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[syvarris]

"Guys, try not to listen to the music! It's something the witch is doing, trying to hypnotize us and stuff." She bounced over toward the strange Russian girl, shaking her slightly. "Come onnn, this is exciting and dangerous!" She glanced around at the others, trying to (nonmagically) rouse some excitement in the group to counteract the effects of the place. "We're in this weird place with reality doing weird stuff and hunting monsters! There's no time to sit around being sleepy!"

[Joy]

You join the other girls, and start telling them that they should be way more upbeat--you're already all inside the labyrinth, and you're all together, and you know that the primary danger so far is the music!  You're all in a way better situation than last time, everyone should be excited to see the mission complete!  Even as you encourage them, you're doubting your own words.  You still smile and act excited, but you're really not feeling confident right now--and judging by your allies' unimpressed expressions, you're not really convincing them either.  You quiet down after not too long, you don't think they were really listening to you; the music is more powerful than your words.

Upon hearing Tooru, Mina tried to follow her advice and try to shake off the dazed feeling she was having and focus.

((Quick post, sorry for late response, just starting college.)

[Purity]

You sigh, and try to convince yourself of Tooru's words.  She does have a point, you're all together, and you're pretty sure Pumsy has said that magical girls are at their strongest in groups.  Or... something like that.  You're still having trouble focusing, despite your best efforts.  You know you should be thinking about what to do now, but it's difficult.  You take a deep breath, close your eyes, and focus.

...Yeah, at most closing your eyes makes you feel silly, since you can still sense everything nearby in detail.  Aleksandra's slowing heartbeat.  Tooru's heightened one.  She must not be as affected as the rest of you, you wonder why.  Maybe she has an affinity to this place, or--you shake your head and focus, realizing that you're getting distracted again.  It's the music, you're sure of that.  As long as it's playing, it saps your mind, makes it hard to direct your thoughts.  You should silence it.

"Thanks Mina, I wouldn't have found it without your help.  Sorry for yelling at you."

Hmm.. that doesn't look good.  It must be this odd music.

"Is there a way out of here?  This place is starting to seem odd.. and dangerous."

Alida takes off her wet-weather blue coat and drapes it over Sasha's head, hopefully to slightly muffle the music.  At the same time, Alida tries to shake off her own dizzyness.

[Purity]

You pull your coat off and shove Asha away from Aleksandra, before roughly pulling the young Russian girl to her feet.  Then you wrap your coat tightly around her head multiple times, while simultaneously focusing your thoughts inward, trying to clear your head.  Your efforts are unsuccessful, as you realize when Asha chides you and pushes you away from Aleksandra, before unwinding the girl's completely-covered head and then carefully re-wrapping it so that her ears are covered, but her face is left bare.  You scowl a little, annoyed at being pushed to the side, and annoyed at apparently being out of it enough that you should be pushed to the side.  Then you sigh, as the irritation leaves you before you can even enjoy it.  Then you notice Tooru, finishing up her little speech, and wonder what she even said.

You dislike this place.  You feel far too tired, and just... slow.  You know you're going to have to fight something big somewhere in here, but you're having some trouble even keeping track of your allies, let alone your enemies.  There was that clay man before, but you're sure there must be more monsters than just him around.  You're not sure you'd even notice if one of them snuck up on you, and worse, you're finding it difficult to care.

Grah.  No matter how bad your senses are, you're not doing any good standing here.  You need to move, to do something.  Maybe getting your blood pumping will help fight this.

Focus on that feeling of happiness and excitement! It's time to celebrate, not fall asleep!

"Ah, what's happening? I'm so tired..."

You start to try and concentrate on your happiness at seeing Grandpa's gun again, an effort helped by Asha whispering encouragement into your mind, but your efforts are interrupted by Alida roughly yanking you to your feet, and then wrapping your head in her coat.  You're not really sure what she's doing, but stand still and let her work anyway.  Asha whispers into your mind that it's to protect you from the music, and indeed, the weird calmness does seem to be subsiding a bit now that the music is muffled... but as you pat your coat-covered face with one hand, you think that has more to do with this making it kinda hard to breath.  No sooner do you think that than Asha starts unwrapping and re-wrapping your head until your face is clear.

