Teleporting outside, Maya raced ahead, but stopped in her tracks and backtracked when Prita stopped. She listened to what the other girl had to say and made a face. Her Wisp spiralled around her head like some crazy will-o'-the-wisp. “Y'know...” she told Prita. “Both you and Giz are obviously more bonkers than Mr. Shadows-Alone-and-Death.”
Her Wisp promptly headbutted her. She winced. “And after that little show you put up back there” — she pointed over her shoulder with her thumb — “I'm inclined to take a page from his book and strike out on my own (read: with Maggie) and to hell with chain of command.”
"No, I like flying, I just thought it would be more useful for us, since you're the only flygirl here, so the rest of us wouldn't be as good at using helicopters and stuff," Hannah replied to Magda.
When Prita looked around, she would be able to see that Hannah had diligently followed along, ready to plan... and then as soon as they had entered the cafeteria and she replied to Magda, she had run off to the serving area to get herself some lunch.
Ashley gave Tammy a pat on the back. "Aww, it'll be okay. Who knows, maybe you can make some new friends on this mission. But I bet you'll feel better if we get lunch. Do you want to get some fish sticks? Or some tacos?"
Winter rolled herself out of the office. Apparantly, she had wheels on her shoes
◊. Skating alongside the other girls, she replied to Magda and Hannah.
"Fufufu, have no fear, The Magical Girl of the Sword is always serious." She assumed some sort of kung-fu stance without breaking her rolling momentum - a rather impressive feat, but not quite fitting of the situation. "I'll be sure to keep all of us safe from the evil that lurks ahead."
As the other girls strolled into the cafeteria, Winter picked up on their conversation and made her move. Spinning, kneeling and rolling around the group, coming to a stop in front of Tammy in a classic Knight's kneeling position. "Have no fear mistress Tammy. For I will make sure to support you no matter where you go. Now, state your wish and I shall fetch you your sustenance!"
Her buzzing internal commentary continued to poke fun at her. "Lassie, you seem to be head over heels for this girl."
"Hey, I'm like a Knight-person right? Magical Girl of the Sword and all. This is natural."
"Hah, about as natural as a Englishman on Stirling Bridge."
Once everybody had sat down together, Prita said, "Let's be honest here. We could go over tactics for the upcoming battle as much as we like, but our minds are probably more focused on what just happened in the control room. And I, for one, feel like I owe the rest of you an explanation."
"So let me admit," she continued, "Everything I said in there — totally designed to cause infighting among the group. No other purpose at all."
Rushing to at least get out a little more information before she got lynched, Prita said, "And before you say anything, that's not my ego speaking. I'll admit I like to be in control, but I'd gladly give up the chance to be leader if it would allow me to get my hands around Forrest's neck. I did what I did because if our group appears divided, it gives us the best chance against the dark magical girls."
First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.Hannah skipped away from the serving area, tray in-hand, and sat down on the bench next to Giz. She had several tacos on a plate, as well as some pieces of broiled chicken breast, and some broccoli with cheese. There were two sodas and some utensils on the tray as well. In her hands, she had a pizza that was folded in half like a giant taco, and filled with polenta, which she took a bite out of.
"Okay, I got my lunch. You better go get your own."
She blinked, giggled, and continued. "Ha! Bet I had you going! We can share."
Ashley was inspecting burger station in the cafeteria, lamenting on the state of the fried cod patties, when Winter ran up nearby.
"...I think I gave you too small of a bottle," she said to Tammy.
"Very well my liege. Please inform this servant if there is anything else required of her." Winter went off spinning away from the group, onto a cafeteria bench, landing herself into a comfortable sitting position. "Fufufu, creating division amongst ourselves to give us an advantage? A curious tactic indeed lassie."
Hannah finished her current mouthful of her polenta pizza taco. "Oh, that's what it was? Makes sense, I guess. But you know..." she said, scratching the back of her head with her other hand and tussling her hair. "For such a secret plan, you kinda just shit all over it by yammering about how it was all an act in the middle of the cafeteria."
She pulled her hand out of her hair and pointed at a random magical girl at a nearby table. "Maybe she's a spy. Or her. Or her. Or her." She pointed all around at fellow students who were eating a late lunch or just studying after class. "So uh... what's your Plan B, Prita?"
Ashley sighed in line. She finally relented, and got a cod burger and put some tartar sauce on it.
edited 25th May '14 7:03:44 PM by nman
Seeing the rather hostile puzzlement of some of the other magical girls, Prita went on to explain her plan in much the same way that she did to General Johnson. "I'm thinking strategically here, not tactically. Our problem is that our battles go the same way each time — we fight the other side, we win, and then they magically teleport away via portal, giving us nothing. Meanwhile, they are able to do goodness knows what when we're not around. I don't know about you, but I hardly call what we've been doing a success."
"Since we can't trace them back, and can't anticipate their attacks, we need to have another plan. I therefore think the best thing would be to see if we could plant a spy in their midst, who could report on their actions and maybe even plant a bug on them. Unfortunately, we can't just go up to them and say 'Hi! Let me join your side!' — we need to have an excuse to get involved, or else they'll just zap us. And hence the fighting among ourselves. If they believe that we really don't like each other, then maybe they might try to win one of us over to their side, and we could have our mole."
