Eh.. usually something like that gets a sample set to verify, and then the full run is finished (certainly if we're getting a nice polished set of stuff printed). It shouldn't be possible to bork it, and if they did, there should be a reprint that the printer has to eat the cost on.
Edit: Terrible print jobs would be if you had a remote company do it, and then just had everything shipped to you. I know several webcomics have had this happen, but the ones that are serious about it have a sample printed and sent to them first (so everything always takes longer than planned). It's like: print sample; this is broken, redo; get new sample; possibly another redo; get sample that passes; finish print run.
I'll write it off, I suppose since on a large run you're probably right regardless of the internet horror stories my googling turned up.
Right now I'm contemplating how diabolical I can make your end boss (since I basically have to give you full info on it at this point) without all of you grief spiralling.
I'll write it off, I suppose since on a large run you're probably right regardless of the internet horror stories my googling turned up.
Right now I'm contemplating how diabolical I can make your end boss (since I basically have to give you full info on it at this point) without all of you grief spiralling.
A tabby cat darted across the street, adroitly navigating the traffic and vanishing into an alleyway. Most of the watchers paid no mind, too wrapped up in the shitshow their lives had become in the past year.
In the alley however, there was a different story, and if one listened closely one could faintly hear the sounds of violence. One man who glanced down the alley shook his head in dismissal, there weren't any tigers in Tokyo, and a second more thorough look revealed that he was just imagining things.
Up on the roof, however, the tiger pounced on what looked like a blank eyed man in a strangely pixelated robe. It crumpled easily, yet three more popped up even as the first dissolved. Two of them hung back while the first lunged, only to find the tiger's fur had transformed into a thick chitin plating. Quick to capitalize, the faux-tiger quickly tore the wraith to shreds.
Unconcerned by the death of their companion the monsters drifted closer to their enemy. Unfortunately for them it shifted into something monkey-like with long hook arms, that tore them apart easily.
The being shifted and flowed then into the form of a young girl. Sighing, she gathered up fallen black cubes, counting them carefully before carefully moving some to an aquamarine jewel on her collarbone. The rest she moved to a pouch in her clothing.
"Shit." With that expletive she laid back and looked at the sky.
Emi
Before most people could blink she was up and her arm transformed into a wicked looking scythe, before relaxing.
"Kyubey, I have some cubes for you."
Nodding, the white furred critter hopped forward and opened the hatch on it's back. Emi avoided looking into the hatch, not one to make the same mistake twice. Fortunately, she didn't need to look into the hatch to feed cubes to it.
Then, instead of leaving as usual, Kyubey produced an archaic flip phone from somewhere.
It's yours
And then the phone began to ring. Looking warily at Kyubey, Emi picked up the phone and answered.
"Hello?"
"Hello, is this Kimura Emi?"
"Speaking. What do you want?"
"My name is Yuka, and the first thing is that the phone is yours, it has two months of service prepaid on it and"
"I'm not leaving Tokyo." Emi cut her off. "I'm a magical girl damnit, I have a duty to protect people from the damn wraiths."
"Actually," and here Emi could feel the damn smile in the girl's voice, "We wanted to ask your help killing the eyeball demon."
Emi just took the phone away from her ear and looked at it. Before bringing it back to her, "What?"
"We want your help killing the Eyeball demon."
Emi sighed, "Look kid, I've fought that thing before. I'm not going to commit to a hopeless fight unless I know you have a plan, and what that plan is."
"We have a girl named Serena. Even untransformed she counters the despair aura, and when she suits up every magical girl in a kilometer is boosted. My organization, the Serene's will also be brining most of our veterans and all of our elites to the fight, as well as any Tokyo elites that agree to help."
"There's always a catch."
"You can't stay in Serena's hope aura too long, about two hours for most magical girls and eight hours for most normal people, without grief spiraling."
Emi hmmed. "Kyubey, what do you put their chances at?"
Serena and her retinue are projected to be able to kill the eyeball wraith on their own reliably, but the Serenissima Imperium Magicum Puella is irrationally casualty averse.
Emi considered that for a while, before turning her attention back to her phone. "Okay, I'm in.
-
OOC: I know it's probably too short to count as a full omake, but I am terrible at writing in quantity. Emi is a shapeshifter, her clothing isn't, much like Alex Mercer. She's also forgotten what her original shape is and she doesn't really stick to a single look when she's in human form. She's very much one of the heroic types.
I thought it was confirmed she doesn't actually boost people? It's just her group has had years of practice at going all-out in ways that most magical girls can't due to grief limits.
I thought it was confirmed she doesn't actually boost people? It's just her group has had years of practice at going all-out in ways that most magical girls can't due to grief limits.
You host a small meeting of the girls that constitute your inner circle to brief them in advance about your plans for this month. Seto isn't exactly comfortable with taking on dozens more of the demons that killed several of her girls, but the problem would eventually come to you anyways. Kyouko fully expected this out of you, and she'll be along to save you from yourself as ever. Taura is mostly glad she's getting a break from this telepathy project, while Keiko worries that if she dies her research will go unfinished. Aiko notes that no matter how you phrase this morale is almost certain to take a hit this month.
When you tell the girls you took in from Tokyo about your plans so they aren't blindsided they take it much less well. They're not going back there. Manami might have said she'd go without the peer pressure, but you didn't need to be a telepath to sense the byplay.
You then go on to brief the bulk of the Serenes in two shifts, a full meeting like this is something you haven't really done in a while. You break out your trusty props though and they serve you as well as ever. You explain the regional situation you've recently become aware of. All of them were aware of it to some degree via gossip once the Tokyo girls were introduced to your group, but none of them realized just how dire the situation was.
