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Discard, Draw, Three of a Kind? [Multi-SI/Nanoha/Yu-Yu]

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Mizu said:
It's been alive for a good while. We just haven't had everyone finish ch2 enough to post it till recently. We've got a bunch of omake Slice of Life scenes ready to plunk down soon, too, as soon as we've got chapters 3 through...I dunno, four and five done. Need to get through some plot points before we can include SoL filler.
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\o/
 
InfiniteDaze said:
I'm pretty sure every interaction Nanoha has with a female is flirting to the opposite party but hey, that's what you get when you have a raging fandom of 20 year old men who like lesbian pairings.

Some day, Eva will make his final stand!
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Poor Eva, it's futile to fight the Nanoha fandom. :V
 
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Chapter 2 - Nero POV
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    • Chapter 2 – Nero200 POV
    ​

    "No shit Sherlock." Hello Nanoha-copy. Suspicions confirmed then, going by that and the lack of protest from the Hayate.

    Right then. Worries and trauma, backseat. Now. Confidence and mania, take the wheel you glorious enablers!

    I let the familiar emotional rush wash over my mind with a mental kick, smoothing over my worries with unwarranted mania and adrenaline as I respond. "Excellent, I have a cunning plan." It involves blackmailing what is practically the government. Go big or go home.

    "Would you mind informing us, your greatness?" Someone is feeling snarky. Hayate and the YuYu's just look confused, but the Nanoha just looks annoyed. "But of course, Watson. Just follow my lead, I'm playing this half by the ear and half by pressing every button Miss Girl Power has, which may or may not exist."

    To be fair, I'm probably not going to push the Club's buttons much if I don't have to, I just need a line to the Taisha. Blackmail alone should be enough, no need to sabotage the existing Vertex counter force yet.

    If I had to… Yes, I could. Togo is an easy takedown with her lost memories, Fū's even easier by just tapping the risk to her sister to eliminate Itsuki, and then the responsibilities she feels towards said sister for her herself. Yuna can be taken out at least temporarily as a duo with Togo.

    "I don't know why but I'm hating you almost as much as I do Hayate at the moment. Speak your piece." I check that I hadn't broadcast that for a panicky moment, but it seems like Nanoha-copy is just being melodramatic. Not like it would be a bad thing to shut this 'Hero' business down now in any case, being literally eternal human sacrifices isn't something I would wish on many people.

    The Hayate responds indignantly, "Hey! Why the hate, Nanoha? Was it the scolding? As if so, you should've gotten there faster!"

    Wonderful, my most likely allies are at odds. "Focus! YuYu's to extort here, we can sort out the stellar interactions of you two so far afterwards." I rub my forehead, flicking through my available options. Hmmm, Fū's probably the best choice, I'll just get her to call the Taisha and hand me the phone.

    "I hate all of you." And Nanoha is being a brat in the mind-link again. "'Cept Red- holy crap her hair is red. Like, really, is that natural?" Really, that's what you are going to focus on? We appeared in an anime universe, in different bodies, wielding void granted magic for fucks sake.

    "Red's natural, yep. Comes in lots of different shades, too." Mab give me strength you two are useless at being quiet.

    "Yeah but is it seriously that dark? Looked like she dyed her hair in blood and sold her eyes to Satan… Which isn't the best comparison, I know."

    I cut in before they kill anymore of my brain cells with this nonsense "Sweet Lady Maeve. Right, you two… debate, or whatever you are doing. Is it flirting?" It probably isn't flirting, but insinuating such is always decent way of killing conversations.

    "Pissing you off, Reaper-chan~" I'm going to get along well with this nutcase of a Nanoha, I can just tell. Reaper? I guess I do have a scythe, should probably put that away before talking with the YuYu group.

    "Mitts off my new body til it's at least somewhat legal, Nano-chan." I respond with more vaguely lewd references and step back a little from the link. Even with thought speed communication the YuYu's are going to notice we are just standing still fairly quickly.

    I command Bardiche to return to standby, catching the golden triangle as I turn to the non-body swapped inhabitants of the roof with a pasted on smile. "Right then, you lot are the Hero Club right?"

    Oh, translation! Best Device is Best Device! Mab's name I sound like whoever the hell her voice actor was.

    "Umm, yes, that's us, Miss…?" Red head, I mean Yuna is the one that steps forward to answer me, with leader girl looking suspiciously at my not-at-all-suspicious self.

    A smug american mental-voice cuts in. "You left the link on."

    Bollocks. "...You heard nothing. Bardiche, take the helm." I push the link to Bardiche, feeling it smoothen out, the borders between broadcast thoughts and private thoughts tightening. Ah, I had the threshold set too low, so when I thought specifically about Bardiche it picked up as a 'send'.

    Hmm. That name will do. Not like Togo is using her proper name either.

    Actually… I glance at the wheelchair-bound girl, weighing up the chances in my head as something cold settles in my chest. Blitz Action, resummon scythe, ram the blade through her skull. She's not immortal right now, her contract is inactive so her previous two fairies won't block the attack. Kill her now, save the world from her tantrum later on when she figures out that they're all doomed to be eaten piecemeal by the one they call 'god'. If I'm stuck here...

    The moment passes and I laugh mentally to myself. And who's to say that timeline will play out the same way here? The shock must be hitting harder than I thought if that kind of thought is popping up.

    Not missing a beat in my budding conversation with the others, I answered Yuna's question.

    "You can call me Alicia for now."

    "Bullshit." For Maeve's ever bitchy sake, can you not keep quiet for five fucking seconds? At least that confirms you know Nanoha canon.

    "Call me Nero if that works better, isn't a girls name but that hardly matters in the end. Either way, stop distracting me." I am going to force feed her a bloody scythe in a minute.

    "...I'm shutting up now." Stay shut up.

    For the third time I shift my attention back to Fū, ignoring Yuna. Social niceties can fuck off, I can turn them all into crying wreaks in about ten seconds if I want to, this is being nice.

    "Fū, you're the contact for the Taisha in this group of 'heroes', right?" Some heroes they are, walking buffets of limbs and senses for the god-tree to eat.

    "Hey!" Oh shut up Yuna, before I make you. I am at the very fucking end of my patience.

    The one wearing the Nanoha suit waves her hand in what looks like a gesture to calm down. Calm down. I fucking died! I'm going to-

    "Okay everyone, that's enough." She interrupts. "Well… I'm not good at explaining, never have been and probably never will be, but I can already tell that this is becoming a clusterfuck of epic proportions so I might as well throw in my two cents before you girls have a catfight."

    Catfight. "I swear I am going to force-feed you a sodding scythe." Deep breath. She's one of the only two that have a chance of helping you get back to your own world. "Do you happen to have a place to live in this bloody dimension? Because I am trying to get us one!"

    The bitch walks in-between myself and the YuYu's before having the temerity to sigh like she has been the one trying to actually get something done beyond interfering with a nice stable timeline. "Testarossa-san is the same as me and Hayate, and I suspect that like me she's tired as well. We've been friends for…. a bit. Even if she does dress like a dark magical girl who has a stripper problem, well, you shouldn't judge people with whom they are on the outside. Now if you excuse me, I think I'm just… gonna.. go."

    …

    Stripper problem. I did not design this Jacket and you fucking know it! Fuck it, I can just take Raising Heart from her bloody corpse and use the data from that! "Scythe mode, prep a Blitz and a shield." I surge mana from my Linker, feeding the spells.

    Yes Sir.

    "Who's Hayate? Is this another name for me, Nanoha? First it was Olly, now this?" Maeve Hayate is dumb. She won't be able to get in my way at least.

    "Would you just-"

    "I called you Hayate during the fight, you goldfish."

    Pause. My brain stalls as I half-instinctually tug the magic back from the flash step, the spell guttering like a flooded engine. I...

    "Wait. Goldfish?" ...I know this irritating brat. "...horribly offensive, multiple names, oh in the name of Maeve's ever-perky tits." Daze. You colossal arse.

    I turn from Fu, who seems to have a blushy reaction to my use of her given name comboed with either my general attitude or Daze saying I have a stripper problem, and face the other two 'Aces' with a hopeful feeling. If me and Daze are here… Mizu should be having fun, considering.

    "Team Ados, represent?"

    The walking lost-logia responds first, blinking and tilting her head "ADOS? What's ADOS? Is it some military code thing the TSAB made up?"

    ...That is definitely Mizu. Goldfish of an author he is. He was, she is?

    I can't help the smile, dismissing my prepared spells and lowering Bardiche. "Mab's name, the void only made you worse."

    And then Mizu crashed to the ground with Daze atop her. Not that I disagree with the general feeling of bopping the neo-Hayate on the head for being a goldfish, but that's a bit too violent. Sort of what I expected Daze to act like in real life though.

    "YOU IDIOT!"

    Well. I'll leave them to that then. "...What are you two doing?" The mini-blond speaks! About unimportant things. Well, best she uses her voice while she still has it I guess.

    "Ignore them, this is normal." First time it's turned physical, but that probably has more to do with it being the first time they've been in the same room over any lack of desire on Daze's part.

    Moving on and ignoring the unimportant moe-blob sister character, "Fū, I need you to contact the Taisha about a tree for me." Quickly, while Daze can't interrupt for the dozenth time.

    "W-Why do you want me to.. no, what are they doing?" The leader of the hero club doesn't seem to be willing to look away from the… attempted murder? "Oh for Mab's sake!" Right, that's enough, "Binding spell, take the wheel for a basic one, would you my wand?"

