To make people actually remember, here's it once for posterity: Minako is nonbinary and uses they/them. This message will be pinned so you people stop getting it wrong and pissing me off. If you get it wrong in the future I'm going to be much less nice, considering you have to scroll past it just to read the quest.
Rin trusted the Incubator, and look what it got her. Coob probably does want to stop this thing, but its secondary goals will be to murder Minako's family. The Incubator's help is and always has been a poison pill.
I called it. Jesus fuck I called it. Madokami help us.
[X] Don't trust Incubator.
That said, while coobie is probably scared shitless of this thing, it'll likely try to get Team Mitakihara- especially Mina and their fuckery- killed in the process of removing this threat. Therefore, keep both eyes open.
"Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain."
Oh wait we did see the thing. But Mina didn't. But whatever.
More seriously, never trust the KB.
And I mean... yes, the thing is being truthful to a point, as always, but it literally just said it wanted to kill so many people, so that's not the best pitch ever?
I've gotta ask: why was Rin basically celebrating Minako's appearance when it's clear she didn't need them to absorb Walpurgisnacht? That's kind of scary.
Power consumption implies full immunity to magic. Mina is probably the only person who can defeat this thing.
We know Rin's dead, but do we know if she's 'merely' completely dead, or mega-100%-dead? Could Mina, like, pull some sort of ghost out of the machine, causing it to malfunction? I dunno, just a thought.
Yeah, I think the Incubator is being truthful, but as others have said considering what it's actually said about its motivations that's all the more reason not to trust the damn thing.
You can work with them perhaps on a case by case basis, when the terms are simple.
But never trust.
Whatever they say, their interests and yours do not align. And honor and precedent are meaningless to them--they will take the act that provides the greatest net yield at any given moment regardless of what the overall long term costs are.
What does not trust mean? Refuse to work, disbelief, even if Qb is telling the truth about this he's planning on screwing us over in a different way, temporary truce?
[] Don't trust Incubator.
Yeah fuck the Incubator. It's 100% telling the truth but it's advice is probably entirely predicated on getting Mina and their family, as well as Takane and Mami, killed.
This thing is pretty clearly immune to magic and basically all forms of violence due to it's nature; I will bet money that Mina is the only one who can do anything to stop it and they're gonna have to fucking mind-dive this... monstrosity.
Kyubey doesn't lie, but they never tell you the full truth either. Reading between the lines it's not hard to see that one of it's other goals was the destruction of the Sakura-Miki family and all the rest of the cities magi.
I'm not willing to accept that Kyubey has our number yet.
What does not trust mean? Refuse to work, disbelief, even if Qb is telling the truth about this he's planning on screwing us over in a different way, temporary truce?
Going to have to change my vote then if 'trust' means cooperate, then 'not trust' probably means don't cooperate and I don't want to deal with this witch alone.
This feels like it's absolutely a mistake. At the same time, considering how much Kyuubi doesn't understand things, I suspect that it won't understand the real way to solve this, which probably has to do with feelings and reaching out... both because it's the MC's power, and because it kinda fits the themes of the story.
So I'm not sure, because if we trust Kyuubi and their plan is, like, a big attack to try to defeat it entirely by force of arms?
KB doesn't come with a middle of the road setting. If you give it a hand, it will always plot to take off your whole arm. At least.
The vote isn't 'cooperate with the incubator' or not. Even if it were, KB would find a way to rip off our metaphorical arms no matter how little we try to give up in order to get its help.
Dealing with KB is pretty much a binary option. It's either yes or no.
I believe that what we've been told is at least partially true. (It doesn't seem implausible that Langstenacht is going full Fimbulvinter on us). But. As for whether the Incubator has come down with a sudden case of altruism?
[X] Don't trust Incubator.
Yeah, nah. The apocalypse-in-progress might mean it'll give us some kind of help, but we don't have any way to know how far that'll extend, how string-free it might be, or how long an alliance of convenience might last before we get it in the kidneys.
I trust them to tell the truth, but never voluntarily the whole truth. I trust them to spin that truth like it's a top and they're in a competition - even in the immediate, note them calling Walpurgisnacht a "natural event", spinning it as something that just sort of happens even though the witches and everything from that is their system, their creation, their responsibility that they actively monitor and manage, but kami forbid they take responsibility for that.
And why would they? Because another thing I trust them to do is to care about themselves and their supposed "greater good" first, always, and everyone else who might be hurt only in a far distant second, and in a way similar to how the manager of a slaughterhouse might care about the cows on a farm - impersonally, distantly, and only so far as to have the cows live long enough and healthily enough to come to the slaughterhouse to die and be harvested.
So yes, in these ways I trust Kyubey. But insofar as I care about the actual people here under threat, about finding a solution that is "good" rather than "optimal", those forms of trust demand that for this I must answer:
The creature turns towards you. 'I have no reason to lie to you.'
"And between the shit you've done, the pain you've caused, and what you said you wanted to do, do you seriously expect me to trust you? To listen to you?" You seethe. "Leave. We're fuckin' capable. And we don't need to work with you."
The creature walks towards you, then looks directly towards your hand. It stares, and stares, and stares. It expects you to kick it. To break it down. To knock it aside.
