Hmm. I don't remember a definite point when the nature of Sabrina's and Mami's relationship changed. As you might remember, we've told Sayaka "no one confessed", when she asked for an advice.
I would say... Red Letter Day? It's the first date, after all.
I personally really want to see the fifty year old meguca. If I remember right it was also said she was maybe a healer which makes things even more interesting. On the other hand she seems like a pretty bitter and pragmatic person which befits her age and position but I'm still so curious!
Really I want to know how she can keep going on. While witches never stop being a danger even a 20 year old meguca would be a frighteningly experienced individual. But by that point you've seen friends come and go, had to put some down yourself, and gone through the revelations of how much of a twisted mess your situation is. How do you go on after decades of that? How does she cope? Does she just not care at all anymore?
Personally, I would expect that the most stable state for a meguca that old would be for her to be a sociopath, or otherwise emotionally damaged. She started out as someone with normal emotions, but then the stresses of magical girl life got to her, and she just completely stopped caring. Since magical girls derive both their power and much of their grief from their emotions, this drove down both her power levels and her grief production. Most meguca die at this point, having so little power that they simply get eaten by the next difficult witch they fight. Catherine however, had already become enough of a veteran that she managed to survive, killing witches as efficiently as possible, and simply avoiding any witches she might have trouble with. Now Catherine simply exists, not making waves or fighting difficult witches. She doesn't kill or antagonize any magical girls who might be difficult to defeat or could have friends who would seek revenge. She exists, paranoid and efficient, with little driving her except her own survival, and perhaps some hobbies that she picked up along the way.
Come to think of it, someone that old should have a ton of things they can do with their power. What kind of stuff can a munchkin do with healing?
Possibly take inspiration from a starfish, and cut off pieces of herself to grow into clones to fight for her, or new bodies? Keep spare bodies in her 4D space, and drop one out to use if her current body is too damaged? Healing might work by causing cells to grow and divide faster, or this at least might be a form of healing you could unlock. If so, she could use it to train her body, pushing herself to ridiculous extents even for a meguca, or outright tearing or cutting her muscles intentionally so that she can grow them back even stronger. Perhaps she can heal things to whatever condition she considers to be healthy. If so, she could just visualize herself with stronger muscles, more limbs, an exoskeleton, venom sacs, redundant organs, and any other natural weapons/modifications she can think up. She could also insert mechanical and technical stuff into her body, and heal her flesh around it perfectly. Video cameras in the back of her head, perhaps in other areas too. A metallic endoskeleton, with the strongest materials she can get her hands on.
Naturally, she would have at least one of her bodies be unmodified, or modified lightly, and that's the one she uses to talk to people so they don't freak out and attack her.
She also could grow entire organisms, modifying their brains to imprint on her, making them easier to train to fight for her. She may have a squad of whatever kinds of creatures she thought would be useful.
Note that this is all entirely speculation on my part. She might just be a nice old lady who is as good at repressing things as Homura, and who is just really good at fighting witches.
Honestly I felt the same for a while. There was some lingering doubt that the relationship could both survive and attain a healthy state. I'm just really glad that I was pleasantly surprised instead of affirmed.
Hmm. I don't remember a definite point when the nature of Sabrina's and Mami's relationship changed. As you might remember, we've told Sayaka "no one confessed", when she asked for an advice.
I would say... Red Letter Day? It's the first date, after all.
I believe the key point was not so much for Mami but for Sabrina, in particular when she had to explain herself about the metabomb. At that point the playerbase, trying to salvaga the remains of Mami's sanity, went for an option which went contrary to the "Sabrina is the thread" principle (because I don't believe most of the playerbase had or has sort-of-romantic feelings for Mami)
"I didn't know anything about myself, but I knew enough about all of you that I wanted to help you." Mami makes a tiny, whimpering noise, and nestles closer to you, head tucked under your chin. You tighten your hug around her. I'm here. "I... I knew you were lonely, and I wanted to make it so you weren't lonely any more. I wanted to make you happy, but..."
