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(no subject)

Date: May 1st
Location: The Initiative Hold & Courtyard.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: New Transports arrive and are shuffled into the Courtyard after their initial briefings, while those Transports on the mission to Wollongong return.
Warnings: None.

You've just been hustled and bustled through mazes of information and literal, wide corridors of the Initiative Hold and you've been equipped with your weapon—be it a gun, a sword, or even your existing powers. They've handed you this light netbook and a small pouch of coins (or a debit card, if you're more inclined), and there are several Transports before and after you going through the very same motions. You can hear the Greeter's voice as she walks alongside large groups, telling them all about the history of this place and sharing with you your purpose here in a hurried and urgent tone. "You're in luck that we have enough rooms for all of you; the housing building is getting awfully full. Please, let me show you into the courtyard."

You pass what looks like huge gymnasiums, all with dummies and targets strewn and splayed around the room. Training areas. There are even classrooms, and a few small offices. You're rushed past a large library while the Greeter informs you that you can find almost all your information there, if you've got the time to look—and trust her, you'll have time. You don't spend a lot of time in the bank, and it's a bit of a blur of exchanges with more and more of these strangely-accented and oddly polite-seeming members of the Initiative.

Soon enough, you're in a massive courtyard bustling with all the other Transports. It's not exactly what you'd expect, and it looks more like barracks than anything—huge walls of concrete and stone, separating you from all of the hallways you'd just passed through. It's raining heavily, and dark clouds loom in the air, though it hasn't turned to snow. It's a chill cold, and there are shelters—long cloth hangings that extend from the walls of concrete to house you from the rain, but not enough. Most notably, the courtyard is filled with a marketplace. Even in the cold and the rain, there are several citizens seated at their covered booths and tables, bundled up against the weather. They're selling all manner of their own handmade goods and foods, and citizens and Transports alike are traveling from one small covered shop to another in search of all manner of necessities.

The Greeter's voice has become so faint now, but you swear you can make it out in the back of the crowds as she tells you, "Good luck. Be safe!"

Her voice is drowned out by the busy marketplace, though even the transactions taking place are somewhat subdued. Nobody is overly happy, really, though most citizens can be found with smiles on their faces. It doesn't seem like they're that shocked to see you, either; even if you're not bound in tattered rags and wrapped in heavy shawls as they are. You're welcome to walk up to a shop, and find yourself something to eat—hey, maybe you'll even find something akin to a raincoat. Or, you can join the others under the coverings against the walls. Where am I? What war? She was talking so fast, and it didn't all make very much sense… did anyone else catch it all?

Welcome to the courtyard. Welcome to the Initiative Hold—and most importantly, welcome to Exsilium.

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It'll be done soon.

[They're questions that cover the more useless ones, the fretting ones (how do you feel? are you all right? pointless) - because Oriko, of course, never frets.

Liar.]

You should change while it's cooling. I'll bring you a towel.

[Not like catching your death of cold is an issue when you're a magical girl. But she fetches one anyway, going so far as to unfold it and drape it over Kirika's shoulders.]

[the gesture is much appreciated; she begins wiping herself off clumsily, making her way around the apartment and trying to discern which door leads to a bathroom or bedroom while doing so (tracking water everywhere, thereby defeating the purpose of a towel)]

Oriko?

[pregnant pause. The matter she intends to raise should best be discussed now, when they have privacy to themselves, she decides] ... When were you planning on telling me about Kaname Madoka being here?

[There's a very subtle shift in her body language as her shoulder blades fold in tensely. Oriko's pause is painful, not thoughtful.

The past month or so has built up one frustration after another. She sounds dispassionate, but the accumulation shows.] ]

Over tea. Not when we were in public.

Homura Akemi is here as well. Kyouko Sakura among them, as well. [~~And none for Sayaka bye~~]

[Very flatly, she adds,] Madoka Kaname has made her wish and forged a contract for more power than I thought possible.

...There's a lot we're going to have to discuss.

[her eyebrows creep ever higher with each passing sentence, until the impression that they could disappear into her hairline at any moment is nigh inevitable] Pity, then, to be one short of a full set.

[Tomoe Mami. Unfinished business.

And Chitose Yuma, but Mami takes precedence] Or two, depending on how we want to look at it.

[her pacing has long since stopped so she can keep her gaze on Oriko, taking in every move, every expression]

Isn't it?

[Oriko feels impotence even in the way she balls her fists up on the counter, that she did not kill Madoka in the rain that night. That frustrating futility in everything she's done isn't something she should disclose. Kirika won't want to hear this either - she'll just take the news badly.]

I did not live, Kirika. [She wasn't alive to begin with, considering what they are.] I believe I knew that outcome to begin with.

