Gestalt, A Worm x PMMM Faux-quest

[Kkutlord]

Hmm...

Kyubey, wearing a cuddly accountant outfit.
Pokes at a piece of paper, picking it up with his ear-hands.
Puts down the paper as if disappointed.
Kyubey: "This is completely unreasonable, you're not allowed to underpay. Fix that or we end our business relationship."

Basically, the Entities are horny idiots and the Incubators are the middle managers of the whole universe.

 

[SolipsistSerpent]

huh. that explains his obsession with Madoka as Homura kept up the time loop. Every time she went back, she skyrocketed Madoka's potential. By the end of the time loops i am honestly amazed Kyubey even bothered pretneding to care about the rest of the planet when Madoka could apparently on her own match the Entire output of the planet from the time that the Incubators first started harvesting it.

Click to shrink...

He didn't bother that hard, considering he didn't care about Kreimhild Gretchen annihilating the entire planet. Honestly, the only reason he didn't drop everything else entirely was probably because he's too smart to put all of his eggs in one basket-- it's no good ignoring all your other contractees to pursue Madoka and then having her die instead of witch out.

 

[Dalek Ix]

Now i wonder how Taylor matches up, bearing the Karmic weight of the savior of All humanity across the local dimensional cluster, once upon a timeline...

Click to shrink...

The difference between Taylor and Madoka is that you can assign Taylor's Karmic Weight a number. A ludicrously huge number, but a finite, countable number that one can calculate within a finite amount of time.

Not so much Madoka. Her Karmic weight verges on the scale of, "how do you even begin to count it?".

 

[Flairina]

The difference between Taylor and Madoka is that you can assign Taylor's Karmic Weight a number. A ludicrously huge number, but a finite, countable number that one can calculate within a finite amount of time.

Not so much Madoka. Her Karmic weight verges on the scale of, "how do you even begin to count it?".

Click to shrink...

I'd agree. Taylor may one day save all the people of all worlds, where "worlds" is defined as the various overlapping iterations of Earth. Madoka however goes on to save all magical girls, in all worlds (and planets), in all timelines, throughout the entire history of said timelines, in every possible instantiation of the universe save Magia Record. It may seem like less on the face of it, but I guarantee you the number of people Madoka ultimately affected (both in saving the magical girls themselves and preventing the birth of the witches they would have become) is/was considerably higher than Taylor's.

 

[Darksilver]

Didn't Madoka have normal-ish Karmic Weight before all of the time loops?

 

[MWKillKenny84]

Didn't Madoka have normal-ish Karmic Weight before all of the time loops?

Click to shrink...

Pre-Loops, Madoka had the Karmic Potential of an average female Japanese middle/Highschooler and daughter of a house-husband and a working office manager (can't exactly remember the exact position of Junko Kaname).

With the Loops, every time Homura do the rewind you need to add "+ two months (circa) worth of all the Earth-based Karma, cumulative to each successive Loop". Repeat for seventy time, and you have enough Karma that, with the rightly worded Wish, you can reboot the PMMM section of the Multiverse.

 

[Kkutlord]

Pre-Loops, Madoka had the Karmic Potential of an average female Japanese middle/Highschooler and daughter of a house-husband and a working office manager (can't exactly remember the exact position of Junko Kaname).

With the Loops, every time Homura do the rewind you need to add "+ two months (circa) worth of all the Earth-based Karma, cumulative to each successive Loop". Repeat for seventy time, and you have enough Karma that, with the rightly worded Wish, you can reboot the PMMM section of the Multiverse.

Click to shrink...

Thought it was one month loops and that it was over a hundred? Still a miracle Homura lasted nine years repeatedly losing her friends and Madoka. She did start becoming hyper-fixated on Madoka, probably at least partially to make Mami/Sayaka/Kyoko dying or Witching out hurt less. Part of her still cared, given how she did try somewhat to save Mami & Sayaka, but Homura is just so jaded by then that just saving Madoka is good enough in her book.

