“It was hard. There was alota’ big words I didn’t know. Then they wanted me to use them to make sentences. I’m not use to writing my thoughts down. I always wanted, especially the little stories in my head, but Father, Brother, and Sister said that wasn’t really important. And if there was something really important they would write it down for me. So, I just drew them most of the time.” They obviously discouraged her from writing. It was one less way Alice could possibly communicate with the outside world.

Jeanette tuts “Well, were going to change that, dear.” Jeanette fishes out the small notepad and a pen from her purse. “I want to see you try to write a sentence.” She passes the items over to Alice. “The quick brown dog jumps over the lazy red fox. Take all the time you need.” Alice slowly and methodically attempts to render the words into text, while Jeanette takes out her phone, probably to look over Alice’s results in that program. After running her finger up and down the screen a few times, the older woman tuts again and shakes her head. That’s probably not a good sign. It takes Alice much too long and too much effort to write out the sentence. It takes a colossal amount of restraint to keep yourself from jumping up and snatching the pen out of Alice’s grasp to demonstrate how it’s done. But you know that this is an assessment for the girl’s own good. When she’s finished you take a look at the paper. Alice’s script is borderline unintelligible, in fact calling it chicken-scratch would be a compliment, but if you squint your eyes you can make out the sentence. Alice eagerly passes the notepad and pen over to Jeanette for her adopted mother’s approval. “Well dear…” Jeanette shifts the paper up and down under a critical eye, while looking for the right words. “…It’s better than I thought you could do, but to be honest with you, I think you can do much better with some more practice. I don’t want you to get discouraged. You can always get better at it if you’re willing to work hard at, just like with any skill worth achieving. Sometime after that I’ll even show you fancy writing.” Jeanette mimics round pen strokes in the air before picking up the pen and writing out the same sentence in neat cursive.

“Pretty.” Alice squints her eyes as she looks over the cursive sentence.” It’s hard to read but it looks really nice. Father’s writing sorta’ looked like that. I can’t wait to learn how to write like that too.” Jeanette ruffles Alice’s hair. “That’s my girl. I know you’re going to be a good student.” Alice smiles at the thought. However, something else seems to bother her. “Jenny, when we first met you said you taught kids my age…What are they like? I’ve never know anyone else my age or younger.”

“Really, Alice?” Jeanette’s bewildered by Alice’s statement “You’ve never met another child before.” Alice shakes her head before offering an explanation. “No, I was the only one at home. I was a special blessing. You see, Father taught everyone that this world was incredibly sinful and the only way things would change was with the coming of the Lord. He told the couples to wait to bear children till the Earth was peaceful and pure; to bring a child into this world was a sin. Maybe when we finish our missions the world will be a good enough place. Then I could be a big sister like Shirley was to me to me.”

"Sweetheart, you deserve some friends close to your own age...Maybe we could change that if Susan tries to contact me again. The mention of a new name catches Alice's attention. "Who's Susan?" Jeanette smiles warmly. "She was my favorite student before I got sick or met you, dear. I think you might like her too if I introduced the two of you. She's kind of shy and quiet around new people, just like you, but she's very kind and polite once you get to know her. She's very smart too. She wound up skipping a couple of grades early in her education." Alice still gives a "Wow" even though you know she has no clue what that really means. A waiter's arrival interrupts the flow of the conversation. The food's here. Thankfully, everything is as ordered. Jeanette continues after taking a bite of her salad. “Susan’s a couple of years younger than you but I think you two might like many of the same things. She likes reading all sorts of books, from long novels to comic books. She has a really big collection of dolls—I remember some of the pictures on her phone. She likes drawing, just like you.”
“I would like to meet her. She sounds nice.” Alice says between bites of salad. Jeanette smiles fondly. “She really is. She would really appreciate having a friend like you too. It was hard for her being surrounded by older girls. I’ll definitely try to set something up if we go to Madison sometime soon…” Jeanette frowns at something and Alice asks her what’s wrong. “It’s nothing dear. Susan’s father is a really important man…” The older woman takes a long pause, taking a couple bites of her dinner.”…So she might be hard to get in touch with…You know, she might be really busy.” Alice accepts this excuse but you know what Jeanette is trying to convey between the lines. Susan’s father might not want his little girl hanging around a disgraced teacher or her adopted daughter. Judging by the way Jeanette phased things, he might not even know that Susan reached out to Jeanette.

Hopefully, Jeanette could pull through and make the introduction happen. You do agree that Alice could use a friend around her own age. The rest of the dinner passes silently. Alice is too preoccupied with scarfing down anything on her plate; Jeanette still looks a little a little embarrassed from remembering her fall from grace. You notice the waitress coming back to the table with an extra tray. She’s carrying a cupcake with a candle and a small bowl of ice cream. “So which of the two of you is the birthday girl?”

Jeanette’s the first one to open her mouth. “I didn’t…” But Alice starts speaking over Jeanette. “Wow Jenny how did they know your birthday’s in six days.”

“Oh I think I got you guys mixed up with one of my other tables, but if your birthday is really on the eighth I might as well leave it with you and just get a fresh one. Happy upcoming birthday Ma’am! This is on the house.” The chipper girl walks off. Jeanette really wants no part of desert and Alice doesn’t want to eat her mother’s birthday gift. After much back and forth a compromise is reached. Jeanette takes a small slice of the cupcake on to her plate and gives everything else to Alice, who despite her earlier reluctance finishes the treats with gusto. Like usual, it takes Jeanette some time to finish her meal at her slow pace. But she does so, even downing the bit of cake. The older woman pays the bill in cash and even leaves a little extra money in the tip for the waitress.

You’re relieved to start moving and talking again once you’re all in the relative privacy of the car. “So ladies, I think we could use a few things, how about a shopping trip?” No one vetoes the idea and Jeanette drives over to the big box store where Alice and you spent some time yesterday. After not being hassled by the greeter this time, you whisper to Alice that your first priority is clothes for Alonso. Without knowing the man’s sizes you just opt for things that might be oversized but would fit: A baggy plain t-shirt and some cheap jeans. Alice brings over a pair of sandals and insists they look like they would fit his feet. They’re pretty cheap and the knight might stand out as much as Alice did without shoes, so you tell her to put them in the basket. Jeanette decides to stop over in the ladies’ section and pick up a couple of athletic outfits for training or just wearing around casually. You’re glad she’s comfortable relaxing around the two of you Finally the woman leads you over to the office and school supplies and picks up some primary ruled composition paper, a large white notepad for Alice to draw on along with a pack of nicer pens, a pack of pencils with a sharpener, and a box of colored pencils. You know Alice will get a lot of enjoyment of the basic art supplies. Jeanette head over to a separate section and returns with a couple of language workbooks for young children, you know they won’t be a substitute for a proper education, but it should give Alice something to work on in her down time. After checking out—Jeanette puts everything on her card—you head back to the car and head back to the Durands’ place. It’s getting a little bit late, so Alice falls asleep shortly into the trip.

>You have some time alone with Jeanette. Do you have any advice about discussing her financial situation with her father or about how to bring up adopting Alice? Write in:

What will you do once you get back home?

>Encourage Alice to practice her writing or do some exercise with one of the workbooks.

>Help Alice mend her sweater. Well you talked more than you helped. Is there anything you want to discuss in particular? Write in:

>Play a game or watch a movie till Alice falls asleep again. Any suggestions? Write them in:

>See if Alonso is a little more lucid. Is there anything in particular you would like to talk with him about? Write in:

>Have Jeanette distract Alice, while you go off and discuss things with the Durands. The ritual could be as soon as tomorrow.

>Write in/something else/some combination of answers.

>Do you have any advice about discussing her financial situation with her father or about how to bring up adopting Alice?
I'm not that big on this, so I'll leave it to the others.

>>3789189
>Encourage Alice to practice her writing or do some exercise with one of the workbooks.

>>3789189
>Do you have any advice about discussing her financial situation with her father or about how to bring up adopting Alice?
She’ll have to live at her father’s house until she is financially stable and has a job, which should be easier now that she isn’t taking drugs anymore. Alice’s situation regarding parents could be brought up to the father and how Jenny feels it is her calling to provide parenthood to Alice. Adoption may be an issue if Alice lacks any official records though or worse, the cult are listed as her official guardians.
>Encourage Alice to practice her writing or do some exercise with one of the workbooks.

>>3789767
>>3789917
Supporting

>>3789767
>>3789917
>>3790059
>Roll 1d20+1, BO3, No crits on this.

I will be traveling over the next few days. So no risk of power outages, but I might be reduced to phoneposting at points. I have something I could work on like that. However updates may be spotty till Friday. I will update when I can.

Rolled 12 + 1 (1d20 + 1)

>>3790291

Rolled 13 + 1 (1d20 + 1)

>>3790291

Rolled 20 + 1 (1d20 + 1)

>>3790291

>>3790294
>>3790308
>>3790434
>21: Seems like Alice is a quick learner. Closing the vote.

>21
You shift your weight gingerly to avoid waking the sleeping girl underneath you. “I figure this is a fine enough time for a serious discussion. So Jeanette, you had a few things you wanted to talk about earlier?” Jeanette doesn’t take her eyes off the road as she answers you. “Are you sure you to bring this up with Alice around? I don’t know if you should do that mind thing while I’m driving.” You stroke the fuzz on your face. “Fair enough it can be distracting. Alice could sleep through a bomb most of the time, so I think we’re safe enough hashing this out the mundane way. Where do you want to start?”

“My father” Jeanette answers. “He wants me to come home. He’s been worried about me since the divorce, now that he’s figured out that I’m not working he’s even more concerned. It tempting considering how broke I am, but I don’t know if I can tell him what happened. My father’s a smart man; eventually he’ll figure out that I’m not in any pain for the first time in over a decade, or that I’ve stopped taking any medications…Then there’s the magical girl stuff. How did you hide this with your other contractees, they were mostly kids right?”

“Yeah, they were. You’re my first adult, Jeanette.” You can tell the woman doesn’t know what to make of that. “Honestly, it rarely came up. Some of the girls were really good at sneaking out, some had friends as co-conspirators, and many had distant parents or were orphans. I’m drawing a blank on the first one, but you would be surprised at the kind of things I’ve seen parents overlook. I think he might just be glad to have you back home and happy. As far as the magical girl stuff goes, I’ve found dress up makes for a convenient excuse.”

Jeanette’s trying her best to stifle her laughter. “That’s a good one. I’m a little old for dress up, Octavian.” At least you’ve injected a little levity into the situation. “I guess our best option is not getting caught. I can tell you’re pretty good at that, and between the two of us we can keep Alice in line. Just get ready to jump into my mind at a moment’s notice. I’m the weak link out of all of us…”

“I’ve noticed you’re bad at bluffing. Not much of a poker person, are you?” You interject. Against her better judgment you get a giggle out of Jeanette. “Octavian, I thought you said they were kids” You remember that particular group of girls sitting in a circle wagering secrets on poker hands. For once you smile thinking of them. “You would be surprised what teenage girls get up to when they’re board, Jen.”

“Octavian, come on, I know. I taught enough of them, and better yet, I was one once. I was being sarcastic…What about Alice? My father will want to know where I found her and what I’m doing with her.” You steeple your paws together in thought. “Jen, what if you admit a smaller lie to cover for a bigger one. He still thinks you were at a spa, right?” The woman nods. “Then tell him you were actually out camping. I have the supplies you need to make it a convincing story. You found Alice alone in the woods with nothing. You invited her to your camp and she eventually trusted you enough to tell you that she didn’t have parents. You decided to bring her along with you. It’s human nature to want to protect a child, and I assume you father knows how much you wanted to become a mother. I don’t think you’ll have to explain your decision to him. Furthermore, it could give you a good reason to come home: You need help raising the girl. I can get Alice to keep all the cult stuff quiet, so you could reveal it to your father if you see fit.”

