- Location
- Somewhere up the tree
it should all be in sabrinas day planner
Puella Magi Adfligo Systema
- Thread starter Firnagzen
- Start date
-
- Tags
- puella magi adfligo systema puella magi madoka magica be gay do crimes (gay) female protagonist bad decisions dating mami tomoe (tomoe mami) diabolical laughter friendship is the best ship handholding identity crises microwaving tea gets you put in the bad place names are important the body is the fursona of the soul this is not the baked goods thread we don't talk about rionna what could possibly go wrong? who in the world is azure sanfrancisco?
blast flame
How far will we go if it means lighting the way?
- Location
- Perth, Australia
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X]Redshirt Army
- Location
- Somewhere up the tree
i think we should really work with the saints on trying to get juubey up and running and work out the bugs. including the fact its not true cleansing, the instability of his body, and the fact that aparently they would cause some problems for us
and it would be a long term goal. but the sooner we manage to create a substitute for the incubators, the sooner we will never have to interact with that mutant cabbit ever again.
still really weirded out by what problem juubey might have with sabrina, oriko said it would be because they are "emotional" but isn't like the problem with incubators that they're not emotional in any way? that they dont feel or give a damn about human suffering?
and it would be a long term goal. but the sooner we manage to create a substitute for the incubators, the sooner we will never have to interact with that mutant cabbit ever again.
still really weirded out by what problem juubey might have with sabrina, oriko said it would be because they are "emotional" but isn't like the problem with incubators that they're not emotional in any way? that they dont feel or give a damn about human suffering?
- Location
- Not the asylum anymore
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I'm personally of the opinion that the Incubators do experience emotion on some level, but since their society considers it a mental disorder, they're repressing like fuck. Coobie has at least two emotional outbursts that I can think of: the one we're familiar with exclaiming "But muh karmic destiny!" [sic] after Madoka's canon final wish, and the entire damn hivemind yelling out "But I don't understand!" as one after Madokami derails their witch experiments in Rebellion, immediately before Homura goes off the deep end. Juubey is probably "emotional" because it's not connected to the hivemind, and it hasn't been raised in the Incubator culture. (Also, it's more or less a reanimated corpse.)
Now, I also happen to advocate making Juubey- not for cleansing, but for telepathy and grief disposal. Both will be vital if we want to stop relying on QB so much. Theoretically being able to make contracts, or access the vast repository or knowledge the Incubators must have, is just a bonus.
- Location
- Somewhere up the tree
i believe that having him able to help with cleansing would be a big help, due to grief kinesis and such. it would be a boon to be able to have something that can help store grief and dispose of it in a way that doesnt require the clear seeds, cause once our lazarus experiments into dewitching pays off we are going to need something else to take their place that can fullfill the same function. and even if we manage to create grief cubes it still leaves the issue that sabrina is going to have to create every single one of them and manually empty them out, and we've seen in the anime that grief cubes can hold a lot less than grief seeds, seeing as it took several for homura to do a single cleansing. so they are not the ideal solution
the thought of having a telepathy network that we dont have to worry about falling into the cabbits hands as well as having an "inside man" is also invaluable and not something i thought of initially
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AuraTwilight
The Sorcerer of Smiles
- Location
- The Silver City
I mean to be fair both of those situations involved Kyubey being a Lovecraft Protagonist in that he sees the ascension of a newborn god with values antithetical to everything he and his culture has ever worked for, which he has no leverage, recourse, protection, or hope or resisting, and can only submit to what's coming to him.
Of course he'd go insane.
- Location
- Somewhere up the tree
doesn't help that he also was directly responsible for the birth of said god
which I guess would make hubris his heroic (demonic) flaw?
- Location
- Not the asylum anymore
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Really, coobie, Madoka, Homura, and Sabrina are all guilty of hubris, at least in the Greek sense. The bunnycat seeks to defy thermodynamics. Homura seeks to defy causality, and could have sought to defy the Law of Cycles. Madoka sought and Sabrina currently seeks to defy karmic destiny itself. All of these are fundamental aspects of the universe. And yet, we're going against them anyway.
If we're looking at Kyubey as a protagonist, I envisioned something little different than Lovecraft:
"Long ago, in a distant land, I, Madoka, the bow-wielding goddess of hope, unleashed a benevolent wish. But, a foolish Incubator wielding sufficiently advanced technology, stepped forth to oppose me. Before the final blow was struck, I changed reality, and flung us into a new world, where my wish is law. Now the fool seeks to return to the old world, and undo the world that is Madoka."
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DB_Explorer
Purveyor of alternate realities.
