((Gah. I dislike writing this sort of stuff, I'm mildly tempted to just say "fuck it, a few weeks later you're all at the mouth of another labyrinth." I'd probably update faster if nothing else, and I'm not sure this intermission stuff even accomplishes anything.))
"I-I'm sorry... I thought about going to bed but..." she gulped. She wasn't going to lie, per say. This was a feeling she'd had when she looked at her bed earlier, considering going to bed. She continued quietly. "I... I thought if I went to bed I wouldn't get out again... like before..." Even if this was... sort of true, it didn't make her feel less guilty. "S-So I went out on a walk... I stayed in safe places! N-Nowhere really dangerous!" The places weren't dangerous! The labryinth didn't count, it wasn't a part of the city.
[Love]You barely get through half of what you meant to say before your father starts yelling at you. He's saying something about the house being safe, and mentions your illness, but you can't really understand half of what he's yelling; he's never been
this angry before, you're too confused and scared by it to follow his ranting. Instead you just shrink away and numbly nod along until your mother comes up behind him and puts her hand on his shoulder. He turns, and she quietly whispers something to him. You're still too disoriented to process her words, but they do seem to calm him down a great deal.
They both give you a hug, and start acting more normal, but you can tell that they're faking it. Though you
can sense some degree of relief in them, they're both practically exuding stress and fear, but you try to play along anyway as they lead you to the living room. They sit you down and launch into a long, rambling lecture about dangerous that was, and how you were very reckless--while simultaneously trying to comfort you that nothing bad will happen, and that your illness won't come back. You're not really sure what response they're trying to get out of you, but you're certain they missed the mark. It all comes across as misguided at best, since they don't understand anything about why your sickness disappeared, or how much danger you're
actually in. It doesn't help that they barely ever let you get a word in.
Eventually, you ask to go to bed, and your parents relent, though they're clearly dissatisfied and still worried. You then head upstairs, and sit down in your room, not truly tired yet, but not interested in playing games or anything either. Instead, you focus on your magical senses, experimenting with how much you can detect. Your entire room, already intimately familiar to you, is instantly distinguishable to you, even with your eyes closed. With a bit of effort, you can discern your parents on the floor below, glowing motes of stress pacing around the house and talking with voices that are barely recognizable waves rumbling through the air. You can't make out their words, but you know what they're saying all the same; they must be discussing you, and what to do. You sigh and focus on blocking out your magical senses, and lay down to wait for sleep to come.
You really don't want to stay cooped up in this room. You've spent years lying here already, and you finally have the ability to go out and explore, or do whatever else you want to do. Your parents clearly don't want you to go out on your own, but they can't exactly stop you, either. Just... you have to figure out what to do, first.Tooru deflated slightly. Apparently not. Maybe she could try and track her down tomorrow, she was pretty caught up on homework. There was one assignment still unfinished, but she wasn't going to be very productive tonight. She elected to mostly relax, fill her empty stomach, and try to just be grateful that she and the other girls that went into the labyrinth were still alive.
You end up sitting and watching as Taro and your dad go back to playing their game while you finish eating, and for a little while after, not feeling like doing much of anything else. It doesn't take long for your father to notice you moping, and after a moment of consideration he announces that he has something he needs to work on, and thrusts his controller into your hands before leaving. He's gone before you can even think to protest, retreating at record speed.
Your brother shrugs at you, and points out that he can keep going solo if you're too tired to join, but you decide to play anyway. You do like this game more than most of Taro's library, and it's a good way to get your thoughts away from the darkness of the labyrinth.
...The next couple hours pass quickly. Normally you'd feel tired long before Taro--he always stays up way too late--but this time it's his yawning which makes the two of you put the game away and head to bed. Once alone again, your mind goes right back to thinking about the labyrinth, and the other girls. Normally when something bugs you this much you'd talk about it with someone, but you can't exactly discuss magic with any of your mundane friends. You do eventually fall asleep anyway, but even then your dreams are filled with wires that dig into your palms, panicked climbing, and enormous shadows scuttling through the darkness just beyond your eyesight.
