>>45983894

Now, your secrets are bared before the younger girls who fight alongside your sister. The sin that made you hate yourself is known to your family and most of the people you have let into your life. And you had discovered you committed no great sin or evil at all.

The victory in which you failed, fighting what you thought to be the possessed father of a close friend, ended with you believing yourself a murderer when you were unable to heal him and return him to normal. It was discovered that you were fighting a puppet corpse, and the new enemies your sister has risen to face may have been the ones pulling his strings.

All that is known so far is that the enemy are somehow survivors of an ancient earth Kingdom which predates the fossil record to which your father was Prince and heir to in his past life as Endymion before the events that plunged the whole of the then populated Solar System into death and darkness at the hands of cosmic horror. Your mother, reincarnation of Princess Serenity of the Moon and the first Sailor Moon, was thought to have defeated this horror and put to rest the terrible past that once tore she and her beloved apart only to find each other in this life and after a great many trials come to live a simple suburban life in Juuban Tokyo.

Instead, this new enemy through certain misconceptions about the state of the world and the nature of their own era being plunged into silence has weaponized the remains of this horror to turn humans into monstrous constructs of their own negative emotions. Their true aim is uncertain, but you know the means they are using to pursue it are unacceptable. Perhaps if they knew the truth of their Prince’s fate their hand would be stayed and this matter stopped…

>>45983912

You may have opportunity for that soon. While you have been helping your sister and her court of Sailor Guardians fight monsters, you have not been idle in working to reclaim your life. Having made both mundane friends and selecting to be empowered allies, you have worked hard to reclaim your broken pieces and become whole again.

Now, on that journey, you find yourself reconnecting with the first boy you ever had strong feelings for. Certainly under the right guise and differing circumstances you’ve been a flirt with both men and women who you have found enticing or comforting...but for a long time the shadow of this has weighed on you. After attending a concert in which he leads a band under a pseudonym and particularly macabre theme you find his feelings both touch you and fill you with regret for the way things previously ended between you.

Namely, the way you shut him out of your life because you did not desire to be comforted or loved by anyone. Not him, not your family, no one.

Your mother, your father, and your sisters all managed to breach this wall; even before you knew the truth. Before you knew you were not a murderer.

Here, in the aftermath of a raucous consensual street fight with someone you hope to have found a friend in, you beckoned this boy after you into the dark of the alleyway outside of the venue he and his band have just played. As the schismed persona who housed your impulsiveness and your great emotional passion came home, she pushed you toward acting on your feelings...and he was so close here in the dark.

To his surprise, and perhaps your own, you closed the distance to him and kissed him. He did not recoil. His name is Yoshi Sakurada; your class representative, son of the principal, secretly the leader of a local metal band, and someone who cares about you.

>>45983927

There is still much to be done, as in the morning you plan to infiltrate the enemy through a contact sought with the mask you have just integrated back into yourself known as The Red Eyed Beast. This rumor surrounded delinquent nightmare of Juuban has kept gangs and Yakuza out of the town, and you’ve recently augmented her efforts with your reacquired supernatural abilities. Some of those abilities admittedly acquired through exposure to the infectious cosmic horror the enemy is using.

We rejoin Mikage in action. There is still the matter of the show’s after party, intrigue surrounding the lives of your friends who were also at this show, and the lingering possibility of foul play to be intercepted at the hands of an agent of the enemy, Kalunite. To say nothing of whether you reveal what you have just done to your friends, and the fallout there in.

In this moment, however, you find yourself happily light headed.

>Keep going, just like this
>Push things further, slowly
>Push things further, floor it
>Wind things down and apart slowly
>break away, you need to talk
>write in

Voting period for opening posts vote is thirty minutes after the first vote cast, extended if deadlocked. Subsequent voting windows will be 15 minutes after the first vote cast after story posts.

>>45983969
>Wind things down and apart slowly
Impulsiveness has come home, but let's not lose our head.
This is nice though, and we are happy, nothing wrong with dragging it out just a bit.

>>45983969
>Push things further, slowly

>>45983969
>Keep going, just like this
>Wind things down and apart slowly
Keep rolling until we're desperate for air and then scale it back. He's a singer and we played a wind instrument probably good lung capacity.

>>45984269
If it makes this easier that could apply as pushing it further slowly and then scaling back as well if need be.

Alright, writing.

Are we route locked or call we still go with Kairi? Yoshi just doesn't interest me.

>>45984848
Here comes the u-boats.

Sorry, was distracted by Tremors. Burt's Rec Room scene.

I don't do route lock. Relationships can be built, ended, left to wither, or changed over time.

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>>45984848
Well we already had told Kairi that we weren't pursuing her right now, as far as I was aware.
Though there was some interest in pursuing her as a third later on from some folks ('cause hey, it worked out for Usa).
Personally, I think she is the awesomest friend, but she needs to get more help for her condition than emotional vampirism and open herself up to other people (Mikage is way too safe a choice for her right now, why do you think she latched that comment so hard- putting herself out there is terrifying). If, after that point, the two of them are interested, well, we'll see how it plays out.

Meanwhile, there's this guy with a long burning torch, near infinite patience for our bullshit, and developed an outlet for his pain similar to our own. And he's a good kid. I think he could be good for her. And I could draw some nice comparisons to the man the worked out well for her counterpart. Very level-headed.

>>45984906
Nothing wrong with some u-boats, though we do have a small fleet of paired submersibles already. And Saori would love to be their Admiral.

>>45984969
And I appreciate that.
Burt is awesome.

>>45984906
I don't really care about that but the relationship with Kairi is better developed, we've been leaving her hanging for ages and jumping in like this is just kind of a shitty thing to do to her.

>>45985053
GODDAMN IT, now I need art of Saori Umeki in a period nautical armed forces hat of appropriate rank.

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>>45985053
>>45984969
For some reason Burt discussion just had me randomly wonder what Shingo was up to in the JSDF.

>>45985070
We had a talk with her on the way back from.. somewhere. Was that the same conversation where we drained her a bit and was more awkward that usual because of that chat?

>>45985097
Haha!

You could stay like this for a while. Honestly you might have lost track of time and might already have been here for longer than you think, lost to the moment and the embrace. Eventually the noticeable sensation of smearing from his makeup on your face draws you out of things enough to begin to slow things down.

After both of you come up for air, which does take a while considering you both have a background suggesting a capacity of breath, you meet one another’s eyes with searching certainty before the two of you dip toward each other again. No less eager, but certainly not as deep, you shorten this kiss and part briefly before diving back in for a quick peck.

Loosening your arms from around his neck, you rest your head for a moment against his shoulder as he hugs you just a bit, shakily exhaling as he rests his cheek against the side of your head and your disguise blacked hair. In the dark you can only see shades of grey, and as you pull away from him and out of his now reactively tightening but then loosening grasp, you see the teeth of his skeletal makeup smeared from white and black to gray around his mouth. Much of it, you imagine, is also on your own face.

This hands, for the moment, remain on your sides as you stand arms length from one another. Beneath the white framed black around his eyes, he regards you in a certain sense of wonder and trepidation.

Not far removed from how you feel.