- Location
- San Diego, California
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Sabrina: ... Behold the field where I grow my cares about karmic density!
Sayaka: ... ummm thats a parking lot
Sabrina: Exactly.
blast flame
How far will we go if it means lighting the way?
- Location
- Perth, Australia
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Yeah, I'm not particularly fond of greek Hubris as a concept at all. The world should be changed for the better and all of the characters mentioned want to make a change I agree with (not with Kyubey's monstrous methods of course in his case but the prospect of the heat death of the universe has kept me up at night before).
I think Kyubey's fatal flaw might actually be his lack of curiosity (or a rational decision to act curiously in absence of the emotion). He berates Homura for trying to learn the truth about the labyrinth ... but without knowing the truth how would she know it wasn't hiding something dangerous to her or her friends? Choosing to stay ignorant to stay happy, or in Kyubey's case avoid expending resources unnecessarily, is not generally a rational course of action.
And this came to bite Kyubey in the ass when it came to his understanding of human psychology. It's very clear that by not seeing Madoka's world changing wish as a possibility (if a small one) or Homura just burning down her Labyrinth with herself in it out of spite that Kyubey does not understand human psychology. He's had over 10 000 years to learn but all he understands is a series of manipulations he can perform on girls to try and get them to contract or witch out. He's just gone for the knowledge of psychology that immediately benefits him, ignored the rest and that blinded him to a truth that was dangerous to him - he chose to stay "happy" and ignorant to his own downfall.
Basically Kyubey is that short sighted politician trying to defund all theoretical research because they can only understand the benefit of applied research with immediate applications.
I think Kyubey's fatal flaw might actually be his lack of curiosity (or a rational decision to act curiously in absence of the emotion). He berates Homura for trying to learn the truth about the labyrinth ... but without knowing the truth how would she know it wasn't hiding something dangerous to her or her friends? Choosing to stay ignorant to stay happy, or in Kyubey's case avoid expending resources unnecessarily, is not generally a rational course of action.
And this came to bite Kyubey in the ass when it came to his understanding of human psychology. It's very clear that by not seeing Madoka's world changing wish as a possibility (if a small one) or Homura just burning down her Labyrinth with herself in it out of spite that Kyubey does not understand human psychology. He's had over 10 000 years to learn but all he understands is a series of manipulations he can perform on girls to try and get them to contract or witch out. He's just gone for the knowledge of psychology that immediately benefits him, ignored the rest and that blinded him to a truth that was dangerous to him - he chose to stay "happy" and ignorant to his own downfall.
Basically Kyubey is that short sighted politician trying to defund all theoretical research because they can only understand the benefit of applied research with immediate applications.
I'd have said that if anything Kyubey is too curious, or maybe just not cautious enough. He actually lets Madoka make a wish even though he does not know what will happen aside from making lots of energy. He never tries to kill Homura when she's clearly an anomaly who is potentially dangerous to him.
Of course one could also say his extremely passive approach is about energy conservation, since he just saves up so much with those disposable, fully recyclable bodies and rarely ever deploys anything else. Since his job is to generate surplus cutting costs is seen as natural to him.
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- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
Warning: Loud
> Sayaka's reaction when she copies some really dumb bullshit power
Came up on a Discord I'm on and I thought it'd be appreciated here.
> Sayaka's reaction when she copies some really dumb bullshit power
Came up on a Discord I'm on and I thought it'd be appreciated here.
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- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
Put up a loudness warning. That said, it's a joke, it's supposed to be over-the-top.
- Location
- Not the asylum anymore
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Having read about King Crimson, i can fully empathize with Sayaka here. I can grok most forms of temporal paradox- you kinda have to, going into PMAS- but "Time Erasure"? What the fuck does that even imply? And how can you do things in erased time? It's erased! It doesn't exist, you can't do things in a time frame you wiped from existence, AGH!
Okay, okay, I'm good, I'm good.
Okay, okay, I'm good, I'm good.
AuraTwilight
The Sorcerer of Smiles
- Location
- The Silver City
- Location
- USA, Midworld world line
I trend to this interpretation. Odds are, Kyuubey is an application-specific existence, built just to do what we see. It would make sense for the Elder Ones to use a sub-set of themselves to create an agent with more ability than their natural form, and less possibility to become an independent threat to themselves. Kyuubey may not even know about them. So part of what might be missing (from our perspective) is a normal drive for survival.
