*001* | Skyline

[kujikenai]

 When she closed her eyes and sleep claimed the corpse the soul of Madoka Kaname thus controlled, she dreamed of better days. 

What precisely? Anything one would think of: playing alongside her friends in a schoolyard, or even singing together in a too-small Karaoke box, the familiar sounds of badly-recorded J-Pop fluttering in the air. Madoka's heart often fluttered from event to event, grasping for the normalcy she'd left behind, and yet at the same time embracing the life she'd chosen to lead with no regrets. 

Tonight was no different. 

The school roof wasn't the most comfortable place to lie down, but Madoka cared little. She lied flat on her back, bentou long finished and neatly set aside. The sky was almost an endless expanse above her, with barely any clouds. 

The sun didn't even shine in her eyes.

With a sigh, she closed her eyes. It was so warm. She could just lie here for a while. Nobody would mind, she was sure...

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[braidstobows]

There were times when Homura Akemi wanted to get away from everything. This was a wish easily granted in the course of her normal day. Few people thought to look up to the rooftops for the girls fighting to keep them ignorant and safe.

So far, everything was just as expected: A deceptively quiet evening, irregularities to be put down. Then some sense beyond sense, a prickle at her neck, told her to turn around. Her heart beat quicker. And she saw the dearest face in the world.

Her shock was unfeigned, and unfiltered. She drew up visibly before pitching forward, even heedless, in this moment, of the strong possibility that the impossible could be a trick.

"Madoka!"

[kujikenai]

A familiar voice caused Madoka to slowly blink her eyes open.

Afternoon had faded into evening, and the sky had the golds, reds, and yellows playing with one another as the sun had begun to set.

...Had she fallen asleep?

It...seemed like it. Not that she had much time to really think about it; the footsteps coming harder and faster in her ears, even as her fuzzy senses cleared themselves and she sat up...

...And that was Homura, dashing towards her. She didn't take the time to note her clothing, or even the fact that she was on the school roof at sunset at all. Just that she was coming towards her, and coming fast.

Yup.

"H-heeeeh?!?! H-Homura-chan?!"

[braidstobows]

She was going to look completely crazy, and she didn't much care. She simply ran right to Madoka and grabbed for her hands.

"Madoka... You're here!" She didn't think where 'here' might be. She last time she'd seen Madoka was outside the very universe. She looked her friend over as if making sure everything was alright, Madoka was unharmed, almost as if, instead of on a school roof, they were meeting again after a battle.

It was a loss of restraint a part of her realized Sayaka Miki would probably not even be able to believe, much less fully understand.

[kujikenai]

"You're here."

Truly, Madoka could have said the same thing. What was Homura doing on her school roof, acting like this, grabbing onto her as though they weren't on a roof at all, glancing her over as though...

...as though...

"Homura-chan, of course I'm..."

...She wasn't wearing her uniform. No, it was replaced with that...that purple dress she had grown to know so well, skirts fluttering around her as though caught in a passing breeze. And it wasn't just that, either...

Where were her braids? Her glasses? Even with her body in its proper shape, Homura never seemed to lose her glasses. And that ribbon...she'd never seen her wear that before.

There was something different about Homura, which raised more questions than answers.

But...

There was one thing that Madoka did know:

She failed again. Homura was once more a Magical Girl, doomed to suffer that cursed fate that she fought to prevent, again and again.

Truly, such a meeting could only be bittersweet.

Madoka's heart sunk, but her smile stayed intact, growing softer even as the realization hit her.

"...of course I'm here. Are you okay?"

[braidstobows]

Homura didn't mind. Well, perhaps no one who knew the truth of magical girls could ever truly 'not mind' being one. But if it was for Madoka, if Madoka was right here looking at her, if they could simply reach out and touch each other...

"I'm fine." It was all she needed to keep going. Despite her own concerns for Madoka, she was even smiling. Perhaps it was a fond eye, but she saw no changes in Madoka - There was the cute hairstyle, the gentle smile, the ribbons so similar to the ones she'd noticed on Homura. "As long as you're here."

It was as if she half expected Madoka to disappear right in front of her eyes. Part of her did expect it.

[waterfell]

She never said escape. But there were times Mercury ran to the lake at the edge of the forest, or to the waterfall, or to the tall rooftops of the city in the deep darkness of night. Tonight, it was the last of those. She made an unusual sight, all in blue from the sailor-style magical girl outfit to her hair.

It was a sure sign of her agitation that she was back here at all, trying to piece together a mind that was often pulled in two directions at once. There were so many reasons for both.

An intruder. She turned sharply, making the charm on the choker necklace sway, and stiffened as she spotted Madoka. "Who's there?"

[kujikenai]

Madoka had been watching the strange woman for a long time, for as long as she'd been...well, awake.

At first, she had thought it was Sayaka, her blue hair and the blue of her clothes shimmering in the dim light, but as the name had come to her lips, the woman's face and figure gave her pause, sending her to wait behind a tree instead.

Of course, the clear question in her mind was: Who was she?

Whoever she was, she wasn't anything like any Magical Girl that she'd ever seen. Was she new? Recently contracted?

Madoka's heart clenched at the thought.

