Madoka fights the Illuminati (PMMM) [DEAD]

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Jan 23, 2016

Reinhard Von Lohengramm said:
2 - Tell parents
2 - Your right alone
1 - Seize power

In other news, I'm going to start the first of the local area random event rolls. Since they are not side story rolls, expect deus and diabolus ex machinas. The lower the score, the less good the random event for that organisation, the higher it is, the more it benefits. Random event rolls are mostly irrelevant to the long-term plot, because most of these organisations have very weak ties to the greater picture, although be on the lookout. Some of them are harmless, while others are quite dangerous. There tends to be a correlation between their scope and danger levels.

Mitakihara Communist Party - 6

Islamic State of Mitakihara - 20

Mitakihara Uyoku Dantai - 17

Mitakihara Chamber of Commerce - 4

Cult of Salvation - 3

United Nations - 17

Humanity Plus, Mitakihara - 13

Shizuki Syndicate - 6

Mitakihara Triads - 10

Catholic Church in Mitakihara - 5

Mitakihara Professionals' Union - 5

Main Street Bosozoku - 16

Slime and Scum Bosozoku - 15

Shirome Otaku Club - 17

League of Galactic Heroes - 7

Also, added Bundeswehr Marine officers, Mecklinger, Bittenfeld, Lutz, von Eisenach, Fahrenheit, Kempf, Kesler, Wahlen and Mueller.
The name "Kaname" is the key.
[dice]4380[/dice]

QuantumWings said:
Oh hai Lord Steel.
[X] "Nobody else needed to know what you were up to. Knowing about Mr Kyubey is your right alone."

How long did it take for my old players to realize who Lord Steel was?

---

Secrecy is of prime importance right now. Secrecy protects. Secrecy guards against those terrible forces at work, that you have not fully comprehended yet. A vast shadow looms over Nagisa's, Kyouko's and your head and you do not know what will be their next move. There was an attempt on Mrs Momoe's life, or rather, multiple attempts. Bank guards, armed with assault rifles, for no good reason opened fire on Kyouko. It was a vast and ubiquitous strangeness and you could not help but to feel that that strangeness needed knowledge to act. Without information to act, it would lose power dramatically. In that regard, secrecy is of prime importance. Secrecy is your friend. To oppose whoever was working in the shadows, you needed to embrace them.

On first thought, it seems a little bit hypocritical. To confront those in the shadows, you yourself must enter the shadows yourself. However, while poisoning dying mothers and shooting at homeless teenage girls using the cover of darkness and ignorance were somewhat... evil, using those same shadows to guard and protect, it was a different matter altogether. In that sense, any hypocrisy is superficial rather than true.

Indeed, you yourself knew much about the shadows. You used it to gather knowledge and appropriate resources and only then to gather more knowledge.

In contrast, The Conspiracy at work used the shadows to kill, cause pain and terrorise. If it is only to protect yourself and others, why do you not have the right to use equal or lesser means to guard those around you? Letting The Conspiracy hurt others and you without taking some measures to protect yourself would just be silly glorification of victimhood. Besides, secrecy on your part hurts nobody. It only protects those dear to you and yourself.

"Nobody else needed to know what you were up to. Knowing about Mr Kyubey is your right alone."

"Nee-chan?"

"There is something going on. Something really bad. You need to make sure you talk about strange things as little possible. People are out to k-... hurt your mother. What if they hear of Mr Kyubey from her?"

Careless talk costs lives.

"But mama said that I should tell her about what is happening..."

"Your mother isn't well right now. She wants to know as much for as long as possible. But it's dangerous to let her know more than she needs to."

"She doesn't need to know about Mr Kyubey?"

You shake your head.

[] Go back to Mrs Momoe with the Odin pills.

---

AMMUNITION:

34:120 5.56 NATO
Zero incendiary 40mm grenades

---

April Friday the 1st, 5:30 pm

Anime timeline comparison:

26th March Mami vs Gertrud
4th April Mami vs Charlotte

30 days remaining until ???

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Jan 24, 2016

Adyen said:
[X] "If you have anything you want to talk about, whether it's about Mr. Kyubey or anything else, remember you can always talk to me. I will try to help you out as much as possible. I promise." Give her your phone number (and some change in case she needs to use a public phone)
-[X] Go back to Mrs Momoe with the Odin pills.

Skelm said:
[X] "If you have anything you want to talk about, whether it's about Mr. Kyubey or anything else, remember you can always talk to me. I will try to help you out as much as possible. I promise." Give her your phone number (and some change in case she needs to use a public phone)
-[X] Go back to Mrs Momoe with the Odin pills.

---

"She doesn't. No-one else needs to."

Nagisa broods silently on your position. Indeed, it seems more deep than a usual ten-year-old is capable of.

"However, if you have anything you want to talk about, whether it's about Mr. Kyubey or anything else, remember you can always talk to me. I will try to help you out as much as possible. I promise." You get out Stahl.

You never actually had a phone number before.

Stahl automatically generates a VoIP phone number. You find a piece of paper and write it down and give it to Nagisa.

Nagisa takes it.

"Come on, let's get back to your mother."

---

You sneak back into Mrs Momoe's room. You show her the pills and she nods at it.

"They're the ones... Find some lab. Test them and you'll find the truth. Ahh!" Mrs Momoe begins to wince in pain.

"Mrs Momoe?"

"Mama?"

"They've begin to grow more frequent. The pain. At this rate, I'm not going to make it... So I have a favour to ask..."

"Yes, Mrs Momoe?" You ask with anxiety.

"They're going to come and kill me anyway. And even if you stop them every day, the spiked Odin has already done its work...so can I ask you a favour?"

You wait for Mrs Momoe to finish her question.

"One of you...Help me put my life into my own hands... don't give them the joy of killing me... and pull out the life support!"

[] Ask Mrs Momoe for confirmation three times and then pull out the life support. Letting her die on her own terms is the greatest act of defiance of those forces in the shadows.
-[] Do the same, except share some parts of pulling out life support with Nagisa. That way, she remembers that the both of you granted Mrs Momoe's last desire together.
[] Persuade Nagisa to do it, as a final act of filial piety to end Mrs Momoe's pain.
[] Refuse. Life is important, regardless of the amount of suffering there is.
[] Refuse and persuade Nagisa to not do it outside of the room. Mrs Momoe is not going to die.

---

AMMUNITION:

34:120 5.56 NATO
Zero incendiary 40mm grenades

---

April Friday the 1st, 6:00 pm

Anime timeline comparison:

26th March Mami vs Gertrud
4th April Mami vs Charlotte

30 days remaining until ???

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Jan 26, 2016

Reinhard Von Lohengramm said:
Votes locked commencing write-up

You refuse to pull out Mrs Momoe's life support. You can understand the logic behind her desire to "take her own life" into her own hands, as she said it. Such a course of action would provide her a chance to express her defiance against those seeking to kill her. If would deny, right in their faces, the arrogant and cruel way in which they acted, as though not only did they had the right, but also power to influence and control every single event in an individual's life from cradle to death.

Those killers were control freaks. They wanted to torture and drag out Mrs Momoe's pain and agony for whatever reason and Mrs Momoe wanted to deny them that joy by having her life end right here and now.

If you were in Mrs Momoe's position, then perhaps you would feel the same. However, life has intrinsic value. One can posit that by denying life, pain can be denied, however, life also brings joy.

"Mrs Momoe, with all due respect to your state, I cannot grant you that request."

Mrs Momoe looks emptily into you, sighing gently as if in disappointment.

"Don't let them know they've beat your spirit."

Mrs Momoe continues to stare into the ceiling, seemingly ignoring your pleas to continue struggling on.

You then approach her and then tell her your honest opinion of the matter:
"It's not about the pain. Do it for Nagisa. It's a selfish request, but please don't let her remember you as someone who gave up."

"Hmm. At least you are honest." Mrs Momoe coughs. "I'll grant you that much. I can't hate you for your opinion. However..."

Mrs Momoe breathes heavily.

"A person ought to know when to cut their losses. The moment I signed up for the Odin trial to improve my office work, I stepped into a deluded fantasy. I should've admitted to myself that I was suited for it right there. But I went on anyway. And then I landed here."

Mrs Momoe continues after reflecting on it a little while.

"When a person starts losing without even a single thing to gain, I think it's time to stop. We seem to be fundamentally different on that. Let's agree, to disagree, okay?"

Mrs Momoe stares at you. Those eyes belong to a human, but it is only because she is in a hospital bed that you can tell this. Without it, you would've merely seen a wasting thrall, slowly withering to death as her offspring brooded silently before her and as the beeps of the instruments around her dragged on that charade of a life she was hanging onto.

"Sorry for troubling you Mrs Momoe." You bowed at her as a last gesture of respect.

"I can't blame you. You not old enough yet."

Just as you are about to make it through the threshold, Nagisa asks you a question.

"Nee-chan, how old are you?"

"14."

"14." Nagisa repeats this as if it holds some sort of significance to her.

And so you make your way out of Mrs Momoe's room, parting each other, with differences that both of you understood.

---

Where do you go now?

[] Kazamino. You need to investigate those bank guards and why they shot at Kyouko.

---

AMMUNITION:

34:120 5.56 NATO
Zero incendiary 40mm grenades

---

April Friday the 1st, 6:30 pm

Anime timeline comparison:

26th March Mami vs Gertrud
4th April Mami vs Charlotte

30 days remaining until ???

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Jan 26, 2016

Reinhard Von Lohengramm said:
Votes locked, commencing write-up.

With a lead to the killers and differences that can't be resolved, you leave Mrs Momoe's room. You change into a nurse disguise and with Von Schoenkopf in backpack form, you decide that you want to try and do something else.

Namely, you want to see what all the fuss about that violinist boy from Sayaka is all about.

Boys simply are the worst. "All boys over 10 should be put to death."

You cringed at the thought that suddenly popped up in your head. What you meant was, boys had no use whatsoever in a young teenage girl's life. They were drains on time and whatever they said was probably fueled by raging adolescent hormones, so if they said they loved you, it was probably a hormone-fueled ruse. To suddenly think that "all boys over 10 should be put to death", it was telling of what effects the ribbons had on you. However, that was alright, since you were aware of the ribbons and the sometimes odd thoughts they put into your head. So long as you were aware of them, you were safe from doing anything stupid that they might suggest to you. In light of it all, the thought that "all boys over 10 should be put to death" seemed like extremely dark comedy rather than actual malicious misandry in your head.

Wandering with a neutral face, neither smiling nor frowning, you wander through the corridors of the hospital into the disability section.

Walking in circles, without a clue where you are, you conclude that it probably isn't a good idea to walk around like a clumsy idiot without a sense of direction.

You decide to play the weary nurse act with actual staff.

You make your way to the ward clerk and casually ask "Hey, do you know where the cripple kid is?"

"Which cripple kid? This is the disability section, there's like tens of them here."

"The cripple kid who can't play music anymore because of an injury?"

"Oh, you mean that beta-tier cripple kid. You take that corridor..."

And so you follow her directions. You were quite conscious of your height and almost feared that someone would've called you a midget, but thankfully, not of the world-weary nurses say something of the sort.

---

You casually stroll into Kyousuke's room. The "beta-tier cripple kid" as the staff quite uncharitably called him is staring out the window at the sunset, as if he lost something dear to him. Maybe he did, but you can't tell from here.

[] Use the nurse intern act on him. "Excuse me Mr Kamijou, your hand?"
[] Deride his taste in music and mock him as a cripple to an over-the-top degree that even he should laugh at it.
[] Write in.

