Active Dramatis Personae

Name: ф Stephanie Smith ф

Appearance: A tall and skinny girl, with a pronounced slouch. She has black hair styled in a neat ponytail, now that she has the means to properly take care of it. Wears thick prescription glasses. Previously did not own many clothes aside from a pair of school uniforms, so her fashion sense is still catching up.

Profile: Being previously an orphan, Stephanie puts on a jaded, cynical, and self-serving exterior—aided in no small part by a rather foul vocabulary—, while in truth being quite soft and sensitive. Though loathe to admit it, she will go to great lengths to help someone she even remotely considers a friend, and especially those she considers family. Like her current one, the Imeredalas, and her Friend-turned-sister, Megan. Loves her new cat, named Fate, and dog, named Opportunity. Her Wish was “To have a loving family, loyal friends, and a place to belong. Maybe a pet dog. Or a cat? Both?”

The fact that she is a Puella Magi and ipso facto her body is dead didn’t sit well with her at first. She gets adopted but now their family has to take care of a zombie? Fucking hell. She’s tried to focus on the brighter side of it though, as everything she wished for came true, and she’s going to enjoy it.

Stats

>£ Physical Affinity: 12 (The Puella Magi Average)
>λ Magical Affinity: 12 (Ditto)
>彡 Dexterity: 14 (Surprisingly high. Maybe those long limbs help?)
>メ Perception: 12 (PM Average)
>⸫ Wisdom: 10 (The Human Average)
>π Intelligence: 10 (Actually higher than one would think for someone with no traditional education)
>ღ Charisma: 10
>φ Mind: 14 (She’s enjoying her new family and nothing is stopping that.)
>Ω Constitution: 14 (Her Body is dead already, so what use is this stat anyway?)

Abilities

Stephanie is able to make herself, objects, and other people, adopt qualities from other matter nearby. She can make her body as hard as a steel wall and a rock as soft as a pillow. Turn her body into fire or water.
But she has to be wary of the consequences. If you turn your body into air, how will you hold something?
Stephanie can use Physical Affinity to force objects and people to gain the qualities of other forms of matter. If the target is against the change being done, then Stephanie’s PA Vs. Target’s Con will be tested.

Stephanie has recently jumped up in power. She can now convert parts of her body into an element and gain some aspects of it as well as better control. This Magia is named “Families of Matter” and “Adoptions”

Name: 𐤌 Abigail Fulson 𐤌

Appearance: A girl with a standard build, long brown hair that is let down and not styled in any particular way, and many freckles. She likes to wear long dresses and otherwise modest clothes.

Profile: A shy girl that speaks with a slight stutter. Whenever she’s overwhelmed by emotions and nervousness she can barely speak a complete sentence and retreats into her mind, unfortunately for her love-life, this was often when Oliver was around. But strong passions lay beneath the surface that flare when needed and cause her to spring to action. An artist with a good eye, and a passion to do the previously impossible for the sake of what she believes to be good and fight against unfair conditions. An overall conciliatory person. Her Wish was that "She'd really like it if Oliver was her boyfriend..."

Stats

>£ Physical Affinity: 10
>λ Magical Affinity: 14 (Due to her Abilities purely dealing with the intangible and having practice, this is higher than usual)
>彡 Dexterity: 12
>メ Perception: 14 (She has a good eye for detail. Useful for an artist.)
>⸫ Wisdom: 10
>π Intelligence: 14 (The actual average for a good student in modern education.)
>ღ Charisma: 12
>φ Mind: 14 (Oliver is her boyfriend! She gets to go on dates with him! Not much can put a damper on that!)
>Ω Constitution: 8 (Having no physical way to defend yourself can suck. Especially when you don’t exercise)

Abilities

Abigail can link her mind (and soul) to another person. When this link is established, each person knows exactly where the other is at all times, and each person can communicate past all distance and language barriers. Including, relevantly, stuttering and mutism.
Abigail can scan the thoughts and memories of a person she is linked to with an MA check.
Abigail always has a link to Oliver that can never be broken.

This connection can be made easily if there is consent between both participants. In the event where a non-consensual connection is made, Abigail’s MA Vs. Target’s Mind will be tested.

A side-effect of her Magic is that Abigail knows exactly where her thoughts end and others’ begin.
She has an acute awareness for what she is thinking at all times and whether or not those thoughts are normal for her, making forceful mental manipulation impossible.
Abigail cannot be mentally influenced by Magic that does not originate from herself.

A recent addition to her toolkit is her ability to disassociate from her body to enter a separate realm that she’s been told is called the “Crossroads” by using the Magia “Crossroads Jaunt”… It’s Astral Projection. Her tutor doesn’t like the term but it’s Astral Projection by another name.

Abigail has a Witch named “Claire” or “Clarion” sharing living space in her Soul.

ф Stephanie Smith ф

Stephanie’s Adoption: Solid Earth (+2 PA, +2 Con. +2 PA when manipulating Solid Matter)

Current Time: ~5:55 AM
Current Location: P.E Fields

Stephanie quickly recovers from her frustration with the scene in front of her: another Familiar. At least this one is being actively pinned down by another potential Magical Girl, Alba.
Stephanie yells “Heads up!” to Alba and rushes forward, her feet and shins clad in a combination of dirt, artificial turf, and wood from the shed door. She doesn’t feel any extra weight from the mass, probably due to her “training”, and her shins collide with the Familiar’s face. Alba pinning down its body and Stephanie delivering a kick with such force causes its head to turn 180 degrees, though due to the strange physiology of Familiars (“What kind of bodies do these things have?” Stephanie wonders) it doesn’t die.

>>??? Familiar ??? HP: ?/?? -> ?/??<<

Stephanie doesn’t want to waste any more time however, so she pulls Alba away from the Familiar and towards the exit of the shed before creating a fault beneath the Familiar.
The gaping maw of Mother Earth opens and swallows the Familiar, making the ground around the fault distort before closing and mending like nothing happened. Unlike the last time she performed such a trick, the fault needs to be much smaller due to all of the sports equipment surrounding both her and the Familiar. She wants little collateral damage in this moment and she mostly succeeds, though unfortunately some footballs, basketballs, and tennis rackets end up falling into the hole with the Familiar. Stephanie can deal with that later.

>>??? Familiar ??? HP: ?/?? -> ?/?? (Trapped. Must succeed an M16 PA Test to escape.)<<

“Whoooa!” Alba marvels. “How’d you do that?! That’s some pretty cool magic- Wait are you a Magical gir-” Alba is then forcefully dragged away by Stephanie.

“Lass, we can have a chinwag later! Right now I’m tight on time and can’t afford to bugger about.”

“Uh- okay, but where are you taking me?” Alba asks while being dragged.

“Meeting with my friends. Something tells me you would want to be there.”

Alba then surprises Stephanie by breaking out of her grip easily. Stephanie is briefly shocked by this; Alba is very short while Stephanie is tall, how could there be such a disparity in strength between them? Then Stephanie examines Alba’s body and notices that she’s actually pretty athletic-looking, at least more than Stephanie and her skinny body.

“Are your friends also Magical Girls like me?” Alba asks excitedly.
Well that confirms it for Stephanie: Alba is a Magical Girl.

“Come with me and find out, mate.”

Alba nods and follows Stephanie without hesitation.

𐤌 Abigail Fulson 𐤌

Abigail’s Status: Unconscious (Full access to the Crossroads. Can regain consciousness by using “Crossroads Jaunt”)

Current Time: ~5:55
Current Location: Staff Room

In the Staff Room, Abigail has two major points of interest she could examine: The literally blindingly attractive substitute teacher Ashleigh Walsh, or the strange electric equipment next to her that was no doubt made from the stolen circuitry in the Science Lab’s Cabinet.
Abigail ultimately decides on Ashleigh. She’s been suspicious and Abigail has other methods of figuring out what the electrical equipment is. Besides, Abigail was never an electrician while her Magic is all about looking into people.

Abigail floats over to Ashleigh and leans over her shoulder to eavesdrop on the conversation on her phone. Claire decides to examine the electrical equipment, it’s not like you need two people to look over a phone.
Whatever communication app Ashleigh’s using is almost completely featureless, with nothing identifying what it could be or who are even involved in the conversation. What kind of clandestine communication is this woman having that requires such secrecy?

”A, have you assembled the device?”

”Yep. A doddle with your Magic as well, that thing is a big cheat you know that?”

”Yes, yes, but I can’t use it on myself. That’s part of the reason I teamed up with you.”

Ashleigh has a playful smile as she types her next message.

”Wha- would you not have teamed up with me otherwise?! I’m more than just a pretty face you know!”

”I would apologise if I didn’t know for a fact that you’re way beyond any self-esteem issues www. Especially in relation to your looks.”

”Easy for you to say now, I’m out here pretending to be a slag straight out of Love Island so no-one pays attention to you.”

”And I treasure our friendship for that. Genuinely though, thank you so much for joining me on this. I don’t think I would have been willing to investigate that large surge of Magical Energy here in York if you weren’t here to back me up.”

”Speaking of: How are things going on the Witch investigation?”

”I haven’t found the entrance yet but I think I’ve figured out how the Witch manipulates people to generate Grief. Also, I might have figured out the previous identity of this Witch before she Witched Out.”

Ashleigh sighs when reading that message.

”Why do you care so much about how the Witches were like before they became Witches? It’s too late to do anything but kill them and put them out of their misery for everyone’s sake.”

”Well I believe that prevention is the best cure. If we can figure out what puts Puella Magi into a despair spiral then we can properly treat them to prevent it. Also… There has to be a way out or forward other than death. The fact that people get sacrificed as an inevitability in this Cycle isn’t something that sits well in my chest.”

”How many times do I have to say this: You’re barking mad whenever you go on about this. Magical Girls aren’t like your brother or therapy patients, they’re basically emotionally volatile weapons.”
Despite her message, Ashleigh’s face is that of worry instead of anger or frustration.

”Do you call yourself a weapon, Ash? When you started this life and made your Wish, were you planning on discarding your Humanity? HAVE you discarded your Humanity? Even though my Soul isn’t in my body, I still live everyday. Between hunting Witches and fighting other Puella Magi I take my time to treasure the relationships I have, especially with you, Ash. And I would hate to see you turn into a Witch, so much so that I would probably Witch Out right after.”

Ashleigh shifts her eyes away from the phone screen nervously before quickly and clumsily writing down her next message.

”yeah yeah ‘ash rabu’ or whatever”

”Haha, 大好き, Ash-chan~ www”

Abigail can tell they’re blatantly using humour to undercut their nerves.

”I need to get into position for the tour soon and look at the material again. All the energy in the world and it doesn’t stop me from being bored. Tata~”

With that, Ashleigh closes her phone and leaves.

And Abigail realises something important: She needs to wake up and get everything sorted with the others before school starts proper.

𐤌 Abigail Fulson 𐤌 & ф Stephanie Smith ф

Abigail’s Status: Conscious (Full access to the real world. Can access the Crossroads by using “Crossroads Jaunt”)
Stephanie’s Adoption: Solid Earth (+2 PA, +2 Con. +2 PA when manipulating Solid Matter)

When Abigail wakes up she is greeted by her love, the very reason she discarded a normal life in a moment of passion, and the one person she can never keep her nerves around: Oliver.

“W-waugh! W-why are you here?!” Abigail says in an embarrassing voice.

Oliver doesn’t respond with his usual cocksure and comedic replies, worry is painted on his face instead.
“Well, I came to the cafeteria for a snack and then saw you passed out on the table. I was really worried so I decided to stay with you until you came to. For some reason this new girl, Megan, wanted me to leave you alone until I said that I’m your boyfriend.”

Megan, who had looked over Abigail’s body the whole time when Stephanie left, tries to justify herself.
“Look, I didn’t know what Oliver looked like okay? Anyway, could you warn me before passing out like that again? Why did you even do that?”
Abigail remembers that Megan still isn’t in the network and doesn’t know about her Magic in much detail.

Megan sighs in exasperation. “Whatever, just tell your lover-boy here to leave before we discuss anything more. Especially before Stephanie gets here.”

At that moment, Stephanie bursts into the cafeteria and a small ginger girl wearing a green beret walks in after her.
“Megan, shit’s fucked out here-” Stephanie is interrupted by Megan signalling her to be quiet and pointing at the obvious mundane person in the room: Oliver.

“Oh- uh, could you give us some privacy?” Stephanie asks of him.

Oliver walks away from Stephanie and Megan, but doesn’t leave the room.
“If this is about Magic or something then I already know it exists. Kind of hard not to figure that out when I can talk to my girlfriend with my mind and I was apparently going to be hunted down by monsters in a forest.”

Megan facepalms. “Great, we already have two mundane people getting involved in this world. Three if we count the midget you just brought, Stephanie.”

“Well actually-”

“I’m a Magical Girl!” The small girl interrupts.

The small girl puffs out her chest in pride and announces herself with grandeur. “I’m Alba Appleton, the Magical Girl who saves people from monsters in forests and… Pins Familiars- wow, I don’t have a lot of accolades yet, I need to work on that. Are you guys also Magical Girls?”

“Y-yes.”
“Yeah, mate.”
“Yep.”
“No, I’m not even a girl.”
Abigail, Stephanie, Megan, and Oliver answer respectively.

“Oh my god, this is perfect! We already have four Magical Girls and the one mundane sidekick!”
“Sidekick?” Oliver interjects.
“Every good Magical Girl team has a good spread of teammates that cover each other’s flaws and the one mundane friend that helps them keep their ties to their regular life!”

Stephanie thinks back to Magical Girl Drillface. She was usually a solo girl but if she extends the definition of “teammate” then it is true even for that show. But this isn’t an anime, it’s real life.

Alba continues her exposition of common Magical Girl Anime tropes. “Now all we need is a cool team name and we’re set! What’s your team name?”

Megan face hardens and she holds back a harsh criticism, instead saying: “We don’t have one, why would we need one?”

“Every good Magical Girl Team needs to have a cool name! Like ‘The Inner Court’ in Sailor Queen!”

“...I’m not going make one just because you think it’s cool.”

Megan’s rebuke jabs into Alba’s heart, she felt genuine betrayal. She recovers from her anguish, adjusts her beret before adopting an air of erudition, then formulates her argument for why Magical Girl Team Names are a critical matter.

“If we perform correspondence with each other then we will need a name to refer to all of us as a group to make communication easier. Creating a term to refer to ourselves also lets us differentiate ourselves from any ‘group outsiders’ that may exist, if a ‘Dark Magical Girl’ tries to infiltrate our ranks then she can be isolated as we know she is not one of us. There is also the fact that if we become famous in the Magical Girl Community, if one exists, then they will decide what to call us, and I would rather control what kind of reputation I have, thank you very much.” Alba argues in a composed tone.

Megan ruminates over Alba’s words for a moment, before acquiescing. “You make good points but us two aren’t the only people here.” She looks at Stephanie, Abigail, then Oliver. “You guys can decide what to call ourselves. As long as it’s not ridiculous I’m fine with it.”

Oliver shrugs. “I’ll go with whatever you lot say.”

>Stephanie and Megan can decide on a team name. This provides no real mechanical advantage but are you going to let the masses call you something like “The Phantom Fuckers”?

“Now that we’re done with the inane natter, let’s get on with the actually important stuff: What did you two find?” Megan asks Stephanie and Abigail.

Stephanie and Abigail explain everything they can remember, Megan tries to organise it neatly.

Collected Information:

>”The Witch’s Labyrinth Entrance” (Important!!!): The Witch’s Labyrinth Entrance is inside the Headmaster’s Office. The earliest discovery by Abigail.

>”Draconian Rules”: This Witch manipulates small amounts of people in a group to enforce invisible inscrutable rules with very harsh methods often involving assault. Interestingly, only a small amount of students are actually Witch-Kissed, all of the others just follow suit due to groupthink, peer pressure, and conformity. The members of school staff seem to be untouched. Abigail personally confirmed that Oliver is also not Kissed.

>Ashleigh Walsh: A new member of staff that is suspicious as all hell. She’s incredibly attractive in a way that only a stereotypical “British” Anime Character can be and talks like she’s from Essex, she’s in charge of Stephanie and Megan’s tour around the school. From Abigail’s snooping around in her phone they know that she’s investigating the Witch with someone else, so the chances of Ashleigh being a Magical Girl are very high.

>Miss Kanata: A member of staff in the SEN Centre. She’s seemingly shy, meek, and conciliatory. She gave Stephanie a stack of papers that not only contains a map of the school but also notes on the Witch Investigation that she’s also doing, along with an invitation to a meeting in the SEN Centre during Lunch. Just as with Ashleigh, the fact that she’s investigating the Witch makes the chances of her being a Magical Girl high.

>Familiars: Stephanie has the dubious distinction of being the first to find Familiars in the school. They seem to prefer indoor locations and are weak in a fight as far as Stephanie is concerned. It doesn’t diminish the fact that Familiars showing up in a pedestrian location outside a Labyrinth is very bad and means the Witch has more influence than first thought.

Questions to Answer:

>”Entering The Labyrinth”: Finding the Labyrinth turned out to be the easy part. The hard part might be getting inside. The Headmaster’s Office is actually locked and they need to make sure the Headmaster isn’t inside the room before they get in, so breaking in might be complicated

>”Are You a Special Needs Kid?”: Who should actually go to Miss Kanata’s Meeting? The invitation was extended to Stephanie but she probably won’t complain about some +1s. They don’t know exactly what information will be revealed or even if it’s a trap, so bringing more people might be a gamble. But hey, if it’s not a trap then a Grief Seed was promised! You can’t let the opportunity for a free Grief Seed pass by can you?

>”The Identity of The Witch”: A matter more personal to Abigail. Finding out who the Witch likely was and why they despaired so much they turned into a Witch would be helpful information on figuring out how to convince her to stop all this and change for the better.

