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Puella Magi Adfligo Systema

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Mami really bailed us out on this one.

[x] To Hitomi: I thought that you might. I'll try to schedule some visiting hours for this evening.
[x] To Sayaka: No, you couldn't have helped. You were hospitalized for smoke inhalation, and even if you hadn't been, what would you have done? Homura brought an honest-to-god belt-fed machine gun to this fight. You had a softball bat. I had my leg nearly taken off by a homemade bomb, and it took an hour to heal with magic. If that had happened to you, you would have bled to death. The only way you could have helped would have been to become a magical girl, and I was not willing to let you sell your soul for the sake of revenge. We know that Kyubey must have been in your hospital room that night, tampering with your parents' memories. He would gladly have taken advantage of your situation to trick you into a contract. Would you really want to have doomed yourself to this life of battle and grief for a wish made in hate?
 
Firnagzen said:
"You should have told me!" Sayaka snaps, jaw setting with eyes blazing. "I could have helped!"
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You weren't a meguca back then, and you were injured by the fire. And you say you could have helped? You would have been a liability in that situation. You would have gotten yourself in danger, and hurt your friends and family because of that.
 
UbeOne said:
You weren't a meguca back then, and you were injured by the fire. And you say you could have helped? You would have been a liability in that situation. You would have gotten yourself in danger, and hurt your friends and family because of that.
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And this would stop Sayaka how? She doesn't have any sense of self preservation when in full justice mode.
 
If she doesn't care about herself, we should call attention to how others, her loved ones, would feel about her actions, and her well-being.
 
Firnagzen said:
"Sayaka." You don't let your voice waver ad you address her. "You have a right to be angry about a lot of things-"

"You don't need to tell me that!" she roars, stomping forward. She thinks the better of it a split second and one step later, face twitching oddly as she hops back on one leg and an inarticulate yell.

It would be funny if everything weren't so tense.

Mami frowns. "For the sake of all of us, I'm going to clean up the the glass," she says, raising her free hand and pausing for a moment. When no one objects, she flicks her wrist at the mass of glass. A torrent of golden ribbons sweep away every last piece before weaving themselves into an embroidered bag to the side.

Sayaka scowls as she hoists her foot up and flicks away the piece of glass stuck there. A golden ribbon snaps out from the bag to catch the piece. Still, everyone seems to have relaxed the tiniest hair with the impromptu disruption.
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DAMN IT!

We missed the very important warning to Sayaka to not go harrying off in full tunnel vision mode, even though we voted to do it just then and this was the exact perfect time to bring it up, where her own tunnel vision resulted in her injuring herself on a glass shard from a table she had just broken. @Firnagzen, I don't suppose there's any way to edit that part in? This is a really direly important lesson that Sayaka has to learn right now, especially if we want to bring her along to Tokyo tomorrow. A clear majority of us voted to do it at that exact moment, and it happened that she literally put her foot in a good reason why she needs to not get tunnel vision the way she does.
 
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Redshirt Army said:
Bringing her to Tokyo was never the plan. We explicitly said we'd drop her off before we went there when we discussed it with her earlier.

Also, thank you Mami!
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That's the problem, though: we can't not bring her, either. This is exactly the kind of situation she needs to be a part of, an object lesson in how much bigger the world is than her own bruised ego. At the same time, she needs to have her face rubbed into the fact that, now that she has shooting swords in her arsenal, she is a walking gun factory, and the moment she masters exploding swords she is a walking bomb factory. That's what most of the people of consequence that she meets now will think of her, and as such when she starts ranting and raving like she does then people are going to feel threatened, and very likely could decide to strike first.

Sayaka made a Contract with her soul, against our advice and her own word. She will no longer grow up, no longer be a doctor, or a lawyer, or a businesswoman. She is now, first and foremost, a magical bioweapon designed for killing giant monsters, and she absolutely needs to understand, wholly and completely, what that means for every aspect of her new life.
 
While on tbe way to the Mikuni manor, should we consider telling them about the, err, Akiko arc and O&K's contributions that helped minimize the casualties? It would help explain the inherent lack of justice in the meguca system, the damage an unrestrained meguca can do, and maybe earn a bit of lenience for best buddy and her oujo.
 
@AuraTwilight
100% pure mashup (with some humor added by yours truly) ahead:

[x] Pull back to regroup (metaphorically)
[x] Tell H&S that meeting up with O&K is in the cards and something you were hoping to work into everyone's schedule. However, before that, let's all just take a breather for a moment.
[x] Excuse yourself, and go to the balcony to have a cigarette relax.
[x] Telepathy O&K.
-- [x] Tell them that the talk was mostly a success. Hitomi and Sayaka are volatile, so please, let's try to keep things calm if and when they show up.
[x] Contemplate briefly the notion of all things magically working out in your favor with basically no effort.
-- [j] Cry gently at lost wish opportunities.
[x] Put your game face on and go back inside
[x] To Hitomi: I thought that you might. I'll try to schedule some visiting hours for this evening.
[x] To Sayaka: No, you couldn't have helped. You were hospitalized for smoke inhalation, and even if you hadn't been, what would you have done? Homura brought an honest-to-god belt-fed machine gun to this fight. You had a softball bat. I had my leg nearly taken off by a homemade bomb, and it took an hour to heal with magic. If that had happened to you, you would have bled to death. The only way you could have helped would have been to become a magical girl, and I was not willing to let you sell your soul for the sake of revenge. We know that Kyubey must have been in your hospital room that night, tampering with your parents' memories. He would gladly have taken advantage of your situation to trick you into a contract. Would you really want to have doomed yourself to this life of battle and grief for a wish made in hate?

