"Eh? I... guess I could do the same thing I did earlier? It shouldn't be too taxing... I think."
Soothe the clothes?
Afterward, Asha attempted to consume her gem with the grief seed.
As it was her first time doing this Magical Girl stuff, she had no clear idea of what to do. Maybe simply making her gem touch the seed would do something?
(...)
After the deed was done and the situation seemed a bit more settled, Asha turned toward Pumsy:
"Once we have left this place you won't disappear again Pumsy, right? I... still have some things I want to ask you."
You hesitate a little before walking over to Mina and putting your hands on your shoulders, focusing on her in a similar fashion to how you healed Tooru and Alida, just focused on her outfit rather than her. Nothing happens, except for Mina giving you a quizzical look. Confused, you try again, this time trying to directly recall the sensation of Alida's soul unfolding in front of you, and it works--
Mina's entire soul is suddenly visible, just as the others were before.She looks different like this, though. First, as expected, there's no real damage, just a few loose strands that are out of place, and the ever-present knots that you can't unravel. More interestingly, though, there's a subtle difference to how she's woven compared to Alida, like a different style of construction; her design seems almost a little frayed, similar to how wounds look, but across everything, everywhere in her form. Come to think of it, Alida and Tooru were also different as well. Alida had a thicker weave, tight and strong, while Tooru had been almost ethereally loose, moreso than either of the others.
You stop examining the girl, and start working, careful to weave her back together
properly, without ruining the careful fraying that seems to be intentional. It barely takes an instant, and you feel almost guilty for not being able to do more than a slight touch-up, but that's all you can do. The knots bug you on some level, they're clearly mistakes, wounds of a different kind, but they're beyond your powers to heal.
You let go of the magic, and Mina returns to normal, looking identical except for being
clean now. You sigh and look down at your gem, somewhat tired; there's now loose spots of shadows crawling across its surface, eating away at the edges of the glowing blue. You pick up the tiara, and are immediately struck by how similar it looks--patches of untarnished silver, surrounded by blackened, dead metal. The piece of jewelery looks downright disgusting, a corrupted
thing, and it's somewhat hard to believe it could actually help you. Still, it's your only option, you just have to trust Pumsy.
You press the tiara against your soul gem,
and a sensation of absolute bliss flows through you"Breakfast is ready-♫" you hear your mother call from below with an uncharacteristically cheerful tone. It's unexpected enough that you just pause for several seconds, not responding; what does that mean? Is it an inadvertent hint that you should actually stay upstairs?
Your curiousity wins out, and you end up descending and heading into the kitchen, where you find Mom cooking at the stovetop, humming cheerily. Even more disconcerting, she's wearing concealing clothes again--whenever she's wearing that scarf inside, it's a tip off that she's pissed, and that you need to find somewhere else to be. Though you've never heard her hum at the same time. Against your instincts, you sit down at the table, wondering where this is going to go.
As soon as you sit down, Mom starts piling bacon and eggs onto a pair of plates, which she carries over to the table and serves, sitting across from you. She gives you that fake smile typically reserved for Dad, and begins eating without saying anything at all. You look down at the plate of food she made for you, and just wonder what the hell happened that she's actually cooking for you.
You ask your mother whether she's okay, worry coloring your voice. Her fake smile tightens, and she lies that she is; in fact, she's better than she's been in a long time. Suddenly, the explanation for her behavior hits you--when you told that cat "everyone", it took that literally! And it still worked! You had been thinking that was just a wishful dream, but, but it actually happened! A smile fills your face as you dig into your breakfast, and Mom relaxes. You temper your excitement, telling yourself that it could be a coincidence... but still, you really really want to get to school and see if your wish worked as you had intended.
[...]
