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 messy ponytail, due to a lack of 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. At this point she wears clothing fit for a hiking trip, this is due to the urgent situation she woke up to.

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.

Her Wish was “To have a loving family, loyal friends, and a place to belong. Maybe a pet dog. Or a cat? Both?”

Stats
>£ Physical Affinity: 12
>λ Magical Affinity: 12
>彡 Dexterity: 14
>メ Perception: 12
>⸫ Wisdom: 10
>π Intelligence: 10
>ღ Charisma: 10
>φ Mind: 14
>Ω Constitution: 14

>Abilities

Stephanie can be 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. This Magia is named “Families of Matter” and “Adoptions”.
Stephanie can use Physical Affinity to force objects and people to gain the qualities of other objects. If the target is against the change being done, then Stephanie’s PA Vs. Target’s Con will be tested

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. But strong passions lay beneath the surface that flare when needed and cause her to spring to action. A budding 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.

Her Wish was that "I'd really like it if Oliver was my boyfriend..."

Stats
>£ Physical Affinity: 10
>λ Magical Affinity: 14
>彡 Dexterity: 12
>メ Perception: 14
>⸫ Wisdom: 10
>π Intelligence: 14
>ღ Charisma: 12
>φ Mind: 14
>Ω Constitution: 8

>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 language barriers. Including stuttering and mutism.
Abigail can scan the thoughts and memories of a person she is linked to with an MA test.
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.

Abigail can 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. Claire is an entity of Grief and Abigail is blocking the effects of her Grief by subconsciously using a mental filter. Claire is never intentionally antagonistic, she even helps Abigail develop her Magic. Though darker aspects of her personality sometimes rear their head...

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 blonde 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.

Profile: Denied the luxuries of life due to years in a hospital, she yearns to experience pleasure. This is mainly in the form of food, that one thing that was replaced with slurry before her Wish; But she’s not a blind glutton, she’s a gourmet, a connoisseur. She’s willing to do many things for a chance to get more food, and her plans often tie to that one goal. Despite looking terrifying and being a shameless girl with food on her mind, she’s actually a fairly amiable person. If anyone looked past her appearance and appetite then they would find that she’s a great conversation partner. Her Wish was ”to bite, tear, and devour, whatever I desire and however much I desire, without suffering ill effects.”

ф Stephanie Smith ф:

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

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, millimetre by millimetre. Thankfully, it wouldn't be long now. The witch did herself no favours 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).

Stephanie focuses on her frustration and anger. That anger feels like a painful flame in her chest heating up her body.

But it’s not just her body that’s heating up.

She pushes that anger outwards, not to banish it but so everything around her can feel the sparks of her emotions. The world, like a vengeful parent, responds and uses her anger as fuel for fire and energy.

Stephanie’s Adoption: Plasmic Fire
Magic Affinity: 12 -> 14
Constitution: 16 -> 14

Stephanie calms herself down again and looks around the room for any security cameras, and she doesn’t see them first, she senses them. Devices that store and use energy just stick out like a sore thumb to her. Expanded senses? When she was in Solid Earth she was able to sense what physical objects were made of, right down to how sharp a knife was. Maybe this was the same for energy?

But that wasn’t her main reason for changing Adoptions. Stephanie looks for a power conduit that’s out of the way of the security cameras and… can’t find any. Her senses do tell her that power conduits go through this room; she can feel the electricity circulating through the area and pooling into the various appliances. She guesses they’re in the walls.

“This is going to be a ballache.” Stephanie mumbles.

She reaches out, not with a hand but with her mind and emotions. Stephanie asks the electricity ”Could you turn off those security cameras?”

Stephanie feels the cameras being starved of power and is taken aback. “Wait, it was really that easy? I’ll never get used to doing this stuff by just asking the world nicely to do what I want.”

Stephanie’s experimentation continues with attempting to find the limits of her range and control over electricity.
Overall, she’s found that manipulating electricity is easy as long as she doesn’t overthink things and goes with her gut. She once tried to wave her hands like a wizard or a psychic to force the electricity in specific directions but that just exhausted her and made her look like a fool; she was very thankful she turned off the cameras and no-one was recording her.

