1021/A Tale of A Cursed Painting, the Ruins of the Mighty

A Tale of A Cursed Painting, the Ruins of the Mighty
Date of Scene:	19 January 2024
Location:	Plot Room 1
Synopsis:	A technological empire is what the Vampire Hunter, Tuxedo Mask, the Princess of Sarek, Onihime and Puella Red explore this time before this curse too is secured. At the end, Amy and Veronica linger to ponder some matters, and then they agree to meet up again later.
Cast of Characters:	Veronica Perenna, Anna Domenico, Kureha Senkenzan, Mamoru Chiba, Amanda Faust

---

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Veronica had spent quite a fair bit of time worrying about why a sprite of the forest would out of nowhere push itself to a city, as well as pondering Amy's insightful observation that fairies don't do well with iron. What should she think then when the next rumour to tackle seems to allude to a whole lot of iron?

Regardless of what the robotic noises those voices talk about mean, she is heading to this next cursed art gallery, ready to find what this painting is about. At least, she has the feeling Puck isn't involved with this one. She has just started prowling around. These places don't typically have futuristic paintings, so it shouldn't be hard to find.

The gallery is deserted this time too, the same unpopularity as the other having befallen it a result of all the rumours. Mahous may be the exception to this as they may be interested in investigating the oddities.

Anna Domenico has posed:
Anna Domenico is still hearing reports of missing people at art galleries and boy does this headache never end. The pink haired vampire hunter is currently just Anna right now, and investigating this art gallery now. Where's the haunted portrait this time, she wonders, as she slips a hand into one pocket on her dress (it has pockets!) and frowns as she prowls the art gallery.

Waiting, seeking, looking... always makes her apprehensive. Let the thing happen, be done with it, move to the next problem to solve.

She's alone right now, but sees Veronica, again as she gives a wave from a distance. "Yo." comes from Anna.

Kureha Senkenzan has posed:
    Kureha Senkenzan has embraced her role as a magical girl, and finally given in to her heart's need to reach out and trust other people. She has basically run out of excuses to be cagey and private; and with that, comes the siren call of responsibility.

    So the more rumors she hears about a painting 'kidnapping' people, the more obligated the daughter of the Chikafuji family feels to investigate.

    Needless to say, her attendants would never let her do something like this... or at least, not Emi or Yozakura. But she doesn't want to put Chisa in a position of having to cover for her if she can help it; so, this is going to have to be a nighttime excursion.

    As has become her custom, the Youkai Musume of Flames takes to the rooftops to reach her destination, coming down on the top of the art gallery with what is probably a noticeable thud. From there, it's a hop down behind the building, into any sort of alleyway she can find - hopefully so that she can enter the building unobtrustively.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Cursed art galleries! Mamoru Chiba -- formerly known as Darien Shields, one of the top students at Radiant Heart and known villain Hematite -- is standing in the gallery texting his girlfriend.

    <PHONE> You text Usagi Tsukino: I'm going to a cursed art gallery wish me luck
    <PHONE> You text Usagi Tsukino: if I don't text back in a couple of hours a painting kidnapped me

He starts to pocket his phone, pauses when it buzzes, and looks back at it only to laugh and pocket it again.

    <PHONE> A text from Usagi Tsukino: oh that happened to me!! i was a mermaid
    <PHONE> A text from Usagi Tsukino: have fun

So he starts to wander and look at the various paintings and pictures and installations present, hands jammed in his pockets, still smiling.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy's still hearing of disappearances at the gallery. Machine sounds and grass? What is it, a painting of a lawnmower?

    She walks from room to room, surrepticiously glancing across the paintings for anything that looks like it might be the right painting.

    She's probably not as un-suspicious as she's trying to be. At least she's not actually wearing a trenchcoat and fedora, though...

    She can't miss a big and tall familiar figure, though. "Darien? What brings you here?" She approaches with a smile and a wave.

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Well, at seeing Anna again, Veronica admittedly has an amused smirk. Both of them have an interest in the arts, sure, but what are the odds they would both pick another cursed gallery? Eeny Meeny Miny Moe, which of the people she met are you?

"Hi, Anna, nice to meet you again, it seems we stumble into each other a lot lately", the brunette smirks. "It is a shame these wild rumours are chasing people off, don't you think?" she adds, waving at the mostly deserted gallery.

"I will leave you to your tour though, see you around", she excuses herself, returning to her search.

She makes a brief stop to wave at Amy and check out how things are going with Darien. It has been a while since they last saw each other. "Hello, there, Amy, Darien-san", cheerfully greets them before addressing Mamoru. "How are things with you and Usagi?"

Yet again, she lingers just enough for a very brief chat before going away once more. In the corner of the eye, she thinks she has seen the culprit, a painting of a shining metal city whose streets have been invaded by the wilderness. "Ruins of the Mighty", the tag says and it certainly doesn't look like the prosperous city the technology it shows alludes to.

She gets there quietly, and approaching it is once more enough to get whisked inside.

Kureha Senkenzan has posed:
    Thankfully, Onihime is able to find a side door that doesn't give her any trouble to open. It makes life easier than going in through the front door, and she's pretty sure she'd have to break locks if she tried to go in through the roof. From there, it's just a matter of following her sharp sense of smell; she trusts her instincts enough to believe that she'll smell if something is 'off'. Following that instinct - and quietly trying to avoid any of the other voices she's hearing, in case they're facility staff - the horned girl slips her way through the art gallery, until she finds a painting labelled as 'Ruins of the Mighty'. Something about it catches her eye; frowning softly, Kureha moves in closer.

Anna Domenico has posed:
Anna Domenico watches Veronica turn the corner and she blinks a little and puts her hand back into her pocket. "Well. See you around." she says as she turns the corner and walks past Mamoru and Amy and a horned girl. Wait, HORNED GIRL!?

She turns around and watches the girl walk past and investigates the painting as she blinks a little and watches the girl get sucked into the painting as she sighs and says like last time.

"Gallery's Haunted." she says, dramatically, as she runs past Mamoru and Amy and leaps at the painting, vanishing mid leap!?

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Faust-san, hello!" 'Darien' says to Amy, hands still in his pockets; he looks relatively pleased to see her. He's wearing a blazer-length black leather jacket over a t-shirt and jeans and dress shoes, and his glasses are polished, and his hair is cut short back and sides (and it looks a lot better on him than that unstyled long hair did).

"And Perenna-san! Please, both of you, call me Mamoru-- Mamoru Chiba, I don't have to hide my name anymore. We're doing well," he tells Veronica with a smile, and then he tells Amy, eyes sparkling behind his glasses, "and I'm here because curses are exciting. Sad I missed turning into a Mermoru, though~"

He really just--

"Either way, call out if you see a robotic and grassy painting? That's what the rumors I heard were saying this one--" And Anna runs past them and leaps at a painting and disappears.

