BrokenPromise

Symphony on High

music

Pax Septimus continued to live up to its reputation. The Holy Diver was slain, but to no small cost to the city’s espers. While the Diver had not attacked the espers directly, other monsters flocked to defend the creature. Many lives were lost, and it still managed to take out the city’s infrastructure. It did this by reenacting the plagues of Egypt on Pax Septimus. Millions were left without power and clean drinking water. It rained frogs and hail. Flies and locusts swarmed the streets. Boils and cysts broke out on everyone’s skin. Even the sky was blotted out for three whole days. But the Diver was slain before it could claim the eldest sibling of every family. Those not privy to the supernatural world were told it was all due to a freak hurricane. The government spent the next several weeks erecting shelters and distributing drinking water to the devastated population.

None of the esper factions came out great after this. While GEMINI was credited for taking down The Holy Diver and Justin, this wouldn’t be the first time they refused to share information so that they could eliminate a target first. Prejudice against monsters was never low in Pax, but it’s become as high as it’s ever been. Innocent, and sometimes even beneficial monsters are slain with extreme prejudice. Maverick Alternative has taken a lot of flak for housing monsters below Pax’s surface, but hasn’t stopped trying to preserve the good ones. The Freelancers were fewer in number then they once were. Many had died during the night the Diver attacked, and the growing pool of dark web espers has made many freelancers distrustful towards their own members. You know things are bad when rumors of the Inquisition start to spread. Allegedly, the situation is so bad that Raphael the Righteous Hearted has been personally dispatched to deal with the growing unrest in the area.

All while the remaining members of the Hand continue to plot and scheme to some unknown end.

---

_@Majoraa

Hospital rooms were white, but the white in this room was almost absurd. The diffused light poured in through ceiling and wall fixtures and left no space for shadows. Even the room’s sole occupant was white. Betty was as pale as the bed she was laying in. The only spark of color in the room were some screens giving readouts on her condition.

Justin Von Carnage may have been dead, but Betty hadn’t just reverted back to being a normal human. They would need to treat her to reverse the “dark blessing” that made her a vampire thrall. But her body had been grievously wounded, and treating her vampirism now would kill her. They needed to keep her as a thrall until she recovered enough for it to be removed.

She laid in her hospital bed like a fairy tale princess, but no kiss would wake her from her slumber.

So what spurred the person behind those wounds to come here now? After everything has been said and done? After he had to recover from his own?

Finn always hated hospitals. This time was no different. But yet here he was, quietly opening the door to Betty's room a crack to peer inside. Once he saw she was still asleep, he took a quiet, deep breath. God, what was he doing? Back there should've been the end of this. All he wanted was to get her back safe, back to her mother, family, the life she'd waste by being involved in this hell. And in the end, he was the one who hurt her. Wouldn't be surprising if she still wanted him dead.

...

He tensed himself up to lessen his trembling. Right, in and out, and make it quick.

With slow, careful steps he entered the room with a small bouquet of flowers. That's what people usually bring to patients, right? He approached the nightstand to set them down.

As Finn drew closer, Betty’s head rolled over onto its side causing him to emit a quiet shriek. But she stirred no more. It wasn’t visible under her sheets, but her arms and legs were bound to the table. That, and several IV drips were running straight into her arm. If she wasn’t unconscious, she was so out of it that she didn’t respond to Finn’s presence. Even when he was standing right next to her, she didn’t respond.

When Finn turned to leave, he could see a pair of big blue eyes looking at him from beyond the door. There were an uncountable number of freckles between her peepers.

”Oh!” The ‘spy’ slid out from her hiding place. Finn didn’t have a chance to speak with the woman they pulled out of the Diver, but he knew this was her. He also knew her name was Faith and that she had been given free reign to go wherever she wished in GEMINI HQ. Likely because Fritzi was using her as an assistant until they found a better replacement. ”Am I interrupting something? Gosh, I hate when I interrupt something. That would always put me down in the dumps when I interrupted my parents. Even when my father was watching TV I would just watch him until a commercial break started. But if it looked like he was enjoying the commercial I’d just wait for it to run its course. Mom got mad at me once because of that, because she wanted me to get my dad and she thought I was watching the TV. But I told her ‘no ma’am, I’m just waiting for dad to finish.’ But she didn’t believe me.”

Ironically enough, Finn waited for Faith to finish her rambling before speaking up.

"N-No. No you're not." He hadn't spoken up at all since he nearly killed Betty, having to communicate to others through other means for a while. He glanced back down at the unconscious thrall, his face breaking into a frown for a moment.

It's all your fault.

He stayed for too long. Quickly as he could muster, he exited the room to approach Faith instead. "H-How are you holding up?"

