Gestalt, A Worm x PMMM Faux-quest

[Dalek Ix]

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Gestalt
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"You're not." A pause. "Not yet."

Taylor's looking at you.

[X] ... concerned. Taylor is not ready to be a Magical Girl. She's a layer cake of issues and trauma, and that'll kill a Puella Magi as surely as a bullet to the Soul Gem.

"You wouldn't be able to see Kyuubey if you didn't have Potential," you say, and you feel the capital letter of that word. "Same for the telepathy."

The statement hangs in the air. Damocles's Sword. "... I could make a wish?" Taylor asks, and the hope in her voice hurts. "What could I wish for?"

"... Anything. Miracles. Curses." You pause. "There's a limit. It... depends on the person."

Silence. She's thinking about it. Considering it. What would she wish for? What could she wish for?

You have a sudden, vivid image of an empty desk.

"I could-"

Your entire being revolts at the thought. No. No.

"Is it worth your soul, Taylor?"

She falls silent. You dare not look at her.

"Don't tell me what it is. Don't tell anyone what it is. I'm not gonna tell you what to do with your life, and I know there's something you want to wish for, but..." Pause. Breathe. "Just... Ask yourself; Is it worth your soul?"

You turn towards her. You're shorter than Taylor by a not-inconsiderable margin. She still backs away.

"I'll be a Magical Girl until the day I die," you tell her, eyes locked with hers, "And when I do it won't be pretty. It'll be a violent, bloody death, and I'll be lucky to leave a corpse behind." Breathe. "Or one day my despair will fill up my soul until it breaks."

"I've accepted that."

You have. Your Soul Gem barely darkens at the thought anymore.

"Is that the sort of life you want, Taylor?" You ask her. Your voice is as light as a feather, and as heavy as the bottom of the sea.

She looks back at you. Her lips purse, and she looks down, towards the ground.

"I..." Her hands clench. You can see the painful hope in her stand against the portent you've told her.

"... I'll... think about it," she says. She's conflicted. She still wants her Wish, but what you've said has given her pause.

"Thank you," you say, and finally breathe. You mean it. It's as much as you dare ask for.

[X] Accept, ask Taylor.

You turn towards Sarah, who's been watching with an inscrutable expression on her face. "Fine," you tell her, "Tonight." You glance to one side. "Taylor?"

She starts, not expecting you to ask. She bites her lip. "... No," she answers, but before you can relax, she adds, "not tonight. I've..." She sighs. "I've got a lot to think about."

You'd rather she never go with you. At all. But you're afraid to discourage her further. Push one way and she might swing back. It'll be something you'll have to deal with when the time comes.

Sarah claps her hands together, her shield disappearing in a starburst. "Wonderful!" she chirps, "Well, I'll be waiting for you at the entrance. Midnight sounds good?"

You dismiss your weapon, and it reduces itself to nothing in a flurry of magic and steel. "Yeah," you tell her, pulling out your Soul Gem to check how full it is. "Sure. I'll give you a shout when I get there."

You start to walk.

"... Was yours?" Taylor asks you.

You stop. Turn to face her.

"What?"

"Your wish," Taylor clarifies. Her eyes are boring into yours. "You asked me if what I wanted was worth my soul. Was yours?"

You close your eyes. Breathe.

(In the corner of your eye, Sarah tenses. Like a coiled spring, ready to act.)

"No."

Breathe, out. Your loathsome costume disappears in a crack of magic.

"It wasn't."

You leave without another word.

==========​

The first class after lunch goes by in a blur. Between it and the next, some instinct nudges you, and you duck into the background to inspect your gem.

Half a minute later, you're leaning against the stall wall. Your gem is turning back into a ring, and in your other hand is a spent Grief Seet. It's bitingly cold to the touch, and the pitch black core glows with malice. Your lips pull back into a half-snarl, and toss it away; Kyuubey briefly pops in between spaces to collect it.

You sigh, finally feeling like yourself again. Mostly. Enough that you can finally think.

(Not about that. Never about that. You thought you learned that lesson.)

The idea of Taylor contracting makes you extremely concerned about what her lifespan would be; being in Winslow in general and around Emma Barnes in specific would burn at her soul like nobody's business, untill she either broke or snapped and did something drastic. You thank whatever saints are watching that you weren't mornonically stupid enough to actually put it that way to her. There's just no way to say, "I'm sorry, but you're too sad to be a Magical Girl," without being the most gigantic asshole the world has ever seen.

Stop lying to yourself. That wasn't all you felt, wasn't it?

[X] ... saddened. You were kinda looking forward to the idea of having someone you could talk to, without having to worry about watching your back.

There you go.

... Fine. So your intent wasn't entirely pure, but you were so badly looking forward to having Taylor be a friend and... Well, it was what you were planning to do from the start anyways, partly because Fuck Emma Barnes, and partly because she looked like she needed someone friendly in her life. And... you would've been fine with that. Possibly.

But then things just happened. Kyuubey deciding that Taylor has Potential and dropping her onto your lap (and Sarah's, technically, but you wouldn't trust that one to be responsible for a paperclip). And then you had someone who could understand. Who you could talk to, without having to hide anything from her.

Except things don't work out that way. And...

Your head hits the dividing wall. Maybe... Maybe...

Something tells you that Taylor won't be the only one sorting things in her head.

==========​

Taylor doesn't try to speak with you again untill the bell rings, sending you a halting apology via telepathy. Sarah had gently informed her on the finer points of Magical Girl ettiquette regarding Wishes, it seems.

