Remove ads

Puella Magi Adfligo Systema

Reader mode
mCooperative said:
I mean, so long as we keep it small-time enough to avoid getting caught out on insider trading allegations, and make a few strategic 'poor decisions' so we appear to be normal, if lucky, stock traders, it's not really so much of a joke proposition. It's not a really hard thing to get into, yeah? We just have to have some startup capital, and make sure to fill out our taxes to properly report our assets. Um, in America at least. Does working within the Japanese stock exchange have different requirements and limitations? Or, rather, are they ones we can work within, I suppose.

... clearly while we're getting Sabrina's identity properly set up, we need to make sure it will stand up to scrutiny as a tax-paying stock-playing citizen.

Edit: Hell, does Homura remember anything that happened major-events-wise that's been consistent throughout the loops? Even a short warning on a major event is usually enough to get quite a bit of mileage out of. I remember I kicked myself for days when I forgot to tell my dad that the Nintendo Switch was coming out and that stock prices were probably gonna do some things in response.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Small time is actually worse from this perspective. There's no point in doing this at all unless we're going to make substantially out-sized returns over the long run, and doing that while remaining "small" means frequently trading on stocks right before significant price moves. That will raise serious questions eventually even if we make a few strategic mistakes, because the good trades have to outweigh the bad ones by a large margin.

On the other hand, if we go big and start making daily bets on price movements, then insider trading becomes an impossible accusation. There's no way we could have insider information that would let us predict daily price moves. Especially if we're targeting stock indexes instead of individual securities.

The real issue is stopping someone from realizing that magic is real purely off of our trades.

Julian Bradshaw said:
Not to mention we'd be doing some real work towards advancing the entirety of humankind. It'd be very nice if our moneymaking schemes had positive side effects like that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I guess you could also make money by providing "valuable services" for "actual people", if you're boring.
 
Markets are a bad thing to get into for a very simple reason. A quote:
Article:
If I had to name the single epistemic feat at which modern human civilization is most adequate, the peak of all human power of estimation, I would unhesitatingly reply, "Short-term relative pricing of liquid financial assets, like the price of S&P 500 stocks relative to other S&P 500 stocks over the next three months." This is something into which human civilization puts an actual effort.
  • Millions of dollars are offered to smart, conscientious people with physics PhDs to induce them to enter the field.
  • These people are then offered huge additional payouts conditional on actual performance—especially outperformance relative to a baseline.
  • Large corporations form to specialize in narrow aspects of price-tuning.
  • They have enormous computing clusters, vast historical datasets, and competent machine learning professionals.
  • They receive repeated news of success or failure in a fast feedback loop.
  • The knowledge aggregation mechanism—namely, prices that equilibrate supply and demand for the financial asset—has proven to work beautifully, and acts to sum up the wisdom of all those highly motivated actors.
  • An actor that spots a 1% systematic error in the aggregate estimate is rewarded with a billion dollars—in a process that also corrects the estimate.
  • Barriers to entry are not zero (you can't get the loans to make a billion-dollar corrective trade), but there are thousands of diverse intelligent actors who are all individually allowed to spot errors, correct them, and be rewarded, with no central veto.
This is certainly not perfect, but it is literally as good as it gets on modern-day Earth.

The stock market is just about the single system on Earth that is most able to spot someone doing weird shit.
 
Skelm said:
There's no point in doing this at all unless we're going to make substantially out-sized returns over the long run, and doing that while remaining "small" means frequently trading on stocks right before significant price moves.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Fair point, I wasn't actually thinking about that part, more, "modest gains in the near-future long term (as in, the course of a few years, taking advantage of larger long-term market trends and, hn, I think it was mutual funds and portfolios as opposed to focus on individual trades) in order to start things up" but that's actually planning for an entirely different sort of story and scale of plans and I'm not sure why I associated the idea with what we're doing here. I withdraw tentative suggestions of poking the hypothetical stock market. (Still think we could theoretically do something with it if we had the time/focus/inclination, but we have significantly better options for less suspicious and faster gains, over attempting to simulate a 'very lucky amateur stock trader' in a story like PMAS anyway.)
 
Vebyast said:
For cashy money, I'd prefer to stick to custom fabrication of exotic devices, with Hitomi's Mom handling the business end of things.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
blast flame said:
I wonder if we could get away with claiming we used 'magic' for fabrication whenever asked. :V
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Skelm said:
The real issue is stopping someone from realizing that magic is real purely off of our trades.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Or, you know, consider this as a feature. Long-term, even if we don't want to blow it wide open, we do probably want to build a network of adults who know about magical girls (considering the need for therapists etc). EDIT: Just realized Skelm's reply was about the stock trading thing - not what I meant, sorry.

As for market based moneymaking schemes... I'd just like to mention that, assuming that the mundane half of the PMAS universe is broadly similar to our own (and this is a point that it should be easy to check if it's not)... 1 BTC = 1 USD.
 
Last edited:
Random832 said:
Or, you know, consider this as a feature. Long-term, even if we don't want to blow it wide open, we do probably want to build a network of adults who know about magical girls (considering the need for therapists etc). EDIT: Just realized Skelm's reply was about the stock trading thing - not what I meant, sorry.

As for market based moneymaking schemes... I'd just like to mention that, assuming that the mundane half of the PMAS universe is broadly similar to our own (and this is a point that it should be easy to check if it's not)... 1 BTC = 1 USD.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
We'd only want that when we tell them, though. If clients figure it out for themselves, Kyuubey might wipe it before they tell us their suspicions, and that could significantly disrupt relations with that subset of clients.
 
So, more votes, or are we happy with this?
Adhoc vote count started by Onmur on Feb 23, 2018 at 11:02 AM, finished with 133126 posts and 5 votes.
  • [x] Payment:
    -[x] Call O&K. Explain request.
    -[x] Separate line, Homura. Fukushima's rates, any advice?
    -[x] Do NOT let Yuki see you distracted.
    [x] Business:
    -[x] Ask to see the location.
    -[x] Finalize:
    --[x] Agree to provide antimagic enchantments.
    --[x] Mind Homura's advice. Haggle, erring on the side of generosity.
    -[x] Discuss hiring them again in the future.
    --[x] Ask about payments/services they're interested in. You're assembling a team to tackle Walpurgisnacht.
    [x] Chat topics (intersperse as appropriate):
    -[x] Ask if Nishimura, Koizumi, and Akiyama are alright.
    -[x] "Supervillains"... just volcano base aesthetic, or something more? What other groups are in town?
    -[x] The active soul in Grief Seeds "hibernates" when you Clear them. Whenever you visit, you'd like to check if that's changed.
    [x] Telepathy Rin.
    -[x] You've got the impression something's wrong. Anything you can help, or...?
    [x] Kyuubey.
    -[x] Dump Grief. Keep two seeds' worth.
Click to expand...

