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Author Topic: Pumsy's Seeds - A ~MAGICAL GIRL~ game inspired by PMMM  (Read 149858 times)

syvarris

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Re: Pumsy's Seeds - A ~MAGICAL GIRL~ game inspired by PMMM - Everyone screams!
« Reply #240 on: January 11, 2018, 02:25:54 pm »

The raging sounds of battle echoed below and above. The cold sensation of the wire was felt in her hands with each heartbeat.

Asha was frozen in fear midway through her climb, still clinging to some precarious wires.

For a reason she could not explain, the fear she felt was exacerbated. Like a wound that had been reopened under stress. She felt herself waning, even though she had been filled with determination minutes ago.

She hadn't noticed, but the light of her gem was glowing with a dull light. Her body felt heavy. Her mind lethargic. As if an insidious force was slowly taking away her grasp on reality.

"Please, h-help I, stay with they, they c-can't win, don't leave... Asha?"

Her name?...

 A voice called for her name.

A faint beacon of light shining with an unknown blaze amidst the darkness that enshrouded her vision and mind.

"Mustn't... give up..." Asha muttered to herself.

Asha attempts to muster enough fortitude to fight off her fear and heavy body. Where she to succeed, her priority would be to fend off close range attackers from Tooru with knockbacking attacks on would be assailants.

In the event everything would fail and a girl's life would be in danger, she would burn the energy of her Soul Gem to increase her abilities <Mobility and Close Combat> to join up the fight.

[Joy]

You shake yourself out of your fear-induced paralysis upon hearing your name, and start climbing upward as fast as you can manage.  For the first time in this horrible place, you've entirely forgotten your fear of heights, and you climb without worry.  You can't just let yourself be ruled by fear while others are in danger!  You can't just run away and hide anymore, not if there's anything you can do to protect the others.

It seems like only a couple seconds pass before you're high enough to find Tooru--but she's already retreating, jumping out of the nets, away from you and into a four-story fall.  Between the two of you is a blonde girl--the same blonde girl that had kidnapped her before, though this time she's far more obviously fake, walking along the wires at an impossible angle.  She turns her head to look at you, her slight smile mocking you for being too slow.  You growl, filled with anger as you continue to climb up to meet the monster.

[Bravery]

Once you're on an equal level with the fake girl, you charge towards her, lowering your shoulder and your gaze to look for footholds as you run.  The girl crumbles around your shoulder when your shoulder collides with her, and you realize that she was practically hollow.  Your heart leaps into your throat as your momentum carries you forward without anything to block you, and you go flying out into the open chamber that Tooru already leapt into, though you can't see her anywhere.  Something in the back of your mind is happy that you don't see her broken body on the stone floor four stories below, but it's a small part of your mind.  The rest is concerned with screaming as loud as you can, because in a moment it will be your broken body down there.

Crap!  Now I'm the one with no leverage.  Gotta think fast..

Pull on the wire below me to get closer to the monster and gain a little slack in the wire.  Then use that moment to create a loop of now-slack wire, spin around, and shove the slack wire loop into the monster's mouth.  If that frees me, grab the wire in my club-hand, and attack the monster's eyes as if the wire was an enormous whip.  Cutting the wire on something else, like the chainsaw-arms, is also okay.
Mina recovers from the failed strike, and moves to assist again - come on, come on, Alida's in trouble!

Rush to assist Alida. Try to free her from the wires, or failing that, interrupt the monster's attack (preferably without myself getting mulched).

[Bravery] & [Bravery]

Alida, undaunted by the monster's aggression, pulls herself into a ball and reaches down to grab the cable entangling her legs.  Simultaneously, the spider lifts one of its chainsaw-tipped limbs high, before bringing it down in an overhead chop aimed at the girl's neck.  Reacting instantly, she yanks on the cable with both hands, pulling herself out of the bladed machine's path moments before it can decapitate her.  The giant spider has two arms, however, and the second one is already prepring to stab in from Alida's other side, low enough that she can't just yank herself out of its path again.

Alida still tries to avoid the attack, quickly pulling herself down the cable hand-over-hand, but before the chainsaw can reach her, Mina's halberd is embedded into the ground in front of it, hard enough to crack the stone.  As the whirring chainsaw smashes into the weapon, the green girl herself lands nimbly, just in front of the crippled monster's angry maw.  Her hands are still on the haft of her halberd, and she rips it free of the ground, jumping backwards onto the top of the monster in the same movement.  She crouches there, ready to parry the next attack, but neither chainsaw has recovered yet.