    Yes Sir. The equation sparks, and I target the bindings before mentally stepping back and letting Bardiche handle the exact details.

    "Bardiche, Thunder Bind!" Gold rings of light manifest in a flicker, dragging Daze up and off Hayate to dangle in the air. "Daze. Stop molesting Mizu. Mizu. Stop being a bloody goldfish. Fū. Make the bloody phone call." Seriously, can't you do anything right Fū? I've asked nicely like three times now.

    I drop the spell once Mizu is free from the loli-fied Daze, shaking my wrist out theatrically as I note the equation. Seems Bardiche can handle most of it, being a support class spell.

    "I wasn't molesting her, just what the hell do you take me for? Hayate's The Worst." She's Mizu, which means at least half the pervertedness isn't intended.

    Still. "...moving on, before we end up traumatizing the midget over there." I gesture at said midget, whose name still escapes me, before giving her older sister a look. "Call the Taisha, I need to talk to them about your god, the Vertex, and the so-called 'Hero' System."

    All I want to do is exploit a desperate government slash religion for a house and unlimited money. It shouldn't be this difficult. Ah, she is finally making the call.

    "Only one god? What happened to Shinto's millions?" Good question Mizu. "It ate them all." Or they all fused into one, but that is still kinda eating them. Auto-cannibalism? No, that would be if it ate the parts after. Retroactive auto-cannibalism. "Like it tried to eat me. Well, it ate most of them, the others tried to eat humanity, you shot one of those ones. Gods gotta eat, apparently. And they like little girls. Strangely, it's worse than it sounds."

    It really is. The Hero System is powered by the girls sacrificing parts of their body to the Tree in return for power boosts that are pretty much essential to beating the Vertex. And they aren't told beforehand of the costs involved. I… might have a way to put a stop to it. Something to work on once I have us three secure and paid, if the Taisha are willing to play ball on that I'll try and help on their end.

    "Finally, I can achieve my lifelong dream. I'm gonna burn that tree, no matter how much Napalm it takes." That's nice Daze. Go burn the anchor to the entire dimension, see how that works out for us. "I….highly recommend against destroying a population's god. That tends to get people angry." "Can we try talking first? Or beating the ones threatening humans?"
    Mizu is being the voice of reason, excellent, I was worried I would have to be.

    I push the mental link down in my mind as Fū gets through on the phone. "Hello? Yes, it's Inubōzaki. There's a girl who- Well there are three girls who showed up in the fight with the Vertex. One of them wants to speak with you about the Vertex, and the Hero System?"

    Good enough for me. Letting Bardiche shift back to standby mode, I step forward and deftly pluck the phone from her hand, pressing it my ear with a grin. Now, best way to leverage the blackmail… ah, yes.

    "Ao, Taisha person? This is one Alicia, I woke up in your Tree. I've got some information you are going to want, it has to do with Nogi and Washio. I somehow doubt you want me letting your new batch of minions in on the secret?"

    The sound of surprise from the cultist manning the phones makes me happy, as does the scrambling on the other end of "Call Ji-sama!". Critical strike, boyo~

    "This is 'Alicia'-san?" This must be the Ji mentioned. Probably a higher ranked, or possibly a PR type. "Yep."

    "You wished to speak about the Hero system?" Indeed I do. "Uh huh."

    "Do you wish to join? You seem to be… knowledgeable about our work."

    Did he seriously just… "Nooope."

    His tone shifts to a more aggravated one, my attitude apparently getting to him. "Would you be willing to share how you came by such private knowledge?"

    "For a price, maybe." Should I feel ashamed for blackmailing them? Probably. I don't though.

    "A price?! We accomplish the Shinju-sama's work!" "Bardiche, start tracing the call, see how much data you can rip from the phone while I have it."

    "I know exactly what the system does, don't even start that bullshit, I have had a long fucking day."

    Beep beep

    The punch-using girl's phone has received a message. She looks over to Fū, "Umm, it says to leave them on the roof for a bit?"

    Content: Please leave the girl on roof with the phone, she is a danger to you Heroes. We will contact you shortly using this device.

    I can feel a grin growing on my face. Gotcha, you manipulative fucks. This means they are taking me seriously, which means getting what I want out of them isn't too far away.

    "Best Device. Bardiche, tighten defensive fields, we good for sniper shots, fifty cal kinetic weapon type?"

    Yes Sir, easily.

    "Excellent." Hell, they could probably airstrike the rooftop and I would survive it with the Jacket active, Fate took bombardment spells that cracked buildings in this thing.
    I pace, feeling rather smug, as Daze attempts to open a conversation with Yuna. Wait, why is he.. she, calling herself Nanoha? That is going to get confusing real fast.

    Anyway, the YuYu cast quickly clears off the rooftop to their club room. "Track them Bardiche, okay? The black haired one is priority, but I want to be able to find them all. See if you can snag their positions from their phones tracking, I know they have an inbuilt function for that."

    My wonderful Device pings affirmation in my mind, siphoning a swirl of my mana to start his efforts. I ignore the map opening up beyond noting that I am going to have to find some kind of GPS data to fill in the blank space it is currently reading.

    "So, Alicia huh? You know you still have Fū's phone in your hand right?" Daze. Daze. Daaaaaze. Do I look like I care?

    The phone line crackles to life, drawing my attention. "The Heroes have left the rooftop?" Was wondering when you were going to speak up, Ji-boy.

    "The sacrifices have, yes." I take a small amount of pleasure in the gasp, before pressing on. "And no, that isn't up for debate. I know where their path will lead them, and I also know how to make them put down the phones and never pick them back up. Washio should be proof enough, no?"

    "How dare-" Oh are you upset?

    "Fuck up. I'm talking." Not sure if that's shocked outrage, or him obeying. Don't care either.

    "You are going to hand over the deed to a house big enough for three people to live in comfortably, give me unlimited access to the Taisha bank accounts, and you are going to do it with a smile. Or else I march down to that club room and tear their motivation for defending the Tree to shreds with nothing but words."

    "You're threatening us. Those girls are the best hope we have of saving our world! I don't know who you are, but you'll die too if the Shinju-sama falls!"

    I laugh. It's not a nice laugh, edging on manic as I tilt my head back and stare at the fake sky.

    "I entered this plane through a dimensional rift from a world that has never heard of Vertex, and then your tree tried to eat me. Do I look like I give a single fuck? You are going to do as I say. You're going to call in Karin as per the plan, lie to the girls so they fight for you and you are going to make it worth their while after the Sange, if it comes to that."

    I trail off, the timeline unfolding in my mind. Karin needs to go as per canon, or else she'll break. It also means she can't be used against us as an assassin. Given her offensive power, a suicide run might be enough, even with barrier spells. Sange is only temporary with my knowledge, so it isn't a problem to let it happen and it leads into my next statement.

    "But." There has to be a carrot, I can't just blackmail them without end, that leads to them having to strike against me, boxes them in.

    "In a month, once you have restrained yourselves from trying to kill me, sworn so on the Tree's name?"

    Ji's response is through clenched teeth. "Yes?"

    Bombshell time, lock'n load~ "I'll tell you how to fix the Hero System, how to return the girls sacrifices. How to save the Shinju from the slow starvation it is suffering as it tries to defend you." The solution is only logical. The Shinju is a mass of bonafide gods. Humans are a crappy substitute food for such a diet.

    Ji is stunned into stammered yelling, "You... How!?" Hook line and sinker. The one thing they want, along with the threat to take something essential. Carrot and stick at it's most basic.

    I start walking towards the other two, feeling the end of the conversation. "One month. And my demands. Got it?"

    "...Yes. A member will meet you outside the school shortly. Please return Inubōzaki-san's phone to her, if you wish for this 'plan' you speak of to proceed." He sounds off balance, but functional. Wait, plan?

    Ah. That was probably a mistake. Haven't blown up like that since last christmas.

    I click the phone off, flipping it in my hand as I reach my fellow dimensionally-displaced authors.

    Call traced Sir. Location saved for later perusal. Phone data also accessed and copied.

    "Good work, pull map data from the files we got from the phone if you can, make sure not to broadcast our position though. Make sure not to activate a contract using the Hero System data."

    An affirmative chime, and the hard part is done.

    Mizu speaks up first. "All good, Alicia? End up achieving whatever you were after? ...What was that, again? I've forgotten." Sorry. The goldfish speaks up first.

    "Keys for a house, unlimited cash, and a promise not to try and kill me for at least a month." I stretch, pressing my arms up and interlacing my fingers to work out the stiffness from the phone call. "Was a good deal." It really was.

    "Ah, right, housing. Glad you thought of that, didn't even occur to me till now. Wait, killing you?" I'm going to have to explain the entire YuYu story, aren't I? Bah, I'll do it once we are in the house, after Bardiche sweeps for eavesdropping.

    Daze jumps in, "It's an evil, menacing, manipulative organization from what I can tell. Think SEELE." That'll do for now, though I think SEELE was a good bit more malicious.

    "...I fail to see how the sea animals kill people. Particularly when Alicia can fly, and thus can't be reached by them."

    …

    sigh

    Moving on. "Stop giving the Clefairy things to fall over, Daze. I need to give Miss Girl-Power back her phone and then a driver should show up to take us to whatever house they are giving us."

    Daze glares, the expression looking odd on Nanoha's face, "I'm coming with you, I can feel a shitstorm waiting to happen if I leave you alone with those girls." I'm almost offended but given I half-considered executing Togo a few minutes ago that's a fair point to make.

