Shifter_Master

Beyond the Looking Glass: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

_{-More than meets the eye-}

@BrokenPromise@Rune_Alchemist

Elroy would only get one solid hit before The Engine would react. Rather than standing firm and taking the blows it rolled with the next one, violently. Its long body would be seemingly sent flying with the second punch, whipping out in an arc of devastation, uncaring of who or what might get hit.

It would catch, however, due to the firm grip Elroy had on its head, but that grip would be used against the supposed King. With its head as the fulcrum The Engine would continue its arc, causing it to wrapping around Elroy’s body like the metallic serpent it was. The odd angel of its neck would be no issue as its internal components shifted and reoriented themselves as it began to both constrict its prey but also use its many, many limbs to start tearing in to him.

And if one looked closely they would see the chained mandibles also reforming, weaving themselves into the chains that sought to bind its mouth closed. Soon it would begin to grind away at those as well, if it didn’t just lock them in place so that the arms Elroy was using to hold it were the ones trapped instead.

As the rain started to pick up, lightning would also flash overhead. Yet something about it was odd, it seemed like it was aiming solely for Penny and the cracks of thunder were far to delayed to be natural.

---

_{-A Kiss Goodnight-}

@Ariamis@BrokenPromise@t2wave@Vocab

Everything was starting to wrap up it with this fight, but the victory was bitter sweet. Fighting against allies always was, and the loss of another ally didn’t help much either.

The main man himself didn’t fight the soft gravitational attraction pulling him towards Abigail, his borrowed disguise having been blown away with the glacier crashing to earth. His heart went out to Abigail as he neared her; the power to feel emotions was a great one, it was just that sometimes the drawbacks were great as well.

“I’ll be right here the whole time” He would promise softly to the girl as he wrapped his arms around her softly, in a gentle embrace. He would not, could not, deny her this last kindness. He would be a perfect gentleman for her. Setting aside his own churning Hate for the one who did this to not only Abigail, but to Tonya, Divina, and Shona, they would face justice later.

Meanwhile the last remaining Clone to busy working the magic he had at his disposal to make sure lily and Rebecca didn’t end up smacking in to the ground. Lily more so then Rebecca as the spunky lightning girl had drained herself dry.

All the while grumbling to himself about lucky bastards always getting the rewards and how the clones never got any credit.

Beyond the Looking Glass: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

_{-War of The Monsters-}

@BrokenPromise@Flamelord@Rune_Alchemist @DarkwolfX37

As she trailed back from the kick the chain trailing from her launched arm would snap up and coil around the nearly severed limb on Elroy’s back. With a fearsome pull she would snap it free allowing it to fall in to her awaiting hand before recalling the appendage back to her with her new trophy.

The Engine would come to a stop much further away then would be expected from the simple kick it received, due to the hover system intentionally not being turned off causing it to glide far outside of simple reach.

It wanted to gain distance from Elroy, to gain a bit of time. It knew nearly everything about it the recovered limb, it had built the thing after all, but the properties that Elroy had added to it when he changed it were worth investigating.

The voice that called out in desperation washed over the Engine without any reaction from the monster. But it used the added lull to its advantage. One luminous orb kept tracking the primary target as its blank mask like face split and cracked open to reveal a churning maw of endlessly grinding teeth. Slowly and purposely it feed the metal limb into its maw, forcibly breaking down the metal, grinding and tearing it down to the most basic components. Analyzing everything it could about the metal in a way no organic mind could comprehend.

Across her frame the metal of its chassis took on a slightly onyx sheen. Now its weapons would never be able to be wielded against it again, a gift stolen from the enemy who used them against her.

The second the analysis was completed and integrated to its frame The Engine renewed it assault on Elroy. As it raced to meet the transformed Monster King, a rolling tide of metal reached the robotic incarnation of destruction. The metal from the cartoon train that Summer had conjured fused with it causing it to grow and change.

Choo Choo!

What emerged was a product of the Train’s memory of shape mixed with The Engine’s desire of destruction. Its serpentine body was kept aloft, and mobile, by a thunder storm of red hued lighting that arced between it and the ground. Along its length there were numerous limbs akin to centipedes’ legs or mantis’s arms. Each had a ragged razor sharp edge that could be turned in to a chain saw’s blade. The four grasping mandibles were wide open, revealing a maw of endless razor sharp churning teeth the envy of any industrial metal grind in existence.

The Engine had no qualms about meeting Elroy’s charge head on, bringing its countless limbs as it bear as it sought to envelop and tear apart the opposing titan. It also speared no remorse on any of the smaller minions that happened to be unlucky enough to get too close. As the tridents they carried were just one more source of metal for the Engine to utilize.

A high pitched whining sound would start keening from the Engine as it charged. The Gauss system was once again primed.

---

_-Magician-

@Ariamis@BrokenPromise@t2wave@Vocab

In the heart of chaos Aurelio shined. Simply because when things started to hit the fan, emotions start to flow freely from all parties involved.

His basic clones were purely on defense, harassing the cultists if they got to close ”Excuse you, I’m working here” and willingly tackling ”Time to Move!” or shoving ”Heads up!” the other girls to get them out of the way of the falling objects if needed. They were expendable and they knew it.

The solo clone was drawing as much magic as he could from the cast off Mana dust. With it he would start feeding the self-sustaining Hope loop the original had set up earlier. All of his allies would start become empowered, they would start moving faster, hitting harder, become tougher and just all around be better. “Fear the power of a Bard!”
If there was anything left after boosting the hope cycle as much as he could he would turn his magic towards cutting off Abigail from the Mana beast with whatever he had left.

Hidden as he was Aurelio worked towards getting closer to Abigail. Using his disguise and subtle magic’s to try and go unnoticed. He backed off a bit when he saw Lily’s incoming spell so as not to get caught with the back lash. He did add as much Frustration and Worry as he could pull from the air to it however, chaining the emotions together to bind Abigail and lock her in to a few moments of indecision, So that Jenna could work.

”Sorry about this”

Beyond the Looking Glass: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

_{-The end of the beginning -}

@ERode@DarkwolfX37@BrokenPromise@Rune_Alchemist@Flamelord

A silent scream radiated from Penny as she felt her limbs being torn from their sockets. She had struggled in vain when her own limbs betrayed her but now she was still she fell silently to the ground below. The fall seemed to stretch in to eternity as Penny’s mind started to overclock. Dozens upon dozens of things were passing through the robotic girls mind as she fell.

Pain was there, those spider limbs had been fitted deep into her frame. Tearing them out had done terrible damage to her back, leaving it a gory mess and had she been human it would have likely been a fatal wound regeneration or no. In the dim light the mesh of human and machine could be seen, as blood and other fluids leaked from her back and naked arcs of electricity leapt between the gaps. It hurt, but she had suffered worse. Even now her body was pulling its self-back together, but it would take time.

There was also hurt and betrayal. The revelation about Thalia earlier had been brought back to the forefront, as was her running away from Penny. All of it was mixing with this latest betrayal from Veronica. It wasn’t a betrayal in the truest sense, Penny doubted that Veronica meant for this to happen, but still the ex-coin broker had given her a poisoned gift, just like so many others had. She doubted she would trust the vampire again.

Fear lingered here and there. She feared for Alicia, about the harm that might be coming her way. Feared that her friendship might have been tainted by what Elroy had said. She was keeping so many secrets from the Alicia, and she feared that she would hurt her friend with them.

A part of her just raged at everything, at the unfairness of the world, at her Patron, and her own naivety and weakness. Mostly, however, there was exhaustion. She was tired. Tired of hiding things from the people she called friends. Tired of being betrayed, tired of being angry, of being depressed, of being spineless, tired of Laat and all his schemes.

She hit the ground with a dull thud and, for a moment, just laid there. Drowning in her own emotions.
When she stood it was in one smooth, silent, motion. Her eyes were a bloody red, nearly devoid of emotion and the dark blues of her body had faded to flat grays.

"Red A̴̺͑l̵̖̒ë̶́ͅr̶͚͂t̴̙́. Critical M̵̫̀ë̶̦́ḽ̶̅t̶̫̂ḍ̴̍o̶̫͒w̸̳͋n̸̂ͅ ̴̺̓Ĭ̴̲m̷̝͂m̵̮̓í̵̩n̴͈̽ë̵̲́n̵̟͆t̵̮̓.̶̦̄ D̷͞҉͏̡è̛͘҉̕s҉̶̛̛҉t́̀͘͢͜r̡ứ̧ć̸t̶̡̨͟į̛ơ̶͜͡͝n͏̡̛ ̴̵̛͞E͏̨ņ͏ģ́̕͠҉i̡͞͏̸͠n̴̢͠͝e͏̧̀ a̵̋ͅt 100%. Evacuate ṫ̵͉h̴͍̊ę̸͑ ̶͖͝a̴̱͗ř̷̡e̵̙͑a̴̟̎ ̴̝͌i̴̹͛m̸̳̕m̶̥̈́e̷͇͘d̵̋ͅị̸͂ately.