Alida's already run out of space between her and the monster now, her feet directly pressing against the brass below its mouth, but she's given herself quite a lot of slack cable to work with.  From her position, laying on the ground in front of the creature, she doesn't have to do more than gather it all in a lump and then kick the mass into the wildly spinning gears inside the clockwork spider.  The bound girl is rewarded with a horrible grinding sound as the brass gears slow, struggling to crush the knot of cable, but they quickly speed up again, the gray metal rope being drawn past the gears.  Alida screams as her legs starts being pulled forward again, this time directly into the monstrosity's maw; she tries to grab onto something and crawl away, but her fingers find no purchase on the stony ground.

Mina reacts almost instantly, flipping her halberd around so that the bladed end is pointing down, and then driving the polearm into the spider's mouth with all the force she can muster.  A hellish sound of screeching and shattering metal follows, but the gears somehow still refuse to stop, drawing Mina's halberd into the brass monster.  Mina abandons her weapon immediately, jumping down and grabbing onto Alida, desperately pulling her away from the screaming metal trap.  The cable holding Alida--already damaged by both the gears and halberd--still manages to hold for a second, before snapping, throwing Alida and Mina backwards to land in a heap.  Feeling returns to Alida's legs.

Both girls lie there, Mina mostly trapped as Alida quickly struggles free of the now-inanimate wires wrapping her legs.  Panicking, the green girl tries to point out the two chainsaw-tipped arms preparing to attack again, but neither girl is in a position to dodge.  A trio of loud explosions sound out from the spider's back, and then the two arms stop freeze in place, as its seven eyes suddenly scatter wildly across its face, having entirely stopped watching Alida for the first time since the clockwork monstrosity appeared.  Neither girl waits to see if it will wake up again, Alida rolling off of Mina, and the green girl dragging her away by the collar.

Both girls hear a scream from above, and look up to see two girls falling from high above.  One of them looks just like Alida, and the other is the ashen-haired girl that had been climbing through the wires earlier.

Tooru wasted no time, leaping away from the "girl" with a squeak of fright. The sudden motion didn't play well with the feeling rising in her gut, but she was more concerned with putting distance between her and her likely assailant than trying to keep down her lunch. She also had to worry about the witch below - and the other girls. She didn't want to even try making a blast like that again, and she wouldn't want to regardless; they were too close, always too close for her to stop worrying about hurting them. Maybe, though, she could try something more precise.

As I jump away from the "girl," try to get talismans into the cracks (and by extension the innards of the monster), using as reasonable of a power level as I can manage.

((Just for reference, you can specify how powerful manabolts should be with either the explicit cost (cheap, minor, moderate, etc), or by how powerful you want them to be (hand grenade/rocket launcher/firecracker, etc).  If you don't do either, you rely on my best guess of what you want.))

[Joy]

You leap backwards away from the clearly fake girl... and as you leave the net of wires, you remember that you were just at the edge of the large open chamber, just below the net of wires which makes a sort of ceiling.  You spin in midair, screaming and flailing around for something to catch and stop yourself from falling down four stories onto hard stone--and by sheer chance, you do catch something.  Your right hand finds a hanging wire, the other end unattached to anything, and you immediately latch onto it and cling for your life.  This doesn't stop your momentum, though; you end up swinging in a long arc, and at the height of your swing find the ceiling-net of wires to be just within reach.  You desperately grab for it, and then clamber up into the thick tangle.

Once you're up far enough to stand, you pause for a moment to collect yourself.  That was way too much of a surprise, and way too close to death.  While taking a deep breath, you quickly scan your surroundings; they're surprisingly open, the wires are thick enough below to almost act as a floor, as are most of the wires around you, but you're in the center of a hollow tunnel of sorts that's about six feet wide.  It extends a fair distance above you, lit by the ubiquitous golden lamps, but you stop your inspection once you're sure there's no immediate danger.  A scream from below just adds to your stress as you try to find a large enough gap in the wire floor to throw talismans through.

[Joy]

Finding such a gap, you drop into a prone position and look through it.  Far below, the blonde and green-haired girls are struggling with the heavily-damaged spider's face--apparently it's dragging the blonde into its mouth!  Acting quickly, you throw all three of your talismans down at the monster's cracked back, panic making you launch all three in record time.  You're not sure precisely where the third hit, but the first two definitely went directly into the largest crack.  All three give satisfyingly loud bangs, though they're far quieter than the previous detonation. 

