Recruitment Pitch

SEVERAL WEEKS EARLIER....

There's a creak as the apartment's front door opens, and a tiny black-haired head pokes inside. "I'm back!" Amelia calls. She seems upbeat about something.

Immediately before the door, in the front room, Kreimhild languishes on the couch, leaning against one arm and watching TV. She flicks her narrow eyes up and grunts. In the direction of Alexa's room, a much more cheerful response sounds. "Welcome back!"

"Thanks!" Amelia shouts back, then looks to Kreimhild. A slight frown as she thinks about something...but she walks up to the couch after a moment. "Hey, Kreimhild...got a minute?"

Kreimhild's gaze slides away from the television again, locking onto Amelia. Her eerie pink eyes lack any particular emotion, but she nonetheless perks up after a moment. "Is there something you need, bluebird?"

"...Ah. Yeah. Right." Amelia bobs her head, looking a bit surprised that Kreim went for it, but keeps talking anyway. "I was asking around...about the black coin...and people mentioned how to...fix it. Purification. So...I was thinking...if you wanted to come to the Overcity sometime, you know...Um, you do know where the Wand and Circlet is, right?"

Kreimhild's lip twists into a distinct sneer as a loud, prolonged snort escapes her. She closes her eyes, shoulders trembling in silent laughter. "Aaah, this is rich. 'Purification. 'Fix.' Such lovely language the perfidious Puchuu shove into your mouths," she shakes her head, propping her arm on the armrest and resting her head on her chin. "I know where this place is. But I will not accompany you."

Amelia frowns, folding her arms. "Hey! I know what I'm saying!" She shakes her head. "It's got nothing to do with the Puuchu...they promised there wouldn't be any of those guys involved. Just regular magical girls. They, um, even said /I/ might be able to do it if I learned how, but...Yeah...What if they came here? I could have them meet us in the city? I mean, I'm not sure if it hurts, but...you could be...better. They could reverse...you know." She bobs her head vaguely.

Kreimhild's snickering intensifies. She shakes her head again, turning her focus back to the TV. "I am far better now than I ever was as a magical girl, of this I am sure," she nods sagely. "I have no need of their services."

"...But...why? You could be...human again. You'd still have your magic. You...The black coin felt...evil, and it...Whatever it did to you'd be...it'd be /fixed/. Why wouldn't you want that?" Amelia sounds confused more than anything. The unspoken but very obvious questiom is why she wants to do that to Alexa too.

"Why would I ever want to be human again?" Kreimhild's grin crawls up her face. She glances down at her hand, admiring her nails. Silently, they blacken and begin to sharpen into claws as the sclera of her eyes turns an avian yellow. "They gave me power, und strength, und freedom, for a fair price. I cannot imagine going back."

 Amelia winces, worrying away at her lower lip. Unbidden, her magic surges up inside her as Kreimhild lets her glamor drop and it notices the presence of the monstergirl. Burn. Cleanse. She shakes her head. No, her magic can't realize anything. That'd be silly. And she's not setting Kreim on fire, that'd be wrong too.

She shakes her head, getting her thoughts together and staying untransformed. "But...you don't need it for power, for strength, and...it's...the black coin. It messes with your head. Doesn't it? You could still help people this way, it'd still be your city, and you wouldn't have to keep your magic up just to look...normal. I'm sure Alexa wouldn't mind..."

"You'd still have your magic, and magical girls are strong too...And you'd be free. Magical girls /are/ free. I'm free. I...I don't think using the black coin makes you free."

Kreimhild's eye snaps back to Amelia all too quickly, her bird-like pupil locking onto her like a piece of prey. A low hum comes from the back of her throat as her grin widens. She briskly shakes her head. "Oh, nonono, bluebird, you do not understand. None of you are free. Just because you cannot see the chains does not mean you are free," her grip on the armrest tightens, her claws digging into the fabric. "The

Puchuu meddle in your heads to make you fight their war -- the Ebon Mint, they promised power und freedom, and they did not lie." She looks back to the TV, relaxing. "Of course, they are not truly necessary. Any of our kind can provide."