Killer Instinct OST - Type-03

Twin orbs of baleful light tracked Elroy as he rushed towards Alicia. The Engine waited only a second before Jetting off towards the monster boys open back.

As it crossed the distance, metal throughout the graveyard would twitch, The Engine was calling out. Calling to all the metal that would listen, drawing everything that it could to itself, but the call was not a loud one. Most Metal users would never notice the quiet and unending call the engine gave out, but it resonated with all metal, regardless if it headed the call or not. The first scraps to heed the call would start grafting to its back, sealing up the open wound and starting to rebuild the limbs that had been stolen.

Twenty feet out The Engine would begin its assault. Thrusting its left arm out there would a hiss of static before the forelimb was launched at high velocity towards Elroy’s wounded leg a length of chain trailed the limb ready to be retracted the moment the boy was within grasp. Its right arm stood poised to lash out with a vicious knife hand. Preferred targets were any of the limbs that Elroy had as his disposal, as the serrated chainsaw band that ran the length of the Engine’s limb would make short work of most of them if a clean hit was scored, and even a glancing blow would rip and tear.

---

_{-The show must go on -}

@Ariamis@t2wave@BrokenPromise

“One step forwards..” Aurelio sighed to himself as he and himselves dodged out of the way of the chain lightning as best they could. The loss of Rage was a disappointment, but not an unexpected one. The red garbed clone tended to get taken out rather quickly due to its relentless nature. He could try and make another on, but with his reserves as they were that wasn’t a good idea.

Then Lily’s hope shone forth like a beacon. The Sky garbed clone would lap up the Excitement like a sponge the emotions being close enough for the clone to get a restock. The main man himself wove the Hope around himself and Janet and Jenna before imparting just a bit of his magic to it and feeding it back to Lily. A simple spell as far as cost went; a self-reinforcing loop of hope was powerful even without magic effect added in to it.

“Alright gents! Let’s go!” He would shout pointing his cane at the emerged warlock. Six of his basic clones started rushing to mob the new foe before it could gain too much momentum. They were without spells, and by their nature fragile, but they knew each other as well as possible and had perfect teamwork.

Joy would stick to Jenna working to assist the Knight as much as he could on the plan they had hashed out in the quick meeting of the minds they had.

The last basic clone was off towards the powder that Rage has caused to spill out, he was off to find out if they would need to be wary of the stuff, thus was only aiming to touch the smallest amount he could find.

The true Aurelio would, in a sense, vanish. As while his clones were busy making a ruckus with the warlock, Lily and Janet were fending off the cultists, and Jenna aiming to get up close and personal with Abigail. Aurelio would pick up and put on one of the Cultist cloaks that lay litter around the battle field.

He was planning on staying hidden and assisting from the shadows with well-timed spells. Unless he ended up close to Abigail without being noticed, if that was the case he had a technique he could use to stop her in her tracks. He just massively disliked using it, and it would take him out of the fight as well. As it was rather hard to do anything when all you felt was apathay.

Beyond the Looking Glass: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

_{.:Now you see me:.}

Aurelio cursed under his breath at Abigails’s reaction. It sounded like she had misinterpreted what Lily was saying and was dead set on keeping her feelings the way they are. It was situations like this that affirmed his hate of brainwashing, because he could feel the warped emotions flowing from the turned Beacon member.

Then things started to get hard to follow. As he and his clones started to lag out for lack of a better description. He would be unable to stop the massive grin that broke out on his face. Leaning in to the temporal magical oddity He and his clones would start blinking around the battle field.

The main Aurelio was handing out spells to his few remaining standard clones that would wait a moment before casting them. Towards the cultists a few lancing rays of red and orange light were fired. The red would explode on contact with anything while the orange should start to erode what it hit. Every now and again a normal clone would pop up with a Yellow glow on its cane which would soon fire off yellow chains that would seek to wraparound and bind whatever they were near. All the while they would be chatting like they were in a gaming chat room with each other. Handing out praise and playful taunts to each other in equal measure.

The Sky Aurelio would turn his attention towards Lily and would quickly find himself at her side, fully aware that its chance of getting out of the gravity well would be small. “Hey, don’t worry I’m here to help” Sky Aurelio would say as it started to weave its magic, which would have a bubbly joyousness to it. It didn’t want to dispel all of the gravity magic that were affecting Lily. Just the compounding pressure that was making it hard to breath and the well that was dragging everything in, because if it could remove or tweak those, then a simple spell would give Lily the temporary ability to fly. After all who didn’t want to be able to fly? To this end it was willing to spend everything it had.

Rage was keeping its focus on the larger abomination, peppering it with angry bolts of red magic. Occasionally he would fire off a larger spell, when he felt its guard was down. Overall he was the one in the least danger of running out of gas as the moment. As Abigail’s anger was flooding the area keeping him fueled up, thus he just keep casting.

“Never!” one of the Aurelio’s would call out to Janet when she popped up; saving said one from getting a face full of magic fire. “You’re just in time” Another would add as it lagged by, leaving a magician’s mark on Janet as it did.

With the appearance of reinforcement’s the white garbed group of Aurelio’s would change tactics a little. Two would stick to Janet, providing what support they could with an occasional spell would grace their cane’s proving that they were in fact only clones.

The Core Aurelio would take the other clone and move to assist Jenna. After all Abigail’s safe return was top priority.

---

_{-Round two-}

Penny’s walk to the grave had been, for the most part, a silent one. She was almost singularly focused on her destination, and very little penetrated that focus. Small parts of her went back and forth on wither or nor they wanted to find something when they got there. As she could tell she was more unstable than normal, but that didn’t stop her from putting one foot in front of the other.

The only thing of note that happened along the way was of an alert prompt that would pop-up on Penny’s HUD. “Critical Integrity flaw identified” it would read, there was a small graphic of Penny’s outline behind the text with flashing red line indicating the problem areas “Initiate Repair protocol?” it would query after Penny and enough time to read over the data in front of her. With little more than a mental nod, Penny would activate the repairs. “Acknowledged”

It would take a few minutes before “Platinum resource used. Faulty systems shut down. Integrity once again reading optimal.” Another screen of text would pop up; listing a more detailed breakdown of what exactly had been done to her systems. She skimmed over it while she was walking through the thick fog that covered the graveyard. The only key thing that stood out to her at the moment was her energy blades had been deemed the root cause for the flaw and had been shut down to prevent a re-occurrence. It was a testament to her focus that she didn’t really feel much about the loss of her Platinum coin at the moment.

At last she finally broke through the smoke wall and could once again see. The sight that greeted her was of Alicia spring boarding off of what looked to be… Elroy? Putting aside the outfit change for later discussion The mechanical warrior wasted no more time and started to rush towards the boy. Small spikes would grow from her knuckles along with small blades at her elbows, her energy weaponry was off line but her body was still her weapon.

It was due to Penny’s eagerness to join the fray once she found it that allowed her to hear Alicia. It took less than a second for Penny to make a decision before she would release a Gauss round at Elroy in reply. Her goal was now the Crypt; if Elroy wanted to be the tool she used to break it to pieces he was welcome to it, but was currently between her and her goal. So she would go through him or over him, but for the moment he was irrelevant.

Lost in the sounds of combat there was a sound of a metal latch being thrown shortly before Penny’s legs start to glow as she kick started the hover system, causing her speed to spike as she sought to bulldoze past Elroy.

Beyond the Looking Glass: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

_{-Splintered Bonds -}

@Ariamis

The condensed blast of flames accomplished their job of buying time, Penny dodge on reflex, her mind still reeling from running into Thalia unexpectedly. Her following reaction had her blitzing across the roof top, desperate to try and catch up to the fleeing fox girl. She had seen the shift in Thalia’s gaze, the subtle hints in her stance, which spoke to the fact that it was her mental derangements holding the reigns and Penny desperately wanted to help her friend.

She would only make it half way there. Cindy had moved to stand in Penny’s way, stalling out the robotic girl’s frantic rush. Penny figured she could overpower the other monster girl, it would take only a handful of seconds at best, but that would take too long. She had gone on enough hunts to know, played enough games of tag, to know that she had lost her chance to catch her friend, because Cindy had stopped her for only a few moments.

Her eyes nearly turned completely crimson as she glared at Cindy, her entire body tensed ready to unleash havoc on the living bug zapper, for making her lose this chance at getting Thalia back. Her anger barely held for a second before she just slumped down like a puppet with its strings cut. Her eyes cast longingly at the last place she had seen Thalia. Venting her anger wouldn’t help, not if this other girl was going to actually try and help Thalia.

