Exclusion (PMMM AU / MTG)

[Alivaril]

QM's Note: I messed up with the first attempt at a Green mage quest several years ago, so this is my attempt at a new one. The following will inevitably be rather dry; since the choice of secondary mana color is going to affect the PC's personality, I'm confined to exposition until that's taken care of. It'll pick up in the second story post. Feedback would be greatly appreciated.

---

Over the last century, numerous religious fanatics have claimed the end of the world is imminent and would occur on a specific day. You've always known they were wrong, but not because you believed humanity would persist forever. Ragnarok is coming, just not quite as quickly as the preachers claimed. The irony of your certainty is not lost on you, but you possess something they don't: a prophec—no, wait, they thought they had that too. Well, yours is a magical prophecy instead of some vague allegedly-divine nonsense, so ha!

Two days ago, the eldritch abomination known as Walpurgisnacht devastated the Japanese city of Mitakihara, killing over ninety percent of its population. Video footage and survivor reports spread through the world like oil through water, coiling outward to grab the attention of even the most secluded shut-ins. The vast majority of humanity has absolutely no idea what they're looking at, but you know it's only a matter of time before a Magical Girl shows up on live television to explain the eye-watering footage of eldritch abominations flying through the city. Magic will become public knowledge, some poor girl will accrue a gargantuan amount of potential from the vastly increased number of coincidentally overlapping wishes, and Kyubey will use her Witch to squeeze one last burst of power from the dying Earth.

At least, that's what would happen if nobody stops him. Contributing to that effort is why you're currently moving into an apartment of your very own years ahead of schedule. The legends of your family claim that a clan friend, a Seer of Blue, learned of Kyubey's future intentions by following the cyclic patterns of his past. Earth wouldn't be the first, the second, or even the millionth world Kyubey's people had sacrificed as part of their continued energy harvesting operations. It might be the first world possessing magic the invaders hadn't granted, though, and is definitely on the shortlist of worlds that knew of his intentions.

Your immediate family is but one part of a larger clan of Green mages, or those wielding the magic of nature, instinct, interdependence, physical strength, and growth. You don't actually know where the other sections of your clan are, nor do you know where the clans of Blue, White, Red, and Black have gotten off to. You suspect many of them were killed during World War I and II, but there's no real way to prove that.

The goal of your particular family line was simple, but effective: occupy an area, dramatically improve its Green mana production, and link it to an appropriately-sized sympathetic gemstone. Individually improved creatures might be killed, but the land would persist forever, right? Right. Things were going great until humanity decided to cut down the wilds en masse, the bastards.

As the youngest child (and the black sheep) of your family, you ended up with the job nobody else wanted to tackle. Or at least, you assume it's the harder one; you don't actually know what the rest of your family is doing. Until the Day of Silver Skies arrives, you need to contact contracted Magical Girls, keep them alive, and turn them against Kyubey without letting him realize your abilities aren't the product of a wish. When the Silver Skies come, you'll need to kill the swarms of super-Familiars created by whatever eats Walpurgisnacht, eliminate the worldkiller-Witch itself, and rally your allies against Kyubey before he can make another.

Admittedly, you're not quite sure how you're supposed to get there. You can sense Witches when they're within 100-200 meters, but Magical Girls are supposed to have a range measured in kilometers. The good news is that you don't actually need the Grief Seeds you'll get from killing those particular abominations. The land and your own reserves provide your daily allowance.

Green magic lets you break weapons, objects, and enchantments. You can also infuse plants and animals with mana to increase their rate of growth or even push them beyond what their species would manage without, say, well over a thousand years of selective breeding to work with. Many of these changes persist across generations, but your family has chosen to instead work toward resistance to Green mana. Or, more accurately, lack thereof. Your innocuous young dogs, birds, and cat will not only violate the contract you signed before moving in, but can also (temporarily) grow to the size of street vehicles with a bit of Green mana to help them along. You would say "the size of buses," but the birds you have with you don't actually get that large. Yet. You once got to see a pyramid-sized puppy and you're eager to sic one on a Witch someday.

Given what humans have been doing to the environment in recent years, Green-infused plant adaptations tend to be somewhat weirder. Plants are also much more receptive to Green enhancement than even the best animals will ever be. Using your personal daily mana allowance on a dog might give you a titanic animal for all of an hour or two. Doing the same thing to a single tree seed would permanently give you multiple multi-story trees. Vines are even more fun; you could block off an entire street using meter-thick vines without even half your reserves.

The more you use Green mana, the more of it your surroundings will produce. Killing an infused being doesn't halt Green generation, just slows it down slightly; the Green released by their demise will continue to help other life grow and thrive. An entire land would have to be burned to the ground and the ashes salted before Green would be truly wasted.

Unlike the rest of your family, you also possess a second color, one they could only teach you the barest basics for. You're pretty sure that's why they ended up assigning you to outreach efforts; even if Kyubey realizes your magic is an anomaly, it'll still be hard for him to find the rest of your clan.

---

What is your second color of mana?

[] Black.

You aren't content with merely being one of the mages responsible for saving the world. You want to be known as the greatest mage with all the glory, influence, and wealth that would come with such a title. You're also a bit less of a goodie-two-shoes than other girls your age tend to be; you're not going to kill or torture someone just because it helps your goals, but you suspect some blackmail (heh) and threats will be helpful from time to time. If something is an effective weapon, you might as well use it. Unfortunately, you supposedly also have a tendency to treat conversation as though it's just another kind of fight; you've been told you have a tendency to subtly insult others and generally come across as somewhat cruel. You're working on that.

Witches generate Black simply by existing. As a (partial) Black mage, you can steal that power and use it for your own ends in combat—at a price, of course. The more you draw on in a short period of time, the more exhausted you become and the more susceptible you are to disease. Your resistance to these effects is slowly increasing with time, but you know better than to think you'll ever be able to steal all of Walpurgisnacht's power, let alone that of whatever will eventually cause the Day of Silver Skies.

Your direct magic seems to have been born from the wet dreams of edgelords everywhere. Spells of fear, curses of exhaustion, arrows of instantaneous death (even if yours don't work on targets larger than gophers yet), veils of darkness human eyes unconsciously try to avoid, stealing the life of others to empower yourself… really, with your apparent powerset, you wouldn't be surprised if some third-world dictators were themselves Black mages. You think sacrificing someone just for magical power would be a horrible betrayal of the goal you're fighting for, but if you do end up needing to kill someone anyway, you might as well make sure you get some extra perks out of it.

