1457/Dimension Past: Chaos in the Kingdom

Dimension Past: Chaos in the Kingdom
Date of Scene:	23 April 2024
Location:	The Golden Kingdom
Synopsis:	Trapped in an echo of the ancient past, Hope Witch, Rocket Girl Red, Sailor Pluto, and Sailor Venus find themselves in the midst of a monster attack in the Golden Kingdom. Their deicsion to intercede ends the attack early, but in this tumultuous snapshot in time, the people of Earth - mistaking them for the people of the Moon - are none too pleased with their rescuers.
Cast of Characters:	Usagi Tsukino, Madoka Kaname, Setsuna Meiou, Amanda Faust, Minako Aino
Tinyplot:	Operation: Past

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Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The problem with this echo - as the group has by now discovered - is that it's so easy to get separated. They've been here for a day, now, maybe two, or at least, that's how it feels - enough time that everyone who came with the original group has had to sleep, at least once. The portals that lead to different points in time and space appear suddenly, and at times, right in front or in between someone. Make contact, and whoops! You're whisked away somewhere else.

The good thing about being trapped in an echo is that it's easy to just find a place to sleep in town, to just walk into an inn and claim an empty room, and despite not being seen, heard, or felt, those in the echo just... avoid them. No need to pay for a room, just enjoy it. Food was a little more complicated - the echoes noticed thievery, when it involved directly taking their stock, but over all, everyone should be in reasonably decent shape.

Usagi Tsukino had been separated from the group early-ish on, because ... embarrassingly... she had tripped right down a hill, into a portal. The good news? She'd found some people - Sailor Mercury, Naru, and Kunzite! The bad news? Losing everyone else means they don't... know about that. At least communicators still work, right?

Meanwhile, in another bubble within the echoe, those who find themselves in this moment in time find that they're in a city on Earth, in early afternoon, the sun beating hot, the sandstone paths radiating heat back up. The scent of salt is still in the air, the cries of gulls still sound, but the mutterings and murmurs of the people at their stalls and going about their shopping are more cautious, more aggressive, people watching each other more cautiously.

Those separate from this time and place, this tragedy, are ignored, but that might change, soon...

Because amidst those mutters are shouts - distant, but growing closer. Shouts of fear, of warning, of -

"MONSTER! THERE'S A MONSTER!"

And so there is - an odd creature, like a mythical beast become real, a mix of lion and eagle, with the head and tail are the lion's, the body the eagle's. It's flying overhead, diving and swooping at the civilians, who are running, fleeing, those further trying to lock away or run off with their merchandise, those closest just seeking shelter.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Stealing a room wasn't something that Madoka felt all that bad about. Stealing food, however, meant dealing with people being mad at her. Which she didn't like, so she tried to avoid it. Thing is? Madoka Kaname has never gone hungry once in her entire life, at least not "haven't eaten all day and may not eat tomorrow" hungry, and she's a little unprepared for how it's impacting her.

    Thus she is attempting to call upon the powers of a certain Witch. One whom she knows to be particularly glutenous and may or may not have snacks. Today, it turns out that she does.

    Sio is off doing who knows what. Apparently trying to carve out her own piece of the local economy and become a shopkeep herself. How she intends to actually do that is anyone's guess, but she wasn't having much luck when Madoka last saw her.

    "Look," explains Gretchen. "The food is still, technically good. If it has more eyes than it should, just set it aside for a bit."

    "Will the eyes eventually go away?" cautiously asks Madoka, looking at a corn chip that is looking back at her.

    "Well, probably not, but eventually you'll get so hungry that you won't think about it."

    The pink Chara Bearer frowns and gives Gretchen a sad, disappointed look. "Do you have any food that you haven't kept in your Labyrinth? What about your X-Egg?"

    Gretchen's black X-Egg appears in the air and cracks open. She digs through the tiny plushie pile, finds a few gems and pushes them aside to find a cupcake still inside a plastic box. The masked fairy presents it to Madoka. "I got one cupcake. Take it or leave it. It might taste like sadness, but that's not the dark energy. It's just naturally that bad."

    Madoka frowns at the cupcake, looks at everyone else in the party, wonders whether or not they have any food, and then back at Gretchen. "If I henshin with you, can I make the eyes go away?"

    Gretchen pauses. "Um... maaaaaaybe? I honestly don't know why you're so picky."

    There's a sudden outcry of terror. A monster is nearby. Without even waiting a moment, Madoka hands Gretchen the cornchip and cupcake and makes an unlocking hand gesture. "My Heart: Unlock!"

