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Puella Magi Adfligo Systema

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aeqnai said:
It's meant less to cut her out of the convo and more to prevent her from smashing Sayaka into the wall so hard there'll be a blueberry-shaped crater in it. Which I think is pretty likely otherwise, tbh.
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I get that. I'm probably just worrying too much. I just liked the previous wording better.

"I'll handle it", just reminds a bit me of the way we did things, before we actively tried to give Mami more agency.
 
Good catch. Need something really fast, though, or something to add to the telepathy. I liked the disapproving-stare, but that gesture might be better used to punctuate a later dig at Sayaka's maximum justice mode violence. What do people think?

[] Quickly telepathy Mami: 'Lemme try to talk her down.'

[] Hold out a hand to stop Mami from attacking Sayaka.

[] Use some grief to hand your Soul Gem to Mami.
-[] Optional: make sure Sayaka notices.

[] Start talking before Mami does something rash.

[] Disapprove.
-[] Use the distraction to telepathy Mami: She isn't going to hurt me. Please don't tie her up- it'll only make her more difficult to calm down.
 
We really don't need to worry about Mami harming Sayaka.

Mami knows how tough we are, and if she was going to Ribbon Sayaka, she would have done so the moment she layed a finger on us. Let's trust teh Mumi.

And do we really need a dig on Sayaka? That'll just make her even angrier. You don't insult people and expect them to calm down.
 
I think that the "It's okay. She can't hurt me." version of the message to Mami, maybe accompanied by a gesture, might have been better, since it's more specific to what we're trying to achieve. "I'll handle it," does kind of sound like we want to do all the talking.

Honestly, this is pretty much the reaction that I figured we'd get, no matter how well we phrased it. I'm rather tempted to offer to let her take a free swing at us if it'll make her feel better. It might shock her out of her rage.


Muramasa said:
We asked Oriko if she'd be okay. Oriko said she wouldn't contract.
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No, she said that Sayaka wouldn't be attacked by another witch. She very pointedly said that she couldn't guarantee anything else.

Random832 said:
Like what would happen if we voted to explain it to someone? I think early on we considered that the most important part of the 'metabomb' to keep secret for some damn reason, and it's never really come up since then.
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It's not really something that we could just up and say to someone before we'd earned their trust. At best they'd think we were lying or crazy. At worst they'd think we'd been spying on them to learn what we knew. Who would believe such a ridiculous story from a total stranger?

Kaizuki said:
... Does Sayaka really not know that Homura has timestop? It just... Boggles my mind that she doesn't.
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Sayaka not knowing is actually the norm. Homura tends to be extremely careful to keep people from realizing the exact nature of her power, since once they do they know how to exploit her weakness (such as being ribboned up by Mami or put in a full nelson by Kyouko).

That said, she was using her power in front of Sayaka during the training this morning, although whether Sayaka actually caught on to how it worked is another matter.
 
[x] Quickly telepathy Mami: 'Don't worry, she won't hurt me.'
[x] "I'm telling you now. I should have told you sooner, and I apologize for not doing so. Things kept coming up, but... I won't make excuses."
[x] "Your other question. I'm calm now. Sayaka, Homura's power is to stop time. That night, after we made sure you were safe, Mami, Homura, and I ran her power continuously for 16 hours. We were angry, we were upset, we were scared, and we were not calm. While you were in the ambulance, we were hunting. We searched her house and combed the city. Homura found them, and by the time we were done they were maimed, broken, and contained."
[x] When she demands to know why we didn't tell her sooner: Cut to voting.
 
[Q] Telepathy Mami: 'Shut the fuck up, I've got this.'
[Q] Kiss Sayaka. That should shock her out of her rage, right?
 
But Hitomi's not in range. We'd need to shove Sayaka aside first in order to reach Hitomi, and that doesn't accomplish the objective of snapping her out of her rage now.

So you see, this plan to kiss Hitomi is really dumb. :rolleyes:

Hannz said:
First it was Sayaka x Sabrina, then it was Kyosuke x Sabrina, now it's Hitomi x Sabrina.

I've never shipped so much in my entire life.
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Never Mami x Sabrina.
 
Onmur said:
Just because there's an exaggerated example lying around doesn't mean Sayaka wouldn't have fucked herself over with a bad Wish.
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I'm not entirely sure that she hasn't fucked herself over with a bad Wish. Sayaka's Wish makes her a power copier, but all three of the local meguca have powers that are not amenable to copying: Sabrina's power is unavailable, and both Mami and Homura are powerful because they've put lots of time into training their specific power, and Sayaka can't copy any of that training. Unless we find out tomorrow that copying a power lets Sayaka keep it in some sort of power-Rolodex that she can access at any time, then she's probably pretty screwed in the long term in terms of power.
 
