BrokenPromise

Symphony on High

It had been quiet for the past few days, but Faith didn’t mind. Being Fritzi’s gopher wasn’t exactly stimulating. This was more so when Binky returned and had resumed her role as the doctor’s right hand. But today was going to be exciting because someone new was going to be joining the squad. She waited by a pair of double doors until a woman with long black hair stepped through them. Faith immediately greeted the stranger and tried not to be too weird.

”You must be the new girl! I’m sorry but I don’t think anyone told me your name. It wouldn’t happen to be Hildie by any chance would it? You kind of look like a Hildie.” Hildie was a name she had always liked the sound of. Perhaps in a past life she had known someone by that name. Surely it wasn’t unusual to mention it here.

"Uh, everyone calls me Raven." The woman kept her hands in her pockets. "Is everyone on a first name basis around here?"

”Yup!You can call me Faith!” She extended her hand. ”We’re entrusting our lives to each other, so it makes sense to be as familiar as we can with our peers. You wouldn’t happen to be into anime, would you? Because if you ever watched One Piece, Luffy says 'nakama' a lot, which has a very special meaning to him. It’s usually used to title a friend or peer, but to him it goes beyond normal friendship. It’s like a true comrade who you can trust your back to no matter what! And I think all of us being on a first name basis creates a similar level of trust for each other, you know?” Oh yes, Faith knew she was nailing this greeting! There was no way someone could feel uncomfortable with her opening up to them like that.

"...Right." Raven shook Faith’s hand. "Is Fritzi or Ashley around?"

”Fritzi is around, but she told me that it would be a moment before she could see you. Very important business. Ashley was suppose to greet you but um, you’re here really early!” Ashley was actually preparing for the next big mission and Faith felt like she could handle taking in a new agent without bothering her.

Raven snorted. "I’m just supposed to wait here then?"

”Not at all!” Faith chirped. ”She instructed me to take you to the training room so that we can evaluate your performance! It’s something Fritzi does for all, erm, most of the new hires. It’s like in One Punch man where all the heroes need to go through a test to get ranked so that-”

With a snap, a swirl of feathers blew around Raven’s body. Her outfit changed, as did her hair and stature. She was in her esper form now. Her look could best be described as a japanese school girl posing as a secret agent. Though her outfit was all black, save for her stockings and some of the effects she wore.

"I’m ready."

Faith looked over the esper. ”Oh wow! You look really stylish! Ashley also has a colored visor like that when she transforms. If there were a bunch of you then maybe you could be like power rangers! Like they’re this group of people with different colored outfits, so you have a red ranger, a blue ranger, a black ranger, and a yellow and pink ranger. But then there’s also an extra ranger sometimes, like the green ranger, or the silver ranger. They do lots of martial arts and have these big machines that combined to form a-”

…

…

…

”...But even if we can’t get a squad like that, I think it’s nice that everyone is different anyway. It lets everyone be their own unique selves.”

"...Agreed."

”Your outfit says ‘paradise’ on it in several spots, what’s that about?”

After hearing Faith talk at length, Raven seemed more eager to talk about herself. "Well, my name is Raven, but my cal-sign is ‘Bird of Paradise’. It often gets shortened to Paradise."

”That’s such a pretty name!”

"Thank you, b-but I’d really like to prove my worth in the doctor’s trial."

”It’s still being set up. That said, I’m sure you’ll do fine.”

"I have no doubt."

During their exchange, Mika walked up to them and waited for a break in their conversation. "Bird of Paradise? Like the Greater loppery-nah from the Superb Bird of Paradise family?"

"Why, yes, you are correct about that. The ones that do the silly dance?"

"Yes, the silly dance…" Something that Faith found strange about Mika was how dower she seemed. She felt like she was looking down on the new recruit. "They do the silly dance when they want to mate. It’s hard to do because there are a lot more guys than girls. They need to work extra hard to win the girl’s heart." She pointed at Raven’s outfit. "Those colors? That’s what the guys wear."