Quiet fills the alley for a moment, you notice that smokers have returned to the lit section of the alleyway.

>We should head back to the green room
>I have to talk to a few people
>You want to talk to him about something, probably this, what do you say?
>We should go somewhere else in the venue
>Write in

>>45985112
>>45985053
Nancy is awesome too. Really sad they had to write her out of the sequels.

>>45985053
>>45985112

Our last conversation on the subject was us telling her to be patient while we worked out our feelings. Then immediately afterwards we got an interlude where she is giddy about the confession and wondering if she came on too strong. That was threads 119 and 120 respectively.

>>45985262
>We should head back to the green room
>Discretely use the pen to remove the make-up we smeared on our face when Yoshi isn't looking

>>45984969
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcsLaSBWG9k

>>45985097
Down this path could lie some wonderful reverse-Kancolle madness, characters reinterpreted as naval vessels.

>>45985262
>>You want to talk to him about something, probably this, what do you say?
"Thank you."
For the nice night, for helping us heal, for caring, and for a memorable first kiss.

>>45985274
It's a shame when actors won't reprise rolls.
It makes me happy when they do return, like Ryder and Keaton for Beetlejuice II.

>>45985262
>We should head back to the green room
>Discretely use the pen to remove the make-up we smeared on our face when Yoshi isn't looking

Oh fucking shit, Tremors II was on right after! Thank you based Sundance Channel!

I did not expect this today. Ah well.

>>45985262
I like the thanking and the heading back after fixing makeup.. buy I think we should fix Yoshi's too, and bring in an expert in makeup. Also an lternate identity so Yoshi doesn't get too associated with the Beast.
I suggest Miki.

Writing.

>>45985262
>>45985726
I (>>45985462) could get behind this idea. As for an outfit, I have been discovering that knee-sock/thigh-high metal is practically a genre now. Thank you Japan.

Okay, since we seem to be in need of a bit of interesting ideas in on this.

Do you guys want to go into a Metalized Miki Guise. Remember she is no longer a schismed personality, like the Beast will be going forward?

>>45985860
>>45985726
Though Miki is not a seperate personality anymore, but still makes for an interesting cover.
Perfect Lie to ensure seperation from Beast to Teal.

>>45985902
Yes.

>>45985902
Sure, sounds fun.

Alright, writing

Heather Gummer, why did I think her name was Nancy? This movie is mucking with my mind. Oh well, back to bringing the sunshine to dark places.

>>45985860
Band-Maid
Babymetal
Fate-Gear
Any others?

Still in the dark, you slip your hand into your pocket and depress your disguise pen with an overlay of your skills in subtle magic to suppress the sparkling display that should normally accompany it. You can only imagine his shock in the difficult to see shadows as your hair shifts in from of him from teased and wild black to a folded and tied back pink arrangement. At this point he probably can’t see the transition of color and tone across your previously creepily pale face. That surprise can wait for when the two of you are in the light.

Your outfit shifts as well, an open denim vest over a simple and venue appropriate tshirt accompanied by a matching skirt and kneesocks. Wearing Miki’s face and being seen in the company of the The Damned will downplay connections for the rest of the night with the Beast. Also, luckily, no one unfamiliar with the truth will know your connection to the beast. Decidedly you also have your ephemeral accessories geared toward the theme of the show at hand.

There are enough people who’ll recognize Miki as Mikage, some who won’t, and you're closer set allies who are aware Mikage Chiba is the Beast...and you’ll deal with what comes as it comes. Taking out the makeup touch up kit from your hip, you shush Yoshi beneath his hood of any queries he may have and try to to downplay the smudging and smearing of makeup around his mouth.

“Like, let me touch this up just a bit before we head back to the green room,” you explain with the familiar cadence to the face you’ve decided to wear.

“Mikage?” He whispers in slight confusion.

“It’s just another face I wear sometimes,” you explain as you clap the kit closed and make your way back toward the door, “Most of the people I know I’ll run into tonight already know that this is me,”

“Y-yeah,” he nods, confused.

To be honest, you enjoy that you have surprised him in this way. After all, you need some secrets.

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>>45987369

The two of you make your way through the venue, as it slowly empties, back toward the backstage and the stairs to the green room. Along the way you catch sight of a slightly more steady Saori Umeki chugging a bottle of water and trying to work up the courage to head back into the smoker’s alley on her own.

She pauses when she sees you, and offers a slight nod and a stuttered and hiccup interrupted hey. Considering you a moment before shrugging and going back to her vigil by the door. When the hooded figure who entered alongside the beast emerges, she pays him no mind. In this moment you are thankful for her likely impeded state that she isn’t questioning your presence or who you’ve left the alley with.

In the light he actually seems at first confused and then taken aback by your suddenly tanned and made up appearance. It isn’t hard to imagine the flurry of answers he’ll patiently wait on after eventually posing to you in as no pressure a manner he can manage.

Well, she already knew Keiko, Kairi, and Midori were here. Of course she’d expect you to be skulking around as well, what with being the person who keeps winding up at the center of everything she’s investigating.

“So,” Yoshi offers as you move through well thinned crowds and empty space toward first the curtain and then through the backstage an uncharacteristically nervous question, “All the bands tonight have an after party together at a hotel maybe a block away. Would you like to-”

He pauses as you duck behind the now unwatched curtain covered way at the side of the stage into the backstage of rigging, equipment, and light fixtures.

“Well, would you like to go with us?” he finishes his offer.

“Can I let you know a bit later?” you return with another question and a light giggle of your own.

>>45987392

You noticed Niji and Ringo among the crowd, the girls you knew as members of the primroses. Likely they don’t recognize you, they’ve only met Miki once. Flowers, a college aged girl from your fashion circle, and her roommate are sitting at one of the side tables talking. Hisako Ito, the roommate in question whom you just had a rousing street fight with under the guise of the Red Eyed Beast, holds a sweating beer bottle to her face while she talks and laughs with the woman you are more familiar with.

You don’t immediately see any sign of Keiko, Midori, or Kairi as you give the room a final once over before following Yoshi down to the green room. It’s disconcerting, and you don’t see Kalunite either…

There are many more people down among the green room and dressing room hallways, though paying the two of you no mind as he opens up the now crowded greenroom labeled for The Unrepentant Damned. Among the expected three band members & Nui are Moe-chan and Midori.

“Finally,” Red Devil sighs, “You two are- wait a second,”

“Y-Damned! Another one!” The blue Ogre says in shock.

“Miki!” Moe-chan and Nui gasp confused at the same time.

“I mean, are you trying to be me now or something?” Ogre queries first to Yoshi and then to the girls, “Wait, you know her?”

>Write in

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>>45987416
going in without prompt has young tongues I take it? Alright.

Well, consider these two sets.

On the matter of the after party
>Yes
>No
>Write in

As to the reaction
>Say you managed to make it a bit late
>Gasp at Ogre/Endo-kun's query to Yoshi!
>Gripe about missing Nui's reaction to all of this
>You were here the whole time
>Like, hi!
>Write in

& for added queries
>Call Yoshi and Endo-kun by name
>Continue using their stage names
>Write in

Write ins that you've been working on all this time (if they are quite so long) still accepted and encouraged.

