SaltyWaffles
I am dissapoint, son
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] An army of the guys who demonstrate what would happen to our main characters if they didn't have plot armor.
Puella Magi Adfligo Systema
- Thread starter Firnagzen
- Start date
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- 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?
AnonymousRabbit
Rabbit Faced
[X] Redshirt Army
Lordsservent
Servant of the one true God and SV
- Location
- The centre of the Multiverse
Well, I guess I'll be voting for our ever living, ever dying lord of the bandwagon trio of Muramasaz, Ugolino and
[X] Redshirt Army
[X] Redshirt Army
Office Complex pt. 4
"Anri first, if that's OK with you?" It only takes you a moment to decide - better to get what you came here for out of the way first, before you inevitably forget why you did come here. You feel like that happens uncomfortably often, like walking into a room and forgetting what you were there for.
Actually, exactly like that.
"Of course," Yuki says, nodding and starting to lead the way out of the room. "I'll bring you to her, then."
"Thanks," you say. "I'd love to meet your team afterwards, though. How's everyone been, actually? I know you said no hard feelings last time, but erm, well, after Sendai..."
"Foes today, friends tomorrow," Yuki says airily. She leads you to the stairs, one hand on the railing as she ascends. "In all seriousness... you rattled them. I never fought you in earnest, and even from our spar and their reports, I understand their fear."
She takes the stairs two steps at a time, you notice. Great hops for her, with her shorter stature - but a sedate, if longer than usual stride for you. That rapid climb slows as she speaks, until she turns fully to face you.
"Your mercy that day, too, was noted," she says. "You had them... and not only did you have them healed, you let them go with little more than a scolding. Well-deserved. All the better now that we're on the same side. You're scary, but you're fighting with us."
"That's... yeah, that's good," you say. What else can you say to that clinical dissection? "I'm glad I haven't left any lasting grudges."
Yuki nods slowly before resuming both her words and her pace.
"Moe took the worst of the wounds, but she's been running with me for long enough that she accepts that as just the price of business," Yuki says. "And despite how hard you put my girls down, she appreciates that it wasn't done with excessive force."
"Without excessive force?" you echo, wincing a little at the memory. Between Mami's Tiro Finale, fired in anger, and your own Grief blades... well, you'd nearly torn her in half. You did rip her arm off.
"We're magical girls," Yuki says with a placid smile. "Besides, we've had worse. That said - Sasami remains uncomfortable. She doesn't exactly know you."
"Which is why I definitely want to talk to your team," you say with a nod. "I don't want to let it fester."
"Then we're on the same page," Yuki says, nodding as she steps off the stairwell. She holds the door open for you. "This way, directly across here. The door will open to let you in, and you just have to knock on the walls or the door when you're done."
"Got it," you say. You roll your neck from side to side, careful to avoid Mugin, who caws in annoyance at you anyway. "Thanks, Miss Tsuruya."
"You're very welcome," Yuki says.
A quick grin for her, a breath to brace yourself, and you stride across the corridor-
You pause before knocking, and raise your hand to your shoulder, rubbing Mugin's back gently.
"OK, Mugin, I need to talk to someone," you say. "And I'm pretty sure you can't understand me, but a) I'm probably going to bribe you to not tell Sayaka about what Miss Tsuruya and I were talking about anyway and b) I'm going to leave you out here for a bit, OK? Here, I've still got those sunflower seeds from earlier."
You arrange the seeds in a little heap on the floor beside the potted plant, and coax Mugin into hopping off you before knocking firmly on the door.
"Miss-" You blink, and swallow the name. You call her Airi, and that's her original name, but... it's not necessarily the name she wants to be called. "Hello? It's Sabrina. May I come in?"
It takes a moment for the answer to come, and you imagine you hear movement from within the room.
"Sure, whatever." Anri's voice is flat, disaffected.
You reach for the doorknob. The swings open ahead of your touch, courtesy of Yuki's powers -she could make a fantastic haunted house- and you step into the room. You've been here once before, of course, and you'd watched Yuki remodel it into a living area before your eyes. It had been neat and tidy and perfectly arranged back then, freshly formed out of primordial building matter, with a cheery view of Fukushima city out of the window.
Now...
Honestly, it doesn't look much different. There are clothes on the floor, presumably worn and discarded, and a small, haphazardly stacked pile of books. The curtains are drawn over the window, but you can see a sliver of blue sky peeking through a crack, just enough light to leave the room dimly lit by the morning sun. A plush, comfortable-looking bed takes up one corner of the room, decorated with a teenager draped upside-down over it, her feet up against the wall and long, blonde hair hanging over the edge as she stares at the ceiling.
