Omakes that can't reasonably qualify for getting experience point rewards. My coffee for the day hadn't kicked in then, so my social me wasn't active enough to realize that it was a dumb question and that I should probably have said something like: 'Alright, I'll keep it in mind, but I might still post stuff that don't qualify for any kind of reward.'
Or something like that.
The goal of that question was to show that I find it reasonable, while also using implying that I would be posting omakes with less than 400 words without any expectations about rewards. The way I did it was a bit of a brainfart however.
Yeah, there's a reason I didn't mention Koyomi once in that entire post. She was one of the Hanazakari, a member of the heroic generation, but she wasn't an exceptional or significant member of it (aside from Emet dying last). If she's like any MHA hero, it's Eraserhead—content to live in obscurity, abrasive, cynical, still wants to make the world a better place and guide the next generation.
Of course, this is premised on the assumption that there is a hero in MHA who's a good match for Koyomi. But between the one-off nature of threats the Hanazakari fought and the way MHA's heroes all support their world's governing institutions, it's hard to argue that Koyomi's like any of those heroes. If the Hanazakari equivalent of UA asked Koyomi to be their literature teacher, she'd laugh and turn them down. (Unless Yumemi asked her, in which case she wouldn't laugh.)
Think the one part that's most outdated is having Blue Lotus going for a civilian front this soon. While he's not averse to lying low, we now know the first thing he did was get back in contact with the corporations who'd sided with the Frost Fair.
I'm actually not certain why he did that, or how it ended with anything other than the corpos diming him out to RUNE.
The Frost Fair was able to bribe the CEOs during the war because:
A) The outcome of the war was uncertain, and the Frost Fair was a sizable military force of Frostfarers, Coldhearted slaves, and undead ghost soldiers which could credibly create the impression that "we'll likely win anyway, so you might as well take our deal"
B) The Frost King was able to credibly promise incredible treasures and wonders from their prior campaigns as further payment
C) The Frost Fair had the manpower and resources to seem credible when they offered to install the CEOs as god-kings ruling over a planet of Coldhearted slaves as a vassal to the Frost Fair
Credibility is the key phrase here. Blue Lotus is infinitely less credible as an ally. He's literally a random faceless mook who survived the Frost Fair's destruction through no effort of his own.
In fact, Blue Lotus is the definition of a high-risk investment. Anyone willing to back him is definitionally willing to make an enemy of everyone who benefits from the current status quo, which - unlike last time - will include most of the world's wealthy creeps. He'd be recruiting from the runts and the has-beens and the burnouts of elite society, who are going to be less connected and less wealthy and just generally less useful as potential allies.
As for those recruits... even if the Frost Fair's treasure vaults are still sealed & intact, why would they believe that Blue Lotus has the keys - or that the keys weren't on the person of the Frost King or another big wheel, and likely destroyed along with their bearer? He needs to be able to convince them to risk public execution and/or a Hanazakari putting her fist through their torsos in order to support his efforts.
Even if he lies and claims he can make them immortal, his bargaining position is still kind of crap, and he's going to be much more subject to the idiot whims of the people he's trying to make use of. The prisoner's dilemma among his prospective allies becomes significantly more attractive for the defector, because why prop up a rootless relic of yesteryear when you could instead score major brownie points with RUNE by informing on the conspiracy?
The goal of that question was to show that I find it reasonable, while also using implying that I would be posting omakes with less than 400 words without any exceptions about rewards.
This is tough to answer without getting into spoilers, albeit spoilers the story's planned to answer fairly soon-ish. As much as I can say right now, the important thing is that Blue Lotus is promising them something quite different to last time, given the Frost Fair's vaults alone wouldn't work here
[X] Eavesdropping on Hibiki and Chigusa together, see what info they might let slip.
Wrenching open a window, the three stepped down into the attic of Chigusa's manor, a slight floorboard squeak not helping the tension. Between the darkness and the mist Emi and Vasilisa could barely see a thing, so Koyomi swiftly ordered the darkness away. Then, though it was little surprise with what they knew of Chigusa, even Koyomi took a step back at the sight she revealed.
A vast mosaic that was all Kagamino Chigusa sprawled across the attic, her on magazine covers, her on albums, her on posters, her on photos, in illustrations. Like a shrine to herself, there wasn't a single other thing but her in the attic besides the door and window. It put the three in mind of what some crazed fan would set up, yet this was all the idol's own doing. Well, unless that hypothetical fan kept breaking into her house to decorate it with herself, but that was getting a little ahead.