Your pets miiight be as frightening (to some) as Familiars at this point, but there's no denying their effectiveness. You've been making excellent progress with venom and think you'll be able to harm even Witches soon enough, to say nothing of their current usefulness as anti-human weapons. You also have some ideas for extra natural weapons and maybe extra armoring, but you didn't want to implement either of those under the disapproving gazes of your family. Still, if the notoriously aggressive Magical Girls decide to pick a fight with you, you can hit right back.

You can also raise the dead as Black shades, but your parents tried to ban that. You even came up with a slightly weaker version that doesn't recall/enslave souls and they still said it was off-limits! Honestly, it's like they forget what we're facing. Now that you no longer live with them, you're free to raise as many or as few undead as you want. As cool as it might be, you have to admit Magical Girls might not approve of the whole technically necromancy angle.


[] White.

You've always known your generation would be the one to endure the Day of Silver Skies, the time when Kyubey writes off Earth and prepares to move on. You've grown up well aware of the fact that everyone you'll ever know or could know will die if he isn't stopped. Your suspect this heavily affected your social development; it's always been easier for you to bond with your pets than with those who will die if your best efforts come up short. You're no longer half as morbid as you were when you were younger, but your seclusion has left you shy and unsure of how to handle social interactions more complicated than "Thank you," "You're welcome," and "Do you want any help?" At least you don't necessarily have to talk to people to defend them, and you are trying to make some human friends.

You'll have a pretty easy time pretending to be a Magical Girl. Summoned shining armor? Check. Magical weapon? Check. Resistance against curses? Check again. You can even heal people and make shields. Provided, most of those are pretty expensive and fragile at the moment, but you're positive you'll get better and uncover more abilities with more practice. If a fictional paladin, angel, or priest could do it, you suspect you'll be able to do so yourself.

The true glory of your magic lay in its interactions with your allies (even if those are just your pets right now). Enhancing three animals with a weak effect is comparable in difficulty to enhancing just yourself with with a double-strength version. Your parents have mentioned this trend will continue and even improve as you grow more skilled with White. According to them, Joan of Arc could infuse her entire army with enhanced strength, vigor, and coordination. You believe you'll eventually be able to do the same.

You think you'll be able to resurrect the recently deceased as sentient spirits, but you've never gotten permission to try it on a person. At least Aerie and Silva, your first two birds, worked pretty well as proofs of concept; both of them died almost a decade ago and their ghosts are only slightly less coherent than they were the day you pulled them back.


[] Black.
[] White.

 

[Alivaril]

Spoiler: Citrine Eichel

Spoiler: Appearance

This is you. At eighteen years of age, you're the youngest child of the Eichel family, a family that is itself a single branch of the Clan of Green. You also happen to be one of the few (1 in 50 or so?) family members who possesses both Green and another color of mana—in your case, White.

You grew up with tales of what would inevitably occur in the years after magic is revealed. First, Kyubey will abandon secrecy and form Contracts with as many girls as possible. Within a few years, the higher volume of wishes will produce a girl with far, far higher potential than she has any business having. Kyubey will keep her alive and wait until excessive numbers of Witches would place the world into a state of crisis all on its own, then offer a Contract to this future worldkiller. On any other world, she would subsequently turn into a Witch and wipe out the world. On yours? With any luck, Kyubey is going to have to try a little harder than that.

Spoiler: Plots Known

• Green Clan: Improve the Green mana production of as many lands as possible and link them to sympathetic gemstones. Meanwhile, breed animal lines with minimal resistance to Green mana. More recently, begin allying as mana Magical Girls as possible to turn them against Kyubey.
• Blue Clan: Unknown; likely something related to mind control. You'd be surprised if they hadn't involved themselves in politics. You also suspect they might have been carefully deleting single individuals from Kyubey's memories to both conceal colored mages and to let him grow accustomed to "Magical Girls" he has no memory of contracting.
• White Clan: Unknown; will likely involve generations of honored dead and enhancing mundane armies of the living.
• Red Clan: Unknown; almost certainly something related to simply burning their enemies. Knowing Reds, some branches would also be working to stall the Day of Silver Skies by making the world a better place, while other branches will just screw around and do whatever they feel like until that day comes.
• Black Clan: Unknown; likely to involve massive numbers of undead. You give them pretty good odds of having a morally reprehensible "last resort" as well.

Spoiler: Abilities

Sense Magic [Rank 6]: You can see and feel the various colors of mana in detail. You've also learned how to dampen this sense, thus preventing you from being overwhelmed by extreme amounts of a single color or by being near harmful spells.
​

Curse Resistance [Rank 7]: You possess far higher curse resistance than that possessed by an ordinary human, if still somewhat lower than the resistance of a Magical Girl.

Green Mana Control [Rank 8]: Larger amounts of Green mana can be a bit rebellious if their sources are unfamiliar with you, but smaller amounts know to offer their nonexistent bellies and behave themselves. After that, it's just a matter of communicating what you want from them.

White Mana Control [Rank 6]: White mana tends to harden if it's left alone for too long, but it also needs to harden if it's to form actual spells. You're still working on establishing a balance between getting it to a specific shape soon enough and shaping it late enough that it won't change before the spell is finished.
​

Hallowed Haven) [Rank 3]: You have no idea what you're doing, but it seems to work.

Spoiler: Hallowed Haven

With a large amount of mana and about an hour to work with, you can (near-)permanently ban physical violence within an area, preventing anyone from following through on any violent thoughts or impulses while they're within its boundaries. This effect targets the concept of violent action itself, preventing living organisms from attempting such; food can still be chopped and open-heart surgery could still be performed, but furniture cannot be broken and foes cannot be stabbed. The casting cost of Hallowed Haven scales with the size of the targeted area; right now, you could barely cover your two-bedroom apartment in one go.

The version you currently know does not prevent threats from being issued, cruel and damaging words from being uttered, magical emotional manipulation from occurring, etc., although you think you'll eventually be able to manage all of those things. You don't know if the negative emotional influence from Grief will be included under the list of banned magical emotional manipulation; Hallowed Haven doesn't police thoughts, and since Grief is contained entirely inside their souls, HH might consider that to be an innate part of them.

Humans sleeping or spending most of their time within a Hallowed Haven will passively generate Green/White mana, adding it to the standard mana generation for whichever land the Hallowed Haven is on. Each living Magical Girl or colored mage sleeping within a HH generates W​/G​ while ordinary humans only produce a small fraction of that amount (less than 5%). Other animals don't seem to produce anything extra at all.

Hallowed Haven can be temporarily or permanently suppressed with sufficient physical force directed at its boundaries, although it should still provide early warning. Barrier strength (and spell cost) scales with the coverage of each Haven. Two touching havens will link to form a single one, enhancing barrier strength.

Unless you resort to force, you cannot dismantle Hallowed Haven once it has been cast; you receive no special treatment when it comes to undoing the effect.

