Those who're isolated just turn into bitter people hounded by their past like Kyoko, or just plain evil like the Soujo Twins.
Remember, one of Homura's major flaws in the show is that she refuses to "Rely on anyone ever again", and as long as she does so, things will never go her way.
Those who're isolated just turn into bitter people hounded by their past like Kyoko, or just plain evil like the Soujo Twins.
Remember, one of Homura's major flaws in the show is that she refuses to "Rely on anyone ever again", and as long as she does so, things will never go her way.
The Pleiades' eyes go to Oriko's wrist as if drawn by magnets. Kaoru's mouth opens, followed a split second later by Kazumi's hand slapping it shut.
"Right," you say, waving Oriko and Kirika to the middle row of seats. "Everyone, this is Kure Kirika and Kure Oriko, formerly Mikuni. Yes, she lost a hand in the fighting before. I'm hoping to fix that on the flight over."
You shake your head, suppressing the grin threatening to split your face in half - and you very deliberately do not look at the Kures. "Oriko, Kirika, this is Michiru Kazusa, Maki Kaoru, and Misaki Umika. They're three of seven from the Pleiades."
Kazumi waves, managing a smile that's a bare shadow of her usual cheeriness. "Call me Kazumi!" There's a long, long pause. "Um... Sabrina? Are your friends OK?"
You finally allow yourself to glance back and take in the carnage you have wrought: blood splashed in twin beacons blazing bright against the dappled darkness of the night. Kirika looks torn between wanting to explode from sheer joy and embarrassment.
Mami shakes her head, leaning against you. "Oh, Sabrina," she says fondly. "You can't just marry them like that."
"Hey, Kirika put a ring on Oriko," you point out. And if you came from Madoka's Wish, that makes you the daughter of a goddess or something. That has to count for something, right? And you have half a mind to point out that Oriko and Kirika's magical girl costumes are basically bride and groom.
Sayaka, sitting on your other side, looks faintly torn between annoyance, anger, and amusement.
"Anyway," you say loudly, waving your hand. "Strap in, ladies, next stop, Asunaro. We're going at maximum acceleration, so this isn't going to be the most comfortable flight. Seatbelts, and everyone here knows about my powers, so give me a minute..."
"Gotcha," Kazumi says, fumbling for the seatbelts as you focus. You want a clear windshield for this flight, the better to see what's happening, and so you spare a few minutes of focus to impose your will upon the Grief to raise windshield and walls alike.
When you come to, you find that Mami's buckled you into your seat, turning a warm smile on you as you blink back to awareness. You check behind you without looking: Oriko and Kirika seem to have calmed down and buckled in, as have Kazumi and her friends. Sayaka nods at you, resolve on her face.
"Alright. Here we go," you say, directing your Mobile Oppression Fortress into the air and towards Asunaro. And this time, it really is one - you have eight powerful magical girls, including Tomoe Mami, in here. And you're definitely planning on laying down the law, this time. You check outside, watching as you clear the blinking lights of the skyscrapers.
Full acceleration.
It's enough to slam you all back into your seats. Even expecting it, it drives the breath out from your lungs for a second until you force yourself to breathe, sucking in air with a gasp. You grab Mami's hand, tilting your head to smile at her - acceleration might be forcing you back, but you're a magical girl. You're not going to let anything as simple as physical laws get in the way.
Mami smiles back at you, thumb stroking gently over the back of your hand.
"Hey, Oriko?" you project telepathically, including Mami and Kirika. "We're gonna heal your hand properly on the way over, alright?"
"That would be appreciated," Oriko says.
The acceleration is a problem, if you don't want to hang off the chair by the belts. It's not like the belts wouldn't hold - but it sure as hell wouldn't be comfortable, either, and you want to make all possible speed towards Asunaro. It takes some shuffling, but you manage to slide the chairs along so that both you, Mami, and Kirika can reach Oriko's arm - you and Mami behind and to the side of Oriko's seat. You take a moment to explain to the Asunaro girls, too.
