It took a few days to get a hold of her own phone, but eventually Hilde would call Deni up so they could meet. Seeing as she didn’t know the area much at they opted to let Deni pick where they would meet up.

Throwing any caution to the winds, Ronin invited her home! Or, well, to the home that Ronin was currently sharing with Valkyrie, but she’s been absent for a while, so it works out!

Took a little time to get oriented on where things were in the city, but eventually Hilde located the home in question. Arriving undisguised she knocked on the door and waited.

The door flung open, as Ronin came out in full Ronin transformed state and grinning widely. ‘Welcome! You’re just in time!’

‘… Oh, darn, I shouldn’t have been transformed? Now I feel overdressed! Oh, well, come on in!’

Ronin skipped over to the kitchen in the place, because she had something in the oven here. ‘In the past, we had a guy that used to cook for me and my friends,’ that being Joe, the Interdimensional Tourist Mariette sometimes stayed with. Deni really couldn’t go to Joe anymore, as she would get found by Mariette immediately. ‘so I resolved I was gonna teach myself! Now, here! Some mince pie!’ Ronin called happily, using Reinforcement on her hands as her cooking gloves, pulling the pie out of the oven and placing it on the kitchen table. It was decently clumsily made, weight-distribution was off, seasoning was probably also pretty off, but it should still taste nicely and Ronin was grinning so widely!

‘Let’s not eat it all, I’m saving some for Valkyrie as thanks for letting me stay here, but, iiiih! First time I’m letting someone else try what I made!’ Ronin sounded out, excited.

Looking slightly confused, Hilde stepped in. ”Is it not weird to go around transformed? I don’t exactly look dressed for the streets wearing almost nothing.” She mused a bit as she followed her friend into the kitchen.

‘Eeeeh, guess I’m just used to being transformed all the time. I don’t really have a regular life next to my transformed one, hah!’ Ronin commented on that, but that aside! A pie to serve!

Despite any imperfections, Hilde would marvel at the item that Ronin had produced. She didn’t know the first thing about cooking. ”It looks great! That’s so cool that you know how to cook. I think I would have starved to death by now if my friends didn’t let me stay with them. Their parents do most of the cooking.” She poked at the pie a bit but resolved that it needed to cool a bit before trying to eat it.

‘I really just followed a recipe, but thanks!’ Ronin said with a grin. ‘But I seek to learn! When I get my sister back, I’m gonna try cooking for her all the time, and…’ Ronin sighed a bit, as she took a piece of the pie and put it on her own plate. ‘Hey, what happened to you? Su said you died, so something’s up. You do look somewhat different, and the things you say don’t entirely match up, even I can see that, buuuut…’ Ronin asked, giving Hilde an analyzing stare.

Ah hah, well that made something pretty clear. Hilde frowned slightly and leaned on a hand propped up on the table. "I get that a lot. If you're talking about Amber, she's still dead." She would comment dryly. Su at least was someone she'd been told about by her patron. The twins had done a little bit to fill her in on reality that her patron failed to detail. Namely Su was Amber's familiar turned magical girl and worked at some hotel place for magicals. Meeting her was bound to be uncomfortable. "Best I can tell you is I'm some part of her soul given new life. Any similarity is unintentional at this point. I've actually taken a different name. Hilde Bell. Complements of Faith."

‘… Aw,’ Ronin made a sad-sounding noise and looked down at her pie for a bit. ‘So you were different people. I… sort of figured, you’re acting pretty differently. But… I was looking forward to meeting… I wanted to tease her some more… that’s going to make the reveal a lot less impactful… _{I liked her, she was funny…}’ she complained a bit, feeling a bit down to know one of her exceptionally few connections was apparently gone. She’d definitely imagined that Su’d been somehow mistaken and that she’d have this talk with “Amber” here, then have a reunion and everyone would be happy… ‘Guess not, huh…’

That was a different reaction than what was expected. Her slightly irritated expression melted away and she looked away sheepishly. Very different from Oros’ for sure. Problem was Hilde wasn’t really sure she could do anything about it. Or even that she wanted to do anything. Was she supposed to be Amber but just ended up missing too many aspects so she ended up being nobody? Maybe that’s why changing her name was so easy. Damn birds, why’d they have to… whatever. ”I get it.” She was quiet for a moment before she turned and slid out of her chair.

‘… Well! Then the purpose of this visit has changed to celebrating our new friendship, then!’ Ronin pulled her head up and breathed in heavily out of a widely smiling mouth. The sadness of the most recent revelation was still there, yet her smile refused to let herself be kept from facing the future. ‘I apologize that I don’t have anything more fancy to drink,’ she then said, grabbing a can of water to pour some out into glasses that were totally there the whole time on the table, ‘but would you toast for us getting to know one another?’ Ronin asked, still smiling.

The spirit girl taking the glass absently, her gaze would slowly drift up to the smiling face. What? Hilde’s expression was blank, lost like a deer in headlights. Who was this girl? Having just suffered emotional whiplash a couple times in the span of a minute she wasn’t sure how to react. ”I…” After afew moments she would raise the glass. ”T-to new friends.” Trembling she tried to take a sip before giving up and simply grasping the cup tightly with both hands to keep from dropping the thing.

Ronin was smiling, hiding the hurt. Hilde was not so good at hiding anything. She was having an identity crisis, again. Most might find it pathetic, but she didn’t know how to deal with stress or challenges. Because of things that Oros’ told her she was trying not to rely on the twins all that much. She only just made some friends. So by and large she was putting herself out and alone.

Ronin happily-seeming drank her glass of water, making a loud noise of satisfaction after as if it had been delightful. Then…! ‘So!’ Ronin called, looking excitedly to Hilde. ‘Where did you appear from? Who are your friends? What do you do for fun? Did you inherit any memories or anything from Amber? Have you met Su yet? What do you dream for the future? Long-term, short-term? Ooh, I wanna know everything!’ Ronin called, grinning at her. ‘Ah, you mentioned Faith! Is she alright?’ she then suddenly asked with a worried expression.

Hilde’s eyebrows raised a bit at the flood of questions. Still, it was a sufficient distraction to keep the girl busy thinking a bit on other things. Her mind worked through them all sequentially regardless of which ones were potentially more important. ”I-uh... “ She took a moment to breath before launching into answering. ”I came from a couple of Beacon twins that stole Amber’s soul. They put it in a soul jar and my patron found it and created me. I guess they’re my friends. Seems like they’re really busy all the time.” Holding the glass close she absently took a drink. ”Janet and Jenna. They’re actually really nice. They make my head hurt sometimes though.” Her face scrunched up a bit.

Moving on to the next question she had to pause. What did she like to do? ”I guess I like to hang out with my new friends. I don’t know. Everything is still pretty new to me.” She would give it some more thought. ”One thing I really like is flying. I could go around for hours just taking in the sights and feeling the wind.” Ronin’s barrage of questions was what Hilde needed to dig herself out of the hole she’d fallen into. Relaxing again the girl would realize she was just standing there by the chair. Sheepishly she would slip back into the chair.

The next question was a little tricky to answer. Somewhat went with her internal conflict. Shaking her head she resumed going down the list. ”I don’t have Amber’s memories. I do get vague feelings about people and things though. And obviously I look a lot like her which is becoming more and more awkward.” She frowned a bit. ”As for Su, I haven’t met her yet. I know who she is and the twins have told me a little bit about her, but I really don’t know what to do there. I feel like I might just make things worse and remind her of Amber a little too much. They were close, I know it.” She’d set the glass on the table and fidgeted with the object while she spoke, rotating it back and forth. She would actually stop and look at Ronin for some kind of guidance. It seemed like she knew the girl so maybe she had some ideas of how to approach the matter.

‘Oooh, Janet made it out! Nice! No idea who Jenna is, though! Twins, you say? Heh, okay.’ Ronin mused, chuckling a bit. ‘Flying is pretty cool. I can't exactly fly, but I can run in mid-air! Does that count?’ she then asked with a giggle. Then, she listened to that last part, and… ‘Yeeaah, probably best I tell her beforehand. She can be pretty emotional. She might freak out if she's not ready to see you, might just hurt her,’ Ronin agreed.

Hilde nodded in agreement. ”Okay good, so I’m not completely clueless. I feel like I’m going to have to meet her eventually. If you could help prepare her for that that would be great. I don’t really know any other way to go about it.” She managed a small smile.

‘Alright!’ Ronin nodded. And now… she had to decide. She WAS going to reveal her identity to Amber, but this is Hilde, now. Could she trust Hilde? Could she be sure Hilde would not run off to tell Janet, and probably consequently all of Beacon, everything? Thoughts that have to be considered before I write anything further… … … ‘Right. Justine von Visceral has recruited me to help with her invasion of Mariette’s mansion, but I’m going to try to use this opportunity to instead save Mariette and Eli from both Justine and Asengav, because I know they’re mind-bent,’ Deni said, staring blankly at Hilde, gauging her reaction.

Hilde looked less confused than one might expect. She’d heard of most of these names. Well, all but Eli at least. Her eyes rolled a bit as she recalled conversations she’d heard. There was a pause for a moment before things fell into place and she exclaimed. ”Oh, Mariette! They were asking Cindy about her the other day. They’re friends, or allies, or something.” For the moment it seemed that she’d forgotten not to mention that name. Not that it was any surprise up to this point. Seemed the two girls present were something of gossipers that had trouble filtering what they said.

‘Indeed! And that’s what’s going on in my life right now!’ Ronin said with a smirk. ‘Hahahaha! Of course Mariette has to make friends with a random queen when she shows up. That’s how it works. Anyway. You’re taking that info pretty in-stride. If Justine found out I told you, she’d probably have my head. Hahaha!’ Ronin laughed some more. ‘… Who’re they?’

Waving her hands almost frantically Hilde shook her head. ”Nope, no way. I don’t want to get involved with that. Too deep for me.” Putting her hand up she scratched her head. ”Janet and Jenna mostly. Well, not Janet, that’s not how that works I don’t think. She didn’t remember anything though.”

‘Haha, not gonna ask you to get involved, got it,’ Ronin said like it was decided right there, then listened to the rest. Janet and Jenna, huh… … … wait. ‘Cindy had contact with people in Beacon before she died?’ Ronin asked, a bit astounded.

The spirit girl shrugged. ”I don’t know. Didn’t sound like it.”

‘Wait, uh, huh?’ Ronin tilted her head. ‘But you were just saying she’d-’ A thought crossed Ronin’s mind, making her eyes go wide. ‘Wh-what did they manage with Cindy?’ she just had to ask.

”Manage?” She thought about what they were talking about with a little more focus. Oooh. Ronin had been there with Cindy when all that went down. Well, the twins did say this was going to get out eventually. She would lower her voice a bit. ”Don’t go spreading this around, but you were her guard right?”

‘Yeah, I was her frickin’ bodyguard, tasked with guarding her life and making sure she got out alright! Suffice to say, I didn’t get paid that night,’ Ronin lamented, sighing out a bit. ‘Really wish I could have done something differently. I don’t even know what, just, anything so she would have lived… but alas…’ she shook her head. ‘Yeah! I wouldn’t spread a secret a friend told me to hide! You can count on me!’ Ronin said, a Reinforcement-user’s words apparently extra encouraging. She’s not lying, of course.

Oh good, keeping this was driving her crazy. When you’re as young as she was you didn’t exactly have a lot of secrets to confide to people. This one was a little more critical long term though. ”Okay, so.... Janet somehow nabbed Cindy’s mind and has to share… She trailed off for a moment trying to figure out how to explain the mess. ”I don’t understand the details actually, but basically Janet can become Cindy and vice versa. They share her body.” She looked a bit confused herself.

‘…’ Ronin stared with open mouth for a bit at Hilde. ‘… Hahahaha! Well. Guess that’s better than it could have been. Nicely done, Janet, I wouldn’t have expected it!’ she said with a bit of a laugh, then. ‘Could you deliver a message? Like, “This is Ronin, I am super-happy you’re still sorta around, sorry I failed to save you, do you need me for anything?”, or so? Haha,’ Ronin chuckled some more.

"Yeah, I can let her know something. We're working on how to announce that she's still around. Some of the other Beacon people aren't making it easy." She rolled her eyes. Admittedly she wasn't as in the loop, but since she wasn't actually in Beacon she had more freedom to move around and kind of be a go-between.

‘Alright! I’m happy you told me. Makes me feel a lot better about Cindy all of a sudden. Best would have been if she’d survived entirely and I’d managed to convince both sides not to fight, but this’ll do~!’ Ronin said with a smile. ‘This has been cool. Let’s continue talking like this to one another whenever we can. Alright, I think the pie has cooled down enough. Let’s eat!’ Ronin said, grinning as she took a knife and fork, because she wants a slice of her own pie, too~!

Oh, pie. The conversation would be shelved for a bit while they dug into the dish Ronin had prepared. Hilde found she enjoyed the dish, though provided just a little critique on the flavor. Not that she was a great cook or anything, but she had attention to detail that she could maybe provide. There wasn’t a whole lot said while they ate aside from light comments. Hilde could definitely go for more visits like this.

Ronin took any advice to heart and tried to consider how to take it into consideration. The pie definitely wasn’t perfect, but tasted good all the same. Now, for next time… yupp, light chatter as they ate.

After their meal, Hilde checked the time. It wasn’t late, staying at the twins house the two’s parents had something of a curfew in place. Seemed the magic had somehow rationalized that Hilde was the girl’s cousin in the adult’s minds. How that happened she didn’t know but it made sleeping over a whole lot easier. Since there wasn’t a rush Hilde would strike up some conversation again. ”You were saying earlier that you were trying to save some people? Are they friends of yours?” The girl may not be very experienced, but the whole thing sounded pretty serious. Even though she said she didn’t want to get involved she couldn’t help but be curious.

Oooh, right, she said that. ‘Well…’ Ronin considered a bit. Would be somewhat troublesome if she said she was a friend of a horror-girl, possibly. Especially if this girl was going to run back and tell Beacon. ‘Not currently. But I know they’re mind-bent, all the same. It feels wrong to have them destroyed for something that they’re not doing out of their own choice. As such, I’m going to save them. Somehow,’ Ronin said, smirking at the end again.

Hilde would connect some dots in her head. ”...I think Janet would help Mariette if she had the chance ” She mused out loud. Everything she knew about the twins and what they were working toward even right now.

‘… Would she?’ Ronin gave Hilde a curious look. ‘You ARE aware of what Mariette did to Janet, right? … Then again, now that I think about it, maybe simply BECAUSE of that. Not too dissimilar circumstances, hah!’ Ronin chuckled a bit as she thought of it. ‘Then perhaps, deliver a message to her that Mariette and her companions are mind-bent, and that mind-bending can be reversed. They'll never WANT to have their mind-bending reversed, that's what mind-bending is all about, but if the girls of Beacon find themselves victorious and find they have a choice between capture and kill…’ Ronin said with light mirth in her tone.

Sitting up straight, Hilde would give a light smile. "Yeah, I know. Janet isn't like a lot of the others in Beacon. She got a second chance and is willing to give others that too." How should… Oh yeah, Ronin was there. "You probably didn't recognize her, but the knight girl that tried to talk down Cindy before the smoke bomb went off was Janet. She used a Red Coin and she became that girl with a twin."

‘Oooh, that makes sense! I see!’ Ronin called with a grin… and then really realized she'd made it really clear she was someone from the past. Well… ‘… Can I ask you not to ask around for who I am? There's someone who absolutely can't even start to suspect it might be the case. I WAS going to tell Amber, but you're not Amber. You're a WAAAY more mature girl than Amber, but probably not as fun to tease, heh, You’re way sweeter than Amber, but maybe not as fun to tease, I predict,’ Ronin said with a chuckle. ‘I keep quiet about a thing, you keep quiet about a thing, and so.’ Ronin said with a little smirk.

Rubbing her chin a bit, Hilde would shrug slightly. ”Okay I guess. If it’s that important then… Eh? She blushed a bit. ”Tease, wait. What do you mean?”

Ronin took a pause where she lost the smile looked curiously at Hilde’s blush.

‘Awwwwww…’ Ronin said with a sudden smirk, pulling herself up on the table to crawl slightly over it and lean in closer to Hilde, her expression… a bit different. ‘You want to be teased, too? Feeling envious of your previous soul? How cute of you. Don’t worry, I can give you all the teasing you want…’ Ronin said, reaching forward to potentially stroke a little under Hilde’s chin and push to raise her head a bit… her actions and tone of voice clashing horribly with the fact she’s currently a tiny samurai loli.

Hilde had no idea what was going on and stared confusedly. She stiffened a bit from the touch which made lifting her head a bit harder. ”W-what are you doing?”

Ronin grinned. ‘Teh-heh, perhaps current me is inappropriate for this particular task. Would you close your eyes for a second?’ she suggested, and if Hilde did not, she’d place her own hand over her eyes as she skipped off the table to walk around behind her, making sure that Hilde didn’t peek. Then… Hilde found her chair turned around, and…



A handsome young man with blonde hair and emerald eyes, slightly older than Hilde’s current age, looked down at her with an admiring gaze.

‘Why, I must have stumbled into heaven, to have encountered a lovely angel such as you,’ he said, in a suitably confident and admiring voice. ‘Your skin strikes as smoothly and intoxicatingly as the freshest of fruits, your eyes as warming and comforting as the rays of the sun, and your hair reminds me of the sweetest of chocolates, makes me want to taste it…’ he said, leaning forward a little to gently reach to caress the side of her head. ‘Tell me, fair maiden, what is your name?’

Hilde hadn’t closed her eyes so Ronin did have to put her hand out. ”Hey!” She protested but didn’t struggle to remove the hand. She was quite confused as to what her friend was doing. Allowed to see again and turned around she glanced up slightly at the boy that had seemingly come from nowhere. Who, what… Had he been in the other room or something? For a brief moment while she was being showered with compliments she would take a look around for her friend who had seemingly vanished.

Eyes snapping back to the boy her face was turning redder and redder by the second. Who was this? He was cute but still. And who talked like that? Was she dreaming? What was in that pie? Stupefied she stammered as she answered the question. ”R… H-Hilde Bell.” She had to correct herself.

‘Hilde Bell. A delightful name given by a voice as clear and lovely as the object of your last name,’ the boy said, smiling. ‘I’m Dorian Hay,’ not at all derived from Dorian Gray, ‘and I would like to get to know you much more intimately, Hilde,’ he said, gently caressing her cheek. ‘I’d like to take you out to dinner, dance with you at a ball, swim with you in the sea, eventually consider marriage with you, have a bunch of cute little children with you and live happily ever after, with you…’

As he said the final parts, he was slowly leaning forward with an admiring gaze in his gaze, like if he was going in to potentially kiss her.

She wasn’t entirely sure what Dorian meant by “intimately,” but most of the things he was saying sounded like nice and fun things to do. Or they did until the last part. Was this boy delusional? They’d just met and he was talking about kids. Could magical girls even have children? How would that work? It didn’t really matter though as the moment, whatever moment it was, was over. Not knowing if this guy was a magical boy or not she would have to pass on transforming for the moment.

Shoving a hand in the guy’s face Hilde would push him away. Her other hand searched around for a moment on the table before it found a fork. ”Okay, I don’t know what kind of weirdo you are. But you try that again and I’ll actually stick a fork in you.” The improvised weapon gripped firmly while she held it threateningly.

‘Ohckt,’ he made a noise as her hand in his face pushed him away. He listened to her threat, and then… he started to giggle into her hand. ‘Sorry, sorry~’ he said, lifting his hands to grip Hilde’s hand a bit just to be able to lift his own face off her hand. ‘But I must say…’

He then tilted himself to the right to look at Hilde from the right side of the hand… except now Hilde was greeted with the exceptionally off display of “Dorian”’s body and hair… and Ronin’s grinning face.

‘But I must say, you have a really pretty blush, Hilde~!’

“Dorian” skipped back, and as he did, his body shrunk and hair and clothes changed back over the course of a second, and then Ronin was standing there again… until she wasn’t, because she had collapsed on her knees laughing, hands over her stomach.

‘Hahahaha! Okay, I take that back, you’re also fun to tease! Different flavour than Amber, but strawberry and raspberry both taste as sweet, hahahaha!’ Ronin laughed a bit where she now was on the floor.

A very confused, yet still blushing Hilde stared for a little while. What had just happened? The boy was Ronin? It didn’t feel or look like any illusion magic she’d ever heard of. Shaking for a second she would drop the fork. ”Ronin what... “ Hilde wasn’t really sure how to react. Embarrassed, befuddled, angry, impressed, and betrayed all at the same time. She would draw her arms in as her eyes watered.

Ronin looked up at Hilde and realized that she had a situation on her hands. ‘Aaaah, sorry! I’m really sorry! I just… had to try doing that once!’ she skipped forward to get on her knees in front of Hilde and clasp her hands together in front of her. Ronin was still smiling, but she had realized she may have just hurt her friend. ‘I’m, uh, actually a shape-shifter, though I can’t use it as it’s tied to that identity I didn’t want you to ask around about. I’ve never been able to play around with it, I just… really wanted to try it when you looked so wide-eyed about me mentioning teasing. I didn’t mean to hurt you if I did! Sorry! … Still, I didn’t do too badly as a handsome boy, did I?’ Ronin asked, with a little giggle.

The girl would take a step away. Conflicted would describe Hilde pretty well at the moment. Ronin was supposed to be her friend. They'd only just met, really. Was this something Amber would have found funny? As they'd established though, the girl was not Amber. Shuddering again Hilde would finally speak. "That wasn't fair Ronin." She wiped her eyes with the back of her arm. "I need a moment."

‘… OK! Take as long as you need!’ Ronin’d say and then stand up to start carrying the plates and form that had contained the pie back to the kitchen, and then took extra time washing the things by hand in there. If she eventually got done with that she’d sit down at the table, hands together, lips bit together and passively kick a bit with her legs. Because it felt like anything she’d say probably would make it worse at this point.

In the time Ronin was away Hilde at one point she could be heard seemingly talking to someone. Of course any time the little samurai might check there was no one else to be seen. By the time she’d returned her friend seemed in a much better mood. ”Hey there, so… sorry. I just wasn’t ready for something like that. I think you went a little too far with it I mean.” She was a bit more stern than she had been up to that point. Ronin needed to know there was a line that probably shouldn’t be crossed.

Ronin looked worried, but still made herself smile, because otherwise it wouldn't be her. ‘Er, which part of that was too far? All of it? Just when I was seemingly trying to kiss you? I'll note, I was never going to kiss you, I would have stopped just before, just wanted to see how you'd react, while giving you a unique experience, hah…’ Ronin said, trying to chuckle at the end but not quite managing it.

Folding her arms around herself she frowned. Before going on she would recite her incantation. "Through the past we forge the future." A ring of ethereal energy would swirl around her starting at her feet and working its way up, transforming her into her magical girl form. ”I barely know you. You scared me and I’m not… If you can change and toy with me like that how am I supposed to know who you really are?”

‘Um,’ Ronin looked decently honestly confused, not really getting the idea of transforming. ‘I didn’t… consider that? I only did it as a slight prank I can only use once. Other than that, I’ve been genuine. This is my real transformed form. I honestly thought we’d both think it was sorta funny afterwards. I’m sorry,’ she said again, still looking a bit confused.

Ronin’s reaction seemed sufficient to relax Hilde a bit. Maybe they were both a little clueless. It was something she realized more and more about herself. Her transformation was merely a precaution. She couldn’t use her magic otherwise if needed. She scratched her face awkwardly. ”Maybe we will later.” She gave it some thought. ”I was pretty convinced you were going to kiss me. I wasn’t necessarily against that. I think it was what you said that was over the edge.”

Ronin breathed out a bit in relief at that Hilde seemed to relax a little. She listened a bit further on the subject, and then… ‘Oh, um, the things about wanting to go out and do stuff with you? I, er, didn’t get you hopeful, did I?’ Ronin said, almost smirking wider before thinking that might be a bad idea. ‘Or, um, was it the part after I turned back?’

”Children!?” Was all she would exclaim, putting her hands on her head before throwing them in the air.

‘Oh, right, um,’ Ronin had to put a hand on her mouth, because she was very close to giggling and it may have been inappropriate. Very honestly, Ronin didn’t get what was so bad about that, but that was a pretty interesting reaction to it. ‘I wanted him to say he wanted to live happily ever after with you and that is part of a true happily ever after to me?’ Ronin said with the tone-shift of a question.

”It’s not, ugh!” Hilde was clearly getting frustrated. She was going to have to explain. ”I’m like two weeks old. I’m trying to figure out who I am and why I exist. Every time I turn around people are mistaking me for someone they use to know and expect me to act like them. I’m just a stupid girl that can’t keep herself together. I’m confused and I don’t need people toying with my emotions!” During her outburst small objects started floating in the air. Spirits were responding to her and picking things up. Hilde would turn around though and yell out. ”Go away!” Everything dropped back down with some clattering and a few thumps.

‘Woa…’ Ronin made a noise of some amazement when Hilde had a little outburst. And even more so when things started getting picked up- ‘Wait, these are Valkyrie’s things…!’ Ronin commented with sudden panic in her eyes, and tried to reach out with her hands to use Reinforcement magic to the floating objects before they fell down again, hopefully without breaking, Ronin smiling but looking a bit pale there. ‘Okay, um…’ Rightou, now, how to say this.

‘First things first, you’re not stupid. You’re a bit disorientated, but given your origin, it’d be weird if you weren’t. I didn’t think my prank through, and for that, I am sorry. Give people some time, after a while they'll have learned you're not Amber, like me, from the toast onwards. All that was for you, I'd have teased Amber with a big breasts lady instead, for example. If you need help with anything from now on, I'm your girl. Because I want to be your friend, okay? Can I hug you and make it better?’ Ronin asked, looking somewhat serious but smiling regardless.

Hilde would listen silently. When the question was presented at the very end she would shake her head yes. ”I would like that.”

Ronin smiled, before bouncing off the seat and running around the table, slowing down before Hilde to hug around her more gently, subtly using her shapeshifting ability to make her legs just a bit longer for the hug. She’d hold it before speaking. ‘Everything will sort itself out eventually, alright?’ Ronin said with a little grin while still embracing her.

Returning the hug Hilde let out the air in her lungs. ”Alright.” After holding the hug for a while she would eventually let go. When Ronin backed up she would find that Hilde had been crying a bit. She wiped away the tears. ”Thank you. It’s been really hard for me.”

As Ronin backed off, she also let her legs shrink back to normal, smiling at Hilde’s still partly teary-eyed face. ‘We'll have to make sure the hardships were worth it in the end, then, won't we?’ Ronin said with a little grin.

Hilde nodded. ”Yeah. Uhm…” She looked back at the disheveled items in the room. Thankfully nothing looked broken. ”Sorry about that. I didn’t realize that could happen.”

‘Haha, don’t worry about it! Let’s just make sure the place looks great when Valkyrie comes back, okay?’ Ronin told with a grin.

They’d then go about picking things up and putting them back, making sure it looked as it did. Hilde needed some air after all the internal turmoil. She thanked Ronin for the pie, company, and support. There was a loose end she needed to put to rest for herself. Ronin waved her goodbye after a while of hanging out and cleaning, and then she was off on the streets again.

With Rachel having given them an “opportunity” for the sanctuary, the twins mostly made themselves busy prepping for that. They didn’t really know how much time they had exactly. To an extent they may have bought time since in all likelihood they would be tracing them like Penny said they would. That meant they couldn’t be the ones taking anything to the sanctuary and Cindy wouldn’t be making any personal grand entrances. With their friend being the new Queen and all they let her know they needed to talk about what the Inquisitor told them.

For the third time in a week Penny would find herself weaving into the depths of Beacon. The first time was worried, the second time was relaxed, but this time she seemed angry. To be fair her anger wasn’t very apparent, more just focused gleam in her eyes as she walked. Time forever seemed to be set against it since she got back from the beach, or maybe it was just the Ascendency.

“Janet, Jenna” Penny would greet when she got into the Lab proper “What’s this about The Ascendency and the Sanctuary?”

Janet would stand and approach. ”We’ve been given something of an ultimatum. Not that it was all that surprising considering who it was coming from.” She admitted with a sigh. ”But it’s an option and would hopefully see the Ascendancy chill out a bit in the meantime.”

