What their Eyes See: Finale

[voidtreckermods]

It’s been a weird mission. The Voidtreckers have been busy investigating, making headway in mapping and saving citizens from the video games and strange illusionary creatures. Those in the fourth tier have made contacts, followed leads and gotten close to the high and mighty of the criminal underworld.

Yet what exactly is happening here is still unknown. Their new found ally Anan is as stumped as the rest of them, but even so, the hackers and technological knowledgeable voidtreckers have been successful in isolating the virus to study and make an anti-virus. A netpoint network has been set up across the city, and enough access data stolen that they can start throwing everything into the systems and networks across the city.

While the illusions remain a mystery and how they got there, finally the world is purged of the strange virus as the anomalies begin to clear up by noon of day ten. Spectura victims wake up in hospital beds, dazed and confused, while no more sightings of the impossible plague those on the other tiers.


On the morning of day eleven, the once housebound and terrified citizens leave their shelters with the first tendrils of light reaching through the fog surrounding the enclosed city. An exodus of people, from fighters of tier four to elites of tier one, are making their way into the streets...and heading down into lifts and outside, out into the smog-filled wasteland.

“It’s so beautiful,” is heard, a rumbling through the crowd as people smile, laugh or wave into the fog.

”I won.” Fighters from tier four look around in wonderment. Other exclamations, about a blue sky, a greeting to a friend fill the air.

There is a pull. The voidtreckers will feel it too, though to them the world looks and feels no different. This pull is easy to resist, or they can follow and investigate it, attempt to lead citizens back inside the city. It’s not safe in the smog, no one has canisters, but none will heed the warnings.

Nor is there time for better efforts when a crackling sounds in the air, light and colours flashing in the smog, everywhere at once and too quick to get a hold on.

“STOP THWARTING ME!” booms out, and a great force pushes them back while pulling the citizens farther into the wasteland, sand and dirt kicked up in a frenzied storm. The voidtreckers can hear the civilians in the smog, but getting to them will prove harder than they may like.

Grabbing an air canister is highly recommended for those who prefer life.



CIRCLE ONE: THE MAZE
No matter where one leaves the city from, they will find themselves in a maze of walls, of metal sheets, each blending into each other. It feels surreal, as if nothing is quite real, nothing quite solid.

But it is solid. For those voidtreckers who cannot see illusions it will look like they are merely stood in the wasteland of the world. But when they begin to move they will learn those walls are tangible, and those that look close enough will see the same almost-light as the creatures that purple team have been fighting as the source.

For those who are not immune to illusions it is a strange place indeed. No smog to be seen, just high unyielding barriers. The pathways are different colours giving off hues of brightest pink, red, purple, neon green, glowing white, darkest black. Sometimes there are symbols on the walls, Capsule Corp, royal insignia, ravager flames, HYDRA, marks of royalty. They are emblazoned on the walls, the floor, sometimes even in the sky. And the deeper in they get...

➤ WINDING ROADS
It's noisy as they move around. As well as the distant noise of the citizens in the distance they can hear an acoustic guitar, erratic piano playing, the sound of bamboo on stone. Or perhaps an eagles cry, a lullaby or a song is heard as they move their way through the maze.

Objects stand in their way, blocking paths and needing to be moved or destroyed. Larger than life playing cards, red apples, flowers. Spears and daggers hang in the air as does the moon and the sun. Water often cascades through routes, making it difficult to move through or fire creeps up walls, nonthreatening but ever present. There are clouds of butterflies and ravens perched on walls, watching their every move, and the smell of sugar often hangs in the air.

