BrokenPromise

Symphony of Espers

Some might find Betty’s endless rage endearing, but Finn had enough of it.

Her thrust was easy to deflect. The bow glided over Finn’s blade and missed him completely. They both came up with their off hands to deliver a counter attack. Betty was swinging her violin while Finn’s hand cracked with magic. Tendrils of lightning wrapped around her torso and shoulders, restraining her arms in place.

”Hey! I’m not done yet!“

But Finn had decided that they were. He lifted Betty over his shoulder and ran for shelter. The door to the precinct wasn’t far, and it had already been unlocked. Finn could already hear the people inside running for their lives. Still, it was safer than being out here.

Though Finn wasn’t going to get Betty past the threshold of the door. All because his ears were never blessed by the words of Quintus Ennius, father of Roman poetry.

“The victor is not victorious if the vanquished does not consider himself so.”

Betty drove her knee into Finn’s chest, bursting his boils. Only Finn’s boils were patches of rust filled with water. Or at least they would have been if the Diver’s curse hadn’t turned the water to blood. The clockwork boy bled, and he could feel Betty slide off of his shoulder. She landed on her feet and ran into the apartment complex. Regardless if Finn wanted to pursue or not, there would not be a second chase. The falling hail cut the two off from each other. Betty disappeared under the veil of frozen blood. He could wait for it to pass, or return to the roof to help the others.

Marrie may have tracked down Betty, but she had her own target to worry about. Pac was already shielded by the mass of tendrils over her head, but Marrie decided to play it safe and gave her a shield anyway.

Her next move would be more time consuming however. She had spotted Ashley on her way down to the street, but she was no longer in sight. Ashley was about four to five stories up and no longer visible to Marrie. Climbing the rails wasn’t viable. They were a floor apart, and even a push melody would only get her up a story at a time. Hail and Pac’s incoming pacman projectile would have made a slow climb up the railings impossible to complete. Marrie ran inside so that she could ascend the stairs. If she was quick, she might save herself. She might save Ashley too.

But Ashley didn’t have much time.

Before her was Justin, a one man stampede accompanied by his mighty blood magics. She could see Jacqueline chasing the vampire, but she wasn’t able to catch him. Espers had the athletic ability of olympians, but a vampire veered into superhuman territory. He could jump across a city street without a running start. Staying ahead of Jacqueline was a simple matter.

Viridian energy gathered at the end of Ashley’s wand before flying towards Justin. But all it took was a simple twitch of his head to move the opening in his shield. Her projectile collided with his blood barrier and burned a large hole in it. Offense may have been the right move, but it was easy to telegraph when you could hardly move. That didn’t stop Ashley from preparing another shot from her wand.

If only she had more time.

The melody/wand one-two punch was a nice combo for minimizing the time between attacks. Melodies took time to cast though, and Ashley barely had enough time for that. Justin’s fly swatter-like arms were about to crush Ashley where she stood, and her wand wasn’t going to fire in time.

Then, an unlikely ally showed up.

In a battle of biblical proportions, it was a snake that came to Ashley’s aid. It sunk into Justin’s left arm, severing it and the flyswatter from Justin. The bloody net floated in the air, but it couldn’t move without Justin to swing it. Though he still had the right one. Blood ran down his legs and rooted him into the roof. The remaining net plowed into a car at Ashley’s left flank.

She couldn’t brace for it.

Something broke inside her arm, Her scapula sung with pain as she was flung to the ground. The remains of dead frogs and insects cushioned Ashley’s fall, but she might have preferred to land on the asphalt roof. Her head rested in some frog intestines, still warm and wet from detonating moments ago.

Ashley couldn’t see Justin bearing down on her. Just like she had predicted, stopping his first attack was not going to stop his assault. The bloody roots that held him to the roof released him. His new wound grew tendrils that latched onto his severed arm. He’d be back in full fighting strength shortly.

Had a war pick not shattered both of his legs.

