#so I IDed with Homura a little too much

[artemismatchalatte]

**Kicking** Screaming** WHY DIDN’T THEY EVER LET HOMURA SAVE MADOKA????? I HATED THAT SO MUCH!!! 

It legitimately reminded me of what happened to one of my other gay friends in high school. She had homophobic parents (they were from Eastern Europe originally) but she was in love with this other girl from our school (who had a girlfriend, of course). And I was just kind of witnessing this on the sidelines like ;-;  Because my clueless ass did not realize I was in love with her at the time. I was probably half aware of it but somehow knew to not open that pandora’s box of a mess because I wasn’t stable enough to help her at all. I was seventeen and more of a spazzy dumbass (importantly an unmedicated one) than I am now. Would that have helped her? No. It would not have. Did it hurt me? Yes, it did. 

So Homura is my favorite character from Madoka Magica and I hate that they made her go insane at the end of the show (though I guess it’s the logical end to the awful fate of constantly trying to save someone who is determined to sacrifice herself for the good of the world even if she shouldn’t)- and become the evil that Madoka has to destroy. 

What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. Men wrote that didn’t they????

[atamascolily]

I'll admit I did not pay much attention to the flowers in the infamous Flower Field scene on a structural level on my first time watching Rebellion. At first glance, I took them for rain lilies (Zephyranthes spp.); then, when they transformed and went to seed, I assumed they were meant to be dandelions, which form distinctive white puffballs that are known as "clocks" and which are said to grant wishes, both of which seemed thematically appropriate in context. At the time, I assumed botanical accuracy was less important to the animators than symbolism, and didn't think too much of it.

Then I went back and looked more closely, and realized I might have been wrong about all of that.

On closer inspection, these are not rain lilies or any other monocot bulb (which always have petals in multiples of 3, never 5). Nor are they members of the dandelion family (my next guess) despite having the anthers clustered in a similar ring at the center. So what other flower meets this criteria?

I did some more digging, and "Japanese anemone" kept coming up as a possible candidate, so I checked it out, and...

Look familiar? [Source].

Japanese anemones (Eriocapitella [Anemone] hupehensis and related hybrids) are members of the buttercup family; despite the common name, they are originally native to China, but have been grown in Japan for centuries.

Because of various evolutionary shenanigans the actual flowers are tiny and clustered in the center and the white "petals" are actually colorful sepals. Many cultivars have more than five, but these are close enough to pass for what we see on-screen if you squint even though they don't overlap in the animated version.

Anemones also have divided leaves very similar to what we see in other shots:

Even better, Japanese anemones also make white little puffball seedheads similar to dandelions!

Now in real life, these puffballs are not as round and blow away almost instantly, so they do not hold together like they do here, but neither do dandelions, for that matter. I think this is a case where "aesthetics and symbolism" won out versus pure realism.

I had thought the accelerated life cycle of Homura's flowers was an exaggeration, but it turns out that Japanese anemone seed heads can apparently unfold over the course of a single afternoon, so while this is still faster than real life, it's not as much of a stretch as I initially assumed.

So am I convinced these are meant to be Japanese anemones? I can certainly see the resemblance, but if so, I wish the animators had been slightly more true to life with the "petal" placement and with the floral height--the plants I have seen are usually 2-4 feet tall with somewhat staggered flower heights, while these are much shorter and with uniform height throughout. It's possible they may have been working from another anemone species/hybrid that doesn't quite map to the plants I know, or they may have just chosen to change it up as needed for convenience.

Currently filing this ID under "tentative yes, to be revisited if/when new evidence arrives".

I still think they should have gone with dandelions, though.

[nessa-writes-stuff]

Kriemhild Gretchen

Magical girl - Madoka kaname

Wishes: in different timelines

first wish - to save a dead kitten ( First and second timeline, but she only turned into a witch during the second one)

 Little fact here because of this wish Homura killed a kitten and got rid of the body so Madoka would have made a wish

second wish -  To save Homura or to obtain the power to defeat Walpurgisnacht ( fourth timeline)

Reasons for becoming a witch:

first timeline - i have no idea (ill update if i find out)

second timeline -  used too much magic thus making her soul gem turn dark

Image:

Im sorry but if i saw that id cry on the spot, she gives me the creeps but her looks aren't that bad compared to some of the other witches. The cage under her body thing they're giving me stretched limbs. She kinda looks like she's in a lot of pain to me.

What makes this witch different than the others is that she believes that she can save people which is kinda ironic bc witches yk kill people and drive them to suicide sometimes.

