People think that rocket hammers are worth spending updates on. Firn isn't the one preventing Sabrina from being ineffective.

If the majority of the audience of the quest thinks that rocket hammers are worth spending an update on, then they're worth spending an update on. Implicitly and automatically. Because they'd clearly be something that will entertain the readers, and PMAS is a work of fiction primarily read for entertainment.

There are few methods more likely to cause PMAS to sputter to an ignoble death long before the actual conclusion of the story then trying to set aside all aspects of entertainment and make this quest a "maximize utility per limited update slot" simulator.
 
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My minor gripe with Jet Hammers as a concept is that, assuming Sabrina already has grief fog deployed around her (which I believe is basically all the time unless to specifically get new people used to it), and that Sabrina can casually use that fog to swing her hammer, that Jet Hammer better have 10+ Gs of acceleration because we can probably already grief-hand-swing that fast already. If we have even 5 minutes warning for combat, we can probably make our wings in time to dramatically boost our mobility, so we don't really need the Jets to help with that. Unless it can do even more bullshit things than on the spot movement vector redirection.

On top of that, it has to be more powerful than grief nanoblades, which we can quite easily fill our sphere full of them, and doesn't even need much speed for them to do damage in the mid range, and be more powerful than lasers which, while have some collateral damage issues, a low powered one can still decently fuck with someone at light speed.

Sticking nanoblades on our hammers kinda seems like a much easier way to get increased damage out of them, if we really need it.

Unless there's some super secret property about the hammers Firn hasn't told us about that does weird magical shit.

Right now, all they can really do is be a force-multiplied blunt impact tool. I guess we can use it as a crowbar with that spike, but not much else. Maybe there's something the hammers can do that's more related to our wish about grief, than straight up combat stuff. Because grief can kinda already punch things really hard. Sure it requires a bit more effort, but its not as if it requires more glucose to burn.

Honestly, off the top of my head, only Mami and Homura come to mind with their "weapons" being directly related to their wish. Sayaka's canon Healing to ... exploding chain cutlasses??? Everyone else just has their magic do it, with weapons being more of a character theme thing. So if Sayaka needed to do some major magical thing in line with her wish, her swords probably wouldn't help much, unlike Homura, whose Shield's really major purpose is what her Wish wanted to do, along with a few extra like storage.

This was all stream of consciousness, I apologize for the rambling.

So in short: I don't think we really need more combat options, at least in the short term. Facing off against Feathers would probably require whole new fields of bullshit. Whether the Hammer can assist with or do new magical stuff in regards to seeds or something would probably be more useful, if it can even be done (see, Sayaka). Something conceptual in regards to breaking things?

PS:Can we crowbar things?
 
@Vebyast - is the hammer more fun as used below?

I'd say it's more an emergency option in case of SUDDEN SPEEDSTER IN YOUR FACE and such.
I have a proposal below. Our fastest no-sale defense should involve 4-D manipulation.
We specifically need to interact with Yukariguca, as she is in Homura's list of gucas to recruit for Walpurgisnacht.
Alternatively, we could invite Yukariguca and make her come over to Mitakihara on our behalf. We could tempt her with promises of leeting her play the post 2011 Touhou games, which we can totally make with Grief. :V
Un-ironic Full Approval. This should actually work well. Win by granting wishes.

There is a very persuasive development path for our martial training. From maybe 2 meters to approx 50 meters, our Grief has served us quite well. We have one top-ranked capacity. Fill in our weak spots. It is that simple. We have three. (1) Reaction speed for infighting / melee. (2) Selective damage at long range. (3) More non-lethal finishers.

Given our premium on submission fighting, the first order of business is to incorporate anti-magic enchantment into our arsenal and our style. It should be used as a mundane magic trick, the fruit of misdirection and tactical maneuvering. Maybe we should have a dust vial, or flechettes, any micro-projectile to anchor it. We need to practice this with our friends, to make it available as a combo move.
The other important principle is to learn ways to subdue less determined foes without gemming, and for that we need "movie" Aikido and lots of practice. Joint locks work if both fighters are in the same class, and even without severe pain, joint locks take morale away quickly. Along the way to that goal, we can learn many trickster moves that render a fight futile. We don't always fight one-on-one, so we need to be able entertain a crowd.