You take another deep, shuddering breath. "I didn't expect you to make me so happy." A faint noise indicates that Mami's listening, at least. "And you do. I enjoy doing things with you, talking with you... you make every day brighter." Just the simple joy of getting to hug her is something you look forward to, all the time. "I don't want to lose that. I don't want to lose you."
Before that it seemed like the thread just wanted to protect Mami from her loneliness and Candeloro. But at this point for me it became in-chatecter for Sabrina to have feelings for Mami beyond that.
Quite literally what happened was that I showed up and pointed out that Sabrina had literally never told Mami that she wanted to stay with her.
Prior to that she had a whole host of nasty issues and zero affirmation that Sabrina actually meant to stay with her beyond repeated statements about not leaving her -- she was really scared that we were only there because she'd crack and die without us. And why shouldn't she have been? From her perspective she was a huge drain on our valuable time with which we could be saving other people's lives. From that was born the bit about her being "broken" that she aired at some point. She'd told us she felt selfish about the whole thing... the situation was amazingly unhealthy. And if anybody remembers the "You're a strong magical girl" line from when we were going to Sendai, well, Mami broke up over that and yet she was prepared to accept it. She'd've hated it if we were only sticking around because she was strong, but, well, from her point of view, what option did she have? Except... except, of course, killing herself. I guarantee she thought about that at one point or another -- probably not too seriously, but she blamed herself for preventing us from spending more time helping others, and, well... Mami has always had strong morals. Not Sayaka-tier, not so strong she'd kill herself over them in that situation, but strong enough she'd minimum be stewing in self-dislike in the situation she was in.
"I didn't know anything about myself, but I knew enough about all of you that I wanted to help you." Mami makes a tiny, whimpering noise, and nestles closer to you, head tucked under your chin. You tighten your hug around her. I'm here. "I... I knew you were lonely, and I wanted to make it so you weren't lonely any more. I wanted to make you happy, but..."
You take another deep, shuddering breath. "I didn't expect you to make me so happy." A faint noise indicates that Mami's listening, at least. "And you do. I enjoy doing things with you, talking with you... you make every day brighter." Just the simple joy of getting to hug her is something you look forward to, all the time. "I don't want to lose that. I don't want to lose you."
You raise your head to look her in the eye, finding golden eyes reddened with tears - but wide and startled as she looks back at you. "I-if you're not asking me to leave, Mami, I can promise, I can swear, that I won't leave you. I- my life would be so very much darker without your presence in it."
It's hard to overstate just how critical a moment those three paragraphs were. Took a while for it to actually sink in, that we'd really said what we'd said -- she was skittish as all hell the next day or two. But it just utterly broke so many of her issues. Us wanting to stay with her totally obviates her previous issues over believing that she was being selfish, weakens her fears about us leaving... She spent a lot of time, subsequently, concerned about whether or not what she was doing was "okay"... still does, sometimes... and it's largely a manifestation of her fears having shifted to images of her somehow doing something we don't like, somehow, someway damaging our desire to stay with her. To be sure, those fears were already there, they've just moved up the chain in importance.
It was also something of a clue-by-four in a lot of ways -- there'd been some degree of testing the waters on Mami's end beforehand, but, well, date happened. If you actually look back Mami'd been testing the waters for a long time, but just never got any kind of response from Sabrina. Telling her that she made us happy... well. She started to really hope.
...
This is even pretty relevant, amusingly. Spoilers: if the quote was 1.0, then the Mami stuff I've been editing and re-editing the last few days in preparation for next vote or the one after is v2.0, hence why I'd initially planned to wait for the IC weekend. But, well, with Mami gifting us the pendant today... It's highly appropriate.
...
And no, there will be no breakdowns. There will be no horrifyingly botched voting resulting in Mami thinking we're about to leave her, this time.