And then you simply...move past it. You don't touch it. You don't crush it. You don't smack it aside, and you don't knock it down. It is below you. It is not relevant to you. You glance back.
"Your way has caused enough harm. It's our turn, now."
The creature doesn't flick its tail. It just stares past you. 'An unexpected kindness.'
"Nah. You aren't worth the effort," you hiss. "And what're you gonna suggest? That we beat it down? Bomb it to death?"
'I was to suggest using your power. However, the risk is-'
"Yeah, yeah it's huge. You were hoping for that, weren't you?"
It doesn't answer.
You turn away. "Now let us deal with your fucking mess."
'So be it. But I must leave you one last message.' The creature begins to dissolve. 'Langstenacht will continue to grow. There will be brief periods of pause before it recuperates and expands its influence, and it will grow at an exponential rate. It is at a lull now, but in just a few hours, it will overtake Japan. Then it will overtake the greater Asian continent. Then it will overtake most of Earth. And then it will begin to try to expand out from the Solar System. Your time is limited, and we have no idea how much it can grow.'
"I didn't need to know how bad things could get, but thanks."
And just as you finish speaking, it vanishes. You take a few steps towards everyone else. As you do, you hear them arguing about how exactly to deal with Langstenacht. Because it's more clear now than ever that Langstenacht is...well...
World-ending.
That's a hell of a thought, isn't it?
You walk up closer. Your mama is pointing vividly at Sayaka, who is arguing with Yuki about the best course forward. Akane's mouth is open as she points out how an expansion of energy could maybe slow Langstenacht's growth. Your girlfriend mentions incendiary rounds, and Mami mentions how she can make a rapid-fire artillery cannon.
And then you notice something behind them. A woman walking from a shadow. Honestly...you don't quite recognize her as she exits. Her hair is short and black, barely reaching down the nape of her neck. It's shorter than Tomo's, and on her neck is a lace of geometric tattoos and eyes. She wears a blazer, a purple necktie, and a white shirt, and over her back is a heavy sack that jangles with the sound of metal against metal.
Everyone stops speaking as you approach, but it's not even because of you.
"The train was a little slow, so I have to apologize for my tardiness." She raises her head. "But I believe we still have work to do."
Your mothers both freeze in place. Your mama watches with her eyes wide, then whispers.
Your name is Sayaka, and your knuckles sting. You're staring at the woman on the ground, the woman with a duffel bag full of big, heavy firearms that you just laid out with a single good punch.
"Where the hell have you been," you hiss. "You missed the part where Rin destroyed our home."
"I took a train northwards. We hit a snag." Homura runs her hand across the ground, slowly pushing herself off the wall. She wipes her bloody nose, and with a shine she heals it away. "Something about seismic activity. I had to make it here by foot."
You stare her down. "And the decade before that?"
She shrugs. "Personal reasons." She smiles. "By the way, good to see you too, Sayaka."
"Don't get too pissed at her," your wife says. "I convinced her to leave."
You blink. "Kyou?"
"She's right." Homura smiles at Kyouko. "I was globetrotting. Met new friends, new partners...made a friend with Madoka again. I think she told you about that." She looks past all of you. "And that's...it, right?"
"Langstenacht." You all turn to Minako, who walks over as quickly as they can. "That's what Kyubey called it. It expected us to cooperate. I told Kyubey to shove it."
Homura nods in obvious approval. "So how...immediate is it?"
"Let's assume pretty immediate," you say. "Our time is extremely limited. So I guess it's a good thing you decided to show up." You wonder how much you've forgiven her for breaking Madoka's heart. Or how she betrayed your trust so many times while dating your best friend. Or any number of the problems that she ran into or the number of times she almost sabotaged her own happiness. "What do you want, Akemi."
"To help. Against my better judgement." She breathes in. "I had every opportunity to go home. I actually did start to make things better with Madoka. We're friends again."
"So I heard." You cross your arms. "We need to have words, Akemi."
"So we do." She meets you. She's slightly shorter than you are; neither of you are particularly tall, but she was always particularly scrawny. Even with that height difference, she looks you in the eyes with the same look of someone that has probably seen way, way too much for their age.
Kyouko moves beside you. "So while you are here..." she says as she looks to the bag, "...what did you bring?"
"Guns. Rocket launchers. I actually managed to nab a historical battleship. It's mostly nonfunctional, but it has a large amount of ammunition on board; too dangerous to remove, but perfect for, perhaps, a large-scale missile." She looks back to you. "So what is the nature of this monster?"
"It's Walpurgis," you say. "Except...different."
"Incubator called it 'Langstenacht'," Minako says. "It's a witch of entropy. It eats energy, which is why everything's freezing."
"So it's trying to make everything settle at absolute zero." Homura mutters. "Interesting."
Your hand twists a little. You're still struggling to process the words. You're still angry at her. Still pissed at what she did, and your last few interactions. And yet...
Well, time is of the essence, isn't it?
[] Talk to her now. You can't let it go. You can't let everything just go like that.
[] Wait until an opportune moment. Time is of the essence, and you can argue with Homura later.