The key to becoming as wildly unpredictable in-character as we are in thread, is proper use of 4-D space. Everyone we fight is used to "how magic works." Simple kinetic deployment of unreasonable physical materials can upset that logic in profitable ways. Would a truck full of driveway sealer aerosolized over a fight scene end the fight when every girl gets tarred? If it didn't, would it not grant us a Fireball spell equal to our "level?" Kyouko has a Chain Barrier. Would a few hundred meters of steel cable, tangled in a loose mass and enchanted beforehand, help control the enemies movement? Particularly if it apports all around them? Pulling bulk materials out of storage can let us forge a variety of effects.

Our long range option is where the hammer finally becomes useful! Useful, in an EMIYA sort of way... If we formed our hammer, but kept modifying it until we had a head-and-shaft projectile of lesser size, it would make a fine - ammunition - that we could fire with basic Grief. The point of that would go beyond moving the hammer. I assume we could always level up to throw the hammer, and have it track in mid flight using magic alone. By itself, only a little more useful.
If we bring Grief to the party, we could start to - ionize - the hammer, and store vast energy in the shell of plasma streaking after it. Essentially, this would let us tame Prima Luce for small unit fights, turning it into a piloted plasma beam. From the outside, no complex appearance, just chuuni laser blast, big thunder. Sabrina's version of Broken Phantasm. Knocking over buildings at artillery range is the upper bound we would look for. The minimum goal is a beam about three centimeters wide from a kilometer.

Reaction speed is either about transhuman modification, or practicing more, more and more. That, or in a few years Homura will be much better at enchantment, granting us a Booster item. In the here-and-now, we should try to have a simple reflex game we can play over and over with Magical Girls, not sparring, just a race. Pinfinger might not be ideal, let's invent another one?
 
Joint locks work if both fighters are in the same class, and even without severe pain, joint locks take morale away quickly. Along the way to that goal, we can learn many trickster moves that render a fight futile. We don't always fight one-on-one, so we need to be able entertain a crowd.
Would a few hundred meters of steel cable, tangled in a loose mass and enchanted beforehand, help control the enemies movement? Particularly if it apports all around them? Pulling bulk materials out of storage can let us forge a variety of effects.
Can't we just do all of this with grief? Grief pseudo limbs, enchanted grief, etc. Keep grief in 4D if we need a surprise, unless people noticing it is really that big of a problem.

Rail-gunning our hammer is certainly an option, but that seems to be equally dangerous as a medium laser, just with over penetration problems instead of blinding and burning. Though I guess we do kinda lack an ally-safe ranged option, so "just" a supersonic hammer would probably be nice.

Again though, in terms of meguca combat I think we have it all covered, whether our hammer has any interesting magical properties would be, for me, something a bit unexplored.
 
So, what's our schedule for tommorow looking like?

• Start looking for a therapist (IMPORTANT!)


Am I missing anything vital?
Agreed. There are places we could walk into, and get some information / appointments set for us to bring advanced familiarity to the meeting with the Shizuki's. We may need their help to close a deal, but there is no deal if we don't move it forward. Inside of two hours we could do reconnaissance at two locations, get all the office directory names, hear some gossip, maybe find a patient our apparent age to talk with. Some patients are probably potentials, come to think about it. Further, we can get a request for info cooking with the Miles_Gloriosus folks. Find an American or two looking for adventures in therapy. Anon always delivers, right?

Can't we just do all of this with grief? Grief pseudo limbs, enchanted grief, etc. Keep grief in 4D if we need a surprise, unless people noticing it is really that big of a problem.

Rail-gunning our hammer is certainly an option, but that seems to be equally dangerous as a medium laser, just with over penetration problems instead of blinding and burning. Though I guess we do kinda lack an ally-safe ranged option, so "just" a supersonic hammer would probably be nice.

Again though, in terms of meguca combat I think we have it all covered, whether our hammer has any interesting magical properties would be, for me, something a bit unexplored.
Grief is indeed a splendorous thing.

Effective weapons in pitched battle are dangerous - a good reason to negotiate well!

Some people expect base level communication. For that person, an arm-bar delivered in the up close wrestling tradition is more likely to get the message to stick. There could also be an altercation we could deescalate, if we could solve it without everyone unholstering their magic. Real martial arts are not a handicap in some other way?

When we can't negotiate, over penetration is a secondary concern, girls are trying to kill us. Shoot properly, if we must. Using smaller faster attacks might make it "safer" for them, too. In use, the current laser is "an explosive." AoE damage. A smaller railgun or plasma discharge takes out less area during the blast. Instantly more deployable in human environments.

