[OOC][PLOT] The Fourth Thread of Planning for Arc 1 - Arrivals

[Black Aeronaut]

I'll have to look through the threads, then. My brain's been so scrambled lately that I can barely remember what I was planning last month let alone three months again.

[Labster]

Oh tell me about it. Thank God I keep a character gestalt in my head. Like, when I was writing the Samhain story, I thought I was developing new ground. I was a bit surprised where the story took me. And then yesterday I find I had written this line nine months ago:

Wait, she thought and blushed, he said Cait Sìth liked her?

On reread the phrasing seems awkward, but it sure looks a lot like foreshadowing now. Cat lady

[Labster]

Just realized that Mira is basically a Cardian tasked to gather energy for her mistress. Energy in candy form, of course.

[Black Aeronaut]

Hah!  Someone ought to call Sakura on that just to see the look on her face.  (And then Mira will gleefully reenact her reaction for anyone that asks, much to Sakura's embarrassment.)

---

Alright, sorry if this feels like a bit of a bait and switch, but after seeing Rebellion at long last, I went through several retries on this before I realized the original formula did not quite have enough fuel for conflict to occur.  So, here we go...

We'll have the Isolation Filed the Incubators used to seal Homura off from The Law of Cycles show up just outside San Antonio, probably out on the far East Side or Far South, and set off the Good Neighbor System.  Alisa can get them in - she just needs to create an inbound wormhole.

Cue Benjamin announcing their presence as only he can: "HEY YOU PREVARICATING COPROPHILIACS!" as he then commences antimatter bombardment on all the fucking Incubators.  And then he whips out his secret weapon: Precia Testarossa's Grief Seed.

For everyone inside Homura's Labyrinth, it feels like being caught in a hurricane for a few minutes, and then everyone suddenly finds themselves standing around Homura with all kinds of WAT.  Madoka's family, Saotomi-sensei, and Hitomi and Kyosuke, are all unconscious for the time being.

Ben is there.  The others are starting to show up.  Mexican Standoff ensues as Homura starts to come around - The Alamo City Wrecking Crew recognizes the Puella Magi as potential allies, but the Puella Magi don't know that.

And then they hear sirens in the distance.

"What!?  But humans aren't supposed to notice!"

"Welcome to my world, folks.  Here?  Unless it's contained in a dimensional pocket, they definitely notice shit like this."

At that point, the Puella Magi throw up a smoke screen and pull a ninja-vanish, taking their friends and family with them; more likely than not Homura was using her time-stop ability.  Ben and company have no choice but to withdraw for the moment.

The Puella Magi are confused as hell.  Madoka has her memories come back to her, but can't access The Law of Cycles.

Elsewhere/when, Madokami, Homurakuma (Akuma = Demon; Homura-Demon), Tenchi-sama, and The Almighty are having tea and politely, if tensely, discussing the situation.  Madokami is both sad and upset with Homurakuma.  Homurakuma is chafing at suddenly being put into this situation.  The Almighty is ready to lay down THE LAW, if needs be.  Tenchi-sama is just deeply worried for the two young Goddesses and is helping to mediate.

I just had an idea about how to better handle the cosmology, but I'll get into that in another post.  It shouldn't have any real impact on how things are set up now, but will definitely figure into how things play out in Seasons 3 and 4.

Even though Madokami is upset with Homurakuma, she forgives her.  Madokami understands that Homurakuma was doing it to protect her.  But now things are different.  They can no longer afford to work alone to protect one another.  Instead, they must work together to protect each other, as well as everyone else.

Though they do agree to follow their roles.  Madokami will redeem all those redeemable and take them into her heavenly Labyrinth.  Homura will punish those that are irredeemable within her hellish Labyrinth.  In the meantime, they will help Tenchi-sama and The Almighty in trying to reestablish the original order of things.

Back on Earth, the Puella Magi start to sort things out.

Sayaka and Kyoko reconnect, as does Homura and Madoka.  Mami comes to terms that little Bebe loves and adores her like a big sister.  Their friends and family are kept in a magically sustained coma for the time being.  Madoka is worried, though.  She can no longer feel The Law of Cycles.  And without that, she and Homura know it's only a matter of time before one of them becomes a Witch.

