1824/What Gretchen Wants

What Gretchen Wants
Date of Scene:	03 August 2024
Location:	Four Clover Mall
Synopsis:	After Scene 1822, Hope Blossom shows up too late to catch Gretchen. She has an in-depth conversation with Usagi, Hinote and Amy over the nature of Gretchen and the Meanie Dokas and what her plans probably are. Plus a bit of speculation about time travel and those with time powers.
Cast of Characters:	Madoka Kaname, Usagi Tsukino, Hinote Kagari, Sayaka Miki, Amanda Faust
Tinyplot:	The Meaniedokas

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Madoka Kaname has posed:
    It's maybe 5-10 minutes after Gretchen's crew (accidentally) attacked the mall. Hope Blossom has been called, and she arrives along with Brai riding on her shoulder. Hope is currently wearing a flossie, showing that she's probably henshined with Medo at the moment, too.

    As she looks around at the food court, which has been spared most (but not all) damage, she frets and frowns and worries.

    "I'm sorry! I'm so so sorry she did this! I don't really even know what happened. The three of them just ran away one day and I..."

    Madoka trails off. Her hands are gripping her poofy dress. During her moment of hesitation, Brai joins in, "It all seemed rather sudden to us, but I suspect that Gretchen was feeling bad about things for a long time now. Seeing that there was trouble with Madoka's last two Chara Eggs was probably the last straw for her."

    With a sigh, Hope adds, "Honestly... we should probably be grateful that it took as long as it did to reach this point. Most X-Chara would've wandered off a long time ago. Not that it helps with... this..."

    Feeling a mix of shame and worry, Madoka looks around at those who chose to meet up with her and asks, "So... can you tell me again what happened? I know she was around here, and this isn't the first time she's caused trouble lately."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
In those five to ten minutes, Sailor Moon has detransformed, ran to find her little brother (indeed having stuffed his face with enough sausage and cheese corn dogs to be nearing sickness), and sent him off to the nearby arcade to spend more of her allowance. Then, she'd returned to the group - just in time to see Hope Blossom's arrival. Madoka's look of worry and shame is enough to have Usagi throwing her arms around the other girl in a tight and quick hug.

"It's going to be okay, Madoka-chan. They didn't cause... too much harm," she winces a little, because people had definitely been drained and woozy, but the barrier had gone up early enough that no one was... too badly hurt, she hopes.

"I took some pictures, and a video on my phone, actually! I saw your posters in the Shed, and thought maybe you didn't have pictures of the other two - here, see?"

And so she offers her phone (and it's short video clips and pictures of the three X-Chara) to Madoka.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Pulp Noir, when Hope Blossom arrives, has a lollipop stick hanging out of his mouth loosely as he keeps his fedora drawn down. "Yeah, they're a little more than a handful. Don't worry too hard. They're just hurt. Or confused." he says as he turns towards Hope Blossom more directly.

"Hey, Blossom-san." he asks. "If this question is too personal. Feel free to say so. But why is your chara apparently a 'Witch' and also X'ed." he asks.

He took the notes about Witches earlier. Now he's curious.

He draws the lollipop back into his mouth as Usagi goes to hug Madoka.

"Right. Don't fret, in the end." he adds, walking a little closer. "We handled it. I'm on the case, after all." he says.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
"Hi, Blossom", Sayaka says, worried at Madoka's reaction to Gretchen's doing. Before continuing, she moves over to get a chair for herself, abandoning herself to it. She was already feeling tired before, and a sudden fight she hadn't prepared for hadn't helped at all. "There was this unremarkable youma quarreling with Gretchen, then she lost control of a vending machine familiar she had called out to get rid of it, and it kinda escalated from there."

The Sharpsong Puella suppresses another wave of tiredness before continuing. "She is trying to do what we are too, the whole saving Witches, only by her own initiative. And she calls herself Kriemhildr Gretchen now", the bluenette says, paying close attention to how Madoka would take it.

Ula comes close to the pinkette. "The good thing is they didn't cause much damage with this stunt. Everyone was here to deal with it, and we had a barrier too", the fairy tries to reassure her.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy looked surprised and relieved at Sailor Moon's acceptance of her reaching out to Gretchen like this, and nods in agreement at the suggestion that this may lead to reconciliation.

    Once Madoka arrives, Amy runs over to hug her. "What... was the trouble with the new chara? Um... Gretchen says she's going to make a new world for everyone... The forgotten and Witches... that she can, uh... maybe reach the 'true heart' of a Witch."

    She winces when Pulp Noir asks that, looking nervously between the two of them.

