Fourth Thread, First Post:

The Fourth Thread of Fatale Albion!

The Fatale Albion Thread Archive:
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Fatale%20Albion

Other Threads by Lumina Canima:
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?searchall=meguca+royale

INTRO (Please do not skip this)

◕ Fatale Albion is a Spin-Off of Lumina Canima’s “Meguca Royale”, taking place in the U.K. Three players are currently taking part in this game. They each will answer to their own prompts with their own characters. This Quest will have major spoilers for PMMM, so if you haven’t watched it yet and don’t want me to ruin it for you, watch it right now or else. If you still want to read and participate in this quest then I’ll have something to show you.


◕ In the previous thread, Abigail learned some of the details related to her new Soul Room-mate, learned some new techniques to utilise her Magic, and initiated a date with her boyfriend. Stephanie and her sister almost got mugged with a knife (it’s the UK, what did you expect?) but Stephanie still had her longsword as it didn’t disappear with her Magical Girl outfit and she fended off the cur after insulting him furiously, she then agreed to binge Anime with her sister after getting home. Alba learned that she is a goddamn Magical Girl from her friend/personal tailor, was offered to be part of a mission to get rid of Grief all over the UK by said friend, and learned an obscure, occult, nearly unusable language by said friend as well.
Stephanie’s actions were posted last thread, Abigail’s actions were given to me through an alternative communication channel, and we have been waiting for Alba’s return.

OTHER STUFF

>Can I also join in the suffering?

I’ve decided that I’m accepting new players for now. Just fill in this Contract Form and you’ll be all set.

Name: (The name of your character. Shameless Self-Insert or not)
Appearance: (The garish looks of your character. Clothing descriptions are also welcome.)
Quirks: (Personality traits, how they behave. Examples of how they act in specific situations are good. This space is vague intentionally, but remember: Simplicity is power and Brevity is the Soul of Wit.)
Wish: (The Wish that you made with your Incubator. Your magical ability and theme is influenced heavily by your Wish. Make sure to be careful, some wishes have unforeseen consequences.)

Active Dramatis Personae:

Name: ф Stephanie Smith ф

Appearance: A tall and skinny girl, with a pronounced slouch. She has black hair styled in a messy ponytail, due to a lack of means to properly take care of it. Wears thick prescription glasses. Previously did not own many clothes aside from a pair of school uniforms, so her fashion sense is still catching up. At this point she wears clothing fit for a hiking trip, this is due to the urgent situation she woke up to.

Profile: Being previously an orphan, Stephanie puts on a jaded, cynical, and self-serving exterior—aided in no small part by a rather foul vocabulary—, while in truth being quite soft and sensitive.
Though loathe to admit it, she will go to great lengths to help someone she even remotely considers a friend, and especially those she considers family. Like her current one, the Imeredalas, and her Friend-turned-sister, Megan.

Her Wish was “To have a loving family, loyal friends, and a place to belong. Maybe a pet dog. Or a cat? Both?”

Stats
>£ Physical Affinity: 12
>λ Magical Affinity: 12
>彡 Dexterity: 14
>メ Perception: 12
>⸫ Wisdom: 10
>π Intelligence: 10
>ღ Charisma: 10
>φ Mind: 14
>Ω Constitution: 14

>Abilities

Stephanie can be able to make herself, objects, and other people, adopt qualities from other matter nearby. She can make her body as hard as a steel wall and a rock as soft as a pillow. Turn her body into fire or water. A recent discovery
But she has to be wary of the consequences. If you turn your body into water, how will you hold something?
Stephanie can use Physical Affinity to force objects and people to gain the qualities of other objects. If the target is against the change being done, then Stephanie’s PA Vs. Target’s Con will be tested

A subset of Stephanie’s abilities is the manipulation of similar, discrete matter. A large pile of rocks can be freely manipulated. As can water, blood, flesh, and others that your imagination can think of.

Name: 𐤌 Abigail Fulson 𐤌

Appearance: A girl with a standard build, long, brown hair that is let down and not styled in any particular way, and many freckles. She likes to wear long dresses and otherwise modest clothes.

Profile: A shy girl that speaks with a slight stutter. Whenever she’s overwhelmed by emotions and nervousness she can barely speak a complete sentence and retreats into her mind. But strong passions lay beneath the surface that flare when needed and cause her to spring to action.
A budding artist with a good eye, and a passion to do the previously impossible for the sake of what she believes to be good and fight against unfair conditions.

Her Wish was that "I'd really like it if Oliver was my boyfriend..."

Stats
>£ Physical Affinity: 10
>λ Magical Affinity: 14
>彡 Dexterity: 12
>メ Perception: 14
>⸫ Wisdom: 10
>π Intelligence: 14
>ღ Charisma: 12
>φ Mind: 14
>Ω Constitution: 8

>Abilities:

Abigail can link her mind (and soul) to another person. When this link is established, each person knows exactly where the other is at all times, and each person can communicate past all language barriers. Including, relevantly, stuttering and mutism.
Abigail can scan the thoughts and memories of a person she is linked to with an MA check.
Abigail always has a link to Oliver that can never be broken.

This connection can be made easily if there is consent between both participants. In the event where a non-consensual connection is made, Abigail’s MA Vs. Target’s Mind will be tested.

A side-effect of her Magic is that Abigail knows exactly where her thoughts end and others’ begin.
She has an acute awareness for what she is thinking at all times and whether or not those thoughts are normal for her, making forceful mental manipulation impossible.
Abigail cannot be mentally influenced by Magic that does not originate from herself.

Abigail has a Witch named “Claire” or “Clarion” sharing living space in her Soul. Claire is an entity of Grief, and Abigail is blocking the effects of her Grief by subconsciously using a mental filter. Claire is never intentionally antagonistic, she even helps Abigail develop her Magic. Though darker aspects of her personality sometimes rear their head...

Alba Appleton

Appearance: The shortest of the short, with a surprisingly athletic body. Her natural ginger hair is a short unkept mess thanks to cutting it off with her scissors. She wears a green beret at all times... Which might as well be Theseus’ Ship with how much she’s had to sew and patch back together.

Profile: She's always felt unimportant in the grand scheme of things and overlooked - As a consequence, she's grown with an evident desire for other's approval and praise. Needless to say, she's also a reckless show-off searching for attention.
She is particularly good at navigation and material work, such as textiles and engineering. Prone to bursts of genius between mundane, if hyperactive, thoughts. Whether this is a result of her Wish, or a quirk she just always had, is a question for the ages. A particularly avid fan of the Magical Girl Genre, she always hoped she could be as special as the characters in them...

Her Wish was to ”Turn me into a natural born prodigy!"

Stats
>£ Physical Affinity: ??
>λ Magical Affinity: ??
>彡 Dexterity: ??
>メ Perception: ??
>⸫ Wisdom: ??
>π Intelligence: ??
>ღ Charisma: ??
>φ Mind: ??
>Ω Constitution: ??

>Abilities:
???????????????????????????????

>>6219423
ф Stephanie Smith ф

So it turns out that Megan really was watching Anime in the attic. Stephanie thought she was setting up some esoteric magical stuff in here, but she’s slightly relieved that the happenings were mostly mundane.
But this still left the question of what to do now? She could train, or watching Anime. Work on her Magical Girl talents or hang out with her sister. Think about her current situation or just relax with her sister…

"Oh, what the hell. In for a penny..." Stephanie stands over the pile of armour and kicks at a few pieces before socking Megan in the side. "You're just gonna sit there?! Put it on pause and help me put this shit on!”

Megan pauses the Anime in the middle of a dramatic speech about friendship, then says a sentence that Stephanie really was not expecting.

“Steph, take off your clothes.” Megan says casually.

Stephanie stares at Megan for a second, gobsmacked, confused.
“Meg- I know you’re my sister now but-”

“No- ugh! Look, you need to wear proper underclothes or else the armour is going to be really uncomfortable to wear. You’re still dressed like you’re ready to go on a hike!” Megan explains.

“And who’s fault is that?” Stephanie says in an accusatory tone.

“Okay, I know it was rude to just leave like that so soon after being adopted, but at least I got-” Megan face shifts in nervousness as she realises something important. “I-I never got a Grief Seed out of that… It’s a good thing I keep a couple for backup.
A-anyway, we need to get you some more comfortable clothing. It’s a good thing that I have some in your size.” Megan moves towards a box full of clothing in a myriad of colours.

“Why do you have comfortable clothing in my size?” Stephanie asks.

“Believe it or not: Pure coincidence. I happened to grab some spare clothes from a tailor I know and they’re in your size.”

Stephanie acquiesces and takes off her clothing in order to wear the ones that Megan suggested. If she’s going to spend an hour or more binging Anime then she doesn’t want to be uncomfortable, and if proper underclothes are so important that Megan asked her to change clothing then so be it. While Megan is helping her put on the clothes and armour, Stephanie inquires about Megan’s choice in entertainment.

“Why the fuck is it called Magical Girl Drillface, anyhow? Is it really about some bint with a drill for a face?" Stephanie asks. There’s no way there’s a Magical Girl Anime where the main gimmick is that the main character has a drill for a face. Even though she’s a Magical Girl in a dead body, even she doesn’t believe someone would write about a girl with a drill for a face and even name the main character ‘Drillface’.

Megan’s face perks up while she puts vambraces on Stephanie’s forearms. And Stephanie knows from that face: Megan is going to nerd out on her. Megan going to unleash LORE and EXPLANATIONS upon her poor sister.

“Yeah, the main character has a drill for a face, but the Anime makes it clear why that doesn’t matter even if she might get bullied for it! She always tries to make the best decisions possible, even ones that didn’t exist before, no matter how dire or morally grey the situation is! And trust me, the authors are always putting her in tense situations where she always looks bad somehow, I think it’s really brave of them to challenge Drillface’s morals and character like that; it makes us take it more seriously when she talks about her ideals because we can see her act on them in imperfect scenarios! Even though she’s been through so much bad stuff and so much pressure, she still keeps her integrity to the very end and other characters can respect that! Like, in one episode, Lord Hateseveryonealot was only pretending to redeem himself to trick Drillface and pull on her heartstrings, but he didn’t shoot her with the cat shotgun that shoots cats! I think that-”

“Meg, spoilers.” Stephanie says while adjusting her cuirass.

“Right, right, it’s better to experience those scenes yourself.
The point I was getting to is that despite its cutesy and, some would say, childish aesthetics, the show is pretty good at challenging common notions we have about morality, and it invites us, the audience, to think about what we would do in those situations. I didn’t get it at first; I once said on a forum that I just wouldn’t get into those situations in the first place, I’m pretty sure I made someone mad at me because one of the replies a three paragraph rant-
Anyway! When I became a Magical Girl myself, I realised that you can’t just avoid those situations. When you’re in this line of work, whether you want to or not, you need to make hard decisions.”
Megan speaks as if she had to make those decisions many times. A wizened look on such a young face shouldn’t be believable, but it’s authentic as it can be.

Stephanie didn’t respond, not just because she was trying to put on the greaves and sabatons, but also because she was mentally chewing on Megan’s feelings. Stephanie thinks it’s a bit funny that a Magical Girl watches Magical Girl Anime for advice; it’s like spies watching Spy Thrillers for tips. But if it was able to make Megan this passionate and she thinks it has good advice then Stephanie thinks she might as well engage with it.
Also, she doesn’t want to be that one dick sibling that never wants to engage with their younger sibling’s interests, and therefore almost never spends time with them. Stephanie adjusts her pauldrons one last time and she’s ready.

"Alright, time for some good old sister bonding time."

"Yay!"

Watching Magical Girl Drillface was an experience that Stephanie was sure not to forget. It wasn’t because she was in a full suit of armour, by the time of episode 3, where the true nature of Drillface’s power is revealed, she had completely forgotten she was wearing it. It was mostly because of the reactions they had.
Megan somehow reacted to everything as if it were her first time watching again even though she was obviously a veteran from her teasing almost-spoiler remarks.

“Say, how did Drillface just invade Lady Weightless’ domain like that?” Stephanie asks. She’s slightly shocked that she’s genuinely curious about this.

“You’ll find out later~” Megan says in an impish tone.

“Oh- fine, you arse.” Stephanie responds while playfully nudging Megan’s arm (Neither of them notice the sound of their armour clanging together).
Besides, Stephanie knows that the real point isn’t how she broke in, but that she was willing to do it. She didn’t have to risk life and limb for someone else like that with no guarantee of even a “thank you”, and yet she did anyway.

From there they continued their binging spree. Stephanie briefly went to the kitchen to grab some snacks, Liza, who was also grabbing some snacks for her gaming session, was shocked to see her sister walk in while wearing a full suit of armour. Stephanie, for her part, didn’t notice until she had trouble opening a crisps packet properly.
From there they make it all the way to the chapter that was mentioned in Megan’s passionate lore dump. Drillface convinces Lord Hateseveryonealot to change for the better by using herself as an example: If she can suffer due to her appearance, responsibilities, and mercy, and still see the good in people to hope for a better future, then he can as well. He acquiesces, and promises to become the best version of himself he can be no matter how tough it is. Redemption may be hard, but it’s possible.
But Drillface still has another issue: The secondary plot-relevant villain is still around. After making a dramatic speech about her values, her willingness to always search for the best conclusion, and her belief in the better natures of people, she does battle with the Dethroned Queen of Darkness, Evilia.

Very subtle naming from the show.

After a shockingly well-animated fight scene wherein Drillface uses all of the techniques and lessons she had learned throughout the series so far, she incapacitates Evilia, but doesn’t kill her. This victory came at a cost, as Drillface is exhausted after using all of her power. Then-
Suddenly, right behind Drillface is Lord Hateseveryonealot with the Cat Shotgun That Shoots Cats! He has Drillface in his sights with a clear shot, but he hesitates.
Then he looks at Evilia, defeated. But not dead.

He holsters the shotgun, and leaves Drillface unharmed.

“Why Lord Hateseveryonealot didn’t shoot Drillface is a question that is furiously debated by fans to this day.” Megan says. “The flame wars I’ve seen over this one scene could put entire political discussions to shame.”
She faces Stephanie, and asks innocently: “Why do you think he didn’t shoot Drillface?”

>This question is of the utmost importance. It has stumped young scholars for ages and Megan is on the forefront of the research.

“Oh- don’t worry, this is a pretty important thing and I don’t want to pressure you, you can answer later!”

”I could think of a couple of things more important than this...”
Stephanie decides to keep her sass to herself

Megan takes a look at her phone, she always does after the end of an episode to see if they still have time for another. Unfortunately, their time is up.

“So, unless you want to oversleep tomorrow I think we should stop here. That episode is probably the peak of the whole anime anyway, in my opinion.”

“Alright. I do have to say, I’m surprised that Drillface didn’t have to kill anyone. I was waiting for the moment where she would have to make that choice, but even to the end, she never did. Also, what was up with their lip flaps? Entire episodes people were talking like this:”
Stephanie somehow moves only her mouth and no other part of her face, truly uncanny.
“It made the last episode’s fight scene a real shock by the gap in quality, did they get extra funding just for that scene or something?”

Megan looks surprisingly offended by the last few sentences.
“It’s nice that you noticed how averse to killing Drillface is and I hope it rubs off on you. As for the animation… I could go into an explanation about the Anime industry and the treatment of their animators, but it would probably go over your head.”

Well, that was rude.

Megan seems to have realised that as her face shifts in embarrassment.
“I-I’m sorry. I used to get bullied over this and that last part was what they would say…”

If looks could kill, Stephanie would be a serial killer at this moment.
“Who bullied you?”

Megan shakes her hands. “Wait, wait, it’s okay, I’m over it now! After all, I get to actually perform all of the cool fight scenes in real life!”

“Alright then.”
Stephanie then makes an involuntary yawn.
“I guess that’s my cue to go to sleep. See ya, sis.”

“See ya!”

