Clarisse Quest [now in Part II, Revolutionary Girl Clarisse] (a PMMM/TTS quest)
- Thread starter tomoyo
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
Nolrai
weak to fangs
- Location
- Porltand
Sounds good to me!
Thanks for the update!
Having Simona there to translate will definitely help.
Nuew
“Mankind, be vigilant. We loved you.”—Julius Fučík
- Location
- hiding in ∅
- Pronouns
- She/They
Well, there appears to be a basic consensus. No idea what to do about the high schooler, so I guess we just have Amy watch?
I wish we had more participants 😔. I think these are the best options—I don't care too much about them knowing we have magic, and I imagine we could escape any sort of ambush, but I'd like to see somebody arguing for some of the other options. And my high schooler vote is literally just hoping the status quo works out because of not really having a better idea. Maybe have Amy try to redirect them in person?
[Aliens][X] Allow Ryouko to meet the aliens openly
-[X] Bring Simona in person to assist
[X][High schooler] Have Amy call him, and warn him off / distract him.
I wish we had more participants 😔. I think these are the best options—I don't care too much about them knowing we have magic, and I imagine we could escape any sort of ambush, but I'd like to see somebody arguing for some of the other options. And my high schooler vote is literally just hoping the status quo works out because of not really having a better idea. Maybe have Amy try to redirect them in person?
[Aliens][X] Allow Ryouko to meet the aliens openly
-[X] Bring Simona in person to assist
[X][High schooler] Have Amy call him, and warn him off / distract him.
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- Location
- Wingmaiden's Reach, the Near Roofs, Town
- Pronouns
- She/Her
How am I supposed to advocate on behalf of the Devil without a red hair ribbon, an alarmingly skimpy black dress, and an Incubator to squish?
w/e I guess I can try anyway
These ceph already know that someone on this planet is awesome and magical - see, for instance, the highly energetic feather moment that lured them here; or the liberal use of magic in extracting Simona and Ophelias from ceph custody on multiple occasions.
But - and especially if we keep Simona and mahous back - they don't know precisely who, or how, or to what extent.
Withholding meguca allows us to control their acquisition of that information; which, given their deeply unclear goals or motivations, might be wise?
Detouring to give Simona secured comms hardware would mean that Simona need not be present - which, in turn, means that the ceph won't recognize her; again, potentially allowing for more controlled information dispersal measures.
It also means that Simona can a) securely communicate for any number of other reasons that might pop up; and b) not have to get up, teleport across the world, and be in potential danger to negotiate with aliens, which she might appreciate.
Other hand, bringing her to Mitakihara means she could be in Ryouko's orbit, which ... may or may not actually be a kind thing to do for her - it's ... not precisely the kind of scenario I'd call an enjoyable time with friends/crushes.
As for Mr. Vampire Hunter -
Who is he? What does he want? What is his connection with the mysterious Interloper?
We don't know.
We do know that he is aware of something magical going on - specifically, of some of the non-Incubated magic in Mitakihara with no clear source.
Also, potentially vampires.
He does not seem to be ... directly aware of the existence of meguca or aliens; and, as this is to be a delicate diplomatic council between meguca and aliens, do we really want an uninvolved and somewhat suspicious third party observing and potentially intervening?
- Location
- Oooooooh emotional roller coaster
Hmm. I can in principle supply somewhere between one and three of those... send me your measurements?
Nuew
“Mankind, be vigilant. We loved you.”—Julius Fučík
- Location
- hiding in ∅
- Pronouns
- She/They
Thank you for your serious response to my vague annoyance. I suppose I should respond in detail as thanks 😊.
Further, giving them our identities could be useful as a way to repay their trust in moving the landing site. If we sent people on our behalf, they'd likely figure out that they're getting orders from elsewhere, even if they don't know from where. And, in the worst case, where they attack the diplomatic group, we'd be capable of escaping whereas somebody unpowered would be at much more risk, even with augmentations.
Thanks again for taking my silly complaint so seriously!
Right, they know there's a significant amount of magic being thrown around, and they can probably track it, at least a bit. Unless Kyubey can and will remove their memories of magic use, I doubt it'd be too difficult for a serious opponent with their tech to get a list of almost every active meguca on the planet. Admittedly, that doesn't give us our identities, or the info that we feel most qualified to speak to aliens. However, they probably have pictures of us, and given a list of most every meguca they could correlate us out with facial recognition.
