- Location
- Florida
what I'm hearing is that magical girls are immortal superhumans and we ethically should look for a way to offer it to deserving people (boys?). griefhax: an item that allows us to fulfill wishes and/or create magical girls/boys.
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?
Solarstream
It's all in the cards
- Location
- Zombie World
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[Q] Contract every single person on the planet. Now everyone is meguca!
But seriously, de-Contracting is a great idea.
We would also need to develop reversible contracts as a way to replace Kyubey.
This is getting a bit ahead of ourselves though.
But seriously, de-Contracting is a great idea.
We would also need to develop reversible contracts as a way to replace Kyubey.
This is getting a bit ahead of ourselves though.
Spectral Waltz
Scatterbrained Writer
- Location
- Walking the Endless Corridors
Mundanes cannot sense or voluntarily interact with barriers that we know of, so yes, that witch would have in fact managed to kill everyone in the world eventually. Or at the very least reduced humanity to huddled souls constantly fighting the wandering familiars and fleeing from the location of the barrier as it slowly travels in search of more to consume.
blast flame
How far will we go if it means lighting the way?
- Location
- Perth, Australia
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I mean yeah. Once fully informed of the details (eg lichdom) and risks and such of course.
- Location
- Laniakea
The fact that a barrier/Witch is present in an area is always going to be plenty evident by the fact that any Kissed victims will have, you know, a glaring tattoo of the Witch's emblem on their necks. Pinpointing the location might require a manhunt sized search without a convenient tracking device but I don't think it was even ever confirmed that mundanes (or at least potential girls) couldn't voluntarily enter a Barrier they knew the location of. If nothing else, they could wait for the Witch to bring in a bunch of victims and slip in with then.
Could the Witch hypothetically never invite anyone into its barrier?
Maybe, but that's not exactly normal Witch behavior to say the least. I think the only Witch we've ever seen who has never tried to do it was Walpy and only because it doesn't have one.
(Also, if all they were doing is Kissing people, the suicides can be interrupted the way Madoka did with Hitomi, the Familiars would be the only thing needed to watch for and they would probably bring people into their labyrinths to be fought even if the main Witch did not - which would make this Witch that didn't bring in people to personally kill very survivable itself, if you think about it.)
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Spectral Waltz
Scatterbrained Writer
- Location
- Walking the Endless Corridors
I will point out that I think the tattoo is invisible to mundanes. Aside from Meguca themselves, I think only uncontracted potentials and kiss victims can see it.
- Location
- Florida
grief/magic hax question: does our enchantment against outside control prevent witch kisses from controlling normies?
AuraTwilight
The Sorcerer of Smiles
- Location
- The Silver City
It is in fact canon that normal people can't see Witch Kisses, and opening the portal to a Witch's Labyrinth is an explicitly magical act. A witch could presumably refuse to invite people, since that's apparently exactly what Walpurgis is doing when not materializing.
- Location
- Laniakea
The potentials can see Kisses. Opening up the portal might also be automatically done by the Witch itself when the Witch detects somebody nearby since, as mentioned, keeping shut even when people are on the doorstep is far from usual behavior.
Walpy, IIRC, was simply stated not to have a Barrier/labyrinth at all, not that they hid in one until they were ready to hunt. To this day, we still do not know for certain where it comes from or how it comes about at all so it is perfectly possible that Kyubey just makes Walpurgisnacht on the spot on his scheduled date for cleaning house.
Solarstream
It's all in the cards
- Location
- Zombie World
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I don't think Candeloro or Oktavia drag people into their barriers IIRC. But I think those are special cases rather than the norm.
The Phoenixian
The Glacier Witch
- Location
- My own little world
Hmmm... This leads to an interesting question actually: Could Sabrina force open Walpurgisnacht's barrier and bust her way inside?
EDIT:
I can imagine it now, Sabrina metaphysically "knocking" on the barrier and entering with a polite call of "actor's union, here to discuss the script!"
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- Location
- Florida
its there any canon or PMAS canon at least explanation for why there are no magical boys? is it based on chromosomal sex or identity? cuz if it were the former you would think, given your meguca appearance reflects your inner view, there'd at least be tales of at last one magical boy through means of one going through transition.
finding out about this could double our potential population.
finding out about this could double our potential population.