When Stephanie retires to her room, she sees a school uniform on the bed, with a note from her new parents:

We’ve signed you up to take a tour of Vale of York Academy, just so you can see if it’s a good school for you. This is their school uniform, Good luck!
- The Imeredalas

Stephanie takes a close look at the school uniform, she can’t shake off the feeling it’s familiar…
She looks through her wardrobe, pushing past her new clothes and into the old supply of school uniforms she has. Then she sees it: A red and black blazer with a grey shirt and a white and red tie. Her old fit of the Vale of York Academy’s school uniform, just a size too small for her now.
It’s a pretty generic British school uniform all things considered, she could’ve worn this before and not even noticed the difference between it and the others.

Stephanie packs all of her clothes in the wardrobe, lies in bed, then realises something.
”Shite, the armour!”
She was still wearing the armour from her anime binge session. She, after a long while of struggling, manages to remove her armour, then puts it into her wardrobe as well. If it’s fit for clothes it’s fit for armour, right? Or maybe that's just her being lazy.
Then she lies in bed again. And lies more. Then she rolls around and lies a bit more.

She can’t get to sleep. But maybe she can if she just tries a bit harder?

>Stephanie has to do something to get rid of this excess energy. Where is this coming from anyway? Maybe if she closes her eyes really hard she can get to sleep?

>>6219424
𐤌Abigail Fulson 𐤌

Abigail’s mood had recovered from the exasperation and disappointment in Claire when she realised that Claire had mentioned a critical, important piece of information: Oliver’s Love Language! Or one of them at least.
Ignoring the question of how Claire knows (that something Abigail will ask soon, but later), she mentioned “Words of Affirmation”, and Abigail (from her own perspective) has been as distant as possible with her words!

”I haven’t given Oliver anything, I’ve only been receiving words. This is… horrific. Reprehensible. Unfathomable. Absolutely unacceptable. Oliver deserves better than this.”

"Say, Claire, you just said you're smart about the theory of relationships right? Tell me more about Words of Affirmation. I know that probably means telling him how I feel about him, but what else?" Abigail thinks towards Claire with remarkable clarity and determination.

”...You’re getting better at compartmentalising your thoughts. I know you thought something before that but I can’t make heads or tails as to what it was.
Anyway, ‘Words of Affirmation’ don’t just have to be ‘I love you’. Compliments, congratulations, thanks, flirtations, or other positive words can do if you still feel too nervous about just blurting out that you love him.” Claire explains.

”Uh huh…” Abigail mumbles while her mind turns its gears. Being able to hold Oliver close and say “I love you” was the entire reason Abigail got involved in this Magical Girl business, she’s not going to back down from an opportunity to finally say it. She just needs to overpower her fear with passion and planning.

”I can feel your mind processing something again. Just what are you planning in there?”

”A surprise!” Abigail exclaims with a smile. Being uncharacteristically cryptic.

”...You’re also getting more sly.” Claire notes.
”Something else to take into account, another way that Oliver likes to display affection are gifts. So get ready for a lot of them soon. Interestingly, he seems to like giving gifts more than receiving them.”

”Good, good. I just have one more question.” Abigail says.

”And that is?”

”How do you know all of this?” Abigail asks pointedly.

”Uuh...” Claire doesn’t say any words for a moment. Abigail can tell it’s less because she’s thinking and more because she’s deciding on even sharing the answer.
”Okay, I hope you don’t get mad when explain this.
As I previously said, I don’t know much about the emotional side of relationships but I do know about the technical side. I learned about all of that because I was studying psychology and sociology to utilise my Magic better.”

”Okay, but why all this stuff about Oliver specifically?”

”W-well, I needed some people to use for my research to make sure it was accurate, as well as a direct target for some of my Magic. I was interested in Oliver, wanted to know how he thought so I could have him… So I maybe sorta stalkedinsidehismindforawhilepleasedon’tkillme!” Claire explains nervously.

Abigail’s silence sent spikes of fear into Claire, and Abigail could feel those spikes.
She thought for a while and came to the purely pragmatic conclusion that since Grief is made from negative emotions, and there’s already a creature of Grief inside her, she probably shouldn’t exacerbate any issues by making emotional outbursts.

“… Just promise you won’t do that ever again if you somehow leave or take over my body or something.” Abigail says aloud, through gritted teeth.

”IpromiseIpromiseIpromise!” Claire shouts in a panicked tone.

Abigail sighs, again. Is that the third or second sigh this evening due to Claire? Who’s keeping count.
How many times is she going to find out how much of a habitual privacy invader Claire is/was? The answer is an uncountable number.

“Alright, looking through his movies or books is a much better idea than going through his phone or, and I can’t believe I have to say this, going through his mind. If only because I’m not going to be that kind of girlfriend. Oliver will like going out with me. Damn, I could just ask him like a regular person!” Abigail says in frustration.

Abigail rifles through Oliver’s Movie and Book collection, with running commentary from Claire. Apart from the expected action and horror films, Abigail also finds some historical thrillers and dramas about all sorts of different time periods and areas. Abigail once heard that boys always read about Rome, but Oliver’s spread here is pretty diverse. The books in particular have just about every creative hobby in them; sewing, tailoring, engineering, woodwork, locksmithing… blacksmithing, gunsmithing… explosives manufacturing?!

”A-am I dating a future criminal?!”

Abigail shakes her head and tries to give the boy she loves the benefit of the doubt.
”No, no, maybe he’s just curious about the processes involved! I wouldn’t fall in love with a potential criminal, right?! Relax, Abigail!”

”You should definitely relax.”

”Wah- I thought you said you couldn’t hear my casual thoughts!”

”I can’t. But I don’t need to in order to recognise when you’re freaking out.
”Anyway, Oliver wouldn’t do any crimes unless you asked him to. And I mean you specifically.”

Abigail decides to trust the Witch in her head, although she’s rough around the edges she’s never lied so far and she’s literally looked into Oliver’s head.
Abigail moves on from that before she gets upset again.

As Abigail attempts to glean more information from the book and movie covers, she’s startled by a familiar voice.

“Having fun~?” Oliver says from behind Abigail.
Oliver was right behind her holding a very well-made box, the contents of which are unknown to Abigail.

Abigail pushes down a yelp and blurts out “Y-yeah! I was just looking at your books and movies to figure out what you like.”
”Wait, why did I say that?! What if he thinks I’m creepy for looking through his stuff- Well, it’s less creepy than going through his phone or mind like some people I know.”

Claire stays silent at that unsubtle jab. It seems she really is keeping to her trend of disappearing whenever Oliver is near.

Oliver just chuckles. “Well it’s good to see my fiancée is being proactive in learning what I like, so I won’t begrudge you. Especially since it probably took you a lot of bravery to even think about going through my stuff.” He says in a teasing tone while putting his box on a table.

“Hey!” Abigail shouts in mock offence. “I’m very brave I have you know! I just watched a horror movie with you and didn’t scream once!”
”I’m not going to mention the fact that I also faced monsters this morning, he also experienced that himself. Best not to dredge up fresh, bad memories.”

“Yeah, you did watch a horror movie with me, and you had to cling to my arm for the second half. Unless… you had an ulterior motive for that?” Oliver asks rhetorically.

“I won’t reveal my intentions for clinging to your arm. I will only say that it was strong and made me feel safe.” Abigail says calmly.

Oliver coughs nervously and Abigail swears she can see a hint of a blush on his cheeks
”Jackpot! Everything’s going according to plan! You’re a schemer, Abigail!”

“Ehehe, t-thanks for the compliments. I don’t go to the gym or anything, I got this muscle from all the manual labour I do.” Oliver says nervously, before performing a small flex.

Abigail manages to not focus on Oliver’s muscles long enough to squeeze out another sentence of mock offence.

“Hey, don’t try to distract me with a gun show! I heard what you called me before, you know you’re only supposed to use ‘fiancée’ for a woman you’re planning to marry, right?”

“Ah- I’m sorry if you weren’t comfortable with me using that word, I-”

Oliver is interrupted by Abigail laughing.
“Not comfortable? No, no, I’m very comfortable that you think of me that way! In fact-” Abigail walks closer to Oliver, she isn’t sure if the thumping sounds are her footsteps, her heart, or his heart.
“I would love for you to call me that, fi-an-cé~”

Abigail bounds away before her heart explodes so she can see the fruits of her labour.
Oliver is silent except for some nervous noises he squeaks out of his panicked face. Unfortunately for him, the girl he’s courting has a direct hotline to his brain, so she can see all of the frantic thoughts rushing through his head. All of them are not lewd, Abigail is actually slightly shocked at this but, before she can get a proper read of his thoughts, she has a box shoved in her face.

“T-take it!” Oliver shouts.

“A-alright…” Abigail takes the box, opens it, and sees a set of clothing.
Not just any set either, it’s a long, turquoise dress with a flower pattern. And… examining it, it’s in Abigail’s size as well.

“Did you make this?” Abigail already knows the answer but wants Oliver to admit it himself.

“Yeah. I tried to make it in a style you would like, and I think blue would look good on you!” Oliver says with a nervous smile.

“Say, how did you know what my sizes were? That’s not something you can just guess, unless you were staring at me all day?”

Oliver coughs into his hand and turns his head away, obviously too shy to look at Abigail in the eyes.
”Aren’t I supposed to be the shy one in this relationship?”

“Look, I promise I just happened to have a lucky guess! I wasn’t ogling you like some creep!”

“Aww, I was kind of hoping you were looking.” Abigail says in disappointment.

“Uuuh- look deeper inside the box!” Oliver says in a ploy to shift attention away from him.

Abigail complies, and sees a smaller box. Putting boxes in boxes… discarding her thoughts on Oliver’s packing technique, she opens the smaller box.
It contains an entire painting kit, brushes, pans, pencils, pens, tubes, the works. Using her keen eye for detail and in-depth knowledge of the Arts, Abigail can also recognise that this is some really high quality stuff as well.

“D-did you also make this yourself?!” Abigail asks in disbelief.

Oliver rubs his neck lackadaisically. “Well, almost all of it. I’m not good at making paint, so I had to ask someone else to get me some. Other than that though, it was all me.”

“T-this is wonderful! Thank you so much!”
Abigail practically jumps onto Oliver and hugs him tightly. The hug lasts for a bit longer than either of them are comfortable, and they detach awkwardly. Abigail does an obviously phony throat clearing while the floor suddenly seems like the most interesting thing in the world for Oliver.

While trying to recover from that gaff, Oliver looks at his phone and gasps at the time.
“Hey, Abigail, you should probably get home soon. It’s getting late and I do not want you to get mugged.”

“Well, why don’t you walk home with me then?” Abigail asks with the most innocent look.

“W-well that’s-”

“I’m joking! I can get home myself.”

As Abigail leaves the house with her gifts, she looks back towards Oliver, still at the front door out of worry, prepares her heart, and finally makes her feelings clear.

"Thank you so much for showing me a good time tonight Oliver, I really enjoyed it. I can't wait until we go out again. I love you." Despite her preparation, Abigail still has a blush on her face. But she supposes anyone would when expressing such emotions sincerely.

Oliver, with cheeks tinted red, responds. “I enjoyed it as well. I love you too!”


While walking home and calming her heart, Abigail’s Soul Room-mate chimes in.
”So, when did you get so confident and flirtatious?”

“I planned most of those lines, only a couple weren’t planned for.” Abigail states matter-of-factly.

”Wow, the power of proper preparation and precognition. You should prepare lines more often if it helps you be more confident in expressing your feelings to him.”

“I can’t just plan out every conversation I have with him though.”

”That’s quitters’ talk. If planning out your conversations allows you to present yourself better to him then it would be foolish not to at least try.”

“I guess…”


When Abigail makes it back home she first moves into the kitchen, tomorrow is school and she doesn’t want to be surprised by a lack of breakfast. In the kitchen is a bag on the table, and in the bag is a rice ball.
Abigail normally wouldn’t think much of a rice ball but the message written on the bag instantly makes it strange:

Eat this when you are going to die.
- Riko Inuyama

“Any ideas, Claire?”

”No idea. I guess it could be some kind of healing, but I haven’t heard of any magical girls healing people with food.”

“Either way, I hope I never need the thing.”


Abigail puts her gifts on a shelf, jumps into bed, and suddenly everything that happened today catches up to her. Just this morning she was fighting monsters in a killer forest, then in the afternoon and evening she was on a date with her new boyfriend. She guesses the dichotomy between the life-threatening supernatural and the mundane joys of love. are going to be a staple of her life now. All of these events make her exhausted, and she tries to get to sleep...

”I would hate to ruin your sleep, but if you want we still have that other lesson with me available.”

“Huh…?” Abigail groans groggily.

“The lesson for you to gain a deeper understanding of your Magic? I suggested it this afternoon before your date?”

“I’m too tired…” Abigail moans.

”Don’t worry, that’ll actually make this easier! I don’t want to ruin your sleep and make you late to school tomorrow though, so your choice!”

>Abigail can choose to learn more about her Magic, it’s pretty important since she’s a part of this whole thing now. But she might be late to school and the bed is so comfy...

>>6219440
Ugh, fine, I guess I'll do the responsible thing and put off sleep. But only for the bits where being tired somehow makes it easier. It won't do if I'm exhausted tomorrow and my power is really needed. Just in case, I'll set an extra alarm.

>putting off sleep just this once
that's how it all starts, then the next thing you know your entire life is fucked :P

>>6219433
Ugh. A bad night's sleep before a tour of the new school. What rotten luck. And here she was, feeling all tired not that long ago. Could this be some...magic shit at work, Stephanie mused? Either way, she did have to get rid of excess energy and, with everyone sleeping, that meant indulging a bit of hypocrisy and sneaking out for a night walk.

It also poses a great opportunity to ponder the question for the ages. Why did Lord Hateseverything (or something like that) not shoot Drillface? Could that have been him genuinely passing his first test on the road of redemption? He was about to do something that came naturally to him, but relented and decided to stick to this new path, in spite of the difficulties. Or maybe it was because if he blasted Drillface and took her out, that'd be the end of that and the screenwriters would be out of a job.

Aside from pondering matters of utmost importance, the night walk is another opportunity for Stephanie to experiment a little with her powers. Turning things to stone was a pretty straightforward use case and the first one that came to mind when she found out she could give things and people properties of other matter, but the next thing she did was that (totally wicked cool) fire punch. Was fire matter? She didn't pay enough attention in physics to say that for sure. So, what about other things that felt fuzzy? Could she take on or bestow properties of...air? What about electricity? Well, there was never much shortage of the former and a conveniently placed lamppost could be found to serve as the source of the latter. All that was left was to give it a fair go and to see what happened.

>>6220171
𐤌Abigail Fulson 𐤌

Abigail, lying in bed, considers the two options she has.
She could go to sleep right now, and be well-rested, ready for school, and won’t oversleep.
On the other hand, she could go through with whatever esoteric lesson Claire has in store for her in order to better use her Magic that she needs to use properly in order to continue her plan and, hopefully, give hope to other Magical Girls and Witches.
One seems more important than the other…

“Fiiiine, I’ll do the lesson.” Abigail decides.

She gets out of bed, walks to the other side of her room away from the bed, and fiddles with an electronic alarm clock.

”What are you doing?”

“Setting an extra alarm to play a song.” Abigail says while setting the time.

”Oh, do you like the song?”

“No, I hate it.”

”Wha-” Claire couldn’t withhold her shock at such a statement so incongruous with the actions Abigail was taking.
”Why even set that song as the alarm tone then?” Claire says in bafflement.

“Don’t you know that one of the best ways to make sure you actually get out of bed is to make the alarm an insufferable noise and then put it far away from your bed so you have to get out in order to stop it?” Abigail explains while getting back into bed.

”I...actually never thought of doing that. Anyway, let’s get on with this lesson!”

“Great, how do we get started?” Abigail says in a tired tone.

”All you need to do is disassociate your soul and mind from your body completely.”