Kriemhild absorbs all forms of life into her newly made heaven, which is the cage like structure she surrounds herself with. So i guess she can be called the nicest witch because she’s doing what she thinks is right.

 When Kriemhild is born she is considered the most powerful witch finally beating Walpurgisnacht,  ( its been how long exactly) but the reason she is considered the most powerful witch isnt simply because she manage to beat  Walpurgisnacht. If you couldn't tell Kriemhild is extremely large,  much larger than Walpurgisnacht but the problem is that Kriemhild does not stop growing and because of that after 10 day she will grow to such a size that she will end up swallowing the planet.

Buut dont be sad there is one way to beat her. The only way to defeat her is to make the world free of misfortune and when that is done she will believe that she is in heaven and die. But the only problem with this is that the world must be free of misfortune within the 10 days that she is born or the world will cease to exist. The only way to accomplish this task is to get another girl to form a contract with kyubey and wish for the world to be free of misfortune. 

Since everyone in the Madoka Magica universe can never get what they want this solution would not come without consequences, so the magical girl who made the wish in order to stop Kriemhild Gretchen if turned into a witch would be even more deadly i guess this would cause a never ending cycle if interference was not put in.

What all magical girls fail to realise is that the way your wish is worded may greatly help you in the future.

[kanasous]

ID ABSOLUTELY LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT THE MAGICAL GIRL AU!!! It sounds like such a good combo pls unleash ur thoughts I'm all ears

HIIII HELLO EVERYONE. okay im gonna put this all under a readmore its so much also its near directly pasted from discord and only edited for readability so if u have any questions id love to answer and they help me figure out how everything works @clockworkspider  @kn-zakis you both askedas well!!

i think theyre all like. middle school aged but with the same back stories like. kuro is still a delinquent, ibara  is fresh off the child soldier press (but here its intertwined with the magical girl thing so its like. they were trying to make him and yuzuru to a lesser extent magical girl super soldiers) nagisa is still living with hiyori for that short bit etcetc

im also playing with gender too. like ibara sees gender more like a role theyve gotta fufill nagisa is completely apathetic to it.  keito would just rather not. yaknow

its vaguely like madoka? wishes and stuff plus witches as the remains of magucal girls who fell to corruption, wraiths - which magical girls can harness at the cost of bodily harm that doesnt leave when they transform out,  nightmares which r just what they say on the tin

subarus wish is for his fathers name to be cleared, hokuto wishes for his parents to recognise him, makoto wishes for someone to see him and not a doll, mao wishes to keep his friends safe

souma wishes for the ability to make their parents proud, keito wishes for eichi to be able to go to school, kuro wishes for his sister to be okay

you dont actually have to fight witches and nightmares to keep ur wish but like. if u dont fight them, then because there are more nightmares created for each wish and its continued existence, you burden other magical girls

which leads into akatsukis whole thing. aside from just witches and nightmares, they will fight magical girls who refuse to do their duty. these were the targets of eichi and keitos revolution  

OH ibara wishes for something inconsequential (sweets) because he was essentially made to wish, nagisa wishes for the ability to keep hiyori and his other friends safe, jun wishes to be an idol and hiyori wishes for others to love him

the idol stuff is still a thing in a way? hiyori and jun are idols, nagisa wants to be one, ibara doesnt really care. akatsuki become way closer after they start making music together but theyre not idols specifically

trickstar are still idols, they go to like. yumenosaki but its a middle school

]eden go to the sort of cospro middle school that kaname mentions having gone to

akatsuki r in a different school known for being haunted as shit and sorta like kimisaki in a way? after the establishment of like. a stuco the school got way more academic to tye point of being damaging. wait no. that can just be yumenosaki but a middle school as well. okay yea theyre at the same school

akatsuki and trickstar still have mad beef which is hilarious because they get alogn fairly normal at school (aside from keito ) but outside school during magical business its fight on sight because akatsuki tend to wear masks whilst doing magical girl shit to hide their identities (aside from keito. he dont give a shit)

wait no. ibara is so funny in this au u know how homura has to steal gunsn shit

ibara functions similarly she has these cutesy little charms of itty bitty weapons that he can transform into proper weapons but magicked up n shit. but she has to manually transform the normal weapons into the charms before itll work like she hmcant just manifest them into existence

okay more madoka esque stuff

the shinkai cult uses the souls of magical girls to grant wishes

i think this is what was probably supposed to happen to souma. that OR he was supposed to fight witches on kanatas behalf because Kanata wouldn't be allowed to do that as it would be a hazard