You look around blankly at the four magical girls.  Alida and Mina seem to be drifting off where they stand, lost in their own thoughts with anxious expressions on their faces, while Tooru and Asha both just look worried.  They hardly look like hope incarnate.  You look down at your rifle.  You're pretty sure Grandpa said that the AK is one of the greatest symbols of hope.  Or... something like that.  Maybe it was a symbol of revolution.  You feel like you should know this, but your mind is still working slow, even with your makeshift ear-protection.


((Next update on Thursday the 30th, if people find the time to post, since nothing much happened this time.  Current musical track: Santana - Black Magic Woman (Instrumental).

Also, since Nak still seems to be gone, Asha is just going to be very suggestible from here on.  It would be a major disadvantage to have her be removed from the labyrinth, so she sticks around as a hanger on until she dies, Nak returns, or the labyrinth is finished.))

Spoiler: Alida Larsen (Devastator) (click to show/hide)

Soul Gem: Glowing with a fading light.
   ^{Form and location: Medallion, pinned to her left breast.}

Age: 14
Hair Color: Salt-stained blonde.
Health: Completely drenched, and still a bit dazed.
Inventory: A club, and a boxed pair of new (if wet) shoes in her backpack, which is sitting next to her on the shore.

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

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

Soul Gem: Glowing with a Vibrant light.
   ^{Form and location: Ring, worn on her left ring finger.}

Age: 13
Hair color: Ashen
Health: Fine, and probably somewhat distressed by Aleksandra's lack of resistance to the music.
Inventory: Four ribbons, woven into a net.

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 (Active: Next attack rolls on Mercy)
   Soothe: Level 3
   Flagellation: Level 3

   Memento: Level 1 (Given to Aleksandra) 

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

Soul Gem: Glowing with a bright light.
   ^{Form and location: Ring, worn on her right index finger.}

Age: 14.
Hair Color:  Bright green.
Health: A little dazed, distracted.  Everything aside from her head is drenched in water.
Inventory: Nothing of real value, not even a halberd, though she actually *could* summon another despite not having Totem Manipulation.

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

Spoiler: Tamazaki Tooru (KingMurdoc) (click to show/hide)

Soul Gem: Glowing with a fading light.
   ^{Form and location: Necklace, worn around her... neck...}

Age: 13
Hair Color:  Bright scarlet.
Health: Fine, if a little unhappy!
Inventory: One of her shoes is wet...?  And they're both kinda ashy now?

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

Spoiler: Aleksandra "Sasha" Chernov (RandomGenericUsername) (click to show/hide)

Ward: Glowing with a foolish light!

Age: 12
Hair Color: Black.
Health: Fine, but still very dazed and tired, despite her hearing protection.
Inventory: A cute blue ribbon tied into her hair, and an ancient AK-47 held in her hands.  Alida's coat is wrapped snugly around her head as a kind of combination hat/hearing protection, it's muffling the music.

Stats:
   Bravery:  Skilled!
   Joy:  Skilled!
   Innocence:  Talented~
   Purity:  Amateur...
   Mercy:  Cursed ;-;
   Creativity:  Cursed ;-;
   Love:  Amateur...

[randomgenericusername]

"...N-no! Stop it! I don't even like music! It's very dull!"

Shoot the ground repeatedly while loudly humming the songs of my people. I am the one with the gun and no dumb magic is going to control me!

[Egan_BW]

I am going to laugh if the rifle turns out more useful than these "hunters".
Obviously you chucklefucks need a Pure to kick you into shape. Poor mental discipline!

[Devastator]

"No, don't waste your bullets!  Lets just keep moving."

Link everyone, hand in hand, and move towards another area, preferably one with less music.  If we stick together this way, we should be able to keep from wandering off and get somewhere more useful.