>”Engineers Needed”: A much lower priority mystery. Ashleigh was seen next to a large piece of electrical equipment that was no doubt made from the stolen equipment from the Science Lab’s Cabinet. What is it? Why make it? Claire and Abigail memorised what it looked like in detail but they can’t explain what it does.


The Team can only puzzle over the information for so long before they need to leave for lessons. Now would be a terrible time to get stuffed into I.E.
Ignoring the Magical Powers, they have an Artist, two Engineers (Oliver is a prodigy, Alba counts herself as one), two girls who are well-versed in underhanded behaviour and delinquency, and an actual reformed Witch.

They need to figure out as much as they can, throw whatever at the wall and see what sticks. The Puella Magi don’t want to see what a Witch’s Labyrinth fully manifesting in a school looks like, and the situation will likely get worse the more they wait.

>Discuss among yourselves. Try to piece together whatever information you can and attempt to answer questions. Having a hunch to investigate is better than wandering aimlessly. Brute-forcing an answer is possible with an M4 Intelligence Check, but having a good argument and reasoning for your hunch can decrease this check to the point it doesn’t exist. Though, perhaps doing more investigation later and coming back with more information can make things easier?

>>6264085
new reader, I have noticed the thread coming up a few days ago, so I binged the rest
I don't know where the other players went, but want to join, if allowed
would that be alright?

>>6266678
Yes, absolutely.
As said in the OP, just fill out this Form and you'll be all set.

Name: (The name of your character. Shameless Self-Insert or not)
Appearance: (The garish looks of your character. Clothing descriptions are also welcome.)
Quirks: (Personality traits, how they behave. Examples of how they act in specific situations are good. This space is vague intentionally.)
Wish: (The Wish that you made with your Incubator. Your magical ability and theme is influenced heavily by your Wish. Make sure to be careful, some wishes have unforeseen consequences.)

Another thing I'll note is that although you'll be in York, where you're from can be extremely variable (England alone is a pretty diverse place). And you don't have to be in school (some children don't even get to go to school, period).

>>6266703
Brevity is the Soul of Wit, and I am as dull as rock. Unable to write straight to save my life.
Pick what you find interesting, cut what doesn't fit. I won't mind no matter how much you take.


Name: Emily Brighton

Appearance: Skin stretched across a gaunt, almost skeletal form. Over it, loose clothes hang. As comfortable as can be found. For pants, belted jeans, always, without a belt, they'd simply fall. The hair is short, less bother washing it, the cut is rough, self done when it grows too much. Tall, for her age, used to do bouldering, she was quite good, before all of this.
Her face near always bears a grin. After all, why not? It signals your brain that you're feeling good, making it release a steady stream of happy hormones. When happiness is a choice, take it.

Quirks:
When one is at risk, they are watched. Months and months in the emergency ward, glass room right across the observation center, you every movement in front of a dozen sisters. No matter the hour of the day, or the needs of your development. Unless you want to bother the sisters to temporarily unplug your cannula, and risk ruining it, you piss in a bucket. At that point, embarrassment becomes a liability, one you remove.
When one can't eat, the nutrition is dripped via vein. If one has to stay for long, too long, the cannula is not removed until it stops dripping. Until it bursts, or becomes so infected that it clogs. Not a moment before. It hurts, all the time, any movement makes it hurt even more, but laying there, you get used to your mind screaming at you, ringing that bell of panic that something is wrong. And you finally realize, pain is just pressure, pressure that can be acknowledged and ignored.
When you're forced to lay down for so long, that all the hard won muscles atrophy, the form becomes a shell, being stuck in a room for what should be the best years. To survive, one has to stop thinking of the future, for there is no future, and comparing to the past, for the past is gone, now is the only thing that matters, making the now the most fun and comfortable as possible, making survival bearable.
Food, proper food, is one of the great pleasures, before, it was certainly a core, but now? All that is left is those vile nutritional drinks, at first they were bearable, like an almost spoiled milkshake, but being the ONLY thing you can stomach without going back to the hospital? That's one cruel punishment.

Wish: I wish to bite, tear, and devour, whatever I desire and however much I desire, without suffering ill effects.

>>6266714
I see we're going with Kafka's The Metamorphosis mixed with Kirby of all crossovers.

Writing.

>>6266703
>>6266714

Emily Brighton

Emily was not in school like most girls her age. She kind of wishes she was now, she likely wouldn’t have seen a dead body in the middle of the woods if she were in school instead.

Her original reason for wandering around the woods of York was, ironically, Physiotherapy. The doctors that put her into that life-saving prison where she turned into an emaciated husk had the heart to sign in a note to her school saying she needs to take a break and do some extended physical activity now that her body is… so different than it used to be. Get used to walking again, stretching, clim-.

Maybe not that one yet.

And eating actual food! The last thing she wants is to get Refeeding Syndrome. Though, perhaps her unique metabolism would prevent such a thing.

Regardless of her reasons for being here, the reality is that she has a dead body right in front of her laying in the dirt. From her scant glances at the body it’s surprisingly pristine. The clothes are still on and not even damaged, clinging to the body of the young girl. The girl looks to be about Emily’s own age, she might have been a victim of that incident in these woods yesterday. But according to her sisters no-one was actually killed, hmm…

Emily adopts an exaggerated thinking countenance while chewing some gum. It’s possible that the girl was attacked by animals, but Emily isn’t sure if animals extremely dangerous to humans were in abundance in these woods. Perhaps a separate crime happened and the mass-kidnapping covered up this one? In that case she would have to take a picture or bring the body in for identification.

Or she can just leave the woods and leave the body here. No-one except her parents and sisters know she’s here, and she managed to convince them to let her wander alone… They seemed almost happy to have her out of sight. Just like she’ll be happy to not be a potential suspect of a crime.

>No matter what you have done, you now have a dead body of a girl in front of you. What to do? Leave, grab the body, examine the area, or something more… imaginative?

>>6266745
She looks dead, but... is she? Could just be a narcoleptic with some kind of thing that makes her stink. Emily has never seen a dead body before, though she has been in the room right before that one girl.... never mind, that's past. Keep the smile.
She won't get accused of murder for checking a pulse. It would be a pain to bother with the cops when she finally has some time to herself.
...Though just in case, she wraps her shirt around her hand, should help against fingerprints and stuff.

>>6266764

Emily Brighton

Emily moves forward to examine the body, but before touching it attempts to wrap her shirt sleeves around her hand. She notices that would be a bit unnecessary because she’s wearing dress gloves. Back in the past she would have never worn gloves, but one of the first things she did to confirm whether her Wishes came true was to bite off one of her fingers.

It came right off and she swallowed it in surprise.

It grew back far faster than it should have but she’s worn gloves since then to prevent herself from biting her hands off. No matter, she’ll just wrap her shirt over her gloves for maximum protection against fingerprints.

Emily first looks at the body more closely, and her narcolepsy theory starts to take root: This girl doesn’t look dead, she really does look like she’s just sleeping or inert. The way she’s laying down also hints at it, it’s not like she’s splayed on the floor after trauma, it’s more like she decided to take a nap here. There’s also the lack of that distinct dead flesh smell. Absolutely terrible, ruins her appetite. Just a thin, Black-haired girl… far too many fit that description.
Emily kneels and reaches down to the girl’s chest and feels… nothing but cloth. No heartbeat. Damn, this really is a dead body. But she does feel something hard under the girl’s clothes. Her curiosity gets the better of her and she finds a piece of pure black jewellery that looks like a Fabergé Egg. This girl doesn’t look rich so why would she have that?

“Hello.” A voice behind Emily introduced herself.

Emily quickly gets up and wipes her hands as if it’ll clear them of suspicion, and she tries her best to look as inconspicuous as possible. Kind of difficult when you look like a shambling corpse yourself, but she makes it work.
Looking at the new girl, she’s a dark-skinned one in an outfit that Emily swears went out of fashion two centuries ago, and holding a plushy of a familiar white creature. Her face, despite walking in on a gaunt girl checking a dead body, is a very bored one, like she doesn’t even care about the dead body.

“How attached are you to that dead body? I need it for something in the future.”

>”How attached are you to that dead body?” What kind of question is that? The real question is whether you’ll let a stranger take a dead body, that’s suspicious as all hell.

>>6264095
I think it would be prudent for Stephanie to go to Miss Kanata's meeting alone, but with the rest of us somewhat nearby in case things go wrong. Seeing that Ashleigh has some sort of contact she is working with, I think it's plausible that Miss Kanata is the person she is in contact with since there shouldn't be too many Magical Girls in York, and others existing inside the immediate school seems unlikely. Maybe Stephanie can talk in a way to probe if Miss Kanata was the person Ashleigh was talking to without giving away too much? Maybe like talking about how she's new to magical girl business and it's so tragic how the witches come to be, and wishing there was some other way.

Getting in to the Headmaster's office during the school day sounds treacherous and very difficult, so I think it would be best for after school or in the evening, but getting access to the school then might be difficult and anyone seeing us there would be immediately suspicious. I'd like to hear the other characters' opinions on this.

If we have time in the cafeteria, I can describe the electrical device to Oliver, but it is very low priority because I can also do this through the link during class or break or generally at any time. Only get around to this if we finish our other talks and plans and still have time left before class.

At this point it's difficult to decipher just who the witch could be. Since the entrance to the labyrinth is in the headmaster's office, it's not unreasonable to suspect the headmaster, or at least some member of the staff, though that would place them well above the age most magical girls usually are. Maybe we could get with our friends and see about any recent gossip besides that which is related to the rules shenanigans. Maybe someone had something really bad happen to them which would be a cause to witch out. Oliver could help with this by talking with his circle as well.

Also, we're overdue to get Megan in the link. She's part of the team too, no reason I can see to exclude her. Alba's very new, and we're not sure we'll work together all that much, so caution would dictate we stick to verbal communication with her for now.

>>6266811
Well, the body is interesting on one hand, Emily never saw one, and not like this. She knows that even a freshly dead would smell, body that doesn't smell is more like a *doll*.
But it also brings bother, a threat to her walk. A possible annoying cop interrogation.

Getting rid of the doll body is a favor for Emily, in a way, but... this girl doesn't know that, and wants the body.
The girl herself is an unknown. The plushie though, the girl knows the creature, or at least knows someone who does, and Emily got a great deal out of that one.

Emily grins.

The girl could get in trouble for wanting the body. She values it.

Emily licks her lips.
This walks is great, but what would be oh so better is on the way back, going to that nice chippy place, with the huge sloppy potions, the ones where they give you a mix of all the condiments if you ask for the special, and getting three- no. FIVE servings.
Emily swallows her spit.. alongside her gum. Dammit, that's practically the only thing keeping her from being constantly peckish.

Maybe more, a bit more, the corpse has jewellery, that has to be worth something. Detract that from the price... The girl doesn't know you know. Just a quick move and you could snatch it. Double dip.
Emily's eyes hone on the girl. Hungry.

"Depends, what are you offering?"

~2 weeks of downtime had me worried for a sec. Good to see we're still rolling.

>>6264092
A team name, then? This Alba had a point; a proper team needed a proper name. Were they a proper team, though?

"No use rushing. Could go either way, this team business. Let's show we've the makings of a magical girl team and hunt down this cunt of a witch first, yeah? Else we'd be looking like right gits, spending time coming up with fancy-soundin' names only to bugger it all up."

>>6264095
Broadly agree with what Abigail's proposing here >>6266840. Stephanie should meet Kanata "alone", with Abigail providing overwatch through her astral projection. It does seem likely that Ashleigh was talking to Kanata. I think we should absolutely try to suss out what they might be up to. Stephanie would not be my first choice for doing social stuff like this, but she'll have Abigail in her head, so that ought to count for something.

By the looks of it, we'll have to break into the Headmaster's office and that isn't something we can do while school is in session. Breaking in after school's out might be the way to do this. Stephanie has near-infinite tools to deal with any physical impediments keeping us out and Abigail's power can help avoid any night shift guards. If breaking into the school after hours is an option we want to consider, we'll have to do some more legwork to see what we'll be up against.

>>6266889

Emily Brighton

Emily considers the situation: The body piques her curiosity, but it’s also a possible annoyance. As much as she wants to examine the very strange doll-like body more, she also doesn’t want her day ruined by a police investigation. Being stuck in a closed room, unable to escape while people surround you and ask you prodding questions… She doesn’t want to go back there.

Getting rid of the body would be a positive for Emily, which means she has a great information asymmetry for negotiations: This other girl doesn’t know how much Emily actually values this body.

Emily grins.

The girl could get in trouble for wanting the body. She values it.

Emily licks her lips, then swallows her spit- and her gum by accident, damn. She then gives this dark-skinned girl in front of her a smile that would activate anyone’s fight-or-flight instincts on a primal level, no doubt thinking of devouring something. But this strange girl holding a plushy barely reacts.

"Depends, what are you offering?" Emily inquires.

“An all-you-can-eat buffet.” The dark-skinned girl replies immediately.

Emily scoffs “Surely you’re having a laugh?”

“No. I am willing to pay any price necessary for that body, I need it for a… scientific experiment of sorts. Potentially ground-breaking work.”

Emily at least knows how much this girl needs the body now, but there’s still the main question. “What kind of food is served at this all-you-can-eat buffet? How much can you afford and how? I have a very large appetite, you see.” Emily says, making a grand understatement.

“I am mainly skilled in British food, however I can also create Italian, French, German, and African dishes. I can afford all of this due to the business I run.”

“And you don’t run a restaurant?”

“I could, but I don’t have the ’table manners’ for it. As you have no doubt noticed, I am not a very amiable person.”

She’s not wrong. This entire conversation she’s somehow acted as disinterested as possible despite bartering for a dead body she’s supposedly willing to pay any price for. Still, an all-you-can-eat buffet… Emily swallows more saliva building up in her mouth, and focuses on haggling.

“An All-you-can-eat buffet is an interesting starting offer, and very suspicious as well. For multiple reasons.”

“I am fully willing to pay any price and render any service for that body. Also, that piece of jewellery you no doubt found on the body is not necessary for me to have, you can keep it.”

Emily’s breath hitches, how did she know about the jewellery? Does Emily have a tell? She continues on with that smile which should obscure any real emotions.

“We can continue bartering if you want, or you can just give me the body and I’ll invite you over for the buffet. Your choice.”

“Hmm, probably better than the chippy place I was thinking of.” Emily thinks aloud.

“Chippy? I’m sorry, that means something much different to me.” The girl replies.

>An-all-you-can-eat buffet is a hilariously fitting bargain for Emily, but that’s partially why it’s so suspicious... But we are told to not look a gift horse in the mouth, so perhaps Emily shouldn’t think hard about the chance to fill hers.

𐤌 Abigail Fulson 𐤌 & ф Stephanie Smith ф

Abigail’s Status: Conscious (Full access to the real world. Can access the Crossroads by using “Crossroads Jaunt”)
Stephanie’s Adoption: Solid Earth (+2 PA, +2 Con. +2 PA when manipulating Solid Matter)

”Testing, testing, one, two, three.” Megan thinks.

”I can hear you.” Abigail replies

”Aye, me too.” Stephanie adds.

”Woo! This is so cool! Usually you would need an Incubator to do this, having a fellow Puella Magi as a relay is real convenient, and trustworthy.”

”Yes, I don’t trust Kyubey for obvious reasons as well. Now, to discuss how to deal with my brethren.”

The first topic discussed was the meeting with Miss Kanata.

“I think it would be prudent for Stephanie to go to Miss Kanata's meeting alone, but with the rest of us somewhat nearby in case things go wrong. Seeing that Ashleigh has some sort of contact she is working with, I think it's plausible that Miss Kanata is the person she is in contact with since there shouldn't be too many Magical Girls in York, and others existing inside the immediate school seems unlikely. Maybe Stephanie can talk in a way to probe if Miss Kanata was the person Ashleigh was talking to without giving away too much? Maybe like talking about how she's new to magical girl business and it's so tragic how the Witches come to be, and wishing there was some other way.” Abigail proposes.

Stephanie smirks. “God, I knew that woman reminded me of an older version of you, but if she really does raffles off about that stuff then I’m going to ask if you have extended family elsewhere.” She says jokingly.

”I did not think there would be another Puella Magi like you, Abigail. These are truly strange times we live in, even by this country’s standards of Puella Magi activity.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m a weirdo who wants to redeem Witches. Do you agree with my plan?”

“It looks fine to me, I can go in ‘alone’ while you’re on overwatch with Astral Projection-”

”Shut UP you SIMPLETON! It is NOT Astral Projection! There is no ‘Astral Plane’ as agreed upon by Puella Magi scholars! The Crossroads isn’t-”
Abigail decides to close Claire’s connection to the others for a moment. Until she calms down.

“… As I was saying, you’ll be there in spirit, literally. I’m not the best at socialising, but I’ll have you in my head, so that ought to help a bit. One of the things we need to confirm is that guess on Ashleigh and Miss Kanata working together, if we’re right then we get a two-for-one deal on Magical Girl allies if we convince Miss Kanata to work with us.”

“Then I’ll keep watch over Abigail’s body. I doubt monsters are going to attack her in a crowded place, but if what you guys said is true then there’s more than just monsters to worry about.” Oliver says.

“O-okay. Thanks, Oliver.” Abigail squeaks out.

The second topic discussed was slightly more important: How to get into the Headmaster’s Office where the Witch Labyrinth is.

“Getting in to the Headmaster's office during the school day sounds treacherous and very difficult, so I think it would be best for after school or in the evening, but getting access to the school then might be difficult and anyone seeing us there would be immediately suspicious. I'd like to hear all of your opinions on this.” Abigail proposes.

“Sounds like we’ll have to break into the office, and that’s definitely not going to be possible while school is in session. We could do it after school, I can get past any physical barrier and Abigail can probably help us get past anyone on a night shift. But if we’re doing that, then we need to figure out what we’ll need to get past.”

