Remove ads

Puella Magi Adfligo Systema

Reader mode
FelOnyx said:
Turn our Grief into a huge cloud of butterflies flapping around us, and run around town like that. Then we just watch what happens.

Sabrina, I don't think that's how the butterfly effect works...
'course it is!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

"Now for the international news:

"A horrifying amount of devastating hurricanes spotted approaching several cities on the western continents!

"Millions of lives in imminent danger!

"Said hurricanes seemed to have appeared spontaneously, nobody predicted- Yes? I'm informed our expert meteorologist is with us. Can you hear me Dr... Tsoukalos?"

"Well Takada, I'm not saying it was aliens, but... it was aliens."

"... He's not exactly wrong."

"... Oh, Sabrina... Oh, Sabrina. Oh, Sabrina, oh, Sabrina oh Sabrina ohsabrinaohno..."

"H-hey, look at the bright side..."

"Oh, Sabrina?"

"I exceeded my 100m range!"

"... Oh..."
 
Onmur said:

"Now for the international news:

"A horrifying amount of devastating hurricanes spotted approaching several cities on the western continents!

"Millions of lives in imminent danger!

"Said hurricanes seemed to have appeared spontaneously, nobody predicted- Yes? I'm informed our expert meteorologist is with us. Can you hear me Dr... Tsoukalos?"

"Well Takada, I'm not saying it was aliens, but... it was aliens."

"... He's not exactly wrong."

"... Oh, Sabrina... Oh, Sabrina. Oh, Sabrina, oh, Sabrina oh Sabrina ohsabrinaohno..."

"H-hey, look at the bright side..."

"Oh, Sabrina?"

"I exceeded my 100m range!"

"... Oh..."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
You fool you've killed us all.
 
Senquorin said:
I think that Its not that Oriko stops existing in her visions, but that "Oriko Mikuni" stops existing (presumably because she changed her name to Oriko kure).

[x] Tell Oriko to look into the future at Kirika, and see if she has a constant companion in some of them.
-[x] if it exists ask what that person's name is
-[x] otherwise tell her that there's no reason she should give up on living, just because the name, "Oriko Mikuni" doesn't exist, doesn't mean the girl who is Oriko Mikuni won't exist in the future in some other form with some other name
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I second this plan just for the Kirika squee.
 
Firnagzen said:
You shrug, searching your memories. You... remember them ready to face Walpurgisnacht, but... You don't remember the outcome of that fight. "Maybe they did, maybe they didn't," you say. "I honestly don't know. My.. clairvoyance, weird alternate timeline knowledge, whatever, doesn't tell me what happened after that."

Oriko nods, expression tired, shoulders set. Not all that different from before. Simple, fatalistic acceptance that you're... unfortunately familiar with, from her.

"That's not the point, though," you say. "Really, it isn't."

"I know the point you're trying to make," Oriko says, meeting your eyes. "That if I can simply try to, to think like that other me, I'd be fine. That's... that's not how people work."

You sigh. "Not quite," you say. "The point is that that version of Oriko had better odds against Walpurgisnacht than you do. She could shoot frigging lasers, and she wasn't crippled by her own magic. She used her visions - they didn't use her. And whatever happened, if you died, you died together, with no regrets."

"Sabrina..." Kirika sits up a little, frowning at you.

Oriko's jaw sets. "I'm sorry I'm not as 'awesome' as my other self," she growls.

You frown. "Oriko," you say. "You know me. You know me. That's not what I'm trying to say at all."

"It sounds like you are," Oriko snaps.

You press your lips together. "Oriko," you say. "I wouldn't do that. My point is-"

Oriko interrupts you, slapping her hand to the table and half rising. Kirika starts to stand by her side. "That I'm not good enough, I'm not determined enough-"

You remain seating - but you interrupt her. "No," you say, cutting across her speech. "You are. You are, Oriko. That is the point I want to make. You were happy then - you can be happy now."

Oriko opens her mouth to say something, but you cut her off with a sharp, slicing motion of your hand. "Listen to me, Oriko," you snap, voice rising just a hair. Kirika bristles, her mouth pulling into an unhappy jag - but you have a point to make.

