Has "vernette" been considered as a term for green-haired girls? Feels like it flows better than "verdette," and there's etymological basis linking to springtime and alder trees.

Please don't bring up the hair colour derived from french thing. "Verdette" wasn't really the awkward one
"Rosette" refers to a kind of sausage. Madoka with lyonnaise charcuterie in place of her ribbons is an image that tooks weeks to get out of my head
 
Wait, if Rebellion is canon, and Homura could mess with Sayaka's memories in Rebellion, then doesn't that mean until we can't really learn if Sayaka is an angel until we know if Homura is her post rebellion self? Not to dredge that up again but it does mean it'd be hard to be 100% sure. Like I ain't proposing we do more tests (it's probably unlikely enough), but I do suggest that if it somehow does turn out to be the case we hollar 'I knew it' and start making a conspiracy corkboard to confuse Devil Homura.
 
Wait, if Rebellion is canon, and Homura could mess with Sayaka's memories in Rebellion, then doesn't that mean until we can't really learn if Sayaka is an angel until we know if Homura is her post rebellion self? Not to dredge that up again but it does mean it'd be hard to be 100% sure. Like I ain't proposing we do more tests (it's probably unlikely enough), but I do suggest that if it somehow does turn out to be the case we hollar 'I knew it' and start making a conspiracy corkboard to confuse Devil Homura.
for what it seems, she needs to actively do that,that's why the clara dolls and the big ass eye in the skip, to constantly spy on everyone so that they don't "wake up" from the "sweet dream" that she created
 
Hazard Course Pt. 44
[x] gib dino
[X] Parro is almost certainly doing this meeting in bad faith, aiming to exploit your "naivete". It seems very unlikely that she's had any kind of genuine change of heart so quickly.
-[X] Nonetheless, you'll meet with her - more to establish a precedent for prisoner's rights than for her own sake.
-[X] Take precautions - create a grief body to pilot for the conversation, leave your soul gem out of Parro's vicinity.
[X] During the talk:
-[X] You're trying to set things up to a point where a semi-functioning legal system can exist.
--[X] Once it does, her and her colleagues will go through it. You're aiming for rehabilitative justice.
-[X] We are hearing her out as a courtesy, and she should not waste our time.
--[X] Anything she wants to say to us any time soon, should be said now, because she likely won't get another chance before her trial. You are busy.
[X] Don't leave without talking to Yuki about setting up the Warehouse-kun science lab and stopping by to talk to Anri.
-[X] Subjects for Anri: De-witching progress, Yuuri's Grief Seed, Body Manufacture, Evil Nuts Asunaro Almonds.

It's a short roofhop from there to the shopping center, the pastries carefully enfolded in Grief and tucked away in hammerspace for safekeeping. You have your mental shopping list, of course, but you're not in any particular hurry at the moment - other than checking in with Yuki and Parro and Anri, you're waiting for school to end.

You also need to track down Kyouko and Yuma, to see how they're doing and to bring up the idea of getting Yuma enrolled in school, but that's something you can't rush. You've been giving Kyouko the space she needs to decompress, you hope - you get the impression she's been pushing herself, and you don't want to add to that. At the very least, you'll probably see them tonight.

So for now: shopping!

Mami takes your hand as you head into the hubbub of Shimachi shopping center, your step purposeful. It's crowded even at this hour, the customers shading towards the older, a gamut of humanity from university students and older. Not to say that you and Mami are totally out of place, of course, here and there, you see a few middle-schoolers, loners and pack hunters both, so you don't get as many odd looks as you did while on the streets.

Your first stop is the department store, Mami giving you a curious look as you make for it.

"Picture frames!" you say. "And maybe a camera? It'd be nice to have a record of our shenanigans."

"That sounds... wonderful, Sabrina," Mami says. There's a hitch in her voice, her eyes wide and terribly vulnerable.

You squeeze her hand gently. You get it.

Still, she recovers soon enough, the two of you spending more than a few minutes lingering by the display racks of photo frames as you both try to figure out which ones would look better at home. Ultimately, you load five of them into your shopping basket, resolving to come back for more when you fill them up.

"There's a photography shop on the other side of the shopping centre," Mami observes as you look over the rather paltry selection of cameras available.