Some fights we want to win without showing them the Grief. We should fill in that gap between with "dirty" tricks.

We have a mission and loved ones, our safety is important. Thus, winning by a landslide is important, and we should keep that happening. Prevent the leakage of information. I'd be ROFL'ng if we could assemble a legend of our conflicts, where every story about Sabrina tells about how she won using a different power. As our legend grows, I hope that at least a few of the people we fight will listen after we hit them with the rubber chicken, knowing that we are exercising restraint. Think about the swordsman who can win duels with just a stick.

The idea underlying any of this planning is to outgrow our range limit and have alternatives. We cannot snipe using Grief alone, nor can we leave deadfalls. Grief is not permanent without us in range. If we want to detain someone and walk a bit away, perhaps on a battlefield, Grief is a tether. A pile of scrap metal will remain on top of whoever earned it for a spell. In pitched battle, sometimes hampering the opponent is just as deadly as finishing them. That applies to us as well. The ability to slime someone instantly and switch to a different location, or to do it from a half click away is a true upgrade. "Ramiel" girl was a bad match for us, even though it was our win. We should avoid getting pushed hard like that again. Parity is important, but not the end state. Let's go beyond that and be able to surprise any opponent. Only by having an ability to end combat on our terms can we protect our agenda. If they want to stop by talking, that's almost a win. If they don't, we can only get back to talking after they lose the freedom to choose violence. Match fighting isn't on my mind, putting multiple hostile girls from their offensive initiative position into custody simultaneously with minimum risk is more like it.

Options are what a human needs to overcome the future. In the world view, we will be fighting for months or years until the pace settles down. But everyone we fight is also one of our citizens. Those who capitulate to a mighty firehose blast might be easier to pacify later, as opposed to the ones we PTSD by bodykill. They make the choice, it is my answer to say we should have plenty of those choices.

Mami invented a gun upgrade, we should learn a pro-speed gun upgrade of our own.
Research 4-D as a combat drop, and we can baffle, distract, and win using our thinking to an even greater degree. It should be fun. It will be useful.
 
Does the timeskip mean we won't get to fight Iowa? I was looking forward to that.

In regards to getting us as much power as possible before the timeskip, I would suggest:
-Speckled enchantments. Simple to make, can do tons of stuff, and won't go away as long as we keep them on us. We could have some that boost reaction time, and some that boost melee. That covers one of our weaknesses pretty handily (reaction time/melee).
-Antimagic enchantments. Fletchets can be thrown at megucas outside of our range using grief. It's the same principle as grief railguns, I think. The difference is that fletchets should have less chance of overpenetration, and can be antimagic enchanted. They'll stick in a meguca, and stop her magic for a bit. The meguca can easily yank them out once the fletchets hit, but if we're firing dozens of them at the meguca it makes for an effective way to keep her on the defensive, and it would temporarily negate any powers she had that would prevent us from closing the distance into grief range. That fills in another weakness we have (range).
-More antimagic. This was in my first post on this thread. Antimagic duct tape from 4D space would allow us to instantly take away a meguca's magic. That gives us a non-gemming option for instantly incapacitating someone (when combined with grief manacles), and I think it would be even faster than gemming. Conveniently, that also covers our 3rd major weakness (needing more nonlethal takedowns).

Also remember, we could probably have Kirika and a SayaClone pump out tons of this stuff over timeskip.
 
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Have we already talked about the best way to make bodies for dewitching? There's Niko, of course, and Anri. But I can't help but notice we've got an ally right here in Mitakihara who has two bodies already. Seems like her wish is probably a good fit for making more bodies, yes?
 
Weren't the Soujus suppose to show up? Though regarding Jet Hammer, I only brought it up because "Easy Unlock" and "More Non-Grief Options". Should be easy enough to ask Kyouko if Sabrina could learn Weapon Shenanigans like her. If not, then there's little reason to actively do much besides general melee refinement. Still, it would barely take long to unlock, and even "No Shenanigans" / "Very Situational" Jet Mode would still have earned its keep.
 
If the majority of the audience of the quest thinks that rocket hammers are worth spending an update on, then they're worth spending an update on. Implicitly and automatically. Because they'd clearly be something that will entertain the readers, and PMAS is a work of fiction primarily read for entertainment.