You power into the silence, staring them down. "Fate isn't written in stone", you snarl. "We're magical girls, for goodness' sake - we make the impossible possible. You know that!"

When the seer glances up at you, something dark and sullen blazes in her eyes and the twist of her lips. "Are you going to let me talk?"

You sigh. "Go ahead, Oriko," you say. "Look, I'm not trying to demoralise you. Quite the opposite. So... Go on."

"I am not her. I am not my other self," Oriko says, her voice a low, bitter thing. "Perhaps you are right; the potential exists. I will grant that." She meets your gaze steadily. "But it is hard to be optimistic when I can see the future and all I see is death. Maybe you're correct. This... isn't the meaning of my life."

She takes a breath, jaw tightening. "Perhaps. But it's hard to see what it is when all I see is death and failure. And soon I won't even see that."

"That's not true in the slightest," you counter. "Oriko, what were the odds? After you burned down Sayaka's house, that we'd just... drop out of thin air and stop you, right there? Just because you don't see a way to survive doesn't mean that we can't make one."

Oriko's nostrils flare. "There isn't one," she hisses. "For all your pretty speeches, you don't have a solution."

"I have one," you counter. "But the solution needs to come from you, as trite as it sounds. You need to realise-"

"-the meaning of my life, yes, I've heard it already," Oriko cuts you off, glaring at you.

"I've proven your visions wrong," you say, folding your arms. The fabric of your sleeves pull uncomfortably at your elbows. "I've proven your visions wrong, and you've proven your visions wrong. You see possible outcomes. You of all people should know how many people 'should' have died by now. You've fought fate-"

"I fight it where it isn't inevitable," Oriko hisses. "When every path I might tread doesn't lead to an end."

"And they don't," you insist, frustration bleeding into your tone. "I've proven your visions wrong, and you've countered your own visions. They're not infallible, and they're leading you down a dead end. We've already stacked the deck against Walpurgisnacht -and whatever more is to come- to a degree greater than it already has."

You jab your finger at Oriko. "Do you want to talk about visions, Oriko?" you demand. "I've seen it destroyed. I've seen Walpurgisnacht destroyed, and no one had to die for it."

Oriko's expression sets hard. "Then so be it," she says. "I think I've heard everything you have to say. And I think you can leave."

Kirika's orange eyes go wide, shocked, as her head snaps around to stare at her girlfriend. "Oriko..." she says.

"Kirika, we're just going in circles," the seer says, raising her hand to cover Kirika's.

"No," Kirika says, shaking her head. "No. No, Oriko, I t-think... this is a mistake."

Oriko groans, her head lolling back with eyes closed. "Sabrina. Please," she whispers. "Just... leave me alone for a while. We can talk more later. If that's alright, Kirika?"

"I-" Kirika shakes her head. "I don't... I... it feels like that's a mistake, Oriko."

[] Write-in

=====​

Oh dear.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Hmm...

First off, phrasing. We made it a comparison between her and alt-Oriko...or rather she interpreted it that way.

We should apologize for that, probably.

Sabrina lost her temper and tried to bludgeon Oriko into going along. That's where we lost her.

"I am not her. I am not my other self," Oriko says, her voice a low, bitter thing. "Perhaps you are right; the potential exists. I will grant that." She meets your gaze steadily. "But it is hard to be optimistic when I can see the future and all I see is death. Maybe you're correct. This... isn't the meaning of my life."

She takes a breath, jaw tightening. "Perhaps. But it's hard to see what it is when all I see is death and failure. And soon I won't even see that."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

This is the question we need to answer. We got her to agree that the potential exists. We need to build on that.

"I fight it where it isn't inevitable," Oriko hisses. "When every path I might tread doesn't lead to an end."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Again.

And she took us saying "no one had to die against Walpurgisnacht" badly...we need to figure out just what set her off there. Or maybe that was just the last straw.

@Muramasa
Thoughts on your vote/ideal vote covering this stuff?
 
Ugolino said:
@Muramasa
Thoughts on your vote/ideal vote covering this stuff?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Primarily we need an answer for why all her visions are about death. That's a big part of what's holding her back. She can't be optimistic if everything she see's is so godawful depressing. That mentality is being reinforced by the house arrest, her failing powers and her impending death. She has no control over her life, and without her powers she see's herself as completely useless.