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The canon explanation is allegedly that girls are more emotional, which... simply isn't true. Boys just learn to repress it. So my PMAS-canon explanation is that Coobs chooses to contract girls (for whatever reason).
Funnily enough, if you consider the notion that Coobs doesn't understand emotions, then, well, it might be wrongly choosing to contract only girls because of incorrect cultural assumptions.
On the other hand, the out-of-story explanation is that it's a magical girl story, ergo, you have magical girls.
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- Location
- Florida
so brinahax magical boy kyuuyuuusuiikikoThe canon explanation is allegedly that girls are more emotional, which... simply isn't true. Boys just learn to repress it. So my PMAS-canon explanation is that Coobs chooses to contract girls (for whatever reason).
Funnily enough, if you consider the notion that Coobs doesn't understand emotions, then, well, it might be wrongly choosing to contract only girls because of incorrect cultural assumptions.
On the other hand, the out-of-story explanation is that it's a magical girl story, ergo, you have magical girls.
blast flame
How far will we go if it means lighting the way?
- Location
- Perth, Australia
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I wouldn't be surprised if the real explanation was something like.
Kyubey: We were worried that by turning all the most emotional humans into a form likely to die before reproducing that we'd artificially select for less emotional humans which would not be in our interests.
Kyubey: We were worried that by turning all the most emotional humans into a form likely to die before reproducing that we'd artificially select for less emotional humans which would not be in our interests.
- Location
- Laniakea
Bottom line, Kyubey just doesn't do it for reasons only he knows. Maybe his spiel about girls being more sensitive was just deflection and he has a true reason he's not saying, maybe it really IS his true reason and just some part of his bizzare alien mentality that makes sense only to him.
I personally have a very much darker and more unpleasant theory as to why he only targets females, but said suspicion also involves a ton of extrapolation from somewhat loose circumstantial evidence. So I'm going to refrain from actually saying it out as it would not only be an instant mood-killer, but also probably get people jumping down my throat for suggesting it. And no, it has nothing to do with Kyubey being a closet pervert and mostly to do with hard biology.
The first part is pretty much a rephrasing of what I said, but the second paragraph...
Look. I've got no particular beef against you as a person, but I cannot help but read your post as dogwhistling, and this isn't the first time, either. The entire "I'm not going to say it where everybody can hear it" comes with an implicit "but talk to me if you wanna know more nudgenudgewinkwink", and this routine is pretty much characteristic of dogwhistling. The fact of considering it unacceptable discourse and not posting it is appreciated - but less so noting that the unacceptable discourse exists in an approachable form.
Add to that your previous hypothetical on fighting Homura, where you were doing the same thing - to borrow another phrase from politics, it comes off as trying to slide the Overton window towards darker topics. It doesn't matter that it's "just a hypothetical" - the reason I clamped down on it then, and the reason I'm clamping down on this now, is that just considering it normalizes it in discussion. I'm not interested in letting PMAS slide into the metaphorical darkness.
Perhaps you don't mean it that way, regardless, that's how it comes off. So - I'm asking you to consider what you post more carefully, and to consider this a second warning.
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DB_Explorer
Purveyor of alternate realities.
- Location
- San Diego, California
- Pronouns
- He/Him
If I had to BS something I'd use the fact that anyone alive had to be carried around for 9ish months by their future mother while a guy can do one night stands and leave into the night. The potential time at the start of somones life gives women a massive boost in karmic potential.
Kyubey is just sexist : p
Kyubey is just sexist : p
AuraTwilight
The Sorcerer of Smiles
- Location
- The Silver City
I mean I'm going to be frank dude, Kyubey has to deliberately give Potentials the power to see those things, so if he's not contracting Magical Girls in our "One witch only, no meguca" scenario then there's no fucking Potentials.
And like, no, whenever we see people enter a Witch barrier we see the Magical Girl do a thing. The implication seems to be that the Witch has criteria for inviting in victims, but Magical Girls can pick the lock so they can go inside and kill it.
Walpy absolutely 100% DOES have a Barrier; it literally fucking appears out of thin air with a flourish of Barrier elements like circus banners and shit; it didn't come to Mitakihara from across the sea or anything. Walpy hides in her barrier when she doesn't feel like showing up and seems to come out to wreak havoc on her namesake holiday in a random part of the world.
hillo315
Intact but Tactless
- Location
- Somewhere. Somewhere else.
