[X] Tell her about Mami.
"I'm still thinking about Mami. And, well, what else I saw when I scanned the rest of the Glow crew." You roll onto your side. "She just...well, they all had the same kind of thing, that same discomfort, that same realization. They were...desperate, I guess? Like they wanted to connect so bad to something or someone."
"That lines up with what we saw of Rin." Your mama shrugs. "Cult leaders are like that. They scoop up desperate folks and fuck with them."
"Yeah, but it's also just...shit, I got way too deep in their heads." You rub your temples. "But Mami is just...even among the rest of them, even with everything I saw about the others, Mami is just...the strangest because of her timeline. Well, her and Kirika. Kirika was from 2011. But most of them are from last year or were just alive when Rin caught them. Unlucky enough to die in our world, no connection. Perfect pickings for a cult leader."
You watch a boat pass by in front of you, the wind howling, the air a cool breeze with the faint taste of salt.
"Mami, though...Mami loved a version of you. A version that
witched."
Your mama sighs. "Yeah...I...yeah." She actually curls up a lot like you, one knee against her chin and the other stretched out in front of her. "It's weird to think about. And weirder 'cause she's kind of how she was when she died. Fifteen years old; she looked mostly the same."
"What was she like in...back then?"
"Let's just say that she was..." your mama says as she looks to the passing clouds overhead, "...mostly the same. No armor, obviously, but I...well, I idolized her. I thought the world of her. She was a mentor, a friend, the kind of person that just took charge and tried to do her best for the sake of," she laughs, "justice. I seem to have a thing for paragons."
That's the least surprising thing you've heard all day.
"But the thing that broke us off," she continues. "The last I saw of her was after my dad killed everyone else and I woke up with a knife in my chest."
You never heard that part. "W-wait, he tried to-"
"If I wasn't a magi, I'd be dead, yes. In retrospect, it was always pretty fucking obvious we weren't human anymore. After he set fire to the house and hanged himself it was kind of hard to believe in that justice.
"Seeing her made me sick. Made me angry. She tried to help me, but I pushed her away. I didn't want her help. I didn't want to talk to her, to see her, and it just, I just...heh." Your mama sighs. "I told her to fuck off. I told her it was her fault they were dead. I told her saving people was pointless. We fought, and then we
fought. I still think about it.
"I came really close to witching that day. The only reason I didn't was because I think my anger kept me from giving up completely. I think that in her world..."
"You gave up."
"Yeah." She leans back. "Kinda makes you think about how close we get to death. I was so fucking close to just dying right there, to just witching in front of her, and of course,
I did. I did in her world. That's fucked up." She looks at you. "I'd never have met your mom. I'd just be another statistic in Kyubey's fucking scheme."
"And you felt that."
"I...I did." You breathe out. "I could feel that emotion from her. That grief, that loss, the yearning, the just..." You raise your hands up. "I-I could feel her pain. It was
fresh. It'd been a few months but it felt like her Kyouko had died
yesterday. I could feel it. She couldn't process it that well. She didn't even know she liked women that way but I
could. It's..." You bury your face in your hands.
"Kirika missed Oriko, was completely obsessed with her lover, missing her with a ferocity of, well,
Homura. I-I was able to solve that obsession but she still ached. She still
yearned. I-I still can't process that. And everyone else? They were taken advantage of. Sorrows, fears, isolation, loneliness..."
Something drips onto your hoodie. There's not a cloud in the sky; you can't see anything overhead. Then something else drips.
And then you realize that you're crying.
"S-she just...
she abuses that. She t-takes advantage of that a-and what kind of
monster does that? W-what kind of
fucking monster takes people
suffering a-and warps that into
loyalty for her?! I-I could see it, I could see that
glow, that
light and it's so bright, so warm and so
fake. A-and she just floods them with it! She floods them with her nothings, her
fucking lies a-and-!"
Your mama immediately pulls you into a hug and the dam bursts. You sob into her chest, arms tied tight around her waist as you wail, as you sob and sob and
sob into her.
"Shhh...shshsh..." She strokes the shaved hairs on the back of your head and holds you close.
"I-I'm sorry
I'm sorry it's j-just-!"
"You don't have to say anything." Your mama sighs. "Just...relax, okay? I'm here."
It ebbs after a while. And by the time you're coherent again, you don't really want to talk. And honestly, you don't need to.
