2019-05-17 - Intermission 9: Quiet
| Intermission 9: Quiet | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Madoka and Kozue talk about a plushie. And someone else. | |
| Who: | |
| Where: Madoka's Room | |
| OOC - IC Date: 6/6/2019 - 06-02-2015 | |
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
"I want to erase every witch before they are even born! Every witch, from every universe, from every dimension, from every past, and every future. With my own hands. I don't care what I become. I don't want to let all those girls cry, all those Puella Magi who believed in their hope and fought against witches. All their friends who tried so much to help but could only win pain. I want them to live on with smiles on their faces. I will destroy the rules that prevent that. I will change them. This is my prayer. This is my wish. NOW -- fulfill it, INCUBATOR!"
The whole world fills with light, but this room is dim and dark.
Cozily so, at least.
The blinds are drawn, and among the faint outlines of plushies on shelves amid the gloom, there's no sign of one with too many ears.
Madoka's on the floor in her sleeping bag, in the place and position that she slept every night that they shared a room -- this room, her room. Flat on her back, gaze lost to the invisible ceiling... but, in her mind's eye, gazing at her unexpected roommate.
"Sorry," she whispers, breaking the comfortable silence. Hers is a warm little voice, even in apology, but it's an apology nonetheless, and it contains multitudes. Multitudes of feelings, that is.
There are what often feel like countless ways to say sorry in this language, and she used a very specific one. Sorry for the wait. Sorry I'm late. Sorry.
<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.
Kozue Kaoru is wearing a dark mini-dress with a layer of lace over it that gives the illusion that it's a floor sweeping gown. Her makeup is done by a more expert hand that she could manage on her own, and her scarf has this faint prismatic shine in the light of the evening. There is a touch of chaos in how it hangs off her.
She's seated on the edge of the bed, a small blue purse sitting on her lap, violet polished nails clutching the edge of it, her gown being scrunched up just a little by the bedspread. It gives the impression of a girl who is waiting to be picked up for her date. Though it feels paradoxically, a little different from that too. One can imagine Kozue setting up a hundred scenarios to maintain her image for her date, or for an outside observer watching her leave with a date. She can do that effortlessly.
Instead she gives the impression that she's a bit nervous in her silence.
Until Madoka breaks it. And there's a jolt, like she'd been in silence for some time, and the stimulus had broken her out of it.
There's a small quirk of an eyebrow, "For?" Then perhaps there's recognition in her eyes. And something like a smirk breaks onto her lips, like perhaps she's interpreting it in her own way. "I haven't been waiting so long."
Her hand picks up that purse and slides it beside her, her weight causing it to angle just subtly.
"If anything I should say I'm sorry for what happened."
And then her hands fall sedately on her lap and there's a tiny flash of mischief, a little slice of cruelty in those eyes. "I won't though. I won't apologize for anything I've done - when it comes to her." Before her tone shifts, softening, "But I will say I'm thankful you're here."
A subtle twist of her fingertips shows she's not really so calm, as it twists up a little bit of that lace. "So - what happens next?" She asks almost casually.
But perhaps what she's really asking - is if she should be expecting the doorbell to ring soon.
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Madoka wriggles out of her bag to sit next to Kozue on the bed. It doesn't cave beneath her weight, but then, it never much did. A firm mattress, and a tiny slip of a girl. Besides which, she never really learned how to take up space.
She's close enough, though, that the other girl can feel her warmth.
"Good," she says, as to Kozue's refusal to apologize for anything. "I don't think you have anything to say sorry for. I do, though. I made you a promise, but I only kept it too late."
She lays a gentle hand on Kozue's nervous one, and it is very pale in the darkness. Soft, and still.
It's hard to see her expression in the shadows, but easy to imagine. Madoka is quick to smile but quicker to be serious, especially lately. Wide eyes, huge with fear or grief or solemnity. Trembling lips that she struggles to keep in a firm line. Hungry cavities beneath her cheekbones.
The silence lengthens, and lengthens, and lengthens.
Finally Madoka giggles nervously, and then it's possible to imagine a different expression entirely. Kozue knows it as well as she knows anything.