"Hi," you say, eyeing the carpeted floor. You kick your shoes off and pull up a bit of Grief to sit on instead. "How are you?"
"Oh, I'm great," she says, chipper and cheery in that glass-fragile way of someone not at all having a good time. She waves one hand airily -the one with the steel of the antimagic manacle- in a vague, expansive gesture. "Fine, just fine. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Say, if you don't mind, er... which name do you prefer?" you ask carefully. She did make her Wish to become Yuuri, after all.
She blinks at you, and then snorts. "Anri Airi, Yuuri, whatever. I don't care."
"Well... I'll call you Miss Airi, if you don't mind? I've got news that might make things better," you say. "I-"
"If it's not about Yuuri, I don't care," Airi says.
"Actually, it is," you say calmly. "I made you a deal, and I've been working on it. I'm not there yet, but I've made progress."
"Go on, then," Airi says, raising an upside-down eyebrow.
"First of all, I just want to check what, exactly, you know about Witches?" you say. "The specifics are relevant."
"What, you didn't get your lackey to tell you?" The prospect seems to amuse Airi, who rolls over and props her chin on her hands to smirk at you.
"She's my friend, not my lackey," you say. You're not going to take the bait. "And no, I didn't interrogate her in-depth."
"Goody two-shoes, aintcha," Airi says, once more faux-bright. "Witches come from people who are too good for this world, so the world strangles them and leaves behind a monster."
Her expression slips a little as she speaks, the smile cracking for a second before reasserting itself.
"... more specifically, if our Soul Gems fill up with Grief, then we become Witches," you say, frowning slightly. You're pretty sure she's just being whimsical about it, but you'd rather be sure. "The... that's important."
You retrieve a Grief Seed from your pocket -the only regular Grief Seed you have, Elsa Maria- and both of your Clear Seeds to balance on your palms. Aurora and Hildegard on one hand, Elsa Maria on the other. Oriko said she'd disabused Airi of the notion that the Clear Seed you'd given Kazumi had to be Yuuri's, because it was special, but you're still a little wary, keeping a close eye on the way her gaze snaps to the Clear Seeds.
"So... again, I'm not sure whether Oriko told you in detail. Clear Seeds are what we get when I drain a Grief Seed of all of its Grief," you say. "Otherwise, they're filled with Grief, as their, uh, default state."
"I don't..." Airi's hand twitches a little towards her side - toward the little bulge in her pocket. "I don't care."
Heh. Girl's clothing pockets. Way too small to contain most things... but big enough for a Grief Seed.
"You want Miss Asuka back," you say, raising both eyebrows. Depression was perhaps a fair assessment on Yuki's part, but you're trying to help her - and more than that, you're trying to give her something she wants with all her heart. "I want your help to try and get her back. I can just tell you what to do, but I'd rather explain so that you know why I think it's relevant."
"What, you want me to do the work for you?" Airi says, tone caustic. "We had a deal."
"I'm holding up my end of the bargain, because this is important to me, too - but it's a work in progress, Miss Anri," you say sharply, nettled. You soften your voice. Not pity, because you don't think she wants pity. But you can imagine what she's going through, and you can empathize, just a bit. "I'm not going to speak for you, but if I were you, if I'd lost someone dear to me, I'd want to help get her back."
You hold her gaze. There's something there, apathy cut with a spark of smouldering anger. Rage at the world, rage at the injustice. She looks away.
"If you don't want to help? Fine. You're right, we do have a deal, and I'm going to continue working on this myself," you say. "But I think you have a better chance than I do of succeeding on this."
"... fine," Airi says grudgingly, eyes dropping from the ceiling to return to your face. "What do I have to do?"
"First of all, a word of warning," you say. You lower the Grief and Clear Seeds, letting them balance on your thigh, their points pricking a little. You meet Airi's eyes once again. "All this stuff? It's dangerous to know. It hurts people. So while I'm going to keep working on this - if you don't play ball, if you try to use this information to hurt people, you're out of the project. Are we clear?"
"Crystal," Airi says, and because she apparently can't help herself, adds, "You sure do like the sound of your own voice, huh? I mean, who am I even going to tell?"
"There are some things I take very seriously, Miss Anri," you say. "And I wanted to make sure there's no excuse. I want to work with you, Miss Anri, but I'm depending on you not to do anything... immoral with this information - because I'm not going to compromise on what I value for your help."
Airi rolls her eyes and slouches on the bed until her chin rests on the mattress.
"So," you say after it becomes clear she's said her piece, and raise Aurora, point pinched between your index and thumb finger. "Clear Seeds. They're... there's a kind of awareness to them - the Witch is still kind of awake in there. It calms down when all the Grief is drained out, and it... lashes out if I try and affect it."
