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You are bigguca, bigger than leguca, bigger than miguca, and than liguca too. The biggest. Widest. Longest. Guca.
On a Saturday night you kill Witches, Friday afternoon you bring in bitches, come Monday you shine the Law of Cycles with spit so no one disses. When it gets boring you watch Homura, when Homura gets boring you mess with Mami's tea. Tuesday, you watch the stars.

But today? You are just another cupid.
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Previous thread:
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2023/5685111/

Warning:
Madoka Magica spoilers. Do NOT read any of this if you haven't watched the original anime series. If little girls in frilly suits shooting pink lasers give you cringe, fucking swallow it and watch it anyway.

INTRO (don’t skip this)

◕ Meguca Royale follows Hugo 'Hugh Laurie' Lautaro, a mexican man resembling Dr. House who attained the power to turn real persons into cute 2D anime girls after Batman himself tried to fuck his armpit, stating: "I will fuck your armpit. I am the night". Constantly facing moral dilemmas as to how to use his power for good, Hugo fights the secret organization 'Microsoft' and its kryptonite-powered android grandmothers. With the help of Mr. Rabbit, a rabbit in a little suit who bankrupts companies through crypto schemes, and your mother, he will save the world.

◕ The update format this quest will follow is ‘sporadic, retardedly huge multiple gigaposts’. This has been proven by time. Despite capitalism, this quest will not follow a fixed schedule. Yet, If any of my players are late to the party and can’t post on time I’ll make room. I swear that this time I'll try for smaller updates for real.

◕ 'Nigga it has been almost A YEAR, a aint reading all dat shit':
-Five Magical Girls,
Emma, who is nice and has panic attacks,
Rita, who is very funny but seclusive,
Jimena, who hardly ever gives a fuck,
Erika, who is Mengele dressed like Hitler,
and Lucinda,
wake up one day to find that their minds are linked together and that they can read each other's thoughts, at least the superficial ones.
-Additionally, the entire city of Buenos Aires, where they fight for their sustenance as Magical Girls, gets suddenly flooded by flying wooden Toys of many types looking to possess them, and a gigantic Violet Tower has spawned at the center of Buenos Aires.
-Buenos Aires's (Capital) three factions of Magical Girls are forced to endure together inside the Tower, which is the only place safe from the Toys.
-The Order of the End, a worldwide faction that seeks to end the existence of Magical Girls on this planet, is the one behind the attacks. They want to destroy all Incubators, the white cats or whatever that turns little girls into megucas.
-The Blue Gates, a nearly-extinct faction, is instead turning prospect Magical Girls into human Incubators.

◕ In the previous thread:
Ƹ>: Helen, who had her broken powers sealed, has accepted to become a Coordinator.
凸 & ರೃ: Lucinda Newhorn, dreaded prodigy, and Rita Hammerhead, who once tried to adopt a bat she found in a trashcan, have finally found the Witch.
ᕙ & ■-■: Jimena Gimenez and Erika Kruppman, after attempting to assassinate Hush, Faction Leader of the Order of the End, ended up captured.
▲: And Emma Imeredala has an actual, successful date with her SISTER- who turns out to be just another Crow Knight of the Order of the End.
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STUFF (you can skip this)

◕ We used like a 10% of the mechanics LAWL

◕ Random Events aren't coming back. Ever. Fucking Ever.

◕ Setting a few realistic expectations: I am not a native english speaker. However, now I finally have time. I found a job as a college teacher which pays me with hugs and lemons, but that's enough to pay rent for the box I sleep on so fuck yeah motherfucker, some peace and quiet.

◕ The format we are going to follow this time is: turns. I post for one guca, /then/ for another, /then/ for another whenever I have the time.

◕ We won't be taking any new players unless any other drops or gets killed. The same players have stuck with this for like a year already but hey, now you've got two fighting a Witch- who knows?
>>
◕ A few notes on narrative: Players are the consciousness of their character. Me, on the other hand, am the african american magical lamp peddler in charge of the /subconscious/ of the characters. This means that if for some reason you say ‘fuck it’ and decide to go full yuri menhera on an npc your character /will/ have to roll against the fear of being rejected before even walking up to the girl it likes like she’s about to shit itself on the spot. Unless it’s Lucinda.
After some consideration, I've decided that I find pretty endearing when you guys use character voice/first person, so fuck it, just go crazy. That being said, try not to build on top of the assumption that things are going to happen like you think they will: face everything as if poking strange, alien machinery. Red-eyed.
To keep with tradition, I'll use "Punching Jimena in the face" to illustrate my point: don't assume that she won't bend her face sideways to avoid it.

◕ FAQ:
Q: It had been almost two months again.
A: Jimenanon said it was gonna open thread itself after a month and I thought it would have been fun to fuck with it. Also, I wanted a legit excuse to be spared the fonts. Sad.

Q: What happens if a player drops because life/got bored/etc?
A: The character they were playing becomes an NPC until they come back if they ever do. Six players is a lot and keeping track of all that happens is a hassle sometimes, so it happens.

Q: Yuri?
A: Yes. Menheras fucking? Not on this quest. It happens, its human, its ok, and it is implied- but this isn't a smut quest.

Q: It has been A SINGLE DAY after the end of chapter 0.
A: Actually, not even a full hour of IRL time has elapsed- and that's ok. You can spend your whole life in a cubicle and it will feel like a single day, or you can fight a kangaroo for your life and every second will feel like an hour. If anything, this illustrates just how intense the life of your average meguca truly is.

Q: The Soul Gem tainting mechanics were intended for days. Can Soul Gems still end up black? How are we going to account for these mechanics?
A: Easy, we roll Mind when a traumatic event happens. That being said, this is a good point- I'm kinda in the air about that one lawl.

Q: Why is bigguca the intro instead of the outro?
A: cause i didn't make it last time

Q: I've been watching a lot of nekomimi. Is it ok if I want my cat to play with my dick?
A: no senpai. It really isn't.
>>
aight thread open, now we wait for niggucas and go from there. last time we had no emmanon posts for like two weeks so i kinda wanna who shows up before choosing tracks. but whateva

thread open! :D
>>
>>5765175
*surprised screaming*
>>5765186
>▲: And Emma Imeredala has an actual, successful date with her SISTER- who turns out to be just another Crow Knight of the Order of the End.
Oi oi oi mate, you got a loicense for these here insinuations?
You pulled out the Katawa Shoujo OST, I did no such thing!

>>5765193
>However, now I finally have time. I found a job as a college teacher which pays me with hugs and lemons, but that's enough to pay rent for the box I sleep on so fuck yeah motherfucker, some peace and quiet.

All joking aside this is excellent news and I'm non-ironically very happy for you. Job stability is underrated, even a pretty mediocre job. Though I may be biased as I'm currently in the throes of job-seeking myself. So once again, my participation shall be fleeting. Which is probably a good thing considering that Emma got more than her catch-up share of posts last thread! Leave the other girls to be gay too, damn it!
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>>5765175
My fellow RITARDS: WE. ARE. BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK! Nearly spit my coffee all over the monitor when I saw this pop up on the catalog! Glad to have you back, man!

>>5765186
>Who once tried to adopt a bat she found in a trashcan
Ah, good old Bats Maru. He liked to bite.

>>5765193
Congrats on the stable job, too--I was worried when you went radio silent for a while and thought shit got rough. Glad you're doing better and hope the job works out!
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>>5765200
Ah fuck, I missed my window. Well, you can have my OP pic anyways
>>
Time to be a raging schizo. Helen still a classic quest mc and anyone can drop in to control her?
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>>5765175
Just in time for Walpurgischan's movie, you love to see it.

Also, congratulation for the teacher's job QM.
>>
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The chatter in the classroom drowned every thought. Since she made her contract with Kyubey a month ago, Lucinda Newhorn would sit alone at her antique cast-iron and mahogany desk, the furthest from the entrance, elegant and identical to all the others. Frozen in time, she’s looking out the window, legs crossed. If ‘better’ was more than a buzzword it would fit only her- and so, like a rift in the ocean, that stark contrast is quick to suck in attention.

Black Male Student: Yo. Hey, yo.

Lucinda doesn’t turn to address him. Ignoring others has often worked in driving them away- but not everyone picks the message.

Black Male Student: Hey. Hey.

The moment the boy places his sweaty hand on Lucinda's naked shoulder he’s met with the same quiet stare a lioness gave his great-great-great grandfather before ripping his throat to shreds. The hand goes away.

Lucinda: I’m not interested.

Black Male Student: Damn bitch, chill. I didn’t even talk yet.

‘Bitch’. He may have said it casually- but when you throw a mint in cola instead of anywhere else it draws a reaction. Context matters, and soon that dense chatter is losing air like a cheap balloon- just like the boy’s face, growing whiter by the second.

Black Male Student: I’m sorry. I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.

Lucinda’s lioness eyes scan around; the damage has already been done. The students are looking her way. Some even approach; all dressed in tidy uniforms, all wearing bright scarlet ties under their sleek dark green coats.

Unlike her, in the casual, checkered armless blue blouse and skirt.
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A bright bumpy jumpy ginger girl is quick to jump in-

Ginger Girl Student: Hey, Luci! Are you going to be in the group picture like that? You’ll stand out so much!

-only to be met with the stillest of stares.

Lucinda: I’m not going to be in it.

Ginger Girl Student: Whaaaat? Why not?

Lucinda: I don’t want to.

Ginger Girl Student: But why?

Lucinda simply shrugs and looks out the window again. Ignoring people often drives them away. Then someone knocks on her shoulder- and again, Lucinda turns- a bit slower than last time. This time, she’s addressing a short, stern-looking asian girl. Her father is an oil tycoon who bets heavily on spanish-style bullfights and fucks teenage boys.

Asian Girl Student: You have to take it. You are part of this class too.

Lucinda: Whoever touches me again will wake up at the infirmary.

Black Male Student: DAAAAAAAAAAAAAYUUMMM

Some laugh and some screech. Some don’t. Lucinda’s soft threat, delivered with a deadpan voice, weighs in the air. Her eyes don’t falter; her dainty hands don’t shake.

Asian Girl Student: You have to take that photo with us. It’s the annual photo and we all have to be there. And you have to wear your uniform.

Lucinda: It’s non-mandatory.

Asian Girl Student: The photo or the uniform?

Lucinda: Neither, and neither is talking.

Ginger Girl Student: This isn’t about the rules! You don’t talk to us anymore! You don’t even wear our uniform!

Lucinda: That would be my problem. Not yours.

More of the students surround her. The chattering restarts. The serene blonde of cold cheeks gives up on looking out the window. The more they are, the braver they get- the louder they whisper.

???: What’s her problem?

???: The fuck she thinks she is?

???: Bitch thinks she’s hot shit because she has big tits.

Every one of them had talked shit about her and then talked shit about their friends to her. They would buy her gifts, expensive gifts, gifts Lucinda learned to reject after they kept asking for her attention in return- gifts she always gave back.
>>
Finally, a voice rises above the vulgar chatter, the voice of a tall, young man:

Black Hair Tall Self-Insert Male VN Protagonist Student: Lucinda, don’t be dense. We are worried sick about you. Shutting down is not the way out. Swallow your pride and reach out to your friends.

Instead of swallowing her pride and reaching out to her friends, Lucinda Newhorn simply blinks.

Lucinda: I have never thought of any of you as a friend. I have no interest in being friends with any of you, and I have the choice not to. If we did talk at some point, it was so I wouldn’t end up being bullied like Abraham. Leave me in peace.

Who is also amidst the crowd, just another teenager with a greasy fat face and perfect clothes, shrinking at the shift in attention, as the ginger girl goes pale. The tall student, his face now slightly red instead, turns to him.

Black Hair Tall Self-Insert Male VN Protagonist Student: Do we bully you, Abraham? Are we pieces of shit? You can tell us.

Abraham: N-no, no, John.

Black Hair Tall Self-Insert Male VN Protagonist Student: See? We don’t bully him. This is just how guys treat each other.

He rests his arm on the frightened boy’s shoulder. Lucinda looks straight at that greasy, nervous face with her inquisitive, dead blue eyes- and that face sinks into the head behind it- and she shrugs again. Then Lucinda uncrosses her legs and stands, missing no manner as she puts on her red and black satchel, her long golden hair flowing behind her back as she meets the rest of the class with all of her almost comical beauty at once. As usual, eyes widened. More than half the school had already tried to approach her, girls included, teachers included; then the fame of her coldness grew so much that it had transcended the school. Conquering had become a widespread competition; even a politician was met with the same cold wall of disgust.

She isn’t even legal yet.
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Lucinda: I’m not taking part in the group picture. I’m going home.

Asian Girl Student (frowning her eyes even further): We are halfway through the first recess.

Lucinda: I’ll call in sick.

Black Male Student: Sick of us?

Lucinda doesn’t answer- but the ginger girl gets in her way.

Lucinda: Excuse me.

And stays in her way.

Ginger Girl Student: What the fuck is your problem? Are we not good enough for you? Is that it?

Lucinda: You are restraining my freedom. Move away or I’ll harm you in self-defense. I'm not attacking anyone.

And she didn’t even raise her voice. After all, they’ve all seen what has been happening to Lucinda’s pretenders as of last month- one ended up with hearing aids. Yet the ginger girl still stands her ground. Crying.

Ginger Girl Student: N-no. We aren’t shit for you to step on. You are a person like any of us, not better, not worse. Say you are sorry!

Lucinda: Why the fuck are you crying?

It's as if no wall stood between them and the cold, as if a cold wind had stolen the mumbling away. Lucinda’s eyes are, as usual, dead, cold, and inquisitive, fixed on those of the ginger girl, reflected on each of her tears.

Lucinda: Tell me why you are crying or I’ll end up in jail and you’ll end up in a hospital.

And even so, shrieking, shaking, the ginger girl opens her mouth to retort only to be tackled aside and then dragged away by two of her friends. Indifferent, the blonde sees her go; she walks through the encircling students with the floaty steps ingrained into her through endless lessons in ballet, all in sweet, perfect silence-

until someone grabs her arm.

Black Hair Tall Self-Insert Male VN Protagonist Student: Yo-

The tall, young man who grabbed her finds himself spinning in the air, but perhaps he’ll never know that his chin held the full weight of his body for half a second as he was pile-bunked onto the bright marble tiles below. As the shrill screams of both boys and girls fill the room, as the new Magical Girl gets called ‘psycho’ and ‘bitch’ left and right, Lucinda simply leaves the classroom and closes the door behind her because leaving the door open is bad manners.
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ರೃ Lucinda Newhorn ರೃ
Age: 16
Personality Type: ESTJ
-Impulsive. Would rather do than think.
-Efficient and disciplined to the extreme, yet almost entirely unaware of the meaning behind objects and actions.
-Good with concrete facts and data, bad with abstractions.

Profile:
Sadly enough, it doesn't take too many brain cells to figure out that we all are slaves in one giant prison. If you don't work, you don't eat; if you don't eat, you die. If you don't work, you die- and Lucinda Newhorn pieced this together much faster than most. The reality of the bigger picture was made all the more apparent by the smaller picture she was made to fit into: overly conservative parents, an almost rich family, traditions, studies, serious dinners, studies, piano classes, studies, forced friendships with kids from select families, studies-
That one time she got yelled at for coming back home laughing after slipping into mud made it perfectly clear that her family wanted to be "Respected". Which she found endlessly amusing when she found out one of her classmates, an actually very rich girl, picking her nose in the middle of class.

Physical Appearance: Complex, long blonde hair done in a sidebang, held in place by a blue ribbon hanging under her right ear. Bright blue eyes. Slender, curved body that matches all common aesthetic standards; model-tier beauty that sets her far apart from most other girls. Inquisitive dead stare. Never smiles.

Core Belief: Freedom will make her happy.

Magical Trait: Unable to care about external opinions, even when those come from within. This makes her impossible to influence unless solid evidence is presented.

Magical Power: Freedom. She can temporarily ignore aspects of reality currently affecting her. Has no transitive properties. The only way to be free from this world is to not let it affect you. However, the world is also where you rest your feet, what keeps you standing, so becoming free from it and going to live in the wild may be dangerous.
This power has a major caveat: it physically wounds her whenever she stops using it. The longer she stays, the more it will hurt.

Interests:
+++Freedom
++Feelings
+Control
+Perfection
+Silence
-------Other People

Stats:
£ Physical Affinity: 7
λ Magical Affinity: 7
彡 Dexterity: 4
メ Perception: 4
⸫ Wisdom: 1
π Intelligence: 3
ღ Charisma: 1
φ Mind: 4
Ω Constitution: 7

Wish: "Freedom."

Wanna know more? https://pastebin.com/sdLC6BS0
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aight so here's the honest itinerary
-lucinda
-lucinda
-lucinda
-a fuckton of lucinda
and then:
-more lucinda but with rita
-and then more ritalinda

there you go. half this thread may end up being lucinda depending on how stuff goes on my end, but come rain or hellfire we will end up wrap up this witch laberynth first and foremost- after some bigguca

>>5765201
>You pulled out the Katawa Shoujo OST
i will be using this expression constantly

>I did no such thing!
this is why i never tell people to 'do what you want'. now we know what lurks in the heart of an overly repressed maiden with a strong woman as a fatherly figure

>All joking aside this is excellent news and I'm non-ironically very happy for you. Job stability is underrated, even a pretty mediocre job.
thanks! i wasn't finding the middle ground between having a soul-crushing corporate job and being a hobo, i don't want to live stressed even if I end up a millonaire at sixty years old. besides, not forgetting how to talk to people is also nice.

>Though I may be biased as I'm currently in the throes of job-seeking myself. So once again, my participation shall be fleeting.
honest to goodness wishing you the best with that, emmanon. you focus on that, i'll drop you a vote every now and then and you can pick up from where you left off. also yeah, i may or may have not gone bananas with emma last thread

>Leave the other girls to be gay too, damn it!
THE CONTRACT IS COMPLETE

>>5765216
we all RITARDS here. good to be back

>Congrats on the stable job, too--I was worried when you went radio silent for a while and thought shit got rough.
thanks dude! it had gotten rough, but that was because I kept getting greedy and pushing shit jobs away. now i think having stability is also a worthy boon, having to worry all the time about getting fired sucks ass

>>5765229
motherfucker that could have been the OP pic, why didn't you post sooner? im not doing font anyway LAWL

>>5765257
>Time to be a raging schizo.
welcome to Meguca Royale

>Helen still a classic quest mc and anyone can drop in to control her?
yes, but your voice has priority. Helen is easily influenced by others, but unless you have two or more votes piled up against yours Helen will do what you say. i mean, she's 8. i too did what mom said

>>5765330
>Just in time for Walpurgischan's movie, you love to see it.
i'm praying every night for them to NOT fuck this one up, please, PLEASE don't fuck it up, oh god PLEASE
not to say Rebellion was bad, but you really had to dig into it to get it. the animation was a blast though, top tier stuff

>Also, congratulation for the teacher's job QM.
thanks!!!!

and now, after a pause, we vote for Lucinda without Lucinda lmao
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>>5765800
>motherfucker that could have been the OP pic, why didn't you post sooner? im not doing font anyway LAWL
i could blame my dad for fleecing me into work for 20 bucks a day only for them to send me to bumfuck nowhere right at the start of the month and killing my motivation, or I could blame the other rp i'm also playing in, or that one of my favorite qms went an hero and really bummed me out, or that I was waiting until I was in my house so I could keep the formatting but really, I just plain procrastinated. I thought with our track record we could go on a while without a thread and then you go and beat me to it, and here I was gonna show you up for those terrible ETAs. real turtle and hare there
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Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyup; that’s the girl. Lucinda Newhorn, prodigy, femme-fatale, top ten coldest Magical Girl in recorded history. There is no person, especially no girl, that hasn’t gone through a phase where they hate everyone in the world or at least anyone who doesn’t paint their nails black. There’s a certain degree of sincere hatred towards humanity that is actually healthy, that is warranted.

Lucinda feels nothing but pure, uncompromised hatred towards all living beings.

Given that you can’t get into the lil psycho’s head from where you are from, that statement feels like a long shot- but it does come with eons of experience backing it up. Purity comes from simplicity and simplicity is the pinnacle of knowledge; whatever hides behind those blue eyes can be explained with a single word. Usually, the reasons for which people want to raze each other from the face of the earth are complex, full of contradictions, and mostly projection- but you haven’t seen Lucinda ever hesitate. Not yet, at least.

You frown. Sweet fuck. Jesus. Damn, like… heavy, heavy stuff.

You smile. Oh, well. Whatever.

Someone pops from the Law of Cycles, which you’ve been bouncing between your legs like a basketball.

Grumpy French Magical Girl: It smells like someone’s about to fuck up out here.

You sniff around; no such smell, and you communicate that clearly. Another Magical Girl pops out from it as you wear the Law of Cycles like a hat.

Worried Blonde Magical Girl from the USA: Madoka, can’t you just, like… watch K-dramas or something? Brazilian novellas? That show about the turkish harem and stuff?

As if you hadn’t watched all of those AND their alternate parallel universe versions a thousand million times each. This is new. This is making you so giddy! As you nimble on the Law of Cycles, another Magical Girl crawls from under your tongue.

Mushroom-obsessed fashionista Magical Girl covered in saliva: Ew. EWWWW! Madoka, there is no resetting this universe! It doesn’t have parallels or anything. Can’t you be careful for ONCE?

Oh, you’ll be, mark my words. Also, mushrooms look like dicks. In any case, you will see Lucinda Newhorn smile for ONCE, on your honor as a goddess of all Magical Girls and substitute cupid with no legal certification- and you know /exactly/ how you are going to make her smile. With a flick of your fingers, you project your thoughts on the impossibly gigantic CRT TV floating through the cosmos.

Static fills its screen.

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It’s A-chan’s office. The Coordinator is engaging with a customer from across her desk, as usual; the customer itself is anything but usual.

卌 A: You sure are a rare sight around here, Lady Lu. Are you finally getting adjusted?

ರೃ Lucinda: Touch my Soul Gem and I’ll rip your arm off.

A sips from her chamomile tea.

卌 A: The only reason I’m not using you and your golden hair like a broom is because I don’t want to. Don’t you think the floor looks just sparkly?

Lucinda sips from her peppermint tea.

ರೃ Lucinda: I’m looking for someone who can bring the dead back to life.

卌 A: Bring back- who?

Lady Lu the Fucknado of Terror produces a suitcase semiingly out of nowhere and places it precisely at the center of the table. Eyebrows high, buries her thumb on the button that makes it open: then bursts out laughing in Lucinda’s face. Who simply stares with those frozen blue eyes as A’s cackles turn into coughs.

卌 A: Sorry. I’m genuinely and honestly sorry for my unprofessional behavior. It’s just that… you, out of all people, come to my Laberynth right as I’m about to leave early, carrying… a suitcase with a dead dog. Oh god, it’s just… I’ve seen shit, but the odds…

ರೃ Lucinda: It’s an infant woolly mammoth.

A the Coordinator blasts chamomile tea out of her nostrils.
>>
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卌 A: HAHAHHA, WHAT THE FUCK, HAHAHA, oh my god wh-wh-where did you even GET THIS? You had to steal it from a museum! And why! Oh my god, why!

ರೃ Lucinda: I do not understand why you are laughing.

卌 A: hahHAHA, hahaHA, it's, it's just... WHY?

ರೃ Lucinda: That is none of your concerns.

The perhaps most dreaded Magical Girl in Buenos Aires behind Salome patiently waits for A’s meltdown to simmer.

卌 A: Sorry, sorry. Ok. I get it; none of my concern. And I know you’d go hunting for a necromancer or such on your own if I refuse, so let me thank you for your patronage.

Lucinda remains silent. Suddenly, A is silent too. Cheery, but quiet as she bounces her index finger against her chin.

卌 A: Huh. Hmmm… Huh…

ರೃ Lucinda: Coordinator, are you doing this to annoy me?

卌 A: No, that’s not my intention. I have an idea- but let me be careful.

A takes a napkin from under her desk and proceeds to clean the corner of it that was shot-gunned with tea from her nostril. It’s a silent process, yet Lucinda, who relishes silence, is frowning more with each passing second

until A the Coordinator lifts a finger.

卌 A: I know who. I have one. I will leave this matter in her hands.

ರೃ Lucinda: That’s up to me, Coordinator.

卌 A: I know, I know. Let me send you her email. She’s a shy one, so phone calls or even sudden text messages may be out of the question for now. Earn her trust.

ರೃ Lucinda: Give me her name.

卌 A: I won’t. That’s up to her. You have your reputation to owe for that.

Said reputation being that of the ‘strongest, meanest, coldest Magical Girl seen in a while, maybe a refugee from the Big North’. Unwarranted, since she hadn’t been mean to anyone.

卌 A: And- done. You should have gotten it.

ರೃ Lucinda: Is your job your excuse for having my phone number?

卌 A: It is. And I won’t erase it.

ರೃ Lucinda: I see.

Lucinda stands from the desk, grabs the suitcase-
卌 A: You can leave that here for the time being. It may be troublesome if you are caught with an ancient relic stolen from a museum- and I can vouch for this place being great for ancient rituals.

Lucinda simply lets go of the suitcase and walks away, as A sips a bit more of her tea- and, after a while, after Lucinda is very well long gone, the Coordinator laughs even more.

….
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The titanic TV floating in space turns off on its own. You find your cheeks halfway puffed: this would have been much better if it was recorded like a K-drama. Whatever. You have nobody to blame for that but you. What matters most is the next segment: the TV flickers to life again.



At the center of the screen is a cellphone, Lucinda’s cellphone, seen from an awkward angle because the whole thing got recorded from over her shoulder. Far away, you can hear her father and mother screaming, yet the tiny text bubbles quickly gain back your attention.

Lucinda Newhorn:
My name is Lucinda Newhorn. I have heard from the Coordinator of your capabilities to bring the dead back to life. I want you to bring an animal back to life for me. What do you want in exchange for this favor?

Teasing Teacher Studios, debut 19/2/2023 <3:
um
hi!
nice meeting you, Lucinda!
sure! when are you available
?
to meet up

Lucinda Newhorn:
I don’t see how that is relevant.

Teasing Teacher Studios, debut 19/2/2023 <3:
um
reviving things is very delicate (i’d know lol) so i want to get to know you a bit before making a call
Im sure you understand

Lucinda Newhorn:
I don’t.

Teasing Teacher Studios, debut 19/2/2023 <3:
if you were a bad person you could do bad things to the animal
i don’t want that to happen because i don’t like people hurting animals
but the only way i can make sure that you wont (or at least have a better change at gauging you) is getting to know you first
is that clear enough?

Lucinda Newhorn:
Why do you care about what happens to the animal afterward?

…There is no answer. You know there will be one because you recorded this, and yet the suspense is killing you once more. It’s only the eleventh time you’ve seen this one after all.

Teasing Teacher Studios, debut 19/2/2023 <3:
um, that is kinda hard to explain
you know, usually people just take that kind of answers for granted
lucinda, why don’t we kill two birds with one stone? (that doesn’t sound too good coming from someone who just said she cares about animals xD)
let’s meet up and drink something and i can try to explain it to you >:D
these kind of things are hard to explain, so let me think something up like an example or something

Lucinda Newhorn:
Ok.
Let’s meet up.

And have a date.
>>
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Fine; that last line is yours. Whatever. It WILL be a date. YOU will make it a date! Your track record is spotless; you got Mami to date Kyoko, you got Sayaka to date Mami (Mami is always easy), then you got Homura to date Mami, then Sayaka, then Kyoko (that ending was not your fault), then you got your in-universe self to date everyone at the same time. Your blade is sharp, your fingers steady, and you are wearing your red ribbon like a bandana- it’s now or never!

You take the Law of Cycles from the black hole you golfed it into. This is the time, that is the truth- what you need now is the /how/. The universe or whatever entity controls it got wind of you injecting a bunch of Magical Girls from random eras into it and didn’t like it a bit, so now infiltrating someone inside it is a biiiit trickier. Not to worry: a goddess is full of tricks! One, and only one Magical Girl will be picked for ‘Operation Heart Melter’, and she and only she will have to carry out your commands to make this mission a success. The question is- who?

>The short-fused girl who can make people forget stuff. Good at ambushes too.
>The luckiest girl ever. Horrendous with details.
>The strongest motherly figure ever. A bit tactless.
>The invisible girl. Clumsy, gets nervous, always at the vanguard.
>Just a very kind, very empathetic girl with no relevant abilities.
>>
>>5766167
>>The luckiest girl ever. Horrendous with details.
this sounds fun
>>
>>5766167
>>The short-fused girl who can make people forget stuff. Good at ambushes too.
Perfect for OPERATION HEART MELTER
>>
>>5766167
>The short-fused girl who can make people forget stuff. Good at ambushes too.
>>
>>5766167
>The short-fused girl who can make people forget stuff. Good at ambushes too.
Erase awkwardness and murderous intent.
>>
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You mull it over- for the better part of half a second. There’s little doubt: it has to be

>The short-fused girl who can make people forget stuff.

With a wave of your hand, you summon her from the Law of Cycles, which you were just using like a mounted speed punching bag. From it, first peek the tips of two horns, then wind goggles on a violet hood, then the resting bitch face under it. Long blonde bangs, purple scarf, purple skirt, socks over both ankles, naked arms, disjointed black sleeves, a violet Soul Gem right next to her exposed belly - and one big, BIG fucking hammer. No doubt about it: the perfect girl for the job.

Hammer Girl: (yaaaaaaaawns) (wipes eyes with sleeve) …the fuck you want?

Except for the fact that she’s one selfish little brat. Oh well. Some people are thirteen; nobody is perfect- except for that one weird girl. This Magical Girl right here can make people forget any kind of stuff instantly- by dunking that hammer in their skull at Mach speed. No, for real. That’s how it works.

Hammer Girl: I’m going back. Later.

Mentally screeching, you stop her. The nerve! You’ve been summoned by the Goddess herself! And what a great Goddess. Pretty and cool and stuff. You tell the girl with the hammer that you have personally summoned her so that she may enact your will on your behalf. She will be your emissary and do good onto the world in your name!

Hammer Girl: I don’t wanna!

FFFF- all those eons wiping Witches and this is what you get, but of course. Oh well; you can’t blame her. After all, you made the Law of Cycles too fun. In there, there are beaches, volleyball, books, cats, cat racing, cat racing bets, a cat racing mafia, an illegal hand-holding ring for heavily indebted Magical Girls, tea, and pastries galore.
>>
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But this is no time to reap, oh no. Today we lay the seeds of love in that frozen wasteland that is Lucinda Newhorn’s heart, we make roses break through ice!

Hammer Girl: …Mmhhaaaagg, what a pain in the ass! Mind your own business for once!

You are about to lay down not the mother but the great-great-great-great-grandmother of bitch-slaps upon this heathen, but another Magical Girl pops like pop-corn from the Law of Cycles.

Succubus-looking Magical Girl that is actually Extremely Pure: Miss Big Madoka, why make them fall in love when they could just be friends, like- you know? It can work even if it’s not romance or yurimance, you know. All that hand-holding and kissing stuff is nice but what matters is being niggas in the same turf, you know.

Blasphemy. Only pure forbidden love can heal the absolute darkness in Lucinda’s heart, and you will have it no other way. You grab the girl with the hammer and cram her into a meteor until she fits in a crater, despite her yelling. With correct posture, focus, and commitment, you rest your ten thousand quadrillion galaxies long golf club over your shoulder. Licking your thumb and looking at it, a pointless gesture in the middle of space, you measure the wind one last time before sending Felicia Mitsuki on her way with a single swing that would make Tiger Woods both cry and shit himself at the same time.

Hammer Girl: aaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

And off she goes, the little mercenary; godspeed! A single tear escapes your eye, enough to sink Japan a million times over- and yet another Magical Girl peeks from the Law of Cycles.

The Small and Cute Magical Girl with Pink Hair who is the only one who is ever Nice to you: Ummm…! Big Lady Madoka, hi! Can I say something? I mean, maybe you already know…

Sure.

The Small and Cute Magical Girl with Pink Hair who is the only one who is ever Nice to you: It’s… Felicia is japanese. From Japan. I'm from Japan too. And, we can’t speak spanish…

FUCK.
>>
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Despite your stern lessons last night, Felicia only learned to say ‘I want a big hot dog’ and ‘the fuck you looking at’ in spanish. Whatever. No time to bitch about it. No point either. You are too busy getting bounced around like a testicle. All you can do is peek from inside the small black bag Felicia carries over her shoulder, from the small frayed hole at the side of the zipper because this punk couldn’t even be bothered to leave a little gap open.

λ Felicia: Huh? Is that the creep?

My sweet light child full of love and kind, 'how the FUCK would I know?' is what you think. I can't see anything like this! Felicia, now dressed in the simplest hoodie and shorts and football boots, makes the bag you are stuck in bounce over her shoulder and land on her hands. Landing on your back, struggling to turn around, you settle for looking at the world upside-down and yet spot none other than the target at once. Finally: there she is. Lucinda Newhorn, waiting at the corner of a pedestrian-only street infested with street cafe tables- checking her copper wristwatch that has been painted gold. Great. Nice start, mystery girl, arriving late to the date you arranged... Cool...

λ Felicia: What now? Do I punch her?

No, you don’t punch her! That’s not how you make two kindred souls fall in love with each other. Sadly, there’s nothing to do right now. Emotional manipulation requires at least for the person to be there. Not that you, a goddess, are going to pull such a thing. Love has to be pure and genuine, of course.

λ Felicia: I don’t know, I love meat, and meat has bones sometimes. I’m getting hungry.

Don’t think about food, it’s only going to make it worse. Focus on the mission. Lucinda is dressed, yet again, in her casual blue clothes. They fit her for sure, not even flat-earthers would disagree, but she sure has a small wardrobe for someone with such a penchant for looking gorgeous. Then again, her family is piss-poor despite appearances and are only good at pretending to be rich… maybe that blouse and skirt she wears are the only truly fancy clothes she has. You wouldn't be surprised if they still show up in their credit card resume years after she graduates college- which is still a cheerful thought. At any rate, Lucinda is truly beautiful; she can even pull the strings on an old goddess's heart.

Oh wait
Is that
wait for real?

λ Felicia: …Hey, Goddess, is that the girl you wanna marry to the psycho?

Nah, no way

no wait, she is.
>>
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It’s paradoxical. Some people sacrifice themselves to draw as much attention as they can- while some just want to be themselves and end up drawing even more attention. The Magical Girl waves at Lucinda, facing the mild wind with her toxic-looking turquoise and green short hair, its colors evenly split through mixed wide strands- while wearing jean-blue painter overalls over a long black shirt. It’s as if her head was the Earth seen from space and we really, really fucked up the water down here. No wonder we are in space. Eyes like stone, you glance at Lucinda from inside the bag, who stands on end like a cat being approached by dog it doesn't know even though the dog is nice.

The girl bumps into a table and sends a wave of coffee over a salary man who is sitting with a woman. The man screams like a banshee.

Toxic-haired Girl: Oh-OH MY GOD I’M SO SORRY!

Man on a date: AAAAAAAAAAAAA! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!

Toxic-haired Girl: ARE YOU OKAY?!

Man on a date: AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Toxic-haired Girl: I-I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO!

The woman on the other side is frozen, just staring at the man screaming. Then slowly, slooowly, she takes out her cell phone and starts recording him as the man jumps off the table and rips his shirt off with his nails.

Man on a date: AAAAAAAAAAAAA! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!

Toxic-haired Girl: I’M SORRY! WAITER! WAAAAITER!

Girl, for real, what the hell could a waiter do in this situation? That being said, not everyone can think clearly when shit goes down. When the waiter arrives, he of course calls an ambulance as a lady clerk from a nearby candy shop arrives with a first-aid kit. Mortified, the walking planet Earth hides her mouth as the man is held down forcefully by some mexicans.

λ Felicia: Man, what the hell? Do they serve lava for coffee around here? At least he didn’t drink that.

