Tatterdemalion

Masks: Resurrection Roundabout

POTENTIAL 0

“Depends on the outfit, but not usually. Headscarves are more in style this season. Why? Are you going to finally going to change your outfit?” Sara flashes Euna a grin like a cat that’s just been invited to run security for a cheese convention. “Because I have ideas. No, scratch that, I have galleries. Scratch that, I have connections. Give me twenty-four hours and I can get you a full makeover.”

Stars fall around them, some of them looking suspiciously like bowlers and berets and breastplates as Sara’s mind wanders. “If you want to call out the racist wonder that Vicki’s probably sent after us by now, I know Courtney Lovecraft’s been dying to make something ronin-themed. The Ronin taking down the Shogun, you rubbing it in her dumb face that a badass Korean beat her, ha!”

The barrage stills, so suddenly it’s almost impossible. There’s stillness from above; presumably whoever’s up there is figuring out what to do, now that all their paratroopers have been blasted out of the sky. Victor’s handling saving the civilians, Euna’s cleared out room, and so Sara grabs her friend’s wrist and pulls her close, beckoning over a camera drone as she slips that arm around Euna’s shoulders, pulling the shorter girl in close. “But first...”

“Selfie!”

Click!

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

“You’re the only princess I fear,” Adila says, completely forgetting the existence of her Official Friend yet again.

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

Mittens!

Your Momma reaches around your shoulders and pulls you in with one skinny arm. Euphie is really gangly, after all. “I know, dear,” she says, like a somber and serious Euphie. “If there’s anyone who can stop her and what she plans to do to our world... it’s you. No,” she corrects herself. “It’s us.”

She takes a bite of her sandwich, and you can tell plain as day that she’s busy being strong for you, and if you’re strong for her right back, the two of you should be able to tackle whatever Eupheria plans to throw at you. Momma chews contemplatively, and then raises her eyebrows.

“Cinnamon and pepperoni?” Her voice is an incredulous squeak begging for a laugh track, and one imagines it’s hard not to giggle, Mittens.

...by the time you’re finished with your sandwiches, will you let her give you comforting ear rubs?

***

Kathelia!

“But then who gets the wish, loser?” Azora gets aaaaall up in your face, looking soooo smug. She has ringlet curls. Ringlet curls! “You’re just trying to out-think us cuz you can’t out-play us. You want to climb to victory on a ladder made out of us!” She shoves you and knocks you down onto the grass. “Get lost, buckteeth. I’m winning this for Daddy!”

Eska, meanwhile, gives you a cool glare. It’s hard to tell what she’s thinking. Her frozen smile is starting to get really unsettling.

“I’m still with you,” Rita says, offering you a bangled hand. And... gosh, she’s a Jedadi dancing-girl, all low-cut top and veils, and here you are, just a simple nerd, not sure where at all to put your eyes.

Where do you end up staring as you turn beet red?

***

Adila!

Dandy takes the sandwiches, and takes a great big bite, bigger than you’ve usually seen from her. “Sakes alive,” she says, with her mouth full, “Ah’m more starved than a rattler up a tree, Ah tell you what...”

She flops down into a chair, lifting her hooves. “Looks like you’ve had a heck of a time, huh, puppy? Awww, come put your head here, Ah’m not mad at you, Ah just... Ah just need more time to give it some thinks up in my brain-pan, hun.”

She scritches you in the best place right behind your ear and your tail goes thump thump thump, dragging a chair along with it.

Masks: Resurrection Roundabout

POTENTIAL 0

Please. This isn’t Space Invaders. In Space Invaders, you shoot a dinky little bullet up from your dinky little ship against wave after wave, moving around desperately.

@SARAHPHIM has all the bullets, and she doesn’t need to scurry around the bottom of the screen. She unleashes her bullet curtain, rising upwards, and lets the goons worry about dodging. They can dodge in three dimensions, right? Right?

Hahahahahahaha.

Though, it must be noted, this is taking 100% of her concentration and then some. Please do not distract her while she turns the sky above the school into a bullet hell zone.

[8 on Defend Others, clearing Showboat because... I mean... just look at what’s going on up there... and exposing Sara to more danger.]

Monster Hearts: Sleepshy Rise

SECOND PLACE
WEREWOLF MAGNET

“Nope! Nope nope nope nope!”

Timmy, you may notice that you have been grabbed from behind and that there are hands covering your eyes, so that you are spared the sight of Annalee the whale in her unmentionables. Which! Is a thing! You could be looking at!!

Elodie certainly is!!!

“I! Am telling!!” Ellie-belly would be pointing a hand accusatorially if she didn’t have her hands full. She starts dragging Timmy by the face backwards. “I am telling the Angel on you!! Attempted seduction! Hexing a fellow student! Dress code violations! You are going to be in all the trouble!!”

And with that, she spins Timmy around, grabs his hand, and heroically starts sprinting— urk— heroically starts dragging him out to find the angel! A path which, coincidentally, leads right past Samael’s office.

Are you going to let her get away with this, Annalee? This blatant hypocrisy??

Monster Hearts: Sleepshy Rise

I’ll also let Annie have Annalee reply here before Elodie butts in!

Masks: Resurrection Roundabout

This is one of those moments where you look the MC in the eye and wait for him to dare to suggest making a roll.

