95/Served Cold!

Served Cold!
Date of Scene:	16 July 2023
Location:	Hotel Augusta
Synopsis:	An evil refrigerator youma has holed up inside the Hotel Augusta! It's up to our brave heroes to take it out and save everyone!
Cast of Characters:	Misaki Sanjou, Amanda Faust, Coco Kiumi, Francesca Leon

---

Misaki Sanjou has posed:
A mere fifteen minutes after school lets out, a massive conflux of dark energy erupts from the Hotel Augusta, blanketing the nearby area. Nearby civilians take an untoward interest in the building and begin flocking inside, as if in a trance. Something is happening!

    Meanwhile...

    The Hotel Augusta is lively today! People are lined up single-file around the receptionists' desk. But something is wrong and something is strange. Each person is slumped and each is weary. The receptionists don't fare much better, working tirelessly with sunken eyes and hollow cheeks. Still, they robotically process the line and wave on each guest, caught in the same spell that held the others in thrall. The fountain is not working today. No water flows from the statue's hands, but the guests don't seem to mind.

    Wisps and tendrils of dark energy pervade the lobby like fog, signaling to the magically sensitive the truth of what was happening here. A powerful youma was hidden somewhere inside, through winding narrow corridors and dark spaces. It hungered for the life force of all the innocent and helpless, and if the heroes should fail...

    "Next," droned the receptionists in unison. "Next," droned the receptionists as more marched by. They marched in single file, around the corner and around the bend. They marched up the stairs and they marched through the halls. They were tired but happy, headed to their room and headed to rest.

    The pervasive miasma clung to everything like a foul oil, carrying its lies upon the wind. For those who heard it, it stole the voice from within their thoughts, the motion from their bodies, and the light from their eyes. It sang a song of mystery, of the marvels within the halls. There was ice cream and TV and fun. The beds were so soft you could fall asleep and never wake up!

    You had to rent a room.

    You had to rent /the/ room.

    Inside was nothing less than paradise itself. Rent the room, it sang. Join the line, it sang, and all who heard obeyed.

    To the magically inclined, the song was a terrible thing, discordant and hollow. It left a prickly and irritating sensation as it tried to worm its way in.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    A pair of red eyes watches the line entering the hotel from across the street. o o

    <Amanda! I've detected a dark presence in the city!

    <Asdjfjg NOW?!>

    <Yes! This could be an excellent chance to test your powers!>

    <....Aaargh, just a minute!>

    The curtain, and then the apartment's balcony door, are slid open by an annoyed Amanda with her hair back in a ponytail, wearing an oversized T-shirt with her one skirt. She's going to have to get some clothes tonight after moving into the dorm. Kyubey stares at her with that same expression from his perch on the balcony's railing. Amanda looks at him, then realizes she forgot something and ducks back into the room to get her soul gem and transform.

    The newest Puella Magi walks back out onto the balcony and lifts Kyubey up to her shoulder before climbing onto the railing and leaping out onto the rooftops. "Rassin' frassin' monsters..."

    Amy is in a better mood by the time she reaches rooftop across from the hotel. The Kyubey that was there is gone. <OKAY, this is actually pretty fun! I'll have to try going out on patrol some nights...> She peers down at the street. <Where's the monster?> <I don't know what it is, but it's probably inside. It's not a Witch, so we can't track it magically.>

    "Mh." Amy grunts, and, noticing the weird... listlessness to the people, jumps down and puts her hand on the shoulder of one of the people online to shake them. "Yo! Are you alright?"

Coco Kiumi has posed:
'That many?' Coco is currently communicating telepathically with one of her sea otters, this one having returned from Yumegahama's tourist district. She is still in her school uniform, not having had the time to change before being contacted by her informant. 'Yes, they have all formed a beeline towards that big hotel with slippery floors. Something weird is going on: I haven't even had to hide from humans like I usually do. They are completely out of it, with those tired but smiling faces of theirs.' Coco nods, creases appearing on her forehead as the trance unsettles her.

'Anything else you could feel?' The otter starts licking its paws, as if trying to wash away an unpleasant memory. 'There was this prickling energy permeating the air and I felt as if something was gazing at me with its maw open wide.'

Coco gives the otter some pets. 'Thanks, you did good. Go rest now. I will take care of warning the other otters to stay away from that zone.' After the animal scurries away, Coco does exactly that, spending a good 20 minutes on that before heading down a alleyway close to the Hotel Augusta. 'Aqua Regina, please protect me in this endeavor', she thinks, clasping the shell locket with her pearl. "Yellow Pearl Voice!", she declared, light completely engulfing her as her idol outfit replaces her school uniform. Being ready for the action, she cautiously enters the hotel.

The atmosphere is as chilly as she was told, both to the customers' unnevering behaviour and the pulsating energy that permeates the air, vainly trying to penetrate the protection her magic gives her. At her mental command, the Live Stage materialises around her, ready to give these people some sorely needed wake up call.

Francesca Leon has posed:
    It just so happens that Francesca Leon does not go to school. Her Sundays are absolutely free. ... There are reasons for this, and none of them are good. But she's got nothing to do, and sometimes she runs into Hanako when she gets out of her Sunday classes, so she's parked on a bench watching most of the students get out of classes for the day when something feels... Wrong. So very, very, wrong.
    <You feel that, Kitten?> The sword-shaped pendant on her necklace chimes.
    "... Yeah it's kind of messed up." Francesca admits. "... Think we should check it out?"
    <Probably.> Mistoffelees replies, prompting a sigh from the girl as she picks herself up from her seat on the bench and spies all the people filing into the hotel.
    So she makes her way on over, most likely encountering Amy as a result.
    "They've been just slogging in for a few minutes now." Francesca says, frowning. Before the discordant singing makes her rub at her temples.
    "Mister Mistoffelees... Set up."
    <Standby! Ready!> her Device announces before there's a soft flare of purple light and Francesca's clothes are immediately replaced with the armored coat of her Barrier Jacket.
    "I've got a pretty bad feeling about this."