”I’m fine.” She stared at Finn, totally deadpan. As soon as he thought to say something, Faith spoke up again. ”I mean after hearing that you guys pulled me out of a giant monster I’m not so sure. I’ve grown my hair back but I’m still a little foggy on the details. I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen Evangelion but I kind of felt like Rei. There’s this one part in the first episode where Shinji is like ‘no, I don’t wanna do it’ and then his dad’s all ‘okay, let’s get Rei.’ So then they cart out this girl. She’s as white as Betty is but is also banged up pretty good. I guess that makes her just like Betty huh? But she gets up and stumbles, and then Shinji’s all like ‘I’ll do it, I’ll pilot that thing!’ And it’s just the most amazing thing to happen in the first episode of an anime ever.” She blinked. ”I felt like Rei in that scene, the pale girl that kinda looks like Betty. I guess I could have said I feel the way Betty looks but I really love that scene. I'm okay now thanks for asking. But you look like a Shinji to me.”

The boy sheepishly glanced aside. "_{Never really watched anime...} Anyways, what can you remember how you ended up in the Diver? Or before that?" Then again, could be nothing but blanks there knowing his luck. Oros had said something that eluded to experiments with Behemoths or whatever, but that wasn't enough to make up for the fact she attempted to attack him for some reason. And apparently change her mind at the last second? He didn't know why.

”I mean I remember who I am. I’m an artist that can’t stop drawing!” Those sketches Finn saw on the walls leading up to Betty’s room were starting to make a lot more sense now. She seemed to really like drawing fairies, as she doodled them all over the place. ”I’ve actually been working on a mural to stay sane. It’s going to feature a bunch of fairies flying around a forest, and maybe I’ll have two sisters walking through the forest admiring its beauty! I’m visualizing an older, big sister kind of character with her timid younger friend. Might be fun to have her hide her face behind a mask. Or is that too weird?” She held her chin.

"That sounds nice actually." Finn managed a smile in response.

”Oh! But you wanted to know what I remembered. I really don’t remember much. Just some really obnoxious laughter and a swarm of hands washing over me. It was kind of spooky. But I’m remembering more all the time. Oh! And speaking of remembering, Fritzi sent me over here to tell you that she’s giving you paid leave. So I guess you have time to relax and recover.”

Swarm of hands and an annoying laugh. Not much to work with but it's something, he guessed. His brows rose when Faith informed him he's been given time off. Maybe in other circumstances he'd argue against it, but as he ghosted a hand over where he was shot and patched up, he was simply thankful Dr. Moller cared enough. "Right. Alright." He nodded. "Give her my thanks next time you see her."

He had been meaning to check back in with his normal life anyways. His family must've been wondering where he disappeared to.

”Okay! I better get back to Fritzi. It was fun to talk to you. When we get a moment I’ll have to recommend you some more anime to watch. Or are you more of a reading person? Because there are some good manga out there too. Like there’s this one where-” Her pocket beeped. Faith pulled her phone out of her pocket. ”Hi Fritzi! I was just heading back! Yes, Shinji- Finn! Finn’s okay!” She power walked down the hall.

After waving goodbye Finn had turned to leave too, but he noticed that Betty had turned her head. More than that, she was looking at him.

Like a deer caught in headlights, he fumbled over his words before something coherent freed itself.

"S-Sorry- Sorry sorry, I was just leaving-"

"I’m not mad at you." Her voice was weak and groggy. Even though she was an albino, her eyes looked a little redder then they should have been. "I’m just disappointed. I came here to end things. I wanted everything to be better back home. But it looks like you decided to follow me to Pax. And as bad as things were in the old place, I feel like they’re going to be even worse here." She closed her eyes and sighed. "I guess we’re both being punished for being cowards. We dropped out of purgatory and fell straight into hell."

The fearful boy didn't understand her words, how she spoke as if they already knew each other. Everyone kept acting as if they knew each other. But that wasn't true. Right?

But his heart ached so much now. Even if the memories weren't there, the emotions seemed to remain. Finn gently sat down at the edge of the bed.

"...Guess you already figured out my real name, huh?" He softly looked back at Betty.

"I don’t even know who I am anymore." Betty groaned. "I’m so tired..."

"Unfortunately I know the feeling." Finn slightly frowned. At least she didn't have a skull-faced bastard haunting her dreams. But, different issue, different time. "Anything you need right now? Food or...?" He asked her.

But Betty didn’t respond. She had drifted off to sleep during their short conversation.

"Art thou going to return to thy family now?" Came the rumbling voice of Chernabog. Half of the demon’s skull was visible through the doorway. "Me is eager to meet thy sister."

Speak of the devil. Literally. Finn tiredly glanced at the aformentioned nusance, waiting for them to return home. "Yeah." A brief answer. He got up from his seat. The IV medicine was gonna leave Betty knocked out for a while.

"See you later, Ms. Barton."

But that wouldn't stop him from checking on her again whenever he's free.

The flowers would need to be swapped out at some point.

The demon’s head backed out of the way as Finn walked past it. "Thou hath chosen to ignore the problem? Me thinks thou will regret thy decision."

---

_{@Ponn@ERode@Izurich}

One good thing about the buildings in the historic district was they were made plenty tough. They had to be if they wanted to stand against the ravages of time. Anything that didn’t last had to be built back better than ever. The Golden Platter Casino was a testament to this philosophy.

