20/13|Male/Male|Reinforcement, Beast Mystic, Melee|Duplication, Tentacles|Deity Enhanced Sustenance, Awareness, Masculinity, Fated, Sorcery, Gifted, Absolute Direction Paragon, Blessing, Clergy, Mana Fount, Gifted Item Arrogance, Unknown, Loud, Big Brother
While Lily and Justine were upset seeing the snowman slowly turn into a snowman castle, Alexander had a different emotion; confusion "Since when were you guys capable of architectural engineering?" He asked Tim, who stared at him for a few seconds, before he went back to carving little lines in the outside on the snowman to make it look like it was built with snow bricks. "In fact, how are you keeping this thing stable?" he asked as he walked over to it and leaned down to look in the front entrance. "...You're actually bracing it with twigs..." He noted in disbelief. "Where did you guys learn to-" but he was interrupted by Lily
”Oh, Dan’s coming! Hurry, we gotta hide it and-" who herself was interrupted by the Dolphin.
”This is excellent! What a marvelous idea to make a snowman into a snow castle! Good work, you three!”
Alexander blinked in confusion for a few seconds before it hit him "Oh right, the contest. I kind of forgot about that."
”We weren’t disqualified, yes! Now come on, it’s ice ice baby!" Lily ran off into a portal that had just appeared
Alexander sighed as he got back up "You three are so weird" he said to Bob, who was currently digging a moat with his little bunny paws, as he walked through the portal himself, arriving just as Lily brought over a chunk of ice, along with the tools needed to shape it. While Lily started chatting up Justine again, Alexander noticed a block of ice that seemed to move on it's own. Taking a closer look, he noticed Tim dragging it with a piece of rope, towards the portal "...Screw it. It's not worth it" he sighed after thinking about what he just saw for a couple of seconds
”I know just what to do. Let’s make a group of tiny fruit bats clinging to a leaf! Or wait, we can make a sculpture of Tim, he’s cute too! Alex, what do you think?” Lily saying his name dragged his attention back to the girls, while his brain caught him up on the conversation they had had "If Justine want's bats, we can do bats. I don't have strong feelings either way. But if we do go with the 'bats on a leaf' plan, we might want to sketch out a design first, so that we're all on the same page."
20/13|Male/Male|Reinforcement, Beast Mystic, Melee|Duplication, Tentacles|Deity Enhanced Sustenance, Awareness, Masculinity, Fated, Sorcery, Gifted, Absolute Direction Paragon, Blessing, Clergy, Mana Fount, Gifted Item Arrogance, Unknown, Loud, Big Brother
'It's times like this that Lily feels less like a person, and more like some kind of force of nature.' Alexander thought to himself as the three of them watched the play 'All I had to do was bring Justine over to her, and boom, she got swept up into. Hurricane Lily indeed. I wonder if this is what charisma feels like?' He was brought out of his musings when he felt something on top of his head. "Huh?" He reached up to grab it, and brought it down to his face "Oh, it's just you Dave" Like he said; he was now holding a tiny and strangely calm owl in his hand "Where did the other two go?" Dave's response was just to blink at him "Right, dumb question. Let me just put you back" Alexander sighed as he returned Dave to the top of his head, who quickly proceeded to make himself comfortable.
Once the play ended, and the applause began, Dave flew away in a flash "The sudden noise must have startled him." he shrugged before turning to Lily and Justine "So now-" but Lily beat him to the punch as she took his hand
“Alright, let’s go!” Justine on the other hand was looking a little more hesitant. “You ok, Justy? You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”
”It’s just..." Justine fidgeted with her fingers. ”I haven’t apologized to you yet about what I-"
Lily interrupted her with a hand to her shoulder. ”Justine, I can already tell how you’ve changed, and how you want to make amends. I’m an expert on magical girls, so I know how these things go, tee hee~" Justine seemed a little confused, and before she could counter attack, Lily went in for the finisher ”So let’s skip all the boring stuff about you being sad and let’s go have fun already! Yaa-hoo!"
"It's too late to escape Justine; Hurricane Lily has already caught you. Trust me; I already tried, and have since given up." Alexander snarked Justine as Lily took the other girl's hand and dragged them off somewhere else.
That somewhere else turned out to be a field set aside for snowman building "Huh, come to think of it, I've never done this before. Kind of surprising now that I think about it, since making a snowman doesn't cost anything." Lily quickly proved herself an old hand at this, when she quickly prepped a snowball to form the body of the snowman. She then declared Justine in charge of making the head, and him decorations "Right, let me see. Sticks for arms...coal(?) for eyes and mouth...I think" He tried to think back to his vague memories of see snowmen on TV, while he wandered off in search of things to use for decorations "Or would any rocks work? Well...I mean, they'd have to be the right size I guess. Wait..." He stopped in his place "I'm a fucking idiot!" He held out his hand palm up, and a tiny circular barrier appeared in his hand "I can just use these"
He turned around to walk back to the girls, and almost walked face first into a huge snowball, one two to three times his own size "Gah!" He backed up to get a better look "What in the-Bob, Tim!" He froze upon seeing two very familiar animals atop it staring at him "Did you guys make this? What are you idiots even doing with a snowball this huge!? It's not even a snow 'ball' anymore, but a snow 'boulder'. Is Dave with you?" They just kept staring at him "Fuck it, just...do whatever" Alexander gave up and waved up the weirdness of his pets, and walked back to the girls. When he did, the two animals turned back to the strangely elaborate blueprint of a snow castle laying on top of their huge snowball, as Dave him landed dropping of some evergreen tree twigs, the pine needles still on, before going off to get more.
