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Puella Magi Adfligo Systema

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Ugolino said:
I...don't think we want to be subtle with that. Mostly because I doubt we can pull it off, but mostly because flat out stating it later in the conversation, along with commentary on our wishes, would probably work better.

The coward complex is only a problem because Madoka frames it in those terms- change it so she doesn't equate not contracting with cowardice.

@AuraTwilight
Rubbing that fact in Homura and Mami's faces is unhelpful.

And she was about to do exactly that when Homura stopped it. There's definitely a lot of precedent for her stepping in if she thinks it'll make things better. We don't want to risk that.
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To address this directly.

We are never going to be able to do subtle if we never try. I do not want to have to force-feed every person in our lives the solutions for every problem. If we go "There are other ways to help" at Madoka all that will do is have her asking us "How?". Sabrina, give me the answers! Do you think we can help a self-worth problem by plotting out her life for her? That's foolish, and it shows no understanding of why she would choose to solve her problems with a wish in the first place. She needs to come up with her own answers, or they won't have meaning to her self esteem. Wishing equals agency. If you replace the wishing part with something else, you can't do so by also replacing the agency part.

I know we have control issues but this is getting stupid.
 
Tricia said:
SO.

I have been gone for about a month. In that time, I have been...planning.

Any time a Quest catches me enough for me to read through the whole thing and isn't done by the time I do, I like to show my appreciation by writing an omake for it. Here, I'd figure I'd take care of two in one go.

@TheBleachDoctor , you might be interested.
Not for the first time, Sabrina found herself thankful for her brain's grasp of languages. There really weren't any words more appropriate than "clusterfuck" for her recent adventures.

She sighed heavily, resting her chin on the table. Mami wouldn't be home for another few hours and had just checked in a few minutes prior, so she had free reign to gallivant about to her heart's content. Despite the allure of bending physics over the couch and whaling on it with a riding crop made of Grief, though, she couldn't muster up the motivation to head out and SCIENCE!

Despite being relatively free of casualties, the war weighed down her thoughts. She wondered, for the hundredth time, whether she could have avoided the fighting in the first place, kept Akiko from breaking down. She wondered if her actions made her a tyrant.

What thoughts she managed to dredge up from beneath the weight hovered around Mami. Seeing the vibrant gunslinger in such a state was absolutely crushing. She brought up her phone and began Googling some ideas to deal with co-dependency before, with another sigh, putting the phone away and re-optimizing her moping posture.

Maybe a therapist would help? She didn't have to spell out everything about the situation, just say that one of Mami's "friends" had been manipulating her.

Of course, that could still be enough to prompt the little rat to wipe the therapist's memory. There was always the Groundhog Day approach of having a hundred first sessions, at least.

Maybe he'd be willing to work with both of them.

She brought her face down on the table. And there's the existential crisis over whether she constituted an actual person or merely a manifestation of the will of a goddess who, technically, didn't even exist in this timeline.

The phone blared unexpectedly, snapping her out of her one-woman pity party. Shin's number. She brought the phone up to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Big Sis? There's a talking cat here."

Her blood froze, then boiled over in quick succession. If that little white shit thought it could mess with Nagisa without getting sent into low-Earth orbit...

"Big Sis? Are you still there?"

Sabrina realized she'd been too wrapped up in plotting vengeance to hear the rest of what Nagisa was saying.

"I'm still here."

"Um...I don't think it's the one you told me about, though. It's black."

That threw Sabrina for a loop. Maybe it was a new Incubator? "Kurobey" or something?

"Has it said anything to you about a contract?"

"No, it's only really said 'pet me' and rubbed its cheeks on everything. Also, she says she's not an 'it.'"

This did not compute.

"Errr...do you think you can bring her over?"

"Okay. Uncle Shin is taking me to a movie in a little bit. I'll ask him if we can stop by."

"Thanks, Nagisa. Be careful, okay? If she asks, don't make any kind of deal."

"Okay, Big Sis. See you soon."

