1068/Soul Gems: They're Truly Outrageous

Soul Gems: They're Truly Outrageous
Date of Scene:	31 January 2024
Location:	Cafeteria Plaza
Synopsis:	Magda and Mami catch up over sushi and devil fruit.
Cast of Characters:	Magda Faust, Mami Tomoe

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Magda Faust has posed:
    School. The other place that Magda Faust spends her time. While the hospital is practically her home, school is where she goes to 'work' on improving her knowledge base. The more she knows about medicine, the better she can treat patients. Efficiency of cost and action are what she's aiming for now, rather than expanding the uses for her magic. Magic is something she has begun jealously hoarding ever since she found out abotu the true nature of Soul Gems.
    To do otherwise risks death.
    And if she's dead, who is going to heal her friends and help those in need?
    Her talent is rare after all, like Mami-senpai and Homura-senpai said.
    Another part of maintaining her energy levels without expending magic is eating and sleeping more healthily. Keep her mind and body in tip-top shape, and she won't have to rely on her Soul Gem to maintain full efficiency. Where some, like Lulu-chan, may have given up on being human and started using their modified body and soul to obviate basic needs and failings, Magda is doing the opposite. Even if it makes less sense, is less 'practical', or less 'logical' as Kyubey-san would describe her actions...
    She wants to stay as close to human as she can.
    So it is: She is staring down the green bell peppers on her plate in the cafeteria. They are her greatest challenge to date. Whether or not she can eat these peppers may determine the fate of her entire life...!
    She spears one with a fork and shudders at the sound it makes, and the texture she can feel through the utensil, and the smell that invades her nostrils. Guh. She can't open her mouth. It has shrunken down to a pinhole as a self-defense mechanism. >x<
    Truly, being Magduka is suffering.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami hasn't been on campus much, since school is not in session. She's been working. But today, she's hoping to catch a meal and catch up with somebody. She doesn't know who, but she's hopeful she'll spot a familiar face.

She goes through the line and gets her own food--sushi, cucumber salad, and bean paste buns--and then starts to walk around slowly scanning the room. It's not too busy Magda's green hair is easy to spot. Mami smiles. It's been a little while since she last saw the Germen puella. Maybe this time it will be a little more low-key, since she's not bleeding out.

She walks over to the table where Magda is seated, and stands right behind a chair, holding her tray over the table. "Mind if I join you, Magda-chan?"

Magda Faust has posed:
    Startled out of her staring contest with the foul produce staining her poor, innocent fork Magda nearly drops said eating utensil when she is spoken to. "Aa! Yes! I mean, no! I mean... I mean, no I don't mind, and yes you can sit with me!" Japanese can be scary sometimes. The way you word something can make it come across completely differently from how you intend. She gladly takes the excuse to put down her fork and go back to the sweet and sour pork, using her trusty spoon to select only the pieces that have not been in direct contact with peppers.
    The joke is on her, since they were all kept in the same container there is trace pepper molecule contamination on all of it! It's like an indirect kiss, but worse, because it tastes like green bell peppers! ...Though hypothetically someone could have been eating green bell peppers before drinking from a water bottle or something, and then offering it, in which case the indirect kiss would also--
    "It has been far too long, Mami-senpai. How have you been?" she asks, momentarily forgetting the past months of... Of everything. She's just happy to see someone she knows again. She should really socialize more and more make connections, but she hasn't had the time.
    Well, more accurately she hasn't given herself the time.
    If she stays busy, she doesn't have to think about Lulu's lifeless body or--
    "Ah, would you happen to like green bell peppers? I seem to have taken a few more than I would like, so you can feel free to them!" she says quickly, as she attempts to start putting the peppers on Mami's plate almost before she sits down, let alone answers.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami shakes her head in answer to that last question first. "Oh, no thank you. I'm just going to have my cucumber salad. I appreciate your offer, though," she says as she scoots her seat out and sits down with her tray.

She offers Magda a smile. "It has been far too long, I agree. I've been doing well. Staying busy," she says. She looks at Magda for a moment, her head tilting to one side as she just considers the girl.

