Would you Distort or manifest EGO?


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On Character Sheets
That reminds me. Lepi.
It's been demonstrated several times that our char sheet is/may be incomplete (eg: Pulse/Pink soldiers blowing up not being there); is that also true for DoSaM's?

In the previous update we also witnessed an attempt to get around the limitation of Lobotomy not affecting Abnormalities which seems to have done something - so can we trust that the given text can be treated as absolute/at face value, or are there circumstances where they may not be true or bent around?
Everything on the CharSheets is X's current understanding of the subject's abilities. While almost always accurate, it's not all-encompassing.
 
It's Homura's wonky time reversal magic.
I mean, X managed to go to PMMM somehow and doesn't remember the Library, so maybe not?

Also Lepi, mind throwing the above statement into some form of threadmarks, it's pretty important for theorising?

will likely result in notable psychological trauma during the process
If X were different, this wouldn't be a problem due to Lobotomy; or is that despite Lobotomy?
 
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Also Lepi, mind throwing the above statement into some form of threadmarks, it's pretty important for theorising?
We had some idea about it for a while now. Like back with Greta and the Exploding food. Or the realization that we should probably run and get KoD's teleport sooner or later.

Btw, @Lepidoptera I've been thinking about it, and...what's the difference between an integrating Abnormality and a fully integrated one?
 
So I'm currently weighing how much I want to risk drawing the Head's ire and dealing with the time pressure vs how much I want to deal with whatever shenanigans Distorted Kyoko gets up to, and also having to explain to the others what exactly happened to Kyoko and probably Homura.

And this is with the knowledge that yes, Kyoko will probably distort later if we go with the wings anyway, but later is not now
 
I mean, if we make* Kyouko Distort, we obviously will do (more) research first; won't that make things easier to handle with Homura?

Abnormality based healing... I think it's worth a shot.

In fact, while we can't? get NT to regenerate the shells for us, if we "just" need flesh, that might work?
 
I REALLY don't want X to have to interact with the Wings.

They are baadd. Honestly, it's leagues better if we ask QB or Carmen for help instead of trying to make a deal with the Wings.

At least X got experience dealing with the former, and the power to deal with the latter.

When it comes to the Wings and the Head itself, X is woefully out of her depth in the sheer scale of how dangerous and powerful they are.
 
And everything aside; I don't want to get dogpiled by Arbiters/Claws because Beholders did their thing and the Head got annoyed

E: Like, X does not have Ayin's experience with the Smoke War and the memes that are other Wings too
 
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[] (Soul Gems) Regeneration

Well, the description says all I need to know:
although this method will take a significantly longer amount of time than the others and will likely result in notable psychological trauma during the process.

That's a no, we won't torture them again, and that's too close for comfort.

[] (Soul Gems) Cloning

Maybe, but I am thinking:
[] (Soul Gems) Library

This one right now, maybe search if we can clone after? The advantage of soul gems is that we can easily transfer them from one body to another.

[] (Soul Gems) Wish

- Should you Wish it, you can do pretty much anything. Of course, there's no telling how Kyubey's Contract would affect you.

Hahahhahahahahahahah

No

I said it before, I'll say it again, wishing is a trap made by kyubey, we should never do it, it is never and never will be worth it.

So, for this, basically

[] (Soul Gems) Give them to Angela so that they can have a body right now while you search for a mean of cloning.

Ok, on to Kyouko:


Too much scrutiny, I fear we'll never manage in time and it will be an non controlled phenomenon anyway.

[] (Kyoko) Phenomenon

Allows to explore Distortions, a thing that I see fanfics seems to avoid, and is the surest way we have right now, Distortions can be *fixed* at worst too (I am not sure I want to *fix* them by undistorting them, if they can live a good lifz as distortions I have no problem with letting them stay as such.)


See my answer to this option for soul gems.

The downside is, we can't let them go back home.

The interesting thing of their situation with soul gems is that we absolutely can let them back home, make them a body of light now and clone one for them to leave with later.

As for the others, bodies made of light is probably a decent stopgap that can be used to ask them what the hell they want their ultimate fate to be, while cloning lets them move about in the worlds at large. Regeneration... that should probably only be used on those that are willing to do so.

Good idea.

