So, I feel compelled to respond to the speculation as regards talking with Homura about her shield.
Generally? I think we shouldn't be doing it at the moment.
The thing is, since roughly one point five days ago IC we have access to options IMMEASURABLY superior to blindly poking at things that might be triggers for Homura. We should be exploring those options *before* we do anything else with Homura's issues.
To be more specific...
Recall that Homura sees the people around her as being contiguous across loops. Initially this was a roadblock for us: now it's an asset, because it means that she sees our Mami and past Mamis as being one and the same.
This means that it is within Mami's purview, as one of the people who "suffered the consequences of Homura's actions", to *judge Homura's actions and their results.* Remember that scene in Rebellion at the park? Where Homura asks Madoka what she'd want? The scene that pushes Homura to go out and fucking tear down Madokami?
*Pauses for collective "oh, fuck"*
Yeah, so, like that, way lessened by it being Mami instead of Madoka, but positive, informed, and centered on some message like "Homura, you did the right thing by looping, even if it didn't work, even if it hurt us, I'd rather be fighting this than not."
If we can pull that off with Mami and then encore it with as much of the rest of the cast as possible... I mean, replicating that with Sayaka is starting to look like it will be possible inside a week IC. And Sayaka... Sayaka can speak to Madoka's opinion.
*Spreads hands*
I can have this pulled off with Mami by Monday morning IC no problem. If you go reread
the loopbomb, this is nothing more than a very careful extension of what happened there, building off of us encouraging Mami to believe she can help people and off of our much earlier conversation with Homura about how she feels about the loops. And despite how simple it is to pull off, it's a huge game changer. I need, like, one-two posts of us grabbing Mami to go over some stuff on Homura and that's basically it for prereqs.
So, yeah, basically, let's put off poking Homura about her shield until we get that done? I promise you, it will be a *lot* safer that way.
...
On a different note, I had another idea after rereading loopbomb...
"Mm." Mami nods, the curls of her hair brushing over your shirt with a soft rustle. "Actually... one question?"
"Mm?" you echo.
"There's... there's more secrets, right? And one of them is the one that... you were worried about telling me?" Mami asks, slow and careful.
"Yeah," you say. Unease prickles down your spine. "Why do you ask?"
"I just wanted to be sure," Mami says. "Morbid fascination of a sort?" She reaches up, curling her fingers gently through your hair.
"Oh," you say. You'd promised, but the thought still sits ill with you. It doesn't feel like this is the right time, and you're terrified of... breaking Mami again. "I... I did promise I'd tell you, if you wanted to know."
"I know," Mami murmurs. You twitch a little when her finger slides gently against the shell of your ear, exploring curiously. "I... maybe another time."
"Are you sure?" you ask.
"Are you?" Mami counters. She disengages a little, far enough to inspect your face. "It's... really eating you up, isn't it?"
"It's... complicated," you say after a moment. "I want to tell you. I don't like keeping secrets, least of all from you. But I'm scared."
Mami nods, solemn and serious. "And you're trying to figure out how and when to tell me?"
"Yeah," you say, biting your lip. "It's just... it's hard."
"Then alright," Mami says. She settles back against your side. "Tell me, when you figure it out."
"That simple?" You can't stop yourself from asking, poking at it like an itching scab. "What if I never figure it out?"
"It is, and you will," Mami says. "I trust you, Sabrina."
"Oh." What else can you say to that? "I... I won't let you down."
What if we take the witchbomb, and we *bust it up*?
Like, I can't believe I hadn't conceived of this before it's so fucking simple. We can just take out the nastier parts of the witchbomb, and we can just say "Yeah so after we contract QB wants us dead for energy. But he's an enlightened evil scumbag and figures he's better off making it all seem pretty and whatnot so he doesn't just outright try to get people killed very often." And we just leave that as "yeah this is part of that damn thing."
I don't really want to drop that *right now*. But, uh, it seems to me that at this point Mami will believe us that this is part of the secret and trust that we'll make it to the rest of it at some point -- she about said as much. And, well, this hurts a whole lot less than the witchbomb while knocking out a sizeable chunk of that bomb and giving Mami a way, way better picture of the worldview.
It's not something I'd suggest for anyone else, but... Mami *got* us on the whole thing in that post. She's... She would be okay with the half truth until we could figure out the other half to her, she basically said as much.
So, yeah, that's an idea.
On a side thought, are we the only meguca who isn't naturally waterproof? Because it seems like no one else cares, while we were making an umbrella.
...
[X] Stop using an umbrella
-[X] Use magic to stay dry
This is actually a bad habit of ours, solving the simpler problems with grief instead of growing more familiar with magic.
