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# Puella Magi Adfligo Systema

- Thread starter Firnagzen
- Start date May 19, 2014
- Tags
    bad decisions dating mami tomoe diabolical laughter friendship is the best ship handholding identity crises microwaving tea gets you put in the bad place names are important puella magi adfligo systema puella magi madoka magica the body is the fursona of the soul this is not the baked goods thread we don't talk about rionna what could possibly go wrong? who in the world is azure sanfrancisco?

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Threadmarks "We've Got Hostiles" pt. 50
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#### Firnagzen

Operator

- Jan 22, 2015

- #27,116

You look at Akiko, lying limply on the wet flagstones of the roof. But for the quick, shallow rise and fall of her chest and the motion of her eyes, darting about like a trapped animal, she's as still as if she were... disconnected. Tamiko kneels beside the girl, her long orange hair falling in a curtain to hide her face as one hand gently strokes Akiko's hair.
You...
You're not sure what to do.
Not really.
You glance at Mami, briefly debating asking her to make a blanket or something for Akiko. Pity and... something that might be relief war in Mami's golden eyes as she regards Akiko. Feeling your eyes on her, she turns to give you a worried smile. To see if you do something.
And you're not sure what to do.
Or rather... you're not sure what you can do.
You survey the Sendai girls. Rin, kneeling beside Akiko, her robes pooled around her and arms pressed into their opposite sleeves, face pensive with thought. She glances at Sakura, and the teleporter jolts into motion, moving hesitantly to stand beside Rin. Tamiko remains, slowly stroking Akiko's hair.
The Grief you send away, to the very furthest reaches of your range. Compressed into solid spheres, their presence is almost unnoticeable to your puella magi senses. Almost. But Mami told you, not so long ago, that that particular almost isn't quite absolute - and there's so much Grief that even you, callow and inexperienced, can sense it.
And so hundreds of spheres of Grief rocket upwards into the sky to hover at the edges of your range, as inoffensive as you can make it.
For what feels like the first time in forever, you untransform, a burst of light leaving you in a blouse and modest knee length skirt. Mami looks questioningly at you, and you sigh. "It's not our place," you say softly, voice barely carrying over the rain still pattering off the awning of ribbons.
Mami nods, and follows suit, detransforming.
"Could you undo the ribbons?" you ask, voice still pitched low. "She's... in no state to do anything, anyway."
As Mami complies, you look up to find Rin and Tamiko watching you, while Sakura's staring off to the side. Yumi's looking down at the concrete of the roof.
"She needs you," you say simply. "Not me."
"Oh, now you fucking leave us alo-" Sakura starts.
She's cut off by a quiet murmur from Rin. "Sakura."
Bottle green eyes meet yours unflinchingly, and she nods fractionally to you.
A blaze of light beside you - Kirika, following you and Mami's examples.
Rin blinks, and looks back to Akiko.
You huff out a breath, and walk away from the Sendai girls, to the edge of the roof. There's a few large ventilation ducts protruding here -this might be an office block, you think?-, and you put one between you and the Sendai girls. With a groan, Kirika drops to the roof, sitting indifferently on the wet flagstones and leaning back against the vent.
Golden ribbons wind into a small mat, and Mami sits elegantly on it, patting the mat beside her invitingly. You smile, and seat yourself beside her. Mami immediately shuffles a little closer to you, leaning her head on your shoulder.
You sigh. "Mami?"
"Are you OK, Sabrina?" she asks, peering anxiously up at you.
"Yeah, I guess," you respond. You think back to your earlier worries. That you're running roughshod over everyone. That... you broke Mami's worldview, shattered it into a million pieces you're barely holding together.
For their own good.
For her own good.
"Just... I sort of wish it hadn't wound up like this. This war, this situation. This... thisness," you say instead.
Later.
Perhaps.
Mami nods. Her hand curls around yours, squeezing tightly.
"I don't suppose you have any ideas to help Miss Hamasaki?" you ask.
She shakes her head, hair drills bobbing with the motion. "Sorry..."
"Don't," you say, smiling at her. "Don't be silly, Mami."
"I just... I don't know her at all, Sabrina," she says. "I don-"
You squeeze back on her hand. "I know," you say. "It was just a thought, anyway. Don't worry about it, Mami."
Mami nods, and hesitantly leans on your shoulder again. You wrap your arm around her, and she cuddles into your side, the warmth of her presence a welcome bulwark against the chill of the everpresent rain.
You stare out into the rain, sleeting off the side of the awning of ribbons in great sheets of water. A portion of your attention maintains a watch on Akiko's levels of Grief, slowly trickling upwards.
A sudden bubbling, snorting noise makes you jump. You twist around, and see Kirika leaning back on the vent, head lolling to the side and eyes closed. Asleep. Asleep, and snoring. Her hands make fitful little motions, looking for something not there.
You return to staring out at the city with its shroud of rain.
Damn Kyuubey.
Damn Kyuubey for making it come to this.
Even if it's doing this for the sake of the universe.
Footsteps, the rustle of heavy cloth, and a presence approaching, trying not to make too much noise.
Rin.
"Miss Sabrina, Miss Tomoe," she says telepathically, inclining her head in a little bow.
"Rin," you reply, taking care not to jostle Mami.
"Miss Mori," Mami echoes.
"I don't think there's much you can do here," she says quietly. "There's... not much we can do, either, but wait."
[] Write-in
=====​
Mmm.
Threadmarks "We've Got Hostiles" pt. 51
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#### Firnagzen

Operator

- Jan 23, 2015

- #27,489

You sigh, and nod in acceptance. You're not sure that there's anything you can do that won't make things worse, if you're honest with yourself. And some part of you thinks that it's... fitting, in a way, that Akiko's reduced to this. You force that thought aside, too.
You look up at Rin. "Let me know if anything changes?"
The healer nods.
"Alright," you say out loud, voice low. "Alright. We're going home, then." You push yourself to your feet, and Mami looks up at you, tentatively holding her hands out. You smile, and easily pull her to her feet.
"The ribbons will dissolve in about half an hour after we leave," Mami notes, gesturing at the awning.
Rin nods again, looking between you and Mami. Finally, she bows deeply to you. When she straightens again, she says softly, "I'm grateful for what you've done. But... I don't think I can thank you. Not now."
"I understand," you say.
And you suppose you do. For all that you'd done a lot of good, it's still a bitter pill to swallow. Even for yourself. And you can only hope that that bitterness isn't bitter almond, that you did do good, and that it isn't going to come back and bite you in the ass at some later point.
You bring in some Grief, enough to shape a platform big enough for yourself, Mami, and Kirika. "Mami, do you think you could..." you gesture at Kirika's sleeping form.
Mami blinks in confusion, before it clicks. "Um... OK," she says. She flicks a hand, a ribbon spooling out from nowhere to snake under Kirika's body, gently bearing her up. The blackhaired girl grumbles something, flailing a bit, and her eyes blink muzzily open.
"Huh? Wuzza?" Kirika mumbles. She rolls over to squint at you.
Oh well. "We're going home," you say. "We'll drop you off at Oriko's."
Kirika brightens sleepily. "Yay!" she says, rubbing at an eye with the back of her fist. "Wake me up when I'm home?"
"Nah, we'll just dump you into Oriko's bed," you say, grinning.
"Mmmkay, sounds good," Kirika says, letting her head slump back to the ribbons and eyes sliding closed.
You glance at Mami. A furious blush stains her cheeks. "Uh-" she stammers. "Are we actually going to..."
You smile. "Oriko will probably be waiting for us," you say as you walk to the platform. You frown for a moment, and add a roof to it, since the storm hasn't abated in the slightest.
"Oh," Mami says, considering that as she follows you. "That's true."
Rin stands, watching from the roof as you slowly lift the platform into the air. You lift your hand in a wave, and she returns it.
"Miss Tsubaki?" you reach out for telepathy as you settle into a seated position, Mami immediately cuddling into your side. Kirika's settled behind you, snoozing happily again.
"Yes, Miss Sabrina?" Chouko replies.
"Hamasaki's... she's basically catatonic," you say. "She's no harm to you, now. We're headed home."
"I see," Chouko says. "Then... thank you again, Miss Sabrina."
You sigh. "You're welcome," you reply. "I'll be seeing you sometime soon for cleansing, I guess."
"Yes. Goodbye for now, Miss Sabrina," Chouko says.
You slowly accelerate away from the roof, heading into the stormy night, pulling the enormous masses excess of Grief along with you. Eventually, transform, and raise a clear windshield, the glassy material resonating in your senses, and making Kirika snort and roll over.
Mami's only reaction is to peek up at you, before resettling herself to cuddle into your side despite your coat being in the way.
A twist of will brings up a wall separating Kirika from you and Mami, and you slowly reshape the entire structure, shifting it into a more aerodynamic shape as you will it to go faster, faint lights below whizzing past in a blur. You're fairly certain Kirika's sound asleep now, and that the wall will cut off sound effectively, and... you're stalling. You put Kirika out of your mind.
You take a deep breath.
"I'm sorry, Mami," you say softly.
"What for, Sabrina?" Mami asks, equally softly. She sounds puzzled.
"For..." you swallow. "Mami, I haven't been very considerate to you at all. I haven't... I've been an awful person, Mami, to you. To everyone around me, but you the most of all. I'm sorry."
"What?" Mami asks, face dimly lit by the faint light glowing from the suburbs below. "I don't... you're not an awful person, Sabrina!"
"No, I-" you squeeze your eyes shut in pain. "I run roughshod over everyone's opinions. I assume that my way is better, and I force everyone to follow along because... because I have the power to."
"Sabrina, I-"
You shake your head, and Mami falls silent. "Mami, you didn't want to get involved in the war. You thought Oriko might be lying. And here we are anyway. I, I. I tell you I'll be safe. That I'll be careful. Then I immediately run out into danger, and I get hurt and I."
"Sabrina..." Mami says, trailing off. "Sabrina, you're being silly."
"Mami, I. Every time you tell me not to do something. You, I. I ignore it, and I can't imagine it's easy to see me go into all these, these messes," you say. You look down at your hands, fisted in your lap, tears beginning to slide down your face as if to replace the rain you're leaving behind.
A pale hand reaches across your blurred vision, and gently takes one of your hands. Mami smooths your hand out, and holds it between both of hers.
"Sabrina," she says gently. "You wouldn't be you if you didn't do what you thought was the right thing. I'm sorry for asking that you stop. Because you care, Sabrina, and that's nothing to be ashamed of."
Even if it hurts me, you fill in the words.
You swallow. "I'm sorry, Mami," you mutter thickly. "I'm... I'm sorry."
"Don't be," she says.
But you are.
The rest of the trip is spent in silence, Mami holding your hand in hers the whole way. Her other hand strokes soothingly across the back of your hand, her fingertips ghosting across your hand in slow, gliding circles as if she's trying to memorize every contour, every skein of muscle, every vein.
When you arrive at Oriko's house, descending towards her rear garden, you find the seer standing at the glass door, her one hand already pushing it open. She looks haggard, white hair dishevelled and faint black bags starting to form under her eyes.
"Welcome back," she says tonelessly, looking up at you as you melt away your windshield so that you can talk to her unimpeded.
You stay on your platform, Mami still holding your hand and leaning her head against your shoulder. "Good to be back," you say, detaching and lowering the portion of your platform Kirika's lying on. "It's late, so I'm just dropping off Kirika. She did amazingly out there, though - we can talk about that another time."
Oriko nods, a gentle smile on her face as she looks at the sleeping Kirika. She reaches out with her hand, gently stroking Kirika's cheek.
Kirika wakes.
Citrine eyes meet and hold sea green ones, the same smile spreading across Kirika's face.
One smile, spread across two faces.
You turn away, abruptly feeling like you're intruding on something intensely private. Instead, you find golden eyes regarding you closely. Mami gives you a warm smile.
Your stomach squirms uncomfortably. She believes in you. She believes in you with a purity that almost... it shines, just as much as she said you do.
But you return the smile. Because you don't want to see hers dim.
"Good bye," you murmur in Oriko and Kirika's general direction. You don't know if they hear, or really, if they should. Your platform lifts off into the air again, homeward bound.
"Is that you, Sabrina?" Homura's voice.
"Yeah," you reply. "We're home. Talk to you tomorrow?" You peer out of the restored windshield, and maybe it's just your imagination, but you fancy you see the faintest gleam of a scope, far below in the cityscape. Almost certainly just your imagination, of course. You're too far up.
"OK," Homura says simply. "It's... good that you made it back."
It doesn't take too long to get home, and you shamble in, calling out a tired, "I'm home," Mami responding with a "Welcome home." You'd left the vast bulk of your Grief on the rooftop - there's probably enough to pack the living room full, if you brought it indoors.
"I'll make some tea," you suggest. "You can shower in the meantime?"
Mami hesitates, before nodding her agreement, and heading to the shower.
You allow the tiredness to wash over you as you busy yourself in the kitchen, the familiar surroundings comforting in that familiarity. This is home, isn't it? For all that it's been a week. A hectic week that feels like it lasted months, but just a weeks nevertheless.
Mami returns quickly, damp and clean, just as you bear two cups of tea and a plate of sandwiches out. Her stomach growls at the sight, and she blushes, before smiling at you gratefully. You return the smile, before heading off to take a shower yourself.
Her face lights up when she sees you again, her cup of tea untouched as you join her at the table. You shake your head slightly at her. She just smiles back in response.
You shouldn't have.
I did anyway.
Your tea's still warm, and you sip gratefully at it, picking up a sandwich.
A clink of ceramic on the glass tabletop, Mami's presence settling comfortably at your side.
She picks up a sandwich too.
Between the two of you, the sandwiches are gone all too quickly.
Warm and full and sleepy. Mami cuddling against you.
You sigh. "We need to talk tomorrow morning," you say.
"OK," Mami agrees.
You stand, Mami standing with you, and between the two of you, you make short work of the dishes, before headed to bed. Mami pauses at the door to her bedroom, her touch feather light on your elbow, and you pause.
You smile, and head in with Mami, collapsing into your mattress, Mami hestitating before dropping into her bed.
You lie awake for a while, with your eyes closed, as you think things over. Mami, yourself. Mami and yourself. Yourself. Who are you? What are you? Something Madoka did? Either Madoka? An abberation in the timelines? Something else?
Somewhere along the way, you hear Mami sit up, and ease onto the mattress beside you, worming under your blanket. An arm wraps around your waist from behind, and you hear Mami sigh contentedly. Her breath slowly evens out into slumber.
Well.
You really can't say you didn't expect that, you muse as you finally drift off to sleep yourself.
[] When do you want to wake up?
[] Write-in
=====​
And with that, we draw both the chapter and the book to a close. The next update begins the new chapter, "Under the Radar".
Last edited: Jan 23, 2015
Threadmarks Under the Radar pt. 1
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#### Firnagzen

