You know, actually, I'm going to amend my answer to this question. The body is not the soul's fursona. I know far too many people whose bodies aren't anything like anything they'd have chosen for themselves.
No, your body is your soul's fursuit. Complete with wide variation in build quality and accuracy.
Planning, now that is a specialty of mine. Reposting the draft of the Battleplans I wrote for dealing with the Soujo's, with minor additions/ updates added onto it. The operation has been renamed from Pisces to Gemini.
Objective: Create suitable defenses and network to neutralize The Sisters Soujo. Current Prep Time Remaining: 3 Days. Victory Conditions:
1) Madoka remains uncontracted.
2) Minimal to Zero Collateral Damage to Mitakihara.
3) All allies survive.
4) Sisters Soujo are neutralized (Gemmed, or Shattered. Gemmed preferable, though with risk.)
Fail Conditions:
1) Madoka manipulated to contract to save allies.
2) Allied soul gems are stolen or shattered.
3) Unrepairable collateral damage to Mitakihara.
4) Sisters Soujo escapes.
Target: Ayase/ Luca Soujo
Capabilities (Currently known, variables makes intel unreliable):
"Ayase" Soujo
- Avviso dell' Ustione (Burn Notice): Simple Fireball Spell in appearance, its impact against Kanna's clones would suggest temperatures above 870–980°C (1,600–1,800°F) due to the instantaneous conflagration and disintegration of their bodies. Avoid at all cost.
- Secondo Stagione (Second Season): By its appearance, it seems to be an explosion based spell. Assume similarly destructive capabilities.
"Luca" Soujo
- Caso Freddo (Cold Case): An Ice Spell capable of encasing a target. By the way Kazumi was able to free herself, it appears to not cause instantaneous freezing of the body, suggesting its purpose is to imprison its victim to make collecting easier.
- No other demonstratable abilities were shown, however, this may be because of how the Sisters Soujo decided to skip to their full capability. Due to Luca being less known of a threat, engage her with greater caution than Ayase.
Sisters Soujo (combined):
- Picchi Gemellati (Twin Peaks): Able to use their individual spell sets in perfect synchronization, taking advantage of the effects caused by severe cold meeting severe heat to generate explosions (magic.... ugh.... headdesks lol)
- Both are expert swordfighters with swift reflexes (Ayase demonstrating the capabilities of slicing rockets clean in two). Meleé Fighters be cautious (especially Sayaka)
Guaranteed Assets:
1) White Ribbon Team (Mami Tomoe, Sabrina Vee, Homura Akemi, Sayaka Miki)
2) Kure Team (Oriko and Kirika Kure)
3) Pleiades Saints Team (Michiru Kazusa, Kaoru Maki, Umika Misaki, Saki Asami, Mirai Wakaba, Satomi Usagi, Niko Kanna)
4) Fukushima Mercenary Team (Tsuruya Yuki, Akiyama Atsuko, Koizumi Sasami, Nishimura Moe, Nanami Shinobu)
Conditional/ Potential Assets:
1) Kazamino Team (Kyoko Sakura, *Yuma Chitose)
2) Animator Team (Wakahisa Hiroko, Gaikotsu Masami, Ono Megane)
3) Sendai Team (Mori Rin, Tachibana Sakura, Tanaka Tamiko, Minami Yumi. Hamasaki Akiko currently out of comission)**
4) Touhoku Team (Suzuki Rei, Suzuki Haru, Tsubaki Chouko, Umeko Yuko)**
5) Shiogama Refugees (Watanabe Noriko, Saito Akemi)
*Yuma Chitose should be held in reserve and out of the line of battle, however, her personality as shown in Oriko Magica means that its highly likely we might end up seeing her assist with Kyoko anyway, regardless of whether or not we suggest that she'd sit this battle out.
**Avoid deploying both forces at the same time.
Assessment:
In OTL (or whichever loop PMKM occurred in), The Sisters Soujo were able to be taken down by synchronized attacks between Kazumi and Kanna. Therefore, involving our conditional/ potential assets for this operation is unnecessary and could, in fact, drain vital individuals needed for Walpurgisnacht and Iowa. However, we do not know if the variables that have affected this timeline (including Feathers) have in somehow caused The Sisters Soujo to have gained additional abilities/ spells/ etc. Therefore, I recommend at least bringing in The Pleiades Saints to bolster White Ribbon in offensive capabilities. Due to how the original fight concluded, White Ribbon and the Saints should provide sufficient force necessary.