"Oh, well, you know, is that a problem? Because us espers don’t really-" But Mika was already walking away before Raven could get another word in. "...get to choose how we look."

”But they are rumored to represent our ideal self and innermost desires!” Faith added, like it was the most helpful thing anyone could have said.

"How about, you just show me the training room? I think it would be better if I waited there."

…

…

…



@Ponn@Majoraa

It was a horrible day for a drive.

If you were a normal person, the TV would be going on about two massive hurricanes headed straight for Pax Septimus. If you were an esper, you knew it was two behemoths that needed to be stopped at all cost. The Diver incident happened almost a month ago, and the city couldn’t survive if it kept taking shots like that from these oversized monsters. The situation became more complex when you figured in everything else that was going on at GEMINI. If there was a mole in their ranks, then their chance of success was already lower than it should have been.

Fortunately, Mika planned on doing something about it. Instead of having everyone join up at HQ, she offered to pick everyone up in her mother’s van. Anything they might need was in the back, giving them no reason to stop back at the police station. Mika’s plan was to get everyone together and share what she had learned. Maybe some of them had noticed something and could help her figure out who the mole is. The quicker they figure it out, the faster they can stop agents like Angelie from dying. Or at least slow down the rate at which they die.

---

@Vertigo@The World@Nakushita

If GEMINI was going to try to slay the trains, then Maverick Alternative was going to save them.

But that didn’t mean that they were going to let them destroy the city either. Maverick Alternative wept no tears for the Diver, but there was something strange about two powerful monsters uniting in the city of blood. They couldn’t be here just for the mana. What was their purpose for coming together now?

Maverick’s monsters were scrambling, but it was clear what the espers had to do: Investigate the trains and see if they could figure out why it was here. That would have been difficult in the past, but now?

Now they had a golden dragon to act as a mount. It sat atop a parking garage, wings spread, waiting for its passengers to board. Boteg had a silly little grin on his face as he waited for his passengers to arrive. He knew he was going to take up Ciri and a few freelancers, who should be arriving any moment. The other Maverick espers had other responsibilities, but would be cruising around the city on their bikes and leading the monsters. Amanda was still not ready to fight, and that was probably for the best. Things could get messy if they came in contact with GEMINI espers this operation.

The dragon’s tail swept side to side, eyes peeled for the espers as they were to arrive.

---

@TaintedMushroom@Kero

Raphael was not someone who liked to be idle. Though he also understood that patience was a virtue worth having. He had the Bates on his side, and hopefully more freelancers would join him shortly.

He waited for the freelancers outside a small chapel. It was one of the few left in the historic district, and while not as large as St Bianchi Church, it may have been older. Its white stonework had turned brown and dark over the decades, and was probably in need of a good pressure washing. The windows and front door were still a brilliant red, likely because they had been refinished recently. The striking colors were at odds with every other building that surrounded it, which all had a more modern art deco flourish.

The small building only further complemented the holy esper’s wide frame. While he waited for the freelancers to show up, he drew a bible from his coat and began to read about the great flood.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"When you’re low on fuel, you just need to go to a gas station to top up!”

— Suki Oyama

When the lazer struck its target, blood was launched in all directions. Suki’s body soared among the flying droplets and rolled across the beach. All of the bystanders, which was most of the beach, was splattered with blood. Once the first few pedestrians recovered from the lazer shot, the air was filled with screams as the victims ran for their lives. That was before Acid Drop’s magic kicked in, which raised the level of fear to a point of utter hysteria. Sand wasn’t an amazing medium for an earthquake, but Roche’s stomps did cause most of those nearby to stumble as they were blasted with shifting sands.

