FelOnyx
Love and Peace!
- Location
- Gunsmoke
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Misread Sayaka as Sakura. Too much Tsun for one couple, or just enough to work?
Puella Magi Adfligo Systema
- Thread starter Firnagzen
- Start date
-
- Tags
- puella magi adfligo systema puella magi madoka magica be gay do crimes (gay) female protagonist bad decisions dating mami tomoe (tomoe mami) diabolical laughter friendship is the best ship handholding identity crises microwaving tea gets you put in the bad place names are important the body is the fursona of the soul this is not the baked goods thread we don't talk about rionna what could possibly go wrong? who in the world is azure sanfrancisco?
DB_Explorer
Purveyor of alternate realities.
- Location
- San Diego, California
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Lordsservent
Servant of the one true God and SV
- Location
- The centre of the Multiverse
Well, as bad at social interaction as we can be, I wouldn't mind us and Mami supporting each other in a way that goes beyond mere friendship.
Lordsservent
Servant of the one true God and SV
- Location
- The centre of the Multiverse
I don't disagree, but we've still made some terrible fumbles in the past.
Lordsservent
Servant of the one true God and SV
- Location
- The centre of the Multiverse
I was thinking more about what happened with Oriko.
aeqnai
Nerdy Homu
- Location
- Laniakea Supercluster
- Pronouns
- She/Her
...If they married later in life, there'd be a possibility of Kyouko's wife's name being Sakura Sakura.
Lordsservent
Servant of the one true God and SV
- Location
- The centre of the Multiverse
It would be so funny to see how people would react to this hilarious name, mostly because of the Surrealness of someone having the same First and Last name.
A Red Letter Day pt. 31
You smile right back at Mami, putting your hand on top of the one she looped through your elbow. That was a date, wasn't it? Without really thinking about it, you lean in, and brush your lips over her cheek.
Mami's face lights up with a bright, luminescent blush, her lips parting in surprise.
"Let's," you manage, beaming back at Mami with reddened cheeks. It's a good thing you didn't plan on saying anything more, because you're not absolutely sure you could have managed it.
Her expression softens into something warm and adoring, and she presses closer to you. "Let's," she agrees quietly.
Home. Home is where the heart is, and, well, you know where yours lies. You can't help the slightly guilty little squirm in your stomach that says you shouldn't. Not when Mami still isn't really recovered. You don't want to take advantage of her state, and... you don't want to worsen her dependency on you.
Still...
You look at Mami as you walk along the street. She's happy. And she's happy because she's with you. How much would it hurt her, if you pulled back? If you stopped being as affectionate with her?
Too much.
In an ideal world, you'd take it slow, for all that you don't want to. She has friends, and she has support. You still plan on encouraging her to rekindle her friendship with Kyouko, and she has Homura and Sayaka and Madoka and even Hitomi. It's not the ideal world, but it isn't an awful state, either.
Seeming to sense your gaze, Mami turns, a smile already on her face. "Something on your mind?"
"I'm lucky to have you," you say, smiling at her. The fact is that you don't want to pull back. Beyond the fact that it would hurt her, it would hurt you. You like Mami, simple as that.
"Sabrina..." she protests half-heartedly, blushing red once again.
"No, really, I am," you insist, smiling. A thought occurs to you as you turn off the main street and down a quiet alleyway. "Though, well - wings or platform?"
"I thought we were taking the platform because it was easier to carry the groceries that way?" Mami asks.
You blink, and then laugh ruefully. "Yeah, you're right," you agree. "I just thought that it's nice to fly home together."
"But we will be," Mami says, smiling at you and releasing your elbow so that she can reach up and tap your nose. "Just not with wings."
"Fair enough!" you agree with a laugh. You look at the brick wall, running sheer up to the roof where you can feel your Grief waiting. You take a step back and bound straight at the wall, clearing a full storey from a standing start and scaling the walls knowing without looking that Mami's right behind you.
You don't even raise dust from the grungy brick wall as you crest the top of the building, flipping to land in a smooth crouch. Mami hops up beside you, already turning towards you. You take her arm, and lead her over to the platform, already waiting with your groceries.
With Mami curled happily into your side, you take once more to the sky. It's well and truly night now, stars starting to twinkle overhead, and the moon just starting to rise. Below, the heated orange glow of the city reaches heavenward, the churn of people and endless thunder of cars merging into seamless rivers of light and distant noise.
It's almost peaceful, from up here. One week over, and... one week closer to Walpurgisnacht. But for now, it's peaceful up here, so you simply soak in the silence and the warmth of Mami cuddled into your side, her wind-tossed hair tickling your arm.
