FamishedPants

Beyond the Looking Glass: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

H i l a r i a

"Free food is the best food~!"

— Hilaria

The silver-haired magical girl eagerly returned the handshake. She was positively beaming, a clear indicator she was delighted to meet more people on the island. Because the more people there were, the more chances she might have to be useful, after all. In any case, she appreciated being introduced to others, and had no problem allowing Helga to give her surfboard a brief glance. "Yes~ Yes~ Mars is my cute defender of those in need of saving~! He's just dressed for the occasion right now~" she giggled, glancing sideways at her shield now currently disguised as a board.

Hilaria then eyed the girls the others were waking up. They were obviously not the kind of people who woke up early without a good motivator, but she'd met more than enough people like that for it to not bother her. All she hoped was that they'd begin to enjoy themselves the more this event went on, whatever it may be. The confusing nature of this situation was not entirely lost on Hilaria, even if she might've given the impression otherwise. The boogie board incident that introduced her was a test to see if she was still as capable as she was before she woke up.

That, thankfully, was the case.

The worry about what could have sent her and the others there was in the back of her mind as the two girls were successfully roused from their slumber. One of the girls seemed especially concerned with Hilaria herself, showing jealousy at... her breasts? Hilaria looked down at her own chest, a brief lapse in her cheery demeanor, but she didn't seem upset at Julia's comment. When she looked up at Julia, she was frowning.

"You don't have to apologize, but they're not all they're cracked up to be, you know~" she sighed. "When I'm not transformed, they're such a pain to deal with~ It's horrendous~!" she sighed, but then as if remembering something, shot Julia the most determined, powerful expression she could muster and squeezed her arms towards her chest, to emphasize her assets. "Oh, but they're not all bad I suppose~! Sometimes, when I wear and do stuff like this, boys buy me lots of food and that's good~! Hilaria loves food~!"

Having said this without a shred of awareness, one could only imagine Hilaria was fairly ignorant on certain matters. She decided to listen and watch as the others tried to figure out what they would do, and after violence was proven not to be the answer they needed, she looked towards Mika with a smile as the girl hopped in front of her. "Hilaria could never deny someone who's this excited to be a star~!" she nodded just as eagerly as Mika was jumping.

She laid her board down on the sand. "Hmm~?" she took a second to think it over, then spoke. "Three~! We can hold~ three if we really try~!"

S a m a n t h a

"I'll get through this!"

Samantha Howard

Where had all of her confidence gone in this dire moment? Silhouette couldn't answer that question. She was a violent assassin who cared little about trifle matters such as public opinion and embarrassment. But if that was the case, why, then, was she unable to speak properly or even at all? Her voice had all but left her, as well as any hope of salvaging this mess. Everyone present could see she was vulnerable! It goes without saying the thumbs up Tetrad had given her did nothing positive to her situation.

A-alright, clearly there's some empathetic girl trying to cause disorder... yeah, that has to be it, I just need to calm down!

_{"I'm not an m-m-m-m-masoc....!"}

...damnit.

Silhouette had come to understand that in this state, it was physically impossible for her deal with Chloe's teasing. Or even hold a conversation. She lamented the fact she was looking so pathetic in front of Veronica, and decided she must do something about this unfortunate turn of events.

...Um... but how can I... when I'm basically a shadow of my former self right now...? Wait! That's gotta be it!

She now knew what she had to do: she had to stop all the ghosts that were coming through use 'that' technique. It was one she had yet to perfect, and it could potentially backfire on her. But if there was even a 1% chance it would work, then her only choice was to try it!

With the plan in her mind, she patiently awaited her chance to escape. She stubbornly still attempted to speak when Lily complimented her, but it turned out no different than the other two times. But eventually, Chloe left Sil alone and that provided her the opportunity to vanish from sight.

She immediately separated herself from the rest of the group, and found a secluded space on their island. This was the best she could do to minimize the damage were things to get out of control.

"Alright... then lets begin..."

Silhouette focused as hard as she could on working her magic, and soon her own shadow moved from beneath her feet to a space in front of her. It momentarily paused as she gathered more and more mana, and then finally it began to take shape. Though drawn out, the process was similar to making a normal schatten, because she was desperately trying to get this right. The shadow took Sil's shape and became a tangible person standing before her... but then it changed drastically.

The silhouette of Silhouette slowly began to become colored. Skin, eyes, hair... it soon became nearly indistinguishable from a normal person. But instead appearing as an exact copy of Silhouette, it resembled her human form much more closely. The oddest thing about it, physically speaking, was that in a very small area around her, the air darkened, as if she was absorbing the light around her. This formed a small, dim outline of her that one could notice if they looked closely. There was also the fact that this thing was not wearing the same swimsuit as her.

It wore a bikini that left little to the imagination, colored mostly a gradient of black and pink. The top was tied at the front, where it formed a pink bow. A long black scarf accompanied this.

Swimsuit

S h a d e

"The dazzling star makes her return!"

— Shade

"Hello, world!" the schatten spoke in a very cheerful voice, excited at its newfound life.

Silhouette sighed in relief. Last time she attempted this, her schatten adopted the personality that had a fascination with blood, carnage, and war. Needless to say, its introduction was a lot more violent and a lot less acceptable. For the purpose of dealing with other girls, this particular schatten should suffice. She'd implanted the persona she made up when traveling to the Overcity last, which would hopefully mean it had no problem being in a swimsuit.

"Hey, you aren't feeling weird, are you?" Sil asked the schatten. "Like you want to start a fight or something?"

The schatten looked at her, then smiled. "Of course not, Sil-ly! I'm a cute idol, why would I want to do that?"

Silhouette ignored the pun she made and yet again sighed. "That's one good thing, then. Since you're not violent, I'll be using you to... well... speak, as I can't be bothered to do so with the other girls." she explained.

With a nod, the schatten giggled. "It's no use trying to make excuses! I'm a part of you, after all! Just admit to your cute shadow idol that you're embarrassed and she'll be glad to help you~!" she gave a smug smirk as she waited for Sil to answer.

Clearly, she had made a mistake. Why was her own shadow giving her lip? This was absurd, she should obediently do what was asked of her without question, or so Sil thought. But the fact of the matter was that she couldn't think up a persona on the spot right now and she wasn't confident she'd get this trick right twice in a row. For now, she would have to deal with this smug little shadow.

"I-I need your help because I seem to be incapable of wearing a swimsuit without freezing up. Yes, I'm embarrassed. Is that suitable? Can you help me now?"

"My my, no need to get all grumpy. I'm just playing with you~" she laughed. "I'll always be willing to help my... err, self, I suppose. But first, there's an important matter we need to discuss!"

"What is this important matter?"

"I don't have a name, duh!"

Silhouette shook her head. "It's Shade. How do you not know your own name? I had a name for that guise."

"I don't know." she shrugged. "I'm not the one who made me. Or, well, I mean I am but... ah, this is too confusing! An idol like me should focus on shining brilliantly, not dealing with this kind of stuff. But... there's still one more thing!"

The exasperated sigh Sil gave before asking yet again "What" was a loud as one could get.

"The thing is... we both have the same font color right now, and that simply won't do!" Shade pouted.

Silhouette scratched her head. "What... are you talking about?" there was a short pause. "Do you have something against 'red'? I think it fits, don't you?"

"Yeah. It fits YOU! Not me, I'm a cute idol. Besides, I'm pretty sure others have the same color. I am special, so I need my own color!"

"...okay. I don't really understand but what do you want me to do about it?"

Shade frowned. "I want you to help me decide, Sil-ly! There's so many, I can't just decide which one is for me without a second opinion!"

Samantha was seriously beginning to question whether or not the murderous schatten was preferable to this one. But she'd already come so far, so she may as well try to speed things up. "I don't think I'm the best person for this sort of task but I guess throw some at me and I'll see which one fits?"

"Alright! How about... blue?"

"...no. Why would you even think about that one?"

"Um, yeah it's dumb but I really just wanted to separate myself from you, is all!"

Sil narrowed her eyes. "I'll just pretend I didn't hear that. Lets get on with it and throw me another."

Shade raised a finger to her lip and thought. "Um, what about... pink? Does it look cute?"

"It's not a horrible choice like the last one, but Hilaria's text is too similar."

"Yeah, you're right. Then what about blac---" Shade was immediately cut of by Silhouette.

"I will forcibly have all memory of Shade erased from my mind if you mention that color."

Shade shuttered, knowing full well that Silhouette was being serious. "O-okay. Then how about turquoise?"

"...why do you keep asking about blue colors when I already told you it won't work? And besides, that's literally Emily's color. Can you take this seriously or not? This post has run on for long enough."

"...Mmm, okay. Then for realsies this time! I'll give this one my all!" Shade tried her best to make a serious facial expression but failed to do so, the result being rather cute. "Okay, I got it!" she clenched her fist, then stared Sil straight in the eyes. With an exhale, she spoke with gusto.

"Two colors! How about this? Pretty impressive, huh?"

Silhouette was genuinely surprised. "H-how did you do that...?!"

"...a lot of coding for a disappointing result, if we're being serious. It might not be worth it to do this every time."

"Well, I've grown tired of this whole thing so you're sticking with that. Now come on, lets go." Silhouette allowed no time for debate, and took off towards the group of girls she'd arrived with. As a member of the Crimson Cradle, finding Tetrad and Veronica was no issue at all.

Of course, when she did approach the others, she allowed Shade to lead the way. Her demeanor becoming timid once again. But Shade had no problems whatsoever speaking aloud and drawing attention to herself, as Sil ironically became her shadow. "Heya~! Seems we made it just in the nick of time! A neat yellow bridge to get us to the other side? I'd prefer a red carpet but I guess that just means I have to earn it~!" Shade quickly took off towards the construct, with Silhouette following closely behind her in a manner similar to a nervous child. If Shade had sleeves, Sil would surely be holding onto one.

Re: Zero: The High Council

---

On a less gay note...

These times were strange, frantic, and quite frankly, rather confusing. Alistair Archibald could say with perfect confidence that only a month or two ago he would have laughed at the mere thought that he would be eager to take Captain Crunch out on a second date. Yet here he was, neck-deep in murderous cultists, doing just that. But the situation did not escape him, and a dark thought entered his mind. In movies, such promises were often followed by the failure to uphold them, often because of death. This was troubling, but there was evidence that real life did not adhere to movie standards. He was naturally the main character of this 'film' and if he was not able to defeat the foes that had stood before him up to this point, to achieve anything of real value, then it had to be that fictional tropes were simply that -- fictional.

Or rather, he so desperately hoped that was the case.

"Tch."

He couldn't let his mind continue to wander, however, as the situation had yet to settle. He understood the importance of keeping civilian casualties to a minimum, but he would have appreciated just a little more assistance on the front lines. Only one other person stayed with him, and through all the fighting and the commotion, Alistair had temporarily lost track of Ashton. He was focused on keeping them from being overwhelmed, so he was not sure if that meant Ashton had been slain or something else. But such thoughts would eventually be answered when, even in the thick of everything, Alistair felt something...wrong.