Ok, here's my plan then:

[x] Plan: Loopholes ahoy!
-[x] (soul gems) Give them to Angela so that they have a body right now and you can ask if they want to stay like this, keep it till you find a way to do cloning, or they are willing to suffer through the regeneration.
-[x] (Kyouko) Phenomenon

There, easy, fast and ask the girls themselves what they want.
 
[x] Plan: Loopholes ahoy!
-[x] (soul gems) Give them to Angela so that they have a body right now and you can ask if they want to stay like this, keep it till you find a way to do cloning, or they are willing to suffer through the regeneration.
-[x] (Kyouko) Phenomenon
 
I said it before, I'll say it again, wishing is a trap made by kyubey, we should never do it, it is never and never will be worth it.
I think the problem here lies more in the opportunity cost, rather than wishing being just fundamentally bad. Seeing just how bad arc 1 was, we might want to bail ourselves out of some serious trouble later, so keeping a wish in reserve is prudent.
 
I think the problem here lies more in the opportunity cost, rather than wishing being just fundamentally bad. Seeing just how bad arc 1 was, we might want to bail ourselves out of some serious trouble later, so keeping a wish in reserve is prudent.

I don't think like that, for me, the only thing that wishing would do would be exchanging whatever problem we wished away for whatever problem our wish create, and the way the system is made, absolutely nothing is worth it, there is no cost that will make me decide to have X wish, because the game is rigged.

Basically, Kyubey is the one that made the wish system, and Kyubey is not our friend, he's mephistopheles, trying to play his game is just asking to be screwed over, better to do anything but that.
 
Allows to explore Distortions, a thing that I see fanfics seems to avoid, and is the surest way we have right now, Distortions can be *fixed* at worst too (I am not sure I want to *fix* them by undistorting them, if they can live a good lifz as distortions I have no problem with letting them stay as such.)
So I wanted to chip in here: Distortions are a frightfully unknown phenomena, in a variety of fields.

The act of Distorting, in and of itself, isn't even a completely clear thing. EGO users are theoretically immune to Distortion, but sufficient emotional turmoil or outside interference will overcome that resistance and make them vulnerable. We see this with Phillip, and with Angela. Even though the Library itself is her EGO, the emotional and moral realizations the Patron Librarians force Angela to confront bring her into a state of Distortion. Which brings up my next point: Distortion is more of a process than a quantifiable end result.

Angela and Roland are weird by default, but an important point that they bring to the table is that they started Distorting, but were viably suppressed by the other Librarians before they could transform fully. This comes up in Wonderlab too, Taii successfully forcing A Party Everlasting back into Catt. Each Distortion is a unique event simply by nature of the mechanics, but if the process takes overly long, it can be interrupted.

Wonderlab also reveals that this process can fail if the victim is unable to come to terms with the struggle that initially prompted their transformation. Angela and Roland were successfully pulled back from the brink time and time again by internalizing and making peace with the instigating issues, but Catt was incapable of making peace with her trauma, and re-Distorted shortly after a conversation with Taii.

On the subject of allowing Homura and Kyoko to live as Distortions… "It could work, but-" would be my verdict on the topic. Distortions have the potential to be passively hostile or lethal simply by default. The Pianist might have only gotten a City's worth of noise complaints if there hadn't been the ever so slight side-effect of the music ripping the blood out of anyone in range to construct physical music notes. Wind-Up Soldier already has a pretty big catch to her, that life key. If her key winds all the way down, she'll instantly die, but if someone winds it up, they'll lose a portion of their lifespan proportional to the extant they wound her up. Since we actually like Homura, this is bad.

Even if X might lack permadeath via her Abnormality nature, that is a hella chancy weakpoint to tolerate. She'll always be winding down, at all times, and moreso when she's using her powers. We almost certainly want to get Homura back to normal.

To be clear, I am actually for the Exposure solution to Kyoko's troubles, but it's a commitment and a half to be sure.
 
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[X] Plan: Self-Sufficient
-[X] (Soul Gems) Cloning
--[X] Research Grief preventative measures while you do so.
-[X] (Kyoko) Phenomenon
--[X] Do it with Homura on standby

Wait is homura available last time she distorted
 
Didn't have the energy to comment for a bit, but I just want to put down some thoughts now as Arc1 is almost over.