And Madoka Kaname's wish...

[Kirika remains silent in the short period she takes to reach the other end of the area, near enough for them to be in physical contact, but not doing so, just...an urge to get closer]

I believe in you. I always have. [she's said this before, and the sentiment behind it hasn't changed] So don't make it sound like what we did amounted to nothing.

I'm sorry, Kirika. There's a lot that we did do, even so. A lot of people may have been saved. And...

[She finally does touch her, for the first time since they've been reunited, placing her hand lightly, fondly against her hair. It's still damp. Oriko doesn't let her hand linger. It's hard to say whether the touch was meant to reassure herself or Kirika.]

We are here, aren't we? That's something different. [And entirely outside their control.] Many things have changed.

...She wished to strike witches from existence at their conception. [What an overwhelming thing. It feels ridiculous just saying it.]

And that would change things, wouldn't it?

[her eyes close; if the contact had lasted any further, she would have leaned into it. Funny how much she's longed for somebody she was beside, literally minutes ago]

I won't even begin to fathom how that is supposed to work. [with what Kyuubey's done, though, granting such a wish is probably within its capability. Ughhh]

She seemed pretty free of existential crises when we talked, actually.

[w h y can't she hold all this confusion!!]

We have always known she had great and powerful potential. To think that she might have use that power to end the suffering of magical girls.

[Magic and miracles, she'd said, and Oriko had hated it. How could she still be so naive?

She's confused too, Kirika. What an overwhelming feeling - it's enough to drive her mad. Especially having thought for certain that her final attack had meant something - if only until Homura Akemi walked back to her dark path.]

Did she not? What did she say to you?

[Making good on her promise of food, Oriko tries to pull together a meal quickly, listening intently as she drops jam onto a slice of bread.]

She remembers me. Called me by name. We hadn't seen each other much, previously, [what with Kirika's regular absenteeism from classes and all -- the unremarkable girl Madoka was, and the disaster she will become, are nigh-irreconcilable in their marked dissimilarity] so I can only presume you and I...left quite the impression, over the PA.

[really shouldn't sound so pleased about it, but she does, perched on the kitchen counter, legs swinging in a parody of disregard]

You more than me, though.

Ah. I did think that entrance served its purpose.

[She looks back out to the table, debating the benefits of making Kirika sit down there. It's negligible, in the end, and she gives Kirika the plate without fuss.

Besides, she thinks with a smile, it's rare that Kirika gets to be taller than her.]

At any rate, she is not the same threat here, for now.

But if it comes to that, she cannot be allowed to return from this world.

W'rgfh. ["yeah, I understand."

Someday, she'll master the delicate and highly technical ability of holding a conversation with her mouth full. Today is not that day]

Bet you've thought of how to handle this thing [a gesture with the sandwich] already.

How much is she aware of, by the way?

[Oriko pauses with the tip of her index finger in her mouth when she goes to swipe a smudge of leftover jam from it, humming thoughtfully.]

Mm. It is a complicated situation, but I'm prepared to do whatever must be done. Since my arrival, I haven't seen anything like the vision I once saw of her.

[Grudgingly, she has to admit that it seems like Madoka's words agree with the strange suspended nature of the soul gems in this universe, that she is likely being honest.]

She remembers the witch at the school. [Kirika's witch - she picks around the words carefully.] She is aware of her own witch... That I would prevent it... Homura Akemi's own efforts to undo it.

[Sigh. Enlightened girl.] I suppose there's a lot.

[glancing over to startlingly restored (intact; she checked) soul gem. If that meant what she thinks it meant...the idea is almost, not quite, imposing. Something she has no issue with facing, yet isn't certain she wants to]

We don't have the element of surprise in our favour anymore. Not when it comes to her. [served them well for so long, too]

I want to keep her under observation.

There are other ways to be unexpected, so long as we think ahead. [But she's right: It was much easier to to be unknown. Conversely, it had also been easy to reveal herself when the end had seemed within reach. Now there isn't any end in sight.]

Of course. What else can we do? I am sure Homura Akemi will be keeping her eye on us as well. [It's the least they can do to watch back. Oriko sighs ans looks up at the ceiling.] We'll see about that.

It will be much more manageable, to not continue alone.

It will.

[the echo is one of affirmation, an acknowledgment to take her place by Oriko's side again, when they have found each other.

This was never easy in the first place, but two can bear all it entails better than one]

What happens to me is inconsequential, so long as things go right for you from now on.

[That's right. Like they'd said, she had promised.]

Let's go forward in this together.

[She missed hearing Kirika say her name, small and childish things like that, but there's no way she can think of to voice it. Kirika may be a useful person, but what happens to her is important to Oriko. She's had to learn that.]

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