There was no way he was just going to ignore whatever this was, so he made his way to the source of this feeling.

...

...

...

"At the very least, you can't stop me from facing my death standing up!"

Moments away from his impending death at the hands of Gris, Ashton displayed courage in a situation where many would express cowardice and fear. Death, even in their case, was something to be feared. It was not only often painful, but it hindered their progress and could potentially be permanent at any given instance. Yet even still, the boy did not cower.

And because of that, Alistair would have no qualms about ensuring his continued survival.

"I like your attitude."

Though Huma had been spoken a moment prior, his compliment had more oomph to it than his incantation. But the results should have been the same either way. If Gris had continued forwards without defending himself against the projectile that was launched his way, then he'd suffer a fatal wound. If he immediately continued or otherwise did not stop his charge, then I'd have to rewrite the rest of the post please don't do it he'd be met with further retaliation.

Alistair did not look very pleased, his eye mostly catching on to the woman that Belrigger was fighting. She certainly was familiar. "Sandra? So she's the source of this feeling..." he was unable to prevent the slightest hint of disappointment from showing on his face, having obviously hoped she would be an ally rather than an enemy, but he wasn't distraught and clearly he wasn't going to miss any sleep over it. To liken it to something, it was like he ordered ice cream at McDonald's and they told him the machine was broken.

He wasn't surprised.

Needless to say, if they had to fight, he wasn't too likely to hold back. But he already knew there was no way he could do that against someone of her caliber. Admittedly, he would have to do his best to ensure she couldn't get away with holding back on them. A thought that was very unappealing to someone like him.

Alistair's breathing slowed. "Odessa." he called to her in an almost calm, serene state. "From this point on, I doubt things will get any less difficult. They'll probably get worse." a long pause occurred before he continued. "That being the case, we need to give this our all, and I can't do that without you."

Beyond the Looking Glass: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

E m i l y

"This is my chance to make stronger bonds with my sisters!"

— Emily

A yawn.

Emily slowly stirred, waking up without much urgency at first. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and then scanned her immediate area, raising an eyebrow in confusion. She did not remember falling asleep, and she most certainly did not remember doing so on a beach. A weird, alien-like beach at that. The odd scenery caused her to hop to her feet, but upon seeing other girls there wearing nothing but swimsuits, she hardly felt the need to be on alert. They seemed to be in the same situation she was.

Oh, I hope whatever happened didn't take me mid-shift!

Even in this foreign place with no real clue what was going on, Emily couldn't help but worry about the soup kitchen she volunteered at. But after taking a second to think about it, she did remember finishing work and heading home. Anything after that was fuzzy, so her best guess is that she was... abducted? after that. So long as she had finished her duties, then this was fine. She could deal with whatever oddities were thrown her way, probably.

"Ah..." Emily approached a familiar face, stopping beside her. It was Amaryllis, but she'd just been shoved by another girl. Emily figured they must have been really close, because she was sure that is what nicknames meant. She wished she had such a strong bond between another girl like that, so she was a bit envious of the two. "Is there really a problem?" she asked innocently. "I think she looks cute! It's a nice look!" she complimented, then, as if remembering something, looked at herself.

As with everyone else, she found she too was wearing appropriate apparel for a day out on the beach. The swimsuit she was wearing was almost plain, at least compared to her normal getup. It was a white two-piece with green trims, but it had a red bow in the center of the top. A transparent veil on the bottom half and a cute flower-like accessory on her head were the most noteworthy additions, but she also had a single pink wrist-cuff on one side, and a bracelet on the other. Given how her typical clothing looked, she couldn't find it in herself to complain about this.

Swimsuit

Around this time is when Emily noticed the sign. She briefly took a moment to herself to go see what it said, and couldn't help but express a bit of excitement. She was a bit embarrassed at the fact she thought the other girl was speaking about Amaryllis' swimsuit and not that they were all on an island suddenly. But, well, even if she might be a bit awkward, she really did appreciate any time she could interact with her sisters in a non-violent way. Such chances were, quite unfortunately, rare for her... at least they used to be. This seemed to be changing over the course of the last couple of weeks, and Emily was grateful for it.

"Oh!" one of the other girls woke up and had introduced herself to everyone as Shannon. Nobody else seemed to jump at the opportunity to take her hand in greeting, so Emily struck while the iron was still hot! "Hello, Shannon! I'm, um, Emily...! Very pleased to meet you!" she hoped she wasn't coming off as too excited as she accepted the other girls' hand and gave it a good shake. "I hope we can all get through this challenge together!"

....

....

....

Among magical girls, there were some who were especially keen on picking up minute details. This trait had many uses, but was often best used as an early-warning system. A person who doesn't cast a shadow, for example, was likely plotting something nefarious and to know this before it occurred could save one's life. Small giveaways that betray a trap that had been laid, a nervous tick, an inconsistency in the background. Yes, magical girls who were especially skilled in awareness were often able to respond to threats a lot quicker and more efficient than the standard girl. But that doesn't mean normal girls were defenseless against surprises and the sort. It was merely that they often had less time to react and were more vulnerable. But, perhaps as a basic instinct, every girl could sense a threat to their lives when it wasn't actively concealed. A sloppy, loud attack... a missile quickly approaching...?

This primal instinct that told a person that something bad was going to happen likely kicked on for everyone who consisted of what may be referred to as "group 4". A shiver down the spine, or goosebumps... something gave it away. And for those who decided to look to the sky, they would see just what that 'something' was.

A projectile of sorts was rocketing towards their island at incredible speed. It looked almost like a fireball -- obvious evidence that the drag it experienced on its way down had caused it to suffer intense heat. Had it come from space? At the very least, it looked like it did. A shuttle reentering Earth's atmosphere was the best comparison one might be able to offer, but it was much smaller in size.

Its descent came to an explosive close on the edge of the island.

The collision was almost enough to bust a person's ear drums, and the sand it kicked up made it seem as though a bomb went off. A minute or so passed before the air was clear enough to see just what the object was. Inside the center of the crater it had created, there was something that would likely shock all of the people who witnessed it. Because unless their eyes were playing tricks on him, at the epicenter was...

A huge boogie board.

H i l a r i a

"'Saving' the best introduction for last~!"

— Hilaria

Suddenly, a white-haired girl hopped into the crater, approaching the thing and reaching out to grab it. The moment she touched it, a loud hiss escaped from the point of contact and she drew her hand back. She had to have suffered severe burns, but only a moment later, her hand would return to normal.

She wore a slim white jacket that wasn't zipped up over a two-piece string bikini. It almost seemed too small, and thusly highlighted the girl's ample assets. Other details included a cute little flowers and a few shotgun shells strapped to her legs, but otherwise the bikini itself wasn't especially eye-catching. On Hilaria, however, it was definitely a head-turner.

Swimsuit

"Ah~!" she didn't seem the least bit worried. She looked happy, even. "Maybe I put a little too much 'oomph' into it, hmm~?" she raised a finger to her lips before tilting her head sideways, happening to see the other girls. She left the boogie board for now and made a beeline for the group that had formed.

Hilaria clapped her hands together as she stopped in front of the others, tilting her head to the side. "Hey hey~! Are you guys the ones who kidnapped me, I wonder~?" she paused and gave everyone a once over. "No~ No~ You all are too cute to be plotting, I think~! But, then, who stole Hilaria~?" she scratched her head, unable to find an answer. "Oh well~ It doesn't really matter, does it~?"

Though she had been speaking to nobody in particular, Hilaria hadn't been able to move her eyes from Mika. She was obviously checking the girl out, but it strangely did not feel as though there was any perverted intentions behind the act. Presumably because she find Mika to be acceptable in some way, shape, or form, the girl continued, addressing Mika specifically this time. "Hey, you~! Do you like challenges~? Hilaria does~! How do you do with heights, I wonder~?"

Beyond the Looking Glass: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

S a m a n t h a

"..."

Samantha Howard

Eventually, it was Samantha's turn to rouse from her slumber. As she stood up, it took approximately two seconds for her to go from being on high alert because of the unfamiliar surroundings and how she had gotten there, to confusion when she noticed that there were other girls on the island and they were all wearing swimsuits. She wasn't sure why, but she expected being kidnapped to be less... lighthearted? She was concerned, but everyone else seemed rather okay with the situation, so she imagined there was not any immediate danger. So for now, she remained completely calm.

Spying Veronica, the girl naturally decided she would approach her employer, whom she hoped would have a better idea of their situation. Though a mere second after Sil thought to do this, Veronica herself confirmed to another girl that that was simply not the case. A shame, but if Veronica wasn't in the know about things, then perhaps it would be best to keep her guard up after all?

Samantha's inclination was to keep a cold exterior up anyways, so that wasn't a particularly difficult plan to follow through on. She wore an apathetic expression as she glanced at the others.

"Heeeeey!" a voice called out.

Samantha recognized the girl's voice instantaneously. Chloe. She could not forget that girl's voice no matter how hard she tried. But even if she could, doing so could potentially be an even bigger mistake than the one she made when she was sparring with Veronica. Chloe was an important, unique girl, after all. Sam knew this much since their encounter at Chloe's apartment. She was capable of things Sil had not seen other magical girls do before, and that alone was something to keep an eye out for. The fact that she hadn't once heard anybody else recognize this was, quite honestly, baffling to the assassin.

Was everyone else just stupid?

Maybe it was arrogant to think that she alone was the only one who could comprehend the importance of Chloe. That, in a sense, she was almost a sort of 'chosen one' who could recognize greatness. But if there was one thing she had become certain of in her time as a magical girl, it was this:

Not many of them appreciated a good cup of coffee.

Fools, all of them!

"Dunno what's going on here, but I'll take eye candy any day, heh. Any of you beauties happen to be free for a bit of fun on this mysterious deserted island?"

Now that Chloe had spoken a few more words, Samantha remembered that she was a bit difficult to interact with. But maybe it was simply because Samantha never quite could understand the point of flirting and the sort. Wasn't it kinda dumb? A proud girl like Samantha could only find such trivial things irritating. She should hurriedly put a stop to this before it got out of hand, after all. She approached Chloe with narrowed eyes and a fire in them reminiscent of those woman with short hair who felt a need to speak to the manager of a fast food establishment because a new employee accidentally forgot to take off the pickles.

"You know," Samantha turned a palm up. Happening to glance at it and perhaps seeing something that wasn't typical, the girl's eyes snaked along her own arm and down towards her body as she spoke. The volume and confidence of her voice soon followed suit. _{"...You should really..."} It became really hard to even hear her as she tried, and failed, to continue speaking in a strong enough voice to understand. _{"...try to not be so... aggressive....in...your...."} Even magically-enhanced hearing couldn't discern whether she simply finished her sentence in a really low voice or gave up, but with her face turning red as a beet and any semblance of confidence having evaporated on the spot, there was one thing that likely became apparent to anyone watching:

Samantha had realized that she, too, was wearing a swimsuit.

