Lonewolf685

Tower of Fable

Kanbaru Otoko

Whether by fortune, whimsy, or some hereto unseen plot of Harley's, Thomas was spared from grisly retribution and Kanbaru further relieved from being covered in his guts, as she held little doubt being buried against her breast would keep the offended party from taking out her ire in an immediate fashion. With her powers getting the blood out would be a cinch, but the smell has a tendency to permeate if the meat pinata erupts this close to oneself.

"Oh, so you calmed down, huh?" The JSTR host chirped, feeling how Thomas had forcibly quieted his struggles and now asked for release in a sensible manner showing he was actively containing himself. Which was good for all parties involved, even if Harley and Akiko had walked off leaving the two by their embarrassing lonesome among the throngs of casino goers.

"To answer some of those earlier questions, we are in Harley's Casino. It isn't part of the Tower, in fact, it's the complete opposite of the Tower. Entirely opposed faction to it, and not the kindest to those unaligned. Fortunately you sort of are in a roundabout sense. What with Marianne and all....by the way, when did you become the meat puppet for death itself? Eh, never mind. You can tell us about your love life later."

She waved aside concerns of possession, as the hypocrisy of calling him out on it would have chocked her to death on the spot. Though Kanbaru was reasonably certain no one had a parasite as adorable and agreeable as hers! With a nod to herself she beamed at Thomas, hands moving to smooth out his wrinkled lapels and tug his sleeves into place. "It's owned by that woman you were getting snippy with, and we seem to have gotten here when the entire Abyss floor collapsed and we got shunted out of the Tower. Think of this place like an embassy of sorts, unwanted by the Tower, but tolerated without retaliation. And we just fell across the fence."

A small part of Kanbaru acknowledged she hardly knew Thomas at all, but it was nostalgic to be laying down information for less informed juniors, drawing up images of the good ol' days. If she squinted she could almost see a familiar face. Then...a familiar voice. Once she opened her eyes a vague resemblence turned into a clear face.

Surprise. Disbelief. Her face went through a lot before setting on an outpouring of joy at seeing a fellow from the Detention Club standing before her, and before Apia had a chance to move two arms had enveloped her waist and hoisted her airborne, spinning her around the jubilant whale who had for once not buried someone in her cleavage.

"It's really you, Apia! Not data but the real Apia! This is wonderful!" Her cheers may have made her warnings to Thomas ring hollow, but a little hypocrisy could surely be forgiven in her excitement.

Grimoiric Heart

Roma Bhakti

Moonlight Tsubasa stood, an island of calm in a seen of madness. Her eyes were open, taking in the sight of Magical Girls acting out their age old conflict in microcosm. There were were, even an impressive gathering of Magical Girls looking dwarfed before the horde of Pageless. Some fought on, ready at a moment's notice, never truly knowing what it was to have one's guard down and reaping the benefit. Then there were the new, the slow, and the simply unfortunate who had their hearts gripped with the certainty they would die that very day as they were swept over in a wave of thrashing darkness.

Only to experience something far more painful as Grimoire's manifested. When claws and tendrils and teeth met page and turned to ink that stained stories in new lights. Roma watched with a quiver in her chest as the shrieks of defilement rose around her, standing alone among the tragic birth of her people. Shame weighed upon her unflinching brow, for she could no more guide them then she could have given them the choice. A contemptable method of revolution, but one she had considered a neccesity for the Revolution to be sparked.

The damage was done with the opening strike, and now it was merely a matter of seeing how far it would proliferate before the Magical Girl's stole back the momentum of her surprise attack. Gingerly waltzing around the prone bodies of Magical Girls thrashing on the floor she turned to the greatest point of resistence. A familiar pillar that some may call a staff sweeping aside her Pageless, an almost careless disregard for this being a cafeteria on display.

"An all out assault when there are injured and fallen all around you? Are you truly Wukong or are you one of the quarelsome children of Ghengis Khan?" Her cutting words came with a plate thrown not at Dynasty Queen, but Lilac's sword hand. A sharp sting and nothing more, merely drawing her attention away from own attack to meet the rabbit-eared Celestial. "And you, so ruled by insecurity and fear that you would fall in line at the first suggestion someone desired your aid. Have a spine before the monkey smashes it in a drunken stupor."

She pulled a pipe as long as her arm from a sleeve that certainly couldn't have held it, a flicker of burning ash at its head as she raised it to her lips and exhaled. A great puff of smoke spread outwards, fragrant and scentless all at once. It did only a passing job at obscuring sight through a thin haze, but to those in the Cafeteria that it touched, they would be gripped with an overwhelming feeling of longing.

