Puella Magi Adfligo Systema
- Thread starter Firnagzen
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- puella magi adfligo systema puella magi madoka magica be gay do crimes (gay) female protagonist bad decisions dating mami tomoe diabolical laughter friendship is the best ship handholding identity crises microwaving tea gets you put in the bad place names are important the body is the fursona of the soul this is not the baked goods thread we don't talk about rionna what could possibly go wrong? who in the world is azure sanfrancisco?
Emdeman
The Atlantic Federation
- Location
- Australia
One my regrets was not convincing people this was a bad idea. I argued against making Rin the negotiator just because it made UG uncomfortable talking to Akiko. It smacked of pettiness. Even after that I tried to get Sabrina to be a relay to Akiko and use telepathy back to UG since Sendai were the ones with power and to deal with any issues Akiko had face to face. It had risks yes but it could have worked.
Does Mami even know hand to hand combat? I thought she only uses muskets? I don't think there's anyone in Mitakihara who knows apart from Kirika, and she's doesn't exactly use a weapon (a longarm).
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1. Kyoko can deal. The truth is Mami doesn't know we're here and we've avoided saying much about Kyoko to her at all. If Kyoko brings it up call her on her obsession, god damn.
2. Mami can deal. Ok, maybe Mami won't deal well, but in a world where we're helping her become more stable she has to . We're allowed to have friends and do things without her approval, just like she's allowed to have friends and do things without our approval. That idea goes both ways. It's necessary for it to go both ways.
Gadjo
Doka
We could claim we didn't think we'd get the best CQC training from someone who specializes in firearms. Mami only ever really uses them as a club to clear out opponents before taking a shot. Other than that, she focuses on acrobatics. We need martial training in how to properly use a melee weapon. Seeing as how she doesn't have a lot of offense-oriented powers, Kyoko is probably the most skilled melee weapon user in the Mitakihara area.
That is exactly what I'm worried about, though.
>I'm not good enough. She doesn't need me. I'm so useless she went to go ask for help from Kyoko instead.
We still might get it for having that as a reason at all, but we make it extremely likely by making it our main reason. How are we supposed to tell Mami that it's our cause for going without hurting her?
Remember, this is a broken Mami we're talking about. It's not rational, but...
Kyoko dealing will involve us getting the boot again. We don't want that. That is the exact opposite of the goal.
Mami can't and SHOULDN'T deal at this point, and if we expect her to need to do so for something like an excuse, then we need to NOPE NOPE NOPE the idea. She's broken, and we're trying to stop breaking her- if that means adjusting our approach for her benefit until she's better, then we should do that. In the long term, yes, she'll need to be less clingy, but that's just that. The long term. Not days after her worldview was shattered and she's a traumatized limpet.
We can do this without potentially hurting Mami unnecessarily, and the benefits of hurting Mami don't seem worth it.
She wasn't incompetent in hand to hand with Homura in Rebellion- it's not her preference but she held her own.
And Akiko was a raving lunatic who would never have accepted reasonable terms, even if we didn't know that at the time.
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Gadjo
Doka
We could probably open up and tell the truth should that come to be a problem; we needed an excuse to talk to Kyoko since we're trying to unite the Mitakihara area and Kyoko was giving us the cold shoulder. Then, of course, we could do some training with Mami for both practical and therapy reasons.
I'm not saying it's without risk, but I think it's worth it, and rebuilding the bridge with Kyoko has to start somewhere. Hell, maybe after we explain our reasoning, she'll give us some better advice on how to get through to her.
The truth works better but "please train us" is not an appealing enough excuse to make it our main reason to tell Kyoko. I'd rather avoid hurting Mami in the first place and just use a more consistent excuse as our main point. Bring up training once we have our foot in the door somewhere by all means, but as our main reason for going it's completely non-functional because of all the extra things that could go wrong.
"Hey again, just dropping by to cleanse" has the advantages of being harder for her to just turn down (free cleanses when she's feeding two), not having anything for Mami to object to, and being something Kyoko'd expect from us.
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Gadjo
Doka
That was something I already said I'd be okay with if I'm understanding you correctly: we drop in to cleanse, BS and make friendly for awhile, and then request a little training and sparring, with the intent to become friendlier with her in the process. In short, I'm saying we should have a secondary excuse to stick around after our primary excuse of being there to cleanse.
