History Fanfic / ResonanceDays

A ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' fic by Tropers/TakerFoxx, ''Resonance Days'' picks up immediately after Kyoko sacrifices herself to destroy the Witch that was once Sayaka. Both girls suddenly find themselves in an afterlife populated exclusively by magical girls...and Witches. They must learn the rules of their new existence while on the run from the mysterious Oblivion, and her right-hand Incubator, Reibey.

In addition, there is [[https://takerfoxx.tumblr.com/post/187751840932/rd-walpurgis-nights-table-of-contents Walpurgis Nights]], which follows an alternate universe where Homura and Madoka witched out together in an early timeline. The spinoff is complete on the author's tumblr, but is currently being posted as a reworked version on fanfiction.net and [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/23570146/chapters/56547961 archive of our own]].

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!Tropes Used in Walpurgis Nights include...

* AdaptationExpansion:
** Because the plot is following two arriving witches (Gretchen and Homulilly) instead of a magical girl and a witch who are actively being pursued by the BigBad, a lot more of how society works and functions is focused on and given greater detail. In particular a full procedure is established for introducing new arrivals to the aferlife, where in Resonance Days the situation at hand kept Kyoko and Oktavia from participating in it despite being in place.
** The nature of Walpurgisnacht and how it is said to be a fusion of multiple witches is expanded on, being a type of witch that is a fusion of several Witches that occurs naturally but rarely. They can be made up of as few as two witches or as many as twenty-eight.
* AdaptationalJobChange: Instead of working at the Nautilus Platform harvesting mermaid eggs and seaweed as Mami and Charlotte did, Caneloro works at the local bakery The Honey Hive as a manager and Charlotte works at a bookstore.
* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Ophelia is a lot nicer than Kyoko, as the loss of her more traumatic memories leave her a lot less jaded and irritable. She's still the one most likely to get into trouble between herself, Oktavia, Charlotte, and Candeloro, but is overall a more well-adjusted, friendly sort.
* AgeLift: In ''Resonance Days'', Kyoko and Oktavia are the same mental age as when they died, having only spent a short time in the afterlife. In ''Walpurgis Nights'', on the other hand, the two died at the same time as Mami and Charlotte, and the story follows two characters who died some time later. As a result, Ophelia and Oktavia are both in their twenties.
* AmbiguousSituation:
** [[spoiler: At the end of the four's origin story arc, Ophelia sees a vision of her original self, Kyoko, asking her to take care of everyone for her. While Dr. Cynthia already described the idea of the old self still being around in some form as an expanded take on the original continuities 'do not call witches by their old name' concept, the above is something beyond what that entails and what it exactly means is hard to say.]]
** Where is the Walpurgisnacht that Homura and Madoka slew before they turned into witches? It would have arrived some time before they did but there is of yet no indication of where or who it was. In addition, WordOfGod clarified that it wasn't the twenty-eight member Walpurgisnacht that Dr. Cynthia mentioned.
* AscendedExtra:
** Homura and Madoka in ''Resonance Days'' are TheGhost, ironically for being the two human characters whose names comes up frequently while still alive, with their witch counterpart Homulilly and Gretchen being two of the main characters in ''Walpurgis Nights''.
** Dr. Cynthia, mentioned a few times in the spin-off stories, appears prominently here as a major supporting character.
* CursedWithAwesome: Gretchen is initially disturbed at how her entire legs are replaced with weird black wires, but quickly realizes they're actually very useful when trying to escape from her bindings at the spawn site she woke up at.
* CrucifiedHeroShot: When Ophelia woke up in the afterlife, she was crucified and impaled with a spear, echoing the crucifixion of christ.
* DarkerAndEdgier: How witches arrive in the afterlife is a lot, ''lot'', more creepy and unsettling than in Resonance Days. In Resonance Days, Oktavia was left in a tub of scalding hot water and Charlotte was in a chair next to a hospital bed surrounded by a lot of medical equipment. Their 'starting points' in Walpurgis, by contrast, involve being stabbed by her own weapons and having her hands crushed, and being force-fed sweets before being set on fire, respectively.
* FlamingHair: Ophelia's witch remnant is her hair being made of fire. She has to wear a special covering and fireproof her everything as a result.
* FowlMouthedParrot: Cheese the Parrot, who pretty much only repeats a certain set of words that Ophelia once said. These words being her losing her cool at a really bad wrestling match, so Cheese is infamous for having a very foul mouth.
* FreakinessShame: Homulilly thinks everyone will be scared of her for her skeletal arms and shoulders and wears long gloves to hide them. Working on this is a long term project by Gretchen, Dr. Cynthia, and Ophelia.
* HappilyMarried: Like Mami and Charlotte in Resonance Days, Candeloro and Charlotte. Oktavia and Ophelia are this in all but name, as they aren't the types to actually marry as Cynthia describes it.
* HighSchoolAU: Due to the focus shifting from Kyoko and company trying to get [[spoiler:her sister]] back from Reibey to the arrival of two new witches to the afterlife, we get to see the normal methods of integration. They just so happen to involve classes, dorms, and supervisors. Ophelia even mentions having tons of demerits back when she was in the system.
* LastNameBasis: Kriemhild Gretchen tends to just go by Gretchen, since ''Kriemhild'' is difficult to pronounce for someone not used to germanic languages.
* MergerOfSouls: Two or more witches that merge into a Walpurgisnacht are rumored in universe to have their souls combined until they are killed, and even after they split back apart (as was the case with Gretchen and Homulilly, and the quartet of Charlotte, Candeloro, Oktavia, and Ophelia), their souls remain connected and build on each other forever after, and they usually stick together afterwards in the afterlife. While not confirmed fact in universe, it is apparent that the two former Walpurgisnachts we do see in story remain close, and the one massive one that Dr. Cynthia mentions, made up of ''twenty-eight'' witches, live and work together in a machine shop somewhere outside of Freehaven.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Madoka and Homura defeated two Walpurgisnachts. One made of their former friends and Charlotte, the other the canonical one at the end of the time loop. The latter being a HeroicSacrifice as they were left without magic and a slowly corrupting set of soul gems without a Grief Seed on hand.
* ParentalHypocrisy: One that saves everyone's bacon over being applied. While Ophelia and company are quite willing to admit that they snuck out all of the time as new witches, [[spoiler: Gretchen and Homulilly, who despite being their same physical age and their old friends, are their juniors in the afterlife. And being led around by a piece of bad news named Brooklyn as part of a scam that targets new witches, let alone one that has even more sinister undertones, warrants immediate intervention.]] That being said, afterwards Ophelia is quick to ask for them to be let off easily for being hoodwinked, repeatedly, in lieu of a personal reward.
* PlantPerson: Downplayed. Homulilly has a spiderlily growing out of her head.
* ReincarnationFriendship: While the bond that forms between a Magical Girl and Witch who die at the same time is more focused on in Resonance Days, the friendships that the dead Witches had before witching out and dying do have a similar effect. Gretchen and Homulilly feel like they know Oktavia, Candeloro, and Ophelia from somewhere, and the three in turn hit it up with the two very quickly with a similar feeling of familiarity. It is particularly noteworthy in Homulilly's case, who struggles to connect with most people but very quickly and easily bonds with the three, as well as Charlotte to a lesser extent.
* RuleOfSymbolism: The way each witch arrive in the afterlife is reflective of who they were in life, and rather heavy on the symbolism.
** Gretchen and Homulilly are fused to a massive clock, since in life they were both caught up in Homura's timeloop.
** Ophelia was crucified and impaled with her own spear, in a church filled with creepy dummies, since her wish caused her preacher father to unwittingly brainwash his congregation.
** Oktavia had her hands crushed, since her wish was to heal the hands of Kyosuke Kamijou.
** Candeloro was repeatedly crushed by car wrecks, since she made her wish after nearly dying in a car crash.
* ShrinkingViolet: Homulilly is a shy as pre BreakTheCutie Homura in canon, but with added hang-ups caused by dying, freakiness shame of her having skeletal arms, and feeling like she killed her past self by existing. She barely wants to interact with anyone other than Gretchen, and later Candeloro, Oktavia, Ophelia, and Charlotte, and some of the staff to a lesser extent, and ends up being one of the harder witches in her batch not because she is prone to misbehaving, but because of just how timid and co-dependent on Gretchen she is, a problem even Homulilly recognizes she has.
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: One of the Magical Girls in Homulily and Gretchen's class's first reaction to seeing wild monkeys is wanting to cut off their tails. This disturbs everyone involved, as otherwise this girl was actually pretty amiable.
* WhatIf: The universe diverges based on a version of the third timeline where Sayaka, Kyoko, and Mami all witch out during Charlotte's witch fight and Madoka and Homura lack a grief seed at the end to restore Homura to full power and MercyKill Madoka before going on to the fourth timeline.

