- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
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?
Dantalion
Insight: 366
- Location
- A Guest Room at the Brass Embassy, dying of Frenzy
- Pronouns
- Any
At first I though you were talking about arms, as per
Something we could very much do, by the way. Probably not as terrifying as the eyes to some, as well.
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
Finished Kyouko. Here's the full Adfligo Report collection so far.
Lowlife pt. 3
Sandy mud underfoot, the kind that's simultaneously coarse and gritty, scraping beneath the soles of your feet and splattering in flecks of reddish-brown. A seemingly endless downpour from above, fat, heavy droplets that veer off to the side around you, and more than enough to steal the heat from the air and drown the heavy tang of rust and mouldering old electronics.
You watch Kyouko size Homura up, out of the corner of your eye: and you know that at first glance, Homura isn't terribly impressive. A tiny buckler, a plain costume, a blank expression. It's only when you get to know her that everything that makes Homura Homura shines through, and if Kyouko thinks she's got an easy mark. Well. She's going to get to know Homura.
But as for you...
You have your own match to look forward to.
Huh.
You are looking forward to it.
You feel your lips curl into a slow grin as you look to Mami, anticipation settling in your bones. She matches your smile with one of her own, a slow, steady thing that makes her look radiant despite the rain streaking down her skin.
"Anything goes?" you offer quietly. "Short of major injury? To immobilization for, uh... three seconds?"
"I think we can handle that," Mami says. Her weight is balanced lightly on the balls of her toes, balanced and ready.
"Alright..." You smile at her. Looks like she's looking forward to it, too, and that's a warmth that pushes out the slow chill of the rain.
"Boooorrrring," Kyouko calls at you.
"Like you'd hurt Yuma over a spar," you snipe back.
"You're boring," Kyouko counters eloquently.
You ignore her, still holding Mami's gaze, the tension electric as you run through tactics and scenarios. You want to match yourself against the most skilled magical girl you know, even if that happens to be Mami, and you in some ways, you want her to win, to see how you might lose. And you find a matching glow of eagerness in Mami's eyes.
Mami's no delicate flower. She's always been a fighter, one of the best there is.
You consider, briefly, stipulating that there be no preparation: no sneaky ribbons, like that one already curling across the ground towards your right foot -that you wouldn't have noticed if you weren't looking for it- and no nanofog enshrouding her. But that would be defeating the point of this spar, you think.
"Booooooooooooooorrrrrrrrring," Kyouko repeats, drawing it out.
Mami's smile widens just a little bit more.
You nod, just a tiny fraction on a centimeter, your eyes never leaving hers. Your left foot scrapes back a bit in the mud, as close to a ready stance as you need.
In your peripheral vision, you see Yuma glancing between the two of you, raise her hand, yell out a "three-two-one-go!" and scamper out of the splash zone.
The moment drags out.
Rain, rain, more rain.
A neat block of stacked appliances behind you. Ovens, washing machines, and the like. An obstacle. Hemmed in on your left, too. To your right, clear space. Occupied by Kyouko and Homura, but they'll be fine. A not-quite-as-decrepit-as-everything-else boom crane over there, probably used to shift heavier junk around.
Above?
No more time to think.
Mami moves at the same instant you do. A blade of Grief slams down to sever that ribbon, but she's already yanked it hard enough to throw you off-balance and you're falling to the side. You throw out a hand and flip into a cartwheel.
An explosion of noise to your side, the distinct crack of a pistol, a yelp, signalling the start of Kyouko and Homura's spar. You can't spare the attention for that, Grief already swarming towards Mami. Capture. Nanofog thickens out of the air around her to enclose her, and-
Thud.
The air shudders around Mami, almost a detonation - and you can feel force slam into your Grief, a physical thing that forces the Grief back in a bloom of gold for just an instant.
It takes you a second to comprehend what Mami did. Ribbons. She'd covered herself in a layer of them, or maybe conjured them out of thin air, and simply squirted herself free like a watermelon seed between your fingers. And in that instant, you'd lost sight of her in the cloud of ribbon and smoke.
Lost sight, but not contact. You know where she is, her presence glowing in your senses and her passage rippling through your nanofog. Your eyes snap up, hunting for her as you finish the cartwheel to land in a low crouch. A flash of silver is your hammer, drawn from beneath your coat in the same instant that you lay eyes on her.
Above, indeed, turning at the apex of her leap with musket levelled at you. Grief flashes around your hammer, and you snap it forward, a straight-armed throw. It flies straight at her, a shining thunderbolt leaping forth just as you see her finger depress the trigger.
Grief solidifies ahead of you, layered shields shimmering into existence. Her musket sweeps around with a crack, and she pushes off your hammer in mid-air to bound higher. Muskets fan out around Mami with the clap of her hands and shots hammer your shield, but you're not there any more. Nanofog boils into macrofog, an oozing cloud of darkness that floods out amongst the piles of scrap.
Gunshots to your left, the clatter of chains and chatter of an SMG as you dash out ahead of a surging wave of darkness. Kyouko getting into it with Homura, then. Fog sweeps out on multiple paths. Distraction and concealment, but you don't believe for a second that Mami doesn't know exactly where you are. Perhaps you can spoil her aim a bit.
She lands atop a rusty old car. Picture-perfect poise, unruffled and smiling.
Time to go on the offense.
You suit will and motion to impulse, and flip the car.
Mami feels it, senses it, evades it with a leap skywards. A trap, or such as you could put together in the span of a heartbeat. You have Grief there -or how would you have flipped the car?- your fog's already there, shrouding her, and this time you're wise to that trick of hers. Grief bulges around her like a maw about to slam shut.
You're expecting that trick - and of course, she doesn't do it. She twists midair the instant before your Grief closes, spinning a cocoon of ribbons around herself, a single ribbon weaving through your fog to slam into the ground.