Adhoc vote count started by Firnagzen on Feb 24, 2018 at 5:57 AM, finished with 133144 posts and 12 votes.
  • [x] Payment:
    -[x] Call O&K. Explain request.
    -[x] Separate line, Homura. Fukushima's rates, any advice?
    -[x] Do NOT let Yuki see you distracted.
    [x] Business:
    -[x] Ask to see the location.
    -[x] Finalize:
    --[x] Agree to provide antimagic enchantments.
    --[x] Mind Homura's advice. Haggle, erring on the side of generosity.
    -[x] Discuss hiring them again in the future.
    --[x] Ask about payments/services they're interested in. You're assembling a team to tackle Walpurgisnacht.
    [x] Chat topics (intersperse as appropriate):
    -[x] Ask if Nishimura, Koizumi, and Akiyama are alright.
    -[x] "Supervillains"... just volcano base aesthetic, or something more? What other groups are in town?
    -[x] The active soul in Grief Seeds "hibernates" when you Clear them. Whenever you visit, you'd like to check if that's changed.
    [x] Telepathy Rin.
    -[x] You've got the impression something's wrong. Anything you can help, or...?
    [x] Kyuubey.
    -[x] Dump Grief. Keep two seeds' worth.
    [x] Payment:
    -[x] Call O&K. Explain request.
    -[x] Separate line, Homura. Fukushima's rates, any advice?
    -[x] Do NOT let Yuki see you distracted.
    [x] Business:
    -[x] Ask to see the location.
    -[x] Finalize:
    --[x] Agree to provide antimagic enchantments.
    --[x] Mind Homura's advice. Haggle, erring on the side of generosity.
    -[x] Discuss hiring them again in the future.
    --[x] Ask about payments/services they're interested in. You're assembling a team to tackle Walpurgisnacht.
    [x] Chat topics (intersperse as appropriate):
    -[x] Ask if Nishimura, Koizumi, and Akiyama are alright.
    -[x] "Supervillains"... just volcano base aesthetic, or something more? What other groups are in town?
    -[x] The active soul in Grief Seeds "hibernates" when you Clear them. Whenever you visit, you'd like to check if that's changed.
    [X] Rin (private?).
    -[X] We never really thanked for what she did, despite how we put her on the spot.
    -[X] Thank and acknowledge her for her efforts: Standing up to her friends; taking charge of a difficult situation; doing the right thing.
    -[X] We owe her. Show concern, ask what's wrong.
    [x] Kyuubey.
    -[x] Dump Grief. Keep one seed's worth.
    [x] Payment:
    -[x] Call O&K. Explain request.
    -[x] Separate line, Homura. Fukushima's rates, any advice?
    -[x] Do NOT let Yuki see you distracted.
    [x] Business:
    -[x] Ask to see the location.
    -[x] Finalize:
    --[x] Agree to provide antimagic enchantments.
    --[x] Mind Homura's advice. Haggle, erring on the side of generosity.
    -[x] Discuss hiring them again in the future.
    --[x] Ask about payments/services they're interested in. You're assembling a team to tackle Walpurgisnacht.
    [x] Chat topics (intersperse as appropriate):
    -[x] Ask if Nishimura, Koizumi, and Akiyama are alright.
    -[x] "Supervillains"... just volcano base aesthetic, or something more? What other groups are in town?
    -[x] The active soul in Grief Seeds "hibernates" when you Clear them. Whenever you visit, you'd like to check if that's changed.
    -[x] Ask to hug the cutie
    [x] Telepathy Rin.
    -[x] You've got the impression something's wrong. Anything you can help, or...?
    [x] Kyuubey.
    -[x] Dump Grief. Keep two seeds' worth.
    [x] Payment:
    -[x] Call O&K. Explain request.
    -[x] Separate line, Homura. Fukushima's rates, any advice?
    -[x] Do NOT let Yuki see you distracted.
    [x] Business:
    -[x] Ask to see the location.
    -[x] Finalize:
    --[x] Agree to provide antimagic enchantments.
    --[x] Mind Homura's advice. Haggle, erring on the side of generosity.
    -[x] Discuss hiring them again in the future.
    --[x] Ask about payments/services they're interested in. You're assembling a team to tackle Walpurgisnacht.
    [x] Chat topics (intersperse as appropriate):
    -[x] Ask if Nishimura, Koizumi, and Akiyama are alright.
    -[x] "Supervillains"... just volcano base aesthetic, or something more? What other groups are in town?
    -[x] The active soul in Grief Seeds "hibernates" when you Clear them. Whenever you visit, you'd like to check if that's changed.
    [x] Telepathy Rin.
    -[x] You're worried any advice or help from you might be tainted at this point, but you've got the impression something's wrong in Sendai. What's going on?
    [x] Kyuubey.
    -[x] Dump Grief. Keep two seeds' worth.
    [X] Inform them the anti-magic enchantments were not made by us.
    -[X] Offer to put them in touch with the makers, but that needs to be a seperate deal than the payment by the simple policy of we don't own Kirika's magic to use to pay for our labor needs.
    -[X] Hash out a deal that only exchanges our own resources for theirs instead of taking our friends resources for granted.
    [x] Business:
    -[x] See location.
    -[x] verification / check in technology?
    -[x] May want to add, move confinement. Need rate schedule.
    -[x] Excuse, walk off, Telepathy Homura. Fukushima's rates, any advice?
    --[x] Haggle, erring on the side of generosity.
    -[x] Discuss hiring them further.
    --[x] Explore trades they prefer. Need five girl rapid deployment unit. Also assembling contractor team against Walpurgisnacht.
    [x] Payment:
    -[x] Seed and cash are better today. More conversation in future
    [x] Chat (when appropriate):
    -[x] Ask Nishimura, Koizumi, and Akiyama are alright.
    -[x] Akiko's past
    -[x] "Supervillains"... hostile or what? Other groups in town?
    -[x] Active soul in Grief Seeds "hibernates" after Clearing. May we inspect in future?
    [x] Telepathy Rin.
    -[x] You're worried. Advice or help from you might be tainted at this point, but you've got the impression something's wrong in Sendai.
    [x] Kyuubey. Dump Grief. Keep one seeds' worth.
Click to expand...
 