    After Gretchen goes back into her X-Egg and merges with Madoka, turning them both into Hope Witch, the corn chip and cupcake are suspended in the air. Hope desperately grabs them both before looking sheepishly at those with her. "Eheh... cupcake anyone?"

    Someone runs past her as they flee the eagle and she almost drops the questionable food.

    "W-well, maybe later."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
By this point, Sailor Pluto is more or less OVER this place.

It's not just that a good chunk of it involves echoes of events that fray at her sanity.

    Though that's certainly part of the issue.

It's not that all she can meaningfully do is WATCH.

    AGAIN.

    Though that, too is part of the issue.

No, the MAIN problem is that the structure of this interconnected group of echoes seems almost purpose-built to split up any groups exploring or otherwise caught in it.

She hasn't seen Uranus or Neptune in HOURS.

    She's fairly certain that it's somehow that bint Beryl's fault.



Finding herself in the Earth Kingdom once more, Pluto took advantage of the nature of those around to ignore her...and overnight snuck into an eatery and made use of their kitchen to make herself some food, then mad judicious use of the atemporal nature of dimensional pockets to keep things warm.

Thus it is that when the screams of 'MONSTER' go ringing about the city, Sailor Pluto is wandering down the street eating something that can probably be most easily described as a 'breakfast burrito'.

Hearing the screams and panic, Pluto sighs and shakes her head...and is about to just go on when she hears the call of Hope Witch's henshin phrase nearby.

With a shake of her head, she turns and heads towards the sounds of the screaming, stepping into the main street just in time to watch the lion-headed eagle go flying by, "...okay, THAT'S new."

After absently finishing off her breakfast, the green haired Senshi reaches out and grasps the Garnet Rod that is suddenly there before absently spinning it and striking the ground with the butt and making an audible chime sound as she looks around to find the younger mahou shoujo.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    So this is... ancient Earth? In like, some mythical era unrecorded by history? Clearly before the other Echo, since everything isn't on fire.

    Amy has been trying to find a library. Do they have books? Atlases? There's a lot to learn.

    Eventually she needed sleep. She sought out a seaside inn, a room where she can let a breeze in through the window. Her powers can conjure cute pajamas to sleep in just fine. She makes a note to carry more emergency supplies -- travel toiletries and such -- at all times in case she's ever whisked away to another world again, and thanks her lucky stars she's not dealing with worse problems right now. Additional note to self, test more extensively what about the state of her body she can control with magic if she tries. If she can regenerate and get by without all manner of things normally necessary for biological life for a time, can she also like... revert her teeth to clean? ...She kind of wishes she'd thought to try this experiment several weeks ago. Oh well, that's life.

    She can go without food for awhile, but having not eaten since yesterday is eventually getting to her. Dare she sink so low...?

    "Mister, I'm so hungry... can't you spare a little food?" She's giving a food vendor her first attempt at puppy-dog eyes when the monster attacks.

    As he's fled his stall in fear, she makes sure to stuff some food in her mouth, and stuff a piece of food or bread in one of her pouches for later, before confronting the monster. Wait, is that...?

    She transforms from the clothes she was wearing -- a white cape with a red line running across it just above the bottom, over a red peasant-y tunic -- and walks out into the street to hail the monster. "Hey! That's not how griffons are supposed to work! What's going on here?! What are you?" Hey, maybe it can talk, she doesn't know!

    She also hasn't seen it actually attack anyone yet.

    Also, she hears the chime of the garnet rod and looks over, waving and smiling. "PLUTO! Thank goodness!"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The people who run screaming past Hope Witch don't see her, nor do they see her questionable food. They avoid her, though the monster doesn't avoid them. It dives down, right in front of her and seizes a merchant, grabbing at them with enormous talons, broad wings flapping awkwardly to regain lift and return to the air.

Unfortunately, Amy, it is now attacking people.

It's also decently good at it - it's large talons are digging into the merchant's clothes and skin, threatening to spill blood. The broad wings have managed to generate enough lift that it's starting to rise, ten feet up, fifteen, and starting to flex it's legs to bring them closer to it's large mouth - clearly preparing to eat it's victim.

Because no one's attacked it yet, the mosnter hasn't noticed them at all. This will give them an excellent chance to get a sneak attack off, if they want to intervene. And if they don't?

Well, maybe it was always meant to be.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka just quickly shoves both the cupcake and the corn chip into her mouth, quietly hoping that she doesn't suffer any food poisoning later. Maybe being in this henshin will make her somehow immune?