In frustration of her failure despite multiple attempts, Stephanie thought for a moment that it would’ve been nice if she could turn the microwave on with her mind so she could multitask. The microwave closest to her made the distinct beeping sound of activating. She similarly thought about closing the lights, and they closed. These instances shocked her at first because they happened abruptly due to random passing thoughts, but she eventually managed to get them under control.

“Now for the last test.”
Stephanie raises her hand as if she’s reaching for something, clenches it into a fist, and tells the energy to Stop, Now.
All of the lights abruptly turn off, leaving the only lighting to be the scant amount of sunlight coming through the windows. All of the microwaves and ovens die immediately. And-
“Oh shit!” Stephanie shouts as she runs to the back of the room and sees that the refrigerator and freezer are also deactivated. “Aw shite. Oi, can you turn them back on for me? Don’t want to get in trouble with the staff for spoiling the food.”
The refrigerator and freezer comply, lights back on, and Stephanie sighs in relief. Disaster averted.

Stephanie, after all of her experimenting, comes to a few conclusions about her Magic:
>Stephanie can sense the element of her Adoption and instinctively knows certain qualities of them. In Solid Earth she can tell the specific make up of a physical object, in Plasmic Fire she can sense areas with large amounts of heat and/or electricity. The others have not been explored in detail enough to know.
>Her Magic works on instinct and emotion rather than logic. She doesn’t need to know the specific circuitry of a security camera to turn it off, she just needs to know that it’s powered by electricity and that she wants it off.
>Phrasing her actions in requests and commands makes the process easier. It doesn’t have to be verbal, she just has to ask nicely in her head.
>The total range of control is about one large building (enough for the school, how convenient!), but the amount of fine control she has decreases as she stretches the range. She could individually control every appliance in one room, but if she had to control an entire building then she could only make simple “On/Off” commands for the whole area.

Stephanie tries to occupy herself by doing more shocking parlour tricks. Making fire in her hands and manipulating air to prevent the smoke from activating the fire alarm, absorbing the ambient heat around her to warm herself, she even managed to make a cool plasma sword using a combination of fire and electricity!
But as she looks into the sword’s light and feels its heat, she keeps thinking: “The Witch is right there. I could maybe get in and kill that bitch right now with this sword.”

”God, I’m just about ready to get violent on some poor bastard.” She thinks in frustration.

Ө ”Well. Those must be some strong homicidal thoughts if I can hear them accidentally.” Ө

Stephanie can recognise that authentically posh RP anywhere. Viktoria Walker.

[”Why’re you in my head again? I thought you said I didn’t have ‘pertinent information’.” Stephanie asks in annoyance.

Ө “Yes, but I do now and I need to share. First of all, there are multiple entrances to the Witch’s Labyrinth.” Ө

Stephanie opens her eyes wide in shock. ”What?! Where?!”

Ө “I found one within a shed in the street near the school’s entrance. But if there is two then there is likely more elsewhere, keep your eyes out. Now for my second piece of information: This Witch can create doppelgängers.” Ө Viktoria’s voice, despite delivering news that she considered horrifying, was calm. A trained kind of calmness.

This completely contrasted Stephanie’s reaction. Her plasma blade flares up in surprise and she extinguishes it before anything bad happens. ”Lass, how’d you find this out anyway?!”

Ө “A Familiar appeared from the Labyrinth entrance in the shed while I was investigating. I was initially going to strike it down immediately with my Temporal Piercer, my firearm, but when I took aim I saw… you. I was startled for a second but quickly realised it was not the real you because you were still in school. I decided to toy with the Familiar for a while to gather some information and found out more things about these doppelgängers; They do not have any of your Magic, so the same might be true for doppelgängers of others like us; It also did not act exactly like you, the gait was off, and the countenance was not what I remember of you. There are likely other tells but those are the ones I have found.” Ө

Stephanie sighs in exasperation. If it wasn’t bad enough that someone almost got stabbed and she can’t just kill the Witch, she has to worry about doppelgangers as well. At least there are ways she can spot them, but it’s another example of how the situation is only going to get worse the longer the Witch is around.

>>6322915
Welcome back! I'm already in one of the other Meguga Royales (and waiting with baited breath that they come back) but I'll be following this thread! Go team!