Operator

- Jan 24, 2015

- #27,709

Your sleep is... surprisingly restful. Filled with half remembered dreams of experiments to do and thoughts of what you did to Mami, but restful.
You stare at the wall in front of you, barely visible in the dim glow of the city lights leaking through the curtains. There's a warm arm around you and a familiar presence still snuggled comfortably into your back.
... your feet are a little cold.
You wiggle your toes - they're outside the blanket. Mami seems to have claimed most of said blanket overnight.
Eh, well.
You're awake, anyway.
You gently ease Mami's arm from around you, Mami making a protesting little whimper, reaching out for you and scrunching into a little ball under the blankets at the absence. You reach over her and tug her bolster over, poking it at her in place of yourself. She accepts it, but her arm remains outstretched, unsatisfied.
Well.
You'll wake her with breakfast.
You pad soundlessly into the bathroom and wash up quickly, heading into the kitchen.
Eastern breakfast. Then again, 'eastern'. As well say 'western breakfast'. Britain and France and Ireland and Spain and US and Mexico, eggs cooked a dozen different ways a and a hundred different breads and a billion different spreads and ham and bacon and Marmite no wait that's not food and sausages and sandwiches which might have two or three or even one slice of bread and potato and porridge and oats and cereal...
You shake your head. Japanese. You have everything you need, and it's something that'll bring welcome familiarity to Mami, you figure. And you'll prepare lunch for Mami and yourself, too.
You decide to put extra effort into it, decorating the lunchboxes with little bits of sesame seeds and sliced sausages curled into octopi and so on.
To your vague surprise, Mami's still asleep when you finish. Steamed rice, miso soup, some pickles, flavoured seaweed and some lightly broiled fish prepared for a hearty breakfast. You hadn't exactly had any dinner last night, after all, and a few sandwiches are hardly a substitute.
You cover up the dishes, and pad into the bedroom to wake Mami. She's curled in on herself, hunched tighter into a ball, one arm coiled around the bolster and the other still outstretched. Even asleep, her face is furrowed in dismay.
You sit on the mattress, and pick up her hand. Immediately, her expression eases, hand curling around yours. You squeeze lightly, and shake her shoulder firmly. "Mami, time to wake up," you say.
"Mmmnnnm." Mami abandons the bolster and shifts across the mattress, and finding your knee, snuggles against it. "Mm."
You can't help but smile down at the sight, but you shake Mami again. "Mami, it's morning. Time to wake up," you say.
"Mmmmnnmuh?" Golden eyes, muzzy from sleep, crack open. Mami blinks up at you. "Sabrina?"
"Good morning, Mami," you say, smiling at her.
"O-oh," Mami says, colour rising on her cheeks, when she realizes what she's doing. "Good morning, Sabrina," she says, smiling tentatively at her.
"Breakfast is ready," you tell her, your own smile unwavering.
"Oh-" she cuts herself off with a yawn. "S-sorry, Sabrina! I should hav-"
You shake your head, cutting her off. "Don't be, Mami," you say, softening it with your smile. "Anyway, go wash up, and I'll put together the finishing touches?" you suggest.
"A-alright," Mami says, sitting up and rubbing sleepily at her eyes, her hair an unkempt mane of golden locks spilling down her back. You stand, and Mami holds her arms out to you. You oblige with a chuckle, pulling her to her feet, and she beams sleepily at you before wandering to the bathroom. She pauses at the door, giving you a hesitant look, to which you respond with a little gesture.
I'll be here.
Mami ducks her head, and closes the door behind her.
Mami doesn't take long, hurriedly yanking the door open, eyes hunting, to find you removing the covers from the breakfast you'd prepared. You give her a smile, and wave her into a chair.
"It looks wonderful, Sabrina," she says, looking over the food with a smile.
"Thank you, Mami. That means a lot, coming from you," you say. "Dig in!"
Mami blushes faintly, and does so, her chopsticks moving quickly. Your own move no less quickly, your stomach demanding to be filled posthaste, and you're glad to oblige.
"Mami," you say, the edge taken off your hunger.
"Mm?" Mami chews, swallows, and looks attentively at you. "Yes, Sabrina?"
"Do you want to go to school today?" you ask.
"Oh," Mami says. "Um... last night you said you needed to talk to me this morning, so... I'll call in sick today."
You shake your head, no. "It's... we can talk later today, if you want to go to school."
"I... should," Mami says, looking torn, fidgeting with her chopsticks. "But I... Sabrina, I..."
You reach across the table to capture her other hand in yours. "Mami, it's your choice. But if you go to school... I'll see you at lunch, and I'll be waiting for you after school, OK?" you say soothingly.
Mami nods slowly, still looking stricken. "I... OK. If you think I should go," she says softly.
That's... not ideal.
"Mami, it's OK," you say, making your voice as gentle as you can, as much as you want to take a leaf out of Sakura's book. "Slowly. It's still quite early. Do you want to go to school?"
"I..." Mami searches your face, before her eyes drop. She looks at the lunch box you'd prepared for her, and swallows. "OK," she says. "I'll go to school. I... should." Her eyes immediately return to your face, searching for any hint of disapproval.
You nod, smiling, though you cringe inwardly.
Mami's look of anxiety fades, and a timid, hesitant smile appears on her face. You squeeze her hand lightly, still smiling at her, and her expression gains confidence.
"Besides," you say telepathically. "It's not like we'll be out of contact, right?"
"O-of course," Mami says, nodding vigorously so that her as yet untamed hair bobbles.
"Alright," you say. "That's settled, then. Shall we finish our breakfast?" Simultaneously, you reach out by telepathy for a certain violet eyed girl. "Hey, Homura."
Mami nods. "Oh!" she says, and your chopsticks pause on the dish of pickles. "This fish is amazing, Sabrina!" she compliments you, picking up a slice of said fish.
"Yes, Sabrina?" the time traveller replies almost instantly.
"Two things - Mami will be going to school today," you say. "Look after her for me, OK?" Out loud, you reply to the blonde, while claiming the pickles you'd been after earlier. "Ah, thanks, Mami. I think your cooking is better, though."
"Alright," Homura says. "What's the other thing?"
"I think your cooking's better," Mami disagrees.
"No, yours really is better," you say, smiling, and to Homura, "Update on the war - essentially defused. We beat Akiko and her team and reinforcements, and I uh, kinda broke Akiko. She's, um... a catatonic mess."
"I..." A flash of something crosses Mami's face. "Do you really think so?"
"Yes, Mami, I really do," you say confidently. "Your cooking is superb, Mami."
"I see," Homura says, tone neutral. "Will you have time to... talk later?" she asks, peculiar emphasis on the word 'talk'.
"Thank you, Sabrina," Mami says, smiling softly at you for a moment before returning to her breakfast.
You smile. "It's true, Mami." To Homura, you reply, "I should. Though uh. Mami's a bit... clingy right now."
"Understood," Homura says. "See you later."
"See you," you say.
You soon finish breakfast, and start in on the dishes, Mami standing right beside you, nearly hip to hip as you work through the various plates and utensils together.
Mami changes into her school uniform, and meets you at the doorway. Her hair's done up in its familiar drills, and a smile is on her face as she looks up at you.
Your slingbag's hanging over your shoulder, though it's currently empty of its usual cargo of Grief marbles, containing instead an umbrella and your lunchbox. The enormous bulk of Grief is still sitting on the roof above you - you should probably deal with that today.
"Walk me to school, Sabrina?" Mami asks, looking hopefully at you.
[] Yes
- [] Write in conversation for Mami, Madoka, Homura, and Sayaka
[] No
[] Write-in
=====​
This update was brought to you entirely by Firnagzen's phone™.
Last edited: Jan 24, 2015
Threadmarks Under the Radar pt. 2
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#### Firnagzen

