Marie wasn't lying about getting others to help.
You see, even if she wasn't this Aria Tsukiko character, somewhere out there in the great, vast multiverse there was such a character, perhaps thousands. And she was still the high priestess of Luna.
And even Marie's imitation of that character was powerful and respected. Besides, her call was rather compelling.
Well, unless you were Asuna. Most moon creatures would be at least a bit moved unless their madness happened along the lines of sociopathy. A request from that sort of power could bring great rewards.
But Asuna didn't want fame, even among her own kind. She didn't want or need treasure. She didn't want much of anything. Of her few desires, she mostly wanted her own private peace.
Unfortunately for her desires, she had unwittingly accepted this hunt years ago when she made herself a couple of friends. Friends...hard to believe.
That thought brought her back into reality. She was sitting around a smallish table, made of sapphire and regolith: a marvel anywhere else, but mundane here. After all, this was the moon. There was no air to speak of, though the Selenites still seemed to breath, seeing as they were at least somewhat bound to the humanoid forms they tended to imitate. Gravity was light and the world was bright.
Three 'people' sat around the table.
Asuna herself was one of them, but she looked more a monster. Unnaturally tall and with skin like porcelain contrasted against jet black hair... She wore little- a skin-color bikini, at best, so well blended that you could hardly even see it. A large, unusual-looking rifle painted in a dull black stayed strapped to her back. Her expression was dull, practically nonexistent.
The strangest things, however, were her joints. Like a doll's, each and every one was a simple exposed ball and socket, even though she was living and reasonably organic. It gave her extra freedom of movement, sure, but it also made that much more uncanny. Not that the jet-black marbles masquerading as eyes weren't enough to do that.
Her companions seemed more normal, not that that was likely the case.
Selebren the Salamander was best described as intense. Like just about everyone else in the nearest thousand miles, her skin was incredibly pale, and her hair shone silver only slightly dimmer than Aria's, but her eyes were a brilliant, blazing red. They already looked like they showed a fire from within.
The woman seemed to glare at the center of the table – her face had a distinctly Oriental cast to it, even though Asuna was clearly better named for such a thing – her hair slowly fluttering behind her. Her hands occasionally went to the twin curved swords (no doubt with very specific Japanese names) at her waist. One might go as far as to say her whole ensemble brought on the image of a wandering ronin: while she was too crude to wear anything resembling a kimono, the pants, shirt and even the shoes all surely had very specific Japanese names as well.
The last member of the... group was perhaps the exact opposite of Selebren. While she shared the pale skin of the others, her eyes and hair, along with the rose in the latter, were a vibrant forest green. She had the pointed ears associated with elves or fae- in this case, she happened to be a dryad. Covered in a lovely dress and armed with a polite smile, she was quite beautiful even to normal human eyes. Though she seemed to have no weapons, Belladonna was in fact quite the mage, which happened to be part of the reason she was with these two, though that was a tale for another time.
All three were looking at the center of the table, where Marie's message was playing out over and over again.
“She lost her masq at the end of this. Are we really goin' to put our asses on the line for this gaijin? She doesn't know what she's doing at all!”
As might be expected, the Salamander was not impressed, her voice rough and burning with barely concealed anger. However, the Dryad was quite a bit more receptive.
“Methinks we ought to hear her plea. We are possessed of the trappings of eternity, are we not? Our risk in this venture is minimal, yet our benefit stands to be great. Anyone even able to temporarily assume that form and power would surely reward us handsomely.”
Belladonna spoke in a lilted voice reminiscent of the sonnets and plays of Shakespeare, her merest utterance a sound many would pay to hear. Of course, part of that was simply being a dryad: nature spirits of this sort were beautiful more or less by definition. The fact that said dryad was also a Selenite seemed to do little to change that.
“There is not enough information to attempt to kill or imprison this enemy. The risk of injury is unacceptably high. We should attempt to gain assistance before doing this.”
Asuna's voice was cold, mechanical, emotionless. There was something else there, though...a hint of childishness, like a girl playing with dolls. That all neglected the fact that her words were only a bit closer to human speech than those of Andromalius.
A discussion ensued as the the other two took in the implications of what Asuna just said.
“And who do you propose, huh, dolly? Who's goin' to help us save these worthless scum?”
“MEID-OS, Hannah, Mother Chitter, Discordia, and Vremya are all capable of intervening.”
“Don't even mention that old thing. He'd never help anyone else. Too busy solvin' her own problems and tryin' to pretend it's not senile. And Hannah? Waaay too slow for a hunt. Not that I'd work with her regardless.”
Selebren almost spat at the name of Hannah.
Once again, Belladonna spoke words of peace.
“MEID-OS is occupied with her work, and I believe Discordia is celebrating as she often is. Mother Chitter would most likely help us if we were in trouble, but I do not believe we could pull her away from her duties to begin with. We will have to set out on this alone.”
“You're sayin' that like we're doin' it,” Selebren spat back. “I don't buy what you said about it for a moment. How do we know we'll be rewarded?”
“We're Selenites. Are we expected to make and abide by rules and contracts?”
“...Kuso. You gotta point there, sister.”
Selebren crossed her arms...and then stood up.
“Let's do it.”
“Let me prepare a backup and I'll join you.”
“Then the die is cast. I'll ready the teleport.”
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Topic: Rise of the Magic Girls v2 IC Thread: Antimagic and gods and souls oh my (Read 3203008 times)