Magical Girl RP - On The Bound

[Keylaleigh]

"Hey, in this entire city, there are only three of us fighting the good fight. We have to keep an eye on each other." Leigh smiled. "If that means hanging around the hospital for a bit to make sure you're okay, then so be it." The van drove out of the hospital parking lot and down the way to Zeke's place.

The ride was generally silent, with only the radio making noise. Some indie Americana band filled the van with complex harmonies and acoustic instruments. Zeke's was about twenty minutes away from the hospital in a primarily Italian section of Passiflora, and looked like every row home, save the familiar-looking bike in front.

"I'm gonna go let Zeke know that we're here to pick up the bike. It shouldn't take too long." Leigh parked and stepped out of the van to walk down the path he had walked down many times in his childhood. Zeke had always been like an older uncle to Leigh, working at the bakery since before he was born.

Leigh barely had to knock before a man in his early sixties swung the door open. He still had a full head of salt and pepper hair and sported a bushy mustache with eyebrows to match. He was short and stout, about an inch shorter than Leigh and was currently wearing a grey tee shirt emblazoned with the logo of the local sports team and black sweatpants.

"Hey, Zeke. I'm just here to pick up the bike. Thanks for grabbing it for me. It really helped out."

Zeke nodded, his hand on his chin. "For your friend getting into an accident and being hospitalized, the bike's in pretty good shape."

"Yeah, I don't know how that happened." Leigh chuckled nervously. "Guess he was lucky on that account. Thanks again." He turned around after a quick farewell and walked down. There was enough room in the back of the van for the bike to fit, so he rolled it over and put it in.

"And now let's head back to your place."

[Nuklearsamurai]

Logan watched the exchange from the window. He saw the man open the door, and Leigh wheel the bike into the back of the van.

As they pulled back out the drive, he couldn't help but wonder about the story behind those two, but that could wait he supposed.

"Sure. My place sounds like a good plan." he replied. It would be good to get back home after a night in the hospital. If nothing else, getting these bandages off would make him feel a lot better. And he'd have to come up with an excuse for why he wasn't at work today... Sick days were hard to explain when the obvious evidence didn't really stick around.
"How could I come into work. Can't you tell my unblemished torso and arms were covered in terrible, life threatening burns mere hours ago?"

Yeah, that never went over very well.

As they pulled up to Logan's house, he unbuckled his seatbelt and eased himself out of the van.

"Just a second Leigh. I'll open the gate for you."

[KoyiTar]

Ange walked into her English class just as the bell rang. It wasn't like her to be late but her science teacher had kept her back a bit asking about her science project then her history teach had stopped her to ask about her history paper. She sometimes cursed her book smarts luckily though both teachers had given her excuse slips for being late just in case. She handed them to Ms. Bennett and took her seat.

She hoped no more teachers would stop her and hold her up for the rest of the day but she knew it that probably wouldn't be the case. She hated being late for class and even more so she hated having to answer what felt like the same questions over and over again. Hopefully she would be able to leave school on time that afternoon and get some training in some how.

[Keylaleigh]

Sami watched as Ange walked into the classroom. Odd, she usually wasn't this late to class, usually beating her there by at least two minutes. She watched as the girl sat down, looking pretty exhausted. Ms. Bennett had put a few questions about the chapters they were supposed to read out of 1984 on the board. Sami had done the reading and actually had a good idea as to what the answers were, but that didn't mean she couldn't play dumb.

"Hey Ange, I'm having some trouble with the third question. What's up with Winston and the rats?" She tapped the girl on the shoulder with her pencil.

Conversation initiated. Good.

[KoyiTar]

"They are his ultimate fear." Ange replied surprised that one of the more popular girls in school was even bothering to talk to her in the first place even to ask a question. She shrugged it off and went back to her own work. Figuring the short answer she had given would be enough to help answer the girls question.


((short post is so very short))

[Atraea]

The bell had rang, and Rosie was not in class. She had an alibi however, as she was turning in the letter to the office regarding Martha and Agnes' absence. Taking this as good at time as she'll have until lunch, Rosie made her way to Ange and Sami's classroom. They'd exchanged schedules at the meeting so as to better keep track of one another should anything go awry. She got turned around a couple of times, and made an effort not to be seen hovering in the windows while looking for Sami's aura to make sure she had the right room.

