Remove ads

Puella Magi Adfligo Systema

Reader mode
SynchronizedWritersBlock said:
Lead with an optimistic joke, then cut it down a bit (or don't, it's fairly fine) and you have my vote.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Hmm.

[ ] "Do you have any idea how hard it is to be sad with all the Monty Python skits in your head? My brain is a trip, I tell ya."
-[ ] "Seriously though? ... I think it's an outside perspective thing. I know everything, but I didn't live through it, so I can just take the lessons and put them towards making this time better. Kind of unfair actually; in a way, you and Mami and the rest of the girls have done most of the work for me." Shrug. "Shoulders of giants and all that, I guess."
[ ] "Helps to have fun, too. Meeting new people, hanging out with friends, fiddling with my powers... All work and no play makes Sabrina a dull girl, and people are meant to work together. We build each other up, give each other reasons to keep going - like you and Madoka."

Good enough? I tried to cut it down, but I've already boiled it down to what I think are the essential points and tone.

Also, seriously; if I wanted to try to reassure peeps with sentiment, I'd be quoting Cordelia Vorkosigan.

"You! I know you! You trust beyond reason!"
"Yes. It's how I get results beyond hope."

EDIT: Vote changed, throwing my weight behind Landcollector.
 
Last edited:
"When you are as brain-damaged as me, everything will feel better! Trust me!"

"...Why are you waving that hammer?"

"Helping!"
 
[] "Right now? I'm happy because I'm getting to spend quality time with a good friend! I've been looking forward to this ever since you invited me!"

[] "But regarding the situation in general... I guess it's an outsider's perspective thing. I know everything, but I didn't live through it, so I can just take the lessons and put them towards making this time better. In a way it's unfair, you and Mami and the rest of the girls have done most of the work for me." Shrug. "Shoulders of giants and all that, I guess."
 
Eh, calling it omniscience seems off. Don't want to push the Gilgamesh angle after all.

Here's a suggestion to follow up, though.

[] "But, seriously? ... I think it's an outsider's perspective thing. I know a lot, but I didn't live through it, so I can just take the lessons and put them towards making this time better. Kind of unfair actually; in a way, you and Mami and the rest of the girls have done most of the work for me." Shrug. "Shoulders of giants and all that, I guess."
[] Explain, however, that you also take time to enjoy yourself as much as you can. Meeting and getting to know people, exploring or even just playing with your powers, finding out little things you didn't know... drawing strength from the people you've come to care about. Admittedly, it's a lot easier when everything is new, but you get up everyday with people to see and something different to do.
 
o3o said:
Hmm...speeches are my forte, though I'll admit I tend to go for the more "hotblooded shounen anime" style type of thing. Fighting spirit, willpower, and so on... hurray for TTGL?
[x]Once upon a never, a certain somebody said that "If somebody tells me it's wrong to hope, then I'll tell them they're wrong, every single time." There are a lot of bad things out there. This entire system, with magical girls and witches? It sucks. You know, I wished to control grief, right? I did that so that things could get better. So that just this once, we could save everyone. So we could break the system.There's a saying - it goes something like "Be the change you want to see in the world". Kyubey...he feasts off our suffering. Maybe not literally, but he wants us to break down, and to despair. I won't... no, I refuse to give him what he wants. I'll admit, I'm not as strong as you think I am. I have my doubts too, and sometimes...sometimes, trying to help everyone is hard. Sometimes, I wish I had somebody to hold me, and tell me that everything is okay... but still, I have to believe that things can get better, because if we give up? If we fall into despair, like Kyubey wants me to? Then nothing will ever change. Without despair, all that's left is good - hope, happiness, love, courage, and willpower.

Bonus marks for conveying that Sabrina is a person too, and that she isn't infallible. Perhaps this'll make her a little more relatable to Homu?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I'm not going to vote yet (because I like to think about it for a bit first), but I like this. We're optimistic because we choose to believe that we can make things better.

Screw Kyuubey and everything else that's wrong with the system, be happy in spite of it all.
 