Swimsuit

Beyond the Looking Glass: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

E m i l y

"Despite all my rage, I am still just a cinnamon roll disguised as a mage."

— Emily

It had been some days after her encounter with the knight who had opened her eyes to the injustice that had taken place right beneath her nose and in that time, Lucifer had redoubled her efforts in seeking out the beasts hidden in plain sight, as well as those creeping around at dark. But it was proving a difficult task, as any monster wearing a human disguise would obviously be doing everything in its power not to stand out. She imagined those sorts would only actively break character in the moments just before they struck a victim down, which by then meant it was too late to save a life.

Merely one of the unfortunate side effects of having Jonald as her Puchuu. The hate-obsessed little ball of sadism only ever did the bare-minimum when it came to his obligations as her Puchuu, and more often than not, he tried to bend things behind the scenes to impede or otherwise cause Lucifer harm.

That is why she kept these actions secret from her patron, even if a patron’s help would be appreciated right now.

But that proved to be unnecessary as luck had sided with Emily Ackerson. The form it took was one that normally would never happen. After the event involving Amaryllis, Lucifer decided to ensure that the soup kitchen she volunteered at would be safe from any other attempts like that. So she placed her purifying artifact in the place to ward off what monsters may approach. Only a day later did she witness, by chance, someone acting rather odd as they approached the kitchen. A young man, no older than 20, whose most noticeable trait was his rather large shoes, began to show symptoms similar to a panic attack rather abruptly as he drew closer to the artifact. As if the very building was unapproachable, he paced around before deciding to head back the way he came.

Emily, luckily witnessing this event, tailed him.

Observing this being, their actions revealed thus:

• They visited exclusively low-income, rougher parts of Penrose during the day.
• They never ate lunch.
• They had what sounded from a distance to be rather lively, casual chats with people for a while. A couple notable facts was that he had a morbid sense of humor and everyone he engaged in conversation to in the day was younger than him, with no exceptions.
• They agreed to meet with one girl who had this horrible purse with an excessive amount of rhinestones on it later in the day to go to a club. Maybe it would be better to have said it was rhinestones with a purse glued onto them?
  He stopped by the graveyard for a while, though she temporarily lost track of him and couldn’t confirm what he did there exactly.

The man did not seem to be especially suspect, aside from his random visit to the graveyard and, if that girl’s purse was anything to go by, horrible taste in women. But the girl aside, since she wasn’t able to see what he did at the graveyard, she could only assume he had wanted to go check on a loved one or the sort. The fact he was speaking to younger people might’ve raised some flags were he not so young himself. She’d be surprised if he was older than 21, so it would make sense if he ended up being younger than he appeared.

Emily was beginning to feel like this had been a waste of time, but the fact of the matter was that he reacted to what had to be her artifact. She convinced herself at the very least she had to see what happened between this guy and the girl he invited out before she could give up.

She couldn’t imagine how detectives or those spies in the movies could actually stand to do this too often. Over the course of this ‘learning experience’, she found out that she had to stick unusually far back to be safe, which meant she had to keep her focus so as not to lose him in a crowd or something of that nature. On top of that, because the man didn’t eat lunch, she too had to forgo the meal, and she was feeling rather hungry as a result. Also cranky. But, for the sake of easing the fear in her heart, she watched as the man picked the girl from earlier up at their pre established rendezvous point, and then they walked their way towards the club.

This is where things began to become REALLY suspect.

The area they were in had become rather lively as night approached. People, mostly older teens and young adults, flooded the streets around the club as if they’d just been set free from prison. Unfamiliar with these sorts, she wondered if this was a daily occurrence or if something made today special. Either way, there were a lot of people here, which made her tailing from a distance increasingly difficult. She continued to be put further and further behind, until eventually she had lost them altogether. In a panic, she hurriedly pushed her way through the crowd of people and desperately tried to relocate them.

Thankfully, the shitty purse stood out among everything else. She managed to catch a look of it as the two of them… disappeared into a nearby alley? With an unsettling feeling taking over, Emily pushed her way through the people in front of her and after about a minute, managed to get into the alley.

“…Huh…?”

She scanned the area for the two of them, but did not find them. Instead, all that remained was, ironically, the purse that had an effect on Emily similar to the purifying artifact’s effect on that man from earlier. She really did not want to look at it. But since this was all she had to go by, she did anyways.

There was a bit of blood on it.

That, naturally, gave rise to alarm. Ensuring that nobody was looking inside, she immediately transformed. This man had to be somewhere nearby, there was no way he simply vanished! Since she did not see him come back out of the alley, he must have continued forwards. The alleyway did not simply reach a dead end, but actually led out to the front of the club those two had spoke about going to earlier. So she quickly scanned the area for the man, but failed to find him.

She did, however, find the woman. She was entering the club.

Confused, but curious, Emily followed the girl into the place, and was assaulted by obnoxious music and more bodies squished together than she could count. Nevertheless, she ignored the sour crowd and searched for the girl, managing to find her dancing after a few minutes.

At first, Lucifer merely observed, hoping to spot the man after some time, but when it became clear that he wasn’t going to come back, she approached the young woman. Before she could get a word in, the woman spotted her and… ran right at her!

Stopping just in front of her and grabbing the magical girl’s hands, she grinned.

“Hey hey! Aren’t you, like, a cutie! And so bold, too!” she was basically hopping up and down in excitement. “Hey, are you free? You wanna hang out? I’m, like, sooooooooo bored ‘cus nobody wants to play with me! You’re not with anybody else, right?”

Against the forces of evil, Lucifer came off as arrogant and condescending. But against someone who was this pushy, and wasn’t a monster… well, she wasn’t AS confident. “U-uh, yeah, that’s right. I didn’t come here with anyone else.” she admitted.

“That’s hella awesome. I’m, like, all alone too and it would be totes great if you could be my besty for the night!” the girl squeezed Lucifer’s hands tighter and beamed a smile. “Dancin’s much more fun with a besty!”

“Oh, well, I suppose I co---”

“Awesomeness!” she cut Emily off. “We’re gonna have, like, sooooo much fun, just you wait~!”

It bugged her that the man had simply disappeared, but if nothing truly bad happened to this girl, then it was likely that he wasn’t really a monster or anything. That would’ve been the perfect time to strike, after all. Lucifer wasn’t going to be rude to some random girl, so she might as well oblige with this woman’s requests, if only for a little bit. It might be nice to vent some of the frustration that built up over a pointless tail.

Some time had passed and the girls had danced a bit. Emily was soon about to call it a night when she accidentally stepped on the woman’s foot. She looked down to confirm that was what she had done and noticed the girls rather… large feet.

The other girl noticed Emily staring and merely laughed the event off. “It’s, like, no biggy. Cuties like us, like, don’t need to look so mopey. That puppy-dog face isn’t your appeal. Like, I think you’d rock the bitch look better!”

Lucifer raised her eyes back to the woman with, well, a rather bitchy expression on her face.

“See! That’s what I’m saying! Uh, unless you’re, like, taking offense. I meant it in a good way, I swears.”

The two danced for a little longer, Emily’s mood not improving in the last, however, before they eventually decided to call it quits. “Hey, like, you’re not tired, right?” the girl asked.

“I’m pretty fired up, actually.”

“Really? You don’t like, look like it, but I mean if you wanna keep this party going, then hells yeah! More clubs, more fun! But, like, you mind if we take a short detour? I’m, like, such a clutz and forgot I dropped something nearby until now!” she laughed.

Lucifer nodded her head and motioned for the woman to lead the way. She did so, heading towards the same alleyway Lucifer had seen her and that dude from before entering earlier. Upon seeing her rhinestone-infested purse, the girl squeed and beelined for it and bent down to pick it up.

“So, like, after this,” she began to stand up. “I know a cool pla---”

The girl’s question was cut short as she turned back to Emily. The cause was Lucifer’s hand, which now covered her face. The girl’s startled expression twisted into that of terror as Lucifer spat fire her next words out.

“Let the flames of purgatory be your guide to the afterlife.” the magical girl’s palm seemed to start glowing. The girl desperately tried to break free of the grasp, but could not do so in time. “Begone, wench!” in the next instant, turquoise flames slithered along Lucifer’s arm until they reached the girl’s head, leaving nothing remaining.

The body fell to the floor.

”Dalton forgot this was supposed to be a collab.”

— Tetrad

”That’s hot.” It appeared that Emily had been witnessed. When she turned around to look at the individual, she recognized her as one of the serving girls at the party. She was holding a saucer with a single martini in one hand and a few playing cards in the other. The bright colors on their faces made them look like uno playing cards, but the back had an insignia that wasn’t standard to Mattel’s best selling card game. ”You guys looked like you were having a lot of fun. I’m almost surprised it turned out this way.” the serving girl dropped the tray and, while it was falling, snatched the martini glass out of the air. ”Then I remembered you were Lucifer. And really, isn’t sending people to hell just what the Devil would do?” Every word was delivered from a pair of smiling lips.

Lucifer narrowed her eyes at the witness and ignored the odd feeling of deja vu she got. “...You know me?” she questioned. To her, that was a red flag. Few people knew her unless they’d learned of her from Jonald, and that always brought with it complications. Needless to say, she was cautious.

The saucer landed with a loud clang, but Tetrad kept her eyes trained on Emily. ”I wouldn’t say I know you. I mean, this is the first time we’ve met right?” She held the glass up to her mouth.

“Don’t nitpick at my wording and talk.” Emily snapped, clearly agitated.

”Sure sure, I heard a few things. You sounded like a pretty interesting character, and if that smoldering body is anything to go by, you don’t disappoint.” She threw back her head and downed her drink. ”Mmmm, damn we have a good mixer tonight.” She slid the empty glass into one of the pouches on the side of her outfit before retrieving a handkerchief to wipe her mouth with. ”Anyway, I’m kind of trying to enjoy the party. So I’m not sure how you wanna do this.” She put her hands together, covering one of her hands with the fan of cards. ”Let’s do the skit where you tell me why you fried her face. Then we’ll address that B-movie one liner, which is the worst thing I’ve heard in a while.”

”Ignoring your last comment…”

In her opinion, using the word "interesting" as a description for Lucifer was evidence enough that they got their information from Jonald, in one way or another. Emily did not feel like she stood out, except for maybe her costume, and there were worse girls than her in that regard. "I’d recommend you not listen to baseless rumors and go have some actual fun back at the club" the satanic girl suggested, her gaze drifting to the body of the now-deceased girl. There was a hiss as it began to slowly melt, a black tar-like substance escaping from what had at one point been the girl's head. "But wouldn't you do the same if you found out the girl you were dancing with turned out to be a ghoul?"