“I’m listening” Penny would reply, her hands balled tightly in the fists at her sides.

”Cindy worked out a deal so we can provide those at the Sanctuary the option of purification. I don’t really think the gesture is altruistic at the moment, but should help keep some of them safe and out of the Mint’s greedy mitts.” She took a White Coin out from a stack on the workbench.

Before Penny could say much edgewise, Jenna spoke up. ”We have been considering that only offering the coin is not really fair though. Forcing people to join Beacon isn’t why we went into this kind of work. So we were thinking about providing some of these as well.” She would present a vial with the same clear sparkling liquid they showed Alicia. ”Same purification, no strings attached. It’s not a perfect option but it’s what we can do short term.” The twins would watch and wait for Penny’s response.

Penny’s anger was still visible, but it wasn’t a tangible thing, it was contained and controlled. Still when she spoke her voice was tight and flickers of red would flash across her eyes. “This is why I have issues with Cindy.” She would step forward to take a closer look at the purification potion however. “I don’t trust the Ascendency.” She would say bluntly as she examined the plethora of purification paraphernalia scatter about. ”And If I’m honest this sounds like a trap. If you go there, they will be tracking you. If you don’t they will record the number of sparks that suddenly show up and then go there.”

“The potions, these I trust, because I trust you two.” Penny would say giving both of them a hard look “But you have to understand that there is no guarantee that anyone there will want to take either of these options. Not everyone hates what they turn into, and few of them have any want to be part of Beacon at the moment.” She would shake her head “They are offering a poisoned chalice at the moment. No matter what happens we lose. We take it, the Sanctuary is found. We deny it, they have justification to purge us all. We subvert it, we have proven to be untrustworthy.”

“There is no way that this offer comes across well, on either side.” She would say sadly with a hint of disgust.

The two would be silent for a while. They knew what they were proposing was not ideal in any shape or form. They were not in a good position, and potential only made things worse going about things the way they did. ”I didn’t help by pressing the matter sooner than I should. I’m sorry. I should have…” She shook, irritated at herself for putting them in this position. ”Of course it’s a trap. We don’t have to give them the coins. We don’t even need to go there. We’ll find a way to get them delivered if we have to. I know they won’t all want it and I’m not trying to purify everyone. I want them to have a choice. I’ll get these out and leave if I have to.” She grabbed the coin and tossed back with the others where it belonged. She paused for a moment to calm herself. Shortsightedness was something she and Cindy were going to have to work on.

Turning back around Janet had composed herself well enough. ”Even so, we’re not there yet. We still have to make the things which will take time and are easy enough to delay. My thought was in the meantime we try and reach the others in Beacon and maybe even the Ascendancy by showing them that not everyone is the way they think they are. Rachel probably wouldn’t admit it, but Cindy kept her cool and made a pretty decent case. At least gave her something to think about. We can’t get too caught up in their hate. There is still hope, else I still wouldn’t be alive talking to you right now.” She wasn’t going to let things get too far off mission. Not like this was ever going to be simple. ”Also, at some point we’re going to need to let everyone else know that Cindy is still around. I feel like that’s a good opportunity to set the tone.”

“I’d keep Cindy disconnected from this.” Penny’s voce would be notably softer as she replied. “Cindy is at the moment a martyr, but if the first thing she did when she got back was to try and get the Sanctuary abandoned what they are, to join Beacon it’s going to get messy.”

“I can take some of this stuff now and see how the girls there are feeling about it. The White coins are risky, but to help sever from a few worse off Patrons it might not be a bad idea. The potions will go a long way for those who don’t want what it is they have been forced into having.” She would walk over and pick up one of the White coins for emphasis. “Keeping it disconnected from the idea that the Ascendency put forth does still work as a token of good faith. I can also tell them that I stole it putting more distance away from the Ascendency.”

“And people of Beacon, our Beacon, would likely be easier than the Ascendency. As I don’t think Rachel cares. She is obsessed with the eradication of monsters and everyone connected to them.” Penny would shrug as there wasn’t much she could really offer on that front. “Best of luck regardless.”

Raising a hand Jenna would try and clarify just a bit. ”I’m pretty sure Cindy only ever said she would offer purification. Obviously Rachel has other ideas but they can’t say she won’t be holding to her word. There’s no real rush on connecting Cindy to the potions or the coins. Or any reason to at all to be honest. If no one knows where the potion comes from for a while it would probably be better. We were mostly talking about revealing that Cindy was still around.” She would make a gesture to Janet. ”One way or another once my sister is out doing things normally they’re bound to switch and cause some kind of scene.”

Janet would frown slightly for a moment and take a seat again. ”Maybe. There are advantages to letting it just happen organically. I’m reasonably well known as Beacon on the outside though. If we go public that Cindy and I have come to a mutual agreement for peace it could potentially disrupt the Ascendancy’s narrative. To those in Beacon that there is a chance to work together, to those outside that Beacon is not all who they believe them to be.” She would sigh. ”Perhaps though I should wait until I can talk to Ishtar. She holds a position that the Ascendancy can’t ignore.” She would brush her hair back out of her face. ”We have a couple more of the potions if you would like to take them.”

“That could work” Penny would say nodding to Janet “Letting people know that you and Cindy have come to an agreement would also help separate Beacon and the Ascendency more. As a lot of the girls out there don’t really view the two as separate. Which granted they aren't, but we here in Penrose are operating under very different interpretations of the Vows then the Ascendency is and that’s eroding the support that Beacon has here in the city.”

As she was explaining that she would be storing a few of the potions and Coins. She didn’t know the full extent of the troubles that the girls under her rule were dealing with but she doubted that there would be no one in the Sanctuary who wouldn’t want at least the potion.

”I guess we’ll see about coming up with something to put out publicly then. We’ll let you and Alicia take a look at it so we can be sure we’re putting out the right message. We’ll also see about speaking with the Cardinal. She’s still recovering so I doubt she’ll be available for very long.” Looking at their friend she would smile again. ”I think we’re still in a good position. People know that Penrose needs to be defended, we just have different ideas of how it should be done. Common cause is a good first rally point. Perhaps we should work toward that initially.” She would say tapping a finger against the side of her head. To some extent she was thinking out loud. If they wanted to succeed they were going to have to frame this correctly to avoid setting off the wrong people.

“Common cause isn’t easy to come across at the moment” Penny would point out as she turned to face her friends, leaning against the counter as she did so “At least not without an obvious target. Finding something from the Mint to point people towards will go a long way in helping people band together.” Unity in hate was hardly the best idea to start with but it was one that was proven to work.

“We could also blame Justine possibly, though at the moment that would be nothing but hot air” Penny would toss out, at this point also simply thinking aloud. It wasn’t an easy problem to solve especially with the way that the City had been rocked back to back so recently. “Shifting attention to internal affairs also might not be a bad idea. Get everyone to work on shoring up their foundations while we try to work on getting a peace of some sort established.”

A thought occurred to her then, in regards to the Cardinal and the Inquisitor. “It might not be a bad idea for me to try and talk to the Cardinal as well. Let her know that the new Queen isn’t opposed to peace.” She would give a thoughtful look to Janet as she went on “You could also bring that information to her, get the dispensation of an ambassador of some kind. Have Alica make it a title then all of can move in the open much more easily.”

Janet would lean against her own fist while she thought. ”Those are both good ideas. Alright, I’ll let her know.” Clearly she was thinking. It would be a bit before she spoke again. ”I think that’s a good direction to go for now. We could sit here and come up with plans until we’ve lost our minds.” She would ponder just a bit longer before getting up and stepping over to Penny. She would embrace her in a hug. ”Thank you, Penny. All this is really stressing me out. I promise we’ll do everything we can to help keep everyone safe.”

“Once again if I thought otherwise we wouldn’t be having this discussion” Penny would reply returning the hug. “Let me know before you send out the PSA. I’d like to let the Sanctuary know first before the rest of the City does.”

Janet would nod. ”I was thinking you should be the one to send it out anyhow. So you’ll be the first to know.” She would pat her friend on the shoulder. ”We should get back to work. Let us know how the potions are received so we know better what should be the main focus.” The twins went back to what they were working on before as Penny headed out.

“Thank you, by the way, for everything” Penny would say over her shoulder before she left in a much better mood then when she arrived.

Fear.

That was what Faith felt at the moment. Mia and Connie were nice, but they were no replacement for Lotus. They had each other’s backs since escaping from Binky’s lab. That wasn’t the sort of experience you could forge with others on the fly. She wasn’t even sure how much longer Mia and Connie would want to be her friend. If Lotus could be taken from her so easily, why not them?

But it was a little more complicated than that.

Faith needed to be strong. Lotus had called her the true queen of Penrose. She needed to take up that mantle. Sanctuary was something she knew about, but just because you built some shabby shelter over the course of a few weeks didn’t mean you got to call yourself queen. No, you needed charisma, favor, spectacle, the things only a demi-goddess like herself could bring to the table. She hadn’t told Mia and Connie about her intentions yet. Part of her didn’t want them to get involved and hurt. Another part of her didn’t want them to tell her she couldn’t do it.

Presently, Faith was disguised as that blond doppelganger that Mia and Connie had mistaken for her. She was safe here. There were plenty of normal people around. An attack on civilians were rare these days. With the civilian population so low, it was easy for magical girls to come together and protect them. At least the ones that still lived in society. There were less fortunate ones who had lost their homes and had no means to leave Penrose. They were living on the streets, preyed upon every night by vicious monsters. 

Faith sat on a bench. She let out a sigh and watched her breath disperse in the cold air. There would be no taxi arriving. There was not enough going on in Penrose that a taxi driver could stay employed. Especially with services like ‘uber’ available. The bench was as obsolete as a phone booth.  

Heavily contrasted to the gloomy Faith, an effervescent, white-haired woman in a coat strolled on by, taking rather long and goofy steps as though she were trying to entertain herself. It was only after she walked past the girl on the bench did she notice Faith, stopping with one leg still in the air and reversing her step until she was back in front of her, even licking her lips before Faith had noticed her. “Eh~? Why the long face, Hilaria wonders~?”

There were a lot of responses Faith could have used.

I lost my best friend.

I was supposed to replace Cindy, but someone else snuck in before me.

I can’t get in contact with the rest of my alliance. They might be dead too. 

The only people I can rely on are two people I met about a week or so ago. 

But Faith didn’t respond with any of those. She stared at the abominable woman with wide eyes. She wasn’t use to people taking notice of her when she looked so plain.

”Well.” Faith hesitated as she struggled to think. ”Why, are you, so happy?”

“Hilaria just ate, so of course she’s in a good mood~!” she stated as though it should be obvious. She inspected Faith with a curious glint in her eye, then as if discovering the truth behind Faith’s unhappiness, clasped her hands together. “Oh, Hilaria sees~! Yes, she understands~ Mmhm~ Mmhmm~” she nodded repeatedly. “You must be hungry, yes~?”

Faith wasn’t hungry.Though Connie mentioned she had made a lot of friends at the rave. It was hard to believe. The thought of the masked girl approaching rave goers made Faith smile. Perhaps the reason why she was so successful was because she tried. 

”I could go for something to eat~!” She nodded along with Hilaria. ”Do you know of a good place?”

Hilaria nodded with even more enthusiasm. She had not been here particularly long but she had been around Penrose’s restaurants enough to know the good from the mediocre from the bad. However, it would first be prudent to understand Faith’s tastes before giving her advice. “But of course~! Within the depths of Hilaria’s consciousness lies an ever-expanding library containing records of each and every dish Hilaria has ever tried and their caliber~! Penrose cuisine is merely the latest chapter, and Hilaria thinks that it shall reach its conclusion before long~! Thus, when it comes to food, you can count on Hilaria~! But... Hilaria would like to know what manner of food you fancy, miss, umm~?”

”Faith!” She clapped her hands together. ”As for my preferences, Hilaria, I’m pretty easy. Well, easy to feed at least~! Though I really can’t get enough bananas. I eat them on cereal, pancakes, ice cream, almost anything! I suppose I prefer more, um ‘organic’ food?” She rested her chin in her palm. ”I don’t think too hard about what I eat, beyond bananas. Oh! And blueberries! Strawberries are good too!”

A shadow suddenly hid Hialria’s features as she began trembling. Through the darkness, Faith could see two glowing eyes before Hilaria then erupted. “Strawberries~!?” she took Faith’s hands into her own. “Hilaria loves strawberries too~!” she told the girl excitedly. “Say, do you like Sundaes~? Hilaria hasn’t had one in quite a while~” Quite a while was really more like a few days, but still. “Hilaria also knows some places to get smoothies, or some vegan restaurants if you’d prefer those~” Despite her fancy for meats, it wasn’t like she didn’t eat her vegetables, too.

”What’s with this woman’s fearsome aura?” As fearsome as the woman’s aura was, it sounded like she wouldn’t mind eating together. Not that a menacing individual was enough to scare away Faith all by themselves. Lotus had a similar aura about her too. ”If you haven’t had a sundae in a while, let’s go enjoy one of those~!”

Hilaria cheered. “Absolutely~!”

…

…

…

The two would begin walking but the shop Hilaria had in mind wasn't just sitting two seconds away, unfortunately. The ancient led the way with a skip in her step and, perhaps, was even more excited than she was earlier judging by her humming something. But not too long into the walk, she turned to face Faith while walking backward and posed a question out of the blue. "Does Faith not have people to eat sundaes with~?"

”Well, I do actually!” Of course, having ice cream in the dead of winter was kind of strange. Most ice cream shops closed this time of year because people usually wanted to have warm meals. There was never a bad time to have ice cream though. ”I just don’t have a lot of friends. Maybe two or three. I don’t want to impose on them every time I’m feeling hungry.” Replace “hungry” with “emotional” and her statement became a lot more honest. ”B-besides! Sharing a meal is a great way to make even more friends~!” She took Hilaria’s hand and began skipping in sync with her. ”Do you have many friends?”

She thought for a moment. “Hilaria has met a lot of people recently that she can eat with~” she answered in a vague way, her eyes seeming to wander off briefly. When they returned to Faith, she nodded. “Armadillo, Micky, Sopha, to name a few~” she closed her eyes and remembered the taste of the chicken she shared with the two magical girls. “Meals after fights always taste better in Hilaria’s opinion~!”

”Really now? That sounds like something one of my old friends would say.” Faith clapped her hands together. ”You must be a magical girl! We should transform and fight some monsters before our ice cream! And just to make it a little more special, we should transform with our backs to each other. And then when we turn around, voila~!”

Hilaria beamed an even bigger smile than before. The fact that she was entirely on board with the idea written on her face before she ever opened her mouth to speak. "Hilaria thinks that sounds fun~!" And honestly, any proactive movement against monsters was likely to be appreciated considering how rampant they'd been due to the incident with Dan. Hilaria was doing this for the food, though, so that really didn't matter. "Alright~ Hilaria will count to three, then we transform and turn around, yes~?"

”Yup!” The two girls backed up to each other. ”Start us off!” 

”One…”

“Two!”

”Three!”

”I would ride with you upon the wind, run on the top of the disheveled tide, and dance upon the mountains like a flame.”

"Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixture dementia fuit.”

After a surge of magical energy, both girls turned to look at each other. ”Haha!” Faith blinked when she saw Hilaria’s magical girl form. It looked familiar. She couldn’t place where she had seen it, but it was impossible for her to move. Fear held her in place.

Likewise, Hilaria did not move from her spot right away, but instead curiously inspected Faith. She licked her lips instinctively. A sense of familiarity washed over her but she wasn’t quite sure where she might have seen this girl before. But this sort of feeling wasn’t anything new to her since she had a habit of forgetting people, so she assumed it was just that. “Why, don’t you just look like a treat~” she teased, only now noticing Faith seemed to be troubled. “Mmm, is something wrong, Hilaria wonders~?”

”Ah!” Faith hugged herself and averted her eyes, ”I, um, I don’t know.” she looked back at Hilaria. ”I’m just a little shy I suppose!” She looked familiar, somewhere, Faith remembered being attacked by a shadow the other night. What did Mia call it? An edgy knight? Edgy swordsman? She hugged her shoulders. ”So um, monster slaying. I’ll follow your lead.” She wiggled her wings.

Hilaria shrugged. It was weird that she’d be shy considering she suggested it, but oh well. It was more important to figure out where they should go to get a nice fight in. There was an abundance of monsters in Penrose so it should not take long if one was attentive, but they were equally as likely to run into violent magical girls, too, given how things had become after the Rave. But as they moved, Hilaria noticed the girl behind her hadn’t been too talkative. “Hey~ Are you still alive back there, or did someone gobble you up~?”

”W-wha?” 

She vaguely remembered something. A dark shape moving at high speeds. A collision. A fall. Then she was rolled over, and on her stomach the only thing she could see was her attacker’s teeth…

”Hilaria.” Faith took a single step backwards. ”Do you ever eat people?”

Hilaria’s steps slowed until she stopped. “Mmm~?” The aura around her seemed… darker, somehow as she turned around, flashing an unsettling smile. “What are you asking, Faith~?”

That was all she needed to hear. 

Faith turned around and ran back towards civilization, believing in safety in numbers.

“Eh? Eh?” 

Hilaria was certainly caught surprised by her sudden and hasty retreat. Had she said something wrong to Faith? Well, this wasn’t good! How could they eat sundaes together if she wasn’t there to enjoy them?! 

There were faster girls than Hilaria when it came to running. Many, in fact. Her sprint speed was nothing to be proud of since her area of expertise and focus was centered around being an immovable object that you could not ignore. Thus, when it came to running, she was rather lacking. 

But running wasn’t the only method of maneuvering around that was afforded to her. With her strong, thick thighs and her gravity spec, it was not hard for her to jump where running would be too slow. So, Faith would hear a period crashing behind her as Hilaria made leaps to keep up. “W-wait~! What’s the matter~?” She called out. If Hilaria had intentionally made her flee she wouldn’t have bothered chasing Faith, but this was really confusing for her. “Hilaria promises you that she hasn’t eaten anyone~! Not in a long time, at least~!”

That just made Faith run faster. 

To a bystander the chase might have looked like a frog chasing a fly. Faith was swift and nimble, but Hilaria’s powerful jumps enabled her to keep pace. Faith would need obstacles if she wanted to stay ahead of Hilaria.

Their chase brought them between two buildings, each one covered with snow. The path was narrow and there was little room to maneuver. But as soon as Hilaria set foot in the place, Faith strummed her harp. The vibrating harp strings resonated with the metal roofs, which shed their payload. While the snow fell, the fairy attempted to lose Hilaria by turning a corner and running down another street.

Hilaria had summoned her scutum and brought it in front of her, pushing forward and attempting to use it as a makeshift snow plow, regrettably incapable of making use of a leap in the tight space she found herself in. The snow descending from the rooftops clashed with her shield but she won out in the end, powering through and reaching the other side. This did not prevent her from losing sight of the girl she was chasing, unfortunately, but she wouldn’t give up just yet. There were other senses one could use aside from sight to locate someone. 

“It’s a very bad thing to do, Hilaria knows~! That’s why she doesn’t do it anymore~!” she tried explaining. “Even if it tastes really good, people don’t like other people who eat people, so Hilaria doesn’t do that~! She swears~!” the girl started heading down a street she thought Faith might’ve gone as she called out. 

Faith watched Hilaria run down the street. She had crouched behind a garbage can and waited for Hilaria to pass her. She kept her voice down, and even breathed as slowly as she could. Once she was sure the giant had gone away, Faith crept back into the alleyway and started to back track. That was until she felt a tickling sensation at the end of her nose.

”Ah-choo!”

Hilaria paused, turning back towards the direction of the sneeze. She lingered for a moment but, perhaps assuming it was more snow falling down, continued down the path, disappearing from view shortly after. 

Once Faith thought the coast was clear and decided to backtrack, she found that she was mistaken in assuming she’d lost the ancient. A strong gravitational pull snagged her, and although it did not drag her from where she was standing, it made it difficult to move away from its origin that, of course, was Hilaria, who was leaning against a wall, arms crossed and her eyes focused elsewhere. "If Hilaria ate people, then there'd be nobody to eat with," she sighed. "Hilaria doesn't want that. She doesn't have much else she can enjoy anymore, so why would she ruin it?" 

Faith groaned. Being stuck like this was terrifying, but if Hilaria had this kind of power, then she probably could have eaten Faith already if that was what she wanted. But Hilaria had to be the person who attacked her. At least, it was the only person who made sense. Though Penrose was the sort of place where little of anything followed a logical thread.

”Okay.” Faith surrendered to the pull of gravity and allowed her body to drift to Hilaria’s side. ”I got in a workout. Let’s get something to eat.”

…

…

…

Hilaria and Faith found themselves sitting at a table in a small place called Sweet Victory. The store had no particular identity, but the color scheme was this unflattering mixture of brown and pink that was not too easy on the eyes. If there was a silver lining to this place, it was that that probably meant people only came here because the eats were good. 

The two had placed their orders, with Hilaria making sure she got a banana split. But as they waited, Hilaria seemed interested in Faith. “Hilaria wants to know… why you suddenly ran away like that~” she was sure she’d have to keep an eye on Faith on the way here but that proved unnecessary.  

”Well, you said you ate people. You ate a magical girl in the past.” Faith’s arms remained folded on the table. ”I figured if you ate ‘her,’ you were going to eat me.” She lowered her head into her arms. ”You also look like someone who bit me yesterday. I’ve been told I’m quite the dish, but I’d rather not be consumed if I can help it.”

Hilaria nodded in understanding. “Oh, Hilaria supposes that makes sense~ But Hilaria hasn’t done that sort of thing in centuries, you know~!” she tried recalling the exact circumstances of her last bout of cannibalism but drew yet another blank. “And she never did it intentionally, either~! Eating people is very bad~!” She opted against adding, “even if they taste good” because somehow, she imagined, that would probably upset Faith more. “But you got bit yesterday~? How horrible~! Since you mistook Hilaria for them, Hilaria assumes they got away~?” She inquired as she found her finger impatiently tapping on the table. Given her occasional glances towards the employee of the joint, she was eager to have her sundae. “Where was this~?”

”It was at the park, if memory serves.” Faith brushed back her hair and showed Hilaria the back of her neck. ”I don’t remember what happened, but the following day I woke up with a sore neck. Or I suppose it hurt when I rotated it a certain way.” She moved off of her chair and onto Hilaria’s lap so that she could take a closer look. ”You can’t really see the mark now, because my friends healed it all up~! But yes, this part of my neck was all sore, that must have been where they bit me.” She traced the area with her finger.

While they talked the bell would chime on the rare occasion as other patrons came and went. No one paid the two girls chatting at the table much mind. The luxury of the vail.

Back at the table, Hilaria inspected the faded remains of a scar closely, admiring the work of whoever healed it as the wound probably would have been fatal otherwise. She was not sure what Faith would have done to evoke such a brutal reaction from someone, especially since tearing out a throat was something a wolf or beast would do. But a magical girl? She must have been beast spec'd. 

"Oh, aren't you a lucky one~?" Hilaria wasn't bothered by Faith's closeness one bit until she found herself almost licking her lips yet again. It must have been because she hadn't had her ice cream yet, or so she reasoned. "Hilaria knows that sort of thing can be scary~" she said, deciding to trace her own finger over it. "Oh, how often Hilaria has woke up with no recollection of the night before and small wounds on her neck is just too much~!" Well, 'wounds’ was an exaggeration for love bites, but... 

”If I was truly lucky, it likely wouldn’t have happened to begin with, haha~!” Faith found herself hunching as Hilaria felt around the area. The sensation wasn’t entirely unwelcome, Lotus would do this sort of thing to her as well. She found herself relaxing until the counter person waved their hand. ”Oh! I think the ice cream’s ready~!” She hopped off Hilaria’s lap and darted for the front counter. When she returned, she placed the banana splits on the table.

They were a thing of beauty. A ripe, firm banana had been split down the middle, and the gap between the two halves had been filled with ice cream. A scoop of vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate had been mounded in whipped cream and topped with a cherry. Faith had ordered the “breakfast” version, which was topped with nuts, granola, peanut butter syrup, and garnished with strawberries and blueberries. Hilaria’s split was instead garnished with sprinkles of every shape, mini chocolate chips, and chocolate syrup had been drizzled over the entire thing. 

”They look rather tasty! Good thing I didn’t know about this place until today~!” Faith took her spoon and carved off a little bit of her split. ”If you’d like to try some of mine, just let me know~! I don’t know if I can finish it.”

The two dug into their respective sundaes, with Hilaria letting out small squeals of enjoyment just about every time she put her spoon into her mouth. One need not ask what her opinion on it was and soon she finished almost the entire thing, shutting her eyes and sitting in silence as if to savor the treat. Once some moments passed, she opened her eyes and smiled. “Hilaria really enjoyed that~!” She exclaimed as she looked at Faith to see where she was in all of this. Maybe she’d get lucky and Faith’d get full?

”Yes! It may be a bit cold out, but you really can’t go wrong with ice cream~!” Faith had managed to eat all of her strawberry scoop and the banana, but her split was mostly intact. ”I think if I eat too quickly I’ll get a headache, but it is very good!” She lifted a spoonful of vanilla to her lips. ”At least it won’t melt~!” With a sigh, she looked at the rest of her treat. ”I don’t suppose you’d be willing to help with this, would you?”

“OF COURSE~” her tone suddenly picked up. Realizing this, she waved her hand. “H-Hilaria got a bit too excited, sorry~” with Faith’s permission, Hilaria would start helping her finish what she had started, one bite at a time. 

Though Hilaria could bite pretty quickly. 

”A-Ah. I see.” Faith hadn’t actually watched Hilaria eat her own split, so she was unaware of how fast this girl could eat. It wasn’t a race, but she was certainly eating like it was. Yet at the same time, it seemed like she was enjoying every spoonful. There was something endearing about seeing someone so happy to eat ice cream, but Faith couldn’t get distracted. Just because she was sharing this with Hilaria didn’t mean she was going to let her finish the whole thing by herself. She hadn’t even tasted the chocolate yet. And why was she eating all the blueberries? 

As they ate, Faith found herself getting more competitive. She wasn’t sure, but it seemed like Hilaria had the same strategy she did. She was going to finish eating all the fruit before going onto the ice cream scoops themselves. It was true that Faith had asked for help, but she didn’t need quite this much help. She couldn’t just tell Hilaria to stop, both because it was rude and because Hilaria had purchased everything. So she’d continue to compete in silence. Faith’s spoon fulls were getting bigger. She was getting faster. She was even switching between fruit and ice cream in an attempt to starve off a headache.

Finally there was only a single spoonful left. Faith was still swallowing, but there was no point in being indecisive about this. By this point she had perfected this technique of turning the spoon and then curling it to get as much ice cream off the bottom of the bowl as possible. Hilaria’s spoon came in from the opposite direction, and the final bit of ice cream was cupped between their silverware. Together, they picked it up, and together, it raised. It was clear that the first person to get it would be the first one to get their lips over to the spoon.

The race was on.

But Faith had a strategy for this. If she bent over the top of the spoons, she would just end up hitting her forehead against Hilaria. But maybe if she approached from the side, then she could suck the ice cream directly into her mouth. She had to be careful though. If either of them moved their spoon the wrong way, it would just fall into the bowl again. But Faith had abandoned indecision long ago. 

She cupped her lips.

She swooped in.

She inhaled. 

She could taste the vanilla ice cream on her tongue. 

But in her haste she hadn’t realized Hilaria was doing the same thing, and the ice cream was the only thing filling the breach between their lips. And once that was consumed…

”!”

Faith pulled her head back. There was still a little sliver of ice cream on her cheek. ”I-I must anthologize! My mother would not approve of such a barbaric display on my part.” She set down her spoon and folded her hands in her lap.

Faith would notice Hilarai was visibly confused at her sudden apology. "~?" she yet again licked her lips free of the ice cream still on them, giving a content sigh. However, she noticed the bit still left on Faith's cheek and reached over the table to swipe it with her finger, sucking it clean. "Hilaria doesn't think that was brutal~ It was fun, if anything~!" Table manners should always come second to the enjoyment of the meal, and Hilaria wasn't the sort to really think twice about a kiss, especially if it was accidental. 

"It was fun to watch though." A vaguely familiar voice would say from the neighboring table. 