    It's staying down. That's a good sign.

    She looks up at the anti-gryphon and holds out her hands. Several of her black branchbows appear infront of her and start to weave together into a magical wooden shield. Unbidden, a certain shieldbearer crosses her mind as she does this. Witch watches as the eagle-lion-thing swoops down, raising her shield defensively... but it's not after her.

    Without thinking, without fully realizing how little it will actually matter or how much trouble she's about to cause for herself, Madoka summons another black bow into her hands and draws back, releasing a spread of pink magical arrowy death upon the monster. The arrows are careful to aim around the merchant, and she refrains from letting them explode. A Labyrinth portal appears below him and dumps out a pile of macabre-looking but also very soft plushies all over the ground. Maybe he'll land on them?

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
As she hears Puella Amy call to her, Sailor Pluto looks over and waves, "Ah! Excellent."

She then starts looking around, "...now I'm FAIRLY sure I heard another of us nearby..."

At which point a flight of arrows goes screaming up towards the monster.

In and of itself, that wouldn't be TOO much of an identifier. The overall tech level around here seems to lend itself towards the pointy-stick launcher that mankind has used since time immemorial.

Seeing the rain of plushies, however, is a FAR better clue that one of Pluto's fellow abductees is nearby...and has decided to intervene.

After a brief interal debate, the taller mahou shoujo decides she might as well support her allies.

With a whisper quiet enough that nobody not standing immediately next to her is likely to hear it, Pluto murmurs her attack, spins around once, then sights down the Garnet Rod to let loose a planet-shaped ball of magical death energy...which she aims at the antigryphon's left wing before letting fly,

    <<...dead scream.>>

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Uhhhh okay it is not talking, and it is attacking people.

    Amy doesn't even think about how this is an unchangeable past, she just acts. She conjures a gyrojet rifle and takes aim with the iron sights, firing at its back as it starts to lift up with the merchant. Trying to get as many shots in as she can before it rises to an angle where she's too likely to hit the merchant.

Minako Aino has posed:
Screams, panic, fear...something was going on! Minako Aino hadn't been in the immediate area, however when you get enough people who fled through the area she had been shopping through.

One quick run later? The call of 'Venus Power Make Up!' echoed out and the explosion of glowing light has Sailor Venus emerging from the alleyway.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The anti-gryphon shrieks as arrows fly at it, several sinking into it's flesh. The rocket-fired projectiles strike the underbelly, and the talons reflexively open, dropping the merchant -

Right onto the pile of plushes! He's safe, and also screaming, flailing against the eerie plushes, trying to get away -

As Death Scream strikes a wing, and it's sheered right off.

Most of the monsters in the present turn to dust, or wisps of energy, when they die, or are seriously injured. This one wing, though? It falls to the ground and explodes into a shower of dark goo and dark energy. The anti-gryphon roars in agony as crashes it to the ground, rearing up on it's talons, yellowed fangs bared in a roar. It tries to lunge for the nearest threat, dripping gooy dark energy; the one closest? Hope Witch!

The cowering civilians are watching in fear, those taking shelter under nearby stalls cringing and crying out. Rocks fly - striking the monster, but some of them striking near the three exposed heroes out of time.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Hope Witch feels a little sorry for the merchant for panicking him with the creepy plushies, but... it's better than breaking something, right?

    Unfortunately, as she's wincing at that, the anti-gryphon decides to attack her! She yelps and raises her hand, as the wooden shield floats in front of her to intercept it. The talons might not find it hard to break through a few branches, but there are so many and they're woven so tightly. It's the goo, actually that manages to get through first, splattering all over the shield, blackening the already dark wood further, and some of it splashing onto Hope Witch's face!

    Gross...

    Don't just leave it on you, you cuddle-brained dummy! It'll imbalance me! shouts the internal voice that Madoka recognizes as Gretchen. She pulls an equally creepy blanket out of nowhere and starts wiping off her face with it, giving the anti-gryphon plenty of time to tear through her improvised wooden shield and starts slashing at Hope's arms with its talons.

    It's actually not Hope herself that finally helps her escape, but a Familiar that just appeared. A brass-colored suit of armor, wearing a shield with the face of an analogue clock. It pushes Madoka away and starts pressing its clock shield against the monster's talons, wordlessly standing in her defense as the Witch mahou starts picking herself back up.