    Her poker face is so bad.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka is more than happy to share a hug with Usagi, and holds her tight for a vulnerable moment before pulling away. Then she hugs Amy next. Being told that it's going to be okay... is something that she has mixed feelings over. (How many times has she heard that phrase, right before something bad happened?)

    She takes a moment to convince herself that this already bad situation isn't going to get much worse. "I'm glad that they didn't do too much harm. Still, it sounds like they're getting deeper into dark energy. No matter what her intentions are, that can't ever be a good thing."

    To Pulp Noir, Hope takes a moment to gather her thoughts. How to explain this? "The simple answer is that she's an X-Chara based on a Witch. It... it's complicated." Does she really want to talk about what her deal is? Can she afford not to?

    "The more complex answer is that I have ties to multiple different realities. I've existed in different timelines and in many of those I became a Puella Magi. In fact this is the first timeline I've experienced where I became a Chara Bearer."

    Brai and Hope listen to Sayaka's retelling of events, and Hope looks more than a little mortified. Brai answers first, "I'm not sure what's more worrying. The fact that she's picking fights with youma, or the fact that she's winning them. Chara like us are no more effective on our own than a housecat, but it's different when an X-Chara takes on a lot of darkness."

    Between what Amy and Sayaka tell her, Madoka actually turns pale. "She said... all of that? Really?" Worried, the pinkette grabs the nearest seat and sits down in it. She looks down at her lap, while Brai watches her. After thinking it over for a moment, Hope says, "She actually could do that." Looking up at the others gathered around her, she adds, "I don't know if she can actually reach a Witch like that, but if she's able to gather enough power she could absolutely make her own world. Gretchen is small and, when she was with me, she was too well behaved to go power crazy. Thing is though... the upper limit of her power is... probably enormous."

    Brai chimes in, "Gretchen-chan holds the vast majority of Madoka's potential. The same potential that Kyubey wanted from her so badly. If she has enough power, it may be possible for her to tap into that power and do... who knows what."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy sighs in relief when Madoka lets the cat (not Amy) out of the bag. And then listens. "She really could make another world? Why is she so powerful?" she asks, but Brai explains -- sort of -- and Amy remembers, "Riiiight, now I remember, he always said you'd be the most powerful Puella Magi, so..."

    She'd also become the most powerful Witch.

    Oh. Oh damn. Her face pales a bit. "So... All that power Kyubey said you had... Gretchen has it?"

    "...On the subject of that, um... I wanted to ask: Whenever Kyubey told you he was an alien, did he say anything else?" She looks awkward. "I uh... In case telling us sequence broke that conversation so the rest of us missed it."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
When Madoka sits, Usagi sits too, and she grimaces as Madoka shares the truth - that she's got access to many timelines, that she was a Puella in many of them, that she -

Oh no.

"So if you have access to a bunch of alternate timelines... Gretchan has access to? And - is that why she's so convinced of her whole, godhood thing?" So she's got a lot of potential... and Gretchen has most of it... and now she wants to make her own world...

"That's a lot," she admits, honestly, but considering her own things? "You've been able to like, tell people right? You haven't just been alone with this whole thing for ages?" Because that's a real worry. Another worry? "...what do you want us to do with them, if we see them again?"

Hinote Kagari has posed:
"The more I learn about this 'Kyubey' hoodlum, the more I dislike him..." Pulp Noir says coldly as he lets the majority of his henshin fade, but remains in the fedora. Tracy sort of unmerges with Hinote and Hinote...drops the 1920's detective act, which means he's in charge this time and not Tracy.

"So you've lived other lives. And in those lives, you're usually like.... Miki-san and Faust-san?" he asks. "Alright.... I think I'm understanding now." he says as he looks down at his note pad, jotting down the notes for his casefile.

Look, you're a detective, you keep files somewhere. Probably 'The Shed'. He looks over to Amy then he looks over to Madoka.

Tracy chimes up. "Right. X-charas can cause problems, but this feels a little different. Normally, right, charas don't go around calling themselves gods, kid."

"I can't do the purifying thing. But that's as good question, Kaname-san, what do you want us to do next time." he adds. "Oh right did Usagi tell you? They're calling themselves The Meanie Dokas."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka starts rubbing her forehead when Amy asks about Kyubey. "Honestly? Amy-chan, my memories are so muddled that I actually don't remember everything he said in perfect order. It would be easier to just recount what I know. Kyubey is an alien trying to put off the heat death of the universe. He does this by exploiting magical systems and the drop from Hope to Despair in order to gain energy that isn't limited by the laws of thermodynamics. This process also turns Puella Magi into Witches."

    Madoka would be more worried about talking about this in a mall, but she's been around the Veil long enough to know that most people aren't even registering their conversation. Even if someone normal wanted to eavesdrop, they wouldn't be able to understand or remember.