Muskets bloom like flowers. They track you unerringly, a steady boom of shots sizzling past you as you dodge.
Wings. Grief ripples from your shoulders and you yank yourself airborne, flying right into the teeth of the rain. Mami's cocoon explodes, twists of ribbon bursting forth like razor-sharp chaff that slices at your Grief. Not all the way through, as you pile on more Grief, but then-
Mami hits it from the inside. You have no idea what with, but there's no time to think about it any more as she blasts her way it, tumbling into a picture-perfect roll that ends with cannons spinning out of ribbons beside her.
You have a heartbeat to contemplate the very large muzzles leveled right at you before the spark of powder ignites, fire blooming from darkness.
You juke.
Dive, rise, a jolt to the left... your coat snaps with the Gs, booming whipcracks that smash rain into mist. You swerve hard enough to be impossible for any merely human body to survive, and still you barely stay ahead of the flak bursts stitching through the air. The blades you hammer at Mami are met with ribbons and shot, crisp, minimal nudges lending themselves to crisp, minimal dodges.
Go on the offence. Mami has you on the back foot, so change that!
You drop your left shoulder and let your wing sweep forward. Mami's next musket ball splashes against the wing, an explosion of ribbon you shred, and in that instant, in that split second of disruption to the tempo, you answer with a hammer. Grief locked around the haft, hurled with enough speed that it cracks the sound barrier.
Mami dodges it, as expected, but it's enough to make her abandon the cannons. Enough to crater the ground, too, mud spraying in a viscous splatter. Her footing slips for a fraction of a second. Enough for your second hammer to bracket her retreat and the third to take her in the back. She stumbles forward, and your heart lurches for a second before you register the bloom of ribbons that cushioned the blow.
Golden eyes meet yours, piercing the rain and the concern that stole across your heart. She smiles, warm and soothing -no hard feelings- and then salutes with a flourish of a newly formed musket.
You relax, and smile back at her, but just for a second, because that musket is now levelled at you.
When she fires again, it's not her usual musket ball, but a swarming, twisting burst of ribbons, streaking across the skies like a demented, living spiderweb. You grin, and you dive into it, Grief swirling around you like a blender, wings flared wide to shred a path through the storm of brilliant gold.
Nanofog floods out ahead of you, sensing-touching-feeling for any surprises hidden in the endless torrent. And further out ahead, tendrils spinning out of Grief to reach for Mami.
You don't know how many times she can escape your Grief cocoon, but you intend to find out-
Incoming.
You feel Mami's leap almost before she starts it, and then she's on you, pushing through nanofog with crackling gunfire and twisting ribbon to meet you midair, and then there's no time to think-
High kick at your head. Block. Grief woven in for a hold around her leg- useless. Mami slips past it with a twist of ribbon. Hammer swung at her torso, Grief blade from the other side. A musket meets the hammer, pushes, and somehow impels her over the blade in an arching backflip. A new musket -her other hand- rising towards you. Freeze it in place with Grief, manacle clamp locked around it.
Mami uses it as a pivot to scythe another scissoring kick at you. Expected. You whip the musket away, spoiling the swing and sending her arcing towards the ground below. Ribbons lash out for you, a forest of shining gold seeking purchase as Mami falls back towards the junkyard. You answer with blades, a blurring, shifting blender, and realise too late that that was a distraction from the way Mami already found an anchor point, swinging around that boom crane.
You back away frantically, wingbeats thundering loud enough to rival the lightning crackling through the skies above.
"Watch out," Homura's voice murmurs into your mind.
You blink. Watch out? For wha-
For a ballistic Kyouko, yelling and using your leg as a fulcrum to lash her spear around and slingshot further, apparently.
"Really?" you yell at her.
Your only response is mocking laughter, the bedraggled crimson banner of her hair sailing off into the rain.
At least Homura was polite enough to not shoot while Kyouko was using you like a trapeze swing. The jolt and the distraction pulled you off balance for a second, and that's enough for Mami to bracket you, golden streaks blasting past you. More warning shots than anything: keep your attention on her!
You whirl midair: wing forward to block. You bull through the hail of shots, more Grief reaching towards Mami - blades, this time, razor sharp. You can pull them before they hit, if need be, but you trust Mami. Between the blades, you hurl a hammer. Then two, then three, rain hissing to vapour trails in their wake.
In that moment of distraction as Mami flips to dodge the hammers, you slice through the ribbon tether. She goes flying, but even in flight, she claps her hands together and spreads them to fan out an array of muskets. You dive for her, slipping past the shots slashing for you. She's getting too far - you can't let her have the range.
As if reading your mind and rising to the challenge, Mami kicks off an old car and leaps straight for you, a glint in her eye and fresh muskets sweeping around her. Detonations crackle through the storm, sharp bursts pounding away at you. You've got the measure of those for now, intercepting each one with pinpoint Grief shards, there and gone in a second.
You snatch for her Gem -just the once, just to see- and find ribbons snapping around it, hauling it back into place. You abandon the attempt, and in the same motion, you drain her Soul Gem of Grief, pouring it away into hammerspace.
Explosions pepper the air, sparks of gold splashing against midnight darkness, sizzling through the rain as Mami closes. She opens with a sweep of her latest musket. Block with a freshly formed hammer and duck the shot that slices past your face. Your ears ring, and you can't help but grin.
It's almost a dance, an exchange where you almost know what Mami's doing before she does it, reading and flowing around each other's strikes and blows then meeting in a clash of strength on strength. The boom of her musket echoes in steady counterpoint to the ring of metal on metal, percussion to accompany the whirling dance. You're not going to win in a melee, but all you need is a few seconds.
