>>3589213
You awaken to a bright morning sun streaming in through a small window and are slowly stirred from the sleep you've managed to steal in your warm cocoon.

A man's voice cuts through the air, 'Lena, stay back.'

Your heart races and you press yourself to the wall, burying yourself under the tarp in an attempt to camouflage yourself

“Lena, I told you, stay up there, I want to make sure it's clear here.”

Another voice sounds out, younger, female. Though the words are unclear.

Footsteps begin to sound from the top of the stairs, slow and methodical. They stop and begin to soften as the man steps onto the soft dirt floors of the cellar.

After a tense minute's wait a faces turned the corner to greet You. Its features are old and rugged, clearly the product of many hard years of labor, but its expression appears to have little malice behind it. The man turns back towards the stairs 'Lena, it's alright, it's just a girl'. He turns again back to you, “My apologies, I was worried one of the soldiers had broken in. I am Evgeny what’s your name girl?”

>what is your name?

>Since I am an uncreative fuckhead, this quest will be set in the Madoka Universe, if you're unfamiliar with anime from 2012 I applaud your normality and rest assure you'll learn things as your character does as the plot unravels. After all, you're not magical yet.

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>>3589213
I will make a leap of faith and force myself to believe that this is not a low effort shitposting quest that will die this thread, with 1 or 2 updates at best. Yes, I am fool.
>spending time learning with the old German priest after your father made his week’s income (learn to read Russian and speak some German)

>what is your name?
Anon, you seem bad with names, since you don't even have a name/trip (kidding, I know you are just shitposting), but making the players name anything is almost always a terrible idea.
Ekaterina Belosselsky-Belozersky. I think that I read somewhere that that some noble families shortened their names in some circumstances, in this case to avoid persecution, so Belo should be fine, if that is pasabble as a russian surname.

>>3589376
Actually, Belov. That is an actual russian surname and fits.

>>3589383
Comrade, your effort to look up authentic russian names is admirable, but I must note that russian surnames have gendered endings: so in that case it would be 'Beloselskaya', 'Belozerskaya' or 'Belova'
tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/RussianNamingConvention

>>3589213
>spending time learning with the old German priest after your father made his week’s income (learn to read Russian and speak some German)

I'll back 'Katya Belova'

>>3589213
>Spending time in the woods with father hunting and tracking (bonus to sneaking, shooting, and tracking checks)

>name?
Boris Belov Our father wanted a son.

>>3589213
Gay

>>3589376
>>3589376
>>3590283
>>3590283

Sorry I was drunk as shit last night and posted this from my notes prematurely and forgot I did until this morning. I guess we're a go for Stalingrad Quest if interest continues.

>Ekaterina Belosselskaya Belova'
>spending time learning with the old German priest after your father made his week’s income (learn to read Russian and speak some German)

“Ekaterina,” you manage nervously.

“It is good to meet you,” the man offers warmly, taking a seat on a discarded fuel can laying on the concrete ground, he laughs somberly, “I regret that I can’t offer you too much as far as hospitality is concerned.

You open your mouth to respond when a girl pokes her head from the top of the stairs, her brow furrowed in concern, “Who is it Papa?” she calls down to the Evgeny.

“It’s okay, Lena.,” he calls back, “It’s a friend.”

The girl descends , eyeing you suspiciously as she steps down the creaking wooden steps, “did she eat our herring?” she asks in an accusatory tone.

The man takes a sideways look at the discarded can, “I think she shared it for us Lena.” he replies, offering the girl a comforting smile, “It’s okay little one, she was hungry too, we’ll find more.”

Lena doesn’t seem at all thrilled by this and walks over accross the room to the old man, sitting in his lap, moping quietly. He turns his attention back to you before a look of concern crosses his face, “You're deep in the city girl, are you alone or are you from these parts?” he asks, stroking his graying stubble melancholically, “We just came from up north, it's getting violent up there, hard to move, with the Facists all around. Our troops continue to tighten the noose though, soon the war here will be over.”

>you lived in Stalingrad. Your parents are somewhere in the city, but you were separated some months ago by the bombing
>you are a refugee, fleeing before the Germans at some point in your flight your dad joined the army and your mother was lost when the bombings started.
>you’re not from here, your parents are dead
>mind your business old man

If we're in communist Russia, what stops us from escaping with our family when we become a magical girl and basically changing the setting?
I think you're doing great so far, I just don't understand what possible reason there is for us wanting to stay when the time comes.

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>>3590642
>>you’re not from here, your parents are dead

>>3590283
I wasn't aware of that, thanks for the clarification.

>>3590654
Magical girls also need lebensraum. Just expelling the local population will create a large group of very angry nomads.

>>3590642
>you’re not from here, your parents are dead

>>you’re not from here, your parents are dead

You nod your head tiredly, “My parents were killed,” you quietly admit, “father before the war, mother by the Germans.”

Lena’s judgemental gaze over the loss of her pickled herring abates and she seems to guiltily avoid eye contact, fidgeting nervously with the ring on her finger. The jewelry is unusual, a copper band with a bright green stone in the middle

The old man pats her head gently and his face takes on a sympathetic tone, his eyes glazing over sadly “For what little it is worth. I am sorry little one. Times now are tough for all of us all, Lena’s mother- my daughter was lost in bombings too. this is why we must stick together and be strong.”

He seems to quickly recover his composure with a sad smile before reaching behind him and unwrapping a burlap rucksack that he carried. Inside were several thin blankets small portion of bread, and several small trinkets seemed to be their only worldly possessions. He breaks off two pieces from the loaf of hard bread, passing one to you and a noticeably larger piece to his granddaughter. The two of you begin contently munching on the dry bread, doing your best to make it last.

“Lena”, the old man calls, reaching behind him into the rucksack fora small dusty brown book, “want to continue where we left off?”

Lena smiles and nods from her spot against the wall and the old man begins his story. While you’re lost somewhere in the tale’s middle, the old man tells a captivating story, a tale of betrayal and violence towards a young Kievan princess and her later bloody revenge against the barbarians that killed her husband. The way the old man would change his voice for various characters, and gesture wildly and excitedly with his offhand in heated moments of the story led dramatic presence to the tale. He nearly reaches the tale’s crescendo a daring siege that by judging by her look of eager anticipation, Lena has clearly heard a dozen times before when a sound interrupts.

Outside, from a long blown out cellar window you can hear the noise of a car stopping shortly before the building. A man with an accent, harsh and authoritative unlike the old preacher who taught you German begins barking out orders to a group of soldiers.

>>3591519
Evgeny stands, naked worry on his expression and makes his way cautiously towards the staircase, “stay behind the boiler children,” he instructs in a tone scarcely above a whisper., “I’ll do my best to keep them out of the basement.”

“Are you going upstairs papa?” Lena asks in a panicked squeak.

“It will be alright little one, we have nothing the soldiers want,” he answers, his soft smile clearly giving away the fact that he’s probably lying, “just stay hidden.” he adds before slowly ascending the stairs.

You push yourself deep into the gap behind the boiler, pondering the options available to you. Uncomfortable memories of you and your father flushing our rabbits on your hunting trip coming to mind.

>get out the cellar window, it’s small and high and might risk capture but you can probably shimmer out.
>try and help Evgeny
> stay put and look small, they’re probably going to find you, but what other choice do you have?

>>3590654
The same thing that stops everyone else, the cold. The lack of transport, the huge distance, and the German and Soviet Army currently trying to murder and siege each other.

By all means, you can try to leave if you find the motive and opportunity but it won't be straightforward to escape Stalingrad. Besides where are you going to leave the Soviet Union for? Finland? Germany? Japan? Keep in mind this is late 1941. There’s no effective overseas civilian transport.

That being said I don’t object to changing this campaign to something like a 1942 New York Magical Girl street urchin campaign, complete with gang violence and stealing from military factories if you do manage to make a lucky break

>>3591527
>>get out the cellar window, it’s small and high and might risk capture but you can probably shimmer out.

>>3591527
>get out the cellar window, it’s small and high and might risk capture but you can probably shimmer out.
>>3591535
In theory we could try to leave SU through Central Asia, and then turn it into 'Stardust Crusaders'-like adventure.

>>3591535
I figured standard magical girl powers like flight enhanced strength and magic might cover that. I admittedly forgot to factor in that the Berlin wall wasn't up or about to be yet since you hadn't mentioned a year.
There are two things that could actually survive the russian wild traditionally and they would be witches and bogatyr. We'd probably assume we fall under one of those categories.
>>3591527
>If running is an option that entered our brain despite us being too young to understand or know the political situation, then it's probably for a good reason. However the fact that we likened it to flushing out rabbits means that trying to escape is exactly what they want us to do. There must be somebody waiting at the cellar window.
>Stay put and look small. We can pretend that we were sleeping next to some heat and not actually hiding maybe?

>>3591519
So the money we got from our initial vote was our father's pension or last paycheck? Or were we lying to them?

>>3591704
>>3591853
>get out the cellar window, it’s small and high and might risk capture but you can probably shimmer out.

You ignore the man’s warnings and turn immediately towards the window, rushing towards it and using your momentum to help make a jumping grab at edge of the window, you begin yourself up, kicking your feet against the worn brick to assist your arms.

“Papa said to hide,” you hear Lena’s voice mutter, her terror and worry evident, but you ignore her, eventually finding purchase and grabbing the outside frame, you begin to pull yourself out onto the street. The gap is narrow and difficult, but you’ve nearly got a good exit.

“Lieutenant sir- look,” a German voice calls from the street next to you. You glance up briefly from your exertion to notice the nearby form of a German soldier, standing near a battered truck not thirty meters from your position, eyeing you in confusion, his worn rifle held slack.

“Grab her,” a second man with a peaked cap and a thick coat replies.

You begin squirming harder, shimmying your way out of the windowframe.

“It’s just a girl-” the man protests.

The rest of the conversation is lost as an angry voice in the back of your head as your desperate flailing and shimmying continues. You eventually manage to escape and move to take the first running steps towards freedom when a thick gloved hand grabs around you arm, hauling you backwards.

“I don’t see the point sir,” the owner of the glove mutters in confusion, “she’s just a child.”

Beneath the conversation, you hear Evgeny’s voice faintly sounding through the cellar window, friendly but strained in tone, its words imperceptible to you, though its often interrupted by a second much harsher German voice, loud enough that you can head the demands to allow entry into the basement.

“There’s no doubt something for our hungry troops to eat here,” the officer admonishes, “or do you think the brave men sacrificing themselves for the fatherland deserve food less than a few slavic yokels?”

“No sir.” the man mutters in defeat, still gripping your arm despite your struggles.

You hear a second yell, this time loud enough to be clear as day, the voice screaming angrily for Evgeny to clear the stairwell, with a few choice words you have no doubt the old priest would never translate for you.

Evgeny begins a strained reply before you hear a short staccato of machinegun fire and the dull series of thuds that are no doubt his body rolling down the stairs.

Lena screams. First a scream of shock, then of loss. The cry extends into an unnatural and inhuman wail of utter anguish. You have just enough time to notice with alarm the bright and vivid green glow showering out of the basement before the scream stops and your world collapses around you

>continued

>>3592074

You groan as your return consciousness steadily informs you that you’re hurt. You let out a harsh hiss of ringing yourself up on your knees clutched your chest to abate your pain your curse quietly in the words your father used when a particularly long chase bore nothing. When you open your eyes however, the pain in your ribs becomes a secondary concern.

You are no longer outside of that dingy basement, instead, a long row of city streets stretches out before you, or, at the very least, a crude imitation of the city streets. The buildings, no longer broken and ruined loom, curving and malevolent over the cleanly cobbled road, stretching side to side nearly infinitely into the horizon their bricks almost impossibly bright shades of red brown. The snow on the ground vividly sparkles as if made of ground glace, like a sheet of white ceramic lain over the cobblestone. Large red banners stream from the tops of the buildings, and in the distance you hear children singing inscrutable but patriotic songs.

You shift your weight into a full crouch and are surprised when a weight you failed to notices falls from your shoulders. Careful to avoid aggravating you wound, you glance at the ground besides you. The limp form of your captor is sprawled unconscious on the tiles in an ungainly heap, his battered rifle still clutched in his hands.

>look around
>take a specific course of action
>wake the German
>steal his rifle (roll d20 versus D10 for stealth)

>>3591957
Sorry I miscommunicated, there wasn't money that was for German Comprehension and not being illerate. Though Katya has a few rubles on her.

As for Powers I'll leave specific ones up to a vote once you make your contract, with a few specific ones like increased strength and healing included automatically.

>>3592123
Look around. Remember what our father taught us about surviving.

>>3592123
>Check yourself and Hans for injuries.
It's not like Katya knows how to use a battle rifle.

>>>3592123
>Look around. Remember what our father taught us about surviving.
]
>>>3592123
>>Check yourself and Hans for injuries.

>Look around. Remember what our father taught us about surviving.
>Check yourself and Hans for injuries.

You stand slowly, all the while feeling a deep intense pain in your lower ribs as you move slowly to avoid aggravating it. You press lightly on your lower ribs and are greeted by a sharp stabbing flare that steals your breath away. The rib is probably cracked at the very least.

You briefly scan the buildings, stepping towards one of the apparently identical rowhouses. Your closer inspection for the building reveals several inconsistencies. For starters, the almost painfully bright blue door seems to lack a knob or hinges, instead the wooden door seems to merge seamlessly into the brick building you take another step forward and grab the short wooden rail leading to the building’s entrance. The texture is smooth and cold, almost like glass.

An inherent wrongness of the world seems to build with every passing moment. With no other sound besides the singing children the noise begins to grow menacing and foreboding. You elect to turn your attention to the only sense of normality your world currently offers, the German soldier.

He’s currently lying limp, it’s hard to tell if he’s breathing in his thick wool coat, but no blood seems to stain it and his mouth hangs slightly open as if breathing. His arm seems to be the most pressing issue right now, bent back and clearly dislocated, it hangs limply against his flank.

You faintly remember a stern discussion with your father on setting dislocated bones. A hard-won lesson on his part after one of your uncles fell off a short cliff on a hunting expedition decades back.

Or was that setting broken bones? You can’t quite recall the details with the stress you’ve been through

>attempt to reset the limb(roll D20 versus D10+5 for a heal check)
>wake the German and ask his opinion
>abandon him
>other

>>3592511
So, how are rolls supposed to work? Do we need to lock the vote and wait for you to roll the treshold?

>>3592511
I'm not really sure why we'd help the german no matter how creepy the children singing might be. We should be Russian in the middle of WWII and he is the enemy. We are are/were in Stalingrad which means that German is extremely far from his home country. They just murdered the nice priest and were there to steal food in the middle of winter. So factoring all of that in,we have absolutely no reason to consider him anything other than hostile.
Since it's winter we should also be able to see his breath, so if we can't see it
>Steal his hat. We might be able to trade it for food if it's too dangerous to keep it.
>Abandon the murderer

>>3592550
Roll along with your vote and I'll average out all your rolls and make the GM roll once a consensus is reached.

>>3592582
The German who was our captor was the nice one who wanted to let us go but was ordered to catch us. It’s like you have no reading comprehension.