Hmm…! Strange but good point. Maybe it's worth keeping tabs on this- you never know, with Magical Girls. At any rate, Lucinda is still there, looking flabbergasted for once in her life; it's not a smile, but at least the muscles in her face work. The woman that was with the guy who is currently getting vodka blasted into its open charred flesh and howling tells Planet Earth Girl to not worry and to just go away fast. She tries to tell the exotic girl to just be more careful next time, speaking louder by the second because the 'I'm sorry!' repeated over and over keeps drowning her words- until the woman ends up screaming that everything is okay as if she was scolding.

Felicia is laughing; you are laughing too, but it’s Felicia’s fault. She’s bad, not you. Poor girl. The man screams.
>>
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After the man was dragged away in an ambulance because another waiter tripped and dropped an entire brunch board on top of him, the mystery date girl finally dared to walk up to Lucinda. Stepping as if she was treading on thin ice, head hanging low, you'd be mad to think she isn't sad. You dare to think that Lucinda considered stepping back as the girl approached, but the blonde held her ground as usual.

Toxic-haired Girl: Um. We can leave this for another time.

ರೃ Lucinda: No.

Toxic-haired Girl: …ok.

ರೃ Lucinda: Sit.

Both do, at one of the many tables between them. The usual street music had already sunk back as if nothing had happened, and skin-melting coffee continued to be served on heroic plastic cups at a discount. You command Felicia to also take a sit somewhere and ask for anything but meat and coffee.

λ Felicia: I wanna try a burrito!

That’s meat too.

λ Felicia: You don’t let me do anything!

Eons. Prioritizing the mission, you push the First Testament Goddess thoughts aside and engage in Second Testament Goddess mode, kindly offering Felicia some burritos if she helps you should you need it.

λ Felicia: Yay!! Burritos!!

This girl; she loves eating meat over /almost/ anything even though her soft hidden heart sincerely loves cows. You feel glad to have set the only single rule in all of the Law of Cycles, which is to never tell Felicia how farms work- who for now settles for a milkshake.

Meanwhile:

Toxic-haired Girl: …hahaha …Hahahaha..!

ರೃ Lucinda: Is your head failing?

Toxic-haired Girl: Oh no sorry, it’s just… that was so pathetic hahaha… oh my god, that couldn’t have gone worse aaaa hahahaha…!

She’s hiding her face with both hands. Well, it is understandable. You can still hear her from behind those bony fingers, at least for now.

ರೃ Lucinda: If it was such a disaster, then why are you laughing?

Oh. No.

Toxic-haired Girl: …because of how pathetic that was?

ರೃ Lucinda: Look at me.

The girl looks.

ರೃ Lucinda: Why are you laughing?

The clumsy girl gives herself pause- and who wouldn’t, under those inquisitive blue eyes? And yet, she offers a tender smile.

Toxic-haired Girl: Because laughter is nothing but relief.

ರೃ Lucinda: You just burned a man alive. What could make you feel relief about that? That he is not dead?

If Lucinda can't tell that this girl is sad then she maybe she really is well and truly fucked- emotionally.

Toxic-haired Girl: I don’t… feel good about that, I feel horrible about that. Still do. (she twirls a green bang with a finger, carefully) But, I often had nightmares about going through something as impossibly embarrassing as that. I thought it would destroy me. And it was pretty bad, it was, but it didn’t. Even though it happened right in front of a very pretty girl. That’s why I feel relieved.
>>
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…eeeeh, brave, but that’s still kinda self-serving. Girl, you just cockblocked a man, likely made him a trending topic on Twitter, and sent him to the hospital a half-living taco. MAYBE you shouldn’t be laughing.

That being said, that way of addressing Lucinda- mmmhmhmHOHOHOH

ರೃ Lucinda: I understand.

what. Huh? Eh?

Toxic-haired Girl: Oh- you do? I'm so glad.

ರೃ Lucinda: I do. I just told you. Don’t ask me what I just told you.

Toxic-haired Girl: Okay. Sorry. I won’t. It’s just, people often say that out of compromise. I'm no good with manners.

ರೃ Lucinda: I have no compromises with you. In my opinion your hair is disgusting and you carry yourself wrong.

Toxic-haired Girl: I see.

The girl smiles.

Toxic-haired Girl: Thank you for your honesty.

…huh? And yet- she laughs again?! Let’s just hope Lucinda doesn’t remember A-chan.

Toxic-haired Girl: Sorry. Mom always said that first impressions are half the story.

ರೃ Lucinda: I don’t care. You shouldn’t, either. We won’t have a relationship. Odds are, we might be dead in a month.

Toxic-haired Girl: That is true. I’m Lifa.

ರೃ Lucinda: So; you are still hiding under a nickname.

Lifa, the Magical Girl that can raise the dead, shakes her head.

Lifa: It makes sense that you would think that, but this is what I go by in the wider Magical Girl Community. You could figure out the rest about me with that name. Besides…

She leaves the word hanging in the air for too long.

Lifa: Isn’t it nice? To be able to name yourself.

ರೃ Lucinda: Names change nothing.

Awkward silence.

Lifa: Um- Shouldn’t we order?

ರೃ Lucinda: No. First, I want you to answer the question I sent you through text. Second, I want to know your demands so I can meet them at once.

Lifa blinks- and blinks.

Lifa: You- remember that?

ರೃ Lucinda: Yes.

Lifa: -cause I don’t. Hahahaha!

Of course, only Lifa is laughing…

Lifa: um- is that question in the emails we traded or did you ask it after I agreed to text you?

ರೃ Lucinda: Why did you laugh?

Lucinda’s voice came out sliiightly more coarse than last time

enough for Felicia to stop slurping her milkshake.
>>
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You still your hand. Even if Lucinda DOES reverse air pile-bunker Lifa's chin in public, Lifa is still a Magical Girl

who looks away, ‘hmm’ing like introverts are wont to do.

Lifa: Would you mind letting me think that out? Some thoughtful consideration is in order.

ರೃ Lucinda: No. Don’t cover your bases to give me a safe answer. Just tell me why you laughed.

Lifa: I can’t. I still don’t know.

ರೃ Lucinda: How could you not know why you are laughing?

It’s like watching a pack of lions surround an elephant- but Lifa seems to be seeing only one of those lions.

Lifa: Well, who does? In-depth, I mean. Everyone knows what made them laugh, sure- but never ever why and they don’t want to think about that. It kills the magic; that's what they say. Lucinda, what do you laugh at? Why do you laugh, Lucinda?

ರೃ Lucinda: I never laugh.

Lifa: Of course you do. You just don’t rememb-

ರೃ Lucinda: I know what I said. I never laugh. That is what I said.

…more awkward silence.

λ Felicia: (whispering) Madoka, the classy lady is freaking me out!

No point in telling me, I’m kinda scared myself is what you think. There’s no tell or clue as to what Lucinda could do. She doesn’t particularly concern herself with the Veil, she naturally cannot care about what society thinks of her- there aren’t any real barriers for anything here.

Lifa: Um… this is just a wild guess, so don’t take it seriously. But, maybe you do laugh, but it’s not intense enough for you to count it as laughing?

ರೃ Lucinda: I never laugh. I told you to not make me repeat myself. So don't do it.

Lifa: You are right. I’m sorry. I apologize.

ರೃ Lucinda: Don't be redundant.

...and Lifa doesn't answer, of course. Like, what do you even say there? That you are sorry again? Would it be redundant if she says it again but only once? The lines are too straight.

Lifa: You don’t laugh. I see. You’ll have to forgive me then, that’s… highly unusual.

ರೃ Lucinda: Why do I have to forgive you?

Lifa looks even paler than when she almost melted an entire guy.

Lifa: BecausewearebeingsthatactonprobabilityandIactedconsideringthemostcommoncasescenariowhichisthateverypersonI’veevermetdoeslaugh

She spat the sentence so fast that even Lucinda, who is right in front of her, had to stop to chew it out. Even from inside that bag that’s like ten meters away, you can /feel/ the cold cogs twist and twirl in that cold brain of hers, clanking like the insides of the Big Ben- processing.

ರೃ Lucinda: I understand.

Lifa’s sigh of relief almost blows her napkin away, though her green eyes remain dry and steady.

ರೃ Lucinda: Yet you did answer fast this time.

You can hear Lifa's mental scream.
>>
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Lifa: OH, well, UM, that is because /how/ we do things is easier to explain than /why/ we do things.

ರೃ Lucinda: I see. I agree.

Lifa: ……..Should we order something to eat or drink?

ರೃ Lucinda: I said no.

Lifa: But, we’ve already been here for a bit and still haven’t gotten through with any of your points. And- I want to do this properly. If you don’t mind, of course.

You know it- Lifa was about to laugh nervously but she cut herself short. Wise move. This date is totally and utterly fucked. Just run, Lifa. Run for your Lifa.

ರೃ Lucinda: Waiter.

Although the waiter was in the middle of unloading a whole cheesecake, Lucinda’s voice was so commanding that he just dropped it on the table tray and all and walked over anyway.

Waiter: Yes? Oh and good day, what can I get you?

ರೃ Lucinda: The card, obviously.

Waiter: The card. Yes, the card, of course.

λ Felicia: (whispering) OI, Big Goddess! Is this gonna work out? I don't wanna be here no more.

Fuck if you know, but your track record is at stake. The fingers pulling the cupid’s bow are drenched in sweat, the heart-shaped arrow shaking over its mark.

But fuck it.
>>
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The waiter hands Lucinda the card, a leather-clad envelope adorned with golden letters. She goes through its pages with no rush as date and waiter both await, and she seems to be considering her options carefully.

ರೃ Lucinda: I’ll have the chamomile tea with biscuits.

The waiter nods and writes it down in his tiny notebook. Chamomile?

Lifa: I think I will have the same. Oh, it’s just, I never drink tea so I got curious. That is all.

Lifa anticipated Lucinda’s gaze well enough.

Waiter: Would that be all?

…You noticed. Ears perked, Felicia noticed. Lifa didn’t; but you are dead sure Lucinda just did.

ರೃ Lucinda: I’m changing my order. I’ll have coffee instead.

Lifa doesn’t move an inch. The waiter raises an eyebrow as the four men in Jamaican jackets surround them- but Lucinda is still looking straight at him.

ರೃ Lucinda: Any type will do.

He walks away as some of the men grab seats from other tables and place them at theirs. Some sit down. One of them smiles at Lucinda.

Well-tanned man in sunglasses: W-

ರೃ Lucinda: I’m sixteen years old.

Stuck for a second, the man shrugs with wide open arms.

Well-tanned man in sunglasses: Sure, babe, don’t worry. What’s your name?

ರೃ Lucinda: I am not interested in any of you. I did not ask you to sit here with us. We are in the middle of a private conversation. Go. Away.

…You recognize them instantly. One is a famous actor, another is the son of a politician; one of those watches is as expensive as the Newhorn’s house because its gold isn’t just paint. Apparently, Lucinda’s fame transcended way past the Fucknado- right in the opposite direction as well.

And the man shrugs yet again.

Well-tanned man in sunglasses: It’s aight, sugar. How about you get to know me first so you can really hate me?

ರೃ Lucinda: I can kill you.

Kinda pale guy wearing a Polo shirt: Woooooah, come on now, why are you like that? Let’s chill. First drinks on me, but only the first round eh!

Lifa: HEY.

The three men turn to look at future Planet Earth.

Lifa: My GIRLFRIEND said VERY CLEARLY she doesn’t want to talk to any of you. Go. Away.

…oh no; she's shaking. And the three men are very handsome. Lucinda certainly IS stupid pretty, that is one fact- and yet this seems far-fetched regardless. Either magic is involved somehow or somewhere out there there’s a secret ongoing competition on who conquers Lucinda Newhorn first. Well, she did wreck a few heavy-weights- maybe that won her some attention. In that case, if it is a competition then YOU are going to win it!

That being said... what do you even know?! Can Lifa handle this on her own? Would she be horrified if she saw Lucinda turn four guys into a train of wheelchairs? Can those two handle this obvious attempt at intimidation through power and wealth? Lifa looks so stressed already…

λ Felicia: Hey, BIG GOD! Isn’t it bonking time already?!

>Let Felicia handle this.
>Let shit go down.
>>
i know. i went fucking bananas again. hereby i pinky promise shorter posts and more choices from now on. i can also safely say that this one has some good weight to it for a single specific reason

>>5765817
>or that one of my favorite qms went an hero and really bummed me out
was that DCHenchman? honestly i didnt know the guy or read his stuff, but as a qm it did hit me regardless. so many talented folks suffer so much; you'd think that if you were as good as any of them you'd be happy, and then shit like this happens. rest in peace. never ever being mean is a valid strategy- you never know how bad the guy the other side of the screen has it

>I thought with our track record we could go on a while without a thread and then you go and beat me to it
damn straight, im a punctual qm. hope your stuff gets better jimenanon, it seems you and me and emmanon are rowing the same boat
>>
>>5767047
>>Let Felicia handle this.
but KILL THEM, kill those fuckos
Figures Madoka would feel sympathy for a monster. well, I guess I do too
>>5767050
yeah that's the one. i keep thinking of it all wednesdays and fridays we used to play, all the things i wanted to do and discuss and remember we are never coming back to it, think of the cowriter from qtg who had to actually grieve a friend and I don't know, i don't know where i'm going with this. never take shit for granted

>damn straight, im a punctual qm. hope your stuff gets better jimenanon, it seems you and me and emmanon are rowing the same boat
eh, for now it seems i'll once again be a neet for a bit, at least I got some money for it and dad gets the validation that his "SIXTEEN HOURS OF WORK" isn't a complete exaggeration, just an exaggeration
>>
>>5767047
>Let Felicia handle this.
BONK
>>
>>5767047
>Let shit go down.
>>
>>5767047
>Let Felicia handle this.
Lucinda would probably splash hot coffee in that guys eyes, this is a mercy.
>>
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>>5767168
I will one day make a PMBA slander video probably after I learn how to actually edit videos.
>>
>>5767338
i dunno, I think 90% of people who've interacted with erika have considered her a scary bitch
>>
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>>5767100
>>5767110
>>5767168

>Let Felicia handle this.

It’s not that a couple of guys approaching some girls is bad. It’s not always about someone getting their armpits fucked; some people just like to mess around, and that’s fine, and it’s fun, and the age difference doesn’t matter when you are just chatting with some friends. But humans sometimes rely on pattern recognition, way less than they should- and Lucinda, sixteen years old, already has a perplexing track record of being constantly harassed. A very clear pattern.

Shaking like a living dildo, Lifa literally (this time used correctly) stands up to four full-grown men- and you can already tell she’s at least a full head smaller than Lucinda. Yet the man in sunglasses shrugs again. He must love doing that. Shrugging.

Well-tanned man in sunglasses: Nah, look; it’s ok. Trust me bro.

He then turns to address Lucinda with a wide white smile.

Lifa: SHE TOLD YOU THAT-

Well-tanned man in sunglasses: Shhh.

He doesn’t even turn to look; his friends chuckle. Well, would you look at that: Planet Earth may still have volcanoes left a few centuries from now. Regardless, you consider /that/ possibility.

λ Felicia: GO time?!

Yes, but, subtlety is your command. Divine intervention must be invisible, it is to be confused with the casual acts of men or with their consequences. You let Felicia know that, while not exactly ‘GO time’, it is indeed ‘...go time…’.

λ Felicia: What?!

Dear, just wreck those fucks like a ninja.

λ Felicia: Gotcha! I’ll go with a KA-BLAAAAM!!!, and, no, with a ‘ka-blaaaaaaaam…!’

You look back at the scene as Felicia just leaves the bag there as if this wasn’t Buenos Aires- there’s no way this girl won’t fuck this up. Oh well. Whatever. She can just make them forget this later.

Lifa: SHE TOLD YOU THAT-

Kinda pale guy wearing a Polo shirt: Jesus Christ girl just-just shut the fucky up? Just the fuckity up? For one second. Dude, she’s making me so nervous.

Lifa: NO, SHE TOLD YOU THAT-

One of the other guys sits next to Lifa, a charming blonde with a wide chin and serene eyes. Even sitting he’s still at eye’s height with the necromancer.

Blonde with earrings wearing Prada: Shh, shh, shh, look; you got what you wanted. I’m here.

Lifa: Lucinda, l-let’s go.

Yet when the handsome devil sits her down with a single hand she stays there and goes quiet.
>>
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Thankfully, men aren’t normally that ridiculously imposing nowadays- well, for the most part. Mankind took its time to realize tits don’t make you that much of a different animal until you sell your soul to a weasel. Welp; time for a lesson they will never understand. The waiter arrives with the tea, biscuits, and smoking black coffee on the tray. With speed and precision, he unloads the items on the table.

ರೃ Lucinda: Call the police. These persons are harassing us.

The waiter looks around with eyes as big as a lemur’s. The young man in the sunglasses waves a hand away, dismissively.

Well-tanned man in sunglasses: She’s just messing with you, my man. Go.

And there goes the waiter, away in a hurry. He saw his excuse and took it; maybe that’s how you keep that kind of job for so long.

ರೃ Lucinda: I want to drink my coffee and resurrect my mammoth. Leave or I will scream.

Kinda pale guy wearing a Polo shirt: Resurrect your what?

ರೃ Lucinda: I know what I said.

Lucinda’s words continue to flow quietly, like a sharp knife slowly making its way through nerves and marrow- unlike Lifa’s, stuck in her throat like in a traffic jam. The men just look at each other, most likely searching in each other's eyes for how those words may relate to jacking off, their spiritual, tribal bonds united in search of depth and meaning- and collectively give up as one.

Lifa: ……….mammoth?

Kinda pale guy wearing a Polo shirt: No, babe, why would you scream? You’ll make me sad, but I wanna make you happy. Come on, now. I won’t make you happy if I’m sad.

And now he’s singing. Poor guys. Maybe someone who expected to live longer than three more months would care about their veiled threats and promises- the Mortal Kombat arcade machine diving their way sure doesn’t.

Blonde with earrings wearing Prada: C-CAPTAAAAIN!

Kinda pale guy wearing a Polo shirt: Y-YEAH?

Blonde with earrings wearing Prada: LOOOOOK!!

Arcade machine: MORTAL KOMBAAAAAAAAAT

It filled the skies with that classic theme song. That’s when you realize those guys were either high or drunk- they didn’t jump out of the way as fast as Lucinda. Lifa is left alone, sitting by the crater left by the arcade machine as it bounces away blasting that awesome saxophone chorus.

Arcade machine: (at the distance) Liu Kang

Almost like a statue, the little lich takes a sip of her tea. Maybe she decided that the universe was too chaotic and not worth the hassle. You'd understand. As for everyone else on the street? They scream and panic and take shelter. Two of the fuckbois broke through the window of a dog grooming center, the other two got swallowed by the horizon line.
>>
Well- in a way, that WAS subtle. You don’t know in WHICH way, that’s for damn sure, but there’s the hope, deep in your heart, that this somehow fits the definition. You’ll just have to be brave and look within someday.

λ Felicia: SO? I’m a super ninja, right?! Nobody saw me!

Felicia, who confused samurais with ninjas, is back. If anything, that was one big ass shuriken. Yet, you find yourself mulling stuff over. Sure, the girls are safe now, but… there’s this twinkling feeling drilling inside your cosmic skull. You don’t know nearly enough of those girls to say if your choice was right or wrong- and that’s the thing. You learned nothing new about them and neither did they about each other; only in deep shit we can trust the colors people show.

That being said, assuming that Lucinda Newhorn would have committed public manslaughter was perfectly logical.

λ Felicia: Where are they?

…wait, for real, where are they? You peek from every hole and gash you can find; no Lifa, no Lucinda. You don’t know. But; you will know. This is one of those very few times where being the Goddess of all Magical Girls of every era and timeline comes in handy. Smelling Lucinda's shampoo, you kick the bag over and over in the direction Felicia should follow.

λ Felicia: What, you need air?

You feel good about yourself for loving Felicia despite the bratty girl clearly being a slightly dumb motherfucker. You tell her: no. Go that way, go that way, now go that way. Good girl.

Can people love each other without knowing each other?
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Lifa: I think I may be in shock.

Felicia is now hiding behind a washing machine most likely housing ten thriving families of rats. Despite the distance you can hear Lifa and Lucinda from here, who themselves are hiding behind a trash box right by the back of a restaurant. Dark alleys; always so convenient.

ರೃ Lucinda: You are too soft.

Lifa: That may be true… What was that?

ರೃ Lucinda: We are being attacked by a Magical Girl.

The girl with the hair that may be radioactive doesn’t answer at once. She seems to be in permanent texting mode even in real life; clearly, her policy is to always take her sweet time to think before talking. What an interesting case.

Lifa: You protected me so I would perform the resurrection. Is that right?

ರೃ Lucinda: Yes. That is my bargain chip: do this for me and I will have to protect you.

Lifa: Because my magic will vanish when I die. I see.

Felicia frowns her nose. Well, yeah- what did you expect? And they must have it even worse over there.

Lifa: I… know where you are coming from. Freaky stuff is magical a hundred times out of a hundred and a one. But, for a Magical Girl to attack another in broad daylight… It’s just unheard of. And, I will dare to say… that even a freak accident is much more likely.

ರೃ Lucinda: I’ve been the target of constant raids by the North and West. Even Easterns came up with excuses to hunt me down.

Lifa: …Even Magical Girls? In public? But… why?

Seems Lifa did her research. Half of it, at least.

ರೃ Lucinda: I don’t know, I don’t care; yet this is the first time they disrespect the Veil. They crossed a line; so shall I. Should I find this Magical Girl, I will end her life.

And Felicia was /right/ about to yawn; she swallowed that air like it was meat cake. Fuck. Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck… Silence. Silence because of more thinking time and not because somebody is getting closer… hopefully.

Lifa: Lucinda, I don’t think that would make yours easier.

...the steps stop.

ರೃ Lucinda: Another idealist Magical Girl.
>>
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Lifa: No. Do not group me. This is just practical advice at this point. You want to scare them so they stop, but if they are coming for you in the first place it can only be because they’d rather take their chances than be cowards. And if they are after you because they think you are evil then you’d just be proving them right, giving them more excuses to hunt you.

Whatever the fuck is happening back there you will never know and be happy to never know. You ain't stretching your neck to peek this time.

Lifa: We don't lack kind souls willing to do good- we lack a good definition of what good is.

ರೃ Lucinda: Will you do it? Will you revive the mammoth?

As expected, more thinking time. Fuck it, you'll peek.

Lifa: I’m still thinking about that.

ರೃ Lucinda: What do you want from me?

Lifa: Empathy. Kindness. Patience.

ರೃ Lucinda: So you won’t do it because your judgment is that I lack those values.

Lifa: I’m still thinking about that. D-do not make me repeat myself!

Huh.

ರೃ Lucinda: Yes, yes; you do a lot of thinking. Do tell me: what is it that you truly want in exchange? Why is it that you want to know more of me?

Lifa is now… limp and cold. Like deatha.

Lifa: I think that you have a suspicion. Let me hear it first so that there won’t be confusion.

ರೃ Lucinda: You want me to be your girlfriend. You want to fuck my armpits.

Lifa is… albeit slowly, raising an eyebrow. In this dark alley with only Lucinda Newhorn. Woah.

Lifa: Go ask anyone and they’ll all tell you I only said that to keep those jerks off your back. That much, Lucinda, should be extremely obvious. It will only hurt you to have suspicions when the intent is right in front of your nose.

ರೃ Lucinda: I see. I understand.

Lucinda strikes a much more relaxed pose, taking just a single step towards Lifa.

ರೃ Lucinda: So- I’m not up to your standards.

Lifa was… already scared to say the least, but now all that is moving of her is that humble chest puffing under that painter's garb, over and over. And Lucinda seems... giddy, somehow. Something in the way she moves... it reminds you of your cat. Oh god. Oh fuck. You’d very much rather be watching a horror movie than this right now.

λ Felicia: (whispering) …bonk time?

>Bonk time.
>NO no bonk time you lil shit
>>
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>>5767409
>>NO no bonk time you lil shit
no no, keep going
>>
>>5767409
>NO no bonk time you lil shit
This is the episode that got the doujin train going, isn't it?

>>5767362
You see, one of the big downsides of /omniscience/ is that Erika knows better than anybody else how fucked she is when she meets someone who isn't from her sharashka. Rich girl knows when she meets Tyson Fury packed in dainty legs for better or for worse.
>>
>>5767441
least she got long legs to outrun the predators. our group can be categorized into "the strong dumb ones" and "the weak smart ones". Jimena though is both, the Sanji of the six.
>>
>>5767409
>No Bonk
What's the worst that can happen? :>]

>>5767362
Honestly I think all of the girls are pretty scary bitches when it comes down to it..
>>
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>>5767338
>implying erika wants to be feared
>implying erika doesn't want to be feared
>implying teachers hadn't had nightmares about her
>implying Antonio the gay school janitor doesn't see right through her bullshit
>implying desuwa

erika isn't considered a scary bitch /compared to Lucinda/. that's like saying my coffee isn't hot compared to a volcano

>>5767441
>This is the episode that got the doujin train going, isn't it?
if there were fanart doujins of my gucas i would learn to draw and do some myself so I could inject such degree of relatable emotional and existential dread in it that the readers would end up like the Hulk trying to keep that boner up or ended up jacking off in tears

also there would be one where it's just erika counting coins and nothing else

also omglawl you even copy-pasted the continents

>Tyson Fury packed in dainty legs for better or for worse.
the difference between 1 char and 2 char

>>5767443
>least she got long legs to outrun the predators
true, but her height makes her more vulnerable to the wind. that being said, let me try
>strong dumbo:
-Rita
-Jimena
-Lucinda
>hermione granger:
-Erika
-Jimena
-Emma
>a literal infant child
-helen

>>5767446
>Honestly I think all of the girls are pretty scary bitches when it comes down to it.
emma would have ten existential crisis and be faced by 99 contradictions the moment she thinks of seriously hurting another meguca. perfectionism makes yourself your own enemy
>>
>>5767409
>No ya lil shit
>>
>>5767410
>>5767441
>>5767446
>>5767605


>NO no bonk time you lil shit

When all you have is a big fucking hammer Lucinda looks like a nail- but a single fact shines through. Lucinda Newhorn never killed, or even tortured, anyone, not even for Grief Seeds, not even in dire straits. You fight the panic taking over you by mentalizing yourself… that Lucinda is a cat. Yeah! That makes sense. Kinda. Fuck it. She’s a cat; Lucinda is just a cat, and cats act like cats.
-Cats meow until you open the door, then walk inside.
-Cats rub against your legs then run when you touch them.
-Cats purr while they bite you.
-It makes total fucking sense.

Cat ears have always been a trend in the sub-world of Magical Girls (because, well, magic). You’ve been witness yourself to how famous healer/actual Coordinator Weird Eyes spreaded it all over metropolitan Buenos Aires (which is seventy times the size of the capital) by pretending that cat transformation was a side effect of her magic. Lucinda has none of that, none of the ears or tail or whiskers that became so common before the War of Broken Candles. You are sure she’d hate to have them

and yet, you consider with genuine wonder, she may resemble one the most.

ರೃ Lucinda: You are not up to my standards yourself. You are careless, slow, and you behave as if you were on the spectrum.

Lifa: I can make specters.

Lifa produces a little ethereal… fire? that floats over her hand.

Lifa: This one is that mouse over there.

The 'mouse over there' being the bottom half of a rotten carcass that’s under one of the wheels of the trash box. The grimace on Lucinda’s face reveals that even if she doesn’t have feelings she sure has a sense of taste. You will tell Felicia nothing.

ರೃ Lucinda: You've made my point for me.

Lifa: Because I'm joking? Because I try to lighten the mood? Is that what makes me an autist? I am aware of the context- I just react differently.

ರೃ Lucinda: And what did you achieve by… reacting differently, as you call it?

Lucinda’s signature stare of cold inquisition shows, as usual, no other intent than plain curiosity- but you think she’s judging.

Lifa: I’m calmer now.

ರೃ Lucinda: And why is that?

Lifa does what Lucindon't: she smiles.

Lifa: Because I gave you a reason to be mad at me and you didn’t take it.
>>
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Lucinda tilts her head sideways. Surprisingly, she isn’t meeting Lifa blow for blow.

ರೃ Lucinda: And, what makes you know I’m not angry right now?

Lifa: Maybe you are. I can’t read your mind. All I know is you didn’t act upon it and I've decided that's good enough.

ರೃ Lucinda: I could still act upon it now. I could prove you wrong.

Lifa: I wouldn't regret it. The stray cats bite me sometimes. That won't stop me from trying to pet them.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

ರೃ Lucinda: So; you risked death just to be calmer?

Lifa shakes her head.

Lifa: I was right there when those rich guys were trying to pick you up, remember? I saw you be patient. All I did right now was prove what I already thought.

Lucinda… backs off, and crosses both arms under her chest. Rotating her head bit by bit, she studies Lifa- and you wonder if she’s aware of how those bright cold eyes look to all others.

ರೃ Lucinda: I am patient, then.

Lifa: I never said that you weren’t, Lucinda. I just said I had to think about it. I didn’t say you weren’t up to my standards; you did.

ರೃ Lucinda: I never thought that I wasn’t. Not for a second.

Lifa blinks, already visibly wounded.

ರೃ Lucinda: You want me to chase your approval so you can get to know me better because the moment you do your part of the contract you’ll have nothing on me. I would keep you alive and that’s it.

Lifa: Explain.

ರೃ Lucinda: There is nothing to explain. At the very least those men went for their prey; you, on the other hand, are laying bait. Taking your time to think.

Lifa opens her mouth.

ರೃ Lucinda: Take your time to think.

…wow, she offered. And the other took it. At this point, you wonder how they even put up with the smell; Felicia already tried to leave twice.

Lifa: You think I want the same as those men.

She pauses a bit more, but Lucinda doesn’t rush her.

Lifa: I know it’s tempting to think otherwise, but human emotions are complex. I’m complex. You are complex. And even those morons have a degree of complexity about them.

ರೃ Lucinda: Interesting of you to say that. Because, so far

Lucinda turns around with likely involuntary ballet reflexes.

ರೃ Lucinda: I’ve been finding emotions to be quite simple… Lifa.

She walks away- but stops short.

ರೃ Lucinda: If you won’t do this for me, I’ll just look for another necromancer. I’m sure wanting loved ones back is quite a normal wish.

Lifa: You don’t want people to know you because you don’t want to be judged as well.

Lucinda stops dead in her tracks and turns around, her blue eyes shining like broken LEDs in the night

but Lifa just looks fucking miserable.

Lifa: Do you still want me to answer that question?

The Fucknado walks away.
>>
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WELL;;;;; that was a fucking disaster. Game Over, I guess. You took Felicia back to the same street cafe she nuked with the best fighting game ever to eat burritos, and the police were there. What do you know? Whether that’s because of Felicia or because the waiter did end up calling them here- you’ll never know.
Felicia herself doesn’t seem to care not one bit as she bites bits of taco. You think that the world would definitively heal if everyone was as easy to content as her; people would just gift each other tacos and fall in love. The only caveat to such paradise is that tacos end, and Felicia made short work of hers too fast. The rest bitch face is back.

λ Felicia: We goin home or what?

You consider it- sadly enough. Your poor win streak… What will you even tell the girls? Of very course you aren’t worried about bringing bad news to the Law of Cycles, no, you are /very/ worried about bringing those NAGGERS good news and validation! You won’t hear the end of this one, and it’s been eons since you started.

λ Felicia: Blonde psycho was so scary… but the weirdo painter girl is like Iroha onee-chan!

Hmm, you can see it. Clumsy, kind, brave, weak- and fucks up royal consistently too. Your eyes feel sharp; despite your pessimism, it’s hard to deny that there was some chemistry going down there, of some sort. You can’t quite put your finger on it- but the core of it is that Lucinda asked things and Lifa gave her answers. It’s pretty basic, it may not be enough- but maybe it’s at least worth some meddling.

Hmm. As Felicia destroys her third burrito, like Lifa, you take your time to ponder. Is divine intervention the answer? Or do you not even know the question?

...

Oh well- whatevah! What's some meddling wont to do, right guys? It's always the answer. Maybe not to them. Certainly to you, cuz it's fun.

Even though not meddling last time was the right answer and the very only reason there's still any sort of hope.

You are their goddess. You deserve this. Question is- who does too?
>Go check up on Lucinda.
>Go check up on Lifa.

Time to make that second date yourself- with some psy-ops! But what’s the easiest way?
>>
>>5767767
>Go check up on Lifa.
Weird Eyes the furry who tried to turn a little girl into a cat
>>
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>>5767767
>Go check up on Lucinda.
as far as matchmaking goes this one fucking sucked but this one didn't end in twincest is bestcest so we'll take it. as far as clusterfucks go i'm pretty proud of this one
if you think about it the endgame is already decided no matter what so might as well fuck around. Lucinda will always only accept logic and nothing else, but we can keep pushing her curiosity for wacky results

>>5767770
i don't like that name
>>
>>5767767
>Go check up on Lucinda.
As we already know the result of this, I say we pick the options that will give Madokami the most headaches-per-gucas.
>>
>>5767767
>Go check up on Lucinda.
Fucknado Watch is GO. Good thing she has such a cool and amazing friend like Ritalin to watch out for her now! Besties!
>>
>Hmm, today I will check /qst/, surely nothing interesting is happening.
>On this week in particular,
>When I’m in Hurghada on vacation,
>For the holiday I’ve been waiting for years to do,
>With mediocre hotel Wi-Fi,
>Away from all my electronics except my phone,

>NEW MEGUCA DROPS THE DAY OF MY LEAVE APPARENTLY.
>ITS A LUCINDA THREAD.

Hello my fellow niggucas, Lucinda phoneposting over here.
Just letting you know I’m alive.
I have the worst timing.
>>
>>5767943
glad to see you bitch, hope you like it
>>
>>5767943
Have fun mate, know that you WILL get scammed at the local shops and blow up the Suez Canal for us if you can.
>>
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>>5767777
>>5767847
>>5767854

>Go check up on Lucinda.

Maybe you wouldn’t recommend a little girl to spy on a famous psycho, mostly if said psycho is out for her specific throat- but you are curious, what can you do. Thankfully enough, criminals always come back to the scene of the crime, and even if in this case said crime wasn’t hers Lucinda is back for more coffee. If it’s her, you’ll take it; she could paint a target on her back and the bullet would still end up in either asscheek of her stalker. Of course, you aren’t about to go tell her that her spotless track record isn’t at stake; you tell Felicia to book it. You already know where Lady Lu lives. Operation Heart Melter is a go!

—----

The Newhorn residency looks, as usual, like a Van Gogh that was painted with turds for brushes. You’d love to know how they even got a gargoyle at the entrance because stealing one of those can’t be easy. Two hours later shows up the heiress to the castle of shit, immaculate as ever, and you remember that she rejected three modeling contracts.

λ Felicia: (whispering) Why is everyone so mad about her? I don’t get it.

You tell her that Lucinda’s one true appeal (besides her overwhelming beauty) is that she kept on rejecting very important people, that most people want her just to gloat to the rest- to be ‘the one’. You ask Felicia, who still doesn’t get it, if she’d like to be the first to climb the biggest mountain in the world.

λ Felicia: (whispering) What, that would be awesome! But, haven’t they done that already?

Many died climbing the Everest- but nobody made it to the peak of Mount Newhorn. The door opens. You jump from Felicia’s shoulder and sneak behind Lucinda, who turns around to close the door too late to see you.

ರೃ Lucinda: I’m home.

As usual, only darkness and the black trash bags at the foot of the staircase greet her- the same as yesterday. The castle of this princess seems unusually still today, which is a great start. The Magical Girl’s red and black satchel bounces with every step she takes up the stairs; she didn't even turn on the lights. You look at those hole-ridden bags leaking nameless liquids on the rug; no wonder she didn’t mind the smell back at the dark alley. Once on the second floor, you wait until Lucinda is up to her usual ‘super intense hand-washing’ ritual before rushing into her room. You will watch her from the roof of that wardrobe, the one that's a repurposed coffin, which is almost entirely occupied by a single boxing punching bag.

When she comes back and sits, Lucinda doesn’t undo her hair, she doesn’t change clothes either- she always remains ready.