---

AMMUNITION:

34:120 5.56 NATO
Zero incendiary 40mm grenades

---

April Friday the 1st, 7:00 pm

Anime timeline comparison:

26th March Mami vs Gertrud
4th April Mami vs Charlotte

30 days remaining until ???

---

OOC: "All boys over 10 should be put to death." is yet another LoGH reference. The choice to insult Kyousuke is a Gundam Thunderbolt reference.

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Jan 27, 2016

Side Story #007 - Spanner in the Works

OOC: Please put your comments in spoiler tags if you are an old player.

A 19th Century Philosopher said:
"But, in general, the protective system of our day is conservative, while the free trade system is destructive. It breaks up old nationalities and pushes the antagonism of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to the extreme point. In a word, the free trade system hastens the social revolution. It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favor of free trade."

This quotation, made by a certain 19th century German philosopher, possessed great meaning, more than in the context of free trade and revolution. It in fact practically summed up the logic behind the plan that was happening. This concept is called "accelerationism", that is pushing negative forces to their most logical extreme, so that in the end, the most negatively affected by those forces have no choice but to explode in a tide of fury and destroy and crush the original perpetrator. It is best pictured as someone intentionally letting a pressure cooker overload, so that it explodes. It could also be pictured as someone intentionally fueling a fire in a certain part, so that all fuel into that area is expended by that huge inferno, in turn speeding the death of that fire. To make something so bad that those involved had to resort to violence and destruction to overthrow the cause of it, that was the essence of the Mitakihara Scenario.

While A-008 certainly didn't have qualms about killing from a moral perspective, casually culling half of the human population was, in his view, weakening. Some argued that it was necessary it put down large an amount of people, so that in the aftermath, they could seize the strings of power, getting rid of those too inconvenient to dominate. From a pragmatic view, they were entirely correct. Killing reactionaries and counter-revolutionaries, primarily located in the Northern Hemisphere, the main targets of the prepared nuclear annihilation, had two benefits: Firstly, it crushed the seed of opposing ideologies, stomping them out to consolidate control and secondly it made administration and control of the remaining numbers considerably easier. The remaining people would be too terrified to resist and they would learn that in the fear and chaos they needed someone to herd them like the animals they were. The plan was to violently smash their useless consumerism and whip them all back in line, shackling them to bring them to bear on the great task at hand, purging and cleansing Earth of the Eternal Enemy.

At least, that was the ideologically imbibed description of what they were planning. When he looked it at from a normal person's perspective, it was quite alarming. After all, it meant killing half of the world's population and engaging in a form of totalitarianism that would put Lord Steel to shame. Change was hard, even for him. He preferred relatively subtle manipulation, indeed, as a Treasurer, economic manipulation to reduce demand for Contracting, the boring, subtle, reformist stuff of Weishauptists, nowadays. He had his fair share of poisoning Third World country wells in the name of "preventive action" and the ridiculous megucaphobic goosestepping and terrorism had lost their charm. Killing people who couldn't fight back was not very good entertainment. If killing people was a best way to express control over them, then he was sure that the amount of control he expressed through those last 15000 lives from triggering a recession and driving people into suicide was very meagre, almost indistinguishable from generic schoolyard bullying.

At some point, the joy of killing to "shift the course of history" was replaced by a dull discontentment at being unable to create new things, rather than merely crushing them.

At least the zombie rumours about Von Langenstein weren't true. He had to credit the dog-faced bastard for being able to find a way to spike millennia old fabric with pheromones without anyone noticing that putrid smell.

There was no value to be found in death and martyrdom that couldn't be found in life and conquest. After all, that was how he had struggled to where he was.
[dice]4432[/dice]

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Jan 27, 2016

QuantumWings said:
[X] Use the nurse intern act on him. "Excuse me Mr Kamijou, your hand?"

Skelm said:
[X] Use the nurse intern act on him. "Excuse me Mr Kamijou, your hand?"

Slith10 said:
Just vote the same as me or something if you don't want that to win straight away.

[X] Use the nurse intern act on him. "Excuse me Mr Kamijou, your hand?"

First off, he won't laugh at us mocking him, no matter how over the top and malicious we make it.
Secondly, why did we come here if we were just going to deride him and then leave? Due to the fact that he won't want to talk to us after that.

You put on a pair of latex gloves, because who know what those hands have touched? Filthy, dirty boys.

You approach him professionally.

"Excuse me Mr Kamijou, your hand please." You reach for his left hand, clearly disabled and start making random fake medical gestures in order to put up an act.

The brooding oaf turns around and he seems almost confused. He is gawking, as the sight of you seems so out of place. It was probably your height at work.

"I-I thought I had already told you about it-"

"Now is not the time to say that the previous ones have done it, I'm pretty sure you know the public health system is abysmal, so please understand. So, how did you break it?"

The teenage boy, confused as he is, replies:

"I already told the whole hospital, I broke my hand when I fell down the stairs."

"And it was an accident?" You continue your ruse of being a nurse, by pressing on his index finger and whispering to yourself as if you were a medical practitioner.

"Yes."

"So you fell down the stairs by accident and broke your hand?" It seemed relatively plain and well, accidental. You raise your eyebrow in disappointment at him.

"A black-suited woman wearing sunglasses walked into me and then I fell down and broke my hand."

Well, that interested you.

"And where was this?"

"The train station. Right near the camera." At this, you put his hand back down.

"Thank you Mr Kamijou."

You walk out of his room, leaving him confused. You make your way to a coffee machine, surrounded by tired and world-weary staff. Pouring out a cup of hot chocolate, you sip it and continue your nurse intern act, none of staff noticing that you're not really an employee.

Originally, you just went into his room and put up that nurse act for the sake of it, but with the the mention of that black-suited woman and a camera...

[] "First Mrs Momoe gets cancer from a medical trial and Kyouko gets shot at by bank guards. There really are no accidents in this town." Go infiltrate the train station and try and dig up some surveillance footage.

---

AMMUNITION:

34:120 5.56 NATO
Zero incendiary 40mm grenades

---

April Friday the 1st, 7:15 pm

Anime timeline comparison:

26th March Mami vs Gertrud
4th April Mami vs Charlotte

30 days remaining until ???

---

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Jan 27, 2016

Skelm said:
[X] "First Mrs Momoe gets cancer from a medical trial and Kyouko gets shot at by bank guards. There really are no accidents in this town." Go infiltrate the train station and try and dig up some surveillance footage.

Edit: I'm pretty sure either we or our AI's have some kind of hacking ability. Even the Illuminati can only do so much about electronic surveillance records.

Dark Ness said:
[X] "First Mrs Momoe gets cancer from a medical trial and Kyouko gets shot at by bank guards. There really are no accidents in this town." Go infiltrate the train station and try and dig up some surveillance footage.

Huh? I know he made PMMM, but what does he have to do with it?

So, it was for completely OOC reasons?

---

Tinfoil hat someone might call you, however, that wouldn't at all discourage you from continuing on your quest for information. Medical trials weren't meant to poison, yet here Mrs Momoe was, dying slowly and painfully from taking spiked drugs in a Kaname Corporation-sponsored medical trial, withering away like a damned woman burning in a collapsing building. The way Kyouko panted after running back into the hotel after being shot at moved you quite a lot and you could not help but to think about why the bank guards did it.

There are no accidents in this town. You've got a feeling that the violinists' injury was not an accident as well.

---

You make your way to the train station in your pink coat getup with Von Schoenkopf in backpack form.

As a train station worker walks out of his office to take a smoke, you sneak in and look around the room. Eventually, you find a couple of server racks, connected to storage.

You decide to take a chance. Despite never having touched a hard drive in your life, you pull out the plug on the storage set. You look around for a screwdriver then start using it to get the 10 or so, you couldn't bother to count, hard drives out of the bay. Quickly unscrewing them in record time, you shove them all into Von Schoenkopf. As the train station worker makes his way in, you fade into the shadows and sneak past right him. He notices nothing as you slowly tiptoe your way out of his office.

Indeed, Von Schoenkopf as a backpack, storing roughly 15 hard drives or so, is quite heavy. You hobble your way into an alley to deal with it.

---

"Hey Stahl, long will it take for you to process roughly..." You look at the hard drives. They are approximately 20TBs each, not surprising given that they were surveillance. "...300TB of video footage?"

"AN INDEFINITE AMOUNT OF TIME USING OUR OWN CAPABILITIES. A SUGGESTION IS TO PROVIDE US WITH A BOTNET. THAT IS, FIND US SERVERS OR SO TO HIJACK AND USE COMPUTING POWER TO SUPPLEMENT OUR OWN. AN AVERAGE WORKSTATION COMPUTER BOTNET WILL ALLOW US TO ACCOMPLISH THAT TASK IN TWO DAYS."

[] "Maybe we should appropriate the school's computing power." Set up a botnet in the school.
[] "Kaname Corporation has probably got some powerful stuff that might shorten it..."

---

AMMUNITION:

34:120 5.56 NATO
Zero incendiary 40mm grenades

---

April Friday the 1st, 7:45 pm

Anime timeline comparison:

26th March Mami vs Gertrud
4th April Mami vs Charlotte

30 days remaining until ???

---

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Jan 30, 2016

Dark Ness said:
[X] "Kaname Corporation has probably got some powerful stuff that might shorten it..."

Skelm said:
What do you think Homura was doing every time she time travels? Kyubey has always been very clear about any wish being possible. It would probably cause more of a karmic backlash, but that's a positive for him.

[X] "Kaname Corporation has probably got some powerful stuff that might shorten it..."

The Odin nootropic trial that killed Mrs Momoe was handled by Kaname Corporation. A slight uneasiness slides into your head as you begin to fully realize the connection around Kaname Corporation and the strange occurrences around town. Your chest tightens as your curiosity about why Kaname Corporation-associated security guards shot at Kyouko intensifies and a drop of sweat drips off your left temple as your anxieties about Kaname Corporation possibly killing Mrs Momoe grow.

There could be no denying know that Kaname Corporation was hiding quite a lot. You shiver as a cool draught of wind strokes your nape.

If the Kaname Corporation was indeed involved in such a series of events for some more sinister purpose, then the logical conclusion would be that it had a lot of power, not only financial power, but also technological power.

Perhaps you needed a tinfoil hat to show the world that you were being increasingly fearful and deranged. Perhaps your mind was stuck in the clouds and you were absolutely in need of anti-psychotic medication. Even if that were true, that feeling of the presence of an invisible hand looming above you was far too real to reject. How else could such a mere accounting firm expand into a financial monolith within, what 15 or so years? They probably had some secret technology no-one else knew about. Secret technology, you say! Area 51, reptilian technology, technology from greys, ancient astronaut technology, whatever it was, they had a monopoly on it. No one reasonably gets country-influencing success in that short amount of time without something special.

It was a shame that tinfoil hats weren't in fashion.

You carefully make your way to the entrance of the Kaname Corporation Tower.

---

It was surrounded by armed guards and the checkpoint was manned, as usual. The guards, still frowning like the goosestepping guards they were, were ever vigilant. A cockroach wanders from under a rubbish bin and as it tries to sprint to an adjacent bin, it is rapidly crushed by the grimacing men.

You really didn't want to be on the business end of their SMGs. You gulped.

Picking up a small pebble, you hide near some bushes.

---

A clanging sound causes an employee to stop their car just before she is about to enter the checkpoint. As the employee finishes checking her trunk to see what made the noise, you crawl into the trunk as she closes it.

Once again, you ride a car as it makes its way into the underground parking lot. As it bounces, you stick your feet into the side to stabilise yourself.

---

The employee opens the trunk, but in the shadows of the underground car park, she does not flinch anyhow. You jump out of the trunk and hide in the shadows to prepare yourself to take some credentials.

