Inedible

Secundi Lux

The chunk of concrete that Selma launches skyward intercepts the ball of darkness racing toward the tower with a spectacular detonation. The concussive force released when the two meet is visible in the air, a distorted plume of darkness as the stone is erased from existence. The tower, for the moment, is safe.

It affords Crystal time to start hauling wounded soldiers down to the bottom of the structure, the operators likewise making a hasty exit after giving the order to evacuate. The husk of the observation room is soon cleared out, flickering monitors and beeping displays left behind as the crew moves to the street below.

And while she does Rivka takes up position, two sharps cracks of her rifle echoing out in the wake of the earlier detonation. The first red streak connects with the tall Void’s center mass, and the second with the arm half-raised to defend itself. The force of those two impacts are enough to sheer the spindly creature near in half; it’s right arm and shoulder are torn from its body in a splatter of black mist, vanishing abruptly into thin air.

The second volley, Selma’s next round of debris, is less destructive. Still, the makeshift projectiles find their mark with enough force to send the Void flying. It tumbles backward, vanishing over the side of the building.

It’s not immediately clear if the monster is gone, but the answer comes soon enough. It’s only a minute later that the Void appears on the street below, lurching into view of the Crystal, Chie, and the officers gathered at the base of the tower. The empty space where it used to have an arm has already regrown a vestigial sort of appendage, a long and whip-like span of darkness that’s swiftly growing back into the long limb it possessed before.

The more intact of the two appendages is raised toward the group of soldiers and Ars Magi across the street, and this time it conjures more than one of those explosive spheres. They come in a volley of three, each launched at alarming speed across the intervening space and toward the small cluster of individuals in front of the tower.

The Void’s hand rises again to begin conjuring more in their wake, another two spheres half-formed in front of it before something--someone--stops it.

The first girl emerges like a blonde bolt of lighting, leaping into sight from an alleyway near the Void. Electricity crackles around her metal-clad fingers, discharging in a brilliant flash of light when her fist slams into the explosive-hurling foe. The force of the blow is enough to take the Void off its feet, it’s tall frame tumbling across the street.

It comes to a stop a few feet away before it begins to rise once again, pushing itself to its feet.

“Aoife!” Calls the lightning Ars Magi, “Go!”

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

The smaller snake-like Voids scatter under the force of Penny’s hammer, several smashed flat or blown away by the blast that comes with the explosive impact. Dana’s stars protect her and Penny from being swarmed by the rest of the serpents, blasts of light shearing a dozen of the void-spawn in half before they can swarm over the two girls.

The spindly Void’s ascent is made more difficult by the winds buffeting it, the currents shaking both it and Astrelle as it rises higher into the sky. Dark wings flap and fight against the interference, beating in wide sweeps as it makes steady progress upward. It’s near three stores up when Nicole meets it in the air, launching from the railing to strike at the claws grasping her dark-haired roommate. Her blade sheers through the lower half of the monster in one clean strike, sheering away the Void’s feet and freeing Astrelle from its hold.

The monster legs out a shriek as Nicole sails past it, venting its rage into the empty sky. Astrelle’s savior finds her flight suddenly interrupted soon after; one of the Void’s long arms extending to crash into her midsection before she can completely escape its airspace. Claws dig into her skin and parma as the creature yanks her backward, whirling her through the air and flinging her like a red-haired stone cast from a sling. She plummets abruptly toward the street, her new flight-path taking her toward the concrete at vicious speed.

The Void follows after, whipping around in the air and dive-bombing in pursuit of the prey that it's just flung. It descends rapidly, mouth opening to display row after row of razor-sharp teeth. Once Nicole crashes to the ground it’ll be atop her, ready to rip and tear into the Ars Magi.

Alarmingly, by the time it lands the Void’s lower half has already started to regenerate. The hole punched in its chest earlier by Dana’s blast has likewise begun to stitch itself together, the empty gap now stitched by goopy black threads.

Secundi Lux

@Write sorry it took some time to get back to you, I missed the notification on your post.

Anyway, I like it! The only note I really have is that Aoife's family wouldn't have to save up to go to send her to Nova Lux, it's basically mandatory as long as you test magic positive.

Other than that I don't think there's anything to mention. If you're still interested I'd be happy you have you join us. You can drop in to the discord server here when you get a chance.

