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"This meat is my ̶n̶o̶n̶ ̶e̶x̶i̶s̶t̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶d̶i̶g̶i̶t̶a̶l̶ body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of my awesomeness."
Puella Magi Adfligo Systema
- Thread starter Firnagzen
- Start date
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- 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?
"This meat is my ̶n̶o̶n̶ ̶e̶x̶i̶s̶t̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶d̶i̶g̶i̶t̶a̶l̶ body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of my awesomeness."
Appletank
Acquire Cheese
FYI:
1: Nuclear Transmutation is trivially easy for Sabrina. Her grief has the fidelity to fiddle with protons and neutrons (and sorta kinda electrons, but its hard to predict their speed and position, etc). Besides, we can just get Niko to do it, since her magic is basically Fullmetal Alchemy.
2: Grief armor is great, but it has been shown somewhat weak to magic based attacks. If someone throws a brick, sure, but magic sword might have problems.
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hmmm.
1. What exactly is Niko's power anyway? I know her wish as essentially to clone herself , but that doesn't seem to have much to do with her power (which seems to be 'the power of MAD SCIENCE'). She should be as famous as Mami if it is as versatile as you make it out to be!
2. If directly projecting grief armour is unfeasible, why not machine it using Grief tools? Thanks to Nuclear Transmutation we have no limit on exotic materials, and fully physical armour supplemented by ablative Grief plates would go a long way to rectifying that weakness. Perhaps it something to look at during our next SCIENCE! session?
Speaking of the masquerade, I've been thinking of fun ways to break the masquerade, so have this randomness.
"Hello world!" You say into the microphone, stolen borrowed from someone who seemed to be giving a speech to television cameras and an audience. Unfortunately, it's lightly raining, something you didn't picture happening when you introduced the world to magic. Why was this person giving a speech outside in the rain anyways?
"I'm Sabrina, and I'm here to help. I can cleanse Soul Gems." Oh wait, wrong line, that's the line you use when meeting new meguca. You must have said that out of reflex. Today it's masquerade-breaking.
"I mean, I'm Sabrina, and I'm here to explain magic to the world."
You suddenly have a wonderful idea (Thanks to your brain damage, your inner Sayaka retorts). It's time to demonstrate magic, stop the rain, and reuse one of your old, discarded ideas all at the same time!
With a thought, you make a GRIEF AWNING! It's a shame you couldn't do this back at that cafe in Sendai, but now that the masquerade is breaking and it isn't the middle of a tense negotiation, you have no reasons left not to make a GRIEF AWNING in public! You smile to yourself, and return to the present.
The public seems rather alarmed, gasps reverberating throughout the area. "Magic! Rain is annoying. Anyways, where was I?" You seem to have lost your train of thought, or where you were going with this masquerade-breaking in the first place.
"Oh right! The explanation of MAGIC!" You do an appropriate flourishing gesture with the word 'Magic'. Ah wait, you may be going about this wrong.
You figure that it would be good to point out the bad parts of magic and lay out all the important information before people get the wrong idea about magic. "I am meguca. Being meguca is suffering. Don't trust cabbits." There! That should do it, right? Concise and to the point. Three short sentences that should explain the situation to people.
You look over at the audience, who all seem simply bewildered. You see Homura standing in the back. Unfortunately, she seems to be rubbing her forehead in exasperation at the moment, and you don't think that's a good sign of her opinion of your speech so far.
On second thought, you think, what I just said doesn't really explain anything.
"Oh, Sabrina," Mami says telepathically. "You really didn't plan this speech out, did you?"
"I'm planning it out now though, so don't worry," you respond.
You proceed to give a reasonably well-crafted explanation of the Magical Girl system, without the bombs of course, although emphasizing the inherent danger, and explaining what you meant by your comments about meguca and cabbits.
When you get off the platform, dissolve the GRIEF AWNING, and get back to your friends, you look at Homura. She appears to be back to a neutral expression, while Mami started talking about how you did a good job after the first minute or so.
Sayaka greets you. "Hey! Your brain damage acted up again at the beginning there!" You knew that she'd say something like that. You can't even deny it.
"I'm Sabrina, and I'm here to help. I can cleanse Soul Gems." Oh wait, wrong line, that's the line you use when meeting new meguca. You must have said that out of reflex. Today it's masquerade-breaking.
"I mean, I'm Sabrina, and I'm here to explain magic to the world."
You suddenly have a wonderful idea (Thanks to your brain damage, your inner Sayaka retorts). It's time to demonstrate magic, stop the rain, and reuse one of your old, discarded ideas all at the same time!