Edit: oooooh, partially ninjaed by @Filraen! You get a headpat for that.
I believe the key point was not so much for Mami but for Sabrina, in particular when she had to explain herself about the metabomb. At that point the playerbase, trying to salvaga the remains of Mami's sanity, went for an option which went contrary to the "Sabrina is the thread" principle (because I don't believe most of the playerbase had or has sort-of-romantic feelings for Mami)
Of course Sabrina isn't the thread. Sabrina is Firnagzen.
But Firnagzen is also Oriko, Madoka, Urobuchi and probably Feathers.
So it means Sabrina is-
Oh wait, I've seen that before.
Well, I believe certain dissociation from Sabrina is a healthy thing to have, because, you know, we aren't really Sabrina. We don't even fully control her decisions, much less experience existence through her perspective. There will always be things that could be said are "in character for Sabrina" while saying they are "in character for the thread" would be quite incorrect.
So yeah, that's probably why I answered the previous question from "Sabrina as a character" perspective, not "Sabrina as a thread".
( You know, Godwinson, each time you post in the thread, I somehow feel like Sabrina turns her head towards an invisible camera floating over her head, Looks me in the eye and talks to me.
Personally I'm still not quite on board the S.S. MumiBrina, mostly because I'm a bit nervous about the witchbomb and the fact that it's a secret that must be kept from her. Once she finally learns it and gets past the horribleness that is it, I'll think things will be a lot more stable. There's also the fact that there are some lingering uncertainties about how much of her feelings are the trauma getting something to hook into. It sucks a bit to be honest, since pretty much everyone else is all for it while I sit here pouting about being uncertain.
( You know, Godwinson, each time you post in the thread, I somehow feel like Sabrina turns her head towards an invisible camera floating over her head, Looks me in the eye and talks to me.
I've never been one to go against shipping, but the Mumi/Brina didn't make my shipping sense go crazy, at least at first. It could just be that I've never been a huge fan of Mami- not that I don't like her, just that I always found her the least interesting of the main five- so I wasn't super invested in a potential relationship with Best Brain Damage. Of course, I came around while catching up, because they're just so adorable how couldn't I love them?
We'll ship Warehouse-kun with whatever new housing Homura gets for O&K.
Not like there's many choices.
We should probably bring this up when we next talk with Homura. We should explain how important it is that, besides it needing to be a suitable, safe place for O&K to wander around, the housing she picks must be Warehouse-kun Compatible.
You know, I'm not sure if everyone else has noticed this or not, but Mami/Sabrina and Oriko/Kirika have a lot more correspondences between them than what's obvious in the text of the quest. Beyond the obvious "refined ojou"/"quirky delinquent" parallels...
Mami's color theme is golden, while Oriko's is silver. Mami and Oriko both have largely underwhelming initial weapons, but then upgrade them to scary ranged firepower. Mami's wish was to live even as her parents died, while Oriko's wish was to find a way to die so she could follow after her parents. Mami's magic is to connect to people, while Oriko's magic brings her into conflict with people.
Sabrina has white hair and blue eyes, while Kirika has black hair and orange eyes. Sabrina has a crushing weapon and sucks in melee, while Kirika has slashing weapons and is amazing in melee. Sabrina has the full breadth of one facet of magic, while Kirika stops others from utilizing any magic.
Though to be honest I really hadn't noticed the color schemes being complimentary before. Clearly we should tease Kirika about how we got the gold oujo.
Though to be honest I really hadn't noticed the color schemes being complimentary before. Clearly we should tease Kirika about how we got the gold oujo.
Madokami: "Now Sabrina, did you lose this gold ojou, or perhaps this silver ojou?" Sabrina: "I understand the reference, and that I'm supposed to be humble and choose the plain ojou right here..." Homura glowers, slightly offended.
Sabrina: ..."But are you sure you're okay with me stealing your waifu, mom? Probably best for everyone if you just gimme Mami."