    Brai nods at Amy and adds, "That's right. Gretchen took most of that power when her egg was formed, leaving only a bit of it for the rest of us. Granted, what we have is still more than enough to help Madoka-chan fight, so it hasn't really been an issue up until now."

    Madoka nods to Usagi and says, "More accurately, I would say that she was my connection to those other timelines. It was she who shared her memories of those other worlds with me. The truth is... I forget if I've mentioned this before, but the name 'Kriemhild Gretchen' is the name of what my Witch would be if I had become a Puella Magi."

    Brai asides, "If she wants to create her own world, chances are she'll use her Labyrinth to do it. Without henshining with Madoka-chan, Gretchen's Labyrinth is tiny, but if she has enough dark energy she can probably expand it and fill it with more things."

    Madoka shakes her head. "No, I haven't been completely alone in this. I've told a few other people. Homura-chan knows, and so do some of my friends. I didn't exactly want to spread it around, though..."

    Brai looks over to Tracy and says, "Well, no, but that's also part of Gretchen's deal. Kyubey told Madoka-chan that she had enough potential to become a god, if she wished for it." Brai scratches the side of her head and says, "Honestly though, even saying that, there's still some parts about that which don't really make sense to me. I kinda wish that Rens wasn't evil, because if she's really a science Chara then I feel like she could come up with a better answer than I could."

    Madoka chimes in, saying, "Well, I actually do believe in sharing knowledge when it comes to academia, especially if it can help save lives, so she might be willing to explain her theories."

    As for what Madoka should do when they see them again, she wonders that to herself. "Purifying her won't do much good in the long run, but it can delay her plans by burning off whatever dark energy she's gathered. That said, I can't help but feel like me using purifying magic around her actually caused this situation."

    Tapping her chin, she says, "I don't want to tell you to hurt them. I don't want anyone getting hurt, but I also don't think it's wise to let them have their way. I've been arguing with her for months, so I doubt that talking alone will ever get through to her. Purifying her wont solve anything in the long run, and I kinda suspect that my use of purifying magics actually caused this problem, but it might delay her plans."

    She taps on her communicator and says, "I'm going to be tracking her a bit more closely now. I thought she just needed some space so I didn't want to pursue her too hard, but from what you've told me she's starting to create a situation that I'll need to rescue her from."

    She blinks at that last bit from Hinote. "The... the Meanie Dokas?!" For the first time since showing up, her lips curl into a slight smile as she considers how cute that is. "I hope she isn't actually being that mean though."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    It's quite a subject to talk about in the mall. What would normal people think?!

    The camera pans to the couple, just out of frame, who've returned to the deli after waking up confused, wandering off, and then realizing they were hungry and didn't remember eating. "Ohh man, they have cuban sandwiches here?! Ow, what?" The blonde girl just elbowed them. "You're going on a diet, remember?"

    Yeah, you can discuss the fate of the universe just fine.

    Amy does glance around to try and get a sense of peoples' reactions to this information, though.

    Kriemhild Gretchen. Right, Madoka mentioned that when they talked about Time Shenanigans. Amy nods. "Oh. Ohhhhhh. Oh, so she can make a real full-size Labyrinth to be her new world... and control it with more sanity than a Witch."

    Amy nods at the concern that purifying might only make things worse. "It is a bit, um... I mean... you have rejected the future of becoming a Witch. It's not even possible now that you're not a Puella Magi... She's got a point. What's a chara supposed to do when the dream they embody is no longer even plausible? In a way, purifying her is just... more rejection. You can't be a Witch, obviously, that would be horrible, but... it must suck for her, to be something so..."

    Amy looks down at the table sadly. "...Anathemaic to reality and people, and vice-versa."

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari listens as he leans back in his chair and taps his chin, before leaning back down and jotting more notes down. "So you have a lot of potential. And most of it is in a small, angry package that wants you to become god?" he asks. "Huh. Or a god." he says.

"I can't purify so no worries there. Honestly? I'm a brute force fighter. My attacks aren't super flashy, or even have names. Most of my abilities are in the Detective range of abilities." he says.

"So don't let the MD's have their way, alright." he says. "If you need help tracking, I'm good at that." he adds.

"Right now it feels like she was trying to show up a youma and it got out of control, here, rather than...on purpose?"

He looks to Amy and frowns a little. "Yeah... a dream that can't be realized..." he says. "I need more time to sleep on the evidence." he admits.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"They considered being the Badokas, too," Usagi adds with a faint smile, because it really was cute. Then she frowns, considering what Madoka and Amy are both saying, before she considers...

