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Puella Magi Adfligo Systema

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So, I mentioned this once before, but in PMKM, Hijiri impersonated Niko for days. She's a talented actress and liar. She might be different in this timeline... or then again she might not. We need to keep in mind the possibility that she's faking her panic and lying about Yuuri to get herself out of trouble.
 
Reminder that in PMKM Hijiri is an accomplished actor and was the one manipulating Yuuri, not vice versa. I'm voting to take her at her word for now since it leads to conversations that she should hear out either way, and since trust begets trust, but let's not pass judgement on Yuuri until we actually find her and can hear out her take on all this.

E: ninja'd
 
The Narrator said:
So, I mentioned this once before, but in PMKM, Hijiri impersonated Niko for days. She's a talented actress and liar. She might be different in this timeline... or then again she might not. We need to keep in mind the possibility that she's faking her panic and lying about Yuuri to get herself out of trouble.
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If she was in the proper state of mind to be manipulative right now I suspect she would not have attacked us and revealed herself in the first place. Very low probability that she's tricking us right now I think.
 
The Phoenixian said:
Honestly between that and a few other places, I figure it was because Sabrina healed when she got her powers by closing her initial wounds with her grief power using the same rules as the grief based healing enchantment she later showed to Oriko. (So when her powers go on the fritz in any way, her old wounds reopen for a moment.)
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"Oh yes, that explains the witchy feeling you always have around you that I never mentioned."

"It totally does!"

"Wait, do I actually-"

*Dopeslaps Sabrina*
 
cmwatford said:


:o
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Worth mentioning for this topic: "My few other places" includes a couple incidents where we retch when we seriously consider witching girls out and when we think about witching Homura out deliberately, and we retch for a bit and our resulting grief is blood- and bile-stained.

Amusingly, the latter happens just before and during update where we talk about wish rejection with Kyuubey.

Firnagzen said:
Or you could Witch them out, in hopes of reviv-

Your gorge rises, and you gag.

You force back the sudden nausea, the disgust with yourself for even contemplating that. You-

You didn't even like the thought of doing it to Kirika-

Mami's at your side, her hands fluttering as she checks your temperature with a hand on your forehead. "Sabrina? Sabrina!"

You swallow the bile. "I- I'm OK," you say, voice wavering. The back of your throat burns with stomach acid. "I- I'm OK, Mami."

"Are you sure?" Mami asks, peering anxiously at your face. "You don't look like it."

"Yeah," you say. "I'm OK. I just had a... really upsetting thought."

"Oh," Mami says, biting her lip. "I-if you're sure, Sabrina."

"I'm sure," you say, managing a smile at Mami and pulling her into a reassuring hug.
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Firnagzen said:
Of course, if Madokami comes into existence... do girls really Witch out? She catches them at the very last minute and brings them to Madokahalla, or whatever you want to call it.

Which does suggest the idea of Witching out Homur-

You stagger.

You catch yourself before you fall off the edge of the roof and fall to a knee. Dry heaves wrack your body, and you retch, trying to keep your breakfast down.

The moment passes, and you breathe shakily, spitting the bile from your mouth.

You stand on trembling knees, turning over to flop with your back against the raised wall lining the roof.

"Are you OK, Sabrina?" a sweet, telepathic voice intrudes on your thoughts, followed by the furry white presence of the Incubator, tail lashing vigorously behind it.
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Firnagzen said:
You hack, clearing bile and phlegm from the back of your throat, and spit it to the side.

You touch your Soul Gem with shaking fingers. Deep, bilious purple gathers under the shining, silvery surface, and you draw away a thick rope of Grief. It hangs in the air, roiling eddies of dark, nearly black purple speckled with vomit green and congealed blood red.

A breath in.

You are Sabrina.

A breath out.
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Latter two quotes are both the "thought of witching out Homura" incident. Former example is from earlier that morning or the evening before I think.
 
I was forgetting, but I'd like to apologize to Hijiri for the sheer scare we must have given her, that she panicked so hard.



[X] Group telepathy: Yuuri might be behind this. Search must go on.

[X] Be empathetic Sabrina.

[X] Apologize to Hijiri for scaring her. We're not after her, but after whomever attacked our friends. If she's saying the truth, that somebody is Yuuri.
-[X] And well, she did shoot at us. No hard feelings?

