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Puella Magi Megami Tensei

If I made a Patreon, would you subscribe to it? (Not locking anything behind it like EX Chapters)

  • Yes.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Maybe.

    Votes: 4 28.6%

  • No.

    Votes: 3 21.4%

  • I have no money (me too tbh).

    Votes: 7 50.0%
  • Total voters
    14
Voting is open
Reader mode
So many options. Wind Cutter, Rimdora, Deadly Wind, Raging Tempest (comes with dose of inflicting Electrical weakness), Raging Tempest, Ruinous Wind (instagibs anything that has been turned to stone),

Me, browsing through the "Game Specific" list and seeing Vayaviya: Ooh, shiny! Would require learning Elec Amp and Force Amp tho, if you wanted to be true to the source.
 
[X] Extra Choice: Adds an extra Sword Perk to every choice after this.
[X] Stats: AGL +6, LUK+3

[X] "...I do care, by the way."
-[X] "I've just had too much experience learning to use up all my fucks on keeping the people I care about safe, so I don't have any left to give to freak out about the Weird Shit, until it's safe to do so."
--[X] "That said... I'm not gonna rush into danger without telling anyone, or recklessly risk... leaving people behind."
---[X] "And... please? I-If I can ask one thing of you.......j-just... keep being my friend? Just, be there, keep me grounded. I don't want to go all mad-with-power. I don't want to become someone who bottles up her own fears and emotions, only listening to what her friends' problems are, and doesn't let her friends share her own burdens... I'm not that kind of strong. Hell, that's brittle, not strong."
 
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Isiri Pudireach said:
Since it isn't a Plan vote you'd have to put the full thing if you want to vote for all of it.
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What if I don't?

[X] Extra Choice: Adds an extra Sword Perk to every choice after this.
[X] Stats: LUK +9
-[X] Replace Agi with Agidyne

[X] "...I do care, by the way."
-[X] "I've just had too much experience learning to use up all my fucks on keeping the people I care about safe, so I don't have any left to give to freak out about the Weird Shit, until it's safe to do so."
--[X] "That said... I'm not gonna rush into danger without telling anyone, or recklessly risk... leaving people behind."
 
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Winged One said:
What if I don't?

[X] "...I do care, by the way."
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Then that's your vote in it's entirety, with none of the stuff you left out. Ya can see here:
Adhoc vote count started by Isiri Pudireach on Sep 11, 2023 at 9:33 AM, finished with 19 posts and 11 votes.
  • [X] "...I do care, by the way."
    -[X] "I've just had too much experience learning to use up all my fucks on keeping the people I care about safe, so I don't have any left to give to freak out about the Weird Shit, until it's safe to do so."
    --[X] "That said... I'm not gonna rush into danger without telling anyone, or recklessly risk... leaving people behind."
    ---[X] "And... please? I-If I can ask one thing of you.......j-just... keep being my friend? Just, be there, keep me grounded. I don't want to go all mad-with-power. I don't want to become someone who bottles up her own fears and emotions, only listening to what her friends' problems are, and doesn't let her friends share her own burdens... I'm not that kind of strong. Hell, that's brittle, not strong."
    [X] Extra Choice: Adds an extra Sword Perk to every choice after this.
    [X] Stats: AGL +6, LUK+2
    [X] AGI+6, END+3
    -[X] Replace Agi with Agidyne
    [X] UPGRADE: Blustering Strike -> Windstorm Slash (10 MP) [SWORD + ZANMA] {PHYS/FORCE}
    [X] "Hey Kohaku, what's on your mind?"
    [X] Stats: AGL +7, LUK+1
    [X] Stats: +7 INT, +2 LUK
    -[X] Do not change Skills
    [X] Extra Choice
    [X] "...I do care, by the way."
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Thank goodness the pizza's safe.
Edit 1: I fixed some minor issues regarding the vote.

