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“Human Resources” Shouldn’t Be This Literal: A PMMM/ProjectMoon Quest

Would you Distort or manifest EGO?

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Nyarky said:
I am talking about balls to the wall *better to try than have Madoka die or wish (and become a witch) and if she distort it will still be better than what the Adult has in store* level of it, a last resort because I full well expect it to become a relevant choice and thinks it is better if we have even a hint of how to do it sanely instead of a complete improvisation.
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I mean, if Madoka is distorting, things are getting pretty shit for us.

Seeing her friends die/get hurt badly and not being able to do anything about it (no wish/self-sacrifice available) would cause her to go Agnus pretty quickly.

Once she reaches that point, it's up to Carmom to do her thing and convince Madoka.

I haven't seen any options to force a distortion quickly other than the mental breakdown method (Oswald recruitment?) So I don't think Binah will be of help here (plus we might want to coax her into it in order to avoid the world ending distortion scenario).

These kinds of things take a surprisingly long time to happen.

Though if we do do the force distortion route, it'd be hard to look any of our kids in the eyes afterward.

As for not doing anything to Madoka's parents...

Eh, if we are going with that line of thinking, we should have Argalia camp and scout ahead in the Emerald City with Leonia instead of having him look for anyone at all. Sayaka's parents would be either straight up dead, or just missing at that point.

We could technically make up for lost time by using Homura's timestop to skip travel time once she has recovered.
 
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questioningmeme said:
I haven't seen any options to force a distortion quickly other than the mental breakdown method (Oswald recruitment?) So I don't think Binah will be of help here (plus we might want to coax her into it in order to avoid the world ending distortion scenario).
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I don't want to ask Binah how to force a distortion, I want to ask her how to force EGO manifestation with risks or to try and change a distortion into EGO manifestation.

Ask her if there's a way to do the opposite of what Phillip got if Madoka is distorting.

But mostly, ask for EGO manifestation in urgency.

questioningmeme said:
Though if we do do the force distortion route, it'd be hard to look any of our kids in the eyes afterward.
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I mean, hmm, one word:

Kyouko.

Too late to say that, because we already did that one.

Edit:

And I still think it is very likely we'll end up in a situation where Madoka will distort, everytime we got a situation where we had a girl in a very bad situation till now, we got a new distortion out of it, Homura against Nothing There, and Kyouko in the aftermath.

I'm just preparing for the trend to continue, you know? Because I do maintain that going now would have reduced the chances of that happening more than waiting.

Edit2:

To be clear, I do not want to force Madoka in the case of the EGO with risk case, I want to already know the risks to be able to ask her for actual informed consent.

Edit3:

And on long time for manifestation, let me point you to Wondelab's last chapters, with a very fast EGO obtention, to Phillip and Xiao's unfinished EGO's, who both happened during fights, and to Kali's backstory, where she got it in time to block an attack that was already happening.
 
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Nyarky said:
I don't want to ask Binah how to force a distortion, I want to ask her how to force an EGO manifestation with risks or to try and change a distortion into an EGO manifestation.
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That's impossible, I'm pretty sure because E.G.O manifestation is mirrored in an Ayin-style realization process. I can already picture the amused expression on her face the moment we ask that.

Nyarky said:
I mean, hmm, one word:

Kyouko.

Too late to say that, because we already did that one.
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With Kyoko, we were still trying to steer her away from a full-blown breakdown. We wanted her to be less unstable and were working to help her not go crazy.

A FORCED Distortion would be the first time X no-hold barrels go full Carmen.

Nyarky said:
And on long time for manifestation, let me point you to Wondelab's last chapters, with a very fast EGO obtention, to Phillip and Xiao's unfinished EGO's, who both happened during fights, and to Kali's backstory, where she got it in time to block an attack that was already happening.
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Huh, I suppose that's one way to go about it then I guess. I'm not sure little Madoka can think fast enough to mimic those three (Grade 5, Grade 1 near Color, and one of, if not, the strongest Color). Madoka is still just a civilian who can't deflect bullets with a sword so her process might not be as fast as people who can react to bullet speeds.

Another thing to note with all those three is...well...They were "manifesting" E.G.O under high adrenaline combat situations where they were in the fight.

With Madoka, I don't think her crisis moment will be when she's fighting someone so that's another variable that's different from those three too.

Nyarky said:
And I still think it is very likely we'll end up in a situation where Madoka will distort, every time we got a situation where we had a girl in a very bad situation till now, we got a new distortion out of it, Homura against Nothing There, and Kyouko in the aftermath.