A Recently contracted Magical Girl meant more would have to suffer needlessly in this game that the Incubators created, full of Magical Girls, Fallen Dreams, and Despair-borne Witches.

...It had been whilst poking her head out from behind the tree, clad in her Magical Girl garb, wondering if she should reveal herself or not, when the young woman hardly gave her a choice. With a sigh, Madoka stepped into the light, raising her hands as a show of her peaceful intentions.

"I am. It's okay, you don't have to be afraid."

She took a few steps closer, though Madoka made sure to keep her distance. If the woman (Yes, woman...she was older than most Magical Girls Madoka had seen at any rate. Was Kyubey contracting them at older ages now, too?) was already suspicious, getting too close was the last thing she wanted to do.

"Ummm, sorry for spying on you."

[waterfell]

Not a senshi. Madoka's dress was very much a magical girl's, but it lacked the tell-tale sailor collar, and she didn't precisely feel that same aura of the stars and planets that surrounded sailor senshi. Yet somehow in the dream, Mercury knew there was something beyond a simple girl in cosplay, too. Another kind of magical girl? There was no need for that, her mind said first.

"Who'd be afraid?" she retorted. She crossed her arms in front of her chest. If Madoka had been an enemy, Madoka would be defeated. She had no hesitations about that. The apology elicited no smile, and didn't make her relax her posture, but neither did she threaten.

Instead, predictably, she fired off more questions. She didn't limit them to her mind, instead demanding the answers of the girl in front of her. "Who are you?" "Where did you come from?" "Why are you up here?"

I'm sorry, school reports make me super slow when writing prose....

[decaying]

[There were big cities in Kanda's world but he hadn't ever really bothered using their rooftops. In an era of thick coal clouds and very few clean things about, being up there couldn't really be good for your health. Perhaps all of his time spent with Ami had gotten him dreaming about the future, about clear skies and fancy rooftops about fancy cities. He wasn't sure what he was doing up there or where he was so when he found the girl lying there, he figured a small interrogation would suffice.]

Hey, kid. Wake up. [He'll say that a bit loudly in order to make sure you actually heard him.] Where are we?

Oh, it's fine. I've been glacial, myself. :<

[kujikenai]

H...uh...?

[In the fog of sleep, someone had been calling to her. A man, probably older than her, from the sounds of it. He was standing over her, close by...

...Oh. That's nice.

Time to go back to sleep--

Wait.

Wait, WHAT. Hold the phone a second, just a second--!!]

Eh...EHHH?!

[Sorry, strange man. Madoka is just going to wonder for a minute why someone she was pretty sure wasn't a faculty member was staring down at her on the school roof and asking where they were.

She sat up quickly.]

U-um...we're on the Mitakihara Junior High School roof!

[Madoka could deal with Witches and still keep her ocmposure (for the most part). She could deal with the worst things in her life and still keep up a smile, and always have hope.

Dealing with a strange older man staring at her while she was sleeping?

Yeah. No.

Flailing was only inevitable.]

[forhiscause]

Cortana had seen beautiful things in her many encounters. Space had so many colors at times that it was definitely a sight to see. There were several big cities she had the pleasure of knowing but she had never been able to wander alone. Freely. Being an A.I. made that a little difficult. She was trapped inside that small disc after all but now she was taking in the sights.

"We're so high up." She found herself saying out loud as her eyes settled on the city below where cars and people continued to move minding their own business. "Is this supposed to be a school?"

[kujikenai]

Madoka had long been awake, watching the blue woman for a while through surreptitious glances.

...it was rude, probably, to stare. But there was something about the woman's lustre, or maybe it was her countenance, that ensnared Madoka and made her unable to keep her eyes off her. She was beautiful, for lack of a better word.

Beautiful, and unlike anyone Madoka had seen before.

"Uh-huh."

She sat up, stretching her arms.

"My best friend and I have lunch here a lot. Eheh, I think I kinda slept in, though, after lunch."

[lamentoso]

"Ding dong!" called Sayaka from above, leaning over her friend so that she had an upside down view from where she stood. "Anyone home? Come on Madoka, you can't seriously be sleeping!" she joked, following it up with a laugh, "You should save that sort of thing for when you're in class!"

Oh man, sorry this is so late ;w;

[kujikenai]

"Heeeeh?! Sayaka-chaaaaan, you scared me!"

...normalcy. As the sun shone over the two of them, the fresh breeze tousling her hair, and hearing Sayaka's laugh, Madoka could pretend for a moment that she was a normal girl.

Witches didn't exist, she didn't feel the warm glow of her Soul Gem in her pocket, and she was just sitting on the roof with her best friend.

Yeah.

Madoka sat up and puffed out her cheeks with faux-annoyance.

"I didn't get much sleep last night...and I don't want to sleep in class; I'll get in trouble!"

Not that she wouldn't get in trouble for sleeping on the roof and missing class, but still.

i have quite the late tendency myself... ;A;

[lamentoso]

"Awh, don't worry about it, I do it all the time!" she encouraged, prodding Madoka with an elbow gently as she took a seat beside her. "What's the matter? Were you up late with your mom again? She's such a cool career oriented woman, I bet there's lots of times they make her work late," Sayaka continued on the conversation. It was just another normal day. There was no reason to worry about displaced souls or menacing shadows.