To "break the system", as it were? Whether that actually means fixing everything, or just undoing the Incubators' little energy farm on Earth, is another thing. As far as I'm concerned, at least, Walpy and Feathers are just here to give us a sense of urgency and an external threat, like Oriko at the start of the quest. Even if we beat them, I don't expect it to magically solve every problem of ours, just like beating Oriko didn't. I'd find it much more satisfying for this quest to end with us metaphorically and literally booting QB out of the solar system, personally.

With that said, I don't think dewitching and at least helping with the energy generation problem are impossible to achieve within our deadline. On the other hand, helping a traumatized person get better is something that takes months or years, and is definitely impossible in two weeks. The best we can really do, is set them on a path to recovery, and this would be the optimal outcome of our conversation with Homura here. We've done the same for Mami - she's not well by any measure, but she's slowly getting better (although she still needs a proper therapist, replacing her original issues with an overdependence on Sabrina is not healthy long-term either).

This is why I think our objective here should be to give Homura a different perspective on herself, something to counter her regular, unhealthy thought patterns. If we just reassure her without any substance behind it, it'll be the proverbial bandaid on an open wound; she'll feel better in the moment, but promptly backslide once left to her own devices.

There's a sequel to PMAS planned, that's more of a... strategic, empire builder sort of game?

I think PMAS will deal with the time until Walp/Feathers is dealt with, then Sabrina will continue her attempts to make the universe better by trying to bring hugs to Earth and maybe later beyond. And maybe backwards and forwards in time.

Who knows.
 
OK, so I know there's a plan.

But let's look at this anyway.

Homura just got told something she really doesn't to happen has been happening.

(We're planning to tell her more about this and I'm scared it might be too much all at once.)

(But if we don't reach some sort of conclussion before this convesation ends, Homu will probably break to smithereens ten relative minutes after she's out of our sight and hugging range.)

So Homu will necessarily need to come to accept the current state of affairs in some fashion. We can help with that.

Perhaps we should keep things slow and not throw the whole theory at Homu at once. Start with fact facts we know, that are not the product of any sort of conjecture, see how Homu reacts, help her deal with that, then go from there?

We're basically taking a blindfold off Homu's eyes, and now she must accept what we're showing her, because she can't deny it any longer.

Our group homework has a name:

re-framing

Cognitive reframing - Wikipedia

Reframing - Evolution Counseling
 
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[]*Wait a moment*
[]You don't want her to know what she puts you through? I don't think she does. Not completely. I think she had enough sense for it last loop though that she realized anything more than "could be fixed" would destroy you. The board isn't rigged against you anymore. You can learn to see yourself as a human again, instead of a machine.
 
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OK, so, besides halpin Homu deal by reassuring her and giving her time and all those gud things we must keep at...

Should we point at those times Madoka asks Homu if they had met before, or about Madoka's 'deja vu', in order to cement this idea in Homura's mind, before proceeding?
 
Homura, whose eyes go wide. "W-what?" she whispers, searching your face. "No, she- I don't want her to-"

She falls silent, squeezing her eyes shut.

[Q] Yes. Yes! You cannot run, Homura. You cannot hide.
-[Q] Have you seen the genre of your Magical Girl show? Shoujo Ai at its finest.

I'm trying to joke about it, but I feel like it falls flat, somewhat. Hmm. New policy: no MadoHomu jokes from me until the next obligatory Ship Tease moment. So, three-four months irl, I guess.
 
OK, so, besides halpin Homu deal by reassuring her and giving her time and all those gud things we must keep at...

Should we point at those times Madoka asks Homu if they had met before, or about Madoka's 'deja vu', in order to cement this idea in Homura's mind, before proceeding?

Mm, yeah. There's a lot of evidence for this, and it establishes the validity of our followup points...
 
Some strong Moemura vibes here, this update.

Best Wish fallout ever. Homura is supposed to become an adult. The win is in not destroying her 'inner child.' Apparently, this can (someday) be fixed.


OK, so, besides halpin Homu deal by reassuring her and giving her time and all those gud things we must keep at...

Should we point at those times Madoka asks Homu if they had met before, or about Madoka's 'deja vu', in order to cement this idea in Homura's mind, before proceeding?

In alternate positions, between our re-framing talk and reassurance. Mix it, to lessen the shock.
 
Ok, so now what? The pitfall I can see is how Homura could easily make the conclusion the curent Madoka has knowledge or memory of all the times Homura hurt her

[Q] Witch
 
Homura's willing to accept that victory is possible... No. She's always believed that victory was possible. She had to. It's the only thing that kept her moving forward, day after day, loop after loop. She had to believe it, or she would have despaired long ago.

And once upon a never, that was what did cause her to despair. The revelation that she couldn't win, that she was inextricably making things worse by increasing Madoka's potential every loop. That revelation broke her, and it's what Oriko warned you off.

The thing is, believing in victory doesn't mean believing that she could win this time. Victory had always been some far off, unattainable dream, snatched away every single time no matter how hard she sought it. But now...

