Puella Magi Adfligo Systema

"See you later!" you call after Hitomi, and turn to Mami with a grin. "Dinner!"

"Dinner!" Mami echoes happily. She's already bustling off towards the kitchen, leaving you to close the door and hurry to join her.

Madoka and Homura are already gravitating towards the dining table as you start serving up dishes - a big, steaming pot of curry, Japanese-style sweet and fragrant and just a bit spicy and loaded with chicken, carrot, and potato, with chili flakes on the side to give it that extra bit of kick. You can see Madoka eyeing the latter even as you set it out on the table, spice demon that she is.

You catch Mami's eye, tilt your head slightly, and retreat to the kitchen once more - most crucially, leaving Homura and Madoka alone again.

"Sayaka's being particularly unsubtle," Mami murmurs.

"I know, right?" you say with an easy grin. You busy yourself frying up some croquettes -they're best hot and freshly prepared, anyway- to cover up the sound of your conversation. "And she had the perfect excuse, too."

Mami giggles as she plates up vegetables. "I don't think Homura's really noticed yet."

"... speaking of Homura," you say, smile fading a little. "I... could I get your thoughts on something?"

"Mm?" Mami asks. She walks over to you and ducks under your free arm, pulling it around her into a sidelong hug.

"I think..." You frown, and take a moment to organize your thoughts. You don't want to betray Homura's trust, but at the same time, you want to tell Mami something.

Mami isn't stupid by any means. She's accepted Homura, and she's done that on her own terms. Your unwavering support for Homura must have influenced Mami's opinion, but she came around within a day, and-

Mami is Mami. She deserves better than you dancing around the topic.

"Homura being here made things better for everyone, I think," you say. "I mean, I can't speak for everyone, but I feel like everyone was happier for having her here with us. Madoka, especially."

"I think so," Mami agrees. "Go on?"

"I want her to know that," you say. You put down the utensils and meet Mami's gaze, keeping an eye on Homura in the living room with your Grief senses. "But I don't really know how to tell her that. She... She has trouble really understanding why people care about her. I don't know how to address that, and I don't know how to tell her how much she means to all of us. And- I can't tell her that, because I don't have the, the right to speak for everyone."

Mami tightens her arm around you, golden eyes warm and thoughtful, but she doesn't say anything, simply leaning into you and thinking as you start fishing croquettes out of the oil.

"There's no quick cure to that," she says at last. "I... don't know what Homura went through, but... it must have been a long time. That kind of pain can't go away overnight. I know you've been working on it, but it simply needs time."

She smiles up at you. "I can help. For a first step, we can simply thank her for coming today. There's no need for a heartfelt discussion with her, if all we want to convey is our gladness that she came - and if we start one, I'm sure Madoka would chime in, and Sayaka too."

"That would be perfect," you say. "And... that's genius, Mami. Thank you."

"Homura's a friend, too," Mami says. "And I wouldn't have really known her if it wasn't for you. Thank you, Sabrina." She smiles again, gentle and warm, and lays her hand on your arm. "You have a habit of overcomplicating things, sometimes. I know you want to help, and I know how much it hurts when you can't. That earnestness is part of what makes you you."

She goes up on her tiptoes to kiss you gently on the cheek, her eyes fluttering shut. Just a simple, feather-light touch, but enough to make you blush bright and vibrant because Madokami above you like it when Mami is assertive and confident. And evidently the look on your face is enough to make Mami's face flame an adorable red, too.

"But..." Mami takes a breath. "We can't fix this in a day. We need to, to give her time to process. But her self-esteem..." She eyes you thoughtfully, and raises a finger to press against your lips. "Don't answer me if you can't, alright? I think that part of your concern is that some of the things you're doing are what she's been fighting to do."

You don't answer, throat working, which is probably answer enough on its own, because Mami nods slowly.

"If," Mami says with gentle emphasis. "If that's the case, then maybe the focus needs to change a little. Maybe you're doing amazing at some parts of it, but what can she do that you can't?"

She studies you for a moment as you think about it, unable to answer properly. You've... tried, somewhat. But perhaps you could try harder to push that point?

Mami smiles, and nods, removing her finger. "I hope that helps," she says, and giggles. "That said... have you thought about telling the others about this? That Homura has a hard time really understanding that we all care about her, and we should all pitch in? Just be open about it."