“She’s my friend, or at least she used to be” Her voice was tired and filled with hurt “We used to hunt together, shared a lair. We would spend our free time playing tag across the roofs.”Her voice was starting to grow shaky as she did her best to summarize her and Thalia’s time together. “But a few weeks ago, there was an encounter that I got injured in. She Redlined and got us out of there and when she woke up afterwards, she just… Ran” Penny was on the verge of tears at this point. Veronica’s taunting words were replying in her mind from seeing Thalia run away from her. Again. At the one who still held part of her heart not trusting her. Again.

Before she could breakdown, however, Penny forced herself to breath. Using the needless action to just set aside the sadness and hurt, same as she had done earlier in the day when she had learned the truth about Thalia. Same as she learned long ago to keep some semblance of control on her emotions. As she did her coloration would pale and gray drastically, pushing her appearance into the uncanny valley.

A monotone voice would chime out from Penny as she forced herself to be calm “Orange alḙ̷͒r̴̩̽t̴̝̂. C̸̰͛ȏ̴̬g̴̥̿ǹ̸̩à̷̧t̶̻͋ḯ̷͎v̴̯̿e̷̝̔ safeguards have M̴̛͙a̵̜̕l̶̯̅f̷͙͋u̴̢͋n̷̰̈́c̶̘̊t̸̠̕i̷͖͌ö̴͖́ǹ̴͍e̷͎̔d̴͕̀ D̷͞҉͏̡è̛͘҉̕s҉̶̛̛҉t́̀͘͢͜r̡ứ̧ć̸t̶̡̨͟į̛ơ̶͜͡͝n͏̡̛ ̴̵̛͞E͏̨ņ͏ģ́̕͠҉i̡͞͏̸͠n̴̢͠͝e͏̧̀ ̶̵̨̛ has reached 75%. Heightened Ḋ̸̯i̷̢͐ş̸̽c̶̗͒ṛ̴͝e̶̝̕t̸͈̍i̸͇̿ő̷̼n̸̹̓ required”

“I’ve been looking for her since. As I wanted to make sure she was okay” She would finish her entire demeanor uncomfortably calm compared to just a few moments earlier. Standing up she would return her gaze to Cindy. “Satisfied?” she would ask tonelessly before turning away from the supposed ruler to survey the storm clouds above the Graveyard.

Shaking her head she started to walk away, her destination obviously the Graveyard in the distance.

---

_{.:Smoke and Mirrors:.}

@Ariamis@BrokenPromise

Aurelio had originally volunteered to be part of the diplomatic detachment that was going to head to talk with Cindy Ford, and had been mostly relaxing and chatting with a few of the other members of Beacon while the tech crew worked to set the Teleportation coordinates.

Then a storm blew in from nowhere, and started setting off alarms all across HQ. Dozens of horror signatures were popping up at a local graveyard, and just like that the diplomatic mission was put on hold. The only upside of the horrors popping up was that it took only seconds to lock on to the Graveyard.

Without any further delay Aurelio warped out of Beacon HQ, along with a couple more girls from Beacon.

When he finally rematerialized he knew several something’s had gone wrong. The overpowering smog that was drowning out everything was his first clue really. That none of the others had landed with him was his second.

Hoping the others were okay He took stock of the surrounding, only barely able to peer through the black smog. He was able to make out another person not far from him and strove towards them. He was waving the smog out of his face when he heard them speak

"You...You're not Alex. Wait, are you...Tuxedo Mask? Without the mask?"

Causing him to break out in a wide grin “Glad to see someone else who can appreciate the classics, but no. The Great Aurelio at your service” He would introduce himself to Lily, just in time to hear Abigail’s crazed laughter.

“Hey! Me and Sally spent weeks looking for you Abi, but we couldn’t find any of you.” He would say in response as he started to stride towards spinning his cane in his hand as he did so. With a snap of his fingers a half dozen clones sprung to existence with a Red and Sky Blue copies in the middle of them “An address would have gone a long way to me having visited ya know!”

As Aurelio spoke his cane started to pulse with light and his clone scattered with most of the normal clones heading to harass the cult members with hit and run tactics mixed with perfect teamwork.

Red and Sky rushed at the large Horror, using the base copies as spring boards. Their cane’s glowing their respective colors.

The last clone tapped his cane to the originals, the glow transferring as he did so, before sprinting towards Lily “Don’t worry Boss, knows about the hypnotism” it would say before pointing his glowing cane at Lily “Have a boost” it would add as it discharged the stored spell. It was a mix of magician’s mark and an all-round stat booster.

“And lastly we didn’t run off, you guys did” The real Aurelio would start up again as he bounced on his feet as he did, his staff starting to glow a frightful Yellow. “After Elroy got smacked for getting handsy with Sally” It was the first step of Aurelio’s combat style, never stop talking and force the opponent to focus on him.

“I mean what kind of jerk does that to his friends?” He was eyeing Abigail closely as he knew he was egging her on. So he was prepared to defend himself for when she went on the offensive.

Beyond the Looking Glass: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

_-Contact-

Across the city scape, unawares of the issues she was causing Alicia by passing out her number, Penny was finally in sight of the roof top meeting. She was late by the looks of things, if the group of people she could see where any indication, but seeing as she had started from one of the furthest places she could have started from she felt she had made good time.

When she got closer to the town hall she scaled it with one great leap, the hover modules flaring to life moments before she landed giving her a relatively soft touch down. Her arrival would go mostly unnoticed as in the same instant the clouds would start to darken rapidly, and just as quickly as Penny had arrived many of the people who had arrived would start to depart.

“Gods damn it all” Penny would sigh as she looked in the direction of the graveyard, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was part of the grand Chaos that Laat was talking about. “I just want to talk with someone and…” her rant would trail off as she turned to look back at remaining girls that were still on the roof top. For she recognized on of the other girls up here, she was a mess but Penny would be able to recognize her anywhere.

“Thalia?” She would ask aloud too stunned to do anything else in the moment.

@Ariamis@Vocab

Beyond the Looking Glass: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

&

_{-It Begins -}

Penny let out a sigh as she looked across the open cave again. She was out of her depths when it came to tracking someone and she knew it, the fact she was hunting after a Beast spec just made it all the worse. But she needed to keep trying, for as long as she was in Penrose at least.

Shaking away those thoughts Penny walked the cave again, it was the most recent lair that ‘Vixen’ had abandoned, if Penny was reading the signs right. After all what she got from the Independent didn’t point directly to this lair, but she found it after searching around the last area the monster had been reported being sighted. The Vixen tackled an unknown magical girl and tumbled into the ocean with her. There was little evidence to go on, but searching around did bring her to this cave opening. There wasn’t anything that pointed towards where the murderous monster girl would go next. Nor was there much to point towards the girl that used to live here before Vixen removed them. Dried blood stains and piles of ash told a dark story of what had likely happened to poor girl and Penny couldn't help the fresh spike of anger at that, for as desperately as she wish that Vixen wasn’t Thalia she had a hard time separating the two in her head.

There was also the fact that she was running out of time, if what Laat had told her last night was true.

“Penny.” Veronica's voice startled her out of her thoughts again. “How are you making out with the lead I sent you? Did Mika tell you anything interesting?”

“Told you already” The robotic monster girl would reply once she was sure her surprise wouldn’t bleed over into her voice, she had forgotten that Veronica could open a channel whenever she wanted with the comms device she had been given. “Only got a name from Mika, lead me to a reporter from the Penrose Independent. Got more information from her, but nothing that points towards Thalia directly. Hell I’m not even sure if Vixen is Thalia yet.”

With an audible sigh Penny would move to sit near the mouth of the cave looking out towards the water “All I’ve got are lists of where Vixen was seen, and I’m not sure how to use that to find out where she will be, so not great over all to answer you first question.” Despite her frustrations Penny was somewhat glad to hear from the Coin Broker, as Veronica did offer to help find Thalia, and Penny did need the help if she was going to succeed.

Penny could hear the sound of footsteps coming towards her. Sure enough, Veronica was there in the flesh. She had her hand to the side of her head. “Right, I forgot you told me that part already.” She folded her arms behind her back before walking deeper into the cave. “It's been a busy morning.” Veronica approached the bloodied wall and placed her hand on it. “Seems like you're making headway though.” she turned around to face Penny. “If they handed you a dosser, I wouldn't mind looking at it with you.”

“Doubt the days are going to get any easier” Penny would reply fishing out the folded papers she had gotten from Olympia “This is all I got from the PI” she would explain before tossing it to the more experienced magical, not bothering to stand up “Not much of a dossier, just a list of info and names of who reported it.” Veronica caught the papers with one hand and folded them open in front of herself.

“Mind if I ask what has you busy?” Penny would ask as Veronica looked over the papers. Partially out of curiosity, but mostly to try and take a break, mentally, from hunting down her old friend.

“The mint decided to let me go.” Veronica didn't look up from the pages as she responded.