Now, you think she might, just might, be willing to hope. Just a little.
Yeah, she probably wouldn't be willing to accept that what she was hoping for actually happened/is happening until a while after it had happened, which i believe is actually a more common mental problem then it probably should be.
Apocalyptic visions of Walpurgisnacht, of Homura.

Homura, whose eyes go wide. "W-what?" she whispers, searching your face. "No, she- I don't want her to-"

She falls silent, squeezing her eyes shut.
Well, if nothing else this should grant some more meaning to Madoka being willing to be friends with her.

I honestly can't tell whether this is going to work, but if it is then i guess that something like "everything seeming like it was going to end badly, and then not doing so." is sort of what would be happening.
 
You take a breath, meeting her eyes. "Madoka dreams about you at the start of each loop, before you meet," you say.

Apocalyptic visions of Walpurgisnacht, of Homura.

Homura, whose eyes go wide. "W-what?" she whispers, searching your face. "No, she- I don't want her to-"

She falls silent, squeezing her eyes shut.


Oh god, poor Homura! What she doesn't know and what she shell NEVER learn is, that Madoka dreams that thanks to mind transfer from previous Gretchen. Yes, what we saw in the first episode of the original series, is a shard of memory similar to the shard we saw when Homura turned into the Witch in Rebellion. Including unreal surroundings at the beginning which I suspect is actually Gretchen's Labyrinth - Mindscape.
 
Homura, whose eyes go wide. "W-what?" she whispers, searching your face. "No, she- I don't want her to-"

To have to carry the same hurts from the past that you do? Or... and, or... to remember what you've done, to protect her? What her oldest request has wrought of you; and you have wrought in turn.

I think we're getting somewhere with this. I'm still not good for evaluating direction, but I think we're catching the wind for one.

Does Doka dream of messianic sheep?

Yus.
 
Wait. I lost track of thread discussion and didn't vote again. Dang it!

But the update was pretty much exactly what I was talking about. I like to think I saw my own posts reflected in the shape of this update. Nice work @Kaizuki! We on the same wavelength, but you're doing all the hard work between us :p

GJ everybody, let's make sure to continue to make careful steady progress!
 
Had an excellent idea.

[Q] We don't wanna homu to cry, sooooo
-[Q] Tickle her until she laughs, duh.

This is ingenious. Foolproof. Perfect in its simplicity. It's like Madokami guided me when I was votecrafting this.

I cannot stress enough how much I want people to vote for this.
 
Had an excellent idea.

[Q] We don't wanna homu to cry, sooooo
-[Q] Tickle her until she laughs, duh.

This is ingenious. Foolproof. Perfect in its simplicity. It's like Madokami guided me when I was votecrafting this.

I cannot stress enough how much I want people to vote for this.
You've convinced me. And also I don't want to miss the vote again.

[X] Raiseth

May you simultaneously enjoy and dread the responsibility of having twice the voting power of everybody else.

If it gets to be too much you can just tag me. I like being tagged
 
You've convinced me. And also I don't want to miss the vote again.

[X] Raiseth

May you simultaneously enjoy and dread the responsibility of having twice the voting power of everybody else.

If it gets to be too much you can just tag me. I like being tagged

Yesss. Let's get this bandwagon rolling, bitchez, the motherhugging circus is coming to this motherhugging town!

( No problemo, @redzonejoe. I'll tag you any time of the day. Or, as soon as there are sensible votes. I can do that, too, I guess. )
 
Keep in mind that that there are several reasons Homura would not prefer that Madoka remembers what occurred in other timelines. One of them probably happens to be that Madoka has a habit of dying or turning into a Witch in a good portion of those.

Also, we probably shouldn't exaggerate how much Madoka remembers Homura. By the time Homura appears, Madoka only knows her as "the girl from the dream", and doesn't even remember the context of the dream as a whole.
 
[x] Kaizuki

We have a plan and I'm trusting Kaizuki to keep trucking with it, or adjust for the best possible route.
 
Homura, whose eyes go wide. "W-what?" she whispers, searching your face. "No, she- I don't want her to-"

She falls silent, squeezing her eyes shut.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

[] Emotional support first.
[] Reassure Homura before continuing.
[] Speak softly and don't rush. Help Homura remain composed, and talk her own pace.


[] Promise her it's not as bad as it sounds, that everything can work right, that you believe she can fulfill her own Wish.
[] @Kaizuki

Well, seeing as Kai has THE PLANS, I'll wait to see what's cooking in catgirl's head before thoughtcrafting much more about the vote.

I can just say, this was a blow to Homura, so we need to help her deal with it before going on.

As said before, we could offer to point out evidence Homura has missed/ignored about Madoka's dreams, like Madoka's comments about having met before, and deja vu. Also, what the dreams are about.
 
Also, we probably shouldn't exaggerate how much Madoka remembers Homura. By the time Homura appears, Madoka only knows her as "the girl from the dream", and doesn't even remember the context of the dream as a whole.

Knows enough to remember the feeling that Homura wasn't a bad person, even when their personal interactions were weird as heck, though. Or, that's how I parsed canon, anyway.

And the eerie feeling you've seen something in a dream, that keeps being relevant- neither is the weight of that something to trivialize, even if we shouldn't exaggerate it either.
 
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