Misaki Sanjou has posed:
    A woman, not quite old but getting up there in years, turns as Amy shakes her shoulder. She fixes Amy with a smile, but her eyes are vacant and empty. It's clear that no-one's home. "We're renting a room at the Hotel Augusta, dear. There is something wonderful inside," she says slowly, inflectionlessly, as if she's sleeptalking. "What's a cute little girl like you doing here? Come, come. Auntie will cover your room too."

    A balding man with glasses, roughly the same age as the woman, drones without even turning around: "You must come. You must. This is what I've been looking for my whole life. You can't miss it. You'll regret it for the rest of your life..."

    Neither Coco nor Francesca's arrivals or transformations seem to register in the eyes of the guests, but the receptionists turn to fix their sunken eyes on the duo. "Welcome, honored guest," they rasp in unison. "Special discount, special discount. Right this way." Afterwards, they almost immediately forget the girls are there and carry on.

    The dark fog seems to react with hostility towards the transformed heroines, bubbling and hissing as it comes in contact before burning away. The three are the only ones that the fog can't seem to touch, at least for long.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Kyubey's emotionless face briefly turns to the woman's, though she can't see him. He hops off Amy's shoulder and scampers off as other magical girls show up. <I'll be in touch with you telepathically.>

    Amy, for her part, blushes and takes a half-step back. "I-I'm not cute... you... that..." she stammers, when the man speaks to her too. Regret for the rest of her life? No... No, that would've been if she'd stayed a bystander to magic.

    Francesca bumps into her. "Ah! You have to get out of here!" She starts to explain, but the calm manner and it being a teenage girl... she puts 2 + 2 together just before Stray transforms. "Huh. So that's what that looks like from outside." And then Yellow Pearl Voice is here, summoning a white bubble around herself? Amy will trust she knows what she's doing.

    The way the receptionists turn and address them as one... "Well, THAT'S creepy." She looks down at the hissing fog, smirking. "Aww, don't like us, huh?"

    She kicks at the fog a little, then lifts her gaze, smiling. "So uh... I'm new at this. I gather some sort of monster is doing this, but... it seems to be hiding rather than making a scene? So what do we do here? How do we find it?"

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco watches as the fog gets consumed by her own presence first and its tentatives to break the Live Stage later, sizzling and dispersing as the white light refuses to allow it entry. She gets slightly creeped out as the receptionists call her and another girl honoured guests. "So they were expecting us... That totally does not add to the creepy factor", she mutters to the mage. The device she was carrying reminded her of Blauer Greif. 'Are they of the same make?' Coco wonders in her thoughts. 'Well, I can deal with that later.' She looks around at the people still in trance, unnerving as they are.

"Well, time to liven up the atmosphere. Pichi Pichi Voice Live Start!" The Live Stage responds to her will, playing Legend of Mermaid's soundtrack as she begins to sing.

The rainbow wind blows at a far off coast
Before dawn, there was a melody I heard
It's a very nostalgic song

As she dances inside the Light Stage, she notices another magical heroine coming up, a flustered short girl that asks for help, which Coco is completely willing to provide, but that would have to come after the song.

The birds that fly towards the eastern sky
now escape to the treasure island using this shortcut.

Where the paradise of the seven seas lies
After the stormy night, to tell you my love I will be born again
Even if there comes a day where everyone...
Is to journey away from here, as long as we sing the melody of the seven countries
I'll never forget."

Francesca Leon has posed:
    Yep. ... Yeeeeeep... When her very blatant transformation only goes noticed only by another magical girl and the 'customers' don't even register it, something is very wrong.
    "Don't look at me, I'm pretty new to all this too." Stray replies to Amy, slinging her broadsword over one shoulder.
    <Why not try an area search?> Mistoffelees suggests.
    "... Yeah do that."
    Briefly the huge sword in her hand glows before several motes of purple light appear from the blade and start fluttering off in different directions.
    "That should help find anything out of the ordinary." She says before pausing.
    "We should probably figure this out fast though. I'm not liking this mist one bit."
    What's worse is that Yellow Pearl Voice suggests they may have even been expected.
    "Could be a traaaaaaap." Stray points out.

Misaki Sanjou has posed:
    As if sensing Yellow Pearl Voice's intent, the receptionists announce: "Buy one, get one free. Admission is free under the age of one hundred. Come one, come all." Like a slithering serpent, the line circumvents the desk and its constituents begin to move a little faster. They are in torpor, however, and the increase in urgency was a minor, almost negligible thing. Only a handful towards the edge of her radius manage to escape the effects.

    Her music is warm and sweet and bright, banishing evil and leaving the inhabitants of the room very confused. The fog recoils from her, its song turned to keening as it burns clean away.

    "Huh? Where am I? What am I doing here?" Confused cries ring out through the room as its inhabitants are woken from their slumber.

    Stray's area spell returns hundreds of small pings, spread out and growing denser into one very, very large one somewhere up on the third floor. It seems the miasma doubled as a kind of magical chaff to interfere with detection spells. Of course, as far as where it might be, there was still the line of people that escaped Coco's reach, still marching interminably on to their final destination.

    Even with the lobby purified, it isn't over yet. Wisps of smoke and darkness begin creeping down from the stairs. They had only bought time: the darkness was reclaiming lost ground.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Rude! What about centenarians, huh?" Amy quips at the receptionists.

    Area search! That sounds useful. "So, you got a talking sword?" Amy asks conversationally.

    She would, however, like to focus on the song. It's very nice! She starts to clap at the end, then claps more softly, hopping up and down a little with excitement.

    Aaaand it worked! Mostly. "You uh, should probably get out of here!" She urges the civilians out. "Monster attack, magical girl business, you'll forget this shortly."

    ...But there's still a line, and some people didn't escape.

    Amy decides to disrupt the process. She walks over and starts smacking paperwork/pens out of hands, flinging it away, unplugging computers, tossing reservation books and such across the room, generally trying to make it so people *can't* book a room right now.

