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Meguca Micro Empire Quest (PMMM)

What should I do regarding a change in system?

  • Notgreat's proposed simplification of hunting, leave rest intact.

    Votes: 5 55.6%

  • Chapter system vastly simplifying everything.

    Votes: 4 44.4%
  • Total voters
    9
  • Poll closed .
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@inverted_helix

Something you might want to do if the Nagoya observation is a really big part of the update is to update everything else, and then have an addendum that the observations from the Nagoya Expedition will be posted separately.

That's want a lot of GMs do, and then count the addendum as a post (so basically it costs an extra posting cycle.) In the mean time we'll all be working out trade deals, and hunting plans.

Just thinking this might reduce the burden on you.
 
1) Manage Tokyo cleansing. Negotiations over how to stabilize the region afterwards. Decide on plans we want to propose.

2) Improve economic income. Serena is going to increase expenses, and we still need to save up for the church. Heavy cube trade (should have a surplus of about 10 GCU per month, less whatever Serena needs). Charm sales.

3) Consider potential activities for Serena to be involved in. Local research, including a heavy focus on trying to neutralize her aura. Potential globetrotting to help neutralize class 3 infestations.

4) Focused research. Focus on one or two core competencies, and take them to phenomenal levels, rather than spreading ourselves too thin.

5) In the event we do hire Serena out, and assuming Tokyo cleanup goes well, use that as a model for regional stability. Increase diplomatic power by being a source of not only fixing the demon problem, but providing solutions to the underlying conflict that lead to the problem reoccurring. "Your battlespace solutions provider."

6) Continue proactive attempts to improve relations with the Coalition. They are the main group I think we'd want to try to get to join the Serenes.


Evaluation our current constraints.

Meguca: About 3 elite and 15 vets beyond core requirements (hunting, support, job, morale), not couting Serena's group.
GCU: About 20 GCU after spirals, before counting Serena's group, and not counting research or trade, etc.
Money: About $6000 per month (estimated) before counting Serena's group and the cabin rental.

The most limiting is money, based on our current goals (ie: the church). The others have a moderate degree of flexibility.
 
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Aranfan said:
So, assuming we get Serena, what should be our priorities going forward?
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To my mind the results of this month are going to result in a lot of assessment:

1: What are the actual costs of hiring Serena?

Right now we are just speculating. We need to know the gross cost, the rate of the cost, and the net cost. Money, cubes, etc. For example, do we get the bounties for the 40 class 3 demons or so? Those bounties could be huge in determining if we have the resources to swing hiring Serena right away.

2: How much does Kyouko's church cost?

I actually removed the fluff promising the church to our girls because I realized that hiring Serena might cost a lot of our cash. We still need Kyouko's church, but do we delay the deal? (We probably can pretty easily, as large real estate deals often take multiple months, and the seller is probably desperate.)

3: Trade Deals:

What kind of trade rates are available? Is there any useful research to grab now or later?

4: Large organizations in Japan:

Does Kyubey give us any useful information? Let's make contact, maybe we can trade our hunting research to others. That's the kind of information we want to propagate widely, as it helps with the underlying problem of overhunting. It also promotes peaceful organizations as it removes the high pressure to expand.

5: The near abroad:

a. The coalition: Any closer to drawing them into a relationship of trust? We have to keep at this as much as we can.
b. Area 15/16 Any hope of expanding there? Linking up to get a border with Tokyo? Geo-strategic importance.
c: Kofu: What's up there? Is the north flank secure?
​
6: Evaluate new information on Tokyo:

What did we learn from the Nagoya expedition? Information from Area 15/16 girls? Did we get contacts in Tokyo to surviving groups? Can we begin building relationships of trust with them?

-------------------------

So then we decide if we are going to hire Serena, and how we intend to go about it. Assuming we hire her, I'd guess that next month is spent on negotiations, and on all the prep work that needs to be done. Probably some more training of our girls, building diplomatic contacts in Tokyo, and saving money/cubes. Possibly we might determine we need two months to get everything organized.

Then we need a full plan for how to deploy Serena.

My initial thoughts are:

1: We ought to met Serena in person when she arrives. Regular policy should be that we don't expose anyone to Serena's aura, but the first impression of meeting her when she arrives is worth the small risk.

