BrokenPromise

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

"Boy, I sure hope I recognize my GF when she comes back!!"

— Chloe Irving

For her part, Chloe had everything ready. Her mint operatives were in position, the Ossiarch Bonereapers were poised to strike, and… oh! She had encountered Oros once and she had said a lot of gibberish. Some of it related to her sword and how easy it was to spy on events. The story slayer sounded like a similar blade, so she continued to put her surprise out of her mind as she had for the past few days.

But it was boring to sit still and wait for things to happen. Part way through her preparations, the bottle she had wished for changed into a pendant. She hadn’t thought much of it at the time. She was too busy pulling strings here and there to bother with it. Though she had started to wonder if something had happened. Maybe the queen of hearts had finally taken out the wish granting magical girl. She held the pendant in her hand and rubbed it between her finger and thumb. Her third eye fixated on its magic.

Magic welled up in the pendant and a stream of magic poured out in the form on sparkles. It was clearly not the same as what the bottle emitted before when summoning the djinn. In the ball of magic fairy dust, Ruby tumbled into existence and fell onto the floor. ”Aaah, humph!” Balled up in her long cloak and skirt it took the woman a moment to orient herself and sit up. ”Ugh, oh. Hi Chloe.” She would give an awkward smile.

Chloe’s eyes darted between the newly arrived woman and the pendant in her hand. She did this several times before placing her hand over her face. "Again!?” She ran her fingers down her face. "I get it. Aurora switched up her look and so did I, but don’t you think you’re overdoing it a little bit? Maybe limit the whole transforming thing to once every other visit?” she looped the pendant around her neck and extended a hand.. "The only reason I’m not upset is you still look cute.” Chloe grinned. Of course, it was good to see she was still alive too.

Accepting the help back on her feet, Ruby pat herself down. It was like she was coated in glitter. Thankfully it did not stick to everything and dissipated as it scattered around her. ”Ah, well thank you.” She would beam from the complement. ”Though I’m not really sure what happened to be fair. I think I’ve become a fairy godmother?” She would pull the hood down and work on untangling her hair.

Chloe, for all her faults, was far too classy to use the opportunity to call Ruby a fairy god MILF. But she did think about it. "At least you know what you are. I mean, for the moment.” She reached up and pushed Ruby’s hair out of her eyes. "Anyway, I’m getting a little fidgety having to wait for everyone to start. I figured we could have a little bit of fun until we get the signal. Heck, maybe we can have even more fun after the signal.” she nodded to herself. She guided Ruby to the front of her army. Or at least part of it. The front line was a few mortek guards with necropolis stalkers just behind them and immortis guards just behind them. But to anyone else, they would just say there were a lot of skeletons of various sizes standing in rows. "What do you plan on doing once the fighting starts?”

Ruby looked over the army silently. She didn’t realize Chloe had access to such a thing. Not that it really concerned her at all. Plenty of forces out there after all. ”I will be keeping an eye on my own magical girl. I’m not sure how much I can contribute aside from helping people with their wishes beforehand. Though not everything people want directly helps with what’s coming.” She would observe.

"You’d think we’d take this a bit more seriously. Even now, everyone’s out for their own interests.” A more ironic statement Chloe could not speak, and she knew it. The corners of her lips curled into a smile. "To be fair, the outcome doesn’t matter too much to some of us. I don’t know if we’re going to repel the wonder chumps or not, but this is a battle I can’t survive.”

”That’s ominous. Why is that?” She would look a little concerned. How does one respond to a statement like that?

"I didn’t mean that literally, but….” Chloe took a moment to think. "I’m not exactly everyone’s favorite magical girl. As much as I hate to admit it, Penny wasn’t totally wrong when she said I failed upwards into a position of power. She was just wrong that it was the Mint and that it hadn’t happened a long time ago.” She waved her hand at the skeleton army. "My patron isn’t someone you should really screw around with. But I’ve had a change of heart recently and I think we’re going to reach an impasse pretty soon. They want Penrose really badly. Like really badly. But I’m not going to give it to them.” She shrugged her shoulders. "I’m not totally doomed though. I’ve got the Mint at my back and a few close friends. But Nagash isn’t the type of guy you just smack in the face and expect him to go away. Once the wonderland thing is done with, my trials will have just begun.”

Understanding what Chloe meant, Ruby would nod. Penrose essentially dragged conflict in from practically everyone. Even those who seemed intent on protecting the city had trouble cooperating at times. ”Well, I can do my best to help you with that. Maybe some of my good PR can tip the scales and get us a better deal.”