The two's attention would turn to see Janet and Jenna sitting at the table next to them. Where did they come from? How did they find them? How long had they been there? They both apparently had the time to not only sit, but take an order, receive it, and nearly finish before even being noticed. Since when were knights ninjas? Janet was casually munching on what remained of a cone. "I see Hilde fixed you up with the artifact we lent her. How you feeling?" Her eyes drifted over to Hilaria. "Didn't expect to find you with her though." She raised her eyebrows just a bit.

As the twins suddenly entered their conversation, Hilarial tilted her head. Context clues made it obvious they knew Faith to some extent, but they also implied they knew her as well. "Um, Hilaria is sorry but it doesn't look like you were important enough to remember~!" she gave a slight bow. When she lifted her head up, she questioned them. "But why is it unexpected for us to be together~?" she looked down at her chest, then back to Faith's, then to the twins. Two of these things were not like the others. "Hilaria doesn't discriminate, you know~!"

Faith remained silent untill Hilaria spoke up. ”I was doing a bit better before you showed up, admittedly.” She slid her seat closer to Hilaria. ”Is there a reason you’re stalking us?”

Janet made a face as Hilaria made some arbitrary connection. What even... whatever. Shaking off the confusion Janet would sigh. "No, not really. Sorry about that. We were actually looking for Hilaria and you were here too. Though we did hope to get the chance to talk with you as well." She would put her hands up for a moment. "And we're not here on any official Beacon business. This is just us." She would try and get rid of some tension. Though to be fair that might be easier said than done.

"You were looking for Hilaria~?" she asked. She then smiled at them. "Oh, Hilaria sees~ If you want to eat with Hilaria, then all you have to do is ask~! The more, the merrier, after all~"

Faith took a napkin and cleaned her face. ”What did you want to talk about?”

The two girls would split and focus on each girl individually. Jenna taking Hilaria in this case. "I would love to. I do have something important to talk to you about though..." The last part she would communicate telepathically. Helewisa.

While her sister engaged Hilaria, Janet would lean against her chair. "Cindy wanted to talk, actually. She doesn't get the opportunity to see many people she knew at the moment. You'll understand in a moment why in a moment. If you're up for speaking with her that is." She smiled slightly and waited for a response.

”Oh.” Faith blinked. ”Well, Cindy is dead. Though I’m aware you managed to fuse part of Amber’s soul to Hilde. I don’t know what type of experiments you’ve been running, but I’m not interested in participating in them.” She stood up. ”Hilaria, did you want to go anywhere? I don’t feel safe here.”

Hearing her name evoked only negative emotions in Hilaria. This girl would use her name so freely? This lackey? Who the hell did she think she was? It was enough to infuriate the ancient. "Hilaria suggests you never use that name, particularly in her company, ever again," she 'advised' Jenna. The 'young' woman's tone was a far cry from what it had been. Her ditzy-like mask shattered in an instant. She, like Faith, stood up from her seat. "To at least speak their business is something Hilaria can allow," she explained to Faith, looking then to Jenna, waiting for her to begin. 

Jenna would bite her lip. She was glad she didn't say the name out loud. She would hold her hands out. "Forgive me. Had I known I wouldn't have." She would stay seated but would gesture for her to sit. "I learned of it while caring for your sister." She would explain. When they first met her it was about the only thing she would say apparently. "She was worried about you, so we took it upon ourselves to find you." Her expression was one of concern rather than fear despite Hilaria's strong reaction.

The apology looked to have propitiated the ancient if only a little, though the subject at hand was not one she enjoyed. She was, however, intrigued. "Worried? Hilaria isn't sure why she would be concerned. But it’s bold of her to treat Hilaria like a child if she needs caretakers, is it not?" she was much less hostile than she previously was, at least. 

Cindy would then appear in place of Janet, watching Jenna. A slight smile appearing on her face. "Would almost be amusing to observe these two court danger were I not in some way one of them." She would regard the remains of a cone in her hand for the briefest of moments before discarding it in the bowl that Jenna had been eating from. She would look Faith up and down. "I am pleased to see you are well my dear Faith. I had hoped to be better received by yourself. Seeing as whom you were conversing I shan't blame you. Your insinuation of the twins is substantiated. They have an odd way of stumbling their way into preserving things. But I am no experiment of theirs."

Faith partially stepped behind Hilaria. ”They’re Beacon scientists.” She explained to her white haired friend. ”They captured a dangerous scientist so that they could use them to their own ends, and they’ve been doing experiments with people’s souls.” She placed one of her hands on Hilaria’s shoulder. ”Well?” She addressed Cindy this time. ”Out with it, what did you want to say?”

Jenna pressed her lips for a moment. She didn’t have much to offer in the way of what Ishtar meant. She did know one thing for sure. ”We were not allowed to speak with her very long so I don’t know the details. She wished to see you again and was rather distraught that she nearly lost that chance. She misses you. That’s it, we just wanted to make sure you knew.” She looked at the floor for a moment.

Her eyes drifted over to Faith who seemed genuinely concerned that they might do something to them. Now she looked hurt. Though they had only had chance encounters with the fairy girl and the things they did were pretty high level and bizzare. She was about to say something when Cindy raised a hand to stop her.

Sitting up Cindy appeared perturbed. This was no way to treat an ally. "I had hoped to simply 'have a chat' as they say." She raised a hand and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I did not prepare a specific message to give you. If I must be brief then know that I intend to honor our agreement with Outer Penrose." Removing her hand she would look Faith in the eyes. "The Howell twins and I shall continue to defend Penrose and do our utmost to see that Beacon changes. I do not wish for our friends and compatriots to face the same persecution we have endured for ages. I have seen the results of others work and I believe there is hope yet for such an outcome." Despite having a new face, the eyes of one growing weary of conflict was visible in Cindy for a moment. Hilaria might have noticed it more readily than Faith depending on how long she'd been a magical girl.

Janet wanted to clear something up if she could. "The soul you were speaking of. We didn't know whos it was or where it came from. We simply gave it a home in a Soul Jar and later a patron used it to create a new magical girl." She wasn't here to explain everything though. There was a pause and in it she stood up. "Anyway, we should probably go. Sorry to have interrupted your day." She would look at Cindy who seemed hesitant to leave. 

Eventually though the Lightning girl would stand and begin to step away, only to stop and revert back to Janet. She had one last thing before they parted. Given she missed some of the tension she seemed in lighter spirits when she turned to look back. Her attention went to Faith. "Thanks for helping Hilde with her name by the way. She was pretty excited to tell us about it." Smiling she would turn to follow her sister.

As soon as they left, Faith let out a long sigh. ”I don’t know who to trust anymore.” She practically collapsed onto the table with both palms. ”She sounded like Cindy, but that wasn’t her body. I still can’t get a hold of Nuncio, and without Sammy or the Rockstars, I don’t know if there’s anything left of the Outer Alliance.” She dropped herself into a chair. ”Penny has ascended to the throne, everyone seems to have left me for dead. Save for a few people, and you.” She looked at her fingers. After wiggling them a bit, she looked back at Hilaria. ”Hilaria, am I being paranoid? They are allied with the people who killed my closest friend, can I trust them?”

Hilaria could not help but feel irritated at what she perceived as Isabella's clinginess, but she also felt a modicum of happiness. Positive emotions involving things that were not edible was, of course, quite rare for Hilaria. "Mmm~" it seemed her speech returned to normal as things settled down. She glanced at the conflicted Faith with a soft gaze. "Hilaria avoids placing trust in people since that usually ends up hurting her~" she said such a depressing thing in such a nonchalant way that it made it easy to overlook. 

Of course, this did not answer Faith's question. Hilaria tapped a finger to her chin. "Hilaria can relate, however~ It is difficult to place any Faith in those who have wronged you so dearly~" she wasn't aware of the exact circumstances behind Faith's friend's death so it was difficult to give advice. "But most people tend not to cause another to suffer unless they benefit in some way~ Would they gain anything by betraying you~?"

”I don’t know.” She shook her head. ”I fear they may wish to harm me after invoking Gaia’s wrath on them. Those holy types tend to shun the earth mother when she reveals herself.”

Hilaria patted her back. “Then they are ignorant~ Hilaria knows ignorant people are the most dangerous~! You need only look towards the Ascendancy to see that, though~” 

Faith nodded. ”Then it was wise to let them go.” With a sigh, she leaned back in her chair. ”Thank you for the ice cream, Hilaria. I do feel better having consumed a frozen treat. I will have to treat you next time~!” A smile crossed her lips. ”Can I have your phone number? I would love to introduce you to my other friends.”

Grabbing her phone from the depths of her chest, she nodded. “Of course~!” she smiled. “Hilaria can always use more people to eat with~!” 

After the two exchanged numbers, Hilaria stood up. “Hilaria wants to go check on something, though, so she’ll see you later~” and after that, the ancient went ahead and left, intending on visiting her sister.

Mariette’s phone would ring from an unlisted number. Given she didn’t get very many calls there were only a handful of people it could possibly be. Her contact details were pretty tightly held to her chest.

Mariette was located in Penrose, inside an abandoned apartment sitting on a couch with Eli nearby keeping the walls reinforced and darkness-blessed for stealth, looking through tiny portals to identify the current state of the forces around Penrose. It was irritating that she’d invested a fair amount of power to try to balance the strength standing against Beacon, only for their leader to get destroyed, so now Mariette was trying to assess how the survivors were faring and if they still held any form of unity, and perhaps just take her monsters back if she found them unworthy… when her phone rang. Mariette closed all portals before holding her phone up, and frowned. She was pretty sure she had the numbers of every person she’d given her number to registered. ‘Eli, be close,’ she said, and Eli skipped over to stand next to her. Mariette then created a portal underneath her, in case a quick escape was needed… then she answered.

‘Who is this?’ she asked, skipping to have any form of introduction.

The voice on the other end also skipped the idle chatter. She would likely recognize the voice from observing the caller in the past, despite it being different when she was kidnapped of course. ”This is Janet Howell. Cindy Ford provided me your number because she may have need of your assistance.”

Not someone Mariette had expected to hear calling her. Also not someone she’d have expected calling her on behalf of.

‘… I see.’ Baffling circumstances aside… ‘What did she want me to help with?’

”She may need some product moved discreetly. She or I would do it ourselves, but it is very likely that the Ascendancy is tracking our movements. I don’t think I need to explain how that could go wrong pretty quick.”

Mariette took a moment to process what she’d heard. She then gave the slightest noise of amusement, the first exhale of a would-have-been chuckle. ‘How is she doing?’ she asked gently, decently curious to hear this.

”Surprisingly well for someone that’s dead. But as they say, a mind is a terrible thing to waste.” Perhaps a not so subtle hint, depending on the portal girl’s uptake.

It told Mariette all she needed to know. Still dead, but her mind was still around, somehow maintained by one or both the Howells. Explained why Mariette hadn’t seen her on the streets, and why the Ascendancy would be tracking a member of Beacon. ‘I understand. Very well. I’m keen to hear the details.’

Good, that was straight forward enough. ”As you well know the city is in chaos and Beacon is currently taking no prisoners. Cindy has been ‘given the opportunity’ to present redemption to those she wishes to protect. Likely a ploy to have us lead them where they want to go. I do not agree with their methods and firmly believe in second chances. Obviously.” Considering who she was talking to. She was no fan, but that didn’t change her mantra.

‘Nice to hear,’ Mariette said, in maybe audible irony.

Janet would roll her eyes a bit, even though it couldn’t be seen. Or could it? Didn’t matter. ”Most of the details will have to be worked out at a later date. You won’t need to be present for the dropoff though.” Doubtedly she would want to be. Simply to be clear that Mariette did not need to put herself at undue risk.

‘Very well. Now, do I do this out of my fealty towards our fallen queen, out of the goodness of my heart, or because I might one day gain something in return?’ Mariette asked, albeit she’d already made up her mind.

A rather expected question. ”I doubt there’s much to gain if the Ascendancy ends up killing everyone or The Mint takes over the city. Doesn’t take much to guess that neither of us are fans of Justine being in town either though.”

Mariette gave another little noise of mild amusement. ‘Very true. Alright, I will deliver your goods. It’s what my powers excel at, after all. Would it be too much to tell me what they are?’

Tell the truth, lie, make up nonsense? Eh, not like she couldn’t get a hold of it afterward if she really wanted. Mariette was resourceful. ”Depends on what Cindy can make happen. You’re welcome to one if you’d like. Never know when you might need an out.”

‘…’ Mariette wasn’t very impressed with the vagueness. It meant asking further questions was meaningless. But very well. She’d take that as permission to examine the contents. ‘Alright. You have my number. Call me again with the details. Naturally, I will scrutinize them, I can’t ever entirely trust the word of a member of Beacon, as you can imagine, but I am prepared to do my part for Cindy.’

‘Just one more thing I’m wondering, however,’ Mariette continued. ‘What is Cindy’s next ambition? What does she- and you -hope to achieve with this exchange?’

Ah, this she could answer more directly. ”Penrose is being torn apart in a war. Escalation will see a lot of unnecessary pain and death of those caught in the crossfire. The goal is still the same, protect those under her charge. All that changes is the method. Many run to The Mint for fear of Beacon. Beacon seeks those out for their corruption. If Beacon has no reason to target them then we solve both problems."

That statement basically confirmed to Mariette what the package contained.

‘Did Cindy really decide that? Truly? “Because Beacon won't change, we must change to stay safe”? … Death has a way of putting things into perspective, I see,’ Mariette told, her tone completely neutral as she did. ‘Still, it is not my concern. I will deliver the package, giving them the alternative. That should suffice, should it not?’

Janet bit her tongue. If only things were so simple. ”That will, yes.”

‘Will that be all for now, then?’ Mariette asked.

”Yes.”

‘Alright. I’ll look forward to your next call.’

Janet would hang up after thanking Mariette. She looked at the phone for a moment before shocking it to death. This was not one of her favorite plans. But between Cindy, the Ascendancy breathing down their neck, and a number of other things keeping Mariette on reasonable terms was necessary. They were certainly walking a thin line.

---

Alicia making the arrangements, and Rachel allowing the meeting, Cindy walked through Beacon HQ to meet up with Hyun Long. Thus far she hadn’t done much other than allow the twins to work. It was not the most ideal prospect, but considering when the other was dormant they couldn’t tell the passage of time it was not as grating as one might expect. She’d gone on one patrol with Penny before meeting with the Inquisitor and she’d been seen leaving after. Rumor of who she could be was beginning to stir in Beacon. So far her name hadn’t been leaked. Still it was known that she was something of an outsider permitted to come and go. How closely she was watched though when on site was pretty obvious to most everyone.

Cindy stepped up to one of the interrogation rooms situated in the basement floor of the Beacon HQ; a familiar place to Janet Howell, but not one to the girl who entered. And there, sitting at the opposite end of a table was a girl whom Cindy recognized with difficulty; Hyun Long.
She lifted her head up as she saw Cindy, looking confused. "You wanted to speak with me, correct?" She seemed wary of Cindy.

Walking as she studied the girl a bit her expression was rather curious. Taking a seat she calmly placed her hands on the table where they could be seen. ”That is correct. I wanted to know how you are. As you see I also find myself in a rather unexpected position with Beacon.” She would offer a slight smile and a nod. ”I have to say, I almost did not recognize you. This is the first time seeing the results of the White Coin. I must admit I am impressed at its capabilities.” Waving a hand she dismissed the thought. She was not here to gawk at such.

A slight expression of concern crossed her as she leaned forward. ”As I said though, I am here to know of your experience. You appear well. Lovely even. I hope the transformation was not unpleasant. Have you been treated well?” She seemed genuinely concerned. Despite their past Hyun was still one of her girls. Offering her to be present at the rave was her fault and a grave mistake in hindsight.

Hyun’s eyebrow rose. “Well, I am doing fine, physically speaking. As for my feelings, I am still a bit...” Hyun turned silent. “Wait, what do you mean by an unexpected position?” She examined the girl over. “Have we met before?”

Closing her eyes for a moment Cindy would press her lips together. Perhaps they had simply told Hyun that someone wished to speak with her. ”Ah, they did not explain to you then. Had I known you were unaware I would have had Janet walk in and explain the matter. Whom were you expecting to speak with?” She watched to gauge the girl’s response.

Hyun bit her lip. “Well, I wasn’t really sure. I’ve been kept in training away from the others, so I haven’t met many of my fellows. I suppose it’s because of my past…” She averted her eyes.

”I see.” She would clear her throat. ”Well, that is interesting to hear. But as to your query, yes. We have met before. A great many things have changed in a short time. No doubt you have heard that Cindy Ford was killed. While word may be true, it does not fully reflect reality. For her mind was preserved by a Beacon girl. And along side her own consciousness they both exist. That girl sits before you now.” She spoke calmly and folded her hands together, leaning her elbows against the surface of the table.

Hyun put a hand to her mouth to stifle a gasp, taken aback by the reveal. "Unbelievable! So you're not truly Cindy, but a memory of her? I don't know what to say." She held her head, looking confused. "I've had enough to think with my own transformation, let alone yours."

The reaction was well enough, and Cindy sat back a bit. "That is indeed the case. You needn't worry about my state at this time. The Beacon girl, Janet, has been most amicable and we have come to a mutual bond. We both wish to see Penrose restored and a peace between our people. It has been an unusual learning experience for me." She would Muse. She would not stick on the subject of herself too long. "I apologize for what you have gone through. I realize now I must be more cautious with whom I align. By allowing you to be at the rave I put you and many others in undue danger." Cindy was holding herself notably more responsible for events than she ordinarily displayed. A facet of leadership often ignored by the girl. "While Janet and I have agreed to work together, I am still curious about the rest of Beacon. This White Coin of theirs is intriguing and I wish to know how you're been treated thus far." She would leave her query at that.

Hyun blinked, and looked down. “Peace...That is something I have yearned for a long time...And I had finally been granted it.” She looked at her open hand. “For so long, a terrible void gnawed at me from within. Usually, I could keep it under reins, like a flood door. But then, that happened...” She sighed, and listened to Cindy.
“It’s alright. You took me in and granted me a safe location, where I could be away from the others, away from temptation. It wasn’t your fault that it happened.”
She nodded at her statement, and then looked up at her.
“At first, when I woke up, the Inquisitor was there, and asked me many questions; who I was, and so on. It was what I expected, but then, she asked me that I could atone, that I could work to set things right. To someone like me, that was incredible. They let me train and become a Beacon magical girl, despite all the terrible things I’ve done...I can’t thank Beacon enough for their forgiveness.”

Somewhere deep inside, there was still a small part of Cindy that hoped what Hyun was saying wasn't true. It was from an old bitter girl that couldn't quite let go. Things were different now though. Had she heard this a couple weeks ago she wouldn't have believed it. Still, it meant that in some shape or form Rachel wasn’t entirely lying to her. "I am glad to hear of this. Do you suppose there are others like yourself that would accept the same offering?"

Hyun nodded. "Absolutely. While it can be very strict in Beacon, and your every move is closely followed, it also means you're with people who actually care for you. Back when I was corrupted, I ate all my friends…" She stated with a tone of remorse. "But now, I can have friends and not worry about having them as my next meal. Not to mention the family they are preparing for me." She took a picture from her wallet and showed it to Cindy. "They live out of town, but they promised I can be adopted soon." She smiled sweetly as she looked at it. "I know girls who would kill for that."

Cindy would look at the photo. She’d clashed with the twins and Alicia just a bit over the Fake Parents thing. Seeing Hyun’s joy of being adopted though took her by surprise. Was a normal family really something so coveted? The girl sat down and exhaled a bit. A lot of what she believed was being challenged in ways she never imagined. The White Coin was only the latest way that Beacon could purify corrupted girls. However, Beacon has had their ritual for ages. She wondered to herself how many she may have dissuaded from something they wished to have. ”Mm… I must consider this. Might there be any other matters I should know of?” She would lean back in her seat and cross her arms. She very clearly was thinking through everything being told to her.

Hyun lightly pushed her hair aside as she thought. "Well, I suppose that I was surprised by how I no longer felt a connection to my old Patron. The White Coin transformed that magical connection on use. So if the people want to try that, they should know all the details."

Cindy would nod. "Yes, I will be sure to detail that. Might there be anything you would like me to tell the others?"

“Uh...I don’t know,” Hyun replied. “I was never really good at talking to people. Just let them know I’m doing fine, and that I’m much happier after my purification.”

”Very well, I shall do that. It pleases me to know that you are doing well and are being cared for. It is what I truly wanted.” It felt as though things were winding down at this point. Before getting up to leave however she would give a bright smile. ”Perhaps once you’ve become more adjusted and things are restored we can meet again and talk in a more casual atmosphere. You can tell me all about your new life. There is yet more work to be done in the meantime.”

Hyun nodded. "Yeah. I will." Before Cindy left the room, Hyun went up to her and hugged the shorter girl. "Thank you for visiting. It's good to see a familiar face."

If not for Jenna and her parent's seeming need for hugs Cindy might have reacted differently. This was also someone familiar though, and one of the few she could feel truly safe around in Beacon. "Agreed. I have needed such myself." Letting go the two parted ways. Cindy came away with all the more to think about.

---

Requesting to speak with the Cardinal, the twin's had to wait a while before being granted any access. Even when they were given permission to speak with her it was only going to be for a few minutes and they were going to be watched. The last requirement was assumed given Cindy’s presence. Either way they were escorted to where Ishtar was waiting. The leader’s recovery was still clearly underway as she was confined to a wheelchair. Seating being provided Janet and Jenna would make use of the chairs.

”Cardinal.” She would address the girl respectfully, but in return, she was met with a weak, pitiful look. The Cardinal had one hand wrapped in a white cast with golden runes inscribed on it, and holding it with her other hand. She also had darkened eyebags that showed signs of her insomnia. She first attempted to say something, but nothing could be heard as she parted her lips. Then, when she tried again, the twins barely heard her utter: “...Helewisa...”

The two were rather confused. They considered trying to see what she was thinking, but that would be a bad idea. Better to just ask. ”Who is Helewisa?” Jenna would ask both the Cardinal and the other girl in the room. The assistant girl shook her head.

The Cardinal slowly reached out to Jenna with her unwrapped hand, seemingly wishing to hold hers.
“...The black monster...She is....my sister...” She answered, each word seemingly straining her.
“...She tried to...save me...And...she...needs me...”

Very gently taking the hand, Jenna would try and sort out the broken sentence. She hadn’t been there for the whole fight, but the only one she could think of that matched that description of that night was the one she teleported. ”...The...berzerker?” Her tone uncertain.

The Cardinal’s grip was weak on Jenna’s, seemingly requiring effort on her part not to lose hold of it. She slowly nodded.
“...Thank you...for saving me...” She then said, and managed what could be interpreted as a smile. “...You gave me...another chance to...see her...before she disappears...again...”

Very slowly and carefully Jenna would allow some of her healing magic to stabilize Ishtar. She didn’t want to stress her any more than needed, for now while they were in contact it should ease her pain and make speaking less of a struggle. ”It was our pleasure. But everyone else helped too.” Having to bail at one point the two weren’t going to take more credit than they thought was due.

The magic seemed to help with relaxing Ishtar’s hand and voice, even if it wasn’t a major improvement. “Yes...That is right.” She frowned. “I heard about...What happened. Terrible loss...” She lowered her head down, but managed to lift her eyes up to the twins. “Oh, I’m...sorry. Did you want to ask...something?”

Even though the moment was sad, Janet would offer an encouraging smile and words. ”It’s quite alright. It hasn’t been easy on any of us.” She would pause for a moment. ”We suppose our question is related to why you were here from the beginning. Were you seeking some kind of peaceful resolution?” There was much more she could add to that question. Throwing a bunch of things that needed answering would probably be asking too much. Best to keep them simple.

The Cardinal nodded again. “I wanted to ensure...The Ascendancy does not...go to extremes. But...I failed...” She now began to shed tears. “Now...There is blood on the streets...And if this continues...” She released Jenna’s hand, letting it droop from the side of the wheelchair.
“Please...Tell Alicia...to not give up. She can save Penrose...But only if she...has the courage to...do the right thing.”

Leaning forward further Jenna would take Ishtar’s hand to reconnect her with her magic. ”We’ve learned a lot since that night. The details we can discuss some other time. For now, know that what’s happened isn’t because of anything you didn’t do.” Breaking into a big smile she would speak confidently. ”And if we know Alicia, she’ll never give up. She’s not alone either. We’re working on it.”

Ishtar sniffled, and now reached out with her wrapped hand as well. “Thank you, Janet, Jenna...I’m glad to have met you.”

Janet wasn’t entirely sure what the Cardinal intended when reaching out, but either way she would take the wrapped hand caringly. ”Trust me, the feeling is mutual.”

Ishtar smiled, seemingly having forgotten the condition of her hand.

Suddenly, the assistant girl called out: “Visiting time is now over.” She took hold of the wheelchair, and began to slowly turn the Cardinal away from the twins. Ishtar herself still continued extending the wrapped hand, until finally she returned it to her lap.
“Goodbye for now...Janet and Jenna. I believe in you,” she said as she was being taken out of the room.

Five minutes already? ”W-wait, there’s one more thing. Please.” She would plead standing up. The caretaker would probably not stop, but Jenna would follow just a bit. ”We were given a message. The new Queen after Cindy, she’s not opposed to peace and is willing to talk to Janet and I.” She wasn’t expecting much from Ishtar herself, but perhaps something could be worked out so they could operate more freely.

Ishtar had just crossed the doorframe when she suddenly gripped the doorframe with her hand, stopping the wheelchair from moving and surprising the assistant. “Cardinal!” She yelped, and moved over to remove the hand.
The blonde girl turned her head back while the assistant was distracted, and gave an affirmative nod before she was swiftly rolled out, disappearing behind the corner.

Well, they got the message across. No telling how that would end up. Suppose they would just have to wait and see if it resulted in anything. Still, they had managed to lift the girl’s spirits which was potentially more than they expected. The two would exit without any further fare.

---

The cold wind blew across the city. Winter almost made the city feel normal as more people stayed indoors and the snow covered up some of the minor damage scattered about. There was one area that needed a significant amount of work that had mostly been fixed up by the magical community. Entirely unrelated to the recent conflict. Quiet and lonely, the silence was only broken by the whistle of the wind and the crunch of the snow underfoot.

Bundled up in a warm coat a girl trudged her way between headstones. She would occasionally stop and scrape away snow from some of the names etched into the stone and plaques. She'd gotten some information from a few people about things that had happened here. It wasn't enough though. So she decided to come and see for herself. Inevitably she would find what she was looking for, the resting place of Amber Bianchi. Standing there in silence for what felt like forever she took out a small bundle of flowers and lay it on the grave. They would be frozen before long but that didn't matter. She wanted to say something but the right words simply wouldn't come.

While no one else was around she would look up when she heard someone speak. "Poor girl. She doesn't know does she?" A translucent figure of a woman stood next to an equally ghostly man a couple plots away.

"I doubt it sweety. But that's probably for the best." The man and woman would pause briefly as Hilde turned her head and looked directly at them. It wasn't the most unusual thing to happen. Many people would claim to feel the presence of spirits.

The girl however continued to stare and after a moment she took a step in their direction. "What don't I know?" She would ask them directly.

For once the tables were turned and the two were spooked by this ordinary looking girl that could see and hear them. People would visit and talk to those they left behind all the time. No one ever directly responded. The man would hold a hand out to one side and slowly raise it over his head. The girl followed his movements curiously. "Y-you can see us?" He looked surprised and maybe a bit frightened.

Blinking several times Hilde would nod. "I can." This was not something she had expected. Her patron didn't exactly leave her a guide on how her magic worked. So far a lot of it had been trial and error. The bounty with Connie and visit to Ronin for example. "What don't I know? Please, tell me. I need to know."

The woman seemed hesitant to say for a moment but eventually would mumble. "Your sister's grave is... it's empty."

Sister? Ah, she did look an aweful liek her. She would let the assumption slide in this case. It was a rather strange thing to learn. Did magical girl disappear when they died? "Why is it empty?" She asked calmly.

"Someone took her. We don't really know who. But they eventually came back and there was a big battle. We didn't see much of it from here. Rumor was she appeared again in the catacombs." The two clung to one another as the girl took in the information.

She would look around for a moment, trying to identify where the catacombs were. The place had changed a lot and the structure that normally would have stood above it had been demolished. "Where are the catacombs?" Her eyes were wide.