It doesn’t worry you, though: she’s always like this.
>>
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Lucinda Newhorn’s strife didn’t begin with her wish. At some point in her younger years, while she still had her hair done in drill curls, the structures that were supposed to protect her took a very sharp turn. She found herself getting courted by the likes of teachers and policemen with but a single foot inside highschool, and found that nobody was willing to stand between her and the authorities that used to protect her.

Some didn’t even want to own her.
Some just wanted to see her burn.

That’s how it started. Pepper spray, pocket knives, secret recorders, portable yet deafeningly strong alarms, a lot of self-taught boxing… that life of comfort following orders was over. Her gift in violence was made redundant when she became a Magical Girl- but the world didn’t change. You’ve seen it all, from the shadows. Stalking prospect Magical Girls is how you’ve spent the past fifty years.

You lean a bit over the ledge of the wardrobe, not entirely not scared. You’ve seen Lucinda sleep outside or stand under the rain for hours but it seems she also found freedom on the Internet, freedom surprisingly often spent looking at cars on shopping websites- right now, she’s checking the specifications on a Ford Torino. Fancy stuff there, Lucinda. Other times you’ve caught her checking out traveling spots, music videos, job boards, and trivia on celebrities, way too normal stuff for such a dreaded monster. Well, she DOES answer spam emails with death threats (one sender even apologized) and she does only play a single video game and no other, and that game is Need For Speed Underground 2 from like twenty years ago- but that’s it for her quirks.

That, and the fact that she never had friends at any point.

Hmm, it’s getting closer to the time when the Fucknado goes to that abandoned factory backyard to train. It happens every day and without fail, and doesn’t stop until she’s out of breath.

Hmmmmmm…!! You wonder why someone as efficient as her isn’t already looking for an alternative or a replacement necromancer… muhu! Muhuhuhuu!! That being said, she isn’t texting Lifa yet, and that’s bad Lucinda, I want you to write to her

but how do I make you? Hmm. What can I do that would make you try?

>Write In!

There’s all sorts of stuff in this house since both her parents are hardcore hoarders. With a little digging, you could find pretty much anything in here…
>>
i know guys, this one is very open, lemme have my fun lawl. if its too vague, ill put on some choices and thats it

>>5767777
which name?
also dem get

>>5767854
shes not a bestie if she doesnt leave you to be turned into milkshake

>>5767943
but dude that's fucking awesome, go have fun, go kill vampires, go fuck up stand users
dont worry; your lucinda is in good hands l a w l e. we gonna be in bigguca mode for a while and worst come to worst we start with family friendly fun with erika and jimena in prison with suicide cultists and thats it

srsly, im happy here that you made it to your trip. enjoy!

>>5767065
>i don't know where i'm going with this. never take shit for granted
its not always about making a point, just getting your feelings out there is good enough
>>
>>5768418
>A broken globe
>>
>>5768418
>A torn-up stuffed animal from long ago
Man, if only the things we care about could be FIXED... gee... if ONLY...
>>
>>5768418
>a lighter. start a trashfire
>>
>>5768418
To avoid a tie I'll just switch to >>5768860
Jime's idea. CHAOS REIIIIIIGNS

>>5767943
That sounds rad, hope you have a good time over there! Don't worry, we'll take care of Ole' Luce!>>5767847
>>
>>5769191
too late lmao post is already written
>>
>>5769194
also all choices are included anyway. also yes im growing the post count artificially
>>
>>5769197
voluptuous phalluses
>>
Lucinda went from searching for car pics on Google Images to- searching for RV pics on Google Images. And she doesn’t shy away from the classy ones. A house within a car, super expensive and hard to maintain, that trades more luxury for functionality than most people are willing to give up- and yet, it makes sense.

You quickly leave Lucinda to frown over price tags (with good reason) by herself and sneaky sneaky head down the stairs and towards the. It takes a few little hops but you turn on the light, and, despite being four all over the wide room, the floor is so buried that you cannot see it. Boxes, trinkets, coats, and devices that would be alien to anyone already litter the floor among MANY other items. And rats. Oh god, so many rats. Neither Norberto nor Laura, Lucinda’s parents, have been strangers to this dumpster for too long; scavenging this pile is pretty much their full-time job. Yet the rats thrive.

Unlike them, you aren’t looking for old valuables to pawn but for specific items. Those are:

>A broken globe
>A torn-up stuffed animal from long ago
>A lighter

You make your way through with carefully calculated leaps since hardly anything isn’t covered in grease and whatever covers the floor could melt you. Yes, you are sure.

>A broken globe

Despite their intended use, Planet Earth globes are more often found on the fields of elementary schools because poor kids don’t often own real footballs. The one you found has been stabbed instead of kicked. For whatever reason, the hole is over England.
>A torn-up stuffed animal from long ago

The forgotten plushie; a classic. One day, you wake up to find out that your furry and loving friend went on a trip… then you keep waiting for it to come back for years. Wherever you are, Big Snout, I hope you find the end of the end of the rainbow and that your boss doesn’t overwork you more than twice a week. With teary eyes and shaking lips, you decide this is not the time for this. You pick up a raccoon plushie with Coca-Cola bottle caps for eyes. In its way, it's endearing.

>A lighter

Sneaky sneaky, you head for the kitchen; any second not spent in that graveyard of dreams is a second spared from Hell. There is no Hell, of course, but you /could/ make it. In fact, why not? The lighter you find is red and transparent, and doesn’t have much juice left. No problem. A spark is always enough when you know where to put it- and this will be the spark to melt Lucinda’s heart!
>>
In the darkness of the kitchen, you check your items. The wounded globe will remind the blonde of the damage she did, the half-digested raccoon will bring back her childhood, and setting the whole basement on fire will make her think of the intensity of the feelings she harbors deep inside the basement of her mind- or not. Who knows. What you DO know is that you are the Inquisition and that this unholy dumpster buried in floating trash WILL be purified in your name. Because fuck you.

As you climb up the stairs, as the tiny spark you left rallies others to your cause, and the faint scent of smoke cleans your nostrils, you head up yet another floor. Now, she has to find these herself. The second floor has five more rooms across the hallway, all wet, ruined, and also victims of hoarding. You pick the farthest one from Lucinda’s room and put the broken globe on a box, then leave the raccoon plushie sitting over the frameless mattress on the floor. Thankfully, nobody would bat an eye about finding random shit laying around in this house.

With utter care, slowly, sloooowly, you break the balance of the box which you put on a putrid leather desk because, the moment it falls, Lucinda WILL come guns blazing fully transformed and perfectly ready to both divide and multiply you at the same time and any millisecond you can save matters. You push the box again; then again;; then again;;;; oh god it’s not coming back

You jump
as if a train on fire made of dynamite was coming
you jump right into the little air vent dent on the wall
as Lucinda bolts in like a wrecking ball covered in butterflies.

You DO NOT move. Lucinda’s perception is based on movement and not as sharp as most think, she also isn’t that quick to react either- but she’s always ready. After years of getting ganked, the Fucknado’s alertness became permanent- she sleeps with one eye open just like a dolphin. Some minutes later her scythe is still primed over her shoulder, yet, despite her weakness in picking up details, Lucinda does finally notice the broken globe on the floor- and untransforms.

She picks it up. It’s deflated, and more liquid than plastic at this point- but the shape and the blue and green almost need time to think. Then there’s the hole in England, showing the dark within. Turning the globe around and around, the Magical Girl doesn’t seem to find what she seeks; Lucinda flings it away like a frisbee.
>>
You follow her back into her room dragging the smelly raccoon across the floor with your mouth, praying to whoever is bigger than you that she never finds you. Finally climbing the coffin/wardrobe after she turns around, you spy that Lucinda is on her cellphone, and that she’s spying on Lifa’s chat, and that she’s reading the whole thing over and over again- and that she's restless. Jackpot.

Yet, reminding a psycho that she treated a weirdo like shit isn’t doing enough. Plan B. For lack of a better idea, you hide that putrid toy under her bed; you'll hope she thinks it was always there but that a rat took a dump on it. And although time was short, and despite Lucinda being used to atrocious smells, this one was quick to call her.

As the girl lifts the plushy to shoulder height, she’s… looking straight at the raccoon’s bottle-cap eyes. Hers, cold and analytical as usual, are fixed on the dregs that once were a loved friend. Odds are, she's trying to look within herself. You then remember /there was a question/ that Lifa never got to answer, and that it was related to animals... and if she’s trying to answer it herself, odds are, Lucinda will fall short.

Just like that, she’s texting Lifa.

Or, at the very least, trying, as she writes messages and then erases them over and over. The drafts she writes vary wildly, and you think she’s waiting for one to ‘click’ with her, which is never going to happen because she’s Lucinda fucking Newhorn. The question was ‘Why do you care about what happens to the animal afterwards?’ and attempts to answer it include:

-‘You wouldn’t care because animals suffer anyway’
-‘Answer the question’
-‘You wouldn’t care because animals murder too’
-‘You wouldn’t care because it’s them that suffer, not you’
-‘Don’t call me ever again’
-’You wouldn’t care because you wouldn’t know’
-’Stop wasting my time and call me’

and many etc. And what do you know... Despite Lucinda’s attempts at perfecting the perfect greeting, Lifa sends her a message first.


Teasing Teacher Studios, debut 19/2/2023 <3:
Hello
>>
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It very much seems that she saw the ‘Lucinda is writing…’ being printed over and over over ten minutes. And yet, despite obviously leaving it on 'seen', Lucinda ignores the cell phone for like five minutes to look at cars- then five more minutes. /Then/ she answers.

Lucinda Newhorn:
What do you want?

You SIGH. But Lifa seems to take it in stride.

Teasing Teacher Studios, debut 19/2/2023 <3:
I was thinking about today
I want to talk about it
Do you
?

Lucinda Newhorn:
Will you revive my mammoth or not?

And that's how 'thinking time' starts. Apparently, it would seem, as the researchers say, Lucinda doesn’t seem to like it one fucky bit when it’s the recipient that takes its sweet little time to answer. To think that it’s already past training time and she’s still waiting.

Teasing Teacher Studios, debut 19/2/2023 <3:
I have a condition

Lucinda Newhorn:
No conditions. Yes or no.

Teasing Teacher Studios, debut 19/2/2023 <3:
Don’t you want to hear it first
?
maybe it’s something easier than finding another necromancer

Lucinda Newhorn:
Fine.

Teasing Teacher Studios, debut 19/2/2023 <3:
Come on over to my house
No funny business or anything I promise
i live with my mom and grandma
and we'll save on coffee

Lucinda Newhorn:
You don’t learn.

Teasing Teacher Studios, debut 19/2/2023 <3:
I do
that’s my condition
and it has always been my condition right from the start
for me to get to know you

Well; that’s still true, but- straight home? Isn’t that like skipping eight or nine steps in relationship building? Bringing someone home to your parents has even more weight than sex. That’s bold, Lifa. MAYBE too bold.

Lucinda Newhorn:
So it's the standards again

Teasing Teacher Studios, debut 19/2/2023 <3:
no
im reviving the mammoth anyway

...You are slightly confused. But, Lucinda is texting.

Lucinda Newhorn:
I see. I’ll play your game. I will go where you live and you will revive my mammoth. But nothing more and never again.
I’d lower my expectations if I were you.

Well... kinda weird stuff, not gonna lie. But you'll take it. If anything, at least it's clear that Lifa is somewhat of a thorn in Lucinda's paw.

Whatever. Your track record is safe. Cuz we has a date!

(cont in a bit aaaaa)
>>
You’ve been waiting for the sun to rise ever since it went down. These two days you’ve left Felicia to her own devices, to wander in and get lost in the vastness of Buenos Aires- with some hard cash won through crypto scamming. You love humanity so much that you sacrifice holy minutes to teach idiots to not be idiots.

First came back the sun, then Felicia dressed like a gaucho. Turns out, all the girl with what little time she had on Earth was eat Argentinian asado- but can you blame her?

λ Felicia: Hey! Madoka! If I’m only going to wait again then tell me right now!

Someone is eager to fling shit at people, it seems. But, the gremlin has a point; being on standby means you don’t do anything else. To people like her, that’s just plain torture. You still don’t have the heart to tell her that her suspicions may make sense. At least the view from the rooftop right in front of Lifa’s house is nice, a house that is, funny enough, an actual, honest-to-goodness mini-mannor,

λ Felicia: You know, I was with a real cow! And all the legs were at least THIS thick, and she was black here and here and here. See?

You tell her you see.

λ Felicia: I couldn’t lift it. Wanna know what I called her? I called her ‘grumpy’ because she kept running away from me. Grumpy the cow.

Anyone else would have called it ‘Meal For 7’ or ‘Fuckface’ or something along those lines, but not Felicia. There is no hint of irony or sarcasm in her choice of words, it’s not a play on anything, it doesn’t rhyme: the cow was grumpy so she called it Grumpy, and Felicia loved it because she likes meat. The funny thing is, you’d bet at least five thousand eons that she’d rather starve to death than hurt a cow. You dread the day someone tells her about the farms. You’ve been dreading it for too long.

Lucinda Newhorn has been spotted- carrying a suitcase.

You jump from Felicia’s shoulder.
>>
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The stainless steel gate door in front of Lucinda has no wood whatsoever, yet it resembles a tree. Its branches connect with the floor and make up the fence, which is between two thick marble columns shaped like torches- the whole thing is excentric in itself. If this is where Lifa lives then, well… no wonder she became seclusive! The tall trees inside the house cover your view, but at least from here you can see, behind the impressive door, the narrow, long wooden bridge spanning over what seems like an actual fucking koi pond

from where Lifa is coming from right now.

The tree-shaped steel gate opens towards the house, its bottom scratching the floor at times with a painful sound that drowns the small waterfalls within.

Lifa: H-hey there. Come on in.

She stands in front of Lucinda, visibly nervous, this time wearing only shorts and a Dragon Ball shirt so long that it acts like a dress. You’d think Lifa is a boy if she wasn’t so skinny. Not even greeting back, Lucinda walks past her and you sneak in; but the view lands a blow on the fake princess. Stuck in place, yet still expressionless, the not-actually-rich blonde looks at the carps, at the columns, at the bridge, at the big rocks, the fake waterfalls, the wicker chairs at the side of the pond… She just looks, for a while, no less than absorbed by the environment; then she just walks away as if nothing had happened. Lifa follows Lady Lu to her own house.

ರೃ Lucinda: I have been grounded, so be quick about this.

Lifa: Grounded?

ರೃ Lucinda: My mother and father believe I tried to burn down my house.

Lifa: …what?!

Lucinda doesn’t answer. They are met by an unassuming white door made of wood that, up close, is very rich with details. It’s surrounded by walls that are covered in vines and leaves everywhere except for the windows.

Lifa: Well, we will have some time to talk. Um, I’m going to introduce you to my ma and granny…

ರೃ Lucinda: So?

Lifa: They will offer you food, and, they like to insist a lot. Don’t take it the wrong way.

Well, that’s not a warning you give to normal people- but despite Lucinda’s frowning the fact is that, like A said, her reputation precedes her.

ರೃ Lucinda: There will be no problem.

Lifa: I, um, also told them that you are a model I hired to pose for me. I, I draw a lot, so…

Lifa looks at Lucinda, who looks as nothing as ever.

Lifa: It’s just an excuse. Nothing else. You won’t have to do anything.

ರೃ Lucinda: Ok.
>>
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By the time Lifa brings the tray with the jam cookies and the orange juice and can finally sit down, her grandma is already way on her way talking to Lucinda
and the damage has already been done.

Grandma: What do your robot friends do, butterfly? Tell me about em!

ರೃ Lucinda: Robots don’t have friends.

Grandma: Me neither, all my friends are dead. Let’s be friends.

ರೃ Lucinda: Ok.

Grandma: Who fixes you when you get bad? Where do you sleep?

ರೃ Lucinda: We fix ourselves. We do not need to sleep.

Grandma: What music do you like?

ರೃ Lucinda: We cannot enjoy music. We do not have feelings.

Grandma: Then what makes you happy?

ರೃ Lucinda: We do not need to be happy.

Grandma: (laughs) Then you are already better than us!

Lifa takes a seat. She looks defeated.

Grandma: All those waffles trying to ‘be happy’- and what do they do? Steal little kids! Poison the seas and the fish! Torture those poor cows! And they have us like ants here anyway!

Thank fuck you left Felicia behind.
>>
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Lifa: Grandma, you can be happy without ruining someone else’s life, you know? Not everything is about money.

Yet her grandma shrugs the thought off with a wave of her hand. As if it was an annoying fly.

Grandma: With money, YOU LIVE. Without money, you DON’T. How can you be happy without money?!

Lifa: It’s NOT-

Grandma: If them robots can be more human than us then it’s a welcome change I say! Welcome! We already failed at being good God-fearing Christians. It’s their time! Don’t make our mistakes and you can have as many cookies as you want.

ರೃ Lucinda: Thank you. Beep bop.

Grandma: You welcome, my robot friend!

You and Lifa share a brain-cell: what the fuck is going on? Lifa stands, most likely out of pure instinct, and rushes up the spiral staircase behind her until she’s halfway at the top.

Lifa: We’ll be upstairs for a bit. ‘Miss Model’ here is in a bit of a hurry.

ರೃ Lucinda: You should thank her for the tea first.

The grandma bursts out laughing, then coughing because she’s old.

Grandma: Oh, no, you ain’t gonna fix this one! Save yourself some screws, my little robot butterfly- she has factory defects! Hahahaha!

Lifa has her cheeks puffed to the extreme- but doesn’t retaliate.

Lifa: No; she’s right. Thank you for the tea.

And she bolts upstairs. Lucinda stands at her own pace and bows.

ರೃ Lucinda: Thank you for the tea.

She follows Lifa up the stairs-

Grandma: How much is ten thousand and eight times nine and a half?

ರೃ Lucinda: A million and a half.

The grandma laughs even more.

Grandma: Nice try, you liar! But I know you are programmed to fail on purpose! You don’t need to pretend to be human here. Goodbye!

Lucinda nods and follows Lifa, taking the suitcase with her.
>>
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Lifa: This is my room. Don’t be scared now.

It’s the simplest, most innocent oak door ever- although it is fancy. There are no posters or anything glued to it; just pure wood.

ರೃ Lucinda: I’m not afraid of you in the least.

Lifa: We’ll see.

It’s… something in Lifa’s voice, you believe, that got Lucinda to turn to her so quickly. But it’s too late. The door is open. There is no stepping back from knowledge.

Lifa: Come on in.

Lucinda looks at Lifa… but does step in. You got in the moment they shared that /look/. The completely normal oak door is sealed shut. Lucinda nods to herself.

ರೃ Lucinda: You better explain yourself.

Lucinda doesn’t need to add an edge to her voice to be scary, since her words are backed by simple facts of violence- but Lifa, while still nervous, doesn’t seem afraid in the least. The room is a studio, that is crystal-clear. A very wide, arched drawing board like that of an architect’s stands against the mirror, surrounded by wall-mounted computers, a tall drawer, and a normal, messy table buried under electronics, empty cookie bags, more than four empty cups of tea, keyboards, and a LOT of pages full of drafts. Lucinda looks back at the board, because resting on it is a big drawing tablet, and there’s something drawn on it.

Lifa: I was halfway through it by the time you arrived.

Lucinda dares to look at the posters on the walls again, of voluptuous 2D females. Some are showing some skin. Others are downright naked.

ರೃ Lucinda: You are- an otaku.

Lifa blinks.

Lifa: I am, but more importantly- I’m an erotic artist. A yuri mangaka.

ರೃ Lucinda: ...You are talking about Yuri Gagarin, correct?

Hands shaking despite her bravado, Lifa points at the screen behind her. Lucinda walks up to it; it’s a halfway-finished manga panel of two women having sex.

>>
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Silently, Lucinda turns to Lifa. She doesn’t do much more than stare for a while. If judgment could be seen, well, it would look like this.

ರೃ Lucinda: …I take it that this is what you want in exchange.

And once, and firmly- Lifa shakes her head.

Lifa: Absolutely not at all in the LEAST. I don’t want you to pose. I don’t want to see you naked. I don’t want to have sex with you. None of that. If that was your assumption, then it’s completely wrong and you are wrong.

Eyes closed as she looked away, arms crossed over her null chest, Lifa delivered those sentences with more force than any other so far.

ರೃ Lucinda: Do you take me for an idiot?

Lifa: If you don’t believe me then yes, Lucinda, yes I do.

Lucinda lifts a single eyebrow, very visibly confused, a rare treat.

ರೃ Lucinda: This is the strangest strategy I’ve ever seen so far, and I can vouch for men being willing to try very interesting approaches. You are a freak.

Lifa: Because there is no strategy! I’m not trying to get into your pants at all. That’s why I’m showing you this. Can’t you see?

ರೃ Lucinda: That you are perverted? That much is quite clear.

Lifa claws her head, for the very first time seeming very, VERY frustrated- almost out of nowhere.

Lifa: I live day and night surrounded by tits and ass and pussy because that is my job and what I like to do. I watch porn for reference. I’ve hired models for reference. I had to hire prostitutes at some point for reference. I used /myself/ as reference; there’s a doujin out there about me getting fucked by /Obama/. I’ve been drawing yuri ero-manga for six years already. See? Can you see?

Lucinda is looking, but… not doing much more of anything. It’s as if Lifa had sucked the bitch energy out of her, only that Lifa can’t handle it and is imploding.

Lifa: Can’t you see?!

ರೃ Lucinda: No. No, what? What do you want me to see? The porn?

Lifa: No, Lady Lu! That no matter how pretty you are you have nothing to show me!
>>
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She’s shrugging /hard/. You can’t tell if Lifa is angry or scared or both.

Lifa: I like tits. You can tell. I’m a connoisseur of tits, I’ve studied them like a kung fu master. I’ve already seen ten thousand million tits. See?

She’s showing Lucinda what looks like an acrylic model of two very floaty balls- wait, those are boobs.

Lifa: I use these to set up the angles and then adjust them so that the falloff of the breasts looks realistic. The ones you find on the market gloss over a lot of the details and some are straight-up rocks, so I made these babies myself. Touch them.

ರೃ Lucinda: No.

Thank fuck you left Felicia behind, again.

Lifa: Do you still think I want to fuck you? Or be your girlfriend? Or whatever? What else would I want from you? Your money? Your status? Your fame? I’m satisfied with my community, they’ve been very respectful.

There is desperation in Lifa’s voice… yet that robotic serenity remains in Lucinda’s.

ರೃ Lucinda: I simply do not know what to say. I do not know how to react to this situation.

Like a train arriving, Lifa starts slowing down. She was bringing Lucinda a mannequin with both legs spread wide open- but she keeps it.

ರೃ Lucinda: …I need time to think. I don’t know how much.

Lifa: O-of course! Take your time!

But Lucinda glances at Lifa… and turns toward the innocent door.

ರೃ Lucinda: I’m taking my leave.

Lifa: ……don’t you want the mammoth?

Lucinda isn’t looking at her… which is convenient because, once again, Lifa looks fucking miserable. Not even the mammoth is enough to keep Lucinda here.
>>
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WELL… that means it’s time for divine intervention, pretty much! YUP! Psyops is a go, yes sir. This will end in /SOME/ way on your honor as a cupid- but no way you are going let it end in /NOTHING/.

Thankfully, you’ve done your research. While they argued, you’ve made friends with the secrets of this room (which was enlightening, to say the least), and scouted for items you could show them that could make them talk of other things. Of course (and thankfully) this isn’t Lucinda’s basement, which doesn’t exist anymore, so what you have to work with is much more limited-

but you think may just be enough!

(Pick any at the same time. You can vote for, against, or be neutral about each option)
>Lifa has a plushie. It’s an owl.
>There’s some left-over cake that’s well preserved.
>You found a book on Buddhism.
>Lucinda has a hairpin she cut off a defeated magical girl on purpose.
>There is a single dumbbell under the bell.
>You’ve seen a manga panel with a car.
>Lifa’s DNI. Her document, where her hair looks perfectly natural.
>There are sketches of Magical Girls. A-chan is in one of them.
>There are spicy sketches of Magical Girls. Weird Eyes is in one of them.
>Lucinda’s fake wristwatch.
>Lifa has one of those high school photos you take when you graduate.
>You found a fat stack of hard cash.
>There is a manga panel with very realistic food.
>Lifa also has a dildo. It has been personally signed by Marco Aurelio, CEO of Fantasy Inc.
>You found a Grief Seed.
>There is a manga panel with tentacles.
>You found a bottle like those used for hiking.
>Lucinda’s Swiss knife.
>There is a manga with ballet. Yes, they do end up fucking. The ballet is very well drawn.
>Lucinda’s satchel has her DNI.
>You found shackles.
>There is a manga panel about a sexual romance between a student and teacher, both female.
>There’s a sketch of Lucinda. It IS kinda spicy
>The wardrobe is a goldmine- of hand-made cosplays
>>But! There is a violin inside of it.
>The digital tablet is a very costly Wacom. No need to throw it.
>You found a picture of little Lifa with her family.

Neither psycho nor weirdo is good at selling herself so that part falls to you. Bringing sides of them to the light may make them like each other more- or have the complete opposite effect. At any rate, it seems this is as bad as this could get!


…Hmmm! But why not?

(Pick only one)
>Make Lucinda fall on top of Lifa.
>Make Lifa fall on top of Lucinda.
>Don’t make anyone fall on top of anyone else.
>>
aight guis there you go. i know ive been skimming on the choices so i put on like ten million choices and they are all relevant

no for real i try to write shorter posts and I CANT
>>
Rolled 9 (1d27)

>>5769864
The dice guide my choice.
>Don’t make anyone fall on top of anyone else.
>>
>>5769864
If I just burned down the basement... and currently inuniverse Lucinda left her parents + mammoth in the not-burnt basement, I wonder if butterfly effect is a thing. I hope I didn't time paradox us into a bad ending or whatever.
>Lucinda has a hairpin she cut off a defeated magical girl on purpose.
i want the story behind this
>You’ve seen a manga panel with a car.
luci loves her cars...
>There are sketches of Magical Girls. A-chan is in one of them.
>There are spicy sketches of Magical Girls. Weird Eyes is in one of them.
fucking insufferable bitches the both of them
>You found a fat stack of hard cash.
>There is a manga panel with very realistic food.
this is Jimena's shit
>Lifa also has a dildo. It has been personally signed by Marco Aurelio, CEO of Fantasy Inc.
big fan of this dude
>You found a Grief Seed.
memento mori
>The wardrobe is a goldmine- of hand-made cosplays
>>But! There is a violin inside of it.
give more sad luci backstory
>Make Lucinda fall on top of Lifa.
otherwise she would just phase and let lifa fall... but what if she doesn't
>Scratch that, make Lifa fall on top of Lucinda.
>>
>>5769864
The plot thickens! Oh Luce, what are we gonna do with you?

>Lucinda has a hairpin she cut off a defeated magical girl on purpose.
Ooooh spill the beannnns
>Lifa has one of those high school photos you take when you graduate.
Let's see what happened before she became a complete and utter degenerate
>There’s a sketch of Lucinda. It IS kinda spicy
I feel like Luce would notice this pretty quickly... gotta keep stirring the pot!
>The wardrobe is a goldmine- of hand-made cosplays
There'd better be Lady or Dante up in this motherfucker
>But! There is a violin inside of it.
Woah shit, we gotta play that thing
>You found a picture of little Lifa with her family.
Look how happy she used to look!

I'ma go with these. As for the other option...
>Don’t make anyone fall on top of anyone else.
As wacky as this situation is I'm like 90% certain Luce will tear this girl to shreds if she so much as bumps her right now
>>
>>5769890
and fuck it, let's also add the
>You found a Grief Seed
>>5769868
>write shorter posts
Shut the hell up, we love your big postin
>>
>>5769848
nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuckkk

i skipped an entire post!!

------------------------------

Lifa nods and knocks. You wonder what her family thinks of her. You don’t have to wonder much. A visibly energetic yet very old woman opens the door.

Grandma: AYYYY hellooo!!

Her glasses are as thick as a bottle. From them, the eyes of Lifa’s grandmother seem a lot closer than they are- and make it pretty obvious that she’s looking at Lucinda. You cover your eyes with your ears. You don’t have the balls to see this.

Grandma: Oh hello Miss Model. They make them prettier every day.

Lifa blinks and blinks- then sighs violently.

Lifa: No, NO, not THAT kind of model. Art model, art model! Gran, Lucinda isn’t a robot… the AI hasn’t gotten that far yet…!

Grandma: Good try trying to fool me little ladybug, but I’ve been watching THE NEWS.

ರೃ Lucinda: I am indeed an advanced model of artificial intelligence.

Lifa’s face twists completely.

Grandma: See? Too easy. She’s just too pretty, like those 3Ds you are so crazy about. Miss Model, butterfly, would you like some tea? Alondra set the table. Move that butt.

Awestruck, Lifa pauses.

Lifa: OH no we don’t ha

ರೃ Lucinda: (bowing) I’ll be in your care.

And just like that, Lifa is left alone, likely as shocked as you are.

Lifa: …why would she drink tea if she’s a robot?!

Her complaints aren’t heard by anyone else.
>>
>>5769864
>Lucinda has a hairpin she cut off a defeated magical girl on purpose.
>There are spicy sketches of Magical Girls. Weird Eyes is in one of them.
>You found a Grief Seed.
>You’ve seen a manga panel with a car.
>Lifa’s DNI. Her document, where her hair looks perfectly natural.
Things that could clear some water between them and get us more info.

>Make Lucinda fall on top of Lifa.
Lifa anime-falling on Lucinda sounds like a quick way to get her send to the ER.
>>
>>5769896
really the update worked even without this, don't worry about it
>>
>>5769868
aight guys so far we have

>Lucinda has a hairpin she cut off a defeated magical girl on purpose. +3
>Lifa has one of those high school photos you take when you graduate. +1
>There’s a sketch of Lucinda. It IS kinda spicy. +1
>You’ve seen a manga panel with a car. +2
>There are sketches of Magical Girls. A-chan is in one of them. +1
>There are spicy sketches of Magical Girls. Weird Eyes is in one of them. +2
>You found a picture of little Lifa with her family. +1
>You found a fat stack of hard cash. +1
>There is a manga panel with very realistic food. +1
>Lifa also has a dildo. It has been personally signed by Marco Aurelio, CEO of Fantasy Inc. +1
>You found a Grief Seed. +2
>The wardrobe is a goldmine- of hand-made cosplays +3
>>But! There is a violin inside of it. +3
>Lifa’s DNI. Her document, where her hair looks perfectly natural. +1

and
>Make Lucinda fall on top of Lifa. +1
>Make Lifa fall on top of Lucinda. +1
>Don’t make anyone fall on top of anyone else. +2

ill give it a bit more for you guys to vote for or against while we give emma and lucinda a bit more time. odds are both are busy, but this is the lucinda thread that emmanon wished for lawl (jk its all my fault)

>>5769870
i kinda don get how the dice would OH i see look helenanon you can pick all you want this time, not just one
>>
aight votes closed in like an hour

there are like 20 prompts

short posts were a dream and im already a man
>>
Lifa just pomfs on the bed behind her, covered in an ahegao sheet thankfully buried under her clothes. She doesn’t retort. The myriad monitors above the antique drawing board bear witness as Lucinda… doesn’t do anything. And they stay like that; Lucinda facing the door, Lifa silently letting a few tears run away. The floor is fake wood tiles and socks lying around. Lucinda hesitating…

ರೃ Lucinda: Why are you crying?

The thorniest Magical Girl has turned around, but the horniest is still watching her drops drop. You wonder if the air conditioner above the window is turned on or even works, the air is cold and clean on a sunny day yet half the window is open.

Lifa: I’m not your human/emotions translator. Go. Away.

ರೃ Lucinda: You are melodramatic. It’s annoying me.

Lifa: Then. Go. Away.

Giving Lucinda Newhorn commands is… not exactly orthodox. But this one she may have followed

if you hadn’t dropped twenty thousand dollars right on the pointy tip of her crocodile skin high heel.
>>
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>A fat stack of hard cash.

People often attribute coincidence to causality- a mistake you’ll use in your favor. Your first choice was dropping something that simply couldn’t be ignored, and you know Lifa’s grandma would have agreed with you. Lucinda does, by the looks of it.

Lifa: You know, I-

The necromancer looks up only to find her guest as awestruck as Lucinda can be (which isn’t a lot), holding what can only either be the yurimancer's life savings or just what's left of her latest paycheck.

Lifa: Lucinda, what are you doing?

ರೃ Lucinda: What is this? I know what this is. Do not explain it to me.

Lifa just closes her mouth. Finally, Lucinda is addressing her properly again.

ರೃ Lucinda: Where did this come from?

The way the fake princess is looking at those bills… you know a few patterns. It’s not exactly ‘greed’, it’s not exactly ‘desire’ either. There is something sacred in the way she looks, something truly deep, and, to you, extremely tragic… but you fail to name it. Yet sheepishly is how tiny Planet Earth looks away- but when she speaks you spy a hint of pride.

Lifa: I’m not saying this to be mean, Lucinda, but I’m sure you can join the dots yourself.

ರೃ Lucinda: So, you are like a prostitute yourself. You prostitute your creativity.

….daaaaaaaaamn. You know, Luci, there are far kinder ways to say that. But, right, at this point it's obvious that she wouldn’t know

which Lifa herself seems to believe too, since she isn’t getting all red and screamy.
>>
Yet, the necromancer speaks fast.

Lifa: You know, as offensive as you sound, I think that you may be onto something here, you know? Prostitutes, to succeed in the market, have to be very disciplined with their bodies. They go to the gym, go out on runs on weekends, do sports, eat healthily, and they have to learn how to look good, how to talk dirty, how to fuck well, and knowing the depths of my craft I can't imagine just how many other etceteras.

ರೃ Lucinda: I am not-

Lifa: All of those take discipline, and they also have to live with being looked down upon, and the people on the light side of the moon take all of that for granted.

ರೃ Lucinda: I was not-

Lifa: I do sexual content. It’s not a walk in the park. I’ve sold or gifted video games I liked so I could focus on drawing well. I've sketched for as long as I can remember. I sold my PS4 console right when it came out to pay the first bill of my first digital tablet which my brother then broke like two weeks after.

Like an old steam engine, Lifa finally runs out of breath. Her breathing is unsteady. She wipes off the wet lines on her cheek with the back of her hand.

ರೃ Lucinda: I was not offensive. Do not interrupt me anymore.

The necromancer, with all the valid reasons in the galaxy, first addresses Lucinda Model N with furrowed brows… but even those lighten up in the face of Lucinda’s unwavering static stare.

Lifa: Ok.

And after some serious hesitation… Lucinda gives the fat stack of bills back. Alright, we’ve got some momentum! Let’s help them know each other for the sake of the cosmos. The cosmos… the cosmos? You feel something pressing on your shoulder- your actual, gigantic, impossibly gigantic shoulder.
>>
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It’s, of course, the Law of Cycles, and you hate whoever put it there because things were getting interesting. However, there’s something different about it- something alien- and it looks like a scoreboard. Where the points would be instead is the pixelated face of an old friend, Hitomi Shizuki, who eons ago said that girls can’t love girls.

Magical Girl from Tokime Village: This, oh Goddess, is the Forbidden Love Counter. Through it, we will judge you-

Magical Girl from Futatsugi: -as usual-

Magical Girl from Mitakihara: -but with points!

…nnnnnnnNope, nope you won’t. You turn your shoulder from the seventy-seven hundredth trillion kilometers CRTV floating in space until all those girls can see is the back of your head. Petty, but they deserve it.

Magical Girl that is Not A Vampire: AWWW come on!

Magical Girl with Naginata: No fair!

Whatever. Fun should not be judged. Well, that’s not entirely true… but whatever. You try to focus on the screen, but their yelling and begging is getting annoying.



Fiiine. You turn around; you are a softy. Yet, you do ask the Magical Girls from the Law of Cycles why they are being so especially annoying this time. They share looks.

Magical Girl who likes Cheese: Someone stole the cats.

But of course. You roll your eyes; Futaba Sana. She’s always invisible, so it’s hard to blame her- but /you know/. That girl is just TOO gentle, and it’s not okay to be TOO gentle, it’s just plain boring and a different way to be mean. If only you had sent her instead of Felicia nobody would have hidden the cats.

