"Nah, the more the merrier!" Mari grins as she chomps into the shared eclair. The flaky pastry all but disintegrates, as eclairs are wont to do, causing her to stuff the rest of it in her mouth hurriedly.
@Ugolino
"Mhnm?" Mari's eyes go wide as Yvette talks at them, she gestures at Claire to answer while she tries to choke down the suddenly rebellious sweet.
"E-eh?" Claire blinks at her friend's prompting, then jolts upright, stumbling over her words in her blurted attempt to fill the conversational gap. "Well, um, kind of...It's very busy in Osaka, especially if you're trying to get to downtown, and it can get pretty crowded if you're taking the bus or train, so it's actually faster sometimes to just walk or jog there..."
A pause.
"Um, I mean, yes. Yeah, it is. I mean, ours wasn't the biggest school in Osaka or anything, but it wasn't an academy or anything. I guess it's about the same size as here?" Claire rambles.
Marie surveys the landscape, taking it all in. "Candles... is that wax? Better not be blood," she mutters to herself. "Not the weirdest Barrier I've seen."
She raises her hand, a flash of light forming one of her signature butterfly knives. She whips it around her fingers expertly, a smooth blur of motion that finishes with the knife held in a reverse hammer grip. "Here we go."
With a faint whoosh, she vanishes, teleporting as high up as she can go. As she falls, she turns to survey the landscape, searching for any sign of the Witch.
You need not search for very long. Barely have you dropped a dozen meters when you notice the huge lump on the spongy surface halts its movement towards your previous position, seemingly confused about your sudden disappearance. Then the black surface cracks completely and a giant reptilian head rises from the white cream-like substance beneath.
Perhaps under normal circumstances the thing would have been colorful. But as it stands, the huge head is shaped into a strange fusion of a snake and donkey, and the skin is mostly black and charred with only some spots of colorful wrapping paper around it. Its eyes are simply empty holes with candle fires burning inside them.
It looks around, trying to locate you.
And then any intimidation factor it might have had is blown out the water as the witch opens its mouth and a badly torn party horn blares out with a loud voice. It vanishes back inside the creature's maw and then it turns to look straight towards you.
+30 grief to your Soul Gem.
Alright, let's try this free-form combat out. Basically I want you to put a short description or list, whatever is the most convenient for you. Try to keep the following in mind when deciding what you want to try.
Action
- Attack: Who is your target? --> Method: What you're using for attack. --> Aim: What do you wish to accomplish and where do you want to hit? - Ability: Use some ability, magical or otherwise
Contingency
- Prepare: Use some ability or do something in case X happens, where X is any scenario thought by you.
After Julie manages to quiet the crowd a little bit, and the chaos becomes words again, Aki visibly calms down. "Thanks, Julie... but it should be okay, Julie. I think I can handle this for a little while."
Julie nods at you and smiles encouragingly, before some of your classmates start asking her questions too. Probably only because you seem to taken, but if she realizes this she certainly doesn't mind. Quite the opposite, she seems rather happy to get to know some of the non-magical people in the class and tries to ask questions about them in turn.
"Sorry, I'm not from Tokyo. I'm from Sapporo. It's in Hokkaido. Very far north of Tokyo. Japan is..." Strict, uncaring, dehumanizing... "Very... structured. ...Disruptions aren't really taken well. I went to Tokyo on a field trip, once. It was very bright... and pretty."
You notice how the girl's eyes widen at your description, and she blurts out another question at you in disbelief, "Really!? Isn't Japan a place full of wonder and amazing things then? They develop so many things there..."
"Actually, it was more like it was chosen for me," Aki says. It's mostly the truth, anyways. "Paris is what was available, I chose to come... because it was far away. I felt like..." Anywhere in the world would be better. "This would be... good for me."
Thought it's not easy to keep track of all the people and their reactions, you do note the boy nodding at your answer. His gaze seems to dart around to other people for a bit, and he steps aside, probably realizing that there wouldn't be much of a conversation with all the hassle around you right now.