"Yuuri's awake?" Raw, naked hope flashes across Airi's face, her hand darting toward her pocket before stilling, her expression settling back into pinched anger.
"Her Witch is," you say. "I don't know whether the Witch is the girl exactly. So with your permission, I'll empty out Miss Asuka's Grief Seed as a first step. If nothing else - I believe that the Witch is... essentially marinating in its own despair. Removing Grief is at the very least good for fixing that."
"Wouldn't know how that feels," Airi says bitterly. "I... you want to do that to- to Yuuri?"
"Yes, I do," you say, raising Aurora for emphasis. "If nothing else, as I said - it quiets down Witches."
"I... fine," Airi says, reaching into her pocket. She closes her hand around the Grief Seed, the bulge of her fist prominent against the cloth. "You... you'll do it here?"
"I will, if that's what you want," you say.
"No shit that's what I want," Airi says, the spark of anger flickering to life. "How do I know you're not going to pull a fast one on me?"
You choose not to mention the fact that if you'd wanted to, you could have already done so. There's no way she could know for sure that the Grief Seed she'd been given was Yuuri's - the only reason you know is because of the name.
Arzt Kochen.
Airi holds the Grief Seed out, reluctance in the set of her shoulders and the way her fingers follow the Grief Seed as you take it gently from her. You hold it up so that she can see it, and touch a finger to the glassy surface of the Seed. You draw your finger away, and with that motion, you draw out a thick streamer of cloying, rippling Grief.
Just a bit of theatricality, to give Airi an idea of how much Grief there is. Despair enough to drown a world, despair enough to kill a person.
"Alright," you say, eyes flicking up to Airi, her attention in turn fixed upon the Grief Seed in your hands. Your focus is mostly on the process of emptying out the Grief Seed, but you have attention enough to continue speaking. "What I've been doing is infusing magic into Clear Seeds."
"... is that it?" Airi says.
"Hopeful magic," you say. "And yes, there's a difference. If you just try to imbue a Clear Seed with magic like you would enchant something, it... doesn't work. But it's possible to channel emotions into magic, in the same way that if you're angry, your magic can come out stronger."
"And?" Airi says.
"And I don't know. I don't have enough time in one day," you say. "But we magical girls, we are creatures of hope. Grief is our antithesis, and the fact that a Clear Seed soaks up magic as hope is a step in the right direction. What happens when it fills up? I don't know, but I haven't gotten there yet. Do you see the Grief?"
You gesture emphatically with your free hand, at the billowing clouds of Grief you're pulling away from Arzt Kochen.
"Maybe we need to put this much hope back into a Clear Seed," you say. "A Soul Gem fills up with Grief and turns into a Grief Seed. It would make sense if filling up a Grief Seed with hope turns it back into a Soul Gem. I don't know for sure what happens - but I am sure that this isn't hurting the Witch or the girl that it used to be."
"I..." Airi's gaze flickers up to you for a second, then back down to the rapidly emptying Seed. "And you'll... let me do that?"
"Again, you have to work with me here," you say. "As much as Miss Asuka is depending on you to not damage her soul, I'm depending on you not to hurt people with that knowledge - or anything else. But yes. I want you to help, and I think you've got the best chance of doing this right. You know Miss Asuka, what she was like, and you've done all this for her."
"Fat lot of good it did," Airi mutters.
"We're here, aren't we?" you say.
Airi falls silent, unwilling to say anything more. Her eyes flicker over the room, darting from you, to the stack of books, to the Grief Seed in your hands - which doesn't take much longer for you to empty out, the last of the Grief twisting into seeming empty air as you rotate it away.
"And that's that," you say. Airi immediately snatches for Arzt Kochen, and you let her take it, sitting back as she inspects the Clear Seed, rolling it over between her fingers.
"So... I'd like to show you how to channel hopeful magic," you say. "If you'd like?"
"How?" Airi asks, raising her manacled hand.
"I'll get that off for you," you say. "Alright?"
"... yeah, sure," Airi says.
The first thing you do, out of sight and hopefully beyond her senses, is to saturate the room with Grief nanofog. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst - you'd rather have a ready answer to any funny business she might try. Carefully, you pry the manacle off her, making sure not to damage the metal.
"If this goes well, and you're willing to continue working on this, I'll make arrangements with Miss Tsuruya to let you keep at it," you say. "Now... how it works for me is that I need to visualise, well, hopeful things. Hopeful, happy... and you need to guide it with magic into your hands. It's a bit similar to magical healing, if you've done that?"
"Nope," Airi says, flexing her wrist. Her hair drapes over her face, forming a sheer curtain over the Clear Seed cupped in her hand. "I don't..."
"Tell me about Miss Asuka, if you want," you say quietly. "You don't have to, but... what was she like? She clearly means a lot to you, and... those memories of her are good ones, I should hope."