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Various potential wording changes based on what sounds nice to me. Substitute as desired:

[] To Hitomi: I thought that you might. I'll try to schedule some visiting hours for this evening. Please be aware that this is a complex situation and that we're all rather more emotionally invested than is ideal. I hope you'll understand if I'm suitably worried about the whole affair.

[] To Sayaka: I understand how you feel, but the facts of the matter are against you. There are many reasons why this is, but it boils down to the fact that unless you became a magical girl, you'd have died and bled out on a roof top about the same time I lost a leg to a homemade bomb. Would you really want to have doomed yourself to this life of battle and grief for a wish made in hate? Is that really who you want to be?

[] To Sayaka: I understand how you feel, but this wasn't that easy. We went in there expecting a fight and got more than we bargained for. I lost a leg to a bomb, Homura brought a belt-fed machinegun, and Mami was Mami, but all of that was almost a total stalemate until we got a lucky shot in. I don't doubt that you would have tried your best, but, well, the cards were stacked against us. None of us were going to risk you getting hurt when we knew we could take more damage and feel less of the effects. The only way you could have helped was to become a magical girl, and that would have been a wish made in the midst of anger and hatred. As it stands, at least your wish was about helping others, instead of getting revenge.
 
Well I'm glad we found out that Hitomi isn't really our friend before we put any real trust in her. Of course the thread will probably vote to forgive her for accusing us of being a sadistic monster, but I can dream.

There's some things a friendship doesn't survive, and someone seriously, self-righteously accusing you of torturing your prisoners for kicks is one of them.
 
GiftOfLove said:
Well I'm glad we found out that Hitomi isn't really our friend before we put any real trust in her. Of course the thread will probably vote to forgive her for accusing us of being a sadistic monster, but I can dream.

There's some things a friendship doesn't survive, and someone seriously, self-righteously accusing you of torturing your prisoners for kicks is one of them.
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I don't see how a heat of the moment thing prevents someone from being our friend.

Oriko and Kirika have done far worse, and we call the latter our Best Buddy.
 
Exactly. How is Hitomi unforgivable when others have done far worse, especially considering the circumstances?. Besides, what we actually did is actually far worse than what she accused us of, so we don't even have much of a leg to stand n there. Personally, I've been accused of far worse (my step-mother accused me of attempting to murder her for a start) and always forgiven the accuser, even though they never apologised or anything like that. An I always did it right away.


Firnagzen said:
Sayaka clenchea her fist, but straightens slowly.

You shift a little, taking a step forward to stand beside Mami and grab her hand. You squeeze gently. "Mami?" you murmur. "Please let go of Hitomi? We should talk this out."

Mami glances at you, expression softening immediately. "Yes, of course," she says, letting out a breath. She turns her attention to Hitomi, dissolving the ribbon with a flick of her fingers. "I apologise for restraining you."

Hitomi nods and straightens, lips still pressed together into a thin line. She folds her arms - or tries to, at any rate, apparently forgetting about her cast for a moment. She settles for tucking her arms together when her hand scrapes over the cast.

Sayaka scowls, jaw setting hard. "How could you do this, Sabrina?" she asks.

You don't actually know what she's talking about. There's... too many things she could be talking about.

Hell, you're not sure what Hitomi meant, either. Does she think you took off Oriko's arm as some kind of vigilante justice? Is that something she thinks you would do - is that what she thinks of you? Anger, sharp and biting, flares again.

Gentle pressure on your hand brings you back - Mami squeezing your hand. You force the scowl that's worked its way onto your face off. Just as well you didn't let yourself be a punching bag. If... if nothing else, it'd be disrespectful to Mami. She cares about you, too.

"Hitomi, I'm certain that you've misunderstood something," you say, meeting her eyes and raising your hands placatingly. "But please, hold on a moment."

Her lips thin a little more.

You turn to Sayaka, taking a step forward and wincing at the feel of glass chunks under your feet. They're not sharp, thankfully.

Sayaka faces you, glowering still with her fists clenched tight in formless anger. You can read that much, at least. She isn't angry at you, per se. She doesn't have anywhere to direct the anger.

"Sayaka." You don't let your voice waver ad you address her. "You have a right to be angry about a lot of things-"
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One's been pointed out, but two more.
EDIT:

And yes, Mami was brilliant and turned this around.

[x] Crasian01
 
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