Sakura feels the tension rise as she reaches out and grabs Tomoyo, a sense of wonder filling her.
Fleur reaches out for the burned girl, sparing a glance to the other, shunting all the other weirdness going on to the back of her mind for the moment.
"Are you okay" she asks as she scans over her body for any more recent injuries.
Dedric observes as the girl falls towards him, as she stops above him he flinches back for a moment. The slumped body of the man in a tropical still fresh in his mind. He was shaking, he didn’t understand her, he didn’t understand any of this and he feared it. Somewhere deep inside he feared it all. Reflexively his hand moved towards his bag where a small leather bound bible rested, he brought it with him everywhere, a familiar companion for times such as these.
The girl opened her emerald eyes and Dedric’s hand return to a defensive position to his side, his muscles tensed ready for action at any moment. When she laughed, however, Dedric wasn’t ready for that and her next move took advantage of his moment of confusion.
As she slashed towards him Dedric only had the time to register the presence of the other girl in danger and to throw himself in her direction hoping to push her away from the floating girl and the danger she posed.
The aqua-haired girl blinks a few times as she flails a little bit for balance as not only the wash of energy subsides but also is released by her apparent saviour who is clutching... a doll?
Why is she staring at me like that? She tried to save my life, I'm alive, what is... I don't...
They glance to the doll-clutching child, then the bloody mess below, then to the others in disarray.
"How do we help them?" The inquiry is small, quiet, and not even directed to anyone in particular, almost as if they are lost in the chaos of the moment as they try to grasp to some sort of direction, their movements fluid in a way reminiscent of the waves of the ocean.
Things definitely don't feel 'right' for them at the same point they feel 'more right' than they ever have. If they had time to have a migraine over this, they probably would be right now, but there's a crisis... but they have no idea of how the tides of the action should rise and fall... they need someone to give a hint... something... anything?
"Ano..." Sora 'uhhhhs', as the man takes the time to cut open a blanket, put the feathers into a pot, and then shake the entire mess. The icon appearing in relation to the pot, just makes her look at her surroundings with even more scrutiny. She misses the point where everything blends together, as she starts to look for needle pricks on her arms... this had to be some sort of drug-induced hallucination. Had to. Finding nothing, "Gas leak, maybe..?" she says, not quite certain of where she is or what to do.
"What do you mean 'your mother destroys you?'"
Barring that, she frowns a little. She holds up the food she'd brought with her. "I have a bento box... lots of sweets, a little sushi... I've got a camera, and pastels... will those do anything useful?" She didn't know what to think, but going along with it seemed a lot better than fighting her way out.
I, I don't know. What can we do?
May was pretty sure it was a hallucination already but having her question answered raised some more suspicion, was it a real answer or was her brain just making up something?
I guess asking was pointless in the first place then.
Confused and completely out of her element May shrugged and surrender to the new environment, she follows Fora and offers her duffle bag as well containing: A fiction book, a small pocket knife, and an English to Japanese translation book.
"Be safe, be careful, stay down!" the sailor tells Sakura.
Naiad can feel the tides surging within her, roiling energies pushing her to action some sort of action, any action, live in the moment action like waves upon the ocean with the ferocity of the great tsnunami.
She'll attempt to launch herself off the same railing that the psychotic spirit was dancing upon, to plant a huge double-fisted blow across her back and hopefully send her sprawling.
Action: Offensive
Magic Descriptor: Raging Blow From the Depths
In a contrast that may go unnoticed, it doesn't seem like any of Sora's possessions are glowing.
As May shuffles through her bag to show off its contents, she notices that the translation book appears to be glowing with a pure, white light. As her hand touches it, she feels a small shock and the image of a silver train appears, as if burnt into the back of her eyelids.
As you pack up your things, Hiro, you can see the quill pen stuffed into your notebook, shimmering with an orange light like the early shades of a sunset.