Francesca Leon has posed:
    "Totally have a talking sword." Stray says to Amy. "And he's a complete menace."
    But, thankfully when Yellow Pearl Voice's (admittedly lovely) song manages to clear the first floor of the dark miasma, Stray focuses more on her spell while Amy deals with the civilians as best she can.
    "... Third floor. We should get moving."
    She'll start heading up the stairs once the other two are ready as well.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Whatever is behind all this has certainly taken notice of Coco's interference. 'Either it was looking at us through the receptionists, or it is gifted with some sort of clairvoyance', she thinks as she notices a handful of thralls manage to evade the magical purification of her songs. She turns towards the girl that has been spurring the now conscious people outside. Coco smiles at Amy, before addressing the both of them: "Thanks for the assistance", she says, Amy clearing the zone of people and Francesca searching the area having considerably sped up things.

"I'm Yellow Pearl Voice. I think it's best to assume we are being observed at all times, by how the people under trance reacted to my song. I believe we should expect traps tailor made for us."

Misaki Sanjou has posed:
For the most part, the civilians seem happy to leave and vacate the premises on their own without some prompting. Amy's shenanigans upsets one of the younger receptionists, a bottle blonde who stands up shakily and points at her accusingly. "What are you doing, you horrible little girl?! You can't do that! That's our livelihood! Nooo! Stop messing up my papers! Give me back my binder! Stop that now! Right-- right..." The creeping fog touches her, and she slumps back down straight away, like a doll with its strings cut. Well, she's not going anywhere, and neither are the rest of the receptionists! Whatever force was animating them has given up the ghost, and they lay slumped and quiet as people do when caught in a pall of dark energy. It's trivial to toss them outside the building, if Amy so chooses; at the very least they aren't marching into danger.

    Contrary to Yellow Pearl Voice's expectations, the second floor is abandoned and empty, its only visible inhabitants the line winding up the stairwell. A small tail of bewitched second-floor inhabitants have left their rooms, and are on their way up to the third as well. On the third, Stray is the first to see it. The line's destination is room 306, though the '6' has been scratched out and a red '4' has tackily been drawn over the plaque. Her Area Search confirms it: the dark presence is most concentrated within. The miasma was also thicker here, too dense for the magical trio to passively burn off. It clung unpleasantly to them like oil, but it wasn't any more capable of harming them as it was before. The civilians, however, looked more and more drained the closer they got.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    What are you doing?! "Saving you, dumbass!" Afterwards, standing on the desk, she tries to shoo the line of customers away. "Pool's closed! Everybody out! Health inspector!" She's not going to bodily haul them all out if they've stopped going deeper inside, though. Presumably they'll be okay when they stop the monster! She hops off the desk to talk to the others.

> Totally have a talking sword.
    "Oh? I got a talking animal, but I guess he decided to get clear."

> I'm Yellow Pearl Voice.
    "I'm, uh..." Amy turns away. From a mirror on one wall, placed to make the room feel larger, a small girl with long red hair dressed in red and figure-hugging white nervously looks back at her.
    Amanda's brain: tailred
    Also Amanda's brain: NO, lol. ...Huh, I can kinda see this me with twintails, though...
    Amanda, who's been spacing out for a few seconds, "I guess call me Red, 'till I think of a proper magical girl name? How'd you come up with yours? Wait, if there's a Red Pearl Voice I guess that won't work, huh..."

> We should expect traps tailor made for us.
    "At least two of us are new! How can they even know what they can do already? Hell at this point there's probably still stuff *I* don't know I can do yet!" She turns and points dramatically at the nearest security camera. "That's right, monster of darkness! You haven't even seen my FINAL FORM!" She says with a confident grin, then turns back to whisper to the others, "I don't actually have a final form. I think."

> Gather your party and venture forth?

                                  [No]   [Yes]                                  

    Amy proceeds up the stairs with the others warily, not taking point unless they suggest it. She's not the one with a giant sword, after all! Actually... "Is that going to be hard to use inside?"

    Upstairs are more people going up. "Well, THAT's not good. Come on!" She runs ahead, following the direction the guests are going, and when she reaches the stairs she tries to shove them back. "Nope! Pool's closed!" If, despite being a small teenager with admittedly the enhancement of a Puella Magi, she's able to get them some distance back from the stairs, she hurries partway up the stairs, turns around... and then is suddenly holding a rocket launcher which she uses to BLOW A HOLE IN THE FLOOR. So the ensorcelled folks can't cross. Magical girls should be able to easily jump across though, right? "There! 'How about we explore the area ahead of us later!', huh? You can't go this way now!"

    She'll wait for the others before heading up to floor 3, if they haven't gone on ahead.

Francesca Leon has posed:
    The lack of traps is... Surprising a little? Worrying definitely. Nevertheless, Stray is fine taking point for the party if Amy doesn't want to.
    "Stray." She gives as her own introduction when Yellow Pearl Voice gives her moniker. "... I remember your singing from the museum." She does note before pressing on.
    "... You have a final form? ... Is that something we get? Mistoffelees, do I have a final form?"
    <No.>
    "That's kind of lame." She mutters, once a hole in the floor has been made, courtesy of Amy.
    Hopefully that should keep anyone else from progressing. Hopefully.
    So when they do get to the third floor and room 306(4)? Stray pauses a beat.
    She looks to the other two first.
    "... We ready?" If they reply in the positive, she brings one leg up...
    And simply intends to kick the door right in as hard as she can.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"Well, you see", Coco starts answering Amy, showing her the microphone she is holding. "The Yellow Pepearl encased here is my birthright and what powers up my song. And don't worry, there isn't a Red Pearl: the other six are Pink, Aquamarine, Green, Purple, Orange and Indigo. My name isn't the most original either: Yellow Pearl Voice is how I invoke the powers of my pearl, but I didn't have anything better, so I started using it as my name for when I am transformed too, Red."

She doesn't know what to say about Stray's matter-of-fact statement about remembering her, but that information allowed her to remember she was indeed there, so she opts to compliment her performance at the time.