Now it was Abigail’s turn to be shocked.
“You say that like it’s easy. How am I supposed to achieve something monks train years to do?”

”Ah, this is one of the advantages of being a Puella Magi: Your Soul is already detached from your body!”

Abigail shivers in bed despite the room being warm.
“Don’t remind me.”

“Because your Soul is already out of your body, its link is already tenuous at best, from my perspective anyway. And you’re tired, so your state of consciousness is already pliable. Just… think about how you’re not really your body, your body is just a shell that you are controlling, and you can leave it whenever you want. You are not you, you are the collection of the connections you have with others. You are…”

Abigail was phasing out Claire’s talking in her mind, though not intentionally. She was tired, and she was starting to phase in and out of consciousness. Her body started to become sluggish to move, more than it usually did when she was tired. Her body… it was starting to bother her, couldn’t she go off into dreamland already? Maybe she’ll meet Oliver in there… And Stephanie and Megan, they were interesting…

”Hopefully not Viktoria though, she was annoying. I’ll just… try to meet up with them... in my dreams...”

>>6227881
”...Huh?”

When Abigail “woke up”, she noticed three things:
1. She was in her room, which is a rarity from the dreams she remembers.
2. She knew she was in a dream immediately
3. Her completely inert body was still in bed, rather than gone. This is the second time she has seen her own body as stiff as a corpse, and she thinks it’s going to (unfortunately) be one of many sightings in the future.

”Hello!”

Abigail was startled by the voice. Not because it was unfamiliar, it was very familiar at this point. But rather because it didn’t come from her mind. She tilts her head towards the direction of Claire’s voice and sees… Claire.
Not Clarion, The Witch of Connections. Claire, the Magical Girl. Abigail isn’t sure what’s more surprising: The fact she can see Claire with her actual eyes or the fact that Claire looks like a Magical Girl.

Claire is a black-haired girl about the same height as Abigail, but she is thin like Stephanie. Her clothing, very obviously her Magical Girl Outfit, is a fancy black dress that would put Viktoria’s “Casual” outfit to shame. It’s like she’s always dressed to go to a high society party in Victorian Britain.

”Now then, welcome to the Crossroads!”

“Crossroads?”

”That’s what I call the place. Some people call it the ‘Astral Plane’, but I think that’s unoriginal, and some others call it the ‘Noosphere’ or ‘Collective Consciousness’, but I think those are too occultic and pseudoscientific to use, not to mention inaccurate.

“We are literal Magical Girls and you are worried about sounding too occultic and pseudoscientific?” Abigail asks in confusion.

”We have to take this seriously, Abigail. The Scholars before and after us will also use the terms we do and so, in order to give it a more universal term, I call this realm the ‘Crossroads’: Where all of the connections between entities are laid bare, and you can see where all relationships meet.”

“Hmm…”
Abigail tries to touch her own inert body, purely out of curiosity, and her hand passes right through her. She didn’t know why she was expecting anything different.

”Yeah, we aren’t using physical bodies so we can’t touch anything physical. I’m not sure exactly what these bodies we have now are made of, it could be the Res Cogitans postulated by René Descartes, or our Souls. But our Souls are in your Soul Gem, and Interactionism is becoming dangerously close to being correct which makes me mad so I won’t believe it.”

Abigail only understood 60% of that sentence.

>>6227884
”But onto more important things! Follow me outside.”

Claire walks directly towards the thinnest wall of Abigail’s room leading outside.
Abigail tries to use the door.

”We don’t have physical bodies, remember? We’re basically intangible ghosts.”

”Oh, right.” Abigail wonders how she didn’t figure that out by herself, but saves the embarrassment for later and just jumps through the wall of her room to the neighbourhood outside.

Her room is not on the ground floor.

Abigail screams as she sees the street pavement far below her. She’s going to fall! She’s going to fall and break every bone in her body, and she won’t even die because her body is already dead-

”Hey.”

Abigail stops screaming and looks towards Claire, she’s floating next to her.
Floating?
Abigail looks at the ground. She’s not getting any closer to it.

”Again, we don’t have physical bodies, so things like gravity don’t matter.”

“Alright, alright, more fool me.” Abigail understands that this is the reason she needs lessons, but she feels like such a fool right now.
She decides to take stock of the surroundings from above to distract herself from such thoughts.

The street looks familiar to her, but… different somehow. She swears that the pavement wasn’t this exact shade of grey, and some of the houses look like a brighter shade of red than the bricks are in her experience.

”I see you’re taking in the scenery. Tip from a veteran, don’t look up.”

Through the hidden magic of Reverse Psychology, Claire has convinced Abigail to look up. The sky is just a generic blue sky with clouds that never move-
Wait, what the heck is that light in the sky? If she were less observant, then she would have assumed it was the Sun, but she’s studied it enough for Art references to know that the light being radiated from this star is not the same as sunlight.

”Judging from the look on your face, it seems like you’ve seen It. Now, all you need to do is expand your senses. All of us are connected in one way or another, whether that be through love, mere senses, or six instances of ‘a friend of a friend’. In this form and realm we can not only feel those connections, but see them as well. It’s just a matter of thinking about it.”

“Just think about how I’m connected to people?” Abigail is in slight disbelief it could be that easy, but she closes her eyes and tries anyway since Claire is the tutor here.

After a moment of thinking about all of her relationships, about her father, Stephanie, Viktoria, Oliver… She opens her eyes.

She sees threads, lots of threads, but one of them goes up into the sky, through the clouds and directly towards the star in the sky. Following the thread, her sight pierces the clouds, and she finally sees what that star is: A Lighthouse.

>>6227886
“C-Claire, why is there a lighthouse up there?” Abigail felt like she was looking at something she shouldn’t even be aware of.

”Honestly? I don’t know. All I know is that it’s been up there since… forever, and that it isn’t the only construct of its kind. There should be a Wheel up there too but I can’t see it… Oh well.
Anyway, the Lighthouse makes for a good test to check if you can see the connection threads, every Puella Magi I’ve met has a connection to the Lighthouse for some reason.”

Right, now that Abigail looks closer, the threads go from the Lighthouse to everywhere. She can’t keep track of all of them. How can one thing have that many connections?

Now let’s take a walk- or, well, a float. People-watching can be fun.”

“What people?” Abigail looks around her neighbourhood’s collective Qualia and doesn’t see a single person.

“The people you know. Look at yourself.”

Abigail does just that, not expecting anything, and sees threads coming from her chest. How did she not notice this before? Is it like how you can’t see your nose unless you focus on it?

“Those threads represent your bonds with others. In this case you can only see the most important ones related to you.”

Abigail looks at all of them carefully, and one sticks out. It’s red, whereas all of the others are bright blue.
But she already knows what bond this represents: Her unbreakable one with Oliver. The Red String of Love.

”Ah! I see where you’re looking, but if I’m not allowed to stalk Oliver then you can’t either!”

“H-hey! I-I wasn’t going to do that! That would be creepy! Let’s go to wherever Stephanie is or something.”

Claire nods in agreement, and they float away using one of Abigail’s threads as a guide.
Abigail seems to instinctively know which thread represents which bond. She assumes this is an extension of her ability to manipulate them.

While flying towards Stephanie’s position, Abigail looks around the area and has the same opinion as when she looked around her neighbourhood: On first glance everything looks normal, but on closer inspection some things are different in slight ways; Some houses aren’t the proper size they should be, certain objects’ colours change depending on the angle she looks at them from, and the road gets bigger or smaller in certain parts.

“What’s up with the… whole area?” If anyone would know about this, it would be Claire.

>>6227888
”I assume you’re talking about the variable nature of the Crossroads’ form. What we’re looking at isn’t actually the streets of York, but rather the collective Qualia of all the people living in York. We are seeing an amalgamation of what other people see when they walk through these streets, but all of our experiences are different, biased in certain ways, or even completely non-existent. The amalgamation of so many different experiences causes the Crossroads to look like this.”

“Huh. Doesn’t that mean people can be affected as well- Look, there’s Stephanie!”

Abigail’s interrupted question is answered immediately as Stephanie looks exactly how Abigail remembers her looking. Huh.

”This is a result of your bond with her.
When you find a person in the Crossroads, it is much easier to break into their mind, and influence it. I’m not going to do so, and I don’t believe that you are willing, so instead I’m going to show you another trick: Look at the threads coming out of Stephanie.”

Stephanie’s Bonds go towards Abigail and a room in her house (likely Megan’s), but also go towards the ground around her.

”Why does she have a connection to the ground?”

”The moment you look at someone or something, you create a bond with it. This bond is based on mere senses, and is weak, usually you wouldn’t be able to take advantage of it. Unless you were experienced like me, of course. Or you’re a kind, cute girl being tutored by me. Then we can exploit this ephemeral bond to manipulate people’s minds. And if you can’t manipulate minds directly...”

Claire “Walks” over to a bin, and knocks it over.

”Whoa, whoa, I thought you said that we couldn’t touch stuff here?”

”Yes. I wasn’t lying, I didn’t really ‘touch’ the bin, I just focused for a bit and manipulated the perception everyone else has of the bin. This technique what the Magia ‘Obscure’ uses.”

Stephanie walks over to the bin, shocked that (from her perspective) it fell over by itself.

”Heh, it was always nice to see their reactions when I pulled pranks like this.”

>>6227893
”Well, you showed me quite a bit tonight. I don’t think I’m going to be able to look at the world the same way after this dream.” Abigail wasn’t sure what to do with all of this information. And some of the terms Claire was using sounded esoteric and complicated, but… if it helps her in the future then she’ll learn.

”Dream?” Claire says in confusion.

”Y-yeah? Aren’t I dreaming? This is just a manipulation of my dreams to give me a message right?”

”Well, we could call it a dream because it is an experience you are having while asleep. And I did supplant your usual two hours of dreaming with this lesson so you would still have a rest. I don’t call walking into the Crossroads ‘dreaming’ though.”

”Why not? What does dreaming mean to you?”

”Ohoho, dreams are a complicated subject, as I found out the hard way.
I would say dreaming is specifically about your experience and how your mind parses it. Saying that this is a dream is like saying that watching a movie by standing outside someone’s window and peering in is giving you the full experience of watching the movie.
I know for a fact that isn’t true. All of my time watching others, trying to emulate what I thought were attractive features to get people to like me, never worked. My Wish was able to get me friends, but never authentically. Sometimes I wonder if I’m even worth anything to anyone. I artificially created my worth to others, like forcing someone to say that pyrite is worth as much as gold. Please, Abigail, never make my mistakes.”

”I-I won’t. But I think you’re being too hard on yourself.”
Abigail was in an interesting situation: Her strife was worrying whether the one boy she loved would love her back, if he was even interested in her. The idea of Oliver not seeing any worth in her gave her many sleepless nights.
But now she was talking to a girl who was worried if nobody had seen any worth in her. If Claire needed someone to give worth to her…

”I think you’re worth a lot!”
Abigail’s countenance was resolute. This was something she took seriously.
”You shouldn’t beat yourself down like this. Trust me, I had some issues with self-worth, but look at me now! Look at you! You’re one of the reasons I’ve been able to approach Oliver properly, and you’re teaching me about Magic. That’s more than many other people have done for me. So if you really can’t see worth in yourself, then I at least want you to know that you’re worth something to me.

Claire was holding back tears. Those were honestly the most sincere and kindest words someone had said to her.
”Abigail… T-thank you. Thank you so much! I won’t let you down! I’ll get out of your head and then we’ll hang out like regular friends!”

(ʘ: 0% >20%)

𐤌Abigail Fulson 𐤌

New Magia Learned

Crossroads Jaunt
“I am not me. I am the collective experiences that make me.”

>Also known as “Astral Projection” (though Claire hates that term), this Magia allows easier access to the realm of the Crossroads. Instead of having to nearly die or be knocked unconscious, Abigail can take a short rest and enter the Crossroads. Claire tells Abigail that, theoretically, being unconscious or sleeping is not necessary to enter the Crossroads, it just makes it easier, but she’s never been able to enter it while awake.
>While in the Crossroads, Abigail can directly manipulate the minds of others not aware of her intrusion. This does not require a Test. “Not aware of her intrusion” usually means every normal person and many Puella Magi.
>Abigail can directly manipulate the perception people have of objects, colours, sizes, whether they’re open/closed, tipped over, etc. Claire says one trick she did was to make a “Fake Room” around her body when she was in the Crossroads so she wouldn’t be bothered. This does not require a Test.
>Witches and their Labyrinths, strangely, are not so easily manipulated. They seem to know if anyone is attempting such tricks while in their Labyrinths. Even Claire isn’t sure why.
>The downside is that Abigail’s Soul Gem (and body) is completely vulnerable in this state. Claire said that she only used this Magia when not directly confronted by enemies, or when she had a rare team up with another Puella Magi.

Network Sense
”Ah, you’re Oliver’s friend! How do I know? L-lucky guess.”

>This Magia allows Abigail to see the connections between people. This does not require a Test.
>She can identify the specific relationship between the people. Friend, family member, coworker, etc. And even where they regularly meet if any place is applicable. Though the real use of this Magia is tracking a Witch: All Familiars have an intimate connection to their parent Witch and Labyrinth, which makes tracking a Witch through a Familiar child’s play with this Magia.

ф Stephanie Smith ф

Stephanie, lying in bed, wonders why the hell she got so much energy right before lying in bed. She thinks that maybe this is some magic bullshit someone, or thing, is pulling on her. Then she realises that this line of work is going to make her insane trying to figure out if every weird occurrence is just a coincidence or magic at work.

Either way, Stephanie has energy, she needs to spend it. Everyone else is asleep, so she can be a bit hypocritical and sneak out. She looks through her wardrobe again and notices that even though she has new clothes since being adopted, the majority of her wardrobe are still school uniforms. How many of these did she get? Did she even keep all of the ones she got? That’s a depressing line of thought, so she moves past it and onto more important things while getting dressed.

Why did Lord Hateseverything (or something like that) not shoot Drillface?
Stephanie, without knowing anything about media analysis, first made it to the Watsonian answer: He genuinely passed his first test on the road of redemption. He was about to do something that came naturally to him, but relented and decided to stick to this new path, in spite of the difficulties.
She then quickly moved on to the Doylist answer: If he blasted Drillface and took her out, that'd be the end of that and the screenwriters would be out of a job. Something tells her that the Drillface fans won’t like the Doylist answer though.

After she finishes pondering the important questions of Humanity, she gets her clothes on, and thus comes the hardest part: Sneaking down the stairs and out the door.
Stephanie swears that everything is louder at midnight. Every step down the stairs makes it groan like a laboured man, and that groan echoes through the house. Still in the clear though.
She opens the door, and it wails open. God, why does everything sound louder at this time?!

She makes it outside, no-one is telling her to stop, so she takes a walk.

The neighbourhood at night is dark and barren. The only thing lighting up the area are sparse streetlamps, the only animals around are strays and the former stray: Stephanie. She isn’t scared, she couldn’t have lived for this long if she was scared of some darkness and a few animals. Not many witnesses and her previous thoughts on this being the result of magic nonsense does-

The sound of a bin falling over shocks her out of her thoughts.
She walks over to the bin and finds that nothing came out of it… strange. The wind isn’t strong enough for it to have tipped over, and there are no animals nearby, let alone ones that are desperate enough to go through rubbish bins.

Stephanie’s Magic Bullshit Senses are tingling. This has to be someone, or thing, messing with her.

Stephanie kicks the bin, and it shifts in position in a physically impossible way from how she kicked it. All logic dictates that the bin should have rolled away, but instead it shifted upright, almost to its original position, and then tumbled away as if she had kicked it from that position.

“Okay, this is definitely Magic Bullshit.”

Stephanie’s eyes dart around the area, trying to spot anyone hiding nearby. Then she curses and realises: Magic is real, who says that you have to be near your target to use it? The real conclusion to come to here is that whoever did this is either so weak they can only knock over a bin, or has no interest in hurting her and just knocked it over as a prank. Either way, she’s safe for now.

