Complete - Clock Tower Encounter

Stokbon Old Town

Clock Tower

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The clock tower in Stokbon. This was a place that was pretty much abandoned. The hands still ticked but they desperately were in need of repair. The old building was in the center of old town, the place where few still went in Stokbon. There was a old warehouse. Some rickety old shops. A few homes for those who either could not afford to move into the city proper or refused to leave their homes behind. For Magi Heart, this was the place she had met up with a very bad person. She did not really remember his name but the villain had killed someone and almost killed the rest if not for her arrival. It was a rare time when she had actually been able to perform in her heroine role. Of course... it did not go all that well.

Now she was looking up at the old tower with a calm look. It was such a long way up... she had to run full speed before and it really took a lot out of her. This place could be a good place to practice though. It was kinda like a dungeon thing. There were no monsters or anything creepy, at least not that she knew of anyway! It was pretty tall and had a few small side rooms for exploring though! Practicing some with her bow and trying out some acrobatics might be a good thing here. Also the top gave a great view of old town so it was kinda like something a hero would totally stand on top of. They would stand all dramatic like and scout the area with their super vision to spot baddies and protect citizens. Not very good headquarters potential for a magical girl team though. If she ever had one that is.

"Okay, let's see if I can get to the top faster this time maybe. Practice hard Magi... for world peace!"

 

It was off. The metronome-like sound of the ticking clock tower was off, fluctuating in speed between 1.7 seconds and 0.4 seconds. No doubt, if one were to compare it to the digital clock displayed within a player’s user interface, the Clock Tower of Stokbon’s Outskirts would be off by more than five minutes. But the irregular timing gave the midnight haired man something to organize his thoughts with, something to zone out on. Uncharacteristically, it wasn’t a hot, storming, snowing, windy, cold day, and the warmth that the afternoon sun gave was comforting, not painful. Just a tepid day for stagnant thoughts that cycled on and on and on, wasn’t it? Leaning dangerously close to the edge, Cain let out a sigh as his eyes glazed over, the beautiful scenery reduced to an unfocused sight.

Was it alright to continue like this? He had spent much more time than expected in Terrasphere, after all, enough that his parents, once happy that he found something to play and make friends in, were now troubled by how he could go on from morning to night without a break. It was for the experiences, to enjoy something he never had the chance to in the past. But was it an addiction as well, interfering with his real life? Had he gotten cocky and complacent just because he managed to graduate with top marks and just because he ‘found’ something that he loved?

An Otherworld Photographer. That’s what he had planned. But screenshots of the breathtaking scenery of Terrasphere never made it out into the real world, and even the hyper realistic sensation of flowing water still lacked that small degree of trueness that separated fiction from fact. Strange, wasn’t it? Somewhere along the way, he started looking for a way to become ‘strong’ instead of a way to ‘experience’ everything. Because Eldhi disappeared? Because he hadn’t formed a real relationship with anyone? Because his choices in reality meant isolation from all his friends in reality?

“Ah…how tiring.”

Life was short and much too cheap, and in this particular world, death had no meaning.

When was the last time he felt like he was living on the knife’s edge?

Cain looked downward. A fifty meter sheer drop onto cobblestone.

Freefall wasn’t a bad idea, was it?

He pulled himself up onto the railing, balanced on the edge, and…

Thump thump thump.

Someone was coming.

 

"....Huff... huff... almost there... huff... gotta keep going!"

The door at the top of the tower opened as the magical girl stepped out. Once again she held her knees and had to catch her breath. This type of training was hard! For a virtual game it sure did not make her very super or hero like! How long would it take for her to be able to do this? Lifting her head with a little sweat running down her face. Her pink eyes widened in horror, which really was almost a everyday occurrence in Terrasphere at this point.

Not too far from where she was, a tall man in a white suit was teetering over the edge of the clock tower! Wowzers no! Was he going to jump off? She had to stop him and reassure him that his life was meaningful and that people loved him and that there was importance in everything he did... and.. and... stop him from doing that!

"WAIT! Mister, don't jump! It's never worth that! Mister! Think about what you're doing!"

She pulled herself up and tired or not, ran to him and grabbed him by the back of his jacket. Magi Heart's face grimaced as she dug her heels into the stone floor and pulled. He would be pulled right off the rail and several paces back from the edge whether he liked it or not. She needed to keep him safe!

