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[Devastator]

"I was thinking of stopping it.  I don't know if he's a good person, Mom.  I saw him going out with a gun, once, and he seems to work odd hours.  I didn't think of it immediately, but maybe he deals drugs or something?"

[syvarris]

Tooru puffed her cheeks out as she thought. Taro hadn't exactly opened up with anything to endear her to his proposal, what with calling her deaf and blind, and she was a bit confused by his logic as well; part of the reason she used to be bullied so badly was her near-psychotic obsession with anything that the adjectives "pink, cute, cuddly, or sparkly" applied to. Then again, she did also like blowing the heads off of aliens in video games, so maybe he had a point about the tomboy thing. . . His proposal was also a way to get out of the house, and while watching jousting didn't sound *that* fun, there might be something else entertaining to do there.

"Fine. But you owe me, like, fifty!" She didn't really know what they were actually measuring, but it was a lot, and thus she was satisfied. Tooru then went to go find her dad and attempt to express a genuine interest in jousting.

Taro cheers and suddenly gives you a tight hug when you agree, uncharacteristically excited.  Then he lets you go, repeatedly thanking you.

[Love]

You bring up the tournament to your father while he drives you and Taro to school, begging him to let you go to the tournament too.  At first, he's very confused, and asks when you gained an interest in sports, especially a sport so... violent.  You give a simple excuse about Taro talking about it enough to interest you, which he starts to question--but you cut him off, demanding an answer.  He shrugs, then says that he supposes it's possible, if you want to go.

Well, that was way too easy.  You look over at Taro, and he seems to be as surprised as you--but after a moment, silently pumps both hands in the air.  You're pampered, but if your father wasn't willing to take Taro with how excited he seems to be about this, you're astonished that you could convince him so casually...
 

...It's a few more days before the tournament begins, and yet again you're a bit surprised when your father follows through on the promise.  At the very least you expected your mother to talk him out of it, since you're grounded, but she doesn't.  You think she realizes that you're only going as a favor to your brother, probably because Taro's been being particularly nice to you, and doing basically whatever you ask of him without complaint.

On the day of the tournament, you and Taro are picked up after school, and driven to the stadium on the edge of the city.  You begin to regret your promise as you follow close behind Taro and your father, making your way through the crowds.  Taro is uncharacteristically excited, practically bouncing in place as the three of you wait in line, but you can't muster up any excitement yourself.  Try as you might to think positive, you just feel deeply uncomfortable.  There's too many people here, it's too loud, too... something.  You're rapidly changing your goals from finding something interesting, to just staying calm.

The noise only grows as you begin to enter the stadium proper, but it begins to take second stage to something far stronger--the sheer weight of the emotions in this place.  Normally you have to focus to perceive the flow of emotions and magic around you, but in this place, it's hard to focus on anything else.  There's thousands upon thousands of people here, and their combined excitement flowing through the air feels more real and solid than the floor.  Individual humans are normally like dim candles to your magical senses, but this place feels like a furnace.  It's all you can do to stay upright as you follow your blissfully ignorant father into the inferno.

You have difficulty recognizing your own movement as your father leads you on, and it takes you a few seconds to register it when you stop, and then you're pushed down into a chair.  Distantly, you can recognize when your father wraps an arm around you, and you recognize his voice saying something, but you can't make out his words over the constant background roar filling your mind.  Or--no, the roar is real, the sound of a sea of people talking, all focused into one area.  It's hard to separate the sound from the sensation of their souls, all packed together below you.  It's hard to separate what you can see from their glow, like trying to make out somebody moving in the shadows while a flashlight is aimed at your eyes.  But, gradually, you start to filter it out, and begin to feel less lost.