"...M-meddling in our heads?" Amelia shakes her head furiously. "No...That's not...I...I might not remember...remember everything but...I /know/ I want to do this. I don't think that's true. I...Is that why you wanted Alexa to...you know...use it? Because you think the Puuchu did something to her head?" She frowns, disturbed. "...I know I signed up for...this. I know my thoughts are my own. I /know/ I'm doing something that matters, the right thing. And I think Alexa's the same way."

"I think you're wrong. What if...what if you tried it? If it's that easy to...to be corrupted, why not just be purified for a bit? Don't you...miss being human? Even a bit?"

Kreimhild sighs wearily, her smiling taking on a slightly exasperated edge. "Ja, it is. Though she is a poorer case -- the Puchuu made a mess of it," waving a dismissive hand, Kreimhild shifts lazily in place. "I am sure you did. But the Puchuu are tricksy creatures, and they deceive girls into agreeing to fight for them." She looks over at Amelia again, a glint of recollection in her inhuman eyes. "I do not miss it at all. I fought their fight. No more. Before, I was blind. Sleeping. Now I am awake."

"I wasn't tricked. What happened to Alexa...There's got to a better way to help her." Amelia folds her arms tighter under her modest chest, a mullish look to her sharp features. "So you...gave up?" Amelia looks at Kreim intently, frowning as though looking at a puzzle. A puzzle she's trying to figure out. "And...you don't miss anything about how things used to be? Anything at /all/?"

Kreimhild's amusement collapses for a moment, a scowl worming down her face as she narrows her eyes at Amelia. She flexes her fingers, limbering her claws. "I did not 'give up,'" she spits out, offended. "I needed power, more than the rats would give me. I took it," she says plainly. "I miss nothing. I am greater now than I ever was before. The redcoat will benefit even more than I did, of this I am sure."

Amelia frowns right back. "I'm not." She says bluntly. "Alexa...She should stay human. She...cares. It's why I..." Amelia trails off, shaking her head. "I don't want something to mess with her head, and...and I think a coin would do that. If you think she's who she is because of something Puuchu did...I think you're wrong. She's just a good person. She's already a good magical girl, just as she is."

"I'd never let some kind of coin mess with my head just for some cheap power-up." Amelia says proudly. "If you want to help Alexa...there's got to be another way to do it. I...I've met all kinds of magical girls in the Wand already. There's got to be one who can do something about her magic without...that."

Kreimhild sighs, nostrils flaring, staring at Amelia with growing distaste. "There is not," she says simply, shaking her head. She turns away, her lip curling back into a sneer. "Fine, fine, she is good, so you say. I was good, once. But now I am better. Do you see?" She shakes her head again. "There is no need even for the coin, if that is what you fear. I can provide it myself."

Amelia freezes, looking deeply disturbed. "How...How's that any better? If it's the same thing..." She shakes her head. "I think you're wrong." She insists again. "There's got to be another way. And I'll...I'll find it. I just wish you'd think about it. Whoever you were before...what you are now...There has to be someone, something about that you didn't hate. That you miss now that you're a...monstergirl."

Kreimhild drums her claws against her cheek, suddenly sullen. "There was. I had... friends. Back home," her fingers curl into a fist with a faint tremor. "All that was taken from me." She shakes her head as if to clear it. "But it was thanks to the Mint und their services that I had my revenge."

Amelia blinks. She starts to reach out with one small hand...but thinks better of it and lowers her arm again. There's a pause before she replies again. "I...Sorry to hear that." She says, and means it. If someone hur..no, killed Alexa... "But...you did get your revenge, right? You got back at...whoever...did it." She says, surprisingly gently for...her. "You got what you needed. Do you really need the Mint's power anymore?"

Part of her wonders just how /long/ it's been since Kreim lost her friends.

Kreimhild grunts, staring at the briefly offered arm disdainfully. "Of course I do. Yes, I had my revenge -- but what if I must take revenge again?" She shakes her head, leaning into the couch. "Beside, it is better this way. I have no more part in the Puchuu's games. I prefer this."