The desire to save. The desire to fight. The desire to cower. The desire to flee. All of them spiked, driving girls to frantic action heedless of coordination or care for others. Tables flipped as girls once biding their time ran without a thought and left others cowering in petrified balls before the Pageless. Others fought in a frenzy to kill the monsters in their home and destroyed more of it in the process, while those noble souls wanting to protect at all cost through themselves book and all into the monstrous embrace of Pageless just to buy seconds more.

"You two would be better served ceasing your hostility, but I know well how pointless that is to ask of a certain monkey. So I will have to see how long the faculty will leave you to your fate as they so love to do." Brandishing her pipe like a blade she advanced, an island of calm in a firestorm of pandamonium.

---

Back at the mall escape was on the minds of many there, the absence of their foe seen as a clear sign it was a distraction alone and that there focus should instead turn to the barrier holding them in. Already mirror images of a faculty member Roma had never met worked to pummel the dome, and given time or help would achieve it.

A chill of dread washed over all that remained in the mall, their magical senses picking up on a presence most foul. The weight of potency dripped from it, pressing upon them like the Greater Pageless fought in the skies or the amalgamation in the construction yard. Were dots to be connected one might assume the Attendents had hiden away with the Pageless to make such an Amalgamation again, and the feeling growing stronger by the second as it gestated in the dark.

Grimoiric Heart

Yes. It's adding a Pageless to a Grimoire to merge the best of both world. But it is still adding a Pageless to your mind and soul, so unhealthy habits may develop and they may have new interests that don't align with school environments.

Grimoiric Heart

Since it's going to be a thing going forward, let's go over Revised Grimoires!

An Altered Grimoire is, as the title says, an alternate take on a story that can result in a stable, functional Magical Girl. Exceptions notwithstanding. Looks at Bell and her tentacle fetish. A Revised Grimoire can be either a standard or an Alter, but it's conclusion has been written over or added upon. The entire meaning of a story and its themes can be changed with just a brief line made from the essence of Pageless merged with the Grimoire, turning a story of accepting the inevitable into one of ceaseless struggle and opposition. The changes are not inherently evil but they are action orientated.

It does produce a change in the temper and behavior of the Magical Girl, pulling them into line with their Revision. They also have a connection with the Pageless that must be developed based on their interactions with Pageless. Further Revisions can made if they develop a strong grasp over the Pageless, allowing edits to be made to the Grimoire consiously at the expense of further impulsiveness and heightened emotions.

Beastial changes may occur with their Magical State, altering their form more animalistic charactertics or militant features.

Grimoiric Heart

In an abandoned mall, a hunt for Attendents and Pageless in utter darkness. And in the other, an attack upon the heart of all Magical Girls!

Grimoiric Heart

Roma Bhakti

Even if there a shred of indecision in the hearts of the girls before her, their direction was already decided the moment they appeared as a mob rather then individuals. "Such is the way of school that the blind lead the blind, and none question the rhetoric thrown in their faces..."

Tsubasa bore the jeers and threats stoicilly, her face bared and unmoving till her eyes snapped upwards, drawn to Ozma as she looked past the thin veil obscuring her from a layer of the truth. It had certainly taken her long enough, what with being the prodigy that she was. Affecting a sigh of resignation she waved her fan at a measured pace, mindful that everyone was still jumpy and expecting an attack.

Instead her Grimoire floated before them, the physical manifestation that very few ever found reason to project. A firey tailed fox in the audience, however, knew full well the circumstances one may do so and blanched with unwarranted worry over it's appearence. With another wave the tome begin to open, pages fluttering one by one, steadily revealing a darkness emenating from it as it drew to the end.

"I see there is no convincing you as we stand here now, but I shall not part on such false beliefs without remediation. You speak as though it were Pageless alone that required to change, but both sides must adapt. You are denying the possibility because, rightly so, it is impossible for you to do so as you are now. You think the Pageless can only eat, but you speak as enemies to enemies."

"Any species in the same environment shall compete for resources and space. Pageless kill humans, but do they kill more then the coyote would kill if in equal numbers and flooding our streets? Pageless exist, and nothing that Magical Girls have done has made a step towards changing that. We can not drive them to extinction like the predators of old, so we must fall upon the tested method."

"Hybridization and domestication. We shall be as them, and they shall be as the wolf became the domestic dog. They feed on Grimoires and life because no one has considered an alternate method of feeding. Well, I have." At least the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter fluttered to its final page, a serene image of the Princess Kaguya ascending to the Heavens surrounded by attendents...and then it turned again, a page stained in shades of black and purple. Words that were not written, that wriggled and writhed under the eye stood out against the crisp page.