"Well, is her true nature to be a Witch? Or is that because she's an X-Chara?" That's a fair question, isn't it? "Is the dream she embodies to be a Puella Magi? Or it something else, that involves all your potential in general? Maybe the dream can be realized, but because she's so... Gretchan-y, there's something more to it?"

Because why would Madoka's dream be to be a Witch? And why specifically to be a Puella Magi, if she didn't just make a wish?

"I can purify pretty easily, but I know it hurts, even if you're expecting it and like, agree to it... so I guess, if I see her, I'll try and handle her youma without handling her."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka leans against the back of her seat and crosses her arms, frowning down at the ground. "I remember when Sunbreaker was still using dark energy, she would get pretty rough but it always felt like she had limits. Like there were rules that bound her behavior. That lasted until suddenly it didn't. If Gretchen keeps pulling more dark energy, she might start going down that route, but... if I'm being honest? I don't see her wanting to fight most of you directly. She still considers you friends even if she doesn't say it, and I don't think she'd be that upset over a broken Familiar. Especially one that had chosen to disobey her."

    Brai isn't sure what to say on the subject of unfulfillable dreams. She has to think about it for a bit before even responding. "Honestly? Gretchen has always been a bit of an odd one. Like the rules didn't really apply to her. It's pretty common for a Chara to change forms when becoming an X-Chara, though it's rare for the X-Chara form to remain so distinct. I'll also note that the very 'concept' of like... power levels for Chara? It's naturally a bit weird. We're all roughly the same, really. Or at least, there's not enough difference between us to matter. My arrows are just as powerful as Pulp's water pistols and Platinum's holy crowns. Gretchen is the only weird one."

    Madoka has to consider that for a moment. "Could she be... broken, in some way? More fundamental than simply being an impossible dream, I mean." Not sure what to do with that line of thinking, Madoka shrugs. "I'm honestly not sure how to describe what Gretchen is supposed to be. I'm not even sure if I fully understand it. A part of me always thinks that I could be doing something more. Something better. Maybe it's like... when I imagine my best possible self, when I imagine the most good I could possibly do, I don't really have an answer to that question. Instead, all I have in my mind is the energy that I could've created if Kyubey had gotten what he wanted from me. Which... naturally I would reject something like that."

    Hope heaves a heavy sigh and says, "Honestly... I've been trying to answer that question for a long time. I thought if I henshined with Gretchen more then I could understand what she was about, but even then I didn't fully get it."

    Shaking her head, she says, "Anyways... thanks for handling it like you did. You got rid of the Familiar before it could cause a problem, and Gretchen didn't get too hurt. I suspect the only reason she didn't draw it back into her Labyrinth is because... well... it's really small, like the inside of a gondola. A vending machine might have take up the entire space and rampaged all over her pocket dimension."

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari shakes his head and hides under his fedora as he's thanked. "It wasn't a big deal. And we had the barrier that got the normal people away before they hurt anyone else majorly." he says.

"That small?" he asks. "Huh." he says. "What's it like in there? Is it another small carnival?" he asks as he takes some more notes. "So she'd be looking to expand it then, as stated before?" he asks. "Hrm."
"I don't know much about dark energy." he admits. "Except it seems like a bad idea. Infact that's what I have written in my notes already." he adds.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Wait, what? But we stood and talked in the Labyrinth."

    The nature of Chara is discussed. Amy considers this. "Perhaps Gretchen is different because..." She looks around at the others, particularly Hinote.

    "Every other chara in existence is a human dream."

    The redhead looks back at Madoka, hoping it doesn't hurt too much to remind her of this. "You're probably the only... chara-getter in existence who has ever been or remembers being, however fragmentedly, the alien existence of a Witch."

    She looks down at the table. "Humans do a lot with dreams, but not much without them. Witches can naturally make a whole pocket universe full of strange magical creatures. Perhaps the dreams of Witches require power beyond our understanding to bring about. Even if she's clearly a more human-conceptualized version. Making a Paradise..."

    Amy furrows her brow, and lifts her head again to look at Madoka. "Has Gretchen ever said before, what she hoped you'd achieve, if you did somehow come to follow her dream?"

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Brai confirms to Pulp, "It is a bad idea, but the Meanie Dokas are X-Chara, so they can't help but be full of darkness."

    Madoka explains to Amy, "When I henshin with Gretchen as Hope Witch, I can make the Labyrinth bigger. Like the same size as a normal Witch. By herself, she doesn't have that power. It's part of why the bond between Chara and Bearer is so important to how our powers work." Then Amy brings up some interesting theories, and Madoka starts to consider that too. "I've been thinking about that, and why I have so many dreams. Most people only have one or two chara, maybe three. Four is unheard of. For me to have as many as seven..."

