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.
Hm. Homura suddenly being "fixed" offscreen seems unlikely, not least of which because having her involved would help trivialize a lot of potential conflict. So yeah, I think it's pretty likely that she's been caught in the cult's orbit to some degree, especially since she seems to have been messed up enough that she'd be easy to entice with the promise of making the pain just... go away.
I doubt she's fully brainwashed to be on their side either though, since then, well... we'd be dead already. Still, people shouldn't get their hopes up that Homura will come and make everything better.
And yeah, Takane-as-Manchurian-Candidate makes way too much sense. Hopefully understanding magic can catch that.
If Homura shows up I suspect, it'll be entirely by Moid's will, and she won't in any way be in our control, or under orders, or anything else. She might show up, I dunno, but if she does we'll know things have absolutely gone to the shitter, or that Moid has something big and dangerous planned, so...
If Homura shows up I suspect, it'll be entirely by Moid's will, and she won't in any way be in our control, or under orders, or anything else. She might show up, I dunno, but if she does we'll know things have absolutely gone to the shitter, or that Moid has something big and dangerous planned, so...
Your name is Minako. And you just made a mistake. Now, you've fucked up before. You absolutely have. But they're normally not like this. They're usually not as bad as this one. The first thing you felt was an overwhelming wave of grief. It felt like your heart was being torn out of your chest. Like someone took your soul and ground it to dust.
You feel screaming. A wave of red and blue and hatred and despair. You are immediately set adrift in a sea of screams, hurled into a yawning ocean of deep blue and blood-red that there's no way you can possibly ever escape from as the water fills your lungs and flames lick your face and you can feel a yawning pit underneath the waves.
Suddenly, a hand grips your ankle as at the bottom of the ocean, millions of hands reach up and up and up and up and you feel yourself choking. A pair of bright pink eyes lay at the bottom, two massive glowing spheres of hate staring above, cat-smile turning into a yawning maw, teeth lining an impossible mouth as its back opens up.
You realize that this is Kyubey. You know that this cat-thing isn't its true form. And you think you glimpse it as the back opens to rows of teeth and an infinite cosmic void.
Except, you're not there yet. A lifeline pulls you back. A pair of other hands, one red and one blue, grab your shoulders. The blackened claws of smoke and wisp and hate threaten to drag you down. You can feel it trying to pull you in, to suck you dry.
But then the hands on your shoulders pull you. You see the maw grasping at you, a garbled scream as you grip the hands pulling you and then-
-you cut the line. You fall flat on your ass in the alleyway, and your soul falls right towards the concrete. Before it can land, your mama moves lightning-quick. She grabs the gem just before it hits the concrete. She's panting heavily; you can see her chest heaving in a sports bra that she was probably wearing just before going to bed.
You stare at the gem in her hand. And then you shake your head and reach for it. "M-my soul, p-please."
Your mama pants again. Finally, she brings it back to your hand. You stare at the thing; it's bright purple, almost pink. You didn't think your soul was going to be that pink, but honestly you kind of like that shade. It's nice. You flip it over; the thing glimmers with brilliant power, a bright white light in a golden cage with a little bit of gathering black swirling inside.
It's nothing huge. But your hand's shaking.
"Shit." You turn to where Kyubey was and...
It's gone.
As though it wasn't even there.
Your moms stare at you, then at the gem. Your mom hasn't moved from the spot where she landed. She's still got her hands on her mouth. Your mama isn't in much better shape; she's staring at the gem with eyes still wet with tears.
"Fuck, Mina," your mama mutters. "Fuck."
You're still panting. You realize that the nightmare you saw was their emotional state. It happened in the blink of an eye. A swirling nightmare of destruction and death. It's not clear yet. Nothing's clear yet. You wished to understand their everything, but perhaps you're not really there yet.
Does Kyubey come with a warranty?
"Yeah."
Your mom keeps staring, her hands finally falling to her sides. "Minako, you..."
"I know what I'm getting into," you say. "I know exactly what I'm getting into, mom, and I am fine. I'm going to be fucking fine."
Your mom starts to hyperventilate right in front of you and god you can feel it. Your new powers twitch and you can feel it. You can feel that infinite ocean before it turns into a roiling tempest. A tempest that twists and warps into a looming vortex as her thoughts spiral out of control. Self-loathing, self-defeat, unresolved fears and terrors from decades of pain. Her hair stands on end as you feel the pain echo through her head and back into yours.
All in less than a second.