It's kind of shocking to everyone to think about the heart of Japan on such a precipice, and much of your briefing beyond that doesn't really sink in very well. The general feeling though is that obviously they have to fight to save everyone.
Scouting
Clairvoyance Scouting of Yokohama and Downtown Tokyo: Get the patterns of Tokyo demon behavior, patrol routes, get a feel for the beholder. Stay well outside the range of any patrolling demons on the outer edge of Tokyo. Try to determine ambush locations/ideas for the beholder, and locations and times to attack that would permit fighting the teleporting demons in a staggered way.
You don't spot your primary target in any of your observations, and your information on the demons themselves is limited. At this range you can't successfully penetrate the miasma and get a view at the demons individual capabilities. The demon behavior is much like you've heard, but at the same time not really predictable enough to plot out where they'll be at what times. The majority patrols the edge of the Tokyo area, but not on any sort of fixed schedule you can ascertain. A few times a day the ones currently in the center for feeding switch out to the edge while new ones go in. It takes a few days for them to work through a full cycle of every demon.
Having watched a few videos of killer whales the comparison is apt to when they corral a school of fish. Likewise any fish trying to escape the encirclement prompt action from those on the edges. From what you've seen they seem quite a bit more capable of detecting magical girls than you, from quite a few kilometers in fact, with teleporters moving to intercept any attempting to run the blockade. They're far more intelligent than you'd like. And Taya's not enjoying watching this.
Production Create Charms: (x100 tandem barrier charms): (1.5 vet, 0.6 cubes) Create Charms: (x67 tandem healing charms): (1 vet, 0.4 cubes) Create Charms: (x100 elite illusion charms): (0.5 elite, 0.2 cubes)
You produced a few charms last month but the scale of your charm production this month makes that seem like a joke. Hundreds of charms are filling your coolers, which makes them oddly appropriate as war chests.
Printing up Serene propaganda
Prepare/Organize Propaganda/Manual/Research (1 vet): Produce polished papers, pamphlets, and reports on various aspects of the organization, for use in distribution and trade.
Hunting Manual: Crop Rotation, Rotating Tactics (including risks), Various numbers on Solo/Pairs/Pack safety and efficiency. Armor and other casualty reduction options. Dispatch Team effects, Demon Forecasting.
1000x copies, 25 pages, B&W, color cover = $1500
Training Manual: Demon Finding Training, Dispatch Teams, Pack Tactics, Solo Tactics, General Combat Training, Defending Others, Telepathic Communication, Evacuation Team.
1000x copies, 25 pages, B&W, color cover = $1500
Serene Research: Magical Effects on Materials, Secondary Effects, Effect on Technology, Duration Effects, Spell Anchoring, Tandem Casting, other misc research
50x copies, 50 pages, B&W, 3 ring binder binding (so we can more easily trade just portions of this) = $200
Serene Propaganda: (Whitewashed) History of Serenissima Imperium Magicum Puella. Safety record of the Serene approach. Testimonials of various girls (some who joined as vets, some who joined as greens, Seto, at least two of the Tokyo girls we took in). Essay by Mami on the Importance of an Education, and having a normal life outside Magical Girl work. Information about various Serene businesses. Contact Information.
1000x copies, 25 pages, B&W w/ some (4) color pages, color cover, better binding/paper = $1800
You get the materials made and printed up, but the quality is somewhat less than you'd prefer: as ever your girls aren't as good at describing things they take for granted as you'd like. Not to mention that combat training is more something achieved by doing rather than reading.
Diplomacy Gossipmonger/IntelOps/Tokyo Contact
— Keep up general communication with all neighbors we've opened formal relations with, for light upkeep and general gossip and news. Should generally be keeping up with each other group on a weekly basis.
- Currently covering areas: Coalition, Kofu, 3, 13, 14, 15/16 (Nagoya excluded due to active negotiations)
— Acquire 17 pre-paid cell phones (2 months service) and have them delivered to the elites of Tokyo that need them (last elite count was 32, with half estimated as already having phones). Inform them that we are planning for a major attempt to clear Tokyo next month (tactical details to be provided later), to make them aware of the action, and open the possibility of cooperation in various mission objectives.
Yuka manages to contact a majority of the elites left in Tokyo, but she isn't optimistic about how many will actually join your fight. Basically all of them have others they can't stand for some reason or another, and it's bizarre how when the world is crashing down around them people have a tendency to still be fighting each other rather than working together.
Some of them don't see the profit in fighting at all when it's much easier to keep a low profile and stay out of the way. Others don't see a point in joining you if you're going to do the fighting regardless they can just benefit. Some are paranoid that you're just going to use them as cannon fodder. She expects she could get half a dozen, maybe up to a dozen to show up, and even those that do are going to be pretty skittish.
Serena(0.5 vets, $9000) - Manage final arrangements for recruiting Serena. Arrange travel for her and her companions to reach Japan. ($8000 abstract cost) We will meet her directly when she arrives at Mitakihara airport. Provide standard welcome package ($1000), and begin the process of welcoming her to the Serenes. (Lots of details provided elsewhere.)
Kyuubey actually handles much of the work on Serena's group traveling to Japan, which is good because otherwise you aren't sure how you'd have arranged for their residency. Their transit in an indirect route across multiple hops as she wanted takes a while, but eventually they arrives without any trouble that they couldn't manage.
You pick her up from the airport with Seto and Hainako. Her power is an odd thing. You can pretty clearly observe its effect on other people as you wait in the public area of the airport after her plane arrives. Seto is certainly smiling suddenly which is kind of strange in itself, you haven't seen it much from her. Hainako is less affected but it's there's still a bit of a tell in that she's not cursing in whatever language is convenient when she trips; you're fairly sure she's gotten even more clumsy with her desk job than when she was doing courier work. You can feel something skittering, tingling across you and through you. If the Class 3 you had faced was like some sort of blanket weighing down, this is like balloons trying to push you up. Just like in that case though you put it aside, it's not you.