It's... convenient that there isn't really a way for Sayaka to squeeze in. Her wanting to be useful aside, her simmering anger at Oriko is still very much in force.
"So I'm not sure if you remember, but y'know, laser orbs are part of your skill tree too," you note to Oriko as you start healing. It's almost relaxing, meditative in some ways. You let the magic play over Oriko's wrist, twisting and weaving to restore that which was lost. "I mean, it's not like fighting is all you're good for, but hey, maybe you'll make a breakthrough there."
"I remember," Oriko says.
"Lasers?" Kirika asks. "Really?"
"Yes, dear, Sabrina mentioned it before," Oriko says.
"Ooh," Kirika says. "Why haven't we figured that out yet?"
Oriko eyes you, careful not to move her wrist too much. Not that that'd be an easy task, anyway. Her expression is carefully shuttered, closed off. "I haven't had the inclination to."
"'sides, you're stronger than you think you are," you say, slanting a grin at her. "So chin up, yeah?"
"I feel that is... unsubstantiated. But I shall try," Oriko says.
"Anyway, everyone," you say, extending your telepathic call to the Asunaro girls as well. "All hanging in there alright?"
Kazumi gives you a shaky thumbs up, face pale against the crush of acceleration. "All good!"
"Excellent," you say.
Conversation lapses for a few minutes, and you take the opportunity to peer out at the landscape rolling past beneath you at breakneck speed, mentally overlaying it with the map of Japan. You can see fields and scattered buildings and tiny, thready roads crisscrossing the countryside, but the hills make better landmarks at this altitude. Almost time for turnabout.
"How are things back home?" you ask Kazumi.
"Calming down," she says, voice tight and controlled. "Saki's calmed down and Niko's looking around to see what else was taken."
"Alright," you say. "Are you starting to yet?"
"No," Kazumi says, biting her lip. "Not yet. I want to be there first. I need to know everyone's alright."
"I can understand that," you say. "I... we do have information that might be useful, that we can share. Oriko's precog, you know?"
"That would be good, yeah," Kazumi agrees, frowning a little. "That said... we should wait until everyone's gathered. We'll see how it is when we get there, alright?"
"Not telepathy?" you ask.
Kazumi turns to look directly at you. "Sabrina, I'm forcing myself to be calm right now because I have to be for everyone's sake, but my Niko was attacked," she says. "I don't want to think until I can reassure myself she's fine."
"Ah. I- I'm sorry, then," you say. You can understand that.
"It's fine," Kazumi says.
"Alright," you say, leaning against Mami. You connect everyone to the call. "Hey, everyone, reversing the acceleration now, brace for it-"
Conversation lapses despite the ideas churning in your mind. You have half-formed plans and suggestions and thought, but Kazumi's right, and more than that, she's the leader of the Pleiades Saints in her own right. You don't need to be overbearing, and yes: you need to see the situation on the ground.
Once you're sure everyone's ready, you flip acceleration into deceleration. The fastest way to travel between two points, after all - it's probably a good thing Kyuubey helped you with radar-deadening optical camoflage. You don't want to set off missile alerts or something.
By the time Asunaro looms on the horizon, you're just about done with Oriko's hand. Mami finishes with a flourish and one last burst of golden magic that leaves a final touch: fingernails, pink and soft.
Oriko raises the hand, flexing her fingers slowly. Kirika immediately claims ownership, seizing Oriko's hand in hers and running her fingers slowly over the newly grown skin with something akin to wonder. The black haired girl flashes you a grin, before turning adoring eyes back on Oriko.
You grin, sitting back and leaning against Mami. With the hard deceleration and seatbelts, it's difficult to cuddle up against her, but you can and do bask in the simple sensation of closeness.
Grey blocks resolve into skyscrapers surrounded by the sprawl of high-rise apartments and houses, beads of light dancing along the streets far below you. Asunaro.
