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Puella Magi Imperatrix Mundi, or: Wherein Half Of Japan Tries To Kill You

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Rough draft, sorry for length. Had ideas, couldn't not include them. Maybe goes too heavy on the anger?

[X] Plan: Hold my sanity

-[] You're not really sure if the other magical girls have really seen you angry before. They've seen you pout adorably, of course. They've seen you frustrated, annoyed, even desperate when fighting Naoko, and you got by on bravado and borrowed authority when you first met Yumi and Koharu. Now though, now you're pissed.
--[] Part of it is the aura of course. Part of it is an intentional decision to get on the same wavelength, to 'speak their language', in a sense. But really, there's a lot to get angry about. These things stealing emotions from people, or forcing them on others. The way Muhou just savagely beat a defenseless Kyoufu as she tried to crawl away. The magical girl casting off these emotions, causing problems. Other magical girls fighting, witches, hiding things from friends, just EVERYTHING.
---[] Okay, deep breath. Focus. You can't do anything about 'everything' right now, but you can fix what's right in front of you. To do that, you need to find the magical girl who created these... Living issues. To do that, you're going to interrogate Muhou.
-[] First, explain all this to Maiko. Quickly. Ask her to hang back, stay lucid. Be your anchor. Bruised knuckles might be part of the plan, but she's gonna make sure you don't go too far. If Maiko says stop, you stop.
--[] Finally, time to act. You're sure Muhou can feel your anger somehow, but you want to make it easy on her. Your eyes, your voice, your body language. You'll talk, anger to anger, and you'll get your answers one way or another.
-[] Questions revolve around three subjects.
--[] Their creator. The magical girl that cut them off and sent them away. Why? When? How? Who? Most importantly, for you to get to the bottom of this, where? (Or maybe who is more important, but you just want to act right now... Focus. Stay on plan.)
--[] Muhou. Why is she beating down Kyoufu, what does she want, what will it take for her to stop? The violence right now, but also the general process of stripping emotions from people and creating those unfamiliars.
--[] Kyoufu. Actually, you don't really have any questions about her. You'll ask her yourself, later. On that note, you're taking her. That wasn't a question either.
-[] Later with Kyoufu, you'll try to talk to her again based on the results of your talk with Muhou. If it worked, you'll try to direct your fear and speak face to face in a language she understands. If it was rough, didn't work or perhaps just drained you emotionally, then you'll take her someplace safe and leave a note. Or something like that, you'll deal with it later.
 
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I can get behind this one, mainly because we're not actually going sumo. :V

[X] Plan: Hold My Sanity

EDIT: Changed to the actual plan's name.
 
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Crimson Doom said:
I can get behind this one, mainly because we're not actually going sumo. :V

[X] Redzonejoe
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I'd like this, except I can't actually like you avoiding the glorious art of sumo.



Anybody got any critisms? Something I should add? Anything I could cut down or streamline? A better plan name? Any plan name?!?

Edit: actually reposting it here so you don't need to go back a page
redzonejoe said:
Rough draft, sorry for length. Had ideas, couldn't not include them. Maybe goes too heavy on the anger?

[] You got blood on your face, big disgrace, flaring your aura all over the place (plan name in progress)