Operator

- Jan 25, 2015

- #27,938

"Of course, Mami." You smile in response to the question. "I'd be happy to."
Mami beams happily in response, stepping outside to put her shoes on.
Properly shod, you and Mami head towards school, strolling sedately in the crisp, cool morning air. Mami walks close to you, close enough that her elbow occasionally bumps into you with a frequency that isn't accidental at all. You smile at her as you walk, receiving a sheepish, depreciating smile in response. Your mass of Grief tugs at the edge of your consciousness, a tremendous, granular mass floating after you at rooftop level, where it's safely out of sight.
"By the way, Mami," you say as you thread through the as-yet still thin crowds - it's still early, and Mami's guiding you on a walking route to school as opposed to taking the bus today.
"Mm?" Mami glances up at you.
"Could I borrow a Grief Seed from you?" you ask. "It's for that project I talked about yesterday."
"Project... oh, emptying out Grief Seeds?" Mami looks confused for a moment, before figuring it out. Her hand's already fumbling through her pocket - she's carrying three Grief Seeds, at the moment.
"Yes, that's the one," you confirm. "I need a control, and uh, I kinda messed up the two Seeds I have already. I think. Maybe. Something weird, anyway."
Before you finish your explanation, Mami's already holding the Grief Seed out to you. "Whatever you make, I'm sure it will be wonderful, Sabrina!"
You take the Grief Seed. "Thanks, Mami," you say. "I'll do my best."
Mami smiles at you, and you return it.
"Mami! Sabrina!" a voice calls out, and you see a familiar mop of pink hair up ahead the path.
Madoka's standing next to Homura, her hand raised in an enthusiastic wave, Homura giving you a solemn, quiet nod instead.
"Hi, Madoka, Homura," you call out, speeding your pace to catch up.
"Good morning, Madoka, good morning, Homura," Mami says, a gentle smile on her face.
"Good morning, Sabrina, Mami," Homura greets quietly as you approach.
"How was your weekend?" Madoka asks brightly.
Hoo boy. You had a feeling that she'd ask that. You smile, and try to deflect it. "Not bad! I hear you went shopping with Sayaka and Homura again on Sunday?"
Madoka nods. "We did! Sayaka still needed to buy more things, after the-" her smile falters for a second, "-fire. But we've gotten almost everything."
"That's great to hear," you say, smiling. "She's staying with Hitomi right now, right?"
"Um, no, not quite," Madoka says, before lowering her voice conspiratorially. You and Mami lean in obligingly. "Hitomi's parents are lending them a house to stay in!"
You nod in approval. "That's great," you say.
"Hey!" another familiar voice calls out, this time from behind you. Footsteps pelt along the path, heralding the arrival of the current person of discussion. "Talking about me behind my back?" Sayaka accuses, a smirk stretching across her face.
"Good morning, Sayaka!" Madoka replies, her face lighting up.
"Good morning, Madoka, Mami, Sabrina!" Sayaka says brightly. "Transfer student."
"Miki," Homura says, face utterly neutral. That girl has the poker face of the gods, you think to yourself. With good reason, you suppose.
Mami smiles. "Good morning, Sayaka," she says. "How are you this morning?"
Sayaka rolls her shoulder and scratches at it - her uniform is new, and you can still see the creases in it, and it's probably still stiff. "Annoyed," she says, sticking her tongue out at you. "You wake me up early in the morning on Sunday and Saturday when I don't need to go to school, and today you don't."
You roll your eyes. "Well, since someone complained so much about it..."
Sayaka snorts. "Yeah, right," she says. "Bet Mami had to wake you up."
You shrug. "How was your weekend?"
"Busy weekend," Sayaka mutters, her mood immediately dipping a little. "New place." She kicks aimlessly at the ground.
You look at Mami, still walking close beside you, and she shakes her head slightly, mystified. You look past her, to Madoka, and she gives you a worried shake of her head. Homura isn't much help, either.
You look around you as the five of you walk along. This city still makes no sense. Mitakihara Middle School is fronted by an enormous park. Yes, you've seen it, and had to skirt around it a few times when you were roofhopping to the school, but proceeding through it on foot is an entirely different experience. Lush, manicured greenery surrounds you, thick vegetation reducing the crush of traffic and people to a distant roar. A small ornamental stream runs along the side of the path.
A thought strikes you, and you give the trees a narrow-eyed glance. No, they're not cherry trees, nor are they blooming, and nor do your masses of Grief threading through the vegetation evince any reaction.
"What is it, Sabrina?" Mami asks.
"Oh, nothing, just thought I saw something," you say, giving the trees another glare before smiling at Mami, trying to pass it off.
"Oh, OK," Mami says, accepting that.
You feel eyes on you. Sayaka, raising an eyebrow at you.
You shrug. "Just a stray thought?" you offer.
"Riiiiiight," Sayaka says. "Getting forgetful in your old age?"
"Old age?" You gape in mock anger at her.
"Old age!" Sayaka confirms. "Your hair's white!"
"You're just jealous," you say, running your fingers through your shoulder length hair.
"Jealous?" Sayaka smirks. "Of wh-"
Without looking, without breaking step, Homura reaches behind her, hooking her fingers through her hair and snapping her hand straight out. Her luxurious mane of raven black tresses flows through her hand like a midnight black waterfall, rippling and glistening in the obliging breeze that chooses to blow at this particular moment.
"Of. Of..." Sayaka stammers, and trails off, eyes wide.
Mami is giving Homura's hair a narrowed, calculating look.
Madoka seems utterly awed, eyes as wide as dinner plates.
"Damn it," Sayaka mutters in a very small voice, fingering a lock of her own blue hair.
"Yeah," you grunt. "You're doing that on purpose," you accuse Homura.
Homura doesn't deign to respond, simply giving you a look before trying to engage Madoka in conversation about homework, of all things.
The rest of the walk to school passes in relative peace, filled with innocuous chatter. Finally, you're standing at the school gates, Mami pausing and turning to face you, while students flow around you and into the school.
You smile at her. "I'll see you at lunch, OK?"
Mami bites her lip, already looking worried. "Alright," she agrees. She seems to steel herself, and then steps forward, throwing her arms around you in a quick hug, which you return, squeezing her lightly. She backs away, keeping her eyes on you, while you just smile at her.
You remain waiting, watching Mami walk into the school. Finally, with a last backward glance at you to fix you in her mind's eye, she disappears inside the school building proper.
You sigh. You have a lot to make up for.
But for now... You begin walking away - you'll take wing when you find somewhere quiet. "Homura?" you ask.
"Yes, Sabrina?" Homura replies.
"When would be a good time for a talk?" you ask.
"After lunch," she suggests.
"That sounds fine," you agree. "On the rooftop, then?"
"Yes," Homura says.
"Alright," you say, "See you then."
"See you," Homura agrees.
Eventually, you turn into an alley and bound up to the roof, joining the enormous bulk of Grief you've been carting along. This close, and this much. Even compressed, even with your inexperienced senses, you can feel it, as a normal puella magi might - a pressure in your mind, not unlike the sensation of being inside a Witch Barrier, if a thousand times fainter.
You transform, the familiar weight of your longcoat falling onto your shoulders. Some of the Grief you bend towards wings, the rippling, tenebrous rips in reality forming over your shoulders, and you leap skyward. You'll head towards the old industrial areas, you figure.
Skirting around the familiar landmark of the flue exhaust smokestacks -what is that, anyway, a power plant?- you head in, locating another of the old warehouses with a large, abandoned parking lot. You fold your wings and drop to a landing on the asphalt, giving the mouldering old warehouse a cursory once over to ensure that it's unoccupied.
It is.
You take a moment to crack your knuckles thoroughly, thinking over what to do.
[] Write-in
=====​
Hairflips.
Last edited: Jan 25, 2015
Threadmarks Under the Radar pt. 3
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#### Firnagzen

