Magical Laurel

"Magical Laurel" (sometimes referred to as "Magical Girl Laurel") is a story arc in Streamy Dreams, in episodes 31-33.

Caitlin and Steve Shanahan write the story approximately ten minutes before each episode starts. Laurel is the only 'player' who has influence over the choices made for each would-you-rather question. Adam is mostly a spectator, who occasionally roleplays as characters in the plot.

This story is significantly more intricate than Get Phucked Phil, despite less time being put into planning.

Part 1 (Episode 31)
The story follows Laurel, not as a wizard, but as she is in the real world. She finds herself running late to work, hurrying to catch the train. Just as the train pulls up, she sees a fox, who is looking at her as if it understands her and wants to talk to her.

Question: Would you rather stop to talk to the fox and be late to work, or just catch the train?

Laurel, without hesitation, misses her train and approaches the fox. Steve begins to roleplay as the fox; he says that he has eaten something he was meant to give her. With gratuitous noises to mimic coughing up the gift, the fox vomits out a shiny amulet. Laurel grabs it immediately and uses the hand sanitizer in her bag to clean it. The fox warns her to be careful, and 'skedaddles.' She takes the next train to work at the expense of being extremely late; figuring that she's 'in for a penny, in for a pound,' she gets lunch and is even later. Her phone is filled with messages from Brett asking her where she is. Brett demands that she comes to his office, and his anger is displayed when he closes the door and pulls the curtains. When Brett asks for an explanation for her tardiness, she loudly stumbles over herself to describe her recent adventure with her 'soul fox' and the amulet.

"You're always trying to steal cats on your way to work; you should understand!"

Her boss is unsatisfied. He gives her an ultimatum; give him the amulet, and she'll be forgiven. She denies his request, proposing that she just work late to make up the hours instead.

Adam suggests that Laurel think about whether her encounter with the fox becomes a question of her sanity, to which she replies that, because Brett is demanding an object she can physically hold, everything described actually did happen. This only heightens the value of keeping the amulet.

Question: Would you rather give Brett the amulet and be forgiven, or raise the amulet in the air and shout "Laurel Power Activation!"

When Laurel follows through on the latter, a stereotypical Magical Girl transformation overcomes her, replacing her clothes with a ruffled dress covered in bows and ribbons. A dramatic theme song plays. Brett is unimpressed.

The fox reappears to tell her that she has accepted her fate as the world's protector from evil. Before she can ask him anything, he disappears, and Laurel learns that this is because he has other Magical Girls to guide.

Question: Would you rather go back to work in your Magical Girl outfit and pretend nothing happened, or go out and look for crime?

Laurel goes out to look for crime, but not before kicking her computer off of the desk. She leaps out of Brett's office window, only exacerbating his anger, but she reminds him that she has five sick days left to use and is therefore free of repercussion.

She leaps up onto a telephone pole to look for crime, but is disappointed when there are no incidents.

Question: Would you rather go back to work and cut your losses, or test out your abilities on a random citizen?

Laurel, with the newfound power of her amulet, shouts the incantation "Stranger Danger!" and manifests a magical scepter. She uses her scepter to blast a man standing in front of a food truck, incinerating him. Laurel feels no remorse for his orphaned children. There are witnesses to this event. The fox appears and reprimands her for abusing her power. He takes the amulet from her, and Laurel loses the game.

However, Caitlin and Steve give her two more chances to finish the story, and 're-load' back to when Laurel is scanning for crime. Now, Laurel chooses to go back to work. She sits awkwardly at her desk in her large, puffy dress, working (specifically) on storyboards for The Bumble Nums. Her Magical Girl senses detect an evil presence, and when she turns around, she sees Brett making his lunch in the microwave. He approaches her to make fun of her, then repeatedly demands that she give him her amulet.

Question: Would you rather do as Brett says and take off the amulet, or leave the amulet on?

She chooses to leave the amulet on. He unzips his fanny pack and pulls out a second amulet. He uses it for his own Magical Boy transformation, and gets a similar outfit and theme song, but his outfit is in grayscale, and the song is off-key.

Brett berates her for choosing to do things the hard way before their battle begins.

