THE KCU RUNDOWN

Last Updated: July 21, 2025

This is the shitposty, stream-of-consciousness version of the Kyourift timeline that was originally dumped in DMs over the course of several days. While it is somewhat anachronistic and loses a few details, it gets more detailed in other areas, which is why it's offered alongside the other doc. Likewise, the way this timeline is seperated differs from the real timeline doc for simpler navigation.

This is not a one-to-one archival of the original rundown– there have been small edits made to improve formatting, and more accurately reflect the current version of the timeline.

Like I said in the real timeline doc, this story is subject to change. Like, seriously. There will absolutely be subplots and episodic plots that go unmentioned in this timeline.

ACT 0: Setup

there's this planet called earth. real backwater place it's really not worth visiting

it's mostly pretty normal but there's hints of weird magic shit here and there

however most of that ends up anthropologically condensing into certain areas

usually a city or two to a landmass
these are called "bastions"
supernatural things can happen anywhere but the real shit happens here

so at some point these explorer guys are scoping out a particular spot in a decently small island-y country

because supposedly there's a literal, physical portal to hell there (usually you'd just get teleported there or something. you can't just Stroll In And Ask To Rev Up Those Fryers, as far as they knew at the time)

they meet a fairy bound to a cabin on the way so that's pretty cool, she seems nice

at some point they eventually give up because it doesn't seem like they'll find literally anything anytime soon
so they just go "yea this is a town now change of plans"

this is embarca! soon to be established as this particular region's bastion

skip ahead a bit
the fairy is still there

so a little bit on kyou fairies
they're based on 2hu fairies in that they typically originate from and represent a bit of nature
but this representation is a bit more concrete; usually there's a specific physical spot they're tied to
not only that, but manmade locations are fair game as well (hence this cabin fairy)

also. They're Actually Powerful As Fuck
especially when present within their designated domain. they just become straight-up reality warpers while in the zone™

now back to this fairy
at some point this fairy was already coming along in years, even for a species with pretty good longevity

she would like to. not die
because she's come to love watching the development of this place and the people that visit
and also because she's still curious about that supposed portal that brought people here to begin with

and as a fairy of the hearth (one that's bound to a manmade space like the cabin), she has some power over life and fate (this isn't something Every hearth fairy can do but it's within their gamut of abilities y'know)

so she just.
starts stealing a bit of life from people.
just a bit! this is not the start of a problem

the cabin gets converted into other stuff while this happens before eventually settling on a café
she continued to do this more and became more concerned about getting caught as a result

but as long as she sticks around in the café she's good right?
so she soon stops touching grass

it was the start of a problem
she's becoming a nervous wreck
and at the same time she has successfully convinced the city that she's nothing to worry about

NOW. skip to the 90s !!

Sunset of the Hearth Abigail Merryweather THAT'S RIGHT BABY IMMEDIATE ABBSONA JUMPSCARE
anyways

so it's getting. bad.
embarca has progressed from a settlement to an established city by this point
abby hasn't really stepped outside in decades she's mostly hearing about stuff from café patrons

enter: immediate other abbsona
i fucking swear it's just these two i will explain why there's two damn abbs in this thang

What The Hell Is That A Gremlin Abigail... Merryweather.....? the fairy's name wasn't always "abby"
this kid had walked in for a little something on her way to visit someone
the fairy was about to yoink a major chunk of her lifespan (she had become an established Man Behind the Slaughter at this point. that's how bad it's getting) but then noticed

this kid.
was going to find the damn portal.

as detected by her fate manipulating abilities

normally she doesn't pay much mind to fates it's not her concern but THIS

this is something she's gotta see

so she takes that too!
she will see it!
as far as reality is concerned, She Is Abigail

and the "real" abigail has been completely thrown off-course, as far as abby knows (this abigail will now be called Merry to prevent confusion, and also because she literally cannot call herself abigail anymore it's actually impossible)

why are there two people who literally look exactly like each other sans the age difference?

👻 it's a secret 👻
and by that i mean. i dunno its only funni story don't think too much about it ╮(.❛ ᴗ ❛.)╭

merry isn't entirely aware of this shenanigans until she visits a buddy several years later, who lets her know "yyyeah you're fucked. you have like a year left man"

this buddy is The Most Stressed Child In The Entire City:

Goldenrod Powerhouse Jonathan Holguín he got hit with the same curse a while back and he, along with his family, found out soon after
and so he was pushed into literally speedrunning his life, landing a job as a literature professor at the local university at the ripe old age of 10

(he's a very fast learner. can you tell)

at this point he had already met others who were also jebaited by abby

others such as...

Prodigy in Spades Arturo Vargas ...who is the latest in a long line of acclaimed mages, going to a prestigious magic school, the whole 9 yards
he and johnny met because of school reasons and soon figured out they share the same plight
quite a few people are aware of the curse placed on arturo, but unfortunately it's seemingly impossible to get rid of or even trace back to a source

and arturo introduces johnny to...

Two-Tone Hellraiser Harley Fujirei ...a recent arrival to embarca, living with her absurdly successful brother Gary Fujirei and definitely no one else. definitely.
they met because their schools are rivals and they just started chatting after spotting each other at one football game too many lol

johnny also soon meets...

Carmen Carter she's a weird case. a runaway from a neighboring town, she ended up on the campus where johnny worked, and had learned that she was also scammed out of a life

johnny had introduced her to arturo, a fellow rebellious child (even if he's proud of his abilities he doesn't really like all the pressure being put on him)
and arturo introduces her to harley

and harley is. kind of cute. carmen can fix her she's sure of it

so the gang's all here
all with different thoughts on their situation
ranging from "eh" to "there's a way to get our life back im sure" to "if im dying im taking that damn fairy with me"

ACT 1 PART 1: The Bullshit Begins

hijinks ensue, as always
merry is working through a bucket list as she moves out to stay at a weirdly convenient spot around the area
it's a hotel! a strangely vacant and presumably free hotel, but the upkeep is impeccable so surely someone is here right

the view from her room also occasionally changes for some reason but i mean shit just happens around here anyways so

eventually her list leads her to some areas of the hotel she hasn't been to
no one's stopping her so she can just waltz into restricted areas no problem

and...
what's that
no hey what IS tha-

merry wakes up, in a lonely little building suspended miles and miles up in the air looking through the window below, an eternal night is broken up by neon light and bioluminescence

abby does not know how to manipulate fate, clearly
because merry just found hell

this is. crazy
she's almost certain she tripped over something and died on the spot before noticing she is in fact not dead yet

dragging herself out of hell and keeping a mental note, hijinks continue to ensue

eventually merry ends up getting caught sneaking in and out of hell and is basically trapped there. cringe
at least she picked up immortality in the process?

but her new situation is a death in of itself

so still cringe

hijinks ensue but the others are... distressed
merry has become a memento mori for the rest of the kids so it's. kinda unnerving to think about the future, moreso than before

anyways let's see what the fujireis are up to

harley and the other guy
uhhh whats his face...

Rhythm, as Above Gary Fujirei he's a bigtime music producer
also a dj here and there
he's got a fancy penthouse and whatnot it's very cool

but hey, little known fact that harley soon learns:
gary has a ghostwriter! (ghostproducer? ghostcomposer?)

gary himself handles all the in-person appearances and interviews and all that jazz, and does have musical knowhow
but the majority of his discography can be attributed to...

Rhythm, as Below D. Doe, AKA D. "Reflex" Fujirei this is reflex! (or doe if you must)
he's a shapeshifting demon 👍 he and gary have made a bit of a deal
reflex's musical prowess for gary's soul (and so reflex doesn't have to like. talk to people)

harley eventually catches wind of this whole deal by seeing reflex do its thing and is like " HUH. WHUH"
the two soon become pals of sorts, with reflex becoming a bit of an adopted bro to harley

note that gary is totally unaware that harley Knows Now

hijinks ensue (what else would)

prior to this point, harley would've pursued a solution to the whole situation she's been placed into, but unlike her pal arturo she has no experience in magic and thus had begrudgingly resigned to making the most of things

however. reflex is here ! she has connections now.
so the two make a note of seeking out anything that could alleviate things

soon reflex finds a noted doctor-slash-cleric-slash-what-have-you,

Wavebreaker Medic R. Parris she's like "yeah hey i can try fiddling with harley's soul a bit and see if i can get to the source of the issue"

"thing is i dunno if you should bring harley here as-is. it's pretty risky bringing a live person to hell yknow? so you can just use this it'll detach the soul but not outright kill the poor girl"

reflex is like " hell yeah!!!!"
all is explained to harley and while the whole thing with merry is still on her mind she's down for a checkup
so now reflex has a soul-

gary steps into the room and is Fucking Horrified

This Was Not Part Of The Deal???