Chloe smiled. "I appreciate the gesture, but I’m a little skeptical about the odds of the magical girl community coming to bat for me. I mean, yea, we’re all fighting wonderland right now, but that’s to protect our home. I think it’ll be a lot harder to convince everyone to help the coin broker get away from a necromancer. And this is no ordinary necromancer. This is a necromancer who learned how to do the whole spirit/resurrection thing better than his god of death could. So, as a mortal, he killed them and absorbed their power.” She sighed. "We can worry about that later. It’s kind of awkward to have this conversation in front of his minions, you know? I mean...” she looked back at the bony abominations. "Few of them are truly sentient, but the point is that I really called you over here to have some fun! I know I brought it up, but we can talk about my problems later.”

”Fine by me. What did you have in mind?” She would walk around so that Chloe would turn away from the army.

"You have someplace to be later, right? We could make out until then.” Chloe groaned.
"No, best to do that after we've won. How about we set up some 'fireworks' to aid with the distraction? Aurora should be just about ready, but it never hurts to add more!”

All the better to kiss you under, my dear.

---

”Don’t mind me, just MDP’s imaginary friend.”

— KoT

”That's right! I'm totally real now!” Just like an imaginary friend, 'Ashley Washley' seemed to appear out of nowhere. Unlike an imaginary friend, everyone could see her. ”And now that I have a physical body, I'm not about to let the queen take it away from me.” She made a gun finger and shot at Connie. ”That, and you guys are MDP's special friends, so I have to do my best to protect you.”

The only way Mac could combat her urge to cringe was to try and be cringe herself. But boy was MDP outclassing her in that department...

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"For a beach episode, nobody’s doing a lot of beach stuff.”

— Suki Oyama

Suki had seated herself on the edge of the giant rock. She kicked her legs in the air, her eyes not really focusing on anything. Tsubomi was probably still behind the van, and the other two were probably making out underwater or something. That, or Nyxia was hunting miseria while Roche, in a strangely subservient manner, just quietly followed like the training wheels on a unicycle. Since Roche was as flexible with her leadership position as stale cheese, the former was far more likely to be what they were doing.

You know what? Screw this! If Roche and Nyx think they could have sexytimes while she and Tsubomi set up for their queen, they had another think coming! She had pranked everyone on the beach, it was time she pranked the sea.

With a stern face, Suki marched into the ocean. Her summer dress swayed in the sea breeze as the water crept up her ankles.

…

…

…

Tsubomi’s sudden revival caused everyone around her to hop backwards. They asked her if she was alright, the stud even apologized, but she ignored them. That included when they asked what had been scribbled all over her face.

Nyx and Roche had not returned. The only visible member of her party was Suki. Or was she technically Oros now? Hard to say. She was clearly in magical girl form, but the red dress and sun hat made her look like an entirely different magical girl. But Tsubomi was too familiar with her to ever mistake those dull red eyes for anyone else.

But Suki wasn’t going to get to the ocean. At least, not before something else reached her. A pink and silver bolt screeched through the air as it closed in on Suki. Unlike Tsubomi, she was aware enough to turn and face the incoming threat. She stepped off to the side just as the bolt “unfolded” and swung one of its shields. The ground detonated, making a splash and throwing wet sand in every direction. Suki rolled across the beach before standing up and looking at her attacker. She froze.

”Awe yas! Fighty time now!”

— The Magnificent Morganite

Morganite laughed. ”Das right, red head!” She placed her hands on her hips. ”You juz got rolled by the magnificent- She stopped when Suki made a mad sprint for the ocean. ”Oy! I waz talkin’ to yah!” The armored gremlin took off after her.

---

The chase would not last long.

As terrifying (yet clean) as the creature was, it was only a little bit faster than its pursuers. A squid could move at speeds faster than an olympic runner, but magical girls were not limited by things like physics and even causality. It also didn’t have any real defense mechanisms other than threatening to call the “bobbies” as it surged on.

Nobody knew the exact depth they were at, but there was just enough light to see a silhouette of something in the distance. At first it looked like a squid, then it looked like a girl. But as they drew closer they realized it was a squid girl.

A squid girl in a diving suit with a crazy number of gauges. It seemed pointless to have so many references for pressure, but magical girl outfits weren’t known for their practicality. That said, she had two oxygen tanks, weights, too many carabiners, flood lights on both shoulders (they were off), but the funny thing was she had no helmet. The deep diving getup went right to her neck, and then she had an eerie visor that she wore above her eyes and her rebreather rested below her neck. Though instead of legs, she had a slew of tentacles. So the idea of a sea creature needing diving equipment at all was a little silly.