With a thought, you make a GRIEF AWNING! It's a shame you couldn't do this back at that cafe in Sendai, but now that the masquerade is breaking and it isn't the middle of a tense negotiation, you have no reasons left not to make a GRIEF AWNING in public! You smile to yourself, and return to the present.
The public seems rather alarmed, gasps reverberating throughout the area. "Magic! Rain is annoying. Anyways, where was I?" You seem to have lost your train of thought, or where you were going with this masquerade-breaking in the first place.
"Oh right! The explanation of MAGIC!" You do an appropriate flourishing gesture with the word 'Magic'. Ah wait, you may be going about this wrong.
You figure that it would be good to point out the bad parts of magic and lay out all the important information before people get the wrong idea about magic. "I am meguca. Being meguca is suffering. Don't trust cabbits." There! That should do it, right? Concise and to the point. Three short sentences that should explain the situation to people.
You look over at the audience, who all seem simply bewildered. You see Homura standing in the back. Unfortunately, she seems to be rubbing her forehead in exasperation at the moment, and you don't think that's a good sign of her opinion of your speech so far.
On second thought, you think, what I just said doesn't really explain anything.
"Oh, Sabrina," Mami says telepathically. "You really didn't plan this speech out, did you?"
"I'm planning it out now though, so don't worry," you respond.
You proceed to give a reasonably well-crafted explanation of the Magical Girl system, without the bombs of course, although emphasizing the inherent danger, and explaining what you meant by your comments about meguca and cabbits.
When you get off the platform, dissolve the GRIEF AWNING, and get back to your friends, you look at Homura. She appears to be back to a neutral expression, while Mami started talking about how you did a good job after the first minute or so.
Sayaka greets you. "Hey! Your brain damage acted up again at the beginning there!" You knew that she'd say something like that. You can't even deny it.
Her magic is about Creation. Let me link Mister Bad Guy's Asunaro Cast List.
It comes up in the fight against the Souju Sisters - Where Luka and Ayase are able to do a synchronized Fire / Ice combo attack that's difficult to get past, Niko has the idea she and Kazumi should respond with a Creation / Destruction Magic synchronized attack of their own.
MBG mentions Niko will turn parts of her body into weapons, what I remember is Niko turns her fingers into projectiles that shoot off like rockets (I think).
[Edit] Put another way, she wished to create a person, so she got Creation as her magic.
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- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
The short answer is that she can do anything Edward Elric can - total control over the composition of matter around her, plus a more limited ability to affect purely magical phenomena.
The long answer is that her power feeds her a ton of information about items within her transmutation range, and as long as she's able to understand the pattern she wants to shape things into, there are very few limits on what she can do.
Her primary limit is that her power isn't very conceptual at all - she has to actually understand what she's doing on a molecular level (or on a metaphysical level for some of the more out-there stuff), instead of being able to just wing it based on a loose concept like Mami can with "connections".
That's why she's such a "mad scientist", too - she has to put in time to dissect and understand things before she can use her power to do them.
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- USA, Midworld world line
Effectively, Niko and Sabrina are the the highest tier collaboration when it comes to "mundane result" general material science. The few things one can't do, the other can. Sabrina has both sub-atomic manipulation, and the "lesser wish" tooling support of witch-mode Grief. Our Control will be able to present the missing firmware and middle ware in any circumstance Niko doesn't have a processor / brain enchantment, and we can scan like her. Only our senses skew differently than hers. Comparison highlights the truth.
Constructing a "real" human or a Magical Girl vessel is likely to require a few extra bits of attention, so another girl is probably going to remove frustration from the task. It is my opinion that Sayaka, Niko and Sabrina have the lowest effort path to synthesize a "blank" human. We need to do this soon, right after we prototype a practical storage for the resulting bioroid. Storage having a focus, as once we start de-witching our circumstances and agenda are very likely to be unstable for a while. Making the whole setup mobile is a clear way past that. Oh, Hijiri has a storage enchantment, if the target isn't alive yet it should be a top choice?
Hmm. Full magic-to-magic contact with Niko to do in-depth work is probably fairly easy, but I also expect it to be unique. This would be like entering the Geek zone to a feedback cycle extreme? Another reason we need a third, to break the OCD.
Fun!
My favorite ideation is that for a good while Sabrina will be expanding horizons, by blowing minds, one person at a time. We do our best with a personal touch. So in my fantasy, the revolution will not be televised - the media might well be the last people to find out!
No Bacon this morning. Welcome, Fresh Meat.
Always Happening
We could have prevented this.
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- On a train with no brakes
If you're thinking of the shrinking bottle, that was also one of Niko's magical technologies, because, topically, being a crafting build with Creation-element magic she's also bar none the most skilled enchantress we currently know.