If Walpurgisnacht argues that the actors are powerless before the script, we can prove her wrong by blowing her house down.
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
Alright, so
As you can clearly see on this video, Walpurgisnacht does have a Barrier
The thing is, she doesn't use it to hide in her pocket dimension, instead she imposes her will on the immediate surroundings
Homura doesn't so much enter the Barrier than Walpurgis stretching her Barrier outwards to engulf the city
You can see the shades of it in that vision Madoka has at the start of the anime
There are elements of what is presumably Kriemhield Gretchen's Barrier that stretch outwards into reality at Madoka exits the freaky door thingy and looks at Homura fight
Eh, dunno why we're talking about this, honestly
As you can clearly see on this video, Walpurgisnacht does have a Barrier
The thing is, she doesn't use it to hide in her pocket dimension, instead she imposes her will on the immediate surroundings
Homura doesn't so much enter the Barrier than Walpurgis stretching her Barrier outwards to engulf the city
You can see the shades of it in that vision Madoka has at the start of the anime
There are elements of what is presumably Kriemhield Gretchen's Barrier that stretch outwards into reality at Madoka exits the freaky door thingy and looks at Homura fight
Eh, dunno why we're talking about this, honestly
Office Complex pt. 18
"Only if she wants to come," you say after a moment's thought. You have this vague feeling that that's effectively a no, given the last time you'd seen Ono. "And no, I don't have any specific meeting place in mind. Did you have an idea?"
"I'll ask her, then," Hiroko says. "Think she said something about wanting to have words with you, anyway."
"And there's a lovely dessert place that opened up recently!" Masami says. "Chinese style desserts, if you like that kind of thing?"
"Works for me!" you say. You'd swear Ono wants to meet you just to throw all your expectations in your face, hah. Then again, maybe the Animators beat some sense into her.
"Alright, so the dessert parlour is 4-17-8 Sabita," Masami says. "When're you coming over?"
"Hm..." you say, considering the clock. You'll need to talk to the Shiogama girls, after all, and possibly under privacy at that. At least you can prepare enchanted Grief on the way over, just in case. "In about forty five minutes or so?"
Heck, there's no reason get started on the enchanted Grief right now, and so you do just that, pulling a blob of congealed suffering from your extradimensional storage space to knead between your hands and mould to your will.
... When you put it that way, it does sound rather odd.
"That works!" Hiroko says. "See you then!"
"I'll let you know when we're headed over," you say as Masami adds her farewells, and turn your attention back to the screen as the connection breaks.
The American girls don't really seem to be inclined to talk about harder topics - not online, anyway. Just a place to chat with their friends, which is something you can entirely understand. You were thinking of raising the Iowa group with them, but perhaps not today, especially since you'd said that you were just here to hang out.
Besides, you do have potential information coming in your direction on several fronts. The Iowa group might be from America, but that doesn't mean that, say, the milesgloriousus group necessarily has up to date information on them. You can afford to wait a little - they're not going anywhere.
You grin.
Before, probably, but who's to say?
Leaving the computer shutting down behind you, you tuck your necklace back under your shirt and head back to the living room.
"Mugin?" you say as you grab your bag. "You around?"
A caw answers you from the sofa, and you find Mugin bedding down on one of the cushions, peering at you with one beady eye and apparently totally disinclined to move. You snort, and pick him up with Grief, cushion and all. You're not leaving a semi-feral bird alone at home.
Speaking of which, you do a quick sweep of the room with nanofog for any... surprises that might have been left behind - you're rather pleased to find none. Well, other than a shed feather, which you give a suspicious once-over as you head out of the door before dropping it in a bin.
You call ahead as promised, even as you wing across the city with Mugin in tow. And prompted by vague feather-related paranoia, you check on Feathers', well, feather, which happens to still seem like a perfectly ordinary feather safely ensconced in a blob of Grief.
And you still can't help but muse about the sheer absurdity of Hitomi's wealth, as you coast in for a landing atop the roof of the apartment building the Shiogama girls are living in. Sure, you're paying the rent, but the point is that Hitomi had the clout to drum up a nice place like this in a matter of days. It's new enough that the rooftop is actually clean, for goodness' sake.
