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Ayumi Selei

"Hey, hey! Don't ignore me, silly!~ I'm coooooming to geeeeet you, hehehehe!"

0 · 707 views · located in The Unnamed Kingdom

a character in “Black Magic”, as played by SasoriRinku

Description



Ayumi Selei



“In the face of certain death at the hands of our enemies, I think now would be a great time for a party, neh?~”




Basic Information



Name: Ayumi Selei

Nickname:Ayumi has several different “other names” that she is called by. Though most are profanities made up on the spot, the most common one is ‘Psycho Bitch’. Other than that, her friends call her ‘Yumi’ for short, and some call her ‘Boss’ out of fear respect.

Age: 19

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Homosexual; she actually prefers women, however she is not necessarily limited in that regard.



Physical Appearance



Image

Appearance
Fittingly, Ayumi finds herself to be quite beautiful, and is not afraid of “showing off”. Ayumi’s hair is one of her favorite aspects of her appearance: dark brown in color and straight. She keeps it a medium length, just reaching the tops of her shoulder blades. In addition to being straight, it is relatively thick, giving her hair some substance and allowing her to actually do something with it when she so wishes. Ayumi’s eyes are probably her most prominent feature, as they are bright and large. They are a rather unique purple, amethyst-like color. Her face is small, a fact only made more apparent with her large eyes. It is heart-shaped and gently boned, decorated with her eyes, a small, haughty nose, and peachy lips. Additionally, Ayumi has beautiful, lightly-tanned skin that doesn’t burn or color easily. Surprisingly, her skin has also survived well through years of touch-and-go situations, having very few scars or rough marks.

As far as stature goes, Ayumi is a relatively short girl. She’s able to stand at least a head shorter than the Coven members of “usual” height. She is also very light, partly due to her size and partly due to her lack of more than the necessary amount of muscle. However, she does have quite the feminine form: a slight hourglass figure with a notably large chest (an area which she takes a good bit of pride in).

Height and Weight: 5’3’’ | 110 lbs.




Personality



Personality
It might not be an understatement to say that Ayumi has the most interesting personality of any of the Coven members. Those who don’t know her well at all have sometimes described her as a nice enough girl, but a bit eccentric. Those who do know what they are talking about have never described her as anything less than psychotic.

Ayumi is an incredibly vibrant person, who never seems to want for enthusiasm. She can literally be chirping away happily and bouncing around after running for her life. She laughs at everything, even the most depressing situations – something that actually served her well when the Inquisitors started to hunt her down with the rest of the Witches. She’s even gone so far as to find ways to brighten up even the most boring times, usually at the expense of others. She also has a superiority complex, often acting bossy and demanding (though that may just be because she’s a woman). She has a very powerful presence, often being able to cow others into doing what she wants by force of personality alone.

This is where her craziness often shows itself. Ayumi has absolutely no concept of boundaries, limits, personal space, or privacy. Additionally, she is highly “inappropriate”, as some of the older generation would say. What these aspects get you when combined is a plucky and spontaneous girl who has a tendency to physically molest and abuse those around her. She’ll walk up behind a girl and suddenly grope her breasts just to embarrass them. She flips up dresses and skirts; pulls down shirts and snaps all sorts of straps on clothing; and has no qualms about exposing herself either. Though her abuse is usually directed at females (ironically?), she has earned a reputation amongst the men of the Coven for having a wicked slap and a powerful kick.



Magical Powers



General Magic
As with all of the Witches, Ayumi is relatively skilled in the lesser magics. Her specialty lies in charms and illusions, with which she is actually quite skilled. She is very capable of confusing enemies, even more skilled ones who tend to have greater magical defenses, with her traps. Perhaps the reason for her success with these trap-magics is her ability to think in truly insane ways, which others simply cannot prepare for or counter.

High Magic – Puppet Mastery
The branch of higher magic that Ayumi has been gifted with is that of manipulation and control. She has named it “Puppet Mastery”, though the magic is not centered around controlling puppets or objects, per say. It would be more accurate to say that Ayumi has the power of mind control. Using this magic, Ayumi can take control of people and manipulate them like a puppet master would a marionette. Her victim is still cognizant mentally, but simply has no control over his or her body or actions.

Funnily enough, Ayumi’s magic fuels her ability to molest her comrades. After all, if her antics were limited to what she could do herself, then they would not be nearly so spectacular. Some of her greatest gags involve manipulating others into doing her work for her. All that aside, though, this power does make Ayumi a rather dangerous opponent. After all, how can you fight against someone when you can’t control your body? Unfortunately, stronger spell casters do actually have magical defenses that allow them to overpower Ayumi’s control. For this reason, Ayumi’s power is significantly weaker against opponents stronger than her. Even so, she often can think of a crazy strategic way to use them anyway, such as manipulating the bad guy’s minions to attack the real target.



History



Biography
A long, long time ago, the Selei family was a part of the nobility. Ayumi’s great, great, great
great grandmother was a noble lady who was known for her incredible haughtiness and her knack for being bossy and oppressive. Now, Ayumi is long descended from this branch of her family, to the point where her blood is very much common and tainted (enough, at least, to receive the Black Witch “curse”). However, this distant link to royalty may explain certain parts of Ayumi’s imperious personality.

Ayumi was born in one of the poorer districts of the Kingdom, quite literally living in the back allies of a back alley-city. Her parents were incredibly poor and simply could not support their daughter, not that they had to for long. After Ayumi turned five or six, she left home, preferring to wander town like the alley cat that she was. By the time that she was twelve years old, Ayumi had actually made something of herself. She’d become a leader of a bunch of street kids from the town, acting like a mother figure for the young and hopeless runts she found. Under her supervision, the group made a living from stealing what food they could from the slightly wealthier districts in the north side.

Ayumi enjoyed her position; leading the kids made her feel important and needed. She was quite happy and probably the least psychotic during those years. However, by the time she turned sixteen, she wouldn’t be allowed to live so peacefully. By the time she was a young woman, Ayumi was already quite beautiful. That, coupled with her dangerous position as a female whose sole protection was a group of kids made her an easy target. That’s why one man attempted to overpower Ayumi one day and rape her.

The man may have succeeded, too, if Ayumi hadn’t been a Witch. She’d been good at magic her entire life, but limited contact with any real spell casters and left her unaware that her powers were greater than that of a normal peasant. By this time, she also was not aware of the higher magic that she possessed. She inherited her power that day, however. The thug thought he was going to have an easy time with Ayumi, but he wound up beating himself up involuntarily while Ayumi sat in the alleyway, one hand manipulating him while the other held up her ripped shirt.

After that, Ayumi realized that she was different. What was more important than that, however, was that others realized she was different, too. Her display of powers hadn’t gone without witnesses. It was too early in events for the backwater villagers to realize that Ayumi was a Witch; they simply thought she was a monster. So, they chased her out of town, forcing her to flee and leave behind her makeshift family.

Poor Ayumi; she’d only just started to settle down in a different time, making subtle use of her powers of manipulation to get food and money, when her life was upset again. It had been a couple of years since the rape incident, but still the old villagers remembered “that monster, Ayumi”. When the Inquisitors came asking questions, some were more than happy to tell them everything they knew about Ayumi. As such, she had to survive one of the most dogged Inquisitorial chases of any of the Witches – they knew who she was and what she looked like, which meant she couldn’t blend in.

Still, Ayumi survived, She survived and ran, never once getting captured. She inadvertently made her way to the town of Alderath, hoping to hide out there for a while without Inquisitors chasing her through night and day. Unfortunately for her or the other Witches that also had the same idea, a whole batch of Inquisitors had funneled several of their targets into Alderath with the goal of boxing them in and killing them.

However, Ayumi was one of the several Witches who refused to go down without a fight. Using her
”inspirational” personality, she urged the other witches to stand up and fight against the Inquisitors (she may or may not have had to manipulate some into doing it). To all of their surprise, they actually managed to pull it off, defeating and killing several Inquisitors. After that, she decided to stick around the others. When she saw how successful the group of Witches were at standing up for themselves, Ayumi proposed something drastic: the formation of the Black Coven. To her delight, the others that fought with her decided to join her, and soon the Coven was established and well on its way to becoming a serious threat to the Inquisitors. Now, she serves as motivational leader of the Coven, a position that
oddly is like coming full-circle for her.



Other



Theme Song: Highest Life – Girls Dead Monster (English Lyrics)

Leadership: The Black Coven does not have a set leader, as it is operated in council format. Each member of the Coven technically has the power to influence its actions. However, if there had to be a de facto leader, then it would almost certainly be Ayumi. That is because of her incredibly bossy personality, her tendency to inflict harm (all in love!) on others who don’t agree with her or listen to her, and due to the fact that Ayumi was the one first suggested the idea of the Coven.

So begins...

Ayumi Selei's Story

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Ayumi Selei
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Leventus, the archduke of Yamealla, stood in front of the see-through glass that made up the wall in front of him. The older gentleman was situated nicely and safely in one of the upper spires of the ‘Great Palace’, the monstrous capital of the ‘Kingdom of Magic’. Out in the countryside, the towns were small, made of some stone but mostly wood. Here, in the capital town, where the nobles lived, stone and precious metals decorated the streets and homes. At the center of the luxury, the palace stood – larger than a good number of the peasant’s villages, and made almost entirely of gold, silver, and glass.

The upper tower where Leventus was currently housed was made entirely of magically-forged glass, giving its inhabitants an unparalleled view out across the valley pass head, the great ring of mountains that fortified the already impregnable capital, and the sky that hung over the burning lands beyond. Leventus grinned sourly, taking another sip of wine from his cut-diamond cup. That small cup of drink cost more than even the most prosperous village could afford, but to the archduke, it was too sour. As he looked sideways through the window to the central spire of the castle, constructed of pure gold, he seethed. In those halls of gold, the High King lounged, enjoying his unlimited power and wealth.

Leventus was growing tired of playing this game of politics. He was better off than most of the nobles, holding a coveted position of power – the writer of laws and a member of the upper legislative council – in this privileged world where it was nearly impossible to move up in influence. The king had placed such sanctions on the other nobles that their positions and powers were practically locked in time, eternally to be filled by the nobles, their children, and the endless cycle of their descendants.

“Well, this enforced-peace won’t last forever,” Leventus declared somberly to himself. Outside, the world really was burning; the battles being fought between the Inquisitors and those...Witches was tearing apart the social order like nothing else could; a millennium of false tranquility being undone in a few short years. The archduke smiled, thanking the Witches out there, wherever they were. They would all die soon, but by their sacrifice, the wheels of change would start to turn.

Leventus’s musings were suddenly interrupted by a knock at the door to his office. With a loud sigh, the man called for the intruder to enter in a gruff voice. At his call, a young, small man entered the door cautiously. The young page looked deathly afraid of the duke, and hung way back – practically right next to the door as he began to speak.

“L-Lord Leventus! I have news from Alderath,” the page said, though Leventus ignored him. After a few minutes of tense silence, the archduke turned his head and glared agitatedly at the page. Yelping and gulping down his fear, the young man continued. “The report from Commander Fallsen says as follows:

‘The town of Alderath was besieged several weeks ago by a small troop of Inquisitors, as per Royal Decree #1,394 – for the hunting and execution of Black Witches. Several of the aforementioned beings were apprehended in the town, and more were transported there for the sake of mass execution. However, intelligence has returned to my camp while the troops have not. The scouts say that the Inquisitors in the town have been purged, though we are not yet certain if they are dead. I am in the process of organizing another small team to send into the town as I write. More information to be sent to the capital upon my receiving of it.
-Commander Fallsen, 4th Brigade’”

The archduke sighed and took another sip of his wine. “And why are you bothering me with this drivel, Page? It’s obvious that those troops are either deserters or somehow allowed themselves to be killed by those cursed-beings. Once those real troops get there, the Witches’ time will be up.” The page gulped, and, perhaps speaking out of turn, shouted, “B-But, sir! The message is weeks old!”

Leventus turned to angrily stare at the page, who cowered against the door. “So,” he roared; “What does that have to do with anything!?” Still cowering, the page slowly tried to explain himself. “Other news has come in from Alderath, Sir. Apparently, the Witches there have
have resisted the attack of two more squads of Inquisitors. It has been said that the Witches have banded together, and are actually
they’re actually really strong, Sir!”