Heal [Rank 4]: You know how to use White to cure minor diseases, mitigate chronic illnesses, and heal small cuts.

Regenerate [Rank 5]: You can rapidly regenerate torn flesh and bone as long as there's still life left in your patient. Your family made extensive use of this to keep its children alive despite their misadventures; you were surprised to learn most (living) mundane kids never broke their necks.

Naturalize [Rank 6]: You can break manufactured mundane objects and magical Enchantments with an unhealthy dose of Green. The more catastrophic the effects of weather or intrusive forms of life would be, the more effective Naturalize is.

Ethereal Equipment [Rank 3]: You can summon ethereal armor and weaponry that's just as strong as what is available on the commercial market. Magical Girls can make stronger versions.
​

Spring Raiment [Rank 5]: You can conjure magical armor for yourself that scales in protective ability based on how much Green mana is passively contributed by plants and animals within your range (spent and unspent). To your vague amusement, once you exceed a given coverage threshold, Spring Raiment still seems to guard you even if you leave significant parts of your body (such as your head) uncovered. You think your "range" will include areas you can pull on once you understand the basics of Harvest, or the gift of tapping nearby lands. Spring Raiment only seems to include the "default" mana production for its own strength; more plants are always good, but Hallowed Havens don't seem to help.

Blessing [Rank 3]: You can enhance the power and defenses of yourself and your allies by an equal amount regardless of how strong they were prior to the buff.

Nurture [Rank 8]: You can permanently improve the strength, speed, and hardness of a given plant or animal, temporarily giving a massive boost to their rate of growth in the process. These are all more efficient with plants than with animals, but since they're plants, the actual effectiveness of such boosting is a matter of some debate.

Titanic Growth [Rank 3]: You can temporarily give a large increase to the strength, speed, hardness, and size of plants and animals. Once the Green fueling this spell is exhausted, plants/animals will return to their normal size and physical attributes.

Dearly Departed [Rank 2]: You can raise the dead as free-willed ghosts, provided they didn't turn into Witches and you get to them within about ten minutes.

From what you've seen and heard, ghosts keep their soul and mind intact and automatically phase through most physical matter, but can still use their senses, voice, and (dramatically weakened) magic to affect the outside world. With practice, they'll also be able to interact with nearby physical matter, although even the slightest touch usually takes a few months. Ghostly Magical Girls can use their own magic without corrupting themselves, but it rapidly exhausts them. The longer someone has been a ghost, the stronger they'll get, but it supposedly takes over a century for someone to be as powerful as they were in life. You don't know if Witches can interact with ghosts, but you wouldn't be surprised.

Shield [Rank 4]: You can quickly make free-floating protective shields of solidified, glowing White mana.


Animal Bond? [Rank 0]: Many of the people in your family have a supernatural talent for understanding nonsapient animals. They insist it's just a matter of listening, but since no mundane can do it and you've tried to listen, you're convinced it involves magic somehow.

Harvest [Rank 0]: You know that it should be possible to pull from nearby lands and you've practiced trying it. You just aren't there yet.
​

Spoiler: Sources of Mana

Personal Mana Production: [GGGWW]
Central Park, NYC: [WGW​/G​W​/G​]

​

 

[Alivaril]

Spoiler: Patrons

Special thanks to @saganatsu, @DB_Explorer, @BunnyLord,@fictionfan, and my eight other patrons not mentioned here. @Torgamous gets an even more enthusiastic "Thank you."

QM's Note: Sorry about the delay; I came down with either the flu or something close to it. I'm mostly better now. Extra note: The ranks used in this quest do not line up with those used in Ignition. Both here and there, they're based on the PC's perception of her own skills.

---

You find yourself frowning as you stare out the window of your new apartment. New York City, home of some nine million people and an estimated ten (or more) separate Magical Girl factions. After spending so much of your life in rural or barely-suburban areas, the sheer volume of the city had taken some getting used to. Car horns, distant sirens, screeching tires, obnoxiously loud market stall vendors, and even normal conversations all seem so much louder than they were back home. Perhaps the only saving grace is how you'll be living in a two-bedroom second-floor apartment right next to Central Park. Needing to live somewhere with only a few nearby trees would be horrifying. Bad enough that all cities apparently have this ever-present stench of smoke and oil; trying to live away from an unbroken expanse of Green (and White) would be too much.

(Land Discovered: Central Park, NYC [WGW​/G​W​/G​])​

Under ordinary circumstances, you'd probably be here to improve CP's mana generation until it produced six or more motes of Green, a process that could take you mere weeks if you abandon subtlety; although higher amounts are certainly possible, humanity has an irritating habit of destroying anywhere your family invests too heavily in. Or maybe it's more that you notice the destruction more when you have fewer places you're relying on? Well, that isn't what you're supposedly here for, and indeed, you don't even know how to link lands to gemstones. You'll need to call in a family member for that if it ever becomes relevant, which... Okay, yeah, it might. You're really tempted to go over and turn part of Central Park into your own little hideaway, something knowledge of your main objective isn't helping with.

You basically need to conquer the city. Oh, your family called it "allying as many Magical Girls as possible," but you've heard too many stories of MGs to actually buy that. You're sure some of them are fine and everything, but the others might as well be mafia members. Grief Seed tithes for living in their territory, "protection money" if they know you're rich enough, torturing or running off girls who don't comply, crushing any fermenting rebellions as ruthlessly as possible... really, it seems as though being a powerful MG and being a good person are mutually exclusive. You've resigned yourself to the fact that you'll probably need to align yourself with a local faction and pay their fees until you're stronger, more skilled, and have some friends willing to help you make your own faction. And there's another problem: Your future friends. Or, more specifically, how you'll need to hide the nature of your magic from them.

Wishes and their results are varied enough that Kyubey won't realize what you aren't unless you open your mouth, but... well, after spending several years hiding who you are from those you care about, you aren't really looking forward to doing so again. Coming out of the closet was hard enough the first time around, and unlike that particular family talk, you don't feel your future friends will just shrug when you eventually tell them you're not a Magical Girl at all and were born with your magic. On the bright side, the newly-contracted MG you're pretending to be does have a respectably versatile arsenal. You possess far higher curse resistance than that possessed by an ordinary human, if still somewhat lower than the resistance of a Magical Girl. You're fairly good at dodging attacks from savage creatures, you're a fair hand with a bow, and you already know the basics of several useful magics. You know how to use White to cure minor diseases, mitigate chronic illnesses, and heal small cuts...

(Ability Known: Heal [Rank 4])​

...Rapidly regenerate torn flesh and bone as long as there's still life left in your patient...