There she is, Renata, talking with her little circle of outcasts, and Emilio. You take a deep breath to steady yourself, and march right up to them, holding yourself high. Just as you had hoped, they smile at you, as if you were their friend. You greet Renata, and she greets you back... but then there's just a long, awkward silence. "Well?" you say to her, staring expectantly, almost holding your breath in anticipation. Then she does it: she apologizes! This girl who's hated you for years, and done everything in her power to hurt you, she actually apologized! Sure, maybe she only apologized because a magic cat god thing forced her to, and not because she's actually sorry--but you can still work with this. You ignore Renata's apology, and turn to Emilio, demanding he follow you, and then you walk away without saying anything more. Just as you desired, he obeys, quickly apologizing to Renata and her friends before running to catch up with you. You turn and smile at him, but are surprised to see
Mom was right, Nico is far nicer to you than Emilio's ever been. He's also more handsome, and when people see you with him you can see the envy, and awe on their faces. Even Renata seemed envious, though that's not really surprising, she's horrible to her boyfriend. And, you suppose, they are all under a magical spell--you'd never have gotten Nico to date you without that. Still, your wish worked, so you can have everything you want now. You can stride through school wearing a magical tiara on your head, declaring the fact that you're Queen now, and nobody, not even the adults, qustions it. You smile at Nico, but he decides to crack an idiotic joke about your expression, ruining your good
You watch eagerly as Emilio's shade walks right up to Renata, who hugs him immediately. She looks sad about something, but your shade pushes her away--comforting her is the exact opposite of the instructions you gave him. He calmly talks to her, explaining matter-of-factly why she's so bad for him, following your script flawlessly. She starts crying, and whispers something that you can't hear, but he just laughs, turns around, and walks away, abandoning her. Renata doesn't pursue, as you expected, instead just crying to herself and slowly starts walking home. You'd almost feel sorry for her, if she hadn't pulled the same trick on you--now, you just enjoy finally getting revenge. She's spent years being horrible to you, it's nice to see her finally take some of her own medicine.
You sense it when Emilio's shade disappears, fading out of reality. You had hoped he would last a little longer. Renata's not going to give up on Emilio, and even though she doesn't know him well enough to see through your out-of-character script, she'll certainly realize something's wrong when she talks to the real Emilio. You feel the weight of your metal net manifest into your hand as you steel yourself. You really wanted the shade to kill her, so that you wouldn't have
...and actually sits down next to you! You feel sorry for doing this to him, but you have the ability to cheer him up! He stays silent at first, but eventually your voice gets through to him, and forces him to start talking about Renata. You quickly comfort him, explaining how her suicide was just her latest way to hurt him, the latest in a long series of torments she'd crafted for him, and he looks at you like you're an alien. You stumble over your words, and he suddenly starts shouting angrily at you, insulting you, accusing you of being the one who destroys relationships, before getting up and storming away. You sit there, not even hurt, just confused. It's been weeks since anyone was able to disagree with anything you said, no matter how absurd. Even the police let your father go just because you asked nicely. Your blood freezes as you realize
You stare down at the tiara in your hands as you walk to school. It's almost entirely blackened now, the central gem only having hints of gold left. You don't actually feel all that much worse than usual, though. If what Pumsy just said is true, doesn't that mean you should be as depressed as Emilio? Your soul is obviously very dark itself. Maybe the cat is wrong, it does seem pretty stupid, and it's been wrong before. Still... it's worth a shot, you're sure you have enough soul to cast a bit more magic. That means that even if Pumsy is wrong, restoring Emilio's soul at least won't make anything worse. You smile, keeping yourself positive; you're everything will work out!
You open your eyes and take a deep breath, stunned by the sudden end to the dreamlike memories. You're laying in the ruined hardware store again, which now seems so much more black and colorless than it had earlier. Everything looks so dull, you
feel dull, empty. The other girls are staring at you, but their expressions all look blank and bored, emotionless. It feels like all life was drained out of the world while you were lost in that blissful dream.
Watch self be healed
After Alida suggests that Asha use her magic to clean your clothes, the ashen-haired girl cautiously approaches you and grabs your shoulders delicately. She pauses, staring at your forehead, but you don't sense any magic. You give her a questioning look, debating whether to suggest that her spell won't work--then a pulse of magic travels through her, and destroys you. You try and shout, or pull yourself away, but you can't speak, or move, even though your senses still function. Your body is
gone, and in its place is a hazy fog of nausea and vertigo, an unpleasant sensation of sickness that you can feel burning through every fiber of your being.