Secundi Lux

One by one each Void falls, either to burning heat, biting cold, crushing earth, or cutting steel. All are reduced to darkness, returning to the fog that blankets the streets and alleyways of the broken-down district. Rivka, Crystal, and Selma all are allowed to make their return to the tower to watch the next candidate, and all can see Chie’s victory and injury from the windows of the observation area.

“Masuzu,” Comes the voice in Chie’s ear. “Re--“

The rest of the order never comes. Inside of the tower the consoles light up in rows of red, their displays flashing with information. A voice is raised in sudden alarm:

“Nox levels are spiking! Something is--”

| Music: Primitive |

Anything else is swallowed up in the detonation that follows. Glass and concrete explode inward as one of the tower’s corners abruptly vanishes, crumbing under the concussive force of some outside influence. The force of it reverberates violently through what’s left of the room, hurling both officers and the three Ars Magi inside off their feet.

Chie can hear the noise from the street below, and when she turns back she can see the extent of the damage: A chunk of the observation room is split open, a visible hole having appeared in the wall. When the girls inside regain their footing they can see the same from a much closer view, an empty space where a wall once stood.

The source of the blast isn’t immediately obvious, not until one of the operators calls it out. Both Chie and the girls in the tower can see it: A little more than a hundred feet away, perched on the top of a half-collapsed rooftop, is a Void.

It’s taller than the others, perhaps seven feet, still almost humanoid in shape. Strange tendrils emerge from its ink-black head and pulsing red lines can be seen on its outline even in the afternoon light. From its torso stretch a pair of dark elongated arms, and between its oversized hands the Void has conjured a roiling cloud of Nox that it weaves into a basketball sized sphere of solid black matter.

A sphere that, once complete, launches with explosive force toward the top of the observation tower. Each of the newly minted Ars Magi can see it coming, traveling toward the group above ground at alarming speed.

Void - C-Class

While military forces are capable of containing D-Class Voids with great effort, C-Class entities are generally the purview of Ars Magi. Basic magitech weapons are completely ineffective, and these some of these Voids are capable of even withstanding blows from Ars Magi weaponry.

C-Class Voids typically demonstrate the power to alter their own bodies and are also likely to possess some small-scale reality altering abilities. Experienced Ars Magi find these types of Voids a manageable threat, but they may be considered an adequate match for an untrained Ars Magi.

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

Penny’s rollerblades are quickly proving themselves invaluable assets as she glides across the ruined street, mere inches ahead of the black tendrils that chase after her. Concrete and steel crack and bend under the force of the impacts, each rubbery arm leaving behind a destructive indentation in whatever surface is touches.

The situation changes once the other girls take the field. It’s the blast from Dana’s Gladius that leads off the incoming attack from the other magical girls, the bolt of light spearing into the center mass of the spindly Void. That brilliant ray of light leaves a gaping hole behind, a fist-sized gap in the black mass. Yet unlike its lesser kin, that one blast isn’t enough to expunge the monster from reality.

Nicole’s plan, to herd the monster toward her blade, seems solid—until it becomes suddenly clear that the Void isn’t limited to the same methods of movements as its enemies. The blade of her sword and the shearing winds that sheath it find only empty space as the creature moves past her in a blur. Past, and above.

Astrelle gets a clearer picture as she emerges from their enemies’ grounded shadow. It’s long arms spread wide, beating once as they transform into ragged looking wings that launch it into the air. The blade of her scythe drives into its lower half as it makes its escape, but the creature twists toward her as it rises. It’s clawed feet hook into the dark-haired Ars Magi, grasping her tight and taking her captive as the Void rises into the sky.

As it ascends higher one of those wings makes a violent sweep toward the ground below, flinging chunks of inky black flesh toward the girls remaining on the street. Globs of Void-flesh rain downward, each elongating and growing mouths full of vicious looking fangs. By the time they hit the concrete each blob has transformed into a writhing serpent, slithering and lunging for the Ars Magi nearby. There are nearly a dozen in total, each fanged mouth promises a grievous wound should the Void-spawn manage to entangle their prey.

Secundi Lux

@Vega7285 sorry for the late reply, but yes, we're still looking for one more player.

Feel free to read up when you can and submit an application if you're interested.