“That’s a great idea, Octavian…So about Alice, I need to know more about her to actually adopt her. I need to find her paperwork. I assume the cult has it.” You’re confused by this. “Paperwork? What paperwork? Like an ID card.” Jeanette actually takes her eyes off the road to look at you. “I was thinking more like a birth certificate…”“Uh, humans have those?” You ask befuddled. “Yeah, Octavian. It would have been filled out at the hospital where Alice was born.”

You shake your head. “Alice wasn’t born in a hospital. We were staying in an abandoned apartment building at the time. To cut a long story short, Titania gave birth there. After that, you know the rest of the story.”

Jeanette looks worried. “So nothing was documented. Great, so the government doesn’t even know Alice exists. No wonder why the cult kept her around. Honestly I don’t know where to go from there. Octavian, you know this is really going to complicate things. I can’t formally adopt Alice without paperwork, I can’t put her in school, honestly I don’t know if it’s even legal for me to have her around…What about the mother; are you sure her name was Titania, like the fairy queen from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’?”

“I knew Titania by no other names, but she was an exceptionally strange and paranoid girl, even when she was a mere child…I even suspected that it was a fake name, but I was more preoccupied with contracting her massive magical potential than finding out the truth…Thinking about it, the first time I met her she was carrying around a book of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, and she said the other girls looked like fairies. So I suppose she could have been familiar with the play.” Jeanette’s looking increasingly desperate. “Well what about her school? Did this Titania girl have any relatives?”

You can tell she’s not going to want to hear this. “Titania didn’t go to school with any of the other girls I had contracted at the time, nor their siblings. I’m not even sure she went to school at all. I know she had a mother, but I never saw the woman. Titania went to great lengths to keep me away from her house. I stayed with another girl, her name was Jessica. I know that Titania’s mother died at some point while we working together. After that we started travelling from place to place. I suppose Titania could have been running away from someone, but didn’t mention any other family to me. I’m sorry; I wish I could help more.”

“That’s okay, Octavian. You’ve done what you can. Christ, why can’t anything be simple these days?” You pass the majority of the car ride in silence. Neither of you had much left to say. Jeanette’s the first one to speak as you pull into the Durands’ driveway. “So, am I going to have to carry Alice inside?” “Possibly but let’s both try to shake her awake first.” You hop up and pinch Alice’s cheeks, while Jeanette pushes on the girl’s shoulder. That works for once. Alice stirs and is very surprised to find out that she dozed off for the whole car ride home. The nap seemed to energize her; Alice is practically bouncing up and down as she helps unload the car. Maybe the cult had a good reason for curtailing the girl’s sugar intake. Jeanette looks back between you and Alice, before pulling one of the workbooks and the pack of pencils out of the bag she was carrying. “Alice how about you take Octavian and do some homework? I know it’s boring, but you do want to get better at writing? I’m going to wash my new things. I’ll be back in a minute, but if you have any questions, send Octavian for me.”

Alice is completely obedient. She takes you and heads back to her temporary room. She puts you on your pillow and flops down on her bed before opening the book. You pass her a pencil from the pack, setting one aside for yourself. The first couple of the pages show the strokes for block printing the letters of the alphabet. You watch over her shoulder as she practices writing out each letter, both upper case and lower case, three times. A few times you have to step in, and awkwardly write out the letter yourself—Your handwriting is only slightly better than Alice’s. You have to hold the pencil close to the eraser to actually scribble out the letter. It’s still a slow and painstaking process for Alice but her handwriting is noticeably better. It’s still not going to win any penmanship awards, but it’s at least somewhat intelligible. By the time you both reach O, Jeanette walks back into the room. The older woman watches you help Alice. You think she’s satisfied at the job you’re doing. Once Alice has finished with her letters you flip the page over to the next lesson. It’s about basic phonetics for very early readers. Thankfully, Alice is literate, but the exercise is about writing simple words based on their sounds. You sit back and let Alice work by herself. You think she’s getting the hang of this. Jeanette’s the first to praise Alice once she finishes the page. “Very good, Alice! I’m proud of you doing all that work on your own.” She holds up a sheet of the composition paper. “I was thinking we could write down one of those stories you told me about together.”

“Really Jenny, I would love that. I hope I can remember one.” Alice says excited. Jeanette joins the two of you on the bed, pulling her future daughter into her lap. You close the workbook and place it in Alice’s lap as a makeshift desk. After that, you decide to let the two bond and rest your head against the pillow, pretending to have fallen asleep. The story is about angels leading people away from sinful places and to the safety of the church—her cult. If only she could understand the irony between it and the reality of her situation. They both take turns writing the sentences as quickly as Alice can remember them. Alice scribbles out a line, and then dictates a sentence to Jeanette, who quickly renders it to the page in neat cursive. The older woman coaches Alice through better organizing her thoughts into sentences. Then how to organize those sentences into paragraphs. As you look over the page, you can notice a further improvement in Alice’s handwriting near the final paragraph.

Alice insists on “waking” you up to read her story. You’re more than happy to oblige her, despite your reservations about the subject matter. You tell from the look on Jeanette’s face that’s she’s thinking the same thing, but you don’t want to discourage Alice from writing. You’re not going to change Alice’s entire worldview tonight, and now the girl’s wide awake. What will you do now?

>Alice did say she wanted to fix her sweater. Maybe she can take a turn at teaching something.

>Just spend some family time together. You haven’t found out what Alice wants in her life. You could discuss that together.

>Have Jeanette call her father. Introduce him to Alice. You probably shouldn’t surprise him by showing up with a strange girl.

>Play a game or watch a movie till Alice falls asleep again. Any suggestions? Write them in:

>See if Alonso is a little more lucid. Is there anything in particular you would like to talk with him about? Write in:

>Have Jeanette distract Alice, while you go off and discuss things with the Durands. The ritual could be as soon as tomorrow.

>Write in/something else/some combination of answers.

>>3796630
>Have Jeanette call her father. Introduce him to Alice. You probably shouldn’t surprise him by showing up with a strange girl.

>>3796723
>Have Jeanette call her father. Introduce him to Alice. You probably shouldn’t surprise him by showing up with a strange girl.
Wait a sec. What are we going to do with Alonso?

>>3796825
>>3796630
Linked wrong. Excuse me.

>>3796630
Supporting >>3796825

>>3796630
Hold Alice down, and impregnate her.

>>3796723
>>3796825
>>3796834
I'm back home.
>Closing the vote and writing.

>>3799872
You missed your chance for that Flounder. Why are you posting in the thread? You ain't real nigga.

You wish you could just relax with your girls, but there's some nagging concerns gnawing away at the back of your mind. Your deal with the Durands has almost run its course and with it your access to free room and board. While Jeanette has been nothing but kind to Alice, you know absolutely nothing of her father. You might as well gauge his reaction to the girl before you make any firm plans to take her anywhere. That way you could leave your options open. You could still try to renegotiate your deal with the Durands and freeload for longer--you feel that you could have a high probability of success by playing Samuel against his grandson, but Jonathan would feel entitled to more of Alice's "help" in return, if your read on him is correct--or you could try living off the land, but it would only be a matter of time before you're forced to steal food or money for the girls. Not to mention, that Jeanette really doesn't look like the outdoors type.

You snuggle up to Alice. She takes this as an invitation to pet your fur. That should be a fine enough distraction if this coming conversation runs long. You feel the familiar strain between your eyes as you join your thoughts to Jeanette's. "Jen, I think you should call your father sooner rather than later...And by sooner I'm thinking now. He should know about Alice. Bringing home a child isn't exactly a normal thing. I want to make sure their first introduction goes well. We're going to need a new place to stay soon."

"I know Octavian. I'm just nervous about what kind of questions he might ask. Can we put this off for a little bit? I wanted to find some evidence to back up Alice's story first and I hoped I could find a job while I was at it...I don't think either of those things are happening anymore...I've got the rent paid on my place till the fifteenth." She lets her memories of her apartment come to the forefront of her mind. The apartment doesn't look to be in better condition than some abandoned buildings you've been in. The only difference you could see was a couple of cheap pieces of furniture and a small row of moving boxes that you could guess contained Jeanette's remaining possessions. She must have packed her things to make it easier for someone to clean the space after her death. "I know it looks like shit and it's not in the best part of town but it's somewhere we can go."

"Jen, we need to think things out for the long term. We would still have to worry about food...and maybe the roof caving in. Your dad's our best option."

You can tell something is confusing her before she starts talking again. “I guess you have a point, but what about that Alonso guy? What are we going to do with him?”

You think for a moment. “He did offer to lead an expedition for his queen. I know Alice can summon him like the spider, so I think she can place him in that strange pocket dimension we were talking about earlier. I think we can give him some basic provisions and let him explore for the time being. Alice can always pull him back when we’re alone.”

"I guess that works, Octavian. I really hoped I could find some other way to live besides crawling back to my father, but it's in Alice's best interest. I guess it's inevitable. I'll make the call." You close the mental link. Jeanette puts her hand on Alice's shoulder "Alice baby, I need to make an important phone call real quick. I'll just be outside your room. Can you be quiet for a little bit?" Alice replies with an "Of course Jenny." She pulls her cell phone from her purse and walks off into the hallway closing the door behind her. You look up into Alice’s eyes. “Sweetheart, Jenny is calling her father right now. If Jenny’s going to be your mother, she’s getting ready to talk to your grandfather right now. Would you like to meet him?” You can tell the answer is yes before the girl ever opens her mouth to say the same thing. “Alright, but you need to keep you brothers and sisters and your mission a secret; especially your mission. Just trust me about this.”Alice is her usual obedient self. “Okay, Octavian, if you say so.” “Alice this is important. Promise you won’t say anything.” You add in your most serious tone. Looking at Alice’s face alone, it’s clear she got your message. “I promise, Octavian. I swear to God, himself, that I’ll keep my word.” You smile and hug her around her waist. “Good girl!”

You can hear Jeanette’s footsteps echo in the hallway before she comes to an abrupt stop. Her father must have picked up. While the door might keep Alice out of the loop, your keen hearing at least let’s you hear Jeanette’s half of the conversation. “Hello, dad…Soon. I want to pick up some things from home first…Yeah…There’s something you need to know…NO...Well I was really out camping like I use to do with Mom…I know it could be dangerous…I’m at a hotel now…Dad that’s not the important part…You see I met someone out here…NO, not like that…It’s a girl…NOT AT ALL DAD! A little girl; she needs my help. You see…” You can hear pacing footsteps again as the conversation gets both more heated and fainter. Jeanette must be walking into the kitchen to be careful. You count out the seconds in your head. You could mentally eavesdrop on the conversation but you hear the woman’s footsteps coming back to Alice’s room. The door opens. “Sweetheart” Jeanette leans around the frame with her hand cover the front of the phone. “Can you come here? I want you to talk to someone.”

