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.
[X] Try and keep calm and try to keep the training going. (DIFFICULTY 1 - You can deal with this. This is fine. You can just suck it up and fucking deal.)
-[X] If you really can't deal, maybe go chop up some junk in the background or something for a while before trying again?
[X] Try and keep calm and try to keep the training going. (DIFFICULTY 1 - You can deal with this. This is fine. You can just suck it up and fucking deal.)
-[X] Look on the bright side, this is an opportunity to show off to your child and make sure she knows who to call in case of a magical related emergency.
[X] Try and keep calm and try to keep the training going. (DIFFICULTY 1 - You can deal with this. This is fine. You can just suck it up and fucking deal.)
-[X] If you really can't deal, maybe go chop up some junk in the background or something for a while before trying again?
You set your jaw as Mina and Takane walk over the crest. You see Kyouko tense up, before she takes a deep, deep breath and says, "Don't get pissed."
"You're right. You're right." You breathe in through your nose and exhale as loudly as possible. As they get closer, you notice that Takane doesn't look all there. You relax a bit more; there's a pretty handy explanation for why she didn't tell you beforehand.
You glance to Kyouko. 'She's still thinking about the Witch, isn't she?'
'Wait, what?' Kyouko looks back. 'Ah, shit.'
You keep your eyes on Takane. As she and Minako get closer, she winces. 'I...did I tell you?'
'No.' Kyouko answers before you do. 'No you didn't.'
Minako almost waves, their arm is halfway up from their side before they read the proverbial room. They bring their arm back to their side and glance to Takane. "You told them I was coming, right?"
"I thought I did." Takane glances to the side, down the hill and towards the city.
"That's not a small thing to leave out." You cross your arms. "Did you both plan on this or was this a spur-"
"I suggested it." Minako raises their hand. Takane quickly turns her head to them in surprise. That tells you that Minako is lying. Poorly.
But you're going to go along with it.
"Okay. Sure." You walk over. "Just stay far back, okay? Training gets dangerous for non-magi."
Takane steps forward to ask. "Do you know what place is safe for them?"
"Well, there's a spot up the hill. We can take them there." You move towards Minako and reach your hand out. "Get on my back."
They stare at you incredulously. Then you motion for them to get on. Minako shrugs and wraps their arms around you. Without much effort you grab their legs, and their grip tightens as you leap into the air. You don't jump as high as you normally would, that would risk seriously injuring Minako, but they still hold on for dear life around your neck as you take a few quick hops up the side of the hill toward the edge of the nearby forest.
"Stay here. And we're going to have a talk about this later."
Before Minako can answer, you leap off the hill and right towards the ground. Your feet slam into the dirt, and you don't even bother to soften your landing. You clap your hands together. "Alright. So are we sparring or what." It's not a question.
"You wanted to spar, right? Who are you doing it with?"
"I uh..." Takane takes a step back. "Y-you. You! You're a strong, d-defensive opponent and I wanted to see if I could m-make a hit on you."
"Alright." You breathe in through your nose. "I won't go easy on you-"
"T-then..." Takane stops. She stands upright, takes a long, deep breath. She composes herself, steeling herself to a razor focus. "Then don't." Takane breathes out. "None of you have before and I don't want you to change that now."
You crack your knuckles. "Good, now co-"
They're already filling your vision before you can finish talking. You stop the hit with a bare-handed deflection, as a flash of green fires towards the ground behind you. Both Akane and Kyouko jump out of the way and towards the sidelines, as both you and Takane transform mid-struggle.
"Good. Forgo most of your transformation; just go for the attack."
"It's an easy lesson to pin down." She says as her uniform materializes on her body.
"Well," your armor shimmers into existence, before your blade appears in your hand, "that's still just lesson one. Here's two through five."
You sweep, a quick, vicious swing to her midsection before she fires her second round; an orange propulsion shot. She goes soaring backwards, just out of reach of your attack before she fires again, this time into the dirt just underneath her.
She twists, mumbles something under her breath, before she fires a few more shots your direction. You whip your shield out, transform it into a massive tower shield, and drop to one knee. The shots rain down, each one getting heavier than the last, before you feel Takane's feet clamp against the surface. She jumps back violently, and it's then you notice...
