"That's clearly not acceptable," you say with a faint smile. "Happily, it's something that I can change." You've definitely thought about bringing Mami somewhere nice - Paris, say. Or the Moon.
And the silence shouldn't be a problem. We can just add some ambience. Some nice music, maybe the sound of birds chirping. We could even bring our friends along if we thought it would be too isolated. I'm sure they wouldn't object to a chance to go to the moon.
As it is, Sabrina can use her platonic solid-like grief, her mind, and her good understanding of optics to make an extremely exaggerated projection of the moon by putting a field of grief shaped to act as sensors for all useful bands of light (sacrificing some resolution to also make room for an array of projectors, though I think we could just use non visible light and add false color?) To make it 10x bigger, and possibly enhance the brightness of stars and nebulae.
Unrelated, but it would feel nice to give Homura a new set of guns (just as a gift) that uses our powers and knowledge. Something designed with her and her abilities and normal activities in mind that is also made for maximum quality/the best materials known to man with no concern for profit (instead of knicked criminal and military gear both made for grown men and for the express purpose of lining someone's pockets long before effectiveness comes into consideration). We could easily make enough copies and ammo that it'd last for decades at her current use cases, plus extra for her to practice enchanting, since I feel like enchanted bullets would help her bridge the gap in anti witch staying power.
As it is, Sabrina can use her platonic solid-like grief, her mind, and her good understanding of optics to make an extremely exaggerated projection of the moon by putting a field of grief shaped to act as sensors for all useful bands of light (sacrificing some resolution to also make room for an array of projectors, though I think we could just use non visible light and add false color?) To make it 10x bigger, and possibly enhance the brightness of stars and nebulae.
Unrelated, but it would feel nice to give Homura a new set of guns (just as a gift) that uses our powers and knowledge. Something designed with her and her abilities and normal activities in mind that is also made for maximum quality/the best materials known to man with no concern for profit (instead of knicked criminal and military gear both made for grown men and for the express purpose of lining someone's pockets long before effectiveness comes into consideration). We could easily make enough copies and ammo that it'd last for decades at her current use cases, plus extra for her to practice enchanting, since I feel like enchanted bullets would help her bridge the gap in anti witch staying power.
We need to help her find her inner clockmaker, obviously. Remember, if she gets so engrossed that she forgets to eat or sleep, or starts ranting about those fools and how she's going to show them all, that's a good sign.
I'm pretty new as well (I finished reading all of this a month or two back)
So, what do you think of the thread's logic so far?
On things to improve upon:
My personal opinions are that we aren't using the grief constructs to their fullest potential, especially since we've figured out how to avoid trances with our enchanting
We're also withholding information- a bit too much for my tastes. In particular, we need to inform Mami of the witch situation sooner rather than later or else *something else will*; ie. We make a catastrophic error or Kuybey does something. This may be able to be extrapolated to our behavior in general.
Actually, some of our behaviors remind me of a certain cat that shares our color scheme . . .
Actually, we *have* been ignoring Kuybey. We really should bother him about alien politics at some point. Or, on a more useful note, if he isn't antagonistic towards us then that'll be one less problem we have to deal with. This may not be possible though.
I'd also say that the votes are a bit too . . . Specific and flow-chart-y. As in,
X
-X
-X
—X
—-X
—X
—X
X
X
-X
-X
We attempt to cover every single possible issue in particular, even though that's kinda impossible.
In my opinion, we're better off with something like:
Explain X in X style. Note emotional states and supply plushies as needed. Be kind.
Basically, it's still fine to plan stuff. But, especially since this entire thread is used for Sabrina's mental state, we don't need to state everything explicitly. Like, the GM isn't going to do have Sabrina make a world-ending mistake because we didn't say we *weren't*. And, as I said before, it's kinda pointless because the flowchart is going to be messed up.
But, all in all, it's been an entertaining read. And we seem to be on the track for explaining things, which is good. (I'm of the opinion that we should have Mami know all the things; both for safety purposes and for trust purposes)
On a different note, I suppose you need a new thing to read. Do you want me to recommend you anything?
