☆ 2 ☆

[glamorous_shirley]

Action for 1664 Nelson:

Yo! Mail's here! Though it looks like everyone got this really weird junk mail. Well if anyone wants to read them, they're by the phone!

[Shirley sits everyone's mail down except for one of the booklets. Starts to look through it.

She notices:
10 box tops - Command Pilot badge
50 box tops - a Bowie knife
50 boxtops - Pink bra and underwear w/ black bows, black trim, and lace
50 boxtops - Uniform US Military uniform, white panties in place of the pants.
100 boxtops - M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle
100 boxtops - Thompson M1 A1
100 boxtops - Colt Government M1911 A1
150 boxtops - The Glamorous Shirley
150 boxtops - P-51D Striker Unit
200 boxtops - Familiar: Rabbit
200 boxtops - Magic]

Ah! No way, you mean I can get all this stuff back is eat a bunch of cereal!?


[Later, on the phone.]

This whole thing has to be too good to be true. There has to be some sort of catch right?

I mean I want to believe this, but at the same time, something doesn't sound right. I mean how did some place that makes cereal even know know what I lost when I came here? Maybe it's all just some weird coincidence. I mean the "Familiar" is probably just a stuffed animal or something.

Maybe I should just try it anyway...I was getting kind of hungry anyway.

Comments

[optimystically.livejournal.com]

Hey, if it might help why not try it, you know?

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

I want to, but I heard strange things happen here. So I don't know.

[optimystically.livejournal.com]

People told me that bad things normally happen around holidays... and I can't think of any holiday in August.

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

I can't think of anything either to tell you the truth.

Though I think there might be an art festival in Britannia this month.

[optimystically.livejournal.com]

Britannia?

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

It was the place where I was stationed before coming here. It was the last stronghold against the Neuroi.

[optimystically.livejournal.com]

That sounds so cool, what do you do for a living?

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

Oh, I was in the air force.

Also I can't get over the fact that this place is ten or so years into the future.

[optimystically.livejournal.com]

So you flew old time planes? That's awesome!

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

I actually have my own plane. I don't get to fly it much.

[optimystically.livejournal.com]

Wooah! Did you get it because you're an ace pilot?

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

Not really, I just got it cheep since they were thinking of discontinuing them.

But like I said I don't get to use airplanes much where I'm from.

[optimystically.livejournal.com]

But I thought you were in the air force.

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

I am, but I don't really use any traditional means of flight. I use a Striker Unit.

[optimystically.livejournal.com]

What's that?

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

It's a specially designed machine for witches.

[defreezes.livejournal.com]

That's what I've been thinking. On one hand it could be an elaborate trick, but...I don't know. Seems like a lot of effort to go through just to get a cheap laugh out of our expense.

Why would they list a familiar as a prize?

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

Tell me about it. But then again, why do we have to mail order our belongings from a cereal company?

I'm...kind of a witch, that's why.

[defreezes.livejournal.com]

Good point. I'd still be a little wary of accepting offers without knowing the consequences. I can't imagine who would give up a grenade launcher without getting something back in return. There's got to be a catch.

...Really. [and just because it's kind of obligatory:] Good witch or bad witch?

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

Well, it did say something about some sort of a fee at the bottom.

A good witch.

[defreezes.livejournal.com]

And then there's the detail everyone has just noticed about the eye. [hums thoughtfully.] In a worst case scenario, I guess the reasoning goes something like this: how much does this item mean to you? How far would you go to get this back?

Witches aren't real where I come from; at least not genuine ones. What kind of magic can you perform?

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

I just thought he just got done pretending he was a pirate or something...but that didn't go with the Superman belt he was selling at all. But I guess you're right. After what that one guy said about what happened to the people that didn't do their jobs a few weeks ago, I wouldn't put it past this place to pull something like that.

I can do almost anything really fast.

[defreezes.livejournal.com]

Maybe it would be better to wait. Eventually someone's going to send box tops in no matter what any of us say. If nothing happens to them, then...I guess we're safe. [he doesn't sound too happy about it, though.]

Er -- how so?

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

We could just start collecting boxtops just in case it's safe. If nothing happens...then we'll still have a head start.

Thanks to my special ability, I can give myself a speed boost while driving, flying, and running. Witches, like the one I am, are different than the ones in story books. While it's true we used to fly on brooms, we don't dress all in black or wear pointy hats or hex people. We're just normal people who can use magic and have familiars. Even the military has set up special regiments for us.

