1418/NODE: City of Cycles - Reloading

NODE: City of Cycles - Reloading
Date of Scene:	25 January 2015
Location:	The Homeworld
Synopsis:	Short on time, Users split to meet the second of three Puella Magi in Homura's Node, while the other half go to rouse a powerful Witch out of its slumber.
Thanks to:	Abstractum for GMing, obviously!
Cast of Characters:	2, 40, Vruasa Telash, Fiora O'Brien, 183, 253, 347, 439, 570
Tinyplot:	When They Return

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Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Entering the Witch Barrier Gate is simple and easy. One needs to be connected to Homura, of course, that's the means by which she can limit intrusion into her Node. A held hand or a hand on the shoulder works perfectly for the group to pass through with ease.

    Within, things are a bit of a different matter. The space is a strange one; it's Mitakihara, upside down. The stalagtite-like building structures above tick ominously, like giant clocks, while below, a sky full of stars shines. The Node Path, the structure which traditionally goes between a Node Gate and the Node itself, is a unique one this time. It's a massive arrow, held up by a titanic drawn-back bow. The huge wooden shaft of the arrow is ornate, with different designed viewed from each angle. It's thankfully wide enough that walking alongside it is easy, though. And it's high up enough that it runs close to some train tracks on the inverted Mitakihara above. That's where Mr. Speaks was, before. He's not here now.

    Exiting from the "barrier" that makes up the Node Path leads out to... A very normal-looking city. It's wide, expanding out great distances and expanding to the horizon, but it's still a rather normal-looking city. In fact, it looks a fair bit Mitakihara-ish. And not even in the horrible secretly-a-witch-barrier way, it seems pretty genuine.

    However, Homura and others who are capable of directly detecting the sort of things so associated with this sort of environment will know that there's a lot going on under the surface. The magical atmosphere is polluted in precisely the same ways that a town beset by combinations of witches and demons. However, it seems... Stale, as if isolated for a very long time, and condensed, as if built up in that same space for a similarly long time.

    The exit is in the center of town, high up on skyscraper where a radio broadcast tower rests. It gives a good view, and for those like magical girls, it makes for a good starting place to get moving in the city. It is NOON of JULY 12TH, according to all timekeeping mechanisms.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    On Psyber's last incursion into the Node, he went on a mostly-at-the-moment irrelevant side quest that sort of dead-ended in the warehouse distinct on account of him not being the following: Magical. A Girl. A Girl of Magic. A Magical Girl.

    Due to the poor success rate of his first split-off from the group, Psyber will opt not to split off a second time and tag along with everyone else. Owing to this, upon coming out of the barrier, he promptly sits down on top of the skyscraper. He has Adjudicator with him, as a sword across his back, and mostly is dressed in his normal outfit.

    And because his eating habits are terrible, he probably also has some sort of food he shouldn't be eating as much of as he is. We'll go with a whole jar of dill pickle halves. Munch munch.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    As usual, Homura will be here waiting for those she called for help to show up. People have been briefed and given copies of her notes, explaining that the Node is undergoing a very short timeloop, that it was up to 40 iterations last time they were in, that it's probably caused by someone, that there's three active Puella Magi in the city, a variety of monsters, and a particularly big Witch hiding on the outskirts of town. When the cycle is about to restart, obsidian spikes will pierce the city(?) and that'll be the signal. Kind of reminds you of how They show up, doesn't it?

    Once inside and atop the radio tower, Homura-- in her Mitakihara school uniform, despite no longer being there, glances down towards the city. "Last time we were here it was on the morning of July 12th. I hope we didn't skip another cluster of cycles. We'd need to find that Incubator to know, unless this is within Vruasa's ability to tell."

    Right. Well. What's on the docket?

    "There's two Puella Magi we didn't meet yet. There's the big Witch Psyber found. There's the weird spatial barrier isolating this city from the rest of everywhere and preventing flight past a point. And we still don't know what's causing the timeloops. Ideas?"

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Kimiko keeps a light hold on the hand in front of her, travelling this way for--is this the second time? It's been awhile, in any case. The sight is still as strange as ever, but that's to be expected of a place that feels like this one does. In particular, as it feels once through--as if there have been Demons here without anything to combat them for far, far too long.

    She's already transformed, because that makes it easier to get around from on top of skyscrapers. She takes a moment to look with mild disapproval on Psyber's idea of lunch before responding to Homura.

    "The Puella Magi don't know about the loop--isn't that right? But I imagine they still have important information."

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Eleanor is always hesitant, just a little bit, when it comes to Witches. And Magi. Not so much on her own terms ,mind you, but the usual... difficulties actually running into a Witch makes for rough goings.

    But the Big Sister is here now, the hand with Utopia flexing a bit as she stands in her Dad-Tech gear, wearing the coat Psyber got her for Christmas. "Hnnnng. This is a very bothersome haze. How long would we have before the cycle returns? Days or hours orrrr?"

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Mizuki was here last time, but that already feels like an eternity ago. It feels as though it's been a similarly long time since she last traipsed through her node, too, and were it that she hadn't arrived here late she might have stuck her head inside before the group departed from the nexus of doors. All in good time, though, she supposes.

    Rather than one of her usual dresses, she's come (visibly) unarmed and clad in the Mitakihara school uniform given to her before the previous venture. She doesn't know how practical or important it might be to try to blend in, but she figures it's worth the meager effort of changing into clothing she would not normally wear, at least. Otherwise she would appear as she normally does, though her expression might be a bit more quiet than it was the last time. Equinox -- her Abstractum -- is in her left hand.

    Almost as soon as they're across the divide, Homura lays things out. She might not have the most relevant opinion here, but. She would nod as Kimiko speaks. "Indeed. Also, they might have some insight on how this witch should be handled. The methods used to deal with them may be different in this world than they were in yours, so in either case I feel it would behoove us to question the locals first."
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Madoka Kaname (439) has posed:
    Madoka was happy to accompany Homura to her node!
    Was being the operant word.
    At first she couldn't be seen. Little more than an intangible presence lingering by the Puella Magi; secretly holding on to her hair ribbon. And then once through the gate, Madoka apparates, quite a distinct frown on the Law of Cycles' face. It feels as though the entire world is suffused in that terrible miasma of despair and Witchery that's too close-to-home familiar.
    "Aaaa. Um... This is your Node, huh, Homura? It's um. Very..."
    Give her a few, she'll find a word for it.
    "Nostalgic?"

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    Floating along (thankfully not taking up actual space around Homura due to being half-ephemeral) with her hand on Homura's shoulder, Fiora seems pretty bored about this whole thing. That is, until they go through the door, and enter the node corridor.

    "Ho-ly shit. Man, I got a bunch of backstage equipment, like, a fucking walk-through closet. Homura gets this swag ass reverse city star arrow pathway of destiny? Well, I guess it goes to show you!" She grins, as they appear in the city, settling down on her abstractum-broom-mobileseat. "That I am very boring. But wait, I've got just the thing to fix it. Hold on, as I!!!" She announces, before clapping her hands. A large pouf of glittey black powder-substance drifts forth from her, swelling into a cloud of POWER!

    And then a gust of wind blows it away. While this is happening, she slips her hand in Psyber's pickle jar, withdrawing one. "Oh wait." Munch munch munch. "That's not what I do." Crunch. "I just fuck around all day and have No powers." She sits there, with a cheshire grin.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    VRUASA TELASH is now, and because he skipped through all the BORING PARTS leading up to now, he looks vaguely bewildered at what's going on. But he does catch up with things fairly quickly and, despite being somewhat lacking in the context to know what Homura is talking about in terms of this timeline's advancement, attempts to discern exactly when they are. Fortunately, he's not alone in his ability to perceive and tinker with time. ULIXES is equipped to his cybernetic eye socket and can probably chime in with some easier results than he can. Their abilities to interact with time are a little different.

    VRUASA is merely a Seer-like KNIGHT, after all. That said, he's still pretty good at figuring out temporal context, so he checks anyway.

    "Hey. Ulixes. Tell the woman what she needs to know if you can, or help me get the answer." He commands his Abstractum while he's making his own attempt. Unfortunately, Vruasa is fairly oblivious as to the rest of this stuff going on. As is often the case, his time here -- now and before now -- is heavily glossed over. The knight will probably remember something important only once it has completely stopped being useful information.

    He glances sidelong at Fiora as she produces a great big voidy burst of glittery shit. It gets blown away, but...

    "God fucking damnit. Why'd you do that? There's going to be nothing all over us for months now." Vruasa gripes, picking at nothing in particular on his person. It's possible that living with Fiora has given him a uniquely bizarre perspective of shit like this.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    It's okay Fiora, your stage equipment is very cool too.
    If you asked Homura more privately she'd say she prefers your Node to dealing with this bullshit again. Sadly the Homeworld probably wouldn't let people trade.

    Back to the present: "They don't know about the looping itself, but they have noticed the anomaly. Kind of hard not to, since it blocks out the stars in the sky during night. The one in red, Takenaka Mio, offered to help us fight, though she was fairly curt about it. I would like to meet the other two, Yamauchi Chiyo and Mizushima Miki, to see if they know more," Homura answers Kimiko, before glancing at her Abstractum at Eleanor's question. "I'm unsure. Claire, was it mentioned how long we have?"

    Then Mizuki's idea gets a nod. "It probably isn't necessary to all go meet them. We could probably split up between "people who want to meet them" and... well, there are plenty of other things we can go do. Since we have our larger guns here, stirring the Witch's nest may prove productive. Otherwise there's the anomaly around town, if we can find its source."