"That's... very nice of you, but it's not... necessary. Julie and I were shown the important places this morning, before class. That's how we found the classroom in the first place."
"Uh, right… Ha ha…" the boy laughs nervously laughs out loud to hide his embarrassment and slinks aside when he thinks no one is looking. However, with him out of the way, another person steps onto his place to interrogate you.
"Were you there when the school exploded? Were people hurt? I heard of something like that from mom," a new, if a bit rude, girl asks you with a hint of worry in her voice.
"I shouldn't think so. Go ahead and call her over?" Yvette replies. To call her on dodging the question or not, though. It probably wouldn't be polite, and she has her own ways of finding out. Best to let it go.
"Nah, the more the merrier!" Mari grins as she chomps into the shared eclair. The flaky pastry all but disintegrates, as eclairs are wont to do, causing her to stuff the rest of it in her mouth hurriedly.
"Really? Thank you, everyone!" Sophie replies, relieved of not having to pick between Fleur and them. Keeping her smile, she turns at Yvette before gesturing at her ring. "And yes, she's also that kind of friend, as you say..."
Trailing off, Sophie focus on an image of Fleur in her mind and sends her a mental message. "Everything's fine and good and you can join us for lunch. They have no problem with having you around, Fleur. We're at the cafeteria, and..."
Sophie realizes how much she's rambling and makes a pause, then she tenderly adds.
"U-Uh. Um.." Her back turned, Fleur strides backwards, backing up towards the table where sophie is. She twists around, eyes hunting for her friend's visage among the chattering hugglebuggles, "O-Oh Sophie. I didn't see you there! W-what a c-coincidence. Hi! I'm Fleur!" Fleur says, directing her tray of foodstuffs at the rest of the seated individuals at the table.
"May I j-join you all? Sophie invited me." Fleur declares, inching towards one of the seats at the table.
Marie grins as she falls, spreading her limbs to catch the air and slow her descent. At a thought, she starts forming knives and hurling them, a silver rain of flashing knives aimed to blind and stun. As she approaches, she forms one last knife, larger than the others. She flourishes it around herself with sharp clicks - and then she blinks sideways, reappearing beside the Witch, her full momentum driving her blade first towards the side of the Witch's head.
-Threw six standard knives at the Witch's eyes. (5 Grief)
-Formed one last knife, lengthened it and used the ability to ghost it. (13 Grief)
-Short medium dash to reorient sideways (10 Grief)
Contingency:
-Will use medium dash if the Witch manages to aim at Marie
"U-Uh. Um.." Her back turned, Fleur strides backwards, backing up towards the table where sophie is. She twists around, eyes hunting for her friend's visage among the chattering hugglebuggles, "O-Oh Sophie. I didn't see you there! W-what a c-coincidence. Hi! I'm Fleur!" Fleur says, directing her tray of foodstuffs at the rest of the seated individuals at the table.
"May I j-join you all? Sophie invited me." Fleur declares, inching towards one of the seats at the table.
Claire dutifully bobs her oversized braid- as well as the rest of her head- at the pale, slight newcomer in a vague, meaningless response as she looks at her. Claire realizes she's actually a bit taller than the other girl...who looks like she'd blow away in the wind as she looks around nervously.
Claire's pale blue gaze lingers on the other girl a moment longer than polite as she looks her over...and she accidentally makes eye contact with the hazel eyed girl as the other girl looks back around. Hastily, Claire breaks it and looks to the left as though she'd meant to do that all along. Then quickly looks back.
The girl's still looking at her and isn't looking away...
Claire shifts uncomfortably, feeling that familiar knot in her stomach as she speaks up.
"Um, I'm okay with that, I guess..." She mumbles, finger already reaching for her braid again in a long-conditioned reflex.