20/13|Male/Male|Reinforcement, Beast Mystic, Melee|Duplication, Tentacles|Deity Enhanced Sustenance, Awareness, Masculinity, Fated, Sorcery, Gifted, Absolute Direction Paragon, Blessing, Clergy, Mana Fount, Gifted Item Arrogance, Unknown, Loud, Big Brother
Alexander watched in confusion as a strange girl walked over and interrupted his conversation. 'Weirdo' he thought to himself as he watched her walk away.
”My past...I won’t let it shadow me. My future is mine to make. Do you agree, mister Alexander?"
Justine saying his name drew his attention back to her "I mean...yeah? I'll admit, I'm not the best one to talk to about stuff like that. My own past was really just that of an unwanted orphan, one among many. I'd like to think that it doesn't 'shadow me', but I can't really say that it hasn't shaped who I am today. Most of what I do in my free time is just all the stuff I always wanted to do back in the orphanage. I'm not sure if that means it's 'shadowing me' or not though." He put a quick barrier down in mid air. A small one for him to sit on "Although I probably don't have as much baggage in my past as you seem to, so I'm not sure if anything I have to say is of any use to you. Well that, and I'm not that great at talking to people in general. Hell, the only reason why Lily and I ever got as far as we have is because she's cheerful enough to just ignore my natural grumpiness."
He sighed, as he thought for a few seconds, before coming to a decision "Right, fuck it." He got back to his feet "I'm man enough to admit when I have no idea what I'm doing, and you clearly need some kind of help. So I'm breaking out my nuclear option and deploying a tactical Lily...fuck, did I really just say that?" He grabbed her wrist and dragged her towards Lily "Even if I can't say or do anything to cheer you up, I know someone who probably can. And if I just leave you alone, you'll probably just keep mopping all by yourself"
'And it'll leave a bad taste in my mouth if I just ignore someone like this on Christmas. I blame Lily for that' He added in his head. "Hey Lily, look who I found!" He called out to said girl
20/13|Male/Male|Reinforcement, Beast Mystic, Melee|Duplication, Tentacles|Deity Enhanced Sustenance, Awareness, Masculinity, Fated, Sorcery, Gifted, Absolute Direction Paragon, Blessing, Clergy, Mana Fount, Gifted Item Arrogance, Unknown, Loud, Big Brother
"Things are fine" Alexander answered Justine "We're dating now" He trailed off, suddenly remembering how bad he was at small talk. "I'm actually kind of amazed to see you here, considering you seem all alone. I know I wouldn't even have bothered if I didn't have Lily" Interrupting him, were his three animals, Bob and Tim rolling a slowly growing snowball around by running on top of it, with Dave flying close behind "Hey, Don't run into anyone you idiot!" He called out to the animals before sighing "Weirdos. Anyway, speaking of Lily, does she know you're here? I bet she'd be happy to see you. Which, granted, isn't saying much. But considering how down you look, I think you could use at least one person excited to see you."
20/13|Male/Male|Reinforcement, Beast Mystic, Melee|Duplication, Tentacles|Deity Enhanced Sustenance, Awareness, Masculinity, Fated, Sorcery, Gifted, Absolute Direction Paragon, Blessing, Clergy, Mana Fount, Gifted Item Arrogance, Unknown, Loud, Big Brother
"Sakura...you've got your dick back" Alexander found himself tearing up at the good fortune of the other guy (at last). "I just...I can't imagine how horrible it was to have had your gender changed like that." yet before he could celebrate with the other guy, things got a little heated...and then unheated thanks to a surprise appearance by Odin of all people. "Huh, Didn't see that coming"
Then something he was nervous about happened; Lily and Mariette met. 'I mean, I know I already talked to Mariette, but I still can't help but be worried.' Yet nothing happened. Mariette gave Lily a plush animal, Lily mad a dumb pun, and all was right with the world. Before getting his own plush, he let out a sigh of relief "Thanks. You look like you're doing much better" Alexander told Mariette as he got his own plush, a sheep (which Dave quickly claimed, for some reason)
Lily then started frolicking around talking to other people, excited at the prospect of Christmas events, and Alexander smiled 'Yeah, I don't know what I was worried about. It is Lily after all, even if people tried to ruin her Christmas, she'd find a way to fix that. She probably didn't even need me to talk to Mariette.' Being so out of his element, Alexander wasn't too sure what to do, so he just decided to take in the relaxing atmosphere...until he saw a face he really didn't expect to see 'Hang on, is that?' he started walking over to her, and the closer he got, the more sure he was "Justine? Wow, I never expected to see you here" There wasn't a trace of hostility of any kind in his voice, just confusion and genuine surprise
20/13|Male/Male|Reinforcement, Beast Mystic, Melee|Duplication, Tentacles|Deity Enhanced Sustenance, Awareness, Masculinity, Fated, Sorcery, Gifted, Absolute Direction Paragon, Blessing, Clergy, Mana Fount, Gifted Item Arrogance, Unknown, Loud, Big Brother
Alexander's first instinct upon seeing a strange portal in his home, and no Lily, was to panic. Until he remembered something "Oh right; Christmas." He let out a sigh of relief "Jeez, couldn't they give us a warning? I bet most people wouldn't react well to strange portals popping up in their home. Well, whatever" He shrugged as he walked through the portal-
---
-and into a winter wonderland "Geez, this place is unrecognizable! I'm kind of impressed." He looked around to take in the sights, when he suddenly saw three very familiar animals making a snowman. "Huh!? What the fuck are you guys doing here...and where did you get those hats!?" He asked, his mind suddenly registering the tiny Santa hats on them. The three of them stopped what they were doing to scamper over to Alexander. He sighed and kneeled down to them...which was when he noticed his own wardrobe adjustment. "What...? I look ridiculous" He took off one of the reefs...only for it to reappear on his head. He paused for a moment, took a deep breath in and out, and then smiled "Well guys, what say we go meet up with Lily before I'm overcome with the urge to mount a dolphin over my fireplace." He got back to his feet, and with his magical GPS, made his way over to Lily, animals in tow.