Yeah, then we agree- I think that it's a good idea that's worth trying if we do it carefully and in a way that won't traumatize the Mumi.
Emdeman
The Atlantic Federation
- Location
- Australia
I don't think that'll work as intended. It'll come off as dishonest. We come to cleanse gems for no other reason than checking in, then all of a sudden we ask if she can teach us combat. She's going to conclude that we used the cleanses to try and get her to help us and that'll make her mad for manipulating her. Just be upfront with it, ask for training and offer to pay in cleanses. There's nothing nefarious about it.
Gadjo
Doka
Except we already said cleanses were free. if we're going to offer payment for training, it'll have to be additional seeds, food, or money. I don't think it's that risky; we show up, give our promised cleanses, and then mention how we got our asses handed to us in our last fight every time we tried to fight with anything other that our powers, and ask if she would train us, and offer up front to pay for it.
AuraTwilight
The Sorcerer of Smiles
- Location
- The Silver City
You guys overcomplicate everything holy fuck.
Kyoko: "Yo can you help me train on shit this totally isn't just an excuse you're the best melee fightan meguca in the area."
Mami: "Yea that's my pretense but I'm actually trying to repair bridges without stepping on her buttons. I did a lot to hurt you and I'm sorry but I'm gonna make it right. You can teach me ranged combat sometime, huh? <3"
Like...does Mami have to be fed the same story we're feeding Kyoko? What the fuck.
Kyoko: "Yo can you help me train on shit this totally isn't just an excuse you're the best melee fightan meguca in the area."
Mami: "Yea that's my pretense but I'm actually trying to repair bridges without stepping on her buttons. I did a lot to hurt you and I'm sorry but I'm gonna make it right. You can teach me ranged combat sometime, huh? <3"
Like...does Mami have to be fed the same story we're feeding Kyoko? What the fuck.
Re: Mami reacting badly to asking Kyoko for CQC training.
Well, CQC training involves getting a lot of bruises. Maybe tell Mami we knew she would be uncomfortable to the idea of hurting us, even if its just training?
Well, CQC training involves getting a lot of bruises. Maybe tell Mami we knew she would be uncomfortable to the idea of hurting us, even if its just training?
Mami is indeed a blob of squishy feelings. We do need to be careful about her feelings.
We should be upfront with Mami. And honest about our other motives for approaching Kyooko the Cooco Puff. Having more bodies on good standing with us strengthens everybody. From a strategic standpoint she's the only Meguca in the city doesn't have a sturdy tie to us. We're not trying to replace her, or seeing her as a weak (Reinforcement on how helpful she was in Magic!TheFightning), it's just a matter of specialties, and cqc is not the same musketeering. Also she's free during school unlike Mami.
And we should be up front with Kyoko also. She's selfish and motivated by personal gain, and offering her a earnable, self directed, opportunity appeals to her. She might not like our approach to pestering her, but she's not going to outright refuse the chance to make money, or food, or whatever else we decide to give her. She's got Yuma to think about now, and like it or not she's going to be looking for more opportunities to provide for the both of them
And there is another danger that occurred to me when thinking about making Mami our Ultimate golden Wiafu~!
Right now, Mami is using us as her major support in everything. We're the squishy teddy bear that she's using to face the dangers of her new reality. Depending on a single person to provide support is dangerous though. We can't guarantee that we'll always be able to provide everything for her and it makes the possibility of our removal.....terrifying. We need to take steps to providing additional means of support for Mami, take steps to bring more relationships into her life. A week ago we didn't even exist to her, and now we're her closest friend. Her only close friend really.
We need to get more friends to Mami, because making us her only means of support is a recipe for disaster the first time she get's leaned on and doesn't have us. (So no. Confessions to the Waifu can wait for now. Heaven forbid she find's out about witches when we're in the middle of a relationship)
The day after we get back should be Mami day. We should get her a teddy bear and ask her how to make money. So we can buy her more teddy bears
Hasn't this already been discussed and agreed on several times?
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[X] Ugolino
Yeah, "Get Mami more friends" is one of our mission statements. It's one of the main reasons we're talking to Kyoko, Masami, Homura, and even Madoka and Sayaka to some extent.