My vote:
[X] AGI+6, END+3
-[X] Replace Agi with Agidyne

[X] "...I do care, by the way."
-[X] "I've just had too much experience learning to use up all my on keeping the people I care about safe, so I don't have any left to give to freak out about the Weird until it's safe to do so."
--[X] "That said... I'm not gonna rush into danger without telling anyone, or recklessly risk... leaving people behind."
---[X] "And... please? I-If I can ask one thing of you.......j-just... keep being my friend? Just, be there, keep me grounded. I don't want to go all mad with power. I don't want to become someone who bottles up her fears and emotions, only listens to what her friends' problems are, and doesn't let her friends share her burdens... I'm not that kind of strong., That's brittle, not strong."
 
[X] Extra Choice: Adds an extra Sword Perk to every choice after this.
[X] Stats: AGL +6, LUK+3

[X] "...I do care, by the way."
-[X] "I've just had too much experience learning to use up all my fucks on keeping the people I care about safe, so I don't have any left to give to freak out about the Weird Shit, until it's safe to do so."
--[X] "That said... I'm not gonna rush into danger without telling anyone, or recklessly risk... leaving people behind."
---[X] "And... please? I-If I can ask one thing of you.......j-just... keep being my friend? Just, be there, keep me grounded. I don't want to go all mad-with-power. I don't want to become someone who bottles up her own fears and emotions, only listening to what her friends' problems are, and doesn't let her friends share her own burdens... I'm not that kind of strong. Hell, that's brittle, not strong."
 
Isiri Pudireach said:
Then that's your vote in it's entirety, with none of the stuff you left out. Ya can see here:
Adhoc vote count started by Isiri Pudireach on Sep 11, 2023 at 9:33 AM, finished with 19 posts and 11 votes.
  • [X] "...I do care, by the way."
    -[X] "I've just had too much experience learning to use up all my fucks on keeping the people I care about safe, so I don't have any left to give to freak out about the Weird Shit, until it's safe to do so."
    --[X] "That said... I'm not gonna rush into danger without telling anyone, or recklessly risk... leaving people behind."
    ---[X] "And... please? I-If I can ask one thing of you.......j-just... keep being my friend? Just, be there, keep me grounded. I don't want to go all mad-with-power. I don't want to become someone who bottles up her own fears and emotions, only listening to what her friends' problems are, and doesn't let her friends share her own burdens... I'm not that kind of strong. Hell, that's brittle, not strong."
    [X] Extra Choice: Adds an extra Sword Perk to every choice after this.
    [X] Stats: AGL +6, LUK+2
    [X] AGI+6, END+3
    -[X] Replace Agi with Agidyne
    [X] UPGRADE: Blustering Strike -> Windstorm Slash (10 MP) [SWORD + ZANMA] {PHYS/FORCE}
    [X] "Hey Kohaku, what's on your mind?"
    [X] Stats: AGL +7, LUK+1
    [X] Stats: +7 INT, +2 LUK
    -[X] Do not change Skills
    [X] Extra Choice
    [X] "...I do care, by the way."
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Yes, I know. :p
 
Eh, just saying "...I do care, by the way", without the context of what comes in the rest of my vote, sounds more like a love confession. And I've mentioned how much of a Bad Idea that is right now, with her current mental state.
 
BethofDeath said:
Eh, just saying "...I do care, by the way", without the context of what comes in the rest of my vote, sounds more like a love confession. And I've mentioned how much of a Bad Idea that is right now, with her current mental state.
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Eh. It's one vote, and democracy has taught me that's utterly meaningless, but I guess I'll add a bit more of yours back on.
 
Maybe it's just cause it's a lot longer on our side, but I'm kinda surprised Kohaku is having a mental breakdown of sorts. Like, I get she would be tired, which is why I wanted to suggest we go home but she can't be that drained can she?

Edit: Also, where is the 'mad with power' bit from? Yumi's never actually been interested in power until the supernatural stuff happened.
 
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Herofox said:
Maybe it's just cause it's a lot longer on our side, but I'm kinda surprised Kohaku is having a mental breakdown of sorts. Like, I get she would be tired, which is why I wanted to suggest we go home but she can't be that drained can she?