Though to be honest I really hadn't noticed the color schemes being complimentary before. Clearly we should tease Kirika about how we got the gold oujo.
"That... is a long story," you say, sighing. Mami shifts so that you can lean against her properly.
You hesitate for a second, and then slump fully against Mami, snuggling closer. Slowly, gently, she starts running her fingers through your hair, rubbing gently against your scalp. You savour the touch, pressing close to Mami to remind yourself that... it's done, it's all over.
"It turns out Rionna was... something of a monster," you say quietly. "A Soul mage who used her powers to take the Souls of others and use them as her slaves. She went after Grief controllers... from what I gather, because a Grief controller killed her sister."
You shut your eyes, massaging your brows with your free hand.
"What was that about, anyway?" you ask, glancing at Oriko. "You warned me not to bring up her sister, but she brought her up anyway."
"I... I have mentioned. I lost much of my visions, with my powers, but..." Oriko frowns sharply. "You said it yourself - she attacked Grief controllers, after one killed her sister. Had you, Sabrina, yourself a Grief controller, brought her sister up, she would have attacked you, there and then. It would have been a close fight, at best."
"... hm," you say, frowning. "I suppose that makes sense. I..." You sigh. "I'm not really upset with you, Oriko, but... you could have given me a clearer warning."
Oriko chuckles faintly. "I suppose I deserve that," she says, and sighs. "I admit, with the... recent epiphanies, I find myself questioning my past actions."
"Would've been nice if you had that change of heart before you attacked me," Sayaka mutters darkly.
Oriko opens her mouth, and Kirika firmly shuts it, pushing her jaw up with a click. The seer slumps, looking faintly annoyed.
"Anyway," you say. "So... the conversation devolved fairly quickly, from rude to... somewhat hostile. She was extremely defensive about me not getting to judge her and such, and at the end, she tried to... mind control me, I think. She did something, and it didn't work, and we took her down."
You sigh, and snuggle against Mami, idly running your hand through her hair. You coil one of her hair drills around your finger, smiling at her before letting it go. Mami giggles faintly.
Kirika gives you a look, and lowers the enchantment for a second to squirm onto Oriko's lap to cuddle her before returning to work.
... you don't have anything to prove, but you do snuggle a little closer to Mami. It's not like you need an excuse to do that, anyway, not with the day you've had. Mami smiles at you, curling her arm around your waist and nestling her cheek against the top of your head.
"I see," Oriko says, and sighs, closing her eyes. "I suppose it would have been nice to have an answer about my... powers, but I'm... content. Things could be better, of course."
Homura stiffens, her glare somehow sharpening.
"I don't mean any harm, Miss Akemi," Oriko murmurs. "I know you may not believe me, but I truly do not."
Sayaka snorts, not looking at them and instead focusing on the Soul Gem still cupped in her palm, antimagic strobing slowly.
You rub your forehead, sighing again. "So that's where we are now," you say. "I... I've been debating with myself what I should do with her."
Sayaka rolls her eyes. "This again?"
"I don't want to just put her in jail," you say. "And I refuse to turn into the kind of person who might, who might leave someone in a permanent magical coma. I'm not that kind of person, and that's not the kind of world I want to create."
"Yeah," Sayaka says, and shrugs. "So don't."
"Set down a hard deadline or criteria for yourself and adhere to it," Oriko says, shrugging delicately. "It's a common enough technique, and if I may speak for all of us - I think everyone here would be glad to keep you on track for that."
That earns her a glare from Homura.
"It seems like a good way to keep things in check, Sabrina," Mami says with a warm smile. "What conditions would you want to have on Rionna's... revival?"
"I... When we have psychiatric care that can actually help her. Is... is that OK?" you bite your lip, looking around at your friends. "I don't want to make it an indefinite thing, and I want to help her."
"Why not stick her with Airi?" Sayaka asks.