2: Deploy her first in Yokahama - it is one of the more densely populated parts of Tokyo, it is the closest to us, and it's where our Tokyo girls are from. If Serena can clear that area in two weeks, we can then move in to start organizing the girls there, and basically get a forward operating base for the rest of our operations in Tokyo.

3: How long will it take Serena to clear Tokyo? 1 month? 2 months? In between?

4: Distribution of propaganda, contact information, grief cubes, and directions to avoid overhunting. So we definitely want to to have a lot of pamphlets available describing the Serene Imperium, explaining who Serena is, how to avoid problems like this in the future, crop rotation directions, and a promise of future contact to provide further training. Might want to professionally publish them if we can squeeze out the money (~1300 copies?)

5: Establishment of a forward base for our girls in Tokyo to operate out of. A house a Yokahama? Expensive, but we might need it.

6: Start recruiting girls in Tokyo as fast as we can. No need to be aggressive about it. We ought to have a lot of good will, and girls ought to be predisposed to us. But the truth of the matter is that we are heavily leveraging ourselves to pay for all of this. We need to get Tokyo producing a surplus of money and cubes in 3 months or else our finances are going to have problems. Pack Hunting, stick the excess greens on job hunts, expand the courier business to Tokyo.

One problem is that we probably can't afford allowances the first turn to all the new recruits. We have to be clear that we are offering organizational power for a bootstrap effort, not bottomless wells of money. That's probably going to be the main competing offer from Nagoya.
 
Elder Haman said:
4: Large organizations in Japan:

Does Kyubey give us any useful information? Let's make contact, maybe we can trade our hunting research to others. That's the kind of information we want to propagate widely, as it helps with the underlying problem of overhunting. It also promotes peaceful organizations as it removes the high pressure to expand.
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While possibly true, the big concern here is that, in seeking to build more USA/Canada/Europes, we accidentally create Russia/Iraq/Syria instead: groups that have near-zero morale, that are used to having near-zero morals and no longer even consider anything better, and are held together only by focusing on external enemies and conquests. Nagoya is one such group that concerns me greatly, because they are likely between two and four times our size and have slightly better PvP training (although it's likely constantly degrading due to group churn so it's probably not much better).

Removing resource bottlenecks from these kinds of groups may cause them to collapse into civil war and balkanize, which is unfortunate but would allow us to snatch them up piecemeal. On the other hand, it may cause some of them to focus even further on external conquests and start an expansionist war, which will be a particular problem for us because we don't have much of a bulwark to hunker down behind. Our only real saving grace is that we're mostly vets with long histories, and so we could fairly quickly chew through the mass of greens that a group like Nagoya would use as its forward wedge; if we do it quickly enough it might convince them not to send in their battle-hardened upper class, who would destroy us.

Elder Haman said:
Is this an Erfworld reference?

Are you suggesting we play as Charlie Com?
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If we were as remote and inaccessible as he is that would be a pretty good idea. Unfortunately we have not even secured our hinterland, and aren't really prepared to defend ourselves against even a numerically equal foe, let alone a numerically superior one like Nagoya, so we have to be more circumspect.
 
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On the Erfworld reference — Here's a quote from an update just a few days ago:

Knights. It was a filthy epithet to her. Charlie never let his Archons be described as "knights" to client sides.

"We sell solutions," he frequently reminded his field liaisons. "Solutions have a high perceived value. We don't 'rent units.' Even high-utility units like knights are perceived as expendable, and therefore of low worth. Don't let 'em call you that."
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So, though I've made mention of "renting Serena out", that's really not the best way to sell it. Serena isn't a rental; she has value and worth, and that should absolutely carry over into how we present her and ourselves, if we entered that business. The Incubators are "renting" Kesi out, and that shows in how she has to repeat her clean ups. The clients don't hold onto the value of the solutions she provides, so they end up not being solutions at all.

The Incubators will never see that value, as they always just refer to magical girls as class 1/2/3/4 contractees, so Kesi's perceived position and value will never change. But we can change that for Serena and the Serenes.
 
We do definitely need to snap up as many Tokyo meguca as we can. If we can establish ourselves as the pre-eminent power in Tokyo, that would give us huge influence and prestige with other Japanese meguca groups.
 