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
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A rather hot take, but
It got me thinking
If Sabrina is in fact dewitched Walpurgisnacht
A being created out of a congealed mass of grief, despair and suffering
Does it mean that Sabrina is Walpurgisnacht's fursona Madokami helped her to develop?
I mean, Sabrina is a mammal, technically
It got me thinking
If Sabrina is in fact dewitched Walpurgisnacht
A being created out of a congealed mass of grief, despair and suffering
Does it mean that Sabrina is Walpurgisnacht's fursona Madokami helped her to develop?
I mean, Sabrina is a mammal, technically
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- The state of Paranoia
Interesting. Could we have Kirika or Sayaka enchant something with anti-magic, crumble it into tiny pieces, and then distribute tons of those little pieces all over our grief armor just before a fight? Most magic based attacks would just dispel when they hit the anti-magic crumbs, so we wouldn't have to worry about magic attacks hitting us. Plus we could have a few anti-magic crumbs in contact with our body, so magic that acts directly on us (like mind magic would if it worked on us) would just get dispelled immediately.
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Unfortunately it seems to me as though, while Grief itself is not magic, grief control is, so the anti-magic crumbs would probably just dispel our control. And though Kirika (or Sayaka) CAN exclude us from the effect, they would need to enchant each 'crumb' individually (the enchantments I've seen so far are usually tied to the conceptual 'wholeness' of an object and can be broken alongside it). With that said, there does seem to be an excellent combo of attuned anti-magic and Sabrina's own 'malleability' effect- perhaps something to look at once we've mastered Reinforcement?
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Good point. Hmmm, we can enchant our grief, I wonder if Kirika/Sayaka could enchant it with anti-magic (that doesn't affect us)? Another possibility is just making physical armor, having them enchant it, and keeping it in 4space while not in combat. Once combat begins, we just bring it out of 4space already around our body, just like we do with our magical girl costume. Then put grief armor around and under that.
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I already said something similar- its worth bringing up next time we are doing science/training
Appletank
Acquire Cheese
Basically, non-magic armor tends to fare poorly against magical attacks. So even if we did create Mjonir-II, it still wouldn't really be able to take hits all that well. Our magical girl outfit is theorized to provide some protection already (Nanoha style jackets), anything we can make is doubtful to provide much benefit. Dodging good is likely a better prospect.
Besides, social combat is a bit higher priority than physical combat. We already have ludicrous firepower, along with a bunch of teammates far more capable in melee. Even Sayaka can already kick our ass if we aren't allowed to Touhou laser everything.
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The physical armor is just as a holder for the anti-magic enchantment, since Kirika/Sayaka probably can't directly enchant our grief. Our armor layers would be:
1. Outer layer of grief armor, like we already use. This blocks physical attacks, and lots of magical attacks.
2. Physical armor. Enchanted with anti-magic. This blocks any magical attacks that get through the first layer. It is also in contact with our skin to dispel any magical attacks that bypass armor entirely.
3. Inner grief armor (optional). Mostly for cushioning, but may help if an attack has a physical weapon encased in magic. The anti-magic will dispel the magic, the physical part of the attack then punches through the physical armor but is stopped by the second layer of grief. This layer needs to be somewhat porous though, to allow the anti-magic armor to stay in contact with our skin.
We could just make the physical armor an enchanted jumpsuit or something. It would probably work just fine since the grief is blocking the damaging parts of an attack, the physical armor is just there to protect against the magic of any attacks that can pierce our grief. Plus cloth would be much more comfortable and flexible.
Nova Prospekt pt. 30
It turns out the tea can, in fact, wait for a second. The water needs to reach a boil, anyway, and you spend that time cuddling Mami, which she is more than happy to reciprocate.
Ultimately, though, the whistle of the kettle has Mami reluctantly freeing herself from your arms to pour out hot water, and you follow her back out into the living room. You insist on carrying the tray, of course.
"'eyo," Sayaka says, waving lazily from the floor. Madoka beams at you from her seat on the right side of the sofa, Hitomi on the other side and Homura sitting awkwardly in the middle.
"Heya!" you say brightly, beaming at everyone and setting the tray down on the coffee table. You sit down on the floor and start pouring for everyone.
"So, what's on the schedule?" Sayaka asks.
"Enchantment practice, some bits of news to share, some other bits of news to share and before we start the practice I should probably check in the Pleiades have any relevant knowledge we can borrow, hm..." you say.
"Will you all be staying for dinner?" Mami asks, smiling. "We'll need to cook, too."
"Yeah!" Sayaka says happily, pumping her fists in the air. "Well, Hitomi can't, right? And, uh, Homura? Are you staying?"
"I'm sorry to miss your cooking, but I'm expected home for dinner," Hitomi says with an apologetic smile. "Don't let me stop you!"
"... yes," Homura says, glancing from you to Mami.