You watch the spider carefully, unsure whether you need to summon more talismans, or if it's finally dead.  It isn't moving anymore, but it paused for a short time after your big attack...

You hear another scream, and then two shapes fall into into view from the area you had jumped from.  One of them is the fake-girl that you had fled from, but the other--the other's Asha!  She's way too high up, she's going to die if she isn't stopped from hitting the ground!





Spoiler: Asha Tia (Nakeen) (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Mina Ross (TwinWolf) (click to show/hide)

Devastator

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Re: Pumsy's Seeds - A ~MAGICAL GIRL~ game inspired by PMMM
« Reply #241 on: January 11, 2018, 03:31:31 pm »

<That's not me this time!>
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Nakéen

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Re: Pumsy's Seeds - A ~MAGICAL GIRL~ game inspired by PMMM
« Reply #242 on: January 12, 2018, 11:54:28 pm »

In a panic, Asha manifests a ribbon and frantically attempts to whip it toward a wall or something, hoping for it to catch on something...

Also, she probably sees her whole life flash before her eyes if that fails.
« Last Edit: January 13, 2018, 12:12:14 am by Nakéen »
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Twinwolf

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Re: Pumsy's Seeds - A ~MAGICAL GIRL~ game inspired by PMMM
« Reply #243 on: January 14, 2018, 07:18:12 pm »

"A-Ah! We have to help!" Mina says, jumping to her feet. "D-Do you think you'll be fine? I need to try to help her..."

Assuming an affirmative response, Mina jumps into the wires above again, trying to get into a position to catch the non-fake-Alida falling girl or at least bring her to safety.
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Devastator

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Re: Pumsy's Seeds - A ~MAGICAL GIRL~ game inspired by PMMM
« Reply #244 on: January 14, 2018, 08:27:51 pm »

Untangle my legs.  If time permits, catch the ashen-haired girl.
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Chevaleresse

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Re: Pumsy's Seeds - A ~MAGICAL GIRL~ game inspired by PMMM
« Reply #245 on: January 16, 2018, 03:48:58 am »

Tooru reaches for Asha's ribbon and tries to catch it (and her!)
« Last Edit: January 16, 2018, 03:26:14 pm by KingMurdoc »
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syvarris

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Re: Pumsy's Seeds - A ~MAGICAL GIRL~ game inspired by PMMM
« Reply #246 on: January 18, 2018, 03:37:26 pm »

Tooru reaches for Asha's ribbon and tries to catch it (and her!)

You instantly react to the sight of Asha falling, reaching out for her in an effort to catch her--a vain effort, because she's about thirty feet away, even before she's fallen far.  If you're going to catch her you have to jump, now.

[Bravery]

...But you don't.  You stare at her as she screams and falls to her death, your body frozen by a formless fear.  For an instant you meet her gaze as she searches the space above her for anything to grab or save her, and you can see the panic in her eyes, the desperation.  She knows she's about to die.

You look away, and crawl backwards away from the hole you'd been looking through.  The wires are dense enough for you to sit without needing to hold anything, so you curl up and stare upwards, at a softly glowing lantern above your head.  After a couple seconds, Asha's screaming stops abruptly, making you flinch.  You just focus on the lantern and try to think about anything else.  Everything is happening too fast for you to process.

In a panic, Asha manifests a ribbon and frantically attempts to whip it toward a wall or something, hoping for it to catch on something...

Also, she probably sees her whole life flash before her eyes if that fails.

Asha manifests a ribbon into her hand the moment she realizes there's nothing within reach, and swings it towards the nearby tangle of wires as she falls forward.  It connects, but it's just a ribbon, and there are no jagged edges for it to get caught on--the only effect is that she's sent into a spin, and is suddenly facing upward.  The girl frantically searches the space above her for something--anything--that she could use to arrest her fall, but there's nothing.  For a moment Asha thinks she can see Tooru's face peering down at her, and she feels a sudden rush of guilt, but she screws her eyes shut and does her best not to think.

[Joy]

Something wraps around Asha's still-extended hand, yanking her to the side, though her fall isn't quite halted.  She opens her eyes wide, but everything's a blur as she's flung into the network of wires, screaming and flailing wildly in an effort to grab anything--but she only manages to tear her hand away from whatever caught it as she continues to tumble through the net of wires, none of them managing to do more than slow her fall.  One catches her on the chin, painfully slamming her jaw shut and stunning her, and then she's in a freefall again.

