The Flamebringer
She looked at Raquel, bemused. What a poor, sad, unfulfilled life she had lived if she didn't have tea. Didn't know what tea was. She shook her head. The potentially-eldritch abomination in front of her was a more... pressing concern. "First, who in the Hells are you? A name means basically nothing, and can easily be faked."
edited 12th Apr '17 11:33:54 AM by Izshta
All are significantly abnormal in a normal world... All are significantly normal in an abnormal world.
Hikaru's Refuge - House - Hospitality?
So as it was to be expected, the person that had brought them all here had gotten exhausted, she presumed, from casting such a powerful spell. What wasn't anywhere near as much was the fact that she had disclosed that. If this was a dimensional kidnapper that meant them harm, surely they wouldn't exposed such a weakness like that, right? Could be that she really somehow meant well, despite this initial seemingly criminal action? Or was this just a trick to lull them into a sense of false security so she could them off guard?
In anycase, the others girl were right, there was only one way to really findo out the truth of this matter. She quickened her step and joined the others at the door, just as Hikaru made her appearence.
As she listened carefully to what she was saying, she was kept surprising her ... The way she just admitted having kidnapped them, how she seemed uncertain, almost nervous, how she kept giving them a choice, instead of trying to force them ... It still could be all a cruel trick, but somehow, she could tell that it wasn't. She certainly didn't anything like the people who had kidnapped her daughter, for one. Which minded that, the sooner she resolved, the sooner she would be able to see her children again.
"I think we should at least hear her out. She may have technically commited a crime here, but I have cause to believe that there must be a deeper reason to all this," Fate then spoke out, before turning more towards Hikaru and saying, "That would be acceptable," as she entered, lowering Bardiche a bit from the previous battle ready stance, but still in a easily acessible manner if their host did try something, then heading towards the indicated room.
edited 13th Apr '17 10:22:29 AM by JamesShields
Hikaru sighed, before closing her eyes.
"I am a shrine maiden from a world that's been destroyed," she explained, "And I'm trying to keep the same fate from befalling other worlds. It's the reason I brought you here, as a matter of fact."
She opened her eyes again before speaking to the group a little more generally. "I don't suppose you've noticed the black spot in the sky? Or perhaps a simple speck, or, as much as I hope this is not the case for any of you, a swirling black maelstrom?"
Then she turned her attention to Wo specifically. "Tea is a drink, made by pouring hot water over specially prepared leaves. It's a surprisingly common drink across reality."
Once Fate stepped in, Hikaru looked to the others with a somewhat expectant expression, waiting to see if they would follow her example.
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Wo seemed surprised by Raquel's observation about everyone but her being able to transform. Apparently it was a requirement for something. It was hard to know what the jellyfish girl had in mind.
"Requirement for what? What are you talking about?"
The girl inside the house introduced herself as 'Hikaru' and offered to give an explanation for her actions but after taking some tea. Raquel didn't much mind to answer. If the rest of the girls said something wrong or Hikaru turned out to be much more dangerous than she seemed, she could always get away. For now, though, she was happy with just being in the back of the group and listening to their kidnapper. Well, except for when it came down to the dozens of spiders crawling around in her house.
"Give me a second"
Without a word, Raquel influenced the spiders on the floor move to the nearest wall so they wouldn't be crushed.
Hikaru continued, describing herself as a 'shrine maiden' from a dead world. Raquel had never heard of that title but from what each word meant she thought about the closest equivalent she knew of "So like a nun?" The gist of it was that Hikaru wanted to stop each of the girl's worlds from dying and whatever that black spot on the sky was, it had something to do with it. Still, Raquel didn't quite buy the explanation.
"What does that thing have to do with us?"
Hikaru's Heartfelt Hospitality in Her Humble Abode
"Oh uh... okay, maybe later?" Inori asked rhetorically before following along with everyone else."Tea would be lovely!" she said to Hikaru, taking a look around the place as she stepped into the dining room. "I'm Inori Aizawa, but all my friends call me Inori... so you can call me Inori! Um, do you have mint tea? Maybe? Please?"