The small squid creature floated up beside her and appeared to communicate with her. She looked at the newly arrived magical girls with some interest, and nodded back at her underling.

”My queen is willing to surface and have a conversation with you.” the squid-like creature was hiding behind the squid-girl while it “spoke” to them. ”But you must not harm me. I am not miseria, and you will gain nothing from killing me.”

Fabula Ultima: A JTTRPG

I am a little familiar with the Fabula Ultima system. It does seem scaled back enough that it would make for an interesting system to use for PbP RPs. I really like how the Fabula point system allows everyone to tell part of the story, how you mix and match classes to make a unique character, and how tests are performed. It's not a perfect system, but I doubt there are many low complexity systems like it that manage to do so much with so little.

It looks like you have a full party, but I may join if someone loses interest and the RP looks like something worth joining.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Forever alone...”

— Suki Oyama

You know what? Maybe Roche was right. This beach trip was actually a blast! There was nobody around to tell her what to do. The rule keeper was busy chasing tale, Nyx was hunting miseria in futility, and Tsubomi was... not around. She was free to do whatever she wanted without repercussions. Another sand castle exploded as her foot sailed through it. She grabbed a beach towel a woman was laying on and gave it a tug, rolling her into her sunbathing partner. Then she hurled the towel into the sea before smacking a girl on the ass. Her victim turned to look at the nearest guy and smacked him in the back of the head.

She had made it from one side of the beach to the other. Suki scaled a rock and spun on her heel, observing her handiwork. There was a trail of destroyed sand castles, bickering couples, and crying children. A gleeful smile crept across her face when she witnessed it all. She had pranked hundreds of people today, and there would be no repercussions for her actions. They didn't know her name, they didn't see her in action, and she could do it all again and they would be none the wiser.

As she grinned to herself, Suki cast her eyes to either side of herself, But there was nothing there but the wind. Even the sea birds had retreated once she approached. There was some bird poop where they had been perched, but not a living thing was around her. When she turned around, there was nothing back there either. The beach might have been filled with people, but the rocky cliff side was not hospitable to anyone. It was a straight drop with a dense forest at the top. But Suki did not see any life there. Not birds, not deer, not even a frog. Her expression soured.

She turned back to the beach. The castles were being rebuilt, the couples were making up, and the children had dried their tears. Suki whimpered before sliding into a sitting position. She kicked her legs as she watched the last remnants of her of her mischief vanish from sight.

Her head popped up when she noticed that tuft of pink hair again, but it ducked away again.

…

…

…

If Tsubomi had the sense to wake up, she'd likely feel a welp on her head from where she had been struck by the vollyball. But more than that, she would realize that she was being carried by a group of swimsuit-clad teenagers. It was two girls and two guys, one of which was a total stud.

"How did this happen? I didn't know you could spike the ball like that!"

"Me neither!" The stud's jiggling pecs were somehow more distracting than either of the girls that were with him. "Did she have stuff drawn all over her like this when I hit her?"

"I don't know! She was behind me!"

"I'm not sure, but who would do such a thing?"

"Who would lay down on top of a van?"

"We need to wake her up. Does anyone have smelling salts?"

"Why would we have smelling salts?"

"For a situation like this?"

"Oh I'm sorry! I left my 'volleyball knockout resuscitation kit' in my other swimming trunks."

"Mouth to mouth then?"

"Is that how you wake up a sleeping person? let me google it on my phone."

They continued to banter as Tsubomi was carried to a beach towel.

---

The Markov? Did Nyxia have that right?

There was a Markov in the Russo-Japanese War a hundred or so years ago, but he was a Russian vice-admiral. His flagship was the Petropavlovsk, which was a battleship that was sunk by mines in a harbor. There was also a Russian cruiser called the Admiral Makarov, but construction didn't start on that until after the Russo-Japanese war, and the ship was never sunk. It was sold for scrap in 1922. Or the ship was made up or too obscure to be found with a simple google search.

Regardless of the ship's name or where it was sunk, how close were they to it? Japan had 22548.94 miles of shoreline, or 36289 kilometers for those who don't like freedom units. It was possible that the trip would take longer than going to a proper depth in the ocean, unless they were very lucky and it happened to sink at a harbor nearby.

