((I am indeed not taking waitlisters, though technically there's a person who's been selected to replace the first death. A fifth slot will open after this witch is dead, and one person will be selected for it the same way the first four players were selected. That char will be a bit different from the others though, a girl who hasn't made her wish yet.
...I should probably make a post explaining how to make a char for that slot. That way people can make sheets early, and won't feel rushed. Yeah, I'll do that sometime over the next few days.))
((My bad there - I'd meant to post again when Nakeen made it clear what they were going to do, having forgotten they'd already done that in their post. Completely my fault.))
"I-I'm sorry, it's just... everything is overwhelming... do you need help? I think we need to hurry up if we want to reach them, they're going farther away, and-and I'm sorta panicking right now and..." She takes a deep breath. "We're both magical girls, right? So I think that means we're really agile, we can get up there without having to worry about falling as long as we're a little careful!"
Help her! We need to get up after them as fast as we can, but without falling. Try to use senses to find the safest/fastest path, if they can do that! Also if the decoy is still doing it's thing, have it keep doing that so the wires don't follow us, if they can .
Asha, with all her focus turned toward not falling, answers with a shaking voice:
"I-I may be a m-magical girl, but I a- aaaah."
She attempts to stabilize herself.
"I'm disastrously clumsy."
The more minutes pass, the more a feeling of helplessness fills Asha's heart. She tries not to think about it, not to think of the word useless. If she does, she won't be able to help Tooru. Asha looks upward, then toward Mina. She notices her panic, but is herself too worried about Tooru to think of delving more into the source of the girl's panic.
"I won't be able to do it alone..."
Then Mina lended her a hand, Asha was deeply grateful.
"Thank you so much... We must hurry!"
With the help of Mina, get to Tooru's location quickly -and preferably safely-!
[Joy] &
[Joy]Asha takes Mina's hand, and shrieks a little when the older girl yanks her upward, away from her carefully-secured grips. She immediately clings to the nearest wire with both hands, halting her fall before it even begins, and gives Mina a look of surprised betrayal. Mina suppresses a small smile, and points out that Asha caught herself just fine, and that
she could have even if Asha had failed. The ashen haired girl frowns, clearly unhappy with Mina's methods, but decides against arguing, just resuming her climb while Mina stays just below, occasionally pushing her lightly when she starts to slow down.
[Creativity]
Mina quickly figures out which direction Tooru is in, sensing her position through residual vibrations echoing down through the wires. She's high above, and is quickly heading towards the center of the labyrinth. She relays this information to Asha, who suggests that the two of them head there themselves, aiming to intercept her near the end of her path; Mina agrees, and starts pushing her charge more, occasionally having to catch the girl when she loses her grip and starts to fall. It's still slow going however, and Tooru only seems to get further away.
"SKRRAAAAAA!"A horrible screech echoes from above, coming from Tooru's exact location. Neither girl stops to think about what it means, redoubling their efforts to catch up. Mina, who up until now had been trying to maintain her illusion, finally lets it drop so she can concentrate--it had been becoming more and more taxing to maintain the further away she got. Asha almost instantly forgets her fear of falling, her thoughts immediately being consumed by thoughts of what could be happening to Tooru. Still, when Tooru starts moving again, they can't match her speed--at this rate, they'll never be able to catch up, unless something delays whatever is carrying her.
Tooru squirmed a bit more, trying to dislodge the girl's grip. If girl was even the right word. . . She was scared, this person thing was scary and probably not a person and she still couldn't get free and everything was just so much more awful than she expected so far. Panic starting to set in, Tooru grabbed one of her talismans and, trying not to put too much energy in, slammed it onto - and hopefully into - her captor's leg.
As you squirm, the girl only continues to squeeze tighter and tighter--it's starting to actually really hurt. She does a little hop from one wire to another, and the motion digs her shoulder hard into your stomach, causing you to squeal in pain. She
had to have heard that, but clearly doesn't care... well, at least you don't have to feel bad about this.
[Joy]You swap two of the talismans into your left hand, and hold the third up in front of your face.
You knit your brow together and force your energy into it, knowing that you'll need more power than you did to free Asha. The shifting writing on the talisman's face form into a single symbol, one you recognize, the kanji for "pain". You frown, almost feeling like the talisman is accusing you, but you slam it into the back of your kidnapper's knee anyway. It sticks there, even after you withdraw your hand, glowing brightly and getting brighter. Almost too late, you realize it's gathering energy, and quickly close your eyes.
"Hey, what did you jussS
SKRRAAAAAA!"The girl's angry demand of you is interrupted by the blast, and her voice rises into an inhuman screech of agony. She starts to fall for a moment, before jerking upright as she catches herself with one arm. You open your eyes, and are horrified to see that her knee--and everything below it--is simply
gone. What's worse, the severed stump doesn't end in blood and meat, but a small forest of waving wires, unwinding from under a thin covering of clothlike skin. You can feel her shoulder, previously digging into you like solid bone, begin to unwind and wriggle under her skin, her bone and muscle distorting as she writhes in pain.
[Bravery]
You try to struggle free of her grip, trying to take advantage of the monster's pain to escape, but her grip remains iron, and you make no progress at all. After a few seconds of writhing, she seems to calm down, the wires under her skin going still again and retaking the forms of muscle and bone; it's disturbing how impossibly
real they feel. Her muscles shift and move just like true flesh as she resumes her path, this time moving even faster. You watch the severed leg's wires grip surfaces like a hundred tiny tentacles, clearly more useful to her than the original leg.