"Found it," says Mamoru absolutely unnecessarily, then takes out a pocket watch (!) and heads for the painting himself. He glances over his shoulder at Amy and grins a little crookedly. "Earth Prism Power," he tells her, then gets within range as he holds up the watch and says cheerfully, "Make UP!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy laughs at 'mermaru' and nods at the description, just as she spies it on the wall. "That could be it!" She steps towards it. "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings--" She starts to recite, but then Anna runs by and into the painting, followed quickly by Mamoru.

    Amy sighs and shrugs.

    Affecting an accent again in English, she shouts, "[Here we goooooooooo!]" And leaps into the painting!

                                      ---                                      

                                                                                
                     Ax1              $x0               *x1                     
                                                                                
                                       1                                        
                                       *                                        
                           Stop and Smell the Grass                             
                                                                                
                                 My Score $x0                                   
                                    Course                                      
                                       1                                        
                              Ruins of the Mighty                               
                                                                                

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Veronica will definitely address Mamoru by his correct name now, although she is surprised by the notion that Darien was a fake name. With the cursed painting, those are questions for another time, though.

When light returns as she travels to the world of the painting, skyscrapers stand proud around her, adorned with sleek and reflective surfaces, silent sentinels against the muted backdrop of a cityscape lies still with a quiet deprived of life. Despite the daytime, hovering lights are still illuminating the streets, a senseless purpose with the city in this state. She is once again the Princess of Sarek. It's admittedly nifty how she doesn't even have to transform with these paintings.

Veronica looks around the new environment, her gaze moving over the grass and trees breaking out of the road, climbing up buildings. An eerie stillness hangs in the air, casting an otherworldly aura over the urban landscape. The towering skyscrapers, adorned with sleek and reflective surfaces, stand like silent sentinels against the muted backdrop of the cityscape. The absence of traditional urban sounds creates an unsettling calm, as if the very essence of noise has been absorbed by the city itself.

The streets stretch out widely around her, the lack of people contributing to the feeling of vast emptiness. Autonomous vehicles move silently despite their push through the air, their smooth, noiseless operation contributing to the surreal tranquility. It's a city frozen in time, its dynamic energy hushed to a whisper.

A rare, gentle breeze gently caresses her face, moving through the towering structures and causing holographic advertisements to ripple and dance in the air, but even these futuristic displays maintain an uncanny silence. It's admittedly slightly unnerving: the absence of human chatter and the completely silent machinery both really make this place feel like a... tomb. A graveyard where the spirits of people rather than their bodies go to die.

Kureha Senkenzan has posed:
    In the deafening silence of the lifeless ruins, the sound of Onihime's wooden sandals on the street is unmistakable. Clack, clack, clack, the ogre princess steps forward, until she comes up alongside the Princess of Sarek to look out at the empty city, hands folded in front of her. "...I'm so accustomed to Tokyo," she remarks absently. "This silence is... unsettling."

    A brief pause.

    "...by the by. Where are we? How have I ended up in this place?"

Anna Domenico has posed:
Curse Hunter Anna comes out the other side, replete in fancy pink tailcoat and frilly blouse, and more comfortable slacks, aswell as boots as she falls.... from the sky!? She 'waughs!?' and seems to bounce in the air a moment as she rolls and ends up smacking into a wall, which seems on purpose as she begins sliding down the side of the wall and slides down it.

Her descent cuts the silence with the sound of snapping foliage and vines as she jumps when she gets low enough, landing somewhere near the Princess of Sarek as she flips her hair a moment. "Too easy!" she says dramatically!

She then pauses as she looks around. "Tough crowd. This place is abandoned. What's the gimmick this time?" she asks.

She looks to Onihime. "Painting is Haunted." she says gravely. "We're in it." she says. "I think anyways. This happened before. The other day. You're unfamiliar. You're not some monster I need to fight, are you?" she asks, moving her hand down to grasp her whip , though not unfurl it.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Please excuse the boy in the top hat, cape, white ties and tails-- and mask-- because he's honestly just so excited to have a transformation that isn't Evil Grey Pajamas. He stops in his tracks when he sees where he's landed, though, and just stares in wonder for a moment.

"It's beautiful," his voice comes through the stillness, and his own steps are much lighter -- the ta-tap of dress shoes on pavement, even pavement as broken up by the claim of the wilderness as this is, is quiet and graceful. He steps up to where Anna and Onihime and Sarek are, taking off his top hat and sleight-of-handing it out of sight with a little turn.

"You don't know me either," he tells Anna, "but I can vouch for Onihime."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    The magic of the painting, the magic of the soul gem, and the mind of Amanda Faust pull at eachother--

>

> start

> cat Your mind is software.             Program it.
> cat Your body is a shell.              Change it.
> cat Death is a disease.                Cure it.  
> cat Extinction is approaching.         Fight iERRO
R! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR!

DATA CORRUPT*(%$nRESTARTING...                              
                                                              
Last startup was ERROR #-1 ARGUMENT MUST BE INTEGER days ago.
                                                              
Reactor offline.                                            
Reserve battery at 2%.                                      
Cyberbrain online.                                          
Motive systems online.                                      
Tacnet offline. Warning: Unable to connect to network.      
Sensors online.                                              
Weapons online.                                              
One or more warnings detected on startup. Read STARTUP.LOG for details.
ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL.

    On the bottom floor of a half-ruined building, Amybot stirs. Dressed in elegant gothic lolita type clothes because of course she is. (Wait... why of course?) Half the walls are gone, but support pillars are still holding the upper floors. The creeping green has made its way into the lower floor, vines having just begun to cover her foot; she tugs it free with ease and stands, dusting herself off.

    A few moments later, Amybot walks around a ruined wall into the sight of the others.

    Her face is the same as Miss Clownfish's (or Red's), but... She's dressed in tattered blue gothic lolita clothes, and her hair... is white, with a synthetic sheen to it. Her eyes are blue, with the faint whir of a camera apertures adjusting as light conditions change or she focuses on different objects. Her skin is plastic-y, lacking the subsurface scattering of blood-filled flesh; perhaps more immediately noticeable to the conscious mind are the visible doll joints of her elbows and fingers.

    Mamoru's seen her before, in Pyrite's dream.

    "What the heck." Amy's voice has a faintly tinny quality to it. She turns to Anna. "The gimmick?" She looks between the others. "Wait, why didn't you all change? And where's M--" She starts to ask, but looks up at the exactly one male here. She squints, with the faint whirr of a camera adjusting.

    "...Is that you?"