The Man named Benjamin had a Grief Seed with him.  There must be Witches they can hunt until they can figure out what to do.

Back at Westwoods, Washu works on making more Mosquito Drones and then released them that morning.

This is not the only trouble that is brewing.  Jail Scaglietti is lurking around.

Now, I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out who's on hand and how old they are - some of it doesn't make very much sense at all!  Below is the list of numbers, what year they were activated (using Midchilda's calendar) and how old the were at the time of Nanoha A's (as figured from their ages given in StrikerS).

Uno ----- 0051 - 14
Due ----- 0052 - 13
Tre ----- 0055 - 10
Quattro - 0061 -  4
Cinque -- 0060 -  6
Sein ---- 0061 -  4
Sette --- 0075 - NA
Otto ---- 0075 - NA
Nove ---- 0069 - NA
Dieci --- 0063 -  5*
Wendi --- 0071 - NA
Deed ---- 0075 - NA

*Dieci was biologically 3 when activated

So, Sette, Otto, Nove, Wendi, and Deed are not around; Quattro, Cinque, Sein, and Dieci are little critters; Uno, Due, and Tre are just barely combat-ready (in Uno's case, for a given level of combat).

Washu-chan can probably turn Jail - his issues are the product of genetic and mental programming, which Washu can undo.  (The reason why she can't undo Ben's mental damage quite so easily is because his resulted in Conditioning, which is much, much harder to undo.)

Basic idea is that Jail and the Saint's Cradle are tucked away in one of the abandoned cement quarries in the area.  (The limestone bedrock here is of the absolutely most perfect composition for concrete and cement, and old quarries absolutely LITTER the region at the edge of the Texas Hill Country.)  He'll have been around for a bit, and has, by this time, captured a Familiar that has, by this time, matured into a Witch.  He has not only been studying it, but using it for live-fire combat training for the Numbers.

But not only has he captured a Familiar and grown it into a Witch, but he has also captured one of the Incubators and has been relentlessly interrogating it.  He is using everything he's learning to enhance the capabilities of the Numbers.

But what REALLY interests him is Benjamin - a man who can naturally produce an Anti-Magic Field.  Such people were incredibly rare, and unfortunately regarded as pariahs - dangerous elements in a world where technology and magic go hand-in-hand.  And this is to say nothing of his ability to produce effective Matter/Antimatter projectiles through a biological process.

Unfortunately, the Puella Magi don't know about Jail, but from his questioning of Kyubey, Jail knows about them!

So, while Ben and the others are out scouting for the Puella Magi, Jail makes a sudden two-pronged attack where he captures Ben and Bebe.

Ben is, for the most part, cooperative, but he does warn Jail: don't hurt Bebe or else he will annihilate all his antimatter fuel at once without shooting it first.  (You know that bit from The Hunt for Red October?  "What!? He can't launch a missile!"  "No, but he can incinerate the ship.")  And he knows that he has Jail over a barrel here - Jail is not sure, but he believes Ben can do it in an instant.  And he really doesn't want that.  Even if he can contain the explosive output to prevent damage to the Cradle, he'll still lose Benjamin.  While Jail can clone him for certain, he will be unable to recreate the biological antimatter device in Ben's chest.

However, what Jail doesn't know about is that Washu and Ben had been working on perfecting Ben's secondary mode: the Beam Cannon - where he annihilates a M/AM mix in his 'gun barrel', collimates the particles and photons, and unleashes hell.

And HELL indeed!!!  Joules translate directly into Watt/Seconds, or just Watts.  Running Labster's math, adjusted to fit with annihilation of ten nanograms of antimatter with ten nanograms of matter:

10^-8 kg * 2 * 8.988×10^16 m^2/s^2 = 1,797.6 MJ ... or about 1.8 GIGAWATTS.

The first time he fires that bad boy off, it's gonna make for a light show that, even though it only lasts for a second, will attract ALL KINDS of attention!  That might even be strong enough to have actual recoil to it!

".... Uhm, yeah.  I think I'm gonna have to reduce the yield on that bad boy."