Firnagzen said:
So, more votes, or are we happy with this?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Nope

[x] Payment:
-[x] Call O&K. Explain request.
-[x] Separate line, Homura. Fukushima's rates, any advice?
-[x] Do NOT let Yuki see you distracted.
[x] Business:
-[x] Ask to see the location.
-[x] Finalize:
--[x] Agree to provide antimagic enchantments.
--[x] Mind Homura's advice. Haggle, erring on the side of generosity.
-[x] Discuss hiring them again in the future.
--[x] Ask about payments/services they're interested in. You're assembling a team to tackle Walpurgisnacht.
[x] Chat topics (intersperse as appropriate):
-[x] Ask if Nishimura, Koizumi, and Akiyama are alright.
-[x] "Supervillains"... just volcano base aesthetic, or something more? What other groups are in town?
-[x] The active soul in Grief Seeds "hibernates" when you Clear them. Whenever you visit, you'd like to check if that's changed.
-[x] Ask to hug the cutie
[x] Telepathy Rin.
-[x] You've got the impression something's wrong. Anything you can help, or...?
[x] Kyuubey.
-[x] Dump Grief. Keep two seeds' worth.
 
Vebyast said:
Markets are a bad thing to get into for a very simple reason. A quote:
Article:
If I had to name the single epistemic feat at which modern human civilization is most adequate, the peak of all human power of estimation, I would unhesitatingly reply, "Short-term relative pricing of liquid financial assets, like the price of S&P 500 stocks relative to other S&P 500 stocks over the next three months." This is something into which human civilization puts an actual effort.
  • Millions of dollars are offered to smart, conscientious people with physics PhDs to induce them to enter the field.
  • These people are then offered huge additional payouts conditional on actual performance—especially outperformance relative to a baseline.
  • Large corporations form to specialize in narrow aspects of price-tuning.
  • They have enormous computing clusters, vast historical datasets, and competent machine learning professionals.
  • They receive repeated news of success or failure in a fast feedback loop.
  • The knowledge aggregation mechanism—namely, prices that equilibrate supply and demand for the financial asset—has proven to work beautifully, and acts to sum up the wisdom of all those highly motivated actors.
  • An actor that spots a 1% systematic error in the aggregate estimate is rewarded with a billion dollars—in a process that also corrects the estimate.
  • Barriers to entry are not zero (you can't get the loans to make a billion-dollar corrective trade), but there are thousands of diverse intelligent actors who are all individually allowed to spot errors, correct them, and be rewarded, with no central veto.
This is certainly not perfect, but it is literally as good as it gets on modern-day Earth.

The stock market is just about the single system on Earth that is most able to spot someone doing weird shit.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Weird doesn't mean criminal, but it is true that Kyubey would object if random stock market analysts keep figuring out precognition is real and that may be an insurmountable issue.

EDIT: Though if we have Oriko's precognition back, we could just ask her if it's a workable idea or not.
 
Last edited:
[x] Redshirt Army

Looks reasonable. There's some stuff in there that's only relevant to one party or the other (clear seed info to Yuki, Rin's group with them), but I'll assume that @Firnagzen will handle that as appropriate - carelessly witchbombing Rin because of the word-count limit would be, uh, bad.
 
Godwinson said:
I assume we're only going to agree to provide the antimagic enchantments if Kirika agrees to make them?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Firn's post last page implies as much.


[x] Payment:
-[x] Call O&K. Explain request.
-[x] Separate line, Homura. Fukushima's rates, any advice?
-[x] Do NOT let Yuki see you distracted.
[x] Business:
-[x] Ask to see the location.
-[x] Finalize:
--[x] Agree to provide antimagic enchantments.
--[x] Mind Homura's advice. Haggle, erring on the side of generosity.
-[x] Discuss hiring them again in the future.
--[x] Ask about payments/services they're interested in. You're assembling a team to tackle Walpurgisnacht.
[x] Chat topics (intersperse as appropriate):
-[x] Ask if Nishimura, Koizumi, and Akiyama are alright.
-[x] "Supervillains"... just volcano base aesthetic, or something more? What other groups are in town?
-[x] The active soul in Grief Seeds "hibernates" when you Clear them. Whenever you visit, you'd like to check if that's changed.
[x] Telepathy Rin.
-[x] You're worried any advice or help from you might be tainted at this point, but you've got the impression something's wrong in Sendai. What's going on?
[x] Kyuubey.
-[x] Dump Grief. Keep two seeds' worth.
 
