"A clash for the ages!" - The Rolling Rocks
"A definite must-see!" - Nasty Vegetables
"I want my money back" - Man who wasn't a paid shill
Tickets on sale now. No refunds are given under any circumstance. By purchasing a ticket, you agree to our Terms and Services. We hold no liability for any potential damages caused by either magical girl in the event of an accident. Your give up your right to view the event if you leave your seat. Disrupting the show is a violation of the ToS. Violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. "Disruption" is defined as follows -- Speaking, labored breathing, shifting in your seat, crossing your legs, sitting back, sitting forwards, excessive thinking, eating, existing, praying, using the power of friendship within a 3km radius of the event, pondering whether or not it is possible for someone to use a pool noodle to stop time, and, of course, treason.
Not too long after breakfast, and even less so than the end of the conversation she had with her own shadow, Silhouette still hadn't found stable footing. That is to say, her mind could be a little bit more organized in the thought department. Emotionally, she felt lost. Despite what she said earlier to Shade, she wasn't entirely sure she really did want to get close to anyone. She wanted to rationalize it as just saying that to placate her own shadow, but then the realization that if it was her own shadow encouraging her to do this, then she must have subconsciously wanted to reach out.
So was she really being pressured, then?
Discarding a lifetime and a half of cold indifference was a process that one could not call 'simple'. Strong feelings and emotional attachment had never been necessary to her before. They would have been detrimental to her job, if anything. And if she were to be honest, since her purpose now was to ensure Veronica's will was carried out, they'd still be such.
Even still, it was clear that somewhere in her desired change from this life of monotony. And she would not just settle for any old change, either. Were that the case, she'd have long since let go and allowed her
edgy dark side corruption to claim her. Given that she feared that sort of outcome, it was quite obvious that was not what she wanted. To her, that could only mean she wanted to try being more human, less machine. Even if that left the potential to be betrayed.
Although, to her, these matters were of significant importance, as was usual, she was snapped out of deep thought by external factors. Namely, Shade getting her to join this 'keijo' tournament. This was somehow supposed to be the start of her 'new self' or what have you, in that it was supposed to help her... 'form bonds' or something? Silhouette still wasn't sure how Shade came to such a conclusion, but nevertheless, her Shadow did indeed seem to think this would be the case. Besides, there was at least a gold coin in it for her, so there was that.
The assassin curiously watched the butt-tle between Penny and Kimble unfold, a spectator along with Shade. She took great interest in the unfolding events, taking note of each and every detail of the skirmish in an attempt to translate that to a better chance of her succeeding when it came her turn to step on to the stage. Though she did not exactly get many chances to betray this, Sil was definitely the competitive sort. As far as she was concerned, second place was the same as last place, no matter what. Not winning meant you lost, and if you lost, then you certainly could have done better.
So Samantha Howard watched this fight as close as a weeaboo inspects each episode of the anime adaption of his favorite obscure light novel or eroge. She monitored every aspect of the battle and its participants, every little detail there was. Not even a single follicle on their rear ends escaped her observation. Silhouette found herself enthralled by the display, and eager to see who would claim victory. Would it be Penny, or Kimble? The outcome seemed somewhat obvious, butt it was always possible for the cat to claw their self out from behind. Each second was thrilling. Sil was excited, all the way up until the end, where something abhorrent had taken place.
WHAT IS THIS BULLCRAP!?She witnessed Kimble winning the battle. Because she had been so keen on details, Silhouette saw the end for what it was. The small but intentional movement Penny made to throw the fight did not go entirely unnoticed by Sil. It was not one she cared for. She even felt frustrated. How could someone just abandon victory like that? She wasn't sure.
"I'll be back." Sil told Shade.
"Get me when it's my turn." She left towards the juice bar for a drink right afterward.
Silhouette had begun sipping her drink by the time Penny appeared. As the girl sat down, Silhouette glanced at her direction.