You're ever the gracious hostess though when you greet her and her companions. It's hard to read Serena when you don't share a language, but she seems rather curious. She's anxious to leave though and once you're out of sight Seto whisks you all directly to the home you've arranged.
You sweep around the house and point out what things you've gotten for them with Hainako translating. The other girls with Serena seem excited about their new home, though it's hard to be sure, you're fidgeting a bit and trying not to brush off imaginary dust while Serena watches you oddly.
Seto has a somewhat odd expression, peaceful maybe. Hainako chatters with Betty in English, but it's too fast for you to really understand. It's oddly uncomfortable and you're glad when you finish the short introduction and can go, though you do your best not to show it. Serena says something which Hainako helpfully translates as a question about why you're not affected. You don't really have an answer though.
After your non-answer you get Seto to teleport you away. Hainako goes right back to whatever translation she was working on before. You suspect she's also running fan translations for various media at this point to have as much time spent translating as she does. She may love her wish more than anyone you've ever met. She might have regretted becoming a magical girl when her life was in danger, but now she seems to be enjoying her power more than anyone.
Seto on the other hand teleports off again without a word and you later hear she spent the rest of the day at your shrine.
Safe Passage - Area 15/16(2 vets): Particularly note our intent towards Tokyo next month, as well as Taya's scouting this month. Arrange safe way to deploy Serena without exposing them to her aura. Discuss any aid they might be willing to offer as well. Point out that by staging the attack from their area, they will likely not have to deal with any fleeing class 3 demons.
The girls in area 15 and 16 allow you passage through their territory next month, but they certainly won't help your foolish endeavor. They mostly think they'll still need their members for surviving whatever storm you drag back against them, but they won't stop you from trying.
Trade Offer - Coalition(0 vet): As their hunter training visit comes to a close, give them a copy of our Hunting Manual, and our Serene History booklet. Suggest that if they have a clairvoyant, she could come and work with our dispatch team to gain experience, and we would be willing to pay something reasonable for her time.
The attempt to normalize relations with the coalition by having a pack of their hunters operate in your territory for a month actually goes over pretty well, and the group is perceptibly less on guard by the end of the month than they were at the start. They didn't quite think of it in terms of being trained, they were capable hunters on their own after all, but your methods were certainly different than their own. It was quite expensive, but maybe worth it, plus you really needed the manpower this month to let you get even as much training as you did so they were actually pretty helpful.
Maybe if you had more time to try to convince them you could have got the coalition to lend you a clairvoyant, but as it is they're still a bit wary of you, and while nothing untoward happened when they sent a pack of hunters, they specified a pack because they'd have stood much better odds of surviving retreating than a sole girl.
Aid/Information - Kofu(no cost): Warn Kofu about the risks of fleeing demons, with the caveat that we expect to have Nagoya cooperating to intercept them. Suggest they pass the word on to other nearby areas. Also, pass along a copy of our Hunting Manual and Serenissima History.
Kofu accepts your warning and your papers, but you don't get as much of an impression as you'd like. You kind of wish you had more time to spare on trying to tease out their real reactions.
Open Relations - Sendai(0.5 vet): Kyubey/Nagoya gave us their contact information, so make contact and start discussions with them. Try to get a handle on their position vis à vis Tokyo, and probe on the idea potential assistance, or at least guarding against demons fleeing north. We will be doing our best to limit the number of escaped demons.
Your opening gesture with the Sendai group doesn't go very well if the crying about it afterwards is any indication. Apparently sparks flew between her and the other side quite badly. From what you can gather sifting through afterwards Sendai has likely taken in whatever refugees they can afford and battles the demons that wander towards it, but values its own too highly to engage in more aggressive campaigns. It seems they might have responded poorly to implications of cowardice in their actions.
Open Relations - Niigata(0.5 vet): Kyubey/Nagoya gave us their contact information, so make contact and start discussions with them. Try to get a handle on their position vis à vis Tokyo, and warn them of upcoming plans, and potential fleeing demons. Ask them to notify their own neighbors that may be at risk. We will be doing our best to limit the number of escaped demons.
Your first contact with the groups from Niigata is kind of interesting. The Magick Company takes your information with good grace, but it's kind of odd that it's through a paid adult secretary for the most part. You've idly questioned Kyuubey about it and apparently Masaki Sachiko, CEO, has a much better handle on maintaining secrecy than you do. You wonder about it.
The Enlightened are less tractable, though not hostile they are a bit dismissive with the claim that they'd undoubtedly have seen it coming.
Negotiations - Nagoya(1 Mami): Present our concerns over the current situation, and discuss our plans for Tokyo with Nagoya. Try to leverage our commitment to this endeavor to get some good deals. See what they counteroffer in terms of research, as well as cash.
— Research available: Duration, Tandem Casting
— Cubes offered: 30
— Social: Mami should acknowledge Nagoya's strengths, and how we need their assistance, but not give the impression that we're mere supplicants, and have substantial strengths of our own to bring to bear in dealing with this.
Your explanation once given gets you punted from what you've concluded is their business manager to Hino herself. For someone that's been casting such a long shadow she looks so normal you're vaguely disappointed. You expected ominous lighting and clasped hands and glasses at least. Instead the image is just a normal girl with long brown hair in a normal well-lit office. She doesn't even wear glasses.
The situation with Tokyo has been a long standing concern for her, one she's thrown what manpower she could at, but she's never been able to afford to spare enough forces to do more than keep a lid on it. Border tensions are too high to have many of her girls off on an expedition at any given time. She's not too sure if you really have the ability to clean things up so quickly, but she could probably shake loose 15 or maybe 20 elites in 5 man squads for a month or two with another few squads of vets to support them.