Also even us shippers agree that we're not trying for the ship until we get Mami happy, stable, and with lots of non-braindamaged friends.
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Not really, I think. Masami's still salty about Mami, and she still thinks that we almost royally screwed up her healing session with Rin.
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Gadjo
Doka
We did still ensure she got healed, though. She's a little prickly, but she at least tolerates our help now, I'd think. I'd say Kyoko is going to be the tougher nut to crack.
Cannongerbil
I came here to nep at you
- Location
- Soviet Lunar Base
Well, actually, she doesn't. The only reason we know how badly we messed up is because of our greater perspective and Oriko's visions. As far as she knows we prevented Sakura from running away and helped convinced Rin to stick around.
She might be a little prickly because our first impression didn't go particularly well and because of the mami connection, but that aside we are on fairly cordial terms with each other. Probably better than Kyouko, truth be told.
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"We've Got Hostiles" pt. 43
Alright then. You take a deep breath. "When we're all done, we'll meet back up on that roof earlier," you send out telepathically to all the girls here.
"Right," Chouko replies, on behalf of the rest of the University girls.
"On my way," Noa says.
"Yeah, yeah," Sakura says. "I gotta fucking go with you, don't I?"
Rin looks at you, and simply nods, while footsteps splashing through the rain puddling on the broken road behind you is Kirika walking up, her smile a little faded. Mami, of course, is at your side, ready to follow you.
"OK," you say to the small group here. "I'm going to wing by to pick up Koizumi's and Tanaka's... bodies, first. So let's go."
You lead the way to the rooftops, Mami following beside you, Kirika a step behind. Sakura and Rin aren't too far behind, either, as the five of you bound across the city, cutting through the falling rain and darkness. From this elevation, you can see the path Kuvira... Atsuko... took through the city, obvious by the torn up roads. She'd travelled maybe a few kilometers.
Emergency lights are visible far below on the streets, now pulling away from the disaster area. That's... somewhat reassuring, you think - it means that the worst is over, and the immediate casualties have been recovered, right?
You swing past the carnage, and you pass the rooftop where you'd first been ambushed. A neat pair of vaguely Akiko-shaped craters in the concrete there, trenches melted into the flagstones here, Tamiko's body still lying there, encased securely in Mami's ribbons.
You scoop up the body without pausing in your run, immediately hanging direction and heading for where you remember Sasami fell.
...
It's kinda morbid, really. You glance back at the platform you've got shadowing you still, essentially a flying mausoleum. Or meat wagon. They're not actually dead, true, but you're carting around a whole bunch of inanimate bodies. That's morbid no matter how you slice it.
Yep.
You've got an enormous amount of Grief chasing you, too, at a guess, enough to pack a small room solid. Some from Hildegarde's Seed, some stolen from Akiko's and Sakura's Grief Seeds, some from cleansing... there's a lot of it, all told, and you're probably going to have to do something about it later.
Always with that word.
Eh.
When you crash to a landing on that roof near the radio tower -an office building, it looks like- you find that the University girls and Noa are already there, avoiding looking at each other and impatiently awaiting your arrival.
"Hello, and sorry, I had to go and pick up Tamiko and Koizumi," you say. Unit 00 and Ramiel, in other words. There's almost certainly some kind of joke in there.
Chouko nods. "We understand," she says.
"Alright," you say. "Rin, could you heal the injuries? Everyone's injuries?" you ask, gesturing at the Suzuki sisters. Absently, you form the Grief under your control, all of it, into spheres that you set orbiting the roof, deep purple orbs glinting as they catch the light reflected up from the streets below.
"Yes," Rin says quietly. She starts forward, summoning the now familiar emerald glow of her magic to her hands. "May I?" she asks, gesturing at Haru's burns.
"Yes," the white haired girl says, still eyeing Rin suspiciously. She looks like she's about to add something, before deciding the better of it.
You nod in satisfaction. "While that's happ-" a particularly fat raindrop smacks onto the bridge of your nose, and you blink in annoyance. "Mami, um, could you put up an awning?" you ask, softening the request with a quick smile.
