What if the Great War had ended early, and stranded angels and demons on Medius? How would many of the characters be changed, having lived different lives?
The answers to those two questions are the basic premise of A Different Medius, an Alternate Universe Slightly Damned fanfic which, as of Chapter 7, is now a Crossover with Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
Pretty much all the characters have been changed in major ways:
- Buwaro's much smarter and 200% more badass, but still somewhat naive. He looks very different, as well.
- Iratu is completely sober, but still acting very boisterous, and has accidentally hugged at least one person to death.
- Azurai is much more mature, and has mostly reformed, but don't ever, ever, EVER hurt Buwaro in any way ever. Pray for death if you do.
- Kieri's very haughty and distrustful, and still utterly lacking in self-confidence.
- Rhea is completely absent until Sam meets her in canon!Medius.
Their peaceful, happy lives are ripped apart by a bizarre new enemy called the Specters, reality-warping monsters that fall from the sky and destroy entire towns.
And Kyubey has arrived, and he's up to his old tricks again. Oh, dear.
Joining them are the very flirtatious Magical Girl Marina, and post-Rebellion Homura Akemi.
And the formerly minor characters Samantha and Toby are now Buwaro's True Companions.
Did we mention that Azurai and Iratu are a married gay couple? And that Buwaro's Happily Adopted by them?
The fic can be found here. http://archiveofourown.org/works/1354333/chapters/2826853
As of 2021, it seems to have disappeared from the web. Please add links if you find any.
Late-Arrival Spoiler Warning: Everything below this section may have unmarked spoilers for the original Puella Magi Madoka Magica anime, and Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion. If you have not watched the anime and do not want to be spoiled, do not read this page. Many examples on this page are shared with the anime. All spoilers may ruin your enjoyment of the story. Again, avoiding these pages is highly suggested for those who have not seen the show and movie. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
A Different Medius contains examples of:
- Alien Geometries: The Dead Sea resembles a cross between an M.C. Escher painting, and Cthulhu's domain.
- And Call Him "George": Both Buwaro (naturally) and Iratu tend to do this. The latter has accidentally killed at least one person doing this.
- And Then John Was a Zombie: The Akuba are basically Witches under a different name. Also, Specters are what angels and demons become when they die, and they turn every other kind of soul into Wraiths.
- Angels, Devils and Squid: The Angels (and demons, ironically) qualify, the Specters who are the tormented spirits of dead angels and demons are Devils (as are Akuba, as of Chapter 7), and Kyubey, obviously, is the Squid.
- Ascended Extra: Sam and Toby barely got any screen time in canon, here they form a trio with Buwaro.
- Awful Truth: There seems to be one revealed every other chapter.
- For instance, Chapter 2 has Azurai revealed just HOW Buwaro's birth parents died.
- Bag of Holding: Buwaro carries around one of these.
- Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Subverted with Azurai, who turns evil, but actually turns against his tormentors and murders them brutally.
- Blessed with Suck: A Mahou Kodomo will have any wish of theirs granted in addition to powers that they can use for any purpose they want. However there are a few things in the fine print Kyubey doesn't mention. Like having to experience despair equal to the happiness gained from that wish, and spending the rest of their life as a lich fighting Akuba and possibly becoming an Akuba themselves.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Iratu is apparently pretending to be this. Granted, we don't really SEE him do much fighting, but the fact that he got fired from a gig as a professional wrestler for accidentally breaking a guy's back certainly implies it.
- Boot Camp Episode: Horrifically deconstructed. When he was a teenager, Azurai was sent to one by his abusive mother in an attempt to get rid of him. He murders the entire camp, and somehow gets away with it.
- Broken Bird: Homura, of course.
- Brutal Honesty: Sam asks Buwaro whether she's ever gotten him in trouble. Cue chapter-long flashback, in which that happens.
- Buwaro outright asks Kieri why she's even into him in the first place. On their first date.
- Cerebus Rollercoaster This series certainly does this a lot. For example, the first chapter's fairly lighthearted... Then Chapter 2 has the revelation that Azurai murdered Buwaro's birth parents, and Thornwood's destruction. Then they visit Barracalo, and have a great time... Until Buwaro finds Azurai.
- A particularly harsh example is when Sam gets transported to canon!Medius, prevents loads of angst, and even convinces canon!Iratu to join canon!Rhea's party. canon!Iratu's head is bitten off right in front of Sam, which she knows wouldn't have happened had she not been there, and goes on to blame herself.
- Cerebus Syndrome: And how! It basically hits all at once, Thornwood is destroyed, everyone is separated from their parents, Azurai turns out to be the one who killed Buwaro's biological parents, and now they have to deal with the Specters. Still happier than the original, amazingly enough.
