I thought the issue was that she's still extremely unstable and hates the Pleiades Saints, so we're keeping her locked up to stop her from going after them again. I mean, what the Sendai girls did was much worse than what Anri did, but we basically let them off with a warning because we can trust them not to do it again. That's not how we'd be behaving if we cared about looking "tough on crime" or whatever.
That there are tangible effects to a finished product of Hope-magic.
Telling someone their workout routine has been showing progress in the first 2 weeks because they lost 4lbs is never as effective for motivation as showing them what someone elses effects have been after 6 months. That's why weight loss/workout advertisements show before and after for longer periods of time instead of "fat Jim at the gym" <4 weeks later> "slightly less fat Jim".
It's a proven psychological method of encouragement and persuasion to convince those that would doubt the methods being told (sold) to them.
The problem is that hope wings aren't the product she wants, nor are they a finished product at all. We haven't figured out how to fly with them or even make them flap, and if we had that still wouldn't be relevant to her worrying that she'll never heal Yuuri.
Which applies how? We already have the Clear Seed she stole back. Right now, what we're struggling with is convincing people that the risk of taking a Seed before everybody has one, the risk of being attack to steal that seed, will be met by immediate action to counter such an attack. It's not really about preventing theft by scaring away potential criminals, it's convincing people they won't be attacked if they take that risk, and in that light, letting her out after a week in jail doesn't really cut it. If we can make real progress towards de-Witching, that would give us something to point to and say, "She paid her debt to society by performing this service to society."
That's just punitive justice with extra steps. Or not even extra steps, since punitive justice in this century doesn't come from policymakers wanting to reduce crime, it comes from policymakers wanting to be seen acting in a way that looks crime reduction shaped in open defiance of all evidence about what actually reduces crime.
And we know where that goes. Nadia's told us in as many words that leaving interlopers alive is unusually lenient for meguca, never mind giving them free unlimited cleansing. So, if you want to avoid being seen as lenient, all you have to do is vote to take our hammer and smash Anri's soul gem.
This feels like it happens like clockwork. Someone insisting that we have to act like a government in some specific way, to avoid a scandal. And when those concerns make it into the story, they're always met by there not being a meguca media to have a circus in the first place, meguca not caring about the thing because they're not used to anyone acting like any kind of government, and our basic approach to life being so different from meguca standard that any specific critiques would come out in the wash anyway.
In the case of cleansing distribution, nobody gives a shit about how long meguca stay in prison because we just invented prison last week. Quibbles about sentence length require trust that prison will happen and a belief that time spent in prison in and of itself somehow benefits anyone, neither of which meguca generally have. People shy about getting clear seeds want to know that they won't stand out enough to be targeted, and that if they are targeted we'll protect them from the aggressor. The first one has already been solved by not clearing seeds all the way, and the second has already been accomplished with Anri.
The one person who does care about sentence lengths is Yuki, who has repeatedly asked that we minimize how much we rely on her for prison services.
In the specific case of Anri, fuck no we're not letting her out. We don't even trust her enough to meet her with our real body. We could still make her living conditions less depressing. Visitation for friends and family, sunlight, maybe something approximating an outside space if Yuki can manage that.
I thought the issue was that she's still extremely unstable and hates the Pleiades Saints, so we're keeping her locked up to stop her from going after them again. I mean, what the Sendai girls did was much worse than what Anri did, but we basically let them off with a warning because we can trust them not to do it again. That's not how we'd be behaving if we cared about looking "tough on crime" or whatever.
In almost every last case of somebody refusing a Clear Seed*, the reason given was their fear they would be targeted and attacked, then. Tokyo had the added complication of a lot of meguca in a very small area, in terms of Witch hunting, and a lot of bitter feuds that would explode, possibly literally, if everybody suddenly had unlimited cleansing. The collateral damage would be extreme.
And we know where that goes. Nadia's told us in as many words that leaving interlopers alive is unusually lenient for meguca, never mind giving them free unlimited cleansing. So, if you want to avoid being seen as lenient, all you have to do is vote to take our hammer and smash Anri's soul gem.
