Trente-unième Grimoire

[wizardoftheweek]

Some of you really need to learn better self control... -HYPOCRITICAL STATEMENT OF THE YEAR, but she wouldn't be Patchy if she didn't start with something like that.-

I am once again with a drone father. It seems I am destined to outlast them all. Which is just as well, I suppose. My birth-father wasn't exactly always there for me either... -Just

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[adropofjupiter]

[There's a long silence punctuated only by ragged breathing.

Marisa wanted so badly to see Patchouli, but no... not now. Not like this. She can't... she can't... she can't hurt her... She wasn't good enough for her anyways... Patchy loved the magic, not the witch... never the witch. That's what the voices kept telling her. Over and over and over and over and over.

She needed to master the magic she had, this healing. Learn it, turn it inside out, break it down, MAKE IT FULLY HERS... Then... then maybe Patchy will love the witch and not the magic...]

It's not ready... s-stay away. It's not controlled... don't want to hurt-- CAN'T. NO. I lov--

[There's the sound of something cracking, easily heard over how wispy and dry Marisa's voice sounds, and then there's static, a few clicks and that annoying operator's voice telling Patchouli that if she wants to make a call, she should hang up and dial again.]

[wizardoftheweek]

-Just as she feared, really... Marisa. Always so headstrong. Never knowing when to give up. Instead of calling again, Patchy simply focused a certain spell of hers, one usually used to find ones way via the stars. It would bring her directly to Marisa, no matter where she hid. This was something that needed to be resolved in person...-

[adropofjupiter]

[No spell was really needed for Marisa was the same place she'd been most of the last two weeks - locked away in her room on the second floor of her house on Taylor Road having just relocated herself there from the living room where the phone was.

There was many signs of the curse visible on the outside of the building, from the cracked sidewalk to the paths of dead grass. A few windows had broken glass, including the window belonging to the witch from which a brilliant yellow light shown intermittently.

Be careful of the porch to the house if you come inside, Patchy. It's got quite a few broken planks and the doorknob is half-melted.]

[wizardoftheweek]

-Screw the front door. We don't have time for that. Patchouli floats to the window, blowing it open with a single spell.-

Marisa Kirisame!

[adropofjupiter]

[There wasn't much to blow open with the way the window was damaged. The bright yellow light cut out, plunging the room into darkness save for the ambient light coming in from outside.

Marisa doesn't respond, moving across the broken glass inside, to hide behind her bed. There she couldn't be seen from the window. This wasn't right... timing was wrong.... She didn't have control over it all yet. Maybe Patchouli would go home if she thought the witch wasn't in there. The walls inside the room were covered in magical formulas, the witch's messy scribbles showing how much work she put into trying to break the healing spell down to its base components.

And there's also the symbols for a warding spell burned into the wall, circling the whole room. It's inactive, as Marisa lacks access to her defensive magic, but one glance shows the ward is designed to contain within, not keep out. All that accompanied by the scent of rotting food and faint blood

[wizardoftheweek]

-The more Patchouli observed the situation, the more frustrated she became. This was absolutely ridiculous... it had gone on long enough.-

Marisa Kirisame, just what do you intend to accomplish with this? Are you really so willing to destroy yourself?

[adropofjupiter]

I need to control it. Almost... Almost... I almost have it. I can endure it.

[Marisa got up from behind the bed and stumbled toward the wall with the formulas on it, coming into view. Her hat looked ragged, like something had been clawing at it with as torn as the ribbon was and the brim tattered. Her hair was limp and dull in color and she clearly had lost weight with the way her clothes sagged on hr body.

She put a hand on the wall to steady herself, dried blood coating her forearm, and cracks spread out across the drywall. The witch shook her head, focused on the wall with a mad look in her eyes. This was the key... She had to figure out this last structure and then the spell would truly be hers. She concentrated the foreign magic in her right hand, glowing that brilliant yellow, and the sheer power of the spell - far beyond any level of healing Marisa was capable of - washed through the room.]

Just one more day... one more day and it'll be mine.

[wizardoftheweek]

That's enough! You're running head first in the grave, Marisa!

-Drastic times called for drastic measures. Patchouli's grimoire opened, pages rapidly turning as she prepared a spell. She had to end this madness... she had to get her Marisa back.-

[adropofjupiter]

[At the sound of that book open, Marisa turned toward the window, eyes narrowed dangerously and she hissed far more like a caged animal than anything else.]

So now you want to take it from me?! They're right! They're all right! I won't let you take it away.

[She scooped something up off the floor and made to lunge at Patchouli. Then the light from the other magician's spell caught on the metal of the steak knife in Marisa's hand, drawing the witch's attention. Something shifted in her mind, clicked, and her eyes went wide.

She stopped and stared at the knife before dropping it. The next moment she was on her knees tearing at her hat, trying to rip it off.]

No... NO... NO! Shut up, shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!

[wizardoftheweek]

-Marisa had, perhaps not intentionally, just revealed to Patchouli her target. Several small glyphs formed, each powering up a laser that soon fired directly at the hat on Marisa's head. Nothing meant to destroy, jut to get it off her damn head.-

[adropofjupiter]

[If Marisa wasn't yelling at the voices in her head to shut up, she might've been able to warn Patchouli that such a tactic wouldn't work. The witch had tried it herself about a week back. The spell indeed hit the hat, but refused to let go of Marisa.

It knocked her backwards rather comically until she hit the wall with a cry of surprise. There she stayed, eyes completely unfocused as Patchouli only suceeded in stunning Marisa.]

[wizardoftheweek]

A barrier. Troublesome.

Marisa Kirisame, relinquish that hat immediately.

[adropofjupiter]

[It takes her a moment to respond, hand coming up to pull at her hat again, though her movements were lethargic.]

I can't...

[wizardoftheweek]

You mean to tell me the Witch of Love can't? I wasn't aware that "can't" was in your dictionary. Are you saying you would rather perish, or even destroy that which you love most, before relinquishing that power? That power you had no right to in the first place? Think, Marisa Kirisame. Think...

-It was tough love... but she had to reach her. She had to appeal to those emotions she knew that Marisa had in such great amount...-

[adropofjupiter]

I don't know how-- It won't come off-- The voices, they-- SHUT UP!

[Marisa winced in pain, hands going to her temples and she hit her head hard against the wall once, twice, three times. It was so loud... They were all yelling at her, trying to keep her from hearing Patchouli. Blood from a cut above her eye dripped down the side of her face and pattered onto the floor as she leaned over.]

Shut up, shut up, shut up... I love her so don't you dare-- Don't care of she doesn't-- NO! I WILL NOT--

[Hands go once again to her hat, a fireball spell forming quickly to blast her hat at point blank in another attempt to incinerate it. And again the hat was impervious to the magic, leaving the scent of singed hair in the room as Marisa whimpers and slumps over on her side with tears in her eyes.]

Patchy... I don't want to hurt you...

[wizardoftheweek]

... You will if you do not return the stolen magic. You will destroy me. Destroy Alice. Destroy everything you hold dear. Your ruin will be your own making...