Those words outraged the High Legislator even more than the page’s interruption, and the man seemed to swell in size. “You mean to tell me,” he yelled loudly, “that those, those worthless curs were able to defeat real Inquisitors!? You MUST be joking!” The page yelped in terror, genuinely fearful that the archduke was going to take his wrath out on him. “It’s true, Sir, I swear by it!”

“You go send a message to Lord Solom, right now!” Leventus turned his rage away from the poor page, shifting to look out across the valley as the sun set. “You tell him that he is to send in an entire, commander-led battalion – now! I want him to see to it that the town of Alderath is burnt to the ground, and that this Uprising is crushed. Right. Now!”

To punctuate his declaration, the man threw his glass as hard as he could at the transparent wall of the tower. The diamond cup shattered into hundreds of pieces when it hit the ‘glass’ wall, causing slivers of precious gemstone to splatter across the floor. The wall didn’t have a scratch on it, though arcane energies began to snake out from the impact point, tendrils of white lightning that danced across the face of the tower as the defensive wards reacted to the blow. The wine that would have landed on the glass was vaporized instantly by the magic.

The poor young page was out of the door as soon as the cup hit the wall, the display of violence nearly making him wet himself. He went immediately to the post-station to send the report, so as to avoid the future wrath of the archduke. As the page left, Leventus continued to fume, unbelieving of the situation. Just a few moments ago, he’d been grateful for the Witches. They were supposed to be a means to an end for the archduke, sacrificial lambs used to raise his own position. Just the thought of them actually causing issues – actually trying to threaten the Inquisitors and the government


This would not be allowed to stand. Not under his watch.


In the town of Alderath, the noon sun rose in the sky, illuminating its bright blue color. A gentle breeze, a warm sun, and a blue sky worked together to lull the town into a sense of peace. The peasants went about their daily business, travelling the streets as they went to work, traded at the market, and enjoyed their freedom. While it seemed like a normal day of early summer, a certain extraordinary event was happening in one of the poorer districts.

In the middle of the street, which was little more than a pavestone walkway, a young woman stood looking up at the ramshackle, two story building that she’d called home for the past month. Ayumi Selei stood in front of the semi-official, mostly-temporary headquarters of the Black Coven, hands on her hips as she toyed with ideas in her head, a wicked grin on her face.

The past month had been a montage of crazy happenings. To start things off, Ayumi and a group of Witches had actually rebelled against the Inquisitors that were going to execute the lot of them. The battle hadn’t gone perfectly: some of them had received superficial wounds, and almost all of them had nearly exhausted their mana reserves. Only Ayumi herself had been seriously hurt: a blade wound to her side that she received because of her carelessness. She’d been focusing too much on controlling her targets that one of the Inquisitors was able to sneak up on her and attack. The only reason she wasn’t completely dead right now was that the Coven’s resident prankster, Joker, was there to knock the Inquisitor away before he could deliver a killing blow. When all was said and done, however, the Witches were alive – they had won.

Still, the battle had left them in dismal states: trapped in the town of Alderath with no one but themselves to turn to for help, tired and, in Ayumi’s case, injured. Still, the young woman did not give up. Maintaining her level of crazy enthusiasm even in her pained state, she negotiated the terms of the Coven with the other Witches, officially creating the first organized government-resistance force in the Second Age. After that, she also bargained with the town’s mayor over finding a place for them to stay. That argument eventually led to the Coven temporarily owning the building that she was looking at right now.

The townspeople had been surprisingly accepting of the Coven’s presence in the town, at least, after their battle with the Inquisitors. It turns out that, to the people of Alderath, the Inquisitors were worse than Witches. After all, the Inquisitors did much more than just catch Witches. The Inquisitors enforced the restrictions of the government on the people, punished them for excessive use of magic, and – most importantly by far to the people of Alderath – collected taxes. Sure, the Witches may be “spawns of the Devil”, according to the religious zealots that had risen up across the kingdom in recent years, but spiritual evil was a much lighter crime than economic evil.

Therefore, the people warmed up quite quickly to the Witches after they proved to be capable of taking on the Inquisitors. The villagers were still wary of the formerly-hunted spell casters; quite natural, considering how odd that some of them were. However, as the weeks went by, it became apparent that they were not bad people. The Witches didn’t hurt anybody and went about their daily business like everyone else. After the Coven defeated two more squads of Inquisitors that assaulted the town, the group was officially accepted by the townspeople.

Still, for Ayumi, the past month had been dreadfully boring. Unfortunately, none of the Coven members were very skilled in healing magic, so not much could be done for her wound. It was also quite a serious one, cutting right into her side. Therefore, she was left bedridden (read: trapped inside the headquarters) for practically two weeks. Even after then, Ayumi found it just too painful to run around with the rest of the gang, meaning that she spent a lot of time inside pouting.

Today was the first day in a long time that Ayumi felt no pain in her side. Although there was now an unfortunate scar running across the right side of her abdomen, the wound no longer bothered her, no matter how she turned or stretched. And so, Ayumi was convinced that today was going to be the start of something big.

With an upbeat hum and a flourish of her hair, Ayumi turned from looking at the building to face the street. Her eyes scanned side to side, as if she could see through the buildings that flanked her on either side. She was searching, in her own odd way, for her companions: the rest of the Black Coven, who were likely out and about in town doing something or another.

“Oooooo-Kay!~ Let’s go find the others!” With that exclamation, Ayumi burst into a run, barreling down the street in a direction that she chose at random. Well, mostly at random – she was heading straight towards the center of town, a small plaza with a well in the center and a few shops to the sides. At least some of the others were bound to be there, she concluded and she ran, smiling ear from ear.

Oh, it was good to be back in action!~

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Ayumi Selei Character Portrait: Eleanor Lute
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The town of Alderath held a surprising number of hidden places for only being a town.So many in fact that even area's the most curious and interested explorer, which for the moment happened to be Eleanor, could not have explored it in the time that she had free during the past month. Speaking of the blonde telepath, she had been off running errands for her fellow Coven members, and just about anyone else that asked, all day until now, most of which had been mundane things like buying some string or delivering a message, but a few had been tasks so impractical and difficult, though seemingly pointless, that they were worthy of the heroes in any story she had read.

At the moment however, she was simply resting on the roof of a building in the center of town, relaxing after her last "quest". The mission in question had been to collect a number of flags that had been scattered about within a limited amount of time. Frankly, the person that had sent her out to do that was probably just bored. The woman in question had seemed really serious at the time though, even in her thoughts. While Eleanor was thinking about this, she felt, or perhaps heard, a familiar... something, telepathy didn't really have a strict set of verbs, on the ground below.

A look over the edge quickly revealed the source of the thoughts, Yumi, their imperious leader. Ellie hadn't expected her to be out and about for at least another week, based on the initial wound, though she admittedly hadn't seen it since. All the same, what she knew of social protocol dictated that Eleanor go greet her, plus there was the fact that she would be glad to join Yumi anyways. So it was that she skipped off of the rooftop, using a telekinetic trick that she'd learned to aid in her exploring to slide down the wall as though it were a slope.

Landing behind the young woman, Eleanor went to speak to make herself known, but hesitated. She was unsure of what to say. How did one normally greet the one's leader who had just recovered from an injury that she received in the same battle that allowed you to avoid execution? As far as she knew, there was no specific thing that you were supposed to say under those circumstances, likely because that didn't happen terribly often. Unable to think of anything better, she resolved to simply follow Yumi, or "Boss", as she called her, until she turned around and began the conversation herself.

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Morgan Wiles II Character Portrait: Ayumi Selei Character Portrait: Eleanor Lute Character Portrait: Tetsu Harkonfield
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#, as written by Tanman
“Mmm, still moist with oil. Perfect.” Morgan spoke to herself, turning the raven feather over in her hand and examining it from the tip, preening it a moment before reaching back into her satchel, pulling out a small, airtight jar to place it in. Oblivious to the world around her, it took some slight nudging from Ichabod to bring her to the realisation that she had company. “Eh?” She mumbled, looking to her right shoulder, before turning slightly to her left as she looked to
 What was his name again? She could only see his side profile for now, but in all honesty, she wasn’t too good with names, and hadn’t really spoken with, well, anyone in the Coven. Or rather, no-one had spoken to her. She wasn’t the kind to seek company, but conversely, she wasn’t the kind to turn it away. Hmm, why was he coming up to her? Did he have a reason? Curiosity peaked, but typical of Morgan, she turned away again as Ichabod began speaking to her.

“Uhm, you were in the center shopping area, right Morgan? What all did you buy?" The boy must’ve been a little intimidated with the way he stammered over his words at the end, but Morgan wasn’t so cruel as to focus on that. Besides, she got the gist of things, and no sense looking a gift horse in the mouth. Still, there was one point worth noting, and ever so slightly she tilted her head as she eyed him over, suspicious of just what that meant. He knew her name. Not just any name, but her real one. That struck her as odd, since she didn’t recall ever mentioning it publicly to anyone in the Coven. Insight into her fellow Coven member’s power, perhaps? Regardless, it wasn’t a big deal. Names were pretty pointless, so it didn’t matter what one he used.

“Aye, I was,” She replied simply, mainly in answer to his first query, even if he knew the answer. She didn’t quite understand the point in those circular questions either. They were weird. “And my name is Lorelei.” She replied with the standard monotone she always maintained. Allowing that to sink in and draw some reaction, she swiftly decided to, perhaps generously, change the topic and allow the boy an out of the awkwardness of getting her name ‘wrong’. “And I bought ingredients.” She continued simply, regarding his expression. It wasn’t the most informative, or a conversation building response; but Ichabod’s insistence once again reminded Morgan that she could perhaps be a bit more open with her information. “I get it, I should expand on things.” She replied to her spirit friend, though the way she was still looking at Tetsu probably would confuse him even more.

“I’m making stew.” She finally added, opening the flap on her satchel to show the ingredients
 Along with many other things for her potions. There was rocks, vials, flasks of various coloured liquids, bottles of bugs, and odds and ends like fur, feathers, claws, straw, mould, flowers. Of course, there was also the rotting fruit and milk she’d just purchased; and food bits such as starch and beans. What exactly she planned on making for stew was anyone’s guess. As the two wandered down the road and continued their chatter, there was no doubt they'd stumble across the groups de facto leader, and any company she might have obtained.

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Morgan Wiles II Character Portrait: Ayumi Selei Character Portrait: Eleanor Lute Character Portrait: Tetsu Harkonfield
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- Tetsuo -


At fist he was a little confused as to why Morgan would want to give him a fake name. He was pretty sure he didn't get it wrong. Within the first month Tetsu had taken the opportunity to learn all of the Coven members names. The more talkative ones, namely a bouncy redhead and Ayumi, who had kind of taken up the leader position of the group, had introduced themselves, but for the others Tetsuo simply brushed the tips of their minds to figure out what they called themselves. Names were an easy thing to find and it came in handy since he didn't want to come off rude if he forgot somebodies name. Maybe he was just putting too much thought into it. Obviously she preferred nicknames over her real name and he didn't feel too bad about it since he could tell that she didn't even remember his. He could always remind her, but he'd already introduced himself to everyone not long after the Coven came together. If he went and told her his name again, chances were she'd realize he was using some kind of psychic magic on her. That is, if the 'calling her by her real name' hadn't already given that away.

"Apologies, I'm not very good with names." He replied dully, moving his eyes to the stone path in front of him That wasn't true. Sure sometimes he'd have his ditsy moments, but his memorization skills weren't too shabby.

“And I bought ingredients.”

There was a short pause.

“I get it, I should expand on things.”

Tetsuo glanced over at her again, curious as to why she was seemingly talking to herself. Was she directing that sentence towards him? She was still looking at him, after all. No, she was talking to something or someone that Tetsuo wasn't able to see. He wouldn't dig any deeper than that. It was just something that had to do with whatever magic she'd been born with.

“I’m making stew.”

Morgan, or "Lorelei", opened up her satchel to show him what she was carrying and he moved a little closer so he could look to see what was inside. Okay..exactly what kind of stew was this woman planning on making? He softly tightened the grip on the sack he was carrying and turned away from the satchel to look straight ahead. He really didn't want to sound rude, but if he didn't tell her that there wasn't any chance that anyone could make an edible stew out of such ingredients then she would end up brewing it and then it would be too late to do anything. Well, he'd have to tell her later so he might as well be blunt about it now.