"... yeah, let's make a stop there instead," you agree, shaking your head and starting off towards the counter. "I'm not getting disposable cameras."

"You know, your phone does have a camera," Mami says, amused as she hooks her arm through yours.

"Bah, phone cameras," you grumble, wrinkling your nose.

"Oh?" Mami asks, amused grin now joined by an amused eyebrow.

"The quality isn't there yet, unless you pay way, way more than I would have been willing to ask you to pay," you say, and fake a shiver. "Also, printing digital photos sucks, especially if you want to do it yourself. Quality photo printers are just... way too expensive."

"Alright, alright," she says, giggling fondly. "I suppose that makes sense."

"Damn right it does," you say, beaming back at her. "Oh, and before I forget, I want to get a perch for Mugin."

"Maybe a nestbox as well?" Mami suggests. "And... mm, I think we might want a few new towels while we're here, actually. Since Kyouko and Yuma are staying with us."

"Good idea," you agree.

You settle into a comfortable rhythm with Mami, picking up the odds and ends that make a household work with ease. You don't need shampoo, but you might as well pick it up while you're here. Body wash, too, and as Mami grabs the herbal scented brand Kyouko apparently prefers, she offers to let you have one you don't have to share with her. But truth be told, you sort of like it, so Mami just gets an extra large instead with a blushing smile.

You do grab that perch, of course, and the supermarket's your next stop, grabbing groceries and snacks for the trips ahead. The groceries you'll drop off back home before heading out, you figure, and if not, it'll all keep in hammerspace. You also pick up a good-sized wedge of nice parmesan and some mandarins for Mr Momoe and Nagisa - the latter isn't exactly a conventional gift, but you're sure Nagisa at least will enjoy it.

And your last stop is the photography shop, Mami insisting on getting a decent, mid-range camera -"If we're going to be taking pictures to put up at home, it'll be worth it!"- and you can't really find a reason to argue against her. You also pick up chemicals for developing film, as well as photo paper and fixing chemicals for enlarging the negatives to actual photos, the store proprietor seeming to assume you're doing it for a school photography club when you inform him you don't need the actual equipment, just the chemicals.

You're planning to cheat outrageously with Grief and hammerspace, of course. Who needs a darkroom when you have a perfectly good void tucked away within your soul?

Just as you're about to leave the shopping center, however, that one plush toy shop catches your eye again, and you come to a halt, staring at that same giant brontosaurus plush in the display window. It stares back at you with fathomless eyes of featureless black void, the pastel green of its plush exterior promising untold softness.

Mami tracks your gaze to the plushie, and giggles. Both your hands are full of bags -which you're going to tuck away into hammerspace as soon as you're not in sight of so many people- so she bumps your shoulder instead, a smile dancing on her lips.

"Are you sure, Sabrina~?" she asks, voice lilting playfully as she echoes the very same question she'd asked the last time you were here.

"... no, I'm not," you say, not looking away from the plush. It's strangely compelling, for some reason.

"Well, I still wouldn't mind buying it for you," she says. She lowers her voice, a slight blush stealing across her face. "But it might be a bit of a tight fit on the bed."

"Yeah, that's true..." you say.

"But it could sit in the bedroom, anyway," Mami says encouragingly. "And it does look nice."

"... do you really think it's OK?" you say.

"Of course it is," Mami says, her voice strengthening. "We do have more than enough to afford it, even leaving aside the funds you acquired."

"Mm..." you say.

Mami shifts the groceries to one hand, ignoring the way the bags bulge out in excess of what an ordinary schoolgirl should be able to carry on one arm, and gently rests her freed hand on your upper arm.

"What's wrong, Sabrina?" she asks softly.

"Well... aside from a weird feeling of impending doom about the plush, which I think has no actual basis in reality, it feels... weird spending so much money on something like this," you admit. "Which probably isn't rational, but you know."

Mami frowns slightly, her fingers stroking gently against your arm.

"Are you sure about the feeling of impending doom?" she asks.

"... I'm reasonably sure, but do tell me if you spot a particularly fluffy dragon-girl with a scythe?" you say hesitantly. "Or a giant spider? Or if Kirika tries to steal the plush?"

"I've always thought that a tarantula might make a nice pet," Mami says lightly, squeezing your arm. "I'll keep an eye out. But if you're sure about that, then..."