The ACWC and the Puella Magi are pretty quick to descend on them, and a knock-down drag-out three-way fight kicks off.  That is, until, the Witch breaks out.

Fun fact: Jail's been 'feeding' it to see how strong it will become.  Say hello to Walpurgisnacht 2.0.

Fortunately, to the outside world, it looks like a freakin super-cell spawned up out of nowhere and dropped an EF-5 tornado in record time.

Pretty much everyone has gone "HOLY.  FUCK."  Even Jail is flabbergasted.  And so it is agreed that everyone sets their differences aside to kill the damn Witch before it destroys everything along the I-35 Corridor.

Ding-dong, the Witch is Dead.

Afterwards, everyone's too pooped to pop, which gives them a good opportunity to talk everything out.  At long last, the misunderstandings are corrected.  Jail is offered a position working as Washu's assistant as long as he allows her to correct his.... worser inclinations.

Later on, plans are made to activate the remaining Numbers, one at a time, until they get to Vivio - Ben insists they wait on her a bit, because he has every intention of seeing her be Nanoha and Fate's daughter.  Uno, Due, and Tre are put through therapy by Washu to help correct antisocial tendencies - though the sociopathy there isn't much to do about except to help them adapt to working with the mindset within the constraints of society.  Ironically, Quattro is the easiest of these cases with her being the one of the youngest.

For the Puella Magi, Belldandy makes some alterations to causality so that the ones that don't have families will have foster families, and they'll all stay at the Apartments - Ben definitely has room for everyone.

And then things seem to settle...

For now...

Meanwhile, MITHRIL agents from the Tuatha de Danan saw what went down in the old quarry.  They know they're on to something now.

And so does Leonard Testarossa.

"So there you are, dear sister... And Kaname, too~.  It seems you were telling the truth, Incubator.  You have my gratitude.  Now, tell me what AMALGAM can do for you?"

"I would like to make contracts with young girls.  If you are willing to help, then we may be willing to let you use a small share of the energy acquired."

"Really?  Tell me more about how this energy works, Incubator..."

(Edited to fix a typo in the acronym for Alamo City Wrecking Crew - accidentally wrote is at ACWR.)

[robkelk]

...
The ACWC and the Puella Magi are pretty quick to descend on them, and a knock-down drag-out three-way fight kicks off.  That is, until, the Witch breaks out.

Fun fact: Jail's been 'feeding' it to see how strong it will become.  Say hello to Walpurgisnacht 2.0.

Fortunately, to the outside world, it looks like a freakin super-cell spawned up out of nowhere and dropped an EF-5 tornado in record time.

Pretty much everyone has gone "HOLY.  FUCK."  Even Jail is flabbergasted.  And so it is agreed that everyone sets their differences aside to kill the damn Witch before it destroys everything along the I-35 Corridor.
...

Suddenly a set of five lightning bolts hit the Witch, all coming from the same direction.

"Well. Look at this. Appears we got here just in the nick of time. What does that make us, Niiko Misaka asks."

"Big damn heroes, replies Kokono Misaka."

"Ain't we just, asks Rei Misaka."

"Will you please learn how to put some emotions into your speech?"

"Less talk and more zapping, please, Original, asks Nana Misaka."

"It doesn't matter, we're not having any effect," Kazari complained while launching a salvo of 6" shells from the rigging Washuu gave her at the Halloween party.

"Of course it matters," Kuroko replied while teleporting an old tractor-trailer to fall onto the Witch's head. "We're serving as a distraction while Benjamin gets his big attack lined up."


Because the Good Neighbor System works both ways.

[Black Aeronaut]

Oh, there's no way Ben would have left these guys out of the fight.  Besides, they were probably gonna need Usagi's Big Whammy after Ben and everyone else softened her up.

And boy, does Ben ever soften it up.  He waits until the ten-minute cool-down passes, and then fires up a Level 1 (1 μg) Beam Shot.

Math?  Math.

10^-6 Kg * 2 * 8.988*10^16 m^2/s^2 = 180 GIGAWATTS.