>>45987851
Distractions, sorry.

>Yes
Though let team know we'll be starting early tomorrow.

>Gripe about missing TEAL's reaction to all of this
Add Petfect Lie about not being the spooky bitch from the fashion designers penthouse .

>Continue using their stage names
But act familiar like we know them. Confuse poor Orge.

I just got called for an important errand at the worst possible time. Vote extended if I have not entirely scared everyone off.

I am really having difficulty keeping up with where all of this is going so

>Anemia option

>>45988143
Wish I could think of a good line for the lie, but our group is involved in the formation of a superhero league or an intradimensional over government and debaring to line between them.

I am still out and am shit for timing today, but as I said on twitter I was running by hell or high water because fuck this weekend in particular.

After I get back from this I should be back on track and resume a sane update speed.

Though, if you could expand on it, anemia option? Is that just fainting?

Alright, back. Writing

>>45988842
So much voting.

“Oh no,” you gripe, “I wasn’t sure I was going to make it and now I find out I missed your reaction, Teal,”

You expend a bit of energy, letting it bubble up and over from your well of cosmic power in relation to the earth and moon, to secure the veracity and unassailable believability of your deception. The perfectly miniature leader of your fashion circle and the student body president of your school lays hands on her hips and takes on a serious and borderline scolding look. Not that anything she can say can really get at you right now.

Yoshi walks past you, regaining some degree of his composure to return his seemingly stage character defining wig and faux straight jacket to his person, just as well considering he isn’t a point of focus in this conversation just yet.

“You did totally know!” she accuses you with certainty, “You didn’t tell me because you just wanted to see how surprised I’d be,”

“Well it’s not like I had any real lead time on knowing before you,” you huff at her adorably tiny frustrations and then smile sinisterly before turning to Moe-chan, “So how was it?”

The power lifting teddy bear accessory enthusiast regards you coolly. She likely wants to garner some kind of answer from you on the subject of her earlier private messaged querry regarding whether or not you like Sasha. While it may be presumptuous, you think she may be infatuated with the her small Russian exchange student schoolmate. To wit, it would seem that the boy in question is ignorant of this interest as he played dumb when you accused him playfully of being here on a date with her earlier.

That or he was trying to play it cool because of his interest in you.

Such complications...no, he probably wasn’t playing it cool. He probably didn’t really know.

Moe-chan visibly relaxes and kneels down next to Nui Takeda, nominally known in your ganguro fashion circle as Teal, and lays an arm across the smaller girls far narrower shoulders.

>>45991905

“It was kind of amazing when she first saw the marquee and posters,” the strong girl smiles as broadly as her cheeks will let her, “And after she heard some of the things that were being said about him in line and inside...well after the show she marched in here and let him have it,”

“Really hypocritical,” Midori Mori, Jade of the fashion circle and secretly one of your protecting Knights, says as she slumps down next to the Black Witch on the green room couch and does her damndest to fulfill her universal role as group bitch.

“JADE!” Nui sparks and throws Moe-chan’s arm off of her shoulder and throws an accusatory finger as the seated girl with wavy hair, “Do I go around airing your-what the hell!”

She shrugs and leans back. Beside her, the Black Witch laughs.

“Oh my, you two are such passionate friends,” the exceptional crossdresser alludes, “Though you should save your energy for the after party. I’m sure a few drinks will help everyone get along,”

“Sorry to disappoint you,” she gives the witch a neutral side glance as, “but I’m taken,”

“Well, do you and your partner like to mix things up?” the Red Devil asks from across the comparatively small room.

“No,” Midori replies with a certain iciness.

“You were on line?” you question, “I thought Ogre-kun would have gotten you a pass?”

The blue painted boy turns to you confused as to how you know so much about the situation, glancing over to Yoshi curiously. Does he imagine you know him? Does he have no idea what’s going on? Its hilarious, at least to you. Personally.

“Well, I did, but everyone else didn’t,” Teal relaxes a bit, but still casts an annoyed glare over at Midori, “I wasn’t about to just go in and wait alone,”

“Oh, makes sense,” you pause in thought before snapping your fingers, “Oh yeah, Damned!”

Yoshi pauses as he finishes affixing his stage wig, looking up to meet your near to sparkling eyes.

>>45991931
“I will be coming to the after party,” you explain, giving him pause...as Ogre looks further confused.

“Can...can you give us a second,” Daigo Endo, in his stage guise and blue body paint, grabs Yoshi’s shoulder and spins him to huddle near the back wall of the green room with him, “What the hell is going on! Who is that!”

“Ask her,” the band leader shrugs.

“When the others get back here, we’ll head to the hotel,” the Black Witch explains as he shifts positions on the couch.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Nui snaps her fingers, “We ran into your friend, Osaka-san, out in the house,”

“Oh? Great,” you smile.

“Mhmm,” the student council president nods, “She, Sasha, and Keiko wanted to get some water before we all headed out,”

It makes sense to you. Probably catching one another up on what they’ve seen tonight. Midori probably told Keiko about what’s happening tomorrow morning and she could be telling the others. At the party when you get the chance you consider conferring with everyone about that.

Ogre continues to be confused and flabbergasted despite repeat use of familiar terms and context clues. You don’t begrudge him not being able to make the basic logical leaps, he’s probably quite tired from being on stage. The Damned, or rather Yoshi, knows you’re quite purposefully teasing and offers you a quiet gesture and plea to lay off him.

You do not respond, and make no promises.

It doesn’t take long for everyone to gather back in the green room and after greetings and further circling conversations wraps up the lot of you head out for the hotel and the after party. Kairi and Keiko seem a bit surprised to see you in Miki mode, though you find that an understandable thing to take with a start.

>>45991963

Honestly, when Kairi and Sasha come into the room before the lot of you head out, your stomach drops out a bit. Were you any less together you imagine this might have been the onset of a panic attack, perhaps a guilty panic attack. More so because of Kairi-chan.

Being a bit more together, you imagine, is why you aren’t shaking on your knees fighting off tunnel vision.

You steal a glance over at the still quite in character dressed Yoshi...why do things have to be so complicated?

When the lot of you arrive at the hotel, it is busy with people going between the multiple open suites on the floor. Coolers, some not oppressively loud album samples playing from the bands primarily residing in their assorted adjoining hotel suite clusters.

You’ve got a chance to relax around people you know. It seems Flowers told Nui she wasn’t coming to the after party because she was getting her roommate home after ‘things got a little rough after the mosh pit’. You can appreciate that glossing over of details with a suppressed smile.

Well, it’s an after party in a pretty nice downtown hotel. And as of yet you have seen no sign of Kalunite since you spoke with him. Though you notice as a certain social gravity takes Endo-kun, Nui looks particularly miffed and annoyed.

>Spend time around someone at the party, who?
>Explore one of the other parties on the floor
>Secret telepathic meeting with your allies while you mill about
>Talk, directly, to someone at the party you know about something. Who & What?
>Eavesdrop on someone, who?
>write

>>45991860
Eh, my post time today has been off and bullshit today. I understand why I'm hemorrhaging people.