    She tries very hard not to think too much about the clock knight in front of her.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Gryphon down! And, damn, it actually got dismembered instead of just poofing. Aaand it's not done yet, turning towards the magical girls and roaring. "Tuh. Please. I've been fighting monsters tougher than you for a long time." Her weapon changes to a rocket launcher and fires--

    --and misses as the creature lunges for Hope Witch. Oops. At least at this angle it won't hit any people, but hopefully there's not a building at the end of the street. "Damn it!"

    Red flips the launcher around and uses a point-blank explosion to launch herself towards the monster, trying to land on its back and uh. 'Glory kill' it. Half the time her weapons aren't actually 'rockets', and as the gyrojets demonstrate she's not limited to explosive projectiles. In this case she tries to just place a recoilless rifle directly against its head -- or back, aimed to go down through its body somewhat lengthwise, if the head moves too much -- and fire a solid kinetic penetrator through it, immediately leaping off and away from it after.

    "Mado-- Madoka, you okay?!"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
As rocks get flung, one smacks Pluto in the shoulder, and she turns and snaps in the direction the rock came from, "If you can't watch your aim, don't fling rocks!"

She then turns back and sighs, rolling the shoulder in question.

Between the enchantments of her henshin and the fact it was just a rock flung by an average person, the impact was far more hurt than harm...but even a meaningless impact in the wrong place can be a problem in the wrong circumstances...and these are far from the RIGHT circumstances as it is.

Seeing the antigryphon attacking Hope Witch...Pluto hesitates for a moment.

After Beryl used Uranus to block a Dead Scream, the tallest Senshi is a bit leery of another friendly fire incident...but then after a beat, she realizes she's holding a honking great stick. One that has the added bonus of being nigh-indestructible.

One, two big lunging steps...plant foot, and then a sweeping uppercut with the Garnet Rod is aimed towards the creature's head as she attempts to take some pressure off Hope Witch's defender and stun it long enough for Amy to put as many shots as possible into the thing.

Minako Aino has posed:
Venus was late to the party, but that didn't mean that she was going to be sitting things out. Stepping into some creepy zone with monsterous creatures rushing people? Well, that was nothing new for Sailor Senshi!

The flash of a chain made from heart-shaped energy links announces Venus, it sweeps out to try and seize the anti-gryphon, to pull it back from attacking Hope Witch.

"Hey! No mauling!"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
As Pluto calls out - a few more rocks fly. These ones seem... almost aimed at her, as several bounce against her back. More bounce against the familiar's metal frame, as it gets between Hope Witch and the monster.

The gryphon's claws are huge, sharp, but the monster itself isn't very powerful, so it only gets a few scratches in - not quite enough to break through the armor of her henshin - it hurts, and there might be a bit of blood, but nothing that would need stitches, let alone run a risk of scarring.

The anti-gryphone roars again as it tries - and fails - to strike at the familiar, but Venus's whip drags the monster back.

And then Pluto's rough swings keep it dazed and compliant long enough for Puella Red to finish it off -

Unfortunately, once the monster is dead?

It explodes into dark energy filled goo, just like the wing had. Goo spatters the Mahou, the stalls, the ground, and those few civilians close enough...

And in the shock of it's defeat, there are are whispers, and a few cheers, and then -

"Stop cheering!" A strident voice calls, young and angry. It's a merchant - not the one who'd been captured, that man is being helped to his feet by a few civilians who had been cowering nearby - from one of the nearby stalls, young and angry, a wooden talisman with the sign of the Earth engraved dangling from a rawhide string on his neck. "Don't congratulate them! Haven't you realized? This is their fault!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy's pretty sure she leapt far enough away to avoid the splash, but at least she's not right next to it if she has to leap again.

    As there are cheers, she turns around and smiles at the crowd, (she dismissed her weapon after firing it) and is about to bow when someone shouts angrily.

    "Well. That's new." Some of those thrown rocks were way too off-target to be aimed at the monster, come to think of it. She slumps a bit and mutters, 'Guess that comes with the territory of bein' a freak...' Dark humor, bad or not, is a coping mechanism, okay?

    The Puella Magi stands up straight and takes a breath, hands on her hips. "Alright, what's this about? How are the monsters our fault, we just got here!"

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Hope Witch, and her shield knight familiar, are once again splattered. Fortunately she was already covering herself with the blanket that she was wiping her face off with, so she didn't have to bear the brunt of it. However, the Familiar was not so lucky. She gives the thing a pitying look, despite knowing on some level that it has no really feelings or its own personhood.

    The shield knight is very quick to move to Madoka's defense, stubbornly refusing to let a single rock hit her, but the clang of rock against armor and shield tells of a certain amount of force.