You can Alice is a bit nervous despite how eager she is when it comes to having a family. She walks over and Jeanette puts the phone to her ear. Alice listens timidly before responding with just. “Um, Hi” The man must have said something soothing to Alice. You can see a shift in her posture. “Yes, my name is Alice, Sir…I don’t know anything about that…Well I guess Jenny’s my family…I really do like Jenny. I would like that very much…I can?...Really, just for me…Thank you, grandpa!” You breathe a sigh of relief. It sounds Jeanette did a good job of explaining herself. You’ll have to ask about what she said later.
---------------------------------------
>>3778286
16-25 Crit-fail
24 hours ago

Your mind still felt hazy. The last few days were a blur. It must have been one of your headaches again. You can’t really remember for how long it’s been since you started getting them...since you left home? Home? OH HOME! It was no big loss. At least you could feel Joseph’s strong arms around you. Everything felt just right when you were with him. You cupped your hand around his much larger one at your waist and started to move it lower. He was yours now--Yours and yours alone…Why is he just laying there. It took you years of painstaking planning but you did get him to reciprocate. To love you the same way you loved him. You made him YOURS. So why isn’t he in the mood? You turn around and kiss him. Funny, you don’t remember him having a beard either. Well, it does go with the calloused hands and damn, did his muscles get bigger…Why isn’t he kissing you back? You put on your best bedroom voice--you practiced so much to get it to sound like a seductive purr. Just like the girls in the videos he liked.—“Joe, baby, what’s wrong? I’m right here waiting for you.”

You swear he looks older when he gives you that face. “Sis you passed out again. You almost got in a car accident. We need to get back to looking for Alice.” Alice? ALICE! WHAT FUCKING WHORE ALI…Oh that Alice! The baby…No the girl that you were raising together? Because that Flounder fellow asked you to. You’re not religious. How did you let yourself get mixed up in this shit? It just seemed like a good place to hide out for a few months. Your memory might be hazy right now, but you know you’ve been there for awhile. You did get that girl when she was a baby. It had to be years! He had to have done something to you AND YOUR BROTHER! Your eyes dart about. You’re not on that fucking farm, you’re somewhere else. You need to take Joe and run while you still can. “Mmm big bro…I think Alice had the right idea. We should go off too. I know you always wanted to see the world.”

Joseph responds in a monotone mumble: “No fix mistake. Must find Alice. Bring back Alice. Alice.” “Joe come…” A loud knock at the door interrupts you. Your brother looks you over strangely “Shirl you need to rest. I’ll handle this. I won’t mess up again.” He gets up and reaches into dresser. Even in the dim light you can make out the shape of a handgun. Shit! He’s pointing it at you. “Be quiet, sis.”

That knock comes back louder. “This is the police. We can hear you two in there. We just have a couple of questions.” The deep male voice pauses.” We might know where Alice is.” Joe turns and wildly starts firing at the door. Christ that’s loud. You think you can see him shudder or something. WAIT, WHY IS HE TURING BACK TO YOU…

Christ, the bastard winged you and nailed Bill. Drawing your service pistol you look over to see that Bill managed to drag himself out of the doorway. He’s already on the line with dispatch. Judging by his long breaths between words and the lack of any blood trail from the doorway, his vest must have caught the round. The shooting’s stopped. There’s no telling what this fucker might pull. Well, he’s already shot you once; you might as well earn that pension. There’s a feminine scream followed by more gunshots; this time seemingly not at you. You look over to Bill before kicking in door. The moment you get a look at the perp your gun’s already out in front of you in a rough approximation of aiming. It’s all reflexes from there. Your finger squeezes the trigger again and again after each push from the recoil until the slide locks back. You know you hit him more than once around center mass, but somehow he’s still on his feet. He doesn’t even look at you. He just focuses on pumping round after round into the woman on the bed. FUCK! You think the fucker said something but you can’t tell with how badly your ears are ringing. You swear he’s smiling at you before putting the gun under his chin and blowing his brains out. WHAT THE FUCK! You hastily reload your weapon and point it at the prone form on the floor. One the smoke clears you can tell from one look he’s definitely dead. The bastard's missing the top of his head

>Roll 2d20 BO3 Crits are on.

Rolled 20, 2 = 22 (2d20)

>>3801478

Rolled 11, 19 = 30 (2d20)

>>3801478

Rolled 9, 19 = 28 (2d20)

>>3801478

Rolled 29 (1d100)

>>3801489
>>3801496
>>3801513
>20, 19: well those are some interesting rolls.
>Writing.

>20
You kick the gun away from the corpse. You know there’s not much of a point in it, but after the display this crack head put on earlier you wouldn’t be surprised if he turned into a zombie or something. Bill comes charging around the corner weapon in one hand, the other clutching at his ribs. He holsters his pistol and starts mouthing something into the radio. You can guess it’s “suspect down”. You cautiously approach the female on the bed. Judging by the sheer amount of blood rapidly pooling all over the covers she’s tangled in she’s probably just as deceased as the psycho on the floor.

Did her chest just move? It can’t help to check anyway…There’s no fucking way. “BILL SHE’S STILL ALIVE.

>19
You can see Alice’s face turn to a scowl in mid sentence. Why? Things seemed to be going so well. You hope Jeanette can salvage this exchange. The woman is clutching a hand tight to her chest and is turning pale. That’s not a good sign. She gives a look to Alice, which the girl returns with a nod. She puts the phone back to her own ear. “Dad, Alice looks like she needs to use the little girl’s room…I think my signal’s getting patchy out here. I should probably get going anyway…I love you too…I’ll call back tomorrow. Bye.” Alice looks over to you. “Octavian. Something’s coming--Something bad. I think Jenny felt it too.” The old woman squints her eyes as if she’s focusing on something in the middle distance before speaking. “Not one, but two. There are definitely two of them. They’re maybe a couple miles away, but they’re moving so fast towards us. I can’t tell what direction they’re heading in other than toward us. We have a few minutes tops if they keep moving like that. Octavian what do we do?” Alice is muttering a quick prayer breath her breath.

“Jeanette, stay calm.” You say as you channel as much authority into your voice as you can muster. “Girls transform.” The room is bathed in a glow of red and blue. You know better than to just stop there. “Alice use your magic. Try to pull Alonso in here like you did before.” Your little nun lifts her hammer and a portal appears from the ceiling, dumping the surprised knight in front of you sword in hand and spear sticking out from the carpet. “My Word! What was that, Your Highness?” You don’t have time to explain anything. You hop over to Alice’s backpack and pick up the lantern and the multitool. You can only carry one effetely, thanks to the size of the lantern, unless you use your magic:
>It’s getting dark outside. You can help best by lighting the way. Take the lantern.
>Your heading into combat with your girls. You need a last ditch. Take the multitool.
>Use your powers to levitate one of the items. However, It would distract you from focusing on the battle or using telepathy to communicate with the girls.
>Have someone else carry one of them. Who? What? Write in:

Jeanette looks toward you with fear in her eyes. “Octavian, should I get my gun?” She asks feebly.
>Yes, you should have time. Go now quickly.
>Yes, but we’ll all go out together as a group.
>No, hand her the multitool.
>No, stick close to me and leave the frontline fighting to the others. We support them.

You need a battle plan. You know that the enemy knows you’re here, but they might not know that you’re expecting them. You have some time. What will you do?
* Regardless of choice roll 1d20 BO3 Crits are on. If you have a better plan or a good combination of them feel free to use the write in option. Creativity is encouraged. Modifiers will be awarded if you come up with something good.*
>Barricade the entrances to the house as best as you can and let them come to you.
>Head out into the back yard and have the spider fence off the tree line and then, the porch area with webs. Hopefully your pursuers will run right into it.
>Send a party member ahead as a decoy (Who?), while your hiding close by in ambush.
>Hop in Jeanette’s car and see if they follow you. You could find a better battleground or possibly wear them down.
>Just walk out and wait. Your party has a numerical advantage and, you would wager, greater skill in combat. Sometimes, fancy tricks are only a hindrance to the trickster.
>Write in/Some combination of plans. See note above.

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>3801952
>Yes, but we’ll all go out together as a group.
>Head out into the back yard and have the spider fence off the tree line and then, the porch area with webs. Hopefully your pursuers will run right into it.

>>3801972
There's still one more option at the end of >>3801945 between taking the lantern, the multitool, or some other option.

Sorry if this is confusing. I'm trying something out.I'm trying the smaller votes before combat as a way to make a battle plan without laying out my own in great detail or just having a write in option.

>>3801988
>>3801972
Oops. Then
>It’s getting dark outside. You can help best by lighting the way. Take the lantern.
Alice between/ in the middle of us

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>3801993
Support

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>3801993
+1

>>3801972
>>3801993
>>3802441
>14
>Bring the lantern
>Go out and retrieve Jeanette's weapon as a group.
>Head to the backyard and have the spider put up webs.

>closing the vote here.

>14
Looking between the items, you settle on the lantern despite it being a little bulky for your size. It’s an obvious choice especially if your little group is forced to venture into the woods…But why would you want to do that? Your enemy is putting a lot of effort into coming to you, so you should reward their efforts with a nice surprise--an ambush--but time isn’t on your side. That rules out most traps or fortifications. You entertain the thought of just locking up the house and fighting inside of it, but you quickly dismiss that. Too many potential openings and the cramped space will restrict your girls’ ability to fly or dart about. The backyard is better for that. Maybe you could use the porch as a vantage point after you clear that web hammock out of the way…Maybe you did have time for a trap? It wasn’t exactly a novel idea, but if works who cares? “Alice, summon the spider. Use your magic to enlarge her. Then, tell her to start weaving a web between the trees at the very edge of the yard. She needs to make it quick.” You can feel everyone’s gaze shift on to you. It must be strange being ordered around by a stuffed animal. You keep talking as Alice opens her portal for the spider. “We’re going to go outside through the front door as a group. Stick together. Jen, grab your gun. After that, we all head into the backyard.” The older woman nods and runs back to the nightstand for the key fob to her car. Alice still has her hammer raised as she relays your orders to the spider. Alonso looks confused by the whole display. “Angel, are we under attack?” You narrow your eyes as you turn your attention to the armored man. “Not yet, but we will be. I need you to be vigilant. Look out for something moving abnormally fast. Oh and there’s a pair of them. I don’t want to get surprised until we are in position. If for some reason that happens protecting the women is your first priority.” He pulls the spear from the carpet as the last word leaves your mouth. “I’m more than willing to head out alone to keep my Queen safe and very hesitant to venture forth into danger with her by my side, but I understand your logic. I will carry out your orders. “Good, then lead the way.”

It’s a tight fit moving down the hallway between Alonso’s spear and the now massive spider. You let the two of them walk a few paces ahead as a vanguard, while you stick close to Alice and Jeanette in a little group. The girls are both clearly tense and frightened, but Alice is doing a better job at hiding it. Maybe she’s getting use to the stress of being a magical girl. Alonso’s the first one out of the front door, followed by the spider scuttling along in a beeline for the backyard. He turns in a rough semicircle on his heels as he stares out into the horizon. It looks like the coast is clear. You motion with your paw for the women to follow you as you step out house yourself. It’s dead quiet outside. There are no sounds coming from the surrounding forest. The only obvious sign of life are the footsteps from your companions. As the nighttime breeze blows, you can make out a foul odor in the wind. There’s the all too familiar metallic tang of blood and putrid smell of decay, but also a cloying sweetness like rancid oil or fat. You can’t see anything close by that would account for it—not a good sign. You lead the women over to the red SUV. You keep an eye on the road while Jeanette fumbles with her key and Alice stays by her side, hammer at the ready. The older woman opens door and gets to unlocking the glove box. That smell is growing stronger. Glancing back to the girls, you think they’ve both noticed it. As Jeanette, exits the car you notice a potential problem in the making. She’s holding her revolver in her right hand with her keys and the speedloader in her left. Her dress doesn’t have pockets. That’s easy enough to solve with magic, but maybe a holster might make for a better solution--One more thing for the shopping list. Hopefully, she can use her magic without her staff. You can see her hesitate to get back out of the car. Gazing back down the road and spotting nothing, you hop over to the women. “Hurry up.” You say in a hushed tone. “Jen, just leave your keys in the car. Let’s go to the backyard. Alice lead the way.” It looks like you shocked the woman back to reality. Jeanette leaves her keys in cup holder and picks back up her pistol. She gets out and closes the car door. You stay close to her side as Alice walks ahead around the front of the car. That smell is getting worse. Your little group is the first in the backyard as Alonso trails behind, watching your backs.