* FantasticRacism: WordOfGod is that there are regions of the afterlife where Witches are hated and oppressed, though none of the main characters have so far encountered this.

**

* MundaneMadeAwesome: The snowball war in the ChristmasSpecial ''Gift of the Puella Magi.''

* AgeLift: In the ''Ghosts of Christmas Past'' oneshot, Momo appears in the afterlife and is actually in her sixties, despite [[OlderThanTheyLook looking the same as she did in life]], since she died about a year before Kyoko and that translated to over fifty years in the afterlife. Kyoko struggles a bit with adjusting to her little sister being that much older than her.

For better understanding of this story, read also [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9755679/1/First-Time First Time]], the prequel which tells the story of how Mami and Charlotte coped with their inner demons and eventually got together. Another prequel story [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8831371/1/Gift-of-the-Puella-Magi Gift of the Puella Magi]] also covers this time period.

* ChristmasSpecial: ''Gift of the Puella Magi'' is a 19,000-word one-shot about Mami and Charlotte celebrating Christmas with their friends in Pinespire a few years before the main fic starts up.

!Tropes Used in Resonance Days include...

** According to the canonization of a fanmade trivia, [[spoiler:Yoshikage Kira]]'s ghost may be trapped in Freeheaven. If that's the case, then it is a spoiler for Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable. Too bad for all single Puella Magi/Witches looking for a het relationship, this ghost is asexual and [[spoiler:[[{{Catchphrase}} just want a quiet afterlife]]]].

* CallBack: In Mami's DreamSequence in ''Restless'', there are two; Firstly she introduces herself to the punk hostess as "Mami, Mami Tomoe" which the hostess mistakes as "Mamimami Tomoe" just like Akia. Later, Dream!Kyoko remarks that Oktavia is laying more mermaid eggs than they can sell.

** The slave trade exists [[WretchedHive in the darker corners of the Afterlife]]. Soul essence is commonly extracted like a reusable, limitless supply of Drug!Soylent Green. Those that are taken into this life a generally stuck there for the rest of eternity. [[DespairEventHorizon Assuming they still have the will to try and escape.]]

* SadisticChoice: In her dream, Kyoko is told by Dream!Elsa Maria that she can only chose the Fallen Warrior (Oktavia) or the Unloved Child (Momo), but not both. Kyoko elects to save the Warrior, and then go back for the Child.