Another time, you might feel dread, but not now. You're here for your new friends, you're here with friends, and you're here for yourself, too. You have a mission, a purpose. You've got a gaggle of magical girls with you. A giggle of magical girls? A clutch of magical girls?
Eh, names are important, but plurals are for another time.
Your breathing settles, steady and purposeful as you turn to Kazumi.
"Where do we go?" you ask, free to speak once more without the relentless crush of acceleration. "Do you think we need to prepare defenses before moving in?"
"No," Kazumi says. "We're already patrolling the area around Niko's lab, and everyone's there. That way, Sabrina."
Kazumi points out at the housing district, and you divert over, following her directions to a two-and-a-half storey building that's a little too large to be a mere house, but too small to be much else. Pillars support a wide verandah in front, indistinct, magical forms patrolling about. Kazumi unbuckles herself and jumps to her feet with abruptness enough to make you startle, and she rushes over to the big window in front of your flight platform to wave.
There's a squad of teddy bears of varying heights on the roof, all standing upright with claws reaching up for you. Fourteen eyes turn on you, spilling baleful purple glows. They notice Kazumi, though, and lower their arms.
"Mirai's a bit antsy right now," Kazumi notes. "You're safe to land, Sabrina."
"Right," you say, carefully lowering the platform to the roof. You let the walls melt away. Kaoru vaults the side, followed instantly by Kazumi and Umika. The squad of teddy bears surrounds you, but parts instantly to let Kazumi and Kaoru hurry through - Umika looks like she's about to follow, but remembers you at the last moment and stops. She looks back, fidgeting anxiously.
"Bears," Sayaka observes, staring at the defense squad with wary eyes.
You dissolve your Grief platform, folding everyone gently to the ground. The bears relax instantly, and- oh. The windshield, the everpresent sensation of Witch you've gotten used to and nearly forgotten. You take a moment to dissolve the Grief, dividing it into finer and finer particulates you spread around.
Oriko stands regally, massaging her hand idly as she looks around. Kirika loops her hand through Oriko's elbow.
"This way," Umika says, taking off for the stairs - she isn't any less anxious, either. You can sense a lot more of the bears patrolling the building. Mirai's power, you suspect, and you're pretty sure this building is Mirai's too: from what you remember, she Wished for a home to house her obsessive collection of teddy bears.
You follow her down, skipping the main floor to head all the way to the basement. Which is mildly unusual in Japan, but here you are. The stairwell opens into a huge, open area, lit from above by the stark glare of fluorescent lights.
The tang of metal is heavy on the air, down here, metal and oil intermingling to create an almost electric smell. The lights illuminate neat rows of shelves, groaning with not-so-neatly arranged equipment and random bits of machinery and glass. More than a lot are spilled carelessly to the ground, scattered, and some of it broken by the fall. Further in, you can see untidy, heavily laden tables, some black with scorch marks.
There's also a hugpile in the middle of the room, next to one of the benches. Kazumi and Kaoru are the most recent additions to the pil- you'll have to take that back, Umika's the most recent addition to the hugpile.
You can just barely make out a blonde ponytail sticking out from somewhere under there. There's a giant blob of lavender you're pretty sure outmasses the slender girl it's attached to, which would be Wakaba Mirai, the teddy bear girl. Then there's curvy, slightly plump girl with brown hair. Usagi Satomi, who's wrapped firmly around Niko.
The last girl detaches herself, pushing rimless glasses up her nose as she strides over to your group. She has hair cut to a neat bob with a fringe lock drawn diagonally across her forehead, just a shade closer to grey than it is to your pure white. You get the impression she's evaluating all of you, pink eyes flickering from person to person as she approaches with a steady, self-assured tread.
"Hello," she says, stopping short and bowing. "I'm Asami Saki. It's good to finally meet all of you."
Mami steps forward, bowing back. "It's good to meet you, Miss Asami," she says. "I'm Tomoe Mami. This is Sabrina, Miki Sayaka, and these are Kure Kirika and Oriko."
