SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Another plot point: I don't think we ever solved the mystery of the... mystery jerks, although we did manage to convince them it wasn't us. Those people may wander through looking to cause trouble again.
Puella Magi Imperatrix Mundi, or: Wherein Half Of Japan Tries To Kill You
Echo
Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before
- Location
- "echolocation" dur hur hur
"Pack of newbies" isn't entirely accurate, though. The only real newbie (less than a month since contracting) is Miyu Ishida. If I remember correctly, Chizuka's been meguca for a year-ish, Tsurumi Ninomiya going on two years, Shina Konno two and a half years, Honoka Furuhata and Ikue Oshigiri a bit over three years, and Akina Tamazaki around five years.
Tamazaki only joined their group a couple months ago, however, and her presence plus recruiting Miyu is why things are falling apart now. Even recruiting Chizuka was probably unwise, and it was only her value as a deterrent against outside aggression that made it work out.
And okay, fair enough on getting Konno to justify herself there.
I don't think it was outright confirmed in-story yet, but basically she mindwhammied the entire school with magic super-therapy subject to conditions that basically amounted to "only affect people who would consent if asked and won't be harmed somehow." Because of this, Minami is no longer a social pariah and Natsuki's mental health is substantially improved. Asami and Shinobu were excluded from the effects by Minami's safety clauses.
The mystery remains unsolved, however you did foist Kaede off on the other, larger group that's received most of the harassment since her magic could help. There's not much else you can do on that front until you have Chou monitoring the city borders.
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
That's what I thought I remembered. They probably won't be targeting us immediately, but they might be sneaking through here invisibly, which could easily spin into a confrontation or worse.
Ambrosine
Flesh Apocalypse
- Location
- real life
Ooh, yes, I remember the conditions. That was really smart of her to attempt that and/or ask Kyuubey about that possibility.
If Natsuki or Asami do end up contracting, we should tell them about the ability to use additional conditions on their wishes as long as that doesn't somehow endanger them by diminishing their potential or messing up their wish. Kyuubey's been awfully cooperative, we should ask him sometime.
Echo
Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before
- Location
- "echolocation" dur hur hur
By the way, since geography continues to be relevant, here's where I posted some maps ages ago:
Right now, you're in Asaka Ward (corresponding to the IRL city of the same name) near the Tokyo border. Honoka Furuhata's group covers something like the western third of Nerima Ward, probably. I haven't decided on an exact area yet.
Okay so I ended up being kinda busy today and struggling against writer's block when I did have time to do stuff. So, I finished up some improved maps!
Overview of the Tokyo area, showing cities that are currently relevant somehow and/or don't match IRL Japan:
The large blue circle is Minami's telepathy range, the smaller circle is the range where she can spy on people. Both circles are centered near the places Minami is likely to be day-to-day.
Nagamioka wards, Tokyo wards bordering Nagamioka, and actively patrolled territories you know of:
The dotted lines around the territories are colored to indicate how friendly that area's meguca are to you: Red means hostile, yellow is wary but neutral, green is loosely allied, etc. The pink border indicates the area that Yui and Maiko will generally stick to when hunting Witches.
Nagamioka with relevant landmarks:
In case you want to know how far apart things are.
Right now, you're in Asaka Ward (corresponding to the IRL city of the same name) near the Tokyo border. Honoka Furuhata's group covers something like the western third of Nerima Ward, probably. I haven't decided on an exact area yet.
- Location
- London
Huh, I never twigged just quite how large the territory we're supposed to be in charge of is. I guess it's less densely populated than Tokyo if it can only support on the order of ~20 MGs but 1/3rd of a Tokyo ward can almost support 7, only really falling short because one of them needs extra-many seeds? Even then that sounds like a big disparity in number of witches available per unit area...
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
It could support 20 magical girls some years ago, it turns out it's grown enough to support between 30 and 40 now, according to Maiko's revised estimates (she gave us her old ones originally).
- Location
- London
Even then, I counted 22 wards in Nagamioka: if a Nagamioka ward can only support ~2 MGs with decent planning and emotional support but a Tokyo ward can support ~20 MGs even when they're in antagonistic and unhealthy relationships in the medium term (months at least) that's a huge disparity given how close the two areas are.
Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
I mean, Tokyo has 1/3rd of Japan's entire population. That kind of disparity isn't surprising.
Echo
Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before
- Location
- "echolocation" dur hur hur
Tokyo's average population density is probably 2-4 times that of Nagamioka, I think?
Also, Nagamioka is either the second- or third-largest city in PMIM Japan, regularly swapping rank with Osaka. PMIM Yokohama is considerably smaller than IRL Yokohama because that's where I put Mitakihara. (Nagamioka, meanwhile, has replaced Saitama City and at least 20 of the surrounding cities.)
Please note that in this case "Maiko's revised estimates" actually means "Echo's sneaky retcon".
Anyway, my rule of thumb is 10-20 meguca per million people for urban areas under normal circumstances. Tokyo should run toward the high end of that, but even so Nerima as a whole should really only support 15 meguca or so at most despite being one of the most populous wards. Tokyo is kinda weird in general, though, so... eh.
Nagamioka as a whole has around 2.6 million people vs. Tokyo's roughly 9 million.
Nagamioka can plausibly support 40-ish meguca without large-scale organization, i.e., as a mixture of individuals and small groups. With city-wide planning and specialized duties, it could theoretically support more. Also, the population density varies dramatically between wards. I found what's apparently a population density map of the region, which may offer some insight:
The Greater Tokyo Metropolitan Area has nearly 1/3 of Japan's entire population. Nagamioka and Mitakihara are both included in that total. Tokyo proper is like a quarter of that.
Effectively, Witch-claimed territory. High density and high competition have resulted in unusually powerful and/or clever Witches partially displacing meguca from the magical "ecosystem", preying on weaker Witches instead of mundane humans. Magical girls either lay low, stick to hit-and-run tactics, or don't last long. Perpetual headache for Kyubey on account of manipulating groups of magical girls into high-casualty battles to prevent the most aggressive Witches from eating each other and katamari-ing their way into a new Walpurgisnacht-level threat.
Also: when's the character profiles section getting an update with all our locals?
That's an excellent question.
- Location
- Earth, Milky Way
Oh yes this quest, niice nice nice.
I think we should definitely ask Konno if she's willing to share information about our weaknesses, both personally and as a group. I remember before being worried about all of our blindspots and weaknesses that aren't on our radar. I suppose paying her is a good idea, but I wouldn't start with that.
Otherwise, even with reading some of the summaries and character info pages, I'm still pretty lost with who everyone is. Oh well, hopefully I'll catch up with a reread or with time.
I think we should definitely ask Konno if she's willing to share information about our weaknesses, both personally and as a group. I remember before being worried about all of our blindspots and weaknesses that aren't on our radar. I suppose paying her is a good idea, but I wouldn't start with that.
Otherwise, even with reading some of the summaries and character info pages, I'm still pretty lost with who everyone is. Oh well, hopefully I'll catch up with a reread or with time.
- Location
- The Beach
Man, I reaaalllyyy need to do a reread! There's so much going on I'll need to refresh myself.
Also, [] Poach Konno, cuz her powers seem hellishly useful. Getting her, Minami, and Maiko together in a room pretty much gives near absolute information superiority.
I think this is a good starting point, though I feel any plan we make would have a lot depending on Konno. Not a bad thing, just that we need to keep that in mind.
Also, [] Poach Konno, cuz her powers seem hellishly useful. Getting her, Minami, and Maiko together in a room pretty much gives near absolute information superiority.
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- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
[x] You can work with this - you've mostly been coming up with broad strokes plans and having other people pick apart the issues up till now anyway, so with Konno's help you should definitely be able to come up with something.
-[x] You're willing to let the lot of them move into Nagamioka as long as they acknowledge you as boss and follow your rules- you should really type them up or something, but it's nothing too crazy.
--[x] Basically, right now you're in the weird spot of wanting more magical girls to recruit, not less. Unless there're really compelling reasons why you shouldn't, you'd prefer to just recruit all of them.
---[x] Worst case, you could just shuffle any feuding members into separate sections of Nagamioka, as long as things break down in a... non-murdery kind of way.
[x] You've already gone out of your way to make special arrangements for prickly individuals, so would something like that be necessary or appropriate for anyone?
-[x] You could demonstrate your power as a show of force while witch hunting, to satisfy Tamazaki, and anyone else who'd be convinced with that approach.