The man would point off toward the center of the yard. "It's not as easy to find as before. I wouldn't advise going inside. They're still making repairs."

Looking off absently she would start moving in that direction. "Thank you."

As Hilde was walking off the woman would call after her. "Miss! The girl would look back. "If it isn't much trouble, could you perhaps come back some time? We don't get many visitors." She would say sullenly.

Hilde started at the request. She was so caught up in her own head she barely even thought of the two. And the request, as simple as it was, was tragic. "I can." She shook her head and drug out a smile. "I will, I promise." She looked around the rest of the place. She wondered how many others still lingering here had the same story. The girl might be coming here a lot.

Making her way to the leveled structure she could see the entrance to the catacombs. They'd been gated shut to prevent anyone from getting in. A quick glance around to be sure no one was watching. "Through the past we forge the future." She would say her incantation and transform. She didn't want to damage the gate, so now that she had access to her magic she would simply teleport past.

While the spaces below had been held together by magic during the conflict, in the time after the chunk of earth had settled and some portions were copletely closed off. Most of the tombs that couldn't be salvaged had been cleared out, the contents moved to another space. That didn't mean the spirits had left though. Finally coming to the room that had held the alter she looked around. This space felt creepy. "Hello?" There was nothing for a moment until another answered.

What looked like a small child stepped into the room. He looked at the girl. He then glanced at the alter for a moment before turning back to Hilde. "What are you doing back here?" He skipped on over to the Spirit girl.

Hilde would look around the space again. She wasn't getting any sensation that she'd been here before. "I'm... not sure I know what you mean." She would kneel down a bit to be eye level with the boy.

He would stare into her eyes for a moment, which was rather chilling even over the cold. Seeming to take hold of her face in between his hands he leaned left and right to look at her more closely. "Yeah. That was your body. How'd you get it back? I thought it turned into a pirate." He stepped back as Hilde stood.

Thinking there was some kind of misunderstanding she shook her head. "No, she was already a pirate. She looked a lot like me but I'm pretty sure was smaller." She corrected.

The boy was not convinced. "She didn't look like you at all. She was tall, and had red hair, and a really cool hat!" He would make gestures with his hands. "And she sailed away on a flying ghost ship." He held his hand over his head as if it were flying.

Hilde was rather confused at this point. What had happened here? Rubbing her head in frustration she looked up at the ceiling. Janet had cooped a soul and someone else the body? What kind of madness was this? She felt a tug on her cape and she looked back down.

"Can you set me free? I want to see mommy and daddy but I don't know the way." His lip trembled.

Leaning down again she would reach out and ruffle the boy's hair. "Sure. I think I can do that." While she wasn't entirely sure what the boy meant her magic told her enough. Holding her scepter she waved it around over the boy. A mist came out and as it flowed over him.

Playfully he stuck his hands in the mist and they disappeared. This didn't seem to bother him at all as he smiled brightly. "Thank you!" The mist rolled over him and he vanished leaving Hilde alone again.

Setting her weapon down she would lean on it. That felt good and she couldn't help but smile. She was beginning to see that her magic was a whole lot more than met the eye. This whole experience left her with more questions than it did answers though. There was someone else out there that might be in the same boat as her. Heh, boat. Wait! If it was a ghost ship then her magic should be able to find it. Assuming it was still around. Something to keep an eye out for. Lingering for a while longer it didn't seem that there was much else to learn here. She would make her way out and untransform. Taking one last glance around she definitely knew she would need to be back here soon.

Reaver felt restless. There had been many factors on him accepting the last assignment of his. But denying himself some solace after that mission to plunge into another required some sort of an iron will. Still, the flesh was weak. And he had nothing to lose to use the phone that the vampire lady had provided. He weighed his phone in his hand, deciding whether it was a bad idea or not.

Odin was awfully silent as of late. The old fool only ever gave counsel on certain things, the matters of lust and love were way below his paygrade.

He still craved though. And He was a bit guilty about having to decline. Without thinking twice, he typed the number and waited.

After a moment, he heard a familiar voice.

“Hmm? Who is this?”

“Reaver, m’lady.” He said with aplomb. “First of all, I would like to apologize for things not having gone as intended. Business and pleasure have a tendency to interfere in each other's way. Were it another time I would gladly accept.”

Reaver heard Justine sipping a drink of some kind.
“Ohohoo~ How did you intend for things to have gone, then?” She asked in an amused tone.

“Well, my last make-believe knight play ended with my target being eaten. And the other ally fled. So a little m’lady and knight would be very welcome. Alas, I’ve been called to be a destroyer once more, rather than a dark protector.” Reaver admitted. “Although this is what the Allfather wants too, so I have little choice.”

“Such a shame, isn’t it?” Justine stated; the sound of nails tapping against a wooden surface in rhythmic fashion could be heard.

”But what if the Allfather were to be told that there would be a greater battle to be had in my company? As you know, I am about to embark on a journey myself, to rid this world of a vile, peeping witch and her equally depraved legions of monsters and hags. I would love to share the carnage with a dark knight of my own, hohoo~”

“That would explain the silence.” Reaver pondered. “Please allow me to reconsider a few things...in light of these circumstances.” He said.

"Very well then. I'll be waiting for you~" Justine spoke in a subtly sensual tone, and ended the call.

Reaver rubbed his forehead, as he sighed. He had made a decision back then, and it had been hard to do. And yet… New information was changing the scales, and making him ponder. It would not hurt to just flat out call and ask Al. A shady broker he might have been, but words were rather cheap, and probably wouldn’t change much.

Looking back and forth, he typed Al Scarpe’s number.

“Buona Sera, Capo. May I share a piece of mind with you?”

"What is it, peguci? I'm busy, so speak quickly." Reaver could hear a cigar's crunchy handling.

“I’ve done something...not recommended. But through it, I’ve come to realize the tetchy vampire lady of the other day… is more concerned about the firepower that will face her than we initially thought. Why would she even go to us, given our past… troubles with her? So I was wondering if … arrangements could be changed.”

Reaver could hear a sigh coming from the Coin Broker. “I should have known letting you see that broad was sbaglio. But I like you peguci, so I look through fingers. You are free to pursue any missions you see fit; trying to mismatch wrong person for job, only results in failure. And seeing as how you’re head over heels for Justine, only makes sense.” He paused as he took an audible puff of smoke “Very well; I shall cancel my orders of agents and equipment, assign them somewhere else. But, the money to cover losses has to come from somewhere. So your debt increases appropriately, capische?”
Reaver pondered. "Shots have been called already then. No broad is worth going back on my word." He audibly sighed. " I had a hunch on it being comfortably chaotic and could open up business opportunities." The dark warrior said. "Speaking of which, I just had an idea…"

"I'm all ears, peguci."
"Quick power. No questions asked. Just use the black coin to take revenge on the big bad hitmen… and before they know, they will be tied to us. I do know this is your model of business, but we might be able to accelerate things, you know. How many of these magical children are tempted in these dark times? We can even offer a coin to the Lady Justine… a poisoned chalice of a gift "

Reaver heard another puff of smoke. “I like the way you think. If we get Justine into the business, we could expand our magical trafficking operation. So a Black Coin would be all it takes? That is acceptable.” Then Reaver noticed how black smoke began to emanate from his phone, as if it was leaking it; the smoke then coalesced into the shape of a Black Coin on his hand.
“There. Consider it investment, peguci.”

"You know, capo. It's all about the timing. It does not take a big offer, it is a matter of making it so they can't refuse. Thank you for your time." He thanked Al for it. Now to sell it to Justine...

Some time after Dina formed her pact with Dan, she found herself approached by the Lesser Force, holding an oversized party invitation letter. It was decorated with colorful stickers, and when opened, shot out streamers and whistles.

“Hey Dina! Come to the beach dimension tonight! I’m holding a big welcoming party where you get to meet new friends! I’d be super ultra mega sad if you didn’t attend! Ok, I’ll go prepare the funny hats now! Bye!” And with that, he disappeared.
He also gave the same invitation to Mika and Hilaria respectively, having given them unique cards too before poofing out.

When the girls arrived, their uniforms having changed accordingly, they found themselves looking at the beach bar that has been decorated from top to bottom. Resembling a Hawaian luau, there was a great feast prepared, with all kinds of mouth-watering dishes prepared; spicy skewered barbeque, big bowls of bananas, and even a multi-layered cream cake.

Dan, wearing a groucho gag mask, greeted the girls with a big wave of his fins, and floated up to each girl. “Welcome, welcome!” She placed a funny-looking hat on each of their heads. “Hold on to your hats, cause we’re going to have a big, wonderful welcoming party for our newest member!”
He took Dina’s hand, and shook it. “Welcome to the Smiling Sisters, Dina! May I introduce you to Mika and Hilaria, your new companions!!” He gestured to the other two enthusiastically.

Dina looked to the two, her eyes flickering from one to another, as her tail swished in curiosity and hesitation. She was rather uncomfortable wearing the pamela hat, despìte it having holes for her ears, but she endured it. One of them seemed to be a cat girl too. Huh. The other showed massive bountiful qualities. But formalities were in order, despite the crass outfit of everyone, so Dina performed a graceful bow before the other two.

“I am delighted to make your acquaintance.” She said.

Hilaria had smiled in response but couldn't seem to keep her eyes on Dina for more than a second at a time. Her gaze would shift elsewhere, then return, and this repeated often. "H-hello~" she tried greeting. "H-Hilaria is Hilaria, pleased to m-meet you~" It seemed her attention was occupied by something else and she was struggling to pretend like it wasn’t.

Mika also looked a little distracted. Her eyes darting between the newly arrived and the thing. Then she slapped Hilaria’s thigh. “Look Hilarious! Food!”

“Lots~!” her mouth began watering in anticipation of the feast which now held all of her attention, and she slowly began levitating towards it without concern for the others.

Before Hilaria reached the table, Dan floated before her, his flippers crossed.
“Hey, don’t just ignore Dina! That’s really rude! You can only start to eat once you’ve properly greeted her! Same with you too, Mika. Don’t you care about how she feels? Acting like this is discrimination, and that’s a big no-no on this island.” He then floated to Dina, missing perhaps the most lethal glare there ever was from Hilaria. “I’m sorry about this. They tend to think about food more than people.”

“Hey, that’s not true!” Mika’s tail got tall and stiff, the way a cat’s does when it’s flustered. “Dina just doesn’t like my mom, and if you have nothing nice to say, you shouldn’t say anything!” She folded her arms.

Dan’s cheeks puffed up to a comically large size. “Even if you don’t like someone, you should still have manners! Now greet her, or so help me!” Steam was now blowing from the top of his head like a train whistle.

Dina did look at the other two with restrained anger. She did not show it on her face, as her poise was unyielding, but the twitching of the nose, ears and tails was giving it away. Mika’s outburst only seemed to exacerbate it even further, her tail also becoming stiff, as if to pounce in a catfight due to the offenses. However at the last moment she stayed her hand and looked at Dan.

“It is fine. A party should not be ruined for so little.” She said to Dan. “I take no offense from their antics. Now that you mention it, they’re delightfully childish.” Dina even managed to force herself in a chuckle, before looking at Mika. “I beg your pardon, but I have yet to know who your mother is. Care to illustrate, miss Mika?” Dina said slowly, as if talking to a child.

Mika pointed at Dan to say-

“My, how so very cruel~!" Hilaria cut in dramatically. Mika closed her mouth and waited her turn to speak. “What a wicked fate has befallen Hilaria~! Calumniated by one with whom she shares a sacred bond and her intentions muddled by deceit~!" she looked intently at Dina. "But Hilaria shall not have you fret over these inequitable strikes against Hilaria's character~! Hilaria holds people - you - above all else, be it pork, beef, or chicken~" she heartened. "Insinuation to the contrary is merely ignorance or slander, nothing more~ Hilaria does not play favorites~! Hilaria would gladly have Mika, Dina, or Dan over for dinner were they to ever desire such~"

Mika took a step forward. “I’m not mad at her!” She said, clearly mad at Dan. “And thanks Hilarious, I’ll have you over for dinner some day.” With a sigh, she adjusted the orange traffic cone on her head and turned to Dina. “It doesn’t really matter who my mom is I guess.” She extended her hand. “I’m Mika. Nice to meet you, Dina. We have similar names, but I think we’re pretty different.”

Dina raised an eyebrow, then looked at Dan. Then at Hilaria. Then at Mika. She thought to herself that the impression she had of being the sanest of this group was comfortably close to being home. “I am grateful for your invitation, kind Hilaria.” She said, without batting an eyelid. Not that she ate much, but invitations had to be always thanked or refused politely.

“Hmm.” Dina drew closer to Mika, and answered her hand with a handshake of her own. “Maybe. Maybe not. Time will tell. Preconceptions are dangerous, in any regard.” Dina reminded, both herself and towards the others.

Dan calmed down once the girls introduced themselves to Dina, and sighed. "See, it wasn't that bad to show a little courtesy. I just hope you get along in the future." He floated down to the end of the table, where an oversized glass of carbonated water including a sliced lemon was, and dunked himself in it. This was followed by him lounging in it with his tail flopping out as if it was a jacuzzi. "You girls enjoy yourselves now while I have a sippy sip." He then pulled out a large straw, and sipped on the drink.

Dina's cat nature wanted to nuzzle Mika properly against her neck, but the ladylike nature once again reigned supreme. She just curved her lips in the cattiest smile she could muster, while keeping her tail in a satisfied position. “Say, do you like songs?”

Hilaria had somehow vanished, but her voice was still able to give an enthusiastic response to Dina. “Hilaria does~!” she called out seemingly from beside Dan, but all that was there was some barbecue and a rather large hotdog. Upon further inspection, however, it turned out the hotdog was the humorous hat Dan had given her earlier. And, odds were that she had even sat down before Dan had finished telling the girls to enjoy themselves. “Hilaria wonders if you can sing~?” she asked, then quickly devouring some barbecue.

“Singing is okay I guess.” Mika sat across from Hilaria and picked up a hot dog. Though Mika was a bit more fascinated with something else. Her eyes were locked onto Hilaria’s…Burgers. “Hey! You know what we should do when we’re done eating?” Mika’s tail wagged side to side. “We should play some Keijo one last time!”

*Munch*

“Hmm~?” Hilaria took a short break from eating. “Keijo~? Hilaria didn’t get a chance to do it last time, so sure~” she agreed before returning to the feast.

Dina looked at the other two, and then at Dan’s dismissal, and then took a choice cut from the meat barbeque, and began to eat it carefully, in small bites. She sat a small way apart from the other two, feeling that social distance was needed right now. She was having the smallest ration of the three, and eating in whimsical, delicate bites. “I can sing to an extent, but I can summon far better songstresses to my presence, kind Hilaria.” said the noble cat.
It was then when the other cat girl mentioned that dreaded word. Keijo. Dina stopped eating, as her ears went downcast, clutching her hat tightly against her face to shield the others from her fluster, as the hairs on her tail stood erect and stiff. She almost even hissed.

“...I will have to pass, even if it...sounds delightful.” She said, words not matching her body language at all. She needed a distraction, quickly. Finishing her bite, she quickly stood up. “Please excuse me, I shall fetch a singer.” She added as she went towards the surface of the water, and extending a hand, she tried calling the mermaid one more time.

She had been a bit of an overexcitable one, but she was a talented songstress. And if they were distracted, that meant she could be off the hook for such an indecent activity.

“Your loss.” Mika picked up a chicken wing. “If it’s just Hilaria and I that makes everything even anyway. Three’s a crowd.”

As the dishes began piling up beside Hilaria, who had finished a fair amount of food already, her expression was downcast. "Hilaria doesn't want to leave her new ally out of the festivities~" she took a slow bite of a skewer in perhaps the saddest possible way you could do so. "Keijo is supposed to bring people together, not drive them apart~" Of course that was ignoring the fact that the literal goal of the sport was to knock your opponent away and off a platform, this was hard to take too seriously. "Hilaria will make sure to play extra hard to make up for it~!"

Dina called in the same mermaid who had answered before, jumping from the waves with a great leap before riding down a stream of water created with Dina's use of barriers. "You called me again, Lady Dina! Do you wish to hear more of my songs?"

Dina looked at the mermaid, then at the two others. Seems like they were more of a … base tastes sort of people. Her eyes darted over to the chilling dolphin, as she scrunched up her nose, and muttered under her breath. “It’ll be okay, Dina, it’s just mounds of fat and water.” She said, making her resolve. What purpose was to act dignified if one was among people who could not even fathom it.

“Well, that was my original plan… but, these girls are up for a round of...K...k….Keijo.” She said, as if the barbeque was stuck in her throat. “You want to be the referee, or cheer for us?”

The mermaid's eyes widened in confusion. "Keijo? Is this some sort of game? How does one play it? I'm sorry, I am not familiar with the ways of the land. But I would love to try and participate in some way if you'd let me."

Dan splashed some of his carbonated water as he reacted to what he heard. "Did I hear that right? You girls want to play Keijo?" He turned excited in an instant. "A great idea! Let's go to the arena and have a match!" He clapped his flippers, and they were all teleported into the entrance hall of the arena; while familiar to Mika and Hilaria, it was the first that Dina had seen of the lobby. There were portals set on stone arches by the walls on the sides, a reception desk, and multiple screens showing live footage from the pool located in the center of the dome-shaped building. "So what kinda match you'd like? 1v1s among you, or a free-for-all?" The dolphin then asked, having appeared at the reception with paper forms.

Hilaria was mid-chomp when she suddenly found herself biting down on nothing, and in a new area as well. She stared at her empty hands with disappointed and sad eyes until she eventually managed to snap herself out of the depression. “Hilaria…” she sniffled. “...would like to play as a group…”

Dina looked at the stage. A mummer’s playground, it would seem, with all the lights and the cameras. “I do not mind.” She said, her ears and tail downcast. “But if you’d be so kind, milord, please don’t vanish kind Hilaria’s refreshments midway. It would look as if she is punished to partake in the game after being denied what she seems to like the most in the world.”

Dan blinked, then slapped his cheeks with his flippers. "Right! Sorry Hilaria, I got so eager I forgot. Here you go." He clapped his fins again, and now a small round table appeared floating in mid-air next to Hilaria, her pile of food including half a burger placed on it. She once again seemed delighted, and It seemed to follow her around in the lobby, but stopped as she went close to the archways. Noticing this, she proceeded to finish her food before entering, as Dan then turned his attention to the others. "So Hilaria wants a team game. How about you, Neito?"
The mermaid was still taken aback by her sudden removal from the water, and lowered her head. "Uh, I...I would wish to spectate from the water. It seems this game is about staying out of the water, which is unfortunate." Dan nodded. "Okay, you can be in the pool while the match is going on, as long as you're careful to avoid any contestants that fall in it. How about you, Mika?" He turned to the bright-eyed girl. "If you want a team game, I could arrange a 4-player match."

"If Hilarious wants a team game, I’m all for that." She looked at everyone present. "But who’s going to be the fourth person?"

“Oh, that’s simple,” Dan stated, and then lifted his flippers up. He was suddenly engulfed by blue waters that flowed upwards in a spiral pattern, until it formed into an opaque bubble that burst with sparkles. When the view cleared, the girls saw something they never would have expected; instead of the cute little dolphin, a voluptuous woman with beautiful, if strange, looks appeared in his place.



“I will be the fourth player,” Dan announced, the Lesser Force’s voice having changed to suit the new form they have taken, carrying a husky, mature tone to it. Hilaria could be seen blinky in the background. “You may call me Danalia while I assume this form.” She stretched one arm straight up using her other arm, causing the physics of gravity to set motion to certain parts of her. “It has been a while since I’ve played, so I may be a bit rusty, but I hope that we will all have a good time nonetheless. Neito can act as the referee in my stead.” The mermaid nodded, stunned into silence by her appearance. “Now then, who would like to partner with me?” She then asked, a hand confidently on her hip.

Mika walked around “Danalia” with the kind of smile she typically wore around vulnerable, clueless females.

"Well if Hilarious has no objections-"

"Yo, Mika!" Rina waived to everyone from the bleachers. "Playing Keijo again?" Her eyes swept across everyone before resting on Dina. "W-wait, there’s two cat girls now?" Rina hugged herself and sat down.

Mika’s entire head trembled as her eyes darted between Rina and Dina. But as quickly as it came, her fury subsided. The corners of her lips curled into a cute smile, and she hopped over to her hungriest companion. "Hilarious." She leaned her head against Hilaria’s arm. "Did you want to team with me? If we win, I’ll talk mommy into making us some burgers."

Hilaria thrust her arm into the sky, her pupils now stars. “Mika and Hilaria will make the best team!” she pulled Mika into her chest in a tight hug that might’ve starved the girl from oxygen. “For the burger~!”

Dina's eyes narrowed at the reveal of Dan's form, as her ears twitched slightly and her nose wrinkled, in a reflex to smell the new form. Surprising but not unexpected. She had long resigned to use her brain too much when in presence of these individuals, and simply was content with being dragged along for the ride.

Win or lose, she couldn't care less. It was more important to work out group dynamics. It was then when her head tilted sideways as she eyed the newcomer, whom she addressed with a curtsy as elegant as she could. "Pardon me, I did not expect any more girls in Lord Dan's presence. I am Dina Denisova, a pleasure to make your acquaintance. " She eventually said. "May I enquire who might you be?"

"Uh, Katarina." She put her arm behind her seat. "Everyone just calls me Rina though." she gave the cat woman a sideways glance. "You a friend of Mika?"

Danalia waved to Rina. “Ah, Katarina! Good to see you! We were about to have a Keijo match. You’re welcome to stay and spectate if you want.” She leaned over and whispered to Dina’s ear.
“She is too full of pride to admit it, but she is a skilled Keijo player. Even I was impressed with her techniques.”

Mika had been content to let Hilaria suffocate her thus far, but this was something she wouldn’t stand for. She wasn’t strong enough to pry apart Hilaria’s arms, but she could pry apart her breasts. Just barely.

"Just another girl of Dans!" she managed to say before her head was swallowed in Hilaria’s curves.

Rina shrugged her shoulders and looked back at Dina. "I’m just spectating. Don’t know Dan all that well. Mostly here for that fool of a cat girl."

"Let’s start!" Mika managed to get out before once again getting swallowed up by Hilaria.

“Oh, you silly girls~” Danalia stepped up to Mika and Hilaria, her hips having a prominent sway to them, and grabbed Mika by the scruff of her neck; like with cats, it caused a relaxing effect on Mika, causing her to loosen up, and easily detach herself from Hilaria’s bosom. She then placed Mika carefully aside, and smirked. “There, now we can start. Dina, you will be my partner. Let’s play some Keijo.” She gestured to the girls, and stepped through a portal on the side.

When the girls followed after her, they found themselves having moved into the arena itself, which was a giant circular platform the size of a basketball court floating on a pool of water that was surrounded by a dome of seats. Dina was next to Danalia on one side of the platform, while Mika and Hilaria were on the other side. Neito was already there, holding what looked like a card wrapped in plastic.
“Umm...Uh, welcome to the Keijo exhibition match, everyone.” She was reading the card.
“I hope everyone has fun regardless of winning or losing. Now then, umm....” She looked up at Danalia with an awkward expression, and the Lesser force nodded back with a thumbs up.
Neito sighed. “Ready, get set....Buttle!” She blurted out, followed by dropping the card and covering her red face with her hands. However, Danalia did not move even as the match started; she pushed up her luscious locks of hair, a confident smirk on her lips. “Remember the basics of Keijo, Dina; bend with your legs, not your back.” It seemed as if she had decided to wait for the opposition to come to her.

“Nice to meet you, Katyusha. I barely know Mika, though. First time I met her here”. Dina waved back at Rina, before getting ready for what was about to come. With a blank stare she witnessed the exchange between Mika, Hilaria and Danalia with a blank stare. “Alright.” She said to Dan. No doubt these two were trying to do the old vs the newb. Could that be considered newbie hazing? Well, this looked like the social norm. Even if she found the sport loathsome, rules were rules.

She tapped with her feet, her Reinforcement skill buffing both her and Dan as if she was no different from breathing. She even gave herself gecko pads on the soles of her feet for better traction. Swishing her tail, she tilted her head, letting a wicked forced smile pour through.”Let’s do this.”

Her eyes went towards her opponent’s...assets. Keijo was some sort of activity that involved keeping a centre of gravity and a steady footing, and only breast and hind were valid tools. The torso was more for all-out attacks, given how far it was from the centre of the body, and the butt was the main way of attacking and defending. Plus not everyone had boobs… she reminded herself . Those dancing classes she once took could prove themselves useful.

Now given their personalities, Mika was probably the one who made the most fluid attack patterns, trying to use agility and slip past someone’s stance. Hilaria seemed like a heavy hitter who would rather break someone else’s stance.

She didn’t know what to expect of Dan to be honest. Danalia seemed pretty random.

“Would you like to see my full power, my lady?” She asked Danalia.

"As long as you don't hurt them too much," Danalia answered, invigorated by Dina's magic.

“Eh~? Hurt~? You’re gonna hurt Hilaria~? Do you really believe that~?” the voluptuous ancient approached them, her sizable chest swaying from side to side as she stopped at the middle of the ring. If breasts and behind were the tools of war in Keijo, then Hilaria was outfitted enough to fight this war solo, a fact made more apparent by her deliberate, seductive movements.

"That was Danalia. Not me." Dina interjected. Danalia lifted her finger and made a shushing motion with a knowing smirk.
"Do not mind their words, Dina. Actions will speak for themselves.” Danalia now stepped slowly forth, matching Hilaria in her swagger. “Now, show me your power.”

"Sproing!" Mika hopped over Hilaria and stuck her hip out towards her. "Gimmie a boost!" Hilaria swung her hips at Mika, and when their derrieres connected, Mika was sent flying towards Danalia. She grabbed onto her own feet and allowed her buttocks to lead the charge.

But as Mika closed in on her target, her body would change. Her skin turned gray, her flesh bubbled and expanded like a chemist’s nightmare, and her form had changed to that of a Hawaiian monk seal. That was five-hundred pounds of ass flying in Danalia’s direction.

Dina looked at the exchange with wide eyes. She had not expected Mika to chase after Dan, given how much her reservations had been towards Dina. She acted quickly, as she sprinted, boosted by her reinforcement, only to perform a spagat, or split, at the last second, her centre of gravity dangerously low, and attempting to make Danalia go into a ducking position briefly.

As eager as that attack was, Mika seemed to be overcommitted when she had performed the seal butt cannon. All they needed to do was to dodge and let the sheer momentum do the rest of the job. Hilaria blinked as she wordlessly watched Mika, having come to realize the girl probably didn’t think her movement through.

Danalia had made a half-turn when Dina came in with a sliding trip, causing the blue-skinned woman to fall back, narrowly avoiding Mika’s fat ass. She caught herself with her hands, and with astounding agility performed a backflip, landing with her backside aimed at Hilaria.
“Good, good!” She then launched herself, buttocks spearheading the charge at the bustier girl.
“Such excellent teamwork from both of you!”

"Is that so~?" Hilaria seemed to disagree with Danalia's assessment, as she readied her bodacious buttocks in retaliation. A swift twirl followed by a thrust meant Hilaria was willing to face her ass to ass, in a competition of posterior prowess.

It looked like Mika was going to be an easy ring out, butt the seal wasn’t out of the match yet. Her front flippers became wings. She guided herself straight into the edge of the platform.

"Up you go!"

The impact nearly submerged Mika’s side of the platform, and when it came time for the platform to rise, it threw Mika and Dina into the air. Danielle and Hilaria were in the center of the platform, and were largely unaffected by the movement.

Mika used her momentum to flip forward, this time putting Dina in her cross hairs. The lass guided the mass of her ass of brass with no intent to pass.

"Back to earth!" Mika grinned with some sass.

Dina, as the cat girl she was, was completely comfortable with being tossed midair, her spine contorting in ways even a normal gymnastic girl would have trouble following. Of course, this meant little versus the winged seal butt dive, if not for a little detail.

Reinforcement platforms. As she was tossed she had created those in mid-air, and she just used her arms and tail to jump even further upwards at the last second, having a significantly tighter ability to change her trajectory in midair than a five hundred pound flying abomination. Her eyes were on Mika, knowing that maybe at some point she'd stop telegraphing her attacks.