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>3592511
>attempt to reset the limb(roll D20 versus D10+5 for a heal check)

>>3592630
That just makes him a nice murderer. He stopped objecting pretty damn fast to robbing innocent people.

>>3592582
The German is the infantryman and is wearing a helmet, though arguably that's even more valuable.

Also it is, in baffling contrast to the last time you were awake, it's not particularly cold out.

>>3592511
Right, changed my mind.
>Strip him down and steall all his stuff. Rifle, helmet, ammo, cantine and other stuff. Bludgeon him with the rifle in case he wakes up.

>>3592639
Yeah you don’t know this. It’s conjecture and speculation. That would be like saying that all Jews are evil capitalist exploiters and must be exterminated.

>>3592698
I mean, you don't need to speculate to know that he's a foreign invader and that Katya is homeless because of them.

>>3592733
Them. Not him. This man had nothing to do with the death of Katya’s mother. You are proposing we condemn him for things he had no involvement in. That would be like condemning all Jews because a few of them didn’t think you were good enough for art school.

>>3592698
They were talking about it in front of our faces. We may be a kid, but we aren't retarded.
They came to rob the priest for food, when asked what was more important he went with robbing the priest for food, the priest got shot in order to rob him for food.
This is stuff we explicitly understand, he's a fucking Nazi in the middle of WWII during an operation to attack our home country and our father died because they chose to attack us. This is not a baffling conundrum beyond our innocent little child mind. The propaganda about it must have been lining the streets before they even arrived.
I didn't/don't NEED speculation or greater knowledge of the world to figure this out.
You'd MAYBE have a point if he ignored us when we tried to escape only for us to be caught by the officer, but he didn't do that.

>>3592750
>>3592750
You’re straw manning and making hyperbolic statements as well as lying about certain facts. This guy is innocent. Our father died BEFORE THE WAR. He had nothing to do with us becoming an orphan. He didn’t kill the priest, he was holding on to us because he was ordered. This guy makes no decisions. He’s not in charge of anything. He has no say in what his fucking bosses do. He’s just some Pvt. Hans ScnitzelNobody who was probably conscripted. We don’t know enough about the guy to justify what you want to do to him. And you don’t even want to find out. It’s like you want to play our character as a fascist executioner Judge Dredd.

>>3592582
>>3592692

If you want to steal his stuff without waking him give me the D20 roll from earlier,

>>3592819
Those are some awfully complicated arguments for a 10? 12? year old girl to be using to suddenly trust a Nazi invader that was probably going to go along with sending us to some sort of death camp.

>>3592749
>he had no involvement in
I don't know what kind of backwards logic you're using, but he's here litteraly to kill people and conquer her country - he's a soldier. He had no objections to his buddies mowing down an unarmed civilian with a machinegun. And then you're trying to draw parallels between leaving him behind and gasing the joos? Are you trolling us?

>>3592832
We should still have a sense of right and wrong. We were raised by our mother and then an orthodox clergyman. We don’t condemn people to death, or death camps. We don’t have the NKVD background for that. We also wouldn’t be sent to a death camp, Stalingrad is too close to the front to bother with idiotic shit like that. If you want us to be a murderer than you should have gone for an NKVD background not an orphan raised by a priest.

Rolled 10 (1d20)

>>3592831
Time to nick some stuff

Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>3592831
Cmon war trophies for the glorious and brave Ekaterina.
>>3592843
He could just be retarded. He's trying to pull a both sides argument for a literal Nazi invader.

>>3592856
Well that was bad. At least he can't do much to us with that dislocated arm. one smack and he'd probably let us go.

>>3592850
>>3592856

going against an average of 6

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>>3592885
>>3592856
T-thanks, anon

Rolled 9 (1d10)

>>3592885
>>3592914

shitfuck

>steal his shit and leave him

You unsteadily reach down, going your best to bite back the stabbing pain you feel as you body reminds you of your broken ribs. Crouching near the German you grab the but of his rifle, doing your best to gently slide the rifle out of his hands. You’ve only just started to move it when the barrel taps the dislocated arm, sending the man rolling over and groaning in pain as he begins to stir back to reality.

In a panic, you finish ripping the rifle from his hands, the action causing an intense flare of pain from your own injuries causing you to fall involuntarily backwards onto the ground, still clutching the pilfered mauser.

You unsteadily clutch the rifle, sliding on your back away from the wounded German and raising yourself in a panicked rush to unstead feet as his pained gasps begin to stop and he begins to regain focus.

“What the hell?” the man asks through labored breathing, glancing about the strange environment you find yourself in, “What is this? You-?” his confusion is evident and mirrors you own, though perhaps his voice comes out more fearfully than you own. After all- you’ve got his gun now.

In the back of your mind you privately wonder if this is what your father felt whenever he finally finished tracking and cornering a deep.

>shoot him.
>ask him a question
>attempt to bludgeon him (roll against 1d10+5)
>threaten him
>other

>>3592971
Oh man, even if he's injured, he's still a grown ass man, he can easily catch up to us if we try to run with his heavy battle rifle.

And now Papa Stalin must end things for tonight as dreams of Trostsky and Ice Picks lead him to his slumber.

Sorry guys, getting late and I get weird when I write super tired. Will continue in the morning. I'll try to keep more consistent updates then.

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>3592971
>attempt to bludgeon him
Watch me roll a nat 1

>>3593115
Good night, Papa Stalin.

>>3592971
Since I didn't hear anything unusual about the singing, I'm going to assume it was in russian as far as we could tell.
Google translate tells me yбийцa is the appropriate word for murderer, so I might as well go with actually calling him that for now.
> Hello Yбийцa, do you know where this is?
If he objects we can point that they came to kill the priest and then killed the priest. They did what they set out to do. Therefore that is what he is.
>Direct him to explore ahead for you since pushing doors open hurts our ribs too much.
>>3593162
well goddamn that made my entire post useless, but made getting out harder.

I'm thinking that when QB shows up we immediately assume he's a demon. If he was an angel he wouldn't be needing to make a deal and we're somewhat religious despite being USSR.
I hope we don't waste our wish on something petty.
Something "Like let there be a heaven for people to go to after death" would be good since it would tie into Madoka eventually becoming a god and via a slight retcon she basically went into a premade heaven because QB is a lying and willfully misleading jackass who made heaven but didn't leave a way for people to get there.

>>3592971
>>threaten him in German
Say another word and I will take you with me to hell.

Man, what a waste of a good roll.

>>3593461
This, if we don't need to kill we shouldn't

>>3593461
>>3593461
>Threaten him in German

>>3593461
>>3593461
>Threaten him in German

People not being able to read is always funny af

>>3593807
>>3593793
>>3593461

>threaten him

You take another step back and raise the rifle, the weight of it is heavy but familiar in your arms from your experience in the backwoods on the few occasions your father would pass off his Mosin-Nagant to you. .

The German offers a placating gesture with his one good arm, his haggard features awash with concern, “Girl. There is no need for that,” he glances warily around the strange street you find yourselves stranded in. “Something is clearly wrong here, it would be best-” he begins before you raise the rifle into firing position.

“Say another word and I will take you with me to hell.” you spit down at him. “Your ammunition.” you add, give it.”

The man hesitates before undoing the button on his pouches and tossing a half dozen stripper clips onto the cobblestone, the rounds clanking loudly on the ground as if landing on glass.

He looks at you expectantly, worry still apparent on his features.

You open your mouth to demand more of his equipment when in the distance you hear a familiar sound, the dull staccato of submachine gun fire, this time punctuated by panicked shouts and an odd eerie whistle blaring at irregular intervals. In the distance as if in response the choir seems to grow in intensity, reaching the crescendo of their incomprehensible patriotic tune.

You glance around, the buildings around you feel still and lifeless as ever, but in the distance you hear a second blaring whistle coming from the impossibly stretched road before you. The tone reminds you uncomfortably of the whistles the Soviet officers and Commissars would blow to direct the attention of the packed refugees or soldiers on your long flight from the German Army.
'
>what do?

Can we tell the direction those sounds are from? Eg. Is the whistle coming from the same direction of the choir and gunfire?

>>3594042
Try to break in one of the "houses" to take refuge until the situation calms down.

>>3594063
The first whistle is coming from the gunfire, somewhere beyond one of the rows of houses. The second from down the road. The choir's origin is hard to place and seems to echo from an unseen source.

>>3594042
I was honestly expecting it to turn out that the gun wasn't loaded

>Ask him what they were shouting.
I'm thinking it was German shouting since we couldn't understand it easily.
>Check the other houses and have the german climb up to the roof of one if possible to see what's going on in the distance.

>>3594201
Nah, the German may not be the very best of the Hitlerites but he's at least competent to keep the weapon loaded.

>>3594746
He could be a spy, but we aren't old enough to figure that out or have concerns that would lead us to realizing it in the first place. He could also be some traitor POW or simply picked one up off the ground when his german ammunition ran out, so it's best not to make any assumptions.

>>3595123
>Ask him what they were shouting.
>Try to break in one of the "houses" to take refuge until the situation calms down.

You take a moment to focus on the distant shouting, you pick up odd shouts, cries of alarm and barked orders of retreat. Much of the shouting is lost amongst the rifle and sub machinegun fire and the civilian origins of your German language knowledge. The whistling noises, steadily increasing in volume, block out much of the rest.

You raise the rifle again for emphasis and stare down the German with your best intimidating gaze “What’s going on? What are they yelling about?”

He hesitates, glancing at the buildings in the direction. His own concerns at the chaotic noises are clearly evident in his expression, “It is hard to say. They are in a firefight, it does not go well. ” he mutters shaking his head, “We should find a way out, we will do better together,” the man smiles, tentatively holding out a hand, “My name is Günther.”

“I do not care about your name.” you spit bitterly adding “murderer,” in your native tongue as if the word were a curse. Deciding to ignore the man’s gesture, you turn around, backing away towards the nearest house, doing your best to keep the muzzle of your rifle pointed towards him all the while, until you feel your feet touch the edge of the short front staircase and you take a tentative step up. The first step leaves you briefly struggling for purchase, the glasslike surface of the stairs sliding against the wool wrapped boots you gathered to keep your feet dry.

You briefly pull your eyes away from the German to analyze the building. Both the almost painfully red brick and the gaudy blue door seem more decorative than functional, their smooth finish near textureless. Closer inspection reveals that the brick pattern is simply a pair of colors as if painted onto a flat surfacxe. You let out a bitter curse of confusion and frustration. Grabbing the rifle you give a halfhearted tap against the brick. The returning sound is glasslike, but offers no echo that indicated a void behind it.

You pull the rifle back to test the door when the whistle sounds again, this time much louder and nearer causing the man behind to let out a cry of alarm.

“What in God’s name?” Günther screams

Down the cobblestone streets a lone figure skips limply down the road, its limbs and head flail wildly like a puppet whose strings were in the hands of an excited child. It wears a bright blue policeman's uniform that disturbingly it looks more painted on than worn and an inscrutable mask of white porcelain. Behind it, it drags a billy club limply behind. While the distance between you is significant, the puppet-man seems to be gaining ground at an alarming pace.


>fire (roll 1d20 against 1d10+5)
>attempt to hammer at the house
>turn down the opposite street and run
>do one of the other actions, but bring the German

>>3595261

Also, as a note. skill checks are currently be made at a "baseline" with no regard to Katya's personal skills, you'll gain stats as bonuses to certain checks as you do the actions repeatedly, get particularly excellent rolls, or solve a problem creatively.

>>3595261
>turn down the opposite street and run

>>3595261
The walls sound like they're made of glass and are painted on, no? What do anons say about shooting the glass and trying to escape into whatever the hell is on the other side? It's probably a bad idea from our perspective but makes sense from hers.

>>3595375
Yes, the wall is glass in sound. you haven't tried the door at all.

>>3595493
>>3595261
Since nobody seems to be going for shooting the "glass" I'll support the run the hell away vote. If that running away involves using the door like you seem to be hinting at,then that would be great. I'm hoping it has a damn lock.

>>3595375
This sounds good, shot the house, if it doesn't work as intended, run. Even if it doesn't sound hollow, I doubt it is a solid block, we may open a hole to somewhere else.

>>3595679
>>3595375
>shoot the house, if it doesn't work as intended, run.

You let out a desperate curse as the policeman-figure skips forwards and loose legs. You level the rifle and pull the trigger and the rifle discharges with an echoing roar. The wall of the house shatters out in a spray of brightly colored crystalline shards, the speed of the ricocheting pieces slashing your exposed face and hands with small cuts. You wince and work the bolt, glancing back at the incoming figure before evaluating the damage to the door. A small hole stands chipped into the structure, dull blackness glares at you through several inches of chipped crystal.

You firing again wildly, this time the round slams into the gap between the door and the wall, a large chunk of bright blue panelling slamming down from the impact and landing on the front step, shattering into tiny pieces.

The German scrambles to his feet, panic naked in his eyes. “It’s getting closer.” he yells to you, “shoot it.”

Continuing to skip towards you, the figure pulls a whistle to its porcelain mask, blowing it loudly it waves the billy club above its head.

>shoot the police-puppet
>work on breaking your way out
>run down the street.

>>3595895
Russian folklore generally says you're completely fucked if you run into a witch and survival is a matter of if they find you interesting if you aren't a legendary hero.
This dude must be scared out of his mind since he hadn't thought to open the damn door.

>Shut up and run! Do you think the bullets work better for girls than those soldiers shooting at it earlier?

>>3595895
Shot the german in the leg and then run.

>>3595955
While the whole only having to run faster than the slowest person theory is true, the sooner he gets caught, the sooner it can start chasing after us.

>>3595954
The door currently has no nob or hinges on it.

>>3595954
This, also don't shoot the German

>>3596624
>>3595986
>>3595954
>run down the street.

You turn from the building abandoning your efforts to force it and leaping from the top of the stairs onto the cobblestone streets, greeting your teeth as the impact jostles your ribs. The police-figure lets out a frustrated whistle and takes off in pursuit as you run as fast as your feet can carry you. The soldier is briefly taken aback, apparently expecting you to fire and is slow to join your flight, the puppet-man seems to gain significant ground on him before he flees as well.

The cobblestone streets are hard underfoot as you continue your blind route, each rowhouse looking distressingly identical to the last as building after building passes by in your retreat. Their cheerily bright blue “doors” and false bricks all seem to taunt your efforts to escape.

Your lungs are burning and your feet heavy when out of the corner of a house you manage to spot potential salvation. A narrow gap of darkness between two buildings. You use the hope to push yourself onwards, stumbling into the alleyway on heavy feet and pushing yourself forwards off the walls in desperate flight.

“It’s gaining!” the soldier shouts, you turn around. The German is close behind you, watching the puppet-man with wild fear-filled eyes. Panic stricken, he throws his helmet at the figure as it rounds the corner in pursuit, his impromptu projectile bounding with a dull thud. You ignore it and glance forwards, surging out of the alleyway and into a second set of winding corridors. From ahead, the singing is louder though the words are still incomprehensible to you.

Unlike the bright childlike facade you just left, this street is far more obviously menacing. The buildings, tall and dominating seem to looming above you and threatening to swallow you. Their dark, almost black exteriors and chipped and broken walls reminded you somehow of the city you’ve survived in these past weeks. Intermittently upon the walls are bright red posters, reminiscent of the Party propaganda, but written in a strange writing that you can’t quite read. Unlike the earlier flat straight street, many jagged and seemingly random paths separate the large buildings in a confusing spiderweb.