    Madoka gets a sheepish, uncomfortable smile. "Y-Yes. I suppose it is. The Incubator here isn't within the other Incubators' authority. Can you tell if this place is within yours?"

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Dude! These are my pickles! I brought them from home! You're gonna void it up and take all the flavor out or something," Psyber grouses as Fiora steals a dill half from his jar. He moves it into a more protective grip, cradling it in one arm while the other hand still munches on the one he was already eating.

    To Homura, Psyber just gives a shrug, "I'll go with whatever plan the others come out with. My particular skillset isn't particularly condusive to me unlocking the secrets of the world, mostly because I'm hanging out in the utterly wrong genre at the moment. So wherever everyone else wants to go, I'll follow."

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    A nod. "Then I'll volunteer to be a part of the interrogation group, since I'm appropriately equipped for it. Asides, I doubt very much that I'm one of the strongest blades one would wish to commit to a consequential skirmish, and most of my quirks can be accounted for by others present." After a quick glance to Vruasa, "Twofold, in one respect. But I suppose I've made my point as well as I would need to already."

    Kimiko and Psyber would each receive belated nods of acknowledgment, but she wouldn't head off anywhere until groups were formed. Probably best to maintain some level of cohesion since they're in hostile territory.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "I'm not sure. I-I... I don't think it's something encoded into..." Clairvoyant Rush, Homura's ring, seems to stammer a little, unsure of how to approach this.

    "The city cycles in a matter of a mere few days. And yet, each cycle is different. A different length, and different events. There's an inevitability, but it's not the inevitability of an oncoming storm. It's the inevitability of a collapsing building." Hecate is the one who speaks up here, providing no direct answer whatsoever.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    "Oh boy, I toooootally want to go talk to people about shit I'm super ignorant about. Surely my sunny, bright personality will not clash at all with these valuable assets." Fiora drones, before cramming the last bit of pickle in her mouth.

    She whaps Vruasa on the shoulder, before smearing pickle juice and void glitter on his shoulder. "Yeah yeah, but you keep smearing your Time all over my sandwiches, so, you know, you'll just have to learn to deal with it." She replies, obviously messing around with him, before... Hecate speaks up?

    Huh.

    "Well that's... Huh. I suppose that's a bit of an interesting take. Then again, that makes no sense. Unless you're implying the difference between a crisis occuring in different ways, rather than the promise of a crisis." She notes, before shrugging. "Well, that just beats all. Cryptic nonsense from the mysterybroom." She grins, to Homura. "Can you make heads or tails of it? Either way, I vote I'm on Team Bustin'. I had a whole lifetime of jabbering to NPC's already."

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Eleanor's arms cross and she squeezes on Utopia again. "No, I think Hectate's got the point of... something there. If it's not a... regular cycle like you might have back on Mitikihara... Could the Witch be generating the collapses when she feels like it? Like, there's an energy build up and then she's the catalyst?"

Madoka Kaname (439) has posed:
    What's with that smile? Setting her hands on Homura's shoulders for a small squeeze, Madoka seems to ponder the question posited. Furrowing her brow, she seems to think REALLY HARD about it, lips moueing in consternation, before she spreads her palms.
    "Yes and no?"
    That explains so much.

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    "Storms come from far off. Buildings collapse due to stress from within. This place is closed off to external influence. It makes sense." To Kimiko, at least. There's almost surely more to it than that, but she moves topics rather than belabor the cryptic point.

    "We have enough power here to safely split up. I wouldn't mind going with Mizuki to talk to whoever we can find. They can find you or me, too, probably." That last is to Homura.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    "Yeah, I've gotta second Fiora on that. I'm not really that great at talking with people about shit I don't know. I'm barely passable at talking with people about shit I do know, and I'm off-putting even then. God fucking knows mouse bitch had a cascade failure in her life just with incredibly indirect contact with my social skills." Vruasa says, concerning who goes to talk to what. He doesn't mind tagging along for basically anything, but it's real obvious that he's not the FACE of this group. Or really, anywhere close. "I'll just be your muscle, assuming you need it." There are a lot of pre-existing relationships here that he doesn't know fuck all about, and it seems like several of these people know more about the locale than he does.

    A glance is cast towards his shoulder, and then towards Fiora.

    "I've got better places to put lots of Time than sandwiches. What am I going to do, make it go moldy while you're eating it?" Vruasa demands, and it's hard to say how serious he's being. Privately, he files away the idea of putting too much time into somebody's sandwich and making it moldy mid-bite. It's so petty and mean that he can't fail to use it eventually.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Eleanor, you may be more accurate here. It could have something to do with the agency of some element of the cycle. The Witch, or maybe others involved... We're never alone in these ventures. Maybe there's something else trying to change the cycle as well. It could be the incubator, or anyone else who's cognizant of it." That's Utopia speaking up, of course. Never alone, and all that.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    "So we don't know for sure how long we have. Alright," Homura sighs, considering. So everything could go south in a hour, or it could be days. Alright then. Madoka's answer doesn't help. But Fiora touches something too.

    "Alright. Mizuki, Kimiko-- and Eleanor? If you would like, you can try to track down the remaining two Puella Magi to question them. Myself, Psyber, Vruasa and Fiora can go stir the Witch's nest. We might be able to figure out why it's nesting just outside the city and whether or not it's the source of anything. Madoka... if you think you can help without breaking the rules, go either way."

    Then to Vruasa, specifically: "You have the best sensory input in regards to time. If the thing we're about to piss off and fight has even the slightest hint of time powers, do you think you can figure it out? It's also possible, if the Witch isn't the source of the loops, that the person who is will be watching us fight. It'll be a very strong lure."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Ulixes speaks up in response to Vruasa. "Local time is extremely confused. It appears to be a multi-layered timeline. Give me a while. I'm still trying to figure out how to set up an interface for interacting with it." As usual, Ulixes is all business. Very dependable. "I'll tell you what I found out as I go."

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    In answer to Homura, Vruasa raises a mechanical hand to gesture to his eye (Ulixes) and then shrugs broadly. He says, "There's a pretty good chance I'll be able to figure out whatever the fuck is happening, but don't forget that my abilities are tailored more around exploiting than understanding. Ulixes is the real show here in terms of information collecting. In short, should be fine, but just know that I'll be winging it either way." He grins fangily. "My improv is pretty good though, so I don't think there's all that much to worry about. Let's go kick that hornet's nest round like a perfectly aerodynamic gnome."

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber takes another pickle out of the jar he's eating them from and wolfing it down pretty quickly. The jar is held out towards Homura, offering her one before he eventually and finally says, "Sure, I can go crack skulls. It's pretty much the best application of my skillset. Particularly if Jude is awake to magnify that ability."

    "I'm good to go whenever."

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Kimiko gives a nod to Homura, before glancing toward Mizuki and Eleanor. "I'm going to go ahead. Trying to attract some attention. I'll keep in sight."

    She holds up her wrist. "Koishin? You keep an eye out, too. Sensing is... not our strong suit, maybe, but I should at least be able to find 'people like me.'" As she says that, she steps over to the edge of the skyscraper, and drops off. Anyone who happens to look over will see her running down the side, before she leaps away in a sailing arc to another rooftop.

    As she said, she's going to use her knowledge of the habits of Puella Magi, particularly her memories from a previous timeline, to try to make herself noticeable and 'someone who probably needs to be talked to' to any looking on. She's already invading their territory, so to speak, but she's not sure just how territorial this trio is. Additionally, she's on the lookout for actually spotting any of them--though she thinks it more likely that they'll spot her.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Of course." Adjudicator says, red fire flickering along its length briefly. "For any righteous 'cracking of skulls', I will always help when I can."

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Mizuki would nod again, this time turning to address Kimiko and Eleanor. "Okay. At present we don't know the whereabouts of any of the girls, correct? I doubt very much that any warrior could remain concealed for very long in this climate, so assuming neither of you object," Her wings would appear so that there can be no ambiguity as to what she means, "I will give myself a more clear vantage point. I'll leave you both to your devices in the meanwhile, but should you find any evidence of a fight or magical girl, tell me as much via radio and I will be with you presently." Kimiko would get a nod for her part before she would, with a few flaps of her wings, rise into the sky.

    Whilst there, she would be looking for what she'd already indicated: any evidence of a fight, any abnormal atmospheres that might be hiding a witch's barrier, or preferably, anyone who might be a magical girl but is not already committed to some other endeavor. She would keep low to avoid hitting the 'roof' of the Node, not rising very far over the roofs of buildings but still pushing as far as she could to get the best perspective on the city.

    Maybe she should have asked Homura or Kimiko so that she might have a better idea of what all those things would look like, but failing all else, her foresight might help. Maybe. Horribly finicky trait, that is.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    Fiora nods. "Though, ah, I'm pretty sure my normal means of dealing with my problems, which is to say, hating slash disapproving of something so hard it ceases to exist, will not be useful. Then again..." Fiora shrugs. "I suppose we'll see when we get there. The good news is that, between all of us, I'm sure we have enough damage to take things out, and if... Wait. Wait, I'm remembering something."

    Fiora raises a finger. "If Pures are how Them interact within the nodes, maybe this Witch has a pure based on time. Resetting time, or rewinding it. We should try to learn the parameters of the Pure, and what its abilities are. Or, if there are multiple, figure out which antagonists are Pures, and try to get a line on their actions or motives." She notes.

    "I dunno how we're gonna sniff out a pure, though. Hecate... Wait, no... Clairvoyant Rush. You took us into those fragmented memories, interfacing with a Pure in some way. Is there some sort of 'marker' that you can figure out, to give us at least a 'yes/no' on if something is a Pure?"