"All browsers can transform, you really, really, really can't?" she added to Raquel with a sad expression on her face. To not only be completely unable to transform, but also cursed with the ability to create icky gross disgusting creepy crawly ugly spiders? It was enough to make someone cry. "I'm so sorry, that's just terrible."
"In my world's case, it means I was tasked with looking after one of the seven Alpha Devices, the cornerstones of our civilization," Hikaru replied to Raquel. Then she frowned. "As for your second question...I'll get to that in a little bit."
Those who stepped into the kitchen would find a sizeable room, with the kitchen part at the front end and the dining room at the other. The kitchen had white tiled floor and an identical wall color to the entry hall. It also had all the appliances one would find in such a place; a refrigerator/freezer, a microwave, a toaster, a dishwasher, and an electric stove. A steel kettle sat on the latter appliance, with some steam already coming out of its spout.
The counter had two sinks with a window above them, with some red potted flowers sitting on the windowsill. Next to the sinks sat a number of boxes, all labeled with some kind of tea flavor. There were also a number of cabinets around, including one hanging over the parts of the counter not obstructing the window.
The dining room had another window, and a dark hardwood floor. It was furnished with a well-cleaned, wooden ovular table easily large enough to seat everyone present.
Once everybody had settled into the dining room, Hikaru followed them in before making her way over to the counter where the tea boxes were sitting and began looking them over.
"Let's see, I have green tea, sweet lemon tea, golden flower tea...." She smiled. "...Yes, I do have mint tea." Then she turned towards her guests. "If you'd rather not have tea, I could get you something else if you wish?"
Her attention then turned to Inori asking Raquel if she really couldn't transform.
"When all of you are from different worlds, at least I'm presuming, the fact that your powers won't all work the same way is to be expected," she added.
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She was a girl who knew about human things, and therefore normal. Yes.
Walking forward and into the house, she was unfortunate enough to bang her head on the door jam while filing in with the rest. It didn't hurt at all, steel plating does that for a girl, but she was more worried about the dent she left in the wood.
Willfully ignoring that and hoping the owner didn't notice, she hurriedly took her seat at the table.
"I'll have a...regular tea, yes," she said, cool as a cucumber. "Normal and stuff. And, uhh, yeah, I'm guessing what I know might be wrong about hu-people like you all." Well, maybe humans. They're technically aliens as it stands. "Got my powers from a ghost. Don't regret it for a moment."
She pointed with a snap of her fingers at Raquel to draw attention away from whatever she might've said, and asked "How about you, then? It sounds like you're real different from what I'm used to."
Hikaru's House - Kitchen/Dining Room - Time for tea and real questions
Hikaru's declarations caused both many realizations and questions to simultaniously swirl around her mind. It was a lot to process and so for now she didn't comment on any of it just yet and thought it over on the way to the dining area.
One thing that definitely stood out, besides the whole matter of the strange black phenomen on the skies of course, was the mention of some kind of Device ... It was clear that althought the term was similar, the meaning was quite not so. If anything, given how Hikaru had described her task regarding this Alpha Device, it was probably closer in analogy to a Lost Logia. That was all probably related to the matter ar hand so she would likely find that out soon enough.
At the mention of green tea, she couldn't help smiling sweetly, as warm memories of Nanoha and her adoptive mother, Lindy, came to her, particularly the former's inevitably baffled reaction at the rather, according to her, unorthodox the latter usually had it.
"Green tea would do wonderfully for me, thank you," Fate then said to their host.
With that done, her expression turned more serious and inquisitive, as she then went on to ask, "Now, regarding what you just said a bit earlier ... Your world was destroyed by such a thing, wasn't it? We have been worried about those strange phenomena back home for a while ... They currently dot the skies of every world my organization has been able to reach so far and are spreading worrying amounts of dimensional distortions everywhere ... In anycase, the reason you brought us here ... It was to help stop that from spreading further and threatning our worlds and countless others, wasn't it? But how? Not even our dimensional ships have been able to do anything to them or even safely approach them ..."
edited 19th Apr '17 9:44:37 PM by JamesShields
Hikaru explained that her job as a nun was more akin to a guardian. Someone with the duty of protecting an Alpha Device. She also promised to explain the significance of the black spot in the sky but first guided the group to the dining room. Raquel already knew what the house looked like from the inside but she still found a few things that didn't seem right. For starters, there was a weird metallic box with some sort of window installed in it and all kinds of buttons on one side. She wondered for a bit what it could be used for and tried to mess around with the buttons, but she just got the machine to make random noises. Defeated but still curious, the girl simply kept walking, positive that the kitchen was a weird place to put something like that.