Jo and Alaina are covered in small bumps and scrapes, but some of them look older and partly healed. A dry-erase marker, glowing in warm shades of fuchsia, rolls to a stop against Fleur's wheel. Something clutched in Jo's hand is emitting a cloying dark red light.
The Bible streaks out of Dedric's bag and out in front of his face as he throws himself into the fray. The blade grazes his knuckles and buries itself into the book. There is a bright flash of turquoise light as the book flares with arcane static. Blood drips from his fingers and onto the leather binding.
As Cresting Tide Naiad leaps from the balcony into a perfect dive, surging waters crest and burst from her leading fist...
When the blow lands, both girls are launched across the room in torrents of water. The blow was crushing, but off-center. Naiad finds herself splayed across a carousel horse, completely discharged of energy. The phantasmal girl collides with the video screen and sticks there, wetly. Her blade is still sticking out of Dedric's Bible.
Naiad can feel the tides surging within her, roiling energies pushing her to action some sort of action, any action, live in the moment action like waves upon the ocean with the ferocity of the great tsnunami.
She'll attempt to launch herself off the same railing that the psychotic spirit was dancing upon, to plant a huge double-fisted blow across her back and hopefully send her sprawling.
The oceans roar within the newly-evidenced magical girl, and her bellow carries the report of far-off battleship main guns as the impact strikes and the energy focused plows into the target.
The aqua-haired girl had thrown a bit of a spin into her mighty swing but wasn't quite anticipating the *water* that surged along with her strike, and she's soaked to the bones and crumples downwards into a bit of a heap upon the collision, gasping a bit almost like a fish out of water as she feels that energy that had permeated her so leave her just as quickly.
She starts to get up, then slumps back down.
I bought you a window. DO SOMETHING, DAMNIT!
Sakura cowers where she is, her eyes watching the strike that threw both women across the floor. She needs help! Desperately pulling the pipe out she throws it at the phantasmal murderess. The pipe spins end over end towards her.
Miyako jumps at the sudden shout, watching as the blue haired girl barrels through the air with a jet of water to send the spirit flying. She quickly runs over to try and help the aquatic magical girl to her feet, keeping her can of mace held tight to her chest with one hand as the other arm wraps around Naiad's shoulders. "A-Are you alright?"
"What are you... ge... get down and into cover before..."
Naiad doesn't argue with the hand up, though. Her 'getting up', though, is a bit more of an issue, as she leans on Chrysanth.
She's going to come for me, you need to get away.
"Thank you for helping, just... don't get dead, okay?"
Jo would look between Ali and the wheelchair girl for a moment, a look of confusion and concern on her face. Thankfully, however, Ali begins to move, prompting the albino girl to let out a breath before grabbing the marker. At that point, Ali began to shake her some, prompting Jo to give her a wide smile.
"I'm good, Ali! Are you OK? So glad to have finally found you. Glad I followed that man's advice. Would have been lost for ages otherwise. And you can not imagine how scary this place can be alone! Well, I mean, I'm sure you can, but still! You drop this?"
With that, Jo would hand the marker over to Alaina, still smiling. It was also in that moment that the girl consciously realized that there was someone else there.
"Oh! Hi there! I'm Jo. Man, this place is weird, huh? Ah well. Wanna hang with us for a bit? Probably not a really good idea to be alone here. Things are a bit strange here right now for some reason.... Oh yeah! That reminds me! Do you know what an Otomeza is? The guy who helped me said I should see one, so I figured I might as well do so in return for him helping me out."
The phantom of the young woman lays pressed against the massive bay window, drenched head to toe in water. Her nightgown clings scandalously to her skin, revealing long crimson cuts on her thighs, arms, and stomach. Disgusted, the phantom shakes her soaked sleeves. The long, red ribbons arcing through the air like whips. Then, she is no longer at the window, but leaping through the air.
Sakura, from your perch on the balcony, you pitch the broken bus sign at the young woman at the window, but you can see almost immediately that you weren’t strong enough to reach her. Your heart leaps with hope when she leaps through the air, thinking she might have leapt into the trajectory, then an errant red ribbon wraps around the pole, and with a jerk, the pole is in the phantom’s hands.
