middleofsomewhere | New Plan [For Madoka]

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New Plan [For Madoka]

Who: Romeo and Madoka
Where: The caverns
When: Domino, Day Nine
What: Romeo's been thinking about snow creatures and their feelings. He reaches out to Madoka.
Warnings:

It's been a very tiring few days. There are a lot of people to find and help and Romeo has been running around the tunnels finding people and bringing them back to the central camp. All the running around is good for keeping warm and it also keeps his mind busy.

But as the days go on there are less people to find as everyone has been brought together and though he is helping make sure everyone has food and are warm and are keeping their spirits up there is more time to think and he thinks back to Namine and her snow bear.

The snow creatures don't want to die and they were just made by a bad person to hurt others. That's a bad thing. A big bad thing that requires lots of thinking about. If the snow creatures were trying to hurt all the people here then they were bad. But if it was not their fault and they just had a bad boss. Then they needed rescued.

There weren't really any snow creatures in the caves but he knows the purple team were fighting them. Maybe he should go and tell them. Tell Joss.

It was very cold and snowy out there but the SCA had a map and if he wore his hat it would be alright if he went to try and let the purple team know that the snow creatures didn't want to fight or die. He stood up and walked towards the tunnel that would lead outside and paused. He doesn't want to abandon his team. But also this is important...

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At first Madoka doesn't notice anything. She's been busy trying to take care of the people they're herding and rescueing too, after all. But maybe it's instinct or just a very happy coincidence that makes her turn around to look and see Romeo standing there by himself in front of the tunnel that eventually leads to the outside.

.. it's weird. She's seen Romeo all over the place helping people out.. but why would he be standing there of all places? There's no reason for them to go over there, right? And he kind of looks like he's hesitating.. he isn't thinking of going out in the snow by himself, is he?

Madoka immediately jogs over to the boy in concern - said concern being written all over her face once she stops right next to him.

"Romeo..? Is something wrong?"

He turned round with wide eyes at the sound of his name. But it was Madoka and that was alright. He knew an adult would get mad at him for wanting to go out there on his own and Ignis would be mad at him for abandoning the team. But Madoka, even though she was bigger than him didn't seem like a full grown up and she was nice. She would understand.

"Miss Namine told me something." He said quietly, glancing back at the cave and then up at Madoka, looking worried.

Edited 2020-01-18 17:04 (UTC)

"Naminé did..?"

That in itself isn't too surprising. She seems to be about the same age as them.. maybe a little older? Who knows. But it's pretty normal for them as the kids of the group to talk among each other.

But the way Romeo seems so worried about it definitely doesn't seem normal.

"Did she say something that worried you? If you want to, you can talk to me about it.."

Romeo nodded, "She had a snowbear and it was her friend." He told Madoka, "The bear liked her because of her magic." That bit was sort of important, because making friends with the snow creatures was tricky.

"She said that they are all more than just made of ice and they don't want to die." He looked at her sadly. "They just got made to be bad. But they really aren't really."

Because of her magic? Madoka looks a little surprised when he says that, although she knows this isn't the right moment to ask what he means by that. It's obvious that Romeo has a lot more on his mind, so Madoka instead saves the question somewhere in the back of her mind for the future.

".. ah." She's slowly starting to see where this train of thought is going though. Especially with how Romeo was staring at the tunnel leading outside. "Romeo.. You aren't thinking of going out there to try and talk to those things, are you..?"

Romeo looked back to the tunnel and at Madoka again before nodding slowly. "Maybe we can stop them without any of them being hurt."

In the very least they could let the other teams know. Because they don't. They don't know that the ice creatures aren't really bad and don't want to die.

It's such a nice thought. And it's one that Madoka gets, really. It's how she likes to approach every single conflict too, whether it's just a social conflict between people or an actual conflict involving battles like here. It always feels better to find some way to solve it without anyone on any side getting hurt.

She wants to agree with Romeo, but something about this feels so awfully familiar to all the things she's seen back home, things she hasn't thought about in a while now. Her stomach feels like it's turning inside of her, and Madoka's face grows a little paler. (It's easy to just blame that on the ever-present cold around here though.)

"I.. I'm not so sure if that's possible. I don't think they can still listen to reason.." The monsters, she obviously means, not the other teams.

"You don't think so?" Romeo looked at her feeling sad. Madoka knew a lot of things and she was a really good friend so Romeo knows that if she thinks this then it is probably true. It is not that she likes fighting or needs practice at teamwork or friendship.

"If they still got feelings though, they must still be able to listen..."

"Well.."