“This way,” the German screams, seeming to pick a street at random and rush down it, panting heavily.

>Follow the German
>choose a different route.

>>3597177
>Follow him. he might actually know where he's going in this weird section.
>increased feeling of dread as this reminds us more and more of being on the other side of papa's hunting trips.

>>3597177
>Follow the German

On an unrelated note. I meant to shout that out instead of silently fleeing. Hans can figure out that bullets probably don't do anything later or if he asks.

>>3597207
That's okay, you already stole his gun.

>>3590738
source ? image search give nothing

>>3597288
It is definitely one of Rasenjin Hayami works but I don't remember exactly with one of them. Kutsuzure Sensen, I think.

>>3597199
>>3597182

>Follow the German
>choose a different route.

You turn and follow the German soldier, your legs and lungs burning from exertion. leading you into a twisted and confusing passageways. Ahead, the sounds of sporadic fire begin to echo from above the streets again and you look towards the sky, a thin orange light blazes from above the tops of the building and distant orange glows trace themselves in irregular patterns in the sky.

The Police-puppet looms behind you, steadily gaining ground in his awkward skipping gait. Ahead, the German is now a considerable distance in front of you. Your burning ribs and weak frame means matching pace with him is difficult. The man seems to choose a path at random and rounds a corner, you follow shortly after and spot the source of at least some of the rifle fire. A man lay against a wall slumped over and immobile, his dull gray uniform blending in with the shadows contrasting vividly with the bright sprays of blood. Continuing onwards, several other corpses lay haphazardly in the streets.

The singing continues, raising in volume until it’s near deafening, drowning out the sound of your pursuer’s whistle. Eventually, in the distance, the ever-winding alleyways give way to an open field of dull brown, Illuminated by the dull orange light. You push forwards blindly into the fields with the last of your strength

The space turns into large open expanses of dull dead farmland, the gently rolling plains are marked by burned trees and charred houses. Above it all on a large hilla caricature of a medieval fortress burns in the dark night sky, its walls, full of deep cracks are impractically high given the relatively small footprint the structure takes up. In the center of its walls a massive monster resembling a cloth hand puppet of a faceless princess stitched hastily together, bobs almost childlike from side to side, seeming unconcerned with the flames wracking its lower body. Upon its head sits a dull copper crown with a bright green gem slanted lazily to one side. In a manner almost mimicking the crown, a circle of dark birds formed overhead, screeching wildly as flames engulfed their bodies.

You take a step backwards at the sight, noting the array of still smoldering corpses surrounding the monster's redoubt, in many cases their hands still clutch the melted remains of their rifles.

The puppet-queen turns, facing its soulless button eyes facing directly towards you. the birds above begin shrieking ever louder and diving lower towards you, diving close to you, searing hot as they approach.

The German is continuing to run, apparently heedlessly fleeing the puppet towards the castle as the flaming birds dive around him.

>Follow the German
>grab the German and run
>try to take shelter in one of the burned houses or copses of trees
>try and double back and avoid the puppet, heading towards the streets (roll against D10+10)
>try and look for another exit.

>>3597422
apologies for inconsistent updates, I wanted to spend more time on descriptors here than I probably should have, but Labyrinths are weird.

Also kudos to anyone who picks out where the Witch comes from.

>>3597422
That gem/crown sounds familiar.
At this point the only reason we aren't curling up into a ball and screaming is that I don't want to accidentally be too meta and do so while hoping a magical girl shows up to save our asses.
I'm a little worried that we've seen slightly too much to fall for QB's basic tricks and he's going to have to break out something really nasty to "convince" us to make a contract. Him going that far makes things even worse because it means he'd have a motivation to target us.
>Lena?

>>3597470
Eh, Katya is a fighter.

And yeah, that's the one. Though the Witch form is based on the story of Olga of Ukraine, which was the Book Evgeny was reading in the beginning

>>3597422
I think we should drop the rifle. It is no good against these things and it must be heavy for us.

>try to take shelter in one of the burned houses or copses of trees
What better place to hide but MAGICAL RUSSIAN FORESTS. Totally safe, I am sure.

>>3597470
QB is taking far too long to show up, he must be waiting for us to be in a very bad situation so we are forced to wish that particular predicament away. Quick contract, no broken wish and no time for pesky questions.

>>3597486
>Ukraine
Kiev?

>>3597496
QB probably just hasn't decided to or gotten around to us yet. It's WWII. My brain is starting to get dangerously paranoid ideas like him mass producing witches to feed the mahou since we're in one of the most bleak locations of the era that isn't oven based.
Starting to suspect the police thingy isn't actually malevolent towards us since it is doing an evacuation whistle, but I can't see any reason to not be freaked out by an eldritch monstrosity.

>>3597496
>Kiev?

Yes. Not sure how I mucked that up, I even have Kiev written in my notes.
Seems like less voting on this go, I'll type up the single vote in that case.

>>3597422
Seconding>>3597470 's idea.
>>>3597470
>hold the rifle low and ask "Lena...is that you?"
then if that doesn't work

>grab the German and run

>>3597867
>>3597470
>>3597496

Tried my best to merge all three of these.

>try to take shelter in one of the burned houses or copses of trees

A burning bird shrieks above your head, singing your hair with a wave of intense heat. You step forward, eyeing the dull green gem on the puppet-queen’s crown with uncertainty.

“Lena?” you mutter cautiously. Holding your rifle low. “Lena-it’s”

The words are interrupted by a screaming cacophony of birds as hundreds of burning crows ascend from behind the walls of the fortress in a roaring mass. They head towards the soldier and wash over the ground before him, leaving small fires in their wake.

You duck low as a skirt the air above you in a burning cloud and begin running again towards the German.

The man is still standing, though clearly badly burned, coughing and stepping unsteadily about in a confused manner. You throw the rifle to the ground, useless and heavy as it is and grab the German’s hand and before running, your body protesting against the exertion you make your way through the wastes towards the nearest farmhouse. A half collapsed building, the exterior’s once bright white appearance is singed and burned. The man follows limply behind, slowing you slightly and coughing through his seared lungs.

You faintly hear the whistle behind you beneath the screaming choir, their words ringing from every
Direction as you press onwards. With a final exertion make your way through to the Farmhouse, past several more charred corpses and stumble into a gap in the wall, tripping over a split beam and collapsing into the ground, the German falling in behind you. The jolt causes you to let out a scream as your ribs light up in searing pain and you clutch them, wreathing on the floor.

The whistle sounds again, this time closer and you turn to see the Puppet-Man. His porcelain face an unreadable and expressionless gaze, his billy club raised high.

A bang sounds, probably a loud one, though it’s only faintly audible beneath the screaming roar of the singing children. An impact of lancing green fire tears through the puppets chest from the direction opposite of you. He stands briefly, bringing a hand up to the smoking hole in his chest before collapsing into an ungainly pile of limp limbs as if the invisible strings that gave him life were suddenly cut.

The German offers a surprised look at the puppet’s lifeless tangle of limbs, with his one good eye. With the imminent death now past, you’re able to notice that his burns are quite severe. The man lulls slightly following your notice before collapsing onto the ground. Likely it was only adrenaline, shock, or some product of this strange new world that kept him upright in the first place

>find somewhere to hide
>find another place to run
>look at the window

>>3597932
>look out the window

with the puppet gone we might as well figure out our position before we run back into those birds. and probably see if we can find the magical girl that saved us.

>>3597932
Look out the window. We don't want whomever just saved us to leave without us if they have a way out of this nightmare.

>>3598002
>>3597955
>look out the window

You take a brief moment to take a few deep gasping breaths as your body’s exertion catches up to you now that the immediate pursuit is over. Your head swims in near delirium and you faintly register bursts of automatic weapons fire from outside the house.

Still breathing heavily, you pull along the shack’s floor, grimacing in pain over the damage to your ribs before tentatively hauling yourself up on the edge windowsill and peeking out nervously into the fields.

Outside among the burned fields and buildings are a pair of figures. Both are female and both run about as if challenging the monster in the fortress.

The first seems to be your savior. Dressed in a thick wool coat and a dirty winter ushanka, she makes her way across the field towards the monster with a large arquebus folded across her shoulder. She occasionally stops in her run to lance birds out of the sky with an ornate wheellock before moving her way again towards the creature.

The second is a smaller girl in a ratty quilted jacket, she stands basking under the shadow of the burning fortress wielding a medium sized war hammer and a drum-fed sub machinegun. She seems to be supporting the first girl, lancing out bursts of automatic fire and the clouds of birds whenever they dive near.

The first girl says something to the second her words lost among the still screaming choir and glances towards your window, causing you to retreat instinctively towards the floor. The second doesn’t seem to spare a glance and offers a dismissive comment.

>>3598191
The monster lets out a bellowing banshee shriek as another flock of burning birds falls to a burst of sub machinegun fire and makes a wide swipe towards the girl responsible, but the girl jumps quickly away, offering another burst towards the puppet-queen as if to taunt her for the miss.

Enraged, the monster continues raining down blows, gouging chunks in the charred earth, but failing to hit the nimble figure. The girl takes a spare second to offer an impatient remark to her companion, who seems to have finally found some ground and begins carefully unpacking her long firearm, digging the monopod into the dirt.

The hammer girl yells angrily at the first, clearly annoyed at her seemingly lackadaisical attitude towards the fight, but the second girl ignores her. Finally finished setting up her large weapon, she shoulders the gun and fires.

A deep stream of green light lances outwards, spearing the puppet-queen in the chest and sending the monster reeling backwards in her fortress. The children's choir immediately stops, the world suddenly disturbingly quiet without the constant near-screaming voices.

“Did you really have to take so long?” the girl with the sub machinegun asks in an accusatory tone.

The girl with the arquebus says nothing, carefully flipping her monopod back up before the weapon disappears in her hands in a shower of vibrant green lights.

“Fine,” the second girl mutters dourly, “Let’s just get the seed and go.”

>Call out to them
>Let them go

>>3598195
>Call out to them. We need a way out unless we want to be trapped here forever.
>Wake the german dude up since this place is so awful that even we feel bad about leaving anyone in here
>Ask if we can give/get Lena a proper burial.
This would be monumentally stupid if we knew the setting, but we don't and we owe her the priest/father that if we can at the very least.
I also sorta want to see what the horrific result of Stalin or Hitler trying to weaponize magical girls would be if news of this broke but I'm trying to keep that in check.

>>3598195
I assume they are speaking russian, right?
>>3598245
This is ok. I think that assuming that the witch was Lena is a bit too meta. But, if they are russian, we probably don't want them to see us helping a german.

>>3598195
>Let them go

>>3598300
Yes the girls are Russian, or at least speaking Russian.

>>3598300
I figured the ring/crown was a fairly massive hint since we noticed it on both occasions due to it being quite distinctive and the prose specifically calling attention to it. I had no idea what the actual witch was until QM described the crown and it immediately reminded me of the ring Lena wore which also had attention focused on it due to being A) jewelry and B) unusual jewelry.

I figure we don't want to help the Nazi much either, but a "not even they could possibly deserve this" might be a valid argument. I'm barely sure that we know we aren't in hell.

>>3598195
>also supporting >>3598245

>>3598358
>>3598245
As you command so shall Papa Stalin set the plan in motion, penning it up.

>>3598342
Yeah, I was trying to help people who haven't seen Madoka to understand the connection. But hey Katya's lasted this long, she's a smart and observant girl, she might make the connection.

>>3598384
It took me way too long to make a bunch of connections.
I didn't realize Lena was a magical girl until the priest died. I didn't realize we were inside a witch's whatever for a while and figured we had just been dragged to some sort of makeshift concentration camp for questioning after we somehow survived Lenna exploding with rage.
I made no connection at all to the story we had been told a few minutes earlier by the priest until Stalin mentioned it.

>>3598245
>Call out to them. We need a way out unless we want to be trapped here forever.
>Wake the german dude up since this place is so awful that even we feel bad about leaving anyone in here
>Ask if we can give/get Lena a proper burial
“Wait,” you cry hoarsely your breath still coming in ragged and painful. You stand clutching your flank unsteadily and bracing yourself on the side of the window. “Please-”

The small girl takes the time to pick something up from the base of the fortress before giving you an inscrutable look, “Well Svetka,” she mutters to her companion, “You were right, there was someone- they’re alive, which is more than half the city gets to say, let’s go.”

The arquebus girl ignores her and shoots you a friendly smile, “Hello there,” she calls to you as she approaches your hiding place from across the field.

“She’ll be fine when the barrier collapses.” the second girl calls to her friend, clearly frustrated over being ignored. “We don’t need to stick around for the Germans to send someone to check on their patrol.”

The girls stops outside the ruined hole in the shack’s wall. “Are you alright?” she asks is a matronly tone.

You nod, “Thanks,” you add hoarsely, “Do you know how to get out of here? Can you help us?”

She nods before taking a curious glance into the room for your unseen companion, before her expression clouds over in sympathy, “I can take the two of you back safely, but-” she hesitates mulling over her words carefully.

You turn around, confused by her choice of words and survey the room, having not had the opportunity to do so after the chaos of the police-puppet and the two girls arrival. The small farmhouse more strongly represents a bedroom of the old Bourgeois the walls ornately covered with fine wallpaper and gold-leafed pictures of faceless families. By the amount of stacked suitcases and the large quantity of chairs left around it resembles one of the many houses that the party claimed and redistributed during the revolution. In fact, the only thing that allows you to for sure claim it’s a bedroom at all is the neatly made bed, on top of which, as if sleeping peacefully in her woolen coat lies Lena.

>>3598494
“I am sorry,” the girl offers in genuine sympathy, “your friend is dead.”

You nod solemnly at the news and despite having just met her and having seen so much death already you feel a pit form in your stomach at her passing after all the kindness Evgeny showed you. “We have to bury her.” you announce quietly, “she cannot be left here.”

The girl opens her mouth as if to protest but instead nods solemnly, “Okay,” she agrees, “We’ll give her a proper burial. There are not enough of those to go around these days.” She steps forwards and scoops Lena with delicate ease and turns, offering you a sad smile.

You’re surprised to see the bed begin to shimmer and glance up at the girl, but she seems unperturbed by it. The rest of the world seems to fade and visions of shattered brick structures and a snow banks begin to fade through the burnt plains. The burning sky breaks into a dull grey sheen and snow begins to seep through.

You look down to the unconscious soldier and begin shaking him awake, “We’re going back?” the worry about being left behind undercutting the hopefulness behind your words.

“The barrier is falling,” the girl answers, the world around you continuing to fade.

The German soldier wakes with a groan as the last visions of the burned hellscape fade into a frosty hellscape. Though his condition seems to keep him from doing much beyond breathing painfully wincing.

“I am Svetlana by the way.” the girl announces, “But Svetka is good too.”

“Katya.” you answer, not bothering to provide the longer name your mother gave you.

She smiles at you before another sad look overtakes her expression and she glances down at the corpse in her arms.

“Her name was Lena.” you reply quietly to the unasked question.