”Hmmm.” She lifted a hand up to her chin in thought. The sarcastic smile she was wearing had vanished in an instant. Her brow was fret in thought. ”Well, I can’t just take your word for it, can I? A rumor is just an unconfirmed story after all. How did you come to such a conclusion? What was your process?”

Lucifer seemed somewhat irked by the question. “If you’re gonna try to tell me you’ve seen a human melt like that when they’ve died before, I’m gonna have to take you to a hospital.” she said dryly “But if you must know, well then…” she turned her gaze away from Tetrad, as though embarrassed. “...it’s because she had big feet.”

”Hmmmm.” She continued to hold her chin. ” It’s evident you made the right call. I was just curious how you got there. You might have intended to kill a normal human and got lucky with a monster. But I don’t think that was the case.” She closed her fan of cards and slid them into one of the pockets on her pouch. ”I’m Tetrad, by the way.” She extended her hand to shake, and her smile slowly returned. ”Did you want to stick around? The DJ is getting set up right now.”

"Well," Emily looked down at the girl's feet and, satisfied that they weren’t enlarged, finally accepted Tetrad’s handshake with a firm grasp. "I suppose a little release isn't too bad." she agreed with a brighter expression. It wasn’t yet a smile, but it was nowhere near as hostile as it had been earlier. Lucifer probably decided this girl wasn’t a threat. She was still upset she hadn’t been able to save the girl from being eaten, but at least she managed to make there would be no other victims. Emily hoped the girl could rest easy knowing that much.

”Boom!” Tetrad started to laugh. Emily wasn’t sure why, but she could feel something between her hand and Tetrad’s palm. Once Tetrad released Emily’s hand, she pulled the card that she was hiding in her palm out of her hand and slid it in with the others.

The fire girl nearly jumped, having been startled by Tetrad's outburst. Tetrad might’ve even noticed a silhouette of Lucifer made of flames quickly appear and die out just as fast behind her, as though the soul had been spooked out of her. She held a hand to her chest as she regained a steady breath. Once she had done so, her face betrayed her ire. "Could you not just do that suddenly?!”

”Sorry, just lighting up the mood.” She kicked up the saucer and caught it. ”Anyway, your Puchuu seriously sucks. I’d consider finding employment elsewhere if I was you.” She walked out of the ally with Emily. ”And I hate talking business on my leisure time, but if you need any help uncovering monsters, that’s something I’m pretty good at.” She pulled a tablet device out of one of her pouches (how many of those did she have????) and looked at the screen. ”My shift ends in about five minutes. Try not to hook up with any more ghouls before then.”

Emily tried her best not to show that she was impressed with the saucer stunt, instead attempting to focus on the conversation at hand. "That isn't a bad idea, I just wasn't afforded such an opportunity until only recently." she sighed. "That, and if he's busy talking behind my back, he probably doesn't have enough time to do it to someone else." she gave an odd excuse. But it was true she didn't want anybody else to have to deal with this horrid Puchuu. "I know you just said you don't like talking about business, but if you could elaborate on how you might be able to help with that sort of stuff, I'd appreciate hearing about it. That's the part I struggle with." she shrugged. "But that can wait until you're done."

”They know I’m checking up on you and ghouly there. No biggie.” Tetrad tapped the side of her head ”Let’s just say I have a crystal ball that isn’t really a crystal ball. I can usually tell what something is doing at the moment, and I can tell what someone’s been doing if I have enough information.” She gestured with the saucer. ”Just some divining magic.”

Lucifer found herself glancing yet again at the ghoul when Tetrad mentioned seeing into the past. She wondered how that worked, as she had never really looked too hard into that sort of thing before. "So you could see things that'd already happened? What sort of information would you need to do that?" she wound up asking.

”As much as you can.” Tetrad glanced back at the ghoul. ”Name or visual of the target, both if possible. Beyond that I’d like to know where they were, what time it was, the more specific the better. Unless they were protected by a spell, I shouldn’t have any problems.”

"I almost regret melting the ghoul's face after hearing that.” she said in a way that was difficult to discern whether or not she was being serious. "This guy--- err, well… ‘gal’ now, had briefly lost me as they visited the graveyard. Not sure if it matters now, but it has been bugging me." she confessed. "Can't really give you a name or a face, but I can tell you exactly what this ghoul was doing today.” she paused, and then looked up to Tetrad. ”If you don’t mind my asking, that is.”

”I guess I could use a break. Not like boss man’s going to miss me.” Tetrad leaned the saucer against the wall. ”The idea is to get familiar with the target. Ya know, get intimate with them. Time and space is a big thing, and I need to know as much as I can to zero in on what I want.” Tetrad walked over to the ghoul’s decapitated body. ”Name and physical appearance works most times, but having the target in front of me is an absolute gold mine.” She produced a knife and started to cut into the ghoul’s flesh. Under the skin of the girl it had devoured was tar and hair. ”Having the head intact would have made this a lot more appetizing, but I’ve dated uglier, um, things?” She scraped some of the ghoul’s tar-like blood onto her knife and held it up to her face. ”Then again, I think I’ve dated waaaaaay hotter too.” she licked the blade.

The thought of putting the black tar blood in her mouth and swirling it around like she was savoring it was seriously an unpleasant one. Lucifer had to hold back an instinctive gag. "...Geh" she hoped Tetrad didn't have to do that sort of thing often, but remained mostly quiet as the girl continued to do her thing.

After shifting the creature’s bile around in her mouth, she spit it out. ”Alright, let’s try it.” Tetrad sheathed her knife in her boot while standing up. Then she just stood there with her arms folded. It didn’t look like she was doing anything at all.

"Umm... hell---"

”I found it!” Tetrad smiled. She put her hands on her hips.

"Hii!" Emily startled, and similarly to earlier, a flash silhouette of flames escape from her back and she had to calm herself down. Emily cleared her throat. "U-uh, carry on..." she urged afterwards, still holding her chest.

”He’s being very cautious here. I can see why you had a hard time tailing him. Man, the graveyard is still a dump.” Tetrad moved one of her hands under her chin. ”Oh. Well, that makes sense.” She turned to look at Emily.

"What?" Emily asked.

”You know how ghouls are sometimes the servants of evil spell casters? You know how necromancers are like, super crazy evil spellcasters that are genuinely considered an affront to all life? That’s what your ghoul was going to meet in the cemetery.”

"That bastard! If I had seen that, then I'd have incinterated them both on the spot!" she seemed piqued, and resisted the urge to kick the ghoul's corpse.

”Oh? And what makes you think it doesn’t go any deeper?” Tetrad folded her arms. ”The necromancer could be one of many working for a Lich. You’ll never get anywhere if you just kill everything.” she chuckled.

"I know… It’s just frustrating that I messed up at a crucial moment. But I suppose for now I should be thankful you could show me this. Now that I know it's a problem, I can at least fix it." she seemed to calm herself down. "Is there anything I can do for you in return?"

”Two things, actually.” She picked up the saucer again. ”If you do go hunting these guys, I wouldn’t mind tagging along. I’d rather remove all the ghouls from my favorite hangouts, and if I get paid to do it, even better.”

"I'd be grateful for the help, actually." she eagerly agreed.

Tetrad stopped beside Emily. ”But something a bit more immediate would be joining me on the dance floor. I wanna see how many boys we can get to chase after us. We just have to make sure they have small feet. Or maybe we shouldn’t. You know what they say about guys with big feet right?”

Lucifer looked away as soon as Tetrad mentioned boys. "Ah... uh, I don't mind dancing if that's what you want..." her face reddened. She turned back to the woman. "Um, I'm not exactly sure what 'they' say though." she replied in a tone that left no doubt that she was being serious.

The serving girl just patted Emily on the shoulder. ”Just dance with me, you’ll figure the rest out.”

"O-okay..."

”If Emily gets to start with a solo post, I get to end with one.”

— Tetrad

A FEW WEEKS BEFORE THE GRAVEYARD INCIDENT

Tetrad never thought death would look appealing to her. The metal pipe sticking through her lung was causing her excruciating pain. Though the real pain came from the fact that Tetrad had been abandoned by her only friends. At this hour, Tetrad doubted anyone would come to the school and find her. The temptation was to just close her eyes and let death take her. It was hardly an escape, as magical girls can come back after a decade or two of being dead. But there was the possibility that resurrection was another lie the puchuu told to make their girls bold and fearless. Regardless of what happened, it was more welcoming than her current predicament.

But Tetrad couldn’t give up. She could hear tapping sounds. It could be falling rouble, it could be someone’s footsteps. But to her it was hope. She was willing to endure if it meant she wouldn't die alone. At this point, that was all she could ask for. Just someone to acknowledge her departure would give her peace. Tetrad would endure the pain until she could no longer draw breath.

And then she saw it.

It was difficult to notice, but someone was looking through the roof at her. It looked a bit like a zombie, only they had a strange growth on their head. But she wasn’t alone anymore, so she hardly cared how evil they looked.

”Trixy!” The girl bellowed like a demon. ”I found her. I don’t know what you’re going to do, but I've wasted enough time on this pursuit.” She pulled her head away from the edge. That was when a maid dove into the classroom.

”Look out below!” The girl landed a few feet away from Tetrad. The moon wasn’t the best light source, but it was easy enough to make out the maid with the toothy grin. ”Hey babe, you-” Her eyes flew all the way open. ”Oh god! Your outfit!” She pointed her hands at the pipe. ”You!” She spun on her heel and looked out of the hole. ”Remedy! Get your cute little butt down here! She’s in critical condition.”

”T-th-” Tetrad wanted so badly to speak, but she couldn’t. She was unable to do anything but cry. If only she could smile, but there was too much pain.

”Hey! Easy, easy!” The maid fell onto her knees beside Tetrad. ”No need to talk, just listen to me. Stay awake.” She folded her hands in her lap. ”Remedy’s going to be here any second. So we just need to keep you awake. Um, blink once for yes, twice for no. You understand right?” Tetrad blinked twice, which caused the maid to chuckle. ”Good, your sense of humor’s intact.” The maid placed a hand on her chest. ”I’m Trixy. I work with Crimson Cradle. Who do you work for? I’m thinking a Puchuu?” Tetrad blinked once. ”Yea, heh, They make a lot of magical girls.” Tetrad didn’t know how to feel about Trixy’s response, but she was just thankful she was here.

”Here I come.” The next girl looked like a combat medic from Switzerland. That had to be Remedy. ”Alright ma’am, we’re going to get you patched up.” Remedy extended her hands over Tetrad’s body, and the pain started to dull around her injury. ”If we had a reinforcement specialist, this would be a lot easier, but you’ll have to deal with my water magic for now.” She gestured towards Trixy, and the maid took a piece of wood and stuck it inside Tetrad’s mouth. A standard procedure if you wanted to make sure your patient wasn't going to bite off their tongue. ”Trixy is going to pick you up off that spike. It’s going to hurt, but it’s going to make you better, okay?” Tetrad blinked once.

