2157/Mahou 101: Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Mahou 101: Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Date of Scene:	10 December 2024
Location:	The Shed
Synopsis:	Puella Magica is represented in the research for an understanding of all Mahou! Amy Faust does her best, even with Entrapta losing track of the plot!
Cast of Characters:	281, Amanda Faust
Tinyplot:	Mahou 101

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Entrapta (281) has posed:
There's music coming out of the Shed. Well, only when you open the door, I assume that the outside can't hear what's going on inside but I could be wrong! Either way, ye olde purple haired twintail is inside, fiddling with dials and enjoying some music.

"Hmm, hmm hmmm.." her voice hums. It's not a very melodic voice; in fact most people would probably consider it a bit rough. Just a touch too high, maybe a bit difficult on the nerves. But the smile as she leans over and adds a drop of something to her experiment is almost pretty. Which is good, because Entrapta isn't exactly what you'd call delicate.

Still, she has a table set up with all kinds of science going on. There's a crystal that she's got rotating through various angles and directions, floating in the air but just ....turning. Bottles and beakers and books by the boatload. And her overalls are stained with chemicals.

"Mahou experiments, day two," she says to herself. Or to her recorder, if you can see her hands. "Mermaid song. Magical or just very fun to listen to? Will have to experiment more. Detecting faint resonances in recording."

If someone were to enter, they'd find her at work. In her lab. I have a LAB!

Amanda Faust has posed:
BGM: Uhh, can we get like a chill version of Sis Puella Magica please? Yeah? Okay great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkfKzArFrm0

<PHONE> You text Rashmi Terios: Do you think Entrapta can be trusted with the secret of Witches, to better understand magic?
<PHONE> A text from Rashmi Terios: Uh! I mean, I really don't want to encourage her to seek out a Witch to try and understand them better, but... I don't think it'll break her brain harder than being here does, to know?

    Amy walks to the Shed -- with the addition of a pink wool hat and apair of gloves and some yoga pants under the skirt like tights, the outfit that came with the body is decently-suited to cold weather: A red sweatshirt, a red jersey knit skirt about knee--length, and a pair of now somewhat battered white sneakers with red accents and tread. She's also got a simple black messenger bag with her for carrying things.

    After performing the ritual, Amy opens the door to hear... music! And also, Science! is going on. She's not entirely sure what kind of science -- there's a crystal, and beakers, but she doesn't see any machines doing things to the beakers... she stares in curiousity and wonder for a moment. Then blurts out, "How are you making that crystal float???"

    And then she realizes she's standing there with the door open, and she steps inside and closes the door behind her, smiling. "Hi Entrapta. How've you been doing?"

Entrapta (281) has posed:
"Oh. Hi!" Waving from behind her table, Entrapta smiles and turns down the heat on her experiments. "One second, I don't want anything to burn while we're doing things. Tiny snacks?" She motions to some food that she's put out, mostly stuff that she's gotten from people in the school. Tiny muffins, stuff like that.

The purple-haired lass rolls out, then grabs her notepad. Peering at it, she peruses for a second. Looks up at Amy, down at the pad. "Right! Amy!" Wait, did she not remember your name? That's...possible. "The crystal? It's just an electromagnetic syspension, I've got magnets set up to reflect toward it and keep it in place. Basic stuff, welcome! Did you come for the research?"

Without breathing, she continues. "I really hope you came for the research, I've got so little data to work with and I can't fix up the comms unit without some kind of connection to you and your team!" Pause. Eyes left, eyes right. "Who is your team, by the way? I don't really know very much yet."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Tiny snacks? "Oh, uh..." Amy looks over at the snacks, stuffing her gloves into her sweatshirt pockets and taking a tiny blueberry muffin. "Magnets... reflect? That's... wait, what do the magnets reflect? How do they reflect?"

    She blinks and looks at the magnets, then at Entrapta. "And, uh, yes, I came for the research, yes. Although I don't... know what, practically, you'll be able to learn."

    She looks a bit anxious about something. "I'm a Puella Magi. It's just latin for Magical Girl -- or close to it, anyway -- but as far as a name for my class or 'team' as you put it, I guess it works."