"I... maybe?" you say. "Yeah. I need to think it over, but that does make sense. Thank you, Mami, for all that."

"I'm glad to help, Sabrina," Mami says, her smile widening as she tucks herself against you with a content sigh.

"I'm baaaack!" You can hear the front door bounce open even from where you are in the kitchen, Sayaka's boisterous greeting ringing through the apartment.

"Sayaka!" Madoka squeaks. "You should be more careful!"

You catch Mami's eye, sharing a quick, bright smile before plating up the croquettes. She collects the vegetables, and joins you in serving them up to the table as Sayaka blusters about being gentle and not using her full strength and as if she'd ruin Mami's apartment like that.

"We would be very disappointed if you had," Mami says gravely.

"Very disappointed," you say, plopping the plate down.

"Jeeze, you two are scary when you go mum mode," Sayaka says, wincing a bit. "But everything's fine, see?" She gestures with both hands. "I even locked the door!"

"Go to your room, young lady!" you snap, brandishing the serving spoon at her.

"No!" Sayaka says, sticking her tongue out.

"Ah, teenagers," Mami says, shaking her head sadly. "They grow up so fast."

"Oh, well," you say with just as much mock sadness infusing your voice and dripping from those two words asyou can pack in. "Sometimes, they have to grow up and leave the nest."

You meet Mami's eyes soberly, and you hold each other's gaze for a long moment before breaking down and joining Madoka in giggles.

"Dorks," Sayaka accuses.

"How dare you impugn Mami's honour so!" you declare, rounding on Sayaka.

"... let's eat," Homura interjects delicately.

You snicker, and break off the glare to settle at the table. "Fine, fine," you say. "Hungry, Homura?"

"Yes," Homura says, eyeing the dinner spread.

"Itadakimasu!" Sayaka calls cheerfully, clapping her hands together. You all echo her, and dig in.

"Sorry, Madoka, Homura, no cream stew this time," you say, grinning at them.

"It's fattening, anyway!" Sayaka says, waving her spoon at Madoka. "Eat too much and you'll blow up all big and round and then we'll have to roll you to school."

"Noooooo," Madoka says, mock cowering away from Sayaka and clutching defensively at her stomach. "Anything but that! And besides, I've seen the way you eat ice cream."

"Shush," Sayaka says, and proceeds to stuff her mouth with curry.

Dinner's quiet for a bit as everyone takes the initial edge of their hunger, the clink of cutlery and sounds of enjoyment a quiet accompaniment to your eating. You fall to thinking, quietly contemplative of politics and magic and people. And the dangers thereof.

"Do you think I could make an enchantment to make people's brains like mine and harder to target?" you muse.

Madoka looks at you, chopsticks halted halfway to her mouth.

"What?" you say. "Or, like... Sayaka, did you ever figure out what that eyesight power was? Maybe you could see or detect magic with that?"

Sayaka shakes her head sadly, and returns to eating.

"... what?" you say plaintively. "I'm just trying to brainstorm."

Mami giggles, patting your hand gently.

"... eh," Madoka says. "Ah... I had an idea?"

"Let's hear it!" Mami says with a warm smile.

"Um... magic is all... thematic, right?" Madoka says, looking around shyly. "Based on your Wish and all that? Um... Homura has a shield. Does that mean you could make a defense enchantment? In general I mean, not just what we already have?" She peeks at Homura, and then wilts a little. "S-sorry..."

"That's not a bad point," you say. "Might be worth exploring properly at a later time, Homura?"

"It's a good idea," Mami agrees firmly.

"Yeah, I need to explore the rest of my powers and enchanting stuff with them," Sayaka says.

"Backup mindstate from your clones, maybe?" you say, leaning forward to grab two croquettes - one of which you place on Mami's plate. She beams at you and bumps her shoulder gently against yours.

Sayaka winces a bit. "Maybe? It sounds... kind of uncomfortable? Like I'm all for being secure and stuff but my brain is sorta important," she says. "Not everyone's already brain damaged, you know."

"... hey." You scowl good-naturedly at her. "But yeah, if you're not comfortable with it."

"Did you think about using your Grief magic to simply block mind magic effects, Sabrina?" Mami says.

