- Location
- Your imagination
[X] PlanckConstant
May as well since things are too confusing to come up with my own suggestion.
May as well since things are too confusing to come up with my own suggestion.
Clarisse Quest [now in Part II, Revolutionary Girl Clarisse] (a PMMM/TTS quest)
Clarisse, the abomination
- Location
- Oooooooh emotional roller coaster
[Nanami] Develop a terrestrial-focused monitoring strategy to track interlopers
"Our problem," relays Nanami, "is that we have to track with just a few magical girls. If we want to track signals like that, we need antenna coverage everywhere. Fortunately, there are quite a few antennas already deployed, primarily on the cellular network. The frequency range is a little limited, but it's a good start and should work with what we just saw. And… I think we can kill two birds with one stone."
She details a plan to piggyback on the cellular network to track signals like the one you experienced. It does involve a little unauthorized intrusion, but she should be able to route all the command traffic over untraceable links. The bonus is that you will have real-time location data on the aggregate population movements of Mitakihara, for grief forecasts.
The others seem to agree that this is the right direction, for the sake of the grief supplies.
[Sakura feather] Put Sakura inside Clarisse again
- Depending what Sakura says about the cards, would it be worth putting the Simona feathers in cards?
Sakura informs you this won't work at all. They're way too small, she objects. I don't think they could hold a soul for more than a couple of hours.
This seems to be less a property of the size of the object, and more the structure that holds them in place. It seems intended for much smaller amounts of magic, a single charge of something. Perhaps you could devise something more capacious, if you had to.
Sakura's other opinion is that souls aren't really meant to be things. They aren't meant to be cards, or hairpins, they're meant to be people, first and foremost, and if that is going to be taken from them, well, she feels they should at least be free to be a wish. There's something in that concept of being a wish which is inaccessible to you, an intoxicating exhilaration like flying out to all the stars. Sakura's emotions about the topic are leaking into your own experience.
And, finally, the souls would be lonely — and now, through Sakura, you recall the sadness of waiting, all alone, for a long, long time, for something very important. You waited for Clarisse, so she could save everyone. You were a hairpin. And now you're a Clarisse, and Clarisse is you, which is a tremendous relief, if a little bit confusing of a thing to feel about yourself.
[Kyouko] Keep an eye on Oriko tomorrow
- Thank her for carrying one of your bodies back to Ryouko; that was sweet of her
Kyouko blushes at this.
"Yeah, well, it mighta been a little sweeter if it was actually you," she suggests.
"Oh. Maybe you can carry me like a princess some other time," you suggest.
She chuckles. "It's a date."
[Witch] Send someone to throw used grief cubes into the witch and leave it for a while
[Simona] Collect Simona feathers centrally away from grief seeds and cubes
[Oriko] Ask her for good witch hunting plans
You combine errands, gathering up the feathers from those present before heading to Oriko's to collect the remaining feathers from Nanami. Yuma and Kirika are getting ready for bed. Oriko's house arrest appears to have continued uneventfully. About to die of boredom, relays Nanami, thankful for your exploits as a distraction.
Nanami waits in the next room — lest Oriko attempt some gambit to snatch back her gem — while you explain your goals for the vision: you would like to produce grief items, make contact with other girls, and introduce yourself, while minimizing up-front grief expenditures.
[Ryouko] Lead a witch hunt in a closer neighboring town
- Spread cubes
- Introduce girls you meet to your group and its goals
It's Monday evening, and the sun is setting. Ryouko is watching her position on a map. She's some distance away, in another town, and she's carrying a small cargo of fully charged grief cubes. The mission profile shows her intercepting a witch, then proceeding to return via train.
She stops short. Someone else is here, a magical girl. She's on the rooftop, looking down at Ryouko.
"Is this her?" asks the girl, and a moment later, an incubator pops up next to her.
The girl is themed with a light blue and grey outfit, with grey hair and a quarterstaff topped with butterflies on either end.
"This one is Shizuki Ryouko," says Kyuubey.
Ryouko looks at the incubator skeptically, then turns to address the girl.
"Yes, thank you for the introduction, Kyuubey," she begins.
"Shizumi Konoha," says the girl.
Ryouko nods. "I am pleased to make your acquaintance."
"You are trespassing here," says Shizumi-san.
"I am quite sorry," says Ryouko, apologetically. "I didn't fight any of your witches, though. I don't mean any harm."
Shizumi-san seems unimpressed.
"If you don't mind," entreats Ryouko, "I'd like to talk with you about an important matter that affects all magical girls."
"I wouldn't advise it," says Kyuubey. "Ryouko is not what she seems. While in appearance she is an ordinary girl, in truth, she is a genetically engineered cyborg. She has more synthetic and alien genes than she has human ones."
Ryouko objects. "I'm not ... that's ... a very misleading way to put it!"
"Ryouko is a princess," adds Kyuubey, "or she was, before she was deposed. Her servant, Clarisse, the abomination, draws upon ancient, sealed, forbidden powers, and the dark magic of the greatest of witches, Walpurgisnacht. Make no mistake! If those two are left unchecked, they will destroy all magical girls. Their signal has no doubt already reached the alien insurgency."
