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Confringentur 2; a Madoka Magica / Fate/Stay Night sequel

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Day 27 Chapter 5
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    • [X] Plan Let her help


    "What about Madoka-san?" Oh, Hitomi, if only you had never opened your mouth. "I know that look in her eyes." So do you. All too well. "Is there anything she could do to help?"

    "I'd prefer it if we didn't involve Madoka," you reply. "She's too valuable; we can't let her go wandering off trying to hypnotise people. What if she were to fall into Sidonia's hands?"

    "I agree that we can't just be reckless in how we handle her," Hitomi says. "But there must be something we can have her do? Perhaps we could charm a small object on her person, and have her walk around school with it? Just the school, and nowhere else. That way, there's always at least one of us keeping an eye on her."

    "For how valuable a resource she is, it would be best if you got her out of the city all together," Nurse Ortensia says. "Her, and her family. Slap an hypnosis charm on her person and send her home, is my vote. Ideally today, but as long as she's out of the city before the first of the month, we're fine." Nurse Ortensia turns to you, and says "Well, Akemi? She's your girlfriend; what do you think we should do about the pink?"

    You really don't want to involve Madoka in any of this. She'd be an easy target if she were moving about in the open. Something smaller, more covert, would be ideal if she absolutely had to be involved. Ideally, she wouldn't be involved at all, but when your gaze passes over Madoka – when you feel your heart breaking into a million little pieces just from looking at her – you recognise that look.

    How many times has that look, that damned look, cost you an otherwise perfect timeline? Cost you because Madoka's sense of self-worth is in the gutter and she'll latch on to any chance she can get to help people, to feel like she's making a difference, that she's worth something. Why could she never see in those other timelines that she was worth everything to you? Why did the Madoka who knows how much she's worth to you decide to break your heart?

    "Sayaka, Kyouko-" Blue and red turn towards you as you address them. "I would prefer not to let her be involved at all, but I know that look. If we don't let Madoka do something…" She might end up doing something drastic. "You have to promise me that you will keep her safe; do I make myself clear?"

    "Homura, are you sure-?"

    "Spooky, ya can't be serious-"

    "I am serious, and I am sure," you say. "I wasn't lying when I said that I'd prefer for Madoka to not be involved in this at all. But I'm not stupid enough to hope that wishful thinking will be enough to stop her if she feels compelled to do something." Because wishful thinking has never helped you in the past. "So promise me that you two will keep her safe when you're spreading the word." "Because if you don't, I'll kill you both with my bare hands, before killing myself." You don't vocalise that last part. Part of you hopes that the sentiment can remain unspoken.

    You turn to Madoka, barely able to look at her without it hurting, and you say "That is, as long as you want to help. If you'd rather do something smaller, that's fine, too. I'd prefer it, even." "It would keep you safe."

    "I… Um… Okay." Madoka is at a loss for words as her eyes flit back and forth from you, Sayaka, Hitomi, Kyouko, and Nurse Ortensia. "I'll just… Do, that, then…"

    "Hey, come on Madoka, don't be like that." Sayaka drapes her arm over Madoka's shoulder, pulling her in close. "Sure, maybe Homura's got a point about keeping you safe, but you live here just as much as any of us do. You should be allowed to help keep it safe too, right?"

    "Yeah," Kyouko says. "It's like Spooky said; we just gotta keep ya safe, right?"

    "Honestly, keeping her close to Rider's master is probably the safer option, if I'm allowed to weigh in with my thoughts." Six heads turn towards the corner where Assassin is seated when she speaks up. She's got her nose in an equestrian magazine, which she's only lowered slightly in order to stare at the conversation you and the others are having. Her eyes wander over to Hitomi, before going back to Kyouko as she adds "Rider is far and away the stronger servant compared to Saber, not to mention his master is actually able to keep him fed." Hitomi bristles at Assassin's jab, but Assassin pays her no attention. "He'll do a fine job of keeping the pink one safe, so long as she sticks with Rider's master."

    "I'm… Still only reluctant, at best, about letting Madoka help with the evacuation," you say. "But I'm all for putting her on the safest possible path. If you think she'll be safer with Rider, then I guess... I guess it's not the worst thing in the world."

    At least it's better than doing nothing, and letting her go without any form of escort at all. What if Sidonia were to make her move while Madoka's family were preparing to evacuate? If you didn't have anyone watching over her, that could be…

    "I'll do it," Madoka says. "I… I understand Homura-chan's concern, but… I want to help, even if it's not something really big. It's like Sayaka-chan said; I live here too, and I want to help do my part. If, um…" Madoka stares at Assassin, completely blanking on both her name and her class, until she finally settles on "Nurse Ortensia's servant, thinks I'll be safer with Sayaka-chan and Kyouko-chan, then that's what I'll do."

