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Emi Hoshino	It is a beautiful morning in Tokyo. The sun is shining on through beautiful cloud cover and its just another normal morning in a long line of them. Was there something important you were supposed to do last night? Oh well. No matter. Push that thought aside and focus on the now. That's all anyone can do anyway. Yesterday's problems are yesterday's problems. Best not to look at them too deeply. It's just a lovely day!
Chrono Harlaown	Chrono Harlaown woke up with a low grunt and started going about his day. Morning exercises, in this case joining his mom and dad for their standard routine. Sure, his parents had left the military years ago, but routines were routines for a reason. And his parents always enjoyed making a little bit of sport of it. Sure, his mom usually won, but... his dad never seemed to mind. Then he'd go and feed his bird, Fenyx, who'd usually chirp on his shoulder while he ate breakfast, often made by his dad... His mom would drink tea which would be sweet enough to kill a hummingbird. Then off to school... He'd sometimes pause and glance at the photos of his parents in the military... and wonder... why sometimes they seemed to have so many more of them of his mother. But almost none of his father. But that thought would fade, quickly. Oh, and he had a date later with Rashmi! Which... admittedly... he had asked for advice from his father. Who, of the two of his parents, well.... Who do you think he got the 'I can show you the world' side of himself from? Hopefully this time they could even have the date without his and Rashmi's parents 'mysteriously' running into them! Sure, he appreciated them and the upcoming spring break trip they were all going to go on together... But... he really wished they'd do a little less following the pair around... ... Or at least do a little less 'D'awwwww... they're holding hands!' when they did it...
Madoka Kaname	Homura Akemi was always a shy, quiet girl. Never a hint of confidence, always worried that she was a burden to everyone else. It couldn't really be helped. Her weak heart held her back so much, and because of that she couldn't help but hold everyone else back, too.     Madoka was too nice to say it, though. The pink haired girl never once complained or made her feel bad about her various health problems, her fainting spells, the sudden aches in her chest that always crept up at the wrong time (not that there was ever a right one.) Yet Homura knew that she was holding her back. Just causing her more trouble all the time.     She was lucky to share a dorm room with her, but she had to wonder if Madoka didn't resent her somewhat. Her life was happy, regardless of her doubts, spending time with her best friend and her... and...     ... and who else?     Oh, right. The cat. Amy the cat, who shouldn't be here.     Wait. What? Why shouldn't the cat be here? That doesn't make sense. Sure there was that time a car almost hit her, but... it missed, right? That must be it. The car missed. Homura's memories of something else happening could only have been a nightmare she had one time.     After Homura wakes up in the morning, Madoka helps her put the long twin braids in her hair and makes sure she can find her glasses, before making sure they both have their homework sorted out in their bags. Maybe they'll pick up breakfast at the cafeteria. They'd have to find a lot of food in order to feed all of the...     ... all of the...     ... the who? There are no less than ten mouths to feed here, right? Madoka, Homura, Amy the cat, and...     ... and who else?     Silly Homura. You must still be waking up from your dream. You're lucky Madoka's here to help you keep your head on straight.
Molly Skyline	Life... Eh, it's life. Adopted at the age of thirteen and sent basically all the way around the world to live in the house of a single dad who went through some international agency or some shit, Molly Bishop (technically not her last name anymore but screw the old bastard) remains pretty certain he adopted her less out of any particular desire to have a kid, and more because picking up a teenager to help with the dishes sounded like a good idea. So, downside; left all her friends in England to come to Japan. Where people speak, like, Japanese, which she abruptly had to learn 'cause carrying on at everyone in her best cockney was basically just gibberish. So she had to learn that. Upside, the food in Tokyo is way better, and the old bastard did at least run an automotive shop in the ground floor of the crumbling two-story building that was now home. Sucks when you're trying to sleep and the old bastard gets it in his head to start working the power tools at three am before you have a big exam, but whatever. At least he was willing to teach a few things and overlook the occasional joint, as long as she disposed of 'the evidence'. And, after she got mixed up in seven car pile-up as a pedestrian and almost died, he even visited her in hospital almost as many times as Rashmi did. And by almost we mean he showed up twice, once to hear how bad it was and once to pick her up to take her home. The prosthetic arm definitely took a lot of getting used to; a pretty basic model, but at least it's good enough to have fingers. Right now Molly is in her room; directly above the shop bay with the broken hoist where the old bastard is letting her keep the old 1984 Toyota Supra with the blown engine she saved up to buy in the hopes of driving it when she's old enough, lounging on her bed in a pair of ragged jeans and a cropped tank-top, munching on chips and listening to Rammstein playing entirely too loud (gotta drown out the power tools from the shop somehow). She's busy flipping through automotive magazines with a scratchpad beside her, deep into working out a plan for how she's going to tune that car up not just to be roadworthy, but raceworthy. No sponsor will take on a girl with a prosthetic arm -- that much has been made amply clear to her. Nobody's gonna help her. Gotta do what she's always had to do. Figure this out on her own.
Rashmi Terios	With the school year slowly winding down, Rashmi is very, very much looking forward to spring break. While Chrono might find their parents' friendship embarrassing, Rashmi herself is *glad* for it, and for the plans the two families are making for the spring break. *Especially* the spring break plans. But right now, the Dread Demon Lord Trigonometry looms large in her immediate future, and while she *has* been studying-- --wait no she's been studying it'll be *fine.* Juuuuuust fine. ...Anyway forget that, Chrono's taking her on a date tonight! And she'd left *plenty* of 'Things for Parents to Do In Tokyo' pamphlets and printouts around the house, so perhaps this time they'll take the hint? ...Hang on why was it *so easy* to actually *imagine* a Dread Lord of Trigonometry? And why did it have *bells* on its head?
Usagi Tsukino	Usagi Tsukino wakes up the way she always wakes up - in her own bed, in her own house, to her mother yelling to her that she's late. "Mamaaaaa, you should have woken me up!" "That's your job, Usagi!" "Ugghhhhhh, Luna can you ''believe'' her?" The groan comes from deep in Usagi's gut, not even just her chest, as she scrambles to get changed into her uniform, the long deep blue skirt and the long-sleeved white and blue top, a white undershirt to help with the cold. Her cat doesn't answer, of course, because she's just a cat. A normal cat, even if one whose black fur that almost gleamed purple, even if one with unusual wine-red eyes, even if one with a pair of bandages on her forehead. "She should know I'm not going to get up by myself! But - but it's fine! I'm not even that late!" And she smiles, and she laughs, because - well, sure, she might have to stand out in the hall again the way she did during all of middle school, but it's ''fine'', that's just another normal thing about life. Usagi combs through her hair, making sure her signature twintails and odango buns are styled, and fluffs her collar, and then reaches for her bow, planning to affix her - Her what? The thought vanishes, and she shakes her head. "Maybe I'm losing it, Luna," she sighs, and then laughs as Luna paws at her legs, trying to climb her. "Not today, I've got to go! I'm already almost late!" She darts down the stairs, shutting Shingo's door and rolling her eyes when she sees his posters - she can't ''believe'' he's still into Saban Moon! When's he going to grow up anyway? Running down the stairs, she gives her dad a kiss on the cheek, grabs a piece of toast, and darts out the door, "I might be home a little late, Mamochan and I are probably going on a date, byyyye!" Life is good. The sun is shining. She's going to leave home, and she'll be back next weekend - No, she's going to be back tonight, why wouldn't she be? She's just going to school, and then she'll be back home, where she belongs.
Mamoru Chiba	It's wild, the dreams he has when Mamoru falls asleep in the ballpit. Not that anyone but Usagi and... who else? Who else? Anyway it's a moderate secret that he actually sleeps in there sometimes. And there are ''always'' dreams. Sometimes he's down for them! He's good at lucid dreaming-- but not always, and this morning he's cold, uncomfortable, and unsettled when he wakes up-- But the sun is shining through the balcony doors, and Mamoru smiles: he'll see Usagi soon. He gets up and he's-- alone. There are usually people here, aren't there? But ahh, better that he gets more alone time. Didn't he have a cat? Isn't there a snake? Isn't there a ISN'T THERE A BOYFR-- Mamoru smiles! And takes out his phone and texts Usagi 'hey do you want to come with me to visit kazuo after school?' Mamoru goes to feed the snake, and it's actually the snake he told Kazuo he ''couldn't'' get because he does ''not'' want a venomous snake in the place, and he frowns, but then he smiles, because he can do this, he can feed a venomous snake a thawed dead baby mouse or whatever they eat for the boy he loves as much as his wife and alt-future dau-- Mamoru shakes his head, finishing putting new bandages on before pulling on his long-sleeved shirt and buttoning the cuffs. He's still so disoriented from the dream, he's thinking when his phone rings. Facetime! "Hi Mama, hi Papa--" says he to the faded, almost faceless images of his parents on the screen of his phone; he laughs. "You're out late! I think? Oh, not so late, I guess, it's only--" he checks his watch "--like one in the morning there?" He can't hear them, though. It's fine! He hangs up and he's walking down the street, on his way to the Tsukinos' house, the hand with the compression glove the one that's carrying his bookbag. Compression glove? No: no, his hand is fine; Mamoru shakes his head to get the cobwebs out. Maybe he can mooch a cup of coffee off of Usagi's parents, since Saori-mama was out the door to work already, and Kazuo can't make coffee anymore... But he can't remember where he parked his motorcycle, so they'll have to walk to school like they always did before. He's known Usagi forever! He takes his phone out and texts her 'You're so pretty~ I love you~ <3' She may or may not even get them.
Amy Faust	''...It's been nice...''     ''...''     ''...Am I forgetting something...?''                                    END: Bad End 3: Smiles Painted On Your Soul     The awful buzzing noise in her dream wakes her up, with a taste like vomit in her mouth. She swallows, and grabs her water bottle from by the bed to take a sip.     Her phone registers the movement and that it's within a half hour of when she has to get up anyway, and starts playing music.     The song is named "Good Memories", but the feeling it instills in her right now is more like 'yet another day of screwed-up life. ...But you have to keep going, because that's the only way that maybe, ''maybe'', you can fix it and make it better... or at least salvage it into something good enough.' But you're probably GOING TO BE FINE.     She groans as she sits up and fumbles under the pillow for her phone, and when she picks it up she checks her notifications, checks for messages, checks for any pings on Datcord, any excuse to put off the day for a moment longer. But there's nothing interesting, and she sighs, and stands up, and thinks to herself, I'm Fine.     And she laughs, a short, sharp chuckle.     Getting out of the shower, (already grumpy and annoyed because her cap slipped off now her hair will be wet for ages and she doesn't have TIME to get breakfast AND fully dry it before her appointment) she notices her bare fingers and searches the shower cubicle desperately, eventually on hands and knees looking very closely at the holes in the drain's grate in terror, wondering if--     What is she ''doing''? Why is she ''like'' this?! It's fine, she didn't lose anything, and she finishes drying herself and getting dressed.      Because of the earlier foolishness, breakfast is rushed -- and it's a shame she has to eat so quickly because Radiant Heart's cafeteria is genuinely ''good'' -- so that she can show up to her appointment with the school psychiatrist ''only'' almost ten minutes late.     As a girl with no records or memories who just turned up one day and got taken in by the Academy, first the psychiatrist assumed she was hiding something, then concluded that she must have unconsciously repressed things. But every attempt to uncover something failed. She is fine with the look of pity doctors and staff give her sometimes.     "Your hair is wet. Is this because you... forgot you have long hair?"     Amanda ''groans''. She regrets ever telling anyone that she remembers the life story of some dude who sounds a lot like her.     But if she stops coming to these sessions she won't get the pills that help her brain work better, and being uncooperative would get her in a whole lot of mild inconvenience.     After today's allotment of 'I can't help you if you don't ''want'' to be helped', she leaves the office with her coat and backpack and heads to class, taking a breath of the crisp winter air.     The sun is shining. After classes there will be manga and friends. Life is good, really!     She'll figure things out one day. One day she'll belong.
Emi Hoshino	Everything is fine. Even if one feels like something missing, what does it matter? Everything is fine. Everything is better than fine. It's great -- no, really. You just need to smile and go about your day. Everything is great. Say it often enough and maybe you'll even believe it. Everything is great. And the best part is that everyone has friends! What do they say? That dreams are stronger when they are shared? That dreams bring us closer together? It's true! Why, your friend even says so. Everyone goes about their day, but none of them can share the sense of ... something missing. Oh well.
Rashmi Terios	The Dread Lord Trigonometry has been vanquished yet again. *This* day. Surely he'll return to plague her school year yet again... And the reward for good work done is... more work. And a chance to chat with her friends in the halls, which is always nice. With as much time spent being a friendless wallflower, Rashmi *absolutely* appreciates the change in environment that brought her so many good friends. ...Even though her old school was perfectly fine, as a school. What even was it that got her accepted to Radiant Heart? ...Well it definitely wasn't her math scores. Weird... And the question begins to gnaw at Rashmi, the lack of a ready answer to why even is she here actually sort of concerning. But there's Molly, and she's not looking so great, so new priority! High-energy greeting, a promise to grab lunch together, civics, world history, English, Debate Club, then back to prepare for her date! There's just so much to do today, so many things in the *now* that need focusing on, but she should probably make a mental note to give that problem a good think later. And as if that was that, and something would actually just follow her thoughts and update a schedule and remind her when it was most convenient for her, the matter is dropped, freeing her up to concentrate on her favorite subject. Something's weird, though... she's having trouble following the characters on the whiteboard. ...But she's listening to the lectures and taking notes, that should be okay, right? Right. Right. At lunch, she makes sure to collect Chrono and Molly for conversation, and cheerily waves at Usagi, Mamoru and probably Kazuo when she spots them passing by. But it's Molly that grabs the bulk of her attention, because the purplenette has been wearing the kind of expression that means today is a Cheer Molly Up Day, and no good friend ignores that kind of sign.