Ryouko's mouth hangs open in surprise.
"I see," says Konoha, and turns to make her exit.
"That's very not true," begins Ryouko — but it is too late.
She scowls at Kyuubey, who remains in place. "I just wanted to talk to her," she says.
"I expect that she will return shortly," says the Incubator. "She has likely gone to get her friends." (Atk Up 20%, Critical Chance Up 25%)
You attempt to process Kyuubey's statements.
It's hard to know exactly what information has leaked to Kyuubey, and by which channels. For all you know, he's been aware of a Princess Ryouko since before you arrived in this timeline. It is clever of him to lump together alien genes and purely synthetic ones and then compare them by count instead of by impact. But this is mostly spin. As for the destruction of magical girls, well... maybe you will end magic as everyone knows it. You do have quite serious concerns. You're not quite sure what he means about drawing on the various powers, though you don't quite trust the phrasing.
No, the real interesting part was what he said about aliens. You're in the past, and the world is different. The ceph are in the past too. Their society could be different. Kyuubey identified an insurgency, and … you're not entirely sure, but he seemed to imply you'd be allies. And to be sure, this could be more bluster, and yet…
You recall Wakaba. If aliens have magical girls, then maybe they're like Clarisse, she suggested.
Like Clarisse ... "the abomination."
Huh.
"I don't think Kyuubey likes you," says Oriko, interrupting.
"Why, I wonder whatever gave anyone that idea?" you say.
"Hunting nearby is a terrible way to meet people," says Oriko. "Everyone will assume the worst. Kyuubey just needs to give them a nudge."
"What do you propose, then?" you ask.
"Find a witch. Infect it with demons. Guard it carefully from interference and let it eat whoever it wants. When it's almost gone, the labyrinth ruptures, and the demons will spread. Witches will vacuum up demons, and if you kill the witch too soon, the miasma won't survive the collapse. It's the incubators' containment plan for them."
"Is that the approach the others are taking overseas?" you ask.
She nods.
You frown.
"What happens to the civilians in all this?" you ask.
Oriko shrugs. "The witches are desperate, and much more lively than usual. They'll expend extra energy to kill people. There will be accidents, disasters, random acts of violence and terror." She sighs. "You hunted the witches too soon, didn't you?" she asks. "Easy mistake. Will you fix it, now, knowing what it will cost?"
"How many casualties do you estimate?" you ask her.
"To establish a self-sustaining demon colony in Mitakihara? Perhaps a thousand," she suggests. "I'm not sure. I suppose you were hoping to avoid the death of innocents?"
"That would be slightly preferred, yes," you say.
"Tch," she says. "Well, you saw the witch list in your vision. Maybe that'll be enough grief to do everything you want."
Her tone is as contemptuous and dismissive as it's ever been, and it is getting on your nerves, particularly since you've talked about this with her.
"Is there a problem you'd like to share, Oriko?" you demand, sharply.
"Yes!" she exclaims. "You are coming to me for plans to hunt witches. In the name of Hope, I don't know why I even bothered."
"Why you bothered to do what?" you ask.
"Why I tried so hard to keep my soul out of your clutches," she exclaims, gesticulating. "Why I sold the damn thing in the first place." She sighs loudly. "You know, at least in the future where I surrendered my free will to become Ryouko's love-addled mind slave, we were getting somewhere with the war against witches."
You scowl. "This is just an interim measure," you say.
She throws an empty teacup at you. It's a nice teacup.
You manage to catch it, and keep it from breaking.
"Do you still have that collar somewhere?" asks Oriko. "You should find it, and bring Kyouko, and use that alternate universe power of hers to turn me into a large, obedient dog. At least there was a certain elegance to it, an animal dignity. Better than to give up entirely, remaining slaves to the Incubators, hunting witches our short, meaningless lives, until we despair!"
[Clarisse] Focus on developing your own powers through dance
"What if I could reverse grief entirely, and save the witches instead?" you ask, evenly.
"Ha! That would be fantastic, Clarisse," says Oriko. "Absolutely glorious. Be sure to let me know when you figure it out." She doesn't seem to entertain that this is a real hypothesis.
Nanami is concerned.
Her gem is being weird, she relays from the next room. I'm starting to worry about having this thing on my finger.
> now remember, Yuma and Kirika are nearby too
[] Talk some hope into Oriko
-[] (write in a few words about your general approach or arguments)
[] Assuage her with other vision requests
[] Let Oriko witch out and then hope-boop the witch
-[] (write in plans for what to do with the feathers)
[] Attempt service on Oriko's soul gem before she does witch things
-[] (write in plans for what to do with the feathers)
[] Demand an oath of fealty from Oriko
[] Turn Oriko into a dog, as she suggested
[] Remove Oriko's soul gem some 100m away from her body to render her unconscious
- [] (write in follow-up)
Deferred:
- More efforts to develop your powers through dance.
- If Nanami gets a chance, she should speak with Hanekawa and Mr. Vampire hunter
- Swap Hitomi to the past for a day or so to get to make friends with Nadeshiko (+ research)
- Call Ophelia, Simona, at an appropriate time
- School!