    She looks down at her broom. "Well, I suppose I could ask you too, but I'm still working on your puzzle. I feel like I... Hrn. Maybe I don't have all the pieces."

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Eleanor smiles at Homura. "If there's something I've become very good at it's relating to scared little girls. I'm in."

    And as Kimiko takes off, Eleanor quickly follows, limber legs keeping up with her Magi friend, hair whipping a bit as she travels.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Gotcha! Don't worry, I've got your back, Kimiko!" Koishin, as ever, is enthusiastically working to be a dependable partner. "I'll help with drawing that attention, too! Shouldn't be too tough." There are, after all, a number of demons throughout the city that are easy even for a non-specialist to detect and attack. At varying sizes and combat abilities, it's simple to take what she can handle, especially when she's got backup from Mizuki and Eleanor. If Kimiko takes enough of a Magical Girl's prey, she'll show her face.

    Mizuki and Eleanor are both long-range fighters, and Kimiko very much a short-range one, meaning the inevitable outcome will be Kimiko tanking a few Demon encounters with Eleanor and Mizuki working at a distance. The demons, of course, are becoming more numerous, as people's despair builds up within the space of the City of Cycles due to nearly 24 hours of being trapped in isolation suddenly. The tall, white-skinned and white-robed male figures with their strange distorted blank eyes and grinning mouthes come in all shapes and sizes, though, and assault with the same methods of melee and distorted projectiles.

    They're more a backdrop, and fodder, however dense they may be becoming. The more relevant question is what Mizuki, Eleanor, and Kimiko will do during this to attract proper attention! Their Abstractums, of course, are all active and quite eager to help.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    It's a shame, really - right now would be a great time for showboating, but Mizuki really isn't feeling it. Still, that composure may yet give birth to some even more obtrusive method of getting attention, so who knows? Mizuki contributes what gunfire she can as Kimiko advances, likely also speeding all of the trio's movements with her magic if she's allowed to. She would keep this up for a while, perhaps even using her sword as a makeshfit boomerang when the crowds of demons become especially dense, but when she's had enough she would retrieve her Abstractum. She would flip his lid open manually if it isn't already.

    "Equinox," Her sword would evaporate, "I am going to conjure a stasis field. Not a functional one, though, and I daresay also one that goes well against my all standard modus operandi. I am going to ask you to contribute all the raw power that you can to this so that we may create the most appalling disturbance in space-time as possible. This is intended primarily as a method of catching attention, but I've also a bit of a vested interest in seeing how this world will respond to my attempts to fracture its isolated continuum." With a small glance in their direction, she would finish by saying, "Prepared? Excellent."

    Then she would begin. A small, monochromatic ball would gather in her hand, which she soon throws into the air above and shortly ahead of Kimiko. Rather than compressing itself it would spread out as far as it is allowed to, hopefully slowing the movements of all the demons within a yard or so. If Equinox had any particular quirks to add to the menagerie of disorientation that this maneuver constitutes, those would likely take effect shortly after.

    Speaking of disorientation, this might also inspire a vague feeling of vertigo in any person within that same yard. So if a magical girl was present there, she would likely notice the oddity.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Clairvoyant Rush makes nervous sounds. "U-ummm... I don't think... I don't think I can do that for Pures, Miss O'Brien, I'm sorry. I just... Um, the memories, I'm actually dealing with t-timelines, from, from broken Nodes, not..." Wow that little ring is anxious. "I'm sorry, I can't help!"

    Hecate makes a smug sort of noise. "Why ask me? You have the two pieces you need. Or rather, two fo your allies each have one piece you need to find the foe. One of you has the required ability, and the other has the required information."

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    A cold thought from Eleanor. These poor people will just reappear soon anyways. If they see us, they won't remember in any case.
    And As Kimiko starts stealing those Demons away from the Magi, Eleanor Lamb sighs, rolls her neck, and starts to channel the Big Sister within her. She hasn't got the Big Suit today, but that doesn't mean she can't let loose. Besides, she's got her sturdy jacket anyways. That will work just fine.
    The Sister smiles and shakes out Utopia. "Let's give these people a show, Utopia. Initiate SHIFT." And as she shoves herself down the Paradigm of morality, she starts picking up loose objects with her TK, and slamming them into Demons. And Demons into Demons. And Demons into walls. In fact, let's just say she's going full Poltergeist here.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    Fiora makes a little frustrated noise. "Well, that's all well and good, but we're not playing Legend of the Godfathers 27: The Curse of the Horse Head, and I can't just rub my party members together like items until the spyglass cracks the hammer and I get the lens which I can use to focus the sunlight on the leather book-clasp to burn off the captain's journal to reveal the code for the submarine so I can move the toxic sludge barrels with its grabby arm." She grumbles.

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Kimiko is rather good at what she does, and the foremost among such things is 'destroying Demons.' The opponents may be rather dim, and are not especially powerful variants of their kind--but she is nevertheless careful, methodical, and efficient. Not that you could really tell from looking at her, unless you were actually well-versed in Puella magic.

    Swords appear in her hands, elongating to fantastic length in the process of slashing through her targets. Spears are launched mid-leap, pierce and are then retracted via trailing chains, to be thrown again. Armored feet kick off the ground strike edge-first into the faces of the enemy. She is everywhere a threat both obvious and difficult.

    If she has any concern, it's that if they show /too/ much strange power, the ones they're looking for will be too cautious to approach. It's necessary, then, that they also show that their primary goal is the eradication of the city's threats.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    "I sure hope the guys distracting all the fucking bees aren't among the people required to do all those things you just said." Vruasa rambles aloud, drawing his CLOCKHAND SPEAR and leaning it up against his shoulder. It can be assumed that he is drifting around following HOMURA, who is their designated CAPTAIN HORNET KICKER. He glances over towards Hecate, and adjusts his spear to nudge at her with the cog-shaped base. "If I know the properties of Fiora's bullshit powers well enough, you're eventually going to be explosively direct. So are you just really goddamned patient, or is it never going to happen?"

Psyber (253) has posed:
    To Homura, Fiora and Vruasa, Psyber says, "Oh, when last we were in here, I went to the Warehouse district place, I think it was. While I was in there, I encountered a whole bunch of familiars that were fleeing from something."

    He draws the sword off his back and then twirls it in his hand a bit, getting a feel for his first time wielding Adjudicator in months, "I couldn't investigate much more because I'm not a Puella Magi, so I can't really track that shit with much specificity. I know that's the general area, though."

    Having eaten the last pick out of his jar, Psyber promptly does something gross: He sets it down on a ledge and then empties a flask into it. Picking it up again, he swishes it around before chugging down the entirety of the pickle-juice-concoction, "Let's get going," He says, summoning his wings so he can fly to the warehouse area.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    Fiora's broom is, as ever, the MVP here.

    Homura sighs, producing her Soul Gem and glancing in the direction Psyber last investigated, since the radio tower gives a good view of the city. "Alright. Psyber says it's over there, so let's follow," she says, while hoping the gold and purple object in her hand confirms the information. "From the sounds of it, something over there is harming its Familiars, so we'll want to keep our eyes open for anything odd that might not be part of the Witch. A hunter, maybe. Another magical girl. Or something else."

    To Fiora: "Or a Pure, yes."

    To Vruasa: "Improvised observation is better than nothing. I'm pretty good at using my powers, but sensing all time-related things is still a bit hard. But if there's someone like me in here, possibly using a Pure, the sooner we pinpoint her the better."

    Right, then. Pink-ish wings of light appear behind the Puella Magi and she starts heading in the appointed direction.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    "Oh, are we putting on wings? Hang on a sec." Vruasa manifests his blue butterfly-looking wings before taking off after Homura and Psyber, leaving behind a stupid trail of sparklies as he goes. This is exactly as out-of-place as you'd expect it to be on such a vulgar, hardassed guy. He asides to Ulixes, "I guess we should be on the lookout for some motherfucker messing with time. Get your radar on, or whatever. Would it help to Shift in this situation? It's kind of a headache, so I'd just as soon not if you don't think it would work much."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Huh, Raw power. I can give that a shot, sure!" Equinox says, seeming a little caught off-guard at Mizuki's decision to go with a raw power approach. It does contribute though, multiplying Mizuki's available power reserves. The effect of exploding stasis propagates through the demons and affects the miasma as a whole; it seems like the Demons and the Miasma themselves are buffers against this, for some reason. Strange! It makes them all quite vulnerable to the stasis, though, and while it doesn't seem to affect the world's timeflow in here, it does seem to affect the Demons! Informative, AND productive!

    Eleanor goes into Blueshift, and harsh blue lines of generic data rush up her arm and over half of her face, cutting the noice of the sea of life inside her down intensely. Demons are tossed around in a way that should draw a lot of attention, as well as covering Kimiko!

    Kimiko is the one who seems to be directly fighting; the "attention grabbing" will therefore all apply to her, and while the effects of her allies are extremely alien to the way Puella Magi tend to work, they're at least traced to something familiar. So what she eventually finds is that she's being passively observed, from a building above, by what appears to be a blonde Puella Magi, clutching a staff cautiously, wearing a magical-girl-styled mage sort of outfit, an odd mixture with western fantasy tropes. She's not approaching, but she is watching, with caution and curiosity.Koishin, looking out for people like that, is the first one to speak up. "Pssst. Kimiko! We've got a shadow." The bracer speaks up quietly.

    By the time this happens, it is EARLY EVENING on JULY 12TH.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Vruasa first gets an answer, of course. "What the Witch can do with me can be surprisingly direct, certainly. However, your mistake is believing that it hasn't already happened." That seems to be all the broom has to say on the flight over.