It started life as a brewery and was erected once Pax had become established. Business was good until the Prohibition started. The equipment was broken down and sold as scrap, but men still had their vices. Slot machines, black jack, and roulette tables sprouted up in their place. It was still a nice place to blow some cash on risky thrills. But if you were a mobster, it was a good place to launder money.

The hailstorm did little to the Golden Platter Casino. The concrete roof took the beating like a champ, as could the brick walls. The only thing that had been damaged was the old fashioned light up sign. But in the weeks after the storm, the sign had been fixed and looked better than new. The words “GOLDEN PLATTER CASINO” shined off the sign as lights flashed along the border.

The casino was starting to close for the night, but they were about to get a rather tough customer. A minivan pulled into the parking lot and shut off its lights. Nearly all of the seats were filled, and everyone inside was a GEMINI agent.

They had already been briefed on why they were here. In the weeks following the Diver’s death, a weretiger by the name of Big Tony had started flexing his muscles. Tony heads the weretiger mafia and has been advancing his territory recently. A phone call was intercepted that implied that the recently missing “Binky” was being held at the Golden Platter Casino. At the back of one of the teller booths was an elevator that could bring them down to the lower levels, which was where she was being held. Fritzi was expecting heavy resistance.

Many of the more experienced agents were moved to other divisions, leaving Fritzi without much to work with. Getting their numbers back up was an important step in regaining control of Pax Septimus, so every available esper agent was sent on this mission.

Even Mika.

She hadn’t transformed into her esper form yet. Probably for the best, as a cat girl driving a minivan to a casino wouldn’t have kept a low profile. Not that a teenager who got her license a few months ago was an inconspicuous choice either, but GEMINI had to work with what they had. Her amber eyes scanned the casino before she reached up and adjusted her rear view mirror. She positioned it so that she could look at Ashley.

"What are we doing, leader?"

Excluding Mika, Ashley was the youngest member of Fritzi’s unit. Estelle and Ellie were transfers that were rotated in to replace Samuel and Jacqueline, and Finn wasn’t present. She had served under Fritzi the longest, even if it was just a handful of operations.

---

_{@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@FamishedPants}

The government might have been keen on sending aid to those in Pax Septimus, but the police force wasn’t up to the task of defending it all. It was inevitable that a tractor trailer filled with bottled water would be stolen. GEMINI was busy forming it’s operation at the casino, which didn’t leave anyone to recover the water the cultists stole. No demands had been made, but that hardly mattered. Fritzi considered this an act of terrorism and had the same stance as the US government: She didn’t negotiate with terrorists, and would rather put up triple the ransom as a reward for the heads of those involved. But since there was no ransom, she just put up a reward to have them dealt with.

An offer some local freelancers were more than happy to collect on.

The semi had been taken to a MicroMart on the outer fringes of the city. It had been “hidden” behind the convenience store in the employee parking area. When the mart was active, semi trucks would have been unloaded in that area to keep the store stocked. But the hailstorm took out the roof, and it was no longer a place that could service the public. The damage was so bad that it was doubtful the cultists could use the MicroMart as a hideout. It was a temporary stop while they decided what to do next. There wasn’t a lot else around. The edge of the city had short buildings, and the other side of the mart was rolling hills and a few trees. They’d see someone coming if they came from anywhere but the front of the MicroMart. Which was where the Freelancers were gathering.

Freelancers weren’t as organized as GEMINI was. A few espers would discuss things over Shimr. An arrival time for the operation would be decided, but it was a crapshoot if anyone was going to show up or not. But the pay for this job was good, and anyone that wanted to line their pockets with cash or felt like smacking around some cultists would turn up in front of the MicroMart.

Symphony on High

@Nyahahameha I would use the one on the 0th post, as it hasn't expired. C :

And yea, you can use it if you want to meet the crew.

Symphony on High

@Nyahahameha One thing I will mention that I didn't get in above is that the operation segments of the RP are heavily combat focused. So I don't advise making a totally civilian/non-combat esper. you wouldn't have much to do during the months operations run.

Going Maverick Alternative would be nice, but the RP would still be stacked pretty heavily against them. I'd consider your RP style and what you want to do in the RP. If you want to just vibe with everyone (except for when you can't) then Freelancer is the better choice. If you want to oppose the government and have unique (read: friendly) interactions with characters that no one else in the RP can befriend, then Maverick is great for that. The last RP didn't have any Mavericks and it turned out okay, so don't feel like it's something you need to do.

Yea it's feet. I'll clarify that later. Thanks for pointing it out.

Symphony on High

@Nyahahameha I absolutely love that with all the superheroes that you could have chosen, you singled out Spider-Man and "magical girls." I shouldn't have found that as amusing as I did.

last RP didn't have nearly as much esper/normie interaction as I would have liked. But I had always assumed that while there were many espers that went superhero/magical girl route, there were a few that decided it was a lot safer to use their powers in ways that didn't put them in front of deadly monsters. Though they would have to be careful, as mana doesn't regenerate too fast. Another esper would also be aware of what was going on. The government might not like it too much if they were trying to spread awareness of magic, as they kind of want to keep the monster problem out of the public eye. But those are more difficulties for the character than the player. It doesn't sound hard to pull off to me.