You are so proud.
You can also practically feel the heat from the twin beacons ignited once more behind you.
"I've heard of you by reputation, Miss Tomoe," Saki says with a smile. She pushes her glasses up her nose agai-
Those aren't glasses. She only has half a pair of spectacles, a sort of weird monocle contraption.
Mami nudges you gently.
... you're staring, aren't you?
You're staring. She has a perfectly good magical girl costume barring the lack of pants - a beret that's not as lovely as Mami's, a nice maroon jacket that falls past her hips, and thigh-high boots. She's powerful, as you recall, but for the love of Madokami why does she have half a pair of spectacles?
You shake your head, forcing your mind back into gear. "Uh, sorry about that," you say. "Just, ah, a spare thought. Also, uh... just so I can get this out of the way and clear the air a bit, metaphorically speaking, if you feel a faint sense of Witchiness in the air, that would be my doing. Kazumi's explained my powers to you, I take it?"
"Yes, she has," Saki says, nodding. "I see... I thought I was imagining things. Ah... normally, I'd offer you all a seat and refreshments, but given the circumstances..."
"Yeah, I get it," you say, glancing back at Oriko and Kirika to make sure they haven't spontaneously combusted. Oriko gives you an unamused glare, whereas Kirika's all but starry-eyed, wound around Oriko's arm like an affectionate snake. "Anyway, uh... so I take it you're all on guard, right?"
"Yes, we are," Saki says. "Whoever it is won't be getting close to us."
"Good," you say, glancing over her shoulder at the rest of the Pleiades. "Um... are you all alright?"
"Yes," Saki says, and scowls. "Shaken, but we're alright. Thank you for bringing Kazumi and the others back to us."
"Least I can do," you say.
The hugpile collapses as Niko squirms out from underneath said pile, walking over to you, trailed by the rest of the Pleiades. "Hello," she says. "I lost your Clear Seed. I'm sorry."
"Don't apologise for enemy action," you say, shaking your head. "Speaking of..."
"They took one of my prototypes," Niko says, frowning faintly. "A memory field."
"Memory field?" you ask, eyebrows arching. That sounds familiar. You remember a field spread over the entirety of Asunaro, removing any memory or perception of Kyuubey.
"It makes people forget things," Niko says. "I thought it might be useful for hiding our things. We've had an inspector or two try and examine this place before..."
"Ah, but that isn't important!" Satomi says, stomping her foot. The motion makes curly brown hair fall over her eyes, and she sweeps it aside impatiently. "We're all safe now!"
"We're not going to let this stand," Umika says, pushing her glasses up her nose. "Are we, Kazumi."
"No," Kazumi says. "We need to guard this place and search... but with this many people, that should be a snap."
"I..." you hesitate. "I know a few things, and..." You glance at Oriko. You don't know how to tactfully break it that she's a seer with malfunctioning powers.
"Oh?" Saki asks. "In what way?"
"I know our potential enemies here," you say simply. "I'm not a seer, but... think of it as something like clairvoyance?"
Kazumi makes a thoughtful, considering noise, and plops down cross-legged on the tiled floor. "OK. Team meeting! You're invited too, honorary Pleiades Saints!"
You all join her on the floor, forming a loose circle. Mami, yourself, Sayaka, Oriko, Kirika, Umika, Kaoru, Kazumi, Saki, Mirai, Satomi, Niko... it's a big group.
"First things first," Kazumi says briskly. "Niko, could you tell us what happened again?"
"I was working on the Clear Seed over at that table," Niko says, pointing at one of the benches with a cleared space. "Examining it to see if anything interesting could be done. Then I started feeling drowsy and blacked out. When I woke up, it was gone and my lab was like this."
Satomi bites her lip, clearly fighting not to tackle Niko into another hug.
"So whoever it was did it without touching you," Kazumi concludes.