    She pauses. How should she describe something so weird? "For me to have been so many people, spread across so many different realities where I ended up being so many slightly different versions of myself, it's possible that I ended up having a variety of things that were very important to me."

    Madoka thinks of how to clarify what she means, so she rephrases a bit. "Let me say it like this. Imagine if I had been a Chara Bearer across all those different timelines instead of a Puella. Maybe in some of them I would have ended up with Brai by herself, and others with Medo, and some with Sio or Lydian. In rare cases, Tia or Rens might have been my only Chara. However, in this reality, being tied to all of those others, I wound up having all of them at once, plus Gretchen."

    The pinkette shrugs and says, "I can't really reject the idea that Gretchen's dream might actually be my Witch's dream. It kinda makes sense. If that's the case, she'd want to make the world better. Not in the way that you or I would understand it, but the way that a Witch would. She'd also want to help other Witches."

    Brai glances at her Bearer and then at the other magicals before adding her two cents. "Even so, that's a chilling thought. It's hard to think that's actually what Gretchen wants. She's never really been able to communicate what exactly she wanted from Madoka in a way that the rest of us understood, so we can't really say."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"She said you failed her and were failing the other two," Usagi says quietly, tapping her chin, "But if she never told you what she represents - she kind of set you up to fail. Maybe she doesn't think about it that way, but I can't help but wonder if maybe she like... wanted you to know? And since you didn't know, and still don't, she feels like you messed up?"

Maybe that's not helpful. She's not sure if it is. But if they're sharing ideas and theories...

"Witches are alien thoughts, but, they're also still coming from humans. Maybe we don't understand them entirely, but everything they are, it still ultimately comes from people. A Witch was once a human, so even if Gretchan is a Witch's dream... that's still a human dream." Witches...

"She said that if you accepted your potential, you could probably help Witches... maybe she's wrong, because she's so sure of her power... but maybe she's not. You could have been a god-like being, and you were, I guess, so - maybe figuring out what Gretchan wants, and what dream she is, will help you calm her down? And maybe it will be the same for the other two. You've got your chara, and you're able to work with them - so why couldn't you work with these two new ones?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    'Why I have so many dreams.' Madoka can see the lightbulb go on over Amy's head. So many dreams because different lives had different dreams, each important. She nods along as the explanation continues, having already realized where it's going.

    "To make the world better... but 'better' from a Witch's view. What does that even mean?" She leans over the table and rests chin in hand with her elbow on the table. "One could think of, better feeding grounds or something, but that's as silly as looking at humans and thinking we would just want to be surrounded by food and eat all the time. That's... not something anyone gets a chara for, right?"

    Amy shakes her head. "And she was the only one who kind of understood Witches, too..." She sighs and sits up again. "Well. Maybe she'll be more reasonable than Hinoiri and actually discuss the plan with us? If not you..." She looks at Sayaka, and then back at Madoka. The cat's out of the bag. "Then perhaps one of us potential future Witches. I told her I want to know and I have an interest in it, and I mean..." She leans back in the chair slightly and throws out her arms to her sides. "That's not a trick, it's true. If I become a Witch one day of course it'd be better to... have something better to go to than... I mean. From what little you could remember it doesn't sound like the existence of Witches is a happy one, even aside the whole getting killed by magical girls thing..."

    Amy frowns and tries to remember. "...I don't remember what you said you remembered, though... just that it wasn't something you could really make sense of? I think? Am I just misremembering again?" She looks between Usagi and Hope Blossom.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari takes notes. "No. I understand." he says as he scribbles into his notepad with the pencil. "Sometimes you only get a piece of cake in one of these realities, but this time you got the full cake and it has decorations and says happy birthday on it." he says.

"-and yeah. I know X-charas are full of bad juju. Just. Normally. You can purify them. And they turn back into the chara they're supposed to be, right?"

"So. What's Gretchen supposed to be. Tiny Puella Magi you? As Usagi stated, that doesn't make sense with the evidence. If you wanted to be a Puella Magi, you would had just..wished..right?" he asks. He then thinks a moment longer.

"I think I have a better question. What's the wish Gretchen represents?" he asks. "If a puella magi exists due to a wish..." he considers and leans back a moment.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi glances at Amy, shrugging a little to indicate she doesn't know the answer entirely about remembering, but - well - "Well, it wouldn't be a happy one, would it? A Puella becomes a Witch when they give into despair - and it's not like giving into despair ever made anyone happier. And given what they do, making people commit suicide and get hurt... maybe all a Witch can do is spread their own misery around..."

Which is a sad, awful thought.