“Let us put her to rest,” Svetka responds, gently setting the girl on the snow and grabbing the entrenching tool from the wounded soldier’s belt. She frowns in concern after she does so, as if only now becoming aware of the man’s injuries. Stepping to a low crouch above him, she begins removing her wool gloves.

“What are you doing?” the voice of the second girl interjects suddenly from immediately behind you. You whirl about to face her, startled by her call out, having not heard her approach. The girl casts a disappointed glare at Svetka. “No need to waste your efforts on him,” she mutters dourly, racking the bolt on her sub machinegun back for effect, “There is but one mercy we should grant the Hitlerites.”

>Allow the girl to shoot the German
>Interject and allow Svetka to save him
>convince her that leaving the German would be a crueler fate

Also Lena's corpse being in the room was actually planned for the blurb with the puppet man, but I couldn't find a way to fit it in without disputing the flow of events. I apologize if that feels like a cop-out of burying witch-lena for the sake of narrative.

>>3598499
>Interject and allow Svetka to save him
>”He didn’t seem all too happy with what the rest of the soldiers were doing and surprisingly he didn’t try to kill me. I grabbed his rifle but the poor bastard could have easily draw his sidearm or his shovel before I could do anything with my injuries. Seemed more intent on running away than anything else.”

>>3598499
Feeling a bit conflicted since there isn't much reason to bother saving him but it seems like we're supposed to for some dumb reason. Leaving him alone could be fidangled, but not outright saving him.
Maybe if we considered him asking his commander to let us go as a debt we could consider that a reason for mercy, but it's a stretch since we already didn't let him die twice?
We've got very few real reasons to let him live vs the fact that he's a Nazi.

There isn't going to be a random photograph of his children falling out of his pocket to make us think there are enough orphans here today is there?

If we do actually go with saving him my argument would be:
>He asked the others to let me go and not to loot the priest before they murdered him. Let us make a deal with him. A mercy for a mercy. We let him live for now and he tells us what we can steal from their camps while they do not know what has happened yet.

>>3598499

adding on to >>3598544
>Believe me I have no love for fascists. Those murderers killed my mama, but this fool may know where the other Germans patrols are and if we run into them this "hero" of the reich can say he survived and ambush and found us when in all reality he is our prisoner.

>>3598583
Addendum.
I doubt they would listen to ramblings of magic, witches, and bogatyr(Mahou Shoujo) being responsible for tonight.

>>3598583
The quest has no plan for this guy, desu he didn't even appear when I made notes to run this as an RPG. Go fucking wild, there's no moral compass here,

But hey, kraut friend might be useful or something in the future, do what you want, all I'm saying is I'm not trying to push you guys either way with this..

>>3598583
>We've got very few real reasons to let him live
It is called love at fist sight.

>>3598722
In the grim ruins of Stalingrad, during the most brutal war in history. Two unlikely characters find themselves thrust unwillingly together, one a Soldier of the Reich, the other an orphaned Soviet Girl, can love bloom on the battlefield?

No. Papa Stalin says gulag for asking this question

Also going to try and work the gist of these comments into one response.
>>3598585
>>3598583
>>3598544

>>3598606
Sweet. No wondering if I missed some obvious cue I was supposed to pay attention to for staying in character.
We can move onto knowing better than to trust a creepy fox when they're always tricksters.

>>3598730
Booooo I want Klaus and Katya end up each other. OTP best ending!! The ship must sail.

>>3598585
>>3598583
>>3598544


>Interject and allow Svetka to save him

“Wait,” you interject briefly, your voice still raw from your gasping breaths.

The girl finally spares you her attention, offering an annoyed glare at your interruption, “Why?” she asks in a low angry tone.

“I have no blood for fascists,” you mutter, spitting the last word at the groaning man. “They killed my mother and many others. But this man did at least try to convince his officers to let me go. Besides, he may prove invaluable, I am sure he knows many useful things about their patrols and supply caches.”

“Us?” the girl replies with indignation, letting her submachine gun fall slack in her arms, “there is no us. There is me and Svetka, but if your friend Hans is so important to you, feel free to hold onto him.”

Svetka looks distinctly uncomfortable, but puts her hands above the man’s face, a faint green light emanates from them, illuminating the man’s features. After a brief hesitation he lets out a choking cough of relief, his second eye opening and blinking itself clear and his breath coming in healthy and regular..

You stare in disbelief at the performance, your words stolen for some time “What?” you eventually manage to stammer out.

“You just saw her shoot a giant evil puppet in the face and you’re awestruck by some healing magic?” the second girl asks, clearly enjoying your awe.

“Be nice Ilya.” Svetka chastises, “Are you hurt as well Katya?” she asks, placing her hands over your own, where your hands clutch your broken ribs. The gentle glow appears again and you can feel the pain in your ribs gentle lessen until it eventually subsides entirely.

“Thanks.” you mutter, still awestruck.

“Now let’s put your friend to rest,” she mutters, gently placing her hand on your shoulder.

The spot you select for Lena is not particularly noteworthy, a small spot or earth between two broken brick buildings, scarcely the size of the basement you first met her in. You offer yourself the consolation that it’s far better than the majority of those killed in the fighting are given. You carve her name in a loose chunk of rubble along with a small simple slavic cross, faintly disappointed that you can’t offer a surname to go along with it.

>>3598799
No one seems to have any words, instead a respectful moment of silence serves as your tribute.

Eventually, the distant sounds of artillery begin to roll over, signaling fighting somewhere in the city. The noise seems to serve as a signal and Ilya quietly slings her sub machinegun over her shoulder. “I am sorry about your friend,” she offers, before turning towards her companion, “It’s time to go Svetka.”

The girl seems surprised at the statement, “We’re leaving Katya?”

“We can’t spend all of our time babysitting a facist and an orphan, I’m sure Hans will keep her safe.”

“We can’t leave her here to die, she can help us-”

Her conversation is interrupted by a small catlike animal leaping up on Ilya’s shoulder from the broken floor of the ruins above. She doesn’t seem alarmed by its entry, but the animal attracts the attention of both girls, who seem to recognize it.

[b]Hello Ekaterina[/b] a voice echos in your head

>how do you reply?
>ignore it and address one of the girls

>>3598743
Ship will sail
To gulag

>>3598804

Shit, fucked up the Bolding my text, I knew I shouldn't have tried fancy text formatting shenanigans.

>>3598804
>What manner of demon are you little fox?

I could be horrifically influenced by his name and Naruto but he reminds me of a fox. Foxes are lying tricksters in russian folktales.(or almost everywhere really? Some sort of mass cultural warning against making a deal with QB?) Ergo we would naturally be cautious even before we add in religious motivations.

Not sure how to proceed here since we've obviously got to fall for his tricks eventually, but having to deal with this crap without having any powers or idea wtf was going on is actually pretty cool.
This whole scene must look extremely bizarre to Hans since I'm guessing he's still our prisoner?

>>3598804
>Ilya, am I finally going crazy or did something just call my name?
>look at the animal.
>"Is that from you? What manner of beast could you be that you know my name...or for that matter talk in my mind? What in God's name is going on here?"

>>3598827
I'm not going to force the quest to do anything.

But you should know that "Teenage girl Stalingrad survival quest" will not end well not have a lot of threads to its name.

Yes, Hans (or Günther. if he's earned the right to go by his real name yet) is still your prisoner and no he cannot see the rabbit-fox-cat-thing)

>>3598827
I swear I didn’t see the “what manner of post” dialogue while I was writing my post.

I’m also curious how this will play out as we already know that girls turn into witches which was a big reveal in madoka and if Katya sees any odd jewelry on the girls or herself (when she contracts) she might put everything together.

>>3598846
In fairness Katya has seen nothing to definitively indicate that the two are connected, though she has been given quite a few pieces to the puzzle.

>>3598846
We don't "know" yet, but he's trying the "nice" approach instead of showing up just after a house we're in got bombed which gives more tie for his explanation to accidentally slip information AND the russian (post Tzar) mindset is different from the western mindset concerning lies. QB's tactics work well on western mindsets (which includes japan due to american influence) since the assumption/expectation of truth is more pronounced.
Russians during communism on the other hand know the system is designed to screw them over and it's all about figuring out how to game/cheat the system to survive while pretending to believe in it.

QB is basically trying to game people that know more about lying (from a western viewpoint) than he does. "Of course we love the russian party. It's not a lie. We just don't love it as much as everyone else so it doesn't count!"

The link is shitty and I really hope it isn't personalized so that you can't read it, but I stumbled upon it while trying to do light research on our cultural mindset.
https://books.google.com/books?id=02JK4iG16GAC&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80&dq=how+many+words+for+lie+are+there+in+the+russian+language&source=bl&ots=aj_LEWw_EY&sig=ACfU3U0jSYE0y_krYTQv9XOthdAzQetC6w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi74_zLkoHjAhULyFkKHSgQCeYQ6AEwE3oECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=how%20many%20words%20for%20lie%20are%20there%20in%20the%20russian%20language&f=false
.

>>3598830
>>3598827

>What manner of demon are you little fox?
>"Is that from you? What manner of beast could you be that you know my name...or for that matter talk in my mind? What in God's name is going on here?"

Your eyes widen at the voice echoing in your brain before narrowing in suspicion at the creature, your hand nervously reaches for the still dirt stained shovel propped against the wall of the nearby building. “What manner of demon are you?” you mutter, “How do you know my name? Or for that matter talk in my mind?” Your vision drifts with suspicion and confusion towards the other two girls. Svetka’s expression is a look of bittersweet surprise, while Ilya returns a look of bitter disappointment. “What in God’s name is going on here?” you ask. The question is broader than the simple scene in front of you. After all, you still lack an explanation for the confusion and terror of this morning.

“It’s complicated.” Svetka admits in a guilty tone, avoiding your gaze. “This is Kyubey.”

*My name is Kyubey* the childlike voice echos in your mind *Svetlana and Illiya are friends of mine, Magical Girls, contracted by me to help keep the world safe from witches*

You glance confusingly at the foxlike anime, attempting to scry its emotionless expression, “Magical Girls?” you ask incredulously. “What is this, some kind of joke?”

“I know it sounds ridiculous,” Svetka begins, “But It’s true, what you saw there- Kyubey here offered us both wishes. Anything we want, he can provide. In exchange, we help him fight witches- those things you saw earlier.”

*she’s right* the voice echoes *your wish is limited only by your imagination. Simply make a contract with me and I’ll grant you whatever you desire*

Your suspicion deepens and you glare at the suspicious creature, “If there’s a wandering fox offering wishes to any naive child, why does this happen?” you mutter gesturing to the ruined city.

*Human emotion is a fickle thing, I can’t deny them their agency*

Ilya looks angrily at him, “What he means is-it doesn’t work that way. You can wish to end the war, sure, but people are just going to start fighting again, the blood between us is too biter.”

“Then what did you wish for?” You challenge, turning to the girl.

“I wished my family could make it out of Sevastapol safely.” she mutters dourly in response, glaring at the city angrily, “We are no longer stuck in Sevastapol.”

You offer a sympathetic grimace before the creature speaks up again

*sign a contract with me and any wish is your desire is yours* the creature responds *along with the ability to fight witches like Svetlana and Illiya do*

>sign the contract
>don’t sign the contract
>tell him you’ll wait
>ask a question
>you and Gunther have business elsewhere.

Sorry It took a bit, this post was hard to write so it didn't sound ridiculous to me. Still kind of does, but eh, cons of the genre I suppose.

>>3598965
Papa Stalin must sleep, but know that the NKVD still watches.

Quest will return tomorrow. I might not be able to get to it until the afternoon, but I'll try.

>>3598981
No problem. I’m half asleep so I’m struggling to figure out how to respond to the last post. Thanks for the run.

>ask a question:
>”Fox-er...Kyubei, this is a lot to take in. Frankly it would all sound ridiculous if I hadn’t seen today’s events with my own eyes. But of witches, if they’re real and that thing was a witch then...little Lena was a witch?! Why did she attack me and not just the Fascists? Why didn’t she just stay in her strange castle instead of here?”

Maybe someone can come up with something better.

>>3598881
thanks. I’ll give it a read if I have some time tomorrow.

>>3598965
>Fuck off Kyubei, if my babushka stories are true I would rather take my chances with Hans than making a contract with you.

Homura Akemi grandma is Katya

Change my mind.

>>3599056
Grandma Katya would have been watching Homu like a hawk after warning her not to make deals and extremely armed since I'm guessing that QB can't make himself invisible to people he's already revealed himself to.
Although that would make a missed moment when she visits Homura, realizes what happened immediately and breaks down in tears hugging her to her confusion since grandma didn't act quite like that on the first loop.
There's also the big problem of magical girls not being able to have children unless we get teen pregnant, a timeskip occurs, and we make a wish that makes us into a magical girl that ensures we never turn into a witch.
We're also blonde. Mami is more likely to be our granddaughter if that OP pic is any indication which makes the situation more fucked up since QB waited until her parents that would know about QB to be unable to stop/warn Mami when it suddenly becomes clear that our stories were true.
Then again, russian hair is usually white in anime, so the cake witch might be the one that's our descendant.
>>3598965
This is a super tough question since QB can/will lie out of his ass even if he pretends he doesn't and it's also hard to catch his lies of omission (seperate from his regular lies) until it's too late.
I think we shouldn't reveal we know/suspect Lena was a witch off the bat since he'd be able to make an excuse we can't call bullshit on while we know next to nothing about everyone else. he has to dig his grave on that so that his own words damn him too instead of he said she said.
The girls also accidentally made QB's argument worse since it sounds like they're his slaves/servants. That's probably going to have to be "cleared" up despite it being close enough.
It's a bit tough trying to find questions that aren't overly meta while also being able to drive the story forward since we've seen enough for the smart thing to be running and never coming back.
I'm sure he'll get us since he's a persistent bastard willing to use every method of coercion in the book, but it won't be tonight.

>What happens to my soul if I do?
>Ask the girls to tell us stories of what it's like being a magical girl. (It gives us more time to reasonably think up questions instead of being a bizarrely sharp teen.)
It's kind of surprising that they didn't know Lena since magical girls are usually territorial. Maybe she was new here as a result of the wish and basically ended up as a witch right away?
The name grief seed is probably a key word since it hints at why Lena became a witch. We roughly know girls can become witches.
There seem to be 3 main paths and i'm not sure which one to pick.
Path A is the madoka route where we're a bystander watching all of this horribly fucked up shit happening till nearly the end.
Path B is us killing witches as a mercy kill but there was already a spinoff manga about that.

>>3599304
Path C is us trying to warn everyone about it while also not being burned for witchcraft since if he can grant any wish it stands to reason that he can probably do anything he grants on his own if he wanted to. Actually revealing him to the world would just get anything we said erased from everyone's head or something similar so that the experiment can go on depending upon whatever the hell the ethics of his species actually is.

>>3599308
>>3599304
When I say paths I mean ones I currently want to go with as a guideline for what I guess to be in character during a vote since the QM obviously has his own ideas.

>>3599308
>>3599304

[Spoiler] what about path d, wish Lena back to life and start a magical girl harem? We've reached the end of my notes, so at this point I'm winging it. Though if you do refuse you can be sure Kyubey will be there when things go downhill.[/spoiler]

>>3599304
Homura was an orphan and a total charity case to boot, so even if that theory was true Katya would be out of the picture in the 20XX setting of Madoka.