"U-Uh. Um.." Her back turned, Fleur strides backwards, backing up towards the table where sophie is. She twists around, eyes hunting for her friend's visage among the chattering hugglebuggles, "O-Oh Sophie. I didn't see you there! W-what a c-coincidence. Hi! I'm Fleur!" Fleur says, directing her tray of foodstuffs at the rest of the seated individuals at the table.
"May I j-join you all? Sophie invited me." Fleur declares, inching towards one of the seats at the table.
"Indeed I did. Yes. I'm glad you came, and so fast~" Sophie says, nodding at Fleur as she sits down. There's wondering if this is truly a matter of coincidence, or if Fleur has been actually looking at them since the beginning, but things turned out to end well so it really doesn't matter anymore.
Sophie places a hand Fleur's shoulder as Claire speaks to her, and clears her throat. "Well I think it's time to make some introductions, right? Everyone, this is Fleur. She's a friend I meet during the holidays. Fleur, they're miss Yvette, miss Mireille, miss Mari and Claire. They all are my classmates." She smiles while gesturing at each girl as Sophie calls their names respectively.
Marie grins as she falls, spreading her limbs to catch the air and slow her descent. At a thought, she starts forming knives and hurling them, a silver rain of flashing knives aimed to blind and stun. As she approaches, she forms one last knife, larger than the others. She flourishes it around herself with sharp clicks - and then she blinks sideways, reappearing beside the Witch, her full momentum driving her blade first towards the side of the Witch's head.
-Threw six standard knives at the Witch's eyes. (5 Grief)
-Formed one last knife, lengthened it and used the ability to ghost it. (13 Grief)
-Short medium dash to reorient sideways (10 Grief)
Contingency:
-Will use medium dash if the Witch manages to aim at Marie
The witch has barely managed to open its mouth before your hail of knives hits its head straight, tearing up the the surprisingly weak skin and penetrating through the entire witch. Black ichor sprays out of the holes left behind by your attack. The witch toots its party horn, probably out of anger.
It's hard to say, really. Party horns aren't exactly expressive as far as instruments go.
However, most worryingly its now open mouth starts spewing scaled up burning confetti everywhere as it flails in pain. However, you can see how some of it slashes against a couple of candles, gradually tearing off pieces from the pillars.
The collateral damage doesn't progress very far, though, as you are already upon the witch. Your blade phases through the first layer of skin before solidifying again. There doesn't seem to be too much resistance as your lengthened knife, greatly aided by your falling momentum, nearly tears off the entire head.
The witch's head falls on the ground alongside you with only a couple meters between you. The white cream splashes against your trousers as you sink in knee deep. The head still twitches a bit, weakly spewing confetti on the ground in front of it.
And then the neck starts bulging. You have barely any time to realize what's happening, before from the wound you caused spew forth two colorful identical heads, this time without any damage or black on them as with the previous head. Their eyes are set on you.
Sophie places a hand Fleur's shoulder as Claire speaks to her, and clears her throat. "Well I think it's time to make some introductions, right? Everyone, this is Fleur. She's a friend I meet during the holidays. Fleur, they're miss Yvette, miss Mireille, miss Mari and Claire. They all are my classmates." She smiles while gesturing at each girl as Sophie calls their names respectively.
"Quelle mignonne fille!" Yvette exclaims, cluthing her hands to her chest. "You met her over the break? She's adorable." She lays her palms on the table and leans around Claire and Mari to get a better look. "...and very small." Yvette's smile gradually shrinks into a moue of distaste and she glances at Sophie uncertainly. "Are you sure this is something she should be involved in?"
"I... I don't know. It's just... normal, to me. I don't think... people who've spent their whole lives in a place... are very good judges if a place is... wondrous or not."
"I wasn't there. As far as I know, nobody was there. It happened pretty late in the evening, I heard..." Aki hopes what she says isn't far off whatever is in this pushy girl's head. Aki supposes this is a downside of transferring from a school you never attended and may not have ever existed.
