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>>34684207
My feet rest completely on the ground. With some difficulty, I can find the strength to walk through this dream world. It feels more like I'm trying to swim on land instead of walk.
The girl is looking at her shoes, her thick black bangs cover her face. I can't get a good look at her face from this angle.
She twists the point of her sword, grinding and twisting at the gravel we're standing on.

I try to get a look at her face, but every time I try, it seems shadowed in. I try getting her attention, but she doesn't respond to anything that I do.

She folds and kneads the card in her other hand.

>Try looking at her face again
>Look at what card she's holding
>Look at the sword she's using
>Watch the stairwell and see if anyone comes by
>Other?

>>34684445
>>Other?
Hug her. It should cheer her up.

>>34684445
>Look at what card she's holding

>>34684445
>Look at what card she's holding

>>34684445
>Hugging seems to help everyone here

>Look at what card she's holding

>Hug
>Look at what card she's holding

Sounds good!
Also welcome back everyone, sorry about the prolonged absence, I'll try to run tomorrow to make up for it.
>writing

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I know exactly what she needs.
My legs slowly trudge through the impossibly dense air until I'm right behind her. I can see her head slowly cock upwards as I do so. Can she feel that I'm doing this?
My arms wrap around her neck, I can feel her hand slowly press against my arm. Looking over her shoulder, I'm able to get a peek at which card she holds in hand.
The other cards I've seen have no writing on them, but this looks like no other card that I've ever seen before. On the face is the outline of a small girl, and under her, in exquisite handwriting are three words.
"The High Priestess."
Hmm? That's a peculiar name for a card.

Someone's coming, I look up toward the stairwell just in time to see a man walk up the stairwell. It's the same guy that I saw bothering her in the previous dreams. The one that I assumed to be her father.

She steps backwards, throwing me off of the hug and onto the hard gravel beneath me. I can hear her sword leave the gravel with a scraping noise as she raises it to the ready.

The man stops, I didn't really get to see what he was wearing before, but it's all clear to me now. This is no ordinary man, he could be easily mistaken for an ogre. Maybe it's just the dream, but he looks to be twice the girl's height, and many times thicker. He wears a simple pair of dress slacks and an ill fitting business shirt. His muscles are barely constrained by the dainty cloth fabric as they ripple all along the silken exterior.
Around his back, clearly covering up an equal set of massive arms, is an overcoat.

And that doesn't look suspicious at all, nope.

He reaches a hand out toward the girl, she slices at it with the sword. They stand and start talking, but their words are all garbled and incomprehensible.

(1/2)

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>>34684924
The man, clearly not impressed with this display, starts yelling at her. She steps backwards but, then she..
Trips over me? I didn't think that I was a physical entity in this dream world.
She scrambles to her feet, brandishing her sword. The man trudges up to her, and she makes a swing.
Which uselessly bounces off his hand, she makes another swing, and then another. Each swing doing nothing but tearing the fabric of his coat more and more.

There's a clatter as she backs into the chain-linked fence surrounding the roof of the parking garage. I jump up and rush over to the man, but I don't seem to have any of my cards on me. He pushes me away with no effort at all.
I climb back to my feet, and start yelling at the man. I'm not sure what I'm yelling, just that it's loud and very authoritive.

I'm just in time to notice that the girl has turned her own sword on herself. The man takes pause at this, standing several steps away from her.

Immediately he reaches out, and grabs the blade of the sword. It shatters into grains of silvery dust that float away with the wind. With his other hand, he wrenches the card from her hand and throws her to the ground.
He examines the face of the card, before turning to walk away. The girl looks in his direction, which reveals her face to me. One of the most caring, soft, and terrified faces that I had ever seen. Her lower lip trembles in despair, and her hands uselessly grips at the gravel.

She yells something at him, but he doesn't listen. He continues his slow walk across the rooftop back toward the stairwell.

So why am I slowly being pulled along with him? I can feel some kind of phantom force dragging me along the gravel. Each rock and jagged edge pokes and digs into my arms and legs as I scramble to get away from him.
He takes the card and tucks it into his pocket. And as if a light was turned off, the once beautiful blue sky blinks into nothing but darkness.