...Your father is looking down at you, with an expression of... something.  It's an emotion, but it's only a tiny droplet in a sea of emotions, and that makes it impossible to distinguish.  You look past him, at the sea of people.  Most of them are below you, and you instantly regain a sense of location upon realizing that.  Taro is sitting to your left, your father to the right.  The sky is clear above you, bright blue, and the sea of emotion is below.  You let out a long sigh of relief, reality starting to fall back into place around you.  Your father's expression is worry, and Taro is no longer excited.  Scared, both of them--it's different from the rest of the emotions, and closer.  Sharper.

"Tooru, talk to me, what's wrong?"

Finally, the meaning of your father's words come across.  He's been asking you how you feel, what's happening.  You genuinely don't know how to answer him at first--your own emotions feel as hard to pin down as theirs.  You're not scared, like him, or excited, like the sea, or... anything?

[The scene is supposed to go further than this, but I'm already struggling a lot here, as hinted by the three month gap, soooooooo yeah.]

"I was thinking of stopping it.  I don't know if he's a good person, Mom.  I saw him going out with a gun, once, and he seems to work odd hours.  I didn't think of it immediately, but maybe he deals drugs or something?"

Both Eva and your mother go quiet at that, their cheer disappearing in record time.  There's a long silence as they digest your statement; handguns are very illegal.

"...Are you sure he had a gun?" your mother says, breaking the silence.  You nod gravely.  "You're sure it wasn't one of those replica toys, or--" Eva interrupts her, loudly "She said he had a gun, Mom!"

"Well it doesn't make sense!" your mother snaps back at her.  "Dealing drugs?  At his age?!"

"Alida was just guessing.  You said his name was Mikhail, right?  He's Russian!  There's been a bunch of stories on the news about Russians being involved in gang violence lately, and--"

"Eva!  Just because he's Russian doesn't mean he's a criminal, that's racist."

"Wh--Mom!  He had a gun!  Why are you defending him?!"

"That's a very serious claim, Alida might have mistaken something else for a gun."

"Like what, Mom?!"

"I don't know, maybe a banana or something?"

There's a long pause as Eva stares at your mother in disbelief, your mother staring back at her defiantly.  After a few seconds you quietly say that you're sure it wasn't a banana.  Your mother rolls her eyes and says that it was just an example, and Eva slaps her palm into her face, groaning.  After a couple seconds, she looks back up at you, and speaks in a serious tone.

"Alida.  Whatever you saw, it's better to be safe.  You're right, you should stop visiting that girl."  Your mother interjects shortly afterward, saying that even if he is dangerous, that you don't have to avoid his daughter, though she admits after a quick look from Eva that you shouldn't go visiting her at her home.  The table goes quiet after that, all three of you feeling uncomfortable.  You feel somewhat guilty for ruining the happy atmosphere that it had just a couple minutes ago, though you didn't really have much of a choice in the matter.


((Nothing has changed with these.  Next update sometime later, assuming Chev is still interested.  If not, I'll prolly retcon things back so the game can follow a different plot thread.))

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

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

Age: 14
Hair Color: Salt-stained blonde.
Health: Fine!
Inventory: Clothes, Club.

Totem: A fishing club.

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

Abilities:
   Mobility Lvl3
   Close Combat Lvl3+1
   Totem Manipulation Lvl2
   Regeneration Lvl2

   Berzerker Lvl3
   Painless Lvl2
   Effigy Lvl2

   Duet with Reality Lvl1

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

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

Age: 13
Hair Color:  Bright scarlet.
Health: Fine!
Inventory: Nothing useful.

Totem: Ofuda talismans, primarily thrown as manabolts.

Stats:
   Bravery:  Cursed ;-;
   Joy:  Talented~
   Innocence:  Skilled!
   Purity:  Amateur...
   Mercy:  Cursed ;-;
   Creativity:  Amateur...
   Love:  Skilled!
   
Abilities:
   Mobility III
   Mana Bolt III (+I)
   Regeneration II
   Totem Manipulation III

   Invigorating Passion II
   Outburst III
   Duet with Reality II

[MCreeper]

I did not even expected an update at this point. 