But it’s better to navigate these turbulent passages with perseverance than violence. Daggers and apples will shatter and slice apart to attacks, creating a way through to begin with - but those that try the method of destruction to solve their problems will find these walls crowding them tighter, rising higher, becoming all the harder to destroy than they were before. They will become trapped, and will need assistance from the outside to untangle them from webs or jails made from crystal.
➤ STALKING THE STREETS
It isn’t just the Voidtreckers or locals who wander the maze. Wolves, dogs, zombie sheep and ghost animals mostly mind their own business, sometimes inclined to growl or bahh, but easy to pass. But other times, you may sense that you’re being followed, a presence hovering over you...while another companion will see as well the large shadow shrouding you before a decaying hand grabs at you from above, threatening to send its victim to some other part of the maze if not stopped.

Monsters also stalk these paths from various realities. The dead will be met in robes of white while others in armours from medieval times. All are fast, unrelenting in their attacks, unconcerned with pain or stopping without being properly slain. Ghouls of all shapes and sizes search for prey, and many more seek victims.

How they act and how to defeat them may be known to some, but not all. Is it worth the effort to stay and fight illusions, however? Sometimes those illusions don’t give a choice, but in other instances, a person from the city may be found on the ground unconscious, the smog air getting to them. They’ll need help, and fast.

CIRCLE TWO: IS THIS HOME?
Voidtreckers will realise they’ve left the maze when they find themselves in an open field. It spreads out far with vineyards in the distance, a campsite, all of this leading into a forest of childrens board games. While the campsite is not a true campsite as many will realise, it is the first moment everyone will have to come together, to perhaps plan ahead. Air canisters are essential in this environment, and locals have been found needing, unconscious. Backtracking through the maze is a death wish for many, but with the talents of the voidtreckers, setting up a checkpoint here may not be that impossible before going on ahead.

And then, when they finally do…

➤ FAMILIAR
It is almost dream-like as they walk, areas changing without them fully crossing the distance needed. One moment they are in a shopping malls food court, the next the interior of a spaceship; streets of palaces, temples, and mansions line up as a mish-mash of glamour, while others offer more humble abodes, taverns, family homes, bakeries. Medieval structures blend into tech bases, maintenance bays and dark rooms. Beautiful gardens, beaches and dusty souks all share space. But as they move through it, they will be tempted towards what is theirs.

And these can be anything. Ships, palaces, home, and even singular rooms: all of these are seen, doors providing access, doors that draw your character towards it, as if they know what’s on the other side. Spaces personal to the viewer, and with the constant pressure of these illusions, somehow draining to be around, they will find it harder to doubt what they see. Even if their bedroom leads towards a volcano, a blacksmith housing hospital beds right beside it, it will not seem so bizarre to find these natural.
➤ DEARLY BELOVEDS
But it’s not only structures that exist in this labyrinth of streets: there are people, animals - family, friends and pets. Beloved mentors, a smiling loved one. The night sky will wash over, the ocean within view; your favourite plush rabbit, a worn jumper. Your favourite song playing, losing you inside this new reality.

Even people from the Voidtrecker Express are around, whether or not they’re still passengers. Feanor, Zetta, Noctis, Cassie Cage, Jin Ling; Elfnein, Link, Mami, Gyousou, Duo; Senku, Jiang Yanli, Olivia, Bucky Barnes. They walk this plane, friends and lovers of the voidtreckers, coaxing them further into the illusions. Assuring them everything is alright, offering reasons to give in.

Over all this though, they can still hear the citizens in the distance; their voices sounding more confused, frightened even. To push on the voidtreckers must walk away, ignore these temptations and push on to the third ring.

CIRCLE THREE: TWISTED HEART
For those who manage to get through the second circle, pushing away the temptations of home, they will find themselves back in the smog filled wasteland. But through the smog they will see more, always more. Once again the scenery blurs into impossibilities, from testing labs with padded beds, to other imagery associated with asylums of old, to dark cramped spaces, to hallways raging on fire. They sense fear itself, and even the most stoic will find apprehension digging into them as they make their way forward. Is this their fear? Or is it your own?

It may be hard to discern in this twisted reality.

