Ribbon of the Goddess

Ribbon of the Goddess
Name	Ribbon of the Goddess
Location	Cult of Hope Mitakihara, Earth (Assumed) with Akemi Homura

A relic of the Goddess. The Goddess gave at least two ribbons to Homura, who then gave one to the Mitakihara Four, which is currently in the possession of the Cult of Hope in the Ribbon Chamber. Viewing of the Ribbon in the Ribbon Chamber is only permitted to magical girls.

On rare occasions, those in the presence of the Ribbon receive visions, purportedly sent by the Goddess. Such visions sometimes include predictions of the future, so that those predictions might be prevented or acted upon. Such visions are also "cosmically censored"; technological memory tapping cannot perceive memories of them, and results of telepathic attempts to prove their existence are also fuzzy. (As an interesting exception, although it's not yet common knowledge, it seems Version 2 TacComps are able to perceive their hosts' ribbon experiences.)

Properties

While the Ribbon is heavily protected by the "magic of the magical girls in this organization", no magic has ever been found on the Ribbon itself. In spite of this, certain actions are demonstrated to cause visions, specifically assuming a posture of prayer (hands clasped) or closing eyes as in meditation.

Visions

(Kayfabe warning, these items will be listed by chapter rather than in-universe chronology due to the opaque nature of some of them.)

Ch. 9 - Echoes

Asaka mentions that the ribbon gave her a vision of her dead friend.

While giving the tour, Ryouko also gets a vision in parts. First, she is shown an empty room, the chamber containing old fashioned church pews , finding herself looking at the Ribbon in her own hands . She's shown a secluded alleyway, a shattered soul gem, finding herself looking at Yuma, calling herself "a monster" as her soul gem swirled darker. .

As the scene changes, she finds herself contacting some kind of glass or plastic, the visage of a hospital relayed by the color blue, distorted through the enclosure. Yet again, the scene changes and Ryouko finds herself seeing through the eyes of Simona del Mago on her first day in class, watching as she realized she was watching herself through that perspective , the classroom falling away to white world, empty except for a park bench and two girls.

The two girls talked, a younger Asaka and another girl that was tentatively named "Alice", as they both realized they were in the presence of an unknown figure. The entity showed Asaka and "Alice" a vision within the vision, the figure showing one of Ryouko's memories, that of a "purple magical girl". As the two girls disappeared, Ryoukoo was shocked she could see the face of Law of Cycles, the figure putting her finger over her mouth, imploring her to tell no one that she'd seen her.

Following the call to silence, Ryouko witnesses a combat encounter, mire with mechanical drones and accompanying explosions. With submarines surfacing, the group fired at unseen enemies before an explosion and a fireball killed Kyouko, her body distinct from where her Soul Gem should be.

The vision ends with Asaka thinking to the others in the combat encounter that "There'll be time to grieve later [...] I'm sorry. I'm… so sorry."

Ch. 56 - Pulse

In this vision , Tomoe Mami and Machina are brought to a fascia that represented Rules Committee's atrium, altered from it's physical representation in reality to instead have a "floor [[that]] glimmered with stars, marble black as the depths of space" and the statues of the other MSY founding members "covered in vines, thorny and dense". Mami is unable to see the face of Law of Cycles, though is able to make out her hair (fading off into infinity),

The Law of Cycles and Tomoe Mami have a heart-to-heart as to the impact of the war, and Mami's inability to reduce the casualties to raw numbers. The being in the vision goes as far to make comparison to her peers as "Homura-chan", "Yuma-chan", and even "Kyouko-chan" all being able to "turn human lives into statistics".

The Goddess offers Mami and Machina cookies (Mami's recipe) while recounting a picturebook story, musing on whether the girl "is a hero", and wishing she had some way to tell her that her actions made a difference. Tomoe Mami attempts to spin the conversation to the war, which the Goddess muses isn't something she can share, then to Akemi Homura, which she replies that "it's complicated."

The conversation inevitably leads back to the war and to Ceph, the Goddess and Mami arguing (as much as one can with a goddess), leading to the pointed question that Mami "[doesn't] know very much about these aliens, do you?"

As Mami attempts to ask questions of the Ceph and their strategies, their efforts, the vision is ended by the appearance of Ceph in the seats of the (vision) Plenary Chamber, complete with one at the speaker's podium. As she returns to the material world, the Goddess tells Mami that "You have work to do."