-[] You're not really sure if the other magical girls have really seen you angry before. They've seen you pout adorably, of course. They've seen you frustrated, annoyed, even desperate when fighting Naoko, and you got by on bravado and borrowed authority when you first met Yumi and Koharu. Now though, now you're pissed.
--[] Part of it is the aura of course. Part of it is an intentional decision to get on the same wavelength, to 'speak their language', in a sense. But really, there's a lot to get angry about. These things stealing emotions from people, or forcing them on others. The way Muhou just savagely beat a defenseless Kyoufu as she tried to crawl away. The magical girl casting off these emotions, causing problems. Other magical girls fighting, witches, hiding things from friends, just EVERYTHING.
---[] Okay, deep breath. Focus. You can't do anything about 'everything' right now, but you can fix what's right in front of you. To do that, you need to find the magical girl who created these... Living issues. To do that, you're going to interrogate Muhou.
-[] First, explain all this to Maiko. Quickly. Ask her to hang back, stay lucid. Be your anchor. Bruised knuckles might be part of the plan, but she's gonna make sure you don't go to far. If Maiko says stop, you stop.
--[] Finally, time to act. You're sure Muhou can feel your anger somehow, but you want to make it easy on her. Your eyes, your voice, your body language. You'll talk, anger to anger, and you'll get your answers one way or another.
-[] Questions revolve around three subjects.
--[] Their creator. The magical girl that cut them off and sent them away. Why? When? How? Who? Most importantly, for you to get to the bottom of this, where? (Or maybe who is more important, but you just want to act right now... Focus. Stay on plan.)
--[] Muhou. Why is she beating down Kyoufu, what does she want, what will it take for her to stop? The violence right now, but also the general process of stripping emotions from people and creating those unfamiliars.
--[] Kyoufu. Actually, you don't really have any questions about her. You'll ask her yourself, later. On that note, you're taking her. That wasn't a question either.
-[] Later with Kyoufu, you'll try to talk to her again based on the results of your talk with Muhou. If it worked, you'll try to direct your fear and speak face to face in a language she understands. If it was rough, didn't work or perhaps just drained you entirely, then you'll take her someplace safe and leave a note. Or something like that, you'll deal with it later.
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redzonejoe said:
I'd like this, except I can't actually like you avoiding the glorious art of sumo.



Anybody got any critisms? Something I should add? Anything I could cut down or streamline? A better plan name? Any plan name?!?
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I'm thinking something along the lines of "Plan: Focused Anger", but if anyone else comes up with a plan that also involves focused anger, that could get confusing. Maybe "Plan: Hold My Beer"? I can kinda see parallels where we're going off to do something dumb under the influence of mind alteration while a sober buddy makes sure we don't hurt ourselves too badly.
 
Crimson Doom said:
I'm thinking something along the lines of "Plan: Focused Anger", but if anyone else comes up with a plan that also involves focused anger, that could get confusing. Maybe "Plan: Hold My Beer"? I can kinda see parallels where we're going off to do something dumb under the influence of mind alteration while a sober buddy makes sure we don't hurt ourselves too badly.
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Perfect. Except Yui is much too young and innocent to drink beer!

I went with hold my sanity. Should evoke the same imagery, it's a bit more on point, and I couldn't think of a better synonym for the occasion. Lucidity? Sobriety? Rationality? None of them really fit.
 
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Echo said:
"No," Maiko says flatly.

You blink. "Um. Okay, sure, but consider this: Yes."

"That's your 'I have a terrible idea' facial expression," Maiko says.
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Well that's hardly fair, Maiko. That's just Yui's face.

Maiko: "Exactly."
Muhou, the Exiled Wrath, she reads off telepathically. Her duty is to shake the rotten foundations of corrupt society. Those she touches are foolish and unworthy, for she knows in her own heart the truth that one who buries their anger in meek acceptance will never know justice.
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I'd start asking if this is related to Asami somehow, except Asami clearly still has her anger against corrupt society.
 
[X] Plan Friendship, Effort, Victory
-[X] All right, fine. This is more of a boys genre, but you can punch her until you're all friends. This has worked for you before, by the generous definition of you becoming friends with Chizuka. And Kaede, sorta. This is definitely a tactic to encourage friendship, and not that you're angry that she's beating up someone who might be literally incapable of fighting back.
-- [X] You're stronger, faster, and--shockingly enough--taller than Muhou. Time for some good old-fashioned fisticuffs. Try to restrain her for interrogation.
-- [X] Channel your inner Asami, and shout hot-blooded things during the fight. Hope that works, somehow.
- [X] Bring Kyoufu and Muhou with you to isolated location, for the interrogation, and get Maiko to get to work on the emotional projection defense ASAP. They don't get to leave until you understand what they're doing, what meguca they came from, or you can find (/beg Maiko to make) some way to keep them in line. One way or another. They can't just go around terrifying/enraging people and pulling Unfamiliars out of people, that's not safe.