Operator

- Jan 26, 2015

- #28,340

You finish cracking your knuckles, and bounce lightly on your feet. Science, or SCIENCE! A question for the ages...
You grin to yourself.
So many ideas, so little time.
Well, first things first. Though you're fairly bad about that sometimes, you admit to yourself. Eh. You cleanse your Gem, pulling the filmy layer of darkness out and leaving it gleaming again. You trail the Grief around your left pinky, forging a solid ring snug against your skin.
You raise your finger, waggling it against the slowing rising sun in the distance. There. That'll settle your internal debate about the corrosiveness of solid Grief. Despite the Grief armour and your mobile oppression platform, you just want to be really sure.
Right then.
You wander into the slowly rusting warehouse, hunting for implements which you can use to measure things. The building feels... melancholic, somehow, the faint tang of rust in the chill air seeming to spell out the regrets of days long past. You wonder if there might have been a Witch here, once?
Eventually, you find a loose sheaf of paper, a pencil, and a half used stack of post-its, still sticky. Exceptionally sticky, even, a mildewing little piece of paper sticking first to one finger and then the other as you futilely try to get rid of it.
Nothing much else of use, though, apart from a few dried out pens in the back of a mouldering old office desk. You cart your supplies outside, weighing the papers down with a rock.
OK. Finally time to start figuring things out, then!
You pull a sphere of Grief from the enormous mass lurking on the edge of the parking to you, and drop it on the asphalt in front of you with a thunk. Grief is what Barriers are made of, so you should be able to change its properties... And you already have, haven't you? Transparency and acoustic properties. You note down that thought on some paper.
You focus, reaching for instincts whispering on the edge of your consciousness. Ephemeral strands of your will twist at the blob of Grief, a crystal clear image of the result bobbing up in your mind's eye and-
Fwoosh.
A gout of clear, orange flame explodes in a conflagration in front of you, pounding into your senses as Witch. You flinch back from the incandescent heat, the skin of your face suddenly dry and tight.
The flame burns soundlessly, something more akin to a luminous gas fire than anything, albeit one hovering a handspan above the ground and without any apparent fuel source. It's definitely producing heat, certainly, and... You look around the parking lot, and spot a discarded plastic wrapper blown here by the wind. You snag it and toss it into the flame, where it crisps and burns with foul smelling smoke as expected.
You squint at the fire. Where's the energy coming from? The first thought that springs to mind is that it's somehow burning Grief into energy - that particular thought's been kicking around your mind for a while, anyway. But if it is, it's not doing it quickly enough for you to notice. You hurriedly write all that down, too.
You wave your hand, and send the flame zipping around the parking lot. The flame is distorted by the rush of air until you focus, on it, at which point it burns steadily as if there weren't air rushing past it. A twist of will turns it from a pseudo gas flame to a crisp wood fire, and then a smoky, oily conflagration belching out black smoke.
The smoke lights up on your senses just as strongly, and you guide it into a wispy, smoky circle - it's as much Witch-stuff as is the fire itself.
With a roll of your wrists, you turn half of the Grief making up the fire into water, and it promptly extinguishes the fire with an angry hiss. Until you decide that the fire should burn anyway, and it reignites with a spiteful pop, water sitting on top of fire with no noticeable effect to each other.
Which, yes, sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science, but the apparent analysis here is that Witch stuff does whatever the hell you want it to - or whatever the Witch wants it to. Then again, it's not really fire or water; it's Grief pretending to be fire and water. You reach for the paper and thoughtfully jot down that down, frowning in contemplation.
"Sabrina?" Mami's voice, sounding anxious.
"Hey, Mami," you reply, dissolving the fire back into loose floating Grief. "How're you?"
"Ah, I'm in math class," Mami replies. "Miss Sakaguchi's teaching us integration by parts today!"
"Oh, that's neat!" you say, smiling to yourself as you dip your hand into your pockets to locate the Grief Seeds you'd stashed away. Hildegarde, Aurora, and... Irene.
"How about you, Sabrina?" Mami asks.
"Ah, I flew out to the old industrial area," you say, contemplating the three Seeds. Aurora and Hildegarde, both clear crystal, and Irene the traditional abyssal black. "There's a lot of abandoned warehouses and stuff here."
"Oh, yes!" Mami agrees. "That's a little further than I normally travel for testing my magic..."
"Mmm, there's more room out here," you say. Aurora and Hildegarde don't look particularly different, two clear, glassy orbs surrounded by the delicate, impossibly detailed filigree of a Grief Seed.
"Ah, sorry, I should have thought of that," Mami says, worrying leaking into her voice again.
"Eh? Nothing to apologize for, Mami," you hastily reassure her. Irene's a solid black sphere embraced in the same silvery latticework. And hiding inside, past the dense screening layers of Grief... Irene.
"Oh," Mami says. "Umm... Will I see you at lunch?"
"Mami, I'm not offended," you say. "And of course you will. I wouldn't miss it for the world."
"OK," Mami says, sounding marginally more reassured. "See you later."
"See you, Mami," you say.
You sigh out loud. Expected. You'd absolutely expected that. Just...
You shake your head, and hold up Aurora's Grief Seed, letting it balance on the tip of your finger. You tentatively poke a little blob of Grief at it. The Grief passes seamlessly into the Grief Seed as if the boundary weren't there. You nod - seems to be about what you'd expect. You reach for the primary mass of Grief, and start pouring it in, an endless torrent pouring down a bottomless drain. You watch that Grief intently as it flows in.
It changes as it passes that boundary. Changes into... well, you'd call it Witch stuff.
You blink, pausing the influx of Grief. It can't be that simple, can it?
You transfer your gaze to a basketball sized sphere of Grief, and instead of trying to compress it will it into a denser form. The difference between squashing a sponge and, well, turning it into an equivalent mass of lead. With an abrupt jolt, it suddenly shrinks into a tiny, pebble sized grain. And you know you can make it smaller.
It also feels exactly as Witchy as that fire you'd made earlier.
Which makes sense - you're doing the same thing. You changed the Grief into a denser form, as opposed to trying to compress it.
You look consideringly at the masses of Grief around you, absently picking up the process of refilling Aurora's Seed again. You pull a string out of Grief and pluck at it - it makes a dull thwacking noise. A twist of your will, and you pluck it again. This time, it twangs musically - but it doesn't feel like a Witch.
Hmm.
You seem to have some control over Grief as it is, but it only goes so far as Grief. But you can also... transmute it into different forms with different properties. Interesting.
You stop filling Aurora's Seed when it's half full. Holding it by its point, you tap it to Irene's Grief Seed.
Irene tears Grief from Aurora, a substantial portion vacuumed from one Grief Seed to the other in an instant, and you hastily jerk them apart. You bring your powers to bear, and confiscate the 'stolen' Grief from Irene, returning it to its unused state.
... huh.
That... was interesting, too.
You need to think about that a little more, though, so for now, you settle down on the asphalt floor, crossing your legs comfortably, and set the three Grief Seeds aside, letting them balance on their points. You pick up a small, fist sized rock instead.
Enchantment, then, while you ruminate about how to proceed with the Grief Seeds. You focus on your hand, on the magic coursing within, and start warping it as Mami had shown you the other day, pushing it into rock. It's... something like starting with a melon and deciding that you need to somehow infuse it with sugar all at once, except you need to do it without even breaking the melon open-
Crack!
Dammit.
The lump of asphalt shatters violently into three, the pieces zinging away with violent force. You sigh, and pick up one of the shattered chunks, and start again.
Half an hour later, you've reduced that first chunk into loose gravel, and started on a fresh piece of rock.
"Sabrina?" Mami again, her voice querulous and worried.
"Hi, Mami!" you say, keeping your voice cheery. You set aside the rock for now.
"Hello, Sabrina!" That edge of worry softens, immediately reassured by just your voice.
"How are you?" you ask.
"Ah, I'm in between classes now," Mami says. "Just finished English!"
You smile, and reply in English. "How was English class, then?"
Mami's reply is impressively fluent. Not quite perfect, but it's not Engrish by any means. "Miss Cagle showed us a movie today!"
"Oh?" you ask absently.
"Tangled," Mami says. "It was a fun movie!"
"Ooh, Disney," you chuckle. "Hard to go wrong with them. I've got a dream~" you sing the refrain of that one song from the movie.
"She's got a dream~" Mami echoes happily. "You've watched it before?"
"I guess I did," you say.
"Ah..." Mami says. "Maybe one day you'll regain your memories?"
You can't help but wonder if there is anything to regain. "Maybe, but I've got a new set of happy memories now, too," you say.
"Ah..." Mami says. "Um... I'll see you at lunch?"
"Mami," you say as gently as you can. "I won't leave you. And yes, I'll see you for lunch."
"OK," Mami says, and fall silent.
You sigh.
You look contemplatively at the rock you'd been trying to enchant. You're... getting somewhere, you think, but this is fine, delicate work that is most distinctly not your forte. You could keep on practicing, or maybe not. You glance at the three Grief Seeds sitting quietly... they don't seem to have done much in the interim period.
You glance at the time on your mobile phone. About ten now, the sun finally begin to evict the chill from the air, and two hours until lunchtime at Mitakihara Middle School.
[] Write-in
=====​
(Very Witchy) Transmuted stuff, loose/gaseous Grief, solid Grief, Grief Seeds (not at all).
Last edited: Jan 27, 2015
Threadmarks Under the Radar pt. 4
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#### Firnagzen