The raven alights on porcelain horse near Naiad and addresses the humans. “The Heart Pledge is not really something you should take lightly. Your lives may not be the same again. Unfortunately, it’ll take more than Uoza’s power to subdue this Nightmare. If you have an object you have vested emotions in, douse it in some form of personal essence: blood, sweat, tears, or whatever, and speak the words of the pledge. The first door will open, and your magic will be released. I gotta say, though-”
With a resounding crack, the raven disappears. In the phantom’s hands, the bus sign has transformed into an ornate silver scythe, shaped much like a massive straight razor. From the cloud of black feathers, you aren’t sure if the bird managed to teleport away, or simply popped.
In the meantime, Kiyomi, your uncertainty and bewilderment is being unnaturally soothed. Glancing at an itch in your palm, you notice your left hand is clenched in a fist and shaking. The signet ring on your little finger is glowing with a scintillating yellow light like the gleam of a room of gold.
Sakura desperately tries to remember the words said and is surprised to find them burning in her mind with crystal clarity. She begins to recite them as she hides behind the railing.
A part apart; a fate undone;
By blood and rote, I seal this heart; Bind this spirit; turn the lock, and rise again to keep the watch. She softly chants
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"Hmph... The crow insults me. I am always serious." Figuring a binding by blood to be the most grandiose method for undergoing the ritual, Kiyomi finds herself a piece of broken glass and pricks herself on the finger. The blood flows readily, and she allows a few droplets to descend upon her glowing signet ring.
"A part apart; a fate undone!
By blood and rote, I seal this heart.
Bind this spirit; turn the lock,
And rise, again, to keep the watch."
Kiyomi adds her own flair to the enunciation; the crow had not given the rite the proper pomp, she thought. The words flowed through her lips as if she had been practicing them for centuries.
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Alaina had been happy to see her friend again, but then Jo holds up the marker. Alaina looks down at her necklace and see the cap hanging there, empty, and hugs Jo tightly. It would've been ages before shed managed to snag another dry erase!
"I met shoemaking elves and fell through a void that hadn't been there when I went in the shop!" She writes,mshowing Jonbefore looking at the new person and moving a little behind her friend.
A silver-grey circle stitches itself into the ground around Sakura as she speaks the words, and Tomoyo pulls her gently into the air. Where Alex's energy was violent and passionate, this energy is subdued and forlorn, an artifact of the offered essence.
Energy rises around Kiyomi like a torrent as a circle etches into the ground around her. The pact being taken up by more mouths causes the air in the room to thicken like a syrup.
Arcs of silver and gold crack and snap against each other as the two transformations take place.
"Please, don't remind me," Miyako muttered softly at the mention of danger, clutching her can of mace tighter as she watched the spirit recover. Her attention was pulled to the raven as it chided them. She didn't quite follow for a moment, and her confusion wasn't helped by the sudden crack.
She looked around at the others as they began chanting before finally putting the pieces together herself. From the warmth and security it provided, she assumed the can clutched to her heart would act just fine as her item, and it was definitely covered in sweat by this point. As calm as she was acting for the moment, she was as afraid then as she had ever been, and sweaty palms weren't uncommon. Lucky for her, too, since she didn't think she could hurt herself so casually like the other girl had.
"A-A part apart; a f-fate undone. By b-blood and rote, I seal this heart. Bind this s-spirit; turn the lock, and rise again to k-keep the watch," She murmured anxiously, voice shaking as she held her charm close.
With regular, solemn beats, the ground cracks and a purple light encircles Miyako. The ground shakes with the energy pouring from the three magical circles. The phantom swipes at Miyako, attempting to cut the girl in two before she becomes a threat, and the silver scythe shatters against her glowing skin.