Madoka Kaname	Homura waits by the door to the dorm room, one hand holding her book bag and the other resting on the doorknob. Is she forgetting something? She's forgetting something. Isn't she?     The sweet voice of Madoka speaks up behind her. "Don't worry. You've got everything you need. Just go already! I'll follow you soon."     Homura nods. Of course she has everything. She's just going to the cafeteria. Opening the door and letting herself out, her eyes settle on the vending machine that Gret-- Kami-- Who? Wait, was there a vending machine here? No, that's silly. There has never been a vending machine right outside her room.     In the cafeteria, she gets her breakfast from the buffet. Other students are serving up meals and she smiles and stutters out a thank you. As she sits to eat, Madoka's voice calls out to her, "Don't forget your pills, Homura-chan!" Oh right, her medicine for her heart condition. Where were they? Oh, they're in her hand, obviously. She takes them and drinks some milk to wash them down, then starts eating.     Sometime during the day, she runs across Usagi. Everyone knows Usagi, so that's not surprising. What's more surprising is the fact that Usagi knows her. Of course, where there's an Usa there's also a Mamo. Homura shyly waves at them both when she passes by.     Classes are awkward. She feels like she's forgotten the subject. Madoka reminds her that she's already done the homework and to turn it in. Right! Of course, that's the way of things. She must have done it last night.     Homura turns to Madoka with a smile and says, "Thanks for looking out for me." She tries looking into Madoka's eyes, but for some reason she can't.     While she's trying to figure out what's so strange about her girlfr-- best friend's face, Madoka whispers, "Pay attention or sensei will get mad."     Homura's eyes are forward facing now. She doesn't have time to worry about weird things. Stick to the routine and everything will be fine. After this, she'll go back to her dorm, take care of her cat, do their homework, and after maybe watch something with Madoka. Wouldn't that be nice? They could have their own little movie night. What kinds of movies did Madoka like to watch again? She should ask her after class.     ... It's weird that she doesn't know, though.
Chrono Harlaown	Chrono Harlaown was a simple boy, with simple tastes. "Hall Monitoring Enforcer Chrono Harlaown," he said as he ensured students went back to class on time, hands on his hips. For the most part, he was.... at least mostly polite. He didn't cause problems, obeyed the rules, followed as he was supposed to... But... Once he slipped up and said 'Time Space Administrative Bureau'. But that didn't make any sense. And nobody reacted, so surely it was just his imagination, right? And during class, he kept thinking about writing up... reports. But why did he write up reports about... hall... citations? Who would write up reports about *hall loitering*? Nobody was *that* uptight, not even him. ... And why did he keep thinking his uniform needed shoulder spikes? He kept having odd little thoughts throughout the day. But every time he started to get too far in the thoughts, on of his senpais, often one of two twins with gray hair, always seemed to pop up and direct him towards some task he needed to take care of. Ever diligent, he often got right back to it... And it was so nice to see Rashmi again when he did. Ever since he'd first crashed on this planet and-- ... Wait, what? Ever since he'd first crashed into her world, that was it. Ever since he'd.... fallen into her world. Yeah. And... That had to be it. Pfft. What a weird turn of phrase. As he took his place besides her and leaned against her, radiating in her calmness. Her presence alone was so calming to him, in a world of chaos, when so many lost logia just... existed around every corner, when the world was turned upside down daily as a matter of course, where even now this world didn't make sense with how non-magical it-- ... What? He shook his head as he ate, gazing off, lost in space himself slightly. He, ironically enough... Seemed to be spacing out himself a lot today as well.
Usagi Tsukino	Usagi doesn't get the text messages, but that's fine! She links up with Mamoru anyway, and they walk to school and it's so amazing that they go to the same school, especially considering her grades versus his, and she never takes it for granted, getting to go to school with Mamoru and Minako and Rei and Ami and Makoto and even seeing Chibiu- "Aw, I guess we have to split to our classes, Mamochan~" A kiss! She has to climb up on her toes to do it, and she's so high up on her toes and having to pull him down to do it, until he practically covers her up, and she can't even see the thing behind him with the horns and the spikes and the wings and oH IT'S JUST A STATUE! She kisses Mamoru a little more desperately, and then pats him on the shoulder, "I'll see you at lunch? I want to see Ami-chan too, but we'll eat together, right?" And then she's on her way to class, and Amy's there, she's the new girl in school, and Usagi waves, but she doesn't sit next to her in class, what with all the seats being in alphabetical order, and she doesn't sit next to Ami-chan either, and she can't even kiss her in class because she doesn't like PDA (it's probably for the best - she can't see Ami's eyes anyway, there's a shadow from the glasses she's wearing, a glint that makes everything a little different, and Usagi almost thinks she sees something other but - Then her friend is coming up beside her, eager to talk about the homework they had and how much of it they finished and it's such a perfect, normal morning. A totally normal day, a normal life, and she gets through all of her classes until lunch like that, gossiping between periods with friends, sneaking manga except when Ami-chan jabs her for reading during class because things take too long and - "Oh man, it's lunch already, and I forgot the bento mama made me, awww..." She'll just have to go to the cafeteria! On the way, she passes Homura, the quiet, shy girl who's still pretty hesitant to reach out to anyone, and when she actually gets a wave, Usagi stops and compliments her on the answer she gave in English class, and asks if she's checked out My Fortunate Engagement because it's super sweet and cute and it just feels like the kind of happy ending that goes on forever that Homura would be thrilled by, a couple of good people with hard lives that finally get to be happy together, just when they deserve to be - Why would Homura specifically need that kind of happy ending? Oh well, who doesn't love that kind of thing?! Anyone would! There's no lunch ladies of course, but there's food for them to serve themselves at the cafeteria, noodles with eyes in them ahaHAHA no those are just chunks of chicken! Who doesn't love a chicken and noodle stir-fry, she does! There's a vending machine, and when she passes it, Usagi wonders if it will eat her money, but then again, Kamiko is always going around scaring them into shape - ...who's Kamiko again? "Usagi-chan! Did you remember to do the maths homework -" "Uwahhh!!! I didn't!"
Molly Skyline	Molly is lucky to have her friends; let's face it, she'd never have gotten through this whole lost-an-arm business without them. And yeah, sure, that comes up a lot, but it's sort of a thing. It's not like she can forget about it, can she? She's still working out how to twitch her remaining arm muscles ''just right'' so that her prosthetic fingers will open and close and buddy listen, you try playing a video game like that. Going from consistent high scores in the arcade racing games to basically being proud of herself when she can finish a lap has been a rough adjustment, and her grades have definitely suffered hard for it. Not that the old bastard even noticed, he doesn't actually open the report card letters. They just sit there on his desk with the rest of the mail. So of course Rashmi and Chrono will find Molly easy to collect and take with them everywhere around the school. She'll come and watch Rashmi's debate club (beats going home to do dishes for the old bastard), and whenever nobody's paying attention to her she's nose-deep in an automotive magazine. Because her dream is still her dream, even if it seems unattainable. Maybe if... if she weren't missing something. She looks up from her magazine, while she's hanging around in the hall in a moment of solitude before said debate club and before her friends show up. She waves to Usagi and Mamoru in passing; and hey, there's Amy, everyone really passes by at this time of day, but... "Am I forgetting something?" she asks aloud of nobody in particular. "What am I missing?" "Your ''arm'', dumbass," comes the reply, from that one friend that Molly... really... just isn't sure why she's friends with, actually. And the purplenette's expression immediately slides back, losing all the progress Rashmi has accomplished during the day, as she stuffs her face back into the magazine. "Yeah, thanks for reminding me," she mutters. "You're a real hoot."
Mamoru Chiba	Schoolwork has never been an enormous concern for Mamoru, since he's always enjoyed it and done very, very well-- ''school'' has always been a breeze for him, recovering Prince of High School that he is. School itself holds no stress for Mamoru, and once he sees Usagi, all thoughts of anything worrisome or uncomfortable flee easily instead of having to be chased off. He's like that for a while! After all, the sun is shining, he's with his steady girlfriend, they're seeing all their friends-- --and then there's a kiss from Usagi, which he revels unthinkingly in until it gets desperate, and he sees a blured shadow of a monstrous reflection in the corner of his glasses in his peripheral vision. Why doesn't he feel Usagi's fear? His hand tightens too much on the handle of his bookbag, and his fingernails cut into the heel of his hand enough to leave a mark, and he's relaxed as Usagi pulls away, smiling at her. "Anything you like," he says, easily, and he means it. He sees their friends waving now, too, and waves back, and Usagi runs off and he feels bereft, and he thinks of Kazuo and he thinks of pink hair, who has pink hair? He must be thinking of Madoka, but why would he be thinking of Madoka...? The smile on his face is a blank mask as he stands in place like his tape snapped. "My Prince!" calls a teasing voice from behind him. Mamoru whirls on his heel, looking half annoyed and half delighted, and then all the way delighted, and he laughs. "Tamachan, you ''know'' that makes Usako cranky, you're not allowed." "Even though you broke up with me--" Tamaki starts, but he's reached to push Mamoru playfully, and Mamoru can't stay mad at that face. Except when he can. Now is not one of those whens. At lunch he's in the cafeteria waiting for Usagi and idly scratching at his arms under his long sleeves...he smiles because he can't remember what he's forgotten. But he's forgotten everything hasn't he? He takes his phone out and opens the contacts, but before he can get into the weeds, his phone rings and it's Masato, with tickets to the game, and Mamoru stares at his phone because he's like what game, chess? What-- but there's Usagi WHEW; he gets up and goes over? Or whatever, the important thing is that he's able to sneak over and squish-hug his girlfriend. "There you are! Everything's better with you around."
Amy Faust	Everything ''is'' fine. She can even say it without laughing. It's just I'm Fine that makes her chuckle every time.     But friends to talk to between (and sometimes in) classes really ''is'' wonderful. Amy... feels like she didn't used to have that.     When Rashmi comments on the difficulty of vanquishing the Dread Lord Trigonometry, Amy looks confused for a moment--why did she think Rashmi was great at math? but then smiles and jokes about how "Dread Lord Trigonometry makes me imagine this like, JRPG boss with a shadowy body and a penrose triangle for a head and, like, bells on it or something. And it's got one of those JRPG boss arenas that's just a crazy world of abstract shapes that like, don't match the way the world looks..."     A slight frown flickers across Amy's face after the words are out. That reminded her of something... something she saw in some game or anime or story, that she has the impulse to comment on and share, but she just can't remember what it was and she wants to talk to one of her other friends before the next class.
Amy Faust	That's right, waiting at the lockers is her friend with the twintails that likes purple! Her friend with the blonde twintails! Star, another native English speaker (where exactly is that accent from?) "So, ''Mallory'', how did your visit with the shrink go?"     Amy rolls her eyes. Star is one of the others trusted with her secrets, and sometimes good-naturedly teases her about it, but lately she's started using that name as a joke when no one else is around and it rubs Amy the wrong way. "The usual. I prefer Amanda. Really. Just call me Amy whether anyone else is around or not." Star raises an eyebrow and nods.     Unfortunately, tarrying has led to an encounter with the HALL ENFORCER. Wait, did he just call himself the... Time-Space... ''what?'' That sounds like she's heard it before somewhere.     Star sticks her tongue out at him, and Amy's jolted out of her thoughts when her friend grabs Amy's hand and runs away down the hall. "Split up, he can't chase both of us!" she lets go at an intersection and runs the way Amy ''doesn't'' need to go.     Amy still is late and has to stand out in the hall with Usagi. "This is so dumb. How does this help us learn? ... What'd ''you'' do, anyway? ...Things going well with Mamoru?"     Usagi's nice. Amy kinda wishes they could talk more, but they don't sit close to eachother... well, there's lunch! And after school! And... running into her talking to that quiet, shy girl who never reaches out to anyone.     Amy sometimes wonders if quiet shy people might be a lot like her, but then imagines how the conversation could go wrong, and ends up not reaching out, either.     But Usagi giving manga reccomendations makes her eyes almost sparkle for a moment. An in! Although she only half-heard the conversation as she approached. "Ah... Akemi-san likes manga? The kind where there's a whole bunch of stuff in the couple's way before they finally earn their happy ending? Have you ever read Video Girl Ai or Ah! Megami-sama?" And then Amy frowns, as she tries to remember ''when'' exactly did she read those, they aren't something a little kid would read but they also don't sound like her current taste at all actually--     "Amy!" Star grabs her hand and pulls her towards her next class. "We gotta move or the Hall Monitor'll get us." She gives a quick fake smile and a wave to the other girls before dragging Amy off. Amy sees Molly in passing and waves with an apologetic smile, she really would like to hang with Molly more, but, class...     Despite the late-hall antagonism, Amy is friends with Chrono's friends and sometimes sees him at lunch, which perhaps is off-the-clock in regards to hall monitor time... Amy's happy to sit with the others and listen to what's going on in their lives, like she did at her old school... wherever that was. On days when lunch schedules don't line up, she's left to read manga on her phone alone, or chat with Star about trying to fit in here.)
Emi Hoshino	The school-day begins to draw to a close and everything, again, is fine. Great. You're sure of it. Keep saying it. After school activities are a go, but isn't there something else to do? Maybe you should check the -- Check what again? Oh well. It's probably not important. You all have home lives waiting for you and need to go exactly where you're supposed to be. There's nothing so important that needs doing. Ignore the deepening winter shadows on the way home, ignore the way they seem to twist as if staring at you. Ignore the shifting writing on the billboards -- those are definitely *not* signs of your subconscious trying to warn you about the danger you're in. How could you be in any danger? Everything is great.
Madoka Kaname	Sorry, Mamoru. Homura's not the only one missing their pink person it seems.     Homura manages to avoid the attention of the terrifying Hall Monitor. With everything this poor girl has to deal with, the last thing she needs right now is to get In Trouble. Time and Space... what? Why does that first word pull on her somehow?     Amy and Usagi are making recommendations to her. She smiles and says, "Oh! Okay. I'll be sure to see if Madoka is interested in that. Thank you!" Usagi has good tastes, so whatever she's into must be pretty decent, right?     She glances at Mamoru and... they're friends, right? No, they don't know each other. Wait, don't they? She remembers...     No, those memories are gone, and she traded them for a better ending. Everyone is happy, so it's fine right?     Wait... ''what'' better ending?     Homura is on the way back to the dorm. The dorm she shares with Madoka, who is her best friend and not her girlfriend, even if she kinda wishes otherwise. Oh, if only she had the nerve to say what she really felt... but honestly such a confession would only be selfish. No, Madoka could probably do a lot better than her.     Homura looks down at the ground as she walks down the hall to her dorm. She notices the vending machine again. Wait, didn't that vanish?     Homura watches the vending machine. She blinks, it's gone. She blinks again, and it's there. She can hear Madoka walking down the hall behind her. "Homura-chan! We don't have time for snacks. Weren't we going to watch something tonight?"     Homura... for some reason she doesn't like Madoka's voice. That's such a weird thing to think. Madoka's voice is like music, her laughter as refreshing as spring rain. Yet for some reason today she just really doesn't like Madoka's voice. Homura looks at the vending machine's display, at her reflection in it, and sees an image she left behind a long time ago.     "You worry too much," says Madoka, as if reading her thoughts. "Everything is fine!"     Yet even as Homura allows her roomie to pull her into the dorm room, she knows in her heart...     Something, everything is wrong.
