Zack narrowed his eyes and spat on the ground. That was sudden, why did that girl appear out of nowhere in front of him? How annoying, he could not go and continue his night walk. Well, one of two, or the girl would move away or he would kill her. It was simple.
As Mary hand tightens around Ib’s, Ib thinks her smile has become a more genuine one. She wants to get out - Ib understands that feeling. The reminder, however breifly, that she’s trapped here, sends a feeling of dread through her stomach that settles there stubbornly - as if the gallery itself is reminding her - you can’t escape. But it’s not just her - Mary must miss her Mother and Father, too, must be just as scared as Ib is... and despite everything, they managed to find each other, didn’t they?
“Mm.” Ib hums in agreement, before she looks to Mary with a serious expresion. Her voice is queit.
“We’ll get out.” And when she speaks, it’s with such confidence that you’d think she knew the future. After all, she is afraid... she doesn’t know what will happen, here, or if she’ll ever see her Mother and Father again - but she doesn’t want Mary to be sad.
She, Mary, Garry... they’ll get out, won’t they? As Garry’s name crosses her mind, a worried expression crosses her face.
↳ @fiorescenced (ready for the super late but super happy post?)
One: In the IB verse where nothing bad ever happens to anyone, Homura is left alone after finding the fake rose that belonged to Mary. Left all alone with the paintings, the painting of Mary is replaced by a painting of Homura. A weak looking girl with beautiful black hair and such beautiful purple eyes that have a deep sorrow in them. She is not smiling. Most visitors are often drawn to this painting because of how deep her sorrow is, triggering many visitors to leave in a teary-eyed state. Any children visiting the art gallery often ask why the girl is sad and often brushes off the painting, preferring to see the more brighter and happier paintings. As if responding to their rejections, it was as if the painting grew sadder and colder. She is surrounded by purple roses and in her hand is a yellow rose that adds contrast to the dark painting. A spark of light in the darkness or a diamond in the rough. But while the painting is critiqued about how there is always light in the darkest of days and how the tragedy is not always going to stay, the people of the real world have no idea what the true meaning of the painting is. One of the more infamous and emotional works, people will either respond to the painting or they will reject it by calling it too gloomy. Rumor has it that the painting gets darker and sadder over time. Some might say that the painting has been shown to change…
Two: Each time that Mary visits the gallery, she might notice that the atmosphere is more strange. Chills will wrap around her real living flesh and eyes will follow her wherever she goes into the gallery. Whether the gallery is haunted or not, some say that the paintings seem to watch everyone and yet no one. The staff will jokingly remark that the gallery is haunted by the sad girl surrounded by purple roses. Jokingly, they say that she might be real and her ghost haunts the gallery. More reasons to avoid the creepy painting. Rumor has it that her painting has survived fires… But that can only be just a rumor, right?
Three: Paintings and the sculptures seem to have changed. Some are same as ever, some are untouched expect with minor details being changed, and then there are new creations that appear as if they were always there in the first place. One of the more infamous and creepier are these child-sized dolls built with such beautiful detail. Life-like and everything, each of them wear different but monochrome colors. Some of their different colored hair is long or short or even styled. Some of them have hats and yet all of them seem to have piercing blue eyes, pale skin like the Painting of Homura. They look like normal children expect their body parts seem to resemble the body of an old-fashioned dolls. They each have their own names and their seemingly own personality per say. As a group of fifteen sculptures, they are titled as the Clara Dolls. Some say that the dolls relate back to the child painting, adding an air of morbid curiosity to the painting once more. On the pamphlets and on description of the big dolls, there is said to be fifteen dolls. The last doll, Ai, is missing from the collection and this has brought concern and confusion on guests. Some say that it was a typo on the gallery’s part, sure. But the doll is real and missing and this has added more to the haunted gallery theory, increasing the popularity of the gallery in general.
Four: Due to the mysteries of the gallery, some teenagers had decided to break into the gallery during night to see if they can catch any evidence of the ghost girl or anything else that lurks in the gallery. One of them is determined to find the missing and fifteenth doll named Ai, wanting to see if the missing doll can be found or if it is even real. Some of them thinks it is funny to mess with the painting named Homura along with the Clara Dolls. Homura is known by many names. Some had bothered to ignore the creepy little girl’s name and description. After all, there is nothing interesting about her!