---

Soon enough, you see a lower-level pistol-armed guard facing a pillar. Plip plip plip plip. It appears that he is relieving himself. You oblige his vulnerability and you crawl out, reaching your fingers into his back pocket. As a he hums the tune of ClariS' "Connect", you sift through his wallet and appropriate his identification card.

You promptly set off to the security room.

---

Peering left and right at corners and edges to see if anyone or any camera is there, you successfully take a stroll into the security room. Two fat surveillance cameramen shove food into their mouths like pigs as they discuss topics that should belong in the bedroom. You even see a beer can open. Well, you weren't human resources, so you brush it off.

You wander into a uniform closet. Seeing a set of appropriate size, you, well, appropriate it.

---

As a pink-haired short woman security guard with clearance to almost all of the Kaname Corporation Tower, save some the top floor and various other floors, you confidently stroll through the Tower without much care. Sunglasses hiding your eyes, you really were just another employee. You slide Tanzan Ishihara's card into the reader. You press onto the button for basement floor 10. Evidently that was where the server terminals were.

---

You strut your way into basement floor 10. Aside from the whir of fans of countless server racks and a faint, electrical humming sound and the occasional four-eye computer technician wandering around, there's not really much down here.

You manage to find what is evidently an unmanned terminal, with a 4k monitor almost as wide, but not quite as wide as the obese kid who huffs and puffs and ends up last whenever there is cross-country in PE. You walk mechanically to it, further cementing the impression that you're merely a security guard. You get Stahl's micro-USB wire and connect it into the terminal. Stahl then activates a program labelled "HISTORY WIPE", evidently to conceal your digital footsteps. You then pull out the hard drives and shove them into the hotplug bays. The 4k monitor lights up.

The operating system logo lights up and it isn't the American one you'd usually expect. "XINJIANG TIANHE" appears in stylised font, alongside a random mishmash of numbers that you can't memorize. A chicken drumstick as a logo only made it weirder. Regardless, you note that down: Xinjiang Tianhe and Kaname Corporation seemed to have a very cozy partnership.

You look back onto Stahl's screen and you find yourself absolutely astounded. The specifications of the CPU are apparently around 800 to 900 terahertz. This was some serious computing power. The million core-GPU was no joking matter as well. Consumer lower-level terahertz CPUs were so expensive, it wasn't even funny. Stahl was no laughing joke.

In all honesty, the computer here was government-level equipment. Hell, Kaname Corporation probably used it to manipulate stock markets or something.

The person who left this unattended and vulnerable was an utter idiot. Even with the scary security bots armed with fighter plane machine guns and apparently facial recognition software in the deeper levels, the normal, mundane security practices here were abysmal. Maybe a normal person couldn't get in. Why didn't they account for those who knew about the shadows?

Maybe the password was consumer PC-tier? That would explain why Stahl got into the KC computer so easily. Maybe it was Stahl, rather than stupidity after all.

You dispel your bloating thoughts. Stahl activates. You stare at Stahl's screen:

"LOOKING FOR SUBJECT: KAMIJOU KYOUSUKE."

Roughly a minute passes.

"SUBJECT KAMIJOU KYOUSUKE: NOT FOUND. ASSUMING GUTMANN METHOD DELETION ALGORITHM OR STRONGER. UTILIZING COMPUTER RESOURCES TO MAXIMUM. USING GPU. ESTIMATE TIME FOR RECOVERY OF ALL DATA SINCE MANUFACTURING OF DRIVES: ONE HOUR. WE CAN BE DISCONNECTED FROM THE TERMINAL, THE HISTORY WIPE PROGRAM HAS BEEN UPLOADED INTO THE COMPUTER. IT WILL RUN IN THE BACKGROUND, HIDDEN IF YOU REMOVE US."

One hour of free time within the Kaname Corporation. Indeed, that could be an opportunity to "appropriate" more of your "inheritance."

PICK THREE AND THREE ONLY
[] "It'd sure be nice to find more out-of-place military equipment lying around."
[] "Poor Kamjou-kun, whinging like a kicked puppy..."
[] "If wonder if Kaname Corporation or Xinjiang Tianhe computing power is available for home users."
[] "I'd sure love to sneak out at night more often."
[] "I'd absolutely adore a bunch of nootropics that aren't poisoned."

---

AMMUNITION:

34:120 5.56 NATO
Zero incendiary 40mm grenades

---

April Friday the 1st, 8:00 pm

Anime timeline comparison:

26th March Mami vs Gertrud
4th April Mami vs Charlotte

30 days remaining until ???

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Jan 30, 2016

Adyen said:
[X] "If wonder if Kaname Corporation or Xinjiang Tianhe computing power is available for home users."
[X] "It'd sure be nice to find more out-of-place military equipment lying around."
[X] "Poor Kamjou-kun, whinging like a kicked puppy..."

Skelm said:
[X] "If wonder if Kaname Corporation or Xinjiang Tianhe computing power is available for home users."
[X] "It'd sure be nice to find more out-of-place military equipment lying around."
[X] "Poor Kamjou-kun, whinging like a kicked puppy..."

Your heart warms at the thought that in Mitakihara, there was highly advanced technology that could sift through hundreds of terabytes of data in less than a day. Perhaps it was a childish, cringy, localistic thought, but it's one that really makes your cheeks feel mellow. A city of progress and development continues to march to the future, despite its problems and mysteries. Unjustified pride expands in your chest.

In all honesty, you were simply hungry for a little piece of that progress and development for yourself. Speaking of the devil, as you turn around, you find a plain cardboard box on a server rack. You pull a chair over, its wheels shifting like cutlery and you carefully stand on it, managing to balance yourself despite the unsteady wheels on the chair. You swipe your hands at the cardboard box like a raccoon dog and you jump down, your feet cleanly landing on the ground. No harm done.

Indeed, no harm was done. As your eyes dart over the cardboard box, they find a plain white sticker.

"XINJIANG TIANHE EXPERIMENTAL QUANTUM PC CPU. NOT FOR SALE. COMPATIBLE WITH REGI-2050, REGI-2050-02 AND REGI-2050-02+ SOCKETS."

Well, you didn't know what that meant, but loot was loot. You stuff it into your backpack Von Schoenkopf, screechingly zipping it back up.

You strut your way to another room, swaying left and right to make it clear to anyone looking at you that you are a kooky security guard.

---

Conspiracy theories on the internet all denounced Kaname Corporation as some creepy megacorp trying to oust the Japanese government. Perhaps, they had a point. You found Stahl and co when you came wandering into Kaname Corporation, all despite the fact that Kaname Corporation belonged in the financial sector. With the octopus-looking patrolling security quadruped robots armed with heavy machine guns and the grimacing security guards toting submachineguns, your senses were certainly sympathetic towards that theory. However, unless you saw something truly damning for yourself, you intend to merely remain cautious. Corporations engaged in that sort of strange business all the time. Even if Kaname Corporation wasn't exactly the saintly business your mother-adoring imagination would have had you believe a year ago, it certainly wasn't a complete evil megacorp, yet...

The chattering of some particular foolish employees seize your ears.

---

After eavesdropping on some particularly talkative employees, you get access on some critical information.

Apparently, Kaname Corporation is handling weapons shipments. A whole ship of small arms is headed to Dubai, from what you heard. Various guns and grenades, due to leave on the 8th.

The thought "...it certainly wasn't a complete evil megacorp, yet..." races through your mind. Doubt electrifies your throat.

At best, Kaname Corporation was just handling them in transit for some other shady corporation. At worst, they were fueling a new fire in Syria, the last one having ended a couple of decades ago. As anxiety strikes your heart, you sincerely hope that it is the former.

---

As you scurry to one of the lower basement floors, you come across a dirty note on the ground:
"I don't think it works for skewering kebab, but it protect a decent amount. Turn left, go straight, head right, second room. No alarm this time. Regards, M.O."

As you stuff the note into your security guard pocket, the memory hits you like a train. This M.O. has helped you before, on the day you got those ribbons and your A.I. armour. You make a mental note to handle the stuff about them later.

---

The weapons were really out of place, that you could say.

You loom over the small chrome box, simply stamped "UT-09, Vibrobayonet". You quickly stuff it into the backpack.

---

You still had 20 minutes left. Your mind, idle, inevitably turns to another topic, namely Kamijou's hand.

The boy looked like a little bitch who would whine to the degree that someone would actually be hurt.

You cringed at your thought. That word never came up when you thought of terms to describe people. At worst, "mean" and "obnoxious"...

You shrug it off as just another inevitable side effect of the ribbons. If you had the gall to take what you needed for your search for truth, that was enough. You couldn't ask for more. Bad thought hurt nobody if they were kept in your head.

---

Having found yourself lost in a rather sterile-looking all-white floor, you sift your way through the cabinets and cases, filled with miscellaneous items.

And strangely enough, you find a box labelled "OVERREACH INDUSTRIES, LEFT HAND REPLACEMENT SET WITH DRIVER CHIP."

You stuff it into Gunther, now nearly full.

---

You wander back to the computer in basement floor 10. The moment you connect Stahl back into the computer, satisfaction fills your heart. You read Stahl's screen.

"DATA RECOVERY COMPLETE. SUBJECT KAMIJOU KYOUSUKE FOUND, INCIDENT INVOLVING INJURY FOUND. DOWNLOADING RECOVERED VIDEO AND SOUND FILE."

Stahl completes its download and wipes the computer log. The computer shuts down. Carefully, your fingers pull out the surveillance hard drives and you shove them into von Schoenkopf. Von Schoenkopf's storage compartment is now full.

---

You make your way back up to ground floor. As your feet meets the marble of ground floor, a distant explosion meets your ears. An orchestra of gunfire announces itself in the distance. Its echo shakes the very ground itself.

Stahl vibrates in your pocket, in a manner that is the "warning tap on the shoulder" of an artificially intelligent smartphone. You pull it out and the notification alarms you.

"PREDICTION: COMBAT SITUATION 300 METRES AHEAD, NEAR KANAME CORPORATION CHECKPOINT. TACTICAL OPTIONS: RETREAT TO UPPER FLOORS, INVESTIGATE DEFENSIVELY. RECOMMENDED TACTICAL OPTION, RETREAT TO UPPER FLOORS."

Even as the fear stabs you in the heart, a certain ruthless reason and calmness, yearning for blood stirs within you. Your mind is armoured against fear, but quite eagerly it wishes for you to take up the sword and join the firefight.

[] Retreat upwards, into a securely locked cleaning equipment room if possible. That's the sensible choice.
[] Retreat upwards and maybe... peak a little down at what is going on.
[] Investigate closer. You demand to know what is going on. Stahl and the others will protect you, if necessary.

---

AMMUNITION:

34:120 5.56 NATO
Zero incendiary 40mm grenades

---

April Friday the 1st, 9:00 pm

Anime timeline comparison:

26th March Mami vs Gertrud
4th April Mami vs Charlotte

30 days remaining until ???

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Jan 31, 2016

Skelm said:
[X] Retreat upwards and maybe... peak a little down at what is going on.

QuantumWings said:
[X] Retreat upwards and maybe... peak a little down at what is going on.

The phrase of the hour was "retreat and reconnoiter." The quaking of grenade explosions and small arms fire, resonating near you despite their source being hundreds of metres away, served to terrify you. However, this terror wasn't necessarily negative, for it reminded you of the importance of your life, as the King of Mitakihara who had decided to remove the veil covering of all the city's mysteries. If you're weren't alive, there would be no King. Thus, you spin around on your feet and quickly sprint towards the stairs. Some of the eyes of the employees were aimed at you, as if they were condemning a coward.

That didn't matter a single bit. "Cowardice" was simply a form of preservational pragmatism. There was no shame in it.

