OOC: This... ended up waaaaaay longer than I intended. Whoops. I even ended up tossing in both "joke" votes. There wasn't really a sensible break in the flow of the conversation, so this takes you all the way to the obvious decision point. Good luck!
Late Evening - Monday, January 10th, 2011
You stare at the strange white creature, perplexed.
It stares back, patiently.
You squint at it.
It tilts its head at you.
You lean forward and squint harder.
It stands up and takes a step forward. "If you wish to help, all you need t--"
You reach out, grab the rings that are apparently
floating around its... ear tentacles? ...and, very deliberately,
yank. Hard.
Apparently they are attached. Somehow. As you pull further in opposite directions the ear-things stretch like taffy and... wow, the creature's whole
head even stretched out slightly.
It blinks at you. "Have you satisfied your curiosity, Yui Aikawa?" it asks.
You let go.
The ear-things flop limp and its head remains stretched sideways, until the creature shakes itself like a wet dog and snaps back into shape, with a very faint
boing sound.
...this
totally is a dream, isn't it?
"I'm afraid it is all quite real," the creature says. Because apparently it can hear your thoughts and that's not creepy or anything at all.
Come to think of it, if you know you're dreaming, shouldn't you be able to... control it, or something? Hmm. Okay, this white thing is creepy, so time to change the channel! You concentrate really hard and sure enough... moments later... you haaaaaaave--!
--completely failed to change anything. No sign of tropical beaches
or cute girls. Drat.
You pout.
You're also beginning to realize that this might not, in fact, be a dream at all.
"My name is Kyubey, by the way," the white thing offers helpfully. "And if you are now convinced of the reality of the situation, are you willing to fight for your town?"
You blink slowly, your brain gradually shifting gears into serious mode. Serious-ish. What passes for it in your brain, anyway.
Kyubey sits there, watching you curiously. "If you desire more time to consider it, I can return la--"
"
No!" Your brain finally clicks into gear and you grab Kyubey, who stops talking. "Sign me up! I'll do it!" you say, attempting to both shout and whisper at the same time, succeeding at neither. Fortunately your parents' bedroom is on the other side of your (rather large) house.
It cocks its head at you curiously. "You realize I haven't yet explained the nature of the--"
"
Don't. Care."
"Very well," it says, tail swishing in amusement.
You pause. "So, uh. What do I do?"
"Make a contract with me," Kyubey says brightly. "And become a magical girl!"
Oh, okay th--
What.
"Okay." You shake your head. "How about we maybe back up after all?
What? A magical girl? And what was that about the protector of the town, anyway? And monsters? Am I an anime character now or something? My hair isn't gonna turn pink or something, right? I mean, I like pink but that's..." You trail off, still holding the lock of dark reddish-purple hair that you were all but shoving in Kyubey's face a moment ago. ...this question business might work better if you gave the strange little creature a chance to respond, you decide.
"These monsters are known as Witches," Kyubey begins. "You could say they are born from curses, or from the darkness in the human heart. They lurk, invisible to normal humans, spreading destruction and despair and feeding off the negative emotions they create. Inexplicable murders and suicides, people vanishing without a trace, reckless behavior causing pain and injury--Witches cause all of these. Rarely, they have even caused what normal humans perceive as major natural disasters."
You listen, eyes wide. It sounds so fantastic and implausible, and yet--
--you remember your last year of elementary school. There was a boy in your class, he'd always been a bit quiet and you didn't know him well, but he loved nature and you remember the way his face lit up when he talked about something he'd discovered in some park he'd visited. His family was planning a vacation to some national forest or another and he'd been looking forward to it for
months and--
And one day he'd just... walked out into traffic. Supposedly witnesses said he'd looked straight at the oncoming traffic before he did. There was no reason, no sense to it, and at the school assembly the principal had said how sometimes these things just happened, that it couldn't be helped, that there was nothing anyone could...--
You clench your fingers tightly in the fabric of your bedsheets.
Kyubey watches you patiently. "Are you are recalling such an incident?" it asks.
You nod silently.
"I see," Kyubey says, bowing its head. "You could say that magical girls also exist because of Witches. They are powerful warriors, and they alone are able to fight and defeat Witches; many magical girls regard it as a duty, or a calling." Kyubey looks intently at you. "And that is the contract I am offering you, Yui Aikawa: It is dangerous, and you will never again live as a normal girl. But you will have the power to fight Witches, to protect people, and to prevent incidents like the one you were recalling."
You--well, you already agreed, technically, but... after that, how could you possibly refuse?
"What about the... protector you mentioned?" you ask. "Another magical girl?"
"Yes," Kyubey says. "One of the greatest, according to many who knew her." Kyubey's tail droops sadly. "She fell in battle yesterday, killed by a Witch. She had many proteges over the years, but most have moved on to other towns, and when those who remained attempted to aid their mentor, they too were killed." Kyubey looks intently at you. "At this moment there are, to the best of my knowledge, no magical girls actively patroling Nagamioka, leaving any and all Witches here unchecked, free to run rampant."
Your blood chills at the implication of that. You think again about--drat, this would be so much more dramatic if you could remember that poor boy's name, but... it doesn't matter. You can't help him anyway, and the very thought makes your heart ache, but if there are who knows how many
potential victims like him that you can save...