"Of course, Sabrina," she replies, raising her hand. Golden ribbons explode out, anchoring themselves in the four corners of the roof and weaving together overhead into a arched canopy that sheds the rain effortlessly.
You give Mami an appreciative smile, and she smiles back.
Rin finishes up with Haru, and turns to Rei. The plant controller inspects herself, before grudgingly nodding her approval.
You start again, mainly addressing Chouko and Noa. "Anyway, as I was saying. Now that all the fighting is done... I suggest that we wake them up, Hamasaki excepted, to talk this out."
Yuko, prodding at her freshly healed arm, looks up at you. "Why should we? We won."
"I doubt you want to kill them, or leave them as pieces of jewelry, so..." you shake your head.
"Maybe we should!" she says, but there's no real heat in her voice, and neither does she meet your eyes.
"I agree with Miss Sabrina," Chouko says, speaking slowly. "Can I request that they be restrained while we do so?"
"Yes, I was thinking just that," you agree. "But we are going to have to release them eventually. Not much of negotiations if one side's tied up."
Chouko nods slowly.
"Are there any more injuries?" Rin inquires, stepping back from Kirika, who grins happily at her.
A chorus of negatives, all around, and you shake your head.
Mami touches you on the shoulder. "Sabrina, your arm," she says, looking alarmed.
Your...
Your arm.
You'd forgotten about it.
You raise your arm, shaking back the sleeve of your long coat and undershirt to display it, an ugly, mottled mass of dark bruises. Internal bleeding from a broken bone. You hold it out to Rin.
You don't even feel it, having shoved the pain into some dark corner of your mind.
Mami hisses out a sympathetic breath, her hand tightening on your shoulder. Rin clicks her tongue disapprovingly, and plays her healing light over your arm, bruises fading and bone shifting in a distinctly disquieting manner under your flesh as she does so.
While she does that, a twist of your will brings your platform down to this rooftop, settling behind you. It's... really quite ghoulish. But it's something you need to do. A hush falls on the rooftop as the platform arrives, and Rin steps back from you.
"Thanks," you say to Rin.
She's not exactly listening, though, her eyes staring over your shoulder.
You glance back, and see your platform arriving, carrying the bodies of Yumi, Kuvira, Sasami, Tamiko, and...
Moe.
Moe, with her missing arm and leg. With her torso and hips barely connected by a few strands of muscle and skin, blood pooling and diluted to a pale pink by the falling rain.
Mami sucks in a breath, face going pale at the sight of the corpse. And it very much is a corpse, at this point. Even Sakura looks faintly disturbed, glancing first at you, then Mami and Kirika.
Mami presses her lips firmly together, shaking her head slightly. She shuffles a step closer to you and brushes her hand lightly against yours. You oblige the unspoken request and grab her hand, interlacing your fingers with hers and squeezing lightly.
"Umm... yeah," you say lamely. "Uh. Sorry, I uh... kinda forgot about that. Rin, could you?" A fraction of your will makes a little hole in Moe's corner of your platform, letting the blood drain away.
"Right, yes," Rin says, taking a deep breath and stepping forward with her hands glowing.
"OK, then," you say. You pull Tamiko forward onto the roof, Mami helping you. She anticipates your next move, and binds the girl with ribbons - not the full body cocoons, but less restrictive, less claustrophobic bindings around Tamiko's wrists and ankles.
You remove Tamiko's Soul Gem from your pocket, a small, domed orange disc, and hand it to Sakura. She grimaces as she accepts it, and moves to kneel by Tamiko's side before pressing it into the girl's hand.
The first sign of life is a violent inhalation and a flinch, hands rising in a warding position. Sakura catches her by the shoulders, pressing her down. "Tamiko, it's OK. It's OK."
The girl slowly calms down, her hands clenched tightly around her Soul Gem as she stares around at the University girls. When her eyes fall on you and Mami, they turn quizzical for a moment, before shifting to worry as she looks at Sakura.
"Yeah, we fucking lost," the teleporter grumbles. "We're... negotiating."
Tamiko nods, and she looks at you. "What do you intend, Miss Sabrina?" an unfamiliar voice sounds in your head, a pleasant, light alto.
"Peace, Miss Tanaka," you say, meeting her gaze steadily. "We are willing to let you up, if you agree to abide by a ceasefire for now."