Other than the silence and the pungent stench, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. You can see the spider finishing up her work. The webs are not as impressive as the set you used on that dream monster, but will certainly trip up anything that walks into them. You turn to Jeanette. Do you sense anything new, like what direction they’re heading from?” Amid her trembling you can see her shake her head no. Alice doesn’t add anything new either. As Alonso catches up to you in the center of the yard, you set about handing out new orders. “Alice, stay right here in the middle. Have the spider encircle us in a web that runs from the trees to the porch.” You point with your paw to your left and right. “It doesn’t need to be fancy. A tripwire would do. When she’s done, have her come back and stay close to you. If we have to escape we head through the house.” You gesture towards the back door. You get a mixture of different affirmations in response. The spider is already moving at top speed with silk trailing behind her. She was listening to you “Alonso, I want you near the tree line. You’re the first to engage and the last to break off fighting…Jeanette, come with me to the porch. Our job is to keep an eye out for the others. Also we need to make sure nothing is coming through the house. We did leave the doors unlocked.” You can tell from the look on the woman’s face that she had forgotten that detail. You all split apart to your assignments. Tense moments pass as the spider continues to weave and the odor grows almost overwhelming. Jeanette sets her reload down on one of the deck chairs and opens the back door to look inside the kitchen. “Hello” she says. There’s no response and no one moving around inside the house. You can see the spider shuffle back to Alice. From the occasional faint red gleam of magic you can make out the webs. It’s as if you were inside of a miniature baseball field. Alonso’s standing in the outfield, Alice and the spider standing near the fire-pit would be at the mound, and Jeanette and you are in the first row of bleachers behind home plate.

“Hello” That sounded like Jeanette’s voice but it was coming from the woods. Alice looks back towards both of you. “I didn’t say that” Jeanette says fearfully. There’s a moment of silence. “Help I’m lost guys.” A new voice slurs out almost as if the speaker was drunk. “Where are you I’m scared.” You can see the pardoned looks between the girls. You can see Alice taking a couple tentative steps forward. “Stay right where you are.” You announce for the good of everyone as you hop on the railing and flick on the lantern. You run the beam of light across what would be eye level for a human. As you pass one spot you think you can see something shining back. Going back you can see a pair of yellow predatory eyes peeking out from some foliage. It leads out a bloodcurdling shriek. It knows you’ve spotted it. Both your girls freeze up. Jeanette raises her free hand to her face grasping at her head in pain. Alice is visibly shivering. You’ve seen this sort of attack before from Alonso. You can’t see visible fright from him. He doesn’t seem impressed. The thing takes this opportunity to bolt from its cover. Partially blinded by the light it runs straight towards you, the source of its aggravation, and into the chest high web. Alonso calmly walks over to meet it. With one hand he raises his spear above his head and drives it down at a sharp angle, impaling the beast trough the collarbone. He put so much force into the blow that the spearhead has gone clean through the monster’s torso and has embedded itself into the ground. Pinned awkwardly between the web and spear, the monster can only thrash its gaunt limbs in a futile effort to free itself. Alonso takes the opportunity to grasp his sword with both hands. His mouth forms into an inhumanly long grin as he screams: “¡Santiago y cierra, España!” and unleashes a flurry of sword strokes. He lobs off both of the creatures arms, one at the elbow, the other at the shoulder, with practiced ease. He brings the sword back up, then into another downward arc. The tip meets withered skin just below the breastbone. It sinks in deep and tears a long ragged gash, allowing rotting bowls to spill fourth from the wound. Brutal but effective! A pool of black ichor and what looks like puss grows around the monsters feet disgorged from the exposed organs. The monster seems to have lost its hold over the women, but they seem to be equally disturbed by the display before them. Alice covers her eyes with her free hand. You can hear Jeanette starting to retch beside you. One down, now where’s the other one?

>Roll 1d20 BO3

>Should you get Alice to finish off the creature with her hammer? (Y/N)

>These things can mimic human voices. Should you use your telepathy to bridge the minds of your party so they can communicate directly? There’s a chance that Alice might be able to see your memories if you do. Do you run that risk?
>Yes
>No
>Only communicate telepathically with Jeanette or Alonso

>Do you want to change tactics or have any ideas to flush the other monster out?
How’s combat so far. I took my time and rewrote this one. I hope it shows.

>>3805478
And I managed to miss a typo. that "pardoned look" should be paranoid.
I need my coffee.

>>3805480
>Should you get Alice to finish off the creature with her hammer? Yes
>These things can mimic human voices. Should you use your telepathy to bridge the minds of your party so they can communicate directly? There’s a chance that Alice might be able to see your memories if you do. Do you run that risk? Yes
>Don't change tactics

Rolled 9 (1d20)

>>3805480
>yes have Alice finish it
>yes
>no just wait it out.

Rolled 66, 9 = 75 (2d100)

>>3805687
I think you might have forgotten to roll.

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>3805480
I did

>>3805754
>>3805687
>>3805866
>Safe to say these are the options we're going with, but I still need one more roll before I can write.

Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>3806423
Rollan

>>3806448
Alright, going to take a quick nap and get to writing.
>9

Rolled 76, 24, 43, 24 = 167 (4d100)

I might have napped a little too long. Ignore the rolls. I forgot a couple of factors

Rolled 95 (1d100)

combat roll: 45(9) vs 66 & 9
Octavian’s mental control/perception: 76 didn't think about this till I reread the votes.
The odor of dead flesh hasn't abated. While it could be caused by Alonso's recent handiwork, you're convinced the second beast must be close by. These things seem trickier than the average monster. They must lure their prey by mimicking a friend or a person in distress. It might have worked on Alice if you didn't think to speak up...That's going to be a problem now. You said something out loud so now the remaining one must know your voice. If it's very close by it could start issuing false orders to the group and strike amid the confusion. You're not going to let that happen. You close your eyes and start feeling for the minds of the people around you. Jeanette's the first you find thanks to your familiarity with her mind. She's talking to herself. "Oh I'm going to be sick. This is awful. How did I let myself get talked into this?...Fuck, Jen. keep it together." Surprisingly, next you find the spider. She's wordlessly fuming at Alonso and the monster for ruining her web. Bloody Hell, that's all she's worried about. Alonso's thoughts are a jumble. He's trying to remain alert while another part of his mind hungers for the flesh of his fallen foe. He's trying to reason with himself. "Look at the thing, why would I want to eat it...but the smell is so exhilarating...I want to taste it...One of its arms is right there. Just take a little bite of the muscle...No..." You've had enough of that. Finally with a bit of trepidation you add Alice. She's chanting a mantra of "Gross" in her head over and over again. Next for the hard part, bridging together the minds so they can communicate without letting your own thoughts pour out unfettered. It's been so long since you've done this for contractees. The last time must have been for Jessica's group--ah you remember now. They were fighting a poltergeist that for some reason could completely muffle sounds in addition to making them, in a music classroom of all places! No Octavian...There's no time for reminiscing; focus on the task at hand. You let your mind go as blank as a stark white wall as you weave the strands of thoughts together with your own. "There that should do it. We should communicate like this until we defeat the second." There's a chorus of surprised reactions from everyone except Jeanette once they heard your voice in their respective minds. Then, even more shock once they realized that they could hear everyone else's thoughts. "Wow this is so cool, Octavian. Why didn't you tell me you could do this." Alice interjects, now directly gazing at you. You're focusing hard to keep down your memories, the distraction of everyone else's thoughts isn't helping things. "It just wasn't relevant. Dear, can you finish off the monster with your hammer?"

"God grant me strength...I can do that Octavian." She thinks. You and all the others can sense her aversion to the gore, but after gripping her hammer tightly in both hands for reassurance, she starts walking towards the dying monster anyway. You can immediately hear Jeanette's voice booming in your mind alone. "WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA WITH MAKING HER KILL IT. ALONSO'S RIGHT THERE. CAN'T YOU TELL YOUR MAKING ALICE UNCOMFORTABLE!" You stop the woman before she starts filling your mind with curse words. "It's because of Alice's power. She gains a degree of control over anything beats to death with her hammer. That's how we wound up with Alonso in the first place...Jen, just watch." She falls silent. Alice reaches her spot, checks her boots for blood, and then begins sizing up how best to land the blow. In a rapid motion, the girl raises the hammer across her body, from her hip to just over her left shoulder. Then with a great burst of speed, swings up and to the right. Alice's hair and veil sway with the wind up; the dress of her habit flares as if she was twirled during a dance with an imaginary partner. She lets her body shudder a little as her hammer makes its first contact with the beast. There's a brittle crunch as the face of the hammer kisses the cheek of the creature, right where its ear would be. It's flesh distorts as the thin bone of its skull shatters like glass Followed by a loud crack as its neck bends into a U shape from the force of the impact. You think with only a bit more effort Alice could have decapitated the creature.

The sounds were too much for Jeanette. She hunches over and spews up what's left of her dinner on to the deck. The woman looks up just in time to catch the red glow you were expecting. The monster snaps back into its original position before the hammer blow as if someone was rewinding a video. The putrid viscera flows back up unnaturally to meet the bowls that are now retracting themselves back inside of the creature's body. The long gash down its chest seals shut. The detached limbs on the ground burst into red dust, much to the disappointment of Alonso, and reappear right where they should have been. There's a new vigor in the monster's moans. Jeanette is absolutely stupefied at the sight. You figure it's not an inappropriate reaction to this sort of thing. You issue new orders to your party with haste. "Alonso, cut that thing free. Alice, order it into the woods after its companion. Spider, I want that hole sealed up. Jeanette...just tell me if you're alright." Your voice turns to pity at the end. Maybe having her look at that was a bad idea. You momentarily move the beam of your lantern away from the monster and down near your feet to get a better look at the mess. Sure enough there's a puddle of chunky brown around her feet, with small bits of green leaves, and small flecks of black that trail towards you...Flecks of black? "I swear I'm fine, Oct..." You focus your senses away from thoughts and to observing the world around you. You shine your light around wildly. There's small droplets of black all over the deck. You hear a drip as a new one falls perilously close to Jeanette...Up. It came from above. You point the beam of light at the roof revealing a man in a tattered and stained state trooper uniform clinging to the roof with bare, clawed feet and a single hand in an inhuman, spider-like posture. He held a black pistol in his left, aiming at directly for Jeanette. These things really are clever, or at least this one is. It used its partner as a distraction to sneak behind you. It avoided the web by getting onto the house. And now, it's getting ready to attack you with an actual weapon.