”Here we go.” Trixy slid her arms under Tetrad’s back. ”Heave, ho!”

”Eeerph!” Tetrad could feel the cold steel slide along her innards before it was finally pulled out of her back. The pain spread to her entire body, even down to her legs where she had lost sensation after falling through the roof. It felt horrible and wonderful, She was in pain, but she was alive.

”She’s stable.” Remedy still had her hands stretched over Tetrad’s body. ”I wouldn’t recommend any sudden movements until I’m done, but you’re going to live.”

Tetrad still had a hole going through her, but she could breathe with both lungs now. She spit the piece of desk out of her mouth once the pain subsided. ”I’m not sure why you helped me, but thank you.” She still felt weak, but that was probably because she wasn’t fully healed yet. ”I thought I was done for.”

”Heh!” Trixy smiled. ”What do you mean you’re not sure ‘why we helped you’? If I see a cute babe in the clutches of some monster, you know I’m going to kick it’s butt, find the babe, and take her on a nice date.” Trixy pushed her fingers together. ”Once she’s rested up and has had a nice hot bath of course!”

Remedy rolled her eyes. ”Feel free to ignore her when she gets like that. But it’s like Trixy said, being heroic just feels good. It didn’t conflict with any objectives, and you were right there for us to help.”

”My squad mates.” Tetrad closed her eyes. ”They just left me here. I could hear them outside, and they didn’t even bother to check out the school. What kind of world is it where strangers have to help you because your friends don’t?”

”About that.” Trixy scratched the back of her head. She was no longer smiling. ”Puchuu are kind of pragmatic. And by pragmatic, I mean that their girls don’t really amount to much in the end. They treat them like an old pair of gloves. Once they wear out, you just get new ones.”

”They can make as many as they need, so if one dies, they're easily replaced.” Remedy lowered her head. ”Your team mates must have shown up to fight after you, right? Your puchuu probably didn’t tell them that you were present. He was probably waiting for you to die before sending in reinforcements. If you haven’t been performing very well, it's an indiscreet way of removing you from his employ.”

Tetrad groaned. ”That makes too much sense.” It was true she was a bit inconsistent the way her magic worked. Her Puchuu had said as much, but never let on it would have her die fighting a monster she couldn’t possibly take on. ”So, Cradle was it? You guys like working for it? Them?”

“Her.” Veronica stepped out from the shadows. “Why? Are you interested in joining?”

Emily raised an eyebrow, stunned. “I can’t believe this story you’re telling me, it’s macabre!”

Beyond the Looking Glass: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

E m i l y

"I am the Star of Morning, the Child of Dawn."

---

“Amaryllis Evenings, Knight of the Rose!”

A m a r y l l i s

---

Another day, another kill.

Downtown Penrose was as busy as ever, the worst parts of town filled with people queuing up for shelter or lining up by soup kitchens. It wasn’t somewhere that Amaryllis would normally go, if only because drug addicted homeless losers were usually pretty creepy, but even if she wanted to pretend that they didn’t exist, she wasn’t going to turn a blind eye to the fact that someone out there was killing them off, leaving nothing but their worldly possessions behind. The news didn’t report it, of course, and the police treated it as a missing persons’ case instead. Suspicious but not tragic enough to generate enough public interest to turn it into a full-blown investigation. Which meant it was a monster.

Even with a wish made to grant the Unseeing immunity to magical malice, it didn’t change how deadly the corporeal forms of monsters were.

The sense of her Sword was sharp though, and after a couple days of investigation, she bore witness to what exactly happened to those who disappeared. They were eaten away from the inside, leaving only inorganic bits left. There was no scream, only a deathly gasp, and even the scent of that strange ‘invader’ that ate them into nothingness disappeared soon after. That would have only given Amaryllis bad nightmares, if it wasn’t for the fact that her Sword caught that same whiff during another one of her patrols, the trail leading towards a certain soup kitchen.

So she was here now, her Disguise artifact shifting her face to that of an older woman, graying hair tied in an orderly bun and wrinkles pressed deep into her flesh. Her Sword laid inside the big backpack she hefted on her frail shoulders, while her eyes flickered around constantly, trying to spot the one person that stuck out, that had the same ‘scent’ as the strange ‘thing’ that ate people whole. But no one showed, and that too, was something she’d come to expect. Reaching the front of the line, Amaryllis smiled towards the pig-tailed high schooler currently working there.

“Excuse me, young miss, but could you be so kind as to show me to the kitchen? I’ve something to deliver to a relative there.”

The teenage girl flashed a warm smile in response and returned the worn ladle she had been holding to the soup. "Yes, of course!" she agreed, then turning to a nearby volunteer, explained that she would need a quick substitute while she was busy. With that matter quickly settled, she turned back to the elder woman and, still keeping a bright smile on, motioned for her to follow.

As they walked, the girl placed a finger to her lips. "Is your relative perhaps... Adam? Hmm, or maybe it's Tina?" she curiously asked, also throwing out a few other names as they continued.

Eventually, she spun around to face the woman again, eyeing the big bag she had brought. "Oh, that looks heavy! I can carry it for you, if you'd like!" she offered.

Amaryllis continued to paint a plastic smile on her face. “I’m quite alright, sweetie. Haven’t grown that old yet.” She supplemented that with a wink, hefting up the straps of her backpack just to show off that old age hadn’t deteriorated her body all that much at all.

Which was basically a lie, and Amaryllis hated herself for lying to such a nice girl, but life was life and her Sword demanded a kill.

Emily continued playing the part of a cinnamon roll so well that she may as well start dipping her head in frosting. That is to say, she joyfully continued to lead the woman into the kitchen, ignorant of the cruel deception that was taking place, her pure smile contrasting heavily with the dirty interior of the soup kitchen.

Likely due to the large influx of people, the place was crowded and couple that with the fact that a majority of these people acted as though they were in a hurry, there were quite a few stains on the tile floor from bumped shoulders and spilled bowls. A shortage of volunteers meant that in all likelihood, they wouldn't attempt to do any real cleaning until things died down.

Needless to say, this was no five star restaurant, even if Emily's demeanor suggested otherwise.

With the amount of people darting to and from the kitchen, people aggressively demanding their soup, and the general cacophony that comes with a densely populated location, the walk to the kitchen probably felt much longer than it actually was. In reality, it was a rather short walk that was lengthened by the human traffic that frequently impeded them.

"Ah, sorry about that. I hope you made it through the thick of that okay, things get a bit hectic around this time." she laughed. "Anyways, here we are! Is that all you needed, miss?"

Amaryllis’s reflex was to shrink away from the chaos (couldn’t even call it controlled chaos, really) that the kitchen was made up of. Too little space, and too few volunteers. Almost made her feel bad that she was going to make the staff shortage problem even worse. Almost.

“Yes, yes it is. Thank you, dearie,” old!Amaryllis said, dipping her head, “And sorry for the trouble.”

The text here would describe how Emily beamed her a smile were it not for the fact that she was still smiling from before. So really, she just continued smiling before nodding. "You didn’t cause me any trouble, and I’m glad to be of help!" she said before returning to her station to eagerly serve more people.

Amaryllis waved at the retreating girl, waiting until the door shut itself behind her. Then, slowly, she began to breathe in. It was hot and humid. Faint spices mixed with the overbearing smell of bloody meat and human odors. She wrinkled her nose, the noise bearing down at her at all angles. They were too busy. They weren’t obligated to care about an old woman who managed to find her way in anyways. She sharpened her senses, and slowly, the Sword shifted within her mind. It was a needle in the truest sense, striking the tip of her left fingers.

The pinkie for the front, the ring finger for the right, the middle for the left, the index for the back. Like breadcrumbs, bits of agony pulled her closer and closer, until…

Ah. There they were. Innocuously human, but the unnatural scent persisted. Dark-skinned and male, forty or so years old. No hair net, but no need when he had no hair. She nodded to herself. Narrowed her eyes. And then, Amaryllis exited the room.

Her quarry had been marked. Now, she waited.

---

The sun had yet to set when the soup kitchen closed today, volunteers exhausted and supplies gone. Penrose’s homelessness problem wasn’t as bad as other metropolises, but from her rooftop vantage point, it was still clear to Amaryllis that many were going to go hungry.

Or maybe they were just showing up in line multiple times.

Still, it mattered little. She had marked the faces of each person within the kitchen, counting them off as they left through the backdoor of the building. The target must have stayed behind to do the cleaning, a sensible decision if they sought to remove whatever poison they placed within their dishes. It was only a matter of time then. One by one by one by one. The Sword rattled within her mind.

"The love of the moon, the grace of the petals.”

Her patience paid off.

“Underneath the glory of the heavens, I gather them all and present myself.”

She stepped off the rooftop.

“Amaryllis Evenings, Knight of the Rose!”

Rusted petals scattered against the evening sky.

“May the flower of your heart be reflected within my silverlight!"

And the mirrored edge flashed in the darkness of the alleyway.

Meanwhile, an exhausted Emily had begun to walk home, oblivious like many others to the events about to transpire. She stayed much later than she typically did today since today was busier than normal, along with a few other volunteers. Done with wiping down the place and making it look presentable once more, she'd decided to hurry home and get a good night's rest.

Well, that's what she intended to do, anyway. The fact of the matter is that she noticed a quarter of the way home that she'd forgotten her cellphone. Because she didn't have any friends (merely friendly acquaintances at best), she mostly used it for 'work'. She'd already planned to come back the next day and assist, so really it would not have killed her since she was sure the kind people there would hold it for her, but she felt that being lazy in this situation and ignoring it was a ruder option. She did not want to impose on them any more than she had to.

Emily turned on her heel, her objective now to retrieve the phone she lost. In these later night situations, it was either Paul or Chadford who would stay those extra minutes to get everything just right for next time. Hopefully, they were still there.

"Oh, I'm such a clutz sometimes...!" she nagged at herself.

Amaryllis’s sword struck right as Emily turned the corner, the blade splitting the man in half before he even realized he was dead, before metal spawned from the mortal wound, sealing it shut so no blood, brain, or bone could seep out. As the corpse pitched forward, she caught it, turning it against the wall and pressing it there, while her free hand rifled through the pockets, searching for the source of that viral stench.

Wallet. Keys. Spare change. Pills.

There it was, held within a translucent blue canister. She brought up against the sky, peering deeply, before turning her attention back to the dead man. His inhuman features were beginning to emerge now, feathers sprouting behind his ears, limbs growing longer, skin gaining a soft blue tint. Without life in the body, the glamor was no longer sustained, leaving only the body of a Nephilim. Paltry prey; the angelic blood too thin. Her Sword made its distaste known with a quick searing sensation in Amaryllis’s gut, but the Knight of Rose cared not. Sammy might make something of this. Turning deeper into the alleyway, she began walking off.