Honestly, this is hard. If there was an easy solution we would've thought of it already. If we could somehow deal with some of the things heavily influencing that mentality. Almost all of it begins with somehow trying to convince Homura and... well yeah.

With the way things are... I think Oriko is really close to going rogue. With her powers gone, she's just waiting to die. I really don't think Oriko want's to go out like this.
 
Why exactly do we have to try and do everything ourselves again? I mean, Kirika is sitting right there. And it kind of feels like we're shutting her down by just abandoning the conversation and leaving, even if it's only temporary.

And I think we're falling into the trap that Sabrina can just solve everything single-handedly in a single conversation. Which is pretty arrogant.


Anyway if you guys would excuse me, I'm going to vent for a bit. Since this is all uber frustrating and infuriating. And because Sabrina herself likely won't, seeing how often she represses stuff.:V

Honestly right now... I kind of feel like saying sorry to her. Sorry for saying some of the insensitive stuff we just said right now. For pushing so hard so fast on her. For sort of lecturing her. For keeping her stuck here, not being able to convince Homura to give her a break, not being able to offer clear tangible solutions instead of just words.

Looking at it from her perspective, I know that it's pretty cruel of us to ask her to keep hoping despite everything, despite it hurting. But the intention behind it is just to make her feel better about everything and have hope. Because her being like this just feels wrong. And because if she completely gives up on it, then despite what she thinks, I think that she'll continuously wallow in despair and misery. Just waiting, feeling powerless, for the moment where she loses what little she has left. And Kirika will have it even worse. Her surviving if she keeps hoping and struggling is far from certain, but if she gives up then she most likely will die, imo. And I'd rather that she not die. Her or Kirika.
 
Last edited:
Agent Whiskers said:
Why exactly do we have to try and do everything ourselves again? I mean, Kirika is sitting right there.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Asking Kirika to make Oriko do something that Oriko doesn't want to do is like asking somebody's prized collection of collectible action figures to make sure they get out of the house more; not only is it not going to happen, it's counter to the fundamental nature of the being you're asking.
 
GardenerBriareus said:
Asking Kirika to make Oriko do something that Oriko doesn't want to do is like asking somebody's prized collection of collectible action figures to make sure they get out of the house more; not only is it not going to happen, it's counter to the fundamental nature of the being you're asking.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Probably. But she did just sort of tell her no. And continuously asserted (if hesitantly) her disapproval of Sabrina leaving even after Oriko compromised a bit and asked more nicely.
 
How about we calm down and do something together with Kirika and Oriko?
 
Agent Whiskers said:
Why exactly do we have to try and do everything ourselves again? I mean, Kirika is sitting right there. And it kind of feels like we're shutting her down by just abandoning the conversation and leaving, even if it's only temporary.

And I think we're falling into the trap that Sabrina can just solve everything single-handedly in a single conversation. Which is pretty arrogant.


Anyway if you guys would excuse me, I'm going to vent for a bit. Since this is all uber frustrating and infuriating. And because Sabrina herself likely won't, seeing how often she represses stuff.:V

Honestly right now... I kind of feel like saying sorry to her. Sorry for saying some of the insensitive stuff we just said right now. For pushing so hard so fast on her. For sort of lecturing her. For keeping her stuck here, not being able to convince Homura to give her a break, not being able to offer clear tangible solutions instead of just words.

Looking at it from her perspective, I know that it's pretty cruel of us to ask her to keep hoping despite everything, despite it hurting. But the intention behind it is just to make her feel better about everything and have hope. Because her being like this just feels wrong. And because if she completely gives up on it, then despite what she thinks, I think that she'll continuously wallow in despair and misery. Just waiting, feeling powerless, for the moment where she loses what little she has left. And Kirika will have it even worse. Her surviving if she keeps hoping and struggling is far from certain, but if she gives up then she most likely will die, imo. And I'd rather that she not die. Her or Kirika.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
We CAN'T leave things this badly. Saying sorry is fine, a good idea even, but giving up really isn't.

So I think we agree we're not leaving?
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top