Aranfan said:
We do definitely need to snap up as many Tokyo meguca as we can. If we can establish ourselves as the pre-eminent power in Tokyo, that would give us huge influence and prestige with other Japanese meguca groups.
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Heh, if we play our cards right, Serena herself will be an incredible recruiting tool. Many of the Tokyo girls' first introduction to the Serene will be a sudden blossoming of hope, followed by a small group of meguca zipping in and one-shotting a Class 3. I mean, yeah, eventually cynicism will set in, but many of these girls will have been living in a foxhole for months, if not years for many of the Elites: a good number of them will want to believe in hope again, and those are a perfect fit for our group.

The big problem will be screening out the liars; we'll probably have to interviews with Taura backstopping our girls for that.
 
Aranfan said:
I'm not sure why? Even if they were just mercenary trying to get in with the new power on the block, I don't see why that would be reason to push them away?
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The ones we want to turn away aren't the disillusioned mercenaries; that's basically what 3/4rs of our Tokyo refugee group is now, and they just need time, care and attention. The ones we want to turn away are the ones who plan on getting close to us, stealing a dozen cubes, then running/teleporting away.
 
TheEyes said:
While possibly true, the big concern here is that, in seeking to build more USA/Canada/Europes, we accidentally create Russia/Iraq/Syria instead: groups that have near-zero morale, that are used to having near-zero morals and no longer even consider anything better, and are held together only by focusing on external enemies and conquests. Nagoya is one such group that concerns me greatly, because they are likely between two and four times our size and have slightly better PvP training (although it's likely constantly degrading due to group churn so it's probably not much better).

Removing resource bottlenecks from these kinds of groups may cause them to collapse into civil war and balkanize, which is unfortunate but would allow us to snatch them up piecemeal. On the other hand, it may cause some of them to focus even further on external conquests and start an expansionist war, which will be a particular problem for us because we don't have much of a bulwark to hunker down behind. Our only real saving grace is that we're mostly vets with long histories, and so we could fairly quickly chew through the mass of greens that a group like Nagoya would use as its forward wedge; if we do it quickly enough it might convince them not to send in their battle-hardened upper class, who would destroy us.
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I.... don't really get what you are proposing here. How would handing out sustaining farming tech create a Russia or a Syria, or an Iraq (all of which are extremely different by the way, so I don't get the comparison).

Nor is balkanization likely.

Let's think about this sensibly, usually an increase in an amount of resources results in greater stability for the current order. At least in the short term. In the medium to long term I suppose this might create a "middle class" of magical girls that will then rebel against a regime that centralizes the wealth and doesn't share, creating internal turmoil. But that's a long way off.

More risky is the creation of a Rome. An aggressively expansionistic nation of farmers, that uses farming surplus to fund wars. Nagoya is the most likely immediate threat, and they already have the tech. Spreading the tech tot he rest of Japan actually probably negates Nagoya's advantage, and so is to our benefit, probably.

There is at least a possibility that Nagoya will try to intervene in Toyko right after we clear it. I say we have to avoid conflict at first until we have incorporated the Tokyo girls into our normal routine. Hopefully the mere fact that Serena was deployed, and if we can keep her in country, will cause Nagoya to be cautious. Not that I am advocating trying to use Serena on Nagoya, even if I thought that to be moral, I'm certain Serena won't support doing that. Rather I'm hoping Nagoya will move slowly due to caution.

If we can get three solid months in Tokyo withou major outside intervention we should be able to pull of integrating a majority of Tokyo, and hopefully set up friendly relations with those Tokyo girls that don't join. And then we can slowly work on them joining as well.

TheEyes said:
The ones we want to turn away aren't the disillusioned mercenaries; that's basically what 3/4rs of our Tokyo refugee group is now, and they just need time, care and attention. The ones we want to turn away are the ones who plan on getting close to us, stealing a dozen cubes, then running/teleporting away.
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I don't we should worry about this until we start having problems. Cubes won't be kept in a central location anyway, so it would be hard to pull off.
 
Elder Haman said:
Let's think about this sensibly, usually an increase in an amount of resources results in greater stability for the current order. At least in the short term. In the medium to long term I suppose this might create a "middle class" of magical girls that will then rebel against a regime that centralizes the wealth and doesn't share, creating internal turmoil. But that's a long way off.

More risky is the creation of a Rome. An aggressively expansionistic nation of farmers, that uses farming surplus to fund wars. Nagoya is the most likely immediate threat, and they already have the tech. Spreading the tech tot he rest of Japan actually probably negates Nagoya's advantage, and so is to our benefit, probably.
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This is pretty much what I was saying; I guess I was just being a little too glib about it.