Ө “That is all the information I have to deliver. I have to say it is diabolical that this Witch would attempt to steal the likeness of others; could she have not just made a custom body for herself and come at us in honourable combat rather than attempt to trick us with these farces of Humanity?” Ө
Viktoria sighs to keep herself from getting too heated and continues. Ө ”Farewell to you fellow lady, I must bring in my maid for backup and ironically have no time for more prattle. Oh! And watch those rash thoughts of yours; Negative emotions are much more dangerous for us than any commoner.” Ө

Stephanie is finally left alone in her own head. She didn’t think that it would be novel to only have your own voice in your head but she supposes nothing is normal any more in her new life.
”Does Abigail have constant mental conversations like this? It’s very taxing on the brain. And what was that Viktoria said at the end about my thoughts? Sure I’ve been having some rash thoughts recently but I haven’t actually done anything rash yet. In fact, I’ve been pretty productive!”

“Stephanie?” A familiar voice says.

Stephanie is snapped out of her thoughts and freezes for a moment. That’s Megan’s voice. Megan’s back-
”Wait, I was just warned about doppelgangers. There’s no way I’m going not going to be suspicious about this. Maybe Alba was onto something about team names and such.”

Stephanie turns and puts on a smile, which is easy when looking at her friend-turned-sister, then replies. “Yeah? You’re back from the toilet?”

Megan nods. “Yep.”

“So where’s Ashleigh? Isn’t she supposed to stay with you?” Stephanie does think it would be strange if the staff members had to go with students to the toilet but not come back with them.

“She apparently had to talk with someone in the SEN Office and trusted me enough to come back here myself.”

Stephanie nods, but knows that she has to be more wary. As sad as it makes Stephanie to be suspicious of her own sister, she doesn’t want to find out that she’s been talking to an impostor the whole time and her sister is dead or something. God, the thought of that burns her.

>Megan is here. Or at least, something that looks like Megan is here. Confirming where Megan is might be more complicated now that doppelgängers are at play, but perhaps there’s a simple solution to confirming whether the Megan in front of Stephanie right now is the real Megan.

Emily Brighton:

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 flavour 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.

Marisa nods before taking a nibble of bread herself. Emily can tell that Marisa doesn’t eat unless she needs to because her bread is just wholemeal with no additions. One of the types who sees food as a source of nutrients and nothing more. But the fact that she’s eating despite her disinterest shows an attempt to empathise that Emily was not expecting.
“I believe I’m starting to understand. But surely food isn’t the only aspect of life one can enjoy?” Marisa asks.

"Food isn't the only pleasure, of course.” Emily responds.
“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 flavour, 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 flavours then there are other pleasures. With many other pleasures overlapping. While flavours 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 flavours 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 flavour 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."

A smile crawls onto Marisa’s face as she makes a crêpe with pistachio, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream. Unhealthy for sure but undeniably packed with flavour. She takes a hearty bite and makes one of the few grins Emily has ever seen her make, if at all. She’s starting to learn.
“Hm. It’s not the path that I follow but I can understand the appeal. Reminds me of the Hellfire Clubs but more… restrained, despite your voracity.” Marisa polishes off the crepe with a cup of tea and dabs her mouth with a napkin. She isn’t as good as Emily at downing large amounts of food without making a mess.

“Despite my want for food, I wouldn’t describe it as mere hunger or voracity. More as a want for the enjoyment of varied flavours, but measured and...”
Emily pauses for a moment, thinking on her words, then catches herself.
"Oh, nearly forgot. By flavours 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."

Marisa seems to have gone for the classic tea and crumpets for this round of food. An understated taste. “That is true. I doubt I would have the proper thinking to truly enjoy such pleasure the same way you do, I have other passions. Though, Now that I know of your…” Marisa tries to avoid the word ‘philosophy’.
“Way of life, I can more properly tailor tasks to your liking so they don’t interfere with your wants. But now for the question that often reveals much of a Puella Magi’s character: Your wish.”

Emily nods. "Right, 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.

Marisa chuckles as well, though it’s not a noblewoman’s chuckle or a mad scientist’s crazed laughter like Emily was expecting, but rather something akin to a Witch’s cackle. “An interesting Wish. A very interesting Wish. I will certainly have a fun time with you- Oh, I don’t mean to scare you. It’s just that some wishes people make can be awfully drab and not well thought out. But enough about that. My last question, requests?”

"Ah, 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.

Marisa looks up at the ceiling – made of golden caramel and toffee – while deep in thought. Taking a few bites of a beefsteak, she finally responds.
“I do like experimentation myself, obviously of a different kind than yours, so I will offer you a task to play guinea pig.”

