Find my school friends and just walk with them. Maybe some window shopping. It'd be nice to talk with people who aren't mixed up in this crazy magic, after that week and that man I injured.
Saturday evening, you end up going out with Finn and Kim, who you usually walk to school with, to do some window shopping. Finn starts out loudly complaining about how he just has nothing better than do--which Kim relentlessly teases him about--but ends up enjoying his time with you all the same. Kim, for her part, somewhat misses the 'window shopping' part, and insists on buying
something for the both of you. You're both initially resistant to letting her spend money on you, but you eventually let her buy you a new pair of shoes, since you only really have one good pair. Then she convinces Finn to let her get him a faux-leather jacket by insisting that it makes him look manlier--though as soon as he tries it on, you joke that he
almost looks like he's stronger than you, which immediately takes the wind out of his sails. He's long been annoyed by the fact that he's weaker than you.
The rest of the day goes well, towards the end you think to yourself that you should do this more often. As much as you love your family, they can be really stressful to be around sometimes, and it's nice to just stop forget about things for a little while. Your thought's interrupted by something you barely notice out of the corner of your eye--it's a television in an electronics store, arranged to face out the window so passers by can see it. Oddly, it's set to the news--and is currently displaying a glamour shot of a particularly photogenic young man. You stop and stare for several seconds, feeling like you recognize person, before it hits you: you remember him from the labyrinth. Though his face was disfigured and distorted by the wires that had been wrapped around him, you're sure this is a picture of the wireman, before he was captured by the witch. A small shiver runs down your spine as you recall the other machines that he'd been protecting, which had been reeling in cables that lead outside.
You hear Kim chuckle behind you, and she comments that you've never been the type to stop and stare at guys before. You quickly say that she's misunderstanding, you just thought you recognized him from... somewhere. She says that you probably just saw one of the earlier reports on him; apparently he's some moderately famous model or actor or something, and he went missing a week ago, with nobody having any idea where he went. Apparently, the police investigation found out that he was involved in some really violent crimes of some sort, which the news has been going crazy about, though she hasn't really been paying attention. You nod, then change the topic to something which bugs you less, and resume your walk.
You end up being preoccupied with thoughts about the witch's labyrinth. It still stresses you out to think about it, though there's also excitement too. You mostly have a lingering fear of the wireman, and the pain of the wounds he caused--even though you hadn't been afraid at the time, it feels like you were just saving the fear up for later. You feel worried about the next witch too. Pumsy said there would be more, but he never said how long it would take for another to appear. You haven't seen him since he brought that Russian girl to meet with you, but you're pretty sure he'd come to tell you about any witches. You think.
[Creativity]
More to satisfy your anxiety yourself, you concentrate, and try to visualize the flow of magic around you, like you did before with Mina. It takes a couple tries, but eventually it works, and you see both your friends light up with a warm glow of contentment in front of you. You focus, and start to sense more emotions in the background: The anger of a tall man passing by, the satisfaction emanating from the patrons of the restaurant you're walking past... and a barely-noticable flow of despair oozing across the ground, just like you sensed from the witch before. It's coming from the the direction of the ocean and the docks. You and your friends are already heading back home, which is almost in the opposite direction.
You look up at the sky above. The first stars are just starting to appear, you're expected home soon. You idly wonder whether witches always appear at night, or if it's just an unfortunate coincidence.Asha attempted to speak. Her voice was weak and raspy, just like that of someone who emerged from a tomb. "Leave me." The burning pain in her head and the pummeling ringing in her ears made her barely to hear her own words. Dream, delirium, reality, what difference? The pain was here, and wasn't going away. "It hurts it hurts it hurts. Shit shit shit-" She thought on a loop. Those eyes made her forget the pain for a fleeting instant, and once it came back it felt worse than ever. She didn't care why, all that mattered was that she was hurting.
"LEAVE ME GODDAMNIT!" she shouted. She managed to scare herself with that distorted, monstrous voice of her. But it was all swept away by the spliting pain anyway.
Powerless and suffering, Asha closed her eyes. "Leave me alone..." She kept muttering to herself, eventually starting to sob. Even the pain of the fever couldn't make her forget the pain of loneliness.
Asha suffered in silence, deep inside desperately asking for help.
The golden eyes widen and retreat away from you when you shout.
"Wh-what? Asha? What happened to you?" it says, voice full of concern. You just moan for the creature to go away again, wishing you could fall back into sleep and blissful unconsciousness.
[Purity]
The golden lights wink out and leave you in the dark. For a moment you think their owner has left, leaving you with an unpleasant mix of relief and regret. Then, the darkness deepens in the center of your vision, lengthening and stretching across your vision, consuming the space around you. You can feel it reach down and touch your face, a sensation like icewater being dumped on your head, washing all sensation aside from the piercing cold away. It runs down your neck, and as it reaches your chest you lose the ability to breath. You try and struggle against whatever is happening, but can only weakly reach your left arm forward, blindly groping for... anything. Then the freezing cold washes down your arm, and
all sensation ceases.. 