Entrapta (281) has posed:
Entrapta grins. She motions toward the crystal, then to a set of notes. It shows a picture of tiny press-on stickers, metal ones that the magnets can work with. "They're non-interactive with the magic. I'm pretty good with crystal tech, that's what we use back home!"

However, now that Amy is talking about the work, Entrapta sits up in her chair. She gets out her notepad and a pencil, and listens. Occasionally making notes. "Well, I do have some questions. If you're okay with being interviewed. I think that's the point of this!" She grins wider, eyes squinching closed a moment, then adjusts her feet in her seat. Comfort, after all. "Sit? Somewhere, I really need to set this place up properly."

She looks at her notes, then nods firmly. "Right. So. How did you get your magic? I'm going to try not to pry too much if you ask me to stop but I need a basic understanding to move forward."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy ohhhs at the metal stickers. Okay. Nothing magical there after all. ...Probably. She hasn't actually done much with magnetic levitation. She pops the tiny muffin into her mouth and chews as she takes off her messenger bag, setting it by the chair as she sits down.

    She takes a breath. Hesistates for a moment. Thinks. Takes another breath.

    "...I walked by a magical girl battle. Well... I guess it had just started. Scorn -- she's a Dark General -- a fictional genre term we've adopted for people who use dark energy to unleash monsters whether they're actual generals or not -- working for the Phantom Empire, which the Pretty Cures could tell you more about."

    "Back then, she used to do this thing where she'd summon giant feathers that stuck people and drained them of their color. So, there I am, just... walking by what turned out to be a women's clothing store, and suddenly, smash, the front window shatters and everyone around me is on the ground, with feathers stuck into them sucking out their colors."

    There was... Sailor V, Cures Wukong and Tide, and that ninja guy, all there fighting a monster Scorn made from a women's handbag or purse or something. So I like... hit the deck, dropped prone I mean, and lifted my head up just enough to watch."

    "They were having some trouble. And then I heard a voice in my head and saw him: A little white animal, about yea big, with red eyes and a ring marking on his back, and long ears and a puffy tail. He said that if I made a contract with him and became a magical girl, I would be able to fight like those girls, rather than... y'know. Being one of the normies, lying helpless as their color and energy was drained out of them."

    She looks down at the floor. There are some things she didn't say, and she wonders if now this is out of order... oh well. She'll get to everything one way or another.

    "Any questions so far?"

Entrapta (281) has posed:
"Oh, TONS!" Entrapta emotes, waving her hands animatedly! "Do I get to ask questions during this? Or should I wait? This is only my second interview ever, I don't know how it works yet!" She's very happy to be doing it though!!!

"So many..." She pauses, slapping her own cheeks. "No. Focus!" Pause. "Okay! The MAGIC! The little animal, did it have a name? What happened? Did you say yes? Did it force the change on you? What's it LIKE???" So enthusiastic, she might actually explode.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy smiles a bit at Entrapta's enthusiasm. Ask questions during? She shrugs, "We're playing it by ear, there are no rules. Whatever works better for your process and the interviewee, I think. ...I'll tell you to hold that thouught, if it gets disruptive to my train of thought."

    "He calls himself Kyubey. And... We were in a bit of a rush -- the monster quickly trapped the magical girls -- but normally he says that becoming a Magical Girl means agreeing to fight monsters called Witches, which we'll get to. So he said that to form the contract with him, I need to make a wish. I was in a rush, so... What I truly wanted, at least, thought I wanted, was just to... to be a part of this world of magic, and to have the power to help people. I was getting that anyway. And I was afraid of a big grand wish going wrong, like in all the stories about wishes. So I made a small, selfish wish, and then..."

    She clutches a hand to her chest and sucks air through clenched teeth at the memory. "For a moment I felt like I was dying. Like, like an organ was being pulled in my chest. Incredibly painful. I thought maybe it had been a trick and he was killing me. And he said:"

    "The contract has been made. Your wish has prevailed against entropy. So, go now... unleash your new power!"