Abigail, with more knowledge than any one person should have, replies to Stephanie. “Generally speaking, security in the school is very sparse during the evening. There’s usually one person at the front gate and receptionists taking peeks at the security cameras. Students are allowed to stay in after school long after it’s actually over, up to two hours, but other staff members are usually still in due to meetings and clubs.”

Stephanie looks at Abigail curiously. “And how do you know all this?”

“I’ve been here for years. Also, two heads are better than one.”

“Alright, lasses… Still no obvious solutions though.”

Alba raises her hands up and jumps up and down like an excited student who really wants to be chosen to answer a question.

“Go on.” Abigail says.

“There’s a way we can get the staff out of the school at any time!” Alba shouts.

“What are you talking abou- ah.” Abigail realises Alba’s suggestion.

“The Fire Alarm! Every member of the school is taught to treat every fire alarm like it’s real and evacuate to the playground, this includes all the members of staff, even the Headmaster goes outside!” Alba explains

“A fine, if reckless, plan. Now, one problem: Who’s going to hit the alarm if we go with this? Something tells me that the school won’t be happy about a false alarm, even if it’s a life or death situation, let alone a joke which is the excuse we’ll likely have to use.” Stephanie asks.

Alba shrugs. “Something to discuss. I’ll take the fall if necessary-”

“I’m probably the most suitable, actually.” Oliver says.

“O-Oliver?!” Abigail exclaims in confusion.

“I’m not a ‘Magical Girl’. I don’t watch a whole lot of anime or manga, but something tells me you probably need magic powers to fight monsters without dying. There’s no way I’m going to be helpful when you’re in the ‘Labyrinth’ proper, so I might as well help you get in and be a scapegoat if needed. This is more important than a day in I.E” Oliver’s face shows his sincerity and duty, the look of a serious person willing to take on burdens for others.

“Thanks for being willing to take one for the team, Oliver.” Megan says.

”I’m remembering why I wanted him so badly. Make sure you treasure him and he doesn’t get hurt, Abigail. If he gets hurt, then… I don’t know what I’ll do.” Claire sounded almost crazed at that last part.

“I-I’ll keep that in mind, Claire.”

Due to having enough time for a final topic, Abigail asks Oliver about an electrical device she saw in the staff room. Abigail attempts to describe it with words as best as she can, but doesn’t have much luck. To help, Oliver pulls out a box (where was he keeping that?) that contains a bunch of art tools, including an easel.

“You’re a better artist than writer or engineer, Abigail. Use that talent you have.” Oliver says with a smile.

Abigail pushes down her blushes and nervousness from Oliver complimenting her, and focuses on her artistry. Her hands move at blazing speeds due to working under a time limit, and she creates the most detailed sketch of the device she can from memory. Despite the rough look of the sketch, Oliver can glean some information from it.

“From the looks of it, it’s a CED.” Oliver states.

“CED?” Abigail asks.

“Conducted Energy Device. Like a Taser.”

“It looks like a massive mace though.” Stephanie adds.

“Sure it’s in the overall form of a historical European weapon, but it has a power inverter and a high frequency transformer, classic electroshock weapon design. Honestly impressive that they managed to build this from the stuff in the lab cabinet, and brazen- I’m pretty sure this is illegal.” Oliver explains in a clinical manner.

“So, one of the new members of staff, who is very likely a Magical Girl, is running around with a massive electric weapon. Grand.”

“Well, there’s no way she can just keep it on her at all times given how large it is. It’s more likely that she’s hiding it somewhere for future use, but it’s probably just a better idea to not mess with her.” Oliver says.

The discussion tapers off after that. Deciding that they’ve done all the discussion possible with the information they have, Abigail ends the meeting.

The Houseroom Period, where all students would meet with their assigned Homeroom teacher, was taken up by an impromptu assembly in the Drama Theatre. Abigail didn’t consider it impromptu, neither did Stephanie or Megan, who’s tours had to be postponed to join in.

All of the students in the school are led to a hall large enough to contain them, and all of their eyes are focused on one man in the spotlight: Their Headmaster, Mr. Kidbrooke.
He’s an old man, or at least he looks old now, with bags under his eyes and a remorseful look on his face but a full head of hair. Abigail knows he’s seen better days.
He gives a speech apologising for not protecting the students and staff under his care, promising to do better in the future (or as much as he can, Summer vacation is in a week) before thanking Alba for leading the people out of the forest, and letting her make a speech in front of everyone.
For some reason, Claire was talking about how Alba was going to blab about Magical Girls in front of an audience, but she never did. Abigail wonders who the heck would be stupid enough to do that?

Afterwards were the standard school periods. Usually Abigail would take advantage of her good grades and doodle in her textbooks, but her mind was occupied with questions yet to be answered.
Like who was the Witch? The Labyrinth is in the Headmaster’s Office but it’s definitely not the Headmaster, he’s way above the age for Magical Girls as far as Abigail knows. The other easy guess is a member of staff, but that’s also above the age range- But then Miss Kanata and Ashleigh are very likely Magical Girls…

“Abigail?” One of Abigail’s teachers says.

“Huh?” Abigail blurts out.

“I asked you a question: Who first proved the Pythagorean Theorem? Given that you’ve been either doodling in your book or spacing out, you surely know the answer. I can’t fathom another reason you would be so bored in my lessons” Mrs. Singh asks.

Abigail knows it’s Mrs. Singh for sure, not just because of her voice but because she’s probably the only person who would ask a question that’s seemingly related to Maths but is actually a History question. And who asks their Secondary School students who first proved a theorem?! Who’s going to know or remember that?

But Abigail is prepared. She always is.

Abigail answers: “While the name of the theorem suggests that Pythagoras proved it, he was never credited with proving any theorems in his time, and it was used by the Babylonians and Indians centuries before him, so it is much more likely that one of the Babylonians or Indians discovered it first.”

Mrs. Singh smiles and claps. “Well done! Everyday you prove why in Top Set for this class, truly a bright mind, even if you can’t always focus. Reminds me of Deborah.”

Abigail wouldn’t consider regurgitating information she remembered to be any sign she’s smart, but she won’t argue if it gets the teacher off her case.

While Abigail was dealing with Maths, Stephanie and Megan had to deal with Science.
Not an actual lesson but rather a trip to the lab led by Ashleigh Walsh.

“I don’t actually know a whole lot about this lab, I think there’s a gas pipe for Bunsen Burners at every desk, and, like, electrical outlets hidden in the floor for practicals, and all of the chemicals and equipment and stuff is in that cabinet over there. But it’s locked though. They’ll probably unlock for you two during lessons though, right loves?” Ashleigh says in that vapid tone.

Stephanie has to admit that Ashleigh’s a decent actor. She’s acting just stupid enough that no-one would suspect her of anything like making a weapon but not so dumb that people would question her becoming a member of staff.

Oh-uh, y-yeah we’ll probably have practicals here or something.” Megan replies nervously.
Somehow, knowing that this woman built an electroshock weapon for unknown purposes still doesn’t stop Megan from crushing on her. Was she always like this and Stephanie never noticed? Either way, it’s up to Stephanie to spot if she lets anything slip.

“Uuh, do you know where the teacher keeps the fire extinguisher? I’ve been told I have to show you it in case a freak fire happens.” Ashleigh asks.

“Did they not tell you where it is?” Stephanie replies in an incredulous tone.

“No. A big safety fault, but I’ll be fine, probably.”

“Well, shite. Your guess is as good as mine, I’m new here.”

The three girls then have the strangest bonding activity: Looking for a Fire Extinguisher.
The first logical spot was near the gas pipes, you would want the fire extinguisher to be near the spots with the highest chance of a fire, right? Not there.
Next was what they think is the teacher’s desk. The teacher is the one in control of the room and would be calm enough to grab the extinguisher and use it, so it should be there, right? Nope.
Not near any exits to the room either, where the hell could it be?

“Maybe it’s in the cabinet?” Megan thinks aloud.

“Nah, it’s not in there.” Ashleigh replies matter-of-factly.

“And how do you know that?” Stephanie asks with suspicion.

“Well, why would they put a fire extinguisher, something you need to get fast, behind a door that’s usually locked? Makes no sense, it’s like they want people to die in a fire.” Ashleigh explains.

“Hm, good point.” Stephanie can’t help but feel suspicious about her however, given the information she knows.

“Oh well~. If you guys happen to see a spare fire extinguisher around here, give me a call.” Ashleigh pulls out a small paper card. “This is my number.”

“YOUR NUMBER?!” Megan shouts excitedly.

”God’s sake, sis, keep it in your pants.” Stephanie thinks.

“it’s for business purposes only.”

“Oh… okay.” Megan’s immediate deflation would be comical to Stephanie if she weren’t crushing over an extremely suspicious individual.

A bell sounds off, and all of the students attempt to leave their classrooms as fast as possible. It’s breaktime, one of the few moments of freedom from that prison of letters and numbers that is the education system.

Almost all of our resident Magical Girls were in the playground outside. Some would have considered it strange for Abigail to be outside where everyone is running around and there’s a bunch of noise, her behaviour makes people think she’s more of a ‘reading books in the library’ kind of girl. Abigail herself would say she’s an artist first and foremost, and you cannot become a better artist without experiencing the world around you.

Megan and Stephanie, who physically embodied the “Nerd” stereotype with their physical appearances, were playing a mock game of football against Alba. 2 V 1. The sisters against the lone prodigy. Alba was somehow winning the game 2 – 1, even with Stephanie “cheating” subtly with magic. At least Alba is sweating, so she’s exerting effort, but it hurts Megan’s pride a bit, if her sore attitude about losing is any clue.

Abigail takes her eyes off that game and towards the light of her life, one of the main reasons she came here if she was honest: Oliver. He’s doing laps around the entire playground.
His muscles rippling, his chest moving up and down with each breath, the sweat dripping from his body…

”Are you enjoying the view?” Claire chimes in.

”Oh please, I know you’re enjoying it as well. Can you blame me? Besides, he’s my boyfriend now, I have full rights to ogle him.”

”That may be right Abby, but could you quiet down your thoughts about his hampton? It’s really distracting me from my game.” Stephanie thinks while defending from Alba.

”Yeah, I’m kind of regretting being let in to the Link now. Megan thinks before trying to intercept the ball.

Abigail’s face turns as red as a tomato. ”O-oh God, W-were my thoughts really being broadcasted that much? I thought that wouldn’t happen, like, maybe my filter would stop it?”

”Usually it does. Sometimes strong emotions make your mind not bother trying to keep it to yourself”

Abigail starts panicking. ”O-oh n-no. D-did Oliver hear them or anything? Oh nononononono...” Abigail leans into the table, trying to hide her face.

”Well if he did it doesn’t seem to be deterring him given that he just took off his shirt.”

”W-WHAT?!” Abigail shoots up in her seat and immediately glues her eyes to Oliver.

There he is, shirtless. Apparently he was so hot and sweaty that he needed to take off his shirt and spray water all over himself. No other reasons for this.

”Abigail, I’m sorry for wasting my chance at redemption but can you kill me right now so this is the last thing I see?”

”No. I’m going to record this moment in my mind perfectly so that we can look back on it together forever, like true friends!”

”Thank you for your generosity Abigail, I am truly blessed to be with you.”

”Fucking hell, the randy thoughts are just getting louder- how do I turn this shit off?”

”Oh, I should probably grab my art supplies! This is prime muse material!” Abigail leans down to open her bag-

Then falls on the floor and clutches her chest.

Stephanie, Megan, and Alba decide to call off the Football game, 2 – 2 is the final score, then they sit cross-legged on the floor, trying to focus on something else.

All of them feel an absolutely terrible foreboding feeling of doom in the pits of their hearts, like their bodies were instinctually trying to warn their owners of the danger they’re in. All of the Puella Magi frantically look around, trying to figure just what the hell is giving them this godawful pain.

Abigail gets up and looks around in time to see Oliver get pushed to the floor by a group of four students.
Oliver isn’t an easy mark however, he quickly gets up to his feet and attempts to run. The students pursue him, and two of them pull out knives!

”What the fuck, they brought knives into school?! I should’ve smuggled my sword in if I was going to be dealing with this shit!” Stephanie thinks in disbelief.

”I apologise for the poor timing, but that baleful feeling in your chests is likely being caused by a Familiar of some kind.”

”Claire, d-do you not feel it?”

”No. I have a different kind of pain in my non-existent chest however. A burning pain born of rage and a need for revenge. Surely you know why?”

>>Do you feel it too, Abigail?<<

>There are four students, two of which have weapons, chasing Oliver. There’s also a Familiar somewhere around this location, according to Claire. Choose carefully on who should deal with what and how.

>>6269493
Hey, One of my strongest soldiers! Yeah, this took a while because I had to think a bit (a lot) about mechanics. What kind should be in this game, how many I actually need, etc.
Good to see you here.

>>6271078
Let's keep it rolling, then.

>>6271077
"Twat. Fucking cunt." Stephanie transmits across the mental link. "The witch is bloody on to us or what, then? Don't reckon Oliver broke any of the daft rules she's got people following. Anyroad, Abigail, find the familiar! I'll see about keeping Oliver there from getting stabbed."

As she jumped up from the turf, Stephanie felt that this life-or-death situation was sorely lacking in something: idle banter. "By the way, Abby, have to say. None too shabby, him, eh? Fuckin' get in there, love!"

Focusing on the matter at hand, Stephanie had to act quickly and with restraint—the two seldom went together with her. Those were normal students, so she couldn't go burying them or kicking their heads in. Then again, those were normal students with normal knives.

"Meg, stay behind me. Alba," though Stephanie didn't know a thing about this girl's magic, if she could wrestle with a familiar, she could surely be trusted to handle herself here. "Take the two without knives. Put them on their arses and keep them there, sound?"

>Run in to help Oliver and get between him and the two students with knives.
>Tap Adoption: Solid Earth for +2 PA and +2 Constitution, along with ability to manipulate metal (and other stuff, but this is the important bit).
>Harden Stephanie's skin and intercept the pursuers. Not tremendously worried about getting stabbed here.
>Use metal manipulation to destroy their knives or to aid in disarming them.
>Lay them the fuck out.

>>6271060

That is one hell of an offer. Hell of a suspicious one too. But what's the risk to that reward?

If Emily accepts, the girl could have a hit squad waiting behind the trees, waiting to silence Emily, but then her choice doesn't matter.
Discounting that, well, then the only risk left is the girl bailing on her. So Emily needs to follow, one way or another.

But if the girl's telling the truth, well... *Any* price is quite the amount. and an all-you-can-eat... Emily thought about them, among the many sweet and desperate dreams, but never been in one herself.

Emily's stomach growls.

The needs in life are simple, barely worth mentioning, while the Wants, those are varied. Balancing sweet and salty, bitter and base, hot and chilled.
But such variety would easily fall under the grant offering. If Emily had access to a truly wide, endless buffet, what else would she need?
A nice place to sleep and live, exercise in nature, some social interaction, TV for shows, access to light reading, and of course, the internet. But all of those are trivial to get to get compared to the potential of *this*.
If she had all of that, for the rest of her life... Would it not simply be Paradise?

Suddenly, the question has been flipped, and Emily is, for the barest moment, forced into self reflection. What would she be willing to do for that?
Emily has a lot of time on her hands, and even if she's recovering, she doesn't feel weak. If she was well off and safe, her family wouldn't care. Really, what would she *not* be willing to do?

Emily's smile only grows, as the path forward becomes clear.

"Listen, if you make that offer indefinite, if I can visit your all-you-can-eat buffet whenever I want, eat what I want."
Emily dry swallows.
"Well then, Ms.Frankenstein, I don't know much you value this, but I'll be your Henry. I'll help you with what you need, when you need. And you can be sure I'll carry the body for you."

Emily extends her bony hand and offers a handshake. Because what else can she really offer for that prize?

>>6271077
Getting even more flustered by Stephanie's comment, Abigail tries to think and act quickly.

"Not the time Steph!"

Maybe I could trace the links between these ruffian students to a familiar, but that requires traveling to the crossroads, and that is very reckless right now.

Ah... am I stuck using my mundane senses?!

Abigail frantically glances all over the yard for anything that might look suspicious or out of the ordinary. The immunity to mental magic might help get through any obscuring effects hiding the presence of a Familiar.

>>6273688
Actually Network Sense doesn't require use of the Crossroads. Thanks for reminding me Claire, I guess I could use more practice.

I'll use Network Sense to see what connections those aggressive students have, and try to trace any that seem suspicious, or barring that, try to quickly go through all of them starting with those closest by.

you're killing me, QM

𐤌 Abigail Fulson 𐤌 & ф Stephanie Smith ф

Abigail’s Status: Conscious (Full access to the real world. Can access the Crossroads by using “Crossroads Jaunt”)
Stephanie’s Adoption: Solid Earth (+2 PA, +2 Con. +2 PA when manipulating Solid Matter)

ф "Twat. Fucking cunt." ф Stephanie transmits across the mental link.

ʘ ”I concur.” ʘ Claire sends back.

ф "The witch is bloody on to us or what, then? Don't reckon Oliver broke any of the daft rules she's got people following. Anyroad, Abigail, find the familiar! I'll see about keeping Oliver there from getting stabbed." ф

𐤌 ”Y-yeah, I’m on it!” 𐤌
Abigail tries to think about how to locate the Familiar while her mind is going through a lot of pressure.

ф "Meg, stay behind me.” ф

Э ”Wha- but Steph, I can-” Э

Stephanie gives Megan a look that is equal parts angry and protective before justifying her decision.
ф ”My body is tougher than yours and I’m pretty sure I’ve been in more fights that aren’t against Familiars.” ф

Э ”F-fine...” Э Megan acquiesces and clutches the football they were playing with like it’s a stuffed toy.