Part 2 (Episode 32)
The Shitty Wizards start the segment by singing the theme song, which Caitlin and Steve fight about when they can't agree on how it goes.

"You're facing off with your boss, Brett, in his disturbing Magical Boy costume. You know that if you defeat him, you're going to get fired, and this Magical Girl gig doesn't exactly pay well. But it's not like negative consequences ever stopped Laurel. To battle!" Brett and Laurel enter a battle in format similar to an RPG, where Laurel has time to calculate her plan of attack.

Question: Would you rather use physical attack, or magical attack?

Laurel chooses physical attack based on the reasoning that he's weakened from never leaving his office, and uses the move "Fuckin' Chop-Kick." Brett counters by summoning Interns, who have the ability to slow her attacks. He unsheathes two throwing axes (a reference to his real-life hobby of axe-throwing) from his V-neck collar. He throws the axes, which come swirling towards a seemingly-doomed Laurel, until a rose comes from nowhere and redirects them. Standing in the window is Adam wearing a tuxedo, to the displeasure of Laurel, who was expecting her boyfriend Matt. She is told by Caitlin that Matt, unfortunately, has now emotionally detached himself from her.

Adam explains that he's only wearing the tuxedo because he was just at a wedding, and before he leaves to return it, he is prompted to give an inspirational speech.

"Laurel, don't fuck it up." Laurel is empowered by his speech and overcomes her slow-motion stat change.

Question: Would you rather do a magical attack, or run away?

She chooses to attack, and uses her "Stranger Danger" spell. Brett casts "Reassigning That To Caitlin" which causes the effects of any attack directed at him to instead be cast upon Caitlin, no matter where she is. Her muffled Australian profanity can be heard from downstairs as she is attacked.

The fox comes to her aid to inform her that Magical Girls and Boys can't defeat each other with only one amulet, and she'll need more power before she can beat Brett in battle. Laurel takes his suggestion to run away, but punches an intern before she leaves.

Laurel runs down an alleyway and trips over trash cans as it begins to rain. Frustrated from being unable to best her boss, she throws her wand away, but the fox brings it back to her. He encourages her by telling her that he chose to give her the amulet because he also gave an amulet to a 'crazy, sweaty Australian lady' who chose to use her powers for evil, and Laurel made a perfect match to stop her. He says that if Laurel defeats Caitlin, she can claim her amulet, and use the combined power to finally stop Brett. Then he urgently tells her that Caitlin is already there.

Steve is dumbfounded when he reads that Caitlin is armed with guns, not knowing that she had altered the script behind his back before the episode started. She shoots a garbage can towards Laurel. She, like Brett, demands that Laurel hand over her amulet for her similar goal of defeating Magical Boy Brett, but plans to rule Toronto with an iron fist afterwards.

Question: Would you rather do a magic attack on Caitlin, or use the fox as a shield?

To everyone's dismay, Laurel is unsure of which to pick, but eventually chooses a magical attack, and once again casts "Stranger Danger."

The gun is blasted out of Caitlin's hands and she is brought to her knees, until she uses her amulet to summon her Magical Girl transformation with a dupstep theme song, and her gun is upgraded. Laurel is blasted into more trash cans.

She decides to improvise a speech about the power of friendship, stating that she could've chosen to use the fox as a shield, but because she didn't, it means that they're friends and she isn't as bad as everyone thinks she is. The fox is offended by this. Her amulet starts to grow, and she transforms into "Magical Laurel {*v*}." She summons her final attack, "Chop Chop." Caitlin is launched back and incapacitated.

Question: Would you rather take Caitlin's amulet, or offer her your hand in friendship?

Laurel couldn't ask the fox for help, because he hadn't read that far in the script. She chooses to force Caitlin to team up with her to defeat Brett, because she doesn't want to run Tinman Creative if they get rid of him, and figures Caitlin would do it instead. Caitlin explains that Brett has allowed his amulet to be corrupted by evil powers, and has access to unimaginable power, but teaming up gives them a better chance of winning.

Laurel and Caitlin march into Brett's office and disrupt him from his work, and the window is repaired. Brett only laughs, and announces that they've walked into his trap as the doors slam shut.