Magical Girl in Love with Homura: We can't find them.

…And you want to make bets on this instead.

Magical Girl who likes Chocolate: Yes!

Fuck it, whatever. It's either this or more of that endless cosmic bitching. You'll never get used to it.
>>
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>You’ve seen a manga panel with a car.

Your little tour through the drawers left one thing to be trusted, and that is that Lifa (ironically) doesn’t fuck around with her craft. The car in the manga panel you’ve found may look a bit too realistic and stiff in contrast to the somewhat cartoony reality that surrounds it- but the effort poured into it is impossible to deny. All those eons spent learning Mami’s mamis physics finally pay up- when you fling that page in just the right way to pass right in front of their face and for Lifa to catch it in the air right before Lucinda

then cover it against her chest. Lucinda, who has just seen more yuri than most see in decades, slightly lifts a single eyebrow.

ರೃ Lucinda: I was under the impression you were past hiding things.

Lifa: It’s a WIP. Meaning ‘work in progress’. Meaning that I don't want to show it.

ರೃ Lucinda: Show it to me.

If Lucinda ever asked a thief to stab himself in the ass, he would. Something similar already happened, but with a Magical Girl. Fighting his shy demons, Lifa turns the page around, visibly and very obviously covering the bottom panel. You wonder if she's shy about the obvious sex scene or about the way it's drawn.

ರೃ Lucinda: That’s a car.

Lucinda walks up to her and then snatches the page from Lifa’s hands before little Planet Earth even yelps. Yet, the Fucknado isn’t even looking at the panel below.

ರೃ Lucinda: This is a Cadillac Series 62. A convertible. I want to see the page where it doesn’t have the roof.

Lifa... grits her teeth.

Lifa: I-think that the roof should stay there.

ರೃ Lucinda: Why?

Lifa: Well, for one, her mom and dad are right outside…

…Lucinda grimaces as much as she can, which, again, isn’t much, but it’s enough. Welp, at least she didn’t see the panel below it.
>>
Lifa: Do you like it?

ರೃ Lucinda: I do, despite the context. It’s a good photo.

Lifa: It’s not a photo. I’ve drawn it from memory. I don’t need references when the geometry is simple.

ರೃ Lucinda: I see. Draw a Ford Torino.

Lifa: Eh

Lucinda is just looking.

Lifa: Thing is, I, um… don’t know that much about cars.

ರೃ Lucinda: It’s this one. Look at it.

Lucinda wipes out her cell phone and scrolls through it, to the point that she gets so absorbed that Lifa has to walk around and stand next to her to look at the screen. Her controlling parents must have, at some point, ended up VERY confused when they violated their daughter's privacy. There are many pictures of cars, the word 'many' being a very gentle, forgiving, and tolerant way to describe a full SD full of nothing but images and photos she took herself. Lifa’s grimace just grows and grows- perhaps she wonders if this is Lucinda’s vengeance.

Lifa: Oh so… you like cars. I mean, /of course/ you li-

ರೃ Lucinda: I don’t know if I like them.

Lifa: You don’t.… but, you have like a million pics? So, um, don’t you own a car?

ರೃ Lucinda: I do not. This one.

It’s not even the same picture of a Ford Torino she was watching on the Internet last time.

ರೃ Lucinda: Do it.

No ‘how long would it take’ or ‘how much should I pay you’ or even ‘can you do this’ or ‘I like this so much plzplzplz’ begging; just ‘do it'. Nike would be proud. Overworked suicidal japanese salaryman would be proud. Yet Lifa takes the cell phone, sits down at the drawing board at once, and sets to it.
>>
Now it’s Lucinda who is watching from the side as Lifa gently makes her magic pen dance over the sensitive screen. Yet, the virtual page ends up with nothing but weird, thin scribbles- like that of a toddler’s. Just a bunch of circles and spinning lines.

ರೃ Lucinda: What are you doing?

Lifa: Setting the field. Finding a picture in my head.

ರೃ Lucinda: I do not understand…

But then she does, quite quickly. The first weird drawing is then made transparent; solid, fixed lines are attempted on top of it over and over until Lifa goes for the next line. Even the straight lines are done by hand, and in single, violent strokes. Before long, there's a car there, there’s a Ford Torino on that screen, and even so Lifa didn't stop drawing.

ರೃ Lucinda: It is finished already.

Lifa: No, no, that’s just the second layer.

ರೃ Lucinda: How many layers will there be?

Hunched over the tablet, which is certainly bad for her back, Lifa doesn’t tell Lucinda that there will be three more layers, each more complex than the last; she just keeps on drawing. By the end of it, the red and white roofless Ford Torino is drifting recklessly by the side of a mountain, with the rising sun spilling wonderful colors reflected by the hood of the car

driven by a screaming, perfectly realistic giraffe, likely unlicensed. Lifa wipes the sweat off her forehead, sighing in pure satisfaction.

Lifa: There you go: Ford Torino, world record any percent. Like it?

ರೃ Lucinda: Lifa; why is it being driven by a giraffe?

Lifa: Never look a gift horse in the mouth. You don’t get to be picky with presents. Not even you.

Wow, brave; “Lucinda bitch-slapping a Twitter user” must be soon to be in cinemas. Not yet, though.

ರೃ Lucinda: I am not. Why is it being driven by a giraffe?

…the problem is that at this point there’s no room for doubt. Lucinda’s inquiry is not a threat, it’s not mockery, and it’s not a rhetoric question either. Hard to swallow as it may be, it’s only a question and nothing more. Thankfully, Lifa seems to catch up quickly.

Lifa: …To be very honest, because I wanted to see how you reacted. I’m gauging you.

ರೃ Lucinda: It’s an experiment.

Lifa: Yes. People react differently to different things. Before doing or saying something that could make you very upset, I’m showing you mild things that could make you casually upset. It's like touching a pool with your toe before going in like a bomb to splash everyone around.

ರೃ Lucinda: You’ve shown me a room full of naked women having sex already.

Lifa shrugs with full conviction.

Lifa: People can be very weird, Lucinda.

ರೃ Lucinda: Like you.

Lifa: Like me.
>>
Lucinda takes her cell phone from Lifa’s hand- and takes a picture of the drawing tablet.

Lifa: OH there’s no need, I’ll just send it to you through chat. There. Look.

Lucinda looks, in her cell phone, at the picture of a giraffe driving a Torino down a mountain.

Lifa: Do you like it?

ರೃ Lucinda: I don’t know.

Even so… you turn to glance at the Forbidden Love Counter on your existence-sized shoulder: Hitomi’s face looks more… angry? Than before? What? You think that went pretty good!

Magical Girl that is Actually an Uwasa: Hitomi-san’s expression will appear more desperate whenever we consider the feedback to be positive. This time, we agreed that it was. My calculations don’t fail.

Damn straight they don’t! Wait, what about the previous one? How did the cash do? The Magical Girls on your shoulder shrug as one.

Magical Girl that has like Six Little Brothers: It’s a fat stack of cash. I mean, who could go wrong with that?!
>>
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>You found a picture of little Lifa with her family.

Now, this is a good start- little Lifa and mom and dad and big bro! It was stashed away even under the manga drafts with tentacles, right under that one manga with former President Barack Obama. Top secret.

Now, it’s falling from its shelve-

now it calls the girls with the loud ‘clank’ of broken glass, stealing a girlish whimper from Lifa and making Lucinda transform instantly. Shocked then fascinated by the transformation, the little necro-lich looks at the asymmetric white dress, at Lucinda’s veil of chains, at the absurdly bulky scythe, at that single butterfly reaching out to her- but the show ends before she gets to touch it. Untransformed already, Lucinda picks up the broken picture frame.

ರೃ Lucinda: This place is falling apart. What is this?

Lifa: Um, let me look- Huh?! That was stashed away!

ರೃ Lucinda: Poorly, if that was the case. Do not hide that you are clumsy. It won't help your credibility.

Lifa: I’m not, and I’m not hiding anything.

ರೃ Lucinda: You almost killed a man. Out of clumsiness.

Lifa: LOOK, it’s my fault it poured on him, all happy here, now: it’s not my fault that the baristas get their coffee from Mount Vesuvius!

ರೃ Lucinda: This is you.

Both look closer at the picture. Lifa sighs.

Lifa: That’s my little sister Cla- it’s not, it’s just little me. I was going to lie as a joke. Please give me that.

Lucinda hands it over.

ರೃ Lucinda: You have a brother.

Lifa: I do. Don’t worry, I won’t talk about my personal life.

ರೃ Lucinda: Do.

Lifa: Look, Lady Lu: you've made it perfectly clear that we won’t be having a relationship of any sort after this. And I’ve already made my point.

ರೃ Lucinda: You want to know more of me, yet you do not want me to know you. That is not fair.

Lifa: As I told you in the messages, that's not needed anymore. And you can know enough of me without knowing my dramas and traumas anyway.

ರೃ Lucinda: When is it enough? When was it going to be enough for you?

Lifa just... looks at her.
>>
Lucinda Newhorn showing interest in another human being. You love to see it. Best not to forget that things can only go very bad when they are going very well. As for Lifa, she doesn’t seem to be doing very well. Secrets are secrets for a reason.

Lifa: Well, we won’t be seeing each other after this. Why the fuck not? You asked for it.

ರೃ Lucinda: Interesting. No thinking time.

Lifa: It would be wasted.

She sighs, not exactly full of energy.

Lifa: That was my brother. He’s dead now. My wish was to bring him back to life after I killed him.

ರೃ Lucinda: I see. Why is he dead now?

Lifa: I killed him again.

…Jesus fu- Madoka fucking Kaname. Not even missing a single beat, neither of them. Lucinda simply sits on the couch, fixing those cold inquisitive eyes on Lifa. You wonder how Lifa is escaping the ‘human’ category that Lady Lu usually can’t even stand to share air with- so far, that searing hatred was as universal as you, fair, evenly and generously distributed.

Lifa: Ok, so, I’m from a wealthy family…

ರೃ Lucinda: I can see that.

Lifa: You don’t understand. Let me… let me give this some structure.

ರೃ Lucinda: Do your thinking.

She does, eyes closed, alone with the Fucknado. The shit you’ve seen Lucinda do… well, it’s not THAT bad! Maybe?
>>
Lifa: My family was wealthy. My father was the CEO of a drill manufacturing company. My older brother, who was a total shitbag by the way, got with the wrong crowd and started mugging people and doing drugs because apparently that's what passes as cool around here. That’s just culture at work for you. Be dumb enough, and you will jump into a pit full of spikes when everyone else does.

ರೃ Lucinda: I want to confirm this: you killed him before signing your contract.

Lifa: Yes; and yet I killed him way too late. I knew of the damage he was doing, I just kept drowning in my pool of apathy and hate because I was comfortable, because I felt that I was the victim. All the meanwhile, that piece of shit was going from school to school getting little kids addicted to crack and luring out little girls either to get raped or be turned into hookers.

Heavy shit, here we go. Lifa sighs, visibly upset, shaking, angry, and red-eyed.

Lifa: I still haven’t made peace with myself, you know? I still feel like a stain of horse shit on the road because I only took action the moment /I/ was affected- because he turned one of my friends into a junkie, he made her drop school and have sex with all of his friends for drugs. She's still at the psych ward.
>>
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A Magical Girl's past is either a perfect walk in the park or fucked up to the point of being hilarious. Now you know where Lifa fits.

ರೃ Lucinda: What did you do?

Lifa: First, I called the police. They snitched- the police itself snitched. He tied me to a chair so his friends could take turns burning me with cigarettes and pouring beer all over me. Kept calling me ugly as shit, but I’m thankful for that because at least they didn’t touch me.

Lucinda nods.

ರೃ Lucinda: That does certainly seem convenient.

…Lifa gives up a little wounded smile.

Lifa: It must be very hard being as beautiful as you. Anyway... Back then, I was already on their radar because I had already snitched, and, like you, they weren’t that good at telling intent- so they were going to kill me to make sure.

ರೃ Lucinda: Keep going.

Lifa: …Coffee.

Lucinda waits; Lifa says nothing more.

ರೃ Lucinda: Coffee.

Lifa: (nodding) Coffee.

…….coffee. Nah nah nah nah, no way in hell. That would be too much of a coincidence!

ರೃ Lucinda: Coffee… how? I remember what I said. I meant it as an exaggeration.

Lifa: (giggles) Does that mean that you also make jokes sometimes?

ರೃ Lucinda: This is a joke, then.

Lifa shakes her head like she was at a rave.

Lifa: They were onto me, remember? My brother kept on living here with me to keep appearances, though I’m fairly sure he just enjoyed scaring me. Either he was paranoid or he knew somehow that I wanted to kill him, so… there wasn’t much more I could use.

ರೃ Lucinda: And you used coffee to kill him.

Lifa nods.

ರೃ Lucinda: I think that you are lying. Third-degree burns are treatable. Coffee cannot be lethal.

Lifa: It can.

ರೃ Lucinda: It can’t.

Lifa: It can.

ರೃ Lucinda: Stop. If it can, tell me how.

Lifa: With… with a syringe, Lucinda. With a syringe.

…You and Lucinda both, at the same time and rhythm, furrow brows.
>>
Lifa: He used to do heroin… right here. In this room.

ರೃ Lucinda: You killed a man by injecting coffee into his veins.

Lifa: Into the back of his neck.

Lifa touches the spot on hers. Her hands are rather small.

ರೃ Lucinda: I assume he had hidden the knives and such.

Lifa: He didn’t, at least the knives at the kitchen. It was like he was taunting me.

ರೃ Lucinda: I see.

Lifa: Are you afraid of me?

ರೃ Lucinda: You could have told your mother or your grandmother.

Lifa: They would have been at stake as well. Besides… well, that is why I brought him back, after all.

ರೃ Lucinda: I was about to ask that.

Lifa: I kind of figured. I used my wish to bring my brother back because my mother was obsessed with him... firstborn child, all that stuff. She missed him. But I'd be lying if I said that was the only reason.

ರೃ Lucinda: Go on.

Lifa: I felt bad for him. I felt that he also was a victim in this story. Everyone had lied to him, made him think horrendous shit was cool. I... thought I could fix him. Show him another way. Then he goes and rapes and kills a woman that was going to get married in two weeks, and runs away with the money he stole from her bank account. I hunted him down myself for like a month and then killed and revived him over and over until my Soul Gem went pitch black and I couldn't do it anymore.

Lifa looks... sad. And this is pure sadness, pure blue.

Lifa: In hindsight, all I did was cause needless suffering to satisfy my rage like he did. He wasn't going to learn anything from all I did to him, and whatever he could have learned he wasn't ever going to use. I became a monster and it destroyed me. Suffering always deserves a reason.

WELL… ffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Lesbian Magical Girls are common, and it makes sense, and it happens- but full-on erotic artists? That are straight-up murderers? That bring you back from the grave to kill you again? The fuck is wrong with this timeline, or this country, whatever-
>>
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The irony that everyone is afraid of Lucinda yet this random weird-ass girl turns out to be twice as messed up doesn’t fly past you, but now you think that you MAYBE should have done a bit more research. It’s just, that some Magical Girls are easier to stalk than others- and frankly more interesting. Despite the hair this one always seemed dull, always bunkered up inside her studio. Alone.

ರೃ Lucinda: That's fucked up. I would have done the same, though.

Lifa: Don't say that.

You glance at the Forbidden Love Counter on your shoulder; and Hitomi looks even more scared! The way you see it, sharing the skeletons in your closet is a good way to make a relationship both useful and stable- after all, those aren't going anywhere. Now Lucinda knows that her 'Fucknado' is worth jack shit compared to whatever hellspawn you just happened to hook her up with- which she doesn't seem to hate, at least.

At the very least, that's what the Law of Cycles seems to thinks, and that's good enough for competitive little you.
>>
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>Lucinda’s hairpin.

The gold-trimmed wooden ceiling fan overhead spins with a soothing droning sound- making the thick air conditioner redundant. Under it, standing on the same crimson carpet, two Magical Girls share silence like it was booze. Cars pass by outside the iron gate as cicadas share their song- but neither girl contributes to the orchestra of life.

Suddenly desperate to cause any distraction, you immediately recognize the beetle-like hairpin that Lucinda carries around inside her satchel- and decide that Lifa may like how Lady Lu dealt with some of her insistent challengers. There are similarities, after all. However, on a personal whim, it’s not only the hairpin that you hope Lucinda will talk about. The earring she always carries under her right ear /should not be there/- and that’s a story you’ve been wanting to hear for some time now. Thankfully, the satchel was left there when Lucinda sat on the bed, so- all you do is set it up a bit from the inside, push it a bit against the ledge

and let gravity help you.
>>
Lifa: Um. You and I-

Whatever Lifa was going to say will forever be lost to history as the jolt from the satchel falling to the ground got Lucinda to draw out her scythe again- but it’s just the contents of her bag spilling all over the floor. Lifa giggles, not entirely without scorn.

Lifa: What do you know, Lucinda Newhorn is clumsy too.

ರೃ Lucinda: Your room must be invaded by a poltergeist. That or your personal magic is at work.

Lifa: Um- Do you believe in ghosts?

ರೃ Lucinda: I do. You’ve shown me one yourself.

Lifa: OH right, right, but of course, but, my ‘ghosts’ are, eh, sliiightly different from what you’ve seen on TV. You’d be so disappointed.

Lucinda gets on her knees to pick up her stuff. Lipstick balm, rimmel, the keys to her room, little bags of hair conditioner, a tiny box of tampons, her swiss knife, a lot of crumpled receipts… Lady Lu doesn’t use that much makeup, but what little she puts on is only in the right spots. In comparison, Lifa is a wreck. Come on Lifa, look at the pin. Look at the pin. Lifa, look at the damn pin you utter degenerate!

Lifa: Oh, look.

Yay! She picks it up.

Lifa: Oh gosh, this is kinda cute coming from you.

ರೃ Lucinda: Hand it over.

Lifa hesitates- so Lucinda snatches it a bit too brutally. Ouch. At this point, Lifa must be used to her guest having the tact of a homing missile.
>>
Lifa: Do you like cute stuff, Lucinda? Like bunnies?

ರೃ Lucinda: I do not. This is the hairpin I wear when this one gets ignored.

She points at the pretty blue earring under her ear.

Lifa: I see?

ರೃ Lucinda: It’s a deterrent. So far it only worked once.

Lifa: Worked once to, oooh, to scare away- who? Oh, the Magical Girls, I think.

ರೃ Lucinda: That is correct.

Lifa: But, why would a cute little hard-working beetle scare people? We all are rolling our ball of dung, right?

ರೃ Lucinda: Because It belonged to the leader of a local factionless Magical Girl who came after me, Vanessa Adeline. Long red hair, tall, lanky, green eyes, glasses. Stands like this.

Lucinda changes her pose; now she’s standing with both arms hanging forward like a zombie.

Lifa: (nods fast) Yep! Know her. The vulture. The one from that meeting, right? The representative that didn't care about borders and jurisdiction.

ರೃ Lucinda: Vanessa Adeline stated that you cannot support the existence of factions without lacking chromosomes- yes, on that one meeting of the factions. We are on the same page.

Basically, Vanessa lives lawless in a world with three different sets of laws, one for each faction. Yet despite being public enemy number one she dared to show her face and talk at the summit of the three factions after stealing Witches from all of them right under their noses.

Lifa: …It’s not a gift, isn’t it?

ರೃ Lucinda: It’s not a gift. ‘Lockheart’, a Magical Girl from the East I had defeated previously, passed away after the fact. The blame was cast on me. Vanessa came after me. She did not come alone.

Aaaaand there you go. If there was a moment that cemented Lucinda’s fate as 'the reason for which Magical Girls lock their windows' it would have to be that one.
>>
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ರೃ Lucinda: I will cut to the chase. I removed all of their arms and legs, put each piece of their bodies in the same big black back then delivered said bag myself to the Coordinator. I made sure to be spotted by other Magical Girls during my tour around the Capital.

…WELL, that is one way to cut to the chase. Lifa looks… traumatized.

ರೃ Lucinda: I had only one Grief Seed left at the time, which I used to pay for their treatment. I was and still am on friendly terms with the healer that the Coordinator called, so I was already certain in advance that their bodies would be restored to their original shape.

Lifa: But… their Soul Gems… no, nevermind. Lucinda, that’s… horrible. What you did is… horrible. What I did was horrible.

ರೃ Lucinda: I did it out of necessity to protect myself.

Lifa: What if they didn’t cut you down either because they didn’t think you would? What if they didn’t want to kill you? Or even hurt you that badly?

ರೃ Lucinda: They wanted to seal my Soul Gem and leave me to die a year from then by myself. They stated their intent in advance. I told them I wouldn’t, and that I’d cut them all down if they ganged up on me. They didn’t meet me one by one. They engaged together. They failed to notice that I was not boasting at any point.

Lifa: L-lucinda, um, usually, when you tell someone that you are going to chop them to pieces- you don’t mean it, you know?

ರೃ Lucinda: I do not think that people talk like that frequently.

Both Norberto and Laura, Lucinda's mom and dad, do, though. Lifa is at a loss for words. Ending up in a bag full of limbs which is filling with your blood, unable to move, floating around your limbs in utter darkness- yeah, you get her. There you go. That’s the ‘Fucknado’ for you.
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ರೃ Lucinda: If it helps, I ensured that they’ve all lost their consciousness before putting them in the bag. Knocking others out is one of my specialties.

Lifa deflates so hard that she might as well be a skeleton to revive at this point.

Lifa: OF COURSE THAT HELPS! T-that, that changes everything! J-JUST imagine…

She’s /shivering/ and visibly sweating; the mental image must have been too much for this completely pure, soft-hearted maiden.

ರೃ Lucinda: My intent was simply to intimidate future challengers. I only resorted to that measure after all others failed.

Lifa: That’s… a huge fucking relief. So… why were they blaming you for what happened to the first girl? The one you defeated?

ರೃ Lucinda: I broke enough bones in her body for her to spend a month in the hospital. Nobody went to heal her.

Lifa: I think I can tell why- but why did she come after you?

ರೃ Lucinda: I buried alive one of her friends. I also made a treasure map so they could find her. Someone told me later that they were using it upside-down.

Lifa: W-why?! I mean, why did you do that?

ರೃ Lucinda: She attacked me while I was training because I tied all the members of her team under a train. It was the same train, the one that goes from Retiro to Constitucion.

Lifa: Oh-my-god, and why were those girls after you?

ರೃ Lucinda: Because I threw them into a river from a building the past week or so.

Lifa: A river? In the Capital? Which one?

ರೃ Lucinda: The Riachuelo.

A river almost entirely made of trash and excrement, famous for its smell. Lifa doesn't even attempt to hide or even moderate her expression as she clenches her bared teeth in disgust.

Lifa: I would be still bathing to this day. And... you had to do that atrocity because…

ರೃ Lucinda: I had left naked on the streets a team of Eastsiders that claimed to want 'justice'.

Lifa: Naked. As in-

ರೃ Lucinda: As in naked. It is simple. I still do not understand why it was the Northerners who came for me on their behalf later on. I was under the impression those two factions were rivals.

This just won't end.
>>
Considering that first impact, Lifa is taking this too well. Poor girl had to acclimatize at once.

Lifa: Well... maybe they went to bully the East girls and found them already way worse than usual… because of you. Magical Girls from the North like to act like mean slutty bitches and I don't like them, but their faction always did like a ton of charity behind the scenes. I still remember that one time they dressed like Pokemon because there was this one sweet kid who had no friends. I was there. It was nice. I still think it was too much.

Lifa scratches her chin, smiling to herself a bit. Memories can feel a million years away even when they happened yesterday.

Lifa: I kinda know the answer, but why did you have to leave them naked in the open?

ರೃ Lucinda: Because another team from the East caught me hunting for Witches and I stole all of their money in response.

Lifa: And those came for you… because…

ರೃ Lucinda: Because I spanked their leader.

Lifa: Is this comedy? Are you doing comedy, Lucinda?

ರೃ Lucinda: No. I'm merely narrating.

And that’s not to mention the infinity of times that Magical Girls came asking Lucinda for duels. Those were fair, at least- even though the Fucknado didn’t lose a single one of them. That nigh-invulnerability of hers is too hard to counter. So far, the only two tactics that worked were a) invisible attacks so that Lucinda wouldn't react and b) endless barrages of attacks to force Lucinda to keep her power up for as long as possible. The backlash hits her harder the more she remains untouchable, but even keeping her in that mode was proven to be too hard.
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Lifa: So, then, you didn’t do… “”that””… right off the bat. You escalated. But so did they.

ರೃ Lucinda: I don’t care if they suffer or not. I simply did not want to be their prey.

Lifa: Can’t you see a pattern here? In all of those things that happened?

ರೃ Lucinda: Yes. My enemies kept getting stronger.

Lifa: Any /other/ pattern?

ರೃ Lucinda: Do not mince words around. If you have something to say, say it. Do not waste my time.

Lifa, you, and most of the girls on your shoulder betting for your failure all roll their eyes at once. Nope; she doesn’t see it. She can't see it with those sapphire eyes. That’s just how Lucinda Newhorn works. Don’t ask a fish to fly.

Lifa: Lucinda; have you considered letting them defeat you? At least a couple of times?

ರೃ Lucinda: They want me dead.

Lifa: Hmm, yes, you are right; at this point, at least. Maybe if you had let them win a few times before they would have been satisfied with that and called it a day. I think that people fear you when you show yourself strong- and the stronger you look, the more they fear you, and the more they want you. Does that make sense?

ರೃ Lucinda: You speak in riddles all the time.

Lifa: Let me put it this way, then. If you have had a boyfriend, the other men would have no reason to keep pestering you. You’d be just another pretty blonde, not the top prize of the game.

ರೃ Lucinda: I don’t want a boyfriend.

Lifa: Really? Don’t you like any guy out there? Any girl, even?

ರೃ Lucinda: I hate everyone.

>>
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Said without a hint of irony, sarcasm, or exaggeration; the sad reality of Lucinda Newhorn. That bottomless pit of bile hasn’t gone anywhere.

But; Lifa is still there, at least. Even though she’s surely included in the ‘everyone’.

Lifa: What about that earring under your ear? You mentioned it before. Doesn’t it hurt?

ರೃ Lucinda: Only when they dig the hole through it.

Lucinda tinkers with the earring a bit and takes its body off, leaving behind only the ring stuck in her ear.

ರೃ Lucinda: This belongs to Aloe from the Big West.

Lifa: ...That Aloe?

ರೃ Lucinda: Yes. Aloe the Clusterfuck.

In the subworld of Magical Girls, the only anomaly to put Argentina on the map is the Big West. The Capital is divided between its East, North, and West factions- but the rest of Buenos Aires, seventy times the size of its core, was always divided into the Big East, Big West, Big South, and Big North. Formerly without the ‘Big’; the Capital became its own world barely a few years ago.

The Big East is a no man's land for Magical Girls where everything is allowed,

the Big South is just a million factions held together with duct-tape, fighting for territory,

the Big North is still under the rule of Raya’s Holy Church (even though Raya herself is still nowhere to be seen)

and the Big West is to Magical Girls what the Wild West is for cowboys.

The Big West currently has the most territory out of any other faction… despite having the smallest population density of Magical Girls of almost any other place in the continent. It’s also home to the strongest Witches ever seen on this side of the ocean- and to some of the most extremely powerful, bizarre, and otherworldly Magical Girls this timeline has ever seen. Their core rule in that territory is that hunting teams are forbidden: Magical Girls are to meet with its insane Witches alone. The resulting power gap is a true joke. If Magical Girls had ranks, the strongest Magical Girl outside the Big West would be a feared, legendary rank B+... and any citizen of it that you chance upon on its streets would be a rank SS that just came from leveling a city block by herself.

Aloe is such an example.
>>
Lifa: You didn’t beat her.

ರೃ Lucinda: We did not fight. The rumors had gotten so out of hand that she came to recruit me. I explained my situation, and so she gifted me this earring she was wearing at the time. It was so that others would think that I had triumphed over her; I could not reject it.

Lucinda shakes her head, more expressive than ever.

ರೃ Lucinda: It would have been impossible.

Lifa: Back then, they used to say that you can only beat the West with numbers.

She giggles, but no sound comes out.

Lifa: It wasn’t true, of course. It makes sense that someone from that absurd place wouldn’t care if others thought she lost.

Witches never leave the Big West. All that happens there is self-contained- and yet there are no inner factions.

Lifa: Now that I think of it... isn't it weird that someone from the Big West came to see you but our own Faction Leaders did not? Or did they at least send someone? That's kind of their job.

ರೃ Lucinda: I was approached by Hyakumantenbara Salome from the West. She requested that I explain to her how to be a proper lady and the mannerisms involved.

Lifa: I need to hear this.

Eyes like plates, the smaller girl drops her butt on the bed.

ರೃ Lucinda: There is not much to say. We would meet during weekends so I could teach her what I knew. I taught her how to do her hair in drills, but she went overboard. Her way with her hands is also exaggerated as is her laughter and the way she walks- but she did respect the basics. All of them except for the subtlety expected from a lady.

Lifa: Wooooow. There must be a lot of stuff involved in that.

ರೃ Lucinda: It simply takes discipline and constant practice.

...So it's her fault. That may even be worse than tying those girls under the train.
>>
Lifa finally giggles for real.

Lifa: Lucinda; you do know what ‘knocking out’ means, right? You said it just now.

ರೃ Lucinda: It’s when you send someone into a coma.

Lifa: It also has another meaning. Do you know what a futanari is?

You look at the Forbidden Love Counter on your shoulder and- Hitomi seems at ease. Hey! How come? Before bringing your own brand of bitching to the table, you ponder it over a bit. To have Lifa, a person that clearly has tact, bring her past into the table to Lucinda, hardcore psycho, is one thing... to have Lucinda comment on how she terrorized the Magical Girls of Buenos Aires into leaving her the fuck alone to poor little Lifa is quite another (despite Lifa still being ten times as freaky).

You look at the little lich- it may be your usual pessimism, but she does seem to be stringing her words together more carefully. Knowing each other's stories is fundamental, no way in hell you are backing out of that one- but maybe the timing and the way could have used some work.

Whatever. You'll let it slide this time.

Bitches.
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>Lifa has one of those high school photos you take when you graduate.

Upsie! Something is raining- and it’s an entire album crammed with half-done manga pages. Even with how messy this place is, both of them are bound to get scared if you just keep dropping things like that, so- let’s do it all in one go!

ರೃ Lucinda: You should play Jenga.

Lifa: This only happens when a beautiful girl comes over…

ರೃ Lucinda: Then I will assume that beautiful girls do come over all the time.

Lifa: And you’ll be right!

Chess puff, proud smile, defiant eyes; Lucinda is met with the full package but buys none of it.

Lifa: I’m talking about me. I am the beautiful girl. It's a joke. Hardly anyone but my grandma comes here...

ರೃ Lucinda: I assumed as much. I don’t think any other would come unless you pay them.

Wow, bitch, rude. And yet, Lifa laughs.

Lifa: You just called me beautiful!

ರೃ Lucinda: Incorrect. I said that you were talk-

Lifa: You just-called-me beautiful! You just-called-me beautiful!

Lifa sings and dances- even after Lucinda told her she butchered a whole team and dragged it around in a bag. Who, to your shock and surprise, is only crossing her arms under her up-to-standards chest and staring.

ರೃ Lucinda: Feel free to look as dumb as you like for as long as you like.

Lifa: HEY.

ರೃ Lucinda: It is your right. What is this?

FINALLY. It’s Lifa’s high school picture. Even there her hair still has those weird toxic colors.
>>
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ರೃ Lucinda: You are easy to spot. High school must have been rough.

Lifa: Oh but you’d be surprised, Lady Lu, because I had plenty of friends back in the day, you know.

ರೃ Lucinda: I do not believe that.

Lifa: There are still people out there who appreciate genuinity. Who like people brave enough to do what /they/ want.

ರೃ Lucinda: I am quite certain that those 'friends' had plenty to say behind your back.

Lifa: I can never know that- but at least I can know that I did what I wanted.

ರೃ Lucinda: Was it worth it?

Lifa shrugs.

Lifa: It didn’t make my life miserable.

ರೃ Lucinda: You are brave.

Now it’s Lifa who covers her arms over her chest, mischievously.

Lifa: Was that a compliment, Lucinda the ‘Phantom Fucker’?

And now it’s Lucinda that shrugs but in her case it's kinda half-assed.

ರೃ Lucinda: It is a fact. You have to be brave to do something that stupid. You painted a target on your back, in high school of all places.

Lifa: And it got me a few friends who REALLY got me.

ರೃ Lucinda: Did it, now?

Lifa: Do you want me to prove it?

But Lucinda just touches her lips with a dainty finger, her curious blue eyes as attentive as ever.
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ರೃ Lucinda: Huh. Interesting. So your hair is a beacon.

Lifa: Well- kinda?

ರೃ Lucinda: Like one of those lighthouses they use at beaches to signal at stray ships during the night. I believe that the behavior is similar.

Lifa: HMMmmm... Correct! You’ve got your patterns right, there. No one can love you for yourself- if you never show yourself, is what I say!

ರೃ Lucinda: They also cannot hate you.

Lifa bites her lower lip in the most unsexiest way possible- but doesn’t retort- and neither does Lucinda dig the point further.

Both of them: You are right, though.

Lucinda blinks, Lifa blinks. Woah–heeeeeeeeeeeeey..! What’s that over there, huh? Nice. You glance at the Forbidden Love Counter resting on your shoulder: Hitomi looks slightly more disgusted. As if she had grazed a girl's hand with her own. Small steps.
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>There’s a sketch of Lucinda. It IS kinda spicy.

Oh me oh my; the tingling on your cheeks would melt a quintillion galaxies if Lucinda’s leg was any higher in this sketch. It is as certain as your fairness that the real deal would like to have a look at this- it certainly conveys what Lifa thinks of her body. While they are busy, you let it fall like a dead leaf in autumn, quite sure that they won’t even bother to look up. It gets mixed up with all the others you rained on them last time.

ರೃ Lucinda: What is this?

Lifa: Oh, what did you find?

ರೃ Lucinda: Me.

Lifa: Hmm, I kinda don’t know how to parse that.

ರೃ Lucinda: Try literally.

Lifa becomes Deatha in what to you, a being of the eons, is a year. Meaning instantly. Yet a healthy red is quick to invade her cheeks as Lucinda’s bitch slap, which would make pimps everywhere agree with each other, gives the lich some life back.

Lifa: …aaaaaaaaAAAAAAUUUCHH…

ರೃ Lucinda: Tell me what you were planning for this because it will not happen.

Lifa’s sudden burning rage is quick to simmer down as Lucinda elegantly turns the page around. As tears stream over her red cheeks again, Lifa can’t do much but shrug in anger.

Lifa: Nothing. I see pretty, I draw. What would I do, publish a manga of you getting tit-fucked by an ugly bastard? As if all the people who hate you wouldn’t shove it right up your nose the minute it hits the panda.

ರೃ Lucinda: Panda.

Lifa: …there’s this page with a panda… it has porn…

Lifa sobs, then sobs again. Her cheeks are as wet as her green eyes.
>>
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ರೃ Lucinda: You are being too melodramatic. It’s annoying.

Lifa: I’M NOT MELODRAMATIC, I’M HURT! I HATE VIOLENCE!

ರೃ Lucinda: You shouldn’t. Violence keeps us alive. It kept you alive. This time it will make you fall in line.

Despite Lifa’s whimpers, Lucinda’s eyes remain hard and steady.

Lifa: …Sorry. I didn’t expect you to find you to find that- what did I even just say, I don't know. I thought it was hidden as well as my mental issues.

ರೃ Lucinda: Those are hidden poorly. You wear your scars on your skin. The metaphorical ones.

Lifa: WELL, now I have a literal one. (sniff) Don’t ever do that again! I’ll fucking throw you out, I swear!

Lucinda frowns- as if genuinely annoyed.

ರೃ Lucinda: I will if I have to. It is you that is exaggerating. That being said-

The fake princess looks at the manga panel again.

ರೃ Lucinda: I do look quite well here. Do you have more?