Asha only falls for a moment before stopping, strong arms catching her softly.  She blinks a couple times to focus her vision, and then sees an unpleasantly familiar face staring down at her with an unreadable expression.  It's the same blonde girl that kidnapped Tooru, and lured Asha into diving out of the wires, though she looks a lot paler now.

"A-Ah! We have to help!" Mina says, jumping to her feet. "D-Do you think you'll be fine? I need to try to help her..."

Assuming an affirmative response, Mina jumps into the wires above again, trying to get into a position to catch the non-fake-Alida falling girl or at least bring her to safety.

[Joy]

Alida doesn't respond, but even without looking you can sense that the spider isn't giving chase--your friend isn't in any danger, but that girl is.  You rush towards her, leaping high into the wires, and then leaning back with one hand outstretched.  You don't have time to turn and look at her, so you close your eyes and rely on your magical senses to see her path.  She looks almost like a falling star like this, a dully shining beacon screaming down towards you.

Her wrist collides with your outstretched palm, and you immediately grab her and pull her towards you.  It's not enough to stop the girl's fall, but it does redirect her into the wires.  She immediately begins flailing blindly, inadvertently tearing her hand out of your grip, and causing herself to tumble down through the wires before you can grab at her again.  Somehow, she manages to fall through the thick network without grabbing onto anything, and ends up falling out of the bottom--safely into Alida's waiting arms.  You're not sure when Alida got down there, but you're happy she did.  That girl clearly wouldn't have been able to land safely.

...How did someone so clumsy even climb so high in the first place?

Untangle my legs.  If time permits, catch the ashen-haired girl.

[Joy]

Mina asks something, panicking so much that you can't make out individual words, and then promptly drops you and rushes off.  You grunt in annoyance, but focus on tearing away the strands of cable that are still wrapped around your leg.  They've stopped moving, and are mostly weak enough that you can rip them apart with your bare hands, but they were still wrapped extremely tightly around your legs, digging into your clothes.  After a couple seconds you've torn enough wires away to snap the rest with your legs, and you spin around and get to your feet.

You immediately spot the falling girl, flailing and tumbling through the network of wires above the main road out, Mina hanging out a short distance above her.  You rush forward towards them, and only realize that the girl who fell hasn't managed to catch herself when she suddenly stops screaming and falls out of the wire net--but you're close enough to dive forward and catch her easily.  She lies in your arms, dazed, for a couple seconds, before looking up at you with a confused expression.



((There's a couple more ways for y'all to screw up and kill yourselves here, but I doubt you'll find them, so I'm just gonna say the labyrinth's a turn or two away from being done.  After all the characters head back home, the game will change to a more zoomed-out timescale; weeks will pass, but I'm planning to only have two or maaaybe three detailed events for each character, and hopefully it'll take less than a month of real-life time.  To make it go faster, please put some thought into what your characters will want to do during that time, be it training or simply enjoying life, though I make no guarantee that things will go as you expect.

RGU, I haven't forgotten about you, you'll get an intro post around the time this labyrinth is finished.))





Spoiler: Asha Tia (Nakéen) (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Mina Ross (TwinWolf) (click to show/hide)

randomgenericusername

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Re: Pumsy's Seeds - A ~MAGICAL GIRL~ game inspired by PMMM
« Reply #247 on: January 18, 2018, 04:06:44 pm »

RGU, I haven't forgotten about you, you'll get an intro post around the time this labyrinth is finished.))
:D
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Immortality like that would be even more game breaking than four Aaron's in one place.
You're both so obviously scum that this is a surprisingly difficult decision.

Devastator

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Re: Pumsy's Seeds - A ~MAGICAL GIRL~ game inspired by PMMM
« Reply #248 on: January 18, 2018, 07:42:47 pm »

<Gotcha.  Now lets finish these monsters.>

Go finish off the giant spider.  Get on its back, and find its heart through the massive crater on its back.
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Nakéen

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Re: Pumsy's Seeds - A ~MAGICAL GIRL~ game inspired by PMMM
« Reply #249 on: January 18, 2018, 11:57:17 pm »

"L-let me go!" shouted Asha in a panic.