>>45992021
>Spend time around someone at the party, who?
Kairi

>>45992021
>Talk, directly, to someone at the party you know about something. Who & What?
Ask/Tease Yoshi about what normal goes on at these parties.

>>45992021
>Talk, directly, to someone at the party you know about something. Who & What?
Let's talk to Teal, see how she's doing, maybe encourage her to stake a claim.
Hopefully helping with someone else's love issues will help us think about our own.

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All together now. Writing.

still writing because this will be another long update.

>>45991860
And home again. Wrapped up the decision making with solving a murder mystery floating in the background for fifteen years in this shared setting.
Was good session.

Initially, you stick near Yoshi. Uncertain of what topics to broach and keeping perhaps a bit away from your earlier and more private exchange, you broach the matter unfolding around you. Actually, it’s strange. He stands against the wall near the windows of the main room of the suite and most people, familiar and unfamiliar seem to stay away from him. That’s the weight of his stage persona’s reputation, apparently. Taking on a sly and slightly teasing tone, perhaps in personal boast of the kiss that earlier happened between the two of you, you ask just the right question.

“So,” you let the perhaps smug smile spread across your face, “What normally goes on at these parties?”

Glancing back over at you, he uncrosses his arms and lets them hang along with his jacket’s straps, neutrally at his sides.

“Ogre enjoys being a center of attention,” he explains as you watch the larger man on the couch a bit self consciously enjoy the significant attention he was receiving before gesturing over to the other two as they chat up a guy over by the wet bar, “Witch and Devil look for someone to join them for the night. Not always successfully,”

“How do they keep up the illusion?” you ask after their perceived genders, “if they’re always after threesomes? I get the distinct impression most people think they’re exactly what they present themselves as,”

“By being creative and relying on the dark,” he shrugs.

You nod.

“And, what about you?”

“I act broody, stay in character, and usually go home early so my mother doesn’t wonder what I’m up too all night,”

“Practical, but boring,” you observe with a nod, as he smirks at your assessment, “I’m going to mingle for a bit,”

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>>45995733

He nods and returns his arms to their crossed position as you break away flit and flitter about the main room of the suite. Pausing as you zero in on the visibly perturbed munchkinland makeup guild representative. Nui has claimed a corner of the room to quietly but visibly fume at the attention Daigo Endo is receiving. Midori, who you catching a quick glimpse of sitting with Kairi in one of the open bedrooms attached to the suite holding party population overflow, was perhaps right to call Nui Takeda a hypocrite.

For his part, the Ogre hasn’t noticed the pint sized academic president by virtue of distance and the relative height of the mingling crowd. Sidling up alongside her as she takes a quick sip of whatever her drink is, you broach the subject with all due tact.

“Like, you seem tense, Teal,” your query gives her a start, splashing a bit of her drink over the edge of her glass.

“Damnit, Miki,” she steadies herself, “Don’t do that,”

“Couldn’t be helped,” you explain, “I don’t think you’re paying attention to anything but him right now,”

She glares up at you. Her glare softens after a few concentrated instants before she sighs.

“First Midori teasing me, now you too?” it is not entirely defeated in nature, but perhaps close as she shifts back to regarding the Ogre in the room.

“Do you want to talk about it,” you offer as her tension deflates slightly, “Not the teasing, we’ll do that anyway. I mean about him,”

“He’s never this confident around me. Always kind of underfoot or being stressed over student council business, he’s kind of in his element right now,” she observes with some hint of pride and then feigns another concern, “If he could be like this more often then I could graduate without worry for the council falling apart,”

“Is that really all?”

She’s quiet and in a flash downs her drink.

>>45995760

“No,” she doesn’t explain herself, because she seems to know she hasn’t exactly been shy about this, “Midori accused me of the same thing before, and I copped to her being right,”

“Not worth the effort of denial?”

“Nope...just look at him,” she grouses, “He’s one of the most reliable guys I know, and he’s always had my back, and now he’s sitting there like a ripe berry laughing it up because some floozies are making move on him. And I was always afraid to make a move on him because of what other people would think of me,”

“Aren’t you the very intimidating one,”

“What about you?”

She gestures to the empty area of the room populated only by the skull faced and white wigged frontman of The Unrepentant Damned.

“That’s complicated and I’m nowhere near as sure of myself as you are,” you sigh.

“Well, if it helps you figure things out; before he came back to the green room with you, he left it with another woman,”

“You might not believe this, but it doesn’t” you nod frustratedly before straightening up and fixing her with a steely stare, “Go talk to him. Stake your claim, let him know that you like him confident. You’re Teal, not some after party hangeron,”

She thinks on that a moment before turning back to the wet bar to set down her glass. Turning back she starts to march through the crowd.

“Thanks MIki,” she nods, “time to take a chance!”

>>45995853

As she crosses the room, you reflect that you’ve already taken a chance tonight. Maybe you need someone to talk to about your conflicting situations. Unfortunately the person you want to talk to about that is also a part of the extended complications.

Well, when you’re nervous your best friend is a steadying influence.

The door to the bedroom where you saw Kairi and Midori sitting it right there. Turning you find that Kairi had moved over to some chairs by that room’s window. Entering, you walk over and without much occasion sit down across from her. She glances up at you and smiles.

“Hey,” she says, distracted, though with a smile that you’ve sat down.

A noticeably melancholic smile. She doesn’t know about what happened already, does she?

>Are you okay, Kairi-chan?
>So, I might have kissed Yoshi
>Red Eyes is home
>So, what wound up happening with Umeki-san
>Did Midori tell you about tomorrow
>What did you think of the show
>Just acknowledge back and sit in companionable silence
>Write in

>>45995892
>Are you okay, Kairi-chan?
>So, what wound up happening with Umeki-san

>>45995892
>Are you okay, Kairi-chan?
Does she already know and it upset her, or is something else wrong? This is gonna be a wild day for her.

>So, Red Eyes is home and I might have kissed Yoshi
I hope she takes it well, it was nice thing that happened, if unexpected.

>>45995892
>Are you okay, Kairi-chan?
>So, what wound up happening with Umeki-san
>So, Red Eyes is home, I might have kissed Yoshi and I have no idea what I'm doing!

Counting up and getting to writing

This might as well just be another all the things.

Except its only half the things.

Almost there.

>>45998383
Stay on target.

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>>45998383

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>>45998745

“So,” of the myriad topics you want to talk about, you open with the most neutral one, “How did things go with Umeki-san,”

She groans.

“She really wanted to talk to you,” she pulls her legs up into the chair and leans forward to hug her knees, “Well, angry you anyway,”

“Did something happen?” you lean a bit into the empty space between the two of you.

“Well, when she realized Midori, Keiko, and I were all here...she asked about maybe joining the great Witch Chiba’s coven,” she explains through an annoyed deadpan.

You stifle a shot of laughter.

“Well, she did accuse me of being a witch,”

“She was getting a little intense, especially when I kept her from noticing you passing by,” she finds it in herself to laugh despite her underlying dour mood, “Midori spared me joking with her about an apprentice witch needing to prove she could hold her brew,”

She looks out the window, through the elevated view of the night skyline of the city. Really looking at it, as though she’s realized it was something she never truly noticed or took for granted.