    The combination of discussion and travel time means that the group with Homura, Psyber, Vruasa, and Fiora manages to make it to the warehouse district also at EARLY EVENING on JULY 12TH. It's surprisingly empty here. More familiars occasionally move through the streets. They're more numerous than the last time Psyber was here. Strange obsidian animalistic creatures, all of them wounded by something, seemingly trying to escape.

    Homura should be able to detect a particular warehouse near the docks here housing a Witch, or at least what used to be the docks. A boat, cut in half by the spatial isolation, has its front half barely sticking out of the water after sinking, pointing dramatically up to the warehouse itself. Using Psyber's mapping, it should be simple to reach it.

    Inside, they can find the traditional passage to the barrier of a Witch, pressed against one corner of the... Rather devastated warehouse interior, which seems to have been cleared out and turned into open space by multiple destructive passings of Familiars. But also somewhat by human hands? There's also an unusual feeling to the air just around the Witch's barrier, but that'll be elaborated on in just a moment.

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Kimiko glances up as Koishin speaks, though it does not distract from her work. Her blade transforms into an executioner's axe to deal with the last of the Demons in her immediate vicinity, conveniently slowed by Mizuki's magic. There are certainly more nearby, but she trusts Eleanor's support in covering her back, for anything presently aggressive that she's missed. They could be here all day, and that would be bad, as time is something their quarry doesn't have.

    The oversized axe disappears in so many silver sparkles, fading as incandescent dust on the wind. She turns to look up toward the observer, then, purposefully and obviously, and gives a formal bow. It's in the Japanese style, rather than the Western style that would fit their dress, but she considers this more appropriate. When done, she'll wait a moment, watching for a response--but unless it's to run off, which she considers unlikely, her next act will be the same: to jump up the architecture and onto a spot on the same building, and there to unsummon her armor, and make her way casually forward.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Oh good. Eleanor smiles as Kimiko makes contact, holding back for now and looking over to Mizuki. "Hold back, dear, we want Kimiko to get in there first. She's the one who feels the most similar."

    Another Demon gets splatted into the side of a bus booth, as Eleanor glance back down at the street. She's taking her Backup Duty very seriously here.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    Fiora doesn't need wussy ass wings. She is a witch. She even has a witch's broom. So, when Vruasa gets his really dumb TROLL TIER wings, she just dons a pointy witch's hat, before grinning. "Well, you know, just to mix in with everyone else." She giggles, floating along with the other group. Apparently, Hecate is pushing shit along! Fiora's just... Actually kind of bothered. SHE CAN'T SOLVE THIS PUZZZLEEEEEEEEE!

    It really bugs her, but she's not actually mad, more... Just really wracking her brain.

    Though, on Vruasa's comment, and Hecate's response, Fiora... Seems a bit worried. "... You mean that time you made me eat that glowing thing? The... sweet candy core whatever?"

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Mizuki would concentrate after laying out her entirely backward stasis field, curiously following the actions of a specific demon for a brief time. They become significantly more sluggish -- quite a good thing since that facet of the spell had been little more than an afterthought. More curious, though, is the look that she might give the receding mist. Could what Fiora posited be true? Is there some other force, possibly the Witch's own, exerting itself on the flow of time here and keeping her magic from properly altering it? She'll have to experiment with this more in the future to get a better impression of specifically what impacts these techniques can have, but for now she's satisfied in knowing that it is still effective, and that she might have found a lead.

    For now, though, she would do as she is told, hovering in the air and keeping a close watch on Kimiko and the new magical girl. Over time she may gradually drift closer to them both, but not before fading into nonexistence so that she would not be so easily discovered. In her idleness, she might contemplate how to present herself when she -is- allowed to appear. Would she be able to make a convincing magical girl herself, if she tried to pass herself off as one? Perhaps, but if she failed she would likely only harm the girl's perception of their group, so that might not be the best idea. She'll have to confer with Kimiko once she's made her introductions.

    Oh, and to Equinox? "Very nice work. I believe we both learned a good deal from that." Her tone is hushed for all the obvious reasons, but it should at least be audible between them.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    "Well, I can't actually fly without them," Homura answers. She hasn't figured out how to benefit from the effects of the wings without having them out. It's magic, but it's also picky, apparently. She'll figure something out eventually. "I envy your ability to just hover without the slightest hint of doing anything for it, really." This is true of both Vruasa and Fiora, although it makes the most sense for Fiora. You know, the whole 'her powers are Nothing' thing. Would be odd if they needed intense visual cues.

    To the best of her ability she leads people in the ravaged district. The presence of so many Familiars is beyond odd; this isn't how they act. Normally they just... hunt people. Toy with prey. Retreat, sometimes. But not in a large quantity like this. It would make sense if they were trying to march on the city or something, sure. But collectively fleeing and being wounded?

    "You're still not going to tell us what you made Fiora eat, are you?" she asides to Hecate, as the subject gets brought up.

    Then they reach the main warehouse. The spatial effect that bisects a boat is eyed, but that can wait. Witch first, weird domes around the city second. Once they spot the entrance of the Barrier, Homura uses her Soul Gem to force it open.

    Not without noticing the damage in the room and unease in the air, though. "None of this is normal. I feel out of my element not knowing exactly what's going on on my own turf."

Psyber (253) has posed:
    As a lazy warmup, Psyber swings Adjudicator at a couple of familiars. Not to initiate combat, but just to get a feel for wielding the blade again after so long on a shelf. The half-angel bisects a couple of the obsidian creatures with a cleaving strike or two.

    "What do you think it is? Leftovers from a fight external to the Barrier before it went inside?" Psyber asks to Homura, one hand in his jacket. Adjudicator is swung back up to rest across and over his shoulder in a casual gesture as he walks.

    "This is about as far as I got in here last time, so from here on out it's uncharted waters," He notes. His wings vanish with a few fluttering feathers to the ground and he grips the sword across his shoulders all the tighter, "This whole place makes me uneasy, but I'm ready to go in when everyone else is."

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    "We could probably get you some holoprojector wings or something." Vruasa remarks to Fiora, despite the fact that she doesn't seem to want them. With regards to Hecate and what she did ages and ages ago now to make Fiora do... -some-thing, he just looks vaguely aggravated. The entire thing was incredibly disconcerting and if it wasn't the nature of Abstractum to assist their users he'd have more seriously considered breaking the broom for this unexplained nonsense. As it is though, he doesn't know enough about the situation to make a concrete decision about it.

    Just that Hecate's smug bristles piss him off.

    "You didn't seem all that /furious/ to me." He says to Hecate, poking at the only hole he can find in the comparison. After a little while he gets bored of having wings, and banishes them back into nonexistence. There's really no need for them, they're just a fun visual effect he can turn on and off. Speaking of which, he responds to Homura, "The zero effort flying is pretty awesome. I think I'd be pretty fuckin' pissed off if we became gods and lost that power with our dreamselves."

    As for the surroundings and the abnormality of it all, Vruasa can only grin fangily and shrug, "Isn't that how it always is? Nothing looks like it goddamned should and somebody's throwing bodies in the works to gum up the gears. Let's just get this over with, it's not going to get less weird if we stand around talking about it."

    Vruasa pauses.

    "It's... /not/ going to get less weird if we stand around talking about it, is it?" He asks Homura, uncertainly.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    There's a bit of cautious retreat from the yellow-clad mage-girl, but she stays where she is as she's approached, and bows in return. She does look mostly Japanese, though there's some mixed heritage there. She keeps her staff held close and ready, just in case of an incident, but seems very willing to be civil. It's not anything out of the ordinary, at least for newbie Puella Magi or those with a low total power.

    "Alright! She looks... Well, at least she looks like she's gonna talk to us. Homura and Himei found out, this one's the one called, uhhhh... Mizushima Miki! Let's go say hi."

    The girl on the rooftop, when approached, asks immediately, and with polite caution, "Are you with the group Takenaka encountered yesterday?"

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    "No. Err, well... if we stand here and don't do anything but talk, in theory, it won't get weirdER. But it'll stay the same. If this Witch is big and confident enough, though, it might just reach out and drag us in anyway-- that's fairly rare, though. Typically only happens to powerless prey. They're sufficiently aware of their Barrier's surrounding to select victims," Homura answers Vruasa, before looking back at the Barrier's entrance. "... but this isn't really how they normally feel. So, I don't actually know. All those things we saw around the warehouse are Familiars-- minions. Mindless. The fact they were injured and fleeing is extremely unusual. I've never seen it in an arbitrary amount of years doing this."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Homura forces open the Barrier, exposing the Labrynth.

    There's enough time to briefly talk before a Familiar abruptly ejects from the barrier, exiting the labrynth. It looks like some kind of massive bear made out of obsidian spikes. Like many familiars, it has an 'artistic' styling to it. It's like stop-motion obsidian spikes moving around to form the shape of the bear. And the first thing it does is charge at... Vruasa?

    And then it slams into an invisible barrier. Trying to get around it, it paces a quick, impatient circle around the Witch Barrier, before beginning to repeatedly slam itself against the invisible wall surrounding the Witch's labrynth entryway, trying to escape.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    And to Psyber, Homura shakes her head. "No idea. For the Familiars to be leaving the safety of the Witch's Barrier, it needs to be a very significant threat, or they need to have grown enough to go hunting on their own. Given the sheer quantity we saw, and the fact they were injured... something is inside that Barrier and hunting them. The Witch herself, someone else, or... I don't know."