My personal opinions are that we aren't using the grief constructs to their fullest potential, especially since we've figured out how to avoid trances with our enchanting
We're also withholding information- a bit too much for my tastes. In particular, we need to inform Mami of the witch situation sooner rather than later or else *something else will*; ie. We make a catastrophic error or Kuybey does something. This may be able to be extrapolated to our behavior in general.
Actually, some of our behaviors remind me of a certain cat that shares our color scheme . . .
Actually, we *have* been ignoring Kuybey. We really should bother him about alien politics at some point. Or, on a more useful note, if he isn't antagonistic towards us then that'll be one less problem we have to deal with. This may not be possible though.
I think the current direction the thread's taken Sabrina's powers is mostly the least interesting direction possible. Pseudo-telekinesis and grief blades and the like are useful no doubt, but pass up on a lot on the weird, witchy, and most of all magical nature of Grief. A bit like having a staff that can control the weather and using it to beat people up; it's probably really good at beating people up, it's useful, and the fight scenes are fun, but I'd prefer to read about weather control. I rather liked that first scene of Sabrina making a labyrinth.
I think we've been withholding too much information as well, but more because it's been holding up so much of the story than for any practical concerns. What we just did now, telling everyone about the Law of Cycles and having everyone talk about all this, that's something I would've preferred seeing more of over the last ten years of content.
Kyubey's been underutilised. At the very least we should've told him to let any magical girls contact us via telepathy and to call back anyone who tried to contact us in the past. He blocks telepathic contact with unmet magical girls for the recipient's sake by default, so we should turn that off on our end. As for using him in general, we're long past the point where it can hurt us by leaving out information, so we should use it to fill in as many holes in our knowledge as possible, outside of stuff like the Law of Cycles and the like.
I think it's long obsolete. I think it may have once served a purpose in the early days of the quest when Sabrina was, as the OP says, a blank slate, when her personality and capabilities were still being shaped. Now though, she's a very defined character, with firmly established goals, methodologies, and abilities. I think it would be better now to go for broader direction and let Sabrina handle the nitpicky details.
As an example, once we found out about the Iowa, I think the votes should've been "How do you want to do this: strike first, fortify, or attempt diplomacy", we pick one, and then let Sabrina handle the rest. No battle tactics specified on our end beyond that. Write-ins allowed of course, but again, direction rather than specifics.
The main thing I believe that'd help with is pacing, both within updates and in the broader story overall. PMAS has seven thousand pages of updates but it doesn't feel like we're even a third of the way done. I enjoyed reading the quest but I don't think I would've enjoyed playing it, and even despite the fact that I liked reading it overall, the very slow pacing did impact my enjoyment.
Cyber Magica Neon Youko by Omicron, here on SV. It was written in 2016 for NaNoWriMo so it's pretty short and I'm guessing almost certainly unfinished, but Omicron's a good writer so I'm enjoying myself while it lasts.
I do agree about the whole witchy constructs too... Frankly the whole witchy feeling makes it almost impossible to use for things like combat, so we basically almost never use it outside of science (with exception of the whole ship thing and mecha godzilla... Which was pretty cool)
The Laberynth incident pretty much killed any chance of ever using it again (at least anytime soon, maybe in a few years) tho who knows, maybe the info we have gotten changes some minds idk.
Familiars are in the same state but instead of fearing feathers they fear the familiar will be a god entity that will immidiatly escape because its god and it will be impossible for us to stop it and turn into our witch, which doesnt make much sense considering its OUR familiar not our witches familiar.
So we stick with blender mode, gem snatching and hammer time...and flight with wings which to be fair is pretty cool too, and to be fair most of these things are more than sufficient for megucas and witches... Just boring at times.
Oh, I've actually got a couple things to say about Elsa Maria. Firstly, she had dozens of familiars, whereas normally she only has exactly twelve Sebastians, one for each zodiac animal, so she got a powerup at some point. Secondly, her labyrinth faded away like most labyrinths instead of shattering like glass like it did in the final timeline. I think it shattered in that timeline because of Sayaka's mental state, which I think lends further credence to the idea that magical girls low-key have a low-level labyrinth-like effect of altering the environment around them, though not as much as a witch.