Upon seeing the audacious murder of someone she sorta kinda knew, Emily did the only reasonable thing she possibly could: turning around and exiting the area as fast as possible. "Fuck this shit I'm out"

Witnessing someone she knew being slain right before her eyes shocked even Emily, who had witnessed death on more than a single occasion. Just a few minutes ago, she had spoke to this man and said her goodbyes, but she had never considered that would be their last interaction. It wasn't like they were especially close or anything, but being the kind-hearted individual she was, she suffered through a strong sorrow for the loss, followed by anger for the life stolen. Why were some of her sisters so cruel?

Of course, such thoughts lasted only momentarily. As the inhuman nature of what she once only considered a friendly volunteer showed itself, she was instead struck by a strong feeling of confusion. What did it all mean? Had this guy been masquerading as a human out of a kind heart? She'd like to believe such a heart-touching story, but she knew as well as anyone that the chances of that were close to zero.

So, then, what would he have even gained?

Who better to ask than the person who took his life? Emily darted back around the corner and muttered a few lines, not desiring to fight, but being aware of the chance that may happen.

"I am the Star of Morning, the Child of Dawn.

The Star thrown down to the Earth shall obtain victory!"

A turquoise flame enveloped the entirety of her body, almost as if consuming it. But almost as if from those ashes, a new girl arrived. Where once the docile Emily stood, there was now a brash Lucifer. Her warm, gentle smile from before had vanished, leaving only a scowl in its wake. Her goal, however, had not changed. She would not allow this knight to get away before she could be questioned.

Volunteers were hard to come by, after all.

"Hey," she called out, a firm tone carrying her words. A bit more attention-grabbing than that was the small blast of flame that flew past the girl, fizzling out as it hit a wall further in. "Physical features aside..." she briefly glanced at what had once been someone she knew with an indifferent expression, "...I'd like to know why you stole this man's life. Do you have something against volunteers?"

Amaryllis turned, her blue eyes glimmering in the shadows as firelight reflected off her blade. Another magical girl? What a surprise, Penrose was infested with them, after all. There was no particular scent of a Horror lingering on them, and, for all her aggressive posturing, the Knight of Rose deigned that she had no reason to withdraw or to attack.

“It is not by personal vendetta that I have slain this shapeshifter, but rather for the security of those who wander without home or heart within these destitute streets.” She wondered briefly, whether or not such an action was smart, but then, she tossed the canister of pills over to the redhead. “Though I know not whether you can discern the purpose behind these tablets, Maiden of the Inferno, I’ve reason to believe that this monster has been poisoning those seeking alms within this temple of altruism with them. It is a cruel venom, leaving naught behind but their earthly possessions, but perhaps, for one of angel-blood, such action is more mercy than malignancy.”

A shrug. The Knight of Rose glanced towards the unmoving creature, before her gaze set back upon the Inferno Maiden.

“But those are mere suppositions. I know not what their true motives are, only that there was intent, and that there was repetition.”

The heat-based girl found her eyes locked onto the body of the nephilim as the knight spoke, her expression darkening as the girl continued to explain herself. If what this magical girl was saying was true, then that would mean that this monster was spiking the soup in the kitchen. And that, indirectly, she was responsible for deaths by being the one to hand those poor souls the poison.

Lucifer found herself heaving, barely managing to prevent herself from vomiting on the spot. She may have a bit more spunk when transformed, but the fact of the matter is that she was still the same old girl, and so she felt enough guilt to make her sick. But, of course, she also felt wrath.

The corpse suddenly caught aflame, with Lucifer right beside it. She watched as it burned up in nearly an instant with a disgusted expression on her face, before turning back to Amaryllis. “Would you mind telling me how you found out about that one? Was he… ‘it’, rather, careless in some way, or do you have the means to seek such things out?” she inquired, the stern tone from before having lessened, perhaps as a sign she wasn’t as wary about the girl’s motives, presumably trusting the story told so far. Waiting for the response, she inspected the tablets the girl had thrown her, but wasn’t able to discern what they were.

Amaryllis blinked at her reaction, sympathy flashing over her features. “My Sword is the hound, and I am the hunter. Beacon may make their collective might known in the vanquishment of our corrupted brethren, but for those who slink in the shadows of ordinary society, my silverlight is sufficient in ending their cursed cravings.” A pause. She remembered still, the grotesque transformation that had occurred before her very eyes, as flesh bubbled and melted, blackened and then disappeared. “In this case, however, I had the...unwanted pleasure of witnessing the demise of one of his victims firsthand, and caught the scent of his murder tool before it self-destructed. Without that fortune, I would not have been able to end his scheme so swiftly.”

The smile, confident and detached as it was, turned bitter. “Though the cost of that fortune will doubtlessly be my appetite, at least for the next couple of days. Are you quite alright though, maiden? News like this certainly isn’t for the faint of heart, and I apologize if I’ve caused you undue distress.”

“You don’t need to apologize.” her expression had returned to a neutral state. “If anything, I should thank you for what you’ve done. Despite this happening so close to me, I had not caught onto this terrible plan. I probably even contributed to it, as much as I am loathe to admit.” she grit her teeth and Amaryllis would surely notice her hand tightening into a fist. “To think I might’ve served someone their last meal with an ignorant grin on my face…” she grit her teeth and Amaryllis would surely notice her clenched fist.

A few moments would pass in silence before the red-head spoke again, both her face and her hands relaxing once more.

“...well, I’m the only one who has caused me any distress, at the very least. I owe you a debt for bringing my ignorance to light and opening these closed eyes, as well as for whatever potential lives you might’ve just saved. You can call me Lucifer, and I’ll gladly offer a helping hand should you ever need it.”

“Close to you?” Amaryllis arced a brow, brought out of her own performance for a moment there. “You work here, Lucifer?”

Lucifer simply nodded. “I volunteer at the soup kitchen here whenever I am able to. In fact, I spent most of today doing just that.” she briefly glanced towards blackened spot that was once the monster. “He was almost always the last one to leave, you know. I figured it was because he wanted to make sure everything was perfect. But I suppose I misinterpreted acts of malevolence as gifts of benevolence.”

“That...I’m sorry to hear that. Guess it’ll only be harder now, what with the staff shortage you have there.”

“...Noticed that, did you? Yeah, we have a lot more mouths to feed than hands to feed them, and losing that pair isn’t helping the matter.” she sighed. “Well, in the end it simply means I’ll just have to put in enough effort to make up for the loss. I much prefer this outcome to one where he continued to do horrendous things behind the scenes. It’s for the better.”

Lucifer didn’t want to imagine how long it might have taken her to realize the scheme by herself, and the amount of lives it might’ve cost. She definitely wasn’t getting sleep tonight, so she’d probably end up patrolling the area or something. “Pardon me for holding you up for so long, miss…?”

“Amaryllis. Amaryllis Evenings.” A pause, and the Knight of Rose tried for a smile once more. “I was the old woman who passed into the kitchen earlier on during the day.”

Lucifer would etch the pleasant name into her memory. Truth be told, since she got here, this has been perhaps the longest she's even held a conversation with another magical girl. But she attributed that mostly to the fact that huge events had been firing off one after another.

"Really?" Lucifer scratched her head, the area around her getting a bit warmer for no explicable reason. "I do remember you, then. Err, I hope I didn't come off as patronizing or anything" she nervously laughed. "I just try to do what I can to make the experience as pleasant as possible for everyone. The people who visit a soup kitchen are the sort who are suffering enough as is, I believe”

“No need to worry, Maiden of the Morning Star,” Amaryllis replied, “Perchance though...could I request of you your phone number? Unaffiliated as I am with the larger players within Penrose, I do find value in seeking bonds with other independents.”

"You want my cell number?” Emily seemed a bit surprised. ”Sure, I'd be right happy to." Lucifer went to oblige with her request by taking out her cellphone to bring up her number, but there was a glaring issue with the action she attempted: namely that she did not have the cell in her possession.

"...About that. I actually came back to this place to get my phone, since I had forgotten to take it with me when I left. Let me get it real quick, I hope you don’t mind."

Oh. Oh. Amaryllis skipped over the ashes and opened the door for her, a flourish and a bow. “Please, go on ahead.”

"T-thank you." she stepped through the door. With a clear purpose, she made a beeline for the back of the place. She knew exactly where she had left the thing and it took no longer than thirty seconds to retrieve it and then get back to Amaryllis, opening the phone and finding her own number as she did so.

"...that should be it." she told the girl after rattling off the digits. She tried to hide it, but she was at least a tiny bit elated to have swapped numbers with one of her sisters. No matter the context, this was a rather rare event for her. "I am relatively new to town myself, so I appreciate it."

Amaryllis nodded, before sliding her own phone into her hot pants. “Indeed. The night grows long, however, and the hunt must go on. I pray we meet under brighter circumstances, but for now, I must depart. Farewell, Lucifer, and may the sun rise again upon your haven.”

Having finished the exchange, Lucifer placed her phone in a small pocket on her skirt as she made her way back out of the door. "Then until next time. I wish you good luck with your hunt, Amaryllis."

And with an iron ivy descending from the darkening skys, the Knight of Rose bounded off, leaving naught but rusted petals in her wake.

Beyond the Looking Glass: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

An older man slumps into a wooden chair, panting in obvious exhaustion. Beads of sweat on his forehead, he picks up a nearby newspaper from the counter and fans himself to try to fend off the impending heatstroke, or at least what might appear to be one. It takes a few minutes, but eventually, he is able to cool himself down enough to breathe normally. And once he had done so, he sighed. "Gosh, I'm really gettin' up there, ain't I?"

Age was a strange thing. It brought both joy and sorrow. A young one is often eager to become older, to experience the pleasures of life only an adult is allowed to know. To become their own individual. But on the reverse, adults typically dread each year going by. Those responsibilities and pleasures they once experienced may no longer be viable for them, either due to social pressures or, most obviously, due to their declining health. It is a matter of fact that all humans will eventually succumb to age.

It is merely a matter of time.

Richard Davis, was it not obvious enough, was the latter of the two aforementioned types. Each year, he was reminded of the stuff he was no longer capable of doing, and of the things that would soon be taken from him. He could no longer run like he used to, play ball like he used to, and lift things like he used to. The passing of time had robbed him of these things, and given how sore his legs and hips felt each time he had to exert himself, he would soon be robbed of even the gift of walking without aid. "Perhaps if I had taken better care of myself..." he thought. "If only I never grew old..." he muttered. Regret-filled ideas would occasionally flood the man's mind each time he was painfully reminded of his past health.

