I don't think it takes a legendary philosopher to read the history after he stopped publishing, and the ideas went revolutionary. My only certainty is that we all want to avoid the destiny of Karl Marx. He only intended a better society, whereas we aim to deliver one. Our inspiration comes from a higher authority ; ) We are also surrounded by better people.
Further, some of us categorize our Utopian intention as "post scarcity." Therefore not traditional Marxism.
If it please, what is our enchanting decision going to be? I guess we will go to work on mental defenses, of which I'm seeing three broad routes right now.
- Mami has a technique.
- Antimagic, stuck to the soul or body
- Memory magic to invalidate the enemy
In the sense that religion was meant to pacify people and accept their lot, the idea of Madokami that loves you and will take care of you in the end is a pretty damned powerful potential opioid.
If I ask myself "does Sabrina gather worshipers," or "would Sabrina uplift prophets, paladins and saints when she finds them?" I'll worry less about institutional corruption.
Far less.
Madokami didn't mention worship, her Wish is not conditional.
Are we practical, rational and smart(ish)? Do we genuinely love people, and the world?
For all that Sabrina doesn't doubt god, I can't imagine she would consider allowing a "church" in any way that I have understanding of the word.
Indirectly killing people under ironic circumstances is hardly what Sabrina sets out to do? Kyuubey must revisit the Arthur myth often. I'd say it loves the story, buuuttt...
Sabrina will meet substantial numbers of girls in crisis. What sort of religious thought would Sabrina share with others, if asked?
########
Not a digression!
What can make our mental defense enchantment session clever? Without a Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, we need to hustle for ourselves.
"I..." you trail off and exchange a quick look with Mami. She smiles, tilting her head slightly, and you turn back to Hitomi. "Yeah, we'll be happy to be there."
"Alright, I'll let my mother know," Hitomi says, uncovering her phone mic to speak to her parents again.
You smile at Mami and link your arm through hers as you walk onwards, a group of six friends threading through the afternoon crowds. "No other plans for Saturday?" you ask.
"My plans are to spend time with you," Mami says. She pauses, and promptly blushes red. "If that's alright with you?"
"More than alright," you say with a warm smile for her.
"You two are disgustingly cute," Sayaka observes.
"Yep," you confirm happily. "Like you wouldn't be, if you had a girlfriend as adorable and awesome as Mami is."
"I dunno," Sayaka says, shrugging. "I'm sure I wouldn't be getting sap all over the place like you too."
"I think you would!" Madoka offers.
"Not you too." Sayaka gives Madoka a wounded look.
"Ahh, c'mon, everyone knows you're secretly a romantic," you say. "Right, Homura?"
Homura gives you a sidelong look, and then eyes Sayaka.
"... yes," she says.
"You guys all suck," Sayaka declares, sticking her nose in the air and stomping on ahead of the group in a faux huff.
You can't help but laugh as you look around at your friends. Your friends, and not just - they're friends with each other, too. Homura teasing Sayaka, and Sayaka taking it in good humour. Madoka walking a little closer to Homura to chat with her, to be with her, to have Homura part of the group. Hitomi, finishing her call and joining in the ribbing, and even Mami participating, laughing and teasing.
There's more work to do. There's magical girls out there to save from this wretched system of death and Witches, and Walpurgisnacht and Feathers to come, but this is a good start. This is what you're fighting for, because it's about the people. It's always been about the people.
You make it back home, everyone gathering at the door as Mami unlocks it. You pause thoughtfully.
"Ah, I'll make some tea for everyone. And we still have some cake," Mami says with a warm smile. "How does that sound?"
"I'll join you in a moment, Mami," you say. "Need to have a word with Homura first, alright? Uhh... Homura?"
Golden eyes flick over to you, and you meet her gaze, smiling gently. You tip your head slightly to the left, twitching that wrist just a hair, and she hesitates for a moment before nodding. You step over to hug her a warm, tight, hug, before moving over to join Homura, just down the corridor as the others pile into the apartment.
You can feel Sayaka's eyes on you for a second before Sayaka heads in, and you turn to Homura, smiling.
"Well," you say, leaning against the corridor... railing? Bannister? No, there's a railing on top of the wall, but the wall itself isn't the railing. The half-wall along the outer edge of the corridor, to prevent people from falling off. "As I said, I've got some stuff to talk to you about? Could I trouble you for..." You motion vaguely toward her left hand.
Homura nods, transforming without a word and reaching for her shield. One shuddering moment later, you're blinking once more at the washed-out, lifeless greys of Homura's timestop world. Her hand is warm on your wrist as she loops a bit of string around your arm and ties the two of you together.
You beam at Homura, propping your elbow on the...
"... ok, sorry, I..." you scowl, and kick your foot against the wall. "What is this called? The wall around an exterior corridor? It's not a railing or guard rail, because it's a wall. Balustrade?"