Veronica Perenna has posed:
"Paintings are kidnapping them and letting them go after a while. We are here to discover how and why", she starts explaining to Onihime. "Last time clues pointed to a fairy, but I don't think he was doing it of his own accord. Some things were... out of his supposed abilities, let's say." Namely, touching a sword of iron.

When Tuxedo Kamen approaches, Veronica is surprised and pleased to see a distinguished fellow, taking off her own top hat and bowing towards him. "I presume you are a likeminded spirit with nobility in both spirit and lineage", she greets him. "I am the Princess of Sarek, Phantom Thief by profession and calling for those less fortunate." She ends the presentation by tossing Mamoru her own calling card.

"So, hello again, Vampire Hunter", Veronica greets Anna with a smile, but she is looking at her with a slightly more detached attitude compared to last time. She is sizing up how much of a threat she can be to Norie now. And the fact she is tentatively regarding Onihime as a monster to hunt definitely doesn't help.

"No", she says with firm calmness. "Onihime is a friend and a reliable magical girl. She is not anybody you should fight." Particularly since Onihime's skills don't mess around and it would turn into a ugly brawl rather quickly.

Potential fights aside, the city is not exactly like she expected it to be. "How odd", Veronica exclaims as she contemplates the eerie silence. "The rumours were very specific about the noise of machinery, yet this is so unlike that." The vibes alone are certainly different from the other one, and now this weird reaction. The Princess of Sarek wages that whoever is behind this certainly isn't a prankster.

She grabs a pebble off the road and with a quick throw, she sends it flying towards one of the hovering vehicles. The resulting clang echoes loudly through the city, but instead of it falling back down, it's immediately vaporised. "Well, that's quite the disproportionate security measure", she comments. She turns around to the rest of the group. "How about we board them and see where they are going? Probably trying to avoid touching the sides."

Before she can consider climbing one of the nearby trees to jump on it however, the sudden whirs make her turn around towards the source of this new sound. A gothic lolita robot walks towards them, but it's the familiar face that makes Veronica check her twice. "Red? Really? Did the painting do that to you?" Though, really, what else could it be?

Kureha Senkenzan has posed:
    'Painting is haunted' is a statement that takes Onihime a few seconds to parse. "I... see." She pauses to regard Anna's hand moving down towards her whip, and there's a slightly arched eyebrow. "Do you solve all of your problems with force?" asks the oni.

    Then a mysterious man in the mask strides up beside them, and immediately vouches for her. There's the briefest look of confusion in her eyes, and her response is a deadpan, "I apologize, but do I know you? You look as if you stepped right out of one of my father's parties." Setting that matter aside, however, she turns towards Anna, and reaches up to give her hair a casual flip.

    "I suppose you aren't wrong that I am a monster, of sorts. I am Onihime, the Youkai Musume of flames. Mine is the blood of Mount Ooe." She gives a polite bow, then straightens up. "I am here to investigate rumors of disappearances. And to bludgeon those responsible, if negotiations should break down."

    Anything more the horned girl may have planned to say of herself is set aside by the arrival of... uh... RoboPuella?

    It's not easy to get Kureha Senkenzan staring in open bafflement. But by golly, this is a sight that manages it.

    "What."

    Veronica's explanation makes things a little more clear, but it does lead to more questions in turn. "...I see. Well, if there is any way in which I can assist, I shall be glad to do so." She glances up at the hovering vehicle, and then says simply, "I am difficult to injure. Allow me."

    A low crouch, and then Onihime leaps - a high, lazy arc that should put her right on target to land on one of the hovering vehicles.

Anna Domenico has posed:
Curse Hunter Anna answers Onihime as she says. "Yup." she says. "That's what it usually comes down to, when Vampires, Werewolves and Witches and other monsters show up." she says, as she looks to the strange man vanish his tophat and blinks. "Well. As long as everything remains on the up and up." she says as she moves her hand away from her whip.

"Yeah. I came here too to investigate. But got lost here." she says.

Then she watches Onihime leap onto the air and land on one of the hovering vehicles as she leaps into the air as high as she can.... then seems to bounce on something not there to leap high again and just makes it to the grip of the bottom of the vehicle as she looks down at...

The strange robot.

"Is she a native?" she asks.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The only boy here catches the card neatly between his white-gloved index and middle fingers, then tucks it away into the air with a little smile. "Tuxedo Kamen," he introduces himself, sweeping a bow with the requisite accompaniment of cape-billowing. He straightens up, "Prince of nothing any longer, but certainly a guardian of this planet."

He slow-tilts his head towards Amy and his smile turns into a crooked grin. "Who else? Hey, don't lose yourself here, Faust-san--" from grinning to concerned in no time flat.

He watches as Veronica's pebble gets vaporised and flinches. "Touching them at all seems like a hell of a risk for--" as Kureha just... jumps right up. There she goes. He shades his eyes, and misses Anna starting to jump, but then he looks bewildered. "Did she just double-jump?" he asks Amy, looking faintly offended.

At any rate they didn't die, so the boy in the mask and the extremely formal eveningwear jumps up too -- and doesn't need to doublejump to get the height he needs, but he wants to anyway, but he doesn't. It's not long before he's up there, too, and he calls over to Onihime, "We've met! I gave some youkai some bad ideas once, oops. I'll tell you later!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy pointed out that 'cold iron' was quite possibly an idiomatic expression, not a literal allergy to iron so much as a colorful way of saying 'they can be killed'; much like saying something is vulnerable to 'hot lead' today.

    Of course, if Onihime is a monster some might consider hunting, then what is a robot?

    Especially a former human who willingly uploaded into an immortal, superhuman body?

    Onihime gives a flat What. Amy slumps. "Look, the painting does weird stuff, and I'm weird, so--"

    She pauses as she realizes that maybe this happening here and in Pyrite's dream is connected to her status as a Puella Magi. Everyone else walks around in squishy brains. She remote controls her flesh-body from a rock.

    For a few seconds one might think that Amy ran out of power or glitched or something. Normally she'd still be breathing, and the very slight movements of someone holding still, but as a robot she doesn't breathe and when she's not trying to move, she's absolutely still.

    And then she's moving and talking again, like a player in an online game who was having connection trouble. "...Anyway, I wasn't a mermaid in real life, s-so, I'll probably be back to normal once we solve this painting. Heh." Yeah. Normal. A rock controlling an immortal body, just like every other day!

    She blinks at Anna and looks indignant, robot hands on her little hips. "I'm Miss Clownfish from last time! I'm a robot this time!" And then she looks less confrontational as she rubs the back of her neck awkwardly. "No idea why, heh..."

    Anna double-jumps(!) onto an autocar; Amy confirms to Tuxedo Mask, "Yup. I wonder what else we can do in here?" and then looks at an approaching car. "Hey! I'm a machine too! Talk to me! What are you doing? Who gave you your current orders?" She slumps, "Ugh, what am I doing, no way that works... Hey wait!"