The other broad concept is that Kyuubey has been blunted by it's rationality. It has millions of successful transactions stored in its hivemind, and for the entire scope of human existence, it has done as it pleased. Most problems are solved by waiting for entropy to drag the anomaly girl down. Sometimes, there is a slight inefficiency, such as a Witch of prodigious power. But these costs are offset by the precious learning that the hivemind gains. We think our victory is probable. Kyuubey has many memories that tell him our victory is impossible. Much like the experience of predators confined in a deep moat, the Incubator system is both passive and overwhelming.
If Kyuubey has any active goal, it is likely "to not contaminate the observation." If it understands humans through Big Data alone, the most prudent step is to keep his human subjects inside the known variability. That maximizes the ability to predict our future. Think of it like a chess player who sticks to book openings. Interacting too much could create "feedback," and maybe it never decided to make a more complex theory-of-mind emulator to handle that. Note, that while handling Mami, she was in an entirely passive role. No matter how much interaction it had with her, it had iron control. Kyuubey probably rates as "unknown" the influence it has over us, I'll bet. That means passive is the best way for it to play.
The head-scratcher from a broad view is, why only one Earth? Kyuubey seems like a darn strong AI optimizer. Given the best resource is humanity, and Kyuubey / the creators of Kyuubey are type-whatever on the civilization scale, why don't they farm us more? It seems inescapable that we lack some understanding, or the Incubator lacks a few marbles.
AuraTwilight
The Sorcerer of Smiles
- Location
- The Silver City
Well, what exactly do you mean by this? Because the Incubators are also farming alien worlds.
- Location
- Somewhere up the tree
few things here.
earth is simply the most profitable planet. any other planet farmer will have lower efficiency than earth
they actually are farming other worlds, just not to the same degree
the reason they don't farm us even more (ergo: make more magical girls) is because kyouko is right about the food chain thing. there are ay least tens of thousands of magical girls, there need to be much fewer magical girls than witches in order for the system to work, and there needs to me a lot fewer witches than civilians. as anyone with ecology background would know, an introduction of an animal that consumes a material (be it with deer rating grass, wolves eating deer, birds eating fish, spiders eating insects) overpopulation can occur, which will cause them to quickly burn through their food source, in turn causing mass die off due to starvation. it is likely that if kyubey were to up the percentage of magical girls in the general population, then the ecological stability of earth would be disrupted and a mass die off of humanity would ensue, leading to an end of incubator activity on earth because they can't farm us anymore due to our pitiful numbers
- Location
- USA, Midworld world line
The "more" an amazingly advanced technology might execute is spreading their best livestock on other worlds. Both for multiplicative gains, and much greater long-term stability. By the time one can freely cross interstellar space, terraforming should be uncomplicated. Why stop with just one farm? Heck, even humans can figure that much out, in our own microcosm.
Is this a cognitive limit within Kyuubey manifesting?
There was so much history before Madoka, and no mention that she was "expected," which makes me feel the Incubators plan to counter entropy on a continuous basis. Human girls are the best fuel for the machine. The system to stop entropy would be designed on a cosmic time scale. One world being boosted to amazing capacity isn't a great bet on that interval - but a few thousand in several different galaxies is much more like it.
I'm just following the line of thought all the way, for fun.
Is this a cognitive limit within Kyuubey manifesting?
There was so much history before Madoka, and no mention that she was "expected," which makes me feel the Incubators plan to counter entropy on a continuous basis. Human girls are the best fuel for the machine. The system to stop entropy would be designed on a cosmic time scale. One world being boosted to amazing capacity isn't a great bet on that interval - but a few thousand in several different galaxies is much more like it.
I'm just following the line of thought all the way, for fun.
Agreed, the IRL example being spider silk. Spiders have always made it, we can harvest it, but there are so many limiting factors to spider populations that farming spiders could never become practical. Biology says 'no.' It is much, much easier to develop a new branch of technology to gain the chemicals required, than to try collecting natural drop line silk.
AuraTwilight
The Sorcerer of Smiles
- Location
- The Silver City
...Like I said, Kyubey is harvesting energy from every emotional species in the universe. This is known. What exactly is your point?
Nova Prospekt pt. 22
"Iiiiit sounds like I should meet Chiyoda and discuss things with them sometime over the next few days," you say slowly, taking another sip of your coffee. "She doesn't absolutely call the shots, but she does have a lot of say, right?"
Kurenai nods equally slowly, swirling the remains of her expresso about the cup. "If you can convince her of your cause, most... should fall into line. She has been reticent on the matter."
"Right," you say. "I... might ask you for a telepathic introduction sometime, if that's alright? And in the meantime, can I get her phone... ah, dang. Uhh, SMS should still be fine?" You pull out your phone, waving it at her.