"How much are you getting paid to take a dive like that?" she asked plainly. She was curious and that was it. The disappointment and frustration were minimal, and didn't affect Silhouette too badly. Besides there wasn't too much reason to get too invested. She couldn't fathom any other reason than money, so that meant there probably wasn't any significant meaning or importance to it. Just money being made is all.
The measured walk here had done its job for Penny and the volatile mix of hurt, sorrow, and anger had been, for the most part, set aside in favor of resignation. She had been hoping to incite a reaction from Kimble, and she got one, just hadn’t expected the revelations that came with it.
“I’ll take a pitcher of ice” She ordered running a hand down her face before sitting down, yet before she could start to settle in a question had been sent her way. Turning she regarded the other girl at the counter with her
“Greetings to you too Silhouette” Penny would reply dryly before shrugging and looking back to the television set in the wall behind the counter
“One Gold for competing, and I get to maintain some dignity while helping out a friend” Came her equally dry answer, not bothering to try and hide the fact that she had thrown the match.
It didn’t surprise her that all that much that someone noticed, less that the one who did notice was someone who had tried to kill her once before. It did surprise Penny that they bothered to confront her about it though, regardless she was a bit drained emotionally at the moment. Shoving down heartbreak was never easy.
Silhouette didn't speak right away. She glanced over the mechanical shoujo with a mostly blank gaze, before turning back to her drink and taking another sip. Dry though in delivery, that answer was more than enough to placate Sil, who wasn't normally a very curious person when it came to personal matters. In fact, she was just about to get up and leave without another word, but she found her body not going through with the action, merely sitting there.
Hmm? “Aren’t people supposed to look a lot happier when they help a friend?” she asked. The words left her mouth of their own volition. It was almost like she was possessed, but she was still actually in full control of her body. Perhaps it was just hard to accept she intentionally asked this.
Well, it was of no particular consequence, she swiftly concluded. There wasn’t exactly any sort of risk in doing so. She imagined the worst-case scenario being Penny ignoring or brushing her off, so it wasn’t really any skin off her bones. Still, even bothering with this was far beyond what was the norm for her.
“You know what they say” Penny would respond with a sigh as her pitcher of ice was placed down in front of her.
“No good deed goes unpunished” She snagged one of the top pieces of ice and simply squeezed it between her fingers the frozen cube shattering near instantly.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to have helped her out” She explained as she went on, glad to have a willing ear for the moment
“Just learned something that I wasn’t expecting, and that’s what has me down” She picked up another ice cube, and crushed it much the same way she had the first one.
“Have to say I’m surprised that you confronted me about it. Any particular reason why?”Given the apparent effect it had on Penny, it seemed as though Silhouette wasn't paying attention to the most important part of the battle. Who could blame her for focusing entirely on the physical aspect of the battle, though? Naturally, she was entirely ignorant of the discussion.
"..." Silhouette looked down at her half-full glass, but did not end up doing anything with it.
"Can't say I blame you. I imagine I come off as someone who normally wouldn't confront people about things like this. And that's certainly true -- I wouldn't." she began, gaze unmoving.
"But I had taken an interest in that contest, strangely, and felt a bit disappointed by how your fight ended. Not enough so that I'd go out of my way to find you, but since you wound up here with me, I figured I'd see what that was all about." finally, she took another drink from her glass.
"I will admit that you gave me a rather odd answer, though. Mood-altering revelations aren't what I'd expect in the middle of a keijo battle." “Wouldn’t have pegged you as a Warrior” Penny gave the mahou next to her a long look before turning her attention back to her pitcher of ice as she pulled out another cube
“Good to know, but you were never going to get an interesting show from me when it came to Keijo, hell yesterday I nearly swore it off entirely. The upcoming water gun fight is a different story though”“As for the revelation, well that's one of the dangers of competing against allies” she would quip, slowly grinding the ice down rather than outright crushing it.
“Though I doubt Kimble knows that she has given me one” She sighed
“Only one other might know, but I have my doubts that they care” A shrug followed, along with Penny picking out another piece of ice to grind away.