You stumble backwards. That was another fuckup in a long, long line of fuckups that you're making tonight. You clutch the side of your head, then stumble back into a brick wall.
You didn't think you hit it hard enough to crack brick, but you hear the clay shatter under the force. "Shit!" Finally, you press your hand against the wall and keep yourself upright. "Fucking shit."
Your mom finally knocks herself out of her stupor. She clutches your shoulder. "We'll go home, okay?" she says. "We s-should go home."
"Right, yeah." You press your hand to your temple. You hate this fucking power. That was such a stupid wish; what the hell were you thinking? You keep close to your mom, and your mama's just a few meters behind, eyes darting around for Kyubey (you got the feeling it's short for something in your brief dive into your parents' emotional strata).
That thing is fucking evil. You knew it was evil. Of course it's evil. Regret's creeping in on you and you wish your parents came a minute earlier. But maybe things just worked out that way. Maybe you're unlucky. Maybe it's God. If She exists then She's a prick.
You almost stomp up the steps, but the second you do, one of them cracks under your feet. Your mom immediately presses her hand into your shoulder, finally a little calmer after a few minutes of walking. Her eyes are still swollen. Another flash and she's in pain. But she keeps herself steady as she speaks.
"Take a deep breath," she says. "It's hard to get used to. Everything will feel like cardboard."
"Right." You shake your head. "I'm just..." You slip a little and grab a railing. Your hand grips it tight enough to dent the metal in the shape of your clenched fist.
Behind you, your mama lifts you from under your arms. A read, and you think she'd be laughing if she wasn't just...numb.
Her state was flaming red while you were walking home, but the vision you got was that of a featureless void. An ice rink with flames licking the underside. Boiling hot, but with a thin cover to keep it from eating the world.
Her mind is a crucifix, embedded in the ice. At the top, a single burning candle.
It's been surprisingly easy to get some kind of handle on this as you focus yourself. You get clearer images, a better idea of who the people around you are.
But you also feel them perfectly. And god it's so much.
You're knocked out of this read again. You breathe in, then out. In, then out. And you wipe the tears from your face.
You rub your eyes and face and nose and mouth and you take a deep, deep breath. "Fuck."
You all reach the apartment. Your mom walks inside, and she takes a look at you. A long, painful stare at you. She's stopped crying for now, but her eyes are still swollen and her cheeks are still glistening. She turns back to the bedroom and quietly moves in.
Your mama, however, stops. "So what did you wish for?"
"I...uh...?"
"What did you wish for? If you don't want to tell me, that's fine." It's not. You don't need to read her to tell that much. "But I just..." A crack. She shakes her head.
Well, screw you too, Mina
Madoka is a nice enough lady and has nothing to do with your current situation
Good news, it's all you
Honestly, keeping it to yourself seems like a good idea
Because seriously if they tell the Wish I'm afraid their parents are going to spiral here and now
Clearly doubling down on it until we come from the other side of misunderstandings circle is a thing that is totally viable to happen
}: (
Clearly
Nah I see your logic, I'll probably vote like this too, but I honestly don't expect it to make the situation any better
There will be nothing to make the situation better for at least a while
Fuck this all feels too fucking close for me
I'm gonna vent a little, maybe play a nice relaxing game of Victoria 2 in the meantime
Before I say more insensitive shit or something
Honestly, keeping it to yourself seems like a good idea
Because seriously if they tell the Wish I'm afraid their parents are going to spiral here and now
I can see the logic behind that. Sayakoko learning that their child gave away their soul, their future, for something that the two could've and should've been open with them in the first place over... Yeah. Mistakes all abound in this family.
However, keeping this secret will just leave the question to fester in Sayaka and Kyoko. And when it inevitably comes out, that's just more pain.
Keeping secrets to spare people trauma is understandable but also how we got into this problem. And understanding people and using it to manipulate them seems like a lady Rin thing.
Sayaka: "That's exactly why we prevented Her from ever existing!"
[X] Keep it to yourself.
They already feel themselves horrible. No need to make it worse it by explaining they're so horrible parents / you're so horrible kid, that you felt a need to literally sell your soul for a chance to understand them.
Of course it will only make it worse, your distrust will hurt them. But you were hurted by their distrust too, weren't you? Maybe they'll finally get how you felt.
You're horrible, aren't you?
Anyway, I fully expect this PAIN to be coming no matter which way we vote, because being meguca is suffering. Having Mina tell the 'rents now will hurt, but (I hope that) it's less trauma in the long run.