"Uehihihi," she admits, without shame but with her signature, self-depricating humor, "I don't know for sure?"
<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.
As Madoka lays an arm on hers, the ends of her lips manage to turn up just a small amount, though it's clear her anxiety is still behind it. And the girl simply shakes her head with that smile, though it's unclear what she's refuting right now.
Perhaps she's searching for Madoka's face in the silence that follows, its difficult to see it in the dark. And then - a giggle. It causes the idea of her face to show up in Kozue's mind.
It's easy enough to guess Kozue's at that reply. The slight flutter of her eyelashes as if something had flown into her eye. "You... don't?"
And then she starts to laugh too, a titter that's so candid that one would swear it hadn't come from Kozue unless she were laughing at someone. "Oh my God. That's pretty funny. To make a wish like that and not- not know how it's going to turn out!"
There's this nasally kind of inhalation as she shakes her head, and teases lightly, "I didn't realize what a wild animal you were-! Where'd you hide it for so long? Or did Sayaka just bring it out of you?"
However the comment of 'wild animal' invokes something and it does cause her to level her eyes on Madoka after a moment, as if she were looking uncommonly serious about something. "If this works out - you want me to say anything to your mom for you?"
It's a strange feeling, but Junko Kaname is the only parent she's ever really respected. And the thought of Madoka leaving her home like this... well it makes her a little sad.
"She actually gives a damn about..." And then on impulse, she uses Junko's own term for raising a daughter, "...about being on stage for you."
<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.
As Madoka lays an arm on hers, the ends of her lips manage to turn up just a small amount, though it's clear her anxiety is still behind it. And the girl simply shakes her head with that smile, though it's unclear what part of it she's refuting right now.
Perhaps she's searching for Madoka's face in the silence that follows, its difficult to see it in the dark. And then - a giggle. It causes the idea of her face to show up in Kozue's mind.
It's easy enough to guess Kozue's at that reply. The slight flutter of her eyelashes as if something had flown into her eye. "You... don't?"
And then she starts to laugh too, a titter that's so candid that one would swear it hadn't come from Kozue unless she were laughing at someone. "Oh my God. That's pretty funny. To make a wish like that and not- not know how it's going to turn out!"
There's this nasally kind of inhalation as she shakes her head, and teases lightly, "I didn't realize what a wild animal you were-! Where'd you hide it for so long? Or did Sayaka just bring it out of you?"
However the comment of 'wild animal' invokes something and it does cause her to level her eyes on Madoka after a moment, as if she were looking uncommonly serious about something. "You want me to say anything to your mom for you?"
It's a strange feeling, but Junko Kaname is the only parent she's ever really respected. And the thought of Madoka leaving her home like this... well it makes her a little sad.
"She actually gives a damn about..." And then on impulse, she uses Junko's own term for raising a daughter, "...about being on stage for you."
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
They laugh together, long and loud and clear. By the end of it, Madoka's arm has snaked around Kozue's shoulders. She always has been a cuddler, even if it's mostly been with her parents and one other recipient. But Kozue's felt it before, too. In a different room, but the same darkness.
Madoka snuggles are excellent.
Fierce and soft.
"Nnn," she murmurs, her smile easy to hear, "This was always part of the real me. Which isn't to say that I didn't learn how to be brave and wild from Sayaka-chan, and Mama... and you. Brave enough to say goodbye to Mama myself. She let me go already."
Suddenly there's a different pressure in Kozue's hands, being pressed there by Madoka. A different softness. She knows it well, of course.
"I think I need to give this back to you," she explains. "I'm glad... that I was able to give it a home when it needed it. But... I think you'll be able to look after it yourself again. Which is good, 'cause when you love something, Kozue-chan, you love it a whole lot... ne? So I know... you'll take good care of her."
<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.
And perhaps for a moment she's not nervous anymore. Oh certainly she doesn't know how it's going to turn out. In the snuggles, in the laughter. Her dress gets wrinkled, her hair gets a little mussed in what follows. She doesn't care about that though.
What she cares about is that there's a chance. When before there was none.