kanata has to eat a soul gem to absorb the power and the soul. this is then exhumed when he grants a wish. he doesnt have like. a choice in this and then to him, and to souma for a while, this is right

himeru who uses his little brothers soul gem to transform

OH GOD. JUN KEEPS KANAME FROM BECOMING A WITCH ITS THIS WHOLE DISCOVERY

he forces the soul gem, half cracked and corrupted down kanames throat to put the soul back where it needs to go and barely anyone thinks it could work but it does. iit reverses kanames wish, yes. but idk what kanames wish would be yet so idk the consequences 

and then u know how in record magical girls can use doppels to burn off despair? something similar can be done with corruption but it has to be purposefully induced, and yknow how sayaka brings oktavia von seckendorf forth in rebellion in the fight against homulily? i can imagine souma doing something like that during the fight against kanatas witch, after its grown into its own thing.  i accidentally made myself obsessed with how fighting kanatas witch would go... its become something entirely seperate from him and independent due to how he exists as the concept of a god and also. just a human child n how for so long he wasn’t really a magical girl. 

thank you for reaching the end of my rambles! it was very fun to get all this down

[seventeendeer]

I want to know everything about this new AU, everything about it is just perfect! Id love to hear more of your headcannons!

thank you so much, I really love it too!! and I would love to share some headcanons, thank you for asking!

more Madoka headcanons:

- she’s about a head shorter than a standard rose quartz soldier. her colors are also in the very pale end of the color spectrum for her kind. she doesn’t quite deviate enough from the others to be considered off-color and her powers work just fine, but her differences did make her insecure while she was in Homeworld’s ranks. joining the Crystal Gems and learning that there’s nothing wrong with being different changed her life.- she looked up to Rose Quartz a great deal and saw her as a role model, hence her similar dress. Homeworld had expected her to be a tough, no-nonsense soldier, which never felt right, so seeing someone who was seemingly just like her be soft and kind and caring inspired her to want to be the same way.- like in canon, she also looked up to Mami and admired her for her determination to help others.- in battle, she would often fuse with Sayaka or Mami. it helped her feel more confident.- she spent a lot of time collecting gem shards after battles, determined to bring the dead home where they could rest.- when she was corrupted, she turned into a similar monster to the other quartzes, and in her healed form she has the same horns that they do, as well as having her eyes no longer be visible.

more Sayaka headcanons:

- she wanted to learn how to make her own swords, but never got around to it, so she settled for taking really good care of the swords she was gifted instead.- because of her weak hydrokinesis, she mostly uses her water wings to assist in long jumps instead of taking proper flight.- during the war, she spent a lot of time hanging out with humans and at one point fell in love with one of them. however, she never told him, and before she found the courage to, he settled down with another human. she mostly kept away from humanity after that, afraid that it would happen again.- at one point late in the war, she was close to giving up and would frequently wonder if it would be best if the Earth was destroyed so everyone would stop fighting over it. what brought her back from this mentality was Kyoko finally joining the Crystal Gems - Sayaka realized that if even someone as bitter and violent as Kyoko could change for the better because of what she’d been through on Earth, then maybe all the misery was worth it in the end.- when she and Kyoko were corrupted, their fusion turned into an absolutely massive armor fish with a giant mane. after getting uncorrupted, Sayaka retains its armored face and a few of its fins.

more Mami headcanons:

- she keeps a large amount of loaded guns stored in her gem that she crafted herself. she tends to use these instead of her summon weapon.- while teamed up with Madoka, Sayaka and Homura, she was the leader and the others followed her without question. this made her a little uncomfortable at first, since it echoed her experiences in Yellow Diamond’s court, but she soon realized that the others followed her because they genuinely trusted her to be the wisest and most competent person in the group, not because of her strength or previous rank. from then on, she worked hard to live up to their image of her and drew strength from knowing that her friends believed in her.- she’s under the impression that Kyubey doesn’t really care about her and never did, and it’s difficult for her to cope with this feeling. the two of them remain on friendly terms and spend a good amount of time together even after she set him free, but Kyubey is very open about the fact that he mostly spends time with her and the others because he finds the rebellion and the newly formed branch of gem society fascinating, and they’re the gems most willing to talk to him and tell him about their deeper reasons for doing what they do. Mami cares about him a great deal and she genuinely wants to be friends with him, but after having effectively ‘owned’ him during the time they spent on Homeworld, she feels like she has no right to ask anything of him now.- like Madoka, her corrupted form was the same beastly type as the other quartzes, and she retains the same side effects.

more Kyoko headcanons:

- her summon weapon is a giant spear.- while her physical form looks just fine for a carnelian, being made in the beta kindergarten still left a mark on her abilities; she’s unable to successfully shapeshift for more than a few seconds at a time.- she was the one who came up with the plan that ended with her and her squad committing the mistake that got the others shattered. deep down, she blames herself for their fate.- she was especially close to one of the other carnelians in her squad, whose poor creation process left her with severely limited strength. the entire squad treated her like the baby of the group, but Kyoko especially had taken it upon herself to protect her, both from their enemies and from their superiors. Kyoko took this carnelian’s shattering the hardest.- before she joined the Crystal Gems during the last days of the rebellion, she made a cruel habit of stealing gemshards from the battlefields around the world. she used them as power sources for various weaponry, and while she didn’t accumulate many in the grand scheme of things, they did give her a significant advantage when terrorizing other gems one-on-one.- after being healed, she retains the mane from hers and Sayaka’s corrupted fusion.

more Homura headcanons:

- the design she’s drawn with in the art I posted is actually her post-war form; during the war, her hair was braided and she had a visor covering the upper half of her face. while she was allied with Homeworld, she had diamond-patterns on her pants, like she does in canon.- like other pearls, her summon weapon is a spear, but she also carries a massive bow in her gem that she uses to fire her spears like arrows. she also has an artillery of human-made weaponry stored away in her gem that she’s stolen from humans over the centuries. she prefers ranged fighting.- because of her off-color gem, she lacks some of the usual abilities that pearls are programmed with. she can’t sing or dance well, and she used to be somewhat clumsy. training for battle helped her overcome her lack of coordination so she’d stand a better chance while fighting, but she still refuses to dance in front of others, so she has never fused with anyone before. she secretly wants to try it.

more Kyubey headcanons:

- back when she was his superior, Mami never really knew how to act around him or what to do with a pearl of her own, and so he was generally given more freedom than the average pearl. other gems in Yellow Diamond’s court tended to avoid him, as his independence and frank way of speaking made them uncomfortable.- he’s extremely adept at shapeshifting and uses it to sneak around unnoticed, often in the form of a butterfly, cat, or other unremarkable creature. he’s infamous among Crystal Gems for eavesdropping on other gems’ private conversations.- he’s extremely inventive and uses his long lifespan to learn about all sorts of scientific fields. he occasionally references owning a laboratory somewhere, but he never specifies where it is or what he uses it for.- his corrupted form looked somewhat similar to his canon alien design, though he of course couldn’t talk in that state. his passive nature in his original form probably contributed to his lack of aggression in his corrupted form. when he was healed, he kept his tail and his solid-red bug eyes.

[maskedmuses-archived]

So, I’ve wanted to see the range of wealth my muses are from, since I was noticing I had a few princesses in my roster and it just seemed fascinating to me for when I place them into other verses, such a modern verse, how that impacts their ideals, views, and other such things. Also, if they have stayed in that social class or not. This is simply for the Active Muses, I can do supplementary attachments to this depending if an Inactive Muse is requested or not.

Readmore for length and just overall me rambling.

So, those within the “Royal” status in the roster are Koya, Nia, Rapunzel, and Osiris.

·       Koya and Osiris are both from the Mushrambo manga (with Osiris being an OC while Koya is a canon.) Both are born to Generals that have their own domain over the world and are essentially royalty. However, unlike Osiris, who well into his twenties, still remains at the palace, Koya refuses to be set on the path of a ‘pretty princess.’ Feeling a call to her to instead work on her own merit, Koya only took a small amount of money for her travels and instead works odd jobs in towns to make enough to travel, therefore dropping away from the “royalty” status and into “working class (poor)” group.

·       Nia has a similar situation, as a princess of Teppelin, she had whatever she wanted, until her father cast her out. With the time she spend with her essentially adoptive family, she learned how to work and for a short period would have been considered also “working class” until Kamina City was built, in which case, as the spouse of the Commander, essentially her role of princess was reprised. However, following her resurrection, Nia would have returned to that “working class (poor)” until such a time she could find a place to work her way to “working class.”

·       Rapunzel, much like Osiris, has kept up her title, and therefore remains in the “Royalty” until such a time Di/sne/y would ever drop her down (never). However, she did not always have this, and when she was in the tower (as she is for several verses) she is considered “working class poor.”

In the “Upper Class” station, which isn’t as high as a “Royal” but would perhaps be considered very well off are Yakumo, Eugene, Y’ukihime, and Marinette.