You wake up late the next morning, not feeling refreshed at all, but not able to go back to sleep either. It's a weekend, so you end up just laying in bed until your phone buzzes, announcing a text; apparently Sandra and another girl you don't know very well were planning to go out and do something today, and figured you might want to come along. Knowing Sandra, "planning" is a strong word--with her, usually the "something" is only decided once everyone's together.
If you do go out with Sandra, you could probably decide what to do. Come to think of it, you'll see Asha in class Monday, regardless of how you spend the time over the weekend, so you don't have to go looking for her... or you could go looking with your friends in tow. Asha did seem pretty lonely, maybe meeting people would be good for her?((Greh. No, the problem isn't that it takes time, the problem is that I just haven't been able to make myself write. I've known what this update would contain since before the witch was killed, and it took less than two hours to actually write even being tired. The longer I procrastinate about updating, the harder it is to stop procrastinating. -.-))
((I feel you on this...))
Asha approached the cat carefully. She wanted to help it, but she was also worried of scaring the animal away...
"Here, don't be scared. Let me help you, okay? Everything is going to be fine."
Asha tried to nurse the cat.
The cat weakly hisses at you as you come closer, its bright white teeth making you hesitate for a moment. Then you recall the monster in the labyrinth, and mentally chide yourself for being afraid of a tiny wounded animal--it just doesn't realize you're trying to help. You grab it loosely around the neck to keep it from biting you while you look at its wounds, and surprisingly it barely resists.
[Mercy]
You quickly realize that it's only so docile because its wounds are much more severe than you thought. Judging from how much blood is pooling underneath it, and how little the wounds you
can see are bleeding, it's laying on top of the largest injuries. You start to lift it to get a better look, but it immediately spasms and lets out a horrible strangled screeching sound that sounds completely
wrong coming from such a small animal. You let go, not wanting to hurt it any more.
You don't think there's anything you can do for the feline, at least not without using magic. Even then, you're not sure it would serve much of any purpose; the cat's far thinner than other street cats you've seen, you can easily see the contours of its skeleton through its black fur. If you heal it with magic, that might just mean it'll die a slow death from starvation rather than a quick death from injuries.
Go to bed.
That was a big day.
You nod to Eva and then head to bed, saying goodnight. You collapse into bed and quickly fall asleep.
You wake up to the wireman leering down at you, his swollen face hanging just above yours. You struggle, trying to shove him away, but every movement sends agony shooting through your limbs--thorned metal strands are wound
into your arms and legs, tying you down to your bed. You start to yell and scream, but wires unwind from his mask and strike like snakes at your face, winding their way into and around your mouth, cutting your voice off. For the first time, you can see his expression below the wires, ever so barely--he's smiling.
Blood starts to leak from his forehead as one of the loops tightens and splits his skin. You grit your teeth and put all your effort into raising your right arm,
the familiar weight of a club already in your hand, but he just starts to laugh. The wires all begin writhing violently, tightening and sawing into his flesh and cutting him apart even as they flow towards you like a singular mass. You can feel more wrapping around you, cutting into you, painfully winding into your flesh like so many strands of liquid fire.
You wake up in a cold sweat, holding your club in a deathgrip. You quickly sit up and look around your room, fearing a monster, but everything is perfectly normal. No wires, no blood, no gangly men mummified with metal. You breath a slow sigh of relief as you inspect yourself; you're not hurt or anything, just sore... it was just a nightmare, even if it didn't feel like one. You focus on putting it out of your mind and getting ready for the day.
The morning passes normally, and the house is soon full of screaming children, who you ignore with practiced ease. That is, until Eva suggests to one of them that they should bug
you to take them out somewhere. You give her a plaintive look, but she just smiles leans back as several of your siblings circle around you and beg you to take them somewhere. You tell them that you can't take them anywhere if they don't know where they want to go--hoping that they'll just start arguing about it fruitlessly--but surprisingly Ron suggests the park, and the other two
immediately concur. You're stunned for a moment by your younger siblings' newfound ability to actually agree on something for once... It's probably Eva's fault.
