"And then what?" she asks, scowling at you.
"When we know where they are, we pay them a visit," you say. "If they're hostile, we smash
Needs identification as Kyouko.
*groans*
I wrote a vote guys! It's a good vote, too!
Unfortunately it's about 500 words past "oversized" and into "Kai, no."
Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii will try to find a way to cut this down! And extend it! Yeah!
Ay yi yi.
Bright side, this would sort out all the internal social problems around this! And represents manifestly
involving our team! And provides a bunch of long-term value by roping our team into fully recognizing our military goals and all the calculations we're doing behind the scenes!
It's actual, proper social involvement of our team!
But it's like 900 words.
I mean, doing this leaves us probably one vote from being in the sky and traveling to Iowa! We'd just have to grab everyone, ask them to tackle things as needed, and be on our way! But.
But it's like 900 words.
It's 900 words of doing the right thing!
But it's like 900 words.
-_-
I will try~
To cut this doooooooooooooown~
[X] Telepathy broad group, Homura:
-[X] Collect meeting location reports.
-[X] Call for Homura to initiate. She might need some help from Sayaka to get up here but it's faster than us going to her.
[X] If at any point in this vote Kyouko doesn't understand, get, or know about something, explain it for her up to the usual infosec standards (no bombs, no loops, etc)
[X] Get some white noise or music going in timestop, and see if you can get some color into the space in a way that's normal-ish. Take suggestions, and do what you all can to make things more friendly. Get Kyouko some pocky -- maybe Homura has some in her shield?
-[X] Note that you've done something like this once before, and it wears on people.
[X] With Mami, Kyouko, Homura, Sayaka, Yuma:
-[X] You need to lock down who's doing what where. You're going to talk a whole bunch -- everyone else should chime in whenever they want -- and then you're going to ask them to make some crucial decisions.
-[X] You have to fill slots protecting Mitakihara, and you have to do it with people you can absolutely trust because Kyubey is out to get Madoka and if he's given the chance to push events, he'll push them to screw her.
--[X] Everybody talking right now, you trust implicitly -- yes you, Kyouko, or you wouldn't be part of this conversation. The Pleiades, you basically trust implicitly, because they orbit Kazumi, and Kazumi can be trusted implicitly. Masami and Hiroko also, you believe you can trust with your friends -- they're good people, and you pretty much saved their lives.
---[X] Mika is climbing the ladder awfully quickly as of late. Powerful with decent morals and willing to actively help you against bad guys doesn't grow on trees. She's even in some of the same circles as Hitomi... You're not sure you're comfortable exposing Madoka or Nagisa or such to her yet, but you could definitely stand to ask her to do some hunting around town and be on call for defense if needed.
--[X] As an aside, Oriko and Kirika are going to fight Iowa. To be blunt, either you don't trust them and it's better they're in Southeast Asia fighting Iowa with us than in Mitakihara while we're gone, or you do trust them and Kirika's antimagic is a valuable asset and Oriko's clairvoyance is an extra tracking option. Speaking of, Sayaka should copy that -- it'll prove she isn't lying about it and all the reasonable objections she had to Sayaka copying her powers previously are now defunct.
--[X] Of the people we listed, Sayaka and Homura are going for sure. Denying this to Sayaka would be awful; even if she were to volunteer to stay behind, you wouldn't accept it, you know full well that being directly part of this would be a *validating* experience for her, and that's ignoring the versatility she brings and that you think some of her powers are antimagic-durable. Homura is a no-brainer; the logistics are a nightmare without her and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Yuma is presumably
staying -- you assume Kyouko wants her out of this fight, and bluntly, the best way she can help Kyouko right now is to be safe and sound when this is done. Mami pretty much has to go -- it would raise an awful lot of eyebrows with our allies if she didn't.
--[X] Given all of this, you need to come up with a force disposition that you're all okay with. Your immediate thought was to ask Kyouko to stay, have her wind up talking with Sayaka and Hiroko, but... you really want to leave this mostly up to Homura, Mami, and Kyouko. If they're unanimously okay with both you and Kyouko coming, provided you attach such and such people to Mitakihara and/or your friends, then you can go that route -- *you* think that's probably ideal, something like putting a couple Pleiades plus Masami and Hiroko plus Sayaclone and Yuma spread over our friends and their families, and getting Mika to stick around hunting... but you're not the only one with a full say here. If Kyouko decides she's alright staying, then fine, she gets dibs next fight she wants into and Sayaka feeds her on your dime while you're out. If Kyouko wants to go badly enough, and the group wants someone to stay... it's not in your nature to stay out of something like this, but with Kyouko, Homura, Mami and Sayaka in the fight... You
did say you trust them implicitly. You'd worry and fuss and talk at them a lot before letting them go, and you'd insist on going with them to grab all your allies, but... you'd stay if they asked you to. And melt Iowa to
radioactive slag if anything happened to them.
//On a meta level, throwing literally the holy quintet minus Madoka at a problem plus assorted allies is basically not going to fail to solve it. If this route actually happens, it might result in some fallout -- we can mitigate that by talking at them a lot before letting them go. But they wouldn't lose because we weren't there -- we'd send them off plus a few clear seeds and Kyouko probably represents a stronger combatant than we do in this scenario.
//'Yaka has access to whatever necessary version of our MoF through Kazumi's power, so she can handle the flight if it comes to it. Course-plotting might be interesting but I'm sure we could sketch out the necessary movement for her and whatnot.
---[X] Turn to Homura: if she wants someone particular to stay, or just someone from the group in general, she should just ask for it, we'll make it happen. She doesn't need to explain or justify anything at this point. Since the last day or so, functionally everybody here understands that she's seen more shit than any of the rest of us.
//The combination of this and the previous section means we end up with an effective strike force and a pretty much maximally satisfied team.
[X] Break when you've got back a clear verdict from your team on which core members are doing what and what to ask which allies to do, in terms of defending Mitakihara.
-[X] Add to abeyance: handle Oriko's request.