[X] Explain Niko's one Wish was for Hijiri to have the peaceful life Niko felt she herself couldn't.
-[X] Hijiri is not an experiment. We can promise that, because we know Niko is conflicted right now, hurt, because she cares about Hijiri in her own way.
-[X] Ask Hijiri that she talks with Niko, and offer all the support you can give.

[X] After this is over, we'd love to help her achieve that 'peaceful life'. It's what we Wished for, after all.
[X] Once the Pleiades arrive, be ready to step in if necessary. Keep things calm.
 
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[x] Keep Kazumi and Niko in the loop. The hunt for Yuuri needs to go on. Defer to Kazumi.

[x] Clarify that Hijiri wasn't personally targeted. Someone hurt one of Kazumi's friends after breaking in, so naturally our teams went looking for whoever the culprit was. Yuuri manipulated her.
-[x] None of this was necessary. Niko spent her one and only Wish on a peaceful life for Hijiri. She isn't just an "experiment", and nobody here thinks she's "less of a person" just because of her origins.

[x] A peaceful life is what you're trying to offer Magical Girls, that their existence normally denies them. It's what the Clear Seeds are for. But to help her, first Hijiri needs to make amends with the people she's hurt with her actions, Niko most of all. If they'd just talked it would never have come to this.
-[x] Let the Pleiades take the lead when more arrive.

Updated. Still 150 words.
 
[X] Inform the Pleiades that Yuuri was also involved, using Hijiri as a puppet, and suggest resuming the search. Hopefully this will allow us to conduct the interview with just the present crew.
[X] Tell Hijiri that we went after her because she helped attack them and steal things, and then attacked us. Self-fulfilling prophecy. Yuuri manipulated her. We want to stop her from messing with others.
[X] Reassure Hijiri that no-one thinks less of her for being created by a wish, certainly not us, since we were very likely created by a wish.
[X] Telepathically bring up Sayaka's parents to Sayaka. You're going to be searching for a while yet, which means she needs an explanation for how/why she vanished out of bed.
-[X] Unless she thinks she can get a clone back into bed using her copied MOF, anyway.
 
Comparing the votes, I think I'll go with

[X] Redshirt Army

Because really, as far as I can tell, Redshirt and Onmur are basically the same. The former just has a bit more momentum behind it.
 
Redshirt Army said:
[x] Keep Kazumi and Niko in the loop. The hunt for Yuuri needs to go on. Defer to Kazumi.

[x] Clarify that Hijiri wasn't personally targeted. Someone hurt one of Kazumi's friends after breaking in, so naturally our teams went looking for whoever the culprit was. Yuuri manipulated her.
-[x] None of this was necessary. Niko spent her one and only Wish on a peaceful life for Hijiri. She isn't just an "experiment", and nobody here thinks she's "less of a person" just because of her origins.

[x] A peaceful life is what you're trying to offer Magical Girls, that their existence normally denies them. It's what the Clear Seeds are for. But to help her, first Hijiri needs to make amends with the people she's hurt with her actions, Niko most of all. If they'd just talked it would never have come to this.
-[x] Let the Pleiades take the lead when more arrive.

Updated. Still 150 words.
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I have two issues with the last part of this.

One is this:
Firnagzen said:
It'll help decisionmaking to know that no, the Pleiades aren't going to be calm about this.
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We can't just let the Pleiades take the lead. They won't be in a state of mind to take the lead (and not fuck up). We need to actively help things go well when the Pleiades arrive.

Mediate, most likely.

Second issue is that we're in an exceptionally good position to give Hijiri perspective on why she exists. She believes she was abandoned, that she was an experiment, etc., etc... While we know why Niko created her. We can give Hijiri perspective on that before the Pleiades arrive and she has to deal with a thoroughly conflicted Niko who will likely not see reason in the heat of the moment.

So I believe this is fundamental to this update's vote:

- Give Hijiri perspective on Niko's Wish.
- Help make the following conversation between Niko and Hijiri not explode. That means we don't let them take the lead; at the very least we step in as mediator.

EDIT: You have
-[x] None of this was necessary. Niko spent her one and only Wish on a peaceful life for Hijiri. She isn't just an "experiment", and nobody here thinks she's "less of a person" just because of her origins.
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I don't think that gives Hijiri the perspective she needs.
 