"Do we... have any way of defending against that?" you ask.
"We don't even know what it was," Umika puts in. "There are so many ways for magic to induce sleep. I could do that, but not silently or quickly."
"Right," you say. Mami squeezes your hand, and you smile at her.
"OK, do you know who it is?" Sayaka asks, leaning forward. "Or who it might be? Sabrina, you said you know, right?"
Voting opens
[] How much do you share?
- [] Future events:
-- [] Anri Airi/Asuka Yuuri
-- [] The Soujos
- [] Past events:
-- [] Nudge Niko to share the details of her Wish
[] Defenses?
- [] Write-in how
[] Organize searching
- [] Tracking
- [] Sayaka and Kazumi to copy the MOF
- [] Sayaka vision and clones
[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
=====
For the record, Saki in costume. Apologies for not updating yesterday, had some bad news to deal with.
So, they're short a Clear Seed and a prototype of the Ultimate Cloaking Device.
Would almost consider the second a mark against it being Hijiri - if she can already mess with memories, why would she need a Memory Field?
Unless, of course, she's looking to hide something while she's doing something somewhere else...
Maybe she's only nearsighted in one eye. That's the justification for monocles in the first place, only needing correction in one eye, right? And the little nose-grip makes it a lot more likely to stay in place than a traditional monocle.
You want a clear windshield for this flight, the better to see what's happening, and so you spare a few minutes of focus to impose your will upon the Grief to raise windshield and walls alike.
Sometime after this arc, I wanna try if we can put an AR interface on our windshield. Speedometers, altimeter, maybe the local and regional maps, weather, etc. But really, I just want it to project a Plaid Effect when we go SR-71 again
Isn't Earth one of their major prpduction facilities? The loss of that would escalate things real quick. Even if it isn't, losing a planet to enemy action, no matter how insignificant, might drive them to act since the Incubators are a bit greedy.
Or are yoy talking about making Kyubey forget? Because paper work is immune to this kind of trick, and they'll be quick to realize that something funky is going on just by checking documents on past activities.
You shake your head, suppressing the grin threatening to split your face in half - and you very deliberately do not look at the Kures. "Oriko, Kirika, this is Michiru Kazusa, Maki Kaoru, and Misaki Umika. They're three of seven from the Pleiades."
Kazumi waves, managing a smile that's a bare shadow of her usual cheeriness. "Call me Kazumi!" There's a long, long pause. "Um... Sabrina? Are your friends OK?"
You finally allow yourself to glance back and take in the carnage you have wrought: blood splashed in twin beacons blazing bright against the dappled darkness of the night. Kirika looks torn between wanting to explode from sheer joy and embarrassment.
Mami steps forward, bowing back. "It's good to meet you, Miss Asami," she says. "I'm Tomoe Mami. This is Sabrina, Miki Sayaka, and these are Kure Kirika and Oriko."
Hm, so the clear seed and a memory field were stolen. That seems like a pretty potent combination. That only these two things were stolen also makes it more likely that the thief knew what she was after and didn't just look for random stuff.
Edit: @Firnagzen, Kazumi seems to have replaced Kirika with a clone of herself without anyone noticing.
When you come to, you find that Mami's buckled you into your seat, turning a warm smile on you as you blink back to awareness. You check behind you without looking: Oriko and Kazumi seem to have calmed down and buckled in, as have Kazumi and her friends. Sayaka nods at you, resolve on her face.
Really, the only sounds I can associate with PMMM magical girls are 1) Sayaka's broken berserker laughter, and 2) glasses Homura's tortured scream of utter despair as she mercy kills her best friend in the entire world.
So, you know. Cow goes moo, cat goes meow, dog goes woof, puella magi goes either "NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNUUUUUUUU" or "AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHA IT DOESN'T HURT AT ALL."
Hm, so the clear seed and a memory field were stolen. That seems like a pretty potent combination. That only these two things were stolen also makes it more likely that the thief knew what she was after and didn't just look for random stuff.