You tumble through the air, wings flaring wide and Mami sticking to you with ribbon and grabs and sheer, unyielding tenacity, her golden eyes wide and smile stretching her face.
And then- you drop under her trajectory, and get a solid elbow to her gut to send her sailing past you.
She catches you with a solid kick to your shoulder in return, knocking you spinning and disoriented. And as she plummets past you, she throws an exhilarated grin and wink at you, and that's devastating for entirely different reasons.
You surge after her. She's falling, uncontrolled, and it's now or never. Your Grief pours forward, a boiling cloud of utter darkness forming out of thin air -rotating from hammerspace- around her. You spot the tell-tale of her ribbons blossoming around her, and that's fine. You'll be waiting for her.
And this time-
This time, the Grief closes around her. You lock her arms, her legs in place, a solid band around her waist, and then-
Ribbons explode around you, from your arm. From your arm, where she kicked you, whipping around you to enfold you in a gentle embrace. That's fine, that's fine, you can cut ribbons, slashing through them faster than they can form, but-
You can feel Mami doing the same to your Grief manacles, garroting tight around each band with ribbons.
And as you break free of Mami's ribbons, you can hear her laughing. She lashes herself to the Grief, hanging midair just out of arm's reach, and she laughs, bright and clear and absolutely, utterly delighted.
You can't help but join in, drifting closer on your wings so that she can shift from the manacles and leap at you, winding her arms around your neck. She's still laughing, breathless, bubbling giggles that shake her body. Adrenaline bleeds away as you hug her closer, your chest heaving from both the exertion and with helpless, wheezing laughter.
"This isn't going to work," you admit.
"'Until immobilization'..." Mami giggles. "We can break out of each other's immobilization easily."
"I got more, though," you say, grinning cheekily.
"Ah, but I was just testing your ability," Mami says, her smile delighted and utterly warm.
"Speaking of which, how did you break out?" you ask, curious. "I mean... it's not like my Grief is totally invulnerable... OK, it is against mundane attacks, I think, but... you were cutting through it like nothing."
"Not exactly nothing," Mami says, and cuddles against you. "I don't think many other magical girls could do that. Perhaps Homura."
"Really?" you ask, arching your eyebrows. Speaking of Homura, you can still hear their fight going on, brief muzzle-flashes and the crash of steel alerting you to what seems to have become a running fight through the maze of the scrapyard.
"It was simply... mmm," Mami hums. "It was a trick of focusing my magic, a sort of extension of enchanting, of sorts? And I think the only reason I knew to use it against you was because..." She pulls back, giving you a smile that warms you all the way down to your bones. "I have the privilege of knowing you, Sabrina. I know you, and I know the feel of your magic."
You chuckle quietly, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. "I suppose you do," you say. "Thanks, Mami."
She beams at you.
"And... it must be said, it took a considerable amount of effort," Mami admits. "I'm not sure if you'd noticed, but my Soul Gem was somewhat higher on Grief than I'd have expected to expend in such a fight."
"Ah, yeah," you say, nodding. "And on that note..." You cleanse her Soul Gem, and then your own, Mami sighing happily and smiling at you. "I didn't hit you too hard, did I?"
"I'm fine," Mami says, smiling at you. "Really, I am."
"Alright," you say, giving her a gentle squeeze. You believe her, and you trust her - but that doesn't mean you don't get to be concerned about her.
"Shall we see how Homura and Kyouko are doing?" she asks. She makes no move to disentangle herself from you, so you form a comfortable two-person chair for the both of you, letting the wings melt away.
"Let's gooo," you say, smiling. "But I'm going to want to experiment more with that technique of yours later, and see if I can counter it? And... I'd appreciate a critique in general."
"Of course," Mami says with a smile.
You drift towards the clash, and find Homura keeping Kyouko at bay with steady, efficient motions and pistols in both hands, forcing Kyouko to give ground and parry the shots. Kyouko snarls, leaping high with spear slicing out, only for Homura to step smartly to the side, hair drifting amidst the rain before she stomps the blade to the ground, almost yanking it from Kyouko's grasp.
The blade explodes into chains, clattering and whirling through the air like a demented snake, and this time, Homura does have to actually dodge, bounding high to meet Kyouko in the middle with a machine gun of some variety. The chatter of gunfire has Kyouko baring her teeth in fury, driving forward with a flurry of jabbing strikes. Homura's eyes flicker up to you for a second as she deflects a stab.
And there's Yuma, hopping up to the top of a stack of rusting machinery and waving at you. You can't help but chuckle as you wave back, drifting lower and letting her clamber up, forming a third seat.
"Hey, Yuma," you say as she plops herself down. "How's it going?"
"Great!" Yuma says, eyes shining. "The fight between you and Mami was really cool!"
"I'm glad you think so," Mami says, smiling. "How has the fight between Kyouko and Homura been going?"
"Yuma thinks big sis was expecting an easier fight than this," Yuma says. "She seems a bit annoyed."
A loud crash from ahead has you wincing as some precariously balanced tower of junk topples over. You'll have to put that back later, but then again...
It's gone quiet.
Or not that quiet, as Kyouko's swearing rises above the patter of the rain. You drift over to find Kyouko pinned in the mud, Homura with a knee to her back and a gun to the base of her skull.
"Fine," Kyouko grumbles. "I yield."
Homura stands immediately, the gun vanishing, and she offers Kyouko a hand up.
"Tough one, aintcha," Kyouko grunts, letting Homura pull her to her feet. She's covered in mud, dripping from her bangs and down her costume, but an impatient shake and flicker of deep crimson has the mud shuddering off her.
"I try," Homura says drily.
"You're not so bad," Kyouko says, cracking her neck and digging in a pocket to produce a rather squashed box of what looks like chocolate. She tosses a few into her mouth, then holds the box out to Homura. "Want some?"