Sabrina put the phone down, her internal forum on DEFCON 1. Theories flew back and forth, ranging from "her" being a new disguise for Kyuubey to her being some sort of cat spirit with very low standards for amusement. She brewed herself a pot of tea for thinking purposes, looking longingly from the old pot to the microwave.

It was so tempting, but she couldn't bring herself to pollute Mami's house like that.

After a brief period of intense internal debate and subsequent nonsensical internal rambling after a course of action had been settled upon, a series of knocks from the lower portion of the door alerted her to Nagisa's arrival. After lowering her center of gravity to avoid being bowled over, she opened it and accepted the younger girl's ballistic hug.

Once she'd been released from Nagisa's impressively-iron grip, she looked her over and, with some confusion, noted that there was no evil feline temptress to be found. Nagisa looked at her oddly for a moment before realizing what she was looking for.

"You can come out now," she said, reaching up to poke at her hair. A lump arose from her mane and slowly inched forward until a tiny black head poked out from her bangs.

"Hi, White Girl!" they heard in their heads. Sabrina, nonplussed, was about to question the kitten's focus on race before the latter scrunched her brows in apparent confusion.

"Wait, YOU'RE White Girl," she said, looking down at Nagisa. The kitten seemed to agonize over this dilemma before reaching a solution.

"I know!" she said, a small paw emerging from Nagisa's hair to point at Sabrina. "You can be Big White Girl! OOOOH WAIT WAIT! GREAT White Girl! Rawr!"

The kitten wriggled in a shark-like fashion, which failed to intimidate but did succeed in getting her hopelessly tangled in Nagisa's hair. She fell from her perch and dangled forlornly in a white web, Nagisa tilting her head to compensate for the increased weight.

"Best Cat down! Help!" she wailed as the two girls worked hard to extricate her. Thankfully, they managed to do so before the kitten took matters into her own claws. Once free, she latched firmly onto Sabrina's shirt and was only removed through a considerable effort.

"I have to go, Big Sis," said Nagisa as Shin stuck his head out the window. Sabrina nodded, trying to dislodge the kitten that had now taken up residence in her own hair.

Once the Momoes had left, Sabrina gave up her efforts to remove her new headwear, which had enthusiastically claimed ownership of "Mount GreatWhiteGirl." Resignedly, she sad back down at the table, sipping at some tea.

"So, who are you, exactly?" Sabrina asked.

"I am Best Cat!"

"Do you have a name?" Sabrina prompted when no further explanation seemed forthcoming. The kitten, seemingly baffled that her previous answer was insufficient, hopped down onto the table and puffed herself up.

"I am Amy Percival Venticus Akemi, but you can call me Homura!"

Sabrina's brain attempted to shift gears, but apparently missed the clutch, resulting in temporary cessation of function. When she awoke, "Homura" had already planted herself next to her cup of tea and begun stealing tonguefuls in a manner much less subtle than she probably thought. Sabrina elected to ignore this, instead reaching out to the less-fluffy of the known Akemis.

"Homura?"

"Yes, Sabrina?"

"Where are you right now?"

"Walking Madoka home. Is something the matter?"

"No...just checking up."

"...alright. Talk to you later."

Sabrina looked back down at the kitten she would think of as "Amy" for clarity's sake. For the first time, she noticed her collar, on which sat a miniature version of Homura's shield and a soul gem. Out of curiosity, Sabrina poked at it with her Grief sense as Amy yawned and rolled over onto her back.

Nothing. Not a speck of Grief.

Luckily for Sabrina, the assorted prior impossibilities served to lessen the impact of this one, allowing her to remain lucid. Taking a deep breath, she decided some more questioning was in order.

"So, where are you from, Amy?"

The kitten spun back onto her paws, scrunching her face in contemplation.

"Well, first Pink Girl Madoka took me into her house and loved me but then Upside-Down Girl made her dead and then Bunnycat said 'You are Best Cat so I will help you' and he made Pink Girl not-dead. Then I met Big Sis Mami and Blue Girl and Red Girl and we did fun things and I fought Big Fish Witches and everyone said 'You are Best Cat' and I told them 'Yes I am Best Cat' and they petted me. After that, Upside-Down Girl came but we made her go away and everyone was really happy and gave me lots of tuna. Then I went to sleep and Pink-Gold Girl said 'Best Cat, some more people need your help.' I said 'But I want to stay with Pink Girl Madoka' and she said 'You can go right back to her after. There is another Pink Girl Madoka who needs help.' I said 'Okay' because Pink Girl Madoka is the best and then I met you and Little White Girl and now I'm here!"