At Stray's question about opening the door, Coco nods, keeping her E-Pitch close to her.

Misaki Sanjou has posed:
To the newly-dubbed Red's credit, whatever force compelling the civilians isn't strong enough to make them willingly fall down a hole. There was a limit to its power, and perhaps that was why its song was riddled with empty promises. The entranced would-be victims crowd around the hole listlessly... And then sit in various slumped-over poses. Some of them even begin to cry! A cursed whispering carries through the air as the youma's song /changes./        
"We'll never make it to paradise," one woman wails, her voice joined by a cacaphony of many. "There's no hope. No hope."

    "It was that horrible girl that did this to us. It was her, her, her! So horrible, so selfish. We hate her. We hate her..."

    Thankfully, the growing murmurs of anger and dissent do not give the crowd a way across the gap, and all that remains is the door.

    WHAM! The unlocked door collapses in on itself under the force of the kick, rent into splinters and shrieking chunks of ragged wood and metal. Wood dust falls like confetti, and all that's left of the door is two little stubs of shredded wood still attached to the hinges. They have strong hinges in this hotel.

    At first sight, there was nothing unusual about the room. It had all the typical dressings of a high-end place to spend the night: the bed was there and in front of it a widescreen TV, stuck playing an interminable loop where a man in an orange jumpsuit rappels from the roof to offer his orange beverage to grateful customers. Two bottles of expensive brand-name hotel water sat on the counter, offering premium hydration at a premium price. The only thing off was the refrigerator. It was rendered in sleek silver-black, not matching the refrigerators of the other rooms. On it was a sticker boasting about its energy efficiency. 'Energy Saver! Dark Energy Star'? Was it even possible for a refrigerator to use this little electricity? It was almost as if it ran on something else. Also, it was absolutely radiating evil energy, miasma pouring off it in waves.

    Of course, the strangest thing about it was the handful of guests that were climbing INSIDE, one after the other. The fridge's door closed by itself behind each one with a soft 'tump.' Tump, tump, tump. Upon closer inspection, the inside of the fridge was... unusual. It wasn't the inside of a refrigerator at all! It was a passageway out into some kind of snowy field!

Amanda Faust has posed:
> There are seven pearls, actually! And none of them are Red.
    'Reds eyes widen a bit. "Wow, you have that big of a, like a sentai team? ...How come you're the only one here, though?"

    The ensorcelled civilians CRY about not being able to cross the hole. Amanda feels kind of sad for them.

    She sees Stray go for a kick, and hefts her weapon. "Are you sure--" And then Stray kicks the door in just fine. Oh right, MAGICAL GIRL.

    She doesn't enter right away, though. Yellow said there might be traps... she looks to Stray. "Can you detect traps with your intelligent sword?"

Francesca Leon has posed:
    "..."
    People are crawling into the Dark Energy Star fridge.
    That's a new one by Stray.
    "Uh." She blinks.
    "... Even if we did find that it was trapped, I mean... We're going to have to follow those people anyway." Kind of kind let them wander off into who knows where that fridge leads to, right?
    Cautiously, Stray approaches the fridge and pops it open to peer inside after it closes by itself.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"Well... The other six are currently unaware of what is going on here." This is actually only true for 4 of them, but Coco doesn't really want to start explaining that the Orange Princess has betrayed them and surrendered the Indigo Princess (as well as Coco herself before she could escape) to the King of the Deep Seas, but the pained expression is all too clear on Coco's face.

At least the weird circumstances surrounding the fridge provide a distraction. "Do you want me to sing as you climb inside?", she proposes. "It might weaken anything malicious waiting for you on the other side."

Misaki Sanjou has posed:
Breathing. Stray can hear breathing. The heavy, ragged breathing of an excited beast. But the fridge doesn't move, or do anything... That a fridge doesn't do. If any of girls had sensory abilities regarding dark energy or evil, they were going off. The fridge was malice made manifest. It was hungry, and it was BREATHING. Its excitement was palpable. It was excited for the foolish little girl at its mouth to crawl inside. To be a hero, to save those inside as it knew she would. The cold wind that blew forth in bursts into Stray's face was eager anticipation itself.

    But it didn't move an inch. When Pearl offers to sing, the breathing turns to wheezing, horrible laughter. The snowy field and victims within are transposed with the ordinary contents of an ordinary hotel fridge, empty and ready. The field and image flicker, as if mocking the magical trio. Dispel me, and you'll never save them, it seemed to say in mockery. After that is silence.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Puella Red follows Stray into the room. "...Can't we just unplug it? ...Once we get the people out, I mean." When Stray opens the fridge, she peers inside too. "I guess we go after them? Although, "Is it really a good idea to go in there dressed like this?"

    o o

    A pair of red eyes watches through the window. <Your magic can protect you from frostbite! Keep your image of yourself in mind and think warm thoughts!> "Oh, uh, thanks." Red answers the voice no one else heard.

    She sees the portal flicker from Yellow's magic. "Damn... I guess we can't shut it off magically until we rescue them, either."

    Unless they're already gone, a part of Angela's mind thinks. She glances at the other two girls. Yellow is the more experienced hero, but Red is surely older than both of them by far. And adults know you sometimes have to make hard decisions.

    But...

    ...Those poor people... freezing in the cold, if they're still alive...

    Amanda puts her hand on the fridge and crouches to go in... wait!

    She stands up and looks at Stray. "Can your spell check that we can get in AND out through here...?"