"I... don't know," Homura says, giving you a nonplussed look.
"Sorry, sorry," you say, waving it off. "Just a bit of an insistent thought."
Homura nods slowly, moving to lean against the... corridor wall beside you, back towards the frozen city beyond.
"Anyway," you say. You give her a smile. "How's your day been?"
"It's acceptable," Homura says. "Uneventful."
"That's good," you say. "... hey, before I forget. You mentioned Sono Mako and Utsugi Karina before as magical girls we might want to recruit, right? What are they like? And the Kagoshima group?"
"They are..." Homura pauses, frowning as she searches for a word. "Shy. Utsugi Karina's magic produces very powerful barriers, nearly unbreakable. There are four of them, Sono and Utsugi, Hatsumi Nodoka, and Hida Yugito. Hatsumi is the Grief controller. She's..."
You give Homura an encouraging smile, not interrupting. You've been trying to be better about listening, and something as minor as letting Homura sort her thoughts out you can be patient for.
"She's regretful," Homura says finally. "For something she did in the past. I don't know what. Likely related to her powers; she can transfer Grief from Soul Gem to Soul Gem. And... Hida's magic is ice. Not as strong as the others."
"Ah," you say. "Yeah, I see. That would track. She seemed really nervous when I showed up. Maybe we should go visit sometime? And... do you have any advice to convince them to help with Walpurgisnacht?"
"Guilt," Homura says. "If you can convince Hatsumi, her guilt drives her to try and convince her group."
"Hmm," you say. The first thing that comes to mind is whether you really want to use a guilty conscience as a lever to convince someone to join a fight on a city-destroying Witch, but that's a problem for later. "We'll figure out something, then."
Homura nods wordlessly.
You hum, moving to rest your other elbow on the...
"Ah, parapet," you say, snapping your fingers. "It's called a parapet and aaaaaanyway back on topic, you've, uh, mentioned something about a Grief controller in Osaka, right? Do you think she'll be an issue in the future?"
"No. Maybe," Homura says. Her brow wrinkles, and she makes a vague wave in your direction. "You're..."
"An anomaly?" you say when she doesn't continue.
"You're definitely strange," Homura says. Her expression doesn't shift, completely deadpan even as you lean over to stare at her straight on. You pout at her, and return to leaning on the wall.
"Was that what you wanted to talk to me about?" Homura asks, glancing sidelong at you.
"No. I..." you say, and force yourself to sober. Just go for it. "Oriko lost her precog, yeah?"
"Yes," Homura says. Out of the corner of your eye, you can see her fingers flexing.
"She's gaining clairvoyance," you say. "But-"
Homura stops breathing.
She freezes like a statue, eyes widening.
"Homura," you murmur. Moving gently, slowly, carefully, you put your hand on top of her wrist. She flinches under your touch, but doesn't pull away. "I... it's a good thing."
"She's dangerous," Homura's eyes snap up, burning amethyst fury boring into you. "I- she has her magic-"
"Homura," you say. "Magic is a reflection of your self, of your Wish. And her magic changed. Her priorities changed, to something else. Her Wish changed."
"She's still a danger!" Homura hisses.
"She doesn't want what she used to," you say. You don't look away from her, meeting her anger, her pain, with calm reassurance. "And- Homura, I'm not saying we should lift any of the restrictions or anything. I'm still saying we should stick with monitoring them, GPS tracker and magic and all that. I just- I promised I'd do better, and I promised I'd tell you if anything changed with them. I'm telling you because I promised, and because you deserve to know."
"I-" Homura swallows, fist clenching. She closes her eyes, and visibly forces herself to relax, hands smoothing out and shoulders slackening just a bit. "OK."
You swallow. She's putting a lot of trust in you, packed in those two syllables.
"Homura, I'm going to hug you now, OK?" you ask, and gently pull her into a hug. You give her plenty of time to pull away before wrapping your arms around her. "Thank you for trusting me."
You ease back, and smile at her. "I... for the record, I think she has changed," you say slowly. "But I'm not going to slack, alright? I'm going to do this by the books, by what I promised."
Homura nods jerkily as she moves back to leaning against the parapet.
"And I'm going to let Sayaka and Hitomi know," you say. "Because they were involved in this, too, and they deserve to know, too."
Her only response is to nod again, her body wound tight with tension.
[] Try and reassure her some more
[] Talk about something else
- [] Involving Madoka and Hitomi over the politics
- [] Sayaka figuring out Homura caring specifically about Madoka
[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
[x] Mention Sayaka's insight into Madoka and Hitomi's skills in the Model UN.
-[x] Madoka has low self esteem, and always wants to help. That's why she's at such high risk of contracting.