“So, how’d your fight go,”

“It was...fun,” you admit somberly, “And I think it was her last fight,”

“That Ito woman’s?”

“No,” you pause and find your hands increasingly interesting, “Red Eyes. She went...she came home,”

Kairi’s hand reaches out and rests on top of your clasped own. She holds it there a minute and squeezes before withdrawing.

“How does it feel being another step closer to whole?” her question, perhaps curious or envious considering the road she still has to pursue toward a different kind of wholeness.

“It feels good,” you admit, to which she nods, “How are you feeling, you don’t seem well,”

Hidden under the din of the party, she makes a choking sound as she drops her head behind her hugged knees.

>>45999340
She sits there quietly a moment, lifting her head up and looking askance to the window again. Back to you, and then out again. You reach forward and squeeze her hand like she had yours and just wait a few minutes for her to compose herself. You think about offering to take the edge off of her with a quick bite, but think better of it for right now.

“My mom told me something,” she begins quietly, “something big. She didn’t miscarry…”

“Kairi-chan?” You offer softly.

“My brother is alive…” she chokes out softly, “He isn’t normal, but he’s alive and I met him and…”

“It's okay,” you offer your friend and hug her knees and shoulders, “That’s good, right?”

She doesn’t respond immediately.

“I want to be numb…” she admits, “I feel so down about this but I’m happy at the same time. I just want, I don’t know what I want,”

She sniffles and tries to compose herself. Explains to you about meeting him in PIT command, and why he’s there. And how it rounds back to what happened to her father. What killed him and wore his corpse as Magician.

You sit together for a while. More than that, you debate yourself on the last subject you want to broach with her. A pointed target of both happiness and guilt.

“What about you,” she finally asks, “It seems like there’s something on your mind?”

“When Beast left, she pushed me to do something I was afraid to do,” you say hesitantly, “And, and I’m still not sure about my feelings; but it still felt good,”

She looks at you rapt with attention, a hair’s breadth between understanding and confusion.

“I kissed Yoshi,” you note with guilty occasion as her eyes momentarily widen.

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>>45999369

“Well, okay,” she says a bit vacantly and then curiously after a few moments of stunned silence, “Was it, after the fight?”

“Yeah,”

She nods. A moment of conflict plays across her face. Not hurt, like she expected something sooner or later. There is an underlying curiosity. An expectation, perhaps held over from junior high.

“And...how was it? You said it felt good?” Is she testing the waters, her chances, or

>It’s too soon, I still can’t process it
>Are you okay with it? That it happened?
>It was good, it felt safe
>It was good, I’m just conflicted
>Oh, nothing big, it was just a kiss
>I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you
>Write in

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>>45999102

>>45999425
>It was good, I’m just conflicted
>Are you okay with it? That it happened?

>>45999425
>>It’s too soon, I still can’t process it
>>Are you okay with it? That it happened?

>>45999425
>>It was good, it felt safe
>I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you

>>45999425
>It was good, it felt safe
He didn't push for it, but he was happy to be a part of it.
>Are you okay with it? That it happened?

Counting.

>good/conflicted X 1
>Okay/that it happened X 3
>too soon X1
>good/safe X2
>didn't mean hurt X1

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She’s taking this very calmly.

“Are you okay with it?” You ask her a bit worriedly, “that it happened?”

Even with the veritable psychic fortress you have active to keep your emotions off of your sleeve as they actually are, you have let these walls dropped between Kairi and Yoshi tonight.

She is, pensive is the best way to describe it. Relaxing enough to uncurl her knees and set her hands in her lap.

“Okay? I don’t know,” she just shrugs, “but, I said that I would wait for you to figure out your feelings,”

Leaning back into the chair, she runs her hands under her hair on either side of her head.

“And maybe it isn’t just your feelings I need to think about,” she sighs and fixes you with a solid gaze, “I heard that song too,”

This gives you further pause.

“I need a minute,” she sighs and gets up from the chair, “It’s been a long day and from what Midori told me we have a bit of planning to do for tomorrow,”

“Kairi-chan,” she smiles at you, without wavering, when you call her name after her.

“It’s okay,” she finishes, with a sense of certainty as she heads over to the door back into the main suite, “I’ll see you when things are winding down,”

You aren’t sure if that could have gone better or worse. And you hadn’t actually told her how the kiss made you feel.

Frustration reigns. Maybe if you explain things to Midori she’ll dress you down and give you perspective. Or Keiko will use soothing words and popular girl magic to make you feel better about yourself. Wincing, you remember that your stomach is probably bruised from the earlier fight.

>Follow after Kairi, try to continue this talk
>Follow after Kairi, to keep tabs for right now
>Get some air
>Find & Talk to someone else, specify who?
>Head back out and talk with Yoshi
>Try and see how things are going with Teal and Ogre
>Check out one of the other parties
>Write in

&

>Acquire drink
>Acquire drinks
>Do not acquire drinks
>Write in

>>46001530
>Get some air
>Acquire drink

>>46001530
>talk to Yoshi
>squire drinks

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Extending voting period because I had to take care of something. Now I'm back, and I find it needs a bit of extending.

>>46001530
>Get some air
>Do not acquire drinks

Rolled 1 (1d3)

Alright, back.

Looks like getting some air takes it, but in the interest of moving forward I am rolling on the drinks.

1 Acquire drink
2 Acquire drinks
3 Do not acquire drinks

Waiting a few moments after she’s gone from the room, you begrudgingly pick yourself up. In a very short time you’ve managed to make yourself feel better, worse, and just generally frustrate yourself. Despite all that you are immeasurably happy that you feel relatively stable with all of it and aren’t about to collapse into a panicking mass of nerves.

Nerves, you could take the edge off of those and stand to get some air.

Heading back into the suite, you acquire a glass of something you can sip. Something that burns but also eases your tension enough without leaving you completely without your inhibitions. Waiting for the drink, you notice that Daigo Endo and Nui Takeda are no longer in the room. In the place that you saw the Ogre earlier occupying you instead see Red Devil and Black Witch making the Bassist from Malefic Black very uncomfortable.

Uncomfortable, or just embarrassed? You aren’t certain, but he’s still sitting between them and having a drink. Almost wanting to laugh with Yoshi about this, you glance up to find him not in front of the windows. Oddly not immediately in the room.

Good, breathing room.

The balcony patio connects multiple rooms on this floor, and due to the near winter chill this evening you find it mostly empty for your purposes or decompression and enjoying your drink.

Slowly and calmly you enjoy the drink and glance up at the night sky. Wondering, as you find you have recently been compelled, about those who left for the stars. Wondering about your mother.

Settling in to relax, after a few moments you notice someone rather loudly closing in from one of the other parties. You recognize him as he walks in your direction. Soaked in confidence and bravado enough to turn your stomach.

Even in a casual white button down and relaxed fit slacks, the lead singer, guitarist, and frontman for Malefic Black. Byakuya Hoseki.

Eclipsed Moon Episode 124
End

Thanks for the thread /tg/

Gah, fell asleep.

>>46001530
>“I heard that song too,”
Ah, that would explain a great deal.

