[x] An old Church in some disrepair, though presumably still occupied, judging from the singing
[X] Alright. She's still unconscious, but she seems to be stabilizing. Her wound is still growing, albeit more slowly.
[x] Something that was once a City, now reduced to rubble by some apocalyptic force
[x] Alright. She's still unconscious, but she seems to be stabilizing. Her wound is still growing, albeit more slowly.
Vote Tally : Original - Magical Girl Monster Quest | Page 38 | Sufficient Velocity ##### NetTally 1.7.4
[14] Alright. She's still unconscious, but she seems to be stabilizing. Her wound is still growing, albeit more slowly.
[8] An old Church in some disrepair, though presumably still occupied, judging from the singing
[5] Something that was once a City, now reduced to rubble by some apocalyptic force
[4] A dark and ominous Castle, surrounded by a besieging army
[2] Poorly. She's losing blood, and is barely responsive. Her wound, however, has almost stopped growin
[2] Poorly. She's losing blood, and is barely responsive. Her wound, however, has almost stopped growing.
Total No. of Voters: 18
You blink rapidly at the sudden outpouring of light. It's a perfectly natural reaction, considering you've gone from a gloomy, albeit well-lit library, to a dull pinkish shell, to a forest clearing with a dilapidated church in the middle. It looks to be late summer, approaching fall, and the sun has begun to descend but is not quite near the horizon. Within the church, you can hear someone singing a hymn.
"Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed."
The group of you exchange glances, before you gesture to the unburdened Kaleido. She nods, and strides towards the church. She raises one armored gauntlet and knocks. Once. Twice. Thrice. Then she pauses, and steps back.
The singing cuts off, and in the ensuing silence, you hear footsteps almost running towards the door. Ponderously, the door swings open, and you see the likely singer.
She looks very...nun-ish. You hate to use that as a descriptor, even in the privacy of your own head, but it seems the most fitting. She wears a traditional nun's habit and wimple, and a cross-shaped pendant dangles on her chest. You very carefully keep your eyes on her face. She holds another pendant in her hand, and her blonde hair is artlessly scattered around her face. The color of her eyes is hard to describe. It seems to go from being brown, to amber, to bronze, to gold. Clearly a sign of some form of supernatural influence, you muse.
For several moments, she looks at the group of you and blinks. Then her entire face almost literally lights up.
"Visitors!" she exclaims cheerfully. "How wonderful! It's been so long since I've had visitors here; I've been so lonely. Please, do come in."
With a grimace of effort and a hefty shove, she pushes the door open, and Kaleido steps in, followed by the rest of you. As you do, you get your first proper look at the place.
Your first thought is that it looks about as well-maintained inside as it did outside. The pews are dusty. There are holes in the roof through which the sun shines. There is none of the decoration or ornateness you'd normally expect from a church. There isn't even any wallpaper, just poorly maintained wood.
"Nice place." You observe with forced cheer. "Very...homely. Homelike. Delightful atmosphere," You continue, as you lay Jennifer down on a pew, facedown. "How long have you been here?"
"Oh, I've been here as long as I can remember." she chirps happily. "Ever since I was The Grace of the Most High, Holiest of Holies, back before I became Amazing Grace. It's been a very long time but I'm alright with it, because I'm doing the Lord's work, and that's good."
Beside you, Kaleido makes a strange horrified squeaking noise, and almost cowers away from your host. Grace's attention is diverted, and she glances to Kaleido with surprising intensity.
"Is something wrong, dear?" she proffers pleasantly. "Do you want to take a moment to pray? I find it settles the nerves most wonderfully. Or maybe your friend would like a moment? Her piety practically radiates off her, you know. It's very heartening to see that not all the world has lost faith."
Kaleido's armored form twitches, with something you'd almost call trepidation. "N- No, that's fine. It's just that our friend seems to be deteriorating, you see, and we need to get her medical treatment as soon as possible. S- so if, ah, we could just borrow your sanctuary, we'll be out of your hair immediately."
"Ah, well, of course," she murmurs "If your friend is in danger, that clearly takes priority over all else. Come, the sanctuary is this way." With quick steps, she leads you to the top of the center of the church.
Kaleido gestures for you to set Jennifer down on the floor of the sanctuary, before dropping to one knee and placing her hand against the floor. Quickly, she begins chanting, speaking with a certain haste that seems at odds with her previous composure. Within moments, the now-familiar wave of rosy light coalesces around you and cuts off your sight.
As the wall of light around you fades away, you find yourself once more transported to unfamiliar settings. You stand at the open gates of a shrine. The shrine leads up a small path, flanked by cherry trees. Cherry trees which appear to be in full bloom, despite the fact that it is barely April, and the year has been unreasonably cold. Kaleido and Skopeo have both reverted to their previous forms, and neither Jennifer nor you are glowing. Jennifer's wound also appears to be at least partially healed, and the strange black shadow upon her wound, seems to have faded. The executive board looks rather more stable, and the four of them seem capable of locomotion, at least.
With a glance around, you turn to Kaleido, who is pale and shaking. "That was...remarkably anticlimactic. Are all Nightmares so pleasant, or do most of them require a little more persuasion or murder?"
"Anticlimactic," Kaleido breathes, with a slightly manic giggle. "Oh, how anticlimactic. I wish my life were so anticlimactic."
Smiling queerly, she turns to you. "Victor, we were- we were this close to dying."
You give her an emphatically skeptic look. "Really? The winged thing may have been dangerous, but I hardly think it was quite so lethal as that."