20/13|Male/Male|Reinforcement, Beast Mystic, Melee|Duplication, Tentacles|Deity Enhanced Sustenance, Awareness, Masculinity, Fated, Sorcery, Gifted, Absolute Direction Paragon, Blessing, Clergy, Mana Fount, Gifted Item Arrogance, Unknown, Loud, Big Brother
Alexander followed the direction which Absolute Direction took him in order to find Mariette. He found her location to be very stationary. Moving towards it, he found himself in a very ordinary looking street.
There were rows of townhouses, red in color, built in wood and brick, with white details, small gardens out front. Most of the houses looked decently abandoned, but this particular one was unchanged from a normal lifestyle. A car was parked out front. Lights were on. The garden was well-cared for. Smoke was coming out the chimney. Absolute Direction said Mariette was inside.
Taking a few deep breaths, Alexander tried to calm his nerves ‘Okay, now I just have to not fuck up. Easy, right?’ he thought with a wry grin. Walking up to the front door, he raised his hand to knock, froze, lowered his hand, slapped himself in the face, and then actually knocked
It took a couple of seconds, after which he could hear the sound of someone walking up to the door and then opening it. Alexander found himself face to face with a tall, bespectacled adult man, wearing a suit, peering down at him with an exceedingly neutral expression. The man adjusted his glasses.
‘Well? How may I help you?’ he asked, 100% cool.
‘Crap...’ Alexander panicked, suddenly wishing he had his helmet to hide his face. “I’m ah...looking for Mariette. Is...is she here?”
The man kept staring at Alexander for a short period of time… ‘Who are you? A friend of hers?’ he asked.
“My name is Alexander and-” he paused ‘Shit...what exactly are we?’ he wondered. However, since he was talking to someone right now, he couldn’t take too much time thinking about that “...I’m...not actually sure what we are to each other. I mean, we know each other, but beyond that I’m not really sure.”
The man kept looking at Alexander, analyzing him, before finally… ‘Perhaps you’ve come at a good time. Mariette’s in the room up the stairs and to the left. Don’t try anything,’ he said, adjusting his glasses and then turning around and walking back to the kitchen, which was to the right by the stairs, from which a sweet smell and the sound of cooking came from. He left Alexander to enter on his own.
When the strange man left, Alexander let out a sigh of relief ‘Well, so far so good.’ He followed his direction up the stairs and to the left, and after a few seconds to gather his nerves before knocking ‘I’m so out of my element here. I can’t even remember the last time I had to do something like this.’
It took around four seconds, then there was a sound of movement on the other side of the door after he knocked. The steps approached the door, and it opened. The room beyond was a modestly sized bedroom with three beds, and the one who opened the door was a young, blonde, modestly normal-looking girl in glasses, staring at him with a surprised gaze and slightly open mouth.
‘Alex…?’ a confused untransformed Mariette asked.
When the girl opened the door, it occurred to Alexander that he didn’t have any idea what Mariette looked like untransformed. Fortunately, her voice was the same, so once she said his name, he was sure he had the right person “Yeah, hi. Listen, I think you know me well enough to know that...well...I’m not really good at social interactions. So if I say or do something that hurts or offends you, it’s probably just me being a dumbass. If I want to offend someone, then I make sure that there’s no confusion about it. I just thought I should get that out of the way first. Anyway, I’m...here to to talk about Lily.”
Mariette stood silently for a bit, still looking a bit confused. But eventually, she nodded. ‘Alright. Come in,’ she said, walking over to sit down in one of the beds, grabbed the quilt and wrapped herself in it. She momentarily freed one hand to adjust her glasses. ‘What about her?’
If Alexander wanted to sit, there was a separate table with chairs in here as well. There were shelves with a variety of comics, movies and a TV with video games attached to it in here, but none of it looked like it had been used in quite a long time.
Taking a seat on one of the chairs “Right. So, I realize that you’re probably still upset about how that war at your old home went, and what Lily did. But-” he paused, struggling to find the right words “Look, things were getting pretty fucked up right at the end. I don’t remember a lot about what went on, mostly because of how much of a chaotic mess it was. But I do know Lily. You might have forgotten, but we came to your place to confirm if you were actually being brainwashed or not, but with a war starting right as we got there...well...we never really got the chance.”