You project your vision into everyone's minds as you franticly scream "DOWN! EVERYONE GET DOWN!" You run at full force and tackle Jeanette's leg for good measure. You manage to push the woman onto her ass as the first shot rings out. You can see the wood railing of the deck splinter from the bullet. The gem of Jeanette's tiara glows as her magic springs into action. A second shot goes wide and kicks up a little spray of dirt from the flower bed. Two more impact further out closer to the center of the yard. A helpless glance up tells you the thing can move it's limb quickly but it has little control over the weapon. The recoil twists its arm as if it was constructed from cooked pasta. Another burst of fire gets dangerously close to Alice and Alonso. One shot manages to strike the first monster in the head. It explodes into a shower of faintly glowing red dust as the rest of its body goes limp. Amid the report of the first weapon and the dull clang of an ejected casing you hear two thundering booms from above you. Jeanette returned fire. Her first shot managed to clip the top of his right shoulder. The second seemed completely off its mark. She must have flinched. It didn't help that you think she closed her eyes between shots.

Even though it was only dealt a glancing blow, the second monster takes its hand off of the roof and shrieks in agony. The residual magic must be burning it. He fires one last shot into the air, before losing his footing. He tumbles off of the roof and falls head first into the damaged railing, breaking off a piece of it with a loud thunk. The human looking face sloughs off in a bloody chunk revealing another creature like Alonso was. He comes to rest splayed out in a heap among the plants in the flower bed. Pushing himself upright with his good arm he leaps to his feet. He surveys his surroundings, only to find himself trapped between a fence of webs and the angry glares of his former prey. You think this is the first time you've seen fear on the face of a monster. He uses his good hand to grab at his left shoulder. The other limb dangles uselessly at an odd angle near his side. "Hello" he parrots in Jeanette's voice before attempting to break into a run. He winces as one of his legs drags behind him.

It's trying to get away. The rest of your party besides Jeanette and you are near the tree line. How do you handle this?

>Have Alice summon her roses to tie him up before she beats some sense into him. (roll 1d20+6)
>You're feeling sadistic after this asshole tried to shoot Alice. Feed him to Alonso. (roll 1d20+5)
>Let him try to get away and have the spider chase him. She's actually pretty fast (roll 1d20+4)
>Jeanette could use some target practice. (roll 1d20-2)
She's almost as bad of a shot as the monster
>"Bring me everyone...EVERYONE" (combination of all of the above choices. Feel free to write in how you want things done. roll 1d20 I'll add on a modifier afterwards)
>Write in

Basically barring a crit-fail on your part or a 100 on his roll, he's screwed. Your roll to attack him was mediocre, but he flubbed his attack roll completely. You needed a 14 to spot him, but anything over a two to hit him back. A good roll would have killed him outright. Plus after the roll above it looks like the Durands are pulling into their driveway just in time to find this mess.

>>3807370
>Let him try to get away and have the spider chase him. She's actually pretty fast (roll 1d20+4)

>Have Alice summon her roses to tie him up before she beats some sense into him. (roll 1d20+6)

He seems like a useful minion. I want to convert him.

Rolled 46, 25 = 71 (2d100)

>>3807435
>>3807471
>I can combine these. However, I will leave the vote open if anyone wants to brake the tie or add anything else in.

>Roll 1d20+6 BO3 Crits are on.

Rolled 8 + 6 (1d20 + 6)

>>3808057

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>3808057

>>3808168
>>3808187
Just wasting on one more roll

Rolled 11 + 6 (1d20 + 6)

>>3808057

>>3808168
>>3808187
>>3808720
>17 I didn't have my usual time to write in the morning. I'll try to get the update out tonight.

File: 80589_medium.jpg (401 KB, 1140x1095)

401 KB JPG

>17(85)vs. 46 sneak, 25 reaction attack
24+95 Durands' arrival progress: They're home. This was the 4th d100 I rolled with Octavian's mental focus last round. I forgot that they could wind up in the fight until I checked my notes.
Whatever newfound pity you had for the beast quickly melts away. If it's smart enough to mimic a human voice and attempt to disguise itself as a human--an authority figure at that--what's to say it isn't feigning its injuries. You can hear the cacophony of someone or something gunning a car engine in the distance. Either this thing has back up waiting in the wings or that's the Durands rushing home. You don't want this thing breaking free either way. It's actually managed to gain some ground in your scant moments of hesitation. It's still fast even when hobbling away. You need to finish this now. You order everyone else to stay back while you mentally scream for the spider to pursue your attacker. A grim mental calculation deems her the most disposable of your bunch.

The spider whirls around in place, focusing all four giant eyes on her target. She makes a rocking motion with her fourth pair of legs, before ascending from the earth in a great leap. She covers most of the distance between them in a single bound. You can feel Alice's fear and arachnophobia flaring up through the mental link. You think you would concur with her sentiments if all spiders were this size. The spider rears up on her hind legs and splaying out the rest. In this position, she absolutely dwarfs the monster. It also gives you a nice view of the red bangle markings on her limbs and the three large red heart marks on the top side of her abdomen--alterations left by Alice's magic. The poor creature doesn't stand much of a chance as she descends upon it, relentlessly stabbing the beast with her fangs. You can sense an anger in her mind at the thought this cowardly beast harming her queen, one that's mirrored in yours as well. To its credit, the monster tries to put up a token defense with its good hand only to moan in agony as the spider's normally soft hairs embed themselves like spines in its flesh. By this point your sure she's no longer injecting venom into the thing. She's just stabbing it out of spite.

You can feel displeasure coming from Alice once she realizes this too. The monster has stopped resisting some time ago. Its moans take on an odd quality as it begins to spasm beneath the spider. Alice is the first one to break the physical silence. "S-STOP IT!" The spider makes no indication of stopping as she thinks this could be a trick from the monster. Alice screams louder as she walks towards the scene. "I SAID STOP IT!" You can see the first indications of tears welling up in the girl's eyes. There's an ethereal flash of red light as Alice's roses spring into reality and launch themselves at the beast. The spider takes this as a good reason to jump away. The vines curl around the monster, leaving only its head and shoulders visible, but wreathed in blooms. Alice cocks her hammer over her head and delivers one hard, but merciful blow directly to the creature’s forehead. There's more red light as the beast goes slack within its restraints. Afterwards, Alice wipes her eyes on the long sleeve of her habit, trying to conceal her tears. The fight is over, for now. At least physically, everyone is unharmed, but you can tell both women are shaken up.

You can hear the engine sounds cut off followed by the quick patter of running footsteps. "Oh fucking shit..." It's Jonathan running towards the backyard with a knife at the ready. He stops just before clothes-lining himself with the web. Soon he's joined by his grandfather, shotgun shouldered, but still at low ready. It looks like the fight really is over. You sever the mental link and take a better look at your physical position. You're somewhat awkwardly encircled by Jeanette's legs. The woman was too distracted by trying to aim her gun from one location to the next to notice the rather unladylike position she's landed in. Not only is she sitting in her own vomit, you head is between her knees and have a full view up her skirt at her lower regions. Thankfully for her modesty's sake, you can now see that her costume is almost like a dancer's leotard with the skirt and petticoat attached directly to it. She finally takes her eyes from the sights and looks down to you. Noticing the direction of your gaze, she starts to blush. You think you would do the same if you physically could. “I would help you up, Jen, but to state the obvious, I’m smaller than you.” She playfully smacks the crown of your head with her left hand, after she puts her revolver down on one of the deck chairs. “Pervert” she says with a gentle smile as she gets to her feet. You use your telekinesis to wipe away the chunks on her backside. She definitely felt that too. Her blush is spreading further down her cheeks. “God, Octavian. I’m single, but I’m not that kind of girl--At least take me out on a date first…” She cranes her head, finding the stain you’re wiping at. Her voice loses its sarcastic edge and takes on a tinge of embarrassment. “…Thanks…Thanks for before too. I think you saved my life.” She’s flashes you a warm genuine smile—a rarity in the short time you’ve know her. You glance up into her eyes and return the same expression. “Isn’t that what friends are for?” She stoops down to snatch you up in her arms, rocking you slightly as she hugs you tight.

Your little moment is interrupted by the stream of profanities coming from Jonathan. You turn your head from Jeanette’s bust to follow the direction of the man’s eyes as he looks about. He’s surveying the damage: A few missing shingles on the roof, no doubt dislodged by the creature’s claws during its fall, the broken railing, the crushed and snapped plants in the flower bed, There’s a large chip in the brickwork of the fire pit, and a couple of bullet holes in the trees where Alice and Alonso were standing. “I’ve driven from here to Michigan, to fucking Canada today, and now I’m going to have to clean all of this up—FUCK!” He looks from the corpse of the first monster to the second and his eyes go wide once he reads the patch on shoulder of its uniform. He then looks back up to the loose patch of skin and hair sitting on top of the monster’s head. Alice smiles nervously at Jonathan. “Don’t be mad. Look I can help clean up.” She whacks the motionless monster with her hammer and it disappears, followed by her roses. “See, all gone.” She’s waiting for his approval, but he doesn’t respond. Instead, he cuts a hole in the web, and follows the monster’s tracks over to the flower bed. He pokes around with his knife for a bit, finally raising it to eye level with the severed face dangling off of its point. You think that just grossed out most of the parties present, except for Alonso and you. “Damn. I’m not mad anymore. I think they were after me…” He looks around at the confused expressions and continues to explain. “…I saw this guy helping with the search the other day. He saw me asking questions…My first hunch was right; there were more wendigos running around. Bastards were posing as cops, no wonder I missed them. Fuck!” He stops when he feels his grandfather smack the back of his head. Sam points over to Alice. “Watch your language around the little lady.” You can almost feel the young man’s self-confidence crumble a little bit. “Fine, sorry…I’m tired but I’ll help. Alice can you do that thing to the other one?” Alice dismisses the spider, irate at the holes in her webs, and strikes the remaining corpse with her hammer. It disappears as well. Jonathan flicks the skin into the firepit before wiping the knife off on his pants leg and sheathing it behind. He then starts grabbing logs from the woodpile, getting ready to build a fire to dispose of the evidence. As the smell of burning flesh assaults your nose, you order Alonso to cut down the webs and add them to the fire. Alice helps him gather up them up. Samuel sets down his shotgun and asks to borrow his grandson’s knife. He seems interested in the silk. He stops Alonso to cut swatches and long strands out of the web before the knight dumps the rejected material in the fire.

He notices Jeanette and you watching him. He offers a kind smile. “I just had a little idea for a gift for Alice. That’s all…” He turns to the girl. “Now, I must ask you a favor. My grandson and I spent a lot of time gathering up some very old an important artifacts from my culture over the past few days to show off at the party tomorrow. They’re not mine and I need to give them back. You can look at them all you want but you can’t touch them. Understand.” He takes the silk from the girl’s arms and dumps into the fire as she answers “Of course.” He pats her on the head. “If you want I can tell you all about them. It’s a rare opportunity to see three, four hundred year old relics outside of a museum.” Jeanette speaks up too. “I wouldn’t mind taking a look myself. I’m something of a history buff myself. I minored in US History at college.” You think you can see Jonathan wince for some reason. The pride is obvious on Sam’s face. “I would love to show you too. I’m glad there are more young people that care about the past. I know you mentioned you’re a teacher, but if you’re the scholarly sort with many questions, I’ve invited a lot of tribal elders over for tomorrow—not just from my own band, but from many others too. You see my daughter is in the profession too. She’s a professor. Native American History, obviously. She couldn’t cancel her classes on such short notice, so she sent me a list of questions and a survey of sorts. She wanted me to record their answers in video…well that and the dance. Maybe I could con you into helping me with that. I’m no good with new fangled technology and I’ll be busy during the other part.” Jeanette seems way too happy at the prospect of work. “Absolutely, it would be an honor.”

