Puella Magi Imperatrix Mundi, or: Wherein Half Of Japan Tries To Kill You
They don't normally consider the human species expendable, barring an astronomical energy payout. Sustainable farming after all
- Location
- South Africa
Actually, we do. Incubators don't have emotions, so they're incapable of caring about or valuing anything beyond how it benefits them personally.
We don't know what it is, but thee's a canon alien witch, proving that Earth isn't the only planet Incubators are imposing the witch system on.
RexHeller
Title Incoming. Please Hold.
- Location
- Somewhere else.
Your logic there is faulty. There is a large number of possibilities where they would want something other than their species to continue. For example, they could be the servants of some other species or they could reliant on other species to survive. However, the main problem is that you assume that being emotionless automatically makes Incubators selfish. It doesn't. It means that they will don't have an emotional attachment to anything and thus will sacrifice anything in pursuit of their goal. If reaching their goal required the death of every Incubator, they would do it. And it doesn't matter what that goal is either. If they're goal was to ensure the happiness and survival of the human race, then they would pursue it with the same ruthless efficiency as they do eliminating entropy in canon.
So just to be clear: Emotionlessness ≠ Selfishness.
Unitveras
"Return to nothingness!"
- Location
- Tatsumiyajima
This, just this.
I really don't even get why somebody could actually come to the conclusion that being emotionless = selfishness.
- Location
- The Beach
In a human sense I suppose, being emotionless would imply that someone can't form bonds with other people, thus the only person they particularly care about is themselves/their own continued existence.
RexHeller
Title Incoming. Please Hold.
- Location
- Somewhere else.
While that would be sociopathic or something similar, that would stop them from feeling pride, fear, happiness or something similar.
- Location
- South Africa
I covered that. They don't care about anything beyond how it benefits them.
It's impossible for an emotionless being to have a non-selfish goal.
The definition of "love" is "not being selfish". The definition of "emotionless" is "being without any emotion, including love". Therefore, by definition, anything emotionless is automatically 100% selfish.
LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
You didn't. You said it like it was fact, but you provided no argument or evidence to back it up.
Nnnnooo that's not the definition of love, nor is "not being selfish" an emotion. Your "logic" fails.
FelOnyx
Love and Peace!
- Location
- Gunsmoke
- Pronouns
- He/Him
What dictionary are you using? Countless poets over many millennia have failed to truly define love, so the best we've got to work with is Merriam-Webster's, which certainly isn't that.
Vebyast
Nascent Transhuman
...Unless you, by careful philosophical thought, arrive at the conclusion that purely on the basis of logic you prefer to bias the universe toward possible futures in which other people's values are fulfilled. At which point your personal values include other people's and you are no longer selfish. No emotion necessary, no altruism or empathy, nothing of the sort. It's a trivial result of applying enlightened self-interest to utilitarian arguments.
- Location
- South Africa
I said I covered it. Not that I proved it. That comes later.
agape love
Agape - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Philia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
What Is Agape Love?
What is agape love?
It's impossible for an emotionless individual to prefer anything that isn't selfish. And enlightened self-interest is selfish.
LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
That doesn't actually help your position. It proves that a type of love is unselfishness, but not that unselfishness must be love, which is the fundamental assumption where your logic train falls apart at step one.
edit:
Right, I'll be done then.
redzonejoe
Vaguely Pastafarian
- Location
- Canada
When I saw another alert saying sereg posted, I was annoyed. 'Right after echo suggested they stop, too.'
Then I actually clicked on it, and saw this.
Then I actually clicked on it, and saw this.
I'm so proud. :')
LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
^Me. every day.
Echo
Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before
- Location
- "echolocation" dur hur hur
Fun fact: Kiyomi is no longer allowed unsupervised use of an internet connection because she once spent five days straight telling people on Twitter why they were wrong and burned a quarter of a Grief Seed's worth of magic unconsciously healing the damage caused by not eating, drinking, or sleeping.
Even Rio yelled at her that time.
- Location
- Plato's Cave
How many of these kinds of facts do you make up ahead of time, and how much do you just pull out of thin air?
Hestia&theCourt
Turns out we're plural too.
- Location
- In transition
- Pronouns
- She/Her
LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
As a QM myself, I can confirm this as accurate.Yes.