"You don't get that sort of impression from me? How strange." Sil wondered what Penny thought she was in that case. Well, it was true she didn't exactly bring up the stereotypical image of a warrior. But she wasn't too keen on ditching her top, gaining bulk, and wielding an axe, so she obviously wasn't too concerned.
"I guess our definitions of that word differ." The fact she seemed rather unenthusiastic about partaking of the sport was somewhat disappointing, but if anyone, Silhouette could relate. Were it not for the gold coin(s) promised and an incredibly pushy shadow, she would have been unlikely to give the game a second glance. That water gun fight, on the other hand.
"Guess we'll see each other at the water gun fight, then." she downed what was left of her drink before the conversation moved on to the more personal matter.
"Oh?" sounded to Sil like her situation was relatively complicated. Or maybe it wasn't? Sil's lack of experience in this regard made it hard to really deduce the severity, so she couldn't properly empathize. But at least she knew there was something of moderate importance going on behind the scenes of that match.
"So this unintentional revelation involves a third party? Sounds rather rough, whatever it is." she mulled over what it might truly be, but all she could think of was a love triangle like you might find on a movie catered towards women. Sil doubted it was something like that, but it was a rather entertaining thought.
"Do tell me if I'm getting too nosey, but did you intend on confronting the other person, whomever they were?"“You just seemed more like a Collector or a Builder to me” Penny replied with a shrug as Sil mulled over the answers she had given, taking a moment to ponder over her own willingness to actually talk to Silhouette. Eventually deciding that in the end it was likely similar to the reason she had tracked Veronia down, she would be seeing more of the Assassin in the future. No reason not to be amicable to her.
The next question posed to her took a bit longer for Penny to reply, and she was careful to only grab the ice as she rolled the thoughts in her head around, as most of the ice she picked up was crushed instantly
“No” Came the answer
“I.. I’m not too surprised really. Plus bringing it up would just make things uncomfortable between us” She would explain a bit before shrugging
“It’s nothing that I can’t get over either, more just a shock to the system than anything else” She half lied. She could get over it, but it was a fair bit more painful than just a simple shock to the system.
“I see.”Silhouette wasn’t sure what to make of that. She was playing it off as something relatively minor, but there was a feeling it might have been more than that. But it was not Sil’s place or in her interest to bother too much with that. The fact Penny said anything at all to Sil was definitely more than she could really say she expected, what with the fact they’d swapped limbs a while back. Most people hold a grudge after a life-or-death fight.
“Well, I will not pry any further.” she told Penny, leaning back into her chair.
“I will say something, however. Despite your ongoing relationship with Veronica, it surprises me to see that you did not immediately turn me down. I’m not one to sing my own praises, but up until our encounter, there was only ever one person to engage me in battle and not perish. I always imagined that if it did happen again, that the next person would be a fair amount more hostile in the next encounter than you are being at the moment.”Sil spoke with feigned indifference in her tone. Most of her words landed how she desired them to, but, perhaps ironically, a bit of arrogance laced her words when she spoke about not singing her own praises. She certainly had a bit of pride, even if she otherwise pretended not to.
“Well, I do understand your ongoing relationship with Veronica influences this.” “Veronica does have a bit to do with it” Penny would agree as she rested her elbows on the counter top, still absently picking away at her supply of ice cubes
“But I don’t really hate people anymore. Regardless if they are the ones I’ve killed or if they have tried to kill me, hate doesn’t appear.” She went on to explain her gaze reflecting somewhere in her past
“Almost certain it has something to do with my prolonged lack of humanity, or perhaps something with how I was drafted in to the community, but hate and a few other emotions just don’t stick for me anymore. Only person I’ve hated in the last while was Elroy, and my hate for him stopped with his death.” She gave a simple shrug, it was something Penny had just grown to accept about herself. Still she knew what her own triggers were when it came to developing a black hate for someone, and she knew better then to advertise what they were.
“Anymore? So then this apathy was not always there? Interesting.” Sil mused. It made sense when she thought about it. Not everyone was as… detached from their emotions from the get-go like Silhouette had been. Drastic changes in personality from their human lives to their lives as a superior being should be a given.