(2/3)

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>>34685477
That's when my face meets the soft carpet surrounding my bed. The resounding 'thump' through my skull jostles me awake.

I slowly turn over, still entangled by my blanket.
Something heavy and soft falls onto my head, it's my pillow.
With a groan, I sit up and look around. I'm back in my room, and it's still dark outside.

But I don't feel the least bit sleepy right now at all. Looking at the clock, it's 1AM.
After I got home earlier, I checked on Mom and made sure she had recovered. She woke up for dinner and a shower before she went back to bed.

>Go back to sleep.
>Go for a walk.
>Get something to eat?
>GO GET MOMMY.
>Other?

>>34685622
>Go back to sleep.

>>34685622
>Go check on Mom.

No need to panic just yet. It was just a dream Masami

>>34685622
>>Go for a walk.
Clear our head for a bit then back to bed.

>>34685622
>Go for a walk.
There's no need to panic and walks are good if you can't go back to sleep.

>>34685622
>Check on mom
and then
>Go for a walk maybe have snack while we are at it.

>>34685622
>Go for a walk
Bugging mom might give us answers but it's likely going to be rough on her. At least out and about we can try clearing our head on our own -- plus it gives us enough privacy to experiment with any cards we haven't tried yet.

>>34685693
>>34685745
>>34685750
>>34685795
If we're going for a walk, can we at least agree not to go outside of our property? If I remember correctly, our property is pretty big.

>>34685795
I see "Check on mom" more as "Go take a peek into her bedroom to assure ourselves she is alright".

>>34685818
I would consider that obvious. We have a pretty nice backyard.

Okay!

>Go check on mom quietly
>Go for a walk

I'll let you decide if you want to leave your property or not.

>>34685818
Yeah, that's a good idea.

>>34685845
I'm for not leaving the property.

>>34685845
The backyard is good enough.

>>34685845
Staying sounds like a good idea.

Sounds good, writing

>>34685862
>>34685895
I'll throw my vote in with this. Should be plenty big for magical BS, but I won't be opposed to randomly walking the streets if we need it.

I wonder about that dream. I think the common assumption is (was?) that the girl is mom younger. And the Card seems like a obvious reference to Masami, maybe even what we were made from.
But, since mom was in charge of "making" us, I'm not sure how that works together with the dream, unless we somehow are influenced by her fears.

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I stand upward, grasping my arms and hands together. I can feel myself shaking.
"Just a dream", got to keep telling myself that, "It didn't really happen."
Right?
I think I need to take a short walk.

I stand up and put on some casual clothes. Some underwear, a pair of shorts, and a light gym shirt should be just fine. I don't want to wear my uniform all the time. I grab my cell phone and card deck just in case.

Stepping out into the hallway, I gently shut the door behind me. That's when a terrible thought occurs:
what if that girl that was jumping from window to window came back? I'm not sure Mom locks her window at night, and I only started doing it because I saw that girl jumping form Aiko's window.

I need to check on her.

Gently tiptoeing down the hallway, I reach Mom's door and slowly open it. Just to be greeted with the sight of Mom laying in bed. The blankets and sheets are such a mess that you're certain that she's been tossing and turning all night.
She grips one of her pillows in her arms, as if she's hugging it tightly.

>See if she's awake
>Wake her up
>Close the door
>Say something else?
>Time for your walk!
>other?

>>34686185
> The blankets and sheets are such a mess that you're certain that she's been tossing and turning all night.
>you're
Damn it, I did it again!

>>34686185
>Time for your walk!

>>34686215
But thats correct.

>>34686185
>Close the door
>Time for your walk!

>>34686215
Did what? I'm pretty sure that's correct.

>>34686185
>>Time for your walk!
Lets calm us down before calming her down.
>>34686215
But that is the proper use of you're

>>34686282
>>34686265
>>34686250
No no, I mean I swapped from first to third person

Also

>Close the door
>Time for walk!

Writing!

>>34686304
Haha I didn't even notice. Sorry.

>>34686003
that the card was the High Priestess points to the girl in our dreams being teenage Izumi. What that means, of course, I've got no clue.

