Given the amount of time Yui has spent hanging out with her brother in the past and the amount of communication between them, IIRC, the amount of effort and time spent avoiding him that would be required to avoid cluing him in would be absurdly suspicious in and of itself, and possibly would tank her relationship with him in the process. Reading him into the situation is, ignoring ethics and morality, likely the most objectively useful option - after all, in a pinch he can help us with cover stories and the like while visiting.

Reading him into the situation also makes locking him and Maiko in a closet together simpler because Maiko doesn't have the pressure of hiding that being a magical girl is her full-time job from him.

Which is a plus.
I'm bit wary of that, sure it would be better to tell him, support and all but while he's not a magical girl there's plenty of mention that he's better than Yui and that his efforts would overshadow her if he manage to influence Maiko and usurper Yui's leadership of Nagamioka with his ideas in form of subtle orders.
Her brother taking control by helping her could weaken the ideals of her power, I mean there's constant mention of her living in his shadow before she made her wish.

Love to see Yui outreach to Pleiades Saints, interaction with Kazumi would be fun, not mention what they bring in.
 
[X] Hey Konno, what odds would your power give on me sitting everyone involved down and going through the likely shatterpoints of the team presented as my own idea backed as clairvoyance magic - Ikue and Miyu, Ikue and the recent solo hire, Chizuru and the two trying to get her to do a run on a ridiculous creature such as myself? Like, is there any chance at all that getting everything out in the open with a generous helping of grief seeds would let the healing begin?

I feel like the problem is that ultimately, beyond any of the established shatter points, that Honoka has been established to not negotiate in good faith. She's just going to assume that we are out to screw her and it kind of sounds like there's nothing we can do to fix that because the only person she trusts implicitly is the person that is on bad terms with everyone except Honoka.
 
I'm bit wary of that, sure it would be better to tell him, support and all but while he's not a magical girl there's plenty of mention that he's better than Yui and that his efforts would overshadow her if he manage to influence Maiko and usurper Yui's leadership of Nagamioka with his ideas in form of subtle orders.
Her brother taking control by helping her could weaken the ideals of her power, I mean there's constant mention of her living in his shadow before she made her wish.

Love to see Yui outreach to Pleiades Saints, interaction with Kazumi would be fun, not mention what they bring in.

I mean, Yui's leadership style has always been to delegate things to the people most capable of them (Maiko), so not much would change there. Honestly down the road I can see the government of Nagamioka being like an oligarchy with an inner circle handling much of the day to day stuff and Yui being a combination of mascot and nuclear deterrent. I'm understating Yui's own abilities here, but it's safe to say that as our responsibilities and influence grows, more people will be required to take on not just carrying out decisions, but making them as well.
 
Okay, more seriously, I'm honestly down for just getting in there and bullying them for their own good. Like, Redshirt's redzonejoe's original idea to go over there and pull a Chizuka to get their attention? Let's fucking do it.

It's a little bit dangerous and potentially a bad idea, but it's the kind of bad idea I can see Yui getting behind. Honoka's stated paranoia regarding outsiders is just unlikely to even consider even a sure, good thing like moving to Nagamioka. So be what she expects, and negotiate from the position of strength your power entitles you to.
 
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Now to actually engage with the idea...

Honoka's stated paranoia regarding outsiders is just unlikely to even consider even a sure, good thing like moving to Nagamioka. So be what she expects, and negotiate from the position of strength your power entitles you to
Yes! I support your supporting of me.

If people are letting their own presuppositions, their own paranoia and biases get in the way of them making good decisions, then we have to make those decisions for them.

Except that's a bit extreme, and difficult to do even with mind magic. So instead we need to change the game. Don't play chess with a chess master, flip the board and duel with swords.

Only instead of chess, Honoka is trying to make shitty decisions. We still can't afford to let her play her game and win on her rules.
 
I'm bit wary of that, sure it would be better to tell him, support and all but while he's not a magical girl there's plenty of mention that he's better than Yui and that his efforts would overshadow her if he manage to influence Maiko and usurper Yui's leadership of Nagamioka with his ideas in form of subtle orders.
Her brother taking control by helping her could weaken the ideals of her power, I mean there's constant mention of her living in his shadow before she made her wish.

I feel like this worry is...misplaced? Disingenuous? Something like that.

Part of Yui's motivations behind Wishing was for the self-actualization she wanted to be able to get out of that shadow of what people expected of her. In that regard, she's in a somewhat unique position that really can't be usurped to any significant degree without completely fracturing the actual core that's letting her burgeoning empire exist. Maybe he can offer some suggestions or be another brain to bounce ideas off of, but I'm pretty sure that for the most part Meguca aren't going to default to listening to him without a significant crisis of faith in Yui's leadership skills compared to his own, especially because he's basically dead meat against any Meguca that cares to take a run at him should they want to. Yui's authority being usurped would require at minimum getting Maiko, Minami and Yumi on his side - and those are only the people who are most personally loyal to Yui - people like Tomo and Chou would be significant problems for such a thing in their own right.