- Find a way to get Yuuka out of her dads house
Not deferred because I don't know what it means:
[Machina] Talk about how we want to approach getting mami?
"Our problem," relays Nanami, "is that we have to track with just a few magical girls. If we want to track signals like that, we need antenna coverage everywhere. Fortunately, there are quite a few antennas already deployed, primarily on the cellular network. The frequency range is a little limited, but it's a good start and should work with what we just saw. And… I think we can kill two birds with one stone."
She details a plan to piggyback on the cellular network to track signals like the one you experienced. It does involve a little unauthorized intrusion, but she should be able to route all the command traffic over untraceable links. The bonus is that you will have real-time location data on the aggregate population movements of Mitakihara, for grief forecasts.
The others seem to agree that this is the right direction, for the sake of the grief supplies.
[Sakura feather] Put Sakura inside Clarisse again
- Depending what Sakura says about the cards, would it be worth putting the Simona feathers in cards?
Sakura informs you this won't work at all. They're way too small, she objects. I don't think they could hold a soul for more than a couple of hours.
This seems to be less a property of the size of the object, and more the structure that holds them in place. It seems intended for much smaller amounts of magic, a single charge of something. Perhaps you could devise something more capacious, if you had to.
Sakura's other opinion is that souls aren't really meant to be things. They aren't meant to be cards, or hairpins, they're meant to be people, first and foremost, and if that is going to be taken from them, well, she feels they should at least be free to be a wish. There's something in that concept of being a wish which is inaccessible to you, an intoxicating exhilaration like flying out to all the stars. Sakura's emotions about the topic are leaking into your own experience.
And, finally, the souls would be lonely — and now, through Sakura, you recall the sadness of waiting, all alone, for a long, long time, for something very important. You waited for Clarisse, so she could save everyone. You were a hairpin. And now you're a Clarisse, and Clarisse is you, which is a tremendous relief, if a little bit confusing of a thing to feel about yourself.
[Kyouko] Keep an eye on Oriko tomorrow
- Thank her for carrying one of your bodies back to Ryouko; that was sweet of her
Kyouko blushes at this.
"Yeah, well, it mighta been a little sweeter if it was actually you," she suggests.
"Oh. Maybe you can carry me like a princess some other time," you suggest.
She chuckles. "It's a date."
[Witch] Send someone to throw used grief cubes into the witch and leave it for a while
[Simona] Collect Simona feathers centrally away from grief seeds and cubes
[Oriko] Ask her for good witch hunting plans
You combine errands, gathering up the feathers from those present before heading to Oriko's to collect the remaining feathers from Nanami. Yuma and Kirika are getting ready for bed. Oriko's house arrest appears to have continued uneventfully. About to die of boredom, relays Nanami, thankful for your exploits as a distraction.
Nanami waits in the next room — lest Oriko attempt some gambit to snatch back her gem — while you explain your goals for the vision: you would like to produce grief items, make contact with other girls, and introduce yourself, while minimizing up-front grief expenditures.
[Ryouko] Lead a witch hunt in a closer neighboring town
- Spread cubes
- Introduce girls you meet to your group and its goals
It's Monday evening, and the sun is setting. Ryouko is watching her position on a map. She's some distance away, in another town, and she's carrying a small cargo of fully charged grief cubes. The mission profile shows her intercepting a witch, then proceeding to return via train.
She stops short. Someone else is here, a magical girl. She's on the rooftop, looking down at Ryouko.
"Is this her?" asks the girl, and a moment later, an incubator pops up next to her.
The girl is themed with a light blue and grey outfit, with grey hair and a quarterstaff topped with butterflies on either end.
"This one is Shizuki Ryouko," says Kyuubey.
Ryouko looks at the incubator skeptically, then turns to address the girl.
"Yes, thank you for the introduction, Kyuubey," she begins.
"Shizumi Konoha," says the girl.
Ryouko nods. "I am pleased to make your acquaintance."
"You are trespassing here," says Shizumi-san.
"I am quite sorry," says Ryouko, apologetically. "I didn't fight any of your witches, though. I don't mean any harm."
Shizumi-san seems unimpressed.
"If you don't mind," entreats Ryouko, "I'd like to talk with you about an important matter that affects all magical girls."
"I wouldn't advise it," says Kyuubey. "Ryouko is not what she seems. While in appearance she is an ordinary girl, in truth, she is a genetically engineered cyborg. She has more synthetic and alien genes than she has human ones."
Ryouko objects. "I'm not ... that's ... a very misleading way to put it!"
"Ryouko is a princess," adds Kyuubey, "or she was, before she was deposed. Her servant, Clarisse, the abomination, draws upon ancient, sealed, forbidden powers, and the dark magic of the greatest of witches, Walpurgisnacht. Make no mistake! If those two are left unchecked, they will destroy all magical girls. Their signal has no doubt already reached the alien insurgency."
Ryouko's mouth hangs open in surprise.
"I see," says Konoha, and turns to make her exit.
"That's very not true," begins Ryouko — but it is too late.
