2014-06-18 - Skin Deep: An Adventure of Puella Magi Eri and Tuxedo Kamen
| Title: Skin Deep: An Adventure of Puella Magi Eri and Tuxedo Kamen | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Eri-chan really, really, really, really needs a grief seed. Kyouko helped her out and said she could hunt a witch in her territory-- but Eri was run down enough she did need a hand, and, well, Tuxedo Kamen offered one. Two actually. Both of the ones he has. | |
| Who: Puella Magi Eri, Tuxedo Kamen, GM'd by Asagao Uekawa | |
| Where: A labyrinth in the tech district, oh goddddduh | |
| OOC - IC Date: 30 January 2014 - 6/18/14 | |
<Pose Tracker> Asagao Uekawa [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
As Puella Magi Eri Magica and Tuxedo Kamen make their way through the Labyrinth, vague, nigh-gibberish whispers and mutterings that have heretofore been in the background begin to resolve themselves.
Slender, shadowy shapes trailing in an artificial distance begin to puff up with sudden umbrella-like rushes of air, echoing from the bare steel canyons of half-built skyscrapers.
A circle of unopened black umbrellas rise from the ground around the pair - only to open suddenly, their silver insides reflecting the harsh glow of angry, blood-red eyes; *WHOOMP!* Kekekekekeke *WHOOMP!* Kekekekekeke *WHOOMP!* Kekekekekekeke
<Pose Tracker> Tuxedo Mask [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
"I don't think I've ever seen anything like this in my dreams," Tuxedo Mask says, hat in one hand and cane in the other, flanking Eri on silent feet as they proceed--
--and then they're suddenly surrounded, and the hat vanishes somewhere in Mamoru's cape so he can grip Eri's shoulder in one gloved hand. "Be strong, you can do this. You're built for this. This is your element, you can make it stop, and you can take anything this thing dishes out."
The warm encouragement is a physical thing, a golden strength of character and energetic quickness that courses through the magical girl from head to toe. It's related to the warm joy that Eri was subjected to on New Year's Day in the wee small hours of the morning, but there's no foreign emotion that comes through.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has used Mantle of the Earth on Eri Shimanouchi.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
Welcome to a labyrinth Mamoru. Welcome to a Puella Magi's every day. Despite the strange setting and background, Eri Shimanouchi was unperturbed. "You get used..." The strength of Mamoru's character and emotions spreads over her like a mantle of joy, and she pauses in her words. An affectionate smile touching her lips. "...used to it, Tuxedo-sama! After your first, dozen or so you barely notice anymore."
As the familiars rise, Eri reacts by skipping to the side to try and flank them. "We're getting close to the heart of the labyrinth. You'll know we're getting there when the landscape changes." She offered to Tuxedo Kamen, as her coiled scourge is snapped forward with a whistle through the air, before a cracking sound is made as each tendril seperates to lash several of the Umbrella familiars simultaneously. The thorns upon the vine drip something green and corrosive, which smokes and hisses when it spatters upon the ground.
"Not too late to back out by the way, Tuxedo-sama!" There's a note of teasing in that voice, as she presses ever relentlessly forward through the half-built structures upon the psychic landscape, heeled boots moving inexorably forward. Small fry familiars in a witch's labyrinth were almost beneath notice.. until they killed. Then they could become dangerous indeed!
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has used Venomous Lash on Asagao Uekawa.
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa narrowly counters Eri Shimanouchi's Venomous Lash, taking 2 Fatigue damage! Asagao Uekawa's Reverse ability activates! Asagao Uekawa's Tactician ability activates! Cripple applied to Asagao Uekawa!
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa's counterattack, Shutter Chance!, partially gets through, doing 26 Fatigue damage to Eri Shimanouchi!
<Pose Tracker> Asagao Uekawa [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
KEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKE!
As Eri whips into action, the broad swipe of the lash takes out the initial circle of Paparazzo, only for a broader circle of almost twice as many to rise just as they fall. Umbrella-heads opening, red eyes blazing, their rattle-like 'laughter' echoing in cacophany as they focus their spiteful glare on the Plant Magi.