Koyomi and Vasilisa were quick to pin this 'inspired' interior decoration on vanity. Emi though could've instead said that this was just Chigusa keeping her memories close, especially as there wasn't a single mirror here (unless you counted the windowpane). Something Emi herself may once have to thought to do, though of manga art instead of self-images naturally, but now couldn't because of... too many bad memories. Of course, once Koyomi had come out and pinned it on simply vanity, Emi became prone to just agree with her.
Though there was another, more Cultivar-ish reason they had been overlooking.
From right out of a poster on the wall, a new Chigusa clone materialised and leapt out all ready to deliver a flying kick at Koyomi. Only at the last second did Koyomi swerve to the side and, with help from Vasilisa floating in, grab hold of, cover the mouth, and knock out this new Narcissus before she could alert the whole house.
"She can- ah sorry, she can call clones out of her own pictures?" Emi took it, only just remembering to tone her voice's volume down.
A nod but also a shrug was Koyomi's response, to keep things even quieter. Slowly opening the door else it let out a telltale creaking, she ushered everyone downstairs before that clone could regain consciousness.
"Why knock her out? Why not press clone for information?" Vasilisa had to ask.
Shooting a glare up and back, Koyomi asked, "Did you just suggest we torture her? What do you take me for, RUNE? Besides, even if you try to be amoral about it, torture never works. It doesn't make anyone tell the truth, just what they think you want to be the truth."
"What? Not torture, no! Must you go to extremes?" Vasilisa gasped, "Merely that we ask her real forcefully, that's it, much more reasonable." That hardly made Koyomi's expression lighten.
"Guess that's just another way my Cultivar's so awful," Emi said and sighed as she took in Koyomi's stance on torture, then raced to blurt out, "Ah, not that I would ever use it do so! I never meant to imply that."
"Look, whatever it is, just keep quiet for now," Koyomi hissed back at them as she stepped down onto the upper corridor. She could see Emi was too revulsed by her own Cultivar to ever really think that... though that raised the possibility of someone, be it RUNE, a PMC, the Purified, whoever, forcing her to use it for them. Koyomi shook her head and tried to stay focused on sneaking around.
The old house was lushly carpeted yet dimly lit, its candles illuminating just enough for Koyomi to have somewhere to move the darkness to. Its corridors had a more aromatic scent than the papery attic, yet still not a single mirror anywhere around. Maybe all that vanity-slinging had been too quick a call?
Some darkness-shifting onto any patrolling clones was enough to slip past them, for now they seemed to think the lights had just blacked out. Again, for now.
"Why not let me strand them on the ceiling?" Vasilisa had to ask, her gravity field buzzing.
"Ergh, because then they'd know for sure they've got intruders," Koyomi sighed.
Eventually they spotted Hibiki Izumi standing halfway up a flight of split stairs, already in conversation with... a door. Or rather, in conversation with the person who refused to emerge from that heavily padlocked door, two Chigusa clones standing guard.
"Can you not see? We are Hanazakari, and I still at the peak of popularity!" said the voice from the door, sounding much like Chigusa but without the slightest hint of youth her clones had. "So why do you still cling to Yamahi? All we must do is hire a doctor or gardener even, and we can use the Pathragadan's power to engineer a new Hanazakari generation on our own!"
"You what?" Koyomi snarled hearing that, having to restrain herself from rushing out at them.
"Kagamino-san, I keep telling you, I could never-" Hibiki said, breathing deep and clenching her fists, "I have been managed by Yamahi Productions ever since the Frost Decade. I am in far too deep with the company that I cannot leave, let alone betray them. And they- they know far too much about me..."
"Hah, you left the Takarazuka Revue, what is one more departure? If treachery so bothers you, just tell yourself you're acting out the role of traitor, is that not how you think? We've both played so for our own species before," the voice, apparently the 'real' Chigusa, asked. "And as if Yamahi will have any power to blackmail you once we have an army of new Hanazakari at our beck and call. I for one would prefer to be out of Yamahi's debt when I die, what better way to ensure that than leaving them powerless to retaliate?"
"That's different, I aged out of the Revue," Hibiki said, starting with the easiest one to answer. "And it's because I betrayed humanity... and the Dandelionhearts," Emet's death burning back into Koyomi's mind as the actress said those words, "That I don't want to betray anyone anymore!"