Damage melodies were potent. They could be strong enough to sever limbs but they were limited in how long they took to cast. In the span of six, an esper could cast only a single melody, leaving them open to retaliation afterwards. Havoc, on the other hand, could do a lot of damage in that time. With a hard enough swing, Havoc could punch through multiple limbs. Justin’s brief stop meant Jacqueline could attack with impunity. His arteries and vessels cracked and shattered with every blow Havoc delivered.

He was about to roll himself over when Jacqueline shattered his remaining arm. The pick sunk into his torso and crushed his heart, but he still lived. Bloody tendrils started to wrap around her legs, even as Jacqueline drove her pick into his skull. His visage was split in two, and what remained was a cracked ruby large enough to be Justin’s brain. Ashley was able to stand back up without Justin’s gaze on her, and she fired her wand straight at the flawed gemstone, shattering it.

Had they killed Justin?

What remained of Justin’s body sunk to the ground. The ruptured blood vessels and remaining organs were now behaving like soft tissue instead of brittle gemstone. One by one, the organs melted into a pool of blood and sunk into the ground. But this did bring up another important question.

Where had all the hail gone?

Jacqueline and Ashley looked up. A spectral moose had appeared. It stood above both of them, horns crossing overhead like a giant net. The moose's antlers overflowed with frozen blood, but it kept those around it safe. Samuel had approached too, if not to seek refuge than to assist with Justin’s extermination. But things like this don’t come out of thin hair. And if that was what happened, someone needed to cast a melody or spell to make it happen.

All eyes turned towards the teal blur from earlier.

Nestled among the overturned cars was a catwoman in a teal dancing dress. She hugged her knees against her chest and looked all around herself. She looked at the spectral moose the way a child may look at an aggressive dog. But that wasn’t how she looked at the Gemini espers. When she looked at them she straightened her posture. Her grip on her knees was a bit more loose. But no matter how many times she scanned them, she couldn’t find what she was looking for.

"Where’s mom?"

No one would have a chance to answer.

Meanwhile, Marrie had emerged from the fifth floor of the apartment building. Pac was nowhere to be seen, which was probably a good thing. She had managed to survive the hail. Marrie herself managed to outrun the giant pac man, who took a few bites out of the hallway before expiring. She put the rest of her energy into scolding the Diver. It was hard to tell if they understood Marrie or even heard her. No behemoth thus far had demonstrated the ability to speak, Diver included. The only answer they gave was swinging their cross through the air. It kicked up some dust in the far corners of Pax Septimus, but as the dust particles came closer, it started to buzz.

This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow. They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields. They will fill your houses and those of all your officials and all the Egyptians—something neither your fathers nor your forefathers have ever seen from the day they settled in this land till now.
— Exodus 10:3–6

The hail was gone, the bugs were only returning.

The streets, the rooftops, all overrun with giant locusts. The teal esper shrieked as one went to land on her, and she punched straight through its head. She ran across the rooftop yelling, but her words were lost in the buzzing. Though a giant spectral cat laid across the gap between the police building and the Diver’s hovering place. Just in time for the strange esper to cross.

If they wanted to put an end to this madness, they’d have to strike the Diver now.

Grimoiric Heart

"Oh."

Yikes. That rough huh? Stripes wasn't close to Lilac, but that had to be one of the least convincing attempts to look strong Stripes had ever seen. Not that she really blamed her. Dynasty Queen was quite the handful when a fight broke out, and Roma likely wasn't too fun to fight. The right ally could make a fight easier and harder. Stripes was blessed and cursed with a grimoire that made teamwork less than ideal, but she could relate to being stuck in a fight with unreliable team mates. Then there was just the horror of the situation. Had any of them seen a magical girl get her grimoire corrupted by a pageless before? Unlikely.

She supposed it would be best to start cleaning up. But before she did...

_@McFazzer

Stripes dragged her feet over to Dynasty Queen.

"Wow." The lethargy in her voice was only matched by her tired steps. "You did this?" She looked around, not once making eye contact with Dynasty Queen. "It doesn't matter how hard you strike unless you hit them. You know that, right?" With a shrug of her shoulders, Stripes started to pile up the rubble. "Might wanna practice that hand eye coordination."