Given Taylor's base potential, a hundred loops would probably have her outdo Madoka's inflated Potential. Madoka ultimately wasn't all that important, so it isn't fair comparing Loop 1 Taylor to Loop 100 Madoka. It didn't seem like Madoka eventually becoming a Goddess was factored into her Potential, makes sense because it only happened because a different girl's Wish made Madoka way more important. We see that with Tart aka Jean D'arc, where Melissa healing her caused Tart's Potential to increase because her fated death in combat was prevented.

 

[MWKillKenny84]

Thought it was one month loops and that it was over a hundred? Still a miracle Homura lasted nine years repeatedly losing her friends and Madoka. She did start becoming hyper-fixated on Madoka, probably at least partially to make Mami/Sayaka/Kyoko dying or Witching out hurt less. Part of her still cared, given how she did try somewhat to save Mami & Sayaka, but Homura is just so jaded by then that just saving Madoka is good enough in her book.

Click to shrink...

Various sites did some calcs based on when the Night Of Saint Walpurgis' Eve (latest point in which Homura to hit the rewind button) happens (end of April 30th and beginning of May 1st), the calendar of the hospital room she wakes in 'on arrival' (March 16th), when she joins Madoka's class (March 25th) to calculate how much long a Loop could last (barring Oriko-type exceptions where a Loop is cut short because Madoka died early), and Urobutcher stated in an interview that Homura did less than a hundred Loops (but getting near it).

So it is basically nearly two months (one and a little more than half to be precise) of the Karma of an entire world added from the first Loop to every successive one, with said potential stacking.

 

[*FuryouMiko]

So it is basically nearly two months (one and a little more than half to be precise) of the Karma of an entire world added from the first Loop to every successive one, with said potential stacking.

Click to shrink...

Especially when you consider that Homura's intervention each time made Madoka's life notably worse as time went on (as Homura became more and more detached).

 

[Kkutlord]

Especially when you consider that Homura's intervention each time made Madoka's life notably worse as time went on (as Homura became more and more detached).

Click to shrink...

Basically, Moemura was when Homura was still a nice girl, and her adopting a "whatever it takes" mentality is where things go horribly wrong. Yet be it 100 one month loops or nearly 100 two month loops, she managed to never Witchout even after years of trying to save Madoka. Only finally Witches out when she gives up in Portable, don't remember the reason behind Rebellion. I just think it is silly that the Incubators could force Witchouts.

Though I'm more interested by how Wishes can escalate… ooh, have Taylor's Wish be "I want to save everyone!" That's the kind of Wish that'll escalate to fulfill the goal. I wonder if Rachel has an escalation-type Wish? I hope she's not like Homura, poor girl is a broken mess and Rachel already has enough personal issues- she doesn't need "desperately try to save my crush" to angst about.

 

[Dalek Ix]

==========
Gestalt
==========​

It's been a few weeks since you first came to Winslow High as a student, and you've learned a few things since then.

Firstly, you now have some idea of why the place seems to draw Witches like flies to rotten meat -and yes, that is an apt analogy. The place is just an agressively miserable, run-down wreck, and it's not just you. Sure, between Emma Barnes being out to make your life miserable, the Junior ABB wanting your blood, and the Empire fanboys wanting your person, it does sometimes feel like the entire world is out to personally grind you into the curb, but it doesn't take much to notice that you're not alone in that regard; when the gangs arent posturing or fighting each other, they're shaking down or terrorising whoever looks at them funny. You're actually a bit impressed at how little actual violence they need to get their way; you guess that a steady stream of kids going home with bruises would eventually arouse suspicion from somewhere.

The second thing you've learned is that the only thing that comes close to the bullies, gang hopefuls and Actual Neo-Nazis that the school has as students are the fucking staff.

"So, today I learned that Principal Blackwell can eat an entire bag of dicks," you say, casually. This is the first thing you've said since getting out of the Principal's office, and it almost makes Taylor choke on her lunch. The two of you (with Sarah occasionally joining in as a telepathic peanut gallery) have taken to eating on the roof, even though the weather hasn't gotten all that better since you arrived; Taylor bundles up, you're a rock driving a meat puppet, and both of you need the peace and quiet badly enough to not mind a little windchill.