Amy nudged at Sabrina's hand with her head, implicitly demanding petting for telling such an amazing story. Sabrina, having figured out the kitten's naming conventions, idly patted her on the head as she processed the story. Was she from another dimension? Did she actually beat Walpurgisnacht? Why did her story sound so much like Homura's?

She stood up, carrying Amy in one hand as she made her way over to the couch, where she flopped down heavily. Yet more craziness to sift through.

Even with a kitten in her hand, she found herself falling back into a slump. So much going on and now this curveball. Noticing her discomfort, Amy patted her way onto her chest, looking her in the face.

"What's wrong, Great White Girl?"

"It's Sabrina," she mumbled.

"What's wrong, Great White Girl Sabrina?"

"There's just so much going on!" she admitted. "I just dealt with a war, Mami's a wreck, there's something even worse than Walpurgisnacht coming, you just showed up, Akiko is sfgrbkasdn..."

Amy, who had been batting at Sabrina's mouth as she spoke, had lost patience and simply latched onto her face, Alien-style. Sabrina plucked her off by the nape of the neck, but before she could respond, Amy piped up.

"Big Sis Mami is not-dead, right?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"And Pink Girl Madoka and Blue Girl and Red Girl are not-dead, right?"

"Yes-"

"And now Best Cat is here, so everything will be okay!"

Sabrina opened her mouth to respond, but somehow failed to find fault in the kitten's logic. She giggled, placing the tiniest Meguca of them all on her lap.

"Pet me."

Sabrina acquiesced, just enjoying the feel of Amy's soft fur and the jet-engine purring that, by all rights, her small body should not have been able to produce. They remained that way for some time until Amy spotted a Grief sphere that Sabrina had yet to store with the others.

"What's that?" she asked as she bounded over to it, giving it the standard kitten inspection of batting at and gnawing on it in various places.

"Oh, that's Grief. I can actually control it," Sabrina answered.

"What's a Grief?"

Sabrina was about to explain when she had a stroke of inspiration.

"I'll show you! Hop on," she said with a grin. When Amy obliged, the sphere rose.

Sabrina sent it careening around the room, kitten in tow. Her own laughter and Amy's telepathic "Wheeeeeeeee!" filled the air with a joy that had been sorely lacking in recent times.

Neither noticed initially when the door creaked open and a certain time-traveler entered.

"Sabrina? You sounded concerned and I wanted to check..."

Homura attempted to take in the scene, Sabrina nearly falling over laughing as a kitten rode one of her Grief spheres like a runaway helicopter. At the sound of her voice, Sabrina attempted to compose herself while the kitten hopped off of the now-immobile sphere to land at Homura's feet.

With a pop, a girl that looked exactly like Homura save for a pair of cat ears, a tail, and a look of sheer elation that seemed utterly alien on the time-traveler's face stood in front of her.

"Hi, Best Not-Cat!"

Homura, very slowly and deliberately, fainted to the ground with a worrying *clunk*.
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Heeeeee. Welcome back tricia!
 
SynchronizedWritersBlock said:
To address this directly.

We are never going to be able to do subtle if we never try. I do not want to have to force-feed every person in our lives the solutions for every problem. If we go "There are other ways to help" at Madoka all that will do is have her asking us "How?". Sabrina, give me the answers! Do you think we can help a self-worth problem by plotting out her life for her? That's foolish, and it shows no understanding of why she would choose to solve her problems with a wish in the first place. She needs to come up with her own answers, or they won't have meaning to her self esteem. Wishing equals agency. If you replace the wishing part with something else, you can't do so by also replacing the agency part.