"I'll be happy to stay for dinner!" Madoka says.
"Great," Mami says, beaming. She passes teacups around the table, carefully balancing one on Sayaka's forehead. Sayaka goes cross-eyed staring at the cup, and you go misty-eyed staring at Mami, because Mami being happy and confident enough in her friendships to tease someone is amazing.
Besides, you don't really need an excuse to stare-and-or-smile at Mami.
You blink, shaking your head. You had something else to... ah, yes. "Hitomi?"
"Yes?" The green-haired girl blinks quizzically at you.
"Uh... so about the dinner with your parents this weekend?" you ask. "Is it alright if Homura comes along too?"
"Oh, ah," Hitomi says, and nods, pulling her phone out. "I'll ask, but it shouldn't be a problem."
"Thank you," you say.
"What did you mean about asking the Pleiades Saints?" Madoka asks as she accepts a cup, sipping daintily. "Kazumi and her friends, right?"
"Yup, that's them," you say with a smile. You sling an arm around Mami's waist as she finishes distributing the cups, and pull her down into a hug beside you. "And, well, it ties into some of the news I have, about Tokyo."
You catch Homura's eye for a split second before continuing.
"So, uh, very briefly, Sayaka and I went to Tokyo earlier in the afternoon," you say. Sayaka offers a lazy thumbsup from her position on the floor. "We met with the Osaki group, and they seem nice."
"One of 'em has a boyfriend!" Sayaka declares with an upthrust finger.
"... and one of them has a boyfriend," you agree. "Anyway, so, Tokyo... seems interesting. Not necessarily in a bad way, but it's kind of interesting to me. The Osaki group girls seemed to be very insistent that we could only visit if we considered it an unofficial visit, and, they didn't want to accept help, either. And... Tokyo apparently has twenty seven magical girl groups."
"Not all of them are large groups," Homura notes. "A few are just pairs or single magical girls. People come and go."
"Huh," you say, blinking. "Right, I guess I'll rephrase - Tokyo has twenty seven districts with magical girls. They answer, ish, to the Chiyoda group, which is in turn led by Toshimichi Akane, who's supposed to be descended from, uh... Emperor Shōwa, but she leads because of charisma and power."
"Districts?" Hitomi asks. "Oh, and... my mother says it won't be a problem if Homura wants to come for the dinner as well. So, ah, Homura, with your confirmation?"
Homura nods. You beam at both of them.
"Right, thank you, Hitomi!" you say. "And yes, districts. Apparently the hunting territories are fixed, but magical girls are swapped around. And there are twenty seven of them. I've got a pamphlet around here somewhere..." You pat your pockets down, and find the pamphlet in hammerspace after a moment.
Hitomi takes it, peering at the brightly coloured paper with interest. Madoka makes a thoughtful noise, leaning over Homura to see. Homura freezes, petrified.
Nobody else seems to notice Mami smothering a giggle as she fusses with the teapot.
"There's a lot of critical information missing from here," Madoka says. "It's very... political."
"Politically biased," Hitomi agrees with a clinically disapproving sniff. "Still, somewhat informative. And informative in what it doesn't include."
"Do you know how disputes are settled, procedurally?" Madoka asks. She sits back, taking the pamphlet with her, and Homura finally starts to breathe again.
"The small issues they have a chat group for, apparently," you say. "The larger ones, apparently they call meetings for, which brings me to the real thing I raise for now? I'm... pretty sure that Miss Toshimichi has some kind of memory magic, and she uses it to keep the peace."
"Ah," Hitomi says, pursing her lips. "That's interesting. Of what nature is that memory magic?"
"I don't know, yet," you say. "I intend to find out, but before we go into it... well, I'm hoping that tonight's enchantment practice might be geared towards protection from mind magic? And defenses in general, maybe?" You give Mami a smile.
"I think we can work that in," Mami agrees gravely, hiding a little smile.
"And that's what you wanna brainmail the Pleiades for, hm?" Sayaka says.
"Pretty much," you say. "If they know something, then there's no need to reinvent the wheel, and we can practice enchanting something else."
Madoka makes a faintly disapproving noise, closing the pamphlet with a flick.
"They're very heavy-handed about this," she says. "Especially if they're using memory magic."
"Yyyyyeah," Sayaka agrees. "I got the impression that most of the groups are reasonably happy about it, barring the few who are trying to make trouble over something or another."
"Meeting this Miss Toshimichi while protecting yourself against what are prospectively, her powers..." Hitomi purses her lips thoughtfully. "It certainly makes a statement. Of intelligence, preparation, and arguably of intent."
"Then it becomes a question of how Miss Toshimichi might interpret it," Mami muses quietly. "Whether it's an open threat to her regime, as it were, or simply of being prepared."