She scowls at Kyuubey, who remains in place. "I just wanted to talk to her," she says.
"I expect that she will return shortly," says the Incubator. "She has likely gone to get her friends." (Atk Up 20%, Critical Chance Up 25%)
You attempt to process Kyuubey's statements.
It's hard to know exactly what information has leaked to Kyuubey, and by which channels. For all you know, he's been aware of a Princess Ryouko since before you arrived in this timeline. It is clever of him to lump together alien genes and purely synthetic ones and then compare them by count instead of by impact. But this is mostly spin. As for the destruction of magical girls, well... maybe you will end magic as everyone knows it. You do have quite serious concerns. You're not quite sure what he means about drawing on the various powers, though you don't quite trust the phrasing.
No, the real interesting part was what he said about aliens. You're in the past, and the world is different. The ceph are in the past too. Their society could be different. Kyuubey identified an insurgency, and … you're not entirely sure, but he seemed to imply you'd be allies. And to be sure, this could be more bluster, and yet…
You recall Wakaba. If aliens have magical girls, then maybe they're like Clarisse, she suggested.
Like Clarisse ... "the abomination."
Huh.
"I don't think Kyuubey likes you," says Oriko, interrupting.
"Why, I wonder whatever gave anyone that idea?" you say.
"Hunting nearby is a terrible way to meet people," says Oriko. "Everyone will assume the worst. Kyuubey just needs to give them a nudge."
"What do you propose, then?" you ask.
"Find a witch. Infect it with demons. Guard it carefully from interference and let it eat whoever it wants. When it's almost gone, the labyrinth ruptures, and the demons will spread. Witches will vacuum up demons, and if you kill the witch too soon, the miasma won't survive the collapse. It's the incubators' containment plan for them."
"Is that the approach the others are taking overseas?" you ask.
She nods.
You frown.
"What happens to the civilians in all this?" you ask.
Oriko shrugs. "The witches are desperate, and much more lively than usual. They'll expend extra energy to kill people. There will be accidents, disasters, random acts of violence and terror." She sighs. "You hunted the witches too soon, didn't you?" she asks. "Easy mistake. Will you fix it, now, knowing what it will cost?"
"How many casualties do you estimate?" you ask her.
"To establish a self-sustaining demon colony in Mitakihara? Perhaps a thousand," she suggests. "I'm not sure. I suppose you were hoping to avoid the death of innocents?"
"That would be slightly preferred, yes," you say.
"Tch," she says. "Well, you saw the witch list in your vision. Maybe that'll be enough grief to do everything you want."
Her tone is as contemptuous and dismissive as it's ever been, and it is getting on your nerves, particularly since you've talked about this with her.
"Is there a problem you'd like to share, Oriko?" you demand, sharply.
"Yes!" she exclaims. "You are coming to me for plans to hunt witches. In the name of Hope, I don't know why I even bothered."
"Why you bothered to do what?" you ask.
"Why I tried so hard to keep my soul out of your clutches," she exclaims, gesticulating. "Why I sold the damn thing in the first place." She sighs loudly. "You know, at least in the future where I surrendered my free will to become Ryouko's love-addled mind slave, we were getting somewhere with the war against witches."
You scowl. "This is just an interim measure," you say.
She throws an empty teacup at you. It's a nice teacup.
You manage to catch it, and keep it from breaking.
"Do you still have that collar somewhere?" asks Oriko. "You should find it, and bring Kyouko, and use that alternate universe power of hers to turn me into a large, obedient dog. At least there was a certain elegance to it, an animal dignity. Better than to give up entirely, remaining slaves to the Incubators, hunting witches our short, meaningless lives, until we despair!"
[Clarisse] Focus on developing your own powers through dance
"What if I could reverse grief entirely, and save the witches instead?" you ask, evenly.
"Ha! That would be fantastic, Clarisse," says Oriko. "Absolutely glorious. Be sure to let me know when you figure it out." She doesn't seem to entertain that this is a real hypothesis.
Nanami is concerned.
Her gem is being weird, she relays from the next room. I'm starting to worry about having this thing on my finger.
> now remember, Yuma and Kirika are nearby too
[] Talk some hope into Oriko
-[] (write in a few words about your general approach or arguments)
[] Assuage her with other vision requests
[] Let Oriko witch out and then hope-boop the witch
-[] (write in plans for what to do with the feathers)
[] Attempt service on Oriko's soul gem before she does witch things
-[] (write in plans for what to do with the feathers)
[] Demand an oath of fealty from Oriko
[] Turn Oriko into a dog, as she suggested
[] Remove Oriko's soul gem some 100m away from her body to render her unconscious
- [] (write in follow-up)
Deferred:
- More efforts to develop your powers through dance.
- If Nanami gets a chance, she should speak with Hanekawa and Mr. Vampire hunter
- Swap Hitomi to the past for a day or so to get to make friends with Nadeshiko (+ research)
- Call Ophelia, Simona, at an appropriate time
- School!
- Find a way to get Yuuka out of her dads house
Not deferred because I don't know what it means:
[Machina] Talk about how we want to approach getting mami?