Eventually she found her, and the other girl sitting in front of her.

Huh...she don' look like much...hm?

Rosie squinted at Sami, who, for the first time that she's seen looked...somewhat at a loss as to how to approach the girl in front of her. It looked like she'd asked the other girl a question, which the girl answered and turned right back around.

Tch...well it ain' like she's had to try real hard with he fan club followin' 'er everywhere...eep!

Rosie caught the teacher's eye for a split second before ducking under the window pane. She poked her head out for a moment, then sidled her way out of view, pulling her phone from her pocket to text Sami.

[moptopperson]

He was still being bothered by the thoughts of being murdered by an grade school girl and a time-shifted flapper girl when said flapper dropped a package next to him. A small little bag. Which obscured whatever it was that was in it.

"What's this? Wai- Damn." Jack stared at the door. It seemed that even Martha hadn't even really wanted to touch it. A bomb? Would Witch tits use a bomb? Did she know what those were? It was always possible. And the boot-bitch had to know of bombs. It was just her endearing personality that made him quite certain if he didn't die here, he'd die later.

And did "be outside in ten minutes" also mean in ten pieces?

He went into the kitchen on grabbed some tongs, he wasn't about to open anything in this remote resort of a hell hole without taking precautions. Especially from his erstwhile "owner". Laying the satchel on the table, as far as he could reach, he poked at it. Nothing melted his face off. He slid one end of the tongs into the opening and pushed it open, just so. Still nothing combusted.

He now opened the satchel all the way and beheld the object.
A collar. A dog collar. He stared, dumbfounded. He picked it up, felt the thing. It was soft, supple, resembled suede but felt strangely different. Unearthly. He sighed. And put it on. There was a strange singing in his blood then but he ignored it and stumped outside.

He faced the upstairs window, wanting to be as loud and obnoxious as possible.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? IF SHE WANTED A FUCKING PUPPY, SHE SHOULDA GOT AN ACTUAL DOG! AND DON'T YOU DARE POINT OUT THAT I'M WEARING IT, THAT'S NOT RELEVANT ANYMORE. WHAT DOES IT DO?"

[Atraea]

"...You're not so far off." Martha reached up and gingerly took her brooch out of her hair, holding it and the orb within close to her chest.

She stared directly at Jack, who was red in the face from all of his yelling. She closed her eyes.

"Change."

As the words are spoke, a familiar aura envelops the orb and brooch, the orb glowing brightly. Down below, the lock on Jack's collar began to glow as well, the light distracting him from his current tantrum. From the window, Martha squeezes her eyes shut, trying to ignore the muffled sounds from the other side of the window. Outside, Jack begins to tear at his shirt, tearing it off from the back, dragging his body along the sand as if to scrap something from beneath his skin. he rolls around, his skin bubbling, turning sickly and grey, and growing as gnarled and twisted as Nephytis's skin. His body grows to twice..three, four times his size. Limbs stretch and bulk in strange places, his back cracks and pops into a new alignment. Fingers, hands and feet morph into paws, and branch-like tail emerges from the small of his back.

Martha only opened her eyes because of the quiet that set in after the grueling noises, dropping the brooch to the ground, sending the orb rolling across the floor. Her eyes set upon the creature lying limp in the sand. Her breathing shortened, a hand covering her mouth.

"O-oh...my...Mistress what did you do?" Martha scrambled to the floor, looking for the brooch to see if she could undo what she'd just done. She found the brooch, thanking the stars above, but her sudden relief fades when she flips it over to find that the orb...is missing


"Oh fuck me..."

[moptopperson]

"Change."

Before Jack could continue his rant, he was enveloped in a deeply unsettling feeling. At first, he assumed that Martha had somehow inverted his skin and muscle tissue. He boiled and burned in the sun, tearing the shirt off of himself. The pain flooded his system and mercifully, he blacked out.

When he came to, something was indeed different. The world seemed shorter, louder. And there was an influx of scents from everywhere. The briny sea, the sand, the wet-feather stink of gulls. . . He stood straight but found that painful. Maybe he'd had a seizure or a stroke he reasoned. He hunched himself over and caught sight of his hands.