"Hinote-kun might be onto something though. Did you have different wishes, in your other lives? Or were they all similar? If Gretchan considers herself your Witch, and she's got all those memories, maybe knowing your wish can help you figure it out."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka gets a little gloomy as she considers Usagi's words. "She didn't tell me, but also... maybe she didn't think I'd accept it even if she did. Maybe, being a Witch, it was in her nature to give up easily. I will say... I can look at Lydian or Brai or any of my other Chara and know kindof what they represent intuitively. Even Rens and Tia too, honestly. Gretchen might tell me that it's a dream of being a goddess, but... that's... not a real dream to me. You don't gain power for its own sake unless there's something wrong with you. You gain power because you need to achieve a goal and the power you seek can get you there."

    Considering Tia and Rens, she says, "I think... honestly... those two are so far outside the range of how I see myself that I just didn't take those dreams seriously. Tia, to me, was probably a sign of maturity or refinement. You know like... Mami-san, Neptune-san, people like that have a certain vibe to them that I think is kinda neat? I just... didn't see myself in that role. As for Rens, well... I mean... I think it was you who said she acted too much like Riventon. Maybe that's why I noped out."

    After a pause, she says, "I'm kinda glad those are the last two. I wont have to worry about letting any other Chara down. Still, if I had known, I would've taken those dreams more seriously."

    To answer Amy, she says, "I think... in order to understand what Witch me might have thought is better, one should remember that mind control and brainwashing are parts of a Witch's powerset. When you know that something is controllable, you kinda respect it less. She wouldn't be concerned about making people happy if she could just place a Witch's Kiss on them and decide, 'you're going to be happy now', and that's it. From there, it could go to, 'You're going to be nice to one another', and 'you're going to take care of each other.' A Witch version of me might not understand the kind of boundary break that is."

    As for what Madoka remembers, she just shrugs. "My memory is like... if you asked me what happened on my 14th birthday, I would have about 100 versions of that event. Same for the start of last school year, or my first dance. It all jumbles together."

    When Hinote asks about the Wish, Madoka blinks. "I mean... technically every wish I made could potentially result in a Witch, but... not all of those Witches had equal power. Actually, there's one Wish that Gretchen would probably represent more than any other." Madoka tries to remember. Which one was that Witch? Which one was the most recent?

    "... I wanted to change fate. Like... I wanted to defy the karmic mechanics that doom Puella Magi, specifically." She then starts rubbing her temples. "Is that... why Gretchen wants to help Witches?" After a pause, she also says, "Granted, I also at one point made a wish to bring a cat back from the dead, and Gretchen considers that cat one of her best friends. I don't know... it's an interesting theory, but there are so many wishes that I can't really remember them all."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    While Hinote is thinking, Amy looks at him. "She can't become a Puella Magi as far as we know. Just because a dream is impossible as far as you know doesn't mean you can't dream it. Every day." She looks at the back and front of her hand, not the one with the ring on it, "For like eight thousand days. And then poof!" She holds up her hands splayed in a 'tada!' gesture, "It turns out to be possible after all and you never saw it coming!"

    At the discussion of some hypothetical Godoka, Amy wonders, "Well, if you did get godlike power, what would you do with it?"

    Although, her a priori reasoning about Witch thought processes seems pretty reasonable too, and Amy nods.

    She slumps her shoulders as she gets a worrying mental image of some hypothetical other-timeline Amy reiterating AI ethics talking points to the other Puella Magi with a giant Kriemhild Gretchen -- just the dress and mask, no cute chara -- in the distance, towering over the Mitakihara skyline.

    As for remembering a hundred versions of events. "Yeesh. That's gotta be hella rough. Maybe that makes the other thing it just occurred to me to ask pointless... But perhaps I can explain it to the others."

    Amy sits up straight again. "I was gonna ask if you've noticed any other times someone was messing with time, I've still only noticed just the two."

    She frowns and looks thoughtful. "...Although, it's not like I've really been constantly looking for it. Hmmm... If there was any time for someone to do it, it would've been at the Beryl battle, but it didn't seem like it... Who was it who figured out how to get Chiba-san back first?" Amy shakes her head. "Yeah nothing is really obviously jumping out at me. I guess whoever's messing with time has learned to be less blatant."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"No, I'm pretty sure you can only be one thing at a time," Usagi says, frowning to herself, "Because your magical heart is tied to that thing. I mean, I'm not a good example because I was never gonna be anyone but who I am, but Kyubey stopped bothering Madoka-chan after her heart eggs, right? If he could still get a gods worth of energy out of her, I bet he'd still be poking around."

Sure, they don't know, but they can totally make like, logical inferences and stuff. Like Phoenix Wright!

"Magic doesn't make sense except when it does, but, people kind of make sense. And if they want something and can get it, they don't usually just give up."