Politicians worry about image because they want to stay in power. We need to care about image to convince people to let us give them power. It's a matter of us following through on the promises we make. Even if we gave every meguca we met a Clear Seed, people like Parro would steal them to have a stockpile for when Sabrina inevitably(in their minds) fails to achieve the change she is striving for. So far, all we've asked is that people stop committing crimes, most specifically Parro deliberately grinding meguca down until they Witch-out in city after city to farm Seeds, and they can have a Seed and be free to go.
In the specific case of Anri, fuck no we're not letting her out. We don't even trust her enough to meet her with our real body. We could still make her living conditions less depressing. Visitation for friends and family, sunlight, maybe something approximating an outside space if Yuki can manage that.
In this case, I believe you misunderstand me. Unless I worded things differently than I intended(and I don't feel like finding the post), I said we need to be careful about it, not that we shouldn't offer her better circumstances. Prisons are at their most successful at rehabilitating when inmates are treated with respect and given what freedoms can be practically arranged, but with the clear message that privileges can easily be lost if they abuse them(mostly in the sense of abusing the access to other prisoners that leaving them with some freedom to mingle provides). I agree that it would be good of us to ask our allies who know about Witches if they'd be willing to spend time with her. We could give her more freedom with Yuki's space if Yuki is amenable. We can offer TV, food, whatever, to make her stay less depressing and help her be more hopeful, we just can't let her out one week after catching her from breaking the one line we set, that stealing a Clear Seed means our immediate response, with consequences that have to be considered for each case.
Really, I expect we'll have to keep Anri at least until we get a psychologist/psychiatrist. Parro's the hard one, though I'd like to talk to the other members of her team to see if they, at least, can see that not attacking people for a month while we demonstrate we mean what we say is a reasonable free trial, then only 1995 yen a month for unlimited cleansing!*
*In trying to work out how to word it, this came to mind. To be clear, I'm not suggesting we charge them anything, just demonstrate that we can and will follow through. Every person who sees us following through with all our crazy talk and actually being nice to people becomes another voice convincing other meguca that we can be trusted, that we can and will give them Clear Seeds, the only cost being supplying the Grief Seed we make the Clear Seed from. Pulling new Seeds out of thin air exceeds even our OP Grief HAX!.
Bluargh. PMAS not this week, I'm so sorry. I really, really hate the schedule slip, but my brain is absolute mush right now - I stayed up way too late last night trying to recover my phone (it spontaneously started bootlooping on me T_T).
In the specific case of Anri, fuck no we're not letting her out. We don't even trust her enough to meet her with our real body. We could still make her living conditions less depressing. Visitation for friends and family, sunlight, maybe something approximating an outside space if Yuki can manage that.
I did find my prior comment and see that I did not make it clear what I meant. My apologies. I worried about being too lenient in the sense of just letting her go, not that there were no steps we could take to make her situation better without damaging our image as somebody who follows through on her word.
I do feel that a therapist is the single most important thing we can get for our current prisoners, as somebody who is professionally trained is a lot more likely to be able to feel out what would help or hurt, on a case by case basis. I've seen zero disagreement on that part, but wanted to reinforce that I think it is a necessary prerequisite to releasing them, as, for all our BS power and knowledge, we are less than a month old.
Bluargh. PMAS not this week, I'm so sorry. I really, really hate the schedule slip, but my brain is absolute mush right now - I stayed up way too late last night trying to recover my phone (it spontaneously started bootlooping on me T_T).
Speaking of phones, it was mentioned a couple updates ago that Sabrina didn't have a smartphone, when I'm pretty sure she got one after the Iowa attack, I remember it being mentioned that she was looking for apps to install on it.
Loving the quest, btw.
The problem is that hope wings aren't the product she wants, nor are they a finished product at all. We haven't figured out how to fly with them or even make them flap, and if we had that still wouldn't be relevant to her worrying that she'll never heal Yuuri.
Speaking of phones, it was mentioned a couple updates ago that Sabrina didn't have a smartphone, when I'm pretty sure she got one after the Iowa attack, I remember it being mentioned that she was looking for apps to install on it.
