twave

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

It took a few days to get a hold of her own phone, but eventually Hilde would call Deni up so they could meet. Seeing as she didn’t know the area much at they opted to let Deni pick where they would meet up.

Throwing any caution to the winds, Ronin invited her home! Or, well, to the home that Ronin was currently sharing with Valkyrie, but she’s been absent for a while, so it works out!

Took a little time to get oriented on where things were in the city, but eventually Hilde located the home in question. Arriving undisguised she knocked on the door and waited.

The door flung open, as Ronin came out in full Ronin transformed state and grinning widely. ‘Welcome! You’re just in time!’

‘… Oh, darn, I shouldn’t have been transformed? Now I feel overdressed! Oh, well, come on in!’

Ronin skipped over to the kitchen in the place, because she had something in the oven here. ‘In the past, we had a guy that used to cook for me and my friends,’ that being Joe, the Interdimensional Tourist Mariette sometimes stayed with. Deni really couldn’t go to Joe anymore, as she would get found by Mariette immediately. ‘so I resolved I was gonna teach myself! Now, here! Some mince pie!’ Ronin called happily, using Reinforcement on her hands as her cooking gloves, pulling the pie out of the oven and placing it on the kitchen table. It was decently clumsily made, weight-distribution was off, seasoning was probably also pretty off, but it should still taste nicely and Ronin was grinning so widely!

‘Let’s not eat it all, I’m saving some for Valkyrie as thanks for letting me stay here, but, iiiih! First time I’m letting someone else try what I made!’ Ronin sounded out, excited.

Looking slightly confused, Hilde stepped in. ”Is it not weird to go around transformed? I don’t exactly look dressed for the streets wearing almost nothing.” She mused a bit as she followed her friend into the kitchen.

‘Eeeeh, guess I’m just used to being transformed all the time. I don’t really have a regular life next to my transformed one, hah!’ Ronin commented on that, but that aside! A pie to serve!

Despite any imperfections, Hilde would marvel at the item that Ronin had produced. She didn’t know the first thing about cooking. ”It looks great! That’s so cool that you know how to cook. I think I would have starved to death by now if my friends didn’t let me stay with them. Their parents do most of the cooking.” She poked at the pie a bit but resolved that it needed to cool a bit before trying to eat it.

‘I really just followed a recipe, but thanks!’ Ronin said with a grin. ‘But I seek to learn! When I get my sister back, I’m gonna try cooking for her all the time, and…’ Ronin sighed a bit, as she took a piece of the pie and put it on her own plate. ‘Hey, what happened to you? Su said you died, so something’s up. You do look somewhat different, and the things you say don’t entirely match up, even I can see that, buuuut…’ Ronin asked, giving Hilde an analyzing stare.

Ah hah, well that made something pretty clear. Hilde frowned slightly and leaned on a hand propped up on the table. "I get that a lot. If you're talking about Amber, she's still dead." She would comment dryly. Su at least was someone she'd been told about by her patron. The twins had done a little bit to fill her in on reality that her patron failed to detail. Namely Su was Amber's familiar turned magical girl and worked at some hotel place for magicals. Meeting her was bound to be uncomfortable. "Best I can tell you is I'm some part of her soul given new life. Any similarity is unintentional at this point. I've actually taken a different name. Hilde Bell. Complements of Faith."

‘… Aw,’ Ronin made a sad-sounding noise and looked down at her pie for a bit. ‘So you were different people. I… sort of figured, you’re acting pretty differently. But… I was looking forward to meeting… I wanted to tease her some more… that’s going to make the reveal a lot less impactful… _{I liked her, she was funny…}’ she complained a bit, feeling a bit down to know one of her exceptionally few connections was apparently gone. She’d definitely imagined that Su’d been somehow mistaken and that she’d have this talk with “Amber” here, then have a reunion and everyone would be happy… ‘Guess not, huh…’

That was a different reaction than what was expected. Her slightly irritated expression melted away and she looked away sheepishly. Very different from Oros’ for sure. Problem was Hilde wasn’t really sure she could do anything about it. Or even that she wanted to do anything. Was she supposed to be Amber but just ended up missing too many aspects so she ended up being nobody? Maybe that’s why changing her name was so easy. Damn birds, why’d they have to… whatever. ”I get it.” She was quiet for a moment before she turned and slid out of her chair.

‘… Well! Then the purpose of this visit has changed to celebrating our new friendship, then!’ Ronin pulled her head up and breathed in heavily out of a widely smiling mouth. The sadness of the most recent revelation was still there, yet her smile refused to let herself be kept from facing the future. ‘I apologize that I don’t have anything more fancy to drink,’ she then said, grabbing a can of water to pour some out into glasses that were totally there the whole time on the table, ‘but would you toast for us getting to know one another?’ Ronin asked, still smiling.

The spirit girl taking the glass absently, her gaze would slowly drift up to the smiling face. What? Hilde’s expression was blank, lost like a deer in headlights. Who was this girl? Having just suffered emotional whiplash a couple times in the span of a minute she wasn’t sure how to react. ”I…” After afew moments she would raise the glass. ”T-to new friends.” Trembling she tried to take a sip before giving up and simply grasping the cup tightly with both hands to keep from dropping the thing.

Ronin was smiling, hiding the hurt. Hilde was not so good at hiding anything. She was having an identity crisis, again. Most might find it pathetic, but she didn’t know how to deal with stress or challenges. Because of things that Oros’ told her she was trying not to rely on the twins all that much. She only just made some friends. So by and large she was putting herself out and alone.

Ronin happily-seeming drank her glass of water, making a loud noise of satisfaction after as if it had been delightful. Then…! ‘So!’ Ronin called, looking excitedly to Hilde. ‘Where did you appear from? Who are your friends? What do you do for fun? Did you inherit any memories or anything from Amber? Have you met Su yet? What do you dream for the future? Long-term, short-term? Ooh, I wanna know everything!’ Ronin called, grinning at her. ‘Ah, you mentioned Faith! Is she alright?’ she then suddenly asked with a worried expression.

Hilde’s eyebrows raised a bit at the flood of questions. Still, it was a sufficient distraction to keep the girl busy thinking a bit on other things. Her mind worked through them all sequentially regardless of which ones were potentially more important. ”I-uh... “ She took a moment to breath before launching into answering. ”I came from a couple of Beacon twins that stole Amber’s soul. They put it in a soul jar and my patron found it and created me. I guess they’re my friends. Seems like they’re really busy all the time.” Holding the glass close she absently took a drink. ”Janet and Jenna. They’re actually really nice. They make my head hurt sometimes though.” Her face scrunched up a bit.

Moving on to the next question she had to pause. What did she like to do? ”I guess I like to hang out with my new friends. I don’t know. Everything is still pretty new to me.” She would give it some more thought. ”One thing I really like is flying. I could go around for hours just taking in the sights and feeling the wind.” Ronin’s barrage of questions was what Hilde needed to dig herself out of the hole she’d fallen into. Relaxing again the girl would realize she was just standing there by the chair. Sheepishly she would slip back into the chair.

The next question was a little tricky to answer. Somewhat went with her internal conflict. Shaking her head she resumed going down the list. ”I don’t have Amber’s memories. I do get vague feelings about people and things though. And obviously I look a lot like her which is becoming more and more awkward.” She frowned a bit. ”As for Su, I haven’t met her yet. I know who she is and the twins have told me a little bit about her, but I really don’t know what to do there. I feel like I might just make things worse and remind her of Amber a little too much. They were close, I know it.” She’d set the glass on the table and fidgeted with the object while she spoke, rotating it back and forth. She would actually stop and look at Ronin for some kind of guidance. It seemed like she knew the girl so maybe she had some ideas of how to approach the matter.

‘Oooh, Janet made it out! Nice! No idea who Jenna is, though! Twins, you say? Heh, okay.’ Ronin mused, chuckling a bit. ‘Flying is pretty cool. I can't exactly fly, but I can run in mid-air! Does that count?’ she then asked with a giggle. Then, she listened to that last part, and… ‘Yeeaah, probably best I tell her beforehand. She can be pretty emotional. She might freak out if she's not ready to see you, might just hurt her,’ Ronin agreed.

Hilde nodded in agreement. ”Okay good, so I’m not completely clueless. I feel like I’m going to have to meet her eventually. If you could help prepare her for that that would be great. I don’t really know any other way to go about it.” She managed a small smile.

‘Alright!’ Ronin nodded. And now… she had to decide. She WAS going to reveal her identity to Amber, but this is Hilde, now. Could she trust Hilde? Could she be sure Hilde would not run off to tell Janet, and probably consequently all of Beacon, everything? Thoughts that have to be considered before I write anything further… … … ‘Right. Justine von Visceral has recruited me to help with her invasion of Mariette’s mansion, but I’m going to try to use this opportunity to instead save Mariette and Eli from both Justine and Asengav, because I know they’re mind-bent,’ Deni said, staring blankly at Hilde, gauging her reaction.

Hilde looked less confused than one might expect. She’d heard of most of these names. Well, all but Eli at least. Her eyes rolled a bit as she recalled conversations she’d heard. There was a pause for a moment before things fell into place and she exclaimed. ”Oh, Mariette! They were asking Cindy about her the other day. They’re friends, or allies, or something.” For the moment it seemed that she’d forgotten not to mention that name. Not that it was any surprise up to this point. Seemed the two girls present were something of gossipers that had trouble filtering what they said.

‘Indeed! And that’s what’s going on in my life right now!’ Ronin said with a smirk. ‘Hahahaha! Of course Mariette has to make friends with a random queen when she shows up. That’s how it works. Anyway. You’re taking that info pretty in-stride. If Justine found out I told you, she’d probably have my head. Hahaha!’ Ronin laughed some more. ‘… Who’re they?’

Waving her hands almost frantically Hilde shook her head. ”Nope, no way. I don’t want to get involved with that. Too deep for me.” Putting her hand up she scratched her head. ”Janet and Jenna mostly. Well, not Janet, that’s not how that works I don’t think. She didn’t remember anything though.”

‘Haha, not gonna ask you to get involved, got it,’ Ronin said like it was decided right there, then listened to the rest. Janet and Jenna, huh… … … wait. ‘Cindy had contact with people in Beacon before she died?’ Ronin asked, a bit astounded.

The spirit girl shrugged. ”I don’t know. Didn’t sound like it.”

‘Wait, uh, huh?’ Ronin tilted her head. ‘But you were just saying she’d-’ A thought crossed Ronin’s mind, making her eyes go wide. ‘Wh-what did they manage with Cindy?’ she just had to ask.

”Manage?” She thought about what they were talking about with a little more focus. Oooh. Ronin had been there with Cindy when all that went down. Well, the twins did say this was going to get out eventually. She would lower her voice a bit. ”Don’t go spreading this around, but you were her guard right?”

‘Yeah, I was her frickin’ bodyguard, tasked with guarding her life and making sure she got out alright! Suffice to say, I didn’t get paid that night,’ Ronin lamented, sighing out a bit. ‘Really wish I could have done something differently. I don’t even know what, just, anything so she would have lived… but alas…’ she shook her head. ‘Yeah! I wouldn’t spread a secret a friend told me to hide! You can count on me!’ Ronin said, a Reinforcement-user’s words apparently extra encouraging. She’s not lying, of course.

Oh good, keeping this was driving her crazy. When you’re as young as she was you didn’t exactly have a lot of secrets to confide to people. This one was a little more critical long term though. ”Okay, so.... Janet somehow nabbed Cindy’s mind and has to share… She trailed off for a moment trying to figure out how to explain the mess. ”I don’t understand the details actually, but basically Janet can become Cindy and vice versa. They share her body.” She looked a bit confused herself.

‘…’ Ronin stared with open mouth for a bit at Hilde. ‘… Hahahaha! Well. Guess that’s better than it could have been. Nicely done, Janet, I wouldn’t have expected it!’ she said with a bit of a laugh, then. ‘Could you deliver a message? Like, “This is Ronin, I am super-happy you’re still sorta around, sorry I failed to save you, do you need me for anything?”, or so? Haha,’ Ronin chuckled some more.

"Yeah, I can let her know something. We're working on how to announce that she's still around. Some of the other Beacon people aren't making it easy." She rolled her eyes. Admittedly she wasn't as in the loop, but since she wasn't actually in Beacon she had more freedom to move around and kind of be a go-between.

‘Alright! I’m happy you told me. Makes me feel a lot better about Cindy all of a sudden. Best would have been if she’d survived entirely and I’d managed to convince both sides not to fight, but this’ll do~!’ Ronin said with a smile. ‘This has been cool. Let’s continue talking like this to one another whenever we can. Alright, I think the pie has cooled down enough. Let’s eat!’ Ronin said, grinning as she took a knife and fork, because she wants a slice of her own pie, too~!

Oh, pie. The conversation would be shelved for a bit while they dug into the dish Ronin had prepared. Hilde found she enjoyed the dish, though provided just a little critique on the flavor. Not that she was a great cook or anything, but she had attention to detail that she could maybe provide. There wasn’t a whole lot said while they ate aside from light comments. Hilde could definitely go for more visits like this.

Ronin took any advice to heart and tried to consider how to take it into consideration. The pie definitely wasn’t perfect, but tasted good all the same. Now, for next time… yupp, light chatter as they ate.

After their meal, Hilde checked the time. It wasn’t late, staying at the twins house the two’s parents had something of a curfew in place. Seemed the magic had somehow rationalized that Hilde was the girl’s cousin in the adult’s minds. How that happened she didn’t know but it made sleeping over a whole lot easier. Since there wasn’t a rush Hilde would strike up some conversation again. ”You were saying earlier that you were trying to save some people? Are they friends of yours?” The girl may not be very experienced, but the whole thing sounded pretty serious. Even though she said she didn’t want to get involved she couldn’t help but be curious.

Oooh, right, she said that. ‘Well…’ Ronin considered a bit. Would be somewhat troublesome if she said she was a friend of a horror-girl, possibly. Especially if this girl was going to run back and tell Beacon. ‘Not currently. But I know they’re mind-bent, all the same. It feels wrong to have them destroyed for something that they’re not doing out of their own choice. As such, I’m going to save them. Somehow,’ Ronin said, smirking at the end again.

Hilde would connect some dots in her head. ”...I think Janet would help Mariette if she had the chance ” She mused out loud. Everything she knew about the twins and what they were working toward even right now.

‘… Would she?’ Ronin gave Hilde a curious look. ‘You ARE aware of what Mariette did to Janet, right? … Then again, now that I think about it, maybe simply BECAUSE of that. Not too dissimilar circumstances, hah!’ Ronin chuckled a bit as she thought of it. ‘Then perhaps, deliver a message to her that Mariette and her companions are mind-bent, and that mind-bending can be reversed. They'll never WANT to have their mind-bending reversed, that's what mind-bending is all about, but if the girls of Beacon find themselves victorious and find they have a choice between capture and kill…’ Ronin said with light mirth in her tone.

Sitting up straight, Hilde would give a light smile. "Yeah, I know. Janet isn't like a lot of the others in Beacon. She got a second chance and is willing to give others that too." How should… Oh yeah, Ronin was there. "You probably didn't recognize her, but the knight girl that tried to talk down Cindy before the smoke bomb went off was Janet. She used a Red Coin and she became that girl with a twin."

‘Oooh, that makes sense! I see!’ Ronin called with a grin… and then really realized she'd made it really clear she was someone from the past. Well… ‘… Can I ask you not to ask around for who I am? There's someone who absolutely can't even start to suspect it might be the case. I WAS going to tell Amber, but you're not Amber. You're a WAAAY more mature girl than Amber, but probably not as fun to tease, heh, You’re way sweeter than Amber, but maybe not as fun to tease, I predict,’ Ronin said with a chuckle. ‘I keep quiet about a thing, you keep quiet about a thing, and so.’ Ronin said with a little smirk.

Rubbing her chin a bit, Hilde would shrug slightly. ”Okay I guess. If it’s that important then… Eh? She blushed a bit. ”Tease, wait. What do you mean?”

Ronin took a pause where she lost the smile looked curiously at Hilde’s blush.

‘Awwwwww…’ Ronin said with a sudden smirk, pulling herself up on the table to crawl slightly over it and lean in closer to Hilde, her expression… a bit different. ‘You want to be teased, too? Feeling envious of your previous soul? How cute of you. Don’t worry, I can give you all the teasing you want…’ Ronin said, reaching forward to potentially stroke a little under Hilde’s chin and push to raise her head a bit… her actions and tone of voice clashing horribly with the fact she’s currently a tiny samurai loli.

Hilde had no idea what was going on and stared confusedly. She stiffened a bit from the touch which made lifting her head a bit harder. ”W-what are you doing?”

Ronin grinned. ‘Teh-heh, perhaps current me is inappropriate for this particular task. Would you close your eyes for a second?’ she suggested, and if Hilde did not, she’d place her own hand over her eyes as she skipped off the table to walk around behind her, making sure that Hilde didn’t peek. Then… Hilde found her chair turned around, and…

Hello there

A handsome young man with blonde hair and emerald eyes, slightly older than Hilde’s current age, looked down at her with an admiring gaze.

‘Why, I must have stumbled into heaven, to have encountered a lovely angel such as you,’ he said, in a suitably confident and admiring voice. ‘Your skin strikes as smoothly and intoxicatingly as the freshest of fruits, your eyes as warming and comforting as the rays of the sun, and your hair reminds me of the sweetest of chocolates, makes me want to taste it…’ he said, leaning forward a little to gently reach to caress the side of her head. ‘Tell me, fair maiden, what is your name?’

Hilde hadn’t closed her eyes so Ronin did have to put her hand out. ”Hey!” She protested but didn’t struggle to remove the hand. She was quite confused as to what her friend was doing. Allowed to see again and turned around she glanced up slightly at the boy that had seemingly come from nowhere. Who, what… Had he been in the other room or something? For a brief moment while she was being showered with compliments she would take a look around for her friend who had seemingly vanished.

Eyes snapping back to the boy her face was turning redder and redder by the second. Who was this? He was cute but still. And who talked like that? Was she dreaming? What was in that pie? Stupefied she stammered as she answered the question. ”R… H-Hilde Bell.” She had to correct herself.

‘Hilde Bell. A delightful name given by a voice as clear and lovely as the object of your last name,’ the boy said, smiling. ‘I’m Dorian Hay,’ not at all derived from Dorian Gray, ‘and I would like to get to know you much more intimately, Hilde,’ he said, gently caressing her cheek. ‘I’d like to take you out to dinner, dance with you at a ball, swim with you in the sea, eventually consider marriage with you, have a bunch of cute little children with you and live happily ever after, with you…’

As he said the final parts, he was slowly leaning forward with an admiring gaze in his gaze, like if he was going in to potentially kiss her.

She wasn’t entirely sure what Dorian meant by “intimately,” but most of the things he was saying sounded like nice and fun things to do. Or they did until the last part. Was this boy delusional? They’d just met and he was talking about kids. Could magical girls even have children? How would that work? It didn’t really matter though as the moment, whatever moment it was, was over. Not knowing if this guy was a magical boy or not she would have to pass on transforming for the moment.

Shoving a hand in the guy’s face Hilde would push him away. Her other hand searched around for a moment on the table before it found a fork. ”Okay, I don’t know what kind of weirdo you are. But you try that again and I’ll actually stick a fork in you.” The improvised weapon gripped firmly while she held it threateningly.

‘Ohckt,’ he made a noise as her hand in his face pushed him away. He listened to her threat, and then… he started to giggle into her hand. ‘Sorry, sorry~’ he said, lifting his hands to grip Hilde’s hand a bit just to be able to lift his own face off her hand. ‘But I must say…’

He then tilted himself to the right to look at Hilde from the right side of the hand… except now Hilde was greeted with the exceptionally off display of “Dorian”’s body and hair… and Ronin’s grinning face.

‘But I must say, you have a really pretty blush, Hilde~!’

“Dorian” skipped back, and as he did, his body shrunk and hair and clothes changed back over the course of a second, and then Ronin was standing there again… until she wasn’t, because she had collapsed on her knees laughing, hands over her stomach.

‘Hahahaha! Okay, I take that back, you’re also fun to tease! Different flavour than Amber, but strawberry and raspberry both taste as sweet, hahahaha!’ Ronin laughed a bit where she now was on the floor.

A very confused, yet still blushing Hilde stared for a little while. What had just happened? The boy was Ronin? It didn’t feel or look like any illusion magic she’d ever heard of. Shaking for a second she would drop the fork. ”Ronin what... “ Hilde wasn’t really sure how to react. Embarrassed, befuddled, angry, impressed, and betrayed all at the same time. She would draw her arms in as her eyes watered.

Ronin looked up at Hilde and realized that she had a situation on her hands. ‘Aaaah, sorry! I’m really sorry! I just… had to try doing that once!’ she skipped forward to get on her knees in front of Hilde and clasp her hands together in front of her. Ronin was still smiling, but she had realized she may have just hurt her friend. ‘I’m, uh, actually a shape-shifter, though I can’t use it as it’s tied to that identity I didn’t want you to ask around about. I’ve never been able to play around with it, I just… really wanted to try it when you looked so wide-eyed about me mentioning teasing. I didn’t mean to hurt you if I did! Sorry! … Still, I didn’t do too badly as a handsome boy, did I?’ Ronin asked, with a little giggle.

The girl would take a step away. Conflicted would describe Hilde pretty well at the moment. Ronin was supposed to be her friend. They'd only just met, really. Was this something Amber would have found funny? As they'd established though, the girl was not Amber. Shuddering again Hilde would finally speak. "That wasn't fair Ronin." She wiped her eyes with the back of her arm. "I need a moment."

‘… OK! Take as long as you need!’ Ronin’d say and then stand up to start carrying the plates and form that had contained the pie back to the kitchen, and then took extra time washing the things by hand in there. If she eventually got done with that she’d sit down at the table, hands together, lips bit together and passively kick a bit with her legs. Because it felt like anything she’d say probably would make it worse at this point.

