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Puella Magi Adfligo Systema

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Always Happening said:
Honestly, I think that's the principle way she was mishandled: From the intelligence we gathered on her from our two (otherwise) completely reliable (at the time) sources, there was absolutely nothing that gave us any indication that she was capital-emphasis Neutral Evil. And Hell, I'm still not even sure why she came here in the first place.
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I'd be pretty interested in Firn eventually telling us what they expected/wanted to happen, if they think it won't start a flamewar. We don't really know what was intended to happen, right? Based on how powerful she was my guess was we were originally supposed to fight her, or that she had a chance of joining Iowa if we didn't gank her.
 
Sentient Tree said:
I'd be pretty interested in Firn eventually telling us what they expected/wanted to happen, if they think it won't start a flamewar. We don't really know what was intended to happen, right? Based on how powerful she was my guess was we were originally supposed to fight her, or that she had a chance of joining Iowa if we didn't gank her.
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In the three months before Rionna's appearance, Firnagzen had been looking up and soliciting suggestions for good battle music for Sabrina. Furthermore, some WoG in chronological order:
Firnagzen said:
'lil bit of Word of Firn since I'm not sure there's a smooth way to find out IC - she's definitely getting Souls-as-in-the-thing-Madokami-would-come-for, and they're bound in servitude to her.
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Firnagzen said:
Sabrina's an idealistic character who cares about people. There's disagreement over what to do here, and that's honestly expected. Redeem her? Is she redeemable? Take her down? Is that something to stain Sabrina's decision? Can she do it reliably?
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Firnagzen said:
More importantly, some argue over the heinousness of Rionna's actions. Let me make this clear from an out of character position: Do not try and excuse her actions. You can justify them, perhaps, that she's working under a horrible system. She is, and so are Sabrina's friends. However, Rionna has done terrible things. She has not so far displayed any remorse for it. Don't try and both-sides the issue - it's not an acceptable thing to do in political discourse nor here. You're entitled to question her further, yes, or speculate that she might be faking or bluffing or whatnot. But she has absolutely done horrible things.
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Firnagzen said:
Additionally, apropos the "trying the wrong approach" comment - that was in reference to Briefvoice and point-and-click games. You can certainly try to dig deeper into Rionna's motives. She's a stubborn, abrasive girl, but you can dig away. Attacking, offers, counter-offers, all viable approaches.

But once more: she has done terrible things. She hasn't displayed remorse about it.
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Firnagzen said:
Rionna has done terrible, terrible things, and doesn't regret them. There's room to try and redeem or rehabilitate her, yes, but not to excuse her.

Now, the thing about Nadia is that she's seen some shit. Rionna isn't a mass murderer, doesn't mass oppress magical girls. The University Group and the Sendai Group, for example, wouldn't even have been blips to Nadia. And Nadia isn't omniscient. She can only know of the big things - Rionna quietly wandering off to execute a magical girl or two here and there? That's not something Nadia might know about unless she hears about it from elsewhere. Keep in mind she doesn't really stay in any given location for long enough to find out about this kind of thing! However, I agree that the implications Nadia left weren't conducive to this current confrontation. That's one of my mistakes. I could have implied Nadia's unreliability in this kind of situation before.
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Firnagzen said:
*sighs*

You know, I keep coming back to this. So I'm going to... break character a bit, as it were, and give a peek behind the GM screen. Rionna is, design-wise, a two-part character. She's got useful powers that you can't replicate. What is Sabrina willing or not willing to tolerate in the name of getting that power? The answer, it seems, is: Not this. And that's good. Sabrina isn't that kind of character.

The thing is... do you remember that quote on the front page? Villains act, heroes react, and all that? Apparently, Sabrina sits by and does nothing. Rionna is meant to be morally black. I should have foreshadowed this a lot better, with Nadia in particular. She's not absolutely reliable. But on the subject of Rionna, well, I don't particularly mind the notion to call a timestop council, to bring her friends in. It's something that I can see Sabrina doing.

Trying to redeem Rionna? Oh, yes, that's something I can see Sabrina trying.