No, not hands anymore. Paws. Odd looking, tree-like paws with the even more incongruous thumb. "Fuck," He growled. His voice was now like a bark from a chain-smoking dog. In fact, Jack wasn't sure he was speaking words anymore. Maybe his ears were translating and he was speaking dog speech. Something twitched idly behind him. A tail, a goddamn tail. He scrabbled like an arthritic crab over to the window to see his reflection. He howled in anguish. And promptly broke the door trying to open it.

"Fuck damn hell shit piss." Jack whined and growled as he thrust himself through the wildly hanging door. "MARTHA CHANGE ME BACK! NOW OR I REALLY WILL PISS ON EVERYTHING YOU EAT."

He hoped he could be understood.
Oh if it was permanent, he was going to EAT Nefitips. She probably tasted like tree bark. . . Hehhe, he was a dog made of ba- Time for puns later.

"DID YOU HEAR ME? ALSO I'M STUCK IN THE DOOR."

[Atraea]

"No no, no nonononononono no noooo." Martha was on all fours, looking under every piece of furniture, in every nook and cranny in the bedroom for that orb.

"How the hell did that just pop out anyway, it's magic right?" She sat on her knees and hopelessly surveyed the room once more.

"...right?"

The house suddenly shook, and the sounds of other-worldly howling and barking echoed throughout the first floor, then up the stairs.

"Arrrrgh shut up, shut UP!...oh my god." It sudden;y dawned on her.

Agnes.
------------------------------------

Agnes had already been roused into the hall by the sounds of what she presumed was a dog--a very large dog--downstairs. She tiptoed down the hall, toward the staircase, the acoustics of which carried the barking and yelping to the second floor. Agnes was just passing Martha's door when a small glowing orb rolled out from under the door and tapped against her shoe.

...a marble?

She reached down to pick it up and examine it. She had the tip of her finger grazing against the orb when...

"MARTHA CHANGE ME BACK! NOW OR I REALLY WILL PISS ON EVERYTHING YOU EAT. DID YOU HEAR ME? ALSO I'M STUCK IN THE DOOR."

Her hand jerked away at the sudden change of sound.

"Jack?" No sooner had she abruptly pulled her hand away, the words became barks again. "...no way..." After a few moments of grasping and un-grasping the orb, hearing Jack's voice alternate between his own and the beast he'd become, Agnes picked it up and shoved it in her pocket, excitedly bouncing her way downstairs to get a better look at their "newer" pet.

She stopped dead at the base of the stairs, eyes wide. Jack was a head, shoulder and paw into the kitchen, the door laying in pieces before him. His paw scrapped the floor, creating deep grooves in the already cracked tile, and drool flew everywhere as he kept yell...barking.

"Agnes?! Agnes?!" Martha swung her door open, running down the hallway, sliding to a halt in front of Agnes' empty room and open door. "Shit. AGNES! ANSWER ME!"

"I'M DOWN HERE!"

Martha bounded down the stairs nearly knocking poor Agnes over, who was still standing at the base of the stairway, staring at Jack.

"Are you okay?" The girl nodded, and Martha breathed a sigh of relief, putting her hands protectively on the girl's shoulders. "...My god, what...how did he get there? What does Mistress want me to do with him like...like this?"

"He's stuck in the door."

Martha glanced down at Agnes and back up at Jack. "What?"

"He says he's stuck in the door."

"Well I can see that he...wait 'he says'? you can understand him? How?" Agnes reached into the pockets of her dress and pulled out the orb. "OH THANK GOD YOU FOUND IT!" Martha snatched the orb out of Agnes' hand and as soon as she did so, Jack's familiar profanity filled her ears.

"...oh."

[moptopperson]

He stopped trying to pull himself through the doorway. It just wasn't happening. And Jack wasn't entirely sure that scraping a good percentage of his "skin" would do anything to rectify his recently acquired dog-tree characteristics. He stared at the two girls, muttering to himself. "Bloody stupid can't go anywhere without some damn tragedy I should eat them see how they like being shitted out by life." He sighed and then took a deep breath.

"Can either of you understand me? WHAT ARE WE DOING OTHER THAN STARIN' AT ME? FIGURE OUT HOW TO CHANGE ME BACK!"

He picked up a dinky piece of tile and attempted to throw it at Martha. It missed her completely. It didn't even make it close, due to the angle he was in. If they didn't change him back, he was going to find the Grand High Witch. And bite off her ass. Literally bite it off. He'd get to watch her deflate like a oddly realistic blow-up doll. Presumably there would screaming and pink smoke too but Jack consoled himself with how funny it would be to watch her deflate, literally and metaphorically.