Part 3 (Episode 33)
Caitlin and Laurel feel themselves overcome by darkness as Brett's voice is heard mocking them. He tells them that their boyfriends (both named Matt) have each been placed in different vans, driven by interns, going in opposite directions. One will drive to a safe location while the other will take one of the Matts to Hell. If the Magical Girls stay to fight, one of the Matts will die, leaving Caitlin and Laurel to share the remaining Matt.

Brett evolves into 'Magical Angel-of-Death Boy.'

Question: Would you rather fight Brett here and now, or chase after the Matt vans?

Laurel chooses to fight Brett. She attacks with 'Hair Kick' but is deflected by his tall collars. Caitlin shoots at Brett with one of her guns, but again the attack is deflected. He retaliates by summoning a samurai sword, but lashes at them with the blunt end. The Magical Girls realize their power alone isn't enough to defeat him.

Question: Would you rather keep fighting Brett, or forget about him and rescue the Matts?

They choose to stay and keep fighting. In front of them, a rose is thrown and lands on the ground. Tuxedo Adam has returned, saying he decided to keep the suit, and reassures them that he can take care of Brett while they rescue their boyfriends.

As Caitlin and Laurel leave, Brett calls to them requesting that they submit their leave as vacation hours. Laurel denies and says she'll be filing it under work done for The Bumble Nums.

The girls leave just in time to see two vans driving, slowly, away. It is impossible to determine which Matt is in which van. Caitlin and Laurel decide to split up, Caitlin warning that, due to Australian tradition, whichever Matt she finds she gets to keep.

Question: Would you rather chase the left van or the right van?

Laurel goes left. Her main qualm with finding Caitlin's boyfriend instead of her own is that he snores. The van Laurel chases is now going extremely fast, and swerving across the road, and hitting pedestrians. The fox appears to warn her that too many deaths will weaken the power of her amulet. She hops from telephone poles to keep a view of the runaway van. Upon leaping from the top of the car into the cabin, she finds an intern driving. The intern says that if they stop or slow down, the van will explode.

Question: Would you rather stop the van, or keep going?

They keep going. She climbs up the back and pulls open the doors, to see many people with bags over their heads. She pulls the bags off to reveal that they're all interns. She asks them where Matt is, and then scolds them for not knowing how to clean up the scenes they animate. The interns say they have no idea who Matt is, how to clean their work, and accidentally reveal that Caitlin has tricked her. After further prodding, they say that Caitlin and Brett are working together.

Question: Would you rather help the interns escape, or go back and fight Brett?

This is where Caitlin says that she ran out of time to finish the script, so the group improvises the story from that point onward.

Laurel karate chops the front end of the van off to rescue the interns trapped in the back, while allowing the front end to drive off safely without exploding. She says she'll think about how to rescue him later. To restore the power of her amulet, she forces an intern to accept her offer of friendship. The front end of the van, unfortunately, drives off of a bridge into the lake below and explodes.

Laurel, for saving the interns, achieves her final form; "Magical Girl Laurel X_X."

When Laurel goes back to Brett's office, she finds Caitlin with him, with both of the Matts tied up behind them with Tuxedo Adam, who is crying because his rented suit has been damaged and he cannot get his deposit back. Upon Brett's command, Caitlin transforms into "Nega-Magical Caitlin."

Laurel deflects a shot from Caitlin's magical gun. Caitlin prepares a final attack, but before it hits, the interns throw themselves in front of Laurel to save her. A charge of white light fires from Laurel's chest and vaporizes Caitlin into powder, and the evil is dissolved from her amulet, but it is immediately taken by Brett. He uses the amulet's power to evolve into his final form, with Caitlin's shrunken head attached to his shoulder.

Brett informs Laurel, annoyed, that killing Caitlin means the studio will fall behind on multiple important projects. To get revenge, he kills her boyfriend Matt. Laurel uses his blood and her tears to charge her amulet, and unleashes her final attack, "Revenge Ray - Get Fucked."

Brett is brought to his knees after the attack breaks one of his legs.

Question: Would you rather destroy Brett, or take his amulet?

Laurel takes the amulet from him, pulling the evil out of his body and leaving a regular Brett behind. Evil corrupts all three of her amulets, making her the new villain.