I'm not as sure that your first scenario is "a long way off" though. A low-morale criminal conquest group is likely to become fractious very quickly the moment it starts to see a grief cube surplus because of the way it was formed and the way it does business on a daily basis; after all, every meguca in the group is simultaneously armed, dangerous, forced to be violent and engaged in criminality on a regular basis, and disgruntled at least in part because they were recently conquered by the ones currently in charge. The only thing keeping a group like that from fracturing into a bunch of smaller groups is some sort of pressure forcing them to work together. Once you account for the two most obvious unifying forces--a grief cube crunch and the threat of a looming Class 3 apocalypse--there's little to keep internal grudges from surfacing and becoming major points of friction.

This is how Nagoya will die, eventually, at least as the large 70-280 strong group that it currently is. The question is whether or not its leaders will be able to focus their populace on some other sort of external threat to act as a unifying force, like Russia does with the West, or Iraq, Iran and Syria (attempt to) do by focusing on "the great Satan" of Israel/America, etc. The only two candidates I can think of are Tokyo, where Nagoya can focus its girls on hating whatever remains of the groups who caused the Class 3 apocalypse, or the Serenes, who at that point will be both powerful enough to stop a Class 3 apocalypse and weak enough for a concentrated Nagoya to conquer.

Elder Haman said:
I don't we should worry about this until we start having problems. Cubes won't be kept in a central location anyway, so it would be hard to pull off.
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Yeah, now that I think about it that's probably true, as our cube reserve hasn't really grown so much that we have storage issues. Although on a slightly odd note, we have 72.2 GCUs, which if my 120 cubes/GCU rate is correct translates to 8,664 cubes. Since we need to keep cubes from touching, the most convenient way to store them is probably pill cases: the cheapest I can find are these 28-component ones from Daiso, which come out to $1.66 each; by that metric is costs roughly $520 for storage containers to keep our grief cubes in.

I am really over-thinking this. :)
 
TheEyes said:
I'm not as sure that your first scenario is "a long way off" though. A low-morale criminal conquest group is likely to become fractious very quickly the moment it starts to see a grief cube surplus because of the way it was formed and the way it does business on a daily basis; after all, every meguca in the group is simultaneously armed, dangerous, forced to be violent and engaged in criminality on a regular basis, and disgruntled at least in part because they were recently conquered by the ones currently in charge. The only thing keeping a group like that from fracturing into a bunch of smaller groups is some sort of pressure forcing them to work together. Once you account for the two most obvious unifying forces--a grief cube crunch and the threat of a looming Class 3 apocalypse--there's little to keep internal grudges from surfacing and becoming major points of friction.
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Well... that may be true for some of the small organizations. But the larger organizations have the old "don't step out of line or everyone else will jump on you" action. Nor did Iraq or Syria maintain control by focusing on "The Great Satan" (that's Iran). They simply had totalitarian states with secret police who used fear to keep people in line.

The development of additional resources would actually allow for groups to develop more like that, as there is now enough surplus to fund an upper class of guards. Mostly likely you'd see a group of Elites dominating all the other girls in an area, probably with some medium level positions that a vet can aim for as long as they support the ruling elites.

TheEyes said:
This is how Nagoya will die, eventually, at least as the large 70-280 strong group that it currently is. The question is whether or not its leaders will be able to focus their populace on some other sort of external threat to act as a unifying force, like Russia does with the West, or Iraq, Iran and Syria (attempt to) do by focusing on "the great Satan" of Israel/America, etc. The only two candidates I can think of are Tokyo, where Nagoya can focus its girls on hating whatever remains of the groups who caused the Class 3 apocalypse, or the Serenes, who at that point will be both powerful enough to stop a Class 3 apocalypse and weak enough for a concentrated Nagoya to conquer.
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This makes a lot of assumptions about Nagoya that are not in evidence. Nagoya appears to be dominated by one charismatic leader (Hino) much as the Serenes are dominated by Mami. As such, I expect Hino will do just fine in keeping her group in line even without the threat of class 3 demons in Tokyo.

Additionally, Hino either is, or has access to a powerful telepath, which would make rebellion very difficult.

So I don't think Nagoya will have any need to hate on the Serenes to hold themselves together.