Asking Kyuubey for options was an interesting move on your part. She tries to keep him as far away as possible and doesn't talk to him beyond conversations he forces on her.
If Tokyo is cleared though there will be a lot less need for her to have cubes though. The girls there will be much more able to hunt for themselves at that point. She'll buy the cubes anyways because you're doing something valuable if you succeed, and if you fail the cubes will still be useful. The armor is a trivial matter; they can easily fulfill that order. And it's not like she'd charge you for the military aid to do something she wants to do anyways.
From what you've said of your plans, their technology would hardly be useful to your efforts in this case. You certainly wouldn't have time to make use of them. Plus she's still not sure about you, in the case of your success you can speak again about more tech trades.
As to the elites left in Tokyo, they're less helpful than she expects you hope. Around half of them are the heroic type that stays to defend their homes, but any left alive at this point are pretty tempered by pragmatism and pretty stubborn. The other half are the ones that survive of those on top when everything fell apart, and she can assure you she's accurate about which ones were which. Somewhat less elites have actually died in Tokyo than you may have thought; certainly at the start a lot died, but as time passed some elites were able to find new homes. Either with her or recruited by the Junta who were perfectly willing to recruit those desperate to escape and powerful enough to be useful even if they wouldn't help to resolve the situation. She's kind of bitter about it.
Their information on the beholder is rather less helpful than you'd expect for their operation. Their standard operating procedure is to immediately flee if it appears, it's not worth the risk to their forces to try to engage in a situation in which they can't retreat easily. They do know that it at least has: barriers, healing, and teleportation. It hasn't used stealth against them, but it's not like it's needed it. Clairvoyance they have no way to judge clearly since they believe demons communicate with each other to summon aid rather than simply view another in danger. Telepathy it shouldn't have.
Training General training- With the new recruits, you need some time to get them all up to speed on your procedures and tactics.
Month 2
Even with all that's going on you keep up the training of your new recruits; it's important that you don't let your general competency slip now more than ever. As ever it's more about honing their safety and ability to work with a partner than anything else.
Tokyo Prep Training
With the anticipated difficulty of the expedition to clear out Tokyo, you need to do a lot of work to get people ready to handle the risks involved.
- Have Serena & Co. review Serene Combat training documentation and begin training in it themselves. Guided by video discussions of their lessons, and practical practice in their own group. Focus on Pack Hunting and General Combat.
- Working with transformed/untransformed Serena (max 1 hour exposure for each girl) to get an idea of how their powers will behave inside her aura, and get used to the aura feeling. In particular try to identify ways to keep girls focused and not becoming reckless when dealing with her transformed aura.
- Coordinating as teams:
-- Heavy, concentrated bunker defense teams
-- Light, mobile assault teams
- Running combat ops without reliable teleporter backup.
- Using charms (Kyouko assist, since she's really the only one with experience using them in combat)
- Using the rubber ball trick to do a quick test for the beholder's aura. Primarily for coordinating between the teleporters and the clairvoyants.
- Parkour training with Akeno, for non-teleport escape
- Scenario Training: (Illusionists help with depicting the scenarios, refs to keep score)
-- Scenario 1: Lot's of teleporting clairvoyant demons mobbing Serena as soon as we attack
-- Scenario 2: Mr. Eyeball demon: Teleportation = insta-death. (Have the refs be very strict on this one, plan at least one run through to be rigged so that everyone "dies.")
- Training scanning large areas, and specific navigation through them.
Your training this month is more intense than pretty much any training your group as a whole has ever done. It's still less than you'd have liked to do, but it's what you have time for.
Your girls can mostly take the baseline level of Serena's aura without too much issue, they're a generally upbeat group in the first place. Transformed it's much as she explained previously in regards to foolishness, though the raw power output is impressive. It makes a big mess though. Even something as innocuous as healing can become a bit strange when it's supercharged to that degree, as the breadth of what constitutes healing seems to become a bit loose. That's nothing compared to the damage a barrier can do though when you throw enough magic into it that it acts more like a battering ram, or whole trees being relocated by teleporters. After only a few minutes at a time of exposure your girls generally seem a bit down by contrast but okay.
Honestly the worse at handling it are probably you and Seto. If Serena untransformed was tingling across your skin, her transformed aura is like being covered in insects trying to find their way inside you. You transform instinctively just in reaction to the feeling, and you don't really notice much change in your magic. Seto on the other hand flees the moment she can from Serena, or worse is nearly catatonic when she's transformed. Serena isn't too bothered by the fleeing as that's fairly normal response to her where she's from, but the latter is a bad sign.
You practice layering up your tandem barriers and holding them up while under attack and moving. They don't do as well as you'd like, and Kyouko's managed to crack a shell more than once, and bypassed all of them with an underground attack once, though you're not entirely clear how she managed that. She's much more of a 3-dimensional thinker than typical really.
High mobility assault is pretty much the standard for magical girls though, you pack a lot more firepower than you can stand up to generally, and so most girls are experienced with running and dodging.
Relatedly you manage to get some of Akeno's time freed up to try to train the rest in parkour, but that's more comedic than anything else. It's simply not physically possible for anyone else to pull the maneuvers that she does. You and the other elites can manage to keep up with her with your own methods, but no one else can except the teleporters. That's pretty much a bust.
You have your teleporters and clairvoyants practice together with transporting and observing the neon balls you bought. When they're just teleporting the ball from one hand to the other it's really simple, but when they're doing it at a distance it's much trickier. The issue is targeting. When teleporting a ball a large distance it's harder to coordinate where the ball is going with where the clairvoyant is viewing.