i want to take a moment and say that reflex has the worst butterfingers known to demonkind thank you

reflex drops the soul and it explodes into a million billion pieces

shit hits the fan
and harley can feel herself lose consciousness

reflex and gary have begun arguing about the things harley is going through, it's on the verge of becoming a fistfight

harley, in a sudden act of desperation and horrible instinct
takes a knife

and stumbling over to the two in the midst of their argument

stabs gary on the spot
and takes his life, literally

reflex watches in horror as his soul is essentially factory reset into something for harley to use
willing herself back into life

harley has, in spirit, died
so she's solved the problem! right?

there's a little caveat
harley's old soul was never properly "returned" to her, and there's no way in hell (lol) this hand-me-down soul is gonna work

she's now technically just a ghost that happens to be possessing a body, not a "legit" human

but like she can do cool poltergeist shit so honestly this is an upgrade fratricide aside

harley mcfreakin leaves and it's just reflex living there now, fully taking on gary's role
hijinks... ensue?
can we really call this hijinks anymore this sucks :|

anyways it's carmen's time to die shine!
she's been around. chatting with arturo, who's become a close friend
and so she's got some exposure to the arcane world that she hadn't ever thought about getting before

she eventually starts talking with another mage, efigénia cardoso (just effi is fine)

she says "yo that curse thing sucks. if you want i can take a crack at it"
carmen is. incredulous to say the least

effi continues, "yeye i found something that should actually make you Literally Immortal. immortality worked for that other guy right? merry? we can pull the same thing here but without the Hell Banishment"

she proceeds to explain the solution further
carmen is a little more convinced and agrees to this apparent cure

so effi sets everything up!
and things go

swimmingly?

carmen obtains miraculous power and is seemingly invincible, with regenerative powers so fast-acting that any sort of recovery happens in an instant

she gets a snazzy outfit too!
it comes with the extra abilities– she can turn them on and off if needed, but thankfully the invincibility persists

carmen is losing it this is so cool
johnny and arturo are ecstatic as well, and want to know how effi did it, but effi is actually very hush-hush about the whole thing as this is a lot of power that's Just Available

she intends on giving the two an update when possible

ACT 1 PART 2: Carmen Gets Silly

carmen begins to make the most of her abilities and have a bit of fun
dubiously legal fun, but girls will be girls yknow

carmen's escapades begin to escalate a little, and still no huge update from effi (who had to move schools soon after helping carmen, but is trying to stay in touch)

carmen is
actually getting seriously out of control

not only that, but others have began to take note of her power, and have NO idea how she managed to get it

so people begin to seek her out and try to get her to spill the beans
mostly by force
some even disregard asking and plan to just take the power for themselves

no one really succeeds, because she's risen so far up in ability it's basically impossible to incapacitate her
but they can stop others from getting to her first

it starts with some confrontations
and eventually breaks out into all-out civil war between countless groups

and carmen is just there
having a blast, taking out a bunch of side chars in the process (rip wilson)

johnny has already left the city at this point, disappearing to... somewhere

and arturo...
is planning to take out his best friend

trying to compile all he knows on carmen's powers, he attempts to reverse-engineer the process used by effi (who is just Gone)

stepping into a magic circle, he kicks off the spell and hopes it works

arturo is wiped off the face of the earth, and that's putting it a bit lightly.

it's just carmen now

carmen and a city that's teetering on the verge of collapse

higher-ups elsewhere are all just going it's mayhem over there!!!

and if it's not stopped it could just spread
if not the war, then carmen's reign of terror

so they take desperate measures
Anything to get that kid out of the picture

the last of embarca is straight-up nuked

as an aside
heyyy remember abby? funny cabin fever girl

so she actually felt the nuke coming because fate

and instead of making any effort to stop it, she thought about the state of the city she had helped found
and just. walked out the cabin to take the blast. making every life she ruined all for naught

abby is mcsploded
and so is the rest of the city
and, presumably, carmen!
the war stops dead in it's tracks, the blast sending a wave of horrified clarity to all involved

but with that was a major loss of supernatural contact in the country
other areas were not even remotely willing to do anything about it because of the sheer havoc that occurred

as the dust settles...
and the years pass...

ACT TWO BABY ON TO ACT TWOOOOOOOO

INTERMISSION 1: Carmen Gets Sillier

cut to cici, in 2008;
(carmen is nicknamed "cici" btw. forgot to mention)

she is becoming. Aware of Something

she feels something rummaging through her thoughts and ratatouilling her ever so slightly, especially with her power at full force

staring at herself in a motel mirror, transforming into in her spiffy uniform,

she notes that the bowtie she wears is tied on a bit too tight
well. no. its not actually, it feels a bit more like it's been glued to her neck

except it clearly isn't? she can put her hand in-between the tie and her neck just fine

it's more like the bow is a part of her, somehow. that's weird. why is that. she would like to take it off.

she pulls at it.
ow!
...ow??

that's it, the bowtie's coming off.
she's endured more than enough pain, what's a little more to get to the bottom of a strange observation?

removing the bowtie is proving to become mind-numbingly unbearable
she can feel herself becoming delirious and beginning to keel over

this is somehow becoming more painful than the fucking nuke!?

she got it off-
and topples over with the tie in one hand, feeling blood on her neck...

ACT 2 PART 1: Enter Mercedes

so that was fun! it's 2016
now for something completely different;

we're moving eastward now, towards a much more normal city named lime hills

a young lady with a passing interest in the magic of yesterdecade meets a buddy who also has said interest

they state that they've been looking at stuff for quite a while now, clearly more invested in this than the girl's ever been
even occasionally attempting to make trips to embarca (or at least, places nearby that aren't irradiated)

and they found something

apparently it gives you some pretty hefty power, but it was hidden away to not fall into the wrong hands (both of them light-heartedly note the irony here)

they also note that they don't know if it... works
for all they know it could be some kind of prank or dud

a spell that, if it worked, would grant the target great power, and become virtually invincible
no risk was stated in the resources found, but who knows what could happen?

to her friend's shock, the girl decided to go for it
even if it went horribly wrong, well... only one way to find out and know for the future, and she figured it had to be someone aware of the risk

so everything is set up, and the spell occurs

watching in awe as their absolute madlad of a friend undergoes the process, is

Unbreakable Lens Renee Reed and stepping away from a meticulously prepared magic circle, still reeling from the spell, is

Miracle Uniting the World Mercedes Adenia goddamn! it worked!
they're both frolicking around the room and shit this is the good ending!!

they both agree that. yeah this shit needs to be kept a secret
renee especially holds it to mercedes that she uses this stuff in a covert manner because who knows what shit could go down otherwise

so a bit of time passes

Mercedes Spills The Beans.
all over the floor. on the furniture. there's a bit on the ceiling somehow

two other friends are now aware of The Power

and after asking, mercedes figures: eh, she's known them for quite a while and they're pretty damn trustworthy, so why not? give 'em the sauce

she feels a bit bad about going behind renee's back like this but y'know how it is with spaghetti

she doesn't have the actual instructions on her but figures she can do this from memory

and it does work!
it's not quite the same as what mercedes got but it works

round one of spellcasting gives us...

Rushdown Artificer Phoebe Dyer and round two presents us with...

Walking Headache Bailey "Blues" Campbell of course, considering mercedes' bean-spilling track record, renee soon finds out

and they're Livid
basically cutting off as much contact with mercedes as they possibly can

mercedes is very sad and deeply regrets doing this!
oh well

surely nothing else can come of this

skip a year ahead

Why are there more of them.

as it turns out word somehow spread soon after blues and phoebe's transformations, and things got out of hand

magic in the eastern bits of the country (and especially at New North City, a place way on the east coast (very creative name 10/10)) isn't even close to "established", but people are aware of it and woefully unprepared

Miskatonic University, which mercedes and co. have been attending, has started looking into this

placing the three as heads of the operation as a sort of extra-curricular thing (because surely they knew what they were doing, moreso than anyone else around here at least)

the three also became content creators lol
what can i say people got invested in 'em

they can feel the pressure weighing down on them but persevere despite it

but enough about them lets go on a tangent or two

first off, the term Mahou (derived from "mahou shoujo" because dear god just look at these guys and their flashy transformations) began to spread, referring to those who have received powers this way. other terminology follows suit

(the lame technical term for whatever power mercedes and others obtained is referred to as "supernatural derivation"– this is based on some developments within the field concerning the power's origin)

(a small development, really, that's sort of a major mystery concerning these guys)

second off a little secret organization has been put in place
the supernatural derivation defense agency (sdda works)
there's a few Official™ crime fighter mahous running around in addition to the significant amount of vigilantes

third off
some guy starts a thievery group alongside their mentor, both mahous with abilities concerning light (the entire group goes on to follow this consistency)

fourth off
local brokeass tries to become a magical hitman and chickens out more at 11

ACT 2 PART 2: The Year is 2018...

moving things over slightly to 2018!

