>>34843027
i'm sure we had a plan last time
mhmm....

>>34843027
>"Go to Fortune after school, you won't have to walk me home."

>>34843027
>>"Go to Fortune now, during lunch."

>>34843027
>"Go to Fortune sometime tomorrow or so."
Eeeeeeh

>>34843027
>"Go to Fortune after school, you won't have to walk me home."
I think this was the plan.

>>34843027
>"Go to Fortune after school, you won't have to walk me home."
Can't really go back after having told mom we'd come.

>>34843226
actually, the plan was to go during lunch,
i am quite certain

>>34843027
>"Go to Fortune now, during lunch."
Isn't this what we told mom?

>>34843027
>>"Go to Fortune after school, you won't have to walk me home."
She's probably gonna follow us anyway.

A couple more minutes before I start writing

Also I'm asking again because you can always just call her up and say you're not really feelin' it.

>>34843268
You're right, ah, too late for changing I think.
If not >>34843226
to
"Go to Fortune now, during lunch."

>>34843027
>"Go to Fortune now, during lunch."
Because that's what we told mom

>>34843027
>"Go to Fortune now, during lunch."

Looks like we're going now, during lunch

>Writing!

Sorry for lateness, next post almost up

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"I just remembered, I'm going to Fortune during lunch so I don't have to think about it for the rest of the week."

That get's Aiko's attention, her face pales as if she just saw a ghost.
"..Seriously? by yourself?"
"Yep."

Aiko looks extremely concerned.
"And you're not taking anyone?"
"Well, Mom will be there."

Somehow, that doesn't make her seem any less concerned.

"..Can I go with you?"
"Aiko, No, I'll be fine."
Now she's just looking at me like I'm crazy.

"You have my cell phone number, right?"
"I do, but-"
"Call me if ANYTHING happens, if anyone stops you, if the secretary gives you the evil eye, if that creepy guy on the top floor even BREATHES at you funny, call me."

There's no need to get worked up like this.
"And also, do me one favor, okay?"
I'm not sure what she could ask, but you're willing to do anything if it makes her feel better about all of this.

"..I don't know what goes in to making these cards, so please, please don't make anything too powerful for them."
I can feel myself smile slightly, "I'll probably give them cards made of old chairs and tissue boxes. Would that be okay?"

We laugh a little bit about it before heading out the door, toward the cafeteria.

--

I'm beginning to really appreciate Cirrus, at first I didn't think of the utility a jump and a float card could have. Especially when I can apparently make the jump from the school to Fortune's HQ in a single bound.

Now, if only there was a way to fix that miniskirt problem.

No one bothers trying to stop me, or even question me as I make my way up to the top floor. I meet up with Mom outside the CEO's office.

And the CEO, Asai, is already waiting right inside the doorway, staring directly at me, like a creep.
"Ah, Good! Ready for your first day of work, I take it?"

>"Let's just get this over with."
>"No, I have some questions first"
>"-Like maybe if you know anyone who is able to use cards besides me."
>Other questions/responses?

>>34845207

>"No, I have some questions first"
>"-Like maybe if you know anyone who is able to use cards besides me."

>>34845207
>"No, I have some questions first"
>"-Like maybe if you know anyone who is able to use cards besides me."
Sure, no reason not to ask.

>>34845207
>>"No, I have some questions first"
>>"-Like maybe if you know anyone who is able to use cards besides me."

>>34845207
>>"No, I have some questions first"
>>"-Like maybe if you know anyone who is able to use cards besides me."
>>Other questions/responses?
Why are there still cards attacking at random?

>>34845207
>"No, I have some questions first"
>"-Like maybe if you know anyone who is able to use cards besides me."
i just had a great idea as we're apparently really good at making cards
let's make good/powerful cards with a backdoor/hidden weakness/off button so that they can be beaten/deactivated easily

>>34845385
If you can think of a good way to do this, I'll allow it.