In the time Ronin was away Hilde at one point she could be heard seemingly talking to someone. Of course any time the little samurai might check there was no one else to be seen. By the time she’d returned her friend seemed in a much better mood. ”Hey there, so… sorry. I just wasn’t ready for something like that. I think you went a little too far with it I mean.” She was a bit more stern than she had been up to that point. Ronin needed to know there was a line that probably shouldn’t be crossed.

Ronin looked worried, but still made herself smile, because otherwise it wouldn't be her. ‘Er, which part of that was too far? All of it? Just when I was seemingly trying to kiss you? I'll note, I was never going to kiss you, I would have stopped just before, just wanted to see how you'd react, while giving you a unique experience, hah…’ Ronin said, trying to chuckle at the end but not quite managing it.

Folding her arms around herself she frowned. Before going on she would recite her incantation. "Through the past we forge the future." A ring of ethereal energy would swirl around her starting at her feet and working its way up, transforming her into her magical girl form. ”I barely know you. You scared me and I’m not… If you can change and toy with me like that how am I supposed to know who you really are?”

‘Um,’ Ronin looked decently honestly confused, not really getting the idea of transforming. ‘I didn’t… consider that? I only did it as a slight prank I can only use once. Other than that, I’ve been genuine. This is my real transformed form. I honestly thought we’d both think it was sorta funny afterwards. I’m sorry,’ she said again, still looking a bit confused.

Ronin’s reaction seemed sufficient to relax Hilde a bit. Maybe they were both a little clueless. It was something she realized more and more about herself. Her transformation was merely a precaution. She couldn’t use her magic otherwise if needed. She scratched her face awkwardly. ”Maybe we will later.” She gave it some thought. ”I was pretty convinced you were going to kiss me. I wasn’t necessarily against that. I think it was what you said that was over the edge.”

Ronin breathed out a bit in relief at that Hilde seemed to relax a little. She listened a bit further on the subject, and then… ‘Oh, um, the things about wanting to go out and do stuff with you? I, er, didn’t get you hopeful, did I?’ Ronin said, almost smirking wider before thinking that might be a bad idea. ‘Or, um, was it the part after I turned back?’

”Children!?” Was all she would exclaim, putting her hands on her head before throwing them in the air.

‘Oh, right, um,’ Ronin had to put a hand on her mouth, because she was very close to giggling and it may have been inappropriate. Very honestly, Ronin didn’t get what was so bad about that, but that was a pretty interesting reaction to it. ‘I wanted him to say he wanted to live happily ever after with you and that is part of a true happily ever after to me?’ Ronin said with the tone-shift of a question.

”It’s not, ugh!” Hilde was clearly getting frustrated. She was going to have to explain. ”I’m like two weeks old. I’m trying to figure out who I am and why I exist. Every time I turn around people are mistaking me for someone they use to know and expect me to act like them. I’m just a stupid girl that can’t keep herself together. I’m confused and I don’t need people toying with my emotions!” During her outburst small objects started floating in the air. Spirits were responding to her and picking things up. Hilde would turn around though and yell out. ”Go away!” Everything dropped back down with some clattering and a few thumps.

‘Woa…’ Ronin made a noise of some amazement when Hilde had a little outburst. And even more so when things started getting picked up- ‘Wait, these are Valkyrie’s things…!’ Ronin commented with sudden panic in her eyes, and tried to reach out with her hands to use Reinforcement magic to the floating objects before they fell down again, hopefully without breaking, Ronin smiling but looking a bit pale there. ‘Okay, um…’ Rightou, now, how to say this.

‘First things first, you’re not stupid. You’re a bit disorientated, but given your origin, it’d be weird if you weren’t. I didn’t think my prank through, and for that, I am sorry. Give people some time, after a while they'll have learned you're not Amber, like me, from the toast onwards. All that was for you, I'd have teased Amber with a big breasts lady instead, for example. If you need help with anything from now on, I'm your girl. Because I want to be your friend, okay? Can I hug you and make it better?’ Ronin asked, looking somewhat serious but smiling regardless.

Hilde would listen silently. When the question was presented at the very end she would shake her head yes. ”I would like that.”

Ronin smiled, before bouncing off the seat and running around the table, slowing down before Hilde to hug around her more gently, subtly using her shapeshifting ability to make her legs just a bit longer for the hug. She’d hold it before speaking. ‘Everything will sort itself out eventually, alright?’ Ronin said with a little grin while still embracing her.

Returning the hug Hilde let out the air in her lungs. ”Alright.” After holding the hug for a while she would eventually let go. When Ronin backed up she would find that Hilde had been crying a bit. She wiped away the tears. ”Thank you. It’s been really hard for me.”

As Ronin backed off, she also let her legs shrink back to normal, smiling at Hilde’s still partly teary-eyed face. ‘We'll have to make sure the hardships were worth it in the end, then, won't we?’ Ronin said with a little grin.

Hilde nodded. ”Yeah. Uhm…” She looked back at the disheveled items in the room. Thankfully nothing looked broken. ”Sorry about that. I didn’t realize that could happen.”

‘Haha, don’t worry about it! Let’s just make sure the place looks great when Valkyrie comes back, okay?’ Ronin told with a grin.

They’d then go about picking things up and putting them back, making sure it looked as it did. Hilde needed some air after all the internal turmoil. She thanked Ronin for the pie, company, and support. There was a loose end she needed to put to rest for herself. Ronin waved her goodbye after a while of hanging out and cleaning, and then she was off on the streets again.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

---Prior to Lily's new patronage---

Catching up briefly via messaging, Shane made his way to see a good friend. An old friend actually. What a mess this was.

It didn’t take long once they confirmed they would meet up for the boy to arrive. Remaining transformed, he walked up to the door and rang the bell. The air was a tad tense given what he knew what was going on.

Lily answered the door, looking confused.
"Oh, hello? Can I help you? W-We're not buying anything."

Elaborate explanation or simple one? Probably best not to toy with Lily at this time. Reaching into a pocket he would take out his phone and show her the messages.

Messages

He would give her a second to read. ”I wasn’t kidding when I said I didn’t look the same.” He gave a slight smile.

Lily’s eyebrow lifted when Shane picked out his phone, unsure what he wanted to do. But when he showed her the message log, she nearly screamed.
”SHA-mph!” She stifled her scream by putting her hands to her mouth, her eyes wide as she looked the magical boy over.
”Butbutbut-Whah?” She stammered, pointing at Shane, and then at herself.
”I-Is it really you, Shannon? You’re...You’re a boy now!”

He couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. ”Yeaaah. I was not expecting that to happen. I can explain how that came about once we’re inside. Most of my stuff got transformed with me but I still have this.” He pulled his sleeve up to reveal a charm bracelet that Lily and s/he had made together years ago. Probably looked odd having such a girly thing on a guy but for the most part his outfit hid it anyway.

Lily gasped upon seeing the bracelet. It took her a moment before she realized Shane was waiting on her.
”Oh, right! Come inside, I-I’ll make us some tea or whatever’s in the fridge.”

Soon enough they were settled in the apartment, and Lily brought over a cup of tea for Shane. She then sat down, looking less tense than before, but still coming to grips with the revelation.
”So, uh...Can I ask about how this happened? Or is that...Something personal?”

As was customary when provided tea, Shane would stop and take a sip before speaking. Old habits die hard. ”Oh no, that’s partly why I’m here. I wanted to tell you sooner but I had made an agreement that no longer applies. Have you by chance heard of the Red Coins?” He would ask trying to see how much detail he might be able to skim over.

Lily’s mouth widened in realization.
“Yeah, I do! So that’s what you used?” She leaned her head to the side.
“I thought they only shuffle your magic.”

Good, saved that complicated explanation. ”You’re not wrong. Thing is, apparently there is some facet in magic that means you turn out as a guy instead of a girl. It’s rare that anyone ever gets it which is why there are so few magical boys around. I also chose something they refer to as Rebirth that basically changes all of your magic around. Guess I won the lottery because I‘m a boy again.” He shrugged. Having been a girl for 8-9 something years it didn’t really make much of a difference to him. If anything it was almost weirder being his birth gender again.

Lily simply sat there in awe as Shane explained more of his transformation, until she remembered she still held a cup in her hand and took a sip.
”Again...So you used to be a boy before becoming a magical girl. I never could have figured that out, tee hee~” She giggled a bit.
”So, how are you feeling? Did the Red Coin cause any strange side effects or anything?”

”Not... really.” He would say after his eyes drifted to one corner. Yeah, he would look back at Lily. ”I feel fine. Had to adjust to the new magic but I had a little help, and a little experience from watching an old friend.” He would smirk, taking out his spell book as he spoke and setting it open on the coffee table. Tapping the page he would draw out a ball of lightning. ”Deeeefinitely different than my old Earth magic. That and I have the inexplicable ability to drive anything. Which is odd since I don’t own anything to actually drive.” He would throw in the comment off hand, emphasizing the "actually drive" part rather comically.

Lily nodded, smiling at the Lightning magic Shane displayed. ”So you also have Lightning magic? That’s awesome!” She took Shane’s hand and shook it.
”Want me to teach you how to use it? I know a few tricks a newbie might not know.”

”That would be awesome. Is a little different though. I have to craft spells and put them in this book to use the most effective stuff. But so far I’ve been able to make whatever I’ve needed once I have a grasp of it.” He would smile brightly.

Just then, Alexander arrived home, grocery in hand “Ah, home sweet home. Time to just veg out and-” then he saw their guest “...who are you?”

Lily went over to Alex with a big smile, and took his hand.
”Hi Alex~” She took the grocery bag from him and went over to the kitchen to restock it.
”This is my friend Shannon, or Shane as he goes by nowadays. He used a Red Coin and transformed! Isn’t that neat?”

“Huh?” It took a few seconds for that to sink in “Ohhh, you’re trans! Right, now I get it” he plopped down on the sofa “Well, make yourself at home I guess”

Shane couldn’t help but let out a brief huff of a laugh. ”Hah. I mean. The reverse?” He had a slightly confused expression. ”Magic is weird.” He would confirm.

A look of horror slowly creeped onto Alexander’s face as his mind processed that “Wait...you mean you were actually born a guy...but changed into a girl upon first getting magic, and have only recently turned back!?”

Shane would shrug. ”Yeah. That first part is actually pretty standard fare for magical girls. That’s why there are so few magical boys around.” Suppose if one didn’t actually talk with people much then one might not pick up on that. Hm… The reaction was rather amusing though.

Alexander looked down at his lap “I never realized how lucky I was. To think I could have turned out like you and Sakura.” he shook his head “That’s a really scary thought. I mean, having my body altered into a teen was weird enough, but having my gender changed as well...I’m not sure if it would still feel like my body then.”

”You get used to it after a while. Well, most do anyway.” He could think of a few that didn’t enjoy the experience. He would make a mental note of someone named Sakura.

Lily returned back to the living room, carrying a bowl of Cheetos that she set on the table.
"Here you go, take as many as you want." She sat down next to Alex.
"So how's it been, besides your new look? Penrose has been a bit wild recently."

There was no denying that much. ”I’ve been around. Was at the rave for a bit, fought a monster queen, tried to fight the one that attacked Cindy. Yeah, wild is pretty accurate. Cindy’s actually the reason we haven’t spoken sooner. Also the one that gave me the coin.” He would sigh a bit. ”Part of the terms we had. I was trying to get her to work with people. I probably could have done it eventually if people would stop mucking it up. And now she’s dead. So much for that plan.”

“What even was the point of that?” Alexander asked “The rave, I mean. Lily and I kind of left the grid so to speak, and have been mostly holed up in here, so we haven’t heard much or any news. But did anyone ever find out what was up with that rave. I don’t really buy that whole ‘monster liberation’ thing, or whatever nonsense it was. Given all the insanity that happened that night, my money’s on ‘distraction’ ”

Shane’s expression tightened a bit and leaned forward in his seat. ”It was supposed to be a fun get together. Mostly for the people that the Ascendancy were targeting. A few Beacon girls and neutrals were invited as well. Other people used it as a distraction and bait. I don’t know all the details, I was split between the two locations trying to keep a war from starting. I know The Mint was involved somehow. Obviously the Penrose Independant with their announcement or whatever. Nonsense.” He threw a hand in the air. He hated when things turned into this kind of ideological hate. Always drags people down with them.

Lily frowned as she listened in on the exchange.
"So it was even worse than I thought…" She gripped her knees.
"Alicia has told me that the Ascendancy suffered a heavy blow from it, and they suspected Mint's involvement too. But I should have figured a tabloid like the P.I. was up to no good after all!"

Alexander groaned “Insane zealots on one side, and hyper capitalists on the other. When it rains, it fucking pours in this town! I mean seriesly, how can so much crazy shit happen in one town!? Was this place built on some kind of Indian burial ground or something!? What are they even fighting over? Penrose is kind of a magical ghetto by now, so whatever property value it does have is probably abysmal. And it’s not like there’s some inherent magical thing in this place that makes it worth more. So why?”

”It’s not so obvious, but Penrose is a magical nexus. I don’t entirely know what that means but it tends to draw in monsters, horrors and the like. I’ve seen it in other places too. There are several around the world and from what I understand activity sort of shifts around. People just happened to build here. It’s one reason Beacon has such a big presence.” Shane would provide context. There could be some inaccuracies riddled in there, but as far as activity it seemed to fit the things he’d been told. Run into a lot of characters when you are a traveling magical girl boy.

Lily looked surprised.
"I didn’t know that. That does explain why the Ascendancy decided to come here aside from us missing for so long."

Alexander facepalmed “Of fucking course it is.” He sighed “I don’t suppose there’s a way to make Penrose not a magical nexus anymore, or would that just blow everything up or something?”

Shane’s eyes got wide for a moment. Not that the same thought hadn’t crossed his mind before. ”There might be. I’m pretty sure it’s well beyond any of our capabilities though. I also have no clue what that might do to the flow of magic around the world either.” He scratched his head. ”Like I said. It shifts around. So the activity will move away from Penrose to some other nexus eventually. There’s just no way to know when. Could be a few days could be in a few millennia. Just look at Rome.” Imply that Rome had somehow lasted as long as it did due to a nexus.

"But the Roman imperium lasted for at least a thousand years!" Lily retorted.
"We can’t wait for that long for it to shift. We need to do something before Penrose is completely destroyed. But I don’t know what. Alicia’s doing her best over at Beacon, but she’s got her hands full."

Alexander crossed his arms in thought “And then there’s also the fact that any attempt could catch the attention of the nutjobs fighting a war. Getting something like this organized without them catching on would be extremely hard.” It was then that a thought came to him “Hang on; how long has Penrose been a magical nexus?”

Shane shrugged at the question. ”Beats me. No one I’ve ever met knows where they come from or why they are where they are. Our job is to keep them out of evil hands.” He would go back to what Lily said just before. ”I’m not saying we do nothing, just we can’t move it. Rome thrived most of the time because of its nexus. Penrose could too if we can get people to stop trying to kill each other all the time.” He tried reign in some of the fear there. Wanted to be sure they understood that a nexus didn’t mean destruction.

”I see your point,” she stated, and took a handful of Cheetos to stuff in her mouth.
”Well, we gotta start with stopping all the fighting between Beacon and what used to be Cindy’s group. Do you happen to know anyone from their side? Maybe we could convince them to parlay.”

”Hmm… Well I think the main one I knew isn’t around anymore. There’s Alicia who I think took over. The Ascendancy is the main problem though. They’re basically the elite crew they send in to crush whatever threat there is and don’t really care what you’re trying to do. Old Beacon on steroids. I’ve seen their work after arriving late somewhere. They get the job done. I don’t really know any of them. Not the chatty sort.” He would roll his eyes just a bit. Anyone that knew Shannon, or Shane, would know he didn’t particularly care for Beacon’s usual policy.

“So it sounds like none of us have the required contacts to put this fighting on hold” Alexander said “But maybe one of us knows someone else who does. So maybe we should reach out to anyone we know who might know someone on either side. Alicia might be able to do something about the zealots, but considering who we’re dealing with, I’d rather not take any chances.” he suggested.

Lily slouched in her seat, leaning slightly against Alex’ side.
”Geez...I guess we just gotta ask around. Oh, that reminds me!”
She sat up with a smile.
”One of my friends is going to hold a movie night. Do you want to come with us? I bet it’ll be tons of fun.”

Quite a mess they’ve found themselves in. They had a direction though which was enough. In the meantime though it seemed they had some socializing to do. Lily invited them to a movie night. ”That does sound like fun. I’m in.” He would respond fairly quickly.

Lily positively beamed, and thrust her fist into the air.
”Yay! I’ll see you there then!”

Alexander raised an eyebrow at Lily’s sudden change of topic, but after a few seconds, just sighed and shrugged “Well, I suppose there really isn’t much else we can do now. So fuck it, why not?”

Shane didn’t get around to discussing Lily and her patronage. At this point though it would be a bad subject to bring up. He didn’t want to bring her down when she was happy. They’d have the chance again another time.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

‘Say, have you seen two twins, one with-’ Ronin once again attempted to ask a random magical girl she’d ran into about the Djinn Sisters.

‘Oh, those two? Good luck. They’re REALLY hard to find nowadays,’ the girl replied, shrugging and jumping off somewhere.

‘So I’ve been told,’ Ronin sighed out for not the first time tonight. Still, she’d started looking for the two of them ever since the event at the park. With that, she continued her patrol of Penrose, running casually through the streets and back-streets, just hoping to find any sort of clue or hint as to the location of her used-to-be friends.

The Djinn Sisters had been laying low for a while. Of course they would pop up every now and then to grant some normy a wish, as was their charge. Perhaps word got out that someone was looking for them or they simply happened across her. Either way the two would be spotted by Deni milling about in their normal forms. When approached, Sakura would smile and wave. ”Hey, long time no see!” She would say without hesitation.

Ronin breathed out happily as she finally found the two of them on a street somewhere… and Sakura immediately recognized her! Despite not being slime! That’s, uh, dangerous! ‘I finally found you!’ she said, and then, as quickly as possible, ‘But before you say anything else, let’s go somewhere else! Do you have a place you’re staying at, or so?’ she asked, looking a bit tense, unable to do more than pray they don’t say her name.

Blinking a couple times Sakura would giggle just a bit. ”Of course we do silly.” She would put a hand on the little girl’s shoulder. There was a rush of magic and the three of them would be in a room filled with seating, pillows and all the furnishings you would expect from a couple djinn. The two would be in their transformed state now. ”Tada! This was a great wish by the way.”

”Did get a little old when we were trapped in here though. Missed almost the whole beach event.” She pouted a bit. The sentiment didn’t last long though before she gave Deni a little hug.

”We heard you were dead. Guess they just don’t kill people like they used to.” She would plop down on a big pillow.

Ronin looked a bit confused as Sakura put a hand on her shoulder, and then… ‘Oooooh, so you have a home! Figures you’re hard to find, then!’ Ronin giggled a bit more. ‘Someone wished you an Interdimensional Home? Cool of them,’ she then said with a grin, listening to them… and got hugged by Violet, Ronin… Deni smiled, hugging the girl back.

‘Well. I was consumed by Caroline von Visceral, so to anyone watching there probably wasn’t much of a difference~’ Deni laughed a bit. ‘But while I was consumed, Asengav severed his ties to me. My guess is he didn’t want Father, Justine and Caroline’s patron, to have a direct link to him through me. But, when Caroline was defeated, I was left behind! But, I was sort of in a coma, or something, I kept having dreams. Then something, I dunno what, gave me power out of nowhere, and I came back as a samurai-girl, no slime involved!’ Deni explained. ‘But I can still shape-shift, like your wish made me capable of!’

”We noticed. That’s how we knew it was you. We tend to leave a mark.” The girl smiled. ”We’ve been meaning to meet with your sister and Mariette but with everything going on it’s really risky.” She frowned, more perturbed than disappointed.

‘Right. Do you happen to know what they're up to?’ Deni asked, her smile turning a little bittersweet. ‘See, by being freed from Asengav, I happen to know they're mind-bent to follow him. I want to rescue them from him, which is a little hard as if they find out I'm around Mariette will be forced to kidnap me back. A horror can't have loose ends like me running about, can they?’ she asked with a little grin.

Violet would put a hand up to her mouth and pace for a moment while her sister took over. ”We don’t really know what they’re doing right now. We know that some of their associates have been trying to locate us. Well, they have once or twice, but they can’t catch us. Past that though I think Mariette showed up briefly at some big battle or another. Yeah, things haven’t really been good for a visit.” She would admit. There wasn’t much else they could provide as far as what their friends were doing.

‘I see. Alright. Well. I’m gonna save them. Unfortunately, I know for a fact that Justine von Visceral is going to attack her, and, uh, she’s going to take me with her. For some reason. I’m going to take that opportunity to attempt saving them, both from Justine and from Asengav. Possibly in that order. It’s DEFINITELY going to be an uphill battle, I wanted to see the two of you before it happened,’ Deni said, still smiling at them.

Clicking her tongue a few times, Violet would come back around from her wandering. ”You’ll need a way to break that mind bending. What’s your plan for that?” She would lean a little closer to Deni. ”Do you have a plan for that?”

‘Sooo, I got a bit of an alliance with Veronica, who also doesn’t like Justine. She says that she, or one of her agents, has the necessary powers to remove mind-bending. Still, it’s going to need the person in question to be restrained while we make a ritual, which isn’t that easy, because it requires us to basically kidnap Mariette and Eli to do it…’ Deni said, chuckling a bit. ‘But it’s a shot, that’s potentially doable, just reeeaaally hard.’

”And this is to help them, yes?” They had a somewhat tenuous, almost coerced relationship with Mariette really. It was solid enough that they couldn’t do anything directly to interfere with Asengav’s plans. However, that didn’t mean they couldn’t do something to push in a direction right? ”You could always bring them here first to be somewhere safe. Our home is special and no one can get in or out of here if we don’t want them to.” She grinned.