➤ MISERY LOVES COMPANY
This time, as the scenery shifts around them, so does their own sense of self try to match what these places mean. The despair of being lost in darkness, the belief that they can’t be seen by others, all sound fading from their ears. They are on the moon, trapped there for years; at the edge of the vast ocean, on the bank of a river of lava, despair in their hearts. In a wrecked city, their own city destroyed almost beyond recognition. By opposing forces, by weapons of mass destruction.

They have lost everything. There’s no fixing this.

A Pandora box of fears have been unleashed, with seemingly no hope. Your worst enemy has been granted a second chance, family stumbling towards you on the verge of death before your eyes; forces that you were meant to be dealing with back home have found you, surely leaving your own world in ruins, from titans to ayakashis.

Or they might stumble upon a graveyard, stretched out as far as they can see where every name is someone they care about.

There are even voidtreckers of now and old opposing you: Danny Fenton, Lan Xichen, Darth Vader, Vegeta, Xue Yang. Kerry stands pointing a gun straight at a fellow passenger while shadowy ravens and terrifying dragons swirl in the sky.

All this emotional turmoil will do a number on the voidtreckers, but there is strength in numbers. More civilians have fallen unconscious at this point, and those willing to aid them can take them back to the city. But no matter how the voidtreckers move, they must keep their nerve and hold onto hope as they cross the final hurdles.

Comments

[happyends]

It does mean a lot to hear that. That Yondu trusts her this much, even though Madoka knows she still is inadequate in a lot of ways. She's still so young, and she's not strong, and there are a lot of things she can't do. She couldn't blame an adult for not confiding in her, considering all of that. But Yondu sounds like he's still choosing to trust her. Everything tells her that as she looks at his face, at the way those eyes get watery enough to almost cry.

"Then.. trust me right now too."

Madoka does her best to seem as strong as possible. She stands up a little straighter, smoothes out her facial expression a bit more.

She's faced bigger things back home. She was ready to face down that huge, terrifying witch all by herself, so.. she can do this too. No matter how sad or painful, a room full of Yondu's terrible memories of the past is something she can face too.

"I know it hurts a lot to see all of this, and.. I understand not wanting to pull at threads when there's no choice to fall apart in the middle of all of this. When there's people who still have to be saved." And they're going to be no good for that if they break down at the sight of all of this. "But.. mister Yondu, I'll stick with you now, okay? All the way until we're back on the train. No matter how much more sad things, or painful things we see.. I won't let go of your hand until we're out of it. I promise."

[yondu]

She may see that about herself, but what he sees is the little archer he chose to teach to shoot like a Centaurian. She's stronger than she knows and as determined as any old war vet. He'd practically told her as much before she went under but it's doubly obvious now.

"You're a good girl, you know that?" Yondu states the blatantly obvious just because he's overwhelmed that she's trying to be so brave for him. In this whole nightmare fuel hellscape, this little pocket of pinkness and light standing up to her fears.

"You don't gotta hold my hand the whole time, it's fine. I ain't the only person that's gonna need support, especially if ever'body's gettin' this." Who the hell knows what Madoka will. "This is just somethin' I've been tryin' real hard not to think about." And, unfortunately, a defining moment. One where he had to turn around and say those that would cross him would come out with nothing, not even their lives, and no one would benefit from his defeat. He wouldn't even leave his ship to be taken by someone else.

"Alright, well since you're bein' so brave, how about you lead the way. Just don't look back." Don't look at them, and what they never deserved to have happen.

[happyends]

"Okay..!"

That much she can do. Maybe it'll be better as long as she leads Yondu out of this. Maybe they can find the end to this illusion, and hopefully be able to stay out of it for long enough without running head first into another illusion.

So Madoka just keeps walking, gently tugging Yondu along with her. She seems to be obediently listening to what he told her, word for word, since she really isn't looking back. Instead the girl is doing her best to keep looking ahead as she's walking.

Even as she speaks up, she's still looking ahead.

