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Puella Magi Adfligo Systema

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Redshirt Army said:
Hmm. That is a lot of information about us - could be mind magic that pierced through all our defences, but I think that has to go down in probability - we've got rather a lot of of defences, are all on the lookout for it, and none of us noticed anything.
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In fairness, I should point out that all of our defenses (or at least those that I can recall) have been tuned around preventing our minds from being altered in any way.

I don't think we actually have anything that just generally prevents passive mindreading as a power.
 
Spectral Waltz said:
I don't think we actually have anything that just generally prevents passive mindreading as a power.
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We do - Sayaka's enchantment is "mental invisibility" whose entire purpose is to prevent mind reading - it worked to stop Hitomi's thoughts from being picked up when Sayaka tested it with her own copies of mind reading powers.
 
Redshirt Army said:
We do - Sayaka's enchantment is "mental invisibility" whose entire purpose is to prevent mind reading - it worked to stop Hitomi's thoughts from being picked up when Sayaka tested it with her own copies of mind reading powers.
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To use a card game analogy, I suspect what might be happening is that simply prevents our minds from being detected. Making us untargetable for mind reading.

An area of effect that just 'read all minds with X meters' would probably still work on us.

Personally though, I suspect her information gathering powers are just that good.
 
My guess is an information gathering power or a more 'conceptual' power relating to truth or something at this point (i.e Yukari Yakumo's conceptual power over boundaries). I feel like we would have gotten some feedback if she attempted to and successfully read the minds of one of our team mates. Mind magic was always an assumption on our part, though a fair one.
 
So that went exactly as I suspected it would; a show of soft power by seemingly knowing all about us in advance, acting with a formal type of familiarity as she greets us individually, whilst subtly implying the legitimacy and authenticity of her authority.

It's kind of a classic soft power move.

Interesting that despite Mami being our spokesperson, she immediately zoned in on Sabrina "First Citizen" Vee. We tried to approach her as a community of equals, but she elevated Sabrina to the role of leader, and the role of peer to herself, with just a few words. A recognition that we are the main driving force of Constellation, or a subtle attempt to drive a wedge in us by imposing a non-existent hierarchy and dismissing the others as less important?

Then again, we were the ones invited up, and the others are technically tagging along on that invite, so maybe she's acknowledging that we are the primary guest? Or that Sabrina is the one with a direct purpose here, and the others are along for the ride? It'll be a mistake to assume Sabrina is the only member of Constellation with value, but we are the one who is actively negotiating at the moment. The others don't really have any actionable motives or needs right at this second, but are here as a sign of support and unity, so there's no reason to negotiate with them and instead do it all through Sabrina. Which leads us back to the "first citizen" comment I made above.

Bah, all this intrigue is giving me a headache.
 
"We don't have anything concrete to suggest on the matter, but her question about what drives Sabrina was interesting. It's something to consider."
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If she's some sort of mission driven artificial human ... well perhaps it's curiosity about an entity similar to her?
 
I mean, ultimately, if she has some sort of ability to sense the truth that's mostly good for us - we really and sincerely do want to help, so it'll let us skip past a whole host of potential stumbling block related to disbelief.

(Which isn't to say that there aren't other pitfalls - someone sincerely wanting to help still isn't necessarily your ally, if they see you as an obstacle to helping or try to help in a haphazard way that causes more damage than it resolves, so even if Chiyoda is on the level they won't necessarily agree to help us - but it's still a whole category of issues going away.)
 
Firnagzen said:
You take the opportunity to examine the magic wound around Toshimichi a little more. Invisible threads of magic winding together into a tight spindle, a cloak of power settled around her form... intersecting in the forms of the Three Treasures, then deeper to spread through her body as if the Treasures were gateways.
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So this is interesting. The threads come from somewhere in the city—people? Locations? Artefacts?—and then connect to the treasures, binding together before passing into the bearer.