You look at Kyubey, steeling your resolve. You can help people. You can
do something. And while you may be stepping in to take the place of someone much greater than you... well, you're used to being overshadowed, and if they earned their reputation then... you honestly don't mind. You'll do your best no matter what.
"What do I have to do?" you ask.
Kyubey perks up, tail swishing happily. "Ah, that is the other half of the contract!"
...other half?
"It would hardly be fair to ask so much for no reward," Kyubey continues. "So to form the contract, you will have the opportunity to make one wish."
"A
wish?" you say, incredulously. "Like... for anything?"
"Yes and no," Kyubey says. "The wish is formed by your own heart, so it must be something you truly and deeply desire. The power of the wish comes from your own innate karmic potential, so while you may wish for anything you like, it will be granted only to the greatest extent your potential allows." Kyubey tilts its head. "Yui Aikawa, your potential is very high indeed. Not exceptionally so, as with those whose destiny will shape nations, but very likely the highest of any girl in all of Nagamioka. Almost any desire you may have can be fulfilled beyond anything you could dream of."
Your mind briefly flashes with thoughts of all the big, obvious things you could wish for--riches far beyond even your family's considerable wealth, fame and glory of all varieties, great accomplishments to your name, a harem of--
ahem. But... what's the point of any of that, when you're about to step into the life of a warrior? Just moments ago you were all fired up, but it suddenly hits you that it's entirely possible you will--
"Kyubey," you say. "What if I... don't really
want anything? If I just want to be someone with the power to help people? Can I... wish to be better at that?"
"Of course," Kyubey says. "In a way, the magical girl who protected this town for so many years made such a wish herself."
You look deep inside yourself and think. You're... creating a new life for yourself here, in many ways. What kind of life do you want it to be?
[x] Wish for great power. You're signing up to be a magical warrior of love and justice, what more could you ever want? Sure, from what Kyubey says it won't be as easy as it looks in anime, but that just means you need to be stronger... right? Then again, this is still the real world, and power isn't everything.
[x] Wish to protect those who rely on you. Defeating the bad guys is meaningless if innocent people get hurt anyway. Even if it means you might still be stuck in a passive role... so be it. You don't want to see anyone hurt if you can prevent it. Besides, this is flawless anime logic and therefore should work perfectly for a magical girl, right?
[x] Wish to have friends who will fight alongside you. If there's one thing you've learned from watching anime it's that the bonds of friendship are more powerful than anything else!
[x] Wish to understand the needs and feelings of others. There's... an idea that's stuck with you, from a show you watched once, that you shouldn't impose your will on people you "help" and that, really, heroism is often deeply selfish. You want to be a hero who helps and supports those in need on
their terms, not your own. On the other hand, you'd be wishing for something to
limit your power as a hero... is that really such a good idea?
[x] Wish to understand others, period. It's not that you're bad at reading people, because you're actually quite good at it. But you're never certain, and you hate that nagging fear that maybe you said the wrong thing, maybe you hurt someone, maybe someone is hurting and you didn't even notice... you don't know what kind of situations you'll face, but better understanding never hurts, right?
[x] Wish to bring comfort and happiness to those around you. You can't bear to see other people suffer, so if you can be strong for them and do something to ease their pain, well... that'd be all you really need. On the other hand, is it really your place to force happiness on people?
[x] Write-in
Okay, so here's the deal with wishing and how it will work in this quest.
Wording doesn't matter, except insofar as it expresses intent.
The intent behind the wish, what the girl really wants and is trying to express, determines the outcome of the wish, and unless the wish vastly overreaches the girl's potential or is based on a flawed understanding of the situation, the intent will be granted in letter and spirit.
The
motivation behind the wish is what actually powers it, and thus what determines both the manner in which the wish is implemented and the nature of the wish magic. It is also what usually makes wishes "go wrong", especially selfless ones. Basically, if you want the right thing for the wrong reasons, or even merely short-sighted reasons, no amount of rationalizing will prevent the wish from taking the path of least resistance through your deepest urges and, perhaps, taking a form that reveals something ugly about yourself.
As such, be very clear about the intent and motivation if you create a write-in!
None of the suggested wishes will screw you over--e.g., Yui isn't so naive or simplistic in her motivations that that the "Bring comfort and happiness" wish would turn her into a walking Lotus Eater Mindfuck Machine, though that would be an entirely possible result if the wrong person made that wish--but think carefully about it, because some of those wishes will push closer to the edges of "this isn't what I wanted" than others.
Furthermore, I will be introducing a mechanic soon for handling corruption caused by negative emotions, and it will be based heavily on what the core of the magical girl's mindset is. For the purposes of this mechanic, Yui is driven primarily by deep empathy, giving her a desire to help others and a fear of being an emotional burden to others. Beware any wish that might go against that core, otherwise you risk being driven into a grief spiral by using your own wish magic.
As a final note, my general policy for far-reaching, open-ended powers is that they should be balanced by a limitation that stops a bit shy of crippling the power entirely. (Of course, in many cases that limitation is the personality and values of the person wielding the power...) As such, be wary of wishes that don't seem to have an obvious downside, because that means I may have to get
creative. On the other hand, wishes that are inherently self-limiting or have only indirect effects will generally be safe and work as advertised, or even come with extra benefits.
So. What wish will make Yui's soul shine? Think carefully.
This is another city, and Mami is still alive. The events of PMMM canon won't start for several months.