You arrive at Mami's apartment block all too soon, splitting the groceries and dissolving the platform behind you as you head downstairs. The Grief you tuck away as a neat stack of spheres in the corner of the roof.
One of these days, a maintenance worker or someone is going to stumble across the Grief and be very confused. If it hasn't happened yet, even.
"You have homework to do, right?" you inquire as Mami shifts her groceries to one hand and unlocks the door.
"I do!" Mami agrees, toeing her shoes off and stepping inside.
You follow her in, exhaling softly and feeling a weight slide off your shoulders as you look around the familiar, comforting room. "I'm home," you murmur.
"Welcome home," Mami answers, smiling at you. "Shall we get these groceries unpacked?"
"Yup," you agree, following her into the kitchen. The two of you take fifteen minutes to do just that, tidying away the groceries into the cupboards and refrigerator both.
"So Mami," you say, smiling at her as you move smoothly past her, bound for the fridge with the packets of chicken.
"Mmm?" she asks, returning the smile.
"Well done for beating me to the punch on the date?" you say, voice cracking on the last word.
Mami's movements still as her cheeks burn a bright, fiery crimson. "T-thank you?"
"I enjoyed it a lot," you say, putting the chicken away and crossing the kitchen to wrap your arms around her. "But next time, I wanna pick the place."
"A-alright," she squeaks, winding her arms around your waist and smiling at you happier than you've ever seen her through her bright, bright blush. She ducks her head a second later, burying her face in your shoulder.
That's... that, then. You put an official word on it.
You hug her tight, bright joy bubbling in your chest, before pulling back. You brush hair out of her eyes, unable to keep the goofy, happy smile off your face.
"We should get back to unpacking," you murmur.
Mami shakes her head in denial, and cuddles closer once more. You laugh.
It's a few more minutes before you actually do get back to work, finishing the unpacking and moving to the living room. Mami collects her homework from her bag and lays it out on the crazed glass of Table-chan. You flop over on the sofa behind her, thinking about what to do.
"Mami?" you murmur. "May I borrow your phone?"
She looks up from her textbook -English- and leans back against the seat of the sofa, head resting against your torso. "Of course? What do you need it for?"
"Oh, I want to look up some things on the Internet, but my phone can't access it, and your computer is too far," you explain.
"Oh. Why don't you use my laptop instead?" Mami asks.
"... You have a laptop?" you say, blinking in surprise.
"Um... Yes?" Mami says. "Almost everyone at Mitakihara Middle School does. It's... Um, not a requirement, but highly recommended? Some classes have interactive parts on our laptops."
"Oh," you say, reaching down to run your fingers through her hair. "That's really neat! I didn't know that."
"Mmm," she says, leaning into your hand. "You can borrow my laptop! It's in my school bag."
You miss her hair gently for a bit more before actually getting up and locating her laptop. Nothing fancy, but nothing too shabby, either. You settle beside Mami, claiming a space to her left as you have room enough for the laptop.
You hit Wikipedia, of course, looking first for a map. The route to Asunaro, first of all, and you find Mami looking over your shoulder with a touch of worry in her eyes.
"Making sure I know the way," you tell Mami with a smile. "It'd be pretty embarrassing to get lost on the way there."
Mami giggles, tension bleeding away. "Oh, Sabrina," she says, giving you a fond look.
Akita Prefecture, as Oriko said way back then, so that's a straight shot north west from here. It's big enough that you can recognise it from the air, you suspect, but just to be sure, you start looking up landmarks.
Japan looks oddly crowded on the map, more cities than there ought to be. There's less farmland than you'd expect, and out of curiosity, you follow that thread of thought. It looks like hydroponics cultivation is far more commonplace than you remember, which would explain how the country supplies itself. Japan's a net exporter of high-tech goods, as expected.
You follow that thread of thought, searching for a world map. Arab Spring happened -is happening- and you know that it started with the Tusinian Revolution. It happened, and things spun out of control, as you remember.
The world doesn't look too different. There are more people, and more events, than you remember, but the broad strokes remain. The major countries all exist with the more or less the same borders from your memory, though you're not quite sure about the Caucasus region.
Which is... strange. Shouldn't the effect of magical girls be more potent? More visible? You'd almost have expected extra wars, or perhaps a lack thereof from the effect of Wishes. But then...
You know Cleopatra was a magical girl - in and of itself strange, but she was one of the magical girls Madokami collected. And you know Jeanne d'Arc was a magical girl, too. There must, then, have been some degree of convergence to history, perhaps the effect of the Incubators concealing things and smoothing out the bigger ripples.
It doesn't fully make sense, and you suspect only one being would give you the kind of answers you want on that, but talking to Kyuubey about another world you remember? You've seen what lies down that path.