"You can't make a stew out of rotten foo-" He stopped mid sentence and slowed his steps, spotting two more familiar faces not too far ahead of them. "It's Ayumi and Eleanor." He stated, proceeding to look ahead as the two of them slowly started to get closer.

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Ayumi Selei Character Portrait: Cassandra 'Cassy' Marigold
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#, as written by digs
Cassy rested her chin on her fist as she looked out on the town, sitting atop the pile of wooden boxes that mostly covered the entrance to the shoddy building the Coven called its HQ. Sheesh, it had only been about two weeks and the blonde haired witch was already getting antsy. Not being one to enjoy being tied down to one location, Cassy's mind began to think back to why exactly she had decided to join this ridiculous group in the first place.

When she’d first arrived to town from her wandering travels, she noticed the entire place was in massive upheaval and turmoil. All sorts of magical energy was spewing forth from the center of town, with what seemed to be even more inquisitors bearing down on that particular location. Sensing a need for some dire help, Cassy sprung to action to aid the poor folks in need, as she usually did when she wandered about. After all, helping people was her bailiwick now-a-days, naturally. Of course, her assistance to these folks, known as ‘The Black Coven’, wasn’t entirely required, but was definitely appreciated, and soon after, the so called leader of the rag-tag crew tried to convince her to join. Though Ayumi was gravely injured at the time, when she explained about how the group planned to topple the powers that be, getting rid of the inquisitors and the rest of the current lopsided social order, Cassy felt she could not ignore such a cause and gladly joined. Or at least, she felt glad about it at the time. Sticking it to the man sounded great in that very moment.

Noting that Cassy was one of the more experienced fighters of the group (and probably one of the least injured), Ayumi decided it was best if Cassy guarded the Coven HQ while she stayed inside to heal from her injuries and rest up. Though reluctant to stay sedentary for so long, the blonde haired witch felt it was for the best, and kept watch over the building all by her lonesome self, at least most of the time. However, now that those two weeks of healing had passed and Cassy watched their ‘leader’ walk off into the distance, the magician was getting especially antsy. Where was the action, the excitement, the adventure, and the traveling she thought there would be when she initially joined? Apparently, all those things had gone up in smoke along with her wandering lifestyle as soon as she made the now poor decision to join up with these folks. She sighed as she shifted her weight from one side to the other, part of her wishing she could go back to being her own boss again, free to roam around and do whatever she pleased.

As she further pondered her current situation, a thought occurred to Cassy. Perhaps since the leader of the Black Coven had finally recovered and decided to head out on the town, maybe it was time she did the same. Just because Ayumi failed to mention she could leave didn’t mean she couldn’t. But what about the HQ? Bah, the place was such a dump that she felt like it wouldn’t be so easily recognizable to an outsider. Plus, she was doubtful the townsfolk would be so privy to rat out The Black Coven so early, given how much they truly hated the inquisitors. Fear could certainly drive the people to, sure, but Cassy felt like she or one of the other members would probably arrive back at HQ before that happened.

But what would she do once she got into town? Well, Cassy was never one for plans as it were, so she’d simply start off by following Ayumi’s general direction and figure the rest out once she got there. Leaping off the wooden boxes and shuffling them so that the entrance to their HQ was completely obscured, the blonde haired witch wandered off into town, sure to bump into one of the other members in due time.

Characters Present

Character Portrait: [NPC] Bartender Character Portrait: Morgan Wiles II Character Portrait: Ayumi Selei Character Portrait: Joker Character Portrait: Eleanor Lute Character Portrait: Tetsu Harkonfield
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As Ayumi walked down the streets of Alderath a decent pace, she couldn’t help but to smile. She had not been able to walk around the town freely, as of yet, seeing how the Inquisitorial presence in the area did not exactly allow her to stroll around before the revolution and she was too wounded afterwards to do so. So, today was her first chance to admire the little town. It wasn’t that much, to be honest – and anyone from the wealthier areas towards the capital would likely sniff at the place. However, the town Ayumi grew up in was even worse off than Alderath, so the experience was actually pretty enjoyable for her.

As she walked, Ayumi took the time to stop and swivel her head around to take in all the sights – from the little, not so well off stores to the villagers, who wandered about in the midst of their daily routines. Even though the stores were interesting (especially the occasional stall that held some food), Ayumi took the biggest pleasure from walking amongst the regular people. After years and years of not being able to do so without the fear of being discovered for what she was and have the Inquisitors sent at her, the ability to do something that most people take for granted – walk openly down a street – was an exciting prospect.

That is probably the reason why Ayumi did not realize that someone was following her for several minutes. Normally, she would have been able to recognize the fact thanks the fact that there weren’t enough people on the streets for a stalker to hide behind; in this instance, however, it wasn’t until she had been walking for a long while that she noticed that all things were not well. The young female was actually about to turn around and confront whomever was following her, but before she could, a certain sight in front of her caught her eye.

Just down the street, two certain people were walking towards Ayumi, and their forms were familiar enough that the girl recognized them instantly. Forgetting entirely about her stalker for the moment, Ayumi broke out into a huge smile and started to run towards the two. Well, run wasn’t the right word for it. Though she was mostly recovered, Ayumi was not exactly in a mood to test the limits of her body, so rather than run, she simply shuffled as fast as she could. She may have made an odd spectacle of herself: legs barely picking up as she shuffled, arms flailing at her sides as she tried to keep her balance, skirt swishing lightly around her upper knees as she went. When she finally stopped in front of Tetsu and Morgan, Ayumi was a bit out of breath, but otherwise alright. She paused for just a moment, hesitating in front of the two of them for just a second before opening her mouth.

When she did speak, the first and only word out of her mouth was: “Lilyyyy!~” Without much warning other than her happy exclamation of Morgan’s ‘name’ – Morgan had given the Coven members many different names since she joined in, forcing Ayumi to find one which she liked enough to refer to the girl as. At the moment, it was Lily, simply she liked the way it sounded - Ayumi launched herself Morgan, latching her arms around the taller girl’s shoulders in a hug. With her arms around ‘Lilly’s’ shoulders, Ayumi hugged the girl tightly, big, amethyst eyes upturned slightly as she looked into Morgan’s rather unresponsive face. “Heeey Lily, look: I’m alright now! That’s really good, neh? Even though you won’t get to play nurse with me anymore
” Ayumi lightly joked with Morgan, putting some effort into communicating with the girl even as she stared dreamily up into her eyes.

Ayumi probably had the best relationship with Morgan out of any of the other Coven members, even though the relationship was mostly one-sided. From practically the first moment Ayumi had seen the girl, she swore she was “in love”. Despite her gloominess, Morgan was a beautiful young woman – elegant in appearance and in personality, if a bit detached. While those dainty good looks were enough to attract Ayumi’s attention, it was precisely that detached air that caused the energetic leader of the Coven to pine after the potions master so strongly. Each time she failed to elicit an emotional response from Morgan, each time she was turned down, it only fueled Ayumi further. Perhaps she was a bit of a masochist amongst the rest of her oddities, but each time she did not succeed, it only furthered her desire to get that coveted response from the “cool beauty” that was Morgan.

While Ayumi fawned over poor Morgan, she did not notice the other person who had previously been conversing with her. After a few moments, however, Tetsu shifted slightly, alerting Ayumi to his presence. Still hanging on to Morgan, Ayumi leaned her torso forward to stare past the body of the girl that she was holding, looking at Tetsu with a blank look on her face. “Oh, Tetsu: I didn’t notice you there,” she said calmly, “Are you doing well?” She spoke lightly with the boy, as if she had just plainly met him on the street and wasn’t hanging off of a different girl. She even nodded her head at him a bit in acknowledgement, an odd little bow. After she had acknowledged him, however, she went back to ignoring him in favor of Morgan

The potions master luckily didn’t have to endure Ayumi’s attention again for very long, as Eleanor stepped meekly up in front of their little group, coming from the direction that Ayumi had been walking. When Ayumi saw her, her eyes widened, and when her voice rang out again, it was with a glint of humor and teasing. “Oh, Ellie, it was you following me, wasn’t it? I should have known.~” Offering the girl a coy smile, Ayumi asked her in mock-suspicion, “Neh, but I wonder why you were following me
Is there anything I need to know, Ellie, dear?~”

So it was that four of the members of the Black Coven met on one of the streets of Alderath. Even though they had been heading in different directions, they collision course allowed them to stop and chat amongst themselves for a short while. The conversation was mostly light and joking, and throughout the entirety of it, Ayumi remained draped on Morgan, likely to the poor girl’s infinite displeasure. The four of them did not converse for very long, however, before new arrivals appeared. Coming from the center town, a certain redheaded prankster and blue-haired bookworm arrived on to the scene. Once they saw the group of their companions, they may have tried to run away, but Ayumi extricated herself from Morgan long enough to go and pull the two of them by their hands over to join the group, greeting them with smiles and enthusiasm (and, in Joker’s case, a punch on the shoulder. He deserved it, for whatever that horrible thing he did.).

And then, suddenly, their group was nearly complete. The conversation grew more involved, especially now that the jokester of the bunch was involved. The only one missing now was Cassy, Ayumi realized with a smirk.

And, sure enough, a little while later Ayumi interrupted Joker right in the middle of one of his punch-lines as she said, “Hey, Cassy! Get over here!” She left the group once again to go and grab Cassy forcibly by the shoulder and drag her over to fill a spot next to her in the growing ring of Coven members. And then, the whole gang really was together, chatting amicably (for the most part) amongst themselves right in the middle of the street. The other villagers had to go around the mob, casting inquisitive glances at the bunch of strange people who were just standing there and talking.

Ayumi sat back and happily participated in the conversation, chirping in with upbeat comments and the occasional put-down (mainly directed at Joker). As the group talked, Ayumi found her happiness growing. She’d hoped that today would be the start of something new. Sure, the bunch of them had talked before, but there was something new and special about all of them being together here, outside of the base. She turned her head and looked at each of the other members, feeling truly upbeat and ready to take on the future for the first time in a month.

And how fortunate that the Coven seemed to be getting fully on its feet then, for at that very moment, a certain villager was heading for Alderath in a breakneck pace. He was in such a rush to get to the town and deliver the news that he’d heard and practically seen for himself: danger was coming to Alderath, and this time – it wouldn’t be just a few measly Inquisitors.

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Morgan Wiles II Character Portrait: Ayumi Selei Character Portrait: Joker Character Portrait: Eleanor Lute Character Portrait: Tetsu Harkonfield Character Portrait: Cassandra 'Cassy' Marigold
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#, as written by Tanman
"You can't make a stew out of rotten foo-" Morgan briefly looked to Tetsu as he spoke, wondering just what he meant by that before slowly turning to follow his eyes as they stopped in the middle of the street. Slowly but steadily, the bobbing head of that Ayumi girl began to make its way closer, Morgan steadily beginning to make out the beaming smile and enthusiastically wide eyes on her face. She never quite understood what got Ayumi so excited all the time, but it seemed the boundless energy of their supposed leader was still dampened by her injuries, Selei resting on her knees in front of them as she caught her breath. The silence settled a moment, and then-

“Lilyyyy!~” Was the squeal that filled the air, Morgan giving a soft ‘Oof’ as she braced herself from falling backwards. It seemed that no injuries were going to prevent Ayumi from latching onto ‘Lily’, though at least this time she was prepared enough that the collision didn’t send both of them sprawling to the ground. Morgan was never one to make much of a fuss over this sort of thing, and allowed Ayumi to have her way as she tightly squeezed around her shoulders while she herself would remain rigid. Briefly, her eyes scanned over Tetsu and Eleanor, her consistently bland expression almost looking like a plea for help, or perhaps dejected acceptance that she would have to tolerate having Ayumi hanging off of her. As Ayumi spoke about the progress with her wounds, Morgan continued to stare past her, looking through the crowd ahead.

“Aye, that’s to be expected.” She responded simply, now looking to the sky as if it would give her freedom from the stranglehold around her. Alas, it was not to be, Ayumi spinning around in her hug to see the other Coven members, almost like she really was attached to Morgan. The fawning didn’t really bother Morgan too much, but Ayumi was coming dangerously close to squishing some of the contents of her satchel. The potion’s master would give a few attempts to point this out, but it seemed she wouldn’t get a word in edgewise as Ayumi continued to run her mouth both to Morgan, and the company they had. When Joker and uh
 That other man arrived, Morgan was given the briefest of reprieves, taking the moment to dust her chest down and realign her satchel over her shoulder.