"They're my memories," Airi snaps. "None of your business."
"You don't have to tell me, like I said," you say. And you can respect that - you don't know her, you don't know Yuuri. Not really. And you're speaking from a position of power over her, effectively the one to sentence her to imprisonment. "But those memories might be a good starting place, and... reminding Miss Asuka of the good things she'd done might help her."
Airi doesn't say anything to that, but you can feel her magic surge and ebb, so you sit back and watch, ready to warn her if something might be going wrong.
Your knowledge of Yuuri and Airi might not be accurate. Certainly, the events surrounding the Pleaides seem a little different from that knowledge, but the broad strokes, perhaps, remain. A girl who was good at heart, but persecuted, accused of something she didn't do - and another who stood up for her. The friendship, the illness... and then a Wish, Yuuri paying back a kindness given freely and curing Airi.
A tale as old as time, perhaps, because then came the fall, the tragedy. Yuuri Witched out. And from there things are perhaps a little fuzzy, in the space between Airi somehow finding out, and finding out that her Witch had been taken down by the Pleiades, and swearing vengeance with a Wish to become Yuuri.
Oriko said that she blamed the Pleiades. Even if they hadn't caused her to Witch out, Airi still blamed them. Irrational, perhaps, but grief of the mundane kin-
"There," you say, sitting forward. "That. You've got it. Hold that feeling in your mind, let it seep into the Clear Seed... yes, there, that's it."
You watch with other senses as the crackling fire of her magic seeps into the Clear Seed, vanishing as if dropped down some bottomless hole. Not so bottomless, you hope.
"So... now what?" Airi asks. "I keep doing this when my oh-so-lovely captors allow me to do this and... that's it?"
[] Explain...
- [] That's the nature of science
- [] Enquire if she's after anything in particular
- [] Something else?
[] Back to Yuki
- [] Meet her team
- [] Any particular points to hit?
[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
Apologies for the late update, but here we are.
Actually, exactly like that.
"Of course," Yuki says, nodding and starting to lead the way out of the room. "I'll bring you to her, then."
"Thanks," you say. "I'd love to meet your team afterwards, though. How's everyone been, actually? I know you said no hard feelings last time, but erm, well, after Sendai..."
"Foes today, friends tomorrow," Yuki says airily. She leads you to the stairs, one hand on the railing as she ascends. "In all seriousness... you rattled them. I never fought you in earnest, and even from our spar and their reports, I understand their fear."
She takes the stairs two steps at a time, you notice. Great hops for her, with her shorter stature - but a sedate, if longer than usual stride for you. That rapid climb slows as she speaks, until she turns fully to face you.
"Your mercy that day, too, was noted," she says. "You had them... and not only did you have them healed, you let them go with little more than a scolding. Well-deserved. All the better now that we're on the same side. You're scary, but you're fighting with us."
"That's... yeah, that's good," you say. What else can you say to that clinical dissection? "I'm glad I haven't left any lasting grudges."
Yuki nods slowly before resuming both her words and her pace.
"Moe took the worst of the wounds, but she's been running with me for long enough that she accepts that as just the price of business," Yuki says. "And despite how hard you put my girls down, she appreciates that it wasn't done with excessive force."
"Without excessive force?" you echo, wincing a little at the memory. Between Mami's Tiro Finale, fired in anger, and your own Grief blades... well, you'd nearly torn her in half. You did rip her arm off.
"We're magical girls," Yuki says with a placid smile. "Besides, we've had worse. That said - Sasami remains uncomfortable. She doesn't exactly know you."
"Which is why I definitely want to talk to your team," you say with a nod. "I don't want to let it fester."
"Then we're on the same page," Yuki says, nodding as she steps off the stairwell. She holds the door open for you. "This way, directly across here. The door will open to let you in, and you just have to knock on the walls or the door when you're done."
"Got it," you say. You roll your neck from side to side, careful to avoid Mugin, who caws in annoyance at you anyway. "Thanks, Miss Tsuruya."
"You're very welcome," Yuki says.
A quick grin for her, a breath to brace yourself, and you stride across the corridor-
You pause before knocking, and raise your hand to your shoulder, rubbing Mugin's back gently.
"OK, Mugin, I need to talk to someone," you say. "And I'm pretty sure you can't understand me, but a) I'm probably going to bribe you to not tell Sayaka about what Miss Tsuruya and I were talking about anyway and b) I'm going to leave you out here for a bit, OK? Here, I've still got those sunflower seeds from earlier."
You arrange the seeds in a little heap on the floor beside the potted plant, and coax Mugin into hopping off you before knocking firmly on the door.