    Amy leaps up after the two of them, crouching down atop a car as she reaches for her phone, and it's not there, but a hologram of a little phone screan appears in front of her. (The home screen background, for anyone who looks closely, is an animefied version of her normal appearance, smiling at the camera with her chin and cheek resting on her hand, posed as if she's crouching down to be eye-level with the camera). Amybot taps it like a phone, checking for a wireless network to connect to. Investigating a futuristic sci-fi world, the party IT specialist would be remiss if she didn't at least check for an internet or some device she can connect to and learn something from.

    Or maybe there's nothing. It's a magic painting, who knows how any of this works?

Veronica Perenna has posed:
The Princess of Sarek winces as Tuxedo hints at having lost his homeland. "I am sorry, I didn't mean to dig up painful events from your past", she tells him apologetically. "I am honoured to defend people alongside you", she adds, though that is probably not enough to cover up her gaffe.

Regardless, Veronica leaps up behind the others to the vehicle. The procession of vehicles continues regardless of people wanting to board, but thankfully everyone manages to get in anyway. Rude though.

When Amy tries to connect with the vehicle, it seems like it's going to establish a link between them, but suddenly she gets the electronic informatic of getting the door shut onto her face, and the vehicle just continues moving along.

The vehicles stop all stop in front of an immaculate chapel where a robotic dog as big as a wolf lies in the front of the door. Right onto the dog, there is a mechanical mannequin of a bride, though the impression she gives isn't that she is riding it, but more like she is trying to avoid the ground.

She doesn't pay the group any mind, merely singing over and over "Will give thee a shirt so white and fine, Was bleached yestreen in the new moonshine." The dog instead rises and whirs in imitation of growls, then metallic shards ejects off its body towards the group.

Kureha Senkenzan has posed:
    Calm and graceful, the Youkai Musume of Flames stands and waits, enjoying the ride. She has little to say for the moment, only observing the scenery as they pass. She does, however, regard Tuxedo Kamen briefly with eyebrows raised, his words allowing her to put the pieces together. "I see."

    Beyond that, she's content to watch and wait, right up to the moment where the vehicle comes to a stop. There, she simply hops off, landing gracefuly, and begins to walk forward. Every step careful, refined, her poise elegant... right up until a robotic dog with a singing robot rider begins to threaten them all with growls.

    Onihime stops on the spot, and as the shards come out, swings her arm up, over, and slams it down, smashing the ground up into a chunk large enough to shield against the shrapnel blast. And in one flowing movement, she whirls around, driving her foot forward and kicking the massive chunk right at the robo-wolf. "YAAA-!"

Anna Domenico has posed:
Curse Hunter Anna can double jump because of the powers granted by her gauntlet! But hey she needed two jumps to get up here. Still, she rides along as she lets the others do their thing, tailcoat flapping in the breeze as she hums and soon...

There's a giant robot wolf, with a singing robot bride. "Ah! Finally! A Wolf being ridden by a robot wedding bride!" she says as she makes a flicking motion with her gauntlet, a flurry of silver daggers coming out to meet the metallic shards heading for her, before she grips her whip and flails it off, swinging around and latching onto a nearby, neo-futuristic bench, and giving another flick, sending the bench flying through the air towards the Wolf, as she then charges forward, better to be closer with her fighting style, than not. She might run out of things to throw like that.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"The honor is mine!" Tuxedo Mask calls toward Veronica, grinning again-- but then they're on their way, and there's so much to look at: he wasn't lying, it really is beautiful, the shining arcologies falling gradually to the overgrowth of new life. If he could stay here without it trying to kill them, for just a little while--

--but there's a job to do, and now there's an angry dog wolf robot thing is shooting at them and Mamoru raises his cape and ducks his head down below the line of his arm; the cape deflects the metal shards, and they clatter into the thing he's riding on. Then the gig is undoubtedly up, because...

Out comes a rose from nowhere! Tuxedo Kamen flings it through the air like a dart, stem-first; it moves fast enough that it gives the impression of a red trail, and it's aimed straight for the robotic beast's head.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy reels back slightly, mouth agape as the virtual door is slammed in her face. Rude!

    They arrive at the wolf and the bride. "Okay, this is cool. There wasn't anyone that talked last time! Hey there--" She waves, smiling, but then they're under attack! She dives out of the way.

    And she transforms.

    An ovoid of light rather than surrounds her, the red of her soul gem, and her silhouette inside it--shatters.

    No, just an outer layer shattered? Something like a mechanical skeleton is still intact. Arms expand, joints unfold unnaturally--

    The light fades to reveal Amy, her head unchanged atop a magitech construct, taller and lankier than she was though still not as tall as say Tuxedo Kamen. That construct... it's not actually a skeleton, but at a glance it's a little evocative of one, the way there's an upper body with a glowing red spherical core (with a bit of dark like smoke in the top of it), connected by a spine to a mechanical pelvis and thin legs that don't appear to possibly have room to support motors or the like, but move anyway and have tubes running down them as if for hydraulic systems. The lanky arms end in long claws and have armored plates on the forearms, on which are mounted missile racks -- and two more are mounted on armatures behind the shoulders.

    She's wearing the cloak from her Puella Magi outfit (there are holes in the back for the launcher-arms).

    She scampers from place to place, her long claws acting as extra feet, although she frequently lifts one to fire gyrojets from the palm at the wolf. The shoulder missile racks aim independantly and fire miniature anti-tank missiles in an attempt to pierce the wolf's armor.

    Uh.

    Is she okay?

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Veronica pulls up her moonlight barrier to defend against the metal fragments, and once the attack is over from the sphere the cat on her cane is holding, two beams of moonlight strike precisely at the machine, perfectly avoiding to hit Onihime.

Under everyone's combined attacks, the dog gets wrecked. The rose, the girojets and the moonbeans pierce its metallic hide, compromising vital funcionalities.

Meanwhile Onihime kicks the dog and Anna throws whatever the environment has to offer her. With the attacks from the group, the dog crashes dead to the ground and the bride gets thrown off the fake animal, turning into dust with not even a scream.

Soon enough, darkness claims everyone's sight and when it returns to them they are once more in the art gallery.

Kureha Senkenzan has posed:
    There is a moment's pause after the fall of the wolf and its rider, during which Kureha is left to just quietly stare at what remains of them. There's a bit of a baffled stare, as if concerned that might cause a problem, or there might be more, or-

    Dark. It's very dark. Oh this can't be good. Quickly, Onihime whips around, bringing up her guard, trying to prepare for a possible assault. But there is none, and soon enough she finds herself in an awkward defensive posture in the middle of an art gallery. "...a... ah..." Slowly, as if nothing happened, the kimono-clad girl draws herself up and stands properly, brushing herself off. "That was... odd." She glances around, between Veronica and Anna both. "Did either of you notice any clues as to why the... painting was haunted, as you put it?"