When Hilaria collided with Danalia, she realized that the Lesser Force possessed great strength and formidable fortitude in her balance, equaling hers as the two locked rears.
“Oh, excellent! The lowered stance works well for your style,” Danalia commented without breaking a sweat. Her own weapon attempted to slide down to Hilaria’s legs and uproot her from her spot, but failed to do so due to the dark magical girl’s incredibly soft butt.
“But it leaves you open!”
She suddenly spun in place, causing Hilaria to move her butt past her due to the release of potential energy. At that moment, Danalia completed her spin to whip at her cheek with her boobs, her arms tucked in to flex them; it was an advanced Keijo maneuver imbued within the girls.

Hilaria’s head snapped to the side as if she had been hit with a cheeky punch, only this was much more embarrassing. She wondered how she couldn’t predict such a tried and true technique in Keijo. “Pretty good~” she replied, rubbing her reddened cheek. Danalia was clearly not one to be taken lightly with her fanny force being on the same level as Hilaria’s own. She would have to step her game up if she wanted those burgers.

And she wanted those burgers.

Danalia would find Hilaria swooping low with her chest, then transitioning into a rather straightforward attack with her rear in what some may call an ‘upperbutt’. However, after the windup of the attack, she shot with great force into the air, rear-first like some sort of cannonball, towards the airborne Dina, instead!

The Lesser Force smiled, seemingly happy with the compliment. She predicted Hilaria’s mixup, and was ready to block the upperbutt with her own bust, only to realize too late that it was a feint, as she assblasted up into the air, targeting her partner.. “Hah, I really am rusty.”

Dina’s woes would not end there. While Mika was a weighty seal, that was only under the application of her beast magic. Furthermore, Mika also had the ability to create barriers thanks to the circlet she wore.

As soon as Dina gained altitude over Mika, the cat girl reverted back to her normal form and put a barrier under herself. Seals were not very aerodynamic when they were spinning, so Mika’s air speed was low when she touched down on her own barrier. She came out of her role with a hop, springing up to meet Dina head on with her chest. Her mind was too fast for eyes. She sped on like a bullet, her arms and legs were pressed together while her chest led the way.

Dina was in a bad spot. She never liked Keijo. She was content with a token game. But they were pressing on to her. Dan was also intent that she had to play seriously. The catgirl took the blows in stride, despite how disgusting and retching those were, the womanhood of Mika colliding with her face with a wet sound as she staggered, the second cannonball hitting her in the back with force and sending her careening like a boomerang towards a ring out.

It was supposed to be my welcome party. All I wanted was to be social and relax, and you’re hazing me… with boobslaps. Her mind raced, as she was sent far away.

“Ruler’s Menagerie: Sphinx.” She whispered under her breath, just about as she was to be tossed out. Her body, not unlike Mika’s bubbled and warped.

Mighty wings that would take her aloft.

Powerful hindquarters capable of serious damage.

A front rack not unlike a battering ram.

The Dinasphinx flew almost skimming the water, right for a round two, as she stayed aloft, way higher than the two girls. “I see… you do not want to lose in front of your friend and against the new girl.”Dina said. “Still, Lord Dan’s watching… I cannot throw out this fight for you, you see.” Her sights were now on Mika… like a guided breast missile, she swooped.

Danalia smiled, impressed with Dina’s tactics. She would not let this opportunity pass by, and show the other two that ignoring her would turn out to be a mistake. When Hilaria started falling down from high altitude, Danalia jumped on the passing Sphinx Dina’s back, and propelled herself rapidly right up to the busty girl.
“Slam Dunk!” She called out, and performed a high-speed spinning butt slam right on top of Hilaria; while the dark magical girl had astounding defenses while on the ground, she was not safe from knockback while in mid-air. After her attack, she landed on Dina as the Sphinx circled around the arena.

Hilaria’s gravity specialization is what ultimately saved her from being knocked out of the ring, as she instead increased gravity’s effect on her before she could be flung too far, and even closer than that was that she almost forgot that she couldn’t touch down with anything other than her feet. “Woah~!” she gazed at the Sphinx in amazement after her near loss. “How adorable~! Can Hilaria ride you~?” she moved closer to the middle of the ring again.

"You can ride me!" Mika crawled between Hilaria’s legs. And watched her opponents swoop in. Mika looked on with giddy excitement as the sphinx threatened to bash and smother her with it’s J-sized cups. That was a lot of breast for Mika to deal with, especially being so diminutive in size.

"Alright Hilaria! For burgers!"

Mika stood up and dove towards Dina, her body shifting mid flight. This next trick was going to take a lot of mana, but it was all she could do against such powerful opponents: Give Hilaria an advantage.

The first thing Mika did was transform into an African shrewish short-tailed opossum. They were relatively modest animals in terms of size, hardly being bigger than a squirrel. But what made this humble creature valuable to Mika was that it had twenty-seven nipples. A ring of nipples with one in the center.

"Forbidden Keijo Art: Magnum Oppai!"

It was then that Mika unleashed an attack of titanic proportions. She was unable to simulate fantasy creatures, but she had recently been experimenting with grafting animal attributes on top of each other. Each of the opossum’s nipples jetted outwards and swelled as they became the breasts of a blue whale. They looked nothing like that of a human’s knockers, as they were typically “inverted.” But each one was about five feet long and weighed as much as a baby elephant. Their combined weight was almost seven tons, and it was all jetting in her opponents direction, meeting the charge head on.

It was the sort of attack few could survive taking, and even fewer could survive performing.

Dina’s temper had taken a sour dip. Why did she have to fight in a Keijo match, and why was she subject to such grossness and crass behaviour in one go? Maybe she needed not just to have contracted this fool. Dina’s swoop was broken, and she was knocked back. Knocked out of her form again.

Twice in a row, due to gross physical contact. Her stunned and mangled little form fluttered pathetically as it was sent off the platform, careening towards her knockout. Suddenly a barrier flared up, squishing her against it, but breaking her fall. “Is...this your definition of fun. Teaching newbies their...place?” She said, as the barrier broke, just a little more push for Mika’s duel with Dina to be victorious…

“Hen to Pan.” Dina said, harshly, as her descent was cut all of a sudden. Her power… oddly shrinked, and yet at the same time became much more… A gravity field as strong as Hilaria’s kept the T-posing Dina aloft preventing her from falling. Metal, like liquid mercury began to coat her, as wisps … of fire, electrical discharges and even ice danced around her.

“Full power, Lord Dan...as I’ve told.” She said. Quadruple Accel. Reinforce. Metal Skin. Diamond buttock spikes. Gravitation. Her buttocks firmly planted against the whale-possum thing as she let herself to be intoxicated by the etiquette of this fight.

“Secret Keijo Art: Hypersonic Buttcheek Thunderclap.” Dina said, with the barest hint of emotion as her metallic rear slammed so hard and fast against Mika it broke the sound barrier for the briefest moment. Frazzled, and spending way too much mana, the figure of Dina had suffered yet another change.

Mika’s attack could only last for a fraction of a second before she reverted back to her normal form. Without any magical defenses to speak of, Mika’s body was hurled clear over the pool and into the bleachers, reducing the site of impact to a smoldering pile of scrap and smoke. Rina immediately ran to the crash sight.

Danalia realized that Hilaria had resisted her ring out using her magic when she saw Mika’s disturbing attack. She jumped off Dina, causing her to take the brunt of the attack.
She landed off to the side and glanced at Dina. “Are you alright?” She yelled out, worried for her.
However, that was when she saw a rainbow of light emanate around the barrier the noble catgirl had formed. And then she saw it; Dina at her full power, having unleashed her Avatar state.
She could only stare in awe at her sheer strength, and how she blew Mika far away, unfortunately past the pool of water.

For the briefest moment, Danalia contemplated ending the match then and there; she never intended the fight to get this intense. However, it would disrespect the passion and conviction these girls had put into the match. “Incredible,” she would state. Then, she noticed that Hilaria had recovered.

She was also done messing around.

Danalia, with a grim look, ran forward, her arms extended to her sides.
“Ultimate Keijo Art,” she stated, and began to spin her entire body, performing two revolutions. Her clenched buttocks began to shine with energy.

“VACUUM BUTT CANNON!”

Upon the third revolution, she swung her ass, and it projected a blast of massive force; not only did it surpass Hilaria’s super soft defenses and send her off her feet, it even cracked the piece of platform Hilaria stood on, causing it to split off and collapse under the heavy girl’s weight. With a great splash, Hilaria met the cold but refreshing water.

The match had ended.

Dina did not wait until the resolution of the match. Upon seeing Mika being pushed back past the water and colliding into the much more solid bleachers, her reaction from anger went into shock almost immediately…

“Blyat!” She exclaimed, in a very exceptional bout of profanity, and still on her Avatar state, began to run towards the edge of the Pool, sinking neatly into it and then powering through underwater, emerging on the other side as she untransformed, her hair and fur damp with water.

“Nononononono. Mika! Please respond!” She said, as her legs staggered, and gritting through teeth began to use her reinforcement skills to heal the other catgirl. “I’m sorry, I really overdid it! I didn’t mean to…!” Her voice, for the very first time, was genuinely shaken at the prospect of having seriously injured someone. “Pizdets!” She cursed again.

And then, the exhaustion kicked in as she kept healing… making the usually prim and proper Dina fall sprawled on the floor, face first into the ground and ass up.

---

Dina opened her eyes, and realized she was moved to rest on a shaded beach chair located at the open-wall juice bar. She heard the sounds of munching, and turned her eyes to see Hilaria devouring burger after burger on a table. Mika was also resting on a beach chair, seemingly unhurt. Katarina was at her side patting her shoulder.

“Oh, you’re awake? That’s wonderful.” Dan floated up to Dina, having taken his regular appearance again. “You girls really worked yourselves to the bone in Keijo. And for such effort and dedication, I decided to reward all of you with hamburgers. Now, I have an important announcement to make.” He cleared his throat, and his squeaky voice turned a bit lower in pitch.
“All three of you will join together in a mission to defeat Justine, an evil vampire girl who is terrorizing Penrose. To do this, you will team up with a girl named Mariette.” He suddenly created an old school film projector, and showed a slide of Mariette to everyone.
‘“When the time comes, you will be summoned to her Interdimensional Home, where Justine will attack. Don’t worry, Mariette also has friends who can help you.” He then showed slides of all of Mariette’s minions. “Any questions?“

Dina raised her hand as soon as she was able to get her bearings. "Just one. Why? Lord Dan is a spirit of Joy, not War. Why we must be involved in all of this? Seems a bit more than we can chew."

“It is to protect the smiles and happiness of Penrose’s people,” Dan explained. “As Smiling Sisters, you need to prevent great tragedy from happening. And as long as Justine is on the loose, people will be hurt and die. If you can, I would prefer if you’d stop her using non-violent means...But I know far too well how stubborn some bad girls can be.”

“Hilaria knows that many like to have the fear of death beaten into them before they stop being ignorant~ As children do~” she commented casually, before returning to her burgers.

“Did that answer your question, Dina?” Dan asked, somewhat disturbed by Hilaria’s casual way of commenting something that grim.

"Somewhat." Dina's ears went low, as well as her tail. I don't like fighting, you idiot cetacean! Why do you think I considered you as a patron? [

Dan nodded. “Ok, any questions from you, Mika or Hilaria?”

“Hilaria expects the best food you can provide if it proves to be a pain~” she stated.

”Wow, she has a lot of friends.” Mika giggled. ”Does she even need us there?”

"Mika?" Rina shook her.

”Right.” The feline girl’s expression became somber. ”Um, Dan?” She looked the dolphin in the eye. ”I was going to tell you and Hilarious this after the match, but-” She hesitated. ”I can’t stay in Penrose anymore. I have to leave for a while.”

Dan’s jaw dropped literally to the floor, and his eyeballs comically expanded from sheer shock before he regained his composure by snapping his form back together in rubbery fashion. “WHAT? You want to leave Penrose?” he floated up to her, a big sweatdrop on his forehead. “Why? Did something happen?”

”I’ve been thinking about doing it for a while.” She shrugged. ”Most of the time I just make people worry about me. That and all of my friends are leaving Penrose.” She rubbed her arm. ”I still remember the day Lupa left. It hurt, but I realize now I had a choice. I could have gone with her.” She reached out and took Rina’s hand. ”But I guess It’s good I stayed, because now I can leave with Rina.”

Rina swas blushing, and trying to avoid making eye contact. "I just want to investigate Ethiopia. I told her I’d be gone for a while and that I might not come back." Her cheeks only got more red as she continued on. "…But this fool of a cat girl..."

”Besides!” Mika pointed at Dina with her entire hand. ”You have a replacement for me right here. She’s smarter than me, stronger than me, and she’s even a real cat girl.” The corners of Mika’s lips curled into a giant smile, and when she rolled back her lips, her white teeth glistened in the sun.

Dan looked mortified. "No, no, no! I never intended to replace you! I just wanted you to have more friends!" She now went over to Dina. "Look, I know we may have gone off on a bit of an uncomfortable start, but I'm sure once you get to know each other better you'll understand and appreciate one another's differences more." He lowered down to the floor. "Please Mika, don't leave us. You never made me worry until now, really! We can help you, just give us a chance!"

Hilaria's features weren't as bright as they were earlier, but she did not seem too upset at Mika's decision. She placed the half-eaten burger on the table, retrieved a notebook from the depths of her cleavage that she then tore a page out of. Hilaria would then spend a minute or so while the others spoke apparently copying something down. It was when she was done doing this that she stood up, and approached the group as Dan pleaded for Mika to stay.

"Oh, so fleeting are these encounters~ One day you're exchanging greetings, and the next, goodbyes~" She placed her notebook back into its resting place before handing Mika the piece of paper she wrote on. Mika would discover Hilaria's handwriting was absurdly good, but also various restaurants in Ethiopia, their best dish, which part they were located at, and a rank beside them, indicating which ones were her favorite. "Hilaria hasn't been there in some time~" she warned. "But if you can't make it to those, it is difficult to make bad tibs~!" she passed this information off as though it were life-altering.

Dina's eyes went briefly wide at Hilaria's outburst. How does she know that much? Does she teleport? Is she even older than me? The noble catgirl stood briefly stunned, before addressing the matter at hand.

"Your life is your life Mika, and you may choose who to spend your life with." She said. "However I am not, and never will be your replacement. After all I am a Babushka who is over a hundred years old." She added, her speech lowering her pitch a bit as she offered a token resistance to reveal her actual age. "Of course you would be lacking in experience on certain matters, but I think I can appreciate you being straightforward and bold. Most people eventually don't bother to tell." She eyed Rina. "Is this what you truly want? To elope and cut off all contact, your mother included, and live elsewhere? Or is it because you do not want to lose her again?"

Rina placed a hand on her face. "This display is so embarrassing it’s painful." She set her hand on her hip. "Look, something’s going on in Ethiopia. It’s not like she said she wants to cut off you guys, we just can’t be a plus one to Mariette’s army and investigate. Don’t you guys have her phone number?"

Mika looked between Dan and Dina before shaking her head. ”It has nothing to do with you guys. Lupa told me something before she left. She said that the more people you share your heart with, the smaller a piece everyone gets to have. I see what she was saying now.” she put her hands together. ”For a long time, I just wanted everyone to be my friend. But in trying to do that, I wasn’t a very good friend myself. I’ve made my mother and father worry, I’ve let my friends down. I don’t want to do that anymore.” She pointed at Rina with her head. ”I love my parents, I love you guys, but I’ve gotta make a hard choice and stick with it. I still wanna make the world smile, just in a different way.”

The feline magical girl scuffed up to Hilaria and took the paper from her. After a quick scan, she looked up at her colossal friend. ”You can’t remember your own name without repeating it, but you remembered this.” She closed her eyes and embraced the berzerker in a tight hug. ”It’s okay, I’ll remember you Hilaria. We’ll have a burger when I return.”

Dan began to profusely cry with puppy dog eyes, his beak having turned flaccid as it hung down the front of his face. "I guess...This is goodbye then."
He floated over to Mika and gently hugged. "I'll miss you, Mika." He also hugged Rina. "And I'll miss you too, Rina." Then he let go, and summoned what at first looked like a white towel, but turned out to be a comically oversized handkerchief. He blew his nose on it, making a car horn sound. "I know you'll make the world smile. Just don't forget the reason you do it."
All the girls present felt a slight dip in their magical reserves; just as Dan had told them, sadness and sorrow weakened his power, and in turn those of the magical girls, accentuated by him being the source of it.

Dina for the most part just shrugged. “Sometimes the heart is so big it doesn’t really matter the size of the bit you choose to share.” Dina said, tired. This was her welcome party. And now It turned into a farewell party. “Meh.” She sulked, her tail swishing as she stepped forward towards Mika. “Here’s my phone number.” The noble catgirl said, as she handed it, to Mika’s hands, before closing up and nuzzling against her neck, like a cat would do to someone they like.

Mika just programmed in her name without reacting much. Close contact never bothered the majority of Keijo players, Mika included.

“And guess you’re right, Katyusha.” Dina said. “This is a pocket dimension. It’s not like we can’t summon a portal in Ethiopia if things get too rough for you people to bear. I just wanted to make sure this child was trying to mature rather than selfishly running away.” She added.

It was Dan and Hilaria’s turn. “Hey, Lord Dan. We still haven’t said the last word about this.” Dina said, before grabbing Dan. “Don’t you have a farewell party to throw?” She paused before looking at Hilaria. “Please include Hamburgers.”

Dan wiped his tears, his eyes widened in realization. "You're right, Dina. We should celebrate all the memories we've had together, and have a farewell party!" As Dan's mood improved, so did the girls' magic. He cast a spell, and the table widened as more hamburgers were pulled, varying from small children's loaves to tall stacks with at least 3 meat patties. "Let's all have fun together, one last time!" He announced, and fireworks were shot up into the blue sky, painting it with rainbow colors.

Patrolling, it was such a simple thing. Yet something that Penny often found herself involved in, now more than ever in fact since her home now housed more than just her. Sometimes she would go out with some of the other girls from the Sanctuary to help teach them, other times to hunt with them. This time though she was out on her own.

Which wasn’t an unusual thing really, Penny was always up, and almost always active after all. It was at times like this that she used the act of Patrolling to help sort through her thoughts. The girls back at the Sanctuary could also contact her through the computer she had left behind. Wasn’t the best option, but it was all they had at the moment.

Still her route took her across the city, as she always enjoyed the heights that the taller buildings offered, both for the view and the solitude.

This time, however, she’d end up not being entirely alone.

‘Penny Asimov,’ said a voice through a small portal that opened numerous meters to her left, leading to but a dark room in an apartment from her perspective. It was too small to jump through, but big enough to potentially punch through, maybe. ‘I am Mariette Pedersen. I wish to speak with you,’ Mariette told, currently hiding on the other side of the portal, using another small portal to bring her mouth closer to that portal. She knew of Penny’s fierce physical capability. She wanted to avoid taking chances.

Penny’s initial reaction to the portal opening up was spinning to face it while also dropping into a defensive stance. As the Portal itself was proof enough of who was interrupting her rather sedate patrol. She would end up sliding out of it as Mariette spoke however, not that Penny trusted the portal wielding witch, but at this point the opportunity for an ambush had been lost.

“You wanted to talk to me” Penny would reply as she walked closer to the portal, making sure to stop just out of arm's length of the point of punctured space. “I have to admit that I didn’t see this coming. Why me?”

‘Because you’ve taken up the mantle as Cindy’s successor,’ Mariette told, and then decided to rearrange herself a little. It was a shame not to see one another, after all. As such, she opened portals and brought two full-sized mirrors that she placed in two different apartments in Penrose. She then opened multiple portals, so the light from Penny went to a mirror that reflected the light into a portal meeting a different mirror that reflected through another portal where finally Mariette stood, a girl in dark dress, eyepatch, white hair, holding Bunny and looking to Penny, through two portals and two mirrors’ reflection.

‘Cindy and I had a deal,’ Mariette said. ‘I would provide information and resources to her, and in turn I received goods and anything she felt she didn’t need, perhaps her prisoners or criminals if she had any, exactly what she’d give me was up in the air. She had my number. Sadly, her reign was cut short before our alliance could be properly utilized. Tell me, do you still keep the Talos that I gifted her? Where are those automatons now?’

“No” Penny would reply after a moment of contemplation. The robotic girl was impressed at the very roundabout way that Mariette had made it so they would be facing each other. The contortions of space were interesting to track not that they told Penny anything about where the Portal Witch was. “They were destroyed at the Rave, few things can stand up to the amount of frenzied girls that were there, less when you add in the Ascendency.” She would explain as she stepped closer to the portal no longer worried about a sudden ambush.

“I take it the Beach is when this agreement was settled?” Penny would ask, recalling the time that Cindy had wanted to meet with Mariette. “I can definitely see the advantages.” She would add giving a pointed look at the portal she stood in front of. “But I’m less inclined to agree to one myself, after all you’ve got enemies gunning for you. Still I’m willing to at least hear you out.”

‘… Hmpf. What an utter waste,’ Mariette said with a tinge of annoyance at the fate of the Talos. ‘Used properly, they could have formed the backbone of an army…’ she sighed, thinking of what a mistake it had been to gift those things to the supposed Queen. Anyway, that aside…

‘You are correct, it was at the beach. She could gift me things I wanted, and as such I could support her little claim to power. She was going to fight a war with Beacon and all, after all. Given your connection to Beacon, I suppose that’s at an end…’ Mariette squeezed her little Bunny, before continuing to talk.

‘I could guide the remaining refugees of Beacon to your Sanctuary. I could help you unify them, give a good word for those that doubt you, and dissuade them from infighting. I can watch the whole city at once, I don’t miss any riots or battles. I can always be there, if so needed. … But before I offer any of that, I wish to know what you intend to do with them. What do you wish to accomplish, as the new queen? The Ascendancy isn’t going to stop hunting monsters, and the monsters won’t stand for it forever…’ Mariette asked, inspecting Penny as she did.

“My intentions are simple. I intend to give Sanctuary.” Penny would say as she folded her arms across her midsection. “Half the magical world wants to kill us, the other half wants to enslave us. I just want to give us a place where we can be safe and not be taken advantage of. I don’t trust the Mint, I don’t trust the Ascendency, and I don’t trust most Patrons, save for the Gods. Because at least they declare their intentions upfront usually.”

“My goal is peace. Most of us are here for eternity, afterall, and I’d rather not have that time be spent on pointless bloodshed. I’m not assuming that peace will come easily and sadly it won’t come cheaply. Why do you want to know?”

‘Peace, huh. So, when the Ascendancy decides to raid the monster girls and dark girls of Penrose, which side do you stand on? The side of Beacon, or the side of the corrupted? In a strange twist, you’re an ally of both, are you not?’ Mariette asked, staring at Penny through the reflections.

‘Regardless, I am asking in order to make sure you’re not going to force the girls under your charge to make a decision they don’t want to make. Beacon has these purifying coins that removes all forms of darkness and monster-attributes from their souls. Thing is, you could so easily bring these coins forth into the Sanctuary, and tell them “this is your chance for true safety”… and I wouldn’t agree to that. Some diversity is what gives our world colour, is it not? If we offered a machine that would turn black people white and offered it as a solution to racism, the black community would be deeply offended, and this is much the same thing. You see what I’m saying?’ Mariette asked at the end, her gaze sharp.

“You mean these?” Penny would ask as a White coin slid out from her plam for her to hold up. “I am well acquainted with them. After all, I was the first person to experience their effects.” A moment later the coin would slide back into Penny’s frame “Thing is, I agree with you, but for very different reasons. Plenty of people don’t fit into their gender upon birth, and I know from experience that the same can be applied to species.” She would keep her gaze locked onto Mariette as she spoke, never blinking and hardly moving. “But. That cuts both ways. There are girls out there that have been forced into a shape that they hate, trapped by the very people that have dragged them into this world without any thought to their consideration. This coin is for them, and I will not deny those that want the chance to be free the only key that I am aware of to open those bindings.”

Mariette held a passive expression as she listened to Penny’s words. ‘Yeah, that’s fair. If they truly want an out, that’s fair. However, you have to be careful with your position as queen, here. You could very easily create an environment where the girls will feel pressured to use the coin even if they don’t want to, or perhaps pressured against it despite wanting to depending on the reactions of the crowd. That aside. Why does the coin force the user to become an agent of Beacon? Why make purification the same as joining the ranks of those who once hunted you down? Why does it do that?’ Mariette asked, her expression and tone blank.

“No one has had a need for it yet, but trust me I know that I have to be careful with them. Their scarcity on my end should go some way from preventing such an environment however.” She would explain. Penny was also struck by the odd realization that she and Mariette shared a lot of the same worries and concerns for the girls here in Penrose. Something that she wasn’t really sure how to deal with considering they also were kind of avowed enemies due to Beacon. Idly she wondered if this is how the rest of Beacon felt towards the friendlier monster girls in the city.

“I can’t say for certain why they do that, but I have my theories.” She would go on to say instead “Could be a bit of retaliation, you and people like you have kidnapped Beacon’s members and found ways around the Spark. These coins are a quick way to save those kidnapped and brainwashed girls. Could also be simple ignorance, they are a part of Beacon so why would it not bring people closer to Beacon. As you can’t discount the fact that before me, no one in Beacon really interacted with the corrupted girls, at least not openly, so from the outside looking in it is easy to see corruption as a curse. Could also be fear, Beacon hasn’t had many friends in the city and that was before their HQ got bombed and the Ascendency moved in. They could have simply felt they needed more people on their side.”

“But something tells me you didn’t ask those questions simply to hear my thoughts on the matter did you?”

Mariette kept quiet as she listened to Penny’s words, slightly tilting her head, still holding Bunny close. After that last question, Mariette kept quiet. ‘You seem reasonable,’ Mariette eventually concluded, ‘unlike your predecessor. Which may actually be a disappointment, Cindy seemed like she was about to force some big changes. Perhaps it’s for the better that the changes come by a steady hand, compared to a forceful one. But maybe the steady hand won’t be able to break the barrier of status quo, whereas the forceful one would? Time will tell,’ she said with a shrug.

‘I’ve been tasked with delivering items to you. Before I did that, I wanted to get an impression of who you are. I have gotten my impression now. I have what I came for.’ With Light-magic on her side, she could tell that Penny was sincere. ‘I also had the objective of introducing myself to the new queen. The offer I had with Cindy is still open. Provide me with the monsters you capture or artifacts you don’t need, because I can offer them to my patron to keep him happy, and we want him happy, that’s good for everyone, and in exchange I can help you out in various ways that depend on what your current issue is.’

‘Other than that…’ Mariette slowed down a little. ‘… Justine von Visceral is back. You were there last time we fought her. She’s liable to attack my mansion, as well as anywhere else. I thought you should know, if you somehow did not,’ Mariette said, looking at Penny.

“I am aware that Justine is back. I don’t trust her, I have nothing but reasons to distrust her. The thing is that I could say the same about you, it’s not quite the same degree of distrust, but I know very little about you except that you worked alongside Justine once before and that you have double crossed Alicia.” Penny would point out, more curious than anything. A lot of people seemed to be judging her nowadays, one more person didn’t really seem to matter all that much.

“So what is a reason I should have to expect anything else from you? For as far as I can tell most of your agreements end in a double crossing of some sort.” She would speak not with condemnation in her voice, but simple fact. For if she intended to be Queen, trusting Mariette blindly at this point would be foolhardy. But the enemy of my enemy and all that was at least reason enough to give a chance for the mirror-touched girl to state her case. Penny was used to being in the middle of twisted webs of intrigue after all.

Mariette looked away from Penny, her expression taken by a mild degree of regret. She kept quiet numerous seconds, before speaking. ‘I didn’t… mean to double-cross her,’ Mariette began, taking a heavy breath before looking to Penny again.

‘After defeating Caroline, I infiltrated Justine’s palace through a different direction than the rest of you, meaning to catch her unawares. On the way I ran into all the captured girls and Justine’s treasury. I freed the girls and took the contents of the treasury, for it made no sense to leave it where it lay. I… I was going to let the girls go home, but that’s…’ she sighed a little.