    Hitomi's protest of "I'll have you knw, Assassin, that Saber is more than capable of-" is interrupted when Nurse Ortensia says, to you "Now, Akemi, do I still need to give you your heart medication, or can we all agree that this is a sham and be done with it?"

    "I'm sure the school requires you to keep records of the prescription drugs you hand out," you say. "I'd prefer not to be the reason you lose your job." You don't prefer Nurse Ortensia losing her job at all, especially not when it looks like Oriko might be forced to move in with her if her uncle disowns her, but if she were to lose her job you'd prefer it be because she's unqualified for the position, and not because of a discrepancy in your medication. "I'll continue taking my heart medication from you, if you don't mind."

    Nurse Ortensia rolls her eyes, but dutifully fetches your medication and gives you a plastic cup with water for your single pill. "Enjoy being stubborn, then," she says. "But I hope your parents, your cardiologist, or whoever, get this cleared up with the nurse at whichever high school you go to."

    "Oh, no," you say. "I'm a good girl. If my doctor prescribes me something, then it's for my own good to take it; right?"

    "Not at all like Kure, right?" Nurse Ortensia says. "I can't imagine what wearing that eyepatch when she's transformed does to her vision. Maybe Minako should take her to an ophthalmologist to see if she needs glasses."

    You hear Sayaka and Kyouko snickering to themselves. "Oh my god, could you imagine Homura's sis wearing glasses?"

    "Tell me about it. I bet Big White'd go crazy helping Crazy pick out frames and shit." Kyouko sticks out her tongue and makes a retching sound as she adds "They'd totally do that, too. They're so fucking ga~ay for each other."

    "Kirika doesn't need glasses," you say. "First, she takes that thing off at least half of the time. Second, even if her eyepatch were somehow negatively impacting her vision, she could always fix her eyesight with magic, like I did. Third," you address your third point to Kyouko in particular; "You're gay too, Kyouko. So am I. So's Madoka. Saying that Oriko and Kirika are gay kind of loses its impact when you're surrounded by lesbians, don't you think?"

    Kyouko stares at you. "Spooky, we both know those two take it to a whole other level'a being gay."

    You refuse to admit that Kyouko may have a point. "I can't just let you insult my older sister like that."

    Fortunately, before this can turn into anything bigger than it already is, Hitomi steps in, asking Madoka "How is your brother doing, Madoka-san? Is he feeling any better?"

    "Not really," Madoka admits. "It's… Hard, having to leave Takkun in the hospital like that, but he won't stop throwing up. The doctors had to put him on an IV drip 'cause he couldn't keep anything down… I'm worried. I know the doctors in Mitakihara aren't equipped to handle… What's going on, and I don't want to have to leave him behind in the hospital when mama and papa evacuate."

    You feel sick. You've known that Madoka's younger brother was sick for a while now, but you've been so busy with the problems on your own plate – so busy having your head up your ass about Madoka breaking up with you – that you've completely neglected to do anything about it. Sure, this will all be over in a few more days, one way or another, but you knew. You knew, and yet you did nothing.

    Maybe Madoka was right to break up with you, if you can't even keep your head on straight.

    "Hey, Homura, how's that coming, anyway?" Sayaka's question tears you away from your self-loathing and gives you something else to focus on instead. "Kyouko said you've got some mage lady working on a solution for all that Grief in the ground, right?"

    "We have someone looking into the problem, that is correct," you say. "Matou Sakura is the younger sister of Hitomi's instructor, Tohsaka-san. I've spoken to her about the problem, and she tells me that she has two possible solutions that she's currently weighing the pros and cons of. With any luck, she'll have results by the time we're done taking care of everything else on our plates." Ideally before, but you know you shouldn't rush perfection.

    "See, Madoka?" Sayaka slaps Madoka on the back of her shoulder. "Tatsuya's gonna be fine. As soon as all this nasty Grief crap gets taken care of, he'll get better in no time, right?"

    "I guess…" Madoka says. "I'll try to be optimistic about it, but mama and papa are really worried…"

    Sayaka's question was directed at you, you can tell. "Tatsuya will be fine," you say. "I promise, Madoka, nothing bad is going to happen to him."

    You hear the late bell ring, and Nurse Ortensia clears her throat. "While the pleasure has most certainly not been mine, I'm afraid I must insist that you return to your classroom," she says. Behind her, Assassin stares at you from behind her equestrian magazine. The pair create an imposing front, giving legitimacy to Nurse Ortensia's words as she says "So unless one of you are going to drop dead within the next thirty seconds, I suggest you kindly get the hell out of my office. You wouldn't want to spoil your perfect attendances by being late, now would you."
    ​
     
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    • PlaguePaladin said:
    PSU means power supply unit, it's the part of the computer that takes electricity from the outlet into the PC.
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    See, I usually just call that the power cord or "that big blocky thing". But get me started about laminate stocks of late-war Mauser rifles...