... well, maybe two beings. Madokami might know, but you can't exactly talk to her. Maybe she'd answer prayers from you?
Hmm. You don't see anything major that might trip you up. The Olympics still happen, the Allies still won the Second World War and precipitated right into the Cold war, but were still responsible for Japan's post-war economic boom. China's Great Leap Forward happened... essentially as expected.
You sigh, closing the browser tab... tabs. Since when were there that many?
Mami looks up from her homework, concerned, and you smile at her, pushing the laptop away and shuffling closer so you can wrap your arms around her waist and rest your chin on her shoulder. "How's the homework going?"
"It's going well!" Mami says, leaning her head against yours. "I'm writing an essay."
"Oh?" you say, peeking at the essay. Indeed, she is, writing in English that you judge to be excellent. "Oh, very nice!"
"Do you think so?" Mami asks. "Um... could you help me proofread it later?"
"Absolutely," you say, smiling at her. "I'd have offered if you hadn't asked."
"Alright," Mami says, returning the smile. "Thank you, Sabrina."
"Anything for you," you say, shaking your head and sitting up. "I'll let you get back to it."
She turns back to her homework, and you shuffle about to get comfortable - you don't want to disturb her work, but you kind of want to cuddle, too. You're going to practice your enchantment right now, you think, and... maybe you're not going to force anything this time. It seems like most magical girls get some kind of enchantment that comes intuitively to them, and why should you be different.
That does rather elide the fact that you aren't most magical girls, but you're giving yourself a mental pep-talk here.
Of course, you realise that you don't have anything to practice on.
"... Mami?" you ask, tilting your head back to look at her.
"Mm?" she asks, setting her pen down and smiling at you.
"Uh... do you have anything I could practice enchantment on?" you ask.
"Oh, um..." Mami looks around the room. "Ah, I know." She holds up a hand, a ribbon snaking away out of sight around the door and returning with a particularly tacky porcelain doll.
You laugh, smiling at her. "You know I'm probably going to wind up breaking it, right?"
"I won this at a fair a while ago," Mami explains "I didn't have the heart to throw it away, so I put it at the back of the cupboard. Might as well put it to use, right?"
"Works for me," you say. "Thanks, Mami."
"Anything for you, Sabrina," Mami says, echoing your earlier words with a fond smile as she picks up her pen once more.
The scratching of her pen is a gentle accompaniment as you exhale and let the thoughts fall away from your mind. You don't want for anything, not right now. No pressing need to create anything, or even try to produce the barrier enchantment or anything, so you just feel the tingle of magic in your body. You guide it out your fingers, into the little porcelain doll held in your hand, and let it take what shape it might.
It... diffuses, for lack of a better word, thinning throughout the ceramic like a drop of ink dropped in water.
You tentatively push more magic into it, trying to see if you can saturate it without breaking it like that cup all the way back then. It seems like not forcing it works, but the magic doesn't really seem to do much other than clinging to the porcelain like a fiery cloud.
"Mm... Sabrina?" Mami asks.
"Yep?" you ask, setting the doll dow-
You don't set the doll down. It sticks to your hand, brittle ceramic suddenly mutable under your fingers. "Huh."
"Hmm?" Mami asks.
You peer down at the ceramic figure, squeezing - and it oozes between your fingers like soft clay, black dress and cheery face smearing.
"Oh!" Mami claps, looking delighted. "Did you manage to enchant it? What does it do?"
"I... don't know," you admit, scratching your head. "I just pushed magic into it without trying to force it - I thought that might do something. And, uh, I guess it has?"
Mami reaches around you to poke at the mess of porcelain - and to your faint surprise, it doesn't yield under her fingers. "It seems like you made it mouldable, but only to you?"
"It... seems so?" you say, squishing the thing so that it smears like plasticine. It doesn't really stick to your fingers like plasticine or wet clay would, rather, it feels like well-made dough, moulding and flattening under your hands as you roll it into a ball. "Huh."
"That's interesting," Mami says, giving the formerly-a-doll a perplexed look.
"Yeah," you say. "I'll experiment with this more another time. What do you need?"
"Oh, I've finished my essay!" Mami says, holding it up for you to see. "Could you help me read it?"
"Of course," you say, taking it and smiling.
Mami beams at you, and turns to her bag, collecting another worksheet from it - geography, it looks like.
You start to skim the essay, snagging a pencil from Mami so you can highlight corrections that need to be made. Not that there are many! Mami's grammar isn't quite perfect, but it's not bad either. You add suggestions for rephrasing, and vocabulary, too.
A thought occurs to you as you edit the text, and reach out by telepathy. "Hey, Kyouko?"