TheEyes said:
I'm not entirely sure that she hasn't fucked herself over with a bad Wish. Sayaka's Wish makes her a power copier, but all three of the local meguca have powers that are not amenable to copying: Sabrina's power is unavailable, and both Mami and Homura are powerful because they've put lots of time into training their specific power, and Sayaka can't copy any of that training. Unless we find out tomorrow that copying a power lets Sayaka keep it in some sort of power-Rolodex that she can access at any time, then she's probably pretty screwed in the long term in terms of power.
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It's fine as long as there's no brain damage mental alterations.
 
Vebyast said:
[x] Quickly telepathy Mami: 'Don't worry, she won't hurt me.'
[x] "I'm telling you now. I should have told you sooner, and I apologize for not doing so. Things kept coming up, but... I won't make excuses."
[x] "Your other question. I'm calm now. Sayaka, Homura's power is to stop time. That night, after we made sure you were safe, Mami, Homura, and I ran her power continuously for 16 hours. We were angry, we were upset, we were scared, and we were not calm. While you were in the ambulance, we were hunting. We searched her house and combed the city. Homura found them, and by the time we were done they were maimed, broken, and contained."
[x] When she demands to know why we didn't tell her sooner: Cut to voting.
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I'm still a little nervous about blurting out exactly what Homura's power does. I mean, yeah, the Incubator told Kyouko that Homura can manipulate time, but does it even know that Homura can stop time for extended periods like this? Should we be casually revealing such important details about her abilities while in a heated conversation?

I'm also less happy than most of us are about ignoring Sayaka's own violent outburst here. She just broke a table and assaulted someone; she really ought to get bopped on the nose for that.
 
TheEyes said:
I'm still a little nervous about blurting out exactly what Homura's power does. I mean, yeah, the Incubator told Kyouko that Homura can manipulate time, but does it even know that Homura can stop time for extended periods like this? Should we be casually revealing such important details about her abilities while in a heated conversation?

I'm also less happy than most of us are about ignoring Sayaka's own violent outburst here. She just broke a table and assaulted someone; she really ought to get bopped on the nose for that.
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We've already told Kyouko about Homu without privacy. Your concern is invalid.

Firnagzen said:
It takes you a moment to cotton onto what she's asking for. It's a valid concern, you guess, but it's one you know how to handle.

You grin, and raise an eyebrow. "Well," you say. "Unlike some people, Mami appreciates my speeches."

You pause.

"... sometimes, anyway," you amend, briefly debating adding Grief sunglasses for emphasis. Hm. Maybe not this time.

Kyouko makes an annoyed sound. "Do I really need to fucking spell it out for you, or are you just acting dumb?"

"Maybe?" you say, with an easy shrug. "I've already talked to her about this. Well, not this this, but I mean, I've talked to her and Homura about Sayaka needing extra training."

"Homura?" Kyouko asks, frowning at you.

"The time stopper," you say. "I told you about her before, right?"

Kyouko frowns. "Ah, right. You did," she says, before her expression hardens again. "But you're still missing my point."

"Hm?" you ask, frowning right back. "What do you mean?"

She sighs, head lolling forward on her neck. "God," she mutters. "Look, you said she breaks down if she so much 's talks about me. The hell do you plan on doing about that? And tellin' her I'm comin' back t' her stomping grounds?"

You exhale. She has a point about Mami, you suppose. You take a moment to muse about the etymology of her muskets - strictly speaking, the term mostly refers to smoothbore long arms, even if rifled muskets existed. But rifled muskets were known as such because they were direct replacements for existing muskets, and thus were effectively the same weapon bar the rifling.

The term musket feels right, though.

"God," she mutters, rubbing at her forehead again. "Are your plans usually this bad?"

"No!" you say, defending yourself reflexively. "I- look, fine, that's not the first thing that sprang to mind for me."

"Do better," Kyouko spits, her drawl thickening. "Look, I ain't gonna pass up a chance t' rub this in her face, even by proxy or whatever. But I'm not gonna waltz into a firefight with her."

"It's not going to come to that," you say, chewing the inside of your cheek for a moment. "Look, I really have talked to her. We all agree Sayaka needs weapons training, once she's got the basics down, and, well. You're the most skilled melee specialist in the region."