She pauses. She's not too sure how to explain this without sounding totally uncaring. It's not that she wants things to get hurt. But she also doesn't want Romeo to get hurt, and he's her friend and seemingly the part of this situation something can actually be done about, so that's taking up priority right now.

"I.. If you have a moment to listen, I could tell you about something that happened back home for me. I think it's a little similar, so it might explain why I think they wouldn't listen.." She so doesn't like talking about this. There's a reason she hasn't mentioned a whole lot from back home to other people. But she would for Romeo.

He really wants to go, but he's also feeling guilty about leaving everyone here so when she asks him to listen for a moment he nodded.

"Something that happened at your home?"

Before she came here. Something that was similar to this, it sounds like she has experience so Romeo will listen to her.

She nods. "Yes."

Although Madoka has to suck in a deep breath before she goes on. It's obvious that it's kind of tough for her to talk about this - it's practically written all over her face as she looks at him.

"There were monsters back home too, although I only found that out a little while before I ended up on the train. .. um, anyway-- I.. I wasn't sure about fighting them either. Mostly since my friend ended up turning into one of those monsters. And I.. I knew she was a good person, of course. She wouldn't want to hurt anyone, even as a monster. I thought I could just talk to her and reach out to her and convince her to not do anything bad easily, but.."

For a moment she has to stop. Her voice suddenly sounds really tiny when she continues.

"She.. She didn't recognize me anymore. No matter what I said, she just attacked me.. I don't want that to happen to you if you'd try to do it with the monsters here.. W-.. When things have gone that far, it's impossible to reach them anymore."

He can tell by just looking at her that she is about to tell him a big thing, a big bad thing and it is tricky for her. So he makes sure to give her all of his attention.

There were monsters and people turned into them. Like ayakashi? Not that Romeo had ever known anyone who turned into an ayakashi but he knew that they had once been people and then they were monsters and just wanted to hurt everyone.

There were monsters like that in Madoka's world as well? And Madoka's friend had become one?

He stepped closer and reached out a gloved hand for Madoka's hand. "I'm sorry about your friend Madoka. That sounds really bad and scary. I... I won't go if you don't think it will help. If you don't think they will listen."

It was a bad thing to think that their friends would be hurting creatures that never wanted to be bad in the first place. But if they were like that... Madoka was smart and she knew what it was like.

At least the way Romeo takes it all in so gently and attentive is appreciated. It's tough for Madoka to talk about for sure, but it helps when he's being so nice about it. The fact that she doesn't cry at that painful memory is mostly due to him holding her hand and reassuring her, really.

She still doesn't quite manage to summon a smile for him when he promises to not go, but even in her sad expression there's something appreciative.

"Thank you.. I wish it could be different too." Both back home and here. If the monsters do have feelings here, they deserve better than to get hurt or die.. But if the monsters are attacking people and won't listen to reason, there's not much of an option. "I think to really change anything about the monsters, something would have to change about the way they are made.. But I don't think there's anything we can do about that."

"Sometimes..." He looked at her sadly, "Sometimes things are really bad and really scary and sometimes things aren't easy to work out. A thing can be bad and good at the same time. Or you got to options and it's all bad. Like here if the monsters are hurting our friends and the people here we got to stop them but also if they got feelings and are being forced to do this by bad bosses then we want to help them."

But Madoka's right. The only way would be to change the way they are made. Or stop them being made completely. "I think red team is going after the bad boss. Hopefully they stop him before he makes any more!"

But it's still a big bad thing.

She nods at what he's saying. She knows that as well - that sometimes things really are bad and scary, if she's learned anything recently back home, it's that fact. But that Romeo says it so easily too is kind of concerning.. what kind of things has he seen or had to deal with?

"I hope so too." That'd be the best outcome, right? Then no one would get hurt anymore, and no more monsters would be made that would have to hurt people. "You're really mature already though that you can say all of that, Romeo."

"I'm not really." He shook his head. "I had lots of people help me when I had big questions and scary things happened. I didn't know what to think or what to believe so I spoke to lots of smart people and they helped me!"

He hopes that everyone is able to help stop the bad professor and the snow creatures don't have to be bad and no one gets hurt. That would be the best thing to happen!

"I'm glad you came and talked to me too! That's the best way, when we can help each other figure out what is right!"

"Of course I came to talk to you.."

She's pretty sure anyone would have done that if they saw Romeo standing there, looking so obviously in thought. Especially with how much their team cares for him. She's sure everyone does, because.. well, just look at Romeo! He's so sweet and responsible, how could anyone not like him?

"We're friends, after all.. Right? And friends shouldn't let each other do dangerous things unless it's really, really necessary."

