ASH: Shadow Girls #3 - The Presence of Presents

[Drew Nilium]

On 12/25/21 2:06 PM, Dave Van Domelen wrote:
>       [cover is split four ways, with a small black box in the center
>        of the image, tied with ribbon.  The color of the ribbon is
>        different in each quadrant, and a different room is in the
>        background of each quadrant.  The colors are dark red, dark blue,
>        dark green, and dark pink.]

Dargenta :o

>       Maddie walked to one of the windows and placed her palm on the
> lockplate, opening the window to the cool night air.  "No one looks up in
> this town anymore, no one should notice you.

I mean, it's New York, did they before

>       "Okay, let's see what you have to say, creepy benefactor person."
>       She picked up the letter and carefully opened it with a small blade that
> one would never have noticed she was carrying prior to that moment.  The
> letter was neatly typed, either on a manual typewriter or on a printer that
> did a very good job of looking like the output of a typewriter.
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Greetings, Ms. Chin:

Welcome to Rokkenjima. I am Beatrice, this family's consulting alchemist, under 
the employ of Kinzo-sama...

>       By now, you have likely heard at least one of the stories of how I
> gifted several teenaged girls with the power to make a difference.

They got the touch.

>       My name is private, but you may have heard of my former heroic identity,
> that of Professor Shade.

I dunno if you should trust this shady character

> Should you agree, there is further
> data hidden inside the files I provided to the girls, unlocked with the
> passcode MORNING STARS.  I hope you will help them cast some small light in
> the darkness covering the city.

awwwwww <3


>       Professor Shade I

Ballsy.

>       Fine.  Probably time to hire another manager for Grocery Store anyway,
> the sixty hour work weeks were getting old anyway, and it's not like she
> couldn't afford it.  She just preferred to look like a regular small business
> owner just getting by.
>       Secret identities even when she wasn't a vigilante.  Couldn't get out of
> the game if she tried.

Heeheehee. Good times. |>
> There were always some tunnels that were officially closed, whether for
> repairs or because they'd been replaced and it was easier to seal them than
> to fill them or recondition them for something else.  Add in the secret
> building projects under the city during the 1990s, some of which involved
> divine alteration of the bedrock itself, and it was technically possible to
> get almost anywhere underground without using the official subway system.

Just watch out for the anthropomorphic reptiles.

>       There was a faint "tup" of sneakers hitting pavement nearby, and she
> turned to see Tetra-Red emerge from the shadows.

smh if your feet don't go "tup"

>       Maddie nodded, and for the second time that night found herself hauled
> rapidly up into the air, landing a little more gracefully this time.  Julie
> was getting the hang of this, she thought.

Awwwww :> <3

>       "And then there's Octa-Green," nod from a forest green shadow with a
> green eight-sided gem on her left fist, "and Icosa-Pink."
>       "Hi!" bubbled a cerise shadow with a pink twenty-sided gem on her
> sternum.

Yay :D

>       "Hello, everyone," Maddie waved.  "Our creeper is named Professor Shade,
> he claims to be a TwenCen hero looking to pass on his legacy.  Old white guy,
> probably doesn't even realize how bad this all looks."

X3 <3 <3 <3

>       "Allow me," Hexa-Blue stepped forwards.  "Julie...Tetra-Red...tends to
> digress, and we haven't got all night."  Her tone was very clipped and
> precise, like someone working hard to get rid of her accent.  Was she ashamed
> of her origins, or did she just have a better grasp of the secret identity
> thing than Julie did?

Heeheehee

>       The first thing you need to understand is that most of the problems with
> MUSS Two go back to the Twentieth Century, Harlem has traditionally been
> shortchanged by city services.  You might have read about the protests that
> were required in the Seventies to even get trash picked up.  The Boys of
> Pain have actually been fairly good about growing up and becoming the
> government, although the Aunties of Pain have some small responsibility for
> that.

Oooooh, yes, historical context, I love it! <3

>       The gems primarily enhance us physically, to a standard that has come to
> be known as "Grind Type" in the informal paranormal literature.

Heeheehee

> We generally
> also get taller and in better physical condition, gaining or losing mass
> where it would be appor...appropriate.

hmmmm interesting.

> Perhaps to a harmful degree...I assure you that I do not
> normally talk like a stereotypical science fiction android, and Julie does
> have *some* sense of self-preservation when not "powered up."

Aw. X3

>       So, I got the gem too, but you already figured that part out, yah?  My
> parents are always leaving me little and not so little gifts because they're
> not around much on account of being workaholics like so many who survived the
> False Rapture.

Awwwwww.