Operator

- Jan 28, 2015

- #28,836

You cup your chin in your hand for a moment, mobile phone still held loosely in your other hand. You frown contemplatively at the trio of Grief Seeds, and decide not to touch them yet - you'll cover other things first. Though maybe you want to try your hand at making a body for them later... But yes, other things to do first.
And the first of those are to set your alarm. You spin your phone in your hand, and then your fingers click across it to find the alarm application and set that for eleven forty. That should let you get to Mitakihara Middle School well before Mami gets to the roof. You catch sight of that Grief ring on your finger as you click through the buttons, and you pause to inspect your finger. No sign of anything wrong, sensations still normal.
That done, you slip the phone back into the pocket of your coat and hop to your feet.
You can't stop yourself from grinning. Well, you could, but it's not like there's anyone else to see it. So many new things to do!
You... well, one of the things you really want to do is to extend your power. Out of that one hundred meter radius. You consider the ball of Grief you'd been using earlier, and split off some small chunks. One you simply leave as a solid marble sitting on the floor, and another marble you set looping in the air in a continuous little circle. The last chunk you transmute into a small, clear piece of glass, leaving that beside the marbles.
You scoop up the three Grief Seeds -best keep them with you- and draw the main mass of Grief with you as you walk away, leaving those two test objects on the asphalt floor.
Your footsteps ring on the floor as you stride through the rusting warehouse, the sound returning in tinny echoes bounced off the metal walls. You purse your lips and look around - might this be where H.N. Elly spawned? Or maybe just a Witch, due to hatch? You spread your senses, observing carefully, and turn up nothing in particular.
The Grief objects, all three of them, evaporate when they cross the invisible boundary of the limits of their power. The Grief, as you'd come to expect, seems to maintain some coherence before dissipating harmlessly like the mist under the sun. Or maybe a dream under harsh reality. Your dreams of making things persist, anyway.
You frown in annoyance. But no, you're not done yet. You call another small sphere of Grief to your hand, another marble sized lump. You balance it on the palm of your hand, just a small, deep purple marble glinting in what light filters through the grimy windows of the warehouse.
You try to will it into persistence, the ability to stay. Permanence. It feels... strange. Like you're reaching with a phantom limb for something that isn't there. There must be a way, you tell yourself. You try to envision the sphere, floating merrily by itself while you walk away, and you try to impress that image upon the Grief.
You succeed in giving yourself the impression that someone just clubbed you over the head. Or maybe it's just the musty, stale air in here. Ugh.
You frown at the sphere, which is visibly unchanged, and doesn't feel any different either.
... Well, you'll test it anyway. You make your way out of the warehouse, breathing in the fresh air outside gratefully. You meander away, keeping a metaphorical eye on the Grief marble you tried to alter.
As you approach the limits of your range, you hold your breath. Will it last, will it no- nope. That little sphere evaporates, too.
You sigh, dropping dejectedly to the asphalt, legs splayed out in front of you. So much for that happy dream, then. Or, well. Maybe you'll think of something else later?
Onto the next thing, then. If Grief does what you want it to... and what Witches want them to, then... in principle, you should be able to will Grief into a reasonable facsimile of a Barrier, shouldn't you?
A thought occurs to you - document, document, document. You lean over, reaching out for the stack of papers you'd weighed down with a rock earlier, and scribble down what you'd accomplished... or failed to accomplish... with permanence.
You cross your legs, propping your elbows on your knees. You guide another basketball sized sphere of Grief to hover a few meters in front of you with a flick of your fingers, and shift it into a tube. A tube should suffice for your purposes, you reason, since the air in a Witch's Barrier isn't Grief. You make a second one to act as a control, laying them side by side.
Space extension. You try to exert your will, forcing it upon the space inside the tube. It doesn't seem to work, though, just as the permanence didn't. The tube remains obdurately normal. As normal as something made out of Grief can be, anyway.
You frown in annoyance, and change tacks - time, then. You'd fought a Witch that could slow time, after all. You focus your will again.
All you get for your pains are a dull, throbbing headache and more annoyance. Witches can do it, why can't you? Not that you're a Witch, of course. You're pretty sure you're not, anyway. You hope. Something... well, you're fairly sure you're a puella magi. One with unprecedented, somewhat Witch-like powers.
...
But probably a puella magi.
"Sabrina?" Mami's voice comes as a welcome distraction from your introspection.
You shake off your brief bout of existential musing. "Hi, Mami!" you say brightly. "How are you?"
"I'm fine," Mami says, perhaps a little too quickly. "How are you doing, Sabrina?"
"I'm doing good, too," you say. "Made some progress, but there's some things I'm not sure of." You reach for the paper and pencil, noting down the failure of space warping. You carefully avoid mentioning Witches, though.
"That's great," Mami says warmly. "Um, not that you're having trouble. I'm sure you'll succeed, though!"
"Thanks," you say, smiling. The pencil's getting a little blunt. You give it a thoughtful look, and call over a small shard of Grief, sharpening it to a razor's edge and carefully shaving the pencil back to a point. "How about you, Mami? How are lessons going?"
"Ah, nothing much," Mami says. "Miss Cagle is asking us to analyze the movie we watched."
"Oh?" you say.
"Ah, yes!" Mami continues at your urging. "I'm... not doing as well," she says, sounding ashamed. "It's easy to miss points."
"Mami, your English is great," you say. "Take it from me, it truly is. I don't think anyone can blame you for not being perfect."
"I... yes, you're right," Mami says, though she doesn't really sound reassured. She pauses for a while. "I'll see you at lunch?"
"Of course," you say.
"OK," she replies. "See you at lunch."
"See you," you agree.
When the connection closes, you sigh, looking up at the clear blue sky.
You've still got time. You collapse the two tubes back into spheres, and focus on one of them - magnetism. You send that ball shooting up into the sky, just to keep it away from everything to be on the safe side, and focus.
It comes easily to you, instincts you never knew you had bubbling to the fore, though not without the annoying Witch-signature. You draw the magnetized sphere down to you, test it with a convenient piece of rebar, which clangs happily against the sphere of Grief as you bring it nearby. You experiment with raising and lowering the strength of the magnetic field, lowering the strength until the rebar slips off, and then dialing it up so that the rebar leaps back upwards to slam against the sphere.
You pause, squinting thoughtfully at the sphere in front of you. Magnetic.
You wish you had a real magnet to test it with, but you're pretty sure you just made a magnetic monopole. Which... well, magnetic monopoles are one of those theoretically predicted but never physically observed things.
Next up is gravity, which is just as easy, your will impressing upon the sphere what you want. You're careful not to go overboard and make a black hole or something. The sphere instantly picks up a coating of dust and sand yanked up from the ground, and a few rocks flicked at it stick fast. Magnetism worked, so it makes sense, sort of, that gravity does, too.
You smile to yourself. Mundane forces work perfectly well, then. Next up, magic! You feel a grin split your face. Gravity and magnetism and such are neat, but magic.
At a thought and a flex of your will, the Grief sphere turns invisible. You can still sense it perfectly well, though, and to your considerable annoyance - it shows up with a Witch signature, too.
That's not helpful. You growl under your breath. Can you make it not feel like Witch-stuff, then?
The answer, it turns out, is no, or at least not by your Grief powers, you find.
Then again.
If you could, it'd... strongly imply that somewhere out there, there could very well be a Witch stalking about that's completely invisible to both you and other puella magi.
So you'll return to mundane things for now. The sun's rapidly heading towards its zenith now, and the heat's getting annoying, so you rise and walk over to the puddle of shade offered by the warehouse. You hold out your hand as you go, and a laser pointer made out of Grief drops into your hand.
It's one of those cheap, keychain kinds, but you thumb the button, and it throws a red spot of light on the wall of the warehouse. About what you'd expect, really. So how about something like, say... A blaster?
You mould Grief into a replica of a blaster, before pausing. To be fair, you make a phaser, too, discarding the laser pointer to wield one in each hand. The pointer's dissolved back into Grief to rejoin the main mass before it hits the ground.
You grin, blaster in one hand and phaser in the other. Both screaming Witch, but such is the price of doing business. You fire the blaster first, the bolt screaming out with the familiar noise to gouge a small crater out of the ground. Then the phaser, set on disintegrate, to blow a slightly larger crater out of the asphalt.
You grin, and fight the urge to cackle maniacally. Range test, then! You suspect you're violating all the gun safety rules, but these aren't guns and you're sticking by that story. You raise both gu- no, not guns, up to the sky and fire at the same time, bolt and phaser beam screaming out-
-only to dissipate at what you'd guess is at your control range.
You pout.
Just then, your phone goes off, and you glance down at it. Time's up, then.
You sigh, and walk out into the courtyard, stooping to collect your notes. Your wings form as you do so, Grief flowing from the enormous bulk to ripple out from your wings, unsettling patterns against the sky. But you're used to them by now, and you launch yourself skyward. The rest of the Grief you drag after you, an avalanche of spheres pouring skyward after you.
You cut across Mitakihara at speed, quickly arriving at the school. You let your wings fade away, and you drop down onto the roof, neatly missing the absurdly ornate fences surrounding said roof and dropping into a smooth roll to avoid shattering concrete underfoot. You tuck away the Grief out of sight behind the school roof and untransform in a blaze of light.
... why's the roof always so empty, anyway? It seems a nice enough place, yet unoccupied most of the time.
"Sabrina?" Mami, of course.
"I'm on the roof," you answer.
"Oh! The bell's going to ring soon, I'll be right up!" Mami brightens immediately.
A moment later, the schoolbell does indeed go off, and a bare minute later, you hear footsteps pelting along the stairwell, and Mami bursts out, eyes hunting frantically for you. You smile, and wave at her. Mami rushes over, forcing herself to slow down before she reaches for you, reaching a hand out.
You grab her hand, smile softening. Mami smiles at you, too, tension ebbing from tightly wound shoulders as she shifts her hand to interlace her fingers with yours. She takes a half step closer to you, tilting her head back so as not to break eye contact.
More footsteps, and quiet conversation. You glance over to see Homura and Madoka emerge from the stairwell, each carrying their own lunchboxes, followed by Sayaka and... Hitomi, her arm in a sling, but still gamely carrying her own lunchbox.
Hitomi's gaze lands on you and Mami, and her eyes widen slightly, before a deep red blush starts to colour her cheeks.
[] Write-in
=====​
All together, now:
Last edited: Jan 28, 2015
Threadmarks Under the Radar pt. 5
- View content

#### Firnagzen

Operator

- Jan 29, 2015

- #29,219

"Hi, everyone," you say, smiling cheerfully at everyone. You're mildly surprised to see Hitomi here, and half expecting her to start in on her 'girls can't love girls' spiel, but she doesn't.
A light blush rises to Mami's face, and she steps back from you. She doesn't let go of your hand, though, your interlinked hands dropping between the two of you.
"Hello," Homura says, her quiet voice overshadowed by the broad smile and cheery "Good afternoon, Sabrina!" directed at you by Madoka. The pair's already moving for the seats.
"Hi, Sabrina," Sayaka calls, waving energetically at you with her free hand. She's holding what looks like a store-bought bento in her other hand, along with what might be some berries. "Good to see you." She seems to have gotten over her earlier bout of gloom, at any rate.
Hitomi blinks, blush slowly fading, before greeting you with a stammered, "G-good afternoon, Sabrina. How are you?"
You move to sit beside Homura, who's seated at a proper distance from Madoka. You deliberately sit a little too close to the time traveller, and she unconsciously leans away from you slightly - and towards Madoka. Mami sits beside you, close enough that her hip brushes against yours. Sayaka gives Homura a little glare, but seats herself next to Hitomi, opposite you.
"I'm doing fine," you answer Hitomi as you pop the lid off your lunchbox. "How about you? I... we didn't see you this morning?"
"Oh," Hitomi says, working at the lid of her own lunch box with the hand not in a cast. "My father had me driven to school today," she explains.
"Ah, I see," you say, nodding in understanding, starting in on your lunch. "It's good to see you out of hospital, anyway. Were you just released?"
Hitomi smiles. "It's good to be out of hospital. And yes, they let me out yesterday."
"Mmm," you say, picking up a slice of salmon.
"Um..." Hitomi says. "Sabrina, you aren't a student here, right?"
"Nope," you say, popping the salmon into your mouth and waving at yourself, dressed in a modest blouse and shorts combination.
"Ah... how did you get up here, then?" Hitomi asks, giving you a curious look.
You shrug. "No one stopped me," you answer glibly. It's... well, it's technically true, and you can't exactly tell her about magic, can you?
"Oh," Hitomi says. "OK."
Madoka pokes her head over Homura's shoulder, practically leaning across the time traveller, to peer at your lunch box. "Those are so cute!" she says. "Did you make those, Mami?"
"Ooh," Sayaka agrees, leaning forward alongside Hitomi to look. "Sausage ocotopi!"
Mami shakes her head. "Sabrina made these, actually!" she says, smiling and holding up one of her own to show them.
Homura holds still, sucking her breath in and being careful not to bump into Madoka.
"Oh, that's amazing!" Madoka says.
"Nah, it's nothing," you disagree. "It's really just sausages, but I sliced the ends so that they curled up when boiling."
"You say just," Sayaka says, rolling her eyes. "Didn't work when I tried it last time."
"Sayaka, you accidentally cut the ends off," Madoka points out.
"Hey!" Sayaka complains loudly. "Traitor! See if I share my raspberries with you!"
Homura snorts almost imperceptibly, the barest traces of a smile on her face.
Hitomi takes a neat bite of her sushi, smiling at the interplay. "I remember that," she says. "The teacher was astonished."
Sayaka glares at her in mock outrage, while you and Mami chuckle. "You too, Hitomi?"
Madoka giggles, sitting back. "My father makes these for me sometimes," she confides to you.
"Mm," you say, enjoying the banter. "Hey Sayaka, can I have some of the raspberries? I'll trade you an octopus for it!" you say, half teasingly. You'd wanted to get some the other day, but decided that the ones in the supermarket weren't very fresh.
"Eh? Uh, sure," Sayaka says, giving you a suspicious look while, holding her lunchbox out. You trade the food across, and then very deliberately glance at Madoka. You grin, and hold the raspberries out to her.
Madoka shakes her head, smiling.
"Well fine, then," you pout, and share the raspberries with Mami instead.
Mami smiles happily at you. "Thank you, Sabrina."
"Ah!" Hitomi looks up at Mami, remembering something. "Mami, Chie visited me in the hospital the other day. She says she's doing well, and she'd be glad if you could rejoin the club?"
Chie... the name sounds familiar, but it takes you a moment to place it. The president of the archery club, you think?
"Ah..." Mami brightens a little, before pausing. "I don't think I have the time, these days. But thank you!"
Lunch passes with happy chatter, as you simply relax and are normal for a while, even Homura seeming to relax slightly. "Oh!" Madoka says, twisting to retrieve a second box from her side. She opens it to reveal neat little rows of small dumplings dusted with powdered sugar. "Dad made dango!" she declares brightly.
Sayaka's eyes light up, and she immediately reaches for one. "Ooh, I love these."
Madoka passes the box to Sayaka, who happily takes another two for herself, and then passes it to Hitomi.
Hitomi declines with a smile. "I shouldn't eat too many sweets," she says.
"Aw, it's just dango," Sayaka says.
Hitomi shakes her head, still smiling, and passes the box to Mami instead. Mami takes a few, holding them out to you with a smile. You return the smile, and take one from Mami's hand, popping it into your mouth. You hand the box to Homura, who hesitates before finally taking just one for herself, passing the box back to Madoka.
After finishing the treats, Hitomi's the first to rise, fastidiously dusting her skirt off. "We should be going," she says, glancing at the time on her watch.
"Ah, yes!" Madoka agrees. "C'mon, Homura, let's go!"
Homura nods. "Yes," she says, rising. You give her a questioning look, and she nods slightly. She hasn't forgotten, then.
Sayaka groans, and pushes herself to her feet. "Do we really have to," she complains. "Eh. See you later, Sabrina."
"See you!" you agree, exchanging goodbyes with the others.
Finally, the four of them head off, while Mami, hesitant, stays on the rooftop. She looks at you for a moment before pulling you into a hug. You hug her back tightly, trying to reassure her as best as you can.
She pulls back a moment later, looking up at you and biting her lip, brow furrowed in worry. "Sorry."
"Whatever for, Mami?" you smile.
"I'm sorry I-" she grimaces, biting the words off. "Sorry."
You shake your head. "You have nothing to be sorry for," you reassure her. "I'll see you after school, OK?"
"Y-yes," Mami says, reluctantly disengaging.
She walks slowly to the stairwell, casting reluctant glances back at you, while you smile gently at her. Finally, she vanishes into the stairwell.
You frown, considering. Wasn't Homura supposed to mee-
-you blink.
The world's cast in familiar tones of grey, colour leached away by the application of Homura's power. The time traveller's transformed into her puella magi costume, shield humming on her arm. Her other hand rests lightly on your shoulder, linking you into the timestop.
"Hey, Homura," you say.
"Hello," Homura says. Violet eyes study you closely, and a moment passes in silence.
"Uh...?" you ask.
"I'm... glad to see you made it back," Homura says. "What happened in Ishinomaki and Sendai?"
[] What do you tell her? (Points, as always)
[] What next?
[] Write-in
=====​
Curious Homura.
Threadmarks Under the Radar pt. 6
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#### Firnagzen

