- Location
- Somewhere.
Ouch! I hope your recovery is swift and effective.
Gestalt, A Worm x PMMM Faux-quest
- Thread starter Dalek Ix
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy Superhero
MWKillKenny84
Lurking from the Trauma Switch.
- Location
- Vado Ligure
I understand your pain (because my spine is giving me hell for my workplace).
- Location
- london
Actually wouldn't Taylor be Rachel's Homura? It's implied that OG timeline Madoka was the certified badass
MWKillKenny84
Lurking from the Trauma Switch.
- Location
- Vado Ligure
Chalk it up as "Early tonal difference" (you know, like how PMMM makes one think that the show is a vanilla Magical Girl anime before hitting the viewers with the tonal shift from hell) and move along?
- Location
- Somewhere!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Given the costume and weapons.... I kinda just assumed the wish is maybe the reason why the local fascist gang has the most capes and manpower of anyone. Or otherwise empowered them up?
Rachel's bitterness to it feels to me kinda like Mami's - where the wish was just entirely wasted and didn't really benefit her and she realized that shortly after making it.
MWKillKenny84
Lurking from the Trauma Switch.
- Location
- Vado Ligure
In which Rachel is a terrible influence on Taylor.
Dalek Ix
Verified Dalek
==========
Gestalt
==========
Gestalt
==========
You sigh, rubbing the bridge of your nose, and start to think. You could just magic your way out of this; either through forcing the lock to open, or by kicking the door down. Alternatively, you could just pick Taylor up and jump down the roof, although that would be... er... Well, it would be very stupidly obvious that you're not a normal schoolgirl, to say the least. Maybe you could jump to one of the surrounding buildings and then down to ground level? But then you'd have to sneak back into the school, and...
... You realize that you're going to be spending magic to go back into a building you don't want to be in. And you know Taylor well enough to know that she doesn't want to be in there either. So... why not just skip school today? Head home early?
Or... maybe you could hang out with Taylor? You know. Like normal girls skipping school. Brockton Bay still has malls. You think. Probably.
At some point, some part of your brain reminds the rest of you that it would be polite to include Taylor in your plans, or at least hear what she wants to do. You valiantly resist the urge to slap your forehead, and turn towards your friend.
[X] Actually, neither you nor Taylor even want to go back in that building. Time to be a bad influence on your friend and skip the rest of the day!
"Hey, Taylor? What do think about going home early today?"
Taylor had been staring at the door while you were lost in thought. When she hears you, she turns to look at you, blinking owlishly behind her glasses. You can almost see her train of thought as she goes from, We're trapped on the roof in winter, to, Oh, right, I'm friends with a Magical Girl.
"Can you, uh..." Taylor sheepishly gestures at the door. "Magic the door open?"
"Yep," you tell her, raising a hand, and waggling your fingers, letting a dim spark bounce between them as you do, "I could also just hop off the roof while carrying you."
Taylor's face goes slightly pink at that. Good; she was looking a little pale back there.
... Sigh.
"But!" You add, grinning. "What I'm thinking is; why don't we take the chance to skip school and do something else?" You point at yourself. "Cuz I don't wanna go back in there. Do you wanna go back in there?"
Taylor glances at the door. "... Not really?" she admits, "But, uh..." She raises both hands in the universal gesture for 'Hold on'. "Could we just... back up a little? Because someone just locked us out on the roof-."
"Which isn't a problem for us," You remind her.
"It's not," she agrees, and then fires back, "except the person who locked us out on the roof wouldn't know that."
It's your turn to blink at her in confusion. It takes you an embarassingly long time to realize what Taylor's getting at.
"... which means that their first reaction to us not being here when they come back is gonna be to wonder how we got down from here," you say, "And something tells me it wasn't the janitor." Taylor nods; The Bitches Three are the obvious suspects for this. The ABB fanboys would be much more direct about trying to fuck with you, for one.
"I liked eating lunch up here..." you lament, kicking at the concrete floor. "I should've broken that lock last time I came around to hunt..." You sigh. "You know, I'm getting more than a little sick of not being able to apply magic to bullshit like this."
