1359/Pillow Fight

Pillow Fight
Date of Scene:	28 March 2024
Location:	Plot Room 1
Synopsis:	Riventon and Mami conduct an interview of sorts with Melona. They all go into a Labyrinth together and defeat a witch. A witch made out of feathers and springs and bits of stuffing. Things get blown up and Melona gets a grief seed and a promise for future paperwork.
Cast of Characters:	Takashi Agera, Melona Mizu, Mami Tomoe

---

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Mami wanted to bring another Puella Magi into Obsidian - into Takashi's team. He supposed that would make her sort of a kohai to Mami. But he wasn't going to bring the girl in - and let her consume a portion of Mami's grief seeds - without making sure she was worth it. After all, Melona could end up being dispatched with any of them - or called to help - or anything else. Plus, if she did poorly, it would reflect badly on Takashi and on his steadily building long-term plans.

    So, an interview was called for. But this was no normal job, and so there would be no normal job interview. Instead, it would be a test - He'd found a witch labrynth and wanted to see two things: how the girl fought and how powerful she was, and how she might work together with Mami as a proxy for the other girls.

    This is what has him standing outside of the Labrynth entrance - a sort of point in space one can feel when close, though it's much harder for him to pin them down than Puella Magi - waiting for Mami and her prospective employee to arrive, so they can head in together.

Melona Mizu has posed:
    Invited to a job, and then told she has to go through an interview and test. A part of Melona was kind of annoyed at the prospect of that, it seemed illogical to her, even if on some level it did make sense to ensure she was strong enough and perform in a team.

    There was just. Somewhat of a Familiarity... to the method that didn't sit right with her. Her arrival was... not particularly subtle. In fact it could possibly be easily mistaken for an attack if Takashi wasn't paying attention to vectors and angles as a set of three large spheres of spiked metal come flying in towards the top of the building. At the last second, the spiked balls that form the end of Drei Spitzen shrink down to much more normal morningstar sized spheres, which are redirected over Misery Melon's shoulder as she lands atop the building nearby Takashi's coordinates.

    Her aim for her landing was actually pretty good, as she'd placed herself a good ten to fifteen feet away from Takashi, so as not to accidentally put him in danger should something go wrong. "Hallo. I assume you are mein test administrator."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami wanted to do so much more than just bring another Puella Magi into Obsidian, but that was the first step in her plans. Plans that she was still keeping to herself for now. She didn't need Takashi talking her out of them, after all.

Earlier, she had texted Melona the location, and a time, saying, "It's finally time for your interview! Show up in your henshin." And then, of course, showed up fashionably late herself.

Yellow ribbons shooting from a distant roof to affix to the building near where Melona's spiked balls had impacted. She swings down like some sort of comic book hero, except with feminine poise, her skirts floofing just a little as she lands. She smiles, trying to let only a reasonable amount of excitement show, "Delightful, we're all here!"

She lets a couple of rifles drop down out of her skirts, grabbing one with each hand, she tips them back resting them on her shoulders. "Shall we?"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon does, actually, mistake it for an attack, putting a Round Shield up between him and the upcoming attack. But the attack doeesn't come, and so the boy just looks up with his eyebrow perked as the shimmering glyphic field dissapears. It certainly marks him as Not A Puella Magi.

    "You needn't be so formal. Assuming this goes fine it'll just be the sort of thing you do all the time, right?" Riventon asks her. "Since as a Puella Magi you must hunt witches to survive, doing it with two other people should be easy." He offers.

    "Should be like brushing your teeth for you, I'd think - just a standard habit. At least, I hope it is." Does he mean brushing her teeth or hunting down witches? (yes)

    There's a slight smile for Mami's entrance - a smile that he only ever really gives her - before he nods. "Yes, let's get this thing dealt with." he says, stepping in.

    And as the group steps in, they will promptly find themselves falling - a good ten plus feet - into an unstable ground of what appears to be giant chunks of foam, bird feathers, floating in a sea of some kind of soft fluff. From the sky, those feathers and fluff rain down like a strange, light snowfall - Riventon immediately levitates himself above the incredibly unstable floor. "I would say 'great, we got the weird one' but I think they're all weird." he says.