But just... letting Rionna go? I, personally, am having a very hard time reconciling that with Sabrina's character, and yes, she does have one at this point. She's nowhere near flawless, but she's someone who tries.
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Firnagzen said:
As I said - trying to redeem Rionna is something that's absolutely within Sabrina's character. Just because someone's tragic doesn't mean they aren't a monster, yeah?
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Firnagzen said:
Eh. I said morally grey because I was hedging my words - I didn't want to come out and say it because I expected people to read between the lines there. That's my particular style of GMing and writing - I leave strong hints and implications in the text for people to examine... and in this case, I'm breaking that particular style. And sure, she's talking about her sister, in the context of someone she Wished to raise from the dead for the crime of killing said sister. By implication, because even Rionna isn't going to say it in as many words, she made that Wish to exact vengeance -torture- on that person. If you consider raising someone from the dead to torture them, continuously, not particularly monstrous, I don't know what to say.
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Taken as a whole, it's rather blatant that Firn intended Rionna to be a confirmation that Sabrina does what's right, not what's easy, and for that to result in combat with Rionna.
 
... I think we should move on to a different, less contentious topic.

Godwinson said:
Doesn't mean we all need to agree, but it does mean we all need to try to be thoughtful about what the effects of our posts and our proposed plans will be in and out of quest, and...

Be kind to each other, mainly.
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So, in the spirit of moving on - we've dedicated Sunday to a prolonged cleansing trip, which means we shouldn't have any issues taking Mami to a restaurant for a date that evening.

But which restaurant? There's a lot of options, and we'll probably want to reserve a table soon...

https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Restaurants-g298244-Fukushima_Fukushima_Prefecture_Tohoku.html

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g298249-zfp3-Sendai_Miyagi_Prefecture_Tohoku.html

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g1023406-zfp58-Ishinomaki_Miyagi_Prefecture_Tohoku.html
 
also, has anyone ever talked about how she tried to steal our soul and straight up failed, like I can understand her not being able to contact her shades cause of the privacy field, but nothing should have been stopping that, she just couldn't, along with her comment on our soul being "fucking weird" I'm just a little concerned about what the hell sabrina is
 
soulsguardian said:
also, has anyone ever talked about how she tried to steal our soul and straight up failed, like I can understand her not being able to contact her shades cause of the privacy field, but nothing should have been stopping that, she just couldn't, along with her comment on our soul being "fucking weird" I'm just a little concerned about what the hell sabrina is
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Um?

It's not the impression I got from that scene:
Firnagzen said:
She raises a hand and twists it, and you feel the magic surging, but- nothing. Rionna's scowl deepens. Outside your interdiction bubble, Mami stiffens ever so slightly, alert and tense.

"Now," Rionna says. Power, magic infuses her voice, infusing it with odd harmonics that sing and push against you, against your Soul. "Let me go."

And the magic-

Simply slides right off you, rainwater sleeting off an umbrella.

Rionna glares at you, expression tight and... annoyed. Not angry. Not scared. Annoyance.
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I had the impression that she was trying to pull a Jedi Mind Trick on us, an inserted command that failed to insert; but on rereading it, I don't know what the thing she'd tried at first was.

I also think Firn said the Soul-Rip ability would have been more "Kicking-And-Screaming" obvious, but I'd have to go looking for the quote.
 
Redshirt Army said:
So, in the spirit of moving on - we've dedicated Sunday to a prolonged cleansing trip, which means we shouldn't have any issues taking Mami to a restaurant for a date that evening.

But which restaurant? There's a lot of options, and we'll probably want to reserve a table soon...

https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Restaurants-g298244-Fukushima_Fukushima_Prefecture_Tohoku.html

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g298249-zfp3-Sendai_Miyagi_Prefecture_Tohoku.html

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g1023406-zfp58-Ishinomaki_Miyagi_Prefecture_Tohoku.html
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As far as restaurant order goes, I'd prefer something more southerly, In Sendai or Fukushima. Assuming we don't go further that day.

My own game-plan here is to start at Ishinomaki --- on the off chance we manage to snag a witchbombed contact in Ishinomaki during the Fukushima visit --- see if we can find Kato Setsuko's seed and move South towards Sendai from there in case something can be done.*

(It's true that all of those pieces coming together are a longshot, being able to talk to Akkiko in particular, but that aside any given one working seems decently plausible. Fukushima may well have worked with or fought Ishinomaki before, and I've probably talked too many times about how Ishinomaki probably familiar farms.)

... Incidentally, we may want to ask Akemi for a luck enchantment from Akemi Friday or Saturday. I think it would come in handy.

Also I'll note you have a plan there in the afternoon to build a treehouse that kinda interferes with all that. :p

(Also, also: updated the day planner with the day-plan)

*Though that said I won't say that asking Mami's ex-student Kagome Ayaka if she knows any good restaurants in Ishinomaki, with our only explanation being "it's date night" isn't an amusing mental image. ...If we dine in a city we visit then we should probably choose our restaurant that way.
 