Meanwhile, Inori, much like Wo, was surprised to learn that Raquel didn't have a flashy transformation sequence. This time though, she also mentioned the term 'browser' like that was supposed to mean something.
"I don't even know what a browser is. And I have no idea why you think I should be able to transform into..." Raquel answered, gesturing at Inori's clothes—with special emphasis on her short skirt—and trying to think of the right way to describe them "Some sort of harlot"
When it came down to sitting down on a table and actually having some tea, Hikaru asked the girls what kind they wanted. Raquel was going to take the opportunity and get something out of this experience.
"I want, uh, let me think. The most expensive tea you have"
Hikaru started looking at her tea boxes and pointed out that magical powers were bound to differ between universes, which is why no one fit with each other's idea of what someone should be capable of doing. As if to illustrate that, Wo explained that she had gotten her powers from a ghost and once again mentioned that Raquel herself was odd compared to what was usual for her.
"There is not much to learn. I found out I was a summoner when I was like five years old. And I don't regret having my powers either. I mean, why would I?"
edited 19th Apr '17 9:52:32 PM by DeisTheAlcano
The Flamebringer
"Expensive?" Hikaru repeated Raquel's request with a frown, "I'm...not sure if any of these teas can be called that. But I have heard the golden flower tea was a favorite of royalty...."
Then she set about preparing everyone's respective requests. While she was so occupied, she briefly looked over at Fate and nodded.
"That's right," she said, "Admittedly, my plan is an extremely flawed one, but I was at a loss for a better idea. Before I get to that, however, I should probably explain just what that black spot is."
She took a deep breath.
"The name my world gave to that black spot is the Zero Collapse, though some called it the Great Devourer. In my time travelling across reality, I've heard other names for it: the Void, the Black Hole Sun, the End of Everything.... No matter what it's called, all its names describe the same thing: a force so impossibly destructive that it can consume entire worlds. It has consumed entire worlds, many before they were ready to die naturally and many before they even had a chance to live. And it's constantly expanding, even as we speak.
"However, the Zero Collapse is not a natural phenomenon itself. It's being generated by an extremely powerful machine that we called the Omega Device. If the Omega Device is shut down, the Zero Collapse should follow suit. Fortunately, the means to shut it down exist: the seven Alpha Devices.
"The Alpha Devices, as I have mentioned previously, were the cornerstones of our civilization. Much of our technology was reverse engineered from them, and they formed the basis of our multiversal travel network. They possess incredible preservative properties, to the point that we uploaded our dead into them. And as our ancestors learned, they serve as the keys to control the Omega Device.
"Unfortunately, my world was the birthplace of the Zero Collapse. Just before it was consumed, the Alpha Devices jettisoned themselves away to other worlds across reality. I know the basics of where one of them might be located, but I don't know what's become of the other six."
At this point, she had finished preparing the tea and was now carrying them over to her guests. Once she had finished, she stood a little away from the group before looking at them with an expression that could almost be described as pleading.
"You can probably see where this is going."
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Hikaru's House (Kitchen/Dining Area) - Practically in her job description
Fate's expression turned solemn, even sorrowful at certain points, as Hikaru described the situation with the Zero Collapse. From the sound of it, this unreleting, destructive force was a single phenomenon spread across multiple, possibly all, dimensions. And it seemed artfifacts akin to Lost Logia were involved. This was definitely not something she could ignore.
"So you would have us help search for these Devices so this can be put to an end ... Well, this may be technically far beyond my jurisdiction, but I still feel it is my duty to do it. I'm an executive officer in a organization called Time Space Administrative Bureau. We are an interdimensional alliance, mainly tasked with protecting worlds from threats involving magic or ancient and powerful artifacts we call Lost Logia, to which these Devices of yours are sounding way too similar. As such, this kind of situation would right up my alley and thought it may be extraofficial, it is still within my duty in principle. So you can definitely count on me to lend my aid in this."