You spot Akemi and Noriko already pulling the door open as you emerge from the staircase - well, Norikos, both her bodies flanking the other girl at either shoulder.
"Hey, Miss Watanabe, Miss Saito," you call, smiling at you approach. You release the enchanted Grief so you can wave. "Sorry, I hope I didn't make you wait long?"
"No, no, not at all," Akemi says, weakly returning the smile. "Please, come in."
"Thanks," you say, beaming. The two -three?- of them shuffle awkwardly around to make room to let you pass, before Noriko gives up and excuses herself to go prepare refreshments as you take your shoes off. One of herselves.
"Really, there's no need," you say, with what you hope is a reassuring smile firmly in place as you follow Akemi in. The living room hasn't changed much, apart from curtains having been added to the floor-to-ceiling windows. "And ah... there's really no need for refreshments, Miss Watanabe. We're going to be meeting the Animators at a dessert parlour."
"Um... let us get you a drink, at least?" Noriko says. One of her bodies glances behind you. "Um. Is that a bird?"
"Oh," you say, and pull Mugin in front of you - still resting regally upon his cushion, though he sits up enough to inspect the brown-haired girl with an imperious eye. "This is Mugin. He's... well, Sayaka has an animal communication power, and apparently Mugin's taken a liking to us. So, um, yeah, he's been following me around."
"Is he following, right now?" Akemi asks drily, motioning towards the cushion borne upon a platform of Grief.
"Yes, well, he's a spoiled brat of a bird," you say, rubbing your nose sheepishly. "I mean, I'm definitely responsible for overfeeding him, but it's not like I was gonna lock him up at home when I headed out, so..."
"Well... is he tame?" Noriko asks.
"Yes and no?" you say, shrugging and letting the cushion drift towards Noriko. "The way Sayaka explained it, she has animal communication powers, not granting them intelligence or knowledge or anything. So he's technically feral, but very friendly."
Noriko brushes back blonde hair and reaches out to carefully offer her hand to the bird. She smiles wanly when Mugin perks up, nuzzling against the palm of her hand.
"He's cute," she says.
"Definitely," you agree with a smile. "He is also a suckup and probably trying to cadge treats off of you."
Noriko chuckles quietly as her other body -green-haired, with yellow eyes- emerges from the kitchen with a tray of glasses. Lemonade, judging by the slices of lemon in the glasses. "We'll see," she murmurs quietly. "Please, take a seat?"
Mugin, apparently determining that there are no treats to be had for now, flutters to the ground to investigate the potted plant by the side of the sofas.
"Thanks," you say, taking a seat with a smile. Noriko offers you a glass before settling down on either side of Akemi, facing you.
You can only stand the weight of the expectant looks for so long, taking a sip from your glass before putting it down on the table. The click of glass on wood is terribly loud, seeming to balloon out in a desperate attempt to fill the silence.
"So, ah..." you begin. "Do you know anything about the Animators? Gaikotsu Masami and Wakahisa Hiroko?"
"Apart from what you told us, not much at all." It's Akemi who responds first, tilting her head slightly. "I... think I've heard of Miss Gaikotsu's name in conjunction with Miss Tomoe?"
"Ah, yeah," you say. That actually makes things a bit easier. "That's something I wanted to bring up, in point of fact, so thank you. Gaikotsu Masami was, in fact, Mami's student. They... had a falling out, though I'm hoping to help patch things up eventually."
"Oh," Akemi says. "So we... don't mention them to her?"
"You shouldn't keep secrets from your girlfriend," Noriko says reprovingly.
"I'm not. Not on this," you say, and grimace. "Other things... well, that's a nice segue, anyway, so..." You purse your lips, considering for a second - you're reasonably sure, so you'll just go for it. "Are there any particular secrets you girls know about life as a magical girl?"
Noriko and Akemi go still.
"Y-es," Noriko says slowly. "What do you know?"
"Everything," you say. "Trust me - you know my powers, right?"
They nod, heads bobbing as if on strings.
"I know," you say with gentle emphasis. "And if you know the secrets, you know they can be dangerous, yeah?"
Another round of nods, three pale faces staring at you.
"So..." you give them a warm, reassuring smile. "Tell me what you know? So we can be sure we're on the same page for the discussion?"
"We..." Noriko exchanges a look with Akemi, who takes her hand and picks up the sentence. "We know where Witches come from."