Kyouko stares at you. "If y' think logic has anything t' do with this, you're an idiot."

You groan, rubbing your face and straightening to meet her eyes. "What do you care? It's my problem to handle," you say. "I'll figure it out and then let you know how it's gonna work. You're in, right?"

The antenna mast creaks as Kyouko leans forward, a strangely intent, a strangely intense, look on her face. "What you're planning on doing?" she snaps.

[] Write-in

=====​

As part of my attempt to update faster, I think I'm going to stop forcing updates to go too long. With that said, unless you say something drastically wrong, you'll probably be headed off in the next update. Vote accordingly.
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We got tired of fruitless updates and Mami was getting mentally stressed from Timestop, so we stopped searching, but Homu went on and found Oriko by chance.
 
Kaizuki said:
We've already told Kyouko about Homu without privacy. Your concern is invalid.
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You mean Kyubey told her, and we confirmed it. What I'm getting at is that we're telling Sayaka, and by extension any Incubator-sized objects listening in on us, that Homu can, with our help, keep time stopped for 16 hours and effectively search a city with her help. Kyubey might not have that level of intel into her powers.
 
TheEyes said:
You mean Kyubey told her, and we confirmed it. What I'm getting at is that we're telling Sayaka, and by extension any Incubator-sized objects listening in on us, that Homu can, with our help, keep time stopped for 16 hours and effectively search a city with her help. Kyubey might not have that level of intel into her powers.
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Good point.

If Kyubey didn't know about that, that's something we can take advantage of to set up some kind of masterstroke against them. If he learns, he may develop an insurance policy.
 
TheEyes said:
...both Mami and Homura are powerful because they've put lots of time into training their specific power, and Sayaka can't copy any of that training.
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That's only the case for Mami. Homura's power is gamebreakingly good right out of the box, so long as the user knows to not use melee attacks. The problem is that Homura isn't comfortable with the idea of having her power copied.

Regarding Sayaka's inability to copy Sabrina's power, I wonder if it might be related to the fact that Sayaka is pretty much the only magical girl we know of who wished for a specific power, rather than wishing for something she wanted and also getting a power that's thematically related to her wish. Perhaps our wish to control all grief prevents anyone else from using that power to take that control away from us?


Conjured Blade said:
If Kyubey didn't know about that, that's something we can take advantage of to set up some kind of masterstroke against them. If he learns, he may develop an insurance policy.
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Yeah, especially since that particular detail isn't particularly crucial to the point we're trying to make to Sayaka. Simply saying that as soon as we'd seen Sayaka off to the hospital we hunted Oriko's ass down would accomplish the same thing.


TheEyes said:
I'm also less happy than most of us are about ignoring Sayaka's own violent outburst here. She just broke a table and assaulted someone; she really ought to get bopped on the nose for that.
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I'd say that it definitely validates our concerns about Sayaka doing something rash.

I'm also a little concerned that about 80% of the vote is devoted to explaining how calm we weren't, and hardly any of it to addressing the question of why we didn't tell her, which is somewhat more pertinent given that it's what she's currently yelling in our face.
 
I honestly think striking back right now is just gonna make things worse. She'll feel bad on her own in like, a few minutes. Forcing it now will just make her start shouting at us about how we hid shit from her some more.
 
I'm not suggesting we hit her back. Just the opposite. I'm suggesting that we offer to let her hit us if she wants to. I think that when she realizes that she's about to attack someone who is refusing to fight back, she'll be shamed into backing off and getting ahold of herself. The way she's going, she's going to end up hurting someone, and I'd rather she didn't wind up accidently backhanding Hitomi and breaking her neck or something.
 
The Narrator said:
That's only the case for Mami. Homura's power is gamebreakingly good right out of the box, so long as the user knows to not use melee attacks. The problem is that Homura isn't comfortable with the idea of having her power copied.

Regarding Sayaka's inability to copy Sabrina's power, I wonder if it might be related to the fact that Sayaka is pretty much the only magical girl we know of who wished for a specific power, rather than wishing for something she wanted and also getting a power that's thematically related to her wish. Perhaps our wish to control all grief prevents anyone else from using that power to take that control away from us?
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I would imagine that if that was the case, Sayaka would 'see' our power but be unable to take it. However, she can't even find it, and she describes us as being strange.

Kyubey literally called our soul 'strange' before we even contracted, so it's probably just that our soul isn't human or something.
 
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