But this does make her think: Empty streets, no witnesses, lots of space and resources… She could practice some of her Magic here! Surely she can enjoy the “Cool Magic Powers” part of this whole deal, right?
She was able to turn things to stone, manipulate plants and wood, and she did a cool fire punch! There should be other things she could manipulate or take on qualities of. She’s a bit fuzzy in whether Fire counts as matter, Physics wasn’t her strong suit in the scant education she had, but if fire was doable, then what about Air? Electricity? There’s Air all around her and Electricity in conveniently placed streetlamps, she can only know by trying, right?

First, the arguably easier of the two: Air.
She reaches her hands out, focuses a bit, and… nothing. She waves her hands in frustration but that doesn’t help.

“Oh, for the love of- Please! I just want to take in some fresh air, is that too much to ask?!” Stephanie closes her eyes and shouts to… the air?

After her pleading, Stephanie feels a strange sensation in her hands. It’s like they’re becoming less...solid? Like they’re disassociating from her body. She’s never felt this way before in her life. Her hands do feel much lighter now though, maybe that’s the Magic here?

She opens her eyes. Her hands are not at all solid. It’s like they’re a small cloud, made of particulate and aerosols.

Stephanie jumps up and down in excitement. “Holy shit, it actually worked! What was the difference? W-was it me asking? Did I really need to ask the air nicely pretty please if I could have some its power? Whatever, if it works, it works. Now for more tests…”

Her hands are basically clouds now, can she even pick things up? She spots a pebble on the floor, leans over, and tries to pick it up. Her cloud-hand passes right through it.
She didn’t know why she was expecting anything different.

Alright, second plan. She concentrates for a bit and says a quiet plea for the air to gather around and under the pebble, then rise. To her absolute joy, it actually rises! She can manipulate the air now!
She practices for a bit more. First a rock, then a group of rocks essentially levitating, then she gets dangerous and shoots the rocks away in a blast of pressurised air. Now she can kind of get why Megan and people like her like Magical Girls, if this is what being a Magical Girl is like.

Once Stephanie has her fill of her growing affinity with Air, she moves onto the more fuzzy of the two: Electricity. She’s done Air and Fire, Electricity should be a doddle.
She looks up, streetlamps illuminating her sight. She could climb up the lamppost, like a git, or…
She braces herself, and turns her shoes and feet into a packet of pressurised air, then she “Jumps”.
The air explodes beneath her, launching her upwards, she uses soft manipulation of the air around her to control her speed and direction, and soon she’s floating right next to the top of a bright streetlamp.

“Alright, now…” Stephanie grabs the Lamp’s bulb.
“Hey, Electricity god this is so embarrassing could you lend me some of your power?”

Stephanie bites back a scream and suppresses it to a hiss as she feels all of her nerves flare up and hair standing on ends. Energy shoots through her body and she tries to keep it under control, slow it down. She eventually distributes it evenly over her body and disperses the excess around her. This has the side-effect of giving her a physical aura of power.

“O-okay. I’ve got it under control, shit-” Stephanie falls for a moment, her control over air faltering, and she grabs the streetlamp. She never considered herself a strong girl, but Stephanie has a pretty good grip on the metal. In fact, she’s not slipping at all.
She takes one hand off, and she doesn’t slip at all. She takes both of her hands off, and her body magnetises to the pole. Huh.
Stephanie decreases the amount of energy she emits and descends slowly.

She then does the first thing any modern child would do after gaining the ability to manipulate electricity: She takes out her phone (She’s surprised it hasn’t burnt out already), touches the charging port, and carefully leaks in energy.
It actually charges her phone! This is infinite energy she has on her hands!

She can’t celebrate for too long though, as she hears a dripping sound nearby. She’s lived in Britain for long enough to know what that means: It’s going to rain. Very soon.
She quickly gets rid of all of the electricity in her by grounding herself and converting part of her body into Earth just in case, then runs for home.

”How far am I from home? Damn it, why did I go so far?!”

The rain comes down in earnest soon after, and Stephanie can’t avoid getting coated in it. Rainwater soaks her clothes and beats into her skin-

”Wait. Rainwater...”

Stephanie’s been able to manipulate Solid Earth, Gaseous Air, along with whatever Electricity and Fire is. Why would Liquid Water be beyond her?
She stops running, looks up at the sky, and lets the water caress her. The rain slides off of her body, and pools beneath her, then she falls in.
She rises soon after, and finds that the bottom half of her body has turned into water. Like some weird mermaid.

She stands on the surface of her self-made pool, adopts an aerodynamic stance, and strides forward. The water around her creates a wave that she surfs, and when the wave calms she skates on the wet floor before creating another. She rushes through the rain with this method, and makes it to her house’s front door.
Before stepping in, she briefly mentally bemoans the fact that she’s completely wet.
But being wet just means that you’re covered in water, so she manipulates the water on and around her to remove it from her clothes, then shapes it into a sphere. The sphere is filled with dirty rainwater, dirt that she accumulated from the day, and even more dirt from some mud she unknowingly surfed on.

“Eww mate, that’s fucking gross.” Stephanie says in disgust, before throwing the sphere far away from her. Hopefully it hits a drain and not someone else’s house.

As she steps through the front door, Stephanie is greeted by Liza. Holding a massive pile of snacks.

“You know that’s going to ruin your sleep, right?” Stephanie says, nonplussed.

“Well, as long as I don’t tell anyone they don’t need to know. And besides, you just came back from a late night walk. Real suspicious, Stephanie.” Liza retorts.

“Okay, let’s just agree to never tell anyone that we saw each other at this time, and go our separate ways.”

“Deal.”

“Ah, also, are Fire and Electricity Matter?” Stephanie really needs to know the answer. Both out of curiosity and so she knows more about her Magic.

“Uh, yeah.” Liza answers.

“What form of Matter are they?”

“Plasma. Why are you asking me?”

“O-oh, I was just curious. I was never good at Physics you see and- you know what, we should really go to sleep. Bye Big Sis(©)!” Stephanie says awkwardly before running up the stairs.

“See you later, Big Sis(™). This girl might be weirder than me.”

ф Stephanie Smith ф

New Magia Learned


Families of Matter
”All of nature will be my friends and family.”

>Stephanie has gained a better understanding of her Magic, allowing her to more easily manipulate and Adopt aspects of matter around her.
>During an action, Stephanie can declare a Form of Matter she Adopts aspects of. The first Adoption requires no Test, but multiple Adoptions in quick succession require a PA Test (Starting at M1 and increasing by 1 with each change).
>Stephanie’s default Adoption is Solid Earth
>All Adoptions have a corresponding Matter Form that is easier to manipulate, a Passive buff to 2 stats, and a Technique Tree.

Adoption: Solid Earth
”The Earth will hold me.”

>Solid Earth covers all forms of solid matter up to and including Dirt, stones, metals, gems, wood and plant life. Stephanie treats her PA as having a +2 buff when manipulating solid matter.
>The Solid Earth Adoption grants +2 PA and +2 Constitution.


Adoption: Liquid Water
”The Water will feed me.”

>Liquid Water covers all forms of liquid matter, up to and including soda, juices, bodily fluids such as blood, sweat and tears, and… Water. Stephanie treats her PA as having a +2 buff when manipulating liquid matter.
>The Liquid Water Adoption grants +2 PA and +2 Perception.


Adoption: Gaseous Air
”The Air will caress me.”

>Gaseous Air covers all forms of gaseous matter, up to and including all forms of gases found in Earth’s atmosphere (thus practically granting control over all air), and all aerosols such as clouds, mist, fog, dust, and smoke. Stephanie treats her PA as having a +2 buff when manipulating gases and air.
>The Gaseous Air Adoption grants +2 PA and +2 Dexterity


Adoption: Plasmic Fire
”The Flames will warm me.”

>Plasmic Fire covers all forms of plasmic matter, up to and including fire and electricity. Stephanie treats her PA as having a +2 buff when manipulating plasma.
>The Plasmic Fire Adoption grants +2 PA and +2 MA

𐤌Abigail Fulson 𐤌

Abigail wakes up at 4:00 AM to the sound of that one song that she hates with every fibre of her being. She resists the urge to just throw something at the alarm and instead gets out of bed to turn it off. And now that she’s out of bed, she might as well go through her morning routine.

”Damn, it really works.”

Bathing, dressing, and makeup, the latter two going much more efficiently with Claire’s input. She would have really loved to wear the beautiful dress Oliver made for her, but Uniform Rules are very strict.
Now for breakfast.
As Abigail walks into the kitchen, she sees her dad making a second set of breakfast. Abigail has been having a Full English breakfast ever since she reached double digit ages, and she still isn’t sure how she’s not fat. She tucks into her breakfast quickly.

“A girl gave you a rice ball as a gift, but I doubt that would make a good breakfast. Also, its raining right now, and from the weather forecasts it seems like it’ll be raining all morning, so I’ll give you a ride to school in my car.”

Usually Abigail’s father doesn’t bother with a car ride, Abigail is at the age where she can get to school herself, and having to wake up this early after a night shift gives him barely any sleep. But he doesn’t want Abigail walking out in cold rain. She might get sick or something.

“Tphanks dad.” Abigail says in between bites.

“No talking with your mouth full. What would Oliver think if he saw you like that?” Abigail’s Dad says in a stern tone.

”To be honest, he would probably flirt by offering to share the food with you mouth-to-mouth.”

Abigail coughs and briefly chokes on a sausage, before washing it down with some tea.

“Are you okay?!” Abigail’s Dad asks while offering her water.

“I-I’m fine!” Abigail says before coughing one more time. For some reason her face is still red.
Thank God you don’t talk when Oliver is actually around! I think you’d kill me!”

”Yeah, I try not to add more pressure than Oliver being around already does.


After Abigail finishes her breakfast with no more choking incidents, she takes an umbrella and goes to her dad’s car. She also brings the rice ball with her, maybe she can eat it at breaktime or Oliver might appreciate a food gift (Though she heavily ponders whether giving Oliver food made by someone other than herself is a genuine gift).

ф Stephanie Smith ф

Stephanie wakes up at 4:00 AM abruptly, while clutching her face in pain. She groggily opens her eyes and is greeted with the blurry sight of Megan leaning over her.

“Sorry for slapping you.” Megan starts. “But you weren’t waking up even when I started shouting, and poking your face didn’t do anything, so I was given no choice.”

“Megan, have you never heard of dropping someone’s leg from a height or something?!” Stephanie asks in frustration.

“Hmm, no. But it’s too late now, we gotta get ready for the School Tour!”
Now that Megan has said that, Stephanie notices that Megan is already dressed in Vale of York Academy’s School Uniform.

“You’re right!”

Bathing, dressing, makeup. Unlike usual, Stephanie’s ponytail is done up very neatly because she actually has the haircare products required to take care of it. The unspoken advantages of having parents.
Now for Breakfast.
Stephanie walks into the kitchen and sees what looks like a royal feast compared to her usual gruel in the Orphanage.
Chilli Con Carne, Sausage, Peas, Sweetcorn, Carrots, Kompot, and some porridge that she’s never seen before. How do they even store the ingredients to make all of this stuff?

“Ah, you’re finally up! Come on, eat some food!” Stephanie’s Mum says.
Well, Stephanie doesn’t need to be told twice! She’s tempted to ravage through the food like some hungry dog, but then she looks at the actual hungry dog, Opportunity, and he’s taking his sweet time eating his food. Surely she’s not as uncultured as a dog, right?

As Stephanie is taking deliberate bites out of her food to savour the taste and not choke, Megan storms in, grabs multiple spoonfuls from multiple bowls, and ravages through the food like some hungry dog. At least one of the two are in touch with their inner animal.

Somehow, Megan is able to squeeze out words between mouthfuls of food.
“Did you know it’s raining today?”

“Yeah.” Stephanie replies without thinking.

“Huh, how did you know that? Do you have a Meteorologist hidden in your subconscious or something?” Megan asks playfully.

“Ah- Well, you see, while I was laying in bed, I heard rain coming from outside my window. That’s why I had trouble waking up today, that rain kept me up all night.”

Liza gives Stephanie a sly look as if to say “Nice save.”

Eventually everyone gets their fill of food, and the parents offer to drive them to school.
“Offer” is a funny word to use when Stephanie and Megan don’t know or remember where Vale of York Academy is. At least they offered umbrellas.

Megan rushes towards their car with an umbrella in hand, while Stephanie just walks normally with no umbrella.

“Stephanie, you idiot, why are you out here without an umbrella?!” Megan shouts over the rain.

“Don’t need it.” Stephanie says blithely

“...Alright.”

𐤌Abigail Fulson 𐤌 & ф Stephanie Smith ф

Two cars park in front of the gates to Vale of York Academy.
From one car comes a regular student, excelling in Art beyond her peers, and a source of rumours regarding her crush with another student, Oliver.
From another comes two unknown strangers, dressed in the school’s uniform. Prospective students who are re-entering a more “common” life for a teenage girl. No-one knows anything about them, and their rumour mill is clean.
Despite the large difference between them, they are already acquainted with each other. Thank goodness they are, they’ll need all the help they can get over the upcoming days.

As the group of girls walk through the gates, they make small talk.

“So, Megan, how was your day yesterday? Other than the whole “Claire” thing, I mean.”

“Oh, it was really good! I went home and learned about my…talents, then I went on a date with Oliver and actually told him I loved him! Multiple times, even! I finally did it!”

Stephanie wasn’t sure how long this girl in front of her has been crushing on this guy, but from her excitement it must have been something she really wanted.
“Well that’s great! Who knows, maybe I’ll find a partner at this school.”

Megan chuckles. “What, you? That would be shocking. Though some people might like the ‘Mysterious new student’ vibes, I doubt any attraction would be genuine.

Stephanie wasn’t sure if she should be offended. She knows for a fact that part of what Megan is saying is because she cares for her.

”Eh, can’t be worse than my chances. I don’t even have a body!”
“Claire’s making a joke that you have better chances than her because you at least have a body.” Abigail interprets.

“D-do you really think anyone is going to go after Stephanie for her body? Just look at her!” Megan says in an incredulous tone.

Okay, now that was offensive.
Before Stephanie can launch a retort with her signature flaming tongue and lightning wit, a gust of wind blows past them. The result of a girl rushing through the earth and past the rainwater.
Stephanie gets a look at the girl and notices that she’s not even holding an umbrella. Stephanie can get away with not using an umbrella because she’s manipulating Air and Water to make the rain to avoid her, but she doubts that girl has the same privilege.

“Did that girl with the green hat really run all the way here with no umbrella?”

“Oh yeah, that’s Alba. I’ve never seen her frown once. I feel like the rain could be concentrated directly on her position and she still wouldn’t be sad or upset.”

They move on from the strangely upbeat girl to other topics.

>Is there anything you two want to discuss? The high chances of a Witch Appearance being tomorrow? The encroaching nightmare of Grief? How Stephanie and Megan will get new friends in this school? Many topics are possible.

>>6227911
Stephanie's elbow is precision-guided to Megan's side. Even so, amid her sister's disparaging banter, Stephanie caught a glimpse of a promising idea.

"Hmm...a 'mysterious new student', huh? Like in episode 8 of Drillface when Evilia infiltrated the school as a transfer student? I could totally pull something like that off..."

Plans for happy fun times at school would not be able to monopolize her mind. Stephanie turned to Abigail,

"Say, Abby, can you make time away from your new *boyfried* after school so we can get the Witch Hunting Team together and go on patrol? Think we can handle it without that freak with a bow? I think we've got a decent enough handle on things. She'll just get in the way being creepy and an annoying bitch."

>>6227911
>>6229896
"HE'S NOT M-... uh, well actually I guess he is."

This is going to take getting used to, especially around other people.

"Anyways, I don't have anything scheduled so there's not problem going on patrol. Only three magical girls is a lot less than the group we had going around yesterday, but you're really strong, so I think we should be ok."