"Huff huff...gee whiz mister.... That was close! What's wrong? Why would you want to do that?"

She ran in front of him and spread her arms out as she looked up at him. Trying to impede him from going back to the edge. Then if he did calmed down and would rethink his bad decision to hurt himself irreversibly, Magi would lower her arms and show a extremely genuine look of concern.

"I hope you're okay now. I'm Magi Heart, I'm Terrasphere's Magical Girl! You can talk to me about your problems! M-maybe I can help!?"

She did her classic salute with her two fingers to her forehead and spreading her legs apart some. It was very Sailor Moonish but it was one of her fave poses! In all honesty... she probably couldn't help whatever his problem was, she learned the hard way how limited her ability to do anything was, but it was in her nature to reach out to someone. Especially someone who felt their life had no meaning.

@Cain Darlite

 

Pink hair tied up in twintails and an outfit so saccharine that he had to wonder what sort of parent would let their ten year old daughter jump into an illegal game. Suppressing the urge to let out a low whistle at just how frilly and eye catching the stranger’s outfit was, Cain let out a small smile as she forcefully pulled him off and away, the mismatched pair stumbling a few steps before stopping. Wow, it was strange. Like listening to someone on the other side of the planet, in a different era, communicating in an utterly foreign fashion. Wasn’t his character design outlandish enough that he’d be instantly recognizable as a player? Did she never consider that part of the fun of player video games was finding creative and funny ways to die?

Was he just making up terrible reasons for doing things when he really did want to try out suicide to pass time and give himself an excuse to separate himself from this game?

Yeah, in front of her hyperrealistic, incomprehensibly genuine concern, he shouldn’t put on any airs. No need for superiority or eloquence or drama when he was the selfish, uncaring bastard that thought that suicide in a virtual reality video game would be interesting, when it would really just cause a desensitization to such actions in real life. But still…magical girl? That brought an uncharacteristically cat-like smile on Cain’s features. Was that the difference between an actor who played a role that was interesting, and an actor that played a role that they were born for? Despite being accustomed to falsities himself, he honestly couldn’t tell how much of her cutesy act was fake and how much of it she actually believed in. On a scale of one to ten, it was an ‘x’, mysterious and yet…entrancing.

If she said she wanted to help, who was he to refuse her aid?

“Apologies if I startled you with my position within this clock tower,” the midnight haired muse began, his head dipping downwards in a bow, “Though I would like to say that all I was doing was enjoying the view, I must confess that there were some darker intentions mixed in as I regarded hard ground below. You have my thanks for stopping me before I decided to act on those irrational impulses, Magi Heart. Having an individual like you patrolling the streets of Stokbon truly does set my heart at ease. It is a wonderful thing, knowing that at least someone within this world has taken the mantle of a hero, instead of a mere ‘adventurer’.”

Still too many words. Still too easy to fallen into the persona that he had crafted and acted until it became second nature. For all his words, there was still that shallow pretension, that infinite distance, wasn’t there? He forced a smile and drove a stake through that mask, cracking it open.

“Guess what I’m saying is that I’m tired and lonely and wondering why I’m substituting reality for this game and if this is just an addiction like my parents believe it is or if this is a healthy way of relieving the stress of an entire childhood spent working my socks off but wow, this turned into one rambling sentence, didn’t it sorry for springing it on you like that.”

A deep breath. Mask on. An embarrassed 'smile'.

“Allow me to apologize for that too. It’s too heavy for an encounter between strangers, after all.”

 

Magi Heart blinked a bit as he said he was just enjoying the view... just?! He was about to fall off! Thankfully he admitted to his bad intentions of self harm and even praised her for taking up the role of heroine here. Cool beans, praise was pretty rare for Magi to get! Yay! Being of help to someone and seeing the look of contentment that there was someone out there fighting just for them always made this worth it. Even if the rewards were rare or barely present at all really... she did not need a reward just the occasional reassurance that her efforts were mattering somehow. This helped. The slight jibe of her trying to be more than just a adventurer was missed by the naive girl.

"A addiction? Oh gosh... gee whiz mister that isn't a good thing at all. I hope not. Everything in moderation!"