    Anyway, here's today's update, not, as I initially thought, getting delayed until tomorrow. I originally thought this was only going to be half the length you see here, but somehow this happened. Oops. Anyway, I tried to stick with what the voters wanted, letting Madoka participate in some big gesture with Sayaka and Kyouko, while also trying to balance that with the fact that Homura wants to keep Madoka safe. So it's a good thing that Achilles is probably a stronger servant than Diarmuid, meaning it'll be easier for Kyouko to keep Madoka safe than it would be for Hitomi if Madoka were with her doing something smaller. I think. At least that's the logic I went with.
    NMS said:
    We don't know if Madoka's little brother is still in the hospital, do we?
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    SVS said:
    We do not, that is correct.
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    And now we do. Tatsuya is still in the hospital, unfortunately, but at least he's not dead yet.

    Also, Kirika is cute. This is an objective fact. But how about Kirika with glasses? Eh?
     
    Day 27 Chapter 6
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    • [X]Plan Research (part 2)


    You almost aren't sure why you bothered asking for your own room and bed when the Quintet were setting up the temporary base inside the warehouse, not when you're just planning on spending the remainder of your nights here with Niko. Not like that! Niko is hurting, badly, over the things she's done, and you want to stay close to her, to let her know that someone loves her and cares about what happens to her.

    Plus she's just so warm and cuddly, too! When she actually manages to fall asleep, that is. She woke up in the middle of the night last night, and left to focus on work because she'd had a nightmare. You stayed up with her until she felt comfortable enough to go back to bed, and then, only then, was she finally comfortable enough to go back to sleep.

    Now, it's morning, and Niko is once again nowhere to be found when you open your eyes. But this time, that's okay. Her side of the bed is still warm, meaning she only left fairly recently, and the scent of breakfast wafting in from the common area tells you that she's up and about with purpose, and not just because she's burying herself in work instead of taking care of her basic necessities.

    Boy, that's a lot to take in for one morning.

    You stretch, and pull yourself out of bed, not bothering to get dressed any more than the clothes you slept in. You do make a bit of an effort to straighten your hair and flatten the wrinkles out of your shirt, but aside from that, you go to breakfast looking like a slept-in mess; and you couldn't care less.

    "Morning, Kazumi," you hear Kaoru say to you as you enter the common area. "Breakfast'll be ready soon… I hope."

    "Smells tasty," you say. You yawn and rub the sleep from your eye, while you scan the table for a place to sit with the other eye. Without needing to say anything, Niko scoots to the side, and suddenly there's a chair waiting for you beside her. You'll gladly take that seat, and you'll even gladly-er give Niko a kiss on the cheek as you sit down. "So…"

    "What are our plans for today?" Saki asks, saving you from the embarrassment of having to admit that you aren't sure where to direct your team's efforts this early in the morning. "Did Akemi say anything to you about what her thoughts were at all, either last night or this morning?" Beside Saki, Mirai makes a disapproving sound as she crosses her arms over her chest, but is quickly stopped when Saki nudges her with her elbow. "Come on, Mirai, I thought you were past this."

    "I am… I don't know," Mirai says. "Maybe I was more fine with it last night than I am right now." Umika must have said something private to the minds of Saki and Mirai, because the two of them immediately turn bright red, causing Mirai to snap "Idiot! That's not what happened at all!"

    "The evidence says otherwise."

    "You don't have any evidence!"

    "Okay, can we please talk about something else?" Saki asks. You watch her eyes as her attention falls on you just as much as it does onto Umika and Mirai. "Maybe something a bit more constructive and relevant to what we're going to be doing today, perhaps?" Before her attention finally settles on you, and Saki reiterates "So, Kazumi, anything in mind?"

    "Well, I kind of thought that Akemi would have some training exercises planned for us, or something," you say, unsure as you have yet to hear from her. That's about to change, though, because that's when you hear your phone ringing. "Excuse me!" you shout, as you peel away from the table and dash towards Niko's bedroom – is it also your bedroom now, too? – and grab your phone. "Moshi moshi, Kazumi speaking."

    "Kazumi, it's Akemi Homura," you hear Akemi say. "There's been a… Slight change in plans for today. We won't be meeting up until later in the afternoon."

    "Akemi? Uh, sure, okay, I'll let the others know," you respond, before asking "But, why? Did something happen that we should know about?"

    "Nothing too serious," Akemi says. "I'm going to school today. There are some things I need to take care of, like helping Hitomi and Kyouko with hypnotising the student and faculty bodies to get them to evacuate, and…" There's an uncomfortably long pause on Akemi's end; "… And obviously, that requires me to actually go to school. Definitely today, for sure, and maybe tomorrow and Wednesday as well, depending on how fast we're able to work."