Feeling a little antsy, Alexander adjusted himself in the chair “I’m not sure what convinced her to act when she did...but I do remember seeing...I think she calls herself Ronin now, the person who told about you being brainwashed. Granted, I’m not sure how much of an expert Ronin is on brainwashing. But considering that she used to work for you, and her twin sister still works for you, I feel it’s safe to say that if she wasn’t being brainwashed at the time, then she’s probably right. I guess what I’m trying to say is; Lily wouldn’t have done that if she didn’t think it was what was best for you. Was she right? Fuck if I know, but she’s not really good at backstabbing people, she doesn’t have the right mentality for it. I get the feeling that she might act more cheerful then she actually feels, but it’s less deception and more fake it till you make it-and I’m rambling. Dammit!” Alexander cupped his face in his hands for a few seconds before turning back to Mariette “Am I making any sense here?”
Mariette blinked a little as Alexander started talking, and she realized what this was about. She listened, but around the time where he mentioned that Ronin used to work for her and about Ronin’s twin sister, Mariette hung her head a bit, raising a hand out of her quilt entrapment to her mouth, because she started to giggle a little. It was just… kinda funny to her.
‘If… if you’d come and told me this just after the battle, things would have gone very differently…’ she said, still giggling a bit, because it was funny. ‘I… I’m not angry at Lily or anything. I’d have to be angry at an awful lot of people if I did…’ she said, and then… she sighed. ‘People have told me I was brainwashed, yes. They’re also saying I’m not brainwashed anymore. I don’t know. I don’t really feel any different. That’s a lie. I feel aimless and confused. I liked having a clear goal. It made everything easier. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now…’ she said, tightening the warm duvet around her. Bunny probably sat next to her on the nightstand.
At the mention that she wasn’t angry at Lily, Alexander slouched in relief “Oh thank sweet fuck. Wait-” it was then that the rest of what she said hit him “’Not brainwashed anymore’? What happened”
‘…’ Mariette kept quiet for a bit, then… ‘I really shouldn’t be talking about it. If any other of Asengav’s champions catch wind, they’ll have me recaptured and make all Ronin’s work be for nothing,’ she said, somewhat more quietly. ‘But… they caught me. Then, they did their thing, and then they told me what happens next is up to me. My choice. Because apparently everything before now was me acting according to my brainwashing. So I’m supposed to decide what to do myself now… and I find myself… completely aimless. Asengav’s still my patron, but… my mind is now my own again, apparently…’ she said, sounding less than happy about it.
“Oh. That’s-” Alexander paused, not entirely sure what to say. Was it good that her mind was free, or bad that she felt aimless and was in danger of getting re-brainwashed by her patron “...well. First off, do you still want your current Patron? I mean, why did you even make a contract with him in the first place?”
Mariette, who’d been looking down at the floor during what she’d said, turned her head to peer at him. She took a second to decide what to answer. ‘… Asengav saved my life. My father was a-’ she shuddered from the mere memory. ‘… not a good father. Asengav rescued me. I thought I was doing everything out of gratitude for that… but apparently not…?’ she said, the last part sounding unsure. ‘I… I don’t know…’ was her true answer if she wanted him or not.
‘Well that was a bust’ Alexander thought. “My Patron only gave me magic because I’m apparently the last descendant of his original worshipers. He doesn’t have any short term goals beyond killing monsters, and he seems to think I’ll accomplish his long term goals on my own, or something. He was kind of coy about that, in a sort of ‘ wink wink nudge nudge’ kind of way. So as long as I killed monsters and wasn’t evil, he didn’t really care what I did. So I didn’t really have any kind of driving goal at first either”
Then he sighed, and began to talk again “I grew up in an orphanage. It wasn’t like one of those comically horrible places on TV, but I spent my childhood without any of the toys or luxuries that other kids had. So when I got magic, the first thing I did was work on fixing that. I got my own house, TV, video games, any kind of food I wanted, all that stuff. For a long time, my goal was getting to enjoy the things I never got to have as a kid. The magic part of my life was really more of a day job to be honest. So, I think it’s okay that you don’t really have any kind of driving goal right now.”
He turned to look at her stuffed rabbit “You like stuffed animals right? Maybe you can start with that. Just go out and fight monsters enough to help keep the streets clean. But if you need some kind of passion to get you through life, you could try collecting stuffed toys. It doesn’t even have to be stuffed toys. Just find some kind of hobby, or thing that makes you happy, and go after that. Just because you have magic powers, doesn’t mean you have to save the world. You don’t need some grand cause to put your all behind, you can treat the whole magic thing like a simple 9-5 if that’s what works for you. But if you’re still having trouble finding something, well, I’m sure you have friends you could help you. I...know I’m not the best person to talk to about this.”
Mariette looked curiously at Alexander as he spoke. She considered it, and leaned her head forward again to stare down onto the floor. ‘… Bunny’s special to me. I’m not that interested in collecting more… but I understand. I just… need to find something, I guess…’ she said, still not particularly sure.
‘Shit, I don’t think this is working! What do I do now!?’ Alexander panicked internally “Well, think back to before you had magic; was there anything you wanted to do, or have that your father wouldn’t allow?”