Anna Domenico has posed:
Curse Hunter Anna is back in the gallery, as she looks around. Right. Left. Up and down. Then she slacks. "Awww. I was gonna jump onto it and ride it. Like a cowboy." she says as she brushes her hair with a hand and sighs. "I think what the bride was saying, was a clue, But a clue to what?" she says. "Sounds like a strange poem, like what was on the sword." she says as she sighs.

"Does anyone even remember what it said. Something about a shirt, and moonlight. I think.." she says as she shrugs a little. "This is number two. Is there any more haunted galleries?" she asks the group. "Paintings don't normally kidnap people, at least." she says.

"-and like. These places need to be safe."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The immensely tall boy who is still transformed in his white-tie-and-tails caped and masked ensemble--? He regards Anna for a moment, then brushes himself off and straightens up. "I don't know, all I know is that I wish I could visit that place again," he says a little wistfully.

Then he bows to the group. "If you need to reach me, talk to Sailor Moon. I have to go."

And... he has to actually leave through the door like a normal person.

Amanda Faust has posed:
> THREAT DETECTED

> ACTIVATE WITCH HUNTER MODE

> OBJECTIVE: ELIMINATE THE ENEMY

    Amy feels like she could do anything. At her thought of being somewhere she moves naturally, adroitly. (Unnaturally strong robot limbs replicate the speed and strength of mahou shoujo. It looks creepier from the outside than it feels to do!) The weapons she thinks to summon are already there, built into or attached to her body, firing at her thought without need for the pull of a trigger.

    (She may later remember that she already does this trick normally, having summoned and fired missile racks at Witches before)

    As a Puella Magi, she knows, academically, that her body is a weapon designed to fight witches.

    As a magitech robot warrior of the painting's lost civilization, technology fused with soul gem magic, she feels it. Power, great but not infinite. A body, resilient beyond most magical girls but not unkillable.

    And thinking of herself as some kind of warrior robot, it's easy to apply a single-minded focus to combat, more than she usually does.

    It feels like it was longer, but the fight is over in seconds. Some magitech equivalent of adrenaline is still coursing through her systems. She looks around at her companions with glowing eyes.

    "Is everyone alright?" The voice is slightly staticy as well as tinny now, and she reaches out her hand to them, then stares down in wonder at the inhuman claw that's moving instead of a hand, and the body it's attached to.

    A clawtip taps the large soul gem in her chest curiously, with a distinctly solid tink tink sound, and then darkness takes her.

    She's back in the gallery. Amy looks at her hands to check: hands. And a human body. She lets out the breath she was holding, and then breathes in, and now she's thinking about her breathing because it's suddenly noticeable after not breathing for the past few minutes.

    "Well that was a trip."

    She looks at the others. What was said? Fading instincts say she should be able to just check what her eyes and ears recorded, but before she can even think about how she would do that it already feels silly and impossible. She shakes her head a little.

    Mamoru says he'd like to go there again, and Amy nods. "Yeah. There and the mermaid world would be fun to explore more."

    She looks to Anna. "But how do we make them safe? Do we just blunder into every cursed painting in sequence? And... we're all doing things to escape. But what about the nonmagic folks who get trapped? What happens to them? Like... they couldn't have defeated that robot wolf, right?"

Veronica Perenna has posed:
The Princess of Sarek looks around. That seems to have done the trick. Onihime asks the natural question and Veronica moves to explain it.

"I think I have all the pieces, yes. Have you heard what the bride was singing? That was an excerpt from the poem known as "The Erlking's Daughter" by Johan Gottfried von Herder. So the bride was probably that daughter, but I don't know how the technology and the Erlking relate to each other. I think the dog and the turning to dust are simbolism from the story of King Herla, though, who is said to have become the Erlking." She will have to look further in that direction.

She turns to Tuxedo Kamen as he looks away. Could he be... Hematite? It fits with the rose and Mamoru's earlier presence, though that raises more questions than answers even if they will have to be answered another time, Veronica reluctantly realises. "See you next time, Tuxedo."

"I don't know if there are any more, but I will keep keep an ear to the ground", she tells Anna.

To Amy she says "I am alright, yes. How about you?" The Puella is back in her flesh and blood body, but that last trasformation was actually worrying. "Were you feeling any different in that robotic body? And do you feel completely back to normal now?" She has no idea what it means for a person to be converted to a mechanical structure and back again to a human one.

Kureha Senkenzan has posed:
    "I do agree," Kureha replies to Anna, with a small nod of her head. "A hazard like that cannot be left intact. If I am available when any others are discovered, I would be more than willing to join in investigating them." Veronica already has the words and their meaning covered; rote memorization isn't difficult for Onihime, but she would never have known the significance of the words. "Princess of Sarek, if you have need of me, you have the means to contact me. Depending on... where I am and who I am with, I may not be able to join you, but I will try if I can."

Anna Domenico has posed:
Curse Hunter Anna sighs and looks around for a skylight again. There isn't any. "Dammit, guess I'm leaving through the front door like a loser." she says as she double finger salutes. "Alright then. Don't worry, I'll be keeping my ear close to the local art scene." she says before she somersaults backwards a few times before she sighs and walks out the door, opening it, before hopping to the top of the building, up and away!

Into the night! Away!

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "The Erlking's Daughter... spell that?" Amy asks, pulling out her phone to make a note.

    And then

    The princess asks

    Do you feel completely back to normal now?

    The consciousness residing inside the gem that is currently on a pendant around her body's neck, under its shirt, looks out through those eyes at the princess and stares at her for a moment.

    And then breaks out laughing.

    After a few seconds of laughing like a madwoman she really wants to say something, but the thought of how absurd calling what she is 'normal' just sets her off laughing again, doubling over.

    Eventually she manages to stop, catching her breath and holding up a hand in an 'I'm fine' gesture as she braces her other hand on her knee, and then slowly stands up. "I'm sorry. That was a really bad time to laugh, but I'm fine. I mean. Well..." She takes a breath and taps her chin, looking thoughtful. "I am the same as before I entered the painting. But I'm a Puella Magi. I am not 'completely normal.'"

    She holds out her hand and looks at the back, then flips it over to look at the front. "Don't worry. In addition to that, I suspect I'm mentally resilient to alterations of body. Or maybe drawn to them. I think of it as a really weird superpower that's useless 99.999% of the time. But uh. Useful when it comes up."

    And in retrospect, it probably kept me from wanting to kill myself for two decades, so, not really useless.