Francesca Leon has posed:
    On the one hand, Stray knows that the purifying effects of Yellow Pearl Voice's song would make quick work of whatever evil is within the fridge, or at least hold it at bay.
    On the other hand, the ominous flickering gives her pause.
    "That... Might not be such a good idea. Yet." She mutters, weathering the cold 'breath' gusting in her face. "... But keep it up your sleeve."
    Taking a slow breath to steel her nerves, Stray squeezes her eyes shut tight for a beat.
    "That spell's just a search spell. It finds things. Doesn't find OUT things. That's on us." She says for Amy's sake before huffinf softly.
    "I guess I'm going in."
    In she goes.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco gets quite surprised at the fridge's flickering. She agrees with Stray's warning, frankly. "This is quite the shrewd demon", she says, not at all happy about how it's playing with the lives of its victims. She looks at the cold environment on the other side of the fridge. "My Live Stage can protect everyone from the cold, so I recommend you stay close to me if you don't have a similar trick yourself. It's not especially durable though, so watch out for magical attacks." As she hears Red talking to herself, Coco looks at her quizzically. "Who are you talking to?"

Misaki Sanjou has posed:
The air on the other side is bitter cold, and the door tumps shut behind her. Inside is a strange, small world, like being in the north pole at night. Only there was no sky; the heavens were refrigerator-white and the horizon was a dark abyss. It was like being in a very large freezer. Snow fell but slowly, and survivors sitting in some kind of ring were visible in the distance. The ring appeared to be the final destination; those too weak had fallen on the way, and their bodies paved a dismal path. Others continued shuffling along, slower than ever as the cold sapped their life away. Some were faster than others. It was like watching worms race across dry sidewalk, except the worms were people and they were in grave danger.

    The ones who had made it were chanting something, but it was hard to make out exactly what over the sound of the wind. The door behind Stray closes with its signature 'tump.' It looks like the inside of a fridge door is to her back.

    Assuming Red and Yellow Pearl Voice follow her inside, the door closes behind them as well, where it thankfully remains. This is not, fortunately, the kind of story where brave magical girls are trapped in a frozen and hopeless hellscape forever.

    As they approach the survivors, unimpeded by the cold, they can hear the stragglers whispering.

    "Where is it? Where is my ice cream? Where are my dots? Where are my spots?" The salaryman's face is wet with frozen tears as his despair grows to a fever pitch. "I just wanted... My ice cream."

    "There's no paradise here, is there? I was lied to. I was deceived. Ice creeaaaaam," wails a woman as she falls. Thankfully, even the ones who have collapsed still appear to be breathing; they're exhausted from having their energy drained, but have only been here a short while. It's not too late to save them.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    > Who are you talking to?
    "Magical animal. Can talk to me by telepathy--wait!" Amy points at the side of her head, then her eyes widen as Stray dives into the fridge. Already about to climb in herself, she tries to hold the door open while watching Stray through the portal. "Are you okay? Can you hear me? Can you see me?!" Once that's sorted out, she climbs in herself.

    And immediately is hugging her cloak to herself, the rocket launcher dissipating into sparkles to free up her hand. "Oh my GOD it's cold!"

    Survivors. She approaches, looking over these pitiful souls. "How are you not freezing? ...They're so... pathetic. Is this really what I would've been if I hadn't become a magical girl? ...Shit, have I already BEEN through stuff like this and don't remember?"

    Amanda shakes her head. "Yo, can you hear us? Magical girls here. We're getting you out of here. Can you move on your own?" She asks the ones still standing, while trying to lift up one of the ones who can no longer move to carry them towards the door.

Francesca Leon has posed:
    This is looking pretty grim... The fallen victims may still be breathing, but who knows how long that will last?
    With Red and Yellow Pearl Voice at her back, Stray frowns deeply.
    "Crap... Crap crap crap..." She mutters in a litany of mild profanity.
    "The best way to help them is probably to solve this problem at the source." It's the only way she can think of doing so as she taps her Device for attention.
    <Area Search!> Mistoffelees chimes helpfully, sending out those purple motes of light again to try and find the source of the evil now that the trio are inside the fridge.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"Oh, I use animals as my informants too. Though, I am surprised yours is magical enough can navigate these kind of environments. I use otters" - Coco adds, deliberately omitting the "sea" parts - what about you?"

As Coco follows after the two as they get into the fridge, she calls the Live Stage around herself. 'Of course a fridge would be cold. Coco gazes at the people collapsed at the side. 'I don't have the time to heat them all up, and there is only so much my Live Stage can do as they are anyway. I need to find the source of this quickly.' The sound of Stray activating her device's area search is quite a relief to her. "I'm really thankful we have you here. I think we would be hopelessly lost otherwise."

Misaki Sanjou has posed:
As they get closer, the chanting from the strongest survivors becomes clearer.

    Dip.. Dip... Dippin' Dots...
    "Good for adults, good for tots."
    Dip.. Dip... Dippin' Dots...
    "Delicious in bowls, wonderful in pots."
    Dip.. Dip... Dippin' Dots...
    "The ice cream of the future. The ice cream that is my future. I will... I must... Dip."
    Dip.. Dip... Dippin' Dots...
    "The ice cream that is my salvation. I will become..."
    Dip.. Dip... Dippin' Dots...

    Like a mantra of madness, they continue to chant, and when the girls arrive, all eyes fixate on them. Something is wrong with their skin. Darkly colorful dots grow from their skin like a fungus, grief and pain and despair extruded into solid beads that shimmered in colors unknown to earth. One of them scratches, scraping the spots off her skin. Another savages them with his teeth, hungrily swallowing the dark dots, but more sprout from him the faster that he eats. It's clear that the ones who fell along the way will last longer than the ones who made it. It was the fate of the weak to perish, and the strong... To change.

    As Red checks on the fallen, she finds them silent, their hearts too laden with despair to even speak. Dark energy visibly wafts off them. It was cold, yes, but more than just cold was at work. A dark spell held them in place, leaving them too weak to crawl the short distance it would take to save themselves. She could see it in their eyes; they had lost hope, and there wasn't even a possibility of rescue in their minds. What could she do...?

    Stray's area search kicks in, the results delayed and strange. According to the spell, the youma was above them, below them, to their left and to their right. It was behind them, in front of them, side to side. According to the spell... They had already found it. They were inside.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy got to try Dippin' Dots once, long ago. They *were* pretty good. But uh... This is messed up. She's ready to start carrying them out of here one by one if she has to, but there are so many... She looks at the chanting ones. She looks at the one in her arms, face empty of hope.

