Gardner/Crawford

Dorothy Crawford, the fully colored version while there's a sepia tone version of Dorothy Gardner are standing right across each other, viewing each other differently.

'Who are you?' Gardner asks Crawford.

'I'm you. But far off from the future.'

'The future?' Gardner is confused as she examines the body.

Gardner and Crawford walk up to each other, examining each other and their choice of attire.

Gardner comments, 'What interesting clothing you're wearing there.'

Crawford replied, 'I really had an interesting choice of clothing myself back then.'

Gardner nods. 'So why are you here?'

'I was here to catch up on my history, like I had literally lost 123 years of history.'

'1, 2, 3!' Gardner is being playful.

'Heh!' Crawford smiles. 'I made a somewhat joke about that being #123 in the Magical Girl American Billboard.'

'Magical Girl American Billboard?' Gardner is confused.

'Yeah, but it's quite an odd situation for the whole thing from the year 2023.'

'Wow, you have come a long way.' Gardner gives her an awkward smile. 'Care for a walk?'

'Would love to.'

Crawford walks next to Gardner, walking back to her old home at the time before Oztown, Kansas.

Smiles to see nothing but an endless field of pure crops and seeing a small assortment of houses.

'I can't believe this small amount of space will become Oztown.'

'Oztown? Like our friend Ozcar Marvel?'

'Yeah.' Crawford awkwardly scratches her head. 'You can't believe who his grandchildren are, it caught me by surprise.'

'Really?' Gardner looks confused. 'Because I always assumed to myself that he would marry such a lovely girl.' She seems to be dazed as she's twirling around.

'I wouldn't twirl that much if I was you… wait a minute, I am you. Nethertheless, where I'm from now, he isn't the only boy or girl to be interested in.'

Gardner was caught by Crawford's certain phrase. "Boy or girl?"

'Yes. The future has all sorts of sexualities, even some I still clearly don't understand but I kind of get the gist of it. Actually, I kind of fit under the asexuality aspect or at least love the term and definition of it. But there's also "sub-sex" which I'm gonna refer to for now till a better term comes along, there's Greysexual, and Demisexual.'

Gardner covers her mouth while both heads are steaming up and her eyes start twirling out of confusion. 'Greysexual? Demisexual?'

'Yes. I think there's a thing called Aromantic, but it's mostly for romance which…' Crawford sees herself and notices that in her old way of life, she still holds some romance into her heart. 'I still kept that part, since sexuality doesn't really bother me. At first.'

'It's still confusing to me. And quite shocking to see that you're discussing about sex out in the open like this. So, daring.'

'Believe me, I had that same look when I saw the colorful flags.' Crawford laughs. 'Hell, speaking of colorful flags, even our given name is a reference to avoid public hostilities.'

"To avoid public hostilities?" Gardner looks around and only sees other folks, minding their business. "Meaning…?'

"A Friend of Dorothy." Crawford smiles. 'Made famous by Dorothy Parker, but I think it might be from some Gale girl, I think.' Crawford giggled which made Gardner completely baffled.

Seeing the bricks that are oddly colored at the side of the road.

Crawford walked up to it then picked it up. Brought actual color into the sepia tone world, a yellow brick.

'I can't believe we actually colored these.' Crawford looks down to see it while Gardner is surprised by the color change.

'How did you brighten that brick?'

'It's something I remember seeing. But now, seeing the yellow bricks at the side of the road, I guess that yellow brick road has turned into the Yellow Brick Bridge.'

'What else happened from that time period?'

Throughout their walk what seems like a cycle of going by the same houses till they hear a familiar woman calls them out.

An elderly looking woman walks up to them. 'Dorothy!'

Gardner is completely afraid as the elderly woman is shouting out at her while threatening her with a cane, threatening her on caning her.

'I'm sorry, Mrs. Green!'

Dorothy is not in the mood to encounter Almira Green, the person who made her a Witch.

She sucks it up then acts as herself.

'Sorry, Mrs. Green. I woke up roughly today.'

'Then you better straighten up, or else you'll get a caning.' Mrs. Green wobbles back to her home.

Gardner notices Crawford's reaction. 'Something wrong here?'

Crawford explains the situation to her old self as they continue to walk the never ending road of repeating.

'Oh my!' Gardner has her mouth covered from the turn of events. 'I am deeply sorry to hear that. I wouldn't know what to do when it comes to that situation.'

'Don't worry. It's just something I had to deal with. Even though she hasn't come back, it's something I wanted to clear the air.'

'Ever thought of killing her?'

'Part of me wanted to, but I would be betraying my ideals when I woke up. This second chance of life, a new life that I had been given. Even though my friends and I don't really agree since they all have killed someone at least once.'

'Well, we're familiar with killing ourselves.'

Crawford stops then grits her teeth out of frustration. Gardner gives her a soft back rub.

'Wasn't our fault, really.'

'It was our fault. Having to put down Toto was the hardest thing I had ever done. I couldn't sleep that night, then the next day, I ended up getting a beating by Mr. Marvel. The world itself from here, it feels like everything is against me.'

Crawford pulls out her Magical Girl Locket.

'And this, when I woke up, seeing this was becoming more important every day. I was battling Witches, something out of a fairy tale.'

'But you're joining this Academy because you want to save everyone right?' Gardner is leaning at the side as she grabs the Locket to examine it out of confusion.

'And from what you had told me, what do you think about when you use this?'