"Yo." The drawled response comes a few minutes later. "'sup, 'brina?"
"Hey Kyouko," you say. "How's things going?"
"Weekends 're always troublesome. Too many people. 'bout to go for a hunt with Yuma," Kyouko says. "Hard finding Witches. Why?"
"Just checking in on you, really," you say, underlining a spelling mistake. But then, 'occasion' is a silly word, anyway. "But uh, we're a go for training Sayaka. You free tomorrow morning to talk shop? Payment and scheduling and whatever?"
"Eh, sure," Kyouko agrees. "Not before nine."
"Hm... oughta be fine," you agree. Might be cutting it a bit fine - you need to go to Kasamino and back. Time to test whether you can in fact go supersonic, you suppose.
"Yep," Kyouko drawls. "Anything else?"
"Nah, that's it," you say. "Later! All the best with your hunt."
"Mmmrm," Kyouko grunts, ending the call.
You finish reading Mami's essay, and nudge her. "Here, Mami," you say with a smile. "It's great."
"Really?" she asks, beaming at you.
"Some grammar and vocabulary issues, but I didn't see anything wrong with the argument or structure," you affirm, wrapping an arm around her waist and hugging her.
"Thank you," she says, smiling at you.
"Anytime," you say, squeezing her gently. She cuddles against you with a happy sigh, leaning against you.
The rest of the evening passes in much the same vein - Mami does her homework with you helping, and you fiddle with the apparently-enchanted former doll. It's now just a rather messy blob, hard to the touch of anyone else but you. When the magic runs out, it firms up once more, even to you, regaining the smooth sheen of porcelain but not its initial shape.
You can't make heads nor tails of it.
"I'm done!" Mami says at last, setting her pen down with a sharp click and smiling at you.
"Yay!" you cheer. "Well done, Mami."
She smiles. "It's just homework," she demurs.
"Even so~" you say cheerfully. "Also, I had a thought, before we get ready for bed?"
"Mmm?" Mami asks.
"Well... what are we going to do with the incoming magical girls? We don't have anywhere for them to live," you say.
Mami purses her lips. "It's a problem, I agree. We don't have enough room here. Would Homura have any room at her apartment?"
"Maybe. One or two magical girls over there," you agree. Homura has room, but you have no idea if she'd be willing to share. "I was thinking we could use Oriko's refurbished warehouse."
"It's not a long term solution, but it works for the time being," Mami agrees, frowning. "We do need to think of something... Maybe we could start that hotel you mentioned!"
You giggle. "Maybe! Let's see, we could ask Madoka's mother for help. Call it a business venture, right? And maybe we could get investment from the Shizukis..."
You chat happily with Mami as you wind down for bed, taking turns to shower, brush your teeth, and change to pajamas. Mami's brushing her hair when you emerge from the bathroom, looking absolutely radiant.
You beam at her as she stands, and pad over to the bedroom. Your bedroom, really. Mami lies down, leaving you with plenty of room, and immediately cuddles up when you flop down beside her.
"Goodnight, Mami," you whisper, pulling the covers up over you.
"Good night, Sabrina," she says.
You close your eyes, warm and content as you drift off.
Voting opens
[] Wake up...
- [] Before Mami
- [] After Mami
[] Breakfast, get ready for Mami to go to school
[] Radio Mitakihara Mornings
- [] Any points to hit?
[] Get ribbon from Mami to experiment with
[] After seeing Mami to school...
- [] Science session
- [] Witch hunt
- [] Go see Kyouko
[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
OK, so: on the subject of combining Mami's ribbons with Sabrina's magic? There is something to it, and that's why I left it out of this update - I'm trying to keep things moving. Bring it up again sometime soon, tomorrow morning works.
Also, finally, here ends Book 2, chapter 8: A Red Letter Day.
Mami's face lights up with a bright, luminescent blush, her lips parting in surprise.
"Let's," you manage, beaming back at Mami with reddened cheeks. It's a good thing you didn't plan on saying anything more, because you're not absolutely sure you could have managed it.
Her expression softens into something warm and adoring, and she presses closer to you. "Let's," she agrees quietly.
Home. Home is where the heart is, and, well, you know where yours lies. You can't help the slightly guilty little squirm in your stomach that says you shouldn't. Not when Mami still isn't really recovered. You don't want to take advantage of her state, and... you don't want to worsen her dependency on you.
Still...
You look at Mami as you walk along the street. She's happy. And she's happy because she's with you. How much would it hurt her, if you pulled back? If you stopped being as affectionate with her?
Too much.
In an ideal world, you'd take it slow, for all that you don't want to. She has friends, and she has support. You still plan on encouraging her to rekindle her friendship with Kyouko, and she has Homura and Sayaka and Madoka and even Hitomi. It's not the ideal world, but it isn't an awful state, either.