(Ability Known: Regenerate [Rank 5])​

...Break weaponry and enchantments with an unhealthy dose of Green...

(Ability Known: Naturalize [Rank 6])​

...Summon ethereal armor and weaponry that's just as strong as what you could buy (MGs supposedly have stronger, though...)

(Ability Known: Ethereal Equipment [Rank 3])​

...Temporarily enhance the power and defenses of yourself and your allies by an equal amount, regardless of how strong they were prior to the buff...

(Ability Known: Blessing [Rank 3])​

...Permanently or temporarily enhance the strength, speed, hardness, and size of plants and animals...

(Ability Known: Nurture [Rank 8])
(Ability Known: Titanic Growth [Rank 3])​

...Raise the dead as free-willed ghosts, provided they didn't turn into Witches and you get to them within about ten minutes...

(Ability Known: Dearly Departed [Rank 2])​

...and quickly make free-floating protective shields of solidified, glowing White mana.

(Ability Known: Shield [Rank 4])

(Ability Known: Green Mana Control [Rank 8])
(Ability Known: White Mana Control [Rank 6])
(Ability Known: Sense Magic [Rank 6])
(Personal Mana Production: GGGWW)​

You also learned an especially advanced spell when your mana was first awakened. You believe it would've taken you months to learn had you not cheated; your mana control is bad enough that, if you don't follow the exact steps you memorized, your clumsy changes damage more delicate components.

---

Use preference voting: 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the boxes, where 1 is your favorite, 2 is your second favorite, and so on.

This has Convoke as your favorite, Hallowed Haven as your second favorite, and Knight's Oath as the one you dislike the most.
[1] Convoke
[3] Soulstone
[2] Hallowed Haven
[4] Knight's Oath

Click to shrink...

[] Convoke
(Convoke)
You can draw mana from willing targets, temporarily exhausting them. If you don't direct the loose mana to another spell, it will subsequently form Green and White animal construct(s) based on the plants and/or animals you tapped for mana. The constructs will always be based off non-sapient animals; even if you pull power entirely from other people, it'll still make a lion, wolf, etc. These automatic animal constructs will have a maximum lifespan inversely proportional to how tired your helpers were when they started: if you Convoke at the start of the day, it'll last until mid-afternoon or later, but if it's almost their bedtime, the construct won't last for very long at all.

When the construct is dismissed (a process which takes about twenty seconds), any unused mana will return to those you pulled it from, decreasing their recovery time. Ruined constructs will not have any mana to yield and damaged (including ones which you summoned a while ago) constructs will yield a portion comparable to how much they've lost.

For the purposes of this spell, plants are always counted as "willing." You used to think your pets hated having Convoke used on them, but ever since you started offering treats, they've started to fight over the right to be tapped first.


[] Soulstone
(Soulstone)
An object that began life as a pile of diamonds before you enchanted it, you can pull shards from the Soulstone and gift them to others in order to link them to the Soulstone. Physical contact between a shard and skin or Soul Gem is required for a successful link. Linked individuals who die will subsequently be pulled into the Soulstone, letting you turn them into ghosts long after their deaths. You already linked it to yourself, although you suspect you'll have to fight your way up from the depths of slumber if you ever do die, a process that could take weeks or more. You would be able to wake up inhabitants of the Soulstone, but nobody can awaken you.

Individuals who would rather just pass on will need to keep that opinion for seven days, seven hours, seven minutes, and seven seconds.

Those who turn into Witches will automatically remove their linked fragment from the Soulstone, preventing their restoration. Once a deceased individual is turned into a ghost, they are no longer considered "linked" to the Soulstone and cannot be linked again. From what you've seen and heard, ghosts keep their soul and mind intact and automatically phase through most physical matter, but can still use their senses, voice, and (dramatically weakened) magic to affect the outside world. With practice, they'll also be able to interact with nearby physical matter, although even the slightest touch usually takes a few months. Ghostly Magical Girls can use their own magic without corrupting themselves, but it rapidly exhausts them. The longer someone has been a ghost, the stronger they'll get, but it supposedly takes over a century for someone to be as powerful as they were in life. You don't know if Witches can interact with ghosts, but you wouldn't be surprised.

With a diamond-studded gold housing, your family already helped you turn the Soulstone into a fake Soul Gem, if one that never accumulates Grief. You could theoretically make more Soulstones, but since it has a maximum capacity of 77 linked souls and no known maximum range, you don't think you'll need to. Also, it'd be freakishly expensive to make another; diamonds aren't exactly cheap.


[] Hallowed Haven
(Hallowed Haven)
With a large amount of mana and about an hour to work with, you can (near-)permanently ban physical violence within an area, preventing anyone from following through on any violent thoughts or impulses while they're within its boundaries. This effect targets the concept of violent action itself, preventing living organisms from attempting such; food can still be chopped and open-heart surgery could still be performed, but furniture cannot be broken and foes cannot be stabbed. The casting cost of Hallowed Haven scales with the size of the targeted area; right now, you could barely cover your two-bedroom apartment in one go.

The version you currently know does not prevent threats from being issued, cruel and damaging words from being uttered, magical emotional manipulation from occurring, etc., although you think you'll eventually be able to manage all of those things. You don't know if the negative emotional influence from Grief will be included under the list of banned magical emotional manipulation; Hallowed Haven doesn't police thoughts, and since Grief is contained entirely inside their souls, HH might consider that to be an innate part of them.

Humans sleeping or spending most of their time within a Hallowed Haven will passively generate Green/White mana, adding it to the standard mana generation for whichever land the Hallowed Haven is on. Each living Magical Girl or colored mage sleeping within a HH generates W​/G​ while ordinary humans only produce a small fraction of that amount (less than 5%). Other animals don't seem to produce anything extra at all.

Hallowed Haven can be temporarily or permanently suppressed with sufficient physical force directed at its boundaries, although it should still provide early warning. Barrier strength (and spell cost) scales with the coverage of each Haven. Two touching havens will link to form a single one, enhancing barrier strength.

Unless you resort to force, you cannot dismantle Hallowed Haven once it has been cast; you receive no special treatment when it comes to undoing the effect.


Extra options, courtesy of how popular Black was (helps provide some of what Black could've offered):

[] Knight's Oath
(Knight's Oath)
When cast as part of a specific high-mana ritual, Knight's Oath places a "holy" aura on the weapons, armor, and skin of participants, providing significant protection (a MG might survive a Witch's bite, although they'd still be screwed if it ignored the pain and started chewing) even as it burns enemies it contacts. This effect is permanent and free until their oath is broken, but can only be granted once per person (unless broken). The enchantment technically targets a specific individual, not their belongings, so changing weapons wouldn't be a problem.