Half an hour later you find yourself in the middle of the park, watching as your siblings run around and play. As their games take them back and forth across the area, you trail behind and idly watch the rest of the parkgoers. There's a lot of people around, most of them uninteresting, and none of them interesting enough to hold your attention very long. You feel exceptionally bored, up until you turn your attention back to the kids and realize they've stopped playing and are crowded around a bench, fiddling with something next to a very young Russian girl who looks rather uncomfortable.
You walk closer, and soon see what the kids are doing: they're petting a small pink tiger cub with black stripes, who is happily rolling around and enjoying the attention. You shift your gaze to the girl and inspect her; she doesn't have any visible jewelery, and is wearing fairly normal clothes, aside from a very fancy scarf... but then she meets your gaze and visibly stiffens, her vision flicking between your face and your soul gem.
"You are Alida?"Name: Aleksandra Chernov, but her friends call her Sasha.
Age: Twelve!
Description: She has long, straight black hair and her eyes are blue. She is taller than her age would suggest and her skin is slightly pale. She's always dressed with simple and cheap clothes, but also wears a black and white checkered scarf that her father bought for her before disappearing.
Backstory: Her family used to live in Russia and was quite big. There were a lot of aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters. Not even Sasha remembers all of them, since they always used to disappear for long periods of time or never returned home after a while. Except for her father, he always was there to support her and help with anything the family needed. Her father could barely make enough money in his old job to buy food for everyone who wasn't begging for food in the streets and pay the bills. The place they all lived in could barely be called a house, it was made of wood and had a lot of holes and vermins. When she was very young, her whole family emigrated from Russia. Her father was fired from his job and the family urgently needed money, so her father had to accept a shady job overseas and took the whole family with him. For a few years, his father made a lot of money and they could afford a big house that had enough space for everyone and even a car. Suddenly, they weren't poor anymore! They had a lot of money and could even be called rich. Of course, this wasn't going to last. When Sasha became 10, her father disappeared and never returned. This greatly hurt Sasha and she distanced herself from the rest of the family. Despite being surrounded by family members, none of them truly understood her like her father. She was alone. While the family still had a lot of money, they knew that they would soon become poor again and end in the streets, since many of them were too young/old or didn't go to school. Sasha was very lucky that her father sent her to a school for her education before leaving.
Motivation: Oh my god, a wish? There are so many things to choose from! I could get a lot of money or become famous! What about magic powers? Oh, those are included? Then fighting evil as a superhero! No, wait! I want to be able to fly or having super-strenght! Did I say money already? Can I wish for more wishes then? I would like to wish for something for my family, but I want stuff too!
Why not make a wish yet?: There are soooo many things I could wish for, but I don't now what to! Having a single wish is awful with endless options! I don't want to wish for something stupid and then regret it for the rest of my life!
Why would she still consider it?: It's a wish! You can wish for anything! I am sure as hell going to wish for something, it's just that I could use it for so many things... I would like to know how much I would be risking my life before becoming a magical girl or asking other magical girls what did they wish for and what should I wish. If I had more time...
Greatest Fear: Time. No one can stop time. Sasha fears the pass of time aince seconds are being contantly wasted. She fears that her older family members die of old age, she fears losing her childhood and growing too fast into adulthood without enjoying her life as a kid and she fears wasting her limited time in useless and pointless things. The world is constantly moving and changing and Sasha doesn't think she will be able to keep up. Every second is a wasted oportunity that will never repeat itself forever. Every moment is unique.
Totem: An old and dusty AK-47. It's out of bullets, but Sasha always keeps it close since it was inherited from his great grandfather. It's quite sturdy and could be used to bash things.
Stats:
Bravery: Skilled!
Joy: Skilled!
Innocence: Talented~
Purity: Amateur...
Mercy: Cursed ;-;
Creativity: Cursed ;-;
Love: Amateur...