‘That is an EXCELLENT idea!’ Deni said with a grin right back. ‘Yeah, it's to help them. Asengav's plot will eventually make them enemies of Penrose, and then they will either die or, even worse, win. I need to save them before that. I'm not going to involve you, because all we've done to keep you safe from my previous patron, but having a safe place, with friends, where I can place them means a lot to me. Veronica has helped me a lot, but I still can't be 100% sure she won't do a 180 when we've captured Eli and Mariette, hah.’ So she summed up.

Sakura would shrug. "We've never dealt with her before. Admittedly we aren't all that well versed in how to get rid of horror mind stuff. But we do know some people that have a good grasp of it. Not sure if they'd want to help or not though."

‘Oooh? Who’d these people be?’ Deni asked, tilting her head and listening attentively.

”A couple other twins. They wished to be able to purify other magical girls. They’re Beacon though, so we’re not really sure where they stand. Working with them can be risky.” She confirmed. Beacon has sought them out before trying to get hold of their wishing power. So they were a little wary of the group.

‘Eeeeeeeeeeeh… Probably… wanna keep Mariette away from Beacon, hah,’ Deni told, expression twitching a bit. ‘I did a loooot of scouting with Mariette around the world at one time,’ when they were kidnapping girls from across the world, ‘and Beacon’s… not very understanding of monsters and horror-girls, generally. I know people are saying our Beacon is different, but eeeeeeeeeeeh… If I have no other choice, maybe,’ Deni told with a grin.

Sakura bobbed her head in recognition. "Yeah, just let us know and maybe we can work something out. That'll be plan B though."

‘Yupp!’ Deni said, smiling. ‘Yeah, I already really had a lot of a plan, I just… really wanted to find you two and tell you. And also tell you two that I’m alive. Because I didn’t want you to grieve me for longer, if you were. Because I’d hope to continue being your friend now, and forever more. I’d like a future where me, Eli and Mariette are free from patrons making us do things and just could hang out with friends as we wished, maybe save the world, perhaps travel and live happily ever after with our friends. That would be my wish right now, heh,’ Deni said, the use of words just used for irony, as it’s not a wish they could grant, heh.

The two girls would smile. Violet spoke. ”Well, we can try and help as long as we’re around.”

‘Alright! … Are you going somewhere?’ Deni asked, because that last part sure sounded like they were going to travel.

Scratching her head a bit Sakura would respond. ”It’s always a possibility with us. We go wherever Cafar sends us. But with this home we can make it where you, Eli, and Mariette can come in. It can be a safehouse for a little while. Try not to abuse it. After the beach thing he’s been more picky about how we use wishes.” She would lower her voice. Not that it mattered being mind linked with her patron.

‘… Oh, that was you?’ Deni asked/concluded with a light laugh at the end. ‘Yeah, probably a good idea. Who knows what silly people might wish for, after all. Alright, that makes sense. If you could make it so, I’d be really happy. I wonder, could one go from one Interdimensional Home directly into another? Since Justine will be attacking Mariette’s, that is,’ Deni wondered curiously. ‘But rest assured, I won’t use it unless I’m bringing Eli and or Mariette. You got my word on that,’ Deni said with a nod. ‘… Unless, uh. I find myself in a strange situation where doing so would save the life of someone else, maybe? Er. Could I?’ Deni wondered.

”Maybe? It’s still a Dimensional Home. Pretty sure only five people we allow can come in. So if you figure out who could help you with Eli and Mariette then let us know so we can allow them in too. Not sure if there’s a time limit though if we’re not here. Never tested that.” She was just throwing out thoughts at this point. Mostly speculation.

‘Haha, alright. Let’s settle for Eli and Mariette for now, and testing if one can go from dimensional home to dimensional home when it’s make or break and I’m literally staking my life on it because I probably have Justine right behind me,’ Deni said with a grin. ‘Okay, so how do I make myself enter on my own, when I have them?’ she then asked, because that will probably be relevant.

”Focus on coming here for ten seconds and you should be whisked away!” She would make a playful gesture as if picking someone up and flying away with them.

‘Got it, thank you!’ Deni said with a smirk, before looking them over… then she’s just gonna go in, grab and pull one of them a bit so she can hug both Violet and Sakura at the same time, looking really happy. ‘I’m so happy we’re friends. I’ll come find you afterwards, too, alright?’

The girls would return the hug. ”We’re glad too. And we would love that.” The two didn’t really have that many people they could call friends. Even if it started out as something rather forced right now it felt more real than most before it. Deni needed to get going though so they would part ways. Lots of little pieces to figure out. The twins themselves though would need to keep what they did to a minimum. They did have an agreement to maintain after all.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

@Shifter_Master Hm... Melisa? Kind of a newbie but Penny is tank.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

While all manner of chaos went on in the city, most of the citizens of Penrose went on with their lives none the wiser. It was late so most were sleeping by this point. One woman in her late 20s toiled away in an old estate, sorting through its contents room by room. It had taken months to inventory everything and she was finally getting to stuff in the attic. The place had been in the family for generations, and she'd now inherited it and its contents. Most of it she had no need for, including the house itself. So she'd set to task picking out and packing family heirlooms and valuables. With the end in sight she didn't want to have to come back for one last room.

There was certainly going to need to be some TLC before she could sell the place. Unsurprisingly for an old creeky structure on the outskirts of town there were rumors and tales that the house was haunted. Weird things would happen as if the place was alive. Melisa didn't entertain such nonsense. The place was old, drafty, and had settled cockeyed over the years. The place had electricity so working at night was trivial. So upstairs she went. Fighting with the door for a minute she managed to pop it free of the leaning door jam. "What a mess." The room was stacked high with boxes upon boxes. After a long sigh she set to opening each one to see what was inside. Managing to sort though half a dozen she decided to call it quits after all. This one room alone might as well be two or three. Didn't help that is was pretty tightly packed so she couldm't just spread things out.

Hauling box after box back into stacks, she took one heavy one full of books and set it back in place. She could hear the slight crackle and groan of glass under the weight. Pulling the box back off before she broke anything Malisa plopped it back on the ground. What she thought was just another box was actually a glass case tightly wrapped in canvas. It also weighed a ton so there wasn't any sliding the covering out from under it. Curious the boxcutter made easy work of the woven covering. What she found was probably the creepiest damn thing she'd ever seen. Inside the case was a two foot tall metal marrionette doll. It had a piece missing where its stomach was, though on closer inspection that looked to be a design choice. Oddly the figure didn't appear to be suspended by strings, rather it was held down by chains.

That should have been enough for anyone to put the tarp back on the thing and head out. Melisa couldn't help herself though and fiddled with the door. The opening itself actually had odd strips of paper with some strange characters scrawled on it. What was this, a horror movie? Over the creepy feeling because of how childish she must have looked, she cut the seals and opened the case. Works like this usually had an artists name or signature on it. Pulling it out and checking around the outside there was nothing. The hollowed out opening in the stomach though had was looked like another of those pieces of paper though. Taking hold of it she was drawing it out when she heard a voice. "Will you be my friend?" Recoiling and jerking her hand back Melisa looked around for the source of the voice. It sounded like a child. Looking down she had managed to cut her finger on the sharp edges of the doll. She didn't respond to the question and started to close the case. "No? That's okay. We can make friends together."

The blood on the doll ignited into a pink flame in unison with the cut finger. Panic instantly set in as in seconds her entire hand was seemingly on fire. It didn't hurt, but the spread was too quick to do anything but flail. It wasn't just outside though, the woman felt herself becoming lighter as she was consumed. Soon her entire body was nothing but this pink blaze throughout. Rattling in its case the doll began to draw in the flames through the opening in its torso. Disappearing from sight Melisa began to feel a cold sensation. Her vision that had gone out returned and she stumbled. Something was holding her back. She pulled and fought, breaking loose from the chains that were binding her. As she did her mind was hit and the fear left her. She was free. Everything was weird and huge though. Pretty quickly she realized that she was now the marionette. Eerily this didn't bother her as much as it should. A smile came instead as she loosened all her joints. There was a lot of work to do and she was hungry. The woman might not have wanted to be her friend, but now Melisa just needed to go out and make new ones herself.

The Little Marionette

You'll be my friend won't you?

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

Prior to speaking with the Inquisitor

It had been a few days since the contract business with Cindy had been taken care of but once again Penny found herself once again drifting back into deeper depths of Beacon HQ. The twins, (Read: Jenna) had wanted to talk to Penny about her most recent change. The robot girl could see where it was they were coming from, she had gone quite ballistic at the mention of Chloe after all, but she also knew that they had the wrong idea as to why. Granted convincing them of that was going to be difficult, as she was planning on keeping part of the truth secret, but that’s what she was here for.

That and seeing how they’ve settled in, the past week and a half had been quite the frantic one on Beacons end and they hadn't really had the chance to touch base with each other all that often. Not counting the Cindy thing at any rate.

Expecting the mechanical girl, the twins were waiting when Penny arrived. It felt like ages since they’d just met to talk. And even now it wasn’t something all that normal. Still they stepped up and each gave Penny a big hug. ”Thanks for coming.” They had set up a room by the entrance so they could sit and talk. It had obviously been inspired by those that Beacon had set up at HQ not long ago. Though Jenna only provided three seats in this case, presumably to prevent Penny from sitting on the far side of the room.

“Anytime” Penny would reply as she happily returned the hugs.

Seated, Janet would speak up. ”How are you doing Penny? I didn’t really get the chance to ask about anything last time we met. I kind of hogged all the attention” She joked a bit regarding her own situation.

“No worries” Penny would say as she took a seat as well, never realizing the limited seating might be connected to her prior actions “I'm guilty of doing the same from time to time after all” She would joke back, because if there was anyone in Beacon that had caused more situations where everything had to be put on hold it so that things could be talked over it was likely Penny. After all there were still conversations going around about the fact that she was a Monstergirl in Beacon, not that she cared about such anymore.

“And I’m doing well, still working out a few bugs that cropped up due to the reintegration, but nothing major. How about yourselves? Outside of the whole contract business that is” she would say as she leaned back into the chair to get comfortable.

Jenna would shake her head a bit. "It's mostly been work as usual, if such a thing exists anymore. We've kind of locked ourselves into Beacon's R&D department. Not really sure how successful our efforts have been though." She was surely referring to the White Coin and the war that's started. They had made a rather sudden leap into the forefront of purification magic seemingly out of nowhere. Penny had been their first subject and the magical coin had seemingly failed in some capacity. To some extent they wanted to know why, but more importantly they were concerned for their friend since she had remained a monster girl. That should not have happened and there was always the potential things at Beacon could go sideways.

“I’d say that you’ve been plenty successful” Penny would counter “I mean you’ve upgraded the Spark, and there are at least three new members that we’ve gotten that are directly because of your creation.” She would go on to say, thinking of all the girls who have been given a second chance due to the White Coin like Kimble and Hyun.

“What’s got you thinking that it’s not been helpful?”

”Well, not that it hasn’t been helpful. I guess we expected it to make a bigger impact. We were probably just hoping for too much.” She would huff a bit. ”But yeah, We haven’t been able to do much else with what happened at the rave. We’ve been working to get the ShineSpark out to as many of our sisters as we can. This is a welcome break let me tell you.” Jenna would lean forward and prop her chin in her hands. The two didn’t look exhausted, they rarely did because of their magic, but they were probably pretty mentally and emotionally drained.

“Considering that apparently people have already tried to steal one of the Coins I think the impact has been rather impressive” Penny would point out “But I’m glad you’ve been able to get a break, burnout doesn’t sound like it would be very fun at the moment”

Nodding a bit Janet seemed to consider something for a moment but then set it aside. She could ask that later. ”So, we were really curious how you’ve been doing. Obviously you’ve gone through another change. We had actually been working on something to try and put your soul back together but I guess you found another way.” She changed the subject back over to why they had invited Penny over in the first place.

“I’ve been doing better than I have for a long time, to be honest. Not entirely sure how much of it is being back in one piece and how much of it is due to the Red Coin but I’ve been doing really good since I used it.” Penny would answer, a soft smile on her face as she did so. “And sorry about not being able to talk to you two about it beforehand, the deadline for it very suddenly got brought forward. I’m just glad that I had talked to Binky about my idea as early as I did.”

”Ah, so you used a red coin. Hm… I guess Binky is better at making them than we are anyway. We kind of picked it up from her. If things go well we are hoping to learn some things from Cindy as well. Even though she’s never had our magic before she’d overseen a lot. We’re still trying to figure out how to break the news to Beacon that she’s in my head.” And right back off track. Janet in particular had been having a little trouble concentrating. Her new duality while stable, was still a bit unsettling. Still she’d wanted to do it so there was no one to blame but herself.

“Well Alicia knows, so it’s not like the leader of our branch isn’t aware.” Penny would say with a shrug, not really sure if anyone else in Beacon needed to know of the Cindy copy riding shotgun in Janet’s mind, but at the same time it wasn’t really Penny’s prerogative if Janet wanted to tell more people about it.

“But yeah, Binky modified a Red Coin at my request. If it hadn't been such a rush I would have been willing to bring more people into it. But no adverse effects so far so I’m just going to count my blessings and not worry about it” She would go one to explain trying to pull the conversation slightly back on track, as the meandering thought processes hadn’t gone completely unnoticed.

Jenna reached over and put an arm around Janet to comfort her a bit. ”Been wondering for a while now, there just hasn’t been a good time to talk. And I hope you don’t mind me asking. Why is it you think that you’re still a monster girl? Not that it really matters but the White Coin should have taken that away.” She smiled slightly. The fact that it didn’t work really didn’t bother them beyond potentially making a mistake. Which given they’d had full knowledge and a lifetime’s worth of experience just handed to them she couldn’t see how that happened. Of course they never actually told anyone that. Too dangerous. To let that information slip. They were already a bit miffed that the coins had been treated so casually.

“No worries” Penny would say brushing aside the fear that it might have been a sensitive subject “I’d wondered about that myself so makes sense that you’d be curious as well” Leaning forward she’d rest her elbows on her knees Snoopy would pop out, giving Janet and Jenna a happy beep, before floating in between them all. “Now, I’m not fully sure if this is why, but I do have a theory.” Snoopy would begin projecting a holographic set of blueprints of what was recognizably Penny back when she first joined Beacon, granted most of the technical information was scrubbed out, but it was a more detailed look at how Penny was put together then most people ever saw.

“This is how I used to be, in fact this is how I was when I first woke up in the magical world.” She would say gesturing at the image of her past self “And this is how I was before using the White Coin” As she spoke a second image would appear alongside the first one. Over all there wasn’t much of a difference, just the addition of more components. “Doesn’t seem like much, but here's the kicker”

In the second image a majority of Penny’s chassis would be highlighted in different colors. Her spider limbs and a small part of her torso colored purple. The rest of her torso was still colored blue, with another small portion of it colored white. From there however, the vast majority of Penny’s construction was painted white, with only her head and the upper parts of her arms remaining in blue.

“All the areas in white were metal that was donated to me by Beacon, or Beacon assisted in their installation.” Penny would explain so that the twins could have an understanding of what it was she was showing them “And as I learned the hard way I didn’t have the magical capability to fully integrate metal into my systems until recently. So all of the discolored parts still held the magical nature of who had enchanted it originally. Overall only about thirty eight percent of my construction could have been considered corrupted at least from a magical perspective. So when I used the White Coin and it purified my corruption it was left with this” She would gesture again leaving only the white highlighted areas, an obvious majority of Penny’s body “And built off of that”

The girls would watch as Penny attempted to explain. It didn’t really help that they didn’t entirely grasp where a majority of the additions came from. Evidently the mechanical girl would just go around taking whatever she could. Looking up and over Penny carefully things would at least look more cohesive. ”I would refrain from trying to add any more corrupted additions. That’s probably what partly lead to your split as the ShineSpark will try and reject them. Kind of hard to say since we don’t have two halves anymore to know for sure. But that’s not really a bad thing, right? The Red Coin probably more evenly distributed things so it’s not so much of a strain. But the purification of the coin is only meant to work at its use.” She would explain. They really hadn’t gone much into how the thing worked with anyone so there was bound to be hiccups like this.

Janet would speak up, having become distracted by the subject at hand. ”We can purify parts you bring in though. That way you won’t have to worry about conflicting systems and magic. That should make them safe to use. The ShineSpark is a pretty potent thing.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me if that was part of the reason for the split.” Penny would agree, she also knew that it was because she wanted to get away from Jason and his self destructive mindset but voicing that would require explaining about Jason and that wasn’t something that she was planning on today, if ever. “And I’m planning on performing more complete cleansings of any more metal I plan on integrating now that I can, but I’ll definitely bring the mats here before doing anything as well.”

”Other Reinforcement girls should be able to do it as well. Light too but it might take longer. They won’t do it as well as we can though.” She would wink playfully. ”I’m just glad you’re safe. You worry us you know.”

“Hmm, wonder if Ishtar would be willing to cleanse things as well. Would be interesting to see if she adds anything interesting to the mix” Penny would muse aloud thinking about the recordings of the trial that had happened. Thankful that she had been preoccupied when all of that was happening, as she would have stormed in consequences be damned, and things would have devolved. “I’ll have to ask her once they’ve finished healing her up” She would say with a shrug before pushing the thought aside for the time
She noted.

Penny couldn’t help the wry smile that broke across her face as she went over the last statement “I worried myself. Before the Split I knew there was something wrong with the way I was going about things, but there wasn’t much I could do to stop myself, got stuck in a loop as it were. The Split just made it so much more obvious, still a bit chilling to think back on it.” She would give an exaggerated shiver, because it was true, yet it was no longer a worry to the android. “Another bit of silver lining to it I suppose”

"That's the spirit." Jenna would beam. It was clear she was trying to keep things on the rails for her sister.

Janet frowned slightly at the mention of the Cardinal. They had been brought to the park to try and protect her and things went spiraling out of control. When she herself passed out they even left the battlefield. They were excused for such given the circumstances but they hadn’t heard much about her condition since learning she’d been recovered. ”They’re still working on the curse?”

“Last I heard yeah, though I’ve not kept too close an eye on it, been focused on other things as of later” Penny would reply with a shrug.

Jenna would nudge her sister ”Hey now.” She would reign in her sister a bit. ”Stop moping. We’re not done yet.”

Janet would sigh before sitting up. She would close her eyes for a moment and shake a bit. A little hard to say what was going on in her head but she seemed to relax a bit. ”You’re right. We’ll see what happens either way. Hm…” Her eyes would wander a bit before settling on Penny. ”We’ve been debating telling Beacon about Cindy. She’s no longer corrupted and we have the contract so she shouldn’t be a direct threat. I know for a fact she wants to get back to the sanctuary you’ve made, but that could look bad if we leave our post here and go ‘join the enemy’ so to speak. What do you think? Any good ideas?”

“She told you about that I see” Leaning back and crossing her arms Penny would take a moment to consider the question posed to her, Snoopy had shifted to simply floating around looking at things in curiosity. “I wouldn’t risk Cindy going back just yet.” She would say after a moment “A lot of the girls there are still recovering. Even though you guys wouldn’t turn on them Beacon is something of a touchy subject there due to the Ascendency. I don’t think it would end well, especially if Cindy shows up.”

“I might be able to set up a way for you all to get in touch with Goblina however. She was Cindy’s second and has been a great help in keeping the place safe.” She would offer up as an alternative “She’d know best at the moment how the mood would be if any of you showed up, but that would require telling her about Cindy.” Which was something Penny had already done, she had given her word that she would do everything in her power to find out what happened to Cindy after all.

Raising a hand up to her face Janet would appear to be thinking. It wasn’t but a few seconds after that a pale blue light rippled its way down her body. Penny had been there for the contract’s creation. However, at the time the look hadn’t been decide so this would be the first chance Penny had to see it. ”Penny, I’m glad you’ve come to visit. I assume you’ve been talking about me.” Jenna didn’t seem to react all that much so she was either getting used to this back and forth or perhaps expected this might happen.

“Not quite” Penny would say, giving CIndy’s new look an appreciative once over “We were talking about my home, and how it might not be the best idea for you to go visiting it again just yet.” She would answer plainly.

“Most of the people there are still dealing with the shockwaves of your death after all”

”No?” She would ponder for a minute. Her death would surely cause quite a lot of disruption. Especially depending on if there was a struggle for power. ”I do not like this sitting and waiting of yours, but I will at least try and learn from my mistakes.” Drumbing her fingers a few times she would stare at Penny for a while. Her gaze would eventually drift over to Jenna.

”What?”

Cindy shook her head. ”Pondering…” She would let that hang in the air for a bit. Jenna herself didn’t have a response right away. ”If things have not completely fallen apart at your home then I would say inform Goblina of the circumstances. I trust that she will know what to do. Just be sure it’s her as the one that had come with me to the park had been a Mint agent. The twins here worry more about Beacon and how they will see the situation. A fair point with the Ascendancy present in the city.”

“I didn’t say sit and wait, just going to the Sanctuary might not be the best idea. I’ve stepped into the void that your death caused, but there are plenty of girls there that have not come to terms with your death. Your appearance will more than likely destabilize the peace that is slowly growing.” Penny would explain to Cindy, more resigned to the fact that there was no way to keep it from Janet and Jenna, not because she didn’t trust them, but because she didn’t want to also implicate them in her blatant heresy any more than she already had.

“Additionally, you’re going to need to find a way to hide your Sparks. As Beacon can track us by them, I have a way to hide mine but it isn’t one that will work for you. Until then it is just dangerous for any of you to go there. Especially because of the Ascendency.”

Jenna had expected that Penny had been working outside the bounds of Beacon, but not quite that deep. The idea of hiding their Spark must have struck some chord because she paled a bit. ”What on earth have you been doing?”