Both you and Lifa share the same face that screams ‘LOOK MOTHERFUCKER–’

You look at the Forbidden Love Counter being held by a single little girl on your shoulder: she looks back at you, scared. Where are the rest of them? No time to find out, Hitomi looks much more confident now... but she's about to find out, just you wait!
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>There are sketches of Magical Girls. A-chan is in one of them.

Lucinda doesn’t get to see Lifa's creepy scowl because she spotted a familiar face among the layers of manga pages covering the floor. She pushes the one with the butt coming out of a trash can aside and grabs the one under it. Which, is simply A-chan, on her desk as usual; a picture that every Magical Girl in Buenos Aires must have seen at least once.

ರೃ Lucinda: The Coordinator. A.

Lifa: Yes. So?

ರೃ Lucinda: I do not know how to make you stop whining.

Lifa stops like a deer under headlight- those headlights being Lucinda’s cold, curious stare. As if the blonde was trying to peek into the cogs behind Lifa’s heart.

Lifa: ...Nothing. Just wait. You can’t rush a flower, and you can’t rush sorrow.

ರೃ Lucinda: Ok. I want to know why the Coordinator isn’t sexualized in your drawings but I am.

Lifa: Let me think… no, no need. The Coordinator can't be friends with anyone, correct? She doesn’t have the time to develop deep friendships and such- but I love her all the same because she works hard all the time to keep others safe and sound. I just can’t see her in that light. Meaning, I can't see her as something sexual.

ರೃ Lucinda: You can’t sexualize what you love. Is that your point?

Lifa squints her eyes…
>>
Lifa: To be honest, I’m not so sure of that myself either. Well, for one, your body is like out of a dream, and our dear Coordinator’s is just normal and lanky from all that overworking. Going by the way it looks, there's nothing particularly sexy about it.

ರೃ Lucinda: What makes something ‘sexy’?

Lifa’s jaw drops.

Lifa: You mean you don’t know? You are the living definition of ‘sexy’! You smell ‘sexy’, Lucinda!

ರೃ Lucinda: Don’t make me repeat myself.

…You ponder it yourself. As far as you know, something is sexy when you want to ‘sex it’. Brilliant, but- what makes you want to? Is it a primitive urge? Something about destruction? Or something else entirely?

Lifa: But, your looks are almost perfect. Nine and a half out of ten.

ರೃ Lucinda: I simply arrange myself how I’ve been taught to. I do not understand the effects I have on others.

Lifa: Right, I see. So…
>>
>There are spicy sketches of Magical Girls. Weird Eyes is in one of them.

Conveniently, Lifa finds a perfect example of 'sexy'- and, of course, it had to be Weird Eyes. The Magical Girl of Stray Cats is famous for three reasons:
Secretly being a Coordinator.
Being one of the oldest Magical Girls alive, and:
For hunting down every Magical Girl over eighteen and giving them a few more reasons to live, which she has reason number 2 to thank for.
The title ‘Magical Girl of Stray Cats’ had a hidden meaning all along. You know the truth, though. Weird Eyes, already drained of emotions, was desperate for motivation and assumed that everyone else was on the same train in a very concrete way. Funny enough, the true point that makes her actually important isn't even a reason for which she's known.

ರೃ Lucinda: I see. She did consider the legal age at least.

Lifa was just explaining what you were thinking out loud.

Lifa: She told me herself that she didn’t have enough time to worry about taboo. That some definitions of ‘purity’ can and will drown you if you let them.

Lucinda studies the drawing closely. Short yet packed blonde hair with black shades, thick legs, and a dreamy face- but with normal eyes this time. The Weird Eyes in the picture is crawling towards whoever is looking at her, much like a cat, wearing only a loose white shirt but no pants whatsoever.

ರೃ Lucinda: Fitting, given that the whole cat-girl fad is her fault.

Lifa: You are a nine and a half out of ten only because she is a ten out of ten, and she’s the only woman ever to deserve that score.

ರೃ Lucinda: And why is that?

Lifa: Her true wish was to be perfect.

ರೃ Lucinda: I see.

Lucinda looks at the picture once more.

ರೃ Lucinda: I wonder how she endures it.

Lifa: Having those boobs?

ರೃ Lucinda: Her beauty. Mine made me a slave. So, in a sense, yes.

You pull the string from Lifa’s jean shorts, and-
>>
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>Lifa’s DNI. Her document, where her hair looks perfectly natural.

Lucinda looks at Lifa, Lifa looks a Lucinda. Neither says a thing.

Lifa: Why are you looking at me like that?

ರೃ Lucinda: Something fell off your pockets. I was waiting for you to notice.

Lifa: What? Really? Oh, really.

But when Lifa bends to pick it up it’s Lucinda’s dainty hand that grabs it first. The blonde turns and turns the ID until the light from the lamp lets her see the Lifa on the document with clarity- and Lucinda whistles. Or at least attempts to, but het.

ರೃ Lucinda: So; you did look like a normal human being at some point.

Lifa: So what? What’s good about that?

A full head shorter, Lifa snatches the identification from the blonde in a blur.

ರೃ Lucinda: Alondra Rodriguez. Nineteen. Twenty in a week and a half. You are hitting the ceiling.

The 'ceiling' is an expression for reaching twenty years of age. It remains a very rare feat.

Lifa: It is much easier to live longer when you are retired. It’s kind of ironic…

ರೃ Lucinda: Retired. You do not hunt Witches.

Lifa shakes her head firmly, as firmly as she must have been when she made that final call: "This is as far as I'm going to get".

Lifa: I have my stash of Grief Seeds and that’s it. The less I fear death the longer I’ll stretch my days.

ರೃ Lucinda: I should not even bother with the mammoth, then.

Lifa downcasts her eyes.
>>
But, she peeks from below.

Lifa: That’s cruel, Lucinda. Besides, there’s still so much you could learn from it while I’m still alive.

ರೃ Lucinda: And how long would that be? You are only biding your time until Weird Eyes comes back, after all.

Lifa: What...?

ರೃ Lucinda: You are obsessed with sex. You are over eighteen. She spoke to you herself- I find it hard to believe that fiends like you two settled for a friendly conversation. It is as you said earlier; I can join the dots myself.

Ignoring Lifa’s slight short-circuit, Lucinda studies the lewd drawing with a shredder’s mercy.

ರೃ Lucinda: Not to mention that this drawing is more detailed than mine. The borders are thinner, the eyes have one more layer, and the shadows resemble the sharpness of her bangs more closely, like here and here. The Old Coordinator vanished a long time ago. You will wait for her for a long time.

Lifa: PFF

Lucinda lifts an eyebrow. Lifa waves a hand toward her, much like her grandma often does.

Lifa: Don’t worry, you are right on the money. Well, in like a quarter of a dollar at least. It’s just- I mean, look around.

The erotic mangaka spreads her arms open, her lanky body covering as much room as it could.

Lifa: Just look around. At this point, it will take much more than another great fuck to keep me going.

ರೃ Lucinda: Huh. I was right. Then what are you waiting for?

Lifa: (shrugs with both hands) For tomorrow to come?
>>
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You look at the Forbidden Love Counter barely balancing on your shoulder, with newfound, unfair enmity towards Hitomi Shizuki: she does look a bit sicker now! That's great, but you wonder why. You seriously don't fucking know, so you ask the Law of Cycles. Only the little girl holding the counter remains in sight, but a head is quick to pop from it when you ask.

Magical Girl that Just Wanted People To Say Thank You: The others say that showing the psychopath that Alondra sees other Magical Girls as fucktoys was a bad idea because of how bad Lucinda had it for that same reason, but that also doing the opposite was good and counter-acted it.

You ask about showing Lifa's ID.

Magical Girl that Just Wanted People To Say Thank You: They say that Lucinda didn't say anything mean so it's ok? I dunno man.

You know what? Their opinions suck. You won't rely on social validation any longer. You are Lucinda Newhorn! Fuck you Hitomi you man-stealing whore
>>
Holy shit that's a lot of reading.
I like.

Also I'm back from my week long vacation, it was fun.
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>>5772651
imagine being an average japanese teenage girl victim of the retrograde culture of your shitty country and be immortalized by hundreds of media illiterate internet people and your soon to be goddess schoolmate due to unknowingly getting your not-goddess schoolmate killed for reasons completely outside of your control and understanding. ain't it a bitch

also, lots of spicy stuff. maybe somehow some for Rita of all people. I'm predicting... unforseen consequences
>>
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>There is a manga panel with very realistic food.

You were pleasantly surprised to find photo-realistic food in one of Lifa’s mangas about ladies who use each other as food plates. Mostly, because you love food yourself. The ladies can leave. It has many depictions of sushi, despite how rare that dish is in Argentina, and you wonder just who Lifa’s target audience is. You gather the few where nobody is picking salmon from someone else’s nipples with chopsticks and just fling them around while they are still picking up the rest of the mess.

ರೃ Lucinda: One of these drawers will fall on top of us at this point.

Lifa: Don’t be silly, that only happened once.

Lucinda doesn’t even ask if it’s a joke. Maybe she doesn’t want to know. Wise move.

Lifa: OH! Look at these, look!

Enthusiastically, Lifa lifts the drawings with food.

ರೃ Lucinda: You aren’t ashamed of your work. This is new.

Lifa: I'm not ashamed of my work when it's cooked halfway, but it was a bitch and a half just to draw this piece of cheese. If the food didn’t look appetizing then the context wasn’t going to work at all.

ರೃ Lucinda: I take it that the story is about lesbian chefs.

Lifa: Does the word ‘Nyotaimori’ ring a bell to you?

ರೃ Lucinda: It does not.

Lifa: I’m so glad.
>>
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Lifa: What do you think of this mont blanc? Drawing it was like drawing spaghetti, but the weight has to feel different.

ರೃ Lucinda: It does look appetizing.

Grandma from the other side of the door: Happy to know I didn’t waste what little time I have left then!

Lifa SCREAMS without making any sound whatsoever and suddenly she’s in eight places at once without even transforming, taking full advantage of the second and a half it takes for her grandmother to tackle the innocent door open. By the time it has been successfully invaded, Lifa’s studio of nothing but love looks ready to be sold- at least to a hentai addict.

Lifa: GRAN, how many times do I have to tell you this is MY

Grandma: (shrugging her off) Aww just- quiet, you! I know what you do.

Lifa: I’m NOT sure about thFHFFMFH?!

The feeble lady, riding her last days however the fuck she wants, just stuffed her granddaughter’s mouth full of chocolate cookies with chocolate chips. She makes her way in with quick, unsteady steps and leaves a loaded tray of those- right on top of Lifa’s expensive digital tablet which the Magical Girl most likely sold her soul for. Oh wait never mind, you can’t do that twice.

Grandma: Have fun! Don’t be out too late. Beep bop.

ರೃ Lucinda: Beep bop.

The poor door is brutally sealed shut; Lifa’s grandmother must truly value privacy.
>>
Lucinda checks her cell phone.

ರೃ Lucinda: It is indeed quite late.

Lifa: Oh- you were grounded. Right? What do you want to do? Should I walk you out?

ರೃ Lucinda: No point in that at this point- as you pointed out. I am already late. I see no reason to hurry.

Lifa: Right.

ರೃ Lucinda: And here I thought you were proud of your work.

Lifa goes through like seven emotions in two seconds.

Lifa: What, but of course I am! How else would I have made it this far? I’m a published author overseas! Did I hide anything of quality from you? No! But try talking to your grandma about the nuances of drawing boobs at different angles. Just try it!

ರೃ Lucinda: I do not have grandmothers. They both passed away. One of them used to take me on walks to teach me how to cut down trees while my parents argued.

Lucinda closes her eyes, which is unusual.

ರೃ Lucinda: She taught me how to defend myself. It took me a decade to notice. I wish I could thank her.

… Both you and Lifa look at Lucinda with a laser eye. If that straight line is a smile then it’s the smallest smile ever- but it would still be on Lucinda Newhorn’s face.

Lifa: ……I’m so sorry to hear that. But, I am glad that you also got lucky in the weird grandma department.

ರೃ Lucinda: Me too.

Lucinda grabs a chocolate cookie and eats it piece by piece.

ರೃ Lucinda: This is not healthy.

Lifa: That’s not the point-

You glance at the Forbidden Love Counter on your shoulder; Hitomi is feeling the fear. Yeah, feel it bitch, feel it. Everyone loves food!
>>
>Lifa also has a dildo signed by Marco Aurelio.

Something is shaking inside one of the drawers- something YOU left to shake. And given her face, Lifa, despite just showing her whole world to Lucinda at once, doesn’t seem that willing to take any more chances

especially not with the high-tech deluxe, collector's edition, ten and a half inches dildo.

ರೃ Lucinda: Pick up your call. I’ll be taking my leave.

Lifa: UM, it’s just Mom, she just likes to talk a lot. Besides, since you spent so much time here already… and didn't you say that you were going to stay just now?

Lucinda looks at Lifa, gently scratching her own cheek with a sharp, polished nail. Maybe that’s what gets her mental gears running.

ರೃ Lucinda: True.

And then out of nowhere, the Fucknado is going for the drawer-

Lifa: W-Wait!!

ರೃ Lucinda: I will turn it off. I like quietness.

Lifa: LOOK, I LIED! Don’t

Too late.
>>
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Lucinda picks up the shaking dildo. You think that she thinks that, perhaps, it just wanted to be free too.

Lifa: First, that was rude! Second, I don’t use it! I’m totally honest! It’s just a reference for… for the futas!

ರೃ Lucinda: That is a shame.

Lifa: WHAT?

WHAT?

ರೃ Lucinda: I got one myself recently. I do still wonder why they enjoy it so much. Lifa, why are you wearing that face?

You glance at the Magical Girls from the Law of Cycles on your shoulder; all share the same stupid fucking face as you. It wouldn’t be /weird/, just a bit awkward… if it wasn't Lucinda.

Lifa: WELL, it’s just… you could pretty much be with anyone you wanted. That, among other things...

ರೃ Lucinda: I don’t see your point.

Lifa: No, sorry, I don’t have a point. I’m wrong. You hate people. Men pester you all the time. It makes sense. Sorry, the one that draws bishoujos getting screwed on a laundry machine has no right to be surprised by stuff like this.

ರೃ Lucinda: You lost me. What is a bishoujo?

Lifa: It’s just how you say ‘pretty girl’ in Japanese.

Lucinda Newhorn tilts her head sideways again. Considering her very limited range of emotions, that must be the efficient way she found to convey confusion. Lifa is covering her face.

Lifa: Look, I’m just saying there’s nothing wrong with that.

ರೃ Lucinda: I see.
>>
ARE YOU MEGUCANIGGAS DOING YOUR PART?
https://youtube.com/watch?v=3PbdyJ_ybSI
https://youtube.com/watch?v=3PbdyJ_ybSI
https://youtube.com/watch?v=3PbdyJ_ybSI
https://youtube.com/watch?v=3PbdyJ_ybSI
>>
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>>5772918
I was going to kill a bitch but I pussied out. Team Scary Blonde + Gremlin 2 is on the hunt tho.
>>
ರೃ Lucinda: I want to see your dog.

Lifa: My dog?

ರೃ Lucinda: Yes. I want to play with it.

Lifa: Oh, so, you like animals.

ರೃ Lucinda: No. I study them. Their emotions are much more simple, so I observe them.

Lifa: Well… interesting! I think you are headed in the right direction, then, and with the best teachers. But, I don’t own a dog. I was thinking of adopting an animal though. Which ones do you like? And- why a mammoth?

ರೃ Lucinda: Then who do you play with?

Wait…what? No way she's... Lifa blinks and blinks and blinks. She lets it sink in. Then smiles.

Lifa: We’ve definitely had a horrendous misunderstanding. I am dedicated to my craft, Lucinda, but not to the point where I’d have sex with animals. I am very, very much believing that you did not just not imply that.

ರೃ Lucinda: I did not.

Lifa: I… figured as much.

Lifa deflates, ending up even thinner.

Lifa: What did you mean by ‘who do you play with’?

ರೃ Lucinda: What I meant was: who do you play fetch with?

Lifa: Fetch.

Lucinda, who actually looks a bit surprised for once, nods.

ರೃ Lucinda: With this toy.

She shakes the dildo. Lifa’s lips curl and deform as realization slowly creeps in.
>>
Lifa: That… is a sexual device.

ರೃ Lucinda: This is a toy for dogs. I got one myself. I use it to play fetch with the old white dog at the park. It has an ugly scar on the face.

Lifa: How… much does it look like the one I own? The, the toy?

ರೃ Lucinda: It is the same thing.

Lifa: In what sense? The color? The shape? The size?

ರೃ Lucinda: In every sense, except for the color and the lack of dents caused by the dog.

Lifa: Lucinda, you’ve been… throwing around a dildo, a device used for sex and masturbation, in a public park... to play with a dog. I-think-that maaaay explain many things that have happened to you.

ರೃ Lucinda: That is a joke.

Lifa immediately searches for dildos on the web. Lady Lu’s eyes widen.

ರೃ Lucinda: Oh. Indeed, it does. It does explain quite a few things.

You can only hope someone explained some of those to the kids at the park who saw her, other than their future therapist.
>>
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ರೃ Lucinda: I was scammed.

She was not. As for Lifa… her cheeks are red yet again, but it’s a different kind of red. She’s trying so, so hard to not laugh, fighting a battle that ninety-nine percent of the Law of Cycles has already lost

Lifa: ohgodohpppPPPPPPPFFFF

that you lost too. Oh, god; oh, you. It’s ok, it’s alright… Everyone has the right to be a bit retarded sometimes. Taking that from someone, even Lucinda Newhorn, is just plain wrong.

ರೃ Lucinda: Why are you hiding your face? You are laughing at me.

Poor Lifa. She must be feeling so many things right now. Even fear. Especially fear. But it’s too much.

Lifa: HAHAHHAHA! SORRY! pfffffHAHAHAH!

Those two sapphires on Lucinda’s face stay perfectly still. Odds are, someone went to the park for a smoke and saw a beautiful teenager, someone that exudes raw nobility like Lucinda, throwing a big flying dick and likely hitting someone square in the chin- and then a happy dog picking it up. Lifa, in contrast, is alternating between laughing like a hamster on fire and apologizing profusely every three seconds.
>>
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ರೃ Lucinda: I would like to know what makes this funny to you,

Anyone else would either get mad or laugh along just to pretend they aren’t out of sync- but not Lucinda. This is her immunity to social validation at play. She doesn’t understand what’s going on and that’s it. In her eyes, there is no reason to hide it.

ರೃ Lucinda: You had mentioned previously that laughter comes from relief. I’d like you to tell me where this specific relief is coming from. That being said, you are annoying me.

Lifa: SORRY. Ok, I’m back. Okay, let- let me think.

ರೃ Lucinda: I still do not understand why you need to think about something that you laughed about.

Lifa: Well, that is, eh, because these kinds of stuff and reactions come from the depths of your mind, you know? People don’t know why they do things or why they like things more than half the time. Oh god.

A smile creeps through her face. But she shuts it down.

Lifa: It’s just that… No, let me think.

Lucinda crosses both arms under her chest- yet the tip of the high heel is bouncing against the fake wood floor. Lucinda is impatient.

Lifa: This one is hard, you know. You are… so prim and proper all the time. It honestly makes me nervous. You make me feel like I’d be slapped if I looked at you the wrong way.

Which is a theory backed up by factual evidence and data. That was a subtle jab at the blonde for sure.
>>
Lifa: To see you fail, it… it means that I can fail too. That I don’t have to be on guard all the time. You can’t expect me to be perfect if you aren’t, right? So I can be a bit more of myself and maybe you'll like that.

Lucinda waits.

Lifa: ...And it also means that not even being as strict as you will save me.

ರೃ Lucinda: I understand. You feel relief because you don’t have to be disciplined.

…Walking on thin ice there, Lifa. Nobody is laughing at the Law of Cycles anymore.

Lifa: Maybe just not as much as you.

You look at the Forbidden Love Counter on your shoulder, totally prepared to see Hitomi wearing a smug smile- but she looks scared now?!

Magical Girl that is a Lesbian In Japan, Which Is Super Rare: We've agreed that it was good stuff that Lifa clarified the dildo thing!

You wonder if everyone but you and Lifa glossed over the fact that she could have been using it herself. Whatever; as long as Lucinda herself doesn't catch on it's all good with that high-quality dildo.
>>
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>You found a Grief Seed.

Time to do your job and change the subject before things go awkward! And what better way: having a Grief Seed at hand will surely prove that Lifa does value discipline- she can talk about the bloody battle all she wants. You glance at the Grief Seed that you found hidden inside a hollow bible- it stands upright on its needle no matter how hard you try to turn it sideways. You put it back on its hole and let it slowly slide down the open drawer- it falls uptight.

ರೃ Lucinda: This room is cursed.

Lifa: I am about to believe that!

She just sounded like a scared little kid. Lucinda simply picked up the still-standing bible.

ರೃ Lucinda: So you are religious.

Lifa: Not really. You?

ರೃ Lucinda: I never gave that topic thought.

She shakes it.

ರೃ Lucinda: There is a Grief Seed inside this book.

Lifa opens it up from her chest to confirm it. The Grief Seed spins gracefully in place, held there only by a few standing pages stacked together. She closes the book again and hides it in the same drawer.

ರೃ Lucinda: You have more of them.

Lifa: (shakes head) I’ve been saving that one for last for a while. It belonged… It's a friend.

ರೃ Lucinda: It is not your friend. Your friend is gone. That is food.

The little lich seems stuck choosing between five facial gestures, settling for neither in the end.

Lifa: It must be nice sometimes, being so coldhearted.

ರೃ Lucinda: You are talking about me. I’m telling the truth.

Lifa: I know. I’m not attacking you. I can’t let go. I can’t accept it, and it’s been years. I’ve decided I’ll be kicking that can for as long as I can.

ರೃ Lucinda: What can?

Lifa: The can is a metaphor for me realizing that my friend is well and truly dead- as you just said yourself.

……weeeeeeell, we can always just change the subject again! Or ask Felicia to smash their heads. No problem!

Hitomi’s pixelated face didn't change one bit. Well, Magical Girls with Grief Seeds... nothing strange about that, not at all.
>>
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>The wardrobe is a goldmine- of hand-made cosplays.

You found perhaps the best way ever to change the subject immediately before Lucinda gets any colder and Lifa gets any wetter. You’ve considered just knocking the whole wardrobe down, but that could ruin the mood. Instead, slowly, slooowly and with carefully crafted, artful movements, you’ve been pushing the sleeve from the Akihabara maid dress out of the door. They just have to see it. If anything, Magical Girls are naturally born cosplayers by default.

Lucinda, who simply doesn’t know how to handle tragedy (other than by sheer brutality) sees the way out you’ve paved and takes it.

ರೃ Lucinda: There’s a sleeve.

Lifa: …A sleeve? Umm, Is it a metaphor? I’m not joining any dots here.

The Fucknado simply walks up to the wardrobe. Lifa looks like a crack dealer sharing a bus with a whole squad of the DEA, dogs included.

Lifa: Y-yeah… pain… my old friends… drama, right? I’m still… getting over it…

She’s sweating enough bullets to be a boss in Touhou. You wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Lucinda can look through walls and doors.

ರೃ Lucinda: This wardrobe is much bigger than mine. And it’s not a coffin either.

Lifa: A coffin?

ರೃ Lucinda: I’d like to see what’s inside.

Lifa: If you do that you’ll have to kill me.

Delivered with simplicity, serenity, and the satisfaction of a long life well lived- at least for a Magical Girl.

ರೃ Lucinda: I’m curious.

Lifa: Hello Curious. You will have to kill me.

‘Curious’ elegantly opens the wardrobe. Lifa shrieks like a hobo waking up from a nightmare.
>>
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Lifa: -Y-YOU KNOW, for someone as stuck-up you don’t care about manners at all!

ರೃ Lucinda: I asked. You did not say no. You also did not say when I would have to kill you. You've shown me embarrassing things over and over. But more importantly-

The wardrobe, dedicated almost entirely to hand-made cosplays (except for one little corner with Lifa’s actual clothes) blesses the room with its many sparkling colors. A bar on the top holds a single, very packed row of hangers and each of those stole a different color from the outside world.

ರೃ Lucinda: What is this?

What Lucinda fishes out of the pool of dreams is a micro, micro, micro bikini. Pretty much just two strings sewn together and not enough fabric to make a single handkerchief.

Lifa: …That one. That’s the one you had to take out…

ರೃ Lucinda: What is the function of this?

Lifa seems stuck in Lucinda’s place now, unable to be sure if the blonde is messing with her on purpose.

Lifa: Put it on and find out.

ರೃ Lucinda: There is nothing to put on. You are joking.

Lifa: Yes, yes I am.

Lucinda hangs it back on the bar- but her dainty hand doesn’t return empty.

ರೃ Lucinda: What is this?

Lifa: Um. Doraemon.

ರೃ Lucinda: Ok. What is this?

Lifa: That, is an actual, realistic nurse uniform. I’m against watering down fetishes by making the clothes skimpier. If that truly is your thing then you are chewing it whole is what I say.

Does that even count as cosplay?

ರೃ Lucinda: What an interesting philosophy. And this?

What Lucinda pulls out again without permission is a particularly ragged and disheveled nun uniform, barely held together by faint threads.

ರೃ Lucinda: Someone was killed in this.

Lifa: Not… exactly.

Lucinda looks at Lifa.
>>
Lifa: Some people like ripping clothes off…

The yuri connoisseur gestures with her hands as if trying to draw something in the air. Then, she just shrugs like a thief wearing the exact same type of hat that its interviewer just lost.

Lifa: Maybe they think that clothes are some sort of prison? I don’t know. We all have our reasons for our darkness.

ರೃ Lucinda: Is that so. I do think I could get behind that particular one. What is this?

It’s a set of cat ears and tails. Lucinda seems… particularly vexed about this one.

ರೃ Lucinda: I thought you did not have sex with animals.

Lifa: Wait, what? AH! But, wait, you already knew about Weird Eyes bringing that fad here!

ರೃ Lucinda: That fad was not sexual. Humans do not want to have sex with cats.

Lifa: Lucinda, you- you aren’t on the internet that much, are you?

ರೃ Lucinda: I am. I look at the cars there.

Lifa: No. Sorry. This one is just too hard. Just- just look at this one. What do you think of this one?

It’s a very pretty, very detailed dress- but from what series, you can’t tell.
>>
The emerald hood and wide emerald cape spawning from it are the heart of it, but the detailed black leather coat underneath and the open-ended brown pants (never a good color for pants) bear the attributes of autumn without shame, yet mixed in with the fashion of a conman.

ರೃ Lucinda: …To be honest, I’m having quite a hard time figuring out how that set is sexual.

Lifa: It’s no, and not everything has to be. Just tell me if you think it looks pretty.

ರೃ Lucinda: I think it's ominous.

Lifa: Ominous? Why?

ರೃ Lucinda: That looks like it belonged to a Magical Girl.

Lifa blinks… but then actually takes a look at what she brought out herself.

Lifa: Oh…

She doesn’t answer.

ರೃ Lucinda: Are you thinking?

Lifa: Oh no, I’m just… never mind.

She puts it back into the wardrobe but just stays there looking at it, fixed in place like a broken statue.

Lifa: Yes, you are right. It looks like what one very special friend of mine used to wear.

ರೃ Lucinda: And you have a copy of her magical form.

Lifa: The thought of her being forgotten by everyone absolutely fucking terrifies me to the bone. It gives me sleep issues.

Wow.

ರೃ Lucinda: I see. I do not care, so do not tell me.

And with that, she just picks up the violin. Just like that. Mercilessly.
>>
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>The violin

Often, you’d stop your many stalkings just to hear little obedient Lucinda, not-so-little-or-obedient Lucinda, and then Lucinda the Fucknado play the violin. Like right now. She was so convinced that riches would bring her paradise that all of that enthusiasm, always absent from her face, was spent on her fingers. A wounded Lifa stares at her wordlessly. Sharp notes fill the air, daughters of Lucinda’s chilling mastery and the soul of Mozart.

Lifa: …

Lucinda, you think as she plays, is the only Magical Girl you’ve known to bear all of the actual attributes that humans associate with true nobility- except for the gold and heritage. Elegant, steadfast, commanding, prideful in her honor, skilled in many fields, present on the field of battle, a checkmark in each item about standards of beauty… If anything, their parents did terrific work turning her into the ideal woman from the Medieval Ages. Until Kyubey.

ರೃ Lucinda: I do not know if you are enjoying this.

Lifa: I… what! Yes, I am, it’s just, I didn’t think I that should talk.

ರೃ Lucinda: You may.

Lifa: What should I say… What is that song?

ರೃ Lucinda: It’s Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem, his final composition. He passed away before finishing it.

Lifa: Requiem?

Lifa looks like she’s connecting the dots.

Lifa: You said you didn’t care.

ರೃ Lucinda: I do not care to know the details.
>>
The little lich became public at a secret concert; you wonder if she’s going to cry again. Magical Girls in general either cry all the time or never, their coping mechanisms are always extreme. But, she doesn’t. Perhaps she’s out of tears and all that’s left are the good memories. After a while, Lucinda is done. Lifa claps, cheerfully.

Lifa: I'm sure you don’t need me to tell you, but that was beautiful.

ರೃ Lucinda: I’ve invested too much in this skill. I want to believe it wasn’t all for naught.

Lifa: How long have you been playing? I don’t know how it works, so, do you play in an orchestra or a band or something?

ರೃ Lucinda: Neither. I’ve been honing this skill since my childhood, along with ballet, sewing, and cooking, along with the usual academics.

Lifa: Wow. I only have two skills and I lost like two years in school until I dropped out. But, sewing? As in sewing sweaters and stuff?

ರೃ Lucinda: Yes. I do not enjoy it, but I am good at it.

Lifa: If you don’t enjoy it then why and how did you get good at it? I only got good at my craft because I could draw pretty girls like you naked.

Heeeey there-

ರೃ Lucinda: My parents demanded that I do. They told me every day that those skills would lead me to a life of riches. That I could aim to marry a prince.

Lifa: A prince.

You can hear the disbelief.
>>
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ರೃ Lucinda: A man of wealth, to be blunt. They’ve lured me into their scheme by feeding me luxuries they could not afford from a very early age. For example, they took me to both Alo’s and Anafe to eat lobster meat and taste caviar, and then they also took me on a trip to Singapore on a first-class seat when I was seven. They’ve been running away from debt for as long as I can remember.

Lifa: If that’s the case then I can’t even imagine how much they owe.

You know. It’s a number you’d use to measure yourself.

ರೃ Lucinda: I do not care. It is not my debt. They’ve deprived me of simple pleasures to keep my motivation alive; I have never been to a McDonalds. My contract made me realize that I have been escaping from this truth out of my own volition. Denial was my wish before. Now that it was all for nothing I am free.

Lifa: I can take you.

Lucinda looks at her.

Lifa: To a McDonalds. Never mind, it’s just- besides, food doesn’t need to be poisoned to be tasty.

ರೃ Lucinda: I wouldn’t spend my freedom to eat trash.

You feel personally attacked.

Lifa: Well… maybe a little bit, every now and then? Your parents are two pieces of shit, by the way.

ರೃ Lucinda: They are. They also are convenient. Any other power I could use would demand that I give something in return. I can use their delusions against them now.

Lifa: You don’t want to suck a fat rich guy’s dick to make ends meet, got it. Sometimes I feel that all of this is a scheme to push us into being someone else’s bitch or die.

ರೃ Lucinda: I do not have that choice. I can’t stand other people for that long.

Lifa: But; you’ve been here for a while.

Lifa points outside. It’s dark. The night is out there, not the afternoon or the morning she walked under.

Lifa: We’ve been at this for… I dunno, six, or seven hours? It’s almost dinner time. And all we did was talk.

ರೃ Lucinda: I see. I had not noticed. I got carried away by the novelty.

Lifa: Of meeting a hentai artist?

ರೃ Lucinda: Of speaking to the same person for longer than five minutes.

>>
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Both stay in quiet silence for a bit. It’s not your usual awkward silence since no one is rushing to fill it. You don’t think anyone can last seven hours stuck in the same room with someone they can’t let their guard down with unless that person is sleeping or dead.

>Don't make anyone fall on top of anyone else.

That being said- dropping Lifa on Lucinda or into a jet engine would have the same result, and dropping Lucinda on top of Lifa, hmm... Nah, you ain't risking it. And no matter how that turned out, the Law of Cycles would still make that Hitomi smile just to spite you because of your opinions. You firmly believe that making love is that and only that- making love! A gesture of affection. A very unpopular opinion that gets you shit and pointed fingers to this day, but what do you care. That's the only reason you want it to happen. You want Magical Girls to love each other.

...You glance at the pixelated Hitomi again this time with a sharp, very judgemental eye. Your old friend doesn't look as hysteretic as she did back in the day; that is the final judgment of the Law of Cycles. Whatever, you had already disregarded their opinion- yet it's unsettling. Worried, you keep on spying on the two girls.

Lifa: Um… weren’t you grounded?

ರೃ Lucinda: My parents hold no power over me anymore.

Now that you think of it... that's so raw. Lucinda never spoke to other person for more than five minutes, so... Does she even consider her parents to be persons?

Lifa: Right. We should hurry then. Come. Bring the suitcase.

Lifa walks up to the open shelf at the end of the room, which is next to her messy bed. You try to focus- she’s touching an interesting snow globe that's just a breeze away from shattering against the wooden floor tiles.
>>
Then a grave, wrong, yet pleasantly otherworldly sound bounces off all the walls- and Lifa isn’t there anymore. Instantly and painlessly, the necromancer vanished from this dimension as if the world had forgotten to keep track. Lucinda, standing like a cat meeting a stray dog on the streets, transforms again and, scythe up in the air, takes her time to walk up to the shelf. You see it, with a lot of effort, you see it- and then Lucinda does too. A /very/ tiny Lifa is looking at a gigantic Lucinda- from inside the complex snow globe.

Lifa: (It’s ok! It’s just a pocket dimension. I know a Magical Girl that makes these for a living. Touch it for more than five seconds, but remember to touch it near where I am and not too far away!)

Lucinda doesn’t move an inch.

Lifa: (It’s ok! Trust me!)

ರೃ Lucinda: I do not.

Lifa: (Step aside.)

Lucinda does. Little Lifa instantly grows back into Big Lifa.

Lifa: That always feels so weird. Aaaaaa. Give me your hand. Here.

ರೃ Lucinda: What is th-

She knows what that is. Lifa’s Soul Gem.

Lifa: Just don’t stray too far away from me. Let’s go, at the same time. Point at that little cabin over here when I do.

ರೃ Lucinda: This is a trap.

Lifa sneers just a bit.

Lifa: There is always a risk to trusting other people, but you will have to learn to settle for the clues you have. Also, let me share a little secret. You aren’t afraid of me, you are afraid of being wrong about me.

ರೃ Lucinda: A pointless secret. Those would be the same.

Lifa: Oh, Lucinda…

Lifa laughs in all honesty.

Lifa: I had like seven hours to hurt you. When is it enough?

ರೃ Lucinda: I don’t know. You never told me when it was enough.

Lifa: Then let me tell you: this is enough. Come.

Lifa grabs Lucinda’s hand but the blonde slaps hers away, then that dainty hand touches the small transparent orb out of its own accord.

And then they are gone.

Where? Fuck if you know. But you will. BUT... there is a choice to be made. A big, big choice. No matter what's in there that's a no-man’s land, free of outside intervention, and now that the stakes are high anything could happen. You either bring in Felicia or you don’t.

>Bring Felicia.
>Go alone.
>>
>>5772993
>Go alone.
55 posts, wow! Perhaps this is the giga posts that Jimena predicted last thread. Definitely added context to some things.
>>
>>5772993
>>Bring Felicia.
Go in there, there's cows
>>
>>5772993
>Bring Felicia.
Could be neat. Also holy shit OP, you're a BEAST. So much writing, yow!

>>5772871
Worry
>>
wow thread is twice as long now

>>5769887
>fucking insufferable bitches the both of them
mean

>give more sad luci backstory
dont wanna!

>otherwise she would just phase and let lifa fall... but what if she doesn't
question is, what happens if luci phases in on top of somebody?
just fucking with your imagination. she can't.