She picked up the cup of green tea, taking a sip, while still gathering her mind about quite a few aspects of this strange situation. If they were to suceed in this, they had to find out as much as possible before diving into the possibly dangerous task ahead of them. She still had many question regarding the whole explanation, but the one regarding a peculiar term Hikaru had used defintely jutted out.
"You said multiversal travel ... As in ... Multiple universes? So we are very likely not just from different worlds or even dimensions, but from entirely different realities, universes? And this Zero Collapse can stretch out that far!? And speaking of that ... This Omega Device ... Why would such a thing be built in the first place? What purpose could it possibly serve beyond wiping everything out? And who would be mad enough to activate it? Did they survive as well? Would there anyone serving them, that we would have to fight off in this mission?"
On to the much more dire portents. Wo was aware of the black dot in the sky, but what she knew was what pretty much anyone else knew back home: it's strange and very distant. Seemed like everyone was too focused on covering every square inch of the ocean floor with living space and factories, so space stuff never mattered. Good thing Hikaru knew so much, then!
Like the others, Wo's smile and optimism were gone by the end of their kidnapper's description. On a very basic level, it meant that her home, family, world, everything was in danger of simply disappearing if nothing was done about this. Then, there was the question of why.
"I think it's our responsibility as people who exist to try and help this. If you're telling the truth, you don't need anything for me, I'll go and do it," she said to Hikaru. "But, you haven't said how this happened just yet. How did you guys mess up that badly and cause this?"
The Flamebringer
She nodded in agreement after Wo spoke. "I agree with her," she pointed at Wo, "And, as a hypothesis to answer your question... Fate? Fate. People aren't rational, especially when they are scared. Something larger, something worse than multiversal annihilation, could have spooked them into activating it."
She paused.
"Though I can't imagine what that thing would be." She... wasn't quite telling the truth, there, She shuddered slightly as she imagined something like the Ravening, but devouring entire universes, not just the life energies of a single world.
All are significantly abnormal in a normal world... All are significantly normal in an abnormal world.
"Yes and yes," Hikaru replied to Fate's first two questions, "It is possible that some of you are from different parts of the same world, or from two worlds within the same group, but my observations so far that's not likely to be the case. And by the sounds of things, all of you have seen the Zero Collapse in some fashion."
Then she frowned and sighed. "As much as our civilization was built on them...we don't know who built the Alpha and Omega Devices, or for what purpose. All we know is that they're impossibly ancient, and that they're connected in some fashion. The Omega Device was initially placed behind a seal that could only be opened by all seven of the Alpha Devices, so it was clear whoever built it knew how dangerous it was. Even our ancestors who broke the seal to learn what was behind it knew better than to mess with it.
"My best guess for the Omega Device's intended purpose is that it was a weapon to be used in the most dire of circumstances. Presumably, with the Alpha Devices the Zero Collapse's power could be used in a more controlled fashion. This was likely the guess our ancestors had, for they set our civilization up so that each Alpha Device belonged to a different group. Only when all groups were in agreement would the seal be broken and the Omega Device's power be used.
"Unfortunately, they didn't account for other methods of getting past the seal that didn't involve the Alpha Devices. The person who desired to active the Omega Device was the leader of our civilization, King Haruka. With a spell much like the one I used to bring you here, he broke the Omega Device out of its seal and activated it.
"And...that's all I know. I don't know what Haruka's plans were, especially if he didn't even try to obtain the Alpha Devices beforehand. Perhaps he knew the Alpha Devices would scatter before the Zero Collapse and hoped to collect them without having to get through the rest of our society's leaders, or perhaps he never intended to collect them at all. And I don't know what became of him after our world's destruction. The best advice I can offer is simply to stay on your guard."
At that, she took a deep breath, before offering the group a weak smile.