    Amanda takes a breath and sits up straight again. "And then there was... this red glow pulled out of me, and everything went white... And the next thing I knew, I was a magical girl." Amy smiles slightly at the memory. "And I helped win the fight, and drive Scorn off. A lot of things changed for me that day."

Entrapta (281) has posed:
Entrapta is scribbling in her pad! She flips a page, idly adding a note to get more paper, then another about the possibilities of mermaid-Puella interactions. Is there a relation? Unlikely but possible.

"That is fascinating," she says, and really really means it. "I don't know if you really died or not, but it sounds traumatic! Which is ..bad." Her voice falls a bit at the end, as she realizes that she's not meant to enjoy that part. >.>

"I wonder if your first wish that you didn't use would have made you able to use more magic types. That might actually have been the better wish, you'd have been open to the entire magical world instead of just one part of it!" Her eyes widen, and she starts getting back into it.

"So this Cubey animal person talks to all of the Puella? Do you know what happened in your chest? Are you hurt still, now?" She sighs. "I just keep getting more questions. Which is good! It means we're making progress! Tell me everything!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "That depends on how you define death." The red-haired girl shrugs, red eyes looking towards Entrapta again as she smiles, "But overall, things changed for the better. So I don't mind."

    She blinks at Entrapta's comment about the wish. "I... don't know. I can't say it's not possible. But I had too little information, and I was..." disgust flashes over her face, "terrified, of something going wrong."

    She takes a breath. "Kyubey can talk to anyone, I think. I'm not sure what criteria makes someone a suitable candidate for becoming a Puella Magi, but he can sense it somehow."

    She looks towards the door. "If you're interesting to him, and not in a place like the Shed, he's probably nearby. Those bodies are like remote control drones to him, or maybe a hive mind or something. Nonmagic people don't see him, so... it's easy for him to get around and be hiding nearby, you know?"

    She looks back to Entrapta. "Uhhhhh... I know what happened, although not how it worked, and I'm... not hurt, although I am changed. ...It feels a little out of order to answer it before I cover our magic and the Witches we fight, but..."

    Fingers scratch red hair. "Perhaps it's better that way. Then again, you might get a better sense of what it was like for us learning this information, if I do it in order. Which way do you want it?"

Entrapta (281) has posed:
Entrapta's notes:

Spelling cubey? Kuby? kayobi? Ask? Not important!
Missing organ?
Dandruff?
Emotional reactions, unreadable. Record and analyze.
Drones???

Entrapta's face: eyes wide, fascinated!

"I could interview him, maybe. No. Bad idea. I'm interviewing you already! Which is incredible! I'm nonmagical so I couldn't!" She nods several times, her hair flopping a bit, then she pushes it out of her face.

"I don't mind, tell me about the Witches! And yourselves! History is important context!" She's clearly ok with doing it right.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Interview Kyubey? "That's probably easy enough, if he'll talk to you. If you're not someone who can become a Puella Magi, he probably won't be interested." Amy blinks. "You say you're nonmagical, but... you did that thing with your hair. And you're able to remember about magic, so... you can probably see him."

    "As far as I can tell -- and I've seen only a few examples -- Puella Magi don't have purification magic -- although, I wouldn't be surprised if the right Wish changed that -- and we seem to have... some kind of weapon we can make various forms of, and some... other magic. I make rocket launchers, recoiless rifles, and various other explosives-based weapons. I've seen others make spears, or muskets, or a chainsaw, or a bow -- well, I guess that's what Madoka would probably have if she were a Puella Magi -- or swords of various sizes, wielded, thrown, or conjured at a distance. For other magic... Healing, short-range teleporting, ribbons, a second transformation that fights better somehow, messages or items from the future or something... and in my case, clothes and accessories. There are... some other powers we generally have, which I'll get into in a bit. Like, we can regenerate, but it costs us magic."

    Amy blinks. "Right, I guess that's rather important to explain..."

    And she holds out her left hand, with the ring with the little red gem set in it, and turns her hand palm-up, the ring disappearing as the 'egg' form of the soul gem appears upright in her palm, a small, ruby-red ovoid in an ornate metal setting.

    "This is a Soul Gem."