> But I figured the box was from
> them, and ooh, a pink twenty sided die?  I don't really do the tee tee arr
> pee gee thing, but I like pink.

heeheehee I like her.

> But it didn't have any numbers which was
> pretty weird, but it seemed to have a heartbeat when I picked it up, so of
> course I held it against my chest to feel it.  Who wouldn't?  Okay, I know
> you wouldn't Green.

X3

>       Then I noticed the dongle...dongle dongle dongle...hee.

heeheeheehee X3 <3

> I asked him if I could be a cyborg when I'm older and he told
> me to hold off because of the potential legal issues when it comes to aliens
> and I guess he figures I might grow up to be important enough to deal with
> aliens?  Or he's a worrywart.  But this gem is so much better than being a
> cyborg!

I love her so much

>       Blue forgot to mention that I got a special power that the others
> didn't, or maybe she still doesn't BELIEVE me that I have it, but I can get a
> sort of ping off the other gems when I get close enough, or they're being
> used a lot.  Maybe it's because my gem is so close to my heart?  Or maybe I'm
> just the only one open enough to my gem to feel it.

Heart! :D

> I've been trying to help her and Dominique
> and Jessica come out of their shells and try to make more friends with the
> other students instead of being a little clique of "immigrants" because I
> mean America is all about being a melting pot, even if I guess technically
> we're not in America right now.  Culturally this is still America, yah?  Jess
> is the hardest nut to crack, I don't think she trusts anyone, but that just
> makes me try harder.

Ohhhhh, this archetype. <3

>       The second time I passed...Octa-Green...in the hall, though, I knew it
> had to be something special.  I could feel it in my gem, that it was her.
> After school, I made sure to follow her and once we were more or less alone I
> asked her if she'd gotten a strange gem lately and she was shocked and said
> YES!  I could feel it, even though she had it hidden.

Eeeeeheehee. :D That's amazing.

>       "The next day, Pink and Green found me and Tammy at lunch and Pink
> REALLY SUBTLY...not...started talking about gems and dice and things," Julie
> recalled.

X3

>       Maddie suppressed a shudder.  "Mentor" still meant something entirely
> different to her, thanks to the time she spent in Warden's life.

Yeesh, indeed.

> "There's
> also the fifth girl to find.  There's five gaps in the pendant I received,
> and there's a missing shape."
>       "Or two," Pink interjected.  "I'm not a lot into games, but I know
> there's still ten-sided and twelve-sided dice."
>       Blue shook her head.  "I see where Miss Chin is going with this.  The
> fact that these are shaped like dice is coincidence.  They're Platonic
> Solids, the five 'perfect' solids made up of copies of a single regular
> polygon.  Three with triangles, one with squares, one with pentagons.  We're
> missing the twelve-sided dodecahedron."

I remember I first learned about these the last day of fourth grade and I was 
amazed.

>       "Guys, I've tried and I've tried, and I don't feel any other gems," Pink
> protested.  "If there is another one out there, they must not be wearing it
> yet."
>       "Stands to reason at least one teenaged girl in town would have a
> healthy sense of paranoia," Julie shrugged.

I mean, legit

>       "Well, I guess we don't call ourselves Dice Squad, then," Pink sighed.
>       "That was never going to happen," Green frowned.

X3

>       Maddie pulled the letter out of her pocket.  "As a matter of fact, I
> think it does.  He gave me a code phrase to unlock extra data hidden in the
> files he gave you, and that phrase is 'Morning Stars.'  Sounds like a decent
> name for a team."
>       "Do I get to hit paragangers with a spiked mace?" Octa-Green grinned
> wickedly.

X3 <3

>       The "whole Marx fiasco" sums up the events of ASH #89-92, "Kheper's
> Path," in which Devlin Marx tried to evade death by transferring his mind
> into a cloned Anchor body.  It ended poorly, and Hellhound was forced to
> disband in its wake.

Mmmmmhm. X3;

>       Okay, so...narrative voices, or "Here's something I really regret
> deciding would be cool."

X3 I think it is cool!

> And Icosa-Pink...I kinda shot
> myself in the foot there, because I already had Tetra-Red talk like a bubbly
> and easily distracted Pinkie Pie sort last issue.  So I decided on more of a
> rambling "old lady" style, influenced by Pink's great-aunt.

Fascinating. Honestly, I kinda see my own conversational style in parts of it. X3

> And yes, there
> will be one more POV narration scene when the fifth girl is found, but I
> think I can put up with it for one more scene.  After that, I don't think
> I'll be using this device again.  Unless I do, at which point I will kick
> myself for doing it again.

Heeheehee. I liked it. :>

Drew "good character work, for srs" Nilium