As tears formed on Hibiki's face, the Chigusa behind the door laughed at her. "Really? Not even betray the people who made you, made us need I remind you, betray our own kind and our own familiars in the first place? And you yourself told me you used that mangaka's Cultivar against her wishes, is that too not a betrayal?"
"That was to save her life!" Hibiki burst out. Emi gasped from the shadows as she heard that, then looked back at Hibiki differently to before.
"Hmm, no response to my first question I see. Think, Izumi," Chigusa said, "You have the opportunity to atone to humanity by giving them the Hanazakari anew! I'm giving you everything you ever wanted! And before you tell me that Yamahi would do the same with the Pathragadan, how can you trust them knowing they've failed to bring back the Hanazakari before? Failed you most of all?"
Koyomi was at first incensed on hearing that, even if this not being YamahiPro's, or anyone else's, first harebrained scheme to make new Hanazakari was no real shock.
"Shiori..." Hibiki was left muttering.
Back in the shadows, Emi shook her head when the other two looked at her, indicating no idea who this Shiori was.
Another Idol Hanazakari? A Dandelionheart? An endangered civilian? Koyomi thought.
Clutching her head in both hands, Hibiki ultimately asked the door, "Look, can you just... give me more time to think about this?"
"More time? How much have I already given you?" Chigusa snarled, then sighed, "Fine then. You shall have till tomorrow morning. But remember, you know full well Yamahi would offer you no such generosity."
Hibiki only nodded at that. As she walked away downstairs and along the hall, Koyomi looked at Emi and Vasilisa to signal now was finally the time to strike at the ringleader.
The two clone guards proved a minor speedbump, with Koyomi shrouding both in darkness and knocking them unconscious. She half-expected the itchy-trigger Vasilisa to ask why she didn't just kill them; they were but image-based clones after all. Yet to Koyomi's relief Vasilisa kept any thoughts like those, if she was even having them, to herself.
Not that Vasilisa didn't get any feat of daring-do in, when she used her gravity field to send that door, padlocks irrelevant, shooting back and crashing down. Nothing stood between them and Chigusa's inner sanctum.
Except that their cover was blown the moment Koyomi stepped inside the boudoir. A woman shrieked at Koyomi simply laying eyes on her, a dark-haired woman clad in gold and white wielding an afterimage-ringed wand who looked like an older Chigusa... no, like Chigusa at her actual age. Like a woman not that much older than Koyomi.
Stealth no longer an option, Koyomi pulled out her quill-sword and yelled right back at her, "Just tell us where you're holding Sfira, the 'Pathragadan'."
"Cretin! How dare someone aged and withered as you have the nerve to order me around? Seize them!" the real Chigusa cried as she summoned to life pictures of her younger self from all around her. Any attempt to neutralise all the Narcissi by going after the real one had burst like a balloon.
What's more, Emi and Vasilisa spun around to see that Hibiki wasn't yet as out of reach as they'd thought, already running right back at the sound of the door crashing.
Article:
Koyomi had to think of a whole new plan fast:
[ ] Have Emi confront Hibiki, Vasilisa go crowd-control on the clones, and she'd seize the real Chigusa.
[ ] Threaten them by bluffing. That they'll turn the darkness solid, bring the whole house down with gravity... destroy what they loved.
[ ] If Chigusa could bring images of herself to life, Emi could sketch her true, aged self and have her confront that.
[ ] Try to ignite Hibiki into fighting Chigusa, the two were already at odds.
[ ] Warn them both about Blue Lotus coming. If he really had contacted YamahiPro, they may not need much convincing.
[ ] Tell them this 'new Hanazakari' plan, whether Yamahi or Chigusa is in charge, won't work. That it's illogical and won't work long-term.
- [ ] "Listen to yourselves! Sfira's already told us they can't grant powers, so you're planning to, what, chop them up and stick the parts into people in the hopes they'll sprout? That's not how any of this works. You're just going to torture and maim a person and it won't help anyone. Not you, not YamahiPro, and certainly not humanity. And even if it did, all Sfira could give them is some super speed. You think YamahiPro is going to be interested in that over an army of Hanazakari that can make duplicates of themselves or copy the powers of any other Hanazakari? Or did you forget we're part Pathragadan now too? If this actually works, you two are going to have massive targets on your backs for every government, Corp, and Crime syndicate that wants a quick boost to their magical girl ranks." (Epsilon Rose write-in) [] With combined Hanazakari senses, they could locate where Sfira was themselves without needing to get it out of Chigusa. [Koyomi does not have enough power of Mind for this.]
