To make people actually remember, here's it once for posterity: Minako is nonbinary and uses they/them. This message will be pinned so you people stop getting it wrong and pissing me off. If you get it wrong in the future I'm going to be much less nice, considering you have to scroll past it just to read the quest.
And now, maybe I'm seeing patterns that aren't there by trying to fit the identities in buckets of, "Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue." That's probably just because I saw "old" and then "new" as options.
[X] Latch onto the old identity of Walpurgisnacht.
You dive in before it has a chance, this time towards a different part; more specifically, you focus on the enormous, broken gear. Your vision goes psychedelic, eyes closing mas you zoom in towards the base of the Witch of Entropy. Towards what remains of the witch of...
The Witch of...
The Witch of...
You're in a seat, surrounded by cheering mannequins. Your fingers clutch the armrests by your side as raucous applause fills the air and confetti and ticker tape stream from above.
The sketch before you, dressed in the finest poorly drawn clothing, does a twirl, hands splayed out as the Witch of Theatrics performs a dance. There is a countdown on the screen in front of you.
Whirring gears and clockwork spin on the screen as the numbers tick down. Ten seconds until the show, a little prelude to something that nobody knew about before...
The words are completely incomprehensible.
The performer waves her baton and shakes her head. She tsks, and each sound is like bells clanging together as she does another jig.
"You're not just some nobody. You matter." You stand in the crowd. The mannequins look almost insulted as you stand, as you tower over them and face the Showrunner.
She speaks, but it's incomprehensible. The tone and smirk on her face imply that she is interested. She cups her chin, dances across the crowd. Her feet land on the mannequins' heads, delicate, gentle, careful not to crush them under her steps. Her heel slides across them, and the closer she gets the more clear it becomes that the reason she is so sketchy is because she is so poorly defined.
Faded colors and ancient text line her body. Her mouth is smudged, her eyes gone, her dress a familiar aqua blue. Whoever this magi was before she witched is irrelevant now. She's a relic of an ancient Witch that's been around for well over a hundred years.
And here you are, so, so much younger than she is. You stand. "I am Minako. What's your name?"
She responds by pressing her hand against your forehead...and then she pushes.
You fall through your seat, backwards, past a crowd of mannequins and back into the real world.
[=]
Langstenacht's six wings are still upright even as its body is down. They fly through the air, flapping every so often with a gust of ice. It begins to float, six arms stretching outwards as they relax. Six hands opening as the pain fades ever-so-slightly.
Ah, but the operative word is slight. The peace doesn't last for long as the Witch of Entropy howls in anger, its head stretching down as broken teeth and shattered bone scrape against the icy ocean below. The gears overhead twist and twirl as familiar runes surround its body, as the old identity of Walpurgisnacht reappears.
On the coast, Homura Akemi's eyes widen. They make the mistake of looking towards Walpurgisnacht. A thousand lifetimes of suffering flicker before them before Sayaka quickly claps her shoulder.
"I know," she whispers. "I know."
"Right, right." Homura shakes her head. "I thought it was going to be easier to watch."
The wind batters the newly-reinforced Kasamino wall as it slowly rises into the air. It attempts to lift buildings, rainbow flames licking the towers and cityscape.
And then those rainbow flames turn to ice. The buildings shatter and turn to dust. The ocean turns liquid and then back into ice, almost threatening to swallow up Mami as she keeps herself just above the surface.
'Mina! Takane! Send it back down!'
Your eyes flick downwards to see Mami with a Gatling gun. She grips the handle and begins to turn.
Fire ripples across the body of Langstenacht, bullets bouncing off its clothing and tearing into bone as it scrapes across the ground. It looks far, far more comfortable as it tears its hands through ice, dragging them along in an attempt to swipe away at Mami Tomoe.
And then, from under the ice, a cannon materializes, a massive smokestack lined with silver and furnished with wood. Mami crosses her arms, raises a foot, and stomps.
The cannonshot is enough to lift the entire witch upwards, momentum carrying it directly into the clouds above. The fire melts the ocean once again, the waves flash-freezing as a magical cannonball the size of a compact car presses into Langstenacht's skull. It flies upwards, flailing hands immediately plucking the bullet out of its head as it rises.
And it's then that you and Takane combine your powers. She rapid-fires explosives into the giant gear at the base (top?) of Langstenacht while you wrap an elongated bat around its neck and pull.
Langstenacht slams into the ruins of Mitakihara with enough force to rend the ground. The entire city craters, debris and ice and metal and concrete raining downwards into a newly made hole in the earth. Infrastructure collapses, pipelines burst, and train tunnels turn to rubble as dust billows out from the hole.
But you know that won't hold it for long. You squeeze your eyes shut and dive right back in.