"... You're the one who made a point of how you have to keep things secret," Taylor points out, "Also, didn't you get Kyuubey to sneak a spider's nest into Emma's bag?"
"Cost me a dozen chocolate chip cookies, and it was completly worth it," you say, grinning at the memory, "And, hey, she poured glitter onto my hair." You shrug. "As far as I'm concerned, Emma shouldn't play with fire unless she's ready to get burned."
Taylor makes a face at that. Something you've noticed is that Taylor is... not comfortable with you firing back at Emma, although she's yet to actually oppose you about it.
"... I still think we should be someplace else," you insist, taking a few steps towards the concrete triangle that makes up the roof access and leaning against it. "They want us to be cold and miserable up here, and fuck that."
"If I didn't know better, I'd say you run on spite more than magic," Taylor remarked. You huff, crossing your arms under your chest.
"Anyway... What's your plan?" Taylor pushed onwards. "Go off, do... er, whatever, and then come back so they don't notice we've gone?"
You nod. "Yeah, pretty much... Although now that I'm thinking about it, we might need a little extra help to pull it off."
You brace yourself. Over the telepathic network, you send a message.
<<Hey, Sarah.>>
[X] Ask her to help. You never know. The planets might align. Pigs might fly. Jack Slash might retire to a quiet life of raising sheep.
It doesn't take long for her voice to come over the link.
<<Sup? Lunchtime's over in... give or take two minutes, by the way.>>
<<... Yeah. About that. Someone just locked us out on the roof.>>
<<You mean they locked the one door leading up to the roof? The door which can only be unlocked from the inside? And now you're trapped there, in the middle of march?>> A faux gasp. <<Wow. Who could've predicted this?>>
<<Shut up,>> Taylor growls into the link, <<Where are we supposed to eat lunch? The bathroom?>>
<<Hm. Freezing cold or veneral diseases.>> An impression of Sarah tapping her chin. <<Tough choice. Anyways, since Rachel's with you, I'm guessing you're not actually trapped there.>>
<<You're right, for once,>> you say, deadpan, <<And to be honest, staying up here isn't exactly our idea of a fun time. But since whoever put us here is expecting us to be trapped up here, and would be suspicious if we weren't...>> You trail off, expecting Sarah to finish for you.
There's a deafening silence. You sigh.
<<I would like your help with this,>> you grumble, <<Since you did ask to be let in on this. I don't know, maybe you could keep The Bitches Three busy between classes?>>
<<You know,>> Sarah muses, <<It's kinda unfair that you get to go out and have fun while I'm stuck here in school...>>
You roll your eyes. <<I'll bring you something if you keep Emma, Madison and Sh-Sophia from noticing we're gone, if you're gonna be like that,>> you offer.
Something occurs to you.
- [X] Actually, you might be able to use this time productively! The Clinic should be open, and for all that the magical girl who runs the place is... Okay, she's probably legitimately insane, but she's the best healer in Brockton Bay, and she sells stuff which might be useful tonight. You can grab your stash of Grief Seeds on the way.
<<We're going to The Clinic,>> you say, and immediately notice Sarah (and Taylor's) attention focus on you. "I'll explain," you promise Taylor, while Sarah makes a show of grappling with your offer.
<<... You drive a hard bargain,>> Sarah says, voice theatrically grim, <<I have no choice but to accept your offer.>> Her voice goes back to normal. <<Just tell Susan to give you my usual!>>
<<... Are you gonna tell me what "your usual" is?>> you ask her, <<You know. In case "your usual" is a punch to the face?>>
<<Nope~!>>
You drag your hand down your face. <<Fine,>> you say, <<Just remember that I'll be giving you whatever Susan gave me on your behalf.>> You pause. <<Oh, also, Taylor's gonna come with us tonight...>>
<<!>> You still have no idea how Sarah can emote through telepathy, but you can just feel her perk up from that. Beside you, Taylor shifts uncomfortably.
<<... So could you just try behave a little?>> you finish.
<<I'll be on my best behaviour, mein->>
<<Sarah,>>You growl into the link, injecting as much menace as you can into that one word.
<<-er, very good friend!>> the other magical girl "corrects" herself. <<See you after school~!>>
And with that, she's mercifully gone.