Taylor swallows her mouthful of sandwich. "What did she want to talk to you about?" she asks you, "It wasn't about the spiders, right?"

Your lips quirk at the memory of Emma Barnes shrieking her head off at the nest of spiders you'd snuck into her bag via Kyuubey. A little payback for the bottle of glue she'd dumped on you the day before that.

"Nope," you tell her. "In fact, she called me in to talk about my favorite subject in the whole world."

Lifting your heavy bag up off the ground (Taylor still has no locker, and you have discovered that locks of Winslow's, er, lockers barely qualify as such), you dig around inside, pull out a crumpled pamphlet, and hand it over. She takes it, an eyebrow raised, and uncrumples the paper enough so she can read it.

She does. Blinks. Takes her glasses off, cleans them with the hem of her shirt that she pulls down from under her jacket. Put them back on and reads it again. Squints.

"'Cultural Awareness Program'," she reads out, "'Fighting racial injustice in Brockton Bay'." Taylor stops reading out loud after that, her eyes taking on a somewhat glazed look as she continues to go through the rest of the pamphlet. When she's done, she stares at it wordlessly for a moment, before finally blurting out;

"What."

"Principal Blackwell," you tell her, "got reports of me 'promoting white supermacist talking points' inside the school grounds. She was 'concerned and alarmed about my behaviour', but told me she would let it slide if I 'present evidence of my understanding of the violent and hateful history behind such beliefs via original research'."

Taylor stares at you. She opens her mouth, closes it, opens it again, and then closes it, looking out into the surrounding cityscape. It takes her a moment to finally speak.

"I don't even know where to start with that," she says, numbly, "She..." Taylor clenches her fists, squeezing her eyes shut. "There's..."

"Mmhmm."

"There's actual fucking Nazis in the school."

"Neo-Nazis, but yes."

Taylor falls silent for a moment, and then,

"What the fuck is she smoking!?" she cries out, balling up the pamphlet in her hands and throwing it away with prejudice. "How?! The Empire 88 and The ABB can go about without a single fucking care, basically doing their bullshit in the fucking open, and she singles you out because of some fucking rumour!?"

You wonder if you're rubbing off on her. You nod.

Taylor buries her head in her hands makes an inarticulate, angry noise.

Yep. Definitely rubbing off on her.

"... How are you so calm about this?" she asks, bluntly.

You smile.

"I actually got unspeakably angry at her," you admit, voice mild. "But then I realized that she made a mistake when she gave me my punishment." Your smile widens. "Research report with a minimum of five pages. And no maximum. On something I know a lot about."

It doesn't take more than half a second for Taylor to get what you're getting at. She snorts in amusement, and you allow yourself a little cackle.

There's a hint of a smile on her face, although seeing a real one is still a long way away, you feel. It feels... nice, being able to talk to Taylor like this, in spite of all the bullshit being thrown both your ways. Someone you don't have to pretend or hide things about yourself around. You don't think you've had real friends since...

... Well, since a long time. Although, considering what they did, you wonder if they were really friends at all...

You continue to eat your lunch in peace. As you do, though, you note that Taylor's usual quiet has a different... weight to it. She's distracted with something.

"Something on your mind?" you ask, and take a sip of juice. She glances at you, and then goes back to staring out into the skyline. She bites her lip, and speaks up.

"Yeah, I..." A pause. "I'd... Like to go with you. Tonight."

Over telepathy, she adds, <<Er, hunting, that is.>>

You feal something heavy and leaden in your gut. Worry. Sadness. Dread. "Oh," you say. You try to shake off the feelings, but you can almost feel them pool in your soul. You...

[-] Accept, with conditions.
- [-] For starters, you're only gonna do it if Taylor agrees that you'll be bringing Sarah with you. You know she hates your fellow Puella Magi for quite understandable reasons, but between the two of you you can keep her much safer.
[-] Delaying action. Talk with her some more about this.
- [-] What's brought this up now? She hasn't said a peep about the Magical Girl business since that first day.
- [-] Oh God, has Kyuubey finally stopped being weird and talked with her?
[-] Refuse her outright.
- [-] Lie a little. Shadow Stalker doing her Shadow Stalker things is a perfect excuse.