“Already? I thought you already had plenty of dead bodies to experiment on?” Emily says between mouthfuls of soup, mostly as a joke.

Marisa smiles and shakes her head. “Oh no, just the one.” She jests then she takes on a more serious tone. “Besides, this is something that can only be done with a specimen like you, with your Wish. But first an explanation of the situation:
I am not the ultimate mistress of this domain, no matter how it may look. I… took this location under my control from a supernatural creature that we call a “Witch” and this is actually a “Labyrinth”. It was a complicated thing that I believe only someone like me could do, but it gave me the domain that we are now enjoying. My hold over the Labyrinth is not complete though, occasionally this Witch regains its strength and takes back control over the place. That’s why you saw those dancing teapots and what-have-you before I beat some sense back into that Witch.”

Emily gulps down some plain water for once and says: “Sounds troublesome. Why not just kill this Witch and take over the whole place? You’re not stupid, that’s for sure, so you must have a good reason.”

“Yes, the reason why is because I can’t without losing this place. You see, the Witch is like… the source of the Labyrinth. If the Witch is killed then the magic maintaining the Labyrinth disappears. As much as I say that I don’t like food as much as you do, you have to agree that an infinite food source is nonetheless useful, correct?”

Emily finishes a roast chicken before responding. “Yes, absolutely. Though I do wonder how this is relevant to my task? Are you going to ask me to kill the Witch? Surely you know that I don’t want all of this,” she spreads her arms out, “To be gone?”

“Yes, you will be killing the Witch-”
Emily opens her mouth.
“But not in the usual way.”

Then she cocks her head slightly. How else then? ”Wait, she said that it was something that only I, with my Wish, can do...”
“You’re going to ask me to eat the Witch?” Emily asks in genuine confusion.

Marisa claps her hands. “Yes! I was hoping that you would figure it out just so I wouldn’t have to say something so preposterous. Before you ask ‘Why’: As I said before, this Witch is the Source of the Labyrinth and if it dies then the Labyrinth will disappear. But you can eat anything with no downsides! My guess is that if you eat the Witch then you will become the source of the Labyrinth by digesting the Witch’s power. I will warn you that this task won’t be easy. You’ll have to fight the Witch in combat and I won’t be helping because I need to be able to check on you after you devour the thing. Just in case anything goes wrong.”

Emily thinks about it and nods. “I can see the logic. Though I do wonder if I will gain anything from this. Excuse me, I know that you’ve already introduced me to paradise so asking for more looks greedy, but you did say I have to fight it in combat and that’s a risk to my life. Not to mention there’s the risk that your guess isn’t correct.”

Marisa frowns. “If my guess is correct then you will gain sole control over this Labyrinth and all it holds. Not only that, but I believe that you can… bring it with you. For all the good we can say about this place, one downside is that it’s only in one location and that location is an obscure corner of York. Not only that but it’s under my control, not yours. At any moment, if I were a more ruthless woman, I could just sic every Familiar in this Labyrinth on you. Or the Witch can because she shares control! Honestly-”

Emily interrupts. “Excuse me, what are ‘Familiars’?”

Marisa calms down and performatively clears her throat. “Right, I’m getting ahead of myself. Familiars are creatures that Witches create to perform menial tasks like kidnapping innocents and killing people.”

“Are you telling me that there are supernatural creatures in York that skulk around kidnapping and killing people? How have I never seen nor heard of them? How strong is the ‘masquerade’ here?” Emily asks both in curiosity and horror.

“You never see nor hear of them because you usually can’t unless you’re like us. And Puella Magi usually hunt down Witches, and therefore Familiars, like their lives depend on it. As for the ‘masquerade’-” Marisa winces before continuing. “I want to say it’s strong but it’s only really as strong as the least discreet Puella Magi.”
“Anyway, there are direct downsides to this current situation that we can be rid off if I’m correct. Think about it: Infinite food wherever you go and you’ll have absolute control over it. All you have to do is fight something that should be within your power to defeat.”

>Emily honestly wasn’t expecting to get into a fight today, among other things, and she doesn’t need to. She could say that the current splendour satisfies her already, not go along with this, and just keep eating.

𐤌Abigail Fulson 𐤌

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

Abigail wakes up to her being asleep.