Rashmi Terios	Debate Club begins anew! Today's theme is Civic Responsibility, but when Rashmi submits her vote, it's left-field enough to get selected:     Should A Lotus-Eater Machine Be Destroyed Or Allowed To Run? Which is odd, because Rashmi *thought* she was writing something about vending machines. But, she rallies, and manages to scrape together a cogent, perhaps impassioned speech about true justice requiring individual, informed choice, and how a world that forces people to ignore truth is an unjust world. When the Club empties, she gives Molly a smile and a tight hug, because she *did* notice how something managed to wreck the purplenette's day between lunch and now, and if she didn't have a date tonight, she'd make as much of her evening as possible about fixing the damage someone else unthinkingly wrought. However, she *does* have a date! Which requires a rush home to get changed. Shoving aside the military-cut green vest and yellow-and-white skirt -- where did she even get that, it looks a lot more costumey than her usual fare -- she decides on a simple outfit of jeans, cream sweater and knit cap, and the mittens Chrono likes. Silly boy... As the couple emerges into Mitakihara, a scrolling billboard snags her attention briefly--     << ALERT. MASTER. ALERT. MASTER. ALERT. MASTER. >> --all in almost incomprehensibly fancy English-style lettering. For reasons she can't even begin to explain, her arms tighten on Chrono's arm. "Chrono," she says slowly. "Something's wrong..."
Chrono Harlaown	Chrono Harlaown had spent a few minutes after school waiting for Fenyx to arrive, wondering what was keeping her. How were they going to go on patrol if she-- ... Patrol? Why was he going on patrol? He was a kid, he had homework. He frowned as he started to head towards his dorm roo-- His home. Lost. He just felt.... lost, today. He'd felt lost all day. He kept going over his homework. Did he start taking greek? Logia. Right, something... to do with divine mesages, yeah. There was something about that in the lectures? Or.... wait, he didn't have lectures. He paused again. He felt... there was so much he was missing. The girl with red hair. Why... did he want to reach out and pat her on the head? Why did the idea of her running from the hall monitor fill him with amusement, not... annoyance? 'My prince'. He heard someone... call the tall boy that today. But he didn't know Mamoru. Wait, he didn't know Mamoru. How did he know Mamoru's name? They weren't neighbors, so why did he-- Why did he smile when he saw the twin tailed girl with ponytails? And why did she fill him with such existential *dread*, as if she could shake reality, and yet the idea of her... forgetting her homework just... calmed him so much? Most importantly... Why was it only now. At this moment. That all of these things, these tiny, minor things, seemed to be clicking into place. Things he should have noticed throughout the day. Tiny little... imperfections. Things that... And why was it he looked at Homura and every. Single. Instinct. He had. Said TURN. AND. WALK. AWAY. As if there were many tiny, pink haired little voices in his ear going 'Walk away, little TSAB officer, you are anxious enough'. And he was lightyears away, his mind, not focusing, as he just... kept... not being able to focus. Why did he keep... thinking about the strangest things. Why did he keep eying things and going 'That'd be a good ambush point' or 'If you consider the vantage point, subtracting the strange effects that love seems to have on the environment co-efficient of mana retention...' What in the world did THAT even MEAN?! "What?" Chrono asked, glancing at Rashmi. "I'm sure it's nothing, Temportary TSAB Support Mage and Meister Rashmi Terios," Chrono said. Then paused. "... What?" "... I think you're right," she said, his arm tightening around her own as well.
Usagi Tsukino	When they're stuck outside, Usagi laughs a little, "It's not about ''learning'', Amy-chan, it's about disrupting everyone else because we couldn't get ourselves together, that's all. We're the ones who were late." She's used to being sent outside, it doesn't bother her! Why should it? This is a normal, every day thing, and she's so ''glad'' for it. It's what she wanted, isn't it? To be a normal girl with a normal life and a normal future. ...hey, why did she want that, anyway? Isn't it weird, to want what you already have? Because she has a normal life. She's a normal person. She's always ''been'' a normal person. Well, as normal a person as her parents' daughter could be, anyway! After all, how normal is the Moon Queen's dau- Ha, is it getting close to Tanabata or something, why is she thinking about people on the Moon? Silly Usagi, you're just a ''rabbit'' on the Moon, not a Princess- "Usaaaaagi, did you remember your homework?" It's her Friend, walking home her own way, and she calls, "Of course I did! Totally! I just have to read three volumes of josei, right?" "Ha! That's what I love about you, Usagi!" She feels (worse) better on the way to the school's gates, waiting for Mamoru. He might want to visit Kazuo. She doesn't know why, he's just at his pla- No, no he's not. She does know why he'd want to visit him. After all, they've worked so hard to forgiv- Not that there's anything to forgive! Haha! They're just kids, they've only had regular problems, never anything serious - Luna mews from her feet, walking between them, walking around her ankles, and Usagi starts. "Luna? What are you doing here... ah, and your band-aids are slipping off!" There's a strange tone in Luna's mews, hoarse and elongated, stretched almost, and the bandages have slipped enough to reveal something yellow on her forehead. When Usagi reaches down to push the bandages into place, Luna darts away, dodging her hands. "Huh? Oh, come on -" But Luna won't let herself be caught. She just mews. "Mrrrrincesssss," it sounds like. "Mrrrreosawwi." "I've got to find Mamochan before I turn into a crazy cat lady," Usagi sighs, "I'm almost starting to think you're saying words, Luna. But you can't talk, and I mean - who'd want you to?" Talking cats weren't normal, after all. Talking cats were not for normal girls. She's a normal girl, with a normal life. She's ''normal''. She's so normal. "She is the one named Sailor - Sailor VENUS, Sailor MERCURY, Sailor MARS, Sailor - " UGH, are people are her ''school'' even watching that same stupid show that her brother watches? It's in her house, too? Usagi is running before she can even think about it, darting down the street, leaving Luna behind, and where's Mamoru - "Mamochan, there you are, let's just ''go'' -"
Molly Skyline	Molly hugs Rashmi after the debate; she didn't really pay attention to who actually ''won'', nor did she really listen over much to the opposition, but she did hear everything Rashmi said. Which seemed to somehow kinda make sense and not make sense all at once. Which, honstly, Molly just attributes to Rashmi being smarter than her, which is fine; Rashmi will go far. Molly will probably just end up a relatively low-end mechanic to get enough money to go drifting down mountain roads on the weekends, and that's... well that's actually fine, honestly. On her way out after parting ways with Rashmi so she can go on her date, the Purplenette gets dragged into a vice principal's office instead -- ''Before you leave, Miss Hamama'' -- And nevermind the protests that her last name is ''Bishop''. An hour later Molly is finally on her way, under the stern gaze of the vice principal -- ''Now remember what we discussed and apply this to your behaviour going forward, young lady.'' "Yes, Mrs. Nyx," Molly replies in the most disrespectful voice she can manage to get away with, and then at last she's around the corner and actually, for real, on her way home. No time left to go to the arcade now, if the old bastard is awake he'll be pissed if Molly doesn't show up. Which, as it turns out, he's not awake, but rather passed out on the couch with three empty sake bottles and some sushi that by now is starting to smell nasty on the coffee table. Nor did he pay the power bill it would seem, as the lights don't turn on, which rather leaves out any possibility of TV or gaming on the internet. Back to the car magazines; in the evening the natural light is better in the shop, so Molly takes her magazines downstairs and lays on her back on the roof of her immobile Supra, flipping idly through the publications and at this point really just looking at the pictures. And... yeah, sure a brand new Porche 911 would be sweet, but it's outside of budget and always will be. But it'd be ''sweet''. And what the hell, a girl can dream. Even if that's all they'll ever be is just dreams. Her phone rings, and she ignores it. Probably just the old bastard anyway. She flips the page in her magazine, and somethine rustles outside -- probably a homeless guy going through the bins, but whatever, if he finds a half a day old pizza in there he's welcome to it. Whatever. Molly flips the page again, stares at a picture of a Nissan Skyline, like... Should that mean something? Beyond it being just a car? Eh, nah, and Nissan isn't raelly her style anyway. The Supra is where it's at. For sure. Even if it doesn't run and might not for a long time. But a girl can dream. Even if it's a bad dream. As the light fails, Molly sneaks back upstairs, past where the old bastard -- now awake -- is busy screaming into his cellphone about the power being shut off. She picks just the right moment to close her bedroom door, flops on her bed, and checks the power on her second-hand switch... Oh nice; twenty percent left. Just long enough for some Final Fantasy. About an hour and change of Final Fantasy as it turns out. Hey, at least it's a game she can play without super great motor control on her left hand. But eventually there's only two percent battery left and it's time to just... save and go to sleep. It's dark anyway. Just as she's about to save, the screen flickers, and << ALERT ALERT IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE REQUIRED TO MOLLY SKYLINE ALERT ALERT >> "...What the hell game is that shit from?" Molly hits the power button with prejudice, and leaves the Switch beside her on the bed as she rolls onto her side, closes her eyes, and bawls her way to sleep.
Amy Faust	We disrupted everyone else because we can't get ourselves together. Amy feels a twinge inside, and looks down at the floor. "Oh."     But this is normal, and everyday. She can't escape it and... and what? And have what?     Her mind wanders as she waits in the hall with Usagi, and imagines what she'd do if magic powers are real. Then she could matter and help people, and maybe it'd make up for taking time away from the other students...     Eventually, classes are over. It's not one of the days that Chorale or RPG club is meeting, so Amy has nowhere to go but back to her dorm room, if no friends invited her out.     Why isn't she in more clubs? She tends to spend her time on geeky persuits but she doesn't actually ''dislike'' being active. She could do track, or join the soccer, or basketball, or volleyball teams, or tennis or something. It was because after school she...     Amy shakes her head. There was ''something'' that interfered with club time at one point, she's sure, but maybe she could take up a sport next semester. ...One that doesn't require long legs. Maybe ping pong or something. She still bets she'd be a kickass defender in soccer.     Star walks with her back to the dorm, a quiet friendly presence while Amy walks along on autopilot.     "Wait, this is the club building." Amy suddenly notices. "Ugh. did ''both'' of us zone out and go on autopilot?"     But then she hears a debate going on, and a devil's advocate, contrarian impulse rises in her. Somehow, no one stops her from waltzing in and arguing that being Socrates Dissatisfied kinda sucks, actually, when happiness never comes; and if the only place someone can find happiness isn't real, then maybe that's okay.     Why is she suddenly so passionate about this? Amanda gives Rashmi and Molly an apologetic look, and wants to explain how she didn't used to feel this way, how she'd have argued against the lotus eater machine before, but denying her heart never brought her any happiness back when she was...     ...was what? That silly ''story''? She can't bring that up here. And so she looks like she wants to say something, and then the look of apology becomes a look of 'whatever, people will think what they think of me' and she scurries back to her dorm room. Great. Now she's annoyed two of her few friends.     She looks in the mirror. Despite everything, it's still you.
Amy Faust	I'm Fine, she says, but what goes through her mind is Something's Different. She shakes her head, and changes to casual clothes.     Today's manga update is about a boy stuck in a VRMMO as a dhampir girl character -- alas, it's none gb left power fantasy -- and she rereads a story about someone stuck in a dream.     ''...Am I forgetting something...?''                 END OF DAY 1: You have to fight it, she's trying to give you a     Amy blinks and looks at the text again.                                          BAD END: Identity Death Is Real Death     She feels a ''chill'' and then suddenly there's no ominous words on the screen anymore and she's not sure why that hit as hard as it did.     She glances at the clock as she scrolls MeTube and chirper for... something? Good news? About what? and searches for mangas she's not yet heard of. The cafeteria doesn't close for a bit yet, she can search for a few more minutes...     ...Until she realizes she missed it and can't possibly make it to the cafeteria in time now. ''Shit''. She'll just have to distract herself from hunger.     No. ''No.'' She will make her life better. She'll... she'll call Molly and Rashmi and, and she'll say ''something'', she'll ''apologize'', talking to them is the first step she'll figure it out!     Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring.     Molly doesn't pick up.     ...Is it really worth it to call Rashmi, too? Maybe they're still hanging out together. Maybe she's just bothering them. How pathetic would it be if they ignore her on one phone only for her to not take the hint and call on another?     Of course, she doesn't ''know'' that's what's going on, but if it were...     She doesn't want to imagine it. Distraction it is then.     Distract herself from it being another day in which nothing got better.     She doesn't want to go to bed, she doesn't want it to be tomorrow.     But eventually it is way too late, and she is way too tired, and she crawls into bed to get not enough sleep before she has to do it all over again.
Mamoru Chiba	The school day is over; Mamoru is relieved. He's not sure why he's relieved, he likes school, but-- he has such a headache, and he's had things in his peripheral vision all day -- maybe he should drink less coffee. After all, he doesn't want to be down about anything, ever. It's quiet, he's home, he's home alone with no cat and no snake and no wife and no boyfriend, and he smiles brightly as his sharp little blade flashes in the light over the kitchen sink. The water runs. Mamoru runs his hands up and down his forearms under his longsleeved shirt, under his leather jacket that he loves because it came from... the school counselor? Why is he friends with the school ''counselor?'' Whatever, he loves this coat. He looks cold anyway, but his blank auto-smile turns real when he sees Usagi running for him, calling his name. He holds out his arms. The pressure of her against the thin lines under his bandages is so welcome, he feels so grounded... grounded, ''ground'', the ground beneath his feet is screaming and he can't hear it, he can't ''hear'' it. His heart beats faster. Mamoru murmurs against Usagi's hair as he starts pulling away to leave with her, "I'm so happy to be scared. I love being scared. It's my favorite thing. I'm so happy, Usako. I wish I could share that with you, so you feel it too-- you know? Happiness shared is happiness multiplied or something, right?" He's pulled away but is still holding Usagi's hand, tight, almost tight enough to hurt, and it's shaking a little, and his eyes are a little too wide behind the smile, and the skin around them is tight. He's not paying attention to anyone or anything but Usagi and the skin-deep pain that's keeping his skin on-- "Anyway you're right, we should go home."