Melona Mizu has posed:
    Ah good, Mami is there. Melona's gaze shifts towards those yellow ribbons. "Those seem pretty useful." Maybe she should make some sort of grappling hooks or something in the future. Hm. Things to note down for later for herself. Then again, her flails were probably faster. "Hello, Mami. It seems we are." She pauses, looking between Takashi and Mami, and then taking a quick assessment of the situation down below. Hm.

    "Nein. There is still information to work out. First, this is an interview, yes? Am I doing this solo? If not, we should share general abilities and skills so that we can avoid getting in each others' way." She says, tapping her flail.

    "While I am fairly certain I gave you a good description of what my power functions in general, but as a refresher, I am able to create weaponry and equipment from the environment around me by making use of raw materials. I have not tested the limits of what can be created too thoroughly, though it does seem to at least at present be limited to ancient equipment such as swords, shields, and other things from the medieval era. It also does not last long unless I put time and effort into it." She swipes her hand through a nearby piping that housed some wiring, a section of it being taken into her hands and quickly molded into a dagger. Which she then drops. After about two or three seconds it reverts to a piecec of scrap metal, which she then puts back into place where it had come from.

    You needn't be so formal. "Ah? I was not intending to be formal." There was a bit of distantness to her tone of course. "It should be easy, probably, yes." Though underestimating a witch is almost always a terrible idea. They were stepping into the witch's labyrinth... though she wasn't immediately getting ready to fight.

"They are all weird, yes. I think I heard someone call them... ah... what was it..." She taps the side of her head. "Ah. 'A Trip'. I believe in reference to the drugs." Yes, she did just call them 'The Drugs'. ...She's 12. ...She doesn't really know much about such things. "...I am glad that witch's labyrinths are easier to work with since they're mostly just energy, otherwise these would be ... difficult materials to work with." She glances at the fluff and foam. Feathers are useful, though. Hm.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
As soon as Mami lands on the the unstable pile of fluff and feathers she's leaping back up. The rifles in her hand vanish and ribbons stream out from her sleeves weaving themselves into a flat, taut surface right above the pile of fluff. She lands on it and bounces back up, giggling. Who doesn't love trampolines?

She looks up above them, then. "What do you want to bet it's some kind of kind of bird?" She glances aside to Riventon first, and then Melona. "Alright, Melon, we want to see how you work, so you take the lead. Riventon and I are both mid-to-long range fighters with tricks up our sleeves. Our magics are both pretty versatile." She pauses for a moment and then asks, "So what's your play here?"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon floats there casually. He has more disdain for this ground than he does the normal ground. Mami seems to be enjoying it at least.

    He smiles at Melona. "Mami and I have both been doing the magic thing for quite a long time, so we've developed a lot of tools. I'm obviously not a Puella Magi like you, I'm a Device Mage. You can boil that down to 'I can fight at any range, and I shoot lasers and create shields' though. When it comes to working in groups I tend to take a bit of a support-artillery role. I can shield others and hit pretty hard. If it wasn't a witch I'd be comfortable in melee, but I've seen what happens when you drain energy from a Witch and I'm not keen to repeat THAT experience myself." he notes.

    As he's explaining, and Mami's bouncing, the Familiars for the witch start to show up. Or, rather, bounce end-to-end like slinkies with wire eyes, moving through the fluff-ocean like sea serpents, trying to crash into the group?

Melona Mizu has posed:
     Mami was bouncing around and having fun! ...Honestly this is why Melon had been drawn towards her, the woman just had this warmth around her that even if she was reluctant to accept, was pleasant. It was almost like this WASN'T a potential life or death situation!

Her play though. "Well normally by now the Witch arrives and we are forced into a life or death fight to continue our existence, but this one seems to be a bit more calm than some others." She slips her hands into the roiling fluff and feathers to gather up some of said feathers, forming them into a buckler of sorts, which she affixes to her arm in preparation for the fact that both of her allies are mid to long range combatants, and she's a closer range one for the most part.

