have to say to enter their magical forms. A saying, an incantation, something like that. It should come to you pretty naturally. It's like... a motto for your magic. Try to think one up, I'm sure you'll figure it out pretty easily."

---

"Alright, I've decided." Makoto said as she turned towards Shion and smiled. "Not only am I gonna train you up to be better than your average bear, but I'mma give you my marking too."
"Your... marking?"
"Mhm! I can do this thing where I mark someone or something, and then I'll know whenever it's in danger. It's always preemptive, just enough in advance for me to get there and stop it before it happens. It's a nice benefit, especially with my kind of magic. Thirty years of Magical Girl-ing doesn't hurt either."

---

"The only things you've really gotta know as a magi are how to use your magic and how to fight. I'm gonna be teaching you both as much as I can, and trust me that'll put you in a major advantage over other magi, but I'm also gonna teach you a little bit of the third and often overlooked part of being magical. People aren't wrong when they say all you've gotta know are your magic and your movement, 'cause everything else is politics. Only thing is, magical politics are an absolute bitch. You think normal politics are bad? You've got no idea what it's like for us."
"What, do we have to vote on stuff or something?"
"That's a lot rarer than you're going to hope it is."

---

Three days later

A Lesson on Politics

---

Makoto and Shion found themselves sitting in a restaurant, Makoto slowly explaining things in the place of a puchuu.
"Okay, so here's what to do. First, take out your black coin." Makoto brought out a small pouch and pulled an identical black coin from it as Shion brought out her own. "Alright, so first, you need to know that black coins aren't like normal ones. The Ebon Mint gives them out because the coins aren't currency, they're debt. The Mint considers you to currently be in very deep debt with them now that you have that. Theoretically, you could someday pay that off, but the Mint does their best to make sure nobody can. Having that coin puts you in debt, and using would put you in more debt by a factor in the hundreds, if not the thousands. Obviously, the Mint can't rely on the coins being used, so they tend to put owners in more debt by collecting information on the magi in question and then blackmailing them into doing what the Mint wants. They also consider the potential to blackmail someone as debt. The only way to get out of debt with the Mint is if you keep all your personal information hidden from them and somehow pay off your coin. That's supposed to be impossible, but magi have pulled it off before. And you're about to join those legendary people." Makoto said with a smile.
"First, take your coin and drop it on the ground." Shion followed her instructions and dropped the coin. "Now, your debt is considered 'in transit.' That means that whoever picks it up takes the debt of the coin, but you still have any debt beyond that. Now, pick the coin back up."
Once again, Shion did as she was instructed. "You're now in possession of an 'in transit' coin. That means its owner willingly got rid of it and then you picked it up. Now, take this." Makoto placed her matching coin on the table and Shion picked it up. "You're now in control of a payed off coin and a non-payed off coin. This puts your overall debt at zero. Now, drop both of them and pick both back up."
Shion did so. "Now hand them to me." Makoto took the coins from Shion. "Now I've got control of the debt, which is zero. Now, I'll give you this payed off one, and you need to drop it and pick it back up." Again, Shion did so.
"Good. Now, drop it and I'll pick it up. Good. Now I'm the owner of this payed off coin again. So now I'm going to give you back your original coin, and you're going to sell it to me for my black coin." Makoto handed the coin to Shion, and Shion sold it back to her for the other coin. "Perfect. Now, I'm the one in debt to the Mint for this coin, but we're not quite done yet. Hand that one back to me." Shion handed it back. "Now we're ready to really bulletproof this." Makoto handed over a gold magical coin. "I'm going to put this payed off coin up for auction. The starting bid is one gold coin. Do I have any takers?" Makoto placed the black coin on the table and Shion put the gold coin down as well, saying she wanted to buy it. "Great. I hear one gold coin, does anyone have any higher bids? No? Going once, going twice, going three times... sold, to the young girl for one gold coin." Makoto put her fingers on the black coin. "Now you put your hand on this coin." Shion put her own finger on the black coin, and Makoto took the gold coin and removed her fingers from the black coin. "There. You are now the proud owner of a totally debt-free black coin from the Ebon Mint."
"What was the point of all that?" Shion asked.
Makoto put the other black coin into her coin-purse. "That was all to make sure that the Mint doesn't have any legal grounding to go after you anymore. And as a bonus, that's not a normal black coin. The Mint has people always watching and listening through their coins unless they're payed off. But there's nothing really stopping them from looking in on or tracking the coins that are payed off. But one of the biggest problems the Mint has is that they don't really have a good system in place to keep track of their coins from one world to another. Sure, they can track a coin they give out anywhere in the universe with no problem, but it tends to take them a while before they can correctly contact the Mint in the right worlds and sort everything out. That's why there are often bounties on people who take a black coin to another world. What you're in possession of now is referred to as a 'quasi-legal' coin. The general procedure is that people with quasi-legal coins have bounties put on them, and the hunter is supposed to take the quasi-legal coin and give them a coin from the world they're in that has equal debt left on it. The benefit for us, though, is that there's also usually a bonus to the person who's targeted based on how much trouble was caused to them and how much trouble was caused to the Mint by having the coin. The less trouble they go through and the more trouble you go through, usually due to the bounty hunter treating the target roughly or forgetting to give the coin they're supposed to, the more you'll get compensated in additional things or in a reduction in your debt. This system is an easy exploit for people who know about it and who know how to switch between worlds easily."