I'm just preparing for the trend to continue, you know? Because I do maintain that going now would have reduced the chances of that happening more than waiting.
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That's kinda why I'm more on the "Let's talk with the kids on what to do to prevent Madoka from wishing/dying." instead of going to Binah for the E.G.O hail marry. X already has experience with talking kids out of distorting fully so having some power of friendship to help push it even more would be better.

However, I'm...not quite sure that Madoka herself will be the one who distorts during this fight. It feels...too early for her. Given Sayaka's missing parents, there's a not-so-low chance it's either her...

Or X will have the vote to do something stupid and cause Mami to distort instead (That Rejection backstab is always lurking in the background). Or both.

Madoka distorting/manifesting now is...well, as I said, it feels early. She might just stay asleep the entire time and wake up to find that basically all of her friends are now distortions outside of Yuma and Hitomi.

Speaking of which, I wonder how Yuma is doing. She should be fine in the Library.
 
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Madoka is the most likely candidate in my mind because she's the one that was just kidnapped by the sadist abnormality who likes to push people in their mental problems with false gifts, you know, the perfect situation to work on distorting someone, even more since we know she worked on distortions recently.

Sayaka? Mami? They weren't kidnapped by the Adult who says lies and left with her to work on while we regroup, so strangely enough, I feel as if they aren't the ones who will, call it a hunch.

Remember that X deduced that the Adult see Madoka as a weapon, why wouldn't she pick and probe to see how she ticks, leading to damages in the process? She has no reason to keep her in working order past her being able to be pointed in the right direction.

And on this:
questioningmeme said:
That's impossible, I'm pretty sure because E.G.O manifestation is mirrored in an Ayin-style realization process.
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We know for a fact there are things that can catalyze EGO manifestation thanks to both Kali and Wonderlab, ones that includes a link to the person's mind via an EGO weapon/armor, X does have a link with Madoka, several in fact, her gift and her blessing, both could well be used in conjunction with lobotomy to induce an emergency EGO manifestation that risks ending in distortion instead, but I consider offering Madoka this in place of a wish a good thing even if she distort out of it, we do not want Gretchen.
 
Nyarky said:
We know for a fact there are things that can catalyze EGO manifestation thanks to both Kali and Wonderlab, ones that includes a link to the person's mind via an EGO weapon/armor, X does have a link with Madoka, several in fact, her gift and her blessing, both could well be used in conjunction with lobotomy to induce an emergency EGO manifestation that risks ending in distortion instead, but I consider offering Madoka this in place of a wish a good thing even if she distort out of it, we do not want Gretchen.
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X could force a person to manifest EGO, but that would require manually guiding them through the necessary steps using Lobotomy. Otherwise, Distortion is a far more likely outcome. This use of Lobotomy is too intensive to perform in X's current state without fully becoming an Abnormality.
 
Nyarky said:
We know for a fact there are things that can catalyze EGO manifestation thanks to both Kali and Wonderlab, ones that includes a link to the person's mind via an EGO weapon/armor, X does have a link with Madoka, several in fact, her gift and her blessing, both could well be used in conjunction with lobotomy to induce an emergency EGO manifestation that risks ending in distortion instead, but I consider offering Madoka this in place of a wish a good thing even if she distort out of it, we do not want Gretchen.
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None of the links X has with Madoka are made from EGO weapons/Armor though. The only link she has is the blessing (Not from X) and the gift, both of which aren't exactly the most emotional kind of objects. And Lepid kinda shot the Lobotomy E.G.O route dead (though I was expecting it anyway since that level of forced manifestation is extreme even for Carmen and Ayin to attempt).

Of course, we don't want Gretchen. But I think we should atleast make sure Madoka doesn't go crazy when she distorts. There are other ways to stop that event without resorting to what is basically mindbreak.

For example, one way I can see us stopping Gretchen before it can happen is by knocking Madoka unconscious (There's Blue Star, Pinks etc that we can use for this task) or forcing her to focus on us with Lamp's power (It's not included in the informational page, but we also haven't needed to try it anyway) and ignore the fancy wish creature in front of her.

The Adult's skill at distorting people into a usable ally has shown to be...limited so far (Leonia isn't nearly as good as she would've been if the Adult was more competent in the mind manipulation department), and Madoka is smart enough to not listen to the Abnormality whose name is literally the Adults who lies.

Personally, I think this discussion should be regulated to a later date, once Binah shuts down X's hope of having an easy time, and when we get to Madoka first.

What I do wonder is...when did the Adult get into contact with Madoka? Did we miss something painfully obvious like that time we missed Kyoko wearing a gem dress?
 
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questioningmeme said:
What I do wonder is...when did the Adult get into contact with Madoka? Did we miss something painfully obvious like that time we missed Kyoko wearing a gem dress?
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There is actually a very recent time where she could have done so easily and we wouldn't know:

When we met Isabeau, Corbeau told us the Adult was occupied on something at the time, that seems like a good time for her to have cursed Madoka while we were unable to detect it.
 