Symphony on High

@Nyahahameha Are you asking if the public would consider their magic to just be some fancy tricks? Absolutely. If they get a little too crazy they might inspire some conspiracy theorists or something like that, but the average human doesn't believe in magic and will try to rationalize everything they see in the reality they understand.

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

Too Many Girls, Too Many Banners

Chloe’s abrupt return wasn’t something that did much to raise Penny’s mood. If anything it was much the opposite. Especially with the latest change in circumstances that had just dropped in their laps. So the Queen would take a moment to let out a breath before approaching the desk and picking up her notarized copy and reading it.

““Monica” She would say as she turned towards her retainers, who had stayed quiet as the Queen had things well enough in hand until now.

“My Queen?” Monica would enquire as she stepped forward.

“Take this to the Regent, I want this disseminated across Sanctuary as soon as possible.” She would order handing over the documents proclaiming all those living in Sanctuary now absolved of any outstanding debt to the Mint.

“I understand.” The minotaur girl would say with a bow.

“Ashlyn, you are to accompany her. With the latest development I don’t want anyone moving about alone if we can help it.” Penny would add, turning to her guard captain. “In addition I want you to start gathering a consensus. I want to know if anyone else from Sanctuary has been abducted. Once that is going, get a hold of anyone who is capable of scrying or divination to see if they are willing to assist in locating Brittney more precisely. Go.”

With a nod of understanding the Oni girl would follow as Monica began heading towards the exit. One hand raised to her ear as she spoke in a hushed tone.

Once that was done Penny returned her attention to Chole. “For full clarification, this contract is to hold all signers and their respective organizations to the same rules and restrictions multilaterally, correct?”

”You’re talking about the whole ‘stop the killing’ bit I take it?“ Chloe gave Penny a sideways glance. ”I think we can both agree that there will always be rogue actors. But that part of the contract is to ensure that all parties realize that committing violence on other magical girls is not to be tolerated, regardless of who does it and who the target is. The general idea is that the Mint will not issue assassinations, murders, beatings, etc inside Penrose or on its inhabitants. But allowing others to subject us to lethal force necessitates something be put in place to prevent that. The whole idea of us having our own turf is so that nobody comes to kill us off. So no, I would say there are slight differences between the two. Mint is not going to use its Penrose assets for violence. Everyone else is just required to play nice with us. But that makes sense, doesn’t it? The Mint can only govern itself. Whatever you choose to do with other factions is your own business.“ She swirled her hand in the air. ”Everything else, such as ceasing research and offering services to corrupt girls in our employ, only affects us.“

““No actually, but that clarification is useful as well.” Penny would reply as she crossed her arms loosely infront of her. ““All in all this is sounding less a treaty and more akin to a business license. Regardless, one more thing before we move on to the main reason for this. What are the consequences of breaking the agreement and how is it going to be monitored and enforced?”

”The Mint does not pretend to be royalty. Of course it’s a business contract.“ A smirk crept across Chloe’s face. ”If someone attacks Penrose, Penrose comes to its aid. It shouldn’t matter who tries to kill or harm what. If one of Sanctuary’s monster girls goes on a bender and wrecks one of Mint’s businesses, I would expect Beacon and Sanctuary to condone the offending girl. Same if Mint decided to try raiding Sanctuary one last time. The other two would come to your defense. The punishment to be metered out would be dependent on the offense and is a case by case basis. If the governing bodies themselves are involved, then they will be punished as well. There’s no death curse that’s going to instantly kill anyone if someone in Sanctuary goes rogue. And of course, all of this extends to every faction and patron who signs.“

“No but you do profess to be trustworthy, which we both know how that goes.” Penny would reply with an unamused look. “Nevertheless, you answered the first and last part of my question but didn’t at all touch on the most important part. How it is being monitored. Is it simply an honor system? Is there magic to trace? Are we bringing in a Patron to watch over the signees to ensure it is followed? This is important to know. After all, the unscrupulous nature of the Mint proceeds you. Saddling someone with a task that will result in them getting burned by this contract does not sound outside your means.”

Chloe rolled her eyes. ”Right, because over the course of a few weeks, you went from Beacon’s poster girl to an outcast playing royalty in the scrapyard slum. I’m sure there’s an explanation that puts you in a good light, but if it’s all the same to you I’d like to stay focused.“ She furrowed her brow. ”It’s a generic magical contract. What’s more important than the words written on it is the intent of the people signing it. I couldn’t midirect you even if I wanted to. Breaking contracts like this has always been a bit mysterious. Maybe you’ll get cursed, maybe you’ll become weak, maybe you’ll flat out cease to be. It all depends on how egregious the break is. But regardless of how or who breaks it, everyone who signed will know the moment it was. So it’s in nobody’s interest, especially mine, to break contract.“

Penny nodded for a moment as she considered the information. She was tempted to snipe back, but knew that they both would simply perpetuate doing so for the entirety of this discussion if she did. And she had better uses of her processing power.