Also

>>"-Like maybe if you know anyone who is able to use cards besides me."
And maybe

>>Why are there still cards attacking at random?

Writing!

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I look over to Mom, and again, she seems to have stiffened into self-induced paralysis. Holding her hand, I can feel the uneasy waver of her trembling vibrating through my palms.

If I ever find out what this guy did to Mom to make her so terrified of him, then, I'm not even sure what I'm going to do. All I know is that it will be very long and terrible.
But first-
"I have a few questions before we start."
"Hmm?"

He's amused by this, he smiles and strokes his chin.
"Okay, go ahead."

"First off, do you know anyone who is able to use cards besides me?"

His eyes widen in shock, before his face calms back into it's usual sarcastic grin.
"Well, I was hoping to keep this as a bit of a surprise buuuuuuuut, since you asked so nicely. The answer is-"

He steps into his office, does a twirl on his foot before sitting upright on his own desk.
"-Me."

That grin again, I'm really sick of his sarcasm and jokes.

(1/?)

>>34846002
He's really annoying. I wonder if he's considered being less annoying.

File: 1108440.jpg (259 KB, 1023x724)

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>>34846002
"You're going to have to be more specific. Do you wear a mask and run around town, too?"

He gives me the most confused eyebrow-shift I could imagine his plastic-looking face could manage.
"That's funny, is it a reference to something I'm not getting?" He folds his hands, "No, I'm talking about Fortune's newest invention."

Leaning backwards, he reaches back into his desk and grabs a strange brace-like thing from the top drawer. He holds it out in front of him.
"Pretty nifty, if I do say so myself."

>"That's nice, what does it do?"
>"Okay, how does it work?"
>"You haven't been giving those out, have you!?"
>"How many of those exist?"
>"Never mind, it's not as interesting as I thought it would be."

>>34846451

>"You haven't been giving those out, have you!?"
>"How many of those exist?"

>>34846451
>"How many of those exist?"

>>34846451
>"That's nice, what does it do?"
>"How many of those exist?"

>>34846451
>>"You haven't been giving those out, have you!?"
>>"How many of those exist?"

>>34846451
>"That's nice, what does it do?"

>>34846451
>"You haven't been giving those out, have you!?"
>"How many of those exist?"

>What does it do?
>you haven't been giving those out, have you?
>And how many of them exist?

Sound good? Then I'm writing

>>34846612
Sounds fine.
Heading to sleep so thanks for running.

>>34846670
Good night!

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"What does that do?" I think I already know the answer, but I want to be sure.

"Oh? Well this."
He folds and unfolds the circular metal cage it uses as a brace, it clearly fits on a limb of the body, like an arm or a leg.
"That's a company secret."

He chuckles slightly as he puts it back in the drawer.
"It's a little too early to show it around, but I've just felt so proud of it that I can't help myself. Maybe someday I can give you a demonstration. "

Jerk.

I can feel that pouty expression on my face, "Can you at least tell me how many exist?"
"Oh, just a couple, I have two, one is in the company vault, I believe the chairman has one, don't you?"

A shadow moves in the corner of the room, what I once thought was a monster or maybe a very intricate statue was instead fully living, and quite real.
I can feel Mom tense up next to me; she could be just as scared of him as she is of Asai.

"..Yes, only one, I checked it this morning." His voice sounds stiff and wooden, like communicating with another person isn't something he's done in a very long time.

Asai laughs and turns back to me, "So if your question was if you could have one, then I have to decline. They're in short supply, you see."
>Tell him about the Masked girl
>Nope! Draft a card so you can go back to school and forget you ever saw him.
>Ask that big creepy guy what his name is, he's really beginning to stress me out.
>Other?

>>34847098
>Nope! Draft a card so you can go back to school and forget you ever saw him.

>>34847098
>Ask that big creepy guy what his name is, he's really beginning to stress me out.