I politely ignore the comments about Riko for now, since I'm a little conflicted on the subject. Yes, she certainly is creepy and annoying, among other things, but she does seem to be 'on our side', and there was that rice ball with the strange message. Was that a lifeline, or just some way to finish me off for good to make sure I don't witch out? Hard to tell.

"Oh, I have a great idea! I can introduce you guys to my friends! That'll be a great head start! Though thinking about it, we'll need some kind of story for how we met; I don't think 'we united as magical girls to face a witch' is going to cut it. Do you ever go for walks in the forest? Maybe I can say I met you there."

>>6231378
"I'd love to meet your friends! And yeah, uh, sure, walks in the woods. We can say something like that. If it works it works, right, Meg?"

i must admit I'm pretty surprised that this is still going. are you having fun, marie? i got worried that you may have kept going only out of a sense of duty or such

>>6232797
One of the old heads could join. There is a problem with retention when it comes to the third member of the trio.

>>6235286
Nyohoho~someone asking for an exchange student? From Argentina, mayhap?

>>6235290
Vita Drillhead and her skatepark? Redhead?

>>6229896
>>6231378


𐤌Abigail Fulson 𐤌 & ф Stephanie Smith ф

Abigail’s Status: Conscious (Full access to the physical world. Can access the Crossroads by using “Crossroads Jaunt”)
Stephanie’s Adoption: Solid Earth (+2 PA, +2 Con. +2 PA when manipulating Solid Matter)

Before anything is said, Stephanie launches a precision-guided elbow strike at Megan’s side. Megan, for her part, takes it like a champ and only makes a small whimper. Despite the disparaging remark, Stephanie does think Megan is onto something with her earlier statement.

"Hmm...a 'mysterious new student', huh? Like in episode 8 of Drillface when Evilia infiltrated the school as a transfer student? I could totally pull something like that off…"

“Y-yeah, yeah, definitely!” Megan squeaks out through suppressed pain. Then she stops, and smiles. “You remembered! I didn’t think I’d make an anime fan out of you! Ooooh, there’s so much stuff I want to watch with you now!”

“Maybe later. I think you of all people know that there are more important things to be doing after school.”
Megan nods in understanding and Abigail is very aware of the unspoken topic here.

Although Stephanie and Megan would both love to have fun sister bonding times after school like regular teenage girls, and Abigail would love to hang out with her crush like a regular teenage girl, they were not regular people any more. They had responsibilities beyond the average person now. That doesn’t mean it has to be a massive source of stress though.

"Say, Abby, can you make time away from your new boyfriend after school so we can get the Witch Hunting Team together and go on patrol? Think we can handle it without that freak with a bow? I think we've got a decent enough handle on things. She'll just get in the way being creepy and an annoying bitch." Stephanie says casually.

Abigail’s face turns as red as a tomato, and she raises her voice to a volume Stephanie and Megan haven’t heard from her before.
"HE'S NOT M-”
Abigail stops and thinks for a moment. She’s went on a date with him, they’ve confessed their love to each other multiple times, and he even gives her gifts. She can’t really deny it or push it away, not that she consciously wants to.
“... Uh, well actually I guess he is." Abigail whispers nervously.
She’s going to need to get used to calling Oliver her boyfriend to others.
Abigail takes a breath to centre herself, then continues to the more important topic.
"Anyways, I don't have anything scheduled so there's no problem going on patrol. Only three magical girls is a lot less than the group we had going around yesterday, but you're really strong, so I think we should be OK."

“Well, no pressure sis. You’ll be carrying this team.” Megan says with a smirk.

“Aww, why am I the only one willing to clock a bitch in the face?” Stephanie faux-whines.

“Well I would do it but I’m just a weak anime nerd. I have to be protected by other people whether I want to or not.” Megan says in a joking manner.

Abigail and Stephanie can sense that there’s something deeper in that apparently jokey statement but decide to not push it immediately. Besides that, there was what Stephanie said about Riko. She’s very weird, creepy, and annoying, but isn’t… overtly antagonistic. Riko is at least on their side. The riceball is an enigma though. Is it a lifeline, or something to kill Abigail fast if she Witched out?
This line of thought is getting dark and stressful, so Abigail decides to move past it and lighten the mood.

"Oh, I have a great idea! I can introduce you guys to my friends! That'll be a great head start! Though thinking about it, we'll need some kind of story for how we met; I don't think 'we united as magical girls to face a witch' is going to cut it. Do you ever go for walks in the forest? Maybe I can say I met you there." Abigail offers.

"I'd love to meet your friends! And yeah, uh, sure, walks in the woods. We can say something like that. If it works it works, right, Meg?" Stephanie nudges Megan’s shoulder with her elbow more playfully than the elbow strike from before. She wasn’t expecting the next response however.

“I have actually gone on walks in the woods.” Megan states matter-of-factly.

Stephanie is shocked because she somehow never noticed her best friend just going out into the woods multiple times. How could she miss this? Did she never ask Megan where she went when she disappeared for a while? How could she let her friend just go out into the woods alone with no-one to protect her?!

Megan practically reads Stephanie’s mind and assuages her worries. “Stephanie, I was a Puella Magi and you weren’t. You couldn’t protect me even if you wanted to. B-besides, I-I didn’t want to lose you too…”

“Meg, I-”

“Let’s not talk about this anyway, it’s a downer! We gotta make new friends!”
Megan beckons the others to huddle together, finally caring about the privacy of their magical lives.
“It’s good to have friends as a Puella Magi for multiple reasons. When you get depressed and need help to not go into a despair spiral then those friends are the ones who’ll help. Sure they might not know what we go through but that doesn’t mean they can’t or don’t want to help. The other reason is… well…” Megan thinks for a moment, as if choosing her words carefully.

“This is going to sound bad but, they can be bait.”

Stephanie and Abigail gawk at her callous statement.

“Yeah, I was expecting that.” Megan sighs, then continues, “I’m not saying that we should use them as bait intentionally, but knowing their locations and what they’re doing can help us figure out if there’s a Witch nearby, and them saying they ‘saw something weird’ or ‘felt like something was watching them’ could be a Familiar looking for food.” She explains.

”Yes, you must be vigilant of the people around you. not all Witches decide to spirit away an entire school’s worth of people like me. They often mentally manipulate people into performing actions that spread dread, even causing murders and suicides. I can understand why, of course, but it’s deplorable behaviour. Not only that, but it’s difficult for people not in the know to spot.”

Stephanie lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.
“We should make friends so we can prevent Witches from slitting their throats, right?”

Megan almost laughs at Stephanie’s succinct and blunt summary.
“Yeah, you can say that! Anyway, let’s get into the school already. I’ve heard that being late by even a minute can get you an hour of internal exclusion.”

Abigail winces. “That’s not an exaggeration. I was late by a literal minute once and they put me in IE for an hour. That’s why I come in early.”

As they walk towards the school, Stephanie and Megan finally take in the architecture. Abigail doesn’t pay attention to the sights as she’s seen this almost everyday for years, but the freshly adopted sister hadn’t really seen this before and for Stephanie such things melded into a blur between all the schools she saw.
The major trait of the school building that the sisters pay attention to is that most of it is made of glass. Almost the entire exterior of the building are windows with panels of metal blocking them slightly. Stephanie tries to look inside but the glare from the sky and shadows of the panels make looking in from out difficult. Who decided to make this place out of glass? How many windows have been broken?

Finally making it to the building’s reception area, Abigail goes through her rote process of signing in as a student, but Stephanie and Megan are instead introduced to a member of the school’s staff who would be leading their tour.

“Hello~, I’m Miss Walsh. But you can call me Ashleigh if you want.”
Stephanie and Megan can scarcely believe what they’re seeing. This woman looks British. And not in the same way that the sisters themselves look British. Ashleigh looks like every stereotypical attractive British aristocrat in an anime combined. When Stephanie first saw Evilia in Episode 8 of Drillface try to excuse her attractive physique by saying she’s ‘British’, she thought it was a crock of shit – No British person could be that attractive. She’s forced to admit she’s been proven wrong when meeting this woman.
Long blonde hair in coils, blue eyes, a body that’s… woof, and those clothes- those look way too expensive for even a Private School. Ah! But Stephanie notices that she’s wearing makeup! The makeup is admittedly very well applied, but perfect makeup should imperceptible! One flaw against the impossibly beautiful aristocrat!

”Shit, I need to focus!”

Stephanie glances at Megan and sees that she’s also been temporarily entranced. Stephanie grabs Megan into a hug and shakes her.

“Yeah, I’m Stephanie S-… Imeredala, and this is my sister, Megan!”

Ashleigh raises her hand to her mouth and chuckles- why does it sound like birds singing-
“Don’t worry about the names. I already know of your family situation. I hope you have a good time with them and a good time with us! Now, take this time-table and have a meal at the cafeteria will you?”

Stephanie snatches the paper out of Ashleigh’s hands and Megan, with trembling hands, takes her copy. Stephanie then drags Megan away to the Cafeteria. She hopes Megan doesn’t spill her spaghetti everywhere.

The cafeteria has a different décor than the rest of the school. No windows or glass, black wall paint, with the only lights illuminating the room being the ceiling lights and the stoves making the food. Students have already gathered in different groups to discuss what happened the day before and what their subjects are today. It feels like a depressing place to eat to Stephanie for some reason, at least in the Orphanage everyone talked with each other rather splitting into groups. But, she has her own group prepared for her.

“Hey Stephanie, Megan!” Abigail calls out.
She’s eating an apple crumble slathered in custard. The other two girls around her have more savoury dishes such as a small margherita pizza and a sausage roll.
Stephanie and Megan take their seats, with the latter being uncharacteristically nervous. She probably has nerves from meeting new people in a new school for the first time. In order to take some pressure off, Abigail starts the introductions.

The first to be introduced is a black-haired dark-skinned girl definitely of African descent. She’s short and thin with a pair of glasses that end up making her look like a geek. Stephanie notes that the glasses are not as thick as her own.
“Hi, I’m Kofo!” The girl excitedly says while extending a hand in greeting. More extroverted than Stephanie expected.
After the obligatory handshake Kofo continues her self-introduction. “I’m in the same year as our resident artist here. I was trying to teach myself how to draw so I could make a comic but I was an idiot with a tablet. Eventually I decided to swallow my pride and ask the Art teacher if there’s a student I could tag with and she suggested Abigail! It’s been smooth sailing ever since and I wouldn’t know what to do without her, did you know she’s just as good on a drawing tablet as she is with traditional art?.”

Abigail chuckles nervously. She’s still not used to the brazen praise Kofo gives her.

“Oh, I forgot to mention, the comic was going to be a fan-fiction of SeCure-”
“-You watched SeCure?!” Megan interrupts in shock.

”Oh my God, This is another anime series I’m going to have to watch with Megan later.” Stephanie realises.

Thankfully for the sanity of the other three girls, Kofo and Megan decide to have their nerd-out session elsewhere, probably as a show of courtesy.

The second and last girl to be introduced is large. A pale-skinned girl with ginger hair and freckles, tall as an adult double her age, and Stephanie can tell there’s toned muscle underneath her school uniform. What do they feed this girl?
“H-hi. I’m, uh, Lucy” She says with a nervous, soft voice, her green eyes shifting away from Stephanie.
Stephanie really feels like Lucy and Kofo’s personalities were swapped at birth or something, it’s so unfitting to see this girl that could throttle her (if she were a regular person) stutter and stammer like a shy schoolgirl
“I help Abigail and Kofo in P.E. I can help you two during it if you want!”

“Lucy… She’s a people-pleaser you see. I have no idea why but she’s always bending over backwards to help people.” Abigail explains.

“It’s because helping people is nice, and I want to be a nice person!” Lucy says with conviction.

Stephanie feels like this girl overdoes helping on the regular.

Once Megan and Kofo get the excitement out of her system and Lucy stops offering Stephanie her food, a discussion about the recent events take place.

“I-I thought I was going to die in that forest. That would’ve been terrible, getting torn apart by monstrous animals while some dastardly villain laughs at our suffering, probably while saying ‘Yes, you deserve this for what you all did to me!’” Lucy starts sulking.

The fact that no-one reacts and Kofo rolls her eyes implies this catastrophism is a common trait of Lucy’s. The Magical Girls in the room don’t react for a different reason.

”She’s not wrong in her worries. I would have done unspeakable things to everyone from a place of hatred. Now… When I get better, get my own body, I’ll make sure they’re paid back for the horror I put them through.” Claire says solemnly.

“Okay, ignoring the worst case scenario presented by our Cassandra here,” Kofo starts, “apparently the early-morning period is going to be an Assembly about what happened in the woods. Honestly, I think the weirdest part is that I barely remember what happened other than being lost and then being led out. I feel like I would remember monstrous animals or villains or whatever the hell Lucy is on about. Anyway, everyone’s going to the assembly, even the new students on tour here. We even got two new teachers to replace a couple that chose to take a temporary leave due to ‘mental difficulties’. A lot of stuff happened just ‘cause of one weird incident in the woods. Makes you wonder what could cause it.”

Megan looks around and then whispers into Stephanie’s ear.
”We need to be perceptive about new people in the school. Other Magical Girls can get in as new students or replacement staff, similar to us. Also, other Witches and Familiars can use the aftermath of incidents like these to disguise their acts.” Stephanie relays.

”Wait, so we basically need to start investigating and being suspicious now?” Abigail feels that it’s a bit too soon to go on a literal Witch-hunt.

”I personally feel like it’s too early for that, but keep your eye out during your lessons or something- also Megan’s swearing in my ear because she wants to explain something but can’t with regular people around. Another thing for-”

”Break, or Lunch.” Abigail finishes

”Huh?”

”During Break and Lunch we’re free from lessons and can go to the Playground or P.E Fields. We can’t leave the school but can freely roam around it as long as we don’t cause major trouble. Break lasts only fifteen minutes, but Lunch lasts forty-five minutes. These are the best times we have to fully investigate the school for any Witches.” Abigail explains while eating her food. Eating the food is mainly to make sure she’s not awkwardly staring while communicating mentally, not because the food is actually good.

[green”That’s great! When do they start?”

”Break starts two hours, or periods, from now, and Lunch is two periods after that.”

Stephanie looks at her timetable while absent-mindedly taking a bite from a pizza slice Lucy practically shoved into her hands. The first two periods after the Assembly are tours around the Science and Maths classrooms, then after Break is Food Technology and English, and finally after Lunch is P.E.

Also the pizza tastes super bland. Next time she’ll have to pack some food from home.

Abigail checks the time. 5:00 AM. School proper begins at 6:00 AM. They have an hour to explore the school before lessons bother them.
The easiest places to go to (as in, the ones that no-one will be suspicious of a student going to) are the Playground, P.E Fields, Classrooms, I.E Room, Girls’ Toilets and the Cafeteria they’re currently in.
The places that would be suspicious to go to are the Boys’ Toilets, SEN (Special Educational Needs) Centre, The Staff Room, and the IT Department.
The most difficult places to go to (these ones have actual locks) are The Headmaster’s Office, and The Science Lab’s Cabinet.
Abigail summarises this information and mentally sends it to Stephanie while washing down her food with a frankly terrible carbonated apple drink.

”You’ve been getting better at this ‘tactical commanding thing’.”

”Huh? W-well I kind of have to. This is a matter of life and death now.

>The School is free to explore for an hour. If the girls had to roughly guess, they have enough time to investigate 4 areas thoroughly. Keep in mind the areas that would increase suspicion and/or have locks, better have a good excuse or alibi for those, and maybe some (magically-enhanced) lockpicking skills.

>>6232797
I would not have started this in the first place if I didn't think it would be fun in the long run. It's a mix of duty and fun in a sense, I get to make a story with the input of others and continue a legacy while improving my skills over time.
I even get to learn new things, fun-fact: I learned the whole known Witch Rune alphabet. This was completely unnecessary but I did it so I could use it later.

