1st sword | video

[tookupthesword]

[Today is the day for more people to show up wondering where they are, and another just happens to show up on the mirror. It's a blue haired girl wearing a Japanese school uniform. She's smiling, but it's a bit insincere. If you look closely, you may see tear stains on her cheek

Comments

OH GOD LATE /PUNCHES SELF!! also [video]

[headedforhope]

[...for a moment Mami honestly has no words and can only stare into the mirror. Sayaka. Sayaka. A friendly, familiar face from home, someone she knows and someone that she-

-but then Mami recovers, as she nearly always does, expression lapsing back into the calm, fake, easy smile. Sayaka, while one she cares for, is also another girl she put in danger with her death, and so she must prepare for any (well-deserved) hostility.]

I'm afraid this isn't a dream, Miki-san.

[video] Let's just blame DDoS attacks!

[tookupthesword]

[Sayaka could only stare back as well. For entirely different reasons, of course. Assuming she hadn't completely snapped, she was currently looking into a mirror that had Mami in it. That spoke to her. Forgive her as she starts heavy breathing and closes her eyes.]

Calm down Sayaka, calm down. You've been going through some hard times, so you're probably just seeing things now. Stress and all. Just open your eyes, and all should be clear.

[And she opens them and... well, her body just starts quivering.]

[video] ;u;/

[headedforhope]

[...Well. She was expecting screams, swears, accusations- but this hurts just as much, Sayaka pretending she didn't exist. Her smile dims and her voice drops to a much more gentle tone.]

.....if you don't want to talk to me, I understand. I can't imagine what you must have gone through.

["Because of me. All because of me."]

But I am real, and I am here.

[video]

[tookupthesword]

[In response, Sayaka just starts... crying.]

... How? Mami-san... how?

[video]

[headedforhope]

....I don't know. I thought this was the afterlife, but- it seems like I was wrong. About a lot of things.

[a sigh]

I'm sorry, Miki-san.

[For leaving her and Madoka to the mercy of Charlotte. For being no one to admire. For everything.]

[video]

[tookupthesword]

No! Don't be sorry... if I would done something back then, you still would be...

[She says, both forgetting and refusing to acknowledge later info.]

[video]

[headedforhope]

What could you have done? You weren't a magical girl; it was my own responsibility, my own foolishness, my own failure.

[She half-turns away from the video; there's a hard, hot knot in her gut.]

But at least it- seems as if you managed to escape afterward. I hope I'm not wrong in assuming that.

[She doesn't ask about Madoka. She's afraid of what the answer might be.]

[video]

[tookupthesword]

[She can't help but grimace through her tears. She is at a loss for herself, and can only try to respond to what Mami says.]

We made it. The transfer student, Akemi, came and blew the witch up somehow without any trouble.

[She holds back the still there anger for dark and mysterious.]

... Madoka took it harder than I did. I couldn't even begin to imagine what was going through her head.

[video]

[headedforhope]

[Something relaxes in her shoulders; they lived. Despite her idiocy and worthlessness, Madoka and Sayaka didn't die in that Witch dimension. And although, in this timeline, she cares little for Homura....those petty feelings seem so pointless, especially now.]

Then...I'm in debt to Ake- [she swallows the name back, the one she had always used in a sarcastic, snide way-] Homura-san, should she ever arrive here. [And now this calls to Mami's mind a memory of anguish within the Labyrinth; the illusion of Madoka, contracted and transformed.]

So neither of you needed to contract to survive?

[video]

[tookupthesword]

... Really? You're still a better person than I am, Mami-san.

[And her faced hardened. Ha ha ha ha...]

No, neither of us made a contract to survive that. She came seconds after you... [She can't say it.]

[video]

[headedforhope]

[She doesn't answer that- she can't admit her true feelings and it hurts too much to lie. Mami's no one to dream about.]

...I see.

[Mami swallows and works to rearrange her face back into its usual smiling mask.]

Can you describe to me where you are? I'd like to see you, if that's all right. [and not just through the Vine.]

[video]

[tookupthesword]

[Sayaka takes a moment to look around, not that it helps much.]

... A bed of flowers is near me? I didn't really move that far from where I woke up.

[The feeling that she's going to see Mami again, in person, hasn't really hit home yet.]

[video] 1/2

[headedforhope]

[A nod.]

I remember that place. I should be there in a few minutes.

[A pause: she really should say something else, right? But Mami's mind blanks, so she just smiles weakly into the mirror one last time before moving out of sight.]

[action]

[headedforhope]

[sup]

[action]

[tookupthesword]

[Well, moment of truth. Right there in front of her was someone who should be dead. What else was there to do?

... Lunge her for a hug while in tears again, clearly.]

[action]

[headedforhope]

[This is the third hug she's gotten while she's been here, and she still doubts that she'll ever get used to it. But unlike the first two expereiences, she doesn't resist, and in fact reciprocates after only a few moments- Sayaka needs this...right? Although Mami can't fathom why, since she herself doesn't deserve the contact, she has no right to deprive Sayaka of comfort.

She doesn't say anything as she holds and is held, just lets the other girl feel for herself that Mami is real, solid, alive and here.]