I know we have control issues but this is getting stupid.
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I see no reason to experiment with attempting subtlety out of the blue with Madoka of all people- and how is being direct with a suggestion somehow worse than mumbling vaguely and hoping she gets it? That seems to be underestimating Madoka. And just HOW is saying our opinion of her/a contract and bringing up the downsides she's considered plotting out ANYTHING for her? Leaving her to her own devices is essentially abandonment given that her current answer is guilt.

This is hardly being a control freak- it's giving a damn about Madoka's blatant self-loathing and talking to her about it because we care about that. Saying that it's not cowardice to not want to contract and that there are other ways to help is pretty much just giving good advice and positive support. We're hardly going to leave it at that.

Calling making suggestions "control issues" is just...a complete disconnect between what's being suggested and what it's being called.
 
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have we try making range extender using grief ( you know like the Relay bug from Worm) to deal with our power range issue
 
So much bickering. Well, this is only natural when SV goes Social.
Tally said:
Vote tally:
##### 3.19
[X] Ugolino
No. of votes: 2
aeqnai, Muramasa

[x]Hug Mami. Console Mami.
[x]I'm sorry for not telling you sooner. And for making it look glamorous before.
[x]Madoka, not contracting needlessly isn't cowardice, it's wisdom. There'll be other ways to help. You're braver than you give yourself credit for, Madoka, but you're also smarter than that. The cost's too great. Not just for you, but for everyone who cares about you.
[x]Talk to Madoka and Sayaka.
No. of votes: 5
Ugolino, Gadjo, Guilop, TheSlayers, Dirtnap

[x] So, yeah, it's not exactly a glamorous life, regardless of what it looks like we can do.
[x] You have to work hard to hold onto the truly important things in life, and if you're not aware of what you're losing, it may be gone before you realize it.
[x] It doesn't take a wish to make things better for the people around you. For the people that care for you, you simply being you means a lot more than you realize.
[x] It's too easy to get caught up in what you think other people want from you. Be confident in the person you are.
[x] Help get things settled down. Tea, cake, ice cream, whatever's available and appropriate.
No. of votes: 2
Kinematics, Aranfan

[x] Hug the Mami. Console the Mami.
[x] You're wrong, Madoka. That's why I wanted to tell you and Sayaka. You don't think you're brave, but I believe that you'd drop everything to save me or Mami in a second. I believe that if we weren't here, to tell the two of you not to contract, that one day we'd meet a particularly powerful witch, and that we would see you appear to try and shoulder the burden and help us fight.
[x] It's not worth it. It's not worth it at all. Even if all the terrible things Kyubey does to us were somehow negligible, if somehow none of it mattered because it was just that important of a wish, it's not worth it. No wish is that important. It's because magic isn't that important.
[x] Magic is a pretty thing. It's like a diamond ring you see in the jewelry store. It sparkles this way and that way, and maybe it's so expensive and beautiful that you can use it to pull off some amazing bluffs. It makes you look pretty and rich and important, and you feel pretty and rich and important, but did you really change anything about yourself? You didn't. In fact you lost a lot just to get that ring, a lot that you can't get back.
[x] No, you see, magic is the easy way out that's not actually a way out. It's an exit sign that leads back into the fire. You think that once you have it you can do anything you ever wanted, but it's not true. It's not true at all.
[x] Defuse tension, obtain cake.
No. of votes: 1
Crasian01

[X] Hug Mami. Console Mami.
[X] You know, all our wishes were made when we had no other choice. I was dying. Mami was dying. Homura...
-[X] Look to her for permission / as a prompt.
--[X] Homura had lost everything she cared about.
[X] But in exchange, we sacrificed more than just our souls. You heard us talking after school. Dropping out of school clubs. Growing distant from friends. We have to isolate ourselves from everyone who doesn't know the secret. Not one magical girl in Mitakihara lives with their families. I... I couldn't even think of smalltalk that wasn't about magic.
[X] Subtly direct this at Madoka:
-[X] It would be wonderful if we had more normal in our lives. To help us remember that we're still human.
No. of votes: 1
SynchronizedWritersBlock

[x] SWB
No. of votes: 1
AuraTwilight
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[X] SynchronizedWritersBlock

I like it for the 2nd line most of all. Dead Doka is worse than Undead Doka, Y/N? False dilemma, of course.
 