Also I'm like 95% sure that your average Meguca is going to see non-magical leadership as inherently lesser in authority as compared to a Meguca one, which is even laying aside how Yui's sheer personal power and charisma are pretty much the only reason this kind of shit can even happen - she is the biggest stick and without that (or with that being a lesser note, somehow) things wouldn't proceed as smoothly. It's one thing to know that the main enforcer of the leadership is a crazy OP Meguca, but another one entirely to know that the girl pulling the shots is powerful enough that having her cake and eating it can be an entirely valid end result.

EDIT: Further, what we've seen of her brother suggests that he's not the kind of person who'd even consider doing something like that. Yui being in his shadow has less to do with any intentional action on his part, and more to do with the expectations of those around her comparing her to him - ever interaction she's had with him as been friendly and joking around.

EDIT 2: Also he's in college at least a couple Meguca territories away from Yui's, and only coming back for a month. Even if he somehow did get a central leadership role, there's no reasonable way he'd be able to keep it up from all the way over there.
 
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The important reason to tell Kaoru about magical girls is so that when he starts dating Maiko, Yui switches from having claimed Nagamioka based on sheer power and Kyubey to having inherited Nagamioka by having her brother marry into its dynastic line, in the person of Momoko's heir apparent. Clearly there is no greater source of legitimacy for Empress Yui I.
 
So looking at our assets (note, names may be mispelled):

Singular Independents:

Chloe: Subordinate Territoty, will provide scouting when we finish our land deal (partially obsolete due to Minami)

Tomo: Basically a Kamen rider. Has some healing abilities and her attacks stun. Seems relatively weak, but a strong ally of justice and thus of us. Can be counted on to show up if given prior noticw.

Teams:
The Sendou's
Koharu: Another subordinate magical, though one to which he have much stronger ties. A newbie with strong(?) Fire powers, we've been helping her and making efforts to draw her more fully into our orbit (that's why she's at this meeting). We get along well with her, and her sister's fiance was a magical girl working with Maiko back in the day. It is likely that both the sister and fiance will join her territory

Fiance: Former teammate of Maiko, seems to have a knight theme and the ability to craft magical gear which she gives to...

Sister: Koharu's sister, she uses gear crafted by her fiance to fight alongside her

The sister acts as a potential powerful force multiplier, as presumably her gear allows us to strengthen our group over time

Kiyomi, Fuuka, Rio team:

A subordinate team we absorbed after defeating a group after Yummi. All three of them are veterans and former teammates of Yummi. Work very well together.

They were given territory in exchange for joining our larger group. Get along well with us but have bad history with Yumi (what with the betrayal and all). Are acutely aware that we could kill them all without breaking a sweat (we went witch hunting together

Fuuka creates/controls small bladed weapons she can remote detonate. Is highstrung and serios

Kiyomi wields a meteor hammer and can block/create visible light. Ditzy and carefree

Rio can create barriers and create autonomous enemy seeking projectiles. These projectiles are energy intensive but strong so she avoid using them. Extremely lazy


Our Group:

Yui: Heroine of love and justice, surprisingly ambitious and calculating, possibly the strongest magical girl in Japan.

Maiko: Vetran magical girl and font of wisdom. Has a method of extracting extra grief from grief seeds(166%). Also a book which gives info on people she can identify, and the ability to create a variety of magical items (a great resource for the group). Has a separate, smaller "grief" pool which can be recharged by sleep. Overall a great asset, though we should eb careful not to overuse her

Yumi: A veteran magical girl dressed like a maid, she can store a seemingly endless array of items under her skirt (get your mind out of the gutter Yui). Has somehow lost access to her wish magic, so her main strength right now lies in being experienced and level headed.

Minamori: A voyeur magical girl. Has a crush on Yui and a propensity for taking pictures of girl's bedrooms. Recently contracted with several secret agent style abilities, namely:

A spy sat of indeterminate, though large, range. It always does an overhead view but can see through things. Can also target and shoot things but she seems to have trouble with fast moving, erratic target. No info on whether any of it works in a watch's garden.

A longer range brainmail which Kyubbey (presumably) can't wire tap

So we have a lot of utility/info gathering powers, but our only real firepower is us.

There were some other allies and maybes that I skipped (Fumi and Ami's group, the pop idol) because they are either neighboring allies or undecided at this point.

Our territory currently holds 8 of our the 30-40 it can theoretically hold. Our current model of centralized planning and efficient hunting (Megucca who are good at hunting hunt, those good at spying spy, etc) means we will probably be able to hold closer to the 40 end of that scale. Possibly even more since that estimate was based on the usual "feudal" style.