"For those of you who have already agreed to help me, I cannot thank you enough. I know my methods aren't the greatest. Had you arrived here ready to kill me for taking you from your homes, I would have understood perfectly. And if I could have resolved this completely on my own, I would have. But I'm no goddess. Just a girl who's lacking in a lot of areas.
"While I was considered the greatest summoner of our society," there was a noticeable lack of pride in this statement, "That's pretty much all my magic could do. I don't have any combat skills to speak of, so chances are I'd just get myself killed trying to find the Alpha Devices completely on my own. And I'm no good at inter-universal politics; my job was to look after the Alpha Device, not be a diplomat. I suppose I could have simply done nothing and waited for another world to act, but the Zero Collapse was born of my world and I consider it my responsibility to try and fix it.
"I'll try my best to look after you while you're working with me. It's the least I can do, since you didn't exactly ask to be brought into all of this." She suddenly frowned heavily, as if realizing something. "...And even if you don't want to help me, you'll be stuck here for a little while anyway since I didn't think to provide a way for you to get back to your homeworlds or even a way to contact them, because I'm an idiot." She buried her face in her hands for a moment. "...I'll do my best to rectify that as soon as possible."
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"Umm...." Inori said, idly swirling her tea around in her cup after taking a sip, still stewing at the dumb girl calling her a harlot.
"I've never heard of an Alpha or Omega Device before, but I am pretty good with computers," she said. "If we can find this first one, I can look through its data and see if there's anything in there. Maybe a communication network with the others, or information on where it came from. There's bound to be something that can help us find the others."
Hikaru's House (Kitchen/Dining Area) - Deep connections
"I see, so that's how it is ... Well, I suppose that in the end, nor the motives for the inception of such a weapon neither Haruka's really matter. Once we fulfill our task and stop all this, if he still somehow exists, we will have to defeat and aprehend him. Same goes for anyone how might still be serving him," Fate then spoke, resolutely.
Fate frowned quite a bit as Hikaru explained that she had no current way of sending them back or even contacting their worlds. "That is rather unfortunate, though I suppose you really were desperate ... Given that these Devices are likely scattered so as far as across different universes, we have no idea of how long this endeavour may take. As such, we must find a way to reach our homes before we set out on it. We can not leave our familues and friends ... My children ... needlessly worried to death over such a disappearence, for goodness only knows how long ..." Her expresion then turned a more hopefil, as she then added, "Fortunately, I think I might have a solution, however tentative it may be ... Back home, we do have communication technology capable of reaching across dimensions. I'm not sure if it would be able to reach across universes, but it might be worth a shoot. So if you could summon such a equipment once you are ready, we could give a try. Travel on this level is also unprecedented, but if I can reach home, I can at least try to get one of our ships, to solve the issue of us essentially being trapped here for now. However, I have no idea of how to get it to connect to the worlds, of anyone else, since the technology, if any exists at all, would likely be rather incompatible .."
An idea suddenly dawning upon her, she turned to Inori and said, "Perhaps this might be an opportuny to test out what you propose earlier. If we could get such an equipment to work with your Earth's communications, then given at least some basis, we theoritically could do something similar for the others ...Assuming there is any kind of such technology in anyone else's worlds that is ... Otherwise, I can't quite think of a solution for that, unfortunately ..."
edited 27th Apr '17 3:08:43 PM by JamesShields
Wo explained that her explanation about regretting her powers was more about ghosts usually being a bad thing in her world. Considering how weird she was already, Raquel just assumed she was talking about something else.
"I see, okay. Ghosts. I understand now" she said winking at Wo, like she just had cracked a secret word she used to refer to something else
Meanwhile, Hikaru brought everyone their tea. Raquel was excited to taste something that very few people in her hometown had even seen before. She started to drink it but the taste was awful. She just put the cup down and tried to take the taste off her head.
"Ugh, this is just hot leaf juice"
Then Hikaru continued with her story. Raquel stayed quiet for the most part because it was a lot to take in. She had just learned that there were other worlds out there and just like that, they were all in danger of disappearing forever. And all because some guy had activated a superweapon? It was hard to see his reasoning.