1. I'd really say Lepi that your dialogue writing has noticeably improved when comparing the last few bits to the start of this story.
Wasn't bad back then but IMO somewhat rough and now it is very much notably improved and very much more fun and enjoyable to read.
Congrats on the fruits of your efforts.

2. I may not have said it back then, but I found "unstable Abno X" very imaginitve and suitably grand for what they are supposed to be.
May not put this well, but the image you conjured inspired this sense of grandness and awe that I find rarely while reading.

3. And I must commend your willingness to have things change.
Often I find that interesting Fanfiction concepts are kept from their full fun potential by the authors playing it "too safe", you know?
In contrast you let things happen so that:
a. Mami has Yuma as a sister and they both have X as a parent.
b. Homura ceased being a magical girl.
c. Madoka can actually contribute and get to be actually involved in the plot and not be forced to play a side character.
d. Even the Kyousuke thing has been delayed/ butterflied away just by you setting porccubus on the plot.
e. And of course Humanity Exposure III and Incubators Exposure I.
... and more

Things change and stay interesting and I must really commend you for the courage to write such a chaotic, fluctuating and ever changing status quo.

4. While I didn't mind the big stretch without votes much I could maybe offer up the idea that in such cases we may just get to vote on not so significant background details should this come up again.
Maybe a tiny POV segment from one of the kids, the color of the Floor of Geography's walls, etc.
Things that keep people involved but couldn't influence what you are actually going to write much.

But I also have no experience writing or Quest running, so I may just be exhaling hot air here.

5. But also a few tiny criticisms (I kinda don't like that word, implies I want things changed when I just want to help your future writing by bringing up some points)
a)
A quick flare of Cogito Phantasma shows it as the only one with any sign of emotion,

I think none of us even thought that NT was Kyoko was at least in part due to here.
Apparently covered in Soul Gems and our Emotion sight offered up no clue at all that there was anyhting odd there.

While I may be wrong there I think that detail may have convinced the greater part of us that things may have been weird, but not wrong in any big way.
I understand the secret would have been out too easy otherwise, but I also think there could have been mention of a "haze" or something there to keep the voterbase sufficiently wary for the mystery of Kyoko to have been somewhat "written off" as it AFAICR kinda was back then.

... And only now that I quote this do I see that you mixed Cogito Ephemera with Rosso Phantasma there.

b) I kinda feel like X was a bit much on the back foot there in this segment.
I think everything made sense as it progressed, I just have this sense of disconnect with how certain X was towards Angela and how in the end it still took the Kyoko interrupt to avoid disaster.

Unless the sense of hubris on X's part was the point in which case ignore this.
... Angela should absolutely give X shit for this though. As friendly sisterly ribbing.
---

But yeah for the vote I'd agree with Nyarky.

And as an added bonus: Angela and the Sephirah having to deal with 30+ children.
Just imagine: Binah dealing with the Soujous, Angela talking with Kazumi.
Hokma playing babysitter.
Tiphereth having to interact with a gaggle of teenage girls.
Maybe a fanclub would build itself around Gebura.
etc. and so on

And I'd also prefer not to take the Kyoko Wing option.
Imagine her guilt even by association when she finds out exactly what kind of people facilitated her healing.
That would likely just be the Distortion option with extra steps and City Trauma on top of it.

Also I wonder if Distortion could be mapped as EGO corrosion by one's own ego.
I feel like that is a pretty useful and valid way of explaining it. For example to the kids.
Even if EGO, EGO Equipment and EGO Corrosion would need to be explained in that case as well.

And yeah, while I am against wishing no matter the situation, even disregarding that using the 1 miracle we get on any of this would be a waste.
---

And as a last thing: Big congratulations to Lepi for managing to write so much and so consistent. Stellar effort for a first quest and further experience can only improve your ability as a writer and GM.
Big congrats.
 
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We almost certainly want to get Homura back to normal.

Not necessarily to normal, I want the key problem gone too, but who said she had to undistort to get rid of it? We did see distortions change with the second ensemble fight and something tells me that if we managed to guide Homura and give her the power to do it correctly, she could stay a distortion and remove the key.

While distortions are more anchored in their belief than the average human, they aren't full on unchanging stories like the abnormalities, they can change, we see it with the entire ensemble recruitment and their encore, we see it with Catt turning back even for a moment and making sure to remember her name after.