I've also got a question about Grief: why is Grief black? Soul gems come in all sorts of colours, but grief seeds are all black. Witches are even more different from each other than magical girls, and the designs of grief seeds are as varied as that of soul gems, but they all share the same colour.
Relatedly, is Grief homogenous, or does each witch have her own signature Grief?
I've also got a question about Grief: why is Grief black? Soul gems come in all sorts of colours, but grief seeds are all black. Witches are even more different from each other than magical girls, and the designs of grief seeds are as varied as that of soul gems, but they all share the same colour.
But yea To the Stars is ≈ the oldest and best *Madoka* fanfic.
As in, it's as old as this one, probably older.
And it's a magical girl space opera.
Yes, I *do* like it
- - -
All in all, I agree with your judgements. The pacing is definitely slow, but personally I don't mind it.
Our lack of power exploration . . .
To be honest, if I was going to edit one thing about this quest then it'd be how our power operates. Like, it's kinda broken? As in, we can win basically any fight as needed *as well as* be the best support.
As far as I can tell, there's few limitations to what we can make with our grief. The restrictions seem to be:
1) We can't control it outside our range
2) Grief is used as a "binding" for augments, so they follow (1)
3) We go into a trance for the time we make it, provided that we don't use enchanted grief beforehand
4) It smells funny
The main issue is (1) and (2). We've basically solved (3) and (4) is just kinda annoying. Like, I think the thread has determined that we shouldn't store constructs due to this, but I don't think that our core group actually minds at this point. We should probably store a few in hammerspace, especially for emergencies.
(1) and (2) are our basic limits. And I think we can get around them- we already got that lazer. My main idea is a scanner/printer combo- a construct capable of analyzing an object, recording its information, and then rearranging another set of matter into a copy.
We should also test if we can make a dewitching construct. Not necessarily *test* it, but just to see if we can. Ok, personally I'd like to give it a test, but if we do that'll be 1) a risk and 2) in the best case the product will be bound to our position.
In my mind, we should figure this out sooner rather than later. Specifically I don't want us panicking when someone witches out because we don't know what to do. I don't want our first experiments with this to be on someone that we care about (like, to be extremely callous, we don't care much about the grief seeds in our possession. And that's perfectly reasonable, especially given our current situation.)
And, to be frank, whatever method we use isn't going to be clean, wether it's using a construct or our other ongoing attempts. We are going to mess things up. But that's ok- because, if we just do nothing, that's an even bigger problem in the long run.
But the dewitching efforts aren't particularly a priority, especially since we don't have a cleansing alternative that doesn't directly depend on us. So it's fine if we hold off a bit.
- - -
On our gameplay note . . . Maybe the problem is that we're being too careful at the cost of fun.
Like, we seem kinda scared to take any risks, even though taking them would be preferable- both from an out-of-game fun and in-game effectiveness.
The Laberynth incident pretty much killed any chance of ever using it again (at least anytime soon, maybe in a few years) tho who knows, maybe the info we have gotten changes some minds idk.
We have a way to get around that now, with our enchantments.
So it should be ok.
Plus, we're kinda skipping on a lot of stuff at the moment because we're avoiding it- things could be a lot more interesting if we explored it.
Most notably how our grief control interacts with it.
And . . . Actually, I don't think we've asked Mami how she feels about another attempt? Since that seems to be our main concern besides trancing then we should ask her. And my memory states that the *trance* was the issue that Mami had a problem with.
I've also got a question about Grief: why is Grief black? Soul gems come in all sorts of colours, but grief seeds are all black. Witches are even more different from each other than magical girls, and the designs of grief seeds are as varied as that of soul gems, but they all share the same colour.
Relatedly, is Grief homogenous, or does each witch have her own signature Grief?
From what I can tell, specifically from Mami's comment on *our* grief, the signature feels slightly different for each.
But we are not likely to get too deep into witches here, unless we go ham on the science related to them.
On the color . . . Perhaps they *should* be a bit more variable, but their designs are inherited from the original.