"But still.. I'm not going to let go of your hand, mister Yondu." No matter what happens. "This time, I'm going to protect you..!" Listen to that determination. Who knew a body that tiny could fit that much care and determination in it.

[yondu]

He honestly doesn't know what to do with it. Especially since he's been trying so hard to protect them from all the bad in his head. Now here's something presenting them with all the bad in it despite his every effort and it both breaks his heart that they're seeing it and they're willing to stomp right through those nightmares anyway.

What if they were to see his owners? His parents?

"How about if we see somethin' else I recognize we go another way."

Which sounds cowardly, but he doesn't want to see this girl have to deal with his demons even if she's putting herself out there. Or deal with him dealing with his demons. It's all he can do as it is to not turn around. But if there's anyone that can prove that they're as hard as they are soft, it would be Madoka's determination right now.

1/2

[happyends]

.. that statement gets her to look. Not fully backwards, but at least at Yondu, with a hint of concern in his eyes. Like she's trying to determine if he's afraid of something, if he's thinking of something specific he doesn't want her to see.

There's a moment of thought, but then Madoka's head dips into a nod. "Okay.. If that's what you want. Then we'll try."

Even though it usually is hard to just walk away from an illusion. But Madoka is going to darn well try, if she can do anything at all.

But for now it seems like they've finally reached some sort of door. Maybe it's the way out of this illusion, or maybe it'll lead to some part of the spaceship with even worse memories for Yondu to endure.

"But I'm sure we'll be alright though! Don't worry, you'll--"

2/2

[happyends]

.. except when it opens, it's neither.

Their surroundings from a moment ago all just vanish. The ship, the bodies - as if they were never there.

Instead the two of them are now standing, hand in hand, in the middle of what looks like a ruined city. Huge chunks of debris freely float through the air. Buildings are broken or leaning over, even the big skyscrapers, and not a single person seems present in them. The sky is dark with clouds and soot, and an enormous being looms over them in the sky.

"-- see.."

[yondu]

Oh. Oh. So that's hers. He vaguely recognizes the architecture as Terran. This is what she'd told him about back when they first met. All he needs to know is that this isn't his and that this is a big thing that's about to tear up a chunk of the world and know that this is probably something that'd drive this girl to act.

"This is it, ain't it? That thing you was meant to stop."

This time he does pull her closer, even if she said that she was going to protect him. A two way deal, right? Yondu starts to pull her away from it, unable to stop looking at the event being echoed right out Madoka's head where he can see it.

"C'mon. It ain't your time. We're gonna get the hell out of here." He pulls her by the arm.

He's practically ready to run at this point. There's no fighting a memory like this. It's too big, too oppressive, just there to make her feel helpless outside of self-sacrifice. He's gonna carry her away if he has to.

"Don't look at it, darlin'! Remember, I need you to look out for me. Can't do that with this distractin' you."

[happyends]

"I-- I know--"

Madoka's sentence comes in short bursts, also having trouble tearing her gaze away from the witch that fills up the sky. It's not just a still imagine, either, since Madoka can very much see the witch start to move, tumbling through the sky, laughing in the most otherwordly way as more and more of the world seems to collapse around them with each movement.

But Madoka moves too. If not just because she doesn't have much of a choice. He has a hold on her, and so if he walks, she walks too, even if it's hard to do so while looking up at the sky - especially with all the rubble around.

She tries though. She tries to look away from it, instead looking ahead as they walk. Trying to keep up with her tiny, quick steps.

"Mister Yondu, I.."

Madoka stops talking. And then stops walking. There are groans coming from some nearby ruined buildings.

".. there's people there.."

[yondu]

"Wait, Madoka. Remember the chicken?"

Which is a strange thing to say, but he holds onto her arm and closes his eyes. He's not had to use it much, thankfully, almost shouldn't so he can see the walls of the labyrinth. But he can feel wind whipping around them. He can smell the debris and the electrical charges on the air, the smog almost erased from his mind. He can hear those moans.