‘… that was when Asengav took what I had claimed, and congratulated me on a job well done. I couldn’t tell him I had been meaning to let the girls go. You don’t tell a Horror that. In that regard, yes, I double-crossed Alicia and is serving just distrust. But… I didn’t mean to,’ she stated, her voice not nearly as confident as previously, staring with a slightly sad eye at Penny.

Penny stayed utterly motionless as she listened to Mariette, her eyes drilling into the younger girl’s face as she spoke, giving no indication of her internal thoughts or feelings on the story she had just been given. In fact it would be a few silent moments before Penny did anything. “I’m going to give you a chance.” She would say her voice calm even though her eyes remained focused. “It sounds like you have a valid reason for your actions. But there are three things you should know in case you are lying to me.” She would go on to say as she rose one arm up to touch the portal in front of her, black lightning arcing from it at her touch.

“First, I have a perfect memory, I won’t forget anything about this conversation and you have given me a reason to not trust you completely within it. Second I know your Banes, Justine has given out that information to Beacon. So your weaknesses are not hidden from me.” Penny would raise her hands up in front of her as she spoke in that same calm tone of voice. “Lastly” She would seem to grip the space in front of her before wrenching it open in a violent display of magic, forming a portal of her own directly from where she stood to Mariette “You won’t be able to hide from me if I go hunting for you.”

She let her words hang in the air for a moment before stepping backwards. “You said that you were tasked to deliver things to me. Mind if I ask who sent you?”

Mariette winced a bit at the arm crackling with black lightning, unsure if she was safe or not all of a sudden. She made herself ready to close the portals anyway. … Beacon knew her banes? There was a notable twinge of regret in Mariette’s expression. Did she really have to…? Life was suddenly that much more of a pain. And then lastly-

Mariette staggered back as a new portal not of her own making opened before her, she’d have fallen over if not for multiple tentacles that spread out of her shadow just in case, some stabilizing her and others placing themselves between her and Penny’s sudden appearance, her visible eye wide in shock, mouth partway open. Wh-why… can this girl do that? Mariette suddenly felt a whole lot less in control of the situation…

Apparently spared for now, but shaken to her core, Mariette stabilized herself on tentacles and gripped Bunny with both hands as she looked at Penny, suddenly afraid of the mechanized queen. She couldn’t help it, that was a direct blow to her comfort…

‘I- I cannot. I would be breaching confidentiality, as they didn’t want themselves to be known yet. I also don’t have the items currently, though I know what they’ll be and I wanted to check if I wanted you to have it. I’ll deliver the items as promised when the time comes,’ she said, wincing a little at how subservient she was sounding. ‘… And, since I feel I must, I want to explain a bit further on a certain other incident that could be held against me. After freeing the girls, I made them invade the mansion with me, because it felt like the best way I could look after them… and also because the place was littered with my banes, so I could use their help. I sent them scouting and to collect items for me, while avoiding combat.’ Now to the incident.

‘I don’t know how it happened, but somehow some of them came into conflict with Beacon girls, and some of the freed girls lost their lives. I assume this was due to a misunderstanding, the girls thought those they fought were Justine’s girls. I did not want them to get into a fight like that. I still don’t entirely understand how it happened, but I had no part in that other than making the error in judgement of sending girls just freed from Justine’s torture to scout.’ … And that was that part.

Penny would simply nod at Mariette’s words. She had a feeling she knew of which girls were being talked about, but that wasn’t really important at the moment. She did take a glance at the black tentacles that sprouted up around Mariette though a bit of information that she hadn’t had before.

She would return her gaze to Mariette, it was notably soft for the first time in this entire conversation. “I don’t blame you for their actions and I can’t argue about not telling me who it is that is sending me things. Getting you to betray them wouldn't help our relationship after all” She would say as she closed her own portal, it had served its purpose and was no longer needed.

“I wouldn’t mind knowing what they are ahead of time, however.”

Mariette did not entirely feel comforted by the softer gaze, still felt alarmed. But the acceptance of her words and the closing of the portal did go some way to make her feel a bit more comfortable, albeit she knew Penny could close that distance if she so wished. ‘… You will have to be patient, I’m afraid,’ Mariette replied to the last statement. ‘So, er… would you like my phone number?’ Mariette asked, sounding a little awkward.

“Eh, fair enough” Penny would shrug at yet another deflection, her curiosity and worry both growing a bit at this mysterious gift for her. Though the robot figured it was more a gift to her station then her directly which did mitigate the worry somewhat.

She did bite back a smirk at the offer of a phone number however, she also held back on the temptation of simply reaching out and acquiring the number herself. No need to freak Mariette out anymore then she had. “And sure” She would reply instead pulling out what looked to be a flip phone from a compartment in her leg. “Ready when you are”

Mariette fished up her phone from her Hyperspace Handbag, had a brief thought wondering if she could actually hear it ringing from in there, and then went on to exchange the number with Penny. With that done…

‘That… was all I came for,’ Mariette said, still looking spooked.

Once again Penny would nod, putting away her fake phone as well, since there was no need to keep up the pretense. Quietly she wondered how Mariette would react to learning that Penny could now track her phone anywhere in the City, but she didn’t bother informing the other girl of that.

“It's been interesting Mariette. You know where to find me” She would say turning partially to head back to the route she had been on before she had gotten side tracked. “Let me know if you find yourself in need of a key, hmm?” Penny would ask with a quirked eyebrow. She didn’t expect much from the offer, wasn’t even sure if Mariette would understand it, but she would offer it nevertheless.

Mariette dropped her phone back into the Hammerspace Handbag, nodding a bit to Penny as partially turned back. That statement, though... Mariette did have to partially reason about what she could mean. ‘… I’ll… keep it in mind,’ Mariette said, not really in a position to reply with anything else.

Penny just smiled at Mariette before fully turning back to the task she had set aside for herself. As now she had a lot more to think about then she did when she first set out on this patrol. “Catch you around” She would call over her shoulder

‘… Bye for now,’ Mariette simply said, before closing the portals, disappearing for now.

Without turning to look Penny simply leapt off the building towards the next one. leaving the rooftop empty and with no proof of the meeting that had ever happened.

---

Later, inside Mariette’s mansion, a somewhat skittish Mariette was seated in her dark office as one of her many girls opened the door. A girl with silver hair and a multitude of red little eyes in her hair, carried by six long black legs, a human’s torso on a spider’s body came in.


‘Yes, Mariette? You wished for my presence?’ Ronja asked, as her back leg closed the door behind her.

‘Yes. I have need of your powers,’ Mariette said, standing up and breathing out a bit heavily. ‘I need you to change one of my memories, as well as wipe the memory of me requesting the change,’ she said, looking sharply at Ronja.

‘Oh?’ the arachnid sounded out, curious. ‘Why, of course. My powers are always at your service. What do you wish to change?’

‘… I need to make sure I did not lie,’ Mariette said, breathing out a little heavily. Weather she’d recount the story to Penny again or to Alicia herself, there was no benefit to retaining the knowledge of this lie. ‘I always intended on letting the kidnapped girls go. … Understood?’

Ronja took the moment to process what had just been requested of her… before she broke out into a little giggle, smiling a sly little smile at Mariette.

‘I see. Naughty little mistress wants to change the past,’ Ronja said, then giggled some more, with Mariette feeling just the slightest apprehensive about letting this spider-girl with a token for being sadistic into her head, but still. The arachnid came closer, and Mariette made herself close her eyes as Ronja’s little smirk came closer along with the taps of her many legs.

‘Leave it to me. I will make everything… just how you want them~’

Ah ha, this must be the Sakura that Alex had mentioned some days ago. A rather unfortunate but common plight to be in. He was pretty sure the other Sakura he knew had been a girl prior to becoming magical. Anyway, he would wave to the two. "Nice to meet you." Hmm. come to think of it... he was pretty sure he'd met Emily before. Let's see. There was when Cindy first showed up and then again at the beach. Though they never really talked either of those times. Third introductions the charm? "Good to see you again Emily. Though you would probably recognize me more as Shannon." He didn't really mind if people knew who he was before. Sometimes it was just fun to see how people reacted. Like Lily, that was hilarious.

Helga and Su had returned home from their meeting in the overcity. They had learned a bit, but they needed time to discuss things on their own, without Vivi breathing down their necks or Askefye egging them on. 

”I probably could have ended things on better terms with Vivi, but I’m only willing to hold down my pride for so long before-” Su noticed Helga was examining the room. ”Oh, yea!” Su smiled. ”I had a new girl move all of your things into my room. I thought it would be good to make room for more guests.” 

Helga seemed to ignore Su at first as she sighed heavily and sat with a slouch on one of the chairs, looking tired.
"My stuff? It's in those boxes, right? I'll need to sort those out at some point."

”It shouldn't be too bad. All of your furniture was moved without being emptied out, that’s just what was in the closet. I normally wouldn’t have done it.” She placed a hand over her mouth. ”If something happens now, we’ll be there to watch each other’s backs, like if someone tried to attack us while we were sleeping. We can also save on water if we shower together.” She folded her arms. ”Do you agree?”

Helga nodded, a smile on her lips. "That sounds both efficient and lovely. But, uh...About that whole purification stuff…" She sounded insecure. "Are you sure about that, Su? I thought you were happy like this. Ever since the rave you've been acting differently."

The question seemed to make Su just as tired as Helga. ”It feels like something I have to do.” She sat down on a chair across from Helga. ”About the rave, something happened, and I’ve been thinking about it a bit. I wanted to tell you earlier, but I wanted it to be at a time we weren’t both rushing around.” She folded her hands in her lap. ”I’m sure you remember the music at the rave, how it seemed to trigger our, um, corrupted instincts?” It wasn’t really a question. That wasn’t the type of thing that you just forgot.

Helga nodded, her eyes squinting at the memory. “I do. That music got my fighting instincts to flare up. It wasn’t pretty.”

”As I’ve mentioned a few times, I think my corruption makes me envious of others. It’s a difficult thing to just release at will, and at the rave I was unable to find an outlet for my negative emotions.” She sighed, but Su never took her eyes off Helga. ”Until I saw you with those two shrine maidens. It filled me with anger, and I was determined to get even with you, with a shrine maiden of my own. I’m sure you saw Lei Zi before you left for Mika?” As uncomfortable as Su felt, she didn’t move an inch.

She then looked confused as Su explained how it affected her. “Wait, I thought you were-” Her eyes opened wide. “Ooh. That’s why.” She averted her eyes, looking uncomfortable. “S-So, just to let you know, I didn’t intend to make you jealous by hanging out with them. We were fighting together at the time, it was pure chaos…” She twirled the tip of her hair drill. ”...I’m sorry.”

”You didn’t do anything wrong Helga. If someone's at fault, it's me.” Su looked at the floor again. ”I feel horrible for having felt that way. Especially since those girls are dead now, or so I was told.” She lifted her head again. ”I’m just tired of being controlled by my corruption. I could have fried with everyone else in that room if I didn’t snap out of it in time. I’m always going to be in Beacon’s cross-hairs so long as we house monster girls. But I want to be rid of this corruption for our relationship.” She folded her hands under her chin and leaned forward. ”But that’s me. What’s best for you and if we should trust Beacon are the only things that are up in the air right now.”

Helga nodded, biting her lip. “I don’t know...This is a lot to take in. I mean, it’s Beacon we’re talking about.” She crossed her arms on her lap. “But...Whatever you want to do Su, I’ll support it, all the way.” She stood up, and walked over to Su, taking her hand. “You’ve been there for me through thick and thin, and I’ll do the same for you.”

”I don’t feel too strongly about it one way or the other. If you’re more comfortable as a monster I certainly won’t force you to cleanse yourself. The girl I want to be with is right here.” Su smiled. ”Oh! I was visited by someone an hour ago. Penny, of all people...”

Su filled Helga in on her encounter. She left nothing out.

”Boteg might not be the last of his kind! What do you think?”

Helga immediately brightened up at the good news. "That's wonderful! I always figured there were other gold dragons out there. Did you tell him yet?"

”Not yet.” Su stepped away from Helga. ”I don’t want to get his hopes up. We need to talk to the terrible one to confirm Penny’s story.” She tapped her fingers together. ”Um, Helga.” Su turned to face her. ”You’re still okay with Penny having Amber’s ship, right?”

Helga closed her eyes and smiled. "Having it be in the hands of someone who truly cares for it is better than I could possibly hope for." She opened her eyes, and gave a thumbs up. "I've come to terms with it, so you don't have to worry about it."

Unfortunate. Su did her best to hide it during the talk of an alliance, but Penny having Amber's ship did not sit well with her. It was made a bit more complicated by the fact that she couldn't give it back. Of course there had to be a way, the real question was if Penny was just taking the easy way out because she refused to surrender it. Regardless, it seemed like Helga was still okay parting with it. But she didn't know Amber as long as Su did. Perhapse her attachment to it just wasn't strong enough for that reason.

"With that said," She lifted her finger, "Once we confirm if the rumor is true, we could try to contact the other dragons and see if they could help us."

Su’s mind was emptied of Amber's ship. It was now flooded with images of lightning dragons threatening to eat her, her family, and even people who were of no relation to her whatsoever. 

”…I’m not so sure that would be a good idea. But that should be left up to Boteg.”

*knock knock*

Su turned to look at the door. ”It’s unlocked, you can come in.”

The door was shoved open and Mika made her presence known, smiling at her parents as she entered. ”I’m ready!” Mika had told Su and Helga that she was leaving the night before, and was going to go tell all of her friends in the beach dimension what was going on. 

”You packed all of your things?” Su hadn’t always enjoyed Mika’s company, but regardless if it was a few weeks or forever, she was sure she was going to miss her. She had come to enjoy her role as a mother, and wouldn’t have minded if it lasted a bit longer. ”You’re sure about this?”

”Yup!” Mika nodded. ”We can keep in touch! And I’m sure it won’t be as dangerous as Penrose.”

Su let out a defeated sigh. ”Probably not.” She wrapped her arms around Mika. ”You’ll always have a home here, Mika.”

”I know mommy!” Mika backed away from Su so that she could hug Helga. ”Keep mommy out of trouble. She worries about me, but she gets herself into trouble too.”

Helga also hugged Mika with tears in her eyes. "Mom's gonna miss you so much she'll be unable to cause trouble." She sniffled, and then pat Mika's head. "Remember to brush your teeth every day, and to be safe. And remember that we will always love."

”I know daddy! I’ll always love you too!”

Su was about to say something, but thought better of it. ”She’ll figure it out eventually.” She reassured Helga.

---

_{@Ariamis@AtomicNut@Ponn@FamishedPants@Card Captor@twave}

Those in Emily’s humble apartment would no longer crave warmth, as even more people were about to show up. 

The next one in was Faith. The eccentric demigoddess chose to disguise herself as the blond haired gremlin Mia and Connie had spotted. She was still keeping a low profile, otherwise she’d have come in as herself.

”Greetings friends~!” She took Mia and Connie in each of her arms and gave them a squeeze. ”Thank you for inviting me! I’ll have to get to know everyone in time. And also-” She hoisted her creation above her head. ”I hope you all like my nutty banana bread!”

Just as she said that another head poked its way in. Full of long, white hair, adorned with two cute ribbons and clad in her coat, Hilaria made her debut. "Itsh very good~!" she spoke while chewing on what was likely a loaf of that very same bread. Hilaria held a glass container with a cloth draped over it, presumably her contribution to the gathering. "Hello~" she called out to the people Faith had started speaking to, only to realize something. "Mmm, they look familiar~"

---

”Ready to go?”

”Just one more lap.”

”It’s gotta be past midnight now.”

”Just one more lap.”

Mika and Rina were riding the nimbus a few feet over the ocean in the beach dimension. The speed at which they traveled was enough to create a wake. Flying high was fun, but flying over the water offered a more dynamic experience. But neither of the riders were paying attention to that. Rina was looking at Mika, who was turning a red coin over in her hand.

”Alright, I just don’t want you to get cold feet now.” Rina looked ahead. ”You have a lot of friends here, and a family that loves you. I wish I had that.”

Mika stashed the coin in her swimsuit and looked to Rina. ”I know I’ll miss them. I also know we’re going to help them by looking at A-toy-kia.”

Rina laughed. ”Ethiopia! That wasn’t even close!” She hugged her knees against her chest. ”Anyway, thanks Mika. It’s… It’s nice to have a partner again.”



…

…

…

A black lotus attached to a flesh bud soared after the low flying cloud…

Having been reanimated as a doll, Melisa abandoned her home to find people. She would be back… eventually… maybe. Seemed like a reasonably quiet place at least. Further from the hustle of the city. Not that many people though. Driven by hunger she set her eyes on the city. Had she stopped and thought about it she probably could have used her car, but her magic was entirely new to her.

To say it took a while to trek to the city would be accurate. Tiny legs going for hours the night would close in just a matter of hours. Her rest period, assuming she needed one, was during the day. Night was when her magic was strongest. The streets were empty at this hour and the likelihood of running into your average girl was almost none. Not that she was looking for any kind in particular. Her tiny metal feet clicked softly against the concrete sidewalk as she went along. She grew up in Penrose, but had moved away years ago. The place had changed a lot. Much bigger and… broken. That was weird.

At one point she had to ward off a dog that came running at her. Sending the thing packing was a simple task, but she was a walking toy so it wasn’t a surprise it tried to snap her up. One shot and the creature ran yelping away. It’d be fine.

”Aaaaaaeeeegggghhhhhh…” A maid walked around the corner of a building. ”My butt is so sore I can’t even sleep.” She whimpered. ”When will it stop hurting?” She stopped walking when she noticed Melisa walking. ”Uh, hello?” She gave the doll a sideways glance. ”Are you a nurse?”

The little doll would turn and look at Trixy. A girl! She would break into a smile and click on over. She didn’t quite understand the question though. ”Nurse? Not really no. Why?”

The toothy, eyepatch maid looked everywhere but into Melisa’s eyes. ”I’m just having difficulty sleeping because, of, um, back pains!” She laughed a bit louder than she should have. ”A-anyway! I don’t think we’ve met. My name is Trixy. You are?”

”I’m Melisa! Nice to meet you.” She would offer a hand to shake but then realized there was still a considerable distance from her to Trixy's hand. She'd have to almost be standing next to her to even reach. She pouted briefly but the smile returned almost instantly. "That's going to take some getting used to. Oh well! She touched her index fingers together. "I'm a little confused about what's going on. I was looking for people. I figured they would be scared when they saw me. You're not though which is nice."

”Hold on.” Trixy got on her hands and knees. ”Lack of sleep must be catching up to me, I thought you were off in the distance.” Trixy extended her hand over Melisa’s head. She couldn’t have been more than two feet tall. ”Well anyway, I’m not too scared of cute girls.” She placed a single finger on the doll’s head and brushed her hair on either side of her face. ”Where did you come from?”

Melisa closed her eyes and leaned into the finger as it moved around her head. Seemed she enjoyed the simple gesture. "I have a home just outside the city limits. I found this..." Opening her eyes she gestured to herself. "In the attic. Managed to cut myself on the thing and next I knew I was being pulled in and became the doll. Keep thinking I'll wake up but uh..." She placed her tiny hands against Trixy's as if in disbelief that what she was experiencing was real.

”Hmmmm, well, as someone who’s desperately trying to fall asleep themselves, I’m afraid this isn’t a dream.” Trixy squinted her eyes. ”It sounds like you were cursed. I don’t know too much about that kind of stuff.” She stood back up. ”Regardless, I’m sure there’s a cure for it!” Trixy pointed at the sky as she said this. ”Either the curse wears off in time, or we find a way to break it!”

Cursed? "Those are real?" She tapped on her own arm which made a hollow clinking sound. "Well... I guess that makes as much sense as anything else tonight." She seemed pretty calm about the whole thing. For someone that just came to the realization that she was hit by some crazy magic and was talking to Trixy, who didn't exactly look normal herself, she was taking it in stride.

Trixy looked around. ”Well, your home probably isn’t safe. The only person I know who’s capable of analyzing you is in another city.” Trixy picked up Melisa, letting her sit in the palm of her hand. ”Oh, you’re a little heavvvvvenly thing, aren’t you?” Trixy giggled to herself. ”It’ll be hard to contact anyone at this hour. Did you want to come back to my place?”

Melisa wasn’t sure why she couldn’t go home, but she didn’t really know how all this worked. She would nod after a few seconds. ”I guess so. Thank you.” The slight smile that seemed stuck to her face grew wider.

The maid pointed at the doll. ”You uh, yea, never mind. We’ll figure this out tomorrow.”

---

Trixy’s apartment was nothing special. It was basically two rooms, a kitchen and a bedroom. The kitchen was tidy, but everything inside it was well used. Not a single appliance was newer than five years, and all of the kitchenware had the chips and scratches that indicated their years of use. The marble counter tops looked new, but they were on top of some gaudy cabinets that had to have been around since the seventies, and had received little more than a few coats of paint to keep with the times.

The bedroom was little more than a bed and a night stand. There was a lot of space off to one side of the room that could have been utilized to make an office space, but it hadn’t been set up that way. There were a pile of boxes, and the far wall of the bedroom was covered in a sprawling bookshelf. Though it mostly contained magazines, with few actual books. There was a large picture of Penrose Middleschool’s mascot hanging on a wall. “Trix the bear” was standing behind a class during a graduation ceremony, and was even wearing a graduate’s hat. He was hugging one of the girls while making a peace sign. Awfully difficult considering he had such a large body and such tiny arms. The rest of the wall was covered in posters of sporting events, most featuring bikini modes in provocative poses.

As soon as they got to Trixy’s apartment, She used her wood magic to make a bed for the doll. It was little more than woody vines grown into a box shape. she put a spare pillow in the box to act as a mattress, and some of her clothes to act as bed sheets. For the pillow, Trixy stuffed a shirt pocket with leaves and placed it at the head of the bed. The box was big enough so that if Melisa’s curse wore off, she wouldn’t be crushed inside the confines of the box.

”I’m going to put a lid on it for your protection. I’ll remove it once the morning comes.”

Trixy wasn’t a complete dummy. Even if it wasn’t a magical girl, it was dangerous to keep a sentient being in your living quarters. While people being cursed into one form or another was a likely reason for Melisa to become a doll, she could also be the work of a spirit specialist or the minion of a monster. Vines grew over the top of the bed and sealed it off.

”Good night.”

Trixy climbed back into her bed and threw her face into her pillow. Maybe she could sleep on her stomach.

---

Morning came sooner than either of the girls would have liked. With a yawn, trixy rolled out of bed and ran up to Melisa’s “tomb” and beckoned the roots to go away.

”Did you sleep alright?”

The girl had lay there the entire night. If she still had flesh and bones her body would have probably ached staying so motionless. Her eyes were already open and she had been staring blankly at the canopy until Trixy opened up the space. Her eyes fluttered and she seemed to “wake up” in a way..”I’m not sure if I’d call it sleep. Resting maybe? It was very boring.” Sitting and then standing up, she effortlessly hopped up onto the edge of the box. Her arm pinwheeled for a second but she found her balance faster than expected. ”Oh…” She walked along the edge with minimal issue. Her body was tiny artificial but it was apparently much stronger and agile than her old one. She probably looked adorable holding her arms straight out as she walked the line.

”Did you want some breakfast?” Trixy’s eyes followed the puppet’s legs as she walked along the edge of the box. ”Are you even hungry?”

”Not right now. And not for food anyway.” She would respond after a short pause. Turning she would giggle a bit. ”This isn’t half bad. Weird but better… maybe?” Might be too early to make a call. Whatever had happened to her seemed to have come with a number of benefits. Although being a doll was bound to come with drawbacks. Such as, how the hell was she supposed to go about and do anything normal?

Trixy raised an eyebrow. ”Uh, did you want to go back to your house? It might be dangerous, but it’ll be a lot safer now that everyone’s awake.”

”Mmm… I don’t know if there’s anything there for me right now. This doll was in there but anyone that would know about it is long gone. I inherited the estate so it should be empty.” Probably a detail she could have mentioned last night. For whatever reason going with someone sounded much more enticing. And she had gotten a “meal” out of it. ”I probably have to go somewhere else to get help. I don’t like the idea of staying somewhere alone.”

Trixy scratched her chin. ”Alright, just wait a moment. I’m going to call a friend.” She placed her fingers on the side of her head.

"Okay!" Melisa would sit on the edge of the box and swing her legs playfully while she waited.

A few minutes later, they would hear a knock on the door. "Yoooo, anyone here?? I got your message."

Trixy flung the door open and wrapped her arms around Eliza. ”There you are!” She spun one full rotation with the witch before setting her down. ”Thanks for coming on such short notice.” Trixy pointed at Melisa. ”This is the girl I was telling you about. You’ve got every divining power known to magical girl. I was hoping you could see what happened to this girl and if we can help her out. She seems to have turned into a doll.”

"Huh. That's new." Eliza looked over to Melissa with her brows raised. She walked over to doll and sat down in front of her. "I need the practice for my scrying power anyways, soooo is it okay if I try looking back to when you got cursed?" she asked, holding a hand out for the doll to take.

The girl tilted her head cusiously. "Uhm, sure." Melisa didn't quite understand what the girls were talking about. She reached out and took hold of one of Eliza's fingers.

"Hmm..." The witch focused her magic on scrying into what happened prior to Melissa's transformation. "Huh. Kinda cliche, ain't it. 'Creepy doll in an abandoned house', right?" she asked.

She shrugged as best her ridged form would allow. "There were stories that some of the old family were a little excentric about ghosts and spirits. I thought they were just that, stories. Guess what I'm saying is I'm not as surprised. Though usually the doll kills you or somthing." She scratched her head audably as she looked down at her metal legs.

"Eh, never a good sign. Sprits can be nasty, if not unchecked." Eliza shook her head, and continued to focus. "Hm, you overheard a voice, presumably from the doll. Then- Oh. Oh, dear. That's not good..." she furrowed her brows, and looked back to the puppet.

"I think ya got dragged into a blood contract."

The dolls eyes would go wide with concern. She persumed it had to do with the pink flame. At the time she kind of lost track once it worked past her head. "A... blood contract?" She seemed confused.

"A bit of a stretch, but when you had cut your finger, some of the blood ended up on the doll, letting whatever spirit that was inhabiting the shell drag your soul into it." Eliza speculated. "You might be one of us. Or more specifically, a monster girl."

Eyes darting from Eliza, to Trixy, and back to Eliza, it was clear what was just told to her wasn't registering. One of you? W-what does that mean? I'm just me. In a doll maybe, but I'm not a monster." She certianly didn't feel like one at least.

"Ah geez, let me explain." The witch reassured Melissa. "When someone gets contracted by a patron, they become a magical girl; or boy if luck decides. When they get corrupted, they become dark magical girl. And if the chance they have a higher influx of magic than what's stable, they turn into a monster girl." she explained.

"I can only assume you encountered a patron that day. But don't worry, not all monster girls are bad. I'm friends with some, and hell, used to be one myself!"

Pondering it for a moment she seemed okay with that explanation. It was just a generic term to describe different people. Though that begged to question. "Why? What's the point of doing that to people?" Seemed kind of random to her.

”Because Patrons can be really big jerks!” Trixy placed her hands on her hips when she chimed in. ”There’s a game of interdimensional chess going on, and magical girls end up being the playing pieces. Anyway, it’s kind of difficult to go back to normal life once you’ve become a magical girl, and that goes tripple for monster girls like yourself.” She scratched her chin. ”Would you like to ally with us? Your patron doesn’t seem to care too much about you, but you’d be taken care of if you joined the cradle, I’m sure of it!”

This was a lot of information to take in. Patrons and magical girls and monsters. Geez, she really fell into a mess. Though it made a little more sense why she couldn't leave the doll back in the attic. Probably had some hex or something that made her do what she did. Either way the offer to join the two that were helping her came up. She almost said yes outright, but something stopped her. She settled for more questions. The gesture did illicit a big smile though. "I would love to have allies. But uh, what is the Cradle?" She glanced briefly at the box she lay in the night before. Surely not that thing.

”Crimson Cradle is an organization founded by our lady Vermilion Veronica!” Trixy placed a hand on her chest as she uttered her boss’s name. ”Her long term goal is to fix everything that’s wrong with this world, but for now that means putting an end to the Mint’s activity in Penrose.” She closed her eyes and sighed. ”And before you ask, the Mint are the equivalent of the magical girl mafia. I wish there was a book that explained everything, I’m not the best at it.” She leaned forward and grabbed her knees. ”Boss lady would be the person to ask about a lot of this stuff. Too bad she’s away. Oh!” Trixy looked at Eliza. ”Does Maura still recruit girls? Might be a good temp solution until we get word from Veronica how we’re handling recruitment in her absence.”