Rushing upwards, your feet pressing onto every step, you panted as you made your way to some abandoned office booth. Sheets of paper lied on the ground, their whiteness speaking of sudden recent abandonment. Lying prone, you crawled to the edge of the room. Your eyes stare stoically through the glass wall, peering down to see an inferno at the checkpoint. The husks of cars burn as the flashing of gunfire lights up the night street like the lights of a modem. A woman too far away for your eyes to discern her identity, judging from her business dress, company staff, kneels behind her half-burning car. She pulls out what appears to be pistol. Despite the checkpoint guards lying over the barriers, bent in the sleep of death, now painted in blood, the woman fearlessly peers from cover. A ball of green, incandescent light noisily replies to the storm of lead that seems to be aimed at her.

It almost seems like a candle is silenced, as the rate of fire on the far side seems to have decreased.

"Stahl, could you get onto the security section's radio?"

Stahl attempts to find the radio channel for Kaname Corporation's security, however:
"IT APPEARS THE RADIO CHANNEL IS ENCRYPTED. WE DO NOT HAVE THE CAPABILITY TO DECRYPT IT, MADAM."

You sigh in disappointment.

Once again, the company woman donates another green ball to her warm visitors, again, shutting some up. However, just as she ducks behind her car, a figure in black appears out of the darkness before her. Brandishing a shining blade fixed to their forearm, the figure cleanly strokes away the company woman's hand. The woman grasps her stump, almost about to yell for a second, until she uses her remaining hand to steady herself upright. The figure again raises their blade, this time, poised for a fatal slicing of the woman into half, but the incipient hacking is stopped as muzzle flashing from down below ward off the black figure.

Coordinated gunfire chases off the figure in black and as it beyond-human-speed-rapidly zips away, the gunfire against the company woman stops as well. Then, a tall, suited lanky security guard personally advances forward, turning around to wave his gun into the air, while waving his other hand at the former direction of the gunfire. The massed company security guards seem to salute the lanky man and they rush through the less incendiary flanks of the fire. Muzzle flashing once against lights the night streets. Amidst the flashing, you see running figures falling, skidding into the ground, presumably the original attackers.

Your eyes turn back to the woman and the man. The man carries the businesswoman, his hands securely supporting her thighs and back as she lies in his arms, injured. The woman herself waves her stump around as if to get further support around the man's neck, however, she stops as the stump of her hand paints her face red, as if surrendering to the terror of losing part of her limbs.

The cars near the barrier bursts into a fireball, one that luckily does not consume the man aiding the woman. The man starts to rush towards the general direction of the tower.

"Stahl, could you please zoom in to the woman?"

"ACKNOWLEDGED, MADAM."

Stahl readily zooms into the pair.

Stahl finishes zooming, cropping the image to the woman only.

Kaname Junko lies unconscious in her guardian's arms, her face stained with blood, her left hand a bloody stump.

Bitter vomit rises and burns your throat.

[] Put back the Overreach bionic hand and escape.
[] "I didn't come here for the moral dilemmas." Escape with the hand.

---

AMMUNITION:

34:120 5.56 NATO
Zero incendiary 40mm grenades

---

April Friday the 1st, 9:30 pm

Anime timeline comparison:

26th March Mami vs Gertrud
4th April Mami vs Charlotte

30 days remaining until ???

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Feb 1, 2016

QuantumWings said:
[X] Put back the Overreach bionic hand and escaped.

Went did we even want it in the first place?

I can't think of any IC reasons for taking it. Ooc taking it to nerf jp-101 would make sense, but Madoka doesn't have a reason to desire that.

Slith10 said:
[X] Put back the Overreach bionic hand and escape.
We are still inside of the building currently.

Don't know why we took the hand for. (Violin boy? I would think a high tech hand from nowhere would be very obvious to Kaname Corp and just get him killed)
It was a waste of an 'item' honestly.

Dark Ness said:
Yep

[X] Put back the Overreach bionic hand and escape.

Adyen said:
... Why DID we take a left hand replacement anyways?

[X] Put back the Overreach bionic hand and escape.

Edit: Changed vote.

A sour bitterness rises to the roof of your mouth. You pause for a second, as if a poor beggar were condemning you for stealing from them. Your eyes refocus, slightly watery. A pang of shame strikes your heart, for there was a line between spoiled daughter and heartless burglar. Your mind sees that you are on the verge of crossing it. It only took one more step...

You refused to take that step.

Turning around, you rushed to the elevator, scanning your keycard to get you back into the basements of Kaname Corporation.

---

Having stuffed the bionic hand and driver chips back into their cabinets, you rush upwards.

In the scuffle of paramedics and firefighters arguing with each other, you easily make your way through the unmanned checkpoint. Stashing away Von Schoenkopf's miscellaneous contents at Kyouko's hovel, as you sprint home, your feet become ever sorer, your face ever puffier.

---

"Tadaima!" Your throat is dry as you force out your exhausted breath.

There is no "Okaeri." As you make your way into the house, you see why, as Father has his back turned towards you, tightly gripping onto the phone, a panicked voice, begging for answers. Tatsuya was lucky, for he was nowhere to be seen and was presumably asleep.

Your heart tightened in anxiety, you make your way to the bathroom to clean yourself.

You didn't know how to handle this.

Nothing like this had happened in your life before.

---

As your father's panic continues to reverberate through the floor and walls, you slump yourself on the bed. Your limbs refuse to move, leaden in guilt and fear.

[] "I'm just a child. I don't need to hate myself for being one."
[] Focus on one single thing about it all.
-[] The word of the hour is ____.
[] "Times like these are when it sucks to be Kaname Madoka."
-[] "If only I could get my way more easily."
-[] "I just want to seize it all by the throat."

---

AMMUNITION:

34:120 5.56 NATO
Zero incendiary 40mm grenades

---

April Friday the 1st, 10:30 pm

Anime timeline comparison:

26th March Mami vs Gertrud
4th April Mami vs Charlotte

30 days remaining until ???

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Feb 2, 2016

Slith10 said:
[X] Focus on one single thing about it all.
-[X] The word of the hour is "why".
-[X] As in, why was she attacked at that place (instead of, say, at home). If mother was the target of an assassination, then it would be much easier to attack in a place with no security.

Gold might possibly indicate wish-related points or something, because a way of 'getting my way easily' would be making a wish for that.

Dark Ness said:
[X] Focus on one single thing about it all.
-[X] The word of the hour is "why".
-[X] As in, why was she attacked at that place (instead of, say, at home). If mother was the target of an assassination, then it would be much easier to attack in a place with no security.

So that we don't end with a three way tie of one vote each

Adyen said:
[X] Focus on one single thing about it all.
-[X] The word of the hour is "why".
-[X] As in, why was she attacked at that place (instead of, say, at home). If mother was the target of an assassination, then it would be much easier to attack in a place with no security.

The word of the hour was "why."

On that word alone, you furrow your brows together even as you continue to wrap your arms around your knees. Why "this," why "that," why "everything," why "anything." It filled your head. Your eyes became watery as you struggle to find the one "why" that would answer it all.

"W-why?" Your dry throat squeaked out that one word as your vision continued to blur, your body and limbs becoming ever more leaden.

Your eyes close and you feel yourself falling. You try to wake up, but you just can't!

As you fall, you are surrounded by images of objects, that you recognize have come from your waking life.

[] A cargo ship, filled to the brim with armaments.
[] The men who had shot at Kyouko.
[] That note from "M.O."

---

AMMUNITION:

34:120 5.56 NATO
Zero incendiary 40mm grenades

---

April Friday the 1st, 11:00 pm

Anime timeline comparison:

26th March Mami vs Gertrud
4th April Mami vs Charlotte

30 days remaining until ???

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Feb 2, 2016

Side Story #008 - Le meilleur des mondes possibles

Sunlight pierced through the stained glass of the Sakura Church. As it was filtered by the coloured details, it shone light onto the years of dirt and splintered wood gathered there.

The red sun, filtering through the church, reached JP-845. It engulfed her, tingling at her face and hands and warming the rest of her body under her suit and cloak. Even as the evening light warmed her heart, she contemplated on whether she was in Heaven or Hell. On one hand, the warmth and comfort she found in solitary worship and prayer pointed to Paradise. However, her eyes noticed that the light that was cast onto her was red. In another time, her heart would've pumped in abject terror at thinking of burning forever in the Inferno. Now when she thought about it, "Hell" and "Heaven" were equally as meaningless. She held this in her heart, because she saw that ultimately, whether a soul was saved or damned, it was determined from the very beginning of the universe by the Creator. In other words, humans had no free will. This was theological determinism. Calvinist Christianity was best known for this line of thought.

JP-845 exhaled rapidly as she always did when she thought of the divine and theological. Her thoughts were vast oversimplifications, but they were necessary oversimplifications. Had she dwelt on them for too long, it would've ruined the purpose of trying to find comfort in faith.

Materialism and denial of the spiritual aside, Illuminism was highly compatible with what she held faith in. In the historical narrative Illuminism professed, there was no free will for humans or any form of life whatsoever. However, the mechanism was different. Whereas in her beliefs, G-d had decreed what was to happen for all of eternity, Illuminism pointed to a somewhat, worded-differently reason, that being the consistency and eternality of the scientific laws of the universe. Uniformitarianism held that the laws of the universe were consistent across time and space. From this, there can be the derivation of yet another truth.

For example, let a dice of six faces be thrown in a certain place, ordered in a certain way, leading to a certain result. If it were possible to throw that dice one again, in that same place, ordered in that same way, down to the level of elementary particles, then the same result would occur. There can be an attempt to deny this, but only through positing that randomness exists. However, the scenario already posited that every physical variable was accounted, thus there is no randomness and thus that denial is flawed. Of course, this was only theory, but for JP-845, it heavily informed her worldview.

"A leads to B leads to C leads to D and so on. One plus one is always two. I did not choose to have my first memory." This was how JP-845 simplified that principle, so that she could always remember it.

So what did that mean? If one were to apply that principle to the human nervous system, down to every level, eventually, it would become clear that humans had no "free will" as commonly thought. Humans exist under the laws of physics. Brain and nervous system are physical objects. Thus when a person "made a choice", it was really them being a puppet of the laws of the universe. A person can "make a choice". However, since all actions are the physical results of all previous actions, that choice wasn't really theirs. A person can "make a choice", yes. However, people are incapable of "choosing what choices they make" was an apt metaphor to describe this state of physical affairs.

Exhaling another breath, JP-845 looked at the altar. She was still ruminating on determinism, but "that was the only outcome possible."

The Sakura family was always going to be destroyed. It was the only outcome possible.

That however, opened another whole can of worms. If indeed, G-d, from the very beginning decreed that the world would follow a certain set of laws, leading to death and atrocity, how could one claim that He was Omniscient, Omnipotent and Omnibenevolent?

The answer was simple. In laying down the equations and laws that would dictate the universe, G-d was omnibenevolent in that he created the world with the most amount of good possible and the least amount of evil possible and that evil existed as part of a mathematical function that brought about good...

But even that begged its own questions about omnipotence...

JP-845 let out another breath, steamy warmth blowing from her mouth.

JP-845 exhaled once again, breathing in to prepare for her prayer:

"Merciful G-d, in whom is no darkness at all, we come before You at the end of this day. We thank You that You have given us strength for our daily work, and have guided us safely through this day. Bless what was good in our labour and conduct.

Since You ordained that man should labour during the day and rest at night, we pray You to give us peaceful and undisturbed rest so that we may be able to take up our daily task again. Command Your angels to guard us and cause Your face to shine upon us. We cast all our anxieties on You, for You take care of us.