"Ah, you don't have a smartphone?" Kurenai says, peering at your flip phone. "SMS won't be a problem. Here, let me enter it for you..."
"Oh, uh..." you say, rubbing your nose sheepishly. "Could I get contacts for the other groups here in Tokyo, too? Especially the belligerent ones? I'll probably try and get in touch with them, address their concerns and hopefully calm them down?"
"Sure," Kurenai says, holding her hand out for your phone. You pass it over, and she pulls her own phone out, setting it on the table and referring to it as she starts typing.
Sayaka snickers abruptly and turns to you, grinning widely.
"What would Mami think, Sabrina?" Sayaka asks. "Getting numbers from girls you just met?"
"Sayaka!" you complain, elbowing her and failing to suppress your blush. "Besides, she knows that I'm hers."
You shake your head, making a mental note to be extra sappy when you next see Mami. It's only right and proper, after all. Yuri catches your eye, smirking and giving you a discreet thumbsup. And so is Haruki, come to that, while Kurenai looks faintly put out. Terumi just looks confused, but happy.
"Oh, hey," Sayaka says. "Do you guys know where that, uh... whatshername? Sabrina, the Tokyo girl you met in Sendai?"
"Miss Ueda? Ueda Noa?" Kurenai says, her attention flicking up from the phones. "I assume, anyway - she was the one who brought back news from Sendai about your offer, Miss Vee?"
"Yeah, that's her," you agree. "What's your question, Sayaka?"
"Which group is she from, how did she present the news, what's their stance on it, that kind of thing?" Sayaka asks.
"Ah," Kurenai says. She frowns, thinking about it for a moment. "She was actually quite clinical about it. I think she was still somewhat stunned at the time, really." She quirks an eyebrow at you. "Perhaps too clinical, actually. That said, her group -Ōkubo, in Shinjuku- seem to be quite whole-heartedly for your proposal."
"Right, that's good to know," you say, nodding.
"What do you mean, too clinical?" Sayaka asks.
"It means that an offer like that is simultaneously too good to be true and too disruptive to easily condone," Haruki says. "Imagine if aliens came in to the UN promising free... I dunno, free energy for everyone."
"Essentially, yes," Kurenai says, gesturing at Haruki.
"Ah. Of course. And of course there's discontent about not wanting 'the wrong type' to get it and wanting to be first and all that. Of course," Sayaka says. She makes a disgusted face, and knocks back the rest of her milkshake before blinking, apparently thinking of something. But she just shakes her head, keeping it to herself.
"It's human nature," Haruki opines.
Terumi looks down at her lap. You don't have to be an empath to read her mood, either, and you're not the only one to notice. Yuri reaches out to ruffle her hair gently.
"I'll make it work," you promise quietly. You lean forward, your eyes boring into Kurenai and Terumi and Yuri and, yes, Haruki. "There is a way forward, some way for all of us to be better than this. Better than the crab bucket, better than this fear and have to scrabble just to survive"
"I wish you luck," Kurenai says. She puts her phone back into her pocket, handing yours back. "The group representatives, Miss Vee. I labeled them all 'Tokyo - group name - name', just for clarity."
"Ah, that's a good idea, thank you," you say, scrolling through your list of contacts, which Kurenai's additions have more than doubled. "Thank you."
"You are very welcome, Miss Vee," Kurenai says, and smiles faintly. "As I said, I wish you luck, and hope you succeed."
"I will. It's why I'm here," you say. "Sayaka, do you have any questions or... ah, do you have any questions for me, Miss Nakahara? I realise I've been monopolizing a lot of your time with my questions."
"Your questions have themselves been informative," Kurenai says with a smile. "I'm glad to know that you intend to at least try to work with the existing groups."
"... I don't have that bad a reputation, do I?" you ask. "I guess I was a bit heavy-handed in Sendai..."
"Not at all," Kurenai says. "Quite the opposite, actually, but in many ways you seem too good to be true. I'm sure you've heard that one before."
"Yeah, I... guess I can see that," you agree. "Still. Any questions?"
"Well, really, we have two options ahead of us," she says. "I can disbelieve what you've said, and suspect some kind of ulterior motive. But what would be the point?" She shrugs. "The only thing I'd really want to know is what you plan to do in Tokyo, but you're uncertain on that point."
... You love it when people are reasonable, you really do.
"Actually, I've got a question," Yuri says, levelling her spoon at you. "What would you do if you can't convince people?"
"I..." you hesitate. "It's free cleansing. For life. Who wouldn't want it?"
