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.
The most useful of the lot, however, would be Ume and her ability to vanish. It's not true invisibility; it doesn't last long and the warped air is easy enough to track if you know what to look for. But the trick lies in the fact that most people have no clue what to seek out. Her trick only works until it doesn't, but most magi will never, ever be able to find her.
Erika, has an ability that might actually be helpful for spying. Namely, she is capable of seeing everything, from every angle, within a range of three-hundred meters. It is borderline omniscience within a vast area, with perfect placement and knowledge of all goings-on within. However, because of how taxing it is, it can only last fifteen seconds at a time, and she can only do it once every twenty minutes. Given the breadth of the information she's taking in, you can easily see why she wouldn't use it that frequently.
Next on the list would be Suzu, with brick-red hair and ability to sense threats. This means all threats; existential, incoming, and immediate. She can sense them in waves, from deep discomfort when a threat is hours away to sharp signals when it's minutes out to borderline clairvoyance when danger is imminent. It doesn't stop danger from coming, nor does it make her invincible, but ever since you helped her focus her abilities, it stopped resembling, well, near-constant anxiety and more like an intense, long-running spidey-sense.
Green-and-yellow Takara is another choice. She sports the ability to disrupt communications, including scrambling the connection between a magi's body and their soul gem (though only temporarily). The more important part is preventing other magi from getting the word out, and potentially knocking them out long enough to make a getaway.
The most useful of the lot, however, would be Ume and her ability to vanish. It's not true invisibility; it doesn't last long and the warped air is easy enough to track if you know what to look for. But the trick lies in the fact that most people have no clue what to seek out. Her trick only works until it doesn't, but most magi will never, ever be able to find her.
[X] Does she want to talk about what happened, or Magi stuff, or anything like that? Or would she rather just hang out and talk about silly stuff, like how bad of a film you can find for your next movie date?
[X] Does she want to talk about what happened, or Magi stuff, or anything like that? Or would she rather just hang out and talk about silly stuff, like how bad of a film you can find for your next movie date?
Give her the option of whether we want more trauma or not.
[X] Does she want to talk about what happened, or Magi stuff, or anything like that? Or would she rather just hang out and talk about silly stuff, like how bad of a film you can find for your next movie date?
[X] Does she want to talk about what happened, or Magi stuff, or anything like that? Or would she rather just hang out and talk about silly stuff, like how bad of a film you can find for your next movie date?
[X] Does she want to talk about what happened, or Magi stuff, or anything like that? Or would she rather just hang out and talk about silly stuff, like how bad of a film you can find for your next movie date?
[X] Does she want to talk about what happened, or Magi stuff, or anything like that? Or would she rather just hang out and talk about silly stuff, like how bad of a film you can find for your next movie date?
You scratch the back of your head. "Do you actually want to talk about magi stuff? Or, uh...yesterday." You scoot closer. "I mean if you don't wanna, we can just be silly. Hang out. Talk about movies. Like how we're gonna see a really shitty one next time." You smile as broadly as you can at her. Probably a bit too broadly, but it's something she probably needs right now.
And judging by the way she giggles when she sees you, it worked. She sighs and walks closer to you.
"You're right. I don't want to talk about magi business right now. And your mom is..."
"Was completely un-fuckin'-called-for. And you ain't gonna convince me otherwise." You lean onto her shoulder.
She doesn't flinch back at the touch; another good sign. Instead, she wraps her hand around your shoulder. "You're right. I'd much rather relax now."
You rub your face in her shoulder. "Good.
"So do you wanna watch a movie?" you ask. "Like, after school? I wanna date again."
She chuckles. "That would be nice, yeah. Oh, perhaps a walk in the park?"
You shrug. "I could. I mean, it's close to the school; we can just go there afterwards, keep to a bench, relax a little..." You wrap your fingers around hers. "Forget about magi shit, at least for a little while."
She takes another breath. "Yeah. But even here, it's just...every so often one of those things does crop up. A witch."
Your mental image immediately goes to a poorly-drawn image of Gruntilda.
"Like...green skin and a broomstick and a black pointy hat and an evil EEHEEHEE laugh and she also rhymes?"
"I feel like you are making a very specific reference. But no, it's...not quite like that. Witches are the monsters we fight. They're strange. Like nothing you've ever seen, nor will you ever see. Like moving art, collages, statues brought to life, stitches and tears in reality given form."
"I have no idea how to parse that." You find yourself a little bit curious, honestly. You can't even imagine how these things would look.
"All you need to know is that they're bizarre."
"Huh." You stare gormlessly into space. You keep looking into the sky, at the clouds passing overhead...then you turn back to her. "So what kinda movies do you normally like?"
"Oh, kaiju!" She grins. "Giant monsters and other films that involve large monsters and machines together."
"So uh...Godzilla?"
"Especially Godzilla."
[=]
Hours later, and you and Takane have started your way towards the park. School went by pretty quickly. You let your moms know that you're going to be at the park with your girlfriend as you left school. Nothing too special, nothing too grand. Just a date, maybe a smooch.
You both make your way towards the massive brick pathway, supposedly a remnant from Old Mitakihara back before the disaster twenty years ago. Of all things that survived the cataclysm, especially this close to the epicenter, it had to be this brick road.
Not that you mind. It's still stained with blue and gold, and every so often the some of the brick has been replaced by very, very obvious new masonry. You and Takane sit on a bench, and as soon as you do, you wriggle a bit and put your head in her lap.
"Myeh." You continue to wriggle. "This is nice."
She giggles. "That is incredibly cute."
"I'm adorable." You wiggle a little more. You've gotten more comfortable with her. For someone that you were so smitten with, you managed to get pretty comfortable in a short amount of time. It's just...you both got along and you clicked.