‘Um…’ Mariette thought back on her very limited amount of memories from her time before she was a magical girl. They were… not pretty. ‘I wanted… to take more trips with mom. I wanted to be allowed outside the house. I wanted to… stop father from coming home?’ somehow, that didn’t sound right.
‘Dammit, I am not equipped for this. I barely have my own shit together!’ Alexander sighed “Okay, it’s becoming clear that I’m not the right person for you to talk to. I’m not great with people in general, and make for a pretty poor therapist. So here’s what you’re going to do; I want you to reach out to any friend you have that you can trust, and let them know what’s going on. Have them help you find a hobby or something. It sounds like your childhood might have been as shitty as mine, so you probably never got a chance to really be a kid. Well, now’s your chance. And I’m sure you know tons of girls who would love to help you have a childhood, and do girl stuff with. You just...need to reach out to them. It’s okay to ask for help when you’re feeling lost.”
‘… Okay,’ Mariette nodded, albeit she wasn’t entirely sure what “having a childhood” entailed at this time. She remained wrapped in her duvet. Still… ‘Thank you, for trying.’
Not sure what else to say, Alexander nodded. He got up, and walked to the door. Right before he exited, he turned his head back her and said “Try and take care Mariette.” And then he left
Mariette didn’t do anything to stop him, and simply nodded at his words, looking a bit downcast where she remained in her bed wrapped in the covering. Alexander opened the door, and-
and there stood the man in glasses and a suit, holding a plate of pancakes.
‘Oh, are you leaving? You won’t be having pancakes with us?’ the man asked, with the same expression as before.
‘Yeah...no. This is way too awkward.’ Alexander thought to himself “Sorry, but I was just here for a quick visit. I already have other plans” He lied out of his ass.
‘Very well, then. Thank you, for coming to check on Mariette. It’s never happened before,’ the man said kindly with a nod, before going into Mariette’s room to place the pancakes near her bed, while Alexander probably left.
Alexander simply nodded ‘It hasn’t, huh? That’s actually kind of sad’ And with nothing else in his way, he finally left.
Admittedly, Joe left out the part where Mariette hadn’t even been here for multiple months (longer than the timeskip), so perhaps if she’d stayed with him for longer then perhaps someone would have come to check on her while she was with him, but as far as he knows, anyway.
20/13|Male/Male|Reinforcement, Beast Mystic, Melee|Duplication, Tentacles|Deity Enhanced Sustenance, Awareness, Masculinity, Fated, Sorcery, Gifted, Absolute Direction Paragon, Blessing, Clergy, Mana Fount, Gifted Item Arrogance, Unknown, Loud, Big Brother
“I still say it’s crazy that there’s enough civilians left in this shithole to kidnap” Alexander grumbled from his place behind Lily on her motorcycle “Can they not even see how fucked up this place is? I mean sure, it’s getting better, but it still looks like a shithole”
The two of them had accepted a bounty to discover the reason behind the mass disappearances, and were provided with a possible location of the victims. Despite having that bit of information, they still had no idea what had taken them, or how they did. But with nothing else to go on, they boarded Lily’s motorcycle and made their way to the location.
“And why normals? I can’t imagine that they’re that useful for magic stuff. This just doesn’t make sense.” Alexander complained further.
Lily hummed as she drove recklessly through the city streets, not minding the occasional car that passed her.
“Oh yeah, it is pretty weird, huh?” She casually asked as she jumped off a ramp formed from the collapsed wall of a building hit by an earthquake, and landed smoothly with deployed glider wings.
“My guess it’s either someone like Mariette kidnapping people or a hungry monster. Either way, we’re gonna get to the bottom of this mystery!”
They soon arrived at the location, which seemed to be located at the very heart of the original earthquake attacks. Crumbled buildings surrounded the block, and somewhat resembled a warzone. Once Lily got off her bike, she stopped for a moment, shocked by what she was seeing. “I’ve always seen this site from the outside, but...It was this bad, huh?” She looked down, and saw a lone doll, half-buried in the ice and snow; it was a Pikachu plushie, with the stitching apart in some seams, and missing the nose.. She crouched down to pick it up. “I used to have a doll just like this when I was a little girl...” She mused quietly, showing the toy to Alex. “I lost it since then, but it was very precious to me. Have you ever had something like that as a kid, Alex?”
Alexander shook his head “I grew up in an orphanage. It wasn’t poor enough that we ever went hungry, but we didn’t have enough to spare for things like that. The closest I come to something like that was dumb little Kirby figure I bought with my first paycheck when I was 18. It was stupid, but being able to actually get something I wanted in a store felt kind of nice.” He closed his eyes and tried to focus on his Absolute Direction power, but it came of with an error “No use, my magic GPS isn’t working. I guess it’s not easy getting it to home in on strangers. We should-” He was interrupted by a crashing sound. Drawing his sword, he turned to the source of the sound, only to find just a pile of rubble that used to be a house. He paused for a second before speaking up again “Did...did that just collapse all on it’s own? Dammit, this whole place is worse than a ghetto. Let’s just find out what’s going on and get out of here.” Letting his Beast magic flare, Alexander entered his Beast Mode. With his sense of smell, Alexander was able to pick up something human smelling “I think I found something.” he said as he followed the smell to one of the larger and more intact buildings.