It all happened so fast...

One minute, Lilac was charging into the fray while Dynasty Queen was fighting Roma. Then in what felt like a few seconds Drossel showed up to start stabilizing the infected girl's grimoires. It seemed like the missing class teleported back to Marrywell Academy. And then as soon as Xol attacked, Roma teleported away, only to be intercepted by Val. And then Ozzy ran into Val, what were the odds!? During all this the Apex Pageless was sundered in a single burning attack by Mar-Star! It was so much to take in, and while Mika's sword may know and see almost everything, she was still only a human that needed time to process the information. She let her sword slide into its sheath before sticking the tip of her thumb in her mouth. It was just a tick of hers, something she tended to do when she was thinking.

But the sort version of all this was that everything worked out fine without any long term problems for Marrywell.

"Guess that's over... For now!" Mika sheathed her sword. With a snap of her fingers, her clones all dove into portals. With everyone back at the academy it felt silly to keep her clones on the lookout, especially with the "mastermind" apprehended. She also reverted back to her original form. It was a little disappointing that Roma hadn't realized she was making fun of her by turning into a Japanese pink-haired bunny person. But even when she laid waste to the pageless, she didn't seem to care very much about it. If Mika had to guess, Roma wasn't crazy and had a real motive behind all this. She certainly didn't care that much about the pageless once the fighting broke out. It was almost like the real motive was just to infect as many grimoires as she could before departing. But there was no reason to speculate. They had apprehended Roma, so getting the truth out of her wouldn't be too hard.

Well, she had other people to pester.

_@KoL

"Strudel!" Mika ran up to Drossel and hugged her. "We were able to scare away the bad guy, and then Val and Ozzy caught her!" The horrorling might have helped contribute to that too, as well as the rest of the class showing up. "It's out of season, but we should have some nog to celebrate!" And with that, she released Drossel and moved closer to one of the students.

_@McFazzer

"Sorry about earlier." She placed a hand on Dynasty Queen's shoulder. Her tone was hushed, barely more than a whisper. With everyone talking amongst themselves or zoning out, it was unlikely anyone but Tesni could hear Mika's words. "You said you could solve all of your problems with brute force, so I was interested in seeing what would happen if I left you to your own devices. I would have stepped in if things got bad, but you handled yourself well enough. I'd like to talk to you later about how this fight made you feel. That is, if you want to."

Many of the students and faculty reacted to the Grand Minister's presence the way a flower would react to sunlight. They stood up a bit straighter and leaned towards their leader's invisible radiance. Whatever sort of plant Mika seemed to be was more suited to shade however, as she scoffed at her timely appearance.

"Of course you do." Mika folded her arms behind her back. "Don't hold us in suspense, Miss Marywell. We may live forever but time is of the essence."

While Mika had cute pet names for everyone, she had only ever cared to call Merlin by her last name in the most formal manner possible.

Grimoiric Heart

"Oh, huh, guess we scared her off."

Again, Roma gave into her love for flowery speech before departing. Sensible move on her part. To give her credit, she put them on that wild goose chase so that she could do something like this without Ozma or the class interfering. Her retreating as soon as the students came back was the sensible thing to do. With the Pageless and Roma gone, all Stripes could do was look over the aftermath.

Lupin set her down on some broken tiles, which more than likely were a result of monkey brain's wild swinging than anything else. Actually, Stripes was pretty sure all the damage done to the cafeteria was inflicted by Tesni. It figured, of course. It seemed like everyone holding a grimoire above "Fable" rank believed that it was their job to eliminate Pageless and everyone else's job to clean up after them. Though this rang especially true for ape brain. At least Lilac Shimmer was here. Given her proximity to the fight, she was probably helping people avoid Tesni's wild staff swipes. Maybe if she spent just a bit more time thinking about what she was doing, she'd have hit Roma more than the cafeteria. Did she even hit her target? Stripes didn't really care either way. She knew they weren't going to catch her. But what they had learned was almost more worthwhile.