But then she mentions time, and Usagi blinks - "Someone's messing with time? Pluto-san probably doesn't like that... I'm pretty sure she knows when people are doing stuff like that, on account of her whole thing."

It's entirely possible, even likely, that no one here knows what Pluto's thing is, Usagi! Explain!

"But what do you mean, who figured out how to get Mamochan back first? I thought it was kind of obvious that he needed to get purified again, that's why I was gonna, you know," she laughs a little sheepishly, "Tell Kunzite to give anybody who tried to kill him a nap."

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari shakes his head. "I think it's unlikely that'll be the case. But. It's clearly related to Puella Magi all the same." he says as he taps his chin and sits back forward, tipping his fedora a little, as he says. "Right that's my thinking." he says to Usagi. "I think you can only be the one thing." he says.

"Man that guys a dick." he says again, in response to Kyubey.

"Uh. What's her thing. Is she a time wizard?" he asks. "Do you know a time wizard?"

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka gets a little weird when asked about time travel. For some reason she touches her lips and looks away. She glances off to the side to avoid eye contact. Usagi's comment on Sailor Pluto gets a sudden look of concern. "Wait... what do you mean she can tell?"

    Homura trusted Madoka to keep this a secret, and she's still intending to, but damn is she bad at lying.

    After a moment she composes herself and says, "Eheh, well, you don't have to share if you don't want to."

    Could Madoka be more than one thing at a time? She shakes her head. "No, it's like Usagi-chan said. I can't be a Puella Magi now, and the fact that Kyubey isn't bugging me any more is proof of that. He just outright ghosted me. Not that I miss him at all."

    Looking up to the ceiling, she adds, "Though... there can be more to a dream than just the literal thing, you know? Like... let's say someone wanted to be an astronaut. Well, that's almost impossible, really, but you could still be a part of a space program in some way. After all, for me, one of my dreams was to become a magical girl. I wasn't actually picky about what kind."

    Going back to Amy's previous question: if Madoka had godlike powers, what would she do with them?

    "I mean, probably scream at the top of my divine lungs while my ever expanding mind struggled to comprehend the Infinite Totality. After that? Who knows? In the same way that I no longer think the way I did when I was five, a version of me who beheld the Wisdom of the Cosmos would probably think in completely different ways. I think that I would try to be kind, regardless of what I knew or how different my brain worked; but in the same way that my five year old self probably couldn't understand the me of today, I can't really pretend to know what a divine version of me would want to do."

    After a shrug she adds, "I'd probably still want to help those who were powerless to help themselves, though."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Only one magical thing at a time. "Right? But I was pretty sure magic didn't exist and then it turned out it did. Maybe double magic exists, and how would we know? ...I'm being kind of facetious saying it that way, but also, like... it's true. One day, things we believed were impossible became possible."

    Although Madoka's literal and thoughtful discussion of what she'd do as a goddess makes sense, Amy suddenly realizes this is what it must be like when someone asks her a question and she gives an answer like that. "...Hmm. True."

    Amy gestures vaguely re: Mamoru. "But that's the thing. We had to beat him up a ton, while Metallia was putting on a whole convincing thing about him being dead. We coulda gone for the purification first, or, now that I think of it, some kind of exorcism. But... yeah I guess there weren't really a lot of choices there."

    She quirks an eyebrow at Usagi. "What does Pluto do about Time? Aside from. Existing a whole lot." She says, vaguely, unsure who knows that secret. And holds up two fingers. "The two times I caught are someone knew something was gonna go down that day with the scientist giving a speech about the fake silver crystal -- and that might've been Madoka acting on her memories, actually -- and the other time was someone made sure I received a spare grief seedthe day we all learned about Soul Gems and like two of us nearly ran out of magic."

    She waggles her hand in little chopping motions with each emphasized word. "That was absolutely time bullshit, it was obvious when it happened, I specifically decided to roll with it so as not to not create a paradox or whatever, but then we had a monster to fight and then we found out about soul gems so other stuff was kind of on our minds for awhile. I can only conclude the first time around I gave my only grief seed to Sayaka, and then didn't have anything to help Magda and Lulu... or I didn't give it to her and she ran out of magic... there are so many things that coulda gone wrong that day, clearly somebody Witched and a time traveler or a seer fixed it. ...That mighta been Katarina's power, though, and I haven't seen her since."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I do technically know a time wizard," Usagi says proudly, and she's pretty sure Setsuna would even approve of this title. "Sailor Pluto is the Soldier of Space-Time! It's her whole thing, like how I'm the Soldier of Love and Justice. One of her special things is a relation to time - it's how she always knows exactly what time it is, or how long ago something was. She makes sure that Time is working the way it should, and doesn't just get all kerplutz, I think? She was able to close Adora's super weird space-time portal."