 

[Krika]

"So, today I learned that Principal Blackwell can eat an entire bag of dicks,"

Click to shrink...

"And she let you watch? Kinky."

Your lips quirk at the memory of Emma Barnes shrieking her head off at the nest of spiders you'd snuck into her bag via Kyuubey. A little payback for the bottle of glue she'd dumped on you the day before that.

Click to shrink...

I'm slightly surprised Kyuubey was willing to go along with it.

"What the fuck is she smoking!?" she cries out, balling up the pamphlet in her hands and throwing it away with prejudice. "How?! The Empire 88 and The ABB can go about without a single fucking care, basically doing their bullshit in the fucking open, and she singles you out because of some fucking rumour!?"

Click to shrink...

See Rachel is wondering if this is her influence...but we as readers know that it's at least as much her Dad's temper finally having an outlet.

Also yeah that's weird. I wonder if Sophia specifically reported this rumor or something to compel Blackwell to take action because it's her money-providing Ward doing it?

... Well, since a long time. Although, considering what they did, you wonder if they were really friends at all...

Click to shrink...

Ah yeah, there we go. Didn't really have many people left at Clarendon when she left. I wonder if anyone tried and was rebutted by Rachel being Rachel, or if the social scarring left behind by her bully days stuck around?

[-] Accept, with conditions.
- [-] For starters, you're only gonna do it if Taylor agrees that you'll be bringing Sarah with you. You know she hates your fellow Puella Magi for quite understandable reasons, but between the two of you you can keep her much safer.

Click to shrink...

Well, aside from the established concerns of additional safety vs. personal compatibility, the major factor here is that the narrative Taylor gets will be affected by both Sarah and Rachel instead of just the latter. This isn't necessarily a downside, but we don't really know what Sarah's overall opinion on this is - she might egg Taylor on to enjoy watching the social trainwreck play out, because she thinks Taylor should, she might be against the idea, or she might be decidedly neutral on the subject.

- [-] What's brought this up now? She hasn't said a peep about the Magical Girl business since that first day.

Click to shrink...

Reasonable question. Worth knowing, at least.

- [-] Oh God, has Kyuubey finally stopped being weird and talked with her?

Click to shrink...

Very reasonable question and also very worth knowing. Bunnycat talking with her directly means that she could just show up contracted one day without warning, and having at least knowledge that it could happen might prevent a potentially unfortunate accident.

- [-] Lie a little. Shadow Stalker doing her Shadow Stalker things is a perfect excuse.

Click to shrink...

"Oh yeah you know one of the girls who are making it their life's mission to keep you from doing anything with your non-magic life? They're keeping you from peeking your head into the magic life."

That'll absolutely sound good, nothing to backfire there at all.

 

[MWKillKenny84]

[-] Accept, with conditions.
- [-] For starters, you're only gonna do it if Taylor agrees that you'll be bringing Sarah with you. You know she hates your fellow Puella Magi for quite understandable reasons, but between the two of you you can keep her much safer.

Click to shrink...

This above. Better play things safe...

 

[Dalek Ix]

From the SB thread:

So here is a ponderable: What is the sustainably population of MGs in BB? Presuming Witches are generated in fairly regular amounts it should be easy enough to work out how many MGs they can support.

Click to shrink...

The exact number of Puella Magi which would be a sustainable population in Brockton Bay is one of the questions that I'm not entirely sure I can answer, but I'll give it a good college try, as they say.

On one side of the balance: BB has what the Incubator would call a "Very High Witch Index". Between the gangs de facto splitting the city between them, the economic catastrophy of being a port city in a world with Leviathan in it, and the standard "Earth Bet is not a Good Place to live" package, Witches have plenty to feed on, and familiars have plenty of chances of becoming new Witches. Furthermore, "wandering" Witches are likely to either stop here or settle down on BB, further increasing the population.