It's not really touched on in the source material (that I've watched, read, or recall) but it's somewhat debatable whether or not magical girls can even get pregnant as they are
essentially litches--undead. On one hand ol' QB might find those biological functions extraneous to their job but it could cause suffering on the other. Trying to get into incubator headspace is sort of fucked up.

>>3599356
messed up your spoilers
but I was sort of considering some sort of bring people back to life wish with Lena, her grandfather, and our parents as OOC it would probably give us some kind of broken power (e.g. Mami and Homu are strong and their wishes stem from this sort of thing).

>>3599356
I see no indication that she's a lesbian but if Uncle Stalin believably writes in actual gay feelings instead of /u/ I can run with it without any harems.
As for the rest, we already heard one example of a wish and it got twisted via ignoring the intention of the wish. We'd expect her to come back to life and die horribly right after, or come back as a witch, or there would be no guarantee against anything else.
>>3599385

I believe the idea came up when Sayaka found out about her actually being a lich, but I'd have to download the entire series again to find the scene. I THINK that was one of the many reasons the reveal hit her so hard since QB fucked her over 7 ways to sunday with her own wish. She got NTRed, even if she wasn't ntred she can't give birth, she's a literal moving corpse, it's debatable if she's even human, and QB had to be a dick and mock her for it.
Incubator headspace is alien/eldritch in nature since they are essentially fae. The world eldritch actually means elvish and elves were fae, so you can see the enemology in action here.
The motivation on the other hand is pretty simple. They're selfish and don't want to die when the universe ends or entropy hits since they're actually going to be around when it happens. Everything else is possibly concepts being lost in translation on both ends (aka if QB genuinely thinks it isn't lying because it never got the concept and is trying to properly speak alien gibberish from his perspective) or them outright lying.
Assuming the emotion thing is true; they also have no empathy. They figured out how to manipulate us but don't actually understand how the manipulation even works or our reactions to it. It's every QB for themselves but the anarchy is offset by being a hive mind, so they have the fact that they're all the same being to offset that instead of empathy.

Whatever rules they do have are unknown since we don't know if the contract business is a cultural taboo, they simply can't make one without us agreeing to it, or they noticed that the despair harvested is greater when the girls willingly became magical girls. I doubt we may ever find out unless they bring a new movie out where we get to see QB suffering in glorious detail.

>>3598965
>if my babushka stories are true I would rather take my chances with Hans than making a contract with you.

>>3599472
It's almost more unique to be a heterosexual girl in the madoka-verse. The only one that seems100% strait (in my recollection after Rebellion) is green hair. (Hitomi?)

>spoiler.
The anime proper doesn't really go into too much detail but I remember the PSP game gets a bit more in depth with their condition, but not exactly with what we were discussing at least with what I remember.

I probably might want to rewatch the series proper I don't think I've seen it since 2013. Plus there is all the spin off stuff. I've only consumed Madoka, Rebellion, Oriko, and tidbits from the translations of the PSP games.

>>3599304
I forgot Oriko is supposed to have white-ish, blond-ish hair. Which would suck if she is our descendant as Homu ices her every timeline after the abnormal one when she contracts.

>>3599536
A few of them could be suspect, but I also didn't see any of the /u/ pairings people talk about when I viewed it which makes me assume /u/ goggles were set to maximum. Homu managed to skip past /u/ into her own unique form of insanity. Anything made after /u/ latched onto the series is an entirely different story since they'd be clearly setting the bait on purpose by that pont.
It's been years and I STILL want to see the story behind that regular policeman dude that knows/suspects magical girls are real. Please tell me that he came back somehow. maybe in the gacha game?

i'd also like to take a moment to remind everyone that pissing off a supernatural creature of unfathomable power may not be the brightest idea from our perspective.

>>3598965
>tell him you’ll wait

>>3598965
There seems to be a madoka thread with actual discussion on /a/ atm . >>>/a/189737295
Another anon pointed out that QB chooses high karma targets, so the girls he targets would have always managed to do whatever mark they made on history in the first place.
This also means Mami would have probably survived the car crash and become an important person if QB hadn't shown up. it's amazing how many layers of his BS keep unravelling even to this day.

Keeping an eye on this, hope this does well Comrade. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other, and above all communicate. A two week long hiatus is fine but please let us know.

>>3599056
>>3599498
>>3598992
>>3599304

Throwing these three together now. I apologize for the delay, my afternoon work extension was more time consuming than I expected due to traffic.

>>3599385
Yeah, I noticed that right after I posted, I was on my phone. DESU I haven't used anything but greentext much at all before this thread, my bad, luckily nothing of value was actually lost.

>>3599536
>>3599472

Katya is not at the moment actually gay. Though if people really want her and it fits as the story goes it's not like she has a confirmed sexual orientation. Realistically speaking as a Slavic teenage female in German controlled Russia the only way she'd be left more vulnerable is if she were Jewish, but I'm always down for more suffering.

>>3600453
I'll try and keep an update schedule, I again apologize I was on late today. Work shenanigans. As a heads up it might be delayed tomorrow too. What platform do people prefer announcements for new threads on, besides obviously just hosting on /qst/?

I started to redownload Madoka since my ancient HD with it seems dead. First time rewatching it. It's absolutely amazing how quickly and often QB lies. I take back anything I said about concepts being lost I translation. QB knows exactly what he's doing. He got asked point blank the questions that needed to be asked and immediately lied his ass off for the entirety of his pitch and questioning.

QB can also read minds. I was panicking when i realized how screwed we were, but then I realized Homu's mind couldn't be read by him, so if we're lucky it only works when the target considers him friendly or some other factor.

>Fuck off Kyubei, if my babushka stories are true I would rather take my chances with Hans than making a contract with you.
>Ask the girls to tell us stories of what it's like being a magical girl. (It gives us more time to reasonably think up questions instead of being a bizarrely sharp teen.)
>tell him you’ll wait
>”Fox-er...Kyubei, this is a lot to take in. Frankly it would all sound ridiculous if I hadn’t seen today’s events with my own eyes. But of witches, if they’re real and that thing was a witch then...little Lena was a witch?! Why did she attack me and not just the Fascists? Why didn’t she just stay in her strange castle instead of here?”

”Fox-er...Kyubei,” you reply, your mind swirling for the new information the creature has offered. “This is a lot to take in. Frankly it would all sound ridiculous if I hadn’t seen today’s events with my own eyes. But of witches, if they’re real and that thing was a witch then...little Lena was a witch?! Why did she attack me and not just the Fascists? Why didn’t she just stay in her strange castle instead of here?”

The creature hesitates, its bushy tail waving behind it in irregular flicks *The creature you saw today was not the girl you just buried. A witch- the monster you saw today is a physical amalgamation of hurt and suffering. Magical girls like-*

Ilya laughs heartily, interrupting the incubator and casting an amused expression to her comrade “I’ve changed my mind about her Svetka. This girl might be worth keeping around, it’d be handy to have one of us who can think straight” she casts an annoyed look at the incubator, “why don’t you spare her your flowery language and lies incubator, the girl asked a question.”

*It’s not a lie* the creature protests in the same neutral conversational tone, *A witch is as different from a magical girl as you two are from regular humans*

You cross your arms and glare at the fox-beast, “I’ve heard enough stories from my Babushka about trickster foxes and forests spirits to know your words cannot be trusted. If even a small part of what she said was true, I’d sooner take my chances with the Germans, at least they’d shoot me in the front.”

“It’s better than the alternative.” Svetka suggests with quiet resignation.

“Svetka-” Ilya interrupts angrily.

>>3600758
“We’re all damned anyways.” Svetlana angrily rebukes. Shocking you as she loses her kind demeanor for the first time gesturing to the shattered buildings, her point punctuated by the distant thud of artillery and echos of far off machinegun fire. “Look around you Ilya, we’re already all damned by this war, what’s the loss in selling your soul for a few extra months?”

*Statistically speaking* the incubator begins. His point remains unfinished before Ilya interrupts, raising her sub machinegun and firing a quick burst, loudly interrupting the conversation mulching the creature into a bloodied mess.

“God in heaven.” the Germans exclaims, wincing at the shot and taking a panicked step backwards.

“You stay here,” the girl demands, her words lost in the language barrier, but her authoritative tone and angry glare making the point clear.

“Was that really worth the ammunition?” Svetka asks tiredly

“Yes.”

You stand alongside the soldier, the bloodied fox monster lying limply at your feet.

Ilya ignores your shock, unloading the magazine from her weapon and calmly working loose rounds gathered from her pocket back into the magazine, “If you’re willing to stay quiet and pull your weight, we can offer food and shelter,” she explains.

“Ilya-” her companion begins worriedly.

“The German won’t be given the same luxury,” the girl explains, “I’m not about to let a Facist into my own home and I won’t accept any protests.

>suggest a compromise
>accept
>decline

>>3590283
I thought Russians had regular surnames and gendered patronymics (and usually someone was referred to either their given name or given name followed by the Patronymic, and the surname would just be ignored).

>>3591535
IIRC, Stalin was also against the evacuation of Stalingrad as a way of motivating soldiers to fight harder. If they fail, then the citizens of Stalingrad get slaughtered by Nazis.

>>3600767
Ooh goodie. We're going with everything is so dreary and the future so bleak that the reveal doesn't even phase the two of them anymore.

>>3600767
Accept. We don't know how we're going to be able to use him after the initial raid idea that they refused and frankly we weren't going to keep him. Any debt we owe him for not being a complete monster is more than paid and none of his commanders will (probably) believe a word he says.

>>3600806
IIRC the Patronymic name is mostly used in formal circles and rarely for children, so it's not a huge deal as far as character introductions IMO. Were I not drunk when I posted the quest I probably would have pointed that out earlier, but eh, I quite like the name we've got.

>>3600767
>”That’s understandable. Although, dear Lord in Heaven I’ve had enough bloodshed for one day. If I can avoid anymore today, I would like to keep it that way.”
>”However, I don’t know how visible Lena’s actions were and it’s only a matter of time before the soldiers get done skirmishing. We have little time to gather up what supplies germans had and from Lena’s place. Doubly for me to ask Gunther here about the German’s positions and movements. Might I suggest we *all*get to work. Prioritize food, fire-making supplies, coats and blankets, then I guess what weapons and ammunition we can carry. ”

>Look around to see if there are pine trees around. Gather some needles and bark. Pine-needle tea isn’t going to solve your hunger but it’s better than nothing.

>>3600767
>Suggest a compromise
>The german will come with me on hunting trips. At least let us stay in your home until we can make a small wooden cot in the woods.

Let's make a happy family with Hans and Hans will work.

>>3600929
Hans is running the fuck away from any little girls in jewelry he sees from now on. He might have not heard anything QB said but he heard enough to think Ilya and Svetka could turn everything into a that witch's lair like earlier at any moment.

>>3601035
I don't think Gunther saw Lena. He was outside restraining us when the barrier dropped. He couldn't understand what we said either.

>>3601053
He'd understand us saying Lena was the witch, the two magical girls talking about selling your soul, and all three of us talking to some invisible fox spirit. His real problem is making the connection to jewelry instead of being terrified of every little girl he sees but that depends on how observant he is.

>>3601035
On the other hand, you haven't addressed the elephant in the room. Can he even speak Russian?

>>3601082
That's.. a good point. but he also saw magic in action when they healed us since he was healed first. He doesn't know what's going on, but he must realize that everything has gone batshit.

>>3601235
yeah I forgot he was semi-conscious when he got healed. I was going to bring up he was running the opposite way when we tried to talk to Lena but the flaming birds using peck attack or the puppet might have tipped him off.

>>3600897
>>3600815

>Accept.
> ask Gunther here about the German’s positions and movements. Loot Lena’s stuff

“Okay. That’s understandable” you grant the girl though you’re forced to pause after you spend a short few seconds mulling the statement over it over. You offer a look at the German, the man’s expression reflecting absolute bewilderment and no small amount of residual fear from behind his tattered and burned overcoat.. “I’ve had enough bloodshed for one day. If I can avoid anymore today, I would like to keep it that way.”

“Fine,” Ilya grants nonchalantly, if you’d like to let your pet facist run free down the streets I won’t stop you. She steps towards the man and slings her sub machinegun. “But I’m taking all of his shit.”

“Please,” the Soldier mutters in a quiet voice, a look of absolute terror in his expression as the girl steps forwards. He turns back to you, apparently just now realizing the girl probably is just as ignorant of his words as he is to hers. “Please- I am not a bad man.”

Ilya seems disinterested in his words, though her weapon remains slung her gloved fingers begin roughly tearing open the man’s pockets and bags. Most of what he has is useless, papers, some small amount of money, photos of home, though Ilya seems moderately pleased to find some cigarettes and a loaf of stale bread.

You decide you might as well use this opportunity to ingratiate yourself to your new comrades “Where did you come from, are there any other Germans nearby?” you ask the confused soldier in his native tongue.

“Not many of us are here-” the man admits easily, clearly still in a shocked state. “The city is a large place and we are comparatively few, our gun positions had not been resupplied,” he glances up the road with a nervous look, presumably towards where the German artillery is located, shaking his head sadly, “there is not much food left and everything is a mess.”

Ilya briefly stops searching through the man’s pockets. “You speak German?” she asks, perking up towards you with obvious interest.

“A little,” you admit, “I knew a German priest back in Belorussia, he used to teach me when I was a child.”

>>3601434
Deciding that the German has little to offer,you step back and look around, noticing that Svetka has crossed the street, turning your own attention towards her you notice familiar ground around you. Across the road from your position you spot the brick building you first encountered Evgeny and Lena in and trudge towards it, Svetka seems to notice too as you pass and follows shortly after.

Having already searched the majority of the building, you elect to head straight towards the basement. Stopping apprehensively at the top of the stairs over fear of what you might find after the horror and chaos that the basement seemed to cause, you take a deep breath before descending.

The first thing you notice are a series of bloody marks mon several of the stairs, streaking down as they were spread by a falling body. Evgeny himself is missing, presumably stolen away by whatever horror took the rest of you. You reflect somewhat sadly that you’ll be unable to bury him along with his granddaughter before soldiering on and collecting what useful items you can find among Lena and his hideout. Most of what they had doesn’t seem to be worth the effort of carrying it, but you do find several swaddles of blankets, several unlabeled tin cans along with the worn and dirty book he read to you and Lena from. You shove the items the old man’s backpack before turning back up the stairs and nodding to Svetka. The girl nods back and the two of you make your way out of the building back towards Ilya’s position

Ilya offers you a passive glance as the two of you return, taking a long drag on one of her stolen cigarettes.

“I wish you wouldn’t smoke,” Svetka mutters with a resigned sigh as the two of you approach.

Ilya ignores her comment, before picking a small pack up and slinging it over her shoulder “Now, if we’re done here, Let’s go. I’m tired of wandering the streets of this godforsaken shithole.” She grabs her sub machinegun’s sling and adjusts it on her opposite shoulder before turning around and walking away, apparently not interested in your actual response.

You quickly follow the girl and catch up to her while Svetka adopts a more steady pace behind you. “What about the German?” you ask, looking back at the man still standing dumbfounded on the street. "Won't he tell someone what happened?"

