3rd Course - Necessary Ingredients [Video]

[starofpleiades]

[Kazumi's expression is worried; not surprising after how the last few weeks have been. She wasn't really affected much, but she saw people who were...]

Is everyone alright now? Back to normal...?

[She sighs, looking a bit forlorn.]

Things making people act unlike themselves... what's "like yourself" though, other than how you acted before? I mean... what makes up a person? Our bodies? Our actions? Our memories?

[Memories...]

...hey, what do memories mean to you? How important are your memories? If you had something painful in your past... do you think it'd be better not to remember it?

[She's taking the video just outside the apartment complex, so anyone is free to run into her there or respond over the vine]

Comments

[heartovertime]

[Homura gives a nod, a light smile on her lips even as her eyes look a bit more distant, dwelling on her thoughts.] Yeah.... I think so. [Knowing what she does of her "other" self, it points to even more likely. She may not know all the details, but it's certainly that she had changed, at least on the outside. The previous Madoka from that time had thought that maybe she was still largely the same at heart, even if she was colder.]

Maybe there's some central "me" or "you", but probably we change with each experience... even if it's just in little ways.

[starofpleiades]

A central "me"... [Kazumi thinks about that. Well, even without memories... she'd sort of been herself? Well, she'd still been able to cook... and still loved eating.]

But shaped by memories, huh?

[heartovertime]

It's only a guess, really. I don't know if we can really know that kind of thing for certain. Maybe a neural psychologist would know. [Though as it is, at least in their cases, maybe things are a little different, having an external soul, capable of remaining themselves even if their whole body gets destroyed... If Kyubey were here, maybe she could ask, but that's not a face she really wants to see again ever.]

But, I mean, you are probably different from how when you were in elementary school, aren't you, Kazumi-san? But at the same time, you're probably at least a little similar too, right?

[starofpleiades]

Yeah... it seems complicated!

That's true... er, well, I think it is? I'm a bit fuzzy on those memories, but I guess I'm a little different from then.

[heartovertime]

[Homura's eyebrows arch in curiosity.] "Fuzzy"? It wasn't that long ago was it? [Wasn't Kazumi around her age? It's hard to imagine not remembering each year of loneliness back then, even with some extra months added in and over a year here far from even Earth as far as she can guess, but then again Kazumi probably wasn't like that...]

[starofpleiades]

Ahah, well... I kind of lost a lot of my memories before I got here! And, well... I was in the process of getting them back before I arrived, so... some details are a little fuzzy still!

[heartovertime]

[Well...that certainly puts Kazumi's questions into context. Homura's eyes widen, a hand reflexively to her mouth.]

Oh no... that must be sort of confusing... Are you okay?

[starofpleiades]

Yeah! I mean, I think I remembered most of the important things. About my friends, how I met them, what we went through... and the truth. About what we are... [Puella Magi and all that jazz...]

[heartovertime]

I see...

[Still that does not stop her from presenting a slight frown. Is it possible there's something Kazumi doesn't know she's missing that was really important?] Is there any way you could get the others back...?

[starofpleiades]

Hmm... well, I think they'll come back over time, if I'm at home. Or Umika can help me. Um, we were sort of in the middle of an important discussion, so I guess she didn't have time to put in some of the less important parts.

[heartovertime]

So you want to go back...? [As far as she knows, Kazumi's friends haven't shown up too, but it could be she hasn't heard of some who did.]

[starofpleiades]

Hmm, I'm not sure. I mean, I do miss my friends. And I want to go back and help them, since we'd finally all gotten together and revealed everything, their resolve and what we were going to do...

On the other hand, it'd be better if they just all came here! Since pretty much all things that were a problem there aren't here.

[heartovertime]

Mm... It is tough... [It's hard to imagine wanting to go back herself, but thinking about if Madoka had left and not reappeared after some months...even that would make her ambivalent, particularly with Mami gone and even Kyouko missing now again.

But in the end, it's still too depressing what she would have to face again, even if it did.] Hopefully they will come, someday...

[starofpleiades]

Mm. Yeah, if we could all be together, that might be the best!

[heartovertime]

[She gives a nod.] Then maybe the rest of your memories can come back. Unless there's some way to do it here, even before they come...

[starofpleiades]

Yeah, maybe! I think definitely, if Umika came.

Hmm... I wonder if anyone here knows memory-magic?