- Cessation of Existence: This was thought to be the case in canon for angels and demons. In this fic, however, they become Specters after death.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Azurai, shockingly, does this a lot less often than you'd think.
- Cosmic Horror Story: We have mortals fighting eldritch abominations only to eventually fall to despair, go insane, and become abominations themselves.
- Cure Your Gays: Part of the Boot Camp Episode mentioned above. Azurai is forced to watch the most "attractive" boys in the camp undress in front of him while drinking ipecac.
- Cute Is Evil: Kyubey. His full name is Incubator, as in the incubator of the Akuba that Mahou Kodomo fight and eventually become themselves, if their soul gems are completely corrupted. It's also only a syllable and a half away from "Incubus", continuing the Faustian theme...
- Cuteness Proximity: Sam gets the irresistible urge to pet Iratu on the nose when she sees him sleeping. Buwaro later teases her about this. "Did Sammy wanna pet my big, sleepy Daddy?"
- Another example is when when she hugs Iratu while in Buwaro's body, much to Iratu's surprise, and of course Iratu teases her about it. "Did Sammy-wammy wanna cuddle the big black doggy?"
- Dark and Troubled Past: Encountered much less frequently than in canon, but then again, their dark and troubled present is plenty to worry about.
- Azurai's entire backstory. Driven to murder an entire "troubled youth" camp? Check. Mommy didn't love him? Check! Murdered his adoptive son's birth parents? CHECK. "Dark and troubled" doesn't mean "guiltless".
- Iratu's parents died when he was a kid. As did most of his exes (all by accident).
- Notably averted with Buwaro, who had a happy (if absurdly dangerous, mostly thanks to Sam) childhood. Ironic, considering he arguably had the saddest backstory in canon.
- Dark Magical Girl: Homura is now a literal demon God of Evil.
- Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: Bebo, the only friendly and relatively sane Specter Buwaro and co. have met, actually invites them to tea, at one point. Then again, god knows what he'd have done if Buwaro, who is his biological son, had not been present.
- Dynamic Entry: In Chapter 5, Sam gets several, usually to fix something that went wrong in canon. Too bad these "fixes" ultimately led to everything getting even worse.
- Dysfunction Junction: Arguably nowhere near as bad as canon, but still...
- Azurai had a VERY unhappy life before he met Iratu, killed Buwaro's parents, and adopted Buwaro. It's implied that he's never been completely happy.
- Kieri has to rely on a very fragile facade to function.
- Toby doesn't want to find his parents at all, because he doesn't want his adventure around the world with Buwaro and co. to end.
- It's implied that Iratu feels no self-worth, and would be an alcoholic if he'd never met Azurai, and he fakes stupidity because people want him to, and nobody knows this.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The early chapters have been heavily edited to avert this. Making Buwaro less cranky and more likeable, removing Sam's cussing, and reformatting it to fit the constantly shifting limited third-person perspective are among the more obvious changes.
- Even Evil Has Standards: When Toski kills Toby's parents, puts their corpses in a bag, and labels it "With Love, Azurai", Azurai is absolutely disgusted.
- Bear in mind, this is someone who has killed an entire "troubled youth" camp, staff AND kids, killed a young couple over a payment dispute, and killed a kid's cat because the kid beat up Buwaro. That being said, neither Toby nor his parents ever did anything to Toski.
- Evil Parents Want Good Kids: While Azurai is much less evil than his canon counterpart, he's still done some truly horrible things, like murdering Buwaro's biological parents over a payment dispute. The worst part? He has NO REMORSE WHATSOEVER for it, though he didn't enjoy doing it, either. That being said, however, he genuinely loves Buwaro, and wants him to grow up to be a better person than him. Iratu, however, is actually a good person, if pretending to be not very bright.
- Expy: The Specters are obviously this to PMMM's Witches. Which causes some confusion when actual Witches (called Akuba) are finally introduced.
- Fairy Companion: Duster, naturally.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Sam and Buwaro swap bodies as the result of a Specter's reality-warping, and have to fix it.
- Gay Groom in a White Tux: Exaggerated. When Azurai and Iratu got married, the latter actually wore a dress and veil.
- God's Hands Are Tied: Death doesn't really DO much about the Specters. Arguably justified, Gaia and Syndel were killed trying to fight them.
- Happily Adopted: Buwaro's relationship with his dads is very much this trope, even when he finds out about WHY he's adopted to begin with.
- Have a Gay Old Time: One chapter has a sign in Barracalo unironically proclaiming it to be "The Gayest City in the Archipelago!" Which Buwaro, Sam, and Toby all find hilarious.
