To make people actually remember, here's it once for posterity: Minako is nonbinary and uses they/them. This message will be pinned so you people stop getting it wrong and pissing me off. If you get it wrong in the future I'm going to be much less nice, considering you have to scroll past it just to read the quest.
Part of me wants to continue breaking our face on the Witch's soul. The rest of me realizes that's probably a suicidally bad idea, and Sayakaquest is not a happy place for those kinds of plans.
Agreed, though I think us getting a grasp on a witchs mind has resulted in permanent mental alterations that will only become obvious at a later point.
Would Minako's pride tank if we asked Takane for help? If she could distract the head, we could get on wrecking Analyn's fragile bits easier. Without getting headbutted again, perhaps, even, maybe!
... was the bad decisions tag here before? Reads the update
Ah, right.
As a Fallen London former player
Kinda wondering here:
People who voted to link up with the Witch again
What did you expect would happen if you succeeded?
'Mina!' she shouts as she blocks another charge from the witch. 'Are you alright?!'
'Yeah. Got a plan? Shit, I hope you fucking do-'
'I can distract the witch!' she shouts at you. 'Do you have anything in your bat, something-'
The witch's jaw unhinges with a shrill, metallic shriek, interrupting both your thoughts.
"Oh, shoot."
It dashes right towards Takane, just as she fires an incendiary round right into its mouth. Flames lick the top of its mouth, smoke and sparks billowing out the sides and rattling around its teeth as it draaaaaaaags its face across a metal surface.
Meanwhile you claw your way out of the machinery. The bat's in your hand but it feels way, way lighter for some reason.
And easier to swing around with just your wrist and...oh no nonono.
Ah, fuck. Please don't be broken please don't be broken please don't be-
You look to your right to see the handle of your bat. And it is shorter...but with a caveat. There's a massive tangle of razor wire inside, uncoiling as you pull for a second. You blink twice, then you yank the entire thing out.
A series of segments all pull themselves out of the wreckage in a spectacular arc of razor wire and gigantic metal segments. The weight is almost enough to pull you off-balance and send you sideways, but by virtue of your already-impressive strength and the grip of your boots, you manage to keep yourself steady.
You whip the bat around your head, bring the tip of it into the ground, then press. The entire thing makes a series of little clickclackclickclackclicks before it comes together with a loud, chunky ker-CHUCK.
You keep your eyes glued to it, then you sloooowly raise your head.
You throw the bat forward, and with a quick twist of the wrist and a squeeze, it clacks apart into a heavy, razor-sharp whip. The witch turns to face the source of the noise before the heavy head of your bat lodges itself in one of its rubber lungs. It recoils, howling in pain as it begins to rotate its body.
And, of course, you're way lighter. The force yanks you off of your feet and into the sky. The witch spins once, then twice, before the third spin rips the tip of your bat out of the body with a shower of nuts, bolts, rivets, and pieces of rubber.
You hit another engine, but this time you're prepared. Your feet tap against metal as you slow yourself to a halt and stabilize your stance. As soon as you know you're safe, you turn back to the witch, only to get sprayed in the face by oil.
You swear and try to wipe it off of your face, and after a couple of swipes you manage to get a good look at where the fuck it came from.
It's gushing out of the newly-made hole in the witch's lung, and it's everywhere. The witch thrashes around, less in pain and more in humiliation and rage; you can feel it even when you're not trying to, and you can feel your hands twitching and shaking with each thrash of the witch. After a few seconds of chaotic lurching, the witch promptly grabs its own lung with its teeth and tears it out of its chest.
It chatters its teeth together as its eyes narrow and the wide beams of light turn into red-hot lasers, then it glares at its own ruined lung.