[X] Where/who did they come from?
[X] Are there any others, or just the two of them?
[X] What are their goals?

The first question is the important one. If the civilians are harmed by the Unfamiliar process, then we have to deal with these kids right now. If this is a temporary or even potentially good thing (them removing hidden fears and rages and turning them into Unfamiliars), then we can afford to take the slower path.
 
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I like Plan Friendship, Effort, Victory, but I want to also add what are their goals. The reason why this problem was brought to our attention was because kyubey was having trouble keeping the masquerade up, and Maiko said that having it collapse would be bad for us.
Echo said:
"And on top of that," Maiko continues, sounding increasingly frustrated, "the frequency of incidents has been increasingly steadily. In fact, as of this afternoon Kyubey has been dropping hints that whatever is going on, the situation is close to exceeding its ability to suppress public notice and, furthermore, the consequences if it's left unchecked could be 'severe'. Whatever it thinks that means."

"Did Kyubey give an actual time frame for things to become 'severe'?" you ask.

"Of course not," Maiko grumbles. "Though from prior experience with the creature, I'd hazard a guess that it's less pressing than the matter of suppressing public notice, and is intended to motivate us to deal more promptly with the part that actually inconveniences Kyubey personally."

Minami frowns. "Is keeping the public from seeing what's happening even that important? To us, I mean."

Maiko gives her a cautious look, then waves a hand in a so-so gesture. "In this specific case? Unfortunately, yes," she says. "The public reaction to partial knowledge of whatever this is would likely be disastrous. Particularly if public awareness somehow exacerbates the nature or frequency of attacks, which is a possibility we can't rule out."
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Aside from that, people are getting hurt when the girls make unfamiliars.
Echo said:
"It's much more than merely amnesia," she says. "When Minami and I researched the known victims, there was a recurring pattern. Many were emotionally volatile people prior to the attack, often to an unhealthy degree, and then not at all afterwards. An 'improvement', in a way."

"But it's not?"

"Not only did the man I spoke to seem literally incapable of getting angry and have no recollection of being short-tempered for most of his life, he apparently could not even comprehend what anger is," she said. "And furthermore, look at this." She summons her grimoire again and it snaps open to page showing a portrait of a middle-aged man surrounded by lines of text written in unsettling runes.

Unlike every other time you've gotten a glimpse of Maiko's grimoire, though, some of the runes look garbled or smudged and there are obvious blanks scattered across the page where text was clearly intended to be.

"Is something interfering with your book?" you ask. "Or is this somehow an accurate description for that guy?"

"As loathe as I am to say it, I dearly hope it is the former," she says, "because the alternative is that something has literally excised the very concept of 'anger' from this man's soul."
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It's not just hidden fears and rages getting removed, it's the ability to have fear or rage at all. Losing all sense of fear is especially dangerous, that can get people killed. Like not looking both ways before you jaywalk.

I doubt that they consider what they do harm though, and I do want to get more of their perspective about this whole thing. Might let us work around them if we know some more about the what why and how of their actions.
 
Camellia said:
I do want to get more of their perspective about this whole thing. Might let us work around them if we know some more about the what why and how of their actions.
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I feel like this is looking at the symptoms rather than the cause.

Magical girl creates emotional girls creates unfamiliars out of civilians stolen emotions

I think it's better to aim for the top of the hierarchy.
 
Camellia said:
I like Plan Friendship, Effort, Victory, but I want to also add what are their goals. The reason why this problem was brought to our attention was because kyubey was having trouble keeping the masquerade up, and Maiko said that having it collapse would be bad for us.

Aside from that, people are getting hurt when the girls make unfamiliars.

It's not just hidden fears and rages getting removed, it's the ability to have fear or rage at all. Losing all sense of fear is especially dangerous, that can get people killed. Like not looking both ways before you jaywalk.

I doubt that they consider what they do harm though, and I do want to get more of their perspective about this whole thing. Might let us work around them if we know some more about the what why and how of their actions.
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Looks like the danger to civilians is more clear cut than I remembered, thank you. So we definitely need to deal with them permanently somehow, whether that means going to the top (their progenitor), sticking them in one of Maiko's creepy dolls, or... something else.