    'I don't know,' she says, as a stop-motion obsidian bear suddenly charges out at Vruasa-- and repeatedly slams into an invisible wall? Homura's clothes shift and change, in a flash of purple light, into her magical girl outfit, and she watches as the bear desperately attempts to get to the troll.

    "... did you set that up?" is her first question. Maybe Vruasa deployed a shield? But her second question is: "I don't see or feel a thing. Can you... hit it through it?"

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Kimiko considers this question for a moment, then nods. "If Takenaka-san met one named 'Akemi Homura,' that is so. I am Shinobu Kimiko." Her formal style of speech of is probably going to sound a little strange to someone with the background context with which to understand it, but it's unfortunately not something Kimiko can easily turn off. "I am a friend of Homura, and am here to assist her--as are those with me. We're concerned with the anomaly. As before, we're looking for information in resolving it. Do you mind sharing information?"

    She glances back for a moment, in Eleanor's direction, but doesn't call for her to come forward yet. Better still wait a few moments, since Mizushima is being cautious, as understandable as that is.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    "I don't do barriers." Vruasa replies to Homura, swinging his spear down and jabbing it towards the bear's eyes without further prompting. He doesn't really know whether or not he can pierce through the resistance the bear is experiencing, though the Clockhand Spear is a pretty heinously powerful weapon. About the strongest thing the sylladex will allow normally, his exploitative antics with the Scratch aside. His initial reaction was utter nonresponsiveness, so evidently he didn't really think the bear was about to shred him anyway. His defense is much different than a "barrier" though.

    The knight continues to jab lazily at the bear with his spear, looking away towards his companions as he speaks, "So I guess it's not normal for these weird stop motion animals to encounter resistance once they're trying to bite somebody's face off? I don't really know how this shit works for you, but I'm guessing based on your reaction that this is just as bizarre as it seemed to be from the outside."

    He swings his spear back, returning it to his shoulder and looks to see the results. Vruasa half-expects nothing to have happened. It'd be too convenient if that barrier only applied to the bear.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Shinobu. Hello. I'm Mizushima Miki." Proper japanese stylings there. "I've no objection to sharing information. Please forgive a measure of caution." Miki's keeping her staff up. "We don't know who's done this, so we're going to be on-guard about visitors. What questions do you have?" She's on-guard, but she doesn't look quite so on guard that she would have a horrible reaction to Eleanor and Mizuki coming forward and asking stuff on their own, if they want; she's not noticed them, at the very least.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    With Vruasa on point at the bear situation, Psyber looks over to Homura, "Dunno. Could be a Puella fought their way to the barrier and then went in. Could be that a Puella, well. Was fighting and then became the Witch." Psyber conjectures, one hand in his pocket and the other hand holding his sword.

    He stands next to Vruasa and watches him poke at the bear with his spear, "Man. That thing doesn't like you. It's like a dog at a fence or something." He comments, tilting his head a bit, "Maybe it can sense you're Time-related. Weird, though."

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    Just prior to their arrival, Fiora smiles. With only a moment's concentration, two jet-black butterfly wings appear from her back out of more of that black, smokey glitter, before disappearing just as swifty as they appeared. "I've got it covered. You gave me 'that thing', remember?" She wonders, before looking down at Hecate, and then back at Vruasa. "Well, you two still get along great. I see some things don't change!" She laughs. The points they make go unthought about, as Fiora looks around in the Witch's Barrier, as the Familiar - a postmodernist interpretation of 'Bear' made out of spikes and pain, appears. And slams against an invisible wall? A labyrinth without visual definition? That won't do.

    Cupping her hands together, she brings them to her lips, before softly blowing. The glittering black bits, like coaldust, flow forth from her cupped hands, spreading into the air like a horrible glittery irritant, to coat everyone. Thankfully, they're not that annoying... But they should give a good idea of the surroundings and invisible walls, in a barrier. If any. Otherwise, Fiora just sort of shitted up everyone with sticky void glitter.

    "Well, nothing makes sense and our expectations are totally off base. ... Business as usual, eh?" She grins at Vruasa, Psyber, and Homura.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    And given the all clear, Eleanor shuffles at her outfit, a flash of energy slicking that back into her candy-floss pastel blue dress, and she makes an approach towards the young Magi as well. She's older looking than Kimiko for sure, and smiles as she walks up and... curtsies.
    "Hello, Miss Mizushima. I'm one of Kimiko's associates, Eleanor Lamb. It's very nice to meet you."
    Miss Lamb holds out her hand for a shake at least. Businesslike.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Vruasa's spear crashes against the wall as well. it seems like some sort of magical seal. It's TOUGH! But... Well, the resistance doesn't seem quite so tough that a high-power strike couldn't break it if they tried, a LOT, or perhaps multiple Elites striking all at once. Vruasa didn't break it open, but that's only because he was using skill suited for stabbing a monster rather than stabbing a wall, otherwise the barrier would have suffered major damage. But the Familiar isn't wounded yet. And in fact, it seems strong as any real Familiar! The others must have been as well...

    Fiora coats the walls with void-dust. It settles onto the barrier, showing the spherical seal around the space of the Labrynth entry. It also shows many, many cracks in the barrier, presumably the sites of previous breaches. In fact, the bear seems to be in the process of doing something like that itself. After pounding its obsidian paws against the barrier, something seems to catch, and the void dust shows cracks around it. It begins to try to pull itself through the actively regenerating seal... And as it does, a portion of its head is being torn apart. NOW Vruasa can stab it to death if he wants, while it's mindlessly trying to tear its way out and very vulnerable for it.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    To be honest, Mizuki had been a bit hasty here. If Kimiko or Eleanor had known just how perilously close she had drawn to the pair as they were speaking, they would likely be quite annoyed. Luckily though, no one needs to know about that, and Mizuki is certainly not going to comment on it.

    Regardless of her position before being given proper permission to approach, though, she would dip beneath the girl's point of view. She would quickly fade back into existence, getting into a position where she would appear to have approached naturally from below, and alight beside them. She makes every attempt to make her movements deliberate, visible, and non-threatening.

    And when she arrives, a bow. "Greetings. Likewise, I am with Miss Shinobu. You may call me Mizuki. My surname is irrelevant." Far from a proper Japanese greeting, perhaps, but at least she's able to introduce herself. Her expression remains neutral; unusually so, but likely in a way that would make those around her more comfortable rather than less. Coy smiles tend not to work well on apprehensive individuals, after all.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    So it's an actual barrier. Psyber watches as the bear's head comes through the hole. He'll let Vruasa handle that thing.

    Psyber, on the other hand, says, "I've got the Barrier." At least, he's pretty confident he can handle that thing. He did specifically specialize his Abstractum into overwhelming damage capacity.

    So Adjudicator comes off his shoulder and Psyber grips the sword in both hands. Taking a step forward, Psyber swings the sword like a bat at the barrier, trying to obliterate it so they can move forward.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    Homura takes a step back while Psyber destructively handles the barrier around the Barrier. And, presumably, while Vruasa stabs a bear in the face. She addresses Fiora, while this is happening.

    "I suppose having expectations when coming into a Node is a mistake to start with, yes. Either way, this is unusual. The strength needed to trap a Witch and all of its Familiars like this would need to be very high. If it were as easy as that I wouldn't have needed to loop time myself. Why bother, though? Why would someone need to trap the Witch AND loop time?"

    Then again, the invisible barrier was failing, so maybe that's the answer. It's a temporary band-aid, but not good enough. Screw this puzzle, there aren't enough pieces on the board to even put the borders together yet.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    "I really can't think of somebody better to have around in an invisible fucking labyrinth than you." Vruasa asides to Fiora, as he lifts his spear and attacks the now-vulnerable bear again. This time he's actually trying, with a full-on two-handed set of blows instead of his lazy-ass one-handed stabs from earlier. It's kind of weird that the surroundings are acting this way, but it shouldn't be too much of an issue now that Fiora has exposed the "trick" to them, more-or-less. They've got enough raw physical force here to bulldoze quite a few pocket dimensions, after all.

    With regards to actually dealing with the barrier though, Vruasa defers to Psyber with a nod, "Yeah, you blast that as hard as you can. Looks like it patches itself up, so getting it worn down as much as possible is ideal. We can probably blow through it again later if we need to, but I'd prefer not to have to if we wind up in a hurry for whatever reason."

    The idea of Vruasa not being able to pull enough time out of his ass to delay a time-limited situation significantly may be a joke. It's hard to tell.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    Fiora snaps her fingers, before gesturing around. "A crumbling building. Not a coming storm. It's not the promise of something horrible is happening, it's a systemic and structural instability. It's not something from without coming to ruin things. It's something inherent to the place. Something broken and failing."

    She indicates the breaking barrier. "Maybe this is what Hecate was hinting at."

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Kimiko was aware that Mizuki /could/ show up in their immediate presence, which was enough to compel her to warn against doing so. For that matter, there was the danger of being sensed, regardless. Eleanor, for her part, is obviously not a Puella, but she's not using any kind of cover story to the contrary. These are extraordinary circumstances, and the native girl will just have to accept that there exist extraordinary individuals of various types with an obligation to resolve said circumstances.

    "Mizushima-san." She nods. She was already aware of the name, but having been given it keeps things more polite than they would be otherwise. "I am not sure what you may have already been told. Are you aware of the Witch near the docks? Of the nature and cause of the city's isolation? Of anyone else acting in the city? We did speak to this area's incubator, but Q was... unable to assist."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Utopia does its best to calm down a bit, canceling their Shift back to a reasonable level so Eleanor doesn't have a weird energy web all over her arm when she goes to talk to the cautious girl. She takes the offered hand and shakes, but she makes sure to keep the staff in the offhand. She's civil, but she's still very cautious.