A addiction huh? Wendy sometimes wondered that herself. At first it was a fun hobby that she did after homework or on the weekend. Only short bursts... she had never even touched a video game like this before. She still remembered when the best game she played was Ultimate Candy Storm Revolution... that was probably still the best game actually. Now she barely hung out with any of her friends anymore, including Raina. Her dog Jojo, had days that she almost forgot to walk him. And she was late with her homework once or twice... that never ever happened to her before! It was ever since she had that death a few months ago.

That big scary spider... even now she couldn't bare to look at one regardless of in game or not. It had driven her a bit nutty for a short while, but Wendy pulled herself back together or at least as much as she could manage. Still that and a few other things, while horrible and stressing... somehow made her more convinced she needed to keep playing. Needed to help people and maybe fix this game world somehow. It was pretty silly for her to think she could, but she held on to the hope that it might be possible.

"N-no, not at all mister! Everyone has things they don't like to talk about, but that's why it's good to talk with friends about it and lean on eachother's shoulders when we feel sad or upset over stuff. Um... maybe we don't have to be strangers? Let's be friends okay? I can't say I know what your real life is like, but I am here to support you if you need it! That way instead of jumping off of the clock tower when you feel bad, you can just talk to me instead okay?"

Magi smiled as she looked up at him and reached out her open white gloved palm. It was her job as a magical girl and also her desire as a person to never let someone suffer with grief without any means of support. Even if just the emotional kind.

@Cain Darlite

 

Uwah, her positivity was almost blinding. Cain thought of himself as a rather go getting person as well, someone who could force himself to greet people and bump himself into conversations and push forward some truly insane ideas even in the face of uninteresting, dull realists, but Magi’s own brilliance was a tier of her own. The pink fluffball had just dropped some truly cutesy lines after all, the sort of words that would make a teenager blush harder than just nudity and swearing. Just flat out asking to be friends? Leaning on each other for support? Those were the words that even the boisterous muse could not speak, thoughts of friendship and comradery something that had been engraved as ‘intangible’ factors, things to never be spoken, only implied.

He placed his hand over his mouth as if in deep thought, but it was really just to hide the faint flushing of his face at such a direct attack. Gah, maybe being an elementary school teacher would be an option as well. Parents were too old to just…give him a younger sibling at this point, after all. Suppressing the urge to pinch the cheeks on Magi’s wide face or to hug her and spin her around, the midnight haired instead chose to nod. Slowly. Twice.

Everything in moderation, huh? But here they were, burning away reality’s afternoon to witness a virtual one instead. The muse recalled of another, similarly obsessive game in the past, where people treated it as having a second full time job, but this…was on a whole other level, huh? Terrasphere had no waypoints, no quick transportation. To travel from one place to another on foot was similar to hiking in real life, draining away time rapidly. Hunting in the wild for a rare item was both time consuming and exhausting. It wasn’t even possible to multi task while playing Terrasphere, considering how it was cut off from the rest of the internet for the sake of ‘realism’. It was truly a substitute reality, one that was brutal and unfair, but still ‘kinder’ than the dreary life that awaited them outside, where passions and ideals alone are incapable of changing the world.

Ah, he was going nowhere with this, wasn’t he? Scratching the back of his head, Cain sighed, before leaning against a supporting pillar. Even if they labelled each other as friends, they were still just strangers connected by convenience, huh? He needed someone who had a different mindset, and she needed someone to sate her heroic desires, even if that meant playing therapist to someone much older than her.

“Alright, that’s fair enough,” he said, finally, “Makes sense. Sounds good. I can accept that. But what do you think I should do then, Magi? As harsh as it is, this world is still a better one than what reality is. Efforts are rewarded, and freelancing is simple. There's always a way to make money and live. Death isn’t permanent. Taxes are non-existent. And every one of us has the power to change the world, to become the person we want to be, as long as we're willing to invest the minimum amount of effort.”

There was some bitterness dripping in, as he recalled just how effortless it was to get ‘somewhere’ in this world compared to dreary, cruel reality. How simple it was to connect with people over a ‘quick’ quest. How cut and dry morality was, and how the laws of the land were never as heavily enforced as back on Earth.

“How do you think one is to balance real life with a virtual sanctuary as wonderful as this, Magi? You too are in love with this world, are you not?”