<<It's fine,>> you tell her, <<Really!>> You flash a smile. <<Honestly, it's more my fault for letting that get to me.>>

Taylor looks like she doubts that, but doesn't challenge what you said. You reach up to put a hand on her shoulder, trying your best to be reassuring.

The two of you walk out of Winslow; the rest of the day had otherwise gone smoothly, with the added bonus that, every so often, out of the corner of your eye, you could see Emma Barnes seething.

"So, you got any-"

"Hey!"

You turn and... Ah.

It's that guy, Randall, standing in front of a dozen and change guys wearing ABB colours. He spreads his arms. "Having second thoughts, Bird Shit?" he crows.

You drag your right hand down your face. <<Taylor,>> you tell at her, <<Keep walking. I'll try and talk with you tonight.>>

She glances at the group, <<I could->>

<<Taylor-...>> Calm yourself. <<I'll be fine. Trust me?>>

She hesitates a moment longer, and then nods, waving as she goes her own way. You wave her goodbye, and next, turn to face what might be a good chunk of Winslow's Junior ABB. All of them older and larger than you are.

You crack your knuckles. "Alright, then..."

[-] Humiliate them. These guys are nothing and they should know that.
[-] You honestly have better things to do than throwing down with some gangster wanna-be's. Be as efficient as you can.

 

[MilitantBird]

[-] You honestly have better things to do than throwing down with some gangster wanna-be's. Be as efficient as you can.

Are we actually just going to out ourselves to the entire school like it's no biggie? There are Empire recruiters in this school, and beating up over a dozen ABB guys with our bare hands is going to attract Cape Attention. If we get ourselves outed, that means we can reasonably expect recruitment efforts from the Empire, and murder attempts by the ABB.

We're tough, but not that tough. This action might get us fear from the school, but it'll get us interest from the gangbangers. We don't have any true allies, and there's nobody who would care enough to enforce the unwritten rules if we were to disappear. New independent heroes, rogues, and villains get killed all the time because nobody cares about their death.

It doesn't help that we don't have much in the way of defensive abilities or durability. Getting splattered from an unexpected angle is still a major problem. There are many capes in the Bay who could kill us outright from an ambush. Witches and Familiars can be clever, but they aren't inventive like people can be.

Agility and firepower won't do much if you never see the death blow coming.

 

[Darksilver]

The colors are interesting, and I've re-skimmed to try to get a better read on them. Yellow is the social manipulator. Red is anger, both external and self-recrimination. It also might cover disgust, based on the immediate reaction to the Locker. Blue I feel I'm missing the core point. It's the calmest and often introspective, but it also gets the hunter stuff with Sophia and especially in the 'votes' advocates violent solutions.

The other aspect is when the colors show up. Red didn't show during the angry ranting at Kyubey, for instance.

 

[Kkutlord]

@Dalek Ix: I'm still very confused, why does Sarah's Magical Girl form have green hair? Physical changes have always been intentional, not just a thing that happens. For that matter, is the setting just going to ignore the fact anime hair is a real thing? Like, that defies a thing we know about Meguca, I can't help but be confused.

 

[Whiskas]

[-] You honestly have better things to do than throwing down with some gangster wanna-be's. Be as efficient as you can.

Rachel beating the shit out of them by herself is already a huge humiliation to them. No need to rub it in, we're above that. And the more we flex, the more likely they'll want to bring in bigger guns to get revenge. They're teenage boys in a gang, so this is threading a fine line between scaring them off and making them swear that revenge. With luck QB will muddle or erase their memories after so they fuck off.

Not immediately though, since that screams Master/Stranger.

 

[MWKillKenny84]

[-] You honestly have better things to do than throwing down with some gangster wanna-be's. Be as efficient as you can.

Click to shrink...

And if they end screaming that their spines do not bend that way, it's a plus.

 

[Dalek Ix]

[-] You honestly have better things to do than throwing down with some gangster wanna-be's. Be as efficient as you can.

Are we actually just going to out ourselves to the entire school like it's no biggie? There are Empire recruiters in this school, and beating up over a dozen ABB guys with our bare hands is going to attract Cape Attention. If we get ourselves outed, that means we can reasonably expect recruitment efforts from the Empire, and murder attempts by the ABB.

We're tough, but not that tough. This action might get us fear from the school, but it'll get us interest from the gangbangers. We don't have any true allies, and there's nobody who would care enough to enforce the unwritten rules if we were to disappear. New independent heroes, rogues, and villains get killed all the time because nobody cares about their death.

It doesn't help that we don't have much in the way of defensive abilities or durability. Getting splattered from an unexpected angle is still a major problem. There are many capes in the Bay who could kill us outright from an ambush. Witches and Familiars can be clever, but they aren't inventive like people can be.

Agility and firepower won't do much if you never see the death blow coming.

Click to shrink...

Correct! Rachel's got the standard meguca package (and that outfit provides more protection than it should), but Sayaka Miki (or Sarah) she is not. She can't quite take nearly as much as she can dish out, and there's a rather wide gap between "bare fists" and "Magical Machinegewehr" that her powers just don't fill.

(Speaking of which, Empire recruiters would probably be a more terrifying prospect to Rachel than, say, ABB's grenade ninja. The latter would merely kill her. The former would mean that she has to explain things to her brother.)

And yeah, Rachel trying to just get things over with and leverage what she percieves of as her strengths is gonna backfire on her. That's not even a spoiler. Then again, Regret seems to be something of a theme for her

The colors are interesting, and I've re-skimmed to try to get a better read on them. Yellow is the social manipulator. Red is anger, both external and self-recrimination. It also might cover disgust, based on the immediate reaction to the Locker. Blue I feel I'm missing the core point. It's the calmest and often introspective, but it also gets the hunter stuff with Sophia and especially in the 'votes' advocates violent solutions.