"Miss-" You blink, and swallow the name. You call her Airi, and that's her original name, but... it's not necessarily the name she wants to be called. "Hello? It's Sabrina. May I come in?"
It takes a moment for the answer to come, and you imagine you hear movement from within the room.
"Sure, whatever." Anri's voice is flat, disaffected.
You reach for the doorknob. The swings open ahead of your touch, courtesy of Yuki's powers -she could make a fantastic haunted house- and you step into the room. You've been here once before, of course, and you'd watched Yuki remodel it into a living area before your eyes. It had been neat and tidy and perfectly arranged back then, freshly formed out of primordial building matter, with a cheery view of Fukushima city out of the window.
Now...
Honestly, it doesn't look much different. There are clothes on the floor, presumably worn and discarded, and a small, haphazardly stacked pile of books. The curtains are drawn over the window, but you can see a sliver of blue sky peeking through a crack, just enough light to leave the room dimly lit by the morning sun. A plush, comfortable-looking bed takes up one corner of the room, decorated with a teenager draped upside-down over it, her feet up against the wall and long, blonde hair hanging over the edge as she stares at the ceiling.
"Hi," you say, eyeing the carpeted floor. You kick your shoes off and pull up a bit of Grief to sit on instead. "How are you?"
"Oh, I'm great," she says, chipper and cheery in that glass-fragile way of someone not at all having a good time. She waves one hand airily -the one with the steel of the antimagic manacle- in a vague, expansive gesture. "Fine, just fine. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Say, if you don't mind, er... which name do you prefer?" you ask carefully. She did make her Wish to become Yuuri, after all.
She blinks at you, and then snorts. "Anri Airi, Yuuri, whatever. I don't care."
"Well... I'll call you Miss Airi, if you don't mind? I've got news that might make things better," you say. "I-"
"If it's not about Yuuri, I don't care," Airi says.
"Actually, it is," you say calmly. "I made you a deal, and I've been working on it. I'm not there yet, but I've made progress."
"Go on, then," Airi says, raising an upside-down eyebrow.
"First of all, I just want to check what, exactly, you know about Witches?" you say. "The specifics are relevant."
"What, you didn't get your lackey to tell you?" The prospect seems to amuse Airi, who rolls over and props her chin on her hands to smirk at you.
"She's my friend, not my lackey," you say. You're not going to take the bait. "And no, I didn't interrogate her in-depth."
"Goody two-shoes, aintcha," Airi says, once more faux-bright. "Witches come from people who are too good for this world, so the world strangles them and leaves behind a monster."
Her expression slips a little as she speaks, the smile cracking for a second before reasserting itself.
"... more specifically, if our Soul Gems fill up with Grief, then we become Witches," you say, frowning slightly. You're pretty sure she's just being whimsical about it, but you'd rather be sure. "The... that's important."
You retrieve a Grief Seed from your pocket -the only regular Grief Seed you have, Elsa Maria- and both of your Clear Seeds to balance on your palms. Aurora and Hildegard on one hand, Elsa Maria on the other. Oriko said she'd disabused Airi of the notion that the Clear Seed you'd given Kazumi had to be Yuuri's, because it was special, but you're still a little wary, keeping a close eye on the way her gaze snaps to the Clear Seeds.
"So... again, I'm not sure whether Oriko told you in detail. Clear Seeds are what we get when I drain a Grief Seed of all of its Grief," you say. "Otherwise, they're filled with Grief, as their, uh, default state."
"I don't..." Airi's hand twitches a little towards her side - toward the little bulge in her pocket. "I don't care."
Heh. Girl's clothing pockets. Way too small to contain most things... but big enough for a Grief Seed.
"You want Miss Asuka back," you say, raising both eyebrows. Depression was perhaps a fair assessment on Yuki's part, but you're trying to help her - and more than that, you're trying to give her something she wants with all her heart. "I want your help to try and get her back. I can just tell you what to do, but I'd rather explain so that you know why I think it's relevant."
"What, you want me to do the work for you?" Airi says, tone caustic. "We had a deal."
"I'm holding up my end of the bargain, because this is important to me, too - but it's a work in progress, Miss Anri," you say sharply, nettled. You soften your voice. Not pity, because you don't think she wants pity. But you can imagine what she's going through, and you can empathize, just a bit. "I'm not going to speak for you, but if I were you, if I'd lost someone dear to me, I'd want to help get her back."
You hold her gaze. There's something there, apathy cut with a spark of smouldering anger. Rage at the world, rage at the injustice. She looks away.
"If you don't want to help? Fine. You're right, we do have a deal, and I'm going to continue working on this myself," you say. "But I think you have a better chance than I do of succeeding on this."