ah. hm. why does this place look like a fucking 2hu

mahou shenanigans are in full swing

miskatonic gang are still going strong but they're also going through it

thief guy got kicked out for being a micromanaging prick, rip bozo

blues, feeling the need for a quick break, decides to take a little holiday in his hometown of sunport

he meets up with an old childhood friend, who also took interest in this stuff! she actually wanted to ask if he could uhhhh let her in the whole mahou study thing. she would love that thanks

blues does not want to put her through that, as much as he'd like the help! so he says no

she asks again but sadder this time
he says no

she asks again but angrier this time
he says no

things begin to escalate

damn. they're not really friends anymore :\
blues leaves, what a crappy vacay

meanwhile! brokeass is still able to be a hitman they just have to get creative with it

with the caution they're taking they aren't earning as much as they could
so maybe they need to take another shift

what's another potentially life-ruining career that could earn them absurd amounts of money......

streaming!
no reason why the miskatonic guys should be the only mahous in the influencer space

so they hop on Kyourift Twitch and begin carving out a niche where they can

elsewhere...
three local rowdy teens decide to get involved in this new wave of magic, just for funsies

well, two teens
the third would love to but she's not really up for that right now, yknow

so picking out the required info for the sort of powers they're interested in, they go through the whole shebang yada yada

dizzily stepping out of the circle, hands still on his ears, is

Wingbeat Under the Earth Dorian Flat (the mic isn't a part of the outfit, he just stole that from the local school's av room.)

and afterwards, practically rolling out of her circle, is

Traveling Swordsman Gwen "Sanguine" Lumley they're stoked, to say the least
so they have little sillay adventures that actually don't snowball into absolute hell. who would've thunk it

anyways cut back to sunport
blues' lil ex-friend has been busy

within two months of extensive research and the weirdly high amount of resources she was able to find around the surrounding area she's cracked something

some sort of alternate approach to the mahou process that'll possibly give her wild mercedes-tier abilities

so she Does The Thing. For Science

everything begins to slow down
the falling snow soon stops in the air
even breathing makes her lungs feel like they're full of molasses
she's struggling to stand up or even think properly

she
sees things.

she sees and learns so much

a second later, standing perfectly still within a missing circle, calmly grasping at a numb face, is

Timeline Vessel Leslie de Loch the snow still hangs in the air, and leslie has work to do

but with that let's cut back to dorian

heeee has regrets!

he's suddenly unsure if he wants to put himself in this particular social circle where people can get their shit kicked in at a moment's notice

so he decides to seek out the folks at miskatonic, cause they seem to be his best bet and it's not too far anyways

besides, they're running a little trial for something that can probably reverse the mahou transformation thing for those in the echo subset (like dorian!)
so that's convenient ╮(.❛ ᴗ ❛.)╭

blues and phoebe are ready 👍

dorian is ready, and preparing to admit this to gwen 👍

the thing's starting..
ah...
that's...

oohhhhh sh-

ACT 2, FRESH AIR: Sanguine Gets Silly

it's been a few months now

gwen has been pretty much tearing her hair out over the disappearance of dorian

she's basically put her hijinks on hold, only planning on using her power for self-defense until he comes back

one night, something stirs in the floor below her room in the very early hours of the morning

gingerly stepping downstairs, she realizes!
someone broke into her house!!

not knowing what this person plans to do, she decides to take initiative and get them the hell out of there

the intruder leaves, the both of them seriously hurt by the fight (with gwen's arm basically about to fall right off)

aaaand her parents have walked in

they're extremely concerned, but also confront her about the situation at hand because holy shit what is she doing with this power

gwen is
so so very stressed

in between the fight, her missing friend, her parents, her goddamn arm-!

holding on far too strongly to keep herself conscious, gwen unleashes an ability-specific "last resort" at the worst possible time
and then passes out

waking up and witnessing the result of That, she runs off with no clue of where she's headed– she just can't be there

eventually she comes across...
wait, is that-

Psychic Petty Thief Agnes Warren oh damn, it's the other friend!

guess she did go through the thing after all

the two meet up and chat a bit
agnes had been looking into the whole dorian disappearance thing previously, and eventually decided to go through with becoming a mahou to assist things

the two go on an adventure! to find their friend! ( Agnes was not told about the parent murder. All she knows is that there was a break-in.)
around this time is when gwen actually gets the "Sanguine" moniker

she and agnes eventually locate a little thieves guild tucked away in the city, under the impression that they might've done something to dorian (and san in particular suspecting it might be connected to the break-in but yknow)

this guild is The Shattered Hearts Club, led by

Hidden Color Gamut Charlie Vogel ...and they actually have nothing to do with this??? why are you dragging them into that

the two are actually allowed to stay and vibe at the shattered hearts' hideout if they need to take a break from their search

because they seem cool and also. they're fuckin kids y'know

vogel notes san's decimated arm and is. a little concerned to say the least i dunno man

she consults san in private, and san tells her the arm was quite literally burned right off

thankfully san has regenerative abilities– not the insane instant regen we've seen with carmen, but with some time she could actually get through this without the need of any extra medical attention

that night, charlie lets san stay at the hideout while agnes runs back home (they both were told that san's parents were out of town and she could get a bit sillay with them out of the house. their deaths hadn't hit the news)

charlie is Very Concerned.

that burn? that cleave-right-through-an-arm burn?

only she knows how to do that, as far as she's aware
her and...

hm.

so there might be a potential for shared interest here
san couldn't get a good look at the intruder, but if it was her protege...

she was a pacifist, and she had thought they were the same. guess not?

she lets the other club members know in secret, and they're all sort of hesitant to try weeding out info about this particular guy from A Child™.

plus, he's gone and as far as they're concerned, he is nothing more than an occasional rival that is absolutely not worth the trouble
nor is this kid worth the trouble, because ultimately they're just trying to look out for themselves

charlie concedes but secretly thinks the others are lame and also is really thinking about the potential havoc he could cause

so she decides to take matters into her own hands

charlie hands out a few fighting tips to san, and agnes whenever she comes around
the others are chill with them as well but san can't help but feel a bit awkward around them for some reason

however, picking up any information she can from the two, charlie does a bit of her own research concerning dorian and the break-in (more importantly the break-in, because admittedly she's becoming a little obsessed with finding her old club buddy)

eventually landing ooon the lumley residence!
she doxxed san. sad!

one night she lets the others know she's going on a little solo excursion. stepping into a den room far from the hideout– ohhh jesus christ what is this.

so that's one (1) more person who is aware of the lumleys' death!

to be quite frank she has no idea what to make of this
that arm burn is very distinctly her method that is very much unique to that ability set, but this is like.
not that?
and she knows the other guy– even if he's attacking people now, he always preferred working alone and would literally never work with someone who could do... all that

...san could do all that.
is she in danger?

meanwhile, agnes !



she's uh... kinda come to an investigational stand still, even with the input received from her newfound thief pals

she's beginning to think they're never gonna find dorian, actually

and if he is found, it's certainly going to be by people with better resources than them.

her parents are asleep, but the night is still young, so she figures she can take a trip to the hideout and bother san about this– let her know that she'd like to call the search off

okay so anyways charlie is speedrunning towards the shattered hearts' base,

even if san didn't mean to do this, that is a HUGE amount of damage just thrown around on accident like that

and if she did mean it... oh god

she has Regrets she should have never got involved the others were right

BUT.

the intruder guy. she Needs to find them she has already sunk too much into this and the only one who has For Sure seen them is < this fuckign thang !!

(and if she's hiding all This, who knows what else she omitted!?)

agnes drops by the hideout and heads to san, nudging her awake
she's like "yea this. this isn't happening. we should probably head home im sorry"

san is distraught, she really believes they can figure this out, they got this far

agnes won't budge and neither will she. goodness things are heating up in the shattered hearts fandom

charlie bursts into the room!
"gwen."

and is a little confused
"...agnes?"

and so are they
"charlie???"

"Why Does Your Fucking House Look Like That."
agnes is even More confused and san is actually freaking out a bit
"Why The Hell Were You At My House. How Do You Know Where I Live"

"did you do that? did you completely shred the place?"
"what the fuck"
agnes currently feels like that can i PLEASE get a waffle video

"...wait, you said you stopped the break-in, gwen? what does she mean 'look like that' did something happen"
"you're gonna tell me the truth, or else we're never finding the one who broke into-"
"i thought we were looking for dorian!"
"we are looking for- hey! hold on, is that what you were doing over there!?"

