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Puella Magi Adfligo Systema

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Anomalous Materials pt. 23
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    • You blow out a sharp breath, leaning your head back against the ridiculously ornate fence surrounding the roof. "Do you think... more time to settle into the magical girl life, I guess, will help Sayaka cope?"

    "With the magical girl life?" Mami asks. "Of course. But I don't think it would help with learning that her house was deliberately burned down by Miss Mikuni."

    "Yeah, that's a fair point," you acknowledge. "I guess... Saturday after the picnic, then? We're meeting Miss Bennouna on Sunday, and... dealing with commitments outside of town, I guess. But I don't want to leave this unresolved in the, ah, long term."

    Mami nods, the motion a little hesitant. "I suppose that would be best," she says.

    "Hm?" you ask, glancing at her. "Is something wrong, Mami?"

    "No... not really," Mami says, smiling at you. You've known her for long enough to see the strained edge to the expression, though.

    "Mami..." you say, tightening your hug around her waist a little.

    "It's nothing," she says, smile softening. "Really."

    You give her a dubious look, but you decide not to press right now.

    Mami smiles at you, covering your hand with hers. "Really, Sabrina," she says.

    Homura exhales quietly. You glance over at her, finding amethyst eyes on you, steady and unreadable.

    You've gotten better at guessing what goes on inside Homura's head, but here and now, you can't tell if she disapproves, or approves, or any of a dozen things she could be thinking about. Of course, she'd be unhappy with the Oriko situation. She probably thinks that all this effort with Sayaka is wasted. That much is obvious.

    You don't know what she's thinking.

    But now that she's drawn your attention...

    "Speaking of the picnic, Homura," you say, smiling at your friend. "You're coming, right?"

    Homura hesitates a moment.

    "Come on, Homura," you say, smile widening a little. "You have all the time in the world, don't you?"

    You're quite proud of yourself for not emphasising the pun at all.

    The flat look she gives you tells you that she noticed it, though!

    She sighs. "I will be there," she says.

    "Excellent," you say, beaming at her. "We'll be glad to have you there. Though, um..." Your smile turns a little sheepish. "Can we use your shield to store stuff? Like, uh, well, ice cream?"

    Homura's eyes flicker from you, to Mami, and back again. "You may," she says, voice soft and almost... melancholic?

    You close your eyes, bouncing the back of your head off the fence. "Last thing about Sayaka... I mean, well... because of her power, she's going to have difficulty specialising, I imagine. I mean, we can get her up to speed on the basics, but... what do you think of advanced melee training for her, later on?"

    "That's a good idea," Homura agrees, almost immediately.

    You blink, faintly surprised at her ready agreement. Then again, she's not entirely heartless, and... even in the most pragmatic sense, anything that would let Sayaka hang on a little longer could only be a boon, right?

    Mami nods in agreement, smiling at you. "That sounds good, Sabrina. We all tend to fight at ranged, after all, it would be good to have someone better at melee fighting."

    "Right, exactly what I was thinking," you say, beaming at Mami. "Her power lets her copy tricks, but she needs to be as skilled as possible with her base abilities."

    "We can cover a lot of that," Mami says, still smiling. "I'm not sure who we can ask to teach Sayaka melee fighting, though."

    Well, you have a candidate in mind; a certain red haired girl over in Kasamino. Nooooot that you should bring her up in front of Mami right now.

    "We'll figure out something," you deflect. "I just wanted to float the idea by you first."

    Mami nods again. "Alright."

    "Anyway... is there anything else?" you glance from Mami to Homura, and at their shaken heads, you turn back to Mami. "So... there's a few more things I want to talk to Homura about. I'll be with you soon, OK?"

    "I-" Mami glances around at the frozen, muted grey hues of the world. "A-alright."

    "It's nothing bad," you reassure Mami, pulling her into a hug and burying your face against her shoulder. "Alright? It's just something private."

    "A-alright," Mami says. She tightens the hug a little, pulling away a moment later. "Alright, I'll... go back to the bench?"

    "Mmm," you agree, standing and guiding her up. You smile as you walk her back over to the bench, opposite a frozen Madoka, Sayaka, and Hitomi. You can feel Homura following you. You pull Mami into a tight hug again. "I'll be with you in no time at all, yeah?"

    "Yeah," Mami says, smiling weakly at you as she separates from the hug and settles back down on the bench. "Alright, I'm removing the ribbon now." She takes a deep breath and lets the ribbon fade, the bright colour leaching out of her as the timestop claims her.

    You huff out a sigh, rubbing at the string around your wrist as you step back and turn to Homura. "So, I... Sayaka's my friend," you say, quiet and somber. "She's a puella magi because I messed up, and I... I owe it to her to make sure that she does as well as she can."

    Homura blinks slowly. "You know her fate," she says.

    "I know," you say. She always dies, or worse, in almost all timelines. "I stand by what I said. She's my friend. And I want to help her."

    "I know," Homura says, suddenly looking very, very tired.

    "I-" you start, floundering for a second. "Homura, look. I know what's at stake here - Walpurgisnacht, and Madoka. Keeping this secret from Sayaka would be a huge weak point the Incubator can hit to fracture our group at the worst possible time. And more than that... Sayaka's my friend. And she's Madoka's friend. You understand that, right?"

    "I do," Homura says, simple and final. With the both of you standing, she has to look up to meet your eyes, but her gaze is steady and unflinching.