“Good, well we should get to unpacking things. Don’t worry about the rest of the mess. I’ll handle it later. It should make for a good story around the fire tomorrow. We’ll be inside if you need anything.” The two set off back towards the car. Thankfully, the smell of burning skin and hair has long since died down, leaving only the refreshing sent of charred pine in the air. You once again notice the chink in the masonry. That reminds you of something. “Hey Jen, that thing had a gun. Did you see where that went?”

She shakes her head. “No, everything was sort of a blur…and I sort of closed my eyes. I didn’t know that muzzle flashes were that bright at night.” You thought she did just that anyway. “We should find it before someone gets hurt.” She puts you down carefully—making sure not to put you in the puddle of vomit—and picks up the unattended lantern, shining it over the corners and eaves of the roof. It’s not there. You then hear a soft voice behind you. “Found it. It’s right here.” It’s Alice. You can hear the lantern hit the deck. Jeanette immediately starts freaking out. ”NO! DON’T TOUCH THAT, DEAR!” You turn around. It’s too late for that. Alice is holding the gun properly, at least from what you know from your limited experience. She’s pointing it down at the dirt between her feet, finger off the trigger, and her left hand has already pulled back the slide. She’s looking for something down the barrel. She lets go and ejects the magazine into her left hand. “It’s okay Jenny. It’s all out of bullets.” She turns the magazine at an odd angle to face Jeanette. “See.” The older woman shakes her head. “Sweetheart, I thought you said you never touched a gun before. How did you learn how to do that?” You can tell from the look on her face that she regrets asking the moment her words leave her mouth. Alice shrugs her shoulders. “Um this one is just like Shirley’s. She wouldn’t ever let me touch it, but I watched her use it. You know, for practice. My brothers and sisters practiced a bunch so I had plenty of chances to watch them. Target practice always looked so fun, but the others wouldn’t let me. I know I’m not an adult so I shouldn’t have a gun yet…” She walks on to the porch putting the pistol and magazine next to Jeanette’s revolver on the deck chair. “…I didn’t break the back thingies…” She points to where the rear sites should be. They’re missing. “…I think it was like that when I found it…Umm Jenny I think you should reload yours. You did shoot at the bad guy, right?”

Jeanette speaks softly. “Twice, I think?...I don’t know how to use that thing with the bullets on it. Those are all the ones I have. I’ll figure it out later. You shouldn’t bother with this stuff, Alice.” Alice rubs nervously at the back of her neck. “I actually know how to do that. See one of Joseph’s was a revolver too. Except his was a lot bigger…I think. I can teach you something for once…May I?” Alice stands waiting for a long while before Jeanette give a shaky nod. Alice gingerly picks up the weapon and turns to the side so Jeanette can see the operation in better detail. “First you flip this thing over here, so it can’t go off…Then, this thing right here, you push on that and the center part swings out. Then you push on the rod thingy here and they all tip out.” Alice tips up the gun and dumps all the rounds including the spent ones in her left hand. “Don’t do that if their hot. I just did that cuz you still have some good ones in here.” She sets the rounds down carefully on the chair so they don’t roll. She then picks up the speedloader. “This is easy. You just line it up with the holes and twist…See all done.” She closes the cylinder and double checks the safety before setting the gun back down. She picks up the remaining three rounds and twists them back into the speedloader. “That’s how you put new ones in it…See easy.” Alice almost skips in place. “If you want to practice sometime, I wouldn’t mind helping you more. Maybe we could go for target practice together sometime, Jenny.” She finally notices the stains all over Jeanette’s dress. “Yucky. I’ll get you a damp cloth stay right there.”

Alice runs off to the kitchen leaving the two of you alone. Once the door shuts, Jeanette turns to you and gripes: “Alice can barely write her own name but she can reload a gun. Jeeze, I’m off to a great start as a mom. My Father is going to be so proud of me.” You nuzzle into her calf like a cat. “Jen, you’re doing all you can. Don’t beat yourself up over stuff you have no control over…Alice’s past is always going to be a part of her. We just need to give her the best future we can. That’s really all we can do.” Jeanette leans down to pick you up again, this time, sort of cradling you in her arms. “I know it just makes me sad…So I guess I take that out on myself, like so many other things…” Alice steps back through the door towel in hand. Looking at her you can see her magical girl outfit is grimy too. “Girls if you de-transform your outfits will be clean the next time you call them up. They’re handy like that. Instead you take the towel from Alice as you’re surrounded by light. Once you see the girl again you blot off the couple of splotches of blood on her face. You then turn to Jeanette and she holds you up to wipe around her mouth. You pass the towel back to Alice and ask her to give it Alonso. The breastplate of his armor is covered in black stuff. You can hear the fire crackling away in the background. What else do you want to do tonight?

Jeanette gained a Glock 22. The rear sights are damaged, she only has one magazine, and no rounds of .40S&W. She has five rounds of .357 in her enchanted Smith & Wesson Model 649 and three extra cartridges.

>You feel like you were just getting Jeanette to open up to you. You know the girls are both a little disturbed by what they just went through. You’re no human therapist but maybe talking about it around the fire might be good for everyone, even Alonso.
>Maybe you could play a quick game of something or watch a movie to help the girls wind down.
>Everyone needs showers. Jeanette and you could use the distraction to ask the Durands a little more about Alice or the ritual tomorrow.
>Sam mentioned he was a soldier once. If he’s not busy, maybe he could help teach Jeanette and Alice more about firearms. He might know how to repair the one you found.
>Write in/something else/some combination of options.

>>3811658
I thought of a few more options.

>You remember seeing a pair of small earphones in Jeanette's purse. Does that mean she has some way to listen to music like one of those fancy MP3 players. Some calming music might help the girls relax and open up Alice to more culture that she desperatly needs.

>You could spend some family time together discussing what Alice wants in her life and her future.

>There's nothing better than distraction and tedium to keep a mind away from dark thoughts. Find an activity to keep the girls busy. You could have them go over more exercises in the workbook. Maybe Alice would perfer to mend her sweater and teach Jeanette how to sew in the process. (select one of the two)

So, I've been kinda following along with this quest here and there. Mind some critique on what I figure on it so far?

>>3811658
>You feel like you were just getting Jeanette to open up to you. You know the girls are both a little disturbed by what they just went through. You’re no human therapist but maybe talking about it around the fire might be good for everyone, even Alonso.

>>3812097
That's fine. I could use the feedback.
>The vote is still open as well.

>>3812172
I’ll support that

>>3812930
Okay, this is >>3812097. Was phone posting at the time.

So, there's a few things. First, general grammar:

Please, you should split up your paragraphs so that they're smaller. While they aren't horrible, it's hard to look at a chunk of text that thick and want to read it. Sounds silly, I know, but in general, sheer visual attractiveness is important for a quest's writings. My suggestion, and general good practice, I think, is to split into a new paragraph whenever the focus character, OR the primary subject matter changes. Not the point of view, just the subject of the moment. Mind you, 'You' is a subject, too.

On that topic, if you're afraid of having one-sentence lines, don't be, because they can provide good breathing points for readers.

The next issue is that it's a good idea to remember commas, semicolons, and dashes in dialogue. If you're not sure when commas should go in, in regards to people speaking...just repeat the line out loud yourself. If there's a hitch, break, or the sort, don't be afraid to use one- it can be a great way to mix up sentences and keep them feeling fresh. Semicolons are a bit special, mind; they're kind of a way to string two sentences together, so they CAN be misused.

I intentionally used examples in my explanations- hopefully they'll help you figure out how best to use them!

----------

Now, as for the quest itself.

I feel like, despite the action, there's not really much of an overarching goal, or even a central theme. I'm kinda asking 'what's the point of this?' 'This', being the quest itself. What's the overarcing goal of the quest? The raison d'etre? Not in a meta way, rather, evenif the goal is repeating or recursive, what is the intended reason for the quest setting to happen? Get me? It feels like we're just going about and getting caught up in things, which is kinda...lax. Unless I missed something, there's nothing in particular to shoot for. May need to change that.

>>3813585
First of all thank you for giving me feedback. This is my first attempt at running a quest (and to make matters worse I have close to zero creative writing background. It's a complete first for me), so I've been looking for some since I took over. I know I could ask around the general but that feels like attention whoring to me.

First off, I agree that the paragraphs have gotten a little too long, especially in the past few updates. I'll try to break things up more when appropriate.

You actually called it completely correct. I was afraid of having one or two-sentence lines. I don't mind them as part of dialogue, just to break things up, but I thought it would look like eye rape as characters spouted off short lines under duress and the subject shifted around rapidly in the middle of combat.

As far as punctuation goes, I try to keep things varied up during narration. However, I might have completely overlooked it as I was structuring the dialogue in my head and while I was writing it down. I'll try to keep that in mind. The one point I must raise is Alice's speech pattern is supposed to be very simple and sometimes grammatically incorrect to reflect her lack of education along with her relative immaturity for her age.
--------------
Now, to the last point. I'm having a little trouble parsing what you're getting at. You did kind of lose me. There may be spoilers ahead so I will mark them off when I can.

Believe it or not I actually do have an entire plot-line already written out. There is a central conflict that Alice will feel personally invested in solving, along with side conflicts that arise simultaneously. Actually, I came up with multiple different ones depending on what choices you make and what events play out. You just haven't gotten to interacting with much of it yet. I’ve also laid out a few mysteries and questions about the world that the players might want to solve and might be related to that conflict.You're still sort of at the very beginning point of the quest. You have few real resources, you're out in the middle of nowhere, you have no long term prospects for housing, and until Jeanette came along, you were stuck there with no transportation (and gas costs money that the two of you don't have). All the while you're trying to care for a teenage girl with issues. You're also on the run from a cult that wants to harm Alice. Flounder wants to impregnate her with what he thinks will be the second coming. However thanks to sheer luck (They botched three rolls in a row) you haven't run into them yet, so you only know about them OOC. I would say dealing with all of that is your current short term goal. There are longer term things to address, but I’m not sure how much I can give away without spoiling everything.

It sort of goes without saying considering the above situation, that you have somewhat limited agency at the moment and things are just happening to you. There's not much to do in the middle of the woods or in a nearby podunk small town. You can’t fight an enemy you don’t know about. You have more questions than answers in regards to certain things. That will change after tomorrow as the Durands will kick you out, expecting you to uphold the end of your bargain by doing some work for Jonathan. Jeanette will take you to a couple of big cities in the process.

I hope you’re willing to stick with me and give me a chance. I have no illusions that I’m even an adequate writer, much less a decent or a good one, but as long as I have votes I’ll keep going. I intend on finishing the quest as long as someone is still interested.

>>3812172
>>3812930
>I guess I'll close the vote and go with this. I've ran out of time to write this morning, so I'll try to put out the update when I can.

>>3813947
This is another anon and i tried to keep with the quest but its hard for me to really get invested into it, so i might get things wrong:
Alice can have all the reasons in the world to be invested into solving a problem, but Octavian (the players) at any time can unmake the contract, ditch everyone and start anew, because so far he has no real reason to keep going with alice or bolt out the moment the situation turns out to be more dangerous than expected.

Just keep in mind Octavian is the MC, not Alice.