“Alba," though Stephanie didn't know a thing about this girl's magic, if she could wrestle with a familiar, she could surely be trusted to handle herself here. "Take the two without knives. Put them on their arses and keep them there, sound?"

“Yep!” Alba says. She’s way too happy for a person going into a fight.

Stephanie kicks up from the turf and examines the “Battlefield”.
The portion of the playground they’re on is a natural turf of dirt and grass, most of the rain has dried but there are still some patches where water has pooled up and made mud. It’s a wide open space, but there are some shelters to block the rain and sun, made of cheap metal and steel with tables and chairs suited for picnics. Abigail is hiding beneath a table, trying to hide her body in case she has to enter the Crossroads.

Stephanie and Alba though? They’re on the frontlines.
Stephanie strides boldly towards the shithead students trying to stab Oliver, she steels her heart for a fight against them. There are many more things made of steel, Stephanie’s bond with Megan is iron-clad, she’s bound to protect her new friends like a sword and shield, every part of her will is unbreakable.
But the body is only flesh and bone. Fortunately her body is dead already, inanimate matter is easy to manipulate, If her will is unbreakable her body can follow suit.

Alba stretches her legs before bounding off faster than Stephanie could possibly go. Stephanie could only think: ”How is this girl so fast?”
Her speed isn’t the only thing that startles Stephanie, as Alba grabs a leg of one of the students with both hands and performs a Both Hands Scoop to slam him into the ground with a meaty impact. He’s alive, if his screams and groans are anything to go by, but he’s not getting up any time soon. That’s one out of four.
The other shithead students are briefly shocked by the sudden knock-out of their teammate. Alba takes advantage of their shock to launch a flying kick into another student’s stomach and uses the motion of her fall to perform a sacrifice throw that sends him through the air and onto the ground as well. That’s two out of four in only a few seconds.

The throw puts Alba on the ground, but she’s done her job. Oliver has retreated behind Stephanie.

“Give ‘em hell.” Oliver tells her while putting his shirt on.

“Yeah I will, lad. But why aren’t you hooking it?” Stephanie replies.

“We have an audience, and I don’t think they want me to leave.”

Stephanie looks around again, and notices the crowd of students surrounding them like a ring.
ф ”Are they really all here to watch some kids go at it? At least when I had a fight back in the orphanage it was only me and whatever munter tried to bother me, and not some grand spectacle. Not to mention that there would be adults around to stop it soon after it started, where the hell were they?” ф

Stephanie shakes her head, there’s more pressing concerns. She storms towards the two shitheads holding knives. Alba was smart and scrambling away on the ground fast, but that still means they’re threats: The closest targets are Stephanie and Oliver now.
Stephanie doesn’t remember how many fights she’s been in – when you live a life like hers at her age, you lose track of things like that. Regardless of how many, she’s learned some basic knowledge of how to efficiently lay someone out.
She approaches one of the students, a girl that’s a regular height, and therefore shorter than Stephanie. One of the basics: Take advantage of distance and range. Stephanie thrusts her arm in a straight towards the girl’s face, which leads into her second bit of basic knowledge.
The girl attempts to block the straight by covering her face with both arms, and the strike doesn’t land.

Because Stephanie was feinting, and now this poor girl is wide open.
Inexperienced people in hand-to-hand combat often end up overcompensating in protecting their head, stomach, and groin, if you feint for one of those areas you can hit another. Stephanie was polite and just punched this girl in the stomach. That punch transitioned into a grab as she twists the girl’s shirt to get a good grip, said shithead girl reacts by trying to cut Stephanie’s wrist with her knife.

The knife breaks on Stephanie’s iron will manifest.

Stephanie didn’t make every part of her body steel not because she can’t, but because it would be blatantly strange and she’s not sure what the rules are on the whole “Magical Girl Masquerade” thing, or if one even exists, but she would rather be safe than sorry. In cases like these, every part of her body that’s covered by her clothes is steel, and her skin hardens in response to physical trauma.
She throws away the girl by her shirt and she crawls away in fear while the crowd cheers. That’s three out of four.

Stephanie glares at the last student left, a girl also holding a knife. She’s smart and decides to put distance between Stephanie and herself.

Stephanie squeezes her hand into a fist, the blade twists and bends before breaking.

She would’ve called Alba for a tag right after to take advantage of the girl’s shock, but she’s too busy soaking in the crowd’s cheers to tag team. So instead Stephanie focuses on something else: idle banter.

ф "By the way, Abby, have to say:” ф
Stephanie takes in Oliver’s physique. She’s not as crazy about him as Abigail but she has to admit she can understand where Abigail’s coming from.
ф ”None too shabby, him, eh? Fuckin' get in there, love!" ф

Getting even more flustered by Stephanie's comment, Abigail tries to think and act quickly.

𐤌 "Not the time Steph!" 𐤌

Maybe she could trace the links between these ruffian students to a Familiar, but that requires travelling to the crossroads, and that is very reckless right now.

𐤌 “Ah... am I stuck using my mundane senses?!” 𐤌

Abigail frantically glances all over the yard for anything that might look suspicious or out of the ordinary. Her immunity to mental magic might help get through any obscuring effects hiding the presence of a Familiar.

ʘ ”Ahem. Abigail, my student?” ʘ Claire chimes in.

𐤌 ”Yes?” 𐤌

ʘ ”You seem to have forgotten one of my lessons.” ʘ Claire says in the tone of a disappointed teacher.

Abigail thinks even harder, what could she be missing that would solve this situation…!

𐤌 ”Network Sense!- But doesn’t that need the Crossroads?” 𐤌

ʘ ”No. I will explain this once again: We are exploiting a normally weak Bond made from mere senses to look into other, more powerful bonds. Though I do admit this is the first practical test.” ʘ

Abigail focuses on the last girl remaining, she’s a small thing – not as small as Alba but smaller than Abigail – and her hair cascades down her shoulders like a gentle waterfall. The bond between Abigail and this girl is weak, they’re basically strangers, but Abigail feels… something. Even though they are different portraits painted with different brushes, they are at this moment in the same veduta on the same canvas. Who else is in this veduta?

Abigail briefly becomes aware of everyone watching this girl, and promptly cuts out all of the ephemeral bonds based on sight and sound. This leaves the more important bonds remaining. Interestingly, Stephanie, Alba, and Oliver’s bonds to her are still visible. The first two are based on their feelings of aggression towards the girl, these kinds of emotions can strengthen weak bonds. The last one…

This girl is Oliver’s Friend. Huh, interesting.

Ignoring the other friends this girl has, Abigail examines an interesting connection:

>>Network Sense<<
>>Subject: Jack Armstrong<<
>>Filtered Search: Familiars<<
>>Result: Bezzie<<
>>Relationship: Witch-Kisser<<

Abigail won’t pretend that she knows everyone in the school, but she does know that she’s never heard of anyone named Bezzie. Another sign that this definitely isn’t a normal person (aside from showing up in the filtered search for Familiars) is that when Abigail traces Bezzie’s position in the crowd and looks at it, it’s… not human-looking.
The description that Stephanie gave was accurate: If she wasn’t paying close attention to it Abigail wouldn’t realise that this thing isn’t human, but on closer inspection everything looks [i]off.[/i] The stance is too low and awkward, it isn’t looking at the combatants like the rest, its facial expression are almost non-existent, it ALMOST looks like a real person but doesn’t and probably never will.
As a quick trick, Abigail manipulates the perception of everyone in the Link to make this Familiar more obvious. It practically glows on the canvas compared to the rest of the crowd.

𐤌 ”Alright, that’s the Familiar found. But how are we going to get rid of this thing when it’s in the middle of a crowd?” 𐤌

”I believe I could be of assistance in that regard, my dear Abigail” A familiar voice says in Abigail's mind.

Abigail is startled. It’s felt like so long since she’s heard that voice even though it was only yesterday, though that may be because she was never expecting this girl to show up again. But she recognises that archaic posh voice anywhere.

𐤌 ”Viktoria?!” 𐤌 Abigail thinks, stunned.

Ө ”Yes, it is indeed I: Lady Viktoria of the illustrious and ancient Walker Family.” Ө

𐤌 ”Where are you?!” 𐤌 Abigail asks in shock.

Ө ”On the roof of this establishment.” Ө Viktoria answers matter-of-factly.

𐤌 ”Okay but WHY are you up there?!” 𐤌

Ө ”I was doing some research on the World Wide Web when an absolutely ghastly feeling was cast upon my soul. I wanted to rendezvous with the rest of you to discuss what it could be so I tracked you all down through this mental bond we have to this school. I climbed up to the roof of the school to gain a better vantage point and happened upon the queer sight of Stephanie in an altercation. I did all of this while halting time for the school of course. And now we’re here.” Ө

Abigail decides to not question how no-one notices the… massive girl on the roof of the school and instead asks a more relevant question.

𐤌 ”How are you going to help take out that Familiar? Isn’t your weapon a cannon? I’m not interested in collateral damage!” 𐤌

Ө ”Oh- Oh Lord no, I’m not interested in collateral either! It would not do for a lady to harm the common man!” Ө Viktoria responds in an offended tone.
Ө “I have managed to manipulate my weapon into the form of a rifle I can aim well, I believe the phrase used to describe it is: ‘Designated Marksman Rifle’. With enough time I can pop that Familiar’s head right off its body with no mess, while being completely silent no less!” Ө Viktoria chuckles at her own rhyme.

ʘ ”Be that as it may, we should still thin the crowd somehow so Viktoria might get a clearer shot and we can end this faster. Or, who knows, we could do it ourselves without her help.” ʘ

>At any moment, Abigail or Stephanie can call Viktoria to take a shot at the Familiar. This will likely kill it, if the shot hits its mark that is. There’s only one hostile student left, Jack, and she’s Kissed so she’s not in the right mental condition to run from an obviously disadvantageous position. Also, where the hell are the staff members?!

Emily Brighton

That is one hell of an offer. Hell of a suspicious one too. But what's the risk to that reward?

If Emily accepts, the girl could have a hit squad waiting behind the trees, waiting to silence Emily, but then her choice doesn't matter.
Discounting that, well, then the only risk left is the girl bailing on her. So Emily needs to follow, one way or another.

But if the girl's telling the truth, well... ANY price is quite the amount. and an all-you-can-eat... Emily thought about them, among the many sweet and desperate dreams, but never been in one herself.

Emily's stomach growls.

The needs in life are simple, barely worth mentioning, while the Wants, those are varied. Balancing sweet and salty, bitter and base, hot and chilled.
But such variety would easily fall under the grant offering. If Emily had access to a truly wide, endless buffet, what else would she need?
A nice place to sleep and live, exercise in nature, some social interaction, TV for shows, access to light reading, and of course, the internet. But all of those are trivial to get to get compared to the potential of *this.*
If she had all of that, for the rest of her life... Would it not simply be Paradise?

Suddenly, the question has been flipped, and Emily is, for the barest moment, forced into self reflection. What would she be willing to do for that?
Emily has a lot of time on her hands, and even if she's recovering, she doesn't feel weak. If she was well off and safe, her family wouldn't care. Really, what would she NOT be willing to do?

Emily's smile only grows, as the path forward becomes clear.

"Listen, if you make that offer indefinite, if I can visit your all-you-can-eat buffet whenever I want, eat what I want."
Emily dry swallows.
"Well then, Ms. Frankenstein, I don't know much you value this, but I'll be your Henry. I'll help you with what you need, when you need. And you can be sure I'll carry the body for you."

Emily extends her bony hand and offers a handshake. Because what else can she really offer for that prize?

The girl herself is shocked by Emily’s words, perhaps the first ever time she’s expressed an emotion since Emily’s met her. She looks around the place in confusion, as if trying to check if she’s in a dream.

“Ms. Frankenstein?” She says.

“Yes. You know, Dr. Frankenstein, creator of Franken-” Emily starts.

The girl waves her hands to silence Emily. “Yes, yes, I know what you’re referencing, I read the piece when it was published.”

Emily tries to not make the curiosity on her face obvious. “When it was published?”

“Yes, when it finally arrived at the local library in my hometown.” She says in a rushed voice.
“Ignoring the cultured literary reference, I can definitely extend that offer indefinitely. That was my offer the whole time, in fact.”

“Ah, brilliant!” Emily’s smile curls up and looks more genuine than usual. “So, do you need any help transporting the body or…?”

“No. Just wait a moment, I have a coffin I can put the body in.”

Emily decides not to ask why this girl had a coffin prepared. She likely knew the person this body belonged to.

After putting the body into a rather basic wooden coffin, Emily and the strange girl head to the City of York. Emily tries to make small talk.

“So, why were you briefly shocked about the Frankenstein thing?” Emily asks with a mouth full of berries she had picked on the way.

“I never realised that I’m doing something immensely similar to Frankenstein until now, it threw me for a loop. I will thank you for being my ‘Henry’, but I will warn you that being in collaboration with me may make your life more difficult.”

Difficult. Emily thinks on the word.
Did Emily have a difficult life? She was (emphasis on [b]was[/b]) a skilled climber, part of a well-off family (they needed to be in order to take care of thirteen daughters), and wasn’t lonely by any chance due to them. But the… Incident, followed by her recovery and current state puts weight on the other end of the scale. Not to mention the distance she’s had from her family since then...
Emily’s smile is starting to feel heavy. She swallows the berries in her mouth and talks more to distract herself from it.

“I never got your name. Can’t be partners in crime when I don’t even know your name.” Emily says.

“Marisa.” The Strange Girl replies instantly.
The girl now known as Marisa thinks that it’s her turn to ask a question.
“Why are you eating those berries?” She asks, curiosity slightly tinting her voice.

“They’re tasty.” Emily’s answer is simple. Which to Marisa is the problem.

“Those berries are poisonous.” Marisa states.

“Oh!” Emily utters in genuine shock. “They’re surprisingly good for poisonous berries, I always thought poison would taste bitter but the berries have a very sweet taste to them. I would want them to be a bit less sweet with more ‘body’ to the texture though, any more sweeter and it would taste like those Bramley apple pies that they dump a bunch of sugar into.” She critiques, popping more berries into her mouth like they’re grapes.

Marisa looks at Emily with a blank face hiding incredulity. Though Marisa cannot say much herself, as she is carrying a coffin on her back through the woods.

“Thank goodness I’m giving you a buffet, you’d probably eat a Pufferfish unprepared out of hunger otherwise.” Marisa’s brash words come out with no hint of hatred or annoyance somehow.

Emily holds her laughter, it wouldn’t look pretty with a mouth full of food and especially on her face.
”I probably can eat a Pufferfish completely raw and live. Though would it taste good is the real question…” She thinks.

Emily and Marisa make it to the sign that they’re close, but also one of the few obstacles they have to overcome: The York City Walls.
Getting into the city through the walls should be easy. There are multiple intended gatehouses that allow entrance and the place is in fact a minor tourist attraction, but there’s the issue.
A group of two teenagers(? Marisa looks like one but Emily can’t help but be suspicious) carrying a coffin, which implies a dead body, would gather a lot of attention that Emily isn’t sure is wanted.

“Dr. Marisa Frankenstein, do you want everyone to see us with this?” Emily asks on the off chance this girl WANTS everyone to see them carry the body in.
You never know, Marisa is likely some sort of mad scientist and they’re not well-known for subtlety.

“No. Being seen would bring far too much attention and I do not want that attention turning into suspicion.” Marisa answers.

”Ah, I see I’m collaborating with the reasonable kind of mad scientist- well, as reasonable as a mad scientist can be.” Emily thinks.

“Do you have an entry plan then?” Surely this girl grave-robbing before the body is in the grave has a plan for actually getting this body where it needs to be, right?

Marisa stays silent for a conspicuous and worryingly long time before clearing her throat.
“I do not have an entry plan.” She finally admits.

”Ah, I see I’m collaborating with the reckless kind of mad scientist who doesn’t plan out her schemes for contingencies- if she plans them at all.” Emily tihnks.

Regardless of her new acquaintance’s planning skills, this wall is between Emily and an infinite all-she-can-eat buffet. It doesn’t stand a chance.

But how is Emily going to get pass this foe? She could climb the walls-
Maybe not that one.
Emily plumbs her mind for information about the walls.

There are four main gatehouses that allow easy entrance, and despite the very suspicious pair comprising of a girl carrying a coffin and another looking like she should be in it, it’s not a path Emily can entirely write off. She could just feed a lie to anyone curious enough to approach them about the coffin then be on their merry way. Though, was Emily ever a good liar? Is Marisa?

Another way in are the posterns: secondary entrances that were built in less exposed, less visible areas. They were explicitly made for people to enter and exit through them inconspicuously, but that just makes it MORE likely that someone will question them if they are seen sneaking in. They would have to abscond from the premises fast after entering.

An option that is possible with any entrance is to simply make a distraction. Make a big enough mess and maybe people will ignore the girl with the coffin?

>No matter what she does, Emily WILL make it through. This is not a question of “If” but “How”. Emily will not be denied her infinite all-you-can-eat buffet, let alone by a literal wall.

>>6277736
I'm sorry for killing you and probably Abigail and Emily. I'm not the one who should be doing that.
You might not believe this but the reason this took long (longer than I wanted by a long time) is because I was suddenly evicted from my house and needed to move out really fast. Ignoring the time spent moving everything in a rush, my actual internet will take 2 weeks to come back. I'm currently using my phone as a hotspot, which is probably part of the reason formatting broke. This is only going to get harder before it gets easier, but you can trust me to always post here no matter what.

>>6278437
((I will pray that your troubles abate, OP. Thank you for the awesome updates, and keep yourself safe.))