In a perfect world, Stripes would have been mortified that any of the students had their grimoires amended by Pageless. But given how badly the ministry screwed up today, this was probably the best case scenario. Nobody died, and at worst they'd have to pack their own lunches or find somewhere else to eat.

And Drossel "Christmas Goodhope" The Tuner was here as well, flexing her arcane might. Well, at least some of the faculty had bothered to show up. She kind of looked like she needed a hug. Unfortunate that Stripes wasn't really into that sort of thing.

"So here's the thing, Lupin. The fight is over, but a magical girl isn't done until the scene is normal." Stripes didn't look at her team mate as she surveyed the the area. "We're not carpenters, but we can make sure everyone else is alright." Stripes stepped over rubble and pools of tar to get to Bonnie's position. "Yo." She waved to the lavender magical girl as she approached. "Are you okay?"

Grimoiric Heart

@ShadowSunRisen Yea, I've just read enough posts to have Stripes show up after the test, and Valeria wasn't here at the start of the RP. So there's a page or two of posts I still need to catch up on. Characters develop slower during combat scenes too, so I don't feel like I could fully asses her at this point.

I like collabs as a general rule. I thought that one was a'ight. It's always fun to see an angry German yelling at a smiley/smug British lass. We also got our first yuri/lite scene, so that was something. We're in a magical girl RP so it showing up is inevitable, but I've been in RPs where the yuri stuff gets pushed too hard and too fast. So something small like this was a pleasant surprise.

It did feel kind of weird how Valeria was all "YOU CAN'T LEAVE HER ALONE, BABE!" When Oros the Wise was there. But that can be handwaved as being "just" her duplicates and the collab being started before I posted. Probably. The post might have hit me harder if I knew more about the characters going into it, but Ozma is super mysterious and Valeria is new-ish.

It was a good post though. I liked it.

1. I don’t feel it’s necessary to have a Discord. Apart from just sending memes and whatnot, if it’s only there just to communicate then we seem to be doing fine with the OOC. What would be the extra merits of having one?

@TheWendil

Off the top of my head...

- A unified Discord. Breaks up "cliques" by allowing everyone to speak on the same server. We're all using it, just not together.
- Notification control. I get notified every time someone posts in GH, be it a silly meme message or a post. A server with a few channels could be muted temporarily if I didn't want that distraction.
- We all have Discord on our devices.
- The ability to pin important updates/posts.
- It's an extra, faster way to communicate that everyone already uses.
- Better way to hit people up for collabs and inform each other of collabs we may be writing so that weirdness doesn't happen.
- Everyone in the RP uses it every day.

Is it necessary? No, but as someone with an RP discord that averages 2-3 posts a day (on the discord) it is REALLY handy to have extra ways of talking with people. I've been able to get a lot of insight into what my players want out of my RP and have noticed a lot more communication between players happening on discord.

Also I might post tomorrow. deffo before the weekend.

Grimoiric Heart

@TheWendil But I did mention her! *wink*

Anyway, two things.

#1: We gunna get a discord server up? I've talked with a few folks on here and we think it's a good idea. There were a few people who opposed the idea in the past but they have left and not come back.

#2: I think we're just waiting on you to post now, or did I forget someone?

Symphony of Espers

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

The situation was just like two weeks ago. Finn had his back to a wall with Betty’s weapon closing in.

Marrie was doing something totally new. She was being chased through the sky by Pac-A-Fist, which was a first for the esper. As was dodging the projectiles of an incoming starship.

The rest of Gemini was dealing with another vampire. Something new and old. This wasn’t any ordinary blood sucker. This was the blood sucker. Arzendale was a trickster, but Justin was a brute; a force of nature. His attacks were simple and obvious, but were dangerous by virtue of his sheer power.

And the Holy Diver hung in the distance, hovering away from the conflict. The prophet swung its cross around, unaffected by the chaos. If anything it reveled in the misery of others.

And one more remained concealed.

The chase was about to end. With Finn surrounded by foes on all sides, his only option was to spend the mana he had been saving. It wouldn’t matter how much he had if he was killed before he could use it. He detonated a time spell that sped himself up and damaged everything around him. The flies were fried instantly. Their monstrous bodies were too big to blow apart, but their smoldering carcases were blown to the wayside. Betty was not a monster though. She was an esper with a protective melody up, and the spell wouldn’t do her much harm.