On the other side of the balance: A lot of Witches logically means that a place can support a lot of magical girls. However, the exact number of girls is more than a little difficult to estimate, given how wildly each girl can vary in how many Grief Seeds they need on a regular basis. Plus, the same things that make someplace attractive to Witches can also make it a miserable place for magical girls to live in. And if you don't have something positive in your life to offset fighting nightmare monsters every night, you're not gonna have a good time.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Witches aren't distributed evenly; locations in which human suffering tends to be highest will draw them in, like hospitals, prisions, morgues and so on. Lacking something like that, a girl (or a team of them) will have to cover a much larger territory to compensate (which is the root of the conflict between Anna, Andrea and Rachel).

All that considered, I can say the following:

1. Brockton Bay has a high number of Puella Magi for a city its size, although not to the degree that the Incubator would normally want. As much as I want to, I can't quite give exact numbers in this area.
2. Brockton Bay is also a really rough place for both newly-contracted Puella Magi and a "high risk, high reward" gamble for outside poachers. Between the gang warfare, economic collapse of the region, the high numbers of experienced PMs hogging territory, and the occasional poacher, newbies have a significantly higher turnover rate than elsewhere. As far as the non-magical world is concerned, these disappearances/deaths get buried under the city's high crime rate.
3. Going off the previous two points; Brockton Bay has a disproportionate amount of veteran (and Veteran) Puella Magi, which greatly contributes towards the region being quite stable.

 

[DarianAmell]

So it's like the parahuman population : a lot of newbies who die pretty fast because there is also a lot of veterans for a city of this size and are not above ganking the little players.
Brockton Bay everyone ! A city where it can always get worse !

 

[MWKillKenny84]

Going off the previous two points; Brockton Bay has a disproportionate amount of veteran (and Veteran) Puella Magi, which greatly contributes towards the region being quite stable.

Click to shrink...

Are there any Lung/Trimvirate equivalent among the Puella Magi in this setting (not necessarily in BB)?

 

[Kkutlord]

Are there any Lung/Trimvirate equivalent among the Puella Magi in this setting (not necessarily in BB)?

Click to shrink...

Most Puella are lucky to survive even a few years, so probably not. Though Boss did earlier show interest in secret societies, so if there's any Uber-Powerful Puella then she's probably a legit living legend that somehow managed decades or longer (Still want Melissa and Eliza as ancient still-alive badasses). Puella definitely can grow stronger, and also can understand their powers better. Mami doesn't make muskets, she makes ribbions that she shifts into muskets. Any Puella has the possibility of becoming top-tier.

 

[Dalek Ix]

==========
Gestalt
==========​

[X] Delaying action. Talk with her some more about this.
- [X] Oh God, has Kyuubey finally stopped being weird and talked with her?

The logical thing to do would be to say yes. The good thing to do is to say yes, because the more Taylor knows about being a Puella Magi, the better chance she'll have (and the less likely she is to make a Contract).

Still... Still...

"This is... kinda sudden," you say, cautiously, "What brought this on?"

Over telepathy, you add a little more. <<Has Kyuubey finally stopped being wierd and talked with you about contracting?>>

"I just..." She pauses, and makes a face. "I know you don't like 'Talking about Magical Girl Shit' out loud, but having two different conversations at the same time can get really confusing sometimes."

You sigh. "Fine," you adquiesce, "Has Kyuubey finally stopped being wierd and talked with you about contracting?"

"No, he's..." Taylor frowns. "I haven't seen him since the day we met," she tells you, and you try very hard to hide your relief. "Should've I been seeing him?" she asks you.

"I really only see it when I have to get rid of a full Grief Seed," you admit, "Sarah's the... I wouldn't say she's closer to it, but it tends to hang around her more often." You shrug. "No idea why. But... well, from what I know, Kyuubey's usually pretty quick on offering Contracts once it sees you have potential." You nip the obvious conclusion in the bud. "And I don't think it's even possible to lose potential, by they way. As for why it's not badgering you..."

You shrug. "No idea."

You haven't told her this, but Kyuubey's current strange behaviour goes a little deeper than just not talking to Taylor. Whenever she's around, the catrabbit thing just vanishes, and the only answer you've gotten when you've asked is that it can't give you an answer. I am forbidden from discussing current dealings with other magical girls, or potential contractees, is what it told you.

