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
'Wait, Penny actively refused to give that ship to Su? I just thought that Su didn't care. That doesn't sound like the Penny I remember' That little nugget of information took Alexander by surprise '...although taking a stranger's word at face value on something like this might not be the smartest thing. Still...I guess it has been a long time since I really talked to Su. I guess we haven't been in contact ever since...'
blood cold clammy flesh magic isn't working WHY ISN'T IT WORKING!?
'...the incident. Not that I can really blame her' Alexander sighed trying to push the unpleasant thoughts from his mind. As he did, he noticed a look of surprise on Justine before she excused herself. Normally, he would have just brushed it off. However, given the current situation, as well as his inability to contribute to the current discussion, he did something else. "Hey, I'll be back in a bit. I'm not going to be any help hashing out a deal with the Mint, and there's something I want to look into for a bit." with that said, he went after Justine
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 wanted to groan when a Dark Magical girl he vaguely recognized (who was eventually introduced as Chloe) tried to make a bargain for territory for the Mint in exchange for the location of some extremely important things of Wonderlands. 'And the people in the Mint wonder why they don't have the best reputation' he managed to not say out loud "Okay, so, just to clarify; who are you trying to make a deal with?" He asked Chloe "I know Lily called this meeting, but that's not because she has any actual authority, her signing that paper wouldn't actually get you want you want. And despite several other people's claims, I'm pretty sure that we don't *actually* have a central governing body of any kind, just a couple of factions all led by different people. That's probably something that we'll have to fix sometime, but I don't think right before a bunch of crazy people invade us is really the best time for that. For now though, if this deal is going to be made, it would probably have to be with the leaders of any faction that has some kind of territory in Penrose, because they're the closest thing we actually have to a government"
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 think our first priority should be coming up with a method of getting the civilians to safety Alexander spoke up "Unless we have a way to track them to their home base and invade it, or failing that, invade Bolorton, then we're going to have to fight them in Penrose, and we'll need to have a plan for what to do about the civilians. I just remember that during that whole debacle, I was stuck on evac duty along with a bunch of other people, so I only got around to actually fighting Wonderland's forces right before we left" he sighed "And I wasn't the only one. So unless we want to keep a large chunk of our forces tied up in evacuating, and later protecting the civilians, we'll need to come up with something for them ahead of time. Like, does anyone have a spare pocket dimension or two we could just shove them in?"
He then paused as a thought occurred to him "Well...we'd still need to get them all. Maybe we could set up a Rune array that covers the connected a pocket dimension to shove everyone without magic into it when the fighting starts. But I don't have any spatial magic, so it's not something I can really make on my own. Not to mention powering something that huge is going to be an absolute bitch to do. We'd also need something to keep them all from panicking over having been teleported somewhere strange. Maybe add something to the array that knocks them out, our puts them in a trance. That'd be more complicated and would need more magic, but it would also get rid of the need to wipe their memories..." As he went on, he slowly started to transition from 'talking to the crowd' to 'talking to himself' "...and then we run into the issue of hiding the damn thing..."
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
"Penrose Park, huh..." Alexander was looking through Glimmer on his phone, when he saw a new post from Lily 'Why does it feel like that's the place where everything began?' he wondered to himself as he fed his animals in their room "What do you think Bob; is what Lily's doing going to crash and burn like the last time someone tried this" Bob simply stared at him "I guess you're right; things have changed. There's no guaranty it'll end the same as last time." he sighed "You know, sometimes I really wonder why I bother with this place. But I suppose I'd never forgive myself if I just ran. And here I thought Penrose would be a quiet place to live when I came here. I had absolutely no idea how high maintenance this place would" Alexander mused as he gave Tim some scratches on his neck, which the little weasel seemed to be leaning into
"I suppose at the end on the day, all I can really do is make sure that succeed or fail, Lily comes out of this alive, and yet..." his mind flashed back to toe sight of Lily missing a limb "I can't help but wonder if she hasn't really fully recovered. Sure, her body is fine...but there are something that healing magic can't fix...that it can't reach." He shook his head "I guess none of that really matters; she's made her move, and she can't unmake it." he got up to his feet and made his way to the door, before leaving however, he turned around and addressed "Thanks guys. You know, you're all pretty great listeners." The animals just stared at him as he left their room. As Alexander transformed in preparation for the meeting, he thought to himself 'You know; Lily really should have set a specific time for this.' Fully transformed, Alexander started to make his way to the meeting site, hoping that if something was going to go wrong, it would wait until he got there.