Further, giving them our identities could be useful as a way to repay their trust in moving the landing site. If we sent people on our behalf, they'd likely figure out that they're getting orders from elsewhere, even if they don't know from where. And, in the worst case, where they attack the diplomatic group, we'd be capable of escaping whereas somebody unpowered would be at much more risk, even with augmentations.
This is totally fair. While I addressed the issue of recognition above, having her there in person may be useful in allowing her to directly communicate with the Ceph in order to prevent unfortunate misunderstandings. Admittedly, this is one of my weaker defenses, and I'd be willing to change this.
This is a totally legitimate concern, and I don't have a response other than saying I consider it less important given the risk/reward of first contact with potentially hostile aliens.
Yeah, this was the part of my vote that I was most unsatisfied with, and it was essentially an afterthought. I don't want him interfering with or observing the meeting, but I also don't want to give him any more information. Calling him out of the blue to tell him to back off is really fucking suspicious. So none of the options seem wholly satisfactory. My half-baked suggestion was to somehow have Amy lure him off, but I have no idea how you would actually implement that.
Thanks again for taking my silly complaint so seriously!
- Location
- Oooooooh emotional roller coaster
Some new options occurred to me while I was out today.
[ ][High schooler] Head him off. Wave him down; ask for a ride. Insist. When you arrive nearby, keep him away and distracted.
It's still potentially suspicious in a way you might not like, but you may favor the sort of deniability it provides. Alternatively, you could make his world a little weird:
[ ][High schooler] Have Amy call him, and warn him off / distract him.
This might impact Amy's ability to shadow him in the future, though.
Any other fun brainstormy ideas? What sort of shenanigans might happen in a Monogatari episode and can we implement such shenanigans to our benefit?
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- Location
- Central Standard Time
Hmm. Right now, I think the issue I personally have when making a decision on this vote... Is context. I need to do a reread of the last quarter of part one to figure out our current position, in context.
The Narrator
Disembodied Voice
- Location
- Somewhere Offscreen
Unfortunately, I don't know anything about Monogatari. The first thing that comes to mind is that we can try to lure him away by making it seem like something even more amazing is happening somewhere else, only to have it turn out to be something completely mundane when he gets there. If he doesn't go for it, that could at least let us confirm that he's getting intel on our movements from some specific source.
- Location
- Central Standard Time
Well... Are there any Rumors?
- Location
- Wingmaiden's Reach, the Near Roofs, Town
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Have you heard? Has anyone told you? The Rumor of the Abomination?
She's a time-traveling AI from the future, sent back to change the past on the orders of her alien cyborg princess! She uses the dark, forbidden magic of the wickedest witch of them all, to steal the souls of lesser witches for herself! Her alien allies have almost arrived! If no one stops her, she'll destroy all magical girls!
Oh, how horrible!
It's the hot new Rumor in Mitakihara!
She's a time-traveling AI from the future, sent back to change the past on the orders of her alien cyborg princess! She uses the dark, forbidden magic of the wickedest witch of them all, to steal the souls of lesser witches for herself! Her alien allies have almost arrived! If no one stops her, she'll destroy all magical girls!
Oh, how horrible!
It's the hot new Rumor in Mitakihara!
- Location
- Oooooooh emotional roller coaster
You could tell him about looking for missing girls?
(Which would basically be the ones who are witches.)
Upside: Might get real leads. Downside: A bit close to the truth.
You could describe witch's kisses in general terms.
That might be a safer way to task him to something useful.
Other rumors: The dangerous group who exploded a school... hmm... umm... the cult of Kazamino City... hmmmmmmmmmm... maybe not
okay let's see, what could you do if you wanted to make something up...
you could probably make his cell phone haunted pretty readily! with "ghosts"?
- Location
- Oooooooh emotional roller coaster
As a distraction that hopefully he'll never believe, or with a demonstration?
- Location
- Wingmaiden's Reach, the Near Roofs, Town
- Pronouns
- She/Her
If you were a part-time paranormal investigator, maybe even a vampire hunter, who knows - I don't, um, think there are actual vampires in Mitakihara but you never know the world is a strange place -
You don't know anything about magical girls. You don't know anything about aliens. What you do know is that the world is wide and strange, that the shadows are deep and dangerous, that the night is full of things-that-go-bump - and, for some reason, it's your job to deal with it.