...
<Asha, what happened? Are you okay? There's a witch, you can't die yet, the others need you!>Honestly, I'm not really sure about what to do now. I was hoping you would lead me in the right way last turn.
You spend the next couple days worried about when Pumsy will reappear. You keep expecting him to visit you in the morning, or evening, or...
something, to take you to find some other cool magical girl, but he never appears. Your mind whirls with reasons why you're not being visited. Maybe the other girls are really busy with witches, and just don't have spare time? Or maybe they're setting something special up? ...Or maybe you failed somehow, and Pumsy gave up on you? You don't think you really did anything wrong, but the thought keeps returning. At the very least you could have tried to get Alida's phone number, so you could
ask. It's frustrating to not be told anything.
Over time, your anxiety fades, mostly because you have to spend a lot of time taking care of your sick grandfather. His condition is continually degrading, and he spends most of his time either asleep, or too delerious to really be considered conscious. Nobody else helps you with him, and most of the time when he is partially lucid, that's what he decides to rant about--the fact that you're alone, that the rest of the family isn't doing anything, that they treat the both of you like dirt. He goes on and on about how horrible they all are, how they've been corrupted by this horrible country, become soft, vindictive people. Consciously, you know that he's just worried about you, and is angry
for you, but you often find yourself disappointed to find him lucid, because it means you're just going to listen to him rant about everything that's wrong. It's disheartening, especially when he starts talking about his own death like it's inevitable, but you can't bring yourself to
not stay with him and talk about it anyway, he means far too much to you. And it's not like he's wrong, anyway--the rest of the people in this house are horrible people, whatever your father may have said about them. The fact that they're just trying to ignore the fact that your grandfather is lying here, slowly dying day by day, is proof of that.
Saturday evening, like most evenings this week, you find youself listening to one of your grandfather's half-cohenent rants as he eats the soup you brought him. He's talking about how moving here was a mistake, that it was the greatest mistake your father ever made. Back in Russia, you had family--true family, not the rats that live in this rotten mansion--and they would take care of you, after he's gone. In a rare moment of unmasked compassion, he tells you earnestly that he's worried for you, that no young girl your age should live alone, and that if you had any less of your father in you, he wouldn't believe you could make it. Then he shifts to talking about that being a hidden benefit of this soft country, that you have an advantage here because you're better than these people, you're a strong daughter of Russia, and you can carve yourself a niche here, because you're
better than these people. He starts to deleriously list out the types of people here, and their flaws, and then his eyes roll up into his head and he falls back into bed, unconscious.
You immediately rush to his side, panicked and trying to figure out what's wrong, and what happened. Then a small pink tiger cub hops onto his chest in front of you, and proudly announces
"He's just asleep, don't worry! I'm good at this!". You ignore Pumsy's sudden appearance, and roughly shove him off of your grandfather, paying intense attention to the old man. After a few seconds your panic starts to abate, and you begin to think that he really is just asleep. You breath a sigh of relief, and look up at Pumsy, who's shooting you an indignant look while agressively licking a paw.
"That was mean of you."((Incidentally, if anyone wanted to start RP with Mina, she did give her phone number to all the girls before she left the labryinth. Since she left before any of them could give her their's, they'd have to initiate))
Levels:
Mobility to 2 - In the last labryinth, Mina's lack of speed compared to the others was a major hindrance! She won't let that happen again!
Close Combat to 2 - Mina needs to be able to hold her own in a fight, and help protect others!
Sixth Sense to 3 - A greater understanding of the world, in her mind, would have two main benefits - using her powers more effectively, and being able to easily detect if something's trying to trick the girls like they did last time.
Life stuff
The boredom had been getting rather suffocating, although it could have been so much worse. She could be stuck in the house because she physically couldn't leave instead of being stuck there because she didn't feel like leaving. The fact it was an option meant quite a bit. She was staring out the window and dreaming of adventure when a certain pink feline strolled across the windowsill.
She bolts to her feet. "Hey! It's been a while, good to see you Pumsy!" she says cheerfully (but quietly! Can't let the parents hear can we?)
-snip-
You smile and open the window for the small feline, and it immediately leaps forward into your arms while loudly shouting
"Minaaa~! I missed you too!". You grab the rowdy cub and hold him close while frantically shushing him and reminding him that your parents are still awake downstairs, which makes him quirks his head to the side.