>>34847098
>Nope! Draft a card so you can go back to school and forget you ever saw him.

>>34847098

>Ask him to show us the other, as well as the one in the company vault.

Just because we're curious. After all, if he still has them all here, he should have no problems with that, shouldn't he?

This will immediately, and genuinely, tell us if he gave it out on purpose or if it was stolen. That could be kind of important if we want to deduce what purpose the masked girl is taking cards for.

>Ask creepy guy for his name
>Ask him to show you the other one (Just in cas,e you see)
>Then get to work so you don't have to look at his big dumb face

If that's good, I'll write

>>34847098
>>Nope! Draft a card so you can go back to school and forget you ever saw him.
>>34847185
I would be cautious about that. Wouldn't want our masked friend to get exposed before we get to befriend her.

>>34847185
She seems to hate fortune though, so if she has it, she would have had to steal it, in which case it sbetter to not draw too much attention to it.
She might be a valuable ally later.

>>34847255
>>34847259
>>34847261
Oh, so don't go look?

That's fine, too

>>34847255
>Ask him to show you the other one (Just in cas,e you see)
I'm sorry but I'm against this one, I don't want to draw any undue attention to the masked girl at this point

>>34847295
Okay, it's settled, don't ask to go look just in case she somehow stole it

writing then

>>34847261

The other one in his possession shouldn't be too transparent, though. After all, if it's in his possession, he should have it on him at all times. This is basically to narrow down if he's aware of her or not (as he'll get suspicious if he is, and will just indulge you as wanting to see differences between the prototypes if he isn't), and if he isn't aware of her, we also know which one was stolen.

Once we know which one is stolen, we can start looking at people that could've had the time and resources to break into that section of Fortune simply by accounting which of our friend group had the time to do so during our Fortune excursion for mom earlier. After all, masked girl was kind enough to confirm she was in our friend group just by addressing this asshole as "dad", which isn't something that's known outside of said friend group.

>>34847391
She might know more about this situation from some different source. And we don't really want to know who she really is, if we wanted that, we could have found out. We want to befriend her.
I concede the point it would have served to find out if he is aware of her, I still find making them aware of one having been stolen, or maybe replaced would be to our disadvantage.

>>34847480

It's more to find out why she's taking the cards. If dickwaffle here is aware of it, or sponsored it with his spare to test out the kinks (which is perfectly possible considering his to-go for facial images is Ryouma from Gaim), then he might have an agreement of sorts. It means the difference of knowing if she's returning the cards to Fortune, or if she's doing it for something else. Is she working for a third party? What does she need the cards for? Why is she adamant about getting them instead of us? Is it related to the hostility or is there a goal behind it?

Basically, the key difference here is determining her motives for kidnapping cards which, mind you, have people or at least sentience in them to some degree.

damn it, my next post is late again, sorry guys.

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"One more question, Hey Big Guy!"

The large slab of a man remains gazing. It's as if his eyes don't even blink.

"What's your name? I don't think you ever told it to me."
Again, his expression remains unchanging. His eyes appear to have already glassed over the minute you began asking your question.
With his deep, booming voice, he responds,

"Fortune isn't a place for names."
Asai laughs, "That's right! Which is why I wanted you to get into the habit of being called 'Priestess'. That's the name you should put on when you enter this building."

Wow, that's not suspicious, at all.

"So, nothing?"
"You may just call me 'Chairman', much like how I prefer to call you 'Priestess'."

Ugh, Priestess, I hate that name so much. I don't even know why it bothers me when people call me that, it's just, it's like they're referring to me as an object rather than a person.

"So, anything else?" Asai leans back in his chair,
"No, that's fine. Let's just get this over with."
"Great!"

(1/2)

>>34848588
Scrw you, we're Masami and there's nothing you can do about it. Accepting Priestess is accepting defeat.

>>34848588
Well, looks like we need to name him ourselves. Just like we have to do for all our cards.

Anyone got any good ones?