"Oh." Taylor falls silent, staring at her knees. You put a hand on her shoulder, trying to be encouraging.

"Any closer to figuring out what you want your wish to be?" you ask, trying to keep your voice light.

Taylor sighs. "No," she says, leaning back to stare at the overcast sky. "I swear that list grows longer when I'm not looking at it," she adds, grumbling.

If there's one saving grace about Taylor's inevitable contracting, it's that there's so much she wants to wish for that she struggles to find the one thing she wants above all the others. You don't know what's on the list of potential wishes that Taylor's slowly been whittling down (and, apparently, occasionally adding to), or even how long it is, and you prefer it that way.

"The reason why I want to go with you now is..." Taylor pauses for a moment, biting her lip. "You've told me it's dangerous, and I believe you, but..." A sigh. "I still want to know what it's like. You're..." A pause. Hesitation. "You're my friend, Rachel. And..." Again. Hesitation.

Yes, you're her friend. Just like Emma Barnes was, but obviously there were things about her that Taylor didn't know about. Things that made them go from being practically sisters to... well, how they are now. She wants to trust you, wants to believe that you're her friend, but there's an entire world you're a part of that she's completely closed off to.

"... And there's an entire world I'm a part off that you haven't seen yet," you finish for her. Taylor straightens out, face flushed.

"... I wasn't gonna put it that way, but... Yeah," she admits. "To be fair, you've been telling me about being a magical girl practically every night." A hint of what might've been a smile. "Hard not to get curious."

"I've been complaining about all the bullshit being a magical girl involves," you correct her, voice deadpan, "Like Maze Witches. And murderous poachers. And Sarah."

Taylor snorts in amusement. You huff with faux-offence.

[X] Accept, with conditions.
- [X] For starters, you're only gonna do it if Taylor agrees that you'll be bringing Sarah with you. You know she hates your fellow Puella Magi for quite understandable reasons, but between the two of you you can keep her much safer.

"Fine," you sigh, "You're coming with tonight." You raise a hand to interrupt Taylor before she can start to thank you. "With conditions. First: you're only coming with me if bring Sarah along."

Taylor's face tells you exactly how little she likes that idea.

"Can't it be someone else?" she suggests, "Literally anyone else?"

"Sarah's a cackling hyena, but she knows that if she let anything happen to you she wouldn't live long enough to find it funny," you tell her, "other than that..." You rub the back of your head. "I'm not exactly the social butterfly of the Puella Magi Underworld," You admit.

Then again, the reason you only have to deal with Anna and Andrea over Winslow is because you keep to yourself.

Taylor closes her eyes and visible does a ten-count in her head. "Fine," she tells you, "What else?"

"Just one more thing." Your voice lowers. "I don't expect Anna and Andrea to start shit, but they might. Anna's costume looks like some sorta fantasy assasin, and Andrea's is this armoured dress thing. If you see either of them, tell us, hide, and don't come out until it's safe."

"... You think they'd hurt me?"

You consider her question. "I hope they're smart enough not to," you clarify, "but I'm not taking any chances. Other than that... well, just keep in mind that the Barrier is what Witches use to kill people. Be very careful."

Taylor takes a deep breath. It's not hard to tell that she's nervous, but she's pushing through anyways. "Alright," she says, "I'll take that." More softly, she adds, "And... Thanks, Rachel."

You snort. "I'd wait until after before thanking me," you say, half-teasing. The two of you are done with lunch; there's not much else to do up here besides talk with each other (and Sarah, but you're not counting her), but it's nice and quiet and isolate-

"Rachel, did you close the door?"

You blink. Twist around to look at the door that goes up to the roof.

It's shut.

"...I didn't," you tell Taylor. Getting up, the two of you go to the only way up or off the cold roof is. Taylor reaches for the handle. Pulls. Pushes. Twists, one way then the other, putting more effort with each attempt.