Seeming to sense your gaze, Mami turns, a smile already on her face. "Something on your mind?"
"I'm lucky to have you," you say, smiling at her. The fact is that you don't want to pull back. Beyond the fact that it would hurt her, it would hurt you. You like Mami, simple as that.
"Sabrina..." she protests half-heartedly, blushing red once again.
"No, really, I am," you insist, smiling. A thought occurs to you as you turn off the main street and down a quiet alleyway. "Though, well - wings or platform?"
"I thought we were taking the platform because it was easier to carry the groceries that way?" Mami asks.
You blink, and then laugh ruefully. "Yeah, you're right," you agree. "I just thought that it's nice to fly home together."
"But we will be," Mami says, smiling at you and releasing your elbow so that she can reach up and tap your nose. "Just not with wings."
"Fair enough!" you agree with a laugh. You look at the brick wall, running sheer up to the roof where you can feel your Grief waiting. You take a step back and bound straight at the wall, clearing a full storey from a standing start and scaling the walls knowing without looking that Mami's right behind you.
You don't even raise dust from the grungy brick wall as you crest the top of the building, flipping to land in a smooth crouch. Mami hops up beside you, already turning towards you. You take her arm, and lead her over to the platform, already waiting with your groceries.
With Mami curled happily into your side, you take once more to the sky. It's well and truly night now, stars starting to twinkle overhead, and the moon just starting to rise. Below, the heated orange glow of the city reaches heavenward, the churn of people and endless thunder of cars merging into seamless rivers of light and distant noise.
It's almost peaceful, from up here. One week over, and... one week closer to Walpurgisnacht. But for now, it's peaceful up here, so you simply soak in the silence and the warmth of Mami cuddled into your side, her wind-tossed hair tickling your arm.
You arrive at Mami's apartment block all too soon, splitting the groceries and dissolving the platform behind you as you head downstairs. The Grief you tuck away as a neat stack of spheres in the corner of the roof.
One of these days, a maintenance worker or someone is going to stumble across the Grief and be very confused. If it hasn't happened yet, even.
"You have homework to do, right?" you inquire as Mami shifts her groceries to one hand and unlocks the door.
"I do!" Mami agrees, toeing her shoes off and stepping inside.
You follow her in, exhaling softly and feeling a weight slide off your shoulders as you look around the familiar, comforting room. "I'm home," you murmur.
"Welcome home," Mami answers, smiling at you. "Shall we get these groceries unpacked?"
"Yup," you agree, following her into the kitchen. The two of you take fifteen minutes to do just that, tidying away the groceries into the cupboards and refrigerator both.
"So Mami," you say, smiling at her as you move smoothly past her, bound for the fridge with the packets of chicken.
"Mmm?" she asks, returning the smile.
"Well done for beating me to the punch on the date?" you say, voice cracking on the last word.
Mami's movements still as her cheeks burn a bright, fiery crimson. "T-thank you?"
"I enjoyed it a lot," you say, putting the chicken away and crossing the kitchen to wrap your arms around her. "But next time, I wanna pick the place."
"A-alright," she squeaks, winding her arms around your waist and smiling at you happier than you've ever seen her through her bright, bright blush. She ducks her head a second later, burying her face in your shoulder.
That's... that, then. You put an official word on it.
You hug her tight, bright joy bubbling in your chest, before pulling back. You brush hair out of her eyes, unable to keep the goofy, happy smile off your face.
"We should get back to unpacking," you murmur.
Mami shakes her head in denial, and cuddles closer once more. You laugh.
It's a few more minutes before you actually do get back to work, finishing the unpacking and moving to the living room. Mami collects her homework from her bag and lays it out on the crazed glass of Table-chan. You flop over on the sofa behind her, thinking about what to do.
"Mami?" you murmur. "May I borrow your phone?"
She looks up from her textbook -English- and leans back against the seat of the sofa, head resting against your torso. "Of course? What do you need it for?"
"Oh, I want to look up some things on the Internet, but my phone can't access it, and your computer is too far," you explain.
"Oh. Why don't you use my laptop instead?" Mami asks.
"... You have a laptop?" you say, blinking in surprise.
"Um... Yes?" Mami says. "Almost everyone at Mitakihara Middle School does. It's... Um, not a requirement, but highly recommended? Some classes have interactive parts on our laptops."
"Oh," you say, reaching down to run your fingers through her hair. "That's really neat! I didn't know that."
"Mmm," she says, leaning into your hand. "You can borrow my laptop! It's in my school bag."