"w-well. i figured you'd like to know too, right?"
"..."

agnes is still trying to process things, and is kinda pissed that apparently no one here can communicate, but attempts to rein in the conversation

and charlie immediately asks her to leave, stating that this is an a-b convo between her and san

now agnes is upset!! how much were they hiding from her!!! when were they-

charlie attacks agnes, barely missing a magical blow to the head

she needs her to leave. now.
and san too, once she tells her everything.

an all-out brawl breaks out between san and charlie

the ruckus alerts the club members still in the building and they are shocked at what's happening, dodging friendly fire coming from both parties

eventually san figures this really isn't worth it, running off and meeting up with a very overwhelmed agnes on the run

she tells her to get the hell outta dodge but! agnes is still upset :( come on man you're attacking the club buds too one of the recon guys lost an eye just now :(( and also what's going on with the hou-

ah shit charlie is back and going super saiyan they need to MOVE

agnes runs off to make sure everyone else is alright, hoping they're still chill with her after *motions to everything* this

san is trying to leave but goddamn. charles entertainment cheese is inescapable

so she decides to take her head-on again
charlie is keeping the pressure up, not to mention she won't shut up about the break-in

san is also keeping up too (charlie taught her well)
but she can't keep it up forever

she doesn't want to think about this anymore
she doesn't know what this intruder is capable of like charlie does, and she decides she doesn't want to

sensing an incoming lapse of energy on san's part, charlie goes right for the face
and in a final strike before the blood loss settles in...!

a blast reverberates from within the hideout

no one knows what happened– everyone had left the building and was recovering outside, hearing the commotion

until san steps out, shaking
no one really says anything, except for agnes, whose voice trails off after realizing san isn't hearing anything about this
she just leaves

ACT 2, TRAINING MONTAGE: The Real Start

let's move on...

so cut to a different part of the city, sometime later
there's a girl here- oh, she just got mugged by a mahou. ohh my god she's on the verge of death holy shit it's only three sentences in come on man

thankfully she gets better (just got lightly shredded y'know how it is) and returns home after a night or so in the hospital

but it's a moment of disillusion for her
like. goddamn. this is what life is like now? just can die at any moment because some rando in a goofy outfit decided to stab you a billion times?

not only that, but it's a bit sobering
she had recently made an effort to turn her life around, but felt she had plateaued at some point
being put through that threw her into a not-even-midlife crisis of sorts

so she does what any reasonable person does in a situation like this!

become a mahou vigilante

so after a bit of discussion with a friend (who does Not condone this but is pretty sure nothing is going to stop her), she gets everything set up for a standard garden-variety mahou transformation

taking the train to a vacant edge of the city and finishing the prep, she steps into the circle and begins
...ah, she knocked something over. it'll be fine right-

a flash lights the surrounding blocks, quickly followed by a reverberating bang
thankfully she had done this in a vacant lot, which is now covered in soot

she's still upright, but extremely shaky
...it didn't say anything about a bang? why was there a bang???
either way she's... okay, somehow

looking down at her hands, she confirms that yeah, it worked
stepping out of the circle and immediately tripping over her own feet is-

Girl from Andromeda Marilan Moore (act 2 technically starts here, and the whole shebang with charlie and all that is a prequel. act 1.5?)

so anyways she's fiddling with her abilities
it's fire!

...it's fire?

that's not. that's not a thing this type of mahou is supposed to do

there are cases of people messing up the spell but making it out with a strange ability so she guesses that's what happened here

arriving home she lets her pal know what went down, and she asks if he'd like to get hit with the funny outfit beam
he does not want that! why would she ever think that he would!

cut to later in the week
marilan's buddy sends her a message

a photo of him with an expression that can only be described as "deeply disappointed in both her and himself"
in the background is a meticulously prepared magic circle

he soon states that if she's gonna involve herself in this, she will at least need some backup if the situation gets dire
so here he is

mari can feel the disappointment through the screen and wasn't quite prepared to actually drag someone else into this but! yay yippee :]

the two agree to get acclimated to things back in mari's hometown
as not too far from there is a large expanse of salt flats, a good magical test range

so mari makes her way back west, to a house she's crashed at for more times than she can remember
and standing at the door, arms crossed, is

Just Some Guy Zavier Henderson they've got work to do!

for the next couple of days they get a handle on their new abilities decently well, and can actually keep an alright sparring match going

but one thing is becoming apparent:

mari... can't sleep

every time she tries her mind starts getting flooded with enough light and noise to knock her back awake again
she feels fine though? she seems fine

zavier is a little worried because he's the same garden-variety mahou type as her, right? there's not usually this big of a difference if she screwed up

she eventually finds that she can sleep after a few days, just enough for a power nap before getting booted out by sensory hell again

but one night, where that opportunity presents itself again, she figures
what's one more all-nighter? she's onto something here and she's a bit worried she's gonna forget about it in the morning

so the night goes on and morning comes
and she feels like she's really getting somewhere with this power :D

even zavier notes that she seems like she made a noticeable improvement from the day before

marilan figured that this is as good a time as any to push herself
if she's gonna make a real difference in this whole mahou thing she needs to work for it

...which means another night without taking that rest
she's on a roll !

next morning
good lord she's actually able to dish out a lot now
bonafide 2hu shit

rinse and repeat

zavier is shocked by how fast mari is getting a handle on this but is beginning to wonder about her

she's actually looking a bit tired
not sleepy but moreso just. unresponsive

some sort of intense focus she hasn't shown him before?
...hm.

mari admits to him one night that she thinks the lack of sleep is literally making her stronger
and that she probably doesn't even need to train anymore since she can just win through raw power

zavier notes that even as marilan is out of her uniform and her powers are presumably off,
her eyes are glowing

he doesn't like this
she is going to take that fucking nap

he tells her to sleep
she really would rather not
they're beginning to argue

ah fuck they're chasing each other around the flats

mari has reached a point where she's literally able to burn holes in said flats
zavier is beginning to think she isn't even really aware of what she's doing anymore

so, zav has a pretty odd ability for direct use in fights

he's got a sorta weak power over gravity (), but more importantly can create portals
both to places he's been, and to a personal pocket dimension

she's clearly adamant about keeping this escalation of power going, or if not, resuming it where zavier can't do anything about it

so he won't let her go where he can't do anything about it

asking her to think on this for just a bit longer, he manages to grab onto her for just enough time to not burn his hands

and opening up a way to his (thankfully vacant) personal space, tosses her in, yelling a final word in before she's sealed in-

zavier periodically checks in on her after going home and taking a rest himself (explaining this to his family was a little awkward)
thankfully no property damage, unless you count the salt flats' new craters. that might be an issue i dunno

mari fell asleep (thank god) and is just chilling in the void now
she's. not sure what came over her she's very sorry 🥺 she will try to take it easy from here on out

mari is dumped out of the space and the two finalize everything with one last training session before mari goes home

zav plans to frequent her city and get familiar with the place so he can pop in at a moment's notice if he has to

some time passes
mari gets some gigs and handles them With Mixed Results But Mostly Well

she eventually hears of some suspicious sightings happening elsewhere in the city and figures she should check up on things

she walks around there to investigate for a bit and oh hey!

it's san!

she's been around. getting by
receiving an occasional care package from god knows who but she's not complaining

however she does hit marilan with her Miscommunication Disease, and now mari suspects that san is the one who initially attacked her and got her started on this shit to begin with (and she also literally kills people!?!? what!!!!!)

they are. both complete idiots
and they fight for a bit

mari is trying to take it easy because even if this was her attacker she's not really sure about destroying someone who's clearly pretty young

san is holding up but not going all out, because it's just a matter of self-defense and she gets the feeling this chick is way in over her head

some mid-fight banter occurs and they realize. ah. this guy's chill actually

and more notably that san is not Mugger Guy, despite the whole "stabs you a billion times" thing being right in her wheelhouse

mari feels bad that this kid is just running around with no support whatsoever
so she's like "yea you can crash at my place if you need to. not a lot of room but y'know"

san is Hesitant because the last time she was offered a place to stay she got doxxed

but she doesn't have many options
and i dunno. at least it's some apparent newbie and not the incredibly skilled leader of a thief group

so they're home
mari is telling san a bit about what she's doing
san's interest is a bit piqued

she says that after she gets her bearings and vibes for a bit, she'd actually like to help mari

mari would... rather not do that

actually she feels it'd be best for san to find a new home and return to a relatively normal life if possible
because Jesus Christ Dude You Have Been Through Enough

san tells her that her situation is kinda fucked and real complicated to get out of ( Marilan was not told about the self-orphaning.)

mari concedes 'cause she is aware that being a mahou would probably make any sort of proper recovery from this,, a bit hard to say the least
she's like "yeah alright fine but im still not letting you come along"

next gig
mari realizes san accompanied her anyways. goddamn it she's not going to leave her alone is she. alright fine

they sweep and it's very cool and mari is very very mad about it but oh well

so the pace here might pick up slightly because there's more gaps for episodic stuff

in other words

hijinks ensue

ACT 2, ON THE RADAR: Internet Drama

so in another city a bit south from here there's apparently been some Death. a bit of Murder

in fact it's a whole string of assassinations, all sharing the same strange cause of death: completely obliterated veins (san swears that is Not something she can do, that is absolutely wild)

totally unrelated but there's a convention happening there too. seems fun

so they get a hotel room (mari being able to afford a nearby hotel during a con is the most unrealistic part of this series), take a trip over there, and see what's up

...and by "see what's up" i mean they're at the con of course they are

suddenly they witness someone in the crowds collapse out of nowhere

screams ring out within the convention center, good lord someone just died

was. was their target here?

they stay alert and try to figure out how this went down
mari manages to get a closer look at the body for a moment while san keeps watch

it's steaming a little, there's also some kind of small bruise or something but it's got a frosty sheen over it
so it's super cold. the dude froze to death somehow?