-[x] Sayaka suggested having Madoka and Hitomi help with the political analysis in Tokyo, and after mulling it over you think it's a good idea:
--[x] Doing political analysis while staying in Mitakihara would be a way for Madoka to really contribute without being at risk, which you think would decrease her urges to make a contract.
--[x] Plus, given how complicated Tokyo politics is going to be, you'll frankly need all the help you can get.
[x] Mention that Sayaka figured out that Homura cares for Madoka's protection in particular.
-[x] You didn't tell Sayaka anything specific about Homura. You did tell her that you trusted Homura and to not bother Homura about it, which Sayaka accepted.
--[x] Also, Sayaka called Homura a friend, so that's definetly progress.
=====
Cutting it here just in case you want to add anything.
We should definitely try to calm Homura down before going for the rest of the vote in abeyance - as wound up as she is, she'll be escpecially on-edge about Madoka.
Maybe mention that Sayaka and Hitomi might have ideas on extra security measures to make sure Oriko stays contained, which we can discuss as a group?
Also, we should probably swap the order? Sayaka agreeing to also protect Madoka and keep her from contracting would help Homura a lot, I think.
Hatsumi is interesting. She's clearly feeling a ton of guilt, given that she's willing to push her group into fighting the Queen of Witches for it. I suspect that if we gave her Clear Seeds and asked her to help pay it forward, she'd jump at the chance to make amends.
I... don't think it particularly matters what she did? She's clearly not going to do it again, so she doesn't seem likely to be a danger at all. And she wants to be better, do better. What more can we ask for?
"She's regretful," Homura says finally. "For something she did in the past. I don't know what. Likely related to her powers; she can transfer Grief from Soul Gem to Soul Gem.
We should definitely try to calm Homura down before going for the rest of the vote in abeyance - as wound up as she is, she'll be escpecially on-edge about Madoka.
Maybe mention that Sayaka and Hitomi might have ideas on extra security measures to make sure Oriko stays contained, which we can discuss as a group?
Also, we should probably swap the order? Sayaka agreeing to also protect Madoka and keep her from contracting would help Homura a lot, I think.
Hatsumi is interesting. She's clearly feeling a ton of guilt, given that she's willing to push her group into fighting the Queen of Witches for it. I suspect that if we gave her Clear Seeds and asked her to help pay it forward, she'd jump at the chance to make amends.
I... don't think it particularly matters what she did? She's clearly not going to do it again, so she doesn't seem likely to be a danger at all. And she wants to be better, do better. What more can we ask for?
well, it doesn't really matter, but I think we can all infer from the fact she's a grief controller and is terrified that sabrina would be after her.
the tragedy of it is that she might not have even known about the witch OR litchbomb, so she witched someone out without even knowing that was a possibility. which of course would leave them with a whole ton of guilt
the silver lining to that however, is that we might have another potential member of our dewitching experiment that doesn't need to be bombed first
She does represent something unpredictable due to precognition. At least if she makes her wish she does. And really it's just a symptom of Homura being irrational (understandably so) of anything that threatens Madoka. Oriko is just the closest threat (not greatest) that she can neutralize (see murderize) easily and she isn't. It has got to be a constant source of stress for her.
[X] Try to reassure Homura.
-[X] Explain current limitations on Oriko's clairvoyance.
-[X] Clairvoyance is less dangerous of a power if she did mean to attack.
-[X] Explain wish rejection psychology as part of reason for believing Oriko has reformed. Bring up that Oriko's wish rejections started very shortly after she apologized to you for what she had done -- she sincerely regretted her actions, and thus her wish, and lost her precognition because of it.
-[X] "I'm here to help make sure things can be fixed, most of all to help you. Turning Oriko from an enemy into an ally, from a threat to an additional layer of protection, that seems like fixing things to me."
[X] "Speaking of things that can be fixed..." (Tone: Confidence)
-[X] Bring up Sayaka figuring out Homura caring specifically about Madoka, as well as her trusting Homura. Explain what you told Sayaka.
-[X] "Sayaka always is insightful about the weirdest stuff." Bring up her 'past life' joke from Homura's first day at school this/last loop.
-[X] This is a good thing here and now. Sayaka trusts you and Homura, knows that you know what's going on, and trusts both of you. She's willing to help keep Madoka well out of harms way.
-[X] Bring up how you're going about witchbombing Sayaka, her improved thoughtfulness this time around. If Sayaka decides to learn, it will give her even more reason to trust Homura's judgement -- she was trying to save them both, after all. Point out effect lichbombing Sayaka had on her behavior after contracting.
--[X] Bring up discussing loopbombing Sayaka at a later time, if Sayaka handles witchbomb well, -- she will have every reason to trust the two of you, you can handle telling her the details, and most importantly, it will secure Sayaka as an ironclad-ally in the effort to protect Madoka from Kyuubey.
[X] (Remain in timestop, conversation expected to continue)