"Yes, that's true. Friends got to look after each other." It was important that friends made sure they all stayed safe.

He smiled at her. "I won't do anything dangerous. I promise." He would make sure to check first, since she was so smart and good and thinking about these things.

It's a good thing he's not saying that part about her being smart out loud or she might just have died.. Madoka can't handle these compliments, especially when she doesn't believe in her good qualities herself.

"Thank you. I promise I won't do anything dangerous either."

At first she just says it, but then a lightbulb seems to turn on in her mind as she has a realisation. Madoka raises her hand, sticking out her pinky at him.

"Ah, let's make it a pinky promise."

"Okay!" Romeo nodded and held out his pinky. Elfnein had taught him all about pinky promises, they were really important! Because if you didn't keep them you had to stab needles in your eyes and that sounded really bad and painful!

In that way they were even more important than a vow!

"Let's promise that we will both keep safe and look out for each other forever!" He held his pinky out solemnly.

Alas, Madoka has no idea about just how literally he takes the whole idea behind a pinky promise.. Otherwise she might have thought twice about this or tried to explain it to him. But instead she just obliviously smiles, since that's such a cute thing to promise. It just makes her glad to know they can look out for each other, even when things get dangerous - as they often do on these missions.

"That sounds good!" She hooks their pinkies together. "Then from now on.. it's a pinky promise!"

He grinned at her as he shook his pinky with hers attached. A promise! They would have to work really hard to make sure they didn't break it!

He shivered. "I just hope the rest of them are all okay out there! It's very cold!"

He was worried about Joss and Elfnein. He knew they were both brave and strong but he still wished he could no how they were!

"Yes, it feels a little strange that we suddenly now can't talk to the others at all, huh..?" Sure, that's been the case during some missions before as well - like when they were in that tower. But it doesn't take away that it still feels weird after having shared a space as relatively small as the train with everyone.

"It'd be nice if we have some way to talk with everyone, but I'm not sure how that would be possible."

She thinks about how Kyuubey helped them communicate telepathically back home even over some distances, but.. you know. There's probably no alien lifeforms determined to use little girls for their entropic plots around...

"It would be nice. Because it's a bit scary not knowing how everyone else is doing!"

It had been like that on the world with the goblins too. But Elfnein hadn't been on the train then. He was worried about Joss too but Elfnein was his goddess. He was supposed to help her and it doesn't feel good to be split up like this!

"In the heavens we had things called phones and we could talk to each other and write to each other. It would be nice to do that here too."

"Oh! I know what phones a--" Wait a second! She suddenly stops mid-sentence, because the true impact of what Romeo was saying is only hitting her after she already started talking. They have phones in heaven?! Well.. she guesses they could, but she never thought about it that way before!

Romeo has been giving her some serious culture shocks as to her idea of heaven... She quickly stammers on, despite her surprise.

"--a.. are! I know what they are, yes! We had those where I come from too. But I think those need a network to work, and I'm not sure if there's some sort of void network.."

Romeo wasn't sure why she seemed so surprised but soon she began talking again. It was good she knew what a phone was, because they were really hard to explain!

"I think they do if you want to connect to the big library. And maybe to talk to people. I don't really know... But they probably won't work in the void. But they might on worlds!"

He has no idea how they work, honestly or really what a network is at all!

Connect to.. the big library? Does he mean the internet? Or maybe the big library is heaven's version of the internet? Madoka has no idea, even though all those questions sure pop up in her head, rendering her quiet for a moment before she finally realises something.

"Wait, mister Ignis has a phone." He showed it to her literally just the other day! "We could ask him if his phone works out here or not."

"He does! We used it when we were cooking!" He thought for a moment, "Um he said there was no cell service in space and I thought that maybe meant he couldn't call people. But maybe he can on the world!"

Or at least connect to the big library even if it couldn't reach his friends! "We can ask him! That's a smart idea, Madoka!"

She shakes her head. "No, I just got the idea because you brought it up! You're really smart, Romeo!"

Apparently it's compliment tennis time.. She's just bouncing that one right back. It's hard to accept compliments more plainly when you're as insecure as her.

"Let's go ask him together, okay?" Especially since this plan feels a lot better to her than Romeo's plan that involved going out there and facing those scary monsters.

"So are you Madoka! You're really smart." He grinned at her, he can bounce compliments back all day. It was part of keeping her spirits up and he was used to it. Elfnein often got embarrassed when he complimented her as well!

"Yes, let's go ask him together!" He reached out for her hand so they could go back into the cavern and find their leader!

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New Plan [For Madoka]

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