The pathway that led Eri and Tuxedo Mask to this point is starting to line with suddenly standing closed-umbrella shapes - forming ranks and rustling along girders and catwalks.
KEKEKEKEKEKEKEKKE!
A particularly menacing one looms, floating up from ranks ahead and blares out an intense *PAFF* at Eri, while another smaller group is suddenly backlit and focused on Tuxedo Mask, forming some sort of strange diorama in semaphor.
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa has used Spooky Negatives on Eri Shimanouchi.
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa has used Camera Obscura on Tuxedo Mask.
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask fails to brace Asagao Uekawa's Camera Obscura, taking 9 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Cripple and Stun applied to Tuxedo Mask!
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi narrowly dodges Asagao Uekawa's Spooky Negatives, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Eri Shimanouchi is Quipped! Eri Shimanouchi is Taunted!
<Pose Tracker> Tuxedo Mask [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
"Back out my left foot," Tuxedo Mask tells Eri with a brief and cocky grin-- it's probably the cockiness that costs him, as he's whacked by a couple animate umbrellas and then surrounded by the things. He staggers and grimaces, then shakes his head abruptly, fiercely, trying to clear the fog. "Hey! Hey, what do you stupid umbrellas thing you're doing? She's the hero, you don't mess with her!"
He tries to soldier through, unevenly, so as to avoid getting separated from Eri. "You don't need familiars blowing smoke up your-- never mind, we can handle this thing, we've just gotta -get- to it, right?"
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has used I Believe In You on Eri Shimanouchi.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi accepts Tuxedo Mask's I Believe In You, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Eri Shimanouchi is Cheered!
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
There are so many. There always are. Her scourge recoils back to her hand. The macabre imagery of the labyrinth takes her off-guard, in a dizzying way, and Eri finds herself struggling to remain confident. Suddenly this just doesn't seem like all the others.. when *PAFF* And all of her confidence is gone in single flash, a puff of smoke and cacophony of sound.
Kyouko was wrong, she was no 'future badass', she couldn't even handle this Labyrinth! This should be easy for a real Puella Magi! Which is when Mamoru calls her a hero. She freezes in place, as she tries to process that. Tuxedo-sama was calling her a hero, and it sounded like he meant it! Well the least she could do was actually act the part, as she offers back a silly, lopsided grin, "Blowing smoke up my what? Such a charmer~ Do you say that to all the girls?"
This time, when she releases her scourge, she spins it over her head several times, before it arcs out. And along the length of the ever extending tendrils, flowers bloom amongst their length, releasing rose petals which float and glide through the air in every which way.
Each one seems to have a life of their own as they begin to cover every length of the hall in thick vines, covered with thorns, the tips driving into walls in labyrinth, before threading out in other places, driving into one familiar after another, with thorned tips upon the vines.
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has used Rosary Wheel on Asagao Uekawa.
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa fails to brace Eri Shimanouchi's Rosary Wheel, taking 15 Fatigue damage! Eri Shimanouchi is Psyched!
<Pose Tracker> Asagao Uekawa [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
Bringing life and fire to the cold steel and blood-lit gutters, Eri's vines and flowers course through the more and more two-dimensional looking landscape. Thorns rend steel. Petals blind Paparazzo, vines lash and steel creaks and groans ominously underneath the sound of madly screeching
KEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKE!!!
as the familiars are tossed, rent and shredded like discarded photos.
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Tuxedo Mask [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
"See?" comes Tuxedo Kamen's voice, cheerful in the creepy echoing cacophony of twisted reality; he's right back by Eri's side, finally, and he points his cane forward, as if about to yell 'tally-ho!' Instead, he calls out quite straight-faced, "Allons-y! Ever witchward, and I've got your back. How much of this junk you think she's going to throw at us before we get to her? Can we run or is that a bad plan?"