Narrowing her eyes at Jenna, Cindy would speak slowly. ”Hm, don’t know your friends as much as you thought? Such things would be unnecessary if we were left alone by your patron.”

“Not that’s hardly fair to them” Penny would rebuke gently “Beacon isn’t a bad group, and Alicia is aware of what I am doing. It’s the Ascendency that I am hiding from. I will not invite genocide onto those that are simply seeking a safe place to rest”

“To answer your question Jenna, I have an artifact that cloaks things from magical detection. Due to my nature I can afixit inside of me. That’s how I’ve been keeping mine hidden, and why it wouldn’t work for you.”

Jenna could have reacted much more poorly to learning about this, she wanted to, but that would tip her hand a bit more than she wanted. ”That actually didn’t answer my question, but okay.” She covered her face for a moment before groaning. ”And here I thought we were being paranoid about things.”

“Oh” Penny would say blinking a few times as she replayed the question in her head. She had thought that Janet and Jenna had figured it out already considering their nonreaction, especially since Cindy had told them about the Sanctuary. Penny had called out what she had been planning on last time they met up after all.

“I’m running the Sanctuary.” Penny would clarify turning back to Jenna “I’ve become Queen effectively and I’m not being that paranoid about it. I mean I’ve told people about it after all”

”Not me. Not my sister. We want to help. We shouldn’t have to learn about this stuff from other people or because Janet managed to perform a brain transplant.” Speaking of, off to the side Cindy changed back to Janet, armor and all. Glancing between the two she seemed content to just listen.

“I never told you guys directly because it is in direct violation of the Vows, and you guys have been put on trial enough as it is” Penny would counter running a hand down her face “Besides I kinda thought you guys had figured it out already. I did kinda throw it in Cindy’s face what I had planned on doing.”

"Alright, we’re not getting anywhere with this." Janet would cut in, once again deescalating the scene. ”It is a moot point now. Eventually the cat is going to be out of the bag that Cindy and I share a body. It’s likely that people on both sides will be unhappy with that considering we’re not immediately trying to kill one another. If you think you have the Sanctuary under control then that just leaves avoiding Excommunication. I for one believe being upfront with Beacon is more likely to work rather than hiding her.”

“I have it for now. Not everyone there is fully trusting of me and I don’t blame them, Mint assassinated Cindy; they have a right to be shaken.” Penny would say “And while being upfront with Beacon is likely for the best, I don’t think many people outside of Alicia and perhaps your Beckoner need to fully know. The Ascendency would love to corner Cindy to try and pull information out of her after all.”

”That’s what the contract is for. It may be an all or nothing gamble, but I can’t stand to see innocents getting hurt. They don’t all deserve to be demonized the way they are.” She paused briefly. She almost continued but thought better than to say what she had in mind out loud.

“And I agree with that” Penny would start the moment Janet stopped “It's why I built the Sanctuary in the first place. It’s why I stepped up when Cindy got taken out. Thing is, the change can’t come from just the outside. Alicia, and you two, have done a lot more than I have to change Beacon from within. The fact that I am here is proof of that. It’s also why I’m urging caution on your ends. I’m more expendable, as I am a monster girl, them not trusting me is not going to go away in only one year. Especially with my track record.”

“But if you guys and Alicia will be able to make a lot longer lasting impact from within while I work on the stuff from the outside.”

Janet would nod. ”That is the idea. We just need Cindy on board enough not to snap at people. She’s been getting better about bossing Jenna around. Not really sure if it was our conversation or the Twinned Soul kicking in.”

”I’ve told her everything I knew about the rave. Which was the main thing she wanted to know about once she was done trying to kill me. Do you think you have any more details you could show her about that. It’s really the most tragic thing to happen to both sides.”

“It's kinda a mess all together.” Penny would say with a shrug “Chloe was behind the tainted music, Eden set off a WMD, and a non Beacon member retaliated with a large scale barrage. Outside of that I know that the Monster Queen responsible for cloaking the place got purified, so she might have a bit more information, that and apparently Eden was still looking for Cindy later that night but that’s about all I can think of.” She would explain rather calmly, save for the growl that came with mentioning Chloe.

”When did the Ascendancy move in?”

“After they confirmed Elvira was there, but that wasn’t until the music had started playing. They set up the barrier once they had people in already.” Penny would answer “Not that that excuses them, they still went in with the intention of purging everyone”

Janet would roll her eyes. Always with their purging. Still they hadn’t gone in until after things were getting riled up. ”Suppose I’m looking for information of why they went in, which was as you said. It was obviously to lure as many Beacon as possible in order to kill them. Really wish they hadn’t been attacking everyone like that.” Stopping to think for a while Janet would close her eyes. She didn’t want to present a false narrative to Cindy. That would undermine the cooperation they’d established. ”I hate to ask, but did you see our sisters fall from Eden’s attack? What about the other girls from the lightning?”

Penny would slowly tense at that request. Her eyes gained a distant look as she recalled the events that happened only a short time ago. “Yes to both” she would say, her voice slightly flat as she spoke “I had Snoopy inside during both events. So I got footage of it all. I was even at one of the locations struck by the lightning retaliation. So there is that as well”

Jenna would shoot a look of concern at her sister. ”You’re not thinking of showing Cindy that are you? She already believes it was orchestrated. She may be mad that her people were used, but the Ascendancy still attacked.”

Nodding slowly Janet would confirm on both accounts. ”You are correct. And we know from reports that Eden was looking for Cindy after the massacre. Whether the mastermind was Eden, the Penrose Independant, The Mint, or someone else, once Cindy is back out in the open someone is going to try and spin the narrative to get her to side with them. Penny was with our forces before it all started so she can give a full picture of the events. Cindy has been lied to and manipulated to start a war. She should know what actually happened because it will be challenged.” She glanced at Penny to see what she thought.

“It was Mint, or at the very least that is what me and Goblina both agree on” Penny would say after a moment of thinking. “I have footage of Goblina at the Rave, but when I got to the sanctuary that night her first question to me was where Cindy was. As she had been knocked out before ever making it there” She would explain “And Cindy is already aware of how things went at the Rave to at least some degree. She asked me about it already, back before the contract was brought up.”

“Granted it wasn’t much more than a quick recap with a few pictures courtesy of Snoopy. So a full debrief might not be a bad idea. As would telling Goblina. Because with me having taken Cindy’s place whoever is trying to manipulate her is likely going to go through those that cared for if they can”

”Ah, I wasn’t aware you discussed that already. That makes things easier then as it won’t be as much of a shock. Like I said though, I don’t want to be the point which is hiding things from her and we end up with an even bigger problem. You ready?” If there was no objection then Cindy would tag back in.

”You have something to show me?”

“Yeah” Penny would reply, resisting the urge to rub the back of her neck “We kinda touched on it already, but we thought it would be best to give you the full picture of what went on at the Rave after you left. Someone worked to manipulate you, and the best way to counter that is with facts” She would say as Snoopy floated in between them, already projecting the start of the night from Penny’s point of view “So, The Rave, in all the detail I can. Feel free to ask questions, I’ll answer what I can”

At first Cindy looked a bit surprised that they were going to show her the event. Thus far she’d been content with Penny confirming what she’d been told as true. However, Janet must have concluded that the risk of potentially losing her trust outweighed any harm seeing all that transpired. The emotional rollercoaster didn’t show on her face as she watched silently. It could be sensed though as the static charge in the room built. The music starting, the Ascendancy moving in and taking out those she swore to protect. The sudden deaths of the Beacon girls gave her a slight pause. Then the lightning dragon coming in and cleaning out most everyone else.

She glanced over at Jenna from time to time who was also seeing this herself for the first time. Nearly all of it seemed to distress the girl which was not the response she’d expected. Especially at the end, most Beacon would see that as retribution. She had scooted further away to avoid getting shocked though as electricity had begun to arc from the lightning girl. Turning back to Penny she would query. ”Whom was it that summoned the dragon down upon the warehouse?”

Seeing Jenna scoot to avoid getting zapped Penny would exert a small amount of her own magic, turning her into a lighting rod for any of the stray arcs that were a bit too out of hand. At the same time she would shrug “I don’t know” She would answer plainly “Snoopy didn’t have eyes on whoever it was, and by the time the lightning was done I had already ordered him to leave and to meet up with me. I know that they weren’t Beacon, as the Lightning was Blessed, but other than that I have no clues.”

”I see. Thank you for showing me this. I understand that a Monster Queen was purified by a White Coin. That makes her part of Beacon now yes?” A great number of things were running through her head at that moment. She very much wanted to be out and fighting to defend her people.

“Hyun” Penny would inform her with a nod “I’ve not had a chance to get to know her, but yeah the use of a White Coin replaces the prior Patron bond with a Beacon one. As far as I am concerned she is free to leave if she wants, but, speaking from experience, Coins don’t work unless the user wants them too so I doubt that would be the case.” Snoopy would beep a few times before the holographic image shut off and the small drone would go back to floating around as it suited its fancy.

”Mmm.” She would look over at Jenna. ”And you and your sister are the architects of these coins?” It had been fairly obvious to her from the beginning, having first woken up in the lab with the coins. Though the twins had danced around the subject quite a bit.

Obviously uncomfortable with the subject Jenna squirmed a bit. ”Mostly, yes.”

Cindy would nod. ”Of course.” She would watch Jenna for a while before casually looking back at Penny. ”I must admit I am baffled by the Beacon of Penrose. Even the Ascendancy, who are known for their ruthless persecution of the “corrupted”, offered some kind of redemption to Hyun Long after slaughtering many others minutes before.”

“That’s because the Beckoners don’t all agree” Penny would explain scratching her head “I don’t know all of the details, but I do know that there is a division within the upper echelon” She would go on to say leaning back in her chair “I caught wind of it from my prior Patron, and I’m pretty sure which one is leaning in our direction as well. Just worried about the retaliation”

Cindy seemed to roll her eyes a bit. She had heard of the White Coins prior but didn’t give them much credence as they just made monster girls into Beacon. Presumably they would then turn around and attack their own. If there was some kind of ideological struggle for change then she was for it. Sounded as though the upheaval was in its infancy through and could very well collapse before any meaningful difference was made. Stroking her fingers down her chin slightly she would comment. ”Ishtar did indicate something of peace for the city. I dared not believe it meant more than purging us from Penrose.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Ishtar and Rachel share the same disagreements that the Beckoners do.” Would be the robot girls reply “And while I haven't talked with Ishtar I have talked with Rachel. While Ishtar is healing we will need to be careful of her. She is a zealot and an extremist, who I think has spent too long staring into the darker aspects of the magical world and has forgotten that it isn’t so black and white.”

Penny brought up an interesting point. Cindy would look over at Jenna. ”Does she merely need healing? I feel that Beacon should have the necessary resources to handle such a simple matter.” What exactly had happened to Ishtar had been lost on the girl. Just a bit too busy trying to survive herself.

Jenna shook her head. ”I’m not very familiar with how it works, but I’m pretty sure she was cursed. I wasn’t around to see how it all turned out in the end as I had to get Janet out after she passed out from your death.” It had been bad when she left and spread quickly. She could only assume it had gotten severe.

Curses were nasty things the old girl had seen several times. Proper ones designed to assassinate a target took time and preparation. If it had taken Beacon this long to heal the Cardinal then surely it was well advanced and complex. ”She is likely cursed for death then. That she still lives at all is a miracle. I have overseen removal of some lesser variants in the past. Death can only be delayed with sufficient healing.” Cindy seemed pretty sure about her statement. Beacon may yet still have something up their sleeve though. Cleansing and purification were their forte.

“Hard to say” Penny would muse “The Ascendency didn’t seem terribly worried about her chances once they got her back here so only time will tell at this point”

”Time we do not have if we wish to save ours from their hand.” She would say pointedly. Though Cindy had been shook before by her new circumstance, it didn’t appear to have made a long lasting impact to her cause or persona. She had sworn to protect her people. Penny’s remarks of her performance did have some effect though along with the twins. Charging in unprepared did not seem to be the direction Cindy was careening down anymore.

“I can agree to that, one of the reasons I took over as Queen after all” Would be the casual agreement. “Most of the focus has been internal as of late, while also working to make sure that those at the Sanctuary don’t try to lash out at Beacon or The Ascendency. Doing such isn’t helping anyone”

“On the upside they still don’t know where it is hidden away, and their assumptions are way off so that’s not a concern yet”

Relieved to hear that things were not as dire as she had feared Cindy seemed to relax a bit. What exactly to do next? There may not be a clear answer at this time. ”I am glad to hear that most have stayed safe. And I would like to… apologize for my initial outburst at you announcing your intent to challenge me. You have been nothing if not helpful at your own risk. It was not very becoming of me.” Admitting flaws was not something Cindy did often. It was fairly damaging of her image though and Penny had done a lot in assisting those under her charge.

“I wanted to challenge you because of the dangers I saw you drifting towards, not because I thought you didn’t care” Penny would say, accepting the apology with a kind smile. “The fact that you came to me asking to help set up more places like the Sanctuary told me that.” It also helped that, at least as far as Penny was aware, there hadn’t been anyone other than the two of them that had tried this. To set up a neutral area for the tainted to be safe, and not try to weaponize them in some capacity. Penny was always going to risk everything to keep such a thing safe, it was a dream she had inherited and one she fully planned on making come true.

“So don’t worry about it, I can see where you’re coming from.”

There was silence for a bit. Seemed there hadn’t been anything else lined up in Cindy’s head that she wanted to voice. It was clear that she was beginning to get restless. She may not have any particular mental thing pushing her anymore but it didn’t change how she was. ”Since the twins believe it best to talk with Beacon about Janet and I, how do you believe we should approach such a matter?”

“I…” Penny would sit back and think on that question. She never had to worry about them not knowing as one of the Beckoners called her out at the very start. “Alicia knows, I guess next would be to let the Beckoners know if they don’t already. After that I suppose you could just go about your business and only explain to people if they run across it. You could also schedule a small meet and greet?” It was kind obvious at this point that Penny was simply tossing out ideas. “That way the rest of Beacon would know and not freak if it happened in the midst of combat. Plus it would give you a chance to get to know some of the members of Beacon outside me and Alicia.”

Considering the advice, Jenna would nod. ”Not a bad idea. We will probably have to go through the Inquisitor though as she’s kind of running things to an extent. At least when it comes to talking with the Beaconers. Their hands are very full right now.”

Cindy would scowl. Rachel was a very sour subject with the lightning girl. The Ascendancy basically encapsulated the things that she despised about Beacon. Their holier than thou attitude and blatant disregard for the lives of people that by and large did nothing whatsoever other than exist. ”I very doubt she would assist us in any way.”

“Yeah I wouldn’t expect Rachel to be any help” Penny would agree with Cindy, as she held a lot of the same views on the Inquisitor. “Still might be able to put out a message on the Beacon servers and set it up that way. Talking to the Beckoners would be a good idea but not sure if it is a needed one. Especially if you have to go through the Ascendency to do it.”

“Could always try to contact your personal Beckoner and see if they could pass along the message.”

”We’ll consider it.” She sighed. ”It will be nice when we can go out and just do things again. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to plan things and help Janet and Cindy, and keep making the coins. Blah. I think we’re just too far down the rabbit hole for that though.” She would slump in her chair.

“Never too far down that once can’t start digging up” Penny would say offhandedly “And also just because me and others have given our opinion doesn’t mean that you can’t simply ignore them and go out and about.” She would offer up “Caging yourself isn’t always the right idea, even if it seems like it.”

Jenna stared at the ceiling for a while. Seemed to be considering something for a bit. The statement struck a chord. ”Well that’s ironic. We told Binky something like that. She always seemed afraid to leave. Guess she just didn’t trust us to keep her safe.” As she spoke Janet returned.

“Considering who she’s working with I’m not that surprised” Penny would reply with a sigh as Snoopy hovered around Janet, watching the transformation with a few curious beeps. “Vast majority of Beacon would have condemned her if they found out, plus there is the fact that there was the Outer Alliance that was also hunting for her. Lots of enemies and very few known people that she could trust.” Penny would shrug “Can’t say I don’t empathize with the situation”

Janet would nod in agreement. It was quite a list of people that would be after her. ”Yes indeed. Which begs to question, is she coming back any time soon?” Her tone wasn’t so much judgemental as it was perhaps concerned. Binky coming up missing wasn’t an unusual occurrence, however when it became clear she was no longer in the lab it warranted further investigation. ”A simple yes or no is fine.”

“No” Penny would answer “She’s fine, but she went back to the Cradle” It hadn't been her intention when she went off with Binky to have that happen, but more then once Penny had expressed the belief that Binky was free to leave if she wanted to. “Seems her girlfriend got abducted by Justine and she wants to free her” Which honestly made sense, but the fact that Beacon was working with Justine had Penny very wary. She doubted that it was a genuine alliance.

”Ah.” To some extent they had hoped not to know where the girl had gone. It was helpful information though. ”Only a matter of time before Veronica knows for certain that Jenna and I are the ones making the White Coins. The Beacon and purification components were not shared in detail so that is safe, not that they would have access to the things they would need to replicate it. We also eliminated any detail of Cindy before the clones could pass the information to Binky proper, though that will be a moot point eventually.” Pretty apparent Janet was going through potential issues and leaks that might arise from their colleague having gone back to the Cradle.

The twin’s attention was understandably redirected at the mention of Justine. There had been talk that the vampire girl was back in Penrose. By and large though they were unaware of things that had transpired though. They both might as well been staring holes through Penny for a moment though.

“In all likelihood Veronica knew for a while” Penny would comment, not really bothered by the laser like focus that was placed on her “She’s got free access to the thoughts of everyone in the Cradle at any time.”

She would wait a beat, to see if either of them would prefer the conversation about the Cradle, but seeing as they were still trying to bore into her head with their eyes Penny would shrug internally before having Snoopy project the image it had snagged of Justine at the Rave “I take it you weren’t aware of her being in the area?”

They both shook their heads. ”Not really. Do we know why she’s back?”

“Revenge” Would be the simple answer “Or at least that's what she’s said. Seems she’s got it out for Mariette. Enough that she’s told Beacon Mariette’s banes.” There was a notable amount of skepticism in Penny’s voice as she nearly glared at the holographic image of the girl. “I don’t trust her as far as I could throw her, but for the moment both Rachel and Alicia haven't moved against her. I’m hoping that they are both working on their own plans to double cross Justine, but I’ve not asked about it.” Yet at any rate, it was something that would be worth it to inquire about now that things have settled a bit.

Oh boy, another name that was not very high on their list of people to ever meet again. ”Joy.” She would state sarcastically. ”I take it we don’t know where either of them are?”

“Unfortunately” Penny would confirm.

Jenna would eek out a sly smile though. ”I might not mind running into Justine. If she tried to suck our blood now I’m sure she’d regret it.”

“That would be a sight to see” Penny would agree with a sharp grin. “Granted I’d be more wanting to throw Aurleio and Sally at Justine and have her melt that way. In the meantime, it might not be a bad idea to pick up a hand mirror, or a candle, as those are Mariette’s banes. Assumedly”

”Good to know. Easy things to carry around in a pinch.” Janet would make a mental note. She then would double back a bit to Justine. ”I wouldn’t underestimate Justine if I were you. The ShineSpark may be able to repel her manipulation, but she is powerful and likely resourceful. What Jenna is referring to others do not have and would be highly ill advised.”

“Well now you have me curious” Penny would say leaning forward as she looked at Jenna with a raised eyebrow. Penny had been referring to the Shinespark and Justine’s weakness to emotion, but was very curious as to what else there is that might work against the vampire.

Jenna glanced at Janet for a moment. There was likely some mental exchange between the two as nothing was said aloud. To some extent it was surprising that Alicia hadn't mentioned what happened. "Oh, well..." She would sit up, having slumped in her chair. ”Janet’s particular purification was one of a kind. It purified her completely. It still is, as far as we can tell, same with me. It was partly why we didn’t want to try moving Cindy to or through you. You’re still technically a monster girl and there’s no really telling what it might do. So yeah, our blood might just be like purifying holy water to a vampire. Not 100% sure on that though.” That was mostly true. Some things were more an educated guess. The fact that it overpowered the ShineSpark to purify Cindy though most definitely meant it was alive and well.

“Huh” Penny would say as she obviously mulled over that for a moment. It was an interesting idea to play around with, Janet and Jenna’s constant purification vs Penny’s unpurifiable nature. “I can see why you didn’t want to risk that” She would add after a moment, she wasn’t sure if she would have had the same caution, but that wasn’t much of a surprise really.

“Will be interesting to see if Justine ends up running afoul of that” Not that Penny wanted them to be in a position where Justine was munching on their neck, but it would be a unique sight “I’d recommend sticking to the stake her through the heart plan myself though.”

Janet would nod a bit. ”Agreed. I don’t like the idea of Beacon working with Justine even if they plan to cross her. That street runs both ways. I know we’re kind of working with Cindy but at least she has a code and isn’t trying to destroy the world or love or whatever.” Janet would massage her forehead with a couple fingers. Just thinking about how disjointed it all sounded gave her a headache.

"That's why I don't care for Horror's" Penny would reply casually but there was a cold gleam in her eyes for a moment as she thought about Justine and her Patron's goal. She would happily kill to make sure such a nightmare never came to pass.

"Think we should come up with plans of our own?" She would ask, for while Alicia might be working on plans herself, more to take down Justine would never hurt.

”Hm, really depends on how things pan out for me first.” She would say absently.

“Fair enough” Penny would acknowledge with a nod. “Any plans for the rest of today?”

”Not really. Have something in mind?”

“Patrolling comes to mind” Penny would reply “Gets you both out and about and potentially give Cindy a chance to see how Beacon helps.”