>>46002788
>you notice someone rather loudly closing in from one of the other parties.
He is bound and determined to get himself into trouble.

>>46002861
Thanks for running!

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>>46002788
>Byakuya Hoseki
This will make the third identity he's made a pass at us as, if I recall correctly.

>>45983894
I'm afraid of how large that moon is because there are stars between it and the planet we're on

>>46004868
Giant Saori rides a moon into battle.

>>46004868
Wait, what?

>>46005868
Is she wearing the Admiral's hat?

>>46004253
Technically he hit on the beast, and then became stricken by a face he couldn't remember the details of in passing because no one of consequence. Arguably he'd also hit on Koyomi or Usagi Mama if he were to meet them.

In a waiting room with wifi today, working on the cast list and will hopefully have an update to the cast list by day's end.

>>46006756
Of course, and leading a fleet of space submersibles patterned after cast members.

>>46006899
What's the best way to shut down his advance and suggest green hair as more a match?

>>46007822
Do we now in character that flowers is Esmeraude? We only know about Malefic black because they talked about their very specific dreams/visions in song.

>>46007895
Think this evening was the first seeing here without the wig at all. Diana the Elder recognized her the other day, not sure how far that spread. But I was thinking more direction him away from the blondes and pinks toward some of his other dream imagery, since we know what that tale went like. Obsession isn't good for him.
Also, even though disguises and cyphers he keeps looking onto us, that is strange.

>>46007989
>Also, even though disguises and cyphers he keeps looking onto us, that is strange.
*locking onto
Heh, we should try Dan sometime and see if his draw to us still happens.

>>46007989
Wait...didn't little Diana steal one of her wigs?

>>46007822
Reverse psychology?

>>46008057
That would be something to see. This waiting room isn't so comfortable but I got some of the list done.

>>46008069
Indeed she did. Wonder what she does with it now that she is older.

>>46010661
Dress up nyan?

I worry how much we contribute to Mikage's delinquency. I worry how bad an influence we'll be on Koito.

Debating an interlude tonight. The question, is which interlude?

>the hero we deserve
>take you new places

>>46014148
Poor Koito and Yoshi. Stoics surrounded by crazy women.

>>46016033
Hero we deserve?

>>46016033
>take you new places
Sounds like a villain's musical number

>>46016033
>the hero we deserve

>>46016402
I could picture Tim Curry on the singing.

>>46018228
Tim Curry and Shah Rukh Khan sing in musicals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo-oWc4uEPE

&

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYN40oWaPyg

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Okay, lets start writing this interlude.

>>46018923
Indeed.
https://youtu.be/hr4knvNNgtU

>>46020199
Now to wonder what she looks like in Flowers' wig.

Interlude: Hero we deserve

You’ve stayed behind cover and far back for a while now, just like Mamoru-san showed you the night you followed him out. Skulking like this is easy, especially on rooftops and behind signs. Even with all the light in this district, the shadows are close enough for you to pounce between as needed. While you are eager to learn more about the world, you remain ignorant about a great many things in regard to people.

More than that, you had to learn why and how you were different from the people here. The people you have decided to watch among those you are sworn to help guard.

Sworn by oaths made before your birth, against promises of friendship you consider kept even into this point of your young life. This is your choice, to serve in this fashion. To better understand their two legged world, which you can occasionally inhabit.

However, you are a Mau. And your world is so much larger, especially when set against your youth and inexperience.

Perhaps that is why you are doing this. To gain those things you yet lack. Why you followed Mamoru-san out in the dead of night. Why you listened carefully to your big sister’s wisdom before she left, even if you don’t quite understand it all yet. And why you pay careful attention to the lessons imparted to you by your mother and father.

Even now you are confident that you are an expert on how to be a Mau.

Inside the first building, it's loud and there is little purchase for you to sneak inside. So you wait beyond. You watch where people gather out front and see her friends. They are good people. Shifting around once everyone is inside, you find a spot where people gather out back.

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>>46021188

You wait there and watch from the fire escape when you smell your charge and friend below for the first time tonight. She talks to someone, and you watch and listen above the alley. She does something for a little while with a stick whose smell you don’t like. Also, she looks different. She seems to really like looking different all the time.

And so you wait. Watch. She goes back in.

Again, you wait.

She returns, and she giddily makes your hair stand on end. So angry, but euphoric. Then she fights, and it’s really scary but really amazing.

Everyone disperses. Everyone but her and one person. He follows you into the dark, and you think for a minute this has to do with the things your big sister told you.

After, shortly after, you follow them to another place. This one has more access. More windows. Balconies and places to skulk. She changed her appearance again. Eventually she comes out to the balconies to sit alone. Though she isn’t alone for long...as someone approaches her clad in white.

He smells, oddly familiar. You’ve never smelled him before, but he triggers something in your memory. A fear.

You crouch low, and prepare to fulfill your role as Mikage’s guardian!

Interlude End

>>46021276
I made a sound that was a mix of a giggle and a cackle.
Impending events may prove quite fun.

>>46021649
Humor is, I think, needed.

>>46022249
Humor is good.

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>>46021276
>and you think for a minute this has to do with the things your big sister told you.

>>46024339
>>46021276
What did Big D tell pure and innocent Diana?!

>>46020240
...adorable? Kittens hiding under wigs probably looks adorable.

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>>46024960

>>46026061
Mikage is a cat too?

>>46027728
Baleful poly, not even once

>>46029547
Polymorph or Beast Shape II could do it with less baleful issues.

>>46027728
Clever, we never even suspected before now.

>>46030191
It does feel like that could explain a lot.

It randomly occurs to me that they grew the hideouts at the Crown like Superman growning the Fortress of Solitude in some continuities.
Crystal science is awesome.

>>46032213
huh, I bet the acoustics are pretty good then.

>>46021649
Impending death from above?

>>46035061
No one expects the Mau Inquisition?

>>46036286
Sailor Mau didn't

>>46036663
forget, was this the one where she was corrupted, or the one where she was killed and harvested?

>>46037723
Tin Nyanko, who might well have been one of her teammates or friends given that in the anime she was half healed by Sailor Moon and had conflicting good evil problems, harvested her

>>46036286
Haha, no he won't expect it at all.

>>46037997
Thanks, couldn't remember off hand which was the first show.

>>46039728
I don't think anyone will expect it.

>>46005868
>>46006756
>>46007822
Why do I hear her declaring that she is no moon? But a battle-station.

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>>46043609

>>46045615
And now I'm just thinking of the DiC dub's Starwars opening scrawl for the series. Its kind of wonderful how much they didn't know what they were doing with the property from the get go but at least still managed to bring it over.

Just curious here, but what other quests to the Anons here follow? I try to keep up with Hellborn, MGNQ, and the new NERV bridge simulator.

I wonder what happened to Nui and Daigo

>>46045831
MGNQ, XioXio, Space Monkeys, Tuffle, Homeless Mutant, Re Harpy, and whatever else manages to grab my attention.

>>46040665
No problem

>>46045831
Mainly this one. Bunch of others that have since ended or stalled. Been making some effort to keep up with Girl und Titan, but I think I'm behind already.

>>46049392
Where does the time go for some of these quests?