You miss her hair gently for a bit more before actually getting up and locating her laptop. Nothing fancy, but nothing too shabby, either. You settle beside Mami, claiming a space to her left as you have room enough for the laptop.
You hit Wikipedia, of course, looking first for a map. The route to Asunaro, first of all, and you find Mami looking over your shoulder with a touch of worry in her eyes.
"Making sure I know the way," you tell Mami with a smile. "It'd be pretty embarrassing to get lost on the way there."
Mami giggles, tension bleeding away. "Oh, Sabrina," she says, giving you a fond look.
Akita Prefecture, as Oriko said way back then, so that's a straight shot north west from here. It's big enough that you can recognise it from the air, you suspect, but just to be sure, you start looking up landmarks.
Japan looks oddly crowded on the map, more cities than there ought to be. There's less farmland than you'd expect, and out of curiosity, you follow that thread of thought. It looks like hydroponics cultivation is far more commonplace than you remember, which would explain how the country supplies itself. Japan's a net exporter of high-tech goods, as expected.
You follow that thread of thought, searching for a world map. Arab Spring happened -is happening- and you know that it started with the Tusinian Revolution. It happened, and things spun out of control, as you remember.
The world doesn't look too different. There are more people, and more events, than you remember, but the broad strokes remain. The major countries all exist with the more or less the same borders from your memory, though you're not quite sure about the Caucasus region.
Which is... strange. Shouldn't the effect of magical girls be more potent? More visible? You'd almost have expected extra wars, or perhaps a lack thereof from the effect of Wishes. But then...
You know Cleopatra was a magical girl - in and of itself strange, but she was one of the magical girls Madokami collected. And you know Jeanne d'Arc was a magical girl, too. There must, then, have been some degree of convergence to history, perhaps the effect of the Incubators concealing things and smoothing out the bigger ripples.
It doesn't fully make sense, and you suspect only one being would give you the kind of answers you want on that, but talking to Kyuubey about another world you remember? You've seen what lies down that path.
... well, maybe two beings. Madokami might know, but you can't exactly talk to her. Maybe she'd answer prayers from you?
Hmm. You don't see anything major that might trip you up. The Olympics still happen, the Allies still won the Second World War and precipitated right into the Cold war, but were still responsible for Japan's post-war economic boom. China's Great Leap Forward happened... essentially as expected.
You sigh, closing the browser tab... tabs. Since when were there that many?
Mami looks up from her homework, concerned, and you smile at her, pushing the laptop away and shuffling closer so you can wrap your arms around her waist and rest your chin on her shoulder. "How's the homework going?"
"It's going well!" Mami says, leaning her head against yours. "I'm writing an essay."
"Oh?" you say, peeking at the essay. Indeed, she is, writing in English that you judge to be excellent. "Oh, very nice!"
"Do you think so?" Mami asks. "Um... could you help me proofread it later?"
"Absolutely," you say, smiling at her. "I'd have offered if you hadn't asked."
"Alright," Mami says, returning the smile. "Thank you, Sabrina."
"Anything for you," you say, shaking your head and sitting up. "I'll let you get back to it."
She turns back to her homework, and you shuffle about to get comfortable - you don't want to disturb her work, but you kind of want to cuddle, too. You're going to practice your enchantment right now, you think, and... maybe you're not going to force anything this time. It seems like most magical girls get some kind of enchantment that comes intuitively to them, and why should you be different.
That does rather elide the fact that you aren't most magical girls, but you're giving yourself a mental pep-talk here.
Of course, you realise that you don't have anything to practice on.
"... Mami?" you ask, tilting your head back to look at her.
"Mm?" she asks, setting her pen down and smiling at you.
"Uh... do you have anything I could practice enchantment on?" you ask.
"Oh, um..." Mami looks around the room. "Ah, I know." She holds up a hand, a ribbon snaking away out of sight around the door and returning with a particularly tacky porcelain doll.
You laugh, smiling at her. "You know I'm probably going to wind up breaking it, right?"
"I won this at a fair a while ago," Mami explains "I didn't have the heart to throw it away, so I put it at the back of the cupboard. Might as well put it to use, right?"
"Works for me," you say. "Thanks, Mami."
"Anything for you, Sabrina," Mami says, echoing your earlier words with a fond smile as she picks up her pen once more.
The scratching of her pen is a gentle accompaniment as you exhale and let the thoughts fall away from your mind. You don't want for anything, not right now. No pressing need to create anything, or even try to produce the barrier enchantment or anything, so you just feel the tingle of magic in your body. You guide it out your fingers, into the little porcelain doll held in your hand, and let it take what shape it might.
It... diffuses, for lack of a better word, thinning throughout the ceramic like a drop of ink dropped in water.