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*Raises finger* ... *lowers finger* I should probably at least try to pay attention to stuff other than the soul science in the discussion, but its honestly hard and I gave it up as a bad job a while ago.
Still, if I had to comment on the vote now, were we actually expecting talking to other groups to go in any direction except horribly? Kyuuby outright getting mercenary girls to assassinate us was on the table as something likely to occur I think. Of course he's going to undercut any allies we try to make.
That he's actually lying is odd. Though I wonder if he sees it that way. Irritating, but whatever.
Why are we hunting Witches as well anyway?
Also, *points to that last section* You see that speculation about what we might be able to do with Dancing? That's why I want Soul Science. You really shouldn't be guessing at important things when you don't have to be.
Still, if I had to comment on the vote now, were we actually expecting talking to other groups to go in any direction except horribly? Kyuuby outright getting mercenary girls to assassinate us was on the table as something likely to occur I think. Of course he's going to undercut any allies we try to make.
That he's actually lying is odd. Though I wonder if he sees it that way. Irritating, but whatever.
Why are we hunting Witches as well anyway?
Also, *points to that last section* You see that speculation about what we might be able to do with Dancing? That's why I want Soul Science. You really shouldn't be guessing at important things when you don't have to be.
- Location
- Your imagination
We have made contact with the Azalea Girls! Kamihama is now canon!
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Nolrai
weak to fangs
- Location
- Porltand
I feel like I used to know what that meant.
- Location
- Oooooooh emotional roller coaster
You can do soul science right now, on Oriko! For sufficiently mad values of Science!!! with lots of exclamation points
something about memoria here
- Location
- The infinite well of fanfics
Sakura thoughts bleeding into our own again. At this point thats just normal life for us, might as well get used to it.
Simona and Oriko influenced options, you spoil us Tomoyo.
So right now, we are actively working against demons getting spread and in order to work towards it we need to allow thousands to die. Bit of an issue. Also if we want to go to some other city, we have to go with gifts, something we should of really known. Issue there: We don't have gifts, we are really low on grief things as it is.
In terms of Oriko, tell Nanami to take off the ring and we should either talk to oriko or try to clear her grief now?
For the people who don't play Magia Record Shizumi Konoha is very paranoid about everyone outside of her 3 girl team and it is basically impossible to get through to her on short notice. Really this interaction was about as good as it could get even without accounting for Kyubey being unhelpful.
Nolrai
weak to fangs
- Location
- Porltand
Hmm. Hundreds of Thousands of people to save a few thousand magical girls seems like a bad trade on first order effects. Its only going to be worth it over decades. On the other hand the longer we wait the more humans and therefore more witches there are that have to be exploded
:/
:/
UrsaTempest
Don't Panic!
Really, bigger problem is Incubator seems to officially be done to us. That's kind of annoying. To put it mildly.
They'll likely still answer if we want to offer wish, I think. We're just that tempting.
They'll likely still answer if we want to offer wish, I think. We're just that tempting.
The attempt to reach out to others may seem worth it, but the well is so poisoned already that it would waste time due to how magical girl culture works. Normally reaching out would spread rumors, rumors that we want to talk and treat with others, but magical girls are so isolated, by design I might add, that those rumors wouldn't actually exist.
The only thing that would come of it would be how the act itself affects our current team. There is only a small amount of merit in that as well.
If we want to try and reach out we'd need to escalate past Kyuuby's influence, which would mean flipping the table and exposing magic in a way Kyuuby couldn't suppress.
And Kyuuby has stopped making contracts in Japan. There will be no more Witches at all until the current population of magical girls starts to die out.
And if you're also going to stop demons from spreading then that means there is no more Grief Cubes either.
You're delegating, good, but Clarrise herself needs to stop and buckle down on a decision**. Figure out Soul Science and Dancing to the point of being able to remove Grief (if its actual possible *points again to the fact that we're speculating instead of figuring things out* and we should be careful about knowing what's being done with that Grief), let Demons spread so that the Magical Girls don't die enmass, or figure out a way to get Kyuuby to start contracting again*.
Because if we don't actually commit, then there will soon be only Witches in Japan with no magical girls and it'll turn into a wasteland in a matter of weeks anyway with millions dead instead of thousands.
To me there is only one real option that Clarrise needs to actually look into, Soul Science and Dancing. In that order preferably so we know what Dancing is actually doing.
The Demons are a distasteful backup plan I don't expect her to stomach, but the population of Japan being preyed upon by Witches with no Magical Girls keeping them in check because Kyuuby is no longer making Contracts? That must be avoided at all costs, even if it means thousands dying. Better thousands than millions.
If you don't want that to happen then Clarrise needs to act on her Dancing and Soul Science. And she needs to do it now because we have, at best, weeks and at worst days before this starts spiraling out of control and the Demons have a start up time we need to account for.
*There may be more options, there are even (we could make a Contract with Tomoyo, but that's a delaying action at best and likely a game over because we don't know what's actually wrong yet or why it went wrong rather), but those are the ones I see as it stands.
Edit: **A little harsh of a statement perhaps, but we have a cataclysm staring us in the face and we're having tea with Oriko***. There's a problem with this.