She thrusts her other hand at you, raising an imperious eyebrow until you accept the rest of the groceries. The plastic bags creak awkwardly as you squeeze them into your own overladen grip, and then you watch as she marches into the shop and begins a conversation with the cashier.

A few minutes later, Mami marches back out of the store, dinosaur plushie tucked under her arm and a smile on her face.

"There we go," Mami says happily, beaming at you. "Now let's go drop all this back home."

You can't help but laugh, helplessly fond and grateful and vaguely guilty, all at once. Mami studies your face for a moment, then smiles.

"It's my right to spoil you silly, Sabrina," she says. "Even if you're reluctant to do nice things for yourself. It's the least you deserve. Alright?"

"... alright," you say, ducking your head with a blush. There's something nice about how matter-of-fact Mami makes it.

For some reason, though, Mami winds up carrying the plushie in her arms all the way home, sneaking the occasional, smugly amused look at you, even after you make it out of to the rooftops and banish all the shopping bags into hammerspace. Still, that leaves you free to wrap your arms around Mami's shoulders you fly the both of you home to tidy away all your purchases, the dino taking pride of place in the center of your bedroom, there to await until you return properly. With that done, you prepare to head out, only for a familiar caw to interrupt you.

You blink in surprise as Mugin soars in through the open window, settling on Mami's shoulder.

"... well," Mami says, stifling a giggle. "We did just get him a new perch."

"That's true!" you say, stepping back in to the living room and patting the perch, pulling out a bit of birdseed with your free hand. "Here, Mugin? Sorry, we're heading out again soon, but at least you've got this nice perch?"

You spend a minute coaxing the crow off Mami's shoulder and over to the perch, set up so he doesn't have to claw over the sofa. And while you're at it, you make a little nest for him out of a basket and a spare handtowel, set on the mended glass of the table. But just as you turn to unlock the door, Mugin scrambles after you, claws clattering over the flaw and squawking frantically.

"We're going out, Mugin," you say.

"Brawwwwk," Mugin says reproachfully.

You exchange a look with Mami.

"... I don't see why not?" Mami says. "We'll have to keep an eye out and make sure he doesn't get lost, is all."

"Well, I suppose we don't want him to get too lonely," you muse, bending down to offer him your hand, and snickering as he proceeds to flutter up to your shoulder instead. "How about it, Mugin? Trip to Fukushima?"

"Caw," Mugin says, butting his head against yours.

"I can't argue with that," Mami says gravely, giving you an amused look. "And I suppose it can't do any harm, can it?"

"I suppose not," you say, smiling. "Alright, let's go, Mugin."

Once more unto the rooftops of Mitakihara - and this time, you take flight, Mami's ribbon wings blossoming in bright mirror of yours and lent a touch of propulsion from you. Mugin settles gamely into flight at your other wingtip after a moment of confusion that's evident even in avian body language. You savour the trip across Mitakihara, the city glittering under the early afternoon sun and Mami at your side as you make your way west once more.

Still, it's not a long flight, and your boots are all too soon scraping over the sandy yard in front of Warehouse-kun, Mugin gliding in for a landing on your proffered arm, then scrambling up to your shoulder.

"Beam us up, Scotty!" you say cheerfully to Yuki as you step into the confines of the warehouse, including Mami in the telepathic call.

Her answering sigh comes through loud and clear, tinged with amusement, even as you feel her attention settle upon you, the sense of her magic awakening from the structure around you.

"Good afternoon, Miss Sabrina," she says drily. "Miss Tomoe. The two of you, and... a bird?"

"Congratulations!" you say brightly. "And yes, Mugin wanted to come along. I think he's tired of us disappearing on him for half the day. Don't worry, he's house-trained."

"Ah, your pet," Yuki says. "Brace yourselves, please."

She gives you a moment to do so, and with that jarring, gut-churning tearaway of reality, your surroundings are abruptly different. Bare metal girders and walls are replaced with pastel-green wallpaper, thin light filtering through grimy ceiling windows with warm afternoon sunlight through lovingly cleaned floor-to-ceiling windows, and bare ground with a furnished living room. A different one from the one you'd seen last time, even.

Mugin startles, feathers ruffling up as he caws in surprise. You reach up to soothe him with one hand, stroking his back gently.