Penny just blinked at that admission, and when she finally wrapped her head around it she couldn’t help the laugh that escaped. “That sonva bitch” she would say shaking her head “That explains part of why Laat told me not to care about the Mint any more”

“Follow up question if I may, what did you do that ticked off the Mint?” She would ask as she stood up rather curious as to what might have happened.

“Long story. Let’s focus on this first.” Veronica folded the pages in half and passed them back to Penny. “So they witnessed the Vixen chase someone off a cliff and into the water? I remember reading about that.” She extended her hands out and laptop appeared in her hands. It took her just a moment to brush the black tar off of it before running a search on it. “There's an article about it on the Independent's old server. Yes, apparently a magical girl was chased into the sea. The witnesses remained on the scene for hours to catch the vixen when she resurfaced, but she and her victim never did. Interesting.” Veronica gave Penny a sideways glance.. “So if she never came back to shore, then the victim couldn't have been killed in this room. But we have an unexplained blood stain that we need to demystify.” Veronica opened the lap top again. “Also,I'm not in a place to critique the independent, but doesn't a cave with a bloodstain in it seem like a strange thing to miss? There's no mention of the cave anywhere in this article. Though perhaps even more interesting, they have a picture of the cliff side, and the cave isn't in the picture.” She shut her laptop. “So how did the Vixin manage to take her prey into the water, and surface in a cave that didn't exist at the time?”

When Penny looked around the cave, she could see claw marks all along the walls. It could have been a mad creature flailing against the walls, but it could have also been.. “She dug it out” Penny would mutter quietly as she ran her fingers across one of the claw marks on the wall.

Turning sharply she surveyed the cave again but this time she called forth her divinely gifted knowledge as she started to mentally rewind the cave. A theory was starting to form in the cyborgs mind, but she was missing pieces “Vixen dug the cave out, possibly from the inside” She said again louder as she started analyzing the stone walls of the cave before narrowing her eyes at the sandy floor.

There was a soft metallic click as her hidden metallic limbs unfurled from her back and in the same moment started to probe deeper into the sand. She was looking for a tunnel or something like it, it would explain how Vixen got from the water to inside the cliffside

Veronica nodded. “We also don't know anything about the victim. It's possible they had a specialization that helped them dig this cave to escape the Vixen. Regardless of what theory you go with, we're standing inside someone's grave right now. And if they didn't enter from that entrance...”

Penny had dug pretty deep, but managed to hit the true floor of the cave. With a bit of searching, she found a hole that lead deeper into the earth. What made this hole interesting though was that it looked like it was filled with rocks. As soon as Penny moved a few rocks out of the way, she could see the remains of an ornate wooden flute. It appeared to have been smashed under the rocks.

“You found something?”

Penny didn’t reply, she barely heard the question, her eyes were riveted to the broken flute she had uncovered. Slowly she knelt down and gently picked up the shattered fragments of wood, hoping she was wrong, praying it wasn't the flute she thought it was, wishing that it was just a trick of the light.

But she wasn’t, she knew this flute, could recognize it anywhere. After all it was Thalia’s healing flute. An artifact she had used a few time to help her friend and a hunt. Now broken and buried in a cave that Vixen had dug.

That would mean Thalia was… That she had become… her friend was… Thalia was… Vixen.

There was a soft crash as Penny fell against the wall of the hole she had dug. She was holding two of the larger parts of the broken flute in her hands, staring at them hopelessly.
She stayed that way for quite some time, unresponsive as she tried to come to grips with the revelation about… about Vixen. That she had proof now that they were…

Forcing out a breath Penny simply set aside her emotions, she couldn’t deal with them, not here not now. Not without tearing the cliff face apart. So she set them aside, she wouldn’t forget, she would just ignore them for now. So she could either break down in peace or rage and vent in solitude. But that would come later, when she got home.

“Yeah, I found something” Penny would call out in answer, her voice wavering as she did. She would slip the mouthpiece of the flute in to one of her storage compartments as she did, so she would still have proof later. She held the other piece up so that Veronica could see.

Veronica had moved to the edge of the hole Penny had dug. “I see.” She jumped into the hole with her. “Well, if you found something that belonged to the killer, it's just a matter of time before you find the Vixen. Otherwise, it might point to their mysterious victim.” Veronica adjusted her collar before putting her hands behind her back. “Say Penny, do you remember that story I told you while you were building the Earth Bastion?”

Penny would push herself to standing as she nodded her agreement of what Veronica had said in regards to it being a matter of time till she found her quarry. “I know whose it was” She would admit before turning to face the ex-coin broker “And yeah I remember” she would add narrowing her eyes is suspicion at the sudden change of topic. “Why do you bring it up?”

^{*For you kids who weren't around for the last RP, Veronica visited Penny and told her a story about being a former Beacon girl who went on to have a forbidden romantic relationship with a monster girl. The monster girl had a debt placed on her head by mint, so Veronica left Beacon and joined the Mint, offering to pay the debt that was owed. The monster girl left her afterwards, never to be seen again.}

Veronica Paced around penny. “I told you that story was a farce, didn't I?” She waved her hand. “I wanted to instill in you a lesson, that you were gullible and needed to be more careful. I think it's fair to say you've grown a bit since then.” Veronica spun on her heel so that she was facing the cyborg. “But that was a lie. That story was true all along.”

Penny turned to keep her eyes on Veronica as the older girl paced, unsure of what was going to be said. To hear that the story she had been told was, in fact true, had to monster girl rock back on her heels for a moment.

Then came the doubt and the anger. Because it was so easy to believe that Veronica was once again messing with Penny, trying to teach the girl another lesson. So Penny stayed still as she searched Veronica’s face, searched for something that would help her identify what was truth, the only sounds that came from here was an odd metallic latching and unlatching.

“And why should I belive you now?” She asked softly, nearly pleading, because she wanted the story to be true. Wanted to be able to trust that Veronica understood the pain. Wanted to know she wasn’t alone, and to have proof that life still goes on, but Veronica had taught her first lesson well, and Penny couldn't just blindly accept such a turn around anymore.

”Look on the bright side. Regardless which is the truth, you know I've been honest with you at least once.” Veronica tucked her hand behind her back. ”Even though I'm not affiliated with mint anymore, I will still grant you aid in chasing the Vixen. Perhaps I’d like to see one of us get closure?” She shrugged her shoulders. ”Regardless, it's important that you know the Mint still has you in their clutches. I'm not sure if they will pursue you for being one of my former agents or not, but this is something you should be aware of.” Veronica spun on her heel again. When she stopped, she was looking over her shoulder at Penny. ”Maybe they'll even send you to kill me.” She looked ahead and walked out of the pit. ”Turning against one's own patron isn't for everyone, but I feel liberated not working in their shadow anymore.” Veronica seeped into a shadow and disappeared, but not without a few parting words. ”You might want to try it sometime.”

As with their last meeting Penny would stay very still, not bothering to respond to the girls parting words, until she was sure that Veronica had left. Sighing she ran a hand down her face, the silver lining in all of this was that she could finally tell the Mint to piss off if they came looking for her. She had no intention of working for them ever again. She also longed for the very freedom that her… acquaintance had just gained. Slowly an Idea was starting to form in the robotic girls head about how she might be able to go about fulfilling that desire.

Before she could get too lost in the forming plan an enchanted voice would echo across the city jarring her from her thoughts. Sighing again while shaking her head Penny would turn to look out of the cave again. “You weren’t kidding when you said everyone would hear the start.” She muttered to herself.

With a shrug Penny started to move out, intending to head to town hall to at least talk with this ‘Cindy Ford’ but would stop and cast another glance back at the various fragments of wood that were scattered about in the hole. Quickly and silently she would pick up every single piece of it she could find and place all of them in their own compartment. She would figure out what she was going to do with them later, it just didn’t feel right to her to leave them abandoned here.

With that task completed she would set off towards town hall. She could use the distraction form everything she learned here. As she left, one of her spider legs would lash out causing the cave to collapse in on its self, before slipping back into hiding.

On her way to Town hall, her thoughts would drift back to the conversation she had last night with her Patron.

---

Optional reading

&

- Around 2AM last night-

Deep in the interwoven scrap heap that hid Penny’s lair the mechanical monster was finishing up on a computer. She had been building the thing over the past couple weeks, both as a way to relax and as the first step in her preparations incase Boteg and his girls came after Penny.

She was just about to turn the machine on to make sure everything had been put together correctly when a chill went down her spine, and hardly a moment later a thunderous voice rang out

“My Lady”

It was the booming the voice of Laat’AlOFan

“I Come Bearing Good News. Chaos Is Soon To Visit Penrose”

“And how is that good news” She would ask, shaking her head as she leaned back at looked at her roof. She couldn’t see her Paton though it, but she knew he was there dominating the sky as he normally did.