Asha helps assist the others in resisting the music, as we leave the area.

[randomgenericusername]

(The loud gunshots will probably help stop the effects of the music, at least for a moment. I hope the gun isn't too wet, though.)

[Devastator]

(It's an AK.)

[Egan_BW]

That's a poor excuse for handling a firearm recklessly. Not that I would expect a 12 year old to know better. ;p

[Parisbre56]

((It's funny that the group is stopped by a problem that can be easily solved by noise cancelling earphones. Or just closing your ears and going "LALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU". Or, hell, you're magical girls, just cut your ears off and reattach them later.

Good thing I specifically stated my character likes listening to music while running so I can have an IC reason to have my music with me, put my earphones on and ignore the rest of the world~))

[randomgenericusername]

Or just closing your ears and going "LALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU"

(I mean, Sasha is basically doing this, but with gunshots.)

[Devastator]

(I'm actually going to get some earplugs after this mission.  Won't stop telepathy, and they can be removed when desired.  They're also dirt cheap.)

<Oh, and Tooru, you can shoot things well with your rune things, right?  Why don't you and Mina look for any speakers or something making the music?  If you stop that, we'll probably snap out of it.  I'll try to keep us all moving.>

[MCreeper]

Or, hell, you're magical girls, just cut your ears off and reattach them later.

It's not Einsteinian Roulette. 

[Twinwolf]

<Good idea to try, at least. But what if it's the Witch making the music?>

Regardless, go with the others and keep the magical senses open and looking for the music's source.

[Devastator]

<Then shoot the witch.>

[syvarris]

"...N-no! Stop it! I don't even like music! It's very dull!"

Shoot the ground repeatedly while loudly humming the songs of my people. I am the one with the gun and no dumb magic is going to control me!

"No, don't waste your bullets!  Lets just keep moving."

Link everyone, hand in hand, and move towards another area, preferably one with less music.  If we stick together this way, we should be able to keep from wandering off and get somewhere more useful.

Asha helps assist the others in resisting the music, as we leave the area.

<Good idea to try, at least. But what if it's the Witch making the music?>

Regardless, go with the others and keep the magical senses open and looking for the music's source.

[Bravery]

Aleksandra shakes her head agressively, unhappy with the effect the music is having on her.  She bursts out singing in Russian, before shouldering her rifle and pointing it directly down at the ground.  Alida realizes what the raven-haired girl is doing just before she squeezes the trigger, causing the gun to spit a burst of bullets and recoil upward through the space Alida had been standing just a moment prior.  Then the gun is ripped out of her grasp by Alida, who holds it high in the air, away from Aleksandra's grasp.  "DON'T DO THAT!" she shouts at the Russian girl, who stares at her in mild confusion, before shouting back "WHAT?"

Alida doesn't actually hear her speak, her ears still ringing too loudly to make out the sound.  After a moment of consideration, realizes what Aleksandra was trying to do, and how effective it was;  She's still very angry about nearly being shot, but that in itself is comforting, because her anger isn't being quelled by the music--she can't hear it anymore, or much of anything else, for that matter.  She looks around at the other three magical girls, who save for Mina are grimacing and holding their ears.  Mina, for her part, is smiling with light amusement, because while she was just as deafened by the gunshots, she can still hear the calming music through her other senses.  Alida, her mind now fairly clear, reluctantly decides to return Aleksandra's rifle to her, before spinning the girl around and pushing her forward, back towards the waterfall they entered the labyrinth through, and away from the source of the music.  She then asks the other girls to link hands with her and follow, and then they all set off together.

The river ends rather abruptly just behind the waterfall, but unlike the previous labyrinth there's no wall blocking them from getting further away.  They enter the forest of fake flowers, and progress becomes difficult.  The semitransparent flowers create a solid canopy just above their heads, which blocks most of the already-dim starlight, and the many flower stalks prove to be surprisingly difficult to force aside.  That, combined with Alida's insistence that Aleksandra stay in front where she can be watched, and Aleksandra's difficulty moving through the deep ash, reduces the group's speed to a crawl.  Still, they move forward doggedly; as time passes, their hearing begins to return, and with it, the sound of the music, now distorted with an electronic warble, but unmistakably the same tune.  None of the girls want to fall back under it's influence, so it serves as an excellent motivation to keep moving.