...holy shit if this is the same assassin then they fucking froze their entire bloodstream. scary

scary and
kind of convenient actually what the hell
mari and san can probably just be immune to that lmao

so they sleuth a bit further and figure out the culprit in question, an apparent small-time streamer named

Wind Gamer Girl Blaise Shepard (she wasn't very subtle, at least presumably not as subtle as her previous attempts.)
(meeting fans just does that to you, they guess?)

but they weren't subtle either because blaise spotted them mid-stakeout and approached the two
"heyy i noticed you guys were chasing me around a bit. didja want to take a photo or smth 😳"

they were Not Prepared for this and after an awkward response or two she already gathered that these two knew what was up

mari and san get their powers into gear because ohh my god this went bad so fast

blaise immediately goes in for the kill but unfortunately. mari is Too Damn Warm

they already note san's blood powers and is just swearing under their breath. fuck now they need to put in effort this sucks

so blaise just directly rams themself into mari with enough force to send her flying out of a nearby glass wall, and are about to launch her directly into an mvc infinite combo
san follows blaise and manages to interrupt her, but that's all she can really do before the issue of this fight becomes clear

blaise is fast

and blaise can actually fly.

marilan has some ability to fly but it's super awkward and floaty
and san is pretty much grounded
neither are exactly the fastest fighters

and their asses are completely handed to them in front of a large audience of convention attendees

...so it's the next day
mari and san are recuperating in the hotel

got a super awkward visit from an sdda agent. they're fine (mostly because there's way bigger fish to fry) but they're also probably on a list now or something who knows

it seems they need to really think of a good way of going against this guy
especially because she's aware of them now

they get a little something from a nearby cafe and oh

oh god

that's her
she's coming up to their table oh f-

blaise asks them for a favor.
fight her again.

the three couldn't possibly have put up a proper fight in a crowded place like that !
she wants a good, fair fight

san and mari look at each other. they're fucking with them. they are very obviously not taking this seriously and are probably expecting an easy win again

...but they don't have to be stealthy if they do this so let's fuckin go-

next day!
it's a field a good ways from the con
...there's very obviously people from the con watching from the sidelines. in another side of the field, a camera is getting a decent shot of everything

yeeeaah she's definitely just being a jackass here

it's also raining a bit which is somewhat unfortunate for mari in particular

blaise has arrived ! the fight starts

mari can't quite get the lift and flight control she was working on due to inclement weather, so she's just launching herself and constantly moving around the field to keep herself afloat

san is actually a bit better equipped– she's learned how to surf around on her sword, albeit not as effectively as she's still very concerned with keeping herself steady

the two are a bit more suited to the air, and- JESUS IS THAT LIGHTNING
SINCE WHEN COULD BLAISE DO THAT
so they're struggling a little,,

san does notice that blaise is... unusually careful about hitting them with a lightning strike as opposed to her casual ice shenanigans (because she's pretty attentive, but also because she's been riding around on a lightning rod for the last several minutes)

she relays this to mari, who did figure that blaise was one of those "messed up but survived" mahous like herself due to little things like the weird ways their ice powers manifested
so maybe there's a bit more to the ability strangeness

blaise isn't immune to lightning, are they?

...ohh my god they are ABSOLUTELY NOT taking the two seriously

welp! that's their fault lol

san readies her Bigass Sword for when the next strike is about to happen, and mari begins to descend to a lower height above the field

feeling her hair rise from static, san hops off the sword and falls before mari propels herself up and catches her, trying to get the two of them back down as smoothly as possible in this weather

meanwhile the sword was sent directly towards blaise
before she could evade it san rotates it around from afar- catching her briefly off-guard
the broadside slamming right into her instead of actually stabbing her

the blade is pointing upward
ahh shit- ⚡⚡🌩️⛈️🌩️⚡⛈️⚡⛈️🌩️

...so blaise got her ass fried Live On Kyourift Twitch

san took the liberty of ending blaise's stream
they actually manage to wake up sometime after the stream ends, still lying in the middle of the field while mari and san are still taking a moment to catch their breath in the rain

they don't know how to feel about this
However. they did think that takedown was sick as fuck they'll give 'em that

after a little more contemplation and overhearing san ramble on about the fight, blaise awkwardly stumbles over to the two

she's like "hey that was cool gg man"
the two scoot over and let her sit- ah, she just flopped over again

mari tells her they need to talk. "stop killing people or we'll embarrass you on the internet again"

"oh was THAT why you attacked me? ahh"

".
wh
why did you think we came after you like that?"

"this isn't the first time i've been randomly attacked by another mahou"

"...okay," mari elaborates on her cause a bit, mildly surprised that blaise is so chill about this but also. not really surprised given their vibes
blaise thinks it's neat! she honestly doesn't have much going on, so she actually wants to tag alo-

"seriously though ditch the hitman job."

...she is miffed but tags along, deciding to go all in on the streamer side hustle instead

a bit later mari and san are introduced to blaise's friend and occasional stream pal

their name is renee! they document the happenings of mahous and dabbles a little in the magic mechanics itself
however they're a normal human, so it gets pretty dangerous at times– they manage though

so everyone is chatting and the convo eventually shifts over to mercedes

now mari at this point has already ran into mercedes quite a few times, getting in each other's way and generally being kind of an ass to each other despite similar-ish goals (this, too, is yuri)

and blaise just finds mercedes kinda annoying

so the two and san start joking about surpassing mercedes in popularity, and starting some kind of rivalry (renee is mildly uncomfortable but doesn't say anything and just laughs along)

this soon ends up online because blaise is somehow surrounded by fans at all times despite being relatively niche of a streamer (the shepard rizz, truly)

oh
people are uh, taking this seriously
too seriously

the monkey's paw curls... the fans are engaging in Beef. oops

regardless, blaise is now officially on call as a vigilante, and renee has agreed to offer tips when available

anyways, zavier!

he hasn't really needed to pull mari out of danger all that much (sans a few times during the last period where hijinks ensued, but i digress)

and thus he's had a bit of free time to go about his life and sightsee a little in the city, even start a "fast travel" business of sorts

lately he's been dropping by a popular spot known as rosegold bay, a neat wharf area with a lot to do
it's also. a little sketchy to say the least. but no biggie

zav starts talking to a fairly ambitious lad named

Prismatic Exile J. August Silva at some point during one of their conversations the topic turns to mahou research at miskatonic

zavier has heard a rumor floating around from a few of his travel patrons concerning those guys

for a little bit of context

the reason why supernatural derivation is called, well, supernatural derivation is because a mahou's power seems to be derived from somewhere else
and quite a few consistent differences (including a slight shift in attitude) between certain mahous point towards each variety having a different "source", also known as a Rep colloquially

supposedly, the folks at miskatonic have made a new rep

which is HUGE if true

august is interested
he's a thief rising through the ranks of infamy, and likes a challenge

so. if this so-called "new rep" exists
he would like to take it!

zavier is like " WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'TAKE IT'" but then begins to think

he is a bit curious as well, admittedly
and also if this Is true then then people should know about it

so the two begin to muse on how getting in and seeing the thing would even be possible

and hijinks continue to ensue...

ACT 2, WEEK AT SUNPORT: SANS!?

skip ahead a teeny bit

it seems, from a message moved forward by renee, that a town further up from there has seemingly gone off the grid
and it's been that way for a good while now

so mari and co. may need to take a peek at the situation and see if it needs a bit of assistance

after a little road trip to the lovely and quite chilly town of sunport
the strange lack of activity becomes explained pretty fast:

time is frozen

so the three are collectively

after a bit of walking around and trying to figure out what exactly is happening they take a quick break at a train car

and oh god! there's an injured girl here
she says her name is leslie

and according to her, this frozen hellscape is the work of the fellas at miskatonic

who bungled an experiment and are trying to hide it as long as they can
even if it means attacking leslie and keeping her trapped here

mari would like to free the town as soon as possible, admittedly a little worried about facing said miskatonic fellas after the whole rivalry thing that came about

leslie explains that blues, one of the lab guys, is still running around sunport
and maybe could fix this if the gang knocks some sense into him

so they try to do that!
something goes wrong thou-

so they try to do that!
something goes wrong thou-

so they try to do that!
something goes wrong thou-

...so lets flip perspectives a little.

leslie is learning things still
but she knows that she has enough temporal power over the town right now, to get the girls as allies and gain access to the lab resources (because she knows better than those guys!)

but she is learning things, such as:

manipulation is hard. (she'll get better at it she has enough chances)

people become immune to resets if they spend too much time around those already immune. (wait WHAT)