    "Oh." You hadn't been expecting to hear that Akemi was skipping team practice to attend school, but once she explained her reasoning, you understood. "Well, I wish you three the best of luck, in that case. Niko was going to help Mikuni and your Archer get everything set up for the stuff you wanted them to do with our Soul Gems, but I guess that'll have to be put on hold until later, huh? I'll try to figure out what the rest of us can do until you're all done with school, in that case."

    "Please do," Akemi says; "And, thank you. I'm sure you all had plans for today that I've thrown out of whack, but… This is something I need to do, while I still have the time. I hope you understand."

    "No, absolutely. Go make sure you're getting as many people out of there as possible. We'll think of something else to do while we're waiting. You just take care of what's important to you."

    "Thank you, Kazumi. I'll see you all later, in that case."

    Akemi hangs up, and you set your phone down, returning to the table in the common area with the news. "That was Akemi," you say. Obviously. "She's going to try moving ahead with evacuating the students and teachers at her school, and is leaving us to our own devices until she and the rest of her team are ready, which should be later in the afternoon." Obviously, around the time their school gets out. "So I guess it's up to us to figure things out until then."

    "Well, um…" You've been put on the spot. You bet the old you would have immediately had an answer, but unfortunately, you haven't thought this far ahead. But there's always a fallback option, isn't there? "Akemi's always focusing on improving our combat abilities and our teamwork, and stuff like that, so maybe we should focus on something else, while we've got the means to," you say. "What if instead, we did what we could to gather more information?"

    "Gather more information?" Kaoru asks. "About what? It'd better not require me to do any more paperpwork."

    Mirai reaches over the table and raps her knuckles against Kaoru's head. "Idiot, about what we're up against," she says, before turning to you and asking "Right? That's what you meant, right?"

    "Yeah. I know Mikuni already gave us a rundown of what she's thinking Sidonia's plan might be, but we could always know more," you say. "So maybe, if we put our heads together and did some research, we might be able to find out more about her plans than what Mikuni gave us, or maybe we'll find something about Sidonia herself that could help us. At least, that's what I think I should be doing."

    "It's… Not that bad of an idea, actually," Saki says. "I mean, if we're going to be on our own until Akemi's done with classes, the least we can do is have something to show for it, and I doubt she'd give us time to do any of this on our own."

    "We can help you with that," Mirai says. "I mean, Saki and I are in college. Basically all we do is write research papers. It should be a piece of cake to help you with your research, right?"

    Saki nods her head, chiming in with Mirai's "Right?" to give her own "Yeah. Should be a piece of cake, especially since we won't have to type our findings up or provide sources for anything we've found after the fact." Mirai nods her head, beaming with pride, as Saki adds "So, when should we start?"

    "I was thinking we could get started after breakfast," you say. "Thanks, by the way, for agreeing to help me. Both of you. I guess Kaoru and Umika can do… Something else, while we're working." Niko's got her own projects that she's working on, so you don't need to give her any direction. But you should still break for lunch at some point. You don't want to see Niko skipping meals to get her work done. "Sorry, but I guess I don't really know what else to have you two doing."

    "It's no problem," Kaoru says. "I'll probably just stick to doing my own training." Before Umika has a chance to complain, Kaoru has roped her in, adding "Umika's gonna join me. Sure, she's got some decent abilities when it comes to magic, but in a straight fight she's basically our weakest link. " You can see Umika trying to protest, but with her jaw wired shut the best she can manage are some nondescript moans as she struggles to escape Kaoru's grasp. "Where do you think you're going, huh? Don't think you get to be the only one not doing anything."

    "If you want, I can let you borrow Lancer if you need an instructor," you offer.

    "Yeah, that'd be great!"

    Of course, as soon as breakfast is over, you realise one pretty big flaw in your plan. "Um… I don't have a laptop." Saki and Mirai both have laptops, and Niko has a laptop, but you can't borrow from either Saki or Mirai because they need their laptops to do their own research, and Niko needs her laptop in order to do her other work. "How am I supposed to research anything?"

    "You can use mine," Kaoru offers. "It's… Kind of beat up, but it works just fine when I need to use it for school stuff. I'd say you could ask Umika, but her laptop's probably got a bunch of half-typed manuscripts, or something, and I bet she wouldn't like it if any of her stuff got messed with. But mine's fine. Don't worry about it."

    "Really? Thank you, Kaoru!"

    When breakfast is over, Kaoru goes to grab her laptop out of her room and brings it to you. When she said it was kind of beat up, she wasn't kidding. The top is attached to the bottom by only a single broken hinge and some thick strips of sticky tape, and the orange cover, with its many chips, scratches, and places where there's just pieces of tape holding the web of cracked plastic together, has seen better days. "Geez, Kaoru, what did you do to it?"