"I'd guessed as much," you say, shoulders sagging. Half in relief, half in dismay. "I'm sorry."
Akemi laughs bitterly. "What is there to be sorry about?" she asks. "As you said, it's just... life as a magical girl. The end of it, if you're lucky."
"I'm sorry, because this sucks," you say, biting back on the vehemence, the simmering disgust for the state of affairs. "For all of us. We shouldn't have to go through all this, we shouldn't have to carry this kind of burden, we shouldn't have to squabble over resources just to live and not turn into monsters."
"Yeah," Noriko says. "Well. That's life."
"Not if I have anything to say about it," you mutter and force yourself to sit back, and to release your clenched fists. "Sorry."
Noriko shrugs, one motion rippling across two bodies.
"Anyway." You exhaling hard, shaking your head and forcing yourself to put the thoughts aside. "Moving on... since we started this on the subject of secrets, Mami doesn't know about where Witches come from. I'd promised her that I wouldn't keep it a secret from her forever, but I haven't figured out how to break it to her yet."
"Ah," Noriko says, biting her lip. "OK. Understood."
"Does she know about Soul Gems?" Akemi asks, tapping her finger meaningfully. Her ring, more specifically.
"She does," you say, nodding.
"Got it," Akemi says, sinking back into the sofa and into Noriko's arms.
You take another sip of lemonade, and sigh. "Alright. I've got... one more question, and it's a sensitive one," you say. "I apologise if it causes pain, but it's important that I know - is the Grief Seed that I cleared for you Miss Tanaka's?"
Shock flashes across their expressions for a second before their faces close off. Akemi exchanges a look with Noriko, who shakes her head.
"No," she bites out. "It's the Witch that killed her."
"... ah," you say, grimacing. "Right. I... I apologise for touching a sore topic."
The Shiogama girls fall silent, looking at each other.
"Why did you ask?" Noriko's the one to break the silence, having apparently lost the mental debate.
[] Tell them about your de-Witching efforts (in privacy)
[] Brush it off
- [] Write-in specifics?
[] Group meeting with the Animators and Shiogama girls
- [] Any specifics to mention during the introduction?
- [] Write-in specifics of discussion topics
-- [] Soujos
-- [] Tokyo politics
-- [] Iowa
Word count limit: 150 words
Remind me to never do back-to-back IRC segments again. *grumble*
"I'll ask her, then," Hiroko says. "Think she said something about wanting to have words with you, anyway."
"And there's a lovely dessert place that opened up recently!" Masami says. "Chinese style desserts, if you like that kind of thing?"
"Works for me!" you say. You'd swear Ono wants to meet you just to throw all your expectations in your face, hah. Then again, maybe the Animators beat some sense into her.
"Alright, so the dessert parlour is 4-17-8 Sabita," Masami says. "When're you coming over?"
"Hm..." you say, considering the clock. You'll need to talk to the Shiogama girls, after all, and possibly under privacy at that. At least you can prepare enchanted Grief on the way over, just in case. "In about forty five minutes or so?"
Heck, there's no reason get started on the enchanted Grief right now, and so you do just that, pulling a blob of congealed suffering from your extradimensional storage space to knead between your hands and mould to your will.
... When you put it that way, it does sound rather odd.
"That works!" Hiroko says. "See you then!"
"I'll let you know when we're headed over," you say as Masami adds her farewells, and turn your attention back to the screen as the connection breaks.
The American girls don't really seem to be inclined to talk about harder topics - not online, anyway. Just a place to chat with their friends, which is something you can entirely understand. You were thinking of raising the Iowa group with them, but perhaps not today, especially since you'd said that you were just here to hang out.
Besides, you do have potential information coming in your direction on several fronts. The Iowa group might be from America, but that doesn't mean that, say, the milesgloriousus group necessarily has up to date information on them. You can afford to wait a little - they're not going anywhere.
You look down at your hands, still busily kneading and infusing Grief with magic, and then you look at the keyboard, with small blobs of Grief resting on every key.
You grin.
You smile to yourself as farewells fill the screen, and sign off. They're nice people, it seems like, and you'll probably find a reason to go visit them at some point. The real question is whether that's before or after Walpurgisnacht.
Before, probably, but who's to say?
Leaving the computer shutting down behind you, you tuck your necklace back under your shirt and head back to the living room.