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
It's a shame Eri doesn't know French, or watch Dr. Who, else she might know just what a stupendous dork Mamoru is being. As it is she only gets the slightest hint as she giggles, "Ever witchward? Tuxedo-sama you really can be such a dork sometimes!"
As they continue onward through the warped surreality of the labyrinth, Eri uses that break for a breather and clarifies, "You don't understand. A witch.. I don't think it throws anything at anyone, it just reacts. It's more a monster, an eldritch horror of despair. You can't hope to fathom how it thinks.. even when it comes to matters like survival. It's.. just.." She shakes it off such thoughts as they move closer towards the center of the labyrinth, "You'll see for yourself."
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has used Take a Breather! on Eri Shimanouchi.
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi accepts Eri Shimanouchi's Take a Breather!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Asagao Uekawa [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
As the two move further inward, the steel spires of unfinished construction contort into a web - almost like a cocoon, around which trails a spiral of rickety catwalk that rumble-clatters underneath their feet as the heroes move, escher-like, towards the center.
Runes mark the door - and the heady-sweet burning scent of chemicals floods the senses as they move inside...
The scarlet glow of the eyes of Paparazzo are practically invisible - red floods the the inside of the room; a single fat archaic bulb hanging from nothing visible 'illuminating'. Still images of horror and despair are hung from spider-silk-thin lines over chasms of developing fluid.
Kekekekekekekeke ripples around the periphery as a large female figure, half-melted and glossy, looking for all the world like a patchwork of idealized female beauty cut up and stuck on for every body part; a mosaic of "beauty" that only evokes horror and pity -
She doesn't give the pair the chance - shrieking incoherently at their intrusion into her space, Paparazzo tip over vats of fluid!
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa has used Developing Fluid on Eri Shimanouchi.
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa has used Developing Fluid on Tuxedo Mask.
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask fails to dodge Asagao Uekawa's Developing Fluid, taking 15 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask tries to cover Eri Shimanouchi for Asagao Uekawa's attack, Developing Fluid, but cannot get there in time!
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi narrowly braces Asagao Uekawa's Developing Fluid, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Eri Shimanouchi's Block ability activates! Eri Shimanouchi's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Tuxedo Mask [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
"Oh, for--"
A shrieking frankenstein's monster of Vogue and Cosmo bits is focused on them pretty much right then, and Tuxedo Kamen's on the move to crash Eri out of the way, missing the fact that the vat closest to him is already pouring. He's suddeny dripping with the chemical, pulling himself up off the floor, and now he looks irritated. "I guess," he says in a strained voice, taking his mask off to wipe his face with the inside of his cape, then putting it back on, "it's time to be proactive, ne?"
And there we go: he whips his hat out from inside his cape somewhere and spins around, shedding developing fluid in an arc around him, to fling his tall black chapeau toward the witch's mosaic face. As he does, he calls out in a ringing voice!
"Beauty magazines should be used for stylish inspiration only, not as a judgement of worth! I won't forgive anyone who tries to hurt innocent people with a wrongful interpretation of loveliness!"
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has used Señor del Antifaz on Asagao Uekawa.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa narrowly dodges Tuxedo Mask's Señor del Antifaz, taking 16 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Tuxedo Mask is Psyched! Asagao Uekawa's Fade ability activates! Asagao Uekawa's Flash ability activates! Blind and Diversion applied to Asagao Uekawa!
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
"...the love of..."
She continues on Tuxedo-Kamen's statement, but doesn't finish it. A wave of fluid crashes into her, and consumes her momentarily beneath it. However, she doesn't budge from that spot, remaining as steadfast as the oak, the fluid receives, and as she drips, something sloughs off her skin that looks a bit like bark, leaving her attire soaked in chemicals. "Gah!" She sputters. "I hate messy labyrinths!" She complains aloud, in a half-joking tone. "This witch needs to learn some basic chemical safety. Well, assuming they can /learn/! I don't think they can!"