    And then Mizuki's approach. There's another sort of nod. She's a little cautious of what seems to be a very old Puella Magi and a flying Puella Magi, both of which are unusual, but she's still going to answer questions, even if she's very much prepared in case of violence. "The witch at the docks. I knew there's one there. We're not sure how that happened. Normally there's..." She makes a vague gesture. "Normally that doesn't happen." She looks conflicted. "There was a fourth member of our group. But this isn't her fault." She says this very firmly, as if defending, harshly, against a potential vulnerability. "The bubble's only been up for a day or two. We don't know why. Q's hiding from most of us, ran as soon as it went up." Her expression takes a frustrated look for a moment, before she goes back to pure caution. "What did he tell you? He yelled something about cycles before he left. Normally he behaves in the..." She makes another vague gesture. "You know how the Incubators act. Alien and professional."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Vruasa takes out the Familiar. Like the Familiars Psyber took out before, Vruasa can kill this one without many rounds dedicated to its death, though these things are pretty tough... It'll take a solid two or three stabs to the head to take it properly down, at which point it dissipates.

    Meanwhile, Psyber's OVERWHELMING red Resonance surges through Adjudicator. The sword is practically a bunker-buster. When he strikes the glowing blade against the barrier, the ensuing blast tears a massive shockwave through the warehouse, spraying stray debris everywhere, cracking the ground all around the barrier, and blowing out all the windows.

    The barrier cracks all over. One more swipe, with the same effect, and Psyber can break it. The barrier shatters. And then...

    Small obsidian spikes begin to grow, slowly, beneath the entry to the Witch's labrynth.

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Kimiko nods. Yes, she does know how incubators act. "Yes. Some sort of powerful magic is causing time to cycle. That's what Q was referring to." She's not going to try to hide that or anything. After a pause, "Did your fourth member leave the city before this happened?"

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    "I... I have not seen one of the Incubators run from.. anything before. They are usually pretty blaze about dying, to be frank." Eleanor's eyes narrow a bit though at 'there used to be four', and she sighs, slumping her shoulders. Another one lost. She understands the failure rate of 100 percent for most Magi, but... It's still hard to take in.
    "It's never their fault, really. Despair and fear are a very powerful monster to tackle and even the best of us... can't hold out forever."
    Though, some radio chatter is making her... Eleanor's eyes twitch a bit. Let the cycle past?

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    "Miss Mizushima, correct?" Mizuki would keep her arms folded behind herself. Even in that school uniform she somehow manages to look quite official. "I have a few inquiries of my own, if you would be willing to indulge them." She would give a polite pause to give her time to say 'no', but assuming she doesn't, she would continue. "Typically, it seems these demons act in a fairly disorganized and erratic manner. But are there ever times when they seem to act with a certain degree of coherence, or cohesion? I'd like you to fathom whether this could have happened in times of consequence, or alternatively when you might have been near to the witch or another area of particular importance." Mizuki might be a bit /too/ official here, actually, and the situation being what it is her behavior might be eerily reminiscent of an Incubator's. Fancy that.

    Though mercifully, she would break eye contact for a moment, studying the ground with a hand held to her chin. She would maintain this stance until she thinks of another question for her, facing the girl again. She isn't certain, but she might recall that a puella's abilities have a certain thematic relevance. And if they do, any connection this errant friend might have to the narrative would likely be hinted at, at least in part, if she asked about them. So: "This... is more of a personal curiosity, so you may feel free to ignore it, but what are you and the other puella in the area principally capable of? Your abilities, I mean, and weapons. I apologize if that seems a suspicious thing for a new face to ask, but still. I can't help being curious."

    As if her very presence wasn't risky enough, she's already playing with linguistic fire. That's sorta always been her spiel, though.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "If we ever come across something that is so time pressing that you can't hijinks at it, please tell me. I want to take a picture of that thing," Psyber notes to Vruasa after his massive strike against the framework of the barrier. The shockwave from it blows his hair and jacket back and he slides backwards a bit. He plants his feet on the ground again, "Because that is gonna be some shit to behold. Like if a Unicorn fucked a Pegasus, and then that weird hybrid child fucked a sphinx to make a new species of bullshit."

    "Another one coming," Psyber says, feet planted and body swinging another cleaving smash with that sword. When the barrier shatters, Psyber exhales a bit and then says, "Damn. That was a tough barrier."

    He pauses a moment to watch if it's going to be regenerating, "I hope we don't have to break that thing in a hurry ever." He adds, sheathing his sword across his back.

    "Good work, Jude. Let's get moving."

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    There we go. Barrier down. Time to go bug the Witch, and-- spikes? That's what the Incubator said, isn't it? Could it be the protective wall shattering is what begins the process? If it is, they may have just made a huge oopsie.

    "Let's go, I get a feeling we just tripped a timer and we need to defeat this thing as fast as possible." With the Barrier already open, it shouldn't be too hard to just step right through and see what's on the other side.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    Fiora looks around, as the spikes start spreading. "Maybe the barrier wasn't keeping us out." She muses, before following along with Homura, Vruasa, and Psyber. "It was keeping the Witch in. Or something worse. The bears, those familiars, were outside the barrier trying to /break it down/, perhaps. Well, there's no real point to regrets." She offers.

    "We came here to apply boot to hornet's nest. Let's go hose down the hornets and see what we're left with."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    The girl in yellow tilts her head, narrowing her eyes and looking skeptical. "...I can't take your word for it. I'll look into it more. I've never heard of time magic like that." She says. Fair's fair, that's a tough thing to sell someone on. "Our fourth one... We're not sure. She disappeared. She might have been out of town, or..."

    There's a nod to Eleanor. "Neither have I. We know how they act. If they die, another one just comes and..." She shakes her head. "You know." Then Mizuki gets a strange look. "They're monsters. But..." She looks strained. "Have you seen another one? One of them tried talking to me. It was speaking English for some reason, and it was really short." She frowns. "Have you seen one? Are they getting weird? There's more around than usual, even when the city's on edge it doesn't get this bad."

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Kimiko shoots a glance at Mizuki when she asks what amounts to requesting the girl's and her friends' weaknesses, but doesn't comment on it, as the other Puella also ignores it. To the disbelief, she shrugs. She's not going to prove it, and can't, anyway. "We probably don't have long to look into it before something happens. We only know it's been going on because your incubator said so. And... we have seen it happen before. Once."

    On to more important matters. Or at least, matters that sound less like unproductive speculation over things no one can prove. "A Demon that could talk? I've heard Witches speak, though what they say makes no sense. I haven't heard..." Another pause, to digest. "English?" Very odd. "We'll keep a look out for it. Could you understand what it was saying?"

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Mizuki's head tilts faintly to one side, leaning on to an idle hand. "They spoke? Hmm. So some of them -- or all of them -- have some mild grasp on sapience? Well. That's news to me, even if it isn't to any others present." English, though? She gets why that would be strange, but she doesn't think she'll get anywhere by belaboring the point, so she doesn't. She's equally glad to have her other question ignored since, after all, she promised not to be when she posed it. Anyway! She was asked some questions in turn. "Ah? Are they acting weird? I'm afraid I wouldn't know. Historically speaking they have been dispatched far too quickly for me to note any specific nuance of their behavior, so I'm afraid I have no baseline from which to perceive anything as 'strange'." Though, more? That's something she might want to pursue.

    "Though, you say there have been more around lately? Perhaps that is linked with one of them finding it within themselves to speak. I don't suppose you could recall what they might have said? I know it might be difficult considering it was a foreign dialect, but just in case. It might be very, very helpful." Or very, very irrelevant, but brainless mooks tend to mutter a single word or phrase that ends up having some narrative pertinence latter. She'll assume for now that that's the case here as well.

    Incidentally, Mizuki would notice Kimiko's look, and would return with a glance of her own. She would bob her head once, and her eyes would narrow. It's not a hostile narrowing, though -- almost apologetic? Odd coming from her, but it seems she might be regretting her asking that too, somewhat. Moreso because it amounted to nothing beneficial than because it was a vague intrusion of privacy, but the emotions expressed would likely be the same regardless of their origin.

    She looks to the puella again as if she's about to speak, but words fail her. She wants so badly to pose one more question to end on, but alas, nothing comes to her. Perhaps if she hears something interesting on the radio? But otherwise, she might be finished.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Obsidian spikes continue to grow. They're starting to spread through the warehouse now. What's that all about?

    This, unfortunately, is all happening long after Psyber, Homura, Fiora, and likely Vruasa wander on through. The interior of the Labyrinth is a standard one, inasmuch as any Labyrinth can be said to be standard. It appears to be based on a traditional japanese-style suburb, with everything formed out of strange cubes set at disjointed angles to each other, carved out of obsidian stone and painted hastily. It looks like the labyrinth attempted to craft itself after a videogame, but failed to get it quite right.

    The familiars, strange obsidian animals with misshapen spikes, are all around... And ignoring the group. They seem to be moving. Towards the exit, actually. Speaking of moving, the Witch is moving as well, in the distance. The tall, skeletal entity has too many heads and too long a neck, with her arms reaching low to the ground. Around her, she seems to "bleed" pixels into the air, and occasionally pixelated flesh will resolve into being on part of her and then fail to hold, falling off. Her heart looks like some kind of titanic grief seed wrapped inside an obsidian-black spherical cage. She doesn't need to be sought out. She's approaching the entry to her labyrinth all on her own. Nether she nor the familiars seem to pay the least bit of attention to Homura or her companions, though, this isn't an assault. They're just...

    They're just going to leave, it seems.