In addition, I recommend that Fukushima is to be brought in. However, their role should be defensive in nature. Have them guard the Shiogama Refugees and the Kure's in the event Soujo decides to try and use them as bait to lure us in for a rescue. After we can confirm that the Refugees and or the Kure's are no longer in danger (by virtue of us engaging the Sisters Soujo's directly), then Team Kure (and the Refugees if they wish too. They, however, do not need too) can assist in subduing Ayase/ Luca Soujo. We want to conserve their forces and energy for Walpurgis, so keeping them in reserve should be the smart approach.
Hopefully this can provide a framework for how to deal with those two.
I'll point out that with regards to objectives, we may not be able to talk the Soujos down, but we'll probably want to find out why they're that kind of crazy, why they came here, and then take measures move to rehabilitate them (and their collection) once they're beaten. (Given their involvement with evil nuts in PMKM, I find it not unlikely that they were mercenaries hired specifically by Kanna Hijiri there. In which case why there're here and who might have sent them are both fairly important questions for us.)
The Asunaro planning session during Red Letter Day does say they're here for us specifically, but whether that's us as a rare power or as a result of Sendai is unknown.
Heh, honestly it occurs to me that this may be a place where Anri could help us, if we can talk her into it and temporarily reduce her restrictions enough: Regrowing bodies for those the Soujos have taken.
Also, rereading the bit where they're mentioned, I was wrong in my scheduling: According to Oriko, the Soujo's may show up around week four. Beyond the possibility of them just not showing up I'm going to take that to mean we should expect any ETA to be a bit... fuzzy. As a rule I'd prepare for them to be anywhere from a day early to several days later than expected. (Basically, a probability bell curve that peaks on Monday and tails off slowly.)
With that in mind I think your idea of using Sayaka and the birds to watch for them is quite good, but and increasingly iffy on the rest. I'd argue that we should prepare to have assets ready to receive them at any time, rather than having plans that require us setting everyone up at a specific time or even day. Should we chose to act defensively we'll want things ready to respond as needed.
The alternative is that we preempt the matter and ride out to meet them but I'm not so sure how well that would work, in both action and consequences. I think we should ask Fukushima what they've heard about the girls next time we meet.
Nope. This has been addressed before in-thread, but let's settle it yet again.
Rebellion was released October 26, 2013.
PMAS was started May 19, 2014. The quoted post was from January 21, 2016.
Firnagzen had seven months after the release of Rebellion to incorporate it into the story he'd been working up for a year prior to starting the quest, and then another year and a half to decide how to handle colored-grief.
Probably one of us not reading things in a while and getting so confused that they messed up the dates. Then once it's out there, everybody reads it, sees a respected oldbie said it, and assumes its probably true.
Wouldn't be the first time someone here misremembered a plot point they had last read years ago or just made faulty assumptions off incomplete information.
I mean...why not just ask a series of increasingly blunt questions to Sayaka? Has she been having vivid dreams that seem to resemble events before they happen? Does she have sudden thoughts on how doing something or not doing something would be really bad, when normally it wouldn't be something she'd worry about? Does the phrase Law of Cycles mean anything to her? Is she on a mission from god?
I mean...why not just ask a series of increasingly blunt questions to Sayaka? Has she been having vivid dreams that seem to resemble events before they happen? Does she have sudden thoughts on how doing something or not doing something would be really bad, when normally it wouldn't be something she'd worry about? Does the phrase Law of Cycles mean anything to her? Is she on a mission from god?
That's the basic approach I'm thinking yeah, just a matter of considering what precise examples to use.
EDIT Also something to consider WRT Soujos sisters and planning: The Saints aren't universally lichbombed like we are, and those two are something of a walking lichbomb.
Fail Conditions:
1) Madoka manipulated to contract to save allies.
2) Allied soul gems are stolen or shattered.
3) Unrepairable collateral damage to Mitakihara.
4) Sisters Soujo escapes.
really as long as we recover all soul gems without the sisters escaping I think that having a gem stolen isn't an I
immediate fail condition. its a critical scenario and basically as bad as it can get but its not impossible to bounce back from
5) In order to ensure Soujo is as predictable as we can possibly make her... I want to employ a decoy and use ourselves as bait. Specifically, see if we can make a life-size copy of ourselves (or just a very witchy-feeling statue that should feel like us until she's very close) and lure her into an ambush zone. If she comes early in the day, she'll eat Limiti Esterni and Luce Prima. If later in the day, Time-Stop and RPG Fire. Let Homu do Homu.... Right... her captive Soul Gems... give me a second to work out how to rescue them...
so should we try to make like a full sized grief double, pretend its us, and make it feel a witchy as possible while we stay staround fifty meters away waiting to snipe the sisters when they make there move?