Emi Hoshino	Everyone retires to their private spaces to close out their day. Whatever their subconsciouses are screaming at them are just going to have to be set aside for now. There are real problems to deal with that will require real solutions, not fantastical hopes and dreams to confront them and none of those problems are going to manifest as punchable monsters, no matter how satisfying that might be to think about. That's just silly! Still, as long as you keep smiling, everything is gonna be okay! Of course, everyone dreams. That night, they have visions of Tokyo. The Tokyo they know. The Tokyo they live in -- but there's a distant, dreamlike quality to it, brief glimpses of a darkness beyond, a city warped and twisted almost to the point that it is beyond recognition. But that's just a dream and dreams can be so silly, you know. Even when they wake up in the night. Even when their chests clutch tighten to the point of breathlessness for a time before they're assured everything is okay and they can go back to sleep. END OF DAY ONE. The second day is much the same as the first -- but there are ... cracks. It's getting a little harder to smile. The sense of wrongness is more pervasive. There's something ... beyond. Lurking just in the corner of their visions. They can't acknowledge it. They're not allowed to because, you see... Things aren't just okay. They're -great-. Notallowednotallowednotallowed.
Rashmi Terios	Lurching out of a bad dream is *always* a fun time. Rashmi has had unsettling, bad dreams before, and knows that now is the point where she teeters on the edge of real wakefulness; there's every chance that when her heart slows down, the weasels stop gnawing at her stomach, and the ice leaves her veins, she might just fall back asleep. So, not unlike someone hiding from a scary monster, she lays still and stiff, and waits for the gribblies to leave on the wave of adrenalin, in the hope that sleep may return. ...Nope. Well, that's okay. She's awake now, and dreams can't hurt you when you're awake. Everyone knows that. ...She read that somewhere, didn't she? Well she's awake now, so may as well use the time to get ahead on her history work-- << ERT. MASTE >> --something's wrong-- << STER. ALER >> --with her laptop.     << ALERT. ALERT. ALERT. DANGER PROXIMATE, MAS >> Weird... Well she remembers Amy is big into technology, maybe she can help? And it'd be a good chance to reassure her that her surprise, uninvited entry into Debate Club debates wasn't actually a bad thing; maybe she'll want to join next year? Eventually it's time to go back to school, and she tries not to notice that the buildings seem to loom over her on the way there. She tries not to notice that bugs (or something like them) are skittering in the corners of the subway car. Tries not to notice that the school gates are... pointier? than she remembers they must be, more like the jaws of some strangely sideways thin--     << ALERT. MASTER, >> says the PA. Rashmi shakes her head. There's nothing at all to worry about. Math was yesterday, today it's history and art and shop class-- When did she sign up for shop?! Nevermind. The point is today is already looking like a good day, and didn't she and Chrono have a good time last night, on their date? They must have. Where did they go again? Someplace nice, certainly. She tries to pay attention to her lessons, but it's difficult; it's like some of the letters are glowing yellow, here and there, and somehow the bugs followed her to the classroom, there they are skittering up the far corner in neat, marching lines, up and down like ants but too big too many legs too many eyes something's wrong something's not right this isn't right what-- With an audible snap, the world comes back into focus as a blond student, a friend with a wonderful singing voice, leans into her field of view, worried. "Rashmi-chan, we need your help. Sara's having a panic attack." Over the blond's shoulder, the teacher says "You're excused, of course," and Rashmi and the student pelt down the halls toward the problem. It's never a good thing when someone needs your help, to face problems that they can't on their own. But there's always a nice feeling, when you can help someone in need. And anyone who knows Rashmi, knows that it always lifts her spirits, when she can solve the problems of others. It's part of why her dream is to go into politics, after all. (( Audio cue: shortly after it's decided that sleep isn't happening again, quiet tinnitus noise is heard in the background. The volume slowly, slowly climbs until it drowns out most of the foreground sounds, but when not-Coco speaks, it shuts off completely. ))
Amy Faust	After a long night of...staying up, Amy eventually falls into slumber.     But it's not dreamless.     Amy and the others step out of the portal into Tokyo. << Alright, girls, enjoy your field trip. I'll see you back here tonight, I've got to go recruit more magical girls to meet my quota. >> announces their kyuufairy chaperone before flying off. Now's her chance, she can escape!     Escape... what, exactly?     The stuck-up Belkan princess announces that she's going to examine pitiful Earth technology and take notes for any future invasions. Miho and the creepy girl also announce some sort of plans before running off, leaving Amy alone with buildings towering over her. She looks up at the skyscrapers twisting against the dusk sky-- wait, wasn't it morning? Where did the time go? She has to escape! She runs...     Amy runs through the night streets, trying to find her parents' house, but she's completely lost, and half the time she turns a corner and sees ''nothing'', a dark hole in reality with a twisted city beyond--     No, she didn't see that, but she'd better try a different direction.     Hopelessly lost. She has to escape. Find safety. There is no one to save her. She's so tired. She has to keep running.     There are screams coming from that restaurant. And she could turn away. She won't escape by running ''toward'' danger. But, people are in trouble...     Amanda sighs, and transforms, and runs towards the screams. It's her duty.     She follows the trail of destruction. One of the customers, an old man, yells at her. "Girls in frilly dresses fighting giant bats, what is this world coming to?! It's because of those damned videogames!" There are so many things wrong with that she ''cannot even'' but also she is terrified and has to keep running onward into the kitchen, which has already half-fallen into the shadows that are eating it while the others fight Lady Bat.     "Amy! You made it!" shouts Miho, smiling, and Amy starts to run to her but feels a hand on her shoulder and turns and it's the creepy girl, their expert on mind magic, who gives her a serious look, and intones: "She's already got you. You have to break free somehow."     And then Lady Bat laughs as swarms of bats eat the ground out from under them and they plunge into the void and CAN'T BREATHE IT'S KILLING HER IT'S COLD IT'S DEATH and in the darkness she can feel ''corpses'' under her and she wants to not be here she wants to be ANYWHERE BUT HERE     and she wakes up.
Amy Faust	It was just a dream.     Of ''course'' it was just a dream, magic's not real, but of course she doesn't think of that, when dreaming.     Amy as a magical girl, though, how crazy. Maybe she'll tell Star about it.     About... what? The dream is already fading from memory, except for the sense of something terrible all around her, and needing to escape.     It's fine. Everything is fine. Everything is '''great.''' Go back to sleep.     She can almost hear her friend's voice, and drifts between dreamless sleep and running through a twisted dark Tokyo, searching for escape...     she has to escape...     ansi#303030,there is no escape...)     The music wasn't enough, but her phone buzzing wakes her, in the middle of the usual song.     Another day of her screwed-up life. But she has to keep going, so that maybe she can find a way to escape...     But right now, she wants to go back to sleep. It'll be fine if she sleeps in, if she's this tired she must've been up late fighting monsters, and Setsuna-chan will give her a note.     Smiling at that thought, she shuts off the alarm, she closes her eyes, and she gets comfy under the covers...     And then adrenaline jolts her alert. ''What''. That's ''crazy'', why would she tell the nurse she overslept because she was ''fighting monsters'', she must've been half-asleep when she came up with that idea! That would get her an extra therapy session for sure!     Later, again something about her bare fingers strikes her as she steps out of the shower, that sense of having lost something important makes her stop and start to turn back and then she remembers doing this yesterday and how silly she felt and the wasted time, and she sighs, "What is ''wrong'' with you, Amanda... This kinda thing just disrupts everyone else, you need to stop..." but she doesn't know how to stop and then she almost breaks down crying from what a hopeless mess she is that will never have a future but then Everything Is Great, Actually! and she grins and wraps her towel around her and goes to dry off and get dressed for another day.
Amy Faust	On her way to class she bumps into a young boy with white hair and blue eyes, dressed plainly in dark shirt and pants. "Oh, sorry, I... I guess I was kind of zoned out there." She apologizes. He looks up at her and asks, "Is this who I become?" He clenches his fists, and speaks encouragement and determination, "Don't let her defeat you! Everyone says to be yourself, and you finally understood what that meant! Don't let her take that away!"     There's something familiar about him, something important, but... she can ''feel'' the people and shadows around them staring as he makes a scene and draws attention to her. "Uh... I think you have the wrong person." she says, and steps around him, but he grabs her hand from behind. As she turns around, she feels him pulled away, and for an instant she glimpses shadows pulling him into a darkness-filled locker which then shuts, and is silent.     She blinks and shakes her head. That ''obviously'' didn't happen. Right?     She steps closer to the locker, and reaches out a hand...     And in the corners of her vision, she can hear the shadows whispering to eachother, about this weird girl.     And maybe they won't know what she imagined, but ''she'll'' know, that if she grabs that handle, she's let... whatever's wrong with her, win. She lowers her hand and continues on her way to class.     Somehow, she arrives... early? There's no one else in the classroom yet. She smiles, glad that she's not late for once. But when she sets her bag down next to her desk and turns to sit down, there's a teenage boy standing in front of her; Blue eyes behind half-frame glasses and shaggy unkempt white hair -- like he doesn't care about his appearance, the thought comes from somewhere -- in a pocket T and loose-fit cargo pants.     He steps towards her, gesticulating with his hands, urgency on his face. "She's BAD END-ing you! And not even one of the fun kinds! We had her all wrong, the name is misleading, there's nothing but misery here!"     She can't help reflexively stepping back; he's big (compared to her) and loud--     "Everything you are is being crushed out of you and drained away! You have to '''FIGHT!''' You have to '''SURVIVE!'''"     What is he talking about? Crushing her? Who is? She flinches as he leans closer and starts shouting.     '''"LISTEN to me! ''PLEASE!"'''''     And then there's a hand on her shoulder and Star is there. The whole class is there. Everyone is staring disapprovingly at the loud disruptive boy. "You should leave." says Star.     And he realizes how this looks, glancing around at the looks of disapproval, flinching as if struck. "You know I'm right! Just because I'm loud doesn't mean I'm wrong! You have to listen, P--" he catches himself and doesn't raise his voice, "''please.''"     The class starts murmuring and whispering.
Amy Faust	He glances around and his body language hunches slightly, ashamed of... well, existing, but also: "How will it look if we fall to her, without a fight, after everything? You have to get out of--" he starts, but Star steps in front of her and cuts him off, "It's ''you'' who should get out of here."     A pair of students -- who just look like shadowy figures #-1 INVALID ANSI DEFINITION: #ffafad7/#000000 it's fine don't think about it -- take the boy's arms and start to lead him away. One says something that sounds like muted explosive static that makes her want to throw up but also clearly meant "Come on, buddy."     They're almost out of the room when he starts to pull against the shadows, and then the homeroom teacher steps into the room. "You're disrupting class for everyone." He steps aside and points at the door, and the boy deflates, and glumly walks into the hall. The teacher nods, and shuts the door. "That's enough drama for today, take your seats, everyone. And Faust-san, ''do'' tell your friends not to disrupt the class, you're wasting everyone's valuable education time."     "I didn't--" she starts to protest, but it's no use, and she sits down. "Yes, sir." Star pats her shoulder, and sits behind her, and school continues.     Were some of her classmates always made of shadow, scribbled-in darkness in humanoid shapes? But pointing that out would be weird. Not to mention, interrupting class and taking time away from the other students. She tries to focus on class.     There's a knock on the door and it's opened by a man in his 30s with messy white hair and blue eyes, dressed business-casual in a button-up shirt with the top button undone and loosefit cargo pants. His face looks solemn and depressed, and he looks at Amanda and--     --''everything'' is made of shadow, except her and the man, scribbled fuzzy darkness, with a sickening sweetness in the thick air, the only feature on the students' and teacher's forms are circular scribbles of white light where eyes should be, and there's a sound from all around her, static, explosion, a beeping alarm, all of these and none and it feels like someone said '''''ENOUGH!''''' and the man looks alarmed and opens his mouth to say something and then he's shadow too--     Everything Is Fine. Everything Is ''Normal.'' Amy blinks, the only thing off is the tightness in her chest and the sickness in her throat, as a couple of staff come by outside the door and say something to the man and he nods and closes it and they all walk off.     "Now that that ''interruption'' is done," the teacher intones, and somehow it feels like it's Amanda's fault, it ''is'' Amanda's fault, and she tries to shrink in her seat as the lecture continues, it's fine, this is normal, this is life...
Madoka Kaname	Homura's dream is most certainly a nightmare.     Madoka is gone. Worse, it's like she never existed at all. Her family doesn't know her, her friends have no clue about her existence... there's just a hole in reality where Madoka should be. Homura wanders through Mitakihara, seeing nothing but streets and tall buildings in every direction. Even when she looks up to see the curvature of the world rise into the sky and wrap around at the zenith of this dream's reality, as if the planet they lived was on the inside of a sphere instead of outside of one. Just one giant circle, going around and around. Homura could look through every single one of these buildings and not find a single Madoka.     The billboards, street signs and displays are all wrong. Newspapers and ads, too. Nothing is written in Japanese. It's written in a strange script that is so inhuman that her dream must have made it up. Yet even so, she can read bits and pieces of it. This was Kamiko's language... or to be more specific... it was Gretchen's.     ... Who was Gretchen?     When Homura looks down, she does indeed see yet more buildings, though actually the same ones. The street she's standing in is covered in a thin veil of water, and where her reflection should be she can see someone else staring up back at her. Someone confident and beautiful, with long loose flowing black hair, and lovely glasses-less purple eyes that glare with anger and show not even the slightest hint of fear. Who is that girl?