She glances at Sakura, and then back at you, nodding slightly.
Mami's ribbons flow away, and Tamiko remains in her seated position, apparently unconcerned by the puddle of cold water she's seated in.
Without anything else to do, you move to retrieve Yumi's body, wincing as you note the way the grey robes of her puella magi costume are stained red by Moe's blood. Mami's ribbons flow in, wrapping securely around the gravity controller's wrists and ankles, and you flash Mami a quick smile.
Again, you pass the Soul Gem to Sakura, but Tamiko rather firmly takes it from the teleporter's hands, before moving to wake Yumi up herself.
Yumi flails, on waking, hands snatching for something that isn't there before spasmodically closing around her Soul Gem. Tamiko leans into her, presumably talking to her by telepathy, while Sakura kneels at her side and eventually, the gravity controller calms down. The glare she shoots you is more than a tad heated, but Rin walks over, interrupting the glare. You glance over, and see that Moe's body is restored, and whole once more.
Finally, the four of them look up at you. "We're done," Rin says.
"Miss Tsubaki?" you ask, glancing at Chouko. She nods.
A thought occurs to you, and you address Noa. "Miss Ueda, I'm sorry, but you don't mind waiting, do you?"
"I do not," Noa confirms, having taken advantage of Mami's rain shelter to try to dry her enormous twintails a little more.
"OK, then," you say, gesturing for everyone to gather. You gather in a loose circle, the University girls on one side, the Sendai girls on the other. Both sides look wary, the Sendai girls more so, at a glance, though... Rin's arms are firmly crossed in front of her, her face set in determination. Mami and Kirika flank you, and Noa stands to Kirika's far side, hands clasped patiently in front of her.
"Alright. First things first," you say. "As is obvious, Miss Hamasaki has not been revived, because I do not feel that she is in a fit state of mind to make decisions. Sakura can bear witness to this." The teleporter nods reluctantly, face set in mulish discontent, and you face the Sendai girls. "Would you object to Miss Minami representing you?"
The Sendai girls exchange looks, and they take a few minutes that stretch out into an eternity to discuss it before Yumi looks up at you. "That's fine."
"OK, then," you say, crossing your arms. You know you cut an intimidating figure, framed by your longcoat and bracketed by Mami and Kirika, a few motes of Grief drifting around your for emphasis while the majority orbits around the roof in a vast, slowly turning orrery. "These are my ground terms. No more fighting between you. No more extortion."
Yumi nods slowly, her lips compressed into a straight line. "Acceptable," she says. "We'll... convince Akiko."
Chouko simply nods.
"Alright. Miss Tsubaki? What do you want?" you ask.
"We would be grateful for a lasting peace," Chouko says, holding her hands out. "We want a chance to go back to our lives."
"I want to know what's going to happen in the future," Yuko says, looking at you. There's no heat, no anger in her gaze, just... simple weariness, in her slumped shoulders and tired eyes. "So OK, Hamasaki's been kicked out of this little... conference. You did that earlier, and..." she waves at the rooftop, and the damage in the distance.
That's... a good question, and one you've been struggling to answer yourself.
[] Write-in
From an earlier draft:
"Right," Chouko replies, on behalf of the rest of the University girls.
"On my way," Noa says.
"Yeah, yeah," Sakura says. "I gotta fucking go with you, don't I?"
Rin looks at you, and simply nods, while footsteps splashing through the rain puddling on the broken road behind you is Kirika walking up, her smile a little faded. Mami, of course, is at your side, ready to follow you.
"OK," you say to the small group here. "I'm going to wing by to pick up Koizumi's and Tanaka's... bodies, first. So let's go."
You lead the way to the rooftops, Mami following beside you, Kirika a step behind. Sakura and Rin aren't too far behind, either, as the five of you bound across the city, cutting through the falling rain and darkness. From this elevation, you can see the path Kuvira... Atsuko... took through the city, obvious by the torn up roads. She'd travelled maybe a few kilometers.
Emergency lights are visible far below on the streets, now pulling away from the disaster area. That's... somewhat reassuring, you think - it means that the worst is over, and the immediate casualties have been recovered, right?