If you want more details on witches, the best one is probably the Subsumption faux-quest. If you want a piece that has a similar vibe to "exploring Witches", then I recommend the original webnovel Nowhere Stars. (Basically, its Harbingers are better than Witches in every single way. And all of them are characters in their own right).
To be honest, if I was going to edit one thing about this quest then it'd be how our power operates. Like, it's kinda broken? As in, we can win basically any fight as needed *as well as* be the best support.
IIRC, we were encouraged to come up with a wish to get as broken a power as possible. Fighting Witches and the like is not supposed to be the main challenge here.
IIRC, we were encouraged to come up with a wish to get as broken a power as possible. Fighting Witches and the like is not supposed to be the main challenge here.
We have a way to get around that now, with our enchantments.
So it should be ok.
Plus, we're kinda skipping on a lot of stuff at the moment because we're avoiding it- things could be a lot more interesting if we explored it.
Most notably how our grief control interacts with it.
And . . . Actually, I don't think we've asked Mami how she feels about another attempt? Since that seems to be our main concern besides trancing then we should ask her. And my memory states that the *trance* was the issue that Mami had a problem with.
My impression is that the primary reason we've been scared of Barrier experimentation is that the last time we did it, Feathers started doing stuff and Sayaka got yoinked over to Elsa Maria.
It'd be really cool if we could safely do Barrier experimentation, but I don't know how we could prevent Feathers from acting up again, or what the consequences could be if they do.
Also, as a quick reminder: Sabrina has actually gotten lectured a fair bit on being too reckless or otherwise not thinking through the consequences enough.
Examples related to power experimentation include the "nearly Witched out over a chicken" incident, making Mami and Homura freak out in combat because we started doing Witchy stuff right next to them, everybody freaking out because we'd put a Grief Seed and a Clear Seed next to each other in our pocket, etc...
Besides that, there's stuff like traveling to Oriko's without telling Homura beforehand and nearly getting shot, slipping up and calling Walpy a "city-destroying witch" in front of Madoka...
And there's also the examples for which we didn't get explicitly lectured but oversights still caused negative consequences, like the times we got Mami spiraling because we didn't anticipate how she'd interpret our wording choices...
Which isn't to say I disagree with you, I do think we trend towards obsessive anxiety about everything that might go wrong to an unhealthy and often unhelpful degree, but I do think it's important to realize that there is legitimate reason we tend to fixate on caution and overpreparation.
But there have also been many times where we were prevented from making an oversight/mistake like that because a friend/ally caught it in time, and stopped us.
So overall, I think the message to take home is to involve the others in our decision-making more often: I'm hoping us opening up about all the Rebellion stuff will be a significant step forward in that regard.
Same for power experimentation: I think that talking to the others about our power experimentation thoughts and plans more would pay major dividends.
And I know I'd feel far more comfortable doing risky stuff like Barrier experimentation if we talked it through with the others first, and they had the same understanding of the potential risks that we do.
To be honest, if I was going to edit one thing about this quest then it'd be how our power operates. Like, it's kinda broken? As in, we can win basically any fight as needed *as well as* be the best support.
That was kinda the point to start with, tbf. Sabrina is disgustingly powerful and voting for something crazy was encouraged to show that off, but the overall moral of this quest is that strength isn't everything and that while we could in theory bull through all problems, that will only cause more issues than they solve in the long run. What matters is the people and how they feel and act towards each other, trying to find a way to have everyone to get along in spite of grudges and anger/hatred.
[X] Wait for Yuki to return, then continue
[X] This is scary, yes, but not hopeless.
-[X] I'm telling you this now because I believe we can fix this. Before I didn't even know there's something to fix to begin with and just talking about them was dangerous.
-[X] Constellation is not defenceless; these cosmic entities can be influenced by Puella Magi's powers, for example isolation field is enough to hide from Law of Cycles. With how much power and powersets we amassed, we can play on their level.
-[X] Please understand that I am reluctant to share more than general overview of these entities because they are not some faceless dietes but a bunch of traumatized teenagers who never wanted nor deserved any of that.
[X] Basic overview of Wraiths, Grief Cubes, etc.