>>3814104
I'm glad you brought this up for multiple reasons. I'm new to this type of writing, so often I don't know when I should play coy with information or spell everything out for the players when it comes to a mystery. I also don't know how often I should restate information for the players. I know it can be useful but some people might find it grading.

First off, Octavian has his own reasons to get invested in solving the problem.The guilt he was feeling earlier and his strange preoccupation with Alice are big parts of that. He helped cause the problem. If his current mind-state holds he will be very interested in fixing it.I just left him out earlier as I felt it might spoiler too much.

Now to restate a bit off stuff. Octavian can't just unmake the contract easily. He uses up part of his soul in order to hack a girl's soul. This allows the girl to use magic, and she releases the energy he feeds on to stay alive. His only way out is to kill the girl or force so much despair and trauma on her that her soul breaks.He is very much a (not!)Kyubey except instead of using the souls and emotions of girls for energy to fight entropy, he vampirizes children to stay alive. He shouldn't even have human emotions or guilt, but he does now.

>bolt out the moment the situation turns out to be more dangerous than expected.
This has already occurred to Octavian twice and normally he would have already done just that, but something's off with him and he knows it. Emotionally and morally he feels like he can't abandon Alice specifically.

I will go ahead and spell things out here all of this information has been presented by I'm not sure if anyone has put it all together. So, spoilers ahead:

1.) Octavian has always felt draw to Alice, ever since she was born. That was one of the reasons he left with her. He wrote it off as fascination with her high magical potential. By why stand around for fourteen years when he could have been off making many contracts?

2.)This has gotten stronger since he made the contract with Alice and her powers were strengthened. He suddenly developed human emotions, guilt at his past actions, and a parental love for Alice--out of the blue--a couple days after the contract.

3.)Very much like Madoka, Octavian only makes it so the girl's can use their power's easily, but they always had their magic. It's part of their very souls. Take for example Jeanette's case. She mentioned she should have died when she got struck by a car as a teenager. Then, the doctors were convinced she would spend the rest of her life paralyzed. She managed to figure out how to walk again. Now that she's a magical girl she has healing magic. This is not a coincidence. A girl's wish colors things to some degree, but their soul has to have the capability of performing that magic.

>>3814393
4.)Alice's magic is both extremely strong and aberrant by magical girl standards. On a scale of one to ten her magical potential is a twelve. Most girls specialize in one thing but Alice is all over the place.

5.)Look over exactly what Alice wished for again. now the really spoiler-ly part. There are multiple parts to it but the first thing she asks for is to be like Father Flounder...A cult leader. How might that effect her magic? Think about what she did to Alonso. Alice has always had the ability to do that it was just really hard, but she's been virtually alone with Octavian for a very long time.

6.)Alice is a very lonely little girl. Titania gave her up. She's never had a family, but always wanted one. There's been a lot of flashbacks but one was in red--Titania and Alice's color as a magical girl. This happened right before you showed Alice 'Alice in Wonderland'. The speaker wasn't clear but it was Titania right after labor. It was her rejecting Alice from the very moment of her birth. Alice was screaming--like any child wanting to be held by someone, A child that wants the love of a parent. Octavian was preset for all of this. I wanted to present the birth scene earlier. To be precise once someone figured out that Alice might not have papers but I was a bit worried if it was too graphic for a blue board.

I think you should be able to figure it out from there.Alice has her hooks in Octavian both figuratively and literally. If you need more confirmation ask the Durands you heard them whispering about something in the second thread. The word enthrallment came up. You've both had the option to talk to them about it and to snoop through Jonathan's papers. No one really seemed interested.

>>3813585
>>3814104
This isn't a question just for you but for all the potential players. What do you want to see out of the quest. I don't mind shifting things around if you would find it more interesting. My plot is actually flexible I had large space where I could speed up the plot or slow things down if the players found something else to be interested in. You're also not very far in, so I could change things around.

>>3814393
>>3814468
Still the same anon (v6QkaM0L) from before.
>First off, Octavian has his own reasons to get invested in solving the problem.The guilt he was feeling earlier and his strange preoccupation with Alice are big parts of that. He helped cause the problem. If his current mind-state holds he will be very interested in fixing it.I just left him out earlier as I felt it might spoiler too much.
Now i'm gonna ask you something. You have this rich interior landscape for octavian to draw motivations from. But did the players knew about it?
If they didn't, then for all intents and purposes that background information doesn't exist because no one except you knows about it.
Quoting from somewhere else:
>"All that rich background you’re selfishly keeping to yourself, that no other player will ever know about. It’s yours and yours alone. And you’re the only one who will ever enjoy it.
>The method.
>Secrecy.
>Otherwise known as mental masturbation. You are, quite literally, playing with yourself."

>I don't know when I should play coy with information or spell everything out for the players when it comes to a mystery.
If its information that octavian(and the players) should know, state it right away. You can be as coy as you want with any other information the players get in contact with, but expect them to gloss over it.

>He is very much a (not!)Kyubey except instead of using the souls and emotions of girls for energy to fight entropy, he vampirizes children to stay alive. He shouldn't even have human emotions or guilt, but he does now.
At the beginning of the quest he was literally the opposite. I know that you took over once the other QM bolted out and can do whatever you want with the quest, but retconning the first threads is bad practice.

>the first thing she asks for is to be like Father Flounder...A cult leader.
No, you're wrong on that. Read the first thread again; Alice wants to be like the persona Father Flounder presents to her.
In Alice's eye, Flounder isn't a cult leader, but someone who loves everyone, wants to right wrongs and wants to bring peace to the world. the only reason that we know that Flounder is a cult leader is because we have external information and we aren't as innocent as alice.

>This isn't a question just for you but for all the potential players. What do you want to see out of the quest.
I want a reason to care about octavian. Not stated in OOC posts but in the quest. Also, bring him to the spotlight; He's the MC, not Alice. We should be fighting our problems with the help of alice, not the other way around.

>>3814559
>But did the players knew about it?
Yes, or at least they should. virtually everything above was stated outright in the text at some point in the story--a lot of it is at the end of thread three and the beginning of thread four The only OOC tidbit was that the person speaking to Octavian in that flashback was Titania, but that shouldn't have been a very big mystery from the context clues. The speaker is in pain, has very labored breathing--you know like they just gave birth, and is asking Octavian to shut up...something screaming--like an infant. Octavian (well, I have/)has mentioned numerous times that he was there when Alice was born. Well that and Octavian caused the problem. I intended to spoiler that. You haven't really interacted with my main plot yet. Although, Octavian will know exactly what it is the moment he sees it. Furthermore, He might have some idea what it is and has already mentioned it in the text.

That's a big part of why I was asking how much I need to spell things out. I already raised much of this in the text. I don't know if it's just because I'm a bad writer or they just glossed over it. I try to hint at and foreshadow events heavily before they happen. I don't know how well that's coming across. As a player I like mysteries that we can slowly unravel in my quests. I like to guess and speculate with my votes. So naturally, I decided to include that as an element of the quest.It was actually supposed to play a much bigger role in the story. Combat was supposed to be a puzzle and the use of dice was supposed to be very minimal, but my early threads weren't very active. I don't blame the players. My first thread was awful.

>Recons
You already said it. I'm not the original QM and it's not like I have his story notes. I could only guess at where he was going. Inevitably I was going to change a couple things as I made my own story, but I've tried to keep things as consistent as possible. This was one of the major changes.It's also why I chose the backstory I just told you about. Things have changed since he's know Alice. That way, Octavian's bad deeds happened off screen without effecting the events of the first thread. He'll still contract girls. He just won't try to hurt or mislead them into danger going forward.

>Wish
Anon I might have changed this toobut by Word of God as the QM, I'm telling you Alice's wish worked out literally even if she didn't know what she was wishing for. All the future girls will work that way too. I didn't come up with the brainwashing thing. The original QM did. I also didn't come up with the idea of there being many dead magical girls Octavian knows of, or the idea of him thinking of abandoning her and dismissing it. That was all in the Alonso fight in thread one. I just ran with it.

>>3814938
For the last part. I promise I will try my best. I never intended to push Octavian out of the spotlight. His decisions dictate how everything plays out. Alice really does listen to him after all. There's more contracts out there and plenty of adventures for him to go on. It's just one of the main themes I'm trying to work into the story is family, not just finding it in unlikely places, but also about becoming a parent. Priorities change. Sometimes you have to give things up for your kids. Sometimes, the story becomes about them. You might struggle to live up to being the person they think you are. In the end they might save or redeem you (that's sort of a well tread archetype).

Like I said before, don't let my plans stop you. I leave the write in option open with every vote for a reason. If you have a cool idea or something you really want to see, I will try my darnedest to work it into the story. Just tell me about it.

I hope I didn't come off as too argumentative. I really do appreciate the feedback. I'm just sort of confused where I went wrong.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/3789176/
Once again thank you for the feedback.

>The thread is now archived. I'm still working on the update. If anyone still wants to vote for anything in >>3811658, >>3812006, or a leave a write in feel free. I haven't gotten much done and like many Saturdays I have commitments today.

>Also, I am still curious still curious about what people want from the quest or just general interest in it.

>>3816547
Was thinking about what Octavian is, exploring the thought of what exactly a contractor came from. And the reminiscence of his past contractors brings me to think about, for those who didn't die horribly, possible children? Maybe the same generation as Alice or older.

>Sorry I've been so slow with this. I have a frustrating amount of writer's block over the past few days. I maybe should start a new thread here, but I think we have time for one more vote.

You sit in silence in Jeanette’s arms studying Alice, as she wipes the muck from Alonso’s armor by the dim glow of the fire’s light. With her features obscured by shadows and the haze of smoke, you could swear it was actually her mother standing before you. She really does look more and more like Titania with each passing day—especially in that dress. Her mother had a lot of outfits like that and wore them frequently, even after the other girls introduced Titania to modern fashion with their hand-me-downs and items pilfered from younger siblings…Well, that was before the two of you started to travel together. After that, Titania wore whatever she could cobble together with her almost nonexistent resources—sometimes things that looked more like rags than clothes.

You can recall the first time you ever saw Titania wearing something that resembled a pair of trousers. Jessica and you had returned from school to find the young girl waiting in your bedroom, patiently reading a book on your bed (It was really Jessica’s room and bed, but you stayed there too). She had snuck in by jimmying open a window while the two of you were away, which she often did in those days. Jessica told you it was to get away from her mother, but you never bothered to inquire further from either girl. You had already gotten what you needed from the two of them. It was irrelevant. (No! No it wasn’t. They cared for you, Octavian. You should’ve felt the same for them.)

Jessica placed you down on the bed and excused herself to the bathroom. She returned with a small pair of jeans covered in girly patches—hearts, butterflies, flowers, all that sort of stuff—and a simple white blouse. Jessica explained that the jeans were her favorite pair from her childhood, how much she loved skating in them, and that she downright prohibited her mother from donating them when she grew out of them. You don’t remember her exact words for all of that, but you do for the next part. {green]”And yesterday, I went into the attic and got them out…Just for you.”[/green] The blouse looked more like a dress on Titania, but the jeans did fit.