[ ] Write-in
As tears formed on Hibiki's face, the Chigusa behind the door laughed at her. "Really? Not even betray the people made you, made us need I remind you, betray our own kind and our own familiars in the first place?"
"Hmm, no response to my first question I see. Think, Izumi," Chigusa said, "You have the opportunity to atone to humanity by giving them the Hanazakari anew! I'm giving you everything you ever wanted! And before you tell me that Yamahi would do the same with the Pathragadan, how can you trust them knowing they've failed to bring back the Hanazakari before? Failed you most of all?"
I mean, would that even be a good thing for humanity? I guess it can't hurt to have superpowers in the backpocket in case there's another alien invasion, or something, but right now, what's the ration of Hanazakari to cultivar's that significantly benefit humanity. Then again, we are talking with a self-obsessed idol, so god knows what kinda perspective she's bringing to this.
I mean, on the individual scale having super powers is cool of course, unless you're Emi, but even the most optimistic take would require to assume that Chigusa hands them out equally and fairly, which... is a long shot.
[X] Warn them both about Blue Lotus coming. If he really had contacted YamahiPro, they may not need much convincing.
Probably the least bad option, especially since "keep wailing on the withered old bitch until either she calls off the clones, or the clones are dispelled when she either passes out or dies" doesn't seem to be on the table.
I fully expect Chigusa to completely ignore this and settle for nothing less than killing all of us for seeing her true face, but Hibiki might be able to pull herself together.
I mean, would that even be a good thing for humanity? I guess it can't hurt to have superpowers in the backpocket in case there's another alien invasion, or something, but right now, what's the ration of Hanazakari to cultivar's that significantly benefit humanity. Then again, we are talking with a self-obsessed idol, so god knows what kinda perspective she's bringing to this.
I don't think it's even something that would work.
Their plan is... what, rip branches off of Sfira, cut open the torso of some random girl, then shove a branch inside and hope for the best? We haven't been given a lot of detail on how the Dandelionhearts empowered the Hanazakari, but I highly doubt that it's as simple as that. This is coconut-and-twine-headphones levels of cargo cultism.
The least bad outcome would be that nothing happens and the patient likely dies. The worst outcome would be that you get screaming human-plant amalgams trapped in eternal torment, with their malformed Cultivars likewise lashing out at random and devastating their surroundings.
"What? Not torture, no! Must you go to extremes?" Vasilisa gasped, "Merely that we ask her real forcefully, that's it, much more reasonable." That hardly made Koyomi's expression lighten.
"Guess that's just another way my Cultivar's so awful," Emi said and sighed as she took in Koyomi's stance on torture, then raced to blurt out, "Ah, not that I would ever use it do so! I never meant to imply that."
I mean, would that even be a good thing for humanity? I guess it can't hurt to have superpowers in the backpocket in case there's another alien invasion, or something, but right now, what's the ration of Hanazakari to cultivar's that significantly benefit humanity. Then again, we are talking with a self-obsessed idol, so god knows what kinda perspective she's bringing to this.
I mean, on the individual scale having super powers is cool of course, unless you're Emi, but even the most optimistic take would require to assume that Chigusa hands them out equally and fairly, which... is a long shot.
Assuming they have a plan that sounds convincing enough that the odds of failure can be ignored, I can think of plenty of reasons why they might think Hanazakari could improve the world. The difference between magical girls and superheroes is merely genre convention; there's no reason Hanazakari can't do superhero stuff. And for all the way superheroes can go bad, there are a lot of people who think superhuman law enforcement following their direction would improve the world.
[X] Warn them both about Blue Lotus coming. If he really had contacted YamahiPro, they may not need much convincing.
[X] Try to ignite Hibiki into fighting Chigusa, the two were already at odds.
I think there's room for a clever write-in to try and recruit Hibiki, if she regrets the things Yamahi has made her do. Blue Lotus + Yamahi are awful, but Narcissus here is also awful. We don't really want to fight with Narcissus against Blue Lotus, we ideally want to grab Sfira, defeat Narcissus, and get out of here before anybody else arrives. Getting Hibiki's help seems like the best way to make that happen.
Koyomi needs to keep building her coalition if she wants to be able to stand up to RUNE, Yamahi, Pathragada, and any other awful axes of power waiting in the wings.
I'll think about it and might change my vote if I come up with something.