[X] Rebellion
-[X] Kyubey tortured the one girl who remembered the previous events as part of a scheme to interfere with that Wish and bring back Witches
-[X] The girl managed to tap into the Power of Love, broke out of the torture chamber, then tore the human part out of the Law of Cycles
-[X] She erased the girl's memory so she wouldn't merge back with the Law of Cycles, and made the universe into a gilded cage
[X] Their respective god transformations gave both girls feathered wings. The Law of Cycles' were white, the other girls' were black
-[X] The girl with the black feathers hated the way things played out, so she would never want to put things back on track.
-[X] I'm not sure what was left of the Law of Cycles without the human part, or what it was doing It might be related to Feathers
[X] Neither girl is a god now as far as we can tell.
-[X] That suggests a "break" might have happened to the second girl at some point too.
--[X] She wouldn't have wanted things to stay on track, but maybe her unguided, haywire powers might.
-[X] We worry if either girl learns about this, they'll link up with their respective godheads, or at least draw their attention.
--[X] Aside from maybe losing them as people, which is unacceptable, there's also the risk they'll start rearanging the cosmic furniture.
[X] "She"
-[X] Could be the rest of the Law of Cycles
-[X] Could be the other goddess looking to put the girl back in her gilded cage
-[X] Could be a third goddess made of all the combined grief and despair of the Witches the Law of Cycles ensured would never exist.
[X] "The Missing Fragment"
-[X] Could be either goddess' human component.
-[X] Could be Sabrina
--[X] Sabrina has wings. They aren't just Grief Constructs like we thought.
The door shuts behind Yuki, and you can't help the gusty sigh that escapes you, the click of the latch sounding with finality. It's not too late to go after Yuki, but the moment is definitely passed.
... she should be alright. You can still sense her Soul Gem, the Grief seeping slowly into it. A bit above normal rates, perhaps, and you'll keep an eye on that, but you can hardly blame her for a bit of emotional turmoil.
You've just dropped a hell of a bombshell on her lap, and you can't blame her for being shellshocked. And heck, she's an... eminently practical sort of person. She's never been anything less than bluntly mercenary: money, influence, and Grief Seeds to support herself and her friends. Straightforward and respectable in a way, not exactly power hungry for its own sake. And she's been entirely clear that she signed up with you because she expected that to be the best way to do so.
She didn't exactly sign up for a war in heaven, did she? You have every intention of upholding your end of things, but none of this could possibly come easy to her. You can hardly blame her for balking a bit.
"Well," you mutter. "That could have gone better."
"Could it?" Oriko asks mildly.
You snort.
"I don't know. It's... a troubling revelation, even for me," you admit. You turn your attention to Umika, who's now staring into the middle distance, at once thoughtful and perturbed - a sharp contrast with her earlier glee. "Are you alright, Miss Misaki?"
"Huh?" She refocuses on you, then smiles, her eyes practically sparkling. "Oh! Never better. I can't say I haven't dreamed of this sort of thing, you know?"
"What, a massive new problem to handle?" you ask.
"Not exactly," Umika says, schooling her gleeful excitement back into something more sober. "We are magical girls. And even leaving aside all the portrayal in media, I always hoped there would be something... greater out there than just our day to day struggles. Not that fighting Witches and saving people from them is unworthy, of course."
"Ah," you say, slightly bemused. Well, she is a writer, you suppose, and a dreamer. "... well, I hope it isn't too much."
"Not at all," Umika says. "And I'm sure Kazumi would agree."
"Well... good," you say, and clear your throat. "I'm glad you're alright with that, but if you don't mind my saying so, you seemed a bit uncomfortable just now?"
"Ah," Umika says, a look of chagrin slipping across her face. "I thought I was hiding it better, but, ah, your enchantment is getting to me a bit."
"Oh," you say, glancing at your privacy construct - that little green circlet, set on a pedestal and radiating that endless pulse of Witch, Witch, Witch that you'd somehow almost forgotten. "Right, sorry. I could dismiss it?"
"No, no, we'll have use of it again soon, and I wouldn't want to put you through the trouble," Umika says, straightening her glasses. "But I think I might go for a walk." She purses her lips. "I should go get more hot water for the tea, anyway."