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>>34848588

We walk down the hall to where I found Mom the other day. Same meeting room, opening up to the same couple of scientists sitting behind a table with a strange machine on top. On the table is another card with etches and markings.

"I'll leave you to it, I'm sure Empress here can show you through the process if she already hasn't." Asai says, slowly closing the door behind us. "Ciao."

With a thump, all that remains in the room are Mom, the scientists (which I'm not sure are monsters or not), and I.

I should get this started so I don't have to stay in here any longer than I have to.

Mom puts her hand on my shoulder, and it seems she's already started to calm down.
"Sweetie, do you need my help drafting this card?"
"No Mom, I'll be fine, just-"

I look over to the scientists, and pull her down to whisper in her ear.

"(make sure they don't do anything creepy while I'm asleep)."
Mom looks taken aback, I don't know how long she's known them or what they are even doing in the room. But she nods and helps me into one of the chairs.

"I'll be right here next to you, the whole time."
"Thanks Mom."

I take the card and set it in front of me, just like I did the other day; I picture myself leaping into it. Unlike how I usually transform, this time I don't jump back out into the real world.

(2/3)

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>>34849716

The endless ocean is below me, I can see a towery white glean across the mirror surface. My feet slowly start to lower until they press against the solid flooring of-

Wait, I'm not standing outside. I'm viewing the ocean from a window.

Looking down, I'm suddenly aware that I'm standing inside of an extremely tall glass structure.

This is it, just like the other day when I was practicing, this is Fortune HQ being projected into the strange mirror world.

From this height, I can clearly see that no other building has the kind of projection that this one does. Looking through the glass floor and the glass walls, I can see all varieties of beasts roaming the halls and the floors.
One such beast, one that I'm sure I've seen before, walks up to the meeting room door and tries to open it. Only to find it locked from the inside. He stomps away after several attempts at pulling at the handle.
I didn't realize it, but I had started to tremble at the sight of the beast. He did stand merely inches away from me with giant, thorned claws. The only thing separating the two of us being a thin piece of glass that you assume comprises the door on this side.

I need to calm down and just get to work on this card already.

Suddenly, a voice seems to boom throughout the whole glass building.
"Ah Priestess, not letting a few of my failed experiments get you down, are you?"

Hey, I know that voice.
"The room you're in is perfectly safe. So you can start at any time, if you don't mind me observing."

>"I DO mind!"
>"Wait, how do you see me? can you hear me too?"
>Other snarky remark?

Also pick

>The drafting!
>What do you want to make in this card?
>It's your first draft so he probably doens't have very high expectations

>>34849888
>"I DO mind!"

>A cake. Everyone likes cake, and no evil could ever be done with one.

>>34849888
>"I DO mind!"
>"Wait, how do you see me? can you hear me too?"

I go with this too
>Cake. But one as larg as Masami, and Mom written on it with the O as heart.
Because why not ? We're a little girl, can hardly fault us on thinking of cake.

>>34849888
>>"I DO mind!"

>>What do you want to make in this card?
A dress. You told a little girl to make something, what did you expect.

Okay, so

>roll 1d20, best of three, to determine how girly the dress and cake are

Also

>writing

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>34850178

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>34850178

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>34850178

>>34850184
oh, it's going to be soooooooo cute.

I went AFK for 15 minutes when I'm hard pressed to at least reach a stopping point. My apologies again.

>>34850184
That is one girly cake and dress.

>>34850592
I can't wait for the others to see us wearing it.

>>34850633
I don't think we get to keep this card.

>>34850647
Who else is gonna use it?

>>34850647
We can replicate it later by making a card ourself? Let me dream...

>>34850675
Our own cake and dress will be way fancier than this.

>>34850673
What they actually do with the drafted cards is one of the things we want to find out afterall.

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"I DO MIND!" I yell back at the no-one that seems to be listening.
At least, I don't get a response back, which could be either good or bad.