The sensation ends as suddenly as it began, and Asha is already stepping away. You shiver and retreat away from her unconsciously, magically scanning your entire body; everything seems normal again, just as it should be, and the blood
is gone from your clothes, but those few moments were just horribly unpleasant for you. The spell
looked no different from when it was cast on Tooru and Alida, but they hadn't said anything about it feeling so bad. Did Asha screw something up this time? You shiver again, recalling the disgusting sensations.
Your attention snaps back to reality when Asha collapses, and you look up to see her laying against one of the shelves, a lazy smile painted across her face, her eyes emptily staring upward. The tarnished tiara hangs from her soul gem, slowly blackening and withering away into a thin black smoke. Tooru rushes to the fallen girl's side, but seems hesitant to touch her, seemingly worried that interfering will make things worse, but Pumsy--still rubbing against your legs--is just ignoring that process. You watch with the other girls as the tiara gradually disappears into the ether, Asha's soul gem slowly getting brighter during the process, until the tiara is entirely gone. A few seconds pass, and then Asha bolts upright, gasping loudly and blinking rapidly while looking around at your worried faces. Eventually recognition fills her eyes, and she frowns.
Soul Gem: Glowing with a
dull light.
Age: 14
Hair Color: Salt-stained blonde.
Health: Fine!
Inventory: A club.
Shoe status: Like new!
Totem: A fishing club.
Stats:
Bravery: Talented~ Joy: Skilled! Innocence: Amateur...
Purity: Amateur...
Mercy: Skilled! Creativity: Cursed ;-;
Love: Cursed ;-;
Abilities:
Mobility Lvl2
Close Combat Lvl2+1
Totem Manipulation Lvl1
Berzerker Lvl2
Painless Lvl2
Effigy Lvl1Soul Gem: Glowing with a Radiant light.
Age: 13
Hair color: Ashen
Health: She's quite banged up, with a lot of bruises.
Inventory: A ribbon.
Totem: A Ribbon. The one her late sister wore.
Stats:
Bravery: Skilled!
Joy: Cursed ;-;
Innocence: Cursed ;-;
Purity: Amateur...
Mercy: Talented~
Creativity: Amateur...
Love: Skilled!
Abilities:
Mobility: Level 2
Close Combat: Level 2
Totem Manipulation: Level 0 (+1)
Heal and Steel: Level 2 (Active: Mercy++, not that that will ever be rolled.)
Soothe: Level 2
Flagellation: Level 2
Soul Gem: Glowing with a
vibrant light.
Age: 14.
Hair Color: Bright green.
Health: Fine!
Inventory: No more halberd.
Totem: A halberd.
Stats:
Bravery: Amateur...
Joy: Skilled! Innocence: Amateur...
Purity: Skilled! Mercy: Cursed ;-;
Creativity: Talented~ Love: Cursed ;-;
Abilities:
Mobility: Level 1
Close-Combat: Level 1 (+1)
Regeneration: Level 2
Sixth Sense: Level 2
Semblance: Level 2
Projection: Level 2Soul Gem: Glowing with a
dull light.
Age: 13
Hair Color: Bright scarlet.
Health: Fine!
Inventory: No talismans.
Totem: Ofuda talismans, primarily thrown as manabolts.
Stats:
Bravery: Cursed ;-;
Joy: Talented~ Innocence: Skilled! Purity: Amateur...
Mercy: Cursed ;-;
Creativity: Amateur...
Love: Skilled! Abilities:
Mobility II
Mana Bolt II (+I)
Regeneration I
Gourmand I
Outburst II
Duet with Reality II 
Author
Topic: Pumsy's Seeds - A ~MAGICAL GIRL~ game inspired by PMMM (Read 149544 times)