Onmur said:
I have two issues with the last part of this.

One is this:

We can't just let the Pleiades take the lead. They won't be in a state of mind to take the lead (and not fuck up). We need to actively help things go well when the Pleiades arrive.

Mediate, most likely.

Second issue is that we're in an exceptionally good position to give Hijiri perspective on why she exists. She believes she was abandoned, that she was an experiment, etc., etc... While we know why Niko created her. We can give Hijiri perspective on that before the Pleiades arrive and she has to deal with a thoroughly conflicted Niko who will likely not see reason in the heat of the moment.

So I believe this is fundamental to this update's vote:

- Give Hijiri perspective on Niko's Wish.
- Help make the following conversation between Niko and Hijiri not explode. That means we don't let them take the lead; at the very least we step in as mediator.

EDIT: You have
I don't think that gives Hijiri the perspective she needs.
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Posting from my phone so I can't explain overmuch, but we can't just take over Kazumis position.

If we can't trust our friends to handle this situation, why are they our friends?
 
Firnagzen said:
A curl of wind blows past, setting your jacket flapping a bit.
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:o There is something very wrong here!

We know wind doesn't affect our coat! That would allow us to look cool, and that can't happen!


Firnagzen said:
"I can't," Hijiri says, expression twisting. "I don't know how. I only had enough time to figure out how to make it work."
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Firnagzen said:
"That's her!" Hijiri says, suddenly eager to please.
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Mmm... Anyone's got a read on this?
 
Onmur said:
Mmm... Anyone's got a read on this?
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Couple of possibilities.

One is that she's scared, so she's eager to throw someone else under the bus to save herself and afraid of the consequences of not being able to do as we asked.

Another is that she's playing us, shifting the blame to Yuuri to throw us off her scent and making up wild excuses why she can't comply with our reasonable request to stall for time.
 
Firnagzen said:
"She told me to," Hijiri blurts. "I- I just wanted to run, to get away. She found me, told me you'd hunt me down. Told me I was some kind of... experiment."
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Now here's a thing that's suspect. Kanna was created long before Yuuri (Airi) contracted, so there's no way she would have known the connection between Niko and Kanna by herself. The probability of Yuuri just running into Kanna and making the connection between the two is extremely low, and the idea of Kyuubey just telling Yuuri about Kanna's circumstances is also low considering he doesn't seem to tell Magical Girls about other Magical Girls to the extent of their wishes on a whim, even considering the "you didn't ask" part of him. Kanna was told the circumstances of her existence by Kyuubey likely because she was the direct result of Niko's wish.

But the thing here that's suspicious is that it wasn't Kyuubey who told her that information, it was Yuuri.

Next is the big question. Why is she a Magical Girl? In canon, she only became a Magical Girl when she was told about her artificial nature, but the testimony she gave states that it was Yuuri who told her that. So if she's telling the truth, she either interacted with Kyuubey earlier (risking him telling her about her nature right off the bat) and became a Magical Girl, or ran into Yuuri who then told her about her being artificial, and then became a Magical Girl. However, the second situation contradicts her desire to leave and find a peaceful life, as she wouldn't likely become a Magical Girl if she specifically wanted to avoid drama.

From here, I'm going to give the conclusion that makes the most sense. She's lying. Her finding out her origins is likely similar to how she found out in Kazumi Magica. She's not working under Yuuri. She's probably working with Yuuri or using her as both of their revenge schemes coincide with each other. Since she's caught, she's deflecting all the blame onto Yuuri so that the Pleiades focus their efforts on her so she can find some way out of this current situation.
 
What a mess. If Hijiri is telling the truth, she was used as an expendable pawn by Yuuri to cover for her escape. While the Pleaiades are rightfully angry at her, they aren't bad people, so with a bit of careful talking things should deescalate, given time. If everything else fails we could also offer to take Hijiri back to Mitakihara although that comes with its own problems (convincing Homura, general trust issues). That we have contained Hijiri and have recovered the memory device is a big plus at least. That the clear seed is with Yuuri is bad, though.

If Yuuri is the mastermind, I doubt she'll be as easy to find as Hijiri especially now that she has a clear seed. I wonder what she was looking for exactly? Anyway since she is a potential infohazard and just a general awful person for using Hijiri like this, she really doesn't deserve any courtesy from us once we find her.
 