"I AM RETURNED"

"Two among you told me to feed myself to the Pageless. As you can see, I already am, and together we are creating new stories all our own. No longer shall the Bamboo Cutter abandon the world for the purity of the heavens. If I must walk in muck, I shall. That is, the real Tsubasa shall."

The light in the mall shifted entirely, darkening as a second barrier snapped into place atop Ozma's own. the shadows deepened to impentrable blackness, the Pageless lost to eyes and magical sense alike as a small pool of light illuminated the spot where Roma stood. In her place now, though, was none other then one of her smiling, jovial attendants. Unnervingly when it opened its mouth, the voice was that of Roma's own in its same placid tone.

"Had you come as less of a mob I'd have been happy to appear in the flesh, but there was never a hope to speak rationally with such a force arrayed before me. Instead I shall have to leave my attendants to play host for you while I see if those at Merrywell are more receptive. Have no fear, for there is only one murderer in this mall to my knowledge, and she flies above you as I speak."

Then the barrier condensed, and the light of the sun was smothered utterly. The shadow was absolute and not a light was on in the abandoned mall, only the faint glow of magical projectiles over Stripes head could be captured by the eye-

A flaming ballista bolt shattered the gloom as Suzuya roared her defiance, a streak of incandesent light streaking right where the Attendent once stood and setting ablaze to the art store. Paints and oils went up, acrid smoke and scents assaulting their nostrils as the flames licked greadily at dry paper and pastel alike.

And the light it cast revealed not a single Pageless to be seen, save for the haunting laughter of Roma's voice, echoing from deeper in the mall.

---

The Merrywell cafeteria was a fine communal space, bathed in the chatter of friends meeting between classes and the aromas of foods from across the centuries. Two students sat in the center, not a word said between them as they enjoyed their tea. Then one smiled, her posture growing excited and outgoing as she manifested an ornate robe and placed it upon her summoner's shoulders.

Moonlit Tsubasa appeared within the heart of Merrywell in a flash of moonlight, and the Pageless fell from her like a tide of darkwater upon the unprepared Magical Girls. Clad in the Vestemants of Heaven, the Rabbit eared Magical Girl set down her tea and drank in the screams of students borne down by the creatures they hunted, the destruction of tables and wasting of meals.

"Hybridization and Domestication." Change could be painful after all, but she'd bring the Magical Girls an end to the hopeless conflict even if she had to pour the Pageless into their grimoires herself. "You all shall be the first I have had the priveledge of providing a Revised Grimoire."

Grimoiric Heart

Yeah I only made the one banner. She looks transformed merely because people have only met hte bunny eared version so far.

Grimoiric Heart

Man, Stripes is super uncharitable. Just jumping to the worst conclusions and making Roma out to be some kind of villain here. Well, History is written by the victor.

Tower of Fable

Kanbaru Otoko

Before Akiko's arrogance could push Kanbaru to considering how far she could discipline an uppity junion among the Jester's ranks, the Casino was saved from a the grisly fate of being their collatoral damage by it's own proprietor's intervention. Instantly Kanbaru's mood brightened the tension dropped, a mix of trust and wariness ensuring her no conflict would happen while Harley wished for peace.

"Well, not like I have a problem sitting back and letting you hang yourself, kitten. But if your Serei wants to try and take my head, I'll be happy to show you why Lorelai are the cheapest bicycles in the village. Everyone gets a ride~" Kanbaru said with feigned sweetness, though the brightness in her eyes and the revelation this was not the Tower meant she had no reason not to make good on it.

Blessedly distractions were no aplenty, and she felt a weight slip off her shoulders as Thomas emerged without half a dozen bunnies dragging him into sinful debauchery. Having a....passing familiarity with Marianne's yandere tendencies, she could guess that Thomas would be torn to shreds if he found himself pulled between Bunnies and the clockwork reaper.

Then he had to mouth off aggressively to Harley and suddenly his life expectency got even shorter. With him turned away from her and exposing his back, she did the first thing that came to mind and hugged him. Hard. As his head disappeared into her cleavage she smiled at the owner of the Casino and ruffled the boy's hair.

"Isn't he adorable? He had a lot of excitement last floor and the energy hasn't left his system yet. Why, he didn't even introduce himself. This is Thomas. He's a good boy when Marianne isn't riding his prostate."

Grimoiric Heart

Benefits of joining the right side are control of Pageless, liberation from moral boundaries, and dominion over the Earth. You even get to keep all your friends and make new ones.

Moonlight Tsubasa for PM 20XX!