The trek only comes to an end when Mina suddenly speaks up and says "Sasha, you're about to trip", immediately before Aleksandra tumbles forward with a surprised "Gwaah!?".  She sits up and turns to look back at what she tripped over, as Alida crouches down over the mostly-buried object and carefully starts scooping ashes off of it.  It's a fat metal cylinder, as wide as Alida in the center, but before she can uncover any more than the top, Mina lightly pulls her away from it.  "It looks like a bomb, uh, like the ones they drop from planes in old war movies...  Uhm.  I've also been seeing lots of really broken bones around, under the ash, like giant bird bones.  Or uh, horses, maybe?  A lot of animal bones.  But, there's a lot more of those around here, look!" and she points off to the side, where a bone as wide as her wrist is sticking just slightly out of the ash nearby, with a small foot-tall flower growing on the tip.

[Creativity] * 5

Everyone, now stopped and paying attention, realizes that the music, while much quieter and more distant than before, doesn't seem to be coming from any specific direction now.  It echoes around from every direction, low and soft.  There is a new sound, though: someone else is walking along behind the group, following their path through the ashes and flowers.  That someone is definitely trying to be quiet, but they're still just barely audible.


((Next update Monday the 3rd.  Current (apparently looping) musical track: Santana - Black Magic Woman (Instrumental).))

Spoiler: Alida Larsen (Devastator) (click to show/hide)

Soul Gem: Glowing with a fading light.
   ^{Form and location: Medallion, pinned to her left breast.}

Age: 14
Hair Color: Salt-stained blonde.
Health: Completely drenched, but no longer very dazed.
Inventory: A club, and a boxed pair of new (if wet) shoes in her backpack.

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

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

Soul Gem: Glowing with a Vibrant light.
   ^{Form and location: Ring, worn on her left ring finger.}

Age: 13
Hair color: Ashen
Health: Fine, if very wet!
Inventory: Four ribbons, woven into a net.

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 (Active: Next attack rolls on Mercy)
   Soothe: Level 3
   Flagellation: Level 3

   Memento: Level 1 (Given to Aleksandra) 

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

Soul Gem: Glowing with a bright light.
   ^{Form and location: Ring, worn on her right index finger.}

Age: 14.
Hair Color:  Bright green.
Health: Still a little dazed and distracted, but Aleksandra's assult on her ears took the edge off it.  Everything aside from her head is drenched in water.
Inventory: Nothing of real value, not even a halberd, though she actually *could* summon another despite not having Totem Manipulation.

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

Spoiler: Tamazaki Tooru (KingMurdoc) (click to show/hide)

Soul Gem: Glowing with a fading light.
   ^{Form and location: Necklace, worn around her... neck...}

Age: 13
Hair Color:  Bright scarlet.
Health: Fine!  And dry, somehow!
Inventory: Nothing useful, except for ashy shoes... which have actually been pretty useful in this game.

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

Spoiler: Aleksandra "Sasha" Chernov (RandomGenericUsername) (click to show/hide)

Ward: Glowing with a foolish light!

Age: 12
Hair Color: Black.
Health: Fine, though her ears still hurt.  Also, drenched.
Inventory: A cute blue ribbon tied into her hair, and an ancient AK-47 held in her hands.  Alida's coat is wrapped snugly around her head as a kind of combination hat/hearing protection, though her own assault on her ears is what's really protecting her.

Stats:
   Bravery:  Skilled!
   Joy:  Skilled!
   Innocence:  Talented~
   Purity:  Amateur...
   Mercy:  Cursed ;-;
   Creativity:  Cursed ;-;
   Love:  Amateur...

[Devastator]

<Odd that it's sneaking..  can you tell if it's bad?>