Yuki stands before you, head tilted back to meet your eyes a faint smile on her face, and sprawled out on the sofa behind her is Shinobu's bulky form. Shinobu raises a hand, waving at you with a friendly smile, then returns her attention to the television, which is playing an anime you don't recognize. Some shounen, by the looks of it?

"Hello again, Miss Sabrina, Miss Tomoe," Yuki says, nodding at you.

"Hey!" you say, smiling. "Hope we're not interrupting?"

"Not at all," Yuki says.

"But I do owe Yuki a thousand yen now," Shinobu adds. "My guess was Anywhere Door."

"... whoops?" you say.

"'Beam me up, Scotty', is rather more distinctive of the sort of general... action," Yuki says, amused. "Besides, Miss Sabrina seems the sort."

"I am something a nerd, yes," you say cheerfully. "Anyway, I won't interrupt you for too long, hopefully, so..."

"I'll show you the way," Yuki says, inclining her head. "Miss Tomoe, will you be accompanying Miss Sabrina?"

"Mm... I believe not," Mami says, sending you a swift smile. "I apologize for imposing on your hospitality, but I hope you understand that I thought it best that I be nearby while Sabrina speaks to our prisoners, just in case."

"Eminently sensible," Yuki agrees. "And it is no imposition at all."

"Er... actually, it'll be the both of us," you say. "I'm not intending to go in there in person, just in case it's a trap or some kind of trick."

"Oh?" Mami says.

"I'm going to go in there with, uh, a proxy body," you say. "So, uh, I second Mami's apology for intruding on your rest time, Miss Tsuruya, Miss Nanami."

"Nonsense," Yuki says. "If anything, you're doing us a favour - Parró has refused to speak to me any further than requesting a meeting with you, and frankly, it would set my mind at ease to know a little more of who I'm playing warden to. So please, take all the precautions you like - I do not believe she will do anything, but it doesn't hurt to be sure."

"... yeah, that's... fair," you say. "So, er, I just need a place to sit."

"Feel free!" Shinobu says, waving to the vacant sofa seats. "We were just watching stuff, anyway. D'you like Justice Psi?"

"I've never watched it before," you admit, glancing at Mami.

"Oh, you're missing out," Shinobu says cheerfully. "Anyway, sit, sit!"

You share a quiet smile with Mami as you sit down, that twist of relief and gratitude in her eyes a balm to you as Mami coaxes Mugin down off your shoulder to sit on the sofa and you focus inwards - you're not going to create a proper remote body which just... works, like your chibi body, so this requires a little more thought than simply letting your magic guide your hand.

This will be more of art than science.

You let the polite chatter and the semi-formal rituals of hospitality and the sensation of Mami's arm around your waist wash over you as you focus, thinking, and visualizing yourself. A frown creeps across your face, as you set to the work of imagining every single feature of an entire human body from the ground up. The one good thing, you register in some remote corner of your brain, is that your costume covers most of your skin, so you don't have to deal with much subsurface scattering and skin translucency. Getting your face right, though... you sort of wish you had a mirror right this moment, but tracing your skin with nanofog will have to do.

Grief pools on the floor behind the sofa, built up layer by painstaking layer. Boots, pants, your legs and pelvis and torso just so, your arms, your coat, ugh, shoulders are such bizarrely complex joints, then... your face, and your hair. Eyes. Your Soul Gem badge deliberately left empty, just a gold setting without the Gem. Both to make a point, and because you know there's a depth, a weight to real Soul Gems you can't possibly imitate. Color it all with subwavelength nanostructured Grief, tune the translucency...

You let out a breath, and you make your proxy do the same. Breathing, heartbeat... all things to keep in mind, because you're running it all manually. Ugh. The only reason you're not just using a Witchy proxy is because you want to actually talk to Parró, not spook her by sitting an apparent Witch down in front of her.

"Well?" you make your proxy say.

The conversation dies. Mami glances backwards... and flinches.

It's enough to make you open your eyes, looking to Mami with concern. You find her looking at your proxy with a distinctly unnerved on her face, her gaze darting back to you and relaxing. You take her hand, smiling despite the concentration you're focusing on actually keeping the proxy animated.