In the coming days, the news would report on a freak storm that ruined a sand sculpture exhibit. The shaky ground and “lightning bolt” would be attributed to a freak storm, and the bloodstains would be explained away as little more than copper stained water For now though, everyone was living inside a nightmare where sculptures could explode into fountains of blood. Parents searched for their children, children cried for their parents, the young ran and some of the old passed out due to fright. Even those that hadn’t gathered were driven to fear as the cries of the masses brought about their animalistic urges to flee.

Maybe some of the dark magical girls delighted in this display of panic, but what of their reward?

For all the effort that had gone into it, there were no large changes. No darkening sky, no change in the waves, not even a stir of dark energy. The cries of panic continued, but that was all.

Suki was a full octopus now. She had eight bloody tentacles that dragged her across the beach. Being hit by two high powered attacks back to back didn’t make for the most pleasant beach going experience. She opened her mouth to speak, but all that came out was some blood. There were burns that went from the back of Suki’s head to the base of her back, and she was half bald from the effects of the death ray. Everything hurt, and the sand only agitated her wounds as it worked its way into her charred flesh.

Then it happened. In broad daylight, miseria started to crawl out of the sea. Not super mega ultra miseria, but the regular variety that they had encountered so many times by now. But there were a lot of them. Was this all of them, or merely the first wave of something much stronger? The entire beach was lined with them, and more were coming out. None of the hunts in Hibusa town had been nearly this big, but how often did dark magical girls go to the beach to hunt negative emotions?

Not only were they more numerous, but they were more focused as well. The black swarms barrelled towards the beach goers, their black bodies tumbling through the sand like bags of garbage rolling down a hill.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Y'all don't get paid to think very much, do ya? That's okay, neither do I!”

— Suki Oyama

The harebrained plan that Roche had laid out was starting to shape up. But much like the mass of sand Suki was "sculpting," it was unclear if the new additions were building up to something good, or more disappointment.

Nyx's requests were a little on the questionable side. Suki never thought very much about how exactly any of the other girl's magics worked, and the it was clear that nobody really knew the nuances of how it all worked. Suki couldn't make "tons of blood" as Nyxia had requested, as every drop had to come out of her own body. She could certainly bleed a lot more than most people, but there was a reason why, even when significantly harmed, she had never tried to turn her blood into a tank or anything much larger than her tendrils. Blood, hers specifically, was the medium that her weapon allowed her to manipulate. Her magic was touch-based emotion manipulation. Though onlookers would be forgiven for thinking that her blood tendrils were a form of magic that she employed. The best thing she could do to meet Nyxia's demands was to continue building a large sculpture and place herself inside it. Once Suki gathered enough sand, she moved to the top of her creation and started to wall herself inside of it.

Then Acid Drop added her emotion magic to her blood. Suki was a resilient magical girl, so she didn't fly into a panic. This was another situation where Suki didn't fully understand how Acid Drop functioned. She didn't want to use her stored up emotions, but apparently she could still use her magic to change emotions. Was it like two separate systems, with one running on collected emotions and the other using her mana? Resistant as Suki might be, the dread and panic of Acid Drop's magic worked its way into her mind, making her worry about the success of the plan.

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

”Oh dayum, it got worse...”

— Mac Ashley

Mac was never going to be able to blend into this new group like a harmless wallflower, but it was still “impressive” how she seemed to attract the very “worst” members of the group to her side. Before she could respond to Gaia and Connie, Lily appeared like a pokemon in the tall grass. It was practically a jump scare.

“B-Boulderon?” Mac could never get that name right, and neither could Ashley. “Ah, but you must have mistaken me for someone else. Because I’m certain you didn’t see me at Boulderon.” There were light girls present, so Mac had to be extra careful in how she chose her words. She wasn’t entirely clear on how light magic worked, but what she had said was certainly the truth. Lily had not seen Mac or Ashley at Bolorton, as far as she knew. When she did appear, it was as Suwako.

Her eyes started to glaze over as Lily nerded out in Esper Faith style, only to be saved when some critters came to her rescue. If there was a time to feel like a Disney princess, it was now.

