Magical March 8: Cocoa Blizzard

Magical March 8

Cocoa Blizzard

Mark A Davis

319

Sita held up her hand, upon which a silver ring sparkled in the sun.  Several diamonds -- pink, white, chocolate -- were arranged to suggest an ice cream sundae.

"What do you think?" Sita asked.  Here on earth, when they weren't acting as magical girl advisers, she and Lakshmi appeared human.  Sita had long, straight black hair and wore a loose white dress tied at the waist and leather sandals.  Lakshmi wore jeans and a white crop top, and had long pink hair.

"It's an ice cream sundae," Lakshmi said.  "And our theme for today is dessert, so I'm guessing this relates to our next magical girl...?"

"For this magical girl," said Sita, "I decided that we ought to craft a transformation item...."

Lakshmi frowned.  "Surely we've given each of them henshin pens or magical staves that shrink down to be worn as necklaces?"

Sita nodded.  "But I like to mix it up.  This item is a ring, specifically crafted to transform the user into a ice cream sundae-themed magical girl.  I know a jeweler who is an excellent magician as well.  She did the work, and I helped."

"It certainly looks enticing," Lakshmi said.  "I'm craving ice cream now."

"I'm glad you like it," said Sita.  "It took a lot of work to create.  Three days of hard work to craft the ring itself, and one entire night of intense spellwork for my friend and I to enchant it.  The materials were not cheap, either.  But the end result is that the magical girl's outfit and powers are all contained in this one simple ring.  With it, she can transform into a dessert-themed magical girl.

"I picked out the name Cocoa Blizzard, and I designed the dress to resemble ice cream and hot fudge chocolate with whipped cream and cocoa sprinkles...."  She paused to open a virtual computer pad and flip to a concept sketch.  "See?  I really like how the design turned out."

"Very nice!" Lakshmi said, looking over her shoulder.  "You know, Sita, I really enjoy working with you.  You've always got your crap together.  It's like I don't have to do any of the work."

"You didn't do any of the work," Sita said.  "Also, angels shouldn't say crap."

"Well, I could have said shi...."

"Nor that word either," Sita said, interrupting.  "Where is Icarus, anyway?"

"He's arranging a meeting with someone who's going to help with our next assignment," said Lakshmi.  "He wouldn't tell me who or what, but the theme will be music.  Apparently he's doing the same thing as you... taking over and doing his own thing, then he'll tell me about it after.  I guess I'm acting as a sort of coordinator or manager here -- the person who doesn't actually do any of the work."

"Your job," said Sita, "will be to locate our magical girl candidate, and hand her the ring."

***

A young girl named Veronica Serio stood on a street corner, staring down through a steel grate into the sewer below.  She had red hair and freckles, and was wearing jeans shorts and a ruffled yellow top.  With her was a snow white cat and a floating ball of fur with large brown eyes and rabbit's ears.

"I'm sorry," said the girl.  "It just slipped...."

"In retrospect, Lakshmi," said the floating ball of fur, "you might have chosen to not hand over the ring near a sewer grate."

"I don't suppose," the white cat replied, "that you built a magical recall feature into your ring?  Like we have for the henshin pens and staves?"

"I... may have forgot that part," Sita admitted.

"Well I'm not going down there to retrieve it," said Lakshmi.  "Get my beautiful white fur all covered in muck?  No thanks!  I vote that Icarus goes."

"Icarus is not here," Sita said.  "Nor do I have arms in this form.  Nor, as you pointed out several times, have you done much of anything on this particular assignment...."

"Oh," said Lakshmi.  "Right."  She wrinkled her nose.  "Well shit...."

FINI