That said, ambition might drive Nagoya into competing with us in Tokyo. And they won't even have to make a violent argument. They'll point out to Tokyo girls that they have been helping them for far longer than the Serenes have, and that they have a lot more money and resources than the Serenes have, so why not join with them instead of the Serenes?

That's what I would expect the first few months to be like, us and Nagoya going around to various groups in Tokyo and trying to get people to join. We'll have the head start and the good press of having sent Serena in to save them. Nagoya will have a longer history of aid, and far greater resources to expend on Tokyo, thus not requiring as much of a bootstrap effort.

Also, Nagoya will probably be extending the "vassal" model, while we will probably be going for outright incorporation, which will have an effect. On the one hand, large organizations already existing might like Nagoya's offer better, but on the other hand wild girls and small groups will probably be easier for us to recruit. My guess is we will completely clean up among greens, vets will split, with wild ones and small groups joining us, and large vet dominated groups tending to prefer Nagoya. Something to consider is if we should develop a more formal "affiliation" model to compete with the "vassal" model?

Where elites go will probably depend more on the individual Elite and their personal values. As Elites can pretty much write their own ticket no matter which group they join, so they are a bit more free to indulge their personal preferences.

TheEyes said:
Yeah, now that I think about it that's probably true, as our cube reserve hasn't really grown so much that we have storage issues. Although on a slightly odd note, we have 72.2 GCUs, which if my 120 cubes/GCU rate is correct translates to 8,664 cubes. Since we need to keep cubes from touching, the most convenient way to store them is probably pill cases: the cheapest I can find are these 28-component ones from Daiso, which come out to $1.66 each; by that metric is costs roughly $520 for storage containers to keep our grief cubes in.
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Mami stores grief cubes using empty egg cartons. Free as long as you don't throw them out once you eat the eggs.
 
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Omake: Morning Jog
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    • Omake: Morning Jog

    ~~

    Kaoru made a quick descent of the stairs, steps light to keep the noise low. The early light of sunrise was just coming through the windows, yet already a couple other girls were in the kitchen making lunch bentos for everyone. She nodded to them with a smile as she grabbed a glass for some milk from the fridge.

    Glass in hand, she headed towards the living room, intending to turn on the TV for the weather report and whatever random gossip was being peddled this morning. She froze, though, at the sound of something sliding down the stairs towards her. Akeno, gliding down the handrail on socked feet, flipped off the bottom of the banister and spun over Kaoru's head, landing neatly on the floor behind her.

    "Good morning, Akeno," Kaoru said, through clenched teeth. Everyone had learned to not move when Akeno came down the stairs. Technically it didn't matter, since Akeno would be able to avoid you no matter what you did, but it helped everyone else's peace of mind. Somewhat.

    "Hey, Kaoru!" Akeno chirped out. "You're up early today!" She patted Kaoru on the shoulder as she made her way into the kitchen, and Kaoru decided to follow.

    "Just had a good night's sleep, and the smell of breakfast was too much to stay in bed for."

    "Lunch, not breakfast!" corrected Hisa, a trim redhead, as she continued to pack bentos with rice. It was a bit surprising to see her in the kitchen, as her skills were really more in smart (if occasionally unnerving, and foolishly risky) analysis, but there was a bit of a rotating schedule for cooking meals each day.

    "Whatever," Kaoru replied with a smile. "The food smells good."

    Hisa returned the smile even as she continued to work. Akeno, meanwhile, was already buried in the fridge, emerging with some juice and an apple. Kaoru noted that Akeno had her slippers back on already, and was wearing a t-shirt and shorts for her daily jog. She smirked at the cartoon frog character on the other girl's t-shirt, before cocking her head as a thought occurred to her.

    "Say, Akeno..." Kaoru began.

    "Hmm? What?" Akeno asked as she finished pouring her drink and returned the juice to the fridge.

    "Do you mind if I go jogging with you today?"

    Akeno actually froze at that, blinking owlishly at the older girl. No one asked to go jogging with her. "... Sure?"

    "Cool. I'll be right back." With that, Kaoru made a quick trip back up to her room to change into something more suitable.

    ~~

    As the two of them jogged down the neighborhood street, Kaoru finally let her curiosity get the better of her. "So, a lot of the girls say it's tough to go jogging with you. Is it because they have to get up so early in the morning? 'Cause it seems rather nice out here this time of day. Not that I get to see it that often," she added, with a grin.