[=]
You sit in a theater, but the mannequins are missing. The seats are overturned, the tiles shattered, the curtain torn. You stand in front of the Showrunner; Her arms are crossed and her smudged mouth has turned into a smile.
She raises a hand. She swings her finger side to side.
"I'm her child," you say. "I'm the person that she raised. I'm the one that taught, the one she gave the reins to."
She smiles at you.
"But I'm not here for a repeat performance."
The mouth opens.
The Showrunner raises her hand. And she is engulfed in flame.
"Miki-Sakura," you say back.
And the entire theater bursts into rainbow fire.
[=]
Langstenacht's wings explode into rainbow flame, the spinning wheel of runes glimmering bright. The cold begins to ebb away, the clouds turning from a cool blue into a dull yellow. Langstenacht crawls from below, the mask over its head beginning to collapse over the skull, eyes flickering and shimmering and glowing bright.
Its hands scrape against the sides of the crater, the gears slowly rising from underneath the city as the Witch of Entropy spots you along the edge. Snow still rains from above, the ocean still frozen, bodies still cooling in the wreckage and clouds still encircling the both of you.
[] Latch onto the new identity of Langstenacht. [DIFFICULTY 2] (This entity is in pain)
[] Latch onto Lady Rin, the most recent soul. [DIFFICULTY 3] (...Does this entity exist?)
Image 1: Theatrics
Image 2: The Story Of Catherine (Leading T is in Archaic, presumably to imply a stylized print like in especially early print books)
Text 1: Silly you, thought I mattered
Text 2: I'm just a showrunner
Text 3: RoWdy AudiEnce, Aren'T wE? (uppercase letters are in Archaic, lowercase in Modern)
Text 4: You RemIND mE of somEonE
Text 5: I woUld hOPE not
Text 6: GiVe us a good show, Miki
And I'm not trying to read the last image - too much garbled face in the way.
Image 1: Theatrics
Image 2: The Story Of Catherine (Leading T is in Archaic, presumably to imply a stylized print like in especially early print books)
Text 1: Silly you, thought I mattered
Text 2: I'm just a showrunner
Text 3: RoWdy AudiEnce, Aren'T wE? (uppercase letters are in Archaic, lowercase in Modern)
Text 4: You RemIND mE of somEonE
Text 5: I woUld hOPE not
Text 6: GiVe us a good show, Miki
And I'm not trying to read the last image - too much garbled face in the way.
Walpurgis was a better villain than Rin just because they had class.
I mean no that's not quite right, being a good villain doesn't require positive qualities, Rin's an excellent villain. But I can't exactly say Walpurgis was a better person because, you know...
Oh forget it.
[X] Latch onto the new identity of Langstenacht. [DIFFICULTY 2] (This entity is in pain)
[X] Latch onto the new identity of Langstenacht. [DIFFICULTY 2] (This entity is in pain)
Just got finished bingeing the hell out of this beautiful story, I have some questions (A few are about Lady Rin's design and character), but I think I'll wait a bit before I say anything.
[X] Latch onto the new identity of Langstenacht. [DIFFICULTY 2] (This entity is in pain)
If next turn, only the Rin option will be available, perhaps at that point we can, instead...
[Q] Try additional fire power now? Pretty sure we're done here. Right? Do we have another battleship or two we can throw? Reaaaaally sure we just need to hit hard now.
[x] Latch onto Lady Rin, the most recent soul. [DIFFICULTY 3]
For one thing, this maintains the "chronological order" that we were going through up until now. For another, Langstenacht is basically Walpurgis as usurped by Rin's witch. We've talked to Walpurgis and their components, so we should probably poke at the other part that makes up Langstenacht before we try to tackle the whole thing.
[x] Latch onto Lady Rin, the most recent soul. [DIFFICULTY 3]
For one thing, this maintains the "chronological order" that we were going through up until now. For another, Langstenacht is basically Walpurgis as usurped by Rin's witch. We've talked to Walpurgis and their components, so we should probably poke at the other part that makes up Langstenacht before we try to tackle the whole thing.
So, as one does, I disassembled that final gif into it's component parts, and I think I've figured out the text: It's FEEL THE END repeated over and over.
You zoom through the Witch and into its body, into its mind. You scream past empty theater seats, rainbow flames, staring bodies devoid of identity as they simply watch you pass through the void. Blue becomes purple becomes deep, deep crimson.
And at the center of it all is a void. An absolute void, a lack of being, a lack of ego, a lack of anything. A dull red in the midst of bright crimson.
You are adrift in the sea, alone in your thoughts as the world grows duller. You open your mouth to call.