Control our sleep and rule our hearts, in order that we may not be defiled in any way but may glorify You even in our nightly rest. Defend and protect us against all assaults of the devil and take us into Your divine protection.

We confess that we did not spend this day without grievously sinning against You. In Your mercy please cover our sins as You cover the earth in the darkness of the night.

Grant comfort and rest to all who are ill, bowed down with grief, or afflicted with spiritual distress. Your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not abandon the works of Your hands.

All this we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

"There's rosemary, that's for remembrance." Quoting secular Shakespeare, she laid down a sprig of rosemary in the name of the Sakura family, having complete her prayer.

Bowing one last time in for the souls of Mr Sakura, Mrs Sakura and Momo Sakura, JP-845 turned to make her exit. Rubbing her hands as if they were stained in blood, she continued to breathe heavily even as she left.
[dice]4466[/dice]

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Feb 7, 2016

Side Story #009 - Proletariat and Bourgeosie

Sighing in pleasure, her heart felt uplifted as her eyes rolled upon the sight of the lifeless white-and-red catlike body, dangling from the lamppost a la lanterne. Pushed by the night wind, it swayed from side to side like a pendulum. Her smile stretched ever wider as she doted upon the sight of the dead form of Kyubey. Truly, it hearkened back to the beautiful paintings of the old French nobility hanging from the street lamps of late 18th Century Paris. Indeed, given that she was part of a wider campaign to cleanse humanity of a certain parasite, the comparison was all the more appropriate. She salivated as words such as "purge", "cleanse", "liquidate" and "exterminate" streamed through her head. One day, the principle that had acted in front of her would be more systemically applied. In other words, it was only a matter of time and scale.

"So illogical." The unpleasant presence of that white bunnycat made itself be known as it wandered near her, only a couple of lampposts away. "I know that you are trying to commit genocide, but what's the point of dangling just a couple of bodies? I'll keep on appearing to do what is necessary to preserve the universe anyway. What difference does a couple of bodies make?" At the very least, the curiosity was sincere.

"Indeed, it is on apparent sight, illogical. However, that's overlooking the evolutionary value of emotion on your part. In deriving pleasure from looking on one of your dead bodies, I secure and consolidate my own evolutionary fitness by preserving my own happiness, thus improving my quality of life and chances of reproduction, giving my genes the chance to remain in some form in this world."

"Yet, given your nature, you are functionally sterile. You probably will not have any opportunities to procreate, so hanging my dead body seems to be a bit of a waste of precious energy."

"Yes. I personally probably will not procreate. Rather, I mean to preserve the fitness of others of my species by improving my own quality of life and thus theirs by consequence. So long as I remain, I am able to serve the rest of my species. In the rest of my species, there lies genes that I have in common. Thus by preserving them, I preserve their genes and therefore part of myself."

"However, you contradict yourself with that plan of mass culling."

"That may be true. As I said earlier but, I seek to preserve only those I possess traits with in common, in effect, my own genes. Altruism, being selfish against out-groups, but selfless for the in-group, does not prevent selective breeding that denies others the chance to spread their own genes."

"Is it not clear how self-contradictory that is, given your organisation's claim to be working for all of humanity?"

"Perhaps. As a counterpoint, it must be highlighted that there are elements within humanity that ought to be eradicated for the wellbeing of the golden, optimum amount of homo sapiens, such as those exhibiting personality traits similar to yours."

"In doing that, you all undermine your argument against our symbiotic relationship, that we attack human dignity to an "immoral level". Your cabal has caused more net disutility and death to humanity than our relationship has ever caused, all to very little in favour of your ambitions."

"That's why we possess two arguments, so that if the first you discussed falls into hypocrisy, the second, an invincible and undeniable one always saves the day. To be quite honest, there really wasn't any need to delve into an evolutionary or moral dimension. The sum of all history is the conflict of classes based on material conditions, struggles over the means of production. History is not calculated over waxing such questions as "right or wrong" or "good and evil". It has been determined from the Big Bang as a never-ending spiral of matter and movement, the logical sociological stepping stone being class conflict. Human history has a goal and right now, it is the total victory of the human proletariat over the Incubator bourgeoisie, only ending in your class' utter destruction. "Why" isn't the question that should be asked, it's just "how". That "how" is simply scientific causality, leading to biological then historical determinism."

"In other words, you are evading moral questions altogether, answering on how you think the world is rather than how it should be."

"Precisely. For an alien species that so prizes logic, you should have been receptive to my "is" viewpoint rather than my "ought" viewpoint."

Exploiting the Incubator's expectation of more to-and-forth arguments, JP-122 seized him by the tail. Contorting his neck, she tied another noose to help her relax in the night at the sight of a dead Incubator body.

Her recreation was soon interrupted by the ringing of her satellite phone, its chiming reaching her ears despite the city's noise pollution.
[dice]4502[/dice]

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Feb 9, 2016

QuantumWings said:
What?

Side Story #010 - Pointlessness

Mami's long unending march through the twisted landscape continued in spite of her leaden legs. Her shoulder, oppressed by an invisible force of gloominess bearing down on her, slumped down.

Mami Tomoe was a Magical Girl. Having formed a Contract with the magical creature Kyubey for the sake of one wish, it had become her duty to fight awful and terrible abominations which lurked away from human eyes. Spreading negative emotions and destroying minds, these creatures lived inside Barriers. Called Witches, and their servants, Familiars, they posed a threat to humans if they were not kept in check.

An exhausted breath rasped out of her mouth. The most daunting aspect of this duty was that it would never end, not until she died. That in itself was something that pulled down her heart. She had grown accustomed to that fact of her life, however. That her only release would be found in sweet, distant death, she acknowledged it every time she drew a blanket over herself. Even as it bore down on her, a strange fatalism softened the impact of that truth.

Most concerning for her however, was not that she would have to fight Witches and Familiars on and on until the day she passed. What truly loomed over her head, was that over the last six months, she had to drag herself out more often to fight the Witches. Patrols, which on average, brought her into combat with one or no Witches at all, became longer, ever more repetitive and alienating.

Worst of all, most of the Witches she had fought within the couple last months had been of the same variety. In other words, Familiars were eating people more frequently. Maturing faster, they then formed their own Barriers, becoming Witches of their own right. When they did, the most telling information about them was the form they took. Thus, despite all her efforts, Familiars were getting past Mami's patrols at a rate more then she could handle. In other words, although she did not want to consciously admit it, her measures amounted to nothing more than temporarily pain relief for the city.

Forcing herself ever deeper into the barrier, despite the heaviness of her own body, Mami Tomoe continued to press on, driven by a duty that had been internalized as an instinct.

---

As she made her way though into the next section of the barrier, her tired eyes caught sight of something that she really did not want to see.

Usually, if there remained anything, there was only one or two. It was different in this case.

Spread all over the ground, femurs, humeruses and a smorgasbord of blood and intestines painted the floor of the Barrier. Shreds of torn clothing were scattered about like old rags. The occasional spine decorated the graveyard.

Vomit rose from her stomach, but Mami kept it down, for in this vista reeking of death, she could not help but to instinctively force herself to remain calm. Even then, she retched again.

When a barrier disappeared, so did the contents. A bloody mess it all was, but scattered about were the last pieces of evidence that the victims ever existed.

At that moment, memories from long ago, memories she did not want to surface, came back to her anyway. An image of the young boy she could not save flashed over her eyes.

---

A trembling mess in a fetal position, Mami placed her hat before her. Practically as dark as obsidian, only a hint of bright yellow remained on her Soul Gem. Having shed enough tears to relief herself of the pain, she drew a Grief Seed from her pocket. Slowly, but so relievingly, her heart and mind were lightened of the burden of fear. At the touch of a Grief Seed, strength and comfort flowed through her veins once again.

---

There had been roughly 31 skulls, so at least 31 people had gone.

Readying her mind again, Mami Tomoe advanced ever deeper into the barrier, powered mechanically by a strange cocktail of apathy and false courage.A piece of gnarled rope, soaked in blood, uncoiled from its thickness as she moved on from the scene.

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Feb 14, 2016

Disclaimer: I do not promote nor do I condone any actions or beliefs depicted in my fictional works.

Side Story #011 - Engine

Shaking, tears rolling down his eyes, newly promoted Master-rank Illuminist SY-662 sat on a sofa, waiting for the in-house psychiatrist to attend him. Covering his ears, as if the anguished screaming of the dead were condemning him, the tears continued as did his body's own tremoring. The fact was, SY-662 just had a quintuple promotion, from the newbie rank, Noviciate to Master rank. A 2nd lieutenant in the the Syrian Arab Army, after the nuclear bombing of the hometown of the assailant who attacked a distant high-ranking affiliate in East Asia, his mission was to lead the "cleanup" of the razed remains.

In other words, that meant shooting the survivors.

The door hinges creaked as SY-863 made her entrance.

---

For a Master, SY-662 was very tearful. Given that he was just a noviciate, it was no surprise, however.

"...when I tore the baby from her arms, she dug in with her nails!"

And so, her counseling began, her wisdom piercing through her glasses with a glare.

---

With enough counseling, SY-662's tears began to stop. His pupils were dilated, having received SY-862's wisdom.

"And so what have you learnt today?"

"I only need to stop thinking that killing carries any moral weight."

"Correct, young Master. Shooting a person..."

"Is merely injecting lead into them at a high enough velocity to alter the gears and cogs of the engine that is human history."

"And what else?"

"I need to stop thinking that human lives have any inherent, special worth. My life is just another can of fuel to power the engine."

"Correct."
[dice]4570[/dice]

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Feb 14, 2016

Old LotIM Side Story #001

Article:

The cell structure of the modern Illuminati is inherently tied to its rank system, which acts as a check on any Illuminati operative gaining too much power and then subsequently imploding on that power, exposing the entirety of the Illuminati. Indeed, ever since the age of modern conspiracy theories, the Illuminati has capitalised on this cell system to make tying all the threads of the greater conspiracy practically impossible to an outsider. Indeed, the typical human tool carrying out the Illuminati's actions does not even know that their actions further the goals of the Illuminati or that there is even one. To this day, Weishaupt's maxim of "...to control them without dominating them" remains true. Once the Illuminati started on its theory of history in the 19th century through a certain young German philosopher who edited the Rheinische Zeitung, it could be said, arguably, that every single human being on the planet was under the control of the Illuminati.

Ending this digression, the ranks of the Illuminati are such:

Class I, "the nursery", consisting of Noviciate, Minerval and Illuminatus Minor.

Class II "the masonic grades", which themselves were divided into the "blue lodge" grades of Apprentice, Companion, Master and the separate "Scottish grades" of Scottish Novice and Scottish Knight.

Class III, the Mysteries, divided in the Lesser Mysteries, Priest and Prince, followed by the Greater Mysteries of Mage and King. Over the ages, "King" was corrupted into "Lords" and "Ladies" due to a reorganisation of the Illuminati, hence the existence of those terms.

So in ascending order in the modern Illuminati, these are the ranks: Noviciate, Minerval, Illuminatus minor, Apprentice, Companion, Master, Scottish Novice, Scottish Knight, Priest, Prince, Mage and finally Lord or Lady.

So aside from playing Freemasons, what are the purpose of these ranks?

The purpose of these ranks is to prevent the Illuminati from turning into another generic cabal of moustache-twirling villains and to maintain secrecy, all the while maintaining as large a number of operatives as possible. How does this work?

All Illuminatists begin as Noviciates. From there, they must slowly climb up the ladder of Illuminatist ranks through their actions or actions that they have planned. They must conquer the ultimate meritocracy that allows no weakness or relent.