"From me too huh?" The girl perhaps should have mixed feelings about the idea of Madoka learning from her, but instead she feels a little proud. "Wild maybe - brave though?" The girl's hand brushes Madoka's cheek. As she whispers lightly, "I think Sayaka learned that one from you."
She accepts what Madoka says on saying goodbye to her mother instantly, not pressing the point at all. Before suddenly, her other hand has a plush within it. It's familiar, like the lines and groves and the soft fuzzy exterior are familiar to her. "Hey Aotori-chan."
The girl says lightly in greetings, as her fingertips press in. And she's quiet for a moment, chin dipped, "You know I had her with me the first time I met Sayaka. My first friend other than Miki."
Rotating her around with that hand to face herself, she tilts it so the faded yellow beak looks up at her. "Hadn't even thought of her for years. I had her up on a shelf in a closet. Because back then I thought that's what growing up meant. Putting away friends like her."
Perhaps she's not just talking about Aotori either...
Lifting her chin up so she's looking at Madoka, she smiles a little wider, "You're right though. I feel ready to take care of her again. Because... now I know stuff like what I thought is growing up isn't important."
After a pause, she says with a certain emphasis, "I know what's important. And..."
Leaning forward, a hand moves around to the back of Madoka's head. Even taller than Madoka, she has to lean just a little, just so she can press a kiss to her forehead. It has an almost sisterly feel to the way her lips make contact, just the lightest touch before parting.
And when she does, she murmurs, "... it's the same way for you - ne?" On loving something - and loving it a whole lot, "Because she's such a large part of why you're doing this."
Not the only reason perhaps - but she'd never question that Madoka Kaname loves Sayaka Miki that much.
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Madoka leans into the kiss, just a little bit -- just enough to apply a little pressure back.
"Aa," she fake-protests, "You got my first kiss and Sayaka-chan's... that's so unfair..."
But she settles down, back into their shared silence, afterwards. Lets her head rest on Kozue's shoulder. Lets her eyes flutter shut, if only for a scant moment before an eternity of labor.
"Magic and miracles do exist," she repeats, just like before. It could have been dreamily, but it isn't. It's very, very seriously. Totally at odds with her relaxed posture, though she is relaxed -- there's something a little different about her. Maybe she's the one who did some growing up, and it wasn't the way anyone thought.
"They do, Kozue-chan. And that's why I know... that I'm gonna save her. And somehow, someday, you're gonna see her again. And you'll get your chance..."
To take care of her, because Madoka can't anymore.
Just like Aotori-chan.
She sighs, content.
But the weight of her cheek is fading from Kozue's shoulder, as though she's beginning to just... fade away.
"Believe in me," her voice floats into Kozue's ear, from above now, rather than from below. "And believe in you and her... like I do, so much..."
She isn't gone yet, but there's a sense that she will be in a heartbeat. Maybe two.
Their time together in this room is drawing to an end, so that a new beginning can start.
<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.
"I'm an unfair kind of girl." Kozue points out with a little tease, "Sayaka's the one who thinks everything should be fair."
And that hand that had been on the back of Madoka's head, strokes down lightly to the pink fuzz on the back of her neck and then rests on her shoulderblades as the other girl rests her head on her shoulder. "You know I once dueled for what I thought was going to get me a miracle. Then I started walking on a runway thinking it would get me a different one. A lot of work, a lot of pain."
And there's a soft emphasis to what comes next. "Worth it though. It was worth it. Because it helped me realize I didn't need to look so far for real miracles."
Her eyes flutter shut, as she feels Madoka becoming less tangible in some sense, even though she still feels her. "I'll hold you to that." There's a certain somber emphasis to that.
As she hears the voice floating in the air. "I will. I promise I will never stop - but only on one condition."
That far too grave tone then vanishes in the next instant, to something light. Less serious. "That you give that smug little wretch's whole scam a headbutt for me - first chance you get."
... and very very spiteful. She's still Kozue after all. And all the magic and miracles in the world will not change that.
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
"Uehihi," Madoka's voice giggles again. "You know, I never did get my lavu letta... send Sayaka lots, okay?"
And she's gone -- and the darkness lifts -- leaving Kozue, still holding Aotori, in the new world.