·       Yakumo’s father was the Father of Enterrans, as well as a gifted robotics engineer. He not only created Enterrans, but he also equipped the military with weapons to fight back when they were taken over by Lanancuras. It is unknown about Yakumo’s mother and her role in the family, but she certainly would have also had some sort of profession to keep up with Dr. Daigo Tatsuro. As his only child, Yakumo would have inherited that fortune, if not for the war and 300/500 year suspended animation. When she awoke, she had nothing but the clothes on her back and Hakuba, so instantly she dropped down to “working class (poor).”

·       Eugene Davis was the twin brother to the renowned Oliver Davis and had made a name for his own in the field of the paranormal.  Such a celebrity status would have easily earned him a sum, and with his return and work back with spirits and other supernatural, it would be easy to accumulate back, even if just under his brother in the SPR.

·       Marinette’s family owns a bakery, which is very successful. She also attends what seems to be almost a private school alongside the children of famous designers, models, the mayor, and the chief of police.

·       Y’ukihime most likely came from self-made money (as a previous adventurer) and only moved up beyond that when she became the Exarch because of how she built the Crystarium over the centuries. The respect and offerings given to her were placed back into the city, but there will never be a need for Y’ukihime to seek out work, other than for her beloved Warrior of Darkness.

Surprisingly, there are only two “Middle Class” muses: Lucille and Azuna.

·       Lucille came from a home where her mother stayed and helped around the village, and her father was a hunter. Back in colonial times, hunters were backbones of the community and therefore could easily earn money either from selling within the town or going to a larger city and providing meat to butchers and pelts. They had enough money to afford her a chance to read (even if it was only to read church scripture) and also money for medicine when she got sick. As a spirit, Lucille does not need money and only collects it if she finds it abandoned to spend on believers, therefore is “working class (poor)”

·       Azuna was raised in a village where she was the main tourism attraction. Her healing abilities brought in money to the village, but she refused to take too much coin from people. Her family life was that of a head priest, but not the village leader. Secondary, her family was given some respect, but lost it when she ran away from home. At the temple, she began to charge more for her own livelihood and abilities, and remains at middle class.

The remainder of the muses are within the “Lower Class”: Ochaco, Aerith, Anzu, Homura, Xion, and Aqua (even if not officially added to this list).

·       Ochaco’s parents own their own business, yes, but they are constantly working and even Ochaco doesn’t have a smart phone like everyone else in her class. Their business is failing, but they put everything into it, so are most likely in debt, which is why Ochaco strives towards being a hero who can help her parents out (financially). Without her, or the things that UA can give her, it would be hard for her to stay with her parents at all.

·       Aerith was raised in the Slums with her adoptive mother and did not care much for money, willing to offer flowers for a single gil, because one gil could go a long way. This is something present throughout, where she does what she can with what little she has.

·       Anzu’s parents are both working class, but have no extra money for Anzu’s dance classes or her dreams. Instead, she goes to work at an early age, faking her ID to get a job, and doing whatever she can without her parent’s help to achieve her dream. Despite how easy it could be asking Kaiba for a loan, she refuses based on knowing the interest would be far too much for her.

·       Homura is an orphan and the home she had is personally headcanoned as a place she got herself through possibly stolen money in various timelines. She would never steal again, particularly for Madoka, but she would work for what she could, in which she would be “working class (poor)”.

·       Both Xion and Aqua share the similar fact that both are in the realm of light without anything prior. Both of them would have to work their way up, as either part timers or protectors from Heartless, to earn themselves any munny.

[purpletyrant]

I would love to hear more about your Madoka ocs if possible.

oh thats so kind! id love to talk about them as much as im able, ive kinda had to rebuild them from the ground up because i lost my original notes on them, and so far there really isnt an overarching plot besides character conflict. but i can try!

all my girls are based in berlin, specifically neukolln and kreuzberg (too lazy to type umlauts). the main girl is emilia, the morally grey purple-themed girl who has contracted on behalf of her mother, who is mourning her late younger brother. emilia is kind of a homura-sayaka hybrid, she has noble intent and goes about her duties in a lone ranger kind of way, but it takes no time at all for her to become cynical and bitter about what shes signed herself up for. you know, like every madoka spinoff ever. part of what speeds up her pessimism is contact with an older rich girl named aleshia, who, being the daughter of a businessman, went over an entire, extended written contract with kubchen (kyuubey) before contracting. aleshia has a very cut and dry, objective view of being a magical girl and already knows everything thats coming for her. shes a minor character, but she impacts emilias worldview a lot.