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>>46049973

>>4605077

Now that, is a relatively good explanation.

Alright, if we stick around until tonight I might be able to write out another interlude, though will it be the one previously missed or another?

>take you new places
>new and familiar trappings

>>46052247
Though, not get out of work tonight. Later tonight, again its Wednesday so I'm hitting the second session of Curse of Strahd at my FLGS.

>>46049392
Upon investigation, I am not behind on that one yet, by virtue of no sessions in the timeframe I would have fallen behind.

>>46049973
I dunno, seems like I have less time for everything these days.
I think part of that seems to be that I can't just skip sleep like I could in the past.

>>46050956
Indeed.

>>46052247
>new and familiar trappings

>>46052260
Have fun!
Will be seeing how much group we wrangle together this evening as well.

>>46052516
It will be fun. So fun. I was surprised that a store game for the AL season would be so RP heavy.

>>46052516
>skip sleep

This, just this. Time and getting old are literally killing my ability to stay up but I can't sleep anyway these days so its this weird cycle of being tired, restless, and wired.

...just saw the Magical Child Vigilante archetype leaked page over in Pathfinder General...

Where the hell was this when i was planning this shit? WHERE I ASK YOU!

>>46054549
how did I screw up my trip, hold on. Testing.

Anyway. I need to sit down with Ultimate intrigue when it comes out and do some mechanics comparisons with what I have done here.

...G-d help me if one day I run a PF game and everyone shows up to the table with magical girls.

>>46055046
Who the what now?

>>46057381
check quickly, image in the OP, almost off board

>>46047082

>>46057494
Neat!

>>46057920
Yes, neat. And aggravatingly useful.

Alright, sitting down to play CoS, keep us afloat and vote on the interlude I'll be writing afterwards.

>>46059161
I'll have to give it a closer look later.

>>46061391
I'll do what I can.

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>>46061391
This might be useful then.

>>46063245
>these Cardians are getting a lot creepier.

Out, game was great. Heading home.

Home, after a slight detour, writing.

>New and Familiar Trappings.

Interlude: New and Familiar Trappings

Moving carefully across well traveled boards around the edge of the courtyard, you sigh in remembrance of your younger days. Days spent at first without direction or the many humble wisdoms you later acquired, here in fact. Back then, you came to this place almost by accident and for many years after almost never seemed to leave.

Given how shiftless and prone to debauchery you had been before, that you had become a disciple at this shrine shocked your family. At first thinking it a brief phase or a flirtatious infatuation with the supposedly beautiful shrine maiden. Then amazed when you stuck to it for as long as you had after one year, and it only grew from there.

Humble wisdom, gained keeping the grounds and polishing the wooden floors beneath your feet. In the first place that ever truly felt like home to you, and the place where you fell in love.

Even with your wife away for the time being, being back here provides a comfort and familiarity. She has poured her life into this shrine, and you can feel her presence. And what is more than that today especially has held a certain, nostalgia.

Stumbling a bit, taking a moment to steady the tray, you frown at the rough spot of wood that almost pulled at your slipper. It will be something you talk to the disciples about in the morning. Walking another few doors, you quietly kneel down and place the tray on the ground before sliding the door open just a bit.

“So, if I carry the two I get…” it marvels you that despite the way things change, some things will always be familiar, “Ugh, I can’t do this Aiha, what’s so important about solving for X?”

The blonde girl whines at the blue haired one as your own daughter sighs and makes to politely scold the thoughtfully struggling one of their number.

“Koyomi, you shouldn’t say that you can’t,” she says with certainty, “You should ask Aiha to help you understand,”

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>>46067904

“I thought I just did?” the blonde girl with hair in bun topped twintails blinks with a familiar air of incredulousness at your own raven haired child.

Ever so much like their mothers.

“You know. Rin, Aiha, instead of tutoring Koyomi on math,” the brunette with the high ponytail jokes to your daughter and the exasperated would be tutor, “Maybe I should give you a language lesson in Koyomi,”

“Waagh! Kanari-chan!” she bemoans this feigned betrayal and you smile.

“Finished!” Chirps the smallest of the five, nearly unnoticed by you as she sat low against the desk.

“Wait, what did you finish?” queries your child as she looks up from the still fake crying Koyomi, “Venus-chan?”

The young idol in the blonde wig extends a hand to Rin and Aiha’s side of the study group table, holding a lined torn piece of notebook paper.

“I tried my hand at BB-chan’s workbook page and showed my work!” the small idol says through a beaming smile, “How did I do?”

All four other girls lean over the paper and curiously regard the child ahead of them, before returning to the scrutiny of the paper. Predictably, the Chiba girl loses interest and lays her head on the table moaning about a lack of snacks while the other girls begin to stare at the shortest girl.

“Its…” Aiha Mizuno begins slowly and in curious wonder, “It is correct, how did you do that Venus-chan, Algebra is really far over your grade level,”

“What, like it’s supposed to be hard or something?” the child star responds with all the occassion of an afterthought.

You consider this the best time to announce yourself, and offer to the girls some tea and snacks. As you do so, and garner their attention, you cannot help but be hist with an intense pang of nostalgia. Years ago, in this same room their mothers would often congregate to study together or conduct other business.

Well, you consider, the more things change.

>>46067933
Interlude
End

>>46067933
And Venus-chan continues her campaign of adorable awesomeness.

>>46067904
>>46067933
The maths, arch-enemy of blondie bunnies.

>>46069490
Well tutored at that.

>>46068887
It's a good platform for cuteness elections.

>>46071571
I think she's already taken the primary.

>>46072056
Make Japan Kawaii Again.

>>46068887
I love the dichotomy between the way she presents herself and how competent and complex her feelings are.

I'm going to aim for a light hearted thread next session after the last couple we've had. Then again its still within your collective power for it to get heavy.

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>>46074374
I suppose that depends on how heavy Diana is when she strikes.

Also, I am beginning to believe I could image search for almost anything and Sailor Moon and get a result.
Happy Irish-Themed Alcohol Day folks!

>>46074870
You really can, and its kind of amazing.

>>46074870
Well, a kitten to the face might be light. I think its the claws you need to be careful of.

Well now, how about another interlude tonight?

You have your choice between

>take you new places
>the fire rises

Just gonna keep this interlude vote afloat.

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>>46078364
I'd like to see both, but I'll take
>the fire rises

Pic related to my distraction.

>>46080732
I stared at this a full minute before I realized what I was looking at and started laughing.

Well played, anon. Well played.

>>46081030
Thanks! Eventually I'll get them all on a squad together and have some real fun.
Went through all the time in the Character Pool getting them setup, then facepalmed when I remembered I'd have to wait to recruit them that way, or remake them within a campaign.

There's a mod for loading appearances from the pool, but it isn't setup for multiple people with the same name.

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>>46080732
>The middle guy

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>>46081170
Tempted to mod in the expanded squad sized to squeeze in our unsocial self, and make use of the slump-shouldered seventh attitude in the character editor. Different attitude for each pleased me.

>>46081296
Also happy that I could fake a reasonably masculine Dan without actually changing the gender.

Editor says pink on eyes, but that looks the most noticeably red-ish up close out of the choices.