Left alone and fighting, Alida was worried.. and then resolved. This was supposed to be a team thing, she didn't come in here alone. Never mind, though, if nobody will help her, then she'll have to help herself.
kick the creature to pull the wires taut, and start rotating around it. I want to wrap it tight inside it's own wires, tight enough to injure. At the same time, summon an effigy to go kill the working machine.
[Bravery]
You growl in defiance at the monster, before pulling yourself up and delivering two vicious kicks to his face, while yanking backwards. You feel his nose flatten under one of your heals as his head snaps back, as swollen skin bursts under your other foot. He reels back and drops the clubs he caught earlier, both arms clutching at his face and your feet. You yank back, forcing the binding wires to unwind further from his forearm as you try to escape. They tighten even more, and distantly you realize that they're cutting into your skin and muscle, but the steadily-growing numbness makes it bearable and that's all you need. You grit your teeth and pull harder.
Suddenly, you're free, and falling backward. You almost instinctually spin around midair, hitting the ground at a run, focusing your vision on the running machine which is overlaid over the monster's face. You immediately trip as you start swinging in the monster's grip, falling flat on your face on the stone even as you hang midair? You try to clear your head by shaking it, while simultaneously dragging your face across the bare stone--everything is a confusing duality, mutually exclusive states and perceptions being overlaid impossibly over each other.
You push forward, starting to swing as you lift your face away from the rough stone, and twist to look behind you. You meet your own gaze, two perfect copies of your confused face overlaid over each other, one hanging in front of the reeling monster, still hanging by her blood-covered forearms, and the other collapsed on the ground. You pause, too confused to plan, but then one one the monster's hands lower, and its bloody expression stares directly at the you who's down on the stone. He begins to charge, and you immediately start moving, trying desperately to control two bodies at once.
You watch from behind as your free body gets up and rushes toward the active machine, gaining distance as she summons a club in her hand. Seemingly forgotten, your trapped self touches the ground, and dodges to the monster's left side, dragging its right arm with you. You try to pull the wires around and trip it, but you overbalance to the side and fall, just being dragged behind its charging mass. You focus on your freed body, just trying to ensure you keep your balance and don't fall a second time.
You make it to the machine in seconds, and start smashing it with heavy two-handed blows. It's unaffected by the first, not even being dented, and the second hit has no effect either--you're still frazzled from the sudden separation, and can't focus right, you still don't have the coordination to properly control your strikes. You don't have the time to consider this, either, as the monster is upon you, forcing you to roll forward to dodge a blow aimed at the back of your head.
You recover quickly, standing up with both your bodies as the monster protectively crouches over the unharmed machine. It tugs its wired arm, pulling one of you a couple steps towards him, and he finally seems to notice that you have two bodies. His head quickly snaps around to look at the Alida that's behind him, before just as quickly returning to stare at the Alida in front. He repeats to motion twice more, but settles on the one that's attached to him.
He tenses up, clearly about to attack.((Good job singlehandedly tripling the time it took to write this post...))
Soul Gem: Glowing with a bright light.
Age: 14
Hair Color: Salt-stained blonde.
Health: Both forarms are wrapped in wires attached to a monster's forearm, and a numbness is progressing from them and into her shoulders; her clone's forearms merely have large slashes cutting the muscle, and no numbness. She also has severe gashes along her left side.
Inventory: Two clubs, each held by one body.
Totem: A fishing club.
Stats:
Bravery: Talented~
Joy: Skilled!
Innocence: Amateur...
Purity: Amateur...
Mercy: Skilled!
Creativity: Cursed ;-;
Love: Cursed ;-;
Abilities:
Mobility Lvl2
Close Combat Lvl2+1
Totem Manipulation Lvl1
Berzerker Lvl2 - Bloodied; Active!
Painless Lvl2
Effigy Lvl1 - Active; One Effigy!
Soul Gem: Glowing with a warm light.
Age: 13
Hair color: Ashen
Health: A bit banged up.
Inventory: ...Clothes, one would assume?
Totem: A Ribbon. The one her late sister wore.
Stats:
Bravery: Skilled!
Joy: Cursed ;-;
Innocence: Cursed ;-;
Purity: Amateur...
Mercy: Talented~
Creativity: Amateur...
Love: Skilled!
Abilities:
Mobility: Level 2
Close Combat: Level 2
Totem Manipulation: Level 0 (+1)
Heal and Steel: Level 2 (Active: Mercy++)
Soothe: Level 2
Flagellation: Level 2
Soul Gem: Glowing with a shining light.
Age: 14.
Hair Color: Bright green.
Health: Fine!
Inventory: Her halberd!
Totem: A halberd.
Stats:
Bravery: Amateur...
Joy: Skilled!
Innocence: Amateur...
Purity: Skilled!
Mercy: Cursed ;-;
Creativity: Talented~
Love: Cursed ;-;
Abilities:
Mobility: Level 1
Close-Combat: Level 1 (+1)
Regeneration: Level 2
Sixth Sense: Level 2
Semblance: Level 2
Projection: Level 2 - Active; no drain.
Soul Gem: Glowing with a shining light.
Age: 13
Hair Color: Bright scarlet.
Health: Fine!
Inventory: Two uncharged talismans.
Totem: Ofuda talismans, primarily thrown as manabolts.
Stats:
Bravery: Cursed ;-;
Joy: Talented~
Innocence: Skilled!
Purity: Amateur...
Mercy: Cursed ;-;
Creativity: Amateur...
Love: Skilled!
Abilities:
Mobility II
Mana Bolt II (+I)
Regeneration I
Gourmand I
Outburst II
Duet with Reality II