Five: After the break-in, one of the teenagers goes missing. The Clara Dolls seem to be smiling more as if they know what happened to the missing teenager that tried to ruin the good-for-nothing painting. The gallery is closed for a few months, only to re-open later. If anyone dares to come into the Fabricated World, the world is a blend of the old Fabricated World and the new Fabricated World. The ruler of this fake world is the lonely and tired looking girl - she is surrounded by a field of red spider lilies and black birds with weird heads. This is her home now. She has lost her mind in the world, mocked by her dolls. They kick the mannequin head at her. While Homura has grown to like the blue dolls because they are at least nice to her, her own dolls will destroy the blue dolls to make stress out Homura. The one who really likes to destroy the blue dolls is Jealousy aka Yakimochi. Nonetheless, the world of Homura is a blend of the old world and her world. As time goes on, Homura begins to change and her once real rose begins to change into that of a fake rose as Homura begins to forget her old life as a living human. Whether she has her memories or not, her loneliness and her pain is always seen. Whether Mary comes back to her former home or not, she will find that things are very much different for probably the worse. For good or for worse, Homura will be there. Waiting for Mary to come back as she can only recall the very faint face of Mary. Can she remember her own name? This is her home. It has always been her home… Her family will never miss her, anyway. Weak and plagued with a heart disease with little to no social skills, the once human girl had been abandoned in the hospital her whole life really. She was too sick to transfer into her new middle school (which crushed her emotionally + mentally since she was happy to leave the hospital) and so she would never meet any new friends. On that fateful day, a nurse had decided to give the depressed child some fresh air and take her to the art gallery out of pity for the lonely girl. The poor nurse had no idea that she will never see the sick girl ever again. Nor that the nurse or anyone remembers Homura. If it helps, Homura doesn’t remember them either and therefore no hard feelings. As a creative person herself, she can be found drawing out her nightmares and her whole life away. She has a routine in the expanded world filled with trickery and magic and mystery. But she is always trying to repair the wounded blue dolls and she always tries to talk to the citizens of her world. Without any memories really to call her own anymore and the torment from her dolls + some other creations, Homura would often isolate herself. She is waiting for anyone to visit her home. Will anyone hear her pleas? Will that golden haired girl come back or was even she just a figment of Homura’s imagination? Sooner or later, Mary also fades from her mind completely and all she has left is just her fake purple rose and her name.
Six: In the pmmm world where everyone totally doesn’t turn into witches and Homura finally gets to be happy… Things take a turn for the worse. Without knowing of Mary’s jealousy, Homura stumbles upon an upset Mary. When Mary becomes a witch, Homura is the first one to find her and watch her turn into a witch. It is also Homura who received the angry attacks from the transformed Mary. As Homura is the one who is attacked, Madoka is the one who rushes in to distract the jealous witch along with Mami. With how strong the witch is, Madoka and Mami end up using a lot of their magic. Madoka is killed suddenly by the witch herself and Homura is the one to kill off the witch with tears in her eyes and Madoka’s blood on her hands. Little does Mary know, Homura can relate to the jealousy and the pain of Mary because Homura too struggles to make such close bonds with others. Especially when Homura must reset the world over and over.
Seven: Believe it or not, Homura almost thinks that Mami and Mary are somehow related to each other due to their striking blonde hair. (Homura wonders how Mami can be so seemingly perfect and cool - while Mary can be so energetic all the time and never tiring herself out! Oh, how the pain burns! Is she truly so stupid and so pathetic like dirt? Madoka seems to be so protective of Mary and also looks up to Mami so much. Oh, how they laugh and laugh and laugh… Homura wonders if the world is mocking her, reminding her that she does not fit into the group…) Despite being only a year older than Mary, Homura finds herself to be quite self-conscious around Mary at first. Just like Mami, it seems like Mary is also destined to be beautiful on both the inside and outside seemingly. Despite feeling even worse about herself when she is around Mary due to how bright and how energetic Mary is, Homura does get drawn close to Mary. When Madoka isn’t around, Mary also brings her joy too! She would help read to Mary, knowing how to read faster than Mary since books were her escape from reality just like how her dress-up dolls were formerly her only company before meeting Madoka and Mami. Despite liking to spend time with Madoka as much as she can, Homura shares her time with Madoka in order to let Mary have some time with Madoka too. (All in all, Homura is truly alone and tends to stay in the background. Madoka, Mary, Mami, Sayaka, Kyoko, and even Kyubey seem to be such a great group… At least they get along better and at least Mary isn’t as useless as Homura. If anyone deserved to have friends, Mary deserved them. Homura was okay with being alone and watching them all be happy. It was fine. Right?