I don't think it's even something that would work.
Their plan is... what, rip branches off of Sfira, cut open the torso of some random girl, then shove a branch inside and hope for the best? We haven't been given a lot of detail on how the Dandelionhearts empowered the Hanazakari, but I highly doubt that it's as simple as that. This is coconut-and-twine-headphones levels of cargo cultism.
The least bad outcome would be that nothing happens and the patient likely dies. The worst outcome would be that you get screaming human-plant amalgams trapped in eternal torment, with their malformed Cultivars likewise lashing out at random and devastating their surroundings.
I'll go you a step further. We recently found out that the Hanazakari are hybridized with their cultivars and have some Pathragadan biology. If just grafting some of Sfira's branches on to someone could work, then they wouldn't even need her, because they could simply use another Hanazakari for the same thing—and depending on how her clones work, Chigusa is an ideal "candidate" for that role—but that's also a really obvious solution and, given how amoral the governments and corps are, the fact that we haven't seen any new Hanazakari strongly suggests this can't work. So, let me try something with that in mind:
[X] Tell them this 'new Hanazakari' plan, whether Yamahi or Chigusa is in charge, won't work. That it's illogical and won't work long-term.
-[X] "Listen to yourselves! Sfira's already told us they can't grant powers, so you're planning to, what, chop them up and stick the parts into people in the hopes they'll sprout? That's not how any of this works. You're just going to torture and maim a person and it won't help anyone. Not you, not YamahiPro, and certainly not humanity. And even if it did, all Sfira could give them is some super speed. You think YamahiPro is going to be interested in that over an army of Hanazakari that can make duplicates of themselves or copy the powers of any other Hanazakari? Or did you forget we're part Pathragadan now too? If this actually works, you two are going to have massive targets on your backs for every government, Corp, and Crime syndicate that wants a quick boost to their magical girl ranks."
Other than a write-in, the closest option to this would be the first, which has Koyomi going after the main Chigusa while Emi and Vasilisa handle everyone else.
Warn them both about Blue Lotus coming. If he really had contacted YamahiPro, they may not need much convincing.
- "Listen to yourselves! Sfira's already told us she can't grant powers, so you're planning to, what, chop her up and stick the parts into people in the hopes they'll sprout? That's not how any of this works. You're just going to torture and maim a person and it won't help anyone. Not you, not YamahiPro, and certainly not humanity. And even if it did, all Sfira could give them is some super speed. You think YamahiPro is going to be interested in that over an army of Hanazakari that can make duplicates of themselves or copy the powers of any other Hanazakari? Or did you forget we're part Pathragadan now too? If this actually works, you two are going to have massive targets on your backs for every government, Corp, and Crime syndicate that wants a quick boost to their magical girl ranks."
Two little things I have to bring up. First is, while Sfira wouldn't object to she/her, being bigender they almost always go by they/them. Second is that this feels more like a follow-up to the 'Tell them this 'new Hanazakari' plan won't work' vote than it does the 'Warn them about Blue Lotus' vote, given he's not mentioned in this write-in
Other than a write-in, the closest option to this would be the first, which has Koyomi going after the main Chigusa while Emi and Vasilisa handle everyone else.
Two little things I have to bring up. First is, while Sfira wouldn't object to she/her, being bigender they almost always go by they/them. Second is that this feels more like a follow-up to the 'Tell them this 'new Hanazakari' plan won't work' vote than it does the 'Warn them about Blue Lotus' vote, given he's not mentioned in this write-in
With all due respect (to both your write-in and the original), telling people that their evil plan is impossible when we clearly have a fragmentary understanding of what it involves seems...unlikely to work. Especially since they know more about past failed attempts than we (or Koyomi) do.
"You have the opportunity to atone to humanity by giving them the Hanazakari anew! I'm giving you everything you ever wanted! And before you tell me that Yamahi would do the same with the Pathragadan, how can you trust them knowing they've failed to bring back the Hanazakari before? Failed you most of all?"
Koyomi was at first incensed on hearing that, even if this not being YamahiPro's, or anyone else's, first harebrained scheme to make new Hanazakari was no real shock.
All we/Koyomi know about the plan is that it involves Sfira. And since Hibiki and Chigusa know about Yamahi "failing to bring back the Hanazakari," while Koyomi just considers such schemes "no real shock," it's probably safe to say that they know way more about both their own method of making new Hanazakari and other ways that had been attempted. Koyomi doesn't know anything of the sort.