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
Lily seemed to bounce back from having had a limb removed for a short time pretty quickly, even if she was still shaken up about the attack. He wasn't too thrilled about being dragged for an interrogation. Oh sure, they called it a debriefing, but Alexander wasn't too convinced. Fortunately, they didn't make him wait in that room too long
"Good evening, my name is Dawn Astraea,” the young woman introduced herself again as she took her seat opposite of Alexander. “I will be conducting your debriefing. If you do not have any questions, then let us begin. First and foremost, I am obligated to inform you that this debriefing is being recorded, and that your answers will be reviewed by a light magic specialist for verification. If any falsehoods are detected, or we are given reason to believe that you pose a danger to The Beacon, you will be retained for additional investigation. Is that understood?"
"Yeah" he droned, clearly disinterested
“What is your name and magical boy title?”
"Alexander Shields. And uh...I don't actually know what my title is. Is there someone who's supposed to assign that or what?"
Dawn just stared at him in silence for a few seconds "You...don't know your-" she shook her head and quickly moved on. "“What is your magical specialization?”
"Reinforcement and Beast" he quickly answered 'Why do I get the feeling that this is going to take forever?'
“Are you a dark magical boy or monster boy?”
Alexander sighed, having flashback to an interaction with a Ascendency girl "Look, if this is about the tails that I grow out of my body, that's just the Tentacle power getting influenced by my Beast spec"
"It wasn't, but should I take that as a no?"
Alexander nodded, being very careful with his words here "I am not a dark/monster boy"
"“Is your Patron classified as a horror?”"
"Only to me" he grumbled under his breath before answering her directly "No, he isn't"
"Have you ever worked alongside a dark magical girl/boy, monster girl/boy, and/or servant of a horror?"
"Probably a bunch of times" Alexander answered honestly "There's a lot of different kinds of magical people that live here, and when someone or something causes trouble, we all swarm out murder them, like an anthill. I don't really care enough to interview everyone at those events about if they're Dark, Monster or serve a Horror. If you're trying to beat up what ever is causing trouble in my neighborhood, then you're fine with me"
"I see" was her only response "“Have you ever opposed the glorious and righteous will of The Beacon Ascendancy?"
Alexander struggled to keep a straight face "You actually called it-" but stopped himself "Well there was that one time that one of them tried to destroy a Christmas dimension, all because she didn't like the artifact that made it. I...think her name was Rachael...or something like that"
"Inquisitor Rachael" Dawn confirmed
Alexander's eyebrows raised "Wait, 'Inquisitor' is her official title!? I thought-"
Dawn interrupted him with her next question “Why have you yet to renounce your Patron and embrace the radiant light of The Beacon?”
Alexander huffed "Well besides the time your 'Inquisitor' became the villain of a Christmas movie. There was one incident early on in my career; Some local magical girl managed to get all the other local magicals together to...I think she was aiming for some kind of mutual defense pact, or something like that. Anyway, there was a Beacon girl who sounded totally on board with the idea...until who I think was her Patron teleported in and basically humiliated her for that, and made her apologize or face the consequences. That was my first real exposure to Beacon, and it kind of soured me on Beacon itself. Sure, the local branch has mellowed out to the point where we can work with them when shit hits the fan. But if the Ascendancy agents are any indication of what the greater whole of Beacon is like...I wouldn't be able put up with it"
Dawn opened her mouth to say something, but Alexander beat her to the punch "Yes, I am grateful that they stepped up to keep Penrose from getting wiped off the map while all the locals were stuck on the wrong side of a time dilation field. But boy if they didn't burn through that good will fast"
"I...see" she didn't seem too thrilled with his answer, but quickly moved on to her next question “How did you learn that Bolorton was under attack?”