Jenna’s eyes lit up a bit. ”That’s a good idea.” She looked at her sister who would swap seconds later. Cindy glancied at them both curiously.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

@Ariamis

In the days following their contract Janet and Cindy had to spend some time adjusting to their new circumstance. It might seem odd that Cindy would even agree to sharing anything, but she had quickly come to learn that the Howell twins were more than what they appeared on the surface. Keeping them close as possible was a calculated risk, as were the terms to hopefully keep them in Beacon. Embedded as they were in the organization there was value to not outright getting them Excommunicated. Even though Cindy desperately wanted to get back to her people the time wasn’t right. She’d died and in the wake of her absence god knows what was happening. She trusted Penny to keep things from completely coming apart, but in the meantime she needed to secure something before returning. After all, who would believe or trust her if she returned seemingly as a Beacon girl empty handed.

Opportunity came from an unlikely source. Word from the grape vine was that Ishtar had survived and would need to recover. Naturally as Reinforcement girls the twins would jump at the chance to assist the Cardinal. Cindy however needed more convincing. ”Are you mad? The Ascendancy would never knowingly allow me anywhere near your Cardinal. Why should I even entertain this absurdity?” She would cross her arms and turn her head away from Jenna.

”I know it sounds crazy but hear me out. We’re not in a good position to reveal that you’re still around.” Jenna would start to explain. ”We knew going into this that things were going to be difficult. If we miss the chance then we’re in trouble. If you don’t do your part then we’re in trouble. We have to work together or the contract will start kicking in. If you can help cleanse her then you’ll have proved that you aren’t the threat they thought you were and we can start working to protect your people.” She was pleading for cooperation so they could make it past this first big hurdle.

Hardheaded described Cindy pretty well. If she didn’t want to do something then she probably wouldn’t. Increasingly though she was finding herself becoming endeared to Jenna. The twins were adaptable to say the least as Jenna didn’t put up with Cindy’s attitude, something many people previously wouldn’t dare do. Maybe it was because she knew the contract protected her. She'd displayed the behavior before that though. The defensiveness was not out of spite as far as she could tell. Aside from that though Cindy was convinced that the twin’s strong bond and supportive magic was perhaps altering her opinion of Jenna. The connection of a Twinned Soul was potent and difficult to break under all but the worst of circumstances. One would think this might trigger the contract but it very well may be a passive effect that neither one could control. Regardless Cindy found herself considering her twin-in-law’s advice. ”There’s no guarantee they will not simply attack or be willing to talk once I am made known. We should just be done with...” She felt a pang as she was about to try and make an impulsive decision to leave. Perhaps she had crafted the document a little too well. This catch 22 left little wiggle room. ”...We shall see. But know that my cooperation stems from no loyalty to Beacon.”

”Can’t imagine it would.” She would go to talk with whoever she had to to get the ball rolling and convince them to bring Ishtar to them.

”If you want me to go through with this, and we make out alive, then there is something that I need you to do for me...” Jenna didn’t like the sound of that.

---

The twins moved to the Beacon HQ infirmary, where the Cardinal was taken to after the fateful night at Penrose Park. Multiple Ascendancy guards kept watch over her frozen body tucked in a hospital bed, with Tsuki nearby seemingly concentrating on a ritual of sorts; an open book floated before her, and she was intoning words from it as she grabbed water from a bowl and slowly applied it over Ishtar. The guards crossed swords as the two approached.

They both stopped and remained calm. ”We’re here to assist with cleansing the Cardinal.” Janet would state clearly.

The guards glanced toward Tsuki, who stopped to look at them, seemingly annoyed but also exhausted from the long hours she has spent in healing. "Alright, listen up then." The guards lowered their weapons, allowing the twins to come closer. "The truth is, the Cardinal is seconds away from death, which means the usual methods of removing the curse won't work. The time stasis must be removed first for it to be possible to work on weakening the hex, but she also needs to be infused with vast amounts of healing and protective magic at the same time. As such, we have only been able to treat in short bursts between Hudie's castings. Are you prepared to undertake such a task?" She asked, and prepared a new offering of blessed water.

Stepping inside they looked over the things that were already being used. Well, Jenna did mostly as she had Third Eye. They wanted an understanding of what was being tried as best they could. Both nodded at the question presented though. ”We are.”

After taking a moment to assess, Jenna realized that she likely needed some explanation. They still were relatively new to their magic as a whole so some of the more specific methods that Beacon used were unknown to them. ”Could you perhaps outline the process? We would like to see if we could adapt some of our knowledge to the task at hand.” If they could help it they wanted to deal with this without having to prod Cindy. Because that could spell instant death in this room. They had really hoped they could have had Ishtar brought to them but apparently that was met with a hard no. Still, they did take the chance to learn a few things from the ancient magical girl just in case.

“The process can be roughly split to three parts,” Tsuki explained. “First off is the preparation phase, when the Cardinal is frozen in time. I’ve applied blessed water for example to boost the power of cleansing magic performed on her, as well as some other spells. I’ve kept to the methods I know are safe, however; I’m not going to risk anything happening to her.”
She then swept her hand over Ishtar, and the blessed water, like a tiny wave of glitter, sprinkled over her.
“The second phase is when Hudie releases her time stasis spell, and the part when you cast the best healing spells you can, using as much mana as you can, to counteract the curse’s spreading. It’s like...Using a hose of water against a burning house. You need a lot of it and fast too before the house turns to cinders, right? Right.” She glanced at her spell book, and intoned another spell unknown to the twins.
“Then, once you’ve cast everything your sleeves hold, Hudie casts the time stasis again, leading to phase one again,” she muttered, seemingly more focused on her own magic than talking to the girls.

The process sounded straight forward enough, though obviously it was quite delicate. It didn’t appear they would get a whole lot of opportunity to try anything they could cook up. That didn’t mean they couldn’t use something helpful they’d learned though. ”I believe we can prepare the healing as well to give more time for the cleansing.” Jenna produced a magic circle and began to draw wards onto it. It took a little bit, but before long it was clear that it was crafted to be able to store magic in advance and provide a sustained effect to give them a larger window. It was definitely something that someone as new to Reinforcement as the twins should not have figured out so quickly. The style was also old, much much older than the twins. They either found or were taught this technique.

Tsuki noted the magic circle with a pleased nod, and gave a thumbs up. “Thanks, that helps a lot.” She set up a spell that created a visual hologram in the air; it resembled a square screen, with various information on it such as Ishtar’s heart rate and the severity of the curse. “I’ll call Hudie in now,” she informed them, and lifted a couple of fingers up to her ear.

Jenna would complete the circle and turn to the others present. ”Alright, so everyone that is here to heal, store all the healing magic in the circle. This will concentrate the healing on the Cardinal once Hudie unfreezes her so Tsuki can work her cleansing.” Jenna would start doing just that with Janet following her lead. Thus the cycle would resume, but with a little less pressure on everyone each time the stasis was lifted.

The magical girls on healing duty in the room nodded, and summoned their staves and wands, followed by streams of magical energy that were channelled into the magic circle. Hudie then arrived in the room, briefly acknowledging the twins with a nod before she took her place next to Ishtar. She hovered a hand over her frozen form, and waited for Tsuki to give the signal.
The moment she did, Hudie released the stasis, and the magic circle activated; fuelled by great magics of rejuvenation and regeneration, the symbols on it spun around, various wheels of the enchantment running at different speeds and rotations as it operated as life support for the Cardinal, sickly frail as she coughed blood. Tsuki held her staff with both hands, the crescent moon shining as she fought against the curse, her eyes focused on the projection, before she grunted.
At that moment, Hudie re-applied her spell of stasis, and Ishtar was stopped in time anew.
Tsuki sighed afterwards, breathing a bit harder than before, but smiled.
“Excellent work, girls. The magic circle not only minimized the risk of healing mid-cleansing, but it also helped boost the strength of these spells.”
Taking regular breaks in-between, the cycle was repeated over the next few hours, with 15-minute breaks in between.

Finally, Hudie spoke. “We have achieved a consistent 45% improvement to the time per cycle thanks to you two. But it made me notice something else…” She mumbled, putting a hand to her chin.
“Tsuki lifted an eyebrow?” And what is that?
“The curse...Though it has weakened after several cycles, it seems it never reaches a point of complete cleansing. It’s like it clings to her very essence...like a virus of sorts.”
The mage scoffed. “So it’s impossible to remove then?”
The butterfly-masked girl shook her head. “Well...I think there is one way.”
She turned to the twins. “When I give the signal, I need one of you girls to take the Cardinal’s right arm and hold it straight against the hospital bed.”

Jenna would speak up. ”Can do.” She had an idea of where this was going and she didn’t like it. Still, when the time came she would do as instructed.

Both Ascendancy girls nodded with grim resolution, and prepared once again for the cleansing phase. But when Hudie released the spell, Jenna would notice her magic circle didn’t operate like before;Tsuki had redirected the healing magic away from Ishtar’s right arm, and had the rest spread like a wave towards it. “Come on...Come ooon….YES!” Her smile widened as the right arm developed black veins, the sign of the curse’s strengthening. “HOLD IT!”
Hudie shouted.

The moment Jenna did so, she felt a spray of warm liquid on her face; it was the Cardinal’s blood, spilt when the time-mage summoned her bladed fan and cut the arm off.
Afterwards, the arm dropped to the floor and dried up, as if it had been mummified.
“Tsuki looked at the Cardinal’s status on the hologram while Hudie wiped the blood off.
“It worked…” She spoke quietly, yet with a sense of triumph. “The curse was entirely driven to the arm. The Cardinal is cleansed.”
Hudie’s white dress had also been stained crimson, and she sighed in exhaustion.
“Well, we’re not done just yet. She still needs to recover from the ‘surgery’. But, still...”
Both her and Tsuki turned to the twins. “Thank you for your assistance,” the black-haired mage noted, and shook hands with Jenna. “We will make sure the Inquisitor is notified of your contribution.”

Jenna returned the firm shake, seemingly unconcerned with the spray of blood that had just hit her. ”Glad to be of assistance. Please let us know if we are needed further. We also have matters to discuss with the Cardinal and the Inquisitor regarding the attack at the park. Please let us know as soon as things are fit to speak with them both. There has been a development that needs to be addressed.” Taking a step back Jenna would clean herself up before the twins would leave. They hoped they wouldn’t have to wait long to talk with the two Beacon leaders.

---

In the aftermath of the rave, Beacon has been extra busy. Multiple magical girls have had to take double shifts in order to quell the riots that ensued, and an air of unrest permeated the premises. The Ascendancy, having been struck hard by the casualties incurred, had turned vehement, and now no longer demanded for monster girls to surrender and accept purification; now they struck first, showing them no mercy.

But, there was still a speck of hope; Ishtar was cured of her curse, and now laid in a coma. A Psychic girl took a look at her, and noted that she was emotionally drained, requiring lengthy rest. The twins decided to speak with Rachel, and knocked at her door. After they heard her voice answering, they entered the Inquisitor’s office. While normally a tidy room, the desk clean and papers stacked tidily, it was now messy, with crumpled paper strewn about and a couple of broken laptops in the corner, waiting for pickup to disposal. Rachel was typing on her desk on a new laptop; her fingers moved so fast the friction caused the plastic buttons of the machine to slightly smoke from melting them.
“What is it?” She sharply asked the two, not lifting her eyes up from the screen.

Given the circumstances this may not be the best time to bring up what was going on with Cindy. However, hiding such a thing would likely result poorly as well. Taking a breath Janet would speak first. ”Apologies for coming at such a time, but I don’t believe we have the luxury of delaying. As I’m sure you’re aware we assisted with cleansing the Cardinal. We would like the opportunity to further assist in her efforts.”

She briefly raised her eyes up at the two with an adjustment of her glasses.
“Yes, you did. Thank you for that.” She then resumed her typing, as if waiting for the girls to continue speaking.

”It is our understanding that she wished for peace. I know that it is not our current policy but things are pushing more against us. Particularly it’s pushing more to seek the Mint, which we know for certain has no one but their own gains at heart. We’re all but certain they are the ones that had someone pose as a Beacon member to attack Cindy in order to prompt her to go after Ishtar. Once together they attempted to assassinate them both in order to cause fear, division, and unrest. We believe this entire situation was arranged in order to build their forces.” They needed to set up that they were aware of things going on. Some of it was public knowledge in Beacon, some not so much.

Jenna would take over. ”During the attack, when Janet was unable to act because of the dirty bomb, she used her psychic magic in order to get as much information as she could from Cindy’s mind. Because of everything going on we are unable to get an audience with the Beaconers in order to discuss the matter.”

Rachel stopped as she lifted an eyebrow. “The Mint? Hmm...Interesting.” She lifted a hand to her chin. “The timing of the Cardinal and Cindy’s chance encounter was very suspicious; Elora reported that Ishtar had received a message from an anonymous blackmailer to come to the park. And not long after Cindy attacked her. She couldn’t have been able to know where she was unless she was tipped off by a third party. The corrupted have also begun spreading more in Penrose, likely because of Mint’s involvement.” Then Jenna happened to mention Cindy. She stood up from her seat, slamming her hands on the desk; she looked angry.
“Information? What kind of information? Why didn’t you or the Paladin Seraph immediately come report to me about this?”

The two remained calm for the most part. ”We weren’t immediately aware that she had any information, as Janet did not remember. Cindy was killed while Janet was extracting the information which did a number on her. Up until recently Janet was comatose and the fact of what she got did not surface right away.” Jenna would pause for a bit. The Inquisitor was not the most gracious person in the world. The current state in Penrose being a clear example of that. They’d gone this far though.

Rachel's wrath slightly subsided, though her eyes continued glaring at the two. However, she was too curious to further comment, and sat down to listen. "Go on."

It was pretty clear that there was a moment of hesitation. But Jenna would continue shortly. ”Informing you is why we’re here now. There was a complication and we feared for Janet’s life.” Janet would produce a copy of the contract and Jenna would pass it over to Rachel. The girl would explain while she read. ”From what we can tell Janet succeeded in copying everything that was Cindy. The aftermath of the shock though resulted in both Janet and Cindy developing a consciousness. What you hold is a magical contract in order that we may protect all parties including Beacon.”

Rachel examined the contract upon receiving it, her eyes darting from line to line. Their further explanation of the incident caused her to lift an eyebrow. "What is this heresy? Cindy is dead."

Janet would finally speak up as it looked like her sister was at her wits end.
”What she’s saying is, Cindy is still alive. In a sense. She and I find ourselves in the unfortunate situation where we have to share control of my body. We’ve used a White Coin so Cindy has been purified and accepted by the ShineSpark. We have spoken and come to the agreement before you. We tell you this because we believe in being transparent despite the risk it may pose to our own safety, but we had to be sure that we had things under control before presenting this to you. We couldn’t risk moving too early and posing a danger to our sisters.
Cindy has been helpful in piercing together the events of that night. She also provided the knowledge of the magic circle we used in order to save the Cardinal. Cindy wishes to open a dialogue. Taking a breath, Janet crossed her hands in front of her. Neither of the twins really knew how the Inquisitor would react to all of this. If they could convince her though then they could convince anyone.

For a moment, it seemed as if Rachel had frozen, her eyes wide upon hearing the truth. She stood up, and stomped over to Janet. "You manifested a simulacrum of a monster in your mind! Are you mad to invite such insanity upon you?" She looked Janet in the eye, and examined her carefully as they further explained the aid the new Cindy had given them. "So she wishes to talk...Well then, out with it." She summoned her hammer, the head of it resting down on the floor. "We will see if the monster yet lives."

Jenna bit her lip while Janet’s eyes followed Rachel’s movements carefully. ”Of course.” A plate blue light Janet as her appearance changed, indicating the transition. Her hair tied itself into a ponytail, the headdress shifted and changed shape to a golden tiara with blue gems, her eyes lit up with a cold blue glow, and her armor melted away in favor of a white and blue dress. In the contract it was agreed that there should be some way to differentiate between the two.

Not moving at all the Inquisitor would now find herself staring into bright sky blue eyes while Janet, or presumably Cindy, now sported a white and blue dress.
”I can assure you no one intended for this mishap to occur. I was just as surprised to find myself in this state.” She gleaned enough from their little provision that she knew the basics of what had transpired so far.

”It is an honor to finally meet you Inquisitor. I realize you are busy so I will try not to dally. At present this conflict threatens to perpetuate or escalate further. In such time more senseless injury and death will occur. My mission in coming to Penrose was to protect the innocent, tainted or not. Blinded by that cause I was led to attack Beacon at the same time the events of the rave occured. I know exactly what happened. I would never have used the ones I swore to protect in such a way.
Your Ascendancy sought to quell the chaos in your own way. Ultimately both our sides lost many to third parties. The Mint, Penrose Independant, whomever sent down the lightning. Some of these actions I can only presume crafted to further drive me against Beacon. Dare I say it would have worked, but they could not have anticipated my death. Less so finding myself with that of a Beacon girl and her sister who wish to find peace. For others though it highlighted what many already believe Beacon to be, a death squad.”

Cindy barely moved the entire time. There was no reason to give Rachel the slightest reason to attack. The Inquisitor herself gripped the handle of her weapon tightly. Her glasses reflected light in such a way as to brighten the lenses, giving her an ominous look.
Cindy continued.
”This city, Penrose, is unlike many others. Not due to the land, buildings, or the nexus, but the magical girls in it. You and I are an old guard. Efficient, headstrong, judgemental, and exacting. We had to in order to survive. Hardened by conflict and jaded by experience.” Very cautiously she raised a hand and produced a White Coin between her fingers. ”These represent a shift. Up until recently perhaps even hope, that encountering one of Beacon as a dark or monster girl did not automatically mean fighting for one’s life. I believe even you know that times are changing.” Most of the time she spoke firmly. As she came to the end though her tone softened. Laying the coin down on the desk she crossed her hands again.

”Hyun Long was one of mine. She feared losing herself to her more base monstrous tendencies as she did at the warehouse. You could have killed her. Instead you gave her a choice. You may be surprised to hear this, but I have little doubt she will be happier with Beacon if it means being free from her corruption. I thank you for sparing her. In light of that I have a question. If a monster queen is deserving of mercy, why not the others?” Cindy’s expression was solemn. Her cause ordinarily did not call her to this kind of interaction. At least it had not for a very long time. Certainly not with Beacon. She and the twins were treading uncharted grounds with the Ascendancy, grounds that had a giant hammer of death.

“That was not a choice I gave to the monster,” Rachel finally responded. “But to the Knight of Rose. I did not think it was possible to save the abomination, so I decided to humor her.” She scoffed. “I must admit, I have never seen such a divine light before.”
She adjusted her glasses. “However, in the end, she risked her life to do it, and lost her hand to the beast in the process. So do all of us in our crusade of purifying this sinful earth.” She turned away, having crossed her arms.
“If I could, I would shove a White Coin down the throat of every one of those filthy wretches. Yet, the city burns from the inside, swelling in the corrupted despite our efforts. My faithful were slaughtered...” She grit her teeth. “...And you would ask for mercy? So you could raid and pillage the rest of this miserable hive for what life there remains to take?”

Cindy shook her head. ”I do not expect Beacon to sit idly by while injustices take place. I wish to see Penrose prosper. If an individual commits a crime then there must be consequences. To do otherwise would indeed invite calamity. I never have, nor will I tolerate senseless violence or destruction. Prior to our disappearance of three months I kept a firm policy on those under me. We kept our altercations with Beacon to a minimum. In part to avoid their wrath, also in part that innocence is not an exclusive. Many cities do not have the boon of magical girls to defend it as Penrose under normal circumstances. For many cities Beacon is what primarily stands to maintain order.”

It was disappointing to hear that Rachel had not given the coin for the purposes of purifying Hyun Long. Still, the Inquisitor had now seen its capabilities. She would speak to that in a moment. ”And in twenty years time where will we be when your faithful return? My hope is for one where they needn’t continue fighting those that will also come back. Their last memories being locked in combat or snuffed out in an instant. Is that our legacy to repeat?” Her hands balled into fists. It took all she could to keep her magic in check. Her eyes glowed as her own anger seethed. ”Make no mistake. You will have your retribution against the one that orchestrated the slaughter at the rave. I will deliver it myself if necessary. We both were used to commit an atrocity that should not have been. Ascendancy or no they did not deserve to die as they did that night.” It seemed fairly clear by her words and posture that despite the Ascendancy having moved in and attacked, Cindy’s focus was less on Beacon or Rachel herself even as her gaze had drifted away toward some unseen foe beyond the walls where they now stood.

Rachel's expression calmed as Cindy expressed a desire for order, to the point she let her hand rest on the end of her hammer. However, she wasn't convinced. "Your conviction is admirable, as is your apparent desire for justice. I might even be so inclined as to believe that you didn't take a willing part in what transpired. HOWEVER," she spoke with a louder voice, "If what you say about justice is true, you wouldn't have let yourself become corrupted in the first place, let alone refused our offers for Purification. Monsters are the very antithesis of order, and could never attain true peace." She clenched her fist before Cindy. "You have rejected our gift of absolution, and chosen to live like vermin. There is no forgiveness to be had for the aberrant, and no mercy for adherents of greed and fear."

Rather than respond in kind, Cindy lifted a hand to her lips in a sign of contemplation. There were a great many things said that could be argued as true. For a moment she turned to look at Jenna, completely taking her eyes off someone that could easily be considered her enemy. The twin looked like she could pass out at any moment. What had possessed them to talk to Rachel alone again? ”Do not fear Jenna. We are merely talking. No harm will come to your sister.” She rubbed the other’s shoulder, who shortly took a seat as she was stressing out.