>>34686003
My theory would be, the card is actually Masami, possibly a card Izumi had drafted back then or used at least.
The scene I assume, is either Izumis father, unlikely, who takes away the card so Izumi stops fighting.
Or the man is the CEO, and him taking the card is the reason Izumi started working for him eventuelly.

I'm pretty sure we could solve a lot of this if we could ask our friends parents to what happened back then.

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>>34686499
>I'm pretty sure we could solve a lot of this if we could ask our friends parents to what happened back then.

This so much. We know they're in on it in some form or another, and whether they like it or not all the kids seem to be involved. The least we could do is get everyone on the same page.

Too many wars have been fought over miscommunication

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I gently close the door and head back into the living room. After I make sure the front door is secure and locked, I step out into the garden.

Even at night, the garden is a beautiful place. I can hear the sound of crickets and frogs chirping. Occasionally I can see a moth fly overhead against the bright shine of the moon.
I should have come out here long before now.

I walk past an intricate water garden. The moon shines brilliantly off the rippling water. The smell of fresh blossoming flowers fills the air. The sillouette of a human presses itself against the glow of the moon against the waves in the water-

Wait, what was that last one?

I look up, just in time to see a blur dart over our properly and land somewhere in the garden. With a second bound, it takes off and heads in the direction of the school.

>Quick! After it!
>No, no, I'm going back to bed.
>It's too late for this, I'm not letting it interrupt my walk
>Other?

>>34687094
>Only follow it until the end of our property, if it leaves -
>It's too late for this, I'm not letting it interrupt my walk

>>34687094
> Quick! After it!
The hunt is on

>>34687094
Let's go with >>34687183

>>34687094

>Quick! After it!

She can't run away forever. Especially if she's not aware she's running away from something.

>>34687094
>>It's too late for this, I'm not letting it interrupt my walk.
Have a seat near the relaxing water feature.

>It's too late for this, make sure it leaves my property and keep walking

Seems to be the winner. Writing!

Sorry for the delay earlier, too

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>>34687200
>>34687245
By the look of things, she went one jump and was gone. We aren't in a position to chase, and even if we were she's proven much faster than we can manage with our current deck composition.

If we want to catch her, we'll need a trap or ambush of some kind. We can leave that for later though.

>It's too late for this shit
I still think this would be the perfect place to try and practice with the 2 (or 1, not sure how many are left) mystery cards - and the little witch girl outfit has to be have more of a use than just hovering, I hope!

>>34687424
I agree with that, its a good opportunity.

>>34687424
>>34687448
Okay, I'll add this in

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I dash off in its general direction, but it's already taken off from my property. It makes a bound on the neighbors yard before disappearing out of sight.
I hope that girl doesn't make a habit of doing that, I'm afraid enough of her as it is.

Sighing, I walk back to the water garden. I wish I had something that could at least keep UP with her. I need to maybe consider drafting a card that can do that?

Wait, didn't I have some cards that did that?

I take out a couple of the cards that I'm not all that great with. I'm pretty much set when it comes to Haruko, Julie, and Bellevedere.

So that just leaves two cards left. Cirrus and that card I got from the monster that attacked my friends at Fortune.

I'll try Cirrus again, surely it has to do something besides float in place.

>Roll 1d20, best of three

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>34688097
#yoloswag

Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>34688097

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>34688097
Here we go!

>>34688113
>>34688124
>>34688130
Dayum

>>34688113
>>34688124
>>34688130
Holy shit. A crit success.

>>34688113
>>34688124
>>34688130
I love you guys. seriously.

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>>34688130
>>34688124
>>34688113
Wow
>writing!

>>34688155
Ain't no thang.

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>>34688113
>>34688124
>>34688130

as a reminder, flight is an awesome power, as long as we have precision (so we can turn on a dime instead of slamming into trees) and endurance (no use flying if we get exhausted after 10 seconds!)

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>>34688113
>>34688124
>>34688130

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I take the Cirrus card and slip it on. The miniskirt actually feels very nice in this humid night. Everything else about it just feels like the perfect summer outfit.

No, no. What am I saying? The skirt is still WAY too short! I wonder if there's a way to lengthen it? Or maybe get a pair of spats instead?