[X] Inform them the anti-magic enchantments were not made by us.
-[X] Offer to put them in touch with the makers, but that needs to be a seperate deal than the payment by the simple policy of we don't own Kirika's magic to use to pay for our labor needs.
-[X] Hash out a deal that only exchanges our own resources for theirs instead of taking our friends resources for granted.
Adhoc vote count started by Firnagzen on Feb 24, 2018 at 6:16 PM, finished with 133146 posts and 12 votes.
  • [x] Payment:
    -[x] Call O&K. Explain request.
    -[x] Separate line, Homura. Fukushima's rates, any advice?
    -[x] Do NOT let Yuki see you distracted.
    [x] Business:
    -[x] Ask to see the location.
    -[x] Finalize:
    --[x] Agree to provide antimagic enchantments.
    --[x] Mind Homura's advice. Haggle, erring on the side of generosity.
    -[x] Discuss hiring them again in the future.
    --[x] Ask about payments/services they're interested in. You're assembling a team to tackle Walpurgisnacht.
    [x] Chat topics (intersperse as appropriate):
    -[x] Ask if Nishimura, Koizumi, and Akiyama are alright.
    -[x] "Supervillains"... just volcano base aesthetic, or something more? What other groups are in town?
    -[x] The active soul in Grief Seeds "hibernates" when you Clear them. Whenever you visit, you'd like to check if that's changed.
    [x] Telepathy Rin.
    -[x] You've got the impression something's wrong. Anything you can help, or...?
    [x] Kyuubey.
    -[x] Dump Grief. Keep two seeds' worth.
    [x] Payment:
    -[x] Call O&K. Explain request.
    -[x] Separate line, Homura. Fukushima's rates, any advice?
    -[x] Do NOT let Yuki see you distracted.
    [x] Business:
    -[x] Ask to see the location.
    -[x] Finalize:
    --[x] Agree to provide antimagic enchantments.
    --[x] Mind Homura's advice. Haggle, erring on the side of generosity.
    -[x] Discuss hiring them again in the future.
    --[x] Ask about payments/services they're interested in. You're assembling a team to tackle Walpurgisnacht.
    [x] Chat topics (intersperse as appropriate):
    -[x] Ask if Nishimura, Koizumi, and Akiyama are alright.
    -[x] "Supervillains"... just volcano base aesthetic, or something more? What other groups are in town?
    -[x] The active soul in Grief Seeds "hibernates" when you Clear them. Whenever you visit, you'd like to check if that's changed.
    [X] Rin (private?).
    -[X] We never really thanked for what she did, despite how we put her on the spot.
    -[X] Thank and acknowledge her for her efforts: Standing up to her friends; taking charge of a difficult situation; doing the right thing.
    -[X] We owe her. Show concern, ask what's wrong.
    [x] Kyuubey.
    -[x] Dump Grief. Keep one seed's worth.
    [x] Payment:
    -[x] Call O&K. Explain request.
    -[x] Separate line, Homura. Fukushima's rates, any advice?
    -[x] Do NOT let Yuki see you distracted.
    [x] Business:
    -[x] Ask to see the location.
    -[x] Finalize:
    --[x] Agree to provide antimagic enchantments.
    --[x] Mind Homura's advice. Haggle, erring on the side of generosity.
    -[x] Discuss hiring them again in the future.
    --[x] Ask about payments/services they're interested in. You're assembling a team to tackle Walpurgisnacht.
    [x] Chat topics (intersperse as appropriate):
    -[x] Ask if Nishimura, Koizumi, and Akiyama are alright.
    -[x] "Supervillains"... just volcano base aesthetic, or something more? What other groups are in town?
    -[x] The active soul in Grief Seeds "hibernates" when you Clear them. Whenever you visit, you'd like to check if that's changed.
    -[x] Ask to hug the cutie
    [x] Telepathy Rin.
    -[x] You've got the impression something's wrong. Anything you can help, or...?
    [x] Kyuubey.
    -[x] Dump Grief. Keep two seeds' worth.
    [x] Payment:
    -[x] Call O&K. Explain request.
    -[x] Separate line, Homura. Fukushima's rates, any advice?
    -[x] Do NOT let Yuki see you distracted.
    [x] Business:
    -[x] Ask to see the location.
    -[x] Finalize:
    --[x] Agree to provide antimagic enchantments.
    --[x] Mind Homura's advice. Haggle, erring on the side of generosity.
    -[x] Discuss hiring them again in the future.
    --[x] Ask about payments/services they're interested in. You're assembling a team to tackle Walpurgisnacht.
    [x] Chat topics (intersperse as appropriate):
    -[x] Ask if Nishimura, Koizumi, and Akiyama are alright.
    -[x] "Supervillains"... just volcano base aesthetic, or something more? What other groups are in town?
    -[x] The active soul in Grief Seeds "hibernates" when you Clear them. Whenever you visit, you'd like to check if that's changed.
    [x] Telepathy Rin.
    -[x] You're worried any advice or help from you might be tainted at this point, but you've got the impression something's wrong in Sendai. What's going on?
    [x] Kyuubey.
    -[x] Dump Grief. Keep two seeds' worth.
    [X] Inform them the anti-magic enchantments were not made by us.
    -[X] Offer to put them in touch with the makers, but that needs to be a seperate deal than the payment by the simple policy of we don't own Kirika's magic to use to pay for our labor needs.
    -[X] Hash out a deal that only exchanges our own resources for theirs instead of taking our friends resources for granted.
    [x] Business:
    -[x] See location.
    -[x] verification / check in technology?
    -[x] May want to add, move confinement. Need rate schedule.
    -[x] Excuse, walk off, Telepathy Homura. Fukushima's rates, any advice?
    --[x] Haggle, erring on the side of generosity.
    -[x] Discuss hiring them further.
    --[x] Explore trades they prefer. Need five girl rapid deployment unit. Also assembling contractor team against Walpurgisnacht.
    [x] Payment:
    -[x] Seed and cash are better today. More conversation in future
    [x] Chat (when appropriate):
    -[x] Ask Nishimura, Koizumi, and Akiyama are alright.
    -[x] Akiko's past
    -[x] "Supervillains"... hostile or what? Other groups in town?
    -[x] Active soul in Grief Seeds "hibernates" after Clearing. May we inspect in future?
    [x] Telepathy Rin.
    -[x] You're worried. Advice or help from you might be tainted at this point, but you've got the impression something's wrong in Sendai.
    [x] Kyuubey. Dump Grief. Keep one seeds' worth.
Click to expand...
 
This is closer to the path that seems right to me. Anti-magic gets put to the side. More hiring on the pending spot. Other trade goods on pending. Set prices in cash and Seeds ATM. Get more connections and gossip right now.

Take an actual moment to talk to partners, but assume she can eavesdrop like we can. Call Homura, but say "Mami." Fukushima doesn't know Homura, and I'm sure that is a good idea.

[x] Business:
-[x] See location.
-[x] verification / check in technology?
-[x] May want to add, move confinement. Need rate schedule.
-[x] Excuse, walk off, Telepathy Homura. Fukushima's rates, any advice?
--[x] Haggle, erring on the side of generosity.

-[x] Discuss hiring them further.
--[x] Explore trades they prefer. Need five girl rapid deployment unit. Also assembling contractor team against Walpurgisnacht.