“Aye, she’s an odd one.” Morgan replied to Ichabod as she watched Ayumi go, but for Tetsu and Eleanor, it would seem that she was speaking to them about their leader. “No, I don’t need your help with her.” She also added, though how that would be taken by the other two was anyone’s guess. They didn’t have long to comment on Morgan’s musings before Ayumi had returned, Morgan calmly and easily holding the shorter girl at bay with a palm to her forehead. For a little while Ayumi playfully fought against it, but it seemed with everyone else around she seemed content to give Morgan some space. For now. No doubt the next moment Morgan let her guard down she would be in another bear hug.

Morgan wasn’t much to intrude on the conversation, instead blankly listening and occasionally zoning out as Ichabod whispered his own thoughts on the situation. Occasionally, she’d comment back to him, drawing some inquisitive glances from the people standing next to her, but whatever they thought on it they seemed not to care enough to point it out. About the only time she’d interject to the topic at hand was when directly asked – Mainly by Ayumi, but there was the occasional other gesture from another member of the coven.

Still, for the most part Morgan was as much a bystander as anyone else walking past, which gave her the time to do things such as check her hourglass again. It was about time she got started on the lunch meal for the day. Bowing slightly, Morgan drew their attention once there was sufficient pause in the conversation. “I must go prepare the meal. Excuse me.” Changing from bow to curtsy midway through, Morgan proceeded to turn on her heel and intended to make her way back to the coven building and begin preparing that stew. Provided of course, that there were no more interruptions.

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Morgan Wiles II Character Portrait: Ayumi Selei Character Portrait: Joker Character Portrait: Eleanor Lute Character Portrait: Tetsu Harkonfield Character Portrait: Cassandra 'Cassy' Marigold
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#, as written by digikun
Rain walked casually down the street with Joker when suddenly he saw a person coming towards them. Rapidly. No doubt about it. That face, that demeanor. "Should you be up and about so soo-" Though Rain was denied finishing that inquiry as he was pulled by the hand and dragged along with Joker to meet up with the rest of the coven members. "Wh--Hey!" He quickly lost his balance a number of times, making him incapable of properly resisting.

You'retouchingmeyou'retouchingmewhyareyoutouchingmewhywhywhywhywhyletgoletgo....

Once he was now in the presence of the other members, he exasperatedly let out a sigh. "You could have simply asked Miss Ayumi..." He looked around the group. It seems most everyone was here. "Tetsu. Luna. Eleanor." Rain nodded to each of the others, more or less acknowledging their existence. As he kept eating his carrots, he looked around and noticed Ayumi was gone again. Before he could question it, he saw Ayumi now dragging the last member of the coven to the group. "Cassy, captured as well I see."

The group was chatting around having a lively conversation of nothing in particular. Rain wasn't much to chat, however every now and then he would interject with some snark when it was called for, usually voicing his exasperation of Ayumi's randomness or Joker's bad jokes. Though he had to admit. This was nice. Rain wasn't usually in the presence of a group as large at this. Most of his memories were of in the library, just him and the professor. He liked it, it was a lot calmer and not as chaotic. Though if Rain were completely honest with himself, this time spent with the others wasn't bad either. Not that much.

It would be soon after Luna had excused herself from the group that Rain was about to head back with her. However it was at that moment that the messenger came running in, panting and out of breath. He had come with a message, of Inquisitors arriving. A rather large amount of Inquisitors. Coming to eradicate their coven once and for all. Rain gave a heavy sigh. "Looks like we did it now. We definitely have the Kingdom's attention." He turned to group, adjusting his glasses slightly. "So. What shall we do then? If their coming in as great a number as he says, then more than likely they'll have the whole village surrounded in no time. Even with all our abilities combined, we'd be hard pressed to just fend them off, let alone defeating all of them once we've been circled..." Taking a quick look around the village, he continued talking, though he'd admit he wasn't sure who exactly was still listening. "...we'd need time to set up and prepare. Place traps and such at key points on the outskirts of the village to try and dwindle their numbers..." He had other plans and scenarios planned out in his head, however he figured this would be the simplest one for the group to follow.

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Morgan Wiles II Character Portrait: Ayumi Selei Character Portrait: Joker Character Portrait: Eleanor Lute Character Portrait: Tetsu Harkonfield Character Portrait: Rain Bursch
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- Tetsuo -


Ayumi had begun shuffling towards the two of them in an odd way and Tetsuo decided to stop walking as she did so, finding her method of approach to be a little strange. Morgan, however continued a couple more feet before their named leader called out the girls "name" and practically launched herself at the potion master, wrapping her arms around her and closing in in a tight hug. It was completely obvious that Ayumi was ignoring Tetsu's presence, not that he minded. He simply hung back with his naturally tired expression as he waiting for the brown-haired girl to complete her greeting with Morgan. He glanced down at the sack of sweet sweet potatoes in his arms and thought that maybe he'd give one a try. Of course, it took him making a movement with his arms, shifting the bag into his left arm, for Ayumi to notice that he was also there.

"Oh, Tetsu: I didn’t notice you there,” She said, sounding less than enthused and remaining where she was with her arms around Morgan.

“Are you doing well?”

Tetsu let his right arm wrap back around the bag, once again holding it against his chest. He didn't really pay attention to Ayumi's lack of joy towards him compared to how she greeted Morgan. It's not like he was going to get upset about it, and aside from his red eyes he wasn't a very noticeable person, so it made sense that Ayumi didn't notice him right away. "I'm fine, thank you." He replied, though by now their leader had already gone back to swooning over Morgan, or "Lily".

Only a few seconds later, Eleanor had caught up to speedy-foot Ayumi and Testu gave her a little nod. "Good afternoon, Eleanor."

“Oh, Ellie, it was you following me, wasn’t it? I should have known.~ Neh, but I wonder why you were following me
Is there anything I need to know, Ellie, dear?~”

Tetsu let himself frown a little as he glanced at Ayumi, pondering over her words towards the blond Coven member. Had she really not noticed that Eleanor had been following her, and for quite a while too? Now, Tetsuo wasn't really one to complain and he's never had a problem playing Follow the Leader, but even he had to wonder whether or not it was a good idea letting Ayumi take the reins when the Coven came together. After a short while, Ayumi released her grip on Morgan and went off in another direction and Tetsuo noticed that she was headed towards two more members of their little group. Morgan was probaby relieved, though she showed no reaction to state that she was, instead making a couple of comments towards a being Tetsuo couldn't see. He already established that it had something to do with her magic, but he wasn't sure if Eleanor would catch onto that.

Ayumi dragged walked them over roughly with both her hands holding theirs, her usual smile staying on her face as she did so. Tetsuo let his frown soften out and gave the two of them a slight wave of his hand before placing it back around the sack of vegetables.

He was a little worried that they were going to start getting cold soon. After paying for them it would be a shame to eat them after they'd gone cold. They tasted much better warm and he liked how soft they were when fresh baked as well. However, he didn't get much chance to suggest they eat them during the conversation the rest of them were having, aside from mostly Rain and Morgan that is. Every once in a while Tetsuo would add his opinion on a subject or just nod and agree with Ayumi and he made it a point to listen to Rain's amusing snaps towards Ayumi and the equally as loud Joker.

It wasn't long before Morgan excused herself, telling them that she had to go prepare the meal. Tetsuo was thinking of stopping her, realizing he didn't finish his sentence about being unable to cook a meal with those ingredients before he'd noticed their said leader and Eleanor. The girl had walked off a bit too quickly and he decided it best to just let her do what she wanted. Rain would've soon followed after her if their groups get together wasn't interrupted by a boy, not much older than Tetsuo, who had stumbled into the middle of they're circle to quickly relay a message. More inquisitors were coming. At first Tetsu wasn't too concerned. They'd already beaten off a fair amount of those leashed dogs without much difficulty, but then the messenger noted that a mach larger and more experience amount of them would be here, not just another little group passing through. They'd clearly caught the attention of the capital.

"Looks like we did it now. We definitely have the Kingdom's attention." Tetsuo turned his attention towards Rain, who let out a heavy sigh before speaking. "So. What shall we do then? If their coming in as great a number as he says, then more than likely they'll have the whole village surrounded in no time. Even with all our abilities combined, we'd be hard pressed to just fend them off, let alone defeating all of them once we've been circled..."

Tetsuo let his eyes wander to the ground in thought. He wasn't very good at planning things or putting things together, so it might be best for him to sit out while Rain discussed this with Ayumi and the others, not including Morgan. When they'd all been cornered here before, prepared for mass execution, Tetsuo just did whatever he could to defend himself without really following any sort of strategy. At that moment it was kill or be killed, and kill he did, even using a couple of other witches as distractions while tying to find a good spot to use his magic from that was close, but not close enough to risk being badly injured.

"...we'd need time to set up and prepare. Place traps and such at key points on the outskirts of the village to try and dwindle their numbers..."

Tetsuo brought his eyes back up from the ground and looked at Rain. "Sorry, this is only a suggestion, so no one has to take it into serious thought, but do you think that we could use the same strategy the inquisitors used to corner a large number of Black Witches in the center of the town in the first place? When gambling, usually the opponent doesn't suspect you'd use a trick he's already used because he would know about it and then it catches him by surprise because he expects you to do something else, something more complicated. Well, I guess there were still more of them than there were us at that time.." He tightened the grip on the sack of potatoes. "These are getting cold, does anyone want one?" He quickly added, completely moving off topic and moving his eyes over to Ayumi, Joker, and Eleanor. "They're going to get cold soon."

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Morgan Wiles II Character Portrait: Ayumi Selei Character Portrait: Joker Character Portrait: Eleanor Lute Character Portrait: Tetsu Harkonfield Character Portrait: Cassandra 'Cassy' Marigold
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#, as written by digs
Cassy wasn’t too surprised when Ayumi grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her into their little group. Was she happy about it? Well, no, not entirely. But, given what she saw the girl do during the last fight, perhaps getting yanked by the scruff was better than what the alternative might have been. Though, from what she could tell at the moment, Ayumi was the leader of the group more because of her sheer force of will and her pushiness rather than actual quality leadership. Cassy could be a much better leader if she wanted to. Not that Cassy would say anything like that aloud. Getting on Ayumi’s bad side would be a very poor decision.

Of course, there was the opposite side of the coin, which a certain someone seemed to have already gotten onto. Cassy didn’t know exactly what the potions master...Lily? Lorelei? Honestly, she seemed to change what she went by every few moments. Regardless, Cassy didn’t know exactly what that girl had done to make Ayumi so incredibly enthralled with her, but she was thankful for having that sort of attention drawn off of herself. It was almost as if their leader realized just how much ‘Lily’ absolutely hated being touched, adored, hugged, or anything of the sort, except...well, it didn’t take a telepath to note how genuine a lot of her affectations towards the girl seemed to be, at least on the surface. Still, Cassy once again thanked her lucky stars it wasn’t her. She didn’t know if she could really take it, given how difficult it was to stick around in the first place.

There was that nagging question again. Why was Cassy sticking around the Black Coven in the first place? She might not have been normal, sure, but who was? And beyond that, she certainly felt like she could put herself above and beyond a few of these folks, personality-wise. She was actually charming and friendly, after all, unlike a lot of her comrades. And given how much she enjoyed being her own boss, one would think she would want to high tail it out of there as fast as possible to take charge of her own destiny. Well, to answer that query (aside from the answer of the prospect of help in overthrowing the powers that be), all one had to do was look around at the group she surrounded herself with. Though she might not be apt to admit it to anybody else, there was a certain part of Cassy that rather enjoyed being around to help, well, what one might call the ‘troubled’ kind of folks. Indeed, even as Cassy slowly started to warm up once more and engage in lively and friendly conversation with the majority of the crew, or at least those who would engage in conversation, she realized just how many issues each of the members had. Excluding maybe Joker, but honestly, what full blown self-serving jerk didn’t have something wrong with them deep down? And even if he didn’t, being such an idiot deserved a major fix anyways.