Grumbling, I start fussing with the dress some before hovering. Again, I feel that feeling of tugging at my shoes to fly. Not very fast, or efficient. Letting myself land, I sigh.

"I'm just not getting it."

At the very least, being able to float has made me feel very light. I have this kind of spring in my step as I walk across the garden. It feels almost as if every step is on top of a cloud!
I start skipping across the garden, gradually getting higher with each skip.
Skip
Skip
Skip
"Huh?"

That's when I realize something, each time I skip, I'm easily clearing the height of the house.
I stop, landing gently back in the garden. My footsteps aren't even carrying any weight on the neatly kept sand.

Let me try something.

(1/2)

>>34688921
ooooooh, Float card AND Jump card? Maybe this card isn't useless after all.

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>34689031

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>34689031

Rolled 11 (1d20)

>>34689031

Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>34689031

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>>34688921
From a standing position, I bend my legs, look toward the moon, and leap.

My eyes keep focused on the moon. I don't dare look down just yet.
The wind blows over my face, pushing and pulling at the silly hat that comes with this outfit.

Finally, when I can feel myself at the peak of my jump, I look downward.
And then realize that I cannot see a single thing except for some dots and lights.

I float in the air for a minute, admiring the view. From here, I can see Fortune HQ. Many of the lights and floors of the building appear to be lit up. Judging by the height of the building, I would say that I'm almost as high as twice the building.
Wow.

Slowly, I start to gradually descend toward the Earth. A few minutes of descent toward the inky black landmass pass before my feet touch the solid ground of my backyard.

Only one thing comes to my mind,
"If this card is for jumping, then it makes even LESS sense for it to have a miniskirt!"

I experiment with this for what feels like an hour. With this card, I can jump really high, really fast, and even jump multiple times in mid-air! I'm not sure how that works, but it certainly would have been useful to know before now.
I could even use this to chase that girl. I'd love to see the look on her face next time when she realizes that I can keep up with her!

Of course, next time I do this in broad daylight I'll be wearing shorts until I find a way to fix this skirt.

I let it slip off of me and examine the other card that I'm yet to try out. This is a weird one. It has some strange shapes on the front of it instead of a picture or diagram of something. What could it do?

>Roll 1d20

Rolled 10 (1d20)

>>34689075
Another roll ?

>>34689075
Also sorry, half the post got cut off, the winning roll was a 19

>writing

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>>34688921
>>34689031
alright, now we know how to use this. Jump, float, and weightlessness is all well and good. we can use that. (I don't understand the short skirt either Masami, if that's any consolation)

>>34689053
That'll do, I guess.

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I slowly slip into this new card, in case it tries to bite or something.

I look down and examine the dress that it gave me. This time it's a blue dress with red trim and a red tassel. On top of my head, is an elegantly folded blue hat. It seems like a fairly standard card, except.
I don't really feel anything from it.

Which is very strange. It gives me a very nice looking dress, and it does feel very warm like the other cards. Yet, there doesn't seem to be anything special about it. I try jumping a few times, punching and kicking the ground, trying to see if I can feel a weapon of any kind.

But I don't, so I guess the power of this card is the dress? At least it's a very nice dress. Definitely feels like something that Aiko would want to fond over.

I look up at the moon, it's gone down in the sky slightly. I'm guessing that I've been out here for at least an hour or two, so it's probably time to go to bed.

Turning around to the house, I catch a glimpse of my shadow being cast by the moon.

And standing in my shadow.
Is.
A GIRL WHO LOOKS JUST LIKE ME, EXCEPT SHE'S THE COLOR OF MY SILHOUETTE.

I turn to her, she turns to me. I fall backwards onto my butt, and she does the same!

>Now
>ROLL 1d20 TO NOT SCREAM

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>34689533

Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>34689533
With 2 of us Aiko might faint.

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>34689533

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>34689533
Don't wake Mommy!

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>34689533
mirror/shadow card! that's kinda cute.

>>34689587
>>34689592
>>34689593

You got lucky with that 2!
>rolled 17

>writing

>>34689593
>Pants status:
>Not wet

Also, start thinking of some names for this card.

>>34689660
Mir?

Highly original, I know.

>>34689660
Melissa

>>34689691
Don't feel bad, my first thought was Sombra.