Firnagzen said:
She shrugs, squinting at the inside of her flask. "Been in Tokyo before, know a couple o' girls there."

"Huh," you say. You lean forward a little and prop your chin on a fist, your elbow resting on your knee. "After another Grief-cleanser?"

"Fake," She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named says with a shrug. "Made an example out of her."
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I know, I know.

I just want to point it out. Could be that the bestgurl was regularly asking about the Griefers every and each of her acquaintances and mildly threatening them for withholding information.

Could be. Wouldn't even surprise me.

Could also be someone told her about us of her own volition. Like, Tokyo Council found out there's a girl who can cleanse Gems, they receive a confirmation from their agent in the region... and one of them proceeds to tell Rionnnnnnnnnnna that hey, you're interested in Griefbenders, right, right, so I found one.

What I'm trying to say is, it's possible this hypothetical Meguca in question could have had only the best of intentions in her heart of hearts.
On a balance between allowing Nameless Terror to make an example of someone malevolent ( if this new Grief controller is malevolent, of course ) and allowing this potentially malevolent entity to firmly lodge her tendrils and install her reign of terror across all of Japan.

Could also be someone just tried to cynically sicc her at us in hopes of eliminating a problematic inconvenience.

Another interesting piece of information is there is another well-known ( or at least, known ) Griefbender in the region, and she isn't dead or shaded.
Either because she reached an accommodation with She-Who-Must-Not-Named, or because Rionna didn't know of her existence.
Interesting.

I'm sorry, but can we ask Nodoka "Yugito-is-my-waifu" Hatsumi whether Rionna has ever visited her?
When we get on IRCs next time, I mean.
 
Thought, have Kirika go on IRCs and not tell anyone she knows us to see what people are saying.

... or maybe Oriko would be better.

Sabrina: Oriko.. I have.. what are you doing?
Oriko: These bastards don't think Nemo and Cirruci are a vaild pairing! I MUST TELL THEM THEY ARE OBJECTIVELY WRONG.
Sabrina: Kirika... did you get Oriko into anime?
Kirika: Well some of the IRC talk was about it, so I figured it would ler her get into conversations more... worked I guess.
 
In other news, get ready to greet the new fresh meat
He just carpet-bombed his way through the thread and into the most recent chapter

Hey, LonelyWolf999!
Hope you enjoyed the experience
 
soulsguardian said:
also, has anyone ever talked about how she tried to steal our soul and straight up failed, like I can understand her not being able to contact her shades cause of the privacy field, but nothing should have been stopping that, she just couldn't, along with her comment on our soul being "fucking weird" I'm just a little concerned about what the hell sabrina is
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Considering that Sayaka trying to copy our power gets a 404 error, and our power doesn't match our potential at all, and the sheer hilarious amounts of symbolic correspondence it'd have with being Walpurgisnacht, I'm fairly fond of the theory that our soul is somewhere else.
 
Godwinson said:
In the three months before Rionna's appearance, Firnagzen had been looking up and soliciting suggestions for good battle music for Sabrina. Furthermore, some WoG in chronological order:


Taken as a whole, it's rather blatant that Firn intended Rionna to be a confirmation that Sabrina does what's right, not what's easy, and for that to result in combat with Rionna.
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So if not for the flamewar we could have had an epic battle? Dang it. :(
 
Sentient Tree said:
So if not for the flamewar we could have had an epic battle? Dang it. :(
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Likely, our only epic battles will be against Walpurgisnacht and entire Magical Girl teams like Sendai. Against only one or two people (Hyades e.g.), economy of action turns it into something more like a magical SWAT operation.
But hey, that can be satisfying to read in its own right; our takedown of Airi was clean as fuck.
 
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AuraTwilight said:
Considering that Sayaka trying to copy our power gets a 404 error, and our power doesn't match our potential at all, and the sheer hilarious amounts of symbolic correspondence it'd have with being Walpurgisnacht, I'm fairly fond of the theory that our soul is somewhere else.
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if our soul wasn't on our person I would expect us to either 1) not have a soul gem or 2) have our soul gem be more transparent than a clear seed. what I'm getting from my read on it is that we don't have a human soul, we got something else instead. something soul adjacent but that doesn't count as a "soul" to her powers
or maybe its like, the thread already has a claim on sabrina and so its
she-who-must-not-be-named: "you're soul belongs to me griefbender!"
sabrina: "my soul belongs to the collective"
 
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