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As Kiyomi is consumed by the light, she only smiles, already feeling her body change in response to the overflow of magic around her. Her sharp school uniform is replaced by an extravagant golden dress. Kiyomi seems to age five years in the process, her body changing to a more adult form, growing several inches while adjusting her physique to more feminine proportions; her face changes to look more mature, more womanly.
When the transformation ends and the light recedes, Kiyomi spends a moment looking at her new form. She could not be more pleased. "Ohh ho ho ho! Fittingly glamorous, I would say. The crow did well; I hope he did not perish, so I may thank him later." Kiyomi turns her attention back to the apparition-a Nightmare, the bird had called it?-forgetting that she had ever been afraid at all. Flying up, commanding gravity to bend to her will, she properly enters the fray.
With a wave of her hand, a portal appears on her shoulder; a spear, with silver shaft and diamond tip, manifests from it. The masterfully crafted weapon awaits Kiyomi's command.
"You should feel honored, fiend. To witness the start of something so wonderful is a rare gift; it is a shame you must perish before you can understand the gravity of what just occurred." Kiyomi flicks her wrist and the spear obeys, hurling itself directly at the Nightmare.
As the energy runs over them Tomoyo sinks into Sakura's chest. The two of them take on an ethereal gray form that stretches and grows. A sleek but dull gauntlet wraps itself around her left arm as similar gray metal pieces form on her upper arms, her shoulders, and her shins. A knee length skirt that looks as though it too is armored flares into existence around her waist. As the gray fades a porcelain doll like mask appears on her face and a white shirt covers her modest but noticeable new curves. The girl seems to take a step to the side in both directions and suddenly there are two of them.
Both Sakuras look at themselves then at each other before one of them leaps down to join the fight. A claw shoots from each digit of her gauntlet as she instinctively uses it to force the nightmare to attack itself. Marionette Suicide!
Still distracted by the transforming form of Miyako, the phantom is caught off-guard by the hurdling spear, which catches her in the flank and explodes into a violent shower of golden shards like deadly confetti. The young woman is thrown back and into a crowd of dancing ghostly figures near the western food stalls, tipping over a display of fine champagne glasses.
Spotting an opening, Exquisite Doll Sakura spins out her malevolent threats, each shining briefly in the light as they stream through the air. Unfortunately, the opening is not enough. Letting loose a wail to curdle blood, the phantom makes a sweeping motion with her arms and gathers the threads, ready to haul the Doll in.
Sakura uses the brief connection to pull energy from the razor lady and leave her sluggish for the next attack.
Dedric stared at the hovering book before him. His blood dotted the binding in it and the book shone like a small star. He noticed the other girls in the room chanting one after another and being enveloped in their lights only enough to understand what was expected of him.
Slowly almost solemnly both his hands wrapped around the Bible, he brought it in closer to him and cradled it near his stomach. His right hand found the blade and pulled it trying to remove it while the left held the book firmly as he chanted.
"A part apart; a fate undone!
By blood and rote, I seal this heart.
Bind this spirit; turn the lock,
And rise, again, to keep the watch."
He almost whispered it to the book in a moment that would look perhaps tender were he not also pulling the blade lodged in it.
Gasping slightly as the magic circle took form at her feet, Miyako took a small step back. It was a bit too early to tell, but she had the feeling she regretted her decision. She was far more certain as dark clouds spiraled up to consume her, the ominous sound of rolling thunder paralyzing her in place.
The dark shroud was struck with black lightning, causing the girl inside to scream as the magic flowed out of her, warping her unimpressive features to a more womanly visage. Her drab clothes shred apart as the coiling darkness moved to take its place, forming a backless midnight purple dress, the skirt falling passed her knees behind her but remained scandalously short in the front. Spiders crawled over her skin, causing another scream as they weaved dark lace sleeves and stockings down her limbs, ending with a pair of knee high boots and elbow length gloves.
The darkness spread upward, consuming her head. She clawed at it in a panic before it dissipated, her once tied up mousy hair falling free well passed its original length, nearly to her knees, pitch black and face obscuring. Below, a skull mask of bone clung to her as a single stark white chrysanthemum bloomed at her temple.