The combat simulations go… okay you guess, for the first time your illusionists have tried anything at all like this. Even Kyouko doesn't often use illusions of anything besides herself. Your illusion scenarios tend to rely a fair bit on imagination filling in the blanks.
The first scenario is harder to simulate with so many different ideas of what powers you'll see being tossed around. It's kind of just a chaotic scenario that even you aren't too sure what's going on and you play the aggressor much of the time. From what little time you get to see Serena's force in action though they're quite strong and work well together, but they actually are much more defensive in combat than you expected.
The anti-teleport scenarios you run a number of times without Serena mostly due to time limits. It's pretty clear that teleporters are virtually useless. It's so ingrained in their instincts to teleport to avoid blows or even just to land blows that you can't really overcome it. Not without a lot more time than you've got.
You mix in the charm use into the scenarios, mostly single cast barrier charms just to get people used to using them. They're pretty neat in a pinch, though getting used to using them as a reflex will probably take a while.
Kyuubey:
Ask Kyuubey for any information he can provide on the potential class 4 demon in Tokyo.
Also, any info on the beholder demon, if that's not the potential class 4.
Ask if he has a count of the number of teleport-capable demons in the Tokyo area.
Incubator surveillance indicates that 20 of the Class 3 demons in the Tokyo area can be confirmed as teleport capable. This is simply by observation of their movements though. Direct observation of demons is a significant energy expense that simply hasn't been warranted as it had little effect on the matter at this point. Additionally abilities of the demons are fluid dependent upon their diet so intelligence has limited lifespan.
They've reevaluated based on information gathered from magical girls that the Beholder as you've classified it has likely gathered sufficient energy to rise to Class 4 as it hasn't undergone any observable meiosis. Its miasma has not increased significantly in exterior dimensions but this is not entirely unusual. At Class 4 and 5 there is almost always significant difference between exterior and interior geometry.
In light of your planned attack additional energy is expended on reconnaissance. As expected interior space is significantly larger than the exterior mundane space it occupies. The longer it occupies a space the more warped it will become from the exterior space. End destination appears to be some sort of subterranean environment, though mapping is impossible as the space continues to change.
General
Oddly Hainako's business is picking up despite the economic downturn, perhaps other translators have been pushed out of business by the slowdown and her own service has been able to undercut them. She's actually running through quite a substantial bit more material now than she once did, and she can often be found wandering into walls tapping rapid fire on her netbook muttering in languages you can't even name with phonemes you'd probably tie your tongue in a knot trying to produce. (Income increased)
Your other income sources are less notable this month. Your delivery service benefited somewhat from advertising, but your original market wasn't the sort that normally order delivery and with the economy slowing people are ordering out less. Hopefully it will gradually catch on.
Even with everything going on you managed to squeeze out some time to get Nagisa a training course on pet training. It's not much, but it's a step towards another hopefully significant income source.
Of course this month your income from those sources is dwarfed by your massive sale of grief cubes to Nagoya, even buying a few from the coalition and area 15 just to sell at a better price. Between that sale and paying for the diplomatic overture with the coalition it seriously impacts your total supply of cubes.
Aiko has her work cut out for her trying to play councilor this month as she stamps out all sorts of strange concerns. She's not too sure on if cutting grief cubes this month is particularly wise though, girls are a fair bit more worried than usual.
You find yourself comforting Taya through a minor spiral this month. Watching Tokyo was not good for her, especially with the knowledge she's going to have to face foes that so soundly ignored her efforts last time.
Aisa Ogawa also spirals this month, she's heard about the mass mobilization plans and she's really not much of a fighter and really didn't sign up for this sort of thing. With a couple GCU Kina is able to calm her down though.
Motoori Manami also spins out, she's always the most hopeful of the Tokyo girls, but in some ways that makes her vulnerable you guess. She worried so much over your group heading into what even she considers a death trap.
(5 GCU on spirals)
Rumors
The Serene cultists are promising to summon their goddess Serena to cleanse Tokyo of its corruption. General expectation is for them to die horribly. More surprising is that Hino has bought in to their story. Nagoya will be assisting them in their efforts.
It's said that you should think as carefully about making a deal with Masaki Sachiko (CEO of The Magick Company of Niigata) as you would with Kyuubey. And that she may be the wealthiest magical girl in terms of human currency despite her group containing only a small number of other magical girls.
Global unrest continues to increase with riots in many countries, suicide rates have risen 20% over the past 3 years. Global Stock exchanges have slipped 5-10% over the past two months.
Resources
4 (5) Elite Meguca: Mami (+20% persuasive), Kyouko (can act as if two Elites), Taya (Can fill role of two clairvoyant vets), Seto (Elite teleporter)
Legendary Serena, +4 vet/elite special
56 Veteran Meguca, 8 Green Meguca, 1 Associate
Upkeep: 21.5 Veteran, 3 Green, 1 Associate
Support/Training (8 Vet)
3 vet demon finding training (+20% grief cubes)
2 vets on dispatch service (+30% grief cubes additive with demon finding, -1% casualties)
1.5 vet on telepathic communication (-2% pair hunting, -1% pack hunting)
1.5 Veteran, Paperpushing
Jobs (13 Vet, 6 Green, 1 Associate)
1 veteran (Hainako) Translation service
4 veteran + 5 green working courier business (Minimum 3 vets)
1 Akeno Delivery
4 Vets (Akane), 1 Green, 1 Associate Restaurant
3 vets - Restaurant delivery
Grief Cubes 66.2
Money: $114,420
Expenses: $30,920
$1480 upkeep on cellphones (-2% solo hunting, -1% pair hunting)
$600 upkeep on cable/internet
$5000 upkeep on apartments
$8000 upkeep on house
$300 upkeep on Akiya
$7400 upkeep on stipend
$7400 upkeep on food
$740 upkeep on gear (bikes, shields, misc)
Income $37,500
Translator: +$5500 per turn
Courier Business, Mitakihara: +$9500 per turn
Courier Business, Kasamino: +$4500 per turn
Restaurant +$9000 per turn
Akeno Delivery +$4000 per turn
Restaurant Delivery +$4000, +~$5000 next turn
Morale: [4 of 10] While your girls in general may be willing to be heroes, there's still quite a bit of worry to go around.