”I’m outside my body?” She says in confusion.
She quickly realises that the only reason she could be out of her body is that she’s in the Crossroads. She looks around and sees that the Art classroom looks more like a painting than a real life room, with the teacher having a higher colour saturation, looking more vivid, than anything or person in the room.

”Oh hey, you’re finally up!” The Witch exclaims.

Abigail rubs her head and turns to look at Claire. The Witch in her mind, sharing space in her Soul. She looks like a regular black-haired girl, she always does in the Crossroads, but she’s constantly oozing some sort of dark aura around her that’s likely the Grief her Soul is still filled with. Claire wears a black day dress with bow details and puffed sleeves straight out of the Victorian Era. Abigail guesses that’s what her Magical Girl attire was like.

”W-what happened?” Abigail asks.

Claire adopts a sinister grin befitting her former nature. ”You suffered a mental attack from the Witch while not paying attention. Shows you to just sit around waiting for the lesson to end.”

Abigail folds her arms together and leans in to give Claire an accusatory glare. “You’re a terrible liar. You know I know that my mind filters out unwanted mental effects- usually anyway.”

”Alright, you caught me red-handed. You actually just fell asleep in class. No-one’s bothering you because they’re focusing on their own work and the teacher can’t lob more work at you because you complete it in your sleep.” Claire explains.

”I’ve been doing school work in my sleep?!”
Abigail knew she found Art Class easy but not to the point that she could literally do it in her sleep. She doesn’t know whether to be proud of herself or disappointed in the school.

”Enough about that though. I dragged you here instead of letting you sleep so I could tell you something. This Witch can make doppelgangers.”

Abigail suppresses her shock from the statement to ask an important question. ”How did you find out about this?” She has a suspicion…

”Oh, I eavesdropped on a conversation between Stephanie and Viktoria.” Claire casually replies.

Abigail thinks she’ll never get this girl to stop spying on people.
”F-for goodness’ sake, why do you keep invading people’s privacy by mind-reading?!”

The question seems to prod directly at some bad experiences Claire had. Her countenance becomes distraught, her tone is defensive and the dark aura around her spikes.
”Look, this was the only way I could make friends when I was human! I had to look in their heads to figure out what I could say to get them to like me!” She starts making quick short breaths. The beginning of crying. T-that’s all I could do, so I have to keep doing it- and-”
She breathes in deeply to calm herself. She can’t have an emotional breakdown now. She’s a Witch in another Witch’s territory and has a risk of hurting a person she genuinely cares about.

Abigail looks at the floor. She feels a bit guilty about the reaction she caused, but she can’t just let that behaviour slide. Okay, comfort. She can do that, right?
”Remember: I’m here for you and you don’t have to read my mind- you can’t really anyway. You should talk with the others in our group more often, both to stop spying on them and so you don’t rely on me for conversations with people.”

”Yeah, I should.” Claire replies with the emotional numbness that comes with baring your emotions, but Abigail can tell she’s sincere.

Abigail waits for the atmosphere to cool before talking again.
”S-so, doppelgangers, huh?” She mentions awkwardly

Claire, now fully calm, responds.

”The Witch seems to be able to craft her Familiar’s appearance and behaviour to a facsimile of a real person. Of course, there are limitations: Familiars do not have our Magic, the Witch does not know us more than we know each other and so tells can be spotted between close relationships, and it’s just off from human that it can trigger people’s “Uncanny Valley” senses at times.
But that’s not the most efficient tell. There are sure-fire ways to spot impostors.”

Claire remains silent after. Abigail was really hoping for an explanation of any of these “Sure-fire ways”.
”S-so? Are you going to tell me?” Abigail finally says, breaking the, now awkward, silence.

”Oh no, I already gave a massive amount of exposition, I’d rather not bore you to sleep- though you can’t really sleep here. Besides, this is one of those things that’s better when you figure it out yourself. A hint though: Familiars do not have something that you and our group have which ties us together.”

Abigail sighs in frustration. She thought she had Claire pegged as the “Regretful formerly evil mentor” archetype, not the “Strange cryptic mentor” she’s playing as now.

>A sure-fire way to spot impostors… It would be useful since they’re a thing now. If someone tried to take Oliver’s identity... that would be dangerous for Abigail’s heart and soul. Abigail doesn’t have much to work with, but she feels like it’s enough to figure this out.