The transformation process exploiting her three greatest fears left her shaken. As she trembled, her hand squeezed down on the mace, and slowly calmed her nerves. Seeing the Spirit bound by another girl's threads brought to mind a spider's web and her magic began to work on its own.
Creeping Dread
The psionic threads pulse with energy as Sakura draws on more power than her small body should contain at once. The phantom falls to one knee, but maintains a wretched, defiant posture.
Joining in the voices that resonate within the room, Dedric is enveloped in arcane static as circles within circles are inscribed into the floor with complex runes and symbols within.
The opening is just enough for Chrysanth as she puts out one hand as if to blast the phantom with some form of energy beam. At first it appears that nothing is happening, then massive twisted spiders push up out of the floor tiles, stirring the earth beneath and reaching for the treacherous maiden. Hate and rage drains from the phantom as the knotted figures of twisted limbs close on her. Her voice cracks as she speaks, pressing against the counter and brandishing a small piece of broken glass. “No- no! Servants, protect me!” The surrounding spirits turn and throw themselves at the spiders, which claw and tear at them, rending their ephemeral forms and spilling the contents of their ghostly stomachs across the floor.
Juno, Sakura, and Chrysanth all feel the pool of arcane energy drained within them. It will take time for them to recover the energy to cast another spell, and by the long, wicked blade the phantom is forming from the shard of glass, there won’t be time enough. The phantom is shaken, but it seems the four attacks have only made her more angry, more determined to exert her dominance. “This Nightmare is mine, fools!” At her words, she touches the long glass blade to the floor and cuts upward, tearing a hole in the air before her. Thousands of tiny fae in many forms pour from the wound in space. Bogarts, gwyllion, spriggans, and phooka fill the west side of the food court, clawing up the tiled floor and destroying fanciful furniture.
Dedric felt the energy emerge from the book as he finally ripped the blade out of it. The book then flew out of his hand and hovered before him for a brief moment before opening its pages and shining over him. From the book emerged several streams of luminous letters and symbols that surrounded Dedric creating a cylinder of sorts with the inscribed circle in the floor and its copy that rose slowly above his head. As the new circle passed through him all his body became an amorphous blob of turquoise energy vaguely remembering a human figure.
The several streams of symbols, now orbiting this form, started to close in on it shaping it as ropes on a wet piece of clay. The blob was systematically prodded and cut in several sides and reformed into a smaller and slender human shape. Both magical circles then decomposed themselves into several smaller circles inscribed with magical diagrams and lines that orbited around the new figure. Each of them shone with a bright turquoise light as they brought into existence a different aspect of the emerging magical girl. One turned into long turquoise gloves, another into a short and detailed Victorian style dress engraved with circles and magical symbols in every inch of fabric, finally two circles materialized a couple of knee high turquoise and white boots. One final circle exploded in light and when it subsided a somewhat short girl with long flowing white hair stood where the professor used to be.
She quickly snatched the still floating book, now changed into a heavy looking turquoise tome bound in an ivory like frame and snapped it onto her waist in what appeared to be a belt.
Tiresias surveyed the situation, the food court was in shambles. Broken furniture and glass everywhere and an army of fairies was now invading. The most pressing threat to the non-magical girl still in the room would certainly be that army over the spectre. She smiled and pulled out her book opening it in a seemingly random page, she focused the magic around and inside her forcing it to permeate the pages as she intoned.
“Sword of Solomon”
A blade scribes itself into the air, heavy and threatening. The illustration is detailed, but it never quite breaches the gap into reality. The sword turns in a low arc through the army of tiny fae, passing through them harmlessly, and in its wake, bogarts shrink and soften into brownies, gwyllion loose their fangs and return to cheerful nymphs. Fully half of the swarming army is absolved of their heartache, and the mass turns in on itself. The fae do not bleed, but silver dust begins to spill and pool on the ground around the warring factions, rendering the army ineffective.