Those in the nursery, speaking generally, do not possess much authority or autonomy. Their duties are generally limited to sneaking, stealing and the gathering of intelligence. If there is the symbol of the Eye of Providence crudely spray painted outside of your window, you may blame it on a Noviciate who had a superior ridiculous enough to tell them and go tag the streets for the spreading of propaganda.

However, given sufficient acts of espionage and intrigue, they becomes a Minerval. They do not require explicit promotion from a superior. All they require is to list their numerous deeds in a journal and they promote themselves. As with the case of all other ranks, if an Illuminatist fabricates their deeds, this tends to show quite quickly due to a lack of skill. The vote of no confidence among the Lords and Ladies is a recognition that any of them could be lying.

For a Minerval, simple acts of propaganda and inserting subliminal messaging through graffiti and media interference no longer suffice. Acts of theft and subterfuge must grow bolder to be acknowledged and a Minerval is expected to at least cause a regional disturbance to be recognised. The Minerval may then self-promote into an Illuminatus minor. In both these two lower grades, the only reward for their deeds is recognition and self-confidence given the large amount of deeds. Those who advance beyond these grades may be said to be truly devoted to the cause of the Illuminati beyond a few cabal jokes.

With sufficient amount of ever-bolder acts of theft and espionage, an Illuminatus minor finally finds themselves self-promoted to an Apprentice. From this point on, with careful consideration and discretion, they may start recruiting of their own accord as per convention. Recruits do not necessary have to be ultimately of inferior rank. In effect, this allows the Illuminati to have a pyramid structure. Apprentices may still find themselves committing their own acts of espionage and intrigue, but from this point on, Apprentices may take part of the credit of an action from their own subordinates. A massive house invasion ring probably indicates a young, ambitious Apprentice.

From Companion and Master onwards, the necessary deeds to promote oneself become increasingly darker. Theft and snooping no long qualify to promote an Illuminatist further. Deeds must now incorporate some element of violence or terror to count. Even the actions of sub-ordinates must involve some form of murder or terror for a superior of Companion or above to take credit. Arson and murder start becoming the norm for the ambitious Illuminatist. Scottish Knights and Scottish Master in particular, are responsible for events involving the degradation and destruction of hundreds of people.

Priests/Priestesses, Princes/Princesses and Mages ought to be feared. Those individuals who have managed to advance to this rank have caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of enemies, directly or otherwise. By artificially causing famines, spreading disease, destroying economies, destroying world heritage or even melting down nuclear power plant reactors, these individuals commit these acts so as to shape the flow of human history. The only solace an Illuminatist of these ranks with an average conscience can find is alcohol, drugs or a form of detachment.

Those who have managed to advance to the rank of Lord or Lady could, in a Kantian sense, said to be the most evil people on Earth. These people have not only committed cause such events as famines and waves of terrorism, but they have triggered great wars or insurrections that have consumed millions of lives. They have stolen from tens of millions and have deprived a hundred times more of happiness or worth in this world. Indeed, not until the 20th century with the coming of WWI and its vast arsenals of death and destruction was the first Lord promoted. In this sense, it could be said that the early 21st century was an age of an exceptionally large amount of bloody people.

However, in the unwritten laws of the Illuminati, while the focus is indeed on negative actions causing death and deprivation, positive actions may also allow oneself to be promoted. To discover a new invention as an Illuminatist, to create a new work of theory, to bring charity to the needy, to modify historical circumstances to prevent a genocide, allowing millions to be born, these all bear as much weight as their opposite counterparts of theft and murder. Even then however, negative actions are somehow easier. Of all current Lords and Ladies, practically none of them could be said to have achieved their position through such acts of sainthood alone. Researchers have committed unethical acts and theorists have carried out their experiments on entire societies, irreversibly harming them. Only a severe moral detachment from their actions and extreme amounts of rationalization can protect the consciences of Lords and Ladies from implosion.

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Feb 17, 2016

Reinhard Von Lohengramm said:
Disclaimer: I do not promote nor do I condone any actions or beliefs depicted in my fictional works.

Side Story #011 - Engine

Shaking, tears rolling down his eyes, newly promoted Master-rank Illuminist SY-662 sat on a sofa, waiting for the in-house psychiatrist to attend him. Covering his ears, as if the anguished screaming of the dead were condemning him, the tears continued as did his body's own tremoring. The fact was, SY-662 just had a quintuple promotion, from the newbie rank, Noviciate to Master rank. A 2nd lieutenant in the the Syrian Arab Army, after the nuclear bombing of the hometown of the assailant who attacked a distant high-ranking affiliate in East Asia, his mission was to lead the "cleanup" of the razed remains.

In other words, that meant shooting the survivors.

The door hinges creaked as SY-863 made her entrance.

---

For a Master, SY-662 was very tearful. Given that he was just a noviciate, it was no surprise, however.

"...when I tore the baby from her arms, she dug in with her nails!"

And so, her counseling began, her wisdom piercing through her glasses with a glare.

---

With enough counseling, SY-662's tears began to stop. His pupils were dilated, having received SY-862's wisdom.

"And so what have you learnt today?"

"I only need to stop thinking that killing carries any moral weight."

"Correct, young Master. Shooting a person..."

"Is merely injecting lead into them at a high enough velocity to alter the gears and cogs of the engine that is human history."

"And what else?"

"I need to stop thinking that human lives have any inherent, special worth. My life is just another can of fuel to power the engine."

"Correct."
[dice]4570[/dice]

Side Story #012 - Relief
A prisoner in her own home, there was not much she could do but watch and guide. Oriko Mikuni's role was that of a lighthouse piercing through the mist of probabilities that obscured the future of her city, or rather, her liege's city. Delving into the future, especially after that little declaration of hers in her bedroom, became a little bit more interesting. It was also rather disturbing.

So what were the variables at play here?

Firstly, how much she involved herself with the ribbons. Secondly, how she handled those four. Thirdly, how deep the relationship was between liege and vassal.

The future got a little brighter, a little less bloodier. The probabilities of staving off that great purge doubled in size. From around a 0.5% chance, to a 1% chance, Madoka Kaname had the capability to stop the bloodshed the ones who professed the light dream of, "accelerationism" as they put it.

Putting down her cup of tea, Oriko's face turned towards the window.

One percent was still a chance. Not every variable had been accounted for.
[dice]4585[/dice]

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Feb 22, 2016

Side Story #013 - Landscape

On the hills near the outskirts of Mitakihara, Ernest Mecklinger, Flottillenadmiral (OF-6) in the Deutsche Marine relished the sight of the unusually agreeable skyline before him. Compared to the rusty, bland urban decay of the other bohemian cities he had visited on his past holidays, the alabaster white and shining silver of Mitakihara, Japan, was a welcome change of scenery. The ugly sight of industrial steel and cement did not harry him here. Rather, with that almost utopian skyline, his eyes were given a treat instead. That was quite appealing to him, because for the first time in a while, he would be able to put his Amsterdam oil paints to use without having to fear that he would create some colourless abomination.

"A spot of green..." Mecklinger grunted as his eyes shifted from the canvas back to the city. He tutted at that fact. Then again, the strange salad of colours that was Mitakihara landscape had its own charm to it. Sighing, conceding to the city that point, he rubbed the paint in his cleaning solution, smearing on a sliver of pure lemongrass green.

There was one thing on his canvas that didn't at all reflect the city. In his defence, he had a good reason for it. That blighted tower was a bloody eyesore, something out of some science-fiction dystopian story. City 17's Citadel from Half-Life 2 probably summed up the comparison.

The omission helped it.

Even with that omission however, his estimate was that his painting would take at least a month to finish.

A flush of self-adoration rose to his cheeks. This was the best landscape Mecklinger had painted to date, so he felt. Hopefully, it would remain there for him to capture on canvas for posterity.
[dice]4619[/dice]

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Feb 23, 2016

Side Story #014 - Putrid

The vicious sharp stench of the storm drains attacked Kirika's nostrils as she tiptoed her way through rough concrete under Mitakihara. It wasn't actually a sewer, yet the smell effectively made it one. She wondered on what kind of rainwater was swallowed up by the drains such to came to have such a strong smell.

Her thoughts of course, turned to the fact that the part of storm drains she was in was directly under the poorer part of the city. It then all made very disturbing sense. When she was spelunking under downtown, it all had a very motor-oil and hipster-cafe smell. No doubt that under the part of the city where Oriko's message would arrive, there was the occasional pig-gutting or Yakuza killing to dirty the fair storm drains of the city with.

She cringed sourly. The more you wandered around the poorer parts of the city, the more chilling things you would see. She very much desired that she did not have to come across a bloated corpse today in carrying out her duty.

It wasn't all cringing and poker-facing however. Yesterday, she'd come across the whining of a couple of stranded puppies. At the very least, that brightened her day, even as she had to get back to the surface to get them away from danger. Honestly though, the variety of objects that got lost in there was amazing. The day before that, she found a pistol. The day before that day, she found a warehouse pallet of video cards from the mid 2010s. From that, it was clear that somebody else had been making the drains their little home. Either way, selling it to retro gamers had garnered her more than a little amount of cash and money was always useful.

While the sewers were indeed separate from the storm drains mostly, there was a specific section in which the two overlapped, if only within a metre or so.

Indeed, it was time to pull out the face masks. Strapping one on her face to get rid or at least stave off the incredible stench, Kirika forced herself through the crack in the cement separating the sewers from the storm drains. Taking care to not fall into the vile sludge, she pulled on her latex gloves.

"Where was it again? That's right, a bit south."

Having made her way to the sewer pipe where Oriko's messages came from, she carefully sifted through the... filth.

As she held onto the codetext, thus were the thoughts that ran through her head:
"Alright, now I just have to decode and plant it."

[dice]4644[/dice]

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Feb 23, 2016

Side Story #015 - Transfer Recommendation

FROM: CEO of XINJIANG TIANHE CORPORATION
TO: CEO of KANAME CORPORATION
SUBJECT: REGARDING TRANSFER OF INTERN L. LU

Dear Mrs J Kaname

As you know, in the last year, Xinjiang Tianhe Corporation was most fortunate, having hired a recent intern for the security department. Longwei Lu, an intern, managed to demonstrate considerable skill in matters of investigation after certain incidents. Indeed, he managed to discover certain details of intrigue amongst our fellow comrades, although there seems to be no clue he knows about the bigger picture. As such, due to the importance of your mission, I am recommending a transfer of unknowing personnel between us, under the guise of a corporate exchange program to ensure that no tampering occurs against you.

Here is a short profile of L. Lu for your reference, to aid you in making a decision.

NAME: LU, LONGWEI
LENGTH OF INTERNSHIP: SIX MONTHS
NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS: WRITING UP THE REPORT FOR THE TENDIES INCIDENT, CLEANING UP THE NOODLE INCIDENT, GETTING PERPETRATORS OF THE 2ND TENDIES INCIDENT
SKILLS: SERVING TENDIES, FINDING TENDIES, COOKING TENDIES, STORING TENDIES, CARRYING TENDIES, JAYWALKING, LIGHT INVESTIGATION
AGE: 17

In my own words, I have to say, he is pro-tendies.

Pardon the tendies, but as you know, tendies are good.

May you succeed against the Eternal Tendies Thief.
[dice]4648[/dice]

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Feb 23, 2016

Adyen said:
Hey, he cleaned up the unmentionable noodle incident!

Old LotIM Side Story #002

Article:

For all his lack of ideological fervour and social intelligence, Lord Eastasia, like all other Enlightened Lords and Ladies was still fiercely loyal to the cause of Illuminatism. This was because he could understand it. However, understanding does not necessitate that he subscribes to same theories of history the others did. For Lord South Pacific, Lord India and indeed the majority of the Illuminati, the world could be understood as matter and movement of forces and objects of human history. For him however, everything, from the Big Bang to his current situation, could be understood in terms of tendies.