Out of the corner of your eye, you see Yuki get to her feet and walk over to inspect your proxy closely, and you turn its head to track her, smiling with its lips and raising its eyebrows as she circles it.

"Braawk," Mugin says, apparently unimpressed with your feat of self-duplication.

"It's, ah, a bit uncanny," Mami says, determinedly keeping her attention on you. "It looks like you, but I can tell it's not."

"Ah," you say. "But... it looks properly human? I'm not using, y'know, Witchy magic."

You hop your proxy lightly on its feet, wagging its head from side-to-side as you check whether the physics on the hair and flesh look right.

Mami blinks, her eyes tracking your proxy for a second.

"I, ah- I think so?" Mami says. "Yes, I think it looks alright."

"I'm inclined to agree," Yuki says, stepping back. "Perfectly life-like, and unless someone somehow knows you far better than Parró might, they'd have no reason to think anything amiss."

Shinobu snickers.

"More literal bodybuilding than I like to do," she observes, raising a lazy thumbs up. "But it looks good to me."

"Great," you say, smiling. "Then this'll do."

"Could you show me the way, Miss Tsuruya?" you have your proxy ask.

"Of course," Yuki says. "This way, if you please."

You settle back on the sofa, nestling into Mami's hug. Mami squeezes you gently in turn, some tension leaving her body as you walk the proxy out of the room, following Yuki.

"I've got this, Mami," you tell her, your eyes squeezed shut. "And really, it's just to be safe."

"I know," she says back. "It's just, ah... weird."

"Well, you know how it is. Every magical girl anime has a doppelganger episode," Shinobu says, nodding sagely. "Just so happens that the script got flipped this time."

You snicker, and let that conversation fade away as you turn your focus to your proxy, making sure that the gait feels right, the arms swing properly, that the eyes track around, and every damn individual strand of hair... it's actually not that bad, now that you've got the hang of it. You'd probably have had an easier time of it if you didn't try and figure it all out on the spot, really, but still - you feel like you should probably do Parró the courtesy of giving her most of your attention.

"By the way, Miss Tsuruya," you say through your proxy. "It occurs to me to ask - is there anything else you can tell me?"

"She has been a... model prisoner," Yuki allows. "And she seems glad that the rest of her group have been treated well - I do allow them to mingle. It would be cruel not to."

"Yeah, I agree," you say, rubbing your chin, and sigh. "Well. If it isn't too much more of an imposition, I might want to speak to Miss Airi as well afterwards - I feel like she'd want updates. I'll see how it goes."

"Of course," Yuki says. "Up the stairs here."

Yuki leads you up the stairs, the diminutive girl taking two steps at a time, and brings you to yet another of the nondescript office doors. If it weren't for her leading you, you could easily get lost in her building, which you suspect might very well be the point.

"Just through this door," Yuki says, pulling said door open to expose an empty void. She purses her lips. "If you need your puppet extracted in a hurry, or some such, please just let me know."

"I will," you say, nodding. "Thank you."

You take a deep, bracing breath, one you mirror with your real body, and step the proxy into the void, the surface rippling like the surface of a still pond, and with that jarring sense of discontinuity, you're within.

The room looks similar to Anri's - a perfectly pleasant bedroom, or perhaps a hotel room, with flower-patterned wallpaper, a comfortable-looking bed with rumpled sheets, a small table, and curtains half-open to a view over Fukushima city. There's a closed door which leads, presumably, to the bathroom, and a bookshelf stocked with a few books in English.

"Ah, my illustrious captor makes an appearance!"

The girl -young woman, really- springs to her feet and sweeps into a florid bow, miming taking her non-existent hat off.

This is the first time you've seen Parró properly since her capture. Older than you, with lime-green, gradient-shaded hair cut short and a wiry, whipcord-thin figure, currently dressed in a plain black blouse and skirt. She doesn't look like she's changed much, physically, but then, it's only been a few days.

You don't miss the way her eyes linger on your lack of Soul Gem for a heartbeat as she straightens up.

"But I forget my manners! Angela Parró, at your service, Miss Sabrina Vee!" she continues smoothly in English, bright and chipper.

... the last time you'd been face-to-face with her, that flinty obsidian gaze had been filled with hate and fury. Understandable, given the circumstances of her crushing defeat and capture at your hands. Significantly less so in the face of the murders she'd committed to get to where she was this day.