Which is when she makes her appearance. Eri takes a deep breath, as she looks upon the mosaic fashionista mockery of the female form. There's a moment's hesitation, but then she remembers Kyouko's words, Mamoru's inspiration. Brandishing her scourge, she holds the handle in one hand, then grips another part of the length, stretching it out. At once, the thorns grow to colossal size, the needle tips of each gleam with something that looks.. unpleasant. "Well at least you're here to show her what true style is. It's definitely not something like 'that'."
There's an audible snap, as her hand rips off a thorn from the scourge. And then she throws it. Beginning to run in a circular motion, she repeats it again, and again. One thorned javelin after another in a barrage as they sail towards the witch. "Me? I'm terrible at giving speeches to monsters, so I think I'll just make her uncomfortable instead!"
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has used Nightshade Javelins on Asagao Uekawa.
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa fails to counter Eri Shimanouchi's Nightshade Javelins, taking 48 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa's counterattack, Tack Silhouette, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Eri Shimanouchi!
<Pose Tracker> Asagao Uekawa [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
The Witch reels, photo-cut body rustling and peeling as it shifts, only to have to peel a hat off it her face and throw it aside in disgust. Her shifting body practically recoils, dozens of Paparazzo moving to her defense; streaking through the air with echoes of KEKEKEKEKEKEKE their suddenly sharp umbrella-points lash out at Eri's shadow, but miss their mark by a mile.
The thorny javelins pierce her body, which rips and peels and tears as she screams - even her voice a mosaic of tones!
Her pain and anger begin to flood the room - literally, the single light starting to burn like a freakish red sun, lancing out with rays of heat and fire. Not healthy for photos, but then - neither are thorns.
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa has used Scarlet Inferno on Eri Shimanouchi.
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa has used Scarlet Inferno on Tuxedo Mask.
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi narrowly counters Asagao Uekawa's Scarlet Inferno, taking 18 Fatigue damage! Eri Shimanouchi's Reverse ability activates!
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi's counterattack, Thunderous Crack, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Asagao Uekawa!
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask fails to dodge Asagao Uekawa's Scarlet Inferno, taking 37 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Tuxedo Mask [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Hat gone, cane useless, Tuxedo Kamen does his best at shielding himself from the wildly patternless of heat and death with his cape, but there's a lot of tongue-biting going on to keep from crying out in pain as they rake him, burning right through his cape, his stylish dinner clothes. He doesn't even have a chance to admire Eri's technique--
--no, now Mamoru himself is all reaction, bringing sharp brilliant red of his own out of his nameless well of power and throwing... what, are those miniature thorn javelins? No, no, they're roses. Roses whose stems can embed themselves in concrete when Tuxedo Mask is the one throwing them. Two in one hand, loosed as an attack instead of an interruption of one coming from the witch; again he's aiming for the monster's head, but this time it's no diversion.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has used Have Some More Flora on Asagao Uekawa.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa narrowly braces Tuxedo Mask's Have Some More Flora, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Asagao Uekawa's Block ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
As the brilliant red flames come at Eri, magical power thrums through the arm carrying the scourge. It then travels throughout the scourge, and at the last second, she snaps the scourge. The crack at the end of each tendrils is thunderous, carrying with a wave of powerful concussive energy which parts the flames.
Unfortunately it isn't enough, as the roiling inferno cloud catches her at the flanks, singing her arms. Biting back a shriek, she looks at her whip, noting that several have withered from the sheer heat. Within moments, each tendril has regenerated back in full. The same cannot be said of her.
Tuxedo Kamen though is far worse for wear, and Eri calls out, "Tuxedo-sama!? Are you alright? We need to finish this soon!" The newly regenerated scourge sails out, this time the crack is less thunderous, but still carries with it some of the same 'oomph' as before.
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has used Concussive Lash on Asagao Uekawa.
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa fails to dodge Eri Shimanouchi's Concussive Lash, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Stagger applied to Asagao Uekawa!