You tentatively push more magic into it, trying to see if you can saturate it without breaking it like that cup all the way back then. It seems like not forcing it works, but the magic doesn't really seem to do much other than clinging to the porcelain like a fiery cloud.
"Mm... Sabrina?" Mami asks.
"Yep?" you ask, setting the doll dow-
You don't set the doll down. It sticks to your hand, brittle ceramic suddenly mutable under your fingers. "Huh."
"Hmm?" Mami asks.
You peer down at the ceramic figure, squeezing - and it oozes between your fingers like soft clay, black dress and cheery face smearing.
"Oh!" Mami claps, looking delighted. "Did you manage to enchant it? What does it do?"
"I... don't know," you admit, scratching your head. "I just pushed magic into it without trying to force it - I thought that might do something. And, uh, I guess it has?"
Mami reaches around you to poke at the mess of porcelain - and to your faint surprise, it doesn't yield under her fingers. "It seems like you made it mouldable, but only to you?"
"It... seems so?" you say, squishing the thing so that it smears like plasticine. It doesn't really stick to your fingers like plasticine or wet clay would, rather, it feels like well-made dough, moulding and flattening under your hands as you roll it into a ball. "Huh."
"That's interesting," Mami says, giving the formerly-a-doll a perplexed look.
"Yeah," you say. "I'll experiment with this more another time. What do you need?"
"Oh, I've finished my essay!" Mami says, holding it up for you to see. "Could you help me read it?"
"Of course," you say, taking it and smiling.
Mami beams at you, and turns to her bag, collecting another worksheet from it - geography, it looks like.
You start to skim the essay, snagging a pencil from Mami so you can highlight corrections that need to be made. Not that there are many! Mami's grammar isn't quite perfect, but it's not bad either. You add suggestions for rephrasing, and vocabulary, too.
A thought occurs to you as you edit the text, and reach out by telepathy. "Hey, Kyouko?"
"Yo." The drawled response comes a few minutes later. "'sup, 'brina?"
"Hey Kyouko," you say. "How's things going?"
"Weekends 're always troublesome. Too many people. 'bout to go for a hunt with Yuma," Kyouko says. "Hard finding Witches. Why?"
"Just checking in on you, really," you say, underlining a spelling mistake. But then, 'occasion' is a silly word, anyway. "But uh, we're a go for training Sayaka. You free tomorrow morning to talk shop? Payment and scheduling and whatever?"
"Eh, sure," Kyouko agrees. "Not before nine."
"Hm... oughta be fine," you agree. Might be cutting it a bit fine - you need to go to Kasamino and back. Time to test whether you can in fact go supersonic, you suppose.
"Yep," Kyouko drawls. "Anything else?"
"Nah, that's it," you say. "Later! All the best with your hunt."
"Mmmrm," Kyouko grunts, ending the call.
You finish reading Mami's essay, and nudge her. "Here, Mami," you say with a smile. "It's great."
"Really?" she asks, beaming at you.
"Some grammar and vocabulary issues, but I didn't see anything wrong with the argument or structure," you affirm, wrapping an arm around her waist and hugging her.
"Thank you," she says, smiling at you.
"Anytime," you say, squeezing her gently. She cuddles against you with a happy sigh, leaning against you.
The rest of the evening passes in much the same vein - Mami does her homework with you helping, and you fiddle with the apparently-enchanted former doll. It's now just a rather messy blob, hard to the touch of anyone else but you. When the magic runs out, it firms up once more, even to you, regaining the smooth sheen of porcelain but not its initial shape.
You can't make heads nor tails of it.
"I'm done!" Mami says at last, setting her pen down with a sharp click and smiling at you.
"Yay!" you cheer. "Well done, Mami."
She smiles. "It's just homework," she demurs.
"Even so~" you say cheerfully. "Also, I had a thought, before we get ready for bed?"
"Mmm?" Mami asks.
"Well... what are we going to do with the incoming magical girls? We don't have anywhere for them to live," you say.
Mami purses her lips. "It's a problem, I agree. We don't have enough room here. Would Homura have any room at her apartment?"
"Maybe. One or two magical girls over there," you agree. Homura has room, but you have no idea if she'd be willing to share. "I was thinking we could use Oriko's refurbished warehouse."
"It's not a long term solution, but it works for the time being," Mami agrees, frowning. "We do need to think of something... Maybe we could start that hotel you mentioned!"
You giggle. "Maybe! Let's see, we could ask Madoka's mother for help. Call it a business venture, right? And maybe we could get investment from the Shizukis..."
You chat happily with Mami as you wind down for bed, taking turns to shower, brush your teeth, and change to pajamas. Mami's brushing her hair when you emerge from the bathroom, looking absolutely radiant.