Ilya laughs, “They’ve got a hospital near the airfield full of madmen broken by this war. Who are they to tell that one story among the dozens is actually true.”

You cast a last somber glance back at the German before continuing on, the three of you trudging through the snow as the ruins dominate over you. As you pass a trio of shattered rowhouses, you spot a shape out of the corner of your eye and white shape steps out ahead of you amongst the rubble of the buildings, its red eyes glaring impassively at you and your two companions.

*I wish you wouldn’t do that Illiya, me and Ekaterina hadn’t finished our discussion.*

Apologies for the delayed response, I really should cut more nonsense prose out of these, also was making food.

Oh also

>what the fuck
>ask the creature a question
>tell it to fuck off
>sign away your eternal soul.

>>3601436
>what the fuck
>you can shrug that off, my God.

>>3601438
>Ah shit here we go again
>fuck off
Don't be a meguca ffs

>>3601460
we are sort of in a catch 22. A teenage girl at Stalingrad won't have a long life expectancy. Granted neither does a magical girl. We are sort of screwed either way.

>>3601438
>Going with a generic what the fuck response.
I had some possible counter arguments for her to say after, but the sheer audacity of his lies is so much that after I typed it I saw no point in doing so.
>Maybe ask it about witches. If we're hanging around them we might get stuck in another witch's den so we need to know how to survive it.

>>3601481
Katya is a strong independent woman that needs no powers to survive.

>>3601487
Become a magical girl and I'll tell you for free. The only price is your soul.

>>3601491
He's still trying to convince us and roughly knows we won't fall for that.

On episode 4 now and now I'm suspecting Sayaka's love interest was injured by a witch or QB. Mami's comment about witches causing traffic accidents is nowhere near as innocuous as it was the first time around when you realize QB was waiting there for her to make a contract after her traffic accident. This dude knows how to play a long game and that's probably why Homuhomu couldn't win until the last loop.

>>3601460
>>3601444
>>3601487


>what the fuck
>fuck off

Your eyes widen at the creatures reappearance, small bits of his blood still cling to Ilya’s shoulder. “What the fuck? You were in pieces- how did you survive that?”

Ilya doesn’t seem to grant the creature much attention, taking a drag on her near gone cigarette before flicking it towards the creature. “If that bastard could stay dead we never would’ve gotten us into this shit.”

“But-how?” you stammer out in confusion.

Kyubey seems to shake his head and turns towards Ilya, *that’s hardly a fair way to thank me for helping you get out of Sevastapol. Besides, I explained the contract to you beforehand, if anything you only have yourself to blame.*

“You explained nothing.”

“Let it go, Ilya,” Svetka mutters quietly, “you know how he gets arguing with him never gets anywhere.”

“So, what is the contract?” you ask, continuing to match pace through the deep snow with the other two girls.

Svetka offers you a smile and takes off her tattered ushanka. Beneath it, her brown hair is done up in an unkempt bun by a bright silver pin, resplendent with a green gem it seems conspicuously at odds with the girl’s war-worn appearance, or for that matter the city’s. She holds out her other hand and a faint green light appears in it. The gem in her hair disappears, replaced by a bright green egg sized jewel that lets off a green glow that’s occasionally interrupted as small swirls of darkness float about and obscure the light. “This is a soul gem,” the girl explains, “it comes as a product of our wish, and offers abilities and powers some would consider unnatural.”

You eye the bauble curiously before turning towards the creature. “And what does he get out of it?”

“Emotional energy or something,” the girl explains in an embarrassed tone. She idly closes her hand around the bauble and it vanishes, reappearing on her head before quickly being covered by the ushanka again. “It doesn’t really make any sense to me when he explains it. Apparently our emotions and fighting witches give him energy.”

You scowl at the foxlike creature calmly matching pace with your trio “so he’s a parasite?” you ask venomously.

*Hardly fair Ekaterina* the voice echoes in your head *A parasite takes from its host without offering anything in return. I offer one wish, near anything you desire. If anything my relationship with you humans is purely symbiotic*

“Then what are witches?” you ask, half to challenge the incubator’s denial at being a parasite and half because the idea of running into one fills you with dread.

*Witches are the amalgamation of human suffering made manifest, it’s the job of every magical girl to hunt and destroy them in order to keep them from praying on humans*

>>3601601
“God forbid, a witch kills someone in Stalingrad,” Ilya scoffs, “There’s be less people to kill each other.”

“But where do they come from?”

“Many places.” Svetka explains with a sad sigh, “many come from magical girls, their suffering and hate overcoming them and drawing them into a madness with no recovery. Others come from familiars, creatures made by witches and gorged on the suffering and death of man. Kyubey tells the truth though, the more we kill, the longer we keep ourselves from falling into the madness.”

*statistically speaking your current life expectancy is magnitudes longer if you make a contract with me* the creature helpfully explains

The girls offer no reply, but stop before a high-walled brick structure, charred and ruined, its original purpose is unclear amongst the damage its suffered during the battle. The girls take a moment to survey the streets before stepping into a gap in the ruined wall. Ilya trudges through the scattered rubble along the far end of the room before bending over and grabbing a piece of collapsed roof, lifting the piece with a groan of protesting steel to expose a basement staircase. Svetka steps in first and you follow, descending after her down the dull metal staircase.

You find yourself in a surprisingly well maintained shelter. While Its walls are plaster cracked brick, the same as much the rest of the city, colorful party propaganda posters coat the sides, adding some color to the dreary appearance. A wide bank of lockers carry a range of personal effects, ranging from cold weather clothes, to photos, and various military material, most of it German. Next to them, a small table stands with a fur hat placed gingerly atop it, several long extinguished candles flank the display and a simple cross pendant sits neatly lain before the scene. Perhaps the most welcome sights to you are the trio of beds along the far wall and the pair of red armchairs. All of the furniture is shabby and dirty but after your weeks of survival in Stalingrad, you honestly couldn’t care less about dirt..

Svetka is nowhere to be seen, though a faint flaming glow soon begins to emanate from the only passage leading out of the room.

With a groan of steel the impromptu door closes again and Ilya descends noisily, a look of tired relief on the girl’s features. She passes right by you and flops ungainly in one of the armchairs, glancing warily at the glowing passageway before pulling out her pack of cigarettes.

>talk to Ilya
>talk to Svetka
>talk to the incubator
>other

Holy fuck these exposition dumps take a long time to type up. Sorry, Papa Stalin needs to rest again, I shall return again tomorrow, hopefully a bit earlier next time

>>3601602
>Talk to Hans
Ask why he wants to let you go back then when you where captured.

>>3601602
>talk to Ilya

>Thank you for deciding to take with you. How can I help you two out? I'm handy with a gun, know how to find my way around the woods, I can cook and I know a little bit of how to treat wounds. And well you already know I speak a bit of German. I just don't want to make myself anymore of a burden.

>Also you don't need to talk about it if you don't want to but I'm sorry if you lost someone. It's just the three beds, the hat, and the cross. I'm so sorry. If you want to talk I'll listen and while I know it's not much I will pray for them.

>>3601602
Gonna assume the telepathy is translating the meaning of some of these words since we're a dumb kid with little to no schooling.
Nice to see the wish changed to nearly anything.
Madoka's final wish was apparently granted because she wasn't actually expected to survive it. She probably made the wish a few times before but only was powerful enough during the last episode from the repeated homu shenanigans.

>Talk to Illya
>Why us and not any girls off the street?

If the karma thing comes up and gets explained or we ask what karma is then;
>So in other words, we were to have done something important and probably didn't need him to live longer in the first place.

And supporting >>3601767
>who was in the third bed?
Not the same words i'd use but I'm not gonna get into semantics.

>>3601799
I'd prefer to not be saying some of the stuff in spoilers in front of QB and I'm sure he's either still watching anyway or reading minds. It would just be nice to not have him interrupting out thoughts with more lies.
Sorry for realizing that ultra late.

>>3601753
Hans is currently gone. Sorry, I realize that wasn't explicitly stated, but it was two votes for accepting Ilya's demand and one for asking her to allow Gunther to stay. Rest assured he is currently alive and far more likely than not to step in again.

>>3601799
Yeah, while Soviet education was actually pretty decent in the 30s, Katya is not the most well schooled girl. It can be assumed that she understand via telepathy or that the difference in narrative language versus in-universe spoken language makes it easier for her to understand whatever Kyubey is telling her.

>>3601799
>>3601767

>talk to Ilya
>How can I help you two out? I'm handy with a gun, know how to find my way around the
>I'm so sorry./who was in the third bed?

Ilya lights her cigarette before reaching behind herself and pulling her sub machinegun off of her shoulder. She casually knocks a pin out of the firearm and opens the weapon, rubbing a charcoal-stained rag over the weapon’s interior. After some time standing awkwardly you step forward and apprehensively claim the chair next to her, only allowing yourself to lean back with a contented sigh when the girl doesn’t offer any objection.

Now relaxed you allow you gaze and your thoughts to wander around the room. “Why does he choose us?” you ask quietly.

“You’re asking who qualifies for a contract?” the girl asks taking a long drag from her cigarette. “Who the fuck knows? I gave up trying to piece his logic together a long time ago. As far as I’m concerned it’s not worth trying to figure out. All I know is that he’s an asshole and his contracts just get people killed.

The comment causes your eyes to wander to the small shrine on the table, “I am sorry about your friend,” you add nodding towards it, “I know it’s not much, but if you want to talk I’ll listen and I will pray for them.”

Ilya pauses and seems to scrutinize you with a flat expression. “You have a way of pushing yourself into places you don’t belong,” she mutters in a cold tone.

“I’m sorry,” you weakly reply, caught off guard by her annoyance.

“Her name was Sanya and yes, she is dead.” the girl replies before casually resuming her weapons cleaning, “She was too kindhearted to strangers and too much of a bitch to her comrades but she stuck with us, which as far as I’m concerned counts for everything in this shithole of a city.”

“I’ll do my best to do what I can and stick with you.” you offer apologetically, she seems annoyed at the statement, but you continue, desperate to defend your value. “I'm handy with a gun and know how to find my way around the woods. I can cook too and I know a little bit of how to treat wounds. And well- you already know I speak a bit of German.”

Ilya pauses, glancing up at you from her work with confusion before laughing, in your opinion far harder and for far longer than it is warranted. “Yes, you’re good at everything, I’ll be sure to ask you whenever I need someone to show me around the woods.”

>>3603178

“Just don’t want to be a burden,” you quietly defend.

The girl sighs and slams her sub machinegun shut with a click. “Fine, you want to prove your worth?” She sets her weapon down and crosses the room, opening one of the lockers dramatically before fishing around in it, grabbing a series of different firearms out and setting them out along the wall next to you. “Next time we’re out you can keep the Labyrinth exit safe, eh? You can fight off any fascists who poke their nose in, just like one of the hero snipers” she offers with a crooked smile, apparently intending it to be a chastisement.

>take a look at the weapons
>apologize and refuse
>offer to help in another way

>>3603184
>Look at the weapons
>What's a labyrinth? (nobody ever actually explained that to us)
>Do bullets ever work on the things in there? The screams of those (insert random epithet for Nazi) sounded like they didn't, so I ran.(Homu's weapons all seem to be mundane, so theoretically there is enough artillery to actually fight back against witches other than walpurgisnacht present, but good luck actually bringing it there and shooting it.)
>I kept the kraut around so that there would be something else for those things to chase

(Random line that came to me which I should probably save for later. I just didn't wanna forget that I thought it up.) You two are it's servants, I am not. I can still escape him, but I need to understand how he works.

>>3603184
>Take a look at the weapons but talk while looking over them.
>Ilya I may be a simple girl, but I get what your playing at. There is no need to be cruel.
>The labyrinths appear at the whims of the witch, so i have no choice in my position like a comrade sniper or any good hunter. Furthermore, fascists travel in squads, so it's not a matter of killing one Hans but many. Soldiers react the opposite way of animals, you down one of them, you may scatter the half-hearted ones but the commanders will bring them back into the fight. Meaning if I attack one I will probably draw them to the labyrinth rather than away. I have no squad to back me up unless I burden you when you're the most vulnerable. I could try to draw them into it for the witch but that endangers me and you two. I'm not going to get lucky a second time with a Kraut to run off ahead of me to draw the witch's ire.
>And no Ilya I'm good at nothing here. There are no beast to hunt other here than men. We're in the city not the woods, and anything else I added i can merely do meagerly.

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>>3603338
>>3603430

You glance apprehensively at the pile of collected firearms, frowning at the girl’s words “Ilya I may be a simple peasant girl to you but there is no need to be cruel, Do those even work against those witches? I heard the Hitlerites doing a lot of shooting but never actually saw them kill anything.”

She looks slightly offended by your question, “of course they work. Why do you think I carry them around- for the bright flashes and the noise? Guns are guns Katya, you just need to know the right one to pick for the job and figure out how to use it.”

“And what is the right one to pick?” you ask, your ire slightly raised, “Which one is going to help a teenage girl kill an entire squad of trained and angry Germans while you’re off doing what you do? Which one will keep me safe from a witch plucking me again from the street and tossing me into a Labyrinth which is as far as I know I’m not even physically capable of escaping? I understand what you’re trying to say- ‘next time, if I don’t have you to save me or some stupid German to draw the attention of the nightmares, I’m dead.’ I understand- I am of no use to you.”

Ilya’s smug aura falls to reveal an expression of embarrassment and guilt. “I’m sorry,” she offers quietly, “That was over the line-” she opens up a second locker, grabbing a new set of firearms out of it and brightening slightly. “You are right Katya- A Labyrinth is a dangerous place.the personal hellish maze-world of the witch that calls it home,” she pulls out a long magazine fed-rifle, pulling the bolt back to look at the interior before placing it on the pile, “But that does not mean you are a dead woman as soon as you enter. You cannot escape and the witch will kill you- yes. But the familiars- the others beasts made to serve the Witch are not quite as tough, with a weapon, you can kill them.”

“Convincing speech,” you mutter dryly.

She shrugs and offers an innocent expression. “If you think about it, it’s not so different than Stalingrad, no? But the longer you survive, the more chance we have of finding and helping you.” She gestures towards the four new additions to her otherwise ramshackle pile of guns, “These four are old friends, well- three of them are, I keep and treasure the pistol because the man who carried it was an old friend himself.” She glances back towards the locker, “I could offer you a look at the rest, but an anti-tank rifle or a machinegun probably wouldn’t do you much good.”

>Take the magazine fed rifle, it’s different than your father’s gun and heavier, but it holds more rounds
>Take the sub-machinegun, it’s lighter and the firepower helps you on the move
>take the short bolt action. It’s just like your father’s Mosin (Katya will get a small bonus to shooting with it)
>Take the revolver, something small and easily concealed is more your style
>I’m sorry-what was that about an anti-tank rifle?!

>>3603497
Have some low quality artfaggotry.