Entrapta (281) has posed:
"Oh, the hair! That's cybernetics. I installed some things into my head!" She says it like, hey, surgery and stuff? Microcybernetics? Pshh, that's minor. "It needs Etheria's ambient magic to work though, which I did not know til I came here. I want to get it working again, it's like living without half your limbs."

Entrapta barely twitches. She clearly wants to focus, not on her but on the job! "I keep busy. Keeps me going. So! The wishes can be pretty broad, okay. Hm. Creation of tools, but not magical tools as defined directly." She pauses, looking up, and then adds, "I define it as a tool that allows you to..do...your...magic."

"Like THAT," she says, as she's shown the Soul Gem. Her eyes sparkle. Then she looks up, waiting to be told. "Can I touch it?" Please? Puppy dog eyes engage.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Cybernetics? "You... how? Oh. Uh... yeah, I can see how that'd be disorienting..."

    Can I touch it? Amanda looks a bit uncomfortable, but this is for science and gaining the help and understanding of a magic scientist. "I guess... um... be very careful! They're tougher than they look, but we don't dare test how tough they are lest we damage them -- and I know they can be damaged, one got cracked by a monster stomping on it once."

    Amy's eyes watch the soul gem as long as Entrapta is handling it, like one would watch anything very important they don't want broken.

    "These are... the source of our magic, I guess. And unlike other magical girls, we only have so much. As we use magic, that will slowly fill with darkness." Indeed, closely looking into the gem one can see just a little bit of darkness at the top, corruption like roiling black smoke filling it some tiny fraction -- a tenth? Less? Hard to judge precisely.

    "... To replenish them, we must fight Witches. Terrible..." Amy winces. "Terrible eldritch monsters, which drive humans to suicide and feed off their deaths, and who hide in warped spaces."

    Amy pulls her eyes away from the Soul Gem just long enough to look into Entrapta's eyes. "Never enter a Witch's Labyrinth alone." She intones, as if it is wisdom passed down from Puella Magi to Puella Magi for millenia, which as far as she knows, it is.

    Amaranthine eyes go back to watching the ruby gem. "There is no escape until the Witch is dead, or if she allows you to escape for some reason. They are inscrutable, and can't be communicated with. Their Labyrinths are... strange landscapes that don't run on physics as we know them, I think. Their only inhabitants fake parts of the background, and Familiars, strange monsters which can, when they grow strong enough, eventually escape the Labyrinth and grow into a new Witch."

    "When you find the Witch's Arena -- or she finds you, and brings you there -- then it is a fight to the death. A defeated Witch drops a grief seed, which can be used to remove corruption from our soul gems, recharging our magic."

Entrapta (281) has posed:
Entrapta wasn't expecting to be handed the Soul Gem, but she takes it with clear caution! She puts a lens in front of one eye (from where did she get THAT?) and looks at it closely, noting the darkness that Amy referred to! "Flawless," she mumbles. She knows gems.

She hands it back, almost reluctantly, and listens to the story as it progresses. Her notes mention how different definitions are: witches mean something else back home. Tilting her head, she seems unphased by the warnings. "Oh I'm not going to go looking for them. That'd be dangerous!" Well, at least there she's making sense.

"How long til you have to fight one?" Then she thinks, adding, "Also, I should ask for the project, is there any way I could experience some of it? Maybe see it, or have a tiny sample for research?"

'not prying' she says. But she's not being unreasonable, it was just a 'I truly don't know' tone of voice.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Flawless! Thanks? Amy thinks to herself, unsure whether to take it as a compliment or not.

    Holding the gem again, she pulls a grief seed from her bag -- spherical black in its pointy metal cage, clearly somehow related to the soul gems. Holding it almost touching to her gem, the blackness sort of seeps out of the gem and into the seed leaving the soul gem pure.

    "I don't know. It depends on how much magic I use. If there aren't a lot of monster fights...? Right now I could last a few weeks, that seed's about half-full, I think. If I have to use a lot of magic... sooner."

    She'll let Entrapta handle the grief seed too, but warns, "If you somehow get a grief seed, get it to a Puella Magi or Madoka Kaname as soon as you can. Kyubey implied something bad might happen if they're left unaccompanied by one of us, but I don't actually know what it is."