"I don't... well, I thought about it," you admit. "It's something I wanted to ask you guys. With her powers, she'd be difficult to secure, though I'm sure that Miss Tsuruya would be able to secure her appropriately. But I worry that... given Rionna's issues, it might not be good to let her be imprisoned and unable to do anything. If anything, she might just get worse in the meantime."
Mami nods firmly. "I don't think anyone could fault you for preferring to keep her as a Soul Gem for now. You don't intend it to be a permanent solution, after all."
"And it's not a punishment," Oriko murmurs. "That's important."
"Yeah..." Sayaka says, giving Oriko a glare. "I mean, it's not like you're doing it when there's a better option available."
"I..." you make a face. "I'm just... worried."
"Of being a tyrant or something?" Sayaka asks. "Psht, yeah, right. You?"
"We're here," Homura says, folding her hands on her lap.
Mami nods firmly, smiling. "There's no way it could happen, Sabrina," she says. "You're a good person, and... Homura's right. We can keep you on the straight and narrow."
You exhale slowly, and beam at your friends. "Thanks, everyone."
"Aaaand... done!" Kirika proclaims, thrusting the tiny steel band into the air. "Catch!"
She flips the enchanted ring at you. You nearly fumble the catch, too deep in your mutual cuddlepile with Mami to stir easily, but you just manage it. The greasy feel of antimagic slides over your fingers - not directed at you, but it's still not exactly the greatest sensation in the world.
"Sayaka?" you say, leaning forward to hand it to her.
"Yeah, thanks," she says, grabbing the ring and slipping it over Rionna's Soul Gem, relaxing with a happy sigh as she finally lets up on the antimagic pulses. "Ahh."
You stare at the Soul Gem as Sayaka sets it down on the table. Rionna mag Aoidh.
You'll be honest with yourself: You're taking it on yourself to keep her in what amounts to a magically-induced coma. You think it was the right thing to do, and you have the support of your friends, and you intend to help her when you have the facilities to: but you are keeping her under lock and key.
It's your responsibility.
"Oi." Kirika pokes you in the side. "Stop thinking thoughts. Your oujo is right there and she's been worried about you the entire time, pay attention to her."
"I..." you close your eyes and take a breath, giving Kirika a quick grin. "Yeah, you're right. Thanks." You turn an adoring smile on Mami for a moment, who blushes slightly.
"Thank you, everyone," you say, straightening and meeting everyone's eyes in turn. "Homura, Sayaka, Oriko, Kirika, and Mami - thank you all. Without your help, this could have gone so very badly, and... thank you for your advice. This situation has been a mess for me, and I'm grateful for your help."
Mami hugs you closer, pulling back just far enough that you can see her warm smile as she speaks. "You're welcome, Sabrina. I'm glad you're feeling better."
"Ahh, don't worry about it," Sayaka says, waving it off. "Least we could do."
"I'm glad to help," Homura murmurs quietly, violet eyes holding yours for a second.
"Indeed," Oriko says. "I apologise that my earlier warnings were not very specific."
Kirika grins at you. "You're welcome."
You grin back at her for a moment and stand, turning to offer Mami a hand up. She accepts it with a grateful smile, letting you pull her to her feet, and you release her to grab Rionna from the table.
"We won't intrude longer," you tell Oriko as Sayaka and Homura also stand, the former stretching and cracking her neck. "Again, thank you for all this."
"We'll see you out," Oriko says.
And so they do, following you down the corridor as you head out.
You pause at the threshold, turning to glance at Kirika.
"... has it ever occurred to you that we're basically opposites?" you say. "I mean, yes, we're both the mildly braindamaged quirky delinquents to our respective oujos and all, but... look." You point at your face. "White hair, blue eyes." You point at Kirika. "Black hair, orange eyes. Fantastic melee combatant, terrible melee fighter. Silver oujo, gold oujo."
"Platinum, not silver," Kirika chirps, grinning and pulling Oriko close with an arm around her waist. "Good thought, though, never occurred to me before!"
Oriko sighs fondly.