'My family and friends. Who else can I think about? Ollie, she has her brother. Kayla has her younger twin sister. Abbie got Mrs. Webster. Lorona wanted to protect all the bean cans all over the world, but that one is weird. She's quite weird.'

Gardner activated the Locket to reveal her Magical Girl uniform to be the same as Crawford, still in sepia tone.

Slightly embarrassed by her attire. 'How can you wear such attire?'

'Sadly for you, you have to get used to it. Thankfully, I haven't dealt with anything indecent. At least not at first.'

'And how can you use this Devilish thing?' Gardner is twirling around in her outfit.

'Unlike transforming, which is the easy part, it's what comes after that's the hard part. It's the part where I must find that push to use the uniform powers. And my reason?'

Crawford then walks up to magically sees a small grave for her once dog.

'Was trying to prevent people from dying under my watch.'

Gardner slightly lays back as she's floating in the air. 'This feels nice.'

Crawford smiles. 'It is. Should see the city though.'

'City?'

'It's basically a big town.'

'Ah! You mean the town down this road?'

They magically fly towards a small wooden settlement.

'I remember the hard candy, that melting feeling that lays on your tongue. Or the jerky stripes? Such wonderful taste. Or that one time the carnival came to town and we tried that cotton candy, so sweet!'

Crawford smiles sadly at the town. 'Things are quite simple around here. So peaceful. Honestly, I should be more grateful that I did come from this time period. Problematic as it is, a girl like me can only dream of having this peace again.'

'This time period is quite beautiful and peaceful. What more do you want? A complicated life? A complicated world? A world where there is no violence happening around you, just simple problems that can be solved with simple solutions.'

'It is quite a wonderful time period. Nothing to worry about.' Crawford seems to look sad but smiling at the time as she's the place that will be known as Oztown.

'Dorothy!'

Both Gardner and Crawford recognized the voice and said the name together, 'Auntie Emily?'

'We should go see her.' Gardner excitedly said to Crawford. 'It would be wonderful to see such a lovely woman.'

'Yeah…' Crawford is looking around. 'Can you go ahead of me? I want to take a stroll around here.'

'Very well. I will be waiting at the front porch.' Gardner happily flies towards the building while Dorothy then slowly uses her Witch's magic to float around.

Flying up to the skies till she sees a rainbow, then goes through it to stand on the other side of it, with Crawford seeing the world where she just came from. The modern world.

Unlike seeing the world itself, she sees the modern world in a noir black and white with grey shadings and red for blood.

Looking back to see her old sepia tone world where she originated from, she sees the black and white modern world.

Sitting on the rainbow and looking concerned about her place in the modern day. Seeing how peaceful time she came from, while how chaotic the modern world is.

Looking back to see the Confederate folks from her original time period.

'I remember seeing this part.'

Dives back into the sepia tone world to fly to observe the memory of seeing the Confederate group of the Klan, Kansas branch.

Looking down to see her Uncle Henry as a member, looking disappointed as they're about to harass an elderly African-American couple.

Looking up while the events are happening to see another racial attack in the modern time period.

'The only thing that seems to carry on from my time period is racism and hate.'

Grits her teeth as she continues to watch her time period, but does a comparison of both time periods. Comparing the violence and problems, she seems ignorant but blissful of her time period.

'But, from my time period, it does feel more comfortable by having small problems that I can solve easily. It's only a small group of people to deal with. And with power, it's only fair to assert my power down onto those who abused their power.'

Looking over the rainbow.

'And if I can bring this method and thinking into that world, I can make a better world. A proper and decent world. And if the Magical Girls can bring a world like this, then perhaps I could fully join them. Even the Magical Girls have bad apples in it, but I would rather have some bad apples instead of a basket full of bad apples with only a couple of good apples in it.'

Crawford seems to grin over the idea as she sees the fire of the house that the Confederate had caused with her background is having some clouds and thunderstorms.

'It's just a little fair justice to bring down this way of ignorance. Perhaps, it would be better that way. And if I could bring Makayla, Ollie, and Abbie to my side, abandoning this whole Witchcraft activity, we can make a world of a better place. But if they don't join, then perhaps…'

Crawford slowly turns to see Almira Green and focuses on her, imagining her burning up for betraying her with her friends till she shakes her head and her eyes refocus on everything. Holding her head.

'Why? Why would I want that? That's not how I wanted to be, nor raised to be. It's not about power or asserting power, it's about the teachings of being a good person. Not trying to be a tyrant over them. Abusing my power that I had been given, from both sides.'

Crawford flies down and uses her magic to hold them down while helping out on saving the couple.

'Thank you, young lady.' The elderly man thanks Crawford.

'Why did you save us?'

Crawford looks at Uncle Henry who's been knocked down from what seems like he was trying to stop it but it could be her own imagination. 'But I can't let innocent people who have done nothing wrong to the community. But after hearing this, I just felt guilty. I had left people dead, put down Toto, and even about to run away from my problems.'

'And what made you think that you want to be a good person?' Mrs. Green is behind her speaking in full color as Crawford. 'You still have hate for me, and you do have problems in the past. Like your thinking about the modern times.'

'Granted, I can't forgive you for what you had done, but I will confront you when that day comes, Mrs. Green. I should head home, I guess I could walk down the yellow brick lane in order to learn more about my problems.'

Dorothy looked in the distance to see a bright light at the end of the rainbow of her place in 1900. She looks till she hears a dog bark next to her. A small Terrier dog with a name tag on it, Toto.

'Toto...'

Dorothy picks up the dog.

'Let's go for one more walk in Kansas.'