And at that point, that makes having all the girls have a sleepover, with at least one non-sleeping participant in Homura, kinda be a "What was the point?". Like, if everything short of having X there and watching doesn't keep the adult from messing around, that's going to really exacerbate X's issues.
 
Ace98 said:
And at that point, that makes having all the girls have a sleepover, with at least one non-sleeping participant in Homura, kinda be a "What was the point?". Like, if everything short of having X there and watching doesn't keep the adult from messing around, that's going to really exacerbate X's issues.
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Ugh. Maybe we should've gotten Argalia to stay close by and guard the kids when we left instead. While Homura is competent, her skill set isn't suitable for detection like Argalia's (Color experience + whatever sound-based ability he has) or X's.
 
I got sick a few days ago, so I've been resting recently and haven't had as much time for writing. If the next chapter is late today, that'll be why.
 
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Attention: Early Vote Opening
  • Informational
    • To make up for the delay, and because this vote isn't going to require any context from the next chapter besides "Everyone went to the Library to rest up and get back into good condition", the next vote will be opening now. It will stay open through the regular duration past the next update, just in case people want to wait for more information on everyone's mental state.

    (Select only one)

    In the Library…
    [] Homura Akemi…
    -[] …finds the weekly     book club.
    -[] …talks with her aunt's     not-boyfriend.
    -[] …wanders to the     lowest floor.
    [] Sayaka Miki…
    -[] …ends up in a room filled with     clocks.
    -[] …stumbles into the tail-end of a     math lesson.
    -[] …is hoping to get in some last-minute     training.
    [] Kyoko Sakura…
    -[] …learns how confusing her new mother's     family tree is.
    -[] …wants to know who's been teaching Sayaka how to     fight.
    -[] …finds somebody     interested in Distortions.
    [] Mami Tomoe…
    -[] …runs into a familiar face in the     lounge.
    -[] …has a     chat with another yellow-clad child.
    -[] …nearly trips over a man     asleep on the floor.
     
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  • Informational
    • [X] Homura Akemi…
    -[X] …talks with her aunt's not-boyfriend.
    [X] Sayaka Miki…
    -[X] …is hoping to get in some last-minute training.
    [] Kyoko Sakura…
    -[X] …wants to know who's been teaching Sayaka how to fight.
    [X] Mami Tomoe…
    -[X] …has a chat with another yellow-clad child.

    Well, this vote is a surprise. But in terms of character development (outside of the urgent need to speed things up), I suppose it's this?

    I am unsure of who to pick for Kyoko. I would like for her to learn more about X, but the current situation isn't exactly ideal for it. Maybe have her train alongside Sayaka and Geburah?

    But honestly speaking, these are the best ways I can see for the kids to de-stress while they heal.
     
    This vote is just for picking one, not one for each character, though it'll probably be repeated multiple times. That's my mistake, though, and I should've formatted it better.
     
    Lepidoptera said:
    -[] …learns how confusing her new mother's family tree is.
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    Let's see, this color is the one used for lowest floor and the lowest floor of the library is… *check to be sure* … Malkuth! The floor of history.

    So should I take it as meaning she finds a literal family tree for X, complete with one or two parts that loop, some that divide and regroup, and others that are clearly the same branch repeated over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and….? :V

    [x] Kyoko Sakura…
    -[x] …learns how confusing her new mother's family tree is.

    But seriously, I think this is very important context for the girls to have and I don't see X going into details any time soon, Angela won't help, she has PTSD about those years.
     
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    Nyarky said:
    So should I take it as meaning she finds a literal family tree for X, complete with one or two parts that loop, some that divide and regroup, and others that are clearly the sale branch repeated over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and….? :V
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    Honestly second contender for my vote simply due to the fact that X and Angela won't talk about it much.

    I'm still wondering whether I should side with Roland, who doesn't get that much screen time or see Kyoko interact with Malkuth over X's strange family.
     
    [x] Kyoko Sakura…
    -[x] …learns how confusing her new mother's family tree is.

    I changed my mind, there's been a lack of Malkuth in this quest and honestly I'd love to see how Lepidoptera writes her, because she's yet to disappoint.
     
    I thought that this shade of yellow was for Tiphereth, not Malkuth. It's the same color as the Mami option.

    If you want Malkuth, then...

    [X] Homura Akemi…
    -[X] …wanders to the lowest floor.

    I'm a little curious about this conversation because they share opposing qualities of the Sephirot and Qliphoth. Maybe it can kickstart Homura's EGO?
     
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