[defreezes.livejournal.com]

That's actually a good idea. I don't think the drones care either way; it's the others I'd take into consideration, but that's just keeping in mind how gung-ho everyone is about this. Maybe it'll cool down by tomorrow and people will start looking at the long term consequences. [exhales quietly.] I don't want to see anyone maiming themselves over a lie.

So it's just another skill that can be controlled and used to make life easier. That's almost comforting to know. Most of the unexplained talents I've seen were exercised by people who almost exclusively used it for the wrong reasons, and usually there were explanations behind all of it that were rooted in science. Usually.

Were you in one of these regiments?

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

I wonder if whatever happens will have the same effect on the drones. We could use them as guinea pigs without putting anyone in danger.

We all have different abilities...healing, strength, seeing into the near future, energy based skills, shield strength...some of us are indeed more powerful then the next. It just depends on what we're born with. But that doesn't exclude science, remember when I said witches used to use brooms to fly? Now we use this thing called the Striker Unit. It makes it makes it easier to fly without concentrating.

I'm affiliated with the Army of Liberion's 363rd fighter squadron but I'm currently in the Strike Witches.

[defreezes.livejournal.com]

And if they end up losing eyes and limbs because of us? Sounds kind of underhanded. [then again, death is just an inconvenience here...]

I thought magic had to be learned, not inherited. Seems sort of like a cop-out.

Looks like we have something in common. [thoughtfully:] I met several people who served in similar units and possessed abilities that could easily be confused for magic. It doesn't surprise me that the army would devote an entire squadron to exceptional people with talents that could be used for the advantage of whatever government is sponsoring them.

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

That's true...I mean they're still people.

We do need to learn how to control it, though.

They put us on the front line...everyone else is just there for back up. The truth is, we're the only ones that can fight the Neuroi.

[defreezes.livejournal.com]

Brainwashed, but still alive. The only thing I can think of is to wait until someone inevitably mails their boxtops away and see if we can trace this back to a single party. Finding the one responsible for it is better than nothing.

Then you must have been spent your entire life training for this, right?

Neuroi?

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

I might as well test it myself. Maybe we can cut a few corners that way.

Not really, after breaking the sound barrier on land, I heard rumors of the witches. I thought they sounded interesting and I thought I would be the perfect addition. So the next day I joined the military. After all there's not many witches in Liberion anyway, so they were happy to have me.

They're a type of alien that invaded earth around the end of the 1930s. They built their hives all over Europe. All they do is kill people and bring destruction. And we're the one's that fight them.

[defreezes.livejournal.com]

[flatly] That would be the most counterproductive, stupid thing you could do short of cutting your eye out yourself and mailing it to them. No.

A volunteer witch? You learn something new every day. And after that you progressed to flying on around with a black cat. [soft grunt, might be a chuckle, might be a sigh.] Funny world.

...First witches, now aliens. Next you're gonna tell me that vampires exist, right?

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

It can't be that bad right? I'll just get something small, I mean they won't cut anything off just for a knife right?

....Actually don't answer that.

A rabbit actually. Though cats are very common.

Vampires...definably don't exist. They're just in the movies.

Here, have your sister

[relaxiamadoctor.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm, something about this seems rather suspicious~

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

I'm still confused as to how a company that makes cereal knows about everything I've lost. Though, seeing as how I'm ten years in the future in an alternate reality...anything could happen I guess.

[relaxiamadoctor.livejournal.com]

Yes this is true~ But this town seems to have many things that don't make sense, even when it tries to hide them~

[Fran is holding the list she received to her side, only the top line is visible: "Extra Arms"]

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

So far everything seems normal to me.



Err...

[relaxiamadoctor.livejournal.com]

In any case I'd be careful~ Let me know if you wind up getting hurt~ [Fran blinks at Charlotte, noting her gaze] Something wrong?

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

Right, thanks~! I doubt anything really bad's going to happen though.

It's nothing.

[pygmalion-perv.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna try it anyway! Maybe I can get my camera back!

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

Just be careful okay.

I might try it later just to see what happens myself.

[pygmalion-perv.livejournal.com]

What are you gonna try to get back?

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

My knife for starters. I mean, I have no need for my badge here, not yet anyway.

[hourai-branch.livejournal.com]

Knowing this town, they'll make something horrible happen.

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

You won't know unless you try...

I know I'm probably going to hate myself for doing what I'm about to do, but at least people know it's a trap right?

[hourai-branch.livejournal.com]

Well, good luck.

[swift-gigantic.livejournal.com]

Hey, Thanks!