>>6235286
I believe that the old heads are standing back to let new blood join, as a matter of courtesy. It would nice for anyone to join as the third, including old heads, as at least 2 people here are completely new from what I know.

>>6235290
I do not know what the hell kind of nonsense would happen with any of the Hammerhead family. All I know is that it would be magnificent.

>>6236021
Couldn't I just use Crossroads Jaunt to access the more suspicious places? We could park in homeroom or something while I "nap" while at least one of megan and stephanie watches me. If desired, the other could investigate some low suspicion areas in the meantime.

>>6236076
Yes, that is entirely possible! Although you can not physically touch anything you can absolutely get a visual search of the areas going.

>>6236021
>>6236076
"Right, then. That's how we're going to do it. Meg, you mind sleeping beauty here while she explores the boys' bog or suchlike in spirit form. I'll take the hour to walk about the cafeteria here and maybe the classrooms. Sound good?"

>>6237082
whoops, forgot the trip.

>>6236024
We still alive, QM? The weekly update schedule is looking a little shaky right about now.

𐤌Abigail Fulson 𐤌 & ф Stephanie Smith ф

Abigail’s Status: Conscious (Full access to the real world. Can access the Crossroads by using “Crossroads Jaunt”)
Stephanie’s Adoption: Solid Earth (+2 PA, +2 Con. +2 PA when manipulating Solid Matter)

The school is decently large, but if the Puella Magi are smart, they can cover a majority of the ground. The question is what to do about the places with locks, and the ones that evoke suspicion. But Abigail figures out that she already has a perfect, traceless way of sneaking into a room even through locked doors.
Crossroads Jaunt, when she splits her Soul from her body fully she becomes an immaterial ghost that can move through objects and although her sight is influenced by the distorted lens of everyone else’s experiences and she cannot physically touch anything. It’s still good enough for scouting purposes.

“I can get into the more suspicious and locked down parts of the school. Though you’ll need someone to watch over me.”

“Oh damn, really? How?”

“I can split my Soul from my body fully, and go through any walls and doors blocking the way.”

“So it’s Astral Projection?”

“Shut UP! It is NOT Astral Projection! You honestly think those before me and I would be such QUACK SCHOLARS as to call it that?!” Claire shouts in a stern tone.
Abigail thinks this is the most mad she’s ever heard Claire be since their Souls were entwined.

“...Ooookay, right then. This is how we're going to do it: Meg, you mind sleeping beauty here while she explores the boys' bog or suchlike in spirit form. I'll take the hour to walk about the cafeteria here and maybe the classrooms. Sound good?"

“...Why are you looking at me like that?” Megan asks.

Abigail and Stephanie then realise something: They never let Megan into the mind link. Abigail, performing some quick thinking and acting that she previously thought was beyond her, blinks her eyes as if her eyelids were heavy then falls asleep in her chair.

“Whoa, is she always this sleepy?” Stephanie asks in the most concerned voice she can muster.

“Uh- no, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this happen.” Kofo says.

“Well, she must be tired from not sleeping after that nightmare we went through yesterday. Megan, mind sleeping beauty here, I’m gonna go get something for her from the Cafeteria.”
Megan nods and gives Stephanie a look of understanding.

Stephanie thinks that she might have to get used to lying regularly.

ф Stephanie Smith ф

Stephanie’s Adoption: Solid Earth (+2 PA, +2 Con. +2 PA when manipulating Solid Matter)

Current Time: ~5:00 AM
Current Location: School Cafeteria

Stephanie walks away from the unconscious Magical Girl and towards the line of students waiting for food in the Cafeteria. People like to talk when they’re bored, and she knows for a fact that even though the majority of your time in Britain is spent in queues, it never becomes less boring. With the school banning the use of smartphones unless in emergencies, the children can’t even busy themselves with a screen and have to converse with one another.
Though, she does admit that for teenage students they’re adhering to the rule way too well. Not even brief glances to check the time and notifications. Strange.
Regardless, Stephanie waits in line and listens carefully to eavesdrop on gossip. From what was discussed earlier, Witches try to get people to do daft stuff so they’ll be depressed, but when you act daft, people will notice and talk about it. Gossip moves fast even nowadays, Stephanie knows this from experience. So she separates the wheat from the chaff.

”Did you see what happened in the field? Callum, I think, got into a fight with Daniel because he didn’t say hi to him. I didn’t think Callum was the violent sort, especially about something so petty...” Stephanie overhears a boy say.

”Mate, don’t go into the boy’s toilet until they get someone to look in there and clean it up.”
”What? It’s the start of the day, how is it already a mess?”
”Well, I don’t know, but I went to the door a few minutes ago and heard a lot of loud noises, like someone was getting roughed up proper in there. Decided I could hold my piss for later...”
A couple of boys converse.

”Did you hear that Sefora got put into Internal Exclusion?”
”What? She’s like the most rule-following girl in this school.”
”Well it seems that’s what got her in trouble. She saw someone running in the hallway, which is against the rules, and actually beat her up!
”Whoa, holy shit, isn’t that an over-reaction?!”
”Well yeah, that’s why she’s in I.E now. But what the hell made her do that? Even when other people broke the rules she never so much as told them to stop, let alone beat the crap out of them.”
A group of girls gossip.

Stephanie can tell immediately that people are not acting how they usually do, or how anyone usually does really.

”I mean, getting into a fight because someone didn’t say Hi to you? I was practically invisible on the streets before the Orphanage, I would’ve cried tears of joy if someone so much as gave me a non-committal greeting.”

She can’t completely figure out the link between these uncharacteristic acts of aggression, so she decides to drop this for now and get food to keep up the act.

“That will be £2.50.” A member of cafeteria staff tells Stephanie. She got an apple crumble and a drink, as that’s what Abigail was eating before.

Stephanie is briefly confused. Shouldn’t she be able to get free school meals? Unless- right, she’s been adopted into a pretty well-off family. But now she’s in a bind, she didn’t bring any money for the food. Maybe they’ll understand.

“Hey, hey! I’ll pay for it!”
Just as Stephanie was about to give up, Lucy approaches her from the other side of the, frankly non-existent, demarcation that separates them. In her hands are three coins worth £2.50 altogether.

“Thanks, but shouldn’t you keep that? Don’t you need to eat as well?”

“No!” Lucy states cheerily.
Stephanie decides that she’s not going to question Lucy’s generosity for now.

Stephanie places the apple crumble and drink in front of Abigail’s empty body, then moves to leave the cafeteria.

“Huh, where are you going?” Lucy asks.

“I’m going to get a head-start on the tour, look around the classrooms and all that. Just so I know how to navigate the school in case something happens.

Lucy gives her a strange look, but otherwise doesn’t object.

Current Time: ~5:15 AM

As Stephanie walks through the hallways of the school, she takes note of the architecture. It’s very… open. Many surfaces are made of glass. The doors and walls (more like windows really) leading to and from the hallways are made of glass. The ceiling is made of glass. Stairway railings are blocked by glass. It gives her the impression that anyone could see her do anything in this place if she were unlucky. It doesn’t help that the major areas where students read books and eat food are in clear sight from the upper floors.
Stephanie looks into some of the classrooms and sees teachers scarfing down their breakfast while trying to plan lessons, looks like this is a universal constant of all the schools she’s been to. She tries to closely peer into the rooms, but she doesn’t want to be seen as a weirdo by the teachers on her first day of school, so she tries to find an empty classroom that isn’t locked instead.

Thankfully Fate, who or whatever controls it, smiles on Stephanie as she finds an empty maths classroom that was left unlocked. She inspects the room and mostly finds what she expects, a large meter-long ruler made of metal (her instincts tell her it’s specifically aluminium, huh), papers with Mathematical time-tables on them, and that smell of freshly used whiteboard pens- wait, freshly used?

She looks at the whiteboard and sees that there’s a whole bunch of symbols written on it. She has no idea what they’re meant to mean, but she’s sat through enough Maths classes to know that these aren’t used in any calculations she knows of. And her Magic Bullshit Senses are telling her that these symbols are meant to mean something, so she whips out her phone and takes a picture of it. Best to keep any evidence of Magic Bullshit around.

“What are you doing here?” A familiar voice says, startling Stephanie.

She turns towards the door and is greeted by the sight of Lucy, looking much more irascible than usual from the brief time she’s met her.
“I already told you before, Lucy, I’m looking around the school so I can get a head-start and not be lost later.”

“But did you really need to go into a classroom for that? Did you even ask the teacher before just waltzing in? Don’t you know how rude it is to go into places without the owner’s permission? That it’s against the rules?”

“Wait, there are rules against that?” Stephanie has never heard of such rules. “Where are they written, when were we told about this?”

Lucy points towards the whiteboard with those unreadable symbols. At that moment, Stephanie hears a message from her trusted co-ordinator in spirit form.

”There’s absolutely, definitely a Witch in this school, keep your guard up!!!”

Oh. This is piecing together a bit for Stephanie: Lucy is being manipulated by a Witch to do this for whatever reason, probably just for a laugh.

>Stephanie needs to pacify Lucy somehow.

𐤌Abigail Fulson 𐤌

Abigail’s Status: Unconscious (Full access to the Crossroads. Can regain consciousness by using “Crossroads Jaunt”)

Current Time: ~5:00 AM
Current Location: Cafeteria (Physically), Headmaster’s Office (Spiritually)

The transition between the physical world and The Crossroads is much smoother than before, it’s more like Abigail blinked and the entire world happened to change shape rather than her losing consciousness.
Not wanting to waste time, Abigail immediately flies towards the Headmaster’s Office.

Abigail is completely shocked by what she sees when she gets there. She can feel her heart pulsing even though she’s removed from her body, and the reason for her shock is simple:
The Entrance to a Witch Labyrinth is right in front of her. Right there in the Headmaster’s Office on the ceiling.

She was not sure what she was expecting a Labyrinth Entrance to look like, but it looks like a floating door with an image of a stone tablet imprinted on it. She tears her eyes away from the violation of reality in front of her and inspects the room in more detail.
She then makes the mistake of looking at laptop on the Headmaster’s desk.

It’s open on a text file that is filled with text in a font that she’s never seen before. Her mind grapples with the notion of understanding it when-

Skill: Witch Runes – Native

Something in her head just clicks, and all of the symbols make sense.

The text file contains a set of rules, likely for the whole school, to be enforced with methods that Abigail considers… Draconian at best. And some of these rules are so ephemeral, subjective, and broad that knowing how to avoid breaking them would be nearly impossible to learn.
Abigail’s reading is interrupted by Claire, peering at the screen right next to her.

”You can read this?”

”Yeah, can’t you?”

”Yes I can but that’s completely normal. These are Witch Runes, Witches write in this language, of course I can read it but why can you? Even experienced Puella Magi would have difficulty reading Witch Runes, let alone a newbie who’s only been around for two days.”

“I don’t know, aren’t you the expert here?” Abigail sasses.

Claire huffs, before responding with her best guess. ”I hypothesise that due to you joining in Mind and Soul with a Witch, certain inherent mental traits may have been shared even through your filter. Knowledge of Witch Runes to the level of a Native might have been one of them.”

Abigail briefly stops her reading to glance at Claire. ”I really hope the more negative aspects of a Witch’s mind wasn’t one of the shared traits.”

”We can only hope, my dear Abigail.”

Abigail finishes reading the document. There are actually multiple pages in it, but she can’t interact with the laptop to navigate the document. From what she’s read some of the rules are:

You must greet your fellow man when in proximity of them.
If someone engages in conversation with you, you must reciprocate with no distraction even if you are not personally interested in conversing.
You must ask for permission from the owner before entering a room assigned to someone other than yourself.
Move with purpose, not recklessly. This means no running, as walking with a clear purpose and destination will get you where you need in time.

Abigail finally decides to warn Stephanie. She just found absolute proof that a Witch is in this school, they need to be on high alert now.
”There’s absolutely, definitely a Witch in this school, keep your guard up!!!” Abigail shouts into Stephanie’s mind.

”Good timing for the heads up. A bint, Lucy, is acting like I broke one of the Ten Commandments or something. I need to deal with her, but she’s bigger than me and probably won’t give up easily.”

”Don’t call Lucy a bint! Also, are you sure it’s her? She’s not the kind of person to assault someone unless that person hurt someone else first.”

”Same body, voice, everything except body language and behaviour apparently. I think our Witch is doing some Magic Bullshit to mess with her head, heard other students were acting barmy, like their personalities were arse about face. But right now I need to make her bog off to properly investigate.”

>It’s currently ~5:15 AM. Abigail could get to Stephanie’s position and help, she knows where Stephanie is instinctually and getting there is just a matter of flying for a moment. But that would take time away from her investigation. Alternatively, Abigail could just trust that Stephanie can resolve this without issue and continue her investigation.

>>6243194
Yeah, we're alive. My image editing software was trying to kill me though, I felt like I was going insane for some reason.

>>6243422
Unless Stephanie has an efficient idea to solve her situation, I can fly over there and alter Lucy's perception to hear a voice calling her name from outside the room, which would force her to follow the rule to reciprocate with no distraction, and then create the illusion of running footsteps as well as someone entering another classroom to break two rules at once. Hopefully that should trigger her enough to distract her from Stephanie.

>>6243448
name

>>6243420
Ah, yes. Non-violent de-escalation. The thing Stephanie's the absolute best at.

"I'm cutting my search here short, Abigail. Can't think of any way out of this one aside from smacking her about or doing something else very clearly magical. I'll try to get past her and run—...well, power-walk away, more like. Your search is more important, especially now that we know there's a witch about."

With muscling Lucy out of the way being right out, it's time to change up my Adoption. Let's do Gaseous Air and just glide past Lucy and then, as stated, power-walk down the hall. If the rules are as ironclad as they seem, it's not like she can run me down. I'll try to maybe lead her towards the girl's bathrooms and give her the slip there.

>>6243937
>>6243448

So, we have slightly clashing actions. Should we go forward with Abigail resolving the problem or Stephanie walking away?
If the latter is chosen then Abigail is free to choose where next to investigate, same thing with Stephanie for the former.

>>6244704
We can go with Stephanie's plan. Next I'll investigate the science lab's cabinet (if possible), The Staff Room, and the IT Department. If the cabinet isn't possible, if cabinet isn't possible, investigate the Special Educational Needs Centre.

>>6243937
ф Stephanie Smith ф

Stephanie’s Adoption: Solid Earth (+2 PA, +2 Con. +2 PA when manipulating Solid Matter)

Current Time: ~5:15 AM
Stephanie’s Current Location: Classroom

"I'm cutting my search here short, Abigail. Can't think of any way out of this one aside from smacking her about or doing something else very clearly magical. I'll try to get past her and run—...well, power-walk away, more like. Your search is more important, especially now that we know there's a witch about."

Now Stephanie has a conundrum: How was she going to get past Lucy without blowing this whole “Masquerade” thing going on?

She thinks as fast as the wind, and is Adopted by it.

Stephanie’s Adoption: Gaseous Air
彡 Dexterity: 14 16
Ω Constitution: 16 14

Stephanie approaches the door with Lucy in the way and the larger student attempts to get Stephanie into a grapple, but her body seems to be as impossible to grasp as thin air.
While Stephanie glides past her assailant, she spots a mark on her neck. It looks like a grey stone tablet. Definitely not a normal skin condition.

”Abby, there’s a weird mark on this girl’s neck. Like a tattoo, does Lucy have any?” Stephanie asks while power-walking through the hallway.

”I cannot answer if Lucy has any tattoos but I do believe I know what that mark is: A Witch’s Kiss.” Claire responds.