The other aspect is when the colors show up. Red didn't show during the angry ranting at Kyubey, for instance.

Click to shrink...

"Dalek fucked up" is another angle you should be considering .

Since readers have been making some very excellent (and accurate) speculation, and I kinda do want people to correct me when I make a mistake, here's some mild spoilers:

Spoiler

Yellow is the remnants of "Old Rachel", hiding within her more rational mind. Logical, observant, subtle, and socially aware, but also manipulative and exploitative.

Blue is "Rachel as a Puella Magi" (or, as Sarah would put it, "Puella Magi Rachel Magicka"). It's a representation of her skills, insticts and general nature as a Puella Magi and is blunt, direct, and honest. On the other hand, it's also prone to applying Magical Girl solutions to Normal Girl problems, even when it's the worst possible choice.

Red is the easiest on the surface; hate, anger and disgust. Either at external targets (Emma Barnes, The Locker) or turned inwards.

Hope that makes sense.

Rachel beating the shit out of them by herself is already a huge humiliation to them. No need to rub it in, we're above that. And the more we flex, the more likely they'll want to bring in bigger guns to get revenge. They're teenage boys in a gang, so this is threading a fine line between scaring them off and making them swear that revenge. With luck QB will muddle or erase their memories after so they fuck off.

Not immediately though, since that screams Master/Stranger.

Click to shrink...

／人◕‿ .‿◕人＼

QB can be quite useful if screwing you over isn't in his best interest.

IF.

And if they end screaming that their spines do not bend that way, it's a plus.

Click to shrink...

Somewhere, Panacea's mental health takes a tiny dip further down.

 

[Kkutlord]

... Wouldn't Panacea/Amy have enough potential to contract? Wouldn't most (potential) Capes for that matter? Sure, they're no "I killed a physical God" in potential like Taylor, but at the very least they'd be "barely good enough" like Sayaka.

@Dalek Ix: Is Sarah suppose to be Rachel's Sayaka? Not enough lesbian vibes for one, maybe Sayaka being a physically affectionate dork was suppose to be our first clue she's bi and didn't notice? Well, apparently comedians are actually unhappy people, and we know she's generally lazy yet tends to mess around a lot. Did she Wish to heal someone? At least she didn't Grief Spiral.

 

[MWKillKenny84]

... Wouldn't Panacea/Amy have enough potential to contract? Wouldn't most (potential) Capes for that matter? Sure, they're no "I killed a physical God" in potential like Taylor, but at the very least they'd be "barely good enough" like Sayaka.

Click to shrink...

I suspect that Potential Cape get the WIsh Selling Speech or, if too near the Trigger Event/past it get blacklisted from the Hivemind.

 

[Kkutlord]

@Dalek Ix: Seriously though, why is Sarah's hair green when she transforms? I doubt she Wished for green hair, and being Meguca isn't about hiding who they are. They literally depend on Kyubey mind-wiping people and their own cautiousness to maintain the masquerade. I don't get why nobody else seems to find that weird, only "Yuuri" had a physical transformation but it was both far more intense and always present. Is the green hair really because she Wished to be more like a character? Shouldn't that have caused personality changes though?

 

[SolipsistSerpent]

@Dalek Ix: Seriously though, why is Sarah's hair green when she transforms? I doubt she Wished for green hair, and being Meguca isn't about hiding who they are. They literally depend on Kyubey mind-wiping people and their own cautiousness to maintain the masquerade. I don't get why nobody else seems to find that weird, only "Yuuri" had a physical transformation but it was both far more intense and always present. Is the green hair really because she Wished to be more like a character? Shouldn't that have caused personality changes though?

Click to shrink...

Given the way the rest of her costume works, I assumed she thought green hair was cool when she made her wish.

 

[Kkutlord]

Given the way the rest of her costume works, I assumed she thought green hair was cool when she made her wish.

Click to shrink...

Still highly irregular, literally the only time someone had an appearance-altering Wish, it was plot important. The green hair has to be relevant to her Wish, appearance changes is not a normal thing. It is extremely confusing, and I remember the last time an author & audience both didn't care about respecting Setting B of a crossover.

 

[Dalek Ix]

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Gestalt
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[X] You honestly have better things to do than throwing down with some gangster wanna-be's. Be as efficient as you can.

"... let's make this quick," you say, beckoning them to follow you and then marching in the opposite direction Taylor ran off to, towards the alleyway you'd mentioned earlier

This does not endear you to the wannabe gangsters, who waste no time in surrounding you. As much as you know they don't stand much of a chance of actually hurting you, you still have to force your heart to calm down when they do that. You can almost feel the animosity radiating from them, and catch a few muttered snippets from them.

"Nazi bitch..."

Well, you guess that answers what Madison must've told them to get them to hate your guts. Although you have to wonder if it was pure coincidence (and a healthy dose of racial profiling) that she chose to go with that, considering... you know. Big brother.

You're mildly forced into the alleyway by the gang. A couple stay by the entrance to watch, but the rest follow you inside, surrounding you in a loose circle. Randall stands there with you, leering down at you. You shrug off your bag.

"You know," he drawls, "this could go a whole lot smoother if you just-."

You don't give him the chance to finish. You reach up with one hand, cock the other back, making a fist. Grab the front of his shirt and pull down, the difference in mass meaning that your feet leave the floor even as he's pulled down. Your fist flies up, and lands right on his face, on the bridge of his nose. The impact is sharp, and hard enough that his head goes from falling forward to going back.

You let go, dropping to the ground as Randall's semi-conscious body collapses into a heap on the dirty concrete ground. The rest of the group stands shock still.