You swing past the carnage, and you pass the rooftop where you'd first been ambushed. A neat pair of vaguely Akiko-shaped craters in the concrete there, trenches melted into the flagstones here, Tamiko's body still lying there, encased securely in Mami's ribbons.
You scoop up the body without pausing in your run, immediately hanging direction and heading for where you remember Sasami fell.
...
It's kinda morbid, really. You glance back at the platform you've got shadowing you still, essentially a flying mausoleum. Or meat wagon. They're not actually dead, true, but you're carting around a whole bunch of inanimate bodies. That's morbid no matter how you slice it.
Yep.
You've got an enormous amount of Grief chasing you, too, at a guess, enough to pack a small room solid. Some from Hildegarde's Seed, some stolen from Akiko's and Sakura's Grief Seeds, some from cleansing... there's a lot of it, all told, and you're probably going to have to do something about it later.
Always with that word.
Eh.
When you crash to a landing on that roof near the radio tower -an office building, it looks like- you find that the University girls and Noa are already there, avoiding looking at each other and impatiently awaiting your arrival.
"Hello, and sorry, I had to go and pick up Tamiko and Koizumi," you say. Unit 00 and Ramiel, in other words. There's almost certainly some kind of joke in there.
Chouko nods. "We understand," she says.
"Alright," you say. "Rin, could you heal the injuries? Everyone's injuries?" you ask, gesturing at the Suzuki sisters. Absently, you form the Grief under your control, all of it, into spheres that you set orbiting the roof, deep purple orbs glinting as they catch the light reflected up from the streets below.
"Yes," Rin says quietly. She starts forward, summoning the now familiar emerald glow of her magic to her hands. "May I?" she asks, gesturing at Haru's burns.
"Yes," the white haired girl says, still eyeing Rin suspiciously. She looks like she's about to add something, before deciding the better of it.
You nod in satisfaction. "While that's happ-" a particularly fat raindrop smacks onto the bridge of your nose, and you blink in annoyance. "Mami, um, could you put up an awning?" you ask, softening the request with a quick smile.
"Of course, Sabrina," she replies, raising her hand. Golden ribbons explode out, anchoring themselves in the four corners of the roof and weaving together overhead into a arched canopy that sheds the rain effortlessly.
You give Mami an appreciative smile, and she smiles back.
Rin finishes up with Haru, and turns to Rei. The plant controller inspects herself, before grudgingly nodding her approval.
You start again, mainly addressing Chouko and Noa. "Anyway, as I was saying. Now that all the fighting is done... I suggest that we wake them up, Hamasaki excepted, to talk this out."
Yuko, prodding at her freshly healed arm, looks up at you. "Why should we? We won."
"I doubt you want to kill them, or leave them as pieces of jewelry, so..." you shake your head.
"Maybe we should!" she says, but there's no real heat in her voice, and neither does she meet your eyes.
"I agree with Miss Sabrina," Chouko says, speaking slowly. "Can I request that they be restrained while we do so?"
"Yes, I was thinking just that," you agree. "But we are going to have to release them eventually. Not much of negotiations if one side's tied up."
Chouko nods slowly.
"Are there any more injuries?" Rin inquires, stepping back from Kirika, who grins happily at her.
A chorus of negatives, all around, and you shake your head.
Mami touches you on the shoulder. "Sabrina, your arm," she says, looking alarmed.
Your...
Your arm.
You'd forgotten about it.
You raise your arm, shaking back the sleeve of your long coat and undershirt to display it, an ugly, mottled mass of dark bruises. Internal bleeding from a broken bone. You hold it out to Rin.
You don't even feel it, having shoved the pain into some dark corner of your mind.
Mami hisses out a sympathetic breath, her hand tightening on your shoulder. Rin clicks her tongue disapprovingly, and plays her healing light over your arm, bruises fading and bone shifting in a distinctly disquieting manner under your flesh as she does so.
While she does that, a twist of your will brings your platform down to this rooftop, settling behind you. It's... really quite ghoulish. But it's something you need to do. A hush falls on the rooftop as the platform arrives, and Rin steps back from you.
"Thanks," you say to Rin.
She's not exactly listening, though, her eyes staring over your shoulder.
You glance back, and see your platform arriving, carrying the bodies of Yumi, Kuvira, Sasami, Tamiko, and...