A small faction of turned fae leap at the raging phantom with silver threads, wrapping and binding her, but in a few moments she will be free.
May drops the book at the sudden shock, she examines it on the ground for a moment before pushing it towards Hiro with her foot. "What about this?"
Inside the digital school projected on the food court window, the bell rings. Classroom doors burst open, and rather than the regularly scheduled flood of harmless Clanoid students, young girls crowd out of the doorways wearing otter, seal, and penguin pelts over their shoulders like mantles. For each girl, the head of the pelt is perched cutely to one side of her hair which laid in a braid on the opposite shoulder. They too are dressed in schoolgirl uniforms in primary colors, but each of them carries a sixteen inch stone knife at their belts. Thankfully, none of these strange girls seem to have spotted you.
Out in the Grand Foyer, a tall, rail-thin ghost in a bellhop uniform peeks out from the top left corner of the elevator. His right sleeve seems to be folded and pinned, indicating he is missing one arm. He looks at each of you with apathetic puzzlement. “Would any of you young maidens wish to go up or down? Normally I wouldn’t ask. It is only that the door has been open for quite some time, on account of your fine young personages standing in the threshold, and my hand is itching something fierce to get this cable car moving.”
Cresting Tide Naiad stands up a bit more.
Though the magic flowing through the area is syrupy thick and none of it hitting them, they attempt to do their level best to A. Not get in the way of anyone else and B. Block any attacks on any civilians/non-transformed folks that may be present.
Everything hurts, but I'm not dead yet.
I don't even know what's going on, she glances at the two near the lift entrance, they don't seem in direct danger at the moment. You know what, bring me up Fleur gets into the elevator.
"Hmmm..." Sora says as she looks to the glowing book, tilting her head to May, then back to the book. "So... strange." she says, and then spots the girls with all the weapons. "Okay... I think things are getting a little more out of hand." she whispers. [smaller]"I really don't think this is part of our new friend's fantasy.."
Seeing that the cloak was the conclusion of the mixture, I stash it and the rest of my belongings back into the emergency backpack.
Now, looking down at the book that was slide over by May. It did seem to glow as my quill did. Reaching back into my bag, I retrive the quill as it too glows with shades of orange and gold.
"May, would you like to mix this book with your feather?"
Glancing back at the sight of others through this domed circle that appears they are doing some sort of ritual summons or something. I instantly turn back to Sora,
"I totally agree, this isn't apart of the games story line."
Walking up to the up to the bubble like dome, I try to touch it with my hand...
Out in the Grand Foyer, a tall, rail-thin ghost in a bellhop uniform peeks out from the top left corner of the elevator. His right sleeve seems to be folded and pinned, indicating he is missing one arm. He looks at each of you with apathetic puzzlement. “Would any of you young maidens wish to go up or down? Normally I wouldn’t ask. It is only that the door has been open for quite some time, on account of your fine young personages standing in the threshold, and my hand is itching something fierce to get this cable car moving.”
"Oh!" Jo would say upon noticing the new arrival, blinking a couple of times in surprise. Then, she stepped in out of the way of the door, smiling at the bellhop. "Yes, up seems quite a nice option. Better than here, I imagine."
May leaned toward Sora. "So far pretty much everything has been strange."
She shrugs when Hiro asked about combination the book but when he walked off shed tried to return it to her bag.
A hysterical, screeching cackle fills the food court as the Angry Princess begins the pulse with her own dark magic from within her threads of confinement. “Is this the Dawn Watch? Is this the best that could be sent against me? Little girls, thrust into magic, trading their lives for a dream. I sympathize, really.” There is another laugh, somewhat more tired. “This is my Nightmare, though, and I won’t have you dream rangers ruining it.”
There is a burst of sullen energy, a disc of white-hot lightning emanating from the phantom, and Chrysanth, Tiresias, Juno, Naiad, and the Sakura on the first floor are each surrounded in blue wreaths of fire, and dropped through the floor before they are touched by the blast. Tracy, when the wave of magic reaches you, it breaks like a wave against you, but does not affect you.