For now, I just changed the plan to 'stash them in an isolated location', like in the other option to leave them with a note. But we can't just leave them with a note, they're hurting people.

EDIT: Darklight pointed out that keeping them at Momoko's is unsustainable, since it's our information HQ. Can we maybe stash them in Chou's new garden for a bit? We might have to offer her some incentive, since it's in our name but giving the project to her and then throwing weird dolls in is kinda mean...
 
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redzonejoe said:
I feel like this is looking at the symptoms rather than the cause.

Magical girl creates emotional girls creates unfamiliars out of civilians stolen emotions

I think it's better to aim for the top of the hierarchy.
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All their monikers reference being exiled though, and the magic sensors all say that they've been cut off of something. I don't think eliminating the source will take care of the problem.
 
Camellia said:
All their monikers reference being exiled though, and the magic sensors all say that they've been cut off of something. I don't think eliminating the source will take care of the problem.
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Well we're assuming the source is a magical girl who made a wish, and either as a magical ability shaped by the wish or the effect of the wish itself she cast off certain emotions. Exiled them, cut the cord, etc.

Obviously, Yui isn't gonna 'eliminate' whichever unlucky magical girl broke her own brain in any permanent sense, that's not her style.

What she can do, however, is draw attention to the trouble it's causing and enlist the new girl's help in getting her rampant emotions under control via the power of friendship and self-acceptance.

Either the new girl will be able to reconnect or control these emotions somehow via her wish magic, or we need to figure out how to get her to reject or undo her wish, or something else we can only really figure out once we know what's going on.
 
Gotta say, I love how quickly people are jumping on the "get angry and pick a fight" type plans. Like, sure, Yui herself basically spelled out why that really is a reasonable option here, but in almost any other context it'd be such a terrible idea it's hilarious. I worked hard to make that a legitimate choice and I'm glad to see it's being taken seriously. :rofl:

Guile said:
The first question is the important one. If the civilians are harmed by the Unfamiliar process, then we have to deal with these kids right now. If this is a temporary or even potentially good thing (them removing hidden fears and rages and turning them into Unfamiliars), then we can afford to take the slower path.
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Camellia said:
Aside from that, people are getting hurt when the girls make unfamiliars.
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Camellia said:
It's not just hidden fears and rages getting removed, it's the ability to have fear or rage at all. Losing all sense of fear is especially dangerous, that can get people killed. Like not looking both ways before you jaywalk.
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They're also losing any memories too heavily tied to that emotion to make sense without it. While in many cases the individuals targeted feel happier afterwards, it's really not a safe or healthy condition to be in. It's not quite "Oh no, I have a hangnail, BETTER AMPUTATE" territory but it's close?

There have also been a rash of physical injuries that Maiko now suspects are caused by Muhou letting freshly-created unfamiliars lash out.

Camellia said:
I doubt that they consider what they do harm though, and I do want to get more of their perspective about this whole thing. Might let us work around them if we know some more about the what why and how of their actions.
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There have actually been a few hints about that, from both their dialogue and what's in Maiko's grimoire. That said, getting a direct explanation would still provide a clearer picture.

Guile said:
Darklight pointed out that keeping them at Momoko's is unsustainable, since it's our information HQ. Can we maybe stash them in Chou's new garden for a bit?
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How exactly are you expecting to keep them anywhere they don't want to stay? While Kyoufu could maybe be convinced to hide somewhere safe, given their demonstrated strength and durability I'm not sure why you think restraining Muhou would lead to anything other than her leaving the premises Kool-Aid Man style.