>>5769890
>There'd better be Lady or Dante up in this motherfucker
there was dante

>Look how happy she used to look!
yeah!

>I'm like 90% certain Luce will tear this girl to shreds if she so much as bumps her right now
we will never good
which is good

>Shut the hell up, we love your big postin
nah it wasn't that long

>>5769899
>really the update worked even without this, don't worry about it
wish i could chuck it in between like a sandwich but even that woulnd't do, it was already read. fuuuckk

>>5772828
nah it aint that much

>Also I'm back from my week long vacation, it was fun.
hey awesome, i hope you got your money's worth. how was it? people often get stressed trying to enjoy their trips to the max which ironically turns the trips themselves into more work. relaxing is about not giving a shit

>>5772871
>imagine being an average japanese teenage girl victim of the retrograde culture of your shitty country and be immortalized by hundreds of media illiterate internet people and your soon to be goddess schoolmate due to unknowingly getting your not-goddess schoolmate killed for reasons completely outside of your control and understanding. ain't it a bitch
it aint. for real. to hitomi, sayaka and madoka just went away one day and that was it. she'll never know what she caused and she wont suffer for it, none of us know of all the tragedies we leave behind

>also, lots of spicy stuff
i know. im unwilling to deprive even cute moe pure maidens of their humanity. there's a line i won't cross though

>maybe somehow some for Rita of all people. I'm predicting... unforseen consequences
i kept saying she's a secret ten out of ten so its understandable

>>5772918
the ooe: im doing my part :D

>>5772921
>Scary Blonde
>implying Erika is simply 'Blonde'
>implying Helen is Gremlin 1
>implying Jimena isn't Gremlin 1
>implying Emma isn't Gremlin 0

>>5772999
>55 posts, wow! Perhaps this is the giga posts that Jimena predicted last thread.
i made them shorter so they would be more lawl. also when did jimena prophetize this flood?

>>5773040
>Could be neat. Also holy shit OP, you're a BEAST. So much writing, yow!
thanks dude! i'm considering never ever doing multiprompts ever again

i decided we be sharing the spotlight after this so its erimena in wonderland after this ends
>>
>>5773141
Erimena is Team SB&G #1 and Ritalinda is Team SB&G #2, obviously. Emma and Helen get nothing, they get picked last in dodgeball.
>i made them shorter so they would be more lawl. also when did jimena prophetize this flood?
I was expecting it to be the Hush or Weird Eyes backstory, and I also lowballed the number somehow. We did get some WE lore I guess.
>i decided we be sharing the spotlight after this so its erimena in wonderland after this ends
looking forward to doing nothing at all
>>
>>5773141
>understandable
On the subject of appearances, do Helen's burn scars extend to her face? I'm still trying to figure out how she got a boy to lend his voice in exchange for a promise of marriage. Also, did Burger King really run an ad about redheads in Argentina?
This is unrelated, but have you ever read into medieval history and how noblewomen were expected to act and behave?
>>
>>5772993
>Bring Felicia.
Gremlin creature must be included.
>>
>>5773146
>Emma and Helen get nothing, they get picked last in dodgeball.
helemma when?

>I was expecting it to be the Hush or Weird Eyes backstory
i'd rather feed it in spoonfuls when its relevant or when questions rise. erika already knows all of this, at least hush's pov

>looking forward to doing nothing at all
nono dont worry you will be doing something
you'll be readin

>>5773264
>do Helen's burn scars extend to her face?
only up to her neck and just a little bit over the corners of her face.

>I'm still trying to figure out how she got a boy to lend his voice in exchange for a promise of marriage.
adults say getting married is the best there is

>Also, did Burger King really run an ad about redheads in Argentina?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElLtDlv2rto
basically, they say that we believe that redheads are 'mufa' or that that they bring bad luck. this is not true and was not true and any point whatsoever. that add was accidentally advocating for redheads to be discriminated because they misinterpreted our culture, but thankfully fucking failed and was censored

>This is unrelated, but have you ever read into medieval history and how noblewomen were expected to act and behave?
yep! thing is, lucinda does unconsciously act like a noble of the age of tin can armors and dying at thirty

but like a noble man lel

may post today or may post tomorrow depending on how fast they crack lies of p
>>
>>5772993
>Go alone
First Emma's freudian-yuri and now this, you write characters very well, QM, beautiful update! I love the lore about what happens outside of the bubble of partial-sanity that is our neck of Buenos Aires.

>>5773436
>helemma
"Aliens" declares based babushka after Emma returns home with foreign currency and a burned kid.

>>5773436
>you'll be readin
Well, well, well, if it isn't the consequences of my own actions. I'm looking forward for the moment after the peace drugs and adrenaline wear off and Erika realizes she is neither loved nor feared.

>but like a noble man lel
Not enough plundering, Lucinda needs to sack her neighbour's house.

Lucinda theme song: https://youtu.be/VxEuQXKQOC8?feature=shared
And while we're here, here's a Rita song: https://youtu.be/tnAoq3_6f5M?feature=shared
>>
>>5774425
It's now canon that Rita tried to lop off her hand once after seeing someone watch DMC5 footage on their phone. She still calls it 'activating her devil trigger' whenever she gets pissed off
>>
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>>5773000
>>5773040
>>5773307

>Bring Felicia.

Felicia is no super ninja, but you’ll take your chances with her and not with Lucinda. You’ve seen it, over and over; pain makes madness. Leave a rose to suffer and it will grow nothing but thorns, metaphorically or at least after millions of years of evolution because roses are dumb as fuck pansies. Telepathically, you tell Felicia that she’ll get what she wants and, let’s hope not, much more than she can chew. Suddenly ten thousand hundred million percent sure that she’s going to divekick through the window, you open it just one second before she lands on you like a missile.

λ Felicia: Alright, let’s do this! Huh? Where are the bad guys?!

You gently explain to Felicia that she is one dumb-ass motherfucker and to please, pretty please, stop standing on your head. She does, and your head slowly grows in size like bread inside an oven.

λ Felicia: Sorry. But, where are the bad guys, Madoka?!

Inside that little snow globe over there and for your love for me please don’t smash it. Climbing up to her left shoulder, you tell Felicia to look for little Lifa and little Lucinda inside the globe and to press her finger against it away from them but not too far away.

λ Felicia: I don’t know, like this?

Oh my god Felicia I love you so much you are so brave you are so sweet but you are so f-
>>
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The snow inside the tiny globe is real, as is the fierce and freezing wind trying to push you from Felicia. It blows her horned hood away and exposes that long blonde hair, but it’s like she doesn't even notice.

λ Felicia: Where are they?! There are no landmarks anywhere. It’s all white, white, white, white! I'm sick of white!

The depths of your soul spit out the buried, miserable hope that Felicia could ever learn something from fucking up; you quickly put it out of its misery with factual data. Your days wandering the wasteland are also put to a swift end when, not too far away, you hear voices.

ರೃ Lucinda: Your hiding spot is made of what sane people hide from.

Lifa: I like cold places and cold people.

Just like the other twenty-nine attempts at flirting, this one also flies over Lucinda’s golden hair and her ten thousand chains. You tell Felicia to stay put and hide. Her violet clothes and hair (and especially that scary hammer) make a stark contrast with all the pure white around her.

λ Felicia: (What?! Then why did I even come here in the first place?! What a pain in the ass!)

You tell her to PLEASE stay put even though some desperation slips into your tone. Unbecoming of a goddess, you know, but if it gets her to stop then you’ll take it.

λ Felicia: (Fine! But I’m freezing!)

It won’t be for long. This snow globe had a tiny village of wood cabins; Lifa must be leading Lucinda to one of those. The wind is making it hard to hear from any of those two walking disasters- but one word sticks out loud and clear.
>>
Lifa: Here.

That's the word. You don’t see what’s ‘here’. But you do hear a sound.

ರೃ Lucinda: You have a hiding spot within your hiding spot.

You hear another sound. Then a very loud sound.

Lifa: That, eh, doesn’t happen much. I’ll fix it later. Come on in!

ರೃ Lucinda: I will be buried alive.

Lifa: Or you’ll freeze to death. Hurry!

You hear no words- but footsteps. Quickly, you call Felicia over as you rush towards the sound, pushing against the wind with your whole body to make any step forward. Soon, you are met with a hot water spring amidst the endless white, resting against a wall of naked, wet rock that is almost hidden by the steam. You look and look but see no entrances- other than a huge hole in the wall so big that you took it as landscape. Zig-zagging through the rocks peeking from the water, you dash through the spring and enter, then find, on the floor, a circular door with a lot of rocks crudely stuck to it. Behind the wall, the mechanism next to the hole is broken. Felicia lands behind you, jumpscaring you and every single one of your bones, never one to apologize or even notice.

λ Felicia: (What’s this?)

Industrial meat processing plant. Just kidding. You look further into the cave, then walk further into the cave

but all you two find at the end of the cave is a slide spiraling down into the darkness.

What a way to go in.
>>
λ Felicia: (YYYYYYEAAAAAAAA)AA-

You cram Felicia’s mouth with your tail the millisecond a sound escapes from it. As you go down at Mach speed on her arms you look at the strange castle that the slide is spiraling around, lit by a hundred flying oil lamps flapping white wings through Lifa’s secret world. Creepy. Small clouds loom overhead, harboring thunder, trees come from the walls as if they were standing… The speed begins to wane as the slide becomes horizontal, the descent ending in a mattress as normal as any other. Still at last, you look around in dread, then take the tail out of Felicia’s mouth.

λ Felicia: (Yeaaaah! Amazing! One more!! Now!!)

No.

λ Felicia: (Whaaat? We are finally doing something fun. Let’s do more of it!)

Later. Maybe. Thanking yourself, you spot Lifa and Lucinda barely further ahead, the blonde still transformed and ready to turn anyone in two or seven. You tell Felicia to let her inner ninja take over. Bringing her /may/ have been a mistake.

ರೃ Lucinda: I have never enjoyed water slides. This is no exception.

Lifa: Whaaaaat? What do you even do for fun?

ರೃ Lucinda: Fun is a meaningless buzzword. We are inside a Witch’s Labyrinth.

Lifa: Oh, no, not at all! This is just where I go when I tell Mom I’m going out with friends. My sanctuary.
>>
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You look around at the ‘sanctuary’. Right now, like you, they are standing on a dock made of wood that is surrounded by the rocky walls of the cavern, rising over black water. Ahead of Lifa and Lucinda is a bridge with very low railings that hold lines of skull candles- ahead of that is what looks like an entrance to a Japanese temple. Behind it, a small forest; behind the forest, the white castle. The only lights come from those strange winged oil lamps, some of which are closer to the ground than others. You think that they are following Lifa.

Lifa: So, what do you think?

ರೃ Lucinda: That we are in a Witch’s Labyrinth.

Besides the flapping of wings and their steps, there is no other sound anywhere. The silence is eerie, but also soothing.

Lifa: No, Lucinda, I told you it’s not.

Lifa stops. Wait; you know that pose.

ರೃ Lucinda: You are thinking.

Lifa: Nope, not at all. Let me show you something.

Lifa rushes to the bridge, followed by a careful Lucinda. She stops in the middle of it, then points at the top of the temple entrance; a single crow is standing on it.

Lifa: I’m home!

The crow takes flight in a completely unnatural, unhinged way and crashes on Lifa’s arms while Lucinda lifts her scythe way over her head. Whatever that black thing is, it manages to claw its way on top of Lifa’s arm and is standing like a parrot- looking at Lucinda's scythe.
>>
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Unnatural Crow: What a long beak! CAAW! What a long neck!

The ‘beak’ must be the blade.

Unnatural Crow: Who took your wings? How long does it take for you to swallow something? CAW

…You look at the thing, and sweet mother of fuck, is it ugly. Half the head is charred black feathers, the other half has the skull exposed like its ribs, the beak is just a big scissor, it has a fork for a leg… and it's wearing tiny glasses for some reason. Visibly confused, Lucinda lowers her scythe- but something, even despite the bird itself, seems straight-up off to you…

Lifa: This is Patchwing, my Familiar. Wait no, it’s not a Familiar like that. I can’t keep it in my room because it’s too ugly. Say hi to Lucinda, Patchwing.

Patchwing: I’m a slave. Help me.

Lifa: Hahah, it’s just joking.

Patchwing: I work twelve hours a day because Lifa thinks I'm japanese CAW!

…whaaaaaaaaaat..! You understand now. Wow, that’s actually pretty cool; Lifa is doing ventriloquism! This girl just keeps getting weirder, but at least weird in a cute way this time. Lifa touches her cheek as she laughs.

Lifa: I told you, I have only two skills. Drawing naked girls is one, ta-

ರೃ Lucinda: A dead animal that can talk. You are perfect.

Lifa goes wide-eyed. You go wide-eyed. Felicia doesn’t but she mutters quietly: “...huh?!”

Patchwing: If you say so.

ರೃ Lucinda: Let us be friends.

Lucinda… untransformed. You are left speechless.
>>
Patchwing: That depends. I’m a picky crow. I pick up a lot of trash. Are you a degenerate?

ರೃ Lucinda: I am not.

Lifa: Wait, why would you even ask that? Hahaha-

Patchwing: Do you exercise often?

ರೃ Lucinda: Yes. I find it to be fundamental.

Patchwing: Guess who doesn’t. How often do you bathe?

ರೃ Lucinda: Every day, like everyone else.

Patchwing: Lifa doesn’t.

Lifa: Wait, what? First, did you know that’s unhealthy?

Patchwing: Yes your smell is unhealthy. Do you let your mother clean your filthy room?

ರೃ Lucinda: I’ve taught myself how to do that from an early age.

Lifa: (with a pleading voice) I clean my room too! Don’t imply things!

Patchwing: Once a year. Lastly: are you an annoying crybaby dwarf that resurrects dead animals because she doesn’t know how to swipe a broom the right way?

Lifa: WHAT

ರೃ Lucinda: I am not.

Patchwing: Then we are friends.
>>
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You stare in awe… Lucinda doesn’t notice?

Lifa: Y-You know, you got very brave all of a sudden! I don’t recall giving you balls, you flying bag of tra-

Lifa stops mid-sentence when Patchwing flies to Lucinda’s shoulder, the one that is away from her.

Lifa: …you have two seconds to explain yourself. One.

Patchwing: Lucinda, protect me, CAW. You are my friend.

Lifa: Two. (with a sweet voice) Lucinda, would you mind turning around?

ರೃ Lucinda: I cannot. I have to protect my friend.

Lifa: Don’t you feel just a LITTLE bit used? Manipulated, even?

Patchwing: I hear envy.

ರೃ Lucinda: Me too.

Patchwing: CAW.

…is talking shit about herself? On purpose? To Lucinda? But; why???? Whatever the case, they just continue to walk through the bridge in silence.

Patchwing: By the way, you are ugly too.

Lifa lunges at Lucinda, who simply, almost gently, keeps her at bay by placing a hand on her chest. Lifa gives up, eventually- but smirks mischievously.

Lifa: Smart moves there Lucinda- protecting your friend while coping a feel at the same time?

Patchwing & Lucinda: There is nothing to feel.

Lifa instantly walks ahead. But, of course, not too far away.
>>
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The small forest past the arch is small indeed, but still decent for a walk. Lifa remains ahead while Lucinda and Patches talk. You don’t get it. While ventriloquism is considered the art of throwing one’s voice, the ventriloquist still has to talk through its stomach; both voices come from almost the same place.

ರೃ Lucinda: Patchwing, tell me something embarrassing that Lifa has done.

Patchwing: Everything she does is embarrassing. CAW

ರೃ Lucinda: That is true. Then, something embarrassing that your master hasn’t done on purpose.

Patchwing: She dropped the birthday cake on her little sister’s friend's birthday.

Lifa looks over her shoulder.

ರೃ Lucinda: Shh. What else?

Patchwing: (whispering) She then picked up that cake from the floor and ate it. At the same birthday party.

ರೃ Lucinda: What else?

Patchwing: She tried drying her clothes inside the oven last month.

ರೃ Lucinda: What else?

Patchwing: This place. CAW. Also, a teacher caught master drawing her without the clothes. Also, she dates dressed like animes.

A crow talking about anime… Well, magic IS bullshit, so it’s not that much of a dead giveaway. Besides, Japan is infested with crows. They must know something.

ರೃ Lucinda: Does your master truly have friends that get her?

Patchwing: CAW. All her friends are dead.

ರೃ Lucinda: A romantic relationship, then.

Patchwing: Midnight ice cream, then.
>>
The voice… /You/ hear it coming from Lifa, /Felicia/ hears it coming from Lifa… but it doesn’t matter because Lucinda Newhorn IS SMILING. No... No fucking way- let’s gooooooo! Mission complete! It is done! Oh, NO! You feel so hollow- now what? What will you do with your eternal life?!

ರೃ Lucinda: I do find that surprising, considering her craft.

Patchwing: Master used to get visitors, but they were just ‘reference material’ to her. CAW. It's been months since.

ರೃ Lucinda: I see. Why do you think your master is alone, Patchwing?

Absolutely straight-forward. You saw Lifa flinch: the yurimancer lost a bit more distance from them just now.

Patchwing: They die. CAW. And when they die she cries.

ರೃ Lucinda: I see.

Patchwing: She’s going to die. Do you think she doesn’t want others to cry?

ರೃ Lucinda: I would not care.

Patchwing: Do you like her?

ರೃ Lucinda: I don’t know.

That ‘No,’ never came; a shiver runs down your endless spine. You spy on Lifa. She's blushing, she's even smiling; but only with her lips.
>>
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As the duo leaves the last tree behind, you worry that Felicia may end up spotted. Too late for that now. She wouldn’t know how to go back. 'Praying' and 'Stalking' are the only friends you have left now.

Lifa: Don’t be scared now.

Right as they take a turn, the Fucknado is met face-to-face with the immensity of the white castle, and the huge white door right in front of her. Lucinda takes a single step back; odds are she remembers the last time Lifa said that. Lifa laughs heartily.

ರೃ Lucinda: What is this?

Lifa: Bones. Everything here is made of bones!

Not entirely true, but... now that she mentions it, the branches on the trees did look a lot like ribs, and the trees themselves had no bark. The huge door that is past the small garden is made of two gigantic tusks facing one another, between which are nothing but skulls, so tightly packed that it's like the tusks are pushing them against each other.

Lifa: Lucinda the ‘Fucknado’, afraid of a few bones? I’m not sure if I should tell you that we all have them!

Patchwing: I'm afraid of you too.

Lifa: Just making sure here, buuut- you do know that Lucinda didn’t come to stay here forever… right?

Scizzor-mouth wide open, this seems to give the crow some pause.

Patchwing: Lucinda, take me with you.

ರೃ Lucinda: That would break the Veil.

Patchwing: I will give my coin. It’s very shiny.

Lifa: -you do know we can’t even buy bubblegum with that coin anymore… right?

ರೃ Lucinda: I will take it.

Both crow and not-crow face the blonde at once.
>>
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ರೃ Lucinda: I will not take you up. I will give you this in exchange.

Lucinda digs through her red satchel; she takes out a small, pyramid-shaped white perfume with a violet pyramid-shaped cap. She gently grabs Patchwing and places it inside its open ribcage, all red inside, then holds it in place using some of her hair as strings under Lifa’s beady eyes- but then Lucinda aims Patchwing at Lifa.

ರೃ Lucinda: Try to reach the button with your good leg.

Lifa: Uh? What is aaaH-aaAAH!!

The spray coming from the violet cap of the perfume hit Lifa in the face twice, driving two girlish screams from her.

Patchwing: Lucinda, it works. Lifa has been defeated.

ರೃ Lucinda: You can now defend yourself from your master by making her smell well.

Lifa: Oh my god was all of that just for that joke?!

…that’s a motherfucking “Les Larmes Sacrées de Thebes by Baccarat” in that crow. One of those is like six thousand dollars, and now that one is inside a dead bird that is most likely roadkill that Lifa smuggled from a trip to Japan out of pity and some madness. This could be interpreted in so, so many ways.

ರೃ Lucinda: I will be waiting for that shiny coin.

Patchwing: It will be yours.
>>
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Lifa: That’s nice and all but are you coming in or not?

The wall of skulls looms over them as sinister as the bill of a taco restaurant.

ರೃ Lucinda: Hmp. What choice do I have?

Lifa: None, but the faster you accept that the less I will be bullied by a flying rat.

Patchwing: Lucinda, run for it.

ರೃ Lucinda: It is just bones. Like you, Patchwing. Show me.

Lifa: Hmp! Then- behold!

The tusks don’t move- but the door of skulls, which turns out to be two doors of interlocking skulls, starts opening inwards, revealing nothing but dense darkness. Halfway there, though, one of the halves of the door breaks apart and sends skulls bouncing all over the floor inside and the garden outside. Lifa scoffs.

Lifa: I know. Just- shut up. And relax!

She walks into her castle of bones, carefully stepping over the skulls, followed by Lucinda. Not missing a beat, you bite and swirl Felicia’s bangs like they were the leads on a horse and rush to the side of the broken door.
>>
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Peeking into the void,
you hear a piano booming with loud notes,
you hear a cello slicing through the dark,
you hear clarinets swarming like crickets in the night,
and a very faint drum that’s everywhere and nowhere at once.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc1YgQXuP0E

And then see candles flick to life like dominoes, carefully placed on the railings of the double staircase at the end of the room. Their flames are purple.

ರೃ Lucinda: …what is this…?

The purple flames illuminate the human skeletons with their purple light, skeletons that dance, skeletons with instruments, and skeletons in suits carrying trays with one hand above their empty skulls. Only then does Lucinda notice the big, circular table at the center of the circular hallway- and the very white seats made of polished bones that the skeleton butlers drag from under it so they can sit.

All bone.

Well, at least most of it because (thankfully) the napkins aren’t made of skin; in fact, the whole roll is right there over the table, still in its plastic package. Lifa drops her butt on a chair of bones unceremoniously.

Lifa: I was often called the Magical Girl of Halloween, but I think that my true title should have been the 'Magical Girl of the Day of the Dead', cause I'm mexican.

ರೃ Lucinda: This piece is 'This is Halloween' from 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' by Tim Burton.

Lifa: So?
>>
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Lifa: Sit!

ರೃ Lucinda: I’d rather not.

Lifa: But the king of this castle commands it.

ರೃ Lucinda: You'd be the princess. I'll take no orders from you.

Lifa puffs a cheek. You take advantage and sneak inside, leaving Felicia to guard the door.

Lifa: Then what are you going to do, just stand there and watch me eat? Is that your thing?

Patchwing: I don’t have eyes.

Lifa: Huh? Why do you suddenly want eyes?

Patching: I don’t want eyes because even I can see that Lucinda is not at home in your graveyard. CAW

Lifa looks at Lucinda. Lucinda looks away.

Lifa: It grows on you. Trust me! But, I won’t push you.

Lifa stands and claps her hands, and when she claps her hands five skeletons pick up the chairs and the table, bend its legs inwards, and take it aside. Judging by the size of the room, you think that Lifa throws lonely, secret skeleton raves in here, with old-fashioned music. It's a very even, very wide square of bones.

ರೃ Lucinda: Those are the skeletons of humans.

Lifa: Yes, they are. But don’t worry.

Yeah, that’s easy.

Lifa: I had to cut some corners but now I really am like a necromancer, aren’t I?

Patchwing: If you say so.

You wonder just how many people have called Lifa ‘necromancer’ over the years for her to just run with it. We all end up playing a part that others give us.

Lifa: Let’s do it, then.

ರೃ Lucinda: Do what?

Lifa: What else?

She winks.

Lifa: Welcome your mammoth to the digital era.
>>
Lucinda opens the suitcase. The frozen mammoth within, now rotten and melted, was certainly but a baby by the time the ice took it. A skilled taxidermist has certainly taken its time with it, replacing lost patches of skin with wool and leather, stuffing it with cotton, fixing its dead meat on an armature of heavy aluminum wire... That is why, despite its miserable fate, it looks just like it’s running around in the fields, having fun testing its legs, perhaps mere moments before it fell into a hole in the ground and slowly froze to death with its mother still looking for it. Lifa waves a hand away but it doesn’t do much to help with the burst of smell.

Lifa: My-GOD! How come this was in an open display at a museum?!

ರೃ Lucinda: It wasn’t.

Lifa: So this smell endured for like a million years? Wow, what a great honor.

Patchwing: You give us honor all the time.

Lifa: You know, taxidermy looks so interesting! Wanna try, Patchwing?

Patchwing: No.

The moment of truth. With another snap of her fingers, Lifa has some of the skeletons gathered around. You notice that each has a little detail to it: one has a crown of roses, the other a pendant, and another has a wig with a ribbon. Some lift the mammoth while others slide the most normal mattress in the world under it. Under Lucinda’s stare, Lifa shrugs.

Lifa: It’s what we have. By the way, you may want to look away.

ರೃ Lucinda: And why would that be?

Lifa whistles. A skeleton butler comes her way wielding a saw like those used in woodworking but smaller, and then hands it over to her. Lucinda turns around without a second thought or retort.
>>
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The Fucknado may shred a fucker every now and then, but that doesn’t make it pretty from what you can tell. Lifa gets to work. The saw moves. You pray to whoever would be your god that Felicia isn’t hearing this harrowing sound.

ರೃ Lucinda: I assume that she is removing the cotton and such.

Patchwing: She is.

ರೃ Lucinda: Then there won’t be much left when she’s done.

Patchwing: There won’t. But it will be enough. CAW

From looking at Patchwing, you’d believe it… but there’s no way that the crow is alive. If anything, it’s a puppet Lifa did to fuck around and then left at the entrance to the forest so it wouldn’t feel so deserted.

Lifa: There’s so much stuff in here- whatever, as long as it can move it’s fine. Alright, I’m done!

ರೃ Lucinda: Are you sure about that?

She’s still not turning around. Lifa digs a bit more into what now doesn’t look like a mammoth at all.

Lifa: You are right, it had wires between the fingers for some reason. My bad. We could have still fixed this later though. Do we have a box or something? Wait we do, I had a costume shipped to me last week.

Patchwing: Yet another. CAW

Lifa: It’s my job. Not settling for drawing over 3D models is what puts me ahead in the market you dumb, dumb bird. Box, please!

The box is brought down through the stairs; it has an ecchi, life-sized anime schoolgirl drawn over each of its faces. Lifa opens the top, turns it around, and then covers the scattered pieces of the baby mammoth with it.
>>
Lifa: All set! This part, you have to see. No excuses.

Lucinda finally turns around. Eyebrows are lifted.

ರೃ Lucinda: You are reviving my mammoth as an anime woman. I do not want that.

Lifa: It’s just a box, and anime is 2D. Now, look at the anime box.

Patchwing: Try not to feel shame.

Inside Lifa’s pink Soul Gem, which Lucinda is holding, swirls a faint black tornado gaining size. With a single hand, the necromancer Magical Girl touches the box labeled ‘kyaaaonichanyamate’ and a blindingly powerful green light slips from below it. The noises; you can only compare them to the chirp of birds, but longer, sharper, metallic, robotic, as if a mad scientist had given life to a nightingale made only of metal and the bird was begging for it to be taken away. As the already blinding green light does nothing but gain in intensity the box begins to shake, and now Lifa, eyes sealed shut, is holding it down with both hands, then with her whole little body

but just like that, the green light fades away, and purple reigns supreme once more. You glance at Lifa’s Soul Gem on Lucinda’s hand: it has grown darker. The small lich is sweating.

Lifa: Alright, that’s good, so… turn around again. Go. Let me peek first.

Again, Lucinda turns around no questions asked- some people don’t want to think that we are made of blood and bones. Lifa carefully lifts the side of the box that is away from Lucinda, then smiles a very pretty smile, then closes it again.

Lifa: OK you can look.
>>
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Lucinda turns to meet the anime box with certain trust issues.

Lifa: It’s like a Christmas present. Open it.

ರೃ Lucinda: Do I tear it apart?

Lifa: I know you like tearing cute girls apart, but spare my goddamn box Lucinda Newhorn.

Patching: Lucinda, tear master apart, she’ll feel cute. CAW.

What dark humor- but she doesn’t. Lucinda just lifts the side of the box right in front of her and turns it around. The baby mammoth simply stares at her with those brown eyes, as inquisitive as her own, as the trunk between its tiny tusks keeps on smelling the floor.

Lifa: Now; no sudden loud noises because we don’t want to scare it. But; congratulations.

Lifa claps just a little bit as Lucinda kneels in front of the baby mammoth. Its trunk smells her dainty hand even after the blonde picks it up and stands. Now flying on her arms, the revived mammoth moves its legs as if it were swimming.

ರೃ Lucinda: I don’t know what I should feel right now.

Lifa: What you should feel? That's never up to us. But, you DO feel something, right?

ರೃ Lucinda: I do. I feel something intense.

Lifa: Are you happy?

ರೃ Lucinda: I do not know if I’m happy.
>>
It’s there. You can tell, Lifa can tell, Felicia can tell; there’s sadness in that voice that is usually just a factory of cold one-liners. Can psychopaths feel happy? Can psychopaths feel sad?

Lifa: Weeell, you may not know it yet- but I'm sure that your heart is celebrating right now. One day, when you understand, this will become a very happy memory. So don’t worry about missing out!

ರೃ Lucinda: Lifa, I could be killed tomorrow.

…well, shit. One by choice, the other by chance; Lifa looks like she’s been slapped by the harsh reality that she can’t tell which is more doomed- and it only gets worse when you factor in the mammoth.

Lifa: Thinking about that won’t help, Lucinda. It just makes your Soul Gem grow darker faster. Think about today. About now.

ರೃ Lucinda: Those are the skeletons of Magical Girls.

What? Well, Lucinda IS parano-

Lifa: …Yes, they are. These are Magical Girls who died in the War of Broken Candles. Some are my friends. Some are my enemies. Some of them killed each other. Some of them were killed by Aloe.

>>
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Heavy shit, here go we again. Even the music stopped.

ರೃ Lucinda: Then their families never got news of their departure. Some may still be waiting for them because you did not follow proper procedure.

Lifa: I even wish that mattered. We come and go so fast that by now few care or remember. When the war happened, three-quarters of the Magical Girls of Buenos Aires were annihilated over a single day- and only one out of every five of us saw the end of it. It shattered the Veil. Normal people were killed. It made it to the news and the Internet- yet you didn’t know any of that. It’s as if it had never happened.

You already miss the cheerful and messy Lifa from a minute ago. The bitterness and clarity in this voice, reeking of guilt and regret in utter calmness, is of a completely different person. A very, very, very fucking angry person.

Lifa: And, one day, it will happen again. And, the day after, no one will remember it. No one will learn. Nothing will change.

You glance at the door and catch Felicia peeking, which makes her hide again.

ರೃ Lucinda: I did know of E-Magi. I was told about them by the Coordinator. You are being pessimistic.

Lifa walks away from Lucinda. Once at the foot of the stairs, she turns to face the blonde in full.

Lifa: I’ll take a wild guess and say that you know the name and what they do, which is protect the Veil… but you don’t know what their current Holy Butchers, Scarfs and Ribbons, did during the war. Maybe you knew that there were too many Magical Girls and too few Witches, but I don’t think she told you of what many of them were doing to stay alive. That Raya herself had caused the war to quell our numbers, the numbers of her own faction, my faction… all to protect the faith in Magical Girls.
>>
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You get the point. One of the pillars of Magical Girls everywhere is their love for each other, and it’s the same in every timeline- because Magical Girls have the very best of humanity. It’s the one invisible barrier that stops them from butchering each other on sight and then blaming it on necessity. It’s what makes their short lives enjoyable, while also leaving them willing to sacrifice themselves for each other.

Lifa: We were sent to maim and feed off each other… because Raya thought that Magical Girls would not accept that we also fuck up and get scared and hurt people sometimes. Because she thought that we wouldn't come together to solve the problem- even though so many, like me now, were already willingly giving up on Grief Seeds.

Lucinda looks at the skeletons of the Magical Girls that perished in the War of Broken Candles. They all do such specific things, like playing the piano or dancing; maybe Lifa found peace in them finally doing what they wanted for as long as they wanted.

Lifa: In hindsight, I should have seen it coming. She couldn't even accept that we could love each other.

Patchwing: It solved the problem. CAW.

Lifa giggles in silence.

Lifa: It did. It certainly, certainly did...

ರೃ Lucinda: Then say it. Let everyone know about these events.

Lifa looks at Lucinda as if the blonde was ten years younger.

Lifa: I won’t; for the same reason A-chan didn’t tell you. If those who lived through the War of Broken Candles didn't also keep this a secret then their worlds, like mine, would have burned for nothing. All we have left now is the faith in Magical Girls that Raya sacrificed us to protect.
>>
The baby mammoth makes baby mammoth sounds. Lucinda kneels and lets it walk away; three steps in, it falls to its side. Lucinda straightens it up.

Lifa: Let’s go back up, Lucinda. Let’s have dinner.

ರೃ Lucinda: Ok. Let us leave this place.

Lifa: After that, I’ll walk you out and we’ll never see each other again. That will be the end of our relationship.

Lucinda stops leaving the white castle.

Lifa: It was so interesting meeting you, Lucinda Newhorn. The longer you survive, the less you’ll feel, and the weaker you’ll get… and yet you still made me feel so many things. Thank you.

You look at the mammoth and realization hits you like a bucket full of ice: there could be others. Lifa, odds are, has resurrected other beings, maybe even normal persons… all of which will be gone the moment she dies.

ರೃ Lucinda: I do not understand.

Lifa: You are free of me. Enjoy your mammoth. Pffff, what a weird sentence.

ರೃ Lucinda: We will continue to see each other. I will protect you from now on.

…Lifa shakes her head almost as if dancing.

Lifa: I’m retired. I told you. It has been seven months since I went on a witch hunt.

ರೃ Lucinda: There is more than Witches out there.

Lifa: I hardly ever go ‘out there’, in case you haven’t noticed. I did this all by myself.

You look around; the castle of bones is certainly not empty. Furniture, pictures, sculptures, chairs, tables, the skeletons; and then there’s the door, meaning that this isn’t the only room either- or the only floor.
>>
ರೃ Lucinda: You are joking.

Lifa lifts an eyebrow, and she does seem surprised.

Lifa: Why would this be a joke, Lucinda? This is what you wanted. Right from the start.

ರೃ Lucinda: What do you want in exchange, then?

Lifa: Just for you to be nice to that animal. If it suffers it would be my fault.

ರೃ Lucinda: What do you mean?

Lifa: Um… that the mammoth is free?

ರೃ Lucinda: Why?

Lifa: I just want you to have it. Have fun.

ರೃ Lucinda: Why?

Lifa: Because I think you could learn a lot from it about feelings and stuff because animals are nice-

ರೃ Lucinda: /Why?/

Wow, loud. The girls are some distance away from each other but, until now, you thought that they were hearing each other just fine. Lifa shrugs- then squints at the blonde.

Lifa: Because I think that you are dangerous, Lucinda the Fucknado. Because I think that, one of these days, you are going to kill someone. Because I think that would make your life as shitty as mine is.

Lucinda smiles… and holy fuck, do you not like it. You’ve fought tooth and nail from the start to see that smile. This feels like a Faustian bargain and smells of Kyubey all over.

ರೃ Lucinda: Interesting. This is a game I had never seen before. I do wonder if now you are going to say that you do not want me; many have gone down that path before.

Lifa: I don't.

ರೃ Lucinda: The entirety of your works scream different.

...Lifa's eyes dim like the violet flames resting on the candles.
>>
Lifa: ...That honestly makes me so fucking sad, and a bit mad too. I show you all of me and yet that is all you settle for to judge me. I'm not even that horny, you know. I just find lesbian sex to be like poetry, the perfect spice for the contexts I make mangas about. Mostly, because you have to get pretty creative when there isn't a dick in the picture.

Lucinda doesn't answer. She looks as stiff as a dildo in a yuri manga, which Lifa would consider as cheating by the looks of it.

Lifa: But you are right, Lucinda. I can’t deny that I think that your body is beautiful. I won't deny that I would like to have sex with you.