>>6278437
>but you can trust me to always post here no matter what.
despite the speed of the quest, this remains true. your tenacity still surprises me. fatale albion is like the turtle of the fable

>>6278434
This is a puzzle, one which Emily doesn't have much experience with. Hmm...
She's being forced to consider more and more, it's not pleasant, hopefully it doesn't become a trend.
When she was still in the hospital, she had many errant plans of escape. She knew she couldn't, being so weak she could barely move. Even if she got out, she'd starve at best. And yet, she still made her plans.
Emily feels an uncomfortable knot in her stomach, she rubs it with one hand in at attempt to soothe her appetite. She would get her fill soon.
If she couldn't use her plans to get out of somewhere, maybe she can use them to *get in*.

Leaving the hospital wasn't too hard, you couldn't just walk out, but as long as you didn't arouse suspicion, the nurses would just let anyone normal looking out. Family came and went often, after all.
Two girls carrying a coffin... yeah making that look natural would be damn hard, but there was another option.
Inconspicuous people weren't the only ones at the hospital. Once in a while, a bunch of clowns came into the child ward in at attempt to cheer the kids up. Some kids loved them, some hated them, either way, they didn't focus on their current state, if for just a moment. . . .
W-well, the point is, that while a weirdo or a patient wouldn't be able to get out, a clown would. So if looking natural isn't an option, looking ridiculous enough for people to make assumptions is.

Now, the only situation Emily can think of that two girls would be carrying a coffin, that wouldn't cause a panic, is.... a halloween party? Something like that, yeah.
Getting costumes shouldn't be too hard, a grim reaper one would be great... but that scythe and a cloak would be a hundred quid in just that, yeah, no.
A bed sheet ghost would fit, not too expensive, but they needed two costumes. and a repeat would be too low effort. Hmmm, a vampire would fit with a coffin, but making a costume that's immediately apparent as vampire would be hard, and expensive, that too.
Well, it might not have to be a coffin intentionally, it could be a sarcophagus. A toilet paper mummy is one of the classics, and as cheap as can be. Though a bed sheet ghost and a toilet paper mummy carrying a coffin might not show enough apparent effort. Buying a pumpkin for one of them to carry should help with that, either one the proper big pumpkins, or just the small ones for cooking, it being slightly weird would just play into it.
She should buy a birthday card too, if she can find a spooky one, or an egyptian one if spooky isn't in stock. If anyone stops them, she can just flash that.
Together, they got the combined charisma and persuasiveness of a rock, a slightly rude and creepy one at that. Making observers make as many assumptions as possible is the only way they can make it out without getting caught.

>>6280630
So that's going to be toilet paper, white sheet (probably bed sheet), pumpkin, and a spooky/egyptian birthday card. Should fit into her budget... barely.
Emily can really feel her stomach. She needs to get a move on, if she forgets herself, and bites her bottom lip, well, she'll have another thing to hide for a while, and she wouldn't want to scare Marisa like that. Not like it would even satiate her.

"Well Dr. Marisa Frankenstein, I do believe I have a plan, I will dash inside to get us disguises, and then we'll go in through one of the sneaky side entrances. If anyone sees us, they shouldn't assume we're sneaking in. Or at least sneaking in a body. As their eyes and minds will draw another conclusion. Now, the only question is, would you like to be a mummy or a ghost?"

>>6280631

“Ghost.” Marisa responds immediately.

“That was fast.” Emily notes.

“You are…” Marisa purses her lips. Opens them. Then closes them. Trying to find the right words that weren’t overtly insulting. “You are as gaunt as a Mummy would be, you would fit the Mummy outfit more.”

Well, at least she tried.

“Counterpoint: I am as pale as a ghost.” Emily says, in jest.

“Skin complexion will not matter when one is under a bedsheet.” Marisa counters, seriously.

Hm. Emily has a terrible body but good manners (or at least she pretends), whereas Marisa has a good body but terrible manners (or at least she’s socially awkward). Emily notes this difference between them, they’re both uncharismatic but in different ways. But that’s why she made this plan, them being the most standoffish people around will work to their advantage. Now...

Emily rushes through one of the main gateways and into the streets as fast as she can, summoning as much of her past athleticism as possible. Her body may be out of commission but her soul and hunger are immortal and insatiable. Emily pushes down her temptation to get a quick snack from one of the tourist-trap restaurants and instead focuses on the obvious signs of Halloween sales.
It was depressingly easy to find a store selling Halloween gear. Depressing because it’s the middle of summer, Halloween isn’t even close. But Emily knows that Halloween is the only thing stopping Christmas from dominating everyone’s lives. She likes Yule logs, turkey, and mince pies, but she wants variety in her palate.

Emily walks into the Tesco unseasonably selling Halloween gear and quickly finds an actual Mummy costume and Ghost costume. Looks like she won’t have to wear toilet paper or a bedsheet. There’s even a spooky birthday card near the checkout! The pumpkin was also easy, a decorative one was being sold at very exorbitant prices. But it’s less than a Family Platter at Nando’s so it’s worth it in Emily’s eyes. Getting out of the store and back out of the main entrance, it’s time for probably the most fun part of the plan: getting the disguise ready.

“Behold! I am haunting the abode of the Mummy! This sarcophagus contains double the amount of undead beings than usual!” Marisa exclaims with an excited tone, or as excited as she can get, while raising her cloth-clad arms over the coffin sarcophagus.

“So you DO have a sense of humour. And here I thought something snatched out your ability to feel joy.” Emily says. Somehow she noticeably still has that smile behind the bundles of bandages that makes the Mummy costume.

“I had other things snatched out of me, but thankfully not joy.” Marisa replies solemnly.

“Good, good. Now, you’re okay carrying the sarcophagus by yourself, yes?” Emily asks.

Marisa hefts the box and holds it in two hands. “Yes, very. You see…” She pauses. “You don’t look like the kind that can do strenuous physical work- which actually makes you a pretty bad ‘Henry’, if we were to just focus on the physical labour side of things.”

Emily’s smile is restricted a bit, but not by the bandages. “Yes, well, I wasn’t always like this.”

“I can guess. Your body is emaciated in a way that could not be hereditary: Its atrophied muscle due to lack of activity and nutrition along with pale skin due to lack of sunlight, not to mention-”

“Can we get on with sneaking the sarcophagus in, Frankenstein?” Emily says with a hollow smile and a sickeningly saccharine tone.

Marisa shifts her eyes nervously. “Ahem, y-yes, we shall.”

The two girls sneak into the streets through a Postern, Emily goes in first to look around and make sure there isn’t a huge crowd, then signals Marisa to walk in after her. While Marisa didn’t have an entry plan, she thankfully seemed very (suspiciously) adept at navigating the alleyways and keeping out of sight. Though she also looked at the roofs multiple times throughout.
As Emily follows Marisa to their destination, she hears Marisa say something strange.

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? What are you sorry about?” Emily replies in genuine confusion, her smile becomes a straight face for once as she asks.

“I’m probably being rude to you without noticing at times. So this is an apology from now to perpetuity: I know I can be discourteous, and that I may accidentally raise your hackles, but if you tell me what’s wrong I will correct it. I swear on my name as Marisa Windsor.”

“So your surname isn’t Frankenstein?” Emily says with a mischievous smile.

“Emily, I am baring my soul to you, could you at least assuage my worries of being uncouth?!”

“Also, ‘Windsor’?”

“No relation. But you still haven’t replied earnestly!”

“The fact that you’re likely following through on your deal with the buffet is all I need for now.” Emily doesn’t mention that she’s used to rude remarks about her condition by now. At least it wasn’t pity.

>>6281030

Marisa sighs, then speeds up. Emily realises that they must be close to Marisa’s place.
Marisa runs a Tailoring shop that looks like it was dragged right out of the Victorian Era. Although Britain loves to keep old things alive no matter what, the building looks downright anachronistic compared to its surroundings, and the sign in front is written in some language that Emily has never seen before in her life.
Emily opens the door for Marisa and helps her squeeze the coffin through it. After that, they take off their disguises and get their regular clothes back on.

Marisa heads to a door, likely leading to a basement, and it opens despite Emily not seeing any sort of mechanisms anywhere on the door.
“I’m going to store this coffin somewhere safe in preparation. Wait here a moment, I promise I’ll be back soon.”

“She better be.” Emily thinks. “Maybe a zombie or vampire costume really would’ve been better, I certainly feel like I could eat brains or drink some blood right now, anything to get rid of this hunger…”
Emily resists the urge to bite her fingers or bottom lip, and looks around the room.
The shop floor is as anachronistic as the store’s exterior, almost no electronics are inside the room, the sewing machine and other equipment look simultaneously well-used and well-tended to. There’s already a rack of created clothing, basic shirts and skirts are in abundance but suits of high quality make and material are around, and extremely elaborate and frilly dresses are shown off on mannequins.
A long time ago, Emily could have fit in one of those dresses. Not now. Not in this body.
Emily feels another of her hunger pangs and doubles over in pain while clutching her stomach. Marisa appears out of the basement on cue.

“Emily!” Marisa rushes over to her and raises her head by the chin. “What’s wrong?” Marisa’s face starkly shows her worry, once again surprising Emily in how much emotion she can actually show.

“I’m hungry.” Emily says in a laboured voice. It was an understatement, Emily was starving, it felt like her stomach was going to digest her own body if she didn’t get something to eat soon.

“I was going to write down the address of the building and let you on your way, but-” Marisa examines Emily’s body and painful groans. Her countenance becomes determined.
“I’m bringing you there myself.”

The next few moments are blurry to Emily, in both memory and sight. From her sensations she can tell she’s being dragged somewhere, probably by Marisa. Occasionally Emily would feel Marisa put something in her mouth, followed by an extremely sweet taste lingering on her tongue, it must be those berries Emily picked. She’s thankful that Marisa is trying but wishes that she didn’t, as now Emily has to resist biting off her hand whenever Marisa reaches in.
“Come on, Henry, you’re close to the buffet, just stay with me.” Marisa says in an attempt to assuage both hers and Emily’s fears.

“Y-you know, I don’t think I remember their relationship being like this…” Emily replies, partially to alleviate the intensity of the situation.

“Don’t talk back.” Marisa says tersely. She quickly shows regret before elaborating. “You should save your energy, and opening your mouth unless it’s to eat is probably a bad idea.”

From then on, the walk was in silence. Just slow, lumbering footsteps with the slight sounds of chewing and the rumbling of Emily’s stomach that was becoming much more pronounced.
Emily hated this whole thing. It reminded her of how weak her body is now, the food she was denied in the past, all of the vagaries of her incident catching up to her in this moment.
This moment has to end. She wants it to end. What will she eat in hell if she dies now? She could eat brimstone, can she eat fire? Will she turn into some Beelzebub-esque demon of Gluttony?

Emily is torn out of her macabre thoughts by the best words she’s heard today.

“We’re here.” Marisa says.

Right in front of them is a large building, with a well-adorned and decorated gates. It clearly denoted that this place was for high society people, how did Marisa have access to this place? Does Emily need to change her clothes?
Not that she would if she needed to. Emily walks towards the gates by herself, powered only by hunger. She gets to the gates and reaches out her hand when she hears Marisa shouting.

“Wait!”

Emily loses her smile for the second time that day, casting her gaze at Marisa and displaying all the scorn possible for a human to have.
“What do you mean ‘wait’? You promised me a buffet, this is the building that has it, what is there to wait for? Do you want to explain something? What is there to explain? You already told me what’s on the menu, we already discussed the duration of my reward, we already did the work required.”

“...Go in, then.” Marisa acquiesces.

Emily smiles, genuinely. Finally, her banquet will be in front of her, and all that was needed was a walk in the woods and a Halloween costume.

When Emily walks into the building, she thinks she’s going through a malnutrition-induced hallucination. That was the only explanation for the sight in front of her.
A bright, expansive ballroom with chandeliers and lively dancers, an energetic atmosphere that can uplift Emily’s spirit even in her current condition. Exactly what one might expect from the size of the building and the gates. So what was making Emily think she was hallucinating?

Food. Everything was made of Food. Sweets mainly, but there were others.

The chandeliers were made of sugar crystals, the candles were melting chocolate, the dancers were animated teapots and cakes making everything look like some strange version of Alice in Wonderland combined with Disney’s Beauty and The Beast but made of food.

Emily quickly turns to Marisa, entering in right after she did.
“Marisa, you see this as well, right?” Emily asks excitedly.

“Unfortunately, this is not a hallucination. This is real.” Marisa adopts her past monotone.

“Unfortunately?! What are you talking about, look at all of this food! Goodness, I didn’t imagine this would be it, this would be the buffet!” Emily shouts ecstatically.

“This isn’t the buffet.” Marisa states.

“What?”

“This entire development in front of you was entirely unplanned. I apologise, I haven’t cleaned or entered this place in a while, I suppose I should’ve confirmed this beforehand. I recommend you leave while I get the place ready.”

>Emily has been told to leave from a building that is mostly made of food. Marisa might have good reasons for this, but Emily can’t help but feel like she’s being denied something great. Hell, if she peers at the floor long enough she swears it’s made of wafers!

>>6281035
*Leave?* Other words fade as only one echoes. Being offered and denied has brought something inside her very close to the edge.
Emily never experienced fight or flight. At least not before. But staring unblinking at Marisa, flight is looking mighty unattractive.
Her stomach is twisted in a dozen sorts of ways, inside her mouth she can barely keep up swallowing her spit.
The animal in her mind is certain of what the best course of action is. Trying to take meat from the mouth of starving dog is mighty unwise. Any consequence is not the dog's fault. And she's so close. SO. CLOSE.
Emily attempts to calm herself, and breathe in, but the breath turns into a shuddering shake as she smells the flavors around. Emily's eye flutter for a moment before her gaze returns twice as ravenous.
The animal is very loud, very, very loud.
Only the horrible twisting pressure of her empty stomach has stopped it from initially lashing out. Only that has given her mind a chance to catch up... she hates it, so much, but the rational parts are clear. Marisa is the ticket to food, ruining this, or harming her doesn't lead to a good outcome.
It might allow Emily to *eat now*. A thought that brings another harsh twist of pressure, forcing Emily to grip her stomach even harder in an attempt to distract her mind by causing more pressure elsewhere.
Another breath to calm herself, this time with her mouth. She doesn't smell anything, thankfully, though she feels her drool drip from her chin.
Eating now will mean not eating later. Locking unlimited access to her perfect life. She can't allow that, she would do anything for that, she WILL do anything. Momentary strangling that inner beast is a trifle. Eating now could mean losing the closet friend she has. Eating now...
Another shuddering breath. Emily lowers her head, breaking the gaze. Now both hands gripping her stomach. The twisting pressure is horrible, but she has endured worse. Survival is just waiting, and not dying. Anything else is a luxury.
She tries to lift her legs, but they refuse to bend. So she drags them. Her stomach screams, so she grips tighter. She knows the way out, she just needs to walk out, and wait until she can go back in, she just has to survive. She knows how to do that. Survival is just waiting, not dying, just waiting, just...

>>6278437
That's rough stuff, man. Hope things sort themselves out for you sooner rather than later. For my part, I'll keep checking the threads for updates and if they fall off, I'll be checking the catalog for the next one. Believing in you is the least I can do.

>>6278423
Well, this was hardly ideal. Stephanie wasn't looking forward to twatting the shit out of this girl, especially if she was being controlled. And getting at the familiar that was likely facilitating that was going to be tough, what with the bastard thing deciding to hide itself in the crowd.

"What's t' game, Abby? Figure you can do anything about it being in amongst the whole lot of them there or what? I could maybe try sendin' a strong gust of wind or a tiny earthquake or something, but, well, not too subtle, that, eh?"

Stephanie would rather hold back on doing anything decisive (or decisively stupid) without input from someone more capable at handling people.

>>6281649
"Well... I don't have a lot of ways to *force* it to move, but maybe I could do something to make it move on its own? I could create some kind of sensory hallucination to make it leave the crowd, but what?

Otherwise, we may be stuck to shoving it out of the way for Viktoria to take the shot."

>>6282126
"Can you try to make the crowd move with a sensory hallucination? Like teachers calling for them to disperse or somesuch. If that's right out, I s'pose we'll have to do things the hard way, then. Can you handle this last bint here if it comes to that?"

>>6282770
"That's a good idea. I'm not really the fighting sort, but it's probably better I start learning sooner rather than later. Does the last one have a knife?"

>>6282821
>>6278413

>Stephanie glares at the last student left, a girl also holding a knife... Stephanie squeezes her hand into a fist, the blade twists and bends before breaking.

My sources say "She used to".

>>6282830
Right then. I'll do my best to handle the last one if needed. For now I'll create auditory hallucinations for the crowd of teachers approaching, demanding to know what's going on to scatter the crowd and give Viktoria a better shot.

>>6282839
"Mint, that teacher trick. Wasn't sure you could do something like that. I'll shove this one about a little before Vicky gets the familiar sorted and she comes to...

"...that's how this works, right?"

>>6278423
Trusting Abigail to set up Victoria's shot in a more subtle manner than she could, Stephanie advances on the final would-be assailant.

>Use earth manipulation to create a small quake under the student to unbalance her.
>Push her over and keep her down until she comes to her senses.

>>6282885
>>6282839

𐤌 Abigail Fulson 𐤌 & ф Stephanie Smith ф:

Abigail’s Status: Conscious (Full access to the real world. Can access the Crossroads by using “Crossroads Jaunt”)
Stephanie’s Adoption: Solid Earth (+2 PA, +2 Con. +2 PA when manipulating Solid Matter)

A brainwashed girl is standing against three Magical Girls, and the brainwasher is shrouded in a crowd of students.

Well, this was hardly ideal. Stephanie wasn't looking forward to twatting the shit out of this girl, especially if she was being controlled. And getting at the familiar that was likely facilitating that was going to be tough, what with the bastard thing deciding to hide itself in the crowd.

Stephanie takes a moment to take a rest. She was expecting her body to be sore as hell since parts of it were turned into steel, but she guesses that ‘Training’ with Megan really did help. It feels like she was tensing a muscle rather than turning her skin into armour. Now if only she learned about conflict de-escalation techniques.