"... fine," Airi says grudgingly, eyes dropping from the ceiling to return to your face. "What do I have to do?"
"First of all, a word of warning," you say. You lower the Grief and Clear Seeds, letting them balance on your thigh, their points pricking a little. You meet Airi's eyes once again. "All this stuff? It's dangerous to know. It hurts people. So while I'm going to keep working on this - if you don't play ball, if you try to use this information to hurt people, you're out of the project. Are we clear?"
"Crystal," Airi says, and because she apparently can't help herself, adds, "You sure do like the sound of your own voice, huh? I mean, who am I even going to tell?"
"There are some things I take very seriously, Miss Anri," you say. "And I wanted to make sure there's no excuse. I want to work with you, Miss Anri, but I'm depending on you not to do anything... immoral with this information - because I'm not going to compromise on what I value for your help."
Airi rolls her eyes and slouches on the bed until her chin rests on the mattress.
"So," you say after it becomes clear she's said her piece, and raise Aurora, point pinched between your index and thumb finger. "Clear Seeds. They're... there's a kind of awareness to them - the Witch is still kind of awake in there. It calms down when all the Grief is drained out, and it... lashes out if I try and affect it."
"Yuuri's awake?" Raw, naked hope flashes across Airi's face, her hand darting toward her pocket before stilling, her expression settling back into pinched anger.
"Her Witch is," you say. "I don't know whether the Witch is the girl exactly. So with your permission, I'll empty out Miss Asuka's Grief Seed as a first step. If nothing else - I believe that the Witch is... essentially marinating in its own despair. Removing Grief is at the very least good for fixing that."
"Wouldn't know how that feels," Airi says bitterly. "I... you want to do that to- to Yuuri?"
"Yes, I do," you say, raising Aurora for emphasis. "If nothing else, as I said - it quiets down Witches."
"I... fine," Airi says, reaching into her pocket. She closes her hand around the Grief Seed, the bulge of her fist prominent against the cloth. "You... you'll do it here?"
"I will, if that's what you want," you say.
"No shit that's what I want," Airi says, the spark of anger flickering to life. "How do I know you're not going to pull a fast one on me?"
You choose not to mention the fact that if you'd wanted to, you could have already done so. There's no way she could know for sure that the Grief Seed she'd been given was Yuuri's - the only reason you know is because of the name.
Arzt Kochen.
Airi holds the Grief Seed out, reluctance in the set of her shoulders and the way her fingers follow the Grief Seed as you take it gently from her. You hold it up so that she can see it, and touch a finger to the glassy surface of the Seed. You draw your finger away, and with that motion, you draw out a thick streamer of cloying, rippling Grief.
Just a bit of theatricality, to give Airi an idea of how much Grief there is. Despair enough to drown a world, despair enough to kill a person.
"Alright," you say, eyes flicking up to Airi, her attention in turn fixed upon the Grief Seed in your hands. Your focus is mostly on the process of emptying out the Grief Seed, but you have attention enough to continue speaking. "What I've been doing is infusing magic into Clear Seeds."
"... is that it?" Airi says.
"Hopeful magic," you say. "And yes, there's a difference. If you just try to imbue a Clear Seed with magic like you would enchant something, it... doesn't work. But it's possible to channel emotions into magic, in the same way that if you're angry, your magic can come out stronger."
"And?" Airi says.
"And I don't know. I don't have enough time in one day," you say. "But we magical girls, we are creatures of hope. Grief is our antithesis, and the fact that a Clear Seed soaks up magic as hope is a step in the right direction. What happens when it fills up? I don't know, but I haven't gotten there yet. Do you see the Grief?"
You gesture emphatically with your free hand, at the billowing clouds of Grief you're pulling away from Arzt Kochen.
"Maybe we need to put this much hope back into a Clear Seed," you say. "A Soul Gem fills up with Grief and turns into a Grief Seed. It would make sense if filling up a Grief Seed with hope turns it back into a Soul Gem. I don't know for sure what happens - but I am sure that this isn't hurting the Witch or the girl that it used to be."
"I..." Airi's gaze flickers up to you for a second, then back down to the rapidly emptying Seed. "And you'll... let me do that?"
"Again, you have to work with me here," you say. "As much as Miss Asuka is depending on you to not damage her soul, I'm depending on you not to hurt people with that knowledge - or anything else. But yes. I want you to help, and I think you've got the best chance of doing this right. You know Miss Asuka, what she was like, and you've done all this for her."
"Fat lot of good it did," Airi mutters.
"We're here, aren't we?" you say.
Airi falls silent, unwilling to say anything more. Her eyes flicker over the room, darting from you, to the stack of books, to the Grief Seed in your hands - which doesn't take much longer for you to empty out, the last of the Grief twisting into seeming empty air as you rotate it away.