But maybe knowing the name of the ship didn't matter. Hibusa Town was unique in that it was at the center of everything. It was paradoxically between a city, mountain, the forest, and the sea. It should be no surprise that any biome that popped into their heads was miraculously within reach, and so Nyxia had little difficulty finding a sunken ship to enter.

Regardless of which end of the ship the magical girls entered from, it would become evident that the recovery team had not been kind to the ship. Doors had been cut away, electronics had been recovered, and the hull looked like Swiss cheese in areas. There was a big business in recovering radiation-free metal for medical devices, and most of such metal was taken from ships that had sunk before the advent of modern technology. Getting around would not require blasting a hole in anything.

Both girls would also start to hear a sound. Something a bit more clear than the grumbling of the sea, almost as if they were hearing it in their heads. As they drew closer, the sound became more legible. Like static leaving a radio while it was being tuned.

Ah hah! Lalalalalalala...

It sounded... British? And boyish? Eventually both magical girls would join up in a single hallway. At the end of it was a grey blob that was holding a bar of soap in one of its tendrils and massaging its head with it. Eventually its singing stopped, and it turned to look at the two newly arrived.

It gasped in horror!

"Gah! Ankle biters!" It heaved the bar of soap at Roche (it would slow to a stop before it hit her) and quickly swam out of the hull.

Introduction

I am Broken

I am Promise

I am BrokenPromise

I am sure you will have fun here.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Who said rainbow and I still can't have fun together?”

— Suki Oyama

This was not a surprise either.

A normal magical girl would have easily been able to perceive the tell tale signs of a ball being kicked with above human strength. But Tsubomi only feared Rei. Anything else was below her notice, even something as obvious as a sonic volleyball. At least, that was what Suki would have told someone if they asked her about it. But nobody asked her, and she didn’t waste a single brain cell thinking about all the strange contradictions that Tsubomi was wrapped up in. All she cared about was the satisfying clap of the volleyball hitting Tsubomi’s head. It was enough to roll her off the size of the van. She placed her hands over her mouth to suppress her emotions.

A smile?

A gasp?

Suki felt conflicted. Tsubomi was just a filthy spy for Rei, but she had also been something of a friend. A very unenthusiastic friend, but the only one she could think of off the top of her head. There was Aria, but she was a long distance friend and just someone she messaged a few times a month. Suki wasn’t sure how to feel. She couldn’t laugh at Tsubomi’s pain, nor could she bring herself to go check on her former pal.

Over her shoulder, the volleyball players had just witnessed the wind catch their ball and fling it at a school girl’s head. They were shouting to each other while a total stud ran over to see what the hell a girl was doing on top of a van, and if she was alright. That’s right. Even out here, Tsubomi had people that were willing to look after her.

There’s only one person out here that’s truly alone.

Suki walked off. Maybe there were some children building sand castles she could kick over. It was always fun to see the wet sand fly, and there would be absolutely no repercussions for her actions, so why not?

…

…

…

”Wut did I tell ya?! Now I gots da powah!”

— The Magnificent Morganite

These dark magical girls were idiots.

It was hard not to point and laugh at their struggles. Even when alone, Morganite had a hard time containing herself as the team split up right before her eyes. She had heard that the Hibusa Town girls were strong, but their numbers were so disjointed that they practically defeated each other. She thought it would be a lot harder to split them up and defeat them, but this was going to be easy. After she dealt with the sleeping one, she’d dispatch the summer dress girl. Then she just had to bide her time for the other two to return. She doubted they would be a match for her even together, but maybe they’d get into a fight once they got back. This was going to be like taking candy from a baby.

But first, some much needed revenge.

As a light girl, Morganite didn’t relish such dark emotions. Yes, while this woman had wronged her, dealing with her was always going to be more about protecting others and righting past injustices. Morganite had seen what depravity like that could do to people. Having their ability to act removed so that someone could impose their will on them. How ironic that such a twisted individual was now left vulnerable before her former victim. Imagine having karma so bad that it catches up to you just a day later.

A shield floated over either one of Morganite’s shoulders. While defensive instruments by design, anyone who came across a magical girl with shields knew they had plenty of offensive capabilities too. But killing her opponent in such a state was dishonorable. She had a better idea.

Her hand came out of her pocket with a marker. Extra thick, the really cheap dollar store ones that were as thick as her pinky and smelled like paint thinner. She pulled the cap off with her teeth and gave Tsubomi a mustache. Then a little triangular devil beard, and some swirly marks on her cheeks. While she was at it, she gave her big blocky eyebrows and a pair of glasses too. Morganite giggled while she drew her masterpiece.