"M-Mmm!" Fleur nods her head, taking steps towards a table, sidling up next to Claire and takes a chair, placing her food tray on the table next to the other girls. She gives Claire a close-up nervous and thankful smile before diverting her attention to all the others sitting around the table.
"U-Um. S-So... um." Fleur looks away from Mirielle and shares her gaze with the group, one by one, trying to decide something.
"So... um. Which of you. Is the magical girl... fan? Magical girl fan. U-Um. Sophie said she met someone who was a magical girl... fan. I'd like to meet them, and be their f-friend?" Her eyes dart between all the girls present. And also at a passing female student wearing a very cute and fluffy scarf- that she tears her attention away from and back to the group. Fleur then picks up her spoon and shoves a spoonful of veggies and rice into her mouth, puffing it up in a slightly undignified, yet hamster-like fashion.
Mireille remains transfixed on Fleur. She backs away and slowly lowers herself to the ground, keeping her eyes above the table. She's apparently trying very hard to be stealthy, even though everyone knows where she is.
The witch seems confused as of first, not truly comprehending your abrupt disappearance from its field of vision. However, it seems to be able to hear you as both of the heads turn to face you hungrily.
With your own steps somewhat muddled down by the ground, you reach the safer side of the candles without that much time to spare, as the creature practically swims after you. You can hear the tooting sound again from both of the heads chasing after you, only swerving to the side to dodge one of the colorful puddles on the ground and avoid one of the candles nearly destroyed by the rain of weaponized confetti.
Unfortunately, your plan doesn't work as expected, as the heads go around the candle, with them running past you on both sides and turning to look at you. You don't waste any time blinking out of the way as the shower decimates the pillar, leaving it barely standing.
OOC:
The blinks will both count as a medium dash and will cost 10, with your grief now 166/1400
You can decide where your blink will position you.
Aki remains visibly a little tense as she continues fielding questions, but she's managing to hold it together at the moment.
"I... I don't know. It's just... normal, to me. I don't think... people who've spent their whole lives in a place... are very good judges if a place is... wondrous or not."
"Oh…" the girl mutters, sounding almost disappointed to hear that you don't really come from a magical fantasyland of wonder.
Upon hearing the other girl's question, she rolls her eyes "Well, I'm sure it must still be much more interesting than Paris. Ugh, this place is falling apart at its seams..."
"I wasn't there. As far as I know, nobody was there. It happened pretty late in the evening, I heard..." Aki hopes what she says isn't far off whatever is in this pushy girl's head. Aki supposes this is a downside of transferring from a school you never attended and may not have ever existed.
"Oh thank God... I mean, having something like that happen must have been horrible! Good thing you weren't there in person," the girl lets out, sounding somewhat relieved for some reason, "Still, uh… Welcome to St. Cloud I guess?"
At that point, though, you also hear a familiar voice speak to you through telepathy, interrupting whatever you were going to say at first. 'Is this a bad time, Julie? Aki?' Ophélie asks you wearily, 'And are you still alright? I will be coming over to the Junior High for lunch with you myself soon.'
@Krekian
"It's nice to meet you Fleur," Mari says as she finally manages to swallow the rest of the eclair. "I uhm, like magical girl stuff? Like I've got a bunch of the manga series and animes and...well uh, yeah lots of that stuff. Probably because I'm half-Japanese." she finishes with a smile before continuing in her head. Posters, Drama CDs, signed plushies...I think I have a problem, eheheh, what in the world is Mireille doing.
@NormalSightMan "Mireille...are you okay? Do you need to like...go to the clinic?" Mari turns to the girl now slinking almost under the table.
"M-Mmm!" Fleur nods her head, taking steps towards a table, sidling up next to Claire and takes a chair, placing her food tray on the table next to the other girls. She gives Claire a close-up nervous and thankful smile before diverting her attention to all the others sitting around the table.
"M-Me too, Sophie." Fleur says, mostly composed.
Fleur's composure breaks, her face slowly descending into a red blush. "U-Um. T-Thank you? I think..." She fidgets, biting her lip.
