PREP Highschool

Locales found within the main city centers; primarily Inside, Riverside, and Skyside.
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Rebonack
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Re: PREP Highschool

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[Library]

Up the stairs they go!

And as they climb it becomes obvious in a hurry exactly what's going on here. Khannie asks a very unhelpful question.

"Mary why are you turning into a cat?"

See?

Unhelpful. She can't even answer that question because she's a cat!

"Wait... some familiar spells work by drawing in a spirit and then make it take the shape of an animal," Khannie muses aloud. That wasn't how Khannie's worked. Hers just drew the attention of a regular magical creature and forged a bond with it. Pretty similar to Jace and Zebes. Thankfully Khannie isn't attuned to this spell at all since ghostly zoroarks are pretty spirity, too. It must be specifically fishing for something infernal?

That seems like a dangerous choice.

But then again, protagonists aren't always known for their good risk assessment skills.

"Are you okay? Do you want me to carry you or something?" Khannie asks.

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Re: PREP Highschool

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Library
"Mraw," Mary says glumly. Why is she turning into a cat? Khannie's probably right, but she doesn't want to be someone's familiar. Hopefully that's not it. Her mum did say that the ritual was going wrong.
"Meow?" The demon princess by now is indistinguishable from a normal cat except for the stubs of her horns, the slight point on her tail, and her size. She positions herself carefully and looks expectantly at Khannie.
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Re: PREP Highschool

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[Library]

"Uh..."

Khannie isn't...

Totally sure here. But it seems like Mary is okay with Khannie's plan?

So she'll try picking up her friend and then continue the ascent up the stairs!

"We'll figure out what the heck is going on," she assures her friend. "And get you back to normal. Maybe deck this idiot for not doing rituals in the arcanium like they're supposed to."
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Re: PREP Highschool

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Library

”If you want you could get her out of here and I could deck them.” Sirius helpfully pipes from Khannie’s watch.
Sirius always wants to fight Khannie’s battles.
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Re: PREP Highschool

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Library
"Miau," Mary seems to agree with Khannie. But then Sirius speaks up. "Sssst!" she hisses in a very catlike way. It's the only way she can reply.
How can she explain that just punching the problem will probably make this worse? She can't speak right now. So... She's in trouble.
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Re: PREP Highschool

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[Library]

Well yeah.

Of course he does.

The digimon fighting for their partner is how things typically work. But Khannie aims for more of a Doubles Battle! That makes more sense to her. They're both strong! And they both have different abilities! Better to take advantage of what they can do together!

"Nah I don't think that's a good idea. We dunno if just running off will make things worse. We've gotta figure this out as we go."

That would be Khannie's hasty personality.

Run headlong into trouble and make it up as you go!

"Decking comes post ritual shutdown. Interrupted rituals are dangerous. So we need to find this knucklehead, get em to stop, and THEN yell at them for not using the arcanium like they're supposed to."

First thing to do though is getting to the top of these dumb stairs.
Last edited by Rebonack on Feb 06, 2023 4:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: PREP Highschool

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Library

”Okay, well. You know where to find me.”
Sirius can’t actually leave the digivice unless Khannie presses the button. It’s probably a design flaw.
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Re: PREP Highschool

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Library
The ordinary black cat in Khannie's arms seems to nod.
They round a corner into a small sitting area. A haphazard ritual circle covers the floor, and a catgirl in witchy garb kneels in front of it. Sitting perfectly poised in the center of the circle is a white, long-haired cat, licking itself contentedly.
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Re: PREP Highschool

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[Library]

Khannie is, in fact, looking for an excuse to press the button. As a matter of fact? "Okay I've got arms fulla kitty so I want you to watch my back, Okay Sirius?"

Button!

The teen manages to resist yelling 'Sirius, I choose you!'

Really it doesn't make any sense.

Sirius isn't a pokemon. And he's the only partner she's got, so who else would she choose? No one, that's who.

And then our heroes round a corner and there it is. Trouble. Khannie is seriously hoping this catgirl is SUPPOSED to be a catgirl and there isn't some wider cat-based nonsense going on here. She doesn't have to worry about it thanks to her trueform broach but who knows who else is in the library right now?