It was these thoughts that fueled his interactions with a certain young employee of his. She was approaching the age of adulthood, yet she already displayed a listlessness towards life. He felt like that sort of attitude was a waste of her potential as a human being! A life is only lived once, and he couldn't find an excuse for someone to squander it, not when he knew how painful and simple it was to look back and regret past decisions. Only as your life approaches its inevitable end do you yearn for more time than you're allocated, or so that's how Davis felt. He didn't want this young one to come to regret her life when she turned old just like him.

So he tried what he could to get her to open up. That was a lot easier said than done, mind you. With an attitude reminiscent of a workaholic businessman, she was fairly difficult to approach, though this had improved since she first showed up. Relatively speaking, that is. He was honestly surprised she went ahead with his invitation to the baseball game, which is also why he was so upset that it had gone south. He wondered what else he could do to show her life was worth living a bit more lively than she was now.

The sound of a bell ringing snapped the old man out of his thoughts, and he leaned forwards in his chair to get a look at the customer coming through the door.

S a m a n t h a

"...secondary objective complete."

Samantha Howard

Samantha stepped into the small store and looked around. Aside from the owner, the place was empty - so nothing out of the ordinary. She honestly wondered how this man even kept this place afloat or paid her, given how rare it was to see someone here. Either she just happened to miss the customers each time, or working with clocks was a very expensive thing to do. Though she was curious, she didn't care enough to bother asking, and as long as she got paid, it didn't matter much to her where the money came from.

"Oh, hello, Samantha..." Davis wore his confusion on his sleeve. "Didn't you mention you wouldn't be available today?"

She approached the counter, holding a small paper bag in her hand. "I finished what I needed to do and wanted to drop something off." she explained, raising the bag.

Davis curiously inspected the bag, but obvious wasn't going to be able to tell what was in it without looking inside, which proved to be difficult as Samantha was actively keeping it close to her. "...and what is that, if you don't mind me askin'?"

"...yes." she replied.

This elicited a raised eyebrow from the man. "...yes?"

"Yes, I do mind. I would appreciate it if you ignored this, but I did want to store it in the fridge."

There was a small fridge in the shop that Davis used to keep his lunch in since he wasn't the type to go to fast food joints all that often. Samantha using it wasn't unheard of, but he did find it odd she was particular about keeping the contents of the bag hidden from him. She'd only ever acted that way when he tried talking about things like what her life was like before they met, her history, that sort of stuff. Richard did not want to upset the girl, so he wouldn't pry into matters that she did not want to speak about. "...That's fine." he told her, jabbing his thumb behind him, in the direction of the fridge.

Sam disappeared into the depths of the shop, presumably to do the obvious, before she returned. Davis took note of her appearance at this time. He had noticed something off about her in general. If he hadn't been around her so much he might not have been able to tell, but she did look like she was exhausted beneath the mask of apathy she wore. "Are you alr----"

*CRASH*

An obnoxiously loud noise came from the front of the shop. It was so close that Richard was sure it had to be right at the door. His heart had begun racing since it startled him, and once he regained his composure, he noticed that Samantha was already back at the door of the shop despite her apparent exhaustion, a tense expression on her face. Though he wouldn't admit it to anyone, it was actually intimidating. But, as quickly as it had came, her features fell back into a 'normal', expressionless one.

"What's the deal? Someone crash nearby?" he asked.

"...your sign fell." she stated, opening the door. Davis got up from the chair and trotted his way over to get a look. Sure enough, his sign with the store's name had given up the ghost and fell to the ground, damaging itself in the process. He shook his head, and gave an irritated grunt. It was his fault. It had been showing its age for a while now and he couldn't be pressed with getting off his ass and having a better look or doing anything about it. But it had lived a long life, for a sign anyways. It was probably a combination of weather and those punk-ass kids who used to throw rocks at it because it made a 'clang' sound.

"Are ya kiddin' me? This'll be a pain in the ass to replace." he muttered. "...I'll have to get a new one, but would ya mind helping me put it up once I do? These old bones aren't meant for climbing ladders anymore." the man looked towards Sam. She was staring at the sign intently, though he couldn't figure out why that was.

The girl turned towards Davis eventually. "If you need me to, then it's fine."

"Thank you kindly, miss. It won't be today since I need to find a new sign, so I'll let you know when I got things sorted out. I'll let you go since you look pretty tired, I can handle a small mess like this myself."

"...alright."

And with that, Samantha left the clock shop.

...

...

...

It roared.

In response, our heroine could only reel back in horror as she witnessed a monster straight out of a nightmare. At best, it could be described as a gooey mass of black, oozing despair and suffering each second it 'lived'. In the face of something like this, the situation felt hopeless.

"...W-why...?" a voice that could barely be made out as masculine breathed out. The true terror this man was likely feeling made it hard for him to speak with anything more than a whisper. "W-what have you done...?" he couldn't take his eyes of that... 'thing' no matter how much he wished he could. It demanded his attention, and the attention of anybody unlucky enough to be in the same area.

Our heroine tried her best to put on a brave face, though it had its cracks. She steeled her mind and body, wholly sure the outcome of the impending fight would have unfavorable results. But what else could she do? If she couldn't put an end to this monstrosity, then who would? It was her responsibility for bringing it into this world. She was not some hero, she wasn't that delusional, but even she couldn't stand to be the cause for the world's destruction.

Before it could corrupt.

Before it could maim.

Before it could kill.

She had to see the light shining behind the darkness, to make the impossible possible, and slay this creature, even if it was beyond her current capabilities.

"...Die, so that others may live!"

The heroine swung a knife she'd retrieved from nearby, but it proved to be in vain. The strike merely bounced off the mountainous blob of black, wholly ineffective. Its retort was to release another gut-wrenching roar, knocking both the heroine and the poor sod off their feet. The man's face turned even whiter. At this point, one couldn't be blamed if they thought he was a ghost, trapped in this cruel world. The man did not attempt to get up, his resolve shattered entirely. He laid on his back, briefly recalling the good days and the bad, and regretting that things had reached this point.

"Is this it? Is this the end...?" this man was the first to succumb to the despair only a true horror could bring about.

But he would be the last. The heroine was not going to go down this easy! She jumped to her feet, her uneasiness replaced by a determination that rivaled the despair. She couldn't let more fall to this bastard, even if it cost her everything.

She drew her weapon once more.

Fire in her heart, the answer became obvious.

Much like how she brought this Embodiment of Despair into the world, she would need to use the same methods to remove it.

This was not the time for playing. She would have to give this next attack her all. It was do or die, a "one and done" sort of deal. Either this saved her, what remained of this man, and the world... or everything was lost.

With the stakes set so high, she charged at her foe.

"haaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Her knife sunk deep into the beast as she plunged it as far as was possible. A moment passed, but then her knife was rejected, and sent flying straight into the ceiling.

"M-my attack failed...? N-no...!"

With her last option exhausted, even the heroine was beginning to know true despair. But after a few moments, a cry of pain was emitted from the blob, and it began to convulse rather violently. The heroine was just barely able to turn away from the blast that occurred shortly after.

"...I-I did it!"

....

....

....

....

....

....

The cleanup after the mess took quite some time. The explosion sent bits of it in every direction. Unwilling to ignore the possibility it might reform from even the smallest piece, they methodically collected every part and incinerated it. There was nothing but ash left. And that seemed to do the trick. The heroine turned to man, who was now a bright red instead of a pale white.

"HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO DO THAT?! I GAVE YOU SUPPLIES FOR A CAKE, NOT SOME HP LOVECRAFT SHIT!" he bellowed.

The heroine, Samantha, scratched her head. "I never said I was a good cook, you know."

"A GOOD COOK?!" he inhaled, then exhaled and repeated the process in an attempt to calm himself down. "...I'm going to ignore that since my sanity can only take so much in one day." he pinched his temple. "Look, when the boss said you could use the kitchen for this, I don't think he was under the impression you would somehow bring forth the antichrist with cake mix. So I'm going to be real here, and say that you're probably not allowed to cook here again."

Samantha frowned. "But..."

"BUT!" he interjected. "If you promise that you will never cook again, anywhere, then I would not mind doing this for you. In order to prevent... whatever that was from happening again. Capiche?"

The girl somehow got the impression this man was really not satisfied with her kitchen prowess. She would have to work on it in the future, she supposed. But how could she do so if she didn't ever cook again? "...I suppose that's alright." Samantha lied as naturally as she breathed. As long as he did not find out, things would be fine.

"Good. Good! Then when I have some free time in the next couple of days, I'll make it. You still have some time, right?"

She nodded. "If it's in the next two days, that's perfect."

With that, Samantha had left the Pitstop.

....

....

....

Samantha had unfortunately been reminded of that experience that took place a day or so before the graveyard incident when she went to pick up the cake the man promised her. Being a regular at the Pitstop, she had gained the favor of the owner, who obliged with her request to borrow the kitchen when it was available. She would have done it at her own house, but she had never actually cooked a cake before and wanted input from one of the employees, hence why she did it there.

Given that man's response, cake-making was not something that naturally came to her.

"Well, that only leaves one thing." she muttered to herself as she walked away from the clock store she was just in. "But I guess I've got a good idea what to get."

Danganronpa: Tower of Carnage (Finished!)

"Prepare for trouble....and make it double!"

---

It was early in the morning. Well before the morning announcement went off. Zachary was snugly asleep in his bed when he could hear a knock at his door, followed by someone gently whispering. “Yohooooooooo…”.

In response, the young man was roused from his slumber. Groggily, he forced himself to sit up from the bed and turn his head towards the door. A moment passed before he yawned and pushed himself up and off the bed, then he sauntered towards the door like a zombie before it discovered a meal. “Hello?” he called out.

Zachary opened the door. “Oh, hi there…OPENING.”

“Yea.” Jezebel scratched the back of her head. She was dressed in jeans and a bomber jacket instead of her ridiculous clown get up. Typically she only dressed like that during a night of carnage, but that wasn’t the case this time. “Like, did you want to get something to drink with me?”

Zachary took a moment to take the sight in, obviously a bit surprised at her clothing. For someone who wasn't fond of clowns, he ironically had come to feel more comfortable seeing her in costume as opposed to something else. When he realized he had been staring for a couple of seconds, he quickly flushed a bit red in embarrassment.

"Oh, uh, of course." he answered, trying his best to pull off a composed smile. Despite his awkwardness, Zach seemed blue.

Jezebel returned Zachary’s smile with one of her own. “Bitchin’!”

---

The break room had become a popular hang out for the two. They spent more time in here than the dining room. “So like.” She sighed. “I realize I’ve been acting a little weird recently, and it’s just because this place has totally been getting in my head.” She took a sip of her coffee before looking at Zachary. “That was kind of uncool, but like, I thought Baldwin junior was going to totally outfox Davis this time. Turns out it all lead to more misery.” She set down her cup and folded her arms. “I probably should have told you something earlier, I’m sorry about that.”