Within the game display, Hiro reaches out to the fourth wall, and the window seems to give at his touch. Lines of electricity arc from the point he touches outward. There is some resistance, but it would appear that you could continue to push your way through. The transmutation pot lays unattended on the floor, ready for anyone to operate it. As May picks up the translation manual, there is another flash, this time of rings of blue and orange fire. Sora, one of the girls bumps into you and looks your way. “Ort?”
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"I'm telling you, the Gulf is where the action is at these days. If you're trying to advance your career in the Navy, your best bet is that billet aboard the Roosevelt. You know how cushy those carrier gigs are, Brookes. Why are you looking at that silly thing with the Pioneer? You'll end your enlistment before you even hit bosun. Think of what it's going to be like stuck in Japan, you don't even know Japanese, and smaller ship, you're not even going to get that much time off. Thankless."
Boatswain's Mate Second Class Abigail Pryde laughed a bit and shook her head. She had earned her stripes, and busted her ass to get to where she was at, and had let her people know via her actions that it wasn't being a woman that got her to her rank. Competent, hard-working, always watching out for her people, tough but fair.
"Failing that, you could stay on here with the Hill until you hit boatswain, though I wouldn't take it easy on you. Heck, I might ride you a bit harder because you passed up that gig on the 'Stick'. You've got a great opportunity here, why aren't you stepping up to it? You want to be just a face in the crowd your entire life? You're better than that, Brookes. You know that. I know that. Everyone in Deck knows that. You'll be hating yourself in Japan, thinking about this. But that's just the opinion of this old hand. You have to make the choice, but you've got the marks to have your pick. Don't give up this opportunity."
The perspective shifted to the sheet that Seaman Brookes was looking at while listening to the boatswain pitch the two 'prime' options, and completely undersell the one in Japan.
Naiad watched the interplay and is frozen briefly in indecision. She could try to push it one way or another, but... it didn't feel right, somehow.I couldn't explain it then. I mean... I tried, but it... I just couldn't...
The thoughts trailed back to what Alex was thinking at the time...
Big Stick is in the Middle East. Stuck, forward deployed, lot of pressure because carrier, lots of push to advance. Probably not the best bet. The Hill is here in San Diego, it'd mean I wouldn't have to move, but Pryde'd be on my butt every day. but is that a bad thing? And she's kind of right, Japan is far away, and I don't know the language, and it'd be two years in that billet...
He took out a pen to sign off on the request for orders to the Bunker Hill.
The pen was just about to hit the paper when Naiad attempted to push the pen a little bit lower to the request for the billet to the Pioneer in Japan.
You need to come here, you need to learn more, there's so much you haven't seen yet.
Wait, what? event after event, trauma after trauma, each flash one after the other around and about Tracy as she attempts, and fails, to prevent, or at least minimize the tragedy playing out with her at ground zero.
"So you want this?!"
"It is more that I abhor the alternative. They won't scare me away from the few fetid table scraps I've managed to secure myself. This site is rich with spiritual energy." She gestures to the old man running the ramen store, dressed in the pristine, traditional dress of of a cook. It was certainly not something the man would have worn working in this mall, but here in this lush illusion, he fit in with the other noble service people. The phantom levels the glass sword in Tracy's direction. "The likes of you have left this place to the scavengers, and you have no right to return and disrupt our lamentation. That flying rat was a Yokai, a demon, and those girls have thrown away their lives for his dark magic!"
Sora frowns as the girl bumps into her, suddenly her unanswered question of Hiro didn't seem quite so important. She hadn't realized they'd gotten nearly that close. When she says something she doesn't quite understand, she responds in kind. "Ort."
"We should go." she offers to the others, now that she sees that they can indeed slip out. She doesn't have any idea what she'd even want to transmute together. She just knew they were getting steadily less safe. She takes the time to pull her camera out of her pocket and make sure the flash is on, as she steps out of 'Ort's' way.