>>34689696
That sounds nice actually.

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>>34689660
>mirror
>Imasam? no, that's horrible

>Shadow
>Umbra
>Umber
>Amber

Amber, maybe? Or luna or eclipse if you want some dark broody name I guess...

>>34689716
Broody doesn't really fit,
but the Amber wordplay sounds good.

>>34689716
I don't see Luna as a dark broody name.

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My hands are trembling.
My feet want to run, but lack the courage.
There is one thing I can do, and it's the one thing that I must prevent myself from doing lest I wake Mom from her slumber.

With a slap, my hands raise to my mouth and hold it tight. I let my fear resonate in the tightly bound confine of my mouth.
Fortunately, it wasn't loud at all. At most it could be confused for a squeak from the frogs.

Other than that, I kept myself pretty composed!
So did the dark girl that continues to sit in my shadow.

"Um.. Hello?" I ask her, she only continues to sit dumbfounded.

I sit up onto my hands and knees, as she does the same. Crawling up to her, both of us extend our hands and feel the soft surface of our fingers.

Both of us trace our hands along each other. She feels every bit as real as I do. Only, she's covered in a perpetual shadow.

We stand to our feet, and start trying to touch hands once more. My eyes cast downward toward her legs, and her feet.
Which is when I realize: She's standing on water. The water below her feet doesn't even ripple in response.

"Masami?"

Turning to the back door, I notice Mom standing there.
"Oh! Mom! I didn't wake you up, did I?"
"No, I wasn't sleeping. I tried checking on your room but you weren't there, and I got worried."

"Why weren't you sleeping?"
"I was having a bad dream. Why aren't you sleeping, Masami?"
"I.. had one too."

She giggles slightly, "Come inside, let's talk about it together."
"Thanks, Mom."

I put the card away, I don't think I'll need two of me to tell this story.

At least, I hope not.

Thread End.

>>34690296
Seems like it's a phantasmal copy - not sure how well it'll be useful at the moment, but there's certainly applications.

Next time we get the chance, I almost want to see if we could combine card effects (specifically, this and any of the others)

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>>34690296
Okay, sorry for the short thread, I started REALLY LATE. Hopefully tomorrow the same thing won't happen and we can have a nice, full thread.

I know nothing happened this thread, but I really want to change that. Because there was something I was wanting to talk about:

I was planning, if I can manage to fit the story and interaction I was wanting, to draw Card Priestess Masami to a close within the next 15-20 threads. Which means we're about 50-60% done with the quest.

From there, I'll probably take a break and consider the sequel or prequel! Sorry for suddenly springing this on you, my players, but I thought I should give you an update as to where I think we're at in the main story.

Which I'm glad to say that I'm pleased with it, we have a plan so far, all that remains is for you to execute it (and that jerk in Fortune).

Thank you everyone for your patience and time. Let me know what you thought of today's thread!

>>34690296
Thanks for running Heart,
What did the rolls decide anyway ?

>>34690368
Thanks for running Heart.

>>34690377
How much of the card's effects you found out about without blundering.

>>34690377
I figure they were application rolls - how much we could do just by randomly trying stuff.

>>34690368
I'd love another thread tomorrow, and the pacing seems a lot quicker than the last few threads.

>I want to finish this in the next 15-20 threads.
It's adorable how naive you are. MGNQ was supposed to be over by thread 50. it's at 231 and there's no signs of stopping. Hope you're comfy.

>>34690368
I consider that sufficiently far in the future that I'm not going to break out in tears quite yet. We didn't, and probably won't, hit the 2/Thread episode format we had thought of at some point, but you have achieved a very comfortable pacing by now, so I'm sure we can finish at least the Fortune issue in 20 threads or so.
Looking forward where your ride leads us.

>>34690441
>It's adorable how naive you are

Um.
Well.

You're probably right

>>34690484
>but you have achieved a very comfortable pacing by now, so I'm sure we can finish at least the Fortune issue in 20 threads or so.

I did? Whew. That was a big worry on my mind in these not-fortune threads if the pacing was still keeping up.

>Looking forward where your ride leads us.

Thank you! And I'll enjoy having you as my players.