Echo
Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before
- Location
- "echolocation" dur hur hur
That one was actually made up ahead of time because it's going in Kiyomi's profile when I finally get around to updating the character profiles.
Pulling out of thin air is probably more common though.
Ch. 3: Light the Path Whenever It's Dark (12)
Echo
Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before
- Location
- "echolocation" dur hur hur
Midday - Saturday, January 15th, 2011
You consider waking Kaede up to deal with her dog, but... you're not sure how she'd react, especially if you insisted on disconnecting her again afterwards.
"Um. Nice doggy?" you say hopefully.
The dog continues growling.
"I promise I won't hurt her," you say in what you hope is a conciliatory, comforting tone of voice, since the dog obviously doesn't understand the words, which is good because you kind of already did hurt Kaede so the dog would be kinda justified in holding a grudge against you buuuut that's not the point right now!
Growl.
...drat. Maybe it'll recognize her Soul Gem? You hold the gem up where the dog can see it.
Kaede's dog stops growling and sits down, its gaze fixed on her Soul Gem.
Yumi watches you impatiently with an expression of not-quite-amusement, the kind of look you might give someone doing something equally absurd and irritating such that the reactions sorta cancel out into a nagging feeling of 'just what am I even looking at here'. ...it's a reaction you're very familiar with, but that's also not the point right now.
"Any ideas?" you ask her. "I don't want to hurt the cute little puppy dog..."
"That 'puppy' is a full grown Akita and probably weighs more than you do," Yumi says. "I obviously wasn't with their group long enough for him to get used to me. I'm no good with animals in any case."
"'Him'? So it's a boy dog?" you ask curiously.
"I don't know," Yumi says irritably. "Does it really matter?"
"Well I don't want to be rude," you say, pouting at her. "Anyway, um. I don't suppose you have any dog treats or whatever in your, uh, magic skirt inventory?" you ask her, feeling very proud of yourself for phrasing that question in a way that didn't sound embarrassingly inappropriate.
"No," she says. "Also, what are you grinning about?"
"About good phrasing!" you reply without thinking. "'cuz I asked what's in your skirt without, uh, making it... sound like..." you trail off and go red in the face.
Yumi just gives a pained sigh, and you let the conversation drop before you dig yourself any deeper.
What else to try... well, the dog is still staring intently at the Soul Gem. Maybe it'll follow you because of that? You try holding Kaede's Soul Gem out in front of you as you back away from the dog, making a beckoning motion.
The dog whines, looking back and forth between Kaede's Soul Gem and body, before finally getting up and trotting after you. Success!
...except it'd be hard for you to carry the bodies while doing this. "Yumi?" you say, giving her a pleading look and gesturing to Kaede and Naoko's bodies.
"Fine, but what are you even trying to do with them?" she asks.
"Oh, right!" you say. "Um, my mysterious ally said to bring the dog, bodies, and Soul Gems to an address she's going to give me, and that she has an idea of what to do with them for now."
Yumi raises an eyebrow, then shrugs and picks up the bodies, slinging one over each shoulder. "You sound uncertain and unfamiliar with the location," she says. "Your ally has knowledge and resources she hasn't informed you of?"
"Oh, definitely," you say, as you walk awkwardly sideways, trying to keep an eye on both the dog following you and the ground ahead of you... you'd rather not embarrass yourself further by walking into a wall or something. "She's super smart and knows all kinds of things! It would probably take forever and a half for her to tell me everything she knows. Especially since I'd probably get distracted halfway through and forget everything."
Plausible, Maiko says dryly. When you leave the industrial park, take a detour into an alley on the right and retrieve the key I left there. It's enchanted with my magic, so you should be able to locate it easily. Maiko gives you the address to meet her at. With any luck I will be there waiting for you, but if not the key will allow you to enter. Please don't touch anything, no matter how interesting it looks.
Okay! you say. Oh, and Yumi is helping me carry the bodies, so I can introduce you to her when we meet up, if that's all right? You wait, but get no immediate reply to the question. Maiko? you say.
Yes, she sighs. It's fine.
A few minutes later you find the alley and 'key' Maiko was talking about. You'd been expecting something in the same, vaguely unsettling, style you associate with her magic... which turns out to be correct, but the 'key' takes it even further than most. Aside from a heavy silver fob at one end with something written on it in those curling runes, the key is made of twisted black metal, delicate patterns formed from wiry loops and needle-like spars. It radiates a tightly coiled aura of magic, and when you reach out to grab it your fingers wrap around empty air that clings to you with a cold, oily sensation. You pick it up anyway, and the key hangs in midair, a few centimeters from your hand.