Also yes. Ilya wears a Budenovka. Shut up, it makes sense and looks cool

>>3603497
I'm personally leaning towards the sub machinegun or the bolt action while going a bit more towards the bolt action. Is the bolt action somehow lighter than the sub machinegun? I imagine the ammo might weigh us down

Are things at the point where us walking the street with a machinegun isn't considered unusual yet? The good news is that Soviet soldiers having less than one man per gun is a myth and they actually had so many that the germans started adopting them from all of the leftovers they picked up.
I'm leaning towards bolt action since it lets us "pretend" we were going to go hunting and wont be stolen by any gangs or/of soldiers that decide they want a better weapon like the better ones might.
>Ask Illya if it is better to aim for one spot or to hurt it with many bullets. Our father used to take us hunting, so if you can teach me where to shoot, I can hit them.
Trying to puzzle out what our Karmic destiny/weight that has QB all over us is pretty fun. Given our inquisitive nature I'm guessing that it's related to science/literature. Maybe the Russians were even supposed to win the space race thanks to us? Maybe it's an Anne Frank's diary situation where the world at large learns about QB's shit and he can't cover it up because our technology advanced too much? Did The iron Man learn about meguka and the cold war became hot via weaponized wishes? I doubt QB even knows.

>>3603497
I’ve been mulling back and forth between the bolt action and the magazine fed model. Just having a had time coming up with some “this one I know but I recognize how useful this one could be”type of dialogue.

>>3603646
The MP 41 and M38 are, including relevant ammunition, roughly the same weight.

>>3603646
Alternatively, like Mami, it's possible that your potential hinges on you contracting

>>3603497
>Take the short bolt action. It’s just like your father’s Mosin

>>3603654
You're immediately drawn to the Mosin Nagant, the short rifle feels unfamiliarity light compared to your father's weapon, but the wood finish and steel bolt is comfortably familiar and brings you back to images of happier times in the Belorussian woods. You pull the bolt back experimentally before your eyes are drawn are drawn instead. To the magazine fed rifle, replacing the Mosin with it, the new weapon feels much heavier than the bolt action.

Svetka lets out a disturbingly gleeful giggle, "I'm sure Svetka will be delighted to see that thing again," she says in obvious sarcasm.

You apprehensively study the rifle, you're not familiar enough with modern firearms to understand her giggling, but it seems normal enough. "Why? What's wrong with it?" you ask eventually giving up.

"Nothing," she says more seriously, "It used to be a favorite of mine. Svetka just got upset. Apparently 'I spent more time reloading than helping her fight'"

"Is it difficult to reload?"

"No, no easier than a Mosin and holds more ammunition, but it uses up ammunition very quickly when you fire it in fully automatic and I may have gotten a bit carried away with it," she admits before offering a shrug. "For a normal girl like you though, the weapon would be useless in anything but single shot anyways."

>Take the AVT-40
>Take the M38
>Take the Revolver
>Take the Sub Machinegun
>Ask her if she has anything else more suited for you.

>>3603689
While that probably enhances her a little,I think that the trauma of that crash was supposed to make her a doctor or philanthropist when she grows up if it wasn't setup by QB.

If it was due to her being the only magical girl in town buffing her potential that feels a bit too paradoxical to get setup simply because Urobutcher didn't think too deeply on this series. Not as strongly as madoka's exponential growth, but if simply being the only protector around meant something then:
magical girls potential would get stronger from how often they were going to be killing familiars.

The same probably applies to their total witch count, making it either a self feeding loop or an arbitrary number since the stronger they are the more witches they naturally killed and vice versa.

Sayaka wouldn't have been a scrublord tier MG
Homura's time shenanigans would have weakened Mami from all the witches she's been sniping in the background. (Plausible since Mami only survived till the end in the first timeline. Implausible because her training every main magical girl in the series (or at least that one time with Homu and training Madoka in the OG timeline) should have let her piggyback on Madoka's growth cheat for massive gains in a similar way to how Homu's doing the time loops also racked up enough Karma to make her an absurdly powerful witch. She saved everyone by saving Madoka or at least setting it into motion, so that balance nonsense means her witch would have to be strong enough to kill everyone.)




I also noticed a random loophole in QB's explanation of her zombie status to Sayaka since he said the soul gem makes it EASIER to use magic, not that it makes it possible. Then I ended up looking that up online and discovered that Madoka had been using magic without a soul gem at several points in the series.
Eg when she was breaking open that window the window broke before the chair actually hit it. She was leaking magic like crazy before even making the wish at the end too.

>>3604388
>>Take the AVT-40
Do as the rest of the red army did and ignore that’s capable of automatic fire.

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>>3603930
>>3603646

You shake your head, preferring the familiar feeling of the bolt action “That all seems a bit complicated for me, my father taught me to shoot on a rifle just like this.”

You hear a laugh from behind you, “Hear that Ilya? Even little Katya thinks that rifle is a piece of junk.” Svetka stands, holding a pair of small soup-filled bowls, a teasing look on her face. The expression fades when Ilya turns to confront her with an angry glare, “I thought I told you no smoking inside.”

“It’s not a piece of junk-” Ilya protests offendedly, ignoring the rebuke “it shoots straight and in a witch’s Labyrinth the extra rounds and rate of fire count for everything”

“Sure, as long as you don’t fire it in full auto at everything that moves like an American gunslinger,” she turns to you and offers one of the bowls. Inside is a thin broth of beet and unidentifiable meet.

You accept the stew hesitantly, the sight of a real warm meal, even a cobbled together one is a luxury you haven’t seen in some time. The taste is heavily, despite the tough meat and sour beets. “Thank you,” you mutter graciously.

Ilya, seeing the sight of the soup quickly turns and leaves the room for her own, leaving her firearms scattered on the concrete floor and leaning against the walls.

“We won’t ask you to fight for us.” Svetka quietly offers as soon as the other girl is gone, “Ilya does not say these things to be mean. The world outside the basement- you know it is a dangerous place and even in civilian times the life of a magical girl is short. Ilya does not want to see you die for nothing. She is not quite the cold and invulnerable girl she wants you to think she is.”

You take an awkward and quiet bite of soup. It is still delicious, despite the heavy tone of the conversation.

“Anyway, if you’re staying with us, might as well be friends eh? Get to know each other” she says, brightening noticeably, “So miss Katya, if you have any questions about me or our home I’d be happy to answer them, otherwise, let us take a moment to appreciate new friendships,” she swings open a locker and rummages through it, bringing out a mostly full bottle of vodka, “to friendship!”

>Ask a question
>get drunk and exchange silly stories.
>getting drunk is not for me

>>3604553
That's probably true. I will say that Katya may not necessarily survive just because she has "potential" though, it kind of cheapens the low life expectancy she's almost guaranteed to have.

>>3606291
I figured that would be offset by the fact that QB is a bastard that would be more than willing to set her up.
It's more like she/they HAD a life expectancy, but a goddamn eldritch horror has set it's attention on them..

>>3606274
>Drink once and exchange silly stories.
>"I would love to drink more but I do not want to wake up and realize I've made a deal I will regret in the morning" *Glances at QB

>>3606350
I will return tomorrow, was waiting for more votes but stuff came up. Luckily I should be able to spend all day questing then.

>>3606274
>get drunk and exchange silly stories.

>>3606274
>Get drunk and exchange silly stories
>My aunt was so mad because Germans bombed her home. So she sold all her possession and bought a tank to get revenge to the krauts. I wonder how is aunt today...

Since we're clearly getting drunk. Ask them to knock us out if we're about to do something stupid like make a contract.

>>3607351
>>3606911
>>3606681
“If I try and do anything stupid like accepting that bastard’s contract, knock me out,” You dourly mutter before taking the bottle of vodka and taking a healthy swig. The vodka is not well made and burns on the way down, causing you to cough violently.

Svetka laughs and takes a drink of her own, collapsing into one of the red chairs. Before you know it Ilya has joined you and the bottle of vodka begins to steadily drain as the evening goes on.

“Did I ever tell you-” Ilya slurs, pushing the nearly empty bottle your way, with a drunken grin “about the time with Svetka and the artillery.”

Svetka reddens noticeably at this.

“So, we were tracking a witch right?” she begins excitedly, “over near the factories some few months ago- the thing was a fast bitch, so we decided to split up to corner it. I go my way and chase it to some warehouses. Svetka goes the other way, closer to the front. Well it turns out, the Germans were closer than she thought and our own guns started firing just near where she was, she got caught right in the middle of it- big guns too, bigger than usual. They didn’t get her obviously but one round landed pretty close to her feet, knocking her back and shredding pretty much everything she had on.”

You laugh and take a swig of alcohol, leaning in closer for the story. Svetka seems to be attempting to make herself look as small as possible while Ilya seems to get even more enthused in telling the story.

“So there she is, naked, confused, and in the middle of the city. So she just runs for it. All the way back home, past the entire German army. Can you imagine the looks on their faces?” the girl asks excitedly, elbowing the mortified Svetka, “stuck in a place like this, haven’t seen a real girl for months when all of the sudden a naked girl comes sprinting from the frontline right past them.”

>>3607764
You giggle drunkenly, “How long did she run?”

“A few kilometers,” Ilya mutters enthusiastically before standing up and taking a drink of vodka, stumbling towards the lockers, rooting around in it before returning and dropping a map in your lap. “All the way from here to here,” she mutters as she shows the distance, “halfway across the fucking city, when she got back, I asked why she didn’t just call her costume up.”

You laugh again, mind swirling with alcohol and smile as a story of your own comes to mind. “I had an aunt-” you begin, “My father’s sister, we fled east to live with her early on in the war. She had a farmhouse her husband built. It was a beautiful house, I have no idea how she held onto it.” You take a drink and cough back the burning before continuing, “She loved the house so much, when the fighting reached it and me and my mother left, she refused to go with us- until the Germans evicted her.”

“They kicked your aunt out of her house?” Svetka mutters with drunk sadness.

“They blew it up,” you laugh, “Auntie pulled through everything she could recover and anything we had of value and once we reached Kiev she stopped by the tank factory, dropped a briefcase of jewelry and china on the manager’s desk and asked to buy a tank.”

“Did they give it to her?” Ilya asks excitedly

You shake your head, “I never stayed long enough to find out but she said the local party officials were on her side and that it was only a matter of time before she got it.” you take another drink and reflect, “Sometimes I wonder if she ever got her tank.”

“Maybe she is out there now?” Svetka suggests, “Crushing some facist’s house.”

You laugh and the conversation begins to die as the three of you all have your own drunk musings.

“You know Katya,” Svetka quietly mutters, “Have you ever thought about what your wish would be? I know you don’t want to and that’s good- But if everything goes to even more shit and you have to it might be a good idea to think of one.”

>Drunkenly scoff her away
>”If I ever get into that situation, you both are probably dead, so I’d probably use it for you guys.”
>”I just want to see Germany burn”
>”I want to get out of this city”
>”I want to see my family again”
>”more vodka”

File: map.jpg (159 KB, 638x527)

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Have a map!

>>3607770
“I have some ideas in mind. I just want to avoid getting a certain things attention.”

green girl was Lena wasn’t it?

>>3607770
I don't know. I'm a greedy girl. I want many things. I want my mother and father back, Hitler to take up a gun and blow his own head off, a Russia that lives up to it's ideal instead of crushing the proletariat once more, to go to the places I have heard about that I always wanted see,maybe even some more vodka.
But I have heard from you two how that seems to go.
My parents would have nothing but sorrow for their daughter who can never live long enough to become a woman, Germany would find a way to replace him with a bigger fool, the classes would be equal again as we are stomped under german boots, I would be struck with blindness, and the bottle would refuse to open.
(feels too eloquent. This clearly needs drunken slurring. I figure that we've heard two wishes so far. One was to get out of the city which just led them to someplace just as bad. The other was the end the war wish that is implied to have been one that was actually made.)

>>3607890
I was going to play coy, but it seems obvious enough that I can just straight up tell you 'yes'

>>3607907


You tip the empty bottle of vodka over sadly, “Maybe some more vodka?”

Ilya laughs, Svetka doesn’t, her frown deepening. “I am serious Katya.” she says sternly, “A wish isn’t something you should make up on the spot.”

You sigh, “I have some ideas in mind. I just want to avoid getting a certain things attention.”

"He's determined like that," Svetka mutters with a sigh, before smiling coyly "but it's not like he's holding you at gunpoint, surely you have some ideas?"

“I don’t know Svetka, I want a lot of things,” you slur sadly, putting the bottle of Vodka down. “I want my mother and father back, the bastard Adolph to blow his own head off, or a Russia that isn’t a corrupt shithole. But then, I lose my parents to witches or the Nazis again, someone more idiotic would replace Hitler, and Russia would lose to the Nazis.” you pause and sigh before glancing back at the bottle of vodka. “And then I would simply run out of vodka again.”

The room goes quiet for a long time, your two companions mulling over you thoughts.

Annoyingly, neither of your companions seem to be stuck with a hangover, despite your own pounding headache and dry cottony mouth you awaken to the pair of them readying themselves for some sort of expedition. Ilya loads ammunition into her extra drum magazines and Svetka seems to be loading up on food and water.

You blink the dim light out of your eyes as you stir with a groan.

“Ah, you’re awake.” Svetka greets cheerily, hoisting her pack of supplies up. “Me and Ilya are preparing to go out on supply runs. The artillery sounds like it’s particularly light today, so it seemed like a good opportunity.”

“Stay put and I’ll be back in and I’ll be back before you know it,” Ilya mutters, slamming home the magazine on her submachine gun. “Though Svetka might take longer, she is usually pretty slow.”

>agree to remain put
‘>go with one girl or the other
>suggest going together


Apologies for late quest update, had a bit of a heated debate with my roomates and ended up leaving for a day. rest assured updates should continue as normal now.

>>3613146
>go with one girl or the other

>>3613146
>suggest going together
We cover less ground, but there’s safety in numbers, especially on a battlefield.

Would be a little better argument if we had four girls to split two and two.

>>3613146
>Am I to be a housemaiden eagerly awaiting your return or am I to make sure noone else sneaks in?
(I figure that they might normally only have one go out at a time so that nobody raids their supplies. Rather than fight their decisions at every turn we should try and understand them instead.)

Did we have anything of note in wherever it was we used to sleep before the quest started? Maybe we should mention that and/or ask if we can pickup whatever we have left before somebody scavenges it. Same might go for any snares we have set for fresh meat if the local wildlife hasn't been devastated?

What do you guys think about us making a journal diary?

>>3613626
You've already scavenged the area you slept in and taken what you can.

>agree to remain put

>agree to remain put

You cross your arms and offer an upset grimace, “Fine.” you mutter, “Am I to be a housemaiden eagerly awaiting your return or am I to make sure no one else sneaks in?”

Ilya seems taken aback by your tone, “No- look. It’s safer here. Between witches, the German Army, and the constant artillery I don’t know how you’ve even been able to make it this long.”

“I’m more resourceful than you give me credit for.” you retort.

“She knows Katya,” Svetka interjects, “She’s just looking out for your safety, besides, we’ll be back shortly, besides, it’ll be reassuring to have someone watch our camp while we’re gone.”

“Fine,” you relent, “I’ll stay and hold the fort.”

“Thanks Katya,” Svetka offers with a smile, “we’ll be right back.”