Operator

- Jan 30, 2015

- #29,596

You exhale, blowing out a breath. "Quite a lot," you say. "Maybe we should sit down?"
Homura nods. "One moment." Her hand on your shoulder loos-
-sens. You grunt, shaking your head in disorientation. "Ugh, I'm never going to get used to that," you grumble. Homura's holding a string against your hand, now, and you grab that, looping it around your wrist. She's holding the other end of the reel, of course.
You move over to the bench, dropping into it, and Homura seats herself, smoothing her skirt down. She looks patiently at you, waiting for you to start speaking.
"OK, so," you say. "The war's over. Mami, Kirika, and I went over to Ishinomaki, and we pulled the Ishinomaki girls off of Akiko, Sakura and Rin."
Homura frowns faintly. "You are aware that Hamasaki is usually the aggressor?"
"Yes, well, I am now," you grumble. "You could have told me before I left."
The timetraveller shakes her head slightly. "Not by telepathy," she disagrees.
"Fair enough," you allow. "Though speaking of her, do you know what the hell's up with Akiko?" you ask curiously. "I mean, apparently she's been going after Ishinomaki for years, and when I pressed her about her... 'tax' on the University girls, she went into this... mantra. 'Safety, security, commodity.' And then after we beat her, she broke down completely."
Homura shrugs, an infinitesimal, barely noticeable rise and fall of her shoulders. "I simply dealt with her, when she tried to bring the war here."
So she killed Akiko, then. You can't help but wonder if that might have been the better option. It would have been easier, certainly. So much easier. On the other hand, this way, everyone lived, and that's a good thing, at least. You sigh, the noise loud in the blanketing, muffling silence of timestop.
"Well, fair enough," you say. You're... hardly going to criticize her for that. Or at least, not like this. "Moving on. I talked to the Ishinomaki girls for a bit, and then we went to Sendai. We found the University group attacking Sendai, and they successfully stole Rin -uh, Mori Rin, Sendai's healer-" Homura nods fractionally in recognition, "-and we tried to negotiate."
"Did it work?" Homura asks, violet eyes intent as she leans forward slightly.
You shake your head. "No. We were attacked by Sendai and the mercenaries from Fukushima. And hey, uh. Speaking of which, you told me Moe's powers were 'shadow'? She has... some kind of superspeed."
"Superspeed over shadow," Homura nods in agreement.
"That's... not exactly the impression I got from just 'shadow'," you say. You keep your tone neutral, without emphasis or accusation.
Homura winces, very slightly. After a moment, she says, "I apologize."
You shake your head. "It's OK," you say. "Just... next time, try to be more precise?"
Homura bobs her head in a nod.
"So anyway," you say. "After we beat them all, Akiko was still trying to pull in reinforcements from Tokyo, via Sakura. We took them down, and then Akiko... basically went catatonic. Things went a lot more, ah, equitably after that."
You pause. You really want to complain about people ignoring you when you try to talk, when you try to be civilized. And that nobody takes you seriously until you shout and threaten like a cut-rate stage villain. You hold your tongue, though, because Homura's... not exactly the person to complain to about that.
Feh.
You continue. "I negotiated a peace between Sendai and the University girls, and a deal - Akiko's not in charge anymore, they stop fighting, and they try and hang on to Grief Seeds, and I'd drop by every week or so to refresh their Grief Seeds."
Homura presses her lips together, a small frown furrowing her brow. "Are they going to help out with Walpurgisnacht?"
"I haven't told told about it yet," you say with a shrug. "Possibly. Honestly, I'm just trying to help them out. Also... I'm more concerned with whatever big thing Oriko's scared of instead of Walpurgisnacht. Building up goodwill can't hurt."
"You believe her?" Homura asks, frown deepening.
You run a hand through your hair, tucking it behind your ear as you give it a moment's thought. "Yeah, I do, mostly," you say. "In the first place, what purpose would lying to us about there being a new thing serve?"
The frown doesn't abate. "To distract us from something else. Her own plans, perhaps," Homura says. "Don't trust her."
You sigh. "Yeah," you say, trying to placate her. "But the both of them, Kirika and Oriko, really were incredibly helpful in helping to shut things down, though. Kirika's an amazing fighter, and Oriko helped me find Akiko before she could pull more people in."
Homura doesn't respond vocally, the frownlines on her brow rapidly approaching World War I trenchworks in depth and complexity.
... You'll take the hint and drop the topic for now. You were thinking of bringing up lifting Kirika and Oriko's house arrest, but you... need a better approach to it, you think.
"Anyway," you say, shaking your head. "Moving on... Did you ever finish that list of Witches, by the way?"
Homura nods, and dips her hand behind her shield, retrieving a small wirebound notebook, which she hands to you. "This isn't all the Witches. Just the... significant ones," she says tonelessly.
"Thank you. And of course," you say, flipping through it. Street addresses, locations, descriptions, and approximate times. You recognize a few, you think. One that you're pretty sure is H. N. Elly, one that's Elsa Maria. And right at the end of the notebook is a drawing of a familiar, upside doll under a spinning gear.
Homura holds her hand out, seeming to think of something. You raise your eyebrows, passing the notebook back. She produces a pen from her shield to cross out three Witches from the notebook, before finally handing it back to you.
Thoughtfully, you pull a sphere of Grief to you from the mass lurking out of sight and encase the book in a thick casing of Grief - that should proof the book against nosy little bunnycats. Absently, you check the ring of Grief on your finger, wiggling it. Yep, still perfectly fine.
Homura gives the now solidly encased book an approving look.
"Thanks, Homura," you say again, tucking the notebook away into your bag.
Homura nods.
"OK, so," you say. "I... realize that this may not be that... easy to swallow for you. But hear me out, first?"
Homura nods, this time more slowly and thoughtfully, amethyst eyes studying you carefully.
"I'd like to tell Madoka and Sayaka about the lichbomb," you say. "That is, that our souls are in our Soul Gem." Homura's face slams into a frown again, and you hastily raise a hand. "Hear me out, please! The worst person to know is Mami - and she already knows. Madoka and Sayaka aren't magical girls yet, and this will discourage them, right? And you know how Sayaka will react to finding out about the lichbomb."
Very reluctantly, Homura nods. Her frown remains, though, etched deeply on her face.
"And Mami needs friends," you say, encouraged by Homura's positive response. "She needs more friends who know what she's going through, and won't reject her for it." You fall silent, letting Homura think about it.
Finally, she shakes her head, pressing her lips together. "I don't want her... I want Madoka to stay away from this."
[] Try to convince her
- [] How?
[] Continue with rest of vote
[] Write-in
=====​
I'm not going to list out all the Witches - but it's something you can consult to find one, that kind of thing.
Holding this in abeyance.
-[x] One last thing. Show Homura your clear seeds.
--[x] Talk about their capacity for cleansing.
--[x] The danger of a clear seed coming in contact with a normal seed.
--[x] Your intentions to 'revert Hildegarde' because it might just be possible.
---[x] That you're not quite skilled enough with enchantment magic to attempt such a thing yet, and you'd like to ask her for her help.
Last edited: Jan 30, 2015
Threadmarks Under the Radar pt. 7
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#### Firnagzen