Yumi stares at it. "...is that a Grief Seed?"
You shake your head. "It's a key, apparently," you say. "Don't ask, I dunno either."
She looks vaguely unsettled.
There's something about the... shape? ...of the magic in the key you can't put into words that does feel like a Grief Seed, but the key is very obviously lacking the turbulent knot of darkness that forms the core of a Grief Seed. Come to think of it, why are Grief Seeds special, anyway? Given the range of gadgets and spells Maiko seems able to produce, it seems almost surprising that she can't manufacture Grief Seeds as well. Or something like them, anyway. ...perhaps this 'key' was the result of a failed attempt at doing just that?
You push those thoughts aside as you find yourself returning to less-abandoned areas of town and it occurs to you that two girls in unusual outfits, one leading a dog and the other carrying two limp bodies, just might attract a bit of attention.
Unfortunately, you can't take the dog rooftop jumping, there's no way to get to your destination without crossing some heavily-used roads, and you don't want to risk going separately since that would mean taking Kaede's body where her dog can't see it.
In the end you decide to just take a fairly direct route and hope that what Maiko told you earlier about people not noticing magic-related stuff really works. To your surprise, it apparently does, and if you pay careful attention to your magic sense you notice a faint prickling haze surrounding the people who pass by. The feeling gets stronger the more it seems likely that they'd notice you, but unfortunately the effect remains too faint for you to get a good impression of how it works.
Early Afternoon - Saturday, January 15th, 2011
A little while later you find yourself in a lonely, slightly run-down residential neighborhood. Maiko contacted you earlier to say she got held up at her apartment, and it seems you ended up arriving before her. You walk down the street, checking the building numbers, and stop in surprise when you find the house you're looking for.
It's a mess. The fence around the property has been vandalized, and it looks like someone tried, unsuccessfully, to break the front gate. A small strip of land in front of the fence looks to have once held a small garden, but the plants have been torn up or crushed. You feel a faint prickling of magic as you approach the gate that fades when you slide the tip of the key into a hole on the gate. You hear a series of quiet clicks, then the gate swings open. You step onto the property, Kaede's dog and Yumi following behind you, and the gate closes itself a moment later.
Off to the side, you notice a water dish and rawhide chew on the ground. You suppose whoever lives here has a dog? Or used to, at least? You wonder who even owns this place, since Maiko clearly doesn't live here...
"Something about this place bothers me," Yumi mutters as you approach the house.
"Why?" you ask, but she just shrugs. Well, shrugs as much as someone carrying two quasi-corpses can. Speaking of which... "Around the side there shouldn't be visible from the street," you say, pointing to large hedges growing next to the fence. "Why don't we leave the bodies and the dog out here? 'cause I have no idea what we're doing here and I'd feel super awkward carrying two corpses into someone else's house. I mean, not that I'd feel much better carrying corpses into my own house, but, uh..."
"We should probably just wait out here ourselves," Yumi says.
"Prob'ly, but I'm curious," you say. "I wanna see what's inside!"
Yumi sighs, and deposits the two bodies on the ground out of sight. You stash Kaede's Soul Gem out of sight and her dog whines at you for a moment before slinking over and lying down next to her body, looking utterly pitiful in the way that only a depressed dog can.
"Dumb dog," you mutter. "Making me feel guilty about this."
Yumi follows you to the front door, which is unlocked. Then again, given the magically locked gate, a mundane lock would be kind of redundant...
Inside, the entryway is rather plain. Everything looks well-worn and recently used. You suppose that means someone does live here? You and Yumi remove your shoes and step through the inner door.
Rather than the typical living spaces you'd expected, the majority of the building consists of one large room. There are easily twenty or thirty chairs and a few couches, with bookshelves and low cabinets lining two walls. On the far wall is an eye-catching painting of the Nagamioka skyline, and the center of the room is dominated by a conference table of sorts. Confused, you turn to Yumi, but her attention is fixed on the wall behind you.