    "...It was... from inside I barely had time to notice it. We were fighting. It was just... It kind of brought to the forefront how much power I have as a magical girl, normally disguised in this cute little package. If that makes any sense?" She cocks her head and looks over the princess a bit warily, concerned she may not be believed.

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Onihime offers her assistance to Veronica and the Princess of Sarek thankfully nods in her direction. "I re appreciate it, and do not hesitate doing the same with me if you ever find yourself in a tough spot."

A slight bow towards Anna, and the Phantom Thief comments a bit defensively "Thank you for the help, Hunter."

Veronica has no idea what being a Puella has to do it, but she accepts Amy's answer readily enough. "I think so, though it would do good for you to clarify that 'cute little package'. Since nothing about your theme seems to be boxed."

The painting has turned into the representation of a metal horse wandering around with the title "Missed chances." "It's the second time it changes like that", she murmurs, before waving. "I better go, but thanks for the help." And just like that, she turns ethereal, taking a shortcut through the wall.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Everyone else leaves, and Amy and the Princess are alone.

    The princess asks what she means by 'this cute little package'. Amy cocks her head to one side and looks at Veronica like... what.

    "Not a literal package. I mean this cute little package." She raises her arms, points down at herself, and does a twirl, cloak and skirt flaring out.

    After twirling, she looks at the Princess. "Stronger than I look. Able to take punishment that would kill a human many times over... as long as I have magic. And able to summon an armory--" She holds out her hand and summons a bulkier version of one of the claws from before, with the palm-mounted firing port, but struggles to move it. "Okay, that doesn't really work, but..."

    And then the claw disappears and the Puella Magi cycles through weapons she's used before, pistol-looking weapons with a small then a large barrel, then similar two-handed weapons, then her basic rocket launcher, then the giant tube strapped to her arm she fires one of her finishers from, each weapon disappearing in fading sparkles as the next appears. Finally, she summons a bunch of (empty) missile racks, strapped to her arms and legs and behind her shoulders -- an armament suited to a mecha musume, or the tsukumogami of an old warship. (Her outfit changes to have a few more armor bits so the missile racks have more stable support. Which contributes to the effect of making her look like a mecha musume...)

    "It's costly, in magic, to actually fire all this, but I can do it multiple times. That's what I mean. I did not feel more powerful being some kind of battle robot... it was just more obvious."

    She cocks her head to one side. "Puella Magi are girls who've made a contract with Kyubey and promised to hunt Witches. Have you ever seen a Witch?" She straightens her head. "We are equipped for the job. It's Sayaka and Klarissa you should be worried about, not me. The revelation that we are... no longer what we seem has hit her... them, the hardest."

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Oh, so that was just for herself. Veronica would have found that term belittling, but Amy seems to intentionally use it to highlight the in many ways unnatural power they now wield. "I guess people would frequently underestimate us compared to somebody like Tuxedo Kamen", she notes. "Which has its advantages, at least. If they really wanna look down on us, all there is to do is make them regret it."

The Princess of Sarek raises an eyebrow when Amy goes through her whole arsenal in front of her. It may not be actually be costly like firing it, but it seems wasteful just to prove a point when she would have still trusted Amy by her words. "That's quite nic, but are you sure you will be alright using your powers like that?"

The use of the term Witch like that means nothing to Veronica, and yet the red Puella is applying it some kind of special meaning. She gets the feeling she is about to stumble into quite the story, especially with the faux pas Amy had with regards to those two girls she mentioned as well as this enigmatic revelation.

"I think you may have to debrief me on this whole matter, if you have the time. I don't think you mean female dark energy users by witches. What are they then? And what is this revelation you speak of? Lastly, why did you switch from addressing Sayaka and Klarissa as her to addressing them as them?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy thinks of Tuxedo Kamen, or rather, his past form as Hematite. "I mean, he didn't really look all that powerful as a Dark General, either. Or now. I wonder if he's weaker now that he's on our side?" You know, like always happens in videogames when the crazy powerful enemy or NPC unit becomes playable.

    "Yeah. It's fine. It's firing the big attacks, and... recovering from... deadly wounds, that costs magic." She dismisses the missle rack on it and holds up her left arm, turned outward, as the soul gem teleports from pendant-under-her-armor form to being set into the back of her glove like a watch. Her SOUL is a deep red, like staring into a ruby or colored glass only more... pure, somehow. But darkness, like deep black smoke, roils at the very top of the gem, filling just a sliver of it inside the top edge.

    She's doing pretty well at the moment -- the Silver Crystal overhealed her, and by not using big magic attacks it's taken her awhile to burn that off and even begin gaining corruption again.

    "Tank's about as full as it was when I went in the painting. Who knows if stuff done in like, dreams or other forms even counts? Anyway... if we ever run out of magic, we die. We replenish it by using the grief seeds Witches drop when they die. I'm doing pretty good right now."

    She takes a breath and lets it out, lowering her arm and dismissing the rest of the missile racks as she gestures with her other arm while talking. "Witches are horrible, often-giant monsters that I think come from outside reality. They mark nonmagic folk, making them suicidal so they can feed on the energy of the dying. They usually can't enter reality directly, but the like... epicenter of where they are becomes a portal into some pocket dimension, even weirder than the paintings, where the laws of reality don't necessarily apply. Often full of hostile creatures. Never enter a Witch's Labyrinth alone. And I understand it's not safe for someone other than a Puella Magi to hold onto a grief seed for long, although I don't know what actually happens if someone does."

    She winces as Veronica catches her slip about Sayaka and Klarissa. "That... is their business, and not mine to tell."

Veronica Perenna has posed:
"Well, I mean, I assume he is the kind of person people look at and think he is someone respectable, no?" Veronica explains herself. "For no reason other than his stature at least. He is really tall." And that is something he has always had, either as Hematite or now. "And I think the fact he dresses so elegantly goes a long way too. His style is actually impeccable", she says. And she did voice her appreciation over his clothes quite a bit earlier, before her blunder.

She nods at Amy explaining her magic reserves before pondering her question. "Weeell, the other painting was actually bordering on the dream world, I think, due to Puck's influence, unlike this one with the Erlking, but I actually got no clue about the workings of dream magic. I will try to look further into it."

Her brow furrows at Amy's explanation on Witches. "That's so horrid. And you are telling me you are fighting these Witches on the regular. I don't know why I have never stumbled into them before, but if you find one, I want to help, and I would be glad if you tried to call me, please."

