Hokay. Having reread the chapter three times and thrown out a draft and a half I have a clear vote that does a bunch of things we really want and -- critically -- directly addresses Homura's question.
Homura wants something tangible now -- and we're going to give it to her.
"We can teach you."
"Tell me how."
- How what we're offering is different from the sources she's tried before
- Actual example
- Get clear exposition of what Homura does and doesn't understand about her actions via that example
This vote seems like something that could be converted to a "knowledge base + general goals" format. I have another meeting today and some more work to do, so I won't be able to alter this a lot until tomorrow, but... I think I can see how to do that and I'll probably try.
At any rate, proving to Homura that we actually can teach her about this stuff should help immensely.
[X] Please continue to take whatever liberties you please with this, Firn. The chapters read better that way.
[X] The first step to mastering a skill is recognizing the existence of all its component pieces. The second step is understanding those, and the third is putting all of them together in different ways to make different effects. To go back to walking -- first you figure out that balancing and flexing your leg muscles are things you can do. Then you nail those down. Then after a while you don't even think about those things, you just run or walk.
-[X] Reading guides and books was a decent idea, but those are going to be aimed at people with a specific skill level: the "generic" one, the one that so many people have because they spent a decade and a half socializing instead of confined to bed rest with a chronic heart condition. They're written for the purpose of explaining to people who have figured out balance and muscles how to run and walk. "Everybody" already knows how to balance and flex, so nobody writes guides for those things, or even bothers mentioning them. Continuing the metaphor, her problems are at a lower level than "how to run", so reading a guide on "how to run" that assumes she knows how to balance and how to flex... It's completely useless. It won't teach her what she needs to know.
--[X] "How" you can teach her, then, is this: you can identify what she's doing wrong, point it out, teach her why it's wrong, and teach her or point her towards ways to learn all the options for doing it right. There are specific things you know she doesn't understand and know you can teach her, and if there are other things she doesn't get that you're not aware of, then you'll figure that out as you go. The first thing you'd work on would be signaling, because you know for fact that that's a huge obstacle for her, but overall, there just isn't any reason this won't work. You just need... Samples.
---[X] Hologram up the scene in the abandoned section of mall, starting with Homura dropping in and ending with Sayaka fire extinguishing her. Include audio. Ask Homura what her goals were going into that conversation, then dissect the scene. Homura may well understand some of what you say; if she does, then make it clear you're laying everything out to see what she doesn't. Pay attention to what Homura does and doesn't understand -- that will direct what we focus on.
----[X] Guidepoints:
-----[X] Point out how Madoka flinches away + other indicators that she is afraid of Homura in this scene. When people adopt certain attitudes towards you, they tend to stop listening to what you actually say. Fear, disrespect, distrust, hatred, etc are all problematic and, worse, generally precipitate each other.
------[X] Explain factors contributing to Madoka being afraid in this scene. The location (dilapidated, somewhere she wouldn't usually go and isn't used to being), the use of violence (taboo, absent from normal life), positioning (Homura standing over Madoka -- height disparity is often intimidating and standing over someone especially signals nothing good), tone (hostile, demonstrate what you mean by that if asked).
-------[X] All of these factors send different kinds of signals, and of varying magnitude, but in this scene all of them suggest threat. What she chooses to say is almost irrelevant at that point, especially to Sayaka, in the same sense that if Mikuni showed up at Madoka's house with a gun, Homura would be unlikely to care about the words coming out of her mouth. Standing over Madoka was probably the worst mistake she made in this case, assuming the violence against Kyubey was unavoidable -- if she'd sat or even just kneeled when Madoka ended up on the ground, Sayaka wouldn't have assaulted her and MadoSaya would have been much more willing to hear her out.
-----[X] Her word choice was mediocre. People have to be convinced to do things if they don't immediately see a good reason for doing them, and they're frequently skeptical of things they don't see a justification for. On top of that, people tend to react negatively to being told to do things they don't see a reason to do. From Madoka's perspective, she's found an injured creature. Homura tells her to get away from it and seems threatening, but as far as Madoka can tell that will just result in the creature being hurt more -- worse, Homura is coming off as threatening, so Madoka will be disinclined to listen to anything she has to say. A better option would be to skip the "get away from that creature" bit, kneel, and accuse Kyubey of being dangerous in some fashion -- "a trickster", perhaps, or in some other fashion related to things which seem good but are actually Very Bad -- to give Madoka a reason to "get away" from Kyubey rather than just telling her to do it.
[X] Break.