[X] "But, seriously? ... I think it's an outsider's perspective thing. I know a lot, but I didn't live through it, so I can just take the lessons and put them towards making this time better. Kind of unfair actually; in a way, you and Mami and the rest of the girls have done most of the work for me." Shrug. "Shoulders of giants and all that, I guess."
[X] "Because I know something you don't. I know you can win. You could beat Walpurgisnacht without me; with me the only question is how long it'll take and how much grief I'll be feeding Kyuubey when it's over."
[X] Explain, however, that you also take time to enjoy yourself as much as you can. Meeting and getting to know people, exploring or even just playing with your powers, finding out little things you didn't know... drawing strength from the people you've come to care about. Admittedly, it's a lot easier when everything is new, but you get up everyday with people to see and something different to do.
Edit: Frankenstein voting
 
Last edited:
Ooh, I like the "power of friendship" and "life is good" elements. Yoink.
[]Once upon a never, a certain somebody said that "If somebody tells me it's wrong to hope, then I'll tell them they're wrong, every single time." There are a lot of bad things out there. This entire system, with magical girls and witches? It sucks. You know, I wished to control grief, right? I did that so that things could get better. So that just this once, we could save everyone. So we could break the system.There's a saying - it goes something like "Be the change you want to see in the world". Kyubey...he feasts off our suffering. Maybe not literally, but he wants us to break down, and to despair. I won't... no, I refuse to give him what he wants. I'll admit, I'm not as strong as you think I am. I have my doubts too, and sometimes...sometimes, trying to help everyone is hard. Sometimes, I wish I had somebody to hold me, and tell me that everything is okay... but still, I have to believe that things can get better, because if we give up? If we fall into despair, like Kyubey wants me to? Then nothing will ever change. Without despair, all that's left is good - hope, happiness, love, courage, and willpower.
[]And besides, it's not all bad. For every witch, there's a magical girl; even though there are times that life really sucks...there are still times that make me happy. Hanging out with everybody at lunch, meeting new people (and helping them), exploring and experimenting with my powers... eating dinner with you and Mami.
 
Okay, how about...
[]Yeah, you're right. I know damn well that there are a lot of bad things out there. But still, I can't give up hope. This entire system, with magical girls and witches? It sucks. You know, I wished to control grief, right? I did that so that things could get better. So that just this once, we could save everyone. So we could break the system.There's a saying - it goes something like "Be the change you want to see in the world". Kyubey...he feasts off our suffering. Maybe not literally, but he wants us to break down, and to despair. I won't... no, I refuse to give him what he wants. I'll admit, I'm not as strong as you think I am. I have my doubts too, and sometimes...sometimes, trying to help everyone is hard. Sometimes, I wish I had somebody to hold me, and tell me that everything is okay... but still, I have to believe that things can get better, because if we give up? If we fall into despair, like Kyubey wants me to? Then nothing will ever change. Without despair, all that's left is good - hope, happiness, love, courage, and willpower.
[]And besides, it's not all bad. For every witch, there's a magical girl; even though there are times that life really sucks...there are still times that make me happy. Hanging out with everybody at lunch, meeting new people (and helping them), exploring and experimenting with my powers... eating dinner with you and Mami.
 
Last edited:
[X] I think it's an outsider's perspective thing. I know a lot, but I didn't live through it, so I can just take the lessons and put them towards making this time better. Kind of unfair actually; in a way, you and Mami and the rest of the girls have done most of the work for me." Shrug. "Shoulders of giants and all that, I guess."
-[X] "Beyond that... I guess it's that I can't despair - no matter what doubts I might have, no matter how badly things might go, even though Kyubey made a system that feeds off misery... I made my wish to try and change that system, because I knew what it was like, and so as long as I'm alive, I'll keep striving towards that. I made the unfairness my enemy, and I'll face it head on."


Not including the outsider's perspective element strikes me as dishonest. In a very fundamental way, we (and thus Sabrina's emotions) are disconnected from the world. I don't want to overuse the Madoquotes either.
 
"I didn't live through it" does answer the question but still doesn't help Homura any. Homura sees us being happy despite knowing everything and she wants to be able to do that. What we really want is an answer that also tells her the implied "and how can I be happy too".