There are few methods more likely to cause PMAS to sputter to an ignoble death long before the actual conclusion of the story then trying to set aside all aspects of entertainment and make this quest a "maximize utility per limited update slot" simulator.
I'd say there's no wrong ways to enjoy something (within SV rules :p ). The quest can be enjoyed as a puzzle to be solved, as a slice of life game, as a SCIENCE! simulator... all ways matter.

A thought you brought to my mind, the (supposed*) goal of the game is to break/fix something. That is, a goal within the story/game; the enjoyment of the story itself clearly comes first, in every way it can be enjoyed.

*We really kind were just dumped withot instructives or mission statements. :V Hints are hints, but it's really us who set us up goals.

My minor gripe with Jet Hammers as a concept is that, assuming Sabrina already has grief fog deployed around her (which I believe is basically all the time unless to specifically get new people used to it), and that Sabrina can casually use that fog to swing her hammer, that Jet Hammer better have 10+ Gs of acceleration because we can probably already grief-hand-swing that fast already. If we have even 5 minutes warning for combat, we can probably make our wings in time to dramatically boost our mobility, so we don't really need the Jets to help with that. Unless it can do even more bullshit things than on the spot movement vector redirection.
The only real advantadge of the Hammer (outside depowerment situations), I think, is that it's quick, comes with instincts (that can be improved through practice) and is just simply magically strong.

Our hammer is basically our A punch button. Our quick reaction against surprise. It's basically our knife in our sleeve, while we're the slow casting mage type.

If we put aside the coolness factor, the only reasons I could see for developing Jet Hammer would be:

If, as you say, it lets us punch some really really fucking fast.

If it gives us necessary extra options in certain conditions (like being depowered; or fighting against something that simultaneously wouldn't be fazed by physics based attacks and wouldn't allow us the time to deplot Grief Hax).

We probably could just check whether we can Jet Hammer for fun during team practice. And then if it works we can ask Mami whether it would be worth practicing. She'll know better.

In regards to getting us as much power as possible before the timeskip, I would suggest:
I think, rather than before... all these things, are they things that require being explained in detail? Do we really need to read "you try this and then this and that doesn't work so you shift this..." ad nauseum?

Wouldn't be easier to have those things happen during timeskip? "You spend some time figuring out which speckled enchantments you can make -turns out they last X time, so you know carry Y, Z, and W around. Also you get some Anti Magic enchants from Kirika."

I think that'd work just as well?
 
We should spar with Sayaka while Kyouko watches.

Sayaka: *levels sword* The student has now become the master.
Sabrina: Strike me down and I shall become more powerful then you can imagine.
Kyouko: START FIGHTING YOU FUCKING NERDS
 
Though they didn't so much remake Michiru's aka Kazumi's body, and more made Witch Girls in her image. They seemed, sure, they could include Satomi to their list however. So how much they all actually contributed is unclear.

I still think we could convincingly enough get Kazumi XIII made, because I like the poor girl and Sabrina needs clone bodies or Witch Girls developed anyways. Regarding the latter, I'm thinking getting a Clear Seed to synchronize with a Witch Girl puppet would be easier than outright Dewitching.
 
So if we have Niko help and several Sayaka clones we could reproduce the process?

Edit: I mean if we talk with Sayaka about the Witchbomb, if the thread does not want to do tell her, forget my Idea.
That's still Sayaka's decision to make.

But BTW, I forgot, but the Kazumi series clones were also made using this plot point I think... Saki Umika named a "Cor Maleficus", the 'core' of a Witch (Kazumi's, in this case) that has its own will to live; this is what allows the Kazumi clones to exist and keep existing.

BTW, the Cor Maleficus might very well be the 'core' of the Witch we can feel with Grief powers in Witches.

So... if we can use a Witch's core, we could probably reproduce the cloning process with a lot of work and help.

Mind, there were lots of trouble for the Pleiades; the Kazumi clones tended to become monsters as soon as they got back into fights and magic; they interpreted this as "Kazumi's Will" or something, which I took to mean Kazumi, having become a Witch, did not want to keep on living.

Though a point to be noted is that Kazumi's (warped or something) Grief Seed is unknowingly being carried around by Kazumi XIII during the manga, and that Kazumi can and does take control of Kazumi XIII during times of duress, doing things like forcing her to transform or move in combat, or using the collective magics all the Pleiades poured into Kazumi XIII to cast spells, like Umika's signature magic shield/book/thing? (A defensive spell, at any rate). I think she also casts Kaoru's physical enhancement magic, too..

FAKE EDIT: Found the relevant page.
 
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By... using all the powers from all the different Pleiades.