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Ugolino said:
I see no reason to experiment with attempting subtlety out of the blue with Madoka of all people- and how is being direct with a suggestion somehow worse than mumbling vaguely and hoping she gets it? That seems to be underestimating Madoka. And just HOW is saying our opinion of her/a contract and bringing up the downsides she's considered plotting out ANYTHING for her? Leaving her to her own devices is essentially abandonment given that her current answer is guilt.
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Madoka's the most empathetic person in the entire series. If we don't get a response, we can try again or make things explicit later.

Madoka, not contracting needlessly isn't cowardice, it's wisdom. There'll be other ways to help. You're braver than you give yourself credit for, Madoka, but you're also smarter than that. The cost's too great. Not just for you, but for everyone who cares about you.
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She already knows not contracting needlessly is wise. The problem is where she defines need. Necessity can be put into terms she can address without a wish. If she realizes this, then we sidestep this issue entirely.

Telling her there are other ways to help will just have her looking to us to tell her those ways. And if she does, what are we supposed to do, shrug and say 'I dunno figure it out yourself' in more polite terms? I don't want to be put in the position where we have to guide her explicitly.

The rest is just an extension of the first part, doesn't address core issues while repeating what she already believes.

This is hardly being a control freak- it's giving a damn about Madoka's blatant self-loathing and talking to her about it because we care about that. Saying that it's not cowardice to not want to contract and that there are other ways to help is pretty much just giving good advice and positive support. We're hardly going to leave it at that.

Calling making suggestions "control issues" is just...a complete disconnect between what's being suggested and what it's being called.
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Support is fine but this is a self-worth problem that can't be helped with support from others alone. Giving her our opinions seems inferior to presenting the facts and issues, and letting her form her own opinions.
 
@SynchronizedWritersBlock
...Actually giving a direct opinion/advice is worth doing, and we can elaborate further on alternatives as needed when it comes relevant.

This vote should be about Madoka and Sayaka's own potential problems. The emphasis is all wrong.

The other vote seems to be practically fishing for sympathy from her rather than focusing on her and Sayaka- and that last bit's premature begging that's actually not all that subtle. It really doesn't get much done.
 
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Don't like how the SWB vote's example of us being distanced from normal life involves school activities, when Sabrina's never set foot in a classroom in her eight-day-long life. Seems a tad off, to me.
 
aeqnai said:
Don't like how the SWB vote's example of us being distanced from normal life involves school activities, when Sabrina's never set foot in a classroom in her eight-day-long life. Seems a tad off, to me.
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And the agonizing over not having anything to say about hobbies? Is completely inconsistent with the actual update. It'd make Sabrina a liar.
 
...well, we mostly talked about pants and used our powers to make music that was composed in an alternate dimension. Those aren't really hobbies, as such.

Agreed about the school and normal life bit though. We've never had one of those so including ourselves there does seem a bit weird.
 
Krecart said:
...well, we mostly talked about pants and used our powers to make music that was composed in an alternate dimension. Those aren't really hobbies, as such.

Agreed about the school and normal life bit though. We've never had one of those so including ourselves there does seem a bit weird.
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The emphasis is all wrong too. It tries to make things about us and how hard life is for us rather than actually appealing to Madoka. The last line is premature and the wording is...uh.
 
Yeah, all sorts of uncomfortable with the SWB vote as it is.

[X] Ugolino
 
...Does anyone here think that we might be putting a little too much weight on Madoka psychological issues and her potential future contract here? We broke the lichbomb in her. That's enough. We don't have to go around haphazardly trying to fix her character flaws when breaking the lichbomb ensures that she won't contract for anything other than the most dire of circumstances. She isn't a lemming. She doesn't contract for kicks and giggles.
 