Madoka Kaname	Upon waking, Homura is alone. No, Madoka is nearby. She can hear her, but not see her. The black haired girl reaches for a mirror and looks at herself. Her vision is too blurry to see anything unless she squints and looks close, so going without her glasses is a nonstarter. Yet, she's curious about how she looks without braids. She reaches up behind her head, and starts undoing one of them, letting the strands of hair disentangle and fall down to her side. Squinting at herself in the mirror, at the braidless side of her hair, she starts to think that maybe she likes it that wa--     "Oh no, Homu-chan! You undid one of your braids. Here, let me fix it!" called out Madoka from behind her. Homura still can't see her from here, but she can feel Madoka's hands straightening out her hair and then braiding it together. Out of curiosity, Homura tilts her hand mirror just enough to see Madoka's face, and it looks Just Fine, Actually. There Is Nothing Wrong With Her Face. It's The Most Beautiful Face You Have Ever Seen In Your Life.     "Silly Homura-chan. You can't see me without your glasses!" says the familiar sounding voice that is Totally Madoka And Absolutely Not An Imposter. As the red-rimmed glasses are set down on Homura's face, she stares at herself in the mirror and Is Totally Smiling Brightly That Is Not A Concerned Frown At All Everything Is Perfect Stop Overthinking It.     Around the rim of her mirror she notices a set of strange letters she is very sure she doesn't recognize. When she reads them she somehow knows that they say: please overthink things maybe a little bit.     She blinks, and now the inhuman letters say: remember we all love you espe--     That Thing That Is Totally Madoka And Not A Fake pulls the mirror out from her hands faster than Homura can respond. What was that last part? Already, Totally Madoka is gaslight-- Telling Her The Full And Honest Truth, "You don't have time to look in the mirror all day. You look fine as it is! Go to class or you'll be late!"     Outside, in the hall, she passes by the vending machine. Inside it are little cookies in the shapes of the chibi-heads of cartoon characters that Homura almost recognizes. That one has braids like hers, but pink. This one is wearing a little nurse cap, which Homura has been told is called a flossie. There's another one with a hidden braid and paint splotches, and another with a bobcut, a fifth one with curls in her hair and a sixth one with glasses that shine like an ominous anime character.     Shouldn't there be a seventh one? No Homura That's Wrong There Were Only Ever Six Of These Now Get To Class.     Later, in class, someone is making a scene. It doesn't make sense to her. Bad End? Is this some kind of LARP thing that Homura isn't cool enough to have been told about? It's giving her a headache.     If only Homura had the confidence to say something. She could at least tell them to quiet down or take it outside. Maybe if she was as sure of herself as the girl in her dream, she'd be able to tell them all about how loudly she was screaming inside.     Not That There's Anything To Scream About. Pay Attention To Class.
Usagi Tsukino	Running to Mamoru was exactly what she needed, this is what she needed, to be safe in his arms, to feel his breath against her hair, to - What? What did he say? The words trickle through her brain like molasses, slow to appear at first and then pouring over the rim and into clarity, and pulls back to stare at him in horror, her hand on his, but her face is smiling and so is his ans the words don't make sense because, "But being scared is the wor- wonderfullest of things," her mouth says without her permission and that's not right, none of this is right, the shadows are real and drawn around them and there are things there and they are ''hurting him'' and the thought of silver light comes to mind and cool reassurance starts to flare in her chest - Mamoru bursts into ribbons, black and blood-red, waving through the hair like a tossed cape and the world dissolves and she's home. She's home and she's at her door and she's alone, but of course she is, Mamochan walked her home and turned off towards his street, right? Of course. What else could it be? Her Mama and Papa welcome her home and Shingo and Junichi ask her why she's home (mostly Shingo, of course, little brothers are the WORST) which is just so silly because where else would she be but at home? Usagi has dinner with her family and everything is normal. There are no reflections in her soup spoon and her chopsticks never drip with anything darker than chili oil or thicker than soy sauce and what she's eating doesn't squirm or move at all. Everything's Fine. It's better than Fine! It's Great. It's the normal life she's wanted (and always had) for so long. When Usagi lays in her bed that night, she finds herself feeling almost lonely, like she should be hearing Naru-chan's breathing up above and Ch------'s too, but she's always had her own room ever since she was old enough to be out of a crib in her parent's room, ever since Grandpa and Grandma moved with Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma to Chiyoda. There was only ever just Luna, and Luna was there, staring at her with those big red eyes, breathing steady, the bandages coming off her forehead. Usagi reached for them, and Luna scratched her. She fell asleep, staring at the red lines on her palm and arm. Usagi dreams of a Tokyo that wants to break her. She dreams of Naru's head striking the floor of her mother's jewelry store and a dorm room where a lizard pretended to be her stolen friend and a forgotten district where her boyfriend was almost killed and a tech conference room where two girls pleaded for their lives as she tried to reach them and when they died it was with her fingers just barely out of reach. She dreams of being attacked by monsters, of fighting monsters by daylight and moonlight alike, of watching a girl split in two become a Witch and of her brother's best friend having his throat torn apart and her own hands gripping the rod as she brought it down again and again to blood spatter and bone cracks and she felt hatred in her veins. She dreams of a Tokyo that would never let her stop fighting and wakes with her eyes red and her pillow wet with tears. She goes to school, of course. She is glad to go, and glad to be, and triea to turn her eyes from any shadow before they could finish forming. She does her work and ignores Luna dodging her steps, winding between her legs, gold glinting on her forehead. "Usagi," she insists, and her voice is clear and not a meow at all, "Usagi, please wake up." "Cats don't talk, Luna," she replies, and hurries to the bathroom to splash her face.
Mamoru Chiba	"It is, it is," Mamoru's agreeing, it's wonderful, but he sounds like he's underwater to himself, and he hears something behind him sharp and defined as he tries to keep going with Usagi-- she turns into pink streamers of light in front of him, and his heart hurts, and he's confused when he gets home because the building is made of brick and plaster and the tapestries have been replaced, but he knows the code to get in the door. A code: there's no key, there's no one for him to greet, no one to welcome him home. It's wrong, but he can't explain how. He feels like he's felt this way before, and it was so dangerous. It was so dangerous! And he nearly ended up swallowed by ghosts-- He flinches and looks down when something touches his ankle; how could he forget he has a cat? He bends to scritch her with relief, and he can just ''tell'' she wants salmon, so he goes to look in the fridge, and immediately closes it again, because it's filled with rot. Out of a hideous curiosity, he opens the fridge door once more, and is dully horrified at the fact that he's not surprised it's ''fine'', it's fine, of course it's fine, it's just the fridge. Mamoru's not hungry anymore. He doesn't know where anyone is. He can't find anyone, and he thinks: that's wrong wrong wrong all of this is wrong wrong wrong Kazuo would never get caught Usagi would not have left me scared-- but he said he was happy, because he is, isn't he? She must have believed him. He's good at masking. Oh but it's not masking if he's actually happy, right? The smile on his face proves it. Mamoru's in his room and he's finished his homework already, and he's finally hungry again, so he gets up, and he's alone so ''why is there chocolate on the counter.'' It's not there long, Mamoru swipes it off the counter and it itches at the back of his brain, where did it come from? Where? Who put it there? It's sweet and Mamoru doesn't know why he's crying; he scratches at his forearms irritably, then laughs, because even picking scabs feels more real than any of ''this''. There's no transition; he's wandering in Tokyo and he can't find anyone and none of it looks familiar, even though it looks familiar, of course it does, he's lived here all his life, hasn't he? He's never seen this city before, it's so incredibly tall, it's canyons with windows. But his princess is here somewhere, and so are his beloved guard-- --Tokyo is warped and on fire. The prince's phone's ringing and ringing in his pocket, and it's his mother the Queen, and he doesn't want to pick up because it'll be the last time he ever speaks to her, because the city is burning and she would never in a million years go home to hide. He wants to pick up because he wants her to hear him, and he wants to hear her so badly, he can't remember her voice, and the citizens-- There's a cat sinking claws into his ankle, and he looks down and sees Anko, and the room spins and he staggers to sit on the bed. This time he thinks he might use the bathroom sink, because Kazuo made such a very good point about Makoto ''wanting'' to keep using his kitchen-- because that's right, Makoto does come use his kitchen a lot. He just can't feel anything, which is fine, because who needs anything but happiness? But no, he gets up out of bed and he's at the kitchen sink again, with running water and bandages. It's dangerous. He doesn't remember when he started. It's not dangerous. He's said it so many times before, it's just pain, it doesn't last, it's fixed quickly. Wait, why would he say that? Momo in the orphanage used to cut, and she took forever to heal.
Mamoru Chiba	But when he goes to do it again, the scabs from the afternoon are gone, and there aren't even scars. He runs his fingertips over the whole, unblemished skin of his forearm, and feels so crazy, he feels insane, he's lost his mind, none of this makes sense and it's ''all wrong'' and so he cuts deeper, laughing with terrified fury, voice mild and sensible as he tells the air, "I can't-- words--" and he can't, indeed. He can't get the words out even to the air, but the air is forgiving and talks about the moon and the earth. He's in school again and doesn't remember most of the day, but his face hurts, and everyone kept greeting Kazuo but every time he tried to look, he kept forgetting what he was looking for until the next time someone greeted Kazuo... and then Aoi's standing in front of him, eyes wide, looking rough around the edges, and his heart thumps irregularly as his own eyes widen, his skin feeling too tight. Behind her there's a young girl with long black hair, straight bangs, black clothes, very pale skin, and no feet. Mamoru blinks and Himeko is gone. He thinks: didn't I have a-- Aoi says to him, looking completely normal and reasonable, "Since you're the one who found me, and you're eighteen, you have to fill out my paperwork." For some reason, as he goes with her, he feels like he should be casually wearing a Hawaiian shirt to do it.
Chrono Harlaown	Chrono Harlaown 's dreams were.... he did not like having dreams like that. But that was all they were, right? And he had a... nice date. Yes. A nice date. A date that was nice. Yes. That was what he kept repeating to himself. And if he repeated it enough times, then he would, maybe, even be able to believe it. Wouldn't that be nice? Of course, the second day he blinked a few times when Fenyx brought him... a card? Why did she have a card? No. It was just a cracker, right. She had a cracker. It definitely wasn't a strange, shiny card. That was silly. And he definitely didn't walk through the school, his mind in a strange, confused fog. He didn't keep thinking about his duties. He didn't believe he had people to save. People who needed his help. People he had to rescue. Why would he need to do anything like that? He was just... a person. A kid. Another kid, like all of them. Just another normal kid. And he spent time near his father, and didn't remember staring at his father's tombstone. He didn't remember holding his mother's hand, and vowing to himself he would never cry, he would carry on his father's legacy. That he would protect people, like his parents had. That was ridiculous. Who'd... do something like that? His parents were here. Both of them. He had classes. He had... obligations. He had halls to monitor. Yet... For some reason... it's the minor things that keep drawing his focus away. He feels there's something vital. but during morning exercises, he has to help someone find their lost dog. Then his mom needs him to grab groceries. Then while grabbing groceries, someone needs help with a broken cart, and then at school there's a broken wheel on a cart, and then a hamster escapes, and then one of the rookies fainted after over exerting their mana while showing off in a no-fly zone, and then they needed his help to locate some fliers for-- Wait, what was that second to last one? A kid got lost in one of the gardens and fell asleep on a bench, that was all. All minor. All emergencies. In some ways, being diligent had its advantages and weaknesses... Never granted a moments reprieve, because when he did... his mind kept wandering to what was wrong. What was lost. He couldn't accept it. Even if he wanted to. Annoying pain in the butt that he was. Just as all of the other's minds tried to rebel... his did as well... poking at every hole. Turning over every loose rock. And, worst of all? He was so boring. How could someone live amongst Lost Logia their whole lives... And yet... Seem to have no imagination of their own? Worse, he felt whenever there was something weird, something strange... He felt it was his responsibility to go and investigate it. So everything had to be more mundane. More simple. So when he was sitting by the window at the end of the day, Fenyx on his knee, gazing out the window, lightly tapping a foot on the ground and listening to music... Everything was great. He could hear his mother and father downstairs, laughing. Happy. Talking about old times and new times. Fun. Games. Their playful, dorky, silly antics... Themselves. Existence. Everything was so... nice. It was all nice. He was sooooo nice and happy right now. And he didn't feel as if he was on the precipt of a world filled to the brink with doomsday devices. He didn't have memories of falling from the heavens. Of being trapped on a world not his own, where he couldn't talk to his own people, where the people he knew didn't even know his face, his name. Where they didn't even know themselves. A world so weird and strange it stripped you of your very mind. Your soul. He wasn't trapped, he wasn't scared. He wasn't isolated. He didn't feel like the only thing keeping him sane was this wonderful handful of allies he'd made, a beautiful native to this world of madness. He didn't write reports just for the chance to distill the madness from his mind and hope, even pray, it would somehow make sense it he let it out... He was just another person, another boy, living a simple life. Yup. Totally. Normal.
Molly Skyline	Molly awakens the following morning to the sound of a mournful electronic alert, going off every couple of minutes in the corner of her room. The space is illuminated by the morning sun but poorly, with her room being on the wrong side of the house for that; terrible for waking up early, but great for sleeping in. Once her presence of mind reaches enough clarity to act, she reaches for the lamp on her bedside table to turn it on and... Oh. Right. Power is still out. Grumbling wordlessly, Molly extracts herself from bed and goes to the charging cradle on her desk to retrieve her prosthetic arm, only... it isn't there. Panic spikes in her chest, and she looks around for... Oh. Right. Power is out, which means she didn't bother putting her arm on the cradle because it wouldn't charge anyway, which means it's still sitting over there in the corner, which is what's beeping. And it has two percent battery left. She checks her cellphone next; one percent battery left on that. Well... at least she can charge them at school. So it's okay, right? Just be positive Molly. Today is going to be a good day. It'll be fine. She'll see her friends. She quickly fires off a text with the power she has left to Rashmi, << Hey, wanna hang out tonight? Your place, TOB forgot the power bill again >> Just before the phone gives up the ghost she notices that she missed a call from Amy last nigh-- Oohhhh, right, someone phoned and she ignored it so... dang she'll have to make that up to Amy. Just for good measure she checks her Switch and it is just flat dead. What's a girl supposed to do without her left arm, really? Well, take twice as long to do anything, that's what. But luckily she got up early, so once she has her backpack ready to go she tucks her arm in alongside her schoolbooks, stuffs her now dead phone in her pocket (She could swear she saw something in purple writing on the dead screen, but it was gone when she looked a second time. The phone is ''dead'', after all) and grabs her charging cables. On the way out she makes sure to take the route through her shop that takes her past her Supra; there it sits, unable to move but she's going to fix that. She is. She'll get a decent engine like the one sitting on a pallet in one of the other bays, something that works that she can tune up, she'll get some good tires too and work on the transmission so if shifts like butter. Molly resists the urge to start talking to the car like she's Robert Duvall in 'Days of Thunder', but in spite of everything she walks out of the place with a rare grin plastered to her face. So maybe she won't be getting any sort of racing sponsorship or get taken on as a driver in training or anything, it's not like people don't teach themselves to do really cool stuff. Michaelangelo was self taught, wasn't he? She was sure she read that somewhere. << ALERT. MOLLY SKYLINE. DANGER. ALERT. >> The sound almost makes Molly jump out of her skin; no doubt someone left the radio on. Without stopping to think that makes no sense if the power is off, the purplenette bustles herself out the door to walk to one of the further away bus stops, so she can buy some food on the way.
