Firstly, it's difficult to overstate how legitimately dangerous emotional drama is to magical girls. This is the sort of thing, left unchecked, that leads to "I'm such an idiot" moments, and a sudden, graphic witchbombing is something exactly nobody wants.[X] DschingisKhan
Hey by the by, you think you guys could help provide the salt for my new LIFTR Nuclear Power Plant? There's certainly more than enough here...
All this talk about abuse and all I can see is two sisters fighting. My own siblings did way worse than anything Niko's done, but y'all are right about Hijiri being our prisoner.
Hijiri's wish in PMKM was to connect with others without them knowing. The fact that she can use Kazumi's finishing move would seem to indicate that she made a similar wish in this timeline. That connection might include being able to tap into their telepathy. Or she could just be using copied mindreading powers; remember that one of our biggest concerns when coming here was that she was a mindguca.Yooo, hold the phone, what the hell is this?
Either this is an author error or she's been eavesdropping on our private telepathic conversations with the Saints.
Honestly, I'm not really getting the impression that Niko is treating her like an object. The kind of things they're yelling at each other put me more in the mind of an argument between an overbearing parent and an irresponsible child.[X] Telepathy Saki and Kazumi: Niko just hit a defenseless prisoner, is verbally abusing her and treating her like an object. This is bad for both Hijiri and Niko.
This. There's definitely an element of de-personization, but no real de-humanization, and it's evident that Niko does care about Hijiri to some extent.Honestly, I'm not really getting the impression that Niko is treating her like an object. The kind of things they're yelling at each other put me more in the mind of an argument between an overbearing parent and an irresponsible child.
What do you mean by offer her collateral?Reorganization with less anger at the forefront. Plus some bits shamelessly stolen from Onmur.
[X] Keep your anger as contained as you can manage.
[X] "It's not Niko I'm worried about right now. Hijiri's afraid she's being treated as an extension of Niko, as an object, and Niko is playing into that fear."
[X] Intervene
[X] Separate the two of them. Deescalate.
- [X] If Niko objects, give her your reasons for intervening. Both personally, as pertains to what exactly she's doing and practically.
- [X] Try to calm Hijiri down. Regardless of what she's done she has feelings just like anyone else. She deserves to be treated humanely.
- [X] Offer the two of them a choice, you can have someone mediate this discussion civilly, or put it off and interrogate Hijiri a to give her a chance to prove her bonafides.
[X] Convince Hijiri to give up the memory field. Even as a bargaining chip, it's worse than useless to her at the moment. Offer her collateral if you must.
[X] Cleanse.
Bah, out of time.
If anyone has thoughts, especially about the final subportion for offering a choice of how Niko and Hijiri would like to go forwards, I'd very much like to hear them.
There's a chance Anti Magic might affect Hijiri as badly as it affects Sabrina.How exactly do we get rid of the memory device? It would be best if Hiriji gets rid of it on her own, but it kinda prevents us from getting too close and interferes with direct gem cleansing which is something both Niko and Hijiri will probably need. Would Sayaka anti-magicing them work and make it fizz out?
"Who?" you ask, stomach going abruptly into freefall. You feel like you know the answer already.
"Yuuri," Hijiri says. "That's- that's what she said her name was."
"Who-" Saki's eyebrows all but meet in the center of her forehead as she realises. "Yuuri."
"That's her!" Hijiri says, suddenly eager to please. "She- we broke into her lab, and she let me have the memory device when I figured out what it was."
Might be a typo, might be Hijiri listening into the conversation, might be a slip..."Yeah," you say to Niko. "I'm sorry, Niko. But... what do you think. Plausible? Do you think we should still be searching for Anrii, just in case?"
At the same time, you nod at Hijiri. "Look. We're not after you, specifically, we're after whomever attacked our friends."
"I... I might lie to cover my tracks," Niko admits. "Under similar circumstances. But... the best lies have a kernel of truth."