***While undermining her own plan to try and stop it even
The only thing that would come of it would be how the act itself affects our current team. There is only a small amount of merit in that as well.
If we want to try and reach out we'd need to escalate past Kyuuby's influence, which would mean flipping the table and exposing magic in a way Kyuuby couldn't suppress.
And Kyuuby has stopped making contracts in Japan. There will be no more Witches at all until the current population of magical girls starts to die out.
And if you're also going to stop demons from spreading then that means there is no more Grief Cubes either.
You're delegating, good, but Clarrise herself needs to stop and buckle down on a decision**. Figure out Soul Science and Dancing to the point of being able to remove Grief (if its actual possible *points again to the fact that we're speculating instead of figuring things out* and we should be careful about knowing what's being done with that Grief), let Demons spread so that the Magical Girls don't die enmass, or figure out a way to get Kyuuby to start contracting again*.
Because if we don't actually commit, then there will soon be only Witches in Japan with no magical girls and it'll turn into a wasteland in a matter of weeks anyway with millions dead instead of thousands.
To me there is only one real option that Clarrise needs to actually look into, Soul Science and Dancing. In that order preferably so we know what Dancing is actually doing.
The Demons are a distasteful backup plan I don't expect her to stomach, but the population of Japan being preyed upon by Witches with no Magical Girls keeping them in check because Kyuuby is no longer making Contracts? That must be avoided at all costs, even if it means thousands dying. Better thousands than millions.
If you don't want that to happen then Clarrise needs to act on her Dancing and Soul Science. And she needs to do it now because we have, at best, weeks and at worst days before this starts spiraling out of control and the Demons have a start up time we need to account for.
*There may be more options, there are even (we could make a Contract with Tomoyo, but that's a delaying action at best and likely a game over because we don't know what's actually wrong yet or why it went wrong rather), but those are the ones I see as it stands.
Edit: **A little harsh of a statement perhaps, but we have a cataclysm staring us in the face and we're having tea with Oriko***. There's a problem with this.
***While undermining her own plan to try and stop it even
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UrsaTempest
Don't Panic!
I mean, if there's really no new contract...
... then we are on time limit. Worse, we can't determine how long we have - it really depends on plot. Could be long, could be short, depending on QM's generosity. There might be localized death of magical girl teams in some locale, and all that gory details.
Yeah, seems we really need to kick-off soul science in higher priority, now.
... then we are on time limit. Worse, we can't determine how long we have - it really depends on plot. Could be long, could be short, depending on QM's generosity. There might be localized death of magical girl teams in some locale, and all that gory details.
Yeah, seems we really need to kick-off soul science in higher priority, now.
Yes. He offered... well, made the decision on his own as a "favor" to us to stop making Contracts in Japan some time ago.
I knew some would miss it cause there's both a lot going on and its confusing in general, but I've mentioned to point a few times and now I'm wondering if I was the only one to realize the implications of that.
Of course I'm also operating on a multiple timeline level* and kind of consider Japan small beans, so I didn't really focus on the point heavily either until now.
*I'm figuring Soul Science is our answer here as well, saving Japan was a bonus to me.
I knew some would miss it cause there's both a lot going on and its confusing in general, but I've mentioned to point a few times and now I'm wondering if I was the only one to realize the implications of that.
Of course I'm also operating on a multiple timeline level* and kind of consider Japan small beans, so I didn't really focus on the point heavily either until now.
*I'm figuring Soul Science is our answer here as well, saving Japan was a bonus to me.
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UrsaTempest
Don't Panic!
I do, but I figured there's still enough slack to pick other options, for now.
Plus, I didn't think QB will be outright hostile to us.
Ah, but that's the beauty. He isn't by his standards. QB is a bastard and a half, but he himself hasn't attacked us yet. He wouldn't call that outright hostile, merely informing others of what he knows about us and letting them come to their own conclusions.
We've snubbed him thrice I believe, including keeping the Feathers away from him, which I'm sure he suspects heavily enough to act on.
He'll do what he always does, back us into a corner until we can't escape and, when we're at our most desperate, appear offering a Wish.
That it will also likely snip the threat we represent as a magical power independent of his control is also likely a primary priority, possibly over getting a Wish out of us*.
No, this is exactly how Kyuuby operates, just applied against our group directly. This level of antagonism should have been expected. And I thought was expected, I'm not the best at keeping up with the discussion but I thought people were ready for it.
I mentioned it before but my worst case thoughts were him already getting mercenary girls to attack us directly. Perhaps not likely, yet, but possible nonetheless.
*If we're that desperate we either make a Wish or are probably dying, win and win a little less for him.
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UrsaTempest
Don't Panic!
So in a more immediate matter, what should we do with Oriko?
Obvious one is we should purify her gem, then... what, exactly? Beyond 'we know there's problem, and we're handling it, don't worry'.
I'm tempted to just fulfill her request. She'll be easier to handle, then. Well, maybe.
Obvious one is we should purify her gem, then... what, exactly? Beyond 'we know there's problem, and we're handling it, don't worry'.