The ritual involves swearing to protect and serve the head of the order, IE you. Notably, serving is not the same thing as obeying. Aside from the loss of granted power, there is currently no penalty for breaking an oath; you believe you'd have to work pretty hard to add one. You will be alerted when it's broken, though.

Knight's Oath can be used on ordinary humans, but not anything incapable of understanding what they're agreeing to or even that they should agree (your pets, for example).

[X] Summer Raiment
QM-EDIT: After giving it some more thought, I've decided to grant a weakened version of this as a bonus.
(Summer Raiment)
You can conjure magical armor for yourself that scales in protective ability based on how much Green mana is generated by lands within your range (spent and unspent). To your vague amusement, once you exceed a given coverage threshold, Summer Raiment still seems to guard you even if you leave significant parts of your body (such as your head) uncovered. You think your "range" will include lands you can pull on once you understand the basics of Harvest, or the gift of tapping nearby lands.

Helpful Copy-Paste:
[] Convoke
[] Soulstone
[] Hallowed Haven
[] Knight's Oath

 

[Alivaril]

Spoiler: Patrons

Special thanks to @saganatsu, @DB_Explorer, @BunnyLord, @fictionfan, and my eight other patrons not mentioned here. @Torgamous gets an even more enthusiastic "Thank you."

QM's Note: As always, the views of characters in stories may not line up with those of the author.

---

Bonus: Spring Raiment
Winner: Hallowed Haven

You've heard that Magical Girls get cheaper or different abilities based on what they wished for. Healing is the easiest example to point to: all MGs can heal, but those who wished to heal themselves or another will find it cheaper than nearly any other MG. Those who wished for strength might have cheaper personal enhancements. Girls wishing to escape may gain the ability to teleport. Nearly all magic will become more powerful and inexpensive as a Magical Girl grows more skilled regardless of what their wish was. Overall, every Magical Girl is a unique combatant and underestimating any of them could get you killed.

As long as they live, no Magical Girl can ever fuel their magic with anything other than Grief, and by extension, Grief Seeds. Some have tried to pull or purge Grief from their Soul Gems, but Kyubey has set up a truly monstrous little loop: as pain produces Grief, painful countermeasures to Grief will never work out in the long run. Short-term gains may be had, but long-term fatigue will cancel them over time.

The fact that you'll gain extra energy from the safety zones you'll be offering and selling to others... yes, that's definitely not something you'll be advertising to the world.

(Advanced Ability Known: Hallowed Haven [Rank 3])​

Similarly, you're not going to tell them about how your main source of protection would grow weaker away from major sources of Green or stronger within them. You'd prefer not to let anyone snipe the support, thanks.

(Ability Known: Spring Raiment [Rank 5])​

But now that you're unpacked and have the entire afternoon ahead of you, you've found that you don't actually know what to do. You placed Hallowed Haven on the apartment when you first got here, but you've slept and finished unpacking since then, so all the items on your checklist are already taken care of. Your pets have beds, food, water, and appropriate dropoff boxes set up, your fridge came pre-stocked with several ingredients, you don't feel that any furniture is needed beyond what you already have, and your monthly "window-shopping allowance" of 100$ won't last you long in a place where pizza slices are 3$ apiece. You could bring your living pets — three dogs, three cats, three songbirds, and two hawks — out on a walk, but normal people apparently need to keep ground animals on leashes and don't walk their birds at all. You still find that a little puzzling; how are animals supposed to get proper exercise, sunlight, and fresh air if they don't roam around outside now and then?

Seeing a few human children on weird harness-leash fusions was even more jarring. You can see how it might be necessary to keep toddlers from running out into traffic during the slightest moment of distraction, but you're more used to the safe(ish) open spaces you grew up in. Children of your family learn not to poke thorns once they get pricked, which berries not to eat after they grow sick from them, which branches are unsteady once they break one and need their arms or necks Regenerated. The city doesn't seem to have a middle ground between teaching them through painful mistakes and keeping them from fatal mistakes. If a child falls off a bridge or steps into traffic, they'll be lucky to survive at all. For all that cities are supposedly glorified as concrete jungles, you don't think adults here would last one week in a real jungle. Some of the fatter ones you've seen, wasteful piles of lard riding atop motorized chairs, wouldn't even last that long in a forest.

The mahogany grandfather clock at one corner of your room dongs twice, startling you out of your disgusted thoughts. You've always had a tendency to drift away from conversations after a silence has dragged on long enough, usually because you're pursuing one thought until you grow bored of it. Your family has long since gotten used to the habit and some of them are even worse, but now that you're going to be spending so much time around other people...

I guess that's a habit I'll actually have to break, huh?

One of the windows of your room looks out into a dumpster-lined alley, which is one of the reasons you'd picked it in the first place. If you climb out that way, with or without your pets following you, nobody passing by would have any reason to believe you hadn't come from the other end of the L-shaped alley. It's a minor misdirection, but one you'll want to keep no matter what you do.

The question is what you should do. With the impending publicity of magic on a ticking timer, you doubt Kyubey is going to bother memory-modding people who see it. That opens up a number of avenues which were previously closed to Magical Girls and colored mages alike, including healing. If a better way of making money exists than to cure chronic diseases, you can't think of it.

Contacting the New York Police Department and offering to help them officially deal with Witches might get you plenty of positive attention, but it'd also be a bit of a pointless gesture. Aside from using Hallowed Haven on their stations or jails or whatever, there isn't a whole lot you can do to help them against Magical Girls. Bringing them in against Witches would be suicide until you're much better at granting temporary Blessings. Similarly, contacting the New York Measures or another major newspaper and telling them of magic could give you a rather extreme, but quite easy, publicity boost.

You could track down a Witch or three, kill them, and wait for the inevitable confrontation with a local Magical Girl. Unless you do something blatantly magical, like using Nurture to make one of the trees of Central Park grow far above its neighbors, you can't think of any other way to get them to contact you.

Or you could just explore, get to know Central Park and the area surrounding it. Until you do, you're going to need to rely heavily on the Maps app of your new smartphone just to avoid getting lost. Well, maybe after you've explored, too. Local colors might be different, but the shapes are all the same...

---

Use preference voting for appearance and X for the action vote. The PC is 18.

[] Eyebrows

Spoiler: Eyebrows

[] Backrest

Spoiler: Backrest

[] Sakura

Spoiler: Sakura

[] Earring

Spoiler: Earring

[] Sunset

Spoiler: Sunset

[] Galaxy

Spoiler: Galaxy

[] Sky

Spoiler: Sky

[] Barrier

Spoiler: Barrier

---

[] Head over to a local hospital and find out what you'd need to do to register as a healer. You expect (and look forward to) the media circus that will ensue when they realize you aren't joking and are perfectly willing to cut yourself to demonstrate.