'Finally getting to the relevant questions huh?' "Some local magical girl streamer, which is a thing I just found out was a thing-"
Dawn seemed a bit taken aback by this "You didn't know what streaming was?"
"Fuck no, I'm not that out of touch. I just didn't know that magicals streamed themselves doing magical stuff" he sighed "anyway, Lily watches her, so she found out that way, and she told everyone she could."
“How did you reach Bolorton in time to assist with its evacuation?”
"We know someone who can make portals. Lily got in touch with her."
“What was the approximate strength of the Wonderland forces attacking the town?”
Alexander shrugged "Not sure. We spent a large amount of time just working on evacuating the civilians. Then once we had everyone we could grab secured, they just started swarming us"
“Via what method or methods were the Wonderland forces deployed?”
"Couldn't tell you, I only saw them after they arrived. I'd guess teleportation or portals, since that's kind of the standard.
“Did you witness any member of Beacon engaging the Wonderland forces in combat?”
"There was Alicia, and probably a bunch of other people. I can't always recognize someone as Beacon on sight"
“Did the Wonderlanders communicate with you in any way?”
"Not really, they just sounded like a crazed mob of monsters"
“Did you communicate with the Wonderlanders in any way?”
"Never considered it. Again, they just seemed like a crazed mob of monsters"
“If I was to tell you that this was the last question, would you believe me?”
That one caught Alexander by surprise "I...uh...guess?"
“Last question. If I was to tell you that this was the last question, would you believe me?”
This time, Alexander just looked deadpan "Not after the last question."
“That concludes the debriefing,” Dawn announced as she rose to her feet. “The Beacon thanks you for your cooperation in this matter. Someone will be with you shortly to escort you off the premisses.”
"Fucking finally" Alexander let out a sigh of relief.
Not long after that, he, Lily and Justine all left the building. Justine went back to her sister, while Alexander and Lily went home “You know Alex…I never thought I’d have to do this…But now’s the time to follow in my predecessor’s footsteps.”
Alexander wasn't too sure which 'predecessor' she was talking about, but he didn't have any confidence in his ability to talk her out of it "Just...just try not to get in over your head" was the best he could come up with.
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
Once Lily's leg got reattached, Alexander felt a lot, but not all of the tension leave his body. Once she was in one piece, he got to work patching up whatever other wounds she has, never letting her go. "Just who the hell is this Queenie bitch!?" Alexander spoke up "I mean, I heard from some crazy girl that she attacked Bolorton to use it as a staging point to take over Penrose, but that's about it. So does anyone else know who the hell she is, and more importantly; how are we going to kick her ass for this" He got to his feet while using a few tails to help hold and carry Lily, and moved to the side of the room to get out of the way of any of the workers "Because if that girl was right and not just some crazy nutjob; she's coming for us next. And I don't know about the rest of you; but I don't want to go through a chaotic civilian evacuation again, especially in my own home."
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
"That's everyone!"
Alexander wasn't sure who said that, and he didn't really care. For a brief moment, he forgot he was in the middle of a warzone and felt relief "Thank fuck" But it didn't last long, as a nearby explosion dragged him out of his peace "...fuck, that's right. Alright, what's next?" Due to having been on civilian rescue and evacuation the entire time, Alexander wasn't really sure about the status of the war(?). Was there any sort of organized counterattack, or anything like that 'Well, the civilians are out of here, and I don't have any real attachment to this place, so I'm fine with booking it.' And then he saw Lily, and that train of thought was thoroughly derailed
"LILY!" There she was crumpled on the ground with one of her legs blown off. Not having any time to think or plan, Alexander ran into action. Charging straight for her, and cutting down whatever monster got in his way. Once he reached her, he made a clone and tossed her to it, which then carried her back to the teleporter. Then, tapping into his Absolute Direction ability, he honed in on her missing leg. Luckily, it wasn't too far away, and while it was pretty messed up, it was still recognizable as a leg "Please let this work" he mumbled to himself as he grabbed it and made his way back to the teleporter himself. Lily didn't look like she had much juice left in her, and he was starting to run low too, so they wouldn't be able to do much to help even if they stayed 'Besides, we did enough...right?' he thought to himself as he reached the teleporter "Come on, we're done here" he told his clone, which had Lily completely covered in protective tails, as it followed him through the teleporter.