"U-Um. S-So... um." Fleur looks away from Mirielle and shares her gaze with the group, one by one, trying to decide something.
"So... um. Which of you. Is the magical girl... fan? Magical girl fan. U-Um. Sophie said she met someone who was a magical girl... fan. I'd like to meet them, and be their f-friend?" Her eyes dart between all the girls present. And also at a passing female student wearing a very cute and fluffy scarf- that she tears her attention away from and back to the group. Fleur then picks up her spoon and shoves a spoonful of veggies and rice into her mouth, puffing it up in a slightly undignified, yet hamster-like fashion.
Claire fidgets, nervously shifting slightly away from the incoming tiny intruder. Her-late- smile back's not much more assured than Fleurs is. She's not sure what to make of the other girl...
@Krekian
"It's nice to meet you Fleur," Mari says as she finally manages to swallow the rest of the eclair. "I uhm, like magical girl stuff? Like I've got a bunch of the manga series and animes and...well uh, yeah lots of that stuff. Probably because I'm half-Japanese." she finishes with a smile before continuing in her head. Posters, Drama CDs, signed plushies...I think I have a problem, eheheh, what in the world is Mireille doing.
@NormalSightMan "Mireille...are you okay? Do you need to like...go to the clinic?" Mari turns to the girl now slinking almost under the table.
She nods in support after Mari's explanation, but her brow furrows a bit as a vague, half-formed thought strikes her- that of Mari spending time with the new girl. And that's what gets her to speak up herself, quickly. "Yeah, me too!" She adds. "Mari's the one who introduced me to them a while back, but yeah, if you want to read a series or something, I could lend you some later? If you want?" She blurts out rapidfire, not quite sure why she's speaking up or quite so keen to distract Fleur from Mari. She's certainly not telling the smaller girl about the ring she has in her backpack or anything like that...
"So... um. Which of you. Is the magical girl... fan? Magical girl fan. U-Um. Sophie said she met someone who was a magical girl... fan. I'd like to meet them, and be their f-friend?"
Mireille remains transfixed on Fleur. She backs away and slowly lowers herself to the ground, keeping her eyes above the table. She's apparently trying very hard to be stealthy, even though everyone knows where she is.
"Um, excuse me for a moment." Yvette requests of the table at large.
"Hey, Mireille?" she scoots her chair out and crouches down next to her partner in Witch hunting. Maybe, if she just-- Yvette dismisses that train of thought before it can leave the station.
No. No, just try talking. People are not things to be fixed.
"Mireille," Yvette leans around a bit, breaking up Mireille's line of sight to Fleur with her face, "look at me."
'I know she's very small and pale and cute,'Yvette sends as she carefully places a hand on Mireille's shoulder, 'but Fleur's not Meringue. So we need to sit back down, okay?'
Mireille's concentration shatters at Yvette and Mari's prodding; the brunette groans and flops back into her seat.
"Okay, okay, I get it. Playtime is later," she says. "And can we not do the head-talky thing so much? It's really..." Instead of an adjective, Mireille offers a scowl and a shudder. "So everyone at the table is magical. That's kind of...coincidental. Or not. I don't know how these things work. You still have those éclairs? Wait, no. I have lunch. Healthy lunch." She opens up her book bag and removes a couple of icepacks. She then takes out a sealed package of smoked salmon, opens it with her teeth, and starts nibbling daintily at the fish.
@Krecart "Wha? What do you mean we're all magical...?" Mari looks confused for a moment before it clicks. Her eyes widen and her head snaps over to look at Claire. @Ugolino
"C-Claire? Are...did you really make a wish?" Her telepathic communication is shot through with worry.
@Krecart "Wha? What do you mean we're all magical...?" Mari looks confused for a moment before it clicks. Her eyes widen and her head snaps over to look at Claire. @Ugolino
"C-Claire? Are...did you really make a wish?" Her telepathic communication is shot through with worry.