It looks like to be some sort of inherited mantle—wearing the imperial regalia makes you into a mage. This leads me to believe that at some point a magical girl crafted these items, which have then been passed down the imperial family for generations, letting the holder be a mage, bypassing Kyubey completely.

Assuming she's not from a completely separate magical tradition. Which neatly leads me to my next point:

Firnagzen said:
Even setting aside policy of free passage for other mages and prospectives
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"other mages and prospectives"

What does that mean? Other, implying like herself? Other magical girls like Constellation? A broader categorisation? And prospectives—people who are not mages. Those with potential? Or again, something more?

Is there another secret magical society? Is it just secret magical societies all the way down?

Also, I'd assumed the free passage thing was for members of the Tokyo Council, but that sounds like it's an open invitation to any magic user, regardless of affiliation.
 
Firnagzen said:
"It is my duty," Toshimichi says serenely, with a touch of pride in her voice. And yet when she speaks again, there's that tug of insistent curiosity. "I wonder, what drives you, Miss Vee?"
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Yep, yep yep yep yep yep okay great this is good this is non-weird, this is in line with what I was expecting. I think it's in the convo I posted, I expect these people to be looking at us VERY similarly to how we're looking at them: they don't know us and we have weight behind us. Are we people they can be friends with, will there be a clash over beliefs or actions, will we cause Problems somehow, what can they learn about us to work with/around/use us/etc?

Now to a degree that's confirmation bias talking, but -- bluntly the "vanilla" here is that these people are operating on a wavelength similar to us. Think of it like running a quest where you're trying to keep things from going to shit in Tokyo. Imagine you know nothing about Sabrina and you get the offer we made, then she shows up with a huge strength behind her.

I mean, you act like she is, mostly.

If or when we start seeing or hearing things that don't match up with that, then we might start worrying.

Firnagzen said:
[] Last few comments?
[] What's your focus for meeting the Chiyoda team?
- [] Just probe for information
-- [] About local politics
-- [] About the Chiyoda team and Toshimichi Akane
- [] Your own goals here - to distribute cleansing
[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
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Draft vote from my perspective. This... Hm.

[X] You're as interested in the motive as the means, here. From a perspective of knowing little or nothing of you personally, and trying to run herd on a primed bomb like Tokyo without your cleansing or backing -- there are some really good reasons she might act this way for.

I'd want to make that comment. Beyond that?

Given the option...

Hm.

Note that this next bit is NOT x'ed, this is something I am floating for consideration, not pushing as policy.

[] Ask if she'd like a fuller answer to the question she asked you.
-[] It's about the people. Others, people -- they, we aren't anywhere as small as the pale figments that they show up in our vision as. Every individual has an experience behind them the same way she does, twenty four hours of being and mattering every single day. And then -- this world takes suffering and just pours it on them. It's an atrocity. A gigantic, omnipresent, worldwide crime against humanity, ignored and borne because -- a lot of reasons, honestly.
--[] You'd have to be completely insane to think that the lot of you could do away with that entirely. But you don't have to do that to make things better, to make them less horrific than they have been. You only have to do what you're up for. It's just that in this case, "what you're up for" might have a bit more impact than it does for most people.
---[] You think it's wrong to call that simple, though. It's not the goal that's grand.

SPEEEEECH lol

Just putting that on the table because I wanted to.

Let's see. Meeting.

[X] Focus
-[X] Look to understand Chiyoda group's perspective and motives here. Right now you're two separate groups trying to size each other up and figure out where to go and how to go about moving there. If you understood them better you could expedite that tremendously.
--[X] Don't be shy about sharing your own in return.
--[X] You're going to have to do something besides that in order for this to go anywhere.
---[X] Work through the obstacles to all the "obvious" approaches to what you'd like to do.
---[X] Long term, besides cleansing, is there anything else that you could do to help?

I put it as "Shut up and listen" earlier but this is really the notion.

*Looks at thread*

Lmao everybody speculating about powers and I'm just sitting here like "I do not care, who is she personally"
 
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