The pitch-black chamber turns a hellish orange as a fireball blasts open the lung, showering you and Takane with flaming car parts. She fires a shield, while you just frantically pat yourself down to keep yourself from igniting. "Shit, shit, holy fuck I'm on fire holy-"
Your eyes widen, then you immediately bend your knees and let gravity take you onto your back. The witch sails just inches over your head; the ribcage rubs against the tip of your hood and the glow from your soul gem illuminates its belly in a pink-red glow.
A split-second, and you notice more organs, and with that split-second, you can also smell gasoline.
'Hey, I think I got an idea...'
On instinct, you stretch your hand out and grab a rubber intestine.
The witch howls in pain once more as you're pulled off of the ground and into the air. You turn to see it trying to slam its body into more engines or spin itself to throw you away again, but this time you're prepared.
'Is it full of fuel?' Takane watches you from the side, quickly reloading her arm-guns with more incendiary rounds.
Good, she was thinking exactly what you were thinking.
"Yeah, this witch is a giant fucking bomb!"
You let go of the intestines, throw your bat out to the side, and kick off with a momentum-building spin right into the witch. It twists and turns, trying to pivot its spine towards you, but you're using a bat. And even with the spine in the way, it's long enough to wrap around the spine and embed itself right into the stomach.
A split-second later, and the head splits, revealing a circular sawblade.
And then you pull.
The blade of your bat screams with effort as it chews into the stomach and spills an mix of petroleum and gasoline. Hot steam spews out of the stomach, rubber melting and engine parts hanging as the witch screeches. The engine that is its heart screams as it tries to make up for lost pressure and the witch begins to falter and fall.
It's having a hard time keeping itself up.
Perfect.
"Takane, fire!"
She fires a single shot. It arches through smoke and haze with its own trail of white sparks and smoke, then connects with the gas tank.
Petroleum and petrol burst. The rubber goes ablaze as the gas roars into another spectacular fireball. You can feel the heat even through your layers of clothing, even through your fucking mask, as the engine sputters and chokes and the witch's jaw unhinges and falls off its body. The entire creature stutters and screams, before the lights on its head dim and die.
The barrier fades away before the witch even has a chance to hit the ground.
You and Takane find yourselves on the ground floor of the parking garage, right in the middle of the complex. You're both standing on a gazebo in the center of the garage, in the middle of a tiny zen garden. The grief seed gently floats down from where the witch just was with a slow spin. It's a beautiful little thing, with a tiny gear atop it.
You grab it before it hits the ground.
"Well, not bad for my first fight," you say, still panting. The rage died with the witch; as soon as it burst into flames, your connection snapped away. "Shit."
Takane nods as she falls to her knees. "That was a little stressful."
You shrug. "Nah, it's fine. I did okay."
"You did!" Takane leans backwards. "But I'm still allowed to worry."
Well, she is. But you don't want her to be. "You are. And you're right to worry, but I think I'll be fine. That was not a bad first encounter."
She looks away. A sudden gust of wind shakes the plain, rattles the scaffold and pushes the clouds sideways. She's really not sure about that.
"Hey, hey." You kneel down beside her and scoot closer to her side. "At the very least I'm probably not gonna try linking with the witch anytime soon. That shit was weird."
She shakes her head. "The witch was disrupted. I think it killed all its familiars, too."
"Wait, what? What's a familiar?"
She smiles. The sun gets a little brighter; you wonder if it's because she thinks you're cute or you're naive. "A familiar is a witch's helper. It's basically a proto-witch, and each barrier usually has dozens, or even hundreds of them. There are witches without familiars, but they're rare."
"So you think I somehow killed them all?"
"Maybe..." she trails off as she looks down to your soul gem.
You follow her line of sight, blink, and you pull the gem off of your chest. It's still glowing slightly red, little flecks of something floating inside of it before they slow down and turn black. They settle at the bottom of your soul gem.
"Huh." You blink. "I think I might've taken on a little bit of that witch's...uh..." you swallow, "...grief."
That, of course, brings up the elephant in the room. You and Takane stare at the grief seed still in your left hand. That logo on the top looks an awful lot like...well...the top of a soul gem.