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

One by one each girl undergoes their trial, oily black puddles and shattered marble cores left in their wake. Exuberant or weary, each of the first four newly minted Ars Magi are welcomed back to the observation tower to join the rest and the small outfit of officers overseeing the procedures. Congratulations are given, though there’s no doubt a more formal ceremony to come later.

From that tower the four other girls get to see Penny strike the final blow against her last opponent, the force of it dislodging brick and concrete as the last Void returns to inky mist. The ruined street becomes quiet once again, just crumbling brick and thin tendrils of residual Nox.

“Grenoble,” Says the staticy voice in Penny’s ear, “Return to tow—”

| Music: Primitive |

She doesn’t quite hear the end of it before something lifts her off her feet. The pain comes just a moment later, along with the deafening crash of her impact into—and through—the wall of the crumbling building on the opposite end of the street.

The girls in the observation tower get the best view of how it happens. They see the hand emerge from a nearby alleyway, and the arm after. They might expect a body to appear soon after, but it’s just arm, and then more arm, an impossibly long and ropey black appendage that plunges through the air and smashes into Penny’s chest. The force of the blow rips the small Ars Magi off her feet and propels her across the street, bricks and concrete exploding as it carries her through the wall and further inside.

She doesn’t stop either, not until she hits the interior wall on the opposite side. It’s only after several seconds more that she becomes cognizant of the pressure on her chest and the obsidian fist that’s gripped her just below the throat. She can see the long length of the arm pinning her in place, and only has a moment to consider her sudden displacement before the arm begins to retract. It drags her with it, back onto the street, flinging her to the pavement.

She and the viewers from the tower can see the arm retract afterward, and the thing it’s attached to emerge from the alleyway Penny once stood next to.

This Void is different. Still humanoid, but even taller than the last ones; somewhere around eight feet, made a little lower by the bestial slouch it has adopted. It’s head is bestial and square shaped, and flowing white strands of what might be something like hair trail behind it. Geometric lines trace over the black skin, pulsing a vivid purple even in the daylight.

“Nox levels are spiking!” Comes the voice of the operator, rising sharply in surprise. “An unknown Void has entered the field!”

“Boost the diffusers.”

“Boosting—Void is still active—picking up multiple high class void manifesting in the training area--”

Several more seconds of shouted orders, and then the officer in charge turns toward the Ars Magi in the tower.

“Noel, Cognoscenti, Lennox.” Fingers point at the small squad. “Assist Grenoble.”

With the order given the doors to the tower are opened for deployment once again. The thing is waiting, and as they Ars Magi take the field it turns to them to open its maw and let out an inhuman howl.

Their enemy is waiting.

Void - C-Class

While military forces are capable of containing D-Class Voids with great effort, C-Class entities are generally the purview of Ars Magi. Basic magitech weapons are completely ineffective, and these some of these Voids are capable of even withstanding blows from Ars Magi weaponry.

C-Class Voids typically demonstrate the power to alter their own bodies and are also likely to possess some small-scale reality altering abilities. Experienced Ars Magi find these types of Voids a manageable threat, but they may be considered an adequate match for an untrained Ars Magi.

Secundi Lux

Introductions are made, and there’s an hour or so of time to kill under fluorescent lights before doctors return to check IVs and examine each candidate. Eventually, after a half-day of lying around, the girls are released from care and taken back to their dorms. The journey isn’t exactly pleasant, each having to get used to the aching pain and dizziness that comes as they readjust to moving on their own. There’s at least some relief once they make it to their dorm beds, a much more comfortable resting place than the hospital cots.

The next two days get better, but it comes slowly. The aches and nausea persist, as does the overwhelming lack of energy. The most offensive part of it all is that their Armagus seem, for the moment, entirely useless. No matter how much effort they make the small stones seem lifeless and dull, bereft of the magic that they were promised.

By the third day they begun to return to something resembling normal, just in time for the mission briefing in the assembly hall. A holographic map of the city is on display at the front of the room, slowly rotating under the touch of a uniform-clad woman at the front of the auditorium.

“The exercise will take place in the Palmyra Military Exercise Zone, or M.E.Z. There, under controlled conditions, your Armagus will be activated.” A pregnant pause, and the officer continues: “This activation will require the presence of a Void.”

Quiet whispers ripple through the crowd of assembled young women.