"Man, it took me a while before Kyouko offered me anything to eat," you mutter quietly to Mami. She giggles dutifully, leaning against you.
Kyouko shakes out a few chocolates into Homura's palm, and looks up as if she'd just noticed you.
"Oh, there you are," she drawls. "Enjoy the show?"
"Only caught the tail end of it," you say, leaping down to join them, Mami and Yuma a step behind as you let the Grief chair unravel. "Good fight."
Kyouko eyes you, then Mami, and chomps on a few more pieces of chocolate as she pulls a Grief Seed out and cleanses her Soul Gem. You can't help but notice, in your Grief senses, that she has four Grief Seeds, and Yuma has two - all in varying states of fullness.
"Mind sparring with Yuma?" she asks, eyes flicking back to Homura. "She needs more experience with ranged fighters."
Homura considers this silently, glancing at Yuma, and then nods. Yuma cheers, bouncing lightly on her toes despite the way the rain plasters her hair to her skull, the green soaked so dark it's almost blue.
"Right then," Kyouko drawls, lacing her hands behind her head. "Now for me... it's been a while, Mami-sempai. Care for a dance?"
[] Confirm the matchups
- [] Ask to discuss your spar with Mami first, while it's fresh on your mind
- [] Leave the discussion for later
- [] Work on science during the spars
-- [] Work on aerodynamic hammer for throwing
-- [] Work on something else? (Write-in)
[] Comment on Kyouko's Grief Seed situation
- [] What, exactly? (Write-in, word count limit: 150 words)
Here we go!
You watch Kyouko size Homura up, out of the corner of your eye: and you know that at first glance, Homura isn't terribly impressive. A tiny buckler, a plain costume, a blank expression. It's only when you get to know her that everything that makes Homura Homura shines through, and if Kyouko thinks she's got an easy mark. Well. She's going to get to know Homura.
But as for you...
You have your own match to look forward to.
Huh.
You are looking forward to it.
You feel your lips curl into a slow grin as you look to Mami, anticipation settling in your bones. She matches your smile with one of her own, a slow, steady thing that makes her look radiant despite the rain streaking down her skin.
"Anything goes?" you offer quietly. "Short of major injury? To immobilization for, uh... three seconds?"
"I think we can handle that," Mami says. Her weight is balanced lightly on the balls of her toes, balanced and ready.
"Alright..." You smile at her. Looks like she's looking forward to it, too, and that's a warmth that pushes out the slow chill of the rain.
"Boooorrrring," Kyouko calls at you.
"Like you'd hurt Yuma over a spar," you snipe back.
"You're boring," Kyouko counters eloquently.
You ignore her, still holding Mami's gaze, the tension electric as you run through tactics and scenarios. You want to match yourself against the most skilled magical girl you know, even if that happens to be Mami, and you in some ways, you want her to win, to see how you might lose. And you find a matching glow of eagerness in Mami's eyes.
Mami's no delicate flower. She's always been a fighter, one of the best there is.
You consider, briefly, stipulating that there be no preparation: no sneaky ribbons, like that one already curling across the ground towards your right foot -that you wouldn't have noticed if you weren't looking for it- and no nanofog enshrouding her. But that would be defeating the point of this spar, you think.
"Booooooooooooooorrrrrrrrring," Kyouko repeats, drawing it out.
Mami's smile widens just a little bit more.
You nod, just a tiny fraction on a centimeter, your eyes never leaving hers. Your left foot scrapes back a bit in the mud, as close to a ready stance as you need.
In your peripheral vision, you see Yuma glancing between the two of you, raise her hand, yell out a "three-two-one-go!" and scamper out of the splash zone.
The moment drags out.
Rain, rain, more rain.
A neat block of stacked appliances behind you. Ovens, washing machines, and the like. An obstacle. Hemmed in on your left, too. To your right, clear space. Occupied by Kyouko and Homura, but they'll be fine. A not-quite-as-decrepit-as-everything-else boom crane over there, probably used to shift heavier junk around.
Above?
No more time to think.
Mami moves at the same instant you do. A blade of Grief slams down to sever that ribbon, but she's already yanked it hard enough to throw you off-balance and you're falling to the side. You throw out a hand and flip into a cartwheel.
An explosion of noise to your side, the distinct crack of a pistol, a yelp, signalling the start of Kyouko and Homura's spar. You can't spare the attention for that, Grief already swarming towards Mami. Capture. Nanofog thickens out of the air around her to enclose her, and-
Thud.
The air shudders around Mami, almost a detonation - and you can feel force slam into your Grief, a physical thing that forces the Grief back in a bloom of gold for just an instant.
It takes you a second to comprehend what Mami did. Ribbons. She'd covered herself in a layer of them, or maybe conjured them out of thin air, and simply squirted herself free like a watermelon seed between your fingers. And in that instant, you'd lost sight of her in the cloud of ribbon and smoke.
Lost sight, but not contact. You know where she is, her presence glowing in your senses and her passage rippling through your nanofog. Your eyes snap up, hunting for her as you finish the cartwheel to land in a low crouch. A flash of silver is your hammer, drawn from beneath your coat in the same instant that you lay eyes on her.
Above, indeed, turning at the apex of her leap with musket levelled at you. Grief flashes around your hammer, and you snap it forward, a straight-armed throw. It flies straight at her, a shining thunderbolt leaping forth just as you see her finger depress the trigger.
Grief solidifies ahead of you, layered shields shimmering into existence. Her musket sweeps around with a crack, and she pushes off your hammer in mid-air to bound higher. Muskets fan out around Mami with the clap of her hands and shots hammer your shield, but you're not there any more. Nanofog boils into macrofog, an oozing cloud of darkness that floods out amongst the piles of scrap.