    "I'm...um… I'm not sure. What're you doing besides phone delivery? Oh, wait, got an idea – need to thank Fū for keeping us alive. Me alive. Nanoha didn't help till the end."

    Huh, suppose none of us landed near each other then. Closeness to Vertex determined by the order in which we left the void, or was it just chance? Something to investigate later, maybe pool data from our Devices.

    Daze switches back to civilian clothes with a burst of light, Bardiche confirming the loss of her Barrier Jacket on the psuedo-HUD he is rendering for me. Defenseless in other words.

    Don't think I'll be doing that.

    "Bardiche, can we switch back to normal, but keep gloves and a cloak on as the Jacket? I don't want to risk a surprise attack. Also, let me know when the Taishi get here if you can."

    Yes. Blaze Form's?

    I nod, before my Device and the majority of my Jacket vanish, replaced by the clothes I had on when I first woke up here. Ah, skirt. Awkward.

    Gloves are still there, Bardiche slotted into the back of my right hand and the white cloak is a nice security blanket made of raw defensive magic.

    I wait a moment to see if Mizu is going to return to unpowered state, before starting to lead the way to the YuYu's via the tracking icons Bardiche is supplying me.

    ---

    I push the door open as I reach it, glancing between the icons representing the Hero Club with little pictures of their heads that blink out as the actual humans come into vision.

    "Fū, thanks for the lend of the phone." I toss it to her, smirking a little at her fumbling catch.

    "Eh! Oh.. you're welcome?" Ah, Fū. The Mami analogue in the Madoka comparison.

    I step back as Mizu starts thanking the older girl, mentally pulling the Thunder's Passage equation into view to have another look at it.

    Half a minute's worth of blank staring at the equation later, Daze makes a comment that pulls my full attention back to the ongoing conversation about the Hero club's activities. "I have no regrets, this is the only path huh?"

    "Really? Shirou?" Hmm. Fits better than you would think at first glance. "Eh, I suppose the fake janitor would fit in with this group. Huh, arm thing fits too I guess." Hero Club would be that idiot's thing, help people with whatever menial task they need and later sacrifice yourself piecemeal to kill supernatural threats in time for dinner.

    "We seem to be quoting anime a lot." Mizu seems less appreciative of the comparison, or more likely just misses the similarities since I'm the only one who recognizes the setting. "I vote we ignore them. OK, you said the hero thing was new, but going by behavior at least Fū's been doing it for a while. Am I correct?"

    Oh, this should be funny. Squirm leader girl, squirm. "Er, I've used the transformation before, but that was the first time I've actually fought Vertex." Interesting, she must have been trained in the basic usage.

    Mizu doesn't seem done. "Mm, understood. Why didn't your...is she sister, or twin? Well, anyway, how come only you knew how to seal the Vertex? Did you just toss your family into the fray without any training whatsoever? Heck, why was wheelchair girl – sorry, don't know your name – even there? She's disabled." Fū freezes, any cheer leaving her in a heartbeat. Yuna follows.

    "...snrk." Did Mizu just…?

    Well, triple crit on Fu. As I said, Fū's the 'Mami' of the group, mostly because of a guilt complex about dragging her friends, and especially her sister into the fight. And hitting Togo for her disability at the same time?

    "Have any popcorn in storage 'Diche?" This is going to be hilarious. Regrettably no, Sir.

    "Hey, calm down there." Daze interrupts. "Did you forget? Big, menacing organization pulling the strings behind everything? Heck, when your club's name is the Hero Club something is bound to go down."

    For fucks sake, why must you ruin every plan?

    …

    Because you're Daze, right. I spin a telepathy net into existence with a slip of mana, impressing the purpose onto the magical energy in a vaguely mnemonic way, calling on my memory of the last mental network rather than running through the equation again. Variables should be roughly the same.

    It stutters, but works, "Daze. Can it with the mentions of the Taisha, that's dangerously close to screwing up my deal with them and we need to at least acclimate before declaring war on the only ones with access to the Shinju." I wouldn't mind taking on the Shinju if it comes to it, but we are nowhere near the level required to try that.

    "Oh really? Fuck." Wonders never cease, he can listen to reason. Er, she can listen to reason.

    "And I claim that's silly." Mizu interjects, and oh my Lady Maeve she got the hint. Clefairy is on board and countering Daze's point, "Life isn't a conspiracy novel, Nanoha, even when you add magic to the mix."

    "Hey! How many people can walk in the Hero Club? Three! How many people in the Hero Club in total? Four! Three times four equals twelve and how many blonds are there? Two! Twelve divided by two equals six! How many people just walked in? Three! Three six's." Daze throws her hands up in the air as I rest my face in the palms of my hands. That, that isn't even the real number of the devil. She's crazy and an idiot. "Illuminati confirmed!"

    I take back every nice thing I ever said about Daze. It will be quick, there aren't many such things.

    A car has arrived outside the school, containing two adult humans, Sir.

    "Oh thank Mab, the car is here. Time to go, nice meeting you all, kinda, not really, bye bye!" I grab each of my two cohorts by their arms and drag them from the room before they can offend anyone else. Which is weird, I'm usually the offensive one in a group.

    "Remind me to crack open the personal settings menu when we have some down time, being called Sir feels weird."

    Noted.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 3 - Nero's POV
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 3 – Nero POV​

    "Well. This is a fuck up of a situation." I flick my hair out of my eyes with one hand, leaning back on the other arm as I catch the other two neo-girls eyes.

    The house seems fine, if almost painfully Japanese in style. I'm going to need to buy a couch.

    "I'm going to go claim a room as mine before using the bathroom." Daze declares, walking off. "I seriously need a nap."

    Why did it have to be Daze? I don't remember getting any bonus worth that level of difficulty modifier.

    "Why do you need a nap?" Mizu blinks, looking after Daze as she wanders down a hallway. "I'm not tired. Which is weird, considering we got done fighting big swordy twenty minutes ago, but hey. New bodies, weird stuff can happen sometimes."

    "Because I just flew around a giant tentacle monster from the second level of the void, that's why." Daze replies bluntly, the sound of a door opening before being shut sounding through the house.

    "Bardiche, any luck with finding eavesdropping devices or cameras?"

    I mutter to Mizu, who is still standing. "You would think he, er, she, would cope better than us. That body is pretty close to his original age. We've lost like a decade as well as a gender." Bloody pronouns. Fuck off tumblr.

    Twelve such devices detected. Updating HUD.

    I blink as glowing markers appear, marking the devices positions. "As expected. Any counters? EMP seems like something Fate should have been able to do with her affinity." I wonder if my eyes are glowing.

    "A decade?" Mizu frowns, counting on her fingers. "Let's see, I was twenty-one before, Reinforce said I was thirteen now, that makes it–"

    I wince, pushing myself up quickly and clamping a hand over the goldfish's mouth. "Spy devices. Twelve of them in the house." Spinning the mental link into existence was getting easier with each cast, but I still hand it off to Bardiche after creating it.

    Yes. I… am unsure that you will be able to use it though. Apologies Sir.

    ...That pretty much means it's an equation heavy bastard of a spell, doesn't it?

    Mizu blinks, looking at me, then peels my hand off her mouth and glances down the hallway. "I can't help but think this revelation comes at a bad time for one of us. Although I'm somewhat curious whether they set up camera in the bathroom."

    "Oi, Fate." Daze calls through the mental chat, Bardiche adding the final member of our trio to the 'call' when he detects the incoming mind link. "Raising Heart just picked up a spell from you. What's up with that?"

    "Camera!" Mizu chirps back before I can reply. "It's a search for camera, apparently! And microphone, and possibly some sort of normal phone if they can get them that tiny and want to talk to us while they spy on us. I dunno, spies are weird by default."

    "Of course." Daze sighs. "Give me a sec…. Ah, here we go. One in the lamp and one in the door. Perverts."

    I let my new body fall back onto the carpeted floor, pulling the EMP spell to the front of my mind. "Bardiche is showing me an EMP spell, but balancing the power flow with the range is going to be a bitch… Oh for fuck's sake, why is the targeting a variable? Gah." This magic system is a pain in the, wait, could I use that for jamming phones with an area? Target the air instead, increase interference...

    "I've never done spells manually before, Reinforce has handled it so far. Which is good, as again, big swordy found me like five minutes after waking and if I was a newbie then I'd be squished flat." Mizu snaps my train of thought back from spell theory with a comment that makes me want to punch my newly female friend. "What's it like?"

    Reinforce casts for him, her, fuck it. Reinforce is a unison Device, of course she does. Lucky fucker. That means Mizu is getting an insane amount of AI assist, in addition to a spell library to dwarf mine and Daze's put together.

    "An absolute pain in the arse, because nearly all of my spell library has been designed for or by Fate. As in, someone who has spent the majority of a decade studying magic theory and practicing it."

    "That sounds annoying, yep. Least you can get telepathy and transforming working now, though?"     Mizu picks at her jacket. "I've still got no clue how to undo this. And, uh, kinda don't wanna if it means I have to lug Reinforce about in book form everywhere. Unless she can float? Or shrink to pen-size? Both?"

    "I think she can float."     Daze helpfully comments, before a dull thud echoed through the the house. "Don't worry, that wasn't anything important."

    "Please don't destroy the house. I'm readying an EMP to wipe out the spy things."     I switch my attention back to the spell, highlighting sections for Bardiche to clarify. What if I just nuked everything electrical within range? We have Devices, do we really need… anything? Wait, showers. Fuck.

    "...So I just threw a camera on the floor and smashed it. Is that bad? It's probably bad isn't it?"

    The fuck?