Turning back to the Inquisitor, Cindy pressed her hands together in front of her to make a request. ”For the twins sake, bare in mind that my host is not at fault for my presence. Janet has been rather adamant that I make myself known. I told her this would not be an easy conversation, yet she persisted.” Dropping one of her hands she left a single finger raised to bring up a point. ”Your assessment of the corrupted is not unfounded. Many of the mental mutations lead to unruly behavior. I myself suffered from one that some refer to as Sentinel. From such I believed that the most effective way to bring order was by force. Not to say it was the only way, but force would more often win out over other options in my mind. This does not absolve them of what they do. Simply there is a case to be made that corrupted individuals may be unaware or unnaturally inclined to destructive behavior. As to your offer, many are also afraid of Beacon. Your reputation precedes you, true or not, that you are cold and ruthless. Lies perpetuated by your enemies? Perhaps, but most representatives of your cause have not instilled confidence in me to trust you. I more than half expected you to kill me on sight once you knew who I was. I misjudged your character.”

She raised a second finger. ”I believe you may also be misattributing everyone’s source of corruption. Those who use Black Coins of the Mint or powerful magic artifacts are more at fault for what they become. Once again, myself as an example, I was forged as a monster girl from the beginning by my patron. I had no choice in the matter and was given my persona. Others find themselves in the same situation. I had no reason to question what I did because that’s what I was remade to be.” Cindy had slowly leaned forward as she lectured Rachel on the basic trials of monster kind. There came a moment where her eyes widened ever so slightly and she stood back up straight.

The girl was slightly bewildered for a moment as she considered her own words. Her eyes wandered a bit before moving back to the Beacon leader. ”I have never voiced these matters all at once to a Beaconite before. It is strangely therapeutic.” Something felt off and she couldn’t quite place it. Maybe it was that she was beginning to sound like an old doting woman rather than a commanding leader. Unconsciously she hugged her arms in the moment as she swore she felt a chill in the air.

Then it happened; Cindy felt Rachel’s hands suddenly snap around her neck, choking her.
“Don’t you talk down to me, devilspawn!” She spoke with a low voice full of seething anger.
“It is only by my mercy that you still reserve the right to live, simulacrum or not. But my patience is running thin.” She threw Cindy down on the floor.
“If you truly wish for peace to the corrupted, then you will submit to the divine judgement of Beacon, and ask for forgiveness and purification for them.” She picked her hammer up again.
“And then, when Penrose is clean of the corrupted in the streets and sewers, we will know true peace.”

Oh how much she wanted to retaliate when the Ascendancy leader made her move. There were several reasons not to do so, living was a very high one on the list. Janet also lacked in large part the same raw power that Cindy’s previous form had. This sort of thing was anticipated though, so what initial surprise there was quickly faded. Was this what it was like being on the receiving end of her overzealous indignation? Curious. Picking herself up Cindy buried any signs of ill will. She came here to talk, if Rachel would rather fall to violence then that would be on her. ”It was expected as much. Make your arrangements, I will see this through for the sake of Penrose.” There was a clear determination behind her that, despite the very real risk and disrespect given, she would not back down. She and the Howell sisters had committed to being agents of change. Cost be damned.

Rachel turned away; she was shaking, her arms stiff and hands balled into fists. It seemed that a small part of her faltered, until resolve came back to her like a flash of thunder.
“No...My sisters have not died in vain. Beacon won't lose to some anarchist devils!" She glanced back at Cindy.
"Go to your people, and tell them that it is futile to struggle against the all-encompassing light of Beacon. They will embrace it...Or burn in the flames it ignites.”

Disappointing yet again. It was not the ultimatum she expected though given the previous statement. Seemed that perhaps the authority of the Beaconers has been co-opted by the Ascendancy to a greater extent than she thought. Such demands would likely not go over well with everyone. ”I shall begin preparation then and see to that purification is clearly offered to them.” She calmly stepped out of the office. She would glance back before leaving the doorway thought. ”You should know. I do not take the purification or kindness I have received lightly. Your members have done much to sway my view of Beacon for the better. They fight a different war, one of hearts and minds. The twins requested assistance in healing your Cardinal. They did not need it, you surely would have succeeded in time. They, however, believe that Beacon can become greater. I understand you have your role to perform. All I ask is we not stamp out a budding reformation before it has the chance to blossom into a light the darkness cannot hope to ignore.”

Rachel sat back down at her desk, clearly not intending to continue their heated debate any further. "Escort her outside," she commanded Jenna, and resumed her work.

Jenna was on her feet in an instant. ”Yes ma’am.” That was all she would say before going to the door. She took Cindy by the arm and guided her out of the building.

They caught a few glances from passers by as they did not entirely recognize who the girl in the dress was. By and large though they were left alone and Cindy avoided making a fuss. Once they were outside though she pulled her arm away from Jenna. She shot a finger at the twin and looked rather cross. ”What is it you have done to me? You are in violation of our contract and yet Janet is not punished. I demand to know how you circumvented it!” She would state rather gruffly.

”Not sorry to say, we aren’t doing anything to you princess. You recall that magic that saved you from the ShineSpark?” Cindy didn’t say anything, but she clearly did recall. ”Suffice to say there’s no avoiding its effects so you might as well enjoy the ride. I’ll explain more when you’re ready.” She started walking away.

That wasn’t ominous at all, Cindy followed after Jenna. ”Don’t be short with me. What exactly do you mean by ‘when you’re ready?’ You are keeping secrets that directly affect me and that is not part of our agreement.”

”Not here, not now.” Cindy fumed as she followed along. Eventually Janet would wrangle control back and they would set about their new objective.

…

Back in the office, Rachel would listen in to a quiet, whispered narration to her earpiece, made by Elora.
"They have left the connecting hallway, and entered the lower floor."
"Good," Rachel responded in a calm, subdued voice. "Add Janet Howell to the 24/7 tracking list. Report any period of time she stays outside of HQ." After she received confirmation from the cybermancer, she closed off communications, and looked at the notes she made from their exchange.
"Now it's just a matter of time."

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

@Flamelord@Shifter_Master

After the initial attempt to talk with Cindy collapsed, Janet wanted to go about it another way. Having sorted out a way to sit face to face, at least functionally, she wanted to talk to Cindy and work things out between them as much as possible. She was after all the one who would be accepting the agreement. They already had their friend’s concerns noted so there was no need for anyone else to get involved. Only Jenna would be joining them to hear what was said and be part of the agreement, being half of her soul after all.

Moving to a much more casual environment, the twin’s friends were to wait outside. One, to make sure that things didn’t get out of hand and two, because she wanted them to be around when everything was signed and finished. The next time Cindy woke up she would find them in a room not dissimilar to where Jenna had met with Raven, Penny, and Alicia. The items she had requested were set off to one side. Though perhaps the more surprising thing was finding that Janet was sitting across the table from here. Initially checking to see if she’d been tricked the girl looked down to find that she still existed in Janet’s form. Eyeing the other girl she tried to figure out what was before her. A copy, clone, illusion, mental projection perhaps?

In the perplexed silence Janet raised a hand and would explain. She didn’t need psychic powers to figure out what was happening here. ”A clone... and this.” She would hold up an artifact. ”Thanks to a couple friends of ours you and I can actually talk, at least temporarily. I won’t actually remember any of this, but Jenna will be able to fill me in on our conversation.” When Cindy didn’t say anything, Janet would continue. ”Right well, I would like to apologize for the breakdown last time. We should have…” Not letting Janet continue, Cindy put pressure on Janet’s mind with her magic. ”Ah, I want... to work things out... together.” Being a disguised clone, Janet did not have her usual defenses so it was easier for Cindy to route around in her head to try and find her intentions. There wasn’t enough to learn everything about the girl and eventually the ShineSpark pushed Cindy out anyway.

Once again the Lightning girl would find herself baffled by the Beacon girl. She was almost an impossibility in Cindy’s opinion. Penny she could understand, her monstrous nature set her apart from the others. Janet and Jenna were something else. There definitely were markings that the girl had been corrupted in the past. Somehow she’d been purified, keeping all the benefits while removing the negatives that came with it. Their motives bordered on the level of an Altruistic Mental Mutation but it could be some extreme form of compassion. Beacon were known for their Vows, but they were often used to justify what they did rather than fall on a sword for the enemy. ”What possesses you that you would choose to work with me?” She was cautious, but curious.

That was a tough question. Considering it a minute she would eventually answer. ”Before joining Beacon and becoming a magical girl, I was sentenced for murder. I didn’t fully know what I was getting myself into, but I saw it as a chance to make up for past mistakes. I thought that maybe if I offered an olive branch that maybe things would change. I still don’t know how I got away with ‘fraternizing with the enemy’ so to speak. Later I got a taste of what it was like to be corrupted, made to hurt my Beacon brothers and sisters. My friends saved me from that and the punishment that followed. The Ascendancy considered branding my sister and I for making the White Coin when we all returned from the Beach dimension. I continually receive pardon after pardon while others receive punishment for being corrupted, not even always with a choice in what they are.” She would stop and look at Cindy for a moment. The girl was listening with a rather stoic expression.

Taking the silence as permission to continue, Janet would carry on. ”I don’t believe your actions were motivated by evil intent. I cannot say for certain as I do not possess your memories, but for a brief moment I felt who you were. You’ve been a magical girl for a lot longer than I have and seen so much more. Your understanding of those outside Beacon goes much deeper than I could hope to grasp at this point. You’ve felt the warmth and fury of the ShineSpark. From what Jenna told me when you attacked her you’ve also been touched and saved by purification. We had hoped to change things by making the White Coin. It has helped in some small way, but our experience and reach are limited.” Feeling she’d said enough she would stop and wait for Cindy to make some response.

Several minutes would pass as Cindy considered what Janet had to say. She wasn’t sure if Janet’s mission was the cry of the heart or one of delusion. She would admire the passion, but she did not see the gambit succeeding. Was the alliance of the two worth the potential risk? Admittedly being forced to come to grips that she herself was at best a mental copy her continued existence teetered on the edge. If Janet was indeed blessed with the ability to escape Beacon’s wrath then perhaps she could be a vehicle for change. In reality Cindy was already dead. Janet had much more to lose in this agreement. If it worked however…

Leaning forward she would speak slowly. ”Very well, Janet Howell.” She would spread the hide out before them and open the inkwell. ”If you wish to test your luck then I shall forge our contract. I believe we share a common mission. Make no mistake, to pledge commitment by contract is no small matter. Our fates will be bound by this document. Breaking the terms will carry consequence. Before that even you may be judged by your peers. There is also no promise that my people will accept our agreement should we follow through. Are you truly willing to take the risk of being ousted by the whole of Penrose?” She would lock eyes with Janet.

Narrowing her eyes, Janet would smirk lightly. ”I don’t know your story, but my friends would never turn their back on me. If it comes to it though then I will take the fall in order to protect them. This is my choice.” Putting her hands on the table palms up. ”This war has and will continue to claim lives. If nothing changes then in twenty years we’ll be right back here again at each other’s throats. I’m not such an idealist to think that it will all stop. Some fully intend to exact harm on others and they must be dealt with. In the meantime innocents get caught in the crossfire. Something worth fighting for always carries risk. If we really want to protect Penrose we’re stronger together.”

Seemed that the girl had already made up her mind. Cindy would place the quill in the well and fold her hands in front of her. ”As you wish. Let it be known that I will not be held accountable for what may result from this decision.” She would say looking at Jenna who’s gaze might as well be burning holes in the side of her head. ”Let us discuss the terms. Let your friends know I would like them to attend. We will want witness should our mutual agreement come into question.” She would order Jenna. She could sense the others waiting outside.

Janet would raise a finger and draw Cindy’s attention. ”One more thing...” The girl was already seeing hints of something she wouldn’t stand for. "You are not to order Jenna around. She isn't your servant, she's my sister. Arguably your sister now too. Understand?"

Rolling the quill between her fingers as it sat in the well, Cindy stared at her counterpart. "Very well. Jenna, could you please retrieve your friends for the aforementioned?" She would slowly turn her head to look at the girl.

Jenna's miffed expression lightened up a bit even though the request clearly was not out of the goodness of heart. "Of course." As she went to the door she mouthed the words "thank you" to her sister and brought Alicia and Penny in so they could continue.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

@Flamelord@Shifter_Master

Janet and Jenna had planned to meet up with Penny to catch up on things. Especially given that the robot girl was supposed to be whole again. It was something the twins really wanted to see. One because they knew that she’d been struggling for a while, but also because the results piqued their scientific curiosity. Uncharacteristically Janet had to back out so it would just be Jenna today. Beacon HQ had several private lounging areas where its members could sit and talk, a luxury that had been afforded them to raise morale with the ensuing war. Given the circumstances though Alicia was also invited. Somewhat at a loss of what to do Jenna needed help from her friends. Raven was also tagging along, because things weren’t already confusing enough as is.

Having been escorted in by Jenna, Raven looked around rather impressed at how much stuff was here. No wonder some people liked Beacon. ”Damn, Beacon must be loaded. And this is after…” She managed to stop herself from finishing that thought aloud. Entering the room, Raven plopped herself down in a seat and leaned back. It didn’t take long for her to see that Jenna was stressing. ”Hey, don’t worry girl. We’re here to figure things out, not stress out.”

Turning for a moment to look at her newest friend she managed a light smile. ”Yeah. Thanks for the encouragement Raven.”

”Don’t mention it.” Her eyes focused on the door as the first of their guests arrived.

First to walk through the door was Penny, a small smirk on her face as she did so. Her timing had always been pretty decent, but as of late it had gotten incredibly precise and she found it enjoyable to make it too meetings right on the dot, not that others really noticed that she arrived with split second accuracy, but she found it fun regardless.

Her gait slowed ever so slightly when she caught sight of both Jenna and Raven, as a brief calculating look ghosted across her features, but it was there and gone and not long after Penny would give a wave to the two of them as she moved to take a seat as well “Hey Jenna, stranger” she would greet casually as she sank into the chair.

Her choice of chair was a bit odd, but seemed inline with a growing trend with Penny and the rest of Beacon. She was sitting a rather surprising distance away, not far enough to be considered sitting apart, but somewhat on that edge, and it was something that could be noticed in how Penny seemed to treat all of Beacon, save for Alicia, almost keeping them at arm's length.

“How’s things been for you two?” She would go on to ask “The weeks been rather crazy after all”

Shaking her head a bit Jenna couldn’t help but smile. ”You know you don’t have to sit so far away right? Like the new look by the way.” Ah, small talk. She would need a bit of this before getting to everything else. ”I’ll get to how I’m doing later. I take it things went well with the coin?”

Raven waved back and interrupted just a bit. ”I’m alive when I shouldn’t be, so that’s a big plus.”

“Yeah?” Penny would give Raven an amused look “Well we are living in a world of magic and gods, so I suppose that ‘s just par for the course at times” She would say with a chuckle “And yeah the Red worked as I expected, still had some unexpected turns, but not that unexpected really.” she would shrug, the diagnostic she had run afterward told her everything she needed to know about her changes due to the Coin.

Jenna clearly was scanning over Penny. In this case with her Third Eye, a new addition she’d made herself that she hadn’t really had the chance to disclose. ”Huh, I see.” Having taken the time to observe it made sense why Penny was a bit distant. She would let her brushing the invitation to move pass. Blinking she realized she was staring and slipping a bit too much into work mode. ”Sorry. I got Third Eye a while back to make things easier in the lab.”

“I noticed” Penny would say with a smile, a red sheen flickering over her own eyes for a moment. “No worries though”

Shrugging slightly she playfully rolled her eyes. ”Touche.”

Glancing back and forth between the two, Raven was trying to sort out what was going on. Inside joke? Playful banter? Telepathy? Nah, not worth trying to figure out.

At that point Alicia entered the room. By all appearances she looked normal, a concerted effort made to hide the long nights and the clawing guilt that had tormented her since the night of the rave. But she didn’t expect this to be anything too dramatic, so it was easier to take a casual approach to it.

”Penny, Jenna,” she said to the duo with a nod as she closed the door behind her. ”Glad to see you found some time to get out of the lab. Is this a friend of yours?” she asked, gesturing towards Raven.

Alicia had good timing. Turning to her friend the day got a little bit brighter. ”Glad to be out. Kinda.” She couldn’t really lie around Alicia. Jenna didn’t necessarily want to be at the lab, it was just that that’s where Janet was at the moment. But that would come later. ”Yes. This is Raven. She’s our newest ally that Janet and I, uh, made?” She looked at Raven who shrugged.

”Kind of, sort of, not really, but yeah. Maybe with a little help from a couple messengers of the gods.” That last part was understated for sure. No way the twins could have managed to output enough magic to bring a soul back to life. ”Glad to finally meet the twins two best friends. Though I guess it only has been, like, a few days.”

“Well that makes a lot of sense” Penny would deadpan “Care to give us the cliff notes? And an idea of which Gods we have to thank?” She would ask with a single raised eyebrow, she had nothing against Raven, but the Gods were likely always going to be something of a sore point for Penny due to her own interactions with the Divine.

Alicia was just as surprised to hear the origin of Raven as Penny was. It seemed that the magical world had a habit of pulling out new surprises, just when you thought you had seen everything. ”Alright,” she conceded with a nod. ”So you ‘made’ a new magical girl. Is this going to become a habit, or was it just to see if you could?’

Raven laughed for a bit. ”Wow, that’s quite a response.” She looked at Jenna. ”You’ve got quite a reputation for breaking the rules huh?” Shaking her head a bit she continued. ”My patrons are a Lesser Force. Huginn and Muninn. They don’t really care what happens, they just watch. Penrose is poppin’ so I’m like their boots on the ground.”

Dammit. Things weren’t quite that simple. ”I would rather not. Raven was with Amber’s soul that Janet stole when she was under Justine’s control. All we did was put it in a Soul Jar and the watchers did the rest.” Her friend’s initial response wasn’t quite one she’d hoped. Though she couldn’t really blame them. Man getting to Janet later now was going to suck. It wasn’t that hard to tell that the subject bothered her.

Oh, maybe she went a bit too far. Raven tried to lighten a mood just a bit. ”It’s going to be the most awkward family reunion in ninteenish years.

Well, that was a bit different than expected. ”Remind me to introduce you to Serenity soon. She has a friend you might want to meet,” Alicia said to Raven. ”It’s more awkward than you’d think.” She wasn’t sure if this made Amber lucky or not, all told.

Having addressed that particular elephant in the room, Alicia turned back to Jenna. ”Anyway, you said you needed help with something? I assume this wasn’t all.”

“Hey, no harm to foul” Penny would say waving away any perceived hostility from her end “Stranger things have happened after all. Also remind me not to make it to that reunion if I get invited. Don’t want to have to fight off everyone so I can keep my ship” she would add giving Raven a side look before shrugging.

“But putting aside the odd family tree, I’m with Alicia, you wanted help?”

Mmm, right to it then. If Jenna hadn’t looked distressed before she did now, checking to make sure the door was closed. ”It’s Janet.” She’d thought this out in her head earlier but now that it came to it she was nervous. ”You know she passed out from the fight at the park and I wasn’t sure if she’d make it. Obviously she did and we went back to work. I found out she had been in Cindy’s mind when she died. Janet had copied the girl’s mind in case we needed something she knew, but the backlash because of how Cindy went out really messed her up. Well, no. Janet is fine. But I’m not sure what to do because Cindy’s memories have formed their own personality and Janet has been switching back and forth.”

Alicia frowned, an expression that deepened as Jenna went explaining what the situation was. Yes, she had heard about that, but no one had indicated that the problem ran so deep before. She visibly shuddered, finding it hard to imagine what this must be like for her.

Still, she had been there when Janet had been forcibly controlled by Justine, she would be here now. ”I see what you mean. I just wish I could help more. I mean, I can arrange for a meeting with a Psychic spec girl to suppress the Cindy personality, but I don’t have much experience in dealing with memories.”

Penny wasn’t far off from Alicia’s expression, for much the same reason, even if she was of a different mind of how to go about dealing with it. “Suppression Is not going to be a permanent solution. As it more or less turns the situation into a time bomb with Janet’s head at ground zero.” Penny had a few ideas of how to possibly take care of this long term, but first “How is Janet handling this? Is she even aware of it?”

Having gotten past the initial revelation of what was happening, and her friends jumping right in with their support, Jenna was feeling like some weight had been taken off her. ”Janet is probably doing better than I am at the moment, but she had no idea Cindy was in her head until I told her. They’re two distinct people and I can’t detect any interaction between the two. Neither one of them seems to have dominance which is good I guess. They just switch seemingly at random when they don’t actively try.”

Wanting to get that out of the way she addressed Alicia’s suggestion. ”Maybe someone more experienced could get the job done, but I did try that. She shares our psychic defenses and the ShineSpark doesn’t really like me meddling. The only consolation is the purification magic that you used on Janet still seems to be active so it erased Cindy’s mental mutations. Not sure what that’ll do long term but in the meantime she still hates Beacon.” She was clearly thinking at this point, but was much calmer not being the only one on the task.

“Hmm, I’m not too sure that the lack of obvious primacy between the two is a good thing, going off my own experience with split psyches. The mind is either split evenly between the two, or there is a portion of each that is already merged. Both could have issues.” Penny would offer up her two copper on the topic at hand.

“If it is just a mental imprint of Cindy we could always move it out, and put it into something else.” She would go on to say, turning over the idea a bit more in her mind “But I would recommend against making it a force transfer, not sure what kind of damage it could cause otherwise.”

Jenna didn’t seem too sure. ”I don’t know. When Janet first passed out at the park it was like she was brain dead. I may not know Cindy’s mind but I’m pretty familiar with my sisters and everything looks in order. I couldn’t find anything indicating any merger happening. As for transferring, we may have to convince Cindy on that one. She’s already made changes to Janet’s magic be more at home. But maybe, she was the first one to suggest contacting you.” She looked at Penny. ”She was less enthused with my other pick but she’s not here so…”

Alicia was outside of her comfort zone on this one, so it was probably a good thing that Penny was here. She could provide advice and suggestions that the Seraph couldn’t. Still, there was something tickling at the back of her mind, one question that seemed much more pertinent to all of this and what they chose to do next.