Ф "What's t' game, Abby? Figure you can do anything about it being in amongst the whole lot of them there or what? I could maybe try sendin' a strong gust of wind or a tiny earthquake or something, but, well, not too subtle, that, eh?" Ф

Stephanie would rather hold back on doing anything decisive (or decisively stupid) without input from someone more capable at handling people.

𐤌 "Well... I don't have a lot of ways to *force* it to move, but maybe I could do something to make it move on its own? I could create some kind of sensory hallucination to make it leave the crowd, but what?

Otherwise, we may be stuck to shoving it out of the way for Viktoria to take the shot." 𐤌

Stephanie looks at the last girl left. She’s shorter than Stephanie (but who isn’t?) and has no knife, but has a strange feeling of aggression around her. Like she lives for fighting and it shows in her posture and expression.

Stephanie briefly wonders if the Witch took advantage of her aggressive nature or if she’s being manipulated into this state, but she stops thinking about that as either way leads to the same result: This girl’s going t’ get done up like a kipper. But for now…

Ф "Can you try to make the crowd move with a sensory hallucination? Like teachers calling for them to disperse or somesuch. If that's right out, I s'pose we'll have to do things the hard way, then. Can you handle this last bint here if it comes to that?" Ф Stephanie suggests.

Abigail thinks for a moment. Could she? In the past, when she was a regular girl, no.

But she’s not a regular girl any more.

𐤌 "That's a good idea. I'm not really the fighting sort, but it's probably better I start learning sooner rather than later. Does the last one have a knife?" 𐤌

Stephanie has a shit-eating grin as she answers:
Ф “Nah. For some reason it spontaneously got duffed a moment ago. Strange thing that!” Ф

Abigail chuckles. “In that case, you just need to deal with Jack and wait a moment.”

With that said, Abigail and Stephanie leave each other to their respective tasks.

Dealing with Jack was going to be easy and hard. Easy, because Stephanie’s pretty sure she can’t even get hurt by Jack even if she tried. Hard, because Stephanie doesn’t want to paste this bint and get arrested. But she can sort it out, she’s been in fights before and has even more tools to end them now.

“Hey, you wanna go mate?! Or are you going to just stand there and look around like you’re all tits and teeth, you cabbage?!” Stephanie taunts.

“Fuck you, you pillock! I’m not taking this from some shitehawk with no friends!” Jack shouts back.

Hook, line.

“Well come on then!” Stephanie continues goading.

Jack sprints towards Stephanie. Her aggression is raw and flaring, her face in a snarl, and her gait isn’t a graceful run but more her trying to rush through the air.

Sinker.

Stephanie steps on the ground and makes a request for the earth to quake in equivalent fury. The earth complies, shifting around Jack as she runs. Jack’s running style was already bad beforehand, but the tremors cause her to stumble and ruin her balance. Stephanie was going to rush in and push her over, but before she could even move something else happened that she was surprised she didn’t expect.

A football flies past Stephanie and hits Jack in the sternum, causing her to collapse on the floor. Right after, Megan and Oliver approach Jack from behind Stephanie to pin her to the ground.

Well, that frees up Stephanie’s hands.

While Stephanie was dealing with a physical problem, Abigail was dealing with a mental one.

Creating an illusion over a wide area was stumping her for some reason. Why? She knows how her teachers sound and she knows she can manipulate senses and perceptions within the Crossroads-
Right, she’s not in the Crossroads.
But she can’t just take a small Jaunt and then back out, she needs speed and she needs to be awake. She needs to figure out how to manipulate perceptions and senses over a group without Linking to them and fast. Her mind races and her sweat builds, she goes over everything that she was taught about how her Magic works.

According to Claire, their Magic worked by manipulating bonds, senses, perceptions. The Crossroads was just a realm containing the totality everyone’s perceptions and bonds between everything else. Every sight and sound and smell and touch felt by a person was contained there, so changing how something looked in the Crossroads would change how someone sees it in reality. “As Above, So Below”. But- shit, how does that help?
Abigail takes a deep breath to reorient herself mentally. She needs to focus.
She needs to greatly influence the Crossroads’ representation of the area, that’s one of the easiest ways to affect a large group, but she needs to do it while awake. She can’t just Link to all of the students here, that would take too long and she’s not sure what the limit of her mental bandwidth is.
God, why does this feel so scary? Can she not fix this now? She feels so small. Like a small point in a Neo-Impressionist painting, she can’t create anything on The Canvas bigger than herself, the Veduta is not under her control-

Wait, why is she thinking about art?
In fact, she thought in art terms when using Network Sense on Jack, why does she keep doing that now? What does art have to do with all this?
Art is just a way for her to use her emotions and evoke a response in an onlooker by utilising her own representation of reality and concepts… That’s it!

Abigail gets out from under the table and pulls out her art equipment, with a dangerous glint in her eye, insane ideas in her head, and a heart ignited in protecting what she loves by destroying what would harm him.

ʘ “Abigail, why are pulling out your art equipment?” ʘ Claire asks. Though Abigail has the impression the question is more rhetorical.

Abigail talks while preparing a paper canvas, along with graphite, charcoal, and ink.
“The relationship we have with the Crossroads isn’t a one-way road, just as manipulating the Crossroads causes changes in reality, manipulating reality can cause changes in the Crossroads.”

ʘ “True.” Claire admits. “But, how are you going to cause a change over a wide area? Especially one of teachers shouting, there’s nothing like speakers in your bag.” ʘ She rebuts.

Abigail starts sketching Oliver, then remembers to give him a shirt since he’s put it back on.
“Art is a way of showing a perspective on reality, to evoke emotions and represent concepts. If I make a piece of art depicting this entire scenario, then it’s a representation of the area. Just like the Crossroads has one. If I change the art piece then the representation of the area is changed both in reality AND in the Crossroads. ‘As Below, So Above!’ Then, since the Crossroads has been changed, all of the people in the area will be affected by changes in the art piece!” Abigail explains while drawing the playground.

ʘ “Try explaining that more simply.” ʘ Claire requests.

Abigail stops for a moment, then thinks. It’s a much calmer thought process than when she was first making this conclusion.
“If I paint something or someone, then the painting becomes a representation of the subject. If I change the painting, people’s perception of the subject will change to suit the painting. If I paint a person, then change the painting so it depicts them on fire, everyone will believe the person is on fire.”

ʘ “...Congratulations.” ʘ

“Huh?”

ʘ “Most of what you said is correct, and it only took a day for you to figure this out. I’ll explain more later, just finish your art.” ʘ
Abigail is annoyed at Claire acting mysterious, but she has more pressing concerns.

“Come on, Jack, this isn’t like you!” Oliver shouts.
Oliver and Megan are still pinning Jack to the floor. While Oliver is pleading for Jack to come to her senses, Megan is just focusing on keeping her down while looking at the mark on her neck. The Witch-Kiss.

Unfortunately, Stephanie’s hands weren’t as free as she thought. All of these knobheads surrounding them started throwing shit! Stephanie had to block rocks, stones, and sometimes entire bags from hitting Megan. Her body hardens every time something hits her, but it’s starting to get annoying and it’s straining her focus. When is this going to be over?

“OI, OI, WHAT’S ALL THIS THEN?!”

Stephanie hears a deep voice, unfamiliar to her, shouting out from the playground entrance. She doesn’t put much importance on it, but all of the students in the crowd disperse in fear and attempt to occupy themselves with some other activity that they were apparently always doing. Even Alba froze in fear.

Everyone dispersed. Except for that one thing that isn’t a student at all. That fucking Familiar.

It looks around for a moment, it needs time to catch up to sudden changes, and realises it’s wide open.

Abigail and Stephanie think the order to fire. They were both expecting something somewhat flashy. Abigail expected to hear a rifle shot, or see a tracer round. Stephanie expected Viktoria to shout out her special attack’s name and see a beam blast the Familiar- she watched way too much Drillface.
Instead, it’s a moment. One second the Familiar is looking around confused in the open, the next it’s on the floor with its head blown open, and it dissipates into purple mist. Like Cause was cut out and only Effect was left.

Ө “A beautiful shot if I do say so myself. I apologise for the abruptness of it but the sooner that thing existed the more time it had to think of a backup plan.” Ө

“Is that it? It’s over?” Stephanie wonders.

“Guys, guys, what the heck, get off me!” Jack shouts while struggling.
Oliver and Megan reluctantly let go of her. She gets up and rubs her head.

“God, what the hell happened? Hey Oliver, who’s this girl?”
Jack is confused and seems to have forgotten what has happened this whole time, but is otherwise harmless.

“You tried to stab me with a knife.” Oliver says in an upset tone.

Jack opens her mouth in shock before blurting out apologies. “W-what?! Holy shit mate, I’m sorry! What could have possessed me to do such a thing?”

Oliver looks at Abigail, then Stephanie, then Alba, then Megan. They all know what possessed her. Megan shakes her head.

“Peer pressure is likely. Someone dared you to do it and you decided to follow them.” Oliver says as a hasty explanation.

“Well, in that case I’m never falling for peer pressure again! I’m going to be my own person.” Jack gets up and hugs Oliver. “And I’m going to start by protecting you!”

Oliver smirks. “I think I’ve already got a good protector myself, and that I can avoid getting hurt, but thanks for the offer.”

ʘ “Abigail, was this bitch always this handsy with Oliver?” ʘ
Claire doesn’t even try to hide her animosity for the scene in front of her. Abigail is thankful for the mental filter, as the words alone already show her aggression.

𐤌 “I didn’t even know she was Oliver’s friend until today.” 𐤌 Abigail answers truthfully.

ʘ “Maybe this was her plan and she didn’t even need to get Witch-Kissed. Stab Oliver with a knife when she can’t have him to herself, then try to gain forgiveness with a flutter of the eyes and a promise of protection. Disgusting Homewre-” ʘ

𐤌 “Claire!” 𐤌 Abigail interrupts.
She can’t deal with her jealousy now.
𐤌 “Remember what you tried to do when Oliver rejected you and came to me? Do you want to kill me? And that’s a lot of projection you’re doing!” 𐤌 Abigail says in a chastising tone. She’s starting to realise that although Claire wants to get better, her negative personality traits are going to come up more often with how much Grief she has.

ʘ “I-I… Fine. I’m sorry. I still have to get over that, I guess.” ʘ Claire admits with guilt.

“Hey, Abby!” Stephanie calls out. “Get over here and look at the lass!”

“Alright!” Abigail replies. “Claire, if you mess up my scan then I’m going to be disappointed.”

While Abigail looks at Jack’s mental condition under the guise of asking a few questions, the rest converse.

“Break is ending soon, so we better make this chinwag short and sweet. Oh, also-” Stephanie looks up at the school’s roof. She can’t see Viktoria, but she’s sure…
ф “Hey, you toff git, are you still up there?!” ф

Ө “Yes, I’m still on the roof, Stephanie.” Ө

Э “I’m surprised you could just deal with her insulting you so brazenly.” Э Megan says.

Viktoria sighs, and Stephanie just knows she’s doing a dramatic hair flick. Ө “I’ve heard much worse from the rabble below me. Unfortunately, proper etiquette is lacking even today, but as someone who’s been raised well I know how to turn the other cheek.” Ө

Stephanie shakes her head, she doesn’t want to trade barbs with Viktoria, no matter how smug she’s acting.
Ф “Well, you can join in the discussion from up there if you want.” ф

“This situation is getting worse faster than I thought it would.” Megan states. “We’re already escalating to violence against innocents. And I do not want to know what would have happened if Oliver actually got stabbed or worse, considering Abigail’s condition.”

“What do you mean, what’s wrong with Abigail?” Oliver asks, worried.

Megan pauses. She doesn’t want to say “your girlfriend has a supernatural being of raw grief and negative emotions inside her” so she goes for a more innocuous reply:
“She just really cares about you. I don’t want to see her crying over you getting hurt.”

Stephanie gives Megan a look that says “Smooth”. Some things do not need a perfect mental bond to be conveyed.

“I’m going to talk with her later, don’t worry.”

“Well good.” Abigail says, arriving to the impromptu meeting. “That’s something to look forward to.
Jack is fine now. She was a bit confused and frazzled along with some kind of short-term memory loss. I helped her with that.”

Megan sighs. “This job never gets easier. So, what are we focusing on next?”

“I’m not sure, but something feels weird about this. I mean- beyond my friend getting brainwashed into almost stabbing me.”

>Break is about to end and lessons will start again. But Abigail is an ace student, she has Art next which is not even a real lesson in her eyes, then P.E which is outside and gives her more freedom of movement. Stephanie has Food Technology and English. As long as things go as planned she would be close to Ashleigh.

>>6281553

Emily Brighton:

...Waiting. Survival is a thing of patience for humans. They survived by jogging, not running, and claiming their food after a long chase. Then, they developed farming and animal husbandry, and it became a matter of waiting. Sometimes, you wait. For you need patience to get your harvest.

Emily showed truly impressive levels of self-control. Her mastication issues became extremely obvious at this point, she had to actively stop herself from eating her arm, not that it would fill her much. And the smells… She didn’t know where she was, but she could smell food not from inside the building being prepared but from far out into the neighbourhood. The rich lingering smells of Bangers and Mash, Shepherd’s Pie, and Sausage Rolls along with the sharper scents of doughnuts, rice pudding, and baklava… She needs to distract herself from food somehow so she focuses on the girl potentially preparing it for her.

When Emily dragged herself out of the ballroom, Marisa told her that she would be fast. Emily believed her as Marisa seemed genuinely remorseful when she realised the effect waiting for food had on Emily.
That dark-skinned woman was strange. She looked African, but spoke perfect English and had a quintessentially British name. That doesn’t prove much but is very strange. And that’s ignoring the fact that she wants to do experiments with a dead body.

Emily doesn’t get much time to build suspicion, as the gate to the ballroom swings open, and Marisa walks out. It took ten minutes. It was the longest ten minutes of Emily’s life.

“My dear Emily, come in!” Marisa says.

Emily rushes through the gate and is greeted by large servings of many different kinds of delectable dishes. Hamburgers that were stacked far too high for someone to eat without unhinging their jaw, roast chicken that must have been made from a mutated animal with how large it is, a pristine cut of beef steak, and a rich creamy sauce for dipping and pouring. That’s not even getting to what she believes are the main meals and dessert!

Marisa sits across from Emily as she stuffed her mouth with food. It turns out, Emily really can unhinge her jaw to eat that hamburger, somehow none of the toppings slipped out, and she didn’t even make a mess. In fact, despite the speed and voraciousness of Emily, she was a surprisingly clean eater with barely a mess.

“Emily.”

“Mph?” Emily mumbles with a mouth full of chow mein.

“You can ask me any questions you want now. Do you not have any queries about how I sourced this food? Or better yet, the dancing comestibles you and I saw when we arrived here?”

>If Emily has any questions to ask, she can ask them now. After this… there may not be much time for many questions.

>>6287269
The question does not give Emily pause, though it does slow down her feast. So far, she has been near, though not quite in, Paradise, her thoughts focused on balancing the sweet and salty, light and heavy. The feast isn't *perfect* per say, the drink selection is fairly limited for example, lacking beer. Making Emily unable to balance the heavy salty burgers with deliciously sweet black beer. Or the wonderful noodle mix with some refreshingly bitter pale beer. Though finding a good non alcoholic beer is quite hard, she does admit, if that was one of the limits of the magic, well, she'd deal with it. Heh, worst she can start brewing herself.
Though thinking of magic, and of the question... does Emily care?
Well, yes, of course she does. She cares about what she gets, how her actions influence it, if she can fuck up badly enough to have this heaven on earth taken away.
But the "why"? Why the food appears, why was it dancing like the cutlery in Beauty and the Beast? Nah, thinking of the why leads to thinking of things bigger than herself, it leads to thinking about *her* existence. That's poison of the deadliest kind, possibly one that falls into the 'anything' she can eat, but she'd rather not try if she can help it.

So, after finally, properly swallowing her temporary last bite and taking a small sip of lemon water, Emily marks a very short break.
"I know pretty much nothing about all this, but I don't have many questions, and only one specific one."
Emily corrects herself before continuing.
"Well, requests more like. If there is anything you think I need to know, tell me, I will listen, and try to apply it. As long as I can apply it that is, if I can't, that information is a burden I'd rather avoid. Though, if *you* need help with something, tell me, if you can."
Emily sweeps her hand, gesturing at the feast.
"*This* is one of the best things to happen to me."
She points at Marisa.
"All thanks to *you*, making you one of the best things to happen to me."
Emily lowers her gaze and briefly nods.
"I thank you for that."

Emily's gaze locks onto Marisa, the ghastly sight's ravenous hunger temporarily assuaged, in it's place a steady confidence.
"If there ever is a risk to this, to *you*, I will do my best to remove it."
Before hastily adding.
"And don't worry about me being incapable, I used to be pretty strong, and I'm getting back there day by day. Don't underestimate what I'm willing to do with Paradise on the line."

With that, Emily takes a sip of milk, not quite returning to her previous gluttonous pace, but her eyes once again roaming her wonderful surroundings. She wasn't going to leave food on the table, even when paying attention.

>>6287268
Megan was right, though she was understating the severity to which things had gone to shit in such a short time.

"Yeah, nah, things're proper fucked, looks like. The bitch is on to us, clearly. No other reason for her to send people to shank Oliver out in front of half the fucking school. 'least I don't think there is."

"Anyroad, we have to get to class now, if the witch's coming out to play, there's no sense in faffing about. We'll have to kill her today. Before school's out. Ask me, we can't wait for the twat to escalate again."

Stephanie tallies up their forces. Counting Alba and Victoria, there's five of them already in the fight. If Ashleigh and Kanata can be brought on, that'd make seven. With their powers combined, they could surely break into the labyrinth and put the witch out of her misery.

"I'll see about meeting with that Kanata lady. Anybody else have any bright ideas?"