..... I'm not quite sure, but I suspect Ben just may have outdone Nanoha here.

And then tacky and crass jokes will abound about Ben feeling sore after that.  And not only Ben.  When Nanoha gets older and she and Fate start to... ahhh, experiment, Fate will derive no end of amusement by teasing Nanoha over it.

"You can't lie to me, Nanoha~.  I saw how flushed you were he did that~."

After that, Washu has a suggestion for Ben: Don't even think about firing off a Level 0 or greater in Beam Shot mode.  Masu-enhancement or not, she does not believe he can handle the strain.

OH.  And HERE'S an idea.

Say that Ben didn't have Precia's Grief Seed - that after a quick use on Alisa to make sure she was good after her first battle (the one involving the Book of Darkness), that it was somehow lost and found its way into Kyubey's paws.  Say that it hatched into a Witch again and that it was that Witch that Jail Scaglietti found and fed until it broke free.

Usagi hits her with her purification attack.

And at first, all seems well...

Until the air is pierced by a sound all humans are instinctively programmed to respond to with the greatest urgency:

A screaming infant.

They come to find a baby girl on the ground, with dark hair and violet eyes.

By Usagi's miraculous powers, Precia Testarossa has been given another chance at life.

[Black Aeronaut]

On another note...

I was wondering how I would spark Homura's interest in Benjamin.

What I might do is have it that, due to the unusual circumstances, there is a brief exchange between them where they see each others memories. Not much, but they see the important bits.

She doesn't know this person. But she feels the agony in her heart like it was her own. Beaten. Belittled. Cowed. Reduced to nothing. The only thing that kept you going was love for someone important to you and a powerful desire to not see that person hurt because of your selfishness.

There is someone there that knows exactly how much this hurts. How it feels to have something dangled in front of you in so tantalizing a manner, and have it yanked away because you were not perfect. Only perfection is rewarded.

And then, there is that person, reaching out to you. Calling out, "Take my hand! I can help you!" And you know they can, because they know how it feels.

If nothing else, misery loves company. It might be nice to lean side-by-side against someone like that, and cry along with them.

Homura will be left with that memory of his pain, and how it was precisely because of that pain that he reached out to her. It will leave her reeling - so much so that Madoka will notice - because she had never, ever thought that anyone else could feel that way.

But Homura has her pride. The sudden realization of what had just happened would shock and appal her. But the impact was still there. And in the days after the Scaglietti Incident, she finds herself looking more and more in his direction.

And Madoka being Madoka, she will not be jealous at all. "Go to him," she'll say. "Learn from him. He never forgot how to love, and neither did you. But you need to see in him how you can grow your life from the ashes of your past."

Homura's name really does mean "Flame". But the second definition of Homura is flames in the context of passion: love, jealousy, and anger. At first she will worry that Benjamin might somehow steal Madoka from her.

"Silly. I might love him... But I could only love him as much as I could love you." And then Madoka will prove that point to her, time and time again.

But then her eyes would turn to Fate and Nanoha... and the flames in her heart will rise, because despite herself, she will become possessive over him. Homura may be a Sun in Leo, but her Lilith is in Libra, her Venus and Mars signs are both in Cancer, and her Eros and Psyche signs are both in Scorpio. When it comes to love, Homura lives up to her name.

And then RWBY and company show up and then shit really starts to get crazy...

[Black Aeronaut]

Oh, and someone drew up what they think a young Precia would look like...



Sauce: http://e-shuushuu.net/image/446778/

[robkelk]

OH.  And HERE'S an idea.

Say that Ben didn't have Precia's Grief Seed - that after a quick use on Alisa to make sure she was good after her first battle (the one involving the Book of Darkness), that it was somehow lost and found its way into Kyubey's paws.  Say that it hatched into a Witch again and that it was that Witch that Jail Scaglietti found and fed until it broke free.

Usagi hits her with her purification attack.

And at first, all seems well...

Until the air is pierced by a sound all humans are instinctively programmed to respond to with the greatest urgency:

A screaming infant.

They come to find a baby girl on the ground, with dark hair and violet eyes.

By Usagi's miraculous powers, Precia Testarossa has been given another chance at life.