Edit: Also, where is the 'mad with power' bit from? Yumi's never actually been interested in power until the supernatural stuff happened.
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The saying "power corrupts" is a pretty well- and widely-known one.

Maybe it's something Yumi has worried about before, while taking down much more mundane gangs before the story. Maybe it's something she's only read about some characters in stories, or people in history, letting power go to their heads. Maybe it's just something Yumi worries Kokaku will worry about. Or some combination thereof. It could just be she doesn't like rumors falsely calling her that.

There's a lot of wiggle room for head-canoning character motivations behind what's said and done, here... as is appropriate for an SMT protagonist. Or we can go full-on into defining them, depending on what Kohaku asks us in response.

I doubt that Kohaku would take non-Light motivations -- or, for that matter, any ambiguity or sign of dishonesty at all, given her experiences with her father and just learning that he manipulated her entire life of abuse all that well -- all that well, though. But then, my own experiences colour my view on that.
 
[X] "...I do care, by the way."
-[X] "I've just had too much experience learning to use up all my fucks on keeping the people I care about safe, so I don't have any left to give to freak out about the Weird Shit, until it's safe to do so."
--[X] "That said... I'm not gonna rush into danger without telling anyone, or recklessly risk... leaving people behind."
---[X] "And... please? I-If I can ask one thing of you.......j-just... keep being my friend? Just, be there, keep me grounded. I don't want to go all mad-with-power. I don't want to become someone who bottles up her own fears and emotions, only listening to what her friends' problems are, and doesn't let her friends share her own burdens... I'm not that kind of strong. Hell, that's brittle, not strong."
 
About the bit where Yumi says she doesn't want to 'share her burden', she has yet to actually tell anyone about the details of her own story. Hell, the entire bit of Yumi's past came out by accident iirc. At least, in character anyway.

BethofDeath said:
There's a lot of wiggle room for head-canoning character motivations behind what's said and done
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The only point I can think of atm where Yumi would actually be concerned about power is the Magatsuhi thing. Also being told not to plateau
 
Exactly. It came out by accident, and Yumi's had a chance to be unconsciously processing that.

If nothing else, this vote sets up a natural reason for Yumi to start sharing some of those details to her friends, over the next few in-game days. Her closest and oldest friends probably already know a lot of it, so seeing their interpretations of what happened could provide insight too.

I do worry that Yumi's past experiences (and part-demonic heritage) have somewhat altered her perspective of how others would negatively react to her apparent violent tendencies. Seeing her longtime friend literally floored and gasping at the whole casual firestorm, shrugging off attempted literal disarmament, etc like that, and seeing said friend clearly disturbed by such a casual shrugging off -- even if Yumi was doing that for Kohaku's benefit, to not stress her out from the whole "loosing one of the last pillars of stability" thing -- is a bit of a wake-up call that... uh... yeah, in a sense, she's a little mad (disconnected from typical human behavior) with power. She's had some quiet minutes walking between the fight and arriving, and eating the pizza, to pull up any quiet realizations and conclusions that unconscious processing I mentioned earlier prepared, and decide she needs some help too.

If that makes any sense? It does kinda dig into the whole thinking-fast-and-slow stuff, it might not make as much sense if you're not familiar with it.
 
BethofDeath said:
If that makes any sense? It does kinda dig into the whole thinking-fast-and-slow stuff, it might not make as much sense if you're not familiar with it.
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That probably explains it for me. I never heard of this 'fast and slow' thing. Like, even as a child, Yumi has been pulling feats that leave her peers in awe. Her school catches fire at least once a year. Even without the supernatural, Yumi's life was always odd.
 
Herofox said:
That probably explains it for me. I never heard of this 'fast and slow' thing. Like, even as a child, Yumi has been pulling feats that leave her peers in awe. Her school catches fire at least once a year. Even without the supernatural, Yumi's life was always odd.
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It's from the book in this article Thinking, Fast and Slow - Wikipedia. Do note the section on the whole "replication crisis" it's part of -- some of the studies it cites had results that couldn't be replicated well. So it's not a super well-established "this is how it is" thing, scientifically speaking; it does strongly resemble my own internal experiences, and what I've seen some other people talk about.