"Like you said, crab bucket," Yuri says. "Besides, Meiji doesn't."
"... honest answer? I'll probably keep hammering at the problem, until I figure something out," you say. You pause, and snicker. "Hammering. Sorry, stray thought - my weapon's a hammer and all that. Get increasingly frustrated the entire time, but I'd keep talking and try and figure something out. Like... if people are people, if they're not monsters..."
You shake your head.
"It's about people. It's always about people," you say. "It's about saving people, it's about doing good. I have the power to help, it's what I wished for, it's what I'm here for."
Yuri nods, seemingly satisfied with that answer.
"Anything else?" Kurenai asks, glancing around her team. Nobody says anything, so she smiles at you. "Thank you for your time, Miss Vee."
"And thank you for yours," you say. You stand and offer your hand to shake. "I'm sorry I didn't get to meet Miss Chiaki."
"Not as sorry as she is to have missed you," Kurenai says with a faint grin. "She's... interested."
"Well, maybe next time," you say.
"Thanks for meeting us," Sayaka agrees.
You exchange your farewells with the other girls and Haruki, signing a quick good day to Terumi who brightens and waves a goodbye to you as you depart for the roof. You'd thought about seeing some sights, but you don't quite have the time for that. Maybe you'll make a full day of it next time.
"Hmm," Sayaka says as you make your way up to the roof.
"Just 'hmm', hmm?" you ask, making a face at her. You have your Grief reaching out ahead of you, building a flight platform.
"Hmm!" Sayaka agrees, and flashes you a cheeky smirk.
"You looked like you had a thought back there," you prompt.
"Oh, that," Sayaka says. "So... I'm a clone, right? Two things." She counts off on her fingers. "First, do I actually need to fly back with you? Two, I'm a clone. That means I get to pig the heck out on whatever I want to eat with no worries about calories."
"We're magical girls, we don't get fat, anyway," you say. "Though that's a good point. Tokyo has fantastic food, and next time we should make a proper trip out of it and see the sights maybe."
"With Mami~?" Sayaka teases.
"Well, duh," you say. "Also, if you don't fly back with me I'm going to be very bored. It's a long trip."
"Meh," Sayaka says, snickering. "Fine, fine. Since you insisted."
"Am I that much of a pain?" you ask, rolling your eyes.
Sayaka pointedly doesn't answer, grinning and hurrying on ahead of you, two steps at a time.
"You're an ass," you call after her. She's already made it to the roof, hopping onto the flight platform and sprawling out on the ground.
As you lift off, she speaks again.
"So... memory magic," Sayaka says.
"Yeah, that was what I thought too," you agree, carefully maneuvering away from the buildings of Tokyo. Goddess, but this place is dense, skyscrapers all clawing for space and air like a mad architect's dream. "I didn't want to dig too hard into that, especially not to their faces."
... y'know, you're pretty sure that a Wish was responsible for the sheer absurdity of the architecture, so perhaps that comment wasn't that far off.
"And not with me around, hm? Yeah, makes sense. But ugh, memory magic," Sayaka says, and shudders theatrically before kicking her feet out and sitting up, frowning at you. "I... I'd hate that. I'd hate to get my memory erased or modified or something."
"It's not exactly optimal, yeah. And I don't exactly approve," you say. "I don't... well, obviously someone at Chiyoda, and they use it to keep the peace. Like... you notice that according to the story, Meiji came in angry after losing one of their own, then Toshimichi came in and ejected them from the meeting?"
"That seems like a completely stupid thing to do," Sayaka says. "I'm guessing that's not the real story."
"Yeah, well," you say, scowling at the windscreen. You're suspecting that someone learned the true nature of Witches, most likely in the hardest way possible, and that it's the reason for Meiji's current belligerence.
"It's kind of horrible," Sayaka says. She shuffles up beside you to watch the vast metropolis of Tokyo slowly recede beneath you, silver towers becoming a forest of pillars. "And the worst part is that they don't seem to notice? It's some kind of a... rationalizing amnesia, they fill in the empty gaps and they don't question the blanks."
"Yeah, I noticed that," you agree. "It's genuinely kind of scary."
Sayaka folds her arms, making indistinct grumbling noises. "... hah. I'm a clone. I bet they can't modify my memory. Y'know, me me."
"Do you really want to test that?" you ask. "Also, so... what's your take on all that?"
"I guess not," Sayaka agrees. "Hrm. Osaki's working an angle, obviously. They wouldn't have met you today if they weren't. Thing is, I'm guessing their angle involves getting free stuff for themselves, which in this case is you."
"I... agree, yeah," you say. "Hrm."