With one more nod to herself she would match Chloe’s gaze ““Then there are five things I would require from the Mint.”

“First is a tithe. So long as the Mint want’s to operate within Penrose I want the Mint to take on at least forty percent of the costs of repair to the Penrose as a result of magical occurrences. The money does not need to be seen by me or anyone from Sanctuary, but I would like an itemized list for how the money is being spent.”

“Second is support. I want the Mint to found and contribute to an outreach program that operates within Penrose’s borders. This would be both a mundane and magical program, though you can separate it into two different programs if you wish. Furthermore these programs can not be employed solely by mint operatives, nor solely by any of the reigning powers of Penrose. With the exception that if it takes off and becomes its own power.”

“Third, I want the ability to buy the Debt of Mint agents. The hows and why of such can be discussed at another time.”

“Fourth is that I want an exit clause in the contract. A way for any of the signees to leave the contract. Stipulations that enforce them to the rules within for at least two weeks upon divesting themselves of the contract as well as making such a decision known to all other signees at time of them bowing out.”

“Lastly, I want restrictions on Brokers seeking out Maho to give Black coins too. If they come to your organization freely and knowingly that is their own business. But hunting girls down on their luck just to turn a quick deal needs to go within Penrose’s boundaries.“

Chloe raised a finger to her chin. ”Working backwards, number five can be done. Al and I are the only brokers in Penrose and we don’t plan on letting anyone else in. Four is a little weird. I’m not sure why someone would want to back out of a contract that keeps the peace. But sure. The contract thus far does far more to restrict the Mint than protect it. We’ll discuss specifics later, but it’s nothing that’s going to happen on a whim. The third is a non-issue. There have been plenty of romantic stories about lovers buying their lover’s debt, and sometimes it happens in real life too! But can you afford it? Second was going to happen anyway. This might sound crazy, but the Mint likes to protect its investments. It doesn’t do anyone any good to let Penrose fall into disarray. Our new business empire is not only going to need local employees, but local customers as well. But it’s that first point where we’re going to have a little bit of an issue.“ A smile spread across her face. ”Forty percent? Thanks to Lily’s suggestion from earlier we’d be lucky to make enough to cover five percent and still pay our employees. Not to mention that kind of cut is going to really stunt our growth moving forward, and will harm the outreach program you also want us to run. Moreover, I refuse to put myself in a position where I have to pay every time you or one of your underlings goes on a little rampage.“

“Hmm, I suppose it was out of hand for me to assume a multidimensional crime syndicate would be able to assist in the maintenance of a single city’s infrastructure to such a degree without their tried and true method of squeezing it dry to do so.” Penny would reply with a raised brow. It was interesting to hear the reason that Chloe was against that demand however, the Truth meant one of two things so far as Penny was concerned.

”It comes down to profits, not ability.“ Chloe corrected. ”We’re not going to make a deal that costs us money. Maybe if we had some nefarious reason for being in Penrose we could siphon some funds from other sectors. Nut nah, we’re just running a business.“

“But fair enough, I’ll retract that request and the one for a line of communication to your superior. Since it is just you two in the city I’ll likely encounter them sooner or later regardless. Instead how about this. The Mint will indefinitely forestall the research, development, and production of the machines you are constructing based on my blueprints and turn over all assets the project has amassed so far to me.”

Nefer blinked, and slowly turned her head towards the two, now listening intently.

Chloe narrowed her eyes. ”You know about that? Al only told one other soul...“ After staring at Penny for a few seconds, Chloe started to laugh. ”Al and his big mouth! He probably blabbed to some dame he was having a one night stand with.“ She bit her lower lip. ”Research on that was going to stop per Binky’s condition anyway. And sure, we can turn over the few robots we made. But then no more extra requests.“

“Thank you for the confirmation” Penny would say with a nod and a smirk. “Eden left a lot of interesting things behind if you know where to go poking around. Always nice to know that I found something valuable. Besides we both know that Binky’s condition wouldn’t have really hindered that project regardless of what you say.”

Chloe snorted. She looked to the other magical girls and then back at Penny. ”I’m not going to explain how the contract works again.“

“And I’m not requesting just the finished product. I want all the materials, all the data, all the paperwork, all the tools, everything. I want every bit of the nonpersonal assets that went into the project.”

