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Puella Magi Adfligo Systema

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Onmur said:
These girls are pissed. If we manage to beat them quickly, they'll still be pissed. They'll be more amenable to talking things out after they tire themselves out. Specially if we can make it look like they can't hurt us no matter how long they try.
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The thing deciding whether they're pissed or not isn't how tired they are, which is likely to be pretty academic to a meguca anyway. It's whether they still think we're here on behalf of their mortal enemies.
As I see it, the best way to make them revise that opinion is to take them down with a minimum of fuss and no mess (that is to say, quickly, because dragging out combat is asking for someone to get badly hurt. Put a large group that's doing its utmost to maim and kill up against a small one that's holding back, and one way or another somebody's going to get unlucky fairly soon), then demonstrate that we're not hostiles - by getting them at our mercy and not harming them and by cleansing, backed up with some (accurate if not complete) explanations.

Because - well, think about it. We parted ways with the Sendai group not long ago after securing healing for an acquaintance, for which they partially waived payment and we were grateful. We heard that they came here, ostensibly for negotiations. Then, suddenly, all hell breaks loose and we're getting reports about artificial earthquakes, an ambush, some kind of vendetta, impending mass casualties, and something that sounds dangerously like a walpurgisnacht. We have every reason to be making aggressive inquiries here.
 
Kinematics said:
Which, if we play the heavy-handed aggressive mode approach, is what it's going to look like. In fact, it's pretty much explicitly what you say ("negotiate at gunpoint").

We only have confirmation of five at this point. Have to watch out if there's possibly more around.

Do you not see the fundamental contradiction in this statement?

Weren't we supposed to be trying to stop a war, here? It feels like we're deliberately trying to ensure a minimum of Sakura-level hatred from everyone we meet.
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1. They aren't going to run away because this vote has them immobilized before that's a possibility.
2. "Five becomes six, then seven. Three of the forms on the roof break left, leaving four behind."
3. There isn't a contradiction.
4. This isn't ideal. Sadly, it's the best way to handle the situation given they're shooting at us with intent to kill and no signs of willingness to stop- and we're on a timer here.
 
Don't really care about the option we pick, not as they have been presented anyway

but no matter what I would NOT rage about them ignoring the flag afterwards. For good reason: IF Akiko is to be believed, the Ishinomaki group broke a truce to attack her, so there's no way they'd trust a white flag or similar. IF Akiko was lying or concealing part of the truth, then they probably had a truce broken on them instead. Even if it wasn't done violently, like for example, sneaking a healer into their territory to sell services.

So basically, this reaction isn't what we wanted, but it's justified. No point scolding them for it afterwards.
 
No rage, but we definitely want to bring it up at least briefly- since it makes it that much easier to reinforce we were sincere about coming in peace.
 
[x] Muramasa

It seems like the best course of action. I don't like the idea of dragging out the fight longer than it needs to, or just rolling over and surrendering. A nice, quick solution followed by a nice, quick chat.
 
Random832 said:
What if we just ignore them (other than dodging/deflecting attacks) and start talking at them?
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Then in all likelihood someone's going to intercept an attack with their face before we can talk them down. They currently have no reason to listen to us, outnumber us heavily, and may plausibly outgun us in absolute terms.
 
Onmur said:
Unless Firn takes liberties, the plan as it stands is to stand in between 5 hostiles (+2 clones) and attempt to manipulate five separate sources of grief at the same time. Something I'm not sure we can do
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I feel like our Grief orchestra suggests we're pretty good at multi-tasking. Besides, we could designate a primary target and then see how many additional targets we can manipulate from there. If we can't hit everyone at once, we at least hit the main target.

SaltyWaffles said:
can we telepathy with these girls?
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Why wouldn't we be able to telepathy them? Can't we try to do that while doing whatever we decide to do in response to their attack?
 
Anti-magic and griefbinding would presumably be pretty much instant- and if it fails, we'd need to write something else in anyway. They've made it clear they're not feeling talkative given we showed up with no intent to hide and literally waving the white flag.
 
Ugolino said:
We get zapped, stabbed, or crushed?
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FlatlineAskari said:
Then in all likelihood someone's going to intercept an attack with their face before we can talk them down. They currently have no reason to listen to us, outnumber us heavily, and may plausibly outgun us in absolute terms.
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We can stand veeeeery high in the air and poke them with telepathy until they give up. Just stand in the air over a ton of grief shields and wait:

"Are you done yet?"