"Locked," she pants. She looks pale. You know she doesn't have a cellphone (you do, but it doesn't take a Thinker to know that bringing it to this school is asking for it to be stolen). It's cold, and you know for a fact that nobody down below will be helping.

...

Oh, and you're... You know. A Magical Girl. You could jump off the roof with Taylor. Hell, you could jump to the next roof with Taylor. Still, this is more than a little annoying.

You're technically locked out on the roof, but you're a magical superhuman lich. You've got some options that most people in this situation don't.

[-] Jump.
- [-] Just jump down like a badass, Taylor in your arms. Amaze others with your prowess. This is a terrible idea and you know it. Shame on you.
- [-] Jump to another building with Taylor and then jump down.

[-] All this jumping business is asking for trouble. The door is right there.
- [-] Use magic to unlock the door. The nice, simple solution to this problem.
- [-] Gently kick the door down. You might be able to tone your strength down to something believable as belonging to a standard issue human being. Or two. You'll say Taylor helped.

[-] Actually, neither you nor Taylor even want to go back in that building. Time to be a bad influence on your friend and skip the rest of the day!
- [-] Offer to Rooftop-hop her home.
- [-] Maybe you can... er... hang out like normal girls skipping school? You've hung out with people. You've gone to malls and stuff. You got this.
- [-] Actually, you might be able to use this time productively! The Clinic should be open, and for all that the magical girl who runs the place is... Okay, she's probably legitimately insane, but she's the best healer in Brockton Bay, and she sells stuff which might be useful tonight. You can grab your stash of Grief Seeds on the way.
- - [-] Bring Taylor along. It'll be fine. Absolutely and completely fine. Non-magical people have been to The Clinic before and they've only been slightly traumatized.

Sarah exists, to your continued dismay, but she might prove somewhat useful now.

[-] Ask her to help. You never know. The planets might align. Pigs might fly. Jack Slash might retire to a quiet life of raising sheep.
[-] Just tell her where you two are, what happened, and what you're doing.

 

[Kkutlord]

If there's one saving grace about Taylor's inevitable contracting, it's that there's so much she wants to wish for that she struggles to find the one thing she wants above all the others. You don't know what's on the list of potential wishes that Taylor's slowly been whittling down (and, apparently, occasionally adding to), or even how long it is, and you prefer it that way.

Click to shrink...

The more Taylor knows about how Magical Girls and Witches work, the more information she has to work with. I just hope Taylor learns the Witchbomb before Contracting, because just because her Potential isn't "lol hax", it is still innately very high. Not even clear if Madoka's inflated Potential was excessive or not. So can't even say she couldn't screw with reality, and we know Potential can increase even further if their fated ending is prevented.

 

[Jamie Roberts]

Plan: Look at How Cool I Am, Senpai!
[X] Actually, neither you nor Taylor even want to go back in that building. Time to be a bad influence on your friend and skip the rest of the day!
- [X] Maybe you can... er... hang out like normal girls skipping school? You've hung out with people. You've gone to malls and stuff. You got this.
- - [X] This option still implicitly involves holding Senpai Taylor and jumping off the roof with her like a badass, just like the option that included this explicitly, but also involves maximizing time spent with her afterwards. For purely normal friendship reasons, of course!

Sarah exists, to your continued dismay, but she might prove somewhat useful now.
[X] Just tell her where you two are, what happened, and what you're doing.

 

[Kkutlord]

I'm starting to think Rachel is Taylor's Homura, I do not like that implication- but if we're gonna get Taylord, then naturally we're gonna need Rachifier. I still find it kind of suspicious Rachel's Wish hasn't been stated, feeling like the reveal is suppose to be a big deal.

 

[Krika]

"Rachel, did you close the door?"

You blink. Twist around to look at the door that goes up to the roof.

It's shut.

"...I didn't," you tell Taylor. Getting up, the two of you go to the only way up or off the cold roof is. Taylor reaches for the handle. Pulls. Pushes. Twists, one way then the other, putting more effort with each attempt.

"Locked," she pants. She looks pale. You know she doesn't have a cellphone (you do, but it doesn't take a Thinker to know that bringing it to this school is asking for it to be stolen). It's cold, and you know for a fact that nobody down below will be helping.