"Hey your ritual is leaking," is the very first thing Khannie declares upon spotting the other student. "You've gotta shut this thing down."
Last edited by Rebonack on Feb 08, 2023 2:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: PREP Highschool

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Library
"Excuse me, no, my ritual is perfectly stable," the catgirl replies with an insulted expression.
Mary hisses. "What's the matter kitty?" The witch asks, losing her focus on Khannie. "Is she holding you wrong?" Is Khannie holding her cat-ified roommate wrong? Hard to say, but that's probably not why Mary is upset.
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Re: PREP Highschool

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Library

Out of Khannie's watch comes an extremely heroic rookie digimon!
He can't just claw up witches though. They have to use WORDS.
"The cat was a girl two minutes ago. Your spell messed up this whole leg of the building." Sirius says simply.
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by Ironsmith »

Earl of Purple wrote: Feb 03, 2023 4:45 pm Endless Stairs

"Makes it harder. Skyside's dangerous, but the Fairy Godfather knows Inside. We need to get him out somewhere safe, and Inside's the only place he won't stick out." Since seven foot tall squirrels usually attract a lot of attention. "I'm sure it'll be fine. He's never shown any interest in a bald ape-person like you, his last four boyfriends were squirrels. One before that was a mouse." Although Mat appears unaware that there's incubi in that court, too, and they can shapeshift.

She'll follow Tahara and Mary down, as does Fred. Lenny hesitates briefly but follows as well.
bc56 wrote: Feb 04, 2023 12:30 am Endless Stair
"Not as fine as you think," Mary says, in Mat's voice out of a copy of Mat's face. The change was surprisingly quick and seamless. The two are almost identical, only minor details differentiating them (even their clothes
but not anything that might be hidden thereby).
Mary's been practicing her shapeshifting.
She breaks composure almost immediately afterwards. "All this fur is so stuffy! How do you stand it?" She's got much more affinity to the reptilian side of life.

Either way though, she heads down with the others doesn't shift back right away. Her mum told her that she should stick with any new shape at least for a little while.
[Endless Stair]

Tahara, however, is conspicuously silent throughout the trip. For once, there are no jokes to be cracked... she's just focused on getting them back to PREP as quickly and uneventfully as possible.
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Re: PREP Highschool

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Endless Stair

"I moult. It's not this thick in summer. It keeps me warm in winter, though you don't want to wear trousers or a jumper. Not unless it's raining." It stops working so well if it's wet. Mat will also stop to properly examine Sekhmet's appearance. "I am really pretty. How can I not get a date? Oh, how accurate is that, anyway? Can I see your bellybutton?" If it's an innie or an outie would be a clue to how accurate Mary's disguise is, though if Mary's willing to show off her bellybutton's another matter. Even if it's just a bellybutton she's borrowing.

The door back to PREP doesn't lead them where they entered the Stairs. It opens a rather bland door next to some toilets, a door that most passers-by probably dismissed as a cleaner's cupboard or something, although somehow just by looking at it the girls (and Lenny) know that it leads to the Endless Stair. There are other doors in the Nexus to that place, and if they find one they should recognise it for what it is and be able to use it.
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Re: PREP Highschool

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[Library]

A good hero needs to know when to win a conflict through words. Because not every problem can be solved heroically through violence.

Anywho!

Khannie frowns a bit when the other kid blows her off. Of course she does. Everyone's a protagonist here. Everyone thinks that they're cool stuff at the top of the heap. It makes it WAY harder to acknowledge when you screwed up. But that's part of growing into the protagonist role, isn't it?

"It totally isn't. Like my buddy said the spell's making infernal magic leak all over and turned my friend into a cat. You aren't even supposed to be DOING rituals in here that's what the arcanium is for," Khannie chides. "C'mon don't be dumb about this. Just get this circle cleared up and that devil banished and 'n do your magic stuff where you're SUPPOSED to."
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Re: PREP Highschool

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Endless Stair
"I'd rather not," Mary doesn't have a belly button, she didn't think to create one, and she's feeling rather self-conscious about it. She starts altering her appearance away from Mat's, changing her fur black and letting her face morph a little. She also, for some petty reason known only to herself, gains a couple inches in height. Now they're not identical squirrel girls anymore.
"So..." she says in her own voice, "Where can we find your brother?"