"And that's that," you say. Airi immediately snatches for Arzt Kochen, and you let her take it, sitting back as she inspects the Clear Seed, rolling it over between her fingers.
"So... I'd like to show you how to channel hopeful magic," you say. "If you'd like?"
"How?" Airi asks, raising her manacled hand.
"I'll get that off for you," you say. "Alright?"
"... yeah, sure," Airi says.
The first thing you do, out of sight and hopefully beyond her senses, is to saturate the room with Grief nanofog. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst - you'd rather have a ready answer to any funny business she might try. Carefully, you pry the manacle off her, making sure not to damage the metal.
"If this goes well, and you're willing to continue working on this, I'll make arrangements with Miss Tsuruya to let you keep at it," you say. "Now... how it works for me is that I need to visualise, well, hopeful things. Hopeful, happy... and you need to guide it with magic into your hands. It's a bit similar to magical healing, if you've done that?"
"Nope," Airi says, flexing her wrist. Her hair drapes over her face, forming a sheer curtain over the Clear Seed cupped in her hand. "I don't..."
"Tell me about Miss Asuka, if you want," you say quietly. "You don't have to, but... what was she like? She clearly means a lot to you, and... those memories of her are good ones, I should hope."
"They're my memories," Airi snaps. "None of your business."
"You don't have to tell me, like I said," you say. And you can respect that - you don't know her, you don't know Yuuri. Not really. And you're speaking from a position of power over her, effectively the one to sentence her to imprisonment. "But those memories might be a good starting place, and... reminding Miss Asuka of the good things she'd done might help her."
Airi doesn't say anything to that, but you can feel her magic surge and ebb, so you sit back and watch, ready to warn her if something might be going wrong.
Your knowledge of Yuuri and Airi might not be accurate. Certainly, the events surrounding the Pleaides seem a little different from that knowledge, but the broad strokes, perhaps, remain. A girl who was good at heart, but persecuted, accused of something she didn't do - and another who stood up for her. The friendship, the illness... and then a Wish, Yuuri paying back a kindness given freely and curing Airi.
A tale as old as time, perhaps, because then came the fall, the tragedy. Yuuri Witched out. And from there things are perhaps a little fuzzy, in the space between Airi somehow finding out, and finding out that her Witch had been taken down by the Pleiades, and swearing vengeance with a Wish to become Yuuri.
Oriko said that she blamed the Pleiades. Even if they hadn't caused her to Witch out, Airi still blamed them. Irrational, perhaps, but grief of the mundane kin-
"There," you say, sitting forward. "That. You've got it. Hold that feeling in your mind, let it seep into the Clear Seed... yes, there, that's it."
You watch with other senses as the crackling fire of her magic seeps into the Clear Seed, vanishing as if dropped down some bottomless hole. Not so bottomless, you hope.
"So... now what?" Airi asks. "I keep doing this when my oh-so-lovely captors allow me to do this and... that's it?"
[] Explain...
- [] That's the nature of science
- [] Enquire if she's after anything in particular
- [] Something else?
[] Back to Yuki
- [] Meet her team
- [] Any particular points to hit?
[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
=====
Apologies for the late update, but here we are.
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Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
Our braindamage is acting up again.
True as it can be
Barely even friends
Then somebody Witches out
Unexpectedly~
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
I'm not really sure what to say to Airi here. Taking things slow is better than risking Yuuri's soul, and if we do come up with something new we'll keep her informed.
As for Yuki's team, the key points I can think of are:
• Clear the air with the team, since we'll be working together.
• Fill them in on Homura's progress finding a house for Yuki to claim.
• Inform them of the Tokyo schedule, work out their position so we can have a united front.
• Tell them where we're planning on spreading Clear Seeds, so Yuki can plot them on her map of Japan and ominously keikaku about it.
• Ask about the Soujus, and potentially get aid under the mutual defence pact.
• Get more info on Iowa and start planning a potential pre-emotive strike.
Am I missing any?
As for Yuki's team, the key points I can think of are:
• Clear the air with the team, since we'll be working together.
• Fill them in on Homura's progress finding a house for Yuki to claim.
• Inform them of the Tokyo schedule, work out their position so we can have a united front.
• Tell them where we're planning on spreading Clear Seeds, so Yuki can plot them on her map of Japan and ominously keikaku about it.
• Ask about the Soujus, and potentially get aid under the mutual defence pact.
• Get more info on Iowa and start planning a potential pre-emotive strike.
Am I missing any?
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Rem
fite me
inb5 it turns into a Hope Gem, that drains Hope from magical girls.
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
Right, thanks! Good catch. Adding it to the list.