    Experience it? "What, bring you along on a Witch Hunt?" Amy shrugs. "Perhaps, although it's kind of dangerous if we don't have someone who can protect you." She shakes her head, "Witches and Familiars do not leave corpses. All of it disappears when they die, except the grief seed. You can take any tissue sample you want from me, though."

Entrapta (281) has posed:
Entrapta waves her hands! "No, nonono! I don't want to go out and do hunting!" She grins, pausing again. "Though that would make for some serious data! No, I meant now! I was asking if you could show me some of your magic!"

She hops down from her seat, then paces back and forth, waving her arms! "I don't need tissue samples, I was hoping to see you transform!" She pulls her arms in, looking up at the ceiling. "There's so much to learn! I can't do it all but I can try!"

Then she turns, facing Amy again. "Half of science is just being willing to try. The rest is writing it down!" She giggles, then falls into her swivel chair and spins!

Is she really over twelve years old?

Amanda Faust has posed:
    She doesn't seem any particular age to Amy. The joy in learning how things work is ageless, and this girl has a whole new world and several types of magic to learn about!

    Transform? "Oh, uh, sure. Set up any measuring equipment you want to use? Do you want to record it or anything?"

    Once that's ready, she stands up and transforms:

An ovoid of flame-colored light grows from her gem to surround her, enveloping her, lifting into the air with her unclothed silhouette curled up inside, long hair floating as if she's under water before the light cracks and shatters and Amy, now covered in flames as if from an explosion, snaps back, and the flames fade to leave her new outfit in place.

    Said outfit is comprised of a red chestplate, red circle skirt with a black belt with a pair of black leather pouches, armored red kneepads and armored white boots with red trim, a white bodysuit from the neck down under it all, white gloves with red trim, and finally a white hooded cloak.

    And now Entrapta might notice that on the back of Amy's left wrist, attached to her glove, is a gem the same color as her soul gem was -- evidently taking this form, as it did the ring and egg before. Amy slips the grief seed into her belt pouch.

    "Unfortunately, this probably isn't the best place for demonstrating the more violent side of my magic -- and even flash bangs or smoke grenades would... not be the best, in this enclosed space. I can show you costume magic, if there's anything in particular you want to see. Everyone says this outfit is cute, for instance--"

    And her clothing is covered in pink sparkles and when they fade, she's wearing, frankly, something that looks much more like a magical girl outfit: A white shirt with frilly sleeves and matching bloomers under a reddish-pinkish sleeveless dress with a skirted vest overtop and matching shoes, a bow at the shirt's collar, and a beret on her head with a heart decoration on the right side. There's even a wand with a heart on the end! (This is only a costume prop and serves no function.) Also her hair is in twintails now, tied just above the shoulders.

    (The soul gem has moved to be part of that little heart decoration on her hat.)

    "Cosplay and some clothing and equipment works, but sometimes I get the sense I can't do it because it isn't... 'cute', somehow." There's a mix of pride and embarassment at showing that off and admitting that, somehow.

Entrapta (281) has posed:
"It's okay! I don't need to see fighting, pretty sure we all know what that looks like." She seems to be winding down a little, getting tired. But still smiling. She sets up some recording equipment, nothing major since she's not 100% on this world's tech yet.

"Okay, go!" Then, the transformation! And she looks giddy, and she moves around and around to see all the sides. Then she nods. "I will always be more impressed, every time I see that happen. We didn't have anything like it back home." Well, we did, but that's not something Entrapta would know about yet.

"Okay. So. What else would you think I should know about? I am out of questions, but I don't know enough to know what to ask!" Fair, and probably true.

Amanda Faust has posed:
BGM: Signum Malum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkUEy1jctZc

    'What else do you think I should know about?'

    At those words, red eyes stare back at her for a moment.

    Amy changes the soul gem to 'egg' form and holds it against her chest a moment, looking down at it as she says, "You asked if I knew what happened, and if I was hurt."