She's about to snap.
You glance between her, her fingers, then the shield just over your head. You let go of the shield, and kick.
She snaps. The shots attached to the shield explode in a shower of green smoke. The shield rockets right towards the ground, bent in half, before it bounces off the dirt with a spray of debris. You take that as an opportunity to shove your blade right into the center of it.
The sword transforms in your hands, becoming a single, massive greatsword as you twist your torso, plant your feet, and bring it up in a spectacular arc. Takane blinks in shock, before she fires a bright, blue round. A wall of green energy erupts between you and her, but it's not enough to stop your momentum.
It is, however, enough to slow your swing. She jumps over your missed attack, before she stomps it into the ground. She hurls into the sky, over your head, with another shot chambered. Another flash. This time you pull your greatsword up to block, and she plants her hands into the broad side of your sword. You can feel her start to jump off, but you decide to take a risk.
You move your pommel first.
She lands in the dirt, already chambering a new round, before you come in hard with your pommel. She deflects the hilt of your sword, before you pull a smaller blade out from underneath.
But her deflection is messy. Her hand goes way too far as she tries to deflect the sword swing, her hands get crossed up; her right over her left. Her eyes widen as she realizes, a split second too late, that she's down a defensive option. And you take that opportunity to give her a punch to the face with your off-hand.
To her credit, she's able to move her arms up to block your punch, and she jumps, right as you bring up a knee in an attempt to get her in the stomach.
But that doesn't stop you from pulling your arms apart. Without a foothold she finds herself spinning wildly into the air, and without anything to stop protect her, you give her a hammer-strike directed right at her stomach. She brings her arms up to deflect it, but even then, the force still needs to go somewhere.
She hits the ground hard, with enough force to crater it. She coughs, her mouth wide open, her back probably feels like hell. You bring your blade back, ready to strike her as she goes for another torso strike.
Except...except she just lies there. She's just fucking lying there. "I forfeit." She mutters.
You blink in confusion, and say, "I didn't get a hit on your torso. It was just a series of deflections."
"Yes, but I missed several opportunities. There was no way I was going to win in that scenario." She coughs again. "U-ugh, heck. I could have-"
"You could have...? You could have what? I want to hear it." You turn your head towards her. You really didn't want to hear this now.
"I mean I could have seen that pommel strike coming. O-or I could have gone under the sword and shot. Or I could have-"
"Kept going." You say. "You weren't finished yet. You were lying on the ground." You square your shoulders to face her. "You weren't incapacitated, not according to the rules."
"But I was done. I had lost."
"You didn't lose." You say. "You forfeit. You gave up."
"There was no good way out of that." She sits up in the crater; her pain is apparently gone by this point. "My back was in the crater, there was nothing I could have-"
"You could have done a million different things!" You walk towards her. "You could have used those gauntlets of yours to blow me away! You could have shot me while I was talking, you could have used the dust as a cover, you could have done any number of things!"
"This is a training exercise to test my abilities, and my abilities are not there yet."
"You won't know that until you give it a fucking try!" You're screaming at her now; you can't even see her expression through all the red. "There is no fucking impossible scenario that you can't fight your way out of! For all that you're overthinking shit, all that you're talking about how it's all impossible, how this scenario is unwinnable, and I cannot believe that you have the gall to tell that to my fucking face!"
Takane winces, then looks away.
"All this after you and Minako went behind my back, and brought them here to watch for what? What did you think it was a good idea to get them in deeper?!"
"Sayaka-" Kyouko starts, but you don't acknowledge it. You're too deep into this.
"I tried my goddamn hardest to keep them away from this and you're out here bringing them in to watch like it's a fucking exhibition? Behind my back? Without telling me?!"
"I was going to tell you!" Takane's face falls. "It's not even that much of-"
"Yeah you were going to tell me. You could have told me! But I guess that was another unwinnable fucking scenario!"
The training grounds are silent. Minako is still on top of the cliff, just staring at the both of you. Takane is just shaking in her boots, still staring at you as you exhale. You're still fucking furious. You can't begin to articulate how angry you are.
Then Takane sniffs. She shakes her head. Then she sobs. She falls to her knees and starts sobbing.