Assets
Tiny household shrine: Somewhat reduces losses to morale from deaths. (Bonus Increased by omake)
Shields: -3% Casualties
[*]Basic General Combat Training: -2% Casualties (May decay with losses or recruitment).
[*]Basic Solo Combat Training: -1% Pack Hunting, -2% pair hunting, -3% Solo Hunting
[*]Defending Others Training: -2% Pair Hunting, -1% Pack Hunting
[*]Pack Tactics Training: -4% pack hunting, -2% pair hunting
[*]PvP training: Still terrible, but slightly less so +2% PvP effectiveness
[*]Experienced Hunters +10% grief cube gather rates
[*]Tandem trained
- Healer: 2
- Teleporter: 5+Seto
- Stealth: 2+Kyoko
- Clairvoyant: 3+Taya
- Barrier: 11
74 Bicycles (Mobility Bonus)
20 Bulletproof vest (-2% casualty)
19.8? Sets of Kevlar Clothing (-4% casualty)
3 Sets of Leather (-2% casualty)
9 sets hardened leather (-3% casualty)
Housing (68/93)
Apartments (40 capacity)
House (50 capacity)
Mami's Apartment (HQ of sorts) (Can be traded for $1200 per turn)
Akiya (5/6 capacity, special)
Territory
Urban
North
Demon Status: Strong 10.0
Sustainable Harvest: 37
South
Demon Status: Average 0.0
Sustainable Harvest: 37
Rural
Demon Status: Average +0.9
Sustainable Harvest: 8
________________________________________________________________________________________
Yet another possible format. Integrated the vote into the update so that people can see what was planned.
Not sure why I struggled with this update. Though if we're correcting grammar in this thread now... good Madokami I'm doomed. It's bad enough fixing all my math each time.
As usual rumors will be up eventually. Though at least one is going to be some comical interpretation of you guys as previously discussed.
I still am working on updating the front page, it will eventually catch up.
Huh, I'd figured Mami for being technical 10 on morale, but it seems her wish is a little more effective than we gave it credit for. To out and out no-sell the transformed aura... *whistles*
Could you change it so that you consumed 20 Years Later for Morale instead of Legendary Magical Girls? I want to save that one for when we eventually run into Homura. Which means that I don't want it to be used for morale next turn either.
They do know that it at least has: barriers, healing, and teleportation. It hasn't used stealth against them, but it's not like it's needed it. Clairvoyance they have no way to judge clearly since they believe demons communicate with each other to summon aid rather than simply view another in danger. Telepathy it shouldn't have.
In light of your planned attack additional energy is expended on reconnaissance. As expected interior space is significantly larger than the exterior mundane space it occupies. The longer it occupies a space the more warped it will become from the exterior space. End destination appears to be some sort of subterranean environment, though mapping is impossible as the space continues to change.
Yuka manages to contact a majority of the elites left in Tokyo, but she isn't optimistic about how many will actually join your fight. Basically all of them have others they can't stand for some reason or another, and it's bizarre how when the world is crashing down around them people have a tendency to still be fighting each other rather than working together.
Disappointing, but not unexpected. The easy-to-persuade ones would have long been recruited by the people who haven't arrived late to the party like we have.
Having watched a few videos of killer whales the comparison is apt to when they corral a school of fish. Likewise any fish trying to escape the encirclement prompt action from those on the edges. From what you've seen they seem quite a bit more capable of detecting magical girls than you, from quite a few kilometers in fact, with teleporters moving to intercept any attempting to run the blockade. They're far more intelligent than you'd like. And Taya's not enjoying watching this.
Hmm, well that was distinctly unhelpful, and I kind of agree with Taya. On the other hand she's not going to be doing much fighting, except possibly against the Class 4 (we might need to bring in every one of our Elites other than Seto to fight that monster), so there's that.
You pick her up from the airport with Seto and Hainako. Her power is an odd thing. You can pretty clearly observe its effect on other people as you wait in the public area of the airport after her plane arrives. Seto is certainly smiling suddenly which is kind of strange in itself, you haven't seen it much from her. Hainako is less affected but it's there's still a bit of a tell in that she's not cursing in whatever language is convenient when she trips; you're fairly sure she's gotten even more clumsy with her desk job than when she was doing courier work. You can feel something skittering, tingling across you and through you. If the Class 3 you had faced was like some sort of blanket weighing down, this is like balloons trying to push you up. Just like in that case though you put it aside, it's not you.
Mami figured out there was something odd about the sisters we recruited, when nobody else could tell anything was amiss. Turns out they weren't originally sisters, and had instead wished to become so.
Mami can resist Serena's aura, can in fact react to it on the level of the magic itself, rather than the after-effects of it taking effect.
Secondary indicators, may not be relevant:
Mami is an unusually strong fighter, despite the fact that her initial combat ability is canonically weak.
Taura can still read Mami's mind, without Mami noticing or being able to affect it.
Mami's +20% persuasive bonus. GM has mentioned before that this is mostly a result of her experience and personality, and may not be her "true" Elite bonus.
Given all this, I'm wondering if Mami's Wish gave her some sort of protective ward effect, maybe outright magic resistance. Still not confident in this assessment, in particular given that Taura can still read her mind with impunity, but it's at least an explanation for the primary effects we've seen.