There was a pause of about five seconds before Zachary opened his mouth to speak. "I understand. I don't think it's possible to not have the weight of this place become unbearable, at times." almost in unison with Jez, he found himself taking a sip of his coffee, and listened to her as she continued with a hollow smile. "I'm sorry things didn't pan out as hoped. But you can never truly know just how something is going to go before it happens, or how futile it really is." he found his hand slowly caressing his eye patch. "They say hindsight is 20/20, after all."

Zach coughed, then took a quick sip of his coffee. "In any case, there's no need to apologize, not to me."

Jezebel placed a hand on her head. “You’re too nice, you know that?” She pulled her hand away from her head sharply. “But even so. Like…” She snorted. “Zachary you’re always listening to me and doing what I want to do. There’s no way you can be as calm as you’re pretending to be. There’s totally something under your skin.” She placed her hands on her hips. “Like, how could there not be? Last night was so uncool. But you can share that with me if you’d like.”

"I've..." Zachary struggled to think of the words he wanted to use. His expression darkened. "I'm no good at hiding things like this, am I?" he gave an empty laugh as he tried to gather his thoughts. He opened and closed his mouth more than once, but it was not until the fourth attempt did he manage to speak anything. “Haven’t I been… rather useless?”

“Like, no?” With a sigh, Jezebel walked over to the stove. They had boiled extra water for the coffee, and hadn’t used it all. The clown turned the heat back on. “You might feel useless, but like, you don’t cause problems.” She rubbed her eyes.

"...don’t cause problems...?"

Zachary softly repeated that line to himself.

“You took out Alexandria and junk right? I only heard about it, but they so couldn’t have done that without you.”

“That’s not even…”

“Even!” Jezebel turned off the stove and carried the pot to the table. “Meanwhile, a girl I got mad at totally committed suicide last night. Maybe I need to take a chill pill, but nothing I do works out.” She shrugged her shoulders. “But you’re not mad at me, so like, I must be doing something right.”

The archer set his cup down, but found himself staring into it, almost as if in a daze. He was vividly recalling the final moments of the fight that cost him his eye. "But I did cause problems. Had I not been such an idiot and encourage that dumb stunt during the Night of Carnage, maybe more people would be alive right now." he breathed as his eye tilted upwards towards Jezebel. "Why would I be mad at you? I couldn’t be. Not when you were right, and I was wrong. I was just some idiot with a hero complex, and look what it cost me."

Zachary's hand once again came up to his eyepatch. His expression was sullen. "With a bow... at the one thing I was good at, I'll never be the same. Losing an eye would mean nothing to me if that weren't the case. But because it is, it means everything." he sighed. "Yet even such a sacrifice might have been worth it, if only to save someone. That's what I thought." he stopped for a minute, then scoffed, likely at himself, before continuing. "But it didn't. It was in vain. A completely pointless, stupid move. I lost my eye, and nobody was saved. Krista threw her life away and invalidated everything that happened that night."

“Like, all the nights are starting to blend together for you huh?” She dropped a washcloth in the pot of water and sat across from Zachary. “I mean.” she sighed. “I know that you shouldn’t say bad things about the dead, but I’m a little mad at Krista. If she took her life because of me, I’m totally cool with letting that haunt me for the rest of my life. Maybe I deserve that kind of guilt.” She dropped her fists on either side of the bowl.

Zachary shook his head. “I don’t believe you do.” he smiled wistfully. “That kind of burden is the privilege of the contemptible alone.” he quieted down after saying this.

“Like, I’m glad you feel that way. But she just locked herself away! There’s no suicide note, no goodbye, no anything! Gag-me-with-a-spoon! She’s making you and everyone who cared about her suffer, and that says a lot more about her than it does you Zachary!” She folded her arms and pouted. “Like, I’m ashamed to admit that I probably wouldn’t have been so hard on her if I attributed your sacrifice with her survival…” Then she fret her brow. “And that’s why you shouldn’t feel useless Zachary. I’ve hurt a lot of people, and killing myself would totally solve all of my problems. But it would just cause you problems, and I don’t want that.” She tightened her arms around herself.

“And I’ll admit that I am also a bit mad that she did that.” he breathed, smiled to himself, and then shook his head after a short pause. “No, not just that.” he made sure they had eye contact as he spoke. “I think after that, I’ve come to despise her. I think I really hate her, and I want so bad to blame her for everything. But the fact is, what happened to me wasn’t her fault. She never asked for my help. That was something I decided on doing. A high-risk low-reward gamble only idiots would take. Only makes sense that the house would win and I’d be left with nothing. I won’t--no, I can’t believe it when you say I’m not useless. Not until I’ve done something I can wholeheartedly say was useful to someone.”

He exhaled in such a way it was hard to tell if it was supposed to be a sigh or a laugh, but continued. “...But I think I feel the same way as you, honestly. About the easy way out, that is. I wouldn’t want to cause you to worry too much, so I can’t simply throw my life away like her, even if I feel almost redundant.”

“Everyone, is important, to someone.” Jezebel inhaled. “But like, maybe we can’t be mad at her. I totally didn’t have everyone’s best interests in mind when I first came to this killing game. But then I met you, everyone else..” She chuckled. ” Life’s about more than just surviving now. A shame it went the opposite way for her.” She pulled the wet rag out of the bowl in front of her. “I totally didn’t want to talk about yesterday when I came and got you. I wanted to show you something, and only you.”

"...I suppose it wasn't the most pleasant topic to bring up." he admitted.

She plastered the damp rag over her face. ”What lies under the makeup!” Her voice was muffled by the wet cloth being pulled over her face.

Zachary was nearly about to ask what Jezebel was doing before she answered the question for him. He wasn't sure how to feel about it, though. On one hand, he really did want to see how she looked without the usual getup. But on the other...

"Let say, hypothetically, that I somehow forgot that the makeup wasn't just your skin, and that I was somehow not also weirded out by that fact. How would you feel?" he asked. "Hypothetically, that is."

Jezebel froze, cloth still over her face. “You totally didn’t say that.” She laughed before scrubbing her face. “I don’t do this for just anybody. I totally stay away from warm places, and like, I check myself in the mirror frequently to make sure I don’t have any runs.” After a bit more scrubbing, she threw the cloth to the side, which was now covered in loose makeup. As for Jezebel’s face, it was amazing what could be hidden with makeup. Her features looked more chiseled and didn’t have the round appearance that they did before. There were also a trio of beauty marks near the corner of her left eye. “So yea.” She said with a sigh. “This is me.”

Zachary took a few moments to take the sight in, as he tried desperately to think of what he wanted to say. This was an important event, that much he was sure of, so that's why his brain more or less short-circuited. Hopefully she wouldn't take his lengthy silence the wrong way. "Uh, yeah, I see that." he finally managed. "...I'm happy you decided to show me how you look. It means a lot to me."

“Zacharyyyyyyy!” Jezebel sighed, then chuckled. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. This is something I’ve been hiding for a long time. Like, ten whole years. Expecting you to know anything about it would be totally crazy.” She pushed the bowl off to the side.

“W-what? I’m sorry if I was supposed to recognize you or something, I never really looked into you before we met here. For no reason in particular, mind you. Not because I am afraid of clowns or anything silly like that, haha.” he nervously chuckled. “So… what’s the deal?”

“I wasn’t always the Infinite Trickster. When I was eighteen years old, I was totally learning my craft. Like, the places I performed were small time. Kids parties mostly. The calamity had happened a few years ago, so there wasn’t a lot of disposable income lying around. People were more interested in filling their stomachs than laughing.” Jezebel scratched the back of her head, only momentarily averting her eyes from Zachary. “I was a bit different back then. I totally attributed wealth with success. Like, if I was rich, that would make me happy. So I’d do anything for money. So like, some up and coming Governor sees one of my performances. He wants a private show. It wasn’t a lot of money, but I thought it was at the time. He wanted me to put on a show in his hotel room. I brought all of my stuff to the hotel, but before I got set up, he told me that the performance he wanted wasn’t like my clown one. He had a clown fetish, I guess. He totally wanted a lap dance. I didn’t say anything, I wanted the money.” Jezebel adjusted her collar. “So I’m. Yea. Basically a stripper clown at this point. He kept telling me junk and stuff. He was really good with words. Like, I felt beautiful doing this for him. Any time he wanted more, I gave in. And when I hesitated, like, he just pulled out more money. But like, I did have limits. I wasn’t going to sleep with him. That kinda made him mad. I mean, I thought he was mad.” She was rubbing her chin. “So like, as it turns out, the whole thing was staged. It was all for some website where they film desperate people doing stupid things. Totally not cool. It became a pretty popular video too. Had a few of my friends tell me about it. People told me I should be ashamed of myself, or they just made remarks about my ass.” She hugged herself. “I moved. I was, like, super lucky that they never got my name. As I got more famous I kept my face in makeup as often as I could. Like, who would want their kid to be around a stripper clown? That’s totally the kind of junk that sinks celebrities.“

“...Degenerate." was the first thing that came out of Zachary's mouth after Jezebel finished speaking.

“A-am I grody to the max?.“

He looked away, but there was clearly a scowl on his face, and he had tightened his hand into a fist. It was clear as day that he was upset, and upon realizing how he looked, his face partially tinted red in embarrassment. Turning his gaze back up to the 'naked' Jezebel, he scratched the back of his head. "Oh, uh, sorry." he apologized. "It's just hearing that kinda pissed me off.” his eyes drifted away from Jezebel for another moment. "Though I imagine it was more upsetting to be put through something horrible like that.” he sighed. “...I hope that, minor complications like this death game aside, you haven’t been through too much trouble since then?”

”I mean, like. I’ve always been very careful.“ She hugged herself. ”My visions been screwing up. The doctor said it was totally my blood pressure. I was going to get a little nip and tuck so that I didn’t have to hide my face anymore, do that while the doctors checked my vision.“ Jezebel shrugged. ”I can understand if you think I’m a degenerate though. Or petty. But uh.“ She stood up.

"...eh, what?" Zachary thought to himself, then understood what had happened. "Oh, no! Not you!” he waved his hands in panic. “Uh, I wasn't speaking about you at all. It was just something that slipped out when I thought about the kind of person who would exploit someone desperate like that, and to film it to boot." he clarified.

He found himself rubbing his eyepatch, for some reason. "I don't think less of you after that at all, and I do appreciate you telling me that. It can't have been the most pleasant memory to bring up."

But Jezebel kept walking. Only she swung around and sat directly beside Zachary ”Well, that’s good to know. Thanks for listening to my junk.“ She twiddled her thumbs. ”Uh, heh.“ She rolled her lower lip into her mouth. ”Can I have a hug?“

"I'd be right happy to!"

For some reason, he felt a sense of deja vu when she asked that. Zachary could think of a billion different things he would rather do than hug a stranger. It wasn't something he particularly cared for, and in fact, actively avoided when he could. So that is why, when asked, he said, "Of course." with no hesitation and gave the woman the hug she wanted.