    "They were big enough you could do that?"

    That would be my train of thought too Mizu. I push the spell away for a moment, hopping up from the floor and over to where Bardiche had marked one of them.

    "The one in the lamp was big enough and poorly fitted in. I think they might have been in a rush." There was a brief pause for a minute before she continued. "Though not rushed enough to not have enough time to screw one in the door. Go with the emp, otherwise we might have to break a few doors and walls."

    "It's EMP, not emp."     Mizu corrects. "Emp isn't a word."

    "You literally said the exact same thing as me- oh. This is one of those 'I can't see it but it's there' jokes isn't it?"

    "No, just pronounciation. You spelled it emp, as a single word, when it's meant to be placing emphasis on different letters – E, M, P."

    "How did I spell it wrong this is kaiser damn telepathy! You can't misspell! There's nothing to misspell!"

    I sigh at my companions, pulling a small black clip from the underside of the table. It was held on with bluetack… I expected better. Not sure why, they were hilariously incompetent in the anime, but I dunno. Maybe a time issue, like Daze said?

    "Bardiche, drop the spell. Show me exactly where the ones in the wall are." Range indicators add themselves to the markers overlaying my sight as I walk towards them.

    "So, are the camera visual as well as audio?" Mizu speaks up, apparently choosing to ignore Daze's complaints in favour of a topic change. "Won't wrecking them just, I dunno, get the people to replace them first time we're all out of the house for over an hour?"

    "I'm going to scan every time I come back. Now, let me concentrate, I've technically never been taught how to use a scythe."

    Bardiche slips free from the glove, a flicker of golden light obscuring him before I am left with a scythe in my hands, listening to the hum of the mana-blade as it is fed from my Linker. Right then, remodeling.

    "Oh Kaiser you're actually tearing down walls aren't you?" Daze interrupts.

    Shh Daze. "I like showers, even if figuring how to shower in this body without feeling like a lolicon is going to be difficult." Still going to ignore that for the next while.

    First one is… Inside what looks like drywall, three point seven inches deep. I check with Bardiche that I'm not about to hit a support beam, before I heft the scythe up and slam the blade through the wall like it's made of cardboard.

    Target eliminated.

    Mm~ I like this scythe.

    "That doesn't actually count as a 'no' to Nanoha's question." Mizu points out. "And speaking for myself, I'm wanting showers with walls just as much as her. Prevents water flying everywhere and making stuff damp."

    "It also prevents anybody from watching you shower because you know, there's no hole in the fucking door."     Daze 'helpfully' comments.

    For Maeve's sake, all I did was stab the drywall. "Both of you calm down and get rid of the ones not inside the walls. I can only see two more that I'm going to need to remodel to deal with.

    Mizu blinks, glances about, then looks up towards the ceiling. She hefts her staff in one hand, staring at the tip for a moment, then stabs upwards into the roof. "This is gonna take a while. And need lots of plaster to fix holes."

    ...There isn't even a device in the roof.

    "Remodel she says." Daze grumbles. "How does stabbing holes in the wall count as remodeling? Why can't I have ended up with sane partners?"

    I facepalm, hugging Bardiche because he's the only other competent thing in the building, possibly the universe.

    ---

    Ten minutes later, after stopping Mizu from bringing the roof down on us, we are all back in the living room with the house cleared of eavesdropping devices.

    "OK, so in my defence, I didn't know the roof had nothing in it. Or where the rest of the camera were." I'm hovering a couple feet off the ground, very slightly tweaking the flight spell holding me there. Mizu's sitting on the floor with her staff lying on the ground next to her, and Daze is leaning on the wall next to the door. "No one told me how to scan for stuff either. Did you tell Nanoha, actually?"

    "You see, the thing is, I asked the device to activate a scanning spell." Daze responds, whacking Mizu upside the head. "You're the one with the most advanced A.I. here with a repertoire of spells, fucking. Use. It."

    I lean back, toying with the gold gem that is Bardiche with one hand, the other flipping the Taishi credit card about. "Yeah, Daze has some common sense in her head. Only a little, but it's there."

    "I have been!" Mizu scowls, rubbing her head where Daze hit. "Who do you think kept me alive during the sword monster battle? Not Nanoha, that's for sure!"

    "If it wasn't for me acting as a distraction, you would have had to kept dodging projectiles longer!" Daze replies hotly. "I'm the one who gave you time to activate the sealing spell!"

    Ignoring their fighting, that's an idea. "Reinforce, Raising Heart, any idea on how to planeshift out of here?" "Bardiche, same question, any record of how we got here?" Actually, fuck it, that's inefficient as hell.

    "Link." I tap my mana, smoothing it out, then lance each of the three Devices into a mental network.

    "See if you three can figure anything out while we plan what to do?" I mentally pull back from the Device's link, careful not to let the equation snap before the Devices take it over.

    "I have a question. Nanoha interjects, raising her hand slightly. "Um, why do we need to plane shift out of here? I mean… There's no reason not to."

    "What, the fact the people who got us this house wanna kill us doesn't count?" Mizu snarks in reply. "Admittedly, don't know why they wanna, but Alicia sure seemed to have a good guess. She also knows where we are, come to think of it, so…?"

    I lean back, sighing. "This world has a pretty good chance of being unraveled into ether in about…" Hmm. A month time skip, about the same in actual story. "In about two months, and a smaller chance of the same every time one of those Vertex attack. These islands are all that are left of this world." Not like there's much to do here anyway, gaming probably took a sizable hit when every major studio went under. "Aside from the whole 'world ending' thing, I don't particularly want to be stuck on these crappy islands for the rest of my life. I have work back on… well, I guess I don't anymore, but I still have shit to do back on our Plane." I need to feed my cats.

    "Wait if the apocalypse is in two months why would you be stuck here for the rest of our life?" Daze replies, scratching her head. "I highly doubt we'd be here forever… 'Cause that'd just be boring."

    Does he ever listen? She, ever listen? "I said aside from that, you dunce."

    "Hah!" Mizu grins at Daze. "For once I'm not the silly one! Ooh, ooh, my question
    – what is...ummm…uhh–"

    "Bullshit!" Nanoha yells back, interrupting Mizu before she has time to ask. "Alright, that touched a nerve. Nero where the hell are we and why is the world ending?!"

    "Might it be monsters like sword thingy?" Mizu guesses. "We battled it in some area quite differently to the cityscape here, after all, and it's possible such a thing is common. Actually, going by Fu and her friends having the name 'Vertex' for it and knowing how to combat the creature it seems rather common. Like a bunch of soldiers fighting an army, except secret!"

    Going to answer Daze first, so I nod to the Nanoha-ian. "We currently reside in the anime known as 'Yuki Yuna is a Hero', YuYu for short." I twirl the gold triangle between my fingers, idly noting that dexterity isn't going to be an issue. "It's kind of known as the Madoka of Madokas. Starts happy, goes dark as fuck, then ends on a positive note."

    "...I think I've heard of it, there was a quest in SV that caught my attention, mostly because the QM used YuYu as the acronym for Yuki Yuna." Daze replied. "From the little I managed to pick up, sacrifices are involved, one of the girls goes batshit insane, they, and by this I mean the hero club, managed to get evil cult plus gods to go 'Oh shit they're pissed', and one of the girls is a former hero right?"

    Damn she can ramble. "Togo, the 'cripple', as Mizu put it. Goes batshit crazy after she figures out that they are immortal and tries to let the Vertex win so they don't have to keep sacrificing pieces of their bodies to pull off super mode to fight the things." Running a hand through my hair, I turn to Mizu. "The soldiers are those girls we saw. There's another one that the Taishi will be sending down in a few weeks, Karin." Might actually have to grab her for combat training because I have no idea how to wield a polearm.

    "Ah, I see." Mizu nods in understanding, before frowning. "You said this is similar to Madoka, somewhat, and the big infodump Nanoha just gave gives some insight into the plot. Are we sure things shall be the same as canon now, though? We are an OCP, after all, and if some elements of the story depended on random chance there's basically no guarantee that'll happen the same as it did in the fictional media. Oh, and are the girls lich?"

    "...No, they are not lichs." Somehow it doesn't surprise me that Mizu chose to focus on that.

    "Why not? You said they're immortal, and compared it to Madoka. Admittedly, Madoka had the Soul Gem things the magical girls kept their souls in, and we don't know of anything similar here yet, but…"

    "Think of them like Shrine Maidens of a certain kind." Daze explained, waving her hands around in the air. "That sacrifice things to the uh, Shin- fuck it, Divine Tree-sama and gain power in reply."

    "'Things' being…?"

    Well, that little bit coming out eliminates a few of the shadier plans flickering through my mind. "Body parts. Or senses. Taken after activating a supermode of sorts in payment to the Tree."

    "What a sucky supermode." Mizu comments, frowning at the information. "How's it compare to that one Nanoha had? The one where Device were guns or something? Beyond the whole 'does not lose a sense upon using' thing, that is."

    "Cartridges can be deadly if used too much in a short amount of time." Daze remarks. "Though let's face it, those things are basically magical energy battery packs on steroids."

    "Bardiche?" I poke him mentally, trying not to mess with the mental network between our Devices.

    Potentially, but I wouldn't allow it to harm you, Sir.

    I feel a surge of affection for the Device. "Thanks."

    "I was moreso meaning in the sense of 'is it stronger or equal in power', actually." Mizu clarifies. "I mean, presumably there would be a reason they'd go super, and I'm curious as to whether we would stand a chance against anything that caused them to do so. Actually, we don't have cartridge anyway so this comparison doesn't matter, right?"