"They're probably reporting the groups accurately," Sayaka says. "Kind of useless to give us the wrong info there, anyway, but the thing about aggressive and not is... I mean, sure, obviously they're pushing borders. Why? Because they know about the secrets? Is there something to be gained from pushing borders?"
"More territory, more Witches," you say. Sayaka's got the wrong end of the stick here, you think, but you can't clarify without tipping her off about those secrets.
"... also, I gotta say, the fixed territories are interesting," Sayaka says. "I wonder why they're fixed?"
"Uh?" you say. "They are?"
"Yeah..." Sayaka says, trailing off with a shrug. "I dunno, I find it kind of weird. That's all. And... we really need to talk to this Miss Toshimichi to... do business here, I guess. It's not even what Miss Nakahara said, not that she calls the shots, but because she's the one who can actually give a real overview, I guess?"
"Hrm," you say. "Yeah. Makes sense. I wonder if Homura would know?"
"Worth asking, right?" Sayaka says.
[] Talk to Sayaka on the way back...
- [] Speculate with her about the territories?
-- [] Write-in ideas?
- [] Speculate with her about Chiyoda?
-- [] Write-in ideas?
[] When you get back
- [] Hit up another IRC, pick a geographical area
-- [] Elsewhere in Japan
-- [] Korea
-- [] China
-- [] South-east Asia
-- [] Australia
-- [] Somewhere else?
[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
So, much like Homura's Book of Witches, I'm not going to list all the groups, but if you want to contact any one of them, just say so.
Kurenai nods equally slowly, swirling the remains of her expresso about the cup. "If you can convince her of your cause, most... should fall into line. She has been reticent on the matter."
"Right," you say. "I... might ask you for a telepathic introduction sometime, if that's alright? And in the meantime, can I get her phone... ah, dang. Uhh, SMS should still be fine?" You pull out your phone, waving it at her.
"Ah, you don't have a smartphone?" Kurenai says, peering at your flip phone. "SMS won't be a problem. Here, let me enter it for you..."
"Oh, uh..." you say, rubbing your nose sheepishly. "Could I get contacts for the other groups here in Tokyo, too? Especially the belligerent ones? I'll probably try and get in touch with them, address their concerns and hopefully calm them down?"
"Sure," Kurenai says, holding her hand out for your phone. You pass it over, and she pulls her own phone out, setting it on the table and referring to it as she starts typing.
Sayaka snickers abruptly and turns to you, grinning widely.
"What would Mami think, Sabrina?" Sayaka asks. "Getting numbers from girls you just met?"
"Sayaka!" you complain, elbowing her and failing to suppress your blush. "Besides, she knows that I'm hers."
You shake your head, making a mental note to be extra sappy when you next see Mami. It's only right and proper, after all. Yuri catches your eye, smirking and giving you a discreet thumbsup. And so is Haruki, come to that, while Kurenai looks faintly put out. Terumi just looks confused, but happy.
"Oh, hey," Sayaka says. "Do you guys know where that, uh... whatshername? Sabrina, the Tokyo girl you met in Sendai?"
"Miss Ueda? Ueda Noa?" Kurenai says, her attention flicking up from the phones. "I assume, anyway - she was the one who brought back news from Sendai about your offer, Miss Vee?"
"Yeah, that's her," you agree. "What's your question, Sayaka?"
"Which group is she from, how did she present the news, what's their stance on it, that kind of thing?" Sayaka asks.
"Ah," Kurenai says. She frowns, thinking about it for a moment. "She was actually quite clinical about it. I think she was still somewhat stunned at the time, really." She quirks an eyebrow at you. "Perhaps too clinical, actually. That said, her group -Ōkubo, in Shinjuku- seem to be quite whole-heartedly for your proposal."
"Right, that's good to know," you say, nodding.
"What do you mean, too clinical?" Sayaka asks.
"It means that an offer like that is simultaneously too good to be true and too disruptive to easily condone," Haruki says. "Imagine if aliens came in to the UN promising free... I dunno, free energy for everyone."
"Essentially, yes," Kurenai says, gesturing at Haruki.
"Ah. Of course. And of course there's discontent about not wanting 'the wrong type' to get it and wanting to be first and all that. Of course," Sayaka says. She makes a disgusted face, and knocks back the rest of her milkshake before blinking, apparently thinking of something. But she just shakes her head, keeping it to herself.
"It's human nature," Haruki opines.
Terumi looks down at her lap. You don't have to be an empath to read her mood, either, and you're not the only one to notice. Yuri reaches out to ruffle her hair gently.