So with a hand placed on her hip as she shifted slightly, Alicia gave voice to her thoughts. ”That could work. But I think the bigger question is, what do you want Jenna? Are we trying to remove Cindy and return Janet to normal, or are we trying to help the two sides reach a compromise?”

Jenna had to give the question some thought. Was it her choice? "I want my sister to be safe. When I couldn’t find her mind I thought I had lost her. I can’t go through that again. I would like to spend as much time with her as possible, but her well being is most important to me. Even if that means I have to deal with Cindy then I’ll do it." A Twinned Soul’s bond was nearly unbreakable so long as the other didn’t go out of their way to abuse them. If Cindy were somehow to take over, Jenna would probably find a way to rationalize that it wasn’t her sister’s fault and stick with her. It was actually rather dangerous territory to be in.

Penny was definitely seeing red flags with how Jenna was describing the situation with Cindy and Janet, but she knew that it could just be because her own perspective on things was skewed. Still causing a Specialization change within both of the girls and the one on the outside not seeing any type of merging of the minds, that simply seemed like trouble. “I would say that the safest option would be to get Cindy’s mind elsewhere, but we are only going to be able to do that with Cindy’s and Janet’s co-operation. If Cindy asked to talk to me, I’d be willing to meet with her and offer up the idea of moving her to a different body.” She would offer again with a shrug. Her motives towards moving Cindy weren’t purely altruistic, but the primary reasons were “If we want to try that I would suggest trying sooner rather than later, for the more time she has to get settled the harder it is going to be to get her moved.”

“Otherwise the only thing that can be done safely, is that you get ready to have a new friend that’s not going to be leaving you anytime soon”

Jenna looked a bit confused for a moment before waving her hands and shaking her head. ”Of course. I’m not saying we don’t try. Just if I had to I could live with it. I know that doesn’t make much sense, but that’s just how I feel.” God this was the hardest thing she’s ever had to do thus far. The twins didn’t often look tired but Jenna sure did then and there.

Alicia would admit that she was uncertain about all of this. But if Jenna was willing to go along with it then she would trust her. All the same she would keep an eye out, just in case. It seemed it was better to be on the safe side and not trust too much these days.

”Alright,” she replied with a nod. ”We’ll try to do that then. It’s probably for the best anyways. The last thing we need is some version of Cindy using Janet’s body to slip information to Faith and her allies.” It was hard to say what they could learn, but even if they weren’t going to be in an immediate confrontation who knew the harm that might also come from it. Especially since she still retained her anger at Beacon.

“Yeah, that would be bad” Penny gave an exaggerated shudder at the situation that Alicia proposed. She knew exactly how bad it could be if there was an insider feeding out information, she had been one once after all.

“When were you thinking of trying this?” She would go on to ask afterwards. Mind already whirring with potential time tables.

Jenna bit her lip a bit. Cindy may already know more than they’d like. Thankfully she had no idea where any of it was. ”Well, we could go now. Janet has kind of had me lock her away in one of the lab rooms for right now. Like you said we couldn’t really risk Cindy getting out and leaking information.”

And that was all Penny needed to know “Lead the way” She would say as she moved to stand “I might be able to convince her, and should be able to help with the move as well.”

Glancing around it appeared that they were all in agreement, except Raven who looked way out of her depth. The lot of them getting up they would have to go through a couple relay teleports before they would end up in the lab. Penny and Raven really only being the two not actually authorized to be there, Jenna and Alicia had to act as their escort to even be able to teleport in.

---

Most of the lab had been closed up, properly secured just in case something happened given the circumstances. Leading them down a couple corridors they would come to a magically sealed door toward the end. Opening it up, Janet could be seen behind one of the neigh unbreakable magic barriers that they used during testing. She was untransformed and appeared to be resting. When she heard them come in though she sat up and smiled. ”Boy am I glad to see you.” Sliding off the bed she approached the barrier. ”That was a lot faster than I expected. Did you come up with something already?” She couldn’t help but show a bit of surprise.

“Yeah, I’ve an Idea or two that we might be able to work” Penny would say with more confidence than she really had as she eyed the containment field. It made sense that they had them, even made sense for how they were using them, but still seeing it was discomforting.

Made her wonder how easily her own trips back here could have blown up in her face had she been less cautious. Pushing that thought out of mind she would tie her hair back “First thing I wanted to do was have a chance to talk to Cindy, and possibly pitch the ideas to her in person since Jenna said that she wanted to talk to me.” She would add as she walked up to the barriers edge.

“Think a mental network would be able to get us all involved in the conversation? That way we won’t have to keep Janet cut out” Penny would ask looking back at Jenna.

Jenna shook her head. "I haven't been able to communicate with Janet whenever she's not in control. Also…" She rapped a knuckle against the barrier.

"Yeah that's not really an option. So if you wouldn't mind telling me first that would be appreciated." She managed a slight smirk.

“Ah” Penny would regard the barrier once again, as she did her drone would pop out and begin hovering about her shoulders simply looking at things. “Ladies, meet Snoopy” Penny would say as Snoopy beeped cheerfully. “He’s an Overcity Guide, and his mechanical nature is due to me. The first idea was seeing if Cindy would be willing to be moved from Janet into Snoopy” As Penny explained the basic idea Snoopy would begin displaying a miniature holographic projection of Cindy above itself.

“All we would need, I would think, is to set up a connection between me and Cindy and then I should be able to transfer her over. Assuming she is willing that is.” The mix of Shine spark, Psychic magics, and Penny’s own highly mutable nature meant that it should be a relatively easy transfer, at least that was Penny’s hope.

Looking around at the trio, Alicia remained silent for a while. She watched and listened now that they were in the lab, allowing those more knowledgeable to discuss the situation and what they intended to do. If there was an area where her expertise could be of use, she would contribute then.

”Fingers crossed,” she added as Penny laid out her plan. ”Otherwise we may have to get a bit more specialized in the resources we use. And it seems we’ve got enough headaches as it is.” It was unfortunate they couldn’t all talk at once, so they would make do as best they could.

The drone itself didn’t look like much at first glance. What a Overcity Guide was Janet could only surmise from the name. It wasn’t anything she’d ever heard of. Not knowing Cindy much at all it was hard to say if she would accept such an offer. ”Alright. So if that’s the first idea then what’s the second?” She could have been reading too much into what Penny had said. Worth asking though.

“Second is in the same vein as the first, just riskier, as we could move her to me.” Penny would say scratching her cheek sheepishly. “Physically I’d be able to set it up so that we wouldn’t have the split personality thing going on, due to my nature, plus my magic is always a bit unstable now so long term I shouldn’t have to worry about any magical discrepancies. I will admit that the second idea is something that only occurred to me about seven seconds ago so take that as you will” she would explain with an awkward chuckle.

“There is also always a chance that Cindy might have an idea as well, so really the best place to start before deciding any of this is to talk to her I would think.”

Considering the options for a moment Janet shrugged. She paced for a minute before returning to her friends. ”Risky is what got me in this mess. I don’t want you doing something stupid on my account. Jenna.” The two sisters would lock focus on one another. ”That goes doubly for you.”

Wringing her hands Jenna nodded. This was hard for her, probably harder than it was for Janet since she wasn’t always unaware of everything going on. ”That’s not fair.”

”I know, I’m sorry.” She would look across to each of the others. Not that she was in a rush or anything, but everyone had come over rather quickly. Being in uncharted territory they likely wanted to try and resolve the issue sooner rather than give chance that the situation could get worse. ”Anything else before I try and bring out Cindy?”

Alicia though for a moment before shaking her head. ”Nothing that springs to mind.” She glanced over at Penny, before waiting for Janet to make her attempt.

“Nothing at the moment” Penny would shrug “I’ll let you know after if that changed”

Jenna not having anything else to add either, Janet closed her eyes. So far she had not really tried to force a switch to happen. But she assumed that if she could “go to sleep” as it were, that the other personality would awaken. The girl would start to lean to one side in a daze before suddenly waking up. Stumbling she looked around before seeing the group on the other side of the barrier. Taking a moment to observe the effective cell she was in she stood up straight, noting that she was currently in her untransformed state. Practically ignoring the others she addressed Penny. ”Penny, I am pleased you responded so promptly to my call.” The new look had given her brief pause, but Penny was a rather distinct magical girl. The girl sounded like Janet, but very clearly did not speak like her. Briefly acknowledging the others she waved a hand to dismiss them. ”I know why you are here. The rest of you may go, there are matters I must discuss with Penny first.”

Watching the transition happen was a bit odd, but not the strangest thing that Alicia had seen. It was like Janet was falling asleep, then suddenly she was awake and someone else. But while that was good, what the ‘Cindy’ personality said was less comforting. ”I thought you said they didn’t know what the other personality did,” she said, glancing over to Jenna for an explanation.

Not giving Jenna the opportunity to speak, Cindy responded. ”I am not so blind as to assume Jenna would not bring others to plead for her sister’s life. I asked for Penny, and you are here. There are things I must know, now go.” Being very much used to bossing people around the slight protest did not bother her. Looking at Jenna, the twin looked hurt for a moment but did turn to leave, Raven following after her.

Penny would move to front and center at Cindy’s request, but she made sure to give Alicia a look as she recentered. She would be making sure that Alicia learned what was said during this talk even if it was mostly harmless. “Well I got here as soon as I could” The robotic girl would say as she kept her eyes on Cindy “Got friends on all sides of this after all”

Alicia took a moment to glare at Cindy before stepping back. ”Fine. Just don’t forget that you’re in her body, and not the other way around. If we have to find a way to forcibly get rid of you, I’ll do it.” With that she took her leave, allowing them to talk in private.

Cindy would only regard Alicia’s threat with a glance. She quickly turned to Penny again and would refrain from directing further to the exiting parties. ”Admittedly I would not say that these are ideal circumstances.” Drawing a chair over she would take a seat and cross her arms. There were a number of things that she wanted answered, but I fair few could be wrapped up together. Oddly she would not start with herself or Beacon. ”To my knowledge you had been at the rave in my absence. I would like you to recount the events of that night for me.”

“You mean after you left, but before you died” Penny would clarify as she folded her arms behind her back, but remained standing. ”To put it simply things went to hell. Elvira triggered a mass riot, influencing the corrupted girls there with Sound magic designed to inflame their instincts.” She would go on to say as Snoopy returned to her shoulder, back from the corner it had wandered off to. “Shortly after that the Ascendency staged their raid on the Rave. Locking off the majority of exits with magic and began a systematic slaughter.” As Penny gave her brief but painfully blunt descriptions of what happened Snoopy began displaying the recordings of the events that both it and Penny had captured “It was in the midst of that, that Eden, leader of the Penrose independent unleashed a psychic attack that resulted in the deaths of nearly all members of Beacon that were at the rave, I am lucky to be alive in fact. That wasn’t the end as someone, notably not a beacon member retaliated with a divinely empowered Barrage.”

She didn’t shy away from showing the grisly details of any of the attacks with Snoopy, the entire time her gaze was locked onto Cindy.

“After that? I don’t know, I had left escorting as many people as I could to safety before moving back out to help quell the Riots.” There was more to it then that, after all it was around then that Penny had to detour to get the Red Coin from Binky. Not to mention her attempt at rallying those that had not gone to the rave to try and help stamp out the chaos in the streets, but Cindy didn’t need to know about those events. Not yet at any rate.

Listening silently and watching the events unfold as Penny had recorded them, the Queen of Penrose did show her hand at what was going through her mind. This was mostly done due through experience in burying her emotions. She seemed unusually casual given the subject matter and atrocities that had taken place. Though prior to a day or so ago her mental mutation had most definitely been getting the better of her. Being rid of it was freeing, but left her in some long forgotten territory. Closing her eyes for a few minutes once Penny had concluded she eventually spoke up. ”These twins…” She would open her eyes slowly and study Penny closely. ”Janet and Jenna. What is your honest opinion of them?” Cindy had adjusted a bit and rolled a few strands of hair between her fingers. She was clearly assessing Beacon, or at least these particular members.

“Janet was the first member of Beacon I met in Penrose” Penny would reply after a moment of contemplation.For most of the members of Beacon, Penny was vastly unsure of how to feel about them, she had been unsure ever since the revelation of what Sylvia had done, and were the situations not being what they were, Penny would likely have not been able to remember why it was she saw Janet and Jenna as friends. But with the question placed in front of her “She was getting chewed out by her Beckoner for attempting to show compassion and understanding towards a corrupted girl at a rally a few months before you made your debut”

“Shortly after that even she got kidnapped, and brainwashed against Beacon. When we got her back, she threw herself into trying to make amends to the people she harmed during a point where she had no control. Even went so far as to make a new Coin type to help me and people that had been forced into situations like her.” Penny shook her head in fond exasperation at that, saddened only by the fact that technically their first coin had failed, but for reasons that no one would ever really know, though Penny had her suspicions. “So what do I think of them?” Penny would reiterate “I think they are good people and honest, dependable, friends. There are worse people to be stuck with for the rest of life after all.”

Penny’s account of the girls was something of a surprise. Yes, Janet herself had told something of their exploits, but Cindy had no reason to believe them in the slightest. Quite a curious girl it would seem. It may also explain why Jenna, despite all her reservations, showed little hostility toward her even when provoked. She would defend herself but never lash out. Initially she thought it merely had to do with the fact that she was in Janet’s body. Undoubtedly that did play a large part, but the source potentially ran much deeper. No mention to explain the odd magic Janet possessed. Learning that the twins had something to do with new coins popping up wasn’t a surprise. Jenna had been careful not to let slip that they had been architects of them though.

Wanting a bit more elaboration if she could coax it, ”They sound… most unusual for a Beacon. Do they not fear retribution from the council?” Cindy would muse. For the first time she genuinely seemed to be debating what to think of the two.

"Not too strange from where I'm standing" Would be Penny glib reply while she stretched out two of her normally hidden limbs to help prove her point.

"As for fear of the Council? Asking the wrong person, for similar reasons"

Cindy would concede the second point as least. Moving on she would ask. ”And what of the other girl Jenna brought, Alicia? What do you think of her?” Alicia had been rather rude, but understandably so. Were the roles swapped she very well may have the same response. Still she was Beacon and made a threat which is more than she could say of the twins.

“I owe Alicia my life, at least twice over by this point. She’s stood by me while I was a terrible friend to her, and has forgiven me for some quite serious betrayals.” Penny would say simply, but there was an edge to her words “She was the first to welcome me into Beacon, despite the fact that I was Monster girl, and has never once betrayed my trust in her.”

“I could easily say that I love her, even as I know that it will likely never be romantic between us.” She would go on to say, showing no shame at such an admission even if it was tinged with a hint of regret “And for a bit of context. She was at the rave as well, in the middle of it, and watched her friends and comrades die, only to come back and learn that her mentor died at the same park you did. On top of that she is only a few weeks promoted to being the leader of this branch of Beacon, and now you are residing in one of her oldest friends. So her threat was understandable I would say.” Penny bit her tongue before she could add to her last response. Knowing that it wouldn’t help, but she would be honest enough to admit to herself that she was still angry at Cindy. Not for the rave, that wasn't her fault, but the incident with the Cardinal? That Penny could lay at her feet, and the tension and danger it put all of Cindy’s subjects under was the source of her anger, but acting on that anger against a dead person wouldn’t be of much use.

The further the confession went the more confused Cindy would become. To even consider a monster and Beacon member in a romantic sense had never crossed her mind in the slightest. It was less that she was against such a possibility and more to do with how such a thing could ever even occur. Cindy actually looked stunned for a moment. Though she wasn’t sure if it was more telling of Penny than it was of Alicia, regrettably. Had she by some miracle been paired with the one girl who’s Beacon friends would not outright kill her to be rid of an invading monster girl?

Something at a loss for words, she gestured to allow the others back in. At first she had intended to speak with Alicia alone as well, but that no longer seemed prudent. ”Everyone may come back in if they wish.” Rubbing her head a bit she tried to make sense of it.

Penny saw the confusion and shock on Cindy’s face and in all honesty it wasn’t that hard to understand where the other girl was coming from but she wanted to hammer in the point that Alicia wasn’t like most Beacon, just as none of the people who Cindy was currently surrounded with weren’t like most Beacon.

“You know, Alicia currently has a girlfriend” She would say as she turned towards the door her eyes still watching Cindy “Her name is Kimble, she used to be a catgirl. Alica chose to save her life, while a Beckoner was over her shoulder. Kimble wanted a White Coin so that she wouldn't have to worry about being separated from her.” There would be an audible click from the door as Penny manipulated it from where she stood “Alicia has done more to promote peace in Penrose then anyone I know. Keep that in mind” And with that she would pull the door open for the rest of them to come back in, moving off to the side so she wasn’t blocking line of sight.

“Cindy’s wanting to talk to us all it seems”

Stepping back in Alicia glanced between Penny and Cindy-in-Janet. It seemed the conversation had gone well, though it was difficult to tell. At the very least it was shorter than she had thought it might be.

”Alright then. So what’s the decision?” she asked, looking to the girl in question for what she had to say.

”We did not discuss anything in that regard. I had questions of my host and her friends.” Deliberating she paused for a few seconds. ”You are a perplexing lot.” Anyone expecting her to elaborate on her own wasn’t about to get it. Cindy was trying to find their angle. For the moment she still held the advantage in her mind. Whether it actually meant anything was another matter.

“I’ll take that as a compliment” Penny would say with a smug smile “But Alicia does have a point.” She would go on her smile fading slightly “We have an idea on how to separate you and Janet, and a few possible options to move you into if you’d be willing” It was the main reason most of them were here after all, other then perhaps Raven, but Penny had her doubts about that.

“At the moment all options we have lead you being stuck with me, but if you have any ideas or suggestions yourself we will be happy to hear them.”

Seemingly sceptical, Cindy would reply. ”You will have to forgive me if I am wary of your ‘options.’” It would take a bit for Cindy to look at Alicia. She did not shy away from meeting her eyes though. ”Penny speaks very highly of you. Perhaps if we had the opportunity to meet sooner things would have played out differently.”.It was hard to tell if Cindy regretted what she’d done. She wasn’t twisting her words at least.

Alicia remained somewhat cautious, Cindy’s attitude not leaving her all that confident of them not winding in a situation where she tried to suppress Janet under her own control. But she was still willing to proceed for now, since things seemed to be working out.

Their gazes met, neither faltering or flinching in that moment. ”Maybe,” she agreed with a small nod. ”Though your Horror aligned partner would have made things difficult even if things had gone well. There was some regrets to be had, but if she started thinking about those she would be here for a while. Better to focus on the current dilemma, and whether this could be resolved.

”Whom is that?” A great many things happened following her death, and even her absence at the rave prior. It was hard to say who exactly she meant. ”Do you speak of Faith, or another?”

”Her,’ Alicia confirmed with a curt nod. ”I try to judge people based on their actions, but at the end of a day a Horror is a Horror. Trying to understand something that defies understanding or common human mentality is just an exercise in futility.” And now she was the one running the show against Beacon. Wonderful.

Ah, there was that Beacon spirit. Her eyes lighting up briefly Alicia now had her attention. ”It is the way of things. Beacon and corrupted girls exchanging lives age after age. This is my experience over the centuries.” All present were children by comparison to the ancient mind that now inhabited their friend. Still Alicia’s Light spec would tell that everything said was true. ”Faith is ordinarily a gentle soul. For her to act otherwise is testament to the pain caused by conflict to which there is no end. Despite all appearances I’ve no particular vendetta against Beacon. Should ever we were to meet, the outcome was always the same. Save for one foolish girl who would plead at risk of her own life.” Of course speaking of Janet. ”Succumb to my Mental Mutations as I was I cannot say if I were to stop, but she did give me pause. The Mint saw to it that we may never know.”

While Alicia could tell that Cindy was not necessarily lying, she was left to wonder how much the truthfulness of Cindy’s words actually mattered. ”Indeed. Plus your rave was used as a trump, and war declared in your name. The Ascendancy restored order in this city from monsters when the rest of us were busy, and in the end it was not them who struck the first blow. For being so old you certainly fell into that one easily enough,” she noted in turn.

Nodding Cindy would agree. ”I am aware. Jenna has been surprisingly transparent with what transpired at both fronts.” Humility was not a facet of Cindy’s makeup. Far from it. When something went wrong it was someone else’s fault and they would be punished for it. Her will was law and all others were beneath her. As a Sentinel she had put her sights on this city. The Queen of Penrose did not lose and in such thinking had failed to even consider that anyone could challenge her, underhanded or otherwise.

Dying as a magical girl doesn’t really mean much beyond delay in the grand scheme of things. What’s a couple decades when you return and everyone has forgotten you for the next threat? Janet’s actions though forced a unique perspective on Cindy as she witnessed the aftermath. Arguably she was not even the real Cindy, just a mental replica forced to occupy the same form as a bleeding heart. With each encounter the mental image of fortitude and power getting chipped away. Her fixation on Penrose faded from existence. Simply clinging to what she had known . And now she was sitting being observed as if through glass by Beacon members that did not fit the mold she’d crafted in her head. Contemplating she would be silent for a while. More frustrated with herself than anything.

Penny scoffed at the underlying arrogance in Cindy’s words. Mainly because she could easily see why it was there, time gave a lot of advantages to those who had gone through more of it but it also tended to lead them into the same thought patterns. The robotic girl could help but wonder at how many times Cindy had tried something different each time she encountered Beacon in the past, or if she simply used the same default reaction.

“Then it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise that had you lived that I was going to challenge you for your title, and the right to lead penrose right?” Penny would ask a touch of scorn laced within her words “After all your last actions placed your subjects under more danger, not less, to say nothing of the fact that you attacked my allies”

Were circumstances different, Cindy would have lashed out at Penny. Not that she could do anything at this time. Twice she’d been stabbed in the back at this point, so to learn of one more was not much of a surprise. Not exactly a good negotiating tactic when you were trying to convince someone to give back their friend though. She had not gotten some of the information she had wanted during her questioning earlier. She had not expected to be handed to her so overtly. ”It is not.” Leaning forward slightly she would eventually stand up. ”I believe I must decline your offer of ‘being stuck’ with you.” She would straighten her dress casually and move across the room.