Lifa isn't blushing at all this time. But she is smiling, and it's a painful smile.

Lifa: Just not enough to put up with your shit. That’s where you went wrong.

ರೃ Lucinda: I do not buy it.

Lifa just shrugs.

Lifa: Then what could my plan possibly be?

As Lucinda takes her own time to think, you notice that reality is visibly sinking into the blonde, little by little, drop by drop.

ರೃ Lucinda: I will give you Grief Seeds. To keep the mammoth alive.

Lifa: Those are the lives of other Magical Girls, and other Magical Girls could feed off them… Magical Girls who still have a lot to enjoy. Much more than I do.

ರೃ Lucinda: I don't understand you at all. You are mad.

Lifa: Maybe, in my own way. I’ve been wanting out of this food chain ever since my girlfriend witched out on me, and now that I’m finally out I don’t have to hurt anyone anymore.

Lucinda… grabs her head. As if she suddenly had a very, very piercing migraine. And Lifa is suddenly at a loss for words. The silence gets heavier.

Lifa: …Luci?
>>
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Lucinda Newhorn, Magical Girl of Freedom, is in pain- and suddenly she's not.

ರೃ Lucinda: So that is what you think. That you are safe. That there aren’t starving Magical Girls out there waiting for you to grow weak.

Lifa: That… is paranoia.

Lucinda both transforms and rips to shreds a skeleton butler in the same second. Lifa gasps both slowly and deeply.

ರೃ Lucinda: Put my paranoia to rest, then.

Lifa: What the fuck are you doing?! That was my friend!

ರೃ Lucinda: Your friend is dead. She has been dead for years.

Lifa freezes in disbelief. But then she erupts.

Lifa: I don’t care! If they come after me! At least someone else will feed off MY bones!

Lucinda responds by latching magical chains on more of Lifa’s ‘friends’ and then making them explode into a million splinters.

ರೃ Lucinda: If you don’t care, then do not stop me.

Lifa: How do you expect me to stop you without my Soul Gem?

Lucinda flings the pink gem at Lifa, who snatches it from the air without batting an eye- those are fixed on the Fucknado.

Patchwing: What are you doing? CAW.

…Yet even after /that/ she’s committed to the bit?!

ರೃ Lucinda: Patchwing, take the mammoth and leave.

Patchwing: If you kill her I die too! No shiny coin! CAW

ರೃ Lucinda: I will not kill her, and I will not wound her. Go fetch that coin for me.

Lifa transforms. Under her now slightly longer hair, a thick bone-white armor, completely metallic, covers her jaw and chin. What looks like a black poncho with pink lines as an accent covers most of her body except for the huge claw-like gauntlets and huge claw-like greaves, all white as bone, all metallic and shiny- and what little gap could show skin, up to her neck, except for her face, is covered in black fabric.

It's as if someone tried to cover the bones of a monster with a blanket.

Lifa rests her weapon behind her head, a two-handed flail from which hangs an intricate lantern like those held by antique lamp posts, twice as big as her head.

She doesn’t look like a necromancer at all

until a mask of bones covers half her face and a cape made of several spinal columns spawns over her back.

Lifa: You want me to prove I can defend myself even though I don't want to fight anymore? Do you even know what you want anymore? Because I do. I want to hurt you.

It’s there, that rage, again… Whatever the case, retired or not, silly or not, that’s a survivor of the War of Broken Candles. They often say to fear the old man in a profession where men die young

but you know too well already that she doesn’t stand a chance against Lady Lu herself. It wouldn’t be much of a problem if Lifa couldn’t put up a fight, but… by the looks of it, she’s more than going to make it hard for the fake princess. Things could get out of hand in this castle.

Thank fuck you brought Felicia; at least you have a choice now

which isn't without its risks, now that you think of it...

>Send Felicia.
>Stand back and wait.
>>
also penis
>>
>>5775809
>>Send Felicia.
Like they say across the sea, "Eramos pocos y pario la abuela."
>>
>>5775809
>Send Felicia.
Things are getting a little too spicy here!
Also,
>ರೃ Lucinda: I have never enjoyed water slides. This is no exception.
Rita can CHANGE HER
>>
>>5775809
>Send Felicia.
Its what we brought her for. Hopefully Felicia doesn't get turned into swiss cheese by standing in the middle of the fight.

>>5775889
>Rita can CHANGE HER
You can get your chance assuming we live through the witch fight lmao.
>>
>>5775817
>>5775889
>>5776062

>Send Felicia.

Patchwing, with its single leg and its makeshift wings, half of which are just bone, yet manages to drag the baby mammoth (as it still sniffs the floor) away through the front door, flapping as if it was drowning, but cursing like a sailor. You spy a gentler design hidden through Lifa’s magical form, a pattern of shapes… then wonder if the Magical Girl of the Day of the Dead had her transformation altered. Back then, it was commonplace. The monster in front of the million butterflies may have been just another girl in a frilly dress before the war.

Right now, she’s a demon taking flight.

Lucinda retracts the scythe into its basic shapeless form and blocks Lifa’s lantern with it, taking the hit in full to measure its force- and although she’s staggered by its brutality, Lifa is not

yet the next swing of the boulder-like lantern breaks no bones as it goes right through Lucinda.

The atrocity of steel and cogs that is Lucinda’s weapon spits a blade out, but the blonde gets caught by a surprise reverse slap to the face right as she phases in. Sent reeling back and then backflipping away, Lucinda touches her face. The blow hurt more than her pride.

ರೃ Lucinda: So you knew that one.
>>
Lucinda’s power is widely known. Fame is her true weakness; fame that isn’t enough to stop the mini goliath from leaping at her so fast and hard that the bone-like greaves explode in dust, fame that isn’t enough to keep the sharp tip of that lantern from scratching her belly as she leaps backward.

The fame everyone else wants.

Lifa: LEFT!

The lantern comes from the left- Lucinda ducks under it- but Lifa spins.

Lifa: RIGHT!

The flail drags the lantern through the floor and launches it from the right- Lucinda blocks and is pushed back again, but remains in balance.

Lifa: RIGHT!

Is Lifa screaming her attacks like anime characters are wont to do? Is that the reason? Autism? Lucinda finds herself phasing through the flail and dodging again and again, her attempts at unfolding her cryptic weapon met with sudden strikes and more shouting over and over- but the lantern never lands a hit.

LIFA: RIGHT!

Lucinda blocks to the right, but the lantern comes from the left like a wishing star- and you know what Lifa’s wish was. Perhaps still wondering, Lady Lu takes a full hit.

A normal human would have lost half of their ribs from that.

Breaking her fall with a graceful backflip, Lucinda stands, her white dress nothing but skin where the hit had landed.

λ Felicia: (I changed my mind! The painter is scarier!)

Trust me, she’s not. You tell Felicia to fish for an opportunity to strike Lucinda, to knock her out if at all possible. Felicia has seen her share of shit in Kamihama and Futatsugi, fighting the Wings of the Magius and the Sisters of Blood- but, right now, having the element of surprise is the only factor that may keep her un-shredded.
>>
White butterflies flap around Lucinda as she remains on guard; under Lifa’s incredulous gaze, they simply take their place back on the dress. Under that now disheveled golden hair, hidden by the veil of chains, Lucinda’s sapphire eyes remain, as ever, cold and curious.

ರೃ Lucinda: So you didn’t know that one.

A clean taunt, because the only way anyone would find out about the butterflies is by landing a hit on her- and not enough climbed that mountain to make that info widespread. Unless you land a second hit in a row, /in the same spot/, Lucinda’s armor will simply regenerate.

ರೃ Lucinda: I do hope you have more. That infantile tactic-

Lucinda unfolds her scythe.

ರೃ Lucinda: -won’t work twice.

Lifa’s attempt to overwhelm Lucinda through sheer brutality came to an end the second she became predictable- and now it’s the blonde who’s unleashing a rain of steel. But when her scythe is met by the flail, the chain holding the lantern wraps around the steel pole under the blade, and, in a single fell swoop, Lucinda's weapon is snatched from her hand- only to land on Lifa’s left claw-like gauntlet. Holding her weapon with one hand and the Fucknado’s with the other, Lifa just walks to Lucinda.

Lifa: This is how hiding your power to pull off stupid shit ends up on the battlefield.

ರೃ Lucinda: I’m holding back intentionally.

Lifa: I’m not.

But she is.
>>
Not one of her hits came from above, and surely even Lucinda could tell that Lifa was aiming for the limbs. Lucinda, now unarmed, remains quiet as steel in winter. When Lifa spins and unleashes a veiled hit with the flail, Lucinda simply steps aside and touches her weapon with a single dainty finger-

Lifa: -what!

-which retracts onto itself on Lifa’s gauntlet, who lets go of the grip on reflex, letting Lucinda catch her own weapon mid-air and block the lantern crashing onto her like a comet, using the impulse to backflip away again. Just like that, the tables were evened.

Lifa’s response is to say nothing and lift her lantern over the dying Planet Earth all over her head.
>>
The room goes dark, and this is absolute darkness; as if everything in the world was painted black. The only light left in sight becomes the blue fire raging inside Lifa’s lantern, yet the darkness is so ravenous that, despite the intensity of the flames, nothing gets illuminated.

λ Felicia: (I can’t see anything!)

It’s as if the lantern was sucking in all of the lights- or maybe that’s exactly what’s happening here. The single flame dances and spins in the air, but you can only imagine the way that Lifa is moving to make it do that. It bolts forward over and over, repelled by transient steel, its strikes being utterly predictable given that it’s the only element insight-

yet the clashes of steel and breathing are not the only sounds.

A secret cacophony ensues.

The lights finally escape the exotic lantern and bolt to their candlelights, drawing lines in the air. The casing of the lantern is left red hot as lava under the chain and flail. Light returns; it reveals that Lucinda’s dress is almost nothing but blood and butterflies flapping around her.
>>
Not missing a beat, Lifa is already diving on Lucinda like a hawk

who jumps right at the necromancer and phases through her to the other side. When Lifa turns around, Lucinda is nowhere to be seen, not above her, not behind her. In a frenzy, she smashes a single white butterfly down and brings down the red hot lantern on it over and over, as if forging a hammer with another. When she stops, the insect simply flaps away and joins all the others in Lucinda’s dress, who had rejoined reality.

ರೃ Lucinda: You could see me despite the darkness. You’ve got a trick up your sleeve.

Lifa: You want to talk, but I just want to hurt you.

Lifa brandishes the flail, but she finds Lucinda already in her ballet stance, standing on the tip of her toes as the shaft of the scythe follows the diagonal line marked by her arms and shoulders from behind her neck. Lifa doesn’t leap at her this time.

ರೃ Lucinda: All of that show was a distraction so that something would attack me from the shadows, likely bats or skeletons. I thought that hiding your powers was stupid.

Lifa: I’m not going to tell you how I fight.

ರೃ Lucinda: Then come at me.

Even when she was in utter darkness, Lucinda decided not to use her power; she must be trying to avoid its recoil effect from accumulating as much as possible. Given how much the darkness lasted, it makes sense.

Lifa: Why are you doing this? What’s the point? I’m already dead in every other way.

ರೃ Lucinda: Biding your time until your weapon cools down. I see.

The lantern /is/ losing its red. Lifa’s power seems to make it overheat.

ರೃ Lucinda: It is simple. I don’t need you becoming a Grief Seed that will feed my enemies.

Lifa: So you'd rather make me despair and eat me yourself.

ರೃ Lucinda: You are a complete idiot.
>>
No words come out from Lifa’s mouth before Lucinda becomes like a phantom and nigh-instantly appears behind her, pretty much teleporting. As Lifa yelps and parries the scythe with a gauntlet, you wonder what Lucinda had to free herself from to pull that kind of bullshit.

While it’s the blonde now that’s putting on the pressure, her strikes became fewer, faster, and more measured, and you know she won’t be disarmed this time- and that Lifa will be the one taking a hit any second now. You glance at Felicia; there’s no opening. No commitment. They just keep going back and forth, they just keep going for hit-and-runs that the necromancer keeps losing as the lantern gets colder. But right as Lifa finally trips and falls-

λ Felicia: (-AaaH!)

-a searing beam of light explodes all over Lucinda, burying the chairs and skeletons and butterflies in dust. The cloud is quickly cleared by the wind as the Fucknado spins her now fully stretched scythe like a fan, but instead of finding whatever shot at her

she's met with the sight of Lifa holding that lantern above her head again.
>>
Hello darkness, my old friend. Try as you might, it’s like that singular blue flame inside the lantern is the primordial fire that began history right at that moment. But then, mere seconds later, the lights are scattered to the candles all over the place again, and both Lucinda and Lifa are standing in the same place as before.

ರೃ Lucinda: That is what it was, then. You were using sonars to read my position. I do wonder how.

Lifa: Thank you for wasting a perfectly good opportunity to stab me.

Lifa folds her scythe into its basic, totem-like shape; she must have freed herself from the vibrations of sound. Although worried, you do wonder how that personal power could get even stupider.

ರೃ Lucinda: There is no rush. Your power is now useless.

Lifa: Is that so?

…The floor trembles.

Lifa: The jig is up, then.
>>
Lucinda finds no time to even open her mouth as she gets immediately barraged with both radiant beams of light and flasks of many colors and has to ballet out of the way. After an elegant backflip, she just isn’t there anymore, and the three monsters that attacked her rush to surround Lifa. One came down from the ceiling, the other from the floor underneath, and the third had been posing behind a portrait with a frame made of femurs this whole time.

You get a good look at the three guardians. One is a transparent worm-like construct, the other looks like a dog with three rows of wings, and the last one is the broken facsimile of a Magical Girl.

ರೃ Lucinda: -robots.

Where the word came from got instantly scorched by beams, which were shot from the holes in the wings of the flying dog-thing- awfully close to where you are watching from. Its wings are like those of a moth, its head, much like Patchwings, is but a skull, its front feet are human hands, and ribs cover the black shroud over its chest like armor.

ರೃ Lucinda: -you turn things into robots.

Lucinda semi-teleports right on top of it, scythe fully stretched, but the moment she’s about to bring it down on the flying dog an invisible force brings /her/ down instead, so hard that she’s squashed against the ground- and now she isn’t there anymore again. You look at the worm-like construct that had risen behind the blonde: its insides are nothing but cogs like those of clocks, yet its square ‘face’ houses a single lens which many others make their home. Your bet is that, besides leaving holes on the floor everywhere, it controls gravity.

λ Felicia: (That’s so ugly and scary! I’m gonna have to save the psycho at this rate!)

ರೃ Lucinda: -I see. Then logic must be the limit of your power.

Likely unwilling to find out what it does, Lucinda re-appears right behind the Magical Girl look-alike already in the middle of a swing- only for the monstrosity to almost entirely contort over itself in a quarter of a second and dodge her completely. It then grabs her pretty leg and flings Lucinda aside like a boring toy, then immediately continues throwing flasks of colors at her which she takes from a bag. Mid-air, Lucinda stabs the floor with the bottom of her scythe, stopping her flight, then crouches on top of its long, grim blade full of dents. From it, she simply dodges the flasks and test tubes that the look-alike flings at her- until beams of light too start raining on her and she has to vault away.
>>
You look at the thing that, perhaps, was an actual Magical Girl at some point. Its shape is humanoid yet stretched, it's wearing a cute scientist’s coat with roses drawn all over it, and the arms and neck are but loose springs. From those hang two bloated white gloves with eight fingers each, and the huge rose that would be its head- which hangs on its back. These robot-monsters, covered in bones, hiding hints of very high technology, were certainly made to be intimidating- and also deadly.

Robots.
This mexican is a mamushka of surprises.

This isn’t good. Lucinda is using her personal magic a lot. If she wasn't holding herself back the battle would be over already, but it would have ended with Lifa either dead or at least wounded. Keeping herself at bay is starting to cost her the fight.

λ Felicia: (Look!)

This time, the second Lucinda reappears she goes straight for Lifa- but the lantern sucks all of the light again. The room goes dead silent. Lifa can’t track Lucinda because the blonde made herself immune to sounds, and Lucinda can’t attack Lifa in the dark without risking killing her instantly. When the lights turn back on all of a sudden, Lucinda is on top of the lantern flail, fully retracted- but it’s the fake Magical Girl that is holding it instead. Bouncing off of it before it grabs her again, Lucinda is shot like a missile straight to where Lifa actually is- but the lights turn off again before she can connect, and silence ensues again. Yet, they are communicating telepathically. You can tell.

ರೃ Lucinda: (Your tactics will get you murdered on accident. You are taking advantage of my goodwill.)

Lifa: (It’s too late to ask for manners, Ms Newhorn.)

The lights turn on. Lifa is holding the flail lantern yet again.

Lifa: And not letting me rest in peace is not “goodwill”.
>>
Lifa lifts the flail lantern, Lucinda nigh-teleports right in front of her- and the very moment she comes out, scythe up high ready to chop the chain, she’s smashed into the ground and blasted with searing beams of light, then buried under a chemical cloud- yet the lights don’t turn off. Clever. Lifa had been using the same timing and movements when using her power to make herself predictable, so she’d know exactly when Lucinda was going to come out of her intangibility. Who, a bit on fire, reappears at the other side of the room in a cloud of butterflies, her dress scorched, grabbing her head, visibly gasping. Lifa points the tip of the flail at her.

Lifa: You done? Go. Away.

Oh god girl no, don’t do that. Lucinda, hands shaking, looks at the girl that draws porn for a living from under the veil of chains- with the same face as ever. And that is NOT a good sign.

ರೃ Lucinda: Alright, then.

OH NO YOU KNEW- it’s that stance. The other stance: she’s gonna the dance. The moment Lucinda dashes toward Lifa the fake rich girl is bombarded by the dog and the not-Magical Girl, both of whom miss every shot as Lucinda dodges with ballet steps. Chains, out of nowhere, and coming out of nowhere, mercilessly slam both creations to the floor and wall. As Lucinda makes her final jump, legs fully stretched as the scythe unfolds to its maximum size, Lifa panics and lifts her weapon instantly-

but the darkness can't stop a slash from being heard.
>>
The lantern falls flatly into the ground; when the lights are released yet again, it’s the Fucknado that is holding the lantern flail. Lifa is now standing on top of the anti-gravity worm; where she was standing is half of a single broken bone, with the other half under it. The necromancer had left it there to hold the flail and take the hit in her stead, surely afraid that its light would have let Lucinda track her.

Lifa: Lucinda, you just tried to kill me.

She said so loud and clear, with true terror leaking through every word- but it’s like the Fucknado got glitched. Lucinda is clawing her head like before as if trying to hold something inside. As if she needed maintenance. Care.

Then she smiles. Lucinda smiles.

And it’s a heartfelt, pretty smile.

As the simple gesture sends chills running down your spine, as it's Lucinda who lifts the lantern over her head this time, you spot a fundamental detail: the ends of the bone that was split aren’t smooth, but erratic with splinters. Which means that they weren’t sliced apart, but broken through blunt force.

Then everything goes dark… but, this time, the darkness never stops. The lights never return to their candles-

Lifa: STOP! STOP!

-and when the lantern is but melting lava, Lucinda smashes it into the ground in full force

and the shockwave sets the insides of the bone castle, perhaps not entirely made of bone, on roaring fire.
>>
The paintings fall from the walls. Their contents slowly shrink into charcoal as if the Magical Girls depicted in them were saying goodbye. Some of the butler skeletons don’t even react as they catch on fire, others fall onto themselves and end up like bonfires of bones. Lifa remains very quiet as the carpets covering the stairs, which she surely did by hand, burn. Her nose doesn’t even twitch at the smell of charred flesh coming from the flying dog guardian, or bat an eye as the big rose goes black

but the lantern-like Soul Gem on her chest, now revealed, does get darker and darker.

Her poncho, now on fire, was discarded. Below it was, as you had figured out, just another cute dress; a lab coat with flowers drawn over it like the one the look-alike wears. Perhaps at some point, back then, it had acted like a decoy of sorts; all of that past is now being devoured by greedy fire. Lifa snaps her fingers once more. The surviving skeleton musicians, some of whom are still burning, start playing as their castle of bones quietly comes crumbling down on top of them through a rain of burning debris- yet they touch as if with a burning passion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot8XgD3xwIk

This time, it’s Lifa that is shot at Lucinda at stupid speeds, as seething steam floods from the back of her greaves and gauntlets. The force of her first strike, which Lady Lu /barely/ blocks, leaves her intent as clear as the water on the spring above:


to kill.
>>
The guillotine kick following up made that point a law, it was so fast that Lucinda phased out /after/ taking the hit while being sent flying sideways with her left arm naked. Expertly breaking out of the air by stabbing the floor barely gave Lucinda a single second to phase out of the hail of seven lasers being channeled on her from the rows of wings, but she did manage to disappear.

The guardians don't surround their master to protect her anymore.
They scatter in search.

The instant Lucinda reappeared her entire body was slammed down into a crater, leaving a storm of butterflies over her naked back- but Lucinda disappeared again instantly.

λ Felicia: (M-MADOKA! I have to stop her! The blonde lady is in REAL danger!)

No, not at all. Even if all these fireworks did make you hesitate for a bit, it’s just not enough. To you, all that this does is make clear that Lifa fought Magical Girls from the Big West and at least lived to tell the tale. But Lucinda, unlike Lifa and those ugly guardians… is a true monster. You are reminded of that one nickname that not even Vanessa Adeline with a full squad dared to call her a second time.

Lucinda happens, all around her instantly becomes a crater once more- but she’s unhindered.

A second later, the blade of her scythe is through the dog’s neck.
Two seconds later the flying dog is smashed to the ground-
Three seconds later, Lifa’s creepy doppelganger flings the android zombie dog out of the way before the scythe mutilates it.
>>
Lifa’s gauntlets blast her forward like jet engines, but the roundhouse kick doesn't meet Lucinda, the blonde isn’t there anymore, no

she’s right on top of the gravity worm, which tried to stop her, and she's aligning the blade of her scythe to turn it into a spike which she then drives down the through center of the lens like a thunder of steel. In agony, in one last ditch effort, the worm made of cogs obliterates itself and all around it with a wide gravity shift- to no avail. Lucinda had vaulted out of the way. And, again, she wasn't where Lifa and the guardians were looking for her.

λ Felicia: (There’s no opening! She just comes and goes in like a second!)

That’s the thing: now there’s no way to predict her. What amazes you the most is that Lucinda goes blind when she becomes invisible, and yet she’s still making the right calls with just crumbs of time after breaking out of it. However… she's using her personal magic a lot. Too much.

λ Felicia: (Look!)

In a flash, Lucinda appears over the flying dog and slices, then vanishes when Lifa comes with a flying, boosted punch, then reappears again around the dog but is gone when the spring hand tries to catch her, then again, and again, and again- and, by the end of it, the winged-laser-dog comes crashing down, only splitting into seventeen pieces the moment it hits the ground.

But when Lucinda appears right in front of Lifa, with her scythe drawing a wing of blood behind it, and the last guardian gets between them to protect her master- the Fucknado, trailed by a storm of white butterflies,

breaks.
>>
It’s hard to explain; but something in her shatters. You’ve seen it, but only when she trained at the abandoned factory. Lucinda’s magic causes a recoil effect on her, a recoil effect that she can also choose to be free from, just like any other factor. And it seems that, unconsciously, after hurting herself badly so many times by pushing her limits, the blonde developed a built-in mechanism to prevent the accumulated recoil from getting to lethal degrees-

which both shuts her powers off and forces the recoil on her.

As the fake Lifa lookalike brings down a comically big, yet not so comically fatal karate chop down on the pretty girl, with one of those huge gloves with eight fingers, right when the white dress is missing many more than one butterfly... Lucinda turns her scythe into the twin-bladed crossbow. And the moment she aims at the doll-

λ Felicia: KA-BLAM!!!

-the Felicia-sized hammer hits the massive weapon aside;

Felicia had found an opening.
>>
Taken by surprise, Lucinda backflips away, this time stuck to the laws of reality. But she doesn’t shoot. After all, a shot was already made. Looking over Felicia’s shoulder, you see the Magical Girl lookalike, with a hole in its chest, simply collapsing like a puppet with no strings right as Lifa’s gauntlet also hits the ground. The sound makes even Felicia drop her guard to turn and look.

Lifa: …huh?

Lifa is still standing, yet one of her gauntlets lies on the floor- which is because it's there with the rest of her left arm. Wires and circuitry, now mixed up in weird patterns, revolve around the now small metal stick coming from under her shoulder, yet all soaking black-red blood. Completely defenseless as the Soul Gem on her chest becomes charcoal like all around her, Lifa looks up from her maimed arm to Lucinda’s eerie gaze.

ರೃ Lucinda: Traitor.

Gasping hard, Lifa doesn’t get a word out as everything around her burns. All she manages is to shake her head. At what? You don't know. She has so many reasons...
>>
λ Felicia: Painter girl! We have to leave right now!

Lucinda wastes half a second to transform the crossbow into that long scythe and swipe mercilessly at Felicia, who, against all reason, swings that big hammer with wildly abandon and all of her force straight at the blade coming to take her-

λ Felicia: A-YA!!

-sending the scythe flying away from Lucinda’s dainty hands, which spins like a tornado.

λ Felicia: Big sister, no ‘thinking time’ now! Let’s go!

but what Lifa is hearing is

λ Felicia: 黒人が口からビームを発射

because McFucking Felicia is speaking in japanese. Oh no, no no, god of fuck, fuck it all, god fucking sweet fucking, motherfu-

Lifa: ジメナはオカマだよ

…which means: “Hit the switch behind that portrait of a dick with a mustache”. You thank all other biggucas out there that Lifa is such a huge fucking weeb, you are so, so thankful. Felicia mindlessly yells and throws the whole hammer at it; beneath the loud 'boom', a humble clanking sound is heard. After picking up her scythe by flipping over it, even Lucinda looks at the roof, her attention likely drawn to the series of sounds both sharp and grave, as Felicia screams and unstucks her hammer from the wall. Then a lantern-shaped elevator comes crashing down from a secret hole in the ceiling, a lantern that looks a lot like Lifa’s weapon but twenty times bigger, and simply lands on the ground like a meteor- but shattering all of its glass at once. Clearly, that was another work in progress.

Lifa: 私はエマをいじめるのが好きなだけです

Which means: “Get inside and press the switch.” But when Felicia grabs Lifa, who yelps and barely manages to grab her arm from the ground, the little robolich is screaming in spanish:

Lifa: NO! LET ME DOWN! LEAVE ME HERE AND GO AWAY!

Felicia doesn’t; you don’t even have to tell her. Reminded of yourself, you dart to the lantern-elevator in a pang of panic, as Lucinda, who now has to settle for running, approaches with her scythe drawn and still dripping blood. And while the elevator is still straightening itself-

λ Felicia: GET DOWN!

Lucinda jumps with the scythe over her head only to be tackled down by what remains of the gravity worm, which is both on fire and melting from the inside. Finally wearing a scowl of rage, Lucinda chops it down over and over and over until its segments don’t move anymore- while you, Felicia, and Lifa are lifted to the secret hole in the ceiling. From below, watching her leave, Lucinda hunts down all of the skeletons one after the other, some of which were still playing their instruments in peace, all remnants of Lifa’s story, until only fire and silence reign.

Lifa: PLEASE… PLEASE, LET ME GO DOWN… PLEASE…

As the elevator rises, Lifa is crying, shedding more tears than blood, but Lucinda’s attempt at taunting her won’t free the little lich from Felicia’s tight grasp.

The elevator rises
and everything goes dark one last time.
>>
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The lantern-like elevator emerges inside one of the wood cabins you could see from the outside. Soon, Lifa is staggering through its door, dragging herself through the snow as if she were wounded. Besides that last shot, you didn’t see her take any direct hits from Lucinda… and yet she can hardly even walk. You are pretty sure that things would have ended up differently if only you had brought Yachino Nanami instead- but given this outcome, you can’t bring yourself to be that hard on Felicia.

λ Felicia: (japanese) Big sister Lifa, Lucinda’s gonna catch up any minute now! Tell us how to leave!

Lifa: (japanese) Who are you?

The dryness with which she spat those words rivals Lucinda’s.

λ Felicia: (japanese) Wow, scary! I’m Felicia Mitsuki! I’m a Magical Girl from Kamihama. I’m one of the good guys, I swear!

Lifa: (japanese) Why are you here? Were you hunting Lucinda?

Well; in a way.

λ Felicia: (japanese): No! It’s- Arrrgh, how do I even explain this? It’s so weird!

Lifa: Pink… Kyubey?

…oh well, ‘The jig is up’, just like she said herself. You calmly walk from behind Felicia, then rest your butt on the cold snow. Lifa gets lost staring at you, likely failing to find anything that could explain this phenomenon- among all of the other shit that just happened to her.

λ Felicia: (japanese): Look! I’ll tell you all about it later. Get us out of here before the psycho gets her powers back!

Lifa: Alright. Let me… just…

Lifa places the dead arm where it should be.

Lifa: (japanese) I can’t go out like this. Look away or close your eyes.

You turn around and tell Felicia that if her eyes will melt if she peeks for good measure. She swallows and does not retort.

Lifa: (japanese) Done.

Her arm is, again, glued to the rest of her body. Lifa tests her fingers one by one; they all work. Wait, aren’t you forgetting something?!

λ Felicia: (japanese) The mammoth! It’s going to get cooked!

Lifa: (japanese) Don’t worry, it’s already outside.

Despite delivering the only good news, Lifa looks fucking sad, fucking miserable, fucking done with everything- and the Soul Gem on her chest agrees.

Lifa: (japanese) Felicia Mitsuki; grab the Pink Kyubey and point your arm towards the sky. It will only take five seconds.

λ Felicia: (japanese) I’m so not going to miss this place.

As she lifts her arm, the one Lucinda just chopped off with a bolt, not a single word escapes Lifa.
>>
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λ Felicia: That felt weird! I’m never doing that again!

You… kinda agree, despite just watching everything through a hacked Kyubey. The transition as you left the snow globe was kinda of nauseating. Lifa is the only one that is not complaining. Staring around as Patchwing rests on its head, the mammoth obediently lays on the veteran’s bed, over all of her scattered, likely dirty clothes. Wordlessly, Lifa untransforms (which reminds Felicia to do the same), picks up the snow globe, and leaves the room with the smaller of the blondes following in tow.

Grandma: Oh dear, did your robot friend shrink? Who is this new model?

Lifa: One I had hidden under the bed.

You can’t tell if that’s just how they communicate or if Lifa’s grandmother does take that literally- but it’s all you are left to work with as the granddaughter leaves the house through the front door with firm steps. You don’t get to see her eyes. Once past the little bridge with carps, once past the tree-shaped iron gate, Lifa lifts the snow globe over the Planet Earth that is her hair- and looks around, and hesitates- and smashes it against the pavement.

λ Felicia: WHAAT?

And just like that, Lucinda is there, still transformed. As if she was summoned like a Pokemon. The deadliest of blondes takes her time to stand, then looks over her shoulder; when she sees Lifa and Felicia, she untransforms. After holding eye contact with her date for a good five seconds, the Fucknado limps away, not leaving a word in her wake- and you can tell that Felicia’s got stuck in her throat.

λ Felicia: (Madoka, that girl is too scary! Everyone is too scary around here!)

Well, this isn’t Japan. In Latino cultures, you often get what you see- and no person in the world is not scary in its unique special way. You tell Felicia that everything is going to be alright, even if you have absolutely no idea if that’s going to be the case.

As Lucinda vanishes the second a bus hides her from your sight, you realize that this isn’t over yet.

Lifa: Come.

You feel very commanded- most likely, by your guilt.
>>
It’s back in Lifa’s room, and she closes the door behind her- which makes you swallow from behind the CRTV from which you watch it all go down.

Lifa: Tell me; who are you?

She muses the question as if singing, but with Lucinda’s signature coldness- coming from Lifa this time. You are not hiding anymore; but saying that you are the Goddess of all Magical Girls, eons old, and that all this time you’ve been trying to hook her up with the most dangerous Magical Girl around, who you aren’t even sure likes girls (or anything that lives and breathes, for that matter) may seem just a bit off.

λ Felicia: I told you, I’m Felicia Mitsuki.

Lifa: …so you did. Why did you save me, Felicia?

λ Felicia: Cause Madoka told me to.

Lifa: Madoka.

You wish you were as simple as Felicia. Lifa is now looking at you.

Lifa: Madoka? Like the voice that Hush kept on mentioning? That pink girl that was looking for Weird Eyes too?

Yes and look just how /that/ ended up: splendidly. Only that she ended up becoming a Faction Leader of the organization that you two had been hunting down for years. More things that you aren’t going to tell her.

Felicia: Madoka as in Kaname Madoka, so I don’t know. The thing over here that looks like a Kyubey.

Dear, let's worry about your Soul Gem first.
>>
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Felicia: Your Soul Gem! Oh, no! You need a Grief Seed right now!

You move quickly and leap into Lifa’s tiny library, then push that one book down. Lifa’s mouth gapes as the book bounces off and the Grief Seed is left standing on the floor.

Felicia: Perfect! That’s great, Madoka! Here!

…but, as Felicia pushes the Grief Seed against her, Lifa gently pushes it away. She then takes it from Felicia’s hand, grabs the book, and seals it shut once more.

Felicia: What..? WHY?

Lifa addresses the little blonde with a little smile.

Lifa: I’m tired, Felicia. I don’t want to live anymore.

As Felicia doesn’t do much but look bewildered, Lifa quietly puts the book back in the shelf.

Lifa: That is my girlfriend. I was tortured in front of her so the both of us would become Witches- but what do you know? She won the race. The world can be… such a tiresome, silly place. Lately, all I want to do is sleep.

Felicia shuts up and looks down, already on the verge of tears. At this point, you don’t think there are that many left in Lifa.

Lifa: So, what were you doing down there with your strange little fellow?

“I followed Lucinda because I think that she’s dangerous.”

Felicia: I, eh, following Lucinda because I think that she’s bad people.

Lifa looks at /you/. But then at Felicia.

Lifa: I see. I don’t have that much time to care anymore. You had your chance to hurt any of us and you didn’t take it, and that’s good enough for me.

The old and jarred survivor carefully sits on the bed like a grandma, next to the mammoth. Patchwing, still standing on its head, doesn’t move an inch. It’s as if it was dead. Maybe it is.

Lifa: So you’ve been spying on me, then.

Felicia: Um… kinda? Your room is too much for me.

Lifa: I have to stop her. Lucinda.

You and Felicia share a /look/, and then share the /look/ with the girl you got into this disaster.

Lifa: My time in the Magical Girl Community was the brightest of all, even if it was also the darkest. I want to leave that world better than when I first stepped into it. Just… just a little better would do. I'd ask for nothing more.

Considering that you have no idea how Lucinda's head is right now, after all that went down, you have to put down your paw and assume that going after her is dangerous. This isn't the time to fuck around anymore: you are genuinely worried for the safety of a Magical Girl

but, at the same time

the bone Lucinda broke in half doesn't leave your head, and a powerful fact comes to mind: clean cuts don't leave splinters. Somehow, for some reason, you believe that Lucinda wasn't trying to kill her, perhaps not even when she had to resort to the crossbow-

but how would you explain that?

>Tell Lifa about the bone (Write In: Explain what happened.)
>Ask Felicia to erase Lifa's memories.
>Leave things as they are. Your meddling has a bad enough track record already.

You realize that this is a very important choice.
>>
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i vastly underestimated the difficulty of pulling jojofights out of your ass, so i took my time. really made me appreciate the absolute madness that is jojo in general, but especially the script in jojo 5 because im convinced that bucciaratti is the maximum possible exponent of manhood
>>
>>5779413
Oof... rough stuff, my Ritards...