SAN IS HERE
AND SHE KNOWS BABEY

throughout attempts
the person who ended up interacting with leslie the most was san

as blaise and mari were zoned in on Getting That Guy

and throughout attempts
san began to remember rewritten pasts

which made her talk to leslie more

leslie had no idea because. she's never had to do anything like this before
or interact with unfrozen folks inside the loop at all, even

leslie and san ended up becoming timeloop enemies of sorts

anyways. back to mari!
she found blues yay yippeeee
she's fighting and blaise jumps in the fray (san was called over but she's not responding i dunno)

at some point they say something about him causing the frozen time flow

he's like "i did What-"

a loud noise echoes through the region and something ripples across the skies

elsewhere san is busy fucking with leslie for the umpteenth time

san is Too Much of a problem and leslie doesn't really know how to handle it (and she's just tired man)

so. she gives up! you win! she's coming clean!
but she'll just keep everyone stuck here forever until they all agree to help her with seizing any and all info on mahous, including the stuff at miskatonic

...leslie gets her shit kicked in

the town is released from the loop, blues briefly thanks the others (and quickly points out at mari "hey aren't you the one mercedes fights a ton" "haha yeah" "lol")
and everyone leaves

including leslie, who figures she probably shouldn't be seen like this after all that, camping out at the edge of town

and hijinks ens- hold on a second

san and leslie did talk for quite a bit within that loop
getting a sense of her whole deal

she,
feels a little bad :(((

so she takes a Very Long biking trip to sunport (it's quite nice when it's not eerily still)
and manages to find leslie, hiding out somewhere

the two talk (leslie is 🤨🤨🤨 but san assures her if she was still upset then You Would Know)

leslie reveals some things

this whole mahou thing is a game
and everyone involved is pawns to unseen forces

shit is Fucked

san is like "oh. ok. you wanna visit me and mari and help us in new north city? there's a lot of mahous there so you get access to a bunch of data ig"

"...ok"

leslie joins the party!

'kay so NOW hijinks can ensue

sometime during this, as the newest member of the group is introduced
san calls herself, mari, blaise, and leslie "the four horsemen"
the name kinda stuck (it's also what these four are usually referred to as out-of-universe)

INTERMISSION 2: Harley Comes In with a Steel Chair

let's move elsewhere
so a few years back, this city got a new arrival from somewhere across the country

her name is harley, real average lady

works as an accountant, occasionally plays piano, lived in embarca for a bit, killed her brother, likes the outdoors
very average

nowadays she's begun to take hikes around this decently large woodland area near sunport
it's a bit of a drive, but worth it, she thinks

so.
totally unrelated tangent.

We Need To Talk About The War Again

in the years following the city 'splosion something weird has been happening

a few people (relative to country population so. a lot of people really) have started to show up
who all 1.) apparently have amnesia and no identification whatsoever
and 2.) really, really look like carmen.

everyone has their own theories as to why this is a thing
but either way, it's certainly contributed to the cloud of conspiracies surrounding carmen's existence

so anyways back to harley
she just met one of these guys mid-hike!

it's always mildly weird seeing someone who resembles her old friend
but she's quite polite, just living here near the coast in a secluded summer home

so she and this Not-Carmen have a pleasant talk for a bit
and then harley continues her hike :]

(forgot to catch her name though :/)

meanwhile!
the miskatonic guys are suffering

...meanwhile-

ACT 2, THE BREAKOUT: Breakouts and Breakups

zav and august have a plan

(zav is contemplating the fact that he is pulling off a fuckin heist with this guy But It's A Good Thing He Swears. This Is Not Out Of Morbid Curiosity Shut The Fuck)

so the goal is to:
get in there
look at Rep™
take if possible

...and maybe just take a peek at the science stuff in general (zav figures it would especially be of interest to mari's new weird little friend)

so they do get in and snoop around the building a little

but hey there's a hidden spot over here. weird
inside is... something

it looks like some sort of weird techy magic seal has been placed on it
welp! they said they were gonna look at as much as possible so *smacks it open*

it's...

it's a kid.

no, hey
zav has seen this kid

on... the news...

...oh...

said kid slips out of stasis and wakes up, clearly confused as to anything happening right now

"did it... work?"

Ascended Earthquake Dorian Flat? zav and august are Extremely Horrified, to say the least!

an alarm goes off
okay so they need this kid out of here.

zav gaps this guy away to his space (which has become much cozier-looking now, thankfully)

blues and phoebe enter the scene and are terrified because Aw Shit Their Screw-Up Just Got Revealed
everyone is fighting !

but zav and august make it out

so anyways. mercedes
mercedes has no idea any of this is going down right now she's chillin

she's flying through the city, meeting up with a fan or two, preventing any bullshit from going down if the need arises

marilan is also there! just patrolling the area y'know being a friendly neighborhood mahou

so the two bump into each other!
not in the middle of an ongoing fight, like usual, it's just them

the two are a bit upset with each other for that whole "getting in the way during fights" thing though
the both of them would like the other to stay out of each other's business (mari is more willing to accept help but the way mercedes goes about it, she kinda gets bumped to the side (and by "to the side" i mean through a wall))

they both also do not back down ohh they are arguing why can't anyone here fuckin compromise

ah. presidential alert. The Girls... They Are Fighting

it's business as usual though, right?
sure they're totally focused on each other instead of having to juggle fights, but that's happened a few times before and it's not too big of a deal

usually they brawl for a bit and stuff gets sorted out without too much damage
right?

WRONG mercedes is pulling out the Fuckoff Death Rays mari is in so much danger the two engage in banter that is much more concerning than the norm for them
and that is when mari's view of mercedes goes from "kind of mean but oh well ig i can understand why" to "ohh ahh there may be something a little wrong with you"

mari manages to knock her out before getting SSBU World of Light'd and hits the bricks because fuck that shit !
and sometime later mercedes wakes up, and just goes home, chasing her down would be lame she's not doing all that

mari is now processing whatever the hell just happened and mercedes is experiencing the absolute worst time to realize you have a crush on someone

so hey let's get back to the lads
dorian (or "danza", as he was accidentally called when a project codename was mistaken for his actual name) is having a little bit of a meltdown

the de-mahou-fication process worked, but he might've gotten noticeably de-humaned as well

after calming down a bit and getting a quick refresher on what happened that night, he tells the guys:

"do not let anyone know what happened to me, do not make a huge deal over this"
"i just want to live a normal life if possible– hopefully everyone involved will understand– and i don't need the publicity of this shit getting in the way of that"
"as much as i'd like to get back at those assholes the last thing i need is to cause a scene"

zav and august both go "👍"
the three sorta stay in touch, danza getting dropped off near his house and liveblogging a bit on the way back home

ACT 2, BEGINNING OF THE END: All Hell Breaks Loose

so heyy
phoebe she is a little stressed;

but! she would like to put together a little something to hopefully mitigate things and take her mind off The Stuff That Happened, because she's pretty sure there's not a chance in hell of her finding the kid at this point

it's a collab!
between the gang and blaise!
how fun

san would like to go and while mari is a teeny bit "😐" she really trusts blaise to make sure she's alright
(and, briefly entertaining terrible scenarios, would like to imagine mercedes has the decency to not attack a child)

mari and leslie are a bit busy with other things, we'll return to them in a moment

so hey now the stream is happening and the vibe is generally super chill, everyone can practically feel the tension between internet circles decrease

and look who caught the stream while vibing in... somewhere, who knows where this fucker lives

august!

oh.

august respects danza's want for normalcy, they really do
but this is a lot. and they feel that this kid is certainly not understanding how A Lot it is

they're also not very familiar with the two other girls on the stream
since zavier admittedly hasn't caught up too much with the non-marilan members of the horsemen, and so august knows even less

they tell zav what they plan to do, and him, too busy to watch the stream and not being very in-tune at all with this area of streaming communities, concurs that danza's wishes are probably worth scuffing a little

august picks up a phone

do these guys think they're funny?

because if so then he's about to be hilarious

anyways!
mari and leslie
they are. binging random shit online (it's a very slow day)

the topics thrown at them by the recommendations eventually shift to unexplained phenomena and whatnot
(somewhat of a rarity in a world like this, but there all the same)

there's a forest (not too far, just about a few cities over) where people have occasionally been disappearing without a trace
they want to check it out, partly because of the possibility of it being mahou shenanigans, partly because ooo spooky forest hehe

so while that stream is happening they take a little trip up to said woods, ignoring any and all warnings (including a concerned renee)