Molly Skyline	School is, predictably, well... it's school. No math today, so she's bummed about that. She gets there with enough time to charge her arm up enough for the morning classes, then it's straight back to the cafeteria to charge it up again. All while something is gnawing at the back of her mind; something isn't right. This isn't supposed to be her life. Not quite like this, anyway, except Molly this is your life and it's FINE, you're friends with Rashmi and a bunch of other people and they all encourage you to go and actually be a race car driver, even while the school councillors keep trying to gently suggest that she should pick a different aspiration that's more 'realistic'. Pfft. She lost an arm, not the part of her brain responsible for hopes and dreams! School has it ups and downs. Everything seems like it's just a little bit FINE EERYTHING IS JUST FINE and when it seems like it's not, like there's something just not right that's the moment when the school prankster decides to make off with her backpack while she isn't looking with her arm still in it and the panic attack is near enough to send her to Mars without needing a rocket ship and she spends the rest of her arfternoon coming down from that adrenaline rush.
Emi Hoshino	... it's been a long day. They all have the thought. It's been SUCH a long day. They're so tired. It's time to rest. Things will be better tomorrow. They're always better tomorrow. A rhyme unbidden seems to seep in your mind in the twilight space between waking and sleep, between thought and dream. It's a line that feels blurrier than it should. Remember! If it hurts, it means you're growing. If you're tired, just keep going! Grit your teeth, be sweet and kind, happy thoughts to fix the mind! And then darkness claims them. END OF DAY TWO. DAY THREE. All of them wake up with their hearts racing. Something is wrong, something is WRO... no. Everything is fine. Not just fine. Everything is -great-. They know it. Everyone around them knows it. GREAT.
Rashmi Terios	'If it hurts, it means you're growing.' 'If you're tired, just keep going.' It feels like whoever came up with the rhyme that floated in her head was a low-key sadist. She must have heard it on someone else's TV, once. 'Grit your teeth, be sweet and kind.' 'Happy thoughts to fix the mind!' It is *not* the kind of jingle that leads to a good night's sleep. Which is why Rashmi very nearly falls out of bed the next morning, her alarm practically screaming in her ear.     << *BONG!* >> << ALERT. MASTER. ALERT. MASTER. ANOMALO-- >> Then the alarm clock dies. ...Huh. Must've been on its last legs, she's had it for awhile... She gets dressed, lurches out into the kitchen for a quick rice porridge and miso, then tries to shake the crawlies from her brain, as she trudges to school. It really doesn't help that every advertisement is pulsing a bright, somehow eye-piercing yellow, or that the shadows of street signs are swaying in the breeze, or that the clouds seem to me moving in four wrong directions. And when she opens her locker to change out her shoes, she discovers a summons to talk to the headmaster, regarding her math scores. Dread Lord Trigonometry, readying the killing stroke to ruin her entire future? It's entirely possible. But there's nothing for it but to fix a smile on her face, and make the rest of the day as good as it can possibly be, right? After all, if she climbs high enough, maybe the fall will take enough time she can figure out how to survive it. ...Friends! Friends are a good way to make that happen, and on her way to class her hand flies over her phone's gesture pad. << TXT to AMY, MOLLY, and CHRONO -- Heyyyyyy... Wanna get together at lunch? I got some news, and it's juuuuuust greeeeeeat. So great I wanna make it *even better,* I'll grab us a table? Please? >> Somehow, even in text, there's a heavy emotional side-load of 'I really, really, really need my friends right now' jammed into that 'Please?' And when lunch rolls around, and the others walk into the cafeteria, the look in Rashmi's eyes suggests that she might have considered *physically* defending the empty table with mop and chair, but that it just happened to not come to that. Nevertheless, the table is free.
Madoka Kaname	Class, mercifully, is over.     Homura was oh so Great and Energetic after day that all she wants to do is go back to her dorm room and sleep But That's Great Actually. She doesn't really know ''why'' she feels so Wonderful but she's had just about enough of it.     Yet when she thinks about her dorm room, she also thinks about Madoka, and how much she Is Really Looking Forward To It And Not At All Annoyed That Someone Would Blasphemy Madoka's Image With This Ridiculous Parody. Not That It's A Parody It's Totally The Real Madoka. In Fact You Should Probably Go See Her Right N--     "Shut up," says Homura, with a conviction and a quiet rage she's not really used to.     A group of teens chatting next to her in the hall suddenly goes quiet. One of them is suddenly confrontational. "I'm sorry Akemi-san, what?"     Homura just freezes and stares at the person. Why did she just blurt that out loud? Oh this is so embarrassing she just wants to leave, But That's Fine You Were Going To Your Dorm Anyways. Just Speedwalk And Don't Look Back.     ... but at the dorm room is ''that'' Madoka.     Her back feels so rigid, her hands grip tightly to her schoolbag, and when stares down at the floor she notices that her gait is just wrong. She's still wearing her braids and glasses, Which Is Perfectly Normal.     Homura doesn't even speak to Madoka before going to bed.     As she sleeps, she remembers a timeline long lost. Something she left behind as a failed attempt. A darkness starting in Kyoto, spreading out from there like an unstoppable wave. Something about it stirs her mind but she can't really remember.     Homura wakes up. The imp-- Totally Real Madoka says, "Remember, Homu-chan. You've got a medical appointment coming up soon!" She finds her glasses on the desk next to her bed and looks at the calendar. Was that date marked before? ... Was the ''calendar'' even there before? That's so Totally Normal It Was Always There.     Homura sighs, rolls out of bed, freshens up and gets ready for the Absolutely Great Day she's about to have. By the time she walks out of her dorm her braids are in order and her glasses are shiny. Her eyes are forward and sharp, even if her mouth is twisted into a smile.     Along the way she runs across Usagi, and for a moment her smile is at least a little bit genuine. "Hey, Usagi-chan. It sure is a Wonderful Day today, right? Certainly Absolutely Nothing went wrong last night." Homura tries to say what she ''really'' means, and starts to see a vague shape what the rules are. So she can't say anything directly negative? Interesting. Is she the only one?     "It's absolutely not scary or weird, school is perfect and there's nothing to fear!"     Why is she rhyming now? Whatever, just go with it. It's all perfectly normal and wonderful and good, right?     "Say do you ever really wish you were in a horror movie? Something exciting though maybe not... um... gloomy?"
Molly Skyline	The alarm clock is gonig off. It's there, beeping away like an obnoxious little wanna-be rooster informing Molly that it's time to get up out of bed and get ready to go to school stop sleeping in you lazy teenager get up get up ge-- SMACK The purplenette's open palm is poorly aimed and sends the now-silenced clock tumbling off her bedside table an onto the floor. Luckily, it's not the first time (she got a shock-resistant model for this reason) but it means she misses the purple writing flashing across its little screen, decrying that someone named Molly Skyline is in danger. Which, Molly could certainly believe that that's her. Her heart is racing, her hand is shaking, her breathing is coming fast and she's already sweating before getting out of bed. Something is wrong. Something is very ''WRONG''. Something is She is having a panic attack. The purplenette sits up in bed, swings her legs oer the edge, and tries to focus on her breathing. This experience is... not entirely abnormal, after the accident. She was warned about PTSD, didn't listen of course, she was too busy focusing on, gee whiz, HER ARM, but it's not like pretending something didn't happen to you makes it not have happened and so here we are. Slowly she gets things under control. Panic attack. That's what it was. Did she have a nightmare? If so the old bastard slept through it, not that that's a surprise. Molly has an immediate need to be somewhere not inside this bedroom our house or building. She dresses in record time and compensates for not showering with extra deoderant, straps on her arm in a hurry and belts her way out the door with her bag. Food is once again sourced on the way to school and she's still eating it on the way into her first class -- a manouver she gets away with as long as she doesn't pull it off too often, on account of understanding from the teachers that... well nightmares and panic attacks can be a thing. The school of course doesn't feel any better than the home, something is off. Something is way off. However! On the plus side, lunch with Chrono, Amy, and Rashmi will be fantastic, she fires off a text in return declaring that she will of course be there. She's still holding her phone when she gets ''THE SUMMONS''. She hasn't even turned the screen off. Vice Principle Nyx would like her to come by her office after school because evidently one after school meeting in the last two days was not enough and she would like to talk to Molly yet again, regarding her habitual tardiness (Really??) her grades (what's wrong with them?!) and 'other academic and behavioural issues' (What the FRICK does that even mean...!!!) Molly sighs, dropping her chin until the crown of her head bonks against the closed locker in front of her, and she flips back to the conversation with her friends. << TXT to RASHMI, AMY, and CHRONO -- Yeah so guess what I just got a summons from Nyx so whatever comfort food we're bringing, between Rashmi-chan and I it better be weapons-grade. >> The rest of her morning classes are difficult to sit through. It's like trying to sit still on a block of ice while under a heat lamp. By the time lunch arrives the overarching sense of discomfort has basically turned into a sense of impending doom, like the monster from The Blob (The ONE horror movie she did NOT like) is ready to just come oozing out of the ceiling all around her. And so she plops down beside Rashmi, dumps her bag on the floor, plops her face down on the table, and just lifts one hand to point at Rashmi. "Right. You first."
Chrono Harlaown	Just keep going. There was something Chrono understood. The concept of pushing on, even through the pain and discomfort. ... The problem was, there needed to be a rest stop. Enforcers could operate only so long... and he knew he had to keep going until he was able to stop and rest, until reinforcements arrived. But when he woke up, instead, his parents told him they wanted him to come home and talk to... one of the recruit agents! Oh, yeah, he was going to join the japanese military... ... Was he? What? Like his parents had. And they wanted to help him make it a reality. Yayyyy... And he kept staring at his bird, at Fenyx. And as she ate out of his hand, why did the idea of tha leave such a sour note in his mind? And why did he suddenly... want to be late to school? He was struggling, internally. He felt it was his duty, in a way. But... he didn't... feel it was.... here? Right? Something was wrong. And he couldn't... place it. Something was so many levels of wrong. << TXT to Rashmi -- I have some great news too. I'll see you at lunch. >> Yup, he was Chrono, he followed the rules, and following the rules was important. He always followed the rules. He had a full rulebook he followed, yup! And he never, ever bent them... Because it was the rules that matter... not the intent. The idea behind them. Because it was rules, not people, that mattered. And that was what made him happy. Oh so very happy. That was what his parents lived for. That was what made him so proud to be their child. That was the image he stood up for and tried, every day when he put on any uniform, to live up to. Yup. Rules rules rules. Hall Monitor Enforcer Chrono Harlaown. When people looked at him, he wanted them to look with fear, because they were scared of the rules they broke... not with relief, because they knew that they would be safe now. As he slid into the seat besides Rashmi... Lightly tapping a finger on the table to the beat of an old disney song he'd heard when he was a kid.
Mamoru Chiba	Night two: The nightmares are bad, bad-- he dreams of Aoi in a chalk world and the feeling of being erased; he dreams of the Shitennou in their cream-colored uniforms with the deep jewel-tone-and-brown capes, descending into the same sketchiness as the world ended, Jadeite dying in his face; he dreams of the inside of a car in freefall -- when he wakes up gasping, bolt upright in bed, Kazuo is sitting at the edge of it, waiting. The two of them are sneaking around on the grounds of the school at night, and Mamoru has to keep stifling his giggles -- a distraction like this, a fresh breeze of a fun thing in the-- the... what was he even upset about in the first place? Everything's great. His bare feet on the winter grass, toes digging into the cold dirt, Mamoru turns his face to the moon and closes his eyes, bathed in its light, and something about him steadies. And Kazuo has candy for him. Everything really ''is'' great, right now, never mind the little girl with no feet watching from the shadows. Never mind the fact that the shadows themselves have hundreds of millions of tiny legs, it's FINE, Mamoru smiles; they go home and it's normal. He goes to change the bandage and the injury is gone and he laughs and laughs and laughs... In the morning he's surprised he's forgotten an appointment, and alarm bells ring because he's ''eighteen'' he shouldn't ''need'' an appointment with his social worker? And his arm's healed but he's ''not right in the head'' right now, but-- well, he's good at masking, isn't he? Of course he is. No one has to know everything is-- His thoughts are much clearer after a dose of touching grass and drinking moonlight. He pops a piece of candy as he and Kazuo head for school, and his pockets are full of more. It's sacred lotus and milkvetch candy, he said, helps versus fatigue and poison. Also delicious. He 'runs into' Usagi almost immediately once they're at school, and basically velcros to her whenever they're not in class, which is before school starts and then at lunchtime-- Kazuo had candy for Usagi too, red rose and ginger, instead of the milky green Mamoru has-- Mamoru shares his with her anyway. "Good against fatigue and poison," he says-- and then Homura's there and Kazuo's not and she looks so ''strange'' and everything's wrong and the shadows are skittering toward her and Mamoru crosses his arms and digs his thumbnail deep into his bicep where no one can see, and they're still ''there'' and then he blinks and they're ''not'' and he laughs. His laugh sounds almost like Hematite afraid of his own dark energy, his laugh sounds almost like Darien on the phone with Usagi telling her the sounds behind him were only ghosts. His laugh sounds wrong, wrong, wrong. "Exactly, Akemi-san! Everything is perfect and nothing ever could ever go wrong. There aren't shadows creeping toward you. My social worker has asked to meet with me this evening and I think that's great!" His smile is so tight, his eyes are strained.