[] Head over to the NYPD HQ (Or whatever they call it) and and offer to help them with magical law enforcement.
-[] Switch to Spring Raiment once you're there. The obvious display of magic should get their attention.
-[] Be upfront about your capabilities: You're an inexperienced support, so for now, the best you can do is ward their stations and jails against violence one by one.
-[] Bring your pets.

[] Head over to the New York Measure offices, ask for a private interview on a sensitive topic related to Mitakihara, and use Summer Raiment to "transform" once you're in private. Then, explain much of what you know about Witches and Magical Girls, including the grim parts and the effects of Grief on emotions.
-[] Include the lichbomb, the knowledge that Soul Gems are literal.
-[] Include the witchbomb, the revelation that MGs are born from Witches. These would kill a lot of girls in a short period of time. One of the other colored clans might have a plan for safely disseminating that information, but you don't.

[] Go hunting for Witches with your pets.
-[] Stay at around street level instead of using Blessing to help you jump from building to building.

[] Explore the surrounding area.
-[] Bring your pets along.
-[] Go dressed as a magical girl. (Spring Raiment)

[] Write-in

---

Appearance voting is open immediately. Action voting is locked for 3 hours.
The two are tracked separately; you don't need to repost your preference vote after posting a new X vote, nor do you need to repost your X vote after putting up a new preference vote.​

 

[Alivaril]

Spoiler: patrons

Special thanks to @saganatsu, @DB_Explorer, and my eight other patrons not mentioned here. An extremely enthusiastic pair of "Thank you"s to @Torgamous and @fictionfan for their patronage as well.

QM's Note: Sorry about the massive delay, everyone! A series of unfortunate events held this up, including the flu, classes, and my own desire to keep my promise of "this quest will not slow down the others."

---

[X] Head over to the NYPD HQ (Or whatever they call it) and and offer to help them with magical law enforcement.
-[X] Be upfront about your capabilities: You're an inexperienced support, so for now, the best you can do is ward their stations and jails against violence one by one.

You spend a good five minutes checking on the food, water, and sanitary situations of your pets before grabbing your purse and heading outside. Going out without at least one animal companion feels weird, to say the least; even in areas that require animal carriers, you still tend to bring along a dog for protection. Still, non-service animals probably aren't allowed inside the NYPD HQ, to say nothing of how your dogs might overreact to anyone trying using a less-than-friendly tone of voice with you. The canines of your family don't quite follow typical pack dynamics, but they'll still fanatically guard you from perceived threats.

It isn't until you reach the front lobby that you belatedly remember the idea of locking the door to your apartment. You hurry back upstairs and try the doorknob. Apparently, it's already locked? That's a little weird, but I guess that makes sense? Auto-locking doors might be a necessity in such a high-population environment.



Public transportation — specifically, a bus going to within ten minutes of your destination — isn't nearly as horrifying as you'd expected. Slightly cramped? Sure. Somewhat stinky, a little, but it's not any worse than the rest of the city. It is long, though; the trip should've only been about seven miles, but it still took about forty minutes for you to get there. What's even the point of having a using a mechanical vehicle if it spends more than half its time stopped?

The various city structures you pass come with their own shade of disappointing. You'd thought you could hop from building to building, but that seems to have been entirely too optimistic. New York's structures are too varied in height for you to pass between them without flight or a disqualifying amount of possibly-destructive climbing. Even in the rare cases where an unbroken row of buildings have the same height, the smallest streets accompanying them possess three lanes with sidewalks half as wide on either side.

You might have to look into making paths from White if you want to get anywhere in a reasonable timeframe. Not mere shields, which utilize the properties of protection, safety, and exclusion; while you could use shields to help you across streets, it'd be a horrible waste of power. Guidance and faith, maybe?

...Well, you're sure you'll figure it out eventually.



A second, equally irritating issue makes itself known when you actually arrive at 1 Police Plaza, your destination. Instead of dealing with lines of vehicles, you'd need to twiddle your thumbs behind a crowd of twenty, thirty, entirely too many people. You suppose being connected to a structure with around fifteen floors should've been a warning sign. Or maybe you should blame all the cameras and microphones members of the crowd seem to be carrying around? You might've just arrived at a bad time.

(Land Discovered: 1 Police Plaza, New York City [W​/U​ W​/U​ W])​

A third problem crops up within another two minutes: you don't actually know what you're doing. You can't even admit that, not if you want to be taken seriously. You're no longer certain you should've come directly here; from what you can find out online, it sounds as though you're supposed to "contact your local precinct" for most stuff. On the other hand, this place does supposedly have the main Community Affairs Department offices, so maybe you can invoke that to BS your way inside?

Eventually, you walk toward a six-four pillar of tanned muscle masquerading as a black-haired security guard — Rhyleigh, his nametag claims. You stop a few feet away from Officer Rhyleigh, open your mouth, and immediately wish you'd decided on what to say before you started moving. You have no idea what to say.

"Yes?" the officer prompts.

You shake your head and take a deep breath.

"Excuse me, but do you know what I'd do with, um, perishable information that I don't want to let out of my sight and don't want to bring out in public, but that I'm pretty sure the PD would be really, really interested in? As in, the department as a whole, not the precinct for the place I happen to live."

Close enough.

Officer Rhyleigh frowns and glances over your shoulder. You're guessing he's eying the crowd of reporters clustered around the two-story visitor center.

"Not entirely, Ma'am," he reluctantly admits. "We've been revamping a few procedures lately, so I'd stick with whatever our website says now. If it's documentation of some sort, I'd recommend making hard copies before you come to us; if you need to keep it with you, that drastically limits our options for verification and distribution."

You exhale through your teeth.

"No, it's not that. I can show literally any member of the department if we're away from prying eyes. Even a group would be OK since I'm mostly worried about the general public freaking out before you guys do a press release or whatever. Also my own safety, but I guess that's a secondary concern at this point."

You hesitate for several seconds before sighing. It'll be caught on the officer's body camera, but you hadn't been planning on full privacy to begin with. You just don't want Magical Girls butting in until you've gotten everything sorted out.

"Actually, just watch. Nothing up my sleeve, right?"

You form a bowl from your hands, hunch over to shield it from those behind you, and forge a spherical shield from a minimal amount of environmental White. A telltale golden glow flickers into visibility within a second. You expect some sort of a gasp, but none is forthcoming; when you look back up, you find Officer Rhyleigh blankly staring at the miniature shield-orb.

"So, that mess in Japan? Literally magic," you say quietly. "Can I please help you guys set up some system for policing its users before it finishes going public?"