    "Don't tell me that they stone witches in this era..." mutters Madoka. Then, standing behind her protector, she peeks out around it to ask, "We didn't do any of this. How can you blame us? We were just trying to help!"

    This is all confusing. No one really treats her like this back home. Then again, the people she rescues usually don't even remember her.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Sailor Pluto has JUST enough presence of mind to close her eyes and mouth and get one hand more or less behind her as the antigryphon explodes like it's wing did earlier.

Mainly so she has at least one more or less clean hand with which to wipe the majority of the ooze off of her face.

As she looks down and shakes her arms to get some of the stuff to fall to the ground, Hope and Amy are probably the only ones close enough to hear her mutter in a strange accent, "...why am I drippings with goo..?"

And then another rock hits her back...and the civilian comes out to accuse her and the others.

She frowns in annoyance and confusion...before a spark of memory comes back to her and she speaks lowly to address her fellow magical girls, "...if I remember right...this was a thing going on...there were rumors being spread to turn the Earth Kingdom against the Moon...probably Beryl's doing because she was salty about getting rejected."

She waves a hand at the man with the symbol, "...case in point, fanatics like THIS guy."

She then turns and addresses him...knowing it's probably pointless...but she REALLY needs to bleed off some frustration anyway, so might as well, "...Our fault? Really? Please, depart these lands, for clearly you are depriving your home village of it's idiot. This was no more our fault than that horrid excuse for a haircut you're sporting is our fault."



Apparently getting splashed with Dark Goo makes Sailor Pluto snippy.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Because you don't belong here!" The angry merchant shouts, and there's the rumble of agreement. The goo may be spattered everywhere, only some of it having hit drainage zones, but the dark energy is seeping into the soil, into the wood, into the skin, of everything it touch, doing nothing to help the matter. Those who had been cowering are starting to crawl out from their hiding places, smearing goo and dark energy against skin and cloth as they rise. "This is our world! It isn't yours! We don't want your kind here!"

As Pluto turns acerbic wit and insults his way, the man purples with rage, faltering.

Another voice picks up the call, shouting out, "You Moon Witches - it's your fault! You watch us and you send your beasts to stalk our cities - we're not going to fall for it! You can't come in here and save us from the monsters you let loose!"

The fact that Hope Witch and Red are just a pair of young girls means nothing to the crowd - there's anger in the air, dark energy seeping into the area, and a host of lost property - lost livelihood - represented by the damage the anti-gryphon has caused. It might be dead, but the people who killed it - the people who wielded such grand, unnatural power - are still here.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Hope takes a moment to reflect upon the words being flung at her. The Familiar isn't lashing out at the crowd, but it is being very protective. As Madoka retreats back behind the horrible words she's hearing, she mutters, "So this is what hate looks like. I wonder if the same things happen in our own time. We didn't do anything wrong. We only tried to help. Still, they accuse us with words like that."

    Frowning, and looking out at the crowd. "I wonder Beryl sent these things. Maybe as some kind of false flag operation. Either that or someone's messing around with things they shouldn't."

    She is, in fact, talking about the crowd as if they aren't there, because frankly they aren't. This is the magical form of a museum exhibition. Those people may as well be Familiars as far as she knows.

    She turns around and says, "I'm half tempted to just hide in my own Labyrinth to get away from this, but... we should be on the lookout for another portal."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Pluto explains. Ah.

    And while it is satisfying to see her give the fanatic a talking-to, Amy already knows it's not going to help.

    She sighs, and clasps her hands behind her back, looking to Pluto. "I don't suppose you found a way to actually stop misinformation back then? We could really use it now."

    She's trying to look unflappable, and knows that as a Puella Magi -- and, ironically, a future Witch -- she's not in mortal danger from, well, mortals -- but she can't feel nothing at such words being yelled at her, stiffening and tensing slightly. Especially knowing there are absolutely people in the present who'd say the same if they knew about her.

    Amy frowns at the crowd, thinking about what to say. Fiery words to tell off bigots.

    But then

    Hope's words

    Turn her veins to ice.

    Forget these people, thery're not real. But--

    Amy turns to Pluto again, looking like she's just seen a portant of doom.

    "Please tell me... this isn't what ended the world, is it?!" She waves a hand at the crowd, "They burned their world just to attack those they hated. Is this... This isn't it, right? The, the world..." She touches her fingers to her face. "The present, too... it's gonna happen again, you can see it!"