You beam at her as she stands, and pad over to the bedroom. Your bedroom, really. Mami lies down, leaving you with plenty of room, and immediately cuddles up when you flop down beside her.
"Goodnight, Mami," you whisper, pulling the covers up over you.
"Good night, Sabrina," she says.
You close your eyes, warm and content as you drift off.
Voting opens
[] Wake up...
- [] Before Mami
- [] After Mami
[] Breakfast, get ready for Mami to go to school
[] Radio Mitakihara Mornings
- [] Any points to hit?
[] Get ribbon from Mami to experiment with
[] After seeing Mami to school...
- [] Science session
- [] Witch hunt
- [] Go see Kyouko
[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
=====
OK, so: on the subject of combining Mami's ribbons with Sabrina's magic? There is something to it, and that's why I left it out of this update - I'm trying to keep things moving. Bring it up again sometime soon, tomorrow morning works.
Also, finally, here ends Book 2, chapter 8: A Red Letter Day.
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- Location
- England
'From' the Yakuza more like~
UbeOne
Daydreaming CPU
- Location
- Philippines
- Pronouns
- She/Her
- Location
- Somewhere!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Huh. Does this imply the bombs still happened? I kind of expected Japan to come out a little more okay if there were magical girls to wish.
cracked?
Hmm! So we have confirmation that Sabrina is aware that much of her meta-knowledge is taken from a "real world" without magic! I mean, I guess it's sort of obvious when you have to put everything together, but it's good to have confirmation.
Hm. I've mentioned it a few times before, but we do have those gold bars we need to do something with, and with our Grief we can probably put a background process together to extrude them into gold chain and rings and such. That's already fairly easy, given how ductile gold is, but our new native enchantment can make that even easier:
How weird. I think we imbued the doll with our desire to "control" things, maybe? So now we have control over its structure, like we have control over Grief? Any other hypotheses?
Not particularly useful, at least as far as I can see, but if we can change the objects conceptual properties, rather than just structure, it could be very useful.
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Am I the only one who was just little bit alarmed when Mami pulled out a doll for us to practice with?
LucidProp
Pocky Eating MafiaDoka
Huh, either Bunny-Cat's been doing work to shape human history (ex. France and the 100 Years War), or there just aren't that many girls with high enough potential to impact world politics.
Next thing you know we're throwing tomatoes at people while yelling "God is dead!" or something equally edgy.
Subrosian_Smithy
endless
- Location
- Washington
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Hers
Just like Mami~?
Teiwaz
Beloved of Adorjan.
- Location
- RUNNING AWAY
Oh man I bet Mami was thinking of Poor-chan when she said this.
- Location
- Borneo
Fear us Walpuggynut!!
FOR WE CAN MAKE PLAYDOUGH!
DESPAAAAIIIIRRRR!!!
FOR WE CAN MAKE PLAYDOUGH!
DESPAAAAIIIIRRRR!!!
I thought we were Poor-chan?
- Location
- Land of Confusion
No, crazed is a correct word. See Crazing - Wikipedia
Teiwaz
Beloved of Adorjan.
- Location
- RUNNING AWAY
In the tv airing there was a character who did no have a laptop in the classroom scene and it spawned a few memes on /u/.I thought we were Poor-chan?
Onmur
Archangel of Nutella.
These two are definitely too cute.
Typo.
I guess we should try doing what we can with Grief next time. Take the doll and try to put it/will it back together, try to turn it into gold, try to make it look like Mami...
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Takareer
Words and feathers
- Location
- Ontario, Canada
I think the doll's malleability reflects our ability to make familiars, or something along those lines. If we tried to get it to move on its own while enchanting, it probably would.
Alternatively, as has been mentioned, it could reflect our somewhat-desire to control things... but that is the less interesting alternative.
Alternatively, as has been mentioned, it could reflect our somewhat-desire to control things... but that is the less interesting alternative.
Onmur
Archangel of Nutella.
You know, it feels to me we're back at square one with magic SCIENCE!.
Once more, we need to explore a controlling magic, and once more we don't know what it can do.
So... start simple? We don't need another antimatter omake as a warning, right?
To put it in simple words, maybe we can start SCIENCE!-ing this 'Control' magic, following FMA's laws, to keep it simple? ish?
Once more, we need to explore a controlling magic, and once more we don't know what it can do.
So... start simple? We don't need another antimatter omake as a warning, right?
To put it in simple words, maybe we can start SCIENCE!-ing this 'Control' magic, following FMA's laws, to keep it simple? ish?
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I really want to see what happens when the Magic Putty comes into contact with free floating grief.