- Location
- Somewhere up the tree
OKAYinb5 it turns into a Hope Gem, that drains Hope from magical girls.
That's not a good thought to have
Question, have you asked if everyone is already witchbombed yet?
- Location
- USA, Midworld world line
The Murasaki Shrine Maidens.
Trustworthy magical girls with empathy/therapy powers.
Body Fabrication, and how to establish another facility
Also, our major activity is not yet complete - how we close off with Anri is important.
Re-discuss, in light of fresh observation, how we are setting the parameters with Anri. We are effectively in charge of her ATM. Trouble is possible, figuring out the proper way to avoid it is wiser.
Trustworthy magical girls with empathy/therapy powers.
Body Fabrication, and how to establish another facility
Also, our major activity is not yet complete - how we close off with Anri is important.
Re-discuss, in light of fresh observation, how we are setting the parameters with Anri. We are effectively in charge of her ATM. Trouble is possible, figuring out the proper way to avoid it is wiser.
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
Pre-emotive strike is when we preemptively hit them in the feels, right?
Gonna toss it out there, but bear with me
-We need to reach some kind of understanding about us being friends with silly girls from Asunaro
What I mean is, we gotta ask what sort of relationship they would like to have with them, if any
Maybe they'll just politely ignore them
-In totally innocent and non-threatening way assure them that we would never gemsmash anyone unless their name is [REDACTED]
What I mean now is, I don't want to condescend to them, but they did manslaughter a bunch of people as a result of their fan based EVA movie adaptation
Maybe assure them that unless they do something heinous and amoral, you don't want to fight them again, and you are such a big softie you feel bad about the amount of damage that you did?
gonna leave this point up to you
-Demand that they tell you the truth and confess that Shinobu is, in fact, a spirit of the mountain bound and Befriended by Yuki
Watch out for the dagger in the back for daring to unearth this secret
Always Happening
We could have prevented this.
- Location
- On a train with no brakes
[] Explain...
- [] That's the nature of science
-- [] This is essentially uncharted territory; most dewitching efforts are made in desperation and end badly
-- [] Briefly detail chimera theory, but explain that you're not satisfied with half measures
PMKM was made in desperation and did end (mostly) badly, but mentioning that there has been an (hypothetical, since it happened in another timeline) almost-success might be good to motivate her, even if it was reincarnation over resurrection-- even if turning a Witch (directly) back into a Puella Magi (without a Wish) hasn't been done, we do have precedent to suggest that it's possible.
- [] That's the nature of science
-- [] This is essentially uncharted territory; most dewitching efforts are made in desperation and end badly
-- [] Briefly detail chimera theory, but explain that you're not satisfied with half measures
PMKM was made in desperation and did end (mostly) badly, but mentioning that there has been an (hypothetical, since it happened in another timeline) almost-success might be good to motivate her, even if it was reincarnation over resurrection-- even if turning a Witch (directly) back into a Puella Magi (without a Wish) hasn't been done, we do have precedent to suggest that it's possible.
Torgamous
Aspiring Gynoid
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Let's not give her any other routes to madly science down.
AuraTwilight
The Sorcerer of Smiles
- Location
- The Silver City
Given how bitterly Airi tried to shut out us talking about anything that wasn't 100% immediately relevant to helping Yuuri, and her comment about us liking to hear our own voice, i don't see any benefit to discussing things like Chimera theory or other dewitching avenues we don't even plan to attempt to use. It's just going to piss her off.
Always Happening
We could have prevented this.
- Location
- On a train with no brakes
Fair cop.
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
Airi already made a wish (to become Yuuri). And Yuuri already made a wish even earlier, which is how she got healing powers.
hillo315
Intact but Tactless
- Location
- Somewhere. Somewhere else.
I'm talking about making another wish, to catalyze the transformation. If stuffing hope into the clear seed doesn't have the desired effect, a contract just might.
The problem with that is that Yuuri might not be able to wish in her current condition.
Torgamous
Aspiring Gynoid
- Pronouns
- She/Her
If she can do that we've already succeeded.
hillo315
Intact but Tactless
- Location
- Somewhere. Somewhere else.
I'm referring to this:
I suggested that if we can't turn a clear seed into a soul gem by stuffing good feels into it, we may need a wish to finish the job. When in doubt, fall back on Incubator hax.
Does that answer your question? Or were you confused by something else entirely?
Torgamous
Aspiring Gynoid
- Pronouns
- She/Her
To my knowledge, the closest thing to a double wish in any Madoka spinoff is Kazumi, who only got a wish at the end of her canon because she wasn't actually Kazumi Prime and had never really made a wish to begin with. For the same soul to make two wishes would require at least a rollback to the soul's state before her first wish was made, which would be much more thorough and invasive than anything we're going to attempt.