“I take it you don’t harbor any hard feelings yourself, considering I’m pretty sure I destroyed your shoulder when we fought”“You would be correct. It would be disingenuous to claim I did not experience fu--” Sil caught herself, and immediately cleared her throat.
“--er, frustration when dealing with an unexpected obstacle. I also do not enjoy losing limbs, either. But what’s done is done, and judging by your attitude, you did not appear before me back then with the specific intention of fighting me, so we simply had a conflict of interests at the time. So long as you see things roughly the same, then I don’t see any reason to act in a harsh way towards you, so long as we have no particular need for conflict.”Penny let out a snort at Silhouette's verbal stumble, resisting the urge to roll her eyes, knowing easily what it was the other girl had been about to say, but regardless, would nod her agreement to the description of their current standing.
”Works for me”“Also, I wouldn’t call it apathy” The mechanical girl would move on picking out a few more ice cubes to crush
“I‘m not distanced from my emotions, they just work differently most of the time.” She would try to explain
“I do have an apathy setting though, leads to something much worse when it gets flipped however.” She would shrug afterwards, not really caring if Sil understood or not.
Silhouette thought that that was a weird thing to say, but then remembered who she was speaking to. Having been present at the Graveyard, she understood that that wasn’t the worst of it.
“Is that so?” she eyed the empty drink she had.
“Sounds troublesome.”“It is what it is.” Penny would comment with a shrug
“Considering your... Competitive nature I take it your going to be participating in a match?” She asked gesturing towards the screen that was displaying the current Keijo match.
The assassin’s red eyes darted back to Penny.
“Things turned out that way.” she sighed.
“Though I wouldn’t say it’s because of my ‘competitive nature’ as much as I’d say it’s because a certain idol somehow managed to convince me it’d be a bigger pain not participating.” She explained to Penny, pretending there wasn’t a different reason for her participation.
“Still, the reward is well above what I’d expect out of something like this, so I suppose I’ll do what I can. Though I don’t believe I can buy coffee with it, two gold coins is still nothing to scoff at.” “Somehow I doubt you’re the only one whose gotten roped into participating.” The mechanical girl would say picking out another pair of ice cubes, wondering which Idol it was that could push Sil into Keijo.
“But I agree the rewards is rather a good incentive. The second gold just required more than I’m feeling like giving. Still, depending on who your up against, I’ll try and root for you.”“And is there a reason you like coffee so much?”Because my FC is Joker who lives in a cafe that is known for its good blend so lmao“You learn to love it if your life depended on it like mine did.” Sil responded, her lips slightly turning upwards into a smile, presumably because she was thinking about that which she held dear.
“I was never allowed to have my internal clock settle because my schedule, back when I was just a normal person, was never consistent. Early mornings, late nights, all-nighters. To try to do so in a mortal body like that was suicide, so it fell upon coffee to accompany me through that hell.” she did speak as though she was reminiscing about an old war buddy, or something of that nature.
“Helps that it’s a rather mundane and nondescript thing to favor. All sorts of people enjoy coffee, after all. Businessmen, athletes, teachers, police officers. Kept me from standing out, which is something I tend to prefer.”Sil, perhaps realizing she speaking a lot more than was typical, cleared her throat.
“I suppose I enjoy the taste quite a bit, as well.” she said, pretending that she did not need to intentionally stop herself from going on about it.
Penny couldn’t stop a small smirk from forming at Sil’s explanation, more so because it was perhaps the most emotive she’d seen the rather stoic girl.
“You’ll have to show me where to get a good cup in Penrose sometime” She’d say offhandedly
“Used to drink it back before, but it just doesn’t taste the same anymore”Samantha nodded.
"Assuming circumstances allow us, I wouldn't be averse to doing so." she agreed. With them having spoken for a good few minutes, Silhouette imagined it was nearing the time when Shade would come retrieve her. She did not bother to order another drink as she waited.
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