“We will be lowering the diffusion of Nox in the exercise area to a level sufficient for the manifestation of low-class Voids. Your Armagus, an anti-Void weapon, will respond accordingly. The exercise will be supervised by military personnel to mitigate the danger to yourselves, but I won’t lie to you: Any encounter with a Void has the potential for disaster.

This is your first real trial as an Ars Magi, prepare yourselves accordingly. Ignis aurum probat.”

---

𝙿𝚊𝚕𝚖𝚢𝚛𝚊 𝙼𝚒𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚢 𝙴𝚡𝚎𝚛𝚌𝚒𝚜𝚎 𝚉𝚘𝚗𝚎
𝙰𝚋𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝙳𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚌𝚝
𝙰𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚕 𝟷𝟻𝚝𝚑, 𝟷𝟷𝟽 𝙰𝚅
𝟿:𝟶𝟶 𝙰𝙼
Masuzu Chie, Crystal von Caelestis, Rivka Sokolov, Selma Rosmarie

Music: Tension

---

“Three. Two. One...”

The voice is small and static-laced, a quiet buzz from the earpiece you’ve been equipped with.

“Now lowering diffusion level. Nox levels rising.”

You stand in the middle of an abandoned street, rows of empty buildings hemming in on all sides. This is Military Exercise Zone, an older part of the city abandoned and later reclaimed specifically for Imperium purposes. It’s a ghost town, not a single soul dwelling within. The only sign of movement are leaves blowing in the chilly afternoon air, dried and brown foliage that rustles quietly down along the narrow streets.

The candidates have been broken into groups of five, the girls finding themselves together once again. Your companions wait in an observation tower some ways behind the exercise area, observing you the same way you did them during their respective turns.

But now, it’s just you.

“Nox levels still rising.”

Something is wrong. It’s like static in your brain, gentle at first, growing louder as time goes by. Things begin to feel fuzzy and indistinct.

“Manifestation of Voids detected.”

They look similar to the thing that attacked the Laurus. Humanoid, impossibly thin, inky black, geometric patterns etched along the flesh. Black clouds of Nox roll off their bodies as they take shape, three in total, seeming to blur and twist into existence out of the air itself. Air that is becoming steadily thicker as small wisps of Nox begin to form.

They advance.

The static is worse now, the world around hazy and indistinct. Hard to focus.

And then you feel it. A single point of clarity, something bright and powerful just barely within the grasp of your consciousness. All you have to do is reach your mind out and take it.

All you have to do is change.

OOC Notes

We’re getting a little wonky with time here to keep the pace flowing.

Not everyone is being tested at the same time. In fact, it goes one at a time and your character will be able to watch the members before/after you. However, it’s probably not exciting to just react for 3 posts or so, so we are handling them all together. For your reference, the actual order is: Rivka, Crystal, Selma, Chie.

Anyway, now's the time to transform! It's real magical girl hours. Feel free to narrate the entire fight from start to finish in your post.

Secundi Lux: A Magical Girl Game [Re-recruitment]

Secundi Lux

- - -

One hundred years ago the First Void appeared. A towering beast made of darkness itself, no one knows where it came from, but its goal quickly became apparent: The destruction of humankind.

From the First Void came Nox, the rawest form of what humans now call magic. Deadly in large quantities, Nox quickly spread and covered most of the planet, warping and twisting everything that it touched. Humanity was scattered, forced to retreat to higher elevations and behind hastily erected walls.

Until they learned to harness magic for themselves.

The Twelve Heroes were the first individuals born capable of harnessing raw magic. Together with the first magitech weapons they destroyed the First Void, ending the immediate threat to humanity.

In the aftermath of the Dark War the Novus Orbis Imperium was established by the first of the Six, an organization that would quickly take charge of the remains of civilization. They established, help fortify the Sancum Cities and became the unifying government.

However, though the First Void is gone the threats it left behind still remain. Where Nox gathers other, smaller Voids manifest. The Sanctum Cities are still threatened by periodic Void attacks, and not even the technomagic shields can always prevent the buildup of Nox.

That's where you come in. Ars Magi, transforming soldiers with the power to fight the Voids. Selected to be trained at Nova Lux Academy, you are the brightest hope for the future.