Normally.

The lightning washed over her body. Every boil on her skin popped and oozed with yellow pus. It looked like her skin was melting, and her screams helped sell that illusion. This was the first time Betty sounded like she was suffering rather than raging out of her mind. Her eyes closed, but she finished the swing anyway. This blind swipe was something Finn could sidestep with ease. There was no hesitation when he ran his sword through Betty’s shoulder. Blinded by pus and pain, Betty’s only recourse was to back up. She swung wildly, but there was nothing to hit. It was during this blind flurry of swings that she left the esper state.

There she stood, mostly human and still wearing her white dress. It looked pristine until it was stained in the falling blood. Her magic was gone, as was her giant sword. But not her will to fight. She pointed at Finn with the bow of her violin.

”I’d like to see you try that again!“

With a howl, she dove for Finn.

The aerial pursuit didn’t last long. Marrie dropped to the streets while Pac remained on her pixel star fighter. The ship behaved like a harrier jet, enabling her to just hover in the air. Trying to engage Pac in close quarters was going to be impossible at this distance.

Though Marrie was correct about one thing. While she didn’t know the size of Pac’s mana pool, she had to be running low. Her melodies were complex and couldn’t have been easy to cast. But that wasn’t going to stop her from casting a massive spell.

She extended her hands over her head. Or at least her wrists, as one of her hands had been blown off earlier. A slew of pixels came together from every direction and combined into a giant yellow boulder. One with a pink bow and a huge mouth. She heaved it into the streets as it chomped its way through the air.

Things were no less frantic around Justin.

With Ashley and Samuel keeping their distance, there wasn’t anything to stop Jacqueline from floating closer to Justin. His faux hand swelled as the space between them closed. Soon his hand was big enough to totally envelop the knight, and Justin didn’t hesitate to do so. But Justin’s target didn’t erupt into a geyser of blood, they detonated like a grenade, throwing shrapnel in all directions.

A centralized explosion was enough to rip the hand to pieces and strike Justin himself. He staggered backwards as metal flakes sunk into his blood vessels and what remained on his body. Once he was done reeling backwards, he corrected his posture. The vampire had been wounded, but still stood.

Jacqueline might have been unphased by her melody, but it opened all the boils on her body. The pus ran out of every seam in her armor. Seeing became even more difficult, which said nothing of the burning sensation all over her body. A single “If foe” note would have protected her from her magic, but she was likely to incur some damage from the hand anyway. They still needed to save mana for the Diver after all, and what was Jacqueline but one who traded anguish with her enemies? But she was momentarily vulnerable, and Justin would seize this opportunity to end her.

Only if Ashley let him. A ball of neon slammed into Justin’s side, stripping his blood vessels bare. His midsection had been blown through, with just the upper half of his head and legs left. Yet his other organs remained intact. Though cracks were starting to show, almost as if they were made out of glass or ice. His heart hovered where his chest cavity used to be, beating without anything holding it in place. A small blood barrier came up just before the second shot could land, but this required Justin’s attention. Once he looked away from Jacqueline, the ability to move returned to her. But by this point the Vampire was speeding towards his next target.

Ashley.

It had been raining for a good while, and eviscerating Justin’s flesh released more blood than a normal human would have. This allowed Justin to fortify himself as he ran. A giant V-plow was erected in front of himself. Not only that, but he let the blood rush out of his dismembered arms and made two rigid nets that formed behind his back. He swung his arms forward, using the nets as giant fly swatters. If Ashley didn’t move soon, she might get flattened by Justin’s next attack.

Only, she couldn’t move.

Justin was looking right at her through a hole in his frontmost shield.