But his fin? His fin sees only flatness, the occasional struggling human form, picking up the shapes as it stripes with bright streaks.

Wait. There.

"Those ain't the ones in trouble," he warns. "There are actual folks this way. This ain't the truth."

[happyends]

Madoka hesitates.

She glances at Yondu, then at the buildings in the distance, and then back at Yondu again.

It's obvious that she's uneasy. She trusts him, but at the same time, can even someone as reliable as Yondu rely on any powers or senses in the middle of this topsy-turvy labyrinth of illusions they've found themselves in? What if he's wrong, and she leaves behind people who are suffering?

"A.. Are you sure..?"

She looks up him with quite possibly the biggest, most worried eyes she's ever given him.

Because this feels personal. If she fails him, it's her failing the people she was supposed to protect.

[yondu]

"I'm sure, Madoka. This place is hitting you harder than me. I can feel the real ones out there."

He starts leading this child and damagingly tragic expression away from her personal fate. Even with the shambling people inside wanting help.

"This is what you have to stop?" he asks outright, finally, trying to get her to look at it as a memory instead of a thing that's happening right there. "Back home, that's what you left?"

[happyends]

The pause is more brief this time, but there's still a few moments before she answers. First just with a slight dip of her head, but then she finally verbalizes it.

".. yeah."

She's still moving, if not just because she's being dragged along by him, but she can't seem to tear her gaze away from everything around them.

"This.. is the last thing I saw before I ended up on the train. I was with my family at one of the shelters, but when I saw how bad things were getting outside, I knew it wouldn't hold.." Especially considering the state of the buildings all around them right now. "So.. I went outside by myself to try and stop this before more people got hurt."

[yondu]

"Woulda scared the hell outa me, too," he says of it. Its huge, overwhelming presence. He's seen a planet cracking around him and y'know what? Still scary as hell. Gruff old space pirate? If buildings are fuckin' falling up that is scary. There's no denying that.

So she's definitely a brave little girl to run out there with every intention of saving what was left of her people and stopping it. He knows a good chunk of her friends died, so she did what she did to set things right.

"I know I said it before, but you're real brave, you know that? You do a lotta shit most kids your age wouldn't willingly do. You coulda waited it out to see how it'd go. But you didn't."

Again, compliments to remind her that what she's done is seen and noticed and appreciated.

[happyends]

It means the world to her, those compliments.

Even if Madoka isn't particularly good at handling them when they come her way, she knows Yondu is speaking from the heart. He's speaking out of the fondness he holds for her, and that means so much, especially while they're surrounded with the reminder of her failure - her being spirited away by the train, unable to be there to save the world at the exact moment the world for once needed her.

But still, her inability to accept compliments so easily is what - of course - drives her towards making her seem like it's less of an accomplishment than it actually is, quietly piping up.

"I mean, I couldn't wait.. If I didn't try to save the world, no one would."

And that would have been awful.

"Kyubey said that I would become the most powerful magical girl ever if I made a contract with him." And while Kyubey was manipulative as heck - and most likely said that exactly because it would drive her to make a contract - he never lied. "So I knew I was the only one who could do something about this. So.. what other choice would I have then..?"

Especially since Madoka is not the kind of person who can just sit by and watch everything be destroyed. Watch people get hurt.

[yondu]

"You still coulda waited. You still coulda seen if some change happened. But you didn't. Sometimes I get a lotta quit in me- you seen it back there. Where I just wanna give in an' give up. You don't wanna... I think maybe you give a li'l too much sometimes, but I ain't ever seen you in a position where you'd wanna stop."

He sets his jaw, trying to ignore the nightmare going on around them.

"I know we got a little bit in common where sometimes we don't feel like we're all that much. It probably don't seem like it. You're a little pink bouncy thing. I'm all scarred up. It shows up in differ'nt ways. But I think we got that between us both.