You shake the hand you knocked Randall down with, trying to get the sensation of something breaking in Randall's face out of your system, and glare at the others. "Alright," you say, breaking the silence, "I don't know what the heck you people got told you'd be doing." You nudge Randall with the toe of your shoe, and he groans miserably, his hands covering his face, "I'm guessing it went something along the lines of 'Let's corner the Nazi bitch and do things to her'. So here's a couple pointers; my name's Rachel Zoranski, I'm small, adorable, really good at violence, and I've got more important things to do than beat the crap out of wannabe-gangster goons after school. Oh and, by the way? I'm not a fucking Nazi." You feel your lips curl up into a snarl, and have to take a moment to calm yourself.

You put your hands together, right fist pressing against your left palm. Your knuckles crack. "You guys have five seconds to grab your friend and fuck off," you inform them.

There's a moment of silence, where the fact that you just knocked down the person who presumably led them here holds enough sway to make them consider what you're saying.

And then they remember that the numbers are a dozen to one in their favour.

You jump out of the way of someone tackling you from behind, rolling to your feet as a foot comes down where you were. Your hands dart out, and your palms sting as they catch a pipe being swung at your head. Yank it from the owner's hands and give a vicious swing to force everyone around to give you room.

There's a... you wouldn't call it an art, but a method to fighting mutliple opponents, and it hinges on not letting them use their numerical advantage on you. Keep them unbalanced. Keep them uncoordinated. Keep them reacting to you rather than the other way around. As a little 'bonus' challenge, you have to keep yourself just this side of 'normal'. Even untransformed, you're much stronger and tougher than you look; they might be able to buy you being quick enough to avoid them, and might justify you knocking Randall out as a cheap shot, but using your strength would immediately make everyone watching scream, "Cape!". Which is the last thing you want.

So you duck and weave and dodge away from grasping hands, fists, kicks. You dance away from the silver flash of swung chains and knives. Your comandeered pipe lashes out, cracking against shins and knees and groins and leaving squirming, crying cursing people in your wake.

And then there's-
Down!
You throw yourself to the ground. The gun roars, unnaturally loud in the tight confines, and the bullet screams through where your head used to be. Even the other gangsters are shocked, staring at Randall, who stands on unsteady legs, red-faced with rage and a pistol in his clenched hand.

Something flies through the air in a near-silent fwip and sinks into his neck. He staggers, reaching up to touch the crosbow bolt now stuck there, before his eyes roll back and he collapses into the ground. Behind him, her back to the far end of the alley, is just about the last person you wanted to see.

Shadow Stalker.

She's in costume. You briefly wonder when she had the chance to change into it; does she bring it to school with her? The future gangsters pause, teetering... and then bolt, away from what they know for certain to be a cape, and out of the alley, cursing and swearing as they do.

You take a brief moment to rest your head on the ground and then, slowly, climb to your feet-
Catch!
And snatch the crosbow bolt out of the air, an inch away from your head and aimed just far enough left that it would graze. You stare at it for a moment and then shoot the owner the nastiest glare you can muster.

"Could you freaking stop!?" you snarl at her, snapping the bolt in half. She chuckles briefly, her voice distorted by her mask, and then stops, the significance of what you said sinking into her mind.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she says levelly, taking a step towards you.

Congratulations, you just outed yourself to Shadow Stalker. Normal people can't catch crossbow bolts, remember? However, you happen to have a little something on her that that you can use.

"I think you do," you shoot back, standing your ground, "does the PRT know one of their Wards is a petty high school bully in her free time?"

She stops. You can feel her glare through the eye holes of her mask.

"... How," she hisses.

"'I hope you don't mind an audience'," you quote, briefly giving yourself a high-five at remembering that, "And, what do you know, the 'audience' is you. I'm not stupid, Shadow Stalker."

She glares at you some more, and then you feel her gaze change.

"Could've fooled me," she huffs, "And that's not the insurance you think it is, blondie; do you really think the PRT will believe you over me?" You can hear her smile. "And Winslow High gets paid for having me around. You ain't got shit, bitch."

Interesting. That explains why the staff turns a blind eye to her shenanigans. And as for you not having 'shit' on her... Well, she's bluffing. Obviously. You might be a nobody to the PRT, but if she reports you as a Cape to them, she'll be operating at a severe disadvantage; you'd no longer be reporting her behaviour as a random citizen, but as a peer. And the Protectorate takes their image very seriously. On the other hand, if you report her first, the question of how you came to find out her identity will come up, at which point she'll be able to out you to them. Mutually assured destruction... although you'll be the one getting the worse end on both scenarios. Not that she knows that.

That being said... Well, you could-

Going to the Empire is out of the fucking question.

You cross your arms. "I've got pictures of a locker full of that," you shoot back, making her jerk back, "Speaking of which: What the fucking fuck!?"

You go off. "Just... why. How. How? Why!? I've seen some nasty shit being done but that was freaking disgusting! How did you even stomach the effort it took to even do that!?"

"... Nose plugs," Shadow Stalker says, "And you'd be surprised what you'll do for a friend."

... Huh.

"Speaking of which..." She, er, stalks forward, and then around you, forcing you to turn to face her, "When I saw you, I thought I saw something familiar. Someone who understands how the world actually works." She stops, looking into your eyes. "Someone strong. A predator."

She's a little more right than she thinks.

"I understand why Emma pissed you off, Rachel," she continued, "She pushed you, and you pushed back like you should. She still has a lot to learn, though," she adds, almost apologetically.

"What I don't understand," she continues, "is why you chose to side with fucking Hebert."