"I'll make it work," you promise quietly. You lean forward, your eyes boring into Kurenai and Terumi and Yuri and, yes, Haruki. "There is a way forward, some way for all of us to be better than this. Better than the crab bucket, better than this fear and have to scrabble just to survive"
"I wish you luck," Kurenai says. She puts her phone back into her pocket, handing yours back. "The group representatives, Miss Vee. I labeled them all 'Tokyo - group name - name', just for clarity."
"Ah, that's a good idea, thank you," you say, scrolling through your list of contacts, which Kurenai's additions have more than doubled. "Thank you."
"You are very welcome, Miss Vee," Kurenai says, and smiles faintly. "As I said, I wish you luck, and hope you succeed."
"I will. It's why I'm here," you say. "Sayaka, do you have any questions or... ah, do you have any questions for me, Miss Nakahara? I realise I've been monopolizing a lot of your time with my questions."
"Your questions have themselves been informative," Kurenai says with a smile. "I'm glad to know that you intend to at least try to work with the existing groups."
"... I don't have that bad a reputation, do I?" you ask. "I guess I was a bit heavy-handed in Sendai..."
"Not at all," Kurenai says. "Quite the opposite, actually, but in many ways you seem too good to be true. I'm sure you've heard that one before."
"Yeah, I... guess I can see that," you agree. "Still. Any questions?"
"Well, really, we have two options ahead of us," she says. "I can disbelieve what you've said, and suspect some kind of ulterior motive. But what would be the point?" She shrugs. "The only thing I'd really want to know is what you plan to do in Tokyo, but you're uncertain on that point."
... You love it when people are reasonable, you really do.
"Actually, I've got a question," Yuri says, levelling her spoon at you. "What would you do if you can't convince people?"
"I..." you hesitate. "It's free cleansing. For life. Who wouldn't want it?"
"Like you said, crab bucket," Yuri says. "Besides, Meiji doesn't."
"... honest answer? I'll probably keep hammering at the problem, until I figure something out," you say. You pause, and snicker. "Hammering. Sorry, stray thought - my weapon's a hammer and all that. Get increasingly frustrated the entire time, but I'd keep talking and try and figure something out. Like... if people are people, if they're not monsters..."
You shake your head.
"It's about people. It's always about people," you say. "It's about saving people, it's about doing good. I have the power to help, it's what I wished for, it's what I'm here for."
Yuri nods, seemingly satisfied with that answer.
"Anything else?" Kurenai asks, glancing around her team. Nobody says anything, so she smiles at you. "Thank you for your time, Miss Vee."
"And thank you for yours," you say. You stand and offer your hand to shake. "I'm sorry I didn't get to meet Miss Chiaki."
"Not as sorry as she is to have missed you," Kurenai says with a faint grin. "She's... interested."
"Well, maybe next time," you say.
"Thanks for meeting us," Sayaka agrees.
You exchange your farewells with the other girls and Haruki, signing a quick good day to Terumi who brightens and waves a goodbye to you as you depart for the roof. You'd thought about seeing some sights, but you don't quite have the time for that. Maybe you'll make a full day of it next time.
"Hmm," Sayaka says as you make your way up to the roof.
"Just 'hmm', hmm?" you ask, making a face at her. You have your Grief reaching out ahead of you, building a flight platform.
"Hmm!" Sayaka agrees, and flashes you a cheeky smirk.
"You looked like you had a thought back there," you prompt.
"Oh, that," Sayaka says. "So... I'm a clone, right? Two things." She counts off on her fingers. "First, do I actually need to fly back with you? Two, I'm a clone. That means I get to pig the heck out on whatever I want to eat with no worries about calories."
"We're magical girls, we don't get fat, anyway," you say. "Though that's a good point. Tokyo has fantastic food, and next time we should make a proper trip out of it and see the sights maybe."
"With Mami~?" Sayaka teases.
"Well, duh," you say. "Also, if you don't fly back with me I'm going to be very bored. It's a long trip."
"Meh," Sayaka says, snickering. "Fine, fine. Since you insisted."
"Am I that much of a pain?" you ask, rolling your eyes.
Sayaka pointedly doesn't answer, grinning and hurrying on ahead of you, two steps at a time.
"You're an ass," you call after her. She's already made it to the roof, hopping onto the flight platform and sprawling out on the ground.
As you lift off, she speaks again.
"So... memory magic," Sayaka says.
"Yeah, that was what I thought too," you agree, carefully maneuvering away from the buildings of Tokyo. Goddess, but this place is dense, skyscrapers all clawing for space and air like a mad architect's dream. "I didn't want to dig too hard into that, especially not to their faces."