Jenna shuddered and shot a glare at Penny. ”What are you…” She wouldn’t finish and instead would put her hands against the barrier. ”Cindy.” Cindy would stop facing away from them.

“Really?” Penny would say with genuine surprise, at the actions of the ‘Queen of Penrose’ “I tell you I have an issue with how you were doin things and you decide to simply phase everyone here out? I tell you to your face, that I was going to respect your chain of command, follow your rules of engagement, and you get insulted by it?” Penny was honestly baffled by that. After all it was Cindy who first announced that any who had an issue with her claim could challenge her for it, she told the entire city that, and had there not been the more pressing issue of a Horror about to break though at the graveyard, Penny was sure that someone would have tried.

“It seems you just like to wear the title, but lack the nobility to uphold it.” Penny would say her anger starting to bleed through into her voice “For you sound like no Queen at the moment Cindy, you sound like a Tyrant.” She would say dangerously, eyes narrowed, as she stood unnaturally still “Or did you forget that I let you into my home! So do not think I would not watch what you did carefully. Especially when you place those that want no part of war at risk.”

Standing still for a moment, Cindy would eventually turn where they could see her expression over her shoulder. She looked confused and her eyes would occasionally dart around, searching. Most of what Penny said she remembered, but some parts were disjointed or felt like they were missing. Only when she had been prompted did her recollection put them back into place. A twinge of visible concern passed over her when she finally looked back.

There would be an odd sound that would come from Penny as she kept her gaze locked on to Cindy, the sound of a metal latch being thrown and undone, as it went on her glare would soften into a simple searching. “You did forget, didn’t you” She would state more than ask before letting out a sigh.

“Right.” Her anger was once again tucked away, unsurprisingly since she was reminded that she wasn’t truly dealing with Cindy, more dealing with a clone, or a backup copy. “The transfer wasn’t easy on either of you most likely” she would say, watching Cindy with a less critical eye “Is that why you are asking all these questions?”

”Would you be very trusting of anyone after being murdered and waking up in someone else’s body? Someone from Beacon no less.” She put a hand to her head. Knowing who she was was one thing, but the details potentially being fuzzy put her in a vulnerable position.

Alicia kept her gaze on Cindy as they talked, listening to the conversation as it went on to discuss several different topics. But eventually she would speak up to provide her input. ”Perhaps. But regardless of whether it was an accident, you’re here now.”

Confident steps carried her closer to the barrier, though she did not touch it for now. ”And at the end of the day you are a guest in her mind. Janet is not yours to do with as you please, and that is worth remembering as we discuss what to do here.”

”You assume I have a choice in the matter.” Growing tired of it all she looked at Penny regretfully. ”Apologies Penny. Present your ideas so we may move on.” Cindy would make her way back over.

"If you weren't going to be given a choice, do you really think that we'd be talking?" Penny would ask calmly before shrugging off the current topic.

"Among those here, we have enough mix of magical talents that we should be able to safely separate you and Janet, so long as we are all working together." Penny would answer shifting into a more relaxed stance as she did so. "The two options that are most likely to work would be to move you to either myself or Snoopy" she'd continue, pointing at the drone in question as she did so "The latter would mean that Snoopy might need a new name, but no harm in that."

"As I mentioned before, if you've got any ideas feel free to voice them."

”I was speaking more of Janet and I switching at random.” Cindy would say just to clarify. Looking at the drone she would recall it had become damaged after being kicked at the rave. It was preposterous to assume that she would move into something so frail. There was a fine line she refused to cross. ”I would rather not die again in a defenseless flying object.” Head shaking slowly as she considered the options, looking at the group as she did so. ”I do not think it would be wise to attempt to move anyone at this time. If my memory is not yet complete there is a chance that Janet’s may not as well. Meddling with that may have adverse effects to one or both of us.”

“To be fair, I did upgrade it recently, but still have a point about it not having any weapon platforms.” Penny would say mulling over things “And while you have a point about not moving you, but the thing is I’m pretty sure we only have a limited window of opportunity until you are entrenched too deeply to be able to be moved. Downside of not having code, but seeing as you don’t want to move, forcing the issue would make things worse for all involved. So next idea would be setting up a way for you and Janet to be able to interact in some fashion and that's more Jenna’s wheel house” she would say looking at the resident psychic who was still ‘awake’.

”Communicating with my host would make things easier. And likely alleviate some animosity. Despite me, Janet has yet to lift a finger to harm me and from what I can tell from Jenna she is gracious enough to tolerate the current circumstances. And I would be remiss not to acknowledge that if not for her then I would not be here now, her original intentions notwithstanding.” She would huff a bit. It took effort not to act her usual self. Cindy was pretty sure though that if she did not ease up that the others would find a way to simply erase her. Even so she was grateful to Janet at least on some level, she simply did not know her.

One could only assume that Penny had been thinking of linking their minds in some way to facilitate communication. Knowing that Jenna had tried on several occasions Cindy was not confident that they would figure it out in a timely manner. While they attempted to hash out a more permanent solution, Cindy would scan around the room. There was once a simpler time when you wanted to send a message to someone you could not be with. Walking over to a counter she would snatch a pen and clipboard off the wall. Turning the forms over to the blank side she would begin writing. Perhaps more old school than it needed to be, but what do you expect from someone that predated the telegraph.

After some furious writing she would close her eyes and lean before Janet would wake. Seeing the curious letter in her hand she glanced at her friends briefly before actually stopping to read. It was a little hard to make out with it’s eloquent strokes and old world speak. However, she eventually sussed out what she was trying to get across. ”Oh what, she can do that?” After a moment of genuine surprise she would look at everyone else. ”Cindy wants to write a magical contract.”

Having less of a stake in coming up with a solution, Alicia stopped mentally drawing up lists of people with Psychic spec that she knew as the person behind the barrier spoke up now with a note in their hand. It seemed they had switched once more. ”Did she say what she wants to include in it?” Alicia asked. She didn’t see any harm in giving it a shot, at least at this point.

Flipping to the next page just to make sure she wasn’t missing anything, Janet would shake her head. ”No. She wants us to write up things that we want in it so she can draft something up. Uh. ‘All involved parties shall sign to make the contract binding.’” She would read.aloud the second time. ”Which Jenna also will need to sign for some reason.”

”Do I? That’s kind of weird.”

”Yeah… I guess you guys can ask her next time... She apparently needs a few things as well. Ink, a quill, and hide.” Where would they get hide? Craft shop? Probably could find ink there as well or cannibalize it from a printer or something. A quill…

”Oooh, hey I got this!” Raven would transmute into her animal form. Preening one of her wings she coaxes one free and transforms back holding the loose feather. ”Hah. One down.” She would hand it to Jenna.

Taking the feather Jenna was surprised how quickly Raven picked up on what a quill was, because she had still been trying to figure that out. ”Wow, well done Raven. You were on the ball with that one.”

Raven beamed. It was a small triumph, but had been the first time she’d been able to contribute in this whole mess. ”I know right. You can thank my patrons for that one. Well that and stuffing my head with a bunch of history. They’re kind of old school.”

Well, at least Cindy was willing to be considerate to their particular desires in this case. Alicia could think of a few things she might want out of this, to say the least. ”I can ask around. Someone may have some hide, or we’ve got it down in storage,” she mused, rubbing her chin in thought.

Janet stopped to think for a moment. Were they in that much of a rush to get everything? ”We could get the other things later I think. I would rather have you here to help with this.” She would flip to another page to write. While Cindy had left some instructions, she hadn’t really explained exactly what could be put in the contract. Probably just put down things and let the one that could supposedly make the thing flesh it out.

---

While Cindy was being cooperative in proposing a contract, the group of girls did not really trust that this couldn’t be used to usurp or take over Janet somehow. In writing down their demands they wanted to be sure that not only Janet would be safe, but Jenna and Beacon as well. They weren’t entirely sure how or if the phrasing mattered so they tried to make it as tight as possible. Some of it may be a tall order given who they were dealing with. They did try and leave in accommodations for Cindy since this was presumably a negotiation. At the moment Janet was a hostage almost as much as Cindy was. Satisfied that all was good they retrieved the last couple items and placed them in the improvised cell. ”Alright, here goes nothing. May the oppressed and broken find shelter beneath our banner." Janet would transform and concede control to Cindy as her armor formed around her.

Finding herself in a transformed state this time, Cindy took a look around to see what might have changed. Being indoors it was hard to tell if a few minutes had passed or a month. Pleased to find all of the items she had requested on a nearby table she would calmly take up the clipboard to review what the Beaconites had jotted down. It had been an exceptionally long time since she had entered into a contract with anyone. To think it would be brought to this, effectively having to fight her body for a place to exist. That the local Beacon leader would entertain the notion probably surprised her more. Not that they hadn’t proven themselves far more agreeable than ninety nine percent of the Beacon she had misfortune to encounter, but after what had happened only days before…

Digressing she would pick up the table with the items and place it with one edge against the barrier. Ordinarily there would not be this separation between herself and the other party, but she doubted they would take it down for this. Janet had placed herself in lockdown after all, the little… No, she would likely have to stop thinking that of her host once all this was said and done. ”I suspect you may have some questions for me.” She would say distractedly as she continued reading and drew up a chair.

The contract was drawn up, and Cindy had resumed control so she could read it. ”Sure,” Alicia confirmed. ”Firstly, what do you intend to do if you and Janet do make it twenty years, when the real you comes back?” That seemed like the easier question to start with.

That was not the first question Cindy had expected to be asked. It was a very relevant one though as the true Cindy would eventually return. ”Given I have changed more in the last week of encountering Janet than I have in the last century I very much doubt I will be the same person. She will return with her Sentinel mutation intact and lay claim to Penrose to protect the city because that is her vice. The climate of the time will dictate whether that is for good or for ill. Regardless she will attempt to defend her subjects from any she sees as a threat. She did not consider anyone else a threat in advance this last time, she may not be so tolerant of others being in her city now.”

”As to what I would do, I cannot say for certain. That has more to do with what she decides." She would look up to face Alicia. "If I am Queen of Penrose and she challenges me then I will defeat her and retain the title. If I am not and I am still here defending Penrose and she attacks then I will defeat her anyway. If she is reasonable then who is to say?” Cindy’s demeanor had changed rather drastically. She was not so hostile as before. Though this could just be how she was during a negotiation.

It was a bit far to be asking about, so Alicia supposed that the answer Cindy provided made sense. She’d wondered about the possibility of a re-merger, but it seemed that that was not in the cards. At least for now.

Moving on, she went to the more important question. ”Alright, that sounds reasonable. Secondly, how much do you know about the Mint and their activities here in Penrose? Considering what they’ve done so far, anything to help us stamp them out will be useful.”

Cindy would think about it distastefully. Recounting the night of her death she seethed and her eyes would glow their signature blue from her magic. ”I do not deal often with the Mint as they would threaten those that would come to me for protection. Their agents lurk in the shadows and lack in honor. I do not know what I may provide that you may not already know, but there was no love lost in their betrayal that night. Chloe provided Elvira as entertainment for the rave, only to use my people and incite a riot. Another of their agents attacked your Cardinal and I. I only assume that snake Reaver that dealt my final blow is among their ranks.” She was not sure how much Penny divulged of her fraternizing with Mint agents. She did however recall that Penny was the one that had introduced her to Chloe. Out of respect and to make up for the error she had made in mischaracterizing the mechanical girl earlier she would not out her. That would have to wait for another conversation.

There would be a moment after Cindy spoke where every single piece of metal not nailed down would suddenly shift towards Penny. Who had a look of raw hate on her face as her eyes burned a baleful, bloody red. ”I am going to rip her-!” she would start to snarl before she turned herself away.

It would take a few seconds before Penny was able to force herself to become calm and even then her magical aura was still chaotic showing that the mechanical monster wasn’t truly calmed.

“Sorry” She would say her voice clipped as she spoke turning back to the group “I have more reason to hate her then I suspected” Penny would explain through grit teeth “I do think that means that my assumption that Eden is also a part of Mint makes more sense. Since she knew what was going to happen it seems, to say nothing of that WMD”

Jenna would watch Penny closely with some concern. The girl changed often and always seemed to become more corrupted despite their attempts to stop it. Made her wonder what was actually going on with her. She would pass a message telepathically to Penny just to keep things discrete. ”Penny, I should have said something sooner but, are you alright? You don’t have to answer now. We can talk later. For now though she would cast a spell to try and settle the magical aura.

Keeping things more under wraps than Penny, Cindy would watch unaware of the aura but able to see and hear the visible frustrations. ”I suspect you shall be one of many who share that sentiment. Be wary that your hatred not manipulate you into a similar situation to mine.” Ironic that she would be the one to advise for a cooler head.

“I have a-” Penny would cut herself off angrily, before going through the motions taking a deep breath and holding it, her aura actually calming done as she repeated the process. “I had a close personal connection to Chloe.” She would say at last “One she used to manipulate and control me before abandoning me. To hear she was connected to the nightmare of a rave was a nasty surprise, and just adds more to her betrayal”

‘I’m fine’ Penny would reply mentally ‘Just Chloe is a sore topic still’ with a shake of her head she would move on “So no information on Mint, fine, what about Mariette? You talked with her back at the Beach. Anything you can tell us about her, or that?” Penny would ask, hoping to push the conversation past her, at least for the moment.

You’re always fine, and then something else happens. We’ll talk later. Jenna didn’t leave the notion up for debate.

This was quickly turning into more of an interrogation than coming to terms on a contract. Things were silent for a while. As Cindy tried to recall the aforementioned conversation she outwardly became more agitated. ”I do not recall speaking with her at the beach. If I did perhaps it has yet to return to me.” She would stop and think over it some more. Before she would let her temper get the better of her she stopped and took a deep breath. The slight shaking from frustration melted away and as her mental magic helped her focus. Having access to this kind of ability prior could have been quite useful. Though knowing herself it likely would have been horribly abused.

”Perhaps I should clarify my earlier statement.” Holding up the clipboard with their musings. ”I suspect you have questions regarding the contract for me. What you have here is good but perhaps too rigid. I shall make my rebuttal and propose my own amendments. We will discuss the matter to come to a consensus and draft the final copy. Is that clear?” Her eyes would sweep across all present. She did not intend to sidestep the earlier question so much as she could not answer it at this time.

”Sure,” Allicia agreed without argument. She was out of things she had wanted to ask in general anyway.

Cindy would smile at the swift answer. ”Splendid. Most of what you have is to be expected. It is crafted such to avoid me harming Janet and betraying Beacon by attacking its members or divulging information. However, my mission to protect Penrose has not changed. When it is found out that Janet and I share the same form I will need the autonomy to defend myself should the Ascendancy or others in Beacon threaten me or those I swore to defend. I can attempt to avoid harm but circumstances may still cause something I do to damage Beacon in some fashion. Intent should be the defining factor to this byline. A contract of this nature would surpass the ability of a Light user to discern the truth motivating one's actions and act accordingly. What’s more, if I cannot reveal information about Beacon then I must reserve the right for the same of my people. It would not be fair for me to betray their trust in such a manner.” She would pause and look at the other attendees for their thoughts.

All of that sounded well and good, but so far there wasn’t much in the way of concessions. Perhaps they simply hadn’t gotten to it yet. Thinking it through for a while Jenna would eventually speak up. Seemed she’d finally gotten past the fact that despite how the person in front of her looked, it was not her sister. ”I don’t think you understand the position you are in, Cindy. You are in Janet’s body. A memory of who Cindy Ford was. Whatever influence or title you held died with the rest of you. You’re just another magical girl now. You may know a lot, but that doesn’t make you who you were before.” As Jenna stared down Cindy, the captive girl’s eyes were glowing. It was clear she was not used to being spoken down to like this. Taking a breath to say something Jenna would cut her off. ”I would choose your words carefully. You don’t have very many friends left. And in case you didn’t notice the ShineSpark lives inside you. The fact that you haven’t been purged means you’ve been cleansed and accepted into Beacon by it.” With the barrier between them, the others would not have seen or sensed the presence of the ShineSpark in Cindy. She had briefly mentioned the ShineSpark earlier, though given it was Janet it would be easy to assume she was only talking about her sister and not both minds being shielded.

Any semblance of protest in Cindy’s expression died with Jenna’s last remarks. She, a member of Beacon? Preposterous. Despite having nearly been killed by the very same magic shortly after she woke up, Cindy had all but dismissed the event. Feeling out her magic she would find Beacon’s new guardian waiting vigilantly to come to her aid. She backed up from the barrier a bit. Her eyes darted to the other two to see their reaction to this revelation. Had they known about this? Her pride and power had always acted as something of a defense for her. Both were rather quickly being eroded as she reflected on where she currently stood. She was being held, not even in a proper cell, and being questioned. There wasn’t a way out of this. Everyone she knew thought her dead and gone. Even if they knew she had survived in some approximate fashion would they even recognize her as the same person?

Frustration evident as she faced her present reality. Who she was had never been a question in her mind. The Thunderbird had crafted her to rule and the role had been as much her as the electricity that had made up her body. Her patron must have been disappointed in her performance because in her hour of need it allowed her to perish. Even now this fragment of Cindy was left to fend for herself. Fear would not be an accurate description for how the girl felt right now. Eyes drifting to her reflection against a metal surface she would see a stranger looking back at her. Her mind abuzz with thoughts she would clutch her head as her psychic magic flared. In this box though the only other mind to find was Janet’s, and she was sitting peacefully in a stasis that she couldn’t breach.

Penny’s face would be a moment of confusion as she worked her way through Jenna’s logic. But it would end with her not being terribly surprised, after all at the end of the day, it was still Janet’s body.

That moment of contemplation was quickly placed aside as she witnessed the full impact of the truth begin to descend onto Cindy. Of everyone present Penny felt she had the best idea of what it was like to go through identity death, it had nearly happened to her twice after all. Thus when she saw what was happening she quickly moved into action.

All the while they had been talking, a part of Penny had been set watching the system controlling the barrier. The information she had from that allowed her to seamlessly move towards Cindy, the barrier opening and closing within a moment, allowing Penny to slip into the enclosed space yet hardly leaving any time in which anyone could stop her before it closed behind her.

Once inside she would simply move towards the distraught girl and pull her into a hug. “It’s okay” She would sooth “No matter what you still have your name, no one can take that from you”

The instant Penny stepped in, Cindy knew and her psychic focus switch over to the mechanical girl. She sensed no ill intent and was caught off guard when being embraced in a hug. No one ever did that with Cindy. In the past it was nearly impossible for one, potentially painful, and something she would never allow. On instinct she attempted to shock the girl off, which of course amounted to nothing. Almost as reflexive though was the psychic blast that followed it up before physically pushing Penny back. ”I did not give you charge to embrace me.” Identity crisis or no, Cindy Ford would not allow herself to be coddled, at least at this point. Trembling she took several more shaky steps back. She was losing control and that was no more evident than when Janet suddenly woke up.

Steadying herself, the girl’s demeanor improved nearly instantly. Looking at Penny confusedly, Janet would take a few breaths. Her heart was racing so Cindy must have been through some physical strain or distress. Seeing the contract items untouched she assumed things were not going well. ”What happened?”

Alicia held back a sigh as she rubbed her forehead, now that it was clear that Janet had returned. ”Well that could have gone a lot better,” she observed. ”As is I was willing to agree to most of that anyway, at least when it comes to self defense and an equitable blanket on not revealing information. But I get the feeling we may be back at square one now.”

”If we’re going to try and work out something between Cindy and my sister we can’t just allow her to believe nothing has changed. That could be worse once the deal is done and we can’t change it.” Pointing back toward where they teleported in. ”You think the rest of her friends would just go along with that? Her world was going to get shattered sooner or later.”

Janet stared at the ceiling for a couple seconds. This was not going to be as simple as she’d hoped. ”Jenna.” She had to let out an exasperated sigh. She wasn’t mad, she couldn’t be. Her sister was doing a good job looking out for her and she appreciated it more than words could describe it. She would look at Jenna and give her a calm smile. ”I agree. I just wish I could be a part of the conversation instead of having to drag you all into this. Update me if you could.” Jenna dropped the barrier for a moment and relayed everything that had happened to that point. Thinking through the matter for a bit she had to shake her head. "Okay. That was harsher than I thought. Hm…" She would eventually look around a bit. By this point they'd all but scared the girl to pieces. "Maybe we should try talking in a less uninviting environment. And I want a better idea of what we intend to try before just throwing ideas at her. Does that make sense?"

”I know that,” Alicia replied with a scowl. ”But it’s not like we can just get rid of her. You already said bringing in a Psychic won’t work, and we can’t do much besides talk while she’s still in Janet.”

At least Janet was there to turn down the temperature before things grew even more heated than they were right now. ”At the end of the day I want you to be safe, and I want to make sure her previous attitudes don’t lead her to work against us while she’s in control of your body. Beyond that I’m willing to be flexible.”

”We did try a number of ways to communicate without success. Even I find it hard to detect she’s there at times. If I were to hazard a guess all my combined magic kind of works against us in that regard.” She would say as she tried to formulate a plan. There had to be a better method for this. What she really needed was a proper representative of herself. Something like an AI could maybe work, but she didn’t really like the idea of making a digital representation of herself. Too bad Cindy had used her Ruby Coin because she probably could use it right about now. She could think of a couple potentially useful magical abilities that would be… Janet’s eyes would suddenly pop open and her head would whip around to look in Jenna’s direction. ”I know how I can talk face to face with Cindy.”

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

Eh, anyone up for collabs or something, lemme know.

@Majoras End

Assuming I can get something sorted then I might need to talk to Eliza at some point.