Once she's settled down, she arranges the plates on her tray so the cucumber salad is in the middle, and she gets out her chopsticks and prepares to eat it. "I heard about Lulu-chan," she says, her voice all full of concern. She lifts a piece of cucumber up to her mouth, and just before popping it in asks, "How is she doing?"

Magda Faust has posed:
    Sadly, but resignedly, the green-haired girl withdraws her fork and puts the peppers back on her plate, where she stirs them around idly. She sighs when Lulu is brought up. No avoiding the topic then. "I don't know. I haven't seen her since she left the hospital, and won't take my calls... She won't answer the door either. I thought about trying telepathy, but..." She hesitates a moment before putting down her fork. "...That might seem, to her, like the only form of communication she's safe from. I don't wish to violate her privacy or make her feel trapped." Also, the creature they have to route their telepathy through might be able to hear their conversations.
    Scratch that, pretty much definitely can hear their conversations. She doesn't think he'd offer such a convenience if he had no control over it. But then again, he allegedly can't deny wishes either, so...
    "Everyone has been shaken up. Linda-chan and Sayaka-san are the only ones I know for sure are still hunting Witches... I haven't seen Akemi-san, Madoka-san, or even Sakura-san. Kat-chan blames herself for what happened, but what was done to us happened far before she exposed it to us. Teresia-sama is..."
    Magda pushes her tray aside and plops her head down on her folded arms. She says muffledly, "Also haven't heard from her... Not even Kyubey-san has made an appearance..." Sitting up quickly, Magda smiles brightly. "But it's wonderful to see you! I was starting to think I was one of the only Puella left in Tokyo!" She laughs weakly. Her smile is forced. But she has to be strong. Everyone is depending on her. Just like they depend on Mami-senpai, though more for Magda's abilities than her expertise.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami eats her cucumber salad as she listens to Magda, and she thinks back to her conversation with Amy. It really does seem like the pair of them are the odd ones out for not being shaken much at all by the revelation that their soul gems aren't just a henshin device.

Mami actually found it to be quite freeing to realize she was actually the little egg-shaped gem she carried around with her all the time. Feeling inhuman by just that little bit made it so much easier to slide down the slippery slope of her career trajectory.

But she worries about the other girls. Even if Sayaka threw a giant sword at her boyfriend's head. She can't help but worry just a little bit. Her mouth turns down into a frown as Magda lays out how everybody seems to have gone to ground. "That sounds so lonely, Magda-chan," she says.

She eats the last couple pieces of cucumber, and then shifts the plate to one side, pulling the sushi to the center. It's a couple of simple maki, nothing too complicated. She picks one up with her fingers and pops it in her mouth. Mmm fish.

After she finishes that first piece, she says, "Well, I'm still hunting witches. I've found myself a team, and we're working on ways to make it easier to find them, too. Work smarter, not harder, you know?"

Magda Faust has posed:
    The German girl perks up at that news. "Oh! Do any of you need a healer?" Pause. "I mean... Um... That is great news! I hope they are treating you well. I am certain you are a wonderful leader. You've been so helpful to so many already!"
    ....
    "...And if you know anyone who might wish for a healing specialist to come along from time to time, I would be happy to do all that I can to help! I have been preserving magic as much as possible, and only using it sparingly. With my efficiency value when healing others, I think I am down to about eighty-percent since the last time I refreshed my Soul Gem--"
    Right. Soul Gems. She was just starting to forget about those, and what they truly are, and what was done to them without their consent. She shakes her head and her multi-braids fwip-fwip back and forth with the motion. "Ah, so that was... Um... November the twenty first. The same night that... Well, it has been some time, is the point, and while I am not in danger of running out, I have been warned over and over not to wait until the point that I am. One never knows when there may a sudden, urgent need for a support Puella!"
    Excitedly, Magda asks, "May I inquire about your team? How many Puella are there? Does Kyubey-san know about it? It is so much more effective to fight as a team, isn't it? You can just take turns sharing the Grief Seed that drops, because everyone is using less over-all!"