[x] Payment:
-[x] Seed and cash are better today. More conversation in future

[x] Chat (when appropriate):
-[x] Ask Nishimura, Koizumi, and Akiyama are alright.
-[x] Akiko's past
-[x] "Supervillains"... hostile or what? Other groups in town?
-[x] Active soul in Grief Seeds "hibernates" after Clearing. May we inspect in future?
[x] Telepathy Rin.
-[x] You're worried. Advice or help from you might be tainted at this point, but you've got the impression something's wrong in Sendai.
[x] Kyuubey. Dump Grief. Keep one seeds' worth.

150, but recode if you like?
 
So I don't know what I'm doing, but then again that's nothing new.

AuraTwilight said:
Oriko: *Precogs the stock market until her precog tells her going further will cause a problem* lol
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Better.

Oriko precogs until it's our rivals who take the fall for her stock market manipulation.





"Yes, I need you to buy that one in exactly fifteen seconds-" Oriko snapped at her cellphone held in her left hand before putting it down to speak through another one on her right, "-sell! Sell! Sell right now!"

She quickly ended the second call while holding the first phone between head and shoulder, turning to better face the computer screen which cast her face in an eerie blue light.

"You're still with me? Good," her tone left no room for denial as her fingertips flew across the keyboard. "I need you to bid for SoJo-" she frowned and clicks repeatedly on her screen, "-nevermind, I've got it. In one minute, someone will bid for a Giftly share, I need you to 'distract' that guy with the horn-rimmed glasses, yes, that one, you know how, stop complaining! Now I need you to buy- hold on. You got the photos?" she smoothly transitioned into another call. "Good, turn them in, make sure to speak with Officer Nakamura, and..."

The ash-blonde never stopped dictating orders to her harried vassals, still calmly-yet-hurriedly typing away at her keyboard, not even stopping when yet another phone rung, Kirika quickly moving to place it beside her ear.

Sabrina watched with raised eyebrows as Oriko worked her economic miracles, alternatively raising funds for their cause and taking measures to doom some less than savory individual's business.

"And NOW!" Oriko exclaimed suddenly, casually throwing back three phones -which Kirika caught out of the air- before resting her elbows on her desk, slowly leaning to let her folded hands cover her dark smile.

"... Now Mr. Madoff, did you think you would get away with such a scheme? Never!" Oriko practically hissed, glaring at the screen. "Not even your son will visit you in jail. And you, Raj, you thought you had a chance to get away scot free? Just because of a mere fortunate Wish? Never!" the Seer's eyes glowed, "the Magical Girls of the world need our help, and for their well being, it will be you, disgraced gentlemen, who will take the fall!"

The Mikuni heiress' hands clenched into white-tight fists.

"And you, Mr. Miyazaki, whom nobody would yet recognize. You should have though better, should have thought of you family... But it's OK," Oriko's posture relaxed, eyes closed, "you didn't even get the chance to commit the crime."

For the next few seconds, silence reigned in the Mikuni household. With nary a sound, Kirika approached Oriko and laid a supportive hand on her shoulder.

Oriko turned to hug Kirika, who happily wormed her way into the Seer's lap.

Sabrina had a strained smile on her face, watching as Oriko seemed to regain energy from Kirika's sheer cuddliness.

'That's the second time she starts monologuing after these things,' she thought.

'I have a clear shot,' resounded Homura's soft voice in her head.

'Homura no.'

'Homura... yes?'

'No,' the white haired girl shook her head. 'Bad.'

Homura sighed. Sabrina could feel it through the telepathic link.

Sabrina cleared her throat, stepping closer to the cuddling pair... who didn't seem to take notice of her.

"Oriko?" she called, receiving a lidded stare from the Seer. "Hey, good job today," Sabrina smiled, "I'm not gonna pretend I know everything you just did, but I trust you, so... well, good job."

A light touch from Oriko's hand had Kirika slightly shift so the Seer could regard the Grief controller properly.

"It is all for the good of the world," she stated solemnly, "the world, and..." pale green eyes slid towards the girls in her arms.

Kirika kissed Oriko's cheek.

The solemn Mikuni Heiress couldn't help a dreamy smile.

"Great," nodded Sabrina, walking over to the door, "I see you're busy so I'll show myself out, it was nice hanging out!" she smiled at the couple before turning to exit the room... before stopping at the threshold, a hand on the doorframe. Sabrina licked her lips nervously before looking back, "Oriko...?"

"Yes?" a single eyebrow raised.

"We..." Sabrina hesitated, before showing an easy smile, "we're friends, right?"

"Of course," nodded Oriko without hesitation.

Sabrina's smile stretched wider. "I'm glad."

"We're friends too!" chimed in Kirika, turning to grin at Sabrina from the comfort of Oriko's arms.

"Of course, buddy," nodded Sabrina. "Well, time to go cuddle my Ojou. See you around!"

The white haired girl waved and left, the couple saying goodbyes at her back.

'You looked tense there, I'm taking the shot.'

'Homura no.'

'But-'

'I'm telling Madoka.'

'... Not fair.'
 
Last edited:
Onmur said:
So I don't know what I'm doing, but then again that's nothing new.


Better.

Oriko precogs until it's our rivals who take the fall for her stock market manipulation.





"Yes, I need you to buy that one in exactly fifteen seconds-" Oriko snapped at her cellphone held in her left hand before putting it down to speak through another one on her right, "-sell! Sell! Sell right now!"

She quickly ended the second call while holding the first phone between head and shoulder, turning to better face the computer screen which cast her face in an eerie blue light.

"You're still with me? Good," her tone left no room for denial as her fingertips flew across the keyboard. "I need you to bid for SoJo-" she frowned and clicks repeatedly on her screen, "-nevermind, I've got it. In one minute, someone will bid for a Giftly share, I need you to 'distract' that guy with the horn-rimmed glasses, yes, that one, you know how, stop complaining! Now I need you to buy- hold on. You got the photos?" she smoothly transitioned into another call. "Good, turn them in, make sure to speak with Officer Nakamura, and..."

The ash-blonde never stopped dictating orders to her harried vassals, still calmly-yet-hurriedly typing away at her keyboard, not even stopping when yet another phone rung, Kirika quickly moving to place it beside her ear.

Sabrina watched with raised eyebrows as Oriko worked her economic miracles, alternatively raising funds for their cause and taking measures to doom some less than savory individual's business.