[=]
Your name is Kyouko, and you poured your heart out to your child on a pier. The once razor-sharp pain of Mami's death had become a dull ache, but now it's back. It's back with a fucking vengeance and you can feel it clawing at the back of your mind.
You take a breath. You brought Minako over to meet with Reika and Takane and Hiro because it's been a while. And you're keeping yourself just a little bit distant as they go to an arcade a few blocks away from the mall, down below the street by a bar that you like to hang out at from time to time. Honestly, they're good kids. They're strong kids and they can handle themselves.
Sure, you could probably go to the bar that Toji runs. He and his boyfriend are nice enough, and you really,
really like talking about gay shit with Tatsuya. But right now you don't want to do that. You want to drink jet fuel.
You pull open the door to the bar with your IDLES bomber jacket and a Dead Kennedys t-shirt and a pair of ripped-up jeans. You step across the floor in your thick, black leather boots, freshly groomed undercut swaying, and immediately hit the bar.
"Rum."
"Gotcha." The bartender, a woman with thick arms, a thick neck, and a thick core pulls a bottle off the back shelf. "Any specific kind?"
"Nah."
"No cocktail? No shots?"
You snort. "Fuck that."
"If you're looking to get plastered, we could just get you Everclear."
"I said...actually? Sure. Fuck it. Just get me a shot of Everclear."
"Gotcha." She sighs, then she walks to the backroom. "Also, been a while, Kyou."
"Yeah, well, motherhood."
"Heh." She rolls back behind the counter.
Meanwhile, you quickly light a cigarette with a zippo lighter and a huff. You look up at the booze counter as you hear a set of footsteps.
You turn to see Yuki walking next to you with a hand on his hip and a lull in his step. "Kyou."
"Any news across the bay?" you ask.
"They changed some of their locations after we found them last Monday. They don't know who we are
yet, but they do know that we're gonna be back. They're locking down their shit, trying to find new places to work and port over seeds."
You sigh. "They're gonna do that again? It didn't work the first time."
"No, but word's up the grapevine that they're going to be more aggressive. We destroyed one of their machines. Even managed to make it look like an accident, but the magi producing them are still around. We also have the matter of the summoner, who we
still haven't found. She does seem to have a limit, though. She can only do it at night, and it takes a toll."
"Like, emotional or...?"
"Let's just say that we can see the aftermath. Scorched ground, molten concrete, misplaced materials. It can't be done in one place too often, or it fucks with the physical space surrounding the summoning site."
"That probably explains why they don't just spam magi at Mitakihara."
"We've also found missing limbs from the summoner. I think it...might also injure her if she summons too much at once?"
"Huh." The shot is rolled up, and just as the bartender moves to Yuki, he raises his hand.
"Nah, just a bomber."
She shrugs and starts pouring the ingredients into a shot glass.
You scratch your chin, then quickly down your first shot. The taste is
wretched, as you expected, but it goes down surprisingly quickly before you turn back to him.
"So, remind me, who's up next on Mitakihara?"
"Well, we have Team C on the next run, and I'm off until Thursday. We're keeping track of who's who on the IM."
You nod, then turn towards the drink.
"You know that Sayaka smokes too, right?"
You snort. "Bullshit. She's too straight-laced for that."
He stares at you for a second, then he shrugs and takes his shot.
(PICK either
SABOTAGE or
WAR. This will determine what your goals are during this initial phase of the conflict, or you can just start a war right now)
[] SABOTAGE: Bring up potential plans for sabotage: prioritize (pick one; the other two will be made secondary)...
-[] Taking down Yuri, the summoner. You have no idea where she is, but this is a keystone for most of The Glow's operations. It won't cripple them completely, but it'll stop the biggest problem.
-[] Removing the teleporters. You don't need witches on top of magi warfare. If you can find the magi behind that, then it'll be a major stop to their operations.
-[] Rin. Bring up her past. Bring up everything about her. Find out more about who she is, what makes her tick. You know she's crazy, but you need to know what kind of crazy. Understanding her means understanding her plans.
[] WAR: Plan an offensive instead. At the very least you can start on the inevitable all-out war that will be happening. You don't know when Rin will strike, but you'd rather play offense rather than defense.
-[] This will need a write-in plan. This does not lock you into a WAR yet; this is just planning. Keep in mind that no plan is guaranteed, and you will be discussing this with Sayaka and other magi later on.