You were expecting something a little more climactic. More dramatic. More tearful confessions of love, but you didn't...really get that?
And honestly, you're fine with that. You're okay with just "I wanna date" and then you do.
"Yes. Yes you are." She leans over your head. "So, what about you?"
"Me?" You scratch your head. "I like bad movies. Really bad movies." You giggle. "I mean, Hausu's my favorite film ever."
"Didn't that get a sequel?"
"It wasn't the same." You wave a hand. "The original movie is just...kinda a trainwreck? I heard it took them just a week to throw it all together and you can't really get that same level of bad from a movie that's trying to be bad. Bad has to be natural, y'know? You can't force sincerity."
"I guess not." Takane rubs her hand across your hair. You whine a little and she pulls her hand away.
"Noooo that was a good whine." You raise your hands. "Keep doing that."
She laughs out loud and brings her head down. You move up. She kisses you on the forehead.
"Heee." You close your eyes. "I'm just glad that it seems to be pretty okay so far. Not a complete disaster." You sigh. "Thanks for coming out with me, Takane." You scratch your chin and take a look up. "I gotta come up with a fun pet name."
To your disappointment, Takane seems to be distracted. She's staring dead ahead, eyes narrowed as she keeps watch on something in the distance. She's not responding to you, even as you just watch up at her chin.
"Takane?"
"I'm sorry," she says. "There's something here."
"A...witch?"
She looks down at you, and you immediately pull yourself upright. She stands up off the bench. "I'm sorry; I'll be back in just a second."
"Takane-"
"It won't take that long, I promise."
She takes a few steps backwards. She looks up towards your apartment complex, then to the side with a quick jerk of her head. She sees a number of people wandering through the streets, seemingly entranced, and as she traces the crowd, she notices them converging on something.
She dashes out of your sight, right towards...wherever.
You watch the cloud of dust behind her flutter towards the ground. You stand up before she's even out of your sight. You want to shout out to her, but then you stop yourself.
She'd try to stop you. She doesn't want you to put yourself in danger. But these people are kissed like that boy on the roof. If they're gonna endanger themselves, you're sure as fuck not going to leave them to it.
You look at your phone. You could call your moms right now. You could call them and...then your mom would yell at your girlfriend, and your mama wouldn't stop it. They might even yell at you.
This isn't worth it. You put it back.
This isn't their problem. You don't need to talk to them now. You can handle this. You can at least handle the people.
So you run. You run through the park, south out of the entrance, right to the alleyway where your girlfriend ran in. You run past traffic (it's light at this time of day, and Mitakihara doesn't have many cars anyway) and past a dumpster and right into the alleyway.
Ten students, each of them from the school, just wandered into this alleyway. They're marching mindlessly through the back alleys and towards...well, you haven't a clue.
And among them? Reika. You can see her blue hair among the crowd atop a vacant expression, face stretched into a smile.
[] Stop them here (DIFFICULTY 2; You don't know what they're wandering towards)
[] Talk to Reika. Try to knock her out of her trance. (DIFFICULTY 1; You can at least distract her)
[] Run after Takane. You can't do much, but at the very least you can keep track of your girlfriend (No roll; you can guess where the Witch is)
Adhoc vote count started by TheOneMoiderah on Jun 15, 2019 at 11:34 AM, finished with 46 posts and 22 votes.
[X] Stop them here (DIFFICULTY 2; You don't know what they're wandering towards)
[X] Does she want to talk about what happened, or Magi stuff, or anything like that? Or would she rather just hang out and talk about silly stuff, like how bad of a film you can find for your next movie date?
[X] Stop them here (DIFFICULTY 2; You don't know what they're wandering towards)
Trying to talk to witch kissed just leads to tummy punches, and going after Takane just forces us to protect her in the fight. Sucks that this is the hardest option, but it's the only one that has a chance of producing good results.
[X] Talk to Reika. Try to knock her out of her trance. (DIFFICULTY 1; You can at least distract her)
Read through this whole thread in a day after reading the first SayakaQuest, I like it so far. I think it's neat that Mina has purple eyes, i.e. a mix of their parents' eye colors. Btw, you totally got the idea for Takane's shotgun gauntlets from Yang Xiao Long, didn't you?
[X] Stop them here (DIFFICULTY 2; You don't know what they're wandering towards)
[X] Call Moms, this doesn't feel right.
I don't blame Minako for not calling their moms before. As someone with anxiety when people yell or get angry. But yeah I hope they reconsider calling.
Anyway I love our current nonbinaryguca. They're an icon. I feel more included than I ever have in the world of meguca (despite being a trans guy) so yeah I love Moid's interpretation of PMMM and gender.
As to possible future nonbinarygucas...honestly there isn't a direction this story is likely to take that I wouldn't be excited to read. No idea what I want to happen but I'm along for the ride.
I'd actually be really interested in seeing a trans masc 'guca and how they handle that personally? There's lots of ways that could go, and the image of him coming out after contracting and then the transformation updating seems like it'd be wholesome. (Or the first transformation, really. A clear sign from the magical system that his gender is valid.)
[X] Stop them here (DIFFICULTY 2; You don't know what they're wandering towards)
[X] Call Moms, this doesn't feel right.
I don't blame Minako for not calling their moms before. As someone with anxiety when people yell or get angry. But yeah I hope they reconsider calling.
Anyway I love our current nonbinaryguca. They're an icon. I feel more included than I ever have in the world of meguca (despite being a trans guy) so yeah I love Moid's interpretation of PMMM and gender.
As to possible future nonbinarygucas...honestly there isn't a direction this story is likely to take that I wouldn't be excited to read. No idea what I want to happen but I'm along for the ride.