    "I just used it normally," Kaoru replies. "Now, you've kind of got to give it a little nudge-" Kaoru gives the power button on the side wa~ay more than a little nudge, "-or it won't turn on, but once it's on you should be good to go."

    That solves one problem. But you've still got another problem after that. Where should you start researching?
    [ ] Sidonia herself; maybe there's something in her background that could give you more information
    [ ] Figures, creatures, and concepts found in in Slavic folklore; maybe you'll learn something about her plan if you become familiar with the same material Sidonia is
    -[ ] Focus on figures; heroes, deities, and the like that Sidonia might want to either invoke the powers of or summon as servants
    -[ ] Focus on creatures; you'll have an easier time fighting Sidonia's familiars if you know what they are and what they can do
    -[ ] Focus on concepts; ideas, moral lessons, mystical aspects, and the like that might have informed elements of Sidonia's plans or personality
    [ ] The various elements that have been identified as being parts of Sidonia's plans
    -[ ] Dáinsleif; what could Sidonia be planning to do with it, outside of using it as a catalyst to summon
    --[ ] Gudrun; Who was she, and why might Sidonia be interested in summoning her, outside of
    ---[ ] The Wild Hunt; the best way to learn about Sidonia's plan is to research what Mikuni thinks her end goal is
    [ ] Other (write-in)
    ​
     
  • Threadmarks
    • And now it's time for Kazumi to take the spotlight, at least for a little while. Giving us a bit more granularity to what we can have Kazumi researching about Sidonia and her plan, ranging from stuff about Sidonia herself to any number of obscure facts that Dmol has dropped that I haven't yet had the time or place to work into what's going on. Please remind me to break for lunch when we're researching, otherwise I'm liable to forget just as much as Niko is. Aside from that, not a whole lot else to say.
     
    [x] Plan Morning Research
    -[x] Figures, creatures, and concepts found in in Slavic folklore; maybe you'll learn something about her plan if you become familiar with the same material Sidonia is
    --[x] Focus on figures; heroes, deities, and the like that Sidonia might want to either invoke the powers of or summon as servants
    -[x] Set a timer so you remember to stop for lunch.
     
    [X] NMS

    While this might not present new information, should be interesting.

    Also update on computer situation, it was my motherboard crapping out and not my PSU, so now I'm waiting for the 18th. I swear I'm not trying to avoid this quest.
     
    PlaguePaladin said:
    Also update on computer situation, it was my motherboard crapping out and not my PSU, so now I'm waiting for the 18th. I swear I'm not trying to avoid this quest.
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    See, this is why I keep a stock of the most commonly-broken parts for my laptop on hand at all times, so that when something breaks I don't have to wait around for replacements to arrive. I can just call up my local fix-it shop, say "Hey, it's SVS with the purple Dell," and he'll have it done the same day.
    PlaguePaladin said:
    While this might not present new information, should be interesting.
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    You never know. I think there's somestuff Dmol has said that I haven't addressed yet; and if not I can always just infodump the Wikipedia entries for Sidonia's four main deities as well as a couple of other heroes she might try to summon. I can't guarantee this'll be new information, but don't discount it as a matter of fact. I might have some surprises yet.
     
    PlaguePaladin said:
    [X] NMS

    While this might not present new information, should be interesting.

    Also update on computer situation, it was my motherboard crapping out and not my PSU, so now I'm waiting for the 18th. I swear I'm not trying to avoid this quest.
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    SVS said:
    See, this is why I keep a stock of the most commonly-broken parts for my laptop on hand at all times, so that when something breaks I don't have to wait around for replacements to arrive. I can just call up my local fix-it shop, say "Hey, it's SVS with the purple Dell," and he'll have it done the same day.
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    Huh, the only time I've ever had to deal with replacing a computer part was like decade and a half ago. My parents had a habit of unplugging the computer during thunderstorms. They did this once during the summer and, without the cooling fan running, part of the hard drive melted in the heat overnight.
     
    NMS said:
    Huh, the only time I've ever had to deal with replacing a computer part was like decade and a half ago. My parents had a habit of unplugging the computer during thunderstorms. They did this once during the summer and, without the cooling fan running, part of the hard drive melted in the heat overnight.
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    In my case right now, it's because I moved from Idaho to Oklahoma, and didn't account for power surges during serious weather. For all I know it might not even be the motherboard either, that's just my best guess.
     
    Day 27 Chapter 7
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    • [X] Plan Morning Research


    The alarm you set to go off at lunchtime sounds, and you lean back in your chair, stretching your arms to the ceiling. The words "Oh, man," are strained in your mouth as you stretch. "Lunchtime already?"