-[x] Chizuka's issues seem to revolve around feeling like a burden. With a whole city's worth of problems, there should be a lot of situations where her level of firepower is very useful, instead of wasteful. You'd need to make sure you aren't exploiting her, though.
-[x] Miyu's dependence on Honoka is an issue, given Honoka's close ties to Ikue and Ikue's personality. What does Konno know about Ikue's personality - is there a way to disentangle this by taking to Ikue and approaching from that angle?
-[x] Konno's powers in particular would be very useful - knowing your own weaknesses would be fantastic for shoring them up, and you've got a lot of information coming in that she could help examine.
[x] Would Konno be able to make Furuhata agree to something like this? What are the issues she sees with the approach?
-[x] You're willing to let the lot of them move into Nagamioka as long as they acknowledge you as boss and follow your rules- you should really type them up or something, but it's nothing too crazy.
--[x] Basically, right now you're in the weird spot of wanting more magical girls to recruit, not less. Unless there're really compelling reasons why you shouldn't, you'd prefer to just recruit all of them.
---[x] Worst case, you could just shuffle any feuding members into separate sections of Nagamioka, as long as things break down in a... non-murdery kind of way.
[x] You've already gone out of your way to make special arrangements for prickly individuals, so would something like that be necessary or appropriate for anyone?
-[x] You could demonstrate your power as a show of force while witch hunting, to satisfy Tamazaki, and anyone else who'd be convinced with that approach.
-[x] Chizuka's issues seem to revolve around feeling like a burden. With a whole city's worth of problems, there should be a lot of situations where her level of firepower is very useful, instead of wasteful. You'd need to make sure you aren't exploiting her, though.
-[x] Miyu's dependence on Honoka is an issue, given Honoka's close ties to Ikue and Ikue's personality. What does Konno know about Ikue's personality - is there a way to disentangle this by taking to Ikue and approaching from that angle?
-[x] Konno's powers in particular would be very useful - knowing your own weaknesses would be fantastic for shoring them up, and you've got a lot of information coming in that she could help examine.
[x] Would Konno be able to make Furuhata agree to something like this? What are the issues she sees with the approach?
Hestia&theCourt
Turns out we're plural too.
- Location
- In transition
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hmm. Having looked over both plans, I find myself favoring Redshirt's as being less confrontational. I'm open to persuasion, though.
[X] Redshirt Army
Achievement: Unlock Red Army Vote (2/3)
[X] Redshirt Army
Achievement: Unlock Red Army Vote (2/3)
Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
[x] You can work with this - you've mostly been coming up with broad strokes plans and having other people pick apart the issues up till now anyway, so with Konno's help you should definitely be able to come up with something.
-[x] You're willing to let the lot of them move into Nagamioka as long as they acknowledge you as boss and follow your rules- you should really type them up or something, but it's nothing too crazy.
--[x] Basically, right now you're in the weird spot of wanting more magical girls to recruit, not less. Unless there're really compelling reasons why you shouldn't, you'd prefer to just recruit all of them.
---[x] Worst case, you could just shuffle any feuding members into separate sections of Nagamioka, as long as things break down in a... non-murdery kind of way.
[x] You've already gone out of your way to make special arrangements for prickly individuals, so would something like that be necessary or appropriate for anyone?
-[x] You could demonstrate your power as a show of force while witch hunting, to satisfy Tamazaki, and anyone else who'd be convinced with that approach.
-[x] Chizuka's issues seem to revolve around feeling like a burden. With a whole city's worth of problems, there should be a lot of situations where her level of firepower is very useful, instead of wasteful. You'd need to make sure you aren't exploiting her, though.
-[x] Miyu's dependence on Honoka is an issue, given Honoka's close ties to Ikue and Ikue's personality. What does Konno know about Ikue's personality - is there a way to disentangle this by taking to Ikue and approaching from that angle?
-[x] Konno's powers in particular would be very useful - knowing your own weaknesses would be fantastic for shoring them up, and you've got a lot of information coming in that she could help examine.
[x] Would Konno be able to make Furuhata agree to something like this? What are the issues she sees with the approach?
-[x] You're willing to let the lot of them move into Nagamioka as long as they acknowledge you as boss and follow your rules- you should really type them up or something, but it's nothing too crazy.