>>6287268
I don't like the idea of trying to confront the witch during school hours, but if the witch is already moving in the open like this, then the longer we wait the more likely someone's going to get hurt. Now the question is - how?

Stephanie should be able to discuss the urgency of the situation with Ashleigh and/or Kanata, and maybe they have information we don't that will enable us to act. In the meantime, I can work to soothe the troubled students I see, to delay any further escalations. But.. we don't know how much the witch knows. It's very possible the witch isn't aware that I'm a magical girl, or even has a good estimate on how many of us there are, and the more magic we use, the more information she gets. Yet the witch targeted Oliver, who has no connection to any of this except through me. Could it have been coincidence? Possibly, but can we risk that?

I think it's too unlikely to be a coincidence. They must have seen something about me, or seen him talking with us. This whole incident stinks of a trap, a bait to get us to reveal ourselves, but I don't think we have a choice.

Oliver needs to keep his guard up. It shouldn't be hard for this to be natural, he was almost stabbed just now. I'll do what I can to subtly delay any further incidents by soothing those affected by the witch, and we can discuss over the link after Stephanie has her meeting.

>>6289289

Emily Brighton:


Emily didn’t stop eating though she did slow down. Just enough to focus on things other than food.
Magic is real. She’s seen full proof of it and is likely eating results of it at this moment.
Does she care? Only so much as she needs to make sure she can keep getting food. Other than that, she doesn’t need to know. Not why, not how. “Why” and “How” lead to bigger thoughts than she could stomach, and so she discarded them like spoiled food and avoided them badly prepared fugu.

Emily swallowed her food, took a sip of lemon water, and finally took a short break to answer Marisa.
"I know pretty much nothing about all this, but I don't have many questions, and only one specific one."
Emily corrects herself before continuing.
"Well, requests more like. If there is anything you think I need to know, tell me, I will listen, and try to apply it. As long as I can apply it that is, if I can't, that information is a burden I'd rather avoid. Though, if you need help with something, tell me, if you can." Emily emphasises her fealty to Marisa.
Emily sweeps her hand, gesturing at the feast.
"This,” Emily spreads her arms, gesturing to her surroundings. “Is one of the best things to happen to me."
She points at Marisa.
"All thanks to you, making you one of the best things to happen to me."
Emily lowers her gaze and briefly nods.
"I thank you for that."

Marisa stays silent and stares at Emily for a moment before speaking.
“Those are very dangerous words to say to a girl like me, Emily. But then, you are likely a very dangerous person.” She says.

“Oh? How so?” Emily has been called a lot of things, but ‘dangerous’ is not one of them.

“People usually have to go through years of hardship and erudition before discovering what they are willing to sacrifice their life for, what is worth enough for them to do anything to get it. Love, Friendship, Family, Tradition, Trust, all of these are concepts people have staked their beings on You already have a very simple goal, yet one that fuels you nonetheless. You already have a very large advantage over others of our kind.”

“Marisa, this is starting to sound like one of those unneeded bits of information that are a burden.” Emily says. When people start talking about high concepts like ‘Love’ and ‘Trust’ it can lead into navel-gazing that she doesn’t want in her experience.

“Ah, of course, my apologies.” Marisa says. “Though, there is a piece of information that is absolutely important. A matter of life and death.” Despite the stated severity of the information, Marisa’s voice is as steady as ever.
“You are no longer a regular person.” Marisa states.

Emily scoffs. “I don’t think I need you to tell me that.” Her life can never really be normal after all that’s happened to her.

“No- I mean-” Marisa sighs. “This is going to be a lot of information.”

“So, Souls are real. I know that probably doesn’t need stating since you know that Magic is real but it’s important for the future.
Usually your Soul would be inside your body; some people have tried to find where but that’s not important. What is important is that your Soul is no longer inside your body.”

Emily pushes back any questions she has about the logistics of that, or how Marisa knows about the state of her Soul, and continues listening.

“You made a Wish. Likely by signing a Contract with a strange white creature that looks like the plushie I was holding when I met you.”

Okay, now that was strange. Emily fully expected Marisa to know about the creature, how else would she have that plushie? But she specifically knows about it granting Wishes? Emily still keeps mum about her questions.

“When you made that Wish that creature pulled your Soul out of your body, put it into an external container that we call a ‘Soul Gem’, and turned you into a Puella Magi.”
“Our term for ‘Magical Girl’, by the way.” Marisa quickly adds.
“Don’t worry, you’re not ‘Soulless’ by any means, but your body is now essentially a zombie being piloted by your Soul from the gem. You need to keep that thing close to you or else your body will go inert, you won’t be able to eat, and you won’t be able to help me.”

Emily holds back her emotions, and instead reaches out to find the beer she had wished for in the back of her mind. She downs it before replying to Marisa’s information.
“Very important information. I am very happy you told me this.” She says with a smile more forced than usual. “Though if what you said is true, then I don’t think I’ve seen my Soul Gem anywhere. What does it look like?”

Marisa’s breathing quickens, but she still answers the question with a steady voice. “It varies from person to person, but it looks like a fancy accessory predominantly of a single colour.”

“Nope, never seen mine then.” Emily says.

Marisa slams her hands on the table and leans towards Emily sharply, threatening to violate her personal space with a face coloured in fear. “What do you mean you’ve never seen yours?! It appears on your body when you make your Wish and it has to be nearby or else you wouldn’t even be talking to me right now!”

“Marisa, my Frankenstein, please calm yourself. Panic is a terrible look on you.” Emily says with a calm smile.

“How can I be calm when I just found out my assistant misplaced her Soul?!”

“Well, as you said, it must be nearby or else I wouldn’t be talking. I’m talking, so it must be nearby and I’m fine for now.” Emily explains.

Marisa chews on Emily’s logic then leans back into her chair. “That is true.”

“Besides, as long as I’m standing, I will make you a promise:”
Emily's gaze locks onto Marisa, the ghastly sight's ravenous hunger temporarily assuaged, in it's place a steady confidence.
"If there ever is a risk to this, to you, I will do my best to remove it."
Before hastily adding.
"And don't worry about me being incapable, I used to be pretty strong, and I'm getting back there day by day. Don't underestimate what I'm willing to do with Paradise on the line."

With that, Emily takes a sip of milk, not quite returning to her previous gluttonous pace, but her eyes once again roaming her wonderful surroundings. She wasn't going to leave food on the table, even when paying attention.

Marisa lets a rare smile crawl onto her face, and digs into some of the food herself. She takes small bites, she could never hope to catch up to Emily’s pace even when she’s slowed down. Marisa doesn’t seem to be interested in eating food for the joy of it, she’s eating in an attempt to relate to Emily.

“If you’re not going to ask me many questions, then allow me to ask you some.” Marisa says between bites.
“Why do you like food so much?” Marisa raises her brow when asking this, it really is a confusing thing for her. “The infinite buffet was my low offer, I wasn’t expecting anyone to accept food as a reward when you can get food from any restaurant, you seem to be motivated by food more than any regular person or Puella Magi. I could make some assumptions, but in my experience they’re wrong or incomplete more often than they’re correct.”
“Another question that’s a bit more personal: What did you Wish for? I know you Wished for something but I don’t know what. This is an important but personal question as you now have magical abilities that are linked to your Wish.”
“Last question: Do you have any requests for specific food or drinks? I can give you any comestible you can think of, you just need to tell me.”

>Ignoring the issue that Emily’s Soul is not in her body and she can’t find it, things are rather calm for now. Not answering Marisa’s questions probably won’t anger her, as she’s asking most of them out of raw curiosity.

>>6293535
>>6289500

𐤌 Abigail Fulson 𐤌 & ф Stephanie Smith ф:

>Abigail’s Status: Conscious (Full access to the real world. Can access the Crossroads by using “Crossroads Jaunt”)
>Stephanie’s Adoption: Solid Earth (+2 PA, +2 Con. +2 PA when manipulating Solid Matter)

"Yeah, nah, things're proper fucked, looks like. The bitch is on to us, clearly. No other reason for her to send people to shank Oliver out in front of half the fucking school. 'least I don't think there is." Stephanie says.

The aftermath of this assault was far too calm compared to the potential consequences. Everybody that was previously spectating this school brawl suddenly wanted nothing to do with the people involved and were minding their own business, they truly were a group of people who had nothing other than saving their own skin in mind.
The fact that the Witch seemingly targeted Oliver, one of the most important people in Abigail’s life, didn’t sneak past the Puella Magi’s concern either.

"Anyroad, we have to get to class now, if the witch's coming out to play, there's no sense in faffing about. We'll have to kill her today. Before school's out. Ask me, we can't wait for the twat to escalate again."

Abigail winces at Stephanie’s suggestion. She doesn’t want to fight the Witch during school hours, but she can’t argue with the fact that the longer they wait the more likely even more people are going to get hurt.
“How, how… How many people do we have on our side?” Abigail thinks aloud.

“Counting Alba and Viktoria-” Stephanie starts.

“Wait, how is Viktoria going to join us?” Megan interrupts.

Ө “I can simply stop time for the whole school and then sneak in. It’s not hard; I could even bring in my maid, being stuck in that manor alone all day must be maddening and some fresh air would be good for her. But... that would be rude so it's a last resort.” Ө Viktoria explains.

“Well, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen someone use Time Manipulation to sneak into places.” Megan replies.

Alba looks to air and holds her chin in an inquisitive pose. “Who’s Viktoria?”

“Another Magical Girl.” Stephanie answers laconically.
“Continuing from where I was interrupted: Counting Alba and Viktoria, we have five Magical Girls. If I can convince Kanata then that’s six, and if Ashleigh is her accomplice then it’s seven. A good force in my eyes, all we need to do is get in that Labyrinth and put this Witch out of her misery.
I’m meeting with Miss Kanata as planned. The rest of you?”

“I’m going to make weapons and armour.” Megan states.

Everyone looks at Megan like she just grew a second head.

“How t’ hell are you going to do that in school?” Stephanie asks.
ʘ “Yeah, there’s a reason we didn’t sneak in knives like Jack and her cronies.” ʘ Claire says with a bitter undercurrent to her voice.
“Not to mention you’re going to have to bring it with you, where are you going to hide it?” Abigail adds.

“Well, I wasn’t expecting this many questions. Making the equipment is really easy for me, I can make it out of pure Magic and emotions if I wanted to, but having physical material is much better. And I’m going into a Food Technology room with Stephanie, filled with cheap stainless steel utensils but it’s better than nothing.”

“Ah, I have an objection.” Oliver pipes up. “Why don’t I make the weapons and armour, and you reinforce it with magic? You can enchant stuff with magic, right?” He suggests.

“...That’s not a universal rule but I can do that, yes. However, do you really think you can make weapons here?”

Oliver glares at Megan, then reaches into his blazer’s pocket and pulls out- a handgun?!

“Whoa, what the fuck?! Why’d you not shoot the tossers with that?!” Stephanie shouts out.
Abigail scribbles on a canvas, no-one outside of their circle hears a word from them thereafter and the gun in Oliver’s hand is mysteriously replaced with a pocketbook.

“Jack is my friend, I wasn’t going to shoot her.” Oliver says in an offended tone. “Not to mention that everyone would’ve seen me shoot her with a gun and that would’ve been a mess.
Anyroad, I made this in school using equipment in the engineering workshop. It’s… I know this is going to sound weird, but I made it for Abigail. She needs protection as well.”

“T-thanks for the gift, Oliver.” Abigail mumbles, she still can’t stop that stutter. “B-but, how would I get ammo for that thing? It’s not like they sell bullets in the corner shop.”

“Oh, this isn’t a firearm, it’s a paintball gun-” Oliver clarifies.

The tense atmosphere that came from being in the presence of a gun faded in a flash.

“And why do you think a paintball gun would be useful against what were facing? Do you know how strong a Familiar is?” Megan chastises.

“You didn’t let me finish. It’s a paintball gun that’s been made to have dangerous muzzle velocity and calibre; it can do very serious damage to flesh and bone even through protective gear.”

Megan thinks for a moment. “Hm. Familiars can be killed with mundane weapons; It just takes a lot of force and competence. This may actually work as a good weapon even before I ‘enchant’ it. But could I be a bit greedy and make a request?”

Oliver is slightly surprised it was that easy to convince her. “Yeah, sure. What?”

Megan repeatedly taps her foot on the floor and looks away nervously. “Could you make some swords or knives? Purely because not all of us know how to use a gun but we’ve likely seen more knives than any teenager should, no other reason.” She rambles quickly.

“Uh, okay?” Oliver says in confusion.

The discussion was much calmer after that. Alba was going to continue on with her classes, she had Engineering with Oliver so she was going to keep an eye on him for Abigail. Oliver was going to make weapons for the group, how he gets away with making such them in school is something that interests all of them but they have no time to discuss. Megan was going to more thoroughly investigate the school, Stephanie’s mention of a Familiar in the toilet makes her wonder if there are Familiars in ALL the toilets in the school.
Viktoria said that she was going to find a more proper way to enter the school because “A lady does not sneak about an establishment like a footpad, she enters with grace and conducts herself with elegance.”
With all of their duties told the Puella Magi (+ Mundane Boy) re-enter the school building right before break ends and have to go their separate ways.

>>6293535


𐤌 Abigail Fulson 𐤌 :

>Abigail’s Status: Conscious (Full access to the real world. Can access the Crossroads by using “Crossroads Jaunt”)


The school bell rings, announcing the start of Period Three. Every student has five minutes to get to lesson on time or face punishment. The Puella Magi know the infraction will cause blood to be spilled.

Abigail walked through the lower floor of the school right next to Oliver. The Art classroom and Engineering workshop were right next to each other providing an excuse for them to be walking in the same direction. Being next to Oliver should have quelled any concerns of him being safe. An unseen (but definitely heard) third party had different thoughts.

ʘ “We need to keep an eye on Oliver-” ʘ Claire starts.

𐤌 “No.” 𐤌 Abigail interrupts.

ʘ “What?! But-” ʘ

𐤌 “No.” 𐤌 Abigail repeats.
𐤌 “Alba is already going to watch over Oliver and I think he can defend himself if he’s not taken off guard. Besides, this is likely just your overprotective personality traits acting up rather than any rational thinking.” 𐤌 Abigail explains.

Claire was stunned. Was she really that obvious?

𐤌 “Yes. Also you’re in MY head; you can’t really hide stuff like that from me, this is also the THIRD time you’ve said we should watch Oliver since the bell rang! The last time you even suggested stalking him using the Crossroads, which is a massive invasion of privacy that I’m shocked you would propose to me. There’s a reason I don’t snoop around his head constantly like a creep.” 𐤌

ʘ “C-could you at least tell him to be careful and say we- I mean, you’re worried? Don’t act like you aren’t worried about him as well!” ʘ She begs.

𐤌 “If it will get you to calm down, sure.” 𐤌 Abigail acquiesces. She IS worried about him, enough to tell him to be careful but not enough to stalk him using magic.

Abigail scoots closer to Oliver, practically pressing her body against him as they walk through the crowd. She draws an image on a scrap piece of paper and suddenly they’re in a world for two.
“Oliver,” Abigail musters the most stern tone she can with him. “I-I appreciate you watching out for me but I think you should be more worried for yourself. You were almost stabbed by your own friend! That’s how dangerous things are right now!”

Oliver’s mouth opens in shock over Abigail’s concern and rubs the back of his neck awkwardly.
“Wow, I’ve never had someone this worried over me before…” He mumbles.

“Well now you have me.” Abigail says with pride before becoming more gloomy. “But please don’t make me worry so much about you, keep yourself safe for my sake if not yours.”

“I could say the same to you. Though you’re the one with magic powers here.” Oliver says.
“Oh, also, could you face me for a moment?” He asks.

Abigail turns her head towards him. “Sure, wh- mph?!”

Abigail couldn’t finish her sentence because something was blocking her lips. That thing was Oliver’s own lips.
As their lips were becoming acquainted with one another, Abigail had a completely different set of more pedestrian worries now: Did her breath smell bad? Should she have worn lip gloss? Should she use tongue? How long should a kiss last?
When Oliver hugged her closer and made the kiss more deep, those concerns melted out of her mind like chocolate in Summer. All she could focus on was the feeling of his body on hers, the shared heat, the fact they’re doing this display of affection in public, and the fact that this is probably one of the things she fantasised about the most and it’s actually happening!

When they finally disengaged their PDA the result was Abigail breathing heavily with a red face and Oliver with a big grin on his face but blushing as much as his partner.

“L-look in your pockets.” Oliver squeaks out while nervously looking away.

Abigail manages to recover enough of the wherewithal to palm her blazer and felt the silhouette of a gun and a box, likely full of ammunition.
Her mood becomes more negative at this discovery, contrary to Oliver’s expectations.

“Oliver… did you kiss me just so you could sneak that on me?” Abigail asks.

“No. I kissed you because you’re cute and I love you. I could’ve just handed it to you behind the school later, but where’s the fun in that?” Oliver replies with a smirk.

ʘ “Well, being behind the school building would’ve given us more time to escalate the intimacy-” ʘ

𐤌 “SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP” 𐤌 Abigail casts out that thought before she does something unbecoming of a girl like herself.

“T-thankyouIloveyousomuchstaysafebye!” Abigail rambles before walking as fast as she can to the Art classroom.

“Ahaha~ I love that girl.” Oliver says blissfully as he enters the workshop.

>Abigail now has a paintball gun powerful enough to kill and ammo in a variety of colours.

For Abigail, Art was many things. It was a hobby, a way of showing her perspective of reality, a way to evoke emotions in herself and an audience, a way to represent concepts beyond words.

It was never, and still isn’t, a difficult school subject. It was a boring one though!