Wasn't that girl the enemy? Why did she save me? Or did she plan to kill me personally or something?
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Devastator

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Re: Pumsy's Seeds - A ~MAGICAL GIRL~ game inspired by PMMM
« Reply #250 on: January 18, 2018, 11:58:50 pm »

"Sure, Just let me put you on the ground.  That other one isn't me, I'm here to fight monsters not magical girls.  I think the witch made a fake me for some reason."
« Last Edit: January 19, 2018, 01:11:29 am by Devastator »
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Nakéen

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Re: Pumsy's Seeds - A ~MAGICAL GIRL~ game inspired by PMMM
« Reply #251 on: January 19, 2018, 01:33:38 am »

What Alida said made sense, and would explain . Well, this Alida did save her life, and she didn't feel the same unease around this one. So ultimately, Asha decided to believe this Alida once her two feet touched the ground. But she still couldn't help but remain a bit wary.

"Sorry for doubting you... and thank you for saving. I... can fight too, let me help put an end to this." her voice was still a bit shaky, and her heart was beating vigorously.

Follow Alida toward the Spider! Asha wished to assist in close combat, and would give priority to healing allies -even if it meant darkening her gem...-
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Re: Pumsy's Seeds - A ~MAGICAL GIRL~ game inspired by PMMM
« Reply #252 on: January 19, 2018, 06:47:26 am »

Mina starts descending the wires, before realizing something.

<Hey, person that made explosions? Where are you? We saved the healer-girl but we might need more help finishing off the spider thingy...> she sent via psychic powers, worried for her.

If she does not respond Mina will be heading down to assist with the spider before she goes looking. If she does respond this action may be edited. Mina heads down to the ground after hearing Tooru's response, aiming to assist Alida in her assault.
« Last Edit: January 21, 2018, 08:48:37 pm by Twinwolf »
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Re: Pumsy's Seeds - A ~MAGICAL GIRL~ game inspired by PMMM
« Reply #253 on: January 21, 2018, 03:41:26 am »

<I-I'm s-sorry. I just got scared, I'm sorry. . . I'm up above, in the wires. Asha was up here because of me. . .> The guilt came clear across the telepathic connection; Asha might have been okay, but it was no thanks to Tooru; it seemed the girl had spent all of the time in here and then some chasing after her and trying to clean up after her mistakes, suffering for all of them. Not that Tooru had come out unscathed herself, but the only reason she was okay now was because of Asha's sacrifice.

Tooru took a breath. She still had a job to do, still had to make all of this worth the effort. Another message came over the connection. <I'll try to help from up here.>

Try to shoot the spider with some rifle-powered talismans, using the same strategy of hitting it in the cracks. Assuming I can get a good angle.
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syvarris

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Re: Pumsy's Seeds - A ~MAGICAL GIRL~ game inspired by PMMM
« Reply #254 on: January 24, 2018, 05:15:06 pm »

<I-I'm s-sorry. I just got scared, I'm sorry. . . I'm up above, in the wires. Asha was up here because of me. . .> The guilt came clear across the telepathic connection; Asha might have been okay, but it was no thanks to Tooru; it seemed the girl had spent all of the time in here and then some chasing after her and trying to clean up after her mistakes, suffering for all of them. Not that Tooru had come out unscathed herself, but the only reason she was okay now was because of Asha's sacrifice.

Tooru took a breath. She still had a job to do, still had to make all of this worth the effort. Another message came over the connection. <I'll try to help from up here.>

Try to shoot the spider with some rifle-powered talismans, using the same strategy of hitting it in the cracks. Assuming I can get a good angle.

You take a few more seconds to steady yourself, before summoning another pair of talismans into your hands and crawling back to the opening in the wires.  Looking down, you see all three of the other girls standing together a short distance in front of the spider, watching it.  From your vantage point, it doesn't seem to have moved at all since the last you saw... but you might as well throw a couple more attacks, just to be safe.

[Joy]

You seem to have time now, so you wait to see the results of your first hit before throwing the second--but it doesn't end up helping.  Both of your shots cleanly sail into the largest crack and explode with loud pops, but you can't tell how much damage they did, if any.  You're too far to see much more than a flash, and the monster continues to lay there without so much as twitching.

You consider throwing more talismans at it, but the blonde girl rushes over and jumps on top of its back before you can decide.  The other two soon join her, and they set to manually smashing the monster's body.  You just lay above them and watch, unable to help without risking hurting someone.