She lets go of the situation on Sayaka and Klarissa since it's a private thing, but the matter of that revelation doesn't seem to be, and a revelation is a pretty big thing, so Veronica asks again. "Hey, Red, the revelation though, can you please tell me? That sounds pretty important.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy tilts her head. "Tallness doesn't make you respectable. What are we, Irkens? ...Nevermind that. Reference to an old cartoon." She quirks an eyebrow at Veronica bubbling so much over Tuxedo Mask. Is this... attraction? "You know he's taken, right?"

    She shrugs at the comment about dream magic.

    An offer of aid is given. "Sure." She pulls her phone from one of her belt pouches and exchanges numbers.

    Afterward she starts to turn away to leave, but Veronica speaks up and freezes her in her tracks.

    After a moment, she lets out a sigh. "You really want to know?"

    "Lemme just make sure no one's listening..." She walks around the room, peering into the adjacent rooms, including checking for any eavesdroppers pressed up against the wall right by the doorways.

    Amanda Faust takes a deep breath and lets it back out as she walks over to Veronica. Looks her over. If this girl was so concerned for Amy... maybe she could help other Puella Magi. "You are aware that, according to modern science, you're not in there," she pokes the other girl's arm gently, "or even there" she pokes the chest, approximately where the heart is, "But up here." She points at her head. "We're patterns of neurological connections and electrochemical impulses, programs running on a few pounds of jell-o." She drops her hand and shakes her head. "Not even that -- on the wrinkly skin of the jell-o."

    The redheaded magical girl takes a breath. "Everything you are is in there. What makes you you. Not the body, but the brain. Not even the brain, but the mind. Some think that if every detail of this 'program' could be emulated on other hardware, we could leave our fleshy bodies behind and live forever inside a virtual world, or in robot bodies, or maybe even write new programs into the brains of clone bodies or whatever." She shrugs.

    "So anyway, magic is real, and apparently souls are a thing. No, I don't know how a theory of souls explains brain damage or people like Phineas Gage. I am disinclined to test it. Kyubey says he's not sure if we can function with a damaged brain until it regenerates. I would suppose that a soul may be like a stored program, that needs hardware like a brain to actually execute on, but..." She frowns, as she thinks back to getting her guts blown out.

    If her brain doesn't have oxygenated blood pumping through it, it can't function. But then, maybe that's a function of magic as well, making it work anyway. It doesn't prove she can run without a brain.

    She shakes her head. "Obviously, without magic, most people can't regenerate damaged brains anyway, so it's academic. But I'm getting ahead of myself."

    She holds up her forearm to show the soul gem again.

    "This is my soul. I can survive the loss of this body, if I've got enough magic to regenerate it. I'm remote-controlling it from in there." She taps the soul gem with her right index finger. "Immortal stone, puppeting flesh. Of course, complete bodily destruction is an unlikely scenario. Wounds that would debilitate a human? Turn off pain and fight on. Although, there's a bit of lag when we do that. Wounds that would kill a human? Magic keeps us moving." She shrugs and shakes her head. "As long as we survive long enough to kill the witch and take its grief seed, it doesn't matter how damaged our bodies are, we'll get enough magic to regenerate, after all. We're Witch-hunting machines."

    She hasn't really talked to people about this all that much. Maybe she's been holding it in and now all her thoughts and exposition are spilling forth as if from a burst dam?

    "We're probably eternally young. What's aging but a form of damage?" Actually, that's not true, as maturation is a different process from telomere degeneration. "Although, we'll probably die in battle before that goes on long enough to mean anything. Unless there's some way to stop the threat of Witches completely."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy stretches and paces back and forth a bit. "So you see. Being a robot, or some kind of warmachine, isn't that much of a change. In one way of looking at it, I already am."

    She looks at Veronica. In for a penny, in for a pound. Assuage her doubts. "...I'm trans. I was a 36-year-old man when I made the contract. It took a couple of months, before friends helped me realize what it meant, that I'm so much happier as a girl, and the thought of going back fills me with fear. But I've had. The wrong body all of my life, until half a year ago. I always felt like my body wasn't me, just a flesh robot I was piloting around. Ha, ironically, I don't feel like that anymore," She lifts the hand with her soul gem on it, looking at it, "But, it's an easy enough mode of thinking to recall and work with. So... temporarily having a body that doesn't match me, like a mermaid or a robot..."

    She shakes her head, red tresses bouncing back and forth. "No. Those were more me than my old body ever was. But the weird warbot thing?" She shrugs. "Temporarily having a body that isn't 'me', big deal. I've already endured that for decades. I'm used to it." She shrugs again.

    "But, some of the others... they're taking this harder. Mami is fine, but everyone else... especially Sayaka and Klarissa... The idea that they're rocks puppeting flesh robots that look like their old bodies has unsettled them. I suppose like you thought the experience in the painting might have unsettled me."

    Amy slumps a bit. "I'm not sure what to do for them. How to explain all this. Like it's fine. It doesn't matter whether your consciousness is housed in wrinkly jello, a rock, or something else. You're you." She points at herself with her right thumb. "I'm me, and always was, even in my old shape. But there's... I don't know. I don't know how to get it across."

    She sighs again.

Veronica Perenna has posed:
That's a lot of information Amy gives her, and Veronica listens to all of it, keeping track of her thoughts along the way, but not interrupting the redhead until the very end. Admittedly, she doesn't like thinking of her body's internal makeup. Not out of some phylosophical concern, but it's just that thing is gross to her, and that's accentuated by every "jell-o" Amy says.

"Of course I know he is taken", Veronica comments. "What, you think I am a crush on him?" she chuckles and shakes her head. "He just really feel like he should model too as a Phantom Thief. The kind of hero that dashes in the night after committing a heist for the good of the people as the full moon shines about them. A good painting would come out of it, at least. Remind me to show you mine one of these days. Oh, the painting is just like, you could say it is my Kyubey, but it doesn't actually speak, and we are actually bonded together magically. It's in my dorm room ever since I stole it from England after it chose me."

And she gives a shrug when she thinks about what the source of their selves is and where it is. "To be fair I don't really know all that", she shrugs when Amy finishes talking. "The people doing those studies aren't aware of magic, and that really upsets the whole matter. There is your case, where your soul is somewhere else because some random being chose what is best for you - I hope you gave him a good dressing-down about that - and there is also me, who can turn into something that could very well be called a ghost if not for the fact I am still alive. Where does my brain go in those circumstances? I certainly doubt those guys know." She isn't really phased about the soul being an actual thing as a result.

"And let's not forget I can do this" - and in a second she has turned into a perfect copy of Amy - "I want to see how they would try to explain my disguise magic with the whole dna business. Admittedly, my disguise is surface level in that it doesn't confer me any of your powers or even mimic the actual principle behind your Soul Gem, but still I don't science can explain this."