"Not enough information," Madoka concludes, pouting. "And there was all that fuss about official and unofficial meetings and them not accepting your help! It's obviously significant but it's all a bit weird and we don't know enough..."
Madoka trails off, even her twintails seeming to droop a little in disappointment.
"Ah, hmm. I think I covered most of the main points, but I'll write up something later if you guys want? I'd appreciate any insights you might have," you say. "But that's later. For now, uh... lemme hit up the Pleiades first, and then we can decide what to do for enchantments?"
"Hmm..." Mami smiles. "I'll see what we can cook for dinner in the meantime, then."
"We'll be here," Sayaka says.
"No, we should be discussing the class project," Hitomi says with an amused quirk of her lips.
"Oh fiiiine," Sayaka says, removing the teacup and pouting exaggeratedly as she drags herself upright and fumbles for her schoolbags, passing Hitomi's over.
You grin at Mami, letting her lead you into the kitchen by dint of simply not letting go of her when she stands. She laughs, looping her arm around yours to guide you properly.
"Hey, Niko, do you have a moment?" you speak across the aether, leaning against the kitchen counter to watch Mami putter around the kitchen.
"Ah!" Mami says, brightening. "Sabrina, what do you think of curry and omurice?"
"Oh, that sounds good," you agree. You crack a faint grin. "Homura'll probably be disappointed we're not making cream stew, but we can't cook that every time. Even if I do want to fatten her up..."
"Fatten her up, Sabrina?" Mami asks, raising a golden eyebrow at you.
"She's all skin and bone!" you protest. "She definitely doesn't take care of herself, you know that."
"Yes, but 'fatten her up'?" Mami giggles. She starts rummaging about the cabinet, pulling out spices and flour and various ingredients.
"I stand by what I said!" you say, huffing fondly as you join her to collect ingredients from the fridge. The chicken needs to defrost a bit, and you can start the curry to simmer while you practice.
Mami laughs, bumping her hip against yours, and you beam at her.
... Also, Niko hasn't responded.
"Niko? Hello?" you say. You frown, and think in Kazumi's general direction. "Kazumi?"
"Oh, hey Sabrina!" Kazumi says brightly, and continues when you mentally include Mami as well. "Mami! Hi!"
"Hello, Kazumi," Mami says warmly. "How are you?"
"Good, good, no complaints!" Kazumi says. "How are you? What's up?"
"We're good, but uh - is Niko OK? I just tried to contact her, but she didn't respond," you say.
"... one complaint!" Kazumi says, in that same bright and cheerful tone. "If she's fallen asleep in her lab again, then I will need to Have Words with her. Give me a moment!"
You can hear the Capital Letters in there. Mami catches your eye, an amused smile curling her lips as she starts mixing up the spices for the curry. You grab a vegetable peeler and start peeling carrots and a few potatoes for the curry.
"Asleep in the lab," Kazumi confirms a few minutes later. She sounds put-upon and yet impossibly fond. "Did you need something from her? I'm going to put her to bed properly, but I can leave a message or maybe I might know?"
"Well, I dropped by Tokyo today," you say, and proceed to fill Kazumi in briefly. You go over the basics, outlining the meeting and what you'd learned about Tokyo - including the meeting where Meiji had apparently stormed in angry, and then left in peace after a quiet word from Toshimchi Akane.
"Interesting," Kazumi says as you finish explaining. "Either they have some serious blackmail or they have some major mind magic, huh?"
"And the fact that no one seems to really question this kind of thing -or know much about Toshimchi in person- makes me kind of wary, yeah," you say. "I was wondering if Niko might have experience with defending against this kind of thing?"
"Nope!" Kazumi says. "But Umika does! Her True Writing is good for that kind of magic."
"Oh, huh. That... actually, I meant to ask anyway," you say. "We're intending to meet Miss Toshimichi officially at some point. Would you like to come along? We could make it a little coalition!"
"Maybe Miss Tsuruya would be interested too?" Mami murmurs out loud as she vigorously stirs a batch of roux. Beside her, you brown the peeled and chopped vegetables and onions as you chat with Kazumi.
"Heck, she might be insulted if we didn't invite her," you agree with a smile.
"We'd love to!" Kazumi says brightly. "We've never been to Tokyo before, and meeting the magical girls there must be fascinating!"
"Alright! We'll come pick you up when the time comes, then," you say. "Also, uh... what have you tested Umika's protections against? I'd rather be absolutely sure, and we're running a little enchantment practice session right now, so..."
"Oh! Well, uh, she makes ofuda that we wear. And we tested it against her own magic, and me copying that. Niko tried stuff with her stuff too," Kazumi says. "Mind reading stuff!"