"... if you're sure," you say. "I can just dissolve it and recreate it."
"I'm sure!" she says. "And if I see Miss Tsuruya, I'll see whether she needs a somewhat neutral shoulder to vent on, or simply a bit of space."
"Alright," you say.
Umika collects the teapot and departs with footsteps whispering over teddy-bear-patterned rugs, leaving four of you remaining in the privacy of the interdiction field. Oriko sighs lightly and arches a supercilious eyebrow at you, an apparently-dozing Kirika tucked under her arm.
"Are you entirely sure this is wise, Sabrina?" she asks.
"Wise? No, I'm not sure," you say, sighing. "I'll be honest, I'm surprised I'm not freaking out more about sharing what I do know here. But I do think that with the confirmation from your magic, it's not right to hang on to those secrets when it might spill over on them, and catastrophically so."
"Mm," Oriko says, amusement flickering across her face. "I suppose I shouldn't be arguing against your principles."
You snort.
"Yeah, well," you say, shrugging, and turn your smile to Mami. "Mami? Are you holding up OK? I know you've complained about the silence in the privacy field before, I could put up some music? Er, that goes for you too, Oriko, Kirika."
"Mm... maybe if we wind up having to wait much longer?" she says, not stirring from your side. "I'm not feeling too uncomfortable right now, but I'll tell you if that changes, Sabrina."
Mami tilts her head back to smile at you, and then she winks at you. And... ah. She's doing alright, yes, but it might well be because she's thinking. You can all but see the gears spinning furiously in the warmth of her golden eyes, her mind evidently processing the revelations so far, but she doesn't seem to want to bring it up just yet.
You tilt your head inquiringly. Because she needs a little more time to finish thinking it through?
Her smile widens, and she lets her head drop back against your side, then reconsiders and nudges your arm over her shoulders so she can wiggle that little bit closer. So it's a thought that she'd rather finish before raising it with you, huh? That's alright with you.
In the end, you do wind up playing some music, Oriko being the sole person with an actual opinion and vote for music. Then again, she might just be amusing herself by testing your knowledge of relatively obscure composers - which you wind up having to dredge your mind for a moment before placing the particular song she wanted.
In the end, both Yuki and Umika wind up returning at the same time, Yuki hesitating for a moment before stepping back into your interdiction field, then tilting her head as she listens to the music. She chooses not to comment, shrugging and settling back into her chosen seat while Umika refills everyone's cups, and you all take a moment to enjoy the tea before you launch back into the discussions.
"I apologise for the delay, Miss Vee," Yuki says at length as she lowers her teacup.
"Please don't," you say, faintly pained. "I... you have completely understandable concerns over a frankly massive blindside I hit you with. That you needed a minute to absorb it is frankly the least I could offer you - and speaking of which, do you need a cleanse? That goes for everyone, by the way."
"I don't believe so," Yuki says, joined by a general round of agreement. Yuki sighs, and looks at you. "I am concerned, not despairing."
"Fair enough," you say, exhaling slowly. "But if I may offer my perspective on things?"
She motions for you to continue.
"Well... just set aside the nature of the powers for a moment," you say slowly. "I know the sheer scale of things, with Witches and Wishes and whatnot is massive, but we'll get back to that in a moment. Just imagine two very powerful magical girls in conflict. A lot of magic in motion, potentially a lot of collateral. But here's the thing: at the heart of it, they're still just girls. Teenagers, just like us."
You smile, but you keep your eyes on Yuki. Because she's the one here, out of all of you, who's worried. Who needs reassurance. Because she's the one who was blindsided by all this. Because...
"Because at the end of the day, it's about the people," you say. "It's the people at the heart of it all that matter. They never would have wanted this, they never deserved this."
You spread your hands, motioning to everyone sitting around the (teddy-bear-shaped) coffee table, variously sipping their tea or nibbling their biscuits or simply listening to you. Each and every one of you a magical girl, each and every one of you who understands what being a magical girl is like, whether forced into it by circumstances or otherwise.
And for some reason, Yuki laughs. Just a single, sharp bark, but she's smiling faintly.