Covering the wall are dozens of framed photographs, and you step closer to get a better look. Most are simple portraits of girls about your age, some are larger photos showing two or more girls together. In some of the larger photos you can see the girls' hands--and every single one bears a Soul Gem ring.
Yumi mumbles something under her breath and you follow her gaze to one of the simple portraits, its bottom frame, and the line of text engraved there--a name, and two dates.
...you look down the length of the wall, and feel a cold knot in your stomach at the sheer number of portraits. You walk slowly down the line, reading name after name, the dates marching slowly further and further back.
The larger photos are almost worse. A scene of friends grinning happily together, next to individual portraits of half the group with the cold, simple date written below. A shot of two girls holding hands, fingers intertwined, next to two portraits, the second date the same on both.
Near the far end of the wall is a blank stretch with no pictures. Beyond that is one last frame, holding a battered and torn photograph of a young woman with short brown hair. Written below it is a single character: 光
You tear your attention away from the sequence of portraits and everything they imply. Yumi hasn't moved--in fact, she's standing stock still, eyes wide with a nervous intensity.
"Um," you say tentatively, and Yumi actually startles slightly at your voice. "Maybe we should sit down and wait?" You walk over and tug lightly at her arm, guiding her toward one of the more comfortable-looking chairs.
Yumi gives you a disbelieving look, and gestures at the room. "But-- I mean, I can't just-- this is--"
"--is an abandoned house?" you say. "There's obviously nobody here anymore. I mean, if I'm guessing right."
"I rather suspect you are, yes," Maiko says, stepping into the room. "Miss Kaga," she says, bowing lightly. "It's a pleasure to meet you directly."
Yumi's brow furrows as she stares at Maiko for a few seconds, until her eyes abruptly widen as she goes deathly pale. "...ah," she says quietly.
Maiko looks at her quizzically. "I beg your pardon?"
"Ah... nothing," Yumi says, then chuckles weakly as she regains her composure. "Feeling a little spooked by... all this." She gestures at the room.
Maiko makes a non-committal noise. "Duly noted," she says, then turns to you. "Yui, I will require your assistance with something in the basement," she says, patting her messenger bag with one hand and pushing her glasses up her nose with the other, "to test a hypothesis. If successful, we will have at least a short-term solution to storing the corpses you left outside, as well as caring for Kaede's dog until we reawaken her." Maiko clears her throat awkwardly. "While I prefer not to divulge personal information without consent, I believe Kaede Ishikawa has exhausted our collective good will at this point," she says, "and I will therefore inform you directly that the dog was the beneficiary of her wish and is irreplaceably vital to her emotional stability. Keep that in mind as you decide what to do with her long-term."
You nod. "What about Naoko?"
"In her case, I believe you have soundly rejected my sole recommended course of action," Maiko says in a sour tone.
You cross your arms and frown at her, but Maiko remains impassive. Sigh.
Yumi has gone silent, once again looking around the room. She still looks slightly overwhelmed.
[x] Talk with Yumi and Maiko first.
- [x] Give Yumi the recruitment pitch again, now that she realizes you have an experienced veteran helping you.
- [x] Remind Yumi that Maiko's presence is super maximum ultra double secret.
- [x] Talk about what to do with Kaede.
-- [x] Exile?
-- [x] Long-term storage?
-- [x] Recruitment?
-- [x] (write-in other proposal)
- [x] Talk about what to do with Naoko.
-- [x] Exile?
-- [x] Long-term storage?
-- [x] Recruitment?
-- [x] (write-in other proposal)
- [x] Ask Maiko what the deal with that 'key' is.
- [x] Ask Maiko why she had to stop by her apartment.
- [x] Talk about something else. (write-in topics)
- [x] Let Maiko take the lead in the conversation.
- [x] Let Yumi take the lead in the conversation.
- [x] Invite Minami to come over and join in, if Maiko and Yumi don't mind. Her apartment isn't too far from here.
- [x] (write-in something else to talk about)
[x] Find out what's in the basement that Maiko wants your help with.
- [x] Bring Yumi along, if Maiko doesn't mind.
- [x] Leave Yumi upstairs in the main room.
[x] (write-in?)
The bookshelves are mostly filled with classic literature in multiple languages, a variety of non-fiction, mostly history and philosophy, a collection of textbooks used by the local schools, and an autographed collection of Sailor Moon tankoubon. ...Momoko had her priorities.