Of the two members of the new group we just met

Chizuka:
A powerful Megucca from the nearby group, she has the power to generate electricity and control metal (these are unrelated powers). These powers have been noted to be "skiiter-like" with full proprioception (and possibly multi-tasking) of all "sufficiently pure" metal within a hundred feet. Has shown good combat skills which speak of experience and the ability to create railguns as a finishing move. The creation of these railguns was slow and obvious enough for us to destroy it, but that's in part because we treat metal like wet tissue paper

Her magic is also noted to be of an "always on" variety which means she is constantly expanding magic and has to hunt to make up for this. We have been told that the amount passively expended is "not unreasonable" for a Megucca who is actively hunting, and is actually more cost effective than most as long as she is actively hunting. But this has led to her feeling like a burden on the team and that she has to be constantly doing something useful.

Her teammates appear to be feeding this feeling and using it to manipulate her. Used her as a deniable asset by tricking her into attacking us in a way that she would think was all her idea.
Good at: Being loyal to friends
Bad at: Making friends with people who deserve her loyalty

Honestly she seems perfect for our group. Our stated desire to protect our territory and rigorously hunt witches means that she would be cost effective, and her power would mean our core group would have a heavy hitter besides ourselves. Currently we run into a problem if we have to be in two places at once.

Also she deserves to get out of her hostile environment and into the loving support of our harem

Not much to say on Konna that wasn't included on the last few updates.

I will say getting her to tell us our weaknesses would be useful
 
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I'd have to do some threadcrawling but I believe Yumi's power is gone due to lacking friends/close friends due to what happened, and she makes a really good second once sufficiently friended?
 
I'd have to do some threadcrawling but I believe Yumi's power is gone due to lacking friends/close friends due to what happened, and she makes a really good second once sufficiently friended?
I admit I didn't read all the WoGs, but at least in the story no definitive answer was given. (Maiko and Yumi may both know and just not be telling is however)

Edit: @Redshirt Army I do think its imperative we split this group up when we absorb them. Both do deal with their issues (this group simply won't work if we keep them together) and to stop them from being too powerful a force within our territory. Would you be willing to altering the vote to change this?
 
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I can't speak for @Redshirt Army, but my thought would be that they'll split up of their own accord once not forced to stick together, and that making splitting up the group a condition of whatever deal we make would be, bluntly, paranoia fuel. Not the kind of thing to bring up if you want a deal to actually happen.
Shared guilt and PTSD could stick them together even when they're on track to killing each other.

Hating someone doesn't necessarily mean you want them to LEAVE, not when they've also been responsible for saving your life multiple times. The security blankie may have thorns, but gosh darn it, it's yours and that bitch can have it when she tears it out of your cold, dead (still moving) hands.
 
You've both got good points, the best path is somewhere in the middle.

Don't demand they split, but give them the opportunity for it. Give them two or more locations to hold down, but put a couple blocks between locations and let them split naturally into less hostile groups. Let them mingle or separate as they see fit, but keep them close enough that they don't feel like they can't support each other.
 
As a general FYI, I'll be leaving votes open for a while longer to allow for people getting back up to speed.

I feel like the problem is that ultimately, beyond any of the established shatter points, that Honoka has been established to not negotiate in good faith. She's just going to assume that we are out to screw her and it kind of sounds like there's nothing we can do to fix that because the only person she trusts implicitly is the person that is on bad terms with everyone except Honoka.

She also trusts her other teammates, it's more that she's willfully blind to the fact that her best friend is a jerk to everyone else. She's also fairly reasonable in non-meguca situations, and even just barely willing to hear out independent magical girls. It's only when dealing with other magical girl teams that she assumes eventual hostilities are guaranteed and refuses to listen to anyone saying otherwise.

Okay, more seriously, I'm honestly down for just getting in there and bullying them for their own good. Like, Redshirt's redzonejoe's original idea to go over there and pull a Chizuka to get their attention? Let's fucking do it.

You are fully capable of doing this, but realize that it directly contradicts what you just told them you'd do (i.e., return the favor if left alone). Given the established distaste for backstabbing, going back on your word like that isn't dubious enough for me to veto as OOC, but getting there.

I mean, that kind of "I'm in the stronger position therefore only obligated to keep my word when convenient" is exactly the kind of stuff Chou has been on the wrong end of and which resulted in her current attitude.

Further, what we've seen of her brother suggests that he's not the kind of person who'd even consider doing something like that. Yui being in his shadow has less to do with any intentional action on his part, and more to do with the expectations of those around her comparing her to him - ever interaction she's had with him as been friendly and joking around.

This part is absolutely correct, yes.