*Lightning Bolt* *Lower grief shield reforms*

"Are you done yet?"

*Melee attack!... Falls short*

"Are you done yet?"

*A bunch of eclectic attacks* *Pulls grief out of enemy gems, adds to shields*

"Are you done yet?"
 
Onmur said:
Too hopeful. All eggs in one basket kind of hopeful.

Sidenote: One of the girls from Osaki is an empath. Assuming her power is not only emotion sensing, but that it extends to mind reading, would this make Sarbina the perfect counter? There's just so much stuff in here. Like, this girs tries to predict our movements and instead we're trying to calculate Pi's exact number.
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"Quick! The one in blue - what's she doing?"
*mind reader curls up into fetal position and starts sucking her thumb*
"So many voices...anime...microwaved tea...the world is an anime..."
*group glares at Sabrina*
"Eh, It's not my fault she can't deal with brain damage."
 
o3o said:
"Quick! The one in blue - what's she doing?"
*mind reader curls up into fetal position and starts sucking her thumb*
"So many voices...anime...microwaved tea...the world is an anime..."
*group glares at Sabrina*
"Eh, It's not my fault she can't deal with brain damage."
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And that's why you should always investigate your enemies before fighting them. Nobody expects Cthulhu Lite!

Did you guys think Oriko gets headaches whenever we so much as breath and can't predict our actions because of some OCP bullshit? Wrong! That's just her power trying to protect her!
 
Anyway, we have less then seven hours before we're needed in Sendai. We don't have time for an endurance match. We shouldn't be giving Ishinomaki more time they can use to hurt us or call in reinforcements and then hurt us.

So I can't support the endurance vote.
 
While I agree with the current course of action, you have to consider that Kirika's anti-magic apparently can't dispel solid objects like
weapons. She couldn't dispel Mami's ribbons (only stop her from moving them with magic) and she also didn't dispel our own Warhammer, when we fought against her.
The purple girl she is currently facing seems to be a frontline fighter. Her armor and gauntlets won't disappear from anti-magic.
We should prioritize girls with physical weapons, when we are binding them, like purple girl and shortsword clone girl.
 
Onmur said:
And that's why you should always investigate your enemies before fighting them. Nobody expects Cthulhu Lite!

Did you guys think Oriko gets headaches whenever we so much as breath and can't predict our actions because of some OCP bullshit? Wrong! That's just her power trying to protect her!
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To be fair, we're much too Heroic Good™ for them to expect a Cthulu. :V
 
Guilop said:
While I agree with the current course of action, you have to consider that Kirika's anti-magic apparently can't dispel solid objects like
weapons. She couldn't dispel Mami's ribbons (only stop her from moving them with magic) and she also didn't dispel our own Warhammer, when we fought against her.
The purple girl she is currently facing seems to be a frontline fighter. Her armor and gauntlets won't disappear from anti-magic.
We should prioritize girls with physical weapons, when we are binding them, like purple girl and shortsword clone girl.
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Don't forget that the clones can't be bound. They disappeared from Mami's ribbons, reappearing at the site of the original.
 
o3o said:
To be fair, we're much too Heroic Good™ for them to expect a Cthulu. :V
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So if we unintentionally mindfuck a mindreader, do we apologize by reflex?
o3o said:
"Quick! The one in blue - what's she doing?"
*mind reader curls up into fetal position and starts sucking her thumb*
"So many voices...anime...microwaved tea...the world is an anime..."
"Shit! Sorry-" *Gets pulled back by ribbons*
"Sabrina get back here we're still fighting!"
"Yes Mami. Sorry Mami."
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Well, that was a nice post to wake up to. Good luck with the exams @Firnagzen .

I was about to suggest going full-"Grief winged angel with ominous latin chanting" for intimidation, but then we'd reeeeaaally look like a boss battle.

Leaning towards the Kinematics vote, but have Kirika come back to us, so we can defend the whole party. Stay off any offensive actions for now, let them vent and burn magic, while we visibly drain any grief when they get to dangerous levels.

Oh, and you guys think Mami's stable enough to do the diplomancing for us? If she is, that would let us get around the 'newbie MG - ignore the naivete' reaction we get, plus Mami's rep means people will listen when she talks.
 
We don't have time to stall, stalling is actively dangerous to us, and it's a loss of control over the situation.

Mami'll probably be a major contributor, yes.
 
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