<Pose Tracker> Asagao Uekawa [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
As the Witch really begins to pour her effort into survival and destruction, she raises an arm to protect her precious face - several roses embedding there, setting up for the strike of the whip that knocks her for another loop, shreds of the cutouts that make up her form fluttering through the ersatz darkroom like sakura petals.
Lurching, cameras materialize around her blooming like clockwork to full resolution before they explode with paffs of light and horror.
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa has used Flashes of Madness on Tuxedo Mask.
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa has used Flashes of Madness on Eri Shimanouchi.
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi fails to brace Asagao Uekawa's Flashes of Madness, taking 32 Fatigue damage! Eri Shimanouchi is Quipped!
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask perfectly dodges Asagao Uekawa's Flashes of Madness, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Tuxedo Mask's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Tuxedo Mask [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
"Daijobu--" comes Mamoru's voice through the smoke and shifting light and confusion, strained but determined.
He's moving, at least; the smoke billows and curls from his motion. "LOOK OUT!" he suddenly yells, voice young in its worry as Tuxedo Kamen, burnt and injured, formalwear a royal wreck, bursts through the concealing particulate air. His white-gloved hands are up and what's left of his cape drifts and whips behind him like a tattered black and red flag, but he's too late. He leaps through the air, hurt as he is, to avoid getting hit with his own doom, and crouches next to Eri, half in front of her, one hand back toward her.
"Right," he says, voice tight and pained for more reason than one. His other hand lifts, then, and--
--that gold glow that appears when he's healing someone, that warm feeling his touch can give, that solidity and will--
"Tuxedo!" he breathes out, and then sucks in a deep breath and the glow that envelopes his hand grows incandescent; he almost coughs, but manages to yell out a little wildly, "la SMOKING BOMBER!"
Straight and true the missile of raw magic flies, a manifestation of everything he's got left turned from warm healing to pure destructive force, burning and kinetic and angry: the defensive fury of the one guarded by the sun.
"ERI-CHAN! NOW!"
COMBAT: FINISHER! Tuxedo Mask has used Tuxedo la Smoking Bomber on Asagao Uekawa.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa narrowly braces Tuxedo Mask's Finisher, Tuxedo la Smoking Bomber, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Asagao Uekawa's Block ability activates! Trap applied to Asagao Uekawa!
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
Those flashes. For just a moment, the world becomes white noise, before they bloom into flashes of horror which send the Puella Magi reeling. Staring at the Witch, even as her vision is covered in spots, she remembers an exchange between herself and someone who had been dear to her as a child, after they'd left a movie theater.
With her hand in his his, she looked up and asked with all the curiosity of a young child. 'How do Kodama get inside of a tree?' 'It's more that they become the tree. The tree is a part of them, and they're a part of it.' 'Oh!' came the childish expression of glee and wonder, before another question bubbled out, 'Then how do they move once they're a part of it?' The older man guffawed, then gave his daughter a good natured smile. 'Well I suppose the tree moves with them.' Looking skeptical, she asked, "How, if they don't have feet?' Ruffling her hair, which elicited a little squeal, he finally answered. 'Their roots become their feet.'
'ERI-CHAN, NOW!' The memory brought her no joy now, but despite the bittersweet memories, the fact that a good friend was with her right now, helping her, does make her feel better. In reaction, she leaps towards the side of the labyrinth, before pushing off of it with her foot, and spinning around in the air gracefully to face it head on.
The tendrils of her scourge extends, before branching off, again and again, into an endless system of what looks like tree roots. It blankets the entire area around the witch with thorned roots, which attempt crash into it, still continuously multiplying as it does so. Like one massive foot step, the root system tries to crush it by driving it into the ground... and bury it. There's nothing elegant about it, just brutal, deadly efficiency. Perhaps some of that elegance was lost in the bitter memories, or perhaps this was simply her first time ever trying this...
COMBAT: FINISHER! Eri Shimanouchi has used Footsteps of the Kodama on Asagao Uekawa.
