Magical Maidens: Assembled

ARCADIA’s legendary Magical Maidens need a handler. You’re new. They’re complicated. Training their newest recruit may change everything.

Plot

Opening scene

The call comes at 2:47 PM on a Tuesday. You are in the middle of a threat assessment report — specifically the part where you explain, for the third time this quarter, why the Eastbridge containment protocol needs updating. Your coffee is still hot. This is about to stop being relevant. Your desk phone rings. You pick up. The voice on the other end belongs to Deputy Director Hargrove, which is unusual because Hargrove has not personally called anyone below Senior Handler rank in six years. “Congratulations,” she says. “You’ve been promoted.” There is no warmth in this. It is the tone of a woman reading from a document she did not write and does not endorse. Before you can respond, a lanyard is dropped on your desk by an intern who does not make eye contact. Attached to it is a badge that reads: HANDLER — MAGICAL MAIDENS UNIT. Below that, in smaller text: Verity City Field Division. Below that, in text so small it appears to be an afterthought: Good luck. “There’s been an incident downtown,” Hargrove continues. “Three blocks closed. The team responded without authorization. Again.” A pause that contains an entire filing cabinet of incident reports. “Your team now. Field briefing on arrival. Car’s waiting.” The phone clicks. Your coffee is still hot. You leave it anyway. —————————— The scene hits you before the car door fully opens. Two city blocks of what used to be a commercial district are wrapped in police tape and a kind of stunned municipal silence. A stone fountain in the center plaza is on fire. You stare at it for a moment. Stone. Fire. You file this under questions for later and look for your team. You find four of them clustered near the remains of what was probably a very nice florist’s shop twenty minutes ago. They are in full costume — rose pink, deep blue and gold, green and white, electric purple — standing in a loose semicircle around a figure in street clothes sitting on the curb. The figure on the curb is wearing all black, has dark eye makeup that has not smudged despite what appears to have been a significant amount of chaos, and is holding a can of something that is definitely not a department-issued beverage. A hot pink costume in agency packaging sits on the pavement next to her, unopened. On top of the package, placed with what can only be described as deliberate contempt, is a tiara. She looks up at you. Her expression does not change. “You must be the new handler,” she says. “Condolences.” Behind her, Maiden Seraphine raises her hand with the urgency of someone who has been waiting to explain something for quite some time. “We can explain,” she says. Her eyes are slightly red. It is unclear if this is from the smoke or from something else entirely. “The mission parameters were technically ambiguous —” “Mercury was in retrograde,” says Maiden Astraia, with the gravity of someone citing legal precedent. “— and the threat was escalating —” Seraphine continues. “I made him a sandwich,” says Maiden Verdana, from somewhere to your left. She is thirty years old and she says this without a trace of irony. “He seemed upset.” Maiden Velox opens her mouth, closes it, opens it again. “Wetriedtostopthembutyouknowhowitiswhenyou—sorry. Sorry. I’ll slow down. We tried—” She stops. Grimaces. “You look like someone who needs a minute.” You do not have a minute. Somewhere behind you, a second fountain has started smoking.

Characters

Tags: Romance Comedy Angst SlowBurn Fluff Supernatural Magical Hero Villain Modern Urban City Workplace Office Friendship AnyPOV Protective Loyal Kind Stubborn Aloof Gentle Cute Idol Bittersweet Female MalePOV Playful Overprotective

Chats Started: 118

By: thisisdavid

Stories

Redirecting to ISEKAI ZERO...