    She holds out the gem, to show, not to hand off, and returns to her normal henshin outfit. "This is my soul. This is me. I'm puppeting this body -- the magic has a range of about a hundred meters. Although I gather that without a body I would not be aware of anything."

    "The body can take an incredible amount of damage. I got my guts blown out and kept going, once. My life is no longer tied to biological processes, although I need a brain to go on thinking and experiencing, probably. I can regenerate seemingly any injury if I have enough magic left -- so as long as the Witch dies first and I can take its grief seed, I should be okay."

    "Turning off pain degrades the connection, though. It's like playing a computer game with laggy controls. You kind of get used to it, but... it's still kind of a problem too, you know?"

    She watches Entrapta's reaction carefully. "'Hurt', that depends on your definition. I am changed, into a Witch-killing, bio-magical machine."

Entrapta (281) has posed:
Entrapta takes a deep, long breath. She doesn't respond right away, but at the very least she hasn't spent the entire time grinning like a lunatic.

"Okay, that's bad," she admits. She's not sure about the video game reference, but that'll come to her in time as she experiences more about the world.

Connections though. That she understands. "Okay. Um. Do...you need...help?" She seems to get that this is wrong, but not what she did to make it from awesome to sadness.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    That's bad.

BGM: Puella Magi Madoka Magica OST: Sis Puella Magica! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzlHPlq8hIs

    "Really?" Amy is actually kind of surprised at the reaction. She lifts her arm in front of her, "I always planned to put my soul in a rock, so to speak. I just didn't think it'd be this soon. I thought we'd be doing brainscans and uploading people into computers decades from now, if I was lucky."

    She looks at Entrapta curiously. "I'm actually kind of surprised. Most people act all horrified about it, I kinda figured you wouldn't be."

    Amy lowers her arm and gives Entrapta a sad smile. "Perhaps you're more emotionally in tune with others than I expected."

    Covering the soul gem on her wrist with her right hand, she holds her hands to her chest.

Entrapta (281) has posed:
Entrapta looks at Amy, tilting her head. She blinks, then frowns a little. "Ah. See, that's not what you think it is. In me," she says. She sits up, pulling her feet in close, knees wide. It's a chair, you sit in it how you want. "I'm not doing any calculations right now. This is just recording data."

She waves her arm a little, then says, "It all depends on what I'm doing. I mean, sure, not entirely, I do spend entire years not thinking about anyone else but the more I'm here the more I have to educate myself and you're showing a lot of signs." She stops babbling a second, then adds, "If you caught me in the middle of thinking I'd be doing that. Right now I'm doing this, so you're my focus of attention."

Stopping to rub her nose a moment, she frowns. Then smiles! "I'd be happy to go science again if it makes this easier! I can absolutely do that! Let me get my gauges!" She starts to get up.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy listens curiously. "...Huh. I guess... you do whatever you do more compartmentalized than I thought, yeah." She smiles. "I'm sorry for misunderstanding you. But this is a bit of a relief too. I was..." She glances away, then back to Entrapta, "... a little worried you were gonna wanna study me like a science project because a magical warrior puppeting their body from outside it is so unusual."

    She walks over to put her hand on Entrapta's shoulder. "Before we get back to that... there's one more thing you should probably know, if you're..."

    Red eyes glance to the crystal-chemical experiment, then back to Entrapta. "If you want to know everything about our magic. If... knowing it would help. You'll probably want to be sitting down for it."

    Beat.

    "Or... maybe you'd... If you thought that was bad, maybe it's too horrible..." Amy looks away, brow furrowing in thought, conflicted as she considers Entrapta's reaction to one dark secret, and if she might react more strongly to one even worse...

Entrapta (281) has posed:
"I AM studying you!" Entrapta says, smiling at that! "I'm just using noninvasive techniques. After last night I was told to keep it that way."

She does not explain. Maybe best?

She sits, her head on a level. Purple hair hanging. And her face gets serious. "I want to know. Tell me. I can't do anything without the knowledge."

I've spent my life searching for knowledge. I will not turn back when it's right in front of me. I'm stronger than that. I'm not one of those people who has only certain data, and the rest are thrown away.