"Do you want me to put them to sleep...? Humans are really easy, I could make them sleep as long as you want!"You quickly say that no, no he doesn't have to use magic on them, just be quiet. He nods, apparently understanding, then snuggles into your neck cutely. You pet him for a couple seconds, then awkwardly ask him why he visited, hoping he came for something more than petting. He immediately perks up and wriggles out of your grasp, nimbly leaping back to the windowsill. He speaks in the same loud, overly-excited tone he always uses, and you wince a little at the volume, hoping your parents can't hear.
"A witch of mania opened her labyrinth nearby! It's really weird, so soon after the last, but there's a lot of magical girls around here so I guess it isn't that weird... but you can deal with her, right? I can go get the other girls, you don't have to fight alone if you don't want to!"
Will do some RP things later. Not that she's likely to survive long at this rate, because I fucked up my build and made it so she hemorrhaged mana everywhere during the first labyrinth.
Tooru's build is not fucked, and she doesn't have to sit in the back and do nothing. She does have to be careful, and choose her battles, but frankly that applies to everyone. This is a game about efficiency and being clever; having a bright soul never justifies being inefficient or careless, because doing so means you'll have a dark soul room next round.
Yes, this does mean that sometimes you should sit in the back and not do anything. Nobody is going to have the solution to every problem. If you're trying to play cooperatively, however, there will be times when you can solve a problem more efficiently than others, even if you're low on soul.
...That being said, I must admit this seems to be partially my fault, due to a couple unfortunate decisions: Tooru's manabolts take the form of mildly directed contact explosives, due to using paper talismans as their medium, and Tooru's Outburst creates a delayed bomb which also looks like a talisman, as I've always intended totems to be part of a theme for all powers.
Despite being cosmetically very similar however, Manabolt and Outburst are functionally very different. The former ability relies on physically summoned totems, which can be kept and used as needed, and provide a high-rate of fire and variation in power. The latter ability creates its bomb as part of the cost, therefore being decoupled from Totem Manipulation, and is far more powerful for the cost.
Manabolts are flexible and always ready, but are inefficient. Outburst is very efficient, but is only good for destruction and is dangerous if misused. You want to use both, as the situation demands.
((Two things: First, I'm gonna try and post responses to any simple talking
quickly, outside of proper turns, because writing Pumsy's responses really doesn't require much time at all. Second, I'm giving myself a deadline for the next update:
Aug 1st Edit: June 1st, I don't know how to use calendars 
. Though I may end up splitting the writing over two days if there's a lot, that ain't missing the deadline IMO. I would like to update more often than weekly, but weekly's better than monthly.))
Soul Gem: Glowing with a fading light.
Form and location: Medallion, pinned to her left breast.
Age: 14
Hair Color: Salt-stained blonde.
Health: Fine!
Inventory: One club. The other's still at home.
Totem: A fishing club.
Stats:
Bravery: Talented~
Joy: Skilled!
Innocence: Amateur...
Purity: Amateur...
Mercy: Skilled!
Creativity: Cursed ;-;
Love: Cursed ;-;
Abilities:
Mobility Lvl2
Close Combat Lvl3+1
Totem Manipulation Lvl2
Berzerker Lvl3
Painless Lvl2
Effigy Lvl1
Soul Gem: Glowing with a Shining light.
Form and location: Ring, worn on her left ring finger.
Age: 13
Hair color: Ashen
Health: Nothing?
Inventory: A ribbon. It isn't comforting.
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 3
Close Combat: Level 2
Totem Manipulation: Level 1 (+1)
Heal and Steel: Level 2
Soothe: Level 3
Flagellation: Level 3
Memento: Level 1
Soul Gem: Glowing with a bright light.
Form and location: Ring, worn on her right index finger.
Age: 14.
Hair Color: Bright green.
Health: Fine!
Inventory: Nothing of real value, but she does have a zillion selfies on her phone. Silly girl, she should forget her body, and embrace her inner fleshorror!
Totem: A halberd.
Stats:
Bravery: Amateur...
Joy: Skilled!
Innocence: Amateur...
Purity: Skilled!
Mercy: Cursed ;-;
Creativity: Talented~
Love: Cursed ;-;
Abilities:
Mobility: Level 2
Close-Combat: Level 2 (+1)
Regeneration: Level 2
Sixth Sense: Level 3
Semblance: Level 2
Projection: Level 2
Soul Gem: Glowing with a fading light.
Form and location: Necklace, worn around her... neck...
Age: 13
Hair Color: Bright scarlet.
Health: Fine!
Inventory: Nothing interesting!
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 III (+I)
Regeneration I
Totem Manipulation II
Invigorating Passion I
Outburst II
Duet with Reality II
Ward: Glowing with a foolish light!
Age: 12
Hair Color: Black.
Health: Vulnerable!
Inventory: Her AK is upstairs, in her room, with a loaded magazine. Yeah, loaded gun in the twelve-year-old's room...
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 149147 times)