The other girls seemed ready to help for the most part, with the biggest example being the complicated plan between Fate and Inori that involved a lot of words Raquel hadn't heard before. As for Raquel herself, she didn't want to see the world end as much as the next person but she still didn't quite understand why someone else couldn't take care of that.
"Look, this is very sad and all but your best idea was taking random girls from all over the universe? I mean, all right, you needed help... but why us specifically?"
"...To be honest, it didn't have to be you specifically," Hikaru replied to Raquel after unburying her face with her hands, "When I cast the spell, I was looking for people like the combat mages of my society. Ours was a matriarchal society, so pretty much all of these mages happened to be women."
Then she sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. "And, um.... Admittedly, I've never really had the chance to make many friends my own age, and, um.... That...that might have influenced things a little...." She let out a small, bitter chuckle. "...Wow, that sounds even worse now that I'm saying it out loud."
She shook her head. "Anyway, I didn't have anyone specific in mind when I cast the spell. You just happened to meet my specifications and were 'lucky' enough to be brought here."
That question answered, she turned her attention to Inori.
"Actually, the Alpha Devices do have a network of sorts; if they're separated, they can point the way to the others. Granted, I'm not sure if this function would work when they're all in different worlds as opposed to all in the same world, but given everything else they're capable of I have no reason to believe it wouldn't."
She then offered a small smile. "On the other hand, having another set of eyes to help me look over the Alpha Device when we obtain the first one. Given the sort of person I am, it wouldn't surprise me if I miss a thing or two."
Finally, she turned back to Fate.
"Naturally, we also had a way to communicate across worlds. Given the nature of our society, it would be foolish of us not to. Unfortunately...given who I am I naturally didn't bring any of it with me, and you can guess what happened to the rest of it." She frowned and sighed. "So your solution sounds like the best option for now. It's rather fortunate you were one of the people chosen, because otherwise I doubt I would've come up with anything on my own."
She let out another bitter chuckle, before addressing the group as a whole.
"Before I get to that, though, does anyone else have any questions? I think I've covered everything at this point, but I don't trust myself enough to not have missed something."
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Really, she's a competent enough girl, it was just that everything back home was so...cut and dry, she guessed. Ghosts are bad, if they aren't your mentor. You can tell a ghost from other people even if they're both white as a cloud, because ghosts scream a lot more and usually don't have eyes. Your job is to get rid of ghosts.
And, well, that was part of why she enjoyed being a magical girl. Everything was simple and clean. Perhaps she wasn't lost as much as feeling constrained to add anything meaningful to the conversation. She did want to ask why Hikaru only summoned girls* but the summoner answered it before she even questioned.
But, that did give her a good followup question.
She raised her hand and asked "Why was your society matriarchal in the first place?"
Dark Sun, what choices have I...?
It wasn't as if they didn't notice the black dot in the sky. It had been the talk of every household, an enigma looming over the city that profoundly evaded their understanding. Her homeroom teacher, Ms. Saotome insisted it was a bad omen. Kyubey suspected a cosmic event in some distant solar system. And Sayaka Miki, defender of Mitakihara, was too busy fighting off the wicked invaders to ponder what it might be at the moment.
Wicked invaders, in this case, meaning one anima mala known more politely as Kyoko.
"Come on, give me your best shot!" taunted the fiery redhead as she drew her Soul Gem and transformed into a rogue warrior with a record as red as her hair.
Sayaka too was about to transform when from behind her cried a voice she knew all too well.
"Sayaka, no, don't!"
"What are you doing?" she cried to her yet-uncontracted friend, Madoka, who was approaching her from behind with Kyubey on her heels. "You shouldn't be here. This has nothing to do with you so stay back."
"Come on, think about what you're doing," the pink-haired girl pleaded. "This just can't be right."
"Hmph," Kyoko unwelcomely interjected, pointing her spear in their direction. "The annoying bitch has an annoying friend. Go figure."
A fourth girl suddenly materialized behind Kyoko, looking as cold and vaguely unimpressed as ever. "Well, I wonder what kind of friends you'd have then," said the stoic Homura, in what might have been some sort of burn. This mostly seemed to annoy Kyoko, who dismissed her out of hand as she initiated further squabbling.