... y'know, you're pretty sure that a Wish was responsible for the sheer absurdity of the architecture, so perhaps that comment wasn't that far off.
"And not with me around, hm? Yeah, makes sense. But ugh, memory magic," Sayaka says, and shudders theatrically before kicking her feet out and sitting up, frowning at you. "I... I'd hate that. I'd hate to get my memory erased or modified or something."
"It's not exactly optimal, yeah. And I don't exactly approve," you say. "I don't... well, obviously someone at Chiyoda, and they use it to keep the peace. Like... you notice that according to the story, Meiji came in angry after losing one of their own, then Toshimichi came in and ejected them from the meeting?"
"That seems like a completely stupid thing to do," Sayaka says. "I'm guessing that's not the real story."
"Yeah, well," you say, scowling at the windscreen. You're suspecting that someone learned the true nature of Witches, most likely in the hardest way possible, and that it's the reason for Meiji's current belligerence.
"It's kind of horrible," Sayaka says. She shuffles up beside you to watch the vast metropolis of Tokyo slowly recede beneath you, silver towers becoming a forest of pillars. "And the worst part is that they don't seem to notice? It's some kind of a... rationalizing amnesia, they fill in the empty gaps and they don't question the blanks."
"Yeah, I noticed that," you agree. "It's genuinely kind of scary."
Sayaka folds her arms, making indistinct grumbling noises. "... hah. I'm a clone. I bet they can't modify my memory. Y'know, me me."
"Do you really want to test that?" you ask. "Also, so... what's your take on all that?"
"I guess not," Sayaka agrees. "Hrm. Osaki's working an angle, obviously. They wouldn't have met you today if they weren't. Thing is, I'm guessing their angle involves getting free stuff for themselves, which in this case is you."
"I... agree, yeah," you say. "Hrm."
"They're probably reporting the groups accurately," Sayaka says. "Kind of useless to give us the wrong info there, anyway, but the thing about aggressive and not is... I mean, sure, obviously they're pushing borders. Why? Because they know about the secrets? Is there something to be gained from pushing borders?"
"More territory, more Witches," you say. Sayaka's got the wrong end of the stick here, you think, but you can't clarify without tipping her off about those secrets.
"... also, I gotta say, the fixed territories are interesting," Sayaka says. "I wonder why they're fixed?"
"Uh?" you say. "They are?"
"Yeah..." Sayaka says, trailing off with a shrug. "I dunno, I find it kind of weird. That's all. And... we really need to talk to this Miss Toshimichi to... do business here, I guess. It's not even what Miss Nakahara said, not that she calls the shots, but because she's the one who can actually give a real overview, I guess?"
"Hrm," you say. "Yeah. Makes sense. I wonder if Homura would know?"
"Worth asking, right?" Sayaka says.
[] Talk to Sayaka on the way back...
- [] Speculate with her about the territories?
-- [] Write-in ideas?
- [] Speculate with her about Chiyoda?
-- [] Write-in ideas?
[] When you get back
- [] Hit up another IRC, pick a geographical area
-- [] Elsewhere in Japan
-- [] Korea
-- [] China
-- [] South-east Asia
-- [] Australia
-- [] Somewhere else?
[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
=====
So, much like Homura's Book of Witches, I'm not going to list all the groups, but if you want to contact any one of them, just say so.
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- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
Alright. That was a productive meeting, and I think we made a good impression. We should try to set up some memory resistance enchantments during today's enchantment practice session, in preparation for heading to Chiyoda.
Other than that, I'd like to make our way down the IRC list, and Sayaka would probably be interested in spending some time shitposting with us as we do outreach. If there's a Japanese IRC, it'd make a natural starting point.
The territories being "fixed" is a little unusual, yes - the impression I got of the Tokyo Council is that it isn't really powerful enough to dictate terms like that. The boundaries currently are maintained by threat of collective action, but that doesn't actually explain where they came from - did the Council actually manage to get all 27 groups to agree on borders some time in the past? How did they handle disputed territories?
Other than that, I'd like to make our way down the IRC list, and Sayaka would probably be interested in spending some time shitposting with us as we do outreach. If there's a Japanese IRC, it'd make a natural starting point.
The territories being "fixed" is a little unusual, yes - the impression I got of the Tokyo Council is that it isn't really powerful enough to dictate terms like that. The boundaries currently are maintained by threat of collective action, but that doesn't actually explain where they came from - did the Council actually manage to get all 27 groups to agree on borders some time in the past? How did they handle disputed territories?