"And NOW!" Oriko exclaimed suddenly, casually throwing back three phones -which Kirika caught out of the air- before resting her elbows on her desk, slowly leaning to let her folded hands cover her dark smile.

"... Now Mr. Madoff, did you think you would get away with such a scheme? Never!" Oriko practically hissed, glaring at the screen. "Not even your son will visit you in jail. And you, Raj, you thought you had a chance to get away scot free? Just because of a mere fortunate Wish? Never!" the Seer's eyes glowed, "the Magical Girls of the world need our help, and for their well being, it will be you, disgraced gentlemen, who will take the fall!"

The Mikuni heiress' hands clenched into white-tight fists.

"And you, Mr. Miyazaki, whom nobody would yet recognize. You should have though better, should have thought of you family... But it's OK," Oriko's posture relaxed, eyes closed, "you didn't even get the chance to commit the crime."

For the next few seconds, silence reigned in the Mikuni household. With nary a sound, Kirika approached Oriko and laid a supportive hand on her shoulder.

Oriko turned to hug Kirika, who happily wormed her way into the Seer's lap.

Sabrina had a strained smile on her face, watching as Oriko seemed to regain energy from Kirika's sheer cuddliness.

'That's the second time she starts monologuing after these things,' she thought.

'I have a clear shot,' resounded Homura's soft voice in her head.

'Homura no.'

'Homura... yes?'

'No,' the white haired girl shook her head. 'Bad.'

Homura sighed. Sabrina could feel it through the telepathic link.

Sabrina cleared her throat, stepping closer to the cuddling pair... who didn't seem to take notice of her.

"Oriko?" she called, receiving a lidded stare from the Seer. "Hey, good job today," Sabrina smiled, "I'm not gonna pretend I know everything you just did, but I trust you, so... well, good job."

A light touch from Oriko's hand had Kirika slightly shift so the Seer could regard the Grief controller properly.

"It is all for the good of the world," she stated solemnly, "the world, and..." pale green eyes slid towards the girls in her arms.

Kirika kissed Oriko's cheek.

The solemn Mikuni Heiress couldn't help a dreamy smile.

"Great," nodded Sabrina, walking over to the door, "I see you're busy so I'll show myself out, it was nice hanging out!" she smiled at the couple before turning to exit the room... before stopping at the threshold, a hand on the doorframe. Sabrina licked her lips nervously before looking back, "Oriko...?"

"Yes?" a single eyebrow raised.

"We..." Sabrina hesitated, before showing an easy smile, "we're friends, right?"

"Of course," nodded Oriko without hesitation.

Sabrina's smile stretched wider. "I'm glad."

"We're friends too!" chimed in Kirika, turning to grin at Sabrina from the comfort of Oriko's arms.

"Of course, buddy," nodded Sabrina. "Well, time to go cuddle my Ojou. See you around!"

The white haired girl waved and left, the couple saying goodbyes at her back.

'You looked tense there, I'm taking the shot.'

'Homura no.'

'But-'

'I'm telling Madoka.'

'... Not fair.'
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Which Miyazaki are you talking about?
 
.... I like new girl, can we ask her to teach Sabrina how to social in a way that has some graduation between NEW FRIENDS and I HATE YOU

edit: Actually on the proposals that have us talking to Sakura/asking after Sendai - seems like a bad move. Sakura's issue is we are nosy - intentions be damned. They already know we're willing to help them if they ask - lets give them space. (thinking about it Teleporting as a skill might be related to a wish about getting *away* from something... maybe Sakura's reaction to us is more then just Sabrina being Sabrina)

edit 2: Actually while I think about it I think part of the issue with Sabrina and social is that we tend to forget about the other side of the social situation beyond their surface reactions and when we do try to consider them we end up doing it in such a philosophical way we forget to consider their current goals.