And also…

This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me, or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. You still set yourself against my people and will not let them go. Therefore, at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now. Give an order now to bring your livestock and everything you have in the field to a place of shelter, because the hail will fall on every man and animal that has not been brought in and is still out in the field, and they will die.
— Exodus 9:13–

The sound of the rain changed as it turned to pebbles. Every second that went by those pebbles got bigger. One inch, two inches, they grew. It wouldn’t be long before they became big enough to fracture bone. The large flies that remained would not do so for long, as even the smaller hailstones were enough to rupture their vulnerable wings.

The only one who had any real shelter was Marrie, who was close enough to the railings to avoid getting pelted by falling stones. Pac would also be spared if only because she was under the giant blood monster. But everyone else would need to find shelter quick if they wanted to avoid having their skulls caved in.

Save the Holy Diver, who hovered over the roof of a nearby apartment complex with arms extended. They were much too large to be affected by the falling hail, and seemed to rejoice as every window and windshield in Pax Septimus was about to get smashed to bits.

Time was running out for the firstborns.

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread Number Two

Is Limsa Lominsa as bad as people make it sound kn FF 14?

@Dark Cloud

Sort of. It's just the most popular place to be due to how it's arranged. The market boards are right next to the teleportation crystal and it's the closest you can teleport to the dreaded waking sands, which is an area you will frequently visit over the coarse of the story.

You'll find horny cat girls and other sorts of degeneracy all over FF14 but it's pretty easy to ignore for the most part. People who want to "socialize" are naturally going to be drawn to the most crowded areas in any MMORPG, so it's more that Limsa Lominsa is just a hub for player meet ups of all kinds rather than it being the unofficial barrens chat of FF14.

Grimoiric Heart

I am fine with whatever you dudes decide to do. I wouldn't mind doing a collab between Enis and Stripes but I don't know how willing KoL is to write with each of us individually. If there is any difference in our magical girls respective powers I wouldn't mind having an OOC explanation for it.

As for Mika, Ozma probably thinks she's fine enough since neither play by the rules. Totally not a copycat heh.

@TheWendil

I gettit, because she tries to pass herself off as a cat grill.

I'm going to say that the feeling isn't totally mutual. While Mika finds Ozma's antics interesting from a distance, she doesn't fully trust someone as secretive as Ozma. Probably an acquaintance that Mika wouldn't detest working with, but also wouldn't go out of her way to converse with.

Also, Mika is an abomination and needs to be destroyed.

@Ponn

You do not have a teacher character, but I feel this statement is the most valid thing said in the OOC.

But that reminds me that my ego feels really good when other people talk about my characters, so I'll extend that to everyone else. Will mention that I haven't finished reading back everything so I'm mostly going to be talking about recent events because that feels most relevant.

Ozma

As far as GMPCs go, Ozma seems pretty inoffensive. I'm not really a fan of characters that absolutely dwarf everyone else in power and Ozma strikes a good balance between being a strong leader for the students while also needing them to achieve her goals. Her choices make sense for her, and sometimes aren't the best for the situation. I'm a GM myself and it can be a struggle to make characters that respond to threats appropriately without robbing the players of their urgency.

Eins @KoL

Is she an NPC? Is she a GMPC? I don't know. Her apperances have been scarce, but in the interest of including KoL in things I feel like talking about Eins. I like the concept of a legend based magical girl who undervalues herself and feels she's at her best tuning up other people's grimoires. The last post was enjoyable to read, and there's something oddly surreal about seeing Christmas stuff in the middle of September.

Roma @Lonewolf685

It's a bit too soon to say much about her. We hardly know anything aside from her powers and affliction, and a hinted event between Ozma and herself. All I can say is that it's been an interesting turn of events. The Revised Grimoires are a curious addition. I like that the setting is gradually expanding and is starting to get more depth. But this just makes me more curious about the stuff we already have in the RP. Like, what makes alters? Where do grimoires come from and what makes them just spawn out of nowhere? Have magical girls been around since before written history? Maybe Roma's arc will answer a few of these questions.