"What are you doing? I thought we agreed you leave Sayaka Miki alone."
"Like your wimpy idea's gonna teach her any manners!" She raised her spear another couple inches. "Besides, it's not like she's backing down."
Homura simply walked past her. For a moment, it looked like she intended a further retort, but instead she simply paused, widening her eyes slightly in what looked like a rare moment of genuine surprise from the girl who normally had all the emotional range of a toaster oven.
Whatever it was that had surprised her, Madoka caught it before Sayaka did, stepping backward with a yelp and looking down at Sayaka's feet. "Sayaka, what is that?"
"Wha?" Sayaka followed Madoka's gaze to find a circle of white magic under her feet. "What is this!?" she instinctively cried as she automatically flinched away from it.
Unfortunately, this act did nothing to the magic circle except prompt it to follow her. By this point, even Kyoko was watching the unexpected intrusion in confusion, raising an eyebrow as a not-Pocky stick hanged out of her mouth. "The hell?"
"I haven't seen these runes before," commented the weasel-like Kyubey, observing as Sayaka pranced around, trying to no avail to distance herself from the circle.
"Do you know what we should do about it, Kyubey?"
"I can't say. It could be another magical girl, but..."
Before Kyubey could finish that statement, the bridge disappeared from Sayaka's view along with everyone on it, replaced by a field of flora she didn't recognize.
She looked around, finding a path that led to a house and nothing else of note. She followed it, for lack of any better ideas, glancing around to see if anyone else would appear.
"Uh, hello?" she cried as she set out, putting her Soul Gem away. "Is anybody out here?"
And upon reaching the door...
"Hey, anyone home?"
She rapped on the door a couple times.
edited 5th May '17 2:32:30 AM by Oceanstuck
i guess you can watch me shitpost i guess
Inside the House
"We'll just have to find out for ourselves - when we get the first device," Inori said cheerfully."Are you expecting anymore company?" she added softly, but quickly, as he ears perked up and her eyes widened at the sound of someone knocking at the door.
Hikaru explained that none of the girls were chosen on specifically on purpose. Everyone just fit with her idea of combat mages of her world. In addition to having a plan with holes so big you could probably drive a carriage through them, Hikaru had chosen the worst combat-oriented person she could possibly get in the entire multiverse. And to makes matters worse, she not-creepily-at-all implied that she had summoned girls around her age to have some friends.
"Oh, that's... that's great" Raquel answered sarcastically as she got up from her chair. This was making her feel more and more trapped by the minute. Luckily that thought process was interrupted by someone knocking on the door. Kind of strange to hear that in a place with no other people.
Raquel sent two of her spiders under the door to investigate who was calling. A blue-haired girl wearing another dangerously short skirt was waiting from the other side and the spiders climbed all over the door until they were at eye-level with the new visitor. Seems like the team wasn't complete just yet.
"There's another girl outside. But I thought we were the only ones. How many more did you summon here, Hikaru?"
edited 6th May '17 6:36:20 AM by DeisTheAlcano
The Flamebringer
Then a realization hit her.
None of the other girls here looked over sixteen or so, really.
The age of majority most places was sixteen-eighteenish.
This "Hikaru" lady had explicitly summoned them to fight this world-destroying... thing?
That made them child soldiers, technically.
She shrugged at this realization. Wasn't uncommon in Zharnaev, what with the Ravening. She looked up at the knock on the door. "Apparently one was late."
All are significantly abnormal in a normal world... All are significantly normal in an abnormal world.
Raquel must just be mistaken, she hasn't found her transformation yet.
To continue on that train of thought, she immediately wondered if Hikaru could transform too. She expected someone that she could justify battering down a door for. Some kind of evil, more well-developed person with a lot of eyeshadow, perhaps. Not just...this short girl. That immediately took the wind of out Wo's sails.
Her first idea was to see if she was a ghost by whacking her in the face with her staff, and...well, that wasn't going to go well, was it?
She slowly looked between her and the rest of the group, unsure of how to advance. But, she did have this to say: "...Could you tell me what tea is, first?"
edited 19th Apr '17 6:07:43 PM by wikkit