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"You take a straight razor to at least two people and you have the nerve to call another a fiend?!" Tracy retorts, her features contorting in disdain with her rebuttal. "By your own words, you admit you are little different. Both of you scavengers, feeding on the grief and suffering of others."
Water is a paradox.
An inherently toxic substance that most living things are comprised of in significant percentages.
Arguably, from the water, all living things came, and to which all living things will return upon their demise. It just might take a bit more time, but what is time to an eternal keystone element?
The human body is comprised of roughly sixty percent water. When one deals with sympathetic magic, consciously or not, one drop is as good as an ocean. The chemistry may be a little different, but the spiritual composition is a lot closer than one might suspect.
Rather than using the brute force of the ocean and rocking the Bunker Hill, or controlling the liquid gunk in the writing device that Alex was using, Cresting Tide instead calls out to the water that ebbs and flows within Alex, gently and roughly pushing the flows of the life-sustaining fluids.
Subtle to make the movement of marking the request for the Pioneer billet look easy, practiced.
Vigorous to make the motion happen in frenetic desperation.
We really need you here now, Alex. You do not realize it, but you're really important. Please come to Japan. You will learn a lot here. You'll meet new friends, and it's living history!
It's a whispered hopeful thought, with emphasis on certain aspects as 'future tense Cresting Tide Naiad' reaches out to the blood that brought her to wakefulness, to draw it along the path, and not along that more rational path that would lead to no good end...
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"Yes, hello, Kiyomi Shirakawa speaking. Yu- er, Minami-san? Why are you... Wait, you want to bring me where? Why!?!? Well, it's not like I want to, but if you insist then I suppose I may as well. And I told you to stop calling me by my firs- and she hung up."
Juno sighed, the conversation that led up to the event before her still burned inside her mind. Yuki Minami, the sole scholarship student of Kiyomi's class, with the highest grades and the best bo-most athleticism had brazenly elected to invite Kiyomi to see a movie. Some silly action flick that Kiyomi never had any interest in watching herself, but she was not doing anything that day anyways, so if Yuki insisted on the meeting then there was nothing that could be done.
Kiyomi had been the top of her class before the upstart joined the academy in the first year of high school. As such, she considered Minami to be her most bitter arch-rival. She spent hours selecting the perfect outfit to impress her, wanting to make sure Minami really knew who was the best.
Yuki meant nothing to her. Really. Though Juno had to admit she did not remember smiling that big when Minami finally showed up, five minutes after the agreed time. The Nightmare was warping the memory to deceive and confuse her, certainly.
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Sakura watched the scene unfold from both ends as Kiyomi met her friend and Sakura went to the theater with her mom. This had been one of their last outings before her mother got sick. Sakura watched the two girls as they moved. One always seeming to move closer. Mama? Why is she looking at her friend's butt? As was the case with children it came out louder than intended causing a lot of eyes to move to Kiyomi.
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Seeing the arcs of electrical energy coming off the dome like bubble that seemed to separate us from other normal looking figures, I feel some of this energy surge against my hand and I flinch. It seemed to sting a little but I felt that I could bust thru this electrical/spiritual barrier with minor injuries.
But could my new companions do the same? Would they have the strength?
Hearing the strange "Ort?" sound from behind, I turn back to Sora and May. Walking over to them slowly,whispering once I got close enough:
"my new found friends, I don't think we should be here much longer. The claniods seem to have caught on to our presence."
Knowing that this also wasn't apart of how the game system was played and being the man that I wanted to be I begin to position myself slightly in front of Sora and May as to shield them from any damage the schoolgirls might could inflict. Also I sort of nod them toward the bubble dome, picking up the clay pot that was closest to us. Turning to Sora,"I'm going to try and hold them off if anything gets tricky... for now you both should head thru the dome quickly."
Placing the emergency backpage on the ground in front of me, I reach inside and grab the cloak that seemed to soak up the essence of the light around it and my quill that seemed to glow even brighter within my hands...