the other cast members are part of a team, since berlin has a lot of witches to go around. the members are fritzie, nanette, and liese - and hanife, who joins on and off again. theres a lot to say about these girls, so ill stick to highlights. liese is a german-japanese girl who wished to forget her own wish, so she doesnt even know why shes a magical girl. nanette is a goth programmer girl who runs a magical girl website, and she and liese are in a mutual pining sort of situation. fritzie, their leader, is slightly older and works at a record store - her weapon is the most unique, being an electric guitar - her final attacks are named after rock songs. hanife is my favorite of the bunch… her best friend in childhood turned into a witch, so she wears the grief seed on a chain and goes about witch hunting as if shes euthanizing sick animals. basically, her coping method is being the white knight. 

the main conflict is basically fritzies team running into this scrappy little rapscallion, emilia, who keeps spouting off about duty and responsibility and doom and gloom. i havent gotten much further than that. ultimately, emilia weaponizes her own soul gem in an attempt to overcome the other four girls…

theres more i could say about them but i dont wanna make this answer too long. heres a doodle of nanette that i posted on twitter this week. the caption was “mods are asleep post fat kyuubey.”

[cookinguptales]

i know this is a weird request but i feel like homura and karamatsu might get along well for whatever reason and id really love to read a ficlet where they get to have a conversation for the first time and they just start talking to each other abt their bfs

Sorry for the delay… I took some time to think about how I wanted to do this. I eventually decided to combine this with Tanabata. (Though I’m open to writing other Tanabata fics, too, come to think of it. It’s that time of year.)

I just went with “Homura” bc frankly it’s easier.

Karamatsu wasn’t stupid. Not really. His brothers treated him like his head was in the clouds and his brain starved for oxygen, but he noticed things. He noticed the way that Jyushimatsu had carefully kept her away from all of them. He noticed the way that Jyushimatsu had stood a little straighter, his spine a little stronger, when they all eventually crowded around to greet her. He noticed that Jyushimatsu had not allowed any of them to talk to her one-on-one since she’d come home.

He understood that, sort of. He didn’t know Homura’s whole story, but he got the impression that her life had been difficult. She smiled so sweetly at his little brother, but there was a fragility in the shadows within her eyes. Jyushimatsu had a sort of wariness to his eyes now when he watched his brothers interact with his new-old girlfriend. It wasn’t the edge of jealousy that Karamatsu saw in him, though. Just the hard-won knowledge of what they were capable of. Jyushimatsu knew they could hurt her so damn easily — and perhaps would, if given half a chance.

He understood that. He didn’t like it, but he understood it. He’d never seen Jyushimatsu look at anyone the way he looked at her, like she was a star on the edge of supernova, something too beautiful and too tenuous for him to even comprehend. He understood that, too. Sort of.

It wasn’t until the night of the festival that he finally got a chance to talk to Homura alone, and the opportunity came to him purely by accident. He’d stayed over at Chibita’s cart mooning until he’d been shooed away, Chibita insisting that he was going to scare away all his festival-going customers if he kept being all sappy like that in public. He was probably right, at that. But on such a romantic night, air heavy beneath a starlit sky, he just couldn’t help but sigh over love finally found and returned. It was such a lovely night for love.

Once banished from the oden cart, though, he’d found himself wandering aimlessly through the festive streets. His brothers were off doing their own thing, as they did more and more often these days, and the crowds parted like a turbulent sea before him as he walked. It might have been the yukata. (Karamatsu thought it was beautiful. Incandescent. “Gaudy” had been Chibita’s word.) With no one to talk to, the festival wasn’t quite as fun as it might’ve otherwise been.

And then he saw her. She was tying her wish to one of the crowded stalks, and Karamatsu was close enough to see it flutter in her hands, but not close enough to see what it read. She looked so pretty there in her kimono, hair tucked up with an ornate hairpin. And yet so alone. Where was Jyushimatsu?

“Homura-san?” -san? -chan? He still wasn’t really sure where he stood with her. It would be clear to anyone who stood too close to her and Jyushimatsu for more than a minute or two that she’d be a part of their family eventually, but in the meantime… He’d really barely spoken to her.

“Ah!” She turned around to face him, looking a little flustered. “Good evening, um…” She hesitated for a minute, worrying at her lower lip.

Oh. Right. “Karamatsu,” he supplied, and her cheeks darkened. It put a strange feeling in his stomach, being confused with the rest of his brothers like that. Most people who cared enough to learn their names already knew them. Homura felt fresh and new and a little frightening.