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Just a few days after Magda last saw her, Mami signed on with Obsidian. Until now, nobody had asked her any details about her new job, or her team. So, she'd avoided any uncomfortable conversations so far. But now? Well, there's just no way to avoid the topic and answer the questions.

Laughs awkwardly. Of course Magda would be sure she's a wonderful leader. That's exactly the image she projects. But she's not the leader of her team. She's the leader's girlfriend. "Oh no, I'm not the leader. That would be Riventon," she says. "I'm our tactician, because neither he nor any of the girls have combat experience like I do."

She picks up another piece of sushi, and looks at it, then looks up at Magda and says, "I'm the only Puella on the team. I get all of the grief seeds we collect." Then she pops it in her mouth. She's not smug, she's just eating.

Magda Faust has posed:
    "Oh! Well, I'm certain you are an excellent tactician then!" she says, happy for Mami whole-heartedly. Less of a burden on Mami-senpai, honestly. Nothing to have negative opinions about there! The news that she's the only one of her kind on the team though, has Magda's enthusiasm dimming. Her smile slips a bit as she thinks about that, gazing over the older girl's shoulder, into the middle-distance. She worked with some non-Puella before... She thinks... Madoka-san is basically an honorary Puella, so she doesn't count. And there was Sailor Moon and... What was his name? Halite? Something like that.
    She has, for most of her magical girl career, been fighting alongside fellow Magical Girls, contracted by Kyubey-san. While an occasional team-up with someone else is fine, and all, having a team of Puellae just feels right. It feels whole in a way that fighting with a different type of Mahou just... Doesn't. It doesn't click the same way.
    "Ah... That sounds fortunate." she says eventually. "Not having to debate about Grief Seeds... But... I guess..." She looks back at Mami, squinting her eyes and smiling sadly. "Being the only Puella... Sounds a bit lonely, I guess."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami picks up another piece of her maki, and looks at it for a moment. "I've had a very different experience of other Puella than you have, Magda-chan," she says finally before popping it in her mouth and chewing it slowly. She likes to savor her food.

Finally, she goes on, "Maybe it's just the girls I've worked with." Maybe it's her. She is the one thing in common between all those relationships. "But the only people I've found who can work as a team, besides you girls, are non-Puella. And I've really tried. It's all I've wanted since I signed my contract."

She eats the last piece of her maki, and then picks up a bean paste roll. Before taking a bite out of it, she says, "I've honestly never been happier."

Magda Faust has posed:
    Found family. She can understand that much, even if she can't understand the feeling of inclusion among those who haven't shared the same pain, the same joys, the same struggles, the same shared secrets... But even those aren't universal, apparently.
    Meaning Magda is still the one who's alone.
    But that's normal for her.
    Cheering up, Magda says, "Well... In that case, I'm unreservedly happy for you, and your team. They're fortunate to have you guiding and teaching them. Perhaps you can introduce them to me some day?" She didn't miss that there was no response to her offer of providing support or healing, and while that could mean anything or nothing, she doesn't want to seem desperate. So she doesn't bring it up again. But meeting Mami-senpai's friends is probably okay, right?
    Anyone who is a friend of Mami's is a friend of Magda's! ...She hopes!

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami eats the rest of that first roll and just looks at Magda as she considers how to answer that question. On the one hand, she loves her team, and she thinks they're great. On the other hand, they all work for Obsidian. Mami really does not want to have these uncomfortable conversations. This was not an entirely predictable outcome of her choices (it was).

"Of course! I'm sure you'll meet them sooner or later," Mami says with a smile as she stacks up her empty plates. She pauses as she sets the last plate down. She's not going to be able to avoid this forever. Riventon already had the talk with her about doing things other than witch-hunting.

"If you want to make it sooner, tag along with Sailor Moon or one of the other mahou. They're always trying to foil Riventon's and La Crima's plans," she says. Then she grabs her tray and rises up from the table, "But, I'll be there too, so be careful if you find yourself downrange."