You quirk an eyebrow. "What's wrong with Taylor?" You ask.

"She's weak, you dumb fuck," Shadow Stalker states, bluntly, "A weak, cowardly scarecrow, who's only good as prey for her betters. You might as well have tied a fucking millstone around your waist for all the good she's gonna do."

"Yeah. And what part of, 'I do what I want,' doesn't cover that?" you counter.

She stares back at you. "You think you're some sort of hero?" she asks, "You think this is some sort of wolves, sheep and sheepdogs bullshit?"

You laugh.

"Shadow Stalker," you giggle, "anyone calling me a hero needs to get their head checked." You smirk. "Taylor needed a friend, and I decided to be one because, again, fuck you, I do what I want. Pissing Emma and you off is just a nice bonus, as far as I'm concerned."

The two of you continue to stare at each other. The silence is broken by the sound of police sirens; looks like someone did end up calling the cops over the gunshot.

"This isn't over," Shadow Stalker tells you, mildly.

"Yeah, what are you gonna do?" you snark at her, "Report me to the PRT?"

It's her turn to laugh. "And ruin my fun? Fuck no." You can almost see the smirk behind her mask. "Run along, bimbo."

You shoot her a glare, and march out of the alley. You try to shove past Shadow Stalker, but she turns into a transparent wisp before you do, and you shudder as you go through her.

She's right; this isn't over. Not by a long shot.

[X] DAY'S END.

 

[Dalek Ix]

==========
Gestalt
==========​

[X] Be Sarah

You are Sarah Hayes, and right now you're at your hospital.

Well, "your" hospital. You're quite sure that if you moseyed up into a meeting of the actual owners you'd raise a few eyebrows, but as far as other Magical Girls are concerned, the hospital is yours. It's not quite the Witch magnet that Winslow is, but it's a decent enough source of Grief Seeds and, hey, you've lasted this long, haven't you?

It's close to midnight. The hallways are mostly empty, and what few people are awake can be easily avoided. You're transformed, sans weapons (even if nobody who would care would ever find out, it feels wrong to be bringing a sword into a place of healing) and you have your Gem out, on the lookout for the signs of a Barrier. So far, nothing's come up. Quiet night. Good for everyone here, but not so much for you.

There's some irony in that statement.

Your mind wanders, towards today's unexpected changes. Rachel joining your school without warning was... well, you wouldn't say that you weren't surprised by it. Or that the surprise was a pleasant one. You wouldn't dare tell her so, but you're glad that she had the sense to make it clear that Winslow would be free of, as she calls it, "Magical Girl Shit" during school hours. You'd rather not lose one of your last anchors to normality, thank you very much.

And yes, you consider going to Winslow a sanity break. Yes, really.

Still... Well, although you weren't happy to see Rachel in your class, you'll admit that you're really warming up to the idea. Even if she's currently too socially radioactive to publically talk with, you're more than a little curious about your neighbour, and this gives you an excellent opportunity to learn more about her. It's not like a certain trio can listen in to magical telepathy, after all.

Plus, teasing her is always fun.

Taylor, on the other hand... Well, she hates your guts. Unfortunate, for sure, but quite understandable given the circumstances. And it's not like any apology from you would be anything close to satisfactory; what were you supposed to say? "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't put my entire social life on the line for the sake of a girl I don't know. And no, the fact that you're now in the secret world I'm a part of has nothing to do with me suddenly feeling bad about it. Honest."

You snort. Oh well. It is what it is. Although you won't deny that her budding friendship with Rachel is something you're very interested in seeing. Plus, watching a certain trio get their panties in a twist over how to deal with someone whose reaction to resistance is to push twice as hard will be entertaining. Really brings a smile to your face.

Your thoughts are put on hold by a soft sound coming from one of the rooms, to your left. You dismiss your gem, and, moving quietly, push that door open.

You're greeted by the sight of Panacea collapsed on a visitor's chair. The room's occupant, who you can assume to be her patient, is sleeping peacefully on their bed; something that you know wasn't a guaranteed fact before.

You sigh, shaking your head as you step inside, a scarf manifesting around the lower half of your face. This isn't the first time you've seen the healer Cape, and it won't be the last. And it's almost always like this; Panacea collapsed bonelessly somewhere in a hospital room, after working herself to exhaustion. You can appreciate the thought, but you can't help but be more than a little concerned; for someone who can heal almost anything, Panacea has a stunning capacity to ignore her own health.

Walking silently, you move about the room. A quick search of the drawers in the bedside table yields an extra blanket, which you drape over her; she shifts in her sleep, clutching it against herself. She murmurs something under her breath, just within your own hearing range.

"... Vicky..."

Three guesses on who that is supposed to be, and the first two don't count. Tucking the blanket a little more thoroughly around her, you leave the room.

And stop. Listen. Sure enough, you hear a familiar voice coming from the stairwell.

You smile. Nudge the door to the room Panacea is inside of partly open, and duck into another room. Close the door behind you, gently.

The occupant, a man in a full body cast, is staring at you with wide eyes. Grinning, you put a finger to your lips, and then put your ear to the door.

Glory Girl makes no noise when moving --she seems to prefer to fly rather than walk-- but you can hear her muttering to herself as she retrieves her sister. You have an incredible urge to pop out and do... something to make her aware of your presence. Something to startle the New Wave cape. Casually wave at her, and then run out of the window? Maybe make some snarky, trollish comment as you do?

Oh, the possibilities. Alas, intsead you stay hidden, long enough for the siblings to have disappeared, and then a few moments more. Just to be sure. Looking back at the man in the room, you give him a cheeky salute, and sneak out.