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
On the one hand, she had given him a straight answer. On the other hand, she was pretty insufferable about it. 'So some nutjob tried to take over Penrose, failed, and are now trying to take this place over to help in their next attempt. That's...actually a lot more simple then I expected to be honest' Alexander thought to himself. Wanting to get away from the clearly unhinged girl, he began to make his exit "Right, so, thanks for that doc-" And that's when Alexander noticed that the teleporter was completely open "Shit! When did that happen!?" He immediately broke out into a mad dash to the teleporter 'I was only talking to that nut job for about a minute, how could things have gotten so bad so quickly!?' He cut down the few enemy troops that got in his way
He managed to reach the teleporter before anything managed to attack it 'Alright, time to get to work. Why am I always responsible for this shit?' He mentally grumbled to himself. Working quickly, Alexander surrounded the teleporter (and himself) with a dome barrier, with a few person-sized holes in it. Said holes had a slightly larger barrier in front of them. This wouldn't stop human sized enemies from getting inside, but range foes wouldn't have a clear shot at the teleporter or anything/one inside. Once that was done, Alexander made a bunch of clones to guard the entrances. With basic defenses set up, he got to work on reinforcing the barriers 'This sucks so much. I hate being stuck on defense.'
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
Make no mistake; the sudden arrival of unexpected reinforcements was wonderful, especially since he had burned through most of his energy and Lily looked close to entering her berserk mode. On the other hand however..."Tanks? Fucking Tanks!? What is this bullshit!?" It was starting to feel like he was an extra in a WW2 movie written by someone who clearly didn't have enough oversight, and Alexander really didn't like that. And then there was the fact that the reinforcements were a bunch of high tech monster girls that he hadn't even heard of before 'Well...okay that actually kind of makes sense' he realized after thinking it over for a few seconds 'I hadn't even heard of this place before today, so of course I wouldn't know about any of the local factions'
Once there was a brief lull in the fighting, Alexander spotted an important looking girl among the newcomers. He hustled over to her before any more shells could be fired their way and addressed her "Hey, I'm from out of town, and all I really know about all this is that a bunch of monsters were attacking civilians. So I was wondering if you could tell me what the fuck is going on here!?"
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
The large amount of distractions that were currently plaguing the goons were really helping Alexander out. As what fire his defenses were taking weren't enough to break through his barriers before he could restore them. This made it much easier to tear through the invading soldiers 'This feels like it's getting me nowhere, but I can't go charging through to try and find where they're coming from, since I've got a building full of civilians to keep safe. Dammit, what's even the point of this; these things are way too organized and numerous to be just a random bunch of monsters. Somebody has to be leading them, but what are they even after!?'
His musing/brooding was broken when a larger than normal monster tried to jump him. In response, Alexander created a clone which he then flung right into the creature's face, while the clone unleashed every swear he knew at his original self. The sudden body in it's face threw it off enough for Alexander to get in there and bisect it. The clone managed to get off one last "Fuck you" before it popped.
'Although, it does feel like I'm packing a bit more power than normal, I wonder why. Bah, I guess it doesn't really matter all that much. With me being stuck here on defense, I guess the best I really can do is the keep killing these things and look for any important looking ones. Who knows, I just might luck out and take out a field commander or two, that should make this easier. I just hope that someone's out there working on fixing this while we're here holding them back.' He swung his sword and managed to cleave through two of the monsters at once 'Ohh, A double kill.'
Lildear18