    If taking them out of here one at a time is what they've got to do, may as well start now.

    She hauls the first one back to the door, assuming it will open if pushed from inside.

Francesca Leon has posed:
    That... Uh.
    "It's. It's everywhere." Stray announces, dumbfounded. They really WERE in the belly of the beast.
    Out of ideas in an instant, Stray grabs the closest victim off the ground. It's not easy to haul another person for her, because Stray doesn't have enhanced strength, but she'll start dragging people one by one if she has to-- which seems to be the case as Amy starts dragging others towards the fridge door, too.
    

Coco Kiumi has posed:
If the chant wasn't enough to creep Coco out, being the focus of the weird group as well as the multicoloured dots would have probably done it. Hearing the result of the area search, Coco emits an exhasperated sigh. "Should have seen it coming, I guess." Imitating Amy and Stray, Coco starts dragging the freezing bodies of the people on the ground closer and closer to the fridge door. "These people are so cold. I hope they won't have long-term effects from this experience." Not having any supernatural power aiding her, she moves slowly and slowly towards the door.

Misaki Sanjou has posed:
The trio decisively organize and begin to haul the fallen to safety! Despite a lack of magically enhanced strength, they soon noticed a strange trend amongst the bodies: some of them were light. Some of them were really, really light, like they were made from tin foil instead of flesh and bone. A little further in, they noticed something else: some of the bodies were identical. There were maybe two or three lights matching to a single heavy. Their rescue efforts go unimpeded, though... Being near Yellow Pearl Voice's Live Stage caused some of them to stir, the magic evidently counteracting the curse in a minor way. For the heavy ones, at least. The ones that were light as a feather remained despondent and would not stir; the only thing they did was breathe robotically. It was... Strange. In the distance, the wakeful ones continued to scrape at themselves, an ever-growing mound of dots in the center of their circle. Undisturbed, their chant continued on unabated.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "What the... Okay, there can't be THIS many identical quadruplets around here... have they been *split up* somehow?"

    Amy considers this.

    Then she picks up a Light and presses it against its matching heavy, to see if they merge or something.

Francesca Leon has posed:
    This is rapidly growing quite disturbing. Not due to the varied weight of the victims, but what's happening to them.
    Stray drops the robot-breathing victim in her grasp to the ground and huffs.
    If they're inside the youma or whatever...
    She raises her sword.
    And hacks at the ground in a testing slash to see if that has any effect at all.
    

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"What is going on with all these similar bodies?" Coco's first thought was that the light bodies were fungal growths or something that got detached off the heavy ones, but that doesn't make sense due to the lack of weird skin patterns.

"Should we actually bring them outside? What if we are doing the demon a favour by bringing these weird bodies outside?" The demon had never played fair, of course, but it seems it was particularly enjoying messing with their minds.

Misaki Sanjou has posed:
    Amy's efforts to combine the two are in vain, but she notices two further details: there is no dark energy wafting off the light one, nor is its breath visible in the cold. It inhales, it exhales, but... But it's as if it has no natural warmth. There was dark energy inside it for sure, albeit... It was different.

    When Coco poses her question, the demon does not respond. However, when Stray strikes the earth, the earth trembles. It was like they were caught in a light earthquake. She can feel her blade cut through /something/ though, and it's not snow. Moments later, something black oozes up, staining the white snow with darkness.

Francesca Leon has posed:
    "No clue." Stray is at least honest when responding to Yellow Pearl Voice. This kind of puzzle is not her forte.
    But when the whole monster responds with something of an earthquake and she cuts through the snow and ground and rewarded with black ichor, she makes her decision.
    If she can kill this youma before it can kill its victims... Well she'll call that a victory.
    "Alright, that's enough thinking. I'm gonna do a thing!"
    And just like that she takes her sword to the ground, cutting and hacking and slashing, she absolutely goes to town on the ground in front of her with a series of wild chops, swings, and stabs.
    It's not elegant in the least.
    

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy hasn'ty solved the puzzle... but perhaps Stray has? "Oh... we're INSIDE the monster!" She grins. "I guess if we give it a bad enough case of indigestion, *everyone*'ll end up outside!"

    The rocket launcher reappears.

    Amy proceeds to act like a gamer blasting every inch of the map to try and find the one bit of destructible terrain.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Seeing the others going at it with their magic against their environment, Coco decides she should put more effort in. Activating the bracelet on her wrist, she starts transforming into her Super Idol form, her outfit getting more elaborate and prettier. "I am all ready to go. Pichi Pichi Voice Live Start!

Hit by the stormy sea, at this moment it seems we might lose
We shake it off, and gaze at the love in our hearts.
We'll stand up again, no matter how many times for the sake of that promise.
Bathed in the scorching light, a spray of water flutters.

Even hotter, hotter, hotter than the sun.
We'll raise our voices higher, higher, higher.
Right now, right now.

This intense heartbeat overflows with a melody of love.
In this speedy heartbeat, there is only one truth.
Reflecting in a cloudless mirror
The heartbeat we convey breaks out with the power of love.
And so we are born in this hot, perfect harmony.

I'll spread my arms out and accept everything of you.
It was painful, and it was the first time
I knew what true love was.

Faster, faster, faster than the southern wind.
Crossing over the squall, stronger, stronger, stronger.
Now is the time, now is the time.

A harmony colored with everyone's heartbeats as they overlap
Will not stop ringing, and won't stop the sparkling.

We'll get back our Paradise
The heartbeat we feel breaks out with the power of love.
And so it spreads out into a perfect harmony of dreams.

Misaki Sanjou has posed:
    Stray draws first blood, and then second blood, and third blood. The ground beneath her is stained black with ichor, and the earth rumbles and shakes. As if out of spite, their exit door vanishes, flickering away to nothing. However, its trick is no more than a vain bluff at this point. They had discovered that it bleeds, and if it bleeds, they can kill it.