    You aren't sure how much new information you've found. A lot of this is just repeats of the same stuff Mikuni and her Lancer servant have already told you. You hope Saki and Mirai have found more than you have. "Hey, thanks for agreeing to help me with my research," you say to the pair from across the table. "I'm not sure if I've managed to find anything new out myself, but hopefully you two had better luck."

    "Um…" Saki and Mirai look to each other, and Saki says "… Maybe?" sounding it more like a question than a statement. I think we found something, if nothing else."

    "All right." You don't dare attempt to close Kaoru's laptop, for fear that it might break, or worse. Instead you leave it open as you scoot down the length of the table towards Niko. "Hey, Niko," you say, nudging her with your elbow. "It's time for lunch."

    Niko, who has been deep in her own work just as much as you have, looks up from her laptop. She smiles, faintly, and say "All right," before closing her laptop. "Thanks for telling me."

    You smile back, but hold off on kissing her because something's bothering you. "You're not going to try to fight me?" Well, maybe bothering you isn't the best way to put it. "That's… Not like you. I mean, I'm glad you're cooperating, Niko, but… Is everything okay?"

    "I figured you set that alarm for me in the first place," Niko says. "Since you went through the trouble of making sure I knew when it was time to break, I didn't see much of a point in fighting it, especially since I knew you were going to be obstinate about me eating regardless of how cooperative I was or wasn't going to be." Niko shrugs her shoulders, adding "So I figured it was smarter to just go along with it."

    She's learning! Well, that certainly warrants giving Niko a kiss. But you won't overdo it. You're not like Saki and Mirai, after all. "I'm glad to hear you say that," you say to Niko. "It's not good to skip meals. Come on, I'll make something tasty for lunch."

    You just hope your cooking skills are up to par since, you know, you don't have any of the old you's culinary experience.

    You try your best, but you still feel like Umika and Berserker have one up on you in the cooking department. This pasta dish doesn't make you feel as warm and fuzzy inside as anything either of them have made does. But at least it's food in Niko's stomach, so up to par or not, you're at least glad to be properly feeding her. "Now, I hate to talk work while we're eating, but maybe we could use this time to discuss what we've found so far?"

    Saki and Mirai both nod their heads, and Saki speaks first. "So, I was thinking about some of the pieces that we already know about," she says, "And so Mirai and I decided to focus on looking up deities and heroic figures from Slavic folklore, to try and get a handle on what Sidonia's other options might be, outside of what we already know."

    Okay, you're off to a good start so far, you think. "We started by trying to find potential figures that she might be able to use as a… Replacement, I guess, for Archer," Mirai says. "You know, since she's been so keen on poaching from us, and Archer's the only one we're currently missing." A moment of silence falls over the table, as the four of you daren't mention Satomi's passing.

    "We tried to limit our searches to people whose stories Sidonia would be familiar with, so that meant sticking with sources that were either contemporary to, or earlier, than her," Saki adds; "And we also limited our searches to parts of the world whose stories Sidonia would have been familiar with in life, since we thought it would make sense that she'd want to summon someone in line with everything else she's thrown at us; so we tried to limit our search to places like Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Lithuania, and Russia."

    "Did you find anything?" you ask. "That's the important part."

    "Do you have any idea how hard it was to find even a single famous Slavic archer?" Mirai asks, almost snapping her response at you. When she realises her tone, she apologises. "Sorry. It's just… There really wasn't a whole lot there for us. We found plenty of guys on horseback, plenty of guys with swords, spears, that sort of thing; but not a lot in the way of bows and arrows."

    "We found all of one person who might be a candidate for Archer, assuming Sidonia were planning on summoning a replacement," Saki says. "He was a marksman who makes a deal with the Devil for magic bullets; the story's most famous in Germany, but I saw that there's also a Slovenian version that would probably be more well-known to someone familiar with Slavic folklore, and the stories were early enough that Sidonia would have been aware of them. If she's looking for a replacement Archer, he'd probably be her best bet, based on what we found."

    "But, what makes you think she'd be interested in that?" you ask. "Mikuni's Lancer made it seem like the woman Sidonia was looking to summon using that sword would be more than enough, so…?"

    "It's like I said before," Mirai says. "Sidonia's gotten all of her previous servants by poaching from us. Since we're missing Archer, it would only make sense for her to be looking for an Archer of her own if she wanted to complete the set."

    As Mirai drums her fingers against the table, Niko speaks up. "But on the topic of Gudrun, I can't help but wonder whether Sidonia would need to make space for her in our roster," she says. "Assuming your theory tracks, it seems like it would be easier for Sidonia to summon her own servants if there's already a gap in our roster that she can fill."