If we wanted to convince them that their plan is doomed to failure, it would make sense to ask some questions about their plan so Koyomi can being up accurate criticisms of it rather than wildly guessing, getting some details wrong, and having her entire argument dismissed out of hand for that reason.
Not that I think that's the best use of our time.
[X] Warn them both about Blue Lotus coming. If he really had contacted YamahiPro, they may not need much convincing.
Talking about Sfira's gender identity and Hanazakari being plant-hybrids I figure raises the question of what sex Hanazakari would even be biologically, what with the organs flowers have (though there are a few monogender flowers). Most Hanazakari obviously still identify as women, but the trans Hanazakari have definitely taken notice of having Pathragadan biology, though not that it was the only factor in them transitioning. Will have to wait till I can bring Hachiro and Palmira back into the story to discuss this more. (Edit: And of course there's the whole question of how much alien sexual characteristics can correspond to human ones.)
On another topic, a couple of updates back I had Emi talk about how at least she had hope for the future back in the Frost Decade... while also, like most corporate Hanazakari, being forced to fight for the Frost Fair. In hindsight, those two statements sound kinda contradictory. I think they could be explained though by your usual rose-coloured glasses, by all the promises the Frost Fair kept making the corpos, or Emi just having mixed priorities. Let me know what you think
All we/Koyomi know about the plan is that it involves Sfira. And since Hibiki and Chigusa know about Yamahi "failing to bring back the Hanazakari," while Koyomi just considers such schemes "no real shock," it's probably safe to say that they know way more about both their own method of making new Hanazakari and other ways that had been attempted. Koyomi doesn't know anything of the sort.
Counter point, it's not like the Corps had an actual Pathragadan to experiment on, so they're most likely shooting in the dark, and whatever they're planning is mechanically simple enough that Chigusa thinks a gardener can handle it. They might have a more detailed plan with some actual scientific backing, but it seems unlikely.
Under less pressing circumstances, I'd agree about slow playing it and trying to gather more information before doing anything, but between their apparently unstable mental states, Blue Lotus bouncing around, and Sfira being held in an unknown location, I'm not sure we have the time. Fortunately, I think they both have a few, obvious, buttons to hammer, even if we're a bit off on their plan's details.
Hibiki feels she needs to loyally follow Yamahi's orders, even if she finds her actions despicable, but what if she's been ordered to do something, that she finds despicable, that can't help Yamahi and might even hurt it? There shouldn't be any reason for her to follow that order to completion, since her handlers shouldn't actually want the results. At the same time, given her apparent hatred of her power, raising the spectre of anyone making more Hanazakari like her should be terrifying.
Chigusa is a bit harder, but I think her big thing is a fear of being replaced or left behind and that is, ultimately, what her plan will lead to. Sure, she can present herself as eternally young, but so can a new girl and they'll actually be new and exciting, while she'll be familiar and boring.
On another topic, a couple of updates back I had Emi talk about how at least she had hope for the future back in the Frost Decade... while also, like most corporate Hanazakari, being forced to fight for the Frost Fair. In hindsight, those two statements sound kinda contradictory. I think they could be explained though by your usual rose-coloured glasses, by all the promises the Frost Fair kept making the corpos, or Emi just having mixed priorities. Let me know what you think
I think that contradiction mostly makes sense, but not because of mixed priorities or Frost Fair promises to corpos (since she's not a corpo). I think a few factors would be involved:
A myopic view of the war: Emi was probably mostly focused on her own life and how it was being effected by the war and if she was onside with the Frost Fair, she was probably much less effected than other people. This means it would have been easier for her to view the war as less bad than it really was and to assume it will get even better once the fighting stops, since that's where most of the badness was coming from.
Self-delusion (willful and otherwise): No one wants to think of themselves as the villain, and the same applies to their friends/associates, so it's natural to mentally minimize the harm you're causing and focus on other things. (Alternatively, she could have thought of herself as a victim that was being forced to do the things she did—thus minimizing her culpability—and that she'd be 'rescued' by the end of the war.)
Whatever the Corps did to her Hanazakari to actually listen to them and work with the Frost Fair, even to the point of at least some of them killing Dandelionhearts—I'm actually really curious about how they managed it and his they managed to maintain their holds—I imagine at least part of it involved lying to them and keeping them in the dark, which would have made it easier for Emi to have a rosier view of things, especially if the above factors gave her a reason to want to believe the lies.