Another way people say it is, "put that thought on the back burner for a while", or so? That's an older phrase, might be regional... I dunno.
 
There are many kinds of loss. Kohaku may, or may not I'm not a mind-reader even IRL, have lost her impression that Yumi's not on a dangerous path of losing herself.
 
Herofox said:
She saw Yumi get stabbed? I don't get why this specifically is a surprise. She knows we have Null Phys? What part of this is new?
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Let's go back and look at the parts of the post which stood out to me:

TremendousMilk3 said:
You walk over to Kohaku, helping her to her feet. "You okay?" You ask, dusting off her shoulder, "No bumps, no scrapes?"

"Am I--?!" Kohaku points at you with her hand palm up, "You're the one that got mauled by a demon!"

"Mmhm." You nod, "And it didn't even break skin. So, what about you?"

Kohaku shakes her head, "You seriously don't care. Oh my gosh. C-Can we just go home?!"
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TremendousMilk3 said:
Kohaku looks like she wants to speak, but for some reason, she doesn't.
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Mentally healthy humans don't brush off near-crippling experiences, even if no actual damage is taken, and Yumi is. Kohaku is, with reason, freaked out here -- yes, we headed off one source of worry, hopefully, because we're not physically harmed, but that lets her skip to this other logical-to-have fear. And this is completely leaving aside her other experiences with people acting weird.

From Kohaku's perspective, something's not right with her friend. And unless I severely miss my guess (like I did with that dang Kin-Ki...), she's several different kinds of worried right now.

Some possible trains of thought that could be wrecking into each other in her head right now:

- "Has Yumi lost all sense of self-preservation?! Sure, she's clearly able to take care of herself... mostly... that scary one at the pizza place hurt her pretty bad in one go tho! What if she runs into something so strong she can't defeat it or get away, but is too gung-ho to realize that? Is she just losing herself in the fight?" What if I'm left with nobody again...

- "Has Yumi's mind been messed with, too?! And if so, am I safe with her? Wait, no, she's been nothing but kind to me! She even... snkr made that demon with the candlesticks APOLOGIZE to me! That was hillarious... she's nothing like Ok-... Saburo was, when he was under." And what do I do if she IS, or gets mind-whammied later?

- "I don't want to be a burden to Yumi... but how can I ever catch up to that level of power?!"

- "Is she even human? No, wait, what am I saying of course she's human, I've known her since years ago! She's a good person and fights for what she feels is right!"

Etc.
 
BethofDeath said:
Mentally healthy humans don't brush off near-crippling experiences, even if no actual damage is taken, and Yumi is.
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Yumi has taken worse wounds pre-powers and shrugged those off well enough. Like during her small scuffle with Oriko and Kirika at the beginning of the quest.

Honestly, if demon stuff never happened and her dad's cult being stronger than Yumi at the time, it wouldn't surprise me if Kohaku saw Yumi as infallible.

After your explanation about Kohaku I can understand her reasoning, but the only thing I can think of to justify Yumi suddenly breaking down is the Police Chief's words, who again, chooses to not have her help while having absolutely no defenses against magic.

Yumi so far has steamrolled effectively every serious fight so far. The only ones we actually ever lost to iirc are Lost Samurai and Vergil. Yumi's damage taken has been certainly nothing to laugh at, but pre-power Yumi still has the durability of a normal human vs humans with adult level strength.

I'm aware these feats don't equate to mental stability, but Yumi also feels that these kinds of occurrences (except the demons) are normal. I simply don't think Yumi's mindset is one that regards herself in that manner.

You can only suffer so many near-fatal experiences before you numb yourself to it anyway, regardless of how bad of an idea it is. It happens in canon too, courtesy of Mami, who fights witches every day to the point she felt comfortable to show off which gets her killed in the end.
 
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