Operator

- Jan 31, 2015

- #29,857

You blink at Homura, vaguely surprised, before pressing your lips together. Homura... she would put Madoka into a gilded cage, wouldn't she? All things considered? And she could, if pushed. You take a moment to think, marshalling your thoughts while the dead silence of the timestop presses in on you.
"Homura," you say slowly. "Kyuubey was riding on her shoulder when I first met her."
"The less she knows," Homura counters, "The less likely she is to contract."
You shake your head. "No, Homura. If you want to protect her, then we need to break any positive image she has of the little white rat," you say, meeting Homura's violet eyes.
"I've tried," Homura says, pain and anger in the tight lines around her eyes. "She still..." Her hands tighten into fists.
"Homura," you say gently. "I know." Mentally, you can't help but annotate that 'showing up outside Madoka's window with a cryptic pronouncement doesn't actually do much'. You continue, trying to keep your tone placating. "But with three of us, you, Mami, and I, all agreeing that Kyuubey is dangerous, don't you think that it would be that much more effective?"
Homura sucks in a breath, lines around her eyes tightening, but doesn't otherwise react.
"I'm... Homura, I'm sorry, but the moment to keep Madoka out from the world of magical girls is long past. It was gone the moment Kyuubey noticed her enormous potential," you say. "We can't keep her isolated. We can only keep her from making the wrong choice, Homura, and she needs to know the hidden consequences for that. Otherwise she doesn't know enough to not make a Wish for frivolous reasons."
Homura closes her eyes, squeezing them shut. "It doesn't work. Even if she knows the consequences, she'll make her Wish. She knew, last time. She still- She made her Wish. Because I-" she breaks off, making a choked noise, hunching over.
You sigh, putting a comforting hand on Homura's shoulder. She's so thin, you notice. You... it's not something you haven't noticed before, but Homura's shoulder is... practically bony under your hand, barely any substance to the girl.
She flinches ever so slightly from your touch.
"Homura," you say. "We can keep her safe. We can do it, keep things from getting so bad that she'll ignore the consequences. But she needs to know those consequences, Homura."
"I..." Homura trails off, her eyes still squeezed shut. "I never succeeded."
Or she wouldn't be here.
You wouldn't be here.
"We can do it, Homura," you insist. "I know what's at stake here, Homura, and I'm with you to the end. And... Mami doesn't know everything-" yet, perhaps, "-but she's hardly going to support Kyuubey, right?"
Homura shakes her head slowly. Agreement or disagreement, you don't know.
You forge onwards. "The last thing we want is for Madoka's childhood friend to make a contract. And you know where Sayaka making a contract leads, right? You know what happens when she finds out about what Soul Gems really are. Can you think of a better way to persuade her not to make a contract?"
Homura's silent, swallowing convulsively. "I..."
Finally, she nods. Her voice is ragged, exhausted when she speaks again. "I... We can..." She trails off, setting for another nod, a quick, half centimeter dip of her head, her eyes still closed.
You look at her, concerned.
You'd... been meaning to ask her how she's holding up. This seems as good a time as any. "Homura," you say. "I'm going to give you a hug, OK?"
When she doesn't respond, you gently put an arm around her shoulders and squeeze her lightly. Skin and bone, really. Careworn.
She sits there, unresponsive.
"How are you holding up, Homura?" you ask, releasing her and sitting back. "You promised me you'd take better care of yourself, right?"
She nods slightly, eyes cracking open. "I have."
"Are you sure?" you ask. "Sleeping properly, eating properly?"
"Yes," Homura says, a trace of her more usual fiery will leaking into her amethyst eyes. "I slept last night. I ate."
"Eating properly?" you ask with gentle emphasis.
The time traveller glances away, looking faintly guilty.
You sigh, this time in fond exasperation. "Homura, you need to take proper care of yourself. But you know what, that brings me to my next point. Mami needs friends, and I wasn't just talking about Madoka and Sayaka."
Homura looks at you with her customary poker face. You... know her well enough by now to detect what might be faint bafflement on her face, though.
"I'm talking about you, Homura," you say, lips quirking into a little smile. "She'll be glad to have you over for dinner and sleepovers, you know, and so will I."
The poker face doesn't abate.
You thump her lightly on her shoulder, still smiling. "You're Mami's friend too. You're my friend, too, you know. And I'm inviting you to come over more often. Heck, tonight, even. I doubt Mami will object."
Homura blinks slowly, and nods. "Thank you."
"Good," you smile.
Hesitantly, Homura smiles back at you, the faintest quirk of her lips upwards.
You own smile broadens, and you nod approvingly.
"So that's settled, then," you say. "Moving on... I was thinking of using magic to heal Kyousuke's hand. Remove another reason for Sayaka making a contract, right?"
Homura cocks her head slightly, considering that. "It might work," she says.
"Did you ever try it before?" you ask.
"Yes," Homura says. "It was expensive, and... Miki... still made her contract after Mami died."
"Well, Mami's still alive and well," you say. "And she'll stay that way. So... maybe?"
Homura nods, looking thoughtful. A moment later, she speaks again. "He may develop a crush on you."
You stare at her.
She stares back.
The dead, muffled silence of the timestop stretches out.
"He gave up after a while," she offers.
You continue staring.
She nods.
Your head tilts over to the side.
Homura's face is utterly neutral, not a hint of her thoughts showing on her face.
...
You really, really want to get the full story out of her.
You also really, really doubt you ever will.
Dammit.
"Okaaaaay," you say. "Mooooving on. You remember a few days ago, on the top of the hospital? I nearly hatched a Witch by accident?"
"Yes," Homura says.
"I was messing around with Grief Seeds," you say. "I've... continued fiddling with them a bit, and, uh." You dip into your pockets, and retrieve Hildegard's and Aurora's Seeds - you're keeping them all separate, just in case. You hold out the two Seeds for Homura to see - two perfectly clear orbs, each surrounded by the familiar traceries of a Grief Seed.
Homura reaches for one, before hesitating.
"Go ahead," you say, motioning with Hildegarde.
Homura takes it, inspecting it minutely.
"So this is apparently what happens when I pull all the Grief out of a Grief Seed," you say. "It seems to cleanse perfectly normally - I tested it with Oriko, and she didn't even hesitate. And I'm guessing that one of these will probably last for years at a normal rate of consumption."
Homura looks intently at you. "This is... useful," she says.
"Yeah, there's a few problems, though," you say. "The first thing is... if you put it together with a normal Grief Seed, the normal one will yank the Grief right out - and that's what happened back on the roof of the hospital. I didn't know that would happen, and I kept them both in the same pocket, so Aurora-" you hold up the Grief Seed in your hand, "-stole enough Grief from Hildegarde-" you point at the one Homura has, "-to nearly hatch."
"I see," Homura says, returning to inspect the Seed she's holding, dividing her attention between you and the Grief Seed.
"And that brings me to my next worry," you say. "Because... Grief Seeds don't steal Grief from other Grief Seeds-" you raise an eyebrow at Homura, and she nods in confirmation, "-but Grief Seeds will take Grief from a Soul Gem."
Homura's eyes go wide, and she blinks first at you, then the Seed in her hand.
You shake your head. "I don't know. I honestly don't, but I'm not done experimenting with these," you say. "I'm... trying to turn Hildegarde into a Soul Gem, if it's at all possible."
"I see," Homura breathes, eyes still wide. "That's... that's..." she stops, lost for words.
"Yeah," you agree. "Yeah, it is. I think, though, that the next step is that I need to be able to do enchantment magic. And I'm completely terrible with that. Could I get your help with it?"
Homura shakes her head. "Ask Mami. She's better than I am," she says.
"Really?" you raise your eyebrows. "I thought..."
"Enchantment doesn't help me much," she says.
You frown, considering. "Hmm... OK," you say slowly. "I may still want your help, even if Mami's better - because I don't really want her to know about, you know, Witches yet."
Homura nods quietly, shifting in her seat. "Could I request a cleanse?" she asks.
"Hm? Oh, of course," you say, blinking at her.
Homura nods, raising her hand slightly to present the Gem to you, and you wipe the Grief away, leaving the Gem sparkling. "Say, do you have any used Grief Seeds?" you ask. "I can... 'reset' them back to an unused state," you say. "That doesn't seem to have any of the effects like... you know."
Homura nods, and returns Hildegarde to you before she reaches behind her shield, and withdraws a Grief Seed, about half full. You pull the Grief out of it with a sharp tugging motion, compressing the Grief into marbles to join the rest, restoring the Grief Seed back to an unused state.
"Yeah, hang on to half used Grief Seeds in future? I mean, don't fill them up all the way, just half fill them and then pass them to me?" you suggest.
"Alright," Homura agrees, replacing the Grief Seed in her shield. "Is there anything else?"
[] Write-in
=====​
So, who likes noodles?
Threadmarks Under the Radar pt. 8
- View content

