Small Comfort (Teresia Kuefer)
| Small Comfort (Teresia Kuefer) | |
|---|---|
| Date of Cutscene: | 19 August 2023 |
| Location: | Witch's Labyrinth |
| Synopsis: | Just a magical girl and her Incubator, hanging out. |
| Cast of Characters: | Teresia Kuefer |
A swanky lounge with slow blues music playing from a jukebox in the background is host to two beings.
One is a very tall blonde woman in a black dress with white fur trim, laying back on a comfortable love seat, upholstered in smooth black leather, while one heeled-boot hangs over the arm of the furniture, and the other is propped up on the floor.
The second is an Incubator by the name of Kyubey, who is curled up on Teresia's belly, napping.
They've been here for a bit.
Teresia Kuefer looks up at the ceiling, a vaulted chamber that moves in and out like a giant rib cage, while red and black squiggles writhe between the wooden 'bones'. One arm hangs over the edge of the love seat like the corresponding leg, the other just gently pets Kyubey while he sleeps.
Teresia has a lot to think about. It's only when she's alone, or with nobody but Kyubey, that the girl inside of the woman can come out. It's because when it's just the two of them, her magic that makes her the perfect, most graceful, coolest, most trustworthy and heroic big-sister figure has no one to act upon. No one to perceive but herself, and the being who made that magic possible.
"How can I get back control?" she asks out loud, mainly to herself.
One of Kyubey's four ears twitches and perks up. He blinks his eyes sleepily before standing up and streeeeeetching.
Teresia withdraws her hand from him, looking down past her chest and smiling a sad smile. "Sorry, Kyubey. Did I wake you?"
The red-eyed being turns and settles himself in a sitting position much like a cat's. "It is of no consequence. I can hibernate for energy efficiency at another time. Did you have a question you need answered, Teresia Kuefer?" he says without his mouth moving at all.
Teresia shakes her head slightly, causing her blonde hair to drop into her eyes. She brushes it back with the hand that was hanging over the edge. "I'm just trying to puzzle out a way to be the master of my own body again, rather than a slave to my own magic."
Kyubey's ears twitch a bit inquisitively. "I do not understand your concern. Are you unsatisfied with the wish you made? This is what you asked for, is it not?"
Teresia sighs. "You are the one who dictates your own actions, your own words, and your decisions are carried out in reality, yes?"
"That is accurate." Kyubey admits. "Then what you regret is not the outcome of your wish but that you have less agency in utilizing it than expected."
The Puella Magi doesn't answer, her gaze just drifts up to the ceiling again.
Kyubey gets up and hops from belly to the back of the love seat and then pads his way over to be closer to his charge's head. "But this is what you wanted in your heart. You wanted the ability of an adult, without the responsibility that comes with it. Many fully-grown human females have more restrictions on their actions than they do in their adolescence."
Teresia smiles lop-sidedly up at Kyubey. "That is a harsh way of putting it." she murmurs.
The Incubator tilts his head. "I am only voicing the facts as I perceive them. Am I wrong?"
A big sigh leaves the lounging magical girl as she says, "No. I suppose not." With some mild effort, Teresia lifts herself up into a sitting position. The walls and floor tremble, and a twisted shriek echoes through the room as the jukebox goes silent.
"Hey, Kyubey. I know you don't feel things the way I do, but we're still friends, aren't we?" she asks once the noise and tumult subsides.
Kyubey tilts his head. "If you are asking whether or not I have an emotional attachment, it would be inaccurate, but I do enjoy my time with you and the others."
Teresia smiles a small, grateful smile for that tiny breadcrumb of comfort, true or not. "Good. I enjoy my time with you too." She gets up fully, stretches her arms above her head, and then drops them to her sides as she looks around at her jazz lounge. "I know you well enough that I'm sure you would like to suggest that if Madoka Kaname wished for me to have full control of myself, it would in all likelihood work."
Kyubey rubs one of his paws against his face, getting the itches out of one of his red, glassy eyes. "I can not suggest wishes. It is against the rules. However, your analysis of Madoka Kaname's potential is accurate. She could have any wish she wanted granted." Without even blinking, he adds on, "She could even become God."
Teresia shrugs helplessly with a 'sorry, it's out of my hands' expression. "I'll do what I can. But I can't suggest wishes either. That would compromise my image, so my magic won't allow it. I can still support her decisions if she is leaning that way though."
The Incubator does a double hop from the back of the couch to the cushion and then to the floor. "She can only choose for herself. We Incubators respect the free will of humans after all."
Teresia grins as her black and gold-hafted, red-bladed scythe appears in her hand. "Yeah." She raises her right hand, and turns it palm-up. Then she closes her hand forcefully. The lounge starts collapsing, sloughing off of itself, reverting like sheet metal crumpling, and turning back into what it was before she changed it.
Everything is on fire, bleeding, ruined, destroyed. Holes the size of trucks penetrate several giant stone monoliths in sequence, and a gouge stretches from one end of the anatomical-looking chamber to the other on the wall.
The Witch is still twisting and struggling with jagged pieces of her own Labyrinth penetrating her scribbled body. She shrieks again as Teresia begins to approach.
"Thanks for inviting me," Teresia says to the Witch with a smile. "I'll be taking my leave now." Then she raises her crimson scythe over her head, her eyes gleaming in the shadows, and brings it down.
The injured Witch is finished off with another horrific scream of pain and rage and loss, before falling into two halves and disappearing. Teresia Kuefer click-click-clicks her way over in her heeled boots, bends down, and retrieves the Grief Seed that was at the Witch's core, while the Labyrinth collapses and vanishes all around her.
"Come on, Kyubey." Teresia says after pocketing it. "We've rested enough. There's another two to take care of tonight. I'll leave some for the other Magical Girls though."
Kyubey says, "It is of no consequence who defeats them. They are a danger to humans and--"
"Yes, yes, I know. How long do you think I've been doing this?" she asks, rolling her eyes.
Puella Magi and Incubator continue walking, leaving the cemetery where a Witch's labyrinth once lay, and speaking like the strange half-friends they are.
It's a small comfort.