Kaleido's expression twists farther. "I don't mean the winged thing."
Now, you look completely and unabashedly dubious. "You can't possibly mean the nun, can you? I've met more threatening housecats."
You have indeed. You don't want to talk about it. You don't even want to think about it. You're quite happy repressing all memory of that incident and pretending it never happened.
Kaleido stares at you."The nun? You mean the Moroi? The Moroi with a name only two words long?"
"Two words long?" You parrot blankly.
Kaleido freezes and flushes, apparently just now remembering how unaware of her circumstances you are. Behind her, Skopeo buries her face in her palms.
"Nightmares begin with lengthy names referencing a common concept in the human subconscious." she explains. "Moroi are Nightmares who have grown sufficiently to begin shedding fragments of their names. The shorter their name, the more powerful the Moroi. A Moroi with two names is powerful enough to forcibly manifest itself for short periods of time and significantly impact the Waking World without risking Disbelief."
"Disbelief?" You repeat blankly. This is an unfamiliar arena, and you dislike being unprepared. "And what happens if a Moroi gets down to one name?"
"Disbelief is what happens when a Shadow Layer entity interferes too blatantly with the Waking World. Shadow Layer entities are made of, essentially, concentrated belief. People tend to disbelieve blatant supernatural events. That much concentrated belief tends to be… detrimental."
"As for a Moroi with one name," she continues, "that only ever happened once. And it was bad. 'The Downfall of a Tyrant, Wrought By His Own Hand' became 'Tyrant'. Then it - he - took over Romania. We're still not sure it's dead. So you can understand why I'm a little bit concerned that we have a Moroi literally one word away from-"
Skopeo steps forward and clamps a hand over her mouth. "breathe" she admonishes firmly and ow your head.
"Right, sorry." concedes Kaleido. "It's just, we need to report this to our superiors, and we need to start planning to eliminate or co-opt her. Immediately."
"Would you like help?" you promptly offer.
"No! I mean, no, it's too risky. We can't afford to have another person - to have you injured. Besides," she adds, "don't you need to get your friend to a hospital?"
Beside you, one of the peons (who you have arbitrarily named Peon 1) speaks up. "Actually, Lady Jennifer's family owns a hospital just three blocks away from the school, and they have ambulances on call, so we can quite easily arrange for her to be treated there."
"Wow, that girl looks bad. What happened to her?" All of you spin around to stare at the newcomer, a girl in a shrine maiden's outfit, carrying a bow and arrow. She leans against a tree, in what appears to be a casual manner, but you're fairly certain that if she wanted to, she could draw and fire with blinding speed. Not that an arrow would do any actual damage, unfortunately for her. Such a waste of her training, to pick a weapon that you can so easily neutralize.
"None of your business, peasant!" You retort with inordinate cheer, turning to depart as you do. "Come on, we're leaving."
She blinks at you with bewilderment. "Wait, what? No, hold on a sec, you can't just..."
"Nope!" You interrupt cheerfully,. "Ignoring you! Too busy leaving!" You add, as you suit your actions to your words, and are somewhat hesitantly followed by the rest of your companions.
You leave a sputtering shrine maiden behind you as you walk down the stairs and out the gate. Behind you trail a pair of politely panicking magical girls, a gang of generally useless minions, and a now-unconscious former rival. It's not quite the ideal entourage, but it'll do for now.
Having somehow survived another week of schooling, what are your plans for the weekend?
[] Hunt for/Interact with someone
-[] Who? (Kaleido, Skopeo, Tomoe, Kaho, Mai, Anastasia, etc.)
[] Explore a known location
-[] Where? (School, the Cafe, the Shrine, etc.)
[] Search for a faction
-[] Who? (Black Legion, Kagemusha clan, the Princesses, etc.)
[] Train and practice. It's always nice to reaffirm your physical, mental, and magical superiority, if only to yourself. [Unlocked by Diligent]
[] Write-in QM: I wrote this all in a Google Doc. I'm fairly certain it's screwed with my formatting, but I'm not sure how.
You leave a sputtering shrine maiden behind you as you walk down the stairs and out the gate. Behind you trail a pair of politely panicking magical girls, a gang of generally useless minions, and a now-unconscious former rival.
Kaleido is able to pull off a lot of cool tricks, as well as having ranged attacks, a place we can't follow her to, and an armor form.
We can move faster than an ordinary human, shrug off some damage, and create shiny armor.
It's like Marvel Vs DC: Marvel is better written, with relatable places like New York, and DC has "Metropolis" because it's all about Gods in the world of Mortals...
Which does little to change the fact that DC's main hero is THE God-Mode Sue, and Marvel has cool people. (With the Exception of Thor. Dr. Strange was nerfed, and he still has around-the-world-teleportation- a story breaking power)
We are barely keeping up, even with all of our training. It's time to hit the Youma-Summoning books.
(Or, preferably, start tracking down Magical Artifacts that anyone can use. Powers without suspicion!.., with a small target painted on the back of our head. But that's why we have a shiny gold helmet!)
[X] Train and practice. It's always nice to reaffirm your physical, mental, and magical superiority, if only to yourself. [Unlocked by Diligent]
That could have been bad, but at least we now know of the extremely powerful Moroi with probable holy powers, and is hence probably a strong counter to Daemons.
Much better than just walking around one day and then…
Grace enters reality and consecrates the city.
I mean the other options could have had dangerous opponents but Amazing Grace is probably the only one with holy powers, and hence the greatest bane to us and daemon kind specifically out of the options we could have picked.
.
