"Asha, you don't need to bandage me so agressively. I fight better when I'm hurt. In fact, don't you have that ability to make a wound so that someone will get magic back?"
"My gem, well it's pretty dull, and we might have a lot of fighting before we get out of this place. Could you please do that to me?"
Asha nods in response, but seems reluctant to use her power. She holds her hands in front of her, clenching and releasing her fists nervously, while staring at your bandaged shoulder. You roll your eyes and tell her to hurry it up, and she carefully reaches a hand forward, ever-so-gently placing her hand on top of the bloodied bandages, before closing her eyes and concentrating.
[Mercy]
Nothing happens for several seconds. You're about to admonish her for procrastinating, but just as you open your mouth to speak, the sparks of discomfort in your shoulder get
much more intense, as if the shards of glass were burrowing deeper into you. You grimace, but resist the urge to pull away, bearing the pain as it digs deeper into your body.
It's a sharp, visceral sensation, dragging your mind out of the lingering haze and driving the world into sharp contrast. You let out a slow growl, and look down at Asha as she works her spell. She's
smiling. She's
enjoying this. A twinge of anger wells up inside you, but you snuff it out before it can grow; you asked her to do this, and you're strong enough to bear it...
You don't have to wait long before she finishes and pulls her hand away, though the pain doesn't relent. She sighs contentedly, still smiling, and then looks down at the palm of her hand. It's red with blood. The smile melts off of her, and her gaze snaps upward, staring horrified at the bandages which are already soaked through with blood. She jumps away from you, apologizing repeatedly and profusely, but you tell her not to worry, flexing your wounded arm in front of you. It definitely
hurts, a stabbing pain throughout your upper arm, and a dull ache in your shoulder and chest, but you don't feel any weaker. Rather, you feel invigorated. Powerful. You grin.
"Wait, are we sure monster is dead? What if monster reforms from clay and attacks us?"
First, check how much ammunition I have left inside of the AK-47. Then, stare to the clay for a while and try to determine if it's already dead or still moving. After this, follow the rest onwards.
You let out a shivering sigh, still excited from the fight, and take out your rifle's magazine. You lightly shake it up and down a bit, trying to ascertain how much ammo you've used up. It feels about half or a third empty, you think...? So about fifteen to twenty bullets left? That's a lot to have used up already, and you're not sure whether your grandpa has more ammo. You frown, and put the mag back in, making sure a round is chambered before walking over to the mess of clay and cloth near Mina.
She's just standing over the remains of the clay woman, holding her halberd defensively in front of her, but not moving. It's a little creepy, actually, a notion which grows stronger when you lean in front of her and look at her face, seeing that she's emptily staring forward at nothing. Her gaze flicks down to yours and you immediately turn away, looking down at the clay. It... well, it seems like a bunch of piles of inanimate clay. You cautiously poke one of the larger piles with your gun, and it fails to react in any way. Seems pretty dead.
Mina suddenly speaks up from behind you, making you jump and spin around.
"You have twenty bullets left."How'd she do that? Did she count the gunshots?
Double check if the clay thing is dead. Then go with the others.
You stand over the pieces of ruined clay, and inspect them with your senses. You're not entirely certain whether the clay woman is really
dead, in any sense, but you're not sure whether it's alive, either. The pieces and piles still have some sort of force animating them, you can tell that they're subtly shifting inside, tiny waves of motion flowing through even the smallest parts. However, there's no coherency to the movements, and they're all weak. If the thing is still alive, you don't think it's conscious, or even a single individual. But, it's not without life, and you already watched the clay woman start to regenerate when it was all in one piece. You don't
think she could pull herself back together again, but you don't know that she
can't, either. You decide to just keep guard over the remains until everyone is ready to leave, just in case.
Behind you, you can sense Aleksandra weighing her gun's magazine. She frowns, probably not sure how many bullets she has left, then loads the mag back into her gun and walks over to you. She inspects the clay, and you, a bit of wonder evident on her face--you smile slightly, feeling a little shy--and then tell her how many bullets she has left, since it's easy enough for you to count them. She gives you a wide-eyed look of surprise.
Tooru cheered when the thing seemed to actually die. "Yay! We did it, and nobody even got hurt that bad. Just make sure to not listen to the music this time. Um, does anyone have earplugs or something? We can all talk to each other fine, except for Sasha." The redhead didn't seem overly concerned about that problem. She was, however, finding herself glancing at where the thing went down. "Alida, you got all that clay off of you, right? If it was still moving when we shot it off of the thing, it's probably not a good idea to leave it on yourself."
Tooru makes sure she's reasonably clay-free, then proceeds forward. . . assuming the rest of the group does, of course.
"Yeah.. that's a good point." Alida takes a moment to examine herself, brushing off any stray clay.
"We should probably keep moving on, though. Lets find a better way towards the witch, as more of these might come from that way." (Alida points back the way they came from.)
"Also, hmm.. that's a bomb, right? Maybe we could set it off behind us, that should shake the pursuit."
Move forward, away from where we came in, and try to keep my eyes open for any further hostiles.
Tooru checks everyone for bits of clay, making Alida pick a few bits off of herself, and having Mina clean her halberd off, before the group sets off again. Their journey remains much the same as it had been before its interruption, just endless trudging through a forest of flowers as tall as trees and ash that reaches their knees. Everyone feels more tense now that the music's daze has worn off, and Asha, at the rear, keeps glancing behind, worried about more pursuers. None appear, but that doesn't really ease anyone's mood.
Mina's the first to notice the music getting louder, and calls for everyone to stop and listen. Once she's pointed it out, it becomes clear; the song is notably clearer then last time they stopped to listen, but now it's coming from the left, and somewhat ahead. The group's only been walking for ten minutes at most, so it seems weird that they'd already have done a 180... but not entirely unreasonable. It's dark and hard to see under the canopy of flowers, and the stalks are thick enough that they have to continually move around the thicker bunches to make progress.
If nothing else, it's clear that you'll need some point of reference to make progress in a specific direction in this place. Without any landmarks, you're just going to get lost.
((Next update early morning Wednesday the 19th. Current labyrinth track: Steve Miller Band - Fly like an Eagle (Instrumental).))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 ashy, and with a bunch of deep cuts in her left shoulder, bandaged with two of Asha's ribbons. The bandages are soaked through with blood.
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 Active; Bloodied! (Cheap discount to power use)
Painless Lvl2
Effigy Lvl1
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! And covered in asha!
Inventory: One 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 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)
Soul Gem: Glowing with a warm 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 assault on her ears took the edge off it. She's entirely covered in wet ash, and dry ash atop that.
Inventory: A halberd!
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! Dry somehow, but pretty ashy.
Inventory: Nothing useful, except for ashy clothes...
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: 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 from the music.
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 149160 times)