[] Raise something else with Kazumi
- [] Anri Airi
- [] Ask about something else?
[] Enchantment practice
- [] Per vote in abeyance
- [] Something else?
[] Enchantment
- [x] Ask Mami for advice
- [] Focus on general defensive enchantments
- [] Focus on anti-mind magic enchantments
- [] Focus on something else?
- [] Specifics
-- [] Suggest that Sayaka try to copy enchantments
-- [] Share enchantment booster
-- [] Experiment with emotionally charged magic
[] Talking about Oriko
- [] Vote in abeyance
[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
Alright, so I kind of hate to do this, but I'm cutting this off here. Jet lag is kicking my ass, and I'd rather not leave you guys hanging for too long without an update, so... here!
Ultimately, though, the whistle of the kettle has Mami reluctantly freeing herself from your arms to pour out hot water, and you follow her back out into the living room. You insist on carrying the tray, of course.
"'eyo," Sayaka says, waving lazily from the floor. Madoka beams at you from her seat on the right side of the sofa, Hitomi on the other side and Homura sitting awkwardly in the middle.
"Heya!" you say brightly, beaming at everyone and setting the tray down on the coffee table. You sit down on the floor and start pouring for everyone.
"So, what's on the schedule?" Sayaka asks.
"Enchantment practice, some bits of news to share, some other bits of news to share and before we start the practice I should probably check in the Pleiades have any relevant knowledge we can borrow, hm..." you say.
"Will you all be staying for dinner?" Mami asks, smiling. "We'll need to cook, too."
"Yeah!" Sayaka says happily, pumping her fists in the air. "Well, Hitomi can't, right? And, uh, Homura? Are you staying?"
"I'm sorry to miss your cooking, but I'm expected home for dinner," Hitomi says with an apologetic smile. "Don't let me stop you!"
"... yes," Homura says, glancing from you to Mami.
"I'll be happy to stay for dinner!" Madoka says.
"Great," Mami says, beaming. She passes teacups around the table, carefully balancing one on Sayaka's forehead. Sayaka goes cross-eyed staring at the cup, and you go misty-eyed staring at Mami, because Mami being happy and confident enough in her friendships to tease someone is amazing.
Besides, you don't really need an excuse to stare-and-or-smile at Mami.
You blink, shaking your head. You had something else to... ah, yes. "Hitomi?"
"Yes?" The green-haired girl blinks quizzically at you.
"Uh... so about the dinner with your parents this weekend?" you ask. "Is it alright if Homura comes along too?"
"Oh, ah," Hitomi says, and nods, pulling her phone out. "I'll ask, but it shouldn't be a problem."
"Thank you," you say.
"What did you mean about asking the Pleiades Saints?" Madoka asks as she accepts a cup, sipping daintily. "Kazumi and her friends, right?"
"Yup, that's them," you say with a smile. You sling an arm around Mami's waist as she finishes distributing the cups, and pull her down into a hug beside you. "And, well, it ties into some of the news I have, about Tokyo."
You catch Homura's eye for a split second before continuing.
"So, uh, very briefly, Sayaka and I went to Tokyo earlier in the afternoon," you say. Sayaka offers a lazy thumbsup from her position on the floor. "We met with the Osaki group, and they seem nice."
"One of 'em has a boyfriend!" Sayaka declares with an upthrust finger.
"... and one of them has a boyfriend," you agree. "Anyway, so, Tokyo... seems interesting. Not necessarily in a bad way, but it's kind of interesting to me. The Osaki group girls seemed to be very insistent that we could only visit if we considered it an unofficial visit, and, they didn't want to accept help, either. And... Tokyo apparently has twenty seven magical girl groups."
"Not all of them are large groups," Homura notes. "A few are just pairs or single magical girls. People come and go."
"Huh," you say, blinking. "Right, I guess I'll rephrase - Tokyo has twenty seven districts with magical girls. They answer, ish, to the Chiyoda group, which is in turn led by Toshimichi Akane, who's supposed to be descended from, uh... Emperor Shōwa, but she leads because of charisma and power."
"Districts?" Hitomi asks. "Oh, and... my mother says it won't be a problem if Homura wants to come for the dinner as well. So, ah, Homura, with your confirmation?"
Homura nods. You beam at both of them.
"Right, thank you, Hitomi!" you say. "And yes, districts. Apparently the hunting territories are fixed, but magical girls are swapped around. And there are twenty seven of them. I've got a pamphlet around here somewhere..." You pat your pockets down, and find the pamphlet in hammerspace after a moment.
Hitomi takes it, peering at the brightly coloured paper with interest. Madoka makes a thoughtful noise, leaning over Homura to see. Homura freezes, petrified.
Nobody else seems to notice Mami smothering a giggle as she fusses with the teapot.