Taylor coughs. "So," she begins, "'The Clinic'?"
"Just a sec..." You push off from the roof access, and send out another message into the aether. <<Kyuubey? Anyone looking up?>>
<<You will have a window for jumping to the building to the east in thirty seconds,>> the catrabbit replies. As usual, its voice startles Taylor at how sudden it comes into the telepathic connection.
"Alright." Without further ado, you transform in a flash of grey-blue light, go right up to Taylor and just... pick her up. It's a little more complicated than that, owing to her being taller than you by a fair bit; but the end result is that you sweep her off her feet, holding her so that you're carrying her across your arms.
"Um!" she squeaks, going a little pink again. You recall that, although you've told Taylor about your "powers", so to speak, you haven't had much chance to... well, show them to her. It's one thing to have someone so much shorter than you say they could lift them like a bag of groceries, and quite another to have them demonstrate that.
... Seriously?
"No pulling my hair," you warn her. Under your breath, you count down last ten seconds or so, and then jump.
Taylor yelps at the sudden acceleration, and then there's a brief, brief moment on the arc of your jump where you see her looking out at Brockton Bay. The sprawl of decaying industry to the north. The bay and silent port to the east. The faint beating heart that is downtown, to the south.
You remember the first time you went roof-hopping. It was there that something clicked in your head about what it meant to be a magical girl.
[-] Your world is no longer the one you used to inhabit. You can play at normality, and maybe even find some sort of refuge in it, but that's no longer your real nature. Your new life might intersect with the one you once lived in, sure, but at the end of the day, you're a magical girl.
[-] You are something else, now. You are privy to things and places in this city that others don't even know exist. An underworld not even the capes --hero, villain or rogue-- have seen. There is something special in that; a different sort of magic.
However, you're then too busy making sure you don't, say, drop Taylor when you land to make to much note of what your friend is doing. Your boots hit the roof of the building Kyuubey pointed out, and you bend your knees to take the impact. With that short hop completed, you set Taylor back onto her feet, and dismiss your costume. She stumbles a little; her heartbeat had spiked while you were airborne, for obvious reasons.
"And that's as much roof-hopping as we're doing in daylight!" you chirp, "Fire escape's this way; we're taking the bus the rest of the way."
==========
- - [X] Bring Taylor along. It'll be fine. Absolutely and completely fine. Non-magical people have been to The Clinic before and they've only been slightly traumatized.<<The Clinic,>> you explained to Taylor on the way there, using telepathy to keep the conversation private, <<Is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a place where magical girls can find someone who can heal them. We can take a lot of punishment while out doing our thing; from Witches, familiars, other magical girls... or something dumb like over or undershooting a jump and smashing into a brick wall face-first. Now, we can all heal ourselves much quicker than a normal human would, but unless your wish is tied to healing in some way, it's not gonna be all that efficient, magic-wise. Or maybe you still have a life outside of being a magical girl, and would rather not have to explain to people why one of your legs is missing. And that's where Alice, the person who runs The Clinic, comes in.>>
<<I'm guessing her wish had something to do with healing?>>
<<Yep. Although that's as far as anyone's willing to pry.>>
<<Yeah, I know. 'Never ask a magical girl what her wish was'.>>
<<Anyway, Alice is a really good healer, but her powers aren't all that good at dealing damage to Witches, since most of them just aren't within shouting distance of "biology". Alice, not being stupid, got the idea of selling her services to other magical girls in exchange for Grief Seeds. And one of the quirks about the way she manifests her healing is that she can package it into something she can hand out to other magical girls for them to use later. Salves that completely heal skin, injections that regrow limbs, pills that fix your organs and supercharge your magic, that sort of thing. They can be pretty expensive, but they're really useful to have in a pinch.>>
<<I'm sensing that there's another shoe about to drop.>>
<<Yyyeah. Alice is... She's less "Magical Girl Panacea" and more "Magical Girl Victor Frankenstein, with a good chunk of Ayn Rand thrown in for good measure". Like, I'm kinda sure she's legit crazy, and she's straight-up admitted that she got ran out of her old stomping grounds on the other side of the Atlantic for some sort of science experiment gone horribly wrong.>>
Taylor is less than happy with this. <<... we're going to a clinic run by an insane magical girl.>>
<<I swear she's mostly harmless. Unless she decides you're interesting, she'll just leave you alone. Oh, and, for the love of all that is good and holy, do not mention the Merchants. She hates that she has to share the trainyard with them and likes ranting about it whenever she gets the reminder.>>
You continue. <<Anyway, another thing about The Clinic is that it works as a sort of meeting spot for magical girls. Susan, a friend of Alice, runs a sort of bar there, so there's always gonna be at least a few magical girls in there. Rules are that you stay in costume while you're inside, which is the reason I don't go there often...>>
==========
One short bus ride (Taylor and you each pay for your own fares) and a short walk later, the two of you are in the decaying train yard that makes up the northern edge of Brockton Bay. Taylor's not entirely comfortable with being here; the Merchants aren't all that high as far as threats go, but they're still not something you want to bump into while on a walk. Still, she follows you without a peep of complaint, although she does hold onto her backpack a little more tightly.