    Why would..? "We have Cartridges Mizu. I had Bardiche lock mine down for now, but they are definitely there." The sheer power packed into that one I set off by accident… Strong stuff.

    "Wait we have Cartridges?!" Daze yells, before pulling out the red orb that is Raising Heart and giving it a scandalized look. "Why the fuck didn't you tell me?!"

    "Did you ask?" Mizu grins at Daze. "I mean, that's the reason I didn't know. Plus, uh, dunno if Reinforce actually has Cartridge due to being a spear-book instead of your staff-cannon-marble and Alicia's lightning-scythe-triangle. I mean, I don't think Reinforce ever used it in the battle against sword-thing…"

    "Fair point, I know the wolfgang had them, but Rein herself I'm not sure of, at least for canon."

    Not that we seem to be dealing with canon here, since Mizu should either be crippled, or Reinforce dead.

    "So...what now?" Mizu fiddles with Reinforce, lifting the staff off her lap and looking it over. "We kinda got sidetracked a lot, and I've completely forgotten what we were talking about originally. Something about spying device? Heck, what are we going to do for other things, like ID? Did you get us that in the deal, Alicia?"

    ...No I did not. On the other hand~ "We have magic powers, unlimited cash, and the ability to fly. What else do we need, other than a way off these rocks?" I smirk to Mizu. "And maybe some way of keeping Daze's schooling going~" I'm mostly joking.

    "Right, yes school. Of which only one of us really needs to attend education-wise." Mizu looks at Daze pointedly. "By the by, anyone know what season it is? Isn't snowy and cold, nor are plants brown everywhere, and I can't just go ahead and announce it summer due to the Oz version being kinda~ different to the norm in most countries. What with Summer generally having a nickname of 'why is everything burning' and all."

    "Seems like summer? Didn't see anyone wearing overcoats or the like. Though this is a false world powered by a dying god, so…" I trail off, trying to figure out how that would work.

    Only to be jogged out of my musings by Mizu clapping her hands together a few seconds later. "Ah, now I remember! My question! Why can't we just use that alternate-dimension ability Nanoha mage can use whenever we need to talk about something secret? And for training? Allows us to blow stuff up and not wreck half the city by accident, right?"

    "The phase shift thing?" Huh. Possible, but I don't like my chances on managing that equation. And, "Could be an issue with screwing around with alt-dimensional magics when this one is paper thin to start with. We do have mind to mind communications we can use, and access to.. Whatever that thing Nanoha uses in canon is called."

    "We're gonna need to mess about with that sort of magic to go somewhere besides here anyway, though?" She points out. "And if it'd end up causing issues with this area we're in now, we could just wander outside it and cast the spell – pretty sure Reinforce could do it in a few seconds…"

    "Actually… Can Rein use it? She didn't tend to in canon, but I'm not sure if that was a choice vs the virus meaning she couldn't." I mentally peek at the link between the Devices, watching the equation.

    Sir?

    "Any chance we can use one of the dimensional zones? I think they are usually for keeping magic out of-"

    I cut off as a monster of an equation is brought up. There is no way in hell I can cast that. Not even close. How in the name of Maeve's ever perky tits did the ferret manage that thing? Without a device?

    "Thanks anyway Bardiche."

    "So?" Mizu presses, leaning towards me as she does. "Going by your expression you figured out something. Possibly something bad. Can we cast the barrier after all? Keep in mind it doesn't have to be just you, it could be–" She glances at Daze. "Wait, no, just you or me. Daze wouldn't know math enough."

    "Fuck off Mi." The neogirl retorts, with a light fist to the goldfish's face. "And it can't be that baaaaaaaaa- OH SAINT KAISER OLIVIE ROUND ASS, JESUS CHRIST, I DON'T CARE WHO HEARS ME JUST GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD IT HURTS!"

    …

    I turn back to Mizu from Daze. "As Daze and I assume Raising Heart just demonstrated, the spell is a monster of an equation. As in..." I run some quick numbers in my head. "About fifteen times worse than the EMP, and that's not counting the fact that there is less locked-in factors." Huh. That was easy to calc.

    "Ah, so it's tricky for people." Mizu nods. "Just let me do it then. Reinforce can probably handle it, and I doubt that petrify-spell she used earlier was light on the numbers either. What, it'd rapidly age the targeted area to the point it fossilizes?" Broken as fuck AI-assist.

    "I think I have a headache." Daze moans, clutching her head on front of her. "Does anyone mind if I retire to my room?"

    I sigh, before pausing. "You already picked a room?"

    "Yeah, one of the first things I said I'd do when I came here. Have Bardiche do a playback or something because fuck this shit I'm out."

    I swore I could hear her humming some type of song as she left the room clutching her head.

    Brat.


    AN: We're back. My colleagues will be by shortly with their pieces, we are trying a new style to avoid repeating ourselves.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 3 - Mizu POV
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 3 – Mizu POV​

    Alicia seemed to have some trouble with her spells. Admittedly, if I was doing them manually as well I'd be in the same boat, due to barely passing middling-level math in secondary, but I'm not and thus the issue is nonexistent. Shame even with Reinforce we couldn't get the phasing spell to work, but the Tree's world seems too fragile to anchor it to.

    Wonder if all magical effects are spells, like the barrier jacket outfits they get, or the flashy transformation scene with lights and sound and going nude for a split–

    "Alicia! Where would a video camera be?" I yell, wandering the area looking for her. "I wanna record something and don't think I could do it with Reinforce in this case. Presuming she can record stuff. And possibly play back video as well. Hey, Reinforce, can you act as a TV?"

    TV?

    Yeah, TV. You know, device which displays images frame-by-frame in millisecond or less intervals, tricking the mind into thinking it's a moving picture, commonly obtaining the data for said images from radio waves? Also storage media in the form of CD, DVD, VHS and USB flash drives.

    ...Do I need to cover what those are too?

    Ah, you mean visual recording and playback. I am perfectly capable of capturing and storing information from a variety of different data sources; not just radio waves and electronic storage devices, but also physical sensations such as heat, light, sound, pressure differentials-

    crackle-BOOM

    I blink, interrupted in my chat with Reinforce, glancing over in the direction of the noise and what turned out to be Alicia standing with a glowing arm between her and a new crater that stinks of ozone. "Bloody hell, this is the basic shoot spell… Bardiche, relock, and pull the footage again."

    "Ah, there you are Alicia. What ya doing, and why are you allowed to poke holes in stuff but tell me off for the same?"

    Can you do X-Rays? Uh, think it stood for...X-radiation, probably?

    Barring the strange magic we encountered earlier today, I am familiar with all known energy sources, Master. Why do you ask?

    "Because I'm outside the house."

    That would explain the fact I'm looking at her through a hole, actually.

    "Well, why you shooting holes in the house from outside the house, then? As again, I got in trouble for doing the same when spy-machine hunting in the roof." Except stabbing, not shooting.

    Alicia facepalms. "I really do feel sorry for Reinforce. Mizu, does this look like the house?"
    She gestures to the brick wall I am looking at her through.

    "...Yes?" I look about, and notice a distinct lack of walls beyond the one I'm facing. Also, that's a tree to my right, and come to think of it that's wind I'm feeling. "How'd I get here? Could've sworn I was inside." This looks more like a construction site.

    "..."

    "Ouch! There's no need for violence…"

    She lowers Bardiche from bopping position. "In this case, yes, yes there was. Clefairy."

    But those are pink? Eh. "Anyway, what ya doing? I came hunting to quiz ya on something Reinforce can do, but she answered me on the way, so that's kinda irrelevant now."

    Wanna scan Alicia and Nanoha, see what they look like. Can you do it?

    "Trying to get Photon Lancer working so I have attack options that don't need me in melee range. Bardiche can handle it, but I need to start somewhere. Nearly have it, but getting the targeting to work after the spheres are stable is difficult." She gestures to the various scorch marks.

    "If they go boom after you shoot them off, haven't you achieved what you're after though?" I tilt my head. "Or do they only explode when you punch stuff thus far? And wasn't magic non-damaging on..." Oh wait, concrete. Not living. "Never mind."

    "Fate could control them after firing, and set them to track targets to an extent. I'm having issues doing better than straight firing lines." She tilts her head. "Also, I'm not sure about the non-damaging aspects, I am having to shield from my screw ups." She flicks her glowing arm, the gold light fading.

    "Didn't seem to bother me when it exploded," I reflect, looking down at myself as I do, "Although that could be from a combo of range and still being sync'd with Reinforce. How do I customize barrier jackets?" I want pants.

    "Shouldn't you be asking Reinforce that? Bardiche opened the editor for me when I asked, but I'm leaving that mostly alone until I can have a proper look at the logic behind the presets."

    Reinforce?

    Ready to scan anytime, Master.

    Uh, meant the jacket config screen. We'll do that later, when I'm out of whacking range.

    Instead of replying again, I get a rectangle springing into existence in front of my face, a little cartoon picture of me slowly rotating inside it. To the left are colour dials, while the right has an outline of the basic human shape with clothing pieces arrayed inside the arms, legs, chest and so on.

    "Ooh, it's all holographic!" I remark, dragging my right arm free, and subsequently losing a shoulder's worth of jacket both in the diagram and reality. "Also realtime. What'd you do with yours?"

    Alicia grins, before flipping her skirt up. "I added shorts, a la Misaka."

    I wanna leave the jacket as-is, the white and blue looks neat. The dress needs to turn into a vest and shorts, so I need to remove the golden things on the bottom-bit of the dress like so, double-tap on the dress to go into more detail and–

    Why's it got breezy all of a sudden?