Gunshots to your left, the clatter of chains and chatter of an SMG as you dash out ahead of a surging wave of darkness. Kyouko getting into it with Homura, then. Fog sweeps out on multiple paths. Distraction and concealment, but you don't believe for a second that Mami doesn't know exactly where you are. Perhaps you can spoil her aim a bit.
She lands atop a rusty old car. Picture-perfect poise, unruffled and smiling.
Time to go on the offense.
You suit will and motion to impulse, and flip the car.
Mami feels it, senses it, evades it with a leap skywards. A trap, or such as you could put together in the span of a heartbeat. You have Grief there -or how would you have flipped the car?- your fog's already there, shrouding her, and this time you're wise to that trick of hers. Grief bulges around her like a maw about to slam shut.
You're expecting that trick - and of course, she doesn't do it. She twists midair the instant before your Grief closes, spinning a cocoon of ribbons around herself, a single ribbon weaving through your fog to slam into the ground.
Muskets bloom like flowers. They track you unerringly, a steady boom of shots sizzling past you as you dodge.
Wings. Grief ripples from your shoulders and you yank yourself airborne, flying right into the teeth of the rain. Mami's cocoon explodes, twists of ribbon bursting forth like razor-sharp chaff that slices at your Grief. Not all the way through, as you pile on more Grief, but then-
Mami hits it from the inside. You have no idea what with, but there's no time to think about it any more as she blasts her way it, tumbling into a picture-perfect roll that ends with cannons spinning out of ribbons beside her.
You have a heartbeat to contemplate the very large muzzles leveled right at you before the spark of powder ignites, fire blooming from darkness.
You juke.
Dive, rise, a jolt to the left... your coat snaps with the Gs, booming whipcracks that smash rain into mist. You swerve hard enough to be impossible for any merely human body to survive, and still you barely stay ahead of the flak bursts stitching through the air. The blades you hammer at Mami are met with ribbons and shot, crisp, minimal nudges lending themselves to crisp, minimal dodges.
Go on the offence. Mami has you on the back foot, so change that!
You drop your left shoulder and let your wing sweep forward. Mami's next musket ball splashes against the wing, an explosion of ribbon you shred, and in that instant, in that split second of disruption to the tempo, you answer with a hammer. Grief locked around the haft, hurled with enough speed that it cracks the sound barrier.
Mami dodges it, as expected, but it's enough to make her abandon the cannons. Enough to crater the ground, too, mud spraying in a viscous splatter. Her footing slips for a fraction of a second. Enough for your second hammer to bracket her retreat and the third to take her in the back. She stumbles forward, and your heart lurches for a second before you register the bloom of ribbons that cushioned the blow.
Golden eyes meet yours, piercing the rain and the concern that stole across your heart. She smiles, warm and soothing -no hard feelings- and then salutes with a flourish of a newly formed musket.
You relax, and smile back at her, but just for a second, because that musket is now levelled at you.
When she fires again, it's not her usual musket ball, but a swarming, twisting burst of ribbons, streaking across the skies like a demented, living spiderweb. You grin, and you dive into it, Grief swirling around you like a blender, wings flared wide to shred a path through the storm of brilliant gold.
Nanofog floods out ahead of you, sensing-touching-feeling for any surprises hidden in the endless torrent. And further out ahead, tendrils spinning out of Grief to reach for Mami.
You don't know how many times she can escape your Grief cocoon, but you intend to find out-
Incoming.
You feel Mami's leap almost before she starts it, and then she's on you, pushing through nanofog with crackling gunfire and twisting ribbon to meet you midair, and then there's no time to think-
High kick at your head. Block. Grief woven in for a hold around her leg- useless. Mami slips past it with a twist of ribbon. Hammer swung at her torso, Grief blade from the other side. A musket meets the hammer, pushes, and somehow impels her over the blade in an arching backflip. A new musket -her other hand- rising towards you. Freeze it in place with Grief, manacle clamp locked around it.
Mami uses it as a pivot to scythe another scissoring kick at you. Expected. You whip the musket away, spoiling the swing and sending her arcing towards the ground below. Ribbons lash out for you, a forest of shining gold seeking purchase as Mami falls back towards the junkyard. You answer with blades, a blurring, shifting blender, and realise too late that that was a distraction from the way Mami already found an anchor point, swinging around that boom crane.
You back away frantically, wingbeats thundering loud enough to rival the lightning crackling through the skies above.
"Watch out," Homura's voice murmurs into your mind.
You blink. Watch out? For wha-
For a ballistic Kyouko, yelling and using your leg as a fulcrum to lash her spear around and slingshot further, apparently.
"Really?" you yell at her.
Your only response is mocking laughter, the bedraggled crimson banner of her hair sailing off into the rain.
At least Homura was polite enough to not shoot while Kyouko was using you like a trapeze swing. The jolt and the distraction pulled you off balance for a second, and that's enough for Mami to bracket you, golden streaks blasting past you. More warning shots than anything: keep your attention on her!
You whirl midair: wing forward to block. You bull through the hail of shots, more Grief reaching towards Mami - blades, this time, razor sharp. You can pull them before they hit, if need be, but you trust Mami. Between the blades, you hurl a hammer. Then two, then three, rain hissing to vapour trails in their wake.
In that moment of distraction as Mami flips to dodge the hammers, you slice through the ribbon tether. She goes flying, but even in flight, she claps her hands together and spreads them to fan out an array of muskets. You dive for her, slipping past the shots slashing for you. She's getting too far - you can't let her have the range.
As if reading your mind and rising to the challenge, Mami kicks off an old car and leaps straight for you, a glint in her eye and fresh muskets sweeping around her. Detonations crackle through the storm, sharp bursts pounding away at you. You've got the measure of those for now, intercepting each one with pinpoint Grief shards, there and gone in a second.