[] "Because I know something you don't. I know you can win. You could beat Walpurgisnacht without me; with me the only question is how long it'll take and how much grief I'll be feeding Kyuubey when it's over."
 
boonerunner said:
Yeah. We did say it before. In a similar situation where we were reassuring Homura about the future. If we repeat it here then we wouldn't be saying something new, but we would be reminding Homura of Madoka's hopeful optimism (which Sabrina shares).

I think it's appropriate.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Admittedly I'm just skimming the votes right now. Still waking up. Just something that stood out to me. It can probably work with some rewording.
 
I think we do want to emphasize we are neither carefree nor stress-free.
We have plenty of things that can and have "gotten us down". Mami's co-dependency issues, all the "info-bombs" we hold and must be very careful with, concern about Feathers, concern about Oriko, etc.

However, we choose not to let those worries define our outlook on life.


Also, having BS OP Hax powers helps out a lot, but that doesn't really need to be said at this time. :p
 
Last edited:
techsy730 said:
I think we do want to emphasize we are neither carefree nor stress free.
We have plenty of things that can and have "gotten us down". Mami's co-dependency issues, all the "info-bombs" we hold and must be very careful with, concern about Feathers, concern about Oriko, etc.

However, we choose not to let those worries define our outlook on life.


Also, having BS OP Hax powers helps out a lot, but that doesn't really need to be said at this time. :p
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That's more or less what I was trying to get at.

I'll admit, I'm not as strong as you think I am. I have my doubts too, and sometimes...sometimes, trying to help everyone is hard. Sometimes, I wish I had somebody to hold me, and tell me that everything is okay...
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I won't... no, I refuse to give him what he wants. I'll admit, I'm not as strong as you think I am. I have my doubts too, and sometimes...sometimes, trying to help everyone is hard. Sometimes, I wish I had somebody to hold me, and tell me that everything is okay... but still, I have to believe that things can get better, because if we give up? If we fall into despair, like Kyubey wants me to? Then nothing will ever change. Without despair, all that's left is good - hope, happiness, love, courage, and willpower.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Sabrina has these worries, and she acknowledges them - but doesn't let them stop her from trying to make things better. So she hopes, and smiles, and laughs - because if she gave up, then it wouldn't fix anything. At least, that's my take on it. I've never really thought about the outsider perspective, because it's relatively minor - IMO, if we didn't think we could change things, we'd be a lot less carefree and cheerful.
 
Last edited:
o3o said:
That's more or less what I was trying to get at.



Sabrina has these worries, and she acknowledges them - but doesn't let them stop her from trying to make things better. So she hopes, and smiles, and laughs - because if she gave up, then it wouldn't fix anything. At least, that's my take on it. I've never really thought about the outsider perspective, because it's relatively minor - IMO, if we didn't think we could change things, we'd be a lot less carefree and cheerful.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I feel you very much miss what Homura is trying to ask, though. She doesn't think that we don't have worries. She's asking how we cope when, even with something like today where it's suggested we might ourselves be the cause of a really big problem, we still get excited about small things. She knows damn well what problems we have. They share hers and might even be bigger than hers.

The hidden question is: She wants to know how she can feel that way too.


See, Homura is a person who has never had self confidence. That's not to say that she has never been optimistic, because she has, but that negative experiences affected her confidence very quickly. She was excited about school, and then just one day got her down enough to get witch kissed. She was excited about sharing being magical girls with Madoka, and then it only took a few weeks to bring that down too. She does have extreme determination, amazing persistence, the ability to not despair - she has all that, but she doesn't have the ability to regain her cheerful outlook.

So speeching about our challenges and about Kyubey and about winning... it misses the point. Entirely.
 
At the same time, Homu doesn't come across to me as a very sentimental person. It's why I'm trying to build her up by basically saying, "I can cope because you have made it easy for me, go you." because that has a practical foundation to it that just looking on the bright side of life doesn't.
 
Last edited:
SynchronizedWritersBlock said:
I feel you very much miss what Homura is trying to ask, though. She doesn't think that we don't have worries. She's asking how we cope when, even with something like today where it's suggested we might ourselves be the cause of a really big problem, we still get excited about small things. She knows damn well what problems we have. They share hers and might even be bigger than hers.

The hidden question is: She wants to know how she can feel that way too.