I'm tempted to just fulfill her request. She'll be easier to handle, then. Well, maybe.
*Wryly* I mean:
We could try to stop antagonizing her I suppose.
But in the immediate...Oriko's power makes her unstable, or more vulnerable to becoming unstable, I think. Binding her may actually be for the best, both for us as a group and her personally, at this point in time.
Hope-booping her Witch may or may not work, seems counter-intuitive to do it when we purposefully let her fall into despair to do so in the first place. Or manipulative to the point of the magic possibly not working rather. Or... I feel like something would go wrong with, not sure what exactly though.
An apology is likely in order either way.
The most favorable option is to give her Hope though, or maybe it is hope. Hope hurts, but it might be the lack of it that's driving her as we see.
Yet another reason we need to buckle down on what we can do and trust in the others to handle matters while we're busy.
- Location
- Oooooooh emotional roller coaster
There is no tea involved. Also, the idea of meeting with the future-seer in advance of a cataclysm has a lot of merit... if you're asking the right questions, anyway.
A shocking departure from precedent if he is lying.
What is it you suspect he lying/wrong about?
Could he be right about it and you just don't know yet?
It strikes me that the timeline on this is uncertain. If Kyuubey is able to successfully starve your group out, he may be able to find new people to contract in time to prevent casualties on the scale that you're implying.
That said, some brainstorming:
- Should you ask Kyuubey to resume contracting? Try to gain leverage and make him do that? Tease the idea that you're entertaining a wish?
- If feasible, under what circumstances (if any) would you be willing to contract magical girls in Kyuubey's stead?
- If it does come down to such an exigency, might Japan find reinforcements from elsewhere?
- Is there any other way to fight witches besides using magical girls?
What this thread needs is more poorly-drawn trolley diagrams...
It seems to me there is at least a little evidence for the proposition, in the form of thirtyish Simona feathers.
What evidence against it? What known or potential obstacles to repeating that? Any creative workarounds?
[] Assign Kirika to dog-walking duty
Hmm. I wonder who forbade and sealed the forbidden, sealed powers he's talking about...
Hmm. Before hope-booping a soul gem, it may be productive to consider what you would do to bring hope to a person, using words.
(Also, of course, any risks or side effects associated with the project which you might seek to mitigate.)
UrsaTempest
Don't Panic!
I'm not sure Ryouko would like Oriko going after her pants, though.
We already know most of it cause it is a logical domino effect, and she's not exactly in a state to answer questions. Also, undercutting her own attempt to stop it, so... kind of awkward.
Also she threw a teacup at us? Was there no tea in it?
Like I said, he probably wouldn't perceive any of what he presented as a lie. The alien insurgency kinda makes me go "Bwuh?" though. Also he said we're using Wally's powers which is... uhh, literally false? He knows our powers come forth from our own soul when his statement is that we draw upon the dark magics of Walpurgisnacht.
If our magics are like Walpurgisnacht's though then that has implications for what it was and is now, but is still false outright in the way it was said.
He can't starve Clarisse out though. As horrible as it'd be being the last one standing, he can't get rid of us that way (nor Sayaka, Madoka, and... I want to say a couple of the others? I forget who our cast is quite often). And we have the Potential to break the universe over our knee, Clarisse would use that to bring back everyone, and more likely than not by her own two hands.
And she can just Hope-boop their Witches anyway.
Unlikely I think under current conditions, Kyuuby wants us and the Feathers. Those are our leverage points in negotiations and we're unwilling to hand either over.
We, as callous as it is to say it like this, have better things we need to do with our time. Contracting girls ourself also does not address the underlying issue of Witches spawning because I doubt we'd spawn Girls to purposefully Witch them. That does bring the idea of Hope-booping all the Witches in Japan ourself, but that's unfeasible in practice at our current point.
Possible, but unlikely. Magical Girls are purposefully isolated and travel is often difficult for them barring the few that can teleport or have powers letting them travel freely. Also while the Witch population would die out it'd just lead to the new girls Witching eventually.
Unlikely. You can't even enter Barriers without magic of some kind and while its possible there are some groups out there I find it unlikely that there are many with independent magic users like ourself. Certainly not enough to make a more than a dent in the issue we're facing without proper coordination. And Kyuuby would see those even more isolated than other magical girl groups from ourself.
We have yet to accomplish, or try even, such when the Soul is still Caged with a Gem. We made those Feathers by shattering her Core, we do not know if a raw Soul would survive their Cage being shattered. We have no evidence against it, but none for it beyond that we can get rid of Grief with Hope.
We do not know what happens to that Grief either though, if anything.
I said it was favorable because that's how I think Clarrise would want to handle it optimistically, not that I had any idea how to do it. Although, again, an apology might be a good place to start.
- Location
- Oooooooh emotional roller coaster
Ah, no. She had been drinking it earlier. I should edit that in, hmm.
Perhaps assessing what might be driving her towards despair would make a remedy or a counter clearer?
To clarify, what ought Clarisse be sorry about?