You snatch for her Gem -just the once, just to see- and find ribbons snapping around it, hauling it back into place. You abandon the attempt, and in the same motion, you drain her Soul Gem of Grief, pouring it away into hammerspace.
Explosions pepper the air, sparks of gold splashing against midnight darkness, sizzling through the rain as Mami closes. She opens with a sweep of her latest musket. Block with a freshly formed hammer and duck the shot that slices past your face. Your ears ring, and you can't help but grin.
It's almost a dance, an exchange where you almost know what Mami's doing before she does it, reading and flowing around each other's strikes and blows then meeting in a clash of strength on strength. The boom of her musket echoes in steady counterpoint to the ring of metal on metal, percussion to accompany the whirling dance. You're not going to win in a melee, but all you need is a few seconds.
You tumble through the air, wings flaring wide and Mami sticking to you with ribbon and grabs and sheer, unyielding tenacity, her golden eyes wide and smile stretching her face.
And then- you drop under her trajectory, and get a solid elbow to her gut to send her sailing past you.
She catches you with a solid kick to your shoulder in return, knocking you spinning and disoriented. And as she plummets past you, she throws an exhilarated grin and wink at you, and that's devastating for entirely different reasons.
You surge after her. She's falling, uncontrolled, and it's now or never. Your Grief pours forward, a boiling cloud of utter darkness forming out of thin air -rotating from hammerspace- around her. You spot the tell-tale of her ribbons blossoming around her, and that's fine. You'll be waiting for her.
And this time-
This time, the Grief closes around her. You lock her arms, her legs in place, a solid band around her waist, and then-
Ribbons explode around you, from your arm. From your arm, where she kicked you, whipping around you to enfold you in a gentle embrace. That's fine, that's fine, you can cut ribbons, slashing through them faster than they can form, but-
You can feel Mami doing the same to your Grief manacles, garroting tight around each band with ribbons.
And as you break free of Mami's ribbons, you can hear her laughing. She lashes herself to the Grief, hanging midair just out of arm's reach, and she laughs, bright and clear and absolutely, utterly delighted.
You can't help but join in, drifting closer on your wings so that she can shift from the manacles and leap at you, winding her arms around your neck. She's still laughing, breathless, bubbling giggles that shake her body. Adrenaline bleeds away as you hug her closer, your chest heaving from both the exertion and with helpless, wheezing laughter.
"This isn't going to work," you admit.
"'Until immobilization'..." Mami giggles. "We can break out of each other's immobilization easily."
"I got more, though," you say, grinning cheekily.
"Ah, but I was just testing your ability," Mami says, her smile delighted and utterly warm.
"Speaking of which, how did you break out?" you ask, curious. "I mean... it's not like my Grief is totally invulnerable... OK, it is against mundane attacks, I think, but... you were cutting through it like nothing."
"Not exactly nothing," Mami says, and cuddles against you. "I don't think many other magical girls could do that. Perhaps Homura."
"Really?" you ask, arching your eyebrows. Speaking of Homura, you can still hear their fight going on, brief muzzle-flashes and the crash of steel alerting you to what seems to have become a running fight through the maze of the scrapyard.
"It was simply... mmm," Mami hums. "It was a trick of focusing my magic, a sort of extension of enchanting, of sorts? And I think the only reason I knew to use it against you was because..." She pulls back, giving you a smile that warms you all the way down to your bones. "I have the privilege of knowing you, Sabrina. I know you, and I know the feel of your magic."
You chuckle quietly, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. "I suppose you do," you say. "Thanks, Mami."
She beams at you.
"And... it must be said, it took a considerable amount of effort," Mami admits. "I'm not sure if you'd noticed, but my Soul Gem was somewhat higher on Grief than I'd have expected to expend in such a fight."
"Ah, yeah," you say, nodding. "And on that note..." You cleanse her Soul Gem, and then your own, Mami sighing happily and smiling at you. "I didn't hit you too hard, did I?"
"I'm fine," Mami says, smiling at you. "Really, I am."
"Alright," you say, giving her a gentle squeeze. You believe her, and you trust her - but that doesn't mean you don't get to be concerned about her.
"Shall we see how Homura and Kyouko are doing?" she asks. She makes no move to disentangle herself from you, so you form a comfortable two-person chair for the both of you, letting the wings melt away.
"Let's gooo," you say, smiling. "But I'm going to want to experiment more with that technique of yours later, and see if I can counter it? And... I'd appreciate a critique in general."
"Of course," Mami says with a smile.
You drift towards the clash, and find Homura keeping Kyouko at bay with steady, efficient motions and pistols in both hands, forcing Kyouko to give ground and parry the shots. Kyouko snarls, leaping high with spear slicing out, only for Homura to step smartly to the side, hair drifting amidst the rain before she stomps the blade to the ground, almost yanking it from Kyouko's grasp.
The blade explodes into chains, clattering and whirling through the air like a demented snake, and this time, Homura does have to actually dodge, bounding high to meet Kyouko in the middle with a machine gun of some variety. The chatter of gunfire has Kyouko baring her teeth in fury, driving forward with a flurry of jabbing strikes. Homura's eyes flicker up to you for a second as she deflects a stab.
And there's Yuma, hopping up to the top of a stack of rusting machinery and waving at you. You can't help but chuckle as you wave back, drifting lower and letting her clamber up, forming a third seat.
"Hey, Yuma," you say as she plops herself down. "How's it going?"
"Great!" Yuma says, eyes shining. "The fight between you and Mami was really cool!"
"I'm glad you think so," Mami says, smiling. "How has the fight between Kyouko and Homura been going?"
"Yuma thinks big sis was expecting an easier fight than this," Yuma says. "She seems a bit annoyed."