"So step one is to find the target." She states simply. Riventon explains his powers a bit as well. Okay. "The barriers and support-artillery are very useful, I will keep them in mind. I largely fight in melee, it's usually obvious where and when I'm going as usually I am changing the size of my weapon around it."

When the familiars show up, there is absolutely no hesitation from Melona though as she quickly swings her flail in a circle to build up momentum, and launching the head of it towards one of the familiars as the chain grows longer and the spiked balls on the end grow larger to stop the closest ones in their tracks.

"It seems the time for strategization is up. My instincts are telling me the witch is this way." She says, starting to move without much hesitation. One thing is probably pretty obvious as she moves and fights... while she's clearly used to fighting alone, she is going out of her way to intercept anything that is getting into closer ranges to the other two even as she moves forward.

...So there might be hope for her.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami can't help but smile, but she tries to keep it minimal. But she thinks it's okay for her to show a little pride for the way her new kohai. It's a relief to see another puella who clearly thinks about her tactics.

But the time for beaming was later, when they had the grief seed. Right now? Right now there were familiars bouncing their way toward them. With Melon charging off to take point, Mami glances aside toward Riventon and then makes a really hard jump to raise herself up in the air, summoning a couple dozen rifles to shoot at all of the bouncing springs except whichever one Melon is attacking. The bullets as they get close explode into nets, trying to tangle up the springs and leave them motionless targets.

Feathers. Fluff. And slinky familiars? What's this witch's deal? They're always weird, but Mami can usually figure them out pretty quickly. She comes down and bounces on her trampoline once more before bounding after Melon.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Despite the bouncy funhouse that appears to be this Labrynth's terrain, and the ease at which the slinky-like familiars are dispatched - Mami's blasts and Melona's swings do a good job clearing them out - there's still more Labynrth to go through, and as they make their way in the direction of the witch (or, to Riventon, the biggest energy signature) a second set of Familiars comes forward.

    These are... creepy hooded figures? No, they're just the hoods themselves - only the hoods are made of multicolored squares put together by someone with zero color sense, because they kind of hurt to look at. Riventon cuts a path through one that is looking in the vague direction of Mami, blasting a hole straight through it so it flutters down. There's a few more of these blanket-cloak creatures coming though. And that energy source grows ever closer.

    Riventon's mostly watching Melona - but Mami is still the recipent of his attention as well. The girl does look like she can handle herself, though. "So, now that we're all here, how much have you told her about what we do? Because it's not always hunt Witches."

Melona Mizu has posed:
    Clearly thinking about her tactics is probably the only thing that has kept Melona alive this long, since her actual powers, while versatile, are actually probably on the slightly weaker side of Puella abilities, since most of her attacks are just... with mundane weapons. But she made use of those powers pretty effectively, creating weapons on the fly as needed even while moving, grabbing bits of foam to compress and fling at familiars, always aiming for the most solid area of their ... slinkies.

Another thing of note is that with each

BANG

There is a very slighty flinch, though it's subtle, and Melon is taking steps to hide and resist it as much as possible, it was still there.

Really, Riventon and Melona were following a similar thing, she wasn't really following a direct sense so much as just a vague sense of the biggest energy signature. When creepy hoods show up...

Melona doesn't hesitate to create a quick pair of crossbows which she launches several energy-laden feather-bolts towards the hooded figures using. As she fires, she responds to Riventon.

"Details were... somewhat sparse. She offered me a job, to be part of a team, after I brought her information on the true nature of Witches." She says somewhat simply. "Oh, right." She glances around. "Since Kyubey isn't here. Before I approached you, Mami." Thunk! "Sayaka approached me." Thwip thunk! More feather-bolts. Something about those hoodies gave her the feeling she didn't want to be close to them. "Requesting that empty grief seeds be taken to her, she apparently has a method of keeping them stable and seeks to restore more Puella. I figured you'd be interested."