    Despite their apathy, the Witch emits her customary psychic wave, burning symbols, briefly, into the mind.

_g _g, g ggg pp _gu, qgge _pp , _qgq
70_ R0f4 406 #0 #0 P "m j0~ _gmg000# j g00000c
0MMM0fQg _p0 *0g & y0f 4! 00000&#q pg g5q0000000
0gpN0f^0Mpp0# p006 pg MM # pNMF 00M006"MN0N0# 00000000f
0FQ~0f ~~#0 0F # g0N MM L # g# Q _0N,_, 00 "~~^ #00^ ~00f
0@#N0f g0A Q0 #,"My 0p jF 0 B&~M^T#8 0@ ~0S yM00&
0_0#,#0f _#006 40, ^Mgp0 ## #0gg000 06 0pg0`+, _M^ 00 "0__#M N6
Moemura (talk) ~~ ~""~~ ~~ "~ ~^ Moemura (talk) ~~ ~~ ~~' ~' Moemura (talk) ~

    The titanic Witch and her positively absurd level of power, cultivated by dozens of cycles, attempts to exit the Labyrinth.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Mizuki's initial query about her abilities has gone unanswered by Miki. More, it seems, out of a desire to investigate that odd event, than out of a rudeness. Kimiko gets a nod. "Translation effect." She says. "It asked me if I'd seen its friend. It was a demon though, I know that for sure. I got cubes out of it and everything. Why are you asking?" She frowns. "You didnd't see one yourself? And of course not all of them. All of the rest are acting exactly the same, it only happened the one time."

    Though, it's odd. There were a lot of Demons around before. One even just went by. But they seem to be... Moving somewhere? In the distance, one can see several of them on the move, in different groups on different rooftops, all heading for the docks...?

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    Homura will activate her COMBO FRAME with Psyber.
    Firepower is about to be very useful.

    The massive, multi-headed, skeletal obsidian Witch's form probably says a lot; through obvious and not so obvious symbolism. But they don't really have time to start checking her out. If she gets out, who knows what she'll do to the city. Therefore--

    "Throw everything you have at her. Threat that thing like it's about to end a city you really care about, because that's probably what it's about to do!"

    In Homura's case, this translates to an immediate and very rude volley of rockets (all manually fired, if Vruasa cares to be in stopped time with her to do stuff himself), dozens of RPGs unloading all at once towards the caged heart of the Witch. Then there's her large, black bow appearing; the string of purple-pink light is pulled back, causing a very large arrow of energy to form as well. When it's released along the storm of rockets, it's less an arrow and more a big purple-pink laser of purifying light.

    Why take the chance it'll survive?

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Kimiko looks over the city. She's been looking, since hearing the radio chatter. She turns to face Miki again, half over her shoulder. "The Witch is on the move." She doesn't answer the question pose to her. "Everything seems to be gathering there. The Witch is trying to leave its Barrier, and the Demons are going to meet it. We should go."

    That's all she says before she takes off at full speed, in the direction of the docks. On the way, she's going to try to find a Demon--anything, really, that looks out of place. Out of place among Demons, whatever that means.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "That is... not how a Witch is supposed to present. It's similar, but not quite right," Psyber says, switching his stance. In fact, his entire posture changes in a single, subtle instant. It's nothing drastic, but everything about him is just a bit more tense. His feet are planted more firmly, his body is like a coiled spring. He slowly taps his Abstractum against Homura's to activate the combo frame.

    "Homura. I don't like this. I agree, she can't be let to leave," Psyber says, his grip tightening on his sword. He scowls a bit and then looks over to Fiora, "Fi. Can you void the way out? Just... schism it from existing for a while?" He asks to the Witch of Void, giving her a serious look, "I figure if we force it to tear its way out, we slow it down."

    And then he lunges forward. As he does so, he shifts Jude, folding him down along his arm and then into his gauntlet form. He sprints forward, closing his hand around the gauntlet. When he gets in close to the witch, he takes a lunging Haymaker straight for the center of her mass.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Eleanor, too, starts at the sight of the demons moving, and more so the weak and strangled greeting of the Witch and its attempt to leave its barrer and end the world.
    "Bother."

    And then she's smiling at Miki, and bowing. "Care to join us? This is very important." She smiles, flicks her hands to the sides. Fire in her left hand, and Utopia wreathes itself in fire. And then just as quick as Kimiko, she's off, Thinking Demons on fire as she passes them.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    An ominous statement, to be sure, but unfortunately not one Mizuki can do anything with. Nothing, that is, but let her imagination run wild, which is no more helpful to this expedition than if she had not come at all. Less so, even, because it could end up leading them down the wrong path. So she'll leave that one alone for the time being. Anyway, now's a good time for her to provide fluff so that their departure doesn't seem too sudden. And -that- is something Mizuki can do very well. "Ah, no. We've likely seen just as many as you have. Just, I don't believe any of us ran into one that could speak. You might be unique in that regard... or we might just have been 'unlucky'. Either way..." She would cast her eyes toward the influx of them careening toward the barrier.

    "I believe we should focus our attentions elsewhere for the time being. And, Miki?" Her expression dips ever-so-faintly. "Stay safe, please." Yes, yes -- she's just a part of the simulation, and all that. But Mizuki had been living with a world full of imaginary friends until she came here, so you could say that argument is entirely lost on her. The concern is evident, though, and genuine, perhaps just enough to absolve some of her earlier behavior of its oddity and forwardness. She would take her time in launching herself from the ground, following Kimiko as closely as she can in the air as she makes her way toward where the demons are gathering.

    She, too, would stay on the lookout for anything strange. She might also retrieve Equinox for a a final exchange. "Equinox? I don't suppose -you- might be able to feel a sudden change that would indicate an imminent reset? I doubt it very much since the others have not been able to do so, but I suppose it is worth the question." She's definitely asking because she has a bad feeling about this, yes.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    Under different circumstances, Vruasa would probably object. This is not, after all, a city that he cares all that much about, and his all-out is pretty insane. The thing is though, from what's been said this place resets after a while. Why /should/ he treat it as direly as Homura is right now? Still, there's no sense in taking it altogether /lightly/. He activates his COMBO FRAME with Fiora wordlessly, and steps into STOPPED TIME. They're pretty used to interacting with each other from a temporally strange angles, so he's pretty certain that it will work without issues.

    A second iteration of VRUASA emerges outside of stopped time and kicks up the SBURB MECHANICS that are indicative of a FRAYMOTIF. This is interrupted IMMEDIATELY by a third iteration of Vruasa appearing and holding up a hand to indicate to STOP and shaking his head discouragingly. The two hold a brief conversation in which it is established that this isn't the time to use that, even though it would be totally awesome.

    "Just hold your fucking horses, asshole." The third Vruasa concludes, before disappearing off to his time. The second Vruasa removes a ROCKET STALLION 9000 from his sylladex, which appears to just be a rocket alchemized with one of those horse-head-on-a-stick children's toys, and watches intently.

    WITHIN THE TIME BUBBLE, Vruasa exploits the fact that time isn't progressing to loop himself around many many times and act in concert with Homura's barrage attack. Many different iterations of himself hurl spears of various types, usually trying to match effect and potency approximately with whatever it is that Homura is firing at the time. Explosive for explosive, rocket for ballistic, etc. It's probably quite the impressive barrage, for the relatively few seconds in which it is visibly taking place.

    ... And since that all took place in an effectively nonexistent timeframe, the "realtime" tax of time looping doesn't sock Vruasa in the teeth with a ton of effort. After it's done, there's only two iterations of Vruasa on the battlefield, one holding a ROCKET STALLION 9000 near Fiora and another near Homura.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    "Well hey-hey-heyyy." Fiora murmurs, as the Witch approaches them, and goes so far as to ignore her. "You know, I'm not even mad." She murmurs, quietly, as she slips off of Hecate, to hold the broom in both hands. "I'm /furious/."

    She extends Hecate to tap against Ulixes, activating their COMBO FRAME, before she swells with a DARK, ANGRY POWER. The LASS FURY builds with her. A vindictive, horrible fire. She turns about, and draws forth tin pail of INK. It is... All-color ink. As a great barrier of voidy power comes into existance before her, where the exit was... She dips Hecate's bristles into the pail of paint-like ink, and begins... Using the wall of voidy power as a canvas. TO WHICH SHE WRITES...

    'NOTICE ME, YOU SHIT!' across the wall, and a large arrow pointing down at herself. She dismisses the pail, and the remaining ink on Hecate's bristles with a flick.

    "Hype drivers. Lights and sounds. Nobody should miss me like this." She growls. She looks really fukken peeved.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    The witch's grief seed shines brightly. The strange obsidian cage churns and shifts, and lights up with a strange purple fire... That's a Pure! The Barriers it generates are twisted, warped, distorted magical circles, the Pure having apparently retained some measure of the traditional Puella Magi magic. Rockets and spears burst in mid-air. But many cycles of buildup have left her at a very high level of power, one that is difficult to overcome. The pixelated, misshapen structure of her flesh intersects with the beam, blasting away in a mosaic of pink light. All this is draining her energy, perhaps, but not wounding her, even with the massive boosts Clairvoyant Rush is trying to give, and the incredibly powerful gains Psyber can provide with his own Abstractum, to say nothing of the fact that Vruasa is here and is managing a large-scale Tandem Paradigm. Ulixes is even helping Vruasa coordinate with himself!