However, since you brought up inconsistencies, there's another one I caught while reading through things.
That left Kazuya to decide what to do with the gun he was handed. He muttered, "If I hand this back, I risk putting myself in danger. If I do not, I still risk danger from never having used a gun and will continue to fuel the emotion of anger in Arisugawa-sama. By the logic of wagers, it is most practical that I hand this back," then returned the gun.
It wasn't just her. His enchanted gun still on him, Kazuya took a deep breath and fired it right at Blue Lotus' back. But then all it took was for Blue Lotus to drop to the floor for that bullet to instead pierce Koyomi's sword arm.
I don't know if this has been discussed already, and I might be missing something, but it seems like you had Kazuya refuse to take a gun and then accidentally shoot Koyomi with that same gun.
Keep in mind that gardener has a broader meaning post-Frost Decade, since we talked about how doctors would handle Pathragadan biology inside Hanazakari.
At the same time, given her apparent hatred of her power, raising the spectre of anyone making more Hanazakari like her should be terrifying.
Er, think you may have gotten Hibiki confused with Emi in this sentence.
I don't know if this has been discussed already, and I might be missing something, but it seems like you had Kazuya refuse to take a gun and then accidentally shoot Koyomi with that same gun.
Keep in mind that gardener has a broader meaning post-Frost Decade, since we talked about how doctors would handle Pathragadan biology inside Hanazakari.
Koyomi gasped and Vasilisa shrieked as Hibiki picked Emi up then touched her toy arm... only for Hibiki to grit her teeth and put her back down. "You forgot, Daimon," she then said dropping the Freesia impression, "Acting already is nothing but misery for me..."
Oh yeah. I'd say that line's less about Hibiki hating her powers, and more about Hibiki hating her situation and where she's ended up, even if the two are naturally tied together. And then her refusal to quit Yamahi out of loyalty and not wanting to betray again ends up keeping her where she is and reinforcing her own misery cycle (not to say her problems are wholly of her own making though).
Also on Hibiki, I didn't realise how her ability to copy others' powers through understanding and mimicking their emotions is similar to Shugo Chara. Guess it didn't register for me since she has no Chara equivalent
Talking about Sfira's gender identity and Hanazakari being plant-hybrids I figure raises the question of what sex Hanazakari would even be biologically...
Laymen often think of sex as binary. There's a certain set of biological characteristics that are male, and a separate set of biological characteristics that are female. Biologists recognize that while those characteristics are correlated with one another, it's more than possible for individuals to have a mixture of traits from both sets, traits intermediate between the two sets, or both. (Such people are called "intersex".)
To change an AFAB person's sex, one would need to adjust those biological characteristics to more closely match the male set of characteristics than the female set. Replacing ovaries with testes would be one possible way to do so. Supplementing ovaries with stamen would not, because male-sexed humans do not have stamens.
Maybe you could argue that flower stuff replacing a Hanazakari's primary or secondary sexual characteristics would change their sex, but I'm not sure it makes sense to describe them that way. Replacing a cis dude Hanazakari's phallus with a flower would move that Hanazakari away from the set of male characteristics, but it doesn't make his biology more "feminine". It's not a move away from male biological characteristics and towards female—it's a move away from human biological characteristics and towards something else.
To me, it doesn't make sense to describe that as a change in sex, any more than Doctor-Moreauing them would. Turning a man into a man/bull would move them away from the set of male biological characteristics; some people might say that unfortunate person is losing his humanity, but very few people would say he's losing his masculinity.
Discussing alien sex organs vs human ones also reminded me of a question I've been trying to avoid, since I felt it'd be better if I didn't draw attention to it (which seems to have worked, since nobody's brought it up).
Namely, if Pathragadans are aliens, why are they all based around Earth flowers?
My Doylist answer is that using Earth flowers works way better as both visual and thematic shorthand, whereas if I made up a bunch of alien flowers I'd spend a lot more time having to explain them.
For a Watsonian one, I had two competing ideas. The first and simpler was that Hanazakari are named after the Earth flower that most resembles their Pathragadan one. The second and more out-there is that seeds from Pathragada spread throughout the universe way back when, so all Earth flowers were originally from there. Worried that sounds a little Ancient Aliens-y, but I think if it's just with flowers it shouldn't be too big an issue
Wait, if a large portion of Hanazakari have become true hermaphrodites, does wouldn't their new biology be also have become breed true? Or are they naturally infirtile?