Anyway, say you've been tailing this deeply suspicious gaggle of middle school girls, who are clearly up to their necks in all sorts of weird happenings - dead cats coming back to life, dead schoolgirls coming back to life, weird charms, suspicious movements around the city, strange intimations from some potentially untrustworthy ally of yours who is very interested in what this 'Gang of Nice' up to...
And one of them - the one who, at one point, accosted you, very confrontationally, about who you were and what you were doing - the most suspicious one, therefore, since she's obviously hiding something -
Comes up to you and says "Hey, we're meeting some aliens, now shove off and don't bother us"
...
...
Like, would you leave?
Would you walk away and leave them to their business, whatever it is - obviously not aliens, why would it be aliens, she's clearly lying to misdirect you -
Business that is deeply, deeply suspicious.
Business that is entangled with whatever magic you are investigating, somehow.
Business that has killed several of these schoolgirls, even if they got up again later.
Would you just blithely go on with your day?
You don't know anything about magical girls. You don't know anything about aliens. What you do know is that the world is wide and strange, that the shadows are deep and dangerous, that the night is full of things-that-go-bump - and, for some reason, it's your job to deal with it.
Anyway, say you've been tailing this deeply suspicious gaggle of middle school girls, who are clearly up to their necks in all sorts of weird happenings - dead cats coming back to life, dead schoolgirls coming back to life, weird charms, suspicious movements around the city, strange intimations from some potentially untrustworthy ally of yours who is very interested in what this 'Gang of Nice' up to...
And one of them - the one who, at one point, accosted you, very confrontationally, about who you were and what you were doing - the most suspicious one, therefore, since she's obviously hiding something -
Comes up to you and says "Hey, we're meeting some aliens, now shove off and don't bother us"
...
...
Like, would you leave?
Would you walk away and leave them to their business, whatever it is - obviously not aliens, why would it be aliens, she's clearly lying to misdirect you -
Business that is deeply, deeply suspicious.
Business that is entangled with whatever magic you are investigating, somehow.
Business that has killed several of these schoolgirls, even if they got up again later.
Would you just blithely go on with your day?
The Narrator
Disembodied Voice
- Location
- Somewhere Offscreen
Trying to bring this dude on board isn't necessarily out of the question. Demonstrating the existence of magical girls to him would certainly be one way to keep him distracted while the aliens are landing. But we also have no proof that he was being honest regarding his intentions (and if he was, then he's bad at keeping secrets), and no idea of the intentions of whoever is pulling his strings, so there would be risk involved in revealing anything to him.
- Location
- Wingmaiden's Reach, the Near Roofs, Town
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I mean, hell, we could go
[ ] [High Schooler] Let him come along, under strict instructions not to talk or do anything rash because we are engaging in delicate negotiations with aliens.
It's just that's a much, much bigger risk than I'm really willing to countenance, given the delicacy of these negotiations and my complete lack on insight into what the heck Mr. Vampire Hunter wants, how he's tied to the Interloper, who the Interloper is and what they want, or how Mr. Vampire Hunter would react when brought to a delicate negotiation with aliens.
I'm not opposed, categorically, to the idea of trying to recruit allies or associates. But why now?
she says, as if there's some guarantee that there will ever be a nice, convenient time
Still, probably not a good plan right this second.
[ ] [High Schooler] Let him come along, under strict instructions not to talk or do anything rash because we are engaging in delicate negotiations with aliens.
It's just that's a much, much bigger risk than I'm really willing to countenance, given the delicacy of these negotiations and my complete lack on insight into what the heck Mr. Vampire Hunter wants, how he's tied to the Interloper, who the Interloper is and what they want, or how Mr. Vampire Hunter would react when brought to a delicate negotiation with aliens.
I'm not opposed, categorically, to the idea of trying to recruit allies or associates. But why now?
she says, as if there's some guarantee that there will ever be a nice, convenient time
Still, probably not a good plan right this second.
The Narrator
Disembodied Voice
- Location
- Somewhere Offscreen
Yeah, there's a reason I didn't suggest letting him near the aliens in the even most optimistic scenario. It's possible for someone to be completely honest and well-meaning and still be a complete liability. We haven't exactly seen this guy demonstrate good judgment thus far, and we don't need him starting an interstellar war because he thinks the Ceph look like monsters.
You could just knock him out and tie him up or something.
- Location
- Oooooooh emotional roller coaster
Hmmm. Give his bike a flat tire so he can't get there until way later?