Friday Meme Light: Cause It's A Bittersweet Victory (Ten Years Later Thread)

[thewunderkind]

The clock continues to turn on the ship.

The last years have been of turbulence, surprises and great fights, but eventually, five years ago, the Ohm were defeated and slowly, peace was restored to the entire multiverse. The crisis was averted! Congratulations!

...However rebuilding universes takes time. Energy. Power. It still might be years off before you'll get to go home, and Stacy is truly saddened about that. Call it catch 22 if you will, but at least the life on the ship is a lot more peaceful now. The farms have grown, and now there's enough in-house grown food to feed everyone who doesn't feel like eating slop or eating slop in the sensoriums every day. That's a small comfort, right? Oh sure, there's still the surprise or two on it, but now there's slowly more places to stop, and Stacy has been a lot more lenient about people getting their shots...

As they sometimes say, life will find a way to flourish, anywhere it can. My, there's a lot more bellies around the ship than before...

And maybe. One day. Far off future. You'll get to go home. But that's not now.

Ten years is a lot of time for people to grow, personalities to change and emotions to emerge. How have your characters turned out of it?

Comments

[clockworkrepeat.livejournal.com]

Ten years is a long time.

Homura is world weary. She is tired of life; the endless resetting of timelines in her past and the endless combat she engages in on behalf of the ship, against the Ohm. It's tiring. The girl she fights for appearing intermittently, like flashes of lightning or wisps of smoke, never helped her weariness.

There was very little besides fighting for such a very long time. Fighting witches on board the ship and fighting the Ohm off board; it was nonstop. Just as they return from a mission the color of her soul gem darkens and with the other girls she had to fight again. It's a fate of combat she was willing to take on for Madoka's sake, but she never expected it to drag like this. She had hoped for a resolution while she was still in her teens.

It came, but not how she expected. It came, but with time.

Waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Five years passes in the blink of an eye, and so it's been five years since she saw Madoka's face last. Homura has given up on ever seeing her again. All things came to an end eventually, and the same can be said of Homura's hope.

In these ten years, her personality has darkened in places and softened in others. Homura is coarse and sarcastic, far more blunt than she ever was as a girl. She allows very few people to see her inner, more gentle self and Mami remains the only one who knows what she's done for Madoka.

Recovery might have been possible had she been dumped somewhere with the girl she loved most, somewhere calm and peaceful, but in a place full of strife, of stress... It did nothing but make things worse for Homura.

But while Homura waits for the end, there are things that give her joy.

They are calm moments in the morning, in the city of Stacy's belly; they are times like now, spent with Mami in silence and warmth, their hands entwined and their bodies close. She cares about this woman, even if her love for Madoka is greater. Sitting up, she tucks her hair behind her own ears and smiles down at Mami. It's all one length now, and her hair dips just below her knees. She usually keeps it in a low ponytail, but it's loose right now.

"Wake up," she murmurs. "It's morning."

[magicgunworks.livejournal.com]

The war has made Mami quite the light sleeper. When things started nearing their end, when they were alerted at all hours of the day (or whatever passed for day on the ship), she was pulled from sleep frequently on emergency deploys. Even after it ended, she couldn't go back to a normal sleep schedule; the long stretches of peace, interrupted only by the released witches, made her restless, and it still effected her sleep to this day.

But just because it was easy to wake her up doesn't mean she liked it. She rolled over, burying her face in her pillow. "And it was a late night, so please give me a few more minutes..."

Apparently, Stacy didn't feel like cutting them a break whenever she released a witch. Even though they weren't that tough, she seemed to enjoy releasing them at the worst times. Like right in the dead of night.

[clockworkrepeat.livejournal.com]

Homura laughs a little and flops down on the bed as well, closing her eyes. "Alright." She's never been good at sleeping, and along with Mami her sleep has only gotten more full of holes as time passed. Even being next to someone she cares about doesn't help very much; it does ease her stiff body but it doesn't let her drift off.

... at least now there's someone to spend the sleepless nights with. It made them easier to bear with.

The witches are hard to deal with, but both of their soul gems shine brightly this morning; a result of their hard work. Homura palms her own, looking it over.

[magicgunworks.livejournal.com]

It isn't that much longer before Mami rolls over again, eyes half open and still a bit bleary-looking. But she's smiling, proof that she wasn't really annoyed at being woken up.

"You seem to be in a good mood today."

[clockworkrepeat.livejournal.com]

She's a little surprised, and it shows up on her face. "Do I...?" Homura props herself up with her elbows. "... I guess that isn't untrue. It's a nice morning."

[magicgunworks.livejournal.com]

"Mmm, it is..." For Mami, at least, the nightmares that had haunted her for over a decade had decided not to invade her sleep. It's a rare occurrence, so the feeling of waking up refreshed, if a bit early, is a wonderful thing.

"If I didn't know any better, I think I might be getting used to these peaceful times..." Well. As peaceful as things can be with the duty they still have.

[clockworkrepeat.livejournal.com]

Rolling her soul gem between her fingers, Homura smiles. She nods, and reaches over to brush Mami's bangs behind her ears. It's a gentle movement, something loving. "Yeah. Me too." It doesn't feel all good, but it feels settled; it feels kind, and not alone. "... I didn't think things would turn out this way."

[magicgunworks.livejournal.com]

"I didn't either." Mami said as she laughs, leaning into that brief contact. "I don't think anyone could have forseen what was coming..."

It's unclear what she's talking about. Actually winning the war? Building a true home on the ship? This unhealthy yet ultimately loving relationship? Maybe she was talking about it all. Who knows.