As the potions master departed with her half-hearted excuse of making their stew, a departure that Cassy was half-expecting to come sooner, a messenger soon approached the group, warning all of them of the impending danger drawing near the town. As those words reached the blonde haired witch’s ears, Cassy couldn’t help but silently smirk to herself. Finally, after all this time, there was gonna be more excitement. Though she didn’t ever want to seek out a fight, this was what part of her was really waiting for. However, for the moment, she kept her enthusiasm played down, not exactly wanting to alarm anyone else. After all, fighting might not be in the cards, given the size and strength of the approaching force described to the group. For now, she mostly kept quite as to not interrupt either Rain or Tetsuo in their battle plan ideas. Of course, Cassy didn’t exactly agree...

“Set up and prepare? Do you really think we have enough time to do that?” Cassy piped in, gesturing emphatically with her hands at Rain the folks around him. “Sure, it’s a good plan if those troops do surround the village, even if it’s in no time flat, but do you really think they’ll waste time doing that? If we’re that outmatched, it’s more likely they’ll rush us full force to try and take us by surprise, to not let us prepare.”

She turned to the group members around Tetsuo. “And cornering ourselves in the center of town seems like a bad idea. If they can have the town surrounded so quickly, then them having the center of town completely surrounded will be just as fast with a quick rush.”

Cassy sighed, shaking her head before she went heads up with the rest of the group. “They way I see it, we’ve really got two options. We can take advantage of the knowledge we have and strike at them first, using the advantage of surprise. I'm sure one of us can draw up some plan of attack. It's either that or...” she paused for a moment, then sighed again, “...or we run. High tail it outta here as fast as we can and live to fight another day.”

Either way, Cassy was happy, but, given she wasn’t the leader...

“Well, regardless of what I or anyone else thinks...Ayumi, it’s really all up to you. So, what’s the plan?”

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Morgan Wiles II Character Portrait: Ayumi Selei Character Portrait: Joker Character Portrait: Eleanor Lute Character Portrait: Tetsu Harkonfield Character Portrait: Cassandra 'Cassy' Marigold
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Just when Eleanor had been beginning to think that Yumi would finally turn around, she suddenly sprinted ahead. It was obvious where she was headed however. Their illustrious leader's thoughts were as loud and unmistakable as the person from which they originated. Although, you didn't need to be a mind reader to hear her call for "Lily", before latching on to the poor, or depending on your point of view, possibly lucky, girl. With a shrug, the blonde witch followed, coming to a stop just at the edge of the group, wanting to make the aware the she was there, but still remain at a respectful distance.

Speaking of "Lily", Eleanor wasn't entirely certain as to what her name really was. She didn't spend enough time around her to accidentally pick it up, you'd be surprised at how little people tend to think about their names, and different people seemed to have different ways of addressing her. Ellie frowned a bit when Morgan's bland expression turned to a sort of plea for help. As usual, she'd love to help, but she wouldn't know just how to begin to do so. Upon being greeted by Tetsu, Eleanor returned the gesture, more or less, with a small smile and a shy nod. It was then that Yumi finally seemed to become aware of Ellie's presence.

“Oh, Ellie, it was you following me, wasn’t it? I should have known.~”

The small smile on her face quickly turned sheepish, and she tried to explain that she had only done so in an attempt to get Ayumi to start the conversation, lacking any ideas about how to do so herself. Before she could say a thing however, the energetic leader continued.

“Neh, but I wonder why you were following me
Is there anything I need to know, Ellie, dear?~”

At this, Eleanor blushed brightly. "N- Not that I know of." She wasn't entirely sure what was being implied, but she was fairly certain that it was not the case. Fairly. Shortly afterwards, they were joined by the other members of the Coven, and the conversation was in full swing, and Ellie even threw out a few comments of her own. After a while of this, Morgan excused herself, and departed to go prepare the meal. Almost the instant she was gone, a boy stumbled into their midst, and informed them that more Inquisitors would be coming, and not just the mooks either.

Unfortunately, the lad ran off before she could question how he would know this or why he would tell them. While Ellie knew that she should probably be more concerned about what they were going to do in response, it still bugged her. How would a kid have come across such important information? Admittedly, he only appeared to be a year younger than herself, but she was a witch, and so something of an exception. Were the Inquisitors just sitting outside the town, and he had happened to be the only one that had noticed? Perhaps he was some sort of spy? Unfortunately, she had sort of tuned out his surface thoughts out of habit, being surrounded by people at the time. So focused on this was Ellie, that she didn't even throw her two cents in about the tactics they should use.

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Morgan Wiles II Character Portrait: Ayumi Selei Character Portrait: Joker Character Portrait: Eleanor Lute Character Portrait: Tetsu Harkonfield Character Portrait: Cassandra 'Cassy' Marigold
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#, as written by digikun
Rain narrowed his eyes at the objecting Cassy. "You're suggesting that the Kingdom, able to rule over a great deal of this land competently this whole time, is going to charge into this town like wild bulls?" He shook his head, sighing once then looking back up. "They tried that the first two times. Employing a failed tactic even a second time would be thrusting one's head against a brick wall. Look around you." Rain gestured towards the town. "There are buildings everywhere. Shoddy as they may be they still restrict movement and funnel the enemy. Charging in a straight line would put us in the advantage, especially since we know this village better than their soldiers. Only a failure of a General would even consider such a brainless approach."

Then he looked at Testsu, offering his opinion on his suggestion. "And while it's true that what you're suggesting would catch them off guard, but in the end it would only put us right where they'd want us, as Cassy said." There were still so many variables to consider in the situation. Cassy was right about one thing at the very least. The Inquisitors were ruthless and unpredictable. Things wouldn't necessarily go according to plan.

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Morgan Wiles II Character Portrait: Ayumi Selei Character Portrait: Joker Character Portrait: Eleanor Lute Character Portrait: Tetsu Harkonfield Character Portrait: Cassandra 'Cassy' Marigold
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Well, now wasn’t this nice?

As the Coven members stood together and conversed, Ayumi couldn’t help but smile wider and wider as they continued. The group that she’d put together, all the people standing before her, they were an odd bunch; there was no doubt about that. Even she was quite strange – a fact which she recognized and embraced. While this made getting along a tad difficult, it made random conversations like this quite interesting. Her favorite parts of the past few weeks had been the conversations that happened whenever these folks gathered in one place for a while.

And it was hard not to be entertained by the conversation. Even the most reserved members of the Coven found themselves participating equally, momentarily brought of their timidity by the festive atmosphere. For a few brief moments, at least, Ayumi could pretend that the people beside her were only united for one reason: their mutual safety. It was a relationship of convenience, of protection against the forces that wanted them dead. For a little while, Ayumi cast off those saddening thoughts, joking with the others in the most light-hearted way the girl knew how: genuinely.

However, such an event could only last for so long. After a short while, Morgan decided that it was time for her to go, as she still had to prepare the Coven’s dinner meal. It was a good excuse, unfortunately, so Ayumi could think of no way to prohibit her crush from leaving the impromptu meeting. That didn’t mean she couldn’t pout about it, though; ‘Lily’ would be sent off from the group with several parting declarations of love and promises to make up for the “lost time” later. Just as Morgan was going out of earshot, however, Ayumi stupid jumping up and calling out to her ‘target’ and just stood, giggling girlishly at her own antics.

After that, Ayumi turned back around and joined the conversation once again, though it was beginning to falter a little by this time. Even though Morgan hadn’t been saying much, the departure of one was enough to unravel the carefully constructed thread of joviality. Even without the interruption of the young man, the Coven would probably have split up and started to head back to the headquarters after a few more minutes.

But, that interruption did come. To everyone’s surprise, the young man – not a Coven member, but rather a commoner, not unlike the villagers of Alderath – came hustling over to their group. In a frantic voice, he announced that more trouble was on its way, and that it would be here soon. However, this was not just another report of yet a third small group of Inquisitors coming to pay Alderath a visit. Although the man offered no specifics, his words made it seem like a much bigger force of evil was amassing on the horizon.

The messenger left their little group with the information weighing suddenly on their minds and started heading elsewhere, likely to warn the town’s authorities as well. With a gasp, Ayumi started to turn towards the man, intending to drag him back for a much-needed interrogation. However, the voice of a particular member of the group suddenly piped up, stopping Ayumi in her tracks.

"Looks like we did it now. We definitely have the Kingdom's attention," announced Rain, taking an intellectual stance, fingering his glasses. "So. What shall we do then?.. We’d need time to set up and prepare. Place traps and such at key points on the outskirts of the village to try and dwindle their numbers...” The man went on to think out loud about battle strategies, suddenly taking a
responsible stance on the matter.

Yet, Ayumi paused mid-step, turning back to face the blue haired ‘strategist’. She intended to put a stop to him right now, not wanting any of the Coven members to get ahead of themselves in regards to battle preparations – nothing had even been confirmed yet! She had just opened her mouth, intending to speak, when another voice responded first. "Sorry
but do you think that we could use the same strategy the inquisitors used to corner a large number of Black Witches in the center of the town in the first place?”

Ayumi stopped again, turning her head to look at Tetsu in surprise. ‘Not Tetsu too,’ she thought with a groan, though she was only able to watch now as an argument started to break out. It wasn’t necessarily a passionate one, but as soon as Cassy became involved as well, it became a three-sided disagreement over the correct battle strategy.

The squabbling deliberation continued for several more minutes, each side shooting back at each other. Ayumi stood, perhaps a bit unnoticed, back a bit, hands rolled into fists on her hips, foot tapping as she continued to listen to them go back and forth.

After a bit, Ayumi was finally let back into the conversation by Cassy. The older blond seemed to have grown tired of arguing, as she said, “Well, regardless of what I or anyone else thinks...Ayumi, it’s really all up to you. So, what’s the plan?” With a relieved sigh, she thanked Cassy with a wink and stepped forward a bit, moving into the center of their little circle.

“Hey, everyone – stop runnin’ yer mouths for a minute!” Here, she proceeded to lightly punch Rain, Tetsu, and even Cassy on the shoulder. “Now, you guys can go back to the base and continue your argument there; in the meantime, I’m going to go get us some more information, so we can actually make a plan that makes sense. Alright?”

That said, Ayumi looked around at the bunch of them, letting them see her eyes and their complete lack of fear. She wasn’t worried about this threat of Inquisitors, and she hoped that none of them would be either. “M’kay, dismissed for now,” she exclaimed happily, sending them all on their way. “Except for you,” Ayumi said, reaching a hand out to grab Eleanor by the wrist and pull her out of the bunch. Smiling at the mind reader, Ayumi said, “Follow me for a minute, please?~”


It was easy enough to track down the messenger. He’d done exactly what Ayumi thought he would: go to the town hall and warn the town officials. So, all Ayumi and Ellie had to do was walk into the town’s meeting room to find the man regaling the others with his worrisome tale.

Paying no heed to the rudeness of her actions, Ayumi stepped up behind the man, who was in the middle of his speech, and pushed him on the back, making him stutter and stop and he tried to correct his balance; failing to do so, the man fell forward on his face. As the town officials started to mutter amongst themselves, Ayumi looked up at them all with a sheepish look, sticking her tongue out in a meek way as she wordlessly apologized. After that, however, she lifted her foot and gently prodded the man’s side.

“Heeeeey, you!~ It’s not right to just tell us something like that and run away, Y’know? I mean, we’re going to need more details than that,” she said exasperatedly, as if she was talking town to a four year old. The older men continued to grumble, but some of the younger officials nodded, recognizing Ayumi’s brashness for what it was – an attempt to cut straight to the facts.

“Ahh, yes, yes – I’m sorry, and I’ll explain! Just stop kicking me!” As those words rang out, Ayumi retracted her foot, smiling innocently, like a girl whose boyfriend had just acquiesced to take her out on a date. “See, that’s the spirit,” she said lightly, letting the man stand up on his own.

And then, the man told his tale again, cutting out the narration and specifically telling Ayumi and the council members what had happened. Here, Ayumi motioned for Ellie to step forward and mentally instructed her to use her powers to verify if this man’s words were backed by real memories, something that would be harder to fake. The man may have otherwise complained about having his mind read, but wisely chose to comply willingly when he saw the threatening look Ayumi sent him while smiling devilishly. For Ellie’s ease, he put the memories to the forefront of his mind, allowing her to read them without straining her powers.