They Proceed To Nearly Die 👍

at the hands of a carmen clone who actually happens to live here (a mahou carmen clone for that matter, which isn't rare but not all that common either)

because she was under the impression that the two were trespassing with bad intent (both were in-uniform when approaching, which, in terms of etiquette, is basically like if they were walking to her house with loaded guns)

she lets them remain relatively ok because she's in a good mood, it seems like an honest misconstruction, and also they're just not very fun to fight (they have skill issues)

she invites the two over to her place for some tea and stuff so they can recover ...and the two take that offer because Good Lord

it is time for 🔥🔥🔥 tea break 🔥🔥🔥
everyone is chill everyone is chatty

at some point
leslie's demeanor begins to shift
she's getting a little pushy

marilan is confused and mildly pissed and generally very 🤨🤨🤨🤨 so she moves leslie to the side and asks her what the fuck is going on

leslie states she is Onto Something

marilan would like her to get the hell off of it!

the clone tells them their tea is getting cold :(

as much as leslie would like to just freeze the home and get to the bottom of things, mari would probably kill her afterwards (or the others if she were to just leave mari there)
so they return and continue chatting but leslie and mari are budging the conversation in different directions, this poor lady is caught in a war

that's it
leslie is tired of this!

begin the ace attorney objection music!

this clone is not just a carmen
but the Carmen!

mari is horrified why the FUCK would she say that holy sh-

...the clone has an odd expression

marilan and leslie are only now able to notice there is something really off with her neck below all the layers she's wearing

she figures if this is how it's gonna be, she'll go ahead and introduce herself

Dreaded Progenitor Carmen Carter so hey! impromptu lesson on mahou physiology(?)

so if you haven't already noticed, every mahou has a little something on their neck while in uniform! it varies wildly between uniforms but it's usually there (the bows/ties on mari, san, and leslie's outfits, the little string around blaise's cloak, zav's bandana, etc)

and of course, cici's old bowtie

this particular bit of the outfit is observed to be:

• ridiculously durable
• extremely difficult to take off
• extremely painful to take off

but a few manage anyways because mahous aren't well-known for being normal reasonable people (and, while insanely rare, there's an occasional case where this doesn't happen on the mahou's own accord)

when this happens the mahou's body Freaks Out
because (we're getting more into the realm of theory but it seems fairly solid) this tie is a limiter of sorts to a mahou's power

and since any sort of progression in side-effects (such as the shift in attitudes) stop when this happens
it may mean becoming disconnected from your source and left to deal with any residual power on your own
residual power that is way too much for the human body to handle, becoming warped and out-of-control

the body, too,
becomes warped and out-of-control

but there's much less information on that ╮(.❛ ᴗ ❛.)╭
so back to carmen...

she's kinda entertained seeing mari and leslie going at each other tbh

normally she would destroy these guys as she has with the past couple of mahous that have dropped by in the past few months, since anyone who seems like they want to do a bit of war reenactment is a no-go for her

but she dunno.
they're kinda funny. and polite. moreso than the other guys

she's not That mean (now)

so she'll prommy to be polite in return and not kill them on the spot
but if they say literally Anything they are beyond dead

leslie is still kinda considering the time freeze admittedly but she's pretty sure she'll die ten times over if anything goes wrong there

the two agree to things and leave the woods, left to dwell on the fact that The Fucker Is Alive

so with that being said, let's check on the stream!

Why is the SDDA here.

so as it turns out the stream got swatted 💔 (can you even call it a swatting if there's no swat team...?)
thanks august!

the call was addressed pretty fast, as miskatonic's mahou research is quite important to the sdda

after a quick confusing scuffle between agents, nerds, and a half of the horsemen, things are kind of sorted out
(the agents are mildly unsure why the latter are here so that may require some looking into)

but they will need to rummage around the place a little to ensure everything is a-ok

hey what uh
what's all of this

and that, for that matter

first off there happened to be a serious experiment oopsy-poopsy involving some kid named dorian

second off
there is a lot more data than anticipated for certain bits of mahou research

excess data that would imply. attacking a lot more people than necessary
and taking down more people than necessary

blues and phoebe are pretty up there in skill but they are certainly not capable of That

not like... mercedes...

forget the two randos invited to the stream here, there is Sus Shit Afoot...!

the stream has ended a good while back by now
blaise and san have slipped out of the chaos they don't know what's going on and they don't wanna know (san is unaware of dorian being involved in anything here)

there may no longer be a fandom slapfight

but that's because the miskatonic gang have lost their fandom

INTERMISSION 3: A Brief Carmoment

so moving slightly forward
carmen starts contemplating for a sec.
about visitors. and people knowing.

do other people know? she's pretty in-touch and does leave the house every now and then, and no one says anything

but hey, maybe this is a new development she's unaware of
has anyone else dropped by recently...?

ah! that other lady, harley
(familiar name but she really can't place how or where)

she's arrived at the carter household multiple times by now, actually
and is generally a delight every time, if a bit strange (even better, to be frank)

unless... no...

...she may have to take a late trip to the city in a moment or two

harley is sleeb. 👍

but she wakes up in the middle of the night
she. can't move

she's even willing herself out of her body (it's a trick she's managed to pull off before) but she doesn't budge

something is in the corner

it begins to interrogate her. harley is so confused and starts to panic a bit, mildly worried she's about to poltergeist the lamp through a window or something (much more worried about the Thing In Her House)

she's being asked if there's something she's hiding
she has no idea what it's talking about!
she has nothing to hide!

harley is actually starting to clip out of her body a little, thumbing through her past to figure out what this thing wants

this... thing...
that looks a lot like...
the...

ah.

she thinks
there is No Way this could possibly be the case, she has convinced herself otherwise, but it's worth a shot?

"...you're the actual Carmen aren't you?"
"YOU KNEW-"
the spirit of harley jumps out of bed
"I JUST FIGURED IT OUT, FUCK YOU!"

carmen slips out of the shadows and helps harley cram herself back into her body to interrogate her further (she knows keeping it separated could make things. Difficult)

but harley stops her there once back to normal, because it's become apparent that carmen doesn't remember her

so she uses this opportunity to jog her memory a bit
cici clearly has replaced most thoughts on embarca with those of the war, overshadowing everything else
and plus... it's been years.

harley...
carmen does know a harley, right
bit of a high-school crush

she's still cute now- ah, harley is no longer interested. that's fair alright

the interrogation has just become a very late-night talk
the two are kind of struggling to process seeing each other again (harley especially, as one would imagine)

(harley is especially shaken by how. Normal cici is now)

carmen leaves, very embarrassed by the shit she pulled tonight
and harley is barely cognizant of anything outside of the room, still rotating this moment in her mind

anyways DANZA IS PISSED

he's now chasing august around the city once he managed to spot him and holy hell he is Strong

they weren't kidding
if this dude was a source of mahou magic then he clearly shows it

august (and zav, who gets dragged in later) soon talk him down and prevent him from sending a small earthquake across the city so everything is good (danza is still upset but he will not obliterate the two over it)

and somehow
after all this
hijinks ensue

ACT 2, RISE AND SHINE: More Hell Breaks Loose

so it's been a hot minute
everyone is recuperating from their respective things

danza's home and unsuccessfully trying to avoid the awkwardness that you would expect when you are now A Little Freak

san gives him a visit because holy shit he's okay and it's very delightful and emotional (leslie came with her due to Recent Bestie Status, she and danza get along alright)

mari is still pretty , especially after hearing the news on everything happening at miskatonic
it's been bouncing around in her mind like a dvd screensaver for the past couple of days

it hits the corner– mari has a feeling the gang should check out the lab, currently being guarded by the sdda
...maybe not san or leslie, because the former could be put into way more danger than either of them bargained for, and the latter because... it's leslie, she's gonna get outta hand the moment she steps foot in there

they could get august and zavier? they've apparently gotten in before (THAT was a interesting conversation between her and zav) and zavier's portal abilities should make it a cinch
so later that week, mari and co. head down to miskatonic...

the four have managed to slip inside the lab
stealth didn't come naturally to mari like it seemingly did for the others, but she's certainly trying her best

everyone is snooping around, and mari happens upon a notebook chock full of info from mercedes

including the fact that the one who told her about mahou transformation to begin with is- renee?
hold the fuckin phone renee never said anything about That

she lets the others know and one of them tries to contact them

not even left on read. alright

blaise takes a peek at her socials to see if they're up to something right now (zav is a little annoyed that she's getting distracted by this right now)

only to find that renee's account is gone without a trace

everyone is literally not paying attention to the plan anymore they just want to know what the fuck happened to renee's presence, everything is just gone

a deep, unexplainable dread descends on the lab.
everyone needs to leave.

the half-of-horsemen and the heist lads have exited the building, because it seems their info buddy has vanished!

they hear a boom from far across the city, followed by screaming
what the fuck is that

they can't make heads or tails of whatever is blotting out the sun right now but it doesn't look very good

and something's buzzing around it...
mercedes! what's she doing up there!?

everyone stops gawking and figures first priority is to help people Get Outta There

mari, as much as she'd want to help them (and check on those who didn't come with them to the lab), realizes she doesn't have much of an option as mercedes is headed straight for her
so she ends up getting dragged into the chaos, fighting alongside pretty much every mahou in the area

even cici (who was verbally dragged away from the coast by harley to do something) is trying to take this thing down– even if she's not getting hurt, she's not dealing any damage either
nobody is, for that matter

mari has managed to get mercedes out of the way for a moment, so she redirects her attention to the much larger issue here, and it does the same with her

"marilan! :0"
WHAAAT THE FUCK.

she is NOT perceiving whatever the hell just became apparent from hearing this thing's voice, she's just going full yoinky sploinky on this asshole she cannot take this anymore

other mahous back up (and a few end up getting in a scuffle with a now recovered mercedes) as mari heats up to a degree she's never reached before

and it's doing something!!

but not nearly enough.

the thing formerly known as renee picks up marilan, now incredibly exhausted and feeling herself falter from her own power

they thank her for sticking around and humoring their little bit, about to take a swing

she thinks. is there literally anything she can do here?
mercedes would know, right? back to the notebook... what else did she write. uh uh um

connections to older forms of arcana. mechanics of power transfer. mahous without a tie. lot of help that is.

on that last thing and the opposite, actually

"if detaching yourself does that, what would connecting yourself further do, if possible?"