See, Homura is a person who has never had self confidence. That's not to say that she has never been optimistic, because she has, but that negative experiences affected her confidence very quickly. She was excited about school, and then just one day got her down enough to get witch kissed. She was excited about sharing being magical girls with Madoka, and then it only took a few weeks to bring that down too. She does have extreme determination, amazing persistence, the ability to not despair - she has all that, but she doesn't have the ability to regain her cheerful outlook.

So speeching about our challenges and about Kyubey and about winning... it misses the point. Entirely.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
To be fair, it's closer to the point than talking about how we're detached and don't really have problems.
 
eh...kinda new at this, but I gave it a try.

[ ]- I think you're giving me too much credit. I didn't live through what you know and I didn't have to worry about grief seed as much. I just want to help people because I can and because I like being with you all.
 
Torgamous said:
To be fair, it's closer to the point than talking about how we're detached and don't really have problems.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Disagree. We are a bit detached from negativity. Frustration or great worry that we feel is filtered by not posting it in the thread. Players will quit the quest rather than post if they're feeling stressed. We can just vote to be excited or confident, if we want.

I don't think any vote states we don't have problems. You might be missing the message if you take that from Imrix's suggestion. If we do say that, then it needs editing.


Think about what Sabrina actually thinks when she's at her best, most positive energy. We're able to get excited about things like shopping with mom or SCIENCE! or fighting a witch in a giant robot because we still love doing the small things. It has little to nothing to do with keeping strong in the face of despair or a bad situation, or spiting Kyubey, or any of that rhetoric. Yes, we can also give Never Give Up speeches or make resolutions in the face of the unknown like we did earlier in the aftermath of the Sayaka Feathers situation, but that isn't what Homura is asking about, and it's not something she can imitate.

Re-learning to enjoy life, on the other hand. That's something she can try herself.
 
Man, Homura sure knows how to ask the hard questions.
Giving a honest answer is kind of hard to do, since everyone particpating probably has a different outlook on things.

How do you explain to Homura that even though pretty much everything about the situation sucks, it is still possible and even good to enjoy the little things? Homura has to re-learn how to enjoy this stuff mostly on her own and we can only try to help her along by doing stuff like inviting her for dinner or the picknick.
 
Actually seriously want 'hug Homura' to be part of the vote now. Maybe later.


Things to maybe say, or points to think about?


We deserve to be happy. All of us, Homura included (not that I expect she'll understand this just because we say it).

We enjoy being with Homura and Mami. With our friends.

It's never wrong to hope, she knows this better than us, I think (yes, we've said it. That doesn't mean we can't reinforce it. Just don't quote it verbatim).

Being happy is a choice, too. It gets difficult at times, but it's still something we choose, and I think she can choose it, too. Of course, that doesn't mean getting burned will not hurt...

It's the small things that matter most in the end...
 
We should make sure Sabrina's answer is something that Homura might be able to use to help herself. It should emphasize how we're working together, how we have people that we're supporting and people who are supporting us.

Kyubey gets away with what he does because he manipulates the girls to keep them isolated. Humans are social animals, and by isolating magical girls he's ensuring that they will eventually give in to despair. Over the loops, Kyuubey's manipulations have successfully battered Homura into a corner, where she's unable to reach out to the others for their help. This is what he does with all magical girls.

Sabrina knew his tricks before she was the victim of them, and now she's trying to undo the damage he's done. That's one of the reasons why she's so happy -- Homura is bringing her along with, she's not alone. It might be a single step on a long road, but no matter how long the journey, it's made up of single steps.
 
Imrix said:
[ ] "Seriously? ... I think it's an outsider's perspective. I know everything, but I didn't have to live through it, so I can just take the lessons and put them towards making things better this time. Kind of unfair really; in a way, you and Mami and the rest of the girls have done most of the work for me." Shrug. "Shoulders of giants and all that, I guess."

I'm pretty sure Homura wants something more than just sentiment, so I'm trying to play up the differences between this run and Homumom's previous loops, while at the same time acknowledging the importance of them.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This is by far the best answer I've seen so far. It actually points out the reason why Sabrina is able to take all of canon's info in stride, as opposed to how Sabrina regularly has difficulty taking her own experiences/mistakes/setbacks/etc. So:

[X] Imrix
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top