The two girls depart from their hidden entrance, leaving you alone. Soon after their departure you realize that the relative safety and loneliness combine to offer something you’ve been unable to feel for some time- boredom. You have no ability to keep track of time, but spend what seems like near an hour poking through their small two room shelter. Wandering into the second room that Svetka disappeared to on your first day reveals it to be a small storeroom with a stove. Though most of the shelves lay bare except for a small amount of canned food and a trio of ominous silver and black baubles that leave you feeling on edge, you pick one up to inspect it when a familiar voice cuts in.

*Good morning Ekaterina*

“I’m still not interested.” you angrily offer, “there is little you can say to change my mind.”

*You of course have expressed as much* the incubator offers in his emotionless voice, betraying his annoyance with a quick flick of his tail *I will however continue to wait until circumstances make the situation more alluring to you.*

You prepare an angry comment when you hear something. Channeled through the rusted steel pipes of the storeroom's ceiling is the unmistakable grind of a tank’s tracks, steadily growing louder.

“What’s this?” you ask casting an accusatory glare at the fox-beast.

*I’m not sure* he replies, casting his red eyed look at the pipe’s channeling the noise, *the city is at war Katya, it’s hardly surprising to hear it from here.*

>threaten the incubator
>hold fast, there’s no way they can hear you
>attempt to hide
>leave

>>3615830
My whole equal under german boots was more to imply that the equality would be equal opportunity oppression/death but what you said works too.
I also wasn't being that accusatory with the housemaiden comment but it's good that Katua has her own personality that peeks through.
This probably isn't the first time something like this has happened. As long as they aren't clearing rubble despite the war still going on we should be fine.
>Grab a weapon just in case, hide any food/drinks that are out in the open (might attract looting soldiers if they spy any), and hide under whatever the hell we think is sturdiest.
If QB is gonna try to pull a Mami on us I'm totally calling his bluff. We're useless to him dead so it's in it's best interest to keep us alive.

>>3615944
Addendum: We are prepared to defend the shelter if we can get away with it. We just don't know what type of soldiers are there which makes how we defend the base a variable. Russian soldiers should be somewhat friendly and back off if they see us. Germans are not so likely.

>>3615830

>>3615944
>>3615950
>Seconding defending the shelter.
>Since were in the basement look for a metal rod or a rifle to try to bar the cellar door shut.
>look for movable cover, move into place, and grab extra rifles and ammunition. Try to set up an ambush position in the back storeroom using the hallway and any cover to funnel the troops movements.

>>3616004
Keep in mind that the "door" to the stairs is a piece of fallen piece of roofing but you can try to barricade the passage into the room proper with the lockers or various furniture. .

>>3616004
They have a tank. They could just aim it at us if we start a prolonged firefight.

>>3615830
>hold fast, there’s no way they can hear you

>>3616048
I was thinking that being underground, the tank would be less than useful. However, the gunner try to kill us along with his infantry, but that strikes me as a bit desperate for professional soldiers.

I'm just trying to buy time for the other girls to get back or the soldiers to make enough racket to attract the other side.

>>3616122
We're trapped in there with no exit. If a firefight starts all they have to do is walk away, aim a tank round (if they don't just chuck a grenade at us), and then move on. Honestly being found at all is less than ideal, but if the Nazis never found them before, I don't see why they should find us now. We're just prepping incase somebody actually does and hoping we can scare them off if they aren't friendly.

>>3616131
Yeah I thought of that right after posting. Overall I agree.

File: map2.jpg (160 KB, 638x527)

160 KB JPG

>>3616004
>>3615950

>barricade the door

You ignore his back talk and take action, moving into the main you look for something to barricade the base of the stairs, you take a moment before settling on the lockers, tossing them in front of the entranceway as best you can to make a barrier. You make your way down the line, pushing each one into position before settling on the last, Ilya’s locker of guns. Opening it, you pull out the Mosin Nagant and several clips of ammo before making your way through to the back of the storehouse, sitting behind the shelves and aiming the rifle.

The rumbling of the tank seems nearly on top of you when it stops and several voices begin indistinctly barking orders. The minutes seem to tick onwards, your breathing growing heavy.

The hidden entrance opens with a grinding sound as someone pulls the impromptu covering from its place. The sound of boots down stairways echoes through the brick walls.

“Unteroffizier, someone has barricaded the door.” a voice sounds out.

“Use a hand grenade.” comes an angry reply.

Eyes widening in alarm you brace yourself for the explosion, pushing yourself in the corner until the deafening sound and shockwave of explosives detonating in a closed area rocks the storeroom.

“Push down, clear the room.” comes the second voice in an authoritative tone. In response, the boots begin to shuffle again.

>fight the Germans, it isn’t the first time you’ve killed something with a rifle such as this. (roll 1d20 needing to beat 1d10+3)
>surrender
>attempt to bluff/persuade (write in and roll a D20, variable difficulty depending on your bluff)
>other

>>3615944
Apologies for that, I'll try and ask for clarifications in the future if I'm unsure on intent.

Also, left off your currently location on the map, it's labeled as "home"

Sadly we didn’t ask Ilya where she had that anti-tank rifle stashed.

This is a bit of a tough one. They might stop caring if they realize all they're doing is raiding the house of a bunch of little girls but that's a long shot and hard to imagine a reason for them to leave us alone.
Either way, i gotta go get food, so I hope things stop being as dire.

>>3616160
It's fine, the Germans shouldn't be a problem
Just make a contract!t

>>3616199
I should say, not telling y'all to contract. Again, I don't really give a shit what decisions you make.

>>3616139
OK. Plan A is just survive long enough to get healed. As long as we don't die everything can work out.
>Shout "What brave soldiers you are to bring tanks to face a little girl!" Have you grown bored of slaughtering the elderly?
>Hope they manage to take us alive or at least don't personally finish us off when we fight back.
I know I shouldn't taunt them, but I see no in character way to open our mouths if we didn't scream at having a grenade go off next to us.

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>3616287
>>3616139
I just realized that might count as a bluff/persuasion.
If the dialogue calls for it I'll also do a bluff/act where it looks like we think they're here to rob us for food and we tell them to go away because they already blew up the little food we had. It seems like an easy thing to pretend.

>>3616301
We could also ask them in German about Gunther and saying we saved him from “artillery”. If we are lucky someone in this squad might know him.

>>3616317
Yes. Let ourselves be connected to the raving madman talking about witches and magic when the rest of his squad left no trace of their bodies and his uniform doesn't match the lack of damage on his body despite clearly being his actual uniform. That won't attract the attention of Hitler the occult lunatic and his supernatural research division.

>>3616326
he hit his head in the explosion and we assumed it was all a hallucination. The fire was clearly from some type of incendiary bomb right? His clothes had caught on fire, but we put out the fire before it got too bad.

It's better than dying in a shoot out.

two magical girls get raided one right after another and these Germans knew exactly where we were. How much do you bet QB is feeding them information some how to make maximum suffering and more mg's

>>3616349
He had burn wounds.
They might overlook it normally, but attracting attention to him is just pushing luck from a meta perspective. Anyone who actually stops to take a moment to observe his story is going to notice something strange if a city packed with magical girls hasn't also caused a bunch of weird incidents before.

From an in character perspective we don't actually like him that much nor want to be known as a traitor that randomly decided to save some random Nazi. They might not even believe us since we could just be spouting out a random German name.

>>3616287
>>3616317

>I'm not even bothering to roll that d10

You grit your teeth at the incoming Germans "What brave soldiers you are to bring tanks to face a little girl! Have you grown bored of slaughtering the elderly?” you shout attempting to use your bravado to shame the incoming Germans, clutching your rifle close. Your heart races in your chest and your breathing goes heavy.

The noises die down and the soldiers seem paused by your announcement. The hesitation is only temporary though, soon footsteps approach and a figure rounds the corner. Were it not for the language and circumstance you’d not have recognized him as a German soldier. Unlike Gunther and all of the other soldiers you’ve seen crouching in the ruins this man’s uniform is entirely black save for dull red trim on the collar and the eagle on his side cap. Instead of the worn rifles that many of the German soldiers carry he seems to hold only a small handgun, which he begins to holster.

You glance apprehensively at the pistol still in its holster. “I have no quarrel with you, I just want to escape with my life. There was a soldier- his name was Gunther, he can vouch for me. I saved him from-” you hesitate briefly searching for a rational explanation. “-an incendiary bombing, surely he can be at a field hospital and-:

“Captain someone is here.” he interrupts, eyeing you with apprehensive confusion.

You hear a bitter curse in response and an angry series of comments you can’t decipher from the top of the stairs. “Who is it?” a female voice calls out, heavily accented in a manner you can’t place.

“A girl captain,” the man at the door replies, his look of confusion seeming to deepen. He blinks several times and gasps as if a sudden pain.

The voice goes quiet for a second, “did she say anything?”

“Only that she does not wish to die,” the man replies his face twitching slightly in a grimace.

“You’re not needed anymore, I’ll talk to her myself.” the voice responds and you can hear the sound of light footsteps descending from the steps.

The man snaps to attention and reaches for his handgun. You raise the Mosin to respond, but he is faster, placing the handgun underneath his chin and pulling the trigger. The sound of the gunshot echoes through the storeroom, followed shortly thereafter by a series of similar sounds in the room beyond.

>what do?

>>3616416
I'm pretty sure we need to take a moment to pause out of sheer what the fuck since we aren't used to magic yet.
>Who are you?

>>3616416

Seconding >>3616444

>>3616444
>>3618433
>Who are you?

You freeze, a shocked gasp frozen in your mouth and the sight of the dead man’s apparant suicide and push yourself back into the storeroom corner, the rifle clutching shakily in your hands. Footsteps approach and the voice reveals itself.

It’s a girl obviously, older than yourself by a year or two and clad in several pieces of war clothing obviously pilfered from German soldiers. If the circumstances of your introduction and the dull red gem on her hair weren’t enough, the incubator sitting on her shoulder with its tail twitching makes the fact that she’s a magical girl painfully obvious. She kicks the body hard as she rounds the entranceway, spitting angrily at the corpse and letting out a bitter curse.

The German dealt with, she regards you intently for a second before turning to the Incubator and asking him a series of obviously frustrated questions in a language you can’t understand. Though even if you did know what the girl was saying Kyubey’s responses go unheard, communicated privately to the unknown girl.

You push yourself back into the corner further holding your gun with a white knuckled deathgrip

Finally she turns back to you, “You speak German.” she asks in German, her voice heavily accented and her tone conveying it more as a statement than a question.

“Yes.” you answer in German with a quiet nod, “Who- who are you?”

She appears vaguely taken aback by your question, scowling before her features slacken back into a passive glare, “Roksana” she answers. “I don’t know you,” she mutters before glaring angrily at the incubator. “I was told there would be no one here.”

*I told you the magical girls who lived here were gone, unfortunately Ekaterina here has yet to make a contract with me.*

Roksana grunts in frustration. “Fine.” she acknowledges before turning to you, “Ekaterina, I’m looking for grief seeds, small black baubles about the size of a marble. Where are they?”

>tell her
>don’t tell her
>sell your eternal soul

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>3619958
>If it's something valuable and tiny that you would steal, why would they not have them in their pockets instead of leaving them here for you to steal?
>You should work on your manners. Nazis are not an appropriate gift when visiting and I think they blew up the vodka. (Channel our grandmother here. She might be off put by it enough to actually go along with us acting like a fussy granny over hospitality.) If there's a box or anything intact, the vodka survived, or a light snack for a "feast" we might be able to stall for them to get back and/or get information from her.

Rolling dice since I'm assuming this counts as a major bluff.

>>3620051
And we can loot the now dead Nazis for food rations if they have any for the meal. I just hope we don't mistake the meth stashes they gave to soldiers for bouillon cubes or something.

>>3619958
>”I’m just a guest here, so nothing here is really mine. Your gem is pretty dark so I will bring you one but you have to promise to help pay my roommates back...and help me clean up this mess.”
>Bring her one of the gems and don’t tell her about the others.
>”Most people just call me Katya. It’s a pleasure to meet you Roksana. Has anyone told you that you know how to make an entrance. Something is bothering me.”
>Kyubey what do you mean by the girls are gone? Did you just neglect to mention they are coming back or is Ilya or Svedka in trouble.”

Having the new girl witch-out on top of us would go pretty poorly and her power is pretty bullshit so I want to be friendly here.

>>3620144
I was gonna imply to the girl that QB might be trying to make me wish she were gone in order to get a contract if she starts acting aggressive, but that wouldn't be until the next voting round. QB did just admit to telling her about this place so it's not hard to spi it that way when it's probably true.
And how nice of QB to pretend ignorance after sending people after us. I'm starting to think he doesn't care about pretending to always tell the truth because we are just that nice of a haul.

>>3620161
[spoilers] Kyubey in Stalingrad has a lot less to loose by appearing deceitful and screwing people over than Kyubey in a first world country.[/spoiler]

Comrade Stalin is bad at state secrets.

>>3620209
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tamarisk
>Soviet troops were not issued toilet paper in the field. This led them to use official documents as toilet paper. The US, UK and France then used their spies to retrieve the documents as the paper was not soluble and was put into bins.

>>3620161
I think that’s a given. Heck yesterday I proposed QB sent the Germans after Lena. QB is probably moving a lot of things behind the scenes to generate as much suffering as possible. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had girls on both sides shaping the war with their wishes. I wanted to bring that up but there is no reason to make a poor impression with this girl.

This is the red girl on the map. The others found her crazy. However, I’m not certain how crazy she is; this could all be a language barrier. The two girls show up in Roksana’s territory and she can’t speak Russian. The encounter would obviously go poorly. She probably speaks Polish judging by the name. I don’t know how strange polish sounds to a native Russian speaker, so she might speak Yiddish as well. Would explain her acting crazy. If she’s Jewish she’s really between a rock and a hard place.

>>3620188
Well obviously, there was a good reason behind all those purges.

>>3620237
Maybe I should rephrase.
Her worry is that she's about to become a witch (we don't actually know this since we never got an explanation from the girls about any mechanics so the visual cue means nothing)
So QB sends her directly to threaten/scare the next person in line to become a magical girl that hunts witches.

2+2 together would make her realize she needs to GTFO of here or at least not attack us. We might even manage to start that book up with an entry from her. (Been leaning towards us making a journal about all of this and that being the source of our Karmic whatever. By witches becoming known we end up saving a bunch of lives after our death)

>>3620144
>>3620051

Could I get a vote between these two? helping her versus bluffing her.

>>3620257
Also yes, this is the first time "grief seed" has been mentioned to Katya, but she has heard witches drop "seeds" the life cycle and magic of it all is a mystery to her. I can work with what's been posted though to try and make it un-meta

>>3620280
If I were to capitulate i'd try to convince her that we'll ask the others if they're willing to part with one of whatever those things are when they get back and point out what QB just did. Maybe ask if she wants them to be there in the end before she hurts anyone.

>>3620257
I understood I was just proposing QB is probably working on both a Macro (the entire war) and a Micro (sending this girl after us) scale.

>>3620280
I was working from the idea that Katya is a perceptive and inquisitive girl despite her lack of formal education and is putting the pieces together as she goes. We know IC magical girls become witches. Magical girls have gems. Those gems look shiny. Svedka’s had dark streaks before she went into the storeroom and probably didn’t after she came out. This girl’s gem is dark. Plus it doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to realize dark = bad.