"But...you /don't/ actually have to..." Amelia frowns, deeply. "What good is power if you don't have something worth using it for..." Amelia shakes her head, cutting herself off at the start of another rant with a visible effort. "Saving people isn't a game..."

Amelia bites her lip, changing tack again. The awkwardness in the air's thick enough to cut with a knife. She takes a deep breath. "You...you lost what mattered to you. I...I get that. But that doesn't make it wrong to...to do things that way. You...you made a difference. I'm sure of it." Her rhetoric is stumbling, clumsy, and she's suddenly hesitant but she keeps going anyway.

"I have my nest," Kreimhild snickers, looking around her. However, the satisfaction evaporates instantly. "Und yet, there is more to be done..." Turning back to Amelia, she contemplates her for a moment longer, her bitterness plainly visible. "Did we? We fought their war, yes. But if you go to my city now, you will find girls in our places, fighting our enemies. I will have no more part in it."

"...I'm sure of it. People are /alive/ because of what you did, back then, I'm sure of it. You...fought monsters, right? Every monster you killed, that's someone else you saved. Just because there's always another monster...that doesn't make them not worth fighting." Amelia's suddenly earnest. Certain. Confident. "You...Even if you're...done, that doesn't undo the good you did, before. It doesn't make the lives you /saved/ mean any less." She pauses.

"What you did /mattered/. You helped people."

Kreimhild hums again. This time, it sounds more like a growl. Her expression manages to darken further, though she seems decidedly unsurprised by this argument. She shakes her head. "Maybe so," she nonetheless admits, contemplating her claws again. "But the Puchuu would say that I, now, am worth fighting and destroying. What they call 'corruption' -- it is no more dangerous than they are. There are wild monsters, yes. But the Puchuu grind up girls by the thousands, and we are to think they are better? No."

"...I'm not doing it because of the Puuchu." Amelia mutters. "I'm doing it because...they're not /wrong/ about there being monsters. And...I think there's something off about corruption too. The Puuchu are assholes. Fine. Sure. I don't even remember mine, and if I see Alexa's I'm setting it on /fire/." There's actual venom behind her last word there. "But...that doesn't mean the monsters, the wild monsters don't need fighting either. Or that corruption's good, just because the Puuchu don't like it."

Kreimhild smiles again, the expression decidedly bitter. She rests a clawed hand against her chest. "What of me? I am 'corrupt.' Do you not trust me?" She bats her eyelashes.

There's a long moment of silence.

"...I think you think you're doing the right thing. I don't think you're actually a bad person, or Alexa wouldn't trust you like she does." Amelia finally says. For her, that's downright weasely language. "I think you're trying to help Alexa, in your own way. But if you just let yourself...If you /tried again/...I think it'd help. Because...well, you're a person. Not a monster." She shrugs. She hasn't actually answered the question...

This does not go unnoticed by Kreimhild. Her baleful grin widens, the outlines of a beak springing across her face. She shakes her head with a sigh as the smile runs away. "No. I am both. One in the same," she rises from her seat, rolling her shoulders. "I am done fighting alien wars. The most precious possession you have in this world is your own people. Your... friends. Remember that, bluebird."

Amelia frowns, and actually starts to shake her head, but stops at her latest words, craning her head back to look up at Kreimhild. "...I can't argue with that." She says, grudgingly, then sighs. "I guess...that's that, then. If you're sure. I mean, I'm pretty sure I can track them down whenever if you ever change your mind..."

Kreimhild's sneer leaps back into place. She reaches up to muss Amelia's hair, shaking her head. "Und if you change your mind, you know where to find me."

"...Right." Amelia isn't even trying to hide her own lack of enthusiasm, half-heartedly shrinking back from the headpats. Choosing corruption...Choosing to do something like that to her own head...Choosing to no longer save people...She can't imagine that. "Um. Yeah. Later then..." She bobs her head awkwardly once at Kreim, and walks off.

...Well, that could have gone worse. Probably.