2019-04-06 - TIMELINE X: Blood Trails
| Title: Blood Trails | |
|---|---|
| Summary: An examination of a decline over many timelines. | |
| Who: Eri Shimanouchi, Many Others | |
| Where: Many Places | |
| OOC - IC Date: <April 6, 2019 - Many - many - different timelines.> | |
<SoundTracker> Blood Trails - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwGnW5L_Zrw
When it began
"Kyubey - why would you make a girl like this into a Puella Magi?"
Her quarry is hanging in a criss-cross web of so many transparent strings. Her trigger finger tightens almost imperceptibly. The girl who is facing down the point of her crossbow, she can see the fear in her eyes.
Which is the same moment a pink arrow strikes the ground beneath her feet. "No no-!" And brilliant ribbons slice free the bonds of the girl she had dead to rights. "Not right now!"
The girl topples to the ground, and she decides it's not worth fighting the three of them. "Don't come back if you know what's good for you." She warns, before her image ripples out of sight in a translucent blur. "Poacher."
-=-=-
Another Time
Its been months since she started her feud with this girl. Why was she so stupid to come back? To keep coming back.
The witch overhead telegraphs its warning with a flash of movement, and she leaps out of the way.
The same moment a vine snags her arm.
She has time enough to scream at the unfairness.
Her opponent steps out of the labyrinth what feels like years later, a haunted look in her green eyes.
"It was an accident." She says quietly to herself, as her eyes blink back tears. When pink sheathed arms envelop her not too long after, she is able to believe it might be true.
-=-=-
How many
Two girls disappear. Shinjuku is quietly claimed by a transfer student without fanfare. The new missing person's flier for one of them stays up for only a few months. The other for years to come.
-=-=-
times
A peculiar event occurs when a labyrinth of three witches forms creating a disaster which ravages Shinjuku. The magical girl community has to unite to stop it.
-=-=-
will
The night air kisses her face. She hardly feels it.
"It was... an accident." She's uncertain who the lie is trying to convince.
A girl sheathed in violet gives her an expressionless stare. "If that is what you need to tell yourself."
What she does not find in Homura Akemi's eyes is found in Mikoto Minagi's arms, "Eri - its okay!" It almost feels like validation, until the other girl adds,
"She was an enemy."
-=-=-
it
The girl takes her first steps on solid ground again, a husk where a girl once lived behind her. A Puella Magi in yellow has a grave expression, her question matter of fact. "It wasn't the witch. Was it?"
It takes her a few moments to realize she's there.
Her whispered reply is kept to a single word.
"No."
She limps away without any further acknowledgement.
-=-=-
take
A small girl hightails it into the run around the corner, down an alleyway, one arm limp, only half of herself visible, like something liquid is dripping off of her.
She wears an expression of utter distaste. She was the one to walk out of that, but still...
Just before a gleaming spear pierces her - pinning the battle weary girl to the ground. "Interesting magic you've got there."
Kyouko Sakura casually conjures a shard of metal that punctures the kid's crossbow before it can be raised against her, "Nothing personal kid. Just thinning out the competition."
To her credit it's only half a lie.
-=-=-
before
"I don't know. I guess after what she did to me. It was easier to think of her as some demon or something." She says as she drops her hands into her lap, "A youma, ruling over Shinjuku."
There's something in her her lip that tries to smile and just fails to actually become that. "I thought I was seeing true evil. I thought..."
It's like she's struggling to find the words to articulate it, "She was something I couldn't understand. Couldn't even begin to take in her measure."
Her eyes slide over to who she's speaking to, "Felt like I'd have to lose something to even try..."
She sucks in a nasally breath, as she thinks back on those images. "I was wrong about everything else..."
And it's only then that her eyes begin to feel like they're leaking, "... but I was right about that."
Who is she speaking to?
Anyone who is willing to listen - perhaps.
-=-=-
it ends
OOC Note: If you want your character to be the one who she was speaking to her in the pose before the end - you can assume they were! Those feelings persist through many later timelines, and it is very repeatable.