“For, As With All Chaos, Change Both Great and Small Shall Be Left Trailing In Its Wake. This Also Means That A Change Shall Be Required Of The Deals That Have Been Struck”

”What Kind of changes?” She would ask tentatively, she had been burned by these changes before as one could never really tell if the changes that Laat worked to fulfill were going to be good or bad. As the deity didn’t truly care all that much so long as change happened and could continue to happen.

“Simply The Fact That They Are No Longer To Be Honored”

“So, everything with Beacon is just being dropped?” She would ask though clenched teeth, anger simmering at the thought of being forced to give up her friends. She knew something like this might happen, came with dealing with as fickle a patron as Laat was at times but that didn’t make the truth any better. “Does that at least mean that I can tell the mint to go to hell as well?” She would near demand, hopping that she would at least gain something good out of this horrible sounding change.

“Not All With Beacon, Though I have No Fear You Would Fulfill This Task Regardless, I Would Request That You Continue Your Vigil Over The Seraph. In Addition, though You Are Correct In Regards To The Mint, You Should Seek To Maintain A Good Rapport With The Ebon Vampire”

Relief would wash over Penny, she didn’t have to abandon anyone she was friends with and she got to tell off the Mint. Things were starting to sound better in regards to this coming Chaos if you asked her. So, protect my friend, and try to stay on the Coin broker’s good side.” Penny would summarize “Why them?” She would ask, more curious about Veronica then Alicia if she was honest.

”Alicia Holds A Key To Beacon’s Future Much As Veronica Holds One For The Mint, Thus Both Have Many Threads Connected to them.

Not the answer she was expecting, but one that fit what she knew of Laat, nodding her head she asked the next important thing ”Alright, when is this chaos happening?”

“Soon But Fear Not The Beginnings Of It Shall Ring Loud Enough That All Shall Hear Its Start. Before I Take My Leave, Your Requested Supplies Shall Reach You By Tomorrow Night. I’ve Included Some Additional Things That Will Be Of Use In The Coming Days. Fare Well”

There was another thunderous crash and Penny knew that Laat had left. Looking at her computer she just shook her head and turned toward her bed instead. Figuring she should try and get some sleep while she still could.
Besides she had plans to go out hunting at day break.

Beyond the Looking Glass: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

Janet and Penny

During the later half of the first week

Coming in for the day with Alicia, Janet tried to avoid the people that had clearly shown disdain for her. Thus far it hadn’t been too bad being back at Beacon. At least no one was trying to kill her, though that was only because the higher ups had made a verdict. Break a rule though and that could reverse pretty quick. Not that she had any plan to make that happen.

Through the hustle and bustle that was Beacon HQ she spotted her friend, Penny. Or Janet hoped that they were still friends. Before coming back to Beacon she hadn’t really returned any texts or calls which was pretty rude of her. Shuffling up she spoke quietly. ”Hey Penny, sorry about not responding to you. I was uh… I’m not sure really. Scared I guess.”

Penny would be startled from the book she was reading with and look up in confusion, at least until she saw who it was, for while Peny was slowly starting to be treated better by the majority of Beacon it had only progressed to the point she was ignored rather than treated with suspicion. ”Hey Janet” she would reply with a smile as she closed the book. A glance at the cover revealed that it was an introductory book to the types of magic. “Don’t sweat it, things have been rather crazy for you the past bit, and being put on trial can’t have been easy” she would add brushing aside the apology as unnecessary.

“What’s your plans for today? I’m on standby till Five or so” Penny would ask glancing at the clock on her HUD as she did. She often floated around Beacon’s schedule, filling in for injured or sick girls and when no one needed to be filled in for she stood on standby for a block of hours, doing research unless she got called for.

Penny not seeming to have been worried about the issue made Janet feel a little better. Glancing at the clock across the room the blonde shrugged a bit. ”I don’t really know. I’m supposed to stay with Alicia when on mission. I don’t think they really want me out of sight right now.” She said frowning. ”I can’t blame them though. I hurt them all, even if it wasn’t me in control.” Dropping her hands to her sides. ”Might be nice just to go out and chill. Haven’t been able to do that in a while.”

Penny didn’t bother trying to hide her snort “I can blame them” she started standing up “You were tagged by some seriously messed up magic and they have the audacity to pin the blame on you” she let out a huff and shook her head. “Thank the Gods for people like Alicia”

“I’d be down for a hang out if you want, here or elsewhere. They’ve got my number if they need me” Penny would offer, she knew from personal experience just how exhausting it could be to always be on edge around people who are supposed to be friends.

It wasn’t surprising for Penny to take that stance. But Janet really didn’t want to talk about that experience, not here and now anyway. ”I think I need a break from this place. I could stand to just get something to eat out somewhere like a normal person.” Heading to the exit, Janet stealthily slipped her backpack off and left it inside thanks to her Incognito. After getting outside and down a couple blocks she summoned it back to herself, putting it back on her back. That bit wasn’t as sneaky but she didn’t really care if Penny saw it.

“Lead the way” Penny would say leaving the book on the couch she had been resting on, someone would return it to the library they had here. She held off in pulling on her disguise till they were closer to the edge of Beacon property, trying to make sure they had as much time as they could get out of Penny’s time limit.

Stretching and looking up into the sky Janet let out a heavy sigh. They were walking about, the people around them not thinking anything of the two girls even as they talked. ”You know, when I originally became a magical girl I thought it would be a second chance to make a difference. But so far it’s almost as much of a curse as it is anything else.”

“I take it Beacons recruitment department has better funding than their PR department then?” She would joke, double taking at the reappearance of the backpack, before shrugging it off. “Still, I get what you mean.” She would continue after a moment “Especially as I wasn’t given much of an option, just dropped in to the deep end.” with a silent sigh Penny pushed away her thoughts, she was here to help out Janet, not revisit her growing list of grievances “Mind if I ask what brought this up?” she would ask “Or is it the obvious?”

Rocking her head back and forth a bit Janet tried to form her thought into words. ”I didn’t choose to take on this whole thing to be put on trial again. I never wanted a repeat of my first life. Now the people I’m suppose to be working with hate me. Or some of them do anyway. I figured you would understand coming in from the outside.” Relaxing a bit after looking tense she waved off the issue. ”Is what it is though, I guess. Things are changing. Just kind of wish I wasn’t a part of it.”

“The obvious, and yeah I definitely get the ‘hate from people you work with’ issue. There is a reason so few people in Beacon know what I look like when I’m disguised after all” Penny agreed nodding as she did “Upside, You know for fact that Alicia’s always got your back and it’s always good to know who your friends are.”

“Not much I can say in regards to being the lynch pin for change, other then I know it sucks, and having one of the Gods responsible for it on speed dial doesn't do much to help with that” Penny would remark scowling at the sky as she did so. “All we can do when faced with change is choose to grow or to break”

”I suppose.” The detail wasn’t something that was new to Janet. It was something that she had intended to live by. But at the same time she didn’t expect to be corrupted and made to do terrible things and face the consequences. Can’t really plan for that.

Janet walked silently for a minute. The conversation had taken a negative turn as far as she was concerned. Her thoughts went back to everything that had happened up to this point. Damn would it be nice to start over. No guarantee that would turn out much better though. Remembering the Coin she had the thought crossed her mind that she could use it. There were many unknowns to that. It was being tested after all.

So lost in thought for a bit the small girl was run into by a passer by. That wasn’t entirely uncommon, but it startled Janet and she yelled out. ”Watch where you’re going!” Even though she was in the body of a little girl she showed for a moment that that had not always been the case. The guy glared back briefly but didn’t waste his time responding. ”Dammit.”

“Jackass” Penny would call out as the man continued his way. She had been tempted to force an apology from the guy, knowing she likely could easily, but refrained, he wasn’t worth the effort. Didn’t stop her from picking up a pebble at tossing it at the guy though.

“You mentioned food” Penny would say after checking that Janet was okay “You pick the place I’ll pay” she offered figuring they could use a break from the topics they had just left.

”Right, I was already kind of getting us there.” The place Janet had in mind really wasn’t that far from HQ. In this case it was a burger joint. That wouldn’t seem too amazing but it was something that she, when she used to be a he, had much when in prison. Odd how a craving doesn’t die even after being free for a while.

They were seated in no time and waiting for their orders. Which left the time between to talk again. ”Sorry about just dumping all that on you. I just needed to vent.” Putting a couple fingers on her temple she shook her head. ”Enough about me for a while. What’s been going on with you?”

Once again Penny would wave away the apology “I get it, trust me I do. As for me” the monster girl sat back in her chair and thought for a moment, there was a fair amount she had going on that Beacon didn’t know about. Not that she was intentionally hiding most of it from them, just that it didn’t often come up.

“Well, at the moment I’ve been following some leads on The Vixen. She’s a monster girl that has been targeting Beacon girls for some reason. I’ve been building a computer as well, partly because I find it fun and partly to track the Dragon that wants me dead and I’m rediscovering the joys of having a crush and having that in the back of my mind all the time.” She would shrug “And I still find it bizarre that that sounds perfectly normal for me now.”