"Mugin?" you say as you grab your bag. "You around?"
A caw answers you from the sofa, and you find Mugin bedding down on one of the cushions, peering at you with one beady eye and apparently totally disinclined to move. You snort, and pick him up with Grief, cushion and all. You're not leaving a semi-feral bird alone at home.
Speaking of which, you do a quick sweep of the room with nanofog for any... surprises that might have been left behind - you're rather pleased to find none. Well, other than a shed feather, which you give a suspicious once-over as you head out of the door before dropping it in a bin.
You call ahead as promised, even as you wing across the city with Mugin in tow. And prompted by vague feather-related paranoia, you check on Feathers', well, feather, which happens to still seem like a perfectly ordinary feather safely ensconced in a blob of Grief.
And you still can't help but muse about the sheer absurdity of Hitomi's wealth, as you coast in for a landing atop the roof of the apartment building the Shiogama girls are living in. Sure, you're paying the rent, but the point is that Hitomi had the clout to drum up a nice place like this in a matter of days. It's new enough that the rooftop is actually clean, for goodness' sake.
You spot Akemi and Noriko already pulling the door open as you emerge from the staircase - well, Norikos, both her bodies flanking the other girl at either shoulder.
"Hey, Miss Watanabe, Miss Saito," you call, smiling at you approach. You release the enchanted Grief so you can wave. "Sorry, I hope I didn't make you wait long?"
"No, no, not at all," Akemi says, weakly returning the smile. "Please, come in."
"Thanks," you say, beaming. The two -three?- of them shuffle awkwardly around to make room to let you pass, before Noriko gives up and excuses herself to go prepare refreshments as you take your shoes off. One of herselves.
"Really, there's no need," you say, with what you hope is a reassuring smile firmly in place as you follow Akemi in. The living room hasn't changed much, apart from curtains having been added to the floor-to-ceiling windows. "And ah... there's really no need for refreshments, Miss Watanabe. We're going to be meeting the Animators at a dessert parlour."
"Um... let us get you a drink, at least?" Noriko says. One of her bodies glances behind you. "Um. Is that a bird?"
"Oh," you say, and pull Mugin in front of you - still resting regally upon his cushion, though he sits up enough to inspect the brown-haired girl with an imperious eye. "This is Mugin. He's... well, Sayaka has an animal communication power, and apparently Mugin's taken a liking to us. So, um, yeah, he's been following me around."
"Is he following, right now?" Akemi asks drily, motioning towards the cushion borne upon a platform of Grief.
"Yes, well, he's a spoiled brat of a bird," you say, rubbing your nose sheepishly. "I mean, I'm definitely responsible for overfeeding him, but it's not like I was gonna lock him up at home when I headed out, so..."
"Well... is he tame?" Noriko asks.
"Yes and no?" you say, shrugging and letting the cushion drift towards Noriko. "The way Sayaka explained it, she has animal communication powers, not granting them intelligence or knowledge or anything. So he's technically feral, but very friendly."
Noriko brushes back blonde hair and reaches out to carefully offer her hand to the bird. She smiles wanly when Mugin perks up, nuzzling against the palm of her hand.
"He's cute," she says.
"Definitely," you agree with a smile. "He is also a suckup and probably trying to cadge treats off of you."
Noriko chuckles quietly as her other body -green-haired, with yellow eyes- emerges from the kitchen with a tray of glasses. Lemonade, judging by the slices of lemon in the glasses. "We'll see," she murmurs quietly. "Please, take a seat?"
Mugin, apparently determining that there are no treats to be had for now, flutters to the ground to investigate the potted plant by the side of the sofas.
"Thanks," you say, taking a seat with a smile. Noriko offers you a glass before settling down on either side of Akemi, facing you.
You can only stand the weight of the expectant looks for so long, taking a sip from your glass before putting it down on the table. The click of glass on wood is terribly loud, seeming to balloon out in a desperate attempt to fill the silence.
"So, ah..." you begin. "Do you know anything about the Animators? Gaikotsu Masami and Wakahisa Hiroko?"
"Apart from what you told us, not much at all." It's Akemi who responds first, tilting her head slightly. "I... think I've heard of Miss Gaikotsu's name in conjunction with Miss Tomoe?"