    "Nah, this is just the easy part. Can't do much out in the neighborhood. We'll push things a bit once we get up there," Akeno said, pointing ahead to where the residential area transitioned to some apartment buildings, beyond which lay a small business district. "I'll keep things easy for ya."

    "You don't think I can keep up?" Kaoru asked, with some amusement. "I did survive personalized training from Kyouko, you know."

    Akeno just shrugged, but a smile seemed to be creeping across her face.

    "I promise I won't give up just 'cause it's a little tough," Kaoru added for good measure.

    "Fine," Akeno answered with a smirk. "You asked for it. Come on." And with that, she disappeared.

    Kaoru was startled a moment, before realizing that Akeno had made a turn so sharp, Kaoru hadn't even noticed she'd changed direction. She quickly reoriented, hopping a fence and sprinting to catch up. "I thought you said we weren't going to do much out here!" she yelled ahead.

    "Just don't get caught!" Akeno yelled back, breezily. She was lightly bouncing between yards, ducking behind hedgerows in some places to avoid open windows, dodging clotheslines (and occasionally fixing laundry that was slipping loose), and zipping past pets before they'd even caught wind of her. Kaoru did her best to keep up with her, desperately trying not to knock anything over or get dogs barking at her. At least it was early enough that almost no one was awake yet.

    A few short minutes later and they were passing through a playground opposite one of the apartment buildings Akeno had pointed out earlier. Granted, the trip was a lot faster than a normal route through the streets, but Kaoru couldn't help but nervously glance back over her shoulders to see if any residents were peeking out of their doorways at the disturbance. Luckily, it didn't seem that anyone was. Unluckily, by the time she looked ahead to track Akeno again, she was about to run into the side of the apartment building. Quick angled jumps and a desperate grab had her following Akeno up to the second floor balcony without doing anything too unnatural.

    This continued for a bit, before finally reaching the business district. This particular area used to be a shopping center, before the poison scare forced pretty much all of it to close down. As buying patterns shifted, it hadn't yet had a revival, so was mostly a lot of shuttered buildings. Akeno used this fact to increase the aggressiveness of her run.

    Kaoru did her best to follow, tracking Akeno's movements as closely as she could, but struggled with the difference in their abilities. Where Akeno seemed to gently float after a simple hop, Kaoru had to constantly fight gravity. Where Akeno grabbed a rail and almost instantly shifted direction, Kaoru had to judge how much to reduce her speed so that the rail wouldn't crumple in her grip. Even then, her attempts to turn felt like a bloated whale compared to the nimbleness of her jogging companion. Where Akeno lightly leapt and bounced, Kaoru had to jump with not insignificant force.

    While it was nowhere near a Kyouko training session, it still left Kaoru breathing hard trying to keep up with what Akeno made to look trivially easy.

    Finally, a pause atop the roof of a five-story office building. There were a couple signs indicating active businesses in the building, but none would be open this early.

    "Not bad!" Akeno said, giving a thumbs-up to the other girl.

    Kaoru just shook her head, quickly recovering from the exertion, but still slightly annoyed that Akeno didn't look like she'd even started exercising yet. "You do this every morning?"

    "Yeah, pretty much." She walked over to the edge of the roof, leaning over slightly. "Since I don't get to hunt, I figured I needed to do what I could to keep my magic skills trained. I mean, this magic is what I made a wish for; I'm not going to let it go to waste." A hint of sadness seemed to creep into her smile, but it was gone too quickly for Kaoru to be sure.

    "I'm surprised everyone's making such a big fuss over this," Kaoru said, stretching her arms out a bit as she looked out over the city. "Takes a little work to keep up with you, but it seems fun."

    "Err..." Akeno looked a way, slightly embarrassed.

    "What?" prodded Kaoru. "I mean, it was a little crazy, and I doubt you'd want a bunch of girls tromping through people's backyards every morning, but I don't know why they'd make such a big deal about it."

    "Well," Akeno hedged, "when I first started getting into it, really trying to push myself to make sure I didn't fall behind, I, uh.. didn't hold back so much."

    "Hold back?" Kaoru blinked. "Like, you did this while transformed?"

    "No, no! I know better than that. I was just more interested in pushing myself to my limits, rather than a nice jog with some friends."