Karamatsu thought back to the way it’d felt when he’d started dating Chibita. It’d been like shrugging into an old sweatshirt. Like turning around and noticing the shadow that had always been there. Karamatsu was constantly surprised by the newness of being loved, but it was always tempered with the familiarity of a friend he’d grown old with. Or, grown up with, at least. Whether they’d grow old together still remained to be seen.

He hoped so.

He cleared his throat a little, and took a few steps closer to where she stood fidgeting, waiting for him. “It’s no problem, my lady. Learning new faces takes time,” he said, and gave her his most charming smile. Well, “new” faces might be an overstatement, but…

She stared at him for a moment, then covered her mouth as a little giggle escaped from her throat. “You’re the second brother, right? Jyushimatsu told me how, um, funny you are,” she said, wiping budding tears from the corner of her eyes.

Funny? That was how Jyushimatsu had described him? Well… It was better than painful, he supposed… “Where is Jyushimatsu?” he asked, hoping to steer the conversation away from the hilarity that was apparently his existence.

“He went to get some shaved ice, I think…” she said, turning to glance over her shoulder back at the crowd. “He’s been gone for a long time, though.”

Karamatsu shrugged. If any one of them could worm his way out of trouble, it was probably Jyushimatsu. “The lines are long during the festival,” he said, and that was probably true.

She smiled at him, though, like he’d done her a kindness, and he felt his own cheeks starting to heat. He could tell why Jyushimatsu liked her. He brushed his hair back, an artful tousle or maybe a nervous tic, and smiled back.

“Are you having a fun time at the festival?” she asked politely, and Karamatsu thought back to the tanzaku he’d seen her hang. Best not to ask. That would be rude.

Instead, he just nodded. “Though I’ve mostly just been at the oden cart,” he admitted.

“With… Chibita, right?” she asked.

Karamatsu cocked his head to the side, then nodded. Jyushimatsu must have told her about Chibita, too. He wondered what he’d said. “Best oden in the city,” he said, and it was only partially a lover’s devotion that prompted him to say it. The other part was that Chibita would probably have murdered any one of them if they’d bought any oden but his, so Karamatsu hadn’t tried the competition in years. He could assume, though. Chibita’s was awfully good.

“Oh?” she asked, and her eyes twinkled a little. “Does he have a secret ingredient?”

Karamatsu smiled and rubbed at his chin, hoping he looked suitably dashing. Chibita would probably say that the secret ingredient was “guts” or “blood” or something terrifying like that. Karamatsu knew the truth, though. “Love.”

Homura bit down on her lower lip again, and Karamatsu suspected, with slight heaviness of heart, that she was trying not to laugh. “That’s very… traditional,” she said.

“It’s true, though,” he said. “Chibita puts everything he has into his food. Truly, his oden is boiled with the fires of love.” He’d seen the proof himself. He’d woken up to Chibita doing prep work, and he’d fallen asleep with Chibita still putting away the cart. He’d walked home with Chibita after a long day at the cart, catching at his elbow whenever he wobbled and carrying whatever Chibita would trust him with. Chibita put his heart and his soul into that oden, and even if it wasn’t refined, would never be found in a chic cafe or a trendy food magazine, it was food filled with love and devotion. Karamatsu could taste it every time. Chibita cooked like he kissed, overwhelming and tender in turn, and sometimes it made Karamatsu’s heart swell up, overfull, to see him work. (And other times, well, it was still a little scary. A lot scary. Terrifying.)

Homura studied his face for a moment, then blinked in surprise at what she found there. “I’m sorry, Karamatsu-kun. Jyushimatsu didn’t tell me it was like that between you two,” she said.

And fuck, was he really that obvious? It was just — it felt like all his happiness came bubbling right out of him whenever he talked about Chibita now. He couldn’t hide the way he felt when he opened his mouth. Despite himself, he felt the light blush on his cheeks darken to a deep crimson. “Ah.. Yes…” he murmured.

He needn’t have worried about her reaction, though. Homura just smiled at him, bigger than she had all night, and beamed. “I’m so glad that you have someone like that, Karamatsu-kun. All of you seemed so lonely at first.”

“Eh?” At first? Just how long had she been watching them? Jyushimatsu might’ve told her some, maybe… But really, Karamatsu realized, even as Jyushimatsu had played guard dog to keep Homura safe, she’d still been able to look outward. At all of them. And maybe being new and fresh and a little disconcerting had given her a unique view. Karamatsu shifted uncomfortably. Most people looked at sextuplets and thought they’d never feel alone, not ever. They couldn’t understand how lonely it could be to have the same face as five other people, none of whom particularly liked you. Something told him, though, that Homura knew an awful lot about loneliness.