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa fails to dodge Eri Shimanouchi's Finisher, Footsteps of the Kodama, taking 109 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Asagao Uekawa is unable to keep fighting!
<Pose Tracker> Asagao Uekawa [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
Blocking the brunt of the smoking bomber leaves the Witch susceptible and distracted - flames and smoke along her papery "flesh", charring and curling. The vines of the transformed scourge are recognized too late for what they are - a crushing trap.
The Witch is hollow and the thorned vines entangle, entwine, and crush while they tear - her final multi-toned scream is almost unbearable.
The witch dead, the labyrinth vanishes.
A grief seed - black and metal, the design of an eye filigreed across its surface - waits to be collected.
COMBAT: Asagao Uekawa has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Tuxedo Mask [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
orz
No really, Tuxedo Kamen's fallen to his hands and knees after that; focusing on breathing and believing in Eri's ability to save them both is all he's really capable of for a moment.
It's the moment in which the crushing begins, the moment in which the witch realizes the imminence of her demise.
The second the tall boy looks up, that's when the witch
S-C-R-E-A-M-S
and he grips the sides of his head, sitting back on his heels and just sort of enduring it. "Get it--" he can't hear himself say because of the ringing in his own ears; god knows if Eri can. He starts to lurch to his feet to make sure Eri's still up, has seen it.
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
Like the labyrinth, the roots vanish, and Eri lands gracefully, with bent knees, her heels clicking upon the pavement. The final scream elicits a wince from her. It's notable, but it doesn't send her reeling like last time. She doesn't immediately grasp the grief seed though, instead she walks over to Tuxedo Mask, and puts an arm around him.
And then another. The strength behind the embrace belies her small form, especially as injured as she is after a fight like that, as she whispers fiercely. "Thank you so much." And then all at once, she releases him, walking over and picking up the seed, it's needlepoint balances on her palm as if it were on a gyrosocope.
Silence lingers for a while before she adds, "There are dry spells since I don't have territory of my own yet, but.. when I can find them, this is almost my every day." It's unspoken, but as she looks at Mamoru through the eyeholes of her domino mask, her meaning is still rather clear, 'And that's why Mai can't find out.'
<Pose Tracker> Tuxedo Mask [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
There's no resisting that hug, though there's a little flinching in equal parts 'ow my burns' and 'oh shit surprise contact'-- but it's okay, he's this beat because he has nothing left. It'll be a moment before he can even get up off his knees. So he tolerates (appreciates) the hug, and then there's that moment where Eri considers the grief seed in her hand.
Tuxedo Kamen finally gets up, his henshin drifting away into the night, stars in the darkness. He's still hurt; he's going to have to sleep this one off, mostly. But he doesn't look like he's in vast amounts of pain, at least: just tired.
Mamoru Chiba, dressed like a fashion editorial, gives Eri a very crooked smile. "Well-- then-- call me whenever you spot one, I'll help if I can."
"In the meantime," the upperclassman says, buttoning his jacket and standing like he is gonna go take a cab home, "I'm glad I could help. Really very, very glad. But-- I have to go to bed. I'll be okay in a few hours, I just have to rest."
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
Something tugs on her expression, she's not sure if she wants to. There's always the danger that another Puella Magi could show up, challenge her.. or even to attack once the witch was defeated, when they were both drained. She once knew a Puella Magi who did that. Closing her eyes briefly, she considers the consequences, huffing out a breath that fogs in the chill air. But she's too messed up, and tired to argue the point, "Alright. I'll call you whenever I do. I'm searching for territory so this doesn't become a problem again."
She transforms back to her normal self in a shimmer of green light, leaving her soul gem in her palm, before it changes into a ring. She gives him a pensive look, which brightens into a smile. "Go get some rest, Tuxedo-sama~" She wiggles her fingers at him. "You can't tease the cute bunny without your beauty sleep."
<O-Ohtori> French Connection Zoisite says, "mamoru are you trying to impress eri with your fancy tuxedo moves"