"That's certainly one way to look at it," she concedes. "I can see why you would think that way, but knowing more would help."
"Alright," you say, nodding. "The facts, then. First, we, Constellation, are not defenceless. Magical girl powers work. This isolation field, for example, is enough to hide from the Law, and I believe your claims over buildings are equally inviolate. Working together, we can play on their level."
"What would you say is this level?" Yuki asks, her eyes narrowing.
"Difficult to quantify exactly," you say. "As I mentioned, the Law of Cycles was created from a Wish to destroy all Witches, past and future. But in an open confrontation..." You shrug. "As difficult to categorize as any magical girl, you know? It would not be inaccurate to call them cosmic entities, but it's not accurate either."
Yuki purses her lips, but nods reluctantly, accepting the point.
"Regardless: I believe we can fix this," you say. "Before, I can't say I knew for sure that this was something to fix, and just talking about them was dangerous, but... now, this is something to work towards."
"What do you mean, dangerous to talk about?" Yuki asks, folding her arms.
"Among other things, neither of the two girls at the heart of all this stuff are their ascended selves, as far as I can tell," you say slowly. Madoka is Madoka, and Homura is Homura. "But... and I have to emphasize that this part is speculation on my part, but not unfounded - if either of them find out about all this, they might draw their respective... godheads to them, or maybe draw the attention thereof."
You flick a glance at Oriko. She's warned you about Homura before, hasn't she? But her returning look is just confused. When you look back to Yuki, you find her attention to be almost a physical thing, like she's trying to dissect you with her eyes alone.
"... and what all does that entail?" Yuki asks.
For some reason, that question gives you pause. You don't think it's what she was going to ask, but she's... chosen not to ask what was on her mind.
"... mm," you say. "Storytime, I suppose."
And so you launch into an explanation. You leave out names and specific details, of course, apologizing to everyone for that. But they're not faceless deities, it's Madoka and Homura. You'd left off on the future past of Madoka's Wish and her ascension: so you follow into what you think of as Rebellion. Of Kyuubey trapping and torturing the one girl who remembered, because of that painfully human greed. To undo Madoka's Wish in favour of profit.
And if venom enough to make Yuki and Umika flinch leaks into your voice as you tell that part, well... you have little qualms about despising Kyuubey.
Then comes the breaking, of the Law of Cycles shattered. Of Homura loving Madoka enough to tear her from the Law, to make her human again, and to remake the universe into a gilded cage to hold Madoka in place, to save her from her own sacrifice.
"... but there is where what I know ends," you conclude. "Except... both of them had wings. The girl who became the Law of Cycles has these translucent, ethereal ones, and the one who tore her down..." You sigh. "Wings of black feathers."
Mami claimed your hand once more at some point during the story, her grip tight and almost painful. But you can hardly complain, when you're squeezing back just as hard.
"That's... quite the story," Yuki says.
"Oh, yes," Umika breathes, awe in her voice and expression. Rather like she's just had a religious revelation, actually.
Yuki gives her a sidelong glance, and decides to ignore that.
"And you're sure of all this? That this has already happened, Miss Vee?" she says instead.
You suck in a breath between your teeth.
"I'm certain the events that I laid out could happen, yes," You shake your head. "There's a gap between my vision-slash-knowledge and our current circumstances. But the message relayed by the conjunction of Oriko's and Umika's magics? It... matches far too well."
Yuki nods slowly.
"Then what is your plan?" she asks. There's a faint emphasis there on the 'your', almost a challenge to you.
[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
[X] Their respective god transformations gave both girls feathered wings. The Law of Cycles' were white, the other girls' were black
-[X] The girl with the black feathers hated the way things played out, so she would never want to put things back on track.
-[X] I'm not sure what was left of the Law of Cycles without the human part, or what it was doing It might be related to Feathers
[X] Neither girl is a god now as far as we can tell.
-[X] That suggests a "break" might have happened to the second girl at some point too.
--[X] She wouldn't have wanted things to stay on track, but maybe her unguided, haywire powers might.