Oh, you still don't know for sure whether she killed anyone personally, whether she's smashed Soul Gems or cut throats. You're certain she has, but you have no evidence beyond gut feeling.

And that matters not at all.

Because what you know she has done is rob and pressure and starve. A death of a thousand cuts, of the kind inflicted by the worst of humanity. The type that they don't even have to look at, the type that someone can pretend happened 'of natural causes' as they ignore the events that led to those causes, inflicted over and over again - what she'd been intending to do in Myanmar, that you'd stopped her from.

You sigh lightly.

"What do you want, Miss Parró?" you ask, responding in English.

"Well... I wanted to apologise, first of all. I'm really sorry about attacking your friends in Myanmar. It wasn't personal, and... we didn't know," she says. "And I wanted to look you in the eye. I've heard you're quite the hero. Not that you didn't put up quite the show when we fought, but I wanted to take your measure in a friendlier scenario."

[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
[X] During the talk:
-[X] You're trying to set things up to a point where a semi-functioning legal system can exist.
--[X] Once it does, her and her colleagues will go through it. You're aiming for rehabilitative justice.
-[X] We are hearing her out as a courtesy, and she should not waste our time.
--[X] Anything she wants to say to us any time soon, should be said now, because she likely won't get another chance before her trial. You are busy.
[X] Don't leave without talking to Yuki about setting up the Warehouse-kun science lab and stopping by to talk to Anri.
-[X] Subjects for Anri: De-witching progress, Yuuri's Grief Seed, Body Manufacture, Evil Nuts Asunaro Almonds.

=====​

Good grief, this update wound up being bigger than the usual, so I decided to break it here. Anyway! Vote isn't really necessary, but it's an opportunity to refine your approach if you so choose!

I should be updating again this weekend, but expect no update for the week after (29th/30th of June).
 
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Awww, Angela is trying the old 'yeah, we won't target your friends anymore, promise!' approach! Cute, she misread Sabrina.
 
[X] Clarify the Myanmar girls aren't friends. (Not yet, at least.)
- [X] You wouldn't call yourself a "hero," but you seek to do good with your powers.
[X] You're trying to set things up to a point where a semi-functioning legal system can exist.
-[X] Once it does, her and her colleagues will go through it. You're aiming for rehabilitative justice.
[X] We are hearing her out as a courtesy, and she should not waste our time.
-[X] Anything she wants to say to us any time soon, should be said now, because she likely won't get another chance before her trial. You are busy.
[X] Don't leave without talking to Yuki about setting up the Warehouse-kun science lab and stopping by to talk to Anri.
-[X] Subjects for Anri: De-witching progress, Yuuri's Grief Seed, Body Manufacture, Evil Nuts Asunaro Almonds.

You have no idea how tempting it was to say something about her being a supervillain, if she really wants to make the hero comparison.
 
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I can't think of a good reason to contradict the myanmar friends thing. The attack was instigated by their scrying spell and she should have been able to figure that out. I think she's fishing for more information on our capabilities.
 
I can't think of a good reason to contradict the myanmar friends thing. The attack was instigated by their scrying spell and she should have been able to figure that out. I think she's fishing for more information on our capabilities.
If we're actually serious about the court thing, telling a prisoner why they're imprisoned is pretty basic.

If we're not, might as well still be straight with her. In my case, after giving her an opportunity to do the same for us. It's not like fishing for more information on our capabilities will get her anywhere, if that is what she's doing.

We could also try to cause problems on purpose, if we felt like it. "What, Amy didn't tell you that we followed her storm to you?"
 
Oh, you still don't know for sure whether she killed anyone personally, whether she's smashed Soul Gems or cut throats. You're certain she has, but you have no evidence beyond gut feeling.

And that matters not at all.

This is a very strange tangent to me.

Parro didn't hesitate to try an execute the Myanmar girls (And Sabrina herself!) as the battle went increasingly bad and worse for her. She didn't even hesitate to fire her gun. Out of spite, because I can't for the life of me see why she'd do that otherwise.

Not to mention all the missing girl reports that were talked about before the start of that fight.

I don't think Sabrina has to actually see her do it to know weather or not Parro has killed before.
 
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