Possibly not the best time to bring THAT up. It's fine. Probably.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami bounds along after Melona, each oversized step a perfect jete. Ribbons, rifles and ballet. That's Mami's combat in a nutshell. She watches as the younger puella handles herself, though she's not quite observant enough to notice that subtle flinch. So all she sees is a surprisingly competent twelve year old doing what puella do best: kicking ass.

Melon seems to have the Familiars well in hand, but Mami doesn't want to be left out, so she summons a couple of rifles, letting them extend from her sleeves into her hands as she does a pirouette and then brings them to bear on two different Familiars, pulling the trigger. Right through the hoods.

"I figured it would be better if you explained what the team did, boss," Mami said, offering Riventon a smile. Then she turns her attention back toward Melon. "Yeah, she asked me to consider giving her mine. As if her little plan isn't going to backfire spectacularly."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon nods. "As someone who keept a grief seed around for a while, I'm not sure storing them up is going to do anything other than birth a bunch of Witches or a Super Witch or something when they all hatch. It's not like they stay stable when you sit them on a desk. Trust me, I know, I killed the same Witch a few times." He notes.

    The rifles, the feather bolts, and the blasts clear out the hoods before they can wrap around the girls or whatever their intent is. Each time they just settle to the ground, becoming part of the odd floor.

    Eventually, though, the Witch comes into view. It's a strange and twisted construction of metal and wood, with fluff within. Each of its hands are strange coils, and upon seeing them, it immediately uses those couls to sweep across the group.

    Riventon dodges, and keeps an eye out for the other two to do the same. "I mean, officially, we work for Queen Beryl as part of Obsidian, in her plan to take over the world. But that's just when anyone's around to ask. Practically? I don't think the sparklesquad or Queen Beryl is exactly right for this world. So in a real sense, it's up to us - to save it. We try to keep magical items out of the hands of both sides, until we figure out how to use them better. Because really, in the long game, we're in it for us... But really, so is everyone else, even if they wrap it up in other language." he notes.

    The Witch's arms overshoot the attack very, very far - before they suddenly whiplash back, with a giant object attached to them. It's fluttering in the air... like a giant... sheet? "I don't think you want that to touch you." he says as the 'sheet' darkens the entire area above them. Riventon shoots a blast upwards to try to rip through, and a little light is free. "You guys probably want to clear holes yourself. And then put some holes in the wierdo up there."

Melona Mizu has posed:
    Honestly if she acted more like a normal twelve year old, the way she fights might be a bit disconcerting. She clearly does seem to fight like someone with a bit of experience. Then again she /has/ been doing this for almost a year now. The talk of the little plan gets a bit of a shrug. "I figured it wouldn't hurt to give them to her. It doesn't matter to me who disposes of them, be it Kyubey or Sayaka. I didn't have a reason to refuse."

Melon gives a slight tilt of her head as she listens to Riventon. "...I did bring that up. She claims she can keep them stable in her Labyrinth since she's apparently able to summon one of these things now." She motions towards the giant bounce-house of an area vaguely.

Metal and wood with fluff with in... and strange coils. "...Ah. It is like some sort of old doll. Likely her wish was related to a childhood toy or something." Melon muses to herself as she brings that buckler she'd created to bear, which suddenly grows in size and become significantly heavier. It's not really enough to fully stop the attack, but it /is/ enough to absorb the worst of it as she knocked into that roiling sea of foam and fluff, bouncing back up to her feet almost immediately afterwards as that shield returns to a smaller size.

Explanations of the organization and what is going on... she gets a small nod. "Ah, I see... so we are attempting to protect the world in a way. Hm." Aaaand the sheet! That's a bit of a rough matchup for her. But even so... she was actually moving to take care of her own hole regardless, grabbing foam, fluff, and feathers to work on quickly building them up into a somewhat familiar form: A naval cannon. Or, more specifically, the old style ones that shoot cannonballs.

Only it's on a hinging platform that can aim up, and the cannonballs it's going to shoot are highly compressed bits of foam and fluff which are being shot in a pattern of three shots to maximize the hole size, before the platform is lowered towards the Witch. And what's loaded into it isn't a compressed ball of fluff. It's the three heads of Melon's flail. And she's holding onto the other end as that 'fuse' burns down.