Something like that.
All the powers presumably includes Umika. Were they drawing from their own memories to provide the template or Kazumi's? If the former, their process might not work for girls that nobody alive knew before witching out. If that's the case, my vote's for asexual reproduction. Take a cutting from Sabrina for Rin to grow a new Sabrina from.
 
Were they drawing from their own memories to provide the template or Kazumi's?
I... think they might have? I don't know if memory or deja vu, it's been a while since I read this thing.

Though Umika's X File lets her read... someone's past or something something... so shouldn't that be enough...?

Ugh, I don't want to re-read this thing. >_>
 
I'm unsure if I said this in the past, but making Witch Girls would actually help Sabrina a lot. Kazumi XIII was able to partially restore Anri more or less by accident & instinct. Refine and focus on that, and Sabrina can create a Sorceress-producing task force.

Witch Girl Puppets, to clarify, would be intended as a Witch's equivalent to a Magical Girl's meatsuit: Inherently lacking intelligence other than the soul rock controlling it.

If we wanna be really crazy though, attempting to make Witch Girls of Sabrina could work. Between their inherited Grief Manipulation from "Big Sis Brina" and a Witch Girl's dewitching capabilities, they could probably pull it off easier than Sabrina herself.

EDIT: Oh god, Sabrinas, Sabrinas everywhere... "Hi, I'm Sabrina!" "I'm also Sabrina!" "No fair, I wanted to be Sabrina too!" "W-what-" "Oh don't mind her, she's new." "Yup, practically born yesterday..." "I was born yesterday!" "Hahahaha!" "D-dangit..."
 
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BTW, the Cor Maleficus might very well be the 'core' of the Witch we can feel with Grief powers in Witches.

So... if we can use a Witch's core, we could probably reproduce the cloning process with a lot of work and help.
Hmmm.... Grief Seed and Soul Gems....

1. I'd prefer not to drabble on clones, as that'd probably make them a different person (just like Hijiri is a different person from Niko for all their similarities): just making a dewitched clone of a grief seed wouldn't be a true solution as the original would still be a witch.

2. But that's just making a body, right? Theoretically, could a dedicated healer make a new body for a magical girl without a body/gemmed?
 
There's nothing with making Witch Girls with the goal of being actual individuals (because Kazumi XIII), and creating Puppet versions akin to a Meguca's own body lets us effectively make Sorceresses. Thus, a decent starting point since now they can actually people and even with True Dewitching they'll probably mental help anyways.
 
Hmmm.... Grief Seed and Soul Gems....

1. I'd prefer not to drabble on clones, as that'd probably make them a different person (just like Hijiri is a different person from Niko for all their similarities): just making a dewitched clone of a grief seed wouldn't be a true solution as the original would still be a witch.

2. But that's just making a body, right? Theoretically, could a dedicated healer make a new body for a magical girl without a body/gemmed?
Well... Kazumi XIII was also a different person than Kazumi. So not our end goal, no.

In the page I posted up there, it says that it was actually Niko who made the body. The Pleiades' magic just... gives it life. But the body maker is Niko, who's natural magic is clones, to start with.

Clones and body modification.
 
1. I'd prefer not to drabble on clones, as that'd probably make them a different person (just like Hijiri is a different person from Niko for all their similarities): just making a dewitched clone of a grief seed wouldn't be a true solution as the original would still be a witch.
There lies my problem, what is the thread plan toward dewitching? I mean the Witch would require her original body, so would it be created by the Grief Seed? Would the girl remember the memories of being a Witch in a constant state of despair? How would the girl cope if somehow the girl did really bad stuff as a Witch?

Or are we hoping the girl will conveniently forget the time as a witch and just remember everything before witching-out?

Giving the girls a new life seems more gentle IMO.
 
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There lies my problem, what is the thread plan toward dewitching? I mean the Witch would require her original body, so would it be created by the Grief Seed? Would the girl remember the memories of being a Witch in a constant state of despair? How would the girl cope if somehow the girl did really bad stuff as a Witch?

Or are we hoping the girl will conveniently forget the time as a witch and just remember everything before witching-out?

Giving the girls a new life seems more gentle IMO.
Umika can rewrite memories... though it doesn't seem to work too perfectly on Kazumi XIII, she does successfully edit the memories of some muggles who got (temporarily) turned into monsters during the Kazumi manga.

Don't know if they reverted to normal on their own, or that was also the Pleiades' doing, though. :thonk:
 
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