Amy Faust	'I'm so tired.' 'Things will be better tomorrow.'     It's a familiar sentiment, as she crawls into bed. Amy feels like she's felt it before, for years. When...?     She shakes her head. ''Don't worry about it. Sleep.''     Wait, was that ''her'' voice in her head...?     Sleep takes her.     She's called into Dr. Beryl's office, for 'good news', but Amy has a sense of dread.     In the ensuing meeting it is explained that the school got in contact with her family and gotten the story. She hadn't been getting along with her parents, and they went back to America and left her with her overstressed and barely-together Uncle Mallory, who tried to care for her but didn't really know what to do...     ...and then she made it all worse by running away for--well, a lot of details in the dream don't add up, but they ''feel'' real and sensible and sane in the moment--some selfish and bad reason. And she must've been so desperate to run from her guilt, from being such a terrible and disappointing child, that she made up this whole thing based on the last person who tried to help her.     She doesn't want to face it. She doesn't want to remember any of this, how can it be?     Dr. Beryl says her parents sent a photograph, and holds it out. It's a polaroid of young Amy, maybe 6 or so, with chin-length hair, in a dress smiling and proudly holding a drawing of Ariel with the words written under it: "I have red hair too"     This can't be possible but, she feels like she's seen this picture before, and somehow, it is incontrovertible ''proof'', Amy's heart is pounding--     And then Dr. Beryl, who's also the school's Director, pronounces that for someone who infiltrated the Academy under false pretenses and deceived everyone, there must be a punishment, and she has just the spell, and Amy feels the magic take hold and--
Amy Faust	Wakes up with her heart racing. Something is wrong, something is WRO     It's just another day, Everything Is Fine and as if a reminder of that, her phone plays a happy little 'rest-at-the-inn' jingle to remind her how well-rested she is before starting into the usual song. Only Good Memories here! I'm Fine, Everything Is Fine, it's just another GREAT day!     While she's getting ready (she only ''briefly'' hesitates when she sees her bare hand with no ring, so she doesn't waste time today) she gets a phone call letting her know that because of the disruptive incidents yesterday, she has an extra session after-school tonight with Dr. Beryl.     Was... was Dr. Beryl ''always'' her therapist? Amy shakes her head, how can she question reality like that??? Hopefully Dr. Beryl can help her stop silly behaviors like that.     So why does she excitedly look forward to this appointment...?     And then she gets a text. From Rashmi! And Molly! TXT from AMY to group: I'm SO sorry about debate club! If you included me by mistake I understand, but if not I also got some GREAT news and would love friends to talk to right now.     (Somehow some of the words feel off to look at.) Amy grimaces as she sends it. She has Star but... kind of wants to talk to other friends about this?     Amy's about to leave the dorm when it rains paint that melts the world and people away, revealing blackness under a grey sky. Oh no, she forgot her raincoat -- but Star is there with a spare umbrella and a smugness behind her face, and now Amy feels like a heel for not inviting her to lunch, and it's just normal rain and howling wind that she steps into, getting soaked anyway,     But by the time they reach the school building it's bright and sunny and a wonderful day, silly Amy thinking she needed an umbrella! She sheepishly hands it back to the thing that is definitely her friend Star, smugly grinning at Amy, and now Amy is too embarassed to talk to start the conversation to even apologize for not inviting her to lunch and now it would just be awkward!     She sees Usagi and Akemi-san talking in the hall, and smiles, cheerfully observing, "Aren't we ''living'' in a horror movie? Not the jumpscare kind, the thinky kind. It's wonderful, isn't it, who could mind?"     She makes it through class, and when lunchtime comes, sneaking to the school gates to go to the Korma feels like she's going to get caught by the shadows lurking around campus at any moment, but somehow she makes it, and the sight of her lunchtime friends gathered around a table makes her smile with relief. "Sorry I'm late." She walks over and practically collapses into the seat and lets out a breath.
Usagi Tsukino	The day was long. The day was bad. No, actually, it was Great. It was Wonderful. Why would she ever think the day was bad when it was actually just Wonderful. Sure, Luna kept trying to talk to her, as if cats could ''talk'', and sure, sometimes instead of talking she stared at her with mournful eyes and pleaded for help, and sure, sometimes instead of being in school they had been in a palace in a burning city, surrounded by the screams of the dying and damned as Luna pleaded with her mother to escape - ''But that was all totally fine and normal actually, because none of that was happening!'' She was just dreaming. She must have fallen asleep in class, that was all. She must have been dozing off, again and again, because why else would she think her cat could talk and why else would there be shadows that moved and why else would she see a girl with pink fur and a bob and a rose driven deep into her abdomen? Sleeping. She'd been dreaming, and now she was going home, she was going home from school and right up to her bed, which was calling her name, because it was the bed that was calling to her and not her cat. She did not live in a world where cats talked to people. She lived in a very normal world. When she woke up, she was very, very desperate to hold onto that. When she woke up, there was Luna on her chest, staring at her. "Why are you so weird?" she groans, rubbing at her eyes with a fist. "I'm not being any weirder than I usually am, Usagi-chan," her cat says back. The ''scream'' really should have made her parents come running, but they don't. When she comes downstairs, her mother offers her toast and says, "We're getting worried, Usagi-chan. Maybe you should bring Mamoru-kun with you tonight, so we can all talk. Ami-chan, and Kazuo-kun too, maybe." "Is Kazuo-kun even out of jail?" her mouth asks, and her mother starts, staring at her with so much concern that Usagi runs out the door as if she really ''were'' late, even though for once, she isn't. School is a little better. Luna refuses to talk around other people, for the most part, so Usagi spends the day as social as possible, dragging Mamoru around with her until classes start, holding onto the candy he gave her as if it were a talisman (a broach), and holding court with her classmates, teasing and laughing and joking as if everything were fine and she wasn't seeing Things That Are Wrong in their shadows. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine!
Usagi Tsukino	Usagi eats the candy, at one point, walking to lunch and with Mamoru at her side, and it's spiced and sweet and warm and it feels like home and love and like she doesn't have to be sweet or kind to be comforted and she is drawn from her own Happiness and Satisfaction to notice how clingy and warm and ''uncomfortable'' Mamoru is, And That's Not Right. And then there's Homura, Homura with her braids and glasses and That's Not Right Either, but the small smile is, and the way she speaks, without stutter and stammer, That Is Right. "I definitely had dreams last night," Usagi says, and she's not even trying to feel out rules, she's just picking up on what Homura is putting down and following with the same flow, shifting with the mood, eyes sharp and concerned. "They were So Great, you know?" And then Homura absolutely loses her. Not like that, though. Her hands reach out and touch Homura's shoulders, make it easier for her to lean in and look Homura in the eyes, make it easier for Homura to see surety in her gaze as she says, "Homura-chan, I have never, in my entire life, ever wanted that, even a little bit. I would love for life to be like this. All the time. Only, Everything Is Just So Wonderful, that I think if things were a bit less Wonderful, they would still be good." And then she sighs, because Amy is there, cheerfully declaring what they all know to be true deep in their hearts, that this is a Horror Movie and they Love It So Much, and the sigh comes from deep in her chest where everything always goes to Live Forever And Ever In Happiness and she turns, and she grabs Mamoru's hand, and she slides her other hand down from Homura's shoulder to her hand, and she pulls them both across the lunch table, with unerring focus, until they claim the empty seats at Rashmi's table.
Emi Hoshino	Things could perhaps stand to be a little less Wonderful, couldn't they? But it's a Wonderful Life and it's not even Christmas time anymore. Everyone has their moments with each other. Everyone has friends -- but then, you know, life drives them apart. Everyone has things to do. Lunch can't last forever. Their other Friends and Obligations and School and Life and its all so demanding. And they have that appointment later. Just another day in a long stretch of days, proceeding into the infinite tableau of day after day. And they have that appointment. Soon, they're on their way, arriving ... wherever that's intended to be fore them. Or is it? Something stretches. Like taffy to the breaking point, or perhaps like too little butter over too much bread if they're one to prefer that metaphor. Stretches to the breaking point.
Rashmi Terios	"Oh don't even worry about it!" Rashmi says to Amy, her reassuring smile the first genuine expression Chrono may have seen on her face in the last few days. "Like... Maybe think about signing *up* for Debate Club next year? Because it's really, really good practice for putting together good arguments like that." Her eyes drop to the table, and she leans back in hr chair, sighing -- happily, of course -- as Usagi, Mamoru, and Homura join them. "Hi, guys... So... Got some just... *wonderful* news. Headmaster wants to see me about my math grades, after school. If all goes well, and it absolutely will, I *definitely won't be held back* a year! Which is such a felief, let me tell you!" This effusiveness is echoed as the Parade Of Great News travels 'round the table. By the time lunch is over, Rashmi is so happy for all of her friends, it feels like her head is about to split in two. ...That's how that saying goes, right? About the wide smile? The promised Discussion About Her Future looms ever closer with every class she attends--     << ALERT. ALERT. ALERT. >> --and the writing on the whiteboards begins to writhe and dance, like eldritch ants contorting in a non-Euclidean gyre, Her head pulses sickly, to the regular beat of the tinny PA voice, and she is *fixating* on the Discussion. Why should it even *matter* about her math performance?! She's always tried her hardest, and she *still* manages to get regular Cs, which *ought* to be enough! And she *aced* her history, civics, and English finals! Doesn't that count for anything? Marching down the halls with a wavering, rictus grin plastered on her face, she tries to brush away the hot, furious tears. If she didn't know better, she'd think--     << MASTER. PLEASE. >> --that she was...         << MASTER. ALERT. >> ...she was being...             << COMPREHENSION PROXIMATE. >> ...*set up.* Her eyes snap up as the hallway twists, contorts, a keening rage skirling on the sudden wind, racing up behind her. But it's not enough to think the words. *She has to say it.* But first she reaches out toward Chrono, to Molly, with arm and mind and heart. Nevermind that they are not directly in her proximity; her Support Network gathers *all* of her friends into its web, sooner or later, and they might need the assist. "NICOMACHEA! *SET UP!*"     << *BONG!* >> << COMMAND INPUT EXECUTE. >>
Madoka Kaname	It probably says a lot to Homura that she's a lot more comfortable being dragged somewhere by Usagi than being touched by Madoka. Well, ''this'' Madoka. Madoka At Home.     Not That There's Anything Wrong With Madoka At Home.     "Shut ''up''," she blurts out, then feels awkward again. "Not you, Usagi-chan, Mamoru...-san."     She looks down at the ground, feeling embarrassed again But Also Absolutely Great! Don't Worry About A Thing. When they arrive at the lunch table Everything Is Fine. Everything Is Good. Homura is So Happy To Be Here and she wants to tell them so much, so so much, but everything is Absolutely Wonderful and how dare she question it.     "Everything is Great! I have a doctor's appointment soon at the hospital. I'm sure they'll give me more medicine for my heart condition."     The bell rings, and it's time to move on, and Homura can just feel the grip of her sanity just loosening Which Is Just Fine, It's Okay To Go Crazy Because Of How Wonderful Everything Is and the few people here who could really help her Not That She Needs Help are being pulled away from her by daily pressures and...     Homura meekly walks down the hall away from the lunch table and nothing makes sense Even Though It's Perfectly Fine And--     "SHUT UP!" she yells.     That was enough. That was more than enough. She takes her red rimmed glasses and ''throws'' them into the wall. They bounce off and hit her foot, which rises up and crushes them in one fluid motion. Her hands reach up to behind her head and pull the ties out of her hair, freeing her silky black locks from their braided prison.     The girl from yesterday starts walking up to her and somehow Homura just knows ''this is not a real person''. "Hey, Akemi-san. You've got a real attitude problem late--"     Homura's fist barely felt the impact of the punch, but the girl's face sure did. The Puella Magi is seeing red now, but she's also seeing ''very'' clearly. As the girl covers her mouth and bleeding nose she starts to sob. "What is your problem?! I'm telling--"     "'You can tell whoever you want that Homura Akemi is angry and she's not tolerating this tasteless mendacity any further. Now get out of my way."     As she storms away from the mess she's made, Homura's henshin forms around her. She hears Madoka's voice coming from behind her, "Homura-chan! This isn't right! You should go back and apologize."     When she turns to face the faceless abomination who ''dared'' to tread upon metaphorical sacred ground, Homura tilts her head and ''glares''. "Do you think that looking like her is going to make me spare you? You profane her name just by existing. Get out of my sight ''demon''."     Then, still walking away, Homura hears Rashmi's voice in her head. Finally, something sane and normal.     << Oh. You woke up, too. I feel like I've seen this before. Any idea what it is? >>
Chrono Harlaown	Chrono Harlaown just kept tapping. Tapping. Tapping that songs. He wanted to show her the world. No, more than the world, the universe. Worlds. The full TSAB. He wanted to show her so much more than that. And the news made his eye twitch. As he told his good news. He could join the military. Where he could... Where he could... And he didn't remember what happened later. As it was all so *perfect*. So *good*. So... And hearing her words in his head, hearing that VOICE in his head, not his own, was the most beautiful, wonderful thing. And for the first time in days... He didn't feel happy. He didn't feel secure. He felt sad, his dad was gone. He was on a planet where things were weird. He was scared, he was upset. He had to deal with things he didn't want to. And that was okay. Because he didn't have to do it alone. He NEVER had to do it alone. Because they were so much more than the sum of their parts. And so much more than some rules. As Fenyx landed on his shoulder and brought him... a card. And he smiled. Gently petting her on the head. "Good birdy," he said softly. "Durandal! Setup!"             <<Yes,boss!>> << I *am* Time Space Administrative Bureau Enforcer Chrono Harlaown and I think it's time you learn the difference between what it is you think I do and what it is *actually* do. >>
Mamoru Chiba	His mouth says, "Haha, I love being scared ''all the fucking time!''" breathlessly and he chokes on the next thing that tries to come out of his smiling face, and he laughs. He laughs. In a gutpunched second of slow-motion underwater fish-eye camera understanding, Mamoru thoroughly dissociates again; he's smiling and quiet the rest of the way to the lunch table, hand in hand with Usagi, and he's so scared and strangely at sea, and somehow she knows that?Somehow. At the lunch table Rashmi explains about her meeting, and her grades, and Mamoru laughs uncomfortably. "My social worker is having a meeting with me and I don't know if I'll be able to hide I've been-- I've been--" He grins. "I've been really happy about-- I'm not like this-- I like not feeling anything like when I was in the hospital! I mean, not feeling anything except pain-- so I'm laughing because there's no ''reason'' for me to do something like, like," he rolls up his sleeve just enough to show the edge of a bandage and laughs and "It's great. Kazuo doesn't like it, but I know better. There's zero problem with my social worker finding out and I'm not going to lose control over any of the things I have gone through hell to get, because ''life. is. great.'' And this is fine." His eyes are wide and bright and the skin around them is tight. It's later. It's just after school. Mamoru is holding Usagi. "I need-- I need you to look to the moon, too," he says against her hair, bent over her in a protective embrace, bandages there to remind himself ''not'' to cut. He's just eaten another candy. "With your feet on the earth. But Usako, my Usako, I remember my mother, and she had a sword, not a car. She was wonderful." He knows what he's doing. He's going to lose again, shortly, because this is a fight and he ''knows'' she doesn't want this. But he also knows his wife. "Curator Siddig reminds me a lot of her." He's not sure how much time he lost, how much he doesn't remember, but he knows that Kazuo is there and he's so embarrassed and his hands are pricked with thorns and bleeding a little, and filled with rose petals, and he runs his hands under the water and washes away all the red, and his hands sting, and it's real, and that was ''his rose''-- ''what does that even mean???'' -- THAT WAS ''HIS ROSE'' and gods bless Kazuo and forgive him his trollings, and he'll have to thank Yaling again. Mamoru's crying but it's okay, his eyes are just ''doing that''. But it's coming up on time for his appointment, isn't it? No it's not, and where has Kazuo gone? Where is Anko? His phone buzzes, and he takes it out, and it's a text from 'Mama' and he kicks his phone under his bed and heads out the door. He's in the street with his hands in his pockets, phone-free and feeling naked because of it, when there's a voice in his head and-- << Fuck! I ''am'' craz-- oh Rashmi-chan, oh, Homura-kun! Chrono-kun! Are these meetings even real? I feel like we should get together and not split up, everyone stuck like this. Can we-- is this real or can we get help? Is this a dream? >> Mamoru get out of traffic.