”That might be a problem.“ Chloe narrowed her eyes again. ”This is something that everyone has to sign off on, and while I’m sure you get great satisfaction out of making me squirm, I don’t think everyone is going to like the idea of us equipping you to make armies of yourself, regardless of how inferior to the original they may be. But here’s what I’m willing to do.“ She stood beside Penny holding what would, hopefully, be the final version of the contract. ”If everyone who signs this is okay with these demands you’re making, I’ll get you exactly what you asked for. But if someone doesn’t like the idea of extra versions of you running around, then I’m striking it out of the contract. Maybe you’re unwilling to sign because of that. Understandable. Sanctuary can keep its loan forgiveness, but I won’t be obligated to follow any of these new conditions you added. And before anyone asks, everything pertaining to the Pennybots will be destroyed to conform to the contract, in the event that Penny doesn’t get them that is.“ She rolled her shoulders. ”I think we’ve talked enough, your highness. I consider myself pretty flexible but I don’t think you’ve ever bent me this far over.“ A pen appeared in her hand, which she offered to Penny. ”What do you say? Is it a deal?“

“I actually have one condition.” Nefer suddenly spoke up from her seat on the sofa. “I would like to acquire one of these so-called Pennybots. Oh, but purely for intellectual reasons,” she added as Penny’s eyes moved to her. “I have no interest in utilizing someone else’s work on the field. But the technology seems fascinating based on the performance I have observed.” Now Penny was the one being looked over. “The System-on-Chip architecture, the interwoven blend of carbon fiber and nanoprocessors…Oh, I could spend months with that alone.”

“Then you best hope that the rest of the signer's are alright with me acquiring the project assets,” Penny would say in a flat tone as she examined Nefer. “As if it’s not me receiving the results of my stolen schematics, I’ll only consider signing with the written understanding that the project is indefinitely scrapped. I’d like to add in a clause about cloning, but people seem less interested in replicating organic entities, so it doesn’t seem worth the effort.”

“What says you, Broker?”

”I hate repeating myself, Penny. Yes, I’m fine with my conditions that you outlined in your own words. As for Nefer’s addition, if you’re fine sharing the pennybots with others that wish to study them, who am I to stop either of you?”

“I can give the toy away once I am done playing with it,” Nefer responded with a smirk at Penny. “Or I can forgo the fake one…If I get to take a little look at the real cutie’s machinery instead~”

Penny would give Nefer a smile, one that would be hard pressed to be viewed as not a threat. “Seems we will have to have our own negotiations then, once we hear back from the rest.” She would turn towards Chloe, taking the offered pen as she did. “You have my signature, and if my last request is repealed, you will continue to have it only so long as a condition that the Pennybot project in its entirety is scrapped, is added in its place.” With that said she would add her signature to the document.

“And you have mine as well,” Nefer added as she wrote her name in a way oddly reminiscent of hieroglyphics. “By the way, I look forward to the date you promised me, Chloey~”

For the briefest of moments, Chloe’s eyes were fixed on the first pair of signatures the way one might look at someone who gave them a surprise kiss on New Year’s: In utter bewilderment. ”Ah…” Her gawking persisted until Nefer’s words finally registered. ”Well.” Chloe smiled. ”I’m sure I can pencil you in, provided you aren’t busy oogling Penny or someone else. Not that I mind. We’ll have to arrange a time when we’re both free.”

It wasn’t long before the others signed as well. Even Alicia had little trouble signing Beacon on the contract. Once everyone had signed, Chloe looked over everything.

”Hmmm? We’re missing Cradle.”

"That was what I tried to tell you earlier." Aurora looked away while twiddling his thumbs. "It seems something happened with them. They ran off to see what became of their leader. It sounded serious."

”That so?” Chloe looked shocked for all of .2367 seconds before cracking a smile. ”I’ll have to track them down. Everyone here signed, so we can freely share the details about the wonder eggs and everything else we have on Wonderland.” Chloe snapped her fingers, and a dimensional door phased into reality. She didn’t even wave before stepping through.

"Right! The date of the attack is about three days away. The eggs are all located in one facility but, eh, it would be easy to just show you." Aurora looked between Penny and her phone. She was holding a USB cable in one hand that linked up to her phone. "So, if I plug my phone into you, can I trust you to only download wonderland’s plans? There’s nothing super secret there. Just um, some of my DMs are a little personal and I’d rather you not look at them."

In response Penny would simply hold her hand over Aurora’s phone, a solitary spark would jump between the two of them and then everyone would receive another text from Penny. This time holding the plans that Aurora was offering up. “Done.”

---

While the fight between the others went on, Morrigan searched the area. But it really was just as plain as it looked on TV. Other than the crater and the road leading into it, there were only a few bushes here and there. Truly, it took something special to just scatter magical girls through space and time. But Morrigan could confirm with their own eyes at least. She could see the road was scorched with tire marks on one side, and not the other. Moreover, the crater was too perfect to be made by a true explosion. It had been cut out of reality, as if transported to the overcity. But if that were the case, surely Summer’s magic would have had little difficulty tracking it down.

Had there really been an Overcity Shift here? Or did they go somewhere else? Morrigan decided to speak into the air, hoping that the others could hear her through the television. As she did, she turned an eye back to her partner and Makoto. “Can you hear me? There seems to have been a shift that caused the crater. Perhaps you should search for the cause?”

Shortly after asking, Morrigan received a reply in the form of a written letter popping into existence just in front of her. She swooped up to grab it in her talons and let her movement and the air unfurl it, before flapping her wings to stay in place as she attempted to read it.