Moe.
Moe, with her missing arm and leg. With her torso and hips barely connected by a few strands of muscle and skin, blood pooling and diluted to a pale pink by the falling rain.
Mami sucks in a breath, face going pale at the sight of the corpse. And it very much is a corpse, at this point. Even Sakura looks faintly disturbed, glancing first at you, then Mami and Kirika.
Mami presses her lips firmly together, shaking her head slightly. She shuffles a step closer to you and brushes her hand lightly against yours. You oblige the unspoken request and grab her hand, interlacing your fingers with hers and squeezing lightly.
"Umm... yeah," you say lamely. "Uh. Sorry, I uh... kinda forgot about that. Rin, could you?" A fraction of your will makes a little hole in Moe's corner of your platform, letting the blood drain away.
"Right, yes," Rin says, taking a deep breath and stepping forward with her hands glowing.
"OK, then," you say. You pull Tamiko forward onto the roof, Mami helping you. She anticipates your next move, and binds the girl with ribbons - not the full body cocoons, but less restrictive, less claustrophobic bindings around Tamiko's wrists and ankles.
You remove Tamiko's Soul Gem from your pocket, a small, domed orange disc, and hand it to Sakura. She grimaces as she accepts it, and moves to kneel by Tamiko's side before pressing it into the girl's hand.
The first sign of life is a violent inhalation and a flinch, hands rising in a warding position. Sakura catches her by the shoulders, pressing her down. "Tamiko, it's OK. It's OK."
The girl slowly calms down, her hands clenched tightly around her Soul Gem as she stares around at the University girls. When her eyes fall on you and Mami, they turn quizzical for a moment, before shifting to worry as she looks at Sakura.
"Yeah, we fucking lost," the teleporter grumbles. "We're... negotiating."
Tamiko nods, and she looks at you. "What do you intend, Miss Sabrina?" an unfamiliar voice sounds in your head, a pleasant, light alto.
"Peace, Miss Tanaka," you say, meeting her gaze steadily. "We are willing to let you up, if you agree to abide by a ceasefire for now."
She glances at Sakura, and then back at you, nodding slightly.
Mami's ribbons flow away, and Tamiko remains in her seated position, apparently unconcerned by the puddle of cold water she's seated in.
Without anything else to do, you move to retrieve Yumi's body, wincing as you note the way the grey robes of her puella magi costume are stained red by Moe's blood. Mami's ribbons flow in, wrapping securely around the gravity controller's wrists and ankles, and you flash Mami a quick smile.
Again, you pass the Soul Gem to Sakura, but Tamiko rather firmly takes it from the teleporter's hands, before moving to wake Yumi up herself.
Yumi flails, on waking, hands snatching for something that isn't there before spasmodically closing around her Soul Gem. Tamiko leans into her, presumably talking to her by telepathy, while Sakura kneels at her side and eventually, the gravity controller calms down. The glare she shoots you is more than a tad heated, but Rin walks over, interrupting the glare. You glance over, and see that Moe's body is restored, and whole once more.
Finally, the four of them look up at you. "We're done," Rin says.
"Miss Tsubaki?" you ask, glancing at Chouko. She nods.
A thought occurs to you, and you address Noa. "Miss Ueda, I'm sorry, but you don't mind waiting, do you?"
"I do not," Noa confirms, having taken advantage of Mami's rain shelter to try to dry her enormous twintails a little more.
"OK, then," you say, gesturing for everyone to gather. You gather in a loose circle, the University girls on one side, the Sendai girls on the other. Both sides look wary, the Sendai girls more so, at a glance, though... Rin's arms are firmly crossed in front of her, her face set in determination. Mami and Kirika flank you, and Noa stands to Kirika's far side, hands clasped patiently in front of her.
"Alright. First things first," you say. "As is obvious, Miss Hamasaki has not been revived, because I do not feel that she is in a fit state of mind to make decisions. Sakura can bear witness to this." The teleporter nods reluctantly, face set in mulish discontent, and you face the Sendai girls. "Would you object to Miss Minami representing you?"
The Sendai girls exchange looks, and they take a few minutes that stretch out into an eternity to discuss it before Yumi looks up at you. "That's fine."