"With current circumstances, she's always looking for more recruits." Eliza said. "If you're alright with it, I can let her know and set up an arrangement."

"Er... She seemed unsure. "I guess we can talk."

Trixy patted the doll on the head. ”Trust me, you want a patron that’s not going to leave you in the world to fend for yourself. Maura may not be Veronica, but she seems like a chill person.” Trixy looked at her phone. ”But they do keep you busy.” She looked up at Eliza. ”I’ll leave her in your care then? I need to update the glimmer page.”

"Sure. I'm fine having a roommate!" Eliza nodded, looking back to Melissa. "Well, if it's okay with you. Don't wanna drag you into something you wouldn't like, eheh..."

The tiny girl tapped on her upper lip. "Mmm. Maybe not right away. I still don't really know what's going on. Thanks for the offer though!" She would smile brightly. "So, what did she mean about pieces? Are we supposed to do something as magical girls?" This was going to take a while.

"Eh, fight monsters, protect civilians, mainly do jobs your patron gives you." Eliza explained.

"Oh. Um, I guess I can do that. Is it fun?" The girl seemed to be slipping into a more child like state as they were going along. Whatever change she had undergone was still at work in her mind it seemed. Perhaps her patron simply wasn't done shaping her just yet.

"It can be fun, but also very tough on occasion, like when you're up against a difficult enemy." The witch hummed.

She thought about it for a minute. This was going to take a lot of getting used to since there was apparently no way to go back. She would look back and forth between them. "Well, you've been very kind to me. Is there anything I can help you with? I don't really have anything on me." She didn't want to end up feeling like a burden. Though she supposed being so small and artificial she wouldn't take or use up much of anything.

”Not if we don't share a patron, no.” Trixy shook her head without looking up from her phone. ”You're still new, just focus on figuring things out for now.”

"Alright then. Sooooo... Am I just going to stay here from now on or is there somewhere else I should go? I can't imagine there are that many places that would just let me walk in looking like this." She would give an exaggerated expression as she looked down at herself.

”Ehhhhh...” Trixy rubbed the side of her head. ”Maybe sanctuary?”

Before the Doll could ask anything, Trixy went ahead an explained what sanctuary was. It was clear she didn’t know everything about it, but it seemed to be a haven of sorts for girls as afflicted as herself.

”That would be my best guess. At least, if you don’t want to stick around us.”

"I don't mind staying. I just don't want to impose on my new friends." She thought about it for a bit. "Maybe I should visit the place first and then decide what to do." She nodded to herself. "That sounds like an idea."

The school's field was alive with a cacophony of yelling, screaming, insulting, and reprimanding on this hot day some years ago. At the center of it were two figures, a boy and a girl, one standing triumphant and the other, defeated and on the ground, rubbing their check as they sobbed. It was clear as day that the two had gotten into a fight.

The girl had was riddled with small bruises both on her face and, as she would later discover in the nurse's office, her arms. She had tried her best to block the boy's wild throws but she could have done a lot better.

But she stood victorious. "Idiot!" she spat at the boy who on the ground. "Ain't no reason to be acting like a jackass!" she raised her fist in a threatening manner but all she was met with was a teacher seizing her hand and yelling about the possibility of detention versus expulsion.

.........

She had to walk home with the knowledge she would be dealing with one angry mother, a thought that scared her more than anything else. Beside her was sister. She was the miniboss. "Oh, I was so scared you got seriously hurt," her sister said. "Thank God!" the girl was pulled into a deep hug for a few seconds.

This somewhat touching moment was ruined by her sister seizing her ear and giving it a firm tug, which hurt more than anything that boy threw at her. "Yeow! Yeow! What gives, huh!?" she was at the mercy of her sister, who merely shook her head in anger and disappointment.

"How could you get into a fight at school? We talked about violence before!" she scolded.

The young girl pouted. "That's cus they were being dumb idiots! And mean!"

"That's no excuse for violence." her sister snapped. Fighting was something she had long ago made known that she loathed.

"Yeah it is! Cus they..." the girl suddenly went quiet and pouted.

Her sister glanced down at the girl only to realize she was still holding her by the ear. Letting go, she apologized. "Sorry," she told the girl, only to then asked, "Cus they what? You know there's no point in hiding it. The warden will get it out of you soon enough when you get home." The warden was, of course, a playful name they called their mom when she was upset. And she was certainly going to be.

If there was one constant in this world that the girl believed in, it was that her sister would forgive her. She wished she had this kind of strength herself. But... not having that sort of strength was why she got into the fight in the first place. "They... said mean things about me... and ya," the girl finally admitted.

"Oh? What mean things did they say?" her sister inquired.

"They were talkin' bout families and stuff," she began. From the subtle shift in her sister's features, the girl could tell her sister knew where this was going but she continued anyway. "and then they started saying stuff bout me and ya, so I got upset."

"And so you started a fight, just like that? I'm ash--"

The girl cut her sister off. "No! I told 'em to shut up, first! I tried being reasonable like ya said to and all but that didn't work!" the girl got worked up the more she went on. "One of 'em kept goin' on and on and he wouldn't shut up! He said that just cus' ya ain't born from the same ma as me that ya aren't my real sister, so that's why I gave him a whoopin'!"

The girl caught a brief but significant twist in her sister's features. Her sister smiled in a clear attempt to hide the effect it had on her. "Don't let it get to you," she calmly said, patting the girl's back. "Being a sister is more than just having the same blood in your veins," she affirmed. "Love and wanting the best for one another is all that is needed."

The girl shook her head. "Yeah, maybe. But that numbskull didn't know nothin' bout that! And! He made me madder than a short guy witha yoyo! He got his just deserts!"

Her sister then flicked her forehead, knelt down in front of her, then smiled. "You can be better than that, you know,"

The girl looked away. "...Yeah, but I wanted him to feel like me and ya felt."

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." she quoted.

The girl scratched her head. "Um, but don't we got two? We'd still be able to see with one..."

Her sister laughed. "It's a saying that means you shouldn't solve violence with violence. But I think it applies to anything negative. Pain in any form will likely spread," she explained. "So wouldn't it be better to instead spread kindness and love?"

"Huh?"

"I know it'll be hard but I want you to take any frustrations you have and turn them into benevolent actions. Spread joy instead of more anger and I'm sure the world will be a lot better off. I think there's enough violence already,"

The girl went quiet for a minute. She thought about how upset that boy had made her and how bad she felt she had to give him a beating. How was she supposed to do something positive with those emotions? That made no sense! But, if her sister was telling her to try, then there had to be something. "I-I guess I can give it a shot..." she told her sister, who beamed a bright smile in response.

"Wonderful!" she exclaimed as they drew near to their house. "I want that to go for any negative emotion, okay?" as she asked this of the girl, the sister opened the door to their home. "Even despair. I know you can do it."

What waited for them on the other side was a look that could kill, and it was being directed at the girl. Her ear was going to be red for the next few days, she knew it.

"M-maybe it's not possible after all..."

-------

Emily snapped herself out of the daydream as things began to pick up. She tried not to remember the embarrassing things she said to her sister back then, but since those memories were all she had left of the girl, they weren't entirely unwelcome.

Having returned to the real world, she realized she was standing in front of Sakura's 'rules' and remembered what she had been doing. With pen in hand, she crossed out the last rule on the list and replaced it with "Make friends!" instead of the more vulgar one. As much as she appreciated Sakura looking out for her, she would prefer not to have something like that just hanging around her place, if possible.

Her task was finished just as more people began coming in. When Sakura said she had invited people over, she was not expecting this many at first. It made her upset that her place wasn't exactly the most accommodating for a party as big as it was looking to be, but she had moved anything that cluttered the place out of sight beforehand.

"Hello!" Emily greeted the group of guests who had suddenly appeared, consisting of Alex, Lily, Shane, Connie, and Mia. She felt so excited! "I'm glad you all could make it! As far as edible things go, you can place them anywhere there's space in the kitchen for now while we wait for everyone to show!" she directed them to the kitchen with a finger, even though it wasn't really necessary.

She went ahead and addressed the direct introduction to herself after she ensured the others knew where to go. "Shannon?" the name was vaguely familiar to her. But... wait, wasn't Shannon more of a girl's name? What was the deal with Shane, then? "Um..." she wasn't sure how she should react. "Oh, well, it's good to see you again! Forgive me if I'm wrong, but were you at the beach?" she asked to make sure.

He would regard the list of rules for a moment and shake his head at the last one that was scratched out. Pretty sure Emily trying to make friends was something she'd been at for a while given their brief encounters. Hopefully his PoF wouldn't fail him again in that front. Or whoever wrote the original rule didn't punch him in the face for trying.

His attention would go back to Emily and he would nod. "I was at the beach. I was the earth girl. We didn't really get the chance to talk. I was also at the capital when Cindy first arrived just before we all headed off to the graveyard. We didn't really talk then either." He would shrug slightly. "Obviously I'm not that girl anymore so figured the name Shannon didn't quite fit. Anyway..." Magical transformations and such made keeping track of some people a pain, and he wasn't helping in that situation. He'd leave that confusing nonsense for another time. "Do we know what we're going to be watching or was that to be decided once everyone arrived?" He didn't want to derail the topic too much. He was also curious.


Arriving a little after the others, Hilde would knock and be let in. She had been bundled up so it took her a moment to get the things off of her. "Sorry guys. Turns out ghosts are chattier than you might think." She closed the door and glanced around at everyone present. Pretty quickly she gravitated over to Connie, Mia, and Faith. She would give each of them a hug before turning to everyone else. "Wow, this is a lot of people. Hi everybody. My name is Hilde." Everything was kind of moving around and things were still getting organized so she didn't expect everyone to respond.

“Okay, cool,” Mia said after Emily had directed them on where to put the snacks. With that out of the way, the tomboy took something out of the plastic bag she’d been holding and brought it over to Sakura. “Here, this is for you,” she told her, presenting the pink haired girl with a genuine Bonsai tree. “A little butterfly told me you liked these things,” she added with a grin. “It’s just my way of saying ‘thanks’ for lookin’ after Connie during the rave.”

Meanwhile, Connie stood a little off to the side. She knew most of these people, and they were her friends, but the shy girl still had some problems with crowds. Then she noticed two new arrivals. One she didn’t recognize, but the other was Faith, or, rather, an untransformed Faith. The bubbly blonde wasted no time in moving over and putting her arms around both Connie and Mia.

“Y-You’re v-very welcome!” Connie replied after Faith thanked them for the invite. “B-But, uh, a-aren’t you that s-shapeshifter that s-snuck into our room a few d-days ago?” she added in a whisper. Connie knew full well that this was what Faith looked like untransformed, but after the fairy girl’s strange performance when called out on it, she was unsure of exactly how to proceed here.

Before Faith could reply, Hilde would appear and give her three friends a hug.

“Hildebell! I’m s-so glad you could m-make it!” Connie exclaimed happily. She was surrounded by so many friends that all her worries and trepidations quickly vanished. This night was going to be so much fun!

She was sure of it.

Not too long after her brief, yet unique encounter with Faith did Hilaria gather herself enough to go ahead and seek out a means to reunite with her sibling. She could have asked the two who approached them at the diner but she needed just a moment or two to herself. This was happening much too often as of late, something that was relatively frightening for the centuries-old magical girl. If there was one thing she remembered about her life, it was that at every chance it beat the irrefutable fact that caring for people would only lead to despair.

Which, compounded by the fact she was now going out of her way to find and interact with members of the Ascendancy, gave Hilaria quite the bad feeling. Though what could possibly go wrong with a dark magical girl approaching an order established to eradicate such things? She figured that if one group would recognize her as an ancient, that maybe another one would. Not the soundest idea she ever had.

“How do you do, fellow magical girls~!” she called out to a group she managed to stumble upon. They did not make it hard to tell who they were affiliated with, what with the standard bearing the Beacon’s insignia on it. Hilaria was donning her armor and had her scutum in hand. She did not trust these individuals to remain completely civil, but she didn’t want to provoke them by waving her shotgun around. Most people did not take such actions in a positive manner. “Might Hilaria entreat you fellows for a bit of direction~?”

Unlike the previous patrol Hilaria stumbled upon, this group did not seem as eager for conversation; upon spotting her, the group immediately charged forth, using flanking tactics to surround her with weapons at the ready. One of the magical girls cast a spell on Hilaria before she finished asking her question, attempting to stun the girl with a psychic blast. Hilaria was mostly unaffected thanks to her endurance, and only felt slightly dazed by the attack as two girls elbow slammed into her from her sides, attempting to wrestle her to the ground.

“Surrender, or you shall be summarily executed!” The leader of the patrol, Amelie, shouted.

Their propensity for violence could almost be seen as endearing were it not for the fact she actually had an objective here. Having managed to shake off the mental attack, Hilaria raised her scutum towards one of the incoming girls and advanced with her shield, bashing the girl and, unless she had some way to prevent it, throwing her back and onto the ground. This left her back exposed to the other girl, who in their attempt to ground Hilaria, found herself being struck by the knight’s bombacious booty enabled by Dan’s blessing.

Merely stunning the girl would not be enough, so before the spell-slinging girl or the one she knocked to the ground could respond, she took the opportunity to force the last one to the floor, her scutum sitting upon her neck. “Hilaria thinks that’s no way to treat someone invited by the Cardinal~” It would be a simple matter to apply enough pressure to break a neck, what with her heavy shield and her strength. She hoped the threat of this would convince them to listen.

The first girl was successfully bashed right in the face, though instead of falling to the ground she made a backflip and skid backwards, slowing her traction using her blade while holding a hand to her face, bleeding from her nose. The other girl did not react as quickly, and was subdued by Hilaria’s mastery over the unusual martial art Dan had gifted to her, groaning as she felt the scutum press into her neck. The other girls stopped their attacks, and simply glared at Hilaria. Amelie stepped slowly forth until she was within speaking distance.

“Invited by the Cardinal? That’s absurd. She would never invite a murderous beast like you!” Amelie responded with disdain in her tone, only for the eyes to open in realization for one of the other girls. “Wait, is she...I think I saw her before...”
Amelie turned to her. “Where?”
“She was brought to meet with the Cardinal. She is speaking the truth.”

Amelie scoffed. “Unbelievable. The Cardinal actually did release her then...”
She continued moving closer to Hilaria, slowing down as Hilaria pressed harder on her hostage.
“Any other corrupted would flee before us or draw their armaments. Very well then. What directions are you asking for?”

Hilaria wasn’t letting her guard down for a moment. It was clear another step or any sudden movement from either of the girls would not have a pleasant result, but she was glad they at least noticed she hadn’t come to fight. “Hilaria wishes to see the Cardinal~ Or, well, the Cardinal wishes to see Hilaria~ But it’s hard for that to happen when Hilaria doesn’t know where to go~” she informed.

Amelie’s eye twitched. “Figures. Stacy, see if the Cardinal is available.” The psychic girl nodded, and placed two fingers against the base of her ear as she contacted headquarters. “HQ? This is Bravo 3, requesting the Cardinal. Apparently a corrupted one she has released wishes to speak with her.” After a moment, she lowered her fingers and spoke to Hilaria. “The Inquisitor has ordered to forbid the Cardinal’s contact with non-members of the organization. However, the Cardinal has requested to speak with you herself.” She turned to Amelie, who in turn grit her teeth with crossed arms. “...I suppose it can’t be helped.” Stacy removed her communication device and placed it on Amelie’s open palm. “Here, catch.” She carefully threw the device over to Hilaria, allowing her to equip it on her ear. “You have five minutes. Meeting protocol.”

Hilaria leaned over her shield to catch the communicator, careful not to put herself in any situation where she couldn’t just apply pressure to the girl beneath her. After receiving it and eying it for any trace of unwanted magics, she placed it in her ear. “Mmm, is this Ishtar, Hilaria wonders~? Hilaria was told you wanted to check up on her so here she is~”

At the very moment Hilaria spoke, she heard Ishtar cry out in surprise. "Helewisa!" She began sobbing, sounding weaker than the last time they met. "It's you...My heart was so heavy with worry, I felt like it would be crushed. I'm so happy to hear you again."

Being oblivious to the night of the Rave, Hilaria was questioning her sister’s sanity. There was no reason that she was aware that anyone should have had to worry about her, so it came off as Ishtar being clingy. Was she like this before? “It hasn’t been that long, has it~?” But knowing her own forgetfulness, maybe it had been longer than she recalled. Considering her age, it wasn’t impossible for her to have just forgotten a week or so. Maybe even longer. What’s a year to someone who has lived a thousand? There was something else, too. “You sound off, Hilaria thinks~ Did Hilaria contact you at a weird time~?”

Hilaria heard a distant noise of Ishtar blowing her nose before she returned back to the communicator. "So you don't remember...I was cursed at the park. And there, I saw you...Consumed by the darkness in your heart. I called out to you, hoping our hearts would connect and illuminate through the black...But I was foolish. I...I've been a horrible sister, abandoning you for so many centuries. I understand why you rejected that bond."

“Eh? But you’re alright, then?” Hilaria was astounded. It sounded like Ishtar was saying that Hilaria went berserk, but that wasn’t right. That sort of thing required a big spike in emotions -- Hilaria was woefully lacking in that department. She moved through life caring little for anything save a delicious meal and someone to share it with. “Are you sure it was me?” she felt the sweats and a severe headache coming on. Her head was splitting as if it was desperately trying to come up with something, but the memory just wasn’t there, at least yet.

"As much as I wished to, I could not deny the consequence of my sin. That rage, that despair...It was your raft on the turbulent sea of fate. It was the only thing you could hold close to yourself." She paused, and Hilaria heard her handle her napkin, as if she was cleaning her tears. "But it doesn't have to stay that way, Helewisa. I can help you," she stated quietly.

And as much as Hilaria wished it wasn’t true, she did not believe her sister had reason to lie to her. To lose herself to her darkness… that hadn’t happened in a long time, and it should not have, either. She prided herself on being above such feelings, yet here she was, a kid again. “What do you mean, ‘help’?” she asked. She did not forget the other girls, and since they had yet to try something, she at least lightened the pressure on the girl beneath her. It was probably not the most comfortable position to listen to an ‘enemy’ have a conversation.

The pressured girl underneath Hilaria groaned in relief once Hilaria gave her a bit of respite. Ishtar answered: "I now understand that you are truly lonely, and need the warmth that only a person you trust can provide. If you could let me be part of your life again, I can help you forget your sorrow, and allow your heart repose after all the suffering it has endured. We can be...Siblings, who squabble and frolic, and share both the joys and hardships that the future has. Then, I believe your darkness will make way to new light."

“Would that it be so simple…” Hilaria had once desired such a life. She knowingly had given her normal, human life so that she might be a shield for humanity. Yet she was also selfish and wanted some notion of an average life when she wasn’t fighting monsters. At the time, Beacon had felt like that for her. And so did Isabella. That, however, came to an abrupt, terrible end, and the beginning of the darkness within her. Only an idiot would deign to trust that combination of people and organizations yet again.

Playing the fool had become second nature to Helewisa. It was an ineffective way to pass the time as she moved from one place to another. The ditzy, eccentric Hilaria had once been a hot-blooded thug. A girl with more heart than courage. A perverted, bold girl. She wore enough guises to begin to question which Helewisa was the real one. But if there was one thing she could not do now that she remembered it, was to pretend like that betrayal had never happened.

“You’ll understand that it’s impossible,” she spoke, a hint of regret in her voice. “I was abandoned for becoming what I am. By Beacon… and you,” she then eyed the girls watching her. “And it’s clear they have not changed in the slightest in their crusade against a dark one like myself. The Ascendancy’s actions and my inability to even have an audience with you without risking my own life is all the evidence I need,” she explained. “And if they have yet to change their ways, then what about you? What assurance save your word do I have? Nothing. If you truly desire to rekindle a relationship such as you’ve described, then I present to you an ultimatum: Severe ties with this organization who persecutes me still, or discard any notion that I may place faith in you.”

For a moment, there was nothing but silence, both on Ishtar’s end, and amongst the forces of Ascendancy that have gathered. Finally, it was broken by Amelie. “Five minutes are up. Return the communication device.” Ishtar could be heard softly yelping in surprise, and spoke: “Please, return it. I will arrange things so that we may meet again.”

Hilaria’s expression darkened. “Very well,” she replied in a monotone. Taking the communicator off, she looked at it for a second before tossing it towards Amelie with a flick of her wrist. She didn’t like being put on hold, but she would get an answer from the woman next time. Until then, she would keep her association with her and the Ascendancy to a minimum.

Finally, the girl beneath Hilaria was allowed to get up once again. In fact, she wasn’t given much of a choice. Hilaria pulled the girl to her feet with ease and gave her a shove that could have been a bit more gentle towards Amelie. “Hilaria is done here. She would rather not go through this petty rigamarole again,” she told them. “Perhaps you may save us both the trouble, next time?”

The girl, who was up until now in a bind, quickly jumped back to join her compatriots, their hostility only reinforced by witnessing Hilaria shove one of them. Amelie was not amused by the antics, and scoffed as she caught the device, putting it to her ear. “We will proceed with the extraction, Cardinal. Wait, what?” It seems she heard something she didn’t want to hear, as she grit her teeth and clenched her fist. “We have clear orders from the Inquisitor to exterminate all corruption, Cardinal!” She paused to listen again, and sighed. “...Very well.” She turned away.
“Disengage. We have a report of a monster infestation.” The other girls looked confused. “But what about-” “I said disengage. That’s an order!” She gave one last glimpse of contempt at Hilaria, and left the area, followed by the rest of the patrol.

This encounter left Hilaria with a bad taste in her mouth -- perhaps the one of the worst things for her to experience. She knew not what would evoke a berserk state, she knew not what she did, and she felt disappointment that Isabella hadn’t given her an answer. But, more than anything, now she was wondering:

Did she try to eat Faith?

She hoped she didn’t.

_{@Ariamis@AtomicNut@Ponn@FamishedPants@Card Captor@twave}

Faith looked nervous. ”Oh! Um, well!” She looked anxious. ”I figured it was best to disguise myself! Imagine if everyone knew Gaia’s daughter was in their presence? It could make everyone up tight. We’re all here to have fun after all~!” She giggled. ”Please try some bread!”

Before anyone could react, the door knob turned…

‘Okay! I’m here now!’ Ronin came in through the door, grinning and looking exactly like she always is. She was holding a big tray of…

‘I brought chocolate cupcakes!’ she said, placing the tray of amateur-made confectionaries on the table with all the other food and stuff, along with two cans of water. Because someone here might need them. ‘Now, let’s make friends, watch movies, and-’ she peered over at the new activity Oros was suddenly starting.

‘Huh.’

Sakura blinked twice, upon seeing Emily's crossing her last rule. She was kinda nice. That was whay she deserved to be protected. Well, not like this sort of people would ever be threats to Emily. First of all there was Bud and Sparky chan, which made Sakura smirk so slightly. "Yo, Sparky-chan and Bud. Welcome to the Godzilla appreciation cult - I mean movie night. Ohh drinks. No sake? Bah." She was a bit dejected, then realized people still saw her as a 9. So no sake for a 9. Her eyes lit up when she saw other two comrade in arms. "Bunbun-chan! Green-chan!" She said as she addressed Mia and Connie. "I appreciate you coming here."

Shane. Shannon? Who was this person? Had she ever met this dude before. "Oh hi, Dude." Sakura said. "You don't look like Shannon. Are you sure a little bastard stole your wiener? You look a guy now."

Two more people come. "Another green-chan??" Sakura's battle honed mind was beginning to be briefly overwhelmed. With her was a real looker, and that did not make her stupor any better. "White-chan, welcome indeed!" She briefly pondered swallowing her pride and see if she could get away on sitting on Hilaria's lap.

And there was another girl coming. "Ghost-chan?" She didn't remember her or anything... was this getting out of hand?

"BONSAI! Thanks Green-chan! I shall treasure it." Sakura, for once, did act giddy upon seeing the miniature tree. She hugged Mia out of reflex, as she kept eyeing the door for newcomers.

Then another newcomer came "Oppai Miko san?" SHe muttered under her breath. And then slammed a bottle on the ground and started doing her stuff. Sakura could not even begin to understand what a spin the bottle game was. The usual games she knew were Yakuza bravado contests with games. It was awful of her to start littering the ground again. Before she could step in, something else happen.

She could barely register Ronin entering too.

The space just above the bottle warped and bobbled... then opened all of a sudden like a ripe melon, as two girls stepped out of it, quickly returning to their civilian selves. Sakura's last invite had come to an end. She kinda owed her for the park fight, despite being an universal kind of weirdo. Shoggy was by all means, beyond human comprehension. Why did she have to invite the silver haired mommy complex weirdo too?

"Tako-brain?" Sakura blinked at the eldritch girl, who was carrying something... on her hands. And for once she had sucked all of her tentacles in. The thing was something gray, and pudding like. It also had tentacles. And eyes. And it squelched and stared at her.

"Hi, Eldritch pudding? I put eggs, sugar, flour, tons of love and one of my mashed juicy tentacles on it!" Shoggy said, shoving the monstrosity on Sakura's face.

_{"Eat me. End this existence"} Was that culinary disaster actually talking!?

What.the. Fuck. "Uh, just put it in the kitchen. In a corner. Where nobody can accidentally eat it. Yeah." Sakura said, before looking at the other girl.

"Hi." She said cooly at her.

"Hi!" The other girl said, beaming an smile. "I'm Tenebra. For those who don't know me. Mariette can eat my panties. Eheeheheh." She added, proud of her teleporting. "Vienna Sachertorte? Like, from actual Vienna." The silver-haired girl interjected, before pulling a delicious cake, and going to set it aside on the kitchen. "Hi Lily" She waved at Lily. "We're sisters now, right?" She added as she went by.

It was then when the Eldritch girl noticed something. A bottle. Her nemesis. Full of juice eldritch power. Her hands moved as her hunger compelled and...

*CRUNCH*

"Shoggy what the fuck." Sakura said, as Shoggy had indeed began to eat the spin-the-bottle as if it was a random snack, her abomination of a pudding being now held by tentacles.

"Crunchy. Tasty." The eldritch girl droned, as she went towards the kitchen to leave...that unspeakable thing.

"..let's get to the movies. Oh Hi, Ronin, great you could come!" Sakura said, eyes twitching. Yup, this was definitely off the rails... Poor poor Emily. "First we will have to start from the very beginning. Oh hold on I think i left the dvd's in the kitchen..."

And then ominous crunching sounds were heard.

"Ohnonononono" Sakura had a terrible realization. She pushed past people, to see the disaster.

Shoggy. Again. "These silver disc chips are so good! So dry and crunchy!"

"Tako-brain, THOSE WERE LIMITED EDITIONS YOU ASSTURD!" Sakura visiblely freaked out. "YOU JUST ATE THE MOVIES!"

"Movies are tasty...!" Shoggy added. "Thank you for inviting me!" The eldritch girl said without a hint of remorse.

"Fuck" Sakura said, and stomped towards the ringleader of the circle. "Oi, Oppai Miko-san. Could you get one of those bottles again and get the ball rollin'? My coworker just fucking ate my Special Edition." She paused. "Now where I can find another copy of the movie..."

"Um, maybe the Overcity bootleg market? They have a lot of things." Said Tenebra.

_{@Ariamis@AtomicNut@Ponn@FamishedPants@Card Captor@twave}

After giving the enrich pudding (Shoggy, not the Samantha-esque meal she brought.) the meanest stink eye* she could muster, Oros produced another green bottle. and gently placed it on the floor.

“Sure thing.” Her gaze found its way onto Tenebra. “I'm sorry, what's this about eating Mariette's panties? I was only half listening.”

*For non-USA posters: Stink eye is a disapproving look. A deep scowl, pointed brows, etc.

_{Caught in the Crossfire}

Apocalypse or not, Starbucks was still open.