He swallowed. “I’m glad you have someone, too, Homura-san,” he said. Because she did, didn’t she? Anyone could see how much Jyushimatsu loved her. Anyone could see the way she lit up for him. He wasn’t sure anyone had ever smiled like that for him. (But maybe Chibita would, someday.)

Now it was her turn to look down, to blush. “I didn’t think I’d ever get that chance,” she admitted quietly. “I feel so lucky.”

“But you’re so…” So sweet. Beautiful. Normal. Maybe a little giggly, and probably a little touched if she loved Jyushimatsu so much, but infinitely normal compared to the rest of them. He didn’t know what her life had been like or what had hurt her so deeply. He didn’t know why she’d had to leave Jyushimatsu, either. Or even why she’d come back. But he had a feeling all that had something to do with the wish she’d hung up with trembling fingers.

Her hands knitted together in front of her, and she didn’t look up at him. “I’ve done…things,” she murmured, quiet. “Have you ever felt trapped, Karamatsu-kun? Like the walls are closing in and you might never get out? Like — like you helped build those walls yourself, so maybe you deserve it?”

He did, at that. He knew exactly what it was like to be in a trap of his own devising. In a quagmire that he’d created with his own two hands. To be sinking below the surface, and to know that his lifeline was sinking right next to him. He nodded jerkily. She had to know that. Hell, she was probably a lot more blameless in whatever had hurt her than he’d been with his own strife. Than they’d all been.

She sighed a little, but it wasn’t a sad sound. It was just a little bit of the tension that’d been inside her for years finally finding a way out. “I don’t feel like that anymore,” she said. “Jyushimatsu makes me feel… free.”

And Chibita had appeared to him like an angel on high and offered him his hands. He’d offered him his home. He’d offered him dry land to stand on, secure in his footing for the first time in forever. Karamatsu breathed out slow around the lump in his throat. “That’s beautiful,” he said, and he meant it. It was so beautiful, the things love could make them feel.

She smiled at him, and he could see a slight shine to her eyes. God, he hoped she didn’t cry. Jyushimatsu would never let him around her again. “Yeah,” she said. “You know—”

But whatever he knew, or maybe didn’t know, was interrupted by Jyushimatsu’s gleeful shout, and there he was, two bowls of shaved ice fisted in his hands. “I’ve got it!” he said, and then, a second later, finally seemed to notice his brother standing here. Karamatsu got that. He knew what it was like to have eyes for one person above all else. Jyushimatsu’s expression was unreadable for a moment, unknowable in its joy, and then it straightened out. “I didn’t bring any for you, Karamatsu-niisan.”

“That’s okay,” Karamatsu said, pushing his glasses up on his nose. “I already ate.”

Jyushimatsu tilted his head to the side even as he handed Homura her dessert. “You were bugging Chibita again, weren’t you?” he asked.

Fuck. Absolutely transparent. He’d been so obvious this whole time, hadn’t he?

But Jyushimatsu just laughed. “That’s okay, niisan! Tanabata is for star-crossed lovers, isn’t it?” he said, and that little fucker was teasing him in front of his girlfriend, wasn’t he?

Karamatsu tried not to blush any deeper than he already was. “Oi, doesn’t that describe you two, though?” There was nothing star-crossed about him and Chibita. Not anymore.

Jyushimatsu and Homura looked at each other, and for a moment they looked so fond it almost hurt. But then the moment was gone and they were snickering nervously. “Come on,” Jyushimatsu said, enveloping her hand in one of his and giving her a little tug. “Let’s go look at the lights!”

“Okay, okay,” she said, laughing as she was tugged along. She seemed like she was only too happy to follow. “Let’s go.”

Karamatsu watched them go, their laughter lingering far longer than their backs, and then finally gave into temptation. He looked at the tree and saw not one but two slips that he recognized.

The first, with its bold, clumsy scrawl, was Jyushimatsu’s handwriting. “I WANT TO BE WITH HOMURA-CHAN FOREVER” it said, and Karamatsu’s heart beat painfully in his chest. Next to it was the one he’d seen Homura hanging when he’d arrived. It was much plainer handwriting, neat and kind of girly in a way Karamatsu couldn’t help but be weak to. “I want to be free to love anyone I choose,” it said, and Karamatsu wondered. He wondered.

He felt around in his own pocket until he found his unused tanzaku and a pen. He had ink that sparkled like all the stars in the sky, and he had a wish to write with it. It was such a lovely night for love.