Not a word leaves it. But yet, you see a face appear. A shattered skull slowly flickers into existence in front of you. The pieces drift, the eyes stare ahead. You open your mouth to speak again, but once more, no words come forth.
You shake your head. The skull simply nods. And again, you speak.
"I can help you."
The void sits, betraying the chaos and frost outside. The void ripples and chimes, sits and simmers. With each new motion, the skull drifts apart, the pieces slowly disintegrating, drifting away from one another.
"I can help it all stop. I can help you. I can make it so you don't feel anymore pain. Because I can feel the pain you're in. I can see it outside. You're hurting and nobody deserves to feel like this."
The skull doesn't answer. You take that as your cue to continue.
"I can give you some kind of-"
This time, the pain is deliberate, directed. You clutch your head.
"I-It doesn't have to be like this!" you scream into the void. "You aren't just some avatar of entro-!"
Your hands scramble as you feel yourself pushed backwards, as Langstenacht itself rejects you.
The Witch reels, rainbow flames briefly turning to ice once more as it pulls itself out of the ground. Myriad hands grasp at the sides and a skyscraper-sized body pulls itself from the ground. It still hangs upside-down, a twisted parody of the Walpurgisnacht that wrecked Mitakihara two decades ago.
You still have a migraine from your attempt to connect to the identity of Langstenacht. You take a step backwards, the Witch of Entropy now solely focused on you.
And then Takane grips one of the arms. She swings around it, her gauntlets firing rapidly with a twisting of wire and cable. They lock around Langstenacht's arm, miles of superstrong cable connecting the limb to the ground. It locks in place for just a second, long enough for Mami Tomoe to raise a point-blank Tiro Finale to its hand.
The wires twist, the gun fires, and Langstenacht is knocked sideways as one of its six arms is torn from its body.
The bony hand bounces across the ground, tearing through buildings and collapsing into the sewer systems of Mitakihara as you scramble backwards. The entire witch reels, the skull wide open in rage, the mask surrounding its head collapsing to the ground. The rainbow patterns behind it shimmer and shine, and the ground below is engulfed in multicolored ice.
You only barely manage to leap off of the ground before it reaches you. You turn upwards towards Langstenacht as it begins to soar overhead, as it lifts rubble and buildings and engulfs them all in a mixture of flame and ice. The mountains themselves are torn asunder, the entire face of Mitakihara's range ripped away as whole buildings are sent sailing towards you.
You dash backwards as structures and debris slam into the ground with reckless abandon. There's a string of explosions, dust and air thrown around wildly in a technicolor stream. One such building is thrown over your head. Your eyes narrow, your focus blurred.
You have to try again. You have to get back in. Langstenacht isn't done talking to you. You're not done talking to it.
You squeeze your eyes shut and dive right back in, right back into the void.
[=]
[=]
For a second your body goes cold. You feel numb. There is an absolute nothingness where there was once an identity. Langstenacht peels overhead, raising an arm before it plunges it forwards towards you.
Both Takane and Mami are hailing it with gunfire, too busy to notice you stumbling. Too busy to notice that you're distracted.
You raise a bat at the last second and you're thrown backwards at high speed. The skyscraper hits you with enough force to blow you backwards, enough to shatter one of your arms and puncture your chest with three pieces of rebar. Blood sprays from your mouth and your feet drag across the ground. You fly backwards, tumbling head-over-heel across the ice with your left arm broken in three places, blood leaking from your mouth, and your head still pulsing with the distinct feeling of nonexistence.
You clutch your head with your intact arm and your bat clatters against the ground. Your eyes are shut and you can't help but feel like you failed somewhere.
Langstenacht rises from the ground, batting aside Mami's gun and slapping Takane away with a single backhand. The field of cold begins to expand once again, coating the world in ice. The sky turns a dark blue once more, and the creeping ice field begins to near Kasamino once again.
And then there's you, stuck in the ice.
'Minako!' You hear your mom shouting. You turn your gaze to Kasamino.
'M...Mom?'
In Kasamino, Sayaka Miki-Sakura is watching her child getting thrown around by the worst Witch shesd ever seen. She breathes out, careful not to fall over even as the force of entropy creeps closer to the edge of the city.
'You can do this,' she says. 'Just...you need to get up. You need to Get. Up.'
'Kick its ass, Mina.'
You wince. 'Mama?'
'You're fucking right, it's me.'
Across the entire shoreline, atop the newly-minted Kasamino wall, are the magi of Mitakihara. All of them are watching. All eyes are on you.
Fear grips your body. Langstenacht is watching. Fighting this thing was a fucking stupid idea. There was no fucking way you were gonna be able to do this on your own. You're just a kid. Your girlfriend's a kid. Mami's just a kid.
You made a wish because you thought you could grow up. You thought it was gonna help.