    Kaoru looked back over the path they'd traveled to get there, then gave a more accusing look at the other girl. Akeno's hair swayed slightly as she shrugged in embarrassment, and a slightly apologetic grin.

    "All I can do is train, and all I can train is control. I can't do anything too flashy. Can't draw attention at work, or at school. So I practice not getting caught. Avoid the neighbors' notice; learn their habits and make sure they're never looking when I move. Learn to move faster so that I can slip through narrower windows." Akeno stretched her arms as she talked, casually leaning over and starting a handstand on railing at the edge of the roof. "Dodge the animals before they can make a fuss; learn how to stay downwind and out of their line of sight. Make the most difficult route I can imagine, and then imagine having to dodge demons the entire way." She did a couple spins in place, before turning her movement into a cartwheel that left her balanced on her hands at the outermost corner.

    Kaoru stared at the minor spectacle — Akeno's short hair wafting around her head, upside down, and her body held firmly in place, yet relaxed. "Never give up trying to be better, huh?" Something she understood, yet still felt invigorated by the fresh reminder.

    Akeno's upside-down smile flashed at her.

    "You ever done any training with Kyouko?" Kaoru asked suddenly.

    Akeno wobbled slightly at that. "Er, only a little, when we were doing the meguca combat training. She's kinda scary."

    Kaoru snorted at that. "Yeah, a little. But she's good. Helped me focus a bit better; let me get a handle on what was necessary for a real fight."

    "Eh, I'll pass on that," Akeno replied as she tipped over and returned to the rooftop in a normal stance.

    Kaoru stood back to give her room. After a brief bit of contemplative silence, she finally said, "Tell you what. Let's see what you can do for real. If you win, I'll come jogging with you in the mornings."

    "And if you win?" Akeno asked, with a raised eyebrow.

    Kaoru grinned. "Then I'll ask Kyouko to come jogging with you in the mornings."
     
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    • Kinematics said:
    Zooming out to see everything, it does make our territory look kinda small.
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    Indeed; that's the entire Nagoya Metropolitan Area that's encircled: population 9.1 million, total territory 455 sustainable (about 5.5 times our size). Before applying our rotation ability, they probably kept a 60% safety cushion, to give themselves enough cubes to deal with spirals, which means a meguca population of roughly 284, compared to our 69. That doesn't include the vassal territories, which probably add another 100-120 sustainable territory, and another 60-75 population.
     
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    Aranfan said:
    Man. We really need to grab as much of Tokyo as we can if we're going to compete with that.
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    While we probably should, that's going to really step up how quickly we come into conflict with Nagoya. It'll turn our borders into the same sort of tension-inducing, interlocking mess that we have with the Coalition, only this time it'll be with a conquest-oriented criminal group with scads of money, an XCom mentality to lethal encounters, and better PvP skills than we have.
     
    Aranfan said:
    I will admit that I am kinda scared right now.
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    I can kind of relate. This is basically the worst-case scenario out of all the ones I imagined when it came to Nagoya's size and clout; frankly I'm amazed that any group, even one headed by an Elite telepath, could rope together that large of a territory so quickly regardless of their luck, given they had to start at roughly the same time we did and they got hit with a Class 3 apocalypse early on; ruthlessness doesn't give you that much of an advantage.

    Anyway, it doesn't really change much for us. We already suspected that a full military conflict with Nagoya would result in us being basically destroyed; this doesn't really change that calculation. What it does mean is that we do need to aggressively expand into Kofu and Tokyo, perhaps sooner than I'd otherwise be comfortable with, in order to avoid Nagoya summarily annexing us by a simple show of force, as they did for Areas 13-14, and immediately turn around and pick up a reputation as a favored trading partner, so hopefully Nagoya will turn its attentions to Osaka, Shiga, Kyoto, Fukui, and Toyama before it falls into internal strife.
     
    TheEyes said:
    While we probably should, that's going to really step up how quickly we come into conflict with Nagoya. It'll turn our borders into the same sort of tension-inducing, interlocking mess that we have with the Coalition, only this time it'll be with a conquest-oriented criminal group with scads of money, an XCom mentality to lethal encounters, and better PvP skills than we have.
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    Yup.

    Life is about to get interesting.

    Of course, that's still better than the alternative. Which is to either let Tokyo die, or let Nagoya take over Tokyo uncontested, and then end up surrounded. And even more outnumbered.
     
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