--[x] Basically, right now you're in the weird spot of wanting more magical girls to recruit, not less. Unless there're really compelling reasons why you shouldn't, you'd prefer to just recruit all of them.
---[x] Worst case, you could just shuffle any feuding members into separate sections of Nagamioka, as long as things break down in a... non-murdery kind of way.
[x] You've already gone out of your way to make special arrangements for prickly individuals, so would something like that be necessary or appropriate for anyone?
-[x] You could demonstrate your power as a show of force while witch hunting, to satisfy Tamazaki, and anyone else who'd be convinced with that approach.
-[x] Chizuka's issues seem to revolve around feeling like a burden. With a whole city's worth of problems, there should be a lot of situations where her level of firepower is very useful, instead of wasteful. You'd need to make sure you aren't exploiting her, though.
-[x] Miyu's dependence on Honoka is an issue, given Honoka's close ties to Ikue and Ikue's personality. What does Konno know about Ikue's personality - is there a way to disentangle this by taking to Ikue and approaching from that angle?
-[x] Konno's powers in particular would be very useful - knowing your own weaknesses would be fantastic for shoring them up, and you've got a lot of information coming in that she could help examine.
[x] Would Konno be able to make Furuhata agree to something like this? What are the issues she sees with the approach?
HymnOfRagnarok
Let's Rock
That's definitely a problem. It also sounds like something Yui could fix, once she's more experienced and less prone to making mistakes.
Us getting a nice harvest of grief seeds is good, but more to the point, I wonder if we could strike another bargain with Kyubey. Get some terms or promises out of him where he helps us out more, in exchange for getting rid of a long-term problem of his. He'd probably agree, since it's more efficient.
I mean he'll screw us over in the end, that's what the system is about. We'll need to be working with Homura and Madoka to do something about that. We can probably make this work to everyone's benefit in the short-term though.
Admittedly, we're a little bit already known as Kyubey's helper in taking over this city, and us being his enforcer may come with some stigma. Like, it will mean that when Kyubey introduces us to Mami he's more or less got to give us a glowing recommendation. But to everyone who hates Kyubey and what he stands for, not so much, even if what we did was stabilize a region and wipe out a bunch of powerful, dangerous witches.
DarkLight140
Credit to Team
- Location
- Lost in my thoughts
This seems less "worse case" and more "unless there's a compelling reason not to" to me. Yui's hold on Nagamioka is not so firm that she can afford an eight-person power bloc led by someone who isn't a rock-solid loyalist.
If we leave them together then they're likely to think of themselves as a distinct unit and continue obeying old patterns of action, i.e. thinking Honoka Furuhata is the one in charge and doing what she says, particularly if we don't interact with them on a day to day basis which we won't because we're frequently busy. That's just asking for their interpersonal problems to remain in place and act up, for them to try a coup/secede with a declared section of territory, and for hostile border groups to approach them as semi-independent diplomacy targets to try to get them to defect or betray us as a team just like we did with Rio and friends. Those are serious risks of awful situations and the benefits of letting them stay together are all but nonexistent in comparison.
If they immigrate to our territory they need to be broken up. Groups of no more than three and if we could come up with a stable configuration with nothing larger than a pair I'd go for it.
Aside from that your vote seems all right. Personally I was enjoying the way that the update sent our conversation with Konno in the direction of being blunt and analytical about our needs and having that work out so I was aiming to play to it, but we can be a little more delicate. I don't know that I'd use the phrase "make special arrangements for prickly individuals" to mean "tailor recruitment approaches on a per-person" basis as it seems to be used here, though, because what it brings mind to me is something like we have with Chou where we gave her a semiautonomous internal territory and aren't going to poke it until we can bind her to us with ties of
Echo
Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before
- Location
- "echolocation" dur hur hur
That's, like, the exact opposite of the problem here.
- Location
- Plato's Cave
For people who only read one update back, this is a presumably helpful list at the end of the update two back.
I think Yui's brother coming home (and therefore wanting to hang with us) is the only major in-universe long-term thing, aside from the obvious "establishing ourselves as a legitimate and benevolent overlord" goal that most things we do are working towards?
The actual plot of Madoka is going to come up eventually as well, but that's not for ages in-quest so it's not really worth thinking about.