"I'll be back shortly."

BOOM!

And Melon is launched to shoot THROUGH the holes sheet and up above the Witch, where she positions herself standing atop one of the spiked spheres, all three of the spheres turning into massive spike balls that are glowing with energy. "Eins."

They fall back down, that energy burning through the sheet as the spheres grow larger. "Zwei."

"Drei." The energy glow of those spheres grows brighter as she descends, and upon impact...

Even if she doesn't hit directly, the spiked balls would explode into spikes of energy, all aimed at the witch as Melona stands atop the spiked spheres, arms crossed.

Riventon *DID* say to put holes into the weirdo up there.

...Melon hoped to instead simply erase it.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami dodges the attack with a series of extra springy back handsprings. The floor is bouncy! Then she lands and immediately looks up. That sheet is coming down fast, but she spares just a second to watch Melon's tactics. This is an interview, after all, and she can spare a second or two. Right?

She sees the girl form a cannon and fire it off and smiles. How could she have picked a more perfect kohai for her? She does the same things with materials on hand that Mami does with her ribbons. The possibilities were limitless. If the girl could make cannons, she could make rifles just like Mami. She just needed guidance.

But as Mami reflected on the strengths of her kohai, the sheet kept sailing down toward her. Hearing the first exploding spike ball above drew her attention back up and she gasped. It was almost on her, she had to act fast. Ribbons spew out from her sleeves coiling into an entire platoon of rifles. Dozens upon dozens. Hundreds. They all fire in unison, sending hundreds of bullets hurtling up toward the sheet, only to unravel into razor sharp fragments right before impact.

Why cut a hole when she can shred the entire sheet?

She jumps up and then lands with bent knees before rocketing up into the air mahou style. Melon clearly has the witch in hand, but the best kind of kill is overkill, so Mami brings out the big gun.

Ribbons spew out from her sleeves again coiling and coiling to form a massive battleship-sized cannon that tapers back into a handle she holds by hugging it to her chest. As she pulls the trigger to fire the massive finishing shot, she shouts, "Tiro Finale!"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon mostly watches. His 'support artillery' position affords him a lot of chance to do this - since by watching them fight he's also in the best position to shield or direct a withering barrage as need be. Both girls go about solving the problem the Witch presents in their own way, and he's happy with both of them.

    Melona, well... maybe she didn't need to launch HERSELF, but points for fearlessness. He figures if she told Mami about being a witch, she must know she is a 'rock' as Mami put it.

    The witch, frankly, has no chance against the two heavy attacks. If Melona's attack wasn't enough to slay it - although it lookss like from its slumped position after the impacts it either killed it or close to killed it - Mami's followup blast finishes the job, and by the time the combination of the 'smoke' from both girl's improvised artillery clears? There's also a clearing-out of the Witch's labyrnth, the three of them standing in the out-of-the-way park that they had met in as the grief seed falls down.

    "Well, she can absolutely take care of herself." He says, nodding. There's a clapping of his hands, even, for the two of them. "Good. I'm guessing you'd like her to be your responsibility from here on out?" he asks. "Rather than settling in the heirarchy where you and Norie are?" He asks. He doesn't count Catra - she hardly follows his orders, much less anyone else's. He always has to 'sell' things to her.

    "The girl's solid, though. And we can use a more... reliable... melee combatant."

Melona Mizu has posed:
     Hundreds of rifles. That's a lot. To a degree, Melona was glad she was all the way over there, because this time her mild panic is... a bit less subtle, even if she tries to hide it in taking cover behind her own weapon from the oncoming Tiro Finale... there's. Well.

There's alot of gunshots ringing out in general right now.

It's hard to ignore sounds similar to the thing that killed you and all your friends.

Luckily she had several small boulders to hide behind, so it's possible that Riventon and Mami didn't see her crouched down covering her ears from it.