But there was still plenty to worry about. The ascendancy arrived, and who knew what sort of reality, rule, or world breaking powers they brought along with them. That, and she just didn’t trust them.

And because the questionable ally quota hadn’t been met yet, Justine decided to show up with her murder hobo kid sister. There was no point in protesting though. It would be like telling a Karen that maybe taking her screaming child into a movie theater was inconsiderate to everyone else there. Besides, they were former co-workers. That was a can of worms Mac would rather not open.

The waiting game continued.

unconventional, and possibly taboo, idea

The closest I got to doing the above proposed idea was taking a world that a friend and I built together, used our old RP as lore, and then spin a new tale with new people right over it.

I think it would be okay to do something like that, but I don't know why you would. I can understand the appeal of taking an unfinished but beloved story and breathing life into it, but isn't that unfair to your partner? I know I wouldn't want to be saddled with a bunch of expectations for how my character should behave, which is the main reason I don't play many fandom RPs. And would it be worth the effort for me to read everything about your RP just to have you flake on me when I don't meet your expectations? Even so, nobody is going to write or have the exact same ideas as your old partner. But perhaps if you understand that it's not going to be the same, it wouldn't be a horrible thing to try.

Also editing this to congratulate the OP for having a thread title that makes it seem like an RP idea that's posted in the wrong section.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"I agree with Nyx! J-Just not the bit about me always thinking about sex!_{Sometimes I think about eating sweets.}”

— Suki Oyama

Roche might as well have said "Yes" for how unconvincingly she deflected Suki's rhetorical comment on her antics, but chose to not focus on that in the moment. There was a plan to appraise.

The plan wasn't all bad. Parts of it could be salvaged, others needed to be reworked, and a lot could be omitted entirely. "Welp, I think I got bringing them together covered. They don't need to see me, they just need to be impressed.” Suki rolled up her sleeves, which was just her blood. "I'm sure you guys will have a solution for converting them all before I'm done.” She wasn't, but someone had to seem sure of themselves.

A child grieved for his destroyed castle, that an invisible jealous nymphomaniac charged through just a few minutes ago. But the boy dried his tears when he noticed the ruins of his castle moved. The sand swirled and... Blood? No, mud curled around the sandy remains and rolled it into a perfect ball. The ball then rolled down the beach, slowly growing in size before coming to a halt. The boy examined the ball, which was big enough that it reached his waist. Only to realize that there was another such ball rolling from the other side of the beach. It stopped right next to the other one, and a little girl had chased it to its resting place.

Sand wasn't a great building medium, but if one was to use it, they needed to get the water mixture right. Too dry and it would flake apart, too wet and it would wash away. It took Suki a few tries, but she eventually discovered a combination that worked. She was invisible, rolling up balls of sand with just enough water to keep things solid.

Balls rolling across the beach might have impressed the children for all but a few seconds, but the teenagers were starting to take notice. Eventually Suki had enough sand together that she could start sculpting something. She began to mold the balls of sand, slice them apart, stick them back together. As her sculpture grew, more people took notice of it. Some pulled out their phones to take pictures of the magical sand sculpture.

...But it would never truly be complete. Suki didn't have any idea what she was making, and didn't have the kind of fidelity with her powers to make something as precise as a sand sculpture. Getting balls to roll across the beach was hard enough. But as the sculpture grew, got details, and lost details, it was getting attention.

But it wasn't going to scare the gathered crowd. That was something the rest of the girls were going to have to do.

5v5 3Dark vs Bolts

So it's a 5v4 right now, gotcha.

5v5 3Dark vs Bolts

Guys tell me what is going on, I need deets.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Oh, the iron E!”

— Suki Oyama

Of course Nyx would assume that “trap” somehow meant that Suki wanted to personally violate everyone on the beach. Any other day Oros would take the insult with a smile, not because she deserved it, but because the only way to get Nyx to play nice. But Oros wasn’t feeling so charitable today. More than that, Nyx had said something else that really pissed her off.