"So I know you're makin' me keep goin'. Well, I'm gonna make ya quit on this. We're gonna go deal with the small idiot potatoes who live in their shit city that they ruined all by themselves, no witch or nothin'. 'Cause they're the ones that need you right now."

It's long winded rambling, mostly to keep her occupied and away from this messy situation and horrible sky. Sure, smog awaits them, more horrible sky. But it'll be their reality.

[happyends]

"But.. these people need me too. Right now." Which sounds like she's too caught up in the illusion, but Yondu's words are at least keeping her from falling into that, pulling her out of it, which is why she adds: "Back home."

Because this is all still going on back home. If time is moving while they're on the train, then her world has been like this for months now, with so many people suffering.

All because she isn't there. It's a lot of guilt for a young child to carry with them.

"I should have gone home to them already now. I.. I don't think that's giving too much. It's just making sure these people don't get hurt more than they've already been.."

[yondu]

"No they don't. These ain't real."

And now he knows that the likelihood is that none of them are at home. That she is right.

"It's you seein' that as your biggest use. Like that's the best you gonna contribute an' all you amount to. You do a whole lot. You try to keep people taken care of an' fed. Ya try to be there for your buddies. You been tryin' to better yourself with usin' your bow.

"But you're good for just sittin' around an' talkin' about things you was curious about an' drawin' pictures an' daydreamin' too." He has noticed those moments. She certainly looks happier during them. "You're more than what you can do for folks. I know you got a big responsibility. I wish I could show you it wasn't the only thing to ya."

[happyends]

Madoka glances up at him, seeming to think about the words.

Then her gaze travels up at the sky, at all the various colours the witch projects up in it, right alongside her twirling form.

"I mean.. I like those moments too."

The ones where she just talks with people. Where she gets to meet people here who she never would've met otherwise. She likes just drawing, or creating other things, and just laughing and have fun..

.. there are a lot of things just from her ordinary back home she misses too.

"But it doesn't feel right to make those more important than this. Shouldn't the thing that saves the most people always be the most important thing..?"

[yondu]

"It's ever' bit as important."

He stops, glad they're further from the moaning, hoping they're nearly out of the illusion, but he stops to crouch in front of her so he's looking up at her again. He withdraws all of his little trinkets from his pockets. A pigeon mascot from the shooting game some people had been playing. The wooden chicken the vendor gave him on Erda. The windmill from Siebren and the frog from Kyoko.

"I wasn't allowed to own things like this back when I was your age. But I can now. Just li'l' things. All mine. When I was a kid I was just a thing meant for hurtin' people. Bein' a thing just for helpin' people might seem like it's better, but it's just bein' a thing."

He puts away his little items.

"The li'l girl I know is a full person who needs to see she's more than what she can give. I know you ain't got a choice in givin' it but you ain't somethin' to be spent for the 'right reasons'."

He gets back up to take her hand again.

[happyends]

Her hand is taken.

They start walking once more, just forward through this wasteland of a broken down city. Silent for a moment, aside from the odd cackling of the witch tumbling over overheard - but thankfully it doesn't seem like she's trying to hurt them more.

It gives Madoka a few moments to think about what Yondu just said. Because.. it's a lot to process. A lot to try and understand. She thoughtfully chews her upper lip, thinking about those trinkets Yondu showed her.

"I don't.. feel like a thing," she slowly says.

Maybe that's the part she's trying to wrap her head around.

"How do you know when you're just a thing, mister Yondu..?" The question is asked a bit hesitantly, since it means having to recall his - most likely awful - memories from before, from way ago, that time he spoke about when he was a child.

[yondu]

"Part of its in how you get treated. That Kyubey saw y'all as resources, right? Set ya up to feel like a real important resource. But still just somethin' he wanted, messes with how you see yourself. Part of it's..."

