"Ah?" Mami asks. "Um... I think we're low on mirin?"
Funny, I was shopping for this last week. Impossible to find in CO as far as I can tell. Needed to put in a special order.

The fact that you pay him entirely in cash doesn't help, either, but hey, what can you do?
Unless Japan is even more AU than I've been led to believe, Japan is still a predominantly cashed based society to this day. Her paying on a card would be more awkward to the average Japanese clerk, I believe.
 
Funny, I was shopping for this last week. Impossible to find in CO as far as I can tell. Needed to put in a special order.

Unless Japan is even more AU than I've been led to believe, Japan is still a predominantly cashed based society to this day. Her paying on a card would be more awkward to the average Japanese clerk, I believe.

That holds for quadruple-measure grocery costs too, though? I always get the impression that when you go above a certain amount of money, like quadruple-groceries, that it becomes a bit weird to just hand over like 1-3 hundred dollars.

That said, no idea what the food prices in Japan are, or if it is indeed reasonable to pay large amounts in cash for groceries if Sabrina did buy large money's worth. Or what a large money amount even is, as it relates to cost/volume of food in Japan....
 
Might just be a reaction to having an obvious foreigner walk into the store speaking perfect Japanese and buying more groceries than she could possibly carry.
 
Clearly the only course of action is to get that damned big blue hat.

So as to call even more attention to ourselves. :V
 
While I know he hasn't come up in the last few updates, there's something about Kyousuke that I feel I need to get of our chest, something that might impact how we deal with him in the future; I think Kyousuke has autism.Now I know some of you might be raising your eyebrows, but just hear me out. The first time this idea came to me was during that scene where he yells at Sayaka. He's depressed because of his inability to play the violin, and Sayaka decides to cheer him up by talking about music with him...but Kyousuke felt like she was mocking him. That actually reminds me of myself back in elementary school (I have autism by the way). I wasn't the most physically fit kid, so when we ran laps in gym, I'd fall behind. My classmates would eventually start cheering me on, but for some reason it sounded to me like they were making fun of me. His lack of social skills and hyper focus on his music are also signs of autism. I've known about my autism since 1st grade...but if Kyousuke does have autism, then I'm not sure he knows that. I can imagine having to grow up in a world with a brain that thinks differently from everyone else, never even knowing that. How hard that would make it to understand and communicate with people. I've managed to adapt to it, since I've known for almost my whole life. Which is something Kyousuke doesn't have.I think his real problem is that his brain is just wired differently then everyone around him, and no one notices, not even him.

Well, it's not impossible, but I find it more likely that he's just been stewing in depression and bitterness for months since the loss of both his ability to move freely and the talent with which he defined himself, to the point where he's come to resent his healthy friend who keeps bringing him reminders of what he's lost and has hit the point where he's accusing her of deliberately doing what it feels like she's been doing because he's lost all rationality. He knows that's not really what she's doing but it feels like it and he wants to lash out at her.

Despair is a major theme of Madoka Magica, after all, and you can see shades of the same behavior when Sayaka lays into Madoka for not being willing to risk her life alongside her later when Sayaka has entered her own downward spiral.
 
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That holds for quadruple-measure grocery costs too, though? I always get the impression that when you go above a certain amount of money, like quadruple-groceries, that it becomes a bit weird to just hand over like 1-3 hundred dollars.

That said, no idea what the food prices in Japan are, or if it is indeed reasonable to pay large amounts in cash for groceries if Sabrina did buy large money's worth. Or what a large money amount even is, as it relates to cost/volume of food in Japan....
When I went grocery shopping in Japan I paid in cash. I wasn't paying very much attention, but the other people I saw did as well. It's common enough that places all still have nice trays for people to put their money in before sliding it over to the cashier. Ofc, that's also just a Japanese thing.

*shrugs* I'm not claiming to be an expert, but Japan is a really cash based culture. They don't even have card readers on their high tech vending machines a lot of times, and that's something we've managed to incorporate into random places in the US. That being said, it doesn't strain my SOD that Sabrina might not realize this. Also, she would definitely get some looks for buying so many groceries regardless, though of course no one would directly say anything while she was there.
 
Buying more than a basket's worth of groceries also implies that you have a car to put them in, and I get the impression that most people in Japan rely on mass transit instead of driving. (Also, I think you have to be 18 to drive there?) So Sabrina's a foreign teenager with lots of money and (as far as the cashier knows) her own car.
 
It looks like we have gone off topic?
Should we not be discussing votes, and things surrounding that.
To me it looks like we need to maybe talk more about goals.
Help people/magic girls, and make our friends happy and safe is good and all, but we need to break it down more into steps we can aim for.
Right now, it looks like we are just letting the days go by and waiting for things to happen instead of working towards our goal.... for me anyway.
I'm sorry for not starting with a few more points but I'm terrible at this.
Thoughts?
 
I've been thinking about the Rionna situation and wondering if we might be able to reach out to Nadia for more information. We could ask Nadia if she has a friendly enough relationship with Rionna that she could contact her, mention that she's heard that she was on the move, and ask what's going on.
 
Core idea here: Finish the morning's experiment. I am highly interested in how Aurora interacts with enchantments, since that bit seems to have been skipped last update.

[x] Science
-[x] Check how Aurora interacts with enchantments.
-[x] Repeat magic and enchanted grief experiment with Hildegarde and Elsa Maria

[x] Passive and continuing experiments:
-[x] Keep an eye on how long it takes Aurora to finish sucking the magic out of the enchanted grief, and what happens to it afterwards.
-[x] Feed Aurora your feelings whenever you have free time.

[x] Check in with Akemi and Noriko. See how they're settling in.
-[x] Ask if they'd like to arrange a meeting soon.
--[x] Confer with Mami and invite them to drop by for dinner?