You lead her towards one of the boxcars, still coupled to a long train of them, It's rather distinct, with the bright red paint peeling away from the rusted steel. Reaching it, you reach up towards the doors on the sides, and give three sharp knocks.
On the inside, there's a dull thump. The doors of the boxcar unlock themselves, and slide open, a lot more smoothly than their dilapidated appearance would suggest. Inside, the world is pitch black, as if light just stopped a few inches into the space inside. Taylor raises an eyebrow at this.
"Magic?" she asks you.
"Probably," is your answer, along with a shrug. You transform again and, beckoning Taylor to follow, you enter The Clinic.
[X] Enter The Clinic.
- Location
- Somewhere!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
There's no chance Alice is like, Riley who wished to avoid the 9 or heal her family and using a new name, is there?
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Well, the girls could always break the lock, I suppose. Nice, mundane explanation.
DeclanDSI
Touhou 「 」 Youkai of 「Akasha」
- Location
- the Boundaries betwixt Fact and Fiction
- Pronouns
- ???
It locks from the inside. There is no access to the lock on the outside.
Dalek Ix
Verified Dalek
That chapter took waaaaaaaay longer than it should've. The initial part on the roof just refused to flow naturally for several versions untill I reached what you can see.
The chapter is also quite a bit longer than usual, as much as the previous two put together, or close enough. There's also a few bits of irony sprinkled around that might be amusing for anyone who catches them.
Alice and Susan are from a previous work I was doing that stalled out. I've specifically described Alice as being the theoretical lovechild of Cuthbert Calculus and Agatha Heterodyne; she's... well, you'll know when she arrives.
The chapter is also quite a bit longer than usual, as much as the previous two put together, or close enough. There's also a few bits of irony sprinkled around that might be amusing for anyone who catches them.
Alice and Susan are from a previous work I was doing that stalled out. I've specifically described Alice as being the theoretical lovechild of Cuthbert Calculus and Agatha Heterodyne; she's... well, you'll know when she arrives.
Jamie Roberts
Hávamál 127
- Location
- N/A
- Pronouns
- she/her
One usually does.
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
I meant they could jump down, go around and fiddle with the lock until it doesn't work properly, then claim it was broken before they were locked on the roof.
Might require more mechanical finesse than they can manage, even with magic, though.
But the real easy solution would just to claim Sarah let them back in.
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Twei
I have a face!
- Location
- the land where they write things
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I refuse to believe this idea not just because the author confirmed otherwise but because Riley deserves better than weird Objectivism. Admitedly, Rachel is not a reliable narrator, but I think you'd known a randbot when you see one
- Location
- The End of Glory
Why do Alice reminds me of Strauss from Magical Girl Noir ?
Bribing QB - Blaflaix
- Location
- Elsewhere
You are Kyuubey.
Maker of Heroes.
Midwife of Monsters.
You have shackled Time, Space, and even Destiny to your needs.
You are going to halt the creeping advance of Entropy.
And right now you are sneaking a spider nest into a schoolgirl's book bag.