---

The sea life was beautiful, but Nyxia had come here to hunt Miseria. So she swam deeper into the ocean. And deeper, and deeper, and deeper. And after a few minutes, Nyxia’s schooling kicked in.

An island was effectively a giant underwater mountain that poked above the waters. Japan was a very “plump” mountain, which tapered off slowly. While most light didn’t make it any deeper than a few hundred feet of ocean water, you’d need to go down at least a thousand feet before you reached total darkness. Depending on where she was, she may have to swim as far as fifty miles out to sea before she could find water that deep. That was assuming the Misseria weren’t even deeper, in which case she may need to swim a hundred miles, or even two hundred miles out. Her body was far greater than that of a normal human, but this was still going to be quite the trek. It would take hours, and they might not get back before nightfall. They didn’t even know if there were any miseria out that far. And if there were, who knew if they were any stronger than the land based ones? And if they were stronger, did she have a plan to get away if they were too strong? Was it worth the risk?

Maybe those questions never crossed Nyxia’s mind, but they should have crossed Roche’s.

Symphony on High

Hunts are live! Just peer into the zeroth OOC post for a gander.

But before you participate in them, some of you may wish to upgrade your glamors first.

@The World@TaintedMushroom I feel like we discussed or even finished discussing them, but your character sheets have not been edited yet?

@Nakushita@FamishedPants@Vertigo I don't think I've heard any ideas from any of you yet. might wanna get on that.

@Kero You get an upgrade because an operation has concluded. that's what happens when you app for an rp months in advance smh my head.

And then I need to do mine, once I get done setting everything up.

Also remember that you guys can make bronze backup glamors, haven't seen anyone going for those. y'all need more friends huh?

Symphony on High

Hey hey people, the new DoCS patch is live! Give it a look if you're curious about the changes. Summon might be overtuned for the cost, but we'll be keeping an eye on how it performs in the next operation. The temptation was to sneak in a craft update, but I feel like there are enough balance changes in this “patch” that it wasn’t necessary.

Hunts and information about how to join them should be up later this week. In the meantime, I gotta get some character sheets updated and participate in some collabs.

It’s gunna be an exciting week.

SoE Patch Notes

The complete blink rework is finished! It’s the same blink you know and love, just now with a time delay that makes it easier to punish at lower casts. Naturally, Transplace got a small update too.

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Blink: Mana cost (4) Instantly teleport to where the effect activates. Teleportation fails if the spell activates in an area that cannot fit the teleporting esper. The esper can also decide not to teleport where the effect activates, but the mana spent on the note will still be expended. At rank D, Blink allows an esper to Blink to a location. But higher ranks allow for blinking with other items. C allows for some small items to be taken along with you, B allows larger items or children, A lets you blink with an adult, and S lets you blink with an 800 LB creature or machine. Any target you attempt to blink with must be willing. Transplace: Mana cost (8) Same as above, only the caster swaps places with the target so long as the target is as large as an adult human or smaller. The caster can also choose not to swap, but will have to expend the mana regardless. The target of a transplace note can resist the note if their arcane defense rank is higher than that of the note.

Blink: Mana cost (4) Teleport to where the effect activates after a short delay. At rank D, the delay is two seconds. Each rank above D shaves a half second off the teleportation delay, until it’s nonexistent at rank S. Espers, magi, and some monsters know when the casting esper is going to teleport after it’s been cast. Teleportation fails if the spell activates in an area that cannot fit the teleporting esper. The esper can also decide not to teleport where the effect activates, but the mana spent on the note will still be expended. At rank D, Blink allows an esper to Blink to a location. But higher ranks allow for blinking with other items. C allows for some small items to be taken along with you, B allows larger items or children, A lets you blink with an adult, and S lets you blink with an 800 LB creature or machine. Any target you attempt to blink with must be willing. Transplace: Mana cost (8) Same as above, only the caster swaps places with the target so long as the target is as large as an adult human or smaller. The caster can also choose not to swap, but will have to expend the mana regardless. The target of a transplace note can use their arcane defense to resist transplace for an extra second for each rank their arcane defense is over the note, or transplace sooner. Those below the note’s rank are unable to affect the timing of transplace.