"SO? ANY BRIGHT IDEAS? ONE SIDE OF MY BODY IS GOING NUMB. GODDAMNIT I'M GOING TO EAT ALL YOUR DAMN SHOES AND HATS."

[Atraea]

"What's he saying now?"

"Something about eating all of your stuff." Agnes shot her a look and Martha managed a slight smile. "Okay, okay, mine too." She looked back at Jack, still stuck in the kitchen door. She took a breath. "Wait here Agnes," her hands slipped off of the girl's shoulders as she head for the kitchen, stopping at the wide threshold. She held the orb in front of her.

"Change...back?"

Despite the inflection, the command took, and in seconds Jack shrank and morphed back to his normal self, collar around his neck and all. His form hovered there for a moment before dropping to the ground.

"For the record, Nephytis was incredibly vague as to what the collar actually did, it was just supposed to 'keep you sturdy' or something. And help with Agnes' training somehow...? I guess you're going to take that form for us when we go into battle against the Vilos..."

"DO I GET TO RIDE HIM?!"

Martha pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing. "No, you do not get to ride him, Agnes."

[Keylaleigh]

Meanwhile, back at the school...

Sami looked down at her phone to see an irritated-sounding text from Rosie and sighed. Time to get it together, girl. Just because she's an introverted bookworm doesn't mean you can't win her over. Hey, you earned your entire entourage with well-placed words, why not keep on with this one?

Well, if the small-talk failed, she had a surefire way to get them to interact with each other. After all, Ms. Bennett couldn't resist a good clothing discount, and she had already cleared it with her mother. And all her teacher had to do was rig today's project partner list so that the two of them were working together. Then they would have to spend time together, so Sami could work her non-magical magic on the girl.

She smiled. Things were going to go along smoothly enough if the pieces fit together right. And if they didn't... well, she was going to make them.

[moptopperson]

Jack felt an odd rippling effect on his skin. Like something was burrowing back inside of him but without the skin-explodey pain of the initial transformaion. A few seconds later he hit the floor heavily. The blood went rushing back into his arm and his mumbled curses, thankfully no longer sounding like the throat-cancer dog mascot.

"Do you not ask QUESTIONS? I mean, it's almost like she wanted to surprise everyone. Well, mostly me. . . Shit, does thing come off? I bet it doesn't. Of course it won't. NOTHING SHE GIVES ME CAN BE TRUSTED." Jack wasn't even talking to Martha anymore, just staring at the tag on the collar with open suspicion.

"I bet it tracks me, too."

Ride? Battle? Jack finally started paying attention to the girls again. "I am not a horse. You are a not a knight. You are a pest. A blight on my existence. No one is riding me. Because I am not fighting any damn battle. I hope they KILL YOU ALL. I'll be laughing at the funeral. Because I didn't sign up- Hell, I've never signed up for anything to do with any of you! NO ONE ASKS ME ANYTHING AND YOU OR SHE EXPECTS ME TO FIGHT FOR HER?"

Jack stormed upstairs and locked himself in the room he chose. He'd chosen it by dropping his stuff in there and threatening to dump anyone's else's stuff into the ocean should it ever end up in his room.

"Battle. . . There are more of them or different ones, something. Well, whooo-de-fuckin'-doo. I'm a casualty either way."

[Atraea]

Martha watched as Jack ranted and raved, then disappeared up the stairs with his usual bluster.

"That...could've gone worse, I think."

Agnes had walked into the kitchen and was standing next to Martha, looking up at her. "Is he really not gonna help us?"

"To be frank, I don't think he really has much a choice in the matter. Go outside and stretch. I'll fetch Jack." Martha smiled as the younger girl nodded and skipped out the gaping hole in the kitchen. Martha's face fell.

Oh. Right.

She sighed and shook her head, running through the list of excuses she could think of to tell Nephytis when she would eventually come across an exorbitant charge on the credit card for a contractor. By the time she'd exhausted any lie that Nephytis would actually buy, she'd climbed the stairs and arrived at Jack's door. She knocked.

No answer.

"Oh for...Jack?" She knocked some more. "Jack, I know you're in there, come on, Nephytis is expecting us to do this and get it done, we don't have time for this."