The picture the man’s tale painted was much grimmer than Ayumi expected. Apparently the man was a tradesman who had been on his way to a neighboring town – barely more than a two-day’s journey from Alderath – to sell his wares. He only made half the trip, however, as even from that distance, the smoke could be seen across the flat plains.

And smoke there was. The town of Mellows was aflame, burning bright in the night sky with magic flames. The pyre made evident the complete destruction of the town, and also illuminated the encampment of the Inquisitors a ways to the west. Even from a distance and through the shadowy light, the size of the host had been enough to scare the man away. The only survivor he met on the road as he fled back to Alderath confirmed the man’s suspicions: the Inquisitors had come, an entire battalion of them, and had burnt the town of Mellows to the ground. All of its inhabitants, Witch or not, had been killed. When Ayumi mutely appealed to Ellie, she couldn’t offer much reprieve – the man’s memories showed the exact same bleak picture.

“Well, then; this is a problem, isn’t it?” Suddenly and uncharacteristically serious, Ayumi started to turn towards the door. Speaking half over her shoulder, she called to the mayor, saying “Hey, Grandpa: you guys go ahead and evacuate your villagers and whatever else it is you decided to do. We Witches will come up with something, trust me – we’re not going down yet!” She didn’t stay longer than it took her to cast a ‘thumbs up’ sign at the council, bolting out the door without even waiting for poor Ellie. She ran because she didn’t want to let any of them – the officials, the messenger, or even Ellie – see that she wasn’t smiling assuredly anymore.

After a bit Ayumi slowed down, letting Ellie catch up to her. They walked back to the base together but mostly in silence, as Ayumi tried to mull over things in her head, walking with a finger tapping her chin. Only when they were in front of the door to the Black Coven’s base did Ayumi look sideways at Ellie and offer her a sideways smile and a “Thanks for coming with me.”

When she entered the door, she wasted no time in calling the rest of the Coven members around her and explaining to them the full situation, not sparing them any of the depressing details.

“Alright, everyone,” she began after she finished explaining. “Despite what Cassy said earlier, this isn’t only my decision to make. We’re the Black Coven, not the Black Dictatorship (although that has a nice ring to it), so it’s up to you guys to decide as well.” Ayumi took a step back and leaned against the wall, looking around at the others as the made a half-circle around her. She folder her hands against her front, smoothing down her skirt. With a wry smile, she asked, “Let’s
pick our poison, neh?”

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Morgan Wiles II Character Portrait: Ayumi Selei Character Portrait: Joker Character Portrait: Eleanor Lute Character Portrait: Tetsu Harkonfield Character Portrait: Cassandra 'Cassy' Marigold
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Even though she had been focused on other things at the time, Eleanor still couldn't help but smile at hearing Ayumi tell the others to stop running their mouths for a moment. In a way it was sort of amazing that their little group had taken on the Inquisitors all on their own. After hearing everyone sent off, Ellie had started towards their base, when she felt Yumi grab her wrist, before correcting her dismissal.

“Except for you,” With a smile, she added “Follow me for a minute, please?~” With a nod and a "Yes, Ma'am." Ellie complied.


While Eleanor had been uneasy about just waltzing into town hall, and then just breaking in to the meeting room, pushing the guy had to be unnecessary. Judging by her expression, Yumi believed so as well, though she made no audible apology. Ellie tried very hard not to meet the eyes of anyone present, lest they see that she was holding back laughter at her leader's antics. It was unnecessary yes, but it was funny.

When the man stood again, Eleanor used her ability to observe his surface thoughts, or rather, not tune them out, so as to verify his story. If she has so desired, she could have just rummaged about in his mind and found the information they wanted. It wouldn't have been difficult, and would certainly not strained her in any way. The only reason she avoided doing things like that was that she didn't want to infringe upon anyone's privacy.

If the man's words painted a bleak picture, then his memories darkened the canvas with the details that he hadn't quite gone into, such as why the lone survivor that he had met did not come with him. Ellie didn't mention this however. I wasn't her memory, and since it had no impact on her or what she was being asked, it was none of her business, and certainly nothing for her to go telling others about. So she merely nodded to confirm that he was telling the truth.

“Well, then; this is a problem, isn’t it?”

Eleanor was considering answering this obviously rhetorical question, but Ayumi was already out the door. With a quick apology to everyone left in the room, especially the tradesman, Ellie dashed off in pursuit. By the time she caught up, it was clear that the puppeteer was waiting for her. Out of respect, she tried her best not to hear anything that Yumi was thinking, as it was obvious that she was clearly bothered by the news that they had just received, but didn't want to talk about it. And thus the two walked back in relative silence. When they arrived at the base, Yumi had offered a smile and some words of thanks.. Surprised at this, Eleanor shrugged. "Of course. I'm only alive now because of you and the others, and it isn't like I had anything else to do anyway."

The telepath sat patiently against a nearby wall while everyone was told about what they had just learned. She didn't really have any ideas for what they should do, other than possibly retreat and not have to face the Inquisitors at all. Somehow though, she didn't think that was what the others would want to do.

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Morgan Wiles II Character Portrait: Ayumi Selei Character Portrait: Joker Character Portrait: Eleanor Lute Character Portrait: Tetsu Harkonfield Character Portrait: Cassandra 'Cassy' Marigold
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#, as written by Byte
Surprisingly, Joker had remained fairly quiet while the other Witches chattered about and everything else they'd do when there were no Inquisitors running amok to be given wedgies. There was the odd joke cracking here and there, but for the most part he'd just laugh and grin as the chatter continued – At least for a while, until the jolly nature of the conversation was overturned by the appearance of a not Coven member who was quick to report that, indeed, Inquisitors were about.

– Poor sod.

Joker folded his arms behind his head, watching the young man explain the vague situation which didn't really help levitate some kind of idea as to what this particular group of Inquisitors was. However that did not stop some members from speaking up, and receiving punishment for it. Damn was he glad not to have spoken his mind at this time, one punch on the shoulder was enough for a day.

“M’kay, dismissed for now,”

“Lemme know what you find out, oh so-scary-one.” Joker retorted with a fixed grin, knowing the gist of what their beloved leader was going to be doing to that poor man. Oh how he wanted part of it, but that look said it all. Time to leg it and not even glance back at the joy that could be going on behind those who weren't invited for the torturing of that man.



At the Coven's base of operations, Joker took his time to, quite literally, hang around. Using his power of gravity to stick the soles of his feet to the less-than-excellent ceiling, and awaiting the return of Ayumi with bated breath.

“So, I'm a bit hung up about this.” The man exclaimed to nobody in particular, leaning against the wall on the far end of the room. “Not sure what I should do about this new group of Inquisitors. I kinda tried everything already.”

Folding his hands behind his back, Joker closed his eyes. Really, there was the first attack – who ended up as piñatas on that tree. The second batch of Inquisitors were unlucky enough to be tossed into barrels and rolled off the hill – And Joker totally did not plan to have them crash on a rock and break their skulls, that was just a bonus.

“what to do, what to d-”

his train of thoughts was broken as Ayumi crashed the party.

“Yo! So, waddya got? Gimme a sec, though. Still working out a plaaaaaa---!”

Joker felt the collar of his shirt being yanked back on non topsy-turvy ground and into the meeting circle, where Ayumi explained the situation in great detail. And unsurprisingly not bothering to leave out some of the more gruesome aspects of what they managed to pull out of that weird man's throat.

“Let’s
pick our poison, neh?”

Joker allowed himself to fall on the ground, his eyes staring at the ceiling as he was still trying to think about what to do. “Well, I'm pretty sure you-know-who has got the poison covered. Seriously, whatever it is she's cooking is gonna be a killer dish!”

“Hmm, will it be cake? I haven't tried to good ol' cake-in-the-face prank yet.” Lost in his own mind, the man muttered a few ideas here and there, not bothering to get up or even wait for feedback from the others. “I know! Let's all put an a pink dress and dance the Remigold – I have no idea what a Remigold is, but I'm sure it'll throw dem Inquisitors off. Then, someone could, maybe, try to grab whatever Elizabeth, or whatever her name is, made and smear it on their face.”

He grinned, that certainly was extreme – and genius itself. One problem though, how were they to collect an identical set of pink dresses? “Or we could go naked. Pretty sure I don't look good in pink. Or any of us, really.”

Almost perfect. All that was missing was someone plucking a violin, a then smacking one of the Inquisitors in the face with a lump of meat. Details, details – So far Joker could settle with his plan. Doubtful that his fellow Witches would agree, however.

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Morgan Wiles II Character Portrait: Ayumi Selei Character Portrait: Joker Character Portrait: Eleanor Lute Character Portrait: Tetsu Harkonfield Character Portrait: Cassandra 'Cassy' Marigold
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#, as written by Tanman
With the soft rickety rattle of the door handle, Morgan gave a bemused expression as she returned her hand to her face, examining the knob that she had accidently removed from the frame. Leaning to examine the hole, she then began kneeling forward and conspicuously fiddling to try and fix it. A few minutes later, she gently worked her way back inside, giving a faint smile as the shudder from closing the door didn’t cause the handle to fall off again. It’d be amusing to see the next person who returned floundering with that. Stepping along the creaking floorboards, she took the time to remove her cloak and hat, handing them to Ichabod as he hung them against the loose wall panel that she’d come to use as a coat rack.

Light was only just starting to fade as the day wore on, the holes in the building allowing an adequate stream of illumination while the sun was up, but now giving way to a dim gloom that although Morgan was accustomed to, was not conducive to her being able to see what she was cooking. Holding her satchel out to Ichabod, the young witch rummaged around to find the jar she was looking for, giving it a bit of a sniff to confirm it was indeed the one she was looking for, before moving over to the fireplace in the corner. She’d wanted to light it up for a while now, but all the others had warned her not to – Something about burning down the house and such? – Anyway, this’d be a magical fire she’d be using for cooking, so that wouldn’t be a worry. Tipping just one drop of the vial contents onto the small pile of tinder, Morgan waited. And waited. Then, she tipped the rest of the vile. Instantly the fireplace sprang to life, a large and spectral plume of green fire rising up into the ceiling and then gushing out the crevices and holes in the wall until a simple, household sized fire remained. It was miraculous nothing else caught fire. Well no, that was a lie. The potion, and by proxy, the fire was designed to just generate heat, not start fires except on the point of origin.

Giving a contented chuckle before sighing at the soothing warmth, Morgan took her satchel back, this time hanging it from the stuffed Moose head’s antlers, the mantle just above the fireplace. It was tacky, and probably a very dangerous place to hang her volatile concoctions, but Ichabod wouldn’t let any sort of accident befall her belongings. That and Morgan was actually quite fond of Mr. Moose. Tossing her hair a couple of times to fix it after the gust of the fireplace, Morgan then proceeded to head towards the storage room, heaving out her cauldron and rolling it into the living area before setting it up on its stand to be heate by the still green flames of the fireplace.

By the time the first group of the coven arrived, Morgan’s cooking was already in full swing, so, perhaps thankfully for them, they didn’t get to see the majority of the stew’s contents. What they did get to see was Morgan slowly stirring the cauldron before placing the lid on top, allowing the brew to simmer steadily. A quick glance revealed the contents to be black, murky, and with a decent amount of chunks floating and bobbing about the liquid as it bubbled and frothed under the fire’s heat. It looked foul, and with a stench to match – though at least the lid was keeping that from wafting about the room.

Taking a seat next to the fire, Morgan briefly listened into the update on the situation, though for the most part it seemed they were waiting on their leader to return with the actual information. As such, she delved back into her own little world again, patiently waiting by her stew while she took out her needles, thread and cloth. Paying little heed to the banter about the plan of attack, Morgan casually continued to work on making her doll, though it was pleasant to do so with the background noise of the others. When Ayumi made her not so subtle return, Morgan listened intently, stopping her textile work for the moment until their leader was done. And then resumed her work, not really having much to comment on the situation for the moment. There were other, far more loud mouthed individuals who would want to get their opinion in first anyway.

