What comes after death for a girl who's sold her soul? Quite a bit, as it turns out, and almost all of it unexpected.
A
Puella Magi Madoka Magica fic by
Taker Foxx (of
Imperfect Metamorphosis fame),
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.
Oh, and there's one other problem: Sayaka is, for some reason, a mermaid. A mermaid with no memory of her life, and who insists her name is Oktavia von Seckendorff...
Can be read
here
, commentary provided by Spacebattles
here.
Spoilers for Puella Magi Madoka Magica and the fic itself follow. Tropes Used in Resonance Days include...
- Back from the Dead: Technically, nobody's back from the dead, but Mami showing up was a welcome surprise.
- Big Bad: Oblivion is played as this for everyone. However, the readers are shown pretty quick that it's Reibey that is the true baddie.
- Butt Monkey: Annabelle Lee and Ticky Nikki. The poor girls have it quite hard.
- Cross Over: Several characters from Kämpfer and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha make appearances.
- Cute Monster Girl: All witches who die are here too, but they're much more human-like.
- Cuteness Proximity: The Twins, for Ticky Nikki. They always treat her like a pet, and the thing left her so traumatized that when they're around she hides under the bed.
- Dead to Begin With
- Death Amnesia: Inverted for Witches, who have no memory of their Pre-Freak Out lives, and only a few snippets of their lives as a witch. A few readers have commented on how that, yes, this is probably for the best. Kyoko however, is of the opposite persuasion.
- Death Equals Redemption: Elsa Maria thinks so. And she IS kind of right, seeing how the Puella Magi afterlife works.
- Do Not Call Me Paul: Sayaka insists her name is "Oktavia", which understandably disturbs Kyoko. Turns out, Witches do not identify with their original, human names at all, and insisting on using their original names can eventually drive them insane.
- Also, a more comedic example is Nikki who keeps calling her sister "Annabelly". It annoys her to no end.
- The Dragon: Reibey to Oblivion, he is also...
- Even Evil Has Standards: Word Of God is that Reibey was banished to the Puella Afterlife by the other incubators for unspecified reasons. Given what we've seen, we can certainly make educated guesses.
- Fandom Nod: Some readers on the Spacebattles thread wanted to know how Oktavia, being a mermaid, pooped. They got their answer in chapter 6.
- Four is Death: Reibey's Miniboss Squad? Guess how many members it has. Go on, guess.
- Happily Married: Mami and Charlotte.
- I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: Genocide City.
- Ironic Echo: Anabelle Lee and Tikky Nikky debate on the plural form of octopus, a few chapters later, and Kyoko muses on the same topic.
- Mundane Made Awesome: The snowball war in the Christmas Special "Gift of the Puella Magi".
- Naked First Impression: Oktavia to Kyoko. Charlotte to Mami.
- Naked on Arrival: Evidently all witches when they first come to the afterlife. Then again, as they were mindless Eldritch Abominations when they died, they wouldn't have any clothes to base a mental image on.
- Psycho for Hire: Oblivion has a veritable army of these consisting of witches and magical girls who, well... Let's just say they aren't happy with this afterlife, and want out. Ticky Nikki is an especially unhinged example.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: The small team of Void Walkers Reibey sends after Kyoko and
Sayaka Oktavia: Anabelle Lee, Ticky Nikki, Nie and Artz. - Religious Bruiser: Elsa Maria.
- Starfish Aliens: The calliopes.
- Scenery Porn: In written form: the description of Cloudbreak is... stunning, to say the least.
- Shout Out: The Fezzinigo Swamps. Complete with Rodents of Unusual Size.
- Third-Person Person: Ticky Nikki and Oblivion. Much to Annabelle Lee and Reibey's displeasure.
- Warrior Therapist: Elsa Maria's power is very useful for this... if the people she tried to use it on weren't suffering from Death Amnesia.
- Wham Line: "Tradition. You see, my dear marionette, this isn't the first time this sequence of events has happened. And as I just learned, in each and every reiteration, Kyoko Sakura and her mermaid companion have always refused the Compact." with that line we know Reibey is at least aware of time being looped somehow.
- From chapter 1: "'No, I know my name,' Sayaka said. She smiled in triumph, happy to have remembered that at least. 'It's Oktavia. Oktavia von Seckendorff.'"
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: Mami and Charlotte have been in the afterlife for seven years by the time Kyoko and Oktavia show up. The time between the two death events was a couple weeks in the real world.
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