Make it happen.

Diana and Last Order would probably love to come over and babysit. They'll be a half-dozen years older than Precia, after all.

For that matter, Rob would encourage Diana and Last Order to head over and play with Quattro, Cinque, and Sein while they're all still youngsters. If Diana and Mimi aren't good influences, I don't know who is.

[Dartz]

I think I'll part ways with this when I get the bits on my plate done.

It's less and less for me.

[Labster]

I think I'll part ways with this when I get the bits on my plate done.

It's less and less for me.

I've been having similar thoughts myself, but it's balanced by the fact that I'm really getting some good writing out of it.  If I do say so myself.  The setting continues to motivate me to write, in ways it obviously didn't for you.

I guess it's that I'm not all that interested in writing wish fulfillment.  For sure it would be cool to date Tomo IRL, but it would also be annoying as fuck.  (Not sure if any of you have ever dated comedians, but let me tell you it is so easy to ruin "the mood" by if both parties prefer telling an awesome joke at the wrong time.)  But Aria and Ai yori Aoshi aren't stories I chose for my desires, but because they represented a fun challenge.

Make no mistake though, I'm here to challenge myself.  I can't influence the general direction of the plot, but I can get better at writing along the way.  And keep trying crazy crossovers, like Azumanga/Black Lagoon and Aria/Aztec Mythology, so I can learn what's interesting.  It's what my muse wants me to do, to put a deep contrast between light and dark.

I'm at best an outside observer to the story process, but looking at it as a writer, I have to agree with Rob. First, Halloween is already overfull with Significant Events. Keeping the story coherent is already difficult enough as it is. Second, regardless of the congruence with reality, if setting off fictional!Ben's problems does not serve a story purpose, don't do it. It seems to me that it's a big enough thing that if it were to be done at all it should be the point of its own story -- not a sideline to the circus that Halloween currently is.

Bob, do you think it to be best that I break the Samhain portion of the Halloween story out into its own tale?  It's more or less self-contained, but it also might be nice to have something a little less heavy after Ben's time with Fate.

[Black Aeronaut]

I don't mind if it's in there, but if you think so, then I won't mind it being a seperate story as an interlude to the party.

[Bob Schroeck]

Bob, do you think it to be best that I break the Samhain portion of the Halloween story out into its own tale?  It's more or less self-contained, but it also might be nice to have something a little less heavy after Ben's time with Fate.

Oh, that's a tough one.  It is wonderfully self-contained, and would make an excellent side-story, but you're right that you need something lighter to follow that sequence.  Then again, the "Duchess Tomo" sequence is pretty light, and could probably serve that function...  You know, none of this is written in stone (yet).  Split it off as a side story, and if the remaining material doesn't work properly without it you can always merge it back in.

[robkelk]

One issue: If we split the Samhain portion off into its own story, then President Aria has no "screen time" in the Halloween story.

[Labster]

OK, I'm trying to figure out when exactly my people start arriving in San Antonio. I had decided that everyone wanted to get a desert tour on the way there, and the most logical way to do that is to hire a tour bus for our size of party. So I have a pretty good itinerary here, right up until the end, which is the leg from Carlsbad to San Antonio. Do I really want to inflict seven hours of West Texas on people when we have portals?

I guess we could be dropped off in El Paso, that's plausible enough for the driver, right? The train schedule is terrible here, 4PM El Paso to arrive in SA at 5AM. Ben, would you be able to house us all overnight from late on the 30th? Mainly, I don't want people to be tired on the day of Halloween. Not to mention our costume ojou-chan needs time to finish alterations.

Alternatively if Ryo-Ohki wants to pick us up from Roswell... <grin>

[Black Aeronaut]

Your best bet is to catch Amtrak's Sunset Limited. It's the nearest rail line that goes through San Antonio, dropping you off right at the edge of Downtown in St. Paul Square and next to the Alamodome - this is a fairly short walk to the Alamo itself.