Trusted friends or not, she isn't going to mention the Gates of Time - those were Setsuna's charge, and also they were extremely dangerous and also they were very broken, so it was probably a bad idea for too many people to know about them. But she will share the stuff she thinks is fair game.

"I don't think she like, knows who the someone is if there's time traveling, but I'm pretty sure she knows if something is happening to time."

She could be wrong though. She is wrong about many things, as her test scores prove.

"I can kind of get that, Madoka-chan. Understanding all of how Serenity thought is kind of hard sometimes, because I remember that life, but not like, a perfect snapshot, you know? So especially when I'm like this, sometimes it's hard to fully remember why Serenity thought the way she did, because Usagi definitely isn't the daughter of a God-Queen who's empress of multiple planets and does galactic diplomacy." It's not the same as going from girl to god, but it's probably as close as she can actually imagine.

Then Amy gives her examples, and she hums a little - "Well, Dark Energy can't always be purified right away. Sometimes you have to break through defenses first - otherwise, Madoka-chan and Wako-chan and I could have just dumped Beryl in a giant hamster ball and poured everything we had on her, boom win. We had to wear Metallia out so we could reach Mamochan. Purification's not an instant win... I wish it was though."

Huff! That would be useful.

"Well, you're not considering that someone could be psychic. I know like, two different psychics who can see the future, specifically. That probably doesn't mess with time, specifically."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka says, almost too bluntly, "Katarina had some kind of oracle power. She knew the name of my Witch before I did. Gretchen also has alternate timeline knowledge. My X-Chara was there during the announcement, so that's probably what happened. Unless I'm confusing it with another event?"

    Then Usagi talks in detail about Pluto and Madoka looks at her mortified. All those times that Homura timestopped with her during Paris. Does Pluto know? If she has a problem with it, then why hasn't she said anything? Did she keep her mouth shut about it because she figured out it was someone on her side, or was there just too many things going wrong for her to track it all?

    Well, of all Madoka's problems, the idea that her School Nurse might have figured out one of her more private secrets. She'll have to warn Homura about it the next time she sees her.

    Also they'll have to be really careful in the future about abusing timestop in order to get more cuddle time.

    Madoka nods at Usagi as she compares it to Serenity. "Right, kinda like that. Such a different mindset with completely different experiences. Sorry, I know that's unhelpful, but I don't really think a wrong answer would actually help us either."

    Brai starts tugging at Hope Blossom's sleeve and reminds her of the time. "Oh! Right... well... I should probably be going. Thank you so much for dealing with Gretchen's problems today, and I'm sorry she's causing a mess. Call me if you run across her again. I'll be looking for her."

    Hope makes sure that Brai has a good grip on her shoulder before standing up and bowing to the magicals still present. She turns to walk away, mind filled with worries. Hopefully the answers she gave would at least provide some context.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy stares, open-mouthed, at the revelation that Pluto is like. The one who makes Time work like it should. "What does that even mean? Well, damn, that's pretty cool..." Amy smiles. Setsuna is a Time Wizard! That's pretty cool!

    "...Adora's what?!"

    Madoka has to go. Amy stands up to give her another hug. "Thanks. Um... We'll... work things out, somehow. Our lives are crazy, but we've managed so far."

    After Madoka leaves, she sits back down and lets out a breath, turning to Usagi. "Well. For those of us who aren't the Senshi of Time, I figure spotting Time Travelers is like... They'll stick out like you're the NPC in a videogame. Somebody shows up, goes to the dungeon no one's ever come back from, clears it on the first try, knew the weakness of the monster no one even knew was there, et cetera. They're benefitting from save points but we don't see that, we just see the end result."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Madoka looks a little flustered at this revelation - does she, maybe, know someone who actually does time travel? Well, it's probably fine! Don't worry about it!

She doesn't actually say that though, just in case.

"Thanks for meeting us, Madoka-chan! If I see anything else, I'll tell you, okay?"

And then she's gone, and Usagi stretches a little, and winces -

"Um... So... I'll tell you the full story later, because I should catch up with Shingo, but, short version? Adora... kind of... opened a crazy portal and disappeared, and then came back like... Younger? And now she doesn't remember us."

Which really sucks and is also pretty awkward, not going to lie.

"And... that makes sense. I guess Mars-chan and Neptune-san being seers made me forget time travel could be like, a real thing."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "'I forgot time travel could be a real thing.' That's a sentence you actually said, in real life. ...Our lives are wild." Amy smiles, though. "I'm getting a soda, want anything?"