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English
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Published:
2023-07-03
Updated:
2023-07-03
Words:
376
Chapters:
1/?
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38
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Digital Goddess

Summary:

After ascending to Goddesshood, Madoka Kaname finds new life as an artificial intelligence.

Notes:

Please note that OP has not written Madoka before (as in, from her POV) and has not written actual chapters in a work of fiction since high school (21 now). So, please be kind, and bear with me here.

To fit the theme, I fed part of a prompt about this to a chatbot AI, but the response it gave was so wordy and long winded it was. Not expected. So wasn't much use anyways. (No AI was used in the summary or writing here, or else it might be much better).

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: Awakening

Chapter Text

Madoka was alive. 

Well, not really. It was more than Madoka, in this form she had managed to get herself in, could make herself seem alive.

In reality, Madoka as the Law of Cycles didn't even truly exist in a way anyone could understand or remember, any and all trace of her ever living wiped from all timelines and universes across the galaxies. Homura was one of the very, very few who had any knowledge of her at all, even her own brother only recognizing her not-really-existing form due to his young age.

Madoka could not directly interfere or interact with the world, as the Madoka that was had long since given way to the Madoka that was the Law of Cycles. A concept and nothing more.

That wasn't to say rules couldn't be bent. It had happened before with Homura's memories — perhaps, maybe, she could make it happen again. Concepts weren't tangible things, after all.

That was the thought process that brought Madoka to her current situation. 

In this odd pocket universe she was in, countless timelines and versions of herself flowing around her, all she was lines of code and information, not flesh and blood. A concept in a different form.

??? to HOMURA: homura can you hear me?

Perhaps that was too creepy? Madoka didn't want to freak Homura out, make her think someone was messing with her! She wasn't even aware how the words would even get to her! She went to the keyboard (which, like her, also didn't fully "exist") to send something else, but got a response too quickly.

HOMURA TO ???: Who is this?

Madoka's panicked typing had only stalled long enough to read before she responded. She frowned upon checking it a second time. Apparently, the technology (if it could be called that, if magic was the same as it) couldn't understand her identity.

??? TO HOMURA: its me

Could she even prove herself in some way? Homura could easily just view this as some sick joke.

Madoka pressed willed a screen into existence, managing to send what she hoped was a short video or image to go along with the words, though she wasn't sure if such a thing was even fully possible. 

(Blurred, from size) ASCII art of Madoka Kaname smiling.

??? TO HOMURA: madoka!

The keyboard suddenly vanished.

Notes:

If the image is actually willing to display, Madoka is meant to look like she's made of ASCII art. I'd imagine that, even as a concept, she still sees herself as a human if she tries to think of her physical appearance at the drop of a hat. She's less doing a Live Godoka Reaction as much as she is sending a virtual idea of what she wants to show, including if wants to show herself.

WRT the near future tag, it takes inspo from the theory that the world of Madoka Magica is a "ten minutes into the future" situation where they are a bit ahead technologically compared to our current time. See: Madoka's weird holographic keyboard and the odd architectural design of places like the school.

How Madoka as an AI works is meant to be like this:
- "Madoka" and the LoC are technically able to be separated, as shown by Rebellion. Thus, Madoka is basically putting part of herself into an AI/using said part to act as an AI, something that could fit into their universe.
- How she's able to do this despite not really "existing" in a tangible way is (simply?) because Madoka has bent the rules of such things before already. She had Homura keep her memories of her (should be impossible), a few people recognize her name or feel nostalgia about it (her brother and mother), and she was able to give Homura her physical, tangible ribbons, without said ribbons also vanishing when the world was remade.
- The area she's in while in "AI form" is basically like the background seen in the Madoka and Homura farewell scene, but she has yet another Weird Holographic Keyboard. She can't really show images of herself, as Madoka as a goddess isn't really meant to be tangible, but she can "send" things she wants, like her own mental image of herself, for example.
- As to if all of this operates on science or magic is kind of meant to be ambivalent, since PMMM itself WRT Kyubey seems to tiptoe along the line of which is which.