‘Yeah, I can find them. We’ll keep switching back to you every sixty seconds, so if you need something, just repeat it for a minute or so and we’ll catch it. -Summer’

Well, that was convenient.

Less convenient was Wisdom, who was locked in combat with Makoto and Kain. Her duplicates had transformed into what looked like piles of organs, or eldritch creatures that could only be compared to such grotesque imagery. Duplicates in this world were quite frail, but these ones could take a beating.

"You’re doing so well!" The student counselor clapped her hands together. "Let’s see how much further you can go!"

Yea, they were fine.

Similarly fine was Mac, apparently, as Summer tuned the television in to her location. She seemed to be on some sort of rock floating between various worlds. She also appeared to be sad, perhaps defeated, and at the very least not in a great headspace.

”Well, that sucks. Our most interpersonal people are fighting, so we’re stuck with just us, if you want to try talking to her.” Summer said to Shion.

”No, not really. But we probably should anyway. Got a way to contact her?”

”Well, I’m no dragon, but…” Summer pulled another parchment like she had sent Morrigan from her hammerspace handbag, and quickly wrote on it. She then took a lighter and burned the paper away completely, sending it to appear at Mac’s location in a puff of smoke.

‘Hey, are you okay?’ it read.

Mac had her knees tucked up against her arms folded in front of her head. The sudden “fwoof” of a note burning into existence caused her to jump. The note did figure eights in the air until Mac grabbed it and took a look at the contents.

”...What?”

She looked around herself, saying nothing but clearly suspicious of her surroundings.

Another note appeared. This time Mac was able to get it more quickly. ‘I’m not a voyeur, but I am watching you. You disappeared when I wasn’t looking and now you look like you’re not doing too hot. So what happened?’

She held the pages in either hand and sighed. ”It’s just… I don’t know what happened.” Her arms dropped to her sides. ”I was fighting some Mint agents, then there was an explosion, and I’ve been like this for a few minutes. And-” She fret her brow. ”You’re not recording this, are you?” Mac stood up. ”Who are you? You’re not Cradle.”

”Cradle? The Mint offshoot?”

”You can fill me in on if they’ve changed any recently, later.” Summer said as she wrote another note.

‘I’m not recording this, should I be? Definitely not “Cradle,” either. Do you want to come home or are you happy there?’

Mac had her hands full, but she managed to stomp the note out of the air and read the text just above her foot. ”I would like to know who I’m dealing with.” She sighed. ”But I wouldn’t mind getting out of here either.”

As soon as she finished saying that, Mac would find a television on her head and her upper body being brought through the T.V. that Summer and Shion were watching, looking almost like Sadako from “The Ring” as she did.

”There, I solved both your problems. You’re out of there and you get to know who we are.”

Shion simply put her hand on her head in exasperation. What if this girl started a fight?

The wolf girl picked herself up and adjusted her hat. ”No shortage of sass I see.” Her eyes moved between the two girls. ”But the antics of Miss North shouldn’t really surprise me. I’m far more surprised that Shion’s hooked up with you. I guess none of us really need an introduction, do we?” Her thumbs slid into her pockets. ”At any rate, I’m thankful that you guys got me out of there, but what the heck is a Beacon faithful and a coin exploiter doing with me?”

Oh, so she is picking a fight. Shion thought, a slight bit of annoyance visible on her face.

”Honestly, I was using you as an example and then you disappeared, so we decided to figure out why that is. Besides, as a ‘Beacon faithful,’ I have a vow of Generosity to uphold. Helping people is a requirement for me.” Summer said as she tuned the T.V. back into the fight. ”Why were you fighting a truck, anyway?”

”We both know you don’t need me to tell you that.” Mac crossed her arms. ”We were told the truck had an artifact on board that could bring harm to Veronica, which would further cripple Cradle. Naturally, it was a trap designed for Maura and us. Mid-fight the thing got super hot and exploded. Magical bullshit ensued. It’s so wild it confounded my every sense.” Mac’s eyes moved to the TV. It was showing a jubilant Wisdom and her horrorling doubles ganging up on Makoto. By some stroke of luck it seemed that none of them were able to pin down Kain. ”Do you have any plans to rescue the others?”

”Oh, hey, they’re doing pretty well.” Summer said before replying to Mac. ”You seem to know a lot about me and my magic when it’s only been… what, a year, my time, since I learned what my magic really is? Besides, I’d rather spend mana on helping someone and talk to them to get answers than using that mana to get answers and leave that person out to dry.”

Mac placed her hand on her face. ”Alright, fair.” With a sigh, she folded her arms again. ”I’m still reeling from what happened. To avoid complications, let’s just say that I used to have some rather potent divining powers. With those powers, I was able to watch what you could do with yours. But I lost the power to do that a few weeks ago during the christmas party. So if there have been any new developments, I didn’t see them.”

”Rescue the others as in the ones on the T.V., or as in your allies? Because we were only watching you, but Summer could probably pull the same thing for your friends.”

