Most Likely A Refuge

[whatamithinking]

It was probably safe.

The bar was...unusually reticent, in the lower layers of her mind (and she hadn't pried further; she wasn't sure if she'd be noticed; she wasn't sure if offending would get her kicked out, and regardless of whether it was actually safe it was safer than anywhere else she'd been for the past...three years?) so she couldn't be sure this place wasn't really a trap of some kind, but the higher layers gave a plausible explanation that didn't involve being a trap, and whatever else it was warm and dry and had food. Her guard was probably a full 25% down. Positively trusting, these days.

Comments

[whatamithinking]

She says yes almost before it offers her the choice.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Power fills her as though she had been merely an empty vessel waiting for it. Her entire being glows with potential, and the channels to exersize it are obvious

[whatamithinking]

Leg sweeps out and up into a balletesque pirouette, arms outstretched, twirl--hands up, crossed over her forehead as her clothes dissolve into her own magical girl uniform--hands strike down at a diagonal, now holding--whips? Really? That look like vines with black thorns--

"Fear, devourers of kin! Flee, evildoers unto the innocent! The Rose of Defiance is come, and there is no promise of mercy for the spillers of blood in her heart!"

[onceandforall]

"Not a bad name," Bella comments.

[whatamithinking]

"It really isn't. I...don't think either of yours came up."

[onceandforall]

"Salvation Jewel Princess."

[whatamithinking]

"Psychic Maiden Cerebella."

[whatamithinking]

"Not terrible, but yeah I like mine better."

[onceandforall]

"You're very thematically thorny."

[whatamithinking]

She looks down at her rose-petal mid-thigh skirt, and at her forearms. She has bracers. With roses like corsages on the wrists, and otherwise--thorns, yep. "Indeed. Well, I can't say I don't feel thorny."

[onceandforall]

"My magical girlnesses played pretty nice with each other. I got shinier colors but the same basic costume design I already had."

[whatamithinking]

"This kind of magical girlness...does seem like the kind of thing that plays well with others."

[onceandforall]

"More or less, yeah."

[whatamithinking]

"I want to know what my spell is, but...I'm not getting a strong sense from it that it's meant to be used indoors."

"If you got a heavy hitting combat spell for your first...I will be slightly jealous but not necessarily surprised given your situation."

[onceandforall]

"There's a backyard, but don't hurt the squid."

[whatamithinking]

"Squid?"

[onceandforall]

"There's a giant squid in the lake, who is a long-term resident and should not be shot at."

[whatamithinking]

"Aim away from the lake, got it."

And she goes outside, holding the door long enough to invite followers, if they want to see the magic thing. In addition to the lake, there is a forest, and a mountain off in the distance. Rose of Defiance decides to position herself such that if she just fires off a random energy blast or something it will just go harmlessly into the sky. And her spell is...

Flip-the-grip-on-the-whips arms folded over chest back of the hands out "Flowerstorm Barrage!"

Gosh. That sure is a lot of rose petals going at an awfully high velocity. In a lot of colors, too, which is odd given that the roses on her wrists are just red.

[onceandforall]

"Is this typical of direct magical attacks with this magic system?"

[whatamithinking]

"In what way?" Cerebella asks.

[onceandforall]

"Like, are you surprised that her attack is a swarm of colorful roses, at all. My kind usually winds up with actual weapons of some kind or sometimes beams of energy."

[whatamithinking]

"Oh. No, there's plenty of beams of energy and actual weapons, but this isn't outside the norm."

[onceandforall]

"Huh." Bella inspects the damage dealt by the rose barrage

[whatamithinking]

The rose petals were traveling at high velocity and, apparently, behaving as though they were harder than whatever they hit.

[onceandforall]

Bella picks up a petal.