"... oh," Sayaka says, her tone one of dawning, horrified realization. "There's two of them."
Homura lets out a faintly annoyed huff, and you give her a reassuring grin.
"Anyway. Later, Oriko, Kirika," you say, already building a flight platform. A few minutes later, you're airborne, Homura and Sayaka behind you while you snuggle up against Mami, smiling at her.
"Hey, Sabrina, can you drop me off back home?" Sayaka says. "I'll climb back in through the window."
"Yeah, I was planning on doing that anyway," you say. "Homura? Where would you like to get off?"
"Madoka's place," she murmurs quietly.
"Alright," you say. "Sayaka first, then you, alright? It's on the way."
"That's fine," Homura says, glancing at you.
There's not much conversation to be had as you head back, but you're glad to have Mami with you. She's warm and soft, still toying gently with your hair and ears as you soar through the deepening purple of the late evening skies. The wind whips past you, setting Mami's hair fluttering around her face like golden streamers.
It's a beautiful sight.
You've got more calls to make, though.
"Hey, guys? Got a moment?" you cast your thoughts into the aether, reaching out mentally to your other friends and allies. Kyouko, Masami, Hiroko, Noriko, Akemi, and Yuki. "Got a quick update."
"... yo?" Kyouko says.
"What's happening?" Yuki asks, sharp and alert.
"Uh, yeah. Seconded, what's happening?" Masami chimes in, and so does Akemi. You can feel Hiroko and Noriko on the line, too, choosing to let their respective partners speak for them.
"So, uh... There was a magical girl visiting today, one Rionna mag Aoidh." You give them a quick, brief rundown, starting with Rionna's powers, and then a brief summary of your conversation with her and finally, the fact that you took her down. You carefully avoid the how, simply noting that your friends helped.
"So we're currently imprisoning her," you say, hugging Mami a little tighter. A worm of trepidation stirs in your gut, hoping that none of them disapprove. "And I'm hoping to get psychiatric care for her, but... that's a bit in the future."
"Understood," Yuki says. "You could have called for help, but I understand the necessity of striking early and swiftly. Will you need help keeping her under imprisonment?"
"Yeah, she sounds like bad news," Kyouko drawls. "Can't say I'm surprised. That all?"
"Uh, a little bit more," you tell Kyouko. "And, uh, I'm grateful for the offer, but not at the moment, Miss Tsuruya. Umm... Masami, Akemi?"
"Yup, still alive," Masami confirms. "I mean, whatcha want me to say? Good on you for taking her down? Good riddance, if she's that much of a bitch."
"If anything, I'm... glad to know that you're willing to take a strong stance on... this kind of thing, Miss Vee," Akemi says. "It's reassuring, because I feel like the possibility for others like her is likely?"
"Agreed," Yuki says. "It's unlikely she will be the only strong magical girl seeking to strike at you for some purpose or another, Miss Vee."
"Yeah... that's the other thing I wanted to bring up," you admit. You've arrived at Sayaka's place, so you wave at her, exchanging good nights as she hops off. "If my... status brings up other troublemakers like this, then I'll help deal with it."
"I should certainly hope so," Yuki says drily. "But I suspect that was meant for everybody else."
"Ah... as I said, I'm glad, Miss Vee," Akemi says. "Thank you."
"Yeah, yeah," Kyouko snorts. "I'll send 'em your way. Or call for help."
"That, yeah," Masami says. "Thanks."
"Alright. Thanks for listening, everyone, and... thanks for understanding," you say.
"Honestly, she came to your turf and attacked you," Masami says. You can hear the shrug in her words. "Her fault. Bye!"
One after another, the others say their farewells and sign off. You sigh, another bit of tension bleeding away. Mami smiles at you, and you smile back.
"Just letting our allies know about what happened," you tell her.
Mami nods. "Good thinking, Sabrina."
Homura's the next dropoff, violet eyes holding yours for a long moment.