I mean...why not just ask a series of increasingly blunt questions to Sayaka? Has she been having vivid dreams that seem to resemble events before they happen? Does she have sudden thoughts on how doing something or not doing something would be really bad, when normally it wouldn't be something she'd worry about? Does the phrase Law of Cycles mean anything to her? Is she on a mission from god?
Random thought I had during my morning commute: If we were created due to a wish by Madoka, and Madoka was able to make said wish due to her potential, and Madoka had the potential due to Homura's looping, doesn't that mean Homura looping was the reason we can fix everything?
Random thought I had during my morning commute: If we were created due to a wish by Madoka, and Madoka was able to make said wish due to her potential, and Madoka had the potential due to Homura's looping, doesn't that mean Homura looping was the reason we can fix everything?
Currently writing up a new revision for Op: Gemini, taking into account current concerns and adding in a ROE. Question: Does anyone know what time it roughly is in-universe right now?
Edit: apologies for the notification, I goofed up formatting while typing this...
Just checked the JP IRC when we talked to (Kyushu?), and I've estimated our current time to be somewhere around 1600 hrs. I'm gonna spitball and call it 1630 for my write up.
If your plan depends on the current time, you're undoubtedly making assumptions about the future which are far too precise to possibly hold up. They probably won't survive the next two updates, much less the arrival of a hostile force with an arrival date no more precise than "sometime next week".
Is there a reason we'll need to do anything aside from hunting them down then ganking them from timestop? We've got a wide area search ability with Mami and the Soujus are pure elemental attackers.
If your plan depends on the current time, you're undoubtedly making assumptions about the future which are far too precise to possibly hold up. They probably won't survive the next two updates, much less the arrival of a hostile force with an arrival date no more precise than "sometime next week".
Honestly, I needed the time more for formatting the write-up and calculating how long it might take to achieve things, nothing more. The new plans I'm writing basically break my original plan down into larger stages with phases of wariness and alert so that we don't strain ourselves.
Is there a reason we'll need to do anything aside from hunting them down then ganking them from timestop? We've got a wide area search ability with Mami and the Soujus are pure elemental attackers.
They've demonstrated in PMKM the reflexes to intercept Niko's finger missile attacks and slice the rockets clean in two. Her elemental attacks are as strong as her meleé attacks.
They've demonstrated in PMKM the reflexes to intercept Niko's finger missile attacks and slice the rockets clean in two. Her elemental attacks are as strong as her meleé attacks.
I still don't think we should discount the gank from timestop option. I'm sure it won't be as effective as we'd like, but being able to missles and rockets from a distance and being able to dodge a bullet to the head appearing from point blank are two different things.
I still don't think we should discount the gank from timestop option. I'm sure it won't be as effective as we'd like, but being able to missles and rockets from a distance and being able to dodge a bullet to the head appearing from point blank are two different things.
Not discounting it, mind, I just prefer to err on the side of caution. We don't know much about Luca Souju due to how little she actually appeared in PMKM compared to her sister Ayase... and that's not to mention the fact that with how many variables this timeline has thrown at us, the plans I'm writing have to err on caution to avoid being blind-sided by sudden new power reveals or the like.
If we ever have someone who we cannot safely permit even that one instant of time, then we use grief to destroy their body except for the part their soul gem is at. We can heal her body from anything short of complete destruction, after all.
If we ever have someone who we cannot safely permit even that one instant of time, then we use grief to destroy their body except for the part their soul gem is at. We can heal her body from anything short of complete destruction, after all.
I did actually consider that as an option... just worried about whether the grief we used could radiate and affect the Soul Gems she collected. Though on the whole, not a bad idea actually. I'll put it onto the write-up.
Currently writing up a new revision for Op: Gemini, taking into account current concerns and adding in a ROE. Question: Does anyone know what time it roughly is in-universe right now?
Edit: apologies for the notification, I goofed up formatting while typing this...
Blinks... I... uh.... might need some caffeine eheheheh...... possibly re-reading both lore and what information we do have on the Souju's might've burnt my head a little and info like that slipped. Apologies.
Edit: Just gonna add... @_@ Info overload can suuuck sometimes.
we could always take the easiest option and just do a quick decapitation if we ever need to body kill them, it doesn't take anymore energy than full disintegration, is just as effective as it, and is less prone to collateral damage
we could always invest in getting some kind of enzyme or acid that only eats organic material and just throw it on them
god that's kinda dark, I really don't want to know what any bystanders would think seeing two teenagers murdering each other in frilly costumes
Wait with the Soujos.... is there anything to keep Homura and Sabrina from just shooting their gems from timestop?
Other then it being use of lethal force? (Which means I'd want Mami, as Second Owner of Mitakihara and generally being the girl in charge, to give approval first)