The only thing is that in order to catch it, you would have to take a bus back out west to El Paso, or down south to Alpine, TX. From there, though... You won't even need state rooms. Just coach seats will be enough, and everyone can enjoy the scenic Texas Hill Country on the way in. (The city is called Alpine for a reason!)

https://www.amtrak.com/routes/sunset-limited-train.html

[Labster]

So... your suggestion to have a well rested group is instead of a 7 hour bus ride, to take an 13 hour train ride overnight in coach, and to wake up at 5 AM Halloween morning. If you didn't want us to come early, you could have just said that.

[Dartz]

Did somebody say "7 Hour Bus Ride through the Desert"

Although my experience of trains versus busses is very much in favour of the train.

[Rajvik]

I have to agree with Dartz, though what I would suggest is that you catch the limited out of LA and enjoy a sleeper ticket for the trip. You see plenty of countryside, and if you want to go particular places, take a charter bus back

[robkelk]

And, with 19 people in your party, you'll fill all of the roomettes of the top deck of a sleeper car. Amtrak would probably give you a discount for guaranteeing one-third of a car is filled.

Treat it as a rolling hotel - with meals included!

[Black Aeronaut]

I recall that was something that I pointed out earlier in regards to the cost of a sleeper car ticket on a train. When you factor in the cost of hotel stays, as well as three meals a day, and fuel costs, the sleeper car ticket is actually a good value because it includes all that, and no one has to drive.

And on a train you have the luxury of actually being able to move around and stretch your legs whenever you please.

If you want to, you can have everyone arrive a day early so they have that chance to recover from the trip before the party happens. Besides, there's plenty to see and do in San Antonio, so why make it a one-note thing if you're already doing the sightseeing thing anyhow?

[Labster]

Sorry I've been a little slow on writing. My mood has been closer to writing code than writing words lately, so that's been the focus. I've been doing some deep research, including going to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and seeing the shows at the Magic Castle. In a couple of weeks, I'm going to go to a coworker's film premiere at the Egyptian. This mainly sounds like fun stuff because it is -- but if my characters are in the tourism and entertainment industries, I need to have something of an accurate view of the business is like in person.

On the other hand, the Magic Castle. What if the Academy of Magical Arts and Sciences has a magic side, and also had a magick side? It's the perfect cover, right? I'm just not sure exactly what to do with that idea, and I think it would necessitate me developing (*shudder*) original characters.

[robkelk]

There are still plenty of mage characters that I haven't pulled out of A Certain Magical Index, and some of them are already good at hiding in plain sight. (I'm thinking specifically of some of the characters introduced in the first arc of the second season of the anime.)

What if the Academy of Magical Arts and Sciences has a strike force? No matter how good Sakura and Shaoran are, having a group of Big Damn Heroes nearby could always be useful in a pinch.

[Labster]

Well, they do have backup, of a sort, in avian form.  But there are limits to where magical ballet can be useful.  And apparently I still need to watch the second season of Index, so I can see what you mean.

Sometimes I think that what I've been writing about has come to me randomly in flashes of inspiration.  But then I realized that I had sculptures in Murano glass of a duck and a swan sitting in my room for the past ten years.  Behind my head is my collection of cards -- jokers in particular -- framed on the wall.  Another thing that predates my anime habit.  And here I am thinking about the Magic Castle, and there's a little owl teapot that my ex bought for me.  I still think of her when I'm trying to write Yomi.

[robkelk]

Hmmmmm...

Brent, I don't want you thinking I'm asking you to do something here.

It's just that I had reason to look at LA on Google Maps (Q: "How reasonable would it be for Mimette Mimi to stay in Venice and work in Hollywood?" A: "Very, if she learns how to drive, and if she's going to live in LA, she'll need to learn.")... which tells me that, if you go a few blocks east on Venice Blvd from the Mitsuwa Marketplace, you'll find The Museum of Jurassic Technology. From the reviews, that sounds like someplace Tomo would take practically anybody who visits and asks to see a museum. And if the Ottawa crowd visits LA for more than a day, both Rob and Ami would ask about museums... (Usagi: "No! Not another museum!")

Assuming the reviews are accurate, Ami would be puzzled until she figured out what this is a museum of, while Rob would love every minute of it.

Shall we assume the reviews are accurate?