There was no time to talk though, not before Acid Drop clapped back with facts and logic. Even if she was still upset with Tsubomi, it was more than a little cathartic to see her shoot down Nyxia with a controlled response. As much as Acid Drop’s condition confounded her, it was easy to appreciate how being emotionally distant from the situation was useful to her. Oros could ignore insults, but Acid Drop was immune to them.

But hadn’t she just complemented her umbrella? Was it possible to appreciate such things without a sense of art, or was Acid Drop more impressed with the practical use of her magic?

It didn’t matter. While Oros wasn’t feeling very Suki-esque today, it seemed like Roche decided to take point as the emotionally vulnerable one. It was weird to see the cruel, stringent rule keeper getting so emotional. At least, that wasn’t how Oros had remembered her. While Oros wasn’t in the mood for coddling anyone right now, maybe she’d try a little bit of Tsubomi’s rationality and suppress her urge to be bitter. With a groan, she turned to Roche.

"We are a group, Bed Shaker. You and Nyx are Unstoppable Doom, Rainbow and I are Endless Ecstasy. Was there ever anything else?” She twirled her umbrella for extra flair. "I certainly wouldn't know it! We failed to take down a single dark magical brat, then you dragged us out here so that we could all have ‘fun.’ Fun, as you define it, is having Endless Ecstasy prepare the beach while Unstoppable Doom ventures into the sea. I had suspected that you might be trying to get some lonely time with Nyx, but given your obsession with this miseria summoning ritual, I have to assume what you really intended to do was get stronger without us.” She tapped her chin. "Or maybe you still are trying to shake beds? And helping Nyx get stronger is simply a means to an end? What am I suppose to think?!”

Oros reached an arm around Acid Drop and pulled her closer, her eyes flicked over to Nyxia. "Rainbow isn't 'fucking useless.' If she was, you wouldn't be asking for her help. And she certainly wouldn't be my best friend. I can say that even though she's immune to my charms. But if I wanted an orgy, I could have one with anyone else any time I wanted. I don’t find the sand’s texture pleasing anyway!” That was a lie. Anyone who was in contact with Oros for more than a few kisses would pass out and be quite unable to do anything, but Nyxia didn’t have intimate knowledge of her powers, or that she wasn’t into sleeping people.

"So Bed Shaker.” Oros took a step, only end up stumbling and using her umbrella and Acid Drop to stay upright. "You want us to become ‘Unstoppable Endless Ecstasy of Doom’ _{name pending}? I could do that, but you need to talk to us. None of this running around without telling anyone what you’re doing. So let’s start by hearing your plan.”

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

"It’s all fun and games until an eldritch avatar has a glow up."

— LoC

While Rose and Iris started to come to terms with their predicament, the innermost part of the seed had only just started to dissolve. Its primary effect had been triggered, and the two of them were subjected to its effects. They could feel themselves drifting off, de-tethering from their bodies. They bat their eyes, but before they could get them closed, their consciousness were flung into the far reaches of the omniverse, flying past worlds like a wayward comet. But they did not experience the wonders of interdimensional travel. It was over in an instant, and they had been separated from all of their memories.

They had effectively been reborn in another world.

But first, a detour.

…

…

…

Rose and Iris awoke. They did not know their names, nor that they were a single entity again. But that was of little concern with the world ending.

Fenrir had opened his mouth wide. his lower jaw cleaved a canyon through the earth. He smashed through mountains, drained oceans, and set the world alight with volcanic eruptions. The upper half of his jaw ripped through the clouds and ethereal blue sky, leaving a black tear in its wake. Black ooze seeped out of the wound and burned as it fell to earth as meteors. Hundreds of magical girls rushed to Odin’s defense, but it was in vain. This battle had been foretold, and Fenrir would not die before it ended humanity and took Odin’s life.