Masks: Resurrection Roundabout

POTENTIAL 0
SHOWBOAT

It’s too easy, really. They’re not packed in close to cut off her escapes: she’s brought them into a tight knot so that there’s no escape for them. She twirls her fingers, and with each spin it coalesces: first a line, then a rod, then a baton, then a wickedly sharp arrow. Crackling with barely-contained energy, she sends it shooting into the crowd with a delighted cry, and it pierces straight through the gas lines of the first trooper, making them flop and leak out the precious zombiefication gasses. As long as she doesn’t breathe any in, she’ll be fine!

Zip, zip, zip! The arrow dances through their ranks like the perfect cut of an iaijutsu master, tearing open fuel lines and rupturing weak points in their armor. Instead of a rain of bullets for them to hunker down under, Sara is ripping through their vulnerabilities with just one, faster than they can react. Zip, zip, zip!

If she’s very, very lucky, the gas won’t get to her, and she’ll be able to use a hard light wedge to bust free from the disoriented mass, so that she can rejoin Euna. And, hey, the luck’s part of the fun! She’s laughing wildly as she controls that arrow almost by instinct, rather than any sense of sight.

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

Adila!

Miraculously, the tent stays upright. It’s more of an art piece in the shape of a tent, if you really think about it.

“Get off me!” Eska’s pushing a lot. Why isn’t she more happy? Clearly, you need to lick her shiny cheeks more. “Uuuuugh!!”

Eupheria-Isolde is giving you lazy scritches and smiling a little, and Kazelia is managing to get her underwear situation back under control, when who should walk in the door except cats? Two cats!!

***

Mittens!

The trap door opens up into a gorgeous lavender tent, filled with the most perfect tea party imaginable, and nobody here to share it with! Nobody except for the hug pile in the middle of the room, surrounded by knocked-over tables and poles and sandwiches tragically knocked into the grass.

A big black dragon-puppy lifts her head and gives you a look. A look that promises face licks and excited woofing that will make your tail stand on end. Dogs! Why’d it have to be dogs?!

Thankfully, before you can be hug-tackled by Adila, Azora Howl huffs her way into the tent.

“There you all are,” she drawls, rolling her eyes. “Oh my frosts, I can’t believe you all failed so much and so badly! Getting that dumb scepter or whatever is going to be suuuuuch a cakewalk, yeah?” She tosses her platinum hair over her shoulder and immediately takes a plate of sandwiches. And then she stops.

“OMF,” she says, her mouth full, “these are, like, so amaze! You have to try them!!”

“Give it a rest,” Dandy says, stomping her way inside on her hooves. “Ah reckon you ain’t nothin’ but a lowdown varmit anyhow, city-slicker.” Her hair’s bushing out, her legs are golden-brown horse’s legs, and she has an obscene amount of freckles. When she sees Adila, she frowns, but can’t resist offering scritches.

(You’re not jealous. You’re not jealous. Dandy’s scritchies are probably stinky and lame anyhow.)

***

Kathelia!

That does appear to be all of the princesses roped into the game show! Excellent, all the variables are in one place, and you can finally work together.

It appears, to your keen analytical eye, that everyone has had their curse advance at least three times, and further exposure to the Labyrinth will certainly cause the curses to fully blossom, to remain until Eupheria gets bored of them. At full curse, many of you may no longer be able to continue play properly— how will Alina, for example, manage to overcome danger as a cat? How will Isolde be able to navigate the Labyrinth when she believes she is Eupheria? And will you still be able to fight once you’re a scrawny, pathetic little nerd?

You need to work together if you want to have any hopes of survival.

“Seriously, this is soooo good, I need Daddy to hire these caterers,” Azora trills, stuffing her cheeks. And, just like that, your stomach rumbles. This would be a fantastic time for a snack, don’t you think?

Masks: Resurrection Roundabout

POTENTIAL 0
ANGRY SHOWBOAT

Silver sparks streak up from the two heroines as they fall, each one tracing faint lines in the air as they travel until they’re barely visible at all, replaced by the next shower. The visual effect is that Euna is an inexorable comet, here to wipe out the dinosaurs and anything in her path.

Then Euna hits the ground, a perfect three-pointer, and the lines coalesce, flaring brightly enough that onlookers will see the afterimage clearly when they close their eyes: the shape of silver wings, stretching from wall to wall.

Euna hurtles forward, leaving Sara to power pose: hands on her hips, cocky grin on her lips, and shoulders back as each feather on those wings hurtles down to earth at extreme speeds. Competitors dive out of the way as she bombards the stadium with STAR SIGN: LUCIFER BARRAGE.

“What’s up, nerds?” Cheering breaks out from the stands as Sara flashes her ladykiller smirk. “Awww, your sportsball get interrupted by some big, mean supervillains? I guess we can do something about that, as long as you don’t act like morons and get in my way. Chop chop, Euna, I don’t want to do this all by myself~” They’re eating it up, and Sara’s practically untouchable in the barrage, spending her time grandstanding for the fans. Bonus points if they actually throw things at her, like flowers. Or bras.

[12 on Directly Engage, and marking SHOWBOAT, which is a very ego-driven variant of Angry. Sara will avoid their blows and impress or frighten her opposition (and the audience).]