---

Hello friends,

I'm looking for one player to fill an open slot in an ongoing magical girl game. It's a de-constructive mishmash of post-apocalypse, military, and magical girl genres. You can check out further setting details here and the current thread progress here.

Thanks for looking!

For those interested, please post/submit characters in the game's OOC thread. Thank you!

Secundi Lux

They find a simple meal in the mess hall, enough to tide them over for the evening before they return to their bunks. They eat alone, left to themselves before their escorts return them.

The next day the four girls are informed that the Nox front has passed far enough that travel is safe once again. Their luggage has yet to be recovered, but they group is informed that if it is it’ll be forwarded after them. They are, however, on a tight schedule and set to ship out immediately.

The airship commissioned is smaller and sleeker than their previous transport, made for moving quickly between two nearby cities. The trip itself is only several short hours before the sprawl of Palmyra appears on a peninsula below them. In the early morning it’s easy to see the waves of inky black clouds that encircle the city, thick streams of Nox warded off by tall walls and glowing diffusers installed atop them.

The air is brisk and windy as they disembark from the airship, but they have little time to enjoy the fresh air or the sight of the waterside docking area. Within minutes they’re spirited away into another transport, driven through the hilly streets of the city and toward the northern side. Their destination is a large medical facility, clearly military in nature judging by the guards, empty parking lots, and enhanced security as they’re checked in.

Thanks to their earlier delay there’s no time to rest or check in at the academy before their initial tests, and the doctors get right down to it. Each girl is poked and prodded with a myriad of instruments. Blood is taken and physical examinations follow, mental evaluations made after that. The whole process drags on for what seems like half the day before, at last, each candidate is given the ‘all clear’. Each is given a time to report for their procedure tomorrow.

They arrive at Nova Lux academy in the early evening. It’s a sprawling stone building with wide glass windows, a lush garden, and Imperium logos decorating every inch. Across from it stands it’s the Imperium’s Officer Academy, the lights of that sister-school shining almost as bright as those coming to life around Nova Lux itself.

There’s enough time for a quick tour of the facilities before the girls are escorted to the dormitory buildings. They’re quartered two to a room, the rooms themselves of decent size for a dorm. Two beds, two desks, a small kitchen and bathroom, colors in muted blues and golds. Sleep will find them eventually, until each is awakened by the morning call.

It’s actually not until late in the evening until their surgeries are scheduled. Another consequence of their late arrival.

Each girl in turn finds themselves escorted deep into the bowels of Nova Lux, past secure doors and winding passages, deep beneath the earth into the forge where Ars Magi are made. They find themselves in a circular room, an observation area outside of a small surgical chamber. The walls gleam sterile white and the lighting is bright and harsh, reminiscent of the hospital that they visited earlier.
Several final checks are done, and the last thing each remembers is a small cluster of white-coated doctors gathered around them, and the gleam of metal instruments before they sink into darkness.

---

Unlike the other four girls, Sadie arrived at Nova Lux without any notable issue. The airship ride was a long and uneventful journey, finishing with the arrival at Nova Lux and a pomp-filled orientation for the newly arriving class.

She too had to take the scheduled medical examinations, physicals, and jump through the same hoops that the rest of the arriving candidates did. Like her classmates she was given the go-ahead, though unlike them her surgery was delayed a day. The reasons weren’t entirely clear, but it’s a day later and late in the evening by the time she’s finally escorted down into the bowls of Nova Lux.

Soon she too drifts away into peaceful slumber as the doctors do their work.

---

Each of the five girls awakes in another gleaming white room, each lying in a small hospital cot. Harsh fluorescent lights illuminate the sterile room, the rectangular space empty save for a table full of medical equipment and the beds containing the other candidates. The four latecomers may be surprised to find Sadie among them, a fifth and unfamiliar body.

Surprise, if it’s there, will soon give way to an uncomfortable soreness. Each feels like they’ve just finished a marathon, their muscles exhausted and nerves aching with dull pain. The fuzzy-headedness doesn’t help, and it’s not entirely clear if that’s a side effect of the surgery or the IV drips attached to each of their arms.

Underneath the blankets and thin surgical gowns something else has changed. Inset in each girl’s navel is a small and gleaming gemstone: their Ars Armagus.

There’s no sign of the doctors they saw earlier, though it’s likely they’ll return at some point. For now, however, they are left to themselves.