"And as to any danger about saying this now, notice that the cafeteria is one of the only open spaces we have available, and that's why we are sitting to the side of the room and talking quietly."
edited 25th May '14 9:26:01 PM by BokhuraBurnes
First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win."Oh, excuse me Prita," Hannah said mockingly, swallowing a big lump of polenta and pizza as her eyes took on a sharp glare. "Excuse me. We're on the side? The side of one of the most popular places on school? The school where girls with super powers receive military training. But that's okay. You're being quiet. That solves everything. And now you want one of us to play spy games? After you already broke the first rule of covert operations - shut the fuck up about your secret agents in public. Whoever you manage to trick into being your little Jamie Bond is going to wind up dead. But if you're still so confident about your plan, then you can be the one to do it."
"And if you think no one's going to believe you have a reason to run away from school, if you don't think people will believe that you have a reason to want to defect and try to help the bad guys," she added, mouth straightening. "Then don't worry about that. I'll be more than willing to handle that duty myself. If there's one thing Hannah Barca is good at, it's making scenes."
"Believe me, I had thought about that possibility," Prita replied. "I personally would be more than willing to be the defector, except for the fact that there is a certain Evergreen Forrest who is out for my head. She won't for a moment let the others believe I've turned traitor, and even if they do, she'll kill me just for her own personal revenge. So it'll have to be someone else."
First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.Hannah started to laugh. And laugh. Just when it seemed she would die of a lack of oxygen, she stopped, and started to talk.
"Oh, so that's all it takes to disqualify you?" she finally said, unconsciously putting her left hand on Giz's shoulder. "Tell me, did you even think about this plan of yours? Or did you just pull it out of your ass? If this is really what you planned all along, I'm going to have to beat the shit out of you, because right now it seems like it was designed to get Giz killed. You wanted Giz in charge, were you going to sabotage the plan next so that she can be your spy? Well guess what, the rage your friend Evergreen has is nothing. When Ahn Xi attacked us last month and knocked out Giz, the only thing that stopped her from trying to kill off Giz and me was Evergreen Forrest telling her they had to leave right away. You can be sure that a psycho bitch like that'll want to finish the job, defection be damned, because we humiliated her too much. Your pal Forrest, though, she's able to contain her rage, she's able to put aside her killing instinct, so there's a better chance of her working with you. And don't forget that Giz and I trounced a couple of students two weeks ago because we thought they were spies, while the real spy watched us interrogate them. With our fists. And weapons. And the pavement. So as far as things go, right now you're making one of the worst plans that will wind up with someone dead. Like I said, this is your plan, you should do it."
edited 26th May '14 10:57:55 AM by nman
Prita thought about what Hannah said for a moment. She then responded, "Frankly, my biggest concern was getting the enemy to believe that the defection was real. Evergreen doesn't just hate my guts, she knows that I'm," she paused for a second and then forced herself to go on, "a kiss-up arrogant bitch who doesn't care about what my fellow students think of me, but will do anything to get the mission done and thereby ingratiate myself with my superiors. Short of having the senior staff cast me out of the school — and good luck with convincing the Generals to go with that one, if that's what you want — there's no story for why I'm defecting that they're likely to believe. I thought someone who could portray herself as the victim of bullying from the rest of the group would have much better cover."
She stopped, and then added in a much humbler tone, "And that's where I was wrong. Oh, not with my calculations, I still stand by them — but it was wrong of me to involve another student in this without asking her consent. I said I owed you all an apology — and I'm truly sorry for having done this."
First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.Giz kept her eyes on Prita the entire time Hannah was talking, but couldn't help but be a little impressed and, dare she say, grateful, with her roomie. After hearing Prita's answer, Giz slowly raised one arm, wrapped it around Hannah, and gave her a squeeze. She was now off the silent treatment list.
Prita, on the other hand, was off it for an entirely different reason. Giz hadn't taken her glare off her since the other girl had spoken, and now, speaking slowly and enunciating precise, she said, "Fuck you, bitch."
She took a deep breath after that, savoring the flood of absolute rage and loathing that had escaped her with that simple sentence, and then said, "So when do I defect?"
“This is so sloppily executed that Mr. Death-Gloom-and-Shadows informs me of his displeasure in words I didn't know existed,” Maya informed the gathered girls. “I'm having no part in this.”
She rolled her eyes and disappeared, reappearing on the ceiling, hanging from whatever hang-able thing was nearest to the table where the other sat.
Magda rubbed her forehead with the hand not holding Winter. "Considering that your abilities thus far have been shown to be 'acting like the protagonist of a shounen manga,' yes, I am unappreciative. You should have that guy's memories floating around in your head, haven't you gotten any about how un-fun combat is?" She looked at Maya's new spot and the current arguments. "Himmelherrgott, we're all going to die," she muttered.
Exist, pursued by bear

"Well," Ashley whispered back to Tammy. "If you can't swim with Erica and me, you could work with..."
She looked over at Hannah. "Uhm...."
She shifted her gaze to Giz. "Uhh...."
Next, she cast a glance at Winter. "There's..."
Looking over, she threw her gaze to Maya. "Well..."
Shifting her eyes to the side a bit, she looked at Prita. "I guess..."
"Okay..." she conceded to Tammy. "I think you're going to need this." She reached into her hat and handed Tammy a tiny half-pint water bottle with no label. "Maybe you could land on the beach and the two of us cover you?"