-[X] We worry if either girl learns about this, they'll link up with their respective godheads, or at least draw their attention.
--[X] Aside from maybe losing them as people, which is unacceptable, there's also the risk they'll start rearanging the cosmic furniture.
[X] "She"
-[X] Could be the rest of the Law of Cycles
-[X] Could be the other goddess looking to put the girl back in her gilded cage
-[X] Could be a third goddess made of all the combined grief and despair of the Witches the Law of Cycles ensured would never exist.
[X] "The Missing Fragment"
-[X] Could be either goddess' human component.
-[X] Could be Sabrina
--[X] Sabrina has wings. They aren't just Grief Constructs like we thought.
[X] for yourself, Iterate through...
-[X] Everything Oriko wants to ask.
-[X] Your own questions about...
--[X] Your status before you woke up in the alley
--[X] Where your clothes came from (in the alley)
--[X] What you've done when tranced, when it was significant
--[X] What you recall Homura's feathers are supposed to look like
--[X] Why your potential was strange
--[X] Who the voice you've been hearing belongs to
--[X] "Who is dreaming?"
--[X] Where is the missing fragment?
=====
In case of future link rot, the music linked was Divenire by Ludovico Einaudi, which I happened to be listening to at the time.
Also. Madokami doesn't have white feathers. She doesn't have feathers at all, actually, just ethereal pink silhouettes.
At any rate, I think this is going well so far - I'm quite relieved that we didn't wind up exposing Madoka or Homura. Not even Oriko has a clue, which surprised me, but is a good sign for it being harder to figure out than I feared it might be.
Mami tilts her head back to smile at you, and then she winks at you. And... ah. She's doing alright, yes, but it might well be because she's thinking. You can all but see the gears spinning furiously in the warmth of her golden eyes, her mind evidently processing the revelations so far, but she doesn't seem to want to bring it up just yet.
You tilt your head inquiringly. Because she needs a little more time to finish thinking it through?
Her smile widens, and she lets her head drop back against your side, then reconsiders and nudges your arm over her shoulders so she can wiggle that little bit closer. So it's a thought that she'd rather finish before raising it with you, huh? That's alright with you.
The trance we get when making a labyrinth doesn't matter; it's a pretty mild side-effect of using a magic power. The only reason it was a big deal last time is because we didn't know it would happen and Mami was a paranoid wreck (it would've been alarming even if she weren't, but the paranoia made it worse). Now that we know what'll happen, it'll be fine. At most, all we need is a spotter with an antimagic doohickey.
My impression is that the primary reason we've been scared of Barrier experimentation is that the last time we did it, Feathers started doing stuff and Sayaka got yoinked over to Elsa Maria.
It'd be really cool if we could safely do Barrier experimentation, but I don't know how we could prevent Feathers from acting up again, or what the consequences could be if they do.
We shouldn't have stopped simply because the first time was questionably bad. Way too many years have gone by ignoring the most interesting magic in the story because of the same overcautious fear that has slowed down so much of the rest of it.
We try it again, get Oriko on overwatch, and move on. If Feathers shows up again, then we get confirmation that our labyrinth powers are linked to it, and then we interfere with its machinations like we did last time. If it doesn't, hooray, labyrinth powers. Either way, we move the story forward in an interesting way.
So overall, I think the message to take home is to involve the others in our decision-making more often: I'm hoping us opening up about all the Rebellion stuff will be a significant step forward in that regard.
Sayaka and Oriko should be our biggest allies, to whom we tell as much as possible. Kyoko is uninterested, Homura is conservative to a fault (and the devil besides), and Mami lacks the confidence to be useful or wise. Oriko is big-picture oriented and fully willing to involve herself in that scale of affairs, and now that she's fixed she won't be evil and dumb about it. We avoid alienating Homura, but aside from that, we should work with her more. As for Sayaka, we know what she's like in Rebellion and Magia Record: she's a magnificent ally so long as she has enough information to avoid stepping on the tragically large amount of rakes in her path.
In particular, even in the original show, Mami had some sense of Madoka's massive potential. That makes Madoka an obvious candidate for the Law, and given that, Homura being the devil is a natural conclusion.