Well, you might as well go to Winslow a little early today...

==========​

[X] Be Taylor

Today has been the single most exhausting day of my life.

Invisible catrabbit things that offer contracts to become Magical Girls. Magical Girls exist, and have existed since before there were Capes. The new girl is a Magical Girl who treats being threatened by Winslow's Junior ABB as an inconvenience. And she just... decided that she was gonna be my friend. Out a combination of sheer spite towards Emma, and having been someone else's Emma Barnes before.

Oh, and, by the way? I have the potential to be a Magical Girl. Superpowers and whatever one thing I could wish for, in exchange for-

"Is it worth your soul, Taylor?"

-... yeah.

It says something that the revelation that Sophia Hess is a fucking Ward is close to the bottom of the list of things that were just... dumped on me today. I mean, discovering that one of my bullies is one of the so-called future heroes of Brockton Bay is more than a little fucked-up, but compared to everything else, it's almost... mundane. Something closer to the usual bullshit that happens to me.

There's a reason I haven't moved from my bed since I got back home. Dad poked his head into my room when he arrived, but he left me alone after he asked me how school went.

"Fine," I told him, by reflex. It was only a couple minutes later that I realized that, for once, it hadn't been a complete lie. Other than my locker being gone, the Trio had left me alone today.

It was... strange. I'd been hoping that they'd stop since high school started, but the first time they did, I almost didn't notice.

<<Hey, Taylor?>>

The voice in my head, coming from everywhere and nowhere at once, makes my heart jump.

<<Er, yeah?>> I answer. Telepathy, I've come to realize, is really unnerving. I have no idea how Rachel got used to it.

<<Oh! You're->> She stops. <<... It just occurred to me that it's three in the morning. I, uh... I didn't wake you up, didn't I?>>

Sure enough, the clock on my nightstand reads 03:03. The idea of sleep had been the furthest thing from my mind.

<<No,>> I tell Rachel, debating getting up to at least lie in my pyjamas, <<I've...>> I sigh. <<Honestly, I don't think I'll be sleeping much.>>

<<Sorry.>> I can picture Rachel rubbing the back of her head, sheepish.

<<Not your fault,>> I tell her. <<What are you doing?>> Something else occurs to me. <<Also, are you alright? I know you said you'd be fine, but...>>

A laugh. <<And I was! There was a bit of a scare when Randall pulled out a gun->>

"He pulled out a-," I swallow my tongue. <<He pulled out a gun on you?!>>

<<... Yeah?>> She says, as if that were something completely normal. <<I mean, I did interrupt his 'You're gonna learn to respect me' speech by breaking his nose, so he was pretty upset.>> A pause. <<Also, he missed. So no biggie.>>

I bury my face in my pillow.

<<Anyway,>> Rachel continues, <<Turns out that when Shadow Stalker- er, Sophia, was talking about there being an audience for me, she was talking about herself.>>

<<... She saved you?>>

A scoff. <<Oh, I'm sure that's what she'd like to think,>> she says, <<All she did was save me the trouble of beating them all up myself. Anyway, she shows up, drops Randall with that crossbow of hers --pretty sure she used one of those tranquilizing bolts on him-- , the ones still conscious scram. And then...>>

There's a pause, and I get the distinct image of Rachel kicking herself.

<<I may have outed myself as being "not standard-issue human" to her,>> she grumbles, <<Because she shot me with a crossbow bolt that was barely gonna miss me, and I caught it on reflex like an idiot. And then I let her know that I know who she is, so right now we're keeping quiet on each other's secrets based off of mutually assured destruction.>>

Oh joy.

<<Anyway,>> Rachel continues, as if she could just sweep everything she just said under a rug, <<Right now, I just finished hunting with Sarah,>> she tells me, and I feel my hands clenching on the pillow at the mention of Sarah Hazen, who could've stopped the trio any time she wanted and just... didn't. <<I asked Kyuubey where I'd be in range to talk with you, so, here I am!>> A pause. <<Actually, it straight-up gave me your address, so uh...>> I can feel her awkwardness. <<Sorry?>>

<<It's fine, just...>> I sigh. <<I'm still working through everything that happened yesterday.>>

<<Oh.>> More awkwardness. <<Mind if we just... talk about... normal stuff, then?>>

<<... Sure,>> I say. I feel Rachel beam over the link.

==========​

[X] Be [error]

While your quotas are, as usual, praiseworthy, there are several key factors that you left out from your previous quarterly report. Being that the status of Infestation on Earth, particularly regarding the activities of A0, A0.1, A0.2 and A0.3, is of too great importance to be left in limbo for long, and given that your duties are of great importance and too complicated to be disturbed, as you have stated to us on numerous occasions, we took the liberty of dispatching an Agent to collect our own data.

The findings reported are of great concern to us, and to other units observing the case.

Firstly, it appears that our predictions for the lifespan of your station were based on gravely incomplete data. As you can see in the first attatched file, the new simulation points to a planetary-scale catastrophic event occuring between 3-20 orbits, although given the volatility of the native population, the number may be closer to the lower end of the scale.

Second, the projected energy loss during the final stage of the infestation has also been adjusted upwards, accounting for new data. The simulation is in the second attatched file, and, although your quotas have always been in the top percentile, we're afraid that the energy loss of such an event would push even your station into a cumulative loss.

Thirdly, the enviromental comitte is greatly concerned by the state of your station. In the third file, you'll see several studies pointing to evidence of a cascade collapse being imminent, oweing to the severe damage the Infestation has caused.

Oweing to the previous, we have decided on the following...

==========​

<<Dinah Alcott?>>

Red eyes glowed in the darkness. A white tail flicked.