    Amy's explosives flash-boil the snow, revealing refrigerator-white skin underneath. That skin is quickly replaced with scorched, rapidly blackening ulcer-like sores. Those sores too are blown away, in turn replaced by cratered monster-flesh.

    The world howls in anguish. It shakes. It quakes! But the exit remains stubbornly hidden, and the grains of sand left in the hourglass of the survivors is fast running out.

    Then Coco starts to sing, magic flourishing as she does. The snow melts beneath her feet, a land of eternal winter turning into thaw. Her song reaches the fallen, reaches the circle and reaches their dots. The congealed grief evaporates into nothingness, and the pall over the hearts of the fallen is lifted! Some of the people start to rise.

    And then it happens. The youma has had enough, and space itself seems to fold. The exit door manifests, larger than ever, and everyone is thrown through! Three magical girls and a pile of bodies are spewed across the room, the frailer-looking people landing conveniently on the bed in a kind twist of fate.

    And then there's the fridge. The upper freezer door slams open on its own, and behind it is a massive, cyclopean eye, iris white as snow. It blinks once. Boss fight time.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    It's a very pretty song! Not what you'd usually fire lots of rockets to, but a very pretty song! When it disappears the door, she says, "Well, if you keep us in here, you're gonna have a bad time!"

    They are, eventually, expelled. And upon realizing that they just got eaten and thrown up by a monster -- willingly, no less -- 'Red' groans and holds a hand to her face at some thought. Damn it, brain.

    However, she soon has something else to think about, as the fridge reveals its cyclopean eye, signifying it is Boss Fight Time and that now, more than ever, it would be really appropriate to use her rocket launcher.

    ...She tries to run past the fridge and pull the plug out of the wall. "Nope!"

Francesca Leon has posed:
    It would seem... That Stray's idea to attack the very world itself finds purchase. Even when the door vanishes she doesn't stop. Even as she's covered in thick black ichor she doesn't stop. Hacking and slashing and stabbing into the bloody earth as Red joins her and Yellow Pearl Voice gives them the magical aid of her song... Stray's eyes go wild as she takes swing after swing until the youma is sick of them and launches everyone out.
    Landing in a crouch on her knees, it's as Amy moves to unplug the fridge that Francesca leaps right for the youma.
    "Hit it with everything you've got!"
    <Cut it wide open!>
    She aims to stab right into that eye as hard as she can.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
As they all get thrown out, Coco falls uncerimoniously on the floor. She looks at the bodies around them, relieved to see they are fine. Which ones are the real ones will have to be determined later, though. Not that there would actually be time for it now. As Coco hears the slamming of a door, she turns towards the source of the noise, to see the upper freezer was concealing the demon's eye. "So you have finally shown yourself!" 'Prepare to hear the tale of our seven seas, you pain of a demon', she thinks. "This is an encore just for you!"

Surely shimmering beyond the seven seas is the story that leads all lives to paradise.
We"ll surely find out where all the birds are flying off too
Embracing that dream, we left on a journey.
The treasure map we found at the secret cove no one can see just yet.

But the single constellation is glowing for us.
The story of the seven seas starts from here.
Many miracles are always revolving around us.
Will they ever return to us?

Even if at the end of our journey, we're to become adults.
Within the treasure boxes of our hearts, will always be our mermaid songs.
The lute's melody I heard on the beach at dawn was similar to a sweet lullaby from my hometown.
Everyone is surely protected under the veil of love. and go down their own paths.

Even when the sea is stormy, our bonds and heartbeat will still be conveyed.
Even if there is to be no light, you"ll surely be able to see something.
Before long, the sadness of the seven countries will become a song and cross the seven seas, becoming love.
I want to become a life that can warm this world.

I'll never forget.. these Tales of Mermaid.

By the time the large rainbow fades away, at the end of our dreams
will surely be an overflowing rain of happiness that we"ll all share.
At the beginning of our large journey, we didn't have a map
We just continued heading towards the future while looking to the sea.

The story of the seven seas starts from here.
Many miracles are always revolving around us and one is here once again.
By the time our journey ends, shining in our hearts
will be our most precious treasure... our Pearls of Mermaid.

Misaki Sanjou has posed:
    The enormous eye tracks Amy above the others, signifying she might be on to something. And, while it looks like it would love to stop her, the inbound Stray takes priority. Its lower door opens, and a massive, corpse-pale hand erupts from it with the speed of a striking snake, faster than the mortal eye can see. Its grasping fingers outstretched, it seeks purchase around Stray's body, aiming to crush the life from the girl.

    Amy runs for the plug, but runs instead into a different issue. As she passes, a hand reaches out and grabs her. A blonde tourist, by the look of it-- and one of the light-bodies, by the feel. She's light. Light as a feather.

    "Why didn't you save me?" She asks, smiling beatifically. And in the next instant, her teeth lose their white. They grow like transparent worms, like icicles, deadly tips seeking purchase into Amy's flesh. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see others rising, rising, swarming around Coco like ants.

    Coco's song causes the youma to bellow with pain, the viper-like aim of its speeding hand thrown off. She's in trouble too, however. The risen light-bodies climb to their feet. The ejection from the youma has not been kind to them, and it's clear now that many of them are badly damaged. Arms, legs, even several heads have been cracked open, the damaged areas becoming transparent and jagged like broken glass. On each, appendages turn into iridescent blades, knives, swords as the cracked mob seeks to exact their due. Worst of all, Coco's song washes over them-- and they seem by and large unperturbed.

    "Why didn't you save me?" One of them asks, and the others chime in.