Managing a smile after a bit Janet seemed to relax. Aside from the magical nonsense it was nice to hear something kind of normal for a change. Leaning her elbows against the table she scooted forward. ”A crush? Anyone I know?”

Penny couldn’t help but chuckle, the fact she had a crush was the most interesting thing at the moment, not that she was tracking down a mass murderer, or that there was a dragon that was trying to kill her. No it was the crush, and sadly she would have to agree.

“Yes, you know them, no I’m not going to say who.” Penny would reply “Just realized it the other day, and no idea if she’d feel the same way”

Stopping to think for a moment Janet tried to think over who all she knew. Not that it was all that important to her per se, but it was something to occupy her at the moment. Penny tended to be all over the place though so it was hard to say what she was doing when not at HQ. The only thing that came to mind was that Penny and Alicia had gone out shopping recently. And Janet only really knew that because Alicia was supposed to keep an eye on her and was informed. Might be reaching to assume. ”Well I hope that goes well. Honestly never thought I’d have the opportunity to see young love again.”

“It’s just as interesting to experience it again as well” Penny would say unable to stop the smile spreading across her face as she indulged in the feelings for a moment “Also interesting to be able to keep a mostly steady head while crushing on someone” she would add setting aside her thoughts on Alicia, as best as she could at any way. She was also surprised that Janet hadn't tried to pry more, but was going to take the minor blessing.

“Heard you encountered a new coin of some type, if the rumor mill is to be believed” She would bring up instead “What’s the word on those?” though allied with Beacon Penny was often the last to be let in on the goings on that didn’t involve a fight of some sort.

Really shouldn’t be a surprise that Penny had heard about the new coin. Seemed information was hard to keep under wraps. Hell her own trial had leaked out hours after it was over. ”I don’t know all the details exactly, but supposedly it’s supposed to be able to change a magical girls, well, magic. We haven’t seen anyone use one yet though so hard to say exactly what that means.” Doing her best not to let on she had one at one point. During her original encounter with Binky she’d put the coin in her backpack and had been kind of hiding it. Beacon girls couldn’t have Black coins so she wasn’t sure what Beacon would do should they find her with a Red one. Thus far though it appeared that Beacon had taken interest in what the coin could do.

“Sounds interesting, wonder how the Beckoners are going to view it?” she would muse aloud. The robotic girl wouldn’t deny her curiosity in regards to this new coin, both as to how it worked and how common it would become.

Janet shrugged, not really able to offer any insight on that front. ”Who knows. Having a Black Coin is big time against the rules at Beacon, so they could take a similar stance.” Their drinks arrived and Janet took the opportunity to sip a bit of her sweet tea. ”Kind of hard to tell what the Beckoners will do right now.”

“With the Black Coin’s connection to Mint I don’t blame them” Penny would say as she fished out a piece of ice from her water to chew, pointedly ignoring the metaphorical weight her own Black Coin seemed to gain. There was also the point about the Beckoners, that gave Penny pause, as she did have a little insight about something that was coming due to her Patron, though she wasn’t sure if she should say anything.

Taking her time to much at the ice she came to a decision “I know a little about what they are up too” She would mention after crunching away her ice cube “Laat made another deal with some of them, and told me about it the other day. I don’t know all the details” Penny would lean forward talking a little lower as she did “But part of the deal was that I protect Alicia, from anyone, other Beacon members included. I think there might be a schism in the upper echelons of Beacon, and that it’s going to get messy, likely soon.”

Sighing and leaning on one elbow against the table the blonde shook her head. ”Not sure I need that many clues to see that potentially happening. I’m not sure how the leadership works internally, much less between other cities that Beacon occupy. But I can see at some point there being a conflict. It’s only a matter of what kind. I would hope cooler heads prevail. Beacon has huge potential to include more people. But it isn’t easy to turn such a large ship.” Pointing to Penny and then herself. ”Exhibit A. We’re allowed in but we aren’t quite part of the whole thing. Kind of makes sense for you, you do still have another patron so there is some potential for conflict of interest. But I think you get what I mean.” The waiter came back to take their orders and Janet stopped.

Ordering a full size bourbon burger seemed to confuse the man, but he took it nonetheless. Moving over to Penny he took her order, a double bacon burger, and promptly left. ”One advantage to being a little girl, eat a third of the meal and save the rest for later.” Janet quipped for a little lighter mood.

“All to well” Penny would agree to Janet’s statement about Beacon’s treatment towards them. She still saw the value of Beacon, living on the streets as she had before she came to Penrose taught her a lot about the rougher side of the magical world, but working alongside The Beacon reminded her that people are still people, magic or not.

“Nice” she would chuckle at the frugal advantage of being a kid again, before chiming in with “I’ve seemed to gained the ability to eat just about anything it seems. Everything from glass to copper wire, and I can’t even say it tastes bad, just different”

”Really? Guess I never thought about stuff that isn’t food tasting like anything.” Pondering it a moment she tried to figure out how that would give much energy. Then again, Penny wasn’t your usual magical girl. Often times she seemed more machine than anything else. The robotic girl was probably the most modified magical girl she’d seen. And that only ever seemed to be more true as time went on. Janet furrowed her brow a bit as something came to her mind. She wasn’t even quite sure how to put it and her tone conveyed it just a bit. ”What’s it like being mechanical?” Glancing up she was genuinely curious.

Penny opened her mouth to reply, but stalled out when she fully processed the question. “It’s… Hard to explain” She would get out finally a look of concentration on her face as she spoke “I’m aware of a lot more of what’s going on in my body for starters. A lot of the things that a body does naturally I can pull up information on, and watch the data in real time as it happens. Body modification works differently as well, I've got a lot more options, for example I’ve installed a chainsaw in one of my arms.” Penny would explain raising her right arm up a bit as she did.

“Senses are changed too, sight is cleaned up so I’ve got 20/20 again” She would smile at the reminder that she no longer had to wear glasses, they had always annoyed her when she was the one wearing them “Hearing I think is better, but it could be that I’ve just got better capabilities when it come to processing sound now. Touch and taste are screwed up when I’m unsealed“ She would explain tilting her head side to side as she recalled the things she was explaining “Everything tastes really bland, and it feels like i’m wearing heavy duty gloves all the time and smell is in the same boat as hearing.”

“There is also some really weird things, like I can hook up to anything that’s electronic if I’m close enough. Doesn’t matter if it’s got wifi or not, but I think that has more to do with the magic than anything else, and most of my memories are stored in my head like a computer drive, and if I try I can pull them up and re watch them, but otherwise my memory is the same. I’m better with numbers, unsurprisingly, as I literally have a calculator in my head” As Penny talked it wouldn’t be hard to see her genuine enjoyment of these weird quirks that came with being robotic.

Thus her hesitation before bringing up the next thing would be rather notable “The weirdest thing is that I think that I could pull up my own code, for lack of a better term” She would say face scrunched up as she knew that wasn’t right, but didn’t know how to explain it any better “And I think I could edit it if I wanted to but I’ve been afraid of finding out, as I have no idea what that would do to me.”

”Damn. That’s covers a lot of stuff.” Pondering the last part that sounded pretty risky. ”I don’t think I would mess with the code either. Take it from me, having your brain tampered with is not any fun.” Obviously Janet was referring to Justine.

“That’s only the stuff I know for fact, I’m pretty sure that there are still hidden systems built in, as my gauss system turned on back at the hospital for the first time so it wouldn’t surprise me that there are more surprises for me to find” Penny would reply taking a drink “And I know as well”

“One of the things I have learned is that my Monster is different from most, and it affects me differently because of it. When I Redline, I don’t ‘lose it’ like other monster girls do, I don’t go berzerk and black out.” As she spoke Penny would lean forward and clasp her hands together as she stared at the table as she seemingly got lost in the recollections what what it was like for her “Instead all of my emotions get a hard and forced shutdown, along with my humanity and all the other things that makes me human. When that happens all that is left behind is logic and the goal of destroying whatever pushed me over that edge. Nothing else. But I’m still aware, inside my own head and I can’t forget what I did or the reasons I had for doing it either.”

“So I know what it’s like to have my head messed with, it’s why I can blame beacon for blaming you. You're not you when stuff like that happens.” Penny would have a distant look on her face as she gazed at some memory from her past, before she gave a full body shake and put on a smile “Sorry. Didn’t mean to bring the mood down” she would apologise. Mentally berating herself for moping again.

”Don’t worry about it. I don’t expect we get the chance to talk about the things that haunt us all that often. I probably could with Alicia. But most of the others in Beacon I feel would turn me in for heresy or something.” Glancing around a second she sat up a bit more and leaned forward, lowering her voice. ”I know whatever was used to change me back from a monster girl didn’t completely get rid of the effects. I can still lose it if I go through metamorphosis or whatever they call it. It hasn’t happened yet, but I can feel it.