Library
"She's better off like that. Cats don't have to go to school or follow stupid rules about where you can and can't do magic," the catgirl protests. Mary hisses again. She likes school.
Could this be an intentionally flawed ritual? Is this girl trying to turn people into cats?
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Re: PREP Highschool

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[Endless Stair]

"It's all in the presentation, Mat." Tahara shrugs, leading Lenny along behind her. "Believe it or not, before I was an actual pile of walking garbage, I was something of a guy magnet. Granted, we were all ten at the time, but if I was allowed to go through puberty I'm sure I would have had to fend them off with a stick." She grins, roaches scattering off her teeth as they're exposed to the light. "Even now, I haven't had a lot of dates, but the fact that I look like this and people are still willing to talk to me says some pretty good things about my social life." She decides to take a little gamble and slides down one of the stairway rails as they proceed downward, landing at the bottom with a wet plop and an exaggerated "stuck the landing" gesture. "Not to butt in too much, but when was the last time you went out of your way to be friendly to someone?"
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Re: PREP Highschool

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Library

"If you don't like school, drop out and stop making it everyone else's problem. I'm comin' over there."
Sirius appears to be approaching the circle.
Will the catgirl stop him from destroying the circle completely?
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Re: PREP Highschool

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[Library]

"Why the HECK are you coming to a PROTAGONIST school if you don't like it here?!" Khannie retorts, utterly exasperated. "How did you even get IN this circle is-"

A beat.

Wait a sec.

It LOOKS really sloppy and amateurish.

But in exactly the right way to allow it to work correctly instead of being garbage.

"Wait you're doing this on PURPOSE aren't you!" would be the conclusion she draws. Between the effects of the spell AND what the girl just said AND the suspiciously not bad ritual circle there's TOTALLY something wrong here. Khannie quickly sets Mary down behind herself before focusing on the witch girl. "One warning shut this down or we're doing it for you."

Breaking a ritual is dangerous.

Letting this hair-brained scheme keep rolling forward is probably even MORE dangerous.
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Re: PREP Highschool

Post by Earl of Purple »

Endless Stair- Back On Campus

Well, that'd be another reason why Mary finds it stuffy- Mat's fur isn't all as thick as it is on her arms, legs and head. As the fact Mat asked to see her bellybutton may help Mary realise; the fur on her belly must be thinner if her bellybutton can be seen and not just felt.

"I'm plenty nice when I'm not worrying over my idiot brother. Speaking of nice..." Mat turns to Mary and smiles, bringing her tail round in front and stroking it with both hands. "There's this lovely diner I know, their shrimp and hotroot soup's the best I've tasted. You, uh, doing anything next Saturday?"
"Mat, your brother. Find him, flirt later, OK?" Fred is still here, as is Lenny, though they've not said anything for a while.
"Right, yes. Three places I can think of. Our apartment in Inside, his boyfriend's place, or the bootleg casino getting in more trouble. I really hope he's home. I can find all of them, you wanna go?" Might be an idea now to move to Inside, since that's where Mat's brother can be found.
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Re: PREP Highschool

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Library
"Tch. Never heard of an antihero?" Oh, those guys. They're jerks. "I'm sorry Dave, I can't let you do that." And now she's quoting famous villains (hopefully Khannie gets the reference). She moves into a defensive posture, barriers of fuzzy pink energy appearing to defend the ritual circle and cut off Sirius' advance.