Francesca Leon has posed:
    And Stray meets that hand. To say she's ready for it... Well she's not, as it wraps around her torso and starts to squeeze.
    "Hurk..." That didn't sound pleasant. It's not pleasant as she does everything she can to not be crushed outright, wriggling, squirming, finally managing to free an arm, which she points her hand at the monster's eye.
    <Claw Stinger!> Her sword announces as a magic circle appears at her fingertips, before launching an arrow of purple light from her palm with the force and speed of a bullet, still aimed for that eye in a last ditch attempt to injure this thing before it can crush the life out of her.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
As the whatever-these-things-are rise, Coco fully regrets her hunch about them being the trap was correct. But nothing shocks her as much as her song doing nothing to them. "What are these!? Why can't my song dispel whatever enchantment they are under?" Coco starts moving back as the horde of bodies advances towards her.
"Ok, in situations like this, there is only one thing to do..." she says, before she starts mercilessly beating the advancing creatures with her E-Pitch. Anywhere she could hit, she hits, and she doesn't dare stop for one second, not wanting to give them any time to counterattack.

Amanda Faust has posed:
> Why didn't you save me?
    Don't let them get to you, Amy! It's the youma's tricks! It's a light one too, she can keep going for the plug--

    AND THEN THE WOMAN IS A MONSTER THAT, SERIOUSLY, IS TRYING TO FREAKING EAT HER. "AAAGH!" She screams in pain at being bitten, and WHACKS it with the rocket launcher, which isn't all THAT heavy but considerably lighter than a feather. "SERIOUSLY?! You really ARE obsessed with eating us!" Gritting her teeth against the pain, she aims the rocket launcher at the back of the fridge, from the hip. "Aura Pillar, bitch!" She fires, hoping that damaging it will somehow slow this down while she figures out how to... how to... how to deal with all these people-copies-turning-into-monsters!

    Also, if the fridge explodes and really *does* drop a magic crystal imbued with the power of eating/hunger/devouring/whatever, she's freaking DONE. Just walking outta here. NOPE. DONE. NO.

Misaki Sanjou has posed:
The youma squeezes harder, shaking Stray as it attempts to throttle her. Its deadly strength had been diminished by Coco's song, and as the arrow is loosed, the beast roars in defiance, squeezing its eye shut. The arrow easily pierces the eyelid-- and Stray finds her breathing briefly unimpeded as the hand hurls her into the flatscreen television. The orange rappeling man and his drink are silenced forevermore.

    The massive arm balls itself into a fist and thrashes in a blind panic, its eye blinded with ichor.

    Coco was faring surprisingly well, making progress at thinning their numbers. When she struck their blades, the blades shattered. When her E-pitch cracked against a blonde tourist-- a copy of the same woman that clung to Amy, its entire body shattered fast into nothing. These things were not human and never were; they were slower for sure, moving at no faster than a slow walk, but they were coordinated. The ones she approached backed away even as the ones behind her swiped with razor-sharp glass fingers. They swung half an arm, broken like a bottle at the elbow and bristling with broken glass.

    Amy's improvised club shatters her own assailant on impact, turning the creature into a spray of jagged shards. The rocket careens into the side of the fridge, impact throwing it into a tilt. Then it tilts a little more, more... And crashes with a thumb. The enraged arm continues to thrash, pounding a hole into the floor. It punches out the window! In the din of magical combat, the remaining civilians have at this point made their way... Somewhere else.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    She knocked it over... "I guess we have to find a weak point?? Someone go for that plug! Yellow! Sword miss, are you okay?!" For the time being, Amy decides to make use of her rocket launcher, being used as a club, having longer reach than the magic microphone. That probably makes herself and Stray more suited to smashing the copies, right? That's what she does, trying to thin their numbers!

Francesca Leon has posed:
    WHAM.
    That is the sound of Stray slamming clean into a TV, glass shattering and getting all over her Barrier Jacket as she hits the floor on all fours with a ragged gasp, sucking down beloved air now that she's not being crushed. It takes her a second to pick herself back up.
    "I'm alive..." She gripes back at Amy while shoving up to her feet.
    "Go for the eye-" She might have blinded it already but that seems like as viable a weak spot as any as she lunges in, dodging the fridge's wild flailing before taking a vaulting leap, sword brought down to bear with intent to stab it right into the creature's eye, again while it's down.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Go for the eyes, Boo, go for the eyes!" Red shouts encouragingly while trying to club through the horde of horrible nightmare monsters.

Misaki Sanjou has posed:
    Amy and Coco together make quick work of the monsters, turning one after the other into glass and dust. Their strength was numbers and surprise, and they weren't that imposing now that they'd lost the initiative: a regular human with a big stick and a lot of space could very probably have defeated the entire horde, to say nothing of two magically empowered warriors of justice.

    Meanwhile!

    Unable to see the coming attack, the youma shrieks in anguish as Stray's sword plunges hilt-deep into its single eye. Its arm's thrashing grows wilder and more frenzied, swatting at Stray, but just as soon its struggles begin to slow as black ichor gushes from the wound. Its arm deflates, become thinner and weaker as more of its essence pours out. At last, its death throes come to an end, leaving only an empty, deflated skin of an arm behind as its body disperses into nothing.

    The girls find themselves in an empty hotel room. The window has been trashed. The TV has been trashed. There's damage to the floor, and a perfectly ordinary fridge has been flipped on its side and beaten in. The next day, the papers would run a nonsense article about a gas leak causing mass hysteria, which devolved into violence and ended with one room completely trashed... But the day was saved, and it was a miracle there were no casualties!

Amanda Faust has posed:
    There is no dramatic tokusatsu explosion! Just ichor, and...

    ...a perfectly ordinary fridge.

    Even the civilians have already recovered and cleared out.

    'Red' walks over and nudges the fridge with her feet, noticing the changed labeling is gone. "Great. So it just... *possessed* a fridge...?"

    She unplugs it, just to be sure. And maybe grabs a food item worth eating or a soda or something.

    At least she *wasn't* in... Amy shakes her head. Best not to think of that. "Hmph." She gives the fridge a little shove with her foot, but even with a puella's enhanced strength it's still a FRIDGE so she doesn't move it much.

    It seems the others have already left. Amy looks at the broken window, swinging her rocket launcher around the frame to make there be less big pieces that could cut her before poofing it away. As she climbs out, Kyubey hops up onto her shoulder from outside, and she leaps out to a rooftop...