<<I'd like to ask you a question.>>

[ARC 1 END]

 

[Darik29]

Oh. Oh Dear.

Seems like a certain someone was keeping things secret, and now things are about to come to a head.

Oh Boy.

 

[Dalek Ix]

This Double Feature™️ has been brought by me starting exams soon-ish. With the first "arc" of this story now complete, I'd also like to take some time to answer (non-spoiler ) questions regarding the crossover (as well as get some more thorough criticism of what I've done so far; the good, the bad and the strange).

First of all:

@Dalek Ix: Is Sarah suppose to be Rachel's Sayaka? Not enough lesbian vibes for one, maybe Sayaka being a physically affectionate dork was suppose to be our first clue she's bi and didn't notice? Well, apparently comedians are actually unhappy people, and we know she's generally lazy yet tends to mess around a lot. Did she Wish to heal someone? At least she didn't Grief Spiral.

Click to shrink...

Rachel and Sarah's relationship is about as far as you can get from Madoka and Sayaka's without making it adverserial; although I will say that there's more to it than might be immediately obvious, especially from Sarah's end.

I suspect that Potential Cape get the WIsh Selling Speech or, if too near the Trigger Event/past it get blacklisted from the Hivemind.

Click to shrink...

There is, in fact, a plot reason why potential Capes and potential Puella Magi are, generally, mutually exclusive. I'm sure someone will guess at some point, but for now it's kinda spoilers

@Dalek Ix: Seriously though, why is Sarah's hair green when she transforms? I doubt she Wished for green hair, and being Meguca isn't about hiding who they are. They literally depend on Kyubey mind-wiping people and their own cautiousness to maintain the masquerade. I don't get why nobody else seems to find that weird, only "Yuuri" had a physical transformation but it was both far more intense and always present. Is the green hair really because she Wished to be more like a character? Shouldn't that have caused personality changes though?

Click to shrink...

Sarah's hair being green when in Meguca Mode is related to her wish somewhat. Just like with Rachel's, her wish is also spoilers .

What I can say is that Sarah is rather unique for a magical girl. In several areas, in fact, but for one you won't find someone else doing that when she transforms, at least not in Brockton Bay.

Either way, more comments on what I just posted and Gestalt as a whole are more than welcome!

 

[Kkutlord]

<<Dinah Alcott?>>

Red eyes glowed in the darkness. A white tail flicked.

<<I'd like to ask you a question.>>

Click to shrink...

Kyubey: "What Wish will make your Soul Gem shine?"

Makes sense the Incubators would target her, she has oodles. I bet they were disappointed they couldn't get any of the S9. This isn't the first time I've seen Dinah get Contracted, but the question is: why? Is Kyubey just doing his usual thing, or is he deliberately wanting to make a Para-Meguca for science reasons? The Entities and their Cycle obviously don't appeal to them, so either removing or subverting the Shards would make sense.

 

[Twei]

Kyubey: "What Wish will make your Soul Gem shine?"

Click to shrink...

Thirdly, the enviromental comitte is greatly concerned by the state of your station. In the third file, you'll see several studies pointing to evidence of a cascade collapse being imminent, oweing to the severe damage the Infestation has caused.

Oweing to the previous, we have decided on the following...

==========​

<<Dinah Alcott?>>

Red eyes glowed in the darkness. A white tail flicked.

<<I'd like to ask you a question.>>

Click to shrink...

Based on my reading of this, I honestly feel like the Incubators might just be trying to make use of canon Dinah's precognition.

Also, like, if anyone was going to be a para-Magical Girl, surely it'd be Taylor, right?

 

[Kkutlord]

There is, in fact, a plot reason why potential Capes and potential Puella Magi are, generally, mutually exclusive. I'm sure someone will guess at some point, but for now it's kinda spoilers

Click to shrink...

I'm pretty sure the answer is "The Incubators don't want the Entities figuring out Contracting". The Incubators are more of a "for the greater good" type, where their "morality" is based on logic and efficiency. The sole reason teenage girls are their main demographic is purely because they're consistently the best options for making Contracts. The Entities would be far less picky and careful, since they're ultimately a selfish species whereas the Incubators at least nominally care about reality. If the Entities figured out Contracting, they would just straight force it on anyone with sufficient Potential regardless of how inevitably quick someone would become a Witch. The Entities would manage to drown multiverses in endless despair just so they can profit off all the Contractees they made.

 

[MWKillKenny84]

The Entities would manage to drown multiverses in endless despair just so they can profit off all the Contractees they made.

Click to shrink...

Worse.

Remember, in canon the 'question' the Entities are trying to find an answer for is "how I can have unlimited space and unlimited resources on a single planet?", because all they want is unlimited food and unlimited space to so endlessly eat and mate without having to worry of ending like they did on their native planet.

Them getting the not-quite-magical Wish Granting Black Box Technology of the Incubator Hivemind meant that they would abuse it until they would find the combination that would satisfy their Quest and damn the consequences for everything and everyone else.

Even at their morally worst (Rebellion, their tentative to (try to) 'trap' the Law of Cycles so to reinstate the Witch System in the name of greater energy harvesting operations) the Hivemind's actions can be framed into something resembling the "greater good of everything else at the price of the few", and are morally repugnant because the Hivemind does not truly feel emotions (understand and simulate them, yes. Truly feeling them before getting Homucifered? No).

 

[Kkutlord]

Worse.

Remember, in canon the 'question' the Entities are trying to find an answer for is "how I can have unlimited space and unlimited resources on a single planet?", because all they want is unlimited food and unlimited space to so endlessly eat and mate without having to worry of ending like they did on their native planet.