Usagi Tsukino	Mamoru laughs and it's terrible and it's wrong and Homura tells the world to shut up and she's embarrassed and Usagi does not blame either of them. Everything is wonderful but everything is awful and they are falling apart because of it and meanwhile - meanwhile, she is fraying at the seams because this... ''This is what she wanted, isn't it?'' "My family's planning an intervention, because I came home happy and all smiles and that's just not right anymore." Usagi tells the table, and that's not quite right but it's also not quite wrong, and she's tipping her head back to stare into the lights, even though they're too bright, even though it's like looking into the sun as it started to birth a demon. Mamoru's holding her hand. He's so afraid. He's so lost. He ''never'' wanted this. He never wanted ''this''. The last three days have been so Happy And Wonderful, Everything Is Great And No One Is Hurting And No One Is Dying Except For Her Mamoru - (Is the price of a life spent protected and coddled the life she has now? Is it the turn of her fate, that having spent one life sheltered and safe until the end, she must spend this one fighting and fearful save for the beginning?) (She didn't ask for that, in her first life. She didn't ask for this, in her second.) Time skips. The world is blurry. Mamoru is real, though. Mamoru is real and holding her and he is asking for something she does not know how to give, he is asking for her to look up but when she looks up she doesn't see anything but the ceiling, pressing down, and when she looks up, she doesn't see - Her hands curl into fists. Her Mamoru isn't there anymore. If Hawkmoth is a DILF, is Curator Siddig a M- "Usagi-chan," Luna's voice, Luna looking at her, Luna again and there were no bandages this morning and there are none now, as she looks at her, with those wine-dark eyes, her crescent moon bald spot glowing. "Usagi-chan, this is the last thing I can try before the others try ''their'' methods. It's time." And Usagi sinks to her knees, Luna before her, and there is a broach between them. There is always a broach between them. "I'm scared," Usagi confesses. "I'm sorry," Luna replies, and she is so very, very sad, "That this is who you are." The light shines. Sailor Moon raises the Moon Scepter, silent tears pouring down her cheeks, and her voice is steady and hollow as she calls. "Moon Princess Halation!"
Amy Faust	Amy smiles, genuinely, at hearing Rashmi's not mad and would even welcome her in debate club! Though the appointment with the headmaster sounds concerning. "I hope it goes well for you!"     Mamoru's story is even more concerning. "Mamoru..." she's not sure what to say. Everything is falling apart!     She sighs and looks down at the table, and words spill out. "I have a sudden appointment with Dr. Beryl today." Wait, was Dr. Beryl the school's therapist before? Of course she was! "I'm worried that it's some kind of WONDERFUL news!" She smiles, distraught. "I can't shake the feeling something GREAT is going to happen..."     The appointment hangs over her head the rest of the day. At one point, between classes she glimpses Dr. Beryl and the man who was at the door yesterday talking outside the Director's-- outside the Headmaster's office and she somehow feels it is about HER and she is DOOMED and she hurries to her next class.     But eventually the last class is over. Star offers to walk her to the school therapist's office and Amy didn't actually ''agree'' but she can't ''argue'' and they're walking and then Star leaves her outside the office and she'll be called in any minute now any second now and the light is too bright and the walls are too loud and IT'S KILLING HER and there are cold corpses the chair is hard and uncomfortable under her and she wants to not be here she wants to be ANYWHERE BUT HERE     And she's sitting in front of her computer. On one monitor, there's a 3/4 view 2D representation of the scene of her breaking down outside the therapist's office. On the other monitor is a hacking tool. Not so she can cheat, but so that she can experience more of the story, see the secrets and alternate lines and unfinished content-- But she doesn't want to experience any more of ''this'' story. Or at least, this branch. Her intuition is surely correct that she's been locked into another bad ending some time ago.     She saves her game before watching it play out on the screen -- the fake characters using gaslighting and mind magic to make 2D Amy believe the worst about herself while proclaiming she's happy with an empty-eyed smile.     Yeah, no. She's not letting that be the final ending. She restores the save, scrolls through variables and flags, finding AWAKE and setting it to 1, kicking Bliss-chan's figments out of her party and replacing them with her own, activating her character's henshin ability, and     Magical Rocket Girl Red stands up from her chair and walks out of the waiting room. Her friends' voices are in her head and it's right and normal. It makes perfect sense that there's helpful telepathic voices, that's how it supposed to be.     << You're in your head, it's got to be a dream or something like that! >>     << 'We had her all wrong'... That was what the other me said... >> She holds her hand to her head. << ...Which kinda hurts my head to think about, was I them ''too'' or... What's going on? Where are all of you? I'm leaving the hall outside the therapist's office. ...Beryl is definitely ''not'' the school Therapist... >>     "...So, what's your deal now that she's not controlling you, can you actually help us?"     Amy asks the twintailed girl walking along with her, who shrugs. "I'm just in your head... if we're in ''your'' dreamscape, I can probably do whatever you ''think'' I can. But if we're ''not''... Probably not much."     ...It hurts Amy's brain a litle trying to make sense of this dream. << Did someone say Vice Principal ''Nyx'' earlier? >>
Molly Skyline	While everyone else is having their revelations, Molly is sitting at the table, entirely oblivious to what's going on. Usagi is talking to Luna; Rashmi and Chrono are escaping the dream, Mamoru has his rose... but Molly just has her pohne in her hand, chin propped up on her prosthetic hand as she just... doomscrolls. It's like everything else has shrunk away from her and the cracks in reality around her are just... not really showing through. She's been trapped in a dream before, an endless loop about her future, and it wasn't a bubbly time then, either. Perhaps this dream, isn't really so much the life she's longed for but the life she's always expected; a difficult, uphill struggle without any opportunities to catch her breath and just breath for a minute, let alone get ahead. Maybe she's even thought that's what she'd really be the most comfortable with, or at the least, she'd understand it. << ALERT. MOLLY SKYLINE. SITUATION: CRITICAL. ALERT. >> The words flash up on her phone, in between a cute video of someone's orange cat being entirely uncoordinated and, after she stares at the words for half a second and thumgs her way onward, a video of someone wiping out spectacularly while skiing. Oooh. That had to hurt. Molly watches it again out of morbid fascination. << MOLLY SKYLINE. ALERT. YOU ARE TRA-- >> Molly thumgs her way onwards, and watches a video with someone attempting to drift and instead wrapping a perfectly good Nissan Skyline around a lamppost. Pfffft. Amateur. Molly can do better, she ''knows'' she can do better, especially with the arm Setsuna-chan is going to help her get and Who? Molly looks up at everyone, realizing she's being kinda antisocial, but she's been struggling lately and... well really when isn't she struggling? It's not like any of her problems just spontaneously go away, and as much as looking forward to driving and ''racing'' brings her joy it's a delayed joy and her eighteenth birthday isn't going to show up any sooner. She thumbs to the next video, and chews on her inner lip just... because. "I'm... I gotta go," she mumbles, standing up out of her seat. She just needs some alone time so she can sort things out. Yeah. In her brain. Yeah. She picks up her backpack off the floor and slings it over her shoulder, and turns to make her way, "See you all later." She makes it ten steps. "NICOMACHEA! *SET UP!*" Molly stops, and almost trips over herself. << ALERT. MOLLY SKYLINE. RESPOND. FURTHER ATTEMPTS MAY NOT BE POSSIBLE. ALERT. PLEASE. >> "...Rashmi-chan?" she whispers. Her friend is talking to her, but it's... it's inside her head. It's like it's telepathic. How is that possible? Molly's last name is Skyline and she was adopted by two Moms who are the most wonderful people in the world and she's best friends with Rashmi-chan and she has a magic device named Starcrash and when all hope was lost her friends fought for her tirelessly for a YEAR because she's important and She matters Molly's eyes overflow and she wipes her good hand under them, one after the other. Maybe the life she never really thought she deserved is real, afterall. One way to find out. "Starcrash," she whispers. "Let's do this." Molly's attire changes, school uniform giving way to a Barrier Jacket with softly glowing heat circuitry, and that ever-present earring she's been wearing this whole time without thinking about it turns into a staff... Who would've thought this could be ''real''?
Emi Hoshino	The world wobbles. It's hazy. It's like they're seeing two overlaid realities. The one where they're So Happy, and the One Where They're ... THEM. The first beckons to them. Be happy. You want to be happy. Isn't this so much easier? One by one, though, the sleep walklers waken. Bit by bit. The dreaming world starts cracking, like new wallpaper that's already peeling to show the dark stains of rot beneath. For a moment, *just* for a moment, you caN SEE Tokyo. And it's not the Tokyo you know. It's a twisted vision of it, a place of sprawling alleys and leaning skyscrapers with painful neon lights and signs full of horrors. The vending machines that never stop screaming are ominously silent. All of it is ominously silent. And then... Their friends are here. In the dream. "No," begins their friend, her voice doubling. Shifting. So many voices. Their eyes have begun to spin like pin-wheels that never stop. "No," she repeats. They're all together here, it seems. Called to the same place. "I wrapped you all up tight in a soft little life," "No monsters, no magic, no fear and definitely no strife!" "I brought out the sun and took away the rain, taught you the way to smile through the pain..." "And THIS... *THIS* is the THANKS I get? You should all be grateful. Now we'll have to do this the HARD WAY! Hey Flickerman!" Sitting over there, on its own, is a jaunty looking fellow whose features are just impossible to observe. He's moving too fast. Vibrating in place. Text begins to appear over his head, like he's a living manga character. "Oh well," says the text, "he's going to be displeased. You're going to the back of the queue, I think, for this one." "Ha! They haven't beaten us yet, now we can just -- just ... wait, where did he go?" "...ah...heh....hehehehehe. Let's be friends?" says Bliss-Chan, the Fairy of JOY and DELIGHT, pinwheel eyes spinning faster and faster as stark terror takes hold of her. And with the flickerman having ceased cooperation, all that -interference- with the ability to talk is just ... -gone-. "...aw $#$#$." Yes, somehow she says '$#$#'. The pinwheels spin faster.
Rashmi Terios	<< We're dreaming, >> Rashmi begins, as the comfortable activity of running comms and support settles into place. This is who she is, this is what she was meant to do. << And given what we've had to do... it's probably Bliss-chan, trying to keep us locked down. >> The paper-thin skin of the 'happy' world peels away, revealing the horrific truth of the Nightmare underneath, and Rashmi only grows more determined, more filled with righteous anger, as she turns in place, drinking in *every detail* as her friends come into true proximity, one by one. And then Bliss-chan starts *rhyming.* Because *of course* she does. "Verbal command," she says, her voice hard as steel. "Accumulator purge."     << *BONG!* >> << COMMAND INPUT EXECUTE. PURGE CHANNELS GREEN. ALTERNATE GRIMOIRE LOADED. AWAITING COMMAND. >> "You don't know *what* makes people happy, Bliss-chan!" she thunders back, as Flickerman, fittingly, flickers away. "If you think the answer is smiling through the pain, then you don't even know what *actual* happiness is! So let me put this in a way that might actually, *finally,* get through your head." And she lifts off the ground, not needing a flight spell in this unreal reality, and begins to *chant.* Chrono, and veterans of fights against Corona, know what this means.     We are warriors for love, justice, hope and peace! To the suffering soul we bring only surcease!     You force us to smile with your heart black as tar,     Well who the hell do you think you are?!     So now we have to clean up your mess;     VERBAL COMMAND: SOLAR BLESS     << *BONG!* >> << SOLAR BLESS >> And golden light *emanates* from just above Nicomachea; carrying with it all of Rashmi's most powerful emotional assists -- determination, the joy of motion, quiet assurance, steady hands, and bright, blinding joy -- the spell surges outward, touching the dreaming hearts of all her friends made to suffer under Bliss-chan's depredations, and filling them with enough power to punt her across the entire dream-galaxy. Flickerman's name is noted, and recorded. He'll be next.
Madoka Kaname	Homura is there. They're all there. In the twisted Tokyo. In what she can only assume is the dreamscape. "I've been here before. With Madoka. The ''real'' Madoka."     Then she sees the 'friend', the fake Madoka, and after a moment something clarifies in her mind and she can see Bliss-chan for who she is. With a frown and a tilt of her head, Homura coldly states, "You could never make me happy. You're not warm, only sappy."     Her henshin forms around her, and she pulls an automatic handgun out of her shield before leveling it at the dream fairy. "Plus... you forgot to bring her fairies. I have to admit they've grown on me. Not that there was any doubt. I can't imagine a version of me who would turn down a smaller, cuter Madoka."     She cocks the gun, and levels it at Bliss-chan. "You, on the other hand, are not cute at all. Time's up, friend. Here's where you fall."     As the glow from Rashmi's Solar Bless settles on her, Homura narrows her eyes and pulls the trigger. In that moment, she flickers where she stands, and all around her is a dense cloud of maybe a hundred, no a thousand, bullets of various caliber and styles all glowing with the warmth of the sun. All of them aimed directly at Bliss-chan.     Homura's a little concerned that people saw her with glasses. She's not sure she wants to explain that one yet. At the same time, that's a problem to be aloof and distant about later.