I must consider this and get evidence to back my thoughts up... when I have more time >__<
Adhoc vote count started by Firnagzen on Feb 25, 2018 at 12:13 AM, finished with 133146 posts and 12 votes.
  • [x] Payment:
    -[x] Call O&K. Explain request.
    -[x] Separate line, Homura. Fukushima's rates, any advice?
    -[x] Do NOT let Yuki see you distracted.
    [x] Business:
    -[x] Ask to see the location.
    -[x] Finalize:
    --[x] Agree to provide antimagic enchantments.
    --[x] Mind Homura's advice. Haggle, erring on the side of generosity.
    -[x] Discuss hiring them again in the future.
    --[x] Ask about payments/services they're interested in. You're assembling a team to tackle Walpurgisnacht.
    [x] Chat topics (intersperse as appropriate):
    -[x] Ask if Nishimura, Koizumi, and Akiyama are alright.
    -[x] "Supervillains"... just volcano base aesthetic, or something more? What other groups are in town?
    -[x] The active soul in Grief Seeds "hibernates" when you Clear them. Whenever you visit, you'd like to check if that's changed.
    [x] Telepathy Rin.
    -[x] You've got the impression something's wrong. Anything you can help, or...?
    [x] Kyuubey.
    -[x] Dump Grief. Keep two seeds' worth.
    [x] Payment:
    -[x] Call O&K. Explain request.
    -[x] Separate line, Homura. Fukushima's rates, any advice?
    -[x] Do NOT let Yuki see you distracted.
    [x] Business:
    -[x] Ask to see the location.
    -[x] Finalize:
    --[x] Agree to provide antimagic enchantments.
    --[x] Mind Homura's advice. Haggle, erring on the side of generosity.
    -[x] Discuss hiring them again in the future.
    --[x] Ask about payments/services they're interested in. You're assembling a team to tackle Walpurgisnacht.
    [x] Chat topics (intersperse as appropriate):
    -[x] Ask if Nishimura, Koizumi, and Akiyama are alright.
    -[x] "Supervillains"... just volcano base aesthetic, or something more? What other groups are in town?
    -[x] The active soul in Grief Seeds "hibernates" when you Clear them. Whenever you visit, you'd like to check if that's changed.
    [X] Rin (private?).
    -[X] We never really thanked for what she did, despite how we put her on the spot.
    -[X] Thank and acknowledge her for her efforts: Standing up to her friends; taking charge of a difficult situation; doing the right thing.
    -[X] We owe her. Show concern, ask what's wrong.
    [x] Kyuubey.
    -[x] Dump Grief. Keep one seed's worth.
    [x] Payment:
    -[x] Call O&K. Explain request.
    -[x] Separate line, Homura. Fukushima's rates, any advice?
    -[x] Do NOT let Yuki see you distracted.
    [x] Business:
    -[x] Ask to see the location.
    -[x] Finalize:
    --[x] Agree to provide antimagic enchantments.
    --[x] Mind Homura's advice. Haggle, erring on the side of generosity.
    -[x] Discuss hiring them again in the future.
    --[x] Ask about payments/services they're interested in. You're assembling a team to tackle Walpurgisnacht.
    [x] Chat topics (intersperse as appropriate):
    -[x] Ask if Nishimura, Koizumi, and Akiyama are alright.
    -[x] "Supervillains"... just volcano base aesthetic, or something more? What other groups are in town?
    -[x] The active soul in Grief Seeds "hibernates" when you Clear them. Whenever you visit, you'd like to check if that's changed.
    -[x] Ask to hug the cutie
    [x] Telepathy Rin.
    -[x] You've got the impression something's wrong. Anything you can help, or...?
    [x] Kyuubey.
    -[x] Dump Grief. Keep two seeds' worth.
    [x] Payment:
    -[x] Call O&K. Explain request.
    -[x] Separate line, Homura. Fukushima's rates, any advice?
    -[x] Do NOT let Yuki see you distracted.
    [x] Business:
    -[x] Ask to see the location.
    -[x] Finalize:
    --[x] Agree to provide antimagic enchantments.
    --[x] Mind Homura's advice. Haggle, erring on the side of generosity.
    -[x] Discuss hiring them again in the future.
    --[x] Ask about payments/services they're interested in. You're assembling a team to tackle Walpurgisnacht.
    [x] Chat topics (intersperse as appropriate):
    -[x] Ask if Nishimura, Koizumi, and Akiyama are alright.
    -[x] "Supervillains"... just volcano base aesthetic, or something more? What other groups are in town?
    -[x] The active soul in Grief Seeds "hibernates" when you Clear them. Whenever you visit, you'd like to check if that's changed.
    [x] Telepathy Rin.
    -[x] You're worried any advice or help from you might be tainted at this point, but you've got the impression something's wrong in Sendai. What's going on?
    [x] Kyuubey.
    -[x] Dump Grief. Keep two seeds' worth.
    [X] Inform them the anti-magic enchantments were not made by us.
    -[X] Offer to put them in touch with the makers, but that needs to be a seperate deal than the payment by the simple policy of we don't own Kirika's magic to use to pay for our labor needs.
    -[X] Hash out a deal that only exchanges our own resources for theirs instead of taking our friends resources for granted.
    [x] Business:
    -[x] See location.
    -[x] verification / check in technology?
    -[x] May want to add, move confinement. Need rate schedule.
    -[x] Excuse, walk off, Telepathy Homura. Fukushima's rates, any advice?
    --[x] Haggle, erring on the side of generosity.
    -[x] Discuss hiring them further.
    --[x] Explore trades they prefer. Need five girl rapid deployment unit. Also assembling contractor team against Walpurgisnacht.
    [x] Payment:
    -[x] Seed and cash are better today. More conversation in future
    [x] Chat (when appropriate):
    -[x] Ask Nishimura, Koizumi, and Akiyama are alright.
    -[x] Akiko's past
    -[x] "Supervillains"... hostile or what? Other groups in town?
    -[x] Active soul in Grief Seeds "hibernates" after Clearing. May we inspect in future?
    [x] Telepathy Rin.
    -[x] You're worried. Advice or help from you might be tainted at this point, but you've got the impression something's wrong in Sendai.
    [x] Kyuubey. Dump Grief. Keep one seeds' worth.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
@Onmur - Warm, social, OOC Homura is soooo cute! Thanks

@DB_Explorer - Deduction is unavoidable at this point? Sure, Sakura has poor expression ability. Boundary issues. Surly mannerisms. Maybe passive aggression too. But something is definitely wrong over there. Most answers will leave residual problems, too. What do you think the most consistent evaluation and decision path Sabrina should take will be? Talking to Rin probably doesn't get us a knuckle sandwich. Engaging the hostility Sakura is throwing might let us move the relationship into factual agreement sooner, at the risk of more drama.

We are 10 years too early to study Miss Tsuruya. Mami would have a shot.
 
HeroCycle said:
@DB_Explorer - Deduction is unavoidable at this point? Sure, Sakura has poor expression ability. Boundary issues. Surly mannerisms. Maybe passive aggression too. But something is definitely wrong over there. Most answers will leave residual problems, too. What do you think the most consistent evaluation and decision path Sabrina should take will be? Talking to Rin probably doesn't get us a knuckle sandwich. Engaging the hostility Sakura is throwing might let us move the relationship into factual agreement sooner, at the risk of more drama.

We are 10 years too early to study Miss Tsuruya. Mami would have a shot.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It was just musings from (for me) was a late night watch with nothing going on. I make no claims that my proposals are correct. I was just thinking over how half the time I read us debate social and part of my brain whispers 'I think we are doing something wrong here' but I cannnot and have yet to put my finger on what *is* wrong.

On Sakura - if we can figure out where she is coming from with her behavior and why she is doing it in this given instance we can work to help them with a minimum of drama. But we should consider that if there is an issue then how would Sakura act and why then work on negating or mitigate her concerns rather then our normal approach which seems to be force our plan to work through sheer will and pushing our position and advantages.

Sabrina socially is very direct and while she does worry about other people and their positions its normally only in consideration to the end state Sabrina wants. We could try to take a more...indirect approach where we try to shift, dislocate or preempt their positions so our interests end up aligning.

I mean when we first started the quest (not that I was voting then) we didn't drag Homura and Mami together - we managed to get Mami to shift her view of Homura by getting Mami to go on hunts with Homura. We got Homura to agree with the hunts since we gradually did it and started it off framing the attempt as a way to help protect Madoka via WPN. This all worked in the end because Sabrina knew Mami would end up helping Homura just because Mami is nice - and it helped Mami make a friend. So we covered a couple of items with one social plan!.