 

Wait really? This world was better? Yeah.... Magi did feel that way early on. Terrasphere let her eat lots of candy without worry, be a magical girl of love and justice, and let her meet lots of interesting and nice people! Sigh... that excitement ended pretty quick Magi realized. Why, even day one had those weird robed creepies appear and then disappear. She to this day had no clue what that was.Then it went from doing a few fun little errands... to finding out how bad at being a magical girl she was... to... well, everything past her very first boss fight was not very nice. If not for meeting Eldhi, Roland and the rest... she would have not invested even this much. Maybe that was a bad thing though.

Wait, friends bad? No way! Gee whiz.

His reasons for thinking it was a better place though... they made sense to Wendy. That's how she felt too. Although she did do her part to make a difference in the real world. Here at least there was a chance of really saving the world and bringing happiness and joy to everyone! Yeah.... before all the stuff that happened that is.

"Wowzers mister ummm.... oh Tuxedo Kamen! You kinda make me think of him! You look pretty cool ummmm... mister?"

She realized she had no name for him. Calling him Tuxedo Mask or Kamen was not very nice if he did not like it but she had nothing else to use so...

"Change the world? Hmmm... well I want to be able to do stuff like that too. It's pretty hard. Really super hard. And effort yeah. I do try and I guess that's all we can do right?"

Magi looked past the man and went to the edge of the clock tower for a moment herself. Leaning on the rail, she saw a flock of birds fly past. The sun was setting. Maybe it was almost time for dinner. It was pretty though, really pretty even for being a old towny place! The people here were mostly NPCs but they were just like her and her friends. Both in the game and out of it! The recent problems... the worries of war. Someday, will she have to choose? Magi Heart doubted she could. She hated this game the more she played it. Hate was such a horrible word but the young girl honestly felt such disdain for it. She had to keep pushing her feelings inward so that she could maintain her own morals and beliefs... it was incredibly stressful.

"I love people, I love good things, hopes, dreams... making people happy. Watching them happy makes me happy you know? I guess I'm just a dumb kid. I don't know... I just want everyone to get along and work for the good of world and all that stuff. I'm really hopeing to be able to play the magical girl role right but I also just want things to be right too."

She turned back to see if he was still there. Magi hoped she did not make him leave with how silly she was with all this... but it was the truth, from her heart. Why was she even pouring out so much to this person? Maybe because of the things he said? Who knows.

"Gosh mister. I should stop. I'm being silly haha... I need to log off soon for dinner. I have to cook myself tonight. Um... it was nice to meet you mister."

@Cain Darlite

 

Tuxedo Kamen? Masking his confusion in regards to that ‘title’ with a laugh instead, Cain decided to take it as a compliment and graciously bowed his head. “Another title to live up to then, Magi. Been some time since someone else has graced me with such.”

Or ever, really. Another thing to work on and consider huh, the fact that his infamy hadn’t grown all that much despite the amount of time he spent taking contracts or kicking monster ass. The rest of Magi’s words were the same sort of typical Power Puff Girl hijinks that matched her outfit to the tee. Hopes, dreams, happiness, people, as well as just ‘unity’ in general. So cute it hurt. So cute Cain had to actively resist crushing her ribs in a bear hug and telling her that everything will work out fine and that she wasn’t dumb and that the innocence of childhood was something to be treasured for as long as possible before the world placed its boot on her neck and crushed it flat.

But words were just words, weren’t they? And in a world made of ones and zeroes, it was action that sparked revolution. Ah, at this moment, it would have been nice if he had cigarette smoke to puff out, huh?

“There’s no need for hopes and dreams, yah know?” Cain said, gazing out at the same picturesque scenery as Magi, “Just the tenacity to continue on no matter how much it hurts. Life’s short and much too cheap to spend it on daydreaming, and I’m sure that you’ll be able to accomplish everything you’ve set out to do, if you apply the entirety of your strength.”

Cain settled for a sigh in place of smoking, before offering her a genuine smile, one that looked much too young and soft on a face as chiseled as his own.

“Us dumb kids got nothing working for us but our youth and our guts, after all. All in, all out, Magi. Make that five star gourmet meal of yours and go become the magical girl of your dreams! And when you do, I’ll be sure to make a super awesome ballad singing of all your heroic deeds, eh?”

A hand extended to pat her fluffy, pink furball of a head.

“Seriously, this place needs more idealistic idiots like you. Stay strong, yeah? I’d love to see the world you want to realize.”

 

Congratulations!

Thread Completed

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