”My allies.” Mac lowered her head. ”I don’t know what I’ll do if boss doesn’t come back…”

Summer stared into space for a moment, trying to remember the names of Mac’s allies. ”Oliver and Maura, right? Let’s see what I can do.” She walked over and smacked the television, causing it to shift to showing static. ”That’s weird.” She tried again, and this time the screen broke slightly, a small piece of glass flying off of it.

”Okay, new plan.” Sitting down on the bed, Summer pulled a sketchbook out of her handbag and began drawing Oliver. But as she did, despite drawing him perfectly, the image on the page became distorted and soon became complete black. She flipped to the next page and tried the same thing with Maura, to the same results.

”That can’t be a good sign.”

”... Well, I have bad news. The last time this happened was when I tried to scry on Kain, and he was gone from the reincarnation cycle. So I could either assume that’s the case for them as well, or we can assume something else but equally as bad has happened.” She flipped back to the only past drawing she had of Maura, and found that the page had become soaked with water that wasn’t affecting the other pages. ”And that’s a new one, so it’s probably the second option. Something happened that I can’t really explain, and I’m not sure what it was. I’m sorry, but I don’t know what I can do to even find them, let alone rescue them.”

”Ah…” Mac groaned. ”Well, that really sucks.” She laughed. ”Boy, it really couldn’t get any worse. I put everything on that bet, and I was sure I was powerful enough to make it pay off. But I guess there are always forces bigger than you out there.” She adjusted her hat. ”It’s unfortunate I’m a monster girl. Maybe I could join up with Beacon. Maybe then I could make a difference out there. But I guess it’s not too late to join Mint, huh?”

”Yeah, tell me about it. I’d offer to help you out with Beacon, but last I checked in, the Ascendency was around.”

”Weren’t you part of the Mint offshoot, though? I doubt they’ll take you back with open arms.”

”Plus, despite how strong you are and how useful you could be to any group, or in the coming fight, it’s best not to be involved.”

”I wasn’t being serious.” Mac clarified. ”But let’s forget about that for a moment, what are you guys doing?”

”Well, we were watching this big meeting on what to do about Wonderland, and then Summer decided to use you as an example of someone strong. Then we stopped being able to watch the meeting, so we watched you again and wondered what was going on. So we sent two of our little group out to talk to the person who was where you disappeared from, and now we’re here talking to you.”

”That does about sum it up, yes.”

Mac pursed her lips. ”Well I’m glad you think I’m strong, but as you can see, even I can’t stop things from happening. I certainly can’t dive into pocket worlds and fish people out of them after a magical nuke goes off. But what about the meeting? I’m assuming you’re referring to the one Lily set up. So you’re just trying to find a way to protect penrose? I’m curious what your MO is.”

”I guess. But yes, the one Lily’s dealing with. As for what we’re trying to do, well…”

”We tried to do something, didn’t work. Now we’re hoping to find a way to get something close to it, guess. Penrose is the epicenter of what we were trying to change, so we’re trying to help out however we can, basically.

”I see, sounds mysterious.” With a sigh, Mac pushed herself off the wall. ”But I think you have good intentions. Sorry, I’m not a huge fan of Beacon, but recently I’ve been learning that Penrose Beacon is a lot different from Beacon everywhere else. I also seem to recall you going on a long vacation. Seemed kind of irresponsible at the time, but if you’re willing to do stuff like this…” She waved her hands all around her. ”I’d like to get back to Penrose so that I can check on the rest of Cradle, but after that uh, hmmm. If Boss is gone, I wouldn’t mind pooling our forces together. If you have any ideas, maybe I can help make them a reality.”

”Well, I’m sure you know the way from here, but as a heads-up, we’re currently in the Golden Trove, in case you run into anyone working here. And thank you for the offer, we’ll see if it turns out to be the best idea once you’ve figured things out.”

Mac blinked. ”This is the Trove? Yea, I should have known that. What a day…”

Symphony on High

I clarified on the discord, but I more mean a name. Like how Justin Rufina's alias is "Noble Spark" or how Finn is called "Timekeeper."

Community Reminder

I've never encountered anything that crazy from here, but it is good to know that players are expected to behave themselves on discord even if it isn't officially tied to the forum. It's not very clear in the guild rules, but I would have hoped it was the case for something so serious.

Symphony on High

Alright, we got all the presently apped characters in the character tab now. Work on the first post has started, but I have a lot of writing to do. Gunna be lit.

@TaintedMushroom@Nakushita Something I noticed going over your character sheets is that neither of your characters have an alias. It's not essential, but most espers take advantage of the magical-girl-like identity protection that being an esper offers. Marrie Knight doesn't have one because she's inexperienced and the Bates twins pretty much live as espers. They pretend to be traveling musicians and their secret became impossible to keep with their popularity. Point being, someone who pries into secrets and a mobster might want to keep a lower profile than that and hide behind an alias. Not necessary, but figured I'd mention it.

Also Himiko doesn't have a last name. Normally I wouldn't care, but given her wealthy upbringing it might come up. So it would be cool if you could add that for me.

Symphony on High

@FamishedPants Looks pretty bad. I'll accept it.