Titania’s smile in that moment could have lit up the whole world. It was warm and genuine; not like the ones you saw later during your traveling days, when she was drinking or when she talked to herself during her odd moods. Was that the last time you could distinctly recall Titania being happy? No…it was that night. She looked so happy and relieved when you both found her friend on that bridge, before Jessica…

You clinch your teeth to stifle the scream rising up in the back of your throat. You didn’t mean for that to happen. You really did try to help. After all, Jessica was such a valuable contractee; she recruited so many others for you. She practically negotiated those contracts for you. It takes all your effort to keep your paws from wrapping around your own throat in anger. (How could you let yourself live like that? How could you ever treat people like that?) “No more!” You silently resolve to yourself. No more Jessicas. No more Titanias. No more broken girls. No more suicides. You simply won’t allow it. You know how close Jeanette has come to following in Jessica’s footsteps, but for completely different reasons. You know what that would do to Alice. You’ve already seen it play out in her mother’s life. (Were you just being shortsighted at the thought of an easy contract, or did you plan for things to go that way?) For some reason, you can feel a headache coming on. You decide to make another resolution—not to let the past repeat itself.

“Octavian, what’s wrong. You haven’t said much and you’re thrashing around.” Jeanette’s voice snaps you back to reality. She’s looking you over with concern. You can tell Alice and Alonso are doing the same.

“No, Jen. I’m not alright because I’m worried you.” You raise your voice an octave to make sure Alice and Alonso can hear you too. “I’m worried about all of you. If one thing’s become clear in my time on Earth, It’s how truly fragile even the strongest people are. There’s no need for any of you to bear your burdens in silence.”You sweep your paw out pointing towards some of the damage from the fight. “I know that…THAT—wasn’t the easiest thing to go through and it’s probably stirred up some negative feelings in all of us. But there’s no need for anyone to bottle them up. Like it or not we’re all in this together. We should help each other…So I want to talk; I want us to sit down around the fire and have a serious talk. Be it about tonight, or anything else…”

“Octavian.” Jeanette interrupts you. Trepidation is written all over her face. “I mean, that’s nice and all, but that’s going to take time. I need to put these guns away, and wash my mouth out. I think I should wipe up the mess I left on the deck before winds up stained. Not to mention that Alice should change. Her nice dress will get all smoky around the fire and isn’t it getting close to her bed time anyway. And I have those new clothes for Alonso. He’s probably getting uncomfortable spending all his time in that armor. And…”

You can tell she’s just trying to make excuses. “Jen, those things are all fine concerns.” You put on your best authoritative voice. “I want you all to be comfortable. That’s why we can take a short break to change, clean up, or attend to whatever little tasks are in the way. But, this is important. I want to talk tonight. I want everyone together around the fire in say…ten minutes tops. Understand.” You’re not getting any resistance from Alice or Alonso. Why would they question the whims of an angel? You crane your neck up and stare into Jeanette’s eyes pleadingly. You think that took the wind out of her sails.

Jeanette lowers your body back down onto the deck. “Fine.” She responds. “Alice, sweetheart go change in your room. Alonso, I’ll bring you your stuff if you want to change too.”
The knight shakes his head. “I’ll mange like this. I want to be ready to defend My Lady and you at a moment’s notice, especially after tonight’s events.”

“I understand. I’ll still get them.” With her hands free, Jeanette picks up the lantern and switches it off, tucking it under one arm. Then, she grabs the pile of weaponry on the deck chair. “Just give me a moment and…”

“Jen, I’m coming with you.” You state gravely. She doesn’t say a thing as turns her back to you and starts off to the car. You stick close behind her as if you were her shadow. Hoping to make your motives clear, you decide to speak to her again in the driveway. Your voice barely more than whisper: “I promise I trust you Jen. I just…didn’t want to leave you alone with a gun.”
The woman sighs as she opens the car door. “That’s a wise move, Octavian. You already know me too well.” She takes a very long pause as she goes to locking things up. She abruptly changes the subject. “I’ve been to therapy before for a lot of different things. I was in a support group after my accident. I talked to a shrink after my Mom died. I went to a councilor with Dan. I guess those awkward chats with the one at school count too. Talking’s never done much for me. I understand what you’re trying to do, Octavian, and why you’re doing it. I don’t think it will do much good.”

“No, I don’t think you do. Actually, you just pointed out precisely why I need your help. Look, I’ve tried to help someone with their feelings before and I royally screwed it up. I was still…very much a monster at the time. I couldn’t get anything out of her besides tears—so I used my powers. I ripped into her thoughts; I found what I was looking for, but in the process, I made her relive a very painful and traumatic experience…I broke her. That’s why I need you, Jen, to help me moderate things. You know how therapy is supposed to work. You have experience; I don’t. We both know that Alice dislikes fighting, and we both want her to stay safe and sane. I mean, you should feel free to share whatever you want. I want stop you from talking.”
She turns and smiles at you wryly. “You’re goddamn smart little bastard, Octavian. You really know how to push my buttons.” She takes a little bottle of mouthwash out of the center console and downs a portion. You think she’s exaggerating how she swirls it about in her mouth before spitting it out in the gravel at her feet in a rather tactless manner compared to how she normally carries herself. “I do whatever it takes to help out Alice…” She says seriously. “…But you used up your freebee when you decided to look up my skirt and touch my butt. If you want to hear me gush about my feelings, I expect dinner first-- Just the two of us.” She says jokingly.
Two can play it that game. You remember Sophie loved to mess with Jessica using innuendos. “Of course. As a gentleman, it’s the right thing to do. I hear someone has a birthday coming up. Let’s say we make it a really special occasion. I would love that.” You let your voice drop down low as you draw out the O sound in love. Jeanette’s gone red as a tomato, or Alice’s magic. You suppose that was the desired effect. After a brief pause you resume normally: “So shall we head back?’

She’s still blushing but you get a chuckle out of her. “Sure thing, Mr. Bond.” She says before grabbing her keys and closing up the car. She scoops you up in her arms once she pockets the keyfob. “You know it should be illegal to use that voice on a girl, especially an American one. We eat that accent up—so prim and proper. It’s like Prince Charming’s finally come for me.” She’s really burst out laughing now. You can’t help but to join her. You’re glad you can set her mind at ease like this. Maybe helping the others will be this easy too.

Once you’re both in the backyard, you can see Alice standing on the deck, in her clothes from earlier today, with a mop and bucket. She’s already cleaned up Jeanette’s mess. Alonso is tending to the fire; occasionally glancing about, looking for any potential trouble. You ask Alice to bring down the two deck chairs and set them next to the fire, side by side, so the armrests touch. You ask Alonso if he would like a seat—one from the kitchen—but he elects to stand across. You bid the girls to sit down and you hop from Jeanette’s lap onto the Shelf formed by the armrests in the middle.

“So, Alice…” You begin. You reckon of the three she’s the easiest to get talking. “I want you to know that you say anything you want to me, and I’m sure Jenny and Alonso think the same thing. You can even complain if you want. I don’t want you to hide if you’re feeling hurt. We’re your friends and family you can tell us anything.” You choose to try to steer the conversation. “I think some things were bugging you during the fight…” You look to Jeanette and she gives you a quite nod of approval.

She lets the silence liger a bit before answering. “Yeah. I mean I don’t like fighting, with all that icky stuff and blood. But I know you know what you’re doing Octavian. So if you tell me to do something, I know you’re trying to look out for what’s best and keep us safe.” Her voice quavers a bit. It’s just Ms. Spider scared me. You know more than she usually can. I know that baddy tried to hurt us but she didn’t need to be so mean. I don’t think she was trying to…kill him. Just hurt him lots. I mean that’s not right. We’re the good guys. We’re not supposed to act like that, right Octavian?”

“Yes of course, but she was angry, Alice. In the moment she felt justified in do so, because the monster tried to hurt you. It’s only a predictable reaction at such a thing. I even got angry too…”

“I didn’t know angels got angry. I didn’t think being angry was a good thing.”Alice cuts you off asking a confused question. Well shit. She put you on the spot. What should you say?

Vote# 1
>Of course we do. Angels have flaws just like humans do. I know Father taught you about Lucifer. After that whole mess, we just try really hard not to give in to them.
>Getting angry is a natural thing and angels are part of God’s natural creations. Getting angry isn’t wrong in and of itself. It’s all about how you choose to act on it. Have you ever hear the term righteous anger?
>We can and we do, but so does God. Don’t you remember all those stories in the Bible? It’s perfectly okay to get mad bad guys. It can help you fight them.
>Write in/something else/some logical combination of choices.

Vote# 2
You’ve had your past on your mind a lot recently. If talking can help a human feel better, maybe it can help you feel better two. What do you feel like sharing?
>Talk about poor little Ellen. She was your first girl and your inexperience hurt her in so many ways. But she never stopped trying. She may have died alone, and the people she saved never appreciated her deeds, but you know she was a real hero.
>Maybe you could lighten the mood a bit with some tales about Matilda. Your little aristocrat liked to tease you so much, almost as much as she liked her cannons. Looking back on it you would have had a lot of fun with her if you were like how you are now. She could have been your first friend before Alice or Jeanette.
>Jessica’s been on your mind a lot lately. You should talk about her. She cared so much for you and friends; yet you failed her. You failed all of them. You could only imagine how different things would be if she was alive. She probably would have been Alice’s godmother. She might be raising the girl instead of you.
>You might have to be vague to avoid slipping up, but you feel like talking about Titania. You only saw her magical potential and a grand experiment in her—the possibility of a human replicating your powers. In the end, you only pushed her too hard and too far. In the process, you ruined her life and probably ruined Alice’s. You deserved all the grief she gave you, but you didn’t deserve the gift she gave you before leaving—(your little girl).
>You actually don’t feel like talking.
>Flash back to something else? I don’t know how to give a write in section for this

>>3820909
>We can and we do, but so does God. Don’t you remember all those stories in the Bible? It’s perfectly okay to get mad bad guys. It can help you fight them.
A little bit of encouragement to her fervor should cheer her up!
>>3820912
>Jessica’s been on your mind a lot lately. You should talk about her. She cared so much for you and friends; yet you failed her. You failed all of them. You could only imagine how different things would be if she was alive. She probably would have been Alice’s godmother. She might be raising the girl instead of you.
And Jessica isn't truly gone if Alice looks up to her as a predecessor as well as carrying a few her values. Not shaping her to be just like or becoming a replacement, just another person to remember that Jessica did exist as a good existence.

>>3820909
>We can and we do, but so does God. Don’t you remember all those stories in the Bible? It’s perfectly okay to get mad bad guys. It can help you fight them.
>>3820912
>You actually don’t feel like talking.
I'm worried talking about our past might cause Alice to question our angel status.

>>3820909
>Getting angry is a natural thing and angels are part of God’s natural creations. Getting angry isn’t wrong in and of itself. It’s all about how you choose to act on it. Have you ever hear the term righteous anger?
I don’t playing any further into Alice’s religious beliefs is a great idea. Choosing this because it looks like the most matter of fact response.

>>3820912
>Jessica’s been on your mind a lot lately. You should talk about her. She cared so much for you and friends; yet you failed her. You failed all of them. You could only imagine how different things would be if she was alive. She probably would have been Alice’s godmother. She might be raising the girl instead of you.
I’m torn. I didn’t want to go with this at first because I think she committed suicide judging from the update and I didn’t want to bring that up around Jeanette.
Then I realized it might offer a chance for Jeanette to open up and talk about her issues.
I’m curious about Ellen too. It sounds like she did something noteworthy.

>>3821494
>>3821742
>>3821808
>Closing the vote here...Writing.

just a quick status update. I'm still alive and working on the update. Things are just going frustratingly slower than usual. Thank you for your patience.

As we're on page nine. The next update will be the start of a new thread.

>>3824740
Okay. Don't push yourself too hard.

>>3824740
Mk

My apologies for the delay.

>New thread here.
>>3827585
>>3827585
>>3827585