Bon-bon Lilac @The 42nd Gecko

I refuse to believe a Canadian could muster the anger of a Canadian goose, even when under the effect of a spell. Barring that glaring inconsistency I like the direction she's starting to head in. She's been your pretty standard run-of-the-mill magical girl in all the posts I've read. That's not a bad thing, mind you. With so many eccentric personalities it's good to have an average joe to be a foil for the madness and act as a surrogate for the readers. Her current predicament has her doing something she really doesn't want to do, and she's also having her deepest desires brought out. It's all interesting stuff and I look forward to see what happens further ahead once the dust settles.

Stripes

It's rude to talk about yourself too much, so I'll instead use this spot to say that I really enjoyed having Silvia "tell off" Roma. I've been waiting for something to happen where Stripes has to assess why she's holding her inherited grimoire and no one else, and this was a pretty good set up for that.

Dynasty @McFazzer

McFazzer needs to post more because Tesni is becoming one of my favorite characters. Part of that is because they gave me something to do with Mika, but also because the character is just very interesting. Big dumb bruisers are nothing new, but Tesni's backstory serves to make her personality feel like it belongs to a person rather than a caricature of a person. She isn't always a big dumb bruiser. Or at the very least, she's aware of it enough that she tried to seek out help and wasn't afraid to call for a teacher's aid during a fight. I kind of relate to that desire to improve the self and the irritation that comes when the path towards that change is long, uncertain, or feels like you're moving backwards. *meep*

Burning Heart

The current situation hasn't been kind to Suzuya. I feel like she'd been pushed into the backround to make more room for Roma, which makes sense. Lonewolf put a lot of effort into Roma for this arc and they don't want to overshadow it. But it doesn't give me a whole lot to say about Suzuya. I will say she's cute and I like her interactions with Xolys. I didn't want to add "I wouldn't mind if Silvia and her talked a bit at some point" Since I'd be adding that in everywhere, but I'll do it here just to pad out this reply.

Nessie @Sonnambula

I'm glad Nessie was able to appear in quite a few posts this arc and didn't sit this one out. Not many roleplayers that I know of will willingly make a character that is way out of their element. That's not entirely true actually, but characters tend to be competent more often than they aren't, especially in roleplays like this. So it's kind of refreshing to see Nessie treated the way she was in this arc. She's a new magical girl and has just weeks of training under her belt. So she doesn't fully grasp what she's capable of. Even in a battle of wills, Nessie was the most willing to give into Roma's reasoning. I wouldn't be praising this treatment of the character if she was always a damsel, but it does give our swearing Scotsman some room to grow moving forward.

Rose

I don't think there's a single character in the RP that relies on conversations as much as Olivia does. Most of the students have their own baggage to work through, hate working together, and are pretty flashy in combat. Olivia contrasts this by being perfectly content, enjoying everyone's company, and having the most bland fighting style among the characters. But I also think that serves her perfectly as it frees her up to treat combat as just another chance to expand her social circle. She's an oddity for sure, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Her mental mutation interesting views of the world serve to amuse even when she doesn't have anyone to talk to.

Waffenhändler/Morning Star @ShadowSunRisen@FrogRFlowR

I'm putting these characters together for two reasons. One is that I have yet to read up to the point where they are introduced, and another is because they work well as a unit. Valeria's brash, reckless nature is well contrasted by the reserved, cautious Maria. They are charming enough. I do like that they are less mysterious than many of their other faculty counterparts. I can't say more about them other than I hope they get a proper collab together.

Lupin @Majoras End

Lupin is a pretty new addition, but I am really enjoying her interactions with Silvia. It's kind of interesting to see how similar the two are, but also different. They both realized how tired Roma's monolog was, but while Stripes saw an opportunity to gain insight, Celina saw it as a waste of time. Some filler before the actual butt kicking could start, which is a respectable view on the matter. Even Roma had to take note she was a dog on a chain. At the moment she seems more Wolf or Hunter than Red Riding Hood.

Oros the Wise

She's been fun so far. I didn't expect her to get sucked into things so fast but that's how magical girl RPs run sometimes.

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

"If I sit on it, will it give me AIDS?”