And of course, this necessitated the reworking of the cast notes. Nothing major here, just definitive times to assist with balancing other notes down the road, and Blink/Transplace. Most importantly, there’s a compose and cast time. Compose indicates how long it takes for an esper to convert their mana into a melody, and cast is how long it takes to release that energy and hit their target. Most of the time you’re just going to add these times together to get your total cast time. However, there have been a few instances of espers “composing” their melodies behind cover and then “casting” them when there’s an opening. Under these circumstances, there’s less time for an opponent to react. Basically, it’s just some nerd shit to make GM rulings more fair.

Also changing how things are worded because it’s too clunky and we generally don’t care how notes are ordered in a melody.

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Bronze Projectile: Difficulty (6) Base Rank (D) Silver Projectile: Difficulty (9) Base Rank (C) Gold Projectile: Difficulty (12) Base Rank (B) Diamond Projectile: Difficulty (15) Base Rank (A) Launches a projectile that flies faster than a stone throw, but slower than a bullet. When the projectile strikes something, it triggers the next note on it. Bronze Self: Difficulty (4) Base Rank (D) Silver Self: Difficulty (6) Base Rank (C) Gold Self: Difficulty (8) Base Rank (B) Diamond Self: Difficulty (10) Base Rank (A) The melody is channeled inside one’s own body. The next note only affects the caster. If a single point for the spell is necessary, the caster may select any point on their body, but it will still only affect them. Bronze Touch: Difficulty (4) Base Rank (D) Silver Touch: Difficulty (6) Base Rank (C) Gold Touch: Difficulty (8) Base Rank (B) Diamond Touch: Difficulty (10) Base Rank (A) The esper channels their magic into their hands, feet or instrument, and the next note activates on contact with whatever they touch/hit. Bronze Beam: Difficulty (8) Base Rank (D) Silver Beam: Difficulty (12) Base Rank (C) Gold Beam: Difficulty (16) Base Rank (B) Diamond Beam: Difficulty (20) Base Rank (A) After a small charge window with a “tell” (glowing energy, gathering particles, etc) the esper can fire a beam. The beam travels in a straight line, fires near instantly, and activates the next note on impact. Bronze Spawn: Difficulty (12) Base Rank (D) Silver Spawn: Difficulty (18) Base Rank (C) Gold Spawn: Difficulty (24) Base Rank (B) Diamond Spawn: Difficulty (30) Base Rank (A) With focus and little else, the esper can choose a point and activate effects there. Spawn is the slowest to cast, and has an obvious “tell.” Trigger: Difficulty (0) Base Rank (Dependent on rank mark was made with) Causes any number of marks the esper has placed to trigger. Can’t be cast with any other notes.

Bronze Self: Difficulty (4) Base Rank (D) Silver Self: Difficulty (6) Base Rank (C) Gold Self: Difficulty (8) Base Rank (B) Diamond Self: Difficulty (10) Base Rank (A) The melody is channeled inside one’s own body. After composing the melody for half a second, it is instantly cast. If a single point for the spell is necessary, the caster may select any point on their body, but it will still only affect them without something like an Area or AoE note. Bronze Touch: Difficulty (4) Base Rank (D) Silver Touch: Difficulty (6) Base Rank (C) Gold Touch: Difficulty (8) Base Rank (B) Diamond Touch: Difficulty (10) Base Rank (A) The esper channels their magic into their hands, feet or instrument. After composing the melody for half a second, it takes a fraction of a second to cast the melody on whatever they touch/hit. Bronze Projectile: Difficulty (6) Base Rank (D) Silver Projectile: Difficulty (9) Base Rank (C) Gold Projectile: Difficulty (12) Base Rank (B) Diamond Projectile: Difficulty (15) Base Rank (A) After composing a melody for half a second, the esper may launch a projectile that flies faster than a stone throw, but slower than a bullet. It generally takes about a half a second for a projectile to fly from the esper’s hand and hit the target. Bronze Beam: Difficulty (8) Base Rank (D) Silver Beam: Difficulty (12) Base Rank (C) Gold Beam: Difficulty (16) Base Rank (B) Diamond Beam: Difficulty (20) Base Rank (A) An esper can fire a beam or a high speed projectile that flies in a straight line. It takes half a second to compose the melody. While the beam fires instantly, it takes a full second for an esper to line up their shot and ensure they are accurate. Bronze Spawn: Difficulty (12) Base Rank (D) Silver Spawn: Difficulty (18) Base Rank (C) Gold Spawn: Difficulty (24) Base Rank (B) Diamond Spawn: Difficulty (30) Base Rank (A) With focus and little else, the esper can choose a point and activate a melody there without a clean shot. It takes half a second to compose a spawn melody, but two seconds to cast it. Trigger: Difficulty (0) Base Rank (Dependent on rank mark was made with) Causes any number of marks the esper has placed to trigger. Is composed and casted with a thought, making it the fastest cast note of them all. If you ignore the setup, that is.