Hoo boy. My tentative diagnosis is survivor's guilt; being in Serena's aura is going to suck for someone like that, because the aura would be pushing you to forget your dead friends. In fact, I'm going to suggest that we keep Seto out of Serena's aura entirely, or at least as much as we can, and stick to tandem vets to transport her around.
You expected ominous lighting and clasped hands and glasses at least. Instead the image is just a normal girl with long brown hair in a normal well-lit office.
The Magick Company takes your information with good grace, but it's kind of odd that it's through a paid adult secretary for the most part. You've idly questioned Kyuubey about it and apparently Masaki Sachiko, CEO, has a much better handle on maintaining secrecy than you do. You wonder about it.
It bothers me more than I care to admit that these two groups have the spare cash to procure specifically separate office space for meguca work, and without something as convenient as Kyoko's church just lying around to appropriate. That's a sign of having a lot of spare cash lying around.
Asking Kyuubey for options was an interesting move on your part. She tries to keep him as far away as possible and doesn't talk to him beyond conversations he forces on her.
I understand the emotional distaste for the Incubators, I do. It's just, well, it's kind of a waste of time to hate and try to avoid the hyper-advanced, emotionless, alien super-beings that you need to interact with on multiple occasions each week, if only to drop off used grief cubes, even if they are super-dicks.
Their information on the beholder is rather less helpful than you'd expect for their operation. Their standard operating procedure is to immediately flee if it appears, it's not worth the risk to their forces to try to engage in a situation in which they can't retreat easily. They do know that it at least has: barriers, healing, and teleportation. It hasn't used stealth against them, but it's not like it's needed it. Clairvoyance they have no way to judge clearly since they believe demons communicate with each other to summon aid rather than simply view another in danger. Telepathy it shouldn't have.
At Class 4 and 5 there is almost always significant difference between exterior and interior geometry.
In light of your planned attack additional energy is expended on reconnaissance. As expected interior space is significantly larger than the exterior mundane space it occupies. The longer it occupies a space the more warped it will become from the exterior space. End destination appears to be some sort of subterranean environment, though mapping is impossible as the space continues to change.
Okay, we're going to need a full-on raiding party to take this thing on, given the large internal environment and multiple powers (barriers+healing):
Clairvoyant teams to locate the beast
Barrier teams for defense
All our Elites except Seto
Serena and her backup dancers
A lot of shooters
Let's just hope the thing doesn't do a runner once engaged by a superior force, because if it does then it's basically impossible to defeat; that's even more true now than it was before we learned about barrier+healing.
How the hell were 15 Elites supposed to take this thing on?
This one I feel like there are people in this thread that think Mami was the most powerful magical girl in the whole series from past discussions, though I have a much lower estimate of her combat strength.
I'd specify that no teleporter should be in the attack team, at all. We just proved they're incapable of not reflex-teleporting out of attacks, not so great.
This one I feel like there are people in this thread that think Mami was the most powerful magical girl in the whole series from past discussions, though I have a much lower estimate of her combat strength.
Well, she kind of was, but not because of her wish, previous experience or talent in combat, or even necessarily an innate talent for magic (although she seems to have had that too). Her Wish-granted "combat" power was ribbons, almost as useless as Homura's initial power, which she proceeded to turn into guns through hard work and practice, rather than Wish-granted combat prowess. I think the canon explanation was that she was a True Believer, or at least she tried to become one in order to redeem herself for a perceived failure to save her parents, and threw herself into the life of a magical girl more than most, so she got a lot of combat practice, very quickly.
It's sort of like how you explain Serena's girls having such good combat skills by being able to practice with high-drain techniques all the time, except Mami got there "honestly" by hunting all the time, even when she didn't need to, and using magic all the time, to the exclusion of everything else. She had a bit of help there with her life circumstances, in that her physical needs were met without any special effort on her part (probably some kind of insurance settlement that got her that apartment without her having to work for it), but she didn't have to restrain herself in her home life because she was an orphan, so she could practice magic all day long, and hunt all night long, without ever having to worry about outside considerations like food, shelter, money, family, friends, social considerations, masquerade violations, etc.
What is are Serena and Retinue's cube collection modifier, casualty modifer, and do they have to hunt in packs or can they do it in other forms?
Also, what does Mami think Serena's reaction to being asked to hunt would be? We don't want to ask her to do that if it would be seen as a reneging on the deal.
Some of them don't see the profit in fighting at all when it's much easier to keep a low profile and stay out of the way. Others don't see a point in joining you if you're going to do the fighting regardless they can just benefit. Some are paranoid that you're just going to use them as cannon fodder. She expects she could get half a dozen, maybe up to a dozen to show up, and even those that do are going to be pretty skittish.
It's kind of shocking to everyone to think about the heart of Japan on such a precipice, and much of your briefing beyond that doesn't really sink in very well. The general feeling though is that obviously they have to fight to save everyone.
When you tell the girls you took in from Tokyo about your plans so they aren't blindsided they take it much less well. They're not going back there. Manami might have said she'd go without the peer pressure, but you didn't need to be a telepath to sense the byplay.
That's okay, we need people to hold down the fort. Now going back after we clear the area... that would be something we could use, but still isn't needed.
You don't spot your primary target in any of your observations, and your information on the demons themselves is limited. At this range you can't successfully penetrate the miasma and get a view at the demons individual capabilities. The demon behavior is much like you've heard, but at the same time not really predictable enough to plot out where they'll be at what times. The majority patrols the edge of the Tokyo area, but not on any sort of fixed schedule you can ascertain. A few times a day the ones currently in the center for feeding switch out to the edge while new ones go in. It takes a few days for them to work through a full cycle of every demon.