And then she sighs. "I can see what you mean. This Kyubey guy really knows his stuff by making you so perfect for the job. It's a pity he must have thrown out his morals somewhere along the way. Any of this "you die if you so much as miscalculate your magic worth" doesn't sit well with me at all. If I defeat any of these Witches, I will bring these Grief Seeds to you as quickly as I can." Besides, she has no use for them, as Amy said.

And her expression turns empathetic when the Puella describes the kind of suffering she has gone through all her life just due to such a basic mismatch. "Congratulations of having gotten rid of that stuff then", she says. "I don't think it absolves Kyubey of what he did, but as long as you are enjoying your new life, it's a great thing it turned out so well for you. Because really, there is at least quite a few things he did wrong, and that's why I don't blame those two girls at all if they decided he needed to face his comeuppance."

"Being a mermaid was actually cool, after I understood what was going on. I would have been less unsettled if I had gotten a heads up that's what was going to happen, but as long as it's not a permanent change (because that would suck), as something you can get in and out of, I think it's quite awesome", she comments regarding Amy bringing up her having been unsettled by it.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Ah, they are both... magical heroic art thieves? Or at least Tuxedo Mask is dressed for the part. So Veronica's commenting on that, not just simping for the tall guy. Amy nods. She listens curiously.

    A good dressing-down? She quirks an eyebrow. And then is a bit taken aback by the mimicry, curiously circling around her doppelganger and then realizing she's the one person who can't notice any imperfections because it's not like she's looked at herself from the back anyway? "Huh, my hair is a bit messy..." she mutters.

    She nods at Veronica's congratulations.

    Alright, from the top: "So you're some kind of heroic magical art thief? And... my point wasn't so much to explain science as to put you in the right mindset, of mind-body dualism, before explaining the soul gems."

    Amy shrugs. "As for Kyubey, I don't know that he was ever moral. I don't know where he, or this magic, came from. My theory is that it might be in response to the incursion of Witches from wherever the hell they come from, like a sort of... autoimmune response by Earth's magic. I dunno how any of this works, really..." She slumps briefly.

    Then stands again. "I can't really be mad enough at Kyubey to give him a dressing-down. I always hoped I'd get out of my fleshy prison, and what's silicon but another kind of rock? So, escaping into a rock was always kinda my hope. I just never expected it would happen so soon. I could be mad at him about the others, but..." She lets out a breath and leans to one side slightly. "See, that's the part I don't get. Why it's such a big deal. For all everyday intents and purposes, we live just as we would if our souls were still in our bodies. Our experience doesn't change. I don't get why it's such a big deal. Maybe because I barely had any time to get attached to my body before finding out my soul wasn't in it."

    She leans the other way, with a hand on her hip, almost posing. "It is a lovely body. And I'm enjoying the experience of living in it, regardless of where my soul is located."

    Then she relaxes her stance. "But yeah I just don't get why it bothers others so much. I get that it bothers them, but... Like I'd get it. If we'd all been put in different bodies, that were as wrong for them as my old one was to me. I'd be horrified at such a thing. But this, like... why's it such a big deal? You said yourself, you didn't even know how it supposedly worked before. Neither did they. Nothing has changed, subjectively."

    She stretches. "And yeah, being a mermaid was cool. Like I said, that still felt more... me than the old one did. It would be really cool to explore the worlds of the paintings more."

    She looks at the painting of the wandering horse. "I wonder how that works, anyway? Were there really worlds? Or was there only what was around us? Was it a physical place, or more like a dream? Are those worlds still out there?" She shrugs.

Veronica Perenna has posed:
"The art bit is just a coincidence", Veronica starts explaining. "I steal anything that was obtained unfairly and give it to the legitimate owners, or anything that's dangerous and it's going to keep harming people."

Well, guess she should go back to herself now. And that she does, complete with also undoing her henshin. "About your hair, I wasn't going to make a big deal out of it, but have you ever asked for tips? Or gone to a salon. You must have been invited at least once over these months, no?"

She has no comment over the source if Witches. Everything she could say would only be random guesses. "Maybe you will find out soon", she shrugs.

"I have no clue about others' perspectives. Have you tried asking them? Just meet up somewhere isolated, introduce the subject and ask why they feel that way?" That doesn't seem like a bad idea to her.

"Well, could have been dreams, could have been not", the Princess of Sarek murmurs as the thinks, looking at the painting too. "The other one turned into a sunken tower, so it sort of feels like they could have also been trapping concepts. I am sort of debating stealing them too, just in case they revert. They really feel like my ward."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy nods at the explanation of what being a phantom thief entails, and when Veronica de-henshins, she follows suit.

    And promptly blushes, put on the back foot. "I-I... um... a salon?" She shakes her head slightly, "No, I haven't... or been invited..." She looks at Veronica, as if curious about something, but then looks away.

    No comment on finding out about Witches.

    Learning perspectives... "I'm also autistic. I don't know why, but I do know if someone doesn't want to talk about something, especially something they're emotional over... asking them isn't going to go well. ...Is that really what a normal person would do?"

    She looks at the painting. "Trapped concepts? What would that even mean... And if they do revert after you take them, how will you avoid getting sucked in alone?"

Veronica Perenna has posed:
"I don't know your friends. If they don't want to talk about it, then there is probably nothing to do about that", she agrees. "Unless I knew it was a bad idea, I would absolutely ask them what's up, to try and help them."

But then again, she isn't so confident in this that she would want Amy's friendship to suffer. "You know them more than me. Even if there are things you don't get, you are more equipped than me to know what's right."

"If my theories are correct, my painting is going to hold it back long enough to recruit a team of mahous and do the thing all over", she explains regarding avoiding getting whisked in.

"Case in point, Amy, what were you thinking of earlier when you were looking at me? Want to talk about something?" she asks, having noticed that odd reaction and wanting to make sure nothing was wrong."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy scratches her head. "I guess it's worth a shot. At least asking once. They can just say no."

    And then Veronica asks why she was staring. Huh? When was she stare--oh.

    She blushes again, put back in a context of being new to girl stuff and desperate to be included. "Well um." She furtively glances at the other girl, and wrings her hands. "I was wondering, um, if that was... if that was an invitation to get hair done. Together. I'd have no idea what I'm doing alone..." She looks away. "Is that weird to ask? I'm new at this. Sorry."

Veronica Perenna has posed:
"I would offer to come along as moral support for you in case you wanted, but I think I would just be an awkward addition. I think you are going to do great, though", she comments.

And Veronica smiles once Amy reveals what she was thinking of. So that's what it was all about. She just liked the idea and wanted to come along. There really is only one answer to that. "It is now. What do you say?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy beams, clasping her hands together and bouncing on her heels a bit. "Yes! Thank you!" She steps up to hug Veronica enthusiastically, squeezes, then lets go and steps back. "I look forward to it!"