Loving the quest, btw.
This was brought up in thread. Since you still saw it, I'm guessing Firn never got around to correcting that. I'm fine with that, though, since it means they have more time to write new stuff if they aren't ficing the old.
Speaking of phones, it was mentioned a couple updates ago that Sabrina didn't have a smartphone, when I'm pretty sure she got one after the Iowa attack, I remember it being mentioned that she was looking for apps to install on it.
Loving the quest, btw.
And thank you for writing PMAS!
...Ten years, jfc. You're a machine! Though I do have to laugh at the fact that you've written ~1.3m words and we're still a week out from Waluigi Night.
Oh I just remembered something else I wanted to bring up @Firnagzen
Any image/video/music file/etc posted here from Discord doesn't work anymore due to changes on Discord's end.
I was reminded of this video earlier today after someone said they'd watched Madoka for the first time, I'd meant to post it here earlier, but alas. View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDInMXz0JBc
My favorite was, perhaps unsurprisingly for a member of the Brinamind, Credens Justitiam. Also, it seems that Kyouko used Rosso Fantasma, and for a non-combat use at that!
[X] "Anri, it hasn't even been a week."
-[X] She's regrowing an entire person. This was never going to be quick and easy. This much progress this soon is way more than you were expecting.
--[X] She doesn't have to do this alone. We can figure out how to let everyone else who loved Yuuri contribute.
--[X] There's an entire world full of magical girls and just people who are good at stuff. If she thinks she needs anything, someone with a particular power or expertise or anything, she just has to ask and you'll find someone who fits the bill.
-[X] This will work out, one way or another. You won't allow anything else, and you don't think Anri will either.
You get it.
It's not even that complicated, if you're being honest with yourself. Frustration builds all too easily, especially when you're confronted with the seeming lack of progress daily. Airi just has to trust you, because she can't sense what you can, and you're not even sure she fully believes you, that something is happening.
You're trying to give her hope, but her own doubts are clawing at her, trying to drag her down. You can hardly blame her for it, can you?
But you're trying to help her, nevertheless. She hasn't even done that much, all things considered. Once upon a never, she would have ruined the Pleiades Saints and created a composite Witch to further her demented revenge - but that's a ocne upon a never that you've thoroughly derailed. Here...
She stole a Clear Seed.
That much, you definitively know she did, and it's something you've committed to being firm about.
Even so, you want to help her. Rehabilitative, not punitive, after all. And beyond that, she's another scared, lonely magical girl driven to the brink by the whole rotten system orchestrated by the Incubators. She deserves help, just as much as Parro and her gang do - it's just that you're here, and you think you can help Airi.
"Miss Anri," you say gently. "It hasn't even been a week."
Airi jolts back in her chair and raises a look of absolute fury towards you, rage blazing in her eyes.
"Maybe for you," she hisses, a sneer twisting her face. "For me, it's been seventeen days and sixteen hours since I lost my Yuuri. You've never lost anything in your life, have you? You have no idea what it's like!"
"You're right," you say steadily. "I haven't."
"Then shut up!" she snarls. "You don't know what- what this pain is like!"
You purse your lips, biting back irritation, because she's right. For all that you know what she means, you don't get it. You've never lost anyone, and if you have it your way, you never will. Having Mami teetering on the edge, in those early days, was bad enough.
She's beginning to tear up, swiping furiously at dark gold eyes as anger collapses into grief, her Soul Gem seething with darkness that you refuse to allow to accumulate. And you know she'll refuse physical contact, but you can't help but move forward, abandoning your chair to kneel down beside her as she buries her face in her hands.
You don't say anything. You don't know her well enough, you're not close enough to her to offer anything more than platitudes.
But the least you can do is be here, to watch over her.
And so you bite your tongue and stay silent, kneeling beside Airi as muffled sobs shake her body, ugly and heaving and choked back as she tries to hide it in the palm of one hand, her other hand curled tightly around that Clear Seed. Her Soul Gem at least, you can manage, draining away her Grief as fast it forms.