    "Err, Mi? You might want to hit undo." Alicia is covering her eyes with one hand, looking up into the air. I just stare in confusion for a second, looking at her, then down at myself, before making a little "ah" of comprehension.

    "Oh, now I see. Double-tapping removes, not expands detail. How'd you make shorts then?"

    Alicia uncovers her eyes, before blinking. "Why haven't you re-equipped your clothes yet, can I ask?"

    "You can?" Don't see why one couldn't ask such a question. "And it's only undies. You've got them too, after all, and it's not like they're gonna vanish accidentally while I–" Wait, this happened with the dress thing already. Hm. "OK, it's unlikely I'll remove those too. Probably. They're a section lower in the diagram, and oh wow it expands into undergarments when you've removed a layer!"

    "Huh, that's a little different to mine, it didn't edit live. UI differences I guess. I just asked Bardiche to add shorts, I think one of the other presets had them."

    Oh yeah, AI are a thing alongside the diagram. Reinforce?

    Versions of this outfit created or customized by previous Master are available in storage. An icon highlights, flashing gently. Be aware that while a single tap expands the menu and double-tapping removes individual items, a single tap here-

    I click the button, and the breeziness intensifies.

    -removes them all, Master.

    "Oh for Mabs… Reinforce, put some bloody clothes on her, please?"

    The world flashes, blue light obscuring my eyes, and when it ends I'm back in the clothing I started with, several hours and minus one book ago. Except not, as she's in my hands now. Reinforce has a gender despite being an AI, right? I think they would. Probably.

    "Should I stick with normal clothes, you think?" Also, drat. Forgot to record the TF.

    "If the alternative is you standing around naked in public, then yes. Just edit the Jacket while in normal mode." She pauses, looking at the book, "Actually, Reinforce.." She hesitates a moment. "Would you mind copying the Knights Armour and Clothes spells to Bardiche, with the saved designs?"

    Why? Oh hey, Alicia's reacting. Reinforce must've said that to her too.

    "Knights armour? Why've you got knight outfits in ya, Reinforce?"

    Alicia winces. "Reinforce can explain better, but Hayate had a… personal guard of sorts that came with the Book."

    The Wolkenritter.

    The blonde addresses Reinforce, Bardiche flickering back into a gem for her to toy with. "Yeah. I'm asking for the spell so I can compare it to the Barrier Jacket, to try and understand it. The designs so I have bases to work off, but if you don't want to, that's completely understandable Reinforce."

    ...You mean my TF outfit isn't a Barrier Jacket? And I can get wolf familiar in a set?

    They were people, Master, not wolves. Reinforce corrects, fondness mixed with longing in her voice. Friends, companions, I had known them for many, many years before we parted. If there had been a way, any way, to retain their company without hurting my previous Master, I would have taken it.

    Ah. So good friends, then.

    Alicia nods awkwardly, starting to say something before cutting herself off. "Sorry for your loss Reinforce."

    There was no other choice. I have made my peace with it. And now it's my turn to feel awkward. Wonder what the previous Master was like; more skilled? More confident? Knew Reinforce for more than six hours at most?

    Bardiche flips in Alicia's hands as she visibly stops herself talking.

    I will transfer the code for the spells themselves, but no more. The book flashes, the golden clasp on the cover glowing for a second, before Bardiche's triangle does the same.

    "Knights Garb, Knights Armor, Saved." "Thanks Reinforce, that's more than fair."

    Uwwah, the mood's still so awkward and somber. Quick, quick, what can I do to change it...Oh! Reinforce, do it now!

    The clasp flashes again, startling Alicia out of her gloom, and I grin at a success in two parts. Scan recorded. Full body analysis is available when desired, Master.

    The only still-transformed magical girl steps back on what seems like instinct, the glow engulfing her arm again, Bardiche flicking to "Scythe Mode".

    "...what?" Red eyes narrow.

    "What do you mean, what?" Seems there's a valid reason so many monsters have red eyes; they're quite intimidating trained on you! "Gonna need to be more specific there, Alicia."

    "Full body scan? Why?" She looks more confused than angry, or at least isn't trying to put the scythe to use quite yet. This may change on my next few words.

    "Now, don't get mad, but Nanoha said something kinda confusing when I first met her and since you showed up too I just wanted to confirm. To quote, her exact words were," Play the recording, Reinforce, "'get the fucker sealed or it won't be the only thing having my hot, throbbing pink thing inside of it!!!'".

    Alicia blinks, before slowly facepalming.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Interlude - Nero POV
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 3 (Bonus) - Nero POV
    ​
    The sun had set by the time I headed back to the house with some basic necessities.
    And a few luxuries, because it isn't my money I'm spending.

    It's… irritating, that I still lack the ability to cast the vast majority of Fate's arsenal.

    Thunder Arm is the easiest, the set equation basically functions as an on/off switch with a power draw.

    Photon Lancer is mostly available, through the tracking is a little weak since I am having trouble managing to handle the equations that allow reactive tracking. But as a blaster spell, it works. Plasma Lancer will have to wait until I master the 'session one' abilities. At least Thunder Bullet seems to be mostly working, probably because it uses conversion as a main component.

    Defenser can be cast by Bardiche near instantly, and I can summon it fairly easily since it is mostly a fixed spell. Holding it can be difficult, but that seems to be more of an experience thing. Image Training will fix that, and again Bardiche can handle it.

    Telekinesis is nearly as much as a pain as flight, my preconceptions screwing up what should be a mostly raw force ability, similar to telepathy.

    Annnd…. I'm distracting myself again.

    I shake my head, closing down the tabs holding the spell formula.

    Going to have to see what I have to work with sometime, "Bardiche, pull up Fate's physical statistics, give me a run down on anything I should be concerned about."

    Flicking through the new 'screen' as I turn to the mirror, I come to a few quick conclusions. Firstly, while I'm obviously weaker than I was, Fate took way better care of herself. Healthier, better exercise, better habits altogether. Perfect eyesight as I had thought, decent muscle mass, reflexes are a fair bit better than I'm used to and flexibility is a hell of a lot higher, but that might just be due to age rather than lifestyle. Dexterity is higher too, though I'm not sure how much of that is muscle memory I am accessing.

    In a way, I suppose it's time to put my money where my mouth is, I did always moan that if I could have my body set back to a decent condition that I would be able to maintain that. Just never had the motivation to actually go and set it to that point myself.

    More concerning is the mental… I don't want to say alterations. It feels more like an expansion. I am reasonably sure I wouldn't have been capable of holding these equations in my mind and modifying the variables on the fly a day ago. Given training, yes, but not this fast.

    Best way I can think to describe it is more RAM, or maybe even a better processor.
    My stream of consciousness was continuous from my death to waking up piloting this body, but who's to say once I sleep the old patterns won't revert to Fate? No, wait, if I'm experiencing boosted mental power, then I'm probably using the hardware? Or is that just the result of being mind-linked to Bardiche?

    Gah, it's a headache waiting to happen, so I drop the train of thought and shift my attention back to the medical report.

    …

    "Bardiche, why is this report saying…"

    Sir?

    I turn, putting my back to the mirror and tugging the shirt up.

    Scars. Precia.

    My tone is calm as I let the shirt fall. "Roughly three-to-four years old?"

    ...Yes Sir.

    I let the air in Fa- My- Fate's.. I let the air out of the body's lungs and pull another breath in. The mirror shatters in a burst of yellow gold, Thunder Arm fading as I look into the shards, balled fist pressed to the empty frame.

    Huh. Haven't had a reaction like that since I broke Jordan's nose when he told me he threw a cat on a bonfire.

    With a mental push, I drop the anger, smoothing over the edges of my mind. Nothing I can do about it and Precia died alone as a result of what she did.

    Moving on before I decide to start testing the effects of emotions on spells, what else is a 'need to check' right now?

    Could be interesting to see if my sexual preferences switched, but that immediately sparks the same reaction that thinking of showering does. The body is both way too young, and is possibly only a loan. Hopefully exposure is going to burn that reaction out quickly if I'm going to be keeping it.

    Only other immediately pressing thing is…

    Ah.

    "Bardiche, we need to have a talk. About who I am, who I was.. and who I'm not."


    ​
     
    Last edited:
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    • Chapter 3 - Daze's POV
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 3 – Daze POV​

    How-To: World Domination​

    "Daze, where are you?" I can hear Mizu wandering about nearby, opening random doors and cupboards looking for me. "Wanna discuss stuff with you. Education stuff. Alicia may also join in."

    "I'm in the kitchen!" I called back, watching the pancakes form on the mini grill I bought after I got the card from Nero. "Bacon and pancakes for breakfast!"

    It wasn't the first time I cooked my own meal, especially pancakes and bacon. Though it wasn't often, as it has been maybe a year or two since I cooked pancakes, bacon, and eggs on a tin can in the middle of the woods.

    Boy Scouts am I right?

    Of course there's no way I'm grilling bacon. That's what the microwave is for.

    "We had a mini grill?" Mizu sounds like she's getting closer. "Did I miss that yesterday when I looked in there for food? And where'd you learn to cook at thirteen?"

    "Got Nero's card, snuck out and bought a grill." I answered. "Plus, I took cooking class for a few years and have been to a few boy scout campouts, along with a Device? Presto, breakfast."

    Not that I actually learned anything much in cooking class. Just experince in the kitchen.