And for Philip distorting: you have to remember, his EGO was not complete at the time, he was still unstable, someone with a stable EGO cannot distort, he only was able to because he didn't have that.
 
Not saying it's necessarily a good idea, but couldn't we blackmail the fuck out W Corp to get them to fix Kyoko? We have thorough info on their dirty secrets, and their Singularity can recover passengers from "spread across the carriage to maximize surface area" and gets rid of traumstic memories to boot!

In fact, screw it, this is a great interesting idea with interesting narrative consequences.

-[X] (Soul Gems) Cloning
-[X] (Kyoko) Wings
--[X] W Corp Blackmail
 
Your pinions claw at thousands of people all at once, carefully cataloguing the city's population. You are once again all-seeing, all-knowing. All secrets laid bare before a being who can comprehend anything.

Also depending on how much X remembers from that.
There may be a plethora of theoretical knowledge and practical experience regarding cooking in there.

So X may now be able to make more than just the most basic of meals.

***Silver Linings***
 
5. But also a few tiny criticisms (I kinda don't like that word, implies I want things changed when I just want to help your future writing by bringing up some points)

In that case, you can use the term constructive criticism, it is more positive overall, and it describe what you did quite well, offers alternatives and explanations of why you think this didn't work.

Tiphereth having to interact with a gaggle of teenage girls.

*I am older than you! Don't think I am as immature as you are! I am an adult!*

Not saying it's necessarily a good idea, but couldn't we blackmail the fuck out W Corp to get them to fix Kyoko? We have thorough info on their dirty secrets, and their Singularity can recover passengers from "spread across the carriage to maximize surface area" and gets rid of traumstic memories to boot!

Interacting with the Wings is just asking for them to try and kill us, the library is now in the outskirts, interacting directly is difficult and W corps reaction to us threatening them is simply going to be sending kill squads on us.
 
Interacting with the Wings is just asking for them to try and kill us, the library is now in the outskirts, interacting directly is difficult and W corps reaction to us threatening them is simply going to be sending kill squads on us.

Or worse, W-Corp rats X out to the Head. Removes the source of the blackmail and maybe get an award out of it, too.

There's also the possibility that the Head would regard X's presence as an extension of the Library, and that perhaps its mercy was misplaced. I can imagine it'd expend the effort of extermination if X sticks her neck out too much while in the City.
 
I highly disagree with the idea that you can just transfer bodies and avoid being hit with the "They can't leave the library" trick.

Something about it just seems like it's too easy in my eyes. And another thing is again. This is relying on the assumption that the girls can just switch bodies and leave the Library afterward.

X herself only left the Library because Homura is a literal walking breathing TT2 protocol.

Cloning is a much safer method with us just asking QB to do something he likely would help us out with.

Infact I would rather we give the girls either Cloning or Angela rather than Regeneration or Angela.

The act of regenerating would take up time we could use to experiment with our newly obtained Abnormalities and test out our old ones too.

And thats looking past the fact that I disagree with the risk of the girls feeling pain during the regeneration process.

Anyway, I don't agree with using Regeneration period and Nyarky's vote doesnt account for the scenario that the loophole doesnt work.

[X] Plan: Save the Time.
-[X] (Soul Gems) Test it out with Angela whether it's possible for the magical girls to transfer bodies after she help regenerate theirs.
--[X] If yes, revive all the girls and give them the option of staying with Angela or thr cloning option.
-[X] (Kyouko) Phenomenon
--[X] Have Homura on standby.
 
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avoid being hit with the "They can't leave the library" trick
I think the make/break factor is the mind here, considering that clones are perfectly viable if you discount the Head (lol);

Considering Angela could summon up the Red Mist to attempt to Book her, but couldn't just convert whatever information that implies to allow the Librarians some form of freedom from the Library

...On cloning, if (fairly likely unless Abno based healing works) we do get some side research out of things, I wonder if we could help QB incorporate that into future contractees?
 
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Still. I don't want to put all our eggs in one bucket.

The last time that happened X got giga trauma.

And don't think I agree with the Distortion staying Distortion stick either.

As long as Carmen exists the way she is, I am not tolerating Distortions. Period.

Save the transhumanism talk for when Distortions arent fucked up. We can ask Dadyin for it as a christmas gift or something.
 
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