#### Firnagzen

Operator

- Feb 1, 2015

- #30,161

"No- well, yes," you say, smiling. You reach out, draping your arm around Homura and giving her another hug. The girl stiffens reflexively at the contact. You hold the hug, squeezing her lightly, and she eventually relaxes into it.
You release the hug, and smile at her. "We'll make it though this, Homura," you say. "We will. We'll all make it through."
Homura exhales slowly, not responding, but her eyes are... a faint smile touches her eyes, the worry lines softening for once, just a hair. "Thank you," she says. She takes a deep, shuddering breath, and stands. "I need to get back to class."
"Alright. See you later, Homura," you say.
"... See you later," she says. "Don't stay too long, the teachers will sweep through soon."
"Gotcha, thanks," you say. You smile, and deliberately raise the string in your hand to eye level, holding Homura's gaze, and let it g-
-o.
Bright sunshine and pleasant, midday warmth beats down on the empty roof, an empty space where Homura used to be. You smile to yourself, and bounce lightly to your feet. Things yet to do, science yet to be done, and people to talk to. You roll your neck, transforming and pulling enough Grief to you to form your wings.
Your legs coil, and you leap skywards, wings beating to lift you ever upwards.
...
You really want to get that story out of Homura, some time.
You soar over the city, revelling in the sheer freedom. There are no strings on you, and all that.
Or, well. None that you haven't chosen to take on for yourself. You choose to be a friend to Mami, and to try and build her up, to accord her the care and respect she deserves. You choose to help Homura, to help Madoka and Sayaka; you chose to intervene in the war when you could have sat back and done nothing about it.
Of your own choosing, then.
You wing back to that warehouse you were at earlier, dropping to the sun-heated asphalt with a thump and a small cloud of dust. You smile, reaching first into your pockets, then for the brooch clipped to your coat.
Soul Gem, Grief Seed, and... broken Seed. Yourself, Irene, and Hildegarde, spead out on your palm.
Yourself, your Soul Gem. A shining white egg-shaped Gem gleaming under the sunlight, wrapped in elaborately wrought gold filigree. In your Grief senses, it's practically aglow with magic, delicate traceries spinning across the air to merge seamlessly with the crackling storm of your body, magic running like leashed fire parallel to your veins. In the very deepest portion of your Soul Gem is a slowly bubbling effusion of Grief, a presence you shy away from touching.
Dedolere.
You grimace, looking at Irene instead. An obsidian black orb surrounded in silvery traceries, balancing on its point. In your Grief senses... as you'd expect, it's filled with Grief, tremendous quantities of it locked away within that crystalline structure. In the very center of it is Irene. From the Witch you get a sense of vicious, predatory hunger, muted and quiet - but there.
Finally, a perfectly clear crystal surrounded by similarly silver filigree, like Irene, balancing on a slender stem. Hildegarde. You smile ruefully at the Seed, the one that started this whole thing. It's a crystal clear gem -small 'g' gem, there- with a single, abyssal spot in the center, one that resonates in your senses. Hildegarde, quiescent and still.
Hmm.
You look contemplatively at the trio.
Maybe you're getting somewhere with Hildegarde. Certainly it's different from Irene. You've no real idea, though. Perhaps time will tell? And perhaps you do need to figure out how magic works properly first. You shrug to yourself, and put them away for now, the Grief Seeds going into different pockets, and your Soul Gem back to its place on your chest.
For now... you summon a warhammer, a sudden surge of magic coalescing into a meter long piece of steel. The warhammer drops into your hand, your grip closing around its handle and you spin it lightly, looping through several rapid strikes at an invisible opponent. You've... never really come out ahead in a melee clash, but still. You know how to use this.
You concentrate for a moment, focusing your will upon a spot ten meters up. It takes effort, to your surprise, but you manage to form a warhammer ten meters up, and sidestep sharply as it falls to the ground with a clang. You stoop and heft the new hammer, spinning it lightly in your hand. It feels exactly the same as your other one.
Hmm.
So what, then, of Grief? You dismiss one of the hammers from your hand, and raise it towards the enormous mass of Grief you've been dragging around the whole day. From the brooding mass of spheres, you draw a single sphere out, and forge it into a replica of your warhammer that you tug towards you. The grip smacks into your hand, the hammer pinging off your senses as Witch.
Immediately, you're struck by the weight. Your warhammer feels light as a feather in your hand, whereas this one... well, it feels like a meter long rod of steel with a heavy, armour piercing head on top. You place your warhammer on the ground, and take an experimental, two-handed swing with the one made of Grief.
The swing nearly overbalances you. The unexpected momentum of the thing, so different from your hammer, nearly has you tripping over your own feet.
... hunh.
You kneel and grab the magic-formed warhammer, holding both up in front of you. They look exactly the same, but the one on your left, the one forged of Grief, screams Witch in your senses. It also feels considerably heavier. And yet you get the distinct feeling that if you weighed them, they'd weigh exactly the same.
Magic is such bullshit.
But the one made of Grief... an effort of will gives it a viciously sharp pickax head, and then it flows into a rounded mace head.
Hmm.
On the other hand, you should be able to make it lighter, too. You drop your normal warhammer again, and focus on the Grief one. An effort of will has it feeling equally as light as your usual warhammer, and you take a careful swing with it. This time, it handles properly.
Contemplatively, you heft it back over your shoulder, and then slam it through a heavy, overhand blow at the ground in front of you, punching a hammerhead shaped divot in the asphalt with an enormous cracking noise.
You take a step to the side, picking up your magic warhammer. You repeat the blow, trying to put an equal amount of force behind it - and promptly smash a crater out of the asphalt. A crater, as opposed to a simple divot.
Hmm.
You plop down onto the asphalt, looking at the two different holes gouged out of the parking lot. Your testing methodology isn't terribly scientific, but you have a feeling that the hammer, your hammer, wouldn't work the same in someone else's hands. You make a grumbling noise, snorting through your nose in annoyance.
Eh.
Magic is such bullshit. Of the bisoniest, deuce-iest level.
"Sabrina?" Mami's voice, traces of anxiety curling at the edge of her tone.
"Hey, Mami!" you say brightly, putting aside your annoyance for now. "How are you?"
"Oh, I'm in home economics now," Mami says. "We're cooking today! I'll try and cook enough to bring home tonight."
"Looking forward to it," you smile, pushing yourself to your feet. You dismiss both of your hammers, and wander off into the cool shade of the warehouse. "Oh, uh. I said I'd check with you, would you be OK if I invited Homura over tonight to hang out? Or maybe a little earlier, we can all go out?"
"Ah, of course. You don't need to ask, Sabrina," Mami says, sounding surprised. Surprised, and pleased. "I'll be sure to cook something good!"
"Excellent," you smile. "And your cooking's amazing, Mami, so no need to stress yourself."
"Thank you, Sabrina," Mami replies. "I'll do my best!"
"Really, you don't need to stress about it," you say, still smiling at her delighted tone.
"OK, Sabrina," Mami says. "I'll see you later?"
"Of course," you say easily, nodding firmly even if she can't see you. "See you later, Mami!"
You smile to yourself as the connection closes. Well, that's as good a cue as any to start calling other people, too. You find a support column that's less rusty than the others and lean against it.
"Masami, Hiroko?" you call out telepathically.
There's no response for a long moment, and you're just about to try again when Masami does. "Sabrina? The hell did you do to Miss Hamasaki?"
"Masami!" Hiroko joins in the conversation with a rebuke.
"Uh? Wait, she contacted you?" you ask, raising your eyebrows.
"Yeah, tried to call in our help, against you," Masami says. "We turned her down."
"Uh, well," you say. "I actually kinda went over and, uh, forced them to stop fighting."
The silence echoes out for a moment.
"Do you make a habit of doing that?" Masami manages, finally. "Don't answer that."
After another moment passes, you say, "So, uh, yeah. Things have more or less settled down. I thought I should let you know."
"Right," Masami says.
"Yeaaah," you say. "So, uh. How are the two of you? Hunting and stuff going alright?"
"Yes, thank you," Hiroko answers after another thouughtful pause.
"Good to hear," you say. "So, uh, another thing. I can refresh Grief Seeds, right? So if you half fill them and hang on to them, you can ping me and I can drop by to refresh them."
"That... sounds useful," Masami says, tone noncommittal.
"Yeah," you say. You... You don't want to impose your will on them, so you quickly add, "It's just a suggestion, I guess, that I hope you'd find useful?"
"... yeah, it actually does sound pretty good," Masami says. "We'll... probably get back to you on that?"
"Mmm," you say. "Let me know whenever, OK?"
"Yeah," Masami says. "Bye, Sabrina."
"Bye, Sabrina!" Hiroko agrees. "And thanks for letting us know!"
You nod to yourself as the connection closes. Hopefully they'll follow up. Next up, then, Ishinomaki. "Miss Inoue?" you ask, telepathically reaching out for Yuuki.
It takes a moment for the leader of the Ishinomaki girls responds. "Miss Sabrina? What's happening?" she asks, surprise evident in her tone.
"Uh, well," you say. "The war's kinda over, now."
"... Huh," Yuuki responds in a disbelieving tone. "I don't mean to, like, imply anything, but Hamasaki... isn't that reasonable over us, you know."
"Yeah," you say, rubbing at your head. "Yeah, I know. But she also kinda had a breakdown and went catatonic."
"A breakdown? Hamasaki?" Yuuki asks. "You're... sure?"
"Yeah, I know," you say, rolling your eyes. "But I saw it happen, soooooo."
"... huh," Yuuki repeats. "Well... that's a thing?"
"Yep. They'll be off your backs, now," you say. "Mind clarifying something for me?"
"Sure?" Yuuki agrees.
"Right, so... what happened at the beginning? The... 'negotiations', I mean," you say.
"I've told you all I know?" Yuuki says with an audible shrug. "She called for a meeting, and we agreed. We found her here early, with two of her friends snooping around, so we attacked."
"Hmmm, I see," you say. "OK, then. I guess that's it for me. Anything on your end?"
"Nope," Yuuki says. "Well, like. You're sure? Akiko's done?"
"Yeah, quite sure," you say.
"Then, uh. That's it, I guess," Yuuki says.
"Alright. Bye, then," you say.
"Bye," the girl replies, the connection closing.
You nod. Another bit of business sorted, then. And now for something rather closer to home.
"Oriko?"
"Yes, Sabrina?" the seer responds, almost immediately.
"I'm coming over, is there anything you need me to get you?" you ask, already walking out into the sunshine, wings billowing out behind you.
"No," Oriko says.
"Right. On my way, then." You crouch and leap with a grunt of effort, wings lofting you up into the sky, thermals radiating from the asphalt below aiding in your ascent. You cut across the city, watching the silvery flashes and patches of green rolling by beneath you, wings beating out a steady beat behind you.
You arrive at Oriko's mansion quickly, soaring in for a landing in the garden behind her house as you usually do. Oriko's waiting for you outside, her silvery grey side-ponytail waving in the downdraft from your landing. Kirika's a step behind her and waving enthusiastically at you, bright grin on her face.
"Sabrina," Oriko nods at you.
"Hiiiiiii," Kirika chirps happily.
"Hello, Oriko, Kirika," you respond, your wings dissolving into Grief. You tuck away the enormous bulk of Grief, leaving it scattered about the garden as large, basketball sized spheres resting amongst the greenery.
"Would you like to come in?" Oriko asks politely, gesturing towards the house with her single arm, the opposing sleeve of her dress hanging empty.
"Yes, I would," you say. "I have... a few things to say."
Oriko nods, and turns to enter the house. Kirika bounces after her, and you follow, more sedately. You're led into the living room, and you settle yourself on the sofa, while Oriko disappears into the kitchen, Kirika clattering after her.
A moment later, Kirika returns to the living room, presumably banished from the kitchen. She plops down onto a sofa, looking utterly disconsolate. You quirk an eyebrow at the black haired girl.
"She said I'm not allowed to touch the tea," Kirika mutters.
"Oh," you say. "Uh. You didn't try to microwave it, did you?"
Kirika looks aghast. "No! You don't microwave tea!"
A moment later, Oriko appears, carefully bearing a teapot in her hand. She wordlessly places it on the table, before returning to the kitchen for cups. After doling out the tea, she settles onto the sofa. Kirika's woebegone look vanishes, and she immediately curls into Oriko's side, sliding an arm around the seer's waist.
You sip the tea, enjoying the savoury aroma.
"What did you want to speak to us about?" Oriko asks.
"Well, the first thing is," you start. "Thank you. Thank you, Oriko, and thank you, Kirika, for your help yesterday. Seriously, the both of you were huge helps yesterday."
Oriko nods graciously, accepting that, while Kirika grins brilliantly, her fang poking out. She flashes you a thumbs up, and a cheerful, "Thanks!"
"Next..." you take a deep breath, setting aside your teacup. You meet Oriko's eyes squarely, clear blue against sea green, trying to impress upon her your sincerity. "I'm sorry. For what it's worth, Oriko, I apologize, from the bottom of my heart, for what I threatened to do to Kirika."
Oriko holds your gaze, complex emotions flickering through her eyes as she processes that. Finally, she looks away, letting out a shuddering breath. "I... understand," she whispers.
"Oriko?" Kirika asks, lifting her head to look up at the girl.
The seer smiles sadly, reaching across to touch Kirika's cheek. "Nothing... really important, Kirika."
"Oh," Kirika says, nestling back into Oriko's side. "OK."
Oriko looks back at you, pain in her eyes. "For what it's worth, I apologize, too."
[] Write-in
=====​
Fun fact. Home economics is a mandatory subject in Japanese middle schools.
Last edited: Feb 1, 2015
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