    "What, did you cast fireballs and make the bacon crispy?" She pokes her head through the kitchen entrance, shortly followed by the rest of her. "I see no melted metal, so probably not. Enough for me too?"

    "Nah, your share is only there for me to burn right in front of you." I joke, flipping over a pancake. "Also, it's called Google dumbass. Or whatever it passes for here."
    Should I not have joked about that? Yes. Was there a very high chance that I would proceed to burn her share in front of her? Also yes.

    "Ah, that makes sense, yep." She nods, pulling out a chair at the nearby table. "So, anyway, wanted to talk about you and education. You only got up to fourth grade before this, right?"

    I paused.

    Raising Heart, warn me if the food is about to burn okay?

    Affirmative.

    I reached over to Hayate before bopping her as hard as I could manage on the head.

    "Ow, ow, ow!" She cringes. "OK, not fourth grade after all. Sixth?"

    My fists react instinctively, slamming her on the head once more.

    "Stop assaulting the Clefairy, she can't afford to lose any brain cells." Nero wanders into the kitchen, scratching her head before collapsing onto one of the chairs.

    Master.

    Oh! Right~ Pancakes!

    I quickly ran over to the grill and used the spatula to flip the pancake.

    I believe the leftmost side is ready.

    "Hayate! Quick, pull out the plates!" I yelled automatically. "Unless you really want me to burn your breakfast!"

    "Where are we keeping them?" She yells a second later, head in a cupboard above the kitchen bench. "I might need a chair if they're in the topmost shelves!"

    "Right drawer." I replied. "Up there."

    Hurry Hurry Hurry Hurry Hurryhurryhurry–

    "Done." Nero announces, placing the plates on the table as she does so, before looking over at the grill. "Huh. Honestly wasn't expecting that when you got the card."

    "We're in Japan, what better way to embrace the culture than by doing the exact opposite." Although, bacon and rice sound nice. Though I'm a little picky on my rice and soy sauce. I wonder if they have the same kind of Tofu as they have back home.

    Mmmm…..

    Damn this body and it's obsession with eating healthily.

    "S'ool." Mizu mutters unintelligently, mouth full of pancake. Despite it not being on a plate yet, somehow. "Wa prt we ll gt uk to?"

    "What did you- wait when did you get the pancake?!" I yelled, almost dropping another pancake as I put it on the- wait where's my pa- oh. Oh.

    "Hey Nero?" I whispered eerily. "I feel like I'm going to do something to Mizu. Something painful."

    "I'd suggest not trying to disfigure one of the only two allies you have on this plane." She looks like she's trying not to laugh at the interaction.

    "So temporary pain is fine?" Mizu shakes her head, cheeks still full of my pancake as she does. "Chew and swallow Mizu. You shouldn't try talking while your mouth is full~"

    Am I getting this creepy 'I am so going to fuck with your shit' feeling correct? Really hope I am.

    A good impression should be made on naughty children after all~

    I'll shut up now.
    __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    So after I had dirtied my hands dealing with the- evil pancake thief-

    "Are you still fantasizing about that?" Shut up Fate.

    "You know one day, I will have my vengeance. And that vengeance would be putting the both of you through hell itself. Whether it be a hell of embarrassment, or a hell of pure unrelenting torture as I stab your guts out with a slowly hanging blade coming from the ceiling while your arms are staked through a cross as poison runs through you and Raising Heart giving you the blunt trauma of a thousand lasers periodically boosted through a cartridge."

    Crap! I said that out loud! Dammit me, we agreed to keep all murderous ranting in my head for fuck's sake!

    Okay, long story short, we're going to have to buy a new grill.

    "Nanoha's being chuuni again, it seems." The thief comments, relaxing on the floor of the living room free of punishment. "Should we stop her, Alicia?"

    …

    Yeah, no, that's it. My new goal in life is to brutally murder those two after I…

    Uh, what was the plan again?

    Brutally murdering everyone and causing the apocalypse.

    So nothing has changed?

    Just the priority targets.

    Great. On to phase two.

    This is a terrible plan.

    "To be fair, this is a pretty chuuni setup, even above a good few SIs. Actually, speaking of buying a new grill, the card if you would Daze?"

    "Yeah, but Nanoha's being particularly chuuni." Mizu complains. "The 'doom and gloom' edginess all preteens and mid-teens soak up like a sponge, and possibly the general insulting and dismissive attitude towards authority figures and media outside their appeal range. I sure wasn't like that back when I was her age; were you?"

    "You haven't grown up in America. We youngsters get bullshit on a stick shoved in our mouths every single day to the point that if you aren't at least cynical you're a bloody idiot."

    America wasn't bad…

    It's worse.

    "As interesting as that is, the card? I don't want it getting lost."

    I was about to pull it out from my subspace pocket before an idea hit me that'll probably get me killed.

    ...Fuck it, doing it anyways.

    I immediately begin walking to Nero before swiping my hand past Raising Heart, revealing the card in a literal burst of light before leaning in close over her ear.

    "Sure thing sweetie." I whispered, before pushing it down her shirt via the neckline and patting her head. I quickly leaned back before giving her a peck on the cheek and rubbing her head. "Now go buy yourself something pretty, it's not like I keep you around for your brains."

    Bzz-ZT!

    A flicker of yellow fills my vision before I fall backwards onto the ground, twitching and gasping at air as electricity painfully robs me of my motor control.

    Fate looms over me, looking supremely unimpressed. "One, personal space. Two, eat lightning. Three, that was made even creepier by the fact I know you're mentally a teenaged boy." She shakes her open hand out, the golden glow fading.

    ….The hell?

    Goddamn hormones.

    It was still totally worth it though.

    "Hormone… Imbalance?" I gasp out. "I mean, I was going through male puberty but now I'm suddenly going through female puberty with no warning?"

    Thank you Desdren, or at least Beyond The Outer Gate, for giving me the one excuse I can pretty much blame everything silly on besides "I was drunk". The credit for that one goes to King Arthur.

    It may or may not have also been a desire to embarrass these two to hell and back. Also, throw Nero under the potential Tsundere love interest category no matter how creepy it is.

    Damn shippers. Though, she did feel a little warm- woah no, not even going to think about going there. It's creepy and most likely going to get someone to sick the mods or whoever's in charge on us.

    Sucks to be that universe though.

    She pauses for a second, before flicking her hair back. "You really aren't going to be able to call Mi the worst for long then."

    Mizu blinks, looking at my display and Nero's subsequent reaction, before glancing down at the book form of Reinforce in her lap. "I wanna make fireworks now. Can we get a spell which does that?" The embarrassment seems to have failed in her case.

    "You go do that Mi." I breathed out, flinching as I try to get back on my feet. "And I grew up in Hawaii, which is essentially a mix between Japan and America. I knew what sperm was back in elementary school and the perversion there was bigger than the world's largest pornstar's erect dick."

    I blinked.

    "Do. Not. Quote me on that."

    Mizu makes a grossed-out face. "So, now my compulsion for fireworks just died. Change topic! What'd we all reach for school? Grade, topics known, so on and so forth – I finished grade twelve and a year of university in IT."

    ….This is an odd change of topic? Why would she- wait this was Mizu, she could be like, the plot's bane or greatest ally in times of need.

    Well, brace for the worst people.

    "Finished primary and secondary, two years of college in a bio-chem stream. Nowhere near enough math classes apparently, but in fairness I didn't expect to get Nanoha-based magical powers." Alica look at the gold triangle in her hand. "Also, I'm reasonably certain I would be in the deep end anyway with this stuff."

    Right, my turn? My turn.

    Let's see…

    "My name is Taka- wait wrong intro. Um, eighth grade, which is one sweep of primary school, first through fifth, and a third year at middle school, the final year. As for math, I was in the advanced math class taking a high school course before all this." Don't ask how I got in I don't know either. "I think I could probably pick up the Nanoha math if someone teaches me though. I'm good at the pick-me-up."

    Mizu nods, shifting position so she's leaning against the wall. "I see, I see, thanks for the information. Alicia, where's the closest middle scho-"

    "Yeah, No. Stopping you right there." I said, holding my hand out in front of her. "The only way I'm going to learn Nanoha Magic is if someone teaches me Nanoha magic, namely, Raising Heart or Reinforce. Not some professor who has to deal with a strict course schedule and twenty other students."

    "Who said anything about Nanoha math?" Mizu blinks at me, confused. "No, I was suggesting it as a mix of social interaction besides us twenty-plus year olds, education in the general fields taught to everyone in secondary and possibly being able to keep an eye on the YuYu in some manner. Provided we can find and sign you up for their school, of course, as well as whether you can join their Hero Club thing – they were about your age, ya?"

    "You make me sound like a desperate emo who needs to get a life." I replied with a sigh. "I can't believe I'm saying this but there's a reason people call me a harem protagonist you know?"

    Fate cuts in. "Yeah, no, staying away from the YuYu's is the plan. The timeline might already be shot, but if not then we need to preserve it until we can guarantee a way off this world. Raising Heart, do you think you could teach Daze enough to bring him up to a passable standard? I could try, but Daze seems a bit intent on harming me..."

    "I will try my best." The device replied as I went over Nero's words..

    That's…. That's….

    "That's pretty fucking stupid." I declared, pointing my finger in a gun-like manner straight towards her. "Even if the timeline has been shot to hell, trying to preserve a dying wreck is even more of a lost cause. Besides, they already know we exist. And thus, will also think of us when they need help as we've established ourselves with people with knowledge. Actually no, you've established yourself with knowledge of everything that's going on."

    She sighs, rubbing her forehead.