>>6322931
Hey! We seem to have a trend here with the Meguca Royales.
This thread should be more fast-paced. It will likely have Total Witch and Familiar Death.

>>6322917
Name: Himari Nakamura

Appearance: 6 feet 3, with thick black hair that almost reaches the ground, she is not too thin- quite chubby, in fact, but has outright nothing up top. Her eyes are a dull brown.
Her face is sharp, her fingers always shake unless she pulls her hands into fists, and she wears her school uniform most of the time (that of a middle-class university).
19, but very very strange

Quirks: Shy, self deprecating, with immense loneliness and a great desire for love. Deep down are buried terrible anger issues.

Wish: “I w-want to have the b-biggest boobs in the w-world… p-please?”

>>6322980
oh, forgot: very, very, VERY gay- unbeknownst to her

>>6322980

Himari Nakamura

Himari Nakamura sits in a stall within one of the girl’s toilets of the University. She doesn’t like coming here, it’s cramped and smells horrible no matter how soon it was cleaned like a universal constant that can’t be scrubbed out, but it’s one of the places that’s left alone and she knows no-one is looking at her. It’s one of those things about herself she never understood: She wants people to look at her more but is deathly afraid of people looking at her. But she doesn’t have time to in-depth introspection.

Sat in her lap is a strange white creature. It’s not a fox, she’s seen many foxes in Britain and none of them look like this one but, once again, she can’t think much about the details. What she does know is that this thing said its name was Kyubey and it promised a wish granted after she left the cafeteria in a rush. She could feel an aching feeling in her chest and nothing good happens when she feels that.

“I w-want to have the b-biggest boobs in the w-world… p-please?” Himari mumbles out.

The creature looks up at her. Its expression never changes but she swore there was confusion in its head movements.

”Himari, Wishes are a powerful thing. You can have things beyond your dreams and in the realm of fantasy when you become a Magical Girl. There are much more fantastical things to yearn for than a simple change to your body.” Kyubey says.

Are you really sure you simply want a modification to your body and nothing more substantial? Fulfilling? Powerful?”

>>6322989
Himari thinks back to all the times she’s been left alone, picked last, made fun of. The only one not invited to a party, or to grab a drink, or to watch a movie.

All the times she was grouped with the losers, the freaks, the weirdos- only to be rejected by them too because there’s really nothing freakish or weird about her.

All of it would’ve been different, if she’d just been… prettier.

With a face redder than a bleeding sun, she nods, mumbling oh-so-weakly
“I’m s-sure”

She doesn’t need powers. She just needs to be pretty, and everything will be fine! Perfect, even!

>>6322960
for real, your persistence is admirable. at this point im sure that your readers know that they can think up long term plans and see those come into play at some point

>>6322980
for the record, i had this almost very exact same idea a few weeks ago. LET IT BE KNOWN
that being said, i'm glad that it's a theme others already find interesting

>>6323046
Trust me, I haven’t read the other threads. Giant tits are just like crabs- everything eventually leads to them

>>6322960
The prodigal son returns. You were really testing my faith in you for a sec there.

>>6322952

Huh, if Witches do all that, maybe the medieval people had a point.
Though as to her involvement with this, well, that's pretty clear. Marisa is her friend, and she wants a favor. Nothing else to it.
The morality of killing someone... eh, it would have been more of a thought if she didn't get a conformation of souls existing. At that point it's just sending everyone where they belong.
Eating someone is a bit more gnarly, but she heard that humans taste like pork, so it can't be that bad.

But, with the theoretical quandaries dealt with as swiftly as her mushroom souffle, the practical ones rear their head.
The main problem is Emily's own safety. The last thing she wants is, after getting this windfall, to go off and die. If it was one on one, she would trust her chances, but with the Familiars involved? It becomes a question.
Still, Marisa wouldn't suggest it if she didn't think Emily could do it. But even then, it doesn't hurt to ask.

"If you need it done, then I'll do it, all there is to it. Though fighting a whole group with my hands and uh, teeth, is not really something I'm used to, and losing all this just by getting knocked on the head from a blind angle is something I'd want to avoid. So, any tips for improving my odds?"

>>6323183
((Forgot my trip, but at least I have a chance to welcome the thread back! I was worried after the last one went down.))