    "You think she's going to try knocking one or more of our servants out in order to make room for Gudrun?"

    Niko nods her head in response to Saki's question. "It's possible she might have to," Niko says. "Based on what we already know, it seems like it'd be a stretch for the system to just… Let Sidonia start summoning from a third potential roster. So it seems more likely that she'd have to make room in one of our existing rosters for Gudrun. My guesses are Rider and Berserker, since those seem like the most likely classes for Gudrun to fall into, based on what we've heard."

    "I'd like to see her try," Mirai says.

    Niko sends a derisive snort in Mirai's direction; "And I'd like to see you actually able to use Rider to his fullest," she says. "But that's just my theory on the matter. I could be wrong."

    "No, it seems like it's a logical assumption to make," Saki says. "I won't say we should hold them back, since outside of Lancer we don't have any other heavy hitters left, but we should keep a close eye on them; Berserker in particular. With the way her Noble Phantasm works, she seems like the more vulnerable of the two, especially if Sidonia's able to catch her while it's in cooldown."

    "What about other possible servants?" you ask. "If Niko thinks that Sidonia might start targeting our servants in order to make room for some of her own, who else should we be keeping our eyes on?"

    "Honestly? There's… A lot of possibilities if we assume that much," Saki says. "Some of them, like this troupe of Russian folk heroes, might even qualify for several classes. We'd probably be smart to keep our eyes on Lancer, Rider, and Berserker; not just because Sidonia's got a bunch of options if she wanted to replace one of them with one of her own, but also because, without them, we'd only have Assassin; and she's not even a combat servant."

    "I can hold my own in combat against the smaller ones, like the wolves," Assassin says. She's sitting in the corner, looking over something that Niko handed off to her earlier in the day. "But against anything bigger, you're correct; I'm at a severe disadvantage when it comes to combat." Before she returns to whatever it is she's looking at, Assassin says "Master, I'm glad to see that you're eating something."

    "Besides, she'd have to get that book back first in order to do any of this, right?" You want to sound sure of what you're saying, but your words come out more like a question than a statement. "Akemi's keeping the book at her place, but I don't know how secure that is. Maybe we should offer to reinforce her apartment?"

    Saki and Mirai look at each other, and you imagine the silent conversation the two are sharing at your suggestion. "What about other deities?" you ask, when neither of them provides you with an answer. "You said you were also looking into other deities, so did you find anything out about deities besides the four the Quintet said they found effigies of?"

    Saki scratches at the back of her head, hissing through her teeth. It's Mirai who speaks up. "See, that's the thing," she says. "There's… Some information out there, but Christian missions into Slavic territories did a really good job of wiping out a lot of the pagan traditions, and any information that's left is either based on what was written down before that, or is based on what Christian missionaries were writing about after the fact. We found a bunch of deities whose identities had to be reconstructed after the fact based on interpretations of older sources; and even some that scholars think might not have existed, or who only exist in sources of dubious legitimacy."

    "Chernobog is one of the latter," Saki says. "They're a fairly popular and well-known Slavic deity nowadays, according to what we found, but there's evidence to suggest that they might not have even existed. Even during Sidonia's time, academics were sceptical that Chernobog was ever a real deity that people worshiped. So if they weren't real, then I doubt Sidonia would be looking to invoke them."

    "Though she might try to invoke Svarog for more than just fire," Mirai adds. "He's one of the effigies the Quintet found in Sidonia's workshop, if you'll remember what they said before. Mikuni thought Sidonia might just be invoking him for her fire magic, but he's also a deity of blacksmithing. So, since that sword of hers is just a shard, it's possible she might try invoking him in order to remake it into a complete sword."

    "But the Quintet said they're keeping the shard of Dáinsleif secure in Tomoe's apartment," Niko says. "Sidonia would have to retrieve it first. Unlike Akemi's apartment, I doubt she'd be able to get past whatever defences Tomoe's Caster has put up. He seems pretty strong, especially if he's able to fight Rider on even footing."

    You exhale slowly as you consider the results of your – actually more like Saki and Mirai's – research. A possible replacement for Archer if Sidonia manages to get her hands on that book of hers, and a warning to keep Lancer, Rider, and Berserker safe so Sidonia can't replace them as well. One deity that might not exist, and another that Sidonia already worships who might be more useful to her than you initially thought. As though you had any thoughts about the deities Sidonia worshiped to start with. But where can you go from here? "All right, let's keep going after we're done eating."