And once the smoke clears, and the Witch is down, she is able to stand, the flail spheres returning to a more normal size as she gathers up the Grief Seed and calmly walks back over to Mami and Riventon.

Don't mind the ever so slight shake to her hand. It was probably just adrenaline. "I would be dead again by now if I wasn't." Is Melon's relatively simple comment towards Riventon, her hand held out, palm up with the grief seed in the center of it. "I am not at the point I would normally hunt, yet." She comments, glancing towards Mami. "How is your gem doing?" If both weren't doing too poorly they could probably do halvesies. No, she doesn't say that out loud. She does think it though.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami lands on the ground right next to Riventon just as the labyrinth starts to fade away and the ground becomes more solid. She looks pleased. "Yes, I think that would be best," she agrees, looking up to him with a smile. "I'm the only one that's going to be able to help her train effectively, so it makes sense."

She did good, and she knows it. It's a good feeling. Hopefully he'll still feel that way when she's done. He surely will. It will be worth it. He'll understand.

She smiles to Melon and shrugs. "It can always use a little touch-up," she says. But then she glances toward Riventon and back to Melon. "But I have enough grief seeds to keep it clean. You're going to need a spare or two as well, as we do end up using magic for more than just fighting witches, so why don't you just hang on to that one."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon wonders, as he has before, what's caused Mami to go out and find this girl. Maybe she just ran into her, but he's wondering. And thinking. He doesn't voice any of it for now, though.

    "Like I said, just like brushing your teeth in the morning." He says casually as he walks over to Melona. "You did good." he tells her, directly. "I just didn't want to be responsible for throwing you into something if you couldn't handle yourself. Even though I think Mami is right - she makes the most sense to train and direct you - remember that you're part of my team, which means that I'm responsible for you too. And what you do reflects on me." he says.

    He looks over to Mami a little bit, here. "So... were you there for the business with Sayaka, and the Witch, or were you just hearing about it? If you saw it firsthand, I would like to speak with you once you're onboarded." he says.

    "I'll have to talk with Mami about a few other things, but we'll be in contact pretty soon. I have to get an access card set up for you, anyways." he notes. "And we'll send you some stuff to sign. And maybe you'll need to meet with HR, but... we'll see about that." he notes.

Melona Mizu has posed:
     Only one that's going to be able to help her train effectively. Mami definitely thinks highly of herself! ... Nevermind that she has history that does in fact mean she's probably not wrong. Mami /did/ do good though! That's for sure. Not that Melon is much better on the pride front to some degree, considering her earlier statement. "I am not very used to fighting with people, admittedly, so it is likely that training will be needed on that front." She had been trying to think of how to but really it just hasn't been in her experiences to work alongside people. Intentionally at least.

The talk of her keeping it gets a small nod, and she does opt to top off her own gem since Mami seems to be doing well. Her own gem wasn't super bad, so it didn't use the seed up fully. At least this time. She looks towards Riventon and gives a small nod. "Right. Reasonable. If I ended up getting beaten up here, I'd likely not be able to handle other, more difficult tasks." Melona comments.

"I was there first hand with Sayaka, The Witch... though it was actually her... twin? That was the witch, apparently. I arrived after the transformation had already happened, though, so I only saw the aftermath of whatever happened and the ... un-witching? ... Witch-taming? Anyway yeah we can talk."

Once they finish any other final goodbyes or anything, she would then wander off ... somewhere. Probably to go tinker with things in the academy workshop.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Of course Mami thinks highly of herself out loud! She has to, in order to drown out the insecure, doubtful thoughts in her head. But really, she just means that, of the people on the team, she's the only Puella. She's also the only strategist. The rest of the teem needs her just as much.

"It was actually her," Mami explains. "Some magical artifact split her in half and then joined her back together. It turns out you did not actually see a witch turn back into a girl, like you said, Melon. You saw a witch get merged back together with a girl. Which explains why she can make a Labyrinth now."

There's a glance toward Riventon and a slight tilt of her head and then she looks back to Melon and smiles as he explains the next steps. Finally Mami claps and bounces on her heels. "I'm so excited to have you on the team!"