[x] Onmur

Yeah, I have to agree on the whole "don't leave it entirely up to the Pleiades." We do have a bad habit of barreling over other people all the time, but in this case it may be necessary. Niko already wasn't the most clearheaded when we initially talked to her about our suspicions about Hijiri, and I can't see a meeting now resulting in a calm, clearheaded discussion where the two of them try to find common ground.

Even if Hijiri is lying, we should still try and build an understanding here. I really think we should also ask her about what made her become a magical girl - it could shed some light on her mindset whether she's telling the truth or not.

Also, someone else mentioned it, but we need to at least start considering what we're going to do when we actually catch Anri. Mainly, it's a perfect(ly terrible) position for the witchbomb to get out. Should we be warning Mami and Sayaka, at least, about the infohazard? Or should we suggest that they go back early? Or both? It's not urgent yet, but we should at least still be considering it.

Finally, I do think that we should bring up that we were probably created by a wish if it seems like it will help build rapport. Frankly, there really isn't any other plausible explanation. Amnesia like we have is not a thing that just happens. There are no meguca in Mitakihara that could pull of the kind of bizarre soul or mind magic it would take to make us. And we have specialized knowledge of magical girls that almost no one that isn't a meguca should know. And we're a foreigner in a Japanese city. And we had unusual potential that allowed us to make a wish that can be very beneficial to a huge range of magical girls in a variety of ways. And, and, and. That's all justifications we can admit to if anyone asks. The broadness of wishes is helpful here too - it's possible that a wish made by some girl made in Guadalajara was what created us, if this time and place was the best choice to initiate some global change - which is, in fact, one of our goals anyway. We don't need to admit that we know exactly what wish, made by who, created us.
 
Redshirt Army said:
Yep. Very very similar intent, to the point that the same update would probably be written regardless which vote wins.
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I think there's a very pointed difference between giving Hijiri insight into Niko's feelings for her before they meet and trying to keep the calm when the Pleiades arrive, and not doing those things.

We've been advocating being calm and giving Hijiri a chance. We had to talk down Saki a minute ago, in fact.

We got GM warning that the Pleiades are not calm. If we just let them take the lead, we'd be stepping back and letting things get out of control. Not our control; out of control, period.

We know how troubled Niko is, and Kazumi, for all her cinammon roll sweetness, is furious. We need to be ready to step in if necessary.

JarringToaster said:
Now here's a thing that's suspect. Kanna was created long before Yuuri (Airi) contracted, so there's no way she would have known the connection between Niko and Kanna by herself. The probability of Yuuri just running into Kanna and making the connection between the two is extremely low, and the idea of Kyuubey just telling Yuuri about Kanna's circumstances is also low considering he doesn't seem to tell Magical Girls about other Magical Girls to the extent of their wishes on a whim, even considering the "you didn't ask" part of him. Kanna was told the circumstances of her existence by Kyuubey likely because she was the direct result of Niko's wish.

But the thing here that's suspicious is that it wasn't Kyuubey who told her that information, it was Yuuri.

Next is the big question. Why is she a Magical Girl? In canon, she only became a Magical Girl when she was told about her artificial nature, but the testimony she gave states that it was Yuuri who told her that. So if she's telling the truth, she either interacted with Kyuubey earlier (risking him telling her about her nature right off the bat) and became a Magical Girl, or ran into Yuuri who then told her about her being artificial, and then became a Magical Girl. However, the second situation contradicts her desire to leave and find a peaceful life, as she wouldn't likely become a Magical Girl if she specifically wanted to avoid drama.

From here, I'm going to give the conclusion that makes the most sense. She's lying. Her finding out her origins is likely similar to how she found out in Kazumi Magica. She's not working under Yuuri. She's probably working with Yuuri or using her as both of their revenge schemes coincide with each other. Since she's caught, she's deflecting all the blame onto Yuuri so that the Pleiades focus their efforts on her so she can find some way out of this current situation.
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While that is a possibility, we do need to consider the fact she's saying the truth at the same time, so...

I don't think we should deviate from current course of action just yet... Sayaka's still on Anti Magic duty.

Really wish we had tried to make a Lie Detector before now.
 
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