Their food arrived and Janet sat back as they were served. Taking the knife there Janet cut up the food like she’d mentioned and waited for them to be alone again. ”Not that it is for everyone, but I kind of wonder if there is a way to replicate that potion.” Taking a bite of the burger she wouldn’t elaborate unless prompted.

Penny sent a grateful smile at Janet, as the small blond was right. Penny hadn’t really had much of a chance to talk about a lot of the things that weighed on her when it came to the magical world and her curiosity was piqued by what Janet had said, but the food had arrived before Penny could ask about it.

“Wait.. Potion?” She would ask visibly confused “What potion?” As Penny thought about it she would realize she didn’t actually know what had happened to Janet, other than the brain washing, as she had assumed that the other girl had gone through a purification ritual. It was what had prompted Penny to start researching the rites in the first place after all.

”The one that… She paused absently eating and talking when she realized that Penny had no idea what she was talking about. Putting her food down she adjusted her attention back to her friend. ”That was used to purify me. As far as I know it was the only one that existed. But I was told it came from some magical twins here in Penrose.” Not wanting to get anyone they knew in trouble she omitted Alicia from the explanation. Maybe she was talking too much but it seemed she’d brought up something that Penny had taken real interest in.

“Didn't know there was more than one way to be purified” Penny mumbled as she turned over the idea in her head, moderately annoyed at her limited knowledge when it came to magic. She often wondered why Laat had intentionally left her so ignorant of magic. Was he trying to prolong how much time he had with his ‘Chosen’ or was it he just felt that the information wouldn’t have had any use to her due to her proclivities towards magic.

“What… What was it like getting purified?” She would ask after a moment.

That was an interesting question. How does one describe being purified? ”Hm. Give me a minute.” Sitting back Janet looked up at the ceiling as she pondered the question. After a couple minutes she piped up again. ”It’s um, hard to explain. I don’t know if it was because of the way I was purified but it felt like floating through space. Even though I was alone it was soothing and all the negative energies just seeped out into the void. It was amazing even though it was like being a speck in the universe.” It was surprising how hard it was to recall the experience. It was very out of body which was probably why.

Penny would smile softly at the imagery that the description would bring forth “Sounds like quite the experience” Sitting normally Penny would make sure to commit that description to memory; as it was now a lost hope for the robotic girl. Beacon could no longer help her become freed from her own taint, all because of their dealings with Laat. That fact didn’t hurt as much as she felt it should.

Watching her friend for a moment she poked at her food. ”Why do you ask?”

“I’m coming up on my first year anniversary of waking up as a monster” Penny would start, nibbling at her burger as she did “And due to the prick who is my Patron, I’ll likely never wake up as anything else. So I guess I’m just wondering what it’s like to be human again“ she would shrug somewhat helplessly at the end, not really sure how to explain how that made her feel. As it just didn’t have much of an impact on her, even though she felt it should have. Perhaps she was just numb to it at the moment, or perhaps it was the monster in her that didn’t care, but it was frighteningly easy to just accept the fact that she would forever remain a monster.

”A year?” Janet had only been a monster girl for a short time and she had hated it. She could only imagine if she had been that way so long. ”Well, if you want me to I can keep an ear to the ground for anything that can help.”

“Yup, same anniversary as me joining the magical community in fact” Penny would answer “And I’d appreciate it.” She wasn’t going to hold out much hope for anything being found, but she appreciated the gesture.

”Any time.” She said smiling as she picked up her food again and took a bite. While it was impossible to completely get away from the whole magical girl aspect, at least their time was more casual than the usual passing during some battle.

Beyond the Looking Glass: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

&

-During the first week-
_{-Dealing in the Dark-}

Penny checked the time on her phone again before she snapped it shut and sighed. She was currently at Penrose park, sealed up and sitting on a bench that overlooked the pond closer to the center of the Park. Nervously awaiting the meeting she had set up with Olympia. It hadn't seemed like it would be this nerve wracking a few days ago, when she set it up during a lax patrol she had filled in for the Beacon.

She opened her phone again to check the time, again, noting that it had only been a minute since she last checked, thus she was still a few minutes early to the meeting. Once again she snapped it shut and shoved in her pocket. She tried taking a few deep breaths to try and calm her nerves and it would work until she remembered why she was here.

Hunting Thalia. The runaway fox girls name still tore her up inside, but she was moving past it. Penny couldn't tell why, exactly, she was looking for Thalia. Closure perhaps, revenge maybe, she just felt she needed too, even though she had no idea how she would react to meeting her old friend again.

Phone check again, another minuet had passed, and it away it would go again.

After a couple more minutes passed, emerged into the lamplight of the park, originally obscured by the mantle of night. She was short, wearing what appeared to be the school uniform of a local establishment, over the top of which was a red jumper, flanked by a pinkish red backpack. Shoulder length, brown hair fell across her face as she approached the bench Penny sat on, her eyes casually, and somewhat purposefully, flicking across the darkness, scanning the park around them.

As she approached, she pulled out a pocket watch from the jumper, and pushed in the button on the top, allowing the metal casing to flip up and reveal the clockface. For a second she watched it tick, when, seemingly satisfied, she closed it again, and pocketed it.
"You're Penny?" she questioned, almost monosyllabically. Waiting for the response, she pulled her sleeves down over her hands, seemingly cold.

Considering Penny's nerves it was hard for her not to notice the other girl when she stepped in to the light, the girl’s appearance finally forcing Penny to calm down as she watched and took stock of the girl as she approached. She knew very little about the newspaper but had read over a few of their articles thus was more than a little curious about the types of girls that worked for them.

"Yeah, that's me" She would answer, moving so that there was room on the bench incase the other girl wanted to sit. "That should make you Olympia. Thanks for agreeing to meet." she would go on leaning back in to the bench as she spoke.

"You work with Beacon..." she responded, seemingly ignoring her comment, while looking Penny up and down, "And you're a Monster Girl. You're a Monster Girl, working with Beacon." their eyes locked as Olympia repeated her words, carefully selecting and speaking them, as though testing them out in some fashion, "You're a very strong Magical Girl, who was involved in both the Justine Incident, and, just a few days ago, the Stadium Assault."

Olympia's eyes flittered to the space on the bench, and she moved to sit - removing the backpack and gingerly smoothing out her jumper and skirt before she sat.
"You're one of the strongest girls I've seen." she said, simply, unfurling the top of the backpack, exposing a large amount of documents. Some appeared to be school books, while others were kept in various binders, kept neatly stacked and organised, "You must get tired, being connected with so many threads in Penrose." Even with a joke, the girls face remained neutral, almost weirdly so, "You want to to talk about the Vixen... do you have information, or do you want it?"

Penny wasn't surprised that Olympia knew about her, she had been talked about in one of the P.I. articles after all, but she was bemused at the oddly specific way the other girl was talking. That didn't stop her from snorting at the attempted joke though, as she did seem to be wrapped up in everyone else’s business.

Everything else was noted, but didn't seem to stand out to the monstergirl.

"I'm looking for information..." Penny would reply after a moment "And I might have a little bit of information about them, but no proof if I'm right" She would add shrugging away the odd way that Olympia talked, figuring it had something to to with the girls magic, something that Penny was never going to understand. "I'm trying to... Hunt her down. Anything that will help is apprecated."

"Hunt..?" Olympia asked, tilting her head slightly to the side as she said it, looking at Penny offhandedly in her peripherals, "You want to hunt the Vixen?" she reached into her bag, lifting one of the smaller binders out from its flap. With it removed, she shifted to keep the documents inside hidden, and flipped through a couple pages.

"I have..." she reached into her sweaters left pocket and removed a small recording device, and switched it on, "...some information regarding it. I have permission from the Boss to give it to you." Olympia briefly scanned a page she has stopped at, then flicked her eyes towards Penny, "But... Only if you can give her something as useful. I want to know what you know first."

"Yeah, she's been killing Beacon members and they are my allies" Penny would explain at the obvious questioning lilt to the reporters statements. "Plus if I'm right, I have unfinished business with her" And If Vixen was Thalia it was going to be a messy affair, but it was going to be that way if Penny met up with Thalia at any point from here on anyway.

The fact she had to offer up something in advance a shake of her head and a shrug of her shoulders. It was seeming like no one actually used money in the magical world except for the Mint. Never the less "Not much admittedly, at least not of who she is now, And as I said I might be wrong, but I might know who she was before she became a pyscho." Pausing a moment Penny shifted her attention to the lake before continuing "She started off as a Monstergirl, and she's not from Penrose originally. She was Patroned under a Deity, a Goddess of the Hunt by the name of Lothreen, and back then her drive was combat. I know she used to have a healing artifact and a purification one. Healing is in the shape of a flute, Purification is in the shape of a whistle, and she has a pair of dagger that were telescopic and I think the amulet she has was magical but I never asked but her magic is Beast and Fire."