The voters formally or informally decided on a desired endstate (get Homura and Mami to be friends/Allies) to address a known issue (or issues) and made a general course of actions based off what we knew for each character the votes as far I can tell. Each vote tweaked the general course to suit the current situation and to react to new information (going to fast, unexpected success etc).

I have no idea what point I'm trying to make at this point - maybe I;m saying I feel like we get so focused on making a given vote cover EVERYTHING we fail to look at actions in a longer term and loss site of our own desired endstate.

I mean like with the current vote - do we want to give away anti-magic items as something to use in barter? How do we want to appear to Tsuyura? Do we want to drive a hard bargain or be generous? Let's not get overly focused on getting your prisoner her cell - thats important but its only one facet of the event.

Though we might want to hold the Sendai dicussion off untill we are done with this - I'd rather not have to break off negotations if we set off a social landmine and have to contain it..
 
So I was contemplating (and stomping down) some hazy plot bunnies while waking up, and as part of one such plot bunny, I wondered about the idea of Homura suddenly (from our perspective) agreeing to let O&K go. Somehow. Not going into details.

While considering how such an event might come to be, I had somewhat of an startling thought. Not something completely new, in fact, it's something I and others might have though of before, but it struck me now. (Ow).

So I thought to myself:

Homura: *Suddenly ends O&K's house arrest*
Me: They fuck am I thinking?
Sabrina: The fuck just happened? Homura's shaking so bad. Madoka, what did you do?!

And then I thought about Homura's fear, and here approaches the startling thought:

Our arguments to end the house arrest seem to be based on two things:

One, that O&K are trying to help and have shown we can trust their word so far.

Two, that if Oriko and Kirika were to pull something evil like, say, killing Madoka, we aren't actually doing anything to stop them. So they could do it anyway, house arrest or not. They either do it or they don't, 50% chance same end result either way.

In a moment of sympathy, I imagined what it would feel, for Homura, if O&K were free:

Imagine you have an eagle's view of Mitakihara. With such a view, you can concentrate your sight anywhere in the city anytime... but since the city is a city, you can only focus on a small fraction of it at a time, if you wanted to, say, find any specific person... then the whole city would be like a Pokédex entry for a running wild legendary Pokémon:

A Big Fucking Interrogation Mark.

However, if you were looking for someone or something whose position remained static, you could easily check on them anytime, with a minimum necessary time investment, even if you were, say, panicking.

So I thought: This is what the house arrest does for Homura. The point about how O&K are being good doesn't matter not because of Homura's Oriko-related-somewhat-justified-paranoia, but simply because Homura's already accepted the fact Oriko might randomly kill Madoka for Oriko-forsaken reasons.

Basically: The only reason Oriko is alive, why Homura is allowing such a thing, is that, way back then Homura trusted us when we said Oriko could live and things would remain OK and non-exploded with an Oriko-shaped crater. Or a bucket-hat-shaped crater.

Then and there Homura accepted the possibililty that Madoka would be in peril, no matter how she might have rationalized the thought away. That's it, she had a chance to stop the threat but left it open anyway, thanks to her trust in us and Madokami's will. And wow, we got that much trust in only two days?

The point of these past two paragraphs is that the idea that Oriko can kill Madoka is already deeply rooted in Homura's mind, and the fact she hasn't done it is not an argument which will have any impact of Homura's psyche.

Now, going back to the Big Fucking Interrogation Mark, the house arrest serves one purpose for Homura, and that is that, if Oriko was free, then she would be rightfully allowed to be anywhere in the city. Anywhere, anytime. The whole fucking Mitakihara city would be a place where Oriko and Kirika could be lurking. Which was exactly Oriko's plan to start with, but thankfully that one got shot in the face. Or neck, and arm...

However, if Oriko and Kirika are in 'house arrest', while this doesn't impede them from going out and killing Madoka, this does give Homura something, or two somethings, she craves:

She can, literally any time, no matter where she is, stop time and go check that Oriko and Kirika are where they are supposed to be. Only one place in the entire city, and O&K are supposed to be there, so Homura can regain her peace of mind that no, Madoka is not dying literally this moment. And she might have actually checked on O&K this way quite a few times, we know she's obsessed and willing to walk the walk.

Secondly, if Homura were to spot Oriko and Kirika anywhere outside their home? Time. Stop. Bang. Completely justified in ending the threat.

Now, the startling thought: It's this first point that's Homura's reason for why she wouldn't want to end O&K's house arrest... and nothing else.

That's it. That's all there is to it.

The house arrest is simply a tool Homura can use to ease the fear running through her mind, a stress relief ball she can squeeze anytime, and not having O&K on house arrest would mean not only giving up this metaphorical relaxation tool, but would mean the entirety of Mitakihara city would be a place where potential Madoka killers may lurk, and it's not that Homura wouldn't have a way to stop them, it would mean that Homura would have to accept that threats-to-Madoka are rightfully allowed to lurk around Madoka, and she can't do anything about it.

So The Big Fucking Question Mark in the map would come to represent the position of a threat to Madoka... and Homura would have to accept that Madoka would forever live in the midst of it.

Homura would have no way to reassure herself that Madoka is not in danger at any particular time.
 
Last edited:
Onmur said:
So The Big Fucking Question Mark in the map would come to represent the position of a threat to Madoka... and Homura would have to accept that Madoka would forever live in the midst of it.

Homura would have no way to reassure herself that Madoka is not in danger at any particular time.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Objectively speaking, Madoka is always in danger. Even more so than any ordinary human would be by the virtue of association with the world of magi. Oriko is just a representation or, I guess, a manifestation of Homura's fears, but she is not the only significant danger to Madoka by a long shot.
... We probably shouldn't tell that to Homura.
 
Ergo, the best alternative we could provide for Homura, would be:

a) Put tracking devices on Oriko and Kirika (Mami's ribbons, enchantment. etc.) Ideally, ones that Homura can check without needing Mami's help.
b) Ask that Oriko and Kirika inform us of their movements ahead of time.

We don't even necessarily need the trackers to be magical - just give Homura GPS search access to Oriko and Kirka's phones and ask them to keep those phones on whenever they're out on pain of Homu.

Ask hackerguca to set it up if you're paranoid Oriko/Kirika could mess with a purely mundane setup.

This does of course still increase the risk Oriko and Kirika pose, but I think we can potentially assuage Homura's worst concerns.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top