[Devastator]

Dammit, Knocker.  If you do anything to my family, I WILL kill you.  And I'm not going to leave Takeda for long, I'll talk to him tomorrow, so I can tell Knocker to stay the hell away from my family.

Keep talking to the end of dinner, do try to enjoy the rest of it.  After dinner, play with the rest of the munchkins as they're around, asking a few questions to see if anyone suspicious is following them around, and then wolf-sleep as usual.  Do see if I can growl as a human, I really want to make sure Knocker gets another reminder when I do call him.

..have I noticed the wolf getting stronger yet?

[Chevaleresse]

Tooru blinked, trying to bring her awareness back into herself. Her. . . dad was talking? Dad was talking. And he was worried, right. That made her. . . also worried? She blinked again. "I'm sorry, Papa, the crowd is. . . it's really big." The girl tried to concentrate harder, to narrow her senses back down to herself and her immediate area. Another vague pang of something that was probably still worry flitted across her consciousness again. Why was this happening? Was it a witch, or just the crowd? She should have been more concerned at barely being able to feel herself, but it was hard. "I'll be okay, I promise."

[syvarris]

I did not even expected an update at this point. 

((That is not dead which can eternal procrastinate.  And with strange aeons, even waits may abate.))

Tooru blinked, trying to bring her awareness back into herself. Her. . . dad was talking? Dad was talking. And he was worried, right. That made her. . . also worried? She blinked again. "I'm sorry, Papa, the crowd is. . . it's really big." The girl tried to concentrate harder, to narrow her senses back down to herself and her immediate area. Another vague pang of something that was probably still worry flitted across her consciousness again. Why was this happening? Was it a witch, or just the crowd? She should have been more concerned at barely being able to feel herself, but it was hard. "I'll be okay, I promise."

[Purity]

Gradually, you start to regain your senses, though you can't block out the sea of emotion entirely.  Your dad seems to calm down a little when you respond, though you can still sense his fear.

"If you're uncomfortable, we can go back home, Tooru." he says soothingly.  You shake your head negatively, even as you can sense Taro's worry spiking.  You don't want to walk back down into that inferno.

You start looking around at your surroundings, as your father returns to his seat beside you.  You're near the top of the stands, with relatively few people directly around you; their souls are almost invisible compared to the overwhelming tide of emotion below.  When you look down, towards the sea of people below, it's... still far too bright, it confuses all your senses.  Most of the audience is down there, packed in against each other, completely swallowing the small arena at the bottom.  It hits you, you don't think the stadium is even half full; most of the higher seats remain unfilled.  You can't imagine what this place would be like if it were completely full.

Over the next few minutes, you sit and focus, trying to ground yourself again, to ignore the sea of emotion.  You meet with some success; eventually, you can sort out the real roar of the screaming crowds from the magical roar of their excitement.  Then you can recognize the music seeming to come from every direction.  You eventually can even see past the crowds to make out the simple dirt arena in detail; there's a number of people walking around down there, fiddling with chest-high fences organized into lanes, among other things that you can't really make out.  You think everything is normal, that it's just your own magical nature screwing with your perception, but...

<Tooru!  Run!>

Pumsy's panicked voice suddenly screams into your mind, as sudden and jarring as a bucket of ice water being dumped onto you.  You immediately ask him what's happening, and where he is, confused.

<A witch!  You can't fight her alone, I'm g-->

His voice is interrupted by an extremely deep tone, a loud sound that you can almost feel more than hear.  It hits you like a wall, jumbling your thoughts and breaking the connection with Pumsy--and then it's gone, as suddenly as it began, leaving you even more confused.  You jump of your seat, and immediately lose your balance, tumbling against the back of the empty seat in front of you.  Surprisingly, it's... rough?  You look down at the material, and watch as the white plastic of the seat slowly turns gray, a stony texture spreading across the furniture.