Abigail isn’t sure if she regrets choosing Art as one of her subjects; She did learn some concepts and skills, but she had already grasped them on an instinctual level since childhood. Beyond that, the way that the school taught Art really managed to suck all the joy out of it for her which was unforgivable.
Art is difficult to teach; it requires a lot of hands-on learning over a long period of time for improvements that you might not see, ironically. Some people labour under the belief that, when it comes to creative fields, some are talented and able to succeed and others aren’t. Instead of attempting to directly tackle that mindset first and then teach others how to improve their art-style, the school opts for the same rote learning tactic that all the other subjects suffer under.
So now Abigail has to deal with a boring lesson plan that she completes in minutes. She’s completed all of the work. She could sleep in this classroom and the teacher wouldn’t even be able to do anything because she was a good student and did her work, no?

ʘ “If you think this is bad, just imagine how bored I was during the English classes” ʘ Claire chimes in.

𐤌 “You were a writer?” 𐤌 Abigail asks. If she’s going to be stuck in this class for the next hour then she might as well find out more about Claire from before she was a Witch.

ʘ “Yes, I regularly did creative writing as a hobby. I had no friends and a lot of free time but I had to occupy myself somehow so I regularly tried writing my thoughts and concepts out. People became more interested in my writing when I made my Wish, but the interest was fake. Superficial. They only cared about the writing because I wrote it, not because they wanted to share in my hobbies. And they only cared about me because of the Wish…” ʘ Claire attempts to maintain a formal monotone, but Abigail can tell she’s saddened by her past.

𐤌 “Claire, you have me now.” 𐤌
Abigail wants to reassure Claire that one day she’ll get to live as a better person. Someone who can make friendships regularly and maybe get a boyfriend.
𐤌 “You could talk with me? I know we have the whole ‘Mentor/Student’ thing going on but sometimes we should just talk about regular teenage girl stuff, you know?” 𐤌 Abigail says.

ʘ “Regular teenage girl stuff… hmm…” ʘ Claire has to actually think about this despite previously being a teenage girl.
ʘ “Ah! How was that kiss Oliver gave you?” ʘ She asks.
She knew full well the kind of reaction she would get.

𐤌 “C-can we ch-change the subject to something else?!” 𐤌 Abigail says in a mix of embarrassment and irritation.

ʘ “Well, let’s talk about that revelation you had about the Crossroads’ nature in the playground.” ʘ Claire offers.

Abigail sighs. It’s better than having to think about Oliver’s lips on hers, the taste-
She shakes her head. If she had to talk about that then she wouldn’t be able to focus at all.
𐤌 “Yeah alright, the Crossroads stuff, uh… Of what I said, how much of it was true?” 𐤌

ʘ “You were able to figure out the Neo-Hermetic truth of the Crossroads and manifest Psychological Willworking through a creative medium, so you’re mostly there. Soon you might be able to cause psychotropic damage.” ʘ Claire explains.

This explains nothing to Abigail.
𐤌 “Can you say that in words I understand?” 𐤌 She says in exasperation.

Claire performatively clears her throat. Abigail is sure this is performative as Claire doesn’t even have a throat that needs clearing.
ʘ “The dry explanation of the Crossroads I gave you before is not how everyone gets their first introduction. Those like us usually get their first taste of magic when accidentally finding a medium through which they manipulate perceptions.” ʘ

𐤌 “Like how I used Art?” 𐤌 Abigail asks absent-mindedly.

ʘ “Yes. Creative mediums like Art, Writing, and Music are very common ones, but anything that can create a representation of the world around you can work.
The Crossroads is a representation of reality, however, when you create a representation of reality in the Real World you have essentially made a ‘Micro-Crossroads’ of sorts. This model works as a ‘Focus’ through which one can manipulate the Crossroads from the Real World easily. Although this only works for people like us who already have a strong link to the Crossroads, those like Stephanie and Megan wouldn’t be able to do what we do no matter how good of an artist, writer, et cetera they were.
Certain mediums allow you to do certain things more easily than others. For example: I said I was a Writer, and I did use Writing to manipulate perception. Writing allowed me to manipulate emotions easily, but visual and auditory illusions were hard because I had to write a whole description of what people would hear.
You, Abigail, use Art. As a purely visual medium, Art is very useful for visual illusions. Unlike Writing where you have to write a long, flowery paragraph to make an illusion, you can just draw what you want to appear. I’m almost jealous. Though, I did hear from others that auditory illusions were more difficult and manipulating emotions directly through Art was tough.” ʘ

>Abigail can create sensory illusions using Art as a medium. She needs time and resources like Art supplies in order to be efficient. If she’s separated from these things, then she must perform an MA Check and a Dexterity Check.
>One interesting thing is that Familiars and Witches are actually tricked by these illusions, unlike when they’re attempted while in the Crossroads. Once again, Claire and the other Scholars before her are unsure why.

Claire’s lecture lasted a surprisingly short amount of time. The advantages of communicating at the speed of thought.
On the one hand, this meant that Abigail hadn’t actually missed much of the lesson. On the other hand, this meant that Abigail still had the majority of this boring Art Class to sit through. But maybe that’s not a bad thing? She’s completed all of her work so she can treat the rest of this lesson as free time.

>Abigail has more than half an hour’s worth of free time on her hands to do whatever she wants in the school. What’s the teacher going to do? Give her more work that she’ll complete in seconds? Even the teacher knows that’s useless. And I.E would be way too harsh for anything she could do, she thinks.

>>6289500


ф Stephanie Smith ф:

Stephanie’s Adoption: Solid Earth (+2 PA, +2 Con. +2 PA when manipulating Solid Matter)

The school bell rings, announcing the start of Period Three. Every student has five minutes to get to lesson on time or face punishment. The Puella Magi know the infraction will cause blood to be spilled.

Ө “Say, what fabric is your uniform made of?” Ө
ф “No idea.” ф
Ө “Do you know where it was tailored?” Ө
Э “Nope.” Э
Ө “What about the-” Ө
ф “Why’re you asking us these questions?” ф

Stephanie and Megan were navigating to the Food Technology Classroom on the first floor using the map given to Stephanie by Kanata. They could’ve been escorted there by Ashleigh but they wanted a head start.
It would’ve been a calming walk after that fight in the playground. Unfortunately they had an invited guest in their head.

Ө “I thought that making the uniform on my own would be a good way to get in. I would be dressed as a student and walk around as one rather than slinking about like a ruffian.” Ө Viktoria answered.

ф “You know how to sew?” ф Stephanie says.

Ө “Of course! As a lady that would be wed to a gentlemen in the future I had to learn housekeeping skills. Are you not taught them?” Ө

Э “It’s an optional class that we don’t need to do. Some people do it but not a lot.” Э Megan says.

Ө “Hmph! What will the women do when their husband’s button breaks off his suit and needs to be replaced?” Ө Viktoria asks in indignation.

Э “He would know how to sew the button onto his suit, no? Just let him do it himself.” Э Megan says as if it were obvious.

Ө “And waste his small amounts of leisure time? Next you are going to say he should just cook for himself instead of being fed a meal made with love from his wife!” Ө

The silence that followed answered her worries.

Ө “Unfathomable. Do you not get taught how to cook for your family?" Ө Viktoria says in fear.

Э “Food technology is a class were going to right now. It’s another optional one but we mandatorily take some weeks on it in the curriculum so we know how to cook.” Э

Ө “Oh thank goodness.” Ө Viktoria says in relief.

ф “Why’re you asking US these questions?” ф Stephanie asks again, putting emphasis on the part she’s curious about. “Why not Abby?”

Ө “Abigail was being courted. I will not interrupt that.” Ө

Э “Did you spy on them?” Э

Ө “Oh no, that would be uncouth! You see, I have an instinct for these things. The finer parts of socialising.
Another reason of why I didn’t ask Abigail is because she already has a ghastly beast in her mind. I would rather not give her a headache with three voices tormenting her psyche.” Ө

Stephanie realises: Oh God, is this how Abigail feels all the time?”

Ө “But it seems that you two do not have pertinent information. I will bid you adieu and wish you good luck on your investigations. Tata!” Ө
And with that, Viktoria leaves them in silence.“Is Viktoria’s posh accent legit or is she faking it?” Megan wonders.

“Nah, it’s real. Only an actual posh git could be like her.” Stephanie answers.

“True. She is a useful Puella Magi though. Time Manipulation is something you always want on your side and never the enemy’s.”

Stephanie thinks back to Viktoria shooting the Familiar. She didn’t even see the shot. Viktoria could snuff out a life in zero seconds. Stephanie stops thinking about that shot.

“Still, I don’t know if I want to listen to RP all day or a woman straight from Essex.” Megan continues.

“You don’t know, but I know what you prefer.” Stephanie says with a smirk.

Megan blushes lightly and looks away nervously. “I guess you already have this part of being the big sister down.”

“Yep. Gotta be able to look right through my little sister.”

“Trust me when I say there are some things that you’re not seeing.” Megan says solemnly.

“...Even if I can’t see them now, I’ll beat the shit out of this Witch and then we can get on with bonding like family.” Stephanie says.

Megan chuckles. “I’m pretty sure this is already a bonding experience.”

Stephanie smiles at the blatant absurdity of that statement. “Oh yeah. Getting ambushed in the toilet, almost getting stabbed, being bothered by a posh fop. I can already feel us getting closer.”

“Well yeah, haven’t you heard of trauma bonding?”

Both of the sisters laugh as they enter the Food Technology room.
The Food Technology classroom was arguably the biggest room in the school. Because it was really three rooms. The room Stephanie and Megan walked into was the part students are supposed to use, with dedicated stations of hobs, ovens, and sinks. In the back of the room is what one would call “Storage”. There were cabinets, pantries, cupboards along with a fridge and a freezer for storing ingredients.
Though what really interested the Puella Magi were the utensils.
Stephanie and Megan were a bit shocked that the storage room wasn’t locked at all and there were no security cameras nearby. Anybody could just sneak in and grab whatever food ingredients they wanted or even get some knives from the room! But who would do such a thing?

Megan was eating an apple from the refrigerator as she spoke. “Maybe the students didn’t sneak knives into school and they just stole some from here.”

Stephanie shakes her head and looks at the knives in the drawers. “These don’t look like the knives those shitheads had. Not to mention that these are too blunt.”

“You can tell?” Megan asks, impressed.

“Hmm. It’s more like an instinct.”

“Well,” Megan throws away the apple core, “we’ve confirmed that there’s material to be used for equipment. Let’s get out of here before Ashleigh finds us. I don’t want to get on her bad side.”

“Nah, it’s more like you want to get on her good side.” Stephanie teases.

Ashleigh finally arrives to the lesson and is briefly shocked to see Stephanie and Megan already there.
“How did you two get here so fast?” She asks.

“We had a map and wanted to be early. Simple as.” Stephanie answers.

“Ah! I can tell you’re going to be star students, loves!” Ashleigh says cheerfully.
“Now, for the first part of this room’s tour-”

Megan raises her hand while shuffling nervously.

“Yes, love?” Ashleigh asks.

“I need to go to the loo real bad!” Megan shouts.

Ashleigh’s face turns to a more serious countenance for the first time since these two met her.
“Why did you not go during Break?” She says with her arms crossed.

Megan and Stephanie glare at her for that question. This stand-off doesn’t last very long as Ashleigh chuckles soon after.
“I’m joking, I’m joking! I know what the toilet looks like during Break and you couldn’t pay me to go in there! You can go, but I have to go with you.” Ashleigh says.

Megan’s face turns red as a tomato. “Y-you’re going with me in the t-toilet?”

“I’m not going IN the toilet with you, but a member of staff has to accompany you walking to the toilet and hang around to make sure you don’t take too long in there. This is a really recent development that the SEN Office bothered the Headmaster for.”

“...Fine, let’s go.” Megan says glumly.

“Now, don’t look so down!” Ashleigh says cheerfully while escorting Megan out.
“You’ll be safe with me, my little cherub.”

Stephanie really hopes that no cottaging goes on in there.

>And with that, Stephanie was now left in the room alone. Alone in a room full of fire sources, metal, water, and gases. But she’s also not being supervised in general. Who knows how long Megan is going to be in the toilet? She has a lot of resources and free time on her hands.

>>6298678
Stephanie leaned up against one of the cabinets and stared up at the clock. She watched a minute pass. Then another.

"Starting to get tired of playin' nice. Got cause to go proper mental right about now..."

She could just get the party started all by herself, make it so that the others have no choice but to go into action and kill the witch without all the mucking about they were doing trying to keep up appearances. Attuning to fire and electricity and finding a power conduit. Stephanie bet that if she could siphon as much energy as she could and then abruptly dump it back in, maybe she could trip the main breaker and cause a total blackout...or, in case she was overestimated the infrastructure at this school, start a pretty serious fire. She could still work with that, though. It would make it a whole lot easier for them to get to and then inside the labyrinth.

Stephanie caught herself. Where were these thoughts coming from? Sure, wanting to stop the witch out of pure motives, like helping the people she was tormenting and feed on was a part of it, but there was also...something else. From deep inside her soul, disembodied as it was, came a strong, burning urge to fight, to win, and, ultimately, to kill whatever it was that stood in her way. And she felt her patience wearing thin, millimeter by millimeter. Thankfully, it wouldn't be long now. The witch did herself no favors by going on the offensive. The whole mess would be sorted soon and she'd be able to go back to having fun with Megan and the rest of her new friends. Pretending to have a normal school day while the enemy was *right there* really was driving her up the wall.

Maybe there was some merit to the earlier rash of...very rash thoughts. Abigail's illusions could help them sneak past people, but they didn't really have an answer for cameras. Perhaps Stephanie could provide the aforementioned with her abilities...

>Change to Adoption: Plasmic Fire
>Find a power conduit to tap into the school's electrical system from. Explore Stephanie's ability to map, navigate, and manipulate the flow of electricity at this scale to the potential end of causing localized blackouts or disabling specific pieces of equipment, like cameras or electronic locks.
>If Megan and Ashleigh still aren't back, look around the room for anything that could be particularly useful or interesting to the rest of the gang (Perception 12, could be 14 with Water Adoption, though).

>>6298663

Emily nods at the questions. Straying a smidge into philosophy, but one rooted in practical reasoning, so she sees no reason not the answer.

"Why do I like food?" She echos.
Emily opens her mouth to speak, but pauses, finding the exact words is a precarious task. "Food" She begins slowly. "Is one of life's simple pleasures. Each flavor represents a different, readily available source." Her speech gradually finds it's footing. "The pleasure from eating a delicious ice cream, for example." She takes a cup of steaming black coffee and put a spoonful of mixed vanilla strawberry ice cream inside. Relishing a sip with a smile, the bitter hot coffee and the sweet cool ice cream mixing on the tongue. "Isn't the same as the pleasure from a freshly baked bread." She saws a slice of a woodcutters bread, the crunch is a song to the ears. Texture even better, the hard crust that shatters, allowing access to the soft crumb underneath, a few nuts interspersed in both layers. Simple, pallet cleansing, delicious. She sighs in satisfaction.

"Food isn't the only pleasure, of course. The beauty of nature, satisfaction of exercise, a good book read properly, and even spending time with good company." Emily nods towards Marisa. "But all of those are individually equivalent to a single flavor, not higher, nor lower. And while I don't claim to have found or experienced even a fraction of either, there are simply many more flavors then there are other pleasures. With many other pleasures overlapping. While flavors are much simpler to contrast, allowing the continuation of the chain of experience forevermore."
She finishes her ice cream coffee, and takes another bite of the bread, before dipping it into a meaty bean stew and swallowing the result in one bite. The flavors and textures smoothly transition from one to the other, the pleasure unceasing.
"That is not to say that the other pleasures are comparatively worthless, a flavor long untasted is that much better when you have it again. Plus, many of these other pleasures can be combined with food to further enhance the experience, like a delicious picnic in beautiful nature."

Emily pauses for a moment, thinking on her words, then catches herself.
"Oh, nearly forgot. By flavors I don't just mean salty and sweet, or bitter and sour, or things like that. Textures also apply just the same. Smells too and even appearance has influence. Though one has to have a proper mindset to take pleasure from what is there, instead of lessening it."
She nods, satisfied, before considering the next question.

>>6301220

"The wish though. I mean, it was pretty simple, just to be able to eat again. Though I also didn't want to get that thing where you gorge yourself after not eating and die, or poison myself on something I wasn't used to, so I tried to word it more generally, y'know? I mean, that white thing seemed like a damn fairy, or genie, or something, not including a safety clause was just asking for trouble. I think the exact wording was:"
Emily clears her throat with a cough. "I wish to bite, tear, and devour, whatever I desire and howevermuch I desire, without suffering ill effects."
With a smile she adds. "Also happens to remove the only weak point of eating food for pleasure, a full stomach."
She laughs wholeheartedly. Taking a few moments to calm after the last few chuckles.

"As for your remaining question, now that's an important one. I will make requests, don't think I won't it's just." For a moment, Emily's newly gained bluster falters. "While I have put a lot of through into this I haven't actually... had a chance to experiment much." She scratches the back of her neck. "Right now, the beer variety coouuuld be a bit better, but even there, more testing is needed."
"BUT" Emily grins. "That's one hell of a great problem to have. So don't worry, I'll get back to you on that."

Giving Marisa a few moments to process the information, Emily licks her lips again, catching a stay droplet of the meaty stew, and immediately hones on the bowl. Beginning the process of its content's annihilation. Taste buds singing, while her mind wonders despite herself. Magical girl... honestly, it doesn't sound like it effects what she likes to do, so she doesn't see a reason to dig beyond what Marisa tells her. Getting unplugged from her body would be annoying though, but seeing as that hasn't happened... Maybe she swallowed her soul gem after the deal and didn't notice? It was before she went to sleep after all, maybe it appeared and she managed to snag it while dozing off? She is used to waking up with drool on her pillow, sometimes even chewing on a piece of it (though lately some bite marks too, whoops). Well, whatever is the case, she's feels fine, so it's pointless thinking about it.