Thus was the Tendies Dialectic:

---

In the beginning, the time before tendies, there was a singularity, from which all current tendies and lifeforms are derived. Due to the laws of physics, which allows tendies to have their properties of 'crispiness' and 'savouriness', this singularity broke down, causing the Big Bang. From the Big Bang, came the matter for stars in the form of clouds of cosmic dust. It is from this dust that tendies will eventually emerge.

A sufficient amount of time passes and the first star is formed. This process is repeated like the ticking of an oven timer heralding the coming of tendies. Soon enough, cosmic dust coalesces, forming a planet. Minerals and metals in this planet will be the source of the tendies' matter.

After the planet cools down, monocellular life emerges. This evolves into invertebrate life, which are not quite suitable for tendies, although lobster nuggets certainly have a special sub-tendies appeal to them. By the process of evolution, natural selection discriminating between the fit and the unfit, the first vertebrate was formed, Pikaia. It's descendants will eventually be the source of tendies, although, it will take a short amount of time for Gallus gallus to evolve.

The process of evolution weaves species into existence over the course of time. From the first vertebrate, reptiles emerge. From these reptiles, came dinosaurs and one branch diverged into mammals. Carnivorous dinosaurs sometimes found that small mammals were tasty. In this era, the tendies ate the tendies-eaters.

65 million years ago, some great cataclysm occurs, driving these proto-tendies into a huge extinction. Only the proto-avians survive, natural selection at its finest. The era of Mammalia has begun.

Eventually, Gallus gallus and Homo sapiens sapiens come into being. Finding these proto-tendies to be a reliable source of food, Gallus gallus is eventually domesticated. Human influence causes its evolution into Gallus gallus domesticus.

Natural history becomes less relevant here as human history begins. Within a few millennia, tendies will come into being.

---

Some time concurrent to this, the Eternal Enemy arrives on Earth. As much of a tendies-saboteur it is, Lord Eastasia has to acknowledge that it played some role in creating the circumstances for tendies' existence. However, it is in the the vein of tendies rotting away on a hot day, necessitating that new tendies be acquired. There is no praise for the Incubators here.

The first agricultural civilization emerges in the Middle East, a sad, sad place with very few tendies. Uruk is founded. Time passes. The king Gilgamesh starts his reign, becoming an oppressive tyrant of a being. Somewhere in Uruk, it is speculated that one of the first Puella Magi prays for someone to fight Gilgamesh. Her wish is granted when Enkidu comes into being. Enkidu betrays the people of Uruk, not subduing Gilgamesh. The human desire to not be oppressed, central to homo sapiens sapiens' existence, collectively activates once again and the essence of the Illuminati is formed. Such is the alleged origins of the Illuminati. Anyone would be angry if a leader took away their food and delayed the development of tendies.

History moves on.

---

Two civilisations emerge on either side of the Eurasian supercontinent. One is Rome, centered around the Mediterranean, the other China, centered around the river basins of Eastern Asia. Both of these will be critical to the development of chicken tendies.

---

In 15 B.C., the Celtic tribal federation, Noricum is incorporated in the Roman Empire proper. A major city, Vindobona, modern Vienna, is part of Noricum. Only with Vindobona, will Vienna develop and come into being.

---

The Dark Ages arrive. It is called the Dark Ages because there are no notable recipes for chicken tendies. On the other side of Eurasia, continued prosperity in China allows chicken dishes to develop, hence it is an admittedly Eurocentric term.

---

Gradually, after centuries of stagnation, Europe has recovered. It is now early modernity, the 1500s. In 1537 Poland, a small war occurs, almost extirpating the local chickens, hence the term "Chicken War". It is a critical time in the development of chicken tendies.

Time passes, the concept of chicken tendies floating in the subconsciousness of humanity. Wars start, started partly by hunger and want. The French Revolution is engineered by the Illuminati, which bands together women wanting bread. Bread is an important component in providing crumbs with which to cook tendies with. In this way, the Illuminati found a way to affect the pool of females that the Incubators can contract from.

In comes the 19th Century. The Viennese Schnitzel is now a part of German-Austrian culinary canon. The Illuminati triggers a somewhat unsuccessful series of revolutions in 1848. This causes German immigrants to flood over to the United States as dissidents look for a way to escape the Hohenzollerns, Hapsburgs and other mini-Gilgameshes of the era.

Schnitzel arrives in America.

---

Over time, schnitzel evolves into chicken fingers. Someone comes up with the idea to get the meat from chicken pectorals. On the Western Coast of the United States, Chinese immigrants come into contact with these chicken fingers, creating a new item of Chinese American cuisine. By word of mouth, these chicken fingers somehow make it back to China.

---

Time passes once again and by the 1990s, "Chicken tenders" have become a thing. A generation of socially withdrawn children is raised on them, some of them having the tenders used as a reward for good behaviour. The term "tenders" is corrupted into "tendies".

---

History is but a byproduct of the never-ending conflict of pro-tendies and anti-tendies forces, though they may not know it. The losers on the side of the American, French and Russian revolutions, have always opposed the development of chicken tendies through their reactionary movements. On the side of human development was the Illuminati, ever driving humanity to new lows and heights in a cycle of historical oscillation. In the end, in his interpretation, the Illuminati was responsible for the creation of the chicken tendies, which is why he owed his loyalty to it. By removing females from the labour force through contracts, the Incubators reduced the amount of available factory workers, slowing the further development ascension of the chicken tendies. In this regard, the Incubators were the 'supreme evil' of his worldview.

He was on the side of righteousness and justice. By strengthening humanity and by crushing parasites here and there, Lord Eastasia believed himself to be a hero.

Perhaps in the same way being processed into chicken tendies is a collective punishment for the dinosaurs' descendants for their ancestors' predation on humanity's ancestors, one day the Incubators will be punished by being processed, breaded and fried.

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Feb 23, 2016

Side Story #016 - The Bloodshed Effect

I do not sponsor nor do I condone the characters, events, ideologies or actions in any of my fictional material.

Why is it that after great wars, revolutions, natural disasters, economic crises and other calamities, human history seems to almost, accelerate?

Consider for example, the French Revolution and its Reign of Terror, adding up to roughly 19233 deaths. Also consider, the crushing of the Rebellion in the Vendee, which lead to around 200000 deaths. Now consider the general context in which it occurred. Namely, while Europe was in the Age of Enlightenment, the vast majority of it, from Spain all the way to Russia, was a semi-feudal quagmire. The United Kingdom, a constitution monarchy, exception of the rule though it was, was reeling from the loss of its American colonies, so it wasn't exactly a shining city on the hill yet. Moreover, France was in the aftermath of a bankruptcy that had previously led to bread riots. Europe was burning.

In considering the context it occurred, the scale of the sudden re-transformation of Revolutionary France back into a continental power must be considered almost, dare I say... miraculous.

Do not confuse my observation with the assertion that history is driven by ideals and belief, I am in no way denying our Materialism and Dialectics in favour of mysticism. However, there definitely is a correlation between controlled bloodshed and political power.

Look at our First World War, the one we used to redistribute the balance of power to the Western Hemisphere and away from Germany. Even though millions died, as if the rich fields of Europe were fertilized by blood, Weimar Germany bloomed and bloomed until it approached the logical conclusion of its progress.

But Lord Steel, Lord Steel showed us the way, Lord Steel proved it, I must say. Instead of the measly hundred thousands associates Robespierre and etcetera, to the grail of Human History, he did offer 32 or or millions. As if he had realised that principle, he pushed the tidal wave of History down onto us wretched humans below, purging and cleansing us in a Noah's Flood of blood and gore. Baptised in it, the USSR was born again, great industrialization and increased output in production made possible by this tribute.

It's somewhat romantic, imaginary and quite possibly unsound, but perhaps humanity is capable of its own magic, a magic not facilitated by the Incubators, but rather, through a magick created through a sacrament of blood, offered brutally and callously to the hanging sword of Human History. This magic seems to be a manifestation of dialectical principles on the human scale. Destruction and creation are one. Oppression and liberation are one. Death and life are the same things and so forth...

According to our female agents, all the death and destruction have been of little purpose, as the Eternal Enemy says.

But if the above principle is true and we hope it is true, then it is simply a matter of scale.

If 32 million deaths can turn a backwards rural country into a superpower, what can 4 billion do for humanity?

Gretchen makes it possible. Gretchen can cleanse the Earth and in doing so, "elevate humanity to new heights". If the suffering of females has furthered the tyrannical march of history for 2000 years, the crushing and breaking of hundreds of thousands of limbs, the maiming of millions and the obliteration of billions, not just only young females, must appease human history to such an extent we shall become what we can only describe now as gods.

Indeed, the promise of Kriemhild Gretchen is beautiful.
[dice]4649[/dice]

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Feb 29, 2016

Side Story #017 - Dark Energy

As JP-845 sifted through her briefing papers in preparation for the coming operation, a strange thought came to her head. The somewhat solemn mood, which had oppressed her from thinking too much about JP-101's debacle was defogged by that somewhat comical thought.

Namely, there was a strange similarity in the actions she was about to engage in with the objectives of 1990s magical girl anime villains. A slight chuckle of bemusement came from her as she reflected over the cliche of the typical magical girl villain character concocting some deranged scheme to gather "dark energy" or some other nonsense. Creating talent shows, running jewelry business fronts, spreading plagues of hatred amongst the people and stealing the souls of innocents, it was truly something fantastical.

It was, however an old and overused formula, just like the old, tired belief that Satan manipulated the world in some sort of grand scheme to spread suffering throughout the world.

No, what she was going to try and accomplish, alongside her comrades, was something far less Antichrist-like. Even as the faith in the necessity of her own actions swelled, because of how removed it was from the spiritual, precisely because of how banal, rational and materialistic her version of "dark energy farming" was, her stomach tensed as her heart turned to the hope that divine Grace that would exonerate her from her truly wicked sins.

The logic was simple. Borrowing from JP-101, it was a matter of supply and demand, albeit in a negative light. If the supply of something bad increases, the demand for the thing that addressed it also increased. Her mission was to increase the supply of that which addressed the other problem. That supply that necessary for something else. There was no supernatural or rather superstitious "dark energy" or such behind it. It was simple economics.

Her lips stretched into a smile morosely, as John Calvin's words came back flooding to her. She was always going to sin. However, she way always also going to be redeemed by flesh and by blood, just as she had been in the past, just as she is redeemed now and just as she will be redeemed in the future.

"Excuse me madam, but what would you like?"The waitress had come by.

Quickly covering her notes, JP-845 shoved them back into her briefcase.

"Well... between the tonkatsu curry and the ebi furai... Hmm, that's a difficult choice. Come back to me in a minute, alright?"

Dismissed, the waitress went on her way to another table.

JP-845 found herself leaning towards the latter.
[dice]4688[/dice]

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Mar 8, 2016

Side Story #018 - Order 424

[Name redacted]

To all Mage-rank Illuminists under our area of jurisdiction:

Recently, we all have noticed a most worrying and concerning trend. There are elements within us that do not desire the consolidation of the world, the liquidation of unenlightened counter-revolutionaries and the summoning of our Messiah, Kriemhild Gretchen. These elements, cowards and pacifists that they are, word their beliefs that "war is not necessary" to overthrow the Last Oppressor's yoke over humanity. Instead, these elements advance such positions as "negotiation" and "working within the system", on the expectation that there is a greater political force in the cosmos who can stop the distortion of history by this species of parasites.