Eventually, her tears run dry, her body slumped in place, and you wordlessly offer her a tissue, plucked from the box on her desk with a mote of Grief. She snatches it from your hand, wiping furiously.
"You're right," you say softly. "I can't imagine the pain you're in, and I'm so, so sorry. But... what I meant to say is that you've made amazing progress in an extraordinarily short amount of time. You're helping to bring someone back to life, Miss Anri - you're helping to regrow an entire person. That's... it was never going to be quick and easy. If I could just snap my fingers and make it so, I would, but even this is far more than I expected."
"That's what you're saying, but I don't know- I can't see, I don't know this isn't just- just some waste of time," Airi chokes out. "It isn't fair, this shouldn't- it shouldn't be like this!"
"... would it help? If you could sense what I'm sensing?" you ask slowly.
The glare Airi gives you is one of vitriol fit to strip the paint from the walls, as if you'd asked the stupidest question in the world. Which... OK, having some form of concrete proof, some visual indicator of progress is an obvious thing to want, but at the same time, it's a look into how much the Clear Seed might not be awakening. You had to be sure.
You sit back on your haunches, thinking. You'd been considering an offer to get her whatever she'd need to help with this, anyway, and this is something she wants, evidently.
"I could also try and share my soul-sense with you," you say slowly. "But it'd require leaning into my Grief manipulation, which is going to feel very, ah, Witchy, and I'm not sure it's actually possible."
"I- no," Airi says, grimacing and shaking her head, her hand shaking slightly as she pulls the Clear Seed closer to herself.
"Then I'll see what I can do," you say. "I don't think I can teach you my soul-sense. It's too intrinsic, too tied up with my Wish magic, but there's an entire world full of magical girls out there, after all. Somewhere out there, there's a girl with a soul-sense that can be shared, or taught. I'll find her for you. How's that?"
Or maybe you can enchant up some kind of visualizer that she can have, or something along those lines.
And an entire cadre of therapists, you think to yourself. Hopefully Madoka's family friend can help, but he definitely can't do it alone - the Iowa girls are going to be a full caseload right there, not to mention his own patients which he presumably can't just drop.
"Just go away, Vee," Airi says, her voice tired and empty. Even her hair seems to hang limp, somehow, all the energy drained away. "I'll keep at it. Come back if you've got good news for me."
You exhale slowly.
"I... alright," you say, standing. "I'm sorry. For what it's worth... this will work out, one way or another. I won't allow anything else."
She turns her head away from you, refusing to say anything more.
[] There's nothing more you can do here. Back to the others.
- [] Further business with Yuki right now?
- [] Say your farewells and head home
- [] Something else?
[] Try one last time
- [] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
=====
Again, I'm so sorry I had to delay this update. Hopefully the next one will be sooner. >_>
Also, just for the record - the third line of the winning vote,
--[X] She doesn't have to do this alone. We can figure out how to let everyone else who loved Yuuri contribute.
It hasn't been that long since lunch so we should still have several spare hours in the afternoon as long as we don't get bogged down talking to people for extended periods of time. Since Mami is taking the day off from school and is the ideal research partner for this project, I'd like to spend as much of that time as possible investigating non-incubator telepathy.
Maybe one last reminder to get Airi to eat something or perhaps to take small breaks every now and then. She might figure out some kind of breakthrough with a clearer head.
I think the only business we have left with Yuki is seeing how open she is to using one of her buildings as a Science! lab for those so inclined. The convenience of everybody being able to get together with very little preparation would surely help with our time crunch and help us develop some things we're struggling with by our lonesome, for example, that soul-sense enchantment.
Also, just for the record - the third line of the winning vote, was dropped because, uh. That would not have gone down well, especially that latter bit.
We've proposed it twice. She's interested. Unless you have a schedule for when to fly to the moon, there's not much more to say at this point.
-[] To Yuki and Mami
--[] In the short term this is something you'd like to run by Oriko. If her power can she what's inside the clear seed, figuring out how to fit that in enchanted goggles would be the quickest way to let Anri judge her own progress.
--[] And maybe Akane? Her perspective on reality is pretty unique.
Yay Sabrina has learned not to chew her own boot leather.