You spin around to look at your brother and father, and see that they're insensate, leaning back into their stone seats with empty stares.  They're breathing, but not reacting to your sudden distress.  Behind them, you watch as the rest of the empty stands above you change to stone.  There's about ten more rows of seats, and then the stands just end--there's nothing else past them, just cloudless blue sky, harsh yellow light streaming down despite there being no sun above.

You look back behind you, at the center of the arena, and realize with a sinking feeling that the sea of emotion from the excited spectators has entirely disappeared, but the spectators have not.  This place is rapidly becoming a labyrinth, and there's thousands of people in the very center of it, all of them unaware of what's happening.  Your mind is rapidly clearing, the situation you're in is utterly clear, but with that clarity is a creeping panic.


((Dev tomorrow, because saying that will make it happen sooner.))

[syvarris]

Dammit, Knocker.  If you do anything to my family, I WILL kill you.  And I'm not going to leave Takeda for long, I'll talk to him tomorrow, so I can tell Knocker to stay the hell away from my family.

Keep talking to the end of dinner, do try to enjoy the rest of it.  After dinner, play with the rest of the munchkins as they're around, asking a few questions to see if anyone suspicious is following them around, and then wolf-sleep as usual.  Do see if I can growl as a human, I really want to make sure Knocker gets another reminder when I do call him.

..have I noticed the wolf getting stronger yet?

Dinner finished awhile ago, and though you try to restart the conversation, neither Eva nor your mother seem interested.  Eventually, Eva excuses herself, saying she needs to be up early for work, and you leave soon after.  You end up finding Gregory entertaining Kade and Lana, and join the trio, quietly trying to interrogate your brother without interrupting the twins.  Happily, it doesn't sound like he's seen anything odd, and he doesn't even seem to realize what you're actually asking about, just taking your questions as curious chatter.  You spend a little while with them, relaxing and forgetting your troubles, until you head to bed.  Or floor, as the case may be; your wolf form is much too large to sleep on your mattress, and actually is starting to get to the point that you're too large to comfortably lay down.

The next day passes normally, for the most part.  Your mother seems a bit more worried than usual when she sends you off to school, but you don't see anything suspicious throughout the schoolday.  You still keep an eye out, and ask your friends to keep an eye out for suspicious people, but nothing comes up, even on your walk home.  All your siblings are fine, and neither Eva nor your mother mention anything happening, but... you just feel a sense of worry that keeps you on edge throughout the day.  You decide to stay home with the kids all day, rather than going out and adventuring around the woods as you've been doing a lot lately, just in case.

About an hour after you get home, you're distracted by a fight.  Lydia starts yelling from another room, and when you run in, you find her hitting Patrick, your youngest sibling, while he screams nonsense back at her.  It takes several minutes to actually separate the two of them--Both your mother and Eva are gone, Gregory's attempts at helping prove mostly useless, and you don't want to use your powers and risk hurting one of the two kids.

<Alida!  You need to come with me!>

You're only partway through Lydia's angry explanation of what happened--apparently Patrick started biting one of her dolls?--when you're interrupted by Pumsy's panicked voice, shouting into your mind.  You look up and see him outside the window, his head just peeking over the sill while he hangs from it.  You glare at him, already irritated with having to deal with fighting children, and not appreciating another interruption on top of that.

<Tooru's trapped in a labyrinth!  A witch of rage and corruption appeared, and she was caught!  You have to come, I can't find Asha and Sasha, but Tooru needs help!>


((Again, nothing has changed with these.))

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

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

Age: 14
Hair Color: Salt-stained blonde.
Health: Fine!
Inventory: Clothes, Club.

Totem: A fishing club.

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

Abilities:
   Mobility Lvl3
   Close Combat Lvl3+1
   Totem Manipulation Lvl2
   Regeneration Lvl2

   Berzerker Lvl3
   Painless Lvl2
   Effigy Lvl2

   Duet with Reality Lvl1

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

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

Age: 13
Hair Color:  Bright scarlet.
Health: Fine!
Inventory: Nothing useful.