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Cannongerbil said:
...Does anyone here think that we might be putting a little too much weight on Madoka psychological issues and her potential future contract here? We broke the lichbomb in her. That's enough. We don't have to go around haphazardly trying to fix her character flaws when breaking the lichbomb ensures that she won't contract for anything other than the most dire of circumstance.
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We still shouldn't leave her thinking she's a coward for not contracting. Not just for moral reasons, but because that's not a good place for her- and by extension Homura, and us.

We dropped the lichbomb, let's not leave her a stunned mess without saying a word when we can do damage control. Sadoka is not good for anyone, least of all Mami.
 
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@Cannongerbil: I agree with that character interpretation, and it's part of the reason I'm voting SWB - it does establish an upper boundary. Even if with the universe at stake the conclusion might not be same.

The most disagreeable line in it I find is
[X] Hug Mami. Console Mami.
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and that's mostly because of shadowruns on how Mami takes it.

The hobbies/self-situation line..It is a bit awkward, but it is meant for Madoka to not put herself in that state, I think?

In more sense than "contracting hurts your family", it gives a how to it.

Though Kinematics is also an option, it seems kinda average.

Ugolino's seems worst to me since I've seen no actual counter to few natural replies beyond "so we'll guide her".

But YMMV on that, apparently.
 
Tricia said:
SO.

I have been gone for about a month. In that time, I have been...planning.

Any time a Quest catches me enough for me to read through the whole thing and isn't done by the time I do, I like to show my appreciation by writing an omake for it. Here, I'd figure I'd take care of two in one go.

@TheBleachDoctor , you might be interested.
Not for the first time, Sabrina found herself thankful for her brain's grasp of languages. There really weren't any words more appropriate than "clusterfuck" for her recent adventures.

She sighed heavily, resting her chin on the table. Mami wouldn't be home for another few hours and had just checked in a few minutes prior, so she had free reign to gallivant about to her heart's content. Despite the allure of bending physics over the couch and whaling on it with a riding crop made of Grief, though, she couldn't muster up the motivation to head out and SCIENCE!

Despite being relatively free of casualties, the war weighed down her thoughts. She wondered, for the hundredth time, whether she could have avoided the fighting in the first place, kept Akiko from breaking down. She wondered if her actions made her a tyrant.

What thoughts she managed to dredge up from beneath the weight hovered around Mami. Seeing the vibrant gunslinger in such a state was absolutely crushing. She brought up her phone and began Googling some ideas to deal with co-dependency before, with another sigh, putting the phone away and re-optimizing her moping posture.

Maybe a therapist would help? She didn't have to spell out everything about the situation, just say that one of Mami's "friends" had been manipulating her.

Of course, that could still be enough to prompt the little rat to wipe the therapist's memory. There was always the Groundhog Day approach of having a hundred first sessions, at least.

Maybe he'd be willing to work with both of them.

She brought her face down on the table. And there's the existential crisis over whether she constituted an actual person or merely a manifestation of the will of a goddess who, technically, didn't even exist in this timeline.

The phone blared unexpectedly, snapping her out of her one-woman pity party. Shin's number. She brought the phone up to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Big Sis? There's a talking cat here."

Her blood froze, then boiled over in quick succession. If that little white shit thought it could mess with Nagisa without getting sent into low-Earth orbit...

"Big Sis? Are you still there?"

Sabrina realized she'd been too wrapped up in plotting vengeance to hear the rest of what Nagisa was saying.

"I'm still here."

"Um...I don't think it's the one you told me about, though. It's black."

That threw Sabrina for a loop. Maybe it was a new Incubator? "Kurobey" or something?

"Has it said anything to you about a contract?"

"No, it's only really said 'pet me' and rubbed its cheeks on everything. Also, she says she's not an 'it.'"

This did not compute.

"Errr...do you think you can bring her over?"

"Okay. Uncle Shin is taking me to a movie in a little bit. I'll ask him if we can stop by."

"Thanks, Nagisa. Be careful, okay? If she asks, don't make any kind of deal."

"Okay, Big Sis. See you soon."

Sabrina put the phone down, her internal forum on DEFCON 1. Theories flew back and forth, ranging from "her" being a new disguise for Kyuubey to her being some sort of cat spirit with very low standards for amusement. She brewed herself a pot of tea for thinking purposes, looking longingly from the old pot to the microwave.