Click to shrink...

So the question becomes who did it and how long were they listening to the conversation.

I mean okay if it wasn't one of the Trio I'll do something unlikely but who exactly it was can have different results.

- [-] Use magic to unlock the door. The nice, simple solution to this problem.

Click to shrink...

Depends on if someone's watching or not. Also potentially begs the question of "how" if asked and the only reasonable answer of "I picked the lock" probably wouldn't fly because I doubt Rachel can prove that capability.

- [-] Gently kick the door down. You might be able to tone your strength down to something believable as belonging to a standard issue human being. Or two. You'll say Taylor helped.

Click to shrink...

Oh yeah get in more trouble with the school administration for actual destruction of school property in a place you're not supposed to be, that'll definitely go over well.

- [-] Offer to Rooftop-hop her home.

Click to shrink...

Basically all of the "going home" options have potential pitfalls related to the possibility that the locked door is a setup by someone and just outright disappearing could either do an endrun around that setup or trip it in an entirely different way by revealing the beyond-human capability of leaving the roof. This gets back around to the question of who could have been listening - Shadow Stalker gets more ammo to weight our end of the MAD thing Rachel has going with her, while Emma could take the concept of Taylor looking to gain strength via Powers really badly and kick up the bullying as a result.

Roof-hopping to Taylor's house is probably the most efficient and least likely to cause problems out of all them (presuming her dad isn't home), though. Theoretically nobody to catch Rachel or Taylor playing hooky.

- [-] Maybe you can... er... hang out like normal girls skipping school? You've hung out with people. You've gone to malls and stuff. You got this.

Click to shrink...

This sounds like the option for actual bonding and that probably ends up with the duo meeting someone interesting.

- [-] Actually, you might be able to use this time productively! The Clinic should be open, and for all that the magical girl who runs the place is... Okay, she's probably legitimately insane, but she's the best healer in Brockton Bay, and she sells stuff which might be useful tonight. You can grab your stash of Grief Seeds on the way.
- - [-] Bring Taylor along. It'll be fine. Absolutely and completely fine. Non-magical people have been to The Clinic before and they've only been slightly traumatized.

Click to shrink...

Ah so obviously the fun option.

I want it to be chosen purely to find out what the hell is going on at this place because it sounds fascinating. And also if Taylor is going to be a magical girl it's better to get the trauma out of the way when it won't be literally killer for her.

[-] Ask her to help. You never know. The planets might align. Pigs might fly. Jack Slash might retire to a quiet life of raising sheep.
[-] Just tell her where you two are, what happened, and what you're doing.

Click to shrink...

She did say she wanted in on the feud with the Trio and Rachel can probably make a reasonable argument that they could have been responsible and therefore it would be fun for Sarah to mess it up. If she wants to get involved she needs to at least consider doing stuff besides moral support!

 

[MWKillKenny84]

I'm starting to think Rachel is Taylor's Homura, I do not like that implication- but if we're gonna get Taylord, then naturally we're gonna need Rachifier. I still find it kind of suspicious Rachel's Wish hasn't been stated, feeling like the reveal is suppose to be a big deal.

Click to shrink...

And I suspect it is the reverse. That Rachel is Taylor's Madoka.

Have fun with the image of Taylor with Homura's powerset and bull-headed decision to save her friend/possible lover/obsession.

 

[TheOmnimercurial]

[X] Maybe you can... er... hang out like normal girls skipping school? You've hung out with people. You've gone to malls and stuff. You got this.
-[X] Actually, you might be able to use this time productively! The Clinic should be open, and for all that the magical girl who runs the place is... Okay, she's probably legitimately insane, but she's the best healer in Brockton Bay, and she sells stuff which might be useful tonight. You can grab your stash of Grief Seeds on the way.
--[X] Bring Taylor along. It'll be fine. Absolutely and completely fine. Non-magical people have been to The Clinic before and they've only been slightly traumatized.

 

[Dalek Ix]

No updates today and possibly tomorrow, owing to my back being injured.