Despite the greeting from Minister Brennam Tyrgen, despite the shy girl that led the group of them onto the train, despite the faces she can see and the clear history of the city, Homura can only come to one conclusion.
This is her fault.
As she stands at a window of the monorail train, the sun is sinking low through the city skyscrapers, blazing orange and neons at a sharp contrast, but Homura isn't appreciating the view. Dead-eyed, she takes a sip of the provided Clari-tea (without the chaser, thank you), and bites back the urge to audibly sigh. Anybody else will see a fourteen year old girl in a school uniform gazing dismissively at the view, but inside a tempest rages. Her Soul Gem is gone, and she can feel her soul sitting where it hasn't been for so long: inside her own self, writhing like a foreign agent. She cannot transform, she cannot use her magic.
Once, she rewrote the universe with the sheer will of her emotions. Twice, she has awoken in new universes. Akemi Homura is no stranger to this, and yet, all she feels is exhaustion. She had ensured that her friends had the peaceful lives they so desperately deserved, she had condemned herself to hell for that, and now... she has to start all over again.
She will claw her way out of this universe one way or another.
"I'm sorry," she says to the passenger standing next to her, voice soft and tired. "I don't know who you are, but I must have dragged you into this mess. I will fix it, I promise."
2b. augmented reaity art
Stepping inside Evergreen Terrace had been a riot of the senses. Homura had seen people staring into the water outside like they could see something, fish that didn't quite seem to be there -- and when she'd stepped into the lobby, something awful had happened. Everything had settled in her soul, like she had nothing left to do, nothing left to fight for, and it the worst most confusing sensation Homura had ever felt. Needless to say, she leaves the lobby fairly quickly.
Or at least, she tries to. She's caught up in a sight out of the corner of her eye, a massive statue laden with locusts abruptly starts shapeshifting, red stripes crawling off it as it becomes a dolphin in a fiery ocean.
Somebody's standing too close to it. Homura grabs their arm, and uses all of her strength to haul them away and stash them behind a pillar. Grim-faced, with all the seriousness of a security guard protecting their charge, she keeps them there with a hand on their shoulder.
That could be a Witch, which means they're all in serious danger. And she doesn't have her powers.
"Careful," she says lowly. "I've seen this before. I don't know if you're a figment of my imagination, or a fake construct of this world, or a real person I accidentally involved, but I won't tolerate any more hurt. Stay where you are. Do you have a weapon? A gun would be best."
3a. green apple exploration
Much like the last time Homura had found herself in a new universe, she sets out to explore and test the boundaries of this strange city.
She finds herself in the Entertainment District, the Green Apple Quarters. There are flyers racing overhead, restaurants packed full of people with wings or glowing tongues or scales. She walks past a gaming arcade, and fights back the twinge of nostalgia the bright lights and video game sounds instill in her.
The promise of magic lures her into a shop called Fairy Dust, and to her surprise, it's a kind of magic that she wasn't expecting. It's potions and alchemy, things out of storybooks, and while most people might be enchanted for the sake of whimsy, Homura wonders how these things might be used to puzzle out the nature of this reality. She browses the shelves, examining the products carefully. There are love potions, healing potions, potions of flight, potions of water breathing, like something right out of a video game or children's novel. There are toys, too, but Homura ignores those even as they sparkle and pop and zing merrily behind her.
If she did create this universe, she has to give credit to herself. It's fascinatingly imaginative. More so than the fake version of Mitakihara City her mind had concoted.
She's in the middle of examining a dark black potion that promises to kill all of your emotions when someone comes to stand next to her. "One wonders what would happen if one threw all of these into a giant cauldron and drank it," she muses, faintly curious though her tone is flat. "Would they explode from too many conflicting magics? Or would everything simply cancel each other out? What are the magical rules of this universe?"
akemi homura | puella magi madoka magica
Despite the greeting from Minister Brennam Tyrgen, despite the shy girl that led the group of them onto the train, despite the faces she can see and the clear history of the city, Homura can only come to one conclusion.
This is her fault.
As she stands at a window of the monorail train, the sun is sinking low through the city skyscrapers, blazing orange and neons at a sharp contrast, but Homura isn't appreciating the view. Dead-eyed, she takes a sip of the provided Clari-tea (without the chaser, thank you), and bites back the urge to audibly sigh. Anybody else will see a fourteen year old girl in a school uniform gazing dismissively at the view, but inside a tempest rages. Her Soul Gem is gone, and she can feel her soul sitting where it hasn't been for so long: inside her own self, writhing like a foreign agent. She cannot transform, she cannot use her magic.
Once, she rewrote the universe with the sheer will of her emotions. Twice, she has awoken in new universes. Akemi Homura is no stranger to this, and yet, all she feels is exhaustion. She had ensured that her friends had the peaceful lives they so desperately deserved, she had condemned herself to hell for that, and now... she has to start all over again.
She will claw her way out of this universe one way or another.
"I'm sorry," she says to the passenger standing next to her, voice soft and tired. "I don't know who you are, but I must have dragged you into this mess. I will fix it, I promise."
Stepping inside Evergreen Terrace had been a riot of the senses. Homura had seen people staring into the water outside like they could see something, fish that didn't quite seem to be there -- and when she'd stepped into the lobby, something awful had happened. Everything had settled in her soul, like she had nothing left to do, nothing left to fight for, and it the worst most confusing sensation Homura had ever felt. Needless to say, she leaves the lobby fairly quickly.
Or at least, she tries to. She's caught up in a sight out of the corner of her eye, a massive statue laden with locusts abruptly starts shapeshifting, red stripes crawling off it as it becomes a dolphin in a fiery ocean.
Somebody's standing too close to it. Homura grabs their arm, and uses all of her strength to haul them away and stash them behind a pillar. Grim-faced, with all the seriousness of a security guard protecting their charge, she keeps them there with a hand on their shoulder.
That could be a Witch, which means they're all in serious danger. And she doesn't have her powers.
"Careful," she says lowly. "I've seen this before. I don't know if you're a figment of my imagination, or a fake construct of this world, or a real person I accidentally involved, but I won't tolerate any more hurt. Stay where you are. Do you have a weapon? A gun would be best."
Much like the last time Homura had found herself in a new universe, she sets out to explore and test the boundaries of this strange city.
She finds herself in the Entertainment District, the Green Apple Quarters. There are flyers racing overhead, restaurants packed full of people with wings or glowing tongues or scales. She walks past a gaming arcade, and fights back the twinge of nostalgia the bright lights and video game sounds instill in her.
The promise of magic lures her into a shop called Fairy Dust, and to her surprise, it's a kind of magic that she wasn't expecting. It's potions and alchemy, things out of storybooks, and while most people might be enchanted for the sake of whimsy, Homura wonders how these things might be used to puzzle out the nature of this reality. She browses the shelves, examining the products carefully. There are love potions, healing potions, potions of flight, potions of water breathing, like something right out of a video game or children's novel. There are toys, too, but Homura ignores those even as they sparkle and pop and zing merrily behind her.
If she did create this universe, she has to give credit to herself. It's fascinatingly imaginative. More so than the fake version of Mitakihara City her mind had concoted.
She's in the middle of examining a dark black potion that promises to kill all of your emotions when someone comes to stand next to her. "One wonders what would happen if one threw all of these into a giant cauldron and drank it," she muses, faintly curious though her tone is flat. "Would they explode from too many conflicting magics? Or would everything simply cancel each other out? What are the magical rules of this universe?"