    She slumps and looks down at the ground, then up at Pluto again, pleading, "There, there has to be a way to stop it, right?!"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Pluto blinks...and maybe it's just frustration.

Maybe it's the stress of the last few days.

Maybe it's the Dark Energy permeating the air...

...but for one reason or another, the green haired Senshi lets out a little growl and stalks over to the man who started shouting, "'Moon Witches'? 'Monsters?' 'YOUR KIND?!'"

She narrows her eyes at him, "This. This right here. Your pathetic, small-minded xenophobia, bigotry and hatred. You're justifiably afraid of a monster that almost ate someone...but when someone saves you...do you thank them? No. That would be the action of a kind man."

She turns and looks at the crowds, "Do you just go about your business and try to fix what was broken? No. That would be the action of an indifferent man."

She then turns back to face the man again, "No. Instead you blame the people who SAVED you of somehow orchestrating the monster attack in order to...what? Get some kind of accolade none of us even asked for? Even worse, some of you are so consumed by bigotry and hatred that when someone is fighting a monster that is KILLING YOUR NEIGHBORS, you try to STOP them by throwing rocks at them!"

She then shakes her head and turns to stalk off with Hope Witch, "...but if you wish us gone, then we will leave. And we will knock the dust from our shoes as we do so...for as long as you wallow in your hate you deserve not even to be held in our memory."

When Puella Red slumps, Pluto pauses and lifts her up, carrying the despairing young woman into an alley before setting her gently on her feet near Hope Witch, "...things here are as they were...we can't change the past. We can only change the future."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
And, as has consistently been the case since their arrival... there is another portal. Winking near a destroyed stall, a shimmer of rainbow-colored light, beckoning them onward.

"There were no monsters until YOUR KIND appeared," there is strength in numbers, even for those empowered by hatred and fear. "Our world was at peace until you arrived! You watched us through our struggles for years! But when we finally rise, you come here? You come here and everywhere you go chaos follows!"

There's hatred and fear, and there's shame, too, in the faces of those quiet, the faces of those who don't want to draw the anger of their neighbors upon them.

"You people of the Moon, you've always thought you were better than us! You've always looked down on the Earth! We don't want you!"

These, and other such words follow them as they head for the portal. As they're nearly to the exit, something soft strikes Madoka's arm, soft enough to be caught. It's a roll of linen, the kind used for clothes, sure, but which would also be of reasonable use as bandages. The thrower is a small child in yellow, the symbol of the Earth around her neck too, small hand clinging tight to it. Her eyes are wide with fear, but still, she mouths, thank you! before disappearing into the crowd.

The portal will take them to another time, another place. But where, exactly? Well, they'll just have to find out when the shimmering portal completes it's destination.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Pluto continues telling off the crowd. Saying words that feel good, but don't change minds -- and which abandon the innocents unfortunate enough to live with these people, to the monsters.

    She's formulating a talk. Pluto, you're a grown-up who lived through the apocalypse, you know this doesn't work, we have to--

    And then she's picked up and the words fall out of her head at such an overtly kind and caring gesture. What. For a moment, it does make her feel like maybe things will be alright...

    She just nods at Pluto's optimistic words.

    They approach a portal. "...There's too many of us." Amy mutters. "We'll have to go to the End of Time and see Spekkio." Okay, at least she's feeling better enough to make references, that's something!

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Hope Witch winces as Red's words, Amy's words, hit home in a way that she didn't realize. She has to wonder, is this the fault of dark energy?

    It's not always darkness, Madoka-chan, says Gretchen in an uncommonly gentle tone. Some people are just bad, and turn others with their lies.

    Something is thrown at her, and for once the shield knight doesn't stop it. Perhaps because it doesn't perceive the projectile as a threat. Madoka, already tense, grabs the soft fabric shortly after it hits her, then looks over at the small child.

    She offers the small one a soft smile, and eyes that she hopes will communicate gratitude. Then, a horror fills her mind that even the despair-numbing effects of her henshin can't fully resist.

    The child she just smiled at, who was kind to her in this moment...

    ... that child died horribly, a long time ago.

    Wanting to flee before her emotions show too much on her face, she runs through the portal and into the next time zone. Whatever it is.

    The classic JRPG joke is lost on her.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Pluto just shakes her head as she heads through the portal, "Sorry to burst your bubble, but I've been there and Spekkio isn't at the End of Time."

A beat, then she goes on, "...which is a GOOD thing. He was a creepy little blob."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Just as well, my magic's already unloc--wait, WHAT?!" But Pluto's already through the portal, and all Amy can do is follow.