”Witches kiss people? How romantic.” Stephanie says, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

”Yes, very. Claire responds with wit.
She then continues. ”A Witch’s Kiss is a mark upon a person that allows a Witch to influence the mind. Despite the name, a Witch’s Familiar can go outside their home Labyrinth and also Kiss people. Usually this is used to lure people into the Witch’s Labyrinth to be devoured, but a great many more things can be done with them. In this case it seems like the Witch is using them to change people’s personalities and behaviour so they’ll follow these… ridiculous rules, and punish people who don’t follow them.
”This means we have good news and bad news.
Good News: The fact that some people are still breaking the rules might mean that not everyone in the school is Kissed, that makes sense, it took me an entire week of subtle manipulation to kidnap a sizeable amount of people.
Bad News: Those people who are not Kissed may get killed if this goes on for longer. For now, everyone seems okay with ‘just’ assault and subsequent standard school punishments, but it is very likely that this will escalate as the Witch gains more influence.”

Stephanie sighs in exasperation. ”It’s my first day at school and I already have to deal with this shite.”

From Stephanie’s initial search around the school she knows that there are in fact multiple girl’s bathrooms on each floor. She just has to give Lucy the slip somehow…

“Where are you going?” Lucy asks in annoyance. She’s been following Stephanie this whole time.

“Girl’s bog. Didn’t get the chance to go before school you see.” Stephanie responds casually.

Stephanie walks just a bit faster, trying to push the limits on what the rules consider “Running”. Though, she’s already going faster than the average person, it’s a wonder how fast you can go when you get rid of all drag possible through air manipulation. Conversely, Lucy’s having trouble keeping up despite her longer gait because all of the drag acting on her is exacerbated. But Stephanie really feels the speed difference between walking and running at this moment, she never really paid attention to it until now, where running isn’t even an option.
Regardless, Stephanie doesn’t want to take any chances, so she intentionally travels a circuitous path that takes her past every girl’s bathroom she can reasonably go to before making it to her final destination: A Girl’s Bathroom at the back of the school, far away from all the others. It’s right next to the SEN Centre.

She never looked back to see if Lucy was still following, but she can’t hear her footsteps. She decides to walk into the bathroom to hide for a bit, just in case.

Current Time: ~5:30 AM
Current Location: Girl’s Bathroom

“Oh for fuck’s sake, what the shit is this tosser doing in here?!”

The Girl’s Bathroom was mostly filled with what Stephanie expected: Ceramic flooring, sinks, toilet stalls (all of which are open, so no-one’s in there?), random bits of writing, shit, and piss on the wall even before break.
Things would be completely normal, she would’ve immediately left after she was sure the coast was clear, if only- someone could maybe tell her why the fuck a Familiar was in the toilet?!

It looked less like a monster than the ones she encountered in the forest. Rather than being a macabre amalgamation of animals, this one looks like a standard human, it’s even dressed like a student of this school. But it has no face, and its stance is strange. Stephanie can’t put her finger on it, it’s like if she saw it from a distance it would be okay, but up close she can’t notice how unlike a regular human it is, and so it lives in the Uncanny Valley. Not to mention that it just leaks out a kind of energy that flares in her Magic Bullshit Senses.

Stephanie is now stuck in a small room with a Familiar. Joyous day(!) But Stephanie already has plenty of experience trapping Familiars, the floor is made of ceramic, she’s on the ground floor, and it’s not a big Familiar.

Oh yeah, she's gonna beat its arse.

Magia Refined

Vivisepulture
”I’m gonna bury you six feet under. Alive.”

>A refining of her trapping techniques and matter manipulation, Vivisepulture allows Stephanie to trap a target using solid matter. This does not require a test, unless the target is a wide group, or a Witch, in which case it is an M2 PA Test.
>When the target is trapped, they must make a PA Test at a Magnitude equal to Stephanie’s Margin of Victory on her initial Test. If Stephanie didn’t make a test, then the Magnitude is equal to Stephanie’s current PA. Large targets, like certain Witches, can pool together a PA Test and Constitution Test to escape.
>The method of trapping can be any use of solid matter to restrict. Vines and wood restricting movement, A solid wall or cage made of metal, or even actually making the earth beneath the target open up and then close, trapping them.
>As this is a manipulation of solid matter, this Magia benefits from Solid Earth’s +2 PA when using it.

“You are such an unlucky git.” Stephanie says with a smirk.

>Get rid of this Familiar and decide what to do next.

>>6244711
𐤌Abigail Fulson 𐤌

Abigail’s Status: Unconscious (Full access to the Crossroads. Can regain consciousness by using “Crossroads Jaunt”)

Current Time: ~5:15 AM
Current Location: Science Lab’s Cabinet

Stephanie said that Abigail’s investigation was more important, so as much as Abigail wanted to help Stephanie, she had to respect her wishes. And so, Abigail decided to continue her investigation in the Science Lab’s Cabinet.

This room also has a lock, like the Headmaster’s Office, and for good reason: The Science Lab’s Cabinet is where all the chemicals and tools used for practical lessons of Science are stored, if anyone could just sneak in here then there would be deadly consequences.

With all that said, Abigail floats into the room through the floor with Claire beside her.

Abigail looks around the room thoroughly, but doesn’t learn a lot at first. Many of the names of the chemicals fly over her head, so she decides instead to focus on more general, simple things. She goes over to a notebook and it has the stock of the Cabinet on it. Using it, she checks all of the chemicals and tools in stock. Unsurprisingly, there’s a discrepancy between the two. A Bunsen Burner is missing, as well as some of the stock like the magnesium samples, and enough equipment to make multiple electrical circuits (she thinks, Science class has a lot of information for Abigail to remember).

”Claire, what do you think is going on here?”

”Hmm, not sure exactly. I think that this may be unrelated to our Witch, unless the worst case scenario of gruesome torture has somehow become a reality. Even then, Witches would rather just lure people into their Labyrinth or even have them devoured by Familiars than bother with stealing these supplies.”

Abigail looks disappointed. “I think this won’t make sense until we have more context.”

”I agree. Unfortunately, leads don’t always fall out of the sky. Let’s go to the next spot in our itinerary.”

Current Time: ~5:30 AM
Current Location: Staff Room

The Staff Room was always a source of curiosity for Abigail, in the classic way that rooms children aren’t allowed in spark interest: purely innocent.

She doesn’t know what she was expecting, but it’s still very mundane and disappointing. It reminds her of the CompSci Classroom, but more spacious. Rows of laptops with electrical outlets hidden in the flooring, with a rest area on the far side of the room- where there’s even a microwave, a toaster and a kettle with supplies to make tea, and a fridge!
”Okay, never mind, the teachers get such a good room to themselves in this school?!”

In that rest area, some teachers are taking a break and conversing before they’re embroiled in work for the next 6-7 hours. Abigail eavesdrops on their conversation, now that a Witch is confirmed, she needs to know how severely people’s behaviours are being influenced.

“It’s a good thing that none of the students were hurt after the incident yesterday, but I really wish we didn’t have to get substitute teachers.” A fair-skinned young woman with black hair and dark clothing says.
Abigail recognises her as Miss Brooks, her English Teacher. She’s always going on about blood and gore, she gets weirdly excited about that stuff. Abigail thinks the only reason she hasn’t been reprimanded is because the main English genres she teaches are War and Tragedy, where it’s normal to talk about such things with children.

“Why? It’s not like the substitute teachers are unqualified like the ones before. We put them through our usual testing and they made it through perfectly.” A slightly older woman says.
That’s Mrs. Singh, Abigail’s Maths Teacher. Though she might as well double as a History teacher. Whenever she shows up with a new Theorem or equation or somesuch she goes on about the origins of it, what it was originally used for, and all the tertiary information. Abigail does admit that it helps her remember them during tests, but it makes her lessons extremely information-dense for a teenager.

“Look, I’ve gone through too many bad substitutes to trust any, let alone two that came out of nowhere. I’m not kidding with that last part- they had no teaching experience or any credentials, the only reason we considered them was because we were desperate, but they somehow passed our tests perfectly? Smells fishy, I think they were cheating.” Miss Brooks responds

“I’m sorry, but I don’t share your paranoia on substitutes. Besides, we have more important things to worry about, the students have been acting strangely just in this early morning from what I’ve heard. The teachers have been mostly unaffected, but I really hope it doesn’t get to them, especially the substitutes.”

“Oh yeah, for sure. That one blonde, Ashleigh Walsh? Fucking fit, never going to forget her body. I did not think that God still made women like her, let alone send them to our cursed isles, but I can tell you right now I’m going to be on my knees in worship soon, in more ways than one. I thought she was all tits and teeth, but she seems on the up and up, now I hope she’s not a slag, and that she’s not going to go crazy like our students.”

Mrs. Singh is mortified by Miss Brooks’ brazen words, though Abigail only knows that from monitoring her emotional state. Otherwise, her face is stony and she performatively clears her throat.
“Interesting words. I would pass them on to Miss Walsh, but I do not want to see you fired for sexual harassment. Just… try to keep it in your pants, will you? I want to get a repeat visitor to this school.”

“Eh, alright. I probably don’t have a good chance anyway, way out of her league.” Miss Chandler says defeatedly.

“Out of who’s league?”

Brooks is shocked by the voice, but has an impeccable poker face. The reason for her shock is because the voice belongs to the subject of her sexual fantasies: Ashleigh Walsh.

“Oh, no-one, just a bird I’ve had my eye on.”

“Ooh, good luck!” Ashleigh says in a distinctly Essex accent.

The subjective nature of the Crossroads rears its head as Ashleigh literally radiates light due to the influence of the others’ view of her. Abigail tries to ignore the living lightbulb aspects of Ashleigh and instead locks onto some more strange aspects of her. Her emotional state is much more… Volatile, than other people she’s seen. She’s excited and happy, but it’s unrealistically vibrant, and when Abigail takes a more nuanced eye, she notices slight cracks in her mood. Like her chipper armour might break down one day.

Abigail attempts to look around the room, and has a major problem that sparks her suspicion: Ashleigh’s aura is so bright in the Crossroads that it nearly completely blocks her vision to other parts of the room. She can certainly try to inspect the room closely but she’s not sure how successful she’ll be.

>Attempting to inspect the room more is an option, but perhaps saving time and going elsewhere may be more worthwhile.

>>6246299
I didn't know Clair could talk directly with the others through the link. How much time do we have left, and how close is the Staff Room to the other locations?

>>6246378
.

>>6246378
Claire doesn't speak to others often because she thinks suddenly hearing the voice of a stranger in irksome. Especially the voice of a stranger who tried to kill you in a forest with monsters. Yes, this means that Claire considers Abigail her friend, but no-one else.
It goes without saying but she wouldn't be caught dead speaking with Oliver now, and actively avoids speaking in his presence.

The SEN Centre is directly under the Staff Room and the I.E room is directly above the Staff Room. With stairs doubling as the fire exit easily linking the sections.

>>6246299
>>6246407
Let's go to the IE room next then while Ms. Lens Flair is disrupting visuals, and we can quickly come back once we're done up there.

>>6246294
"What are you even doing here, you sick fuck? This is the girls' bathroom! You being here, that's got to be against some rule, eh? Here, don't go nowhere, I'll sort you right out...!"

>Switch to Adoption: Solid Earth (+2 PA)
>Use Vivisepulture to trap the familiar up to its shoulders in a fault in the floor.
>And then bash its featureless face in.
>Dispose of any remains by burying it under the floor and sealing the fault. If it leaves any remains, that is.

With that sorted, there isn't much else for Stephanie to do in this absolute pigsty of a bathroom. Did the familiar do all that? Well, then again, it is right next to the SEN Centre...

Whatever's the case, there's a few things she needs to tell Abigail,

>>6246812
"There was a familiar in the girls' shitter next to the SEN Centre! Things're proper fucked if the witch is that brazen to just have one faffing about in there, I'd say. We need to find and kill that slag. Sooner the better. Don't think just the three of us can manage that in half an hour, though. I'll be checking the SEN Centre next. If anybody raises a stink, I'll just say I'm lost or something and it'll all work out, surely."

>>6246294
>Explore the SEN Centre next.

>ms. lens flair
kek

>>6246812

𐤌Abigail Fulson 𐤌

Abigail’s Status: Unconscious (Full access to the Crossroads. Can regain consciousness by using “Crossroads Jaunt”)

Current Time: ~5:45 AM
Current Location: I.E Room

Abigail takes another look at the flashbang that is Ashleigh Walsh, and sighs. Thankful that she’s not looking with her real eyes or she would probably be blind by now.

”Claire, what the heck is up with Ms. Lens Flare over there?”

”She’s emitting a very high amount of positive emotions that are visible in the Crossroads. This definitely isn’t natural, no-one can be this energetic and happy naturally.”

”Regardless of why she’s making a lightshow I don’t think we’re going to get any information when she’s blocking our sight and the others are fawning over her, let’s leave.”

Claire concurs, and they both fly upwards through the Staff Room’s ceiling directly into the I.E Room.
I.E. Internal Exclusion. You get in trouble in a British school and they put you in a room with a bunch of other troublemakers and a member of staff overlooking all of you while you’re bored to death. Maybe do homework in there? Read a book? Who knows. Abigail has only been in I.E once, when she was late to school by ~5 minutes. She has to admit that she got a lot of drawing done in that time but it’s still an experience she would not like to repeat, so she always comes to school early nowadays.

Though, listening around, it seems that the students in here today have done much harsher things. One of the students bemoans the fact that she assaulted a student for not greeting her as that’s not usually how she acts, another complains that he was punished while the person who started the fight got away scot-free. While watching, Abigail takes in the emotions of everyone in the room. They’re ashamed, embarrassed, guilty, despairing, grie-
Abigail shakes her head in an attempt to clear it. These are all great emotions for a Witch to feed off of.

”Abigail, Inspect their bodies as well as you can.” Claire orders.
Abigail nods and gets to work. They aren’t doing this for any prurient reasons and they wish they didn’t have to do this, but with a confirmed Witch they now have to look for any Witch-Kissed individuals.
After their search, they make an interesting discovery: Much less students in this room are Witch-Kissed than they were expecting, and the Staff Member is untouched. Out of the 20 students in the room, only 4 are actually Witch-Kissed. Despite that, all of them were Excluded for incidents of… enforcing rules. Not any actual school rules (though Abigail did notice that a couple of the Witch’s rules were similar to school ones) but rules from some “invisible rulebook”.

”Hmm. If they weren’t all Witch-Kissed then why did they all do this?”

”Groupthink. Or conformity.” Claire states as if it were a fact. A foregone conclusion.

”Huh?” Abigail was confused. ”There’s no way that someone would decide that assaulting another person for not following the rules is okay just because everyone else is doing it.”

”Right now you’re probably thinking: ‘There’s no way that someone would decide that assaulting another person for not following the rules is okay just because everyone else is doing it.’, right?” Claire asks smugly.

Abigail doesn’t give her the satisfaction of an answer.

”Your face tells me everything. Your thinking is slightly wrong there, it’s not that they think it’s okay, it’s that they are afraid of standing out if they don’t partake in the ritual.”

”But originally only around a fifth of the students here were doing it, if our control group here is a representation of the majority, which it isn’t.”

”More than a fifth is likely. Some mild-mannered children are Kissed, then the ones already predisposed to violence join in for the excuse to beat someone up, then the moderates and easily influenced join in to not stand out. It’s a pernicious social construct this is.” Claire explains with a jaded, weathered voice

Abigail thinks for a moment, the thoughts stewing in her head. Is it really so easy to convince people that hurting others for such petty reasons is okay? How can she even fight against such a thing? It’s ultimately an unpleasant revelation to be given.

”Abigail, be confident. For every person who falls in like sheep there are people like us who recognise the behaviour as abhorrent, even if they’re mundane. Besides, we’ve specifically trained for this and you’re specially equipped for curing people of mental maladies.”
Claire decides not to state the fact that feeling negative about this will just darken her Soul Gem which is the last thing they need.

”R-right! It’s my job as a Magical Girl to help people in times like these! Situations like this was why I learned Succour! I need to give succour to the troubled minds of the innocent!”

Claire has the smile of a proud mentor and a tired veteran at the same time. ”Keep that passion close to you and think about how to properly rebut whatever machinations this Witch is planning. I believe we’ve gotten most of what we can gather from this room.”