You weren't expecting that. You probably should have expected that. Experience says don't press these girls. They're traumatized. They've been lied to. They're just like you were years ago. Except the past few days have probably hit you a bit harder than you'd care to admit.
"Shit. Shit shit shit shit." You look to Kyouko, who's shaking her head rapidly.
You turn back towards Minako who's not looking that great themself, glancing between their sobbing girlfriend, and then at you, the fucking bitch that just screamed at her for no fucking reason. What's wrong with you. You screamed at a child for not being adult enough. That's not a reasonable ask what is wrong with you.
"I uh...I think training's over." Akane mutters as she walks behind you and towards Minako's spot. 'I hope your next appointment's soon.'
'I...I had it yesterday.' You run your hand through your hair.
'Burgh.' Akane jumps over to get to Minako. They climb onto their arm.
'Let's just go home.' Kyouko grimaces. 'Christ.'
'That was too far.'
'It was.' Kyouko pats your back. 'I just...I'll check on her later.'
[=]
Your name is Minako, and you were silent on the way back to the apartment. The train ride was uncomfortably quiet; nobody was riding it when you and your moms got on-board. You're still leaning on Takane's shoulder. Her face is buried in her hands.
She sniffles again. You rub your cheek against her shoulder, and you glance at your mom.
She's staring out the window as the buildings pass by. It's just...you don't get her. You really don't get her sometimes. She rubs her eyes as she keeps staring out.
Finally, the train stops. You and Takane leave the train. You give her a kiss, and she jumps out into the night on her way back to her dads' apartment.
Your mom separates from the rest of you to go ahead and do...something. It's probably some magi bullshit. Whatever. You didn't want to talk to her yet anyway. It's probably something that you'll want to do later.
And you find yourself climbing up the stairs towards the apartment where you and your moms live. You don't know if you should actually try to talk or not when your mom's back from that something at the pier.
Your mama looks wildly uncomfortable as she stares out the window. She doesn't really even seem to be in a mood to talk. Truthfully, neither are you.
You kind of just want to retreat into your room and lock the door and text Takane to see if she's okay.
So it's a matter of figuring out what to do when your mom does come back...
WHILE WAITING FOR YOUR MOM TO RETURN...
[] Talk to your mama (Write-in what to discuss: MINIMUM DIFFICULTY: 1)
[] Don't talk. Just stew. (There is no roll)
AND WHEN YOUR MOM'S BACK...
[] Avoid her. (ACCURACY 1 - This is not a solution.)
[] Talk to her. (WRITE-IN; MINIMUM DIFFICULTY: 2)
[] Talk to your mama. (WRITE-IN; MINIMUM DIFFICULTY: 2)
Adhoc vote count started by TheOneMoiderah on Jun 9, 2019 at 10:05 AM, finished with 12 posts and 1 votes.
[X] Talk to her. (Anything, nothing, whatever. Just gotta talk to her about something. And if you're lucky maybe she'll tell you what the fuck she thought that was. MINIMUM DIFFICULTY 2)
Is it just me, or does this whole quest feel...aimless?
And, like, lacking in energy?
Now I never actually finished reading the original, but it had this sense of forward motion permeating it. Like sure everything was terrible and you were probably gonna die, but why let that stand in the way of going balls out
Is it just me, or does this whole quest feel...aimless?
And, like, lacking in energy?
Now I never actually finished reading the original, but it had this sense of forward motion permeating it. Like sure everything was terrible and you were probably gonna die, but why let that stand in the way of going balls out
Is it just me, or does this whole quest feel...aimless?
And, like, lacking in energy?
Now I never actually finished reading the original, but it had this sense of forward motion permeating it. Like sure everything was terrible and you were probably gonna die, but why let that stand in the way of going balls out
Arguably, you don't feel the sense of urgent apocalypse just behind the next hill because that time around, you knew about Walpurgisnacht and time travel and stuff.
Here, you don't know what the end game is.
As for the plot hooks... did you perhaps mean trauma hooks?
I feel that's being a bit reductionist. The plot is an exploration of a character who has, ostensibly, won their big defining conflict. They've made a life for themselves and want to protect it as best they can. However, I think not exploring the deep seated issues of being a Puella Magi would be a disservice to both the source material and the original quest this one has spawned from. Sayaka is a strong woman, but she is also a deeply damaged one and what happiness she has gained had to be clawed for against a cruel and terrible system designed to destroy her.