Eight: Despite helping Mary learn how to read better, Homura tends to stumble over her words and her reading voice has not a single trace of emotion like how storytellers should have. But Homura has a big collection of different books. Homura gives Mary a few art books that contain tips, history, and of course art pieces with colored pages. Homura also gives Mary a book on how to garden and folklore centered around nature. From books on the meanings of dreams, flowers, and stars - Homura was always pleased to see the look on Mary’s face. On each book was a handmade bookmark with aspiring artwork on each cover. One of them was a sketch of Mary with watercolor and falling yellow petals showering down over her. Among the falling petals were also blue and red and even a faint hint of purple. On the back of this homemade bookmark is the words: For Mary: please remember to keep smiling and never lose hope in your dreams. Homura tends to like giving gifts to Mary and also to maybe the other girls. But she tends to do it more in a secret manner, too scared that they might be disappointed these mystery gifts are from her. If they find out the gifts are from her, they will most likely not care about the gifts. Homura does not tell anyone that she has been giving each of them gifts once in a blue moon.
Nine: When Mary becomes a witch, Homura is the first one to find her and watch her turn into a witch. It is also Homura who received the angry attacks from the transformed Mary. As Homura is the one who is attacked, Madoka is the one who rushes in to distract the jealous witch along with Mami. With how strong the witch is, Madoka and Mami end up using a lot of their magic. Madoka is killed suddenly by the witch herself and Homura is the one to kill off the witch with tears in her eyes and Madoka’s blood on her hands. Soon after Madoka is killed and the witch of Mary is slayed by Homura’s own hands, Homura would soon later take out Mami before Mami could kill her off in pure denial and shock. With the mixed blood of three dead girls, Homura would mourn the rest of her days until it is time to reset the timeline. The day that Walpurgisnacht arrives, Homura is leaving the shelter and stopped by the grieving Kaname family. Junko recognizes Homura as the sickly girl Madoka spoke of during dinner time and tells her to stay in the shelter, not wanting to lose another one. She already lost her daughter, how could she stand there and let another child perish? Unable to look the mother in the eye, Homura runs off to fight in the storm. She fails to win and resets the timeline, too weak after the mourning of all three girls. It is all of her fault. If it weren’t for the fact that she wanted to save them again in a new timeline, Homura would have allowed herself to waste away in her lonely home in order to punish herself. She was so, so, so stupid and their deaths were on her hands… She will make it right and fix things this time or so she thought.
Ten: When all is said and done, Homura fails like always. So, when she is caught in the experiment of the Incubators - Mary is one of the magical girls dragged into the fake barrier. Instead of being alone, Mary seems to be living with Mami and also Bebe too in a happy little family. The Clara Dolls tend to interact with Mary a lot, making flower crowns for her and then also being quite creepy too. In the barrier and the overall fake city, Mary is trapped in a happy picturesque illusion. Some themes of the art gallery, such as the mannequin heads, can be seen in Homulilly’s world along with many of her own creations inspired by her own imagination or her own memories. Everything seems so perfect for Mary in Homulilly’s world. She never wanted it to end, it seems. But then the world begins to set aflame and the the true nature of the world is revealed. After the fight is done and over with, Mary returns to the isolation field with the others to witness the beautiful sight of the Law of Cycles descending to whisk Homura away to paradise. Right before the very eyes of Mary, betrayal blossoms and intense colors begin to lash out as the Law of Cycles is torn apart. The ending of this story is also the beginning. The betrayal and the very last option from Homura gives birth to a whole new world. This new world and this new universe is at the command of Homura. In order to fulfill her promises, she creates a better world where you can be alive. Not a goddess or a painting or dead or a witch. In this world born from seemingly betrayal, everything is better. The world can spin again and the seasons can change and people can grow instead of constantly living in loops. As the self-proclaimed devil of the universe, Homura knows everything including Mary’s little secret. But Homura keeps her lips tightly sealed with a knowing glint her those tired, damaged eyes. It would be rude to ruin the peace, right? Homura will not tell a soul. After all, she has a universe to handle right now and this time - there will be no more trouble. No more deaths. Or so she tries to tell herself as she looks up at the equally damaged moon on lonely night.
“Mary?” Garry poked his head out into the apartment hallway looking for the young girl but spoke loud enough so hopefully she’d hear him if she was still in the apartment. He hoped she hadn’t left their apartment while he was cooking breakfast. It could be dangerous for someone so young to run off all alone after all. But he was having trouble finding her that morning and had looked through most of the apartment now. Of course he knew how good at hide and seek she was, sometimes he thought she really could just disappear. A thought that mildly terrified him. He assumed this was most likely a game to her which he didn’t mind playing games. He just wasn’t a fan of when he didn’t know if the game hadn’t started yet or not.
“Mary, it’s time to stop playing for a bit. The pancakes are going to get cold.”
Hugs Ib tightly! Very tightly! ...Maybe a little too tightly?
gladly returns the hug! she doesn’t mind her friend hugging her! although her grip might be a tad bit more firm than she’d like. … okay, maybe more than a tad bit — ouch, actually?