A loud crash from ahead has you wincing as some precariously balanced tower of junk topples over. You'll have to put that back later, but then again...
It's gone quiet.
Or not that quiet, as Kyouko's swearing rises above the patter of the rain. You drift over to find Kyouko pinned in the mud, Homura with a knee to her back and a gun to the base of her skull.
"Fine," Kyouko grumbles. "I yield."
Homura stands immediately, the gun vanishing, and she offers Kyouko a hand up.
"Tough one, aintcha," Kyouko grunts, letting Homura pull her to her feet. She's covered in mud, dripping from her bangs and down her costume, but an impatient shake and flicker of deep crimson has the mud shuddering off her.
"I try," Homura says drily.
"You're not so bad," Kyouko says, cracking her neck and digging in a pocket to produce a rather squashed box of what looks like chocolate. She tosses a few into her mouth, then holds the box out to Homura. "Want some?"
"Man, it took me a while before Kyouko offered me anything to eat," you mutter quietly to Mami. She giggles dutifully, leaning against you.
Kyouko shakes out a few chocolates into Homura's palm, and looks up as if she'd just noticed you.
"Oh, there you are," she drawls. "Enjoy the show?"
"Only caught the tail end of it," you say, leaping down to join them, Mami and Yuma a step behind as you let the Grief chair unravel. "Good fight."
Kyouko eyes you, then Mami, and chomps on a few more pieces of chocolate as she pulls a Grief Seed out and cleanses her Soul Gem. You can't help but notice, in your Grief senses, that she has four Grief Seeds, and Yuma has two - all in varying states of fullness.
"Mind sparring with Yuma?" she asks, eyes flicking back to Homura. "She needs more experience with ranged fighters."
Homura considers this silently, glancing at Yuma, and then nods. Yuma cheers, bouncing lightly on her toes despite the way the rain plasters her hair to her skull, the green soaked so dark it's almost blue.
"Right then," Kyouko drawls, lacing her hands behind her head. "Now for me... it's been a while, Mami-sempai. Care for a dance?"
[] Confirm the matchups
- [] Ask to discuss your spar with Mami first, while it's fresh on your mind
- [] Leave the discussion for later
- [] Work on science during the spars
-- [] Work on aerodynamic hammer for throwing
-- [] Work on something else? (Write-in)
[] Comment on Kyouko's Grief Seed situation
- [] What, exactly? (Write-in, word count limit: 150 words)
=====
Here we go!
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Ok, these are great.Finished Kyouko. Here's the full Adfligo Report collection so far.
Are you planning on making more, or shall I index this post?
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
Ok, these are great.
Are you planning on making more, or shall I index this post?
I still want to make a Homura and remaster the Sabrina with more details and shading. Should be ready soon though!
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AuraTwilight
The Sorcerer of Smiles
- Location
- The Silver City
That was the most romantic combat ever written.
- Location
- At the end of the world
Enjoyed every moment.
blast flame
How far will we go if it means lighting the way?
- Location
- Perth, Australia
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Best fight scene I've read in a long time. My only regret is that we missed Kyouko's initial reaction to the fight being much tougher than she thought it would be. 
[]Make Kyouko a proper dress to wear for her dance.
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blast flame
How far will we go if it means lighting the way?
- Location
- Perth, Australia
- Pronouns
- They/Them
New chapter is good. It's funny how homura pinned kyouko execution style tho. Like talk about s difference in fights
Kyouko (thinking): Man that Homura girl has no patience for me at all.
Homura (thinking): Of all of the girls that aren't Madoka Kyouko has been the most reliable, I like her.
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
That was exceptional, @Firnagzen . Fantastic fight descriptions, and an excellent scene in general.
I read it while listening to this, and it worked quite well!
Clever. As long as the grief trap isn't perfect, there will always be a weak spot, which she should be able to sense with her ribbons being the first to get in contact with it. At that point she just has to pierce through the weak spot while propelling herself with the rest of the ribbons she has extended.
Pushing off our thrown hammer to get more height is pretty badass.
Concentration of force -it'd be very difficult for Sabrina to make a grief trap dense enough that the point of a single ribbon, with concentrated magic behind it, couldn't pierce. That lets Mami keep observing us and applying pressure while she gathers force to explode her way out. The impressive parts are... well, there's a lot of impressive parts, but Mami was able to do all this with very little forewarning, explode her way out without hurting herself, and simultaneously set up a bunch of cannons to wreck our shit the moment she got out.
Mami's holding down shift to graze all our shots?
So, uh, yeah. Mami can dodge mach-speed hammers. Mami can tank mach-speed hammers. Mami is kind of a big deal.
Pfffffffffft. Hey, if we were a handy leverage point...
You can see Mami's influence on Kyouko's fighting style here too - they both exploit anchors to swing around all over the place.
Mumi wants all of Sabrina's attention.
Kai requested this, I recall. Didn't work, as we all expected, of course.
Getting some real Precure coordination vibes here.
Quick reflexes there on Mami's part. Goes to show that avoiding melee was the correct response on our part - the one time we did make physical contact, Mami casually wrecked us while simultaneously tagging us for later.
Whoops.
Still though, that was a seriously impressive showing on Mami's part - she basically fought us to a draw.
I'm fairly sure this is the same trick Kyouko used to shear through our grief in the past, too - concentrate her magic at the point of her spear.
We are all Yuma on this blessed day.
Homura and Kyouko usually hit it off quite well - she's the member of the Holly Quintet Homura is closest to other than Madoka. Glad to see that the trend is continuing.
Also, major props to Homura there - I assume she made minimal or no use of timestop, so she beat Kyouko with sheer skill here.
And this is a huge step forward for repairing Mami and Kyouko's relations. I'm very glad Kyouko agreed to come to this spar.