>Tell Lifa about the bone (Write In: Explain what happened.)
>"You can still make the magical girl community brighter, but the first step is giving up on going after Lucinda. Look at that arm of yours: she could have killed you if she wanted, but she disabled you instead. We know Lucinda better than anyone... the fact that you're still breathing is an olive branch being waved in your face. A chance to rebuild. Don't throw everything away chasing after a cornered animal, Lifa. Your girlfriend wouldn't want you to give up like this. You're a fighter, even if you don't always think it."
>>
>>5779413
I'm gonna have to admit, maybe the "fuck around and find out, its a canon event anyways" approach was a bit counterproductive to getting shit done. Maybe its specially dumb that I tried it on the character I'm hoping will get us out of our selfmade clusterfuck. Well, live and learn. Lets try to salvage this anyways.
>Tell Lifa about the bone (Write In: Explain what happened.)
>She aimed for the lantern and the bone broke from the blow. The crossbow shot, well, that one is on Felicia.
>Lucinda was trying to help in her own fucked up way, "free" you in a sense. And I agree a little bit. Shits about to go down and nothing will be the same ever again, and Lucinda could make a whoooole lotta difference. I won't ask you to put up with her but at the very least... live.
Our memories can keep us going but they can also stagnate us.
Y'know, the anime box implies that the Mammoth figuratively came out of... Jimena. I wonder if her niche microcelebrity status is worthy of making her a doujin, gonna have to save that one for later.
Also that same box went out in a Holy fire just like Lucinda's basement. Poetic.
By the way, Hush knows about méduka and you knows what that means
>>
gonna give it a bit, then epilogue, then a break (cuz theres shit to do) then its back to our regularly scheduled multi pov disaster
>>
>>5779930
>>5780135
I support a mash-up of these two explantions.
>>
>>5779930
>>5780135
+1
To be entirely frank, I think I would've not voted yes for interludes if I had known they would be this long.
>>
>>5781779
Wait, I think I need to go into a more in-depth explanation about why this kind of bothers me.

First, a framework so I can present my mindset: the main structure of this quest is the Royale, our characters being on that map able to move around and go about whatever we wanted them to do, including those mechanics such as mental condition, witch hunts, etc. But currently, every character is in a forced event, MAGICAL RELAY, where we have the day of judgment, two characters captured, and two characters facing down a witch.

This is where my interest is currently focused.

This is what I want to see play out.

Perhaps it isn't good for me to expect pacing, considering all the stuff that has happened to the QM, which has prevented him from running threads and just piled general stress on him. But when I voted on interludes, I thought it would be something like Emma's, not 100+ posts detailing a character's relationship with a single person. Yet, when I consider that we are already away from the main mechanics by being in the forced event, then we are now doing an interlude, it just feels like we are two degrees away from the bones of this quest, which I wanted to try and be part of or at the very least read about.

If I had to make an analogy, it would be like watching an anime where the characters are about to go through a high-stakes main conflict, but then the viewer gets hit with some filler flashback episodes tangentially related to the main plot.

But perhaps this may be the last in-depth character look for Lucinda, considering she is about to face a witch and might die. I do truly appreciate what this interlude has shown about the two characters, Lifa and Lucinda, but it feels very far from the actual Royale. I also have opinions on Madoka and characters from Magia Record being involved in these stories and having a tangible impact, but that ain't important.

Rather than just an interlude, it feels like this is a whole side story taking away from what I came to read. I enjoyed the Emma Giga posts in the last thread because they occurred during the main plot. They had characters related to the main plot, a crow knight and Emma.

At the end of the day, however, this is the QM's quest to write; he can take it in whatever direction he wants. But at times, I am left wondering how much longer it takes until we return to the actual Royale.
>>
>>5781808
If by now you haven't picked up on our qms tendency to go on increasingly long tangents that are never gonna stop then you are well and truly doomed. You might as well ask a fish not to swim
Anyways, for me the sidetracking and bastardization of canon characters is a nice reprieve from the incoming storm that is consequences and the darkness of the setting.
>>
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>>5781808

>This is what I want to see play out.
this is why i said right off the bat that half the thread was going to be lucinda lucinda lucinda lucinda. my thought process was as follows:

"well! im starting like 2 new jobs and dont have the brains right now to not fuck up the setting and leave it with as many plotholes as swiss cheese, i either leave these niggas hanging for one more month OR i play it safe and out of the setting (hell, i could like let jimena fuck with it, and then make it actually relevant to the story just to fuck with her)

but wait
what if they don't like it? for like xxx valid reasons?
well they can just like- skip it. that's it."

and thats what i thought

>it just feels like we are two degrees away from the bones of this quest
the main mechanics (mental condition, stats, travelling, etc) still found their way in, just in a different way now that shit is going down in real time. also this was good for datadumping

>which I wanted to try and be part of or at the very least read about.
im happy to hear that, but that didn't go away. its just, juggling 6 povs aint that easy. think of this as my own selfish respite if you want, but also as me making a classic, no write-ins quest for variation

>but then the viewer gets hit with some filler flashback episodes tangentially related to the main plot.
maybe the problem is that i love it when that happens. some people love tangents and others dont. as jimena already figured out, i love my tangents, even though they certainly should be smaller

>But perhaps this may be the last in-depth character look for Lucinda, considering she is about to face a witch and might die
well,
yes

>it feels very far from the actual Royale.
its its context. i took the dark souls route for infodumping. instead of just straight up stating facts, what you get is an ambience

>I also have opinions on Madoka and characters from Magia Record being involved in these stories and having a tangible impact
bigguca's emmisary's could have been anyone. i could have gone for OC MEGUCA DO NOT STEAL but i always wanted a chance to write the girls and fuck it up since i love them enough to run a quest about them for almost a year. that being said, i do would like to hear that opinion

>it feels like this is a whole side story taking away from what I came to read.
it is. that's why i left a warning.

>But at times, I am left wondering how much longer it takes until we return to the actual Royale.
one more post:
>>5781017
>then epilogue, then a break (cuz theres shit to do) then its back to our regularly scheduled multi pov disaster

tldr: op had few brain cells left, made self-contained story instead of nothing
>>
>>5775817
>Eramos pocos y pario la abuela.
i had to google this

>>5781819
>You might as well ask a fish not to swim
i try to go against my own nature (and I have to because going too in-depth can get cumbersome like too much dialogue) but boy is it hard. i think its the same for all other writers in different ways

>from the incoming storm that is consequences and the darkness of the setting.
since we are already in the eye of the storm, the only way i found to give our gucas some soul is by taking us back to the past like the avgn

i was going to ask this more in depth after the epilogue but i'll take the chance, what do y'all think of this one huge ass flashback in general? you can be as honest as helenanon, it helps me. as for me, i thought it was gonna be like a one week thing and then i ended up having way too much fun writing Lifa and making her more bullshit every second

things like:
-did you like lucinda
-did you like lifa
-were omegaposts dense
-was the jojofight ok
-was the thing too long
-did choices feel relevant or many or few
-was the spice too spicy

etc
>>
>>5781880
>what do y'all think of this one huge ass flashback in general?
Well first off I wanna say I've been enjoying the read and the depth of the flashbacks in general, but I also wanna echo what Helena said a bit here too.
I enjoy a good filler/flashback period in my media, really I do, but I would be lying if my own interest in the story weren't more focused on the present time our characters find themselves in, rather than the flashback itself.

I really do enjoy these interludes, they add depth and detail to how characters interact with their surroundings and each other. That being said, I don't want it to get to a point where the interlude begins to drag on just to add some minute detail, if that makes sense. I just really enjoy the juicy part of the story where we make decisions and the delicious feeling of risk exists when rolling for them.

It is, difficult, to put my thoughts and emotions into physical words, but this is as close as I think I can get without becoming too cryptic.

>-did you like lucinda
Yes, her portrayal was enjoyable.
>-did you like lifa
Lifa was interesting and funny.
>-were omegaposts dense
A little, my advice would be to try to cut down on word count wherever possible.
>-was the jojofight ok
Yes, it was dense but very good at this stage of the series imo.
>-was the thing too long
You can never have a too long thing.
>-did choices feel relevant or many or few
Okay so my thoughts are try to put choices down to a main 4, cuz earlier definitely had a few too many which led to dense posts.
>-was the spice too spicy
No, I like spicy.

That's just my rough thoughts, everyone probably has different thoughts on this stuff.
>>
>>5782451
thanks a lot dude. i really appreciate the honest feedback
this stuck up to me in particular

>A little, my advice would be to try to cut down on word count wherever possible.
i have a proposition for you guys, for the sake of science. epilogue, week break so i can sort my shit, and then this: max 3000 characters posts. basically, one post per character. they will be very barebones and abstract, but i wanna see how getting to the point as fast as possible would look like. basically: one post, dice, one post, dice, etc. question is, shoud i add choices or leave it full write-in as usual? maybe you guys would feel more guided with a few demo choices you could always just choose to ignore

ok, all that being said:
>but I would be lying if my own interest in the story weren't more focused on the present time our characters find themselves in, rather than the flashback itself.
i was always aware of this. since i didn't have time to properly set the field, i went bananas with the flashback because it was a single timeline vs four. although it may have ended being dense, it's still much more than a blank page, so i do not regret it. in keeping spirit with the current format, im giving lucinda and lifa the one last dense omegapost they deserve

not today or tomorrow though. trust me, wish i could
>>
It had been twenty-two days since then. It’s raining on the small historic plaza behind the boulevard, which is surrounded by trimmed grass behind iron-cast railings. The evenly-spaced palms do not bend to the wind, but their wide leaves don’t keep up with the silent lines dropping from the sky. Lifa is still looking for Lucinda. Under her umbrella, despite half of Buenos Aires doing the same as her all over the Capital, she scouts even this deserted piece of history because that is what hope turns an idiot into.

Still watching over her (on the verge of tying Felicia to a leash, who is still there with you (still bitching even after three weeks)), you recall that one last conversation yet again

back when you decided to tell Lifa about the broken bone decoy:

>Tell Lifa about the bone

Lifa: I don’t believe it.

λ Felicia: No, no, I saw it too! I know Madoka is fishy, but I’m not!

What you had just told the veteran was that the ends of the broken bone had splinters- something a clean cut, /especially/ from Lucinda, wouldn’t leave. You also recall that, back then, you just wanted to sell Felicia. Lifa was looking at you.

Lifa: I need you to be sure about this.
>>
>She aimed for the lantern and the bone broke from the blow. The crossbow shot, well, that one is on Felicia.

Felicia: Wait, what?! I was trying to save her!

Felicia only picks up on what you had her say after finishing the sentence.

Lifa: You are just relaying what it tells you, aren’t you? The pink Kyubey. Madoka.

λ Felicia: Well, yeah? Kinda? It’s still true, you know!

Lifa: I was holding the lantern over my head.

λ Felicia: So what?

Lifa: The bone was below it, where I was. If she was aiming that horrible thing at the lantern then the bone wouldn’t have been reached.

λ Felicia: Oh? …Oh!! The weirdo is right!

Lifa looks at you, and you know she knows that you’ve been calling her a weirdo all this time. And yet, she doesn’t seem to care.

Lifa: Then… why? Why the splinters? I was right where the bone was, so… why?

>Lucinda was trying to help in her own fucked up way, "free" you in a sense. And I agree a little bit.

Lifa: Would you burn down an old man’s hut, where he keeps his trophies, his little prizes, all of the pictures of his youth, of his sons, of his late wife… to ‘free’ him?

λ Felicia: Huh? Why are you suddenly blurting out stuff about some old guy? So weird.

Lifa: I may not look like an old man, but we Magical Girls live much faster than normal humans. In our world, I’m like an old person. I’m weak, retired, and just waiting for the end to come. Just like an old man.

λ Felicia: What if the psycho didn’t know all that?

Lifa: What do you mean? What are you implying?

λ Felicia: I don’t know? Maybe she’s dumb.

Lucinda Newhorn, top fifty best student in the country, a prodigy in several high-class fields including the trade of Magical Girls at age sixteen: dumb.
>>
And yet…

Lifa: …maybe you are right. Maybe she just doesn’t understand. Maybe… maybe she is just dumb. Maybe it is that simple… no, no, no, I made such a huge mistake! I bought into her fame as well! I HAVE to find her!

λ Felicia: Then why did you let her go in the first place?! Are you also dumb because you are old?

But Lifa was already reaching for her cell phone.

Lifa: I couldn’t take her alone, I-I was going to call for reinforcements. Please pick up. Please, PLEASE pick up.

You remember her Soul Gem going darker- but nobody picking up on the other side.

>"You can still make the magical girl community brighter, but the first step is giving up on going after Lucinda.”

Lifa: I can’t. I have no time. If I wanted more time, I’d have to use this Grief Seed… which could make all the difference for someone else. No. The time I already have is enough to find Lucinda.

>”Look at that arm of yours: she could have killed you if she wanted, but she disabled you instead. We know Lucinda better than anyone... the fact that you're still breathing is an olive branch being waved in your face. A chance to rebuild.”

Lifa: There is nothing to rebuild. There is no time to rebuild. If it was mercy, then I don’t want it. And I don’t need it.

It was already the third time she called- to no avail. The text messages didn’t work either. She was already standing up, getting dressed, even if it was so late. The mammoth was just rolling over the bed, rolling over lifeless Patchwing over and over.
>>
>”Don't throw everything away chasing after a cornered animal, Lifa. Your girlfriend wouldn't want you to give up like this. You're a fighter, even if you don't always think it."

The way she looked at you… was kinda scary.

Lifa: What else is to throw away? What else is to give up? I may have turned her into a monster myself. I fucked up. I fucked up big, hard, steady, long, wide, clean.

>Shits about to go down and nothing will be the same ever again, and Lucinda could make a whoooole lotta difference. I won't ask you to put up with her but at the very least... live.

You weren’t about to tell her the OoE’s plans, or even to put up with Lucinda because almost a third of their secret army was made with her magic- but to at least live, if for that silly mammoth. If you stir enough shit Hush is going to hunt you down again, and convincing her that you are already gone was already a bitch and a half the first time.

Lifa: What is living for you? Jacking off in your room while other people suffer because of you?

You told Felicia to cover her ears- as Lifa finally gives desperation a little room, as she suddenly bites her own fist like a dog.

Lifa: I don’t understand her /at all/. WHY? Why did she smile? Why does she hate everyone? Why is she keeping herself pristine if she doesn’t want anyone to go after her?

To you only one thing is for sure: Lucinda herself doesn’t know why. She’s her own mystery, her own Labyrinth- and, perhaps, she doesn’t want to find what lurks in its depths.

Lifa: I’m going.

λ Felicia: Wait! Where?

Lifa: To find her.

λ Felicia: But where?

Lifa: The Coordinator.

Back then, you couldn’t give her some bullshit address to keep her busy because Lifa was clever enough to not trust you- but it didn’t matter.

Lucinda wasn’t at the Newhorn residency.

Lucinda wasn’t attending school.

Lucinda hadn’t been to the Coordinator.

Lucinda hadn’t come back to Lifa’s home.

And no Magical Girl in the whole Capital knew where she went at the time.
>>
However, everyone was going to find out soon enough. These past three weeks Lucinda Newhorn had gone on the wickedest Witch-murdering spree ever seen in the West. As if she was trying to beat some record, the Fucknado kept hunting Witch after Witch with no rest in between, hogging all of the Grief Seeds, leaving the entirety of the territory of that faction dry and deserted like the Wild West. This, of very course, wasn’t without consequences. Even though Magical Girls can last quite a bit without Grief Seeds, as long as they don’t use their magic and live quiet lives, the prospect of Lucinda continuing her rampage was more than enough to make everyone nervous, and for that time to become so much shorter. Search parties had been established. Traps had been set on Labyrinths. A bounty was put on Lucinda- by A- and talks had begun with the Big East to request specialist mercenaries as reinforcements because that fat stash of Grief Seeds had turned many heads. So, before long, many would meet the culprit face to face:

ರೃ Lucinda: I’m hunting within my territory.

She had her excuses; they were simple.

ರೃ Lucinda: It’s legal. It’s in the rules.

She hadn’t considered that some rules weren’t written yet- because they seemed impossible to break.

ರೃ Lucinda: You were going to come after me anyway.

And she had shut down any attempt at coercion with extreme violence. And, for twenty-two days, because she had Grief Seeds for a lifetime, the carnage did not take a single one of those days for respite. Because of a single Magical Girl, the Coordinator saw the profits of months in weeks, so well went her trade that she also became a suspect- and had to resort to working for free. Now knowing the whole story, you had heard Lifa chuckle to herself and say it was deserved; after all, by harassing her constantly, they turned Lucinda into the monster they thought she was. That very night, you saw Lifa crying in her room after using her only Grief Seed to keep searching for Lucinda. Amidst the broken whimpers, you heard her say that it finally was as if the War of Broken Candles didn’t happen, and that it was going to happen again.

By the time she met Lucinda at the plaza behind the boulevard, under the rain, the guilt had left her Soul Gem as dark as it was three weeks ago again.
>>
ರೃ Lucinda: Finally.

Unlike Lifa, Lucinda doesn’t care for umbrellas, and, despite her powers, she doesn’t care if her blue dress gets drenched either. It must be because she’s finally smiling.

ರೃ Lucinda: Say something.

Lifa: I don’t know what to say. I’m afraid I’ll say the wrong thing and you’ll go away.

ರೃ Lucinda: I think I can help.

She simply scatters them to the four winds; for a second, it also rains Grief Seeds, too many Grief Seeds

yet Lifa chuckles.

Lifa: No. That doesn’t help at all.

ರೃ Lucinda: Why are you laughing?

Lifa just stands there looking, surrounded from every angle by the most coveted prize in all of humanity, rejecting it all.

ರೃ Lucinda: Why the fuck are you laughing? Look at me like you did before.

Lifa: I-

Lucinda’s transformation merges with her drawing of the scythe, and Lifa takes every bit of that half of a second to jump back, falling on her butt on the wet ground. Lucinda approaches quietly, swinging her scythe around like a walking blender, obliterating decades-old statues, busts, old chairs, and chess tables. But when Lifa stands she stays in place, and when the next swing comes she stands her ground, untransformed

and the scythe goes straight to her neck. Lifa lies on the cold ground; her painter’s garb is getting drenched.
>>
You watch in forgotten horror as Lucinda gasps. To you, these past weeks have been the most unpleasant blink of an eye you ever had to endure- but, as Lifa pushes herself from the sunken tiles, it seems it isn’t over yet.

Lifa: That’s what happened. When the lights turned off, you landed that blow with the back of your scythe.

Lucinda shakes her head in disbelief.

ರೃ Lucinda: What are you doing? Transform. Come at me.

But Lifa, still on the ground (because it still was one painful fucking slap) simply slides away- as Lucinda walks forward.

ರೃ Lucinda: You can hurt me. Rough me up. Humiliate me. Treat me like your drawings.

Lifa: I’ve been thinking about you day and night, Lucinda. I think I forgot how to draw.

Lucinda stops. Looking at Lifa, you realize she took the hit on the side of the head. Red flows from under her blue and green hair because Lucinda thought that she was going to dodge, and Lifa knew that there was no need. It looks bad, but the veteran looks so serene. Maybe she’s just happy to pay for her mistake.

Lifa: The way you smiled back then… the way you act, the way you dress, the way you smell… all that hate and all that fear… you know, I think this was the last piece of the puzzle. I think I figured you out.

Now it’s Lifa that is smiling as half her broken, violet lips leak blood, blood and sorrow that the rain washes away- as if it was never there. Lucinda looms over her, white and merciless as the moon, her scythe limping on the floor like a teddy dragged by the little girl she never was.

Lifa: You want me to hate you.
>>
Not envy, not jealousy, but hate; sincere hate and rejection. It’s a cold, wet night, the best night to stay home and drink tea- and Lucinda is touching her chest where her heart would be.

Lifa: I’m so sorry, Luci. I don’t hate you. I can’t hate you.

ರೃ Lucinda: You betrayed me.

Lifa: I gave you my Soul Gem. I didn’t even ask for it until you wanted to fight. Felicia had been trailing you to protect others from you.

ರೃ Lucinda: You pushed me away.

Lifa: It was the only way you were going to believe that I’m not like the others, that there are people out there that don’t care enough for beauty or status to hurt you. I wanted to make you like people more.

Lifa is crying, but laughing.

Lifa: I didn’t know that you were going to like me!! What a twist! Right?! I mean, I’m such a fucking mess! That’s why I showed you all of me!

Lifa howls in laughter at just how horrendously badly her plan to be good backfired.

Lifa: It’s funny, isn’t it? It’s so insane! If I want you, you hate me! If I don’t, you like me!

Awestruck under the rain, Lucinda almost doesn’t notice Felicia, Petra, Nina, Enna, and Salome falling on her like thunder

λ Felicia: I’m gonna hit her with a BABOOOM!!

but when she does there’s not even glitter left where the Fucknado was a nanosecond ago. Felicia lands on nothing, and she doesn’t like it.

λ Felicia: Aww come on, what a coward!!!

The Magical Girls scour the area, their weapons drawn, their heads twisting and turning at the slightest sound- but it quickly becomes evident that

◄ Salome: Nooooooo!! Don’t go!! I’m just tagging along desuwa!! My drills are dying desuwa!!

◄ Enna: Bitch, are you serious?

◄ Petra: G-GIRLS! Look!

They notice them; the Grief Seeds, lying on the ground, all still standing at a perfectly vertical angle. Dumbfounded as if they just saw Salome acting like a normal human being, some of them timidly pick up the dark gold. Lifa, still shaking, finally dares to stand.
>>
By telling Salome that Lucinda had given her the Grief Seeds on purpose so that she may distribute them, Lifa had managed to clear Lucinda’s name at once. She even had the balls (and influence) to have an online conference with the three Faction Leaders and, in unexpected wrath, downright scold the surprisingly frightened Magical Girls for letting their members harass someone to prove themselves. Not even Ironmouse, the most rebellious of all, had jack shit to say. After all, Lifa is their senior for the only reasons that matter.

Lucinda had yet to come back home, but most were glad to see Witches terrorizing the streets once more, at least those still blissfully unaware of their nature- and some of the rest. Back to her room, bringing the now bigger mammoth his bowl full of dog food, Lifa lets her butt fall on the usual sweat-stained gamer chair and turns it to face her drawing tablet. She’s drawing Lucinda again, still in a somewhat lewd stance, perhaps as catharsis, perhaps out of revenge, too absorbed in her work to notice the doorbell. By the time someone knocks on the door, all Lifa has time for is to scream and hide behind the ecchi, life-sized anime schoolgirl she had dressed like Doraemon- and she doesn't even scream.

After knocking for a while and getting no answer, Lucinda invites herself into the room like she owned it.

ರೃ Lucinda: Alondra?

Lifa holds her breath and hides, most likely because all she’s been wearing to walk around the house is a single hoodie and all she ate was three garlic burgers and cheetos- yet you know that there is still a sincere primal fear lurking under her surface.
>>
ರೃ Lucinda: Patchwing, where’s Alondra?

The mammoth is absent-mindedly chewing processed dog food just like its ancestors, so Patchwing, which Lifa uses to guide it, just happened to be at the bed at the time. And when Lifa remembers it, it comes back to life.

Patchwing: Hello, my friend. She’s in the new snow globe. CAW. It’s a beach though.

Its body and head had been sewn shut so that it looked like any other plush- yet Lucinda’s stupidly expensive perfume is still peeking from its chest as if it was a natural part of it.

ರೃ Lucinda: I see.

Patchwing: Are you mad at her? Will you punch her in the face? CAW.

ರೃ Lucinda: No. I do know now that she did not betray me.

Lucinda… twirls her fringe a bit. As if distraught.

ರೃ Lucinda: Do you think that she’s angry at me?

Patchwing: She didn't like that you burned her castle down.

ರೃ Lucinda: That wasn't a castle. It was a cage.

So that was true, then. Lucinda was trying to free her from the past and the nostalgia.

ರೃ Lucinda: So she is, then.

Patchwing: No. CAW. She messed up. She feels bad about trying to kill you.

ರೃ Lucinda: I see.

Patchwing: But last time she was saying ‘why did she not tell me? CAW’ or something like that.

ರೃ Lucinda: I see. So she said 'CAW'.

Lucinda sits next to Patchwing- and Lifa tries to hide even her legs inside the hoodie, stretching it to its limits.

ರೃ Lucinda: Patchwing, my power is to free myself from things. I can free myself from anything. That includes my feelings.

Patchwing: Wow.

ರೃ Lucinda: I haven’t been doing it since the last time I was here. It has been horrible. I have never suffered so much in my life.

Patchwing: Oh. Wow. CAW. Why don’t you stop if it's so horrible?

ರೃ Lucinda: Because of the War of Broken Candles.

From your secret hole in the wall, you get a clear view of Lifa’s eyes rising from inside the sweater.
>>
ರೃ Lucinda: Nothing will change because nobody will know what went wrong there. I want to change, so I want to know what I did wrong.

Patchwing: That’s nice.

ರೃ Lucinda: My power was not letting me. It was taking that freedom from me. I had been using it in this way ever since I made that contract, without knowing- and my grief had been accumulating.

Patchwing: Wow that’s bad. CAW. So why didn’t you tell the pervert gnome that you didn’t want to kill her?

“Pervert gnome”. Maybe that’s her game. Lifa could be attacking herself through Patchwing just to ensure Lucinda doesn’t suspect it’s her who’s talking. She was willing to go that far all this time.

ರೃ Lucinda: I believe I was angry.

Patchwing: Angy.

ರೃ Lucinda: Angry. She had taken all those risks to get to know me only to push me away, just like that. All that wasted effort made me angry; that is what I believe. And I also believe that I was… sad, because she rejected me. I am not sure. I never had a friend in my life.

Ouch. If anything, you’ve always had friends, even if your current ‘friends’ have been overloaded with excuses to bitch at you and forget what mercy was altogether.

ರೃ Lucinda: It also made me feel… what I think was joy, to think that she hated me… for some reason. I felt so many things other than hatred with her. I am used to hatred. Every other feeling is out of control.
>>
Patchwing: I have an idea, my friend. CAW. But it will cost you a coin.

Lucinda simply takes out a coin and places it on Patchwing’s beak- who swallows it.

Patchwing: Try this. CAW. You dress up like the people you hate so that you can find someone who hates the people you hate as much as you hate them, and that person will be the one who hates you. CAW

Lucinda tilts her head sideways, one of her very few expressions.

ರೃ Lucinda: Yes… yes! Patchwing, you are a smart crow. It was all a beacon- like her hair. That is why I understood her back then, perhaps. And yet, I was never aware of this.

Lucinda being sweet to another living being... Never mind, it’s a dead being- if that makes sense.

Patchwing: But, Lucinda, if you always wear the face of your enemy, how will you ever know if someone loves you?

Patchwing, your Lifa is showing.

ರೃ Lucinda: I do not want love. Love made my life into a nightmare. It made me hate everyone.

Or maybe Lucinda knew all along.
>>
Patchwing: Lucinda, so; why do you hate everyone so much? It's a lot of hate.

ರೃ Lucinda: Because I connected some dots, as Lifa would say. This is what I remember. Our school would do joint classes with special needs students. A kid with Downs Syndrome bit my arm right here; he latched onto it like a pit bull. I broke his jaw with a fire extinguisher.

Damn. Well, it is kind of a fire? Maybe?

ರೃ Lucinda: Then I saw a video of a mantis eating a mosquito alive. It was crushing it between its claws and eating its eyes, eating its face. I knew how that felt like, so couldn't bear to watch it.

Patchwing: I don't want to be eaten.

ರೃ Lucinda: Neither do I, my little crow friend. Then, in Economics class, the teacher would keep on repeating the word ‘predate’ over and over, saying things like that big corporations predate small corporations by lowering prices and then buying them, then that this and that...

You wonder if Lucinda even considers that a crow may not know what Economics class is, or how the education system works as a whole.

ರೃ Lucinda: I felt... predated. That everyone was feeding off me, off my time, off my nerves, off my motivation. But what drove me mad was realizing I had been doing the same all along- and that I could not stop it.

Patchwing: So you just didn't want to be bad.

ರೃ Lucinda: ...I think I didn't.

Lucinda stands from the bed because who knows who or what has been there.

ರೃ Lucinda: I... wanted to be free from that cycle, I suppose. I did not know how, so I simply asked for freedom.

She pats the mammoth's head, who just keeps on doing mammoth stuff.

ರೃ Lifa: D-do you like Lifa, then? Or do you hate her? CAW.

ರೃ Lucinda: I do find her disgusting-

ರೃ Lucinda: -but I do not hate her.

Patchwing: But she's a predator.

ರೃ Lucinda: So am I.

You finally remember that one nickname no one dared tell her after the first time: "Apex". Lucinda sees at last Lifa's drawing tablet- but all she does is sigh and shake her head and nothing more. As the Apex is swallowed by the snow globe, now a beach globe, Lifa grabs a feathered bikini from the cosplay wardrobe where Golden rests.

With a little hesitation, she heads inside it too.

ರೃ ರೃ FIN! ರೃ ರೃ
>>
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>>5794621
i'm wondering if its good i didn't start the thread else it would already be dead, or i should have so we would have been done earlier. in any case that witch is definitely not dying this thread lmao
anyways, once again alls well that ends well and no thanks to us. very fruitful intel, I consider this an astounding success
>>5781880
>did you like lucinda
i'm very much a lucinda stan, the thread got the whole package, the motivation, the struggle, all put well together enough to make a ridiculous character seem coherent
>did you like lifa
at first I thought the joke introduction was a disservice but I figured its the quest signature for everyone to be over the top. she's cute, she's got deep lore, she's good talking, at some point her dialogue reads like A exposition but it's not the worst thing in the world. I hope she lives
>were omegaposts dense
do you even need to ask
>was the jojofight ok
you can write a fine tussle alright
>was the thing too long
yes, and also the thread ended up like not even half as long as the others, funny how that works
>Did choices feel relevant or many or few
It does seem we would have been better off not doing anything but we knew that already.
>was the spice too spicy
not enough.

all around, real cute. you had your revenge on helenanon's stupid big tism posts now put bigguca in a shelf
>>
>>5796156
you are so sweet jimenanon, but there wont be another thread. interest is dead, judging by the two weeks of radio silence my 55 part post was met with. that wouldnt even be the biggest problem though. i had a lot of fun writing this silly little story yet it fell flat, and knowing this and many other tidbits id feel cruel still building up to a story that wont meet expectations. i would also put the burnout from writing 6 povs at the same time plus simply staying alive in latin america into the equation, but I think I would manage to put out the effort if only to justify all the investment ive caused so far. but it wouldnt do. i think i dont belong here. im an emotional little bitch and i enjoy it. i was blessed with six very kind and patient players, so good that didnt even consider ghosting, but our goals are simply different and i realized too late
>>
>>5796358
This makes me incredibly sad, but I wish you the best of luck with your affairs man. I’m sorry if my radio silence and criticism contributed to this. I’ve really liked this story and was even thinking of what arguments to try and present with characters in the tower, even writing up some (admittedly utterly inane and pretentious as shit but that’s my writing style.) best of luck again.
>>
>>5796358
Good luck, the story was great. I hope you meet amazing success.
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>>5796358
That is a pretty sad piece of news to come back to, I'll admit. I haven't been following things much, or at all this thread, for reasons I've already mentioned. I'm not sure qst should be your niche either. You made it work, but yeah, maybe 55 posts was too much. But I'm saying that as someone who also hasn't read any of the chunky helena/ A stuff, and who at this point isn't sure what's going on. I had vague plans to read back on everything once things got more settled on my end, and I still intend to. That, and the whole prequel thread thingy. I'm sorry that my delaying this was a factor in you making this decision, QM. I should have checked in more often, even if I had nothing interesting to contribute to the conversation.
And, yeah, at this point I do believe you've hit the enveloping side story problem, where you develop stories within a story, at the risk of losing the interest of people who picked this up for the first story and not the others. And this was also a Lucinda thread, and marketed as such, so I wasn't in a hurry, nor did my input feel needed. Nor was it required, which is probably a good thing considering how little I'm on here these days.

Ah, enough rambling. I'll say to you what I've said to other QMs. I'm sad to see this go, will keep hoping for it to come back, and for things to get better for you, and I'll do my best to carry the memory well. And should you ever want to try this again here or someplace else, I would appreciate a way of staying in touch beyond the board, should you not want to return.
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>>5796358
Really sad to hear it, but as a fellow QM I totally understand the reasoning. You made a damn good effort of running a multiplayer thing here, QM, but yea... shit seems tough, especially when you've got to juggle the POV of multiple characters. While I really appreciated the sidestories and thought they were well-written (this Lucinda one rocked, especially) I think we also drifted away a bit from the original idea and that might've been what caused the momentum to wane.

Even so, reading your posts was a pleasure and I love what you did with all the characters! Your writing was punchy, emotional, descriptive, and really funny at times, and while I know shit can get frustrating from lack of engagement, I hope you eventually come back and run something else if only to keep that writing of yours alive!

Thanks for sticking with it for as long as you did, dude. You're a real one. Doubly-so for actually telling us rather than flaking--that takes cojones. Rita's gonna miss you menheras...
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>>5796358
I can't agree that there is a lack of interest, but I understand feeling burned out and I sincerely commend you for sticking with us for so long, you poured your soul into this quest and it feels. I thank you QM for giving us this experience and I wish you the best in life.

Anyway, we are here forever, I'll be seeing you and the other menheras around. If you don't recognize me, I'm the guy who called you a faggot.

Regardless, https://youtu.be/2a7_yCxMgZc?feature=shared
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Yeah, I'll miss all you guys, though I have spotted Lucinda playing the SCP quest before and am pretty sure Emma is a player of that paranormal school quest. So see you around.

Interestingly enough, I think whenever I see a Vtuber in the future I'll think of this quest.

I do hope QM will come back one day to run this quest. This has been a blast and I know I'll be back if it runs again.
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>>5796358
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>>5796362
>if my radio silence and criticism contributed to this.
neither did. if anything, your criticism only made me grow and get better. if its for the silence, faking interest would only have hurt everyone. im going to miss the insane write-ins, but i feel like i didnt do them justice. thank you a lot helenanon, you took my failed experiment and made her a fun character

>>5796377
im super glad you had fun lurkeranon. i will fight to get the time and peace i need to truly go all out, and not have to juggle 30 things at once

>>5796381
> I'm sorry that my delaying this was a factor
it wasn't. already keeping the same 6 players for almost a year is a huge success for me. if you had forced yourself for whatever reason then i wouldn't have noticed i had room for growth. your telling me that me that the tower posts were too cluttered made me care a lot more about clarity

>it was a Lucinda thread, and marketed as such
it was, and i did know it wasn't going to everyone's cup of tea and that was ok, but then I had such a good time with it that i realized everything after this, even if i kept up 6 manning, was going to be more of the same: emotional stuff, with little depth in the action and strategy

im very glad you were our mc, even if, just like madoka, you had a lot of fun in the sidelines lawl

and dont worry. im too easy to find.

>>5796450
>I think we also drifted away a bit from the original idea
i wish i could have kept it going, but after trying to stall for time with this one side story i realized that, just like jimena said, i did bit more than i could chew

im going to miss you and the very violent menheras a lot too rita. im happy you had fun, but i was too greedy. we all ritards here forever

>>5796472
>I can't agree that there is a lack of interest
i know there is interest in the quest, but im also convinced that it's not where it was headed and i know better than to fuck with expectations. i started this quest to fuck around and get menheras killed by dice but wound up giving each a ton of backstory because that kinda lovey-dovey slice-of-life stuff is aparently what gets my gears working- and that not for everyone and that's ok

if its calling me a faggot its you now. thank you for making omniscience the whole half of the quest planning. im sad i didn't get to dig more through half a wikipedia to see if bullshit could work. you have /no idea/ the amount of realistic trivia i ended up swallowing lawl

>>5796502
im so fucking sorry jimena. you were right all along, i was digging myself further in and i only noticed when i had to dig through a five different notepads for a single post. i hope you can forgive me if i got your hopes up, you were always there backing me on my bullshit.


ive seen many series and stories get butchered when the runners ran out of gas. this hurts me a lot, but id rather kill my beloved story out of mercy than see it rot. thank you all for playing Meguca Royale. you all made this a wonderful little trip
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would someone post the 'see you soon' pic with the jimena in the hood? the ip range ban won't let me
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>>5796587
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>>5796586
Ah bittersweet. I was definitely going to try and get Helen five wishes: her coordination to always succeed, to be an incubator, to understand her magic, to be the greatest warrior, and to be able to teleport to other cities so she could relay mess up the OoE’s day.



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