"You did the right thing," Homura murmurs, and steps off the flight platform, letting herself plummet to the ground below. "We'll go... shopping tomorrow. Perhaps in the morning."
"Thanks, Homura," you send to her, already turning back home.
"Hey, Mami?" you say.
"What is it, Sabrina?" she asks, smiling as she traces her fingers along the shell of your ear. It feels nice.
"Thank you," you say. "You've been at my side this entire evening, and your support means everything to me."
"I'll be at your side, Sabrina," Mami says, smiling back. "Always."
"And I'll be at yours," you respond, leaning up to kiss her gently on the cheek. "Has something been bothering you, though? You've been a bit quiet."
Mami's cheeks tinge an adorable, faint pink that you can barely make it out in the glow of the city below. "I've been worried about you, and... I wasn't sure what I could say to make it better. You had to make a difficult decision, and I think you made the right choice, but... I don't know how to make it better."
"You've made it better simply by being here, Mami," you murmur, and cuddle closer, ducking under her arm so that she's hugging you fully. "Thank you."
"Always, Sabrina," she murmurs.
"Let's go home," you say.
"Let's," Mami says, leaning her cheek against the top of your head.
[] Mami
- [x] Ask Mami to examine the flask
- [] Talk to her about the evening
[] Nadia
- [] Vote in abeyance
[] Relax for the evening
[] Something else to cover?
[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
[X] Nadia
-[X] Don't blame her.
--[X] Explain Rionna's apparent motivation and actions. Let her know Rionna is currently detained.
--[X] Discuss how you might want to manage the possible PR issues of this.
--[X] Does Nadia know any therapists or therapy magical girls?
=====
Hm. Meant to cover the Nadia conversation, but this frankly felt like a better spot to break the update.
So I was looking at the google doc for the Iowa group theorizing, and I realized that one more position (which may also be filled by the siege guca or the combat guca) would be someone who (much like She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named) can fill in for an entire army. Not someone who just has the power level of an entire army like Sabrina, but someone who literally has an army. They're the Iowa group. You can't hold an entire state with just a couple extraordinarily powerful people, much like cavalry isn't used to hold ground (okay, technically you might be able to because MAGIC, but it's a lot harder). There just aren't enough of them. Therefore, you need to have someone who has both excessive power levels (like Sabrina), and has the ability to spread out that power (like clone-guca, or she-who-must-not-be-named). Basically, someone who can summon an army. That way, her minions can hold each individual city, town, etc, and the actual Iowa group only needed to come around whenever someone popped up who was tough enough to defeat the minions.
Now that the Iowa group acts as raiders instead of territory holders, the army-guca may have died/witched, causing the change from territory holders to raiders, or she may act as someone who deals with cannon fodder meguca, thus reducing the troubles a small group would otherwise have from being outnumbered.
Possible powers for army-guca:
Shades (it's possible that She-who-must-not-be-named was originally intended to fight us to a stalemate, or at least escape, and then come back as a recurring villain. If so, it might have made sense for her to join the Iowa group, displacing the previous army-guca, thus making her even more dangerous), undead, robots or drones of some sort, horribly mutated living creatures that follow her will, mind controlled meguca, meguca bodies that are being puppeted and can still use their powers, familiars, witches, etc.
Note:this is of course all speculation, but I think the idea that the Iowa group has or had an army-guca should be seriously considered because of their name.
Edit: First! By complete accident, but oh well. Time to actually read the update now.
Mami nods firmly, smiling. "There's no way it could happen, Sabrina," she says. "You're a good person, and... Homura's right. We can keep you on the straight and narrow."
"If anything, I'm... glad to know that you're willing to take a strong stance on... this kind of thing, Miss Vee," Akemi says. "It's reassuring, because I feel like the possibility for others like her is likely?"
"Agreed," Yuki says. "It's unlikely she will be the only strong magical girl seeking to strike at you for some purpose or another, Miss Vee."