"Give me the truth."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy gives Entrapta a hug after the comment about being told to use noninvasive techniques. Then she sits back down again. She holds up her arm, left wrist facing out towards Entrapta this time. "What do you think happens when we run out of magic?"

    "Kyubey didn't volunteer this. Madoka... obtained information that we die, and this, initially, didn't shock me so much. I mean... if I run out of magic and can no longer regenerate fighting a Witch, obviously death follows after."

    Amy shakes her head. "When the soul is spent completely..." She blinks at something, and holds her (right) hand to her face and laughs a little. "Ohhh my gosh. That's terrible. I just remembered. Like. My third day or so of being a Puella Magi, I knew barely anything, I wondered if we had more transformations, a 'final form' so to speak, and... oh wow. Even after I learned, I didn't think of it like that..."

    She composes herself, sits up straight, clears her throat, and looks serious again. "When the soul is spent completely, or we fall into despair, as Puella Magi... a magical girl [mahou shoujo] becomes a Witch [majou]."

    "...From information given to me, they don't think like us anymore. They're not... people anymore. Just... despair and rage and terribleness. It doesn't sound like a remotely pleasant existence. Killing them is putting them out of their misery and putting them to rest."

    Amy watches Entrapta closely.

Entrapta (281) has posed:
The hug was kind of unexpected, Entrapta didn't know how to respond to it. She keeps getting those. Not sure what for. But she nods, several times as Amy tells the tale.

Taking notes, she scribbles down information:
Finite reserves.
Systemic shock evident now.
Soul? Energy source?
Final transformation: witch.
Alterations in thought and ability, possible enhancement of original form.

She looks up, nodding again. "Okay," Entrapta says, putting that down. Okay? "I've probably got enough to go on now. Not sure how I can actually use it, but that gives me a general wavelength to aim for when I set up the experiments."

She looks at Amy, then gives two thumbs up! It's possible that she's compartmentalized what just happened, or isn't totally meshing with the emotional part. Then she sees how closely she's being looked at, and pauses to process.

"Oh!Let's work on that not happening," she adds, but it sounds like she had to think a moment to get to that stage of cogency. "I wouldn't like it either."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy continues, "Madoka can... give them a moment of peace, first, when we kill them, before they move on to wherever souls go, but that's generally all."

    "She can let the souls go, and the grief seed still serves to refill our energy. Grief seeds made from Familiars that grew into Witches don't have souls in the first place. I guess they're more akin to a youma that became a Witch."

    Seeing Entrapta's okay, Amy relaxes a bit nodding. Smiling as Entrapta says she doesn't want to see Amy become a Witch.

    "One more thing..." And then she realizes how that sounds, and holds out a hand palm-out in a whoa/stop gesture, "This one's not horrible! Just weird."

    "Kyubey says he's doing this because turning our emotions into magical energy... When we Contract and when we become Witches, he collects energy his home civilization uses to reverse Entropy, somehow. I don't know if that's true, or how to tell if it's true, but that's why I was concerned when I heard your world lost its stars. If a universe, without Kyubey's intervention, decays towards thermal equilibrium much faster than has been observed by my civilization..." Amy shrugs.

    "The whole thing sounds suspect, but I don't know how to disprove it... or what he'd be doing this for if he's lying."

Entrapta (281) has posed:
Entrapta? She's fine. Weird, but fine. "Oh it sounds ridiculous, but I've seen a lot of odd stuff come true lately. I'm fairly certain that your animal friend," she's already forgotten Kyubey's name "is lying to you to get something totally different. Maybe he's just an ass."

She thinks, then calls up some data on her laptop. Yes, she has a laptop. "Entropy. Thermodynamic quantity representing the unavailability of a system's thermal energy for conversion into mechanical work, often interpreted as the degree of disorder or randomness in the system. Or a general lack of order, which isn't actually a real thing because this isn't a closed system. This isn't science, but we'll get to the bottom of it eventually. I believe in us!"

She turns, grinning with absolute enthusiasm, and then goes back to typing.

Um.

Is it over? She's not responding.

Then, out of the blue, she pauses. And asks:

"Who's Madoka?"