"There's a lot of critical information missing from here," Madoka says. "It's very... political."
"Politically biased," Hitomi agrees with a clinically disapproving sniff. "Still, somewhat informative. And informative in what it doesn't include."
"Do you know how disputes are settled, procedurally?" Madoka asks. She sits back, taking the pamphlet with her, and Homura finally starts to breathe again.
"The small issues they have a chat group for, apparently," you say. "The larger ones, apparently they call meetings for, which brings me to the real thing I raise for now? I'm... pretty sure that Miss Toshimichi has some kind of memory magic, and she uses it to keep the peace."
"Ah," Hitomi says, pursing her lips. "That's interesting. Of what nature is that memory magic?"
"I don't know, yet," you say. "I intend to find out, but before we go into it... well, I'm hoping that tonight's enchantment practice might be geared towards protection from mind magic? And defenses in general, maybe?" You give Mami a smile.
"I think we can work that in," Mami agrees gravely, hiding a little smile.
"And that's what you wanna brainmail the Pleiades for, hm?" Sayaka says.
"Pretty much," you say. "If they know something, then there's no need to reinvent the wheel, and we can practice enchanting something else."
Madoka makes a faintly disapproving noise, closing the pamphlet with a flick.
"They're very heavy-handed about this," she says. "Especially if they're using memory magic."
"Yyyyyeah," Sayaka agrees. "I got the impression that most of the groups are reasonably happy about it, barring the few who are trying to make trouble over something or another."
"Meeting this Miss Toshimichi while protecting yourself against what are prospectively, her powers..." Hitomi purses her lips thoughtfully. "It certainly makes a statement. Of intelligence, preparation, and arguably of intent."
"Then it becomes a question of how Miss Toshimichi might interpret it," Mami muses quietly. "Whether it's an open threat to her regime, as it were, or simply of being prepared."
"Not enough information," Madoka concludes, pouting. "And there was all that fuss about official and unofficial meetings and them not accepting your help! It's obviously significant but it's all a bit weird and we don't know enough..."
Madoka trails off, even her twintails seeming to droop a little in disappointment.
"Ah, hmm. I think I covered most of the main points, but I'll write up something later if you guys want? I'd appreciate any insights you might have," you say. "But that's later. For now, uh... lemme hit up the Pleiades first, and then we can decide what to do for enchantments?"
"Hmm..." Mami smiles. "I'll see what we can cook for dinner in the meantime, then."
"We'll be here," Sayaka says.
"No, we should be discussing the class project," Hitomi says with an amused quirk of her lips.
"Oh fiiiine," Sayaka says, removing the teacup and pouting exaggeratedly as she drags herself upright and fumbles for her schoolbags, passing Hitomi's over.
You grin at Mami, letting her lead you into the kitchen by dint of simply not letting go of her when she stands. She laughs, looping her arm around yours to guide you properly.
"Hey, Niko, do you have a moment?" you speak across the aether, leaning against the kitchen counter to watch Mami putter around the kitchen.
"Ah!" Mami says, brightening. "Sabrina, what do you think of curry and omurice?"
"Oh, that sounds good," you agree. You crack a faint grin. "Homura'll probably be disappointed we're not making cream stew, but we can't cook that every time. Even if I do want to fatten her up..."
"Fatten her up, Sabrina?" Mami asks, raising a golden eyebrow at you.
"She's all skin and bone!" you protest. "She definitely doesn't take care of herself, you know that."
"Yes, but 'fatten her up'?" Mami giggles. She starts rummaging about the cabinet, pulling out spices and flour and various ingredients.
"I stand by what I said!" you say, huffing fondly as you join her to collect ingredients from the fridge. The chicken needs to defrost a bit, and you can start the curry to simmer while you practice.
Mami laughs, bumping her hip against yours, and you beam at her.
... Also, Niko hasn't responded.
"Niko? Hello?" you say. You frown, and think in Kazumi's general direction. "Kazumi?"
"Oh, hey Sabrina!" Kazumi says brightly, and continues when you mentally include Mami as well. "Mami! Hi!"
"Hello, Kazumi," Mami says warmly. "How are you?"
"Good, good, no complaints!" Kazumi says. "How are you? What's up?"
"We're good, but uh - is Niko OK? I just tried to contact her, but she didn't respond," you say.
"... one complaint!" Kazumi says, in that same bright and cheerful tone. "If she's fallen asleep in her lab again, then I will need to Have Words with her. Give me a moment!"
You can hear the Capital Letters in there. Mami catches your eye, an amused smile curling her lips as she starts mixing up the spices for the curry. You grab a vegetable peeler and start peeling carrots and a few potatoes for the curry.