Might as well revise casting melodies so that the above makes more sense. This is more for clarity than a real change.

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CASTING MELODIES: When an esper wishes to cast a spell, they simply choose notes they have access to and arrange them to create the desired effect. Each note has a mana cost and increases the difficulty multiplier, save for cast notes which have no cost but establish the base difficulty of the spell. If you add the mana cost up and multiply it by the total difficulty, you can see how much mana the melody will cost. If it is not greater than your current mana points, you may deduct them and cast the melody. Complex melodies can quickly eat away all your mana, so cast wisely. There is a calculator available for doing all the math for you, but if you would like to learn how to do the calculations yourself, that will be explained later. Notes activate in sequential order, going from left to right. The cast note determines when the next note “activates.” If a bunch of effects are together, they will all activate at once unless a mod alters the timing. And lastly, the melody will have a rank to determine how powerful the notes are. This is tied to the cast note that you use to cast your melody, but other notes can cause a melody’s rank to go up or down, such as [Powerful] and [Quicken]

CASTING MELODIES: To cast a melody, an esper chooses from a pool of notes they have access to for a desired effect. Each note in a melody has a mana cost which is added together and multiplied against a difficulty multiplier, which is affected by the cast note and number of notes being used. If the esper has enough mana points to cast the melody, then it can be cast. Complex melodies can quickly eat away all your mana, so cast wisely. There is a calculator available for doing all the math for you, but if you would like to learn how to do the calculations yourself, that will be explained later. Melodies are not instantly barfed into reality. Once the mana cost is paid, that mana needs to be “composed” into a melody, at which point it can then be cast. Composing melodies is not subtle. An esper, magus, or intelligent monster will know you are composing a melody, but not what it does. There are almost always cues, like a fireball manifesting in an esper’s hand or light particles collecting in front of a wand. And that’s the more subtle part of a melody. Casting melodies is noisy and followed by flashy effects. A target can take evasive action and avoid getting hit if they are shrewd enough. And lastly, the melody will have a rank to determine how powerful the notes are. This is tied to the cast note that you use to cast your melody, but other notes can cause a melody’s rank to go up or down, such as [Powerful] and [Quicken]

And finally, Quicken and Powerful are getting an adjustment now that compose/cast times are more concrete. I know I said quicken would make melodies cast instantly, but what I had meant to say was that they would be composed instantly. My B.

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Powerful: Mana cost (0) The melody is twice as slow or takes longer to activate, but the effects are all stronger by a single rank. Quicken: Mana cost (0) The melody is twice as fast or quicker to activate, but the effects are all weaker by a single rank.

Powerful: Mana cost (0) The melody’s compose time is doubled, but the melody is stronger by a single rank. If two melodies would finish casting at the same time, the one with a Powerful note will always be a little slower. Can’t be used in a melody with the Quicken note. Quicken: Mana cost (0) The melody is composed instantly, but is weaker by a single rank. If two melodies would finish casting at the same time, the one with a Quicken note will always be a little faster. Can’t be used in a melody with the Powerful note.

Time for that Summon rework huh? Hopefully the new tech, lower mana cost, and better explanation of its capabilities will make them more useful in combat. Craft will be getting a little love later on, but this should be a marked improvement for summons.

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Summon: Mana cost (4) Creates a minion who can fight on the esper’s behalf. They are made out of their element, and while they can’t cast melodies they are capable of manipulating simple machinery(pushing buttons on controllers, actions that require low precision/reflexes) and fighting. They are stronger than humans but their fighting abilities are weak when compared to an esper. The grade of their weapons and defenses are equal to the grade of the note used to create them.

Summon: Mana cost (2) Creates a minion who can fight on the esper’s behalf. Minions can be the size of an adult human, twice as big, or half the size. All of their non-stat attributes are relative to a human scaled up or down depending on if the summon was made larger or smaller than an adult human. IE: A summon twice as big as a human has double the reach and strength a human would have, regardless of what form it takes. They are capable of following simple commands, such as “flip that switch” or “protect the cargo”. Their fighting abilities are weak when compared to an esper, but can hold their own against monsters that aren’t smart enough to work around them. The grade of their weapons and defenses are equal to the grade of the note used to create them, and any damage they deal is arcane. Minions can only fight in melee, but they can use tools such as weapons made with the Craft note. Additionally, notes used along with a Summon note can instead imbue the minion created with the melody, allowing it to use any effect note it’s been imbued with on touch a single time. Minions cannot be imbued with modification notes.