"Damn," Kazumi hisses. "Miss Oriko, Miss Kirika, are you still there?"
"Yes," Oriko responds. "We'll continue searching, but we cannot cover ground as quickly."
"Us too," Umika says. "We'll keep searching, right, Satomi?"
"Ask her if she knows where Anri went," Kazumi says sharply. "Might be worth a try."
"Where did she go?" Saki snaps, focusing on Hijiri.
"Anri? She- she went south-east," Hijiri says. "I think- I'm not sure she stayed in the city. She said something about laying low."
...I still think we need cool heads to win out here. Just admonishing Niko doesn't accomplish that.
While it's probably not what Phoenixian was think of, if she gave up the memory device then we wouldn't have to keep her encased from the neck down just to keep her from fleeing or attacking. We could offer to make her more comfortable with minimal restraints in exchange for the device.
That was the first thing I checked. The name "Anri" has never been knowingly spoken in her presence by us. Assuming this isn't just a mistake, the only times she could have heard it are when we were talking about known threats in a privacy bubble or immediately prior in telepathic conversion.There is such a thing as reverse interrogation, in which the prisoner learns more from the questions being asked than the captor learns from their answers. If the only names she's given us are ones that we've let slip first, then she might be playing us.
She's not restrained right now.While it's probably not what Phoenixian was think of, if she gave up the memory device then we wouldn't have to keep her encased from the neck down just to keep her from fleeing or attacking. We could offer to make her more comfortable with minimal restraints in exchange for the device.
[X] Keep your anger as contained as you can manage.
[X] "It's not Niko I'm worried about right now. Hijiri's afraid she's being treated as an extension of Niko, as an object, and Niko is playing into that fear."
[X] Intervene
[X] Separate the two of them. Deescalate.
- [X] If Niko objects, give her your reasons for intervening. Both personally, as pertains to what exactly she's doing and practically.
- [X] Try to calm Hijiri down. Regardless of what she's done she has feelings just like anyone else. She deserves to be treated humanely.
- [X] Offer the two of them a choice, you can have someone mediate this discussion civilly, or put it off and interrogate Hijiri a to give her a chance to prove her bonafides.
[X] Convince Hijiri to give up the memory field. Even as a bargaining chip, it's worse than useless to her at the moment. Offer her collateral if you must.
[X] Cleanse.
Gonna try to merge the bandwagons
[X] Keep your anger as contained as you can manage.
[X] "It's not Niko I'm worried about right now. Hijiri's afraid she's being treated as an extension of Niko, as an object, and Niko is playing into that fear."
[X] Intervene. Get Sayaka's help if necessary.
[X] Mami's new role is to try to deescalate Kazusa when she lands. She knows Kazusa better than any of us.
[X] Separate the two of them. Deescalate.
- [X] If Niko objects, give her your reasons for intervening. Both personally, as pertains to what exactly she's doing and practically.
- [X] Try to calm Hijiri down. She's our detainee, and she has rights. She deserves to be treated humanely. She's not a thing; she's Niko's sister, for better or for worse.
- [X] Offer the two of them a choice, you can have someone mediate this discussion civilly, or skip straight to the questioning.
[X] The Memory field has to go. We can't cleanse either of them while they're in there, and the last thing we need is for the two of them to get hyped up on grief and start flaying each other alive. Hijiri can drop it or we can get Sayaka to break it. It's useless to her now anyway.
[X] Cleanse.
[X] If Kazumi or Saki tries to interfere, point out that Niko was abusing Hijiri when Hijiri had no chance to fight back. We aren't her friend, but we'll be her defense lawyer if need be.
This is incredibly unhelpful language to be using when you're trying to deescalate a situation.[X] The Memory field has to go. We can't cleanse either of them while they're in there, and the last thing we need is for the two of them to get hyped up on grief and start flaying each other alive. Hijiri can drop it or we can get Sayaka to break it. It's useless to her now anyway.