Magical March 22: Bedroom Confessions

Magical March 22

Bedroom Confessions

Mark A Davis

333

Ysolde was a beautiful angel -- well, technically former angel, having been excommunicated from the Angelic Council -- with long, straight lavender hair, large white wings, and who wore a flowing white gown.  You couldn't look at her and not think 'angel'.  At the moment she was standing on a street in Denver, CO, with Octava, another former angel who appeared in human form as a young boy of maybe fourteen years with long blonde hair.  He was wearing a tee-shirt and jeans.

Sunlight glinted off glass towers high overhead.  Here in the valley between buildings, out of direct sunlight, the air was cool.  It was a busy afternoon in downtown Denver.  Cars honked and rolled past.  Shoppers and office workers mingled on the street.  Nearby a delivery driver unloaded boxes from a double-parked truck.  A McDonald's burger box lay in the gutter, along with the usual city street grime.

People stared.  "Pssst!" Octava hissed.  "You wings...."

Ysolde raised an eyebrow.  There was a quick flash of light, and she was just a normal woman with brown hair, dressed in a business suit and skirt.

"My apologies.  It has been some time since I was out on assignment," she said.  "Now, I want you to go about your business while I observe.  There have been several reports of irregularities, and I wish to get to the bottom of the problem."

Octava looked like a boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar.  "Right," he said after a moment.  "Well, Daesdamona and I have been working on a magical girl group...."

"Indeed," said Ysolde.  "The Europa Sailor Senshi, I believe you call them?"

"Yes, right," Octava said.

"And they are combating a dark magical girl group?"

"Not a group sent from the Dark Magical Girl Division of Hell, that I know of," said Octava.  "Not magical girls at all, really.  There's a Queen Sable of Titan, and her minions are all men -- princes named after other moons of Saturn."

"I see," said Ysolde.  "Magical girls who are reincarnated from an ancient Kingdom on Europa and the other moons of Jupiter, whose enemies come from the moons of Saturn?"

"That seems to be it," he said.

"And where did these enemies come from?" asked Ysolde.

"Um..." Octava said.  "They're... in the back story that we created for the group?"

"You made them up, and then they just appeared?" asked Ysolde.  "That's most irregular."

Octava turned and headed into an apartment high rise.  Ysolde followed.

"Well," he said, "Icarus has a theory about that.  It kind of happened to him too... this evil dwarf appeared after he created a magical girl based on Rose Red, from the fairy tale of Snow White and Rose Red.  There's a dwarf in the tale as well.  He thinks that dark forces are conspiring to provide enemies for our girls specifically because we're flooding the world with magical girls at the moment.  Sort of a desperate attempt to keep the scales balanced.  That's his theory, at least."

"A credible theory, actually," Ysolde said.  "I shall have to look into it.  This was not unanticipated by management...."

"Really?" Octava asked.  "Upper management knew this was likely to happen?"

Ysolde pursed her lips.  "I did not say upper management anticipated it," she replied.  "Still, it is not a surprise to me or other division heads...."

They rode an elevator to the 12th floor.  "I understand that your magical girls have had dreams of their past lives?  Dreams of this back story that you wove for them?"

"I..." Octava began, again caught off guard.  "That is... I'd call them alleged dreams.  I mean, they've talked a lot, but these are junior high school girls.  I can't control the hyperactive imaginations of teenagers, you know."

"Ah yes, I suppose that's a fair point," said Ysolde.  "So, you've created a Princess Gloria of Europa -- that was the royal assignment.  You created Princess Creda of Callisto, and that was your sailor assignment...."

"They all wear sailor seifuku, of course," said Octava.

"And then there was Princess Valentina of Io, and she was the warrior magical girl," said Ysolde.  "But your back story speaks of a Princess Verity of Ganymede, so you have one girl left to add.  Please explain how this girl qualifies as a bedroom magical girl."

"She... dreams of her past life?" Octava suggested.  "When she's asleep?  In her bed?"

Ysolde frowned.  "I really don't think that works," she said.

"Look," said Octava, "obviously the original plan here was to draw a picture of a magical girl in her bedroom.  Think of all those scenes of Sakura Kinomoto and Kero-chan up in her bedroom in the anime.  But how do you go from that to a bedroom-themed magical girl?"

"Well, you could..." Ysolde began, then paused.  "No, strike that.  That would not be appropriate for a young magical girl."  She sighed.  "Yes, okay, I'll allow it this time -- but it does seem to me that you're not really following the spirit of the challenge...."

Octava sighed.  The two of them arrived outside an apartment door.  "Are we ready?" he asked.

"Are you sure you've selected the right girl?" asked Ysolde.

"Yes," Octava replied.  "She's a friend to Tiffany Whitherspoon -- that's Princess Gloria of Europa, the head of the group -- and she attends the same private school as the other girls...."

"That being Eternia Private Academy for Girls," said Ysolde.  Octava nearly winced at the name.

"Uh... yes," he said.  "We've already planted... that is, April Mae Rice here has dreamed of being the princess from Io.  I mean, we sort of suggested it to her... subliminally, I guess...."

"Interesting," said Ysolde.  "I'm unfamiliar with that technique.  You'll have to demonstrate it for me some time."

"Sure," said Octava.  He shrank down and became a white bunny.  Ysolde shrank and became a large white cockatoo.

"You know," said Ysolde, "a lot of what you're doing here could be done so much better with the aid of an outside force... a god or goddess willing to help, for example.  There are several who might qualify."

"I... what?" Octava asked, stunned.

"There was one such goddess," said Ysolde.  "I've forgotten her name, but she was a being of immense power who helped us found Nibiru, but chose not to participate in our mission.  Someone like her can be useful at times.  She could, for example, establish ruins on Europa that would fool any scientist, since she would actually place them there 5,000 years ago.  She could provide dreams for your magical girls too -- so they wouldn't simply working from stories you told them.

"Mind you, you'd have to do it without informing me," she added.  "Upper management would not condone such interaction with outside forces.  But it might have made this magical girl team setup of yours much easier...."

"I'll... keep that in mind," Octava said.

In a flash, the two appeared in a girl's bedroom.  She was seated at a desk before a computer.  She had brown hair and glasses.  Octava coughed, and the girl turned about.  Her eyes went wide.

"Good afternoon, April Mae," said Octava.  "My name is Octava, and I'm here to help you become a magical girl...."

FINI