- Hope Spot: A particularly cruel example: AU!Sam is swapped with her canon self, and whlie doing other wacky things, she prevents a load of angst by defending Buwaro from being attacked by an angel instead of Kieri, preventing the latter from angsting about betraying her own kind, and stops Buwaro and Kieri from playing the Archery Game, preventing Kieri from losing her grip when she would've seemingly missed a target. And, she even gets canon!Iratu to do a Heel–Face Turn and join canon!Rhea's party. Then Moonshade kills Iratu for betraying him, which wouldn't have happened had Sam not been present.
- Hive Mind: The Incubators, naturally.
- Inhuman Human: Sort of. Bebo isn't technically an actual human, but his appearance as a walking mangled corpse, and his relatively normal and friendly peronality both fit this trope.
- Interspecies Romance: Buwaro and Kieri, naturally.
- Toby's unrequited feelings towards Sam arguably count.
- Karma Houdini: Azurai has murdered several people, yet never receives any comeuppance for this. That being said, Buwaro is not happy when he finds out about it.
- Large Ham: Iratu, who yells just about every other sentence. It's all an act.
- Magic Pants: Averted, like in canon, with Iratu.
- Memento MacGuffin: Buwaro's lucky star is a (mostly non-magic) star-shaped pendant that opens up to reveal a photograph of Buwaro having fun with his dads at the Summer Carnival. Hilariously, in addition to fireproofing it, his dads somehow used ancient magic to have the words "Our Baby" appear on it in fiery letters whenever it's exposed to flame. Buwaro's pretty miffed when he finds out about that.
- Moment Killer: Iratu has several of these.
- Naked People Are Funny: Buwaro accidentally gets his clothes burned off when he sets himself on fire to defeat a Specter (It Makes Sense in Context). This happens right in front of Sam and Toby. Who are fairly nonchalant about it. Jokes are made about what he looks like when naked.
- Iratu also averts Magic Pants.
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Bebo, whose appearance alone (he looks like a strangled corpse with a broken neck, his mouth always bleeding) is disturbing, will casually talk about things like the Specters being the insane souls of dead demons and angels, who enslave every other race by turning them into Wraiths, among other disturbings topics, like it's nothing. He's also quite friendly, and the only nice Specter Buwaro and co. have met so far.
- Noodle Incident: Just what DID Buwaro's evil impostor say to Azurai?
- The Nose Knows: Used when Buwaro finally finds Azurai. People's scents are sometimes described, when the narrative comes from a demon's perspective.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Iratu is implied to practice this, at least part of the time.
- Off with His Head!: This happens to canon!Iratu because of AU!Sam's interventions. Right in front of her.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: When a newly cut-off Kyubey needs to hide from his own kind, what does Iratu propose they do? Why, give him a dye-job, of course! It apparently works.
- Pocket Dimension: Specter and Akuba Barriers are this, lasting until the one creating them is killed, or in the former case, sometimes decides to leave.
- Questionable Consent: Azurai's marriage to Iratu is definitely an example, the former making a sarcastic remark, and the latter thinking it's a proposal. Iratu also jokingly "threatens" to eat Azurai if he doesn't go through with it. Azurai can't tell whether it's a joke, and doesn't care to find out.
- Revenge by Proxy: Overlaps with Disproportionate Retribution when Buwaro gets beaten up by a kid, and Azurai brutally murders said kid's beloved cat.
- Running Gag: Several.
- Buwaro being caught naked.
- Sam having her mouth covered by Buwaro whenever she says something inappropriate.
- Shower of Awkward: While the word "shower" is never mentioned, it's implied in Chapter 5 when Sam first contacts Buwaro with the Magic Mirror.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Azurai, who the fuck did you think? Lazuli, too.
- Small, Secluded World: Medius itself. It's the only real planet in a Pocket Dimension that consists of of the stars, the twin moons, Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, and Medius itself.
- Straight Gay: Azurai still curses like a sailor, and you really wouldn't suspect that he was gay if it weren't for the fact that he's not only married, but also almost always with his very obviously gay husband.
- Through a Face Full of Fur: Averted, but repeatedly stated when they'd be doing it if they could.
- Token Evil Teammate: Azurai fits this, only helping everyone else only because his son wants to.
- Arguably Homura, depending on your feelings about what she did in The Rebellion Story.
- Tsundere: Kieri is a very fragile example of this. It really doesn't take much to make her a Deredere.
- Waif-Fu: Sam has several instances of this, and of course Kieri.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Homura believes she did the right thing in overthrowing Madoka.
- You No Take Candle: Duster, just like in canon, speaks this way.