The Narrator
Disembodied Voice
- Location
- Somewhere Offscreen
I'm a little dubious of your reasoning here. Firstly because I don't think I've seen anything that gives the impression that Witches cause "millions" of casualties per year; they seems to kill single people or small groups, not huge swaths of the populace. Secondly because I don't see how a contracting freeze would cause Witch casualties to go up when the whole reason that people are concerned is that it means that magical girls will run out of Witches to hunt. Yes, the last few magical girls will eventually become Witches that there is no one to hunt... but that will happen because they've hunted the remaining Witch population to extinction, so there will if anything be less Witches than there otherwise would be.
Essentially, you're looking at a situation where cobras are about to go extinct, expecting that it will cause the mongoose population to starve... and then worrying that the mongoose shortage will lead to an increase in cobra bites. And then suggesting that the way to prevent this is to breed and release huge numbers of cobras. Cobras that you feed exclusively a diet of baby mongooses.
It's not quite a perfect analogy, but there are no good analogies for the MG system in the food chain, because it's an unsustainable, cannibalistic system. You're not going to prevent MG deaths or civilian deaths by perpetuating it, because it depends on both those things to function.
Undermining Oriko's plan which we might still need and which she can't believe in without some proof, either from us or her visions.
Do not underestimate the isolation of magical girl groups. The only real rumor/knowledge that circulates is that Tokyo is basically a warzone, sometimes cold and sometimes hot. Basically nothing else circulates, which means the Girls themselves don't circulate.
Witch casualties would go up because no more Witches are being made. I'm not sure how that's not understood? Eventually there would be no more Witches, and then the current Girls would Witch, and while that might sustain some its likely to cause a chain reaction of immediate Witching among groups who don't know, or even those who do.
Put those two above facts together. A very few Girls might wander, but they're going to be desperate and low on magic as is, they might not even make it to the next town much less survive and win a fight with a Witch.
At some point there would be Witches who would be able to feed completely unopposed, and even before then because of the isolated communities of MGs. Have one group in a city chain Witch, as would be more likely among groups than not, and suddenly you have a small group of Witches who have no one hunting them with free access to their prey.
Maybe it'll be slow, but gorging is an understatement. And Familiars also can grow into new Witches, which means they expand exponentially as soon as there's no one to hunt them. And there would be for a time simply because no one would know about it. Except Kyuuby and this just plays into driving us into a corner so I doubt he'd do anything but hide it.
And your analogy is incorrect from the start honestly. To start with you only list two species when there are three, less objectionable since I think you labeled humans as baby mongooses (which is also just wrong since the Mongooses are Witches I believe). The mongooses slowly die out with nothing more than a piddling increase in their population, so the Cobras begin to get desperate as they come closer to starvation. They would fight each other, leading to more deaths (and sometimes a mongoose spawning). Eventually the last Cobras would die out, likely far from each other because all the Mongooses and other Cobras within reach are dead. And then its just Mongooses slowly coming back with no natural predator left.
The bottom line is that Witches will be, effectively, an unopposed predator. Just look at what humanity did once we kicked off our predators. Seriously, it might take time, but that fucking snowball is going to snowball.
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Double post since its been so long since my last post went up:
I should point out that it might not reach that point. It can, it very much can, but Kyuuby might act before then. It depends on what he's after and how he's willing to go about it because it ultimately doesn't matter to him.
For example, the last girls left would likely be the most predatory and/or powerful ones. The most efficient, the most lethal, etc. The best of the best. He could sic them on our group, completely and truthfully say that if we Wish (or possible that we die) then he will begin contracting again, even promising them Grief Seeds for doing the deed. Possibly even just as a sign-on bonus.
He'll have them then.
Or he could let them sputter out and die, he can restart at any time without issue and can easily wait us out. Japan might be millions of people, but he has billions elsewhere to work with and fulfill whatever quota he has.
And we'll be dealing with those Girls I mentioned above if it comes to it. Do you really think we could trust them? The answer is no, not really. Even if we can hope-boop Gems safely we couldn't trust them because they'd be the ones who, more likely than not, purposefully Witch other Girls so they can get the Cores.
Kyuuby might herd some Witches towards those he wants to keep around, so it wouldn't be all maybe, but...
I should point out that it might not reach that point. It can, it very much can, but Kyuuby might act before then. It depends on what he's after and how he's willing to go about it because it ultimately doesn't matter to him.
For example, the last girls left would likely be the most predatory and/or powerful ones. The most efficient, the most lethal, etc. The best of the best. He could sic them on our group, completely and truthfully say that if we Wish (or possible that we die) then he will begin contracting again, even promising them Grief Seeds for doing the deed. Possibly even just as a sign-on bonus.
He'll have them then.
Or he could let them sputter out and die, he can restart at any time without issue and can easily wait us out. Japan might be millions of people, but he has billions elsewhere to work with and fulfill whatever quota he has.
And we'll be dealing with those Girls I mentioned above if it comes to it. Do you really think we could trust them? The answer is no, not really. Even if we can hope-boop Gems safely we couldn't trust them because they'd be the ones who, more likely than not, purposefully Witch other Girls so they can get the Cores.
Kyuuby might herd some Witches towards those he wants to keep around, so it wouldn't be all maybe, but...