As the two went closer, Alex could hear with his acute senses what sounded like a bestial mobster's grunts and growls, mixed with other strange sounds. Soon enough, they saw it; a humongous ape-like creature, with shaggy black fur covering it's body and jagged teeth that popped out from grotesque gums. The monster was sitting bowlegged, seemingly staring at a broken section of the wall where scraps of metal and glass could be seen. Lily had summoned her staff in one hand, but seemed hesitant.
"So it was a monster...But wait, something's not right." As if on cue, the beast sniffed the air and turned, it's long arms lifting it up to a quadrupedal stance. It screeched upon seeing Lily, and charged at her. "It's coming!" Lily yelled, and jumped to avoid the attack, followed by shooting a lightning bolt.
‘This feels too easy...’ Alexander thought to himself as he dodged out of the way of the charging beast slashed at it’s leg. Due to the creature’s own speed, and the speed of Alexander’s dodge, he wasn’t able to get a very deep cut. Getting out his wand he made a flail shaped barrier extend from it, and made sure it was long enough to whack the thing in the face, which he then proceeded to do. “Hey ugly, over here!” he taunted it as he fell back a little.
The slash to it’s leg did little to hinder the frenzied beast, as did Lily’s thunderbolt, and it continued going towards Lily at full speed. When Alex struck with the flail, it howled in pain, and countered with an elbow jab that Alex dodged by creating distance. The beast only glanced back at him for a fleeting moment before pursuing Lily again. "Ngh! What is up with this monster?" Lily yelled as she jumped up the side of a collapsed wall in an attempt to slow down the beast, who proceeded to climb up after her, using it’s long gorilla-like arms to great effect. Lily blasted it with thunder blasts to the chest, causing the beast’s matted hair to stand from the static shock. "It’s like it’s obsessed! Wait, huh?" That was when Lily realized what the beast was after; the plushie she was still holding in her hands. “Here, catch!” She threw the toy towards the monster, who reached out with both arms to grab, causing it to stumble and fall back down into the rubble.
Alexander’s posture relaxed from battle ready to confusion ‘But why would it want a ratty old to-’ he suddenly tensed up, as a horrifying possability came to him “No. Please let me be wrong” He ran over to Lily, and put up a wall between them and the creature “I really hope I’m just reading into this too much” He muttered to himself as he waited for the creature to make its next move.
Lily waited with bated breath as the monster appeared, and gasped; the creature had shielded the toy from the debris, holding it in its arms like a treasure as it sat there, wailing in an eerily happy manner. "That's one of the disappeared," Lily spoke quietly. "But why? Who would curse them-"
"It is no curse, but a blessing."
Another girl's voice could be heard from above them, and Alex saw the source; a magical girl was standing on top of a half-toppled building.
"I simply gave her what she desired for. Now, could you please leave and stop bothering the neighbourhood?"
Lily drew her bow, and pulled the crackling string back.
"So you're behind the kidnappings! You turned them into monsters!"
"Oh no, they came along willingly." She gestured with her hand, and more beasts appeared around the ruined city block, growling and grunting but staying their distance. "You see, they were victims of the attacks on Penrose. They lost their homes and families, the pitiful things. But I gave them salvation. I asked them if they wished to have what they lost again, and they agreed. And now they're happy, don't you see?"
Lily grit her teeth, unable to believe what she was hearing.
“Well they don’t look happy to me” Alexander spoke up “You claim that they did this willingly, but how much did you actually explain to them? Did they understand what this power would turn them into, or what it would do to their minds? Because they don’t seem like their brains are running on all cylinders, if you catch my meaning”
While he was talking, Alexander took the opportunity to strengthen the barrier he had already made “Just how much have their minds degraded? Can they even understand anything we’re saying? Because to me, this just looks like you used Beast magic to turn normal people into these creatures” Once the barrier was as strong as he could make it, He tried using his own Beast magic to see if he could somehow detect any kind of Beast magic on the transformed people.
Alex was correct in his assumptions as he detected Beast magic, similar in some ways to his own. But it was also different in a way he couldn't exactly tell.
"They never asked," the Beast magical girl stated coldly. "Not that they needed to in the first place. They have rejected their cruel and evil humanity, and returned back to their true place in the natural order, their very roots!" She threw her arms out. "And once we're all one family, one happy community, there will be no more wars or acts of terror! I, Hircine, will save humanity!"
"That's not your choice to make!" Lily screamed, and let loose with a barrage of thunder arrows, only for one of the ape monsters to intercept the shots on behalf of Hircine. She sneered.
"Hmph, it seems I must remove you from our community by force." She pointed down. "My brethren! Attack!" The monsters bellowed and roared as they came charging in, clutching whatever piece of trash they had to wield as primitive weapons. Lily shook her head. "We can't kill them, Alex! They were tricked by her! They don't deserve to die." She then jumped, and shot at the nearest beast in its feet with paralyzing arrows, causing it to fall.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. The barrier in front of Alexander gave him enough time to strengthen his legs and leap high in the air. At the apex of his jump (which was about 5 stories) he created a simple barrier right beneath his feet “She’s using some kind of weird Beast magic to do this. It feels off in a way I can’t quite put my finger on. I’m not entirely sure if taking her out would fix them, but if it doesn’t, then I might be able to do something.” Alexander then started creating a large rope of chain coming from his wand, much like with the flail. But unlike with the flail, this one ended in a trapeze bar when it was halfway to the ground. “Grab on!” He yelled to Lily as he swung it in her general direction.