“Well, I'm pretty sure you-know-who has got the poison covered. Seriously, whatever it is she's cooking is gonna be a killer dish!” Morgan chastised Ichabod for referring to Joker as the devil, frowning some as she looked to him. For now, she didn’t quite catch how much of an insult Joker’s comment was to her cooking; though it was probably an accurate statement by the trickster. As the redheaded jester continued speaking, Morgan butted in only briefly to comment that her name was ‘Lizzy’ rather than that awful long variant that Joker said. His notion of a plan was far too ridiculous to merit commenting on anything else. Completely ignoring his utterly pointless ramblings, Morgan interceded.

“If we run, Alderath will burn. I have my doubts we can mount any resistance in the city without having the city be ransacked in the battle also.” She stated astutely, given what happened to Mellows. Who knew what the people here would have to endure for harbouring Black Witches
 “If we cannot protect this town, no other village will trust the Black Coven. I appreciate this sanctuary we have, so I believe taking the fight to the enemy is our only option.” Morgan finished, maintaining her monotone throughout. It certainly didn’t sound like she believed what she said, but rarely did the potion master manage to express enthusiasm and the like. Perhaps strangest of all was the way she’d been talking to the Moose head the whole time, rather than the Coven. Ah well, at least her opinion was out in the open. She blinked a bit at the moose, and then looked to the others.

“He says the soup is done – And it’s a stew, I told you that.” Morgan turned back to the Moose - likely drawing some queries as to why she'd been taking cooking advice from an inanimate taxidermy experiment - before moving over to the pot, grabbing a bowl and ladle as she began to dish up the contents. “So who wants to have the first bite?” She asked, a cheeky smile on her face that stretched from ear to ear, a low, almost inaudible snicker escaping her lips. The smell in the air was something between rotten eggs, a garbage dump and year old gym socks; and the stew itself looked, vile, claggy, almost like tar and
 was that a cockroach floating in
 wait, did it just dissolve in the goop?!? In spite of its awful appearance, texture and odour; anyone in the Coven with the courage to try the stew would be surprised to find it actually tasted delicious - Though their breath would be able to kill a cat for weeks to come


Characters Present

Character Portrait: Morgan Wiles II Character Portrait: Ayumi Selei Character Portrait: Joker Character Portrait: Eleanor Lute Character Portrait: Tetsu Harkonfield Character Portrait: Cassandra 'Cassy' Marigold
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#, as written by digikun
Rain sat in the coven base in his little corner he had made for himself as usual, stewing. He was upset that no one was even taking anything he said seriously. Though he had to wonder if anyone here took anything seriously at all. Heaving a sigh, he pinched the bridge of his nose as he sat there reflecting. Rain was actually also upset at the fact that Ayumi was the calm rational one. Jumping to conclusions was usually not like him. He'd have to be careful of that. Leaning back in his chair, Rain bemused a thought Well, I suppose that's why she's leader.

The coven members seemed to be doing their own thing, Joker in particular rambling about his own schemes while Luna was...doing whatever Luna does. As much as he would love to understand more about the alchemical studies of potions, Rain never quite warmed to Luna. He knew that wasn't her real name either, as others refer to her by different names, and she introduces herself by a number more identities. At the very least however the others were actually doing something. Rain was just being pensive. Quite unlike him. He'd thought it be best to simply get back to his work. Books weren't going to read themselves after all.

After a while, Rain hears Ayumi burst through the doors and saunter her way in with Eleanor, gathering the coven. He got up and stood towards the back, listening. Certainly the situation was grim. A whole battalion...burning down a whole village indiscriminately at that. Joker's first suggestion of course was to dance around naked and taunt them to death. Rain sighed, rubbing his temples, but then looked back up as Luna spoke.

“If we run, Alderath will burn. I have my doubts we can mount any resistance in the city without having the city be ransacked in the battle also. If we cannot protect this town, no other village will trust the Black Coven. I appreciate this sanctuary we have, so I believe taking the fight to the enemy is our only option.”

Rain could only nod at that sentiment. "Agreed...if we try to fight here we would have a tactical advantage but then they'd just burn the whole place to the ground...we'd have nothing left to protect..." His mind was racing. "...fighting out in an open field away from the town...meeting our opponents head on...something like that would require us to do something big in the first few minutes of battle...a battalion of Inquisitors, even with us, would overpower us in a matter of moments. Especially if we're not careful...I suggest a surprise attack. Get their attention and then attack them from two directions. Disorient and distract, if you will, while select few attack from a distance to cover the main strikers." He looked at Ayumi as he finished. "Assuming we have time to prepare such an assault?"

Soon after though he caught a whiff of what seemed to be leaking out of Luna's cauldron. She called the others, saying stew was done. Quite frankly he didn't care how much she vouched for that soup, Rain figured that something that smelled that bad could not be that healthy for you...

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Morgan Wiles II Character Portrait: Ayumi Selei Character Portrait: Joker Character Portrait: Eleanor Lute Character Portrait: Tetsu Harkonfield Character Portrait: Cassandra 'Cassy' Marigold
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#, as written by digs
More information. Yeah, that made sense, from a tactical standpoint, anyways. Cassy usually had a tendency to just react to a situation rather than sit back and analyze. After all, her personality and her lifestyle demanded her to take action immediately, at least in most cases. And though part of her was glad Ayumi hadn’t picked her to tag along to find more information on their situation at first, upon further thought on the subject, she found wasn’t exactly happy to have to hang around the rest of these folks and wait for the news either. The other part of her just wanted to find out what the deal was now so she could manage it. But alas, she didn’t lead this group, so it wasn’t her decision. Nodding to Ayumi and Ellie as they headed off, Cassy trudged along with the remainder of the group towards the Black Coven HQ.

The blonde haired witch was the first to arrive at the door to the HQ, which of course meant that she, too, ended up accidentally removing the door knob from the entrance. Blinking a few times as she raised the handle to her face, she sighed heavily in frustration before grabbing the hole in the door and pulling it open. She held the door briefly for the first person coming through the door before tossing the knob back at one of the other members, urging them to fix the door as she ‘didn’t have time for this’, as she put it. What she was in a rush to get to was anybody’s guess.

For Cassy, it was still taking some getting used to having a place to stay. Though it was what one might consider a dump, it was in part nice to have somewhere that she could call home for a change. The dĂ©cor left something to be desired, however, at least for Cassy. While the holes in the roof meant ambient lighting wasn’t as necessary during the day, the lack of protection from the elements was a common frustration. And the moose head had a tendency to weird her out a bit. She didn’t consider herself some sort of environmentalist, but the sight of such a trophy made her consider it briefly. Animals should be meant more for food, not just as a mantelpiece. Though, it did provide a decent icebreaker at times...

Being the first Coven member to walk in, Cassy was the first to spot Morgan as she finished putting the final touches on her stew before taking a seat next to the fire. Following suit, the blonde haired witch took her spot by the fireplace, standing to the left of the cauldron’s boiling contents, most likely far too confident in the fireplace’s ability to keep the fire contained. Her mind wasn’t on that, though, of course. The news weighed much more heavily on her mind, as it did most everyone else. Briefly, Cassy informed Morgan of the news, as she felt like it would be rude to leave her out of the loop for the time that it took Ayumi and Ellie to return. Although the cook acknowledged her, she didn’t seem to really take heed to what she said, at least at first. Sighing and nodding, Cassy walked back to her spot to the side of the fireplace, remaining silent to let her and the other members’ thoughts coalesce. Though, part of her hoped Joker would manage to ‘fall up’ through the ceiling with his moronic gravity nonsense...

After a few moments of time, Ayumi came back with Ellie following shortly behind. And after she explained the full details on the situation, immediately the fool of the group launched into his idiotic idea for a plan. In a bit of disbelief, Cassy stared stupidly at the imbecile, dumbfounded by the nonsense he considered to be a solid scheme. Facepalming, she shook her head and tried her best not to let her IQ drop any further before Morgan began to speak. Her small contribution to the conversation, along with Rain’s follow-up, was far more logical than anything that spouted out of Joker’s mouth.

“Finally, something that actually doesn’t make my head spin,” Cassy said, stepping forward to make her presence in the conversation known. “Look folks, I know it’s easy to say that we should stay and fight, but honestly, Rain is right. If we stay, we’ll be taking on what some might consider a small army of inquisitors, and if we're not careful, we can get wiped pretty fast. On the flip side, it seems like we all agree that we need to take a stand so that the rest of the world trusts us at least a little bit, but there’s no way it’s going to be as easy as taking on the inquisitors we defeated a few weeks ago. So, first and formost, I just wanted to make sure you all understand what we’re getting ourselves into. Trust me, I know.” She paused for a moment to grab a bit of Morgan’s stew before continuing.

“So, yes, I agree, a sneak attack makes tactical sense, but that means we’re going to have to use the town to our advantage to get the jump on them. As much as I hate to admit it, if we want a surprise attack, avoiding any damage to the town will be impossible , but it does seem to be our only option if we're to stand a chance.” She stirred the stew around a bit with the off-coloured metal spoon before bringing a sip to her mouth, blowing on it before lowering it to continue talking. Some might be surprised at how calm Cassy was, but as she might say, she's seen worse. “I say we try to keep the fight as much on the outskirts of Alderath as possible, but ensure that we’ll have enough buildings to use both as cover and as a means for our short-range fighters, such as myself, to still be effective. I’d go on, but this sort of stuff isn’t entirely my area as it is. Honestly, I’m more just thinking of how I can get a piece of the action. Not to mention, I’m too dang hungry to keep talking right now.”

Grinning, she blew a few more times on the sip before bringing it to her mouth, gulping it down. Given how bad it smelt, she was surprised to find how good the stew tasted, eagerly knocking down the rest of it as the rest of the Coven looked on with shocked expressions. Except Morgan, perhaps.

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Morgan Wiles II Character Portrait: Ayumi Selei Character Portrait: Joker Character Portrait: Eleanor Lute Character Portrait: Tetsu Harkonfield Character Portrait: Cassandra 'Cassy' Marigold
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Ayumi looked around at the assembled Coven members, her eyes flitting between the individuals as the discussion opened up. Her words had had a profound effect on the group – some seemed perturbed by the news, others brushed it off, but everyone started speaking in turn. Everyone had something to say, a point to make. The problem that lay directly ahead of them was one that required sincere discussion
not the kind of thing that should be left for Joker to decide.

Sure enough, the words that were coming from the redhead’s mouth were no less moronic than usual. Ayumi smirked, finding the situation a bit humorous. Had she really expected Joker, the only person in the Coven even sillier than she herself was? Even the threat of certain death couldn’t dampen his spirits, it seemed. Although his words weren’t helpful in the slightest, they cheered Ayumi up a bit. At least he was consistent.

Ayumi, grinning unconvincingly, reached a hand out and pulled Joker forward by his shirt. She mock-sighed, patting him on the shoulder with her free hand, and said, “Mhmm, excellent plan you have there, Joker! It would certainly succeed at
getting us all killed!” She then started shaking him erratically, likely causing the man a certain amount of discomfort. “So, if you don’t have anything helpful to say,” she growled, tossing him away from her and out of the ring of Witches. “Don’t say anything at all!~”

Brushing her hands of Joker’s imaginary filth off on her skirt, Ayumi sighed mournfully. Then, looking up at the rest of the likely shocked Coven members, she asked in a meeker voice, “
Does anyone have something serious to say?”

Ayumi needn’t have been worried, though. Soon after the shock of Joker’s “Divine Punishment”, Morgan spoke up, much to Ayumi’s delight. “If we run, Alderath will burn,” she said in her characteristic emotionless voice. She spoke towards the seriousness of the situation in a way that drew a nod from Ayumi – her mind was taking the same path that Ayumi’s had earlier, on the way back from the town hall. And, her speech was only made better by her detached mannerism and the cool, natural state of her voice. Not even a battalion of Inquisitors could rattle the elegant Morgan!

Ayumi had to restrain herself from wrapping Morgan in a tight hug then and there. She was just too precious! But, this was a serious matter
she had to maintain that veneer of leadership for the time being. She drilled that thought into her mind, and managed to maintain her composure. Though she may have been grinning just a bit too widely at Morgan. Just a little bit.

She was spared from having to vocally agree with Morgan – which was quite fortunate, as she likely would have been unable to keep the fangirliness out of her voice – by the words of Rain. The blue haired intellectual agreed with Morgan, supporting her position to the other Coven members. “If we try to fight here we would have a tactical advantage but then they'd just burn the whole place to the ground,” he said in his analytical voice. “We'd have nothing left to protect.