>Ignoring the speeches about hope and the job of a Magical Girl, Abigail needs to decide where to investigate next. After that, she needs to return to her body and meet up with Stephanie and Megan for the proper start of the school day.

>>6246882

ф Stephanie Smith ф

Stephanie’s Adoption: Gaseous Air (+2 PA, +2 Dex. +2 PA when manipulating Gaseous Matter)

Current Time: ~5:45 AM
Current Location: Girls’ Bathroom

"What are you even doing here, you sick fuck? This is the girls' bathroom! You being here, that's got to be against some rule, eh? Here, don't go nowhere, I'll sort you right out...!"

Stephanie moves her head left and right, small cracking sounds coming from her bones and reverberating throughout the room- not that she needs to worry about broken or sore bones with a dead body. She then stomps her foot into the floor. Now is not the time to be as gentle as a spring breeze. She needs to have a firm hand. Be steadfast. Solid.

Stephanie’s Adoption: Solid Earth
彡 Dexterity: 16 -> 14
Ω Constitution: 14 -> 16

As Stephanie’s body returns to its default state of inanimate matter, the ceramic floor opens like a rough set of trapdoors and the Familiar in front of her falls up to its shoulders into the floor.

>>??? Familiar ??? HP: ??/?? (Trapped. Must succeed an M16 PA Test to escape.)<<

Stephanie then runs, her preferred foot merged with the floor’s foundation material, and performs a devastating kick on the Familiar’s head that would make any Football Striker proud-

>>??? Familiar ??? HP: ??/?? -> ??/?? (Trapped. Must succeed an M16 PA Test to escape.)<<

-Then a meaty curb-stomp wherein both the foot and floor are the curb.

>>??? Familiar ??? HP: ??/?? -> ?/?? (Trapped. Must succeed an M16 PA Test to escape.)<<

It looks like a mess after that thrashing, though no blood comes out of it. Regardless, Stephanie steps away and lets the floor swallow the creature entirely.

After she’s sure that the floor is sealed properly and the mess is hidden, she contacts Abigail because shite!

"There was a familiar in the girls' shitter next to the SEN Centre! Things're proper fucked if the Witch is that brazen to just have one faffing about in there, I'd say. We need to find and kill that slag. Sooner the better. Don't think just the three of us can manage that in half an hour, though. I'll be checking the SEN Centre next. If anybody raises a stink, I'll just say I'm lost or something and it'll all work out, surely."

”Wha- in the toilet?! That’s disgusting!
I just got done looking inside the I.E Room. The situation actually seemed less serious than we thought in there, but there are Familiars in the school?!”

”Yeah, don’t even get me started. I had a fucking mare thinking of the implications!”

Stephanie takes one more look around the bathroom, and notices something: Made from the shit and piss stains and writing on the toilet walls, a pattern forms... A pattern that is extremely similar to the weird symbols she saw in the Maths Classroom.
She sighs, and brings out her phone to take a picture of it. These are going to be very hard to explain to anyone who’s curious.

Current Time: ~5:45 AM
Current Location: SEN Centre

Stephanie opens the door to the SEN Centre to see a group of overworked office ladies. She’s really getting flashbacks to her previous schools right now.
The room is mainly dominated by laptops but it’s also smaller than she thought it would be, it’s even smaller than the average classroom. No room for breaks, a bit cramped with the amount of people inside, ink-stained clipboards and hands, this entire place reeks of overwork.
It seems that, despite the overwork, the Staff still have their wits about them, as a small group of them previously looking at one monitor turn their attention to her. They aren’t confused, but curious. Like they’re used to people wandering around aimlessly and accidentally walking in.

The group look at one young Asian woman expectantly. She points at herself as if to say: ”Really? Me?” Then acquiesces and walks towards Stephanie nervously.

“H-hello, what’s your name and why are you at the SEN Centre?” She asks in the most polite voice she can muster through her nerves.

“My name’s Stephanie Smith. I- uh- I’m a new student on a tour and got lost while walking back from the toilet.”

“A-ah. Hey guys, Stephanie Smith!” The staff member anxiously shouts to the others. They quickly start scrolling through a spreadsheet and looking at sheets of paper.

“R-right, I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Miss Kanata. I work with people who need help in education, like…” The slender woman looks behind herself expectantly towards the other staff. They shake their heads in disappointment.
“N-not you. Sorry, don’t take any offence! It’s just that usually the only people who come here either need help from us or work here.”

“Eh, no problem, lass.” Stephanie has honestly heard worse about herself.

“Eheh, do you want any help before you leave?”

“Uh, I need help getting back to the cafeteria?” Stephanie says unconvincingly.

“Oh, okay, I can lead you ba-” Miss Kanata’s group loudly shuffles a stack of papers in a way that’s somehow very aggressive.
“I-I can’t lead you back personally. A-ah- but…!”
She walks back to her desk in a fast but strangely silent gait, writes a lot on a stack of papers, then hands it to Stephanie.
“This should help! It’s a map of the school with some notes on it, make sure to read it thoroughly!”

Stephanie flicks through the papers, and doesn’t know whether she’s fucked or gotten help from the notes:

You’re decent at lying, but not good enough to trick me. Don’t worry, I’ve had practice spotting lies, you’re probably still safe.
Whatever you do, don’t panic. There’s a Witch around here, but you probably already know that. I’ve been gathering information on this, we can meet in this room during Lunch to share information and discuss an alliance if you want. Everyone leaves during Lunch so the room would just have you and I, good for clandestine meetings.
I hope you accept this offer as my skill-set isn’t good for hunting Witches by myself, and we both probably want more help with hunting this Witch. Don’t worry, I’ll share a Grief Seed with you as compensation.

Miss H. Kanata

Stephanie looks at Miss Kanata, already back to work. She looks back and waves at Stephanie shyly.
The last time Stephanie had help outside of the trio it was Riko and she doesn’t have many positive memories of her personality. But Kanata reminds her of… a more mature Abigail.

>Either way, Stephanie’s been given a really detailed map of the school (with notes on what Kanata found during her investigations), so she has no excuse to stay here unless she makes one. She might need to leave to investigate another area. After that, school starts really soon so Stephanie would need to reconvene at an agreed location with Abigail and Megan.

>>6249690
familiarbros... we got stomped...

>>6249707
Don't worry, it's not actually dead... But it literally cannot escape Vivisepulture.

>>6249685
Can I cast spells like Succour while in the Crossroads?

>>6249769
Yes. You effectively have access to all of your Magia in the Crossroads, as those all rely on your Soul/Mind rather than your body. With that said, its range is also dependent on where you are in the Crossroads rather than your physical body's location.

>>6249692
Stephanie tries to act casual and waves back, before leaving the SEN Centre at a brisk pace.

"A magical...office lady? Can't say I know owt about all this, but something ain't right with an office lady being a magical girl, if you ask me..."

That is assuming, of course, that this Miss Kanata was a magical girl in the first place. Stephanie decided that she'd take her up on the offered meeting during lunch, but not without some backup, of course. So running this by Megan and Abigail was high up on the list of priorities for when they reconvened. Speaking of which, there wasn't much time left before that. Stephanie consults the map and chooses the fastest route to powerwalk to...

>The P.E. Fields

>>6249685
First thing, I need to apply Succour to all those troubled in the I.E. room. Whatever the Witch is planning, it clearly needs people in this distressed form, so not only is this right to do, it helps thwart the Witch.

Try not to be slow about it because I need to hurry on through the floor back to the Staff Room and properly investigate there without being blinded.


How subtly can I cast spells in the presence of mundane people? I assume inside the Crossroads it's not visible, but in the physical world, is it super bright and obvious? I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to try to Succour the students as much as possible throughout the day.

>>6251606
Your magic isn't very obvious to mundane people. Your Soul Gem (it just looks like jewellery regularly) shines a bit when it's used but that's easily explained away as a trick of the light. It does give off Magical Energy that tips off any Magical Girl, Witch, and Familiar of the fact it's being used if they're nearby in the same building or Labyrinth.

[green][b]ф Stephanie Smith ф[/b][/green]

[green][b] Stephanie’s Adoption: Solid Earth (+2 PA, +2 Con. +2 PA when manipulating Solid Matter)[/b][/green]

[b]Current Time: ~5:55 AM[/b]
[b]Current Location: P.E Fields[/b]

Stephanie casually waves back at Miss Kanata before getting out of the room before anyone thinks she’s weird.

"A magical...office lady? Can't say I know owt about all this, but something ain't right with an office lady being a magical girl, if you ask me…"

Stephanie thinks back to Magical Girl Drillface. Throughout the entire series there was not one Magical Girl who just had a regular job, let alone one slaving in an office. Was Miss Kanata even a Magical Girl? That’s one question to ask her in that meeting, and a question to posit when Stephanie reconvenes with Abigail and Megan.

She heard gossip about students acting out; Lucy, a girl who’s first impression was “Overgenerous softie”, almost clocked her; and she saw a Familiar in a toilet, which is incredibly disconcerting. She can only assume things will only get worse before they get better. For now however, she’s going to the P.E Fields.
Annoyingly, the actual shortest route to the P.E Fields were blocked by locked doors (Why? Who locks the shortest route to the field?) so Stephanie had to take the longer route there, through the playground and around the back of the building, thank goodness the rain had subsided.

Despite not having the speed of Air on her side there were still optimisations to be made by Stephanie using purely physical matter. Subtly altering the ground so that it would be frictionless when she steps is a novel trick Stephanie is proud of figuring out.

The P.E Fields were “Fields”, plural, for a reason: There wasn’t one field, there were three. One for Football, one for Tennis and Badminton, and another that was likely used for multiple sports that Stephanie could only guess were ones usually played on mostly natural turf, rather than the pure artificial turf of the other two fields. That sense she had in the Classroom briefly comes back, the artificial turf is made of rubber and… a bunch of chemicals that she can’t identify.
She takes her focus away from the composition of the fields to the people actually running in it. The actual start of the school day is near and many students are not keen on being tardy so they’re all rushing back in to the school building, a bit tough when they have to make a lap around the school just to get inside. One exception is a familiar looking girl. Green hat, way too cheery compared to everyone else, dried rainwater seeped into her clothes. This must be that “Alba” girl Abigail briefly mentioned.
She’s carrying a ludicrous amount of sports equipment back to a shed. They really just stuck her with packing up everything? And she’s still doing it with a smile!

Stephanie considers walking back inside. There seems to be nothing suspicious here even after investigating most of the field, she guesses this bint of a Witch prefers indoor environments. She eventually makes it to the last part of the P.E Fields she has yet to search in-detail: The Shed.
It should just be a shed filled with sports equipment, but she realises that throughout her entire time here, she hasn’t seen Alba leave the shed, and there seems to be a ruckus going on in there. Stephanie prepares for the worst, and opens the door.

“Oh come on, mate, what the fuck?! Why does this keep happening?!”

Alba turns towards Stephanie, briefly distracting her from her task. Stephanie wouldn’t care if the task wasn’t pinning down another fucking Familiar.

”Fucking hell, how many of these things are in the school?!”

Alba is pinning down a Familiar similar to the one in the bathroom, but this one is dressed like a Staff Member. It looks like Alba is trying to go for a decisive blow, but the Familiar’s struggling is making it tough on her. It [i]does[/i] look like she could do it herself if Stephanie leaves her be, but it would be a bit rude to see someone struggling with a monstrosity then just shutting the door and leaving.

”I should probably help Alba, pinning down a Familiar like that can’t be eas- Wait, she’s pinning down a Familiar with her bare hands! Either that Familiar is weak, she’s strong, or she’s a Magical Girl! Those aren’t mutually exclusive, but still! There might be another Magical Girl here apart from me, Megan, and Abby!” Stephanie thinks.

>Stephanie now has another Familiar on her hands- well, it’s in Alba’s hands but you get it. At least she isn’t alone this time? And school is starting so soon, she’s really cutting this close! Maybe it would be better to leave?

𐤌Abigail Fulson 𐤌

-Abigail’s Status: Unconscious (Full access to the Crossroads. Can regain consciousness by using “Crossroads Jaunt”)

-Current Time: ~5:55
-Current Location: Staff Room

Abigail agrees with Claire that they’ve gotten all they can from this room, except for one thing she has to do before leaving.

Abigail focuses her mind, then spreads it. It’s a strange sensation, she can feel her own mind touching the thoughts and emotions of all those around her, but she might get used to it. If she wants to.
Most of the tricks she had learned were about manipulating sensations, thoughts, and perceptions. Creating illusions and confusing people. Succour is one of her Magia that is the opposite. It gives a command (though Abigail prefers “Suggestion”) to the surrounding people to filter as many external forces on their mind as possible, and discard them. Destroy illusions, calm the disturbed, deal with reality as it is and not how someone tells you it is or should be. Your mind is your own, no-one else’s.

A sign of her potential in leadership.

The Witch-Kisses fade off of all of the afflicted, and the other students look more… focused. Like they aren’t stewing in their emotions and are focused on what they can actually do. Abigail has given succour to the suffering.

”Ah yes, to help the suffering like a Magical Girl should. I miss doing that.” Claire says in a melancholic tone.

“Aren’t you doing it now? I learned how to do this with your help, if it weren’t for you they wouldn’t be helped.” Abigail states matter-of-factly.

Claire does something that Abigail thinks she’s never seen her do before: blushes and looks away nervously.

“L-let’s go back to the Staff Room, maybe that blonde floozy is gone.” Claire says with a stutter.

Claire flies through the floor before Abigail can respond. Is Claire the kind of person who can’t take a compliment? This opens up a whole new world of teasing for Abigail.

Flying back into in the Staff Room, Abigail and Claire see that no, the “Blonde Floozy” is not gone. In fact, she was the only person to [i]not leave.[/i] She is no longer emitting that unbelievable amount of light however, so they can actually look around the room.
They take a quick look around the computer monitors and don’t see anything suspicious like those rules on the Headmaster’s computer. The sheets of paper don’t contain anything suspicious either, just notes written by many members of staff, mostly about the strange behaviour of the students.
There are two different sources of interest for them however.
One is the literally blindingly beautiful woman herself: Ashleigh Walsh. She’s looking at her phone with a face that’s uncharacteristically serious from what they’ve seen of her. What could have her in such a mood? Usually Abigail and Claire would just think it’s typical girl trouble, but she’s already been plenty strange on account of creating so much light.
The other is a bunch of electrical equipment next to Ashleigh. Abigail recognises some of it as being from the Science Lab’s Cabinet. Was Ashleigh the one who stole the equipment from it? She doesn’t look like the type to do that, but Abigail doesn’t look like the type to trespass into multiple rooms, so who knows.

>Investigating Ashleigh by eavesdropping on her… Abigail’s been doing a lot of eavesdropping today compared to her usual behaviour. There’s also the matter of the equipment. What would anyone need that for? Abigail’s not an electrician, and she doesn’t think Claire is either, but it can’t hurt to try and figure out its purpose. Though... They can't afford to waste time.

oof rip formatting

>>6253261
"Alba, heads-up!"

Stephanie runs into the shed to punt the familiar with a magically-fortified soccer kick, seeing no need to fix what isn't broken.

"Look here, there's no time to explain, but you have to come with me, Alba. Some dangerous shite is happening at the school and we have to stop it!"

>After punting the familiar, use Vivisepulture to make another fault and help Alba push the familiar into it. We can come by to finish it off later.
>Switch to Adoption: Gaseous Air
>Run (or rather powerwalk) like the wind to meet back up with Megan and Abigail (together with Alba)

>>6253264
I probably only have time to investigate one of these before we need to wake up and get to class. These are both tempting, but let's try to see what's got Ashleigh so glum. She seems suspicious, and we can figure out what the electric equipment is otherwise, like by asking others or investigating the Science Lab. Make sure not to take too long, this seems like a really bad time to get sent to IE.