You think you understand why your parents wanted to keep you away from the system.
You understand it way too well.
[=]
Your name is Sayaka, and you're currently under the bridge between Kasamino and Mitakihara. Most of this part of the bridge is completely inaccessible to most people, and it's a few short leaps from...well...where you and Kyouko spent most of last night.
You scratch your cheek and try to move to other thoughts, like how much as you enjoyed last night. You're on a maintenance rail, just outside a tiny little building that hangs ten meters away from the train. The train screams by, rattling the catwalk and causing your blazer to flutter in the wind.
You have a red bean paste fish in your mouth. And as soon as you take a second bite, someone else hits the walkway.
His hair is hot-pink, his coat still fresh from the labs and smelling faintly of ozone. He's got a thin, long face, a bit gaunt, with a bit of stubble. He rubs his chin, scratching away at his cheek as he gives you a thin smile.
You think he's still just happy to have some stubble for once.
"Hey," Yuki says.
"Hey yourself." You lean back further. "Where you able to glean anything?"
"Ahaha, fuck no."
"How about theories? Got any theories?"
"I mean, I got a few," he says with a shrug, "but it's pretty much all conjecture. I can't say much of anything concrete until I go to Kasamino tonight. Until then, all I have is speculation."
"Well, speculate. What do you think?"
He takes a breath. "I think that this 'Yuri' girl can pull magi from other timelines. That or she intentionally causes a paradox and summons infinite magi."
You blink in surprise. "Oh. Which uh...which one's worse?"
"They're both pretty bad, but the latter is way worse. And way less plausible. I mostly brought it up as a possibility." He waves his hand around. "Uhh, but yeah, I don't know the limits of her specific power, and it can be, uh...basically anything, really."
"That's not very specific at all."
"Yeah, I told you; I don't have a lot to work with."
[] Keep discussing the possibilities with him. (Write-in your own theories)
You look to your right to see the handle of your bat. And it is shorter...but with a caveat. There's a massive tangle of razor wire inside, uncoiling as you pull for a second. You blink twice, then you yank the entire thing out.
One question, Moiderah
Since we know some things that might or might not be true about Yuri's abilities from the totally-not-Mami-what-are-you-talking-about's POV, are we allowed to present these alleged facts as theories and check them for plausibility?
[X] Ask Yuki how Yuri's ability would interact with him
He takes a breath. "I think that this 'Yuri' girl can pull magi from other timelines. That or she intentionally causes a paradox and summons infinite magi."
That, of course, brings up the elephant in the room. You and Takane stare at the grief seed still in your left hand. That logo on the top looks an awful lot like...well...the top of a soul gem.
You think you understand why your parents wanted to keep you away from the system.
"So," Takane says. "How fares project 'ask your Witch for superpowers'?"
You can't help but wince at the mention of your doppelganger, and -- fed by the attention -- your shadow only perks up. The constant susurration of her bitter indolence rises to an insufferable fuckboy peak in the back of your mind.
"All the ways you wish you could be?" It asks rhetorically. "That's me. I look like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck. I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not."
"LET'S JUST SAY IT'S A WORK IN PROGRESS," you growl.
The thought occurs, yuri might be part of how Rins team keeps on the good side of QB and such- summon meguca from other timeline, witch said meguca out. Quota met (assuming this counts as a net positive for QB), and a readily deniable source of witches to throw at people.
The thought occurs, yuri might be part of how Rins team keeps on the good side of QB and such- summon meguca from other timeline, witch said meguca out. Quota met (assuming this counts as a net positive for QB), and a readily deniable source of witches to throw at people.
This means that the summoner (forget their name) is the lynchpin of Ms Cult Leader's whole operation. Reinforcements, greef sids, keeping cabbits from interfering too much, probably a lot else...
Take out the summoner, and Run takes a major blow.