Purify and Dispel: Demystified! Also they will now weaken negative effects with the possibility of removing them completely.

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Purify: Mana cost (6) Removes debuffs and negative effects caused by physical/chaotic afflictions, such as tear gas or a poisonous breath attack. Effects must be equal to or weaker than the rank of the melody to be removed. Will not heal wounds, fix physical afflictions, or unbind magical constructs such as those created with a restrain note. Dispel: Mana cost (6) Removes positive magical effects from a target. If the target is a magical construct, it will be destroyed instead. Effects/constructs must be equal to or weaker to the rank of the melody for it to work.

Purify: Mana cost (6) Weakens or removes negative effects caused by physical/chaotic afflictions, such as tear gas or a poisonous breath attack. Physical effects are weakened by 25/40/55/70/85/100% at rank E/D/C/B/A/S respectively. Chaotic effects are ranked down 0/1/2/3/4/5 steps at rank E/D/C/B/A/S respectively. If an effect would be ranked below E rank, it is removed instantly. Purify will not heal wounds, and can only remove a single effect on each target it hits, caster’s choice. Dispel: Mana cost (6) Weakens or removes arcane effects or unbinds arcane constructs. Arcane effects/constructs are ranked down 0/1/2/3/4/5 steps at rank E/D/C/B/A/S respectively. If an effect would be ranked below E rank, it is removed instantly. Dispel will not heal wounds. If trying to remove arcane effects, dispel can only remove a single effect on each target it hits, caster’s choice.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Nyxia claims to hate me, but I seem to be on her mind a lot!”

— Suki Oyama

This was not a surprise.

Suki would forgive anyone that thought Roche was leader material. She was the track team captain and Rei’s right hand. Neither of those positions could be filled by someone without some leadership abilities. Though in her time observing Roche, the blood witch had realized that she only really had one quality that made her a leader of any kind, and that was that she ordered people around a lot. That might have worked for the track club, but Suki found it a little disappointing. Moreso that she felt like she had to put her special leadership powers at work here on the beach as well.

Yes, Suki thought. Go on, tell me what I should be doing. Task me with finding a place to set up a parasol and towels, keep Tsubomi busy too. Then run for the sea and swim with Nyxia. Because the only reason why any of us are here is to support your fetishized megalomania. Did you forget what you told me on the mountain? You said this was going to be fun, but perhaps it was only supposed to be fun for you?

Nobody was even in a swimsuit. Roche and Nyxia were transformed, and Tsubomi didn’t look like she had the ambition to change into anything interesting before coming. Suki could have put herself in a swimsuit, but there was no point. Nobody around her could see her, and the ones that could had no interest in doing anything with her. For once, the feeling may have been mutual.

Suki wondered why Unstoppable Doom decided to run into the great blue. She had a hard time believing Nyxia would do it for any other reason than to find a Miseria, but it was the wrong time of day. While it wasn’t impossible to find them in the middle of the day, night was when they liked to come out and play. That was why they usually did midnight hunts back in town. Perhaps the idea was just to get some lonely time, which Suki could respect. Only she was doing that back in the forest when Roche found her.

She didn’t know what she was doing, but she definitely wasn’t going to do what was asked of her. Even “scared of authority” Tsubomi had enough self respect to not become Roche’s tool. At least if Tsubomi was this lax about Roche’s wishes, it meant that this entire thing really was Roche’s idea and didn’t have Rei’s stink on it. Not that any of that really mattered. Roche begged Suki to come, so she was going to do everything in her power to have as much fun as she could.

But what did she feel like doing?

They say to let sleeping dogs lie, but Suki was feeling a bit mischievous. The volleyball game was in play, with the ball being passed from side to side in nice slow movements. Nobody was trying to score a point, they just wanted to bat the ball back and forth. But an unseen skater on crimson blades flew across the beach to the net’s location. When the volleyball was at the top of its arc, Suki dove above the net and gave the ball a solid kick. It screamed through the air on its way to Tsubomi’s head. Oros’s face was frozen in glee, anticipating the satisfying smack the ball would make against her partner’s head.