<Gotcha.  Now lets finish these monsters.>

Go finish off the giant spider.  Get on its back, and find its heart through the massive crater on its back.
What Alida said made sense, and would explain . Well, this Alida did save her life, and she didn't feel the same unease around this one. So ultimately, Asha decided to believe this Alida once her two feet touched the ground. But she still couldn't help but remain a bit wary.

"Sorry for doubting you... and thank you for saving. I... can fight too, let me help put an end to this." her voice was still a bit shaky, and her heart was beating vigorously.

Follow Alida toward the Spider! Asha wished to assist in close combat, and would give priority to healing allies -even if it meant darkening her gem...-
Mina starts descending the wires, before realizing something.

<Hey, person that made explosions? Where are you? We saved the healer-girl but we might need more help finishing off the spider thingy...> she sent via psychic powers, worried for her.

If she does not respond Mina will be heading down to assist with the spider before she goes looking. If she does respond this action may be edited. Mina heads down to the ground after hearing Tooru's response, aiming to assist Alida in her assault.


The three girls still on the ground regroup and inspect the spider from a distance before moving in, more because they're all tired from the long fight than because they're cautious.  It has remained completely still since the last series of explosions, frozen with its chainsaw arms raised high and ready to attack.  The chainsaws are still running, but the monster's seven eyes--previously so focused on Alida--are scattered randomly across its face, still and staring at nothing.  An inky black smoke has started to leak out of its maw near Mina's embedded halberd too.  Still, none of the girls are eager to get close to that engine of destruction again.

[Innocence]

Two small glowing projectiles arc down from above, hitting the spider somewhere in the back before exploding.  The explosions are quieter than the earlier ones, but still sound powerful--and the spider didn't react in the slightest.   Alida takes that as a sign that it's safe enough, and rushes forward, leaping right over the monster's crown of silver spikes and landing on its back.  She takes a moment to ensure it doesn't react to her, and then starts inspecting the large cracks in the cratered brass chassis.  There's a lot of gears and other clockwork visible inside, most of it blasted to pieces, but some of it still functional and in motion.  Alida tries to figure out where the creature's heart would be based on how the clockwork links together, but with most of it destroyed, and with only tiny gaps to look through, it's impossible to make any sense of the machinery.  The remains of the creature's inner construction just look completely chaotic to her.  She sighs, and leans back, trying to fight off the exhaustion and nausea that's been building up in her.

[Mercy]
[Bravery] & [Bravery]

Asha and Mina join her soon after, holding bricks they managed to pry free of the floor, and the trio sets to smashing the monster.  The process takes more than a minute, mostly because Alida stops helping after only a few blows, and instead just sits down and watches the other two work.  Still, all three of the girls perk up when the volume of inky smoke leaking from the monster suddenly starts increasing rapidly, followed immediately by all of them scrambling off when its metal body starts to crumble away into nothingness.  None of them manage to reach the floor, or, rather, the floor becomes immaterial and nonsolid before they touch it.

.....



All four girls find themselves in the middle of a dark, completely trashed hardware store, the only illumination coming from streetlamps outside that shine through the store's glass front.  Asha, Alida, and Mina all stand in a circle in the center of an aisle, with Tooru sitting atop one of the shelves nearby.  The place is an absolute mess--almost all the store's merchandise has been strewn around the floor haphazardly, nets of wire hang across the aisles, and more wires litter the floor.  That all being said, the omnipresent aura of despair that filled the labyrinth is gone now, and everyone takes a deep breath of relief in unison.  Tooru hops down to join the others as Alida sits down and leans against one of the shelves, everyone inspecting each other and their surroundings.

Mina, unsurprisingly, is the first to notice the only object out of place on the floor.  Between the girls is a piece of jewelery, half covered by wires: a silver tiara which was clearly once extremely ornate, but which is now heavily tarnished and damaged.  Patches of it are almost black, and the rightmost third has been broken away and lost.  Mina points it out to the others, gingerly removing the wires from on top of it, and everyone immediately recognizes the tiara as a smaller version of the crown of silver spikes that had been integrated into the front of the clockwork spider's body.

"Oh, wonderful, everyone survived!  And you got a grief seed too, good job!  I was a little worried by how long you girls spent in there, but I guess everything worked out okay."

Pumsy is sitting just inside the doorway, his pink fur appearing dark and shadowy framed against the light outside, though his reflective eyes still glow with a cheery golden hue, watching the girls.




Spoiler: Asha Tia (Nakéen) (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Mina Ross (TwinWolf) (click to show/hide)

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