"Ah, yeah," you say. That actually makes things a bit easier. "That's something I wanted to bring up, in point of fact, so thank you. Gaikotsu Masami was, in fact, Mami's student. They... had a falling out, though I'm hoping to help patch things up eventually."
"Oh," Akemi says. "So we... don't mention them to her?"
"You shouldn't keep secrets from your girlfriend," Noriko says reprovingly.
"I'm not. Not on this," you say, and grimace. "Other things... well, that's a nice segue, anyway, so..." You purse your lips, considering for a second - you're reasonably sure, so you'll just go for it. "Are there any particular secrets you girls know about life as a magical girl?"
Noriko and Akemi go still.
"Y-es," Noriko says slowly. "What do you know?"
"Everything," you say. "Trust me - you know my powers, right?"
They nod, heads bobbing as if on strings.
"I know," you say with gentle emphasis. "And if you know the secrets, you know they can be dangerous, yeah?"
Another round of nods, three pale faces staring at you.
"So..." you give them a warm, reassuring smile. "Tell me what you know? So we can be sure we're on the same page for the discussion?"
"We..." Noriko exchanges a look with Akemi, who takes her hand and picks up the sentence. "We know where Witches come from."
"I'd guessed as much," you say, shoulders sagging. Half in relief, half in dismay. "I'm sorry."
Akemi laughs bitterly. "What is there to be sorry about?" she asks. "As you said, it's just... life as a magical girl. The end of it, if you're lucky."
"I'm sorry, because this sucks," you say, biting back on the vehemence, the simmering disgust for the state of affairs. "For all of us. We shouldn't have to go through all this, we shouldn't have to carry this kind of burden, we shouldn't have to squabble over resources just to live and not turn into monsters."
"Yeah," Noriko says. "Well. That's life."
"Not if I have anything to say about it," you mutter and force yourself to sit back, and to release your clenched fists. "Sorry."
Noriko shrugs, one motion rippling across two bodies.
"Anyway." You exhaling hard, shaking your head and forcing yourself to put the thoughts aside. "Moving on... since we started this on the subject of secrets, Mami doesn't know about where Witches come from. I'd promised her that I wouldn't keep it a secret from her forever, but I haven't figured out how to break it to her yet."
"Ah," Noriko says, biting her lip. "OK. Understood."
"Does she know about Soul Gems?" Akemi asks, tapping her finger meaningfully. Her ring, more specifically.
"She does," you say, nodding.
"Got it," Akemi says, sinking back into the sofa and into Noriko's arms.
You take another sip of lemonade, and sigh. "Alright. I've got... one more question, and it's a sensitive one," you say. "I apologise if it causes pain, but it's important that I know - is the Grief Seed that I cleared for you Miss Tanaka's?"
Shock flashes across their expressions for a second before their faces close off. Akemi exchanges a look with Noriko, who shakes her head.
"No," she bites out. "It's the Witch that killed her."
"... ah," you say, grimacing. "Right. I... I apologise for touching a sore topic."
The Shiogama girls fall silent, looking at each other.
"Why did you ask?" Noriko's the one to break the silence, having apparently lost the mental debate.
[] Tell them about your de-Witching efforts (in privacy)
[] Brush it off
- [] Write-in specifics?
[] Group meeting with the Animators and Shiogama girls
- [] Any specifics to mention during the introduction?
- [] Write-in specifics of discussion topics
-- [] Soujos
-- [] Tokyo politics
-- [] Iowa
Word count limit: 150 words
=====
Remind me to never do back-to-back IRC segments again. *grumble*
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Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
[Q] One sec.
-[Q] Check the IRC channel again. This will be a stressful talk, and you need a distraction.
I mean, we should tell them. Delicately.
We should also ask about the logistics of hugging Noriko, since we have a list and everything.
It strikes me: Sabrina's texts took longer to read than they'd have taken Sabrina to type them. Some of those paragraphs would have appeared instantly after what they were in response to.
The FULLY ARMED GRIEF ACTUATED KEYBOARD took a whole second only because Sabrina paused to look down at her hands.
The Phoenixian
The Glacier Witch
- Location
- My own little world
Careful Brina, jacking directly into ethernet ports is a slippery slope that quickly leads to figuring out if your brain can run Doom.
Bah, bad luck. Well, it was worth a shot. And yeah, we should tell them.