I read it while listening to this, and it worked quite well!
Clever. As long as the grief trap isn't perfect, there will always be a weak spot, which she should be able to sense with her ribbons being the first to get in contact with it. At that point she just has to pierce through the weak spot while propelling herself with the rest of the ribbons she has extended.
Pushing off our thrown hammer to get more height is pretty badass.
Concentration of force -it'd be very difficult for Sabrina to make a grief trap dense enough that the point of a single ribbon, with concentrated magic behind it, couldn't pierce. That lets Mami keep observing us and applying pressure while she gathers force to explode her way out. The impressive parts are... well, there's a lot of impressive parts, but Mami was able to do all this with very little forewarning, explode her way out without hurting herself, and simultaneously set up a bunch of cannons to wreck our shit the moment she got out.
Mami's holding down shift to graze all our shots?
So, uh, yeah. Mami can dodge mach-speed hammers. Mami can tank mach-speed hammers. Mami is kind of a big deal.
Pfffffffffft. Hey, if we were a handy leverage point...
You can see Mami's influence on Kyouko's fighting style here too - they both exploit anchors to swing around all over the place.
Mumi wants all of Sabrina's attention.
Kai requested this, I recall. Didn't work, as we all expected, of course.
Getting some real Precure coordination vibes here.
Quick reflexes there on Mami's part. Goes to show that avoiding melee was the correct response on our part - the one time we did make physical contact, Mami casually wrecked us while simultaneously tagging us for later.
Whoops.
Still though, that was a seriously impressive showing on Mami's part - she basically fought us to a draw.
I'm fairly sure this is the same trick Kyouko used to shear through our grief in the past, too - concentrate her magic at the point of her spear.
We are all Yuma on this blessed day.
Homura and Kyouko usually hit it off quite well - she's the member of the Holly Quintet Homura is closest to other than Madoka. Glad to see that the trend is continuing.
Also, major props to Homura there - I assume she made minimal or no use of timestop, so she beat Kyouko with sheer skill here.
And this is a huge step forward for repairing Mami and Kyouko's relations. I'm very glad Kyouko agreed to come to this spar.
Um, I think you meant to use latches.
Anyhow, that was one heck of a spar!
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
Wait... was the whole fight about who gives firmer and stronger hugs?
The Phoenixian
The Glacier Witch
- Location
- My own little world
I can't help but contrast this to our last spar against Mami, back during doubles with Homura and Sayaka.
Compared to then, Mami's a lot more confident in being our sparring partner.
Compared to then, Mami's a lot more confident in being our sparring partner.
DB_Explorer
Purveyor of alternate realities.
- Location
- San Diego, California
- Pronouns
- He/Him
... that was great!
- Location
- Illinois
Fights before critique: we can always pull this chapter out to refresh our memories lol.
"Instant"
"Lashes" in this usage means "to attach to something via a length of material", so you might "lash a package to the deck with straps" or "lash a fair maiden to Grief with bright ribbons"!
For Kyouko's grief seed situation we oughta just ask if she'd like any of'em cleaned up and how much.
It's so fucking great I'm so happy this is so spectacular eeeeeeeeee
Like this is beyond the wildest dreams of the early thread and I am just, I am just so *happy*. People would be arguing that Mami's problems weren't solvable in quest scope, and I'll give that she needs more time for all of this to solidify into routine instead of being new but *look upon her happiness and tell me now how her sadness isn't solvable in quest scope.*
And this cat still has plans, nyan~!!
"Instant"
"Lashes" in this usage means "to attach to something via a length of material", so you might "lash a package to the deck with straps" or "lash a fair maiden to Grief with bright ribbons"!
For Kyouko's grief seed situation we oughta just ask if she'd like any of'em cleaned up and how much.
It's so fucking great I'm so happy this is so spectacular eeeeeeeeee
Like this is beyond the wildest dreams of the early thread and I am just, I am just so *happy*. People would be arguing that Mami's problems weren't solvable in quest scope, and I'll give that she needs more time for all of this to solidify into routine instead of being new but *look upon her happiness and tell me now how her sadness isn't solvable in quest scope.*
And this cat still has plans, nyan~!!
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The Phoenixian
The Glacier Witch
- Location
- My own little world
On a side note, I find myself wondering what the odds are that Homura goes from her win against Kyouko, because she was fighting someone she knew very, very well, and has fought besides countless times, to losing against Yuma. Because she probably rarely meets Yuma. Possibly only once.
(assuming Oriko is the primary reason for Yuma's contract, here, since it seems to be the case in every Oriko timeline and, IIRC, in PMAS too.)
(assuming Oriko is the primary reason for Yuma's contract, here, since it seems to be the case in every Oriko timeline and, IIRC, in PMAS too.)
- Location
- ⇙
Great chapter and very fluffy spar.
Edit: Sayaka would definitely have complained about Sabrina and Mami being sickeningly sweet even when they're fighting each other.
Edit: Sayaka would definitely have complained about Sabrina and Mami being sickeningly sweet even when they're fighting each other.
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blast flame
How far will we go if it means lighting the way?
- Location
- Perth, Australia
- Pronouns
- They/Them
That's one good reason. Another good reason is hiding her time powers - kyubey may have never seen her steal guns in this timeline so where did she get non-magical guns?
- Location
- Illinois
Okay wait so mandatory tho, positive reinforcement. The first thing in this vote has *got* to be
[X] Telepathy Mami
-[X] You are impressed, and *very* happily flirted with. Is there anything you can do to encourage her to keep being this confident? Because it's *really* great on her.
[X] Telepathy Mami
-[X] You are impressed, and *very* happily flirted with. Is there anything you can do to encourage her to keep being this confident? Because it's *really* great on her.