Sitting by the window, Amaryllis hunched her shoulders as she cradled a cup of hot chocolate, watching the glass steam up. Though the coffehouse was still open, the heater had long gone bad, and the only person who worked there was a seventeen year old currently lazing about in the backrooms. The radio that played just reeled out soft static, and the walls were decorated with the shadows of where paintings and pictures were once framed. Dressed in a puffy overcoat, the midnight-haired girl watched the mini-marshmallows bob up and down as she tilted her cup back and forth. It wasn’t that Tetrad was late, just that Amaryllis had showed up a bit too early out of fear of being late.

Which, in and of itself, was a bit of a problem.

Fortunately, Tetrad was also the punctual sort, and arrived early. She was wearing a long coat that had fur bursting out of every opening.

“Thrift shops rock!”

Tetrad tucked her hair into the hood before sitting down. “I’m sure this is a sin, but I’ve actually never ate at a starbucks. I heard they had retarded coffee sizes or something.” She plopped down across from Amaryllis. “I get the impression if I followed you around, I’d spend half of my time hunting monsters and the other half dining in random eateries. Man, that’s the life.” She folded her hands in her lap. “Oh well. Beats doing everything over the phone or coms. What’s up?”

“It’s expensive and plain, but the ingredients they use are pretty good for a franchise,” Amaryllis replied. She tried sipping at her cocoa, but retracted the tip of her tongue when it touched the hot liquid. Too hot to drink, still. “Sizes are weird yeah, but they usually get the idea when you use normal sizes. Unless they’re a franchise drone.”

Reclining on her seat, she set her drink down, a half-smile on her face. “Well, with most of Penrose down, there really isn’t much else to do. Not like theaters or arcades are open. And if we go out of town...well, might end up missing out on another world-ending threat.” Not that she could, anyhow. “Called you over to ask about that, actually. Uh, so Veronica’s like a Patron but she’s also a magical girl, right? Was wondering if the Cradle knew of any methods of, mm...improving or changing how some of our abilities functioned? Mainly because, well, there’s a lotta people that I don’t want to see dead, but I only have two Hero Tokens and one of them can’t even be used on people…”

“Hero tokens?” Tetrad tipped her head. “Wait! Yea, Trixy has something like that. You can respond to danger in time, right.” She rubbed the bridge of her nose before folding her hands behind the back of her head. “Eh, not really. There are some special girls that can do weird stuff, but it’s not exactly something you can just replicate.” She tapped her foot. “There are ways you can cheat though. Like as an example I can teleport to any of my green cards. So all I need to do is give someone one of my cards and I can teleport to them if they phone me. Kind of like what we did during that Keijo match where I blinked to your back. Haha! I should have lost that one.” Tetrad pulled her hood over her head.

“For less jerry-rigged choices, you can put everyone you want to protect in one area and then use that ‘other’ token you can’t put directly on them. The very best option is probably just to be a cradle agent. We all communicate telepathically, can see each other, etc etc. It’s probably the closest thing to what you’re talking about. But Cradle isn’t for everyone.” With a sigh, Tetrad lowered her arms. She seemed to be lost in thought, then she lifted her head. “B-but yea! Who are you trying to protect? And if that’s none of my business, how many? Might help to know.”

Resignation, rather than disappointment, surfaced over Amaryllis’s features, but it disappeared soon enough when she realized she could take a sip of cocoa without scalding her tongue. “It’s not really something that can be solved with everyone joining Scarlet’s group, yeah,” she said, her brow furrowing in thought. “Off the top of my head though...Violet, Sakura, Mariette, Sammy, Nuncio, Sophia, Alicia, Rina, Betty, Emily, Hilaria, and you. Not that, you know, I don’t think you’re unable to defend yourself, but like, in case things go crazy because they always do, y’know?”

“Yyyyyyyyyyeaaaaaaaaa.” Tetrad’s eyes closed to half mast. “Things tend to get crazy around me all the time.” She crossed her arms over the table. “Which is why I’m surprised Betty of all people is the one who could have used your help last.”

“Justine was at the rave. She’s back to her old crap again, turning girls and what not.” She pulled out her phone so that she could look at the Cradle discussion about it. “Veronica was personally trying to catch her, but she just disappeared, unable to be followed. Which is strange, because she has no problem tracking Cradle agents wherever they go.” She closed her phone with a shrug. “Well, I’m sure we’ll find her in time.”

“Maybe it’s an Overcity Shift sorta thing? Psychic powers don’t, y’know, go past dimensions and all.” Amaryllis took another sip of the bittersweet beverage. “I’m sure you will though, yeah. I mean, she can’t be that tough if she was already beaten once, right?”

“Depends which video game franchise she crawled out of. But we’re avid gamers at Cradle.” Tetrad grinned. She reached into her sleeve and pulled out a fan of cards. “Suppose I can make that list a bit shorter.” She tossed a green uno card to Amaryllis. “Best part is that I can just teleport to you whenever. Theoretically, even if you need help.” She laughed. “Though you strike me as the type who’d hold off as long as possible before calling for help.” She paused. “Wait, Violet, Sakura, and Mariette? You’re friends with the portal witch?”

“Uh, yeah? She helped me figure out a buncha stuff n all.”

“And the paladin...” Tetrad scratched her chin. She wasn’t smiling anymore. “You realize some of your friends want to kill each other right? Some of your friends want to kill me I’m pretty sure.”

“Wait, what?” Amaryllis set her cup down. It was almost empty anyways, and she was getting tired of the taste. “I mean, Mariette’s Patron is a Horror and everything, but she’s not even corrupted. Even if we set that aside, isn’t it, I dunno, normal to not go immediately for murder? Discounting fights with actual monster and all.”

Well, she certainly hoped that the Ascendancy’s ‘purge-on-sight’ motto wasn’t something that was reflected in basically every other magical girl in Penrose.

“They want. To kill. Each other.” Tetrad fret her brow. “Amaryllis, I can’t even. I literally cannot even right now.” She pointed at her cup with every finger she had available to her. “I literally cannot.” She pointed at the floor. “Even just a little bit.” Tetrad breathed. “H-how did you even get so many powerful connections? Just befriend Penny and you can take over Penrose!”

“Oh, uh...I think I am friends with Penny too.” Amaryllis scratched her cheek sheepishly. “Just, y’know, I think she’s actually the only person who I can trust not to like, need me to be around them?”

“Stop, STOP!” Tetrad threw up her hands. “Just stop!” After holding her hands in front of Amaryllis for a moment, she rocked back in her seat and sighed. “Okay.” She placed her hand on her forehead and began breathing slowly. “Okay.” she told herself before throwing back her hood. “Why come to me?”

“Because I trust you?”

Well, it was more complicated than that, but Amaryllis didn’t really think all that complicated stuff would matter too much.

“Okay.” Tetrad eventually stopped rubbing her forehead, at which point there was a red welt where she had been rubbing her eyebrow. “Sorry, things are just getting really crazy. I certainly didn’t expect you to have so many connections. You’re so unassuming for that.” She blinked a few times. “Just be careful. I wish I could help you out more with your problem, but I don’t have a working knowledge about how some of those people work. In terms of their magic. Short of getting their phone number and setting something up like my green card trick, I can’t offer much right now.” She sniffed. “I don’t have much more to say than be careful. The Mint would be really interested in you if they knew about your connections. ”

“Ah…haha…”

Amaryllis tapped the side of her beverage nervously like a disobedient child. Tetrad’s stress levels really were sorta high, huh? “That’s uh, probably already sorta...interesting? Cause while the rave was going on and all, I sorta ended up picking a fight with the Mint…Sorry?”

Tetrad had looked upset, but with her entire head trembling, she was starting to look furious. She turned to the counter. “You there with the hat! Get me your strongest drink, in your largest size! ”

”I’m sorry ma’am, we don’t serve-”

“Your strongest, drink. I don’t care if you have to raid your bosses office for his stash of Vodka. Just do, your, best.”

The counter person avoided eye contact with Tetrad, nodded, and started talking to another employee.

“Amaryllis Evenings.” Tetrad said with a tone befitting her mother. “Forging alliances between everyone? Pissing off the Mint? Do you think this is some kind of game?”

“It kinda is.” A pink haired girl said as she walked past their window.

“Quiet you!” She returned her attention to Amaryllis. “Do you understand why this is a problem? If the Mint learns about your extensive network, that’s all the more reason to attack people you’re close to. You’re already really selfless, so they know they can force your hand by doing things to your friends. Or worse, they’ll come for you directly with their strongest goons.” She clasped her hands over her head. “Your friends should be the ones giving you hero tokens. I hope you have Penny on speed dial because if you’re afraid I’ll get hurt, you at least don’t have to worry about her.”

Amaryllis didn’t respond. If the Mint came to her directly, that would be easy. Simple and direct, a decisive moment to strike them down. But if they went after those she cared about...if they played her friends against each other…

The table splintered and cracked as her fingers tensed.

“Tetrad, did you work for the Mint before?” Amaryllis asked in a quiet voice.

“Wa?” Tetraid raised an eyebrow. “No! I didn’t do anything like that!” She folded her arms and looked away from Amaryllis. “Though I guess I can understand why you might think I did. Everyone in Cradle has that shady person vibe. But that’s just the nature of our work.” She looked at Amaryllis out of the corner of her eye. “I know you never worked for the Mint.”

“Ah.” Amaryllis blinked, drained what remained of her cup, and tossed it over her shoulder. The paper cup landed perfectly into the recyclables bin. “Sorry, was just thinking that you, like, knew a lot about the Mint. And if you worked for them before, maybe you’d know more. Such as, y’know, how to make sure they never come to Penrose again.”

“Everything I know about the Mint is second hand. Doesn’t hurt that my boss was former Mint.” Tetrad shrugged her shoulders. “That’s what makes the Mint hard to deal with though. It’s a giant pyramid scheme, and nobody knows who sits at the top. That goes for Veronica too, and she was a coin broker.” She pretended to look at a wrist watch. “Well, this was a very, enlightening, discussion.” She rubbed her hands together. “Next get together should be less business orientated.”

“Mm, sorry about all this. Maybe next time we could do something fun together. Like…” Amaryllis scrunched up her face, going through the litany of things she did other than kill monsters these days. “...read Twelfth Night together?”

“Suuuuuuuure we can.”

The counter person looked at Tetrad. Then quickly looked away to avoid eye contact. Seemed even starbucks employees could be pushed too far.

“Couldn’t find anything?” The counter person only turned away further. “Ah well, it was worth a shot, take care.” Tetrad stepped out the door.

Amaryllis wave-

“Oh shit, wait!”

Practically leaping out of her stool, she ran to catch up to Tetrad once more.

“Right, this totally slipped my mind, but like, all I do is monster hunt, so do you know if the Cradle has, I don’t know, something like those Pokemon GO lures or whatever that you use for like, attracting more monsters? Travel time really cuts down on my sleep, so...yeah…”

“Hmmm.” It took Tetrad a moment to think. “Sort of. Veronica did have something like a monster lure, but it was a bit too dangerous to give to field agents. I can’t recall specifics, but it made monsters stronger when they ate it and even worked on monster girls.” She pointed down the road. “I think she traded it to Brittany, so you might be able to buy it if no one else claims it.” Tetrad turned to face Amaryllis. “Anything else?”

“Brittany...alright, got it. Thanks Tetrad!”

With that Amaryllis...awkwardly ended up walking in the same direction Tetrad had been heading as well. “And, like, I was serious about the whole reading thing, y’know? We could even bring Emily into it and have like, a whole reading night! Not that my books survived Penrose’s fire and earthquake though…”

“I’m sure it’ll be fun.” Tetrad waved before walking down one of Penrose’s side streets.

The response was non-committal enough that Amaryllis wanted to educate Tetrad then and there about the wonders of 16th century drama, but she opted to complete her wave instead. There would be plenty of time after solving all of Penrose’s problems for her to talk literature to her friends, after all.

Whenever that would be.

Penny was once again out and about leaping across the rooftops of Penrose, The difference this time was that she was trying to tack down a single person. Truthfully she had been hoping to stumble across them for a few days now but that was mainly because she didn’t really have the time to set aside a search for her, and didn’t want to send any of the other girls at the Sanctuary to do such in case things got misunderstood.

And while she could have simply paged Amaryllis, or even simply hijacked the girls phone for a screen call phone, she was trying to keep that aspect of her magic something of a secret. Still it was due to that aspect that she was in the area of Penrose she was, as she was simply tracking the phone signal since she had The Knights number. So far she hadn't had any luck in actually finding the girl.

But then in the distance, against a backdrop of stars natural and electric, Penny saw her flying over the cityline. An aura of corrupting energies emanated from her in waves, and on every rooftop she landed on, more monsters slithered out from the shadows. Each joined the stream that had already chased after the Knight of Rose, and as they converged into a horde, Penny could see it too, that Amaryllis was gradually moving further and further away from Penrose, her trajectory taking her to the desolate outskirts of the city.

Target now in sight Penny was quick to give chase, but to say she was confused would be an understatement. The twisted energy coming off of the Knight was unlike her, at least as far as Penny was aware. Thus she wasn’t sure if this was a curse, a ploy, or something else. So rather than heading directly at Amaryllis, the machine Queen would move towards the tail of the horde. Picking off the stragglers that either ran out of energy or decided to call the chase off. For while Penny was confident that either alone or together this mob of monsters wouldn’t pose much of a threat. Taking them to the outskirts was always going to be preferable when it came to minimizing collateral.

Still she would make sure to keep the sword maiden in sight, in case things went sour and the more direct option needed to be taken.

Slowly, the cityscape gave way to more and more rubble, and that was where Amaryllis stopped, sliding upon the slope of a toppled-over apartment complex. The horde that chased her were many, blinded by the dark allure of her artifact, and she drew a line in the air with her silvered blade, watching as a thin chain, fifty meters in length, extended horizontally from that.

So thin, it was like piano wire, like a blade’s edge.

The Knight of Rose had fulfilled her promise before. Her Sword had been sated in previous nights, and now, what she cared about was efficiency. Cull the greatest numbers with the least amount of time. She let out a breath. Waited for them to come into range. Envisioned the rotation of the planet. Locked her chain into space.

The chain flashed orange, then red, as it disintegrated from the force of countless bones smashing into it at supersonic speeds.

But before her, the monsters all fell to pieces, dismembered in a single diagonal stroke, a chain that became an executioner’s axe to fell a forest of beasts. Amaryllis breathed out, and allowed her artifact to become inert once more; only a single drop of blood from the closest creature splattered against her face. As she wiped it off, however, she noticed a strange figure at the end of the massacre. A girl in futuristic armor, purple hair twisting in the aftermath of the attack.

“My apologies,” Amaryllis spoke, heels clacking against blood-slick concrete. “Were you caught up in my attack as well?”

Just beyond the edge of Amaryllis’ brutally efficient slaughter Penny was doing her best to regain her mental faculties. By most metrics what happened was little more than a cold calculating culling and to someone who had been born as a mechanized weapon of war it was nothing short of breathtaking. It could have been done with none of the grace and Penny would have still been enraptured by it, the added grace simply made it all the more awe inspiring.

“That was beautiful” Penny would say in response before snapping out of her stupor. “No I wasn’t caught by it, I was tailing them to make sure any stragglers that fell back got taken care of while you led them here.” In contrast to Amaryllis, Penny was covered with a fair bit more blood, though most of it was from before the trap had been sprung. Her normal methods of combat tended to leave her splattered in it, but she didn’t often care.

With a gesture from her hands all the gore that covered her was drawn to the ground leaving her clean. “Have to say not the sight I was expecting when I started looking for you Amaryllis but I’m not going to complain about getting to witness that.”

The Knight of Rose’s brow furrowed, before her eyes widened slightly. Though the appearance had changed, the voice was still familiar. “Penny, the Engine of Destruction,” she said, one hand moving to tuck her artifact away. “I hope you hadn’t been seeking me out for long? A message sent through the ether would have been sufficient to establish a rendezvous with me.”

Penny would lean back a bit at the appended moniker to her name “I didn’t realize that had followed me here” She would say aloud before shrugging, it didn’t bother her as it used to any more so no point in worrying about it. “Sorry about the confusion.” She would go on to say “It’s been a hell of a couple of weeks.”

“I did think of calling you, but there are some things that are better said in person. Thankfully I wasn’t out here looking for too long. Besides that was more than enough of a reason to come in person” She would add gesturing to the field of dead around them, she wasn’t going to easily get over that event for some time.

“Reason I’m here is simple, as much as it is not. Tell me were you aware of the Sanctuary that Cindy had here in Penrose?”

"Beyond her claims of being royalty within the bounds of Penrose and her aggression towards the Ascendancy, I know little of Cindy." They had played volleyball together too, but that never became anything but a memory of a nicer time. "It was a pity that she died though. What about this Sanctuary?"

“Yeah, that’s most people I’m learning.” Penny would gesture towards the roof’s so that the two of them could walk and talk if the other girl wanted. “The Sanctuary was originally my idea. If fact it was originally my home, or lair, depending on point of view. There are a lot of people out there that want Monster Girls and Dark Magical girls dead. But I know for fact that not all of them are evil, partially because I am a perfect example of that. So I built a place for them, a place where they could find refuge from those that want them dead or seek to abuse them for their own gains.”

“I never expected it to get as big as it did, but the Beach happened, and with it and the Ascendency moving in The Sanctuary is now housing a large amount of the darker population here in Penrose.” She shook her head and shrugged at the nature of how things went sometimes. “That’s why I wanted to track you down. I’m of the opinion that it is only a matter of time before people start uncovering where it is hidden, and with your nature I wouldn’t have been too surprised if you found it earlier than most. Just without context I was afraid of what you might have done.”

“The other reason why I wanted to seek you out is the fact that I am considered the new Queen of Penrose. Cindy’s death hit the Sanctuary hard, and I needed to give the girls there someone to rally around lest the Mint get their claws into them. To that end I need help, not everyone at the Sanctuary is going to be willing to play by the rules I’m wanting to enforce and I can’t be everywhere at once. I was wondering if you would be willing to help me in that regard.”

Amaryllis raised a brow. That didn’t exactly answer what the ‘Queen of Penrose’ was, or how one was promoted to such a position, but the idea of the Sanctuary itself wasn’t a bad idea. “What laws have you in place for your domain? Knowing what I do of most monster girls, I find it unlikely that the Mint is the only faction who would be interested in appropriating a confused collective of our corrupted compatriots.”

“If Mint was the only threat it would be much easier.” Penny would agree with a sigh, she knew of at least two others that posed at least as much of a threat as the Mint did in that regard. “Right now the laws are simple, no attacking civilians, no attacking other girls without just cause and no threatening the safety of the Sanctuary. Not complex, as I said, because for the moment I’m capable of handling other internal matters on a case by case basis.”

“There are a few overarching ideal’s I’ve been pushing as well which are less law and more policy. I’m anti Mint and anti Ascendency which all of them know and I have a personal distaste for Horror’s but that’s not really come up yet. Right now all of our efforts are focused on grieving, as everyone lost someone in the massacre at the Rave and the resulting riots, and building up our foundation. I’m not aiming to go after anyone, and even if I was only the Mint is an active target, but I will not sit back if my people get attacked.”

“And what would you have me do, as an uncorrupted magical girl? Cut down problematic individuals within your Sanctuary?” Amaryllis stuck her sword into the ground before it could inform her that such a turn of events was absolutely wonderful. “A just cause is a flexible cause, easily blurred by circumstance and perspective.”

Penny just gave Amaryllis a flat look “Not everyone at the Sanctuary is a corrupted girl. The issues I had for making the Sanctuary aren't exclusive to the corrupted population.” She would give out a sigh “And no, I’m not wanting an executioner, I’m wanting a judge. Look I understand that the setup I have isn't perfect, I’m wanting to find people to help make it better. I’ve set it out as just cause because it sounded better than only self defense, or no attacking other magical girls flat out. There are those out there that want us dead and I’m not going to restrict the girls there in a way that might get them killed or limit them in defending our home.”

She ran a hand through her hair doing her best to not start pacing “You have to realize that my perspective is going to be off, I’m not human and neither are most of the girls at the Sanctuary. Trying to stick to the normal laws aren't going to work, especially with how Penrose is at the moment.”

“I understand that,” Amaryllis replied. “And I am willing to lend my skill and my sword to Sanctuary’s cause. But understand, Penny, that though you and many of Sanctuary’s refugees possess the countenance of monsters, I do not think that as reason to forget that we were all once human. Though the lines may have blurred, as my identities seem to seep into one another in these abandoned streets, I still hope for the day where I can resume my real life.”

She placed her hand upon her Sword’s pommel, feeling the painful language of her Patron seep under her skin once more. Her gaze met Penny’s, and held it. “If you seek my counsel as a judge, know that I will be treating them as humans. Humans with consumptive vices, but humans nonetheless. That is my perspective, and with that considered, do you still wish for me to offer more than my artistry of the blade to your cause?”

“Yes, I do” Penny would reply with a nod as she met the knight’s gaze. “To treat them as such is a kindness. So I’ll welcome your council be it as a protector, as a friend, or as a judge. So few seem to remember that we all started as humans.” Her shoulders would slump slightly however as a wistful smile grew across her face “Myself among them it seems.” She would let out a sigh as she ran a hand down her face “I’ve been like this for a year at this point, and recently magic has made it so that I’ll never be able to be human. So I’ll likely need you to help keep me grounded on that front as well, at least for as long as you are willing.”

“One’s humanity isn’t tied so much to their outer appearance as to their heart.” Amaryllis said. She flourished her sword, the blade ringing musically as it sliced through the cold air, and then stopped right before her, pointed to the heavens. Within the polished blade, Penny could see a reflection of herself, gleaming in the light reflected by bloodied snow.

“My Silverlight reflects the flower of your heart, not the pot you’re held in. Inelegant as an analogy that may be.”

Penny would give a simple smile at the idea. The image she saw was little more than herself haloed by a corona of brilliant white, so she wasn’t really sure if she believed that Amaryllis’ sword actually reflected what he heart looked like, but it was a nice vote of confidence. She would go to say something in that vein, but would stop as she refocused on her reflection. An idea had come to her mind, one that she wasn’t sure she wanted to let go.

It would last for only a few seconds, but Penny would choose to bare herself to see if it would affect her reflection. She turned off her connection to the ShineSpark, and shut down the emotional processing that was built from what parts of Jason she kept. For those few seconds She stood as close to her own truth as she could, curious as to what she would see..

Her reflection would change to match. Most of it was what she had expected, her purple hair now a glowing near translucent blue. Her golden eyes and concentric rings of blue with a vibrant spark of red at their center. Her skin the near matte gray of freshly forged steel. But it was the small details that stood out to Penny. The corona of light was dimmer, less vibrant, and perhaps a few shades grayer but that light spilled strongly out from numerous cracks or gouges in her frame. In other places parts of her were simply missing yet all that did was prove that the light was coming from within her.

She looked wounded, or perhaps damaged would be a better way to put it, ravaged by things unknown. Yet Penny could tell herself well enough, she was damaged ture, but far from out of commission, and as a small small graced her face she witnessed one of the smaller cracks seal itself up. She stood distinct in her machine nature, gears and pistons visible within her maintaining processes that no one but her truly knew, and that more than anything that soothed her in ways she knew she wouldn’t be able to explain.

Then in a blink she was back to normal. “That’s quite the gift to be able to give” She would say as she nodded at the sword’s reflection “Probably helps when you're out hunting as well.”

“Rare are the moments where someone truly looks into the mirror flat of my Sword though,” Amaryllis chuckled. “The edge faces them more often than not, and if I looked into it myself...well, I would only be privy to my own reflection.”

“A shame that.” Penny would say with a nod “Though I doubt that you have anything to worry about. A brilliant field of Gladiolus' and Calla lilies seem appropriate if you ask me” She would say with a smile. “Curious if you see what other people see though.”

“If the light deems me worthy, I will be privy to a glimpse of their truth, reflected within their eyes.” The Knight of Rose pondered a moment longer. “Though often, I find that it’s enough simply to observe them normally. One can only view themselves within a reflection, but others do so simply by looking with their own eyes.”

“True enough” Penny would let out a sigh as she turned towards home and started the slow trek there “Come on, I’ll show you the way to the Sanctuary. You're free to house there if you want, or not if you prefer where it is you have now.” She would offer over her shoulder to the Knight she had invited into her court.

“Ya know, when I first set out to find you I always thought that the hardest part of the conversation would come after the discussion of the Sanctuary, rather than in the middle of it.”

“Oh? Have you more to say beyond the principles upon which your establishment is built?”

“More to say but not connected to the Sanctuary, or at least as disconnected it can be when it comes to me.” She would shrug slightly. “Pretty sure that my odds have tanked, but I was wondering if you wanted to go out on a date.” Not that Penny had any inkling that such a thing was going to happen, and that was before the conversation they just had of which she was sure pushed the odds even lower.

Not missing a beat, Amaryllis asked with all the nonchalance of someone wondering about the weather, “Would you shelter Nuncio and Sammy in your Sanctuary?”

Not quite wincing, as it was hard to say if that was a harsh rejection or not, Penny's reply maintained the casual nonchalance that was the current mood. "Yes. I have no reason to turn them away and all the more reasons to offer them shelter. Especially since you found Sammy, as my digging into finding her made it clear that Mint had her."

She would shrug her shoulders "Plus I'm guessing that they are friends of yours. I don't think that you would invite someone who would threaten the place you just agreed to help protect"

“Good.” A pause, then the amethyst-eyed girl gave a nervous smile. “Also it was just like, y’know, not actually anything that hinged on my answer to your question. Which is like...uh, if you’re fine with it just like, being something that doesn’t get intimate, I’m fine with something. Not eating or monster hunting though. Someone recently pointed out that I do that a lot, so…”

“No worries, I can see how it was a bit out of left field.” Penny would say reassuringly. It was better than sighing in disappointment after all. Because while it was kind to not completely shut her down, the fact that it wouldn’t really go beyond a friendship did somewhat counter what Penny was hoping for.

Still, “I’m fine with just sticking to friends and having the occasional hang out if that’s all you're looking for. Granted the options for hanging out isn’t all that vast if we take out food and hunting. I mean I’ve got a chess set back at the Sanctuary but that’s about it.”

“Well,” Amaryllis said, “the good thing about owning your own, uh...building or whatever is that you can add what you want, right? The Golden Trove’s got, like, tons of stuff to play, so I’m sure you could outfit Sanctuary into something nice too.” Still, only a single chess set to occupy the attentions of dozens of magical girls? Penny’s new accommodations certainly sounded hella spartan.

“True, I’ve been working on it as well. Was thinking of swinging by the old Rave site to see if any of the game machines survived. As then we’d only need to get some screens. Thankfully we’ve got a decent internet connection otherwise a lot more people would be bored out of their skulls there” She would let out a exhausted sigh “Most of what Cindy did for the place was with the intention of defense so lots of things like entertainment and comfort have been on the back burner till recently.”

“I’m open to suggestions if you’ve got any though”

Amaryllis thought about it for a moment. It was sorta crazy, actually, that people actually played arcade games at the Rave. She had always thought that it was more the place where people got wasted and had sex with dubious consent, but perhaps Cindy had a more...innocent interpretation on how those were supposed to be. Maybe that was what was needed though. She closed her hand, then opened it up again, looking at the sliver of magnesium formed there.

Looking back up at Penny, she smiled. “How about making a gym? Like, the parkour type. Obstacles, monkey bars, easy stuff like that to make outta magic. Been trying to be more magical these days, and well, y’know. We’re both Metal mages, right? ...gonna hurt like hell without padding though.”

“That’s… a really good idea.” Penny would say after a moment of thinking about it. There was plenty of space for such a gym, or at least there would be once the Earth Bastion got integrated, would be a bit cramped beforehand but still doable. “Could also add in rock climbing walls for similar uses. Good point about the lack of padding though, someone else at the Sanctuary might be able help out in that regard however.” She would flash a thankful smile at Amaryllis. “Sounds like a fun time setting it up as well.”

“I’m always down for opportunities to practice.” Amaryllis grinned. “And after we set it up, maybe I’ll test my speed against yours?”

“Ha! Now that’s a challenge.” Penny would reply with a grin of her own “Don’t worry though I’ll make sure not to beat your times too badly”

“So long as you don’t beat it by bulldozing through the obstacles, Penny.”

Penny just let out a laugh at that. No dating, and no real chance for anything beyond friendship just now. But bringing this friendship to a more full bloom? All in all not a bad night