Claire's eyes go wide with panic- never mind the implications of all of them being magical girls, including Mari- right now, she's more worried that someone's blurted everything all out in front of her.
Claire doesn't meet Mari's eyes. "N-no!" She blurts back over telepathy, pushing her chair back and stumbling to her feet.
...
"...yes." she adds quietly, out loud.
Claire's gaze skitters around, never quite meeting Mari's look. She doesn't look her friend in the face
"...You'd...you'd left and Kyubey showed up and said I could wish for anything, so, so...I...and I wanted to...tell you later, I really did, I didn't want you to think I was a medicore magical girl or something so I wanted to do something with that before telling you, I'm sorry, I didn't know you'd already wished too..." Claire blurts over telepathy, wringing her hands as she looks to her friend and away without ever making eye contact.
"I-Is-shouldgoseeyoulater..." She blurts out, and abruptly stumbles away from Mari and the gaggle of magical girls, so distracted that she didn't even take her bag.
Mari blinks rapidly, taking everything in. Then leans down and grabs Claire's bag. "Heh, big dummy forgot her bag, I'll be back with her in a minute." She pushes back from the table and nods at the group. @Ugolino
Not waiting for a response, she spies Claire's braid swaying through the crowd of kids. "Claiiiiireeeee, come back you big dummmy!" she thinks loudly at her friend as she slides through the crowd, spotting a gap just big enough there, another there. "You forgot your baaaaag." Mari helpfully thrusts the bag above the crowd, "Seeee? I'm not mad at your or anything! I'd never think you were mediocre...you're my best friend, way more awesome than just mediocre." Even as she 'thought' at Claire, the leggy blonde slowly closed the gap.
Claire rushes away from the table and into the crowds...but it's slow going in her frantic state. She isn't thinking right now, she's just trying to get away from a situation she isn't ready for. She wasn't ready to let Mari know, she wasn't ready to find out Mari was already a magical girl too- probably better than her as well- she definitely wasn't ready to have to tell her about her wish and everything else...
Part of her knows she probably wasn't going to be ready. She just wanted to put it off.
So she's running away from her friend and everything else.
She falters mid-step as she hears her friend's voice in her head.
Mari blinks rapidly, taking everything in. Then leans down and grabs Claire's bag. "Heh, big dummy forgot her bag, I'll be back with her in a minute." She pushes back from the table and nods at the group. @Ugolino
Not waiting for a response, she spies Claire's braid swaying through the crowd of kids. "Claiiiiireeeee, come back you big dummmy!" she thinks loudly at her friend as she slides through the crowd, spotting a gap just big enough there, another there. "You forgot your baaaaag." Mari helpfully thrusts the bag above the crowd, "Seeee? I'm not mad at your or anything! I'd never think you were mediocre...you're my best friend, way more awesome than just mediocre." Even as she 'thought' at Claire, the leggy blonde slowly closed the gap.
"S-sorry..." Claire mumbles, turning around as Mari rushes up and starts talking. She shrinks back, but has nowhere to go...and doesn't really want to run further. "Sorry I didn't tell you before, I just didn't know how to and I wasn't sure what to do and..."
The shorter girl automatically takes the offered bag and shuts up.
"Thanks, Mari..." Claire adds out loud, her tan braid bobbing as she looks up to meet Mari's gaze. "Yeah, I'm...kind of a dummy, aren't I?" She echoes, sheepishly.
"Claire," Mari huffs out with a little pout, "You aren't a dummy, I get that you weren't really wanting to give up a secret like that." She steps up to beside her friend and puts an arm around the shorter girl's shoulders. "Besides, did you think I'd really hold it against you that you had made a wish? When I'm like queen nerd of the animes and mangas all about that kind of thing?" She grins and squeezes Claire. "You're my bestest best friend and nothing is gonna change that...in fact we can work together."
Giving her friend one last reassuring squeeze around the shoulders, Mari nods. "Now that that's all settled and nothing is ruined forever or anything...can we go eat I'm still starving..."