    I wished I had background music as I put one foot on the table and began leaning back. Pointing all the while. "Nero! You're the main flaw in this timeline you're trying to preserve!"

    "I'm aware, which is why I'm suggesting we keep any further impact to the minimum. There's a point in that they will come looking for us, but that can be solved by just not helping. One of the fan-theories was that one of the earlier generations of 'Heroes' orchestrated most of the plot to try and fix the hero system." Nero bites her lip, tapping Bardiche. "God Girl probably knows we're here, which is mildly terrifying, but if we make it clear we aren't planning on screwing with her plans further while remaining unknowns, she will hopefully have to smooth over the damage we've done to the timeline."

    "God girl?"

    "God who now?"

    Damn my incomplete knowledge. I only have knowledge on the system, not the people!

    "What can this so-called 'god girl,'" Mizu makes finger quotes, "do exactly? Is the nickname just given due to her being a seer, really good at a specific style of combat like ranged or melee, what? Wouldn't Nanoha-style mages stomp all over anything bar Nasu anyway?"

    Fate leans against the wall, looking up as she remembers "Sonoko Nogi, host of twenty one faries, with the power to distort dimensions, create false worlds out of dreams, and powerful enough in raw output to down the entire Taishi organisation and the Hero Club on her own."

    "And compared to Nanoha mage this would be…?" Mizu trails off. "I mean, we can make pocket dimension as well, raw output of something like Raising Heart and particularly Reinforce has been known to destroy planets before–"

    "She's also functionally immortal, as far as I know." Fate finishes up.

    "Ah." Mizu frowns. "Always tricky to deal with immortals. Is she the super-fast regen type, the does-not-age type,or the conceptually-cannot-be-damaged one? As if it's the third we're screwed if we tick her off."

    "According to the Taishi, she's closer to being a god than human, since she sacrificed the vast majority of her body and senses in Mankai. They worship her as much as the tree."

    "Oh hey, so she'd be paralyzed, blind, incapable of hearing or touching things and almost-completely immobile! Easy!"

    "I see," I nodded. "She sounds dangerous but Nero, there's one thing about her that you said earlier that struck me. Her powers of a god and us fucking up the timeline…."

    I slam my finger down, pretending to fire off the gun before taking my leg off the table and stomping down on the ground. "You got that wrong!"

    Said that with a straight face, yes!

    "Tell me Nero, what is our main objective?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

    She looks over, "Getting off this world before it ends. Preferably to our own, but I'll take any that don't have an expiration date coming up in the next year or two."

    I smirked. "Precisely! Getting off this world and into another, the many worlds theory!"

    It was at this moment that I realized I had no idea what I was talking about but dammit if I was ending here. "The many worlds theory can also be taken as different timelines, and if she is as powerful as you say she is than she should be well aware of this fact. But I'm not done? Do you know how I got here?"

    I didn't even wait for an answer, pointing my finger towards the ceiling. "I died! And the only way to come back would be through an-"

    The blonde cuts in, "We are not killing ourselves to try and trigger a worldshift."

    Bitch!

    "Not finished!" I snapped. "I'm saying that the only way to come back would be through what would be called 「Act of God!」 And by that logic, there is a possibility that she was the one who brought us here in the first place!"

    Mizu blinks, looking between me and Nero, before blinking again. "You know, this is actually halfway plausible, and it came from the chuuniest chuuni who could ever chuuni. I'm awake now, right?"

    Fate sighs, before shaking her head. "I'm fairly sure it wasn't her, unless she also modified the material back on our world. In any case, she could have pulled far more useful people across if she had the power. Which I doubt, since she never displayed the ability to effect the world on that scale in the show. She isn't a god, she's just incredibly powerful compared to the other girls. I don't think her ability to create false worlds is evidence that she can yank people from other worlds, let alone gift them new bodies and power sets wildly different to the existing system." She pauses before tapping her Device, Bardiche chiming softly. "She'd also have to create memories and spells beyond what existed in the Nanoha-canon to cover up holes in our Devices records."

    "OBJECTION!" I shout with a full blown grin on my face. This was the most fun I've had in a long while! "Remember what I said before? The many worlds theory encompasses all. You've only had your canon knowledge proven correct, but there is no way to tell if her powers are the same across dimensions, or that the powers showed on the show are her main source."

    "Is this the same as when we were writing Method and you wasted about an hour trying to fit Steins;Gate because you thought it was relevant?" Fate looks a little bored, red eyes watching me.

    I blinked.

    "Oh yeah, I did that didn't I? Man past me was an idiot. Seriously, fuck that guy." I exclaimed before sighing. "I'm saying that infinity possibilities means exactly that, infinite possibilities. You shouldn't narrow-"

    "In that case God Girl might not exist, or might be an icecream sundae. Let's stick to the razor until–"

    "Occam's Razor?" And now Mizu is interrupting as well.

    I don't even care if I get electrocuted again, I go to punch at both of them as hard as I can. "Do you two a-"

    "Defenser!" Ow ow ow ow ow! Shit! Curse you devices and deploying as fast as a nanosecond!

    You know what?! Fuck you!

    I ignored the pain before punching Fate's shield again. And again. And againagainaginaginaginaginaginaginaginaginaginagunagiamagianaginaginaginagunagunagin.

    "How long do you think she's going to keep it up?" Fate asks Mizu, looking away from my punching spree.

    "I know that shields don't last forever!" I roared.

    "Not a clue, but it's pretty dumb regardless." Mizu sighs, before standing up and moving towards the door. "Let me know when we can discuss something without tangents again. Or just without Nanoha, either works."

    …

    "Yeah I'm done." I sighed, trying to catch my breath before heading to the door. "With both of you. Don't want me? Fine, I'm leaving. For good. Raising Heart, Set up!"

    The warm rush of power flows through me before in a literal flash I'm standing there in my barrier jacket, staff in hand.

    I look up at the roof.

    Master, dimensional distortion detected.

    Nero and Mizu both jump up a bit, startled, possibly because Raising Heart said that out loud or because their Device gave them the warning as well- hey Raising Heart did you speak out loud?

    Negative.

    Right, well there goes the whole burst the roof- It was kind of a dumb plan but I just wished these assholes would take me seriously.
    Ha, yeah right. Assholes.

    "Fuck, that's probably the second Vertex, can you mirror the shift as well? I don't want us stuck in a timestopped dimension." The blond declared to her device. Dammit Nero at least tell me this shit.

    Mizu moves over to the window, glancing through the glass to the street beyond. "Um. Might~ be a tad late for that, going by the–"

    And then a wave of sparkly light flows through the wall and encompasses us all.

    Again.

    Fuck my life.

    _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    AN: We're back and posting in such quick succession. We're trying a new style to avoid repeating ourselves.

    Wait a minute.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • First time I saw this story, I thought it was a neat idea but only skimmed it due to not being familiar with either setting.

    Now that I've actually read it, I find the different perspectives and contrasts in narrative styles interesting. From Mizu's sincere obliviousness, Daze's barely restrained hostility and... well, I haven't actually quite got down Nero's, other than the facts that they're quick to abuse meta-knowledge and seemed to jump to murder as an option alarmingly fast.

    The third chapter format is a definite improvement over the first two; while it was mildly interesting to see the scene from another POV with its own internal narration and logic, having to read the same thing repeatedly was not. Because of that, I'm typing this up at 2:40 AM, when I was planning to go to sleep considerably earlier.

    ...Make that 2:45 since I just zoned out staring at nothing for five minutes. I think there was something else I wanted to comment on, but that's a fairly strong indication that I should just finish this post here and go to sleep.
     
    I enjoy this story myself, with the multiple authors and perspectives. I kind of enjoyed seeing the same situation from different points of view, but I can see where people are coming from in that they don't want to repeat what they've seen before. Perhaps small scenes where everyone is on different versions of the same page in the future, but it shouldn't be entire chapters like previously.

    I'm going to be following this eagerly as it goes on, assuming I'm still around when it continues. Multiple authors on a single story is a rare treat.
     
    Random Tale said:
    I enjoy this story myself, with the multiple authors and perspectives. I kind of enjoyed seeing the same situation from different points of view, but I can see where people are coming from in that they don't want to repeat what they've seen before. Perhaps small scenes where everyone is on different versions of the same page in the future, but it shouldn't be entire chapters like previously.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    It is also the biggest pain in the ass to ever exist to write.

    You basically have no freedom and have to just do the same reaction over again.
     
    Random Tale said:
    I'm going to be following this eagerly as it goes on, assuming I'm still around when it continues. Multiple authors on a single story is a rare treat.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Well, just be aware it takes time for us to write new chapter. Both in thinking up and writing scenes, finding a time which fits us all to write, and having us all want to write. Sadly we can't really promise weekly or monthly update due to those last two.

    Timezone differences suck sometimes.
     
    I like the split POV much better than the repeated coverage, although I found it difficult to understand the scene transitions between POV.

    When the POV shifted, I couldn't tell if the new POV began chronologically right after the end of the previous POV, a bit before the end of the previous POV, or a while after the end of the previous POV.
     
    justinkal said:
    I like the split POV much better than the repeated coverage, although I found it difficult to understand the scene transitions between POV.

    When the POV shifted, I couldn't tell if the new POV began chronologically right after the end of the previous POV, a bit before the end of the previous POV, or a while after the end of the previous POV.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    If you haven't noticed we have a new posting formula.

    Each POV is posted in chronological order. Nero's is first, the Mizu's takes place a bit after, and mine taking place the next day. The only order we have now is what time they take place in.
     
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