Lily jumped just in time to avoid an ape monster’s swing of a rebar block, and grabbed on to the trapeze bar. "Got it!" Then, using the momentum of the swing and an electric charge on Lily’s part, Lily launched herself straight up, towards Hircine. "Take this!" Lily changed her weapon to a staff and launched thunderbolt towards Hircine, who responded by having her monsters block the shots. “Meddlesome brat!” She whistled, and three ape beasts leaped, aiming for overhead swings. Lily flipped, deftly avoiding the first two, but was hit by the third one, smacking her clear across the city block. "Ungh...They’re fast for their size.” She then stood up, and yelled: "Alex, lead them closer to her! I got a plan!"
“Not sure why you want them closer to her, but okay.” Alexander jumped down to the ground, and created a small horde of clones. Said clones then grew tails out of their arms to whack the creatures, not hard enough to cause serious harm, but enough to piss them off. The real Alexander meanwhile, created a ramp barrier up to where Hircine was, and led his clones and the horde of pissed off monsters up to her.
The beasts were agitated by the clones, and roared as they took chase, stumbling over each other as they scrambled up the broken building. Hircine was furious.
“What are you doing? Go after that one, not the clones!”
"Sorry Hircine, but this monkey business is coming to an end!"
Lily took aim with her bow, and shot a single lightning arrow on the backs of each of each of the monsters as they went up; while they failed to penetrate the tough hides of the monsters, they had plenty of static electricity charged up in them, and in turn caused the monster’s fur to become charged. Once the beasts were grouped up together, she transformed the weapon to a staff, and pointed it up while screaming:
"STATIC SHOCK!"
At that moment, she activated the static charge in the monsters, and created a chain reaction of electricity, causing most of the monsters and even Hircine to be caught in the storm of electrical energy.
“Hngrhhhh!”
Hirvine shook ,and collapsed on the ground. Having lost her control on the beasts, they bellowed and fled like frightened monkeys, hiding themselves away in nearby nooks and crannies.
Lily panted, and wiped the sweat on her brow after she landed before the fallen magical girl, and pointed her staff down at her.
"Your reign of madness ends here, Hircine! Turn them back to normal!"
Hircine only giggled weakly, and managed to lift herself up to look at Lily. "I can’t. I never learned how to do something so...Unnecessary."
Lily sighed heavily in exasperation.
"So they’re corrupted? Do we need to get them purified?"
“No, that’s not it. It requires someone skilled in Beast magic.” She glanced at Alex. “You seem to know something about it.”
Alexander nodded “I’m a Beast magic user myself. I can’t make any promises, but I’ll see what I can do” Jumping off the ramp he made, Alexander walked over to the nearest creature “Hold them down” he ordered his clones. They jumped into action, using their tails to grapple it and hold it in place, as they pulled it to its knees. When the real Alexander reached it, he put a hand on its chest and reached in with his Beast magic “Let’s see what’s going on in here”
Using his magic, Alex found out that the Beast spell used on them was a Corrupted variant of a spell to change into animal shape, powered by the target’s hopes and dreams for reclaiming what was lost. Alex could forcibly end the spell, but it would take enough magic to only allow about five or six releases out of the pack of 50 monsters. However, Alex could also use his magic to communicate, and tell the beast they can’t reclaim what they have lost, and that they must move on with their lives.
Alexander grimaced “Okay, this just got complicated. Whoever created this spell is a sadistic monster, and they probably have an extremely punchable face.” He sighed “I’m going to try something, but I’m not sure how well it’s going to work.”
He took a deep breath, reached out to all of them with his Beast magic, and began to speak to them via said magic “Hey idiots, take a good long look at yourselves, at what you’ve become! I know you’re all in a lot of pain, what happened to Penrose, and you by extension was awful. But is this really any better!? You haven’t regained what you’ve lost; you’ve lost what little you had left! Turned into feral beasts for some crazy girl to boss around. The magic that turned you into this is fueled by your hopes and dreams of getting back what you lost. Fucked up, I know, and don’t worry; I promise to punch the creator of this spell in the fucking face if I ever meet them. But that means that unless you can let go, and start to move on with your lives you’ll be stuck like this; less than what you were before. So, what’s it going to be? Are you going to deal with the shittyness of life and become human again, or are you going to run from it and remain beasts?”
Alex’ message carried out to the beasts like an unheard howl, carrying with it a grim but necessary ultimatum. The monsters screeched and held their ears, not wanting to hear it, but they were forced to accept the truth. And as they did, Hircine’s spell broke; the monsters transformed back into humans, now huddled together due to the cold. One of them, an older man, approached Alex, and prostrated before them, his forehead in the rubble. “Th...Thank you! For saving us from this nightmare!”
Alexander flinched at the man on the ground in front of him “uh...sure”
Lily looked on with a small smile. "See, Hircine? You didn’t save these people. You simply extended their suffering," she spoke. Hircine sighed.
“Damn...Well, I made a mistake. So, are you going to kill me now?”