>>46081296
I got a slight weaker vibe

>>46082168
Wesker. Wesker.

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Alright, writing

>A fire rises

>>46082474
I rather hope we can avoid Dan taking on any traits of that gentleman.

>>46083197
I want to protect the fat emerald dragon.

OUR fat emerald dragon.

>>46084052
Smile Protection+

>>46084677
I want to make complex joke about resistances or damage reduction and dragons and smile protection and the like but am coming up blank.../tg/ any help?

Interlude: A fire rises


You’re tired, achy, and your face still hurts despite all the cold beer you’ve held against it as the two of you meander home in the dead of night. The specific weighted pull of your tied back hair was beginning to become bothersome to your neck, probably because of the way that finishing punch caught you, so a few blocks back you untied it and took weight off from your mane of tangled and wild white by resting some of it on either of your shoulder.

“You are too giddy about this,” your roommate sighs behind you as she shakes her head.

“Ah, don’t be so gloomy. It’s been too long since I let my hair down,” you snicker and change your gait, moving in a way that sharpens your senses because two girls walking alone at night should try to take care and be vigilant.

Strange, you smell something sweet. You probably wouldn’t have noticed it before, too faint.

“Fine fine,” she waves off your casualness and steps up alongside you as you are perhaps still a ways away from your dormitory apartment, “Only you’d be in such a good mood after getting the crap beaten out of you,”

“Damn straight,” you smile and wince at the slight pain near where you neck meets your shoulder sneaking past the dulling haze of alcohol you earlier managed as you turn to face the green haired girl beside you, “ah fuck this hurts,”

“Your own fault,” she smiles with a mocking serenity to you.

“Yeah yeah,” you grouse, though maintaining your posture to prevent further pain until you’ve had a chance to lie down, “So what has you in such a good mood. You used to be a lot harder on me for this shit,”

“One fight, just one fight and even the delinquent speak returns,” she huffs, “Back in high school you got into these things daily, you’ve already heard everything I have to say to you about this, and let's face it you’re a more gracious loser now than you were a winner then,”

>>46085241

“Come on Minami,” you pout and cross your arms, wincing into a nod, “though you’re right, I used to be such a bitch about it. Although…”

“Hmm?” Hanako Minami glances back over to you as the two of you pause long enough for her to slip off her heels, “Although what, Ito?”

“I think something happened to put you in this good mood!” you point and accuse loudly enough to cause you a bit of pain to your swollen cheek.

She is certainly taken aback by your assertion, though you ascribe any blush she has to drink and not embarrassment. Hell, you can still smell it on her breath strongly. In the right frame of mind, nothing can escape your nose.

“So, have a good show?” You let your arms fall slack and grin perhaps stupidly.

Your roommate who doesn’t take the best care of herself seems at first self conscious and then smiles. After a moment of digging around in her purse she pulls out a card and passes it to you. Something about it ticks at your nose before you even touch it, something sweet that you can’t place or that you aren’t familiar with. It’s strange, but you pay it no further mind and read it.

“A talent manager from Ellis gave you their card?” you question somewhat rhetorically, they’re a big name and a legitimate company you’ve heard of.

In fact you’re pretty sure they’ve signed two of the three bands who played tonight.

“He said he could tell I had talent,” she swoons to herself in some degree of giddiness, the kind that lets her voice slip away from her into a tone she often avoids because she thinks it makes her sound old.

It doesn’t. There was a time when the two of you were younger in which she kicked ass in musical theater with that voice. You always thought it a shame she shifted away from that going into senior year and college.

>>46085257

“Yeah, talent,” you joke and fake leer, “Well, don’t let this guy sweet talk you. He might just be after another talent set than what you expect, or he’s recruiting groupies for his contracts,”

Falling back into a relaxed pace, as you pass the card back to her, you smell a momentary surging of that strange smell. It throbs into your senses in time with your heart beat as an annoyed and almost haughty look graces your friend’s face for just a second beneath the blush of your tandem intoxication.

“If it’s the second one,” she says with a creepy vacancy to her slipping and deepening voice that edges into a hungry intonation, “I could certainly live with that. There was just something about that guy in the white armor,”

Her face in this moment is hardly dignified, if she stays on this track she might start drooling like you were over that fight with the Red Eyed Beast. For the next few moments your nose twitches with that smell as it hits you in odd bursts.

“Sorry,” you grin and throw a few mock haymakers ahead of you, probably to your momentary detriment, “but I was paying attention to something else,”

She clicks her tongue and the smell drops out from your sphere of awareness.

“Honestly, argh,” she grouses, “Ito, you know what I think we need before we get back to the apartment?”

“What’s that?” you wonder as you think you finally place the smell.

“More drinks!” Your green headed roommate declares loudly to the empty street.

It smelled like peaches...

Interlude End

It helps being peaches incarnate sometimes.

>>46085528
That is the peach scent of the enemy.
They collect them by the millions, for no charge they'll admit to.

>>46085585
But, how or why can @repostyankee smell it?

>>46085952
Well, animals are said to be able to smell emotions, perhaps her scent stance is tapping into a similar primal sense.
Or perhaps condensed negative emotion congealed into a solid substance literally smells as such and she's picking up trace amounts of that odor.

>>46086509
Right, Weeabo figh-tan magic.

>>46084052
You'd think there'd be more fanart of her dragon form with feminine traits and her character aesthetics.

>>46089577
There is some interesting stuff in there. Feat investment would be a bit much for us, though I could see E6 characters inn general getting some fair use out of abilities with a buy in option like that.

>>46090584
You know, for an E6 game Incarnum would also be a very viable feat buy in subsystem. Doubly so with the best build in that sub version of the game, mystic ranger with sword of the arcane order.

>>46090735
True.
I wonder how well Binding works out, haven't used it enough to guess off-hand.
Truenaming would be showing off how unusable it is without deploying a fix, though the skill-boosting item idea would be nearly functional if threats stayed low.

>>46091216
Don't forget, there are a few spells with Truespeak components that would be useful at that level even if you aren't a truespeaker.

The pact magic buy in feats would work for the low level pacts, but all told I don't think it would carry the same punch as Martial Adeptry or Incarnum. For the pure class, hell yes to versatility and viability...not so much for the narrowed buy in.

>>46091241
Buying into Martial Adept things as non-MA seems a bit feat intensive normally, but E6 would seem a viable place for it.
Incarnum feats are a thing I have enjoyed on few characters. Haven't actually played a class from it, but have gotten a lot of use from the book.

Truenaming's issue is the (before other penalties) DC 27 to affect a 6th level character, like yourself at level 6.
Actually, how is CR calculated in E6 on experience past 6th?

>>46092162
Honestly I'm not certain how it would be. Every time you would otherwise be granted a new level after 6 in E6 you just get another feat.

However that doesn't quite scale in the same way. Really the mathematics behind truenaming need to be heavily revised. I'm curious how it and Incarnum could have been touched upon in 4E but they were glossed over and only Pact Magic found its way in really. Though given how tight 5E seems with math, it might do well to see if anyone tries adapting either system to that edition.

>>46091216
Low level vestiges should work fine.