Having watched a few videos of killer whales the comparison is apt to when they corral a school of fish. Likewise any fish trying to escape the encirclement prompt action from those on the edges. From what you've seen they seem quite a bit more capable of detecting magical girls than you, from quite a few kilometers in fact, with teleporters moving to intercept any attempting to run the blockade. They're far more intelligent than you'd like. And Taya's not enjoying watching this.
You get the materials made and printed up, but the quality is somewhat less than you'd prefer: as ever your girls aren't as good at describing things they take for granted as you'd like. Not to mention that combat training is more something achieved by doing rather than reading.
Your opening gesture with the Sendai group doesn't go very well if the crying about it afterwards is any indication. Apparently sparks flew between her and the other side quite badly. From what you can gather sifting through afterwards Sendai has likely taken in whatever refugees they can afford and battles the demons that wander towards it, but values its own too highly to engage in more aggressive campaigns. It seems they might have responded poorly to implications of cowardice in their actions.
The Magick Company takes your information with good grace, but it's kind of odd that it's through a paid adult secretary for the most part. You've idly questioned Kyuubey about it and apparently Masaki Sachiko, CEO, has a much better handle on maintaining secrecy than you do. You wonder about it.
Asking Kyuubey for options was an interesting move on your part. She tries to keep him as far away as possible and doesn't talk to him beyond conversations he forces on her.
Even something as innocuous as healing can become a bit strange when it's supercharged to that degree, as the breadth of what constitutes healing seems to become a bit loose.
Honestly the worse at handling it are probably you and Seto. If Serena untransformed was tingling across your skin, her transformed aura is like being covered in insects trying to find their way inside you. You transform instinctively just in reaction to the feeling, and you don't really notice much change in your magic. Seto on the other hand flees the moment she can from Serena, or worse is nearly catatonic when she's transformed. Serena isn't too bothered by the fleeing as that's fairly normal response to her where she's from, but the latter is a bad sign.
Yeah... Seto is right out. I propose we tell her she's needed teleporting hunters around to keep our grief cube harvest up, and maybe also take her aside to point out that since all of us might end up dead, we need someone in Mitakihara to hold the group together in case of the worst.
Also... while Mami's ability is cool and interesting... it also means her powers are not going to be super charged.
You practice layering up your tandem barriers and holding them up while under attack and moving. They don't do as well as you'd like, and Kyouko's managed to crack a shell more than once, and bypassed all of them with an underground attack once, though you're not entirely clear how she managed that. She's much more of a 3-dimensional thinker than typical really.
High mobility assault is pretty much the standard for magical girls though, you pack a lot more firepower than you can stand up to generally, and so most girls are experienced with running and dodging.
Not enough information to really decide which is better. Though maybe the bunker plan is not the best...at least it is of limited viability, for specific scenarios.
Relatedly you manage to get some of Akeno's time freed up to try to train the rest in parkour, but that's more comedic than anything else. It's simply not physically possible for anyone else to pull the maneuvers that she does. You and the other elites can manage to keep up with her with your own methods, but no one else can except the teleporters. That's pretty much a bust.
The first scenario is harder to simulate with so many different ideas of what powers you'll see being tossed around. It's kind of just a chaotic scenario that even you aren't too sure what's going on and you play the aggressor much of the time. From what little time you get to see Serena's force in action though they're quite strong and work well together, but they actually are much more defensive in combat than you expected.
The anti-teleport scenarios you run a number of times without Serena mostly due to time limits. It's pretty clear that teleporters are virtually useless. It's so ingrained in their instincts to teleport to avoid blows or even just to land blows that you can't really overcome it. Not without a lot more time than you've got.
In light of your planned attack additional energy is expended on reconnaissance. As expected interior space is significantly larger than the exterior mundane space it occupies. The longer it occupies a space the more warped it will become from the exterior space. End destination appears to be some sort of subterranean environment, though mapping is impossible as the space continues to change.
You find yourself comforting Taya through a minor spiral this month. Watching Tokyo was not good for her, especially with the knowledge she's going to have to face foes that so soundly ignored her efforts last time.
Aisa Ogawa also spirals this month, she's heard about the mass mobilization plans and she's really not much of a fighter and really didn't sign up for this sort of thing. With a couple GCU Kina is able to calm her down though.
Motoori Manami also spins out, she's always the most hopeful of the Tokyo girls, but in some ways that makes her vulnerable you guess. She worried so much over your group heading into what even she considers a death trap.
What is are Serena and Retinue's cube collection modifier, casualty modifer, and do they have to hunt in packs or can they do it in other forms?
Also, what does Mami think Serena's reaction to being asked to hunt would be? We don't want to ask her to do that if it would be seen as a reneging on the deal.
I'm going to have to agree that it's not a good idea, regardless of how effective she might be at regular hunting. We wouldn't have direct control of Tokyo for at least a few months after the big bad is down, and even then it wouldn't be total control. I'm guessing it's going to be hard enough directing her around our own territory if we want her to do regular hunting, let alone hunting in the mess that is Tokyo, even post-apocalypse.
It also means that if/when Serena's group has assimilated enough to be conversational in Japanese, that Mami is able to basically ignore the time limit entirely, and if she can realize that if it's unique to her magic rather than her personality, that she could possibly do so for others.
We were pretty much always slated to have a particularly challenging boss fight. Helix even admitted that it was the arc boss, for all intents and purposes, so if we could 0% all risk of death it wouldn't be the hard mode quest he keeps purporting it to be.
As a side note, there's a weird dissonance in information, @inverted_helix. The Incubators never mentioned it had any capacity for teleportation, but Nagoya notes it as one of it's only abilities. Did the incubators just fail to pick that up, deliberately confuse the situation, or is it not actually capable of teleporting?
Adult secretary? suddenly I want to absorb this group just so we can get their masquerade know how.