    [ ] Wat do? (write-in)​
     
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    • Fun fact, the Poles really do have their own version of Max from Der Freischütz. It's not Polish, it's Slovenian; that's my mistake. His name's Lampert, the warlock marksman. It's basically the same story, except Polish instead of German. And there happens to be an open slot for Archer, if Sidonia is interested. Of course, if that's the case then Sidonia will have to make an open slot for Gudrun somewhere, so we should probably keep our remaining powese servants safe, especially if they might fit into a class Gudrun could be summoned into. I can't remember if that's even been addressed before, but I'm certain that it's new to the Saints. So is Svarog being a deity of blacksmithing, which if you think about it, is probably what Sidonia was already invoking him for, to fix her shard of Dáinsleif. Tried not to focus too much on stuff we've already covered in one form or another, with the exception of mentioning that Chernobog might historically have not been worshiped by the Slavs.

    Not sure where to go from here. I might have something more concrete later, or I might not. It'll depend on whether inspiration strikes me and whether I have to be the one who cooks dinner tonight.
     
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    SVS said:
    "We found all of one person who might be a candidate for Archer, assuming Sidonia were planning on summoning a replacement," Saki says. "He was a marksman who makes a deal with the Devil for magic bullets; there's versions of the story that were known in both Germany and Poland, and that were early enough that Sidonia would have been aware of them. If she's looking for a replacement Archer, he'd probably be her best bet, based on what we found."
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    Der Frieschutz! I actually know this one!

    ... Admittedly, I more familiar with the Lobotomy Corporation version of the story where the dude told the devil to wait a minute and then shot all his loved ones himself before he accepted the deal. But still, I've heard of this one even before I got to him sort of showing up in Shinjuku in FGO.
     
    NMS said:
    Der Frieschutz! I actually know this one!

    ... Admittedly, I more familiar with the Lobotomy Corporation version of the story where the dude told the devil to wait a minute and then shot all his loved ones himself before he accepted the deal. But still, I've heard of this one even before I got to him sort of showing up in Shinjuku in FGO.
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    Oh you do? Sing the entirety of Carl Maria von Weber's opera, in that case.

    I'm kidding. I'm not going to shit-check you like that. But I can guarantee you this, if Max/Lampert ends up appearing as one of Sidonia's servants replacing Atalanta, he sure as shooting won't be based on FGO's version. Though whether he leans more heavily on the more well-known German version, or the more thematically-appropriate Polish Slovene version, I won't say.

    Oops, turns out I had misremembered. Lampert is from the Slovenian version, not Polish. Still a well-known story in Slavic folklore of the time, but wrong country. I'll go and make the correction now.

    Also, something very interesting that I just found, that I think I should include in the next update no matter where we take it.
    E. T. A. Hoffmann's The Affianced Spectre (1847) is another variant.[4] In this story, after the seventh bullet shoots Wilhelm's mistress, Catherine, instead of the game at which Wilhelm aimed, the devil triumphs at Wilhelm's misery. Wilhelm marries another woman at the end of the year, despite having sworn an oath at Catherine's grave to remain single for the rest of his life. Out of grief, Wilhelm takes a solitary excursion into the forest. As he rides, he hears the wild huntsman, his pack, and wolves chasing after him. A thunderbolt throws Wilhelm from the horse. A mysterious voice commands Wilhelm to follow and leads him to a cavern, where Wilhelm sees many skeletons, one of which is that of Catherine; the skeleton waltzes with Wilhelm. Other skeletons join the dance until daybreak. The following morning, Wilhelm and his horse are found dead and gnawed by the wolves.
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    Apparently, there's a version of the story that involves the Wild Hunt. It postdates Sidonia by several hundred years, but still. How the fuck do you like them apples, huh?
     
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    SVS said:
    I'm kidding. I'm not going to shit-check you like that. But I can guarantee you this, if Max/Lampert ends up appearing as one of Sidonia's servants replacing Atalanta, he sure as shooting won't be based on FGO's version. Though whether he leans more heavily on the more well-known German version, or the more thematically-appropriate Polish Slovene version, I won't say.
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    Well, yeah. I figured as much. FGO's version is only a Phantom Spirit that can't be summoned unless he's fused with another Phantom or Heroic Spirit. And, as far as I'm aware, Sidonia has no connection to James Moriarty. :V
     
    [X] Try asking about setting up defensive measures before Sidonia starts her invasion, so that you have at least some advantage.

    I've gotten the go-ahead to occasionally borrow my dad's computer so I can vote-make occasionally, but I'm not used to his keyboard so it still feels kind of awkward (muting my productivity a bit), plus I don't really know where to take this vote.
     
    SVS said:
    Could I chance to inquire as to what sort of defensive measures you're thinking of?
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    Well there's what NMS said, adding remote artillery or something to increase our attack power since I don't doubt we could do that, finally going through with the familiars to beef up our numbers so that there's less to focus on in battle... honestly didn't think it through much (sorry), but those are three fairly solid ideas. Like I said, my productivity has died down a bit, so I might not be the creative force I usually am, sorry.
     
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