Thinking about what Mom did the other day, I 'tear' away the room from the rest of the building. Isolating it in it's own sealed-off place away from the rest of the mirror world. It takes a surprising amount of effort to do, and the edges of the little room I've made are jagged and uneven. Other than that, it's almost exactly the same starting place that I had when Mom and I made our first card the other day.

Ooh, I have a good idea.
If my concern is him using these for evil, then I'll just make everything inside of it as good as possible.

Besides, I wonder if he really expects a little girl to just willingly make weapons and monsters for him.

I slowly start to project and imagine some extremely comfy things that I wouldn't mind seeing in my life. First, I go through a mental inventory of all the nonthreatening things I've seen so far.

Cupcakes? No no, too scary, and too threatening.

But.. How about a regular cake? I remember seeing a few of those, and they looked quite delicious. Maybe someday I can actually have one of the non-cup variants of cake.

I picture one in my mind, layers and layers of chocolate, vanilla, frosting. Not just any frosting, white frosting with pink frosting flowers, and-

Huh, I can feel myself rising slightly. I might be feeling strange from just jumping into the world like that.

Anyway! pink frosting flowers, rows of pink strawberry frosting. Each layer separated by a soft layer of cream, and-

There's that rising feeling again. Like I'm in an elevator and slowly going up.

(1/2)

>>34851427
>Maybe someday I can actually have one of the non-cup variants of cake.
Dammit Masami, stop making me sad.

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>>34851427
But.. What's missing? Usually I make something I can wear, so I imagine anything I make to wear would be something anyone else who uses it would have to wear, right?

That gives me an idea, the other day I saw Kaori wearing a white sun dress during the big club meeting. I wouldn't mind having something kind of like that. It definitely looked very cute on her. It was a kind of radiant dress, with the fabric meant to reflect vibrantly light off the surface of it. It reminded me of a very cool, and calming feeling, it really made her seem very confident and collected. I would like something like that.
Only, I'm going to give it lots of frills and ribbons, just in case that jerk tries to wear it, and-

Why am I so much higher in the air than I previously was?

Looking down gives me my answer; I seem to have got a little carried away with making that cake.
Below my feet, and coating my shoes, is a white frosted cake that takes up the entirety of the space I've made for the card. It's a cake that's easily the size of my own house! Covered in vanilla flowers, pink frosting, and unique decorations and chocolate syrup.
Wow.

The decoration is a little jumbled and off-center, but no one ever expected me to bake anything before.

On top of the cake, is a white sun-dress suspended above the sticky layers of frosting. Lots of frills and ribbons droop off.
I'm beginning to wonder if all the frills and ribbons on the clothes I get from these cards aren't my own doing.

Slowly trudging through the sticky frosting, in which I realize that cake frosting has the consistency of mud, I approach the floating dress. Lightly putting my hand on it, I can feel it on top of me.

It really does feel warm and nonthreatening. I can't picture ANYONE using this for evil. At least now if I find a monster hiding in a big cake, wearing a girly dress, I know where it came from.

(2/3)

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>>34851790
Suddenly, I can feel a shaking feeling. Like the entire world is being rocked and shaken with me inside of it.

"What?" Is all I can say to that.

I pat down the dress one more time. Letting the soft fabric run between my fingers. That's about the time that I realize that this outfit has no shoes, and I'm getting chocolate ichor all between my toes. Yuck.

In the distance, I think I can hear a siren? What's going on?
That shaking feeling is back, is it an Earthquake?
If it is, I should probably wake up, I don't want to be unconscious while this is all happening. I'm not even sure Mom has the strength to carry me if she has to.

Those thoughts are followed by more violent shaking. This time, the cake itself seems to sway back and fourth in rhythm.

well, I can't think of anything to add to this card anyway, so I should at least step outside and see what's going on.

--

"Masami! Wake up!" Mom says with urgency, jostling my shoulder with all her weight.