    The leap requires a bit of Dash Driver that Psyber's Abstractum has at bare minimum, and maybe a bit of flight to reach the titanic form, but when he punches, something both incredible and awful happens. He blasts his way right through her giant, exposed ribcage, tearing through pixelated blood and flesh that summoned itself in his way. But the Witch retains her focus of apathy. While the burning fist of justice managed to blast a man-sized hole in her and blast past that Pure, it only goes so far before Psyber blasts out the back.

    "Ah, of course, Fiora. But..." Hecate starts, as it begins shining brightly, emitting massive gushes of fire and huge spurts of lightning, and blasting waves of wind all around her. "The ignorance you see is not of someone who does not take you seriously, you see. It is of someone who has other purposes to concern them. Someone who has done something many times, and ignores the little variances. She sees you, Fiora. She sees all of us, in fact. We are the heralds of her release. She is merely responding the only way she knows how."

    The witch continues its apathetic movements. The damage unleashed against it is incredible, but still only the amount that could be summoned up with just this moment's preparation, and this moment's group. There's a palpable exhaustion to her, but she isn't stopped yet.

    She crashes into Fiora's wall, which suddenly seems to be extending far above as the exit shifts to accommodate the massive being. And then... With her huge wounds, she leaves the Labyrinth, alongside her Familiars, surging out into the city in walpurginacht-esque ways, and dispersing the barrier behind her.

    ELSEWHERE, SOMETHING UNUSUAL BEGINS TO HAPPEN.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Miki's eyes go extremely wide as she sees something show up, momentarily. A huge obsidian spike, in the distance. The Demons, unfortunately, in this CURRENT time, are all normal Demons. But Kimiko may yet be able to find that unusual Demon... In another Cycle, of course. Along the way, the Demons that dash alongside her seem to completely ignore her. Mizuki gets only a slight nod from Miki, but she's on the move too, all of a sudden, likely following Eleanor's advice.

    Eleanor burns the many Demons, with the crowd growing more and more dense by the moment, but they don't fire back. Like the Witch inside the barrier, they don't seem to have any interest in combat with the Elites, letting her slaughter them as she sees fit. And once they reach the docks... Something rather unusual happens. The massive form of the Witch rises out of the industrial district, many heads on long necks swarming about, her long arms reaching out desperately, and she makes a loud, mournful moaning sound. The Demons that have gotten there by now are already at work... Fighting her?

    It's an incredibly surreal scene that the group will now get to see. The city's entire population of Demons waging outright war against the titanic Witch. They won't have much time, though. While her Familiars viciously tear down the ranks of the Demons, the Witch herself rears up and begins a horrifying scream, gushing strange, pixelated obsidian matter up into the air, where it's blocked off and sealed by the field above, slowly beginning to fill the inside of the strange space-barrier.

    It is NOON of JULY 12TH
    It is MORNING of JULY 12TH
    It is NOON of JULY 11TH.

    "It's happening now. I'm feeeeeeling kinda sick, Mizuki! Timelines just started- woah! Okay, timelines are being messed with. It's not... Reversing them, though? I think it's doing something else! It's just changing what time it /is/ right now!" That is, of course, Mizuki's Abstractum answering her query. Equinox sounds a little green around the gears here.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    For an instant it looks like superior firepower-- begrudged or not-- will safe the day. For instance Homura feels like she did the first time she assembled her full armory and thought, big Witch, no problem, I've got this. I've got this and nothing can stop me.

    The wounds aren't enough.
    The Witch continues hulking forward, and eventually leaves her Barrier-- it goes without saying the Puella Magi is immediatly on the thing's tail despite the extremely obvious fact if the four of them couldn't thoroughly destroy it she would not be able to do so alone.

    She watches the Demons fight the Witch.
    She kind of slumps down when everything rewinds, sighing. That doesn't make any sense. Also it's disorienting as shit and she's kind of exhausted from the stopped time weapon unloading.

    Eventually it ends, and she gets back up to rub her face and flip her hair out of it. So they only went back halfway? Damaging the Witch is a bad idea, then. All or nothing. Incredible. Amazing. She'd love to flip a table right now, but does not have one on hand.

    Note to self: stuff tables into hammerspace.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber watches as they seem to have the upper hand for a moment, but then the Witch carries on. And the world is forced into a reset state. The half-angel would punch a wall, but Judge would probably use Anti-Strike Drivers to make that do nothing and lend a level of impotence to his rage. Still, he's frustrated at the loss.

    But trumping his own internal anger is Homura. The half-angel sets aside his own emotions and walks over to her. Awkwardly, he extends a hand out and puts it down on Homura's shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze. He knows this has to be an immensely hard moment for the girl.

    He doesn't have anything to really say to her, so he just pats that shoulder.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Mizuki would continue to watch the horizon until the uniquely stylized bits of darkness cascading over the head of the witch would cease to fall. Despite any feelings of sickness or vertigo, she would not budge an inch, remaining stationary even as the world around her 'reloads'. Judging by her distinctly pale pallor, though, she was hit by this whole affair just as hard -- if not harder -- than Equinox. She's just too preoccupied with other thoughts, and... well, you know the saying. 'Mind over matter', and all that.

    So she just sighs. A long, deep sigh, though, granted. And when everything settles on the horizon, renewed and clear, Mizuki would experience the most fleeting but profound sensation of deja vu.

    'All or nothing,' would echo a voice. 'I promise to never stop trying,' would echo another. A hand would meander to her forehead, and she would briefly hold it there.

    There's always next time, isn't there? There's some echo of familiarity, there. An eternity of next times. Only, she can't recall from where right now.

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Kimiko sees what's happening, and she stops, staring upward. She begins to understand, and when she does, she turns around. 180 degrees, precisely back the way she came, and even faster than before. Her feet leave hard impacts in each building she steps against, launching herself forward--

    "Koishin... I don't know how hard this is going to be. I'm going to need... everything you can give me. And I don't know if this /can/ work. This might not be something you can block with a shield. But it's something that can be defended against. I'm sure of that."

    As quickly as she started, she stops. She didn't have to go far at all, because her target had been heading the same way. "Mizushima!" Whatever that is above, it's advancing too quickly for pleasantries. Kimiko practically tackles the other magical girl, locking on tight, expecting at least a moment of panicked struggle and trying to prevent that from interfering with her plan. Armor layers over /both/ girls, and builds up around them--quickly enough to save either from the rewriting effect? Does it even matter? "/Koishin!/" The armor just keeps building, forming into a dense fortress hiding both figures from view if the Witch's magic doesn't destroy it faster than she and her Abstractum can work.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Eleanor's stupor from the efforts of time rewriting are broken as Kimiko explodes into action, the older girl blinking away the mental fog to realize what's about to happen.
    Kimiko is the Armor Magi, after all. But she is the Lamb of God, the bearer of Utopia. And that she can provide. Elle takes long loping steps over to Kimiko, and screams out as she starts building that armored wall. "SHINOBU. THINK REALLY HARD ABOUT KEEPING HER THE SAME."
    Elle snaps Utopia awake and pushes herself back into Shift. "Uncle, help me keep this spot... the same. Can you make this a Utopia? Preserve the morals, something, use anything but help Kimiko and Koishin." She stands up next to the growing armored shell, and stands in a defiant gesture, thinking hard of Absolute Morality.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Wha--!" The girl in yellow is TACKLED! She struggles in her caution, but her staff was knocked out of her hands, preventing real injury.

    It is MORNING of JULY 11TH.
    It is EVENING of JULY 10TH.
    It is AFTERNOON of JULY 10TH.

    The rewriting effect comes down on the armor. Few things can survive the reset, and while Kimiko's armor is auric, that doesn't stop the strange pixel influence from slowly filtering in, through gaps in the magic like gaps in armor. One pixel drifts low and falls onto Miki's cheek, tracing a gentle line of nonexistance down it, and she panics. Eleanor's Abstractum works as hard as it can. "I've got the spare power, but no conduit for that. People must take their own action for a utopia to be built. TANDEM PARADIGM!" It's setting up a hard-line connection to Koishin and just blasting as much power as possible, while it Shifts anew and works to blast all it can into the other Abstractum.

    Koishin is giving this all it's got, but there's only so much it can give! "I'm trying! The barriers aren't... Ghhhh... They're not designed to hold up to something like this! Push more! We have to PUSH MORE! RrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRGH!!" And, abruptly, Kimiko's concept -- defense of allies, especially the Puella Magi -- resonates innately with this gesture, giving her the opportunity to push deeper. Not just into magic, but into her willpower. If she reaches, DEEP down into herself, and if she puts her full will into it...

    "REDSHIFT ABSTRACTION!"

    The bracer shines a bright red, thick lines styled after armor engravings rush up her arm on the inside and outside of her armor, all the way up one cheek and to her eye. Her barriers turn from red spellcircles to solid red circular patterns and project an elaborately designed dome over Miki.

    Outside, the pixels... Don't harm any of the party here. They aren't included in the "save state", so to speak; none of them need to be forcibly disassembled and then reassembled to adhere to the data kept by the Reset Witch. So as the pixels become progressively more dense, and matter all around them seems to dissolve and turn to nothingness, it's not as though they'll be harmed. The air will get a little thin, though, while oxygen is restructured briefly.

    Conveniently, it seems, the Operators established a protocol for this. All the individuals present here will find themselves right back up on top of that skyscraper, with the radio antenna still soaring high. The city is... Back to normal! Though it looks a little unsteady. It seems the wounding of the witch left her just a little instability in the restored savestate. But did Kimiko and Eleanor manage to save Miki? It's... Possible. They got to see the ground dissolve under her, but she didn't.

    Far, far away, on another rooftop, Miki is gasping for breath as she wakes up. Even farther away, though, is another Miki. Things may have just gotten a little bit complicated.