It was so tempting, but she couldn't bring herself to pollute Mami's house like that.

After a brief period of intense internal debate and subsequent nonsensical internal rambling after a course of action had been settled upon, a series of knocks from the lower portion of the door alerted her to Nagisa's arrival. After lowering her center of gravity to avoid being bowled over, she opened it and accepted the younger girl's ballistic hug.

Once she'd been released from Nagisa's impressively-iron grip, she looked her over and, with some confusion, noted that there was no evil feline temptress to be found. Nagisa looked at her oddly for a moment before realizing what she was looking for.

"You can come out now," she said, reaching up to poke at her hair. A lump arose from her mane and slowly inched forward until a tiny black head poked out from her bangs.

"Hi, White Girl!" they heard in their heads. Sabrina, nonplussed, was about to question the kitten's focus on race before the latter scrunched her brows in apparent confusion.

"Wait, YOU'RE White Girl," she said, looking down at Nagisa. The kitten seemed to agonize over this dilemma before reaching a solution.

"I know!" she said, a small paw emerging from Nagisa's hair to point at Sabrina. "You can be Big White Girl! OOOOH WAIT WAIT! GREAT White Girl! Rawr!"

The kitten wriggled in a shark-like fashion, which failed to intimidate but did succeed in getting her hopelessly tangled in Nagisa's hair. She fell from her perch and dangled forlornly in a white web, Nagisa tilting her head to compensate for the increased weight.

"Best Cat down! Help!" she wailed as the two girls worked hard to extricate her. Thankfully, they managed to do so before the kitten took matters into her own claws. Once free, she latched firmly onto Sabrina's shirt and was only removed through a considerable effort.

"I have to go, Big Sis," said Nagisa as Shin stuck his head out the window. Sabrina nodded, trying to dislodge the kitten that had now taken up residence in her own hair.

Once the Momoes had left, Sabrina gave up her efforts to remove her new headwear, which had enthusiastically claimed ownership of "Mount GreatWhiteGirl." Resignedly, she sad back down at the table, sipping at some tea.

"So, who are you, exactly?" Sabrina asked.

"I am Best Cat!"

"Do you have a name?" Sabrina prompted when no further explanation seemed forthcoming. The kitten, seemingly baffled that her previous answer was insufficient, hopped down onto the table and puffed herself up.

"I am Amy Percival Venticus Akemi, but you can call me Homura!"

Sabrina's brain attempted to shift gears, but apparently missed the clutch, resulting in temporary cessation of function. When she awoke, "Homura" had already planted herself next to her cup of tea and begun stealing tonguefuls in a manner much less subtle than she probably thought. Sabrina elected to ignore this, instead reaching out to the less-fluffy of the known Akemis.

"Homura?"

"Yes, Sabrina?"

"Where are you right now?"

"Walking Madoka home. Is something the matter?"

"No...just checking up."

"...alright. Talk to you later."

Sabrina looked back down at the kitten she would think of as "Amy" for clarity's sake. For the first time, she noticed her collar, on which sat a miniature version of Homura's shield and a soul gem. Out of curiosity, Sabrina poked at it with her Grief sense as Amy yawned and rolled over onto her back.

Nothing. Not a speck of Grief.

Luckily for Sabrina, the assorted prior impossibilities served to lessen the impact of this one, allowing her to remain lucid. Taking a deep breath, she decided some more questioning was in order.

"So, where are you from, Amy?"

The kitten spun back onto her paws, scrunching her face in contemplation.

"Well, first Pink Girl Madoka took me into her house and loved me but then Upside-Down Girl made her dead and then Bunnycat said 'You are Best Cat so I will help you' and he made Pink Girl not-dead. Then I met Big Sis Mami and Blue Girl and Red Girl and we did fun things and I fought Big Fish Witches and everyone said 'You are Best Cat' and I told them 'Yes I am Best Cat' and they petted me. After that, Upside-Down Girl came but we made her go away and everyone was really happy and gave me lots of tuna. Then I went to sleep and Pink-Gold Girl said 'Best Cat, some more people need your help.' I said 'But I want to stay with Pink Girl Madoka' and she said 'You can go right back to her after. There is another Pink Girl Madoka who needs help.' I said 'Okay' because Pink Girl Madoka is the best and then I met you and Little White Girl and now I'm here!"