...that constant sensory hell haunting her...
even now, she can hear it louder than ever (she must've really worn herself out, huh?)

if she just takes a deep breath, focuses, and...

marilan blocks renee's final blow with one hand.

and goes Completely Ham

the other horsemen, getting the last few stragglers out of the area, briefly slip out of the city via zav portal
as leslie unleashes a full-force time stop the three of them have been hyping up for the past feels-like-forever

the other two drag her through a portal right after, having absolutely no strength after casting that

this is it!

marilan is literally melting from the heat at this point

in the calm of the frozen city
she sends renee a parting gift (inadvertently hitting mercedes as well)

and as time speeds up
the problem disappears, as if it was never there

the horsemen take a peek at the wreckage as time is restored and marilan lands, starting to realize that She Is In So Much Pain Right Now (she certainly isn't showing that though)

they're mildly freaked out by the very uncanny version of mari before them, especially when she turns to look back at them

she raises a hand

"👍"

and then collapses, the heat washing away to her usual non-uniformed self.

no hijinks right now everyone needs a break

ACT 2.5?: Recovery and Reunion

city repairs are being done and thankfully, not the Entire thing went to shit; there's a weird sense of calm over the place

mari is vibing in the hospital, processing The Horrors she just went through and being approached by more sdda folks than she'd like (the horsemen are Official now, she guesses, even if their track record with the agency isn't entirely clean)
of course, the other horsemen & friends™ visit

later, once marilan has recovered enough to leave, danza and san meet up with agnes
mari is there too, to babysit (the three are VERY annoyed by her calling it babysitting)

agnes and san make up– san still isn't giving her the full context of what went down back then, but she figures now isn't the best time to prod her about that

she's the new leader of the shattered hearts!
well. more of a mascot. but invaluable nonetheless

but she has taken what charlie taught her and built on it to a ridiculous degree, borrowing any and all techniques from other types of mahou
like what san has! she thinks the knives are cool and has literally started a collection of Pointy Shit to emulate her ability, even if it was difficult to fully get the hang of

mari is only half-listening to all this but after a bit she starts realizing something
she's. seen agnes before

holy shit. that's the fucking guy.

agnes catches mari staring and she also begins to recognize
a good, good while back she had botched a heist and, in a moment of weakness, decided to brute force her way into getting some cash
she didn't mean to nearly kill mari but when it came to pass, she just made a break for it

don't get her wrong! the other club members were pretty fuckin upset once they found out.
but everyone figured mari had actually died, and from the odd way she was taken out, they wouldn't be under suspicion. it would all come to pass. oh well.

agnes didn't expect her to be the same person who would decimate a building-sized incomprehensible monster.

the two are clearly getting super uncomfortable and just Do Not Address The Thing. this seemingly doesn't become apparent enough to where either sanguine or danza say anything, at least not in that moment

ACT 2.5, RETURN TO SENDER: Resurrection, Too (but not really)

so meanwhileee
phoebe she is a little sad

mercedes is gone :( she's not super sure what happened but whatever it was, it brings into question whether or not she deserved getting cooked
she can't bring back the dead, though. but it does get her thinking

when she saw carmen fight (THAT was something), she noticed she and mercedes shared a similar magic vibe, with some differences in usage and appearance. it could very well be that they fell under the same category of mahou
(this is not a unique observation. you can imagine how the internet looked after it. you can imagine carmen's life after it, and just revealing herself in general)

so if mercedes got that insane, carm-tier boost in power during Whatever That Was, was she invincible then, as well? did she actually die from the blast?

...did renee die from the blast?

alright that's enough going through this train of thought. phoebe heads to the carter residence enlisting the help of local occult jackass, leslie (both are reporting back to blues occasionally)
she asks carmen "um uh. halp. you might have that certain je nais se quois that'll get this to happen" and carmen is mildly concerned with the idea of bringing back a mahou that could literally vaporise people but sure nothing she can't handle she would like to think

as an aside. so like remember how i mentioned tie removal fucking with your body so that's been happening with cici for a while huh?
if your wondering, the clone thing is carmen's regen going off the shits and spontaneously just making New Carmens when the injury is super bad
carmen also has like zero self-preservation now so like you can imagine how things went down

that constant injury and death also stunted said "fucking with body" several times over so once she recently managed to get that regen under control again, she's beginning to Change a bit more noticeably (she has been changing but it's either just new abilities like that sleep paralysis trick with harley, a change that's not immediately apparent, or she just Didn't Fuckin Question It)

but yea anyways

they are figuring things out they are fiddling the riddle harley checks up on the three and they all kinda look like shit they are taking a quick break and then back to figuring out!!

finally. phoebe gets to be a necromancer (it's technically not necromancy. but it still presents the same hubris and we take those babey)

she and carmen manage to drag mercedes out of... some place, quickly releasing the magic they used to get her here

mercedes is a normal human though. didn't plan for that but it makes things a little less complicated (phoebe guesses all the mahou-y bits of mercedes' self was lost during "resurrection". suppose that's one way to reverse it)

she is also All Sorts Of Fucked Up right now so she gets some time to recover there, eventually going to new north city to make a very awkward confession to her rival

and everyone gets to have a little bit of hijinks as a treat

ACT -1: Some Context

now...
let's take the timeline back a bit

and by a bit i mean A Lot

a long time ago...
there was a messenger for the gods.
but the gods had stopped communicating after some time, so they were left with all the free time they'd like.

they used this to observe others. they're nosy they can't help it, they like seeing interactions and stuff go down

especially if it's some dire shit y'know? more interesting than mere drama lmao

after some bouncing around through space and time they eventually come across earth and humanity
funny lil guys. they wanna see what makes em tick
so they started driving people nuts (as you do) and watched everything go to shit

which is cool and all but after a few rounds of alternate earths it gets stale

new idea: lend someone a bit of their power and see what happens
can't exactly just brute force that because they'll explode or something. so get together a little ritual to properly install that shit

it's not perfect but it works, and gives a nice shortcut to the human's head
the messenger gets someone to do it and wow they have powers!

they then kickstart the destruction of the planet. let's fucking gooooooo *kills them*

rinse and repeat. different powers, different people, different circumstances, make it interesting

ah.
they um
they lost their ability to move through timelines (got stolen, whoops)

that SUCKS but they'll just take care of this last earth and i dunno. start bullying other planets

they do the thing
throw together a humansona and get this one cursed teenager on board (tragic!)

look away for a moment

where did they go. what the fuck why aren't they connected anymore

usually they catch this sort of thing in time but not this time
FUUUCK that's going to come back and bite them in the ass. she's already built to be invincible so she's on their level of unkillable now. she calmed down too this is lame

alright that's chill. interesting even. what if two of them (just don't piss off the first one too much or else she'll actually hunt them down)

throw together another humansona and get this other guy on board

look away for a moment
why are there more than two.
what the fuck is that.

so those gods from before have been dragged into this (they don't seem to notice for now)

okay that's pretty annoying. this is kinda their thing, and they figured anything like this happening was nigh-impossible but sure whatever. ok. these guys aren't even remotely as powerful they could go down easy

guess not having proper magic training makes you susceptible to flukes lmao

they get a bit silly. roll with the developments. fuck with things going on elsewhere in addition to their personal blorbo which is gradually getting Worse

but they're beginning to realize the progress is getting out of hand, and said blorbo is barely making a death quota what the hell
not to mention they can feel those gods becoming a bit more aware of the situation

...yeah no this is a bit much. the violent tendency upscaling is not doing much this bitch is stubborn

even a couple other mahous are following in the footsteps of the previous girl from the 90s, which could be a huge issue

they may need to just end this here and now. sure it'll screw up their life but better than whatever's going on currently

here they go...!

they failed :\ took a ridiculous fuckin beating as well
and they're pretty sure they just got robbed again (they grabbed the second girl before fucking off, but she's gone now)

whatever! this is earth's problem now
they'll just sit here and wait to recover...