"I could probably do it, but I'd be worried about... you know, the sensation. It wouldn't be the best thing to bring into a negotiation?" you say.

"It would be a strong show of disregard for their comfort," Madoka offers. "It's a statement of force, but..."

"No," you say, wincing. "That's not the message I want to send. Be kind, right?"

Madoka nods vigorously, mouth too busy chewing to answer verbally, but she looks thorughly approving.

"Hm..." you frown. "That said... I kind of want to refine that a bit? Just to be, uh, more specific, I guess. I mean, twenty angry magical girls showing up on your doorstep is one thing. I wanna formalize what we do if someone abuses a Clear Seed."

"I mean... I guess that means that instead of twenty magical girls showing up, then we show up?" Sayaka says, shrugging and brandishing her chopsticks around the table. "You, Mami, Homura, me. Magic is weird and there's probably powers we can't even imagine out there, but... the four of us are pretty powerful. And..." She grimaces. "The Kures, too. If we really need to."

"Are you willing to agree to enforcing all Clear Seed abuses?" Madoka asks. "And if you do so, what qualifies as an abuse?"

"Madoka makes a good point," Mami admits with a grimace. "Whilst Clear Seeds make the overwhelming pressure of needing to hunt Witches a thing of the past, border skirmishes and the kind of tension, with the aggressive groups in Tokyo..."

She trails off, shaking her head.

"Do we want to be responsible for every time they poke their toe over a border?" Sayaka says. "I mean yeah they can do it with regular Grief Seeds, but is every little fight automatically our problem because they have a Grief Seed? Or just the big ones?"

"And how big is big?" you add with a sigh. "Yeah. I guess this is what I'm putting to everyone, because I don't have the answers for this, either. I honestly would love to have some more like... a modern police force rather than a, uh, feudal law system, I suppose."

"Oooh, I like that," Sayaka says, brightening.

"But we don't have the manpower for that," Mami says. "A police force needs to be a dedicated force, and it needs to be unentangled with other interests to be legitimate. Which we are decidedly not, since we would also be the ones handing out Clear Seeds."

"We would be able to police, but we would not be able to be police," Madoka says, wilting a little.

"Dammit." You grimace.

"Hire someone?" Homura offers, taking a dainty bite out of a chunk of potato.

"Except that the biggest group of manpower around is Tokyo itself," you say.

Homura shrugs slightly. "Pick out a trustworthy group," she says. "Ask them to report to us."

"That... could work!" Madoka says. "But then we'd need to know if they're trustworthy, and they'd have to be nominally detached from Chiyoda's control and recognised by all the other groups as an authority. That could be tricky to negotiate."

You drum the fingers of your free hand against the table. "That could definitely work," you agree. "That said... OK, leaving aside the specifics of the enforcement, what are the tenets that should be enforced? No unecessary conflict - defending yourself is fine, but no attacking others. Help others, but that's not something that can be forced on people."

"Some kind of duty of reasonable care?" Sayaka says. "I mean, that is kind of enforceable. Don't let someone starve if you can help them, that kind of thing. I mean, Tokyo already has, uh, procedures for dealing with new magical girls and magical girls from out of town. They just gotta... tweak it a bit."

"Yeah, that could work for Tokyo," you say. "Depends on how much they're willing to cede to us. Hm... What about in general? Non-Tokyo places, I mean."

"Ah... telepathy makes for a clear line of communication," Madoka says. "But we have to depend on groups calling in problems themselves."

"And if they're abusing the Clear Seeds, they wouldn't," Mami says. "I... would like to believe the best of my fellow magical girls, but we... can't trust everyone to act in good faith."

"Yeah..." Madoka droops in her seat.

You eye Homura sidelong, catching and holding her gaze for a second before nodding and shifting your attention to Madoka - who isn't sad, per se. She looks more thoughtful than anything, probably thinking over the problem.

[] Do you have anything to add about the political ideas?
[X] Proceed with vote in abeyance


OK. I hate to do this again, but once more, the vote and the update ballooned out of control. So I'm ending the update here, and I'm calling in a hard limit - vote only on this particular chunk of discussion. You may refine the discussion with Homura (in particular, if you want to add anything from what Mami said), but please do not expand it too much.

Also, five flippin' years of PMAS. Thank you all for being here - PMAS wouldn't be the same without you guys.