((OOC notes: I'm trying to think a fake russian accent to use and make IC dialogue more interesting but all I can think about is just removing the articles a, an and the.
Two years had passed since Sasha's father "disappeared" (probably dead) and I left the state of her family and Sasha open so the GM can decide if anything happened during those years.
Sasha's "family" are either very distant relatives, friends or neither, except for her father. Sasha doesn't like them very much, but it's better than being on the streets alone.
Some of the stuff needs to be changed, so please give me criticism and inform me if anything sounds bad or if there is anything wrong.))
You're woken up by a fluffy projectile landing on your midsection and excitedly shouting for you to wake up. You bolt upright and swat at the animal in your bed a few times before recognizing it as Pumsy, the tiger cub you met yesterday. Unperturbed, he hops away and stands tall at the foot of your bed, continuing to urge you to get up. His excitement is infectious, and quickly replaces your sleepiness--before you know it, you're leaving the house, and chasing him down the sidewalk. The feline sets a very fast pace, and you start to have second thoughts when you stop to breath for a moment and realize that you already have no idea where he's led you to. You tell him as much when he pads over to you and asks why you slowed down.
"We're going to the park to meet Alida! I told you before, now come on, we don't want to miss her!"With that he rushes off again, and you hurry after, content that you at least know how to get home from the park.
...An hour later, you're sitting next to Pumsy on a bench, regretting this trip immensely. You didn't grab anything to eat before leaving, it's cold out, and you're starting to think that "Alida" isn't going to ever come, despite the talking cat's insistence that she will come. Maybe you doubt him partially
because he's an impossible talking cat; thinking about things rationally, it isn't exactly sane to go rushing off into the city to meet people with superpowers just because magical neon animals insist that they
totally exist.
You're pulled out of your thoughts when a girl even younger steps up to you and asks if she can pet your cat. You stare down at her in surprise, too busy mentally wondering whether
she's Alida to answer.
[Purity]
"Of course you can! Go ahead!"You speak without intending, your voice dissonantly cheerful and lacking any accent. The little girl smiles and squeals with happiness as she hugs Pumsy, and a moment later she's joined by two boys, who seem to be her older brothers. You're not sure what just happened, but Pumsy seems to be enjoying the attention, so you suppose this situation isn't
bad... you're about to ask for the girl's name when you notice someone staring at you from nearby.
She's an older girl, wearing clothes which look even cheaper than your own, except for her shoes and the absurdly expensive-looking gemstone pinned to the left breast of her jacket. The gemstone which actually seems to be faintly glowing, like magic. You look up at her stern expression and suddenly feel very small.
"You are Alida?" you ask, already knowing the answer.
Soul Gem: Glowing with a
dull light.
Age: 14
Hair Color: Salt-stained blonde.
Health: ̸͜F̷̡͠ì́͜n̸̢̮͝ȇ!
Inventory: Two clubs.
Totem: A fishing clubs.
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
Painless Lvl2
Effigy Lvl1Soul Gem: Glowing with a Radiant light.
Age: 13
Hair color: Ashen
Health: She's quite banged up, with a lot of bruises.
Inventory: A ribbon.
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++, not that that will ever be rolled.)
Soothe: Level 2
Flagellation: Level 2
Soul Gem: Glowing with a vibrant light.
Age: 14.
Hair Color: Bright green.
Health: Fine!
Inventory: No more halberd, which is probably good since it would raise a ton of questions.
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
Soul Gem: Glowing with a
dull light.
Age: 13
Hair Color: Bright scarlet.
Health: Fine!
Inventory: No talismans, but food!
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 Ward: Glowing with a foolish light!
Age: 12
Hair Color: Black.
Health: Vulnerable!
Inventory: Whatever she chose to grab.
Stats:
Bravery: Skilled!
Joy: Skilled!
Innocence: Talented~
Purity: Amateur...
Mercy: Cursed ;-;
Creativity: Cursed ;-;
Love: Amateur...
Author
Topic: Pumsy's Seeds - A ~MAGICAL GIRL~ game inspired by PMMM (Read 149098 times)