Also, y'know, anti-social super nerd. His first reaction to all this magic stuff is going to be "wow, I wonder how it works", not "wow, I could totally use this to rule the world using my kid sister as a proxy". :V

Sister: Former teammate of Maiko, seems to have a knight theme and the ability to craft magical gear which she gives to...

Fiance: Her fiance who can use this gear to fight alongside her.

The (often amusing :V) misspellings aside, this part has an actual error, if only a minor one--the sister is the sidekick with armor and magic gun, the sister's fiance is the former teammate. If Koharu was directly related to someone she used to know, Maiko would have picked up on it sooner.

Also, the fiance's meguca costume actually slightly resembles Yui's, since she went to the same middle school and both took inspiration from the school uniform. The enchanted armor she makes, which both she and Koharu's sister wear, looks shiny and metallic, though.

Good summary otherwise, though!

I admit I didn't read all the WoGs, but at least in the story no definitive answer was given. (Maiko and Yumi may both know and just not be telling is however)

Yui is aware that Yumi has lost her wish magic, is aware that Yumi's best friend turned on her in some fashion, and could reasonably guess that Yumi originally made a wish to help that friend somehow. She's not currently aware of how wish magic can be lost, but once she is Yui could make a reasonably accurate guess about what happened.

Maiko and Yumi herself obviously know the whole story. The details are personal and not immediately relevant anyway, especially since aforementioned friend died a few months ago.
 
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You are fully capable of doing this, but realize that it directly contradicts what you just told them you'd do (i.e., return the favor if left alone). Given the established distaste for backstabbing, going back on your word like that isn't dubious enough for me to veto as OOC, but getting there.

I mean, that kind of "I'm in the stronger position therefore only obligated to keep my word when convenient" is exactly the kind of stuff Chou has been on the wrong end of and which resulted in her current attitude.
But I, they, but

Help, my desire to bully is coming back to bully me! :confused:
 
But I, they, but

Help, my desire to bully is coming back to bully me! :confused:
You see, it's okay when we do it because we only have the best intentions for everyone involved! Also we are the only people involved we can trust implicitly to not go around murdering people.

Meguca's burden, I suppose.


"Have you considered invading Nagamioka?"
"I was assured that Chizuka was acting on poor information. We would not-"
"Sorry, I phrased that wrongly. Come invade Nagamioka!"
"... What? What happened to ignoring one another?"
"I consulted a clairvoyant, no time for that now. You guys'll die. Do you need help moving? I'm stronger than I look and I'm free this weekend!"
"We don't WANT to move!"
"Sure you do! It's a great territory, you'll see!"
"NO we DON'T!"
"Sorry, that's non-negotiable. Do you want to move into the south? It'd be good to have more eyes down there, somebody's bullying Adachi Ward-"
"What is this even about? Our territory?"
"Nah. Don't care. Keep it if you want. Don't know why you'd want to. Are you trapped in a lease? My family has a contract lawyer."
"I'm not going to bend the knee to you!"
"Sure you will! Not that I need magical girls on their knees in front of me – ahem – that's not what Daimyo Yui is all about!"

An hour later, they'll have made the news, one way or another. I call it the Asami school of diplomacy.
 
This part is absolutely correct, yes.

Also, y'know, anti-social super nerd. His first reaction to all this magic stuff is going to be "wow, I wonder how it works", not "wow, I could totally use this to rule the world using my kid sister as a proxy". :V

WELL THEN IT"S A GOOD THING THAT MAIKO CAN HELP HIM ANSWER ALL THOSE QUESTIONS HUH WINK WINK NUDGE NUDGE START TALKING NERDS
 
WELL THEN IT"S A GOOD THING THAT MAIKO CAN HELP HIM ANSWER ALL THOSE QUESTIONS HUH WINK WINK NUDGE NUDGE START TALKING NERDS

Well yeah I mean it's not like Yui expects anything else to happen even if they do start dating, and that's even without her considering telling Kaoru about magic:

Honestly though, you really need to do something about Kaoru's love life. He is an awesome older brother and he needs a suitably awesome girlfriend who you can then promptly adopt as your new older sister. Though given this is Kaoru he'd probably be happiest dating another antisocial super-nerd like he is and oh wow you just had possibly the best idea of your whole life.

You stick your tongue out at Natsuki. "Yeah. I was thinking, she's super smart and has really nice legs but she doesn't have much of a social life," you say. "Which is where my super brilliant idea comes in, because I am going to set her up with the most awesome boyfriend ever."

Natsuki's eyes widen as she makes the connection. "Oh, that's perfect! Think Kaoru will be less of a stick in the mud if he has a girlfriend?"

"Ugh, no," you say. "I am pretty sure they'll just be sticks in the mud together."

"How romantic," Natsuki sighs, then laughs.

Like, we're talking about people whose idea of a romantic evening is probably ordering slightly-fancier-than-usual take-out before staying up all night discussing metaphysics and abstract mathematics.
 
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