"So there's going to be a bounty on me now?" Shion asked.
"Maybe. Probably not. You got it from me so they'll probably leave you alone and try to get it out of me before I can pay it off. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. Besides, I'm always carrying at least one quasi anyway. 'S how I got my third nickname." Makoto laughed.
"... Okay, I'm curious, tell me what happened."
"Hehe, well, since I've managed to keep my real name a secret, and they need a full name in order to put a name at all on a bounty ad, they had to leave the name place blank. That's always a red flag, since if the Mint doesn't know someone's name, then you know that someone is smart or tough enough to be a serious problem. They couldn't even use an alias since the only one I had at the time was the one I use when working for them. That's another thing that's a huge red flag. It's not totally uncommon for some worlds' Mints to put up fake bounties on their own workers, and then when someone collects it they're put in more debt than the reward was worth since they damaged a person on the Mint's payroll. So they had to put up my info with a totally blank name, and that's enough to deter most people, right? This guy, literally a guy, not even a magi just someone who knew some rune magic, came after me. I refused to give up the coin so he started a fight, and since he had a black coin to give me the Mint was watching the whole time. Knowing how the system works put me in the perfect place to take advantage of it, cause I knew that if they have an alias that isn't from them for someone, they've gotta put it on any bounties for that person 'cause if they don't, someone can file a complaint and get something out of the Mint for not being given all the info on their target that they 'needed.' So I made sure to not say anything about myself and just beat the guy up. He had the coin out and on the ground after I knocked him over, and I was about to put him out for a while. So when he said 'Please don't break my legs,' I looked right at the coin and said 'That's my name,' winked at it and knocked him out. So now every bounty they put on me has to say that's my alias." Makoto laughed again.
"If three major red flags aren't enough to stop someone, then they're either really stupid or really rich, and the latter tends to not do their own hunting. Hell, one time after that someone tried to pay the Mint to send someone after my bounty 'cause she thought she was smart. Well the Mint's bounty system includes this little contract that basically says that the hunter made an attempt on the target's life. It's supposed to be used for when you're sent to kill someone but they give up, and when that happens you're supposed to change it to a capture and contain mission, right? Well when people are dumb enough to try what this chick did, the secret reason for it comes in. The Mint just sent someone to me and had me sign the contract, then I got a handful of silver coins as payment and they went back to the chick and charged her triple for 'damages to Ebon Mint operatives,' saying that we beat each other up and I ran away after signing it. So the poor girl had to pay a bunch of money for me to get payed to do nothing."
"That's... really kind of evil of them."
"Oh, yeah, totally. Like I said, you shouldn't mess with the Ebon Mint. At least not if I'm not there to help. They're not nice, even among magi."
"You keep implying that magi are bad on the whole. Are they? Or... I guess, are we?"
Makoto paused for a moment, and looked down at the table, refusing to make eye contact.
"Magical Girls are savage and vicious creatures."

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Present Day

32 Seconds Ago

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Shit. Shion had just lost track of the girl she had been chasing for the past week. "There goes a black coin." she muttered to herself as she looked around. "At least I'm pretty sure this is the town Makoto was planning to go to." Shion changed back to her normal form as she jumped off the rooftop, landing just as she finished. Might as well stay awhile and look around. Just gotta find a place to stay.

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Unbeknownst to Shion, Makoto had just stepped out of a bath and sprawled herself on the king-sized bed of the best hotel in Penrose. She let out a content sigh. "Nothing better than a nice shower and a nap. Especially after such a long day." She tossed a small wooden coin with an acorn on one side and a crude carving of her face on the other onto the nightstand next to her bed. She stretched and curled up under the covers, hugging her tail and quickly feel asleep, not bothering to put any clothes on. It's always so much more comfortable without them when your tail is as big as hers.

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Lunacy of Love: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

I've finally got the novel of a first post done. Let me know what if anything needs to be changed. Really all this does is bring the two to Penrose and show off one of them, but still.