Lily shook her head. "You learned your lesson, that’s enough for now." However, she then glared at her. "But if you even think about using your magic on innocent people again, I won’t be so forgiving."
Having made her intentions clear, Lily approached the group of humans. "These people need a new home. I could call Alicia and ask if she could prepare a temporary shelter for them. What do you think, Alex?"
Alexander shrugged “I sure as hell don’t have any better ideas. Besides, Beacon is way better equipped to deal with something like this than we are. So yeah, I say go for it”
Lily gave a bright smile, and took out her phone. "Hey Alicia? I got this problem..."
While Lily was conversing over the phone, one of the humans, a small girl, shyly approached Alex, the Pokemon plushie in her hands. She held it up to him. “I-I don’t have much, but I can give you this...For saving us.”
He froze for a moment at the sight of a little kid offering one of their few worldly possessions to him ‘Dammit, this is making me feel like a scumbag.’ he sighed “You keep it. We’re already getting something for this, and...well...I’d have trouble sleeping at night if I took your friend away when you’ve already lost so much. Actually...” a sudden idea came to him. Reaching out one hand to put on the plush toy, he tapped into his Reinforcement magic, and the toy started repairing itself before everyone’s eyes. Once it was done, he took his hand away “There, that’s better.”
The little girl looked sad at first when Alex rejected her offer of taking the toy. “I-I understand...” But then, sher eyes widened in sheer amazement as the toy glowed, fully restored. She held it in her hands, and tears appeared in her eyes. “Th-This is...Amazing! Thank you so much, mister! I promise to treasure it my whole life!”
Alexander let out a sigh of relief ‘Good, I didn’t fuck things up’
Lily came up to them, and also smiled sweetly. "Alicia said she’s sending some help here. But aww, that was really nice of you, Alex." She took his hand. "I wish I had magic as cool as yours, teehee~"
He looked at her like she was an idiot “But...you do. What I can do is pretty simple as far as magic goes. You on the other hand, have not only control of lightning and all it’s smiting powers, but time itself. How is that not better than what I have?”
Lily pouted. "’That was a compliment! Besides, it really is cool!" She then sighed, and smiled as she watched the little girl go show her restored toy to the others. "At the end of the day, giving someone hope should be done by someone like you, Alex. You have a knack for it."
He looked at her like she had just gone crazy and started speaking in tongues “Seriously? I’m a jaded bitter asshole. How the hell do I have a knack for ‘giving people hope’? You’re the one with the right personality for it.”
Once again Lily pouted, and even blew a raspberry at him. "Geez, Alex!"
20/13|Male/Male|Reinforcement, Beast Mystic, Melee|Duplication, Tentacles|Deity Enhanced Sustenance, Awareness, Masculinity, Fated, Sorcery, Gifted, Absolute Direction Paragon, Blessing, Clergy, Mana Fount, Gifted Item Arrogance, Unknown, Loud, Big Brother
“Don’t call Alex a floofy boy! You’ll hurt his feelings!” Lily cried out in an attempt to defend him
"Meh, I've heard much worse. It's going to take a lot more than that to get a rise out of me." Alexander simply shrugged 'Still...they both look pretty fresh. Either they were able to deal with whatever fights they got into with ease...or there wasn't much, if anything, to fight. We haven't seen much since getting here, and that's starting to worry me a lot. Are we too late?' --- Alexander responded to Lily with a lazy high five "Kind of feels like we just wasted our time here. I mean, we didn't really do much of anything. But it is reassuring that things seem okay, or at least stable here." He said, as he rode with Lily back to Dan's resort "But when did Penny become a queen? I know I'm not the most social of people, and am therefor likely to be left out of the loop, but you did hear anything about this?" A sudden thought occurred to him "Oh wait! If we're going to stay at Dan's place for awhile, we need to stop by home and pick up the freeloaders first. I still feel bad about when we left them alone for so long before."
20/13|Male/Male|Reinforcement, Beast Mystic, Melee|Duplication, Tentacles|Deity Enhanced Sustenance, Awareness, Masculinity, Fated, Sorcery, Gifted, Absolute Direction Paragon, Blessing, Clergy, Mana Fount, Gifted Item Arrogance, Unknown, Loud, Big Brother
Alexander sighed when Lily's attempt to run up a wall failed. "Give me a second" Walking up to her, Alexander but his hand on her back an focused. Normally, when he boosted someone it was at range. But with direct contact, he didn't have to deal with any magical 'static' (for lack of a better term) in the air getting in the way. This let him super charge Lily (pun very much intended)
“So all the action’s past this wall? Fine, let me rip and tear it apart!”
Alexander turned his head to see a few familiar faces; Sue and Stomach-Shanker. "Well there's plenty of wall to go around. Go nuts
It didn't take long at all for their combined firepower to break through, and on the other side they found even more familiar faces.
“Penny! Shane! I’ll help too!!” Lily managed to gasp out
Hearing her so strained, Alexander but his hand on her back again, but this time let healing magic flow into her "Give me a second to straighten you out. I swear; you'll run yourself ragged if no one is there to stop you. Haven't you ever heard of pacing yourself?" He then turned to Shane and Penny (but kept healing Lily) "But yeah, any information you have would be great. All we know is that this place is under attack, and that apparently slime(?) is somehow involved. We're pretty much working blind here"
Lildear18
