2018-10-14 - Ring Around The Rosie
| Ring Around The Rosie | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Kyouko has questions for Kyuubey. Kyuubey is Kyuubey in response. | |
| Who: Kyouko Sakura, Kyuubey | |
| Where: Abandoned Church, Tama | |
| OOC - IC Date: 10/14/2018 - 05/20/15 | |
<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.
Kyouko Sakura leans against the ruined base of the rubble-strewn set of stairs leading to the central altar of the ruined church. With the heel of her boot she scuffs up a little mound of dirt, and then squishes it down into a flattened little disc with the very same shoe. As she cycles through the orbit of her irregular rotations, she inevitably makes it back here.
More inevitably than usual, lately.
She sighs, and frowns. There are a few dozen threads careening in her mind, and tugging on any one just jumbles up some of the others. Around and around it all goes. How to untangle it, nobody knows. At least not her.
A muscle in her arm spasms, causing it to jerk off to the side for a moment. Her skin tingles, goosebumps blossoming across her like a flower field. Maybe it was presumptuous to say that nobody knows...after all, some people know things she doesn't. Some people know a whole lot. And some...not very many, but a given few...some aren't people at all.
Might as well ask.
"Kyuubey? Once a girl becomes a witch, can she become a girl again?"
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
A shadow falls across Kyouko from behind.
Kyuubey's sitting on top of the lectern, his tail curled around its back, balanced on the straight little piece of wood that would hold papers in place.
<< Puella Magi are mysterious creatures! >> His tail flicks back and forth, pensively, as though he hates to admit this. << They can do many things that would be conventionally considered 'impossible'. What you've described is certainly one of them. >>
<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.
Kyouko's brow furrows in frustration. It's always like playing twenty questions with this one. Feeling the shadow before she sees it, she does not stand up yet, but her back does straighten a little.
"A girl doesn't become a Puella Magi until after she makes a wish. Does that mean that a Puella Magi can be saved from being a witch, without a wish?"
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Kyuubey tilts his head to one side. It's a quizzical gesture.
<< Being a Witch is not the inevitable fate of all Puella Magi, Kyouko. >> But that isn't really what she means either, and he seems to know it. He gets up, his stubby little legs separating from his fluffy white bulk, and flicks his ears upright.
<< I make Contracts with Puella Magi to fight Witches, not to save witches. >> He sounds disapproving, but also a little bit cautious, like, for example, he does not want a spearhead put through his body.
<< We shouldn't be talking about this... >>
<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.
Kyouko sighs, and pushes herself to her feet in a slow clamber, wiping the dust off of her butt with a few dexterous pats. Turning on her heel, she crosses her arms mid motion and stares up at the pseudocat. If her expression lacks hostility, it also lacks friendliness.
"If the Witch goes away, isn't that the same as defeating it? What difference does it make? In fact, if you want fewer Witches then wouldn't preventing their birth be right up your alley? I don't understand where you're coming from..."
A pulse tugs at her mind. Her instincts nudge her. Is there something significant here?
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
<< When you destroy a Witch and receive its Grief Seed, you are getting rewarded for removing a source of suffering from the world. >>
Kyuubey sounds more and more uneasy. His pink gaze meets Kyouko's dead on, then looks away.
<< One defeated Witch, one Grief Seed... it equals out... the world in balance. >>
He paces back and forth across the top of the lectern. Just a few steps either way, so that means he's turning a lot.
<< If you saved a Witch and received its Grief Seed, that could have very unexpected consequences for the karmic balance of hope and despair... like a chaotic pendulum. Anything could happen. >>
<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.
Kyouko frowns, and fishes a grief seed in her pocket, holding it up with a ginger touch.
"This thing? This sharp, spiny, evil looking thing? That can hatch into a Witch? Seems like an odd reward for getting rid of suffering...we need Grief Seeds, so we need Witches too. Seems like a better reward would be for...for us to not become Witches in the first place."
She shakes her head, her long red curls tumbling about.
"Things don't feel too...balanced, to me. Between hope and despair. Things feel pretty weighted towards one and not the other. But if it's the fate of the Puella Magi to...to become a Witch...it seems to me like "anything" is a safer thing to bet on."
She grins a little, and shrugs.
"Philosophy aside, you're making it sound possible. Has it been done before? Saving a Witch?"
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Kyuubey's tail lashes back and forth -- no longer pensively, now clearly unhappily.
<< I have never witnessed it personally... >> he hedges.
<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.
Kyouko leans forward, her weight on the balls of her feet and her heels slightly elevated from the ground.
"But it has happened?"
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
<< Think what you like. >>
Kyuubey turns away with a disapproving sniff, and jumps off the far side of the lectern.
<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.
Kyouko smiles. So something is left in them after all...Sayaka is still in there, somewhere, whether consciously or not she can be revived. Right?
It's a big question, and one that, even now, Kyouko realizes she has not received a definitive answer for, merely an implied one. How much of that implication is her own wishful thinking? How much is Kyuubey's reticence genuine? Could the alien creature mean to manipulate her in a show of reverse psychology? Perhaps it doesn't have the answers to her questions, and doesn't wish to give away its uncertainty. There are too many questions, and not enough answers from the one entity who might have any.
But there is a delicate kernel of something that Kyouko has never had in excess, a sliver of that hope that Kyuubey alluded to as being of such cosmic importance. For if Sayaka can be saved, the others can be saved too...Kyouko, and Eri-chan...and all of them.
She isn't sure what it means, not yet. But she's sure that she wants to find out, chaotic pendulum aside...but there is one last question she must ask, first.
"Kyuubey...before you go. Why didn't you tell me that Puella Magi become Witches? I get why you wouldn't want most to know. But why me? I've always been...realistic, about things. So why didn't you tell me?"
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
<< Because I knew you would believe me. >> A flash of white as Kyuubey walks across the dais to a broken window. He cocks his head to look back at Kyouko, his tail giving a flick as he braces to jump.
<< And that kind of human seems to die quickest of all. >>
And then he's gone.
<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.
What kind of human is that?
The kind of human that knows her own fate? The kind of human that knows this fate, in particular?
The kind of human that believes Kyuubey?
More questions without answers. But Kyuubey came here for a reason. Kyouko had questions, and he was there with...if not answers, then at least responses. And now she is set upon a course...now there is a way forward, uncertain as it is. In the back of her mind she still fears that she's being played, but keeping an eye open for traps helps with spotting the snares. And with this new reality still setting in for her, the possibility of an escape, the possibility of hope is too tantalizing to ignore.
If Sayaka is still in there, somewhere, then she needs something to respond to. Someone. Someone she hates? Maybe...but hate's path has led here. Someone she loves? Perhaps then she might remember her humanity, and emerge from this awful nightmare unscathed.
The list of candidates is small...and as it happens, both names that come to mind have already encountered the grotesquerie of Sayaka's present condition. If it's to work, it will require something more direct...and sustained. Kozue Kaoru likely wants to kill Kyouko for what she's done. Perhaps the thought of bringing Sayaka back would be enough to stay her hand, but...it is good that she isn't the only candidate. There is another...and unlike Kozue, Kyouko is certain that she will be willing to meet her halfway, at the very least.
Pulling out her phone, she stares at the blank screen for a long moment. Nodding a little nod to herself, she summons it to life, and taps a few quick jabs to Madoka Kaname.
"Lunch?"