Them getting the not-quite-magical Wish Granting Black Box Technology of the Incubator Hivemind meant that they would abuse it until they would find the combination that would satisfy their Quest and damn the consequences for everything and everyone else.

Even at their morally worst (Rebellion, their tentative to (try to) 'trap' the Law of Cycles so to reinstate the Witch System in the name of greater energy harvesting operations) the Hivemind's actions can be framed into something resembling the "greater good of everything else at the price of the few", and are morally repugnant because the Hivemind does not truly feel emotions (understand and simulate them, yes. Truly feeling them before getting Homucifered? No).

Click to shrink...

People like villainizing the Incubators, and I kind of get it- easier to pretend they're bad guys instead of amoral "for the greater good" creatures. The sole reason they wanted the Witch System back was purely because it was more efficient at starving off the heat death. They're not evil, nor are they good. They would definitely be opposed to the Entities, purely because of how counter-productive they are and how the Entities would shamelessly screw over everything if they replicated Contracting.

Personally I like to think Cube isn't Kyubey, and instead an anomaly. Like, in general I like seeing that there are decent members of the Incubators and Shards. "Fragile One" probably wouldn't want to rat out Vicky, though QA is more of a "Ah, so that's how people work" type. Though yeah, I get why the Incubators don't want to Contract Capes and generally try to avoid picking potential Capes, as preventing the Entities from learning Contracting is ultimately worth giving up all those sweet Potentials that every Parahuman probably is.

 

[underscore]

God this was great. It is rare that writers acknowledge that Kyubey is one example of an ALIEN RACE, though I get that there is rarely a reason for it. I really like your characters and what you have set up so far. I am interested in learning more about Sarah as a character and I look forward to the three of them getting to know and play off each other.

 

[Kkutlord]

God this was great. It is rare that writers acknowledge that Kyubey is one example of an ALIEN RACE, though I get that there is rarely a reason for it. I really like your characters and what you have set up so far. I am interested in learning more about Sarah as a character and I look forward to the three of them getting to know and play off each other.

Click to shrink...

Technically he probably shouldn't be called Kyubey, as the Incubators would probably use more local terms just so they don't have to waste time explaining themselves. "Witch" is a widespread enough term to be a non-issue, and Kyubey can probably get away with dubbing himself "Kyubey" given the high Asian population of Brockton.

 

[Dalek Ix]

Oh. Oh Dear.

Seems like a certain someone was keeping things secret, and now things are about to come to a head.

Oh Boy.

Click to shrink...

​

Kyubey: "What Wish will make your Soul Gem shine?"

Makes sense the Incubators would target her, she has oodles. I bet they were disappointed they couldn't get any of the S9. This isn't the first time I've seen Dinah get Contracted, but the question is: why? Is Kyubey just doing his usual thing, or is he deliberately wanting to make a Para-Meguca for science reasons? The Entities and their Cycle obviously don't appeal to them, so either removing or subverting the Shards would make sense.

Click to shrink...

Based on my reading of this, I honestly feel like the Incubators might just be trying to make use of canon Dinah's precognition.

Also, like, if anyone was going to be a para-Magical Girl, surely it'd be Taylor, right?

Click to shrink...

I mean, why wouldn't you use one of the most powerful precognitives in the setting? Especially when she's, what, twelve, and you're a cute, fluffy catrabbit thing that she can snuggle and confide in?

The Incubator is many things, but dumb is not one of them.

I'm pretty sure the answer is "The Incubators don't want the Entities figuring out Contracting". The Incubators are more of a "for the greater good" type, where their "morality" is based on logic and efficiency. The sole reason teenage girls are their main demographic is purely because they're consistently the best options for making Contracts. The Entities would be far less picky and careful, since they're ultimately a selfish species whereas the Incubators at least nominally care about reality. If the Entities figured out Contracting, they would just straight force it on anyone with sufficient Potential regardless of how inevitably quick someone would become a Witch. The Entities would manage to drown multiverses in endless despair just so they can profit off all the Contractees they made.

Click to shrink...

The contrast between the Entities and QB's species is something I find rather fascinating. They're both amoral and monstrously exploitative aliens with similar driving motivations, but they end up being polar opposites to one another.

The Entities do what they do so that they can continue to live and reproduce after the end of the Universe. QB's species is focused on delaying the end of the universe for everyone living in it, hopefully indefinitely. The Shards implant into hosts, the Incubator offers contracts (although the Incubator we're all familiar with is a little fuzzy on the fine print). The Entities actively work to prevent their hosts from leaving the planet, while QB's species would find that advantageous. And on and on.

God this was great. It is rare that writers acknowledge that Kyubey is one example of an ALIEN RACE, though I get that there is rarely a reason for it. I really like your characters and what you have set up so far. I am interested in learning more about Sarah as a character and I look forward to the three of them getting to know and play off each other.

Click to shrink...

Thank you!

Something I want to make clear early on is that Kyuubey isn't so much a Cosmic Fluffy Space-Devil as he is the Sufficiently Advanced Alien equivalent of a middle manager with an unreasonable amount of power, and a single minded focus on making his numbers bigger, regardless of any other consideration.

 

[Darik29]

huh. that explains his obsession with Madoka as Homura kept up the time loop. Every time she went back, she skyrocketed Madoka's potential. By the end of the time loops i am honestly amazed Kyubey even bothered pretneding to care about the rest of the planet when Madoka could apparently on her own match the Entire output of the planet from the time that the Incubators first started harvesting it.

Now i wonder how Taylor matches up, bearing the Karmic weight of the savior of All humanity across the local dimensional cluster, once upon a timeline...