The police officer before you continues staring for several seconds more before he shrugs and reaches for his handheld transceiver. He pauses with one hand on it.

"If this is some sort of trick, you should really know that—"

"Please don't bother," you interrupt. "I would do a full-body effect, but that can wait until I'm out of the open."

Officer Rhyleigh wrinkles his nose and holds up one hand.

"Hold that thought."



Fifteen minutes, one bag check, four underwhelming reactions, and one visitor badge later, you're ushered into a small office on the second floor of the NYPD headquarters. You used about a tenth of a mote making shields, but the White/Blue of 1 Police Plaza still has plenty to spare. The nameplate on the wooden desk identities the grey-haired, uniformed man before you as Senior Officer Jones. Although the office door does have a window, it looks as though the blinds were already pulled in preparation for your arrival.

Officer Jones glances up from his desktop computer and nods toward the chair across from him.

"Miss Eichel? Please take a seat. I've been told you have something urgent to discuss, but not what, which is disturbingly irregular as it is. Could yo—"

Operating entirely off the bastardized habits you formed when your mana first awakened, you pull Green mana from yourself and spread it across your body. After that, it's simply a matter of not thinking about what you're doing. If you try to think about it, it has a terrible tendency to fail and leave you with a pile of vines instead of proper Summer Raiment.

You wait until you feel light cloth settling across your body and the weight of several flowers in your hair before you let yourself start thinking again. You open your eyes, blink, and smugly smile. Senior Officer Jones is staring at you with his mouth slightly agape. In other words, he's finally giving you a proper reaction instead of this unsatisfying stonefaced stupidity. When you decided to reveal magic, you'd thought it would be more enjoyable and would provoke more curiosity than it has been. Nope. Instead, you just have people passing you along without even asking more questions.

After several long seconds, Jones closes his mouth, swallows, and reaches toward the grey landline phone at one corner of his desk.

"If I ask you what that I just saw," Officer Jones begins cautiously, "then the answer is going to be something along the lines of 'magic,' isn't it?"

"Mm-hmm," you cheerfully confirm.

Officer Jones stops moving with his hand atop the phone. His brow furrows with puzzlement as he turns to stare at it, but no further action is taken. If he wasn't clearly still breathing and blinking, you'd think he'd been frozen by Blue.

"What are you trying to accomplish?"

You flinch as the voice of an alien abomination inserts itself directly into your mind. Severed springs, why now? Kyubey's tone might be more inquisitive than confrontational, but you won't make the mistake of thinking he's genuinely friendly. Your opinion is only strengthened when a cat-sized form hops up from behind the desk and stares at you through little red eyes. He's... cuter than you'd expected, actually, although the lack of Green in his body is more than a little jarring. You knew he had countless bodies to use, but you'd assumed he grew them from biological seeds. Instead, you're detecting just as little Green as you would in a steel plate and wait. How do the golden rings around his ears stay afloat? Are they physically bound to his body or can you steal them?

You take a deep breath and force yourself to focus. You aren't a Blue or a Black; intrigue isn't your specialty. However, you doubt you're going to escape from this conversation until Kyubey constructs some sort of a personality profile for you. The more fake information you can feed him, the less of an annoyance he'll be in the future.

After a moment of consideration, you decide against answering telepathically. You don't want to risk accidentally attaching some Green to a mental message. More than one of your ancestors could infuse her voice with mana, but you can't. That's more Red's wheelhouse.

"Footage of Walpurgisnacht is freely available on the Internet," you reply aloud. "Magical Girls are going to be revealed sooner than later."

"Why be the one to reveal it?" Kyubey asks with apparent curiosity. "Much of the attention you'll receive as the 'first Magical Girl' will be negative. Why subject yourself to such scrutiny when you aren't a Magical Girl in the first place?"

Well, that was probably the shortest-lived secret I've ever halfheartedly tried to keep. And brushing right past the positive attention, are we? How utterly unsurprising.

"However, I can help you with that last part. Witches often attack those who acquired magic through a wish not their own—"

Because you plant hatching Grief Seeds inside their homes. Killing the subject of a wish is usually a great way to make overpowered Magical Girls turn into Witches, right?

"—And you would have an easier time protecting yourself from threats if you were stronger," Kyubey continues cheerfully. "Would you like to follow in the footsteps of whoever wished for your sa—"

"No," you interrupt.

Kyubey blinks in feigned surprise. You know better than to think the alien abomination feels anything. Emotion and morality are irrelevant; Kyubey only cares about following the optimal path toward gathering as much conservation-violating energy as possible. You're more than half convinced his species is an example of what happens when paperclipper AIs get out of hand.

"Why?"

You sidestep the dangerous question with a an unhelpful fraction of the truth.

"I don't want to have my powers be tied to some rock that could easily be lost or stolen. I figure our—"

You clamp your mouth shut around a reply that would've casually revealed your knowledge of literal Soul Gems. If Kyubey wants to learn how many bombshells you know, he's going to have to work for it. However, you're going to have to work even harder to keep it from him and find another way to finish your thought. You don't want him to think the "our" implied other wish-enhanced individuals; the Blue artifacts protecting your family from scrutiny can only take so much punishment before they'll need recharging, something exceptionally difficult for your family. Members of your family technically can manipulate the other colors, but it's insanely difficult; better to be a master of one than to spend months staring at unusual colors of mana before they'll so much as twitch.

"W-Well, our..."

You shake your head and fall back on an excuse you've used slightly more often than you should.

"I don't know how to put it, okay?" you lie. "I just don't want to become a Magical Girl. Do I even have enough potential to become an effective one?"

Kyubey tilts his head to one side.

"Yes, you have enough potential to let you become an incredibly effective Magical Girl."

Translation: Assuming I'm skilled enough or lucky.

"But if you haven't given your reasons enough thought to quantify them," Kyubey continues, "could that be a sign you should review your opinion?"

"I have magic and it's not tied to Grief Seeds," you shoot back. "If I become a Magical Girl it won't matter what I say or do. People will still be convinced I'm out to poach their kills."

...Oh, dammit. You hadn't meant to reveal your knowledge of how territorial MGs can be.

"Those inclined toward disliking other magic users will still be biased against you," Kyubey points out. "And speaking of possible paranoia, is there a reason you seem to be treating me as an opponent? As far as I'm aware, we've only just met. I apologize if I somehow mistreated you or someone close to you."

You're apologizing, but you're not sorry. You're starting to wish you'd practiced arguing against a pretend Kyubey; nudging him toward leaving you alone is hard.

"You push people into an unwinnable war against an endless stream of abominations," you reply aloud. "I can intellectually understand that it might be a good thing overall. Emotionally? Not so much."