The nightmare scenario around them is a good setting for this kind of talk. It's about how it feels in his head during those bad moments. Even if the conversation isn't one he's ever had to speak, or think out, or anything along those lines.

"When they had me tied up, I felt it then. Or when I lost all my friends. This big, helpless thing. Couldn't do nothin' for myself. Nothin' I wanted mattered. I'd tell myself that ever' time I got in trouble for bein' too much me when I was young. Just sit there real quiet waitin' for it to be over.

"I know you want stuff, Angel, an' you ain't near as bad as some folks about it." Including him. "You wouldn't have gotten ya a girl if you didn't want stuff. It don't mean you don't wanna help people... but to do what they want ya to do, it seems like you had to convince yourself nothin' you want matters much. An' that ain't fair 'cause that's a hell of a sacrifice you makin'. What makes you is worth the whole world. An' I say that knowin' sometimes you fight with all your heart."

He thinks back to Peter again, despite himself. "My boy's daddy treated him that way, too. Like he was somethin' to use. When I told 'im to fight, I told 'im to use his heart."

[happyends]

It must've been so hard for Yondu, Madoka thinks as she listens to him. Especially since he was so much younger back then, and yet it really sounds like he was seen as nothing more than a thing, even though he was just a kid.

And in a way she can see the similarity. Because she's right. From her talk with Kyubey, Madoka knows very well that the alien only viewed them as cattle, as an energy source - but not as human. Not as people, with hopes and dreams and feelings.

But..

"When I use my heart though.. I still feel like I want to do it. I don't feel like a thing then," she says. It's a little soft, but considering there's no longer any cars or people around these streets, it's audible to Yondu. "The thought of giving up everything for the sake of the world.. It doesn't feel heavy, or sad. Instead my heart starts to feel all warm when I think of how happy everyone would be in a world without all of this suffering."

She looks up at him, sideways.

"Then it's not a bad thing, right..? Then I'm.. not just a thing. I'm a person deciding to make that choice."

[yondu]

"That's still not great, but it's more that you're havin' to make that choice. Not that you don't realize your value. I just want you to know you're worth somethin'. More than just savin' that world."

He turns, looking at the foggy 'normal' sky then, tasting the smog on his breath.

And yet here they are, snatched by the train, savin' a world that's pretty much beyond saving.

"You havin' to spend your whole life fixin' a problem another thing made. That witch happened 'cause of his deals, anyway. Then the only way to fix it is to pin ya into another deal, even if you're real smart about it. It's... still shit. But I guess I cain't fault ya if ya fight with your heart. I always fight with mine."

She's not seen how terrible his fights can be. He hopes that she never does. But he's always thinking of what he needs to survive for. Or, in his last fight... he needed to succeed to save one single person. "I can see why that bastard wanted to use ya, you got one of the biggest hearts I ever seen."

[happyends]

Madoka ducks her head, quiet for a moment while they walk.

She almost seems a little flustered when she speaks up again, though it's not necessarily in a bad way.

".. Thank you, mister Yondu." For giving her so many compliments. Madoka thinks that all she's doing is just being nice to people, really, that it's nothing more than what other people do, but.. she's trying to be good about not dismissing compliments when people give her, though it's hard to just accept them.

"I'm.. sorry. That I'm not really good at seeing what I'm worth.. Really often I feel kind of useless, no matter what I do. B-But I'm trying my best anyway."

[yondu]

Yondu's generally shit at explaining things. If he were a carpenter, every nail in the conversation would be crooked and maybe even bent to the side. Hearing her say that feels a little better, at least, in that she seems to at least realize, for a glimmer of an instant, how important she might be to people just as she is.

"Well, I figure givin' hope to hopeless people is more heavy liftin' than people let on."

Which is the long and short of what she does. Every society in the cosmos with any concept of hope or the lack of it doesn't give enough credit to a being that can manifest it in others. Especially a tiny pink one still made of flesh and blood and not forgotten wishes.