"Asleep in the lab," Kazumi confirms a few minutes later. She sounds put-upon and yet impossibly fond. "Did you need something from her? I'm going to put her to bed properly, but I can leave a message or maybe I might know?"
"Well, I dropped by Tokyo today," you say, and proceed to fill Kazumi in briefly. You go over the basics, outlining the meeting and what you'd learned about Tokyo - including the meeting where Meiji had apparently stormed in angry, and then left in peace after a quiet word from Toshimchi Akane.
"Interesting," Kazumi says as you finish explaining. "Either they have some serious blackmail or they have some major mind magic, huh?"
"And the fact that no one seems to really question this kind of thing -or know much about Toshimchi in person- makes me kind of wary, yeah," you say. "I was wondering if Niko might have experience with defending against this kind of thing?"
"Nope!" Kazumi says. "But Umika does! Her True Writing is good for that kind of magic."
"Oh, huh. That... actually, I meant to ask anyway," you say. "We're intending to meet Miss Toshimichi officially at some point. Would you like to come along? We could make it a little coalition!"
"Maybe Miss Tsuruya would be interested too?" Mami murmurs out loud as she vigorously stirs a batch of roux. Beside her, you brown the peeled and chopped vegetables and onions as you chat with Kazumi.
"Heck, she might be insulted if we didn't invite her," you agree with a smile.
"We'd love to!" Kazumi says brightly. "We've never been to Tokyo before, and meeting the magical girls there must be fascinating!"
"Alright! We'll come pick you up when the time comes, then," you say. "Also, uh... what have you tested Umika's protections against? I'd rather be absolutely sure, and we're running a little enchantment practice session right now, so..."
"Oh! Well, uh, she makes ofuda that we wear. And we tested it against her own magic, and me copying that. Niko tried stuff with her stuff too," Kazumi says. "Mind reading stuff!"
[] Raise something else with Kazumi
- [] Anri Airi
- [] Ask about something else?
[] Enchantment practice
- [] Per vote in abeyance
- [] Something else?
[] Enchantment
- [x] Ask Mami for advice
- [] Focus on general defensive enchantments
- [] Focus on anti-mind magic enchantments
- [] Focus on something else?
- [] Specifics
-- [] Suggest that Sayaka try to copy enchantments
-- [] Share enchantment booster
-- [] Experiment with emotionally charged magic
[] Talking about Oriko
- [] Vote in abeyance
[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
[X] Mention Oriko's new powers. Same routine as earlier, explain wish magic and its relationship to a girl's thinking, but take a slightly more emotional/romantic viewpoint so it plays better to Sayaka and Madoka.
-[x] Fill Hitomi in on past decisions about Oriko and Kirika and address any concerns she brings up. She's part of that whole mess too after all.
-[x] Prompt Homura to add her own input as appropriate moments come up for it.
-[x] Quickly point out to Homura that you're taking a different approach, so she knows to pay attention so she can get to know her friends better.
-[x] Fill Hitomi in on past decisions about Oriko and Kirika and address any concerns she brings up. She's part of that whole mess too after all.
-[x] Prompt Homura to add her own input as appropriate moments come up for it.
-[x] Quickly point out to Homura that you're taking a different approach, so she knows to pay attention so she can get to know her friends better.
=====
Alright, so I kind of hate to do this, but I'm cutting this off here. Jet lag is kicking my ass, and I'd rather not leave you guys hanging for too long without an update, so... here!
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banjo2E
Has left the planet
- Location
- Mafia Town
insights
Very pretty, I like it!That... wasn't intentional.... frack... I can fix this!
Update: Easy fix
hey do you take constructive criticism
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
This should be "Hitomi".
E: I got all concerned that Homura was unhappy with her reading the pamphlet, and then realized it was just Homura freezing up due to contact with her crush.
...Hm. We didn't actually tell Madoka about the "official/unofficial" thing. She almost certainly heard it from Sayaka, in or shortly after class. Which rather proves the point that bringing her in on this, where Sabrina can hear her out and address her concerns directly, was the right move.
We should definitely discuss this with Fukushima tomorrow morning.
And nice. Coalition get!
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Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
But hey, pretty bold of Homura to assume Hitomi's parents won't be against her visiting and then asking them herself without her input.
Edit. But yeah, nijad
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
Madoka and Hitomi aren't impressed with Tokyo's level of politics. I can see that they're gonna annihilate Chiyoda on the political level if we let them help.
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
Madoka and Hitomi aren't impressed with Tokyo's level of politics. I can see that they're gonna annihilate Chiyoda on the political level if we let them help.
Hey, let's try not to re-enact Bakumatsu or anything.
This bit had me imagining Homura pretending to be Hitomi.
Green wig, deadpan pokerface and all.