My order is that these individuals are to be considered counter-revolutionaries of the most dangerous kind, the ones who would seek to sap the strength of our sacred revolutionary cause and to introduce Fabian lies into our system of thought. As counter-revolutiuonaries, who have usurped our skillsets, I order that you are to round them up, imprison them and confiscate their assets. When Gretchen rises, they will be judged.

We will have war with the Incubators, only ending in their complete and utter extermination as aggressors and all traitorous pacifist pseudo-reformist "moderate" elements against this should be killed.

All Hail Kriemhild Gretchen!
[dice]4775[/dice]

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Mar 8, 2016

Side Stories #019 - Blackmail

From: Kaname Junko
To: Mitakihara City Council members

My condolences for the tragedy that occurred amongst you. Mikuni Hisaomi, despite being an ardent opponent to some of Kaname Corporation's propositions, shall surely be missed by all of us. He was a man who fought for what he believed in and for that, I wish to express my dearest respect for him. He served nobly and courageously in order to maintain what he perceived as the proper order for the City and for that, he surely shall end up in the annals of history, despite the disgustingly false and untrue allegations being thrown at him.

So, in tribute of his efforts, I intend to stand as a candidate for the mayoral elections around the middle of April. In order to achieve this, it is a requirement that I am sponsored by you all. As a "dark horse" as to speak, I cannot realistically expect to simply walk into the council and become the mayor. However, you all have the capabilities to address that.

So please, for the sake of Mr Mikuni's memory, please do support my candidacy. It would be quite sad for any among you to repeat that tragedy, for surely it would mock Mr Mikuni's downfall.
[dice]4776[/dice]

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Mar 9, 2016

Side Story #020 - Finance

From: Kaname Junko
To: Mr Shizuki

Let's get straight to the point Mr Shizuki. You are small fry. Your common criminal "ninkyō dantai" are knights, I will accept that. They are knights of the gutter.

When you give a loan to some gambling addict, you're just doing small fry work. When you kidnap a drunkard's daughter as ransom for his gambling debts, you're just acting like a bunch of children. When you are your assorted procurers torment women and make them scream and commit suicide, I have to say "holy shit, you're all petty as fuck."

So, you know, when we "improved your kin's condition" and had their bodies branded with our Owls of Minerva, what we are trying to say to you is this:

You will no longer lend money in Mitakihara or its vicinity.
If you do lend continue to lend money, you and your family will have a "very good time" in the style of your now-sleeping kinsmen.

With this said, I'd love to have a discount for the guns you run. Just don't lend money. Don't lend money and you'll be fine, I will promise you that.
The name's Kaname.

Yours Sincerely,
Kaname Junko.
[dice]4778[/dice]

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Mar 14, 2016

Side Story #021 - I do drink wine

JP-101's fingers traced the area of skin just outside of the bandages that covered the partially shaved right side of her head. Her eyes looked over her recently grafted mechanical left hand, her mind still somewhat loss on the recent train of events that had transpired. First, there was an attack on Kaname Corporation by religious militants, then she lost her hand and had it replaced and a driver chip installed into her head and then the whole mass media was now screaming and bitching about the Syrian regime's nuclear attack on a village.

Terrorists, bionics and nukes were the highlights of the whole experience. What did she do wrong? The thought that was looming over JP-101's head was on how she managed to compromise herself to a couple of rural zealots. She had encrypted her communications, memorising the passwords necessary to decrypt them, up to 50 characters or more in length. She had used handlers and middlemen to do the dirty cross-jurisdiction work and made sure that they were all reliable middlemen and yet in the end she had still been found out, in the form of her attackers' vengeance.

Well, there was no spilling over cried milk.

The way she'd remembered that metaphor, she was wandering if it was the driver chip. It was supposed to be "crying over spilled milk."

JP-101's shoulder shrugged. Either way, she had to thank her comrades for really going out of her way for her. A replacement mechanical hand and Lord Uruk's little nuclear bundle of joy... She really needed to toast it.

Almost lost in feelings of gratitude to the magnanimity of her comrades, her eyes stared at the unfamiliar ceiling. From the corner of her eyes, she caught sight of a letter.

Uruk had even sent a get well card.

---

Having bitten and teared the envelope open with her right hand and having read through the card, it was indeed confirmed by Uruk that the attack in the province of El Qalem was indeed done as a tribute to reward her struggles.

"I guess the only way to repay him is to do what I've already been told to have been done."

Placing the card back onto the bedside table, her attention shifted to the threshold of her room.

A young American nurse, Noviciate-ranked Martha Kaur, more well known by the serial US-863, was holding a tray full of hospital food.

Quite thankfully, there was also a bottle of Chianti on it and a wine glass as well.

Being part of an organisation descended from the Knights Hospitaller had its perks. Generally, when an ordinary person lost their hand in an accident, they didn't get transported into a secret hospital that served alcohol for breakfast.

Martha approached, placing the tray on the overbed table which she then shifted over to Junko's side. "Here's breakfast." Pouring some Chianti into the glass, she left it for Junko.

Nonchalantly, she began to turn to leave the room. However, her attempt to avoid the elephant in the living room was not to be.

"It's a joyous occasion, you should be celebrating." Such were Junko's words.

"When I learnt of our cause and our desire to bring utopia to humanity, I was really enthusiastic because I thought it fitted me as a nurse, helping to aid the world through its ills. However, the surgery there seems to be excessive."

Sunlight filtering through the wine glassed, it seemed as if Junko's hands were stained by blood to her.

"Individualism is an outdated and unscientific idea. When you try to get rid a problem, you ought to get rid of the circumstances that surround it. A bankrupt cannot recover by borrowing more money, he must removed from the cause of his profligacy. A gangrenous limb exists to be amputated, lest the disease spread. Civilians they were, but they enabled a reactionary cause that runs counter to our eternal struggle. Surely, as a nurse, you should know that best cure is prevention?"

"I'm a nurse. But when comrade's actions cause contradictions between my ideology and the spirit of our profession, what do I do?"

"So you're not going to have a toast for this glorious prelude to world salvation?"

"Primum non nocere."

"And yet you serve me wine."
[dice]4976[/dice]

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Mar 16, 2016

Side Story #022 - Hope, the first

The exhaust pipe of her flamethrower hissed as JP-845's as she twisted the cylinder of fuel, loading it. With this fire, she would immolate for her deity, to offer others as a sacrifice to the Goddess of Salvation. However, it wasn't simply killing people to appease her. It was to feed her.

Hope. Love. Justice. Heroism. Faith

These are all values that humanity, collectively, would love to say they believe in. Those were values that the vast majority of humanity believed, that the simple holding of those beliefs would somehow make the world a better place. While it seemed easy enough to deny them to make a contrarian moral statement and tip a fedora and unsheathe a katana, belief in them had a real function. It was merely that in her case, the great Illuminist Dialectic had enlightened her to the true nature of their relation to humanity as evolutionary tools. As per the Illuminist dialectic, the outside world came first and then later came those beliefs.

The world is neither an immoral nor moral place. It is an amoral place. Animals feed on each other day by day and there are entire species that are at the top of food chain that are predators, yet seemingly yet away with it. Take for example the classical example of the lion, which feasts on other animals yet in the end, escapes as a karma houdini. Denied only by the likes of elephants and rhinoceroses, elephants are a whole species of indomitable predator that eat what they want and how they want. Zebras, antelopes and wildebeest all know this and yet they don't just lie down and be eaten, because the point of life in nature is to survive and pass on their genes. In mathematical terms, hope is simply a function of the basic biological imperative, to survive to the end to pass on their genes.

Surveying her flamethrower's gauge, JP-845 saw that it was good. Here eyes moved to her map, one that outlined Mitakihara convention centre.

Those people dreamt of a world without weakness, a world without limits. To think more quickly than the most skilled mathematician, to run faster than the Olympians, live longer, struggle stronger and to thrive. Yet, hope was formed as a result of animals preying onto each other. Very few could admit that transhumanism was a symptom of a sick and evil society. In a world where humans compete, become anxious and envious, all in the name of outdoing others, they eat other, bullying and perpetrating crimes. This makes the evolutionary function of hope necessary to survive and in a world where humans compete and seek to conquer each other like never before, transhumanism, evolution on top of evolution is the result of this never ending arms race.

She was all ready to go and serve Gretchen, humanity's ultimate dream and hope.

As she left the room, the only sound testament to that was the closing of the door.

Her name was JP-845 and faith in Illuminism was a function of her life. She had faith in that she was fighting because of a Hope for a future for humanity.
[dice]5017[/dice]

Reinhard Von Lohengramm · Mar 18, 2016

Side Story #023 - The Conquest of the Multiverse

Lord [Name redacted]

"The order of the day, is to put an end to the machinations of the purveyors of injustice, to control them without dominating them." As expressed by the Venerable Weishaupt, the goal with which we were founded was not to completely tyrannise the world, but rather to influence, manipulate it.

However, this goal must be understood to have been a product of time and circumstance. In the 18th Century, despite being globalised as it was, being the Age of Sail, compared to our time period, the world then was still completely fragmented by distance. Thus, our dream of a One World Order was only limited and could only be limited to manipulation from the shadows. However, with the advent of global telecommunications and especially the internet, we now possess a chance to "dominated the purveyors of injustice" and we now see how such a One World Order can work.

So what is the logical conclusion of that? It is that the exponential advance of technology can link every location, smashing away the barriers of distance allowing us to spread our justice and enlightenment and that this advance must in the end apply on a galactic scale. Liberté, Equalité, Fraternité, on the galactic scale, is therefore something possible and desirable to pursue, the dream of the Universal Republic. Just as we smote the necks of 16594 counter-revolutionaries during the glorious Reign of Terror and crushed the 130000 pieces of scum in the Vendee, humiliating the filthy Bourbons whose ancestors the Capets wrecked our previous sacred enterprise, the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, we too will cleanse the galaxy of all the counter-revolutionary and reactionary filth that inhabit it. If there are Romes that invade other worlds, we will exterminate their patricians. If there are medieval kingdoms of wizards that lord over peasantry, we are ever ready to export the revolution through guillotine and bombs. If there are fascist blue-skinned space empires, we will make Venerable Stalin proud as we march onto their capitals and bring despair to their evil men and women. If there are goody-two-shoes bureaus of time-space administrators who would seek to stop the course of our justice, swift and prompt, we will subjugate and assimilate them. Not only that however, but we will eventually find a way to destroy the very concept of injustice, in all possible existences. The day we find a way, we will smother the actual Neo-Assyrian Empire and the Sumerians in their cradles. We will conquer our ancient enemy Gilgamesh, we will destroy Ashurbanipal, we will crush Ashurnasirpal, we will conquer that traitor Philip IV and exterminate his family, we will kill the invading Ottoman dynasty, putting every member of their family to the bayonet, we will strangle Charles V for sanctioning the invasion of the Americas, we will kill Emperor Francis II for his opposition to our principles, we will kill every member of the House of Habsburg, man, woman and child, cleansing Europe of the filthy royal bloodlines that strangled it, we will kill and destroy all the enemies of Liberté, Equalité and Fraternité, everywhere, every-when, every-how.

We will destroy the very concepts of injustice and oppression such that it will become impossible for them to be anywhere, in any universe, in any existence, because it is possible. We will establish a Multiversal Republic of more than a centillion planets. And with our goddess Kriemhild Gretchen, we will exterminate the ultimate oppressors, the Incubators and erase the very concept of the Incubators, inflicting Damnatio Memoriae on them, making existence a utopia where everybody is free, equal and united.

All Hail Kriemhild Gretchen!

[dice]5113[/dice]

Madoka fights the Illuminati (PMMM) [DEAD]

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý

Con Tý