Totem: Ofuda talismans, primarily thrown as manabolts.

Stats:
   Bravery:  Cursed ;-;
   Joy:  Talented~
   Innocence:  Skilled!
   Purity:  Amateur...
   Mercy:  Cursed ;-;
   Creativity:  Amateur...
   Love:  Skilled!
   
Abilities:
   Mobility III
   Mana Bolt III (+I)
   Regeneration II
   Totem Manipulation III

   Invigorating Passion II
   Outburst III
   Duet with Reality II

[Devastator]

"But.. I have to settle them down!"

Pumsy wouldn't call me if it wasn't important.  I need to go.. quick.

Use DwR to sing a song.  "Give peace a chance."  Keep it up a few turns to calm them down.  That'll then let me go help Tooru.

Get them settled, and this time, get moving as a wolf.  Pumsy grabbed by the nape of his neck in my mouth, full speed.

[Chevaleresse]

Tooru looked around with fear written across her face. "Papa? Taro? Can you hear me? After a moment or three of flitting about in front of them, fruitlessly trying to elicit a response, Tooru turned to face the center of the arena. She took a deep breath, trying and mostly failing to get her heart rate back down to a reasonable level. This was bad, very very bad. She'd seen what witches would do to people ensnared in their labyrinths, and she couldn't let that happen here. But, if Pumsy said that this witch was too powerful, and the last ones had been easy. . . Tooru squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. Am I going to die here? She had to move, she had to do something. With one last glance at her family, she summoned up her magical girl outfit. Summoning up a set of talismans for later throwing, she started to move towards the center of the arena, to hopefully figure out what was going on.

[Lenglon]

-Waitlist-

[Egan_BW]

:D

[syvarris]

-Waitlist-

((Erm.  I'm genuinely flattered, and I've long thought you would be an excellent player, but...))

Spoiler: This does not seem like a great time (click to show/hide)

Because:

A) Two people (Egan and Paris) are already accepted into the game, and will therefore push the game up to 4/4 players.  With the exception of Egan, that means all players will be rather unlikely to die, thus meaning you'll prolly be waiting awhile.  Unless you play a ward, but that barely counts as a join, and also means there will be five players, exacerbating B...

B) The game is functionally dead right now.  I've not given up on it, of course, but I'm also not updating it with anything approaching regularity.  At the current rate of updates, it would literally take years for you to get into the game, even assuming the best case scenario of a death in this labyrinth.  I deeply desire to change this fact, but a desire alone does not change reality nor behavior.  PS' future does not look bright.

C) Devastator's in the game, and it is unlikely for his character to die.  I honestly do not understand the enmity here, but the only game I can recall seeing you both involved in without conflict was Omega Legion, and in that game your characters could entirely avoid each other, and even avoid each others' threads.  PS, being a highly cooperative game where your allies' choices have a good chance of affecting you, is not really a game where you can avoid interaction with each other.

That all being said, I do still think you'd make for a great player, and I'd love to see you join.  It just... doesn't seem like a great idea right now.  Perhaps if the game were formally shut down and replaced, that would work better.   

[Lenglon]

((I was tracking all of that. Just want to sit silently on the waitlist, I know it's likely to not be used and thats fine - tis part of why I didn't bother making a charsheet to go with the waitlist request.

Dev and I mostly worked things out recently, and are working towards disarmament and proper peace, trying to give things another chance. The other issues I also understand, Im settled down for a roughly 3-year wait. No worries.))

[Egan_BW]

With the exception of Egan, that means all players will be rather unlikely to die

I heard that. I'm going to live forever. >:|

[Empiricist]

I heard that. I'm going to live forever. >:|

((Kill your comrades. Grind up their soul gems. Snort their essence. Become immortal.))