— Tonya “Mac” Murphy IRON MOUSE

Tonya “Mac” Murphy

Age: 24/11 | Gender: Female/Female | Illusion, Gravity
Body | Power of Friendship, Regeneration, Third Eye | Cradle
Coercion, Soul Jar, Martial Training, True Sight, Parasite, Gifted, Awareness, Overcity Shift, Mystic Artifact

Magical Overload, Cradle Supply, Connected, Gifted Item (Aigorost) | Monstrous Form, Exposed, Mercy, Distrust
Redirected Magic, Second Specialization | Non-Standard Limbs, Destroyer

STR: 05 | AGI: 04 | VIT: 05 | MAG: 03 | LCK: 03
+46
STR: 20 | AGI: 20 | VIT: 20 | MAG: 20 | LCK: 20

Earnings this post: Zilch

Remaining: 8 Gold, 30 Silver, 39 Bronze
Total: 12 Gold, 162 Silver, 183 Bronze

At least Nefer seemed like a jovial sort. You'd have to be to get any sort of mileage out of Iron Mouse's jokes. Technically Mac's jokes too, but she usually didn't push that far when the opportunity presented itself. But enough thinking about semantics, it was time to jump into the back seat.

Iron Mouse had no intent to jump on top of everyone. Not because it was out of character, but because Mac would surely hit her head trying to land in the back seat. She was a tall lady. There was also something that tickled Mac about the mental image of Iron Mouse watching everyone as she slowly snuggled into place. But Mac's plan seemed to backfire when Justine made a cushion. But this cushion was not a normal one. It was not stuffed with feathers, foam, or any sensible stuffing. It was just blood pressed together in the shape of a cushion.

This brought all kinds of uncomfortable questions to Mac's mind. She could wrap her mind around most magics. Water could be pulled out of the air or teleported in from the sea, fire is just heat or excited atoms, Most metal and stone magical girls use elements native in their environment. But where did the blood come from? Did it come from some other reality filled with blood? Or was she teleporting in fresh blood from a land of death? It was too mailable to be very old. Was she drawing the blood directly out of herself? In theory it should have been like jumping onto a water mattress or something of that nature, but blood was sticky. Was it going to shoot all over the place if she jumped on it?

Yea, she'd be doing a cautious approach on this one.

"Oh! A pillow just for me?” Iron Mouse, and by extension Mac, lowered their butt onto the cushion. Once she had tested its strength, she turned sideways and rest her legs in Finn's lap and her head on Oliver's. Mac had to bend her knees and angle her head to fit in the position she chose for Iron Mouse. "Now, I know we're a little crammed back here, so you can touch me if you have to. But if it's indecent, somebody's gunna get their cheek pinched!” Her hand hovered in front of Justine's face and pinched the air.

Mac wasn't even aware the car had started moving until she looked at the sky. "Wow! This is fast!” Iron Mouse looked to Never when she inquired about their names, and here eyes just about shot out of her head. "Ohmygosh! Did I forget to introduce myself? I like to stand up when I do it, but I am:

Invincible
Ready
Observant
Natrural

Mighty
Overwhelming
Understanding
Sensational
Extremely humble

Put it all together and you get:

I R O N M O U S E!

I'm from Rochester up in New York. I can tell you've never been because you'd know who I was. I get paid to do all sorts of jobs, and now I'm here.” Iron mouse looked into the front seat. "Speaking of getting paid, I noticed you had a lot of artifacts. You wouldn't happen to be selling, would you?”

Grimoiric Heart

This was the worst, simply the worst. After waiting for a week for some of the students to come to visit her at the library, Eins was utterly disappointed that no one of the newbies came even to ask about her offer —or visit her at all.

@KoL

I was under the impression everybody got swole over the time skip. Oh well. Maybe we should lightly discuss OOCly stuff that happens over the course of a time skip. At least Eins has a cute banner now.

And speaking of OOCly discussing things, what do you suppose Mika's relationship with the other teachers is like? I doubt she knows many of the recent additions as she just came back from a long vacation, But she's been part of the school system for some time. I could see people liking her because of her cute outward personality. But some of the faculty might dislike her because of her at times pragmatic aproach to helping students and that she freely does as she pleases.