The thief could possibly set the memory field to make people forget about her when they enter the building she's in. Like a discount S.E.P./camouflage field.
Splitting up into just pairs or tigh groups might be a bad idea then. A team might enter the building she's in, leave, and not realize it at all. Gonna have to ask Niko about its capabilities so far, and how it can be set/attuned.
Its a bit fortunate that its just the prototype, it has a relatively short range. However, that might change soon as a clear seed means the thief would be free to tinker with it, and possibly expand its range.
Maybe she's only nearsighted in one eye. That's the justification for monocles in the first place, only needing correction in one eye, right? And the little nose-grip makes it a lot more likely to stay in place than a traditional monocle.
Yes, but in prescription lenses they make each lens custom to the eye it is in front of. So in the case of having only one nearsighted eye, you'd be able to get one lens that is cut, and one lens that's flat. However, by cutting of half the glasses they look lopsided as hell, especially since the bridge on the nose seem to survive the amputation. Add in the missing part that goes around the ear (temporarily forgot it's name). and they look like they are always falling off, even if they are not.
When i said that we should replace it i was talking more about making either a enchanted item or a piece of magitech for the job, but healing works too. As long as i'm talking about magitech, i wanted to see if we could make something like a eye out of our Soul Gem so that we could see out of it (though someone else might have already brought that up) and then extending a body out of it via our magic (like powerarmor made out of force fields), seeing as both it is literally our body, and how we might want to figure out how to move around other then having our other body carry it around.
"Memory field?" you ask, eyesbrows arching. That sounds familiar. You remember a field spread over the entirety of Asunaro, removing any memory or perception of Kyuubey.
"It makes people forget things," Niko says. "I thought it might be useful for hiding our things. We've had an inspector or two try and examine this place before..."
"Ah, but that isn't important!" Satomi says, stomping her foot. The motion makes curly brown hair fall over her eyes, and she sweeps it aside impatiently. "We're all safe now!"
Yes, your ability to be aware of things is safe. To the best of you awareness . We should really razorfloss every "empty" place in the area, just to be safe...thinking about it, we should probably check to see if she hasn't just forgotten where it is because of a memory effecting enviromental hazard.
We might be able to manually keep our nurons running, or at least something enough like them that we are able to act on our enviroment, via our utility fog. Edit: We would need to figure out how to make electricity first though; i did have some thoughts about making electrons out of Grief, and then convincing the atoms that they are ions.
Yes, but in prescription lenses they make each lens custom to the eye it is in front of. So in the case of having only one nearsighted eye, you'd be able to get one lens that is cut, and one lens that's flat. However, by cutting of half the glasses they look lopsided as hell, especially since the bridge on the nose seem to survive the amputation. Add in the missing part that goes around the ear (temporarily forgot it's name). and they look like they are always falling off, even if they are not.
We should really razorfloss every "empty" place in the area, just to be safe...thinking about it, we should probably check to see if she hasn't just forgotten where it is because of a memory effecting enviromental hazard.
...why the hell would we go for the hyperlethal option immediately? We could just get a grief field up to detect anyone invisible. And if there is one, a surprise AM blast from Kirika would let us nonlethally subdue them.
...why the hell would we go for the hyperlethal option immediately? We could just get a grief field up to detect anyone invisible. And if there is one, a surprise AM blast from Kirika would let us nonlethally subdue them.
I was thinking that if there was anything around it would be closer to a SEP field then just active camo, so the only way we could find anything would be to make letting us see them be the best option open for them. Besides, i don't think that there is anyone important that this would actually be irreparable against.
Edit: i think that someone in D&D wanted to kill a group of Lawful/Good Palidins, to take out the BBEG, and then just resurrect them later. This is basically the same set of ethics.
. We should really razorfloss every "empty" place in the area, just to be safe...thinking about it, we should probably check to see if she hasn't just forgotten where it is because of a memory effecting enviromental hazard.