Off the Stair
"No." That's a firm no, not a "I'm not doing anything" but an "I'm not interested" "Let's just keep moving." By the time they get to the inside thread, Mary will have a new form. One less distracting to Mat. But what will it be...?
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Re: PREP Highschool

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[Off the Stair]

"Actually, that reminds me..." Tahara begins, reaching into her hip and producing a plastic shopping bag. "As it so happens, I've got a birthday coming up. About three weeks from now, as a matter of fact." She smiles and reaches into the bag, producing a surprisingly-pristine envelope, with Mary's name written in flowery cursive on the back. "You're invited to come. It's at the old junkyard in Inside, or... well, it's a slag pit now, but it used to be a junkyard. Khannie can show you where if you need it." The trash witch shrugs. "Anyway, yeah. Birthday party. Don't worry about finding a present or anything; I'm not really big on those anyway. And I'm allowing all the guests a plus one, so if you can think of a friend you'd like to bring along, by all means, bring them. Assuming you're coming, that is."
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Re: PREP Highschool

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Library

"That's a VILLAIN QUOTE; anti-heroes are just heroes who brood a lot and swear sometimes."
Sirius' claws flash as he immediately makes a number of white-hot swipes against the pink barriers.
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Re: PREP Highschool

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[Library]

"The Punisher is an anti-hero. He's doing something good but the way he's doing it is really bad," Khannie retorts. "You're just doing villain stuff. Mary didn't want to get turned into a cat and Imma bet most other people don't want that either."

That makes her a villainous protagonist, in Khannie's eyes.

And the school definitely has those.

She then proceeds to! Just stand there glaring at the catgirl while Sirius does his thing.

Well actually she circles around from behind invisibly and aims to smash a Brick Breaker punch right into the barrier on the far side for Sirius. Sometimes hitting a bad guy from both sides helps!
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Re: PREP Highschool

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Library
One barrier cracks under Sirius's assault and another splinters under Khannie's. Meanwhile the catgirl continues to protest, "No, she will, once she's had time to..." "MROWR!" Mary pounces, claws digging into the witch"s robes. "No! No! Bad kitty!"
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Re: PREP Highschool

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Library

Sirius continues to lash at the barrier with his claws.
"Dramatic transformations outside normal growth should only be done with CONSENT and/or THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!"
This is true. Digimon don't normally get a say when their kids have character growth that results in a powerup form but it's not like any of them would really say no.
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Re: PREP Highschool

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[Library]

Yeah!

Kitty attack!

"She's not a kitty you JERK!" Khannie yells as she hauls back and throws another punch. "She's my friend!"

And Sirius is absolutely right! Getting turned into stuff is weird and traumatic as Khannie can absolutely attest. Unless you know it's a normal thing that happens when your partner has to fight an edgy dark triceratops monster. She isn't going to let up until this problem is solved! And no more people get turned into cats by weirdos!
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Re: PREP Highschool

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Library
The barriers crack again and shatter. "No! No!" Mary angrily claws at the witch who stumbles back towards the circle. "Stoppit!" She seems increasingly petulant and desperate.
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Re: PREP Highschool

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Library

With the barrier destroyed, Sirius immediately goes to further damage the summoning circle and render it useless instead of just leaky.
They can apologize for the floor damage later.
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Re: PREP Highschool

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[Library]

When it comes to breaking summoning circles there are two ways that things can go.

It could be that the circle itself is what's binding the summoned creature to the world and breaking the circle will banish it.

OR

It could be a containment circle and breaking it sets whatever horrible thing that's inside free.

Regardless of which this circle is (Khannie really hasn't had the time she would need to examine it in detail. She knows about circles but they aren't her forte) Khannie is going to aim to grab the witch and yank her away from the middle of the circle before she can stumble into the thing.

Because the LAST thing anyone wants is the demon that got summoned to get a body of a person instead of the body of a cat.

When that happens bad stuff usually follows.
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Re: PREP Highschool

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Library
The circle is scratched out. There's a palpable release as the flow of power is disrupted, a burst of energy likely flinging Sirius backwards away from the remains of the circle.
The white cat, quick as a flash, dashes out of the destroyed circle towards the library shelves.

Meanwhile, Mary suddenly expands from a cat back into her normal self, causing the catgirl witch to topple into Khannie's arms, and most likely all three of them will wind up sprawled on the floor.
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