She had tried to keep the hurt from her voice as she spoke, but wasn't too sure how succsseful she was. As the longer she went on about Thalia the more memories that would float to the surface. She stayed silent after she was done speaking for a few moments just focusing on breathing. "That's most of what I know about who she used to be. It going to be enough?" she would ask once she was sure she had pushed down the hurt again.

Olympia lifted one of the pages to look at the next, leaving the conversation in an uncomfortable silence for a half minute as Penny concluded her recount, seemingly oblivios to her discordance. She then tore both pages out of the binder, and placed it on the floor, to take out a flip phone.
"Lothreen... Goddess of the Hunt..." she repeated idly, whilst typing up a series of messages with rapid speed, "I have engaged with her once. She's faster than me, possesses Fire magic, and wields a pair of clawed guantlets."

With the final word she closed the lid of the phone, and turned back to Penny.
"The trackers haven't detailed anything regarding a Deity Patron, a flute, a whistle, daggers, nor Beast magic. Though..." for the first time since the meeting had begun, Olympia displayed some kind of emotion - hesitation, "The same day as the Stadium attack she forced her way into the Overcity, and we lost track of her for a number of hours." her hesitation seemed to turn to anxiety as she looked down at the phone in her hand, "I... I... I've..."

The anxiety tunred to fear, and, suddenly, Olympia stood up, and walked a short distance away from the bench, breathing rapidly. With her arms wrapped around herself, she attempted to bring the anxiety under the control, still constantly glancing at the phone.
"I-I... need the Boss to confirm if any of that is useful..." awkwardly she turned back, still hugged into herself, "How did... you know this person? Describe her."

"The gauntlet's are new" Penny would comment as she watched Olympia have a minor freak out "So is the Shift, sounds like she might have changed Patron's."

"Back when I knew her, If it is her, she was my friend, one of my closest ones. She looked to be young, she had a bundle of tails, whiskers and a pair of fox ears." As she spoke Penny would stand and surveying the surroundings, it would be just her luck for them to get attacked right about now "She was a Kitsune. Her fur tended to be black or at least dark. We used to go hunting together, even split a lair for a bit."

"She's got a full transformation as well, only saw it once, It's a massive canine covered in flames, though with her beast magic I wouldn't be surprised if she can change it." It was hard for Penny not to recall Thalia's Demon, considering what it told Penny about her friend, shortly before her heart was broken.

Shaking her head to clear it of old thoughts she took a step towards Olympia still clearly watching out for whatever might be in the darkness "Also, feel free to transform if it will help you feel better" Penny offered to the other girl, feeling tempted to drop her disguise as well "We can also have this conversation on the move if you want."

Olympia eyed her informant warily. Her gaze flickered between Penny and the lake, then back to the phone, and back again to Penny a number of times before she dropped her arms to her sides with a shaky, seemingly rattled sigh. After a cautionary moment, watching for Penny's sincerity, she dropped the disguise. There was no transformation sequence - no catchphrase, or glittering lights - as she did so, and before even a second had passed, standing there was a hooded, tanned skinned girl. The shoulder length brown hair shifted to white, and a metal tail extended from her back, but most notable was her arms. Halfway down her upper arm on both sides, they widened utf into a series of metal connectors, leaving the rest and her hands replaced with giant metal fists. This was a Monster Girl.

"I can't confirm if the person you knew, and the Vixen, are one in the same." Olympia replied, with slightly more emotion in her words than before; her fight or flight response appeared to be wearing off, though a slight reddening to her face remained, "What was her name? If the trackers get caught up in a fight with her it may help to calm her, or drive her away."

Penny would tilt her head to the side upon the reveal "Huh..." she would say before following suit and shedding her disguise as well with her traditional flash of lightning and screech of torn metal. "Can honestly say I didn't see that coming" Rocking back on her heels she would take another moment to once again look over Olympia gauging her again with this new piece of information, before shrugging.

"And I'm not sure I want to give her name away." Penny would answer after thinking over the question "I'm hunting Vixen down to try and confirm if they are the same person, I don't want her to get a blamed for Vixen's actions if they are different people. I can give you my number though" Penny would offer crossing her arms over stomach as she spoke "To pass off to the trackers. In case they want to call for back up, or if they have a potential sighting."

Between the sound of Penny dropping her disguise, and her reply, the phone in Olympia's hand buzzed, and released a small ringtone. The bleeps ran in sequence, filling the empty space of the park. When before she was racked with anxiety at the phone, this time she casually opened her giant hand, and let her tail flick out and open the lid.
"'The Metamorphosis is interesting, as is the possible secondary magic type and Deity Patron. But we have no interest in engaging The Vixen in direct combat. I need more than this.'"

The metal tail quickly flipped the lid closed, and then wrapped around it to keep it out of the way.
"The Boss doesn't normally ask for favours in kind. She... believes in the truth being available for free; that's why she published the Janet Howell Trial so soon after its conclusion. Which means... She thinks this information is valuable somehow..." as she spoke, a kind of confusion washed over her as she reread the two documents in her hand, "I can give you this now, but... She will call upon a favour from you in the future. Do you accept these terms?"

Penny's gaze was drawn to the metal tail, and she openly watched how it moved while Olympia used it to manipulate her phone.

The robotic girl also had no surprise at all when she was offered a deal, it would make the Independant the fifth group Penny now had ties to "Sure" she would reply with a shrug "So long as it doesn't go against my established allies."

Without an emotional tick or response, Olympia took a step forward, with her gauntlet outstretched, for Penny to take the documents. Taking things at face value might have been the sign of foolishness in some circles, but for the Independant, one's word was all anyone had. When Penny had taken it, she took a step back.
"We don't have much. Her lair location's are unknown, since she tends to relocate within a week, if not a couple of days."

While Penny read, Olympia went about setting up to leave. She put her disguise back up, sorted her documents back into her backpack, sent a quick text message, and picked up the recorder from the bench.
"The notes also have the locations of her different attacks, most of which have been cleaned up, but there are a few more recent that our team has kept near enough pristine. And..." she quickly glanced up at Penny's robotic form, which stood vastly taller than her, "I've... Seen her first hand, so... What you described? I... Can't speak for much, but that's what she looks like. Lots of tails, with burnt black fur."

Not only did Penny skim over the documents as Olympia packed up to leave, she also took silent photocopies of the documents. She knew it would take a bit of time to fully scour the information she had been handed, but hopefully it would give her a lead.

"I'll admit I hope they aren’t the same person" Penny would reply as she looked back at Olympia "If they are, you'll likely hear about the aftermath on the news, as she's not the only one with a Metamorph" shaking her head Penny pocketed the documents.

"Regardless, thanks for the info" she would wave before turning to leave "Catch ya round"

"Uh... Penny?" Olympia said as she turned to leave, "If... if she really is your friend, then..." she shifted uncomfortably on the spot, finding the words awkward and painful to say, "Th-then... I'm sorry..." and as she finished, she turned and scurried off into the darkness.

"Same here" Penny would whisper to herself as she started her trek home, she had a computer to finish and things to read.

Beyond the Looking Glass: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

_{.:Setting the Stage:.}

Aurelio stood calmly as The Bates made their appearance. His cane was in front of him a soft blue light pulsing off of it as his hands rested on top. “A pleasure to meet you two” He would say bowing as he did. On the surface he was the very picture of relaxed, internally he was ready for anything that might be thrown at him.

A somewhat meandering story was not what he first expected, but the emotions that were being projected by Regina told a story of their own, Surprise, Nervousness, Anger, and a warped Desire. He was sure there was some truth to the tale that Regina had spun for him, but he was no light mage he could only tell that something was off not what exactly it was.

“To be fair to Alicia, she got a promotion for helping take down the lair of a Dark Magical Girl by the name of Justine. Not evicting you, and as far as I am aware no one has asked Penny about that whole affair” Aurelio would reason gesturing with his right hand as he did drawing attention away from his cane as the vibrant yellow strip would slowly drain away in to the ground below them “Not saying her attack was a good thing, not even saying it was the right thing, but I know that sometimes the desires of monsters can get away from them.”

“As for sleepovers…” Aurelio let out an internal sigh, the other beacon members were deeply wrapped up in these two sway if they didn’t react to the bleak description of their allies and the rather blatant hostility being displayed. He might be able to take one of them with him when he revealed his trump card, but he didn’t have enough Wonder for more than three people with what he was planning.

He was just glad he was able to get some of that precious emotion before this confrontation.

“I’d have to ask my mom for permission first, and she’d want to meet you and your parents before she said yes” He would try and talk his way out of this, his vow demanded nothing less, but he was fully expecting negotiations to fail any moment.