Rain continued to speak, plans and strategies obviously running through his head as he did so. He vocalized the gist of his plan to the rest of the Coven: in simple terms, it seemed as though the Witches would have to engage the Inquisitors head on and hope to spare the town from most of the destruction. As he was winding down, he looked at Ayumi questioningly, asking if they would have time to prepare any kind of defense. Ayumi nodded in his direction. “We have a day or two, at the most, before the Inquisitors are expected to reach Alderath,” she said, speaking neutrally now that the strategic turn the conversation had taken shook her out of her Morgan-trance.

At her words, Rain lapsed back into semi-silence, no doubt using his intellect to formulate plans for the Coven’s survival and for Alderath’s protection. The discussion was far from over yet, as Cassy suddenly stepped forward and entered the conversation as well. “Finally, something that actually doesn’t make my head spin,” she said exasperatedly, surely referencing Joker’s
“plan”. Ayumi giggled at her words, sympathizing with the woman.

Then Cassy began speaking, and the first things she said were words of warning. As a Witch more experienced at travelling the world and dealing with the Inquisitors, she knew what a threat the battalion presented. She knew that to fight them was likely a death-sentence. And she did her best to convey that point to the other Witches who likely didn’t fully realize the significance of their words.

At yet, she agreed with what had already been said. If the Coven did stay and fight, which seemed to be a given at this point in the meeting, then the best way to do it would be as Rain had already said – using Alderath as a form of cover, but sparing the town from the main battle. Ayumi nodded, following what the worldly blond was saying and agreeing with it.

In the middle of her speech, Cassy paused to help up a bowl of Morgan’s stew, which had finished preparing while the Coven talked. She poured a bowl of the foul looking liquid and then resumed her pacing, acting as if what she now held in her hands
wasn’t one of the most disgusting things she had ever seen. Everyone, including Ayumi, watched Cassy with renewed trepidation as she resumed her pacing with the bowl of stew.

When she finished her rant, the blond then turned to blow on her bowl of stew. Ayumi found herself watching in horror as the older woman swallowed some of the terrible looking food. When Cassy didn’t keel over dead, Ayumi allowed her held breath to be released. Morgan’s food scared the puppet master to death. Ayumi loved her “Lily”, she really did! But, when it came to eating her food
Ayumi only forced herself to consume every meal that Morgan prepared simply to try and please the chef. Even though she had learned many times over that the food tasted just fine despite its appearance, it was never any easier for her to willingly consume it.

Yet, here Cassy was, eating Morgan’s food like it was nothing! Ayumi seethed in jealous anger. Barely had Cassy finished her bowl before Ayumi had already helped her own out of the pot and started spooning it into her mouth. She finished her helping in record time, though her mouth was burning from the boiling heat of the stew that she hadn’t allowed to cool. When she finished, Ayumi placed the bowl back on the table shakily.

She didn’t hold herself back, then. Unrestrained, Ayumi launched herself at Morgan, wrapping her arms around the slightly taller girl’s middle and pressing her face into her shoulders. “Nooo, I’m the one that loves Lily’s food the most! She’s my beautiful, little chef!” Ayumi declared all this in a stubborn and childish tone as she hung onto Morgan, no doubt making the girl rather uncomfortable. Still, it couldn’t be helped. Cassy had, completely unintentionally, challenged the bond that the crazy girl had with her “love”.

It took Ayumi a couple of moments to calm down, long enough for the others to help themselves to food if they wanted or to finish up the bit of discussion that remained. Finally, though, Ayumi released Morgan. She embarrassedly retreated to the corner of the room, trying to will herself to return to the serious matter at hand. Yet, the girlish blush refused to fall from her face for a little while yet.

In the meantime, Ayumi looked again at each of the Coven members. Cassy and Rain taking between themselves, discussing strategies for the coming battle; Morgan attempting to straighten herself back up after Ayumi’s assault; Ellie and Tetsu hanging back quietly, not participating too much in the conversation; even the quivering pile of silliness that was the remains of Joker.

All of these people
could she really lead them all into danger? Cassy had been right: the coming battle would by the riskiest one the Coven faced by far. There was no guarantee that they would succeed, or even survive. Ellie’s words from outside earlier re-entered Ayumi’s mind.

“I'm only alive now because of you and the others, and it isn't like I had anything else to do anyway."

That was
right. That wasn’t true just of Ellie; the only reason that any of them were still alive was that they had worked together. By forming this group, the Coven, they had found the strength to resist the Inquisitors from before. Why was now any different? The threat was only in the numbers; but, if they worked together again
why couldn’t they overcome those numbers?

“Hey, everyone,” Ayumi finally spoke up. Gone was the embarrassment from her voice, replaced by her typical lightness. “It seems that we’ve pretty much agreed on a plan at this point. So, there’s really not much for me to say as the ‘leader’ of this bunch. I just want to say this:

“We’re going to fight these Inquisitors. It’s going to be a tough one, no doubt, the toughest we’ve ever faced. But, we can do it! We can totally beat these pathetic Inquisitors, right? It doesn’t matter how many of them there are; they’re still the same, weak Inquisitors we’ve fought before!”

Despite her flawed logic, Ayumi pressed on, growing more excited herself as she spoke. “We’re going to kick their butts,” she exclaimed, fists raising eagerly, fire burning in her eyes. “If we don’t, then I’m going to personally see to it that I kick every one of your asses!” That last bit was perhaps a little threatening, but the point was clear: Ayumi had confidence in this band of misfits. She thought that they could do it.

Grinning wickedly, Ayumi pointed directly at Rain and Cassy. “You two, start thinking up a battle strategy! The rest of you, start doing everything you can to prepare for the battle! ‘Operation: Save Alderath and Kick Inquisitorial Butt’ begins
now!” Jumping in place with a cheer, Ayumi officially set things rolling. Now the leader of the Coven was fueled with demented fervor. Rather than fear the oncoming battle, she was practically looking forward to it. From that moment on, she pushed the rest of the Coven members relentlessly as they prepared for the invasion of Alderath that was coming just around the corner.


The early morning breeze blew across the plains, coming from the north to circle around the town of Alderath. The sky was blue and clear, with the sun shining brightly overhead. The battalion of Inquisitors stood in formation just a little ways outside the perimeter of the town. The ranks of armored troops stood in file, making a menacing display for anyone left in the city.

The Inquisitors were waiting. They stood still as they awaited the order to march on the town from their superior. Said man stood in the midst of the ranks, offset by the fact that he was the sole Inquisitor mounted on horseback.

Commander Fallsen stared ahead at the town of Alderath, the root of all the problems that the district had faced in the past month. Many troops had been lost trying to recapture the town from the rebellious “Witches” that had taken up residence there. Now, though, a force was amassed against them that they could not possibly defeat.

Yet, he had not expected the news that the scout had brought back. The town of Alderath appeared to be empty, evacuated of citizens and Scum (his view of the Witches) alike.

Very well, then; they would just burn the town to cinders before they moved on in pursuit of the townspeople. It didn’t matter to him how many settlements they burned on the way; eventually the Scum would be caught and executed.

And so, he gave the orders to charge. Immediately, the ranks of Inquisitors lurched into motion as they started to converge on the town of Alderath. Fallsen stood atop his mount, looking out at his troops with a proud smirk on his face. But, that smirk fell as soon as the screaming started.

As soon as the Inquisitors had closed some of the distance on the fields around Alderath, the traps had gone off. All around, hidden defense mechanisms were set off that took out some of the Inquisitors and halted the charge of the others. Poisonous concoctions were buried under the ground at points - Morgan’s handiwork - that left terrible messes of the soldiers that ran over them. Ayumi’s own illusionary traps were hidden around the place, proving to be just as disruptive, if not quite as deadly. Along with those were other assorted protective measures that the Coven had prepared in advance.

And then, right as the Inquisitors were floundering to recover from the surprise attack, a certain woman stepped out from hiding. Smiling manically, the leader of the Coven appeared on a rooftop. Shouting so that the other Coven members could hear her over the din, Ayumi announced, “It’s time, everyone! Get ready to give it your all, neh!~”

And thus, the battle for Alderath began.

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Morgan Wiles II Character Portrait: Ayumi Selei Character Portrait: Joker Character Portrait: Eleanor Lute Character Portrait: Tetsu Harkonfield Character Portrait: Cassandra 'Cassy' Marigold
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#, as written by digs
Cassy sat on a box she’d set up next to the window, waiting in one of the abandoned buildings on the outskirts of Alderath, thinking to herself as she waited for the battle to ensue. Sheesh, don’t these inquisitors have a sense of urgency at all? Surely they could move faster than the speed that they were marching now. After all, the Black Witches were a smudge on their good record of snuffing out any and all magic that popped up amongst the rabble. Letting the Black Witches run rampant was just not their style. Sighing, she took the time to think back to the plan that she helped Rain come up with. Granted, it wasn’t exactly the best experience for her, since even though she was considered a ‘senior’ member, she didn’t consider herself the best planner, but having been charged with coming up with a plan, she really had no choice...



It took Cassy a moment to really process everything that happened once Ayumi launched herself at Morgan, spouting something about how she would be the one to love Lily’s food the most. Why the fact that Cassy actually tried the potion master’s food set Ayumi off so badly was beyond her, but she eventually shrugged it off, only to find that she was charged with planning some sort of trap for the inquisitors that were approaching. And with Rain of all people. Sighing, she placed her empty bowl of ‘soup’ on the table next to her and made her way over to the crazy man known as Rain, taking a seat across from him. She brought her hands to her face, clasping them in front of her mouth, waiting for him to speak. And when he didn’t...

“So you want me to start. Alright, sure. Though, to reiterate, even though I’ll think of a few ideas for the other members, I’m honestly going to mostly be trying to devise a way for me to try to get in on the action. While I do have plenty of range with my powers, I prefer to get up close and personal. Really get in their face, y’know?” She snickered a bit before continuing.

“In any case, as Lily mentioned, if we fight within the city limits, Alderath will surely burn, and we simply cannot have that. So, we’re going to have to take them outside the city. But we can’t take them out in the open. As we’ve all astutely point out, with how many inquisitors are approaching, that would most likely be suicide. So, we’re going to have to compromise.” Cassy took a deep breath before she continued.

“I figure our best bet on all fronts is to fight on the outskirts of the city. That means making the city look completely abandoned to catch the inquisitors off guard, then forcing them into a fight at the edge, to keep property damage to a minimum. If we can get a line on which direction they’re coming from, maybe we can find an abandoned building or something to hole ourselves up in before we strike.” She nodded, fairly satisfied with how well her strategy was going. It wasn’t every day that she came up with a plan as complicated as this. Usually it was more akin to the ‘punch-people-in-the-face-until-they-die’ style of fighting, that being much more simple and straightforward.

“So, if we can manage that, all that really leaves is how to set up for those dastards. And unfortunately, I don’t know much of what everyone else can do, or how they can adequately set up traps, so, we might have to let them sort it out themselves. I mean, I know Eleanor has telepathy, Lily has potions, Joker has that weird shadow thing, and Ayumi seems like she’s got some sort of mind control, but they’d probably be better at figuring out something themselves anyways.” She paused again, letting Rain add in whatever he could before continuing on.

“Well, regardless, even though I like getting in close, I’ve got a bit of a plan on what I can do to contribute...”



It was around this time that the inquisitors finally arrived, causing Cassy to get a huge grin on her face as she saw them approaching in the distance through the boarded up window. As they got closer, she kept up the guise of the city being abandoned until a few of them got a bit too close. Just before they reached the traps laid by the rest of the Coven, Cassy pointed in their general direction, laying what seemed to be a giant yellow flower amidst their ranks. Smiling even wider as she watched the surprised looks on their faces, she pointed again, this time at her trap, causing the ethereal looking flower to explode in a fantastically bright display of lasers yellow, one that might have been pretty entertaining if not for the fact that those lasers began to seek out inquisitors, hitting them with an incredible amount of energy, knocking most of them to the ground.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about. I guess fighting at range might not be so bad...”

From here, she punched out a few of the boards in the window in preparation to launch her full scale assault, whether it would be a barrage of lasers or a more physical attack would depend on how badly the inquisitors had been disrupted, but either way, she was ready to go.