Amy nudged at Sabrina's hand with her head, implicitly demanding petting for telling such an amazing story. Sabrina, having figured out the kitten's naming conventions, idly patted her on the head as she processed the story. Was she from another dimension? Did she actually beat Walpurgisnacht? Why did her story sound so much like Homura's?

She stood up, carrying Amy in one hand as she made her way over to the couch, where she flopped down heavily. Yet more craziness to sift through.

Even with a kitten in her hand, she found herself falling back into a slump. So much going on and now this curveball. Noticing her discomfort, Amy patted her way onto her chest, looking her in the face.

"What's wrong, Great White Girl?"

"It's Sabrina," she mumbled.

"What's wrong, Great White Girl Sabrina?"

"There's just so much going on!" she admitted. "I just dealt with a war, Mami's a wreck, there's something even worse than Walpurgisnacht coming, you just showed up, Akiko is sfgrbkasdn..."

Amy, who had been batting at Sabrina's mouth as she spoke, had lost patience and simply latched onto her face, Alien-style. Sabrina plucked her off by the nape of the neck, but before she could respond, Amy piped up.

"Big Sis Mami is not-dead, right?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"And Pink Girl Madoka and Blue Girl and Red Girl are not-dead, right?"

"Yes-"

"And now Best Cat is here, so everything will be okay!"

Sabrina opened her mouth to respond, but somehow failed to find fault in the kitten's logic. She giggled, placing the tiniest Meguca of them all on her lap.

"Pet me."

Sabrina acquiesced, just enjoying the feel of Amy's soft fur and the jet-engine purring that, by all rights, her small body should not have been able to produce. They remained that way for some time until Amy spotted a Grief sphere that Sabrina had yet to store with the others.

"What's that?" she asked as she bounded over to it, giving it the standard kitten inspection of batting at and gnawing on it in various places.

"Oh, that's Grief. I can actually control it," Sabrina answered.

"What's a Grief?"

Sabrina was about to explain when she had a stroke of inspiration.

"I'll show you! Hop on," she said with a grin. When Amy obliged, the sphere rose.

Sabrina sent it careening around the room, kitten in tow. Her own laughter and Amy's telepathic "Wheeeeeeeee!" filled the air with a joy that had been sorely lacking in recent times.

Neither noticed initially when the door creaked open and a certain time-traveler entered.

"Sabrina? You sounded concerned and I wanted to check..."

Homura attempted to take in the scene, Sabrina nearly falling over laughing as a kitten rode one of her Grief spheres like a runaway helicopter. At the sound of her voice, Sabrina attempted to compose herself while the kitten hopped off of the now-immobile sphere to land at Homura's feet.

With a pop, a girl that looked exactly like Homura save for a pair of cat ears, a tail, and a look of sheer elation that seemed utterly alien on the time-traveler's face stood in front of her.

"Hi, Best Not-Cat!"

Homura, very slowly and deliberately, fainted to the ground with a worrying *clunk*.
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The infection spreads.
 
Ugolino said:
We still shouldn't leave her thinking she's a coward for not contracting. Not just for moral reasons, but because that's not a good place for her- and by extension Homura, and us.

We dropped the lichbomb, let's not leave her a stunned mess without saying a word when we can do damage control. Sadoka is not good for anyone, least of all Mami.
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I don't disagree with trying to comfort Madoka somewhat, I just disagree with going full therapist on her and making long speeches designed to fix all her character flaws, because, once again, it's not our fucking job.

Just drop her a line of reassurance that she isn't a coward, like, you are braver than you give yourself credit for. Maybe a line about how she approached us when most people would just leave us be. Something like that is enough. She isn't at immediate danger of running out to contract, and we shouldn't treat her like such.
 
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