"It is their choice."

"Again, I know. That doesn't mean I have to like it."

Kyubey hangs his head with sadness he's incapable of feeling. After several somber seconds, he peeks up past one ear. It'd probably be cute if he wasn't a genocidal monster that you're going to try killing someday.

"Regardless, why do you plan on personally revealing magic to the world? Doing so without making a wish will likely lead to your demise and unnecessary loss of life. Are you familiar with the popular comic plots involving 'Superhuman Registration Acts?' Imagine if such a mistake were applied to Magical Girls, many of whom have parents or family who would try to stop them from fighting Witches."

You sigh and rub at your palm with one hand.

"Explaining to you would take way too long, so could you unfreeze the nice policeman and let me get on with it?"

"You don't care about the possible increase in Witch populations?"

"Already thought of that possibility. Seriously, you're not going to convince me."

Kyubey looks to one side. You aren't sure which emotion he's imitating until he actually begins speaking: guilt.

"I expect many people will ask me what your wish was. It may create problems for you if I tell them you didn't make one."

It takes a moment for his words to journey from your brain to your conscious mind.

"Are you blackmailing me?" you ask incredulously.

As far as you were aware, Kyubey never risked such aggressive actions. Continuously erasing the memories of the police officer was a hint toward how important this is to him, but you're now convinced that Kyubey badly wants to handle the reveal himself. Somehow, he thinks Earth will generate more energy under his plan than it would if he left it to you.

Kyubey's fur and tail begin bristling the moment the accusation leaves your lips. He even goes through the trouble of having his cat ears go back and goodness, why does he have two sets of ears? You never really thought about it before.

"The word 'blackmail' implies malicious intent. If you aren't strong enough to fight Witches and you're reckless enough to risk giving Magical Girls bad publicity, I have no adequate reason to prioritize your needs over those of genuine Magical Girls. Thousands of Magical Girls could die if their reveal is handled improperly. Wouldn't you be upset if someone ignored you and doomed thousands through their own recklessness? Imagine how I feel when you won't even tell me why you're intent on dooming so many."

"Is trying to help the police an inadequate reason?"

Kyubey relaxes minutely.

"I believe so," he bluntly replies. "I would have far fewer objections if you waited until tomorrow evening. You will likely have far fewer detractors as a civic-minded Magical Girl instead of the first magical girl to come out. You do not seem to be a trained public speaker; could you really handle all the interview requests and attention such a role would bring you?"

You take a deep breath and carefully assemble your request. Kyubey doesn't do direct intervention or make deals, but if he wants this badly enough, he might just make a minor exception. Step one: Find out whether he's willing to do so at all.

"If, after this conversation concludes, I wait to deliberately demonstrate magic to the general public until after someone else does, will you spend at least the next five million minutes treating me as though I'm a Magical Girl you want to keep alive, happy, and of sound mind?"

Kyubey fully relaxes and swishes his tail from side to side.

"I could do that!" Kyubey replies with feigned excitement.

Nice try.

"Will you, though?" you press. "Assuming I hold up my end of the deal, anyway."

"Of course!" Kyubey agrees as though he hadn't just tried to casually weasel out of it. "Isn't your request a little paranoid, though? You're acting like I don't already do that."

You slowly exhale and smile. Unless what you were taught is badly wrong, Kyubey is physically incapable of telling a direct lie. He compensates through half-truths, lying by omission, lying by implication, and dammit. You'd been hoping to put a minimum deadline on the time until Kyubey could end the world, but couldn't he just kidnap you and put you in some sort of VR simulation? Or, no, probably not. You aren't sure if some previous race wished for nonintervention or if that's simply the most energy-efficient route, but Kyubey doesn't do direct attacks. Overfilled Grief Seeds and manipulated Magical Girls? When it's a girl with especially high magical potential, maybe, but you can handle Witches, talk down Magical Girls, and apparently have crappy potential anyway. Cutting your throat in the middle of the night? Not even for girls who kill his bodies. No, even if you walk away, Kyubey isn't going to be attacking you any time soon.

However, there's no real reason you can't negotiate a new deal or outright walk away. Maybe you should just make him give you something immediately? Less chance of him exploiting a loophole that way. You know he'll occasionally collect unfilled Grief Seeds from the corpses of secluded Magical Girls who died alone. You've never heard of him giving them back, but there's probably no wish against that. Maybe if you promise not to tell anyone he gave them to you? Sure, he could be a prick and tell others that they were looted from dead Magical Girls, but then you could easily return fire by saying they came from him.

You could also try asking him what his masquerade-killing plan is, but you're pretty sure he'd barrage you with half-truths if it's anything even remotely bad.

---

[] Agree to put off informing the public until later.
-[] ...Assuming he agrees to some tweaked terms, anyway.
--[] Instead of the immunity, you'll do it in exchange for thirty unused Grief Seeds. You might not need it, but you'd like to make friends among those who will.
--[] You want a political summary of nearby Magical Girl territories. You've walked into a nest of vipers and you'd like to take the blindfold off.
--[] Write-in New Offer

[] Refuse. You don't trust Kyubey to have the best interests of humanity at heart, not that you intend to tell him that part. If he wants you to delay, that's a good reason to reveal magic immediately.
-[] Give Kyubey one or more reasons for why you're refusing him. He'll probably still disagree, but at least it'll make you seem more reasonable and malleable than you actually are.
--[] You CAN fight Witches, thanks, so his Greater Good justification falls short on that end; he shouldn't be sabotaging someone who also wants to fight against Witches.
--[] You don't trust him not to sacrifice the comfort of all normal humans just to drive home how threatening Witches are. More fearful humans might mean more Magical Girls, but you don't want to live in that sort of world. Meanwhile, the police could help people feel safe.
--[] (Write-in points you're willing to reveal or arguments in general)

[] Write-in

---

Spoiler: QM's Note

This isn't a case of "Kyubey falls, everything is ruined;" on the contrary, it's closer to "Kyubey arrived, maybe I can extort his fuzzy little butt?" Just remember that everything he says is technically truthful. Also, Kyubey may want to handle the reveal differently than he did in Ignition et al, so keep that in mind while deciding what to do—or rather, be aware that those quests aren't necessarily a good guide for how he'll approach the reveal this time.

I admit the issues with roof-hopping were not something I realized when I first made the votes last time; it wasn't until I started plotting routes in Google Earth (instead of Google Maps) that I realized the problems it would face. Normal Magical Girls can vault streets, but you can't (yet), so such a vote probably would've turned into relevant magic practice. On a related note, getting images of the inside of the NYPD HQ Visitor's Center is hard.

---

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