Ragnarok had begun.

There was nothing they could do. They, no, she was naught but a lone girl in a torn dress, powerless to do more than observe the incoming apocalypse. She stood before the vast ocean, watching ants try to stop an impossibly large wolf. There was no safety here.

She ran for the hills. A wicker basket hung from her arm, with berries and vegetables threatening to leap out with every step. Perhaps it was futile to look for safety, but in her mind she could survive if she outlasted the fires. Maybe in the forest she could find a cave and just hide there while the world burned. She looked over her shoulder. The ocean was draining, and rising lava was starting to take the waters place. The view of the distant battle was obscured by all the boiling steam. Even the world devouring wolf was invisible behind so much smoke. The grass was drying out. By the time Raven got to the forest, it was catching fire.

The air in the forest was getting warmer, but gradually. The thick canopy would keep things cool until the sky bled burning rocks on her. Then the forest would turn into a bonfire. There had to be a cave system somewhere. Some place that ran deep into the earth where she could be safe. The world was ending, many of the people in the world were ending, but they could rebuild if enough of them survived survive. But the world would never be what it once was.

In her frantic run for safety, she spotted something in the corner of her eye. A flash of red. She turned around and saw a poppy, pulled out of the ground like a weed and snapped in half. She sank to her knees and examined the flower.

As little as she could remember, she understood this flower had been important to her. It was a gift she had received during a chance encounter, and planted it with the help of her mother and sister. She had tended to it for years, protecting it from pests and the elements. It always grew right here, and it never spread. Now it was snapped in half, never to be whole again.

She bit her lower lip. A sadness she didn’t understand overtook her. Maybe it was the approaching calamity, but her tears couldn’t be held back. She grieved for the flower, thinking herself stupid for being upset over a plant that would die anyway. This was life, and plants come and left the world just like people do. But this did not put her at rest. She was paralyzed, unable to move past her grief, unable to understand it. Even as the air continued to warm, and the canopy leaves browned and burned up, she remained in place.

A hand reached for her shoulder. She lifted her head and looked to the stranger. A tall man with the face of a boy stood over her. His body flicked in and out of existence, like moving smoke or screen static. And when he spoke, it sounded like ten other voices were speaking with him.

"You’re not sad because the flower is dead. You’re sad because there’s nothing left but the memories."

The detour was complete, and their minds moved again.

…

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…

Pax Septimus, better known as the city of blood, had a lot of problems. That should have been evident to anyone who heard the city’s moniker, but the civilians were unaware of what was ruining their lives. Everything from the criminal underbelly to the most lucrative businesses and possibly the local government body were being controlled by monsters. Though the monster problem was somewhat nuanced. They were horrible, good for nothing crooks and murderers, but they were also planner entities that ate ambient mana. Human emotions release ambient mana into the atmosphere, and it never really went away. If monsters are allowed to eat the mana, then the level of ambient mana goes down. But if the monsters aren't allowed to feed, then that ensures stronger monsters show up for the growing feast, creating a vicious cycle. It wasn’t really a choice for her though. If monsters were harming innocent people, she’d kill as many as she had to, even if her adversaries would get stronger over time. Anyone from G.E.M.I.N.I (Government Esper and Monster Intelligence and Neutralization Initiative) would agree with her.

She walked down a long, metallic corridor. While most humans tended to rationalize away the supernatural, there was still a need to operate out of sight. The monsters would love nothing more than to strike while they were weak. G.E.M.I.N.I. HQ was hidden under a police station, which limited the number of people who had access to it. Give the right passphrase to the right clerk and you’re given free entry. After walking past a pair of double doors, she was greeted by an adorkable young woman who was just standing there with her arms crossed.

”You must be the new girl! I’m sorry but I don’t think anyone told me your name. It wouldn’t happen to be Hildie by any chance would it? You kind of look like a Hildie.”