    You guess she does, at that. It's not like she didn't try to save Sayaka, even in that last timeline. She tried to give Sayaka a Grief Seed, but... she gave up when Sayaka rebuffed her.

    "Y-yeah," you say, looking away. "Yeah, I-" you wave at Sayaka's frozen form. "I'm not going to stop her from yelling at Oriko. I... what Oriko did was wrong. I'm not denying that. But I just want to make sure things don't escalate."

    Homura's gaze doesn't waver - even without looking, you can feel her eyes boring into you. "They are not worth it," she says.

    You sigh. "I just want everyone to live, Homura. Just this once," you say.

    Silence falls, the absolute, dead silence of the timestop. You can hear your heartbeat, and the rush of blood in your ears.

    Finally, she sighs. "I know," she says.

    "I..." You look up at her, but she's not looking at you. Not any more.

    Amethyst eyes refocus on you.

    "Can I hug you?" you ask.

    Homura sighs again, but raises her arms out towards you, just a little. You beam at her, and step into her, pulling her into a tight hug. "It's going to be alright," you whisper.

    Her arms tighten convulsively around you for a moment before pulling back, her expression open and vulnerable for a moment before she slams it shut again.

    "Is there anything else?" she asks.

    "Well," you say, smiling at Homura. "I was wondering if you wanted to go hunt Sasa down right now?"

    She frowns, considering that for a moment. "Now is fine," she agrees. "Do you have any ideas?"

    [] Write-in

    =====​

    Here we go.
     
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    • Firnagzen said:
    Y

    You sigh. "I just want everyone to live, Homura. Just this once," you say.

    Silence falls, the absolute, dead silence of the timestop. You can hear your heartbeat, and the rush of blood in your ears.

    Finally, she sighs. "I know," she says.

    "I..." You look up at her, but she's not looking at you. Not any more.

    Amethyst eyes refocus on you.

    "Can I hug you?" you ask.
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    Mami might be our Special Friend, but it's Homura who's our best friend.
     
    I imagine that right now, we're reminding Homura of both Madoka and her earlier self.

    And she's remembering how that turned out...
    "I swear I'll save you! I'll do whatever it takes to keep you safe. I'll come back again and again and again. I'll save you, I swear!"
    Also, Mami is wondering how the hell we seem to "know" Sayaka so well. She's avoiding bringing it up, avoiding thinking about it perhaps, but she's aware that we're keeping secrets from her. That's what's gnawing at her in this update.
     
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    So. Not much OOC knowledge about Sasa is known. I'll have to look up what exactly Homura said she knows about her, but the obvious first step is to start examining middle schools in Kasamino.

    Now might also be a decent time to finally make it entirely clear whether grief can grab in universe knowledge from outside our range - try and make a compass that always points to Sasa Yuuki and see if it works.
     
    Being thinking about the metabomb on Mami later on, do you think if she realise that Sabrina play(predict) her, would that activate her spark independent spirit as way of moving from Sabrina's shadow? I know that paints an negative image of Sabrina but I can't help but think that knowing about everyone's actions would reduce her dependency on Sabrina.
     
    Firnagzen said:
    Well, you have a candidate in mind; a certain red haired girl over in Kasamino. Nooooot that you should bring her up in front of Mami right now.
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    Finally! Apple and raspberry shipping can commence!

    And on that note, when we make cakes for the picnic, could we theme everyone's around their fruit thing? The list goes Sayaka - Raspberry, Koko - Apple, Mami - Cheese, Homura - Pumpkin, and Madoka Melon.

    Most of those are viable cakes, if you include cheese cake and pumpkin pie (totally a cake, don't look behind the curtain).
     
    Redshirt Army said:
    So. Not much OOC knowledge about Sasa is known. I'll have to look up what exactly Homura said she knows about her, but the obvious first step is to start examining middle schools in Kasamino.

    Now might also be a decent time to finally make it entirely clear whether grief can grab in universe knowledge from outside our range - try and make a compass that always points to Sasa Yuuki and see if it works.
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    [COMPASS OF LOCATE SASA YUUKI]
     
    Also Sasa does tend to hang around Shirome doesn't she?

    Haven't read symmetry diamond.

    Edit

    Or that other side story... what was it? Sadness prayer?
     
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    Awww, Homu... <3

    [Q] "You know when you react like that, it just makes me want to hug you harder, right?"
    -[Q] Homura: "..." 'So that's how it works.'
     
    Firnagzen said:
    She frowns, considering that for a moment. "Now is fine," she agrees. "Do you have any ideas?"
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    [x] Do you know which school she attends? She comes to Mitakihara from Kasamino, so we could just do a flyover of the schools there and examine any magical girls that pop up, I suppose...
    -[x] I know she spends some time around Shirome - are there any other places worth checking?
    [x] And... I've been meaning to try a tracking grief artifact for a while. It might take me a while to create it though, and it might not work perfectly. Do you think it's worth a shot?
    [x] ...Actually, since we'll be doing a fairly detailed scan of the area looking for magical girls, are there any other individuals you'd like to check on the status of, while we're at it?

    [x] If Homura thinks making a grief artifact is worth the time, try to make a [COMPASS OF LOCATE SASA YUUKI].
    -[x] If it works, follow it with Meguca Airlines.

    [x] Else, do a slow, detailed flyover scan, prioritizing first locations in Mitakihara, then locations in Kasamino in decreasing order of importance.
     
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