In the air, the sound of a piercing siren fills the room. Three chirps, and then a long steady buzz, repeat.

I gasp for air as I can feel myself return to consciousness. Mom continues to grip at my shoulder. Looking around the room, the scientists have already long since left. I can see the occasional monster roaming the hall with their weapon drawn.

"W-what's happening?"
"Someone pulled the fire alarm! We have to go!"

Another monster passes by, weapons drawn, something tells me this isn't an ordinary fire alarm.

>"The what alarm?"
>"This place has a fire alarm?"
>"You go ahead, I'm going to go see what's going on."
>"Let's get out of here. I'm done with these jerks and their mean faces anyway."
>"W-What do we do?! This hasn't happened before and the alarm is so loud and shrill and why am I panicking?!"
>Cry?
>Other

Also decide

>Take the card
>Leave the card

>>34851995
>"The what alarm?"
>"W-What do we do?! This hasn't happened before and the alarm is so loud and shrill and why am I panicking?!"
>Lets see whats going on. Once we have stopped panicking.

>Leave the card
We want to know what they do with them.

>>34851995
>>"The what alarm?"
>>Other
Its ok Mom, I can fly us out.
>>Take the card

>>34851995
Let's go with this

>>34852068

Next post is going to be the last post of the night

Waiting about five minutes before last write break

>The what alarm?
>N-no, don't panic, don't panic, everything is under contro- WHY IS IT SO LOUD WHAT DO WE DO?!

Also two for leaving the card

Writing!

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"T-the what alarm?" More shrill buzzes and sirens interrupt my train of thought.
I'm sure if they wanted people to be calm through these alarms, they wouldn't have made them SO LOUD.

I set the card down where anyone coming back can obviously see it. Then use my newly freed hands to grab onto Mom's shoulder with what feels like a death grip.
"It's just the fire alarm sweetie. It may have just malfunctioned, ."

Again, more monsters run past the door. If Mom is trying to keep me calm and collected, then everyone running around like the world is coming to an end isn't helping at all.

Gently, I can feel Mom pick me up into her arms. My grip around her neck is
"Let's go, I think we've both had enough for today."

She gently carries me down the hallway, but the rush of monsters and people back and forth is barely make me feel any more safe. Even if every one of them manages to nimbly step around Mom like she wasn't even there.

Suddenly, that loud, booming voice seems to echo through the building. If my nerves weren't already shot, hearing HIM again isn't helping them.

"Units 4-A, B, and C, as well as you 5-B, stop screwing around with whatever you're doing and get to the roof."

How can he sound so calm? He's acting like nothing is even happening. He almost sounds tired even!

We get to the elevators, just to find several people and monsters standing in front of it, hammering the button to go up. Several quit waiting for it rush toward the stairwell.

"Hmm? What's wrong with the elevator?"

Oh, it's that monster that hasn't been a jerk to me so far. I should work on giving him a name sometime.

"Sorry Empress, Priestess, it appears to be stuck. You will have to wait here until the alarm is off. The stairs are under heavy congestion at the moment."

Wait. We're stuck
In this building.
That could be on FIRE?

I'm glad no one is paying attention to me, because I just gripped at Mom's shoulder a lot tighter than I was before.

Thread End.

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Sorry again for the update slowdown. 1 update per hour is inexcusable for almost any reason for me.

How was it other than that? I was thinking of running maybe next Wednesday to make up for the slowdown and the 4chan dying fiasco.

Tomorrow I was going to try something special, I'll let you know on twitter if I go through with it.

>>34852765
Thanks for running, and don't worry too much about the slow updates and all.

>>34852765
Sounds like fun. Thanks for running.

>>34852765
Always happy to see you running Heart, don't mind the slow updates too bad, faster is nice sure, but its not a terrible problem.

>>34852891
>>34852888
>>34852830
Thank you! Again, we'll see if it takes off tomorrow

Archived, thanks again for the great thread