So it's really no surprise she's going to be terrified of what might happen to Minako. What parent would want their child to suffer the same things they did? Especially since Kyubey is always in the shadows, just waiting for the chance to recruit more children into the war against entropy.
Despite the rapid pace of the Quest I believe we should remember it's early days yet. A great deal of the story so far has been setting the stage, letting us know the state of the world and the people in it. This is a story about dealing with lingering scars, upsetting the status quo, and parenthood. Some of these themes will get more focus than the others at different times. That's just how stories work.
I would suggest being patient. No doubt Moid has a plan they're working off of. For my part, I'm interested in seeing where this all goes. There's still most of the story left to unfold, and I have faith in their ability to weave an engaging and entertaining Quest.
In my defense, I was mostly responding to the flippancy there, but I do take your point. Still though, I'm likely to just lurk for now. This isnt really grabbing my attention right now
I mean, right now it's also in Sayakas character to be ignoring plothooks.
She is done, she doesn't want to have to deal with any more major shit, all she wants to do is to have as normal life as she can and keep the spawn away from megucaness as much as possible.
Her power is Tac-Analysis. But shit in-shit out. She takes what she knows about the enemy and herself and gets a best bet. Possibly she's better at handling known unknowns from the enemy than unknown unknowns from herself.
So - she needs to learn to not give up - or if her power says it's no win how to recognize that before its to late to up and safely retreat.
Training is a (comparatively) safe space to not surrender, to go beyond the impossible, to learn her real limits.
She needs it beaten into her that if she has no way to win, she needs to change up the game and see what else she can do - can she make her enemy lose? Can she avoid losing herself? Can she get away?
The fights she has been in that she gave up didn't start as no win situations - or she wouldn't have started - they became no win from developments. If she presses on - focuses on playing safe but still playing - the situation may change and give her an opening.
And she needs to learn what it is she really can not do, and what she merely thinks she can not do.
She needs a good talk about her reliance on the power and how it might be failing her, and after that she needs to practice with the recognition that the job is to prove her own power that she can do more than she thinks (even if that is not always wise and probably not worth it outside of training).
Hell, she's going up against age and experience - the advantage youth has on that is exuberance and energy. And not knowing when to quit. Her power tells her when to quit, that's throwing out her best bet at getting one in on her trainers.
Is it just me, or does this whole quest feel...aimless?
And, like, lacking in energy?
Now I never actually finished reading the original, but it had this sense of forward motion permeating it. Like sure everything was terrible and you were probably gonna die, but why let that stand in the way of going balls out
It's still pretty early days, and our protagonists comparatively have their Shit Together at this point. Real life generally is a little bit aimless until you're chasing something. I think it's appropriate, though I suspect some crisis is going to draw us in at some point.
I'm liking the meguca mom quest. It's got a meguca flavoring and is sprinkled with art and powerful fight scenes, but I feel it's more about Sayaka dealing with the hardships of being a mom to a teenager (and Minako dealing with being a teenager).
Maybe the Glow will shift the story's tracks in the future and make it more hectic/action focused, but for now I feel it's there to add tension to Sayaka's shoulders, in service of the megucamom drama.
If the believable feels keep rolling, I think that'll be great.
That said, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh what doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...
[Q] Talk with your mama.
-[Q] So... you guess you never really saw mama and mom get into a fight, uh? Must be terrific.
I'm assuming texting Takane happens first.
[X] See if mama wants to play games. -[X] Talk to your mama: About how you don't get mom sometimes. Like now.
AND WHEN YOUR MOM'S BACK... [ ] IDK
I'm tempted to vote 'avoid' because even though it's not a solution, it might be easier to talk after some more time passes? Like, tomorrow or something?
[X] Avoid her. (ACCURACY 1 - This is not a solution.)
[X] See if mama wants to play games. -[X] Talk to your mama: About how you don't get mom sometimes. Like now.
[X] Avoid her. (ACCURACY 1 - This is not a solution.)
[X] See if mama wants to play games.
-[X] Talk to your mama: About how you don't get mom sometimes. Like now.
[X] When your mom is back, silently stare at her until she talks first.