"OK, then," you say, crossing your arms. You know you cut an intimidating figure, framed by your longcoat and bracketed by Mami and Kirika, a few motes of Grief drifting around your for emphasis while the majority orbits around the roof in a vast, slowly turning orrery. "These are my ground terms. No more fighting between you. No more extortion."
Yumi nods slowly, her lips compressed into a straight line. "Acceptable," she says. "We'll... convince Akiko."
Chouko simply nods.
"Alright. Miss Tsubaki? What do you want?" you ask.
"We would be grateful for a lasting peace," Chouko says, holding her hands out. "We want a chance to go back to our lives."
"I want to know what's going to happen in the future," Yuko says, looking at you. There's no heat, no anger in her gaze, just... simple weariness, in her slumped shoulders and tired eyes. "So OK, Hamasaki's been kicked out of this little... conference. You did that earlier, and..." she waves at the rooftop, and the damage in the distance.
That's... a good question, and one you've been struggling to answer yourself.
[] Write-in
=====
From an earlier draft:
That was a lot more reasonable than I thought?
To answer Yuko's question, we would need to have our private chat with Akiko to know how we, meaning Sabrina & co, deal with her. But I think Yumi seems to have an idea of how she'd convince Akiko, and I would like her to make that explicit. As in ask her something along the lines of "How are you going to convince Hamasaki? Can you get her to drop her vendettas, or to not hire more mercenaries to retake the city, both immediately and in the future? How?"
After that, it's time to start making suggestions, leading up to the seed swap, I think.
edit: Oh, and the other side of Yuko's question is basically asking Sabrina how she's going to rule now that she's de facto conquered the city. Or at least, poking gently at that idea without explicitly saying it.
To answer Yuko's question, we would need to have our private chat with Akiko to know how we, meaning Sabrina & co, deal with her. But I think Yumi seems to have an idea of how she'd convince Akiko, and I would like her to make that explicit. As in ask her something along the lines of "How are you going to convince Hamasaki? Can you get her to drop her vendettas, or to not hire more mercenaries to retake the city, both immediately and in the future? How?"
After that, it's time to start making suggestions, leading up to the seed swap, I think.
edit: Oh, and the other side of Yuko's question is basically asking Sabrina how she's going to rule now that she's de facto conquered the city. Or at least, poking gently at that idea without explicitly saying it.
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Onmur
Archangel of Nutella.
It seems we hold all the cards at the moment. Everyone seems fairly compliant right now. Victory does that.
Possible points:
- Akiko stops holding any sort of leadership position. Whether we have anything else to say about her future is something we'll see after we have a talk with her.
- The bulk of the extorted grief seeds go to the UG. (We can't let them keep them for long.)
- Both groups will accept Sabrina's service. 3x2 full/cleansed grief seed exchange idea goes here? If asked why we want the grief seeds, we can say that the only place where they're useless and won't cause this sort of shit again, is in our hands. We can collect all the seeds we want, as it is.
- Remember to offer the same deal to Ueda.
- Propose offering 1x1 cleansing for megucas lacking in combat skills? As long as they contribute to the wider meguca world with their powers?
- Both groups will help each other out in case they're attacked?
- We could leverage our victory after their ambush on us and push to have Rin and Sakura lend us their abilities in the future, or we might choose to be magnanimous in victory and deal with that later, in private.
Possible points:
- Akiko stops holding any sort of leadership position. Whether we have anything else to say about her future is something we'll see after we have a talk with her.
- The bulk of the extorted grief seeds go to the UG. (We can't let them keep them for long.)
- Both groups will accept Sabrina's service. 3x2 full/cleansed grief seed exchange idea goes here? If asked why we want the grief seeds, we can say that the only place where they're useless and won't cause this sort of shit again, is in our hands. We can collect all the seeds we want, as it is.
- Remember to offer the same deal to Ueda.
- Propose offering 1x1 cleansing for megucas lacking in combat skills? As long as they contribute to the wider meguca world with their powers?
- Both groups will help each other out in case they're attacked?
- We could leverage our victory after their ambush on us and push to have Rin and Sakura lend us their abilities in the future, or we might choose to be magnanimous in victory and deal with that later, in private.
Really should've had brought a camera.
Aurora helped, too!