Also, it's still unknown whether there's just the two of them or if there's more. Frankly, Maiko's biggest concern right now is that there could be a third focused on sorrow or despair, because there'd be a very real danger of that aura darkening Soul Gems.

redzonejoe said:
What she can do, however, is draw attention to the trouble it's causing and enlist the new girl's help in getting her rampant emotions under control via the power of friendship and self-acceptance.
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Maiko's gonna be real disappointed if this happens and nobody gets a Persona out of the deal. :V
 
hugh_donnetono said:
Love and Justice. Wanted to point that out.
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...would you believe that was actually unintentional? :rofl: My planning skills continue to be Yui-tier, it seems.

hugh_donnetono said:
@Echo, if you're still accepting drawing requests, I'd love to see these two emotion-babies. Kyoufu if I had to choose just one.
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Sure, that can be arranged. While you guys are advancing the investigation phase more quickly than I expected by provoking an earlier encounter with Muhou, these two will probably continue to be relevant for a while in-story regardless, so having a visual for them would be nice...
 
Echo said:
How exactly are you expecting to keep them anywhere they don't want to stay? While Kyoufu could maybe be convinced to hide somewhere safe, given their demonstrated strength and durability I'm not sure why you think restraining Muhou would lead to anything other than her leaving the premises Kool-Aid Man style.
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I was kind of imagining Chou could restrain them using her magic trees, but I suppose the resulting treants are just 'normal tree' levels of 'strength' and that's insufficient to hold Muhou?

I mean, Yui can probably hold onto them for a couple of hours to interrogate them and long enough for Maiko to whip up her mental shield thingie, but she has a bed time
 
Guile said:
I was kind of imagining Chou could restrain them using her magic trees, but I suppose the resulting treants are just 'normal tree' levels of 'strength' and that's insufficient to hold Muhou?

I mean, Yui can probably hold onto them for a couple of hours to interrogate them and long enough for Maiko to whip up her mental shield thingie, but she has a bed time
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There's a bit of fuzziness because of how magic works, but mostly in that her plants can do things they shouldn't be able to (e.g., hitting stuff without damaging themselves, lifting things that might break branches as long as the trunk can hold the weight, &c.). Passively, they're not really any sturdier than normal plants. Also, Chou would be super not happy with the idea. Though ironically, Kyoufu and Muhou would both find her surprisingly tolerable.

Yui could physically restrain Muhou, yes, but you don't really have any good options on hand to hold them for an extended period of time. Maiko could probably create a way to restrain them, but that would require too much time and prep work. I'm open to ideas but I at least don't really see how it'd work.
 
I maintain that when in doubt, it's never a bad backup plan to yeet enemy meguca/weird stuff into the next prefecture using Yui's super-strength.

For some reason people disagree with me on this point though. We've gotta deal with Naoko sometime, guys
 
Guile said:
I maintain that when in doubt, it's never a bad backup plan to yeet enemy meguca/weird stuff into the next prefecture using Yui's super-strength.

For some reason people disagree with me on this point though. We've gotta deal with Naoko sometime, guys
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[Х] Find hypothetical meguca responsible for creating Kyoufu and Muhou
- [Х] Get her to create another sibling for those two based on the emotion of "being a jerkass"
- [Х] What no that's totally a real emotion trust me just do it okay
- [Х] Convince newly created emotion doll to fix Naoko's personality
- [Х] Problem solved!
 
Echo said:
[Х] Find hypothetical meguca responsible for creating Kyoufu and Muhou
- [Х] Get her to create another sibling for those two based on the emotion of "being a jerkass"
- [Х] What no that's totally a real emotion trust me just do it okay
- [Х] Convince newly created emotion doll to fix Naoko's personality
- [Х] Problem solved!
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Wouldn't that just be taking all of Naoko and moving her from "human body" to "Unfamiliar body?"
 
Echo said:
Gotta say, I love how quickly people are jumping on the "get angry and pick a fight" type plans. Like, sure, Yui herself basically spelled out why that really is a reasonable option here, but in almost any other context it'd be such a terrible idea it's hilarious. I worked hard to make that a legitimate choice and I'm glad to see it's being taken seriously. :rofl:
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It's fun to get angry and pick fights, but there's distressingly few times in real life or even quests where it's a good idea. It's always about planning and consideration and restraint all the time.

[] Find the match, deep inside of you. Light it, and let it BURN UP YOUR GUTS AND BOIL YOUR BLOOD!
-[] PUNCH!

Too little restraint and planning? Maybe.
 
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