[x] Lunch!
-[x] Tell Sayaka you'll have the birdseed for her when she's ready, unless she wants you to drop it off somewhere.
-[x] Ask Hitomi how/when best to arrange this weekend's meeting with her mom.
-[x] Talk about Riona. Oriko predicted her arrival a while ago. Aren't visitors supposed to contact Mami?
-[x] Ask Sayaka if she wants to abuse clone powers to go hunt with us.

Vote notes:

RE: Science
Given what we've seen so far, I think checking how Aurora reacts to enchantments in general is a pretty important bit of research that we kinda need to finish. It would not do well if it turns out that clear seeds will eat enchantments after they wake up and we accidentally handed the Fuklushima group a device that may end up eating their base without knowing it.

Happy thoughts:
I want to experiment and see how Aurora reacts to a range of emotions. Giving her a variety of feelings via honestly relaying our experiences, both good and bad, should help to do that. Honestly, beyond that, I'd kinda like to experiment with telling her story, depending on how well we can communicate and if we can get a griefhax device to do so up and running later today or tomorrow. (Since stories do have emotional resonance, and we should see how real the things she feeds on need to be. Plus it's just nice.)

Akemi and Noriko:
I'll note that we specifically asked Akemi and Noriko if they had money for provisions yesterday and they said they were good. Beyond that I'm cutting a lot of that like of talk of in favor of science.

Lunch:
Minor changes only. We already have a tentative time for talk with the Shizukis (next weekend)

EDIT: Amended Birdseed stuff.
 
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[x] Whenever there's free time, feed Aurora happiness or prime Grief.
[x] For now...
-[x] Akemi and Noriko
--[x] Check in, ask to drop by and if grocery delivery needed, if so, do so
---[x] Notify them of Walpurgisnacht if they seem settle in enough
---[x] Make it clear that their stay here is not contingent on their willingness to fight the superwitch.
--[x] Confer with Mami and invite them to drop for lunch/dinner?

[x] Lunch!
-[x] Birdseed delivery
-[x] Ask Hitomi how/when best to arrange meeting with her mom.
-[x] Talk about Riona. Oriko predicted her arrival a while ago. Aren't visitors supposed to contact Mami?
--[x] Should we ask Nadia to put us in touch?
---[x] If approved contact Nadia. See how she's doing. Anything she needs?
----[x] How well does she know Rionna? Well enough to casually contact her?
-----[x] Does she think it would be a good idea to let her know that she'd heard rumors that Rionna was headed this way and offer to help make arrangements for her arrival?
-[x] Ask Sayaka if she wants to abuse clone powers to go hunt with us.
 
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[x] Lunch!
-[x] Birdseed delivery

Not so sure about this bit. I'm assuming it's a big huge sack of birdseed and if Sayaka hasn't worked out Hammerspace yet it might be a bit awkward to manage throughout the school day. Maybe telepathy Sayaka and ask how she's like to receive her delivery.
 
Not so sure about this bit. I'm assuming it's a big huge sack of birdseed and if Sayaka hasn't worked out Hammerspace yet it might be a bit awkward to manage throughout the school day. Maybe telepathy Sayaka and ask how she's like to receive her delivery.

I think it might be an opportunity to show Sayaka the Hammerspace trick, actually. By the sound of it, if you have a gist of what you're doing, you can do it easy-peasy.
 
[X] The Phoenixian

Seems fine.

But we should add

[Q] Lunch.
-[Q] Convince Homura to let Madoka out of the bubble.
--[Q] Ask Madoka to stop having fun rolling around with the bubble. This is bad for Homura's mind state!
 
[x] The Phoenixian

Part of me wants to try and frankenvote in a few more of the points about contacting Nadia in, but, wordcount, and this seems like a good plan overall. Fair points on the SCIENCE!
 
The thing is, the horrible thing is, the most aberrant thing is that we haven't showed O&K our Chibi... yet.

We totally should at some point.

Maybe we can prepare the Grief before next time we visit so we don't make them wait half an hour for us to make the Chibi.
Now I want Sabrina to make the creepy twins routine... while wearing something ridiculous like a rainbow clown wig.

"The fact that... my Chibi... does not exist... in Oriko's lap right now... is a curse. A curse on the entire universe... and on my Ojou. It cannot stand."

"So you're conceptualizing the lack of your Chibi-"

"On Oriko's lap."

"... As a curse, and thus..."

"Magic. Which I'm dispelling... right... now!"
The worst part is that I can beleve it'd work, given how conceptual magic can get.

Not so sure about this bit. I'm assuming it's a big huge sack of birdseed and if Sayaka hasn't worked out Hammerspace yet it might be a bit awkward to manage throughout the school day. Maybe telepathy Sayaka and ask how she's like to receive her delivery.
I think it might be an opportunity to show Sayaka the Hammerspace trick, actually. By the sound of it, if you have a gist of what you're doing, you can do it easy-peasy.
If it's only shifting things from/to the fourth dimension them I'm pretty sure Sayaka can learn quickly during lunch, she attends Mitakihara Middle school after all

(I'm not sure if I'm joking or serious)
 
I think it might be an opportunity to show Sayaka the Hammerspace trick, actually. By the sound of it, if you have a gist of what you're doing, you can do it easy-peasy.

Even if it turns out to be easy to learn dumping something on someone that they need to learn a new skill to deal with seems kinda ... I don't know, rude?
 
Even if it turns out to be easy to learn dumping something on someone that they need to learn a new skill to deal with seems kinda ... I don't know, senpai-ish?

FTFY:V

If she isn't able to learn it, no biggie. We'll just hide the birdseed back into hammerspace.

We wouldn't leave Seykuu in the middle of her school with a large bag of birdseed and no explanation of how she'd come by it. Would we?
 
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