You pause momentarily to reflect on how this is your life.
The truth is that despite working with young girls for millennia, you still don't understand them.
Sometimes it feels like you understand them less every year.
Through iterative design you have determined the forms and behaviors less likely to have them run screaming, but your actual sales pitch generally consists of engineering a meeting with an existing contractee and letting social bonding do the rest.
Case in point, it never would've occurred to you that arachnid relocation could be used as a point of common interest, but in hindsight the reasoning is obvious.
By being "bribed" you showed yourself as willing to make a bargain, and by being a willing accomplice you placed yourself as on the same "side" as the girls.
That was the only reason are doing this.
Definitely not because the cookies were delicious.
You are an immortal being that transcends gastromic limitations!
And you are not getting fat, no matter what the other terminals said!
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MWKillKenny84
Lurking from the Trauma Switch.
- Location
- Vado Ligure
... why she does remind me of the also clinically insane "Magical Girl Healer" from the never forgotten, always loved, Witch Quest?
TheOmnimercurial
Dragon Bard
- Location
- UK
I am now picturing the Train Car as being like the Shack at 9min25sec
Dalek Ix
Verified Dalek
Indeed.
Something tells me Sarah would have a few things to say about that, though
.I refuse to believe this idea not just because the author confirmed otherwise but because Riley deserves better than weird Objectivism. Admitedly, Rachel is not a reliable narrator, but I think you'd known a randbot when you see one
To be fair to Alice, she's not your typical "Hurrr durrrr being good is baaaaaad" randbot meme in that she actually did read what Ayn Rand wrote down (although I can't imagine reading all of Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead did her sanity any good). It should also be noted that some of the things about Objectivism that most people assume to be true aren't quite --for example, the "Altruism" that Rand goes against is not the same "Altruism" that most people would think of when they hear of it. For most people, altruism means "don't be a jerk to other people", while the altruism that Rand was attacking was the original term coined by Auguste Comte, who said that to be "good", the ultimate end of their actions must be to benefit others.
But this is a forum thread for a fanfic, and not someplace where you go to argue philosophy.
Congratulations, you've earned yourself a threadmark!
Francine von Lichtenstein?
I'll admit to enjoying Witch Quest quite a bit, but Francine wasn't on my mind when I was making Alice. That I'm aware of, at least.
Kkutlord
Prince of Breath
- Location
- Indianapolis, Indiana
I am becoming further convinced they're the Madoka and Homura of this story, but not sure who is which. I still find it mega-suspicious that Rachel's Wish is unknown, as Wording/Intention/Associations are the three things their magic develops off. Like, are the colored voices an actual product of Rachel's magic or something more mundane?
So… when do we get Alice's Monster, the surprising beautiful Eve? I'm pretty sure Frankenstein's Monster was actually supposed to be surprisingly handsome and named Adam, but always gets adapted as a bumbling fool. We know artificial life can be created by creative application of magic, and if Alice has biology powers then it'd probably be way easier for her to make artificial life on her own.
Whiskas
This Thyme? Disco Time.
This is so raw and powerful it burned off my eyebrows when I read it.
Legit, amazing self introduction.
MWKillKenny84
Lurking from the Trauma Switch.
- Location
- Vado Ligure
My main suspect?
Rachel is Loop 0's Mami and Madoka to Taylor's being pre-Wish Homura.
Hope Taylor will get to the Badass level without time jumps.
Kkutlord
Prince of Breath
- Location
- Indianapolis, Indiana
There's only so much one can do without powers, and Taylor really only became a huge badass due to becoming a Parahuman- and Rachel prevented Taylor's canon Trigger. The potential to Trigger is probably still there, but I'm betting she'll Trigger directly because of "Magical Girl Shit".
Besides her crappy school life and awkwardness around her father, Taylor is very unlikely to Trigger with the Locker Incident being prevented. I could definitely see her Triggering in response to Rachel Witching out, though I'm not sure what that would give her.
I just know seeing an actual Para-Meguca at some point would be fascinating, and a Parahuman who directly Triggered because of magic? That's gonna be a problem, might as well engineer an inevitable Witchout to hopefully drive the connected Shard insane.