That was, somehow, correct. "Uh, everyone calls me Raven." Hilde didn’t feel like sharing her name with this strange woman just yet, especially since she already knew it. "Is everyone on a first name basis around here?"

”Yup!You can call me Faith!” She extended her hand. ”We’re entrusting our lives to each other, so it makes sense to be as familiar as we can with our peers. You wouldn’t happen to be into anime, would you? Because if you ever watched One Piece, Luffy says 'nakama' a lot, which has a very special meaning to him. It’s usually used to title a friend or peer, but to him it goes beyond normal friendship. It’s like a true comrade who you can trust your back to no matter what! And I think all of us being on a first name basis creates a similar level of trust for each other, you know?”

"...Right." She shook Faith’s hand. "Is Fritzi or Ashley around?"

”Fritzi is around, but she told me that it would be a moment before she could see you. Very important business. Ashley was suppose to greet you but um, you’re here really early!”

Hildie snorted. "I’m just supposed to wait here then?"

”Not at all!” Faith chirped. ”She instructed me to take you to the training room so that we can evaluate your performance! It’s something Fritzi does for all, erm, most of the new hires. It’s like in One Punch man where all the heroes need to go through a test to get ranked so that-”

With a snap, a swirl of feathers blew around Raven’s body. Her outfit changed, as did her hair and stature. She was in her esper form now. Her look could best be described as a japanese school girl posing as a secret agent. Though her outfit was all black, save for her stockings and some of the effects she wore.

"I’m ready."

Faith looked over the esper. ”Oh wow! You look really stylish! Ashley also has a colored visor like that when she transforms. If there were a bunch of you then maybe you could be like power rangers!”

Hildie maintained her composure, but she did enjoy the complement, and that Faith didn’t feel the need to explain what the power rangers-

”Like they’re this group of people with different colored outfits, so you have a red ranger, a blue ranger, a black ranger, and a yellow and pink ranger. But then there’s also an extra ranger sometimes, like the green ranger, or the silver ranger. They do lots of martial arts and have these big machines that combined to form a-”

…

…

…

”...But even if we can’t get a squad like that, I think it’s nice that everyone is different anyway. It lets everyone be their own unique selves.”

"...Agreed."

”Your outfit says ‘paradise’ on it in several spots, what’s that about?”

Maybe Hilde was starting to open up to Faith, maybe she felt like talking after listening so much, but she took the opportunity to elaborate on her outfit. "Well, my name is Raven, but my cal-sign is ‘Bird of Paradise’. It often gets shortened to Paradise."

”That’s such a pretty name!”

"Thank you, b-but I’d really like to prove my worth in the doctor’s trial."

”It’s still being set up. That said, I’m sure you’ll do fine.”

"I have no doubt."

During their exchange, Mika walked up to them and waited for a break in their conversation. "Bird of Paradise? Like the Greater loppery-nah from the Superb Bird of Paradise family?"

Hilde was a little surprised that a teenage girl recognized such an obscure animal reference. "Why, yes, you are correct about that. The ones that do the silly dance?"

"Yes, the silly dance…" Something that Hilde found off putting about Mika was how dower she seemed. She felt like she was being looked down on like an insect, and that only intensified after she confirmed Mika’s suspicion. "They do the silly dance when they want to mate. It’s hard to do because there are a lot more guys than girls. They need to work extra hard to win the girl’s heart." She pointed at Hilde’s outfit. "Those colors? That’s what the guys wear."

"Oh, well, you know, is that a problem? Because us espers don’t really-" But Mika was already walking away before Hilde could get another word in. "...get to choose how we look."

”But they are rumored to represent our ideal self and innermost desires!” Faith added, like it was the most helpful thing anyone could